lonelyfridge

Friday was a New Guitar Day™, ending the previous 18-month (mostly) self-imposed moratorium on guitar purchases. I received an Eastman AC710 (now called an AC712) from The Acoustic Guitar in Calgary.

This is Eastman’s take on the Martin 14-fret 000 size guitars that I just adore. The neck is made from mahogany, with a really interesting volute (second picture, above). The beautiful ebony fretboard is a dream to play on. The peghead has a rosewood veneer, a rosewood truss rod cover, and gold-plated Gotoh sealed tuners, which work very well.

The guitar’s top is made up of two pieces of engelmann spruce, which is purported to be ideal for finger picking (while sitka is the ideal for flatpickers). The guitar sounds gorgeous played either way, though. Back and sides are Indian rosewood, with beautiful grain. The guitar is beautifully bound with a five-ply mixture of woods, predominantly rosewood, which is sandwiched on either side by blonde and then black woods. The blond wood is maple, I believe, which is also used in the pinstripe inlay work on the back. I don’t know what the black wood is, though I have a hard time imagining that it’s ebony.

The guitar is finished in a thin coat of deliciously noxious nitrocellulose lacquer, so I think it’s going to age very, very well. I’ll try not to sniff it too much.

…but I recorded this anyway:

…YouTube, that is:

“P. is learning to play guitar!”
“Are you sure? I mean, maybe she just can’t find anywhere to sit down without picking one up first.”

Pirate Queen: “Actually, mustard is really growing on me.”
Me: “Like a Chia Pet?! Sweet.”

Some of the pictures that I’ve uploaded over the last little while:

One of our stations is giving away a bunch of stuff tomorrow, including an almost 50 year old hollow body electric guitar – a 1958 Hofner Club 50. I played it a bit at lunchtime and just loved it. Went well with the Muddy Waters I’ve been listening to lately (Folk Singer).

I am frightened by the browser windows and tabs I found open this morning on my laptop: “RRSP savings calculator”, “Registering Domestic Partnerships”, and “Cracking 128-bit wireless keys”. I think some old-fogey nerd invaded my apartment.

Lecherous Muddy Waters songs seem appropriate then.

Fresh from my purchases at Radio Shack (excuse me, “The Source”), I opened my Les Paul up for surgery tonight, determined to figure out this soldering business. I cut a whole in the middle of an old shirt to let me carry out the operation without dripping any solder on the precious polyurethane finish (sorry, no pictures, no cameras in the OR (née kitchen)).

I got my new Sprague Orange Drops (225P – .022µF polyester capacitor) in pretty easily, though they take up a lot more room than the old ceramic discs. Somehow I created a bulge that sticks into the backplate that wasn’t there before, but I’m not sure how that happened.

The results (click to enlarge, click again to excuse them):

FYI: Learning to solder is stinky. This burnt ozone smell has given me a sore throat.

Yesterday evening was quality time spent with my Stratocaster:

One of my happiest memories is of performing this song with Brigid for a bar full of people, and also, for her mom.

so-far-untitled (“The Euphemism Express” ? )
Words and music by J. Reid, I. Scrimger, B. Wilkinson. © 2003

1.
Hey Mister Conductor, let me ride your train
Hey Mister Conductor, let me ride your train
oh, that big ol’ train, is the only thing keeping me sane

2.
I was at the station, waiting for you to come
I was at the station, waiting for you to come
And boy when you came, you could not be outdone

3.
Mr. Conductor move up the mountains slow
This old train will climb up the mountains slow
and then we’ll race down, down to the valley below

Bridge:
(tempo increases and false ending)

Spoken: “Hey, We’re not there yet, keep going!”

4.
C’mon, Mister Conductor, stoke that engine’s fire
C’mon, Mister Conductor, stoke that engine’s fire
The way you use that wood is something I really admire

There is some confusion over this verse, Brigid suggests that it was just verse 1, with some ad-libbed embellishments, while I remember something akin to:

5.
Rode that train all through the night ??!?
I Rode that train all through the night
something something something* into the morning light

*obviously the correct words would go here.

We do, however, agree on the ending:

(tempo increases until a, uh, climatic ending is reached)