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Last post Author Topic: Do we have any musical people on DC?  (Read 195059 times)

KynloStephen66515

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Do we have any musical people on DC?
« on: September 20, 2014, 07:20 AM »
Just wondering if any of you guys can sing, play guitar, piano...anything musical really!

If so...why not let all all hear you?!  Would love to hear/see some recordings of you guys!

~Stephen

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2014, 08:35 AM »
Heh! I know you sing & all that. You start! :)

I write audio software for musicians, and I play guitar, but I'm out of practice and really suck, so I won't be posting anything. :P
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2014, 08:57 AM »
Heh! I know you sing & all that. You start! :)

I write audio software for musicians, and I play guitar, but I'm out of practice and really suck, so I won't be posting anything. :P

Damnit...I forgot you knew about that haha

Challenge Accepted....with the ONLY recording I have of me on the laptop lol:

https://soundcloud.c...jones-108/let-her-go

Very rough recording that I never got around to doing properly, so be gentle :D

Edvard

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2014, 04:54 PM »
I think this question has been asked on DC before and didn't get many replies, but I KNOW there are more musician types here.  Myself I like to think I play guitar, but I get more caught up in making noise and building things than actually improving my chops, and the things I build are usually doomed to reach the "good enough" stage before I move on to the ne   OOH! SHINY!

40Hz plays bass and has actually played in bands (unlike yours truly).  Superboyac has mentioned he plays Hammond organ and other people actually listen to it.  I don't recall off the top of my head anybody else who's mentioned anything.

I've toyed with doing a Donationcoder-themed metal tune (I have the main riff, a bit of melody and a few snips of lyric), but availability of free time and technical issues have prevented that from coming to fruition.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2014, 06:57 PM by Edvard »

Vurbal

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2014, 01:45 PM »
I'm also a bassist, although I haven't been in a band for more than 2 decades now and didn't pick up an instrument for almost 10. Now that I'm hanging around with a lot of musicians again, I've picked it up again and hope to be in another band within the next few months.

Nothing recorded to share though.
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superboyac

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2014, 05:54 PM »
since you asked nicely...

tomos

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2014, 05:33 AM »
since you asked nicely...

 :-* wish it were longer
Tom

superboyac

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2014, 03:16 PM »
since you asked nicely...

 :-* wish it were longer
Me too!  Thanks.   :(
I'm working on it.
Here's a full one:


Here's a tribute to a friend:
http://aram.dcmember...r-marc-wetherington/

I think that's all I have.

IainB

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2014, 05:14 PM »
I felt a bit reluctant/shy about writing this, but decided to come out with it.
Music runs in my family. My brothers and sisters were variously musically and even artistically inclined. Since I was the youngest, I was kind of brought up in music, and I've always been fascinated with music, starting in childhood, where at the age of 5 or 6 I recall I would sit for hours, totally absorbed in an almost trance-like state, playing notes and chords and humming them - playing with the harmonics - using my eldest sister's piano. She later went on to study the piano at the RAM (Royal Academy of Music), but was not good enough to go professional, so used to sometimes teach music.
I have this tendency to sense pattern all around me, and I go into these absorbed states when thinking about or doing something that involves pattern - including things such as, for example, listening to music (as above), listening to or playing the drums, meditating by using a mantra, analysing or solving a problem, washing walls, ski-ing, driving a car, riding a bike, and walking in the hills and mountains. I discovered many years later that autism and Asperger syndrome runs in the family - so that probably explains the fascination with pattern - and depression also apparently runs in the family. These things are apparently genetic and tend not to skip a generation, and are evident in my two eldest children. But these things were generally not properly appreciated or understood in those terms when I was younger. In retrospect, I think my whole family were/are probably what would be called "a bit odd" - i.e., eccentric.

Anyway, it turned out that my instrument was my voice, which my high school music teacher discovered when he was testing us for our singing ability prior to putting us (or not) into the school choir. Much to my music teacher's surprise and disappointment (I was probably one of his most useless and bored students in music theory), he found that I had been given the gift of perfect pitch. This was in North Wales (UK), and at about age 11½ I was conscripted into the choir as a soprano, and we sang at the school a lot - mostly in Welsh - and at the eisteddfod (an annual competitive festival of music and poetry held in Wales, UK), where we represented our school. I started to become proficient in sight-reading music and singing it, and loved listening to a good choir at work - e.g., the Welsh Male Voice Choir singing Ar Hyd Y Nos (All Through The Night) and the Welsh National Anthem - arguably one of the most beautiful anthems in the world. These pieces are always a pleasure to listen to or sing, and spine-tingling stuff, for me.

When I moved on to another secondary (high) school, I joined the choir there, and as I got older my voice dropped rapidly to tenor and then baritone, and then a bit lower, whereupon my vocal scope included first bass parts. By then my music sight-reading was more than adequate for my purposes, and, probably because I had had to become proficient in Welsh (my second language) I developed a natural facility with languages, which meant I could pick up a script written in one of several different European languages (as well as Latin) and sing/pronounce the words correctly whilst mostly understanding them as well (though I would probably be terribly rusty if I tried that today).

By the end of high school I had become quite good on the Spanish guitar, liked to sing and play country folk and western with it most, but was only ever at an elementary level, at best, on the piano. I had also learned to play the bugle at an early age (9 or 10 I think) after my mother bought home a rather beaten-up used copper army bugle from a junk shop, to hang on the wall as decoration. I became quite good with it, and so my eldest brother bought me a rather worn, dented old, but (I thought) beautiful, silver-plated trumpet from a second-hand junk shop as a birthday present.
I had to fix it and get it to work bang on key before it was playable, so there was much poring over the Enc.Britannica and other reference books in music, acoustics, string and wind instruments, and tuning, after which I established that I could also tune a piano. I was obliged to teach myself to play these instruments - never had any formal lessons. I think I really enjoyed the bugle best though. It's a difficult instrument to play but very satisfying to master - bloody well seems to fight you all the time though. It's also portable and can put up with being banged around a bit (dents can be quite easily removed from copper), so I would take it with me in my rucksack on my many expeditions into the Welsh hills. The bugle could belt out a really cracking good sound as you played it, echoing back at me from the surrounding hills and scattering nearby flocks of mountain sheep, which ran about in alarm, having never heard anything quite like it before.
I found the bugle could make a thrilling sound - it could be piercing, stimulating, poignant and quite beautiful - e.g., Reveille, or The Last Post. When played properly, the latter can send shivers down your spine. I'm not sure I ever managed to play it perfectly all the way through though!

It wasn't till I was about 22 or so, when I was lecturing with a large computer company and studying computing, that I accidentally got back into choir-singing. One lunchtime, I heard a manager in a nearby office singing something to himself quietly. Peeking through his open door, I saw that he was reading a score sheet, and I enquired what the music was. It turned out that he was rehearsing a tenor part and was in the LPC (London Philharmonic Choir). I was seriously impressed, because it was/is a highly reputable amateur choir (meaning you don't get paid anything - unlike a professional  - though they would cover your costs for a nominal amount for DJ hire to attend dress rehearsals and performances).
On discovering that I was interested in choral music, he asked me to sing a bit from his score sheet, after which he immediately said I should go for an audition with the choirmaster (who was somebody famous), at the auditions to be held the following week. Overawed by this, I gave him a raft of reasons why I shouldn't go, because I silently thought it farcical to even think that I could be up to the necessary standard for the LPC - and I certainly didn't think I was anywhere near the grade. My mind told me that a musician I was not.

The guy persisted and said that the best judge of my ability would be the choirmaster - not me - and that I could find myself involved in singing some of the most beautiful music created by man, and that I should at least give it a whirl as, "nothing ventured, nothing gained".
I told him that I didn't really want to go back into a choir, and didn't see the need for it, it would require my time, and I was too busy, etc.

He then asked me if I was married (no, I wasn't), if I had a girlfriend (no, I hadn't), and then he said "Well, then you do have the time, and there - right there - is a good reason for joining the LPC!"

My response was, "Eh? How so?"

He replied, "The social life man! We have 50-odd female voices - all emancipated women - about 30 sopranos and 22 altos, the majority of whom are relatively young, unattached, available, and not shy about showing it, and not only do they have beautiful voices but quite a few of them are physically very comely wenches! Furthermore, we have around 25 men/male voices - 15 tenors, 6 first bass, and 5 second bass. Most of them are married. We never have enough male voices! We have to hire in professionals to make up the numbers at our performances. We desperately need more basses, and you'd probably be a first bass voice, and if you could only fart on key you'd probably get through the audition! But look at the ratios and the green field you have with all those women - 52 of them, say 35 potentially unattached and available - and about 4 or 5 unattached blokes for competition, and all the men quite a bit older than you! Why wouldn't you want to be a male singer in that choir?

I always felt that being numerate, and having been trained in accountancy and statistics, I had an advantage when it came to addressing numerical problems, and when he ran those numbers past me, I immediately saw the direction I needed to take.
So that is how I joined the LPC, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Over the approx 3 years I was with them, we did quite a lot of performances. Several were recordings for the BBC, with orchestra and one or two additional choirs (sometimes the BBC's own choirs). We sang at different venues, the two most memorable for me were at:
(a) The Royal Festival Hall: where we came on first (I think it was some of Berlioz's Te Deum), with the second part being a solo performance by a highly acclaimed Japanese lady violinist, so I got to hear her superb performance for free when ordinarily I probably could not have afforded to go.

(b) The Royal Albert Halll: at the last night of the Proms, where we joined with two BBC female choirs, and with several hired/professional male singers to bolster the lower registers, and 2 or 3 professional soloists, and performed Brahms' Deutsches Requiem.
I had only ever watched the Proms on TV before that, and could not really afford tickets even when I lived in London. Being a Last Night, it had a vibrant and exciting atmosphere. The audience really appreciated and enjoyed the music we gave them, and they were out to have fun and made a party out of it, and our conductor played to them magnificently.
The Albert has a huge organ, with some of the biggest organ pipes I have ever seen - the lower registers being the biggest. I was situated close to the lowest register pipes on one side of the pipe array, about 10 feet from the very lowest. In Brahms' Deutsches Requiem, there's a bit where he's descending into Hell and the low register organ pipes come in, almost stepping down to the gloomy Hellish darkness below. The sound from those pipes sends out a bit of a percussion wave towards the listener, but I was close enough that not only could I not hear myself think, but also that I could not stay still, as the vibration was literally jiggling me up and down where I stood. I was grateful when that bit ended and the music became uplifting and ascended with him to Heaven, the sound of the triumphal heavenly trumpets coming from "The Gods" - the uppermost balcony where they had been positioned.

Recordings:
When I emigrated to Aotearoa, I sung with a quite well-rehearsed company choir just at Christmas-times, going round the corporate offices singing Christmas carols and collecting money for charity. I think I still have somewhere a VHS tape of me in this choir, wearing choir-robes, singing in the historic old St Pauls - a lovely old wooden church in Wellington. Being made of wood, it had great acoustics. I also have (or had) a cassette tape of me singing a solo in 1988 - an IT version of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Nightmare Song from Iolanthe. I copied this across to disk as best I could, some years back, but it's got a fair amount of noise and hum in it, though the voice part is still audible, if using headphones.
The Nightmare Song (computer).wav (Sorry about the quality.)
The Nightmare Song (computer) lyrics.txt

As to music that I like and enjoy singing, it is music that generally could be seen as reflecting something of all that is good about humanity: rhythm, fun, harmony, love, the expression of humour, pathos, happiness, joy, empathy, that speaks of the yearning for freedom from bondage, the yearning for peace and for the ascent of the human spirit, and that shows our ability to climb out - even if only temporarily - of the hideous, irrational religio-political ideological cesspits within which we can sometimes find ourselves imprisoned.
I think sometimes that we do not realise - or maybe we forget - what incredible beings we are and with what amazing potential. For me, music can be an expression - a communication - of this, and a reminder.
Here are two favourite examples - quite different - of such music, from the public domain:
Weird Al Yankovic - Don't Download This Song.mp3
Remember Me.swf

Update 2014-11-24: Yesterday I watched the start of the NZ v. Wales rugby match on TV, where they sang the national anthems of both teams. I experienced the same spine-tingling sensation again when they sung the Welsh National Anthem, and the crowd joined in. There's nothing quite like it.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2014, 06:29 PM by IainB, Reason: Update re Welsh anthem + some minor and corrections (for clarity). »

theGleep

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2014, 01:14 PM »
I'm a wannabe bassist.  Actually, I'm finding I'm not that bad at all...given a lead sheet and a run-through or two, I can hold up my part of a song.

I've not really been part of a "band" but for a while I did jam with a couple of guys.  We even recorded (sucky recordings) some of our jam sessions.  That was fun.  I wish I could find a drummer to just jam with again.

About once per month, I play for my church "backup team" so the "main team" gets a day off.  When the "main team" bassist can't make it, I get to fill in there, too.  Which is how I found out that I'm pretty good at "playing cold".  Because one day he ddin't show up, and they said "go get your bass" - and I did, and played well without any other prep or practice.

It's nice to feel good about my skillz. :)

I kind of keep an online diary thingy.  Here's my "Music" topic:

http://thegleep.com/...title=Category:Music

... and this page has links to the (pretty ugly, really) recordings of our practice sessions:

http://thegleep.com/...title=Free_Root_Beer

Anyone in SLC, Utah want to meet up to jam?  Anyone want to do online collaboration?  I'm really REALLY itching for someone to explore musicality with!  (And I've got MUCH better recording equipment now!!!)

Computer Programmer by day
Dreamer at night

40hz

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2014, 01:49 PM »
There's a saying that there's a time and place for everything. In my case, the time was the mid 70s and the place was Boston/Cambridge MA. Although I've done sessions, sat in, or just played with a lot of people since then, I haven't gone at it hammer & tongs (i.e. that professionally) since.

My band's name was Maelstrom ("High-Energy Rock!"). Your classic rock quintet: two guitars (Gibson SG + Fender Telecaster), percussion (Rodgers), bass (Gibson L9S/Fender Jazz), and vocals (1 lead/2 harmony). We were an "all original" rock band trying to get signed at the dawn of the disco error era. Two guesses how far that went despite having a good local following.  :wallbash:

Our favorite venue was the now legendary and sadly departed Rathskeller (known as "The Rat") on "Comm Ave." in Boston.

TheRatInWinter.jpg
This is sorta what you'd see at The Rat. Pretty cute, huh? And miniskirts in the dead of Boston's winter? Boy, those were the days!

The Rat was the quintessential "rock dive" bar. Sorta of like Boston's answer to CBGB's which opened one year earlier in 1973. Great music. Great bands. And an unique cast of 'characters' out in the audience. I recently discovered my band was listed on The Rat's Wikipedia page under "Notable Acts." Not too shabby considering some of the bands on that list went on to real fame and fortune. :mrgreen:

Sorry I don't have any pictures, videos, or recordings to share. This was before the advent of digital. Recordings were mostly done in a $$$ recording studio on reel-to-reel and then dubbed to 30 min cassettes or mastered to 45 RPM vinyl. Very expensive in those days. Video was totally beyond the financial resources of most groups. About the only way you'd ever score a video was if you appeared on some local public TV station. (No DVDs, MP4s, VHS or Betamax cartridges for playback yet either. If you had a video it was on a studio grade tape reel.) And all (if any) pictures of us probably went out the door with the girlfriends of the band members after we (not very cordially) ended our musical relationship. :nono2: :rip:

Too bad. It was a really good little group. Haven't done anything I've enjoyed that much since. Sniff! :eusa_boohoo:
« Last Edit: October 27, 2014, 09:17 PM by 40hz »

tjbray

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #11 on: November 21, 2014, 06:23 PM »
I'm musical in the sense of building guitars (acoustic and electric) and effects pedals, mainly for my just-turned-15 year old son, who's somewhat of a prodigy musician. I found it has been far easier on the budget to use my woodworking skills to supply him with the different guitar types he needs, and it rolled me out of retirement when musicians who've worked with him began asking if I'd build them custom instruments.

My electrical experience suffices for coming up with different wirings for the pickups, but anyone who has ideas along the workings of stomp boxes, I can build them off of a schematic or  parts list, not much past there. 
My son's performing next month in a Lynyrd Skynyrd/Allman Brothers tribute the second month of December.
You would NOT want me to sing, though!

40hz

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #12 on: November 21, 2014, 08:00 PM »
I found it has been far easier on the budget to use my woodworking skills to supply him with the different guitar types he needs

Awesome! How about some pix and technical details? I've done some building myself and I'm always interested in what fellow guitar makers are doing. :Thmbsup:

bit

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #13 on: November 22, 2014, 11:43 PM »
There's a saying that there's a time and place for everything. In my case, the time was the mid 70s and the place was Boston/Cambridge MA. Although I've done sessions, sat in, or just played with a lot of people since then, I haven't gone at it hammer & tongs (i.e. that professionally) since.

My band's name was Maelstrom ("High-Energy Rock!"). Your classic rock quintet: two guitars (Gibson SG + Fender Telecaster), percussion (Rodgers), bass (Gibson L9S/Fender Jazz), and vocals (1 lead/2 harmony). We were an "all original" rock band trying to get signed at the dawn of the disco error era. Two guesses how far that went despite having a good local following.  :wallbash:

Our favorite venue was the now legendary and sadly departed Rathskeller (known as "The Rat") on "Comm Ave." in Boston.
 (see attachment in previous post)This is sorta what you'd see at The Rat. Pretty cute, huh? And miniskirts in the dead of Boston's winter? Boy, those were the days!

The Rat was the quintessential "rock dive" bar. Sorta of like Boston's answer to CBGB's which opened one year earlier in 1973. Great music. Great bands. And an unique cast of 'characters' out in the audience. I recently discovered my band was listed on The Rat's Wikipedia page under "Notable Acts." Not too shabby considering some of the bands on that list went on to real fame and fortune. :mrgreen:

Sorry I don't have any pictures, videos, or recordings to share. This was before the advent of digital. Recordings were mostly done in a $$$ recording studio on reel-to-reel and then dubbed to 30 min cassettes or mastered to 45 RPM vinyl. Very expensive in those days. Video was totally beyond the financial resources of most groups. About the only way you'd ever score a video was if you appeared on some local public TV station. (No DVDs, MP4s, VHS or Betamax cartridges for playback yet either. If you had a video it was on a studio grade tape reel.) And all (if any) pictures of us probably went out the door with the girlfriends of the band members after we (not very cordially) ended our musical relationship. :nono2: :rip:

Too bad. It was a really good little group. Haven't done anything I've enjoyed that much since. Sniff! :eusa_boohoo:
Once a rocker, always a rocker.  :)

40hz

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #14 on: November 23, 2014, 07:48 AM »
Once a rocker, always a rocker.  :)

Pretty much. (For better or worse!) ;D :Thmbsup:

Renegade

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #15 on: November 23, 2014, 09:01 AM »
What's funny now is that now if you can't play a few riffs from AC/DC or Metallica, you're probably not much of a musician, which is a far cry from when some of us were younger (and some of us predate them too!). :D

Like, FFS... Seek & Destroy on flute!!!



Really? If flutists know that, nobody else has an excuse. :P (It's a darn fun song to play.)

If that's not enough, Angel of Death on banjo!



THAT is seriously a video worth watching!

What was "music" that you could learn when I was a kid has shifted a lot.

However, I must admit, I couldn't find anything cool on the French horn... :P

Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

wraith808

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #16 on: November 23, 2014, 09:33 AM »
I guess I'll say something :)

Vocally, I cross all genres- but for piano and guitar, I am firmly in the Classical genre- for piano, that means Baroque, High Classical, Romantic, and Early.  For Guitar, that encompasses Renaissance and Baroque, with *some* Spanish.  I just can't seem to get a handle on more modern music, no matter how much I try.

For the longest time I had a Steinway upright passed down from my great grandmother, to my grandmother, to my father, to me, so it was definitely getting long in the tooth, and when I moved out of my mother's house had to leave it there.  It is still there... but for the moment only.  I think, not being able to transport it economically, it is going to go to my sister.  Since then, I've moved to digital, and have a mid-range Yamaha DGX-505.  It's functional, but I miss the real keys and tone of the steinway.  *sigh*

As far as my current guitar(s), I have a Taylor T5-C1 with a red edgeburst (bought back in the days when I could afford such things), and a 60th anniversary Fender Strat American Standard (bought new- again when I could afford such things).  I have a few others, but those are my two of note that I actually use.  I also have and play the trombone... but I'm honest enough to admit that I'm not exceptionally good- still have it from the marching band years.  I wanted to play the sax, and instead played the trombone, and so never really got into it.

As far as career-wise, it was going well; my teachers were very well reknown, and my family supported me wholesale.  But, as the venues got larger, and the strangers more critical- I realized that I have (or I developed) paralyzing stage fright.  I remember my first time- I was playing for an reasonably moderate sized auditorium- about 500 people or so... The pieces I knew like the back of my hand and weren't especially challenging- Solfegietto and Moonlight Sonata.  Halfway through the first piece, my right leg started shaking so bad I couldn't sustain.  Not too much of a loss in that piece, but coming to Moonlight Sonata...

I tried and tried (and truthfully... still try) to overcome it.  But no matter how much I try and/or play- it creates physical effects in me to play before audiences if I have the time to contemplate it.  If I play for myself, I get lost in it... and the watchers don't matter.  But you have to be able to do it all the time, any time to make a career of any sort.

40hz

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #17 on: November 23, 2014, 11:12 AM »
However, I must admit, I couldn't find anything cool on the French horn... :P

No? How about Entwhistle's french horn on the Overture of Tommy? Or in Dr. Jimmy and Mr. Jim from Quadrophrenia?

For those too young to know or remember:



Note: lyrics NSFW

BTW - which french horn? There are a few different types.


Renegade

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #18 on: November 23, 2014, 06:27 PM »
BTW - which french horn? There are a few different types.

Sigh... Here's my French horn imitation... I give up. :P
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tjbray

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #19 on: November 24, 2014, 12:04 PM »
My son's collection started with a 12 string telecaster I built from a hodgepodge of parts, which I fell back on my car painting days of the late 70's/early 80's and painted Ford Mustang red. I put a lipstick pickup in the bridge position and a hot Texas wound pickup in the neck. From there, we restored and rewired a number of guitars over the next 2-3 years, then I built him a strat wired with 6 DPDT switches to turn on/off each pickup separately and put in and out of phase like Queen's guitarist Brian May. I even hunted down a set of pickups with the same fat poles and specs as May's. That's when instructors, friends, and musicians began asking if I'd build guitars for them.
Just this Summer, my family and friends suggested I put my name on my guitars, so my hobby is now a VERY small business  I built a strat style guitar with a Fender TBX (treble bass expander) and an Atrec band control unit. The flawed fender tremolo was replaced with a Stetsbar unit. I have pics of that guitar.

I'm about 70% done with a PJ style bass with active pickups and a through the body bridge. I've dyed its swamp ash black, highlighted the grain with a silver powder suspension, and am French polishing the body now. The rosewood neck I've sealed in lacquer like Rickenbacker does. On deck for future contracted builds I've got a 50's tele style with the body made from a combination of maple, Honduran mahogany, and Peruvian walnut, and a few builds whenever no contracted work is in the making like an arch top with two TV Jones HBs and a barncaster from reclaimed pine that I intend to partially burn before starting.
I'm a retired cop, and this is far more relaxing than chasing bad guys!

That said, I should use this forum to see if anyone could whip out a couple of form apps or files, like an inventory list that I could use to see what it cost me, as well as a build sheet that I could spec the entire build out to provide an estimate sheet and an itemized bill of sale. I may do well as a luthier, but I rather suck at creating anything on my PC or my iPhone. (sorry it took so long to post this, have been away from my desktop for a while now...)

40hz

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #20 on: November 24, 2014, 12:25 PM »
@tjbray - very cool. Also nice to see you have some contract work.

One place you might want to look at is Joe Gore's Tonefiend website.

Joe was one of Tom Waite's guitarists and is also a columnist for Premier Guitar magazine. He's a customization and experimental mod/builder. Very interesting stuff. He has incredible chops and a talent for using a looper - so his demos are also impressive - to say nothing of funny since he uses a non-speaking deadpan in all of them. He freely shares most of what he does on his site. Go check it out. Link here.

He also has a channel on YouTube to host his videos. Here's an sample of some of what you can expect:





 :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:


tjbray

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #21 on: November 25, 2014, 10:37 PM »
Thanks, 40!  It's probably more due to my methods being slower than using lacquer, but I'm not complaining. Premier Guitar is my favorite magazine, the only one I pay for a hard copy subscription.  I'll definitely give Joe's YouTube and tonefiend site some long looks, thanks.  I like Wait' s music, love the blues along with good old classic rock.

I'll throw some pics up here as I finish my builds, if you're interested. The tele is going to be really cool, I'm hoping.  I was just in the shop working on the bass body,  which I'm hoping to finish up in 3-3 weeks. 

Again, thanks for the info!

theGleep

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #22 on: November 26, 2014, 11:35 AM »
Two things:

* I am in the middle of "recovering" a PJ bass I bought at a pawn shop; This is my first woodworking project, and I think I'm doing okay with it.  But I could use advice on how to make it less "dentable".  I want to show the wood grain, instead of just painting it.  So that means some kind of clear-coat.  What would you suggest?

* I'm a software developer - playing around with "hybrid" (web-based + mobile) applications.  I could probably whip something up for you in fairly short order...I just need some really clear specs.  If you're looking, hit me up (my email at yahoo and bigfoot.com are the same as my login here).

My son's collection started with a 12 string telecaster I built from a hodgepodge of parts, which I fell back on my car painting days of the late 70's/early 80's and painted Ford Mustang red. I put a lipstick pickup in the bridge position and a hot Texas wound pickup in the neck. From there, we restored and rewired a number of guitars over the next 2-3 years, then I built him a strat wired with 6 DPDT switches to turn on/off each pickup separately and put in and out of phase like Queen's guitarist Brian May. I even hunted down a set of pickups with the same fat poles and specs as May's. That's when instructors, friends, and musicians began asking if I'd build guitars for them.
Just this Summer, my family and friends suggested I put my name on my guitars, so my hobby is now a VERY small business  I built a strat style guitar with a Fender TBX (treble bass expander) and an Atrec band control unit. The flawed fender tremolo was replaced with a Stetsbar unit. I have pics of that guitar.

I'm about 70% done with a PJ style bass with active pickups and a through the body bridge. I've dyed its swamp ash black, highlighted the grain with a silver powder suspension, and am French polishing the body now. The rosewood neck I've sealed in lacquer like Rickenbacker does. On deck for future contracted builds I've got a 50's tele style with the body made from a combination of maple, Honduran mahogany, and Peruvian walnut, and a few builds whenever no contracted work is in the making like an arch top with two TV Jones HBs and a barncaster from reclaimed pine that I intend to partially burn before starting.
I'm a retired cop, and this is far more relaxing than chasing bad guys!

That said, I should use this forum to see if anyone could whip out a couple of form apps or files, like an inventory list that I could use to see what it cost me, as well as a build sheet that I could spec the entire build out to provide an estimate sheet and an itemized bill of sale. I may do well as a luthier, but I rather suck at creating anything on my PC or my iPhone. (sorry it took so long to post this, have been away from my desktop for a while now...)

Computer Programmer by day
Dreamer at night

tjbray

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #23 on: November 26, 2014, 12:02 PM »
Hi Gleep!

If you want high gloss, I would go with something like Arm-r-Seal, made by General Finishes. It will give you a super high gloss shine, and it's a tough finish, protecting your wood from liquids. Underneath that, you can level any deformities with a de-waxed shellac. You can use amber or clear to add some warmth to the wood. With both shellac and the Arm-R-Seal, they can be applied with a rag or brush. Great for new woodworkers.

If you plan on keeping your guitar, and don't plan on gigging with it, the shellac can give you an awesome finish alone, but beer, the bane of instruments, can mar the finish. The best thing about shellac is in de-waxed form, it is water resistant, but even if somebody does scratch or mar your guitar, shellac coats applied over old coats melts right into the old finish, making repairs easy.

I have used lacquer in the beginning of my restorations and builds, but have come to prefer shellac and varnish finishes for their look, and oil finishes like Tru oil just doesn't harden enough.

I'm biased, but that's the best part of opinions!

I'll get with you after the holidays regarding the program/app I'm hoping can be made, thanks!

40hz

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Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?
« Reply #24 on: November 26, 2014, 01:54 PM »
@theGleep:

re: Bass- Depends on how much work you want to make for yourself. The urethane based finishes Fender was big on up till recently are sturdy. But they're thick and many people (myself included) think it adversely affects the tone of the instrument.

--------------------------------------------------------------

For those who don't know what we're talking about:

The two most traditional/recommended finishes for guitars are either a nitrocellulose lacquer or a shellac-based finish called French polish.

Nitrocellulose lacquer is very toxic so you'll need to be very careful with ventilation if you go that route. Nitrocellulose lacquer also doesn't like water or drinks being spilled on it. You will get those water spots and damage that our mothers always used to be worried about with their good furniture. It can also chip easily if you bully it. That said, lacquer is relatively easy to refinish if it ever comes to that. It looks gorgeous and it seems to have a positive effect on the sound - although I don't think any real scientific study was ever done to support that. So take that assertion with a grain of salt.

Time was when you wanted a spray gun to apply lacquer. Some of the big guitar suppliers (StewMac, Luthier Mercantile, et al) now carry excellent lacquers in a spray can that actually work quite well. If you're only doing one offs (as opposed to running a boutique manufacturing operation) these aerosol cans are a lot more convenient and economical that investing in a compressor and a sprayer. You can also hand apply lacquer with a brush. But it will make a  lot more work for you when it comes to sanding and polishing it out.

For lacquer finishing a guitar, check out Will Kelly's videos on YouTube. His channel is here.

French polish is the traditional finish used on fine string instruments such as violins and classical guitars. It's an easy but tedious process that involves applying and sanding multiple thinly applied layers of shellac. Much less toxic than lacquer. And possibly more sturdy since shellac finishes have more flex than a lacquer finish does. Easiest to repair if needed. But like lacquer, it doesn't care for water hitting it.

There's a really good detailed 6-part tutorial on YouTube that will walk you through the whole process. Find the beginning here. And another good tutorial here. I'd watch both if anybody is thinking they want to take a stab at it.

-----------------------------------

@theGleep - Don't know if this answers your question since neither French polish nor nitrocellulose lacquer is more "dent proof" than what's already on your bass. If anything, they're more fragile. But they are great finishes, And they're what gets applied to better quality instruments.

StewMac also has a pretty useful channel with loads of good advice, how-tos, and tips for builders and repairers. Find that here.

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Luck! :Thmbsup:
« Last Edit: November 26, 2014, 02:53 PM by 40hz »