Strings

Fender OEM strings are awful.
Plain awful...rotten...dead...lifeless.

I had sat with the mandolin and was starting to bond with it, finding my way with it last week.

On one of the forums dedicated to mandolins, there was an ongoing thread about a brand of flatwound strings. Flatwound strings have the wrapped covering flattened rather than just wrapped about the core - which makes for normal roundwound strings.

D'addario makes strings for most stringed instruments. I had used them for years on my guitars. Sometime in the 1990s they went to a "unisex" package in which opening the pack for one string meant opening the container for all of them. No more individual envelopes. While I understand the savings the manufacturer would see, it made the strings far less useful.

Break a high E? Open the whole pack and the remaining five strings begin to age as well. How to store the remaining strings? At a gig this meant a mess. At home I could change all the strings...D'addario's intent all along?

I had sworn off them and reverted to Ernie Ball...strings of my youth.

Back to the mandolin.
A set of regular strings; a mandolin has eight strings, run anywhere from $4 to $10. Flatwounds, on the other hand are closer to $40 a set.
I am too cheap for that. I get two sets of guitar strings for $9!?!
Plus I am new to the instrument and don't want to assume that throwing money will magically make me a better player.
Back to the forum - The Mandolin Cafe
Someone starts a thread about D'addario FW-74s.

As I investigate, I find they are about $10 a set?!
My favorite online string shop, Just Strings, has them. I order a set and wait for them to arrive.
Stringing a new instrument is an adventure.

Mandolins, unlike guitars, have the bottom of the string terminated with a loop that is meant to be put over a cut out tab on the tailpiece.

You loop the end, pull the string up and through the tuner, trying to maintain tension so the loop doesn't fall off the tab and then wind like a guitar.

It took the better part of an hour.
But what a difference? Once I had it strung and tuned, I played a few notes and they rang. The notes didn't decay, but droned on. And clear! Very little bleed between strings. Striking one didn't cause the adjacent string to vibrate as much.
The instrument sound 100% better. Easily.

The pick and the strings that you use, contribute no small part of the overall sound.
I think I have been converted - again.

Bonding With A New Instrument

I have trouble keeping more than one guitar. I don't need nor do I use two or three or more. I have one acoustic and I need one electric.
So I sell.

Flush with new money I ran to Styles.
"Lou I need a travel guitar and a mandolin."

I have seen a lot of music in the last twelve months. Not as much as last year, but what I have seen has been far and away the best music I have heard in a long, long time.
One of the truths in the "Music Business" is the need to be as versatile as possible. How many instruments can you play, and well?

And in the style of the folky rocker there are a lot of people playing...mandolins?!
These are not Bluegrass or Country and Western players. No...
These are troubadours, balladeers & bards. Traveling musicians that are wise in many arts.
I determine to expand. I already have a violin that I noodle upon. But I never pursued it with any vigor. There was no passion. I haven't been able to bond with the thing tucked underneath my chin.

I bought the lonely Fender mandolin that Lou had...dusty and neglected. I think he ordered it either out of pity for the Fender rep or a mandatory buy to be able to get a price on the Strats and Teles that earn his cash.
I know it is nothing but a student item.

The craftsmanship is non existent. If I were new to fretted instruments, I would have thrown my hands into the air. I set and reset the action. And then read...and read. There's "chop," and two fingers chords. And it's upside down when compared to a guitar.
And small?
A friend asked if it made me feel ham handed, but at the moment of the new purchase it seemed to fit...I have small hands. They kept me from pursuing the bass. But now, yeah - they were starting to feel rather thick.
Sad face.

All the "normal" thoughts raced through my head. If I went and bought something three times as expensive, I'd like it that much more, right?
I hit the brakes. Nah...Jimi could make a cigarbox guitar sound good. The excuse or victory is mine.

A really talented guitarist, Caleb Hawley does a solo arrangement of Bruce Hornsby's, 'That's Just The Way It Is.'
By himself, he makes what is a very layered and lush song sound just that. Layered and very full - by himself. He keeps time on the body of the guitar and plays both the bass line and the piano theme.
Good God, this kid is good.
Anyway...I put the song on and grab the mando (I'm hep to mandolin speak)...And rather than trying to apply a thought process, I aim for notes that fit and then intervals built from that. It comes, the rhythm, the picking...I'm sure the notes will follow, eventually.
Holy Merde...I am flying along the fretboard, playing pedestrian garbage, but I am bonding with this pig of an eight stringed beast.
She shall be Grendel.
Fuck you, Beowulf.

Epilogue:
 Growth is a good thing. With the rest of life it is usually a painful process. Even when you enjoy the endeavor - college for instance.
In music, I have moments of buyers remorse but no pain. It makes me dance.
I gotta jam with Beppe Gambetta!
<3

Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts

My laptop has been slowly dying. The graphics card has gotten so hot in the past that it literally unsoldered itself from the motherboard. Luckily, at that time I had an extended warranty - a week or so and I had a new computer.
This past Sunday it would no longer boot. A B.S.O.D. (Blue Screen Of Death) every time.

After admitting to myself the trouble was beyond my capabilities, I went to secure a new computer.
By Tuesday I had to be up and running. I could not wait for Labor Day sales...pity.

I ran to Best Buy and started my search. They had a dozen desktop computers. I quickly narrowed it down to two. While money was being transferred electronically, I picked up the box of the last remaining example of either model and checked out.

Boy, this thing is fast...Huge too, more storage than I'll ever use - I said that about a twenty megabyte hard drive in the 1980s; yeah, that didn't last.

But then came the task of transferring all that data. Pictures, music (11,000 mp3s), et cetera. I was looking at quite a task.
I began by opening DropBox; cloud based storage - 2gb is free.
To rent 50gb of storage is $9.99 a month or $99 a year in advance..A 100 gb is $19.99/199.00.

At 2 gb a shot, it was going to take a long, long time.
By Thursday I began to think about how much bandwidth was being eaten by these 2gb swaps going on twelve hours a day (2gb up from the laptop and then 2gb down to the new computer).
Ah, but that made me think of an 8gb sd card I recently bought!

Plug it in to the old computer (which I got to boot, somewhat stable, but no graphics) grab 8gb of data at a time and then insert the card into the new computer. Inside of a few hours I had cleaned a major portion of the old computer - with no bandwidth consumed.

Each time we upgrade - a new smartphone, a new computer; we also inherit the task of setting all the attendant parts of our digital lives. The email accounts, The bank logins. Cloud storage, file hosting...on and on...
And with each day we are establishing new accounts for new purposes. FaceBook, FourSquare, Tripit...
So that with every new device, the time to be "up and running" is  growing longer and the improved technology barely keeps pace.

I'm a geek, but I have been bitten upon the ass by Technology.

Rains, Hurricanes and More Planes

This year has been somewhat dry. There has been much less playing than there was last year. Perhaps, half the number of gigs.

Before it became an issue I went to the House Concert and was given a lift, the likes of which I don't think I've ever experienced before. A week or more.

And then in rapid succession, two gigs pop up. One in San Diego, the other - a recording session.

A day goes by and I get a message from a boutique maker of pickups. Would I be interested in making a clip demonstrating the pickups et cetera?

When you are not actively seeking, it comes to you.
Zen and the Art of Music?

I hope Irene comes to naught...

Wanna Get High?

A great and intimate way to experience wonderful music by the very best up & comers is a house concert. The simple explanation is a host opens their home to these musicians, setting a very nominal cover - $10-20. A pot luck for food brought by the guests with a selection of beverages provided by your hosts is the food portion of the event.

These are the very same musicians that I and many others have been raving about for a while.
To have them in your home, with your friends, food and 'social lubrication' as the hostess for my first show put it, and you have the makings of a wonderful experience.
No tacky dives, no loud raucous crowds, unless that is the spirit of the room.
It's not a strict concert, either - think dinner party with very good live entertainment. Although most people sat raptly watching the people that played, there was a certain amount of coming and going.

As I said, this was my first. The show was produced, and I say that because every detail was considered and artistically executed, by a very good friend of mine. She lives on the East Coast as does my mother so I took her invitation as impetus to make a trek to the right side.
The trip was an adventure from the moment I arrived in NYC, where my mother burst a front tire - I changed tires in Harlem at 2 a.m.

Saturday evening at my friend's house, Caleb Hawley was the headliner.I saw Caleb perform in Los Angeles and was very much impressed with him.   

Besides being a very capable lyricist, indeed he charges his words with deep emotions, he is a masterful guitarist. A Berklee graduate, he has talent in heaps. He played a wildly eclectic list of popular tunes (Stevie Wonder, Bruce Hornsby) and some of the best originals tunes I have heard in a very long time.
In a previous entry...maybe when I began this page, I spoke  of talented people that can thrill both the emotional and the intellectual people inside me.
Caleb is indeed, one of these.
Okay, now throw in the facts that he is charming, personable, open, very friendly and warm...honest, too.
Can you tell I am really enjoying him?
I was incredibly pumped after seeing that show.

So now I am seated with friends watching Caleb at his best - looking into the eyes of the audience.
Of course, he did not disappoint.

And the setting was poetry. A tiny cabin full of love and warmth by the two that live there. I mentioned to her that it had almost a Disneyland effect; the child in me was in awe and the adult could marvel at the many little touches sprinkled all around.

At one point, I was chatting with the host when I heard someone calling my name.
As I walked into the living room my friend announced that this was my first house concert and that I came all the way from California to see Caleb and mom.

And now Caleb and I were going to play a number...breathe, two, three, four...(I don't get nervous before I play, I get very high from it)

I walked up to the fireplace and picked up the opener's guitar (a very able musician by the name of Bob Kasper - Keith knows him) and leaned in while Caleb told me the chords he wanted and that I'd get a solo.
It was Bill Withers tune, Use Me.
As he starts playing, someone asked him a question...he didn't stop...so I started noodling over it.
"Oh, you're gonna solo already?" he asked with that impish grin.

We played, I joined in to sing a chorus, I played my little solo.
It ended, and the room applauded, Caleb turned to me and was grinning like a jackal.
I leaned towards him and said, "You can make shit sound good. Thanks for making me sound good, man."
A micro second later and his grin grew even further.
We simultaneously gripped our picks in our teeth and had a high five knuckle bump thing.

What a blast.
Oh yeah, if you get a chance, go see Caleb - he was a contestant on American Idol and has three CDs available.
Better yet, go see him at a house concert.
Bring your pick.

The B Team

Being a substitute player in music can be quite gratifying. When a player can't make a date and the band thought of you...how nice!
There are also fewer expectations of you. You have not been with the group as long, don't share all the insider "stuff." At the same time that affords you the freedom to see a piece a new way.

In the last two week I have been given two instances of filling in.
In one case it was a Farmer's Market and the other a familiar tavern. Both are gigs I have done in the past.So the venues themselves are comfortable. But the lineup and the setlist are not.

In both instances the bands are of the "Classic Rock" style. Serviceable, but played to death.
But I had that bit of freedom, since I was not given a score for solos, but expected to wing it.
Oh, wing it...I did.
Midnight Rider - a tune from my early guitar days. Duane Allman's part is relatively simple...but oh so hard to sound THAT good.
Well, what I played was good enough to draw a three minute tune out to six or seven minutes.
I have not tried playing slide in public, but I can emulate it with sweeping vibrato and glides.

During the break, the bass player says to me, "I didn't know you played slide."
Neither did I.
Being the new guy afforded me a looseness that made the old tunes a bit more fresh...a bit less stale.

"Not gonna let them catch the midnight rider..."

Amazing what a change in perspective can do.

Intonation - Callaham Compensated Saddles

When the Telecaster was first "designed" and built, the saddles (the metal bar over which the strings pass on their way to the nut.- between the nut and the saddles is where a string vibrates) were two strings to a saddle. Three brass barrels.

You are able to set the overall length of the string via the three spring loaded screws.

Fretted instruments "suffer" with tempered tuning. It's mathematically impossible to lay out the frets in such a way that the strings are in tune over the entire length of the neck. With twenty one to twenty four frets on most electric guitars or scale lengths from twenty four inches to twenty five and three quarters, there is a lot of variation to be had - add into this the curvature (radius) of the fretboard, and you can see there are hurdles to be surmounted.

Back to the Telecaster. The epitome of simple...simplistic. With the three barrel design there is an inherent trade off. One of those two strings will be closer to perfect intonation than the other. Players back in the 1950s learned to bend the spring loaded screws which would angle the barrels...effectively lengthening one string and shortening or retaining the same with the other.

You can see the Tune-O-Matic Bridge design has an individual saddles for each string. The arc described by the radius and scale is also easier to visualize in the arc of the saddles.
Eventually Fender came out of the dark ages and began to install six saddle designs of their own.

But you can also see, this bridge in much harder to adjust. On the TOM there is one spring loaded screw for the string length, and two thumbwheels, one at each end to raise or lower the bridge. With the Fender design, each string is adjusted for intonation and height individually. While that may sound as though it makes for a more perfect instrument, it makes for a colossal pain.
The height adjustment screw are hex heads,  you need two tools instead of one. Each height adjustment is done with two screws - the design itself almost precludes the use of only one. I say almost because someone figured out how to stabilize an offset screw.

My two Teles have three barrel bridges. I like the look. I have no belief in mythical properties of the brass material or the three barrels, themselves, I just like the way they fit the overall old school vibe.
Intonation has always been a huge compromise. And it hurts my ears to hear a guitar that can get no closer to perfect intonation; much as reading text written by the illiterate will hurt my eyes.
(In this way, I am a snob...I guess)

In my own way, I started to do research. I found angled barrels, much the same as the bent screw trick of years gone by. I also found a very clever variation.
A Slanted Compensated Saddle.

The face of each barrel has two surfaces at angles from each other. Length overall is still adjusted with the same spring loaded screws. And dammit, they use hex head screws to adjust the height...one for each string.
After removing the strings it took fifteen minutes to remove the old saddles and replace then with the Callahams. Another ten minutes adjusting intonation and I was done.
Height takes days to dial in. I want the action (height above the fretboard) to be as low as possible. When you lower the action you are inviting fret buzz. So you lower it and play. Find a dead fret...Raise it a bit. Play some more. Determine you can lower it a touch and so on.

The intonation? Spot on. No change in any other quality.
$46 with shipping.