Guitars and Life

Here is the first appearance of the 12 string anywhere! Really I was just trying it out after a bit of fiddling with the nut etc. So - you'll hear all 7 sounds on a little motif from one of my songs (On Christmas Day) starting from bridge, then bridge and middle, middle, middle and neck, neck, neck and Bridge and all three on together.   Then a little noodle with me just playing about - middle position I think which I really like.  Direct into my little Boss BR-600 with a Roland JC clean amp patch.

I've completed the final assembly on the 12 string. First the string ferrules at the back. Then the Tuners... so many tuners! One minor mod, like all my electric guitars I've fitted this with Schaller strap locks - I've used these on everything for so many years now it is just a default for me. Final wiring up. Waiting for stringing. Fitting the string tree and getting it strung up was one of the most challenging and stressful bits of the build! Finally all strung up.  It plays!  The wiring mods all work.  It needs a lot of set up work, the g pair in particular are way out in intonation initially.  I need to look at the intonation, action, nut depths and adjust the pickups.   I'll let is settle for a day or so then have a slow look, might take one or two stabs I think.  Also I will finally restring with some better strings - those on it now came with the kit but I've bou...

I've completed finishing the neck.  I've done another top coat on the body - I might do another yet, will wait and see once it has cured off. Anyway here are some photos of the neck.   I used Wudtone Original Yellow which has given the colour I was hoping for.

Just a quick update.  Being a bit busy at the moment with stuff - work, course, volunteer training etc.  The build is on the go-slow.   On Monday I put the last base coat on the body.  You need to give it 2 days to dry out fully anyhow but I'll be unlikely to get to do anything until the weekend now.  The neck I've finished the base coats on.  So weekend I'll start the top coats on both.  I'm expecting 3 or 4 of them we'll see as it develops so probably at least another week or two then the advice is to leave it a full week before assembly.  Patience... it's a bugger at times isn't it!

A couple of days holiday from work so I've been busy recording... :-) Two new songs. Sense Sense first broke cover when I did the Live in the Living Room thing, this is the full studio version! And here is Homeward bound. Homeward Bound has been a chord pattern looking for a song/lyrics for years, last year I finally wrote the lyrics and this is the final version. The solo was semi-worked out but then took a life of its own. It is possible to jam with yourself? I seem to have done so here the ending just a jam based on how the rhythm part first recorded ended! I was going to fade the solo out but this seems to (almost) work as an ending so left it in! Enjoy Postscript - In the end I deleted the first version of Sense I'd uploaded and re-uploaded it.  The compression really messed up the sound of the 12 string at the start.  Exporting from Audacity (where I do my final editing) to an uncompressed WAV gave much better result than either MP3 or WAV Compr...

Folks will remember my purchase a few weeks back of the Vintage Gordon Giltrap VE2000GG 12 string to replace my old Yamaha which sadly has seen better days... My requirement was for a nice playable 12 string electro-acoustic.  Most of my stuff is as you know acoustic rock orientated in the David Gray, John Mayer genre.  I'd had my eye on a Gordon Giltrap for a couple of years now anyway since a) I'm a big Giltrap fan b) I'd heard said Mr Giltrap use the 6 string version live a couple of times and was impressed c) it seems incredible value for money. Now then my life was made a touch my complicated by the appearance of the Paul Brett signature 12string.  This is a slight oddity in that this is a parlour sized guitar which to be honest wasn't my initial desire but has received rave reviews and also has been designed as a 12string from the ground up - unlike the Gordon Giltrap which is an adaptation of a 6 string design.  Not unusual to be fair most 12 strings ar...

Ok - having admitted defeat on trying to fix the old 12 string.  I bought this today a Vintage VE2000GG Gordon Giltrap signature 12 string. I tried the new Paul Brett Parlour 12 string which was hugely impressive, but the 14th fret body join, general dimensions of the Gordon Giltrap and the superiour (to my ears) plugged in sound meant I had to get this.  Give me a week or so and I'll do a bit of a review...

Remember my 12 string needing to have it's overbelly reduced?  Well I ordered a Bridge Doctor  from StewMac in the USA which arrived in a couple of weeks. Here is the bridge doctor before installation Here is the action before - about 5mm on the bass side and about 3mm on the treble. The guitar on the workbench Hole drilled - I got a 1/4" brad bit for the outer hole and used a cocktail stick marked at 1/8" as my depth gauge.  You get a little plastic dot you can inlay over the screw once finished - I may do that later when I get happy with it.  Luckily I have a local little hardware shop that stock imperial drills and are cheaper than the big stores... no doubt as the stock has been there 20 years! Set the doctor to the best width - the circular plastic bolt holder has three settings - I used the widest you can see to allow string clearance on the 12 string - on a 6 string the middle would probably be best setting.  The doctor ins...

This will no doubt rate as another stunningly boring post in the history of this blog but what the heck... So the fuel crisis - unbelievable, I won't go into discussing the possibility that this is the most inept government I've ever seen in my life (and I do include the disastrous Jim Callaghan administration of the 70s in that) but you have to say the British public (encouraged by senior politicians) managed to create chaos out of nothing.  So there is no strike planned and if so there is 7 days notice but Dave Cameron says "Fill your car up to be safe" and suddenly there is a 800% increase in fuel sales and all the garages around our area are shut!  Brilliant! Anyway I had to go to Wales to retrieve Son-of-Furtheron for the Easter break.  I did manage to find one service station with diesel before I left on Saturday morning.  I decided given I didn't know if I could fill up anywhere that I'd drive a little more conservatively.  I set a cruise at 68mph o...

Any really long term readers out there remember this post from 2009 about the bulge on my 12 string guitar?  Thought not, well I have a bulge on my 12 string or a belly as it is also known.  My recent read through the excellent Haynes Acoustic Guitar Manual introduced me to the JLR Bridge Doctor .  Now the Haynes book shows one where it is fitted without any new holes etc. by a brass pin that screws into the device replacing your normal bridge pins.  After that installation though the guitar isn't strung conventionally but as like an Ovation / Takamine pin less bridge through the replacement brass pins, which seems less than satisfactory to me, you might remove your bulge but the tone may well drop off given it was never designed to be strung like that. Hmm - that method saves a drilling game through the bridge which given the installation in the book is on a rare 1930s instrument is probably not a bad idea but... a) I'm not keen on the strings not being strung ...