Its a girl!

As they all are of course.
71bs according to the customs sheet, delivered by the TNT courier guy this afternoon, after 8 days of labourious travel.

Guitar and new owner are reported to be overjoyed at the new addition to the family.

The exhausted owner was heard to say, "I can't wait to hear her make her 1st sounds, just as soon as she's had time to recover from the trip and get used to the weather here and tuned up and ready"

He added, "We're all very exited."

The new addition has been named Titch due to its small stature and is in no way intended as an insult to short guitars anywhere.




Ahthankyew

Expectant fathers == new guitar owner...same thing?

I always love delivery days, its that combination of expectancy and worry I like and I think todays the day...though since TNT/Dutch post is the midwife, delivery may be a little less than predictable. But according to the USPS tracking site.

Detailed Results:

Out of Foreign Customs, May 31, 2011, 12:29 am, NETHERLANDS
Into Foreign Customs, May 23, 2011, 9:47 am, NETHERLANDS
Arrived Abroad, May 23, 2011, 9:46 am, NETHERLANDS
International Dispatch, May 17, 2011, 4:23 pm, ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS)
Arrival
Processed through Sort Facility, May 16, 2011, 2:50 pm, SANTA ANA, CA 92799
Acceptance, May 16, 2011, 12:00 pm, SANTA ANA, CA 92711


Titch is on the way...probably today.....maybe tomorrow.
Which only begs the question of how much duty are they going to hit me with, actual cost or list price based...gulp.
Damm I just realised guitars are exactly like kids..bloody expensive.

Ahthankyew

Forms forms forms and more forms

Tich is stuck in customs, the seller didn't put a value on the shipping form so Dutch customs have sent me a form to fill out, not too complex but of course its going to hold things up.
ah well.


Ahthankyew

Small is beautiful

of course, Bina is quite small...;)

But this is even smaller..

Meet Titch, a 0 body (ie small parlour) 12 fret guitar made by Recording King and designed by Eric Shoenberg, who's a player and builder of pre war finger style guitars which are not as common as they used to be.

He gets companies to produce these designs to his very high standards and puts his name on them. They are quite rare, and often very pricy, but Recording King seem to have worked out a way to keep his standards high but the prices low.
This one is unusual for a 12 fretter becuase it has a cut away, an unheard of concept in prewar styles, but it adds a lot to its playability and this made this design quite special.
As explained in this video

They sold out pretty much as soon as they were released making them quite hard to find, but I located one in the US and haggled the price down to something I could afford.
Now I just have to wait for the Customs people to deliver it to TNT, never a fun thing cos you don't know if they will charge duty based on list price or actual price, important in this case as there's quite a difference.

Why am I still buying guitars when I said I was done....ermmm yeah well....its a good point.

Neither my Breedlove or my Ovation really work as fingerpickers, they have big bodies and thin necks to provide amazing tone, and fast chord changes and while they can do fingerpicking (especially the Breedlove which in my opinion is a great all rounder), you need a smaller tighter feel and a wider neck to do sweet hammers and pull offs without rasping on other strings which is why I've bought this.

This really is the last....apart from a Gibson Blueshawk, when one comes up I can afford (no really...and it will replace my Wesley)

From this point on, its a one in one out policy now, I have no more room. In fact the Ovation Elite may be going soon, I am going to have it set up properly, its always buzzed a littel bit, and if I don't feel it offers me something different than my Breedlove its going on ebay.


Any day now. Postman should be knocking. I chose not to buy a case with this one, normally I do, for security when shipping, especially from the states, but due to being strapped for cash and frankly having no where to put cases, I opted out...so its just in cardboard and packing....I hope it makes it ok.






Ahthankyew

Stubborn and old!

I think I'm starting to qualify for that title. I've been trying to get some work related coding done over the last few weeks and failing at every attempt to make it work...on my laptop..worked fine on my PC but laptop refused, and I could not find the problem.
Not such a big deal you may think, but I had to show this code at work to my students..on my laptop. So the frustration levels were growing..Several very late nights, lack of sleep and stress levels rising. Just like the old days.

In the end, it was a simple idiotic thing, a missing pair of "" around a line of text that caused the copy routine moving some lib files to move to the working directory failed.

Arrghhh I should have see that, I really should, 10 years ago, 5 even, I would have seen it..I think I must accept, there are grey hairs on my head, lines on my face, and I keep forgetting what I am doing, which just makes coding such a hard...something!!!

The stubborness comes from not giving up on the problem, cos I refused to be beaten, but also in not asking for some help..in the end it was a casual passing remark by a student that reminded me about the quotes...if I'd asked him 1st I would have fixed it ages ago...but I was sure I could fix it..

I can't I'm human, and worse, I'm an old human, my mistakes are becomeing more and more common and I am not as good as I was......time to get myself an eager sidekick to keep me on .....what was I talking about???




Ahthankyew

Damn

My old friend and collegue Lee Cawley sent me a message today that took my breath away.
His wife Mandy, passed away after the most incredibly brave fight against cancer I have ever heard of.

I knew it was coming, in fact the last few months it seemed to be ever more likely as Lee reported lots of hospital visits, but after what I think is about 10 years of fighting, undergoing major surgery, drugs, chemo, drug trials, every damn thing, the cancer eventually won.

I wish I had some way to express how sad I feel about this, I remember the shock when Lee told me when she was 1st diagnosed and have kept up to date with her progress year after year, heartened by news of improvments and saddened by the many setbacks.
There was never really any doubt her cancer was terminal, they just didn't get it in time, but to fight for so long, and still not win is heartbreaking for all concerned.

There are the times when I wish I was religious, cos if nothing else if gives you something to say, I don't have the right words just now. I am just incredibly sad for Lee who shared that fight with her all those years.

A brave lady, Mandy Cawley, RIP, you earned it. Keep Strong Lee.



Ahthankyew

Not intended for music lovers

But I bet it won't stop mum listening...it is just a work in progress using some of the gadgets and software I have aquired...don't blame me if you have nightmares after hearing this.

anyway...even though mum likes this (well she would) this is only here as a reference, I hope to improve my recording techniques and my singing over the next couple of weeks, and will do another version of this to compare....I hate the idea of people being able to hear such dross, but its all part of the process to help compare.
The voice for sure needs more PC, and maybe dropped down a tone in post production. Also I have to get my singing rythm in time with my guitar rythm, I stumbled over a lot of bits. Overall though I give it a 4/10....lets see if it improves with time and practice.

And to demonstrate a little how post production can improve...here's the same track after a bit of messing......still crap but...not as crappy as before. The surprising addition of a harmonica has me ....surprised...some kind of frequence thing I assume, but not unwelcome really.

Ahthankyew

ahhhhh wrong key

There is a reason I was sounding terrible (aside from the fact I do actually sound terrible) I was playing guitar just outside my vocal range...capo to the rescue to change the guitar pitch to suit, and voila it sounds reasonable. It actually sounds reasonable..bloody hell.

I even managed to get through a whole song which I have saved for posterity....and let the girls listen to it...they liked it :D

Not brave enough yet to post on here but with a bit more practice and tweeking of the "make him sound good" buttons I will post something soon.

I won't be entering any of Simon Cowells make fun of the deluded shows any time soon...but just for me to be able to sing and strum my way through a whole song is bloody great :D

yeahhh.. I feel good!!!!


I knew that I would!

Ahthankyew

Well maybe not THAT easy.

After spending a whole day "singing" yesterday I don't have anything to show for my efforts, apart from a bloody sore jaw...its not used to it... between forgetting the words to my test track (To love Sombody...the Ray Lamontagne version) or getting my co-ordination between guitar and voice wrong I have 100's of takes of a few verses....none of them very good..But I will persevere. I can honestly say its a lot of fun and with a few twiddles it does sound reasonable and improving.

The challenge is to get through a full song without error and see how that sounds.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

I've been using my lovely Ovation VXT to do this, mainly to prevent my voice mic picking up too much guitar sound which can get all out of whack when the pitch correction kicks in.
It is a fantastic guitar on its own, but hooked up to a Zoom A2 using default models for Gibsons and Martin guitars, it provides a fantastic range of really greate tones and sounds. So much better than my Roberts ever did which I always though was good going through the A2.
Also another plus for tie VXT over the Roberts, becuase of its hybrid nature, its much easier to play, with lighter strings and faster neck, the Roberts was not hard to play by any means but its Acoustic strings meant it needed a bit more effort. And you can't beat the fact you can just dial in a monster electic tone on demand for a big bending wail at the right time...should I ever get to that right time...oh well..tomorrow I'll give it another go.





Ahthankyew

This singing lark is easy

got a new mic, and a few accessories to go with it. Its not a big expensive one as mics go, its top of the low end price wise, but better than the standard dynamic mic I was using mainly to record acoustic guitar...It never really had any oomph to record voice.



This one does and urrghh I was right, I really can't sing, dull boring flat and insipid when you hear it back, but its extraordinary what a difference a good mic, a few pitch correction additions, a bit of reverb, some chorus and even a bit of envelope shaping can do.....no I don't really know either, I just pushed the buttons it said would "improve the quality of the sound" but it does make me sound like a modest half decent pub singer...not ready to inflict my warbles on the masses just yet but maybe soon.

the new layout...

Oh and no I have no long term plans to take up singing as a hobby, I am not that cruel, its to improve my basic timing on guitar. One of my biggest issues is a total lack of rythm, and singing along can help with that a lot....I just don't want to have to listen to me raw unprocessed horrible voice when I am practicing..






Ahthankyew

The Mighty Dark Fire Returns.

I'm sure my Mighty Dark Fire is cursed, since its unfortunate accident it has not been out of its case much, though Gibson very kindly sent me the replacment part I need, I don't really posess the tech skill to fit it. So I have been planning to take it to the shop in Northern Holland which Gibson reccoemend, when I have a bit of cash handy....yes I do have insurance cover to pay for it, but I want to be sure I can afford the work just in case.

But...as part of my clearing up, I took the beast out of her case and decided I'd have a go at doing just one of the fixes. namely straightening a bent tuning peg....no problem thinks I, I will use a tube extension on a screwdriver to apply steady pressure.....and indeed it is now nice and straight, but I broke a string doing so.

Now, changing strings on a guitar is not normally a big deal, an occasional chore you get used to. But since I had not changed them since I got her I decided to give her a fresh set rather than find a match for teh single broken one.
Which actually turned out to be quite a task, requiring a download and check on the manual as to how you actually change the strings on a robot tuner guitar.

After a bit of phaffing about though, the strings come off, the new ones go on, and in typical, ain't that a cool party piece fashion the MDF tunes herself up.

I still need to replace that pickup selector switch, but she's looking damn pretty even with the broken one. Hmmm might give her a bit of a wail later.

Oh and I finally worked out why the Dunlop strap locks that came with it do not fit....the "nubs" fitted to the guitar are not actually Dunlop locks..I think the original owner must have sent the wrong strap side bits and hence why they don't fit. I think they are Schaller's.....small detail but annoying as it means I can't blame gibson for my "faulty" straplocks.

Ahthankyew

Another tidy up...

In an effort to make most use of the space, I've been shuffling things around in the play room...I think I've almost got it sussed now.

I want to start doing a bit more recording and even a bit of vocals (arrghhhh) so need to have space to get all my auto pitch correction stuff and sound proofing etc......I can't sing, at all, but I suppose I should make a bit of an effort to try. So long as its just me listening to it I'll be a lot happier but that means I need to have the recording "studio" part of my kit working again which it hasn't been for a while.

Its quite a challenge fitting so many guitars/cases/pedals/amps, mixers and recorders into a small space....but I think I've cracked it. Pics to follow

edit...hmmm cracked the space issue but rather a lot of nasty hum going into the tube amps....need to try to isolate that.



Ahthankyew

Some Music

Well I say music, just me trying to perfect the piece I messed up during my performance video at the end of the Acoustic Guitar week in France

Hope you enjoy it mum ;)..The rest of you...sorry :( I can't stop it auto playing. Just hit pause and your suffering will end...edit...fixed it...you have to press play to be tortured.

Ahthankyew

It Burns IT BURNS

I thought I would try a tiny dab of piri piri sauce on a cheeseburger....hmmmmm tasty.

Oh dear god the pain...my mouth is still very raw on the right side from the surgery and as soon as the slightest hint of the sauce touched it I could feel the heat...but being a sucker for hot spicy food I thought I'd go through the pain barrier......until the pain barrier turned out to be a solid concrete wall covered in chillie...

Water, Milk, ice, nothing eased it...lucky for me though I still have a bit of lidocane left from when I was having radiotherapy to numb my mouth. It worked.

Now I am scanning google to see which has the shorter half life...lidocane or piri piri sauce, cos if it wears off before the piri piri I'll be screaming again.

ohhhhhhhhh I really hate that I can't eat chillies any more.


Ahthankyew
Ahthankyew

IE9 or just blogger messing up

Yesterday was the day of non working computers, mainly becuase my main PC took it upon itself to update Windows 7 with a service pack and also update IE to version 9. I tend to automatically accept updates and with hindsight....

Anyway, after choking on the download for hoours tying up all the bandwidth it eventually went into install mode which somehow locked up the PC totally, even somehow causing the bios to reset itself...arrghhh

The SP1 for Windows seems ok, in fact its a little nippier, but 1st impressesions of IE9 are not great...why take a bit of software everyone is familiar with and change everything??? I will never understand that...but after a bit of twiddling I got it more or less set up to something recognisable though the loss of the favourites bar on the left is idiotic.

One odd thing though is I was unable to post to blogger...it just refused to publish. Not sure if its still like that as I am posting on my laptop atm, but will check later and see. If indeed that is caused by IE 9 I will have to try and go back to IE8, I'm not pissing about with software that does not actually do its basic job right.


Ahthankyew

Off the booze for a bit and back to work...for a bit.

A whole week of indulgence in wine and other goodies has taken its toll. I am going to lay off the booze for a bit and give my liver a break.

I have been totally shattered since I came back from France, the long drive won't have helped but the general run down needing a holiday after a holiday feeling is taking a while to shake and I can't help thinking booze has a part to play..so we'll try a couple of we....a week off and see how I feel.

Bina also got back from her break today, pieless I hasten to add, despite my pleadings for her to shove a couple down her knickers to get on the plane...oh well, will have to make our own.

Back to work tomorrow though, for a week, then a weeks holiday :D Oh I love my job.

But am looking forward to getting back in front of my 1st years again after a whole block of non-teaching work, it'll be good to get the juices flowing again.

This block I'm teaching PR4, algorithms and data structures, using Braben and Bell's Elite as a classic example of an alorithm driven game project. Its such a classic game and its absolutly chock full of clever little examples of algorithms to solve problems that they will hopefully learn the importance of using estabished alorithms and data structures as well as developing new ones, without even noticing it as they try to dissect, analyze and emulate one of the greatest games ever.

Also doing Networking HA2 with my 2nd years which will be more challenging as I am not the most informed network programmer around, but I have been doing my research and should be able to explain the basics, which is what we all need to know, in a clear way that will allow those who find it interesting to jump off into more detailed work.



Ahthankyew

Fantastic week, fun, booze, sore fingers and sore toes!

Just back from my really fun week in the South West of France care of The Acoustic Guitarist Holiday

I had a really great week, lots of fun, really fantastic students who all gelled together really well and made the days fly by. Great home cooked food, prepared by Chris and Jenny Trotter (with help from Alice) who run the events and really calm and sensible teaching from Richard Perkins who managed to avoid laughing at some of our worst effots through the week.

Skill levels varied, Mike, Glen and Gunther showed some genuine impressive (ie I was drooling) skills at times which made me wonder why they were there, but even they found some of the work challenging. Paula, Danae, Dave and myself kept them on their toes though (bwhaha)

I was genuinly good fun, helped along by some really fantastic weather and a constant desire to play and play and play...oh and eat...ermm and drink. We did shift a fair amount of booze, my liver will need to go on its own holiday soon I think to recover.

A few lows though, I almost broke my toe dropping a false drawer front on it...that left me hobbling for a few days.(pics below)

I was also pretty crap during my final performance to video piece (a jazzy version of Amazing Grace), I'm sure Richard can edit it to get 20 seconds of decent playing but I have done better, I am going to practice a bit more then post a proper recording on here, but am sure my crap efforts will be on show on Richards link soon

I also got a bit ill on Friday night/Sat morning, not sure why, but was up at 1.30am scrambling around in pitch dark (stubbing my already briused toe) trying to find a big white telephone to call Hugh on...fortunatly I found it just in time..something didn't agree with me, and its better out that in...more than likely waaaay too much free vino. I was fine in the morning, and had a really nice Braised Ham dinner in a service station on the way back, lets hope it stays down...so far so good.

I didn't really take a lot of pics, since they take a lot of pics for the blog anyway, but I have no idea who that fat bastard is wearing my clothes and playing my guitar on most of the pics. But what I did take are posted below.

Overall I feel this was one of the best things I've done, guitar wise it was challenging at times and I didn't really enjoy having to learn masses of strange Gypsy Jazz chords, its not really my thing though the others enjoyed it, but I have been inspired to make more effort to learn them and move forward.

The pieces we were given struck just the right balance of difficulty, though in such a short space of time I didn't really get them all worked out as well as I would want, but will do at home after a good nights sleep and a bum rub (sadly solo...) after the 9 hour drive back.

Working with other guitarists at varying levels was also incredibly good fun, I really need to make more effort to play with others and bounce things off people, that alone was worth it.

I hope to keep in touch with everyone, I have to send a few tabs to people, hopefully going to go back again later in the year for the electric course where I will take Lucille for an outing, and perhaps have a bit more skill to show so that I don't fluff my performance bit.





pretty....the rural setting had lots and lots of lovley insect and birdlife,



My Battered Toe....

And again.....not the best pic but I want to emphisise, hey..that hurt!!!


Can you see it?


just missed

there he is, there were loads of these Gecko like lizards around.



And at last a proper pic.

Getting quite used to the camera now isn't he...



1st up the ladies do their version of Turn the Page with Richard singing.

The rest look on and wait.


Dave gets some backing..



Can you see it?? Yup thats as close as I got to the Eifel Tower...though Paris Traffic seems to be pretty busy for miles outside





There are many many more pics over on Richards blog of the course

And now time for a sausage buttie and a bit of practice.
Ahthankyew

Parteeeeee

After class yesterday we all went to the local micro brewery to sample some of their delights, not being a beer lover I opted for some local whiskey which was really nice after the initial rawness...We all had a few snifters and loosened up. I bought a few bottles of the "scotch" aged in Pinot barrels to take home.

The alcohol theme was continued as we came back for our evening meal (more alcohol) and in true drunken group of guitarists style, we ended up singing (even me a bit) and playing with a few strange dancing efforts to boot. ( I did however thankfuly refrain from any dad dancing and stayed firmly in my chair)

All in all a good night was had.


Today is the last day, with a final "performance" evening tonight, which we'll have to try to stay sober for.


Ahthankyew

Sunny French Villa's

A few pics of our farm accomodation.

Very nice weather is continuing and we even managed to eat out in the sun last night, though as it went down it got quite chilly and we had to use our wood burning stove in the cottage.

today has been a challenging day, doing some strange jazz chords which I am totally unfamiliar and we haved a jazzified version of Amazing Grace to learn for this evening.

Most of the others have gone into Cognac to have a look around, but I prefered to stay and catch up on some work during the down time before practicing my Amazing Grace again.

Bina is off to the UK today so hopefully she will be bringing back a stock of pies on her return (yum yum hint hint)

Off to follow up some student emails...... A Beintot...or something.











Ahthankyew

Hic Strum Hic

The travel down to the "south" of France was of course quite long but fairly uneventful I am happy to say, though I was totally shocked by the cost of the toll roads, I had to take 3 toll roads and in total was charged around 50 euros...one way!! Thats kinda steep, I had loads of change in my pockets expecting it to be 3-4 euro's a time it never occured to me it would be 15,22 and 23 euros....seriously thats absurd.

I've settled into my weeks intensive guitar course/holiday. I'm in a group of 7 "students" mostly my age or older, a few who are better than me and a few not so good so I am able to pair up with the better ones to get a challenge and show off to the not so good ones :D Nah really its quite handy being able to alternate your playing with people of different abilities.
I am sharing a farm cottage with 3 others, making 2 men 2 women (and only 1 shower so no wandering around with my dangly bits out), with another group of 3 in another cottage

The Cottages are really cool and calm, though the bedrooms have wooden floors so they are incredibly noisy. I'm sharing with Gúnter, nice Austro/German chap, who snores...sadly our beds are too far away for me to elbow him or give him a cuddle to persuade him to roll over, which works great for Bina...maybe just as well!

The wine, fresh French country air (we are in the middle of nowhere I have to say the night sky is incredible) and 1st night travel tirednes have so far ensured I've been pretty tired and gone to sleep regardless of the snoring....that may change at the end of the week :D

Richard the tutor keeps a blog of the course activites, and there's a few pics of some strange long haired pasty fat bloke that keep popping up..

The weather is fantastic, wonderful sunshine so its a good job I brought some sun cream, though I did forget a few important things, like a stand for my Breedlove which has now picked up its first scratch from being laid down on the floor..oh well, its only the 1st 1 that hurts.

Playing is improving already, I've found my timing getting better and we're all enjoying playing some reasonably complex tunes properly. My fingers are aching though, and I am also limping after dropping a fake drawer front on my toe this morning..ouch.

Internet and phone connections are a little ropey so I better get this uploaded while I can, and go catch up on some work I need to do while I am away this week.

Missing everyone at home, I think Bina would LOVE this place, you have to come for the sax course, though they do admit its possible a little advanced, they may consider doing a beginners course sometime.



Working hard...



Ahthankyew