Readers' Instruments

[bobb]

When playing a guitar or similar, you should never ever consider what is comfortable. The only thing that is important is whether or not you look fucking cool. Once you have perfected this, you modify your technique accordingly.

Actually, I suppose this is irrelevant if you're playing a banjo, so as you were...   

[bumper]

bobb, it's still cooler than being a drummer    wondering how many yacfers I've just insulted


road-runner, that's about where mine ends up. I can also see what my fingers are picking when needed too. I don't bother trying to silence mine, I let everyone suffer.
That's a nice banjo, some nice and fancy inlays and headstock. How long have you been playing?

[bumper]

Banjo & drums, oh dear.

I knew really, your kit's on another page

[T42]

Good old Remo drumheads.  One of my favourite anachronisms to spot in films is supposedly pre-WW2 kit sporting Remo drumheads, which hardly pre-date Fender by 10 years.

I wasn't aware of angled picks. Since one of my problems is the string slipping over the side of the pick and catching on the nail, they sound like something I could use.  Are they just for fingers or thumbs too?

One of my other problems is that my 3rd & 4th fingers are too short to sit comfortably on the head (why does that sound nautical?) while the other two are picking, so my hand is never anchored for long. Doesn't help.

[T42]

Banjo.  I keep my right-hand nails longish for the guitar - not good for cyclists, too bad.

Anyway, the Dunlop NS pick you show is the same as I already use: I understood "angled" to refer to a lateral twist out of the axis of the finger, but I gather now that that's not the case. The Dunlops are twistable anyway.

[bumper]

I use these in no.1 and no.3. No.1 is very slightly more twangy when picking. If the straight finger picks aren't sitting at good angle, just twist only the blade section to get a better angle on the string.
http://www.eaglemusicshop.com/prod/banjo-picks-plectrums/ProPik-Fast-Picks-Split-Wrap.htm

The plastic thumb picks can be angled or even adjusted with hot water if desired. I've tried various thumb picks but now favour the ones below. The plastic set of 3 are vary in thickness and sound. The propik is very comfy and adjustable, the medium and large size adjust to thumb size easily but have different length picks.
http://www.eaglemusicshop.com/prod/banjo-picks-plectrums/fred-kelly-picks-set.htm
http://www.eaglemusicshop.com/prod/banjo-picks-plectrums/ProPik-Good-Grips-Metal-Plastic-Thumb-Pick.htm

[T42]

So they are angled sideways. Thanks, I'll try those, they'd probably work better than twisting straight ones.

I use a cheap plastic thumb-pick, it grips better than the Dunlop NS one.

I need to cobble some concentration together now and practise, between my wife's father dying and all the crap connected with closing our company I've been pulled every which way since September.

[bumper]

download  a couple of tabs and have an hour. It'll take your mind off all of the crap that's going on

[T42]

Yeah. That's what tablets were made for, after all.

[bumper]

those type of tabs may be better than my suggestion

[Maverick]

Thought I should add my bit of guitar porn.



From the age of 12 I struggled along with cheap guitars - although cheap guitars did improve dramatically as time went on. About 20 years ago I was in a position to buy a decent electric guitar. I was a huge fan of the sound of the Les Paul and thought that was what I wanted. I was wrong, it was too heavy and I found it difficult to play. After a while I gave up on it and bought a Stratocaster - a 1996 Strat Plus which has served me well. It has been upgraded over time and is still the guitar I pick up most often. It has been joined over time by a Les Paul Junior, Epiphone Dot and a HSS Stratocaster.
When the PRS 594 came out this year I fell in love with the vintage Les Paul tones from this guitar. I took a long trip down from Scotland to try one out and was bowled over - the sound I had in my head all those years ago without the difficulty of playing. This guitar really does sound like a vintage Les Paul but plays like a Stratocaster. So this one came home with me. Yes it was expensive but I didn't have to sell any body parts or children to purchase it. It lives in its case rather than the guitar rack so isn't my 'go to' guitar but it does get regular outings.

[Jurek]

I'm not a guitarist.
I'm a maker, by nature.
That's a lovely looking instrument.

[bobb]

Very nice 

[T42]

Beauty.  I'm not a big fan of the brindled look but this one is great.

download  a couple of tabs and have an hour. It'll take your mind off all of the crap that's going on

Alas no. 20 minutes in my daughter phones up: her partner's computer won't boot and she wants 500€ to get him a new one. Plus: his PhD thesis is on it and he has no backups. Help, Daddy, help!

[bobb]

Some things arrived for me today 



So... At the top we have a maple neck blank and a maple fretboard blank. Below those is a fret slotting jig. It works by locating a pin in the slots of the ruler thing. Then it just acts as a mitre box for getting accurate fret slots. This should help as it's a pain in the arse doing it just by measuring. Also it should help keeping the slots perfectly vertical.

The reason for the above is so I can make another neck for my Tele. There isn't really anything wrong with the existing one other than it isn't quite perfect enough. So a new one it is. Also, I want to practice making another neck before moving on to my next project....

... which is where the two other fretboard blanks come in. The top one is Rosewood and the bottom one is Ebony. Yes I know - that's a bit naughty, but this will be the one and only time I buy such woods. The company I bought them from have been even more naughty, as new CITES laws came into effect at the beginning of the year. What I bought was sent across international borders and certainly the Rosewood should have had some documentation. No idea why Ebony isn't included as that can often be sourced poached from areas where it is endangered.

Anyway - new neck first then onto my next project 

[PaulF]

Here's my current stable of strings





And here, to go with the curly axe topic, is the cello played by Hannah Miller of Moulettes. built IIRC by her Dad.

Steph, what are the 2 at the back?

[T42]

Some things arrived for me today 



So... At the top we have a maple neck blank and a maple fretboard blank. Below those is a fret slotting jig. It works by locating a pin in the slots of the ruler thing. Then it just acts as a mitre box for getting accurate fret slots. This should help as it's a pain in the arse doing it just by measuring. Also it should help keeping the slots perfectly vertical.

The reason for the above is so I can make another neck for my Tele. There isn't really anything wrong with the existing one other than it isn't quite perfect enough. So a new one it is. Also, I want to practice making another neck before moving on to my next project....

... which is where the two other fretboard blanks come in. The top one is Rosewood and the bottom one is Ebony. Yes I know - that's a bit naughty, but this will be the one and only time I buy such woods. The company I bought them from have been even more naughty, as new CITES laws came into effect at the beginning of the year. What I bought was sent across international borders and certainly the Rosewood should have had some documentation. No idea why Ebony isn't included as that can often be sourced poached from areas where it is endangered.

Anyway - new neck first then onto my next project 

Very nice, esp the slotting jig.

My 2016 German-made 12-string has rosewood fingerboard, back & sides, and I think all my guitars have rosewood fretboards.

Anyway, my new bandsaw arrived today, and after the I've done the domestic project I "need" it for I'll be hewing necks* out of local pearwood and fingerboards out of Ugandan mahogany harvested in the late 50s. The missus's folks brought a bunch of furniture back from there, all built by a Chinese carpenter working from the G-Plan catalogue for a tenth of the price. It's pretty ugly and they gave it to me as raw material 25 years ago.  I'm just wondering if I haven't got a chunk that'd do for a thinnish body.

Pearwood's nice - light pink that will probably deepen nicely under finish.

*plural, yet! Ever the optimist.   Hewing necks sounds Caligulesque.

[Steph]

PaulF:
The two at the back: biggest one there is a rather nice octave mandolin, and the decorated one is a mandola. Mandola is tuned same as a viola, CGDA, one fifth down on a mandolin. The octave is exactly that, tuned one octave down from a mandolin, GDAE, with the G and D courses as octave pairs (one thicker string and one thinner for each)

[PaulF]

PaulF:
The two at the back: biggest one there is a rather nice octave mandolin, and the decorated one is a mandola. Mandola is tuned same as a viola, CGDA, one fifth down on a mandolin. The octave is exactly that, tuned one octave down from a mandolin, GDAE, with the G and D courses as octave pairs (one thicker string and one thinner for each)

Thanks! Is the octave mandolin "easier" to play than a regular mandolin? I find my fingers to big to easily play the mandolin Or maybe I just need to practice more

[Mr Larrington]

Pearwood's nice - light pink that will probably deepen nicely under finish

Just make sure it's not sapient pearwood, coz that'll have your fingers off!

[Steph]

PaulF:
The two at the back: biggest one there is a rather nice octave mandolin, and the decorated one is a mandola. Mandola is tuned same as a viola, CGDA, one fifth down on a mandolin. The octave is exactly that, tuned one octave down from a mandolin, GDAE, with the G and D courses as octave pairs (one thicker string and one thinner for each)

Thanks! Is the octave mandolin "easier" to play than a regular mandolin? I find my fingers to big to easily play the mandolin Or maybe I just need to practice more

If you have bigger hands, I would assume so. The scale length of the fingerboard/spacing of the frets is bigger. Much like a bouzouki.

[T42]

Pearwood's nice - light pink that will probably deepen nicely under finish

Just make sure it's not sapient pearwood, coz that'll have your fingers off!

That's how it gets a nice deep red finish.

[hellymedic]

This might interest some of you...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/38712423

[PaulF]

PaulF:
The two at the back: biggest one there is a rather nice octave mandolin, and the decorated one is a mandola. Mandola is tuned same as a viola, CGDA, one fifth down on a mandolin. The octave is exactly that, tuned one octave down from a mandolin, GDAE, with the G and D courses as octave pairs (one thicker string and one thinner for each)

Thanks! Is the octave mandolin "easier" to play than a regular mandolin? I find my fingers to big to easily play the mandolin Or maybe I just need to practice more

Well I'm about to find out pictures to follow

[Vince]

Some things arrived for me today 



So... At the top we have a maple neck blank and a maple fretboard blank. Below those is a fret slotting jig. It works by locating a pin in the slots of the ruler thing. Then it just acts as a mitre box for getting accurate fret slots. This should help as it's a pain in the arse doing it just by measuring. Also it should help keeping the slots perfectly vertical.

Bobb, what make is the slotting jig? I've looked at the StewMac ones and found them to be ver nice, but expensive.