Just showin' off I guess.

[2old2tent]

Curtis I don't suffer from Guitar Acquisition Syndrome but the more devastating Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Being a harp player requires more amps, more mics, more harps, more...everything. I have a six harp belt that I use at church, a seven harp pouch that I carry in my guitar gig bag and about fourteen special tuned harps that I carry in my case for those special songs. Then there are the guitars!

I started out thinking I would use my prosthetic arm but the weight is just too unwieldy. Then I made a fixture with brake tubing and vacuum hose and alligator clips to hold the pick. I made that the same length as my arm would be. I was still thinking I would play normal, upright, Spanish style, I'm not sure how to describe the way most people play.
That just wouldn't respond quickly enough. I trimmed it down and finally went lapstyle for the position and got a strumming pattern going and that's when I decided I might be able to play guitar. I've since gotten down to using a Spidel sport watch band with a heavy pick filed down so that it just snaps into the buckle of that band. I can carry that in my pocket and another in the gig bag.
I play mostly open chords in standard tuning, the reso is in Open D and I use a Steven's bar with that. Trying to teach Linda to play on that.

I only have five guitars right now andtwo of those belong to my dad, so I'm not out of control yet.

Jack

[2old2tent]

Sledge those are GFS Alnico dog-ear P-90's. The first I have ever had.
The resonator is a Rogue round neck, biscuit cone with one lipstick pickup. The electrics were really poor when I stole er borrowed it from my dad so I put in a Guitar Fetish lipstick and pots from Stew Mac. Really helped it out. The acoustic on the wall is my dad's also. It is a Madeira, a Guild that was assembled in Japan with Guild parts. It has a great tone but the frets are worn pretty well. Still playable but I hate dragging it around, it seems to bruise easy.

For amps I started with the Pignose 7-100 that is in my avatar. Everyone should have one, I had it for playing harp through.
Then I picked up a Epiphone Valve Junior head and built a speaker cabinet for it. The cabinet has two 6" x 9" s in the top and a 10" in the bottom, they are wired separately and have a divider between them. The 6x9's sound great for harp with a bullet mic and the 10" sounds good with guitar.
I have an old Traynor powered mixer to run some mics off of and run my acoustic electric into.
I also have a Digitech RP-80 pedal to add some reverb and echo to the sound.

Jack

[gullywompr]

Well Jack, after that long list of gear, upgrades, and home-built stuff, it's nice to hear that you have not yet lost control

I gotta say, I went the opposite way from Bob Dylan, from electric to acoustic. It's just so much easier to grab the acoustic from the stand and start playing. But I have a 15-year-old Jimmy Page-wannabe son, who has lots of my old gadgets as well as his own. All in all, we have 8 guitars, four amps, and a couple of pedal boards. It's just plain insane.

Your playing style is interesting. I just spent a brief minute trying to form the major chords overhand like you do, and obviously I couldn't do it. Looks like you're playing a D in the photo, that was really hard for me. I though an F would be difficult (and it was), but it seemed easier than the D. More power to ya, brother.

[sledge]

Nice , yeah I'm the same way ,I got a house full of music stuff , I played my last club show in 2003 , but I still have all my full PA system , we have some Fri. night pickin' sessions here at the house when the weather is good. and thats good to just play whatever comes to mind with no demands ...

[2old2tent]

You are right Curtis I think that is a "D". I play quite a few open chords. Some I do with work-arounds some fairly straight forward. I am starting to work on barre chords at least a little. I would like to get into playing up the neck some and out of the first four frets. Maybe start tapping some scales. Those work better on the electrics.

I love the acoustics and when we travel that is all we take. Well one acoustic and the reso. And the harps. but that is all.
We did some Sunday afternoon playing in the park this summer. The gigbag has backpack straps so I throw that on and we ride our bikes down town for an hour or so. I'm sure to the non locals that is quite a sight.

Jack

[afreegreek]

:thumbsup:


Happy Birthday, Jack!


Gorgeous guitar... I wanna say Gretsch or Gibson... but don't know enough of contemporary instruments to know. And what veneer is that exactly? Maple?

It must sound very sweet.

it's called "fiddleback" or "tiger" maple. most likely eastern maple. harder and lighter in colour that western maple. the fiddleback pattern of the grain comes from either a buttress root near the base of the stump or in this case, the underside of a large branch... sometimes you can see the effect through the bark on live trees as it also has that rippled effect.. also it is not veneer, it is a plank sawn in half and opened like a book then glued back together. it was likely 2" thick to start then carved into the dished shape much like a violin is. hence the term "fiddleback" as many violins are made with it. this grain effect is just irregular growth caused by stress of weight on the growing tree and is not exclusive to maple. it happens on all trees but is mostly found on trees that have wide spreading branches right where the branch spreads from the trunk or on the trunk just below the branch. it's basically wood that's grown under compression forces.

http://dovetailkid.com/2008/01/09/the-m ... ack-maple/

[Mightydog]

Nice to hear another weekend warrior story. Music is good therapy.

I'm someone who hangs around with musicans--a drummer.

[2old2tent]

I'm someone who hangs around with musicans--a drummer.

Dare I?

How do you tell if the stage is level?
The drummer drools out both sides of his mouth.

Equal time here.
How many harp players does it take to change a lightbulb?
Just one but he will go through the whole box before he finds the right one.

[gullywompr]

I'm someone who hangs around with musicans--a drummer.

Dare I?

How do you tell if the stage is level?
The drummer drools out both sides of his mouth.

Equal time here.
How many harp players does it take to change a lightbulb?
Just one but he will go through the whole box before he finds the right one.

Oh ho!!! In the circles I travel in, these jokes are always about banjo players ( the "dumb blonds" of bluegrass). Here's are real live, actually happened banjo funny: I was at a performance a few months back. The banjo player was going for a muted sound by laying a piece of duct tape across the bridge, touching a few millimeters of strings. He had to adjust it a few times so as not to touch too much or too little of the length of string. When he finally got it to where he thought was the right amount of muting, the guitar player said "No, I can still hear it a little bit."

Jack, have you considered pedal steel? It's usually seen as a country instrument, but I think Robert Randolf has disproved that: he can make it sound like Hendrix! Also, quite a bit of Zeppelin can be played with a slide and alternate tuning (ex, Traveling Riverside Blues). Still, keep up the overhand style, I salute you, sir.

[2old2tent]

So Curtis would you mind telling my wife that I will need a pedal steel pretty soon?
I like Robert Randolf for sure. I think my drive to play the way that I do is an attempt to get as close to "normal" as possible. This way I can pick up any guitar and play it.
I know that my dad would get behind a pedal steel, maybe, someday.

[Mightydog]

My poor wife knows all of my drummer jokes...

Difference between a savings bond and a drummer?
The savings bond will someday mature and earn money.

My wife plays the flute, so in her honor:

What's the difference between a flute player and a seamstress?
The seamstress tucks up frills.

Back on track...

I've played Blues with a pedal guitar player ala Robert Randolf. If you're able to squeeze one into your budget, you'll probably be smokin' on it! Face it, you gave up 'being normal' when you picked up a guitar to play.

[sledge]

do you have anything recorded ??? I have a lot of orignal stuff recorded .... maybe we could email some music back and forth .... I'd love to hear your music.

[Prem]

Happy Birthday Jack!

Beautiful wood. Nice instrument. Good wife.

Prem

[2old2tent]

M-dog I'm sure I gave up normal long before picking up the guitar

Sledge I don't have anything recorded yet but I need to get on it. I'd love to swap tunes with you. It would be great to have a couple of folks that I could sit and jam with on the weekends. Everytime I play with other people I leartn something new. Maybe a tearddrop jam somewhere sometime.

Prem, like any guittar this one looks even better in person.

March 5 will be 33 years with Linda and she has obviously been through a lot with me. She knows when to give me a hand and when to leave me alone. That drives other people crazy, they always want to help when they see me try to do somethings.

If I get some soundbites recorded I'll let everyone know where to listen. I'm not sure if I'm ready for youtube or if youtube is ready for me.

Jack