July 2007

Easy To make Homemade Musical Instruments

by Dave · 1 comment

As I play my very expensive prs johnny hiland guitar – I found myself thinking about the first musical instrument I ever owned – a guitar. I made it myself. Back then, parts for guitars were hard to find, so I had to be very creative.

It was certainly an easy to make homemade musical instrument – but it took many weeks of my time. All it needed was care and attention to detail – any home hobbyist would easily have the skills to do what I did…

The body was made from an old scrap post-war kitchen table. I copied the shape from an early Fender catalog of the Stratocater model, and scaled it up using graph paper. I cut it out very slowly using a fret saw (I broke many blades!).

The neck was a real challenge. Even back then, I knew all about bowing – and needed a very mature and stable piece of lumber… Lucky for me, the kitchen table legs were square mahogany – so I cut one in half lengthwise from top to bottom, and using my dad’s set of chisels, carved an approximate shape.

Several trips to my local music shop with a hidden tape measure gave me some basic dimensions.

I knew that the fret relationship was logarithmic, and with careful measurements and a metal two foot ruler the job was done. Boosey and Hawkes ordered me some fret wire – and I was on my way!

At the time I had started my training as an apprentice electronic engineer – so the electrics were fairly easy to fabricate. I bought a strip of 1/8th metal bar and magnetised it with an old and large magnet I had as a young boy. I made a plastic bobbin and glued the magnetic pole pieces into place with araldite.

I seem to remember I made the body of the pickups with plastic strip glued together. The scratch-plate was white plastic, with the controls (1 meg taper for the volume, and 500K linear for the tone control with a suitable capacitor for the top cut tone control.

The bridge was made filing and drilling out  from a brass block, along with the string bridge pieces. The tuners I bought, and I sprayed the body using a pinky-red colour. I must have used 4 or 5 car spray cans.

I remember making music on that old lump of wood, and the first tune I learnt was Apache and Peter Gun. I sure wish I still had that guitar today….

Adult Swimming

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What a Great Day! My wife just learned to swim. In her late 30′s and from the Philippines, she never had the opportunity to swim as a child. When we married a handful of years ago, I was determined she should learn.

Twelve months ago we moved to Monte Pego in Spain, and when not on business trips, I got busy helping her to gain confidence in our pool.

Now let’s get this straight, I was a guitar geek in my youth, and never learned to swim until I was 22 years old. But that was my advantage. See, I know how it feels to be nervous of water. Although a mediocre swimmer, I can jump in and swim a breast-stroke, float, and swim under water.

Looking back I can see that learning to swim is a mental challenge – not a physical one. The trick for me was getting the brain to acknowledge you can float. Going back millions of years, I guess there must be something hard-wired in our brain – that once in the water, some form of swimming stroke kicks in. Doggy paddle or whatever…

But I’d like to share with you some ideas that seemed to work in getting Jude swimming…

1. Buy a pair of goggles – the ones that also cover your nose. Sit your pupil in the shallow end and get them to dip their head underwater – get used to submerging their face.

2. Hold onto the edge of the pool and submerge their face – encourage them to feel how naturally buoyant the human body is.

3. If possible, get them down onto all fours – then in their own time try to spread-eagle themselves (and thus float). In shallow water they will have more confidence to try to let themselves go. I found that the more I tried to ‘teach’ Jude the less she did. So let them ‘play around’ with some of these ideas.

4. I still remember my unorthodox way of learning to swim. I got into water up to my shoulders – and did mini jumps bring my legs and feet up under me. They were only jumps in the sense of bringing my feet under my rear – I didn’t raise my self out of the water. After a few I tried to start a pedaling movement with my feet and arms – so I then started to feel the buoyancy of my body. Soon I began to ‘tread water’ – I was swimming!

5. Yes, get some arm bands or a small polystyrene float, and encourage them to use their legs to get around – all the usual ideas. She them how to use their arms and feet for a simple breast stroke.

Well, I could go on, but this is not a blog to learn to swim – just some simple ideas to get a novice started

Good Luck My Friends!

Nicky is My New Guru

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I’ve just had set up my new Content Management System – courtesy of Nick from Projex Talk about painless and perfect… it really is the dogs.

Now me, I’m computer illiterate. Okay so I know all about project management, but I still think Java is coffee. Get my drift?

Put it this way, if you had toothache, would you get a book on it, get a pair of pliers out and start extracting??  No, you would go to the dentist – an Expert. So why would I want to become an expert in IT stuff?  Best use my valuable time doing what I do best.

And let Nick do what he excels at. Check him out soon. Real Soon.

I went from a one web page painful newbie to a fully configured operational professional. Nick set it up so my newbie interface does fantastic complicated stuff – without me having to know or care how.

Now all I actually need to do is focus on building my online business.

Four Thumbs Up Nick!

 

 

I just got my Johnny Hiland PRS with a 10 top!

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Hi Folks,

Yeah, I know – so what’s a PRS. Only the best godarn guitar in the business….

I’ve been playing guitar since the early sixties, and have owned many top-of-the-line guitars. They would call ‘em vintage these days.

I’ve got a great heavily modified  ’78 Fender Stratocaster, a 60′s Telecaster re-issue, a cheap Squire (for clearing snow off the drive – just kidd’in!).

And now this baby…

For you guitar buffs out there it’s in vintage yellow.

I would normally need to spend the next few years getting it worn in, but I was lucky enough to meet up with the UK distributor Headline Music, and their Head of Sales Jez. Boy! were they helpful.

Good news is that Johnny is doing a UK tour sponsored by headline – check out this link:

http://www.johnnyhiland.com/schedule.htm

Before I had it shipped out here to Spain, they did a perfect setup job – and it plays like a dream – straight out of the box!

I’m putting it through my Fender Blues De Luxe, and it sounds like tonal heaven.

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