Drums on the Horizon

You all know I'm really a drummer and not a guitar player, right? My drums have been in storage for a long time, and I've just added 'set the drums back up' to my list of things to do.

Now that my Dad is no longer living here, I have the house back to myself again and can begin spreading out instead of living in the south wing.

But one thing I had feared with my drums has come to pass - they're beginning to yellow. When I bought these babies they were nice and shiny white, but father time takes his toll on everything, including this nice finish.

So before I set the drums back up, I am going to re-cover them. They are definately going to be covered with a wood veneer such as cherry or maple. Drums should look like wood after all, right? I'm not sure what prompted me to get white in the first place, although I suspect the wood finish drums were more money. That's ok, I can do something about that now. The hardware is still in very nice condition and should clean up nicely.

There were two things I was concerned about when contemplating re-finishing the drums. First of all, would I have to strip off the old finish first, or could I just add the veneer over the top of the existing white finish? The answer is I think I can just cover over the white. The concern was that the added thickness of the veneer would make the drum diameter increase enough so that the heads would not fit back on. Well, I took a small stip of veneer and wrapped it around the shell towards the top and taped it down. The head did fit back on, although it was a bit on the tight side.

Secondly was the vent hole hardware (how it came apart). This too looks to be a non-issue, as I was able to take the vent hole apart on my small tom just by gently pushing on it with a screwdriver.

One thing for sure, I don't think I'm going to setup everything this time around. This kit is very large (double bass drums, 4 mounted toms and 2 floor toms). There is a Gibralter rack that goes around the whole kit that everything bolts to. It will be a single bass drum setup, although I may look into getting a double pedal. They weren't as prevalent back when I bought this drumset as they are now.

I'll keep you posted.

I'm Glad It's So Easy

Today I was browsing at Amazon. I was looking for DVD's teaching guitar, and ran across a highly rated one for mastering the pentatonic scale. 44 reviews and the average was 5 stars. That's high praise for this type of DVD.

One reviewer in particular had this to say:

By	D. Freeman (America) - See all my reviews

"I've been playing for about 10 years now... mostly electric...metal, blues, hard rock, etc. Jamming to power chords and playing blues rhythm riffs had become easy and I wanted to learn how to use the whole neck. I knew a blues scale in the key of Em so I always slid that chord shape up and down the neck to where it fit the key I was playing in, but the only other place I could use that fingering pattern was if I brought it up an octave. My lead work was obviously in a rutt. I've always heard the guitar Greats preach about learning the pentatonic scale, but I was kind of intimidated about learning it. I'm kicking myself now for not persuing it years ago.

Today I threw in the first DVD. The patterns were so easy to learn. After mastering them all, covering the whole neck, which took about an hour, I easily learned how to shift the pattern positions to work with different keys.

Needless to say, I threw in a favorite CD, figured out the key they played in and was shocked at how much I'd learned. It was like new phrases and different string bends that I didn't even know existed just became unlocked.

I didn't sound like SRV, but I can tell my playing style has already changed.

Looking forward to viewing the rest of Disc 1 as well Disc 2.

6 Stars !!! "

All I can say is congrats guy. I'm glad you found it so easy to master all 5 positions of the pentatonic scale, up and down the entire neck in about an hour or so. I've still not been able to learn the notes on the fretboard after noodling around for 8 months.

Screw you D. Freeman.

Fender Stratocaster - Make It Your Own

I don't know what it is with guitars, but I can never seem to get enough of them. It must be a combination of the mechanics, the beauty, the sound, the craftsmanship or something else I just can't put my finger on. In the 6 months since I've taken an interest in this, it seems to have become the center of what I am interested in as a hobby.

As far as aesthetics in a guitar, I still seem to gravitate towards the Les Paul body style in an electric. They just seem better constructed and are more "high-end" than Fender's offerings. But I can say with certainty that nothing else feels like a Stratocaster when you sit down to play it.

The cool thing about the Stratocasters is that they were made to be played, and played with. They are the guitar to have for someone that likes to tinker with such things. The necks are bolted on and many part are interchangeable by the owner. You don't have to have a degree in engineering to do some simple modifications on your own.

I got a good deal on my Stratocaster. It was a couple of hundred less than what they usually sell for. This is what they call the "American Standard Stratocaster" in Olympic White, with a maple neck. As with most Stratocasters, you can also get it with a rosewood neck should you desire. I didn't yet own a guitar with a maple neck, so I thought I'd go for it. It also came with one of the best cases I've ever seen called an SKB case. It is molded hard plastic case and offers awesome protection for its contents.

So now I own a Stratocaster that looks just like 10,000 other Strats out there. This Blog entry is called "Make It Your Own", and that's what I'm going to do.

With the money I saved on the initial purchase, I decided to do a couple of upgrades. The two easiest upgrades that I decided to do were to:

1) Change the tuners: Even worse than my guitar playing ability, is my ability to correctly change strings. The one time I tried it on a guitar without locking tuners, I almost ruined a $15 set of Elixer strings.

2) Change the Pickguard. No, it does nothing for the playability of guitar, but it can make your guitar feel more like "your guitar".

A couple of "Buy Me Now" clicks on eBay, and my parts arrived 3 days later. I'd like to thank Sigler Music on eBay for offering awesome service, fair prices and fast shipping.

Ok, so the first thing to do is to change out the tuners for the locking ones. The locking tuners I bought were genuine Fender locking tuners, part number 099-0818-100. You can use tuners made by other manufacturers, but I liked the locking tuners that were on the "American Deluxe Stratocaster" that I owned for 3 days. These are the exact same tuners in shiny chrome. They are also available in brushed finish or gold, so check the part number if you want one of those finishes. I knew that by going with Fender tuners, they'd be bolt-on with no neck mods necessary.

Installation is pretty straight forward. Loosen all of your strings to relieve any tension on them, then snip them with a pair of wire clippers and remove them. Use a box-end wrench to loosen the hex nutted ferrules and then just remove the tuners from the bottom.

Now all you have to do is to slip the new tuners in and put the washers and ferrules back on. Finger tighten the ferrules, then give them maybe 1/4 a turn with the wrench. There's no need to tighten them any more. Over-tightening them can cause the flat washers to sink into the neck wood, and you don't want that.

One more thing worth mentioning. If you look closely at the picture of the tuners (click to enlarge) you will see that the shafts, of the three tuners at the right, are longer than the other three. The longer shaft tuners go in the holes for the larger strings, E, A and D. The stock tuners only had longer shafts on two of the tuners, the E and A. Why is that? I have no idea. As for the "old" tuners, I think I'll just hang on to them rather than trying to sell them on eBay.

Ah, here's the back of the neck with the new locking tuners in place. They fit like a champ. There's a couple of small nibs on the back of each tuner to ensure that the alignment to the neck is correct, so you don't even have to worry about that. The round dial with the "F" on it is the lock. You loosen these a bit, slide the string through, pull it taunt and then tighten the lock. From there, it's just a matter of bringing the guitar up to tune, and then snipping off the extra string right at the post. There is a recommended procedure for re-stringing using these locking tuners at Fender's website.

Putting on the locking tuners was an easy and welcome upgrade. I no longer fear having to change strings and can keep a fresh pair on it at all times. Even though I haven't tried other types of strings yet, the Fender Silver Bullets are really nice and affordable at about $5 for a set.

Time for upgrade number two - the changing of the guard (pickguard that is). First thing worth mentioning is that it is allot easier (I'd say mandatory) for there to be no strings on the guitar to perform this operation. I did all of this at one time, so I removed the strings, replaced the tuners, changed out the pickguard, and then put the strings back on.

The pickguard that I ordered is also a genuine Fender replacement part, number 099-2141-000. This is a 4-ply pickguard, and the color is called "Black Pearl". Arrrrrr, sounds like a pickguard a pirate would have. Anyway, if you decide to get a new pickguard, again be sure to check the part number carefully. Not only are different colors available, but there are also different pickguards for different pickup arrangements. My guitar has 3 single coil pickups, so it's called an S/S/S Stratocaster. There's also a H/S/S Stratocaster which has a humbucker and two single coils. The cut-out is different for the humbucker arrangement, so check your guitar closely.

Here's the tools you'll need to complete the changing of the guard: small Phillips screwdriver, a larger Phillips screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a 9/16" box end wrench, a small machinists ruler, a pen or pencil, a piece of paper and a rag.

Start with the pencil/pen, paper and small machinists ruler. Draw a picture of the top of the guitar showing the pickups, the volume knob and the tone control knobs. Turn all of the knobs fully one way or the other and make note of their orientation on your drawing. This will help you to get the knobs back on correctly when you are finished.
Next, carefully measure the height of each pickup, at each end, above the pickguard and write it on your drawing. The pickups have a bit of tubing between them and the bottom of the pickguard which acts as a springy spacer. Turning the screws at each end of the pickup raises or lowers the whole thing. Our goal is to put them back at the same height they came off the guitar.

No it's time to disassemble:

1) Pull the tip off of the pickup selector switch.
2) Pull the Volume and Tone control knobs off. Try it with your fingers first. If you can't get them with your fingers, carefully wrap the rag around each one and pull them off with the pliers.
3) Remove the two screws on either side of the pickup selector switch.
4) Remove the hex nuts around the three control potentiometers.
5) Remove the 11 small Phillips head screws around the perimeter of the pickguard.
6) Loosen the screws on each side of each pickup. You'll see the pickup lower itself as you do this.
7) With everything loose, gently lift the pickguard at the bridge end to slide it out from under the neck.

Congrats, we're now halfway there! As you can see in the picture, the 6 screws for the pickups are still attached to the old pickguard with what looks like a small piece of tubing around them.

Get out your new pickguard, peel off the protective plastic, and transfer these 6 screws and tubing to the new pickguard.

Now begin to fit the new pickguard into place, and get the pickups started in their screws. I screwed mine back in until the tops of the pickups were flush with the new pickguard. Align the control pots and pickup switch with their holes and slot, and get the new guard roughly onto the guitar body.

Re-install the 11 perimeter screws, starting with the 4 on the "corners". This will help to ensure alignment with the other screw holes. Do not tighten until all 11 screws are installed.

Put the hex nuts back on the control pots, and the two screws back on the pickup switch.

Now, begin to evenly tighten the screws on each side of the pickups until the height on each side matches what you wrote down on your paper. You did remember to measure the pickup height, right? Put the switch tip and control knobs back on. Add strings and your ready to rock!

Here's what she looks like with the makeover! Definitely a unique look. I can't ever remember seeing a Stratocaster that looks like this one. It adds some pop, and I think the black pearl has a classy vintage look to it.

You can also easily do other cosmetic mods to the Stratocaster, like changing the color of the pickup covers and control knobs. I thought about going black with those, but now that I see it with the new pickguard I think the white covers and knobs look just fine.

So now I have "Made It My Own" Stratocaster, one that is easily recognizable as mine. Have fun with yours too.

What's Next?

I haven't update my blog in awhile, simply because there hasn't been much to blog about. I'm going to use this post just to pour out a few thoughts that have been going on in my head for awhile now. This may sound like complaining to most of you, but I'm just trying to get my thoughts sorted out in print.

This is a depressing post, and truthfully I can't even tell you why I'm posting this.

In 2006, my Mom passed away leaving my Dad and his 2 dogs all alone. They were married for 60 years. I can't imagine that. My Mom always took care of everything when it came to the house - keeping it clean, doing the laundry etc. Most of what my Dad would do would be going to the grocery.

After 60 years, I really think that they got to the point they weren't living life, they were just living. No travel, no hobbies. Get up everyday, eat, watch TV then go to bed and do it all over again. I'd ask my Mom "Why don't you guys ever go out to dinner"? The reason was because my Dad didn't want to. He doesn't see the point of going out when you can eat at home.

Last week, my daughter Kelley came home to visit from Ft. Lauderdale. I'm lucky now to see either of my kids as they've both moved away. With visits comes going out for a bite, usually lunch. My Dad won't go, even though he was always asked when he first moved in with me. He always said no, so I stopped asking. Last weekend I told him that Kelley and I were going out to lunch. This really seemed to piss him off. He threw his napkin down on the table and started drumming his fingers, a sure sign that he was pissed.

My Dad can't cook for himself, and relies on me to cook everyday. The best he can do on his own is to microwave a hot-pocket or a pot pie. On the day Kelley and I went to lunch, I had just cooked a big breakfast 2 hours before I told him we were going. The next thing I knew, he was over to the freezer, trying to pry apart two frozen pancakes with a butter knife. Failing at that, he threw them in the garbage and went out into the garage to sit and watch life go by on the street.

I don't think he understands that the reason people go out to eat is to be social, not to eat. The food is secondary when it comes to dining out.

Of course we never talk about any of this. My Dad and I don't have the 'give me a hug', and saying 'I Love You' kind of relationship. So when friction does occur between us, neither of us say anything until time just makes it fade away.

My Dad is not in good health, and it is fading. He is diabetic and had to have his foot amputated in 1995. He's now 86 years old. He is blind in one eye (complications from Glaucoma) and nearly blind in the other (Cataracts). When he moved in 3 years ago, he could walk fine with just the use of a cane. He'd go to the grocery with me. A year later, he almost fell one day with the cane and we persuaded him to use a walker. He stopped going to the store with me. He stopped going pretty much anywhere. The only place he goes is with another old guy down the street to the barber shop, about once a month. They leave at 7:30AM and are back by 9:00.

So what does all of this mean? I don't know. My own personal life is in a giant rut right now. Even though this sounds like a bitch, it really isn't. Trust me, I have so many things to be thankful for in life. I have my two beautiful daughters who are now grown and starting the best part of their lives. I have my health, for the most part. I have a good job and my house and car are paid off.

As long as my Dad is living with me, I'm relegated to getting up, going to work, coming straight home and start dinner. All the while, he is sitting here at the house all alone with nobody to talk to or look out for him. If I need to leave, I get asked where I'm going. I'm asked when I'll be back. I'm 49 years old and sometimes feel like I'm still 14.

My oldest daughter and her fiance' live in Indiana. They bought a house last year. I have never been there. My youngest daughter lives in Ft. Lauderdale with her boyfriend. They rent an apartment and she just got hired full time for PR firm. I have never been there.

The other day, Dad developed a problem with his right arm. It went numb and he had no use of it. This happened during the day when I was at work. Had it been something like a heart attack, there was nobody here to help. That night he could hardly walk because he couldn't grab ahold of his walker. The next day, he said it felt better and he clearly had use of it. I fixed dinner and when we got ready to eat, it went numb again. With no feeling in it, he could barely feed himself using his left hand to eat with. Again, it got better later that night, and he went off to bed. Yesterday, he did fine all day long, but it happened again last night. He took a few aspirin and it seemed to get better after awhile.

I've been talking to my sister during the week. I'm afraid now to leave him home alone during the day. I'm usually gone for 12 hours at a time.

Today, we are going to talk to to him about moving into a retirement home. I always said that I was fine with him living here as long as he could take care of himself. I think the day has arrived that he cannot. He will be mad, he will deny that he needs to do this. He will say it's too expensive. He is not a wealthy man, but he does have enough to sustain himself for a couple of years.

I'm turning 50 next year. My daughter is getting married next year. And I'm worried about my Dad. My own personal life sucks, and I don't even have cigarettes to keep me company anymore. On top of that, I need a haircut.

Live life to it's fullest, and smell the roses. Be thankful for all that you have. Life is so short. I know we all say it, but it is true. Father time sucks, and will eventually take all of us.

Sometimes A Deal Is Not A Deal

I blogged a couple of days ago about getting a bass, as well as a bass amplifier. The amplifier was an Ampeg BA600115, which is a 600 watt combo amp with a 15" speaker. My bass finally arrived yesterday so even though I bought the amp on Friday, it wasn't until the following Tuesday that I could try it out.

All I can say is that I was thoroughly disappointed with this amplifier. Ampeg has been around for a long time and has (had) a well respected name in the bass playing community. But apparently, after further research, I've found that they went out of business, then were restarted my another company, blah blah blah. It sounded fine when played at low volumes, but when you tried to push it, it would start farting, rattling, buzzing and doing other things it shouldn't be doing. Maybe the one I got just had some problems, but it was enough to turn me off in a big hurry. After 45 minutes of playing with it, I decided it was going back to the store. Yes, a $1,299 amp for $399 is a good deal if it works, but this one didn't.

Of course the next question is, what do I replace it with? I started looking on-line and was drawn into the new Hartke series of amplifiers and cabinets. There are rave reviews to be found everywhere, so I figured further research was in order.

At this point, I was quickly being turned off with the idea of another combo. They are nice when portability is a must, and they are generally less expensive than their separate counterparts. But my guitar amp (the Blackstar) is a separate amp and cabinet, so I decided to go that same route for the bass amp. The advantages are obvious - if you develop a problem with either component, you only have to deal with that, not a combination of both components.

Cutting to the chase, I came home today with a separate cabinet and head - a Hartke Hydrive HX410 cabinet (4 x 10" speakers) and a Hartke LH1000 Hybrid tube amp. The LH1000 puts out 1000 watts in bridged mode. It has a vacuum tube preamp section and a solid state amplifier section. The Hydrive speakers are a combination of paper and aluminum comes - supposedly the punch and clarity of the aluminum drivers is complimented with the warmth of the paper part of the cone.

At first, I was concerned that the 10" drivers would not get down into the low bass range. This was quickly put to rest the first time I played the amplifier. It sounds awesome. No rattles or buzzing, and the bass goes very low. The LH1000 is very simple in it's operation, a feature that I really like. My bass has enough settings on it that I don't need all of the graphic equalization bells and whistles in the amp. A popular combination is this same pairing, along with a Hartke HX115 cabinet sitting below the HX410 cabinet. That combo would be enough to play anything short of an outdoor stadium.

So it sounds fantastic, and I'm really pleased with it. For the money, I think the Hartke gear offers a great bang for your dollar, and the equipment comes with a good 3-year warranty as well (better than the Ampeg).

This will be all I'll ever need for my bass playing needs.

Buddy Rich - The Greatest Drummer There Ever Was

Ask 10 guitar players who the greatest guitarist of all time is, and you'll get 10 different answers. Ask 10 drummers who the greatest drummer of all time is, and they'll say Buddy Rich.

I'll not go into the career and life of Buddy Rich here. If you have a few minutes and would like to know more about Buddy, the Buddy Rich Wikipedia page is a superb resource.

I had the privilege of seeing Buddy in concert twice. The first time was in Melbourne, FL around 1980 or so. It was a smaller venue that held a couple of thousand people, and we had excellent seats off to the left side of center, about 10 rows back. I was blown away at what I saw that night. By that time, he was in his mid 60's, yet played with speed and power I'd never witnessed before.

The second time was at Disney World, probably around 1981. Disney used to have concerts at night during the summer, where they would close the park early, and people with tickets for the nightly concerts would get in. Many bands would perform throughout the Magic Kingdom during the night. Buddy Rich would be playing in one part of the part, and Maynard Ferguson would be playing later on the other side of the park. That night, when we saw Buddy, there were only a few hundred people there and we literally had front row seats, probably no more than 20 feet away from him. Between songs, Buddy asked the band what to play next (they did not go by a set list). My father-in-law shouted "play the book"! Buddy heard him and made some comment back. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was a cool moment.

Anyway, here is a video of Buddy in action. I hope you enjoy it. Watch it all the way through, and pay particular attention to what his left hand is doing. Enjoy!

Guitar Is Hard - Let's Try The Bass!

My guitar playing hasn't been going well lately. I've seem to have hit a wall with it, and a bit of frustration is setting in. Most notably is trying to learn how to play Barre chords. I know, it just takes allot of practice, but my fingers just don't want to seem to work the way they need to to be successful at grabbing that full barred 'F' chord.

I'll continue to practice, but in the meantime I've also gotten a bit of a bug to try and play bass also. At least with bass (initially), you don't have all of those pesky chords to worry about. I'm not saying that playing the bass is any easier than guitar, it's just different.

Some of this was sparked by my weekly browse of Musician's Friend website, a place I need to stay away from. Their tempting deals have sucked me in a few times, and the bass playing thing is no exception.

While looking, I noticed last Monday that they were having a clearance of the Ibanez SR20TH4 bass. This is a special limited edition bass that came out in 2007, commemorating their 20th anniversary. This is a $2,000 (MSRP) bass that usually sells for $1,499. They had it on clearance for $699.

Add to cart, click, done. Sigh, I swore that I was done buying things but the force was not with me on that day. The bass will be here on Tuesday the 8th. I would of had it today, but MF took their sweet time getting it shipped. It has actually already arrived in Orlando, where it will sit for 4 days until Tuesday rolls around.

So today I quickly came to realization that I have nothing to plug a bass into. You can't use a guitar amp as it will surely shred the speakers. Since today is Labor Day weekend, the local Guitar Center is having another of their 'list' sales, with special markdowns on many in-store items.

After doing some quick research, it seems that Ampeg makes respectable bass amps, so I set out to see what I could find.

In the end, I got an Ampeg BA600115 (it's a 600-watt hybrid combo amp, with a single 12ax7 tube in the preamp circuit and a 15" speaker). It was normally $1,299 (MSRP) and typically sells for $700-$850. I got the floor demo for $399.

So a new adventure begins. We'll see how this goes. In the end, it will help my guitar playing as well. For those not familiar with guitar and basses, the strings on a 4-string bass are tuned to EADG, while a guitar is EADGBE. In other words, the bass is the same as the first 4 strings on the guitar, just an octave lower. If I learn the fretboard well on the bass, it will carry over into the guitar playing.

Sony's PS3 is Awesome!

The Sony PS3 has arrived and I finally have it set up, replacing the standard Pioneer DVD player in my entertainment center. One factor that helped me in my decision to go with a PS3 instead of XBox is that I would gain Blu-Ray capabilities in my home theater. I'm here to say that so far, the PS3 has lived up to everything it's touted to be.

One glitch right off the bat was the fact that the PS3 didn't come with a cable to output true High Definition to my Samsung 52" flat screen. You must use either a component video or HDMI cable, neither of which were supplied. This delayed my installation by a full day until I got the proper cable. To be fair, had I done more research I should have known this before the PS3 arrived. The Nintendo Wii has the same issue.

Ok, let's get to it. After I fired up the PS3, it went through a bit of initial self check and up came the main menu screen. I really like this screen. It's very intuitive and easy to navigate. During the setup, the PS3 scanned for for my network, and found it straight away. All I had to do was enter the password and the connection to the internet was made. I use an Apple Airport Extreme for my router and the PS3 reported 100% signal strength, even though the router is on the other side of the house.

After connecting, the PS3 reported that a system update was available and I proceeded to install it. It only took a few minutes and completed without a hiccup.

The first disc I decided to feed the PS3 was my Blu Ray DVD of Rush's Snakes and Arrows concert, a disc that Michele and Eric had bought me for Christmas of last year. After 20 seconds or so, I was presented with the disc menu and hit "play".

I spent the next 2 hours at a Rush concert, with video and sound unparalleled by anything I've seen before. The video was simply incredible. These are the sharpest and most vibrant images I've ever seen come from a DVD player. The sound as well is better than anything that has ever been captured on a Rush DVD. I cannot give the PS3 credit for this as it is simply reproducing what is fed into it. If you are a fan of Rush and have not seen the Snakes and Arrows DVD then I can tell you that you are missing out on something special.

The night after the Rush concert, I decided it was time to give gaming a try. After all, that was the main reason I bought the PS3 in the first place (or was it)? At this point, I consider the PS3 a $299 Blu Ray player, with gaming capabilities built in to it. I loaded Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (from EA Sports) into the PS3.

Wow. Wow. Wow. I don't even know what to write. I've spent the last 6 nights playing TW10 endlessly. It has cut into my guitar practice and is beginning to take over my life. Simply put, this is the finest golf game available on any console, period. I'll not go on about it, but it offers challenges that will take quite awhile to overcome. Play against your friends via the EA Sports Net or compete in international tournaments. The graphics are simply stunning.

To summarize, this isn't so much about the PS3 as it is about things that you can do with the PS3. The hardware is quickly forgotten about, leaving you to focus on things like which Blu Ray movie to buy or what games to play. Did I mention you can stream audio and video content to the PS3 via Windows Media Server?

Two knocks on the PS3 have been the price (expensive), and the lack of games available. These are quickly being addressed. Sony just announced (last week) a new version of the PS3 called the PS3 "Slim". It is smaller in size and cheaper in price ($299). It has a 120GB hard drive compared to the "old" PS3 which had a 80GB drive (at $399). I think that will be enough to push those hesitant to purchase the unit to finally open their wallets. And with increased sales will come more games. The PS3 is a winner in my book.