Make your own Lap Steel part one

 or Did You Take Woodwork At School?
Yes it does look like a plank. That's because it is a plank - at the moment. Carl and I have been assembling the parts from the shopping list on http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/lapsteel/ today we got together to get the ball rolling. Its already been a long story, just getting a suitable piece of 'wud' could win Carl the Perrier for stand up comedy, but we're off!

Well almost, I've managed to get the tuners and bridge marooned at the post office sorting depot after losing the 'sorry we missed you' note. It's a tale which is Kafkaesque in itself. I missed the delivery so went to collect.
'have you got a parcel for NBB?'
'yes we've got the parcel here'
'can I have it?'
'where is your card'
'I lost it, but ive got id and proof of address'
'you need a card'
'How can I get one'
'you should have been left one, if you've lost it we'll have to re-deliver'
'I'm not around next week, so I can't sign for it'
'then we'll leave a card'......

Despite all this we staggered into my garage to 'cut wood'. Now, both Carl and I didn't do woodwork at school and it shows. Most scary, was the moment we both realised we had out fingers in Harry's enormous power-saw as we tried to get it to work. We managed it but neither of us may be able to play the finished instrument! After a fit of the giggles we managed to taper the head and cut out the peg head profile, which sounds tricky but is just 'sawing in a straight line'.
Next we need to carve a curved transition from the head into the body and route out the spaces for pick ups and electronics.

Rutherford No3 Lap Steel

Carl and I have been kicking around ideas for a Rutherford No3 - and we have a winner!

Carl found the plans for this simple lap steel on t'internet so we are pulling together a shopping list and pricing up a nice piece of hard wood.
The plans are over at http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/lapsteel/

Keep you posted.

Valley of the Pig

I thought I'd have go a writing something a bit more gritty than the usual diddley-diddley. So I dug out the old cigar box guitar (de rigueur for gritty) and started playing in D. This is the outcome its about living/working/putting up with 'pigs'. It could be literal, if you are a pig farmer, or you could just fill in the 'pig' in question.

listen to ‘Valley of the Pig’ on Audioboo

Archie Bester - Whether its the Weather or Whether it was me

listen to ‘whether its the weather (or whether it was me)’ on Audioboo

Whether It's The Weather. by Archie Bester

B. Harris Hon Chair of the Archie Bester Society (Eastcote) recently posted this newly discovered piece of Bester magic on http://archiebester.posterous.com/

The Bester Appreciation Society (Eastcote) have again come up Trumps!!
Mr Chudley Budleigh-Wuddlington has wrested another E.M.I.Tape (1/4 inch) from the ice cold and treacherous grip of 'Gypsy' Davey Flatman.
What a treasure- a half formed song by our hero from 1959 showing the creative juices flowing.This is coupled with a brief glimpse into the domestic turmoil that was the Alladyce household with Archie's German Shepherd Adolf disturbing our hard working songsmith.
The subject is Archie's oft preoccupation with sex and Florrie and how it has shaped his life (got him into trouble!)
As the young lady in the MacDonalds said to me the other day-'Enjoy'-I hate that-don't you?

"Adolf"-Archie's pet German Shepherd.

Apolgies to B Harris for transferring to audio boo as I couldn't get his audio player to work on blogger.

Longlands String Snapping Disaster..

Or Shall We Go and Have Our Dinner Instead

Yesterday, we tried out a few tunes for a forthcoming acoustic gig in Ripon in June. This is a further attempt to try and realise 'Longlands' as Carl intends it - but its allusive. We nearly got it and then string snapping disaster broke the moment, so we went to the pub! I just wish we'd recorded the version of Soldier's Joy that we did earlier as it sounded great. Why is it you always perform worse when you are recording?

listen to ‘Longlands acoustic’ on Audioboo

April Snow version 2

I had another go at April Snow but with a more plectrum feel to the strumming. This was after playing with Carl this afternoon and strumming along with him playing mandolin.
It feels kinda medieval.

listen to ‘April snow’ on Audioboo

April Snow

Chris over at Strikes a Chord has started a song writing competition in April around a weather theme.
This is my weather tune - April Snow. I couldn't get any words to work so it's just a banjo instrumental!

april snow mix.m4a Listen on Posterous

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Strikes a Chord

Rutherford Banjo No2

 When Harry sadly died earlier this year he was working on another banjo. He'd decided that making one instrument could be a fluke, and if you could really do it, you should be able to do it again. He asked me to order all the hardware and then everything went quite while he got on with it.

I think he was a bit put out that the first banjo wasn't perfect first time and that some of the secrets of the luthier's craft ie the set up of the instrument weren't covered that well in the plans and instructions that we'd used. In particular, the subtle two degree angle of the neck to the body, although in the plans wasn't mentioned. We thought this was a fault in the plans, cut the neck so that it was flush with the head and on first playing the banjo had a very high action and fretted increasingly sharp as you moved towards the twelfth fret. It took a couple more goes before we finally got it right and I think Harry decided that he was going to do it all again, but this time he was going to get it right first time.

This is a photo of the results the, Rutherford Banjo No2, and he did get it right first time. When we came to start clearing the house in the bedroom we found a finished instrument just waiting to be strung. I knew he'd got quite a long way as we'd talked about getting together to look at his progress. I'm just glad that he'd had time to finish the instrument before he died.

 Harry made a few improvements on No1. First of all he got the neck set up spot on first time, no fiddling about with the perch pole this time! He'd mastered the fretting and the finish on the fingerboard is very good and he'd always been a bit sniffy about the size of the peg head, so the new one is slightly larger.

In fact there were only two things to sort out before it could be played. We'd bought a nylon 5th string peg which proved to be rubbish and as soon as the string was tensioned it started to distort. I'd kept a bit of bone from the previous banjo so I carved a new one. It needed a replacement tuner as one had gotten damaged and wasn't working, and that was it. I strung it, tuned it, and it was sweet - first time...

I'm not sure what he was planning to do with this one. He'd joked about learning to play himself, but I have sneaking suspicion that he was going to give it to my brother, and that's what's going to happen to it.

Here's a comparison of the two.



No2 on the left and No1 on the right




and here's a sample of what it sounds like.

listen to ‘Dirty Old Town’ on Audioboo