Monday, August 25, 2008
The Evangelist
I finally got my hands on a copy of Robert Forster's new album, the Evangelist. I found it at Borders, which surprised me. I thought that I'd have to order it online since there aren't any more plain ol' record stores round here. The album is really, really good. The song Demon Days, which Grant wrote part of before he died, is one of the most beautiful songs you've never heard. Robert's voice sounds so much like Grant's on the song, and at the beginning of the first verse for a split second I thought it was Grant singing and I nearly cried (for real) and then I woke up and I knew it wasn't Grant but for that one second he was alive again.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Shipbuilding
I finally got around to modifying the Gretsch. Remember this puppy?
Well, I ordered new electronics for it. The stuff came in the mail yesterday, all pre-wired, and all I had to do was remove the old stuff and drop the new stuff into the guitar. Easy right? Well, no. I hadn't expected it to be a cakewalk, but it turned out to be a lot harder than I imagined. Taking the old stuff out was easy enough,.JPG)
but everything else was tough to do. First, the new potentiometers were slightly bigger than the old ones, so I had to drill wider holes into the guitar face. Getting the components to their proper locations was the hardest part, since I had only the pickup cavities and f-holes to work through. Now I have an idea of what it's like to build a ship in a bottle. After about 8 hours worth of work, I finished, and here's what the old lady looks like now:
She looks like a high-end Gretsch, sort of a mix between the Chet Atkins and Anniversary models.
When I was all done, I worried that I might have broken a solder while trying to get one thing or other into the guitar. I also worried that I might not have grounded the guitar properly, in which case I would get electrocuted and die. So I hesitantly plugged it in and...well I'm alive enough to tell you about it. It sounds great and, of course, it looks great too! I must say I'm proud of having done this all myself, and in a relatively short time, too.
If you're curious, my pickups are now TV Jones TV Classics. They're meant to look and sound like the old Gretsch Filter'Trons. Peace.
Oh yeah--I also replaced the old (and ugly) Tune-O-Matic bridge with a supercool rocking bar bridge. Everything else is stock. Time now to buy an Epiphone Casino!
Well, I ordered new electronics for it. The stuff came in the mail yesterday, all pre-wired, and all I had to do was remove the old stuff and drop the new stuff into the guitar. Easy right? Well, no. I hadn't expected it to be a cakewalk, but it turned out to be a lot harder than I imagined. Taking the old stuff out was easy enough,
.JPG)
but everything else was tough to do. First, the new potentiometers were slightly bigger than the old ones, so I had to drill wider holes into the guitar face. Getting the components to their proper locations was the hardest part, since I had only the pickup cavities and f-holes to work through. Now I have an idea of what it's like to build a ship in a bottle. After about 8 hours worth of work, I finished, and here's what the old lady looks like now:
She looks like a high-end Gretsch, sort of a mix between the Chet Atkins and Anniversary models.
When I was all done, I worried that I might have broken a solder while trying to get one thing or other into the guitar. I also worried that I might not have grounded the guitar properly, in which case I would get electrocuted and die. So I hesitantly plugged it in and...well I'm alive enough to tell you about it. It sounds great and, of course, it looks great too! I must say I'm proud of having done this all myself, and in a relatively short time, too.
If you're curious, my pickups are now TV Jones TV Classics. They're meant to look and sound like the old Gretsch Filter'Trons. Peace.
Oh yeah--I also replaced the old (and ugly) Tune-O-Matic bridge with a supercool rocking bar bridge. Everything else is stock. Time now to buy an Epiphone Casino!
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