Hoof Hearted

Here's a song I wrote last month just for fun.
Hoof Hearted from hank greer on Vimeo.

Frankenamp

I bought a Peavey Audition 110 amplifier way back in 1990 or so when I also had a pickup installed on my Yamaha acoustic guitar. I never was happy with the sound from the amp but I didn't know the difference and thought that was just how they sounded. Now I know the amp was for an electric guitar, not an acoustic. I tried to sell it this last year and got one bite. They backed out because I was too far out of the way from their Costco trip. Well, it all worked out for the better.

I pulled the amp out of storage and plugged in my license plate guitar. It sounded great! Growly, crunchy, wailing the blues great. So I can use this amp after all.

I thought I should give it a new housing. Something that goes with a home-made 3 or 4-string guitar. I shopped around some vintage stores in town and found an old paperboard trunk for $18. For an amp I was willing to sell for $35, if the project didn't work out then I wouldn't be out much money. Fortunately, when I plugged it in and powered it up it did not burst into flames. Yay!

I added a battery-powered equalizer so I could plug in a cigar bog guitar or license plate guitar that doesn't have one installed. I used some paduak I had left over from some experimental license plate guitar bodies and headstocks and used that for trim. I didn't have enough to trim the equalizer but I'm okay with that. I think all that's left to do is to apply some cool stickers.

Highway 61 Tribute License Plate Guitar

Using a Mississippi license plate, I thought a tribute to the Blues Highway would be appropriate. I softened up the instrument, i.e., rounded all the corners, so it's much more comfortable than the RAGBRAI guitar. (BTW, I sent the RAGBRAI guitar to our friends in Mason City, Iowa and they love it.) I also profiled the neck so it's more like a regular guitar. This guitar plays and sounds good. I hope I keep getting better at making them.

Latest Homemade Instrument

In July of 2018, while touring the country by bicycle, my wife and I met some neat people in Mason City, Iowa. We spent a couple of days with them. They invited us to return in 2019 and ride with their team during RAGBRAI.  Last April we figured we could make it and signed up. Our son, Geoff, joined us, too. We spent a week with Team Zippy. The team is named after Zippy the Pinhead, an absurdist cartoon character created by Bill Griffith who was kind enough to allow the team to use Zippy's likeness at no charge. While in Iowa I picked up a couple of Iowa license plates with the intent of building a guitar for my friends there. I think they'll be pleased with it. I should also mention that it plays and sounds great.

 

A 2019 RAGBRAI-themed license plate guitar. 

Decals of the overnight stay cities.

It's acoustic/electric.

Decals of the daily wristbands worn by registered rides.

A photo of the Team Zippy bus graces the back.

Home Made Music Gear

I built a microphone and a pre-amp this week. The microphone was supposed to have one piezo pickup in it. Just to see what happens I put two different sized piezos in and added an on-off-on switch so I could switch input between the two. There is a subtle difference, which is neat. Vocals are similar to the sound of an AM radio. I have a couple of songs I think this would be useful for. Now to get a stand to put this on. It's really sensitive so it would be best to have it on a stand and not touch it. The harmonica sounds good going through it, too.

I also built a pre-amp for my guitar and for the microphone. (I built the Brick House amp last year.) The guitar has a piezo pickup and it sounds pretty trashy plugged straight into the amp. The pre-amp really helps improve the sound. The pre-amp is also a necessity for the microphone above. 

Cigar Box Guitar

Here's how the guitar sounds as an acoustic and electric.

Acoustic Cigar Box Guitar from hank greer on Vimeo.

Electric Cigar Box Guitar from hank greer on Vimeo.

Acoustic/Electric Cigar Box Guitar

I'm 99% done with my first full-fledged cigar box guitar. It's an acoustic/electric. I used a piezo for the pickup. It's hot glued directly under the bridge and it works great. I made a ton of mistakes during the build, which means I learned a lot. I hope my failing mind retains this new found knowledge. 

Lessons learned: Measure twice more again. Take more off the back of the neck and round it out more. Do a scarf joint and angle the head back so the tuners are not in line with the fret board. Drill the fret marker holes in the fret board before gluing it to the neck. Be more patient with the file while smoothing out the ends of the frets. The slightest slip will mar the fret board. Measure three more times, dammit! 

I was pleasantly surprised at how well installing the frets went. Of course, using a template to mark the frets and a fret board miter box to cut the slots were the main contributors to my success. Filing down the rough ends was tedious and there were a few moments when I got too confident and the file slipped and ground away at the end of the wood instead. 

Things to do for the next one:  Add a brace for the neck. Do a scarf joint at the head. Improve upon the height settings for the nut, fret board, and bridge. Install a proper pickup.

The jack, volume control, and piezo.

 Chiseled some of the inside so the volume control would fit.

Kinda sloppy.

Two More Finely Crafted Instruments

Last night I woke at 3:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to make good use of my time and build a couple of Diddley Bows. I went with guitar tuners and metal wound guitar strings this time so the instruments would stay in tune and be easier to get back into tune.  One has a G string and the other has a D. They both sound great.

I still need to cut the sound holes. I haven't bought a hole saw yet.

Only the finest hose clamps go on a Diddley Bow made by Hank Greer.

Cheap bits of old hardware work well for the bridge and to anchor the string.

Needed a guide screw to keep the string centered over the nut, i.e., hose clamp.

I cut away part of the rod to create a flat surface to mount the tuner.

It's 25 inches from bridge to nut so marking the frets is the same as a standard guitar.

Ukulele

I picked up this instrument in August of last year. Outside of my bicycles it's one of the best investments I've made. Learning to play has been a lot of fun. Experimenting with different picking patterns has shown me how to bring some songs to life. I played during Street Music Week last June and it was a blast.

My ukulele with a home made shoe string strap.

Cigar Box Guitar Version 1.0

While I was visiting Kathy's side of the family in Illinois I got the idea to make a cigar box guitar. This is my first attempt. I went with a cardboard box and nylon strings. There are no frets so I use a slide to play. Nylon strings take a while to stop stretching but as long as the strings are in tune it sounds surprisingly good. There are only two strings right now because I broke one. Those eye-hook bolt tuners don't work nearly as well as regular tuners.

Next, I'm going to try a wooden cigar box and bronze wound guitar strings. And real tuners.

Homemade Strap For The Ukulele

I took up the ukulele about six weeks ago. It's a fun instrument. It's easy to carry around. And it's a ukulele so you don't have to be that good at it. I got a concert uke, which is longer than the soprano. The soprano was too small for me.

Since the concert uke is a longer instrument, I can't hold it against my chest with my right arm. So I need a strap. Instead of buying one I decided to make my own using the instructions I found here. I bought three sets of 45-inch laces: black, gray, and red. But I did a couple things different from the instructions.

Instead of tying the ends of each set of laces together, I cut off the ends and sewed them together. This made for a cleaner look once I braided the laces.

Instead of tying the ends of the shoelaces together at the end, I cut the ends off, lined them up and sewed them together. This, too, also made for a cleaner look.

At first I tied the strap just above the nut. In that position the strap interfered with my left hand just a bit. So I moved it to between the two sets of tuning keys. 

It works great and it looks pretty good.

2Cellos

Why has it taken me so long to learn about these guys?

Remember How We Forgot

Just beautiful.

Spokane Music At The Smithsonian

Cool. The Spokane Brass Band is among the staff picks at the Smithsonian Folkways.

William Shatner "Sings" Again

His Has Been album is one of my favorites.

Towelie's Sage Advice

I had a very relaxing run during lunch today. Puffs of vapor marked every breath as I blithely ambled for four miles. Other than the pure joy of running, the high point was when I was treated to a bald eagle passing overhead while I crossed the Sandifur Bridge. The combination of tall trees, a bird of prey's large wingspan beckoning to me, and a subdued river murmuring beneath me was a spiritual experience that provided a welcome respite banishing city life off into the distance.

So why do I have a TED talk about How to Use a Paper Towel at the beginning of this otherwise empyrean-related post?

I forgot Towelie's advice.

For the third time in 14 years I had to do the dance of the paper towels. If you're not familiar with the dance, let me explain.

 - Do some sort of physical exertion that necessitates a shower at work.
 - Go to take a shower at work.
 - Realize you forgot to bring a towel to work.
 - Dry yourself using the paper towels at work.

Fortunately, I watched this TED talk a couple months ago and I remembered Joe Smith's advice for optimizing your paper towel use. Shake 12 times and fold the towel in half. That technique with one paper towel works great if you're only drying your hands, but in my case I'm dealing with a lot more surface area. Allow me to share some tips for drying your whole body.

Using your hands like squeegees, push the water drops down your arms, down the front of your body, and down your legs. Then shake twelve times. This is just as much a quasi-family as it is a quasi-cerebral blog so don't get carried away with the visuals, okay? You shake your hands and feet. Remember, this is in the interest of science and doing right by the environment. Don't try shaking both your feet at the same time.

Since we're dealing with more than just wet hands, instead of folding the paper towel in half, use two towels layered together so you have a larger surface area at your disposal and you can still take advantage of the interstitial suspension. See? Science.

Where does dancing come in? That's the part where you reach around to dry your back and turn in circles like a puppy chasing its tail as you keep trying to reach that just-out-reach spot you need to get so your shirt doesn't look like it's sweat stuck when you put it back on. Now use your other hand and turn the other way. Consider this a warm down stretch to complement your exercise program.

You might enjoy some musical accompaniment to complete the scene. Maybe Imagine Dragon's "On Top Of The World" or Atmosphere's "Best Day" depending on your mood and perspective. (NSFW potty mouth warning)

Cool, I didn't use the politics tag.

A Great Find

I stopped by a couple if thrift stores yesterday to flip through generic issue albums of Christmas music, classical, and greatest hits to see if I could find something different. This album caught my eye. I've never heard of Terry Reid and the record was issued during one of my high school years - 1973. For a dime I was hardly taking a big risk. I started ripping it today and I was amazed at what I was hearing so I hit the Interwebs to see what I could find out about Terry Reid and this record.

Reid, a very talented musician, is apparently most famous for what he did not become--a member of Led Zeppelin. You can read about the album and its reissue in 2003 and you can read about Terry Reid on Wikipedia. Score seven more songs for my library.

Street Music Week 2012

There was something for everyone.