John's Quavering Pencil

Time for a short blog, I feel. It has been raining hard all day; I shall not be surprised to hear of flooding in the news. This morning I went to the dentist for a check-up. The outcome was fine, although the visit did include a rather painful session with the hygienist who scraped a way a truckload of plaque with what felt like a road drill.

I have been giving some thought to the Tadcaster guitar body. I have now got to the point where I am doing a little planning on a sheet of A2. The design I have in mind at present is a tad complex. This could take a while to get right. I think I shall almost certainly have to do a few trials on bits of scrap wood. And thanks for your comments and the suggested link, Coinslot – very helpful. I am mainly concentrating on the body painting aspect at present. However, in a week I shall be going to the guitar fare and that is where I intend to buy most of the electrics and other bits and pieces. I think that is all I have to say for now.

A very nice review of my music in Second Life, as Fyrm Fouroux, has appeared in New World Notes (written by Willow). I give the URL below:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2010/01/willows-playlist-with-fyrm-fouroux.html

Hope you enjoy it.

With regard to the guitar making project, I have been doing a little research. My current thinking is to go with a single bridge humbucker, and I wonder what we think of Seymour Duncans?

As far as the paint job is concerned, I am inclined to work from a particular Paul Klee painting that I very much like, as an inspirational model (it won’t be a simple copy because of shape, etc). Once the weather improves a bit, I intend to practice on the spray design and templates using some scrap wood. I have some questions for my UK readers:

1. Do you think the sort of spray cans you can buy in Halfords might work ok?
2. Is it possible to mix colours either wet-on-wet or sequentially on dry?
3. What is the best material to use as a template, given that I shall need to paint on some slightly fuzzy straight lines (maybe about 1-2 mm wide).
4. I would like to be able to draw some black lines on the design. What would be the best kind of pens to do this with?

Answers on a postcard to…. lol

Last night I went round to see my friend Tom, and his mate Allan was there, too. This was a pre-arranged meeting since they had told me that Allan had made a surprise present for me. Perhaps I should explain: Allen is a talented woodworker who is capable of making fine musical instruments in the lutier range.

When I arrived I was presented with the basics of what I am sure will become a unique guitar. Allan had screwed the neck to the body and placed a couple of pegs and strings on it by way of a demonstration of how it might look when finished. It is a little difficult to describe. He has made a telecaster body out of a recycled 1970s mahogany door, and a maple neck. He has drilled holes for where the major components should be placed (such as the pickup and the tuning knobs). In the center of the body he has placed a genuine John Smith’s logo. John Smith, apart from being an excellent English beer is, of course, my name. There are several layers of humour in this guitar. Allan has shaped the body in a style that draws upon the telecaster and stratocaster. Yet John Smith’s beer is brewed in Tadcaster, a town in Yorkshire, England. So, Allan has given me, John Smith, the project of building my own Tadcaster guitar – starting with the components of the body and neck that he has so kindly made for me. This is a wonderful challenge and I am really looking forward to it. I think they are expecting me to paint the body in whatever way I choose. At present Allan has given it a coat of cellulose primer and he has suggested that it could possibly take another coat before I paint on the final image(s). I have not yet decided whether to paint in the abstract or even to fill the space with line drawings. I shall take some time thinking about it. Anyway, I present a picture of the basic components as the are at the moment. We shall be going to a guitar fare in a couple of weeks time, where I should be able to buy any additional components that I need. I’ll keep you informed as to my progress.

My tadcaster

It has been a couple of weeks since my last entry; I don’t know where the time goes. I have not been out and about a great deal, although I did visit the Biscuit Factory art gallery last week with my friends Tom and Terry. As usual it was extremely interesting. The exhibition is of many local artists. It isn’t for national or international famous people, and I’m rather glad it isn’t. When we walk around the exhibition space, our chat tends to focus on technique as opposed to history of art, but when we go to the cafeteria for a coffee and a bite to eat the conversation often swings over to the matter of guitars and music.

Tom makes his point to Terry

My own sketching has been going slowly these past few weeks, as has the music too. I have about half-a-dozen songs waiting to bring into performance but they seem to be taking a long time to reach any approximation of fluency. I’ll be glad when I have them in my repertoire since the piano songs are getting to be a tad over-played at my Second Life gigs. They are continuing at my normal rate of about five per week.

I’ll get this short piece posted now. Hopefully, I shall write something a bit more interesting soon. Farewell, until the next time, my dear blogophiles.

This past week has been a tad hectic for me in Second Life. The island upon which my previous venue stood will vanish by the end of the month when the person I rent it from ceases to continue paying Linden Labs for the land. My friend Ferdy came to the rescue and offered me a plot on her parcel, so I have been busy rebuilding the Terra Fyrmusica in a distressed brick texture that fits in very nicely with some of the steam-punk buildings in the surrounds. I think it looks better now than it did when it was over by The Vibe. Yesterday, I got everything finished, changed the Land Marks for teleporting, and managed to get a show advertised inworld in Search (I also put a notice in SLMC). I have put a pic up here of the view from the stage. At noon, SLT, I played a show to open the new venue and thoroughly enjoyed myself. There was a very nice crowd of people in the audience: some old friends and some new faces. The sound is streaming well nowadays. The guitar is sounding good, although I need to put some new strings on (I might do that today), and the piano is coming through well, especially in some of the alternative digital voicings. When I play Dolly Parton’s ‘I will always love you’, I use a harpsichord and strings voicing which works very well IMHO. My voice has been a bit dodgy down the bottom end lately and I don’t always hit my bottom D. That has come as a bit of a surprise to me, since I have been comfortable down there for several years now. This week I am very busy with a show every evening (English time).

The new Terra Fyrmusica building

Apart from all this, things tick over. The snow has been gone for some time now, although more cold weather with winds coming down from the north is predicted later in the week. Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles.

The bloody boiler’s down again. It was limping through the Xmas holiday period with luke warm shower water and radiators, we finally got it fixed last week, and now we have zero hot water or heat in the radiators. They can’t come until Wednesday (thank you British Gas for your part in this extended saga). Still, one feels a Pythonesque moment coming on…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1loyjm4SOa0

On a positive note, I would say that my hangover has gone now; the guts still feel a tad wobbly but nothing to dire. I have several things to do today that will take my mind off the lack of heating: piano scales; pen & India ink sketch; UK tax return. I don’t think I shall get all those done. As a special treat for having to pu up with the boiler situation I shall grant myself one day of tax return procrastination. There! I feel better already.

Finally, let me apologise to the members of the audience at Cascadia Harmonics last night who got a shortened show. I think my difficulties have now been sorted out and I hope that you will get the full 60 minutes next Sunday.

Now, should I sketch on A4 or A3? I think it may have to be A4, at least in the first instance. If that doesn’t work, I’ll go to A3. Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles.

I am feeling a little fragile following on from my musical birthday party last night in First Life. My friends Tony, Tom and Terry helped me to provide the music. Costello sang a lovely version of ‘The first cut is the deepest’ and later in the night Cat played a little bit of mandolin, drawing upon her knowledge of violin fingering. The music started around 8 p.m. and went on until around 2 a.m. when the guests left. At this point, I should have gone to bed. However, having had quite a few glasses of wine over the course of the evening, I became obsessed with the idea of playing music through the night on into the dawn in First Life. I logged into Second Life and advertised within my group, Fyrmusica, that I was playing an impromptu gig at Terra Fyrmusica. Woody and a couple of others turned up and I played on for a very long time. I think I finished at around 7 a.m. Woody found out for me that the dawn in the UK was at 8.15 or there abouts. So I didn’t make it through to daylight but I do feel that it was an impressive achievement. Only later today, Sunday, did I discover that I had woken somebody up who was sleeping in the house, by playing my guitar; apparently they checked the time and it was around 4.30 a.m.

I have paid for my pleasure of yesterday, today. I slept right through into the afternoon and woke up with a disgustingly thick head. Drinking water, making frequent trips to the bathroom, and taking further naps more or less sums up my existence over the past few hours. Still, playing through the night was something I felt that I just had to do at the time. I’m starting to feel a bit better now at 5.45 p.m. UK time and soon I will get ready for my 11 a.m. (SLT) show at Cascadia Harmonics. Somehow, I suspect the gig will be more laid back than high-energy this week.

Before I go, a quick word about the Harold theme. Another drawing is planned but I want to do it in dip pen and India ink. This may take me some time to do, so there may be several days before I return to the question of Harold.
Bye for now, my dear blogophiles.

Fyrm has sent me this sketch he made of Hexham market. It was obviously done in a bit of a hurry, using a blackened tree stump for a pencil, by the look of it. Anyway, he asserts that the shadowy figure in the foreground is Harold. I am not personally convinced of this.

Fyrm's sketch of Hexham market

The last time I heard of Harold was about a year ago. He had moved out, you will recall. Fyrm sent this sketch to me the other day. Could it be Harold? Who is he with? Where on earth is he?

Harold assumed the air of one who was not lost.