Strings and Things

Gosh, yes, it's been over two weeks since my last post. Boring, busy life intrudes.  But I've been thinking about guitar-related items to post and this cloudy, rainy day seems the perfect time.

Despite my better judgement (and my own advice) I changed the strings on the Tetomas acoustic.  Yeah, I know I said I wouldn't do it.  I know I said I'd leave it to the professionals, but (shrug) eh, whaddaya gonna do?  It was almost a challenge I couldn't resist.  Besides, I had the strings.

The first thing I did was inspect the pawnshop Fender and see what I did wrong.  I knew I'd wound one side wrong and John said I needed to have more string winds around the posts.  I made a diagram:

Making the diagram, I got the fundamentals pretty well entrenched in my brain and I went for it.  I removed the old strings and polished up the wood as well as I could.  It's an old, scratched up guitar but it looks better for the effort.  The neck in particular.  It was nasty-dirty! 

I started with the 1st string, what I call "e."  I wasn't sure how much slack to leave, exactly, in order to have enough for winding around the posts so it was purely trial and error.  Mostly error, I'm sure.

Do overs


At first, I didn't think I'd left enough so I took it apart and started over, and on a few I knew I had too much.  I'd have to take it apart and start over again.  It got to be pretty funny, actually.  That's one good thing about being able to laugh at yourself.  This isn't a life or death situation. 

Of course, the more I took the strings off, the curlier they got and more unmanageable they became.  Patience and humility were my friends in this project.  Eventually, I got them all installed.  Some have more wound around the posts and some have less, but I think they at least all have enough. 

Before trimming

The large-wound bass strings, D, A, and E definitely have the most string wound around the posts.  Honestly, it's comical.  Hahaha!!  Eh.  (Shrug)  Whatever. 

Tuning

So now comes the tuning.  I'm not too bad at tuning since I have a keyboard which I can use for reference.  The trouble I've always had with tuning is breaking the "G" string.  It's ridiculous.  I've got a couple of packages of strings that are missing the "G" because of breakage.  Duh.

I've discussed this with John and he showed me how to stretch the strings while tightening them up during the re-stringing process.  As the slack becomes less, you push the strings to the side with your fingers, not too much--don't pull the pegs out-- but enough that tension is evident.  Do this often during the process and breaking a string while tuning shouldn't be an issue. 

For lessons, John tunes my guitar to match his using a Korg electronic tuner.  Turns out, either my husband or my brother gave me one exactly like it years ago, but I was never very confident using it.  After seeing John utilize it, I've used it a little more, though I still prefer my ears and the keyboard. 

The way the Korg works is, one end of the cable is plugged into the guitar and the other end is plugged into the tuner.  As each string is struck, an indicator needle and lights tell how far off, or on, the note it is.  Since I've been using it the nights before my lessons, I've been pretty close to perfect when I get there.  It's a neat little gadget.



Plug-in end of the Korg electronic tuner

So I got the Tetomas cleaned up, strings changed and tuned.  It plays pretty well, but it's a lot smaller than the pawnshop Fender, and for all the abuse the Fender took before it came to me, it has the better sound, by far.  

So there ya' have it.  I trimmed up the ends of the strings to about an inch/inch and a half, and it sure does look a lot nicer.   I haven't thought much about changing the strings on the electric.  Probably a good thing. 

By the way, I used strings that had been around here a while, but were still sealed up in their original plastic bag, so they were still good.  I'm not sure how I came to have so many full sets of strings--I guess one of the music stores was having a 3/$10.00 or a BOGO sale.  They are all D'Addarios.  There is one set of Martin acoustic strings--missing the "G" of course.

 



Gettin' Ready to Rock!

"Gettin' Ready to Rock!"

Hahaha!!  Well, I have been practicing about an hour a day and, I must say, my callouses are coming back nicely.  They're visible to the human eye. 

The instructor, John Smith, and I finally stopped playing phone tag and connected yesterday afternoon.  I scheduled my first lesson for next Monday, January 24th, at 11:00 a.m.  I'm really excited now!

I thought today I'd talk about my guitars.  I've been practicing on all three of the playable ones and each one has its pros and cons.  Of course the easiest one--the one with the best action is the electric.  Jeff bought it for me shortly after the attack on the Twin Towers in September, 2001.  I had been fooling around on a Peavey solid body that weighed a good twenty-five, thirty pounds.  Man, that thing was heavy! It belonged to our neighbor, Tom, who was kind enough to loan it to me.

We were fortunate enough to have a new Sam Ash music store open on Lee Road in Orlando not too far down I-4 from our home in Seminole County.  That place is awesome!  It brings a smile to my face even now.  It's like a huge toy store for musicians.  I forget now what we had originally gone there for, but we always looked at the electric guitars.  I never really thought I'd have one of my own,  and that day, for whatever reason, Jeff said, "I think we oughta buy you an electric guitar."



Gibson Epiphone SG

 My jaw literally dropped which was followed by the grin of a lifetime which lasted about a month.  Hahaha!!  We picked out a red, Gibson Epiphone SG, a small Peavey amp (please don't ask for specs, I have no idea--it's small) and a hard carrying case.  I'm tellin' you, I was a grinnin' fool!

As you can see, I'm not adept at amp operation.  Jeff, who worked sound for events and football games while he was at Clemson, tried to show me some things about it, but I didn't really get it.  He would have to set it up for me whenever I wanted the music amplified.  I like distortion.  :)  Hahaha!! 

The first song I played was The Star Spangled Banner  which I had been practicing already on the neighbor's hefty Peavey after 9/11.  I played the song tentatively following a few beers at Halloween; better, but not great after fireworks in the cul-de-sac on New Year's Eve, but by the time we came to South Carolina for Independence Day at my mother-in-law's house on Folly Beach, I was ready.  Jeff and our friend, Will, snaked the extension cord out the walkover and I played a slow, but flawless National Anthem. 

Unfortunately, the brisk wind came at us from offshore so the people on the beach couldn't hear it.  Hahaha!!  And then my mother-in-law told us to turn it down.  Hahahaha!!  (Shrug)  It wasn't Jimi Hendrix (or anywhere near) but I was glad I was able to do it.

One of my goals with John Smith is to learn how to operate my amp and be comfortable with it.



Tetomas

 I also play an old Tetomas acoustic which I got for free from another neighbor, Marty, before he and his family moved.  I want to say it's my favorite because it's smaller than the other acoustic, a Fender, but I'm not getting the sound out of it that I get with the Fender.  Go figure.  The neck's a little narrower, so it's easier to reach across and it's got good action.  Sometimes I get ukelele sounds out of it and I'm not happy with that.  I trimmed my nails.  Hopefully that helps.

I think I'll take the Fender to my first lesson.  It's bigger and the action is just slightly not-as-good as the Tetomas.  It's really helped in the rebuilding of the callouses though.  And the sound is so much fuller.  I got it from a pawn shop in Fern Park.  There was a rattlesnake rattle inside it which I didn't notice till I'd bought it.  Someone told me that's a common tool for bluegrass musicians.  (Shrug)  What the heck did I know?  I took it out.  That was good practice for when I drop my picks inside it.  Talk about aggravating!



Pawnshop Fender

 Something else I didn't notice was a small crack in the neck.  I took it down to the guys at Lyrical Lumber, a guitar repair shop in Maitland, and they fixed me right up.  All these guitars hold a tune incredibly well.  Even my nephew has been impressed.

And so I've been practicing.  Mostly three-chord songs; a lot of John Prine--C, G, D, A with a little Em slipped in for good measure.  I have trouble with the F in That's the Way That the World Goes Round, but on a good day I've mostly got Dear Abby, Please Don't Bury Me, and Illegal Smile.  Hahaha!  Those crazy '70s, eh?  Even Jeff says I do a pretty good Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd--including the picked part.

There are a bunch of others I practice.  But I'm not kidding myself.  I stink!  I need these lessons.  Not for any kind of professional aspirations.  That's insane.  I would like to be able to pick up a guitar at a party, though, and have some fun with it.  And just be able to play for myself.  I find it to be a real stress reliever.  Especially when I screw up and start laughing at myself.  And that's a lot.

Besides the operation of my amp, here are the goals I have written down for my lessons:

• Picking
• Rhythm (as in, I need some)
• Blues progressions
• Bar chords

Six days.  Ready or not.  Gonna be fun!