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Termyn8or -> RE: Musical Instrument Pet Heeves? (5/4/2008 1:32:30 PM)
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LOL, I was too aloof yesterday to get into this but here I am.
If I hit the lottery or something I would most likely buy every type of musical instrument I could think of. I mean I wouldn't necessarily need all the different types of cellos for example, but I would want one, and a sax, and a violin for sure. I already have a piano and enough guitars. I got a buddy with an antique violin but the fucker won't bring it over and I think he said the bow was broke.
I have his electric guitar which I think I am going to claim, as he seems quite uninterested in it. I will pay him for it and be fair, but I did quite a bit of work on it. IF he is absolutely adamant about getting it back I guess I'll have to, but I will try to buy it. He is not rich, enough money can be made to talk here. He can't play at all.
The axe cam into my possesion when he lived here. It was in poor shape. The electronics in it were very FUBARed because one main switch was broken in a way that disrupted the pickup feed. I did not restore it fully, but I did hardwire the switch, fix up the grounds and got alot more output and alot less hum out of it. I also worked on the neck.
If you work on guitars you know that does not mean I actually did anything to the neck. In fact in this that is the case, the neck was nice and there was no need to even adjust the tress bar. But on the other end there was a nice fully adjustable bridge. I got the action on this thing so fucking good that a two year old might be able to play a full F bar chord. It's an Ibanez and that neck is nice, very nice.
Of course I adjusted the pickup height as well, and at the top fret, it is hard to see between the pickups and thwe string, but the space is there, it still sustains just fine. I'm just not sure if you could slide a piece of paper in that space or not.
Whenever someone else plays that guitar who knows what they are doing they compliment the action on it. The only problem is that it hums. It is old, I have to turn off my minitor to get rid of most of the hum. There may still be a fault, but I don't know how much further I want to go unless and until I own it.
Really if he demands it I have to give it back. Hopefully money will fix that. But if he really has to have it I did him a favor, but then I have been using the thing for years. It is not the last guitar in the world.
I have another guitar of his, out on loan. I know that is bad business but if I have to pay for it so what. When it came to me the front of it was delineating frome the body, it was filthy, with about three strings left on it and the action sucked. It was a cheap acoustic guitar, classical style, which means it has a wider neck, and flatter. At least that is what I've been told. Anyway when the action is crappy it makes it almost impossible to play.
Well I got some strings and chopped down the bridge and the nut and got the action to where a normal human being could play it. Before you had to be superman. This after a buddy of mine spotted it and knowing guitars and stuff, offered to glue it back together. My thinking was, let him. The owner of the guitar would surely not object and this guy did a great job. Very neat, repainted some of the trim around but did not mess around with the ring around the hole. Not sure what they call that right now but it is really nothing but a decal.
Well it's half worn off and he left it alone. Said that's the character, or something to that effect. But the entire rest of the guitar was cleaned immaculately and nicelt polished and detailed.
I did not expect this, and when I let him take it to do this he did not know that I actually did not own it. I expectedhim to use his glue and fancy clamps andglue it together, because I did not even want to restring it in this condition. I was starting to envision the whole damn front coming off in my face. I expected no such restoration, but when he gave it back I decided to improve the action. I did. I actually dropped the strings on the nut side. Dropped them alot more on the bridge side, which is fixed on this one BTW.
It is still a bit hard to play, but it's alot better. And it is a large body piece and has a very nice tone, especially with the phosphor bronze strings my buddy put on it.
And my buddy who owns these guitars, he could probably not care less. He also owns an electro-acoustic which really isn't too bad overall, if not for the bic lighter serving as the bridge. He chose not to leave that one with me. Fine. But when he lived with me we got into an argument over it, not a bad argument but what it was, we went to the music store and bought a bunch of stuff, string, whatever and I was pricing and checking out MIDI keyboards, but did not find what I wanted. The Previa piano came alot later.
But at the time we bought a fully adjustable bridge for that guitar and then when he found out I needed to drill into it to install it he pretty much freaked.
Now I can understand that. We left the argument witrh the understanding that drilling was a nono. It is his guitar and his decision. I think the bridge is sitting in my bedroom somewhere. Apparently what he wants is a glued on fixed bridge, which is what it came with. What he does not understand is that to do that properly it takes some very accurate measuring instruments.
I could do it that way but what a pain. I'd have to get just the right height, and then string the whole thing with the bridge floating. You just don't want to know what a pain in the ass that is.
This dude's electric is bad enough ! And I am buying this MF. It has a whammy bar that goes both ways. In fact I am one of the few people who can actually tune it properly. Any drastic adjust ment affects all the other strings by moving the bridge. There's a PITA there, but once you get it right, it is worth it.
And now that I have a piano, all instruments must be in tune, really in tune.
And yes, learn to play. Know that it is called play. Why is that ?
Do you have to master the piano to enjoy playing it ? You can't enjoy finding the chords and making up some shit that sounds good ? Why not ? The same applies to any musical instrument actually.
It is all a matter of form vs function. Musical instruments were invented to make sound. I am grabbing one of these guitars as soon as I hit the OK button.
T
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