No, that's not me. Not yet, anyway.

Let’s roll back the calendar about twenty years…

diddly-da, diddly-da, diddly-da

I’d just seen “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” at the Victoria Palace Theatre. Several years earlier, my Nan gave me a tape cassette of Buddy’s hits that added another layer to my expanding collection of fifties and sixties rock ‘n’ roll music (for years, I felt that I’d been born in the wrong era. That changed again when I heard Guns N’ Roses!).

I was desperate to learn to play the guitar. One of the guys at school had a no-name electric for sale, which I duly bought. It was a typical “first guitar” – a dire strat copy with no truss rod, action like an egg-slicer, weak pickups and an annoying “thunk” when anything was played above the 11th fret. But it had six strings and a jack socket – and I thought I was the canine’s undercarriage.

I sat down with some of our music books (I’d played keyboards for years; learning tunes through the infamous “Busker” series) and tried to learn some chords. A, E, D, G and C swiftly followed. F proved to be a bit more challenging, so I chickened out and learned B7 instead. Another friend showed me “Wild Thing” and “Walk, Don’t Run” by the Ventures and I was hooked. I absorbed anything guitar related with relish and I set about learning every song on the “Buddy” soundtrack CD (the second CD I ever bought).

Let’s come back to the present…

diddly-da, diddly-da, diddly-da

Twenty years later, I’ve owned and parted with more gear than I ever dreamt possible. I’ve played at least a hundred gigs and, through the wonders of the electrick interweb, have met (and played) with a fabulous bunch of people (you know who you are). But all the while, Buddy’s music was there in the background… the chordal rhythm/lead style, the simple three-chord tricks of the early songs – everything.

In late 2009, I received an invitation to a Facebook event from one of my friends that’s been involved in am-dram musicals for many years… her company, the Stevenage Lytton Players, were holding auditions for a production of “Buddy” to run in May 2010 – was I interested in coming along? Er, yes please!

Audition rehearsals came and went. I would’ve been happy to be just part of the band; either on-stage or in the pit but hell – nothing ventured, nothing gained – I auditioned for the lead role. Now, I haven’t acted since junior school but the director must’ve seen something as, come audition day, I was nominated to play Buddy.

I know it sounds corny, but I’ve really been given the chance to fulfill a dream I had twenty years ago; to play the part of someone who’s had a profound effect on my life, in front of a paying audience. I’m still working hard on my lines (not to mention my Texan accent) and the songs are all coming flooding back to me.

So, if you’re not too far away, it’d be great if I could see some of you in the audience! The production takes place at the Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage, from Weds 19th through to Sat 22nd May 2010. Performances start at 7:45pm and tickets are available now from the Box Offices at both the Gordon Craig and the Stevenage Lytton Players.

And the rest… will just be rock ‘n’ roll.

As it happened, it was pretty straightforward…  I always keep my data and OS on separate partitions, and get quite anal about backups, so I had nothing to lose and everything to gain;  I’d already installed Win 7 on a virtual machine and was quite impressed – but how would it fare on the Dell?

All in all, it’s been a reasonably pain-free process.  OK, so the email backup corrupted (Recuva saved the day) but that was nothing.  No, by far the biggest headache was getting the Sigmatel Audio driver working…  The original driver disc only had a 32-bit version, so a bit of Googling was in order.  I duly downloaded the suggested driver package (R153910), which appeared to solve the problem.

Until I tried using Skype.  Volume dropouts, auto-levels all over the place, then nothing.  I uninstalled and deleted the driver, rebooted and tried again.  Nope – still problematic.

Further Googling revealed that several people are experiencing the same trouble.  So, I tried a different driver (R171786; direct from the Dell FTP site) and again, things started working.

Until I tried Skype again – same problems.

I had a cup of tea, which helps in *all* problem-solving activities, and then it struck me – Windows 7 Compatibility modes!  Yes – instead of running the  driver .exe file straight from the browser, try this:

1. Save the R171786.exe file to your hard drive.
2. Right-click the file and choose Properties.
3. Click the Compatibility tab and tick the Compatibility Mode checkbox.
4. Select an appropriate version of Windows from the list.  I picked Vista SP2, as the audio was one thing that I never had problems with before.
5. Click OK to close the dialog.
6. Run the .exe file to install the driver.

Hey Presto!  Working audio in Skype (version 4.1.0.179)

It’s not much, but I hope that it helps someone out there…

Faker Startocaster

Finally!  It lives!

Actually, I’ve been a bit slack; it’s been alive for the last month or so…

I was down to play Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing” at the annual UKMG National in Buxton and *really* needed a Strat.  So, with only the wiring and a setup to do, I dedicated a couple of hours one evening and…

<fanfare>TA-DA!!!!!!</fanfare>

Well, it’s a Strat – what did you expect?  “Three single-coil pickups and a whammy bar,” to quote Tia Carrere in “Wayne’s World”.  Although I’ve made a couple of additional tweaks:

• Bridge pickup is also connected to the middle- tone control, to enable me to tame the highs a bit.
• Middle/Bridge tone control has a push/pull switch to add the middle pickup in series to the bridge or neck pickup (positions 1 and 5) and route the signal via an additional capacitor for a tone roll-off (positions 2, 3 and 4)

So, am I pleased?  You betcha!  The neck has a 12″ radius, so there’s no choking on bends.  The Fender Tex-Mex pickups are really “Stratty”, as you’d expect, with plenty of bite from the bridge and quack in the “inbetween” positions.  I’m also dead chuffed with the shielding… This thing is bereft of interference; even playing in a room with two dimmer switches.

A couple of videos of me playing “No 1.”, as she’ll no doubt be called, are already on YouTube:

Sultans of Swing (unrehearsed!)

 I Wish I Knew How (It Would Feel To Be Free) – unrehearsed (and it shows!)

So what’s next?  Well, I’ve got a Squier Stratocaster and a few tins of nitrocellulose in the garage…

Project 0001 - the body

Well, the replacement body turned up – a three-piece alder body with SSH routing, undrilled, finished in Vintage White.  Initially, I thought that either I or they had cocked up with the colour; as it’s definitely cream, not white.  However, checking against Fender’s standard colour chart, I can see that it’s as specified… My bad!

Still, in my mind it looks pretty good against the gold anodized scratchplate (and appears to be a pretty good match to the original).  The ‘plate, incidentally, is the real deal – a Fender ‘57-style.  The original one, bought from eBay, looked great face-on but otherwise appeared silver…  Not the effect I was looking for!  Thankfully, I managed to lose that one via the ‘Bay so I’ve virtually broken even there.

Since the body was undrilled, copious measurements were taken, drawings made and photos referred to to ensure that everything went in the right place.  It was then that I realised that the neck pocket had to be reshaped slightly to accommodate the square-heeled neck that I’d already prepped (note to self – buy a router and templates.  Quicker and easier than playing with chisels and miniature sanding drums!).  Of course, this reshaping also necessitated some alteration to the scratchplate, too.  It’s not the tidiest of jobs, but it will be hidden by the 22nd-fret overhang.  Before anyone flames me for being a “bodgit and leggit”, don’t forget that this is both a personal project and a learning curve for me!

Anyway, centre lines were marked, neck was offered up, string positions calculated and the final bridge position determined.  I used the Power8 Workshop’s pillar drill to bore the bridge screw holes…  I’d already established that the centre two holes would need to be drilled free-hand, as the throat on the Power8 isn’t huge.  Large carpenters squares and spirit levels are incredibly useful in this scenario!  Additional screw holes were marked, punched and drilled and all parts screwed to the body using a good ol’-fashioned screwdriver.  I’ve heard too many tales of wandering bits and snapped screws to risk using anything powered!

So far, so good – everything fits and, through my eyes, looks pretty good.  Next step – fixing the neck.  Then on to shielding the cavities and wiring.

I’m aiming to get this finished by the time I hit the UKMG National at Buxton in November… Time will tell!

'56 Les Paul Gold Top

Don Maclean wrote the line “the day that music died” in memory of that February day in 1959 when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and JP Richardson (aka “The Big Bopper”) were tragically lost before their time.

More recently, the demise of a certain MJ Jackson rocked the world of popular music. But today, dear reader, there is, sadly, a more poignant loss.

Today, 13th August 2009, saw the passing of one Lester Polsfuss, aka Rhubarb Red, aka Les Paul. To musicians (especially guitarists) he was a legend… Nay, an icon.

If you’ve listened to any piece if popular music made since the 1950’s, you owe him a debt of gratitude for inventing multitrack recording. He was a man that would never accept the status quo, and wouldn’t be beaten. If it wasn’t for his foresight and tenacity, the guitar that bears his name would not exist… And that might’ve meant no Clapton, Page, Beck, Green, Slash, Rhoads and countless others.

Even at 94 years of age, he was still packing them in every week at the Iridium, NYC.

RIP Les Paul – the most important man in music in the last 100 years…

It’s made by Johnson and has own-branded pickups, made by EMG.  It’s as purchased (I haven’t even plugged it in) and is still boxed.  The paint job is a very dark blue metallic – I suppose “midnight blue” would be an apt description.

The pics below aren’t brilliant, but they’ll give you an idea.  Anyone want to make an offer?  I’m ideally looking for around UK£65, plus shipping (charge tbc).  If you’re interested, please drop me a line.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8130334.stm

Bob Crow.

The leader of the RMT is obviously living in a parallel universe, where there is no credit crunch.  In BC-land, no businesses have undergone complusory redundancy programmes and everyone has received a healthy pay rise this year.  Why else would he be pressuring London Underground for a 5% pay increase this year and an assurance that there will not be any compulsory redundancies?

The firm I work for (like many in the City) has lost around 10% of its workforce to redundancy, and has enforced a pay freeze this year. Bonuses are but a distant memory.  Yes, it’s tough.  But we endure.  And the last thing we need is some militant arse-wipe holding us tube-users to ransom.  And I know I’ve just started the last three sentences with conjunctions.  And I don’t care (see – there’s another).

I’m sure that fact that England are playing at Wembley tomorrow night is merely coincidence…

When I last posted, I had just created the headstock logo and decals.  I’m pleased to say that the headstock now also sports a set of gold Wilkinson Deluxe machineheads (tuners, to those of you across the pond).  Whilst not strictly accurate (i.e. split post), these have two holes at 90 degrees to each other – maximum string-lockage without the need for fancy cam/screw systems.  Sadly, I also managed to drop the neck (silly, silly boy!) which has left a couple of marks. If things continue like this, the “to relic or not to relic” argument may answer itself…

Anyway, on to the body…

The (abused) blue poly finish was stripped using a chemical stripper, followed by copious amounts of sanding.  Going back to the bare wood probably wasn’t the best move, but at least I knew what I was dealing with.  Neck mounting holes were drilled out and plugged with some hardwood dowelling (turned by my father-in-law) and all other screw holes were filled with cocktail sticks and PVA glue.  Once dry, these were cut and sanded flush.

I spent quite a while sanding everything to a good standard and was ready to spray.  I screwed a batten into the neck pocket to act as a handle before applying a few coats of Volkswagen Vintage White.  As colour matches go, this was pretty good – although the spraying left a lot to be desired.  Hey – call it learning!

It was at this point that I noticed a dirty great crack opening up in the body – from the bottom strap-pin hole all the way up to the heel on the back, and up to the bridge on the front.  A better man may be able to salvage this beast but not me!  I’ve decided to keep this for my spray-practice and have purchased another, undrilled body – this time already finished in Vintage White.  No doubt the factory will produce a far superior finish than I can manage!

So, not quite where I wanted to be after another year but who knows?  I might even have it completed inside another 12 months…