Rudi

My inspiration for dieting has been my partner Jan. She has been dieting for 2 years with little to show for it, but she doesn’t lose her resolve at all. For a year (2006) she could take little exercise due to breaking her leg badly. She broke the fibula first (probably) & went to her doctor who diagnosed this as gout. When she complained of the pain she was feeling he prescribed painkillers & told her to carry on walking on it. After weeks of hobbling about on a broken leg, the adjacent tibia broke. She spent that Xmas in hospital and became the talk of the whole medical staff who couldn’t understand how she had been able to walk on it at all. She was operated on Christmas morning and spent the next couple of weeks in a ward overlooking the ambulance entrance. During that fortnight I spent nearly £50 quid in parking charges just visiting her. She spent the same on phone bills. Being sick is expensive. They could not pin the leg as her bones were not thick enough, so she spent many weeks in a whole-leg plaster cast. One day a nurse drew a smiley face on her foot in pen. Once she was out of sight, I scrubbed it off and replaced it with a frowning face. “What are you drawing down there?” she asked. I replied, “Never mind, just tell me what she says tomorrow ok?” We got a wheel chair from the Red Cross and a pair of crutches from Alexandra Hospital. I became adept at assembling the chair & packing it away in the car. I also learned what the disabled have to negotiate re curb-stones and entrances to buildings etc. On holiday last Spring on the Isle of Wight, I kept pretty fit wheeling Jan up & down the hills in Cowes. At the next Havant Orchestra concert, the theatre staff removed a ground level seat to allow the wheel chair in. In the chair, her leg stuck straight out in front of her. I found it useful for opening swing doors. At the supermarket, I encouraged her to try the courtesy (provided) powered chair, but she wouldn’t do it. They ought to provide a remote control device for those things. That way I could have had relieved her of the responsibility for driving it After the plaster came off she wore a ‘moon-boot’ at the exact same time as Wayne Rooney was pictured in the TV and press wearing one. One afternoon we took a stroll around Portchester Castle and she took time getting down some steps. There was a small group in front waiting to ascend the steps. “Come on” jibed one, “Rooney would have been down them steps by now”. I answered; “Compared to this one, Rooney is a wimp”. He looked rather taken aback at my disparaging remark about England’s football hero. I felt fine about it. Also Jan has had type one diabetes since childhood. Injecting insulin 4 times a day hinders any attempt at weight loss. When she goes hypoglycaemic (2 or 3 times a week), she has to take a large amount of sugar onboard to restore a proper blood sugar level. It must be galling to spend the day subsisting on a couple of dry crispbreads & some cottage cheese, & then have to drink a bottle of lucozade followed by half a pack of dextrose tablets. The weird thing is that she will not weigh herself. It’s a woman thing. She afraid to know what she weighs. Whatever she weighs, she carries it well. Being tall helps (she’s taller then I am). If only she could learn to make a decent cup of tea I might marry her.

avast me hearties, SS SongStuff be at all points o departure anyway, so we baint settin sail. arrrgh.

Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (just had to be done)

ah... but why?

well I'd like some more vibrato. If you have a surplus, send some to me.

hello Kyungjin welcome from Portsmouth UK. I like your ambition!

Hi Tommy, Im not sure how YouTube fits into the concept. The kid intends to video his violent retribution I assume, right?

Me too. When I think I know it all, will be the time to quit. I dont think I will live that long. Bring it on Lazz.

Singing: Nightwolf has it dead right. What you cant sing today, doesnt apply to tomorrow. Keeping it up will definately allow your voice to improve significantly. Sing wherever you can, & now and then try to put some power into it.

Having formerly used sequencing software to manipulate samples, the single most significant thing I could say about that is this: club/house/etc type music sounds the way it does because that is what the process lends itself to.

Sounds quite equitable to me.

My search has ended. I tried a Peavey (nice but pick-ups were out of balance), A Squier P (nice but noisy pots) an Ibanez (couldn’t get a clean tone out of it), finally settled on a Squier Affinity Jazz Bass (in black) I went all the way to Nevada to buy it too. http://www.fenderstore.co.uk/acatalog/Affinity-P-Bass.html kind thanks to ALL contributors here

It looks a bit like that thing some luthier made for Pat Methany a while back. I have just two questions 1/ How much is a set of strings? 2/ How many days does it take to tune up?

yes

I'm interested Jenny, though your link didnt work from my location. I will try using another PC later. Welcome to SongStuff. We have a good diverse community & welcome musicians of all styles & skill levels. Rudi Portsmouth UK

Its Jerry, not Gerry. As for intonation, he does sound a little out mid-range a lot. Whether its got anything to do with the guitars or not I couldnt say. By the time he got Rosebud, he was tuning digitally.

This was to be in answer to John Moxey’s ‘Lennon’s glasses’ thread. Something I would love to own previously belonging to a famous person. Rosebud, one of Jerry Garcia’s (3) Erwin Guitars. These were made for him by Doug Erwin. I myself would want to gig it (if insurers would permit it). If I failed to play well one night (It happens regularly) I would have nothing to blame but myself. Garcia’s playing had a massive influence on me and my whole approach to music in general. Here it is. Until I read this, I had no idea what was inside this instrument. It was patched into a rack mounted synth. http://dozin.com/jers/guitars/rosebud/rosebud.html I have no idea where Rosebud is today This is what happened to the other 2 of Jerry’s Irwins, Wolf & Tiger. Tiger is a ‘sister’ model to Rosebud. Garcia's guitars fetch record 'Wolf,' 'Tiger' sold at memorabilia auction for $1.74 million Joel Selvin, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, May 9, 2002 Two of Jerry Garcia's custom guitars -- fought over in a lawsuit last year between the Grateful Dead and guitarmaker Doug Irwin -- sold for more than $1.74 million to two anonymous buyers at a New York auction last night. Tiger -- a guitar Garcia played for 11 years -- went for $850,000. The other guitar, called Wolf, sold for $700,000. The buyer's commission pushed the price paid for Tiger to $957,500 and the price of Wolf to $789,500. Garcia, who died in 1995, left both guitars in his will to guitarmaker Doug Irwin, who settled a lawsuit against the Grateful Dead last November and put the instruments up for sale. The Dead had claimed ownership of the instruments. The standing-room-only crowd cheered every bid, as Garcia's guitars zoomed past the previous world record figure for a guitar -- almost $450,000 paid at auction in 1999 for the tobacco-burst Fender Stratocaster called "Brownie" that Eric Clapton used to record "Layla." The white Stratocaster Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock sold for $325,000 in 1990. Irwin, nearly destitute and still suffering from a hit-and-run car crash about three years ago, attended the sale and was introduced to the crowd. "I'm glad to see all you rock 'n' rollers," Irwin said. After the sale, he was swamped by autograph seekers.

Hi Jerry Welcome from Portsmouth UK You are in a similar position to me. Have a good look around. There's some nice stuff here.

Hang on. I've just checked, my mic is a SM58 not a SM57. I'm going to check out the specs of both...

Tom, its a good job your in the USA, because if you were any closer I would be compelled to give you a hug. A horrifying prospect, I'm sure yould agree. Looks like all I need then is a compatable lead then.

Boss Micro Br Digital Recorder It was Steve that pointed me towards one of these. He knows I would love to record. The reason that I haven’t done so far is because I don’t have enough brains to learn anything. I took the plunge and I bought one of these two weeks ago. http://www.roland.com/products/en/MICRO_BR/index.html It’s powered by a pair of AA batteries (included). I turned it on and listened to the demo; it was the predictable heavy rock (yawn) song complete with gaudy (yawn) guitar solo. Good production though. I plugged the guitar in and tried out the effects. Lots of utterly useless ones, but a few are decent enough. The 120 page manual comes with a ‘corrections list’. The list was not complete because I’ve found several things that don’t work like the book says it will. I have spent many hours at this thing now as was evidenced by the numerous exchanges of batteries. Sourcing a power adaptor (not included of course) was not straightforward as I had thought. The proper Rowland one goes for around £25 ($50 or 40 euros) and I couldn’t find one. I eventually picked up a clone for £7 at the music shop I bought the BR in. Other stuff bought since: USB cable (Std to Small) – for PC link - not yet used Micro Jack to Jack lead - for connecting the GT5 Ig SD memory card Other stuff needed: Condenser (powered) Mic Bass guitar Smaller headphones A drummer, or a fully programmable drum machine Never having used an SD card before, I removed the supplied one with a pair of pliers. Only when I put the replacement in did I realise that they have a push release (doh!). I was lucky not to damage it. In fairness to Roland, this was mentioned in the manual, (but not where I looked at the time). At this stage I am able to use the thing to record 4 tracks quite well. I can add the drum patterns OK (but it wont do anything sexy like 5/4). The supplied drums don’t use up a track fortunately. Having chosen a pattern, I can exchange the drum kit, which is a very attractive feature. The STD1 kit & the Jazz kit seem the most realistic ones. What I cannot figure out is how to copy, paste and insert. So I have to plan the fills, breaks and endings etc with great care. The onboard mic is ok for recording a band at a live gig, but has limited use as a studio mic. There are several ways to cut, copy and paste track material, and I can’t do any of them. However, now that I have the rhythm planning sorted, I should be able to use the ‘timing’ method with any luck. I am now working on the drum pattern for one of my songs. Next I need that bass guitar. I have yet to study mastering, bouncing tracks, exporting to the computer and converting to MP3 format etc. Oh, and I need someone to press the record button too.

That is great news. It in some small way comensates for your last posting (John's comment about not ditching your gear was on the nose though). Keep us up to date with what happens with this. Sounds like you'll get plenty of exposure (no pun intended) from it!

Great comeback

Well Europe was probably not consulted. This is a tiny Boss / Rowland digital recorder. I had enough problems just finding an AC adaptor for it.

Rednecks: no Christmas in Capetown: no Gods Song: yes My life is Good: mostly Newman can put himself inside of racists, bigots and rapists. He finds humanity in the worst examples of mankind. There is no reason why you have to maintain your own identity in a song to express what you mean. His songs can be seriously offensive. The most ridiculous example was ‘Short People’. It was a hit single that had shortasses queuing up to abuse him. It was a song about prejudice & he invented a prejudice (presumably to avoid misunderstanding) to express it. People being what they are, they took offence anyway.