Dienstag, 4. März 2008

Pretty Boxes!




It's been a while since my last Post, but the waiting will be worth it!
Junkyard No. 12 another 3-string Dulcimer has just arrived. The funny thing is, I haven't figured out how I want to play it - traditional on my lap, playing melody on the high G string or cradled in my arms cording like a guitar and playing the tunes on the low G string, both ways sounds good to me!
Otherwise I've just been making a lot of other boxes and cleaning the basement of scrap lumber in the process!
First I put together a 4 X 6 inch speaker cabinet for my 1 Watt CrunchMaster Tube amp. The speakers are straight from Ebay - 1 Euro plus shipping with plenty of speakers left over for other amp projects. I bought the CrunchMaster a couple of years ago using mostly just as preamp for my Fender but really didn't like the sound, so it was just laying around. Now it can really "der Sau 'raus lassen!" (German for "letting the pig out!" looses in the translation doesn't it? Well it screams (squeals - get the picture?) now!)
Then the little lady (that's my wife for you folks) wanted to get into percussion and asked if I could DIY some drums. So I started looking in the Net for some drum projects which at first was pretty disappointing - everything seemed to revolve around trigger pads until I came upon the Cajon (a snare-box-drum from Peru - very primitive with fantastic percussion possibilities! Look it up. There are a lot of good plans for the taking and U-tube lessons for beginners). So using up the same shelving lumber from speaker cabinet project, I put the little Cajon beauty together - you beat on the front - "the music goes round and round, whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho, and comes out (here) the rear" (sorry unless you're around my age you will not know that those are words to a Tommy Dorsey song from the '30s - Hey! I'm not that old!) Looks good sounds good to! I thank the plan contributors from around the world.
Tom Scholz designed the Rockman practice amp, then it was copied (improved and cheaper) from Nobels and finally copied (improved again and even cheaper) from Monarch - that's the practice amp I bought many years ago. And like the CrunchMaster (as well as other effect pedals) lay unused around the house, but no more! Back in the early 60's Sears and Montgomery Wards used to offer Guitar-Sets which included an amp built into the guitar case (back then some with battery operated tube amps! There's nothing new under the Sun!) So putting all that knowledge, left over practice amp, Ebay speakers and scrap plywood I put together a street musician's dream case for my Junkyard No. 12! Looks good, sounds good too!
Now the real funny thing about all this folks is: If I've used up scrap lumber out of the basement, put discarded speakers, effect pedals and amps to use, how come there's more (and bigger) stuff laying around now, then before I started?
If you want to see more pictures, please visit my Picasa Web Album at: http://picasaweb.google.de/ggborrelli/JunkyardGuitars
I hope you've enjoyed the reading. As always if you have any comments, pass them on.
Best regards from Bamberg, Germany
american George