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'Fine And Mellow'


BluesKing777

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Big day Friday, big day yesterday and today - went to the guitar tech to pick up my Martin 000-17 and my Martin HD28V which both had a Martin Thinline undersaddle pickup installed so I can play them through my gadgets. The HD28V also got some non slotted Antique Acoustic bridge pins installed with the bridge slotted.

 

Have been playing ALL kinds of things on both since, but the first track I have posted is my solo version of Billie Holliday's "Fine And Mellow" on my 000-17 through the gadgets:

 

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/fineandmellow77b

 

 

 

I also got to play two, yes TWO of the guitar tech's custom hand made L-00/00-ish size guitars - cool, cool, cool ad the heart has gone to both - one with ebony back and sides and an Italian Spruce top with paddle head [wub] \:D/ and another with Madi Rose back and sides and black finish on the top ......slot head....... [wub] Yi Yi Yi....

 

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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I also got to play two, yes TWO of the guitar tech's custom hand made L-00/00-ish size guitars - cool, cool, cool ad the heart has gone to both - one with ebony back and sides and an Italian Spruce top with paddle head and another with Madi Rose back and sides and black finish on the top ......slot head....... Yi Yi Yi.... BluesKing777.

 

And the pictures are where???

 

The Soundcloud track sounds very nice. You're getting quite a channel on the 'cloud.

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So you're adding on to the house, or opening a shop building inventory. Can't goof on you, only congratulate.

 

Just spent my next dental procedure on a '99 Bluesbird.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your 'one of a kinds'.

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Thanks!

 

There will be no builder cross my property line again while I live - no extension, JZ.

 

 

There are pics.....iPhone shockers but.

 

 

Shortened dentist story - specialist root canal driller wanted $190 to prod around, then $2700 to remove large filling cap to see if root canalled tooth cracked inside and then another $2700 to put it back and $4000 for a crown and..and...and...?..........tooth is up the back, so I asked her what I should do realistically and she said to get it extracted back at my normal dentist. Slightly in league with each other. Bag of nuts or some rock candy might just do it.....

 

So technically that could free up close to $5400! [smile] [smile] [smile]

 

Which could immediately cover the ebony/Italian Spruce number with the 1 11/16 nut and some left for a deposit on a build of a 00 slothead 1 3/4 nut, stripey ebony back and gloss black top...... [blink] [blink] [blink]

 

Or, or, or...do nothing. [wink]

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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OK, some photos from a guitar shop of the custom guitar....

 

My order is in with the luthier for one with wider nut/bridge spacing but a plainer ebony back.

 

 

The one at the music shop looks stunning, eh?

 

 

 

The Cargill 00:

 

CustomEbony1_zpsmmrt14wu.jpg

 

 

Custom%20Ebony4_zpsx0hzxprh.jpg

 

Custom%20Ebony2_zpsk5hj5qxu.jpg

 

Custom%20Ebony%203_zpssepkgkrc.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Shortened dentist story - specialist root canal driller wanted $190 to prod around, then $2700 to remove large filling cap to see if root canalled tooth cracked inside and then another $2700 to put it back and $4000 for a crown and..and...and...?..........tooth is up the back, so I asked her what I should do realistically and she said to get it extracted back at my normal dentist. Slightly in league with each other. Bag of nuts or some rock candy might just do it.....

 

Have you thought of moving closer to Tijuana? $350 and you're set. Twenty bucks more and they'll repair the vinyl seats in the Yugo while you're being drilled.

 

The back on that guitar is insane. And how did he do that binding/purfling/whateveritis around the fretboard?

 

So what does ebony sound like?

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Have you thought of moving closer to Tijuana? $350 and you're set. Twenty bucks more and they'll repair the vinyl seats in the Yugo while you're being drilled.

 

The back on that guitar is insane. And how did he do that binding/purfling/whateveritis around the fretboard?

 

So what does ebony sound like?

 

 

I will have to wait to see/hear what I get, but apart from the nut specs and spacings and timber choice and shape, I mean do we get in Frank Lloyd Wright's hair about a few details with the house? I have played 4 similar and they are just wonderful!

 

Don't need to go to Mexico for teeth fix - the guy next door is always drilling and it sounds like a dentist drill - he might do his own fillings and a root canal on the wife and kiddies, sounds like it. :-s :-s :-s

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Great job on this song. You and your guitar technique belong in a different era. When music had class and style......Sounds like the guy next door might be the "way to go" for getting your teeth fixed. Not only is he close to home, but it leaves more money for more guitars. And the comment on living until your 90's and having only four or five teeth is "on the mark." Who needs teeth when you can get baby food, pain killers, and you've got guitars?

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Thanks Murph and MP!

 

Wouldn't they be surprised in the 50s then, to see how I recorded the track! Only thing they would recognise is the mic and guitar, but running those in to my Boss 'black box' which is basically a computer chip with knobs to set it up and a lead out to a iMac to record and then zap the tune off to all points on the internet....well, love to see the look on their faces.

 

Guy next door is a cheapskate for sure, and I have no idea just WHAT he is drilling - don't want to hear it sounding like a dentist, really. But from what I can assume, he got a swimming pool cheap, got the in laws to help install it, bought the smallest filter system to save and now has to to run the sqawking thing ten times longer than an efficient pump. And to save more, he is tiling it himself but the wife didn't like the big tiles he bought cheap and now he is cutting them in 4 and drilling a hole in each one. I know not, but that is what it sounds like....

 

A nice piece of peanut crackle might save going back to the dentist and may take a couple of other teeth with the bad one......

 

 

Yi Yi Yi.

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Here's some of the blurry iPhone photos I took at the Elves Workshop.

 

 

 

The first pic is of the slothead custom and I blacked the other guitar player's face out in the photo because we were all passing that beauty of a guitar around and going wow, yeah, wow, hmmm and I didn't catch his name but he played it for my photo but then wouldn't give it back. And we were all going..I want I want I want but that guitar is custom made for some lucky Bob:

 

CustomGuitar1b_zps3qeb58hw.jpg

 

 

Closer:

 

CustomGuitar1c_zpspetixqfz.jpg

 

Might have to get one of these later!

 

CustomGuitar4b_zps5pbhw4kp.jpg

 

 

 

 

This is like mine will be, in about 2 weeks he said, but this has narrower neck specs:

 

CustomGuitar2b_zps6yiiw7vr.jpg

 

CustomGuitar3b_zps8i2jxdpd.jpg

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Got a call this morning- my guitar is getting painted today and will be a week approx.... he sent me some photos!

 

 

Here is the back - African Ebony (Italian Spruce on the top).

 

 

 

WOW! and another WOW!

 

Custom1_zpsj1foxles.jpg

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the back on that - will look great with the clear coat on it! Should have been done yesterday, I was told.

 

 

I have 2 more photos but Photobucket won't open.....so I have blown up Soundcloud with too many tunes AND now Photobucket with too many photos?

 

 

The neck will be vintage style ebony board with a nice V, 1 3/4" bone nut and bridge spacing of 2 3/8" like some original L-00s.

 

 

Can't sleep while waiting for the guitar to be ready :rolleyes:

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Intervention pending.

 

If anyone deserves to have too many guitars in terms of player credentials though, it's definitely you.

 

Toss me off any of your throwaways. My address will be in your PM box. I pay shipping.

 

Wait...you wanna' trade for my M20?

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Intervention pending.

 

If anyone deserves to have too many guitars in terms of player credentials though, it's definitely you.

 

Toss me off any of your throwaways. My address will be in your PM box. I pay shipping.

 

Wait...you wanna' trade for my M20?

 

 

 

What's happened to the M20?

 

That mahogany top probably needs some hard playing with fingerpicks to get it over the naughty child early days, lean it against the BBQ while cooking and the back fence for the weekend.... and it may start to look and sound like my 0-17. :mellow:

 

Deciding on the specs of the custom guitar reminded me of getting the house I sit in built (Melbourne Cup Day holiday here in Victoria, so we moved in 18 years ago last Saturday after the promised build of 3 months or whatever they said turned in to 2 years of living in the in-laws' downstairs game room and haven't spoken civilly since!). For the house, we went to their office and had about half an hour to pick every single thing in the house and even though we had to been to every display home to research and even driven down weird streets, we went a bit blank at the coalface. And that's what we still look at! And Frank Lloyd W. would look at, tilt his head and cry, and run screaming back to Falling Water. But it is a roof...

 

But the guitar specs are way more heavily researched by default over the years! :unsure:

 

L-00 size body, V neck, wide spacings but Ebony back and sides and Italian Spruce top.

 

The similar one but with narrower nut sounded absolutely wicked!

 

Now, the wait, and I hope it is not like the house but signs are good.

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Here is Geoff Achison playing his version of Robert Johnson's "Kind Hearted Woman" on a guitar like the one I'm waiting to be finished.

 

I played 4 of them at the luthier's place, the one in the video with a V neck, another with a thinner neck, a Blackwood back model and the Madi Rosewood model. (All Sold).

 

They don't mind using the drill or the grinder while you are trying the guitars out - no 'acoustic room'....

 

 

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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The M20 is fitting nicely into the group. I was a little afraid it would replicate a tone I already owned, but it's fuller and brighter than the nearest similar L0. If it needs more breaking in to achieve it's matured state I'll get there, as I play it daily, but I'm completely happy with it's current tone. I love the look, especially w/o the pick guard, which peeled off easily and cleanly, once I got a piece of fishing line underneath.

 

Have you thought about having your builder leave them off yours?

 

Your renovation/contractor story rings true. I'm in the construction biz...seen it all.

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The M20 has 1 3/4" nut, that right? Nice for fingerplucking! The onliest, only catch with my 1944 Martin 0-17 is the nut is 1 11/16", but the 44 fat C neck seems to make it feel larger. The Pre-War model had the friendlier 1 3/4", but I heard Jackson Browne bought them ALL when he fell in love with the old Martin mahogany top sound. The people who made them would be shocked to hear I like playing it in front of the computer screen - sound reflections are just sublime, but the little guitar sound can get lost in a larger room.

 

I played a custom guitar at the workshop without a guard - not sure what I think, maybe it lacks a visual definition like the other one I played with an OM style small teardrop.

 

 

BluesKing777.

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