“Monkton Coke”

[dhanners623]

Admittedly no Gibson content here, but I did consider taking my J-35 when I headed out to catch the train to go down to Norfolk to film this clip. Wound up taking my kit-built D-18 clone, though.

This was recorded in the offices of Home Stage in Blakeney. They are having an initiative called pFITE24 (for Poetry and Folk in the Environment) and it’s meant to get artists involved in raising environmental awareness.

My entry is “Monkton Coke,” a song I wrote about a coke works that ran for many years in Hebburn in the northeast of England. It polluted the air and land and caused myriad health problems for the workers and residents of a council estate the plant was built next to. A local homemaker named Jennie Shearan — who came to be known as “Battling Jennie” — organized the community and eventually, the owners shut the plant and were required to clean up the land.

Here’s the deal, though…. The video entries for pFITE24 are judged by viewer “likes.” So if you watch the video, I’d be most appreciative if you’d click on the little thumbs-up “Like” button. If you’re so inclined, that is. And feel free to tell your friends.

Thanks! And next time, I’ll grab the J-35….

 

[Murph]

Dig it Dave. The trick is putting yourself in that place and you pulled it off masterfully. Well played.

Like 31.

[dhanners623]

3 hours ago, Murph said:

Dig it Dave. The trick is putting yourself in that place and you pulled it off masterfully. Well played.

Like 31.

Thanks! I’ve not been to Hebburn but should go sometime, although the plant was closed in 1990 and demolished in ‘92. And it’s weird — Hebburn is about a 2.5-hour drive northeast of Manchester, but I’ve played the song out a couple of times and only a couple of people recall hearing of the coke works.  I guess my audiences skew young….

[Red 333]

Demolished in 1992? The sharp detail of the lyrics make it feel like  you had personal experience. Your homemade dread sounds great, too. Nice job on both the song and the guitar.

Red 333

[dhanners623]

3 hours ago, Red 333 said:

Demolished in 1992? The sharp detail of the lyrics make it feel like  you had personal experience. Your homemade dread sounds great, too. Nice job on both the song and the guitar.

Red 333

Thanks, Red! I appreciate it.

Yeah, it is a darn-fine sounding guitar. It was “assembled” (the word he prefers) by Kevin Schwab, a luthier and repairman in the Twin Cities. At the time, he was working in Charlie Hoffman’s shop in Minneapolis. Now, he’s at St. Paul Guitar Repair.

I basically wanted a Collings D1 but couldn’t afford one. At the time, the StewMac mahogany dread kits were running about $495, so I asked Kevin if he had any interest in building one. He quoted me a price I couldn’t say “No” to, but then added that while he’d done all the steps involved on thousands of repairs over the years, he’d never done it all on one instrument.

We tweaked the kit in a few ways. He carved the heck profile to a soft “V” and the bridge has a through-cut saddle. The headstock faceplate is Brazilian rosewood. It has aged well and records well. It has survived Minnesota winters and Kuwait summers. It’s now adjusted to the U.K., but I did have to get a new saddle to lower the action, which had gotten a tad high. Of course since I wanted a glued-in through-cut saddle (against Kevin’s advice…) it was a more complex fix than normal.

By the way, the construction manual is downloadable and I thought it was interesting reading (and I learned a lot) even though I had no intention of ever building one myself. It’s here: 

[Dave F]

1 hour ago, dhanners623 said:

. . .

By the way, the construction manual is downloadable and I thought it was interesting reading (and I learned a lot) even though I had no intention of ever building one myself. It’s here: 

That looks like a lot of work plus a lot of tooling required.

[dhanners623]

19 hours ago, Dave F said:

That looks like a lot of work plus a lot of tooling required.

Yep. Of course StewMac is happy to sell you the tools…. Fortunately, Kevin had every luthier tool known to man working in Charlie Hoffman’s shop. (It was always fun hanging around there. Leo Kottke would drop in from time to time. Or luthier-to-the-stars James Olson would stop by to talk guitars with Charlie.)

StewMac now also sells kits where the body is already built. Saves some work….

Edited December 12, 2023 by dhanners623

[E-minor7]

That was mighty good - and the dread sounds distinguished proud. Lots of authority in both song- and wood-work.   

[kidblast]

like #44

[dhanners623]

On 12/13/2023 at 12:09 PM, kidblast said:

like #44

Thanks! I appreciate it….

[Dave F]

7 minutes ago, dhanners623 said:

Thanks! I appreciate it….

I was #25, 26, 27. I have three YouTube profiles.