Springtime For Bluebirds... And Happiness!

It's that time of year again.  The time of year the birds are in love.  That's right.  Springtime brings out the best of the birds and the bunnies.  As I have posted before, I have an old birdhouse that I put on the corner of the property.

Over the years I have mostly had Tufted Titmouse pairs take up residence in the spring.  Yes a Tufted Titmouse is a real bird for all of you laughing like Beavis.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tufted_Titmouse/id

One year I had a pair of Red Cardinals move in and lay eggs.  I was glad to see them, but by the time I noticed they had moved in, their chicks were grown.  Three days later they moved out.

I have to say my old birdhouse has held together over the years.  What's funny, is that, it's actually a parakeet house I bought from Pet Supermarket years ago.  I used oil enamel paint to seal the wood so it would protected in our Florida environment.

So this year the family was wondering if anyone would move in.  Also, if they did, who would move in?  Well, about a week ago we got our answer.  And like they say on the internet, "Pics or it didn't happen!"  So here's who moved in.

That my friends, are Eastern Bluebirds.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Bluebird/overview

It seems like they are digging the new digs.  But will they lay eggs?  Let me answer that with another picture.

One egg, blue egg?  Am I Doctor Seuss?  Wait, there's more?

A few days later another egg appeared.  So let's check in a few days after that.

So now it's one egg, two egg, three egg, blue egg?

But really it was interesting to see how they went about nesting.  First, they removed all of the old nest.  Then, they built a completely new nest.  After that, they started laying an egg every other day.  The nest hasn't been checked in a few days so there might be a few more eggs waiting.

Bluebirds will lay anywhere from three to eight eggs, but can have more than one brood during the spring.  So we might have another brood of eggs laid after this one.

Here are some more fun photos of the bluebirds.

The following are my previous blog posts about my birdhouses.

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2017/10/make-little-birdhouse-in-my-backyard.html

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2018/02/make-little-birdhouse-in-my-backyard.html

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2018/03/make-little-birdhouse-in-my-backyard.html

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2018/04/make-little-birdhouse-in-my-backyard.html

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-birdhouse-community-apartments.html


Oh, and if you sang the title of this blog post to the Broadway play, "The Producers," you win.  For those who don't know what I'm talking about watch this.

New Pickup Day: Dragonfire Gatebucker Review

As a musician I am always on a quest for tone.  I am fascinated by sound, and they way it can be expressed.  A few months ago I wrote a blog post about a set of pickups I bought at the Orlando Guitar Expo.  They were a set of Seymour Duncan 59 neck/Pearly Gates Plus bridge pickups.    I installed this set of pickups into an Epiphone Les Paul of mine.  The sound was amazing.  

Here's the link to that blog post.

Installing The Spoils Of Rock! 

The sound of the Pearly Gates set got me to thinking.  I looked up specs, EQ, and anything could find about the pickup set.  One thing caught my eye.  The price.  Back when I started getting interested in playing guitar, circa 1998, one Pearly Gates pickup cost $50.  Nowadays, that same pickup costs $120.  A set costs $240.  

So this lead me to more thinking.  Do any other pickup makers make a Pearly Gates clone?  After being in this business for a while I had many contacts.  I looked through a lot of pickup makers, but no one offered anything even remotely close to a Pearly Gates clone.  That is, except one.  

I was looking at the Dragonfire Guitars website.  Yes, the company that looks like it's website was designed in 1997, and hasn't changed since.  I can't lie, it needs an update.  But in their offerings of pickups was something called a "Gate Bucker."

Here's the link:

https://www.dragonfireguitars.com/Gate-Buckers-Alnico-2-A2-AII-Vintage-Humbucker-Pickups-12097.htm

They were selling the Gate Buckers set for a grand total of $60.  Not $60 a piece, but both pickups for a total of $60.  At first I passed on the deal.  I thought, "How good can they be if they are even cheaper than GFS pickups?"  

Also was the fact was the guitar I was going to put them in was an Epiphone Les Paul that had the new wiring system in it.  That's the one with the quick connect system.  It's not hard to wire it up, it's just time consuming.  And if I hated them, then it would be a pain to rewire it all again.  

So I looked some more around the net.  I still couldn't find anything close to the Pearly Gates set.  I ended up searching Reverb, www.reverb.com and the Gate Bucker set came up.  It got me to thinking... yet again.  I thought, well, I'm going to just have to give this set a shot.  

So I went ahead and ordered a set.  The company was great to deal with, and worked quickly to ship me the pickups.  As soon as I received the pickups I installed them.

Here they are.

Again they look like any other pickups, but something surprised me when I flipped them over.  Take a look.

Do you notice it?  These pickups actually have nickel/silver baseplates.  They may have not cost a lot, but they surely weren't cheaply made.  

So I started installing them right away.  Like I mentioned earlier I would have to deal with Epiphone's quick connect system.  That meant cutting the 5 wire connector  Next, I had to make sure I matched up the correct wires.  Dragonfire and Epiphone use different color codes.  After that I had to wire up five wires for each pickup.  

One of the best things I bought was a variety pack of heat shrink wire tubing.  That way I could cleanly connect the wires, and then use a larger heat shrink tube to hold all the smaller ones together.  Here are the photos so you can understand what I'm talking about.

  

As you see each pickup has five wires that I connected.  

It occurs to me now that I didn't take any photos of my blue Les Paul.  It is amazingly beautiful.  But in this photo you can see the edge of it.  Also in the photo are the pickups laid out.  At this stage I am going to put the large tubing over the end of the pickup wire.

Not too shabby, huh?  The important part is that it worked the first time.  Of course, I made sure to check my connections before any of the tubing went over any part of the wires.  

But now it was time for the sound check.  How would a cloned pickup that cost 1/4 of it's subject sound?  Would it sound only a quarter as good?  One thing that worried me was that the Gate Bucker had matched coils.  The Pearly Gates coils aren't exactly matched up.  That's one way it gets it bite among other things.  

So I plugged it in and was surprised.  The bridge Gate Bucker matched up really closely to a Pearly Gates pickup.  On a Pearly Gates bridge pickup the top three strings (E, B, G) are really bright, and almost separate themselves from the bottom three strings.  The bottom three strings (D, A, E) are bluely and a touch loose.  But overall, all the strings had a bite to them.  

I know it's tough to say a pickup's bottom is loose but still has bite, but I have to stand by that opinion.  I will say that the Gate Bucker doesn't have as much bite as the pickup it's based on, but I think I know why.  Like a lot of overseas made pickups, the Gate Bucker is filled with wax.  I am in favor of light wax potting, but the overseas made pickups are just soaked in wax.  

When soaking a pickup in wax it's innevitently going to kill off the highs and the bite.  I know some boutique pickup winders won't wax pot a pickup.  If they are requested to do so. they lightly pot the pickup so only the outer windings are wax potted.  This leaves the inner windings untouched.  

So my final grade for the bridge Gate Bucker pickup is an "A."  I have to admit I was shocked.  I didn't think an overseas made pickup could sound so close to a Seymour Duncan pickup.  So now onto the neck pickup. 

The neck Gate Bucker was what I would call a Blues Machine.  It had rounded off treble, but was very nicely balanced.  I would say it's not for everyone.  And by that, I mean, those would turn their gain up to "dentist drill" setting.  But if you love rock n' roll, and want a neck pickup that has tone that will express how your soul feels the Gate Bucker neck pickup is for you.  Again, I would give it an "A."

I am thankful that I took a chance with the Gate Buckers.  I may have to write Dragonfire Guitars and tell them just how wonderful their pickups are.  That, and to completely update their website.  Seriously, they really need to do something about that.  

But I will say, I am going to keep the Gate Buckers in my favorite blue Les Paul.  I think they are without a doubt my sound.  Well, at least until my search for tone takes me elsewhere.  

The Birdhouse Community Apartments

If you're a regular reader you know that I've had a birdhouse out in the backyard for a while.  I've actually had pretty good success with it.  Or, should I say, the birds have.  It was brought up that there could be more than one birdhouse around the property.  I thought, "That's awesome!  Let me get on that!"

So, it was time to put up more birdhouses.  Four new birdhouses were delivered to house.  Two of the houses were bluebird houses, one was a parakeet house from the pet store, and one was a finch house.  It was decided that I would paint the two bluebird houses and the parakeet house.

First up, I drilled holes in the bottoms of the birdhouses.  If any rain would happen to get in, the holes would let it easily drain.  I also drilled holes to allow airflow and for wire to go through.  I wanted to use wire instead of drilling holes in the trees.

My photos start right after I had applied the first layer of paint.  I used an oil enamel paint that would withstand all the weird weather we get here in Florida.

There was a really interesting article on the internet about making barriers for birdhouses.  The barriers help keep out squirrels.  I thought, "I can make one using plywood and a forester drill bit."

First up, I cut the plywood into their appropriate shapes.  Then, I painted them with the oil enamel paint.

Next up, I finished painting the base coat for the three birdhouses.

After that, I drilled the wooden barriers over the entrance holes of the birdhouses.

Now the fun part, it was time to break out the forester bit, and drill the entrance hole.

Of course, I had to touch up the paint.  So I had to open up the can of paint again, and get to painting.  Once I was finally finished with the oil enamel paint, it was time to get to the fun part.  That's when I camouflage the birdhouses to blend into oak trees.  I use three spray paint cans to achieve the camo look.

When I first tried this technique I thought I needed a lot of green.  I was wrong.  I'm trying to blend into the oak tree bark which is more gray.  So I lightly spray black paint followed by a bit of brown.  The real trick is to use a light almond type of paint.  Blending the three colors makes the birdhouses look like a distressed gray color.  How well does it blend in?  Take a look.

Not bad, huh?  So now it was time to hang the first bluebird house.  There is a place on the property that birds like to hunt for bugs.  So I put the house in the oak tree right over top of the bug hunting territory.

Alright! Mission accomplished!  Now we move to the finch house.  I ended up hanging it near the bluebird house.

I didn't want to put the parakeet house near the other houses.  So I ended up putting it on the opposite corner from my original parakeet house.  I made a trip to Ace Hardware to pick up some supplies.  I ended up buying a 10 foot metal pole.  I also bought a bolt, nut and washer to attach the house to the pole.

I dug a three foot deep hole, and then managed to shove the pole into the ground another foot.  So, all in all, the pole was four feet deep.  I felt pretty good knowing it wasn't going to go anywhere.

Finally, there was just the one bluebird house left.  It was decided that it would be hidden in an Anise bush.  Can you spot it?

Let's look a little closer.

Closer.

I told you that I could paint a great camo pattern.  

So now there are five total birdhouses on the property.  I know what you're asking, "Have any birds moved in yet?"  Well, stay tuned!  There will be another blog post detailing the happenings around the yard.  

Coffin Case Failure: All I Wanted Was A Handle

I have this pretty cool guitar.  It's a B.C. Mockingbird.  It may be a bit hard to play, but goodness, it looks cool.  It might also be the highest quality overseas guitar I have ever come across.  Here's a photo of one (not mine.)

The one drawback of having such a cool guitar, is that, it really needs a special case.  A few weeks ago I came across such a case for this guitar.  It's a case by a company called Coffin Cases.  They honestly are the same shape as old style coffins.

I managed to buy the case used for a pretty cheap price.  The only drawback was it was missing a handle.  I thought, "Well, it's just a handle?  How hard can it be to find one?"  So I bought a handle off of E-Bay.  It turns out the Coffin Case handle was actually wider than a normal guitar case handle.  So it didn't fit.  

  

While I was the Orlando Guitar Show I bought three case handles for a buck a piece.  I figured one of them would end up fitting the Coffin Case.  But, no such luck.  None of them fit the Coffin Case.  Again, the Coffin Case takes a wider handle.  

So I decided to get proactive and I e-mailed Coffin Case.  I explained that I needed a handle for my Coffin Case.  I would be happy to purchase one since the warranty didn't apply to me.  What ended up happening was what I would call a "clusterfuck" of customer service.  

The following is the back and forth e-mails that were sent.  These are copy and pasted exactly as sent.

CC:  Thank you for your email.  Unfortunately, we do not sell individual handles for our cases :( 

Graham Allen

Adrian:  Dear Graham,

Do you have any suggestions on how I can acquire a Coffin Case handle?  I'm sure I can't be the only person this has happened to.  

Sincerely, 

Adrian

Graham at CC:  Hi Adrian,

What happened to the handle?  How long ago did you buy the case?

Now let's take an aside for a moment.  I had already explained that the handle was missing and I was willing to pay for a new one.  I don't see how either of these questions would help me.  

Adrian:  I bought the case used.  The handle was missing when I received it.  So I am trying to buy a replacement handle.  I realize it isn't covered by a warranty.  So I am more than willing to purchase a replacement handle from either Coffin Case or one of it's distributors.  Can you please help me out?

Graham at CC:  I will look into this and get back to you.  What model is the case?

Adrian:  It is a Coffin Bass Case/Red Velvet Model #CF-B195R

Let's take another aside for a moment.  Now I thought, "Okay, we're finally getting this ball rolling."

Graham at CC:  I can see if our Vietnam factory can find a similar handle and what the cost would be. 

Adrian:  (After one week of waiting for an e-mail.)  I have not heard back from you regarding the case handle.  Do you have any updates on it?

Graham at CC:  Hi Adrian,

I have not heard back from the factory yet.  I was hoping I could just take one from a broken case in our warehouse.  They're riveted in though, so they can't be removed without damage.  Will let you know when I hear back from them. 

Graham at CC:  Hi Adrian,

Sorry for the bad news but unfortunately we are unable to obtain a replacement handle from our factory. 

So that's where I left it.  I figured it wasn't worth responding anymore.  A guitar case company that can't come up with a case handle?  That's pretty lame.  The customer service left a lot to be desired as well.  

Like I wrote, this can't be the first time this has ever happened to someone.  Cases get damaged, and there's a need for replacement parts.  Why act like you have no idea about how to correct something like this?  This should be simple.

So I decided to get proactive... again.  Years ago I had a cello case that had a handle break.  Due to the size of the cello and the case you can pretty well guess it weighed a lot.  So I used chain to make a handle.  That's what I decided to do again.  Luckily, I took photos for posting. 

Here's what we were dealing with.

The rope was what the previous owner used instead of a handle.  Next up, I cut the chain to the appropriate length.  

Next up it was putting everything together.  Not that it was that hard.  Of course, having a vice helps.

And this is how it turned out.

It actually looks pretty badass.  It was also much simpler than dealing with the morons at Coffin Case.  So the next time someone has an issue like this, and they can't find a matching handle, I recommend going this route.  Remember to use the curved chain.  It sits very nicely in your hand.  Also, it doesn't pinch your hand.