Springtime Is In Full Effect: Carolina Wren Edition: Egg Me!: Part 2

Here's the link to Part 1:

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2019/04/springtime-is-in-full-effect-carolina.html

As I posted in the previous blog post, springtime is in full effect.  A pair of Carolina Wrens' spent a few weeks building a nest on the porch.  Then, surprise!  They laid eggs.  It has been ten days since my first post and a few things have happened.

First up, the female Wren laid two more eggs.

She ended up laying one egg per day for four days.  Now comes the hard part for her, sitting on the nest.  This presents a problem.  When I walk out on the porch she doesn't want to move off the nest, but if she sees me looking at her, she takes off flying.

She's about taken my head off a few times.  So I have to "Use the force," and walk quickly by the nest without looking at her.  If I take my time, or look her in the eyes, she comes flying straight up my nose.  I'm not kidding.  One time she came pretty close to picking my nose as she flew by.

I can't blame her that time.  It was early morning and the sun hadn't come up.  I was standing by the nest, and looked in her direction.  Since it was dark, I couldn't see her, but she saw me.  That's when she panicked, and zoomed by me.  I'll admit, I did not take it well.  I hadn't been scared like that in a long time.  But again, that one was on me.

The incubation period for Carolina Wrens' is 14-17 days.  I'm not sure if that's from the day the first egg was laid or not.  Since it's so warm down here in Florida I'm going to guess the incubation period is going to be closer to 14 days.  So in about 3-4 days I'm going to start looking for baby chicks.  But I'm going to do it extremely carefully.  I might also use a shield.  We'll see.

Cajon! I'm A Drum Guy Now

It was while I was playing music at coffee shops that I discovered a percussion instrument that I didn't know about.  It's called a Cajon (pronounced Caw-Hone.)  What made it neat was that you could achieve the sounds of a drum, but at a lower volume.  This is very important for coffee houses where a lot musicians play acoustically, and don't want to be blown out by a complete drum set.  It's also hand held so it can be carried quickly and easily.    

What surprised me was just how versatile they are.  Depending up technique, strength, and spot, striking the Cajon can give you a number of different sounds.  So I finally decided to buy one.  I can't purchase a full sized drum set, but I can make space for a Cajon.  

I had checked out a few models at Guitar Center.  There was one in particular that I liked.  However, I happened to be across the street from Sam Ash Music, so I thought I would stop in and see their selection.  I tried out nine different models of Cajons, but kept coming back to one in particular.  That one happened to be the last of that model, and was on closeout.  

After inspecting it I found out why.  It had: 1.  A chip in it.  2.  Was a bit scratched up.  3.  Missing a screw.  4.  Missing a rubber foot.  Now, this may have bothered some people, but it didn't bother me.  I can always insert a screw.  I can always replace the rubber foot.  I was always going to bang it up.  It's a drum after all.  So those things didn't bother me. 

The MSRP was $240, but we all know that means nothing.  They normally sold for $140, but this one was on closeout for $99.  So I bought it.  They had Cajons priced higher and lower than this model, but this one just had "my sound."  

And here she is:

However, I didn't want a Cajon that looked just like everyone else's.  I wanted something that stood out.  So I took my wood-burning tools to it, and now she looks like this:

Not bad, eh?  I'm really proud of that.  This from a guy who couldn't draw worth a crap his whole life.  Admittedly, I did use measuring sticks and straight-edges to make sure everything was even.  

So when I showed my Cajon to my family they were like, "What's with the box?"  That's when I hit it a few times and their hands went over their ears, and they started screaming.  Okay, I don't actually play that bad, I'm just loud.  That's when they discovered the power of the Cajon.  

My sister told me if I bought another Cajon I would have two of them.  I could then refer to them as "my Cojones."  That's a Spanish joke if you don't get the reference.  I'll admit, that was pretty funny.  

So I'm going to continue to "tattoo" my Cajon.  Little by little, as I am inspired with new ideas I will wood-burn into it.  Luckily, it has six sides so I have plenty of room to wood-burn.  But now I have to actually spend more time playing it than I do wood-burning into it.  I'm not sure how that's going to go down around here?  But you know me.  I'm going to have fun playing it.  That's what music is all about.  

Springtime Is In Full Effect: Carolina Wren Edition: Egg Me!

A funny thing has happened the last few weeks.  A pair of Carolina Wren's have been building a bird nest on the screened in porch.  I know this leads to a few questions.  First, "How did they get in?"  Well, one of the screen doors is bent at the bottom.  They learned they can just fly down to the ground, and hop onto the porch.  The crack in the door is plenty big enough for them to scoot through.

The second question would be, "Where are they building this nest?"  Well, that's the funny part of this story.  They are building their bird nest in my old bird feeder.  It was old and broken so I had it sitting in a chair on the porch.  I guess they thought it would provide a nice place for a nest.  So for two weeks they built it.

For two weeks, when I was sitting in my chair, I would happen to catch a glance at the Wrens on the porch.  I thought they were hunting for bugs and lizards.  Namely, because they would be on the porch for a short time, and then head out.  What I didn't know was they were building a nest.

What really makes me question the bird-brained madness of it all is, if you remember, I put up five bird houses around the property.  I wrote a blog about it back in early March.

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

I was told that Carolina Wrens build several nests around the area, and then decide to choose the best one.  So I figured that this would end up being a decoy nest.  I ended up taking some photos of the nest.

The next day I decided to take a closer view.  That's when I saw this:

That, my friends, is a Carolina Wren egg.  I guess they chose their nest.  So today I went out to check on the nest, and I found this:

That is definitely two eggs.  Now we're starting to get a clutch of eggs going.  I'm going to keep checking on the nest a few times a day.  I want to take photos of any eggs as soon as they appear.  So stay tuned.  It won't be long before they hatch.

Springtime For Bluebirds... And Happiness! Part 2

Here's the first part of the story:

https://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2019/03/springtime-for-bluebirds-and-happiness.html

In my previous blog I was telling the story about how a pair of mated bluebirds had built a bird nest in my birdhouse.  Well, they ended up laying six eggs.

It's funny.  Even their eggs are blue.  But I digress.  Not too long afterwards the eggs began to hatch.

Like I said, there were six eggs, but only five of the eggs hatched.  The last photo was taken on March 31st, 2019.  A few days later I started taking daily photos of birds.

April 4th.

April 5th.  One of them has opened his eyes.

April 6th.  A lot more of their feathers came in, in just 24 hours.

April 7th.

April 8th.  They are really starting to be fully covered.

April 9th.  Out of nowhere they now have blue feathers.

April 10th.  Everyone's eyes are open and feathers are coming in nicely.

April 11th.

April 12th.  They are starting to look like adults.  Or at least, juveniles.  And this guy has decided to move off the main nest into the corner.  I figure it won't be long before they leave the nest.

April 13th.  Everyone is awake and looking good.

April 14th.  Oh my!  They have left the nest!  Except for Bob.  Bob doesn't want to move out.  I don't blame him.

April 15th.  And they have all left the nest.  (Tears.)

Wow.  That's the circle of life.  Actually it's the circle of life in just 16 days.  Can you believe they left the nest in just 16 days?  But like a circle, life never ends.  Bluebirds can have up to three clutches of eggs in the spring.  So they might be back to lay more eggs.  Not to mention I have four other birdhouses set up around the property.  They might move into one of those.  And if they do, I'll be there.  Oh, and so will my blog.

And speaking of blog posts, this is my 700th blog post.  I started writing back in April of 2008.  Here it is 11 years later and I am still writing.  If there's something happening and worth writing about, I'll be here typing it all out.

I Accidentally Bought An Amp

So there I was.  It was a Saturday.  A nice Saturday.  The kind of Saturday where a person would decide to drive around and visit pawn shops.  I was visiting the last pawn shop of the day, Tampa Gun and Pawn.  It's kind of funny that it's called that since they don't sell guns anymore.

Parking was tight.  I couldn't pull in from the direction I wanted.  So I turned down a street and turned around.  I pulled in from the side street so I could pull forward and back in.  I did just that and parked.

When I walked in I recognized the owner of the pawn shop.  I said, "Hi," and he said, "You hit my sign."  I looked at him like he had four heads.  My first thought was, "Your sign is on the top of the building.  How did I hit that?"  So I looked outside and saw that he had placed brand new, "Tampa Gun and Pawn Parking Only" signs up in front of the individual parking spaces.  Since I backed in I looked at my side mirrors, but not my rear view mirror.

I looked at the sign and yelled, "Shit!"  I yelled it really loud too.  I had bent the sign, but I didn't break it.  The owner said, "Don't worry.  You're only the second guy to hit it today.  In fact, someone has hit it every day.  Don't worry about it."

I spent a minute calming myself down.  He calmly asked me "If I was looking for anything in particular?"  I said,  "I was just there looking at anything and everything."  He said to, "Look around and let me know if you have any questions."  So I looked around.

I was wandering around when I saw a guitar amplifier that I had never seen before.  When I looked at it I just saw this big logo that said MEGA.

As I looked closer I saw that it was a Mega Amp by a company called Megatone.  I pulled out my phone, and began searching the internet for any information I could find on it.  The only thing I could find is that it was a T60R model, and it was made by a company called Fame.

I had worked in an independent musical instrument store where we had two Fame branded Strat copies come through.  Those were made in the 1980's.  One customer we had from South America said that Fame instruments were sold down there.  I thought that made sense do to them copying famous models for markets that Fender didn't sell in.

What few reviews I found were from European owners.  One reviewer said that he paid 107 Euros for his amp back in 2007.  What reviews I could find were extremely positive.  They also cleared up some confusion.  If you notice the amp says, "Solo Tube Series" on it.  I thought, "Is it a tube amp?"  Well kind of.  It has one 12AX7 preamp tube in it.  So "one" meaning "solo" tube.

So I asked the owner of the pawn shop about it.  Specifically "What would be the price on something like that?"  He said he, "Never priced it because he couldn't find any information on it."  I told him about the one reviewer paying $107 Euros for it in 2007.  He said he, "Didn't know the exchange rate of the Euro."

He then proceeded to say, "Do you want to make me an offer I can't resist?"  I said, "I don't know.  I can be pretty cheap.  Also, I would need one of my guitars to check it out."  He then said something I didn't expect.  He said, "How about $50?  You can take it home, and if it doesn't work you can bring it back, and I'll give you your money back."

I thought about it.  Well, I didn't exactly want to pay for the sign.  So I thought, "Well, if I buy the amp he won't bug me about paying for the sign."  So I bought the amp.  But first I had to get it down.  His place was packed with things so I had to stand sideways on four ladders.  I then had to move a speaker off of it, get the amp down, and move the speaker back into the amp's place.

I found a tag on the amp that said 5-6-11.  I asked him "If it had been there since 2011?"  He said, "He was pretty sure it hadn't been sitting there that long.  Nothing in the shop had."

So I finally managed to get the amp down.  I paid $54 with tax for the amp.  I put it in my truck and brought it home.  I prayed that it worked since I didn't want to return the amp.  So I plugged it in, and was shocked.  Channel one sounded like a Fender Bassman.  And not just that, but it sounded like a dang good Fender Bassman.

Channel Two had a flat EQ, but if you turned down the treble and bass, then maxed out the mids, it sounded a lot like a 70's Marshall 2203.  (That's before they named it the JCM 800.)  What made both channels neat is that they have pre-amp controls.  They weren't just turn up the volume until your ears bleed, and then, and only then, you get great tone.  The pre-amp controls let me achieve some great tone at a lower volume.

What was neat was that if you set Channel Two at a flat EQ, you could get a great blues tone.  But you could also turn the gain up and really rock out.  I have to say it was a surprisingly great amp, especially for $50.  The EQ was extremely versatile.

So I had to open her up.  One problem I noticed was that even though it was only a supposed 60 watts, it was not as loud as it should be.  I thought maybe the tube was old, and burnt out.  So that was the first thing I checked.

As you can see it's an Electro-Harmonix 12AX7 tube.  When I inspected it, it was perfect.  There were no burn marks or damage.  I thought I was going to find a cheap Chinese tube in it.  I was going to replace that Chinese tube with... an Electro Harmonix tube.  So I put it back in.

The speaker was a generic speaker, but I have to say I thought it sounded great.  I wouldn't dare replace it unless it was broken.  A funny thing however, was that it was a 4 ohm speaker.  Usually single speakers are 8 ohms.  I'm guessing they wanted a 4 ohm speaker to push more power.

I sprayed the insides of the amp with electronics cleaner.  Since it had been sitting a while I thought it was the right thing to do.  I noticed the channel switching was a little sticky.  That cleared up once I sprayed down the insides.

I'm still not sure why the amp isn't as loud as I thought it should be.  I figure a few of the caps and other parts are burnt out or not working like they should.  I've found that usually when you fixed parts, the amp ends up sounding too clean, and loses the tone you love.  So I won't get this amp repaired until it finally dies on me.

I honestly can't wait to play it some more.  I didn't go to the pawn shop looking for another amp, but I'm glad I found this one.  I've spent more money buying a single guitar pickup.  The same with guitar pedals.  So I have to say this is one of my better buys.  Still, I don't plan on backing into any more signs, even if it lead me to a great deal.

Editor's Edit:  I found the webpage for this amplifier:

https://www.megaamps.com/t30r

Here's some more photos of the amp since there don't seem to be many on the net.

Overhauling My Cello: Stage One

For a while now I've been thinking about upgrading and overhauling my cello.  My cello is a 1987, Model 360 Erich Pfretzschner.  It was made in Romania when Romania was the China of Europe.  So yeah, it's not the $5000 cello that they "recommend" for beginners, but most of my orchestral classmates played on what could only be described as "glorified cardboard."

Aside from one other cello, mine was the best of all my classmates for the entirety of my junior high and high school years.  So I'd like to thank my parents for indulging a twelve year old's music career.  I don't know too many other parents that would have done that.  

In fact, over the years I've kept up with what they are selling for on the used market.  It turns out that they have been losing value as time has gone on.  I'm guessing fewer orchestra players and the flooding of Chinese instruments has lowered the value on all the violin family of instruments.

Still, it's been the only cello I've ever known.  It was set up by a great luthier, William Walls of Tampa, Fl.  My cello is still equipped with the bridge he made for me, as well as the endpin.  So I really haven't planned on buying another cello.  I just want to make sure this one is set up and upgraded.

Here's a photo of me playing it back in 1988.

So I have a three part plan on upgrading my cello.  Or maybe it's a three stage plan?  I used the word "stage" in my title.

Step/Stage/Part One:  I have replaced my tailpiece with a harp style Tailpiece.  If you look at the photo from 1988, you'll see the original tailpiece.  In all honesty, it was garbage.  The second tailpiece, as you can see in the top photo, was gifted to me by my private cello tutor Laura Smith of the Florida Orchestra.

This one has served me well for over 30 years.  However I thought it was time to upgrade to an ebony harp style tailpiece.  Harp tailpieces are supposed to help cancel out wolf whistles.  If you've ever heard a squeaky violin you know what I'm talking about.  So I bought an ebony tailpiece from where ebony is grown, India.  Thank you E-Bay.  It cost me all of $12.

I bought gold fine tuners for it off E-bay as well.  So I put it all together, and put it on my cello and noticed a problem.  The tailpiece's edge came out too far.  It wouldn't let the fine tuners adjust.  So I thought about it for a while.

Finally I said to myself, "Hey, I'm a luthier.  What if I just take it to my belt sander and sand the edge back?  Then it would let my fine tuners move freely.  I didn't immediately take photos.  It wasn't until I had started sanding that I thought about grabbing my camera.  Here's a photo after I had sanded a bit of the edge off.

Then I got to thinking again.  I know, I talk to myself all the time.  I just don't shut up.  But I said, "Why take off just enough?  If I take off more the fine tuners will have even more room to move."  So I took off some more.

Now this works.  I have to say, I'm glad I took more off.  The tuners have a lot of room to move now.

So now it was time to string it up.

Now this is progress.  I had to remind myself that not all universal parts are universal.  But when you learn to work with what you have that's when you start to become great at what you do.  It forces you to think outside the box.

So stay tuned for Stages two and three.  Stage two should be soon.  The part I have ordered for it is located here in Florida.  So it shouldn't be too long before it gets underway.  Stage three may be a month off.  I had to order parts from China, and they can take a while to get here.  Sometimes it can be as soon as ten days.  Other times it can take six weeks.  So stay tuned.  More to come.

Spring Cleaning For The Fish Tank

As all my friends know, I constantly remind them to clean their fish tanks on the 1st and the 15th of every month.  Which is strange because I don't think any of my friends have fish tanks?  But as sure as the sun come up in the morning, and goes down in the evening, I make sure my fish tank is clean.

I had noticed a problem the last time I was cleaning my fish tank.  It seems there was a lot of debris from my fake plants.  My pleco, Joe the 7th, had been chewing on them so long they were coming apart.  So it was time to buy some new fake plants.

Here's a tip a friend of mine shared.  Since aquarium plants sold in pet stores have a ridiculous markup, buy your plants at Michael's Arts and Crafts.  They have a wider selection, and are much cheaper.  Now, they aren't copies of underwater plants like you would find in pet shops, but some of them can pass very closely.

So not only did I throw out all the old plants, I gave my aquarium a heck of a cleaning.  I mean, I changed 40% of the water vs. the 20% I usually do.  I also gave the tank a good shaving.  As in, I took a straight razor blade, and shaved the algae off most of the tank's sides.

I've learned that since I have a bubble sprayer I have to shave my glass lid when I clean the tank.  Otherwise, there is too much algae buildup, and it cuts back on the amount of light that can come through.

So onto the photos.  Here are photos of the aquarium during the daytime.

These are the photos of the tank at the "Dusk" setting.  My light has about 20 settings, and this one is pretty trippy.  I put it on this setting at the end of the day/night, from 9PM to 10PM.

And this is the "Ocean Blue" Nighttime setting.

I have to say an aquarium can be an awesome thing.  But it depends how much time and money a person puts into it.  I want a clean environment for my fish so I put a fair amount of time into my aquarium.  And as you see it pays off.  Like Professor Moody said, "Constant vigilance!"