Stradivarius Never Had Rosewood

I feel pretty lucky to live in Florida.  There are nice selections of native, and no so native trees that grow here.  About fifty years ago there were a lot of East Indian Rosewood planted around the Tampa Bay area.  It has been my luck to run into some of this Rosewood, and I am more than happy about that.

I have been working on building a violin for a while.  But I didn't want this to be a copy of a Stradivarius violin.  In fact, I wanted it to be quite different.  99% of violins are copies of Stradivarius guitars for a reason.  They can't sell them otherwise.  However, since this violin is for me or my friends, I am happy to build it very differently. 

And that brings me to another point.  I am first and foremost a guitar builder.  Guitar builders are never satisfied with one design.  Leo Fender didn't stop designing when he created the Fender Broadcaster (later named the Telecaster.)  He went on to design the Stratocaster (guess who that's named after), and then quite a few models with G&L guitars.  So why did violin designs stop with Stradivarius's design? 

Stradivarius didn't have access to the North American hard and softwoods that luthiers have access to now.  He didn't have Rosewood.  To be honest, I think he would have liked Rosewood, Black Walnut, and Sitka Spruce.  He had to use what he had, and I think a lot of people don't realize that. 

The violin that I am designing takes quite a few ideas from different builders.  First and foremost would be Robert Bennedetto, the Godfather of the modern archtop guitar.  I learned more about guitar design from him than I ever thought possible.  The bracing system I will use is based on his style of X bracing.  I also took the body design from the pre-Stradivarius Russian violins.  The headstock/ scroll design I updated what I thought would be a more modernized styling.  And the woods I am using are woods that will give a more balanced voice to the violin. 

And speaking of woods, here are some pictures of the wood that is rough cut.

You can see the neck and two fingerboards rough cut out of Rosewood.  Oh, and this Rosewood is quartersawn for strength.  It's pretty uniform in it's grain pattern and color.

This piece of wood is for a project way in the future.  This Rosewood plank will be used for a cello fingerboard. 

As more Rosewood gets cut I am going to have more pieces of wood for my various projects.  I will hopefully be able to post a blog in the future showing them.  But for now, I have plenty of wood to play with. 

Tough Choices, Evil Empires, and Black Gold

Job hunting is tough all over.  Except for one place.  North Dakota.  Why you ask?  Simply put, black gold, also known as the new oil boom.

The evil empire known as Haliburton has invented a new way to drill.  Instead of drilling from the top of a mountain, they can go in from the side.  They then frak the rock, and suck the oil out.  And there's a lot of oil.  How much?  In twenty years they believe North Dakota alone will out produce Saudi Arabia. 

And that's where I come in.  Or should I say workers from across the United States come in.  Let's be honest, North Dakota is kind of sparse, and doesn't have enough workers.

And they need workers.  Lots of workers.  Heck, even the fast food employees are getting $12-$15 an hour.  And they need truckers.  Lots of truckers to move that black gold from the oil fields to the refineries.  But it is a dangerous job.  I actually had to stop and think what driving a semi truck in North Dakota would be like.  Something like this I suppose.

Ok, hopefully it wouldn't be exactly like that.  It would be more like this.

Then there is the fact that I would be working for Haliburton or one of their underlings.  And we all know what Haliburton means.  It means Dick Cheney will try to shallow your soul.

And with oil comes oil spills.  And no one wants cute animals to die.

But let's get back to talking money.  Yes, it's easy to make $1500 a week, but what are the expenses?  First off, since there are very few people in North Dakota there is very little housing.  What housing there is takes half your paycheck.  And then there's the matter of food.  Food and all other goods have to be shipped in.  They can run quite a bit of money since North Dakota is so far out.  So even if I make a good amount of money, after expenses I don't know if I would have much left.  And I would still have bills to pay. 

I'm not going to make a quick decision on this as I don't want to work in North Dakota during the winter.  Once it hits Springtime I will think long and hard about it.  Different companies up there have options as far as housing and food go.  I would just have to find one that would be a good fit for me.  Oh, and one that would let me keep my soul instead of letting Cheney suck it out.

New Guitar Day!

I wasn't planning on getting another guitar.  In fact, no musician really "plans" on getting one.  They always just happen to "run into a deal."  Well, the same happened to me.  I had been on the road for three and a half weeks, and was just happy to be home. 

I was scanning the local Craigslist, and saw something I thought was too good to be true.  The ad said the seller was selling a silver Dean Hardtail guitar and a Dean hardshell case for a total of $180.  I thought that couldn't be right.  The Hardtails normally sold for $600, and the cases for $130. 

I e-mailed, and hoped that he hadn't sold it yet.  Well, I got a call the next day, went over to his place that night, and gladly paid the $180 he was asking.  I'm still in shock about it. 

It's a great playing guitar, and was even better after I made a few adjustments.  When I have time, I will do a fret dress on it, and set it up the way I like.

But let's be honest.  You're want pictures.  Here they are.

I Still Miss Someone

It's been a year and a half since I broke up with my long time girlfriend Roxy (not her real name,) and I still miss someone.  That someone being the guinea pig we adopted, Punky.  I was never really into guinea pigs, as I have mostly had fish my whole life.  However, Punky was a really nice pet to have. 

She liked to chill out on my stomach.  I guess it's because I'm so warm to the touch.  I would sit her on my stomach, and just comb/ pet her.  Then she made the cutest little noises.  Guinea pigs make a "wheek, wheek, wheek" sort of noise, and it's just adorable. 

One time when I didn't want to get out of bed, Roxy put Punky in the bed with me.  She (Punky) then proceeded to snuggle up next to me under the covers.  She actually laid on her side and snuggled up against me.  There are pictures of that, but I'm not posting them because no one want to post pictures of themselves in the morning.  But the point is it was a really cute moment.

And now for even cuter moments.  Here are pictures of Punky.

The Internet Picture Collection, Part 3

And away we go with part three.

I always sent this one when talking about trucking.  This one is not exactly DOT approved.

I sent this to one gal who wrote me back saying she didn't get it.

Penguins are awesome.  Enough said.

Beagles are also as cool as penguins.

For some reason women never like it when I sent this one to them.

This one show just how futile yelling at one another is.

A good warning sign for truck drivers.

The animal lovers always like this one.

Sheep need a drink of water too.

This painting is called "The Surrender."  It was the basis for the painting of myself on a Triceratops.

That's enough for now.  More to come. 

The Internet Picture Collection, Part 2

So here we go.  Lots more fun pictures I've collected from across the net.  Here we go.

I think we have all been mormowed before.  I know I have.

I have no idea what this is about, but it always makes me laugh.

This is one of those that makes no sense, but I love it.

This is a picture that a guy posted on the My Little Pony forums.  It led to him getting banned.

This one is always good for an inside joke.

This always makes me laugh.

It's so true.  You can not simply rock into Mordor.

This is what happens when college students get bored in the winter.

Making sure your horse is safe when swimming.

Not a bad shirt for some women.

Ok, that's enough for now.  More to come.

The Internet Picture Collection, Part 1

Back in the early days of the internet I used to collect pictures from various websites.  Nothing dirty, but lots of funny pictures.  It was always a blast to include them in e-mails that I would send to people.  Now-a-days when people send messages to each other, they just use Facebook.  But back then you had to actually send e-mails to one another.  So when I would e-mail people I would always include a completely insane pictures.  Here's a few of my favorites.

I always loved the basement horse.  He would pop up in the craziest places.

This one just offended everyone.  I loved sending this one to people.

Meat.  Mmmm.

This weird creature was discovered a few years ago.  It was just too funny to really exist.

This one really offended some uptight Muslims on the net.  It's too easy sometimes.  Of course it doesn't hurt that this picture is called, "Find the gay Muslim."

Friday the 13th, Jason goes Wiccan.

I just love the expression on the kids face.

Racist?  Maybe.  But it's still funny.

This is one of my favorites.  You know why.

Another great demotivational poster.

The Jump Devil will attack you.  I like the "Tour de France" on his pitchfork.

Killer Robot.  Taking out children all at once.

I sent this one to so many people.  I laughed for hours the first time I saw this.

That's a good amount of pictures for this post.  I will post more blogs about my collecting pictures.  There are still so many hilarious ones in my collection.