Is the (so-called) wealthiest nation on earth actually a 3rd world country in disguise? Like most things, I guess it depends on who you ask. No matter who you ask, though, it’s apparent that homelessness is a bigger issue here than it used to be. The causes vary, from mental illness and substance abuse to predatory capitalism running its (rather predictable) course, with an increasing number of people becoming “redundant”, to borrow a term from the Brits.
As a growing number of cities and towns struggle with solutions, an unfortunate conundrum is emerging- the places which demonstrate compassion and offer what assistance they can gain a reputation which goes beyond their immediate area, and they experience an influx of people from beyond their immediate area, who had fewer resources available where they came from. Being homeless is dangerous (for multiple reasons) and people experiencing it do what most of us would do in that situation, which is migrate to places where the odds of survival are better.
What this means is that, without a broader federal response (like much more funding for subsidized housing), places which offer any sort of assistance to homeless people will continue to struggle with the issue, as people leave places which don’t offer assistance.
Well, the parlor guitar I got for van trips last year worked OK, but I found myself running out of room to play higher up the neck- partly because the parlor guitar’s neck joins the body at the 12th fret (larger acoustic necks usually join at the 14th fret) and partly due to the guitar not having a cutaway. As most of my audience knows, I’m not a folk-type strummer when it comes to guitar… the internet being what it is, I found myself looking around for a better van solution.
Carbon fiber is a fairly new material in the acoustic guitar world, and one of it’s advantages is a high degree of stability during wide temperature swings (which van travel features in spades). Only problem is, most of those guitars cost upwards of $2,000- not exactly a campfire sing-along instrument, at least in my world. Enter the Enya Nova Go…
Enya Music (based in Houston) makes carbon fiber guitars and ukuleles- most of them are smaller sized, lower priced alternatives to high-end instruments, and I got my Nova Go model for $160 new (with free shipping). A case was included, which is a cross between a bag and a hardshell type. I installed a Les Paul style pickguard, because the body has a similar shape to a Les Paul and I think it looks cool (and I love Les Pauls)- but it looks fine without a pickguard (which is how it comes).
They offer several colors, including dark grey and turquoise green- I chose purple because, back in 1974, my Uncle David and I built a Les Paul shaped electric guitar body in his shop during one of my visits to the family place in Iowa. We used the neck, pickups and wiring from a really cheap electric guitar I took there with me, and we spray painted the thing bright purple (they say music can bring back memories we might otherwise forget, and the song “How Long” by Ace was all over the radio at the time). I don’t remember what eventually happened to that guitar (and I went on to focus on bass), but this Enya model seems a fitting way to honor that project.
How does it sound? Certainly not as nice as one of those $2000 guitars, but not bad- and the volume is impressive, given the small body size. The small size (smaller and thinner than the parlor guitar) also makes it a better fit in the van, where space is always at a premium.
I was talking with Chris at Woodsongs music store in Boulder yesterday, and we got on the subject of acoustic guitar pickup systems… these days, there are often fancy, on-board electronics in an acoustic guitar, which allow better tone control (and feedback control) than the stuff we had back when I was in the Poisoned Squirrels.
The photo is from an acoustic set the Squirrels did in Greeley, CO in the early 1990s- for those types of sets Jim usually just played his hi-hat while standing (as opposed to his full drum set) and Ken would use either an electric or an acoustic (stand-up) bass. Paul and I had dreadnought style acoustic guitars (I don’t miss that body shape)- I forget who made his, but I remember mine was a Yamaha with a plywood top.
Plywood isn’t considered as desirable as something solid (like spruce) but you can find plywood instruments which sound OK, and it’s cheaper. Another advantage of plywood is that if you try bizarre experiments with it you haven’t risked much, and the stuff might stand up to it better. Case-in-point: while Paul’s guitar had a piezo pickup mounted under the saddle (a common setup) mine had a speaker from an old set of headphones glued to the top (you can see it just below my right hand in the photo) which I had wired for use not as a speaker, but as a microphone type pickup… wait, what?
OK, well, some of you probably know that speakers and many microphones work on the same principal- magnet + wire coil + moving paper or plastic element. The moving element in a microphone is much smaller than one in a speaker, but a speaker element can create a signal the same way a microphone does, though it’ll sound a bit different when amplified. When I scavenged my speaker experiment, I got lucky and found one with a solid metal back, so the paper inside was protected from damage while the guitar was played or moved. I drilled a small hole in the top for the wire, since I had to connect it to the speaker on the outside- the wire ran from the hole through the inside of the guitar to one of those strap holders which contain a jack for guitar cables.
How did it sound? Not stellar, but it had more low frequencies than under-saddle piezo pickups had at the time, and it was less “tinny” sounding as well- I think it sounded closer to an acoustic guitar (something those piezo setups never managed). I’m guessing the speaker’s solid metal back also cut down on feedback, but I still had occasional issues. Experiments like that were fun, but I can definitely say that acoustic guitar pickup systems work pretty well these days, and I no longer feel the need to glue a speaker onto my guitar.
Ever since taking up electric guitar and bass at age 14, I’ve wanted a Les Paul standard model guitar, and, while I had a Les Paul special briefly in college, it wasn’t quite right for me- something about all the extra flash and 3rd pickup, perhaps (also the weight). The late 50s-early 60s standard types were always my favorites- not quite as fancy, and not quite as heavy.
These days, it takes between $1,000 and $3,000 to get one of those (for a new or recent used one- the actual units from the 50s and 60s cost many times that, if you can find one). I’ve never quite been comfortable owning expensive instruments- they’re not as likely to find their way out of my house and onto a stage (or a campsite) as my trusty budget guitars, and for me the whole point of having an instrument is to use it, as opposed to constantly worrying about damaging it.
Several companies have made cheaper Les Paul copies- some of them barely playable, and some of them pretty good. Over the years, Gibson (who makes the Les Paul model) bought some other guitar makers, including Epiphone. They started using the Epiphone factory to make budget versions of various Gibson models, including the Les Paul (Fender also does this, and I got a budget version of their famous Stratocaster model for a fraction of the price). Here’s a bit of trivia- Les Paul actually made his first solid body guitar at the Epiphone factory (after hours) back when it was in Michigan.
During our cross-country van trip this past summer we visited several relatives, and I played the small camping guitar I carry on most of the stops. People generally reacted well to my music, but my mom was impressed enough that she decided she wanted to honor and support it in some way (beyond sharing my various videos with people where she lives). She suggested getting me a nice bass, but since I like my current bass guitars as much as anything I’ve played (Ibanez, if you’re wondering- one cost $400 and one cost $140) I thought perhaps I could finally indulge my Les Paul desire. So here it is- an Epiphone Les Paul standard… looking forward to sharing whatever I play on it with her- and you.
It seems many of us (including me) haven’t been paying attention to how climate science has evolved in recent years- for example, the idea that no matter what we do global temps will continue to rise for several decades is something an increasing number of scientists disagree with. Current modelling points to something more like a 5 year lag time between taking aggressive action and temps stabilizing.
This isn’t to say we’d be out of the jam, but we might have a better chance of mitigating things. It’s not without precedent either- enough of the world’s countries cooperated over ozone damaging chemicals that the ozone hole over the southern hemisphere is repairing itself. Will we take enough action soon enough? Therein lies the rub, but hopelessness doesn’t get us where we need to be. It does, however, play rather nicely into the hands of people who- for the short term- benefit from our inaction.
Excessive optimism could perhaps be considered delusional, or even a mental illness- certainly dysfunctional behavior. But the same exact things can be said of excessive pessimism.
“Be the change you want to see in the world”… most of us have heard this phrase, to the point that it risks sounding rather like a Hallmark card. Here’s the thing, though- some of the most inspiring leaders, teachers, heroes, artists, inventors, and visionaries have been exactly that. For thousands of years.
People are complicated, and the visionary parts of us are usually mixed in with all the other stuff which, for better or worse, makes us human. Ghandi could be short-tempered, MLK practiced a different version of marriage than his wife, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Christ was as curmudgeonly as Bernie Sanders (at least when it came to those money changers). None of this de-legitimizes what they offered the world.
Change usually doesn’t happen overnight, and we lurch along with whatever baggage we happen to carry. Can you be the change you want to see in the world if you’re tired, over-worked, under appreciated, in debt, sick, frightened, stressed, sad, dealing with demons like surviving rape or beatings, homelessness, war, and whatever else humans can throw at one another? I’m not here to sell you cheap, short term optimism (that would be rather like a Hallmark card) but I am here to say that you never really know what the power of a seemingly small act can be.
I remember a Spring afternoon in Manhattan back in the early 1980s, when I was feeling a bit lost and wondering what my next step should be (I did theater lighting and sound there, but I didn’t have enough work to stay) … as I walked on the sidewalk among all the other people in midtown that day, a woman who looked just a bit older than me came along going the other direction and gave me a really warm smile- the kind that left me with a nice feeling inside for the rest of the day. As you might know, New York is not exactly renowned for this sort of thing, or at least it wasn’t at the time. Did it change the course of my life for ever after? Realistically, probably not (“nah” as my friends there would say). But I was occasionally inspired to return the favor with various strangers since then, so in a way, perhaps…
In those times when you can manage to bring the things which you like, love, or inspire you out into the world around you, you’re making a gift to the rest of us. The times when you can manage to be at least some of what you envision for yourself on a good day- out in the open- you’re also encouraging the rest of us to do the same in our own lives. And it can bounce back at you in wonderful ways. Each one of us offers an option for living which the rest of us can draw from, to whatever degree it might fit.
Have you lived a life in which this has never seemed possible? Well, you can try it at any age… and you’re going to die, no matter what philosophy you’re into or what supplements you take, so what do you want for yourself between now and the inevitable? Being the change you want to see in the world might be easier than you think.
I’m seeing many calls for a windfall profits tax on oil companies, given the recent price increases at the pump. I guess that would be OK with me, especially since higher fuel prices directly contribute to inflation, through higher prices for things (like food) which require fuel to get to market. Whether those oil companies will simply raise the price again to cover the tax is an open question, but it’s not hard to imagine.
There are other ways inflation hurts people, among them soaring vehicle prices and soaring home prices. That second one can be a windfall if a homeowner sells, but if they want to remain in their home all they’ll see is a higher property tax bill- at a time when wages are stagnant for many people. Anyone on a fixed income (such as senior citizens and people with disabilities) might really struggle to pay that bill. I don’t know about other places, but the measures enacted in my area to help seniors with property tax bills, while certainly helpful, aren’t by and large enough to make the difference between staying and leaving for anyone in a lower income bracket, especially in light of the 20-30 percent increase in taxes here this year.
Local governments need property tax money for a number of things which we all want, including schools and infrastructure, and this is quite a windfall for them. I’m not an economist, but funding the things which make society function seems like basic common sense, so in a way this is actually a windfall for all of us. But I believe we also have a moral responsibility to people on fixed incomes, many of whom were employed in “socially responsible” professions which directly contributed to the place we love and call home.
So, what should we do? Could there be some sort of extra property tax relief, which might “sunset” if and when housing inflation cools? Should it be means-based, so the local government could keep some of the windfall? Just my two cents worth… which is apparently worth less these days.
We humans are a subjective lot. While objectivity is often desirable, it’s not completely achievable. Many of us have, however, figured that out, and it’s why there are things like written checklists which airline pilots read aloud to each other before takeoff. You might be having a great day and feel on top of the world, and still miss that little thingy over by the throttles or forget to make sure all the warning lights are working… even if you’ve never missed those things the last 500 times.
So it shouldn’t be a complete surprise that perfectly intelligent, honest, thoughtful people can fail to evaluate information correctly. We all fail, to some degree. It doesn’t help that governments and major media outlets have made mistakes in what they say and report, along with occasionally intentionally misrepresenting things. So people certainly have reason to reject things the government and the media say are true. If we categorically reject those things, though, it’s an example of subjective reasoning prevailing over objectivity. Giving equal weight to a very small number of doctors who reject vaccines as we give to the vast majority of doctors who say vaccines are safe and effective is also an example of subjective reasoning.
We may not be wired for complete objectivity, but if we’re lucky we can figure out how to compensate for it… and maybe come up with some checklists of our own.
I had a parts guitar I took apart to fix my thrift store Fender Stratocaster- the project went well, but the leftover bits and pieces were just sitting around (or maybe laying around, not sure which), and I began to wonder what would happen if, instead of tossing them, I attempted to turn them into a bass guitar (a “Stratobasster”?).
I’ve had short scale basses before, but the scale length of most guitars (including a Strat) is well under even the shortest bass guitar scale… 25.5 inches in this case (my long scale bass is 34 inches, for comparison). OK, whatever- if I wanted to I could probably play a strung 2×4, at least a little… hey- maybe that’s my next project! As for this project, though, it’ll take some doing. Since bass strings are way thicker than guitar strings, intonating (making notes along the neck sound in tune) the Strat copy for bass strings could be “problematic” (unless you’re just interested in playing punk, like my first bass student).
But wait! Those pesky frets on the neck are the main reason it’s hard to intonate guitars, and this thing was so cheap to begin with that it couldn’t be intonated even when it was a functioning guitar (which was fine for that death metal Christmas music I recorded before dismantling it). So there’s probably no way it’ll ever work as a bass… unless I stop and think about how the bass guitar evolved…
Yes, the “guitar” part of the name certainly implies a relationship to that 6 string thing too many people seem to think they should attempt (also, you don’t have to go rock climbing just because it’s become popular), but the other part of the name is the interesting part- it refers to the large violin shaped thing which people, for centuries, have stood next to and played with a bow. That thing doesn’t have frets (but you will if you try to get on a Green Line train in Boston during rush hour with one, like I did in college). And somewhere along the line, somebody figured out that a bass guitar doesn’t really have to have frets either (they actually figured that out in Mexico long before they did here, and it’s called a guitarrón).
OK, so my “Stratobasster” doesn’t really have to have frets, and if I remove them I’ll be able to compensate for the various intonation issues by moving my fingers a bit in one direction or another, which will change the pitch slightly- something not possible with frets (unless you like bending strings every time you play a note). So far, so good- but what about the other stuff? The tuning pegs which were on the guitar won’t accept thicker bass strings, and the nut (the little thing at the end of the fingerboard which the strings run through to keep them in place) won’t either. At the other end (on the body), the bass strings won’t fit through the anchor (bridge/tailpiece assembly) which is meant for guitar strings, and in the case of a Strat, there’s also that whole “whammy bar” setup which allows the bridge to move back and forth a little for various effects. Part of the wood in the body is carved out for that, and I’ll need to factor that in when mounting a bass bridge/tailpiece assembly- my plan is literally full of holes.
Damn- maybe just stringing a 2×4 would be a better idea… I’ll put the bridge up at the end of the neck and the tuners down on the body and call it a “Stokeberger” bass (industry joke there- I knew Ned Steinberger way before he got interested in bass guitars, and he was a pretty good carpenter in the early 1970s). But OK, I have this stuff here, and it was destined for some sort of recycling, so if I screw it up I’m not losing much… ONWARD! POWER TOOLS! … or not.
CHAPTER 1 (in which Doris get her oats): Starting in on the neck and figuring out how and where to mount the bridge… and ordering some cheap bass guitar hardware, like the bridge ($15), tuners ($15 for a set of 4), and a nut ($3). The peghead (where the tuners go) has 6 smaller diameter holes in it, for guitar tuners. I’ll need 4 larger bass tuners, so I’ll have to choose from the 6 existing holes and enlarge 4 of them. POWER TOOLS! And also some hand reaming with a round file.
The existing guitar nut came out by hitting it sideways, and there’s a nice notch there for the new bass nut… which is too narrow. Out comes a flat file, and since I’m a lousy finish carpenter, out comes the Krazy Glue as well, when it’s time to install the new nut. Cutting the plastic pickgaurd to accommodate a larger bridge wasn’t too difficult, and mounting the bridge became a bit easier once I decided to remove the frets from the neck- less concern about intonation, and more concern with finding solid wood to drill into for the mounting screws. I could drill into the body with a regular power drill, but it’s easy to go farther than you’d planned with one of those, so I use a small crank-operated hand drill.
“Stratobasster” project CHAPTER 2 (in which Doris pukes up her oats): Time to attach the pickguard, with the pickups and wiring, and also the output jack for the cord. When I took this thing apart (while scavenging it for parts) I left the pickgaurd/wiring assembly more or less intact, but there was still a bit of soldering to do- the output jack and an extra ground wire, which will go to the bridge for grounding the strings.
Bolting on the neck would seem pretty straightforward, until I realized the angle at which it meets the body will make the action (string height from fingerboard) quite high. Which means it’ll be difficult to play for more than 1 or 2 songs, unless you regularly play a 12 string guitar (which I did, before the arthritis set in). What to do? Go out to the garage for a couple of washers to use as shims, that’s what. Re-attach the neck and the angle looks a bit better. Also, I sanded the fingerboard after removing the frets, so some linseed oil seems in order after cleaning it- brings out the grain in the rosewood, and darkens it.
Almost time to add strings, but there’s a bit of wiring remaining to deal with first- all the wood they carved out of the body for that whammy bar setup makes running the ground wire to the bridge easy. There’s also a fair amount of wood missing from underneath the bridge assembly, so I decided to attach the ground wire on top of it, to one of the mounting screws- black insulation on black finish shouldn’t show too much.
OK, will this thing take a set of bass strings? Guess we’ll find out… a set of round-wound strings came with the fretted bass I acquired last month which I didn’t want on it- I kept them around, so let’s do it! OK, well, the neck is definitely not used to this (especially since I removed the frets and left empty channels in the wood where they were) but nothing has come flying apart yet. One thing I wondered about was how the strings would align with the fingerboard- the guitar bridge/anchor which was on there has a narrower overall width than the bass bridge I installed, and it’s possible the bass strings will be spaced too wide to hit the fingerboard higher up the neck. Turns out it’s not ideal, but they don’t really go “off the rails” until nearly the end of the neck, where I usually don’t play (my playing, however, often goes off the rails).
Adjusting the string height is a bit of a process, because the string tension will likely change the curve in the neck a bit over the next day or two, so I’ll keep the tools handy. Adjusting the pickup height isn’t hard. When I was getting parts off this guitar for my Fender Strat, I took the back plastic cover. Now that I’m attempting to salvage this thing, I should find something to replace that cover… back out to the garage, and hey, look here- an old plastic mud flap from one of my 1980s vintage Toyota trucks! Not perfect, but stiff enough (and close enough for rock & roll)… some quick (and somewhat inept) work with a pair of tin snips and there’s my replacement cover.
Last but not least- I like a thumb-rest when I play bass, and my two good basses have them, so sure, why not? OK, how does it sound through an amplifier? The internet is full of stuff about how you can’t do this kind of conversion because the neck won’t stand the tension and guitar pickups won’t work with bass strings. Both are false (and I knew that, because I’d taken a guitar repair course in college) but that never seems to stop anyone on the internet. The tension bass strings put on a neck isn’t way different from guitar strings, and magnetic pickups work by creating an electric current when metal strings move back and forth above them- the principle works regardless of string diameter. Are bass pickups optimized for bass strings? Yes. But, after running this thing through an amp, I can say all the frequencies that are supposed to be there are there, and some tone control adjustments are all that might be needed- mostly a matter of taste (or lack of it).
It’s sometimes said that Christ came to earth to give us a relationship with God. I believe that, but I would add that each of us gets to determine what that relationship is, regardless of what any would-be intermediary says the relationship requires.
While it’s obvious to me that some of the people who identify as Christian don’t seem interested in His teachings, I don’t get to decide who is or isn’t a Christian. Neither does anyone else. If I don’t want to believe in some ancient concept of heaven or hell I don’t have to- I still get to have a relationship with God, and so do you, if you want. If you don’t want to, my perception of you is unchanged, because I don’t think you’re going to heaven or hell, and also (more importantly) because I’d much rather learn from you and enjoy your company than reject you based on some notion I didn’t come up with on my own.
I love and accept atheists as much as anyone else, as well as people with different spiritual traditions. I don’t have any more answers than anyone else. What I do know is I love all of you, and, as my extended “family” I appreciate what you do for the world. Feliz Navidad!
Peter Stokes 