One of my favorite singer-songwriters has been playing a Yamaha Silent guitar for quite a while and it's a guitar I'd love to own. If for no other reason, that it just might be one of the best guitars for boatfolk around.
Of course, Yamaha does not build this sort of guitar as a 12-string which I find highly problematic. Then again, a little thought and some sweat equity might go a long way towards a DIY version or two to play with.
A big problem on any 40-foot or less sailboat is it's really difficult to have a real workshop or decent workbench where you can build hatches, various boat wood butchery projects or the odd twelve-string guitar. In my case the last couple of days I've been rebuilding some hatches which has me working, mostly on my knees doing the needful joinery and fiberglass work.
I'll go on record here and say that if you're six foot five working on your knees in the cockpit really sucks.
Which brings me to the Stewmac guitar workstation which has a form factor that would allow one to work standing up with the added advantage of being fairly easy to modify to allow it to be demountable and would not take up too much room in a cockpit locker when not in use.
Better yet, for those of us on a budget and adverse to Stewmac prices, it's not exactly a difficult chore to backwards engineer the concept and build an even better for your own needs version. Hell if I can build a guitar building a better work bench is child's play.
Hell, with a better bench I could save time and with that extra time might actually be able to start building Cruisercasters because no one's building a do everything boat friendly electric guitar for boatfolk who can't quite get in sync with so-called travel guitars.
One of the should I/shouldn't I projects I keep going back and forth on is a solar arch for So It Goes. Part of me sees the utility and well as the problematic nature of building a jungle gym on the stern of the boat keeps it in the maybe I should/maybe I shouldn't purgatory of iffy ideas.
That said, you might want to check out this video on a self-build project that is a lot more interesting than most.
On the other hand, having some excess time on my hands, it is more than time to build that Les Paulish 12 string electric guitar I've been meaning to get on the bench.
Now, if I can only figure out where I put those mini-humbuckers?
For those who are looking at getting a decent boat-friendly guitar rig together. I just saw that Musicians Friend has the Quilter Labs MicroBlock 45 45W Guitar Amp Head which might be the smallest amplifier head around on sale today...
Add a small speaker cabinet or two and kick some ass.
Of late I've been thinking a lot about building a cross between a Firebird and a Telecaster with 12 strings (fellow guitar slingers will know what I'm talking about) which would make it a Firecaster or a Telebird?
Anyway, the thing is, in doing some research on Teles I came across a couple of videos of a guy doing a very cool nautical themed Telecaster that you might want to check out.
Hey, what's not to like about a guitar with a compass rose?
I may not be well rounded in some ways but I do have a lot of diverse interests that often open paths to understanding and learning that I notice other, more focused people, tend to miss.
For example, yesterday I came across a series of videos devoted to the build of two Les Paul Jr type electric guitars that I binge watched because they were so good.
I'm pretty sure at this point a lot of the more focused readership is either saying to themselves...
"WTF does building a guitar have to do with boats or boatbuilding?"
Or...
"What sort of idiot is interested in any guitar other than a Strat?"
As for that last question, this sort of idiot thinks Strats are a dead end in the evolutionary order of things guitar and that guitars like Guild Thunderbirds, Gibson Firebirds, and the lowly (yet oh so perfect) Les Paul Jr stand head and shoulders above Leo Fender's worst guitar design otherwise known as the S-T-R-A-T-O-C-A-S-T-E-R. Admittedly not exactly a popular opinion.
That said, watching a guitar builder who knows his shit can be an eye opening experience for a boatbuilder and the five videos in the Les Paul build had so many neat tricks easily applied to the wood butchery we call boatbuilding that I highly advise you watch the videos with a pencil and some paper to write down notes.
Listening to Ben Sollee (who does not play a Strat)
Some time ago I wrote about how enamoured I was with the Electro Harmonix 22 Caliber and 44 Magnum Power Amps for folks on boats who play electric guitar and I still think they make all kinds of sense.
That said, this amp by Quilter seriously knocked my socks off the other day...
A very long time ago at the Aquarius Theater in Los Angeles I was lucky enough to see one of the last performances of Buffalo Springfield where Stills and Young guitar dueled on their White Falcons...
Last I looked, Stills
and Young...
are still ripping it up using White Falcons.
All, as they say, is right with the universe.
As it happens, Gretsch has recently introduced an acoustic 12 string White Falcon...
The Philippines has just had a hellacious tropical storm, Typhoon Haiyan, that has left a path of death and devastation and folks there could use some help...
I sorta/kinda expected some members of the marine trades to step in and do a little something to help out but so far I'm not seeing anything. The only folks showing some concern and doing something to raise money to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in my mailbox is Eastwood guitars.
Good people who make good guitars...
They want to raffle off a guitar and, as it happens, it's a pretty nice guitar. Five bucks is all it takes and you might get lucky or spend some more and your chances are even better. That said, I should warn you that I WANT THIS GUITAR and I'm feeling lucky!
So, why not do some good and see if you can beat me...
Most people have a picture in their head that says "boat". It might be a Swan, maybe an IOR racer, or a catamaran.
For me, it has never quite been that simple because I have overfilled file cabinets of pictures of boats of every shape and description. I don't actually have a "proper boat" image floating around because in the world I inhabit any boat might be the proper boat in the right context.
Where boats are concerned it is all about function and the ability to do the job needed...
Of late, this boat has been on the top of my mental pile...
Partly because I'm somewhat obsessed with scows and partly because the designer is in the process of actually building the prototype and sharing the process through photos with us on his website. Truth is, it's not often you get to see a designer of boats actually building one...
The SKROWL is an interesting design and certainly deserves some study if only for the fact that it does not look anything like what most people think a "proper boat" should look like. Its design and construction has a lot to teach if you pay attention.
So yeah, I'm paying attention...
Sadly though, most folks are going to say to themselves that does not look like a boat at all and go back to that Swan in their head.
It's pretty much the same in most things... Even guitars where if you say "electric guitar" 80% of folks will have a picture of a Stratocaster pop into their head. As it happens, I've never been much of a Strat kind a guy and, as much as I admire Leo Fender, the guitars that pop into my head are anything but Strats...
Sure, boat gear is expensive but a lot of it really does not have to be. For instance, a parachute anchor is something most folk should consider having but the prices tend to scare folks away...
West Marine has the Para-Tech parachute sea anchor for my boat (15') for $739 which, as far as boat gear goes, is not too bad but damn if $739 does not have an ouch factor...
Of course, surplus parachutes are readily available and cost a lot less from folks like Aerocon who more than likely will have just what you need.
It's your choice... Me, I like the idea that with the money I save not going the marine route so I can buy something fun and frolicsome...
On open source ecology, some food for thought, and one reason I'm not overly excited about lithium battery chemistry for electric propulsion on boats...
Ummm, I just think I threw up a little bit, yeah definitely in the hurl zone, and oh holy crap...
I really, really have to quit reading the news before I get my second cup of coffee.
One thing folks on boats who play guitar have to put up with is no one who is building guitar gear even has a clue what we actually need. Take guitar amps for instance...
Now, I've previously mentioned the difficulty of finding boat-sized guitar amplification here and here. The problem is not so much that the companies in question are not making good stuff, it is just that they don't quite get what's really needful.
So, what do I want that I have not been finding?
Well, for one, batteries suck because they don't last and give different performance levels when they're charged, semi-charged, and nearly dead. Secondly, running amps on boats using an inverter never quite cuts it either as there is something off about the sound and when you start using effects all of a sudden you're spending more time dealing with the hum from hell than you are playing...
How about someone designing a 12-volt DC amplifier or at least an AC amp with a separate 12V circuit. Hey, as long as we're wishing, might as well add a nine-volt circuit to run your pedals!
Well, you know what? There really is a god/goddess and I'm pretty sure he/she might be working for ZT Amplifiers...
I've been looking for a six or preferably a twelve string banjo for quite a while. The six strings I come across just don't appeal and the twelve strings are as rare as an honest politician. That said, this Fender is an instrument I'd like to sit down with for a couple of hours and spend some quality time with.
But if any readers come across an old Framus 12-string banjo (no doubt nestled between a double digit Fender Broadcaster and a Martin 000-28 in pristine condition) in some junk or pawn shop, do let me know...
Man, I hate it when the "H" tings come at night...
Notice I don't quite use the "H" word... It's because anyone who has ever been around such things for any length of time tends to get just a little superstitious. Like demons and other skulkers of the night, naming them gives them more power than most of us are comfortable with.
Which is not to say that I don't put faith in my ground tackle and suchlike but, then again, I don't begin a voyage on a Friday either if you catch my drift... So, the ritual of preparing for a storm (the setting of the ground tackle, pulling down the solar panels, making sure the Gris-Gris is in its proper place, and the baking of the chocolate cake) becomes the order of the day.
Then again, there is the deal making, where I promise to take in a sad forlorn homeless Firebird guitar and foster it with love as if it were my own if only I make it through yet another "H" event unscathed and floating right side up. Why a Gibson you may ask... because everyone knows that the Hoo Doo of classic Gibson is a powerful ally against things that go bump in the night.
Looking at my RSS feed I see that I have 666 unread posts. Truth is, I'm not sure if I should read one or, just maybe, invoke Armageddon or some other such foolishness.
So many choices...
Well, since our politicians and the folks who pull their strings seem to have an Armageddonesque future well in hand for us, I'll simply read some posts.
Lucky you...
What I do need to do today, as there are all sorts of sales (nothing says remember our brave fallen soldiers like buying stuff cheap or making a profit in the US of A), is to buy a couple of guitar tuners. Well, actually as we have a bunch of guitars... I guess I need a bunch of tuners!
Given the choice between sitting through the breakdown and destruction of civilization or being forced to listen to someone playing an out-of-tune guitar on the beach well, I'll opt for Armageddon every time.
Sensible Simplicity makes some sense, a four year old who's going to have some issues with authority, and fixing stupid, they say, is never easy...
I like Line 6 amps... They make some very cool modeling amps that allow the player, at a touch of a button, to change his amp sound from say a Marshall stack to an old Fender and pretty much anything in between.
Kinda like magic...
For awhile, Line 6 has also been making guitars that do the same thing... You want your guitar to sound like a Les Paul, a Strat, or a Telecaster it's simply a matter of turning a knob. If you need it to sound like an acoustic, resophonic, or a twelve-string they've got that covered as well and all told the Variax has 28 separate guitar models in its "chip".
Even more interesting from where I sit, is the fact that the Variax also allows for different tunings without the need to retune the guitar to various open tunings... You need to play slide on a song and want an E7 tuning.... Turn a knob! Is that cool or what?
Actually it does sound too good to be true but a while back on Anguilla I saw that Jimmy Buffett's guitar player was using an early model Variax and kicking some serious butt in the process... You might want to check it out on Buffett's Live in Anguilla DVD.
I'm never sure whether to describe myself as a film maker who sails or a sailor/boatbuilder who makes films...Either way I'm a pretty happy camper when all is said and done.
