"I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike!" – Queen

A couple of years ago, I thought it would be nice for all of us to buy new bikes and start riding as a family. We had a couple of false starts (i.e. one teenager didn't want to get a proper geared bike and couldnt' keep up or didn't want to be "seen" with us, ha ha). But this time, in our new house surrounded by nicely paved trails, we're making it happen.

I bought a Trek Pure Deluxe in 2009 thinking I wanted a cushy seat, relaxed riding position. I never bonded with the bike, didn't feel like I had any pedaling power with it either!

So earlier this year, I decided I'd like us to try riding again by getting me a proper bike and something for our teenager that she would like but also be able to keep up with us on.

Turns out she loves my Trek Pure (it's orange, her favorite color!) and I found that a more road style bike suited my needs better.

So, I got a 2011 Trek 7.2FX, thanks to the wonderful folks at Chainwheel. Love it! So easy to ride and I really feel I have all the power I need. I also got some toe straps to go with it. This is another great advantage for me as I can add to my pedaling power on the upstrokes as well!

So as we went out riding as a family (me on my FX, my wife on her Trek Navigator, the girls on their Trek Pures) my wife continually was getting left behind. At first we all thought maybe it was her just getting used to riding again, then she started to think she was more out of shape than she thought, but it turns out, her bike is just too heavy, tires too small to keep up with all of us!

So I went to my favorite bike shop here in Little Rock, Chainwheel, talked with Bruce, one of the co-owners. He had some great advice and helped me find my wife a new bike for her.

It's also an FX (fitness) bike. The 2010 Trek 7.2FX WSD. I knew she would love it because it's the same color as her Mini Cooper S! It's in my car right now, but she has yet to give it a try...with her schedule and working too far away from the shop to make it in during their hours, they gave me the guarantee: buy it, if she doesn't like it for any reason, bring it back!

I can't recommend Chainwheel enough now. They have great people, excellent service and fair pricing.

So go get on your bikes and ride!

"#27" – the little tele that is COMPLETE!

It's true, I just finished assembling #27, the newest guitar in my collection, and my third custom built. This one is more "custom" than the other two though. Thanks to Marc Rutter of Rutters Guitars for making the body out of a sweet (sic), lightweight piece of Sugar Pine (#27) and for custom creating the chopped tele bridge with intonated brass barrel style saddles. He also did the finish for me (as previously stated in other blog entries here).

So here it is in all it's glory:

James Hill plays Kala Ukuleles!

Courtesy of James Hill & Kala Ukulele.

James Hill is a quite famous hybrid-bluegrass (I guess you could call his music that) ukulele musician. He has championed the resurgence of the uke over the last few years as well! I appreciate that, I've tried to do my part by being un-afraid to play my little instrument and show as many people as I can how it has the power to make people happy! I love to see him holding my favorite uke from Kala Ukulele!

My lovely wife, at my urging (more like pleading/begging), bought me this wonderful Kala Uke in 2009 for my birthday. I love it still to this day, and although I've been concentrating on so many other instruments the last few years, I still play it as often as I can.

It's summer time again, though, so it's traveling with us as we go north to Gainesville, Mo. and wherever! Can't wait 'til we have a boat again, ukes and boats just go together!

Although my Kala came from MusicGuyMic on ebay, it appears his store is down. You can find one here though: theukulelesite.com

Make people happy, play a uke! Peace Love Ukulele!

"#27" (formerly known as "the bastard") – the little tele that will be (almost!)

Original Thread

Originally I started calling this build my "baby bastard" as a tribute to the Fender La Cabronita Especial it was based on/inspired by, then I started calling it the "bastard" for short but now, I think I need to rename it. When I first contacted Marc about his Sugar Pine tele bodies, he sent me a gallery to select the one I wanted. This body was #27. That's a rather lucky number for me, so I think this guitar will forever be known as "#27" and I'm thinking about adding some graphics to that effect at some point. We'll see.

Well, I got the body back from Marc Rutter ruttersguitars.com yesterday. It was a long wait but WOW, worth it! I told him that I wanted a translucent vintage blonde and left the rest up to him (i.e. satin, gloss, relic'd or not) and he delivered! It looks and feels fantastic. It's easily the most comfortable guitar I own to hold. I can't wait to play it!

Right now, I only have this pic of this body fresh from Marc. I took it home and started the shielding process. I taped off the pickup holes and painted some Stewart-Macdonald Conductive Sheilding Paint. 3 coats does the trick!

I then started the wire prep by cutting to length all the jumpers and leads for output I'll need using 24 gauge wire from guitar fetish. I'm also using some mogami shielded cable for the output.

I'm wiring this guitar according to the Fender La Cabronita 2 pickup wiring diagram complete with the S-1 switching and grease bucket style tone choices. When the switch is up, it's running a set tone circuit of .001uF & .0033uF Sprague Orange Caps. Switch down, it's a set tone circuit of .0033uF & .0033uF Sprague Orange Caps. I'm using the Gibson style 3-way switch, as well.

More to come...