Living St. Louis | Whole Earth Nuclear Ukulele Orchestra

Aaron Sorkin

Sometimes I find myself sitting in front of the tv. I know, it sounds weird to say it, because so does almost every other American find themselves infront of the tv as well. But this is different. As I've posted earlier, we cut our cable almost two years ago, bought an Apple TV and choose our programming.

Last night my wife, Stacey, and I watched one of HBO's "the Newsroom" season 2 episodes. We loved season 1, and just started the second season. Tonight I'm watching the last remaining episodes of "Studio 60" that I never got to see back in 2006 when they cancelled it. 

It occurred to me "I really love Aaron Sorkin" or at least his writing. 

As any of you out there know, he is prolific. He is outspoken. He is "wordy". And he is fucking SMART"!

All hail the Sorkin! That is all!

I love this billboard campaign! Ukulele = Healthy! I couldn't agree more!

Yes, it's...another... NUD: Kala KA-ATP-CTG Solid Cedar/Acacia Slothead Tenor

I am proud to introduce the newest Uke to my collection: Kala KA-ATP-CTG Solid Cedar/Acacia Slothead Tenor. I ordered it from Mike McQueen at UkeRepublic, a wonderful bloke to work with!

Here is his video playing this wonderful uke:  UkeRebublic Demo of Kala Cedar/Acacia Slothead Tenor

I'm pretty sure I will love it. I can already feel there are "songs in there", you know that feeling you get with some instruments that seem to just make your fingers make beautiful music!? This one has it. I only hope my Kala Acacia Tenor doesn't get jealous when I play this one more for a while!

 As soon as I get the Southcoast Low G strings in and the U-300T preamp/pickup installed I'll make a recording and post!

 I can tell you this though: It's LOUD, it's easy to play with a wider string spacing than my KAT and a little bit fatter neck that feels great. It has a very "classical guitar" kind of sound and it lightly distorts (like my cedar topped Taylor GC5 guitar) when played hard, but in a really good 'burbley' compressed way. It's lighter weight but balanced, AND it's perfectly intonated up and down the neck. I've yet to find an off note (at least according to my ear, not as much the tuner). It has a sweet sound even with the Aquila Re-entrant strings on it and the NU-BONE tusq saddle and nut. (I may go with full on tusq or bone saddle when adding the pickup). Fit and finish is great as well. AND all for $250... it's a steal!

NUD: New Ukulele Day! Fender Nohea Koa Tenor Uke

Since they came out I wanted one but glad I held out and got my Kala Acacia Tenor first. Love that Uke, but this little Fender Nohea caught my eye today at Guitar Center as I was shopping for another tenor size to keep in reentrant (high G) tuning. See, I enjoy playing my Kala with the low silver wound G. I think it's because I'm more of guitar player and enjoy using an alternating bass sound. BUT that said, I've known for a while now that I've been missing out on some of the classic Uke sounds by not having the reentrant style high G tuning on one.

Plus, I've fallen in love with this song by Svavar Knútur called "Baby, would you marry me?". LOVE IT! I've spent most of the day transcribing it for others to learn to play. A most fun little song!

Back to the Fender Nohea All Koa ukulele. They say "all koa" but I'm pretty sure it's laminated Koa. Still... sounds good to me and has a nice loud and brite sound. All for $199. not really that bad. PLUS it looks incredible with the Koa figuring, abalone and cream bound body and neck, and not to mention the TELECASTER style headstock... just too cool! Built amazingly well for something so affordable, intonated almost perfectly, too!

NKD: New Keyboard Day!! Korg Krome 61-Key Workstation

Well, last Friday I said hello to a new Korg Krome and goodbye on Tuesday to the Roland Juno-Gi after it sold on ebay within 12 hours of listing it!

I made the decision very quickly to switch up the keyboard equipment after we took the Roland Juno-Gi on vacation for Corey, my 14 year old step-daughter, to practice and for us both to play while there. It just proved to be very complicated to program, record and explain how to do all of the above. The screen is too small, too many layers of menus that are named strange things that don't seem logical. It's the Roland way, apparently. Every Roland I've ever owned has been hard to program and, well, to just simply make a preference change!! I will miss the simplicity of the 8-track audio recorder though.

So I know I should have looked around a bit more, seeing how I have had a lack of confidence in Korg with my SV-1 and the lack of support they have provided. I said I'd not buy another Korg product... :o

I should have researched but I played one at Guitar Center and liked the feel of the keys, the large touch screen and the sounds are amazing and clear sounding. The arps and drums are easy to use and I can jam instantly in most sounds with just the flick of a button! Programming it will be a bit harder but it will just take time to wrap my head around how it works.

I hope I made the right choice. Time will tell. I did get 15% off the $999 price tag which I hope will help compensate a few years from now when I sell, if I sell. I could have purchased a used one but by paying $150 more, I got a 2 year manufacturer warranty for buying new!

"You can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself."

I read a quote once by an actor from the old surf/gidget movies named James Darren. He said "I think Ricky Nelson said it best in "Garden Party": "You can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself." If you're content with doing what you're doing, stick with it. If not, find the road that takes you there.

So yesterday my employer of 7 years on staff, 14 years total, and after many months of negligent business tactics, announces that she is burned out and decided to sell the business. 

Now we all know that none of us will have jobs after that happens. 

Good thing I've been cultivating leads for the past few months and have a few things in the works! 

So I'm looking for that road, if you hear of any thing, please send me directions!! Thanks!

The Music Man made me do it! Damn his "Think System"!! My Jupiter 416 Pocket Trumpet!

I've said for years I wanted to, half-jokingly, play the cornet or trumpet. It was watching the musical "The Music Man" many years ago that put that thought in my head!

Well, I bit the bullet, risked the ire of my lovely wife for buying YET another instrument and got a great deal for a very nice looking Pocket Trumpet! Enjoy!

The Right Tool for the Job!

A lot of my ability to start and complete projects lately has a lot to do with my lovely wife, Stacey, and her love of Elfa storage components from the Container Store!

My little closet guitar workshop was pretty pitiful using left over ikea shelving. It was rickety and unstable for any real work. Plus I couldn't leave a job out for fear it would fall off!

NOW, thanks to aforementioned parties, I have a wonderful place to work, complete with more storage, a place to keep an amp for testing and the right size and height for me to "get the job done!"

Ole #27 Custom "La Cabronita" Tribute guitar gets a Bigsby!

 My beloved tribute (to the Fender Custom Shop La Cabronita Especial) custom built guitar a great upgrade last night... A BIGSBY!!

That's right, not only does it have that great Gretsch Filtertron twang thang goin' on, now it's got that great classic Gretsch/50s/60s surf rumble back vibrato sound to keep all you dudes and dudettes rockin' all night long.

How does it sound? GREAT! Now that I have some great recording equipment, I'll have to get some licks rehearsed (so I can sound like I actually know how to play!) and upload something for all to hear!

The install was really quite easy and the custom bridge that Marc Rutter made me worked like a charm! He put some slots in the tail piece to allow the strings to pass through to the Bigsby's roller bar.

Now next up will be a new pickguard that fits the new MOJO! Black? Tort? hrm... Not sure, but I'm sure I'll post the results here!

This custom guitar also features: (besides the Gretsch Filtertrons, Bigsby B5, Marc Rutter Custom Half-bridge with Bigsby Mod) Fender S-1 grease bucket tone circuit switchable volume knob, a 3-way gibson style Switchcraft pickup selector switch, a polished aluminum electro-socket plug with a Switchcraft 1/4" jack, Sprague Orange Capacitors, 2011 Fender rosewood telecaster neck, Sperzel Locking tuners with pearloid buttons and, of course, Schaller style strap lock buttons.

Now the only other mods I can think to do, other than a new pickguard, is to switch out the trem arm for a "chet atkins" style wire arm and maybe some custom painted hot-rod graphics someday!

My first week with a Zoom R24

I wanted to post my perspective about my decision to sell my M-Audio Fast Track C600 and buy a Zoom R24 Recorder/Interface/Controller.

I worked in an analog studio from 1992-1995. It was set up with some great, albeit old, gear from the late 70s. MCI board, MCI 2" 24 Track recorder to match and much much more. I learned so much.

But since then, I've had a hard time getting back involved in recording using the computer. I am an admitted mac snob and have been using them since '87, they are all I know. So I obviously bought Logic Pro 9 to go with the C600 last year. I had used GarageBand before that, of course.

I just never bonded with that way of working and felt I needed something to bridge the gap, you know, some kind of control surface that gave me that tactile feel. I looked at the Zoom R16 the year before but ruled it out for a number of reasons: did I need 8 inputs? (Turns out YES!) Was Zoom a very good company? I had owned a G2 and thought it was dreadful. (Turns out YES, too!) Did it have good enough pre-amps? (Yup!) Would it be too hard to learn using a tiny screen, no visual on recordings like the computer, etc.? (Turns out NO, not hard & it also turns out that the lack of the "big picture" screen, I'm getting more intimate with my recordings, counting out beats, sequencing drums for the first time since 1992!)

Update on recording gear

So I took the Korg NanoKontrol and NanoKey back to Guitar Center. They really aren't built very well for what they cost and would end up seeming like toys instead of real gear. So I did a lot, I mean A LOT, of research and hesitantly took a chance on another product made by Zoom.

My first foray with Zoom was their low end guitar multi-effects unit the G2. Hated it. But with the Zoom R24 Multi-track recorder, DAW interface and controller, I was really impressed!

New Year, New Acquisitions, a Few Departures...

And a few sales at the end of the last one, too. Sadly, I turned around and sold the Roland Alpha Juno 1. I felt that it just didn't meet my needs after all, and that my Juno-Gi sounded just as good for my purposes.

Also departing: I finally sold the SKB Stage Five pedal board. Excellent unit but just more than I needed. I lost quite a bit on the deal...so word to the wise "only buy it if you think you will actually keep it! the resale is less than half!".

The G.A.S (gear acquisition syndrome) almost got me in November & December. The thought was of getting my hands on a Gretch or semi-hollow big body style guitar with Bigsby tremolo. BUT, a better idea came up...

Modding and Distorting

Thanks to the idea from my wife, I decided to invest in my custom built guitar (#27 Little Bastard) by adding a Bigsby and a new bridge. I also decided to get a proper neck for it buying a real Fender Tele neck. Much better feel and lower action too. I have yet to finish this, waiting on my friend and supplier, Marc Rutters, to custom make a bridge that will have the vintage half-bridge tele look and sound but the ability to mount the Bigsby to it. He came up with a photo of one of his full tele bridges that has slots cut to allow the strings to pass over, but he will make me a on off custom half version with 2 1/16" spacing and steel compensated saddles. I'll post pics, as soon as I have them!



I also decided that I have never truly bonded with the Way Huge Green Rhino OD pedal and will sell on ebay soon. I replaced it with the best OD I have ever heard or owned, believe it or not, the MXR Custom Badass Modified O.D.! This pedal sounds great, takes up less footprint area on my pedal board and really works well with my MXR Custom Badass '78 Distortion pedal (my favorite leave-on-all-the-time pedal!) If you haven't tried this line of pedals from MXR, I recommend doing so!

The Plugs That Bind... or doesn’t, in this case!

Never really happy with the crappy Radio Shack pancake 1/4" plugs I used to wire up my pedal board, I also splurged for some George L's! A little hard to get them put together right, I definitely recommend a cable tester if you can get one. I had to redo several for a frustrating hour and a half, but once done right, they look and sound great! Expensive but I really believe they have the clearest sound of any cable I've ever used and take up the least amount of space on a board to boot!

Logic Kontrol

Yesterday, in an effort to find a way to physically control Logic Pro better, I purchased a Korg NanoKontrol 2. It's basically a USB Midi transport and mixer control device. Bus driven, totally programmable, although after installing the Logic plug-in, I didn't have to do a dang thing to get it working perfectly! It's small, lightweight, very portable, no batteries to go bad and inexpensive. Win-Win!

Back to Lessons

On this front, last year, I decided to start up with Jeff Swain at Carolyn's Keyboards again. Focusing on early rock 'n roll, surf, rockabilly to start off with, last night we discussed "Slide" technique and started learning Santo & Johnny's "Sleepwalk". This should be really fun!