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I like to experiment with materials, designs, and techniques outside of conventional luthiery to build low-cost, high-quality, fully-functional, and attractive electric guitars and basses. What I am not interested in is doing the same old thing the same old way it has been done for decades.
This site is arranged in four main sections:
- Home is where you are at now.
- Projects contains details on all the instruments I have built, and some other related subjects.
- Laboratory contains tools, techniques, and designs used in my projects.
- Blog - anything else I feel like writing about: carpentry, programming, music, etc
This site is aimed at the home hobbyist, and particularly the first-time builder. So welcome to the lab. See what's on the slab. I hope you find this site interesting and informative.
Navigating This Site
Main navigation is at the right left around here somewhere. First there is a "breadcrumb trail" showing where you are, with "up-links". This is followed by a list of child pages, or "down-links". Around that is a list of sibling pages, or "side-links". There is also an overall Site Map, as well as indexes for each major section. Finally, the search box works surprisingly well, or just hit the Random link.
If you are on a small 'mobile' device like a phone or tablet, the main navigation collapses to a button at the upper-right, with the rest at the bottom. The button opens a condensed popup menu. The mysterious unlabeled checkbox in the menu is a 'pin' that holds it open as you navigate between pages. You can force 'mobile' mode on a larger device by making the browser window narrow. In any case, the layout is optimized to make the best use of the available screen space.
History
This site was assembled from a mass of material I had previously posted on Talk_ass. This is seven years of material - over 200 pages and a gigabyte of images, and ongoing. Just getting it all back up was a huge task.
This is the worst interview I have ever seen. Paul Shaffer never shuts up. Poor Donald Fagen can hardly get a word in edgewise. I am surprised Fagen didn't walk out. If he gives a two-word answer, Shaffer will interrupt it. Forget about finishing a sentence, or even starting one! Shaffer continually talks over his guest, and plays over him too. When Fagen finally tells him how much fun it wasn't (19:53), Shaffer doesn't even notice, just keeps blathering on. Incredible - that's narcissism.
Most people regard The Knack as a novelty act - My Sharona and little more. The truth is, they were a really great band that deserved a lot more respect than they got. Watch this show at Carnegie Hall in 1979 - they are note-perfect and tight. It starts with one of my favorites - Rave Up - a real barn-burner. Load the video in YouTube for the rest of the show.
More: The Knack ...
This is one of the funniest things on the whole internets. Mark Twain, a mad scientist, and it ends with a great Steely Dan tune. What else could you want? How about the rest of that song:
More: Tesla & Twain ...
After successful and interesting experiments rebuilding 1448 and 1457 "Amp-in-Case" amplifiers, I thought I'd try something bigger. So I kept an eye on the eBays, and eventually came up with this - an early production Silvertone 1472, made by Danelectro and sold through the Sears catalog. It was fairly cheap because it wasn't working. However, the cabinet is solid, the aluminum faceplate and labeling are in good shape, all the knobs are there, and everything else can be replaced or rebuilt. The Tolex is in very good shape, and the corners of the cabinet are all pretty much intact. Much like buying an old car - a blown engine is easier to fix than a rusted-out body.
More: Silvertone 1472 Amplifier ...
This is the big brother to the Silvertone 1448, vintage 1964-67. Construction is basically the same, but with a full-scale neck, two pickups, and a much better amp. For a lot of details, see the 1448 page. This guitar is in excellent condition for being almost sixty years old, and apart from cleaning and re-stringing, it needed nothing.
More: Silvertone 1457 Guitar & Amp ...