I Was Wrong About Sade ~ Luthiery Laboratories

July 18, 2022

I Was Wrong About Sade

July 18, 2022

I always thought of Sade as a very stylish singer, but not necessarily a great one; kind of weak, actually. A model who could sing a bit. I was wrong. Watch these concert videos.

In this one, she cuts loose a little at the end, you can hear what she could do if she wanted to. And she is note-perfect in concert, you might think she is lip-synching the album, but she is not.

Do any of today's pop stars compare? I couldn't tell you, I stopped listening to the radio decades ago. This performance is mesmerizing - no backup dancers, no costumes, no pyrotechnics, no giant props, just a little lighting and fog, a really tight band, style, class, and natural talent. She makes it look effortless.

The thing is, Sade always sounds a little off. But consistent. Maybe she does it deliberately, certainly no one else sounds like Sade. She gets a little raspy down low, but she displays more range here than I've heard on her studio recordings. And not to forget the band, they are tight.

This is what got me started. She is consistently a little flat (in pitch.)

The studio version, just to show how well they nailed in the shows above.

Another studio track ... that extravagant two-note bass line is hypnotic,
almost like Tomorrow Never Knows. Just close your eyes ...
(Don't get technical on me - octaves don't count.)

Sade is a lot more than just a great looking record cover, although, of course, she's that too. Not a model who could sing - Sade is a singer who could model.

I wonder if anyone calls her Helen?

Music, 07/18/22

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Neck Binding

I decided that two of my Audiovoxen should have bound necks to go with the bound bodies, because binding is really super classy. So here I'm routing the edges for that. I've taped two strips of scrap binding to the top of the fretboard to act as guides, since it is already radiused and otherwise the router would rock on the curve. The neck is stuck onto a piece of 2x4 for clearance, and the whole arrangement is inside a big box to catch most of the mess. You want to go in one long smooth run rather than nibble at it; you're not taking such a big bite that you can't do it in one pass. Those same pieces of binding are going to get glued on later. Notice that the neck still has a square back. This is actually a pretty easy job and would be even easier if it was done prior to radiusing the fretboard. Set the height of the cut to just remove all the rosewood, so the binding butts against the maple. The depth of the cut is not fussy, as there is still a lot of contouring to do.

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