Ringworld

Hello, book fans. I have been reading Ringworld again, more closely. It is excellent.

In a happy coincidence, this also happened briefly:

This combination of events is telling – ask anyone. CM

Tone Quest part One. New pickups.

This guitar sounds great in the house. Up loud, though, it always had a thin surfy tone that turned to squeal when pushed.
Thanks, John.

SD SH1(RP) and Pearly Gates. Billed as warmer pickups, a bit hotter than your old vintage style. In any case much stronger than the Dragster pickups the guitar came with.

Before.

After.

I know almost nothing about electronics and got these installed no bother, on a basic level. There’s some hum to different degree depending on where the volume pot is now. Something not grounded right? As far as I can see this thing is wired right, so it might be my poor soldering or bad shielding, or both. Or lots of other things I haven’t thought of. Will advise.

I found a few resources on the way that might be of use:

Jaguar HH Hum: http://music-electronics-forum.com/t14271/
More Jag wiring schematics: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-979469 and http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=49997

Anyone done this and have advice? Anyway it’s got some bottom end now. The Pearly Gates is a lot more toppy than I thought. Good lead tone, or at least better than my old one. The SH1 is full and sounds quite big through Dunc’s little Fender. Excellent crack. CM

Crunchy Cheesewind

I don’t normally follow recipes very closely so don’t follow this one too closely. All I’ll say is, let the kale get good and crispy and use a good strong cheddar or there’s no point. You can cook, just stop mucking about, it’s easy if you don’t take yourself too seriously.

2 big potatoes. Or Loads if you want. Diced.
A good handful of curly leaf kale. Or hods. Washed.
Butter. ABout 2/3 of a matchbox sized clod. Or more.
Oil of some sort so the butter doesn’t burn.
Sea salt if you have it. And ground black pepper.

Parboil the spud for a bit. Experiment. Firm but accepting of a light fork poke. Definitely not mush or anywhere near.

While you’re doing this, heat the butter with a bit of oil and then fry the onions until they’re just about soft. Put in a fair bit of pepper and poke it about with a wooden spoon so it looks like you know what you’re doing.

Then drain the potatoes and shake them about in the pan. Rough them up a bit so they’ll talk later. Chuck them in with the onions and add a bit extra oil if you need. Add some more salt and pepper according to your arteries.

Put the kale in and then just wang it all around the pan for a bit.  Put a lid over it if you want and leave it for a bit. Just keep frying the knackers off it until the kale goes all crispy seaweed. Then turn off the heat, grate a load of strong cheddar into it, wang it round the pan again, hoy it all on a warm plate or two warm plates if you’ve got a friend. Put some ketchup next to the pile of food. Serve straight away with a nice glass of Vimto.

If in doubt:

Until next time. CM

First Aid Tips from the early 20th century and Flute Tessitura

Also, Strange bit of synchronicity associated with with, hence the photograph.

New Tape Deck

Abbs sama was kind and brought me a special old box. All I had to give him was several bags of firewood that I had accrued through loft missions and sawing up the Christmas tree at last. All the needles were still on until I started hacking away. This is a Sony TC 535 three head reel to reel. A relic that will lend itself to a certain feeling I think. Three heads means I can route left channel one way while I record onto the right channel. Hence: sound on sound recording, real varispeed, etc. However, it didn’t keep on working for long, though the lights still light when I power up. Anyone know a little about maintaining these things? I daresay I can get it fixed given time and a lot of swearing. But I could do with some help!

Here’s the thing itself. It came with some great reels of tape, including Brahms no.1 in C minor and After the Gold Rush. More on this if anything happens. Zadok live coming soon. CM

Peanut with Discernable face

Three years ago I was at Unity Day in Leeds. Duncan Prod had had a good scoop and we once worked together painting and decorating, when I lived there. We spoke a few moments then began wrestling. It was muddy and I had no intention of wrestling really. I was in my good suit jacket because of the concert and so deployed some basic judo, winning quickly though my opponent was fearsome. The best thing about that day, however, was when Andy G took a photo of this peanut for me. I had been carrying it in my wallet for two or three months because my camera was too weak to look closely. He had some Macro mode happening so we got on well. It was crushed but the face was clear. Who is this peanut to you?

New year. New Vistas and that.

Greetings earthlings! Have a great 2012. The end of 2011 was all feasting, production marathon, playing to a click track. Theme tune vibes. Large diaphragm in the kick, NT2 looking over the side of the hat and toward the snare, 57 around the edge for the crack. Have you heard of the Drum Tunnel? Go try it. I haven’t! This is drum day done randomly in the control tower in Dee’s Ginger Music Company studio. Thanks!  CM

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Running out of milk but a lot of microphones are set up. Much to do and only the remainder of time to do it! It’s not long. Be careful out there. Zadok blog is here. Live and Dangerous, Monday 19th, Trillians in Newcastle at the Insangel Christmas special. If anyone knows any special snare micing and remicing technique, please share! 2012 holds a lot of change and challenge so get your speedos on. CM

The Berk Rig

Here’s a photo that Al (presumably) took of the Berk rig. Berk were probably the loudest band on the earth, backline wise. RIP Berk. There is a blog post here commemorating them. Other excellent bands to come out of the room include Moleck, The Flowers of Evil, and Mass.  More soon. CM

Pitcher Plant, Bladderwort, etc

“Pitcher plant, Bladderwort. Acacia Barracks, fighter ants…. Burbank, Luther – heredity.

Pea family alliance – Nitrate Buddies. Carbon fixers. This could get murky.

To spend years learning to listen, and run into a wall of static array.

Pitcher Plant, Bladderwort etc”. CM