CBGs Forever T-Shirt
Posted on 1 May 2012, 18:08.
Link: http://skreened.com/bluesinfection/cbgs-forever
It’s been a while since I posted a new t-shirt design so here’s a cigar box guitar design I’ve been working on. IMO it’s an improvement over one of the one’s I made a few years ago that also had cross guitars & skull. I finished it today and just put it up at Blues Infection, one of my shops over at Skreened.
Hope you like it!
DIY PVC Train Whistle
Posted on 12 April 2012, 13:36.
One of the songs Blaise wrote for Swamp Train starts with an imaginary train leaving the station and every so often the thought of having a train whistle to start the song comes around. As often is the case however, ideas like that mostly seem come at a “bad” moment, are not caught then & there, and go on to other horizons. Fortunately this one was came along often enough that we finally met with time, and a computer, on hand so I was able to search how to make one.
I found a good tutorial at The Woodcrafter Page and went to check if I had all the necessary tools, which I didn’t. Without a drill press and the proper bit it wasn’t clear it was worth finding a good sized piece of wood since the deep holes would probably be difficult to make. Plus, that kind of equipment tends to be expensive around here…
However a couple of days later it occurred to me that other materials besides wood could be used and I just so happened to have a bit of PVC tubbing left over from a different project and a wooden dowel the perfect size to fit in it (20mm and 15mm respectively).
I’m sorry not to have pictures of making it to show but it’s not that complicated to make one. Each tube needs to be plugged at one end, a 45° notch cut out from the other end, about 3cm in, and that end needs to be plugged with a piece of material (easy with wood) that is sanded down a bit so that it leaves a gap between the tube and itself that will enable the air to go through and hit the edge of the notch.
When the four whistles are finished, you then need to figure out a way to have one hole to blow through that send the air to all four whistles. In this case the top of an empty water bottle with some plastic tubbing going through it. All nicely glued together with heat glue.
Two pieces of wood were cut to hold the whistles together that have the right shape for the water bottle top. Also, make sure to get nice sharp edges on the notch cuts, the most important part of getting good sound IMO, that and not making the notches too big.
A not very good recording of it can be heard here as I have yet to get a decent sound card to plug a microphone in and only had a very cheap mp3 player underhand, but in reality it does the trick quite well and is pretty loud too.
— RattlebrainedAsheville Infamous
Posted on 28 March 2012, 13:49.
I really love Bandcamp, you can listen to entire albums, perfect for working at the computer, and even discover absolutely great bands like Blind Boy Chocolate & The Milk Sheiks!
Enjoy!
Zimoun «Sculpting Sound» Solo Exhibition: Ringling Museum of Art
Posted on 23 March 2012, 14:00.
Zimoun is cool! I like the ones that sound like rain the best…
Swamp Train CD Premium Selection
Posted on 12 March 2012, 10:20.
A big thank you to everyone who helped us, came to, and enjoyed Swamp Train’s CD Launching Party last Friday! We really had a fantastic time!
Amazing really when you consider the discussions we (the band) had pretty much a year ago: should we make one? Too soon? To expensive? All the doubts you can harbor… and then the decision, choosing songs, looking at different studios, prices on the web…
And then the actual recording sessions last summer that fell right in heat wave weather – 36°c/ 96.8°F – in the studio… Dealing with often divergent opinions, discussions, time going by, where to mix it? All hopes of getting it ready by last October brushed away…
And also for me: looking for ideas for the cover art, running them past my friends, hearing their says and inputs… Deciding on the track order, mixing the CD, learning about EAN and ISRC codes after the CD was mixed, figuring out how to get them on the CD, deciding where to get it all printed, completely redoing the cover art to the printers specification with 14°C / 57°F in my “office” (weeks of a down to -21° / -5.8°F winter outside will do that)
Uploading it all to the printers website…
Meanwhile, brewing & bottling beer
Deciding the launch date, food? Peanuts & chips… Food!
Launch minus 2 weeks:
Receiving CD’s!! :-)
Discovering glitch… :-(
Cancel? :P
NO! Trust!
Launch minus 3 days:
Received replacement CD’s! :-)
Launch minus 2 days:
Replacing CD’s in cases.
Launch minus 1 days:
Rewrapping cases in cellophane…
And The Launch Party!
About 130 people came, the place was packed, it was simply incredible!
I took my camcorder and managed a minute or two of footage early in the evening but was then too overwhelmed by the crowd to have time to even think about filming… Fortunately we should be receiving some pictures soon.
In the meantime, here it is:
PS: if you’re interested send a message, the CD sells for CHF: 20.-. Some songs can be heard on Swamp Train’s website
Cigar Box Politico ~ 3 string guitar MESSAGE FOR THE NATION!
Posted on 9 February 2012, 09:51.
Another great video by Johnmcnair, a cigar box guitar maker. To get a glimpse of his work and philosophy browse over to Red Dog Guitars! I write “another” because he is one of the rare people that I always look at when a new video is posted.
First of all the sound he gets from all the guitars – and amps – that he plays, is magical. His notes contain large territories, the great plains, long distances, immense space.
As an US expat living in swissland most of the things I really miss are sounds; train whistles, crickets, fog horns, city traffic, small town stillness, and as to not smother in schmaltzy romanticism – although of course I am – I’ll add the sound of sports on TV.
John’s guitar sound is filled with images of America, perhaps that is why it speaks so strongly to me.
In itself that would be enough to make me go back for more every once in a while, but his videos are about more than that. In fact and in a way not surprisingly, they are about listening. Take his series on converting old radios into guitar amplifiers, why spend your hard earned cash buying big brand names when the perfect sound may be waiting around the corner at a tag sale for a couple of bucks?
But Johnmcnair’s videos are also about looking and seeing (not the same thing IMHO) and experimenting and… Lest my lack of good words make it all seem like it’s not, best is that you check them out and decide for yourself.
Enjoy!
