Rattlebrained

I received some thimbles made out of maple from Bone Dry Music== last month and think they are pretty neat, especially for softer acoustic music in situations where you would like your washboard to be a tad more laid back and mellow.

The wood has a softer contact with the washboard’s surface which removes the bright “metal to metal attack” and accentuates the board’s lower frequencies. This makes a drastic difference on both my Columbus zinc and stainless steel washboards and a less obvious and more subtle difference on my brass boards and Zinc Kings. This is most likely due to the relative softness of brass and the fact that the Zinc King’s metal rubbing surface is in contact with it’s wood backing and also that mine have been repaired with two composite epoxy glue which already gave them a thicker sound…

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Every once in a while these last years someone in the blues band I play in would ask “why don’t you get a snare?” And I would answer “because I’m happy with my washboard and bones, and have enough to learn already”. But sometime last winter Blaise, who already had and old drum set lying around, bought a newer one (used) and so as much out of curiosity as anything I pick up his old snare and added it to my set. I had mixed feeling about this, one being the worry that if I actually learned how to use it, I might be pushing the band towards and more electric blues style that I wasn’t sure I actually wanted to be playing. But temptation comes in all forms and there it was…

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This is a series of 20 short videos from YouTube user tambourine21 that more or less show 19 washboards from the Jug Band Fest 2007 in, I’m guessing..

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Sitting on Top of the World
A little Sunday morning Trainreck. (K.M. Williams, Washboard Jackson).

IMHO it rarely gets better than this!

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Uh-oh, this week I noticed that I had rubbed through a few ribs of one of my Zinc King 703s! Not surprising if you use them like I do, but unfortunate nevertheless…

First things first: take the washboard apart and reassemble it with the backside forward, so that the rubbed through “top of the ribs” holes will become “inside of the rib holes”, if you get my meaning. The only issue with doing this is that thin brushes can get caught in the holes…

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The Bluegrass festival at La Roche s/Foron is pretty cool, it’s in the center of this small town that is situated not too far south of Geneva (a beautiful area just north of the French alps), is free, it lasts four days and if the groups on stage aren’t enough for you, many of the bands can be found playing in the streets or while sitting around a table at a local café. This year the weather was sunny and warm, perfect for hanging out and getting fat on bluegrass music…

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Had some fun making a few Rattlebrained Firefox Personas.

These, if you don’t know, “let you personalize the look of your Firefox browser!” I think you need Firefox 3.6 for this as well as installing a little add on extension. It’s cool and there are more to come so check back soon.