Friday Check In

Hard to believe in 2 weeks it's Christmas Eve. Cookie preparation has begun. And this "Cookie QC Inspector" will not let any cracked or broken cookie to escape detection. I am proud to be part of that kind of cover-up. The role of Inspector is not always appreciated because inspections and confiscations can occur at any time and are always unannounced.

The Theater (or is it "Theatre") Five (or is it "5") blog has started! https://theaterfive.blogspot.com/ Gets more interesting every day.

Catching up on numerous things. One of the Lone Ranger episodes found in the Hehn collection as a severely edited AFRS recording has now been verified as a missing recording.

Awaiting many reels to show up for transfer. But I won't see them until next year. You know... four weeks from now.

Another Friday. And it doesn't really apply to my world. But hey, that's retirement. Our excitement is the possibility of strong long track tornadoes overnight tonight. But we stay prepared and have a basement as a last resort.

Boss, are you really running pedals through Spider? I thought those things had tons of effects. My amp goal in the short term is either a Boss Katana 50, or dig up a Fender Super Champ X2. Eventually I'd like to get a Vox AC-30C2. A pedal which completely fascinates me right now is the Seymour Duncan Dark Sun.


GB, the role of Cookie Quality Control Inspector is a heroic and underappreciated endeavor. The risk of gaining weight in order to protect others from substandard cookies throughout the holiday season, should rank far higher on the scale of humanitarian acts. I salute your dedication and will do my best to follow in your footsteps.

Be safe, be well and be happy,
Space

Space I have a line 6 pedal board running the spiders effects. I also run separate pedals through the clean channel so I can fool around. I also run the whole lot through garage band on my Mac. I have a late 60's AC30. A fender twin. A Marshall head and cabinet. An older Fender tweed. All collected over 30 years all shot up huge in value so my stories are validated lol... Will add Dark Sun to my pedal list

GB I am with Space getting as many cookies as you can sneak is important.

Stay safe my friends...

Friday so soon...
Getting ready for Christmas ... how anxious we are to turn the page on this year for so many reasons. Greybelt the Younger swings in on Sunday for a few hours and starts a sustained visit on Christmas Eve Eve which looks like it's being designated as a manfood day. Bah! Cookies! They unbalance the diet!

The Theater Five story is being told...
https://theaterfive.blogspot.com
I'm not steeped in music theory very much -- is there a way of describing the T5 theme and incidental music? I know there seems to be lots of augmented and suspended chords but danged if I know anything much more than that. There's a clip on this page with historical context.
https://theaterfive.blogspot.com/2021/12/t5s-music-datz-exactly-what-we-need.html

The other part of this time of year is getting ready for my big annual computer backup. Amazing how many times I now dig around files from 15 years ago... and it's all there... all those electrons awake again.

Have a marvelous weekend.... My posts will not be following a daily schedule these next two weeks...

HAPPY FRIDAY, to all those who celebrate it. We're just muddling along here at my house. Sliding into the doldrums of the cold season. Though we do still get plenty of time outdoors. That will change drastically in the next few weeks.

I'm still attempting to age in the most ungraceful manner possible. My latest flight of fancy is ultralight aircraft. The wife has already said that I'm not allowed to fly one in and out of the pasture out back. So, while there's not much hope, I'll be sucking up in my best possible form for a while. Currently, my best argument is that flying an ultralight has a much higher safety record than skydiving. But she's seen me in action before and knows that it would just be a matter of time, before I pushed the limits of safe operation. It seems that there are some things in my personality which are very predictable. Who'd a thunk it???

Folk's, I'd like to offer one of my basic life philosophies. Ageing and getting old are two different things. We are only promised this one life. To LIVE that life is better than to just exist. So, you can expect my harebrained adventures to continue. At least as many of them as I can get away with.

Be safe, be well and be happy,
Space

Space I am with you all the way. Aging, smaging I am getting older but I ain't aging. Harebrained schemes a plenty. If I can think it up I am doing it. One life, live till you drop. And always listen to that crazy voice in your head that says jump off that cliff into the ocean, take up surfing, or take up long boat rowing.

GB, Space and Art Happy Christmas and you too Jeff when you pop back in....

Stay safe my friends

It's the day after Festivus, and having survived the airing of grievances and the feats of strength, we are prepared for Christmas. Yet another strange one.

This year was the first time it was a good thing to be a negative person. That meant your COVID test results were fine and you could go about your business, for the most part. It was even okay to hang around negative people. Our language is so entertainingly funny at times. I'm positive about that!

Check out my post at the Sharing Shows thread. The last of the scripts in the Hehn collection have been posted, and the links are there.

I've taken a break from Suspense and Theater Five for the last week to get more Hehn pages done. It's been great fun piecing together some of the history of the program pages being added to the Hehn collection. Check it out at https://archive.org/details/joe-hehn?sort=-date

When I go through the two Dunning books and other resources it is truly amazing what they compiled for the research materials they had and what now seem like neanderthal processes they had to suffer to have access to them. Newspapers.com alone would have corrected many of their errors (of which they made surprisingly few) and saved them perhaps a year of research drudgery. That service costs $140 a year and I must spend an hour or two on it each day. The delving into the past in this way and piecing together the behind-the-scenes meanderings from the 2021 perspective (since we know the rest of the story) is really engaging and has enriched retirement's hours. How blessed it is to be able to do this in these times that seem so tumultuous.

Anyway, Santa is imminent, many cookies have been lovingly devoured in anticipation to give us the strength we need for opening presents.

Have a spectacular Christmas. And be nice to the help on Boxing Day... no re-gifting allowed

Another Christmas here upon us. I have to say I very sketchy recollection of the last 2 years. let's hope 22 is crazy for all the right reasons.

GB I am always amazed at your output of new OTR shows and info. What a great resource you are for the old CC.

It's been a hugely busy work year for me even though I swore I was gonna slow down. Making hay while the sun shines. I am going to be offline for the next 5 days. I have a stack of books and family to be with.

Thanks to all of our CC friends for making this a great place to hang out during the year. Lives up to it's a haven description.

Thanks Space old pal for keeping the CC going when the going got tough. Really appreciate you brother.

Have a great christmas everyone and eat, laugh and make merry. You better be back in here in 22 Jeff.

Yup, it's Friday again. And Christmas Eve to boot. We had some surprise guests for the past two days. My sister in law, niece and grand niece stopped by on their way to Knoxville, Tn. So, we whipped up an early Christmas dinner and bloated ourselves in the near traditional manner.

I have quite a lot of old fireworks stored in the shed out back and need to do something with them, so that we have room for the New Years fireworks. So this evening at around 8:00 the neighbors are gonna get a surprise fireworks display. Hopefully, it'll be completed without the need for a visit from the fire department.

Boss, it was well worth the effort to cobble together a home for the club. This is just a free BB site. It's the members who are The Cobalt Club. And we have a great group of members. The generosity and dedication here is a constant source of amazement for me. And let's face it, you and Nick did all the hard work a long time ago.

MERRY CHRISTMAS COBALT CLUB!!!

Happy New Year to everyone.  To follow up on the guitar stuff, I made my own Strat copy.  The neck is from some birdseye maple I had and some rosewood I had.  The body was from an old dining table we had.  I painted it coral pink.  I've still got some fret buzz to work out, but the action is very low.  Oh, and the scale length is 24.75 (Gibson) rather than 25.5 (typical Fender).  Notice the decal is a "Chadocaster"  

That's excellent Chad. Working the buzz out could be a major issue, without a truss rod in the neck.

It has a truss rod, but the adjustment is the old style heal adjustment, rather than the more convenient headstock adjustment.

I've got an older green one I made about 20 years ago with the headstock adjustment, but I lost the router bit I had that makes a nice-neat channel to have "pretty" headstock access.

Chad that's fab. I love the "Chadocaster" thats brilliant how did you do the graphics. How did you make the body? bandsaw then router with jig? what pickups did you use?

I built a Fender Jazz bass with my daughter using parts I collected over the years. 67 neck I picked up a ash body I got from guy who broke the headstock. So we sanded it down and painted and airbrushed it. Got all new hardware so it was hybrid and sounded fantastic for 1/4 the price of Jazzmaster.

With the new guitars the sound is all in the age of the wood and I have found that some of the smaller guitar companies are using older wood than Gibson and Fender. They fall down on pickups and hardware. My Ibanez sounds better than a ES355 and I have replaced the hardware with the same you would find on a 60's Gibson. 1/10th of price I have guitar that sounds warm and crunchy and just the right feedback you want.

So guitar building and mods is area I love. And pedals come on lads lets talk pedals and amps. Same thing buy amps with blown tubes and rebuild. Amazing what you can pick up (brills guitar ref)

Let's talk songs you gotta play

Bob Seger
CCR
Zeppelin
Rush
Beatles
Allman Brothers
The Band
Yes
Moody Blues
Creame
Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green Era)
BB King
ELP
ELO
Supertramp
Peter Frampton
U2
Simple Minds
Paul Weller (Jam and Style Council)
Johnny Marr
Richard Thompson
Chris DeBurgh (old stuff when he was good)
Al Stewart
Bruce Cockburn
Prince
Grand Funk Railroad
Neil Young
CSNY
Men at Work
Crowded House
Midnight Oil

Loads more but that's a start. What are you guys noodling on? I am no ace I don't care about that I just bang away. It's good for the brain, and good for the soul. I have guitar in office and I bang away for the sheer fun. I have Vox plugin headphone amp so i am not annoying anyone but me. I think Space has one as well.

So more info lads. Your rigs your wants your dreams.

Yup, I have the AC30 headphone amp. But you need a good set of headphones to go with it.

I am so far a perpetual guitar noob. But I keep plunking away at it and seem to be getting better. Boss, your must play list is a pretty good starting place. But I'd add a lot of classic blues and jazz. As well as some modern players to wish I could emulate. My phone ring tone is the opening to The Cliffs of Dover.

Right now I'm trying to decide on a practice amp. I currently use a craptacular 20 watt Epiphone nothing worth mentioning. I have it narrowed down to Boss Katana II 50 or dig up a Fender Super Champ X2. Leaning heavily toward the Fender. That would give me lots of effects and models to play with. But it would also offer up some real classic Fender tube goodness. The problem is that Fender discontinued that model a few years ago. It seems that people were buying the much cheaper Super Champs instead of their more expensive traditional tube amps.

If any guitar lover ever happens to be in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, I strongly recommend visiting The Songbirds Guitar Museum. I spent four hours walking through that place with a silly grin on my face. Pay the extra price to get the tour of the "vault". I'm pretty sure I drooled a bit in that room.
https://songbirdsfoundation.org/

I've been noodling on "Albatross," a very early Fleetwood Mac song.  Also Erik Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1.  That one is gonna be tough, and I only have the very first part learned, and not very well.  When I was in high school I used to play Van Halen's "Panama."  I've been re-learning it...still have some odd chords I don't remember.  I've started learning Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love."  My fingers are much slower than my younger days.

I went through a period about 10 years ago when I was really in to instrumental surf music. Anyway, I've forgotten more songs than I currently know.  

My first good amp was a Heathkit TA-16.  Then I got a Marshall Lead 100.  I have a little Vox AC15 Valvetronix.  And I have a Quilter 101 mini.  I really would like to get a Quilter super block UK.  
 
I've got a couple of pedals.  A compressor, Overdrive/distortion, a reverb and tremolo,  a Mooer pitchbox. I've got some old DOD chorus, overdrive, and phaser, but I can't find them.  I have a Dunlop wah too I can't find.  Oh, and I have a scratch-built outboard reverb based on the old Fender 6g15 tube circuit.  

Also (on amps) I think the Fender red knob types are real sleepers right now.  They sell relatively cheap and I think they're poor reputation is undeserved.

I didn't mean to derail the Friday Check In thread, but here's my old green strat.  It's still my workhorse.  The outboard reverb is on top of the Heathkit amp and the Vox is by the side.  That green strat is made from Home Depot poplar and again some birdseye maple for the neck.  The maple was salvaged from an old gymnasium floor.  That strat is HEAVY... like Les Paul heavy. It's Martha Stewart rattle can green with nitro clear coat.  

Space big fan of Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Derrick Trucks, Matt Bellamy, Mike Oldfield the list goes on and on. Even Willow Smith has lovely tone on her playing. Ultimate shredders like Annie Clark (St. Vincent) Samantha Fish so many great players. I am all about tone and feel rather than speed players doing scales as solos.

I love the fender Hotrod Deville. I never buy new amps only second hand I look for rewired amps or busted ones I repair. You get better sound. I got my Hotrod cheap because grill was tornup like who cares. Vox AC302x had been modded and sounds amazing.

Chad I like that green Strat reverb looks good too. Guitar talk is always fun. Got loads of pedals always looking for new sounds. Will go through them in another post. Love surf music. Albatross is fab Green had great tone.

Boss, speed picking has a very viable place in the guitar world. But it shouldn't be a goal in its self. I can't say that I have a favorite player. But I'm currently digging on Joe Walsh. In a few weeks I'll probably be immersing myself in someone else's playing.

Chad, don't worry about getting off topic in this thread. I think Seamus and I have hijacked more threads throughout the Cobalt Club's history than anyone else. We've been pretty laid back for quite a while, but we've been known to totally blow up threads just for fun. How about it Boss? Are you bedlam and I'm chaos, or is it the other way around?

Let's go retro.

You guitar fans may enjoy this Rick Beato YouTube https://youtu.be/j8VwP5iEr1g that was just posted the other day


Glad 2021 is over... didn't accomplish any of our retirement goals (travel, cruise, freely moving about the country) but did much OTR-wise.

Chat next year!

Space we can never figure out are we both the bad cop or both the good cop. We too busy making chaos to care.

Space, oh man Roy Clark what a player just brilliant. And GB Rick Beato is a must for any type of music lover. His guitar stuff is fab but his music theory is exceptional. Anderton music on YouTube is another great channel as is Rhett Shull. Loads of info out there.

Its new years eve folks. We are all gonna tiptoe into 22 with Space keeping the door open in case we have to run and hide. Here's to a better 22.

Lads I have a new guitar winging its way to me. No idea how this keeps happening. When it gets here I will post pics.

Happy New Year my friends stay safe....

Happy New Year, all!

Just today I bought a Yamaha RGX 112, it's a fixer upper.

Well, it's been a busy week in Melville, what with the holidays coming and going so swiftly. Inclement weather prohibited the Annual Harley Jump over the Melville Water Tower, but Ma Findley picked up the slack with a heavy supply of RC Cola, Moon Pies and one of her patented Big Ass Hams to keep everybody happy.

Hey Barbara Rebop, promoted to concessions manager at the Jump Jivin' Whale Club, celebrated nobly, concocting a special tribute drink--a generous splash of Jamesons, three parts nutmeg, the foam from seven pints of Galway Ale, two egg whites, heavy cream and fermented mull wine with a cinnamon stick soaked in rum (for swizzling). Served in a frosted mug wrapped in a guitar string, honoring our Boss, she called it The Shameless Seamus, though one sip tends to render you a Space Cadet for the next two days, waking with an uncompromising belief that you changed your name to Frenchie Calder.

So now that we're into the Roaring Twenties again, let's conspire to make this new year even more lovely, peaceful, forgiving and good humored than previous years.

Slainte, with manly hugs to ye. And slaintѐ agad-sa to all ye who already wished it.
Jeff