I have always seen this music as a subset of Old Time, what a number of folks would call Northern Old Time, as it has so much New England and French Canadian, and Irish/Scottish influence as Appalacian. If it is its own category of music, well thats great, I would not argue. It is a body of tunes. I recently checked out a contra-dance web site in an entirely different part of the country from where I live, a place I have never been, and I found their set list was entirely familiar ...
I bought this Epiphone Mandobird new in 2005. Musician's Friend was selling off their stock of gold sparkly and seafoam green models. The cool to cash ratio was extremely high because the price was so low. After playing with it for a little while I decided that the E string was too quiet. And because I'm not handy with a soldering iron, I decided to resting and reintonate for mandola tuning rather than buy 1k pots and install them. Mandola tuning has another advantage ...
I bought it new in 1990 from a little shop in Davis, California that no longer exists called plainly enough, Davis Music. It shipped in from St. Louis on special order. It was magnificent, my first new guitar. But it was summer and St. Louis is very different in the summer from Davis. The neck settled and the 12th fret sprung within 2 weeks. But a trip back to the shop and a visit with their luthier set it right. It was my main guitar for 7 or 8 years. Gigged with it in dozens ...
Updated Aug-01-2009 at 2:27pm by Daniel Nestlerode (added photos)
here are the files folks! Thanks OS -- I never got arount to exploring this feature!
Running a large web site is a pretty odd sort of thing to do with one's life. I'm continually evaluating what is this thing I spend so much time on and where is it going. The explosion of social networking over the past few years is proving that the biggest challenge to web site owners these days is going to be that they simply remain relevant! Who needs a web site when there's Facebook and Twitter? Looking back a year at the Cafe, some changes: Around September 1 we ...
For many years (over 20 now) I have been improving the sound of my own stringed instruments with mechanical attachments. The latest one is a major breakthrough for mandolins, guitars and fiddles because the volume and sound quality improvements are no less than stunning! My provisional patent arrived at the patent office mail room only yesterday and I am waiting for them to log it in. When they do I'll put an ad with pictures and an explanation about how it works in the Cafe classifieds, probably ...
This is the final installment about a somewhat rare, but not highly sought-after, Fender electric mandolin. In the first installment I explored the production-line instrument, and in the second installment I recounted my acquisition of it. In this installment, I’ll document the changes I’ve made to it that have turned it into an excellent mandolin that sounds great and plays well. When the FM-988 arrived it was in original condition, as though it had rolled off the factory floor. ...
Remember the Mac/PC commercial where Mr. PC had the spokesflac saying some of their customers were upgrading to XP (from Vista)? Well I kind of feel the same about home entertainment equipment. I have a 5.1 Yamaha system but lately I've been listening in plain old stereo. It started with music. Turns out I don't like a lot of process effects after all. Every form of music I've tried sounds better in just plain stereo on my big Klipsch speakers. Lately I've found I like all of it ...
At the local jam I had harsh words with back benching arbiter of propriety. At least I did not resort to sarcasm! Sunday I head to Levelland, Tx and Camp Bluegrass. My wife insisted even though our adult children have retired on our income because it really reduces my stress levels and her associated worry. I gotta make a list... If you read my Camp Bluegrass 2008 Report you may recall I arrived at the airport short of my needs. Besides the phone, which I got, I also ...
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