Hello hello, it's about time I dusted off this thread and posted another update since there's so much to write about and so many things to unpack. I'll try to be brief.
The Open Mic TrialI think everyone is aware by now that an open mic trial run took place on March 23rd. It is now around 1.5 years since I started playing and I've never done anything of the sort, but I knew as soon as it was announced that I had to take a chance at performing because otherwise I'd just be kicking myself for not giving it a try.
So give it a try I did, and what a nervous mess I was! I felt very confident leading up to it but then when it was my turn to play suddenly I got really anxious, my voice became shaky and my hands refused to cooperate - especially my picking hand. I made a few mistakes while playing but I didn't stop so it could be worse I guess, I'm more bothered by the way I carried myself to be honest. Here is the link to the timestamp of my performance.
It was still a phenomenal night and everyone was super supportive and cheered each other on. There were a lot of incredible performances and fun banter, so I strongly encourage anyone considering singing up for the next one to just go for it. I'm really fired up to try it again because I know I can do a lot better, so I'm definitely signing up to have another go at it.
What I'm Working OnSo I finally purchased life-time access to Justin's PMT and I'm currently working through Grade 3. I have no idea why I have been putting it off for so long, it's so much fun! I thought it would be really dry, textbooky kind of stuff but Justin has come up with such an amazingly accessible way of presenting and explaining all the concepts it's unreal. Oh and I'm finally getting some use of the stylus that came with my phone, being able to consume the course and do the tests and worksheets on one device while always having it in my pocket is ridiculously convenient.
Out of respect to the mods I won't go into much detail on the next part, but it's still part of my journey and I'd like to be as transparent as possible. If it's an issue Richard / Lieven please feel free to edit this out.I recently started a percussive fingerstyle course on a different platform, and began taking private lessons from a teacher so I'm no longer 100% self-taught! It's a weekly video exchange sort of thing, where I send off a video of whatever I'm working on along with any questions I may have and get a reply back within a couple of days. It's already made a huge difference in the way I approach my practice because ever since completing the beginners course I've sort of been stuck in limbo, drifting around between working on a bunch of different things without really having a clear focus or goal in mind. That's about as specific as I'm going to be about it because again, I don't want to be breaking any rules.
GearI got a really good deal on a Godin A6 Ultra a while back, it's in great condition with some light wear and no dings. The catch is that it was basically unplayable though. Some bozo completely ruined the nut by cutting into it with what looks like a knife in an effort to lower the action. Apparently they got carried away a little bit because the 1st string in particular was buzzing like crazy no matter what I did with neck relief. Here is the damage:
I know there are some quick fixes like glue and saw/bone dust, or sticking some paper in there, but I wanted a more permanent solution and this nut was in a pretty rough shape anyway so I decided I'd try and replace the whole thing. I started off by taking the nut out - it took a little convincing using a razorblade, screwdriver and a rubber mallet but I got it out easy enough.
Lucky for me Godin use off the shelf Graphtech nuts so finding a replacement wasn't difficult. Since it is a hybrid acoustic/electric there is some work to be done though - the acoustic nut needs to be ground down to a height similar to that of electric guitars.
I don't have access to a CNC machine and using a rotary tool would have probably resulted in a really uneven surface so I took the slow and painful route - sandpaper and elbow grease. I used a sharpie to paint the bottom of the nut to make sure I'm taking off material evenly and I think it turned out pretty well (new nut on the right):
The new nut slid in perfectly and it was a very snug fit so I didn't bother using glue, just in case I needed to take it off for some more work. After I strung the guitar back up it was apparent that the slots still needed to be filed down because the action at the nut was way too high. You can see how the 6th string is basically lying on top of the nut:
I used some StewMac slotting files I got off amazon along with
this extremely helpful guide to slowly file the nut slots down, what a huge difference! The guitar is now a dream to play. Here it is:
Honestly I'm not sure yet if I'm going to keep it for good or sell it off for a small profit. It's a great guitar and I love using it for some quiet practice at nights, but I have enough guitars already as it is. We'll see I guess.
Also I'm working on completely rebuilding my Affinity Telecaster, I'll probably make another update like this when I'm done. It didn't get much use lately but I didn't want to get rid of it for sentimental reasons so I decided to make something really cool out of it.
Oh and I'll stop removing comments between updates from now on, I now realize what a horrible idea that was. I was reading other road cases and all the comments are just as part of the story as the entries themselves, this is a discussion board after all and not a personal journal.
I think that's it for now. Till next time
Edit: added a close-up shot of the new nut.
Topic: SS7's Road Case (Read 2252 times)
