The Sunday Thread For March 26, 2023

[OldStrummer]

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone. As the season changes I find I'm waking earlier again. This seems to happen every year; must be my circadian rhythms.

It's going to be a different Sunday for me. I'm going to a college reunion, of sorts. "Of sorts:" I attended the Munich, Germany campus of the University of Maryland fifty years ago. Located on an army base as a collaboration with the Dod and the U of Md, a two-year facility was created to provide college entry program for GIs and their dependents stationed abroad. It was closed and moved to Ramstein later, and finally closed altogether when American force reductions occurred. So, it's a limited, all-years gathering today. I probably won't recognize or remember anyone, but it will be kind of cool to immerse myself in common memories for a bit.

Have a great day, and a great week, everyone!

[Laker]

The wild winter weather continues here behind the Cheddar Curtain as yet another winter storm has rolled through the area. What is really different for me with this one is that most of the communities that surround the area I live in got 6-12 inches of snow, but we got less than 1 inch. It probably snowed here for 7 hours or so but it was seldom a heavy snow and the temps were high enough that everything on the roads and sidewalks simply melted away.

On Friday I managed to pick up an ‘07 Harley Superglide from the estate of a friend who passed away in January with only 2100 miles on it. What is kind of cool for me is that, when I was still in sales at the local Harley dealer, I sold this bike to him. I think he’s happy where his bike ended up.

[gibsonjunkie]

Good morning! I actually remembered the Sunday morning thread on Sunday morning! Spent Friday in the studio working on a new song. I'm actually pleased with how well it went. It's not done - we are doing a bunch of songs and then will then bring in some vocailsts to sing harmonies... but the basic song is done and sounds pretty good. We even found a great purpose for a Danelectro 12-stringed electric for that Birds-like jangle. I'll post it up on Soundcloud a bit later today.Meanwhile yesterday was a totally lazy day. Never even got dressed. Since it is going to warm up today, I'll probably get to some outside activities. I have a new fishing rod rack to hang in the garage and lots of Amazon boxes to cut up and recycle.

[blackonblack]

Did a bass gig yesterday and the NCAA. My best friends college made it to the Final Four, and we are trying to get tickets. Playing a guitar gig this evening and still have to learn a song.

[S. Cane]

Spent the week working and recording vocals.

Went to the range with my old man yesterday and practiced for an upcoming competition. Had lots of fun with the .45

Easy Sunday drinking Nescafé, watching some shows with the missus and later I’ll have my usual beers and read the latest issue of American Handgunner.

[DanTheBluesMan]

went out Friday night, had a wild hair and closed the bar where the band of a buddy of mine was playing. Got home after 1 in the morning, according to my Uber receipt. Spent yesterday recuperating. Today we had a scrumptious breakfast thanks to bro's girlfriend. We cooked bacon and eggs on the grill outside and I was able to wash the pan no problem in our new sink we got this week. The old sink had two bowls both too small for a good sized frying pan or casserole dish. The one catch we had was the electrical inadequacy of our house struck again. Disposals have to have a ground wire and there was only 2 conductor wire in the wall. Got an electrician coming next week to address that.

Getting quotes on new HVAC equipment to replace our dying old stuff. Got two so far and looking for a third. Our neighbor across the street is probably going to be that bidder.

My new pedals arrived Friday. Because i went out, I didn't get a chance to play them until last night. The Marshall Bluesbreaker I had an original of, and it was as I expected. The Guvnor I haven't had any experience with, it has T-M-B instead of just Tone, and it has a loop input. I've read people saying you can put another dirt/OD into that loop to supercharge your signal and that Gary Moore used a Guvnor with a tubescreamer into the loop. I just got to figure out which way to plug into which box first. I suspect you plug into the "2nd" box first out of there into the loop of the Guvnor. By itself, I'm liking the Guvnor a lot.

I'm digging the gain channels of the DSL way more than I did the first time around 20 something years ago.

Today looks pretty decent after yesterday's clammy rawness. I need to get back outside and walk again, it's been nearly a month since the snows arrived and now the snowbanks are basically gone.

[OldStrummer]

I was incorrect in my first post: The school didn't move from Munich to Ramstein (where there's an air base), but to Augsburg. They tried lengthening the curriculum to three years, but it didn't pan out and the school closed a few years later.

Nobody from the years I was there showed up, but it actually didn't make any difference. We all have a similar shared experience, just at different points in time. We laughed, shared memories, ate, had our photo taken, and made plans to do it again next year. There's also another gathering this year, in New Orleans during Oktoberfest. That comes just a couple of days after my planned retirement, so I may try to make it.

[gibsonjunkie]

Soundcloud files - new tunes

https://soundcloud.com/user-78574690.../sets/hartford

https://soundcloud.com/user-78574690.../sets/hartford


Still need some extra vocal work including harmonies...

[phantomman]

Soundcloud files - new tunes

https://soundcloud.com/user-78574690.../sets/hartford

https://soundcloud.com/user-78574690.../sets/hartford


Still need some extra vocal work including harmonies...

HOLY SHIT!!!

Those are the most impressive songs I've heard in five years or more.

Very tasteful, GJ

BTW, what 12-string did you use on "Behind Your Smile"?

[gibsonjunkie]

HOLY SHIT!!!

Those are the most impressive songs I've heard in five years or more.

Very tasteful, GJ

BTW, what 12-string did you use on "Behind Your Smile"?

Thank you, Sir!!!

It was a Danelectro 12 string. He had a heck of a time keeping it in tune.

[ch willie]

Yesterday we met my girlie’s grandson for dinner at Ruth Chris. I ate a 16 oz ribeye, and I have a food hangover.

I’ve been making progress on an instrumental. I’ve recorded my Martin HD28VL and Rickenbacker 330 for arpeggios, the Hofner for bass. For only two bars, I played a short run of five notes of a bell-like electric piano. Also I’ve added three pizzicato strings and a cello/dbl bass part. I still need to write a percussion part, something understated but orchestral. And the main melody—I tried it out on my Strat, my SG, my Les Paul, and my jazz box, but none of them fits the general timbre.

Depending on what I can get out of my Korg keyboard, I’m either going for a pedal steel thing or a simple clarinet sound. I’ve never written a tune like this, and it’s very far from my usual style. I told my buddy that a first semester composer in a middle quality music program would laugh at my attempt here, but it’s fun, and my kids and girlfriend think it’s cool.

[Offshore Angler]

Had the Fire Department on scene at my place Sunday AM. High winds caused power line damage and downed wires were arcing in my front yard. Lost power in the AM but the power guys did a great job and had us up and running by noon. I have a long driveway with utility poles along it so we've gotten to adept at power outages. Fire up the Buddy Heater and genset and keep on truckin'.

Sunday afternoon was nice so I pulled the bass boat out of the barn and opened the hatches and started the install of the forward facing real image SONAR. You can see their fins move! Thing is a power-hungry beast, so I'm installing a dedicated 23Ah Lithium battery for it. This will also be on an aux emergency start switch in case my starting battery decides to quit while surrounded by alligators and water snakes.

Big boats are getting ready to go in soon, lots of spring cleaning and new equipment install involved, everyone at the marina helps each other out.

Musically I've been spending time bonding with the Silver Skys and getting them both dialed in, as well as setting up my burst for dedicated open E. I'm getting to do a bunch of slide work lately. My thumb needs to go to a reeducation camp in North Korea to get it whooped back into shape for Duayne-style, but it's getting there.

Other than that just playing shows and bitchin' about the weather.

Chuck

[Bill Moore]

OA, one of my favorite uncles, (an aircraft mechanic/instructor) had a great story from one of his fishing trips down in Mexico. They had spent most of the day fishing about 35 mi. out, but when they were ready to head back, the engine barely cranked. (Most folks may not know how resourceful Mexicans are), the mate opened the hatch and removed the valve covers to the engine, then using wrenches, he depressed the intake valves, and the skipper cranked the engine. when it started spinning he removed the wrenches and the engine started, and he replaced the valve covers. When they got back to to port, the captain asked the uncle if they wanted to go out again in the morning, he said "you have to show me a new battery first!" Next morning he was on the dock with a new battery, and they went back out, (the battery was never installed), but they didn't need it!

[phantomman]

Gracias a Dios that the boat's powerplant was a 'Chibby 350'. That's the universal motor of Mexico.

[Offshore Angler]

OA, one of my favorite uncles, (an aircraft mechanic/instructor) had a great story from one of his fishing trips down in Mexico. They had spent most of the day fishing about 35 mi. out, but when they were ready to head back, the engine barely cranked. (Most folks may not know how resourceful Mexicans are), the mate opened the hatch and removed the valve covers to the engine, then using wrenches, he depressed the intake valves, and the skipper cranked the engine. when it started spinning he removed the wrenches and the engine started, and he replaced the valve covers. When they got back to to port, the captain asked the uncle if they wanted to go out again in the morning, he said "you have to show me a new battery first!" Next morning he was on the dock with a new battery, and they went back out, (the battery was never installed), but they didn't need it!

Intake valves? Wow, assuming the mexican boat had no backfire flame arrestors I would have swam for it. Eight wrenches? Hmmm, I don't know.

[Bill Moore]

I have no idea how many valves he opened, it was enough to release compression to allow the motor to spin!

[Offshore Angler]

I have no idea how many valves he opened, it was enough to release compression to allow the motor to spin!

Bill, I don't doubt you heard the story and are just relating it, but color me skeptical.

Holding the intake valves open would do the following:

1) Suck in fuel air mixture

2) Blow the fuel air mixture into the intake manifold, through the carb and into the surrounding bilge area during the compression stroke.

(This would be repeated for each cylinder every other revolution.)

3) When the plugs fired the flame would propagate into the intake manifold and out into the bilge area

4) Boom!

[Bill Moore]

I wasn't there, but all the boats I've worked on with 4 stroke engines have a screen on the air inlet. Of course very little fuel could be vented anyway, for as soon as the engine was spinning, he allowed the valves to close, and the engine to start. (The engine isn't pumping backwards, it is more or less moving the same air in and out of the cylinder on the intake and compression stroke, and sending some out the exhaust on the next stroke.)