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Hey, very intersting comments on Valentine's Day customs from jolly good Scotland (loved that hammer bashing idea, Braveheart!},  and from the distinguished Irish lady! And I thought, that this day had only gotten out of hand here in the U.S.

No, I'm no grouch (the guy who stole Christmas): So I came home with two sixpacks of Pilsener Urquell for the ladies, plus some mint icecream for myself. What a celebration...

A colleague at work helps out at a flower shop and told me about his best customer, who charges flowers on two different Visa cards. He has one bouquet sent to a special lady, the other one is for his wife. Now, that's what you get when you don't have enough relaxation at home! Guilty Pleasures.

Play on!

I play a Sigma D-41 acoustic dreadnaught.

The specs are all in front of me: laminated sides + back, solid top, abalone inlays, mahogany neck, gold Grover tuners. Measure the thing and you know everything you need to know. They are not high-end guitars, but are well made in Indonesia or elsewhere (Mine is from Indonesia and cost $400 with a killer case included). Nice touch: the headstock and inside label list Martin Guitars, Nazareth, PA USA as the maker/distributor.

Play on!

Hi Old DOll!

Are you the Mary Poppins of Dunn Loaghaire? How come so many roses all day?
I just heard that here in the U.S. the price of a dozen roses jumped from $15 to $25 just recently, and you can spend as much as $60 for a nice arrangement!  I think I'll give my ladies (wife and grown daughter) something more nourishing for Valentine's Day: Each a six pack of Pilsener Urquell beer from the Czech Republic. I may even get one for myself to celebrate my never-ending love for myself.

I do however appreciate you educating us on the meaning of roses. I've always loved them, fresh or dried -they are equally alluring.

Play on! Watch out for thorns!

Thanks for the kind words, Bootleger!

Teles come with three barrel bridges (old style) and six barrel bridges (contained in the typical Tele bridge) and some even have the string holes drilled in the back "lip" of the metal bridge assembly.

I do agree however, that some builders even use 6-saddle Strat hardtail bridges. I even own one of those as well. Probably because these simple Strat-type bridges are a little cheaper and easier to place, I've seen them now on many Asian imports. Measuring the original Fender 3-barrel bridge on a Tele and a Strat-type hard-tail bridge on another Tele, shows that the string spacing between the two outer strings (low E and high E) is 2-3/16" on both guitars.

But, my American 40th Anniversary Strat measures 2 1/16", just to confuse you all a little more. In general, I still believe that when building a guitar, you should mark the bridge holes -forget the numbers you read somewhere as specs. You want your bridge to fit right and you must space/drill holes to fit the bridge. At the moment, I am building a Tele Thinline (Semi-hollow), these guitars have two humbuckers and a Strat bridge as well. It is my opinion that a heavy original Tele bridge connects with a solid body better and conducts the string vibrations better than the much smaller Strat-type bridge. The difference is minute, unless you get a custom bridge for $100+

It doesn't seem easy for me to properly locate the original Tele bridge on the body -it's got to be exactly straight before being screwed down. In order to find that location, I string up the lower E-string and the higher E and then observe how these strings line up with the fretboard. A tiny mistake in placing the bridge, leads to the strings being too close to the edge of the fretboard!  The distance to the nut is just as Bootleger states above: 25.5". You may adjust that precisely with the intonation screws later.

Hey this is fun! I'll go back my other pet project, a copy of a Gibson ES-175...
Play on!

Check out some of my projects: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23752184@N04/

Hi Guys & Dolls,
I finally 'got the picture' right here on this forum: You encouraged me, and I started my flickr photopage. Feel free to check out the guitars I built, customized and otherwise altered. More to come!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23752184@N04/

I might even upload a photo of myself one day, if someone takes a pleasing shot. Only mugshots available so far, I'm not at all photogenic.

Musiciansfriend has a line of simple basses called "Rogue". It's their inexpensive "store brand". I bought a four string fretless Rogue, put nice strings on it (black Tapewound GHS) -and I love that bass. The pickups could be better, but for $99 it can't be beat.

Since you're just starting out, don't bother with a 5-string, or 6-string -get one when you really know what you're doing. But eventually you will need some sort of a bass amp to hear your new instrument in full glory. I bought a Behringer Ultrabass BXL450 45W 1x10" Bass Combo for under $130. Now you're talking -at least for practice and jamming with friends it's a working setup.

Play on!

I dare to differ, Bootleger. Teles CAN have the strings top-loaded if the bridge has the string holes drilled in the back of the metal bridge frame. But Leo Fender designed the Tele to have a string-through body. There is (at least in my experience) a noticeable difference in tone. I got both and when the strings are fed all the way through the body, I get less twang but more sustain and "body". Since a lot of non-Fender bridges are exact copies with either 3- and 6-barrel saddles, the string spacing should be very similar. Anyway: when you build Teles, always place the bridge precisely, screw it down, and then actually mark the string holes that way. You do have to remove the saddles to put these marks on the Tele body. through the bridge holes.

I was also having big problems with drilling for the string holes (and the ferrules on the back). I was perfectly spaced on top of the guitar, but once I drilled through, the holes were not lining up evenly in the back of the guitar. Somehow I didn't drill exactly straight. I now have a pre-drilled hardwood "jig" with the holes exactly 90 degrees perpendicular to the top. This makes drilling straight string holes all the way through the body easy, and they're spaced right. I made the jig on my drillpress. Unfortunately I don't have a radial drill press, where the chuck/drill reaches all the way to the center of the guitar. There is nothing more aggravating then having built a perfect Tele and then the stupid ferrules don't line up correctly on the back!

Play on!

gitaardocphil:  I was born and lived in Germany (for 30 years) -and I'm still a German citizen. I came to the U.S. to check out all the rumors about it being a paradise, a rich, technologically advanced country. I didn't find exactly paradise, few rich people and technology that's often lacking behind European standards -with the exception of space technology, medical sciences and computing. These areas are so experimental that they suit the American spirit very well. We don't know how it works? Let's experiment -in our garage... oops, that wasn't it. Permits? "We don't need no stinkin' permits". The day I arrived in Houston/Texas, I had exactly 25 cents in my pocket, an old beat-up station wagon, and nowhere to go. I met a lovely Texas girl. Two years later, we got married and now have a daughter (21, art student, hippie-type) and a son (24) who is a U.S. Marine. I am so damn proud of these kids and love them more than myself.

No seriously, what I did find in America is a "can do" spirit, and what we call "Freedom", including the freedom to starve to death. In my native Germany, if someone doesn't want to work and decides to just drift through life, authorities will go out of their way to help you survive. I find the American general lack of social services refreshingly "existentialist".

Besides the srewed up political and social system, of course we have the people: they come in all colors, religions, levels of education, poor, rich and most of all: always welcoming and always interested in making friends. Ever since the 9-11 attacks, security and immigration have tightened considerably, but still Millions of illegal aliens live in the U.S. as undocumented workers. Green Cards: I don't know about the exact requirements, but certain types of visas are available (not the credit card of course) for foreign workers. Doctors and nurses are always in demand. Marrying an American citizen makes you eligible for a Green Card -but you have to stay married for a certain number of years. It also doesn't make sense to get married just for a work permit. My wife of 25 years now tells everyone that we got married, because I needed a work permit...she's joking.

Best way to get familiar with the U.S.: see for yourself. Check it out in real life, not on CNN and MTV. Since the dollar is so low right now, I would take a road trip through the US this summer. Are you a Belgian citizen?
There is so much to see and learn here, the country is endless. Endless landscapes and endless opportunities for someone who is able to look beyond the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and experience for themselves this social experiment, we call America.

Play on!

Hi Oldnewbie,
thank you for setting the record straight about King vs. Queen. Of course you're right.
I also appreciate you finishing what might have taken me another day or two. What I like the most about your post is the line about the vast majority of candidates being patriotic. I believe that the benefits someone gets for taking a high-powered political office don't really justify being in the crosshairs of critics during the elections, during the time of office, and then later in the history books. It takes someone truly passionate to run this gauntlet, and to actually succeed takes a saint. We haven't had one of these in the office of the President as far as I can remember. At least Bill Clinton played the sexophone -or is it saxophone?

PS: I'm actually considering becoming an American citizen ASAP, after being a "legal resident alien" for 28 years. I wanna vote this time!

So many questions, so many answers...
Guitardocphil, you should be recommeded for trying to understand American politics, starting with elections and all, and I certainly do not have all the answers. As a former European,now living in America I'm not even qualified to speak with authority. But I know this much: It all started with a revolution. These British colonies were far away from England. Farmers, laborers, traders and small business people had come to the colonies to live their lives free of religious and political repression. So, this is the first chapter.

Second chapter: France and Britain had been fighting each other for colonies and trade on the high seas, mainly to enrich themselves. Now all of the sudden, these British subjects in America refused to pay taxes on imported goods and for all kinds of stuff. Queen:"Make them pay!" French King:"Let's help these colonists in their rebellion against the crown!" Colonists:"Since we started this, let's finish it and declare independence". -Here I'm loosing it a little, because I'm figuring out that this will take forever...

One thing is for sure, the American Constitution was a piece of political art. And if this brilliant document hadn't been amended hundreds of times, we would all still live in democratic harmony -except people with black skin color, and red, and yellow (and women!) still wouldn't have the right to vote, because they would be someone's property. So, major progress has been made to make us all equal before the law. Similar developments took place in Europe and Asia as well. But for quite a while, America was not even interested in the rest of the world, because we were busy driving the native Indians onto small reservations, fighting a bloody civil war, and hunting bad guys in New Mexico.

The history of the United States also is a history of gigantic real estate speculations: The Louisiana Purchase (the French King was broke again), annexation of California from the weak Spanish (supply lines too long), purchase of Alaska from the Russians (the average Russian had probably never heard of Alaska anyway). Fortunes were made, railways were built, gold was found in California, industrialists amassed great wealth. Why share with the new European immigrants who came by the hundreds of thousands...? Ok, here I will stop for today. The previous sermon does not answer your intelligent questions about America, but I firmly believe that HISTORY is to blame. "Winning" the elections today is just as dubious as it was in the early days of our new country: If you can manage to become a political pop star, you can outspend your competition, and then be the President for at least four years.

It's really more complicated than that, but I don't want to bore you'all here on this lovely forum. Presidential elections are coming up in November -we need a guitar player in the White House!

Play on!

No problem 06sc500. We'll still be here and you csn let me know anytime.

Play on!

Cytania has assembled a comprehensive list of "what makes a cheap guitar", and Russell_Harding has identified "who makes a cheap guitar" -I am adding now the third related question "Who buys a cheap guitar?".

There are certainly folks who are buying a guitar for the first tiime. And then there is someone like me who knows better, but hesitates to buy expensive guitars. There are moments when I throw out everything I have learned about quality and cheaply made guitars....and buy that $200 thing that looks like a guitar but plays like crap. Among my 14 guitars are 3 that I built myself, 3 others that were over $1000, and 8 that I bought just because they were cheap. After the first visual encounter (mostly on the net), my love affair with a cheap guitar usually ends when the UPS truck has left my neighborhood: Another $200 bucks down the drain. Ouch.

Let's hope that forums and discussions like this help others avoid the mistakes I've made by buying cheap guitars.

Play on!