As an owner of a Broken Martin DM (because I couldn't live without it for a week in Florida) don't do it, man. Some planes/airlines will say that you can carry it on, which is good, then you transfer to a little plane and they say no dice. I've even been told I could carry it on one plane of the same airline, then told no on the next plane, even thought it was the same freaking plane.
And of course, the neck got cracked. The luthier glued it up, and it's still my favorite guitar to play, but that little buzz on 4th fret still makes me want to strangle a certain airline stewardess/baggage crew until they wet their pants.
flester has the best advice here. Buy a cheapo when you get there and give it to a friend or relative when you leave. Then you'll always have one when you go.
1 2008-02-10 00:23:25
Re: Guitar Travel (8 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)
2 2008-02-10 00:11:15
Re: recording hardware & RECORDING SOFTWARE (11 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)
I just forgot this, look at the bottom of the page: "Best Production in Americana, week of 12Jun2006 " So there.
3 2008-02-10 00:07:24
Re: recording hardware & RECORDING SOFTWARE (11 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)
At the risk of sounding like a MacWeirdo, get yourself a Mac. I tried several programs (Including Adobe Audition) to do home recording, and it was all just so complicated for a singer-songwriting-guitar-player-non-sound engineer.
Two little words made my life so much easier: Garage Band. Not being in one, but recording with it. Comes free(!) on any new Apple computer with iLife. Yes, it's a bit simple, but it sounds to me like this chap just wants to get his songs recorded. In reality, it's not that limiting. Depending on how much of your life you want to put into it, (and how much the wife lets you put into it) you can engineer a recording that even has other musicians giving you kudos on the 'production'. Don't believe me? http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSlYVmzZmw
(Yes, this is a little shameless self-plugging, but then would I be a musician if I didn't do it?)
Hardware to do this recording was: Toneport UX2, ($199.00) which you can replace with your BOSS BR 600, MXL 990 Condenser Microphone ($59.00) and a 1.5GHz Powerbook (you can find them used for $500-$700. Martin acoustic, Dean acoustic bass, G&L strat. No amps, no effects racks. I just used the effects in Garage Band. Of course, each effect was customized, but it's easy to do, and you start off with a pretty good set of effects. And I could go on and on, but let me add this disclaimer: I work at Apple. BUT, I didn't when I recorded this. And now I'm shutting up.
4 2008-02-06 14:52:33
Re: Restringing Guitar (35 replies, posted in Acoustic)
How about a happy medium?
I loosen the E, A, D strings one at a time until they are floppy.
Cut 'em right in the middle. (Makes unwinding and pin removal easier)
Clean and wipe that half of the fretboard, neck, etc. A dusty guitar is a sad guitar.
Put new E, A, and D strings, tighten to nearly (but under) tuned.
Repeat with G, B, and e strings.
Tune.
(I do the following to stretch the strings out, and keep a better tuning right off the bat)
Lay the guitar on your lap. While you're sitting, of course. If you're laying down or standing, you don't really have a lap, now, do ya?
For each string, put index finger on 12th fret, pull string straight up off the neck near the sound hole, just enough to stretch it out a bit (maybe 1/2 to 1 inch off the neck), with a tug-a-tug motion (you know what I mean) and let it slap back.
Putting your index finger on the 12th fret serves two purposes: It's harder to break a string when you're only really pulling on the bottom half, and if it does snap, there's not enough length on either side of the string to come up and put your good eye out.
Tune again. Duh.
Now, go to the fridge and get a beer.
If it's warm enough outside, sit yourself down on the porch and strum that thing.
(The guitar, not the beer. You drink the beer.)