Monday 20 February 2012

Prepare The Resonator!

No, not a command from the captain of an inter-stella battle cruiser, it's what I've spent a good part of the day doing.

I actually like my Ozark Resonator Guitar but, yet again, I haven't played it for well over a year now:
Shiny, Shiny!
It occurred to me that I couldn't remember replacing the strings in all the time I've owned it.
When I took the old ones off this was clearly evident from the 'crust' that'd built up underneath them.
The resonator cover was covered in blood, sweat and tears and really needed a good polish.
New strings, quick tune up and I discover my ability to play a six stringed instrument has completely deserted me since I changed over to the uke.

The last time I could nearly play I sounded like this:



Complete with it's hard-case, it's now in the queue for eBay listing.

10 comments:

Banished To A Pompous Land said...

I'm still sitting on the same old Levin jazz guitar I bought from Mac when he worked in that little music shop at the bottom end of the bus station in Harrogate. The shop at the end of the tunnel that led through to the fish and chip shop.

It must have been about... hmmmm 1982? Cost me 150 quid too! Amazingly, it is still in one piece after all the abuse it suffered at my hands. I never play it but maybe I'll pass it on to Banished Jr. I did put new strings on, clean it up, do some minor repairs. I think Mrs B hopes I might one day learn to play the thing. How late it was how late

OutaSpaceMan said...

I once went into that shop and noticed they had a realtime sequencer linked to a digital piano.
I set the sequencer running and recorded some random notes and clusters.
Turned the tempo as far down as it would go then set it running.
To this day I've not bettered that in any of the ambient pieces I've created.

Did that white plastic sax belong to you?

Banished To A Pompous Land said...

I'd forgotten the dance band sax. I actually had it on loan. I returned it to its owner who likely finished destroying it at a later date. It was already repaired with epoxy where he had apparently smacked it against a tree on the Stray.

I did keep the spare mouth piece though and this was fitted to a metal rail from an old wardrobe which was of a perfect diameter and had 8 finger holes punched in it. This was the infamous Wardrailophone of Certain Ants fame. If I can find the Wardrailophone duet I will up load it to Soundcloud.

Banished To A Pompous Land said...

http://soundcloud.com/bugbrit/01-duet-for-wardrailophone

Banished To A Pompous Land said...

http://soundcloud.com/bugbrit/01-duet-for-wardrailophone

Banished To A Pompous Land said...

http://soundcloud.com/bugbrit/01-duet-for-wardrailophone

Banished To A Pompous Land said...

http://soundcloud.com/bugbrit/01-duet-for-wardrailophone

OutaSpaceMan said...

Which makes me wonder..
What ever happened to Phil Middleton?

Banished To A Pompous Land said...

I wondered the same just recently. With the Wally reunion it made me think on the Middleton mafia. But I very very clearly remember the sound packing up at some gig on Cold Bath Rd and Phil doing an impromptu and unaccompanied rendition of 'The Dust Blows Forward and the Dust Blows Back' to quiet the mob.

Sorry for the repeat post, it was very late and I was not paying attention.

Herr Döktor said...

I recall singing along to a fine performance of "The Snake" played on that very instrument, in a small cafe at Crystal Palace, after a Dinosaur Safari...


Happy Daze.