Coming back to the guitar

I have always enjoyed music, but seldom what was popular at the time. As a kid in the 50s, with early rock & roll on every other kid's transistor radio, I preferred the pop music of the times. Broadway musicals, movie scores, and classical music. I became quite the classical buff for some time, and annoyed my army buddies by playing Rachmaninoff and Sibelius on my portable record player.
I gradually began to appreciate some of the pop stuff, and was amazed to learn that many of the tunes I was listening to were Lennon & McCarntey items! Totally out of touch...Hehe.
However, one of my fellow officers on the County PD was an ex-folkie from the Gaslight Square era here in St. Louis. Through him, I fell in with a crowd of people (including my wife-to-be) who were either musicians or otherwise involved in music.
My buddy introduced me to a variety of artists who were part of the folk revival at the time, and also a bunch of local artists who played in a variety of styles. I began to hang out at an "open mike" club in South St. Louis, and eventually became part of the regular crowd.
It was sort of intimidating being a non-musician in a crowd of musicians. Nearly everyone I knew played something! So, I bit the bullet and bought a banjo. I was beginning to appreciate bluegrass music, and had always liked Pete Seeger.
I was living with my wife at the time, and I flogged away at the banjo, working out of books. No one else in the crowd played banjo, so I didn't have any tutors. During this time, I had obtained an inexpensive nylon-stringed guitar for my wife, as she'd had to leave hers behind with her ex-husband.
My progress with the banjo was slow, and occasionally I would pick up the guitar and fiddle with it. For whatever reason, I found I was making much more progress with the guitar than the banjo, so I trucked the banjo back to the music store and traded it for a little Yamaha steel-string.

Before long, I was doing pretty well. I mastered basic flatpick technique, and was soon playing well enough that I could sit in on jams with the rest of the crowd, and even back up my wife. She was a semi-regular at the above-mentioned club, and often subbed for the owners, who were the main act.
I started subscribing to Guitar Player, and before long was playing pretty complex stuff, working on Jazz chord-melody styles, and beginning to get pretty decent at improvising lead lines and blues.
We got a generous income-tax rebate one year, and I bought us each a new Martin.
I got my wife a nylon-stringed classical model, and for myself a very nice D-18.
Wonderful instrument, very balanced. A lot of the more expensive rosewood Martins have a rather bass-heavy tone; sort of "boomy". This is due to their traditional use as the rythym instrument in string bands.
But for all-around use and recording, many preferred the more-balanced tone of the mahogany D-18. I sure liked it.

Eventually, when I started fooling with blues and jazz, I bought an electric. The high acoustic action of the Martin just was not conducive to making complex chords and fancy string bends, at least for someone with average-sized hands.

However, all things come to an end. The club we all hung out at closed, over a lease agreement. Folks got older, moved, quit playing, and so forth. The "scene" sort of died. There was always talk of a new club, but it never materialized. With no outlet for playing, interest waned. We'd occasionally break out the guitars and play a bit, but we fell on bad economic times, and the Martins were sold. Eventually I picked up a used Yamaha and kept playing, but it was difficult to keep the interest level up with no real outlet for performing.
Finally, last year, I sold the Yamaha, and that was pretty much that.
I contented myself with listening to other folks play.

A few months ago, however, I was thumbing through an issue of "Make" magazine, a publication for folks who like to ....Make things. The cover article was "how to make a cigar-box guitar". I looked at the article, and said, "I could do that". I've always enjoyed making things, from tying flies as a youthful fisherman to handloading my own ammunition to building recumbent bicycles...

I checked the internet and sure enough, there were several web pages and a Yahoo group devoted to cigar-box guitar. Within a few weeks, I had obtained the necessary bits and had built my first instrument.
This is quite a fun little thing to play, but eventually I found it rather unsatisfying. You're pretty much limited to playing with a slide, though it's possible to install frets. Very limited volume as well unless you build in a pickup.

The project sort of fired up my musical juices, however. I found that I wanted a proper instrument again. I had been saving money to upgrade my computer (a never-ending task), and couldn't decide which way to go on that project. So, I decided to wait on the computer, and see what kind of guitar I could get on limited funds.
We have a big chain Guitar Center here, and they have a variety of brands. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of instruments you can buy in the 200.00 price range. (My Martin had cost 600.00, and was worth some 1200 when I sold it.)
I hauled instrument after instrument back to the sound room, and played and examined them all.
Eventually, I had it down to two identically-priced guitars. One was a Fender dreadnaught, that came in a kit with tuner, string winder, picks, bag, etc. The other was a Mitchell acoustic/electric cutaway model. I had never heard of Mitchell, but assumed it was some sort of overseas import. Seemed very nice, however.
I went home and did some research on the net. The Mitchell, it turned out, was from Indonesia, part of the growing instrument industry in that island nation.
It got excellent owner reviews on a number of sites, not only for sound, but for fit, finish, and overall quality.
The Fender fared not quite as well, scoring significantly lower in similar reviews.
When playing both, I'd noticed the Fender was a bit heavy on the base, and had a rather stiff action that would require adjustment.

So, I bought the Mitchell. It's an impressive instrument for 200.00, and came well set-up from the factory. Even came with my favorite D'Addario bronze strings.
I'm working on re-establishing my callouses, and looking over the wide variety of guitar resources on the web.

Another American in the Yellow Jersey

Back a few weeks ago, I posted about the doping scandal that had knocked a number of the main players out of the Tour de France. There was a lot of speculation that this would be a pretty dull Tour without the big names.

Not so!

In an outstanding Tour, American rider Floyd Landis (and ex-teammate of Lance Armstrong) has taken the win after a spectacular blowup on one stage, followed by an epic ride the next day to recover nearly all the time he'd lost.
The final time-trial put him a minute up on the second-place rider, and assured his victory.

This was actually one of the more exciting Tours in recent memory. Usually, after the first of the big mountain stages, the leader is well-established. However, in this race, the fabled Yellow Jersey traded back and forth several times, and perhaps half-a-dozen riders were in position for a possible victory just a few days from the finish of the three-week race.

Landis had done well on the first mountain stages, displaying the strength that had served Armstrong so well as he swarmed up alp after alp. However, on the horrendously difficult next-to-the-last mountain stage, Floyd "bonked" on the last climb, and allowed his rivals to gain long minutes on him. At the end of the stage, the second place man, Oscar Periero, had seven minutes in hand.
This was considered the end for Landis; overcoming such a deficit in just a couple of days nearly impossible. Phil Liggett, long-time Tour commentator, said flatly that it was over for Landis.
However, on Thursday, Landis had recovered, and launched a spectacular attack that left the other contenders flat-footed. Attacking the mountain passes with amazing energy, Landis soon had over seven minutes on the shocked peloton.
Though the contenders organized themselves to some degree, by the end of the stage Periero had lost 6 1/2 minutes of his seven minute lead.
The next day's final time trial told the tale. Landis is a fine time-trial rider, and he easily beat the leader, gaining almost a full minute to take the clear lead.
All that remained was to stay safe through Saturday's flat "sprinter's" stage, and ride the victory lap that is the final leg of the Tour, finishing on the Champs d' Elysee in Paris.
This makes the 8th consecutive year that an American has stood on the podium in Paris!

Storms, Civilization, and Uncivilized behavior

St. Louis made the national news over the weekend, after a surprise storm front roared through the area Wednesday night and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people.
This was a very fast-developing storm, not called for in the forecasts. Swept through in the early evening, with winds recorded at 85 mph.
Our son was at the ball park at the time; things got pretty interesting!

We were extremely lucky, loosing power for only about an hour in the early morning, evidently knocked out when they were cutting other parts of the grid back on.
Huge numbers of trees and big branches were downed, taking down power lines and causing all manner of problems. At present the university I work at is putting up some 300 out-of-state electrical workers who have been brought in to handle the emergency.

Having no power makes one well aware of the fragility of civilization, and how much we depend on having electricity available. Generators and ice are still in heavy demand, as folks try to get some sort of power, and preserve food. Makes you wonder how all those Iraqis who get electricity for a few hours a day make do, eh?

But about that uncivilized behavior... It's supposed to be common knowledge that when you encounter an electric signal that's not working, you treat it like a stop sign. Driving 101, huh?
But I was absolutely amazed at the numbers of people I saw just merrily driving through these darkened intersections. Naturally, dozens of accidents have been reported, prompting all the local media to appeal to drivers to treat these intersections as 4-way stops.
I had commuters merrily blowing the signal at the main crosswalk to main campus from our dorm area, and was convinced someone was going to get killed.
I spent several hours sitting there in the police car, with the red lights on. That helped a little, but still many drivers just zipped on through without a glance at my car. Absolutely amazing.
I was making calls to every agency I could think of that might have temporary stop signs, and finally the County responded with some.
About that time, an accident was reported on the other side of campus. One of our maintenance trucks had pulled out onto the main drag there, and was centerpunched by an oncoming SUV that ignored the blackened signal.
I arrived on the scene first, and asked the lady driver if she was injured. She said no. I then asked her why she didn't stop. She said, "the light was green!" I directed her to look at the darkened signal. "Lady, they weren't working." She had nothing further to say. I suspect that she wanted very badly for the light to have been green...

What are all those gears for?

When I was a kid, back in the '50s, my first bike was a typical baloon-tired, coaster-brake job that was pretty much standard. One speed, and you'd get off and push for hills. (Such bikes are still common in many areas of the world)
It was not till I started "serious" cycling that I had a bike with gears that one could change. My first was a Schwinn "Varsity" model that had but a single rear derailleur and five speeds. Very simple, even though this was a "friction" shifter.
I soon upgraded to a decent road bike, the Schwinn "Continental" model. That was about 1974 or so. A typical nicer 10 speed of the period. Again, friction shifters rather than the more contemporary "index" models.
I got pretty good at finageling these shifters, which required that you sort of "feel" the different cogs, and also "trim" the front derailleur a bit either way as it would rub.

There are still those of us who use these devices, but they are pretty much history except for vintage bike fans.
Modern indexed shifting is vastly easier and more convenient. Mountain and Hybrid bikes have either the handy twist-type shifters, or the Shimano-pioneered system with thumb-and-forefinger operated items. Road bikes almost all come with some sort of integrated brake-lever/shifter, which is again simple and accurate.
Most modern bikes come with anywhere from 24 to as many as 30 "speeds" or gear ratios, which should provide a gear for any occasion, from climbing very steep hills to going as fast as possible on the way down.

So, with all this improved technology, I wonder why so many bike riders either can't or don't shift gears hardly at all.
I see this all the time at the university where I work; a student with a modern 24-speed mountain bike will come to a hill and either labor up same in a gear that's obviously way too high, or even get off and push, much as I did in 1952!

I have asked numbers of riders about this. "Why don't you shift down to a lower gear?"

The answer is usually one of two things. First, "it's too hard". Meaning, I suppose, that they haven't figured out how to shift gears. Or, "It worked OK when I got the bike, but it doesn't work anymore." Apparently too busy to take the bike back to the shop for a quick adjustment.

When you buy a new bike, any reputable shop will offer a free "tune-up" 30 days or so after you bought it. That's about as much time as it takes for all the cables to stretch out from new, and that's what's causing the shifting problem. The derailleurs are operated by braided steel cables, and new ones stretch a bit. A quick re-adjustment, and they are generally good to go for a long time. Experienced riders can make these adjustments while riding; a quick quarter-turn of the adjuster on the handlebar lever usually takes care of things.

As to the "it's too hard" complaint....It is a bit intimidating to the novice. 24-30 gears? Which one do I use? Actually, it's pretty simple. Here's the theory of gear shifting:

When you're riding a bike, you have a "cadence" (how fast you spin the cranks) that's efficient and comfortable. Usually, this is just a little faster than what most folks start out with; you have to train a little. For most, this efficient cadence will be from 90-100 rpm. The idea of having all those gears is that you can maintain that 90-100 rpm no matter what you're doing.
Going up a big hill? Your lowest gears will let you "spin" up the hill at that efficient cadence. Going fast on a level road? The higher gears will let you maintain a good speed with little effort.

Far and away the most popular bikes currently are various sorts of "mountain" bikes and their relatives, the hybrids or "comfort" bikes, which all have the same type of components. These bikes are all equipped with from seven (on older models) gears or "cogs" on the back, and three gears (chainrings) on the front.
The way to simplify this is to think of your front gears, the chainrings, as gear ranges. The little bitty gear, the "granny" as we say, is the lowest gear range. You can use it to climb up big hills. The middle ring is for "normal" riding, maybe on slightly rolling roads or terrain. The "big ring", or largest gear, is for going very fast, keeping up high speed on downhills, and so forth.

In the rear, it's the reverse. The littlest cog is the highest gear, and the biggest is the lowest. So, the little "granny" up front and the biggest cog in back is the lowest possible gear. Likewise, the big ring up front and the littlest cog in back is the highest. No one but the strongest riders can turn over such a gear at high cadences on a level road.

So, pick a front gear "range" that suits your conditions. Usually, the middle ring will handle nearly everything. Then, fine-tune your pedalling effort with the rear shifter. Getting a bit hard to pedal? Shift down a couple of gears. Getting too easy? Shift up. Best to shift down a couple of gears before the going gets hard, like right before you get to a big hill. It's much harder to shift while you are pushing really hard on the pedals.

If you do this, and keep the chain clean and properly lubricated, you should be able to shift effortlessly and accurately.