New Guitsr & New Scots Tune

[VikingBlues]

Hope all is well with everyone. I've been slowed down a bit recently when I god a dose of Covid.
But it didn't hit too bad, though the recovery period is one of slow progress. But I'm more than happy that's all it's amounting to.

Thinking ahead to when my finger joints get worse , I've invested in a (low budget) Baby-Concert acoustic.
A Rathbone Number 1 - Solid Cedar Top (with really nice wood grain), Rosewood Back & Sides.
Cutaway electro-acoustic, 23 inch / 590mm scale, bone nut and saddle.
I'd not heard of Rathbone before, but they are tied in with Barnes & Mullins, going back to 1900 it seems from the headstock.
https://www.rathboneguitars.com/r1crce.html
The pictures shown on the link are a good representation of what the one I got looks like.
Nice quality and feels solid with good finish. Action was a bit high, but the local guitar builder Mark Burnet set it up nicely!
It does play nice and easy and the short scale length does help.

Here's a piece loosely inspired by a Scots tune 'Scarcity of Potatoes' - 19th Century Highland Potato Famine - not a s bad as the Irish Potato Famine, but still 200,000 people seriously at risk.
Hopefully the name I've given this is a proper translation of the English words 'Where's My Potatoes'.

Càit a bheil mo bhuntàta.mp3 - (2.87 MiB)

I hope that the nice resonances from this small guitar come over in the recording.
In DADGAD tuning (of course).

[12bar]

Never heard of that brand before - congrats! Sounds like a big one!

Yes, corona is still there. My family and me had it, but with fast recovery. Get well!
Finally my sister bought a Taylor 214ce (with PU) and is quite happy with it. Plays fine, was a special offer, now out of order.

[fenson]

Hi VB,

Nice guitar, I used to play their Parlor model (mahogany top) which is really a pleasant blues guitar ;-)
Got the covid too ... It took about a month to get out of it and recover...
A bit busy at the moment, gardening, blowing the shakuhashi and playing the blues...

Goodvill to you all

[VikingBlues]

Thanks for listening and commenting guys!

Good to hear that you've all passed the Covid experience OK.

Gerd - Good quality guitar that Taylor 214CE. Taylor's so often sound very good when other people play them, but oddly enough when i try and play them it all goes wrong. I suppose my playing style doesn't suit the responsiveness and tonality of a Taylor!

I could imagine the mahogany Rathbone would be a good blues machine ... as it happens the Cedar was the only one they had at the shop, so I didn't get the chance to compare. It's great having a guitar shop within 15 minutes ... and somewhere where there's no parking charges.

Off Topic - but I was watching the Jim Jarmusch film 'Dead Man' recently, which has a soundtrack by Neil Young. Improvised live on a single electric guitar while watching the final copy of the film after editing completed. It's in his more distorted, discordant, and harsh type of mood.

So I thought I'd pick up an electric after a year+ absence and see if I could produce anything a bit uncompromising.
Reverb, delay and distortion ... and here we are.
P.S. - I know ... it's nothing like Neil Young! Not meant to be.

Unwell Man.mp3 - (5.38 MiB)

See what you think?!

Mark

[12bar]

Sounds interesting and reminds me a song from the 80s, but I can't remember it exactly.
Would also fit for a movie! Sounds great and nothing like being "offline" for a year
Keep on!

[VikingBlues]

Thanks! Glad to see your "movie" remark, as that's what i was hoping to achieve.
Once I'd remembered how to plug everything in and how to dial in the settings on the Vox Tonelab LE.

I think I still had the atmosphere of the 'Dead Man' film in my head, with it's twisted and surreal elements of the Western genre.
It's a very unusual film and it really polarises opinions into a love or hate divide. I really like it but am not 100% sure why!
Shot in monochrome but the camerawork and capture of nature in the scenes is first rate.
A movie with a narrative, characters, themes, and symbols often based on the works of poet and artist William Blake.
Which is the main characters name.
There are many references to William Blake's poetry throughout the film.
He is the one making the spiritual journey to his final death and passing into the spirit world.

MAYBE!?!? It's a film that is very allegorical where nothing is made obvious. Certainly not to me anyway.
Roger Ebert gave the film one-and-a-half stars (out of four), saying "Jim Jarmusch is trying to get at something here, and I don't have a clue what it is".

There's a fairly brief appearance in the film by Iggy Pop, playing a cross-dressing, bible reading fur trader at a campsite. Unusual.

[12bar]

Just found it on YT - I'll give it a try!