The StratAcademy

February 2, 2019 Timothy Price9 Comments

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The StratAcademy started out as GRS Music Studios on Corrales Road in 2009, where Jimmy and Lisa did recording, Jimmy repaired guitars, they gave music lessons, and Jimmy held seminars on how to build guitars. Then they moved to another location on Corrales Road until that property was put up for sale. They were in a residential area on the westside of Corrales for a couple of years, where they changed the name from GRS Music Studios to the StratAcademy. When the current location at 4627 Corrales Road became available in the summer of 2017, Jimmy and Lisa set up shop and added a small retail outlet.

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In the current location they have the retail store, Jimmy’s repair shop and a studio for lessons in the main building. Behind the retail/shop/studio is another shop where Jimmy builds guitars and holds seminars on building guitars.

010O3009 — Ron, bass player extraordinaire, and Lisa in the retail show room.

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Jimmy and Lisa work as team on music lessons. Besides helping Jimmy run the business, Lisa plays either bass or keyboard along with the students once they learn their parts in a song. Then they all play together in a mock band so the students can experience what it’s like to play with other people in a band-like setting. Creating a band-like setting is a value added service that really benefits their students, and other musicians their students might play with in the future.

Lisa has been playing various instruments including viola, violin, guitar, bass and keyboard for the past 15 years. Jimmy and Lisa are a fantastic team, but Lisa prefers to be “the back-up, support person who stays out of the spotlight…” She says “Jimmy is really the face of the business, which suits me just fine!”

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While I had noticed GRS Studios in its first two locations, I did not pay attention to it as I drove back and forth through Corrales because I didn’t need guitar repair. I never noticed their sign while driving on Loma Larga Road. Jimmy said it was strange operating a business in the middle of a residential area in those days. After Grandma’s Music and Sound, the only viable music store on the westside, closed on July 31, 2017, the StratAcademy started carrying guitars, amplifiers and accessories (mostly Fender) when they moved to their current location. I was curious to stop in after their new sign went up on Corrales Road, but I never seemed to have the time.

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010O3012 — Their studio with a student warming up before his lesson.

After I got the Gibson Les Paul last August, I needed a guitar strap for it. I wanted a wide strap so the weight of the Les Paul would not cut into my shoulder. I looked on-line, but didn’t find any straps that appealed to me at a reasonable price. I stopped in at the StratAcademy to see if they had guitar straps. They had a good selection of guitar straps, which included a nice, wide, black strap like I was looking for at a reasonable price. About a month later, I needed a specific type of 9 volt power supply for a guitar pedal I have that sucks the life out of batteries like a power hungry vampire. All the extra power supplies I have are 6 or 12 volts. I ran up to the StratAcademy to see if, by chance, they had the type of 9 volt power supply I needed. Wow! They actually had one, and I went home, power supply in hand, a happy man.

010O3035 — Jimmy’s shop where he builds guitars and holds seminars on guitar building. You can learn more about the giant Fender Stratocaster that Jimmy built at https://photoofthedayetc.wordpress.com/2019/01/18/stratospheric/.

010O3031 — Neck and body templates on the shelf.

Okay, I thought to my self, the StratAcademy is turning out to be the kind of brick and mortar I love. Although small, they so far have had just what I needed when I needed it. Jimmy and Lisa are friendly and personable, and provide excellent customer service. The StratAcademy is only a five minute drive from our house. Not only are they convenient, their prices are close to Amazon, Adorama, B&H Photo (yes photo stores sell musical instruments at discount prices) and eBay; therefore, I haven’t had to say “I’ll think about it” and walk out empty handed because their prices are too high.

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So far the StratAcademy has been a one stop shop for me. Besides the strap and power supply described above, I have acquired various goodies over the past several months including: a Squire Bass by Fender, a small amplifier that I use in the darkroom for practice and recording (the guitar amp I’ve had for years is too large and heavy for use in the darkroom), wall mounted guitar hangers (I now have guitars hanging on the walls in my darkroom), patch cables, guitar strings, a gig bag, guitar picks and drumsticks.

010O3027 — OSB Strat body that was in process when I took this photo. Jimmy has finished it.

Another advantage to buying guitars and basses from the StratAcademy is that Jimmy sets them up very nicely before he puts them in the show room; therefore, even though they generally sell the lower priced Fender line, instruments purchased from the StratAcademy play really well.

0A6A8988 — Official StratAcademy Cruiser.

Lastly, it’s really nice to live in our paradise along the river, away from the city, and have a music store that has most everything I need only five minutes down the road.

Jimmy Smith

January 23, 2019January 25, 2019 Timothy Price23 Comments

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Meet Jimmy Smith — guitar player, guitar teacher, guitar repairman, and guitar builder extraodinnaire. Not only is he great guitar enthusiast, he’s a master craftsman, studio tech and all around nice guy who loves Fender Stratocasters and their shapely features.

After playing in a band through the eighties, where he maintained all the instruments and built sets for the band, Jimmy started repairing instruments, and building his own guitars. He opened for business in Olympia, Washington in 1999 before he and his wife, Lisa, moved his business to the Durango, Colorado area a couple of years later. They finally relocated to Corrales, New Mexico in 2009 as GRS Music.

Jimmy changed the name of the business to The StratAcademy around 2016, and moved to the current location on Corrales Road a year ago. The StratAcademy is made up of a small retail space, his repair shop, a music studio for practice, lessons and recording, and a larger shop where Jimmy builds guitars and holds seminars on building guitars where students build their own solid body electric guitars from scratch under Jimmy’s tutelage.

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Jimmy likes to experiment with different woods and materials for guitar bodies and necks. He is experimenting with Oriented Strand Board (OSB), commonly known as flake board, to build guitars. This is the second OSB guitar he is building with a Les Paul style body. He built a Strat style guitar out of OSB which will have its own post after Jimmy finishes a video of him playing it so we can hear how it sounds.

0a6a2307 — Jimmy explaining the OSB process.

0a6a2316 — OSB neck for the OSB Les Paul.

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This body is made of a hardwood that is very lightweight. It feels like a hard balsa wood. You can see neck and body templates in the shelves behind Jimmy.

0a6a2325 — A Texas Flag Telecsater body Jimmy got from a pawn shop.

0a6a2321 — Jimmy made this body out of 2x4s used to frame buildings.

Stay tuned for more about the StratAcademy.

Stratospheric

January 18, 2019January 18, 2019 Timothy Price19 Comments

010o3016 — Jimmy Smith’s 16 feet long Fender Stratocaster with a real Strat for scale.

When I first saw the giant, 16 foot long, exact replica of a Fender Stratocaster that Jimmy Smith built, I was so impressed with the quality and workmanship of the monolithic guitar sculpture, the question of why would Jimmy go to all the trouble to build it never crossed my mind. It’s art pure and simple with so much care and attention to every detail of the iconic guitar first produced by Leo Fender’s electric instrument company in 1954. Buddy Holly bought a Fender Stratocaster in 1955. When Holly played in England in 1958, the shape and sound of Holly’s solid body electric guitar mesmerized John Lennon and Paul McCartney, providing inspiration to the two teenagers that would eventually change the course of contemporary music. We can only imagine what Buddy Holly would have achieved if he had lived, but in that short time before his untimely death in 1959, Buddy Holly unleashed the Fender Stratocaster on the world, and made a significant contribution to the rock & roll revolution. The Stratorcaster is memorialized at both Buddy Holly’s and Jimmy Hedrix’s grave sites. Holly’s Stratocaster is carved on his headstone, and there is a sculpture of Jimmy Hendrix’s stratocaster, strung for his left handed playing, at his grave site. To me there is no mystery about why a master craftsman like Jimmy Smith would build a monolithic sculpture of Leo Fender’s Stratocaster. A stratospheric work a art to commemorate a work of stratospheric art.

010o3017 — My friend Joel trying to play the big Strat.

010o3021 — Jimmy’s artistry and attention to detail is exquisite.

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010o3020 — Jimmy has to keep it in his shop. When he puts it out in front of his shop, The Strat Academy, people climb on it for photos and selfies and it gets vandalized.

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Stay tuned, and you will learn more about Jimmy Smith and the Strat Academy in upcoming posts.

2016 Corrales 4th of July Parade

July 4, 2016 Timothy Price19 Comments

This little dog at the top of our road was barking at me and spinning in circles when I passed by on my way to the Corrales 4th of July Parade. Photos of the parade can be seen at http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2016/7/2016-corrales-4th-of-july-parade

Letters from Madrid – The Paperwork is Done

January 2, 2016January 2, 2016 Timothy Price18 Comments

The first letter from Madrid left the us worn out from crisscrossing Madrid trying to finish up the paperwork for our residency cards. The saga continues with us looking for flamenco classes, a description of where we lived and Tristan’s schooling. She was 9 years old when we moved to Spain.

18 April 1996

Madrid, Spain
With the paperwork out of the way, Laurie and I went off in search of flamenco classes. Of course finding dance classes was not difficult and Laurie is taking class every day for two hours, and is looking into adding some other classes. I got lucky, and found an excellent guitarist, Miguel Rivera. who has taken me as a student. He was recommended by Pablo’s old teacher, Angel Torres. Miguel is a superb player, fast and clean like Paco de Lucia, very tasteful and very knowledgeable. He is constantly on tour with flamenco groups, so I get lessons when he is town for a couple of days between shows. He is performing in northern Spain, Italy and Poland for the next three weeks. He has me playing some very difficult material plus he has exercises for every technique and fingering I am deficient in (which is about everything). The style is very different from what I have played and is taking a lot of getting used to. I’m slowly adjusting and my speed and clarity is improving already. I am very excited about the guitar right now.

We live in the barrio called Chambari, in a small, but comfortable, fairly modern apartment. As it turns out, Chambari is a fairly upscale area, and this is the best priced apartment we have found so far, especially considering it has central heat and air-conditioning (Heating is not standard in apartments, and air-conditioning is rare) included in the rent. We are central to everything and right on a metro stop. There is a nice playground/park up the street from us where Tristan goes to play in the evenings. There are a lot of families in this area and Tristan has made several friends. There are real grocery stores fairly close by, a nice market down the street, a great book store around the corner, and the main branch of the public library up the road a bit. After looking at several apartments in the areas we like, we have come to the conclusion we are in the least expensive apartment we can find, so we are staying put at the moment.

Tristan is being home schooled, which is not something normally done in Spain, as most people don’t understand the concept. The Spanish schools are in session until the end of May and then have a break until the middle of September. We might put Tristan in School in September. Classes run from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday here. Tristan doesn’t even want to consider it at the moment. She has just finished a fourth grade math book and moved on to a fifth grade math book (she is a third grader). She is reading regular novels in English (middle to high school level), plus the Bible and some easier history, horse and bird books in Spanish on her own. Laurie is reading Don Quijote and Greek Myths in Spanish to her. Tristan has to do handwriting exercises and write at least a page, plus she has to write letters and post cards to friends and family. I work with her on Geography and Geology from a couple of very good, generally middle school level, text books. She has an Explora science book that she is reading and doing experiments on her own with. We go to the museums regularly so Tristan is getting art, art history and Spanish history. As she has learned from looking at the classic paintings, you have to know history, the Bible stories and mythology to understand many of the paintings. She is reading the Bible and discovering many of the stories in the paintings. She is also starting to understand and see a lot of the mythology and history in the paintings also. She is actually getting somewhat of a St. Johns College curriculum in her home studies.

We have not done a lot of site seeing outside of Madrid. There is so much to do here that it is tough to get out. We are what I would call micro tourists. We are getting to know an area of about 36 square kilometers in the center of Madrid very well; and that is a very small area of the city. We are finding all kinds of great museums and seeing great musical performances, learning the history of this wonderful city, and how to get about in it.

More to come…

While I did not take many photos the first couple of years we lived in Spain, I did find videos of Miguel Rivera, the guitarist I studied with in Madrid. Although the videos where posted on Youtube only in the past 5 years, some of them go back to the the 1990’s. The last one below that is very recent.

Flamencos de la Feria – Suite Sevilla Obra de Rafael Riqueni por Miguel Rivera y René Mora https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5rBpcCFSCM (Miguel is on the right side of the screen)

El Real – Suite Sevilla obra de Rafael Riqueni por Miguel Rivera, René Mora y David Vázquez https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6WaVEGjRx4 (Miguel is on the right side of the screen)

Bulerías – Miguel Rivera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r51aSk7fDOI

Así suena el genial Miguel Rivera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63H-1EW9e_8 (Miguel in 2014)

Men at Work

December 14, 2013 Timothy Price4 Comments

There is a stereotype of road workers standing around leaning on their shovels. While this photo reinforces the stereotype, I believe these guys are waiting for a fresh load of asphalt. I worked construction when I was young, and no matter what the stereotypes are, construction workers have hard jobs, and often have to work outside in bad weather this time of year. I remember digging footings and having to use a pickaxe to break up the frozen soil in single digit temperatures back in my days as a construction worker. I was young and stupid back then.

But today’s photo reminded me of when we were living in Spain, and we came home one summer. Tristan had a rat that died and we were having a funeral for it. I had dug the hole and was leaning on the shovel, with Laurie and my parents gathered around the hole while Tristan read from a book of prayers from the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church. While we were in the middle of the funeral for a rat, one of my guitar students drove up in his pickup truck with his windows down and music blasting, parked, got out and asked what was going on. I told him we were burying a rat, so he stood around the hole with us while we finished the last rites, then I gave Tristan the shovel, and went off to give my student his guitar lesson. After we started the lesson my student paused and said “I’m sorry I barged in on the funeral like that. When I saw everyone standing around a freshly dug hole, and you leaning on a shovel, it looked like a normal work project for New Mexicans!”

Hey Jude

May 5, 2013 Timothy Price6 Comments

On my way to class on Friday, the young man with the guitar was sitting alone playing and singing at the to of his lungs, and not very well. As I walked by after class, the blonde with the harmonica had joined him in performing a horrible rendition of “Hey Jude” (to be fair, only the singing was really bad, but not terribly objectionable for some reason). They were so involved in the song they didn’t noticed that I had stopped to photograph them, and they were doing the song so badly, they bordered on performance art. As I continued on my way, the guitarist started singing “nah nah nah nana nah nah…” so off key, and out of compas, that I burst out laughing and laughed all the way back to the office.

I took a load of trash to the dump today. I left early and got up to the entrance I’d always turned into and there were no other cars. “Nice!” I thought to myself. As I drove up to the building to pay, the attendant came out and said “The dump entrance is up the road before the light — this is recycling.” He told me to drive straight ahead and follow the road around. I followed the road through about twenty people eagerly waiting for stuff to recycle — they looked disappointed when I drove on by. I got back out on the main road, drove up toward the light, and found a long line of trucks waiting to get into the landfill. Forty-five minutes later I discovered I was in the line for the scale, but I couldn’t change lanes, so I drove onto the scale, walked up to the window and told the attendant that I didn’t need to be weighed. She said “that’s okay, but the people behind you will be mad when they see you turn the other way!” She asked for my license plate number, my proof of residence in Corrales, and driver’s license, then when I went to give her a $5 bill to pay the $4.75 fee, she told me it was a “free day!” “So that accounts for the long line of trucks them?” I asked. She nodded “Yep!” and told me the line would probably go down to the roundabout by noon. If I’d known it was a “free day” I wouldn’t have gone. I would have preferred to pay $4.75 to dump the trash then spend an extra 45 minutes waiting in line to dump the trash. I took the photo of the Sandias on the way home from the dump.

No Agua, Large vacuum leak & Other Random Chaos

April 13, 2013April 13, 2013 Timothy Price6 Comments

Since I am up past midnight, I thought I’d be clever and go out and see if I could get irrigation water since the ditch rider just turned it in to our ditch for the week. All the water was already taken. The farmers above us probably leave their gates down so when the ditch rider turns the water in, the farmers upstream of us will be sure to get it. The license plate on this old Corvair says it all!

For those of you who are old enough, and have good memories, the Corvair was on par with the Devil in Ralph Nader’s “Unsafe at any Speed” published in 1965. The only reason I remember it is because we had one of “The Sporty Corvair-The One-Car Accident” as per Nader’s title of Chapter One in “Unsafe at any Speed”. The Covair is long gone, but our evil, water guzzling plants remain, and the Conservancy is making Corrales farmers fight for water, leaving us with “No Agua” for three weeks at a time.

The “Check Engine Light” came on in our Mazda Speed 3 this afternon. I stopped and reseated the gas cap and checked the oil, and everything seemed ok. We had just filled the car with gas, so I suspected the gas cap didn’t get seated well enough. I took the car by Auto Zone and they got the code for me which gave use an error that there was a “Large Vacuum Leak” meaning the gas cap didn’t seat properly.

As I was walking back to my car after class, a young couple were playing guitars by the statue of “Mexican dancers” on the mall between Popejoy Hall and Johnson Gym. I noticed the young man was playing a flamenco guitar with pegs instead of machine heads to secure and tune the strings. Tuning pegs are rarely seen on guitars these days, so I asked the young man about his guitar. He said he got it from John Truitt and that is was made in Albuquerque by a local luthier in the 1970’s. That was really cool to learn, because I’ve known Truitt for many years, and he is like Mr. Music — you can give Truitt anything with a string on it and he’ll produce great music on it.

When I pulled into the parking lot at work, the was a young woman photographing a man and his daughter. I pointed out other locations in the downtown area that were good for portraits. They were friendly and cheerful and it made me happy to see they were having lots of fun with their photo shoot.

Sarah, who’s in French 385 with Lauie and I, and French 302 with Laurie, organized a fun night at Wilson Middle School with four or five other students for their senior project in Communications. It was really well attended, we had to park a block from the school, the food was good and the kids looked like they were having a lot of fun participating in art, science, poetry, etc. The 5th photo is of her team calling out numbers for a raffle.

On my way home from getting the engine light checked, a crew was filming at the Corrales gas station, so I pulled over and got a few shots. I have no idea what movie or show they were filming.

Laurie pointed out the spider in the last photo after she got home. It looks like spider season is coming on, so the macro lens is coming out.

Opening Night

January 6, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

Wedding Singer Robbie & Julia — Logan Mitchell as Robbie Hart & Devon Frieder as Julia Sullivan

We went to the opening night of The Wedding Singer directed and choreographed by Devon Frieder. The show was fantastic, and I would encourage anyone living in the greater Albuquerque area to go and see it. The show dates and times, ticket prices and the location are available on my Happy New Year post.

The show is at the Musical Theatre Southwest Black Box Performance Space, which is a small, intimate theater where the performance space is larger than the space allocated for seating (about 100 seats), which gives the allusion that the number of performers are about equal to the audience members. When the full cast is on stage dancing and singing the intimacy, activity, variety of colors and the performers expressions are so exciting that it all becomes almost overwhelming trying to decide who to watch — you can’t take it all in at once like you can in a larger theater.

The story is about Robbie Hart, a singer/song writer, who plays for weddings with his friends Sammy and George. Julia Sullivan is a waitress who becomes engaged to a successful broker, Glen Guglia, but she and Robbie fall in love and everything seems to go wrong for them becoming a couple.

The music and choreography are fun and were delightful to listen to and watch. The comic lines are delivered flawlessly, and the acting was superb. Most of the cast play multiple characters and they play them well. They wouldn’t have had to name the stars and famous people they portrayed, as even I, the no TV, cultural misfit that I am, recognized all of them. Although I don’t usually care much for musicals, I throughly enjoyed the performance, was taken in by the story and characters, and I even fell for the romance and wanted to see Robbie and Julia get together and be happy in the end.

Wedding Singer George & Rosie — Rikki Carroll as Rosie & Bryan Daniels as George

Wedding Singer Holly Sammy Glen — Amy Burgen as Holly, Gus Spencer as Sammy & Erik Joshua Clack as Glen Guglia

Happy New Year

January 1, 2013January 1, 2013 Timothy Price9 Comments

2012 ended with a beautiful sunset. Laurie walked by the window and said “Oh! The base of the Sandias are on fire!” I grabbed my camera and made the 1/4 mile dash to the river bank just in time to get the red as it faded with the last sunlight of 2012. As I walked out of the bosque, the last sunset of 2012 was quite dramatic, as was the morning light offering beauty and promise for 2013.

I start the new year with my 600th consecutive post on WordPress, and 908th consecutive post since I started on CaringBridge in July of 2010. According to WordPress’s annual report, I had over 10,000 views in 2012 from people in 83 countries, — the US, the Netherlands, the UK, Canada and Russia were the top five. Thank you all for a great 2012 and I look forward to an even better 2013.

One of the first things you can put on your calendars for 2013 is the musical comedy, The Wedding Singer, presented by Devon Frieder and Warehouse 21 Productions. It starts this Friday, January 4th, and will run for two consecutive weekends. The show is directed and choreographed by Devon Frieder, with musical direction by Erik Joshua Clack. The Wedding Singer is based on the book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy with music and lyrics by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin.

The shows will be presented at the Musical Theatre Southwest Black Box Performance Space, 6320 Domingo Rd. NE Ste. B, Albuquerque, NM 87108 (Central & San Pedro by the Fairgrounds). Show dates and times are:

Friday, January 4 at 7pm
Saturday, January 5 at 2pm & 7pm
Sunday, January 6 at 4pm

Friday, January 11 at 7pm
Saturday, January 12 at 2pm & 7pm Sunday,
January 13 at 4pm

Admission: $15 Adults, $12 Students. Special Front Row VIP Seats for $25.

To Reserve Tickets in Advance, Call (505)-216-6014

The last five photos are from a promotional photo shoot I did for the show last week, and Three Guys and a Guitar I posted on December 28, 2012 was one of the photos from the session. From the 10 minutes of rehearsal I saw before the shoot, and my interactions with Devon and the cast, The Wedding Singer looks like it will be a fun-filled production with lots of music and dance, and a friendly cast of whacky, colorful characters.