Tag: guitar

48 Bucks

Timothy Price53 Comments

As you might have heard, there are a lot of fires burning in New Mexico right now. The air was very smokey today, therefore, I mostly stayed inside and recorded a parody I wrote a while back after I bought new $48 guitar out of curiosity. The guitar turned out to be a lot better quality than one would expect for $48.

If you are wondering why New Mexico is burning. Warm temperatures and low humidity are the major factors. New Mexico and most of the western states have had very little precipitation this year.

Jupiter moved to one o’clock above Venus this morning.

48 Bucks
By Timothy Price
To Sixteen Tons by Tennesse Ernie Ford

I got a cheap guitar still made out of wood
It came with all six strings just like it should?
I paid 48 bucks I give you no bone
The neck is straight let’s check out the tone

You pay 48 bucks and what do you get?
A gig bag, Allen wrench, and a straight neck
The craftsmanship’s sketchy little rough on the wood
But it plays pretty well and it sounds pretty good

Got an email one mornin’ cheap guitars so fine
I checked out the website, it’s one of a kind
Guitars so cheap you wonder how they will do
Curiosity got to me, put in an order for two

You pay 48 bucks and what do you get?
A gig bag, Allen wrench, and a straight neck
The craftsmanship’s sketchy little rough on the wood
But it plays pretty well and it sounds really good

Been playing every morning come sunshine or rain
Tune it up strum it and it still sounds the same
Playin’ chords and scales and arpeggios
How my fingers play them God only knows

You pay 48 bucks and what do you get?
A gig bag, Allen wrench, and a straight neck
The craftsmanship’s sketchy little rough on the wood
But it plays pretty well and it sounds really good

Now you hear me a playin’ can you lend me your ears
This cheap guitar is better than beer
My fingers feel like lead on these strings of steel
The guitar’s not a bad 48-dollar deal.

You pay 48 bucks and what do you get?
A gig bag, Allen wrench, and a straight neck
The craftsmanship’s sketchy little rough on the wood
But it plays pretty well and it sounds really good

Evening Blue

Timothy Price54 Comments

For the first evening that we are trying to save the daylight, which, by the way, is not endangered out here, the Painter went a little wild jamming with the clouds.

Venus and Mars showed up at 6:30 am, the time formerly known as 5:30 am.

Daddy Owl enjoying the colors

The moon peeking through the clouds

Car Song Sinking Sunrise

Timothy Price76 Comments

Socratis at Oannes has been posting songs about cars. I keep commenting: “I had that car! Oh, I had that car, too. You are not going to believe this, but I had one of those cars, also!” From Oannes I was inspired to put together a spreadsheet of all the cars that have been in the family, and I had driven since I got my driver’s license at age 15. We still have some of the old cars that were bought new. The stats break down as follows: 33 cars over 48 years. 25 Model years from 1955 to 2017. 14 different carmakers. 26 different models in 10 different colors with green, yellow, brown, and red the predominant four colors. We’ve had more Mazdas than other cars with six. Volkswagon came in second with five. We still have two Mazdas, a Volkswagon, a Ford pickup, and a Datsun 280ZX on the property.

I was also inspired to write and record a Car Song about some of the cars that stood out over the years. I played the bass lines on my 5-string, multi-scale bass. I played my black Strat I built a few years ago for the rhythm guitar, and I played my 7-string, multi-scale guitar for the guitar solo (the song is above, lyrics at the end of the post).

Marble Sinking

Sunrise

Car Song
By Timothy Price

This is a story about a few of the many cars that graced my life

My dad, he was a Rambler man
1964 classic I learned to drive
Three on the tree with no air
Bench seats without belts

The ’55 Cadillac was a tank with tits
Big silver bumper boobs oh they couldn’t be missed
Slushbox tranny liked to bump and grind
Lumbered down the road in style

1960 Rambler in Pepto Bismol pink
Nearly cost me my life and limbs
A boy driving a pink car in 1975
Was worthy of a beating, so the other boys thought

[Chorus]
Thirty-three cars have graced my life
Over two score and 8 years
From green to pink to yellow to blue
Red sports cars are the final two

’66 American in canary yellow
The cubic inches under the hood wouldn’t do
I cut and bent to retrofit a power plant
I lost traction, tickets, I paid for my sins

’65 Corvair. Yep that’s the one
It was “Unsafe At Any Speed”
That car was fun to drive I never rolled it though
Not to say I didn’t try.

The Volkswagen Thing was a Thing of wonder
As I wandered from here to yonder
Weirdly shaped, like a Jerrycan on wheels
It did nothing for my sex appeal

[Bridge]
Cadillac, Chevrolet, Rambler, and Ford
Volkswagens, Honda, Triumph, were never bored
International, AMC, Renault, and a Datsun
Dodge, Kia, and best of all is always Mazda

Eldorado, Americans, a Classic, and a Bus
Travelalls, beetles, and a Triumph GT6 Plus
A Sun Bug, Pickups, Hornet, and a Le Car
Taurus, Rio Cinco, N600, and a Corvair
Granada, Dart, ZX, Five, RX, and a Thing
323, Speed 3, my Miata is really mean

[Guitar Solo]

’79 Renault Le Car was one of my
All-time favorite cars
Smooth ride, canvas-covered sunroof
That got Swiss-cheesed in a hailstorm

The RX-8 was as exotic as I got
A Wankel whining under the hood
Demanded high revs lots of speed
Suicide door, it seated four

My MX-5 is beautiful to drive
Small, responsive, quick, and sassy
A hot profile and racing stripe
It’s total fun and fantasy

The Goatlet Next Door

Timothy Price77 Comments

The thunderheads building up in the west were taking after Resa’s Tree.

Our neighbor’s goat had a goatlet (kid). The photos in the gallery below were taken this afternoon. The goatlet was 26 hours old when I took the photos. Click on a photo in the gallery for a slideshow.

Laurie holding the goatlet shows how little or big it is for a 26 hour old goatlet

The above video is of thunderheads dancing. Turn up the volume and enjoy the show.

The painter was in a lavender/gray, blue and white mood for the sunset tonight. Looking west.

Sunset looking east.

Kittens Super Chief PRS

Timothy Price48 Comments

You might recall the PRS (Paul Reed Smith) style guitar that I have been building for over a month? It was featured with Marble in Gata Y Blanca with a primer coat, and then again with Marble in She’s Blue with the first blue coat. Now you see the finished guitar is a Super Chief PRS. It was an experiment to see if I could get the skin of the Super Chief locomotive I used on my Train Teles, to fit on the arched and sculpted PRS-style body. It worked out pretty well. The arched top really pops the Super Chief Locomotive. I used different style Zia symbols in the design and added a Zia on the headstock as well.

The music I played on it in the above video is a kind of wild but seemed fitting for as much work as the guitar was to build. It plays pretty well but is not nearly as nice as Resa’s One-Eye Guitars (The Kittens, Spunk & the Kittens Tail), Tiffany’s Tumultuous (Tumultuous Kittens), Marble’s Tele (Marble Guitar), or the Train Teles (Whats on the Tele? I have two Train Teles. One is like Marble’s Tele).

Spunk and a Kitten’s Tail

Timothy Price32 Comments

Spunk was helping me update Acronymphomania for YouTube. The kittens were watching as old cranky Spunk walked through the bathroom into the bedroom. Gwendolyn is having a good time playing with her tail on the bed.

The music is played on the second guitar I made with a One-Eyed woman by Resa. I used a Les Paul style with two P90 pickups for this guitar. It looks great, sounds great, feels great, and plays really well.

The Kittens

Timothy Price71 Comments

The video starts out with Silver and Spunk. Silver expressed his opinion of the kittens. The guitar I played for the music is Resa’s One-Eye RGX style guitar I built using a beautiful one-eyed drawing by Resa.

We also decided Morgana, the name given by the kitten’s foster mom, really didn’t fit her, so we changed Morgana’s name to Gwendolyn. Now we have Glenda and Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn is still a good medieval name and seems to be a more fitting name.

Resa’s One-Eye Guitar

Oh My it’s Mothra

Timothy Price61 Comments

While I was standing on the sidewalk in front of the office talking to Jim, he noticed a moth on the front door. I picked it up and it sat on my arm fluttering its wings really fast. I did photos of the moth. In “Live View”, the wings fluttered in slow motion. I converted the “Live View” photos to gifs and then to video and put the above video together with guitar accompaniment. After the moth futtered on my arm for about a minute, it flew over to the wall by the door.

“Up against the wall you red neck…” Mothra†

 

†Mothra is a fictional monster that first appeared in the 1961 film Mothra, produced and distributed by Toho Studios. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothra to learn more.