Kandinskyesque
Friend of Leo's
Health delayed my original enrolment in August and also the first week, a week ago for a guitar repair and restoration course in the luthier department at a college in Glasgow.
However, last night I managed to forward plan enough with my meds and energy levels to make the 80-mile round trip down dark, misty, twisty country roads, to attend the course.
I felt totally unprepared and concerned about interacting with people in a non-medical, recovery or concert spectator environment for the first time in a long while.
The latter concern was unfounded; there's just 8 people plus the lecturer in the class and they seemed a friendly, helpful bunch, but overcoming the social anxiety as a result of 3 years isolation, plus the driving has left me exhausted but happy today.
I knew it was going to be a 'bed day' today. I learned that fatigue pattern happens to me, when I spent a couple of years doing night classes at drama college five years ago.
I was surprised about what I could learn in just a couple of hours.
I took my Tele down with me to work on, it's in dire need of a good set up and we concentrated on the neck.
My truss rod was binding to the extent that it wouldn't tighten any further to achieve even a straight profile. So, I learned how to loosen the truss rod, put a back bow in the neck using clamps then tighten the truss rod back up, allowing it to be loosened off to a straight profile.
I had no idea that was possible.
I watched a demonstration on fret dressing/crowning using triangular files and took some time to watch some of the other students starting on this task.
Being a week behind already, my task next week is using the fret levelling beam on my now flat neck, and I think I'm going to enjoy this. I've been watching these setup procedures on YT for years, but nothing beats being in the physical environment of lessons for overcoming the "what if I screw up?" fears.
I've now got a dose of GAS or maybe it should be LTAS (luthier tools acquisition syndrome), to replace the crappy Amazon tools I bought a few years ago in a moment of naïve madness.
The courses run on 8-week cycles; I can see it becoming a regular event for me throughout 2023. As a born tinkerer and 45+ years of playing, the old guitar bug seems to be a gift that just keeps on giving.
However, last night I managed to forward plan enough with my meds and energy levels to make the 80-mile round trip down dark, misty, twisty country roads, to attend the course.
I felt totally unprepared and concerned about interacting with people in a non-medical, recovery or concert spectator environment for the first time in a long while.
The latter concern was unfounded; there's just 8 people plus the lecturer in the class and they seemed a friendly, helpful bunch, but overcoming the social anxiety as a result of 3 years isolation, plus the driving has left me exhausted but happy today.
I knew it was going to be a 'bed day' today. I learned that fatigue pattern happens to me, when I spent a couple of years doing night classes at drama college five years ago.
I was surprised about what I could learn in just a couple of hours.
I took my Tele down with me to work on, it's in dire need of a good set up and we concentrated on the neck.
My truss rod was binding to the extent that it wouldn't tighten any further to achieve even a straight profile. So, I learned how to loosen the truss rod, put a back bow in the neck using clamps then tighten the truss rod back up, allowing it to be loosened off to a straight profile.
I had no idea that was possible.
I watched a demonstration on fret dressing/crowning using triangular files and took some time to watch some of the other students starting on this task.
Being a week behind already, my task next week is using the fret levelling beam on my now flat neck, and I think I'm going to enjoy this. I've been watching these setup procedures on YT for years, but nothing beats being in the physical environment of lessons for overcoming the "what if I screw up?" fears.
I've now got a dose of GAS or maybe it should be LTAS (luthier tools acquisition syndrome), to replace the crappy Amazon tools I bought a few years ago in a moment of naïve madness.
The courses run on 8-week cycles; I can see it becoming a regular event for me throughout 2023. As a born tinkerer and 45+ years of playing, the old guitar bug seems to be a gift that just keeps on giving.
