Neil Fein's Blog

Well. Now that I have the pickup installed in my fingerstyle-friendly guitar, I was all set to play a quiet, fingerstyle-heavy set at an open mic. Of course, I cut myself twice on my right hand, in particular on the tip of my middle finger. So fingerstyle is out until that heals!

Did a more normal set:

Eyes Up Front
Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
Woke Up on the Fourth
From the Beginning
There's That Song
On the Mall

Did okay, I think, although I was rocky doing Woke Up on the Fourth.

Tags: music

I stopped off at Central Jersey Music on the way home yesterday, and they confirmed that the best way to rout out the extension under the bridge was to use a dremel bit and then file it smooth. So that's what I did when I got home.

Threading the pickup in was easy compared to hooking up all the electronics and, oddly enough, installing the battery for the first time. But it works well. I can play it loudly without feedback (as my neighbor will attest to!).

There's a crackling sound when I change the volume or thebalance between the pickups, though. Will play it for a while and if it doesn't do away, will call the manufacturer for advice.

Tags: music

Labels: music

I was worried that, if I measured wrong, I'd end up drilling through the mic installed under the bridge, but all is well. Drilled the hole through the bridge that I'll use to thread the pickup through. Still need to drill a horizontal hole, about 1/8" deep and 2.2mm wide, on the other side of the bridge to hold the slack.

There's a little crack in the bridge, so small that it might even have been there before. I think I should fill it in with some putty or something before proceeding, actually. (I thought of that I was writing this.)

I love my Dremel!

Tags: music

Labels: music

So far, Millicent seems to be in one piece. Huzzah!

Yesterday I reamed the endpin jack hole out. I had borrowed a drill from Craig, but as things turned out, I didn't need it. The Dremel did the job of drilling a pilot hold just fine. (Although it did create some smoke from the wood as I was doing it... Seagull uses some damn hard wood in the endblock.)

The tool I used to enlarge the hole to just what is needed is called a reamer. (I also used a circular file to do the fine touches.) Fitting the endpin jack into the guitar... well, it's a tiny, tiny guitar, and I see why three folks declined to work on it. Much thanks to Martha for helping!

We got the microphone element stuck on underneath the bridge. I'm more than halfway through the installation, although the trickiest part is next. More to come...

Tags: music

Labels: music

The tools and glue I ordered from StewMac arrived in the mail last night. This is all towards the end of installing a pickup in Millicent. Wish me luck that I not destroy my own guitar.

Still waiting for a reamer to arrive, that I won for five pounds on eBay. After that gets here, I just need to borrow a drill and I'm all set to destroy my guitar. If I don't by chance destoy it, will post pictures of the process on the Millicent page. Although if I mess up, it could make for a more interesting story.

Tags: music

Labels: music