Is Prowinds Any Good, No!

I was looking for a decent professional level saxophone, and when I went over all the reviews on everything I could think of and everything I found along the way, well, even the best Saxophones, that is, the most expensive saxophones, had occasional problems. It was all very worrisome. Any purchase seemed a bit of a gamble. But Antigua Bells (cheap) and P. Mauriats (mid-price) had good word of mouth, and the only American dealer seemed to be Prowinds. And they had a nice well done webpage, and so I trusted them.

So I decided to get a P. Mauriat. I ordered online and they confirmed my order with an email.

Now, I’m used to Amazon.com where after a few days you get a shipping notification. Nothing came from Prowinds. So I emailed an inquiry. They didn’t answer. I looked up Prowinds online to see if there was any chitchat about them, and it seems they hardly ever answer emails. I supposed they used to be a Telephone Center Wholesale Operation and they were still more comfortable talking to customers on the phone. So I called. Well, the reason the Saxophone was not shipped was that it had not even been in stock in the first place, but I was assured that the Order had been shipped and that it would arrive from China in just two or three weeks

If I had been a suspicious person, I would have become suspicious. You see, I am presently staying on an island in the Pacific, and NOTHING ships ocean freight in just “two or three weeks”. Ocean shipping is more likely to take two or three months. So I assumed they arranged some kind of new style expedited shipping.

So I decided to be patient and wait two weeks before my next call. When I called I was told it would be another week or two. It came the end of the month and I saw on my Credit Card Statement that I had been charged for a Saxophone that neither myself or Prowinds had ever yet set eyes on. You know it doesn’t quite seem ethical to process a purchase for payment that hasn’t been shipped yet. But, yes, we are not talking about Ethics. We are talking about American Capitalism, freedom and all that. We can check with Fox News, but Ethics is probably a front for Socialism.

I tried to be patient, called just once a week, but I became concerned when the “One or Two More Weeks” seemed to become too much like the Shop’s Mantra, the Store’s Slogan – Prowinds, Everything in just One or Two Weeks… and then One or Two Weeks more.

Well, I had said earlier that I was staying on a small island in the Pacific, and I hadn’t really thought it was at all possible to find any half decent saxophone on the island. Yes, there was a Yamaha Music Store, but when I had inquired about Yamaha Electric Violins a year or so back, their talk of a six month ordering backlog had scared me away from making any further inquiries there about anything, and I had only noticed guitars and keyboards and didn’t remember seeing any saxophones anyway, and so I did not go back to look, after saxophones caught my interest. Well, as luck would have it, my Yamaha SO3 Synthesizer developed Dust Death in a few of its keys and so I took it to the Yamaha Shop to get it fixed. Talking to the Sales Guy, it turns out they do have Saxophones, but they don’t put them out on public view because people paw at them and they get damaged. But they had both a YAS-62 and YAS-82 in the back store room and would be glad to show them to a serious customer. I told them I was sorry but I had a P. Mauriat on the way. But they only wanted $1900 for the YAS-62. Wow, that was a good price!


Well, I week later, I went back and bought the YAS-62… too good a deal to pass up. When the P. Mauriat arrived, I told myself, I would do what I do with my other multiples of the same instrument, that is, audition them against each other and have a Best and a Back Up, or use one for one kind of Song, and the other for that other kind of Song.

But when almost 7 weeks had gone by and I realized that the YAS-62 was a splendid saxophone, without needing to make any comparisons, I decided to cancel my order with Prowinds. I did it over the phone and asked the Telephone guy (actually they have two, Doug and Ian) to confirm with an email. I felt quite relieved when I got the “Order Cancelled” email.

But then I started going online to check the activity on my Chase Mastercard Account. Prowinds was not refunding my money. I called, and guess what they said? “it usually takes one or two weeks”. Two weeks later, they said, “we’ve been so busy, it will take another one or two weeks”.

I began to worry and so I brought the Credit Card People in on it. At first they insisted on my quickly sending in documentation on projected delivery dates and all that, but I sent them the few actual emails I had gotten from Prowinds, and told them that Prowinds avoids documentation when at all possible and likes handling things over the phone, and that because everything with them had always been some future promise, and they had not been straight with me from the beginning… confirming an order for a not in-stock item, giving the impression that the item was in-stock… so I had cancelled the order, and they had acknowledged that the order was cancelled, but were simply holding onto the money, which didn’t seem quite fair. A Lady from the Bank contacted me and apologized… it seems they were all in a dither to get the most out of me as quickly as possible because Prowinds putting me off as long as they had ALMOST put us over the Dispute Claim Deadline. But with the information I provided, they could certainly rule in my favor immediately. And, yes, the nice people at Chase Mastercard sent my my credit card statement this month where it seems they owe me money… which doesn’t happen very much.

Could it be that Prowinds really was trying to sucker me over the dispute deadline so they could keep close to three thousand dollars for nothing, or to keep my money hostage to use as leverage to compel me to buy some other one of their instruments? Well, maybe there is an innocent explanation, for why it would take a month to do ten minutes of paperwork.

Look Prowinds up on line. One guy says that they didn’t even have reeds in stock. Did they do the same thing to him as me. Charge him for reeds that he’d have to wait for until the next recurrent shipment, which can be months sometimes. Oh, that reminds me that Doug, one of the telephone guys, that when he had been asking me to wait for the Saxophone, he said that the promotional complementary year’s supply of reeds that would come with the saxophone were in stock, and that was worth the wait. Well, let’s analyze that. He felt it important to say that a shop that is supposed to cater to professional musicians would have reeds in stock, as though that is the exception and not the rule. Something is wrong with that Prowinds Shop.

But some people like Prowinds. I hear there is an actual store. So apparently it really exists and isn’t just an online scam. But I would never order online from them again. If you are in America, you can always buy a P. Mauriat and have it shipped from Britain, France or the Netherlands. Or maybe just find a good saxophone that is sold from a company that is partners with Amazon… they all seem to have the same high standards of business ethics, particularly in notifying customers of truthful In-stock and Procurement Status. When there are so many honest shops on the sunny side of the street, why go down the slippery dark alley of Prowinds.

P. Mauriat, you need a new American Distributor.

Antigua Bell, you need a new American Distributor.

So Arabs Want Democracy

We are being told that all the Arab Protestors want democracy. Really? The fact is that the Arab World enjoyed something like a ‘baby boom’ that has now grown up, kicking up the adult unemployment rate at exactly the same time as the World Commodities Price Crisis is shooting up the prices of Food and Fuel, throwing Economies into a New Recession before they had even begun to recover from the Old Recession. And the People, grasping for any straw, grasp for Democracy.

But would Democracy help? Well, they should read a few newspapers and see whether Democracy has been much help in America, in Europe, in Asia. These Economies are in just as much trouble, and if they are better positioned than the Arab Economies, it is only because they started out with more, having been successful Colonial Powers, before the Anarchy and Insanity inherent in Democracy made them fumble that card with a series of self-inflicted World Wars.

Democracy won’t bring jobs. China has more jobs than anybody, and they aren’t democratic. It’s the security and stability of their Authoritarian System that has attracted the capital that established so many jobs. America, the primary Torch Bearer of Democracy, has lost jobs.

There is one tactical advantage to Democracy. People don’t protest. They simply complain about the Party presently in Power and in the next Election, they vote for the other side. Democracy is a hypnotic Shell Game. Let people complain, and let them vote for the Other Guys. The problem is, the Other Guys are never much different from Original Guys. The Same Money nominates them both.

The Propagandists for Democracy emphasize the People’s Power to Vote. What they never mention is that the People are no where near being around when Candidates are picked out by the Powerful Few who pick the candidates, fund them, lay out their Media Plans, etc. The People only get to Vote for the Show Dogs that had already won the most important part of the Game – getting the Un-Official but all-important Nod of Approval. The Vested Interests run everything within Democracies. Yes, there may be sometimes crazy fringe minority parties, but they are hardly an improvement on the typical Oligarchy and Rule by the Rich, who may be selfish but are at least sane.

If the Arab Protestors and the Truly Disaffected, and not just opportunistic troublemakers in the pay of the Americans, then they would want productive Governmental Reform. Not Democracy, but a Meritocracy, and a Bureaucracy that operates transparently. Do you want in Government? Then take the Test. Do you want to stay in Government, then submit to the strictest Financial Audits. It would create Government that would be truly and effectively independent of Vested Interests and Foreign Influences, that is, Money.

Or you can do what the West does – vote vote vote vote vote, and nothing ever gets any better. Not only is it that the wrong people get elected, but that most Democracies had been intentionally designed to be institutionally weak and ineffective. The Rich and Powerful step in from the very beginning and assure that Government will never be anything they need to worry about.

So if you are willing to die for Democracy, just think of all the Rich People in the World, sitting with their feet propped up on Democracy, who are laughing at you. And they just can’t wait to kick their feet up on your Country too.

Neil Diamond “Dreams”

Timothy Yap did an excellent review of this album’s content, so I can do him the honor of not simply repeating the same message –‘less is more’ and all a very beautiful presentation.

But it needs to be said that Neil Diamond was the Producer on this project. My God! That is where he really shined!

Yes, the presentation did seem stripped down, but when one listens closely and repeatedly to this beautiful collection, well, the individual performances and the arrangements are genius. Now, that is what a producer does with a checkbook and a telephone, that is, if he is a great producer. Neil Diamond got the absolutely best people – the violin in “Blackbird”, the horn section in “Don’t Forget Me”, and the very heavy piano we hear throughout the entire repertoire. And all the studio time it must have taken. It was probably a considerable expense.

The Production Standards are some of the best I’ve ever seen. They remind me of the Rod Stewart ‘Great American Songbook’ collection, over the years finally getting up to Volume 5, which is really good, but they all have their merits, chiefly in the area of production values and standards. Great people were brought in and allowed the time to do their best work. And you can hear the fun they had making it.

I certainly hope that Neil Diamond’s “Dreams” is successful, or at least that it breaks even financially. Neil Diamond must have worked hard and found it very tiring, at his age, but at the same time, work of this quality is rewarding in the spiritual sense. So, if he is not financially ruined by this first installment of “Dreams”, then maybe, like the successful Rod Steward Series, we will see more of these superb collections from Neil Diamond. The titles will be fun – “Keep Dreaming” is one suggestion. Let the Old Man retire? Certainly not! There is plenty of time to retire when he is dead. If we buy these Dreams, he will keep making them because he is fulfilled by it.

And we do so much need collections of the Best. The Singer Songwriter era of music gave us so many wonderful songs, but they were only the tip of the iceberg of almost endless crap. To find the good songs, we had to suffer thousands of songs that the record companies foisted upon us. It’s the way Capitalism perverts things – original copyrights make more money, theoretically, than beautiful songs in the Public Domain, so the Capitalists wanted plenty of original copyrights – a new song every minute, but so few of these money grubbers had any true instincts for quality and culture and so most songs suck. So we were all submerged in this virtual landslide of garbage, yes, with a real potato here and a real carrot there, but mostly just garbage. The singer-songwriters were put under contract to produce, and produce they did, mostly bland stupid or eminently forgettable songs. That is why Greatest Hits albums sell so well, it is because people came to distrust ordinary albums, mostly stuffed with filler… songs nobody could possibly have been happy about, but simply produced to keep the Stupid Mindless Capitalists happy. Even most Greatest Hits albums are mostly filler. Honestly, most of the Singer Songwriters of this Era, had maybe one or two real ‘hits’ – songs that deserve to be remembered. One Hit Wonders. Any songwriter that has 3 or more actually good songs to their credit, should be honored with a ticker tape parade and a hero’s pension for Life… free coffee at Starbucks, etc. So, most Greatest Hits records should have only two or three selections. What purpose does it serve to roll out the filler garbage one more time in even their Greatest Hits Albums. It only tends to spoil the meal.

So it has become so hard to listen to any album from beginning to end nowadays. That is perhaps the most ascendant virtue in Neil Diamond’s “Dreams” , that every song is good, and one needs to skip over nothing.

So we do need Collections of the Good Songs. And it is good that one of the best Singer-songwriters of our Age uses his other considerable talents, the knowledge and taste he has acquired over the years, to give us not only the Best there is, but the Best that it can possibly be made to be. He takes the best and makes it better. We need to throw that man a parade… and buy his record.

Oh, a personal note on Neil Diamond. It’s odd, considering the body of his work, that he was never considered in the very top rank of the ‘Stars’. Maybe he wasn’t grungy enough, or he should have started off in a band. But he was always considered a fraction of a level down. Well, it didn’t keep me from buying his records. Indeed, there was a strange phenomenon that persuaded me to keep my mind open about the exact merits of Neil Diamond. I’m an amateur musician and my first love is the violin. Well, I NEVER break strings, that is, except when playing along with Neil Diamond’s “Holly Holy” . The song just builds and builds and builds, and one finds oneself scrubbing and sawing the violin like never before, trying to keep up with the building intensity. So, two or three times Neil Diamond has sent me to the store to get new violin strings. Nobody else. So when people criticize Neil Diamond… well, the Beatles never caused me to break a string… The man knows how to do a song.

Problems with Democracy

With the World now facing so many very serious problems, it is demoralizing to realize that nothing can be done about them. You see, most of our problems have been brought to us by the various special interest groups – Capitalists, Marketers, Military Industrialists, etc – and only Governments with the Power and the Will and the Ability to counter such special interests could ever hope to rein them in and advance any positive program to save the World. But most of the most powerful nations on earth are Democracies, and Democracies have almost entirely defined themselves as the Vehicles for the Special Interest Control of Everything.

Of course, Special Interests do not have an absolute hold on Politics. Racism and Ethnic Identity also fit in. Woodrow Wilson, who was a Professor of History before he became President, had issued a Theory that Democracies resolve into Ethnic Self-Determination, and so the Rise of Nazism and all subsequent Ethnic Pride Parties had been predicted. Remember that in the parlance of Politics, Ethnic “Pride” is just another name for what we understand to be racial hate and prejudice, or the distinction is meaningless as to whether they just love themselves more, or just hate everybody else a great deal, as the end results are divisive politics and Democracies that fail to represent Minority Groups, or Split Majorities – when a Majority Ethnic Groups divides along real political issues, allowing a Hate Group Minority Party to capture an election.

Anyway, even in such cases where Ethnic Parties come to power independently of Special Interests, the Special Interests are usually able to sweep in afterwards and make enough contributions to the New Power Structure to bring them onboard and at one with the Special Interest World. Those who don’t are isolated by Sanctions. For all of the love we hear about for Democracy, it only applies for those nations and people who vote in accord with the Special Interests. Palestine, Iran, Venezuela go their own way and so are treated as though they are enemies.

While Ethnicity does a great deal in distorting Democracies in their role of providing impartial and independent Governments, still, the much greater problem is with Special Interests.

How do the Special Interests control Politics and Politicians? While outright bribes are still nominally illegal, the Lobbyists have made a science of finding myriads of legal avenues through which money can go from the pockets of Special Interests to the campaigns of Politicians. Indeed, that brings us to the Paradox of Campaign Finance Reform, that it so entangled Campaign Finance Law, that now nothing in Politics can be done without the Lobbyists, as they are the only ones with enough money to hire the legal teams sufficient to keep everything straight.

Years ago there had been a fad about Term Limits – the idea being that if a Politician only ran once, he would have no incentive to sell his soul to the Special Interests. Well, what then occurred was that nobody could enter into politics as a career, and so very few truly independent people ran for office, if any, and this allowed the Lobbyist Firms to run their own people – good looking young men and women who could read a speech and do what they were told. And after their Term of Office, they could return to the Lobbying Firm they came from, with a big raise in salary. All legal.

Even if the Special Interests do not apply their monies directly to the different campaigns, they can still operate by effectively buying up Media Influence. Newspapers and Networks claim to be independent, but, really, their advertisers must exercise a great deal of influence. Or the Media Owners are so wealthy in their own right, that they are their own Special Interest, pulling the strings for whatever whim entertains their fancy, as for example, drumbeating the World to War, because Wars make the News so much more fun to print for the Media Tycoons.

But even if Special Interests, the Media and Ethnic Hatreds and Pride could be isolated away from that much of an effect on the World Democracies, still there would be one more annoying factor to deal with, and that is that Democracy does nothing to guarantee the abilities of those who run for office. Good looking people who can read a speech and make promises win elections all the time. Some of the stupidest people on earth do rather well at Politics, George W. Bush, being the first example to come to mind.

Really, what the World needs now is a Bureaucratic Meritocracy – Professional Government open to anybody who can Pass the Test. No Campaigns and no Campaign Contributions, and no Job Jumping from Government to a Special Interest Corporation – these measures would curtail most every evil from the Special Interests. Government workers would have to be in it for Life, or at least never be allowed to work for anybody or anything he had anything to do with while in Government Service. Money and Property of Government Workers would have to be monitored to assure that there was no trading of influence. This would give Government the Independence and Intellectual ability and integrity to Save the World, even while the Special Interests do all they can to destroy it, if that is what they think gives them a stronger return on their Capital for the upcoming Fiscal Quarter. Yes, they don’t mean to destroy the World… that is not even what they are thinking about.

It’s the Job of Government to think about the things that Special Interests have no interest in thinking about. And only a Bureaucratic Meritocracy could be fit for such a Job.

Turning a Jazzmaster Into a Baritone Guitar

I had bought one of the new “Blacktop” Telecasters and converted it to Baritone by stringing it with the 6 heaviest strings of a set of D’Addario Jazz Light Seven Flats. It was easy, I just had to get a fresh stone-encrusted finger nail file and widen the Nut slots a bit. The Telecaster, with its Humbucker pickups was perfect for the new application. The Telecaster as Baritone, has these really nice round and clean tones.

But it was so good, that I wondered what I was to do with my Jazzmaster. The Jazzmaster, as it is, is thin on the high side … I had to adjust up the pickups on the high side, and tweak up the sound system equalization to help out the high notes. Perhaps it would be better to “bulldog” the Jazzmaster too, that is, to turn it into a Baritone Guitar and forget about the High Side by simply eliminating it

When I decided to “Bulldog” the Telecaster, I had ordered the D’Addario Jazz Light Seven Flats from two different venders, on the chance that I’d get one set sooner than later. You see, I play violin and bass too, where the strings are relatively expensive, and so the cost of guitar strings seems like nothing in comparison. Anyway, the second set of D’Addario Sevens came in today. It made me think of putting them to use.

I looked over the Jazzmaster. Convertering it to Baritone would be a bigger job than the Telecaster. Not only would I have to widen the Nut slots, but there was the Bridge Slots to deal with. And the Bridge was made of medal.

But when I cut off the old strings and just removed the Bridge simply by lifting it off the keeper pegs, I saw that the Bridge Slots were not even differentiated – they are all just the same size little “Vees”, that the strings could settle into – one size fits all. Well, that seems to be why the Jazzmasters have their famous Problem, that vigorous picking or even finger plucking, knocks the strings off their bridge seats – the bridge slots are too narrow, and ‘V’ shaped – the strings just slip up the slant with the least little sideways force.

Converting the Jazzmaster to Baritone would ‘kill two birds with one stone’; I could lower the range more into its natural bandwidth (it likes Low Notes better than High Notes), and I could work the Bridge so that it could hold the strings better.

I had to think through the process. I could use a Dremel Tool for widening the Bridge Slots, but the problem with Power Tools is that, while they are faster, they also make irreparable mistakes very quickly. So I decided to use hand tools. I found an old hack saw blade. Hack saws are made for cutting metal. The particular blade I found was something of a compromise. It would make the slots a bit too wide for the little strings, but not wide enough for the fat strings, particularly the .65 B String that would be the new Low String.

I hacksawed the existing “Vees” down so that they now had square corners. The Strings could now settle into slots. It would be much more difficult to knock a string off the Bridge now. The hacksaw might have left some rough edges, and so I got Sandpaper and folded it and ran the sand paper into the groves. For the wider slots, I folded the sandpaper around an old fingernail file. I used sandpaper from 80 grade to 220 grade. The metal had to be smooth, or the strings might be damaged. I’m an old man and so I used a jewelers loupe to see with magnification, to make sure the sizing and the smoothness was just right, but younger people would probably just ‘eyeball’ the whole process.

After having done the Telecaster Nut, the Jazzmaster Nut was easy. I finished by using a thin stick and a Carpenter’s Pencil to rub some of the graphite powder ( a very good dry lubricant) into the Nut Slots, to make tuning easier.

The skinny strings had a bit of side to side play in the Bridge Grooves, but no problem manifested while playing. Just as I expected, by squaring the Bridge Slot edges and deepening the grooves, there was no longer a problem with knocking the strings off the bridge.

How did the Jazzmaster work as a Baritone?

Now the Telecaster, converted to “Bulldog”, was superb – nice clean round tones from low to high… what was left of high, which seemed to be plenty. So I did side by side comparisons with the Telecaster Baritone and the Jazzmaster Baritone. The Jazzmaster was a bit less ‘round’ but equalization could fix that. But the Jazzmaster does have the Tailed Bridge which makes those pretty, though somewhat unpredictable, flared notes (which is why Jazz Players seem to prefer Tailed Bridges). The both of them were so good – the Telecaster with the Humbucker Pickups, and the Jazzmaster with the shallow single sided pickups and Tailed Bridge, that there really was no choosing… not, on the basis of performance. I finally decided to make the Jazzmaster the Practice Workhorse because it had the Rosewood Neck, which doesn’t stain from hours of sweat and skin oils. Also, the Jazzmaster I have has those Dual Controls… you can set up for both Lead Guitar and Rhythm and switch back and forth. I rarely use it, except for when I play Deep Purple’s “Woman From Tokyo” which is hard-driving Rock except for a very pretty middle part… with the dual controls I can go from “Hard Driving Rock” to “Pretty” at the flip of a switch.

But, yes, both guitars are extremely better as Baritones.

Oh, when I used to play normal guitars, I tuned to E A D G C F instead of E A D G B E (it keeps the string intervals at Perfect Fourths, while the B E tuning, to bring those strings down a step, it only helps with chording for people with short fingers. Who know where that tradition starte?). With the Baritone ‘Bulldogs’ I keep the Perfect Fourth tuning – B E A D G C. But traditionalist Guitar Players, with short fingers who want to keep doing their old chords, well, they could tune to B E A D F# B… you would just have to transpose a little to get the exact chords you want, but the neck would still be the same…except for being a Perfect Fourth lower.

If in doubt about String Tension, consult the D’Addario String Tension Chart on their Website, or just do a Web Search for D’Addario String Tension Chart.

Humbucker Telecaster (Blacktop) Turned Baritone Guitar

I had gotten the Blacktop Telecaster because the humbucker pickups, particularly the neck pickup, gave it a good clean round ‘O’ sound, much like the thin single pole pickups in the Jazzmaster. Well, I already have a Jazzmaster, but the problem with the Jazzmaster is that, with a shade too much enthusiasm, you can whip the strings off the tailed bridge (the trade off for the inconvenience of a trailed bridge, is that at certain intervals the strings have a nice swelling flare, although steals a bit from sustain).

Anyway, the Humbucker Telecaster seems like a kind of best of both worlds kind of instrument – nice clean round sound from the pickups and strings that you can get rough with without scaring them off the bridge.


Anyway, I bought it and as I was leaving the Shop, the owner of the place asked me if I thought of ‘baritoning’ it. You see, he was familiar with me going from Violin to Viola (a viola is a violin that goes lower than a normal violin by one string interval), and tuning up a step on my Fender Jazz Bass, to keep the D’addario Light Flats tight (The D’addario strings were designed for 36” Scale but the Fender Bass is a tad shorter and so taking the strings up a notch would simply keep all things more or less even). Oh, and with guitar he knew I was going from the traditional E, A, D, G, B, E tuning to E, A, D, G, C, F, that is, to keep the strings at Perfect Fourth (5 step) intervals (they only tune up the B and E strings to make chording easier for short fingers… no other reason). Anyway, the shop owner had every reason to suspect that I might try some tuning change with this new telecaster, and was simply curious about it. Well, actually, I hadn’t thought ahead that far, but it gave me the idea.

Yes, they do have ‘Real’ baritone guitars – acoustics that are built on a longer scale, because, well, with acoustic guitars it is the actual physical dimensions that resonate with and support the sound of the strings. But with electric guitars and their pickups, physical dimensions are no longer so essential.

But converting the Telecaster to Baritone would require an extra big fat string that I could tune down to B. I looked around and found that D’addario makes a set of strings for 7 String guitars – “Jazz Light/ 7-String”, ECG24-7. They were all a bit fatter than what I am used to (D’addario super light Flats), but, checking with D’addario’s String Tension Chart, they would be usable, even with me tuning up the last two skinny strings, to preserve the perfect fourth (five step) intervals. So I ordered some strings. I actually ordered two sets, from different suppliers, Wiener Music, through Amazon, and Just Strings, hoping that one would come before the other. Wiener Music won. I’m still waiting for the Just Strings set to come through, but they did email me with an apology, as there had been some kind of delay.

Oh, with using a much fatter string in the old Fat E position, and using larger strings in every position, really, I would need to enlarge the groves in the Nut up at the top of the neck. So I bought one of those Nail Files with crushed industrial diamonds… which look a lot like sand.

Meanwhile, I played the ordinary tuning, for me (E A D G C F) for a week. I even had an All Nighter Practice to get acquainted with the new instrument and its new sound.

When the strings came in, I got out my Jewelers Loupe and worked the Nut with the fingernail file until the notch sizes seemed suitable for the new fits. The new strings went on without event. The strings were a bit stretchy and required a lot of retuning between songs, but only for the first evening. They settled in after a day.

Oh, the intonation was effected. But Intonation adjusts on this Telecaster are easy – just detune the strings until you can push back the bridge block with your finger, and then just take up the slack by tightening up the screw that goes through the spring. It took a lot of adjustment… more than a quarter of an inch… the Fat B String going back almost to the ‘wall’, but alls well that ends well. I suppose the intonation adjustment was necessary because I went to higher tension strings, and not so much because they were simply fatter strings.

The ‘Bulldog’ Telecaster sounds great. Sacrificing the high E string for the low B seems like a wonderful trade-off. Just like going from violin to viola, or from a 4 String Bass to a 5 String. One loves going lower but, in the case of the Viola and Bulldog Baritone Guitar, doesn’t miss the shorted higher reach at all… to go high you can just work down the neck a bit further than usual.

Its funny, the strange phenomena whereby one gets used to an instrument’s range. When I was still playing an old 4 String Precision Bass, I wondered why anybody would ever need a 5 String, as it seemed every song could be done without going up past the nut of the 4 String’s E String. I thought the same about my violin’s G string. I play by ear, and so apparently the first thing my brain does is organize riffs and arrangements according to available range. But after five minutes with the new Range, one wonders what one ever used to do without it.

When I first got my 5 String Jazz Bass, I read on line some guy that was saying that the “common mistake” new 5 String owners make is that they play their new Fat String too much. Well, that’s not really a mistake, is it? For instance, if you have an old dog who has been kept in the back yard its whole life, and then you decide to add the side yard to his enclosure, well, where do you suppose the dog will go at its first opportunity? Of course it will sniff out its new territory. So spending a lot of time, at first, in one’s new Range is not such an odd thing for an old musical dog.

Music Practice, a Poem

At first you are thinking about the Instrument, and you are listening closely, but after about 20 minutes or so you are warmed up, and you trust your playing, and instead of standing over your playing like a slave-master, you let go and just listen to what the Angels of your Higher Mind and Right Hand and Left Hand are playing for you.

The competent playing is reassuring. And so you let yourself think, you let yourself go. Your Mind drifts. You think about memories. You might even come back a little bit to think about left hand and right hand stuff, and your hands seem to take the suggestions…and then your mind wanders again. A wandering mind is like a dream.

Or it’s like being High. When you are High you think the thoughts you think are the most important thoughts that have ever been ‘thunk’, but a moment later you forget what you had been thinking about – you only remember that you had seen the Face of God, but forget what He looked like.

Music Practice is much the same. Hands flying free playing the songs of Angels, one thinks the highest possible thoughts, and you even think that you will remember to call friends, write to friends, and share these Divine Revelations that you had received during Music Practice…

But Music Practice ends. You have to cook dinner, or whatever, and all you remember was, well, it was one heck of a great music practice… it is like you know you had one heck of a wonderful dream, but just don’t remember the details. You know you had seen the Face of God, but just forget what He looks like.