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.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)