Talent Show funk piano

 School Xmas Talent Show funk piano entry. (With pink flamingo!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW1o5BO4jzA

Bela Lugosi's Dead

Happy Halloween!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdpZ5vhnkNU

Yet More Funky Piano

Here's some more funky piano I've been doing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4ikwnVFusQ

More Funky Piano

Next funky piano piece!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDCoHH5Dbt4

Harley Benton JA-60 Mods #3

The guitar shop fitted the Catswhisker mini-humbucker in the bridge a few weeks ago, and it sounds great. But I think the CTS 300k pots made a big difference too, as they seem to have put a bit of 'life' into the Roswell Jazzmaster pickup.

I decided to fit a flashy pickguard just to finish the job off properly.

(Photo 1)
Taking off the old pickguard.

(Photo 2)
I had to slightly widen a couple of holes in the new pickguard because of the CTS pots!

(Photos 3 and 4)
The finished result! What do you think?

(Photo 5)
The internal electrics.

(Photo 6)
One of the CTS pots.

(Photo 7)
I was impressed that for such an inexpensive guitar, the pickup selector switch was made in Korea!

Songwriting Course

Because I couldn't do my Junior Jazz summer workshop, I've been doing a songwriting course on FutureLearn over the summer. Here is my final song.

https://soundcloud.com/user-879811118/my-version-of-my-town

NO Junior Jazz!

The past two years, I've done the week-long Junior Jazz summer workshop at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff but this year it was cancelled because of the virus.

So instead I did an online Jazz Improvisation course on FutureLearn, and some funk piano tutorials by Jonathon Wilson (groovewindow) on Youtube.

Here's some of the music I produced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE4gcDgYegs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV-R1dlWq4o
https://soundcloud.com/user-879811118/jazz-piano-2-615-autumn-leaves-root-position-colla-voce-in-time
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/jazz-piano-2-212-moanin-f-dorian
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/jazz-piano-1-314-higher

Funky Piano!

https://youtu.be/fV-R1dlWq4o

Quiz!

No cheating using the Internet!

Name these:
1. Nod, Jim, Dave, Don.
2. Shawnee rock 'n' roller who 'Rumbled'.
3. Blues monarch, not Albert, nor Freddie.
4. The 'Man in Black'.
5. David Robert Jones.
6. Two-tone band 'also known as'...
7. Gypsy Jazz maestro.
8. Window cleaner banned by the BBC!
9. Folk group from Dublin.
10. Japanese all-girl group whose name means 'Boy Knife'.

The Clocks

I thought that I would have a go at something based on a 'tick-tock' sound.

WARNING! Song includes deep bassy drones so use headphones and/or good quality speakers for optimum eerie effect!

WARNING 2! If you are scared by eerie effects, do not use headphones and/or good quality speakers!

And here it is:
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/the-clocks

Harley Benton JA-60 Mods #2

(Photo 1)
The first thing I had to do was to remove the strings.

(Photos 2 and 3)
This was followed by the bridge, tailpiece and studs. These were really easy to remove because they were only finger-tight - I didn't even have to use the screwdriver!

(Photo 4)
Then I put the new studs in, that came with the Vanson bridge. Again, these were only finger-tight. They even supply both metric and US-size studs with the bridge!

(Photo 5)
Comparison! The saddles appeared to have the same spacing, so I left them and hoped for the best with the intonation.

(Photos 6 and 7)
Time for the new bar and fitting the tremolo! This was again finger-tight, so it was still easy enough.

(Photos 8 to 10)
To remove the pickguard, I had to (carefully!) lever off the volume and control knobs and unscrew the bolts around the shafts/etc. The pickguard easily lifted off after unscrewing the screws around the outside.

(Photo 11)
I prepared the pickguard by washing it with soapy water to get all of the grease off, and then I covered the pickguard with some sticky-back vinyl (the type you get from craft and DIY shops). Putting it on was easy, and it stuck very well. The difficult bit came with trimming around the edges, because it had a bevelled edge. So I used a craft knife, but I didn't have a new blade, which was a mistake. Even so, it looks very good from a distance and it's passable close up. I'm not sure yet whether to leave it as it is, recover it, or just get a new pickguard!

I then had to put the old strings back on (after everything else), because I can't go to the guitar shop to get some new ones yet. And it took ages!

(Photos 12 and 13)
The finished result!

I'm very pleased with it, because it was the first time I've done anything like this before (although it was very easy on the whole). The tremolo plays really well. It fits the hand easily and it seems to retain the tuning, even with the old strings on! Surprisingly, the internation still seems spot on - so overall, I'm really pleased with the Vanson roller bridge.

So the final stage would be to fit the Catswhisker mini humbucker pickup in the bridge, but I'll need the guitar shop to reopen for that!

Harley Benton JA-60 Mods #1!

This all started with an idea to do a Link Wray homage based around his Yamaha SG-2, using a modern Yamaha Revstar, but the numbers worked out too expensive!

I already had a Harley Benton JA-60, which is a really nice guitar, but maybe lacks a 'wow' factor, and as that's the sort of guitar that Link Wray might play if he was starting off today, I thought I'd use that instead!

The plan is to fit a Duesenberg tremolo with Vanson roller bridge, change the 'salami' pickguard, and change the bridge pickup for a Catswhisker mini humbucker. (The Harley Benton Jazzmaster pickups are pretty good but I wanted something with a bit of attitude in the bridge.)

This will be an ongoing project, and I don't know when it will be finished, because I have to wait for my local guitar shop to reopen to solder in the pickup!

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 26 (Z) - Townes Van Zandt

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 26 (Z) - Townes Van Zandt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6O9eRvNs5k

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 25 - Y - Yvette Young

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 25 - Y - Yvette Young
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl868A27gxo

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 24 (X) - X-Ray Spex

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 24 (X) - X-Ray Spex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ_slDXkclM

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 23 (W) - Wes Montgomery

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 23 (W) - Wes Montgomery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNmp2TqdgA

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 22 (V) - Vanita Smythe

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 22 (V) - Vanita Smythe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbAz7VDg3rs

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 21 (U) - The Unthanks

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 21 (U) - The Unthanks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6EIFD80f90

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 20 (T) - Thelonious Monk

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 20 (T) - Thelonious Monk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2J3ZJZ1kn8

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 19 (S) - Shonen Knife

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 19 (S) - Shonen Knife
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teARti4vEUA

Video

Me at one of Shonen Knife's concerts!

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 18 (R) - Richard Thompson

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 18 (R) - Richard Thompson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxKTzwaEa2o

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 17 (Q) - The Miles Davis Quintet

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 17 (Q) - The Miles Davis Quintet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_T14jAkj2w

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 16 (P) - The Pogues (with the Dubliners!)

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 16 (P) - The Pogues (with the Dubliners!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZXnJ4UYh40

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 15 (O) - Hazel O'Connor

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 15 (O) - Hazel O'Connor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twqdWWY5iEc

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 14(N) - Nervous Twitch

Sam's A-Z Self-Isolation Playlist - Day 14(N) - Nervous Twitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqFPJwL_oE8