Building a lamp from a flute

Alright, no in-depth tutorial this time, in part because I'm tired and didn't take any pictures along the way, and in part because turning a cheap / defunct flute/clarinet/piccolo/soprano sax/recorder/Celtic tin whistle is a piece of cake.

Ranking Every Beatles Song, Very Definitely Scientifically

Sometimes you set your mind on a task, knowing that maybe, just maybe, if you do it right, it’ll make a difference, change a mind, or open someone to a new perspective.

…of course, this isn’t going to be one of those times.  I’m pretty sure everyone reading this already has a pretty good idea how they feel about the Beatles and has listened to a few songs, if not all of them already.  Being the stubborn sort that I am, I’ll be going ahead with the reviews, rankings, and such “data analytics” as can be managed here anyway, just to see what there is to see.

Arabella full band cover

Building a wood PC case on a budget

          After running a much-loved-but-aging desktop with a GTX 660 and a CPU over a decade old, it was finally time for an upgrade.  I got a great deal on a desktop with a middle-aged i5 and an AMD RX 580 graphics card - still nothing top shelf, but doubling the cores and over doubling the graphics processing power is nothing to scoff at.  

          Problem is, it might have had the speed, but it didn't have any style (that, and it sounded like a 747 about to take flight in my bedroom).  Buying a better case and fans was the obvious choice, but this seemed like an opportunity to be unnecessarily thrifty and add some personality to the build.

Reptilia Cover

Some days you ask yourself important questions, like, "could I start a rock band without having to socialize at all?" and just need to find out the answer.

Making Wine from IKEA Tutorial

Who knew making alcohol from this family-friendly establishment could be so affordably and easy?

Random Band Name Generator Program

          A few months back, I compiled and posted a few lists of words of various sorts, over 10,000 of them all in all.  Shortly afterwards, I started putting them to use in various Mad-Libz style generators.  Now, I'm far from an expert coder (I've only taken two courses), so it's little more than some simple Java random functions in a choice framework, but eventually I'll get around to porting a Javascript or HTML version so you good people of the internet can take advantage of it as well - if anyone shows any interest, that is :)

          The result was a remarkably fun and even possibly almost useful band name generator that can spit out a couple thousand ideas per second; a bit faster than you can review them, at any rate.

(much more after the break)

Remember the good old days?

I've been learning keyboard for the past 2-3 weeks so this was a very fun way to, ahem, apply my skills.

"Because" Tab and Lyrics by The Beatles

A simple and concise edit of the lyrics and tabs to "Because".  The tabs I found on Ultimate Guitar were very close, but not perfect.  I listened note by note to the original and just cleaned up a few notes, enjoy!

The Beatles "Because" nine-part cover

My first attempt at vocal harmonies, and I really jumped into the thick of it with this song.  The tuning is really questionable at some points, but it was solid practice mixing and mastering.  Expect a tutorial on easy vintage EQ and effects upcoming soon as well!

46 and 2 or 3 instruments

A fun test of coordination here, as well as a good demo of the new budget recording setup I've worked out here.

How to Sound Like Eric Johnson in BIAS FX

A demo and tutorial on how to get your guitar (excluding player) sounding like Eric Johnson without a boutique pedalboard, vintage tube amp, or even a nice guitar.  Even if you don't use BIAS FX, you might be able to find some helpful tips and tricks anyway if you're ever chasing after that Cliffs of Dover sound.

DIY Jack Daniels Barnwood Telecaster Build

After years of disregarding the Telecaster as the troglodytic brother of the sleek and superior Strat, it finally hit me why the Telecaster has remained popular for over 50 years.  Trimming down the glitz of a tremolo and a middle pickup (which I always ignored anyway) leaves you with a utilitarian tool that gets you back to the fundamentals of playing with less maintenance and distracting thing-a-majigs.

Inspired by this minimalist vision and this bourbon-infused aesthetic from "Big D Guitars", I decided to build my own Jack Daniels Tele... on an extreme shoestring budget, as usual!  Looks pretty good for about $40 and some barnwood, doesn't it?

Hybrid Tube Amp Idea

A silly but not-too-silly idea and a sloppy Photoshop job came together, and this is what you got.  

Of course there are modeling amps that can cover infinitely many types of amps, but that's not quite the same idea here.  First off, there's that reassuring manual feel, and as charming as the interface gets on simulators such as BIAS FX or Amplitube, they're never going to be as nice as turning an actual knob.  Then there's that tube mysticism, which may or may not be so magical as to be completely inimitable by anything invented after 1969.

The biggest real difference here is that unlike modelers that switch between amps, this could have a separate valve amp controlling each speaker at different volumes that could be blended together.  The closest I've gotten to this is BIAS, which allows a maximum of two amps at once (many famous guitarists such as Eric Johnson are known to use two amps at once).  I'd imagine four different valve amps blended could create some mind-blowing-ly rich tones.  But that's just speculation, without a couple thousand dollars to sink into building a test... at least not yet!

Building a simple wood guitar pedalboard

After finishing up this lovely guitar rack over the summer, I was faced with a dilemma; a decent-sized board of nice wood and no obvious projects to use it on.  At some point my mind went back to the drawer of scarcely-used pedals and the disorganized tangle of cords that kept me from ever using them.  Since pedalboards are ridiculously overpriced to buy, building one would be the perfect DIY solution to all of these "problems" at once.

Spray painting an enamel burst finish guitar (the right way)

The guitar business is one deeply entrenched in a sort of mysticism surrounding the "right" paints for the "right" sounds, and what's "right" is inevitably old lacquer or some even more cancerous alternative.

But if you're reading this, you probably already knew that - my SEO isn't terribly great so you'd have to be looking long and hard for someone so charming and modest, or at least devoid of snooty preconceptions about guitar paint.  On to the helpful part!

"Get Schwifty" Obey Logo

          Sometimes, the world asks you to create something insightful, something useful or interesting that in some small way makes the world a better place.  This was not one of those times, but you might enjoy this Shepard Fairey-inspired Rick and Morty logo all the same.

List of English words - Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, adverbs - 10,892 total

I've recently gotten into computer programming and was looking to create a wild "Mad Libs" type of word generator.  Maybe you're looking to do something similar, maybe you're training word generators, or maybe you have some other higher calling necessitating some large unformatted lists of words - I ain't going to judge.

However, I didn't find it as easy as hoped to get some convenient lists of words sorted by type, so after assembling a few collections of my own, I figured I might as well share them and save you the trouble!

Tender Surrender by Steve Vai Guitar Tab

Pretty self-explanatory - here are the tabs for Steve Vai's "Tender Surrender", reformatted and optimized for printing.

Spray Painting a Guitar With the "Dish Soap" Trick

It's surprisingly easy to get this squeaky-clean guitar finish.  All it takes is spray paint, dish soap, a water bottle, and a guitar body you don't mind possibly messing up, just a little bit.