Saturday, June 5, 2021

String Section

I inherited a mandolin. Been cleaning it up; fingerboard was gouged (and grimy) so scraped that down with my violin knife, sanded it with 800-grit and re-stained it. Took all the hardware off and got the corrosion off with a combination of white wine vinegar soak and WD40 and a wire brush. 

Somewhere along that process I took pictures of some of the instruments I mean to employ on "Shepard, Jane Shepard" -- when I finally feel comfortable enough to lay down the bass part. So here's my strings:


Violin, cello (chin cello; extra-heavy strings on a slightly modified acoustic-electric), and bass (chin bass; my prototype made with Kala U-bass strings on a hand-carved neck hung on a Chinese kit body.) No viola, but given the kind of sounds I get out of the other two I don't think anyone would care.


And the winds for this project; Alto sax (yes, actually an alto. A cheap one bought open-box). Soprano sax (more-or-less; Yamaha Venova, a noble experiment of an instrument), and flute (standard C flute. And, no, I haven't been able to get a clean flutter tongue on the flute. First instrument that hasn't been easy...)


And the actual performed percussion; hat and kick and toms and so on are all going to be off synthesizer. Bongos, shaker (the one I made myself from shakes...well, from off-cuts), and snare (specifically, Korg WaveDrum; the only electronic drum you can play brushes on. Although for this piece, I'm playing stick.)

Pity, though, there's no part for a mandolin. (But the new strings won't even come until Monday, and it will be late next week before the finish is dry and I'm ready to re-assemble).

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