#Frail Autumn,, #music, #Retirement Projects

No songs. Just Vintage observations.

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Old battered alto trumpet. I believe that is what Google shows it to be.

Yesterday was a look after my grandson day. A take him to the dentist for his check up too. So we popped around the charity shops before his dental check up appointment for a quick ‘scout out for some hopeful God-sends’.

First up. Walked in the door and saw a 1960s Eko dreadnought acoustic. Very similar to the one I own already from the 1970s. Arrived home and immediately stripped out the machine heads after removing the really rusty strings. Dust and grime heavily involved too. So ordered Lemon Oil, String Oil, and Guitar Body cleaning spray off Amazon. Also, some Ernie Ball strings and some new machine heads. But! The machine heads already on it are original (rare) vintage. Five are original. One is a poor ‘painted to look similar’ replacement. Also one of the original five has a bent metal tuner peg.

After being heavily wiped down with a damp cloth. Awaiting sprays and oils to enhance the fret boards and body work. It’s at least 50 to 60 years old and felt like it had not been cleaned in all that time!
Please tap on image above to enlarge.

So I looked at whether there were any out there. Only one set from the USA which, with postage, are about $85 or around £64. That is three times the cost as to what I paid for the whole charity shop guitar.

Machine heads off the Eko Italian Made Dreadnought guitar. Circa 1960s.
Bought these Guyker locking machine heads for the Eko. But would love to re-introduce the originals if I can find two more.

I have been thinking of the GarageBand recordings today. The little add on sounds played with human endeavour and not by a key pressed on the Midi Akai keyboard system. Born from recent purchase of odd buys on a whim. Fir example. In another charity shop yesterday I found an alto trumpet. I think that’s what it is. I thought it was a French Horn initially. I wish. Battered in the bell, but surprisingly rich sound on playing a deep note. And also battered and bruised on some of the pipes too. Needs a full on clean up with Brasso. You may hear it on a future recording playing a few elongated or stabbed out notes as a background atmospheric accompaniment to a song that has the need for that inclusion. Like an Eleanor Rigby type vibe.

Here is my original Eko Dreadnought guitar played into a Shure SM58 1970s made in the USA microphone. Microphone plugged into an interface connector and then into the Apple Mac Mini M2 home recording system. Played into GarageBand.

A quick trial using the Eko acoustic guitar played into a Shure SM58 microphone. Drums from the GarageBand library choices.

This morning I was looking in the attic to find the little harmonica (harp) my Nan gave me a while ago. Not sure when. Found it, looked it up (a Victory) and still not sure if it is considered a decent enough sound to use other than a bit of practicing on it. It has a sound coming out of it that is pleasant. Not as rich as the Chromatic Hohner I bought a few years back. I tried playing harp a year or so ago. Absolutely useless. No breath control at all.

Please tap on images below to enlarge.

After I bought the Chromatic harp, I found a great guy here on WP who has an amazing site. Kept in touch since. If he agrees, I can provide a link to his site.

Ol’ Shep agreed. Thank you kindly Shep. So here’s his blog site link below. Well worth a visit.

https://harmonicariffraff.blog/blog/

And his Bandcamp site. Shep has a new single out. Great harp player with a great sense of humour and so well worth a look and a listen to both blog reads and his toons. Here’s two of his toons.

Links below.

https://olshep.bandcamp.com/track/locomotive-weave

https://olshep.bandcamp.com/track/ruffled-feathers?from=fanpub_fnb_trk

All these vintage bought instruments that are unused and unloved souls? I remembered the vintage recorder I bought a few weeks ago down in Devon, England. Again, school days memories. I have five recorders now. Some penny whistles too.

So it will be possibly nice to attempt to play some real instruments to the songs. And not rely on GarageBand alternatives. Or it may be a disaster of inability to actually play these offerings.

All are Vintage and a bit battered though. Those of you who know my blogs……..1972 VeeDub Bus, many vintage fountain pens, old 1980s Pentax LX SLR film camera. All……glorious Vintage!

16 thoughts on “No songs. Just Vintage observations.”

    1. Can’t beat a USA 1970s built Shure SM58 for recording Sheila. The Eko guitars were used by a few famous musicians back in the 1970s. I know Jimmy Paige was one. BTW…Led Zeppelin recorded one of their early albums up the road from our village. Robert Plant still lives in the area too. Visits every so often it seems. I nursed one of his neighbours. He spoke very highly of Robert. Such an amazing human being he said. Spotted around town by many. Unluckily, not by myself as yet. ☹️

      My grandson was keen to play the trumpet, but it needs a good intense cleaning first. Maybe spiders are within! Who knows. Cheers.

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    2. Sorry to confuse you cookie. Your little thumbnail showed another blog friend’s avatar picture. Strange blips on Jetpack at times. I was going back to make sure I hadn’t forgot to like any of my blog friend’s comments and spotted the error. Your avatar was back on your comment. Now I hope it is correct and I’m not wrongly replying to another friend! 😊

      My grandson loves ‘Classified’ music as he calls it. Classical music. I played him some a year or so back. He said he wanted quieter music to make him relax. New Age CDs didn’t impress him as much as the first time he listened to ‘Classified’ music from Pietro Mascagni and Tchaikovsky. Holst and the planet suite introduced me to classical at his age. I should have started him on the road to listening with playing gentler choices from that work of art. Cheers cookie.

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    1. Thank you. They were built in Italy until the mid 1980s I believe. So the early ones were much loved. Many well known musicians played them. Likened to the Gibson of similar specifications. The first and only Eko I bought was back in the Early 1970s and the one recorded here. It has Elixir strings on it. But they are the lightest for acoustic and yet still a bit heavy for the guitar neck. May change them for the electric guitar versions. I do agree that yesterday’s buy was a great result. Just needs to be as resonant as my old one. Couldn’t tell yesterday. The strings on it were really poor. Very rusty and grimy.

      Thanks for dropping by Lewis. Really appreciated. All the best.

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  3. What a great find. I personally would use the machine heads that came on the guitar including the poor imitation as they are the history/story of the guitar. Unless they are no longer functional. The sound from your 1970s guitar is very warm with lots of depth. I hope this find is equally as impressive.

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    1. I do love vintage original as you and I know Danny. The VeeDub Bus was intentional ‘stock’ and of original considerations. Had to compromise. As you are totally aware, vintage means finding originals too. You are the same with your fountain pen considerations. If I find two decent machine head replacements it would be fantastic. These particular design may not be stable to keep in tune. I have no idea. It is a simple design that has to cope with string gauge on a large guitar. That means heavier string gauge which puts pressure on the guitar neck could pull the neck up. The pull from the bridge at the base of the strings to the tuning machine heads is huge. Meaning the strings are higher off the fret board/neck. Means you have to push the strings down further on to the fret board to produce the note. Harder to play. Also to keep in tune? The machine heads have to be robust and not slip.

      Like fountain pens you sometimes live with the eccentricity. But when halfway through a song or writing and one of the strings or ink supply drops out of tune or on to the paper, the song/wring progress is ruined. See what I did there! 😆 If I keep one of those ‘odd one out’s’ machine heads and it doesn’t do the job? Then it lets down the other four’s consistency. Also, I have never used these early designs before. And….Engineering is something I have no real experience in. So no idea how great the simplicity is. I haven’t Google searched how effective these ones are yet.

      Thanks for your words Danny. This response I wrote here has now allowed deeper thoughts. But one good thing with this. Nothing has to be permanent with machine heads or other certain parts of a guitar. Whether old or new it is easy to change. I can move individual parts back and forth easily. Simple six off, six on. Cheers Danny. All the best.

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      1. Gray. Excellent points I had not considered the physical impact on the guitar neck nor the potential distance between the strings and the fretboard. This why your posts are so educational to us musical lay people. And good job adding a FP reference into your explanation. All the bes

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      2. There is a truss rod inside guitar necks which alters the neck’s ‘back bow and up bow’. Gives ‘relief’ to the neck to make it more playable. Or the opposite can happen when strings are too low and causes them to fret buzz. It’s a process of loosening or tightening with an Allen key which you do with care. You get at it mostly by taking off the small plate under the strings on the headstock. Where the tuning pegs are. So, if the strings pull too much and you get an up bow, you can remedy it. The bridge on the guitar main body, which the strings go over, can also heighten or lower strings. So it’s a bit of a learning process to get the balance between the two.

        It can also send intonation out if done wrong. Intonation is the guitar being in tune up the whole fretboard. Heard by ears that can pick up an out of tune guitar. But also really evident when playing an octave note on the twelfth fret. Your guitar will be out of key as you move up the fretboard if you don’t get it right. So distance and equidistant length of string from bridge to twelfth fret and twelfth fret to the top end of the fretboard is important too. Getting that right can be a pain in the rear!

        Guitars? They’re like fountain pens. So many different designs with unique quirks to consider. That’s why your FP blogs are so fantastic to read for advice. Cheers Danny.

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  4. Recently been op shoppin’ (markets, bazaars & the funky pickers)with my son…nothing better than finding old treasures although some of the prices they’re asking are a bit unreal….from the photo it looks like a baritone to me – Dad used to play one with the Salvo’s…you need a decent ten hole tin can mate – try a Hohner Special 20… a recorder can sound alright – Bon Scott played one in the band Fraternity (Seasons Of Change) before going to some band called AC/DC!…if it’s me you’re talkin’ ‘bout yeah that would be mighty fine, perhaps even send them to Bandcamp for my latest too!…gotta say that guitar you picked up and the player sound pretty good..cheers for your blog – always a good and relatable read. Cheers Ol’ Shep Dawg Hisself

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    1. Charity/Thrift shops know exactly what they have nowadays. I buy a lot from charity shops. It’s an ethical thing for myself. Done it for fifty years. Oxfam was my first ever experience. Bought a hand knitted beauty of an Arran jumper. 50p. My wife still wears it as her ‘comfy’. It’s darn patched up and has amazing patina Shep.

      Thanks for the baritone info. When I played a trumpet in my youth at school I visited my Nan in her Salvation Army church. They told me I had to be a Salvationist if I wanted to be considered later for the band. Had to be ‘grown up in years’ a little more. Then I picked up a guitar. The King of Rome by the Unthanks girls is one of the most beautiful performances I have ever heard. The brass is wonderful. And Christmas? I have a Salvation Army CD I play. So a brass band can massively move me emotionally. A recorder can too in a way. Schooldays memories. I’ll look up your suggestion and read about and listen to Bon Scott. And look at the Hohner harp.

      Yes it is you. I’ll edit my blog and put up a link to your site and Bandcamp. It’s 05.30 at the moment here and my brain is a muddle. So will do that later today. Technophobe is my middle name, so need a bit of breakfast to feed the neural pathways. Thanks for the feedback about my blog content too Shep. Much appreciated. Same to you about your blogs contents. Enjoyable, informative and those music links are treasures. After your Neil Diamond blog……I found a few of his vinyls in a charity shop didn’t I. After reading your blog you see. You’re one of those newly named ‘influencers’. 😆 All the best Shep.

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  5. glorious vintage….envy 😋

    you have such treasures, Gray…
    You need to line them all up and share it here in one post lol…such warmth to these.

    thanks for the blog share too 🤍
    a wonderful weekend your way, Gray ..🙏

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