Category: Lutherie

Categories
Bluegrass Fiddle Lutherie

Goodwill Strat Finished/Fiddle Stem Separation

I finished up on the Squier Stratocaster that I bought on the Goodwill website two months ago (https://luegra.design.blog/2026/05/17/shopping-goodwill-online/). Estimating the time, parts and effort put into getting back into playable condition, I will definitely lose money when selling, hopefully not much.

After cleaning up the graffiti and stickers, I went to work on patching up the divot that was made by the previous owner. This was a task indeed. The wood filler was not curing and sticking to the existing wood in the body, so it took about five layers. When sanding it down, it was not holding too well, so the last layer I let cure for almost a week. It held, but there are a few scratches that were too deep to come out unless I kept going with more layers, and I really did not want to invest more time on that part of the clean up.

I used simple acrylic paint on the patch. Fortunately, the patch was all in the black part of the sunburst, so only one color was needed. The polyurethane that I used for clear coating was also giving me some issues. It was going on thin, and even after about 10 coats, light sanding with 1000 grit paper took me back to the wood filler and stripping off the paint. After touching up the paint and adding a few more coasts, I switched over to some final coats of Tru-Oil. The finished job is not professional, but it is way better than it was, and it’s a Squier, not a vintage Fender.

I replaced the knobs and pickup switch with Fender-style parts to match the pickup covers. The floating bridge needed a lot of adjustment, which meant removing the back cover and force-tightening the spring screws. I could spend a lot more time on setting it up, but right now, I want to get back to the green Telecaster.

Sound-wise, it is typical of the Squier Stratocaster. There is that buzz when only one pickup is activated. I could get back into the body and put in some conductive tape, but again, I don’t want to invest more time into this guitar. The selection of neck/middle and middle/bridge pickups gives that great glassy sound. However, as these are pretty cheap pickups, the output is pretty low.

All in all, it is a beginner guitar, or a decent back up guitar. Hopefully I will find a buyer.

I recently received an email from TMJ Software/VRII with a project that they are launching for fiddle players wanting to learn a song. You send them a bluegrass song that contains a fiddle, and the company will use AI to separate the fiddle from the track, then post the song without the fiddle as well as a copy of the fiddle on its own without the band on its website so that you can check it out. They call it “stem separation.”

This sounds interesting, but I am not sure how popular it will be. I have seen other companies produce backing tracks of popular bluegrass songs like Grasstrax, but I am not sure how much of a need there is for the backing track as well as the recording of the lone instrument on its own. Most bluegrass musicians that I know can pretty much decipher the solo and are more inclined to create their own version.

Only time will tell if this works out for anyone wanting to study a certain bluegrass song’s fiddle break. I went to the website (https://vrii.tmjsoftware.com/fiddle-challenge.html) and checked out the three songs that were there. The separation was good, but one would find it hard to follow the backing track, as in the case of the recording of Bill Monroe’s “Cotton Eyed Joe,” the fiddle kicks it off, yet you can’t tell when to start if you want to jam with the backing track. Anyone interested in trying to download a song can go to the above website.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Artificial Intelligence Lutherie Music Industry

Tidbits #9: AI is Evil/Next Guitar Build/Fesley Guitars RIP

Hoping that everyone here in the US had a safe and wonderful 250th anniversary of Independence Day.

If you have been following my blogs for a while you know that I love seeing young musicians become skilled with their instruments, and that I also am not a fan of artificial intelligence (AI). That hatred for AI has reached another level this past week. There are now videos of a young musician that I follow in suggestive poses, flashing her underwear, and wearing clothing that I know she would never wear. These videos are definitely created by AI by sleazeballs looking for algorithm hits with no concern of this young girl’s reputation. I will not post her name, as I do not want to have anyone to watch them and give these pedophiles any credit. It’s bad enough that AI is used to create fake music videos and try to pass them off as real bands performing, but this is stooping way too low.

All that I request is that if you see one of these videos, please report it to YouTube. I am sure that there are a number of young female musicians having their reputations ruined by these criminals and getting away with it. It is wrong, hurtful, and should be punishable.

I am currently working on another guitar build. This one is a Telecaster style, and the body required a lot more preparation sanding. For color, I followed an idea that I saw on YouTube of diluting acrylic paint 50/50 with water and wiping it on. I chose a light green, and it seemed to soak into the wood in about 95% of the body, even after three coats. It looks better than the distressed look from the Fesley Strat I did earlier (https://luegra.design.blog/2025/07/06/the-fesley-guitar-is-finished/), but not as complete as I hoped. I also should have used a grain filler to bring out the grain better before staining.

I plan to keep it like this, and start with the multiple coats of Tru-Oil over the next few weeks. Due to the strange hours of my present job, and summer being busy with lawn and house maintenance, this one will take a lot more time to finish.

Speaking of Fesley, I recently learned that the company has gone out of business, with no notice online. Some talk in chat groups seem to think that this may be due to the ongoing lawsuits that Fender is issuing to various guitar companies for producing Stratocaster copy guitars. Ironically, the company in China that was producing parts for the Fesley guitars was also working for Fender, producing components for the Squier brand.

This is disappointing news to be sure. Of all of the kits I have built or plan to, the Fesley one was the best. The instruction manual provided was extremely thorough, and both the body and neck were finished with a very light coat, so that you could either sand it off and use your own finish, or actually build the guitar as-is and have a finished guitar. The Fesley kit was set up for the true beginner to learn about guitar building and lutherie, and I was hoping to either get another kit from them soon or recommend them to anyone interested in building one.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Lutherie Musical Instruments

Shopping Goodwill Online

Every few days, I go to the Goodwill auction website (www.shopgoodwill.com) to see what music equipment I may be lucky to pick up (I rarely go to an actual Goodwill store, as there never seems to be anything that interests me). The site has a separate category for musical instruments, with sub-categories for guitars/basses, stringed instruments, percussion, woodwinds, brass, electronic, and amplifiers/effects. As for the guitar section, most of the items are garbage, but there are a few items that come across that are worth a second look.

Of those few items, some are actually quality instruments. I have seen many Fender, Gibson, Guild and other name brands on the site. However, most of these are being scouted by dealers, and the bids are much higher than I want to compete with. Occasionally, I am able to snag a decent buy. Such might be the case with my recent purchase of a Fender Squier Strat. With a quality Fender gigbag, shipping and handling, the total was about $80.00. NOTE: Be sure to check the shipping cost before you bid on anything. This is a national auction site, so if you are on the east coast, and the item is from a Goodwill store in California, the shipping cost may be more than the item itself! Also note that sales tax is not included until after you purchase, so be sure to mentally calculate that. Finally, note that many items will not be shipped and must be picked up locally.

So when the Strat arrived, there was a bit more work to be done on it than the Goodwill photos showed and were not in the description. I knew that I would have to get a replacement whammy bar and knobs, but I did not see that the output jack was broken and needed replacement. Also, there are some major dings that bits of the wood are chipped off. Finally, the owner took a Sharpie pen to it. Some of the writing is just names of bands, others look like autographs. Not sure who the signers are, but a good cleaning with nail polish remover or Goo Gone should clean up that stuff.

I have already ordered replacement knobs, whammy bar, and output jack for those areas. As for the wood divots, fortunately, those areas are along the side where the sunburst finish is black. I can patch that area and do some sanding/finishing without having to re-finish the entire body. Parts and finishing materials, the cost will probably be about $20.00 total. Time-wise, it will take me a while, as my new job still has me doing some overtime until more people are hired in. I look at this as more of a passion than trying to make money, so if and when I sell this, I will probably break even.

Again, if you decide to hit the Goodwill auction site, bid carefully. You may get a bargain out of it!

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Guitars Lutherie

Lansing Guitar Show

Yesterday I hit the Lansing Guitar Show. It was nice, but nothing spectacular. As expected, about 90% electric guitars and amps (I’m not complaining, it’s just that I don’t play electrics that much any more). And of course, everything was way too pricey for me. I am still wondering if it was worth the three hours total drive back-and-forth to attend. I actually got through the entire show in a little over an hour, walking through it three times. It was set up in two separate rooms that were far apart, and there were not good signs pointing to the rooms.

I got to talking to a gentleman who was selling a late 1960s Guild Starfire II semi-hollowbody double cutraway. The thing was not completely original, as the bridge, tailpiece, and one pickup were replacements. He was asking $900.00, basing it on the harmonica-style bridge (it is wider, and looks like a harmonica) being a rare item. Dealers were passing on his offer (I totally understand), but it got me to thinking about a guitar that I have.

It’s a 1971 Guild Starfire I, which is a true hollowbody, with a single cutaway and a Bigsby-designed vibrato tailpiece. The pickups are original, but are quite microphonic, meaning that they act like a microphone (I actually used to talk through them at shows) and they feedback terribly. The thing needs some minor work, particularly the headstock plate needs gluing. The one dumb thing that I did to it was have a girl that I wanted to date paint a skull on it, as I was into rockabilly back then and thought it would be cool. Well, her skull looked more like a white tadpole. I remember my bass player at the time used to call it “the Happy Sperm Guitar.” I also remember that, playing the guitar though my Fender Twin Reverb, was absolute magic. With the right overdrive, that was the perfect-sounding rock-n-roll rhythm guitar. I guess that is why I still have not parted with it, but at least the talk gave me somewhat of an idea on how I could sell it just in case.

I talked a while back about how much I miss some out-of-print music magazines (https://luegra.design.blog/2021/06/06/the-print-magazines-that-i-miss/), particularly the Frets Magazine from the 1970s and early 1980s. This was an offshoot of Guitar Play Magazine, focusing on all acoustic instruments. Besides acoustic guitar, coverage included banjo, fiddle, mandolin, autoharp, dobro, sitar, and just about any other acoustic stringed instrument. It discontinued for a few years, but was brought back in the 2000s, but stuck to mostly acoustic guitar. The older issues covered artists that I thought were the best in bluegrass. So when I saw one vendor has a bunch of old guitar magazines, I had to thumb through to see if there were any treasures. I was able to snag his few copies of Frets. I love reading those old articles (just look at how young and skinny Jerry Douglas was back in 1986!).

One of the reasons that I went was to get a replacement nut for the Leo Jaymz Strat that I just finished building. The nut that was on the neck was horrendous! It was cut way too high, and even filing down the slots didn’t help. Plus it was made of a cheap plastic, so I picked up a bone one for a few bucks.

As I was leaving, I got to chatting with Cooper Wentz, who operates Galloup Guitars out of Big Rapids, Michigan. Besides building guitars, he runs lutherie classes out of his shop, which consists of programs ranging from eight to 24 weeks of intensive research and building of guitars, both acoustic and electric. For more information, go to galloupguitars.com .

But what struck me as very interesting was the lutherie tool that he recently developed. It is part of an online system that he has set up called Acousonix. The main aspect is a hammer-like object that has a small plunger on one side of the head, and a LED screen on the other side. This idea is to hit a piece of wood that is mounted on the body of the acoustic instrument (or before mounting) with the plunger, and the LED screen will display what that piece is tuned to acoustically for the best tone and stability of the guitar to be built. It is an amazing concept to be sure, and I hope that he has great success with this project. For more information, go to acousonix.com .

The next nearby show is in Toledo in June, so that gives me time to decide if I want to go, considering that I start my new job tomorrow and need to find out when I can take time off.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Banjo Comedy Lutherie

Leo Jaymz Guitar Kit/Banjo Practice/Fashion Show Parody

My second guitar kit is finished. Lessons learned from my previous kit were followed, and new lessons learned as well. This was a lit from Leo Jaymz. The Strat-style body had a nice grain structure for the most part, so instead of any paint or even stain, I chose to just finish it with Tru-Oil. There are about a dozen coats on the body, with light sanding between every two coats, and buffing/polishing afterward with car polish.

I would give my work on the body about a 7 out of 10, as the back of the body has a few drip spots from the oil that I had thought I sanded out. The wiring is a lot easier to work with than the first kit, which was a Fesley. Absolutely no soldering was needed, so it makes an excellent starter kit. My one problem is that, while the neck/body joint fit perfectly, the cut of the cavity in the body for the neck joint is ever-so-slightly off, by about a 1/32 of an inch. Thus, the low E string is closer to the neck edge near the joint than the high E string. Barely noticeable, but noticeable anyway.

As expected, much of the hardware is low-end. The tuning gears are rough when turning, and if I plan on keeping this guitar, these will definitely be replaced. The pickups are low-output, which is not a concern for me right now, but I could either replace them or do an update with magnetic pole pieces. I’m not a fan of the design of the headstock. I would have preferred a Strat-style cut, and this one is more like the old Epiphone batwing style.

I have a few other kits that I plan on building soon, including a Precision-style bass that I want to put in some modifications to make it unique. But they are being put on the back burner, as I want to spend my free time over the next few months working on playing the banjo again.

Since I haven’t practiced the banjo in so long, and giving my last banjo to my nephew, getting back into the swing of Scruggs-picking has been a chore. The ring finger on my picking hand has a problem known as Trigger Finger, which makes it difficult and painful to bend at times. Fortunately, it’s not one of the picking fingers, but I still feel pain when I rest it on the banjo head.

I’ve also given my nephew all of my instruction books and videos, so I am back to learning on my own and by watching YouTube videos. I still remember a few basic rolls, but in watching the videos on YT, there are not many that are too helpful to the beginner. Almost none show tablature while showing fingering in the video. My best way of learning things like this has always been the combination video and book. Right now, I am shopping around for one or two DVD/booklet packages. But until then, I am committed to spending a few minutes each day just practicing rolls.

And now for something completely different.

Nothing bluegrass, music, or lutherie related. While surfing on YouTube a few days ago, this video popped up. I haven’t stopped laughing since, and immediately subscribed to the channel. The guy has perfectly parodied the modern fashion-show runway and its models. I hope that you enjoy it half as much as I have.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Consumer Electronics Lutherie Musical Instruments

Buys at the Livonia Swap Meet

So this morning I went to another swap meet. This one is sponsored by the Livonia Amateur Radio Club in Livonia, Michigan. It is an annual one that I always attend, and while about 75% of the items for sale are related to ham and amateur radio enthusiasts, the remaining 25% is made up of computers, consumer electronics, and musical instrument items. Forty years ago, there would be swap meets like this at least once per month in the area. These days, I only know of this one and the antique radio swap meet I hit last month, so finding needed electronic parts is getting difficult.

I picked up a few things that made it worth the trip. First off, I secured a brand-new Shure SM48 microphone for $25.00. I made sure to hand-weigh it to make sure it was the real thing and not one of those fake ones coming out of China (see my blog https://luegra.design.blog/2021/01/14/are-you-sure-that-its-a-shure/). For those who are unaware, the SM48 is a more budget-friendly version of the stalwart SM58. The frequency response is a little less bass responsive, but still does a great job as a dynamic vocal mic. I’m not sure if they are made any more, but they used to run for about $70.00 new, and I see online that used ones are going for about $30.00. Beware of ones advertised as new on Temu, Wish, or eBay for less than that, as they are fake Shure microphones.

I snagged a microphone shock mount in a bundle package with a 1970s-era AM bicycle radio from Radio Shack. I already have a shock mount, but for a few dollars, it was worth buying to have around, or perhaps selling for a buck or two more on Craigslist. The radio is one that I wanted as a kid for my bike. Back then, to have any accessory on your bike was cool, and a radio was one of the ultimate blings! Besides the AM band, it had a horn and reflector. It is missing the handle-bar mount, but it will look cool in my transistor radio collection.

One item that I was planning on getting from Harbor Freight soon is a U.S. General Mini Toolbox. I have been seeing positive reviews for these on YouTube. It has two drawers and a flip top, all with pads to store smaller tools and items without them banging around. The drawers have a magnetic closure so they won’t open if the box gets tilted. One vendor there had a few new ones for $15.00, which is a few dollars cheaper than what Harbor Freight regularly sells them at (I was waiting around for a sale). This will make a great way to store some of my luthier tools that are currently in a large tote, as well as small containers that hold screws and electronic parts.

There were two musical instrument vendors there, which I often see at the other swap meets that I attend. All of the items that they sell are too much for my wallet, pretty much going for what can be seen on eBay. There were also some other microphones that I would have considered if the prices were right. I enjoy hitting these events, but I have some complaints:
-Setting up the vendor tables with too narrow of aisles, so it becomes hard to move along when there are others stopping to look at items.
-People with backpacks that make it even more difficult to get through an aisle
-People that bring their kids, especially infants in strollers that literally take up the entire aisle, so you have to wait at the end until the inconsiderate grandpa pushes the stroller through.
-People who decide to stop and have a conversation with each other in one of the aisles instead of moving into an open area along the wall of the hall.
-People who decide to have a cup of coffee without a cover while walking the narrow aisles, and when bumped, the coffee spills, usually on me!

I hope to hit the Lansing Guitar Show on the weekend of March 7-8. On March 9th, I start a new job as a valet/porter at a car dealership. Working at a logistics company for the last five years has been a drain on my mental well-being, and I’m willing to take a cut in pay and change my hours to get back my mental (and physical) health back.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Banjo Lutherie

Tetomas Banjo/Guitar Mat

Over the summer, my nephew helped clean up my back yard of overgrown brush. For payment, instead of money, he asked for my banjo. It was a J.B.Player model, sort of an intermediate banjo with basic parts but did have the more professional tuning gears on it, not the cheaper acoustic guitar style tuners found on an entry-level banjo. I had not picked it up to practice in a long while, so I felt it was a decent trade. I gave him the banjo and all of the instructional books and videos that I had laying around. A few months later, I had the inkling to pick it up again, but alas, it was gone.

Last week, I was updating some of my Craigslist ads, when I decided to peruse the Music Instrument category. There was an ad for a Tetomas brand banjo with the better tuning gears. Most of the banjos I have seen on CL are usually the beginner models, or occasionally a professional ones costing way too much for my wallet. The seller was a guitarist that had it sitting around and wanted to get rid of it. For the price asking ($60.00), I figured that it might be worth a shot. I contacted him and bought it a few hours later.

Tetomas was a musical instrument brand made in Japan in the 1970s, producing mostly acoustic guitars, but as I see, other instruments like banjos. There isn’t much information available on Tetomas on the internet, so my assumption is that it is like the import brands like Glarry or Ktaxon is for beginners today. I was surprised to see that this had some care put into its construction, especially with the tuning gears. The tone ring and pot of the instrument are pretty basic, so again, it was probably meant for an intermediate market.

Whether it was the seller or someone else, the banjo was set up pretty bad. Two of the strings were wound on the tuners in reverse direction, and the bridge was way out of place. After adjusting the bridge, it came to life. The sound is good, definitely not of the quality tone like a Stelling or Gibson, but can cut through with a good bite when picked three-finger style. When played clawhammer style, it can be pretty loud. I went and bought some new strings (which I will put on soon) and some finger/thumb picks. It felt good to play the simple tunes like “Bile Them Cabbage Down” again. I will be picking up a strap and gig bag shortly, but I do plan on keeping it within reach while watching television to see what comes out of it.

A really good find I purchased at the Dollar Tree recently has proven to be a lifesaver in my luthier work. The store sells these garden knee pads for relief when kneeling while working in the yard. They are about 17×11 inches, made of a semi-hard foam with some rib texture on the surface. This is perfect for laying a musical instrument on while working on it, as it holds the instrument without slipping but doesn’t scratch. The cost was $1.50, well worth it I think. I have already gotten a lot of use from it while working on my next guitar build project, as I can fine sand the guitar body on it with out the body moving around, and doesn’t leave any scratch marks. I have a bigger guitar bench top that I use when I’m doing setups, but this little pad is perfect for the jobs like just working on a body or neck on its own.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Lutherie

“Fake Neck” for Guitar Finishing

For my next guitar kit build, I plan on finishing the body with only multiple coats of Tru-oil. The Strat body from this kit (from Leo Jaymz) is one piece, and has some great visible grain that I would not want to cover with paint nor stain it a different shade.

On the previous kit, I had a tough time oil finishing the body on a bench, as laying it on one side while trying to coat the flipside meant that you had to let it dry for at least a day before flipping. I attempted to hang the body from a hangman-type device I built. This meant that I could not get a good grip on the body, and I had to do it outside because of the size of the device. As it is now winter, and I don’t want to wait to get started on the build.

I happened to watch a few YouTube videos on guitar finishing, and on one of them, the luthier had taken a scrap piece of wood, cutting it to fit into the neck slot so that he could clamp it to the workbench. With that, he was able to do the finishing without laying it on the bench, flipping it over, then letting both sides and ends dry with even coats.

I went to a local Home Depot, and since I didn’t find any suitable scrap wood, purchased an 8-foot 1×3 furring strip for under $3.00. I cut a 2-foot piece off (so I can actually make four of these fake necks). I cut a notch on one end 1/2-inch x 4 inches, so that it would fit snug into the neck slot.

I drilled 1/16-inch holes into the slot section of the board, then for securing the fake neck, I’m using two 6-32×2-inch screws and 6-32 wing nuts. The total cost for this comes to less than $3.00 each for the four that I plan to make (keep two, give the others to fellow kit builders). This will definitely prove to be an extremely useful tool when staining and finishing bolt-on guitar bodies. Since I’ll be using Tru-Oil on this next project, I can do all of the work indoors, as Tru-Oil doesn’t have nasty fumes.

I will be heading to Nashville next weekend for the SPBGMA conference, so the weekly blog may be short and/or delayed. I will have a good summary of the conference when I get back.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bass Guitar Lutherie

Dean Playmate Bass Guitar

I spent a few weekends over the past month taking a good look and working on the Dean Playmate bass guitar I purchased back in August at the US-12 Longest Yard Sale (https://luegra.design.blog/2025/08/09/us-12-yard-sale-2025-sembma-picnic-2025-misc/). Upon closer inspection, I see that the thing has been through a lot of abuse. I never planned on keeping it, but it would need a lot of work cleaning up to make it playable again.

The first thing I did was remove a bunch of stickers with the help of Goo Gone. That took a lot of elbow grease to be sure, but I was able to get them all off without taking off any paint. The biggest concern with the bass was that the pickguard was not original, but a generic P-bass replacement. Dean had cut a special pickguard for this bass, and whatever happened to it I will never know. I did some research on this bass, and Playmate was made as a low-cost alternative to Dean’s professional line of guitars and basses. This particular bass was made sometime in the 1990s, so I knew that finding an exact pickguard replacement would be impossible.

The replacement pickguard fits over most of the original area, but left a gap right around where the output jack is mounted. I first thought of cutting a special section of pickguard to cover the area, but then did not want to invest much more time and money into the bass, so instead I traced the current pickguard area, filled the uncovered cavity with some wood putty, sanded it down and applied some similar-color artist paint to the area. Not professional, but it does the job, and again, I didn’t want to pour more money into this cheap bass.

The replacement pickguard also had holes drilled for a thumb rest. Again, I didn’t want to invest more money into it, as a plastic rest would have cost around $10.00 plus shipping if I ordered it. Instead, I cut a piece of hardwood to fit, painted it with a Sharpie pen, and it serves the purpose.

Setting it up for playing was another story. The bridge saddles were set up totally opposite to what should be for a guitar, in that, if you look at the saddle placement on a typical bass, the E string saddle is usually set back a bit farther than the G string saddle, with the A and D string saddles compensated likewise. This one had the G saddle adjusted way back, and sure enough, the intonation was off considerably. As I said before, this bass must have been though a lot of sweaty hands, and the bridge/saddle area was full of surface rust. I cleaned it off as best that I could, and adjusted the saddles for better (not perfect) intonation. The screws and springs on the bridge were heavily corroded, so even with the best of cleaning, there is still some corrosion showing. It would be too much cost to replace with a similar bridge.

Looking back, I paid a bit more than I should have for this bass, and perhaps I should have given it a better once-over before handing over the money. Dean has a good reputation for its guitar lineup, but this one is over 20 years old, and the Playmate series today just consists of an acoustic bass guitar. Used Playmate solidbody basses from the previous few years go for about $150.00, give or take a sawbuck. As I said, I don’t plan on keeping it, and from the original cost I paid, along with the time and pocket change I invested, I figure that I will be losing some money on this. If I don’t sell it within the next year, I’ll probably hand it off to some young kid interested in learning the bass. It did teach me a few things about buying used equipment, as well as working on guitars that I haven’t done before.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Home Recording Lutherie Songwriting

My 2025 in Review

Taking a look back at 2025, there are a few things that I learned about what I do related to music, both positive and negative. Here are some thoughts:

Freelance writing – I pretty much confirmed earlier this year that my last regular freelance writing gig dissolved. Fiddler Magazine hasn’t published online in over a year, and the print version left us about two years ago. I still have not heard back from the editor/publisher regarding what has happened, and I received a Christmas card form the former editor Mary Larsen checking in, which I truly appreciated. I am not sure how much more I will keep freelancing, as it is extremely difficult to find paying gigs thanks to AI. So many publications are folding, going online, or just keep their few contributing writers on. I loved writing, interviewing artists, reviewing releases, and networking. However, that outlet is drying up fast, and there is little motivation to pursue it further. This blog will at least keep my writing chops up.

Cirrus Guitars – After 40+ years of playing guitar, bass, and a few other instruments as a hobby and live on stage, it was exciting to have a guitar specially built for me. While my specifications were not elaborate, I loved the fact that it was my choice of what went into that acoustic guitar. The wait of three months was well worth it. Mike Frank at Cirrus was such a great person to work with, keeping me updated on the progress. My Martin D-28 is still my wife, but playing the shorter-scale Cirrus acoustic has got me playing bluegrass flatpicking leads a little easier.

Lutherie – While I’ve always done a lot of basic maintenance on my guitars, and have done simple modifications throughout the years, this year, I did a lot more hands-on work with repairs and building. It started with a major repair to a mandolin late last year that worked out well, and now getting DIY guitar kits that I could finish on my own. My first kit taught me a lot, especially with finishes and knowing that it takes a lot of time to get a good look. I have a few more kits that I got good deals on, including a P-bass kit that I plan to do a pickup modification. Another positive experience from this work is that I motivated a co-worker to get into the guitar-building hobby. She has done previous woodworking, but was so impressed with my last job that she has jumped right in. I got her a simple Tele-style kit, and within days, she was already staining the body. It does my heart good.

Suno.com – Now that I am recording my song demos on an 8-track digital recorder, I can do a lot more instrumental and vocal layering. When I was talking to Brent Baxter from SongwritingPro.com during my last trip to Nashville, he was praising Suno for its AI embellishing simple demos to sound like a studio recording. I joined Suno at their basic $10/month rate. This only allows you to upload a song and do basic editing of length. I decided to go for the Premium Studio rate at $200/year. Well, I downloaded a basic guitar/vocal song, and was not happy with with the results. First off, if you don’t have the most up-to-date computer (you cannot use it on a phone app), you cannot get into the Studio application. Next, it uploaded the lyrics it sensed, which were incorrect in a few places, but there was no way to correct them. Finally, this song is a fast-paced bluegrass number, but the Studio application (when I was able to get in) turned it into a mid-tempo pop-country number. I am totally disappointed with this program, and I am out $200 unless I get a better computer, which isn’t likely for a while. In short, Suno seems to be set up for people who write lyrics and need a ready-made studio band to put music on his/her words.
For 2026, I plan to do more guitar-kit building, songwriting and recording, hopefully more co-writing, and as a non-related goal, find another full-time job that is not as stressful as my current one.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that 2026 will be prosperous for all. Chew on it and comment.

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