Guitar DIY Pt. IV

So, I messed up the finish. True to form and my short attention span, I rushed the job and made the mistake of using two varnishes. One slow drying, one fast drying. This caused awful cracking and bubbling. So I bit my lip, stripped the varnish, sanded her down and am now between applying coats of primer. So that was an unfortunate but necessary learning curve.

It's not all doom and gloom. I have finished the rest of the guitar. Just added the tuning pegs etc today. I completed the artwork yesterday and gave it a coat of varnish. It was meant to be a reflection of the pickguard and while it is a close approximation, I like to think I was unconsciously channelling my love of Antoni Gaudi's artwork as well. At least something is going right! Lol

My pick ups will not arrive until next week so I will concentrate on getting the guitar finish perfect until then. On another note, an over abundance of primer has brought out the artistic side of my better half. Something she has become quite the expert at is the art of "ageing" furniture. She sanded down a mahogany headboard and is looking to create an antiquing effect, a sort of aged white effect - like looking at old white victorian furniture. Already primed and ready to go. We are getting very arty these days!

DIY Guitar Pt. III

So I've been busy with the finish for the guitar today. The pieces were delivered and I started work immediately.

A pretty standard strat model. It came with the stock hardware but with exception to the wiring connections and the volume and tone pots, the rest is all surplus.

The finish is amateur but it's what I like. The human factor, it looks more organic. I bought some bright red acrylic spraypaint and gave her several coats. This is her right now after a first coat of clear gloss varnish.

I was going to shape the headstock, but there is something that appeals to me, with the hard edges. And I also have more surface area to work with. I masking taped her edges, sprayed a couple of coats of red, ruled a black marker through the rough edges and hand painted several coats of a silver acrylic base on the rest.

Again it's a little rough around the edges but I bought some more acrylic paint, a tasty selection of greens.

 
I will (with the help of my better half) be adding these, in a feathered fashion, to the silver headstock in an effort to replicate the green pearl effect of the pickguard. Still waiting on the delivery of my Brian May signature tri-sonics, the excitement  builds.

DIY Guitar Pt. II

Just a little update on my endeavours. Actually I have nothing exciting to post as I am confined to waiting on parts to arrive. But some things are exciting to me. Such as winning a bid on ebay after a three day battle. It was intense but worth it. This guitar will be a mixture of three things. My two joint biggest guitar influences and of course my muse. I have chosen to create a strat type model in tribute to Rory Gallagher. The overall colour scheme and eventual title I give to this guitar will be heavily influenced by my (much) better half and the electronics are in tribute to Brian May. Thank you ebay. It will involve a lot of work and routing but it will be worth it. Can't wait to get started.

DIY Guitar Pt. I

So now that we are well into January, I am taking on a new project, specifically a DIY guitar! Having been unexpectedly gifted holidays next week, I have decided to devote my spare time to creating my dream guitar or at least my idea of one.

It won't be created from scratch. I have been feverishly hovering over this very netbook on ebay, clicking, typing, screaming, crying, eating etc. You get the picture. Anyway to get myself ahead, I have procured a cheap strat diy kit but am sourcing the hardware individually online. As the stock pickups are not worth a fart in the wind and am currently waging a war against several individuals for the "dream" pickups so to speak.

My stepdad taught me well, as he made sure I had half an idea when it comes to wiring in all shapes and sizes in various appliances so I'm pretty confident as to what I can do! At the moment I am limited to drawing diagrams, whether I might put an "out of phase" option in there, but as it's my first attempt I'll most likely give it a standard strat 3 single coil wiring with no fancy wiring. I won't be starting until next week and that will (most likely) involve just painting, chiselling and creating a shape for the headstock. All I have at the moment is the pickguard/scratchplate. A Green Pearl effect.

Which will require some modification to accomodate the pickups I'm currently bidding for. But for now the ebay battle wages on and the retail uberlords hail me to work.

THE FOG LIVE: TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING.....

I've been absent a while so it is nice to get back on and tell you my news. But first, a happy birthday to my beloved Magpie!

Our story begins in a bedroom with a four track, 10 years ago. 2 young lads decided to record music together, even though we couldn't really play instruments. We called ourselves "The Frequency Of Ghosts" or The FOG, geddit? We found our niche doing short novelty songs and Nirvana covers for our own entertainment. As we mastered our instruments, we actually started writing songs, songs that meant something, at least to us and recorded a number of independent albums for ourselves, friends and family.

Life took over. We've always been close and kept in touch, but the musical collaborations became less and less as education, work and family commitments took over. This was not a bad thing. But it certainly is something we missed.

Recently I planned to surprise my fiancee for her birthday. I wanted to throw a little gig and of course there was a vision. It would be me on guitar with backing tracks. But I needed help to beef it up, so I contacted my old friend and got my sister and little nephew in on the act too. We set up a marquee in the back yard, and after some hard work and stolen moments to rehearse we reached the day. Nerves tattered, a rushed half arsed soundcheck and with some invited friends and family neatly tucked away in the corner, the lady arrived. We opened with the nephew and his version of "All Of Me" by John Legend. He was a little pro and owned it. Then myself and my old friend tore into "Smells Like Teen Spirit". It was confident and assured and one of the better performances. We vibed off each other and he tore into the solo with pure abandon! My sister and I performed a couple of Bryan Adams numbers. She was excellent. I was sub par on the guitar. The nerves took over. Throughout the show I had a ball. It wasn't perfect, warts and all, but it wasn't meant to be. It was a well intentioned gig for my better half and I believe she enjoyed herself. I do believe we peaked with Aslan's "Crazy World". I even got to play an ad hoc version of "Selena's Theme", which was inspired by the woman herself. The FOG playing live, fancy that!

Upon reflection, I believe we've exorcised the demons that taunted us for never performing live before. Ten years is a long time, with exception to a small acoustic set, 9 years ago. We are already planning gig number 2. A live recreation of "Heresy". It wont be until next year but I'm sure as hell looking forward to it!

A PICTURE I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE:

THE FREQUENCY OF GHOSTS LIVE. 

SAY CHEESE!

So as anybody who's anybody will tell you, publicity is an important tool when participating in the commercial arts! So I took a walk near the Slieve Blooms area in sunny Laois yesterday with a very talented photographer and of course "Mrs. Markievicz", my Hagstrom guitar and we proceeded to do a photoshoot in a beautiful forested area. It was peaceful and yet eerie. But the dappled sunlight gave us the opportunity, well Maria (The professional!) to experiment with the contrasting sunlight.

I'm not a "photo" person per se, but Maria put me at ease and made it fun. She's laidback, albeit still very professional, with a sense of humour so where I originally feared feeling like an eejit in a forest devoid of a guitar amp, I actually really enjoyed the shoot. Dare I say, I actually felt like a rockstar!
And the photographs are fantastic! We went back indoors to produce the would be CD cover inlay for "HERESY" and she absolutely blew me away with the designs she is working on. The woman is also a graphic designer par excellence. I originally gave her a semblance of an idea I had and she has taken it to another level altogether. I'm thrilled with the results so far and I can only imagine what she will come up with in the meantime! Here's a couple of tasters:



   And of course, her fantastic graphic design:

 

 

See, bloody brilliant. These photographs are the copyright of María J. Guillén. She can be found on Facebook and she will be getting plenty of well deserved publicity on my new website. 

 

HERESY: The End

I have set up my own website recently, philmccleanmusic.com, so I haven't really found the time to update this blog recently! Apologies for this but I'm back! I'm thrilled with the site itself. I have uploaded the entire "HERESY" e.p. and the first six posts of my blog describe the story that is contained in the six songs.

I've always wanted to create a conceptual piece of music, but when creating the story, there was always a case of too much of an idea, if that's possible, for me to control. My plebeian mind struggled with the massive foundation I had set out with and turned into a mess of ideas that never really meshed together. The intent was there but the talent was not. So I took a simple story idea and incorporated biblical elements and ideas into it, whilst trying to keep the plot small and simple enough to follow whilst trying to balance that with making it big enough to hold someone's attention. It is basically a treatment of a story on the website's blog, contained in the first six posts. I revisited it and completed the ending today. One I'm quite proud of actually.

I don't think the majority of people who've visited the website have actually "GOT" the idea of it. It's just a case of clicking "play" and passing their ears over it, instead of reading the story, which is unfortunate as to truly appreciate the songs, I feel, the story is paramount to them. Either way, thanks for taking the time to read and or listen to my work.