Another Stella Amp!

Well, my wife liked my little Stella Cigar Box Amp so much that she suggested I make one up for my brother-in-law for his birthday. He plays electric guitar and electric uke pretty regularly. He also has a habit of playing in his truck between jobs.

For this one, I found a slightly larger box. That gave me an opportunity to make a slightly nicer arrangement inside the box for the components. Everything fit much more nicely inside his than my first one. I also improved the positioning of the knobs and jack. Finally, I used crushed velvet for the background behind the speaker grill.

After getting everything shaped as I wanted it, I sprayed the enclosure with several coats of nitrocellulose lacquer for longevity and shine.

The little amp sounds great. Slightly different tone than mine, likely due to the very different style box.

Most importantly, my bro-in-law likes it :)

 

 

 

Guitarra Baiana!

If you want to see some wonderful electric mandolin playing, then go to Youtube and type in Guitarra Baiana. The Guitara Baiana is a 4 or 5 string instrument almost exactly the same as a 4 string electric mandolin.

Stella Amp Completed and Rockin!

I finished the little Stella Cigar Box amp on Sunday afternoon and have been rockin' it ever since.

The little amp really is fun. Big tone from such a simple and small package. Thats exactly what I was going for. I'm still getting used to the controls, as they are a bit different than most amps I've worked with. The results are similar, they just behave a little differently.

Mostly, I've been playing it with the volume and trim all the way up, and with the gain up until it starts to feed on itself and buzz out. Back it off just one hair under that level and its got a great gritty tone.

A couple other interesting details about it - It responds differently to the Moongazer MG4 humbucker that I have installed in my BluesBird. Different than my VOX and different than my Crate. The amp also is more responsive to different attacks of the string with the pick. More responsive than both my other amps.

The other fun element to this amp is the way it reacts to a harp microphone. I play harp through an Astatic 335, and with this amp, the tone is really good. Great for jamming in the garage.

I'm extremely pleased with the little thing!

 

 

Stella Amp Quick Progress

This morning I went to work on the Stella as the little ones took a nap. I followed the 'Build It' link on the Stella amp website and made quick work of the board. This was my first time soldering this much on a circuit board of this type.

I had no issues and everything was/is exactly as described. I used a soldering pen just right for the job and was able to solder up every connection without an issue.

I've left the pots loose for the moment so that I can plan out how the circuit board will mount in the amp housing (cigar box!).

You can see a set of dice in the box that I plan to use for the knobs on the box. Should be quite cool looking. Now I need to find out where and how large to drill them to make them into knobs.

 

http://www.crazybutable.com/projects/stella

Stella Amp

I've wanted a truly portable (tiny) amplifier to use with my BluesBird, so I began looking at the different cigar box amp circuits out there. The 386 chip setup seems pretty good, but I wanted something I actually had to build myself. The Ruby fit this bill, but I could not find a US supplier.

In the end, I found the 'Stella' amp circuit. It is a true kit. Runs off 6-12 volts and is pretty impressive overall with a gain, volume and trim pot.

I ordered my kit and found a good cigar box to house it. I think it will turn out pretty nicely.

I'll do my best to keep the blog updated with my progress on building the amp. Wish me luck!

Spearman Brewers

Interesting new 'release' from Spearman Brewers. This is a fellow poster from Mandolin Cafe. Great blues mandolin chops and a great listen.

http://spearmanbrewers.bandcamp.com/

First Recording..........

Well, I had to do it eventually. Frankly, I've been playing a lot this year (not that you can tell from my playing). I've even had a chance to spend some time down on Beale St. this year listening to some good blues.

I need to work on my recording setup, because you can hear me playing, but can't hear the backing track. I don't know why I can hear the backing track on my home computer, but cannot hear it on the version uploaded to Youtube.

So, here it is. This is a standard slow blues in G. Definitely not my best playing. As soon as I turn on the camera, my nerves get me and I stumble around the fretboard. I'll get better about that over time.

Different Wiring Schemes.

A few months back, I posted up on the Mandolin Cafe forum Electric section that I was having difficulty with the volume and tone control on my BluesBird. Frankly, the problem was that I had no control! Volume was an on/off switch instead of linear, and the tone control was non-existant.

This was probably due to an incorrect wiring job by myself. Here is a pic of the original.

Several people posted up opinions on what was wrong. Andrew Jerman of

http://www.crossroadswood.com offered up that he might have a better wiring scheme for the instrument. Shortly later, he offered to make me up a new harness for my instrument if I would make before and after sound files and post them on the Cafe. What a great offer!

So, the wiring harness arrived this week and I installed it in the BluesBird. Did not take very long and fit right in.

Here is the new harness.

From the first, I was very impressed with it. First off, I have full volume and tone control. Both are very effective. Probably due to having the right wiring, right cap and right pots.

Here is a video of the difference between the harnesses.

I'm currently waiting to hear a few other 'Cafe visitors comments, but I'm pretty impressed so far. Now I have 3 distinctly different channels. Two of the channels are full and strong, but distinct from each other. The 3rd channel has a 'faraway' tone (to borrow Andrew's wording).

Frankly, at this point, I think I like the 3rd position best with its full tone and slight edge to it. Its pretty fun and is the tone that I like when playing the blues!

Thanks again to Andrew Jerman at www.crossroadswood.com. Great guy, very knowledgeable and makes a beautiful mandolin!

Great Del Grosso Interview on Mandolin Cafe

Sorry for the delay in posting..... Life definitely gets in the way some time.

The guys over at Mandolin Cafe did a great interview recently with blues mandolinist extraordinaire, Rich Del Grosso!

Check it out!

Rich Del Grosso's interview at the Mandolin Cafe!

New picks and Powerful Stuff

So today, I was out running around and found a place that sells off old stock from closed stores. They've had cycling stuff, motorcycle stuff, pretty much anything you can think of. This time they had bought out a music store.

They had a huge stock of old Fender stuff (semi new) as well as all sorts of other stuff. I even bought a new Hohner BluesHarp in G. That was pretty much my only missing key in my quiver of harps.

The other two cool things I found were an old Alamo Tube Amp. I'm researching it right now to learn if its any good.

The other thing is kinda a silly minor thing, but I'm a detail guy. I found Fender Heavy picks in exactly the finish I have on my BluesBird emando. Very cool!

PRETTY COOL!

So what about Powerful Stuff? I'm a huge Jimmy Vaughan fan, as well as a huge Kim Wilson fan. That of course means I love the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Their blues based rock has always kicked arse!

So this afternoon, I was listening to Powerful Stuff on ITunes. I quickly realized I could play this on the Emando in G. I'll leave it to you to figure out the fingering as I have no tab-writing software. However, listen to the tune and you'll quickly figure it out. Base it on a G blues scale and progression.

More Blues Jam Tracks

I found another good site full of Jam Tracks.

The site is http://www.bluesblast.com/. Check it out.

How do you use these things though....

I do a couple things. First off, I save the songs to my computer. Next up, I run them through ITunes. With that running, I can see the titles, and most often, the title of a jam track includes the key of the song.

Knowing the key is critical to making this work! Its music!

Blues History

One of the most interesting things about the blues is its history.

Many moons ago (eons ago?) I attended University of Alabama at Huntsville (Space City). While I was there, I learned the blues scales from one player, and was lucky to learn to play open tuned bottleneck guitar from another (Kent Dushane). I also spent a lot of time playing blues harmonica and was even asked to sit in with a band as they recorded a southern/blues based music soundtrack for a movie. It was a fun time!

I also considered changing to a music major while I was there. I've played a wealth of instruments in my life, and love music in a much deeper way than the passing interest of most fans. To that end, I elected to take a number of college level music classes. I really enjoyed music history class, of which I think I remember taking a couple. I figured if I enjoyed it that much, then maybe I'd like to do that in the future.

While in music history, I had the opportunity to research and write a number of papers on Southern Blues history. It was fun. I read countless texts on the subject and wrote a number of pretty well researched papers (all now long since lost).

So where am I going with this?

Back during the holidays, I bought a book to read when I finished the one I was currently reading. The book I purchased was "Deep Blues" by Robert Palmer. I've just now started reading the book. As I opened it, I started looking at the publishing dates and other information. That set off deja vu.

This is one of the books I read all those years ago from the UAH library. I really enjoyed the book and found it very interesting.

Maybe you would enjoy it too-

Deep Blues by Robert Palmer - at Amazon.com

RIP Etta James

Leave My Little Girl Alone!

Spent the evening playing "Leave My Little Girl Alone". My favorite version is by Stevie Ray Vaughn. Well heck, he's my favorite guitarist, favorite bluesman, favorite musician of all time.

Frankly, I like to sing along with the song as well.

So to play this, you play it in A. I use standard blues chords in A and follow the blues scale in A. On a blues mandolin, your root note is 2nd fret on the G string (bass string).

Support Your Local Blues Society!

http://www.memphisbluessociety.com/home.cfm

Some Good Local Blues

Sorry, no Mando content.... But this is a great local blues player. Guy's name is Brandon Bailey. Top notch blues harmonica player.

Brandon's website.

http://www.brandonobailey.com/

I need to go downtown sometime and see him!

ProBlues Jam Tracks

Great find from the Modern Blues Harmonica forums.

User TookaTooka put up a link for ProBlues Jam Tracks. Very nicely done backing tracks. Provided in MP3 format and available to either play directly from the site, or download to your computer. The key of the track is also noted in the listing for the track.

http://www.probluesjamtracks.com/blues-backing-tracks.php

Download some in your favorite keys and jam along!

Jim Richter

I'd be remiss in my purpose of talking about Mandolin Blues if I did not mention Jim Richter.

Jim is up in Indiana and plays mandolin music I can really sink my teeth into. He has incredible chops and instead of the expected bluegrass playing that most top notch mandolin players play, he plays blues and rock mandolin.

Jim's covers are well thought out, make the most of the instrument and sound great!

Jim also provides Tab's and instruction on how to play many of the tunes he's adapted to Mandolin. Can't beat that.

This vid will take you to his Youtube channel and you can also visit his site at http://www.jimrichter.com/

Electric Blues Mandolin

Continued Progression - A Strategy For More Effective Learning!

Well, being at home with the new baby has brought some good opportunities- beyond the poopie diapers at least!

Its nice to be able to find 20 mins between feedings or diapers to pull out the mandolin and work on something.

Again, I'm practicing working through blues scales in different positions and I've been very deliberate about how I'm practicing as well.

The biggest thing has been the way I play my blues scale on the mandolin. Long ago, when learning on the guitar, I made the mistake of learning my standard scales only in the open position. This really hampered me later when trying to move up the neck.

Interestingly enough, I made the same mistake when learning the standard scales on the mandolin. Again, playing standard scales was/is difficult for me on the mandolin when moving up the neck. With Mandolin being effectively easier to play because of the spacing of fifths, I should be doing that better.

When I figured out the blues scales on the mandolin, I decided to start from day one playing them up the neck instead of only in the open position.

My next step was to play them in the open position just like I play them up the neck. By doing this, my index finger on my fretting hand is not as involved when playing in the open position. The result of this is that I play effectively the exact same fretting pattern in open position as when I play up the neck - eliminate the variation and you eliminate a source of a problem.

This strategy is already paying off as far as I can see, as I play up the neck much more cleanly while playing blues than playing any bluegrass breaks.

Give it a try, I think you'll find it works.