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.
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!
