NYC Journal

Pretty much I’m still not wearing socks. Generally it is after Thanksgiving that I start wearing them. I have a reputation for being lazy. Know that I have been wearing slippers all summer and today.

Very unique. A feral look with slippers. I'd wager you are the only one that could get away with that.
 
Spent most of the day playing and practicing guitar on a rainy and overcast day.

The many hours advanced things a lot. My hands advanced, my playing got cleaner and smoother, and my dynamics have improved markedly. I’m not talking just a baby step, but pretty much a Great Leap Forward.

The guitar known as the Hog-“F” or the 1929 Model “F” opened up on the treble side and effectively got mucho louder. The treble is bell like and the bass became more defined and 3-dimensional in a remarkable way.

The guitar really fills the room now. Kinda crazy the giant step forward today. Kinda loud in a “Calzone” like manner.

The Hog-“F” is turning out to be a truly great guitar. Pretty amazing how this guitar sat in a case unloved for a decade before I bought it. Pretty much I bought a brand new NOS guitar for little money. Someone had it custom made, paid for a lot for upgrades, and eventually sold it at a great loss.

I think many people buy these expensive Santa Cruz guitars that are not serious players, and they become disappointed because they are not aware of how a guitar of this quality needs time to get broken in and then played in. I can say that the Hog-“F” is a great guitar but it has not matured fully yet.

The same can be said about my new 1934 Model “F” that is only about close to two months old. This guitar though is advancing at a rapid clip that every day is a great stride forward. The wood on this guitar was harvested in the 1930’s and has been drying for decades, then they made a very light weight guitar with wood that has a very high strength to weight ratio.

The Brazilian Rosewood Santa Cruz OM I have owned for about 35 years is played in and is mature, but it still is getting better with age. This guitar is brutal. This old growth Brazilian has this dark “spidering” in the grain that signifies an ancient tree.

Sadly there was another school shooting today.

Separately, “The Creature” is an Assistant Principle in a public school in Yonkers, and today they had to respond to a 7th grader who was threatening to shoot other students.

Since the Principle was not at work today the Creature had to deal with the police and all the chaos. Evidently at home the parents own a “Glock,” but thankfully it is locked.

Also reported is that this same student was exposing himself on the bus earlier in the week.

Anyways, I love my peaceful life, and I’m kinda glad I’m not living in the city anymore.

Cal
 
Very unique. A feral look with slippers. I'd wager you are the only one that could get away with it.

PTP,

Seems like I got away with a lot of stuff at work and could get away with it.

Back in 2004 till about 2007-2008 I was kinda day-trading at work. Pretty much I had a boring job. Pretty much swing traded energy stocks.

Also I posted a lot on RFF because I had to stay awake. LOL. Spent a lot of time on the Internet.

Pretty much I was not very busy at work for 22 years.

I worked in research and I use to say, “If we knew what we were doing we would not be called research.”

You have to know that I did not really fit in. Just imagine an artist in a research environment.

Life is more interesting and fun now that I’m retired.

Kinda funny how when I retired how a 20 year old cyclotron was on its last legs. Now they are trying to overhaul it. Oh-well, it worked fine until I decided to retire.

How cool is that? Pretty much I left a huge mess behind. LOL. Too cool.

“Revenge,” I say for not appreciating me and my efforts.

There is a Chinese expression, “Time is the best weapon.” How true.

Cal
 
One of my trademarks is that I can be mucho annoying on purpose. Remember that I am a self proclaimed drama queen and for about a decade I was a performance artist.

Know that many bicyclists have an eating disorder, and pretty much eat disgusting amounts of food. I eat a lot, well not anymore like I use to, but let’s say that I got a lot of comments about how much I eat and remain a skinny bitch. This upset a lot of people.

Basically I said, “If you exercise enough you too can eat as much as you want.”

My friend “Iron” MIke had coupons two for one for Burger King Whoppers, he asked me how many I wanted, and I said, “Four.”

Mike excused himself because he said watching me eat 4 Whoppers was making him sick.

We would go to a McDonald’s in New Palz on our way to Lake MIn-A-Wask-KA where I would eat a couple of McDonald’s breakfasts eating mucho grease and fat, and then go on a day long ride of climbing on a bike.

I had two “Hampton Maids” which is pancakes, French Toast, eggs, sausage, bacon and ham. The waitress refused to serve me two at the same time because basically it came out on a turkey plater, so I finished one and than had to order another. To boot my friend Julie gave me some of her sausages.

So at work we had these boring Friday lunch meetings, and the only thing good about them is our new Chief spent a lot of money on boutique pizza. So for me free food means I should take advantage, and because of the UBER quality and the variety of all the different pizzas I could create a huge spectacle.

Our new Cheif was a very Narcie guy. So in love with himself, so I decide to sit next to him. He mentions that he is on a diet, so that created a sich-E-A-TION to exploit, so I started making my pizza sandwiches which is take two triangular slices and stack them on top of each other so I could eat two slices at once. I pounded that one down, then got up and made another sandwich, then another, and another. I ate a total of 8 slices, and this was pizza thick with toppings.

Our Chief could not take it any longer, I broke his will power, and he said, “I’m only having one slice.”

Anyways, that was the last time he ever had these lunch meetings, and it was the last time he bought pizza.

He then had these late afternoon Friday meetings, and since these meetings did not involve me at all, and I was located at a remote lab, I decided not to attend any more of these boring meetings. Without pizza there was no incentive to attend.

So for about 15 years I got away with this. “Ha-ha,” I say.

Also know I used my Rolex to make sure that generally I arrived late and left early. I was suppose to be there at 8, but even showing up late I more or less was alone in my lab, and the boring Friday meetings were after 4:00 PM when I was perhaps approaching my luxury apartment on my walk home or shopping at Fairway on 86th Street.

A funny story is that my hospital was ranked number one by U.S. News and World Report, until I was hired, then we fell to second place and never recovered for the 22 years I was employed there. I said to my boss, “We are number 2. You should of never hired me.”

How-Weird did wish he never hired me BTW. Kinda funny is he was kinda being pushed out, and I kinda retired early not only because of Covid, but because the agreement between two hospitals was ending at the 20 year mark. I was offered the opportunity to get retrained to hang on for a few more years as a gift of sorts, but How-Weird (Howard) was actively getting pushed out. Pretty much I was left to coast and ride out on my own terms and my own benefit.

I find it amusing that even though my job was kinda EZ-PZ and made for a lazy-slacker who really was an artist that did not fit in, it is interesting that I was so specialized that it won’t be easy to find someone to replace me. LOL.

Cal
 
Likely another cloudy and rainy day tomorrow, so more guitar.

Maybe I do some house cleaning or do some small tasks. I need to look into installing my attic stairs.

Kinda exciting how I have two guitars evolving.

The Hog-“F” looks to be a bigger guitar. I thought it was the dark full body brown burst that I call “Burnt-Toast” that made the Hog seem bigger, but I measured the body thickness, an indeed it is thicker by about 5/16-3/8 of an inch. The thicker guitar will have more bass response and volume. Now the Hog has some grunt in the bass it didn’t have yesterday.

Not sure if this was part of the custom order, but I highly suspect it was so.

Every day these guitars sound different, and the process is kinda amazing. Having lots of fun, and somehow the time I’m putting in is leading me into a musical creative space where my own style is evolving. Kinda like my own signature…

Cal
 
Full disclosure. The slippers I wear are Italian made sneakers that are designed to have the heel folded and collapsed.

I bought them at the close out rack at DSW, but originally the cost $300.00 a pair, and I liked them so much I bought all of the ones in my size (9 1/2) which was two pair. Not only were the slippers on sale/close out, but I also used coupons to save even more money. Perhaps they cost me $60.00 a pair out the door if I remember correctly.

I wore out the first pair, and I kept the second pair in reserve that I now am using.

The Hog-“F’ I have owned for almost a year. I had it delivered right around Thanksgiving. The condition was very close to NOS and was obvious it went unplayed because the guitar was stiff and the sound thin with no volume at all. I sped up the break-in by mounting heavy gauge strings, and I pretty much I played the guitar like a drum to beat it in. So now the top is really flexing, and the sound is “monstrous.”

The 1934 spec brand new Model “F” is light in weight and very lightly built. I’m just going to let time and light gauge strings do the work, mainly because the guitar plays so well as it came, but also because its a fun experiment because it is the only Santa Cruz I bought brand new and custom ordered. I want to fully experience the nuance of the guitar.

Know that Santa Cruz as a custom shop uses the 1934 spec, which includes old growth woods harvested in the 1930’s on typically the 000, the OM models, and Dreadnoughts, but I decided to have it applied to a Model “F” as a custom guitar.

I kinda got the idea because it seems whoever ordered the Hog-“F” spent a lot of money to have it built out as a Depression Era 1929 which is an all mahogany guitar, but the first owner paid about $800.00 to have the body bound in “Snakewood” as ornamentation. 1929 spec was plain, basic, and had no ornamentation to keep costs down. The Model “F” does not come typically with either a 1929 or 1934 spec, but these specs were “adopted” and incorporated.

Know that pretty much Santa Cruz has established itself in building basically modern clones of vintage guitars that are out of reach. A vintage Martin OM or Dreadnought from the 1930’s is like a down payment for a house in New York depending on condition and originality. It gets really crazy at this level.

More fun today…

Cal
 
Santa Cruz Guitars was established in 1976. Where did they come up with their 1929 and 1934 specs? Are they Martin specs? A lot, but not all, of Santa Cruz guitars look like Martins.
 
Santa Cruz Guitars was established in 1976. Where did they come up with their 1929 and 1934 specs? Are they Martin specs? A lot, but not all, of Santa Cruz guitars look like Martins.

PTP,

You are correct that many/most Santa Cruz guitars are modeled after the old vintage Martins like the 0, 00, 000, OM and Martin dreadnoughts.

The 1929 and 1934 “Specs” is an attempt to recreate a vintage guitar to the extent that also the woods used are the old growth woods that were harvested in the 1930’s and has been drying out over the course of decades. Yes they use Martin specs and pretty much try to make modern clones of vintage guitars.

They hype that aged wood is the key to why the old guitars got better with age. Santa Cruz also is known to be very particular about the quality of their wood, and the craftsmanship is stellar.

From my own experience, my brand new Model “F” has Mahogany that cost me $2.5K, and the old growth Adirondack Red Spruce set me back $1.8K just for the wood upgrade alone. I placed an order and waited about 10 months. Santa Cruz was reported to only make about 400 guitars a year, but separately I have read elsewhere that they make 500-600 guitars a year.

When I opened the case and lifted out the “F” it surprised me because it was/is so light weight. It became evident that this wood being so light in weight allowed Santa Cruz to really open up and build a rather responsive guitar. It does seem like the break-in has been rapid, and not like my other two Santa Cruz guitars.

I guess an analogy could be instead of driving a vintage AC Cobra with a 429 Side Oiler, I’m able to afford and drive a replica AC Cobra with a 429 Side Oiler because it costs less.

So far I’m thinking the stiff premium on the wood was worth it, but at this level the other two Santa Cruz guitars are not slouchy. I kinda find it is like having three girlfriends that you are intimate with, each one with their specialty, each one with their own personality and character, and each one so special that it is hard to pick a favorite.

Life is that good…

Cal
 
Santa Cruz Guitars was established in 1976. Where did they come up with their 1929 and 1934 specs? Are they Martin specs? A lot, but not all, of Santa Cruz guitars look like Martins.

PTP,

For an interesting read do a search on “The Tree.”

Pretty much a Mahogany tree was felled, but could not be extracted out of the forest. Decades later it was rediscovered and recovered. The found out the wood was heavily “quilted” and had superb tone.

Also look at Tunnel 13 wood, basically Redwood posts from an abandoned railroad tunnel were reclaimed.

On the Internet you can hear guitars made from these woods.

Cal
 
Had an interesting conversation with my UPS driver.

Mike says they only have a 25 day supply of diesel as a reserve and there is talks of rolling blackouts due to this diesel shortages in the northeast.

Of course, Kerosine is diesel, home heating oil, and jet fuel.

So here is some troubling smut that might be insider information.

You know they say, “Four out of five recessions are due to high energy costs.”

Cal
 
PTP,

You are correct that many/most Santa Cruz guitars are modeled after the old vintage Martins like the 0, 00, 000, OM and Martin dreadnoughts.

The 1929 and 1934 “Specs” is an attempt to recreate a vintage guitar to the extent that also the woods used are the old growth woods that were harvested in the 1930’s and has been drying out over the course of decades. Yes they use Martin specs and pretty much try to make modern clones of vintage guitars.

They hype that aged wood is the key to why the old guitars got better with age. Santa Cruz also is known to be very particular about the quality of their wood, and the craftsmanship is stellar.

From my own experience, my brand new Model “F” has Mahogany that cost me $2.5K, and the old growth Adirondack Red Spruce set me back $1.8K just for the wood upgrade alone. I placed an order and waited about 10 months. Santa Cruz was reported to only make about 400 guitars a year, but separately I have read elsewhere that they make 500-600 guitars a year.

When I opened the case and lifted out the “F” it surprised me because it was/is so light weight. It became evident that this wood being so light in weight allowed Santa Cruz to really open up and build a rather responsive guitar. It does seem like the break-in has been rapid, and not like my other two Santa Cruz guitars.

When I was kid, I started out on a vintage Martin 5-17, which is a small guitar. Later, I had a vintage Martin O-18K koa wood guitar. I currently play a Martin OM-28V, which is about 30 years old. Although it has vintage styling (hence the "V"), it is not made with old woods, which perhaps explains why, although the tone shifted over time as I broke it in, I did not hear the dramatic changes in tone on a daily basis you are experiencing with your Santa Cruz.
 
PTP,

I don’t think the promotion of old wood is hype. A very expensive premium to pay. The old growth Brazilian to build an OM is a crazy expensive upgrade.

The Model “F” I order is plain non figured old growth Mahogany and and old growth Adirondack top. This “F” is a feather weight, and although I am a pick and fingers player I can see a finger style player being in heaven since the guitar is Uber responsive. The Adi top serves me well because I like digging in with a Tortex purple 1.1mm pick, and the Adi top keeps everything together without mushing out when I drive the top hard.

I’m amazed at the physics and the remarkable strength to weight ratio, and how Santa Cruz fully exploited the strength of the wood in the build.

My OM I secured used. I was working in a guitar shop and this customer named Dan came in with some Brazilian to get resale. Dan was an accomplished finger style player and my frien Steve told him that out of all the builders out there that he would do best to have Santa Cruz build the guitar.

This was about 30 years ago, but the Brazilian was unmistakably old growth. It has a crazy grain like the Formica in a subway car loaded with black lines of spidering that only come from old growth trees.

Perhaps my about 30 year old OM though took a long time to get played in, and Dan was impatient. Today it is kinda crazy-great.

If you are in the market for a guitar look for minty ones that pretty much are like NOS that are sold at a huge discount.

I’ll post the costs for Brazilian and Adirondack to build a 1934 OM. Crazy expensive but like my 429 AC Cobra analogy likely the next best thing to a real vintage 429 AC Cobra.

You should know that the quality of my OM is meticulous, but know that the newer Santa Cruz guitars have a level that is so perfect it compares to CNC as far as precession. No doubt that they somehow got better and more precise.

So last night’s discovery presents a mystery to me. The Hog-F is 5/16 of an inch thicker depth. In effect it has a bit of a Nick Lucus thicker body.

Santa Cruz makes a H13 which is their version of a Nick Lucus. They also do versions of some Gibson dreads…

Cal
 
PTP,

Tier 1 Brazilian Old Growth $16.8K upgrade

Tier 2 Brazilian Old Growth $12.8K upgrade

Adirondack (Red Spruce) Old Growth top $1.8K upgrade

Also know that Adi scalloped advanced bracing is a no cost option using hot hide glue just like in 1930’s Martins.

Kinda funny story is there of us went to the Martin factory to do “Industrial Espionage.”

Our friend Eddie-Jeff was the distraction and would be a cover for us, while my friend Steve and I kinda did our own self guided tour to learn how to help my friend’s small shop in building guitars.

We started as a group of about 30, and Steve and I got recognized as the “stragglers.” LOL.

Cal
 
I don’t think the promotion of old wood is hype. A very expensive premium to pay. The old growth Brazilian to build an OM is a crazy expensive upgrade.

I looked up how old a guitar has to be to be vintage and there seem to be two schools of thought. One says 30 years. If so, then what I consider my new guitar is almost vintage. Time flies when you are having fun. The other school says it has to have been built before 1980. I played a lot of guitars in music stores in the '60s and '70s that were let's just say underwhelming, so if I were buying a guitar I wouldn't buy it just because it was old. There are a lot of things beside old wood that make a guitar great. By the way, back in the day no one called an old guitar vintage. They called it old or used. That was before they invented marketing.
 
Kinda funny my intense ramblings.

I go off topic so much, but I’m just waiting for someone to suggest to start a separate “Guitar” thread.

LOL. How did I get to blog in our forum? I’m kind of a boring guy.

An update is that “Maggie” tried to sidestep going into NYC for a Meet-Up with our agent Vanessa. Maggie has a deadline to get in a manuscript by the end of this month, and we just got the notice as a surprise two days ago.

Oh-well… but now Vanessa and likely some of her crew now want to come to Peekskill, and get this she is bringing a photographer. So somehow in my ramblings I got back on topic.

Anyways it is kinda odd being a subject instead of the photographer. Evidently photo’s are needed to market us, and I for one am somehow becoming now a model.

The thing is because I’m now retired, Maggie roaming around the world alone and getting jet lagged and run down, does not mean peace for me. So I expect crazy things to happen, because now I’m part of that world, a world of crazy opportunities, mucho travel, and kinda like performance art.

On one hand I’m excited, and so much is unknown, but then again this is a gig that I hope does not become invasive and intrusive. Anyways I kinda expect crazy because that is the way the world is.

Cal
 
I looked up how old a guitar has to be to be vintage and there seem to be two schools of thought. One says 30 years. If so, then what I consider my new guitar is almost vintage. Time flies when you are having fun. The other school says it has to have been built before 1980. I played a lot of guitars in music stores in the '60s and '70s that were let's just say underwhelming, so if I were buying a guitar I wouldn't buy it just because it was old. There are a lot of things beside old wood that make a guitar great. By the way, back in the day no one called an old guitar vintage. They called it used. That was before they invented marketing.

PTP,

Very true. Many guitars are duds or just plain dead wood.

Lots of romance about vintage, also status.

But every once in a while you discover a guitar that speaks to you. There are some truly great guitars out there.

The Hog-“F” took about a year of beating in with heavy strings to get where it is today. It was a dead guitar with muffled tone, no bass, and not much of anything. Presently it is still evolving and has not peaked.

The OM took many-many years to get played in, perhaps decades to become the great guitar it is today. Know that the rosewood was not light in weight and kinda heavy, but it had a great tap tone as raw wood. For a rather long time it was not such a outstanding guitar. My OM took forever to open up. I kinda think my OM has peaked now and is pretty outstanding.

To me it is so odd how different the old growth “F” is opening up. It hits its plateau then, wow what happened and becomes a rather different guitar in a few hours. I expect the rather extreme light build has something to do with it. The response is like a parlor guitar, but the sound is huge due to the bigger body.

A Model “F” compares in body size to an OM Grand which is an OM style body except with a 16 inch lower bout. About the size of a Martin 0000.

Cal
 
The Meet-Up with our agent started with a weekend day in NYC, then it was possibly Friday in Peekskill, and now it is tomorrow maybe in Peekskill, or maybe at our house, Thursday.

Perhaps just Vanessa and a photographer. Don’t know if they are taking the train or driving. Could be a small crew though…

So welcome to the world of chaos that is being a model. I really hate all this last minute junk.

”Maggie” has been a baby-hog, but today I took the grandson out for a walk in the jogging stroller.

Tonight I have to clean myself up a bit and shave and try to look cool.

Cal
 
The Meet-Up with our agent started with a weekend day in NYC, then it was possibly Friday in Peekskill, and now it is tomorrow maybe in Peekskill, or maybe at our house, Thursday...

So welcome to the world of chaos that is being a model. I really hate all this last minute junk.
I hear you. Last week my doctor rescheduled my appointment from Friday to Monday and forgot to tell me. Welcome to the world of chaos that is being an ordinary person. Count yourself doubly lucky; not only does your agent give you a heads up, she makes house calls. If you want to experience real chaos, make an appointment with Comcast to get your cable installed.
 
I hear you. Last week my doctor rescheduled my appointment from Friday to Monday and forgot to tell me. Welcome to the world of chaos that is being an ordinary person. Count yourself doubly lucky; not only does your agent give you a heads up, she makes house calls. If you want to experience real chaos, make an appointment with Comcast to get your cable installed.

PTP,

Yes, we live in a world of chaos.

I suspect that our agent has some surprise in store.

”Maggie put off getting back in the world of fashion till November because of a book contract.

Now let the chaos invade our life and for the beginning of last minute everything.

I figure something is up…

Anyways glamour is over rated. I can tell you that I’m just a lazy-slacker, and that lifestyle suits me best. LOL.

Cal
 
I suspect that our agent has some surprise in store.

I suspect you're right. I mean why would your agent come all the way to Peekskill to tell you stuff you already know? I hope you like the surprises she has in store for you. They could be very exciting. I hope they are more exciting than the surprises that my doctor had for me at my rescheduled appointment on Monday. Actually, I think I am going to skip my next appointment, and then call him up and tell him I rescheduled it but forgot to tell him.
 
Back
Top Bottom