Time to bump up this thead (and listen to Barrie Cadogan )

 

I’ve been playing about 55 years, blues, blues rock, classic rock, southern rock. My band was active until COVID hit and I semi retired from gigs when I turned 70.
I miss getting on stage but I don’t miss the late nights and hauling a couple of hundred pounds of gear, I owned part of the PA.

Some live recordings from a local gig….google RED White and Blues Band of Woodstock on reverb nation.

 

New to the forum. Big fan of Mark Knopfler as my alias suggests - his tasteful playing, choice of guitars (and watches) are inspirational to me!

Personally I play a bit of acoustic blues and ragtime, but a busy family life means is rare that I’m able to pick up a guitar.

 

A great guitarist, who appreciates Speedmasters.

Is there a better pairing?

 

Exactly, looks like he has a few as well

 

He does some excellent you tube instruction videos as well, they are a pleasure to watch.

 

I don't play the guitar or any other instrument but I've watched some of his videos completely fascinated.

A total expert at their craft is always a pleasure to watch. Long ago I was working on a construction site for a power station in Scotland (only just in, that spray from the sea soaked me quite a few times). We had the best welders in the company but sometimes they didn't do the job well enough -- and there was radiographic inspection of every weld. So that was when the Welding Foreman earned his money. With some fault inside a 4inch deep weld he could scoop it out like ice-cream and fill back out perfectly. The word would go round and there would be an audience 4 deep to watch him

 

That is a good analogy. I needed changes in jobs over the years due to burnout or just wanting a change. I was actually able to semi BS my way onto the “engineering” crew of a major US company. Just one of there shipping facilities not like I was a major player. I pretty much taught myself a lot of repairs and studied various motors so during the interview it actually sounded like I knew what I was talking about. So join the team I did. I actually did alright most of what i did was the preventive maintenance so as long as i could remember how put the stuff together after I took it apart I was OK. Whenever I worked with the A team, the guys trained on the mechanics and robotics they pretty much blew my mind. One little grinding noise that I’d need to spend 20 minutes just figuring out what was causing it they could diagnose and repair in 15 minutes.

Prior to his death my father was a well known metallurgist. He was involved in the 9/11 investigation just regarding the temperature involved in metals losing there ability to hold and other matters I was not privy to. But people would send him bearings and all kinds of stuff from all over the world trying to figure out what the hell they were doing wrong in the manufacturing process.
Im just saying when you witness someone who mastered their craft it is always an amazing thing to see. These musicians can make these instruments do things that is mindblowing, it appears they do it with ease but it took a long time and dedication, along with a gift in many cases, to reach such perfection. The Beatles spent a lot of time grinding away in Liverpool and Hamburg before things clicked. That overnight sensation took a lot of years.

 

Absolutely! Can you get the video The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years where you live? Those years of sleeping 4 in a room and playing 8 hours a day made them.

 

Dude there is not a video made about the Beatles I haven’t seen. I’m even going to get the Disney channel so I can see Peter Jackson’s Let it Be unless I can get a box set, probably do both ha ha

 

There is something so satisfying about watching a master at work, I find it really inspirational, drives me to want to do better.

 

It is probable that most reading this were not on this planet when the Beatles came to real notice. In my pre-teens I had been buying singles (7 inch vinyl, 1 song per side) by The Shadows for a couple of years and then Boom late 1962 the Beatles came along with "Love Me Do". Listening now it's very thin, minimal production, but in 1962 it was an absolute revelation. Later in Switzerland in 1964, I found that a rural jukebox had their pre-1962 German records aboard! At 15 years old how should I divide my very limited cash between beer and the juke-box?

 

I try to picture that. Like those who grew up in the era, bought Sgt. Pepper or Rubber Soul etc, threw it on the turntable and heard it play for the first time. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a kid but most of the music I like, the bands were formed before my entry on the planet. But I like classical as well so it’s not like that is a rate phenomenon and the times I’ve seen McCartney and Ringo play (separately) the audience seemed to be 10-80 year olds so I don’t think there is an age category for much of music. It’s sad we only have the two Beatles left. Really wish I had a chance to see George. I did pretty good though saw Floyd, the Stones, Dylan, Tull, Windwood, BB King and the list goes on. Perhaps not in their primes but they were still very proficient. I was a bass player but after having metal dropped on my hand it’s very difficult to play so I’ve been getting back into the six string acoustic. I have all these nice basses I can’t use and a Hyundai acoustic six string which although cheap as hec doesn’t sound too bad. Don’t get me wrong i can use my hand now but the bulk of the damage was the finger tips on my left hand. It healed up well over the years but I just can’t do the damn bass strings for more than 30 minutes. Now the plus side I was always the bass player right now I’m sticking to like “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and other three chord songs but I’m having a lot of fun relearning all this stuff and who knows maybe in a year or two I can pluck that bass, just fun stuff, I don’t expect to be signing any contracts.

 

Beatles always were and continue to be over-rated. Take a listen to Pet Sounds some time.

 

Here's one for all you techs. Didn't know you could do it like this did you? This is how the real guys do it.

have fun
kfw

 

wow, I’ve seen a lot of crazy sh*t over the years but that is a first.

 

I wonder how it intonates

 

Good to know it isn't just watches that get that sort of "creative" repair...

 

I wish I had a picture but smart phones didn't exist back then. I used to teach at this private school and a man with his son showed up for the 9 year old's first lesson. His guitar was of the Sears Roebuck $9.99 special froom the early fifties. Action was 1 inch off the fingerboard and....2 of the strings were actual copper wire!

 

Today the copper strings would be worth more than the guitar, got to love good action though.