Sheikh Yerbouti - yalla...Dubai 2/3

I mean, I could almost pass for a Sheikh..the milk variety..
So yesterday and started feeling slightly better but managed to turn myself into a human lobster..I'm burned...I'm a fire engine...'m an idiot...and paying the price..Never mind..

Had to don the work clothes and do some networking today , so I managed to hide the burns...Met up with some old friends and new friends..all good..and of course some possible opportunities..
Day went fast and once again  the sheer size of Dubai is always a surprise..as is the taxi costs..pretty cheap considering how many you have to use..people dont walk here by all accounts..

Anyway..food tonite comprised of a fish market..pick what you want from a fresh fish bar...frikken prawns bigger than a snus box! and squid..all fresh and fried as you do...This was a starter, followed by a Red Snapper and a baracuda..more of this food and the blog will start being a food blog! If you like sea food then its awesome!

day 1...Dubai..

So, arrive 5 in the morning...taxi...hotel...and of course your wide awake after all this travel and the clocks have moved 4 hours forwards...it's real dark outside, very unSwedish...bit like a lamp switch, sun up, sun down.

Anyway, I'm still running a fever and feeling bad..throats all to boot and I've stopped counting how many ipren I've dropped as well as strepsils and noskapin..aint no fun waiting round to be a millionaire...or for this shit to bug off!

looking out the window and you get the Mile High building in all its glory..the Deidre Creek in the foreground..

Took a metro train out for a scan...Las Vegas without the rubbish! They have the cast from Pakistan picking up the shit! You could eat your dinner off the marble floors..BUT..imo..its all fake..all concrete jungle build up from a sand dune like Vegas, but with more bling bling and imagination and less casinos!. They seem to have wiped out their old traditions or roots...except for their national costumes, the rest is Applebees, burger king, Pizza Hut, or indoor skiing slopes in a shopping mall to impress...impress who? How do you go skiing in pyjamas and slippers?

And coming from Sweden, it has to be said that the ladies get a pretty bad deal down here..what is the problem? Think about it..wanna build the biggest builders, biggest watches, most expensive toys, watches, on and on..but woman seem to be the biggest threat ever...small dinkys or what?

After around an hour on a metro going now where fast I headed back for some japanese barbq buffet.

Grill yourself in the middle of the table..nice one.

So, its getting late, I've doubled my intake of ipren and still feeling rough as..To finish day one, which has been odd, 2 hours sleep since yesterday 11.00 in the morning, I find myself watching crap on tv, writing on this blog and catching up on mails..So happy I brought my travel guitar though, balcony, 31 degrees, Tascam ON and off we go...if you ever find a Washburn Bantam, buy it. In 83 they cost 1000 dollars and I understand why..

Day 2 and I'm really hoping for some improvement in the health stakes!

too good to be true?

So anyway, the local airport closed down due to a volcano having another smooth pipe smoking time, so here 'till saturday.
Now, I'm looking through my mates facebook pics and he comes online asking me if I ever looked at his 69 Aston Martin DBS. Okay, if your proud of British built cars, not Chinese Volvos or Indian Saabs, your at the right place...Current price for a mint 69 DBS is £125,000. He bought his as a project for a once in a lifetime price...and after 7 years he's still working on it but happy he has it.

I looked at some pics on the web and decided to have a look around the cyber market to check prices and specs and generally read about Astons and DB6 basket cases , found in a barn in Australia but selling for 600,000 anyway.
Then I reply to an ad for a DBS for a craic and get a mail back from a woman who wants to sell me a minty 69 DBS for 110,000 kronor...shurley shomshing wrong, mish moneypenny..I whisper in my Connery lishp..

Thats 10% of its street value...
This must be a scam...but, I've sent and asked for copies of documentation, photographs, titles and all the rest. If its real, its a deal!

Dubai or not Dubai...

tomorrow at 10,35 my flight leaves to Amsterdam and on to Dubai...or does it?
A volcano has decided to be the dice roller, and despite KLM stating the flights on, it appears the local airport, Landvetter, has closed tonite due to a threat of fag ash from the worlds largest lit cigarette.

To add to the misery, I've finally been smitted by some killer virus bug thats got my throat feeling like a welders bench and ears popping all over the shop..is it hot in here or is it me, syndrome...

So, we shall see..early morning and off to the airport..

Scorpions pre winds of "volcanic ash" change

Was fortunate to see the Scorpions before they became hippies..still wear the Blackout tour t-shirt with pride!

say no more....

nuff said

It all started a long time ago...

ELO, a band that left a great memory when I was but a young sprog in private school.
I played clarinet and piano at school, from 7 years old and wasn't half bad either, winning small school competitions and such which garanteed a prize of an Easter Egg and so on.

Anyway, my favorite day of the week was when our music class all had the opportunity to play their favorite song off their favorite vinyl and the rest of the class would vote a winner.

I was the only kiddo that I know who won five weeks in a row.Sixth week had me coming second..And with the same record...
"ELO Out Of The Blue" was that record.

Week 1; Turn to Stone
Week 2; Sweet talking Woman
Week 3; Mr Blue Sky
Week 4: Wild West hero
Week 5:  Jungle
Week 6; Standin' in the rain

I think they simply got tired of giving me the win as opposed to not liking the song.
Its without doubt one of the best albums recorded.

Haunted..beauty and the beast duo..

Blues At Sunrise....

so....

..all excited that the rest of the parts arrived for the EJ relic, I bolted on the tuners, the claw and springs, put on a set of heavytops/slinky bottoms, plugged in the tuner and...NOTHING.
Oh, thats right, the jack aint wired up to the pots and the claw hasn't had a wire soldered for an earth..
So tonite, solder out and off we go.
She's looking nice anyway, pictures to come of course.

ELO

and one of my all time favorites;

Tangerine Schecter

The young 'un is getting really good....I swear you'd think this was an original Fiesta Red Fender looking at these pics..

its all in wiring...

Today has been a day of musical chairs with a soldering iron, a 500K pot and the Dimarzio 1 meg pot in the latest Jonesy tele.
After soldering here there and everywhere and then pluggin and playing and touching and buzzing...the conclusion was to shield infront of the pot with some very useful shielding silver tape I have, as well as fixing a solder lug into the body cavity which will get soldered onto the single volume pot. That sorts out the Earth problem.
Now then...the 500K pot had too much slack, so its a binner (doesn't have the rather tasty rubber seal in the top that the Dimarzio sports..)..
I was toying with the idea of a silver mica bleeder on the V pot. The 1 Meg of course gives a different edge and brightness than a 500k pot..but I'm simply not sold on the sweep of the pot. At the moment you can hear the acoustics from the solid body more than the silver Jubilee until you hit 8, then all hell breaks loose!
So finesse...and to be honest on the DF Hotrod sporting the 1 meg its a completely different story.
BUT...and this is a huge BUT , the sound of this G running wide open with or without Dist is massive.
With distortion its a Billy Gibbons creation, which is to say the highs and peaks and edges and everything great remain with the Gain, no mud!

So for a while longer, she'll remain a 1 Meg potta!
Interesting note that the TV Jones people recommend you solder the white live to lug #2.

House of Horsie

So the Jonesy project is up and running and outta the box, really hasn't required any intense setting up.
Been playing around with the Dimarzio pot. I'm not convinced the beast is earthed enough...I tried out a 500K pot and added an earth wire to the jack which has two earth connections.It would be good to have an earth wire running from the bridge, but without drilling a hole that wouldn't be possible due to the cut down of the bridge plate.
Despite a slight buzz and the pot feeling more linear than audio, its a frikken great sound!
Standing next to another favorite, with a bit of an unknown history and legendary neck..another one of..

Balanced Act!

Up to the elbows just now..the parts I ordered a while back are dropping thru the letterbox, today the duo no-load pots arrived, so I had to get the solder iron , new solder box and a quick look at some wiring diagrams...decided to stick with the same setup I did on the 77/3 Fender Blackie, which is a tone on the bridge, tone on the neck and middle runs open.
Then the SRV oil cap slotted in and everything was soldered up.The middle pup, mentioned previously, is I believe an old 60s original.I had to extend the wires on it , and as I had some original around it worked out well.
Now then, what really surprised me the most was the balance. This was pure chance, and what a balance!

The neck, an EJ neck cs, the middle, not sure, at a guess a reading around 5,9, the bridge, an original DM FS1, awesome bridge pup.

MASSIVE

Late Nite at the BeeHive...

Finally managed to smelt some beeswax and apply to the back and front of the body.Gives it a glow. The sides I'm leaving bare so they'll be a kinda working side matt of this guitar and a glossy " all over the shop" side. Aligned the holes in the hotdog route and fitted the ferrules, then popped the neck back on. Its countdown for the Tvjones Powertron Bridge plus and the bridge. The flash makes the body appear slightly darker.I'm happy with the result.

just a cool pic me thinks....

Teak n Bivax

Right then, over Easter and the body has been getting coats of Teak Oil and left to drive 24 hours at a time. I don't want to darken the body too much as the neck has a nice shellac shine.
Now, today I tried the beeswax in a hot bath to see if I could get some running beeswax, and by all accounts I'm gonna have to heat up the bath more..I'm not 100% yet if I really wanna seal the body in this wax...we shall see, I'll have another shot tomorrow..

In a few days I reckon the rest of the parts will have arrived and I can't wait to put see how this guitar will sound. With such a light body and fat heavy neck I reckon its gonna be a cracking sound from the TVjones Powertron. As the neck is a baseball bat I'll load up with some heavy strings, probably DRs'.

Talking of fossils..

Great stuff, just came across some pics from a player who was with the Sweden National side squad when I was still the head coach. This was from one of the hardest games that the team were involved in, and despite an early lead at half time we were to lose this game in the second half to the French Armenians.

This was to end a long winning streak for a team that left a lot of good memories. Meeting up with one of the players not so long ago, I asked him if he missed the International scene, and he simply mentioned that he only missed the times that are we had our long streak of wins.A great bunch of guys and great times.

Being a coach takes it's toll. A couple of relationships here and there, family in general tend to take a back seat to what is something that is hard to explain. I was fortunate enough to get 10 freebies with one of Swedens top sport psychiatrists, which really sorted out some myths and realities.

Good times indeed and no regrets.

The Fossil neck ! Fatback Birdseye EXTREME!