The Emerald City

Well folks, the Spring seems to have made things a bit greener around here, including our porch! They weren't kidding when they called this color "lucky leprechaun". Wow! It'll knock your socks off.

Here's a little peek and also a peek at Jake's latest project, a banjo mandolin! We're thinking the porch color will fade down in a no time with all the road dust but for now we enjoy being here at the Emerald City.



Here's another view of the porch and Mr. Jake giving the banjo mandolin a test drive... I think he's plotting to keep this one for his personal collection so I'm not sure if it will make it to the store shelf, but it's got a lovely sound.



And here's what I've been sewing up, some flower pincushions.



Mr. Bob and Ms. Mary are going to be in Brimfield,MA this Saturday at the massive antique show if you happen to be in the area or are looking to take a long drive. Look for them in the May's field booth 401. And wish them lots of sunshine because so far it's been two days of rain for them!



Here's a happy Spring image to help bring them good weather.

Parlor Update

Hullo again! I realized I never posted an update to my work on the Cincinnatus parlor guitar. Well, here we are then, and here are some photos! They're not the best, but they show her all patched up!



All back together, strung with silk & steel strings (lower tension and mellower) and currently providing me with a nice fingerstyle sound. I'm hoping to find some other parlors for the shop instrument rack, but good ones are few and far between.



There you can see the leavings of the severe damage to this instrument... the cracks at the soundhole at the fingerboard end are a testament to the sunken neck. Fortunately, after lots of clamping and structural repair, the top managed to "get back to normal" -- and the wild curvature of the top was flattened out, which is necessary for the integrity of the instrument. The action is, by the way, 1/8" at the 12th -- not bad.



Those old tuners are holding well and are comfortable to turn! I put my "Lone Ranger" strap on this guitar as I've been playing it quite a bit lately.



And there's the back! The neck joint had been butchered, unfortunately, so I had to build up the old dovetail joint until it fit snugly, then reinforce it with another block so that the "same old" wouldn't happen again. I'm very sure the damage to the instrument was caused by an improper factory neck block (too small and installed off-center) combined with some foolish use of heavy bluegrass-style strings tuned to concert pitch too long.

She's playing well now, though, with a very mellow, focused tone. Sounds absolutely beautiful when played fingerstyle, as many of these old guitars were intended to be played.

Jake

Moody Springtime

Well hello again, internet folk! We've been up to much, just as always. We have aspirations to paint our porch, but the sky has been thick with rain and wet for the last week... and on into the future.



A scanty Amazon card rebate is allowing us to get some new Patricia McKillip books, however, which should clear the cloudy skies in our heads. Mr. Tom Waits is filling the air behind us at the moment, whose voice lingers in this kind of sullen weather.



We've met a lot of interesting people in the shop lately, which has given us a lot to think about! There are a lot of bright feathers up here. But speaking of bright... buds are popping out everywhere and in Middlebury it's already full-on spring. Ms. Pamela and Mr. Merrill were up last weekend and we have some photos to share of the blooming season... and a waterfall!



Up in the woods behind the shop.



At the top of our mountain!



At Texas Falls. In Vermont...

There's more to come later. We have lots to share about! We've been working on crafts and banjos and reading Sherlock Holmes (with Basil Rathbone in our heads) and all sorts of other things. I (Jake) can hardly wait to take some pictures of a c.1900 mandolin that fixed up nicely!

So long, penpals!

Jake & Bonnie