Month: November 2015
Santa Cruz Guitar Company
We recently handled a gorgeous custom Santa Cruz OM/PW guitar with an Alpine Moon Spruce top, Indian Rosewood back and sides, hide glue, Adirondack braces, and herringbone trim. 1 3/4″ nut width and short scale, perfect for my stubby fingers.
This guitar is easily the most well-made I’ve ever held and heard. Incredible volume, unmatched sustain, infinitely expressive. Not a hint of an out-of-place overtone.
Every millimeter of its surface is as finely crafted as humanly possible. A tiny bevel along the fingerboard edge. Fret ends triple-beveled. The inside smells like an exotic craftsman’s shop where only finest materials are used. The guitar glows.
Acquiring a Santa Cruz is like finding a perfect mate. Both are beautiful, have great personality, return unbiased love, give total commitment, and get better with age. For twice the price of a really nice diamond engagement ring, you can have both. Finding the guitar may prove easier. Santa Cruz, the investment of a lifetime.
Shout Out to Carolyn Sills, SCGC Head of Marketing, for help researching this particular special order guitar shipped to Acoustic Vibes Music
. Her boss Richard Hoover, for sending us a little binding we used in refurbishing Hugh Mason’s 1991 Santa Cruz Dreadnought. As always, Jeff Looker for stocking such amazing acoustic instruments in his shop. Finally, Kathryn Butler, providing excellent photography of this fine Santa Cruz OM/PW.
Ziploc • S. C. Johnson
We last visited consumer offerings of S. C. Johnson with a great Windex article. We’re back with another product from one of our favorite American companies. With Saran Wrap, Ziploc freezer bags, and my favorite, Twist’n’Loc reusable containers, it is easy to see why the company is so popular with foodies.
Exclusively used in my kitchen. Pint and quart containers share the same lid. Stackable. Holds up well in the microwave. Most others have hit the recycling bin.
Along with quart & gallon freezer bags, these are the nicest food storage solutions on the planet! Thanksgiving is coming up. Pick up a few. Bring them to Aunt Genevieve’s house, and take home a feast of leftovers!
As an amateur luthier, I find Twist’n’Loc containers especially valuable in keeping parts safe during repairs to acoustic instruments! What else? Maybe a few become stained or etched from repeated trips into the microwave. Fret not! These are perfect for holding small quantities of paint. Perfect for touching up trim and stairwells after the kids have their romp.
Stephanie Kwolek • Kevlar®
Stephanie L. Kwolek (1923–2014)
An amazing gal! Outside chemistry and chemical engineering fields, how well known is she? Everyone working to make our country a safer place probably knows someone saved from grievous bodily injury through the protection of Kelvar®. But do they know its inventor?
The inventor is Stephanie L. Kwolek. She was a DuPont chemist. In the 1960s an experiment of hers came out wrong but the result was surprisingly interesting. She further examined the discovery – her team was looking for a steel replacement in radial tires – then told management. Dupont jumped all over the new material, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Kevlar®, a virtually bulletproof fiber that has saved thousands of lives, owes it’s existence to Kwolek. Kevlar® is probably best known for use in body armor, particularly bulletproof vests.
While researching the Djembe article, I learned that REMO is using Kevlar® in some of their high tension drum heads! And sure enough, like lots of Dupont inventions, this discovery has found it’s way into numerous products, from boots, gloves, and clothing, to armored vehicles, bridges, and sporting goods.
Photo Credit: The News Journal/Jennifer Corbet, via Associated Press
Early ’90s Santa Cruz Guitar
After all the work I put into Hugh’s MT2, I thought his problems were over. An Instrument Rescue, an intervention of sorts, had brought new hope into the floundering life of his beloved but demoralized mandolin.
Then a call comes in. “Jim, I have another project for you”. Lights and sirens, we drive over miles of dusty road, deep into county forest, to Hugh’s Shangri-La under the pines. His “new” 2001 SCGC D-Model has arrived, and is in rotation. His 1991 could now get a rest, and a little refurbishment. What was wrong?
Its top is getting a little wonky. There is a crack that stops under the bridge. Dry fingerboard, grooved frets, missing headstock binding, dirt, oils, burns, high action . . . Hugh has led yet another instrument astray. The 1991 has come to me for redemption; I shall guide it to the light.
Strings off, tuners off, deep cleaning. Level, crown, & polish the frets (Hugh’s fourth set in a dozen years, and this time, they were stainless). Pick out some glue on a top crack, reglue, sand, buff, and seal. Oil its fingerboard, install some naturally aged binding, and the tuners went back on.
With a possibly weakened top, we went with a lighter string. D’Addario EJ19 Bluegrass with the light tops and medium bottoms were perfect! The high action was no longer; we did not have to shave the bridge saddle; two strings with one pick, is the saying?
Over two decades old, D619 has amazing depth of tone, clarity, and volume. With fixed frets and settled action, Hugh again has a second Santa Cruz dreadnought on which to practice his interminable bluegrass flat picking. The ’91 definitely has a different sound than his 2001. Deeper, richer, louder. Age has its privileges; the ’91 is always senior spokesman within the bluegrass circle.
Premium Saltine Crackers
AUTUMN DELIVERS LEAVES, chilly damp winds, and my favorite comforts. Tea and honey, cinnamon sugar sprinkled on buttered toast, and tomato soup with Nabisco Saltine Crackers.
Nabisco Original Premium Saltine Crackers . . . wow, that is a mouthful. Nabisco likes the whole line, which is fine. Deservedly proud they are, with earned market share. Their white box with a prominent blue PREMIUM across its front has been an easy-to-find choice for decades.
Yes, these are PREMIUM crackers. A quick test which anyone can try will have all naysayers convinced. Buy a box of discount store-label crackers and compare them with Nabisco Saltines. Waste not, want not. You’ll find a use for the “off-brand”.
American Toolbox 