tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post2201310062209022749..comments2023-10-19T05:40:59.162-04:00Comments on Sippican Cottage: If You Make Things, You Are My Brother. Or Sister. My Chinese Brother Or Sister, ApparentlySippicanCottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14940797380578921776noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-53152681481455895132013-09-23T15:37:40.714-04:002013-09-23T15:37:40.714-04:00"We pay our taxes to furnish our own jailers ..."We pay our taxes to furnish our own jailers on the pretense of protecting us from ourselves. The only thing we are really doing is creating our own masters and selling ourselves to them as slaves."<br /><br />Amen.Russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06204019386677018162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-80100897367312240152013-09-20T13:24:45.718-04:002013-09-20T13:24:45.718-04:00We pay our taxes to furnish our own jailers on the...<i>We pay our taxes to furnish our own jailers on the pretense of protecting us from ourselves. The only thing we are really doing is creating our own masters and selling ourselves to them as slaves.<br /><br />Brad Ervin</i><br /><br />Boy howdy. That says it all, and well.Rob De Wittnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-79257950981979071632013-09-20T07:26:55.512-04:002013-09-20T07:26:55.512-04:00I was going to say something about the mother of a...I was going to say something about the mother of all coping saws, but I think I'll keep it to myself.<br />I don't do much woodwork, but I can weld, and machine, and work on machines. Does that count?dadofhomeschoolershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10164690638335065954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-48159270319412251332013-09-20T02:56:52.317-04:002013-09-20T02:56:52.317-04:00OPEN TOED SHOES! Holy bat guano!
This country wa...<br />OPEN TOED SHOES! Holy bat guano!<br /><br />This country was made by people like that. No American could possibly run such a business as that.<br /><br />You have to want to work. Have Americans lost that? I was in a trade store (nuts & bolts) and was talking to a guy that did lawn service. The local establishmentarians had just been by his place and told him he couldn't keep his mowers in his own garage nor park his truck in front of his own house.<br /><br />We pay our taxes to furnish our own jailers on the pretense of protecting us from ourselves. The only thing we are really doing is creating our own masters and selling ourselves to them as slaves.<br /><br />Brad ErvinAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-75426743077458266572013-09-19T21:24:33.383-04:002013-09-19T21:24:33.383-04:00The second greatest pleasure in life (after buildi...The second greatest pleasure in life (after building a good marriage) is building something useful and attractive out of wood.<br />I woodwork as much for the pleasure of the process of building furniture as for the furniture. When it's finished, I get to enjoy looking at the piece and remembering the joy of creation for the rest of my life.<br />Fortunately, we have moved a lot so there is always another piece of furniture needed somewhere. <br />I have given some stuff away to close family but never sold anything (I'd be lucky to get a dollar an hour as slow as I am). <br />I don't have the skills of these folks (or our host) but I feel sorry for most of the folks I know that can't really make anything.Garyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16521152076906801929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-52279555187826901652013-09-19T17:48:37.199-04:002013-09-19T17:48:37.199-04:00I had much the same experience as the above with m...I had much the same experience as the above with my reissue Gretsch,there are some clever,fast and skilful folk out there.Thudhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18320037763190473684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-44505100599271140112013-09-19T12:22:19.945-04:002013-09-19T12:22:19.945-04:00I'm pretty sure this whole world came into bei...I'm pretty sure this whole world came into being in the middle '70s when Richard Keldsen of Saga Instruments took his Gibson RB-75 Mastertone banjo to Japan, along with a set of blueprints and specs, and found somebody to exactly re-produce an American classic from the '30s. Nobody'd taken that approach before, and the whole world's been taking it since. Japanese craftsmanship, which meant "cheap in the worst possible sense of the word" to Americans like me in the '50s, is now recognized so highly that it costs too much to use - hence the instrument-making industry in China and now Korea.<br /><br />What you're seeing here, for what it's worth, is an absolute revolution in the world of acoustic (or as I refer to them, "real") instruments. Not only are the Asians producing massive quantities of inexpensive violins, celli, bass viols, guitars, mandolins etcetcetc, what they're putting out is causing long-time players and collectors to gape in astonishment. The quality, playability and TONE is not to be believed.<br /><br /> I've been playing pretty seriously for almost 50 years, and worked as a finisher for a couple of world-class guitar makers - as well as searched for the perfect bluegrass guitar anytime I had a little extra money. Even after all that time, the right stuff is mysterious an elusive to me, and the guitars that emerge are worth a LOT of money.<br /><br />Two days ago I got a backup for my 45-year-old Martin D-18, which is growing increasingly fragile due a long life of hard use. What I got is a dead copy of a mid-30s D-18 which rivals my old sidearm in every way, after the strings have been tuned up only 48 hours. Astonishing.<br /><br />It was made in China, and retails for a little more than a grand - wholesale that translates to five hundred bucks. And I'm here to tell you, it's a monster.Rob De Wittnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-34002910840908308212013-09-19T10:55:12.234-04:002013-09-19T10:55:12.234-04:00A couple of things...the guy's name was Antoni...A couple of things...the guy's name was Antonio Stradivari, and he didn't invent violins, or any other bowed, stringed instruments. He probably didn't "lovingly craft" them either. Violas-by-the-pound, as in this video, I'd wager. Also, there's either a joke or a social commentary banging around my head that includes Steve Jobs and "iViolin," but I'm not going to pursue it. Great video, although I couldn't stop thinking of the guitar Santa brought The Lad last Christmas. I couldn't get it tuned until I realized the frets were in the wrong positions. Santa's outsourcing and going way down-market, and The Lad's $30 ax is now an open-tuned slide guitar.Johnny Glendalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15836298682851385906noreply@blogger.com