Setup your Guitar

When I bought my Seagull Performer CW Folk and even my Traveller Pro-Series - there is a warning in the owner's manual to not touch the truss rod unless you are professional luthier. Barely knowing what I was doing with the guitar I decided to leave it alone and just play the instruments as they came from the factory. The Traveller has always had a light action with a narrow neck and is easy to play for a beginner. The Seagull on the hand had beautiful tone but was harder to play with the wider neck and the higher action.

My friend Steve in Rochester was having similar problems with tone, sustain and action on his guitar. I forget the brand name but I know it's made in Indonesia. He decided to fix the problem last spring and adjust the guitar on his own. I don't think he adjusted the truss rod but I know he cut the bridge down to bring the action closer to the fretboard. The effect was dramatic and the instrument became much easier to play, had better sustain and feel. Although, I loved the effect I wasn't about to butcher my brand new Seagull to get achieve the same results.

After four months of ownership with the Seagull, I decided to look into adjusting my guitar but I wanted to do something better than just 'guessing' the procedure. I did several Internet searches and several searches on Amazon. I came up with a website form Guild guitars that shows you how to properly adjust your guitar. Some of the other sources I found had esoteric instructions like 'look down the fingerboard and see if it bows in or out...and adjust the truss rod until it looks even'. For me, that doesn't work - I don't know what I'm doing so how am I to know if it 'looks' right. That's almost back to guessing.

The Guild web site describes a method that uses accurate measurements that anyone with basic mechanical skills could follow. The tools are simple; a feeler gauge that you can get from an auto parts store, a fine ruler marked to 1/64 or 1/32 - my feeler gauge had this, an electronic tuner, the truss rod adjusting tool that came with your guitar - both of my guitars came with a truss rod tool, a capo, and either a file or a sanding block.

Follow the instructions at the Guild web site as described. The truss rod tool is either an allen wrench (aka hex key) or a nut driver. If your guitar does not have one - you might be able to search your tool box for a suitable allen wrench or nut driver or as a last resort, your local music store. To adjust the bridge - you may need to lower the bridge and this means removing some material from the bottom of the bridge. I needed to remove 2/32" from my bridge. I first marked one side of the bridge before removing so I know which way it goes back in - this is important. Then I took the bridge out to my garage and used one of those portable workbenches that have a vice in the middle. I put the bridge upside down in the vice loosely and adjusted the part sticking out of the vice to the amount I need to removed. I checked both ends before tightening. Then I used my electric circular sander to remove the 2/32" sticking out of the vice by sanding down to the vice. Hope that makes sense.

I reassembled my guitar - checked the tuning and then measured the nut. The nut didn't need any adjustment. I was solid. I rechecked all measurements to verify that I did everything correctly. Spot On! My guitar now sounds absolutely 100% better and is easier to play. There's not much you can really goof up if you take your time and work with the instructions and your guitar. Don't force anything and if you really feel this is outside of your comfort zone then pay to have this done - it's worth it.

Guild Acoustic Guitar Setup Guide.

Peterborough Versys Ride

I joined a Versys Group ride today in Peterborough. We met up at the Country Style Donut Hut on 115 just outside Newcastle, Ontario at 9:00 am. Everyone was jonesing for a ride and beet the ride organizer to the spot. Jerry aka Mjr.Rage was the leader and organizer - he did a great job of keeping the group together. Even when I somehow got behind and realized everyone was ready to go and I wasn't. How embarassing.

Jerry lead us to Hwy 507 and let it flow. The brave rolled the throttle on hard and lead the group. I've always been a moderate rider - no wheelies, peg scraping or burnouts. But, I felt I was keeping up in the middle of the pack - and I know my speedo was telling me I was running between 120 and 140 kmh. I don't know what the other guys were running at.

Only one corner had me scared. I don't know what happened - I was running hot before I knew it and I know I was leaned over hard but it felt like I was going over edge of the pavement and the rear tire was grabbing for traction but not getting a hold of anything.

Other than that - I had a great time and enjoyed the camraderie of running with a group of professional riders. Everyone had at least a motorcycle jacket, gloves and a full face helmet on at a minimum and many had the pants and decent boots.



The group of bikes were made up of mostly Versys motorcycles but a Concours, a VMax and a B-King also made an appearance. It was good run - I had to split from the group in Haliburton and head back home. This is what motorcycling is for - to clear your head of the troubles that surround us and let us be one with ourselves for a few moments.

Letting Go

We have three dogs. They are spoiled and live an easy life. Sadly, our middle dog - Turbo is not doing so well. His prognosis is not good and is at the vet being checked out with x-rays. I was so sad this morning - I picked him up and carried him to the car. I could tell he didn't want to be moved but he's such a well behaved dog he'll do anything to please you. At the vet - I walked him in and he didn't want to go. This is unlike Turbo - he's usually brave at the vet and knows the check up does him good and he'll return home for a treat and more love.

This time, he didn't want to go. The vet tech was trying to make him walk to the back. Instead, I picked him up and asked if I could put him in his crate. I placed him on the blanket and turned and walked away. I kept telling myself, 'He'll be fine'. The vet will find whatever is bothering him and he'll be home and happy again. Begging for us to play with him - he always likes to play.

I think Turbo knows whatever is wrong with him, it's not good. We've been holding him and stroking his fur. Rubbing his hears is his favorite and he's been getting plenty of that.

My partner wrote this about Turbo on his blog: I Love Turbo

Peace be with you my friend:
Turbo

Lake Erie Circle Tour

For the Labor Day weekend I decided I was going to pull off another motorcycle tour before the season comes to an end. My friend Sharon has done several spectacular Great Lakes Circle Tours and this gave me and idea to do this trip. I live just a few short kilometres from two of the a lakes. The trip was only 634 miles, an easy two day trip. It could be done in one but I'd really be pushing it. Also, I could swing down to Youngstown and meet up with another motorcycle buddy - Dave. We met on the Kawasaki Versys forum.

The weather was the best - about 78F/25C on average. Saturday morning started out cloudy and misty. The kind of magical low lying clouds that tend to part as you go through them. Nothing foggy that blocked my vision but just Misty clouds. These clouds also muffled the sound and it felt like just my bike and I were on the road. I thought it looked like I was going to get wet in a few places but nothing of the sort was to be had the whole weekend. The clouds eventually burned off by noon and I was left with blue skies for the rest of the weekend.

I left my house at 6:20 am. I only took the two side bags and left the top case at home. Being an over night trip I didn't need the whole compliment of bags. The border crossing at 6:30 am went smoothly. I think the border crossing had either a look of 'You lucky bastard' or 'May God have Mercy on Your Soul'. I'm not sure which - I didn't give a crap, just wanted to get out of there without a strip search. A stop for fuel and snacks at the local Sunoco was next and on the road by 7:00.

Lesson learned on the GPS. I've had it for almost 2 years - it's a Garmin 60CSx. I like it - it's not the best for a motorcycle but I've adapted. The problem I encountered is that the route I projected had more than 50 way points. I didn't realize this was a problem until I attempted to navigate the route and got a nasty error that said it could do 'follow road' navigation with more than 50 points. I was at the Sunoco dropping points off the list until I got it down to 50. The first part of the trip was the most important - getting through Buffalo and down to Youngstown was part I need the most, followed by back to the lake and through Cleveland.

My first stop was in Buffalo. I've been wanting to see 32 Wasson avenue. This was the location of the house in the movie Lackawana Blues. I found it easy enough and like most things, there wasn't much left there at all. The house has probably been gone for decades. The only thing left is an old store with the architecture correct for the period and a more modern housing project. Mostly vacant lots. I wasn't expecting much yet it was nice to reflect what once was here - vibrant neighborhoods filled with active people.



After a few pictures I rolled on to Hwy 5 and began my track around the lake. I went passed old industrial sites - some in operation and some abandoned. This area could be beautiful but there is so much abandoned human enterprises left scattered about that it would take a monumental effort to clean it all up. So, it remains to sit and rot. Eventually the industrial sites of Buffalo were left behind and I found myself going past old lake houses and long forgotten businesses. Some with rusty signs that you could hardly make out what went on there. One was for a motel and another was for some one's world famous stakeburger. These places must have been important at one time before the interstates came through.

I made it to Ashtabula by 11. I called Dave and let him know I was on the way and should be at his place by noon. Dave and I yacked about bikes and he showed me his place. An interesting place that he's lived in since he was a kid. He has three distinct and seperate garages. This guys got plenty of toys including a woodshop with lots of nice equipment and tractor (I'm mean tractor not lawn tractor) to boot. We shared a pizza with his wife Jo and son Devon. Our last event was to head over to Shade Tree motorsports. A place Dave likes to go to for the bike parts and the sale staff. It's about an hour away from his house and a very nice ride. Dave and I parted ways at Shadetree and I headed back to the lake. Dave made it home fine by himself. That was nice to spend time with a fellow enthusiast.



Worked my way back to the lake and continued my journey. I arrived in Luna Pier at around 8:00 pm and spent the night at the Motel 8. My dinner was at the local Gander Restaurant. Highly recommended - nice place, good food and kind staff. The Motel 8 was clean and serviceable. The next morning I was back on the road at around 9:00 am. My partner wanted me to visit The Henry Ford Museum to visit the gift shop. The gift shop didn't have what he was looking for and I motored on. I chose the Ambassador bridge to cross and that went smoothly as well. From Windsor I made my way to Hwy 18 and then to 3 and back home, arriving at about 5:30 pm.



The total journey was 1200 kilometers or about 730 miles. I was tired but enthralled with the journey. Now I'm eager to try out some of the other lakes like Sharon has.

Playing with Confidence

I feel my guitar lessons and my guitar playing is coming along. That's the magic of learning to play - you can tell that you are making progress. The process is not instant gratification but has enough pace where you can hear and feel the progress you are making. For example, I wanted to learn to play 'Let It Be' by the Beatles. I found a very good song book that would help me learn to play. It's Hal Leonard Fingerpicking Beatles - Revised and Expanded. The description and reviews on Amazon looked very good. Fingerpicking is the style that I focus on the most. This is getting off my point a bit...my point is that when I first got the book in my hands and looked at the music of 'Let It Be' - I was befuddled on how I was ever going to play that with confidence.

The book sat on my bookshelf for a little bit. Then my instructor, Ross gave me a sheet of music for Wildwood Flower in the fingerpicking style. I learned to play that and that gave me confidence to play fingpicking or fingerstyle guitar. I loved the way that song sounded and I worked at it and worked at it. I took me well over a month to learn to play that song with confidence.

Once I had Wildwood Flower going pretty good - I was feeling confident to try 'Let It Be' again. Playing the song was rough at first but now I had the general idea on how fingerstyle works and some of the tricks to play it. Yes, it's all about technique and efficiencies. And of course, practice, practice, practice. If doing things over and over again isn't your thing - then forget learning to play an instrument. You must have that dogmatic drive to do it over and over again and focus on the rough spots one measure at a time. It sounds arduous but if you love music and love playing then this is only a labor of love. The reward is to play that song fluidly, efficiently and beautifully.

I have 'Let It Be' going pretty good now. Not as well as my instructor can play it but good for an 11-month - 41 y.o. student can do it. This process has taught me many things about playing like when playing fingerstyle hold the chord shape - most of the notes in that measure match or are close to the notes of that chord shape. For example, Wildwood Flower (in the version I have) starts off with the chord shape of C. The first notes are E,F then G (played open) then strum the E (open) and C (first finger - first fret) You can see that E and F and C are the notes you hold in the basic C shape chord. Instead of bouncing your fingers all over the fret board trying to catch those notes - just hold the chord shape. After the C and E strum on the second beat on the second measure there is an A note. That is not part of the C shape chord - how do you get that? Easy, your second finger should be on the E note at second fret - third string and A is one string over on the second fret - just lift your middle finger and grab that A note without moving your other fingers. This is not only efficient but beautiful. Ross has been teaching me to hold my fingers down to let the notes ring for as long as I can until I need a finger for the next note - this is what is called polish.

If you are like me and learning to play - keep at it. Play even when you don't feel like it. Getting bored? Try something new or after a long session of playing scales or studies - breeze off with something fun. This is supposed to be fun - yes, there are times to do that nitty gritty grinding technique learning but then let it go and see how far you have come along and play an old favorite of yours. Incorporate what you learned into your playing.

West Virginia - Lets finish this off

I've tried to write these last two days up and move on with my blog and talk about other things. But, I've made a mistake and accidentally deleted a whole days topic. So much and many other things to talk about.

I'll just make this quick.

Day 6 - Redemption! Finally I was able to get away from the pushers. This trip was called 'The Gable End of Hell' in the guidebook but it should have been called Solace or Redemption or something like that. The day began on Hwy 41 to 55 over to 20 and onto 15. The gateway to 15 is Webster Springs. A town that needs to be explored more fully. I followed a log truck for a ways and that helped keep the pushers at bay. Being on a small vehicle you tend to get picked on. I found this same phenomenon when I drive in small cars - drivers in larger vehicles like to try and push these people around on the road. Explains why I've had five rear-end collisions and most of them involved large vehicles like trucks and vans. The problem was either someone had their head up their ass and usually following way to close with way too big of a vehicle.

The best part of Day 6 was the town of Cass. This is something you really got to see. It's a whole town that was bought - lock, stock and barrel by the state of West Virginia in the 1960s. All of the houses, the railroad, company store - every bit of it. The vintage railroad is in working order and you can take trips to the top of the mountain on it. The sound of the whistle will bring you back to earlier times. I love the sound of Johnny Cash playing Orange Blossom special and I can see where he gets that sound he makes on his harmonicas. Definitely stop and see Cass if you are in the area.

I was able to revisit FR 150 - a highly delectable motorcycle road. Not as many curves but so nice views and very little traffic. Returned to the campsite and began thinking about leaving the next day. Start working my way back home.

Days 7 - Search for the Swiss. Now this route should have been labelled The Gable End of Hell. Day 7 was the most trying and arduous journey on the entire trek. The day started with a decision to break camp and leave the resort. I was getting tired of the place and the latest tenants made the decision final. I was thinking of doing most of this route and the make my final decision in Helvetia.

After leaving the resort, fueling - I began the hunt for CR19. I was able to find exactly this route on the GPS or the maps but between the guide book and some surmising - I finally found this backwoods roads that only the locals seem to know about. CR19 turned out to be a gravely semi-asphalt one lane road. Yet, even this desolate road in the West Virgina back country had more pushers and some nerve-wracking on coming cars. This area is very pretty but wasn't able to take much of the view in as I was watching for pushers, oncoming traffic and deer. Eventually, I made it to 16 in Clay - then followed 4. I missed a turn and some very nice locals offered my assistance in finding my way.

Hwy 4 was smooth, gentle and rolling as it followed the Elk River. The only detraction was the dilapidated shacks that obscured the view. I ended up getting turned around in Sutton and had to pick my way through some road construction. Eventually, I made my way to Hwy 15 - another nice motorcycle road. I found the next road CR22 but this road was closed - thank goodness. It looked like a road more for a dirt bike than a street bike. I motored on and enjoy the rest of Hwy 15.
This eventually led my to CR3.

CR3 is where the comedy of errors began and my bikes dual-sport features came into play. I remember reading the guide book that said avoid this road if you don't want to take the backwoods route. CR3 was not too bad as it started. Mostly asphalt but then gave way to gravel. The smooth throttle and the long suspension on the Versys made all of this possible. After several miles of this I came to an intersection - I wasn't sure which way to go. I took a left and found myself at this beautiful white country chapel. Out in the middle of nowhere - the grass was neatly trimmed and all of the windows had nice little curtains. It was kind of curious to see this out here - I was not sure if I was seeing a vision or not. Still I was not sure where I was supposed to be and the GPS just kept rerouting me and stupidly I kept following it. I followed it through some rough road and through deep water. Finally, I gave up and decided to turn around.

I was in a total freaked out mode at this point and just wanted to get out of this area. I turned around and went back to the original intersection. I almost went back down CR3 but I thought I'd give the left a try and see where it headed. This lead finally into Pickens and I began to see signs for Helvatia. Helvatia was so small that I went right passed it. I did a u-turn and when right into the restaurant. I need a drink (a good hard belt would have been good at that point) but when for an ice-tea and a nice salad. Their menu was mostly meat - the salad was the only vegetarian choice on the menu. It was still good and refreshing.

At this point - I was ready to head for home. Which was was it going to be? Either Winchester, Virginia (the birthplace of Patsy Cline) or make my way to Morgantown - which was more direct path home. I decided the weather wasn't looking good and I had been on the road for a week. Morgantown it was and I'll see Winchester another time.

That is the end of my story about my visit to West Virginia. The remainder part of my journey was just working my way back home - took some super slab and took some back roads. Next year - I'll point my two wheels in another direction for my one week reprieve and see something else.

West Virginia Part IV

Slowly I'm putting all of my ride reports up from West Virginia. Eventually it will all be here. I realized that I wrote about Day 4 twice! Ooops. Here's Day 5.

Day 5

I feel the speed that a few of the locals insist on driving at are taking some of the fun out of this trip. You lose one insane driver to only have another tailgate you. Blowing through a 35 mph curve at 50 mph with a gravel strewn roadway is unnerving. The large number of roadside memorials I feel are attributed to this speed. Everyone is so much in a hurry that they can't spare a few moments to save a life. The first part of today's ride was the best ever. 39 east form Summersville pass through Richwood. A typical backwater town. Seemed nice en ought. Couldn't seem to find the Falls of Hills Creek. I suspect where I should have turned off - but there wasn't a specific sign for it - something to do with 'Overlook'.

Found the Cranberry Biologic Reserve. The solitude that the guide book described was foiled by a maintenance crew cutting the lawn around the parking area. Even in the glades themselves I could hear the screams of the small engine weed wackers and lawn mowers. Ugh - I can't seem to escape these maintenance crews. This is a beautiful spot and good area for photography.



Leaving the Reserve I tried to backtrack to the falls - learning my lesson from the day before. I had more time on my hands and there was no hurry in getting anywhere. I went back a few kilometers but didn't see anything. Then did a U-turn and headed over to the Nature Center but it was closed. I did find FR150 - this is an awesome motorcycle road - very few cars, still have to watch out for those deer. I was able to ride this road in complete freedom without being pushed by a car. The views are awesome and the hiking looks incredible. FR150 meets up with 219. 219 is windy and sinuous - another decent motorcycle road. Very challenging, lucky for me no pushers.

Drove through Marlington. Saw the sign for the museum 1/4 mile ahead. This museum was described in the guide book as being a collection of eclectic objects and worth the hour to peruse the objects. I kept looking for the museum and slowed down a bit, checked the mirrors - no cars, not there, not there - oops there it is, put on brakes - car right on my ass - no idea where it came from. I drove off the road immediately luckily the car did not follow me. Fudge moment for sure - left me in a queasy mood. Trying to figure out how I could have done this better and avoided that car. I just couldn't figure out where it came from!

The museum was a musty collection of artifacts from the local area. Basically, it looked like several families had unloaded their attics and dumped it off at this location. I moved on from this location to the Pearl S. Buck museum down the road. Again, foiled by maintenance crews. I pulled into the parking area and the lawn mowers and cutting crews were all over. I was told by a woman in the parking area to no park on the grass to allow the cruise to do their job. I was frustrated at this point and didn't bother to look for another spot. Between the incident at the last museum and being faced with ANOTHER maintenance crew - I just motored on. Another pusher also soured my mood.



I saw signs for a 'Lost World Caverns' but never could find the location in Lewisburg and gave up. I headed back to the camp site even though it was early. I was rewarded by following a professional pair of HD riders but we were hounded by another pusher. Some rewards in this day but a few lousy moments too - have to look for the bright spots.