First show of the Estonia tour – Parnu Summer Music 🙂
AFTER a good breakfast at the hotel we get packed up and make for the bus station. just a five or ten minute walk and the sun’s shining.
The bus journey is about two hours and Ülle meets us of the bus and drives us to the hotel. We didn’t know she was coming to meet us.
The hotel is only two minutes walk from the venue. The forecast is for rain so instead of being outdoors, I’m playing inside the venue.
Sound an Otto has everything ready and the sound check goes smoothly. By 7pm kick off the place is full and I really enjoy playing…the new guitar does a fine job too 🙂
There’s a few familiar faces in the crowd and it’s nice to catch up at the merch table after the show.
Once we’re cleared up and loaded out Ullar – who’s booked me for the Parnu Blues Festival many t8mes drives us back to the hotel to drop off the gear and on to a pizza place where Ãœlle is waiting for us.
We have a grand night, even if we do get lost wandering back to the hotel!
FIVE-fifteen alarm so we can get sorted, car packed and on our way to Edinburgh airport by 6am.
All goes to plan, but there’s a huge check-in queue for our SAS flight to Stockholm. Eventually they open a second desk bit it still takes an hour and 15 minutes to get through check-in. Security’s a long time too.
Luckily Margaret goes and picks up some sandwiches while my effects bag is scrutinised, for once I’m clear it’s straight to the gate and onto the plane.
A change at Stockholm then a short flight to Tallinn and a taxi ride to our hotel. An Ibis in the center of the city.
First job on arrival is to retune the National and rebuild the Acoustisonic. Both are fine 🙂
Margaret messages our pal Krista – who is also our rep for ViruFolk at the weekend – and we meet for dinner and a few drinks. Great to catch up 🙂
A BUSY day kicks off with my first in-person guitar student of the day. She normally comes on a Thursday but couldn’t come last week and I’m away tomorrow until Sunday.
There’s lots off mech to be sorted and some leather luggage tags to be finished so I get some of that done before a session with a Zoom guitar student.
Just a few minutes to get some more work done before another in-person student…again, normally a Thursday student but holidays and stuff mean he’s here today.
In the studio I edit some video to spin into tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook then hit the office and finish off some guitar necklaces and pins.
Before I know it, it’s time for my final Zoom guitar student of the day and then straight into the Wildcats’ livestream during which I give the new Acoustasonic guitar a whirl.
After dinner it’s back to the studio to get all the gear ready…then packing…we’ve a 6am getaway time in the morning…
We take the kids to feed the ducks and go a walk over Craigie Fort…
THE KIDS have us awake just after 6am…I mange to get another wee doze in between bouts of them jumping all over me then we get up for breakfast,
I finish off the scratch plate for the Acoustisonic then we take the kids to feed the ducks and go for a walk up the lochside via Craigie Fort.
After lunch Catriona and the kids head for one and I grind, sand and and finish the first batch of guitar pins. They’ve turned out pretty good.
In the studio I make up set lists for the Estonia tour then set up sound for tomorrow’s (Monday) livestream into my Wildcats’ group on Facebook. I’m gonna showcase the new guitar and need to plug it in – never done that before on a livestream so I need to check all’s gonna work as planned.
After dinner I cast another batch of guitar necklaces and pins ready for finishing tomorrow….
Pouring rain on the loch made for an eerie, but exciting, atmosphere…
AFTER breakfast I get ready for a paddle then Fiona arrives and we head down to the bay.
We’re not long out on the water when the rain comes and it’s spectacular, bouncing off an initially calm surface,
If course with the rain comes wind and it’s soon pretty treacherous. We still manage to paddle round Clairinch and enjoy the experience.
Back home we have coffee and bother then Fiona goes off and I get some work done in the office.
After lunch – a burrito made with leftover ancho beef and butternut squash plus some avocado and Greek yoghurt – I wash down the paddle board and deflate then soak my wetsuit and boots in a big bucket of water and wetsuit/neoprene cleaner.
Catriona and the kids arrive mid-afternoon while I’m prototyping some resonator guitar pins. Similar to the necklaces but smaller and with no hoop and hole at the top. They’re quite intricate so it’ll be interesting to see how (or if) the work out.
They all go to feed the ducks and I prep the pizza dough for later tonight then go back to the office and design a clear acrylic scratch plate for the new guitar.
Got it! Black Fender Acoustasonic Player Telecaster with neck removal mods and locking tuners by Jimmy Egypt. Delighted.
A BUSY morning fulfilling merch orders. not only are the guitar necklaces selling faster than I can make them, they seem to have triggered other merch sales via my online store.
Of course, I want everyone (in the UK anyway) to get their stuff the next day…but I’ve missed the last post from the village for some of the later orders.
All is not lost though. I call Jimmy Egypt to find the work on my guitar is almost done so I can pick it up later today (Friday)…that means I can post the other merch orders in town 🙂
It’s late afternoon when I get into Glasgow’s west end and pick up the guitar…and it’s spectacular! Not sure the credit card agrees, but hey ho…
We need more AirTags too, so I drive home via Costco and pick up a four-pack..and save £27 on Apple’s own price! I put the saving into the fuel tank.
Back home I make ancho beef and butternut squash stew and we watch the tennis….
More prototypes…and they’re selling before I even have a chance to pout them in my online merch store!
FIRST job is to chase up the Acoustasonic guitar and mods…I;m nervous that there’s gonna be a delay and I won’t have it time for the Estonia tour. We leave early doors Tuesday.
I call Jimmy Egypt to find the guitar arrived yesterday (Wednesday…and they were meant to ‘keep me posted’!) and he’s starting work on the mods this afternoon. Hopefully ready tomorrow (Friday) or Saturday. Ideally it’d be tomorrow so I can spend some time sorting patches on the Quad Cortex and generally getting used to it.
A new, bigger, casting flask arrives in the post so I try my new method out on a Loch Lomond pendant…it works! I make a few more guitars too. Once they’re finished and polished I stick some pictures on my socials and immediately sell ’em – someone even requested the rather rough prototype I posted pix of yesterday!
There’s a shopping list and meal plan to be made up then I hit the studio and do some work on the new song.
Betty’s coming for dinner and I make velvetised chicken with mixed mushrooms and black fungus. Goes down a storm.
We’re not long finished when Matty rolls up. he’s staying over tonight on his way to Glasgow.
Extremely rough video (and sound) to see if this should be developed on side or ‘regular’ guitar…
AFTER breakfast I have a go at using delft clay to cast a guitar necklace. It’s a bit fiddly and time-consuming – but the result isn’t bad and shows promise.
The cleanup job is easier and less destructive than my previous methods and these look like they could be finished without any coloured epoxy inlay. We’ll see.
After lunch Margaret takes me to the village to pick up a prescription and I walk back home.
In the studio I run through a new song idea a couple of times making a rough video recording to put online and see what folks think. Before I start any ‘proper’ work on it I need to decide whether it should be on slide guitar or ‘regular’ guitar.
The ‘regular’ guitar feels a bit more comfortable but I reckon it sounds a bit too country and outwith my (self-imposed) stylistic boundaries. The slide version could be more ‘Dave Arcari’ but seems a little clunky. That might improve as I fart around with it a bit.
The resulting very rough-sounding video switches between the two initial possibilities and I post it in my Wildcats’ Facebook group to canvas some thoughts….
WE sleep in…and I blame a power cut! Seems the electricity went off around 6am and the supplier’s website indicates that they’re on the case and expect power to be reinstated by 11.30am.Ooofft.
I make coffee on our backup camps stove and go back to bed then, att about 10am, the power comes back on 🙂
In the office I make some wee pegboard shelves for all the Dremel ‘bits’. I’m quite pleased with the result and proceed to tidy the place up a bit more.
A new song is pretty much written but the arrangement is causing me a bit of indecision. If I play on ‘regular’ acoustic guitar it sounds too ‘country’…not a problem in itself, but it’s pushing my stylistic boundaries a little! A slide guitar arrangement is more in keeping with my style but some feel feels and sounds a bit clumsy. I record a demo version on slide guitar to see if I can refine things a little.
Late afternoon I head out on the loch for a paddle and enjoy a an hour or so on the water spotting a beaver and then, later on, a deer on a little island peninsula.
Some of my merch production needs improved…the metal/epoxy loch and guitar necklace process needs not only to be streamlines a little but also made. a little more consistent quality-wise. I do some work.
I GET the studio all tidied up and gears set up/put away then have my first Zoom guitar student of the day.
After downloading the livestream video from Saturday’s garden concert I edit a song from each of us and some “prep “b-roll” and make a wee clip to spin into tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
There’s some radio idents to record for a DJ in Edinburgh…and a similar kinda thing for a mixture producer in Germany. I get them recorded and sent off.
After lunch I approve the artwork mockups for the Kickstarter backers’ badge and also. run of ‘normal’ badges. They’ll take a few weeks. I also call Jimmy Egypt in Glasgow to check on progress with the detachable neck Fender Acoustasonic Player Telecaster (phew..that’s a mouthful!). Apparently all the parts are in, but they’re still waiting on the base guitar from Fender. They hope to have it in by the end of the week…that’s cutting things fine as we head to Estonia a week tomorrow (Tuesday 8 August).
I edit a promo video on various formats for the Estonia shows and sort Facebook ‘events’ and include everything in some social posts.
Suddenly it’s time for another Zoom guitar session then straight into my Wildcats’ livestream…
