Podcasts and marketing music - free!

Recently I got an ipod nano and started checking out podcasts. I almost never listen to the radio any more because as Brian Tracy recommends - I've turned my car into a rolling university! Sounds corny but it's really cool and here in the Atlanta area where traffic is hell, it makes the drive so much easier when you feel like you're learning something instead of just wasting time crawling down the highway.

One of my favorite recording podcasts is the Project Studio Network. Sort of like Car Talk for recording geeks. Great reviews, interviews, and links to free stuff, which they somewhat annoyingly always announce with a freeeeee exclamation.

Car talk has a podcast and so does Garrison Keillor with the Prairie Home Companion. All free!

CD Baby has one - covering marketing, recording, performing, touring. CD Baby is a great company by the way for distribution of your CD or arranging downloads on iTunes etc.

Song School/ Folk Fest in August CO style!

If you are into songwriting, playing guitars and camping in some beautiful surroundings, check out Song School in Lyons CO - about 40 minutes northwest of Denver. What a great time! Many of the attendees go every year including me - this will be my 6th or 7th time. Classes are very good and rather loose and held in big tents . Instructors are fantastic and every night after the "open stage" song circles break out all over the campground.

Se in a red rock canyon with an incredible starry sky every night, it's impossible to beat - highly inspirational and plain fun! Only a short drive from Rocky Mountain National Park which is spectacular to see.

The school goes on Mon. - Thu. and then the festival happens Fri., Sat., Sun. Past performers include Steve Earle, Norah Jones, Randy Newman, Greg Brown.

Checkout planetbluegrass.com got more info - it often sells out - not surprisingly.

Danelectro U2 reissue intonatable bridge mod

I'm starting to see a pattern here with the mods. . . Any way, I really like my Danelectro and it had a rosewood bridge that looked like it was collapsing, not to mention the intonation on some notes was a bit questionable. I bought an intonatable bridge from allparts on ebay for about $45 and it went right in place with ease. They make one that fits a bunch of different Danny guitars and no modification or drilling was needed on mine. I even used the same screws to set it on the body. I did find that when putting on the new strings I had to slowly tighten up one side and then the other so as to keep the bridge in the correct position All in all it was about a 20 minute job requiring no special tools.

I had heard that such a mod might change the tone but this was not the case at all. One additional bonus was the string windings no longer cut into my hand. I'm thinking about filing the setscrews down a bit to make that more comfortable too.

Fathead Ribbon Mic Mod

The Fathead Ribbon mic is a great deal. Sure a Royer or a Coles is going to sound better - a little, but they're also going to make your wallet thinner - a lot.

I got mine for $159 and the price is $199 now. (http://www.cascade
microphones.com/cascade_FAT_HEAD_II.html)

I listen to the Project Studio Network podcast quite a bit and they had a couple shows dealing with ribbons. I already owned the Cascade Fathead and was interested in what they had to say. A guy named Slau was very complimentary and when I heard the comparison of a Coles 4038 to a Fathead with a Lundahl transformer, I knew I had to mod my own. I got the new tranny a Lundahl 2912 from K&K Audio for $70 with shipping. (http://www.kandkaudio.com/transformers.html) Cascade will also do the mod for $150 or you can buy the upgraded model from them.

The mod took about half an hour. Very simple. You unscrew the bottom of the body, pull off the shell, take out the screws holding the old one in place. Keeping track of where eveything goes is easier with a digital camera, but there are only four places to solder. K&K provided great instructions also. Basically the thin white wire connects to pin 3 of the XLR (center pin, and the thicker black wire will connect where the red wire was on the PCB. Connect the other two and that's it. Put it back together and you have one heck of a great sounding inexpensive ribbon mic.
For me, the total was $239!