2024 - A gloomy perspective ...

First news ...

Climate change, wars everywhere, corrupt, incompetent politicians, senseless consumerism, mental disorders, cooking competitions, plastic packaging, old men - and life takes place almost exclusively virtually on the screen.

Alarm in Nazareth - Nazareth - from the police radio:

So really! Following the tail of a comet, three supposedly holy kings arrive in Nazareth at this stable where a virgin Maria has just given birth to the baby Jesus. How can anyone believe that?

Two policemen, police control center and patrol car J44:

Jota 44: "We are on the scene. The situation is Dantesque. Over!"

Central: "Report Jota 44!"

Jota 44: "There is a baby in deplorable hygienic conditions. This is full of cow shit. There's a donkey here too."

Central: "Let's see, one thing, is the baby abandoned or is it with the parents?"

Jota 44: "Well, there is a cria here who says she is the mother, Maria, she doesn't want to give her last name. We're going to try to get her and the baby into an ambulance, but it's very complicated, because this place is full of people. Over!"

Central: "But let's see, Jota 44, how complicated? What kind of people are there?"

Jota 44: "Let's see, central, don't take it out on me! There's a guy here, he's a carpenter, he says he's the father of the child, he's undocumented. Then there are three clandestine people, who are carrying suspicious substances. They say they have diplomatic status and act in the name of God. I think this is an Al Qaeda or ISIS operation, please send reinforcements at once! Over and out!"

J44: "Central, do you hear me?"

J44: "Yeah, go ahead, J44. Let's see! We're with the little teenage girl Maria. We've brought her to the hospital in Belen. They just finished a gynecological examination and the midwife says that she is a virgin".

Central: "But how is she a virgin? She has given birth and is a virgin?"

J44: "Let's see, Central, I'll tell you what the nurse-midwife tells me. They are going to send her to psychiatry because they say she is delirious with a pigeon, I don't know what they have told me."

Central: "Well. And what about the three diplomats?"

J44: "The substances that we have intervened say that they are for their own consumption. But they come with three camels."

Central: "Take them their rights and bring them to the command pulling shavings."

J44: "Wait, central, there are more. They say that a man with a white tunic and two wings on his back has tricked them and forced them to follow a comet or something."

Central: "J44, a man with wings on his back? (laughs) Save me some of that pacharan you're drinking!"

We are not alone ...

And another one ...

Trans Trem

Season's greetings ...

NAMM 2024

Wow, in just over two weeks many people will be driving / flying to NAMM - but from now on without me! And not because of my age, but for fear of being arrested at the airport.

The following happened: The last time (2020) I was forced to go to the hospital by my colleagues because of a ridiculous trifle (see 2020 - my slipped disc). I didn't want to, but they gave me a wide berth.

So you arrive and practically the first thing they want to see is your credit card. $1,200 is the paltry entry fee. Then you wait a good hour and are asked into the treatment room. 7 minutes of conversation, then a blood test, and that's it. No further findings, nothing! Well, at least my health insurance pays the bill.

About three weeks later, however, I received another bill in the post for six hundred dollars. Those Americans, those robber barons, scandal! I didn't pay, of course. The first reminder came two weeks later, and the second two weeks after that. And then: the phone rings - Orange County Hospital! These sons of bitches are actually calling me and demanding those $600 again. Of course, I refused to make any payment and insulted the jerk on the phone about the "American healthcare system etc.".

That was it, but I'm afraid these controlettis have me in their data and it could end badly at LAX airport. Besides, I've totally disliked the USA since Trump anyway. What kind of country is this? I won't come to you anymore. And it's a real shame, there are so many really good people there!

P.S. The woman on my left is one of the nurses who enthusiastically visited us at the stand.

Wellcome in Bender Land!

Yes, not only a Tele or a Les Paul, but even a Les Paul Junior can now be equipped with a Bender!

Carnaval in Cádiz

Here everyone goes crazy again, chirping guitars, mandolins and kazoos, four-part choirs and lots of masquerade! And the Carnaval de Cádiz is the most impressive in the world, it's the moment of anarchy: once a year you can say or sing what you think! Politicians get their comeuppance and all kinds of grievances are denounced.

That Cádiz does not sell itself! ...
Unfortunately, however, this spectacular carnival - as is happening all over the world - is well on the way to turning into a silly, cultureless folk festival.

Recycling in Cádiz

You are a good citizen and recycle your garbage. Plastic and empty cans etc. are always put in a blue plastic bag and at least once a week you make your way to the plastic container about 6 minutes away. Once there, however, you realize that the Cádiz city council has treated itself and us to a new container and the plastic bag cannot possibly be pushed past these rigid rubber flaps into the inside. The only solution: anarchy! I grabbed the box cutter, cut away the rubber flaps on the right-hand side and disposed of them effortlessly and properly in the container. Yay!

Something nice, too  ...

The legendary Atze Rockinger, also known by his real name Dieter Gölsdorf, today the mastermind behind Duesenberg, really wanted to turn the guitar world on its head at some point in the 70s. And that's exactly what he did. The True Tune Tremolo or the Blackbox are unforgotten inventions that were later copied by the unfortunately somewhat larger players in the industry. My first guitar to be taken seriously was a Rockinger. A Strat body with an OBL humbucker, mini pickguard and slide finger. With the help of the slide finger feature, you could easily nog up to the 22nd fret. Sweet Memories. Now Rockinger is reissuing the first instrument in the company's history in a limited edition. The Rockinger Lady 78 is here!

Rockinger Lady 78 Reissue
It was not without reason that the Rockinger Lady found its way into Tony Bacon's "Ultimate Guitar Book". The design was and is unique. The Lady 78 has a 4 cm thick body made of American red alder and a neck made of one-piece roasted maple with a rosewood fingerboard. The edition is limited to 48 pieces.
The neck is screwed in, but thanks to the "Long Tenon Bolt-On Construction" it protrudes deep into the body and thus offers ideal playability right up to the last fret. A Rockinger PAF-ECT pickup takes care of the tone conversion and can be called up either as a pure humbucker, with filter coil wiring or split via the 3-way switch.

The hardware clearly shows Dieter Gölsdorf's love of the Art Deco design that characterizes Duesenberg guitars today. The potentiometer knobs, for example, are real highlights. The scale length of the Lady 78 is 62.9 cm and thus roughly corresponds to that of a Gibson Les Paul. The 22 medium frets sit on a rosewood fretboard, the neck is designed as a medium D-shape.

A set of Kluson Custom split-shaft tuners provides the pleasantly positive tuning, the guitar comes with a gig bag and is available in two colors. Candy Apple Red or Lake Placid Blue create a bridge from Gibson to Fender. The design of this instrument is unique and strangely familiar yet futuristic.

For €1,478 you get a guitar that is just as interesting for the working musician as it is for the collector of unusual instruments. Knowing the quality of Rockiger guitars, I can only advise anyone interested to get their hands on one of these limited edition models quickly.

Photoshop

For those who don't know, I still do all my design drawings in Adobe Photoshop. That's a bit crazy, I should actually get myself a program at least like Illustrator or even better a CAD program. But I'm just too much of a dinosaur. I also have various recording programs on my Mac, but it's exactly the same: I can't get to grips with them, or I'd have to spend weeks getting to grips with them, which I'm absolutely terrified of. And when in doubt, Toño, the ex-bassist of the Dooros, a graphic designer by trade, or a José "3D", who lays out everything three-dimensionally, helps me with certain files.

Besides guitar ...

So the glass is closer! Perhaps soon to be a hot new Duesenberg promotional item alongside our corkscrews and champagne stoppers!

Cádiz - Madrid - Bilbao

A Split/King for Ramón Arroyo, guitarist of the group "Los Secretos" and a few days in Bilbao with Iñaki Antón, former guitarist of the Spanish No.1 rockers "Extremoduro". Such super people!

Taylor Swift

The little I knew about this lady was that she is incredibly famous and has sold tens of millions of CDs etc.. I was thinking more of something like a super hyped pop star like Shakira or Brittney Spears. Now I had to realize that she firstly sings great and comes from Nashville, secondly is more on the country wave, and thirdly is an absolute Trump opponent. What's more, her guitarist Paul Sidoti is a passionate Duesenberg player. What an honor! What could be better? That's exactly how it should be!

Hagstroem inspirations

In the 80s I once had one like this red one here. Due to the trouble and the impending bankruptcy of our Rockinger company, I was forced to sell practically my entire guitar collection, various P90 guitars and all sorts of exotic guitars etc.. A loss like that always hurts. But recently I was offered these two rare birds and bought them. The blue one is called "Batman".

As I've always said, all European guitars from the 60s had their quirks. Hagstroem was still a ray of hope, because not only did the tinsel flash and the pearloid twinkle, but the things also worked halfway. Plus crazy and imaginative features: The fingerboards were made of plastic and the frets were simple stainless steel blades, so no T-profile material with those nubs, just smooth and pressed into their slots. In addition, the bridge had six individual saddles guided on a slim bar, which could be moved sideways and adjusted in the octave unit by means of two clamping screws. The trussrods were not adjustable, but were made of an elaborate, solid aluminum profile so that these necks did not warp. The pickups, each with 12 individual magnets, were quite stylish, but rather flat-chested.

Only the tremolo - how could it be otherwise? - because it didn't always return to its original position despite the fact that the blade was actually positioned correctly and also had an unfavorable string path. But there was a nice lever attachment: the lever was screwed into a thin tube, which in turn was soldered into a tremolo button at a slight angle.

But why did they use these push switches for the pickup combinations? Various Italian guitars also had something like this. What could be easier to operate than a CRL or OAK 3 way switch or a toggle switch?

And on my new red guitar it turned out that, firstly, a potentiometer was broken and, secondly, some of these push switches had nasty loose contacts. So I had to dismantle the whole thing! The entire electrical system with the two pickups is located in a kind of box, with a chrome-plated plate on top and a plastic cover on the back. Many small screws and the pots with 4mm shafts. I ordered the potentiometer from Bürklin (you hardly ever have anything like that in the house) and replaced it.

And: the Hagstroems probably wanted to be even more "industrial" than Leo Fender!

But although I had ground and cleaned all the contact blades of these push switches, I couldn't get to grips with the problem of the loose contacts. The only way was to deactivate all the snot and replace a pressure switch with one of our excellent mini toggles. However, with its 12 mm diameter, it didn't fit into any of the rectangular recesses. So I filed down the thread on both sides, resulting in a width of approx. 9.5mm, so that it could finally be fitted and the nut still had enough substance to be tightened.

Now everything works perfectly, a volume pot, a tone pot and a deactivated one including the five remaining dummy pushbuttons.

And now the inspiration!

Why not put something like this on a Duesenberg guitar? Either with two knurled pots or a horizontal flat pot and a 3-way switch that protrudes as little as possible at the top. See for yourself!

Tennis today ...

Oh dear, hardly anyone understands my joke! ThIs Mevdeved's name is "Medvedev" and Alcasar is Carlos "Alcaraz"!

 

Handy kids - handicapped

More trans ...

Hospital again!

Meiomei, my illness stories don't stop! An electric scooter mowed me down in our narrow Cádiz alley. Bang, I flew off my bike, onto the back of my head, lots of blood, two police cars, ambulance, hospital, quick CT scan, no visible damage to my precious brain found. But even after 6 weeks, I still suffer from slight dizziness until the afternoon and don't feel like before - otherwise always in top form. I'll wait and see. But death to these electric scooters! They should be banned in general! You can't hear these shitty things and these young guys ride them unscrupulously and at incredible speeds.

Something new for 3 strings - String Threes

Not much to do at the moment. So I can think of things like this - a simple and effectively designed string tree for three strings!

Spain's big day!

14.7.2024

The ear

Shortly after the attack, I had a visit from an American music journalist who really wanted to see my Cadiz workshop and who is a die-hard Duesenberg fan but not a Trump fan. He said the following about it, which I found extremely worth posting:

"That was a production that couldn't have been done better in any movie!
He hears the shot, grabs his ear and, bending down, presses on the hidden blood ball in his ear.Because he has folded his ear forward at this moment, the blood shoots forwards over his cheek.Now he is worshipped as a saint, Trump is God.Then the photo with blood, flag and raised fist, it's clear: he's going to be president again!"

THE BOYS

Maybe Mrs. Harris will make it after all. In line with all this, I would like to recommend YOU the TV series “THE BOYS”. It paints a picture of American society that could hardly be more brutal! A group of upright but also depraved rebels fight seven American superheroes, all of whom are extremely messed up, perverted, corrupt, incompetent and absolutely evil. Simply wonderful!

Another series tip: “The Bite”: Covid in New York, practically no one leaves the house, a doctor treats her patients via screen until she discovers dubious, oval bite wounds on them and soon realizes that these patients are turning into zombies.
A relatively short zombie series of a very different kind. Wonderful, black humor!