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Yep we did it, nine people. Although with a lot of overflow. Water dropped to a not so good level.
Photo by Corey Donohoe.
Okay, here is something funny. Recently, after many years of happily buying stuff online, my credit card details were stolen, and used to fraudulently obtain some goods.
This isn't too funny, admittedly. However, the individual(s) who stole my card details, set up an account on an interweb site, and proceeded to enter all my details, including my name, address and email address.
This last bit was a little foolish, because of course, as soon as they ordered something, a confirmation email was sent to the real me. Fortunately, I actually read it. I thought it was some elaborate spam at first, trying to trick me into going to some tedious site and maybe I would end up buying something. Anyway, I did check it out, and they did indeed believe they had a real order. So, I called the card company etc etc.
The fraudsters weren't too fussed about giving my address, because what they bought could be delivered online. So, having jacked my id what did they buy? Flights to Rio? A sackload of porn. No, the company they registered my card with was IGE, who specialise in selling 'virtual' property in online games. My scammers had bought themselves £50 worth of virtual goblin gold in Everquest.
This seemed really dumb and sad, but maybe they are onto something. Perhaps money laundering, 21st Century style will involve turning 'dirty' money into a +1 swords of strength or a helm of undorkishness, then flogging them back to some other virtual property company.
Hmmmm.
So...I've been trying to get the second prototype happening enough to send out to one of our fine Fools here who plays in an AC/DC cover band. He's got a casino gig later this month and has graciously offered to let me use some footage in the Kickstarter demo.
So I was originally just planning to use epoxy to hold the old bushings in place. Not a good fix, but workable in the short term. Then I saw these bridges, which aren't as tall as the Badass knockoff that came on the prototype.
You want the pull as straight as possible, which is why it's important for the top height to work with the neck angle. It's also problematic with the Badass design that the saddles ride so high over the tension line of the bridge. I call it the, "Mauser Effect," because I'm a nerd.
Heh...the "Broomhandle" Mauser that was used for Han Solo's blaster (you knew this was a sci-fi analogy before I even started, right?) is kind of famous for the grip being so low (Solo?) that, when fired, the recoil attempts to spin the firearm out of your hand. I mean, Winston Churchill carried one and they were apparently reliable German-engineered hardware, but the idea is for the force ("Use the Force!") to be transferred to the anchor point (meaty grip) in as straight a line as possible, so's it don't turn into a pinwheel and fly out of your hand.
Same thing with guitar bridges. You want all the loading to be as linear as possible for a whole variety of reasons and the Badass wraparound is like the Mauser of the guitar world in that respect.
So I got this flatter, better designed bridge...and it's a couple of millimeters too wide to ride the existing span of the anchor studs.
HOWEVER...the new studs and bushings are fatter than the ones that came with the prototypes. I could pull those out and push them in by hand. This pair of bushings required me to get out my Tiny Whacker...which sounds like a terrible thing to have...at least if you want to get dates. Heh...anyway, these may do the trick. They seem to be in there really tight now. Even tighter than with the shims.
This had a set of 9-46 strings on it. I think I'm going to go out tomorrow and get some 9-42s. Maybe a little less tension and the new hardware will make this work well enough for the demo.
BTW, I am super-psyched to get footage of the Malcontent being played by an AC/DC cover band. I mean, that's perfect, right? Thanks go out to our intrepid Fooligan!
April and I just did a little micro-run of shirts. I had a few shirts leftover from a run of dyes I did a while ago and we silk-screened the logo on 'em just now. Almost like a real promotional item!
We planted some Narcissus bulbs a few weeks ago. It's been unusually mild since we planted. They've been fooled into sprouting.
This was a painted sign on the aforementioned pier. The water looked pretty choppy so I would've stayed out of it anyways. I took this picture upside down to avoid casting a shadow on it but I liked the way it looked so it stayed. There were some stupid college students further down the pier that were jumping in anyways. I would've liked to take a picture of them swimming in the same frame as the no swimming sign but I don't think they would've taken too kindly to a stranger photographing them.