|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
HOME | ABOUT THE GUBER | GUESTBOOK | ARCHIVES | SUBSCRIBE | CONTACT THE GUBER |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
CATEGORIES ::
> Blah! > Movies, Music, Guitars & Comics > Fiction
BLOOD, SWEAT N' TEARS ::
> Y2k > Ciplak
ONLINE PRESENCE ::
> MySpace > Flickr
FRIENDS' BLOGS ::
> Albert > Az > Cynthia > Debbie > Eddy > Effigy > Izuwan > Jordan > Kevin > Pete Teo > Rina > Shelley
|
Hot diggety damn if it hasn't been one tiring month. So busy have I been, in fact, that I haven't written a post since that last rant. Busy doing what, you wonder? Well, for starters, there've been a couple of bands recording at the studio, I've been editing them soundstage videos, acting in Pete Teo's upcoming music video (all green screen - I now know what it feels like to be an extra on Sin City), sorting out Ciplak (sound is fucked, need to sort out promo material, soundtrack, all that bollocks) and FYI and Y2k stuff (the amount of gigs coming up is silly. When did we suddenly get so big?) I guess being busy is good, in a way. It means there's work, and if there's work, there's income (or, at least, the possibility of income) but it's tiring as fuck. Today I had yet another stress-freak-out. Last one I had was a couple of weeks ago when this haze had me fevered up and yet I still had to work through the whole week. Feeling quite stressy again but trying to contain it. Girlfriend's been helping a lot, as well as a very fucking cool movie called 'Feast' that I recommend everyone in the world watch (but not alone. It's the type of movie you HAVE to watch with your friends). The stress thing is mainly born out of one thing: I haven't had any Guber time. No time for the Guber to spend to himself, to Guber his own Guberish ways. Sigh... Fuck it. There's work to do. Lot's been happening to Ciplak, my little movie that could. For starters, there's a new website - Go to www.ciplakmovie.com and check out the new look... with most of the old content. But it's prettier! I think. In other news, been doing interviews for the flick as well as getting the flyers ready for its Singapore premiere which'll be happening at a little experiment of FYI's: 'Popcorn & Powerchords' - Ten bands, ten short films, one headliner, one feature film. It'll also be the launch of Y2k's album. Should be a laugh. Soundtrack for Ciplak is... almost sorted. I think it'll probably come out in the middle of November. As for the sound of the movie itself... fuck. Working on movie sound is a whole different ball game. Sound for TV, not so difficult. Weird. It's weird, though, looking back. A year ago I was shooting Ciplak and recording the Y2k album. Now Ciplak's coming out in cinemas and Y2k's touring all over. And yet, I'm still tired as fuck. As you may or may not remember, the last time you saw the 'Bantal Busuk' it had three volume knobs and a rosewood neck, right? Well, prepare yourself for: Pt.5 : More Rewiring I've gotten into rewiring quite a bit. There's something about it I enjoy, more so than the woodwork aspect of guitar-building. I'd always had a thing for electronics but was never blessed with interesting physics teachers. But why re-wire it? Well, the whole 'three volumes' thing didn't work out too well. I didn't get a smooth blend of the different pickups mixing with each other and it was all wired in parallel, which I didn't want. So what do we do? Unfortunately, first time I tried it I wired them in parallel by mistake which pissed me off to no end because the guitar still sounded the same. Once I changed the wiring to series, though, it was beautiful. However, deep down I'm still not happy with the wiring. There are some things I still want to do to get the right 'palette' of sounds that I'm searching for with this guitar and this one is close, but no cigar. Also, wiring isn't everything. I was hoping it was, but unfortunately not. A lot more things affect the tone of the guitar and I know it's an obvious one but I never really noticed it until I tried it as I did in the next part, ignorant as I am to the craft of guitar-building. What am I talking about, you ask? Simple: wood. Pt. 6 - Got Wood? Changing the Neck I brought the guitar body to the shop and it turned out all the necks in the shop don't fit, so I figured fuck it, I'll buy it anyway. Photo on the left: the new maple neck compared to my old Encore rosewood fretboard neck. It's not really the neck I want. The neck I would love is a 70's style fat headstock fucker. But it's expensive and unavailable in this country and beggers can't be choosers. Fitting the neck into the pocket would still be a problem, though. That's when I sms-ed Alel. A couple of hours earlier he popped over to the studio brandishing a wood file. "Will this do?" he asked. Some wood-filing later and the neck fit. After that I brought it to Guitar store to install the tuning heads and flip the nut (it's originally a right handed neck). Once that was done, I strung it up and goddamn! Why's it so bright now? Wood, you see? Damn wood. Whilst the feel of the neck is exactly what I was going for, smooth like butter and slick as an eel, the tone I was getting from it was something I wasn't used to. The old rosewood neck gave the guitar a huge low-end, whereas the maple neck has brightened everything up considerably. After a while I got used to it and the single coils sound even better with the maple neck. The humbucker, however, leaves a lot to be desired. I guess with the previous set up although its slanted position so close to the bridge would've made the output bright the rosewood fretboard countered it. Not so anymore. This is gonna take some getting used to. Hence the reason I want to try wiring it differently, to get the best balance I can out of this guitar. And then, of course there's the rest of the body to finish sanding and a new pickguard. Soon, my pretty... hehehe... But he hangs around the house, ain't too scruffy and acts all adorable whenever he sees me so that I'll stroke him and feed him (although I don't think he wants the stroking. I think he puts up with the stroking whilst waiting for his Whiskas). He even comes into the house sometimes. Or blocks my car so that I can't get out by lying on it's back in the middle of the driveway. Or pops in through the window. Cute lil' bugger. Ok. Somebody please explain the logic behind this - I was on this girl's MySpace page, pimping out an upcoming gig in Singapore, when I saw a little thingey which tells you what you celebrities you look like. I thought, out of curiosity, I'd try it out. Then I got THIS: What. The. Fuck. Apparently, I most closely resemble Jean Harlow. I, the Guber, of Malay heritage, look like a blonde actress from Hollywood's golden age. What. The. Fuck. And how, exactly, do I resemble, in any way, Fred-fucking-Savage-? Does this mean I get to fuck Wendy? At least Kilmer's in the mix. But Tsui Hark? Please. I half expected Chow Yun Fat. Tsui Hark?! |
||||||||||||||||||||
We take a cue from Brian May and stick some switches in the fucker. Three switches, to be exact, each wired in series.
I've always wanted a maple neck n' fretboard. The look, the feel, ooh... yummy. My sheila (telecaster) has a maple neck but it's over-lacquered for my liking. I like my necks a bit more nekkid.
I don't know whose cat this is. I have no idea where he came from. I don't know why it's here.