Hi all,
So who else does the odd dumb thing, eh?... :wink:
I thought this might amuse you.
I have an old guitar that was fitted with pretty crude tuning pegs that had just about seized up with age. I took one off and oiled it, but it was obvious that they really needed replacing with something a little better. So I bought a new set.
When I got the new ones home I discovered that they were slightly larger in diameter and wouldn't fit through the old holes.
No problem. I'm the sort of guy who can fix most things. I can fix my own cars, I built my own house, etc. So I have a good workshop and enough confidence to tackle pretty much any job involving wood or metal. Off came the old pegs, and the holes were drilled out to fit the new pegs. In the process both sets of pegs ended up in fairly jumbled heaps.
Then I picked up one of the new pegs and tried it in a hole. Fine. Good fit, and no problems. So I picked up the rest of the pegs and tried one in each hole. Everything looked like a comfortable fit, so I thought I might as well line them up and tighten the nuts – which I did. A final check was done with ruler and eye to make sure they all lined up nicely and then the screws went in, and the strings fitted.
Then I tuned up. And the odd thing was….. when I tightened all the strings and tuned up , it felt somehow wrong….. “hmm… I'm sure the tuners on my other guitars turn the other way when I tighten the strings… well, I guess that's what happens when you buy inexpensive Chinese made stuff"…
But then I looked a little more carefully, and – yes – I'd fitted an entire set of pegs upside down. :oops: :oops: I'd been so busy concentrating on getting the holes neat and accurate that the whole issue of sorting out the left and right hand pegs hadn't even crossed my mind!
What really stunned me wasn't that I hadn't being paying enough attention to what I was doing – there's nothing unusual in that these days – it's that I'd randomly picked up six pegs in precisely the wrong order. If I'd picked up even one left hand or right hand one and put it in the correct hole it would have been immediately obvious that it didn't match the others, and that something was wrong. The whole left hand/right hand tuner thing would have been quickly sorted.
No big deal. Easy to change next time I change the strings again. But I might just leave them anyway – it's a cheap laugh every time I tune it now…
Spot the 'deliberate error'... :roll: :roll:
Anybody else do stuff like that?
Cheers,
Chris
You are braver than I, sir.
I haven't attempted that yet.
But when I do, you'll be in my thoughts and prayers. :D
Bish
"I play live as playing dead is harder than it sounds!"
Don't feel bad Chris, that's exactly the kind of thing that would happen to me if I dared try it. A recurring act of dumbness with me is when I change the strings on my jazzbox. If you remove all strings the bridge comes loose and just falls off. Gets me every single time. Or when I start restring with the wrong color and end up with a 6th string where I'd really wanted a 1st one...
A recurring act of dumbness with me is when I change the strings on my jazzbox. If you remove all strings the bridge comes loose and just falls off.
Thanks for sharing that Sleutelbos. :D I've been there - done that too!
Although I did know that the position of the bridge was out when I got my 'jazz box' and I knew I would have to spend some time finding the right position anyway, so it was more or less expected. Now I make a small removable mark before I take the strings off, but I might use a piece of tape next to it as a marker next time - easy to peel off afterwards.
Banjos are fun like that too. :shock:
Come on people - anybody else make the occasional blunder, music related or otherwise?? :wink:
Cheers,
Chris
Come on people - anybody else make the occasional blunder, music related or otherwise?? :wink:
Yes, and when I am not doing dumb things I just make mistakes. And too many to list here :lol: :lol:
I'm no stranger to random acts of stupidity either.
Last time I strung my guitar up, I managed to crank the tuners the wrong way on one side and the right way on the other. It actually looked pretty cool, so I was just going to leave it. Only problem: the strings on that side rubbed up against the tuners and snapped within a week...doh!
But when it comes to actual downright stupid ignorance, I think that trying to tune my guitar an octave too high after my first attempt at restringing way back when takes the cake. In hindsight, I can't believe that only the strings, and not the neck of the guitar, snapped...I somehow managed to get 4 of the string on at 8 v.a....*hangs head in shame* :smile:
-Jason
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To those about to rock, we salute you!
http://www.soundclick.com/jasonwittenbach
I can't think of more than one specific thing, but I commit random acts of stupidity all the time. Usually the kind of thing that wastes a lot of time and would be easily preventable if I wasn't thinking about something else.
The one thing I can remember demonstrates that nicely - restringing my 'leccy, starting on low E and working up, I was thinking 'these feel too light a gauge' and kept checking the packet. Nope, my normal gauge, no problem. I get to the top E and there's no more packets left, and I'm just starting to get annoyed at being sold a pack of strings that's a) the wrong gauge and b)got one missing when... I spot the Low E just lying around. I've put the strings in the wrong places, everything shifted down a string :roll: Worse than that, I've done it more than once :oops:
Me being one that restrung an acoustic for the first time and only having 2 for 6 strings strung correctly is one of many dumb things I've done. Dumbest goes to plugging my guitar into the headphone jack and thinking I broke my amp.
D'oh!!!
"If I had a time machine, I'd go back and tell me to practise that bloody guitar!" -Vic Lewis
Everything is 42..... again.
Fortunately my memories not good enough to recall any specific dumb things that I've done. I'm not sure if the memory loss is due to turning 50 or something I ate in the 70's.
I do know that if I have a 50/50 shot at getting something right, I fail every time. What's up with that?
bbb
I wanted to learn to play guitar really badly and I think that I have succeeded.
I don't feel so bad now ..
Thanks guys for letting me know I am not the only one ....
Trevor
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I am aso known as Barnabus Rock ...Hilch ....ummmm yeah thats it
Thanks for posting your stories everybody. :D Ghost I liked your string pic a lot! 8)
Keep 'em coming.
Life must be kind of uneventful for the 3 'geniuses' who've polled so far.. :) I wonder what they could really tell us... :wink:
Cheers,
Chris
Sitting at my computer at work, I had a software manual flat on the desk before me and the keyboard just beyond the top of the book, and was reading along quite happily. I got to the bottom of the page and went to turn to the next page, but my finger automatically went to the PgDn key on the keyboard instead.
I'm happy to say I didn't actually press the PgDn key though. ;)
After helping my teacher restring 4 guitars at his house recently I thought hey I got this down easy as it mate ....
I broke a string on my guitar , I just went to my guitar case found the string and re-strung it no big deal hey I helped a guy re-string 4 guitars ..
One sting easy ....
here is the pic ..
I proudly took my guitar around to my teachers place , knocked on his door and said quite proudly look at what I just did ...
Laughter ???? laughter ????
What so so darn funny I asked ....
Hey you pick out which string I replaced ...
And I voted for the second option from the bottom maybe I better re-visit that again ...What was the bottom option again ?
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I am aso known as Barnabus Rock ...Hilch ....ummmm yeah thats it
When I'm doing something new I recheck everything so many times its anal. The last time I did a dumb thing on the guitar was when I was stringing my strat about a year ago. I've been stringing this guitar for about 13 years and somehow I strung the last string backwards. Everytime I tuned it I had to stop and think, now which way do I turn this tuner.
My dad would always talk about retirement, and allude to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And I say all you've got at the end of the rainbow is death. You're riding the rainbow right now. - Mark Borchardt
Life must be kind of uneventful for the 3 'geniuses' who've polled so far.. :) I wonder what they could really tell us... :wink:
Cheers,
Chris
I'm a genius, I just still do the stupid things mentioned above :)
