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Letter #1--our pal janice from seattle writes:
so, there's this elementary school teacher
who plays music for her students and then sends e-mails out with
their responses. i got this
one today and thought you'd get a kick out of it.
"Nowhere Near"
Yo La Tengo
This review is by two fifth graders that left
me a note one morning:
"Dear
Miss A, We want to listen to your music. I am a DJ and Alden is
a DJ. We are rappers too. We are experts of music."
Vince: Awwwww...
Alden: I thought we were gonna listen to GOOD music.
MA: You don't have to like it. But sometimes you can learn things
from the songs you don't like.
Vince: What I learned is, don't listen to Yo La Tengo again in
my life! This is the kind of song when, you know, you're in the
car
with your parents, you say, "oh man, dad, you gotta change
the station."
Alden: Is Yo La Tengo on MTV?
MA: Maybe.
Alden: If I was on MTV, I would be so famous. I would buy 1,000 pair
of shoes.
Vince: Did they ever play with 50 cent?
MA: I doubt it.
Alden: Well if they want to be famous, they should.
I hope it's a warm winter out there in Seattle,
because right off the bat I know three people who will not be loaning
Alden anything
out of their extensive shoe collections.
Letter #2 — Simon
writes to tell us of
"a
somewhat bizarre experience last week. I went to see Mogwai last
week in Brighton and sadly due
to some family illness they did not play. They were being supported
by the Japanese band Melt Banana, who were incidentally pretty
astounding and made up for the disappointment of Mogwai's absence.
When MB were
playing I could see 3 silhouettes to the side of the stage which
looked so remarkably like YLT that I actually pointed this out
to a friend
who agreed. When MB finished their set I bundled to the front
to see (you know, just in case), and discovered that the three
people were
in fact John Peel (of course a big YLT and MB fan), a Japanese
roadie
in a jacket with a furry hood up and a spare microphone stand
with someone's coat on it. I won't say which one I thought was
which,
needless to say I spent a very pleasant night drinking with the
microphone stand
and ended up exchanging e-mail addresses."
It happens to everyone, Simon. You wouldn't believe how many people
confuse Ira with Elvis Costello.
Mike wrote recently and asked
"hey
i like the jag, but i can not get the buzz out of the bridge,
and was just interested if anyone
knows how to shut it up without replacing the bridge. or should
i replace it? i thought about a mustang bridge but i am not sure
if that will
cure my problem. any info would be great."
Two very different problems with two very different solutions. Problem
#1 can be solved easy as pie by watching those run-on sentences.
Problem #2's more of a poser, out of our league. We consulted with
guitar tech
extraordinaire Gil Divine and solicited his comments. This is what
he had to say:
Buzzing and other sorts of noise is a common problem in Jaguars and
Jazzmasters bridges, there are two reasons for this. A lack of string
tension can either:
- cause
the saddles to vibrate against the metal base of the bridge, or
- cause bridge
height adjustment screws (located at the far end of both sides
of the bridge) to rattle against the inside of the body insert
For problem #1, the simple fix is to get
one of these.
The Buzz Stop simply bolts onto the tremolo,increasing the tension
of the
strings.
It is by far the easiest fix.
The more involved (and cheaper) fix requires
two small pieces of rosewood. Once you have set the final intonation,
lightly squeeze the saddles together,
and
place a small piece of wood behind the screw side of the two outside
saddles. Slightly wedge the wood between the saddle and the back part
of the bridge,
by moving the intonation screw back slightly (make sure it doesnt throw
it out of
intonation). With the two E saddles blocked in, it should hold the
other saddles in place, eliminating the buzzing of the saddles . This
way is
good for buzzing
Gibson Tune-O-Matic bridges as well, but shimming it on the side of
the saddle, instead of behind it . As far as #2. goes, once you have set the
bridge height, take off the bridge and use heat shrink on the posts.
You may have to use more
than one layer of
heat shrink for adequate padding in the body insert. |