Hey gang,
Is it just me, or does this occupation seem to have a lot of people who are handy with musical instruments as well as measuring instruments? Our dimensional guy is a mean guitar player, our on-site guy plays bass, one of our assistant managers is a good drummer, we once had a sales guy who was big into bluegrass and could pick the mandolin, and various others who have worked for us over the years have been in bands. One year for our shop Christmas party we had a jam session and everybody who could play joined in and it sounded pretty good.
Me, I couldn't carry a tune if you welded a handle to it, but I do a good bit of MET/CAL programming, and after hours I like to mess around with computer music software like sequencers, synthesizers, etc. (Think of synthesizers as arbitrary waveform generators, and MIDI being analogous to IEEE-488.)
So who all else out there dabbles in music, or have ever used things in a cal lab that would normally be used on stage or in the studio? Anybody ever tuned a guitar to a frequency counter, or used signal generators and oscilloscopes to repair a mixing console? Ever mounted calibrators in anvil cases for taking them on-site, or used the halogen bulb from a stage spotlight for a light meter calibration station?
As you can see from my icon, I dabble a bit..I've been playing close to 40 years now, and sidline as an amature luthier, mostly repairing broken headstocks and regluing bridges, but I can cut a nut or saddle if necessary. I built an electric bass out of pieces off of e-bay, set it up, and now play it at church.
Here's some of my "stuff" :-D
Mike
I've been playing the guitar closing in on 20 years now. I thought I was through buying gear until lately when my G Major decided to take a dump on me. I'll post some pics later!
mdbuike... do you post on the Harmony Central forum as well? That 7 string looks reaaalllly familar.
The 7-String is an Anthony Tsai custom that I snuck into the guitar forest :-D
I'm currently refurbishing a twelve string acoustic for a local Lutheran church camp..
The neck's fine, but someone put a trapeze on it rather than strengthening the bridge supports...so the trapeze comes off, have a new set of bridge pins, and if I get a Saturday off with no grandkids, I'll re-enforce the bridge plate, cut a new saddle and nut, and pray that it all works out (like last weekend, when I had to replace the shower diverter valve, and connecting pipes)..
I like my collection, and tho' I tend to play only at church, it's fun..the kids like the banjo and mandolin, probably because they don't get to hear it much..
Take care, and thanks for enquiring
Mike
I've been a drummer since 6th grade.
I was a vocal performance major in my 1-1/2 years of college, played euphonium, percussion, published one song, and been a sound tech all of my adult life. I actually enjoy that more than metrology (sorry). I actually enjoy missions work more than all of it. If anyone has interest, I can tell more about that.... maybe I'll start a post about that....