Mandocaster

[Pine]

Chip...
   It's a bit surprising how similar your feelings are to mine. I also use my BR1200 for everything...start to finish. Own no software. haven't even learned drum programming on the 1200 yet and i've had it for years. The older i get, the more i go back to basics. Hank Sr was a genius...and even ORH is a fan (yes, it's true, he admited it once) There is very little of that kind of music on this site and , being as open minded as the folks are here, i think it'd be very cool if you posted some of your stuff.  I'd even commit to doing a Hank cover if you do..and i almost never do any covers (mainly because i suck at them)

If you ever need a BR1200 DVD manual, let me know. I have an extra.

pine

[chip]

Hi Pine. Thanks for that. Can I ask who ORH is?

Me too with the drums, I can't stand messing with the BR drums. In saying that the BR80 drums were a different kettle of fish, real easy and I cannot understand for the life of me why Roland didn't use the same process for all the other BR's. The 80 starts at zero not at one, so that made life a breeze. I use loops but even they are a pain, so I have a Boss DR3 which is very easy to use and has midi so it's even easier with the BR1200 as the clock. The DR3 has verses chorus's, ending, intros in all different genre, you can silence parts bring them in use variations and it has made my life so much easier regarding drums, I recommend it.

As for Hank, he has been a big part of my life since a long gone great friend of mine, who I loved to bits and with whom I played many gigs with turned me on to Hank. From that day pretty much everything changed. I believe Hank Williams to be possibly the greatest songwriter of all time, this coming from someone who has played in Psychedelic (lots of em), funk, disco, heavy rock and commercial bands over the last 40 years or so. I just believe Hank got it all so right, snappy tunes, heartache, fantastic lyrics, great band and of course did the rock and roll thing by dropping dead at 29 ( maybe not so good) However the fact is, Hank was a rock and roller before rock and roll and, anything that followed would be down to him.

it is said Hank wrote 700 songs by the time he died, 80 of which were hits, six encores on his first appearance at the Opry which has never been repeated, all this before he was 29 add to that, that most of the songs were written by him alone then you have one hell of a star.

His guitarist who has played with Neil Young said to Hank  '' I cant be in your band I can only play in GDC'' Hank replied ''That's all you need to know'' I rest my case.

[Geir]

ORH=OldRottenHead

[Pine]

Irony on irony! I also have owned and used a Boss DR3 for years now. I have written quite a few songs around the presets that i liked. I think i have pretty much milked it for presets and these days, when i need drums(which isn't often as i feel that no drums are much preferable to bad drums), i play them with my fingers on my keyboard in real time. I usually can do bass and snare on one track and cymbals/toms on another. Obviously i'm not a big rock guy or i would learn to program.Some folks are amazingly good at it. To me, so far, i find it a real pain in the butt and no fun.

As for Hank, i agree he was a huge talent. His music is so uncluttered and yet full of emotion. And his band was just excellent. "Three chords and the truth" they say regarding quality country or bluegrass music. He had that in his pocket. What they call "country" today would make him spin in his grave. Hank and his band were the Real Deal.

pine

[chip]

ORH=OldRottenHead

Of course. I had in my head Prince Charles, the Queen even Barack Obama and all the time it's Oldrottenhead.

Pine. Sounds like you and me would get on great. Concerning songs. I have them on computer and tried to import them into audacity, it would not allow them. I presume here, it is because they have been finished on the BR and now are in a different format. As I have no idea about such matters, I have no idea how to do that.

To elaborate. The songs were mastered on the BR, then recorded to cd on the BR and finished so I can play them on cd players. I then ripped them off cd with windows media player to the computer thinking I could just import them to audacity, clean them up and whatever. The original cd-s were recorded at 4x speed, the slowest.

And, the DR3 saved me from my drumming madness which was making me quite ill to the point of considering buying some electronic drum kit and having a go myself ( I can play a little). The DR3 has done wonders in that dept and with some eq and so forth can sound very convincing, even natural which is rare amongst drum machine.
I reckon Roland got it right with that one and should have made a follow up of some sort.

The Mandocaster is not here as yet, so that will have to stay on hold.

[chip]

So, I have the mando and very nicely made it is too. Now for some strings? All steel with ball ends I think? The bronze strings are not to good for the amp, to quiet perhaps.
I did here of people putting normal guitar strings on them but, Is this possible?

The action is a little high for me. Are they supposed to be like that?
The mando has individual saddles for intonation which is a nice touch.
It does sound ok, but , it's not as easy as I first thought, maybe the action, maybe the fact that it's all upside down too.

 The main thing now is the strings, I would assume these need to on the light side?

[chip]

It's gone. Could not get to grip with it. Nice as it  was the neck is just to small, I made the mistake of looking at guitar players using them but, their mando necks were more like proper guitar necks, not thin. I realised I had not the time or patience to see it through and fretting was most likely out the question, so down to my mates shop it went. Just one of those things.