I’ve always loved little British sports cars from the early 60s, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when my brother converted my dad’s old 16mm film movies of racing at Vineland, NJ to DVD. Here is a little clip from one of the small-car circuit races. I believe my dad is driving the white Elva Courier. Now that’s fun.

But here is what brought me to the nail salon the other day. I’ve been playing guitar for about 40 years. Since 1971, I’ve used metal fingerpicks. I started using them because I was playing 12-string all the time, and I didn’t know anything else. Now I am playing a wider range of genres and instruments and I find the metal fingerpicks, when amplified, make a pretty annoying sound. So for the past 6 months, I’ve been experimenting with other solutions.

First I tried Delrin or plastic picks. I started with a Delrin combination flat/thumbpick. While I really liked the thumbpick, the fingerpicks didn’t work for me – they sounded noisy and clacky; they were slippery, and didn’t fit well. Then I tried the AlaskaPik, which is made from a plastic composite. The picks slot underneath your own fingernail, and you use them like extensions of your own nails. They’re a good idea – you can even file them like your own nails. Those seemed to work well until my own nails broke. When that happened, there was nothing to hold the AlaskaPiks on. FAIL. So I went back to the metal picks until my darling husband suggested fake nails.

Fake nails? No way!  Errr…wait. I remembered that James Taylor had posted a short video on how he makes his own fake fingernails. Well, I reasoned,  if James Taylor can do it, so can I.  (Even though he’s much more fashionable than I am. I bet Gander Mountain jeans look really good on him.)

So I reviewed James’ video, which explained how he uses 6 layers of fiberglass “nail tape” and lots of “nail glue.” My first instinct was to head off to the Home Depot. My helpful husband pointed out that the beauty supply store was likely to be a more fruitful destination. Sure enough, the local Sally Beauty Supply store had a neat little kit for about $20.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Let’s just skip the experiment with the beauty-supply store kit and fast forward to the next day. I am at the beauty salon. I explained to the nice Korean lady that I wanted strong fake fingernails only one one hand. For playing guitar, I pantomime. “Ah, guitar,” she says. She takes my dominant hand and looks at it.

“What these?!” she exclaims, aghast. She is looking at my failed experiment from the previous day with the fake fingernail kit from Sally Beauty Supply. Let me just say that it’s really hard to put on all that fiberglass tape and glue on with your non-dominant hand.

$25 later, I emerged from the salon with beautiful long fingernails that I swear could be made from Formica. There’s no way I could have done what the salon did. No way. I couldn’t go out in public with my failed experiment, let’s just put it that way.

I’ve had the fake nails now for five days and they are still strong and show no signs of delaminating. Best of all, no clacking noise when I play!  I believe I will simply have to become stylish now, because I’ll be going back to the salon for sure.

My new Takamine EG523SC-12

I own two incredible guitars – a Lowden 025-C and a 1969 Guild F512, the warhorse of all 12-string guitars. They are outstanding instruments. They are also the only guitars I own.  So of course when the band rehearses, that’s what I play.  But my husband hit me with a conundrum the other day when he mentioned how awful it would be if, during a gig, some oaf were to drop a mic stand on my Guild…or if someone were to trip and accidentally step through my Lowden… or, worst of all, if somebody were to steal either of them…

While I blanched at the thought of any of those scenarios, I also balked at the idea of playing any other guitar.  I’m wedded to each of my instruments – they’re incredible guitars, and they sound wonderful…unplugged.  While rehearsals with the band are often acoustic, our performances aren’t, which means I have to amplify my guitars with a soundhole pickup. And guess what? They sound absolutely wretched plugged in. I mean, profoundly wretched — dull and barely audible.  So, given the possibility of damage, and the sad realization that passive pickups just don’t cut it, I finally agreed to buy a lower-cost gigging guitar with a built-in pickup.

Coincidentally, while we were having this discussion, Chris happened to be trolling the classified section on the Acoustic Guitar Forum, and he noted that this Takamine EGS523SC-12 had just been listed.  We took a leap of faith and bought it immediately. After all, if The Eagles play Takamines on stage, what could be bad, right? My Takamine arrived yesterday and I love it! I never thought I’d say so, being a Guild fan through and through, but you know what? It’s got a vibrant sound that’s just perfect for the kind of music I play, and the pickup allows it really be heard with the other instruments in the band. The action is incredibly low, and the slim c-profile neck is comfortable and fits my hand really well.

So now I have a new conundrum! I like this new guitar so much that gee…what if somebody spills a beer on it? What if it’s knocked off its stand? What if…..  Oh, enough already. If I keep this up, I’ll be playing a cigar box strung with rubber bands.

Before the episode: Sadie is normal. After the episode: Sadie's head tilted severely for a while. By the way, my nickname for Sadie is "Brick with a Head." So considering my limited drawing ability, that's what I drew.

The other morning, I went downstairs to get the little dogs out of their crates so they could go outside, and Sadie – my questionable Scottie (so-called because I think she’s part poodle; shhhhh!) couldn’t move. Horrified, I knelt down & picked her up out of the crate and put her on the floor, where she immediately fell down.

Sure she’d had a stroke, I rushed her to the vet, preparing myself to have to put her down. Imagine my surprise when, after her exam, the vet said that she would actually be okay! Apparently, Sadie had suffered an attack of  Geriatric Vestibular Syndrome. Kinda like “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” It’s a disorder of balance and vertigo which affects older dogs. They become so extremely dizzy that they cannot stand up. The cure? A combination of Dramamine and time!

After about 2 days, Sadie was able to stand up by herself and totter around, although she did walk in a circle. The vet told me that she may wind up holding her head sideways for some time until she was completely over the episode, which did happen.

We play mostly Crosby,Stills,Nash/Eagles/Beatles/Simon & Garfunkel covers (and the like). Consider a tune like “Peaceful Easy Feeling” or “Bus Stop.” Those tunes includes memorable lead guitar riffs or instrumental bridges, without which our cover sounds inauthentic. Our band, the way it’s currently comprised, only has 6 and 12 string fingerstyle guitar, keyboards, and bass. A lead guitarist will fill that gap for us.

Are you interested? Whoever you are, you will need to commit to this gig as though it were a job, not a jam – and we rehearse on Saturdays for about 5 hours, either in Jefferson Township or Bergen County. By the summer, we plan to play out in restaurants, at private parties, and other venues across Northern New Jersey. We have a very large contact list and the ability to market ourselves to a wide audience.

Drop me a line if you’re interested.

So where did Gemella Jewelry go? Well, it’s not quite defunct, but let’s just say it’s inactive. Honestly, while I loved making jewelry, I found I was becoming increasingly unhappy with all the competition and pressure involved in bringing it to market. Plus, my attention has been somewhat understandably diverted lately toward guitars and music. So I felt it was time to change the masthead to reflect my changed interests. Chalk it up to my Gemini personality. And no, I refuse to acknowledge that under the new astrological confabulation, I’m no longer a Gemini. What?!? Perish the thought!

I’ll still talk about jewelry from time to time, as I do keep up with my jeweler colleagues on Etsy and elsewhere. In fact, check out my friend Jennifer’s shop. She has done some remarkably fine work lately, which cheers me up just to look at it. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more talk about guitars and other germane topics.

Chris Wood Guitars Custom Build showing the rosette, purfling & binding.

I really like Chris' new brand, which you can see on back reinforcement strip.

The box is closed up and Chris is finishing the back binding. To come: carving the headstock & installing the fingerboard.

Thought some of you might like to see pics of the dread build – so here they are.

Here's the assembled body & neck. The back and sides are Honduras mahogany.

Curly maple & rosewood end graft in Chris' signature chevron style.

The dreadnaught top is bearclaw sitka spruce with mahogany, rosewood, & maple rosette.

Closeup of the mahogany, rosewood & maple rosette

As usual… stay tuned!

A word of explanation: I sing all the vocals and play all the guitars. The percussion, bass, and keyboard are all a backing track.

The Sad Cafe, Cover (Eagles)

I have hardly had time to play this beautiful instrument! Rita has a buyer as of today and will be heading to her new home shortly. I thought perhaps you’d like to see some new photos of the completed instrument:

And here are some sound clips, performed by me:

Mexico

All Things Must Pass

Hotel California

Norwegian Wood

Chris is currently working on a commissioned build and will be starting on a dreadnought within the next few weeks. As always…stay tuned!