WEAK NOTES, to rhyme with “bleak scrotes”.

This week has mainly been about the tooth. Big hole in one of my molars due to my tooth cracking around an old filling. Much pain. Many, many pain killers. And now it has been rebuilt, which took over an hour and many layers of special dentist goop.

I’m writing this the day after and the pain has transmuted from raw nerve pain to bruised face pain.

This experience cost as much as a Squier Classic Vibe Stratocaster.

Next I have some periodontal issues to sort out, but that’s MIM Fender money.

Apparently there has been a General Election called, and I think the whole tone of the thing was set beautifully by that nice Mr Sunak looking miserable, utterly drenched, while someone drowned him out with Things Can Only Get Better from the end of the Downing St.

Tory’s have gone full Tory, most of them are quitting and the ones that remain are getting progressively more wingnut.

The poll numbers imply Labour should win comfortably, but let’s not take anything for granted, eh? Register to vote!

My most recent eBay rescue has been a 1984(ish) Westone Concord I which I got for 120 quid. It was in a proper state (I had to cut the saddles off the bridge plate with a Dremel because they were so corroded.) For the past couple of weeks it’s been reassembled and back under tension and generally remembering what it’s like to be a guitar again.

I love Japanese guitars from this era… compact bodies, well-made.

My favourite thing? Someone tried to superglue the tone control back on and the glue had run down the shaft into the pot fusing the entire thing into a solid lump. So it has ha new wiring. The pickups seem to be un-potted ceramic single coils (with bar magnet at the bottom like a P90) and they’re pretty dynamic. I ended up putting a 6-way Freeway switch in it because it was all I had laying around and that fit the hole and switch tip and the various series/parallel/phase options sound great.

Still got to do a few things… the body could do with buffing, it needs proper shielding and a new output jack, and I’m going to replace the cheapo saddles I used to get it up and running with some slightly zingier brass ones. But even without that, as an instrument it’s very enjoyable to play.

As it’s from 1984 it has been named Orwell.

It’s definitely better value than some guitars on the market.

Goals achieved from the previous week:

  • Re-establish a routine, and look after myself a bit better. Ish… although the tooth and corresponding sleep deficiency was a problem.

Goals for the coming week:

  • do three runs
  • start recording my practice again.

There. Back on the wagon. Ish.