Good Morning!

Integral piece of equipment, might be just as efficient to just eat the cost of the overpriced part vs the downtime. That sure seems like a taking it in the ;$& price.
 
Do you have some bad guts Dave? No booze no coffee no chicken, although I'm pretty much done with that fowl myself, you seem to have a limited diet.
 
Grew up in a non-drinking house. Got to keep an eye on blood pressure and sugar. And fowl is just foul. So is fish.
 
Gotcha. I have a history of, as my folks would put it, sugar in my family. To date, I haven't had any issues except some low days during the summer when I work harder than I eat. My dad started having issues around 65. He never has been a fan of excercise though, not since we all graduated high. He coached many soccer games and refereed many more. It's good that your conscious of it.
 
Bounced off the walls at the motel stressing out all day & night yesterday...quit & drove home this morning. I've done everything I possibly could to help, but it's not working out for me financially and I had to make a choice. Maybe I'll get paid what I'm owed but I'm not counting on it. It is what it is, I'll bounce back eventually and move on.
 
Thanks Jay. At least it inspired me to get tons better at dropping trees with more control and accuracy. Even managed to use a "German Vertical?" I learned here from Stig's posts on my last day.:) Man, it worked great all three times I tried it on the Maple we were cutting. Had a couple I was going to check out using a Wizzy but will have to save it for some other time.
 
Bummer Dave. Although his poor business skills were pulling you down, you seemed you were getting in a groove again. No point in taking shit from anybody though.
 
We're still friends as far as I'm concerned. I'm just owed too much for me to continue on further. When the weather breaks here I'll dig back out of the hole. Think i may just hang out and take a break for a bit. My banjo has been neglected lately...:/:
 
Time spent with a musical instrument is never time wasted.

:thumbup:

Dave, does hard work/treework ever cause any problems with your fingers or ability to play? Like maybe they would get too beefy/muscly, or maybe they get dinged a lot and cause a problem. Just wondering, because your instruments require amazing skill and dexterity and tree work is real hand and grip oriented.
 
Cory, Yes. I can barely play anything after working all day. I try to make myself go through the motions and spend a lot of time learning new stuff at a very slow tempo. Hands are very stiff until I've had several days off from work, and it takes several hours of steady playing to get even partially comfortable.
I really do think my hands are much slower than they should be from many years of manual labor building up the muscles. It also affected how I played my instruments. I still work quite a bit on trying to relax and not overplay the instrument.
 
Wow, interesting. Well good on ya for doing it all!

One of my favorite guitarists back in the day had very stubby, powerful looking fingers. He was a young guy and not a manual laborer, he was just built that way, but oh how those fingers, which had a hard time all fitting on the fretboard, could just push those strings all over that neck and assault hard rock and blues thru his black les paul. Monster vibrato, too. Good stuff.

"I really do think my hands are much slower than they should be from many years of manual labor building up the muscles." Lifetime musicians, their fingers are obviously strong and capable and developed, but do they not get thick like a laborers fingers even though they get all that exercise?? I presume the answer is "no" but I'm curious for your thoughts, Dave.
 
I think the difference is in the speed of the muscles from how they are trained. Bending strings a whole step (note) on a Les Paul or Banjo takes much less power than you might think (say1-2 on scale of 1-10); I bend them accidentally if not paying close attention to relaxing and being warmed up for playing. My acoustic Martin Guitar (Med gauge strings) takes quite a bit more power, say (4). Throttling my 200t is a 1.
Relaxed grip on 200t handle is around 3. Holding 395xp by handle while walking- maybe 8 if hard pull on a rope is 9-10.

The thing I see most developed in musicians is normally the forearm actually.

Musicians gain speed through muscle memory by repetition mostly. There are, of course, certain genetic obstacles some of us just won't surpass.

Myself, my knuckles are usually swollen and I will normally run my hands under hot water for 5-10 minutes before a particularly taxing performance. It seems to help relax my hands and give me a bit more speed. A beer or two usually helps also...;)
 
Fidd, I just saw your reply here. Lots of interesting info! Thanks, and keep em limber!

I had to give both hands up to forearms an ice bath after work last week, too much exercise :whine:
 
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