Trent Davis – Page 7 – TrentDavis.net

This is an update to my original post titled Making a guitar pick from a cracked cymbal.

I learned a few things since making that first pick. Here’s what I did differently.

First, I decided to trace an outline of the pick using an awl. This works better since the red Sharpie kept getting rubbed off the cymbal as I was sanding it down. You need to be careful when doing this but it seems to work okay.

Second, I decided to use a scroll saw with a metal cutting blade. This will allow me to cut closer to the line which will result in less waste and less material that needs to be removed with sanding. I bought three different types of blades. The one I started with is the Pegas 90.503 45-tooth blade.

Again, I’m using the off-cut from a Zildjian A Custom 10″ Splash.

Cutting with the scroll saw was much easier. The important thing to remember was to let the saw do the work. I forgot this and got a little eager. I ended up breaking a blade on this cut as a result.

Now that I had a smaller piece to work with, I was able to more precisely cut out each pick. Once again, I ended up breaking a blade. At that point I switched to a Pegas No. 4 90.505 38-tooth blade which was a little more aggressive.

The scroll saw was able to get the pieces closer to the final shape, which allowed me to save some of the small scraps in between each pick. I’ll use these for something else, such as melting them down and casting them.

I found that it is actually easier to make several of these at a time simply because of the sanding process. The problem with the sanding is that the metal heats up fairly quickly. I got into a routine where I would sand one down and once it started to get warm, I would set it down to cool and grab the next one in line. I would sand that one down a bit then switch to the next when it got warm, and so on. I would just keep looping through the line until I got them pretty close to the final size.

After getting them close to the final size.

After getting them close to the finished size, I used the original pick as a template by holding it in front of the sanded shape and see where I needed to take it down some more.

Lining up the original pick as a template.

After using the pick as a template, they were really close to the final shape (the second pick in this photo had yet to go through this step).

After using the original pick as a template.

Then I took them to my sanding block and manually sanded them down so they would have smooth edges.

After that, I took them to the buffing wheel on my drill press.

5 more picks almost done being polished.

And that’s it. I think I’ve got this process down. I’ve got a few picks being tested by other guitarists so I’ll compile the feedback and see how people like them.

Making a guitar pick from a cracked cymbal

Percussion, Tutorials

Trent DavisDecember 10, 2016April 30, 2017One Comment

Update: I created a follow-up post with a few things I did differently. You can find that here.

I started with the remnant from a cut-down cymbal. I chose a cut-off from a Zildjian A Custom 10″ Splash because of how thin it was and how it didn’t have much of a bow to it.

Using a red extra fine point Sharpie, I traced the outline of one of my existing guitar picks.

Outline of the pick traced on the cymbal.

This worked out okay but the red ink started to come off pretty quickly. I think for future picks I will carefully scratch the outline with an awl.

Once the outline was traced, I took the cymbal to my Rockwell BladeRunner equipped with a metal cutting blade.

I didn’t need to cut it exactly on the lines. In fact, it wouldn’t be possible with this type of tool.

Ready to rough cut the pick out of the cymbal.

All I was going for was a smaller section that I can take to my sanding tools for the final shaping. When cutting something like a small cymbal remnant, it’s difficult to safely get it down to it’s final size using larger tools. This was definitely an exercise in finding the right tool for the job, as you’ll see…

After getting it cut to a manageable size, I took it to my Ridgid oscillating belt sander. My plan was to use this to get it to it’s final shape.

Taking the rough cut to my Ridgid Oscillating Belt Sander.

This proved to be too slow so I tried taking it to my disc sander instead.

The disc sander was too aggressive and not quite precise enough so I took it back to the oscillating belt sander.

I found the trick to getting it just right. I would hold the pick in my hands a few inches off the table, rather than right on the table top. This gave me more control but I needed to stop every few seconds to let the pick cool off since the friction would make it get extremely hot pretty quickly.

This got the pick to be pretty much the right shape, but the edges weren’t all that smooth. I decided to do the final shaping by hand so I would have more control. For this I used a sanding block. I believe this block had 220 grit on it but I’m not entirely sure.

Final shaping is done on a sanding block.

After getting the edges nice and smooth, they were left with a slight burr that was fairly jagged. For this I just angled the pick so I could break down those burrs and get a smooth edge.

The final result was nice and smooth. Now it just needed to be polished.

I equipped my drill press with a buffing wheel.

I started with the edges. I did this in case I found any jagged spots that I missed. If I did, I would take it back to the sanding block before finishing the pick on the buffing wheel. After the edges were polished, I did the same thing to the front and back faces.

All done.

All in all, this worked out better than I expected. Now it’s time to get into production mode and crank out a bunch more.

I’m going to test these out but I don’t have a lot of experience playing with metal picks. They almost feel too slick so I may need to experiment with adding some texture somehow.. Have any of you made these before? If so, how did they work as actual guitar picks? Let me know in the comments below.

Update: I created a follow-up post with a few things I did differently. You can find that here.

Workbench: Part 1 – Milling down some 2 X 4s

Tutorials, Woodworking

Trent DavisDecember 9, 2016December 16, 20164 Comments

My wife is a lot like me in that she likes to make stuff. She wants a workbench for her studio. The design we are thinking of consists of a one-inch thick top and a metal pipe framework for the legs.

I’m going to worry about the legs later, but for now (since we had a snow day yesterday so I had the day off) I decided to work on the table top.

The look of the tabletop that I’m going for is a dark-stained pine with a lived-in look. My wife wants something with a butcher block top but she doesn’t want me spending a lot of money to make one out of maple. As an experiment, I thought I would try making this from 2 X 4s. I’m thinking it will look right but I’m more concerned about the durability. I plan on milling them down, staining them, then throwing several coats of polyurethane to hopefully make it strong enough to withstand her leatherworking, which usually consists of lots and lots of hammering.

My first step was to joint two edges of the 2 X 4s on my jointer.

After that, I cut the third side on the table saw, using the freshly jointed side as a reference against the fence.

Milling the third side on the table saw.

Lastly, I threw them through my planer to mill up the final edge.

After handling this material so much while milling it down, I’m fairly skeptical that these will be strong enough for what they’re intended for.

The next step is to glue them all up, sand them smooth, stain, and finish. That’s for another day.

What do you think? Have you ever done something like this using 2 X 4s? How has it worked for you? Let me know in the comments section below.

Part 2 – Gluing up the top...

A drummer’s perspective

Music, Percussion

Trent DavisNovember 21, 20162 Comments

Over the weekend I auditioned for a band. It was a situation where I was brought in to replace an existing drummer so the songs were already structured and written out.

I knew pretty quickly into the audition that it wasn’t going to work out. Stylistically, I wasn’t a good fit. But there was something else that I think was a bigger issue.

Call me naive, but I assume that if someone wants me to join their musical project, they don’t just want someone to hold onto the sticks so they don’t fall to the ground. They want to see what I personally bring to the table. If you are asking me to audition you are in fact asking ME to audition. You heard some samples of my work and liked what you heard. You like the sensibilities and unique voicing I bring to my instrument.

I was led to believe that the audition I went to was going to be like this. I thought that it would be, in fact, like the majority of the auditions that I have participated in. This was not to be the case.

I’m going to make this easier for those of you that are auditioning someone to play in your musical project. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Everyone comes from a distinct and personal background. What we’ve played and experienced in the past influences what we play in the future.
Our gear is as much a part of our voice as anything else.
A player’s experience and tools combine to create the unique voice; THIS is what you are auditioning.

The audition I went to was not ideal. I met with the main songwriter and played on his kit. Now, I’m a big cymbal player. Not only do I love my cymbals but most of them I’ve modified myself to give me my own personal sound. The kit I was playing on had some pretty bad sounding budget cymbals. I’m talking Agazarian and some brass deal (I can’t remember if it was a Paiste or a Pearl). The cymbals were an offense to the ears, which the guy I was auditioning for was quick to point out. I had the foresight to bring some of my smaller cymbals with me which I was able to easily attach to his cymbal stands. One of the first things he said was that he “knows what sounds good, and that my cymbals don’t sound good”. Strike 1.

We struggled with the first song. He started by telling me where the fill in should go and exactly how it should sound. Note-for-note. A guitarist telling a drummer EXACTLY how to play each fill. Strike 2.

We started the second song. It sounded nearly identical to the first. Strike 3.

I guess I’m just airing my frustration. I assume that if you have heard samples of my work and want me to come in for an audition, you are interested in what I will bring to the music.

In the end, I told him it wasn’t working and that I am not the drummer for him. In an effort to make things easier for him to find a permanent drummer, I explained the problems I was having. Why hold anything back? It’s just going to make things more difficult in the end.

What do you think? Was I wrong? What are some of your disappointing experiences with auditions? Please share in the comments section below.

12" Wuhan "Lion" cymbals cut down to 8 1/4" hand cymbals.

Cutting down a pair of Wuhans

Percussion, Tutorials

Trent DavisNovember 13, 2016November 14, 20162 Comments

I was asked by a friend of mine to cut down her pair of 12″ Wuhan China (or “Lion” cymbals, as they call them) into a smaller set to use as hand cymbals.

Fig. 1 - One of the unaltered Wuhan "Lion" cymbals. — Fig. 1 – One of the unaltered Wuhan “Lion” cymbals.

There was one slight problem. Years ago when I first got into repairing cymbals I took my own version of the Hippocratic oath where I swore to “do no harm” to a set of undamaged cymbals. I was a little conflicted but I figured that since these cymbals aren’t for me and that the owner really wanted this to be done, I was okay to do this procedure. Plus, she had been using these as a set of hand cymbals already and they sounded truly awful. Therefore, I was only making improvements. Much like adding rivets to a cymbal.

I started by putting both cymbals on my cutting jig and finding the best diameter to use. I wanted to retain as much of the cymbal as I could but eliminate the flare. Once a diameter was decided upon I started cutting.

Fig. 2 - The first cymbal on the cutting jig. — Fig. 2 – The first cymbal on the cutting jig.

Fig. 3 - Getting close to finishing the cut on the first cymbal. — Fig. 3 – Getting close to finishing the cut on the first cymbal.

The cutting went pretty smoothly although the imperfect nature of Wuhan cymbals tends to affect how balanced the cut-down cymbal is. For example, the mounting hole was off-center on each cymbal which really caused a lot of warping and vibration. You can see this in some of the pictures.

Fig. 4 - Just finished cutting down the second cymbal. — Fig. 4 – Just finished cutting down the second cymbal.

After they were cut down I mounted them on my buffing wheel and de-burred the edges. My friend also wanted me to polish them and remove the logos. This was more trouble than it usually is since these cymbals are so out of balance. I used both a coarse and fine grained sanding sponge then finished up with 0000 steel wool. I finished that up with a thin coat of polyurethane to protect them and they are ready to go.

Fig. 5 - Taking the coarse sanding block to the underside of the first cymbal. — Fig. 5 – Taking the coarse sanding block to the underside of the first cymbal.

Fig. 6 - Finishing up the underside of the first cymbal with some 0000 steel wool. — Fig. 6 – Finishing up the underside of the first cymbal with some 0000 steel wool.

Fig. 7 - The top of the first cymbal ready to be polished. — Fig. 7 – The top of the first cymbal ready to be polished.

Fig. 8 - Taking a coarse sanding block to the top of the first cymbal. — Fig. 8 – Taking a coarse sanding block to the top of the first cymbal.

Fig. 9 - Following up with a fine-grit sanding sponge. — Fig. 9 – Following up with a fine-grit sanding sponge.

Fig. 10 - All done after finishing up with some 0000 steel wool. — Fig. 10 – All done after finishing up with some 0000 steel wool.

Fig. 11 - Time to start cleaning up the second cymbal. — Fig. 11 – Time to start cleaning up the second cymbal.

Fig. 12 - Cleaning up the top of the second cymbal with a coarse-grit sanding sponge. — Fig. 12 – Cleaning up the top of the second cymbal with a coarse-grit sanding sponge.

Fig. 13 - the underside of the second cymbal. Before... — Fig. 13 – the underside of the second cymbal. Before…

Fig. 14 - ... and after. — Fig. 14 – … and after.

Fig. 15 - This is a shot of both cymbals. The one on the left is halfway through cleaning up the top. This was problematic due to the imbalance in that cymbal which is caused by the mounting hole being so far off-center. — Fig. 15 – This is a shot of both cymbals. The one on the left is halfway through cleaning up the top. This was problematic due to the imbalance in that cymbal which is caused by the mounting hole being so far off-center.

Fig. 16 - A close-up of the two cymbals. The one on the left has been polished up a bit. The one on the right only has the edge de-burred which actually polishes up the area around the edge a bit. — Fig. 16 – A close-up of the two cymbals. The one on the left has been polished up a bit. The one on the right only has the edge de-burred which actually polishes up the area around the edge a bit.

The finished product ended up being 8 1/4″ in diameter. They look cool and they sound a lot better.

Fig. 17 - Top-down view of the finished product. — Fig. 17 – Top-down view of the finished product.

Fig. 18 - The finished product. — Fig. 18 – The finished product.

Let me know in the comment section below if this was helpful and if you have any questions. Also, if you cut down your own cymbals, feel free to share your techniques.

Heroquest Card Creator

Software

Trent DavisOctober 31, 2016October 24, 201845 Comments

Back in 2002 I created an app for the board game Heroquest by Milton Bradley, which allows you to create your own cards for use in the game. It proved to be rather popular, even with fairly limited functionality.

I haven’t played Heroquest in over a decade and I’m not really looking to get back into it. I assumed that no one was interested in this app any more but I’ve noticed that I’m getting a lot of hits to this blog from other Heroquest-related websites so I decided to share these again.

You will need the following file.

HQCardCreatorSetup.exe

There are several things that I’ve always been disappointed with in this app:

Only creates low-res images.
Not able to import your own images.
Card files are encrypted which just adds an unnecessary level of complexity to it.

I might be willing to make a new version that addresses these images. If you are interested in that, please let me know in the comments below. Otherwise, enjoy.

Halloween sound effects

Software

Trent DavisOctober 25, 2016November 1, 20164 Comments

Many years ago I created a Windows program that would play random sound effects. I packed it full of public domain sounds that I found online, along with a few that I made myself.

The way that it worked is that it plays through a list of sounds randomly, using predefined volume and panning settings that range from precise to random. It can play up to 8 sounds at once, including an optional ambient track. It definitely beats using a lame CD that loops the same old boring, stale sound effects.

I used this program with all of the haunted houses that I put together since 2006. I’m proud to say that this program is still running strong and that this was the only thing for each of my haunts that I wouldn’t have changed. In fact, it worked so well that I made a separate one a few years later that was aimed at indoor haunts.

These programs are completely free to use and are available at the links below.

SoundMachineSetup.exe

SoundMachine2007IndoorSetup.exe

Feel free to download them and give them a try. I’d love to hear from you if you use them so feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts, feedback and suggestions.

What I learned from Terry Bozzio

Music, Percussion

Trent DavisOctober 20, 2016November 1, 2016

Last night I attended a concert by Terry Bozzio, the former drummer for Frank Zappa. It would normally take a lot for me to go to a 2-hour concert featuring only a drummer, but Terry is different. His tunes are creative and detailed and he has excellent showmanship. I really admire his playing but the main reason I went was because I have a passion for percussion gear so I couldn’t pass this up.

The show wasn’t a disappointment at all. That’s not what I want to discuss, though…

The audience was mostly made up of drummers. I know this not because they were advertising the fact but rather because of how they responded during the show. I looked around and I saw people not just enjoying the show but being sucked into it. They weren’t just tapping their feet; they were emulating the difficult polyrhythms that we were hearing. When Terry would cycle between his multitude of pedals, I would see necks craning in an attempt to see what he switched to.

At one point during the show, Terry dropped a stick. We heard a muttered “bastard!” as he quickly grabbed another stick and kept on playing. The audience’s response was to applaud, as if to say “Good save, sir”. He made a mistake and he recovered nicely. As a drummer friend of mine commented, “He’s human, after all”.

We were there to admire a respected drummer’s technique, his showmanship, and his gear. We were there to learn. To be inspired. And we were.

I’ve been involved with different communities, including guitarists, bassists, woodworkers, artists, programmers, and actors. From my experience, what sets the drumming community apart is the support and the lack of competition. There will always be exceptions but in general I find that drummers admire each other. We acknowledge that each drummer is different and skilled in certain areas. We study their techniques. A drum set is like a fingerprint; unique to each player. As such, we’re curious about each others gear and setup.

Every drummer I meet can do something that I can’t. Therefore, every drummer is a teacher. And in turn, every drummer is a student.

What do you think? Feel free to share your comments below.

Every Time I Fall – Performance video

Music, Percussion

Trent DavisOctober 12, 2016November 1, 2016

I recorded the drum tracks for Every Time I Fall, a song I’m working on with Jongwon Kim.

I have a somewhat peculiar way of recording.

I actually record the drum tracks a total of eight times, one after the other without any breaks in between. Typically, the first two tracks are throw-aways. I use them as a chance to warm up while also re-familiarizing myself with the structure of the song and the ideas that I wanted to incorporate into it. The reason I like these takes to be recorded rather than just playing it a few times on my own is because I might spontaneously (or accidentally) play something that is just perfect for the song that I may not remember afterwards so it’s nice to have it documented.

I don’t actually expect to have a “keeper” take until the fifth or sixth time through the song. Once I get these, I use them as my safety net. Now I have two more takes where I can get crazy and try things that may not work but would be fun to at least attempt and listen to later. These two takes are usually filled with screw-ups but every now and then I hear something that I really like and I will actually incorporate it into the song, either with editing or doing a few more takes.

On this particular song, I had gotten a keeper take by the fifth run-through. The sixth and seventh were nice but didn’t really speak to me. Then on the eighth take I just didn’t worry about anything and focused on just playing comfortably. I wasn’t going for flashy. It was just one of those moments where you realize you know the song well enough to play it without even thinking about it. Actually, while I was doing this take, I believe I was thinking about a few metalworking projects I have planned. In my subconscious I was just enjoying the song. It was like background music that I was controlling. This ended up being the take that I’m going to use for the final recording.

Anyway, here are a few videos. I recorded the tracks in Ableton and didn’t do any real mixing or mastering other than the basic levels that I have set up for my drum recording template. The first version includes the temporary guitar backing tracks. The second version is only the drums.

Every Time I Fall (With backing tracks)

Every Time I Fall (Without backing tracks)

https://youtu.be/XfvmdlpETMM

Video Performance – Test

Music, Percussion

Trent DavisOctober 11, 2016November 1, 2016

This is just a test of the over-the-head GoPro setup. The audio was recorded in Ableton and edited into the video.

This was when we were auditioning a new keyboard player so it’s a pretty low-key performance. I was also just getting over the flu so I didn’t have a lot of energy. To top it all off, I was also breaking in a new pair of Doc Martens, which I normally really love to wear when I’m playing but which are rather unforgiving when they’re fairly new.

Author: Trent Davis

Making a guitar pick from a cracked cymbal – Part 2

Making a guitar pick from a cracked cymbal

Workbench: Part 1 – Milling down some 2 X 4s

A drummer’s perspective

Cutting down a pair of Wuhans

Heroquest Card Creator

Halloween sound effects

What I learned from Terry Bozzio

Every Time I Fall – Performance video

Every Time I Fall (With backing tracks)

Every Time I Fall (Without backing tracks)

Video Performance – Test

Only The Strong – 2016-10-06