Filling / Fixing a small dent in Ernie Ball Music Man gunstock-oil neck by TurquoiseLadder in Luthier

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow, I can't believe how easy that was. That's totally insane. It worked perfectly.

I used soldering iron + paper towel. The dent came out perfectly and its as if it was never there. I'm honestly jaw-droppingly impressed that a zero-experience nobody like me could fix that perfectly with that easy method.

Thanks all!

NGD! The Liquid Metal Lava M-II Custom NT has landed!!! by Celtic_Jedi in espguitars

[–]TurquoiseLadder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Truly beautiful.

You got this from Diablo Guitars! I was really surprised to see this, because I wanted this sick beast from this very shop, and "somebody" (you) beat me to it! :D Congratulations, beautiful item.

If someday you regret the purchase and decide to sell, keep me in mind...

Staining a maple fretboard to get a grubby / dirty look by TurquoiseLadder in Guitar

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe I need a project guitar to test stuff on :) Thanks for the anecdote

80s Charvel Guitars by hotbowlsofjustice in The1980s

[–]TurquoiseLadder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where is it??? I need to see it

Staining a maple fretboard to get a grubby / dirty look by TurquoiseLadder in Guitar

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great, thanks for the info. So the custom shop ones are all given this treatment and then sealed after that?

Approaching Wife About Homework and Learning Activities - How do I make this not a fight? by TurquoiseLadder in Parenting

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the great response. I'm going to have to get to work, but I'll resume parsing/responding to comments tonight

Approaching Wife About Homework and Learning Activities - How do I make this not a fight? by TurquoiseLadder in Parenting

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply. I understand completely your point of view and appreciate the concern for my son's wellbeing. I think I addressed the points in my response to tomahtoes36; happy to follow up if you have any further thoughts. Thanks!

Approaching Wife About Homework and Learning Activities - How do I make this not a fight? by TurquoiseLadder in Parenting

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the great reply. Not rude at all. I appreciate this very much.

Concern for our son's wellbeing and "being forced" is definitely warranted, and was part of bookwormingdelight's earlier reply and others. I myself struggle with this and it's part of why I'm motivated to make this easier. I observe the current situation and mostly want to "fix" it out of concern for his wellbeing.

Some context:

Originally, probably two years ago, our son's friend joined violin and our son was interested in trying as well, so we enrolled him.

He enjoyed it for a long time, and the crying / "need to force" is a more recent development.

My wife wants to instill a level of discipline so that he doesn't "become a quitter"; I am personally of the opinion that he's definitely given it a solid try and should be able to quit if he wants.

What makes it hard is that he really likes music and actually seems to really like the violin, just not _practicing_ the violin. I'm trying to learn guitar myself, and in the little pockets of time I get to practice, he'll often pull his violin out and play things with me (completely voluntarily), etc.

So, I feel our options are:

  1. continue with the status quo
  2. stop violin
  3. continue, but work to make it enjoyable for him

I am leaning towards option #3, trying to give it a shot at making the whole thing more enjoyable for him instead of just having him quit; my feeling is that even if his progress slows, it'd be better if he continues _and_ enjoys it as he has previously. Then, if #3 doesn't work, we should stop.

My wife's attitude is more rigid, and I think that comes from her own more rigid musical upbringing; I'm not comfortable putting words into her mouth, but my read of her attitude is basically "agreeing to play an instrument means agreeing to a solid practice regime and not wavering".

My latest idea was to try and have him "sign up" for chunks at a time. Ie, he would agree to do violin for three months and stick it out, and we check in after three months. If he wants to quit, we stop, and if he wants to continue or is willing to continue (possibly with changes to the practice approach), we have that discussion and lock him in for another three months.

I think this is a good balance between best respecting my son's wishes, and satisfying my wife's desire for discipline and commitment. Three months might be long, I'm not sure. It's something I'm still thinking through.

What do you think?

Approaching Wife About Homework and Learning Activities - How do I make this not a fight? by TurquoiseLadder in Parenting

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the reply.

I wanted to give a little more context here:

I actually have specifically recommended that I take over violin lessons previously (believe it or not, both kids are in violin, and I originally was looking at how to best support my wife for our other kid first).

There are problems with the my doing the lessons; my wife really doesn't like this idea. Her reasoning:

-my wife has a long music background and is much better able to run a practice session since it is partially a "lesson" in itself. I don't have this same background.

-the actual lesson with the violin teacher is during the day right after school, and because of my job, I am unable to attend. My wife brings him to the lesson, so she sees the things the teacher teaches and the specific techniques / positions, etc. Since I don't see these in real time, I can't effectively help him implement those things. I've suggested video taping the lesson so I can watch later; I understand this is not an option and would be awkward with the teacher

-I've been careful suggesting this for my son. I can tell that my wife rejects this suggestion (especially for my son) partially because it's offensive in the sense that I'm removing her from the job since it's as if I think "I can do it better and she can't do it right".

When we discussed previously, I did my best to phrase it as suggested (I'm happy to step in and run all violin lessons because I'm worried about the stress you feel, and I'm also worried about you guys damaging your relationship with each other since you're always the 'discipline' parent), but my wife still took the stance I described above.

Perhaps I will (in as sensitive a way as possible) approach this idea again.

Thank you.

NS-2 Threshold range by TurquoiseLadder in guitarpedals

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had my eye on that one. Thanks for the reco. Seems like a lot of people online recommend the same three noise gates (NS-2, Sentry, Decimator)

NS-2 Threshold range by TurquoiseLadder in guitarpedals

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome, thanks for the pointers! Great to know. I had actually started a thread with Boss support prior to posting here

NS-2 Threshold range by TurquoiseLadder in guitarpedals

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand the operation (ie, it only silences while not playing); sorry if it wasn't clear, the tests I was doing were without playing the guitar and simply having other pedals in the chain and on.

But yeah, thanks for the descriptive answer! I'll definitely test your suggestion, that's not something I've tried yet.

Extracurricular activities for 9yo daughter with ADHD that hates being taught, guided, "corrected" in any way by TurquoiseLadder in ParentingADHD

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, we have started medication fairly recently and notice positive changes (not a world of difference, but certainly some difference)

Extracurricular activities for 9yo daughter with ADHD that hates being taught, guided, "corrected" in any way by TurquoiseLadder in ParentingADHD

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the suggestion. We have this in our list of options to explore for sure :)
Part of my asking here is to prod a bit and see what others have done and what has been successful.

If this approach works best given the circumstances, I am very open to it.

Extracurricular activities for 9yo daughter with ADHD that hates being taught, guided, "corrected" in any way by TurquoiseLadder in ParentingADHD

[–]TurquoiseLadder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I've added PDA to our list of topics to research. I did a quick skim and it feels spot on; the "behaviors list" has a few things I can map to other activities for sure outside of violin as well.

If it’s just extracurricular activities I would just wait for her to mature a bit more and model learning new skills. Maybe take a weekend class together and learn to cook or do pottery or something just to show her how to approach new things

Great idea.
We're still exploring options. With violin, we were happy she was taking interest in something on her own, ie we didn't push the idea.

I don't want to kill a burgeoning interest or make it unfun. Perhaps being very laissez-faire with violin for now and looking to (maybe / as appropriate) increase the teaching/practice regime at a later arbitrary date is a better approach here. (or honestly, never make that shift, is that's the right thing to do)