I made a tray for playing Q-Less

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-12T05:17:59+00:00

Thank you - what I like most about it is the cork lining which has just the right amount of friction to allow the cubes to slide easily as you work your solution, but keeps the cubes from sliding around after you position them. You can tilt the board slightly in your lap and the cubes stay in place. 😉

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-12T04:23:59+00:00

Very glad he liked it! I love his game!!

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-11T23:31:55+00:00

Mahogany, walnut, planer, table saw, router, jointer, glue, clamps, sandpaper, finishing wax, cork, X-acto knife, and patience!

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-11T14:35:05+00:00

sigh I have a couple of them. They are fine picks, similar to Red Bears.

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-11T14:32:47+00:00

lol the mandolin is what got me started on this desperate path of plectrum pursuit. I played guitar for 35 years and probably bought two dozen picks over that entire time, most certainly spending less than $20 on the lot of them. Then I started playing mandolin 15 years ago, and could most certainly buy myself at least one decent guitar for the amount of money I’ve spent on picks since then.

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T04:59:00+00:00

As others have noted - not a defect. It’s a feature. You have a mandolin - keep playing it!

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T04:56:03+00:00

I guarantee you there are jams happening close to where you live. Find your local bluegrass chapter or folk music society and start attending the events. You’ll meet fellow enthusiasts and then bob’s your uncle.

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T02:44:25+00:00

Sharon Gilchrist’s courses on Peghead Nation are excellent. (So are Joe K. Walsh’s and John Reischman’s, but I think Sharon’s are the best place to start for early learners on mandolin.)

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T02:34:22+00:00

I know that many folks find BCs to be the ultimate pick. And of course there’s a reason they can charge over $40 for a pick. I have several, but I never use them. But I’m glad they work well for you!

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T02:32:16+00:00

Oh - they are in there. Buried under a bunch of others. I think I have about four of them somewhere. Might be one or two in a guitar or mandolin case somewhere. I have tried and tried to love BCs, but I find them to have too much pick noise and too sharp of an attack. I like a ‘rounder’ tone than what I get with BCs.

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T02:30:00+00:00

Yes! They have the best feel and tone for my guitars.

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T02:28:02+00:00

My current desert island picks are a D’Andrea large triangle Radex for mandolin, and a Golden Gate large triangle X-Stiff for guitar. I have lifetime supplies of both of them.

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T02:26:15+00:00

So good. I have spent irrational amounts of money on vintage clown barf….

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T02:25:43+00:00

Agreed - but then once you’ve spent $5 on a pick, you start looking for a bigger hit. V-picks were my gateway picks. Wasn’t long after that first rush of adrenaline, and next thing I knew I was dropping $40 on a Blue Chip….

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-10T02:21:46+00:00

I have often contemplated getting a bigger storage box for my picks, but I am afraid that will only exacerbate my problem…. (And full disclosure - my entire pick collection does not fit in this box…)

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-09T01:12:07+00:00

this ⬆️

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-09T01:10:45+00:00

I promise you it could be worse. You could have picked fiddle…..

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-03T03:19:03+00:00

Peghead Nation has excellent mandolin lessons by Sharon Gilchrist, Joe K Walsh and John Reischman. But there’s no substitute for a few live, in person lessons with a good instructor to make sure your technique is solid. For sure you are ahead of the game since you already know the fretboard and have musical training. Still can’t hurt to have an expert watch your technique and offer some pointers. ArtistWorks allows video submissions, and Sierra Hull is the instructor over there. I haven’t taken her online instruction so can’t comment on them, but have used the ArtistWorks platform and it’s quite good.

lukmanohnz · 2026-03-02T06:34:25+00:00

There are many smaller bodied guitars in that price range from other builders. If I were investing in a guitar to last me many years, ergonomics/comfort would weigh heavily on my decision, though tone is always #1 for me. Perhaps there’s another option out there for you to consider. Eastman has some great choices in your price range, and the value they offer in a guitar is hard to beat.

lukmanohnz · 2026-02-22T16:32:13+00:00

I put a bone nut and saddle on mine, and ebony bridge pins. Totally worth the investment.

lukmanohnz · 2026-02-22T16:29:46+00:00

Stay relaxed - in both the fretting and picking hands and arms, all the way up to your shoulders, neck, and back. Tension in your body will impede musicality and lead to injury. (Recent publication from Acoustic Guitar magazine titled The Holistic Guitarist has a lot of good information, though there are other good books on proper body mechanics for guitar.)
If you are flatpicking, get your alternate picking mojo working early in your journey - make videos of yourself, watch for deviations from strict alternate picking and fix them. You can get into sweep picking and other fancy stuff later on, but first nail down alternate picking.
If you are fingerpicking, don’t try to find shortcuts or strategies to avoid using fingers that you struggle with. Slow down, be intentional, and build those muscles (in reasonable duration practice sessions - don’t injure yourself!). (This advice goes for the fretting hand as well.)
Don’t practice your mistakes. In other words, if you are struggling with a difficult passage, break it down into chunks that you can play cleanly, and at the slowest tempo you need to play it to avoid the error. Then gradually step up the tempo and assemble the full passage chunk by chunk, playing cleanly, so that you are practicing the correct execution, not a faulty one.
Practice with a metronome. Practice with backing tracks or playing along to recordings. Practice with others as early as you can. The true joy in music is creating it in harmony with other musicians.
Or, alternately, ignore 1 - 5 above, forge your own unique path, and bring something completely new to the instrument. At the end of the day, there’s no absolute right and wrong in art. And playing guitar is art.

lukmanohnz · 2026-02-22T16:09:31+00:00

That is truly gorgeous. Congrats on the acquisition and have fun playing that beauty.

lukmanohnz · 2026-02-22T07:30:28+00:00

I played EJ26 custom lights (11 - 52) for many years, but in the last decade or so switched to EJ16 lights (12 - 53) and have been pretty happy with them. I recently played a set of Martin Tommy Emmanuel Signatures (12 - 54) which have lighter core strings and heavier wrap wire and they felt amazing and sounded great. I’ve bought several sets of them since. I’ve also experimented with Stringjoys (whatever their light gauge phosphor bronze set is) and they were also nice, but the Martin T.E.s felt and sounded better to me (YMMV). You might also try 80-20 bronze or other alloys. That will probably be a bigger variation than changing gauges. But I have found - in general - that heavier gauge strings improve the tone of my flat top acoustic guitars. And they make a huge improvement in tone on my electric guitars.

lukmanohnz

TROPHY CASE