This morning I took my Backlund Super 100 guitar off its stand with the idea of getting Emiko to take a photograph of me with it to post in this journal for fans to see. When I lifted the guitar from its stand I noticed that the bottom E string was completely slack and detuned. I then realised that the next four strings were also detuned and slack. At first I thought someone had been in the studio playing a joke on me, but who would do that? There's only Emi and I here and Emi would never do such a thing. So I then tried tuning the strings up, wondering if the machine heads had somehow slipped, though how five of them would all slip at the same time is highly unlikely. Then I saw what the problem was...the guitar is fitted with a Duesenberg 'Les Trem' vibrato unit and it was skewed at one side. When I looked more carefully I could see that the metal connecting the roller part to the base plate seemed to have sheared off completely, pulling the unit out of alignment. Very strange. I can only think that it's metal fatigue or something.
Anyway, it's not a fixable problem so I emailed Mike at Eastwood guitars to seek his advice. I sent a couple of photo's of the broken unit to illustrate what was going on. Mike said that he would arrange to send me a new 'Les Trem' to replace the broken one. When it arrives I'll get Gordon over at 'Single Coil Guitar Repairs' to remove the broken trem and install the new one and set the guitar up. Until I get this fixed, the guitar is unplayable. Luckily, I have a few other guitars somewhere I think! 😏
I was at the doctor's on Wednesday for the result of my blood test. (Part of my annual health checks.) It seems there's a problem with my liver. The doctor said this can be brought on by the medication I'm taking, but asked me if I drank alcohol. When I told him I enjoyed the best part of a bottle of red wine in the evenings he said it was far too much and asked how long I'd been doing that. I said "for many years". It's now one of my only remaining pleasures since I've been diagnosed with diabetes and had to give up chocolates and deserts and various other foods. (Red wine doesn't increase sugar levels funnily enough.)
Anyway, the doctor told me I must stop altogether. "Forever?" I replied, looking absolutely downhearted. "Well..." he said. "At least for two months, then we'll do another blood test and if your liver has recovered, you can drink again, but only one glass per night."
So, I'm now 'on the wagon' and feeling pretty miserable. After the stresses of the day I always looked forward to enjoying my wine, but I have to stay clear of temptation and hope that in two months time my blood test is more positive and I can pour myself a nice glass again.
I did find a completely non-alcoholic wine at the supermarket yesterday and thought I'd try it. It tasted like 'Ribena' more than wine, but when I tested my blood-sugar levels a little while after drinking a glass, the meter reading was far too high. I checked the amount of sugar on the bottle's label and realised that it contained too much sugar for a diabetic person to have. Probably when the alcohol is burned off it turns into sugar. So that's out of the picture too.... 😳
Oh, well. I'll just have to tough it out and hope for better news at the end of April.
The new forum on Dreamsville is now active and looks good but it will take time for fans to get used to it. There are some features that are missing from the old forum and I'm not sure they can be replicated on the new one, so there are plusses and negatives.
Ok, tomorrow is another day.....
Photograph of the broken 'Les Trem' on my Backlund Super 100 guitar. The arrow points to the sheared-off part that has caused the unit to twist away from its proper position.
A flyer for the album 'Stupid Serious' which will hopefully be released sometime later this year.