Jordan Logue

Archive for September, 2011|Monthly archive page

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

In Smoke, Uncategorized on September 8, 2011 at 6:38 pm

Caution. This article is about the use of a legal, but politically incorrect product. Person with immature minds may be offended.

It’s hard to come by. One must be ever vigilant. The time to buy is when you see it. But don’t buy more than you can use in a reasonable amount of time – it will spoil. If you are of a nature to share things, this might change your mind. If you do share, think hard about which of your friends you share with. This stuff is not for just anybody. I am talking about a certain pipe tobacco: Penzance.

Penance is seriously good tobacco for serious pipe smokers. And if you are not a pipesmoker, Penzance may the stuff that converts you. This is not that bulk tobacco that you find in many fine tobacco shops. This is what is generally referred to as “flake” tobacco, or some people call it “cake” tobacco. It is a mixture of Virginia tobaccos, choice Turkish and Orientals, and some Cyprian Latakia, all hand blended together, then hard pressed and broad cut into thick flakes. I was recently able to procure some and opened it this afternoon in my smoking lounge which some people refer to as my “garage.” I separated two of the thick slices and crumbled them into my pipe bowl and packed it down lightly. Penzance lights easily but one must follow the credo of light thrice, tamp twice. It has a moisture that will cause it to go out if you do mot follow this stricture.

The smoke billows, then lingers, then dissipates, ever so slowly. It hangs there just the right amount of time so as to leave a pleasant memory. If only more people could do this.  The flavor and aroma of the burning penzance will transport you. Before long you are looking around for Winston, the service captain to appear through the clouds of smoke with your glass of brandy or single malt on a silver tray. There is no candy in this. No fruit, no rum, no male syrup. Things that are found on a salad bar and buffet at Shoney’s should not be blended with pipe tobacco.

Two slices filled my bowl nicely. Not clear to the top, but about three-quarters the way up. The smoke delivers a delicious tang at first, followed by a bold tobacco flavor, and then finishes with with an earthiness that is best described as dirt – clean dirt. If you smoke it properly and don’t try to conjure up smoke signals, it will burn delightfully cool. Properly packed you should get a good thirty minutes out of it. And you never get the feeling that a cat has been using your tongue as a scratching post.

But it can spoil!. Bulk tobaccos will dry out. That’s easily remedied. Dump it into a bowl, wet your hands and toss it like you are making a salad. I would not advise using an actual salad bowl though, lest someone find a bit of burley among their hearts of romaine. But penzance will go moldy on you. When I first started smoking it, I decided that it was so good that I did not deserve it on a regular basis, and saved it only for special occasions. (That’s the Catholic upbringing in me.) Three weeks after opening the tin, it started growing mold. Solution? Buy it; smoke it.

I can only hope that the CEO of the company that imports this stuff has never made a contribution to a Republican, or the stuff will end up being seized and stored as evidence alongside the rosewood fingerboards taken from the Gibson Guitar Company. I do hope the evidence locker is temperature and humidity controlled.

I’m going back to my smoking lounge now with my tobacco, and my Gibson Hummingbird Guitar. And I’m not going to share.

,

Violin or fiddle?

In Music on September 4, 2011 at 10:40 am

Is that a violin or a fiddle?

If you have read my first novel, “One Fiddle Too Many,” you might have picked up that I have more than a passing interest in violins. Some close friends and family members have suggested that it is a substance abuse problem, and on occasion have attempted interventions. The closest they have come to success is an agreement that I divest myself of two instruments for each one that I acquire. This applies to all my musical instruments, not just fiddles, with the result that I am down to three playable violins. (This does not count bass fiddles which get special consideration. The agreement is more complex than most U.N. treaties, and at least as controversial. For example, my workshop which is full of violin carcasses and bones, is exempt from the agreement, but on a case by case basis can be made subject to most of the terms.)

As to my playing ability, I am a passable jam session bluegrass fiddler. I can do some Irish, some old-time, some country. I can’t read a stick of music, but I have a pretty good ear, and I can figure my way through a lot of what I need to.

Today, I am going to address the issue of the difference between a fiddle and a violin. There is none. I could end this piece right here, but what a waste of the internet if I did. I mean Al Gore went to all that trouble to invent the internet, the least I can do is my part to fill it with what little bit of information I can scrape together. So, here goes.

People associate the word fiddle with old time country fiddlers from the backwoods of the Appalachians. Most fiddlers probably have little brothers with pale skin and pointy ears who play the banjo. The fact is that the word fiddle probably pre-dates the word violin in reference to bowed string instruments.

I have heard some people say that a fiddle is flatter than a violin. Not true. The instruments that are more rounded and more highly or gracefully arched are designs that came from violinmakers such as Amati or Guarnerius. Stradivari came along with his design that flattened out the arches.

I have heard folks say that a fiddle player sets his sound post a little farther back, farther up, closer to the center, closer to the edge, grain running crossways to the top, grain running with the top; everything in the world to try to differentiate it from a violin. The fact of the matter is this: There is one place for the soundpost to be installed properly. Minute adjustments in any direction can be made by a luthier in conjunction with the musician to reflect personal preference. But that does not turn a violin into a fiddle. (If you don’t know what the sound post is, fear not. I will publish an article on this remarkable 3 inch piece of spruce dowel another time.)

It’s the strings! Fiddlers play on steel strings. Violinists play on gut strings. First of all I don’t know anybody who uses gut strings anymore. Especially here in Florida where they would grow mold and rot. I know a lot of fiddlers and we all agree on this: steel strings are very useful in the garden for making fences around your vegetable patches. You want your fiddle to sound good spend some money on strings with some kind of synthetic core wrapped with something smooth. A string that is good enough for a concert hall will be just as welcome at a barn dance.

I guess the myth I hear most often regards the bridge. The bridge is that little slice of maple that hold up the strings. The strings cross over it and it transmits the vibrations to the body of the instrument where the magic takes place. On a properly set up classical violin, this bridge has a rather dramatic arch to it. This enables to violinist to play each string separately and distinctly. I had long been told that if one is going to fiddle, you need a barely perceptible curve to the bridge so that you can play two strings at once easily.

Old bridge on the left; new one is on the right.

Now it is true that a fiddler will play more of what we call double stops – playing two strings at once. Why that is may be the subject another article altogether. But in fact, classical music has its share of double stops, so it is entirely possible and often necessary to play two strings at once on a highly arched bridge.

Now, with this as background, let me tell you about one of my recent bouts with lutherie.  It is a perfectly adequate violin. The person from whom I bought it was a well-known and highly accomplished professional fiddle player. The bridge was very nearly flat, and the soundpost was almost adjacent to the foot of the bridge rather than the recommended 4 – 5 mm back. I played this just as it was set up when I bought for probably the next 12 to 15 years. Volume and tone suited me perfectly, and this is the instrument on which I learned most of what I know.

I decided to mess around with things. I cut a new soundpost and installed it properly, then set to work fitting a bridge of classical description to it. Fitting a bridge is an activity that requires a great deal of patience, skill and very, very sharp knives. It should not be done during cocktail hour. So, I carved, and fit and set, and removed, and carved more, sanded a little, carved again, and finally had a very respectably carved bridge of classical proportions.

I restrung the instrument with the new bridge, tuned up the strings and with the playing of only a few notes of a scale, I wondered where my old fiddle went. I realized that I was playing an instrument that had only been giving me sixty percent (this is a very subjective assignment of a mathematical notion, mind you) of what it was capable. Everything that I liked about it got better. The high notes got brighter and stronger. The low notes took a warmth that was noticeable before, but now somehow, well warmer. Volume increased. Many folks who have heard me play the fiddle may not be pleased with that development. It will take me some time to develop the proper bowing technique to play on a classical bridge. But that’s me not the fiddle.

So, there you have proof positive that there is no technical difference between a violin and a fiddle. There may be personal preferences among individual musicians, but we are all fiddlers; we are all violinists.