Bloglines to Google Reader

Well, I’d avoided the switch for as long as I could.  Frankly, I prefer the Bloglines interface to the Google Reader one.  And generally I like to root for the small guy.

But I’ve had it with Bloglines.  First it was the slowness at updating feeds.  Then it was the general slowness of the Bloglines servers.  The final straw was when it gave me two straight days of bad feeds–read feeds suddenly showing up with lots of articles I’d already read (up to hundreds of articles). The bad news is that this is not the first time I’ve had these problems with Bloglines.  But it is the last, I think.

I’m migrated my feeds over to Google Reader and am beginning to come to grips with it.  I hope this has a happy ending.

 

More on Elixir strings

I reported in an earlier post about trying both 80/20 Bronze and Phosphor Bronze Elixir strings and said that I’d report back what I found.  Well, after several months of use, here’s my report.

All in all, I prefer the “good ole” 80/20’s to the Phosphor Bronze’s.  There are two main reasons.  1) My guitar tends to be rather “bright” sounding anyway, and the P.B.’s just make it sound over the top, especially given… 2) the P.B.’s don’t age well.  I find that the P.B. strings deteriorate sonically faster than the 80/20’s.  The sonic degradation, when it occurs, is less graceful with the P.B.’s than with the 80/20’s, and the guitar begins to have a shrill edge to it.

So there you have it.  Of course, YMMV.  If you have a larger, more bassy guitar (like a big dreadnought), and live in a less harsh climate (I live in a rain forest, basically), the P.B. strings may be more to your liking.

 

Elixir guitar strings, part deux

Elixir guitar strings, originally uploaded by Eric Jeschke. Key: R20080321-115531

As you can see, there are BOTH 80/20 bronze and Phosphor bronze strings in custom light (11’s)–I was wondering about this in my previous post.

The owner of the guitar store said he didn’t hear much difference–said the Phosphor bronze were a little “brighter”. He didn’t have much to say about wear and tear. I bought a set of both and will report back what I thought of them. They are the same price, so it’s mostly a matter of opinion, I suppose.

 

On this blog

Well, should have been the first post, but what the heck…

This blog is for everything in my life I have to share that is not photography, which is on redskiesatnight.com, or Linux/open source stuff, which is at bilug.org.

At the moment, my other hobbies are playing guitar and ukulele, learning the Japanese language, and hiking and kayaking. And occasionally cooking, gardening and house-fixer-upper projects. Oh, and full time parenting (not really a hobby, but a full time job). Gosh, I’m busy. In any case, this blog is likely to be an amalgam of stuff. I will try to tag appropriately for visitors.

Welcome and enjoy!

–Eric

 

On Guitar Strings

Discovered today, while researching the difference between 80/20 Bronze and Phosphor Bronze strings: Guitar and String Tips. Very useful.

Oh, and the difference? Phosphor Bronze sound brighter and last longer. Although there seems to be a school of thought out there that 80/20’s sound a little more “even” throughout their lifetime.

Here in rainy, humid Hilo, Hawaii, I’ve come to rely on Elixir coated strings–they just last way longer than the others. They cost a premium, but it’s well worth it. I’m partial to the Nanoweb Custom Lights for acoustic (they are 11’s) . The custom lights may or may not come in both 80/20 and phosphor bronze; I know you can get them in 80/20, but I can’t remember whether I’ve ever found them in the Phosphor Bronze. A search on the web doesn’t turn up any. You can get the Lights and Light Medium’s (12’s) and Extra Lights (10’s) in Phosphor Bronze. For me, the 11’s are the perfect balance between tone, playability and finger fatigue. On an acoustic, the 10’s are too light and the 12’s are too heavy. Now that I know about the difference between Phosphor Bronze and 80/20’s, I want a set of Custom Lights in Phosphor Bronze…

On electric, I’m happy with the Nanoweb Lights (10’s). But I don’t see any of the electrics in Phosphor Bronze. Why?? According to the Guitar and String Tips site, Nickel wound is the way to go. Not sure what the Light electrics are, but I like em.

The Polywebs BTW, are the the thick coated strings. By all accounts, cuts the tone too much, and for little gain in longevity. So it’s the Nanowebs you want.

Time to suck it up and move up to Light’s on accoustic…?