Saturday, January 31, 2009

Catgut Strings

A few days ago, The Forest for the Trees had a recording session in the Dungeon. Things went moderately well; they will continue to go better; I was encouraged. Everyone left to go home and I scurried about attending to a couple of other tasks around the house

On a sudden, I heard a muffled crash, followed shortly thereafter by a blur headed up the stairs past the family room, the finale supplied by Trillium: "What was that?"

"Something fell upstairs," I replied.

"No," said Trillium, "Something fell down here." She was in the Atrium.

I had forebodings. I went to the Dungeon and discovered that the Pevey mixer had fallen from the computer hutch shelf on to the 12-string guitar. Two of the strings had been broken and two of the bridge pins had their heads severed off. I was distraught. "How in the world did that happen? I said out loud.

"You left the door to the Dungeon open."

"And...?"

"And.... Miss Kitty went in exploring, apparently jumped up to the top of the hutch, walked out on the edge of the mixer, and then scared the daylights out of herself as the whole thing came crashing down. So, before you have any ideas about doing that cat in, you will have to admit that it was your fault for leaving the door open."

Trillium was right. That was exactly what happened, and I did have designs on Miss Kitty's innards. Only two things deterred me.

First, the 12-string is a steel-string guitar. I had to go down to Summerhays and picked up a new set of strings. I decided on a set of Elixir strings. I think that I put the Nanoweb coated strings on. They are beautiful, far more beautiful than what my first impression was on the method of replacing the strings. It has taken a week for them to settle in and the guitar may be ready by the time we get together again to practice. While I was there at the music store, I picked up six bridge pins. You can never have too many of those. The pins cost me a dollar; the strings cost me $30.00. As I paid for the items, my eviscerating finger began to itch.

Second, natural guitar strings are not made from feline entrails, a fact that I learned while trying to find a recipe for an e-string. They are made from the viscera of a variety of animals, all of whom must be lean and ill-fed in order to have the proper tonal quality. Strike two on Miss Kitty.

So, the cat is safe for now, so long as she leaves the Yamaha alone.

5 comments:

Faith said...

Poor Missy Kitty was probably just looking for a nice quiet (and dark) place to take a nap. The Dungeon door was unexpectedly left open, sooooo.... Of course, first she had to make sure there were no monsters lurking about, hence she had to explore every nook and cranny.... Imagine her terror when she accidentally knocked something over and then a lurking monster actually jumped up and roared at her!!!! Poor thing!

Katscratchme said...

I felt worse for your guitar than the cat... I suppose I figured that the cat at least was unharmed, aside from her nerves. I cringed for your guitar... good thing the wood wasn't damaged.

Anonymous said...

Dumb cat. I swear you guys have the most neurotic can on the planet.

Katscratchme said...

No, Dara... I have the most neurotic cat on the planet... You HAVE met Johnny, haven't you?

Zaphod said...

No, we have the most neurotic "can" on the planet. Can't you read? The "can" is neurotic because Miss Kitty drinks out of it all the time and then barfs up hairballs on the carpet. How would you feel if you were responsible for that?