Sander Roscoe Wolff

I’d wanted an electric guitar for a long time, and was searching here and there rather aimlessly. I’d wander into a store and grab instruments just to see how they felt in my hands. I didn’t need to plug them in… I knew that I was looking for a fit, a feel, something indefinable that would eventually reveal itself. Sadly, one day, it did. I had the misfortune of grabbing a beautiful Paul Reed Smith guitar from the wall and it was as though the choir invisible began to sing, and light spilled forth from the heavens…. that is, until I saw the price tag. I wasn’t looking to spend $2000 on a guitar… More like $500. Still, now that I had the idea of what I was looking for, I continued my search. A friend, Jack Waterson, whose claim to fame was his membership in Green on Red, was working at a music store on Melrose. I described what I was looking for and, after trying a number of guitars, found this one.

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At some point I decided that I really needed an acoustic-ish bass. I was going for a more folksy sound at the time. My first act was to visit Jack Waterson who, at that time, was working at a music store called Guitar Guitar in North Hollywood. Jack, if you don’t know, was a founding member of, and bass player in, Green On Red, and by far the most ‘pro’ musician I knew at the time. He was steering me toward a beautiful, full bodied Guild which, without a doubt, was a finer instrument but, unfortunately, it was more expensive and didn’t come with built-in electronics, something I was looking for. They had two versions of the Washburn AB-20, a fretted and a fretless. I opted for the fretless. It has a simple piezo pickup under the bridge, and an on-board preamp/eq that was made by fishman (?).

This was my primary gigging and recording instrument for the early acoustic days of Poor Old Joe.

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This was the 2nd bass I purchased. It was a sea change for me, switching from the Guild Starfire short-scale fretted hollow body bass to a fretless solid body. I replaced the stock pick-ups with what were at that time brand new Bartolini 9E p/us which were their first Active pickups that didn’t require external circuitry. I really enjoyed playing and recording with this instrument.

A few years ago, in a moment of creativity and/or insanity, I took an orange paint pen and personalized the body. You can decide if my actions were misguided…

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I wanted a sweet potato (a kind of ocarina) and, because I had some wood left over from my guitar project, thought it might be nice if I could use it for that purpose. I found Charlie Hind who is considered by many to be the preeminant ocarina craftsman in the United States. He graciously concented to working with my wood, even though it caused him a few minor challenges. Check out the photos of the instrument as it is being made. Here are two of the final competed instrument:

He added layers of Birch and Bloodwood veneer as highlights.

I wanted a bowed string instrument, and decided upon the Psaltery. It is a fairly ancient instrument, with lots of character and charm. I found an instrument maker by the name of James Jones. His specialty is the hammered dulcimer, but he also makes harps, thumb pianos (kalimba), slit drums, and even guitars. He was very patient with me, and allowed me to choose the woods I wanted from his rather extensive collection. Here’s a photo:

The woods are as follows: Top & bottom are Stripy Mahogany, sides and bridge are Cocobolo, and the pin block is Rock Maple.

As you may know, some years ago I undertook the rather ambitious task of creating a custom guitar. It was an educational experience, fraught with unique challenges but, ultimately, rewarding. A friend pointed out that I’d not recorded an example of its various sounds and whatnot, so I did.

I’m including three links here. The first is

, with a total of 6 tracks. Please be forewarned that the lead is a bit wooly. I hope to improve upon it with some practice. In this early version there are very few effects (some delay and reverb, and gain on the lead).

In

, I added 6 additional tracks. Three are individual notes in a chord, sustained by a device called an e-bow, and played at double speed. I also added a bass guitar part (the only track not played on the Sandblaster) and two one-note harmony tracks at the end of the solo.

I’m also including a very brief example of the

, on their own, so you can get a better sense of them.

UPDATE:

A friend suggested that I add

to the piece.

After living with this first version for a while, I felt that a different reading of the words would work better. I also added some rather complex effects to the voice.

The result is

.

Read the words.

For quite some time now I’ve been collecting audio from various environments and, just recently, I’ve begun to edit and assemble them into what will eventually be a very large piece (60-80 minutes). I’ve posted a 10 minute segment that includes audio from 4 different recordings. I don’t know if you have a set of headphones that you can connect to your computer but, if so, I think you’ll enjoy the experience a bit more:

http://www.sanderis.com/audio/MD0507.mp3

Peace.

It has been several years in the making but I’m pleased to announce that for all intents and purposes the guitar project is complete. Lots of people asked if I had a name for it and, after pondering for a while, came up with The Sandblaster! This was one of my nick names when I was a kid, and seemed to sound like a guitar (a la Telecaster). I hope to take better pix at some point, but this was the best I could muster right now:

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Come To Me (Lyrics to

)
by Sander Roscoe Wolff

The pain inside has died at last
All hope has perished too
And every dream has turned to ash
There’s nothing left to do

I’ve walked alone through worse, I know,
And faced my every fear
Yet somehow as the end draws close
I wish that you were here

I don’t want your comfort, lord,
Forgiveness will not come
I want for you to know me once
Before I’m really gone

Your devils waiting patiently
Their flames are drawing near
And as their talons tear my flesh
I wish that you were here

I wish you stood inside these shoes
And bore this misery
But I refuse to call your name
And you won’t come to me

You made me in your image, lord
Yet you will shed no tear
This mother’s son has earned no love
I wish that you were here

We all have moments of weakness, when we do things we know we shouldn’t. We make choices based on motivations we really don’t understand and, sometimes, the consequences of those choices can be unpredictible. Such was the case a few months back when I went to an auction to sell some stuff. Here are some photos of what I left with:

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