Halswell House

All pictures posted on DAS and Plank's blog, which can be attributed to this session, are assembled in this page.

After leaving Tottenham Manor, the band continued recording at Halswell House from october 30th to november 17th 2006. The equipment had been set up during the week of october 23rd, with some preparations taking place the week before already.

During the preparations and the session itself, Plank posted several times on his blog at stringsreunited.com:

Ugh!......

Thurs 19th Oct

I seem to have a bad case of Man flu, so am wandering around feeling sorry for myself, moaning and drinking endless cups of Lem Sip..
Anyway, enough of that........ I am getting asked the same questions fairly regularly so will be setting up a FAQ page soon, there is a bit of delay answering queries or posts due to being a tiny bit busy!....... but, as before I am happy to answer Tech / Guitar / Woodwork / Electronics questions if I can......SO...
Jonny's current vox is a standard AC30-6 Top Boost re-issue running with mesa boogie valves, this changes often, with the previous touring amp being a Dave Petersen special, which are bulletproof! - these amps are currently used flat out all day every day for the 'We will Rock you' stage show and just keep on going - if a little hot!........
Working out different ways of getting these amps to sing, I have experimented with kicking the input voltage up via a large transformer, this sounds great but this shortens the life of good quality valves considerably and cheap ones last about 10 minutes !!
A powerbrake of some kind is a good way of squeezing extra drive from the speakers whilst keeping the volume to a useable level......... These go in line between the amp output and the speakers and will have a rotary or stepped control, be sure to select the correct impedance or you may damage your amp!
We are having a bit of a sort through the mountain of equipment and will shortly be selling some radiohead amps and bits and pieces, hope to post these up next week.
That reminds me, the original impetus for starting the site was Eds guitar being stolen ( as well as everything else!) there is a picture and description on the Stolen Equipment list, please have a look as I know that many fans of the band look at this site and it would be great to find it!... Spending today piano moving and sorting stuff out for round 2 next week.......
:-)

Welease Wodger

Wed 1st November

After a busy week setting up again, I spent Sunday dismantling and removing an old harpsichord from the local church to save it from certain death in the skip!! - it looks like it should be ok with a bit of TLC..........Now back in recording at another secret location...........this morning experimenting , making up some space echo tapes with different kinds of tape, trying to improve general sound quality and feedback.
If you are interested in weird and experimental instruments, I found a website with loads of odd and amusing stuff on it - check out the guitar machine, it must have taken ages to get that right !! - link is below.
Whilst out and about yesterday, I had the pleasure of looking at and playing a genuine 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, surely one of the best guitars ever made, it just sounds and feels great!, now very rare and a tiny bit expensive...............Gibson are doing a vintage old stock '57 re-issue, which is meant to follow the original very closely - I hope to try one out next week - it will be nice to be able to do a comparison with the real thing to see just how good they are.................... time to go as all has gone quiet next door, except for a large buzzing noise................ pic is of '57 Goldtop. :-)

ť That weblink... http://www.oddmusic.com

A bit parky............

Fri 3rd November

A late night last night, woke up freezing about 6am after falling asleep with the window wide open..................spent the morning drinking many cups of tea and removing spring reverb gubbins from boogie amp and building it into a stand alone thing.
Did you know..........The speed of sound is approximately 340m per second and the frequency of a sound wave is measured in cycles per second. (hz) The distance a sound wave travels in one cycle is known as the wavelength.
The wavelength is equal to the speed of sound divided by the frequency, so.....a sound wave at 34hz (just below c#1) has a wave length of 340/34 = 10m...............
I have been getting some good results with the space echo tapes - I can make some up if anyone needs any.....................as for batteries, I am mostly using procell which have about 9.45 volts when new and are particularly good in radio packs down to about 8v and can then be used in effects pedals, GBS are a good supplier (01708 769222) and cheap as long as you buy more than just one or two...... pic is of Kalimba :-)

Wood ?

Monday 6th November

I am pleased to note that yesterday passed without blowing any fingers off or accidentally setting my hair on fire!.............Back in the studio again this afternoon after a few hours driving in thick fog.....a few people have asked questions about making guitars and whether or not to have a go ........
There may be many reasons for wanting to build your own guitar - a few years ago a good reason would have been that it may be cheaper, but that is not now the case, as you can now get a reasonable(?) guitar for a couple of hundred quid..........maybe wanting a good quality personalised instrument that is truly yours is the reason that is most likely to provide the necessary drive and produce a pleasing end result !
Whatever the reason for starting, it can be a very enjoyable experience but not an easy one!...............You need less tools than you may think, but you do have to know how to use them - if you are able to measure and mark out accurately, saw straight and plane flat ,then that should do it, but you have to have patience and be prepared to accept that you may make some(costly) mistakes along the way !!
It is good to start with something simple that will help and encourage you whilst you are making it - as I have probably said before, Leo Fender got it right over fifty years ago and one could do worse than follow an example that has proved so long lasting.
So..........a telecaster style guitar is probably a good place to start, also you won't have far to go to have a look at one if you get a bit stuck!
As far as tools go, the old 'buy the best you can afford' is true but you need less tools than you may imagine, the most all round useful tool to have is a router (1/4" is sufficient to start with as most guitar based stuff is fairly light) closely followed by the band-saw which you can't really do without - there are a number of others, drills, planes, scrapers etc but those are the big ones to try and get sorted.
When you are ready to start, it's a good idea to practice various procedures (band sawing , fret slotting, cavity routing etc) on scrap wood before turning your expensive and exotic hardwood into a pile of shavings and then trying to explain to the cheery bloke at the timber yard why you need another piece so soon !
Many joinery based items often involve a lot of setting up of machinery and repetition work, guitar making is a craft and employs many different skills on a relatively small workpiece, which keeps it interesting and enjoyable.
Another thing worth spending time on is making jigs - my friend Paul makes and uses jigs all the time and produces high quality hi-fi and studio speakers, a few years ago when we were working in the workshop together, (I would always do everything freehand) I would see him out of the corner of my eye tutting and shaking his head as I routed freehand f-holes on the front of a guitar I had spent two months making !
It only takes one slip to ruin things and I now use jigs for many things and 6mm mdf is a lot cheaper than a slab of Ash or Mahogany! .........I guess the best reason of all for getting started is just that you want to do it :-)
With regard to stage tuners - I have tried several kinds and the one that is quick and reliable is the Boss TU12-H, you can't really beat it, strobe tuners are good and more accurate for intonation but not quite quick enough if you are constantly tuning a pile of guitars................pic is of a nice 60's SG and a dead fly :-)

Van fever.........

Tuesday 7th November

Today I have mostly been collecting more studio gear and driving 280 miles in thick motorway fog, eating crisps and drinking fizzy pop instead of stopping for a proper lunch...tut tut.
I am now back in my kennel and attempting to fix the old Fender champ, which has decided to be noisy and throw out some extra unwanted voltage................re:space echo....Quantegy 456 tape seems to do the required thing - Jonny is about to give it a go.
For anyone interested in learning to read music, I found a good book in Spain a couple of weeks ago - called (wait for it!) 'how to read music' by Roger Evans.....printed in 1978 it is very clear and comprehensive - there are a few copies for about three quid on abebooks isbn 024189896 or 0241899168..................back to it! :-)

ť That weblink... http://www.abebooks.co.uk

Scrabster............

Friday 10th November

A chilly start this morning, sitting as close as possible to the heater without scorching my leg..........all quiet this morning after a late night so will be tidying the work bench as there are almost no tools left in my tool case!..............
re: guitar pickups - The original guitar pickup was pretty much invented by George Beauchamp, who worked for National guitars in the late 1920's, his first experiments involved removing a pickup from an old phonograph, mounting it on a wooden block and using a single steel string to prove it would work.
Several months of work and experimentation resulted in a pickup with large horseshoe magnets that enclosed the coil and surrounded the strings - this was eventually to become part of the famous wooden 'frying pan' guitar, which was the first to be offered with an electro magnetic pickup....Beauchamp, who had meanwhile teamed up with Adolph Rickenbacker, was granted a patent in 1937.................
A guitar pickup is basically an electro-magnetic device that converts physical energy (vibrating steel string) into an electrical pulse (alternating current).
A pickup in one form or another is a bar magnet or pole pieces set in a bobbin, with thousands of turns of fine copper wire wound around it....(the original stratocaster had over 8,000 turns).
When the magnetic field is altered by the vibrating string, this produces small electrical pulses in the coil itself, that travel through your volume and tone controls, jack socket and down the cable into your amp, where it is magnified many times and then fed into the speaker which converts the signal into sound waves :-)................. pic is of this mornings mess!

Know what I mean ?........

Wednesday 15th November

A good day today, made better by hearing the old Young Chang piano sounding good after many hours have been spent working on it, repairing broken and worn hammers and shafts that have become tired after a few years wear and tear, a great piano!!
re: Infinite sustain......powered by 9 volt batteries, the Fernandes sustainer unit generates a magnetic field, which causes the strings to vibrate............ The sustainer circuit produces magnetic pulses via the neck driver pickup, causing the strings to vibrate which are in turn picked up (!) by the bridge humbucker...........resulting in infinite sustain, which works well......
As well as all the instructions being printed in Japanese, it is tricky to retro fit as there is very little room inside the Strat to fit the circuit board and it may be necessary to rout a cavity for the battery......Fernandes do make a guitar with the unit already fitted..
re:Microphonic pickups: sometimes you can get a pickup that squeals and becomes microphonic, this is usually due to vibration in the pickup coils - this can be reduced greatly by 'potting', which is done by dipping the coil in molten wax, as the wax cools it hardens and seals the coils - a fairly messy and slightly risky job but cheap and effective !.....
This used to be done by Fender several years ago but many are now lacquered, which can become brittle and break...
Already working out equipment and logistics for next session, trying to remember what went in which case and making many lists which end up covered in scribbles...........making a 1u spring reverb thingy..... it's just after midnight and sleepy -could be time for a cup of coffee and some more soldering......... pic is of Harry :-)

Following the sessions at Halswell House, the band and their crew took time off during the week of november 20th. Thom would record his performance of 'The Clock' for the BBC2 TV show Later... with Jools Holland on the 24th.
At the end of this november 20th post on Dead Air Space Thom briefly mentions that the last week at Halswell House had been a good one:

Mon, 20 November

	week offf
		i just got sent two really interesting requesting type letters this week ( a blessed week off from recording) i get these things A LOT but i wanted to let you know about these ones becuase they ring bells in my head.. maybe they might with you.. 1. www.StopGlobalWarming.org Join the Stop Global Warming Virtual March on Washington.. dont know how many of you know about this in the US but at last the issue seems to be everywhere for you as it is in the UK. the idea of a virtual petition in this instance seems like genius to me. (i have also just finished george monbiots Heat book about global warming... and even though he's a mate of mine i recommend it as the ideal christmas present. well... that is if you dont mind being called a sourpuss or a scrooge. lots of my mates went to see him give talk at the sheldonian theatre in oxford which was very inspiring. if a little terrifying. but then what can be more terrifying than watching the trees not changing colour when they should. ok perhaps i should get out more. it aint very rocknroll. but i long since pissed all that bullshit away.) 2. http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/ supermarket demand for fish ( not that i eat fish or meat ) has meant we are fishing to extinction . what i find particularly offensive are the enormous nets they use that drag everything up and well.... just have a read. supermarkets should be made to source their fish responsibly and governments should act in the intersest of our future to regulate for sustainable fishing. not this mass production/destruction shit. i respect peoples right to eat fish. but evertime i watch the guys in the band sitting down to their whatever it is with scales i quietly wonder how its arrived. and what was destroyed and killed or thrown away to get it.... sermon over. sorry. we had a good week in the studio last week. finally things are growing. thm
		Thom