Dandelyon's Worlds

So, I've been looking at short/shorter/mini (but not U-) acoustic basses online. There are only so many acoustic basses out there, most people want electric, but the stupid arthritis and degenerative tendinitis in my shoulders means those are too heavy for me to play for any length of time. (I even ended up switching out the narrow leather strap that my Grin Reaper came with for a wider one, because it made that very light little guitar cut into the wrong spot on my shoulder.)

The real problem with all this window shopping was that you can't feel how well a guitar neck fits your hand, whether the depth of the guitar is comfortable for your old shoulders and arms, how heavy it is, or hear whether you like the sound of it with your voice by watching demos on the internet, and nobody in town had a decent acoustic bass, much less all or even most of the ones I wanted to try out and compare to each other.

But there is a store that had all of them. The only issue is that it's 4-4.5 hours drive from my house.

My plan was to wait until it was a little warmer out and make a day trip. Then I saw that the store had a promotion going on the guitar I thought I was most likely to buy, letting me pay for it over three years with no interest (assuming I pay every month on time) and a small processing fee. If I got there this week.

So, on Thursday, I got up early (for me), drove to Sweetwater with my sweetie, and spent several hours playing acoustic basses. I played a lot of them. I played an Ovation and a Guild and a Fender, a six-string Warwick Alien (and then a four-string one), a couple of Breedlove ones, a Taylor GS Mini, and I forget what else.

Of the four acoustic basses hanging on the wall in the bass room, I played the Fender the most. The others didn't fit my hand as well. I was pretty sure I wouldn't want to buy it, but it was something to play while I waited for the other guitars to be brought to the room for me to try.

I loved the tone of the Breedlove basses. They're made from Myrtlewood, a tonewood from the Pacific Northwest that has a lovely sound and lovely grain patterns. And I liked the idea of a pretty tonewood from this country that is deliberately eco-friendly. But the neck was too chunky for my hand and the body was deep enough that my already-irritated shoulder complained.

I also really liked the Warwick Alien. The neck fit my hand well and it had a good tone, but it was more expensive than my other finalist. And it wasn't that much shorter a scale than my Luna. I'm sure if I'd started playing bass as a teenager or twenty-something, it would have been fine, but I didn't.

I ended up buying the Taylor GS Mini bass, with a lovely koa grain pattern and a very short neck. It has a lovely tone, quality electronics if I want to plug it in, and, I think, enough volume for playing without plugging it in in the filk circles that I enjoy so much. Taylor achieved this mini miracle by partnering with D'Addario, who designed a different kind of strings for it. They are heavy nylon core wrapped in metal (brass, I think). I love it that humans keep on tinkering with things to make wonderful new stuff like this.

The GS Mini also came with a padded gig bag designed to exactly fit the bass. My only issue with the bag is that its light brown color does not fit my usual aesthetic. I'm pondering whether to do something about that, but not today, as there is filk happening. First, there's a zoom filk starting in the morning, and then I'll be leaving that before it ends to head to a small in-person gathering nearby.

By the time the paperwork was done, I was tired enough that I didn't want to just wander the huge and lovely music store, looking at all the things I don't have any budget to buy. Though, if the store was local, I could easily have enjoyed myself until closing time playing different instruments and looking at recording equipment and reading the displays about their history.

But I still had a 4+ hour drive to get home. So we took a few pictures, visited the ladies' room, and got back on the road. It was nice to take the mask off too!



And finally, I am grateful to my patrons! Every penny from them for quite a while will go toward paying for the new bass. I'll have to think about what I can record on it, so my patrons can download it. I think my recording skills are up to doing that, now. If you want to support me, or just check out lyrics and other public posts, you can find me here: https://www.patreon.com/Wyld_Dandelyon

I suppose it makes sense that nothing about a trip to Faerie would be straightforward.

I started my preparations for the convention as I always do, by writing an e-mail to the programming department, offering to participate on panels. For the first time in…I don’t know how long, the convention had more than enough people doing panels, and the ones I was most interested in doing ended up being ideas saved for another convention, so I had no panels to do. Which, although I love doing panels—you get to talk with the most interesting people—was a nice change of pace.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So, I knew there were to be no panels, and I was already behind on NaNoWriMo, despite nearly catching up last weekend (next year I’m going to do a nano novel where I don’t have to keep stopping and thinking about worldbuilding stuff), and I’m working to impress my current employers because my current assignment is a much better fit for how my brain works than the previous one, and I want to get a good recommendation out of this when I’m again looking for permanent work. And, of course, I wanted energy to enjoy the con and to perform in the song circles, so when I was running short on time I gave up the plan to take art for the art show.

So, although I have cool wing-stuff to put on my fairy cat from sketchfest, and the guardian gargoyle to finish, and a plan for this music box that would make a perfect yule gift for the right demented fan, I didn’t push myself to get them finished or to take other art for the art show. And I didn’t try to squeeze in time to go buy a new tuner to replace the one that has suddenly gone dead, despite new batteries.

Instead, I grabbed my hand-me-up hand-painted green knotwork shoes, and my spring sky with butterflies, packed instruments and music and my dance of leaves, with material to add some gussets in hopes of wearing it again. I left the easel behind, and the acrylics, packing only a single sketchbook and my ancient store of colored pencils. And I packed jewelry—amber, amethyst, and the foam of volcanoes, moons, stars and leaves, butterflies, spirits and peace signs, and the stag who found me in festival mud.

And, after consulting with My Angel regarding arcane matters of wood and leather, I went to sleep and then to work with dreams of good music and maybe dancing filling my head.

I returned from work to find a box on my front porch. A box? Was I expecting a box? I couldn’t think of anything.

I took a few minutes before starting to pack the car to open the box. Inside were an owl, a mushroom, and a leaf – all hand-made shakers, with a card that said,


As soon as I could get us out of the house, we set off with an arcane set of directions, to wander unfamiliar streets that shone in the dark, hoping that if we performed the spell just right, we’d arrive in a place of music and magic, friendship and fun.


(Pictured here are the three shakers, on my drum, but once again, I'm getting ahead of myself.  More after I've had a chance to catch up on some sleep.)

It's outside of Madison, Wisconsin.  I expect to have a really good time, but I won't be around here much, if at all, until Monday or Tuesday.

Have fun, all!