I have a lot of fun playing music now that I'm retired from the engineering world. It all got started with my kids being in the excellent musical theater program at the Edmonds Homeschool Resource Center (EHRC). Mike Corey does most of the music for them. My wife bugged him about how her husband was a musican from way back and how he should check me out. Well, there was a charity concert for Katrina that he was performing in, invited me to join, and we've been doing musicals ever since.

• Past/Present/Future Musical Performances:
• Carrie the Musical - Nov 2024 - Ballyhoo Theater at Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Kbd2
• TEDx EdmondsCollege - Oct 2024 - Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Sound Design
• Voices of the Himalayas Sep 2024 - Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Sound Design
• Urinetown - Jul 2024 - Ballyhoo Theater at Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Backup Sound
• The Lightning Thief (Musical) - Apr 2024 - Ballyhoo Theater at Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Guitar 2 Acoustic, Electric, Mandolin and Melodica
• The Nutcracker - Dec 2023 - Olympic Ballet Theater at Everett Performing Arts Center and Edmonds Center for the Arts - Videography
• Ride the Cyclone - Nov 2023 - Ballyhoo Theater at Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Sound Design (8 personal mics, orchestra, live auto-tune)
• Shapeshifters - Aug 2023 - Ballyhoo Theater at Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Sound Design
• Chicago Jr - Jul 2023 - Ballyhoo Theater at Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Sound Design
• Summmer Performance - Jun 2023 - Olympic Ballet Theater at Edmonds Center for the Arts - Spot Videography - (Sony A6000, Sony NEX3)
• Sleeping Beauty - May 2023 - Olympic Ballet Theater at Edmonds Center for the Arts - Spot Videography - (Canon T6, Sony A6000)
• Fun Home - Mar 2023 - Ballyhoo Theater at Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Guitar - (Electric, Steel String Acoustic, Nylon, 12-String Acoustic)
• On A Clear Day You Can See Forever - Aug 2022 - Ballyhoo Theater at Edmonds College Black Box Theater - Sound (12 personal mics and orchestra)
• Best Xmas Pageant Ever - Dec 2019 - Red Curtian Foundation for the Arts - Guitar (Electric, Steel String Acoustic)
• American Idiot - Jul 2019 - Ballyhoo Theater at EDCC Black Box - Guitar 1 (Electric, Steel String Acoustic)
• Working - May 2019 - Northshore Performing Arts Center - Guitar (Electric, Steel String Acoustic, Nylon Acoustic, 12-String Acoustic, Mandolin)
• Footloose the Musical - Jul 2018 - Studio East at the Kirkland Performing Arts Center - Guitar (Electric, Steel String Acoustic, Nylon Acoustic, Mandolin)
• Gutenberg The Musical - May 2018 - Driftwood Players - Guitar (Electric, Steel String Acoustic, Nylon Acoustic)
• B3ND: Our Time - Dec 2017 - Ballyhoo Theater at The Phoenix Theater - Guitar (Electric, 12-string)
• Xanadu - Aug 2017 - Ballyhoo Theater at Seattle Muical Theater at Sand Point - Guitar
• Mary Poppins - Jul 2017 - Studio East at the Kirkland Performing Arts Center - Banjo, Guitar (Electric, Steel String Acoustic)
• The Spitfire Grill - May 2017 - Ballyhoo Theater - Guitar(Acoustic, Nylon), Mandolin
• Bend2:R&J - Jan 2017 - Ballyhoo Theater - Guitar(Electric, 12-String, Nylon), Bass
• The Spitfire Grill - Nov 2016 - Edmonds Heights - Guitar(Acoustic, Nylon), Mandolin
• Carrie: the Musical - Aug 2016 - Ballyhoo Theater - Guitars: Electric(Les Paul, Strat), 12-String, Nylon
• Cabaret - Jul 2016 - Ballyhoo Theater - Banjo, Lap Steel Guitar
• Wizard of Oz - Feb 2016 - Edmonds Heights - Keyboards
• Bare the Musical - Aug 2015 - Ballyhoo Theater - electric guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, nylon acoustic
• Big Fish - May 2015 - Edmonds Heights - 6-str acoustic, 12-str acoustic, banjo, mandolin, slide dobro, electric guitar, nylon acoustic (7 total!)
• Side Show - Jan 2015 - Edmonds Heights - Guitars, Banjo, Mandolin, Keyboards
• Legally Blonde - Aug 2014 - Ballyhoo Theater - Guitars, Mandolin, Keyboards
• Shrek the Musical - Jan 2014 - Edmonds Heights - Guitars, Keyboards
• Return To The Forbidden Planet - Dec 2013 - Edmonds Heights - Guitars, Keyboards
• Godspell (2012 ver) - Aug 2013 - Ballyhoo Theater - Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Mandolin, Ukulele, Keyboards
• The Wedding Singer - May 2013 - Bothell HS - Guitar, Mandolin, Keyboards
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - Aug 2012 - Ballyhoo Theater - Guitar, Mandolin, Keyboard
• 13 - Jul 2012 - Ballyhoo Theater - Guitars (electric,acoustic)
• Xanadu - May 2012 - Edmonds Heights - Guitar, Kbd2
• Starmites - Feb 2012 - Edmonds Heights - Guitar, B3
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - Nov 2011 - Northwest Savoyards - Guitar, Mandolin, Keyboards
• Nunsense - Apr 2011 - Driftwood Players - Kbd2, Bass (on kbd), Guitar, Mandolin, Lap Seel Guitar
• Schoolhouse Rock Live! - Feb 2011 - Edmonds Heights - B3, Piano, Guitar, Mandolin
• The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - Mar 2010 - EHRC - Keyboards, Guitar
• Curtains - Jan 2010 - EHRC - Keyboards
• Fiddler on the Roof - May 2009 - Bothell HS - Accordion, Mandolin, Keyboards
• Once on This Island - Jan 2009 - EHRC - Guitar, Keyboards
• Footloose the Musical - May 2008 - Bothell HS - Keyboards, Mandolin
• All Shook Up - Jan 2008 - EHRC - Guitar
• Joseph and the Amazing Techicolor Dreamcoat - Nov 2007 - Driftwood Players - Keyboard, Guitar, Mandolin
• The Boyfriend - May 2007 - Bothell HS - Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin
• Cats - Mar 2007 - EHRC - Keyboard, Guitar
• The Pajama Game - Jun 2007 - EHRC - Keyboard, Guitar
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - May 2006 - Bothell HS - Keyboard, Guitar
• Return to the Forbidden Planet - Mar 2006 - EHRC - Keyboard, Guitar


• Musical Instruments:
• Keyboards:
• Kurtzweil PC2X - This is my replacement workhorse keyboard as of 10/2024. It's well built like the PC-88 and still 52 Lbs but the purple color is pretty distracting. The organ simulator is a huge upgrade from the PC-88. The programming is bit more difficult as the organ patches are handled differently than the regular patches and seem a bit glitchy on startup.
• Kurtzweil PC-88MX - This is my old workhorse for most gigs. It's as solid as a tank, and easy to setup for lots of fast patch changes. Unfortunately it has the standard Fatar sticking key problem that this model is known for, fixed with a lot of disassembly and scotch tape. Quit booting 10/2024. I'll keep working on fixing it, but I'm greatful for 24 years of dependable service.
• Ensonic EP-S - A 12-bit sampler inherited from my sister-in-law. Fun with floppies.
• Yamaha CP-70B - The first real semi-portable acoustic piano. It weighs a ton, but it sounds great and the action is unbelieveably good.
• Fender/Rhodes Stage 73 - My first electrict piano and classic from the 1970's. Now owned by Caleb Corey.
• Guitars: ( they will have their own page someday )
• Warmoth Dragon Strat - Birdseye maple SRV contour 11/16 corian nut neck with 22 fret 6105 stainless steel frets, planet waves locking tuner hardware, hardtail bridge, seymour duncan cool rails neck PU, seymour duncan classic stack middle and bridge PU, Ghost saddle acoustic bridge pizeo pickups, 5-way switch with blender pot, balanced output wiring, green alder body with yellow tiger maple burst, ivory pearl pickguard.
• Warmoth Dark Strat - solid rosewood thin contour neck with canary wood skunk stripe, 5/8" graphite nut, 22 6105 stainless steel frets, planet wave tuners, hollow mahogony body with canary wood front veneer, seymour duncan cool rails neck PU, seymour duncan vintage rails middle and bridge PU, Gotoh Wilkinson Tremolo, tortise shell pickguard, blender pot wiring, balanced output jack,
• '79 Fender Strat - 3-bolt 5/8" solid maple neck, hardtail, black hard ash body, pearl pickguard, all stock except for the pickguard ( stock was black on black ). It's heavy ( about 11 pounds ), but plays real nice.
• Sega Strat - Built this in the early '80s. Plywood construction body, natural laquer finish, DiMarzio neck PU, very stiff and loud.
• Kimberly Electric - A cheap 1960's vintage Japanese guitar (from Lafayette Radio and Electronics) that got tweaked with Gibson components. It's got a Gibson tune-o-matic bridge, microtune tailpiece, and a single Gibson PAF humbucker from a '60s LesPaul. Sounds like an SG and _very_ fragile.
• Ovation 1111 Acoustic - My mainstay acoustic since about 1982. The neck has warped over the years. It came with a lifetime warranty, but the patina of the sitka spruce top is hard to part with and I fear that if I send it back to the factory, they will just send a new replacement. I just recently added an Artec pizeo under saddle pickups and an in-body pre-amp to the guitar for the musical Godspell. The pickups sounded really nice. Someday I'll get a page up for this guitar detailing the installation and perhaps a few sound clips from the musical.
• Rogue Console/Lap Steel - A really nice lap steel for about $100. I got the sparkly blue one. I've been playing it with a C6 tuning for that country twang.
• Jackson JSR-22 "Dinky" - I picked up this guitar a a local pawn shop ( Creighton Music ) for about $120 for the Wedding Singer musical. A lot of the lead guitar lines needed a double coil 80's guitar and this fit the bill perfectly. I replaced the machine tuners with locking Schallers to keep it in tune when I bent the strings flat. These tuners cost more than half of what I paid for the guitar, but it was a worthwhile upgrade.
• Rogue Triolan Biscut Resonator - This guitar has been a bit of a regret. It didn't really have the spider resonator sound I was looking for. It sounds nice, but not quite the tonal bite of a Dobro.
• Washburn Oscar Schmidt 12-String Acoustic-Electric Guitar - Got this guitar for "Big Fish". It's a great sounding 12-string, but a bit of a huge neck. The built in electronics and tuner work great. Seems pretty good at staying in tune, but like all 12-strings, time will tell as to how well the neck survives under all that tension. (I've seen my fair share of cheap 12-string guitars with necks that warped badly over time)
• Sky Acoustic-Electric Nylon Guitar - This was a find down at the Tacoma Goodwill for $42. Had a nice drive down to Tacoma to pick it up as they wanted an extra $25 to ship it via UPS to my home. I replaced the steel strings with nylon ones (Earnie Ball) and had to reinforce the 1/4" jack as the wood around it was cracking. Still needs a little work on the nut to get the nylon strings to the proper height, but sounded great in the musical "Big Fish".
• Homemade Square Neck Plywood Spider Cone Resonator - When the biscut resonator didn't work out, I decided I had to find a spider resonator for the show "Big Fish". Nothing in the pawn shops or on ebay, but I did find a spder resonator conversion kit from a vendor up in Canada for $50. Ohhh, that could be the start of a custom resonator guitar just the way I wanted it. Took about 8 weeks total time, but it was worth it. I'm working on a blog about the counstruction of this guitar. I'll also add some clips from the show, as it worked out great. Also did the same trick as the banjo by mounting a PZM microphone inside the body and sending that to a local mixer and then to the sound board. Worked out great!
• Washburn Oscar Schmidt Les Paul Style Electric Guitar - It was only $200 on Amazon, but it's a better copy of a Les Paul than the Epiphone. Had to raise the action a bit to keep the strings from buzzing and removing the pick guard to show off the really pretty front burl maple veneer. The cheap Chinese tuners got replaced with Planet Waves locking tuners as the guitar would go out of tune quickly with string bending. I'll do a week of performances with Xanadu and see how it works out under real world conditions.
• Washburn Oscar Schmidt 6-String Acoustic/Electric Guitar - Another "Bon Marche" from Amazon at only $160. The pickups on this aren't as nice and don't sound as good as the 12-String Oscar Schmidt that I own, but it still worked out well in the first musical that I used it in which was "Spitfire Grill" which is all acoustic guitar and mandolin. Upgraded the preamp in 2017 and it sounds great now.
• Ibanez Spanish Acoustic Nylon - A nice guitar from "Salvador Ibanez" (model GAR6-GAM-2Y-02) that I found at a thrift store covered in cheap gold paint and tacky stickers for $20. Stripped off the paint down to the wood, re-laccered it, added a pizeo bridge and electronics.
• Mandolins:
• Rogue FM-80E Acoustic-Electric Mandolin - It is a fairly inexpensive mandolin, but plays pretty well with some basic setup work. Fit and finish are excellent for a $100 mandolin.
• Washburn 1897 bowl mandolin - This is the 1890's instrument that made Washburn a significant presence in the musical instrument manufacturing world. It has warped a bit over the years, but still plays. My great grandfather bought it in the 1890's on the railway platform in Chicago from a street vendor when headed out west with his family from Kansas to Montana. I've got a photo of my grandfather playing it on a camping trip in the 1930's. Lots of memories with this instrument.
• Ukuleles:
• Banjos:
• Rogue B-30 Banjo - A really fine banjo for the money. It's got 30 brackets to keep the head tension nice and even, and a wonderful resonator back. I mounted a Yoga CP-07a PZM microphone on the resonator back and send that via a small mixing conslole to the sound board for performances. Sounds sweet!
• SX Tenor Banjo - Looks to be from the same factory as the Rogue banjo. It has a natural finish which I haven't decided if I like yet (the neck joint isn't real well sanded so it's a bit rough playing the high frets). Needed a tenor banjo for Mary Poppins, but ended up converting the parts to play them on a conventional banjo.
• Violin - An 1890's German factory made violin. It is marked "Schweitzer" with a fake label inside that implies it was built by Jacobus Stainer in Absam (Insbruck) in 1665. It is also finished with a dark stain on the edges to make it look old. Like the mandolin, it was bought by my great grandfather on a train platform in Chicago from a street vendor for the trip out west to move the family from Kansas to Montana.
• Effects and Amps
• Boss GT-100 Effects Pedal - I got this for American Idiot as an upgrade for the GT-8. The other guitar player I was playing with had a Fractal Design pedal and his pedal had some amazing distortion and clean sounds ( much better than either the GT-8 or GT-100 ). The GT-100 was much better than the Fractal Design at dialing in delay loops to record copy the Broadway cast recording version. In general, I can dial in a sound quicker with the GT-8 and it's tons of knobs, but the GT-100 is better for being able to save library sounds on a laptop pull then up when needed for a show. The reverbs seem a little bit better with the GT-100, but not a lot.
• Boss GT-8 Effects Pedal - This is my main workhorse for most musical theater gigs. It's not the best at any one effect, but it has lots of different settings that can be queued up at the touch of a foot switch. Handy for scores that have two guitar parts written, and I've got to swap sounds in just a few beats. Tough to program, but nice when its all ready to go for a performance. I typically play it through a pair of Behringer B205D (Mackie SRM150 clone) powered speakers. The have enough power to easily keep up with a 10-20 piece broadway style orchestra.
• Acoustic Image Coda-R - This is my newest amp courtesy of a donation from George Heidorn. It's a sweet little amp, designed primarily for acoustic bass support, but works nice as a super clean guitar amp. It has a 10" down facing woofer, a 5" midrange facing forward with a small switchable tweeter. Two clean channes of input with filtering and effects and a lightweight 400W class-D amp to drive the whole rig.
• Dual 12" cab with a Leslie 147 100W tube amp - This is my poor man's version of something between a Marshall 2x12 and a Fender Twin Reverb. I've got two JBL 2120s that actually came out of a Fender Twin Reverb (they are pretty heavy on the bass). This is a pretty loud setup. It is usually too much sound for most gigs (not to mention that it also weighs as much as a Fender Twin Reverb).
• Leslie 247 in a custom cabinet - My current woodworking project is converting a Leslie 247 ( the home version of a Leslie 147 ) into something that can be more easily hauled to gigs. Photos and a project page to be added someday.
• DigiTech MultiPlay - This is an early ('87?) analog CCD delay line effect pedal that does flange, chorus, and long delays. I like it better than the Boss GT-8 for really nice flangy effects.
• MXR Distortion+ - I've had this pedal since forever. It's based on an old 741 op-amp and clipping diodes, so it's pretty noisy when you crank the gain up, but it was my goto distortion effect in the 80's.
• Peavey Standard Mk-III 130W Head - My goto amp in the 80's. It's got both a clean and a crunchy channel and a real nice reverb tank.
• Behringer Europower PMH880S Powered Mixer - Handy mixer/amp that I run with a pair of ElectroVoice EV Eliminator Speakers
• Boss Katana 50 Mk II - A nice little amp for not a lot of money. It has quite a few built in effects and amp simulations, but only has 4 presets available and any one time and not easy to switch between them. So for now I just run the output of my Boss GT-100 directly into the amp input of the Katana.

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