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    "I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me."

    (Gal. 2:20 CEV)

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    • Hobbies

    Hobbies??? Yep! …and lot’s of them. Actually, my hobbies come and go is closer to the truth. I usually go all out when I start to learn something new and really obsess over it until I reach a level of proficiency. Once a satisfactory level of proficiency is gained in a particular activity, I’ll either move on entirely to something new or adjust my activity to a maintenance level. I like learning new things. I do have a few things that are my mainstays as far as hobbies go and at the top of the list is probably going to be basic information gathering. I love reading first and foremost which usually entails books, but not entirely restricted to them. I like magazines, newspapers, TV documentaries, and Internet surfing. Currently my favorite genre of books is Christian. They could be sub-categorized as follows:

    I also have a number of favorite authors. This list is not exhaustive, but it represents my current favorites.

    Next to reading comes the arts. I enjoy many art forms as a casual observer, but only actively participate in a few. Photography happens to be a great joy-giver to me. I love landscape and event photography as my personal favorites with candid portraiture running a close second. I use a digital SLR (Canon EOS 20D) and have an assortment of lenses and studio lights to accomplish most of my needs at present. I am constantly looking to grow in my craft and almost never turn down a job or challenge.

    Perhaps the art-form that generates the most passion in and from me is music. One reason music is such a great delight is that all of the Borden Family enjoys it immensely, so we can all participate and play at the same time…a definate bonus. I have always enjoyed listening to most genres of music (jazz, folk, bluegrass, celtic, rock, pop, classical, c&w, and gospel all rank high). I also enjoy singing; particularly Christian praise and worship songs. I recently took up the guitar (November 2005) after my longtime accompaniest moved from the area; rather than find a new “player” I thought it best to learn to accompany myself. As a result of this decision, I have been JeffwD15passionately obsessed with learning everything I can about this instrument. I read, practice, play, and work on them in much of my free time in order to better understand them and accelerate my learning. I have owned and sold a number of guitars in the last couple years in efforts to find what fits and works for me the best. This too has been a fun process allowing me to get to know quite a few guitars, manufacturers, and understand the differences in styles and materials.

    Here are a few of the guitars I have known over the last couple years:

    This was my first, an Alvarez PD80SC, a very nice guitar to “cut my teeth on”

    Alvarez PD80SC 

    Following the Alvarez about a year later came a Takamine TAN 16C which was financed in part with the sale of the PD80SC. I still own the Tak and just love it. It has a wonderfully warm sound with crisp highs. It sounds great plugged in too with its proprietary Cool-Tube preamp.

    Takamine TAN16C

    And here are a few more photos of the Takamine TAN 16C with Cool-Tube Preamp:

    TAN16C               TAN16C

    Next came one of my current favorite guitars…a Larrivee D-03R with a L.R. Baggs I-Mix Pickup system installed. I heard quite a bit about the Larrivee guitars and luthier Jean Larrivee’s committment to excellance in manufacturing these solid wood beauties. After quite a bit of research and stumbling upon an awesome dealer (notable guitars), I figured I needed to try one on myself…so…I did. Boy was I glad I did. Here are a few pics of my beautiful Dread; this first one is before any upgrades:

    D-03R before upgrade

     D-03R after upgrades             D-03 rosewood back

    The above and side pics include some upgrades that I madeD-03R headstock to the D-03R. Most notably was the buffing out of the satin finish on the back and sides of the guitar. The ‘03 series of Larrivee’s come with satin finshes and while that is not a bad thing, I think that a slight gloss makes a huge difference to the overall look of the guitar. I used a method of bringing the finish to a semi-gloss finish without too much hassle…just a lot of elbow grease. I also picked up a set of Gotoh 510 tuning machines. I like the black look rather than the nickle chrome that came with the guitar (those were ping tuners). Finally, I added a compensated bone saddle and some ebony bridge pins to help with defining the tone a little bit. The guitar comes with Tusq saddle and pins. I also had Jason, from Notable Guitars, set the guitar for use with medium strings. I’ve tried Elixer Nanowebs, Dean Markley Alchemy, and settled on D’Addario EXP17 as my strings of choice. With everything together, this baby sings!

    The next few months I spent on the guitar carousel; buying, selling, and trading…I found out what I was doing (and what I had) was known as G.A.S. or Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. Heheheh. Apparently it never goes away either. A couple that came and went (Takamine EF385 12 String and a Larrivee OM-03 Mahogany) follow:

    EF385 12              Larrivee OM-03

    The Larrivee OM-03 I ended up trading in a straight deal for another Larrivee guitar. The deal was for a L Series in a limited edition run that featured Walnut back and sides. I had heard good things about Walnut as a tone wood and the size of the L body was a little larger and more conducive to flat-picking than the OM body I had. I decided it was worth going for. I’m glad I did! The L size also features a little wider neck profile whick makes it agreeable to the fingerstyle method of playing (which I was interested in learning) as was the OM-03. As a big plus, it was a fine looking guitar too. Here are a couple pictures of the Larrivee L-03-WL

    Larrivee L-03-WL     Larrivee L-03-WL Back

    A couple of “stragglers have made it into the fold over the last few months too. I managed to land a couple of absolutely smoking deals from e-Bay on a couple of premium guitars. I found a brand new Guild GAD-JF48 Spruce and Mahogany Jumbo and a used-but-in-great structural condition Martin D-15 Mahogany Dreadnaught. The Guild was awesome right out of the box. The Martin needed a little TLC, but after a little steel wool cleaning, polish, medium strings, and a call to Bob Colossi for bone saddles, bridge, and end pin…this little guitar rocks. It is great to dump in my little RoadRunner gig bag and go. Here are a couple pics of the Guild and Martin…

      Guild JF48 Jumbo      Martin D15

    Well, that’s it for now…I’ve had other hobbies (too many to name) and I’m sure I’ll have many more, but rather than tell you about all the others and what’s in my plan for the future I’ll save something for conversation later. No sense in playing my whole hand, you know.

    :-)