The Hippie Gets a New Nut!

I had so much fun installing the iMix in GG's Magic and the saddles and pins from Collosi have yet to arrive. So I had some time on my hands and decided to do a bone nut upgrade to my '68 Yamaha Red Label FG150. I know it is not a Gibson, but I thought this little photo essay might be informative for those who wonder what is involved in making a bone nut from scratch.

My '68 FG150 is a special guitar. I purchased it several years ago for about $100 on eBay. My first acoustic guitar was a '71 Yamaha FG140 Red Label so this guitar filled my nostalgic need as well as being an excellent beater guitar for campfire duty. My wife calls it "the hippie guitar" because is so obviously travelled and played.

When I bought it, it required a neck reset and a refret. When I took my guitar technician training with Miles Jones three summers ago, the hippie guitar was a good candidate for my first neck reset. I did a photo essay on the training, the neck reset and the refret that was posted on the Larrivee Forum. I put a new bone nut in the guitar at the time but never replaced the original nut which I would assume is some form of Corian or Micarta. The original has very wide slots and has yellowed substantially with age.

Here is "Hippie" with the strings coiled and the truss rod cover removed.

Old Nut

First thing to do when removing a nut from an acoustic guitar is to break the finish between the nut and the headstock. Hippie didn't have any finish here but this photo illustrates the procedure. Simple score the groove behind the nut so when you tap the nut out, you don't take wood or finish off the headstock. Then tap the fretboard side of the nut with a hammer and a piece of hardwood and a mallet. In this case, I used the bone blank I used for the new nut.

Scoring the Nut Edge

Tapping Out the Old Nut

Nut Removed

If the nut was glued in correctly it should just pop off. The nut is supposed to be glued to the end of the freboard and not to the bottom of the nut slot. If your nut has been glued in by someone who never wanted it removed, you might have to collapse the nut in on itself and chisel the whole thing out. With a small toothed saw like a small hacksaw, cut a groove along the length of the nut. Then use pliers to squeeze the two halves together and collapse the nut in on itself. Then some work with a sharp chisel should get out any remnants. For the Yamaha, the nut popped right off cleanly. I used a sharp chisel to remove any glue residue from the end of the fingerboard.

Removing Glue Residue From Fingerboard End

I then took the bone nut blank and cut it to the appropriate length using the original as a guide. After clamping a piece of 150 grit sandpaper to my flat piece of marble. Continually comparing the original nut to the blank, I rounded and shaped the nut blank by eye. The slant of the top of the nut was particularly important. I had to be careful not to lose any height as I rounded the top in a gentle curve back towards the headstock.

150 Grit On Marble Slab

Shaped Blank

At this point a new string spacing could be worked out and penciled on the top of the nut. Stew-Mac has an excellent string spacing guide. However, I was happy with the spacing on this 1 11/16" nut so I simply transfered the string locations from the old nut to the new one.

Marking String Spacing

With the new nut shaped and in place, I prepared the nut files I would use for the slots. In the photo, you'll see I've listed the string gauges from a set of Light Elixirs (.012, .016, .024, .032, . 042, .053) and the closest file I have to those string diameters below (.012, .017, .028, . 034, .046, .052). I started all six slots with the .012 file. When working on nut slots, it is important to angle the file towards the headstock so the file matches the break angle of the headstock with respect to the fretboard. This backwards slope will allow the string to bear on the leading edge of the nut facing the fretboard. I put two or three layers of masking tape over the fretboard and the headstock to protect them from slips of the file. The nut is NOT glue in at this time!

Nut Files

Fretboard and Headstock Masked

Starting the Nut Slots

Once the nut slots are started, the strings can be lifted into place. The strings will hold the nut in place while working on one string at a time. Starting with the high E string, the string is slipped off the nut slot and the slot filed a little at a time. Once some material is removed, the string is slipped back into the slot and checked. Checking the appropriate action of the nut is simple; tune the string to pitch and press down on the string at the third fret. This basically makes the string between the third fret and the nut a straight-edge. With a high nut slot, the string will display a gap between the bottom of the string and the first fret crown. I will file the nut slot until that gap is a mere hair's width. You can test the gap (because it is so tiny) by tapping on the top of the string over the fret. You should hear a small metallic "tink" sound. If the string rests on the first fret, you've filed the slot too low. So it is vital to work slowly! If you don't want to check by eye or feel, use a feeler gauge to get the right thickness.

Checking the Nut Action With a Feeler Gauge

Once all the nut slots were correctly grooved, I removed the nut and sanded the top and headstock facing edge with 600 grit paper and then buffed it with my Dremel Tool and some Meguiar's Scratch X on the buffing wheel. This polished the nut up beautifully. I buffed the fretboard face of the nut a little but was careful not to disturb the leading edge of the nut slots or the bottom of the nut.

The slots for the high E and the B strings are a little deep in the nut although the action is perfect there. This means I didn't get the top radius of the nut exactly correct. I can fix this by gently sanding the top of the nut on that side so the strings will sit proud of the nut slot by about half the thickness of the strings.

Finished result:

Magic iMix Install

I was asked by a friend to install an LRBaggs iMix pickup in her beloved Gibson Southern Jumbo nicknamed "Magic".

The LRBaggs iMix is a wonderful pickup solution that blends the best of both an undersaddle pickup (UST) with a soundboard transducer (SBT). The UST (Element) is a wire braid that sits under the saddle in the saddle slot and the SBT (iBeam) is a microphone type device that affixes to the underside of the bridge plate just to the neck side of the bridge pins directly under the saddle.

To start the install I put Magic on my operating table and removed her strings. Here's a tip for those of you that need to get into your soundhole but don't want to remove the strings from the headstock; don't do it! Loosen the strings, remove the bridge pins and take the bass side three strings out and give them a loop on one side of the neck and then the treble side three strings with a loop on the other side of the neck. Then when you want to put them back, just slip the ballends back into the bridge and replace the pins making sure the ballends are secure under the bridge plate.

Magic's Strings Partially Removed

GG's Bone Pins Labelled with String Placements

Magic didn't come with a pre-drilled hole for an endpin jack, so the strap button needs to be removed and a 1/2" hole drilled in its place.

Magic's Strap Button

Strap Button Removed

Placing masking tap over the area to be drilled reduces the chance of chipping or crazing the finish.

Ready for Drilling

I used a 1/2" Forstner bit to drill the hole. As I said above, the Forstner will cut precise flat bottomed holes in woods of any grain orientation and so it perfect for drilling through the wood of the body and the tail block. The Forstner needs to be very sharp so I used my trusty carbide tip sharpener to prepare the edges before surgery.

Sharpening the Scalpel

Magic Survives the Surgery

Here's a great tip for dealing with putting an endpin jack in an acoustic; get yourself a telescoping magnetic probe. They are dirt cheap and can be obtained at any hardware store. I slide the probe into the hole, but the jack on the probe and the magnet holds it there while I fish it out through the hole. Getting the exact placement of the inside nut so the strapjack cap can screw on properly is a process of repeatedly putting it in and taking it out to adjust it until it is perfect. The magnetic probe makes this simple.

Magic Gets Probed

Here's another great tip for working inside the dark interior of an acoustic. Get yourself a fluorescent light bulb that will slip through the soundhole. They don't create a lot of heat and provide great light in which to work.

Fluorescent Light

After the drilling, there will be a lot of sawdust inside the guitar plus some good sized chunks of the tail block. I placed my central vacuum cleaner against the hole I had created and blew into the soundhole. Most of the sawdust is sucked out through the 1/2" hole. For the remaining pieces, I put Gorilla tape over the end of the vacuum and fed plastic fishtank air tubing down the suction control vent and taped it in place. Then it was a simple process of feeding the narrow tube down inside the guitar to grab all the bigger chunks. This tubing comes in handy when needing to fish volume and tone pots in and out of semi-acoustic guitars with F holes. You just attach the tubing to the shaft of the pot and drag it up through the pot's hole in the body. Works like a charm!

Vacuum Contraption

Endpin Jack Installed

Gibson helped out a little by predrilling holes in each end of the saddle slot to accomodate the installation of UST pickups. If they weren't there, I would have to drill a slanted hole in the corner of the saddle (usually on the bass side) and fish the Element UST through the hole. Finding the hole is easier with the fluorescent light inside. Sticking a toothpick in the hole helps find it too.

Predrilled UST Hole in Magic's Saddle Slot

Before putting the Element in, I traced a line across the saddle flush with the top of the bridge. This will be a reference for when the saddle is installed over the UST. The end 1/8" of the Element isn't active so I measured this distance and made a mark to indicate it. If the saddle didn't have enough clearance past the high E string, another slanted hole is drilled in the treble end of the slot to allow the UST's active area to rest under the high E string.

Both Saddle Heights Marked

Marking the End of the Active Area of the UST

The Element installed, I turned my attention to the iBeam. The iBeam attaches to the underside of the bridge plate with double sided sticky foam. This makes it easy to remove and/or reposition it without damaging the guitar. Baggs has a very efficient system for putting the pickup in the right place. They supply a plastic "fixture" or "jig" that allows you to position the iBeam before you put it in the guitar. The "fixture" is just a piece of plastic which holds the iBeam in place with sticky tape and a couple of rods that you use to guide the fixture with the iBeam attached through the bridge holes from underneath.

iBeam Prepared on the Fixture

The bridge plate must be smooth and flat for the iBeam to work properly. I discussed above how I repaired Magic's bridge plate. Here is a photo of the plate after being filled with wood filler and then sanded flat.

Filled Bridge Plate

Filler Sanded Flat

I positioned the iBeam on the fixture over the saddle by looking down through the clear plexiglass of the fixture. Once it is directly over the saddle, it is pressed down with the top of the iBeam sticking to the fixture's doublesided tape. Then the whole thing is lowered into the soundhole, the pins are lifted up through the bridge holes and the fixture pulled up so the double sided tape on the iBeam will stick to the bridge plate. Having done this a few times, I have found that making the iBeam VERY loose on the fixture is important. Then just pull up on the rods so the iBeam touches
the guitar enough to make the tape on the iBeam stick a little so you can put your hand inside the soundhole and push on just the iBeam to make it fast. Then you can wiggle the fixture loose from the iBeam. If the iBeam is stuck really well to the fixture, you can't get the fixture off of it without dislodging the iBeam from the guitar.

iBeam Installed

The placement of the iBeam relative to the Element is also important. You should take care not to cover the hole the Element is going through. That's why installing the Element first is a good idea.

I then gathered the wires from the pickups and from the endpin jack and tied them together with small "Zap Straps" to make the whole thing neat and easy to handle and attached the wires to the iMix preamp.

Cables Tied and Attached to the Preamp

The adhesive backing is removed and the iMix preamp is attached to the guitar's back. I placed it so the mini pots can be adjusted without removing the strings. I then installed the battery bag to the neck block and attached a 9v Duracell. I removed the adhesive backing on the remote volume and mix contol and mounted it just under the bass side sound hole.

Preamp Installed

I reinstalled the strings, taking care to assign GG's bone pins to the right strings, tuned it up (1/2 step down), plugged it in and played it for about 30 minutes. Lovely guitar and a lovely amplified sound. A Collosi bone saddle will arrive in a few days and I'll do a saddle setup on Magic with the pickup installed.

"Glorious" Set Design at Stage West Calgary

"Glorious" opens tonight at Stage West. I have designed the set and the lighting for this production. I thought I would document the production here with some photos.

I signed the contract to design lights and set for this production before I had read the script. You must understand that Stage West Calgary is one of THE most challenging theatre spaces I have ever worked in 36 years in the business. There is no wing space, no backstage space, no fly space and the ceiling is 13' high. So when the script arrived I crossed my fingers and opened it and started to sweat.

"Glorious" is a play about Florence Foster Jenkins who was a real life singer who gave concerts in New York in the mid-40's. She was a sensation in her day and had a following which included celebrities such as Tallulah Bankhead and Cole Porter. She was famous for not being able to sing a note. She didn't have a shred of intonation, pitch or even a semblance of rhythm and timing. Her performances were met with shrieks, cries and laughter.

The play is set in FIVE locations all in 1944;

Act I Sc 1. Her New York apartment in upper west side Manhattan
Act I Sc 2. The Melotone recording studio
Act II Sc1. The New York Ritz Carleton ballroom
Act II Sc2. A cemetary
Act II Sc3. The concert stage of Carnegie Hall

You can see why I broke into a sweat. Three major interiors in a theatre with no wings, flys or backstage space or even the smallest storage.

I decided to use an ancient greek staging technique called "periaktoi" to solve the staging problem. A periaktoi is a three sided flat. When you turn the unit, you reveal one of three sides for three different looks.

I decided to have the NY apartment, the Ritz and Carnegie Hall painted on each of the three sides in mahogany paneling, marble and gold leaf trim respectively. The periaktoi (or pterodactyls as people at Stage West call them)sit on carpet runners so they slide and turn on the floor silently. I structured the set with seven pillars supported with 2.5" pipe to the grid and floor. Each of the pillars are painted with the Carnegie Hall gold leaf and covered with sonotube painted marble for the Ritz and a fluted mahogany pilaster for the NY apartment.

Here are some photos of the model showing:

NY Apartment



Ritz Ballroom



Carnegie Hall



The model wasn't fully complete when I took these shots and has since been torn to pieces between rehearsal and the paint shop.

I will edit this with photos I'll take of each scene in the theatre at the opening performance tonight.

Act I Scene 1 (the drapes and some set dressings are yet to come... press night is a week tomorrow)



Act II Scene 3 Carnegie Hall (I missed taking photos of Ritz - will get them next week)

Meet the New Boss...

... same as the old boss!

So Mr. President... here it is January 21, 2010. You promised to close Guantanamo within a year of inauguration. So much for change we can believe in.

However, this is not just a failure to keep a promise to clean up previous administrations "mistakes". Guantanamo seems to be of the same value to Obama as it was to Bush. Prisoners never charged with a crime continue to be tortured and continue to die on Obama's watch while the deaths of prisoners at Gitmo from 2006 continue to be covered up. Obama's policy is "look forward, not back". Perhaps he wants that policy to protect his own administration's culpability?

It seems that escalating the war in Afghanistan and keeping the "black ops" activities in Guantanamo going will be Obama's legacy. So much for change.

The Guantanamo Suicides

Read and learn...

1961 Hofner 172(l) Restoration Project continued...

Part VI

I've rewound both pickups. I just couldn't get enough wraps on the bobbin to get a good amount of resistance. I was hoping for ~ 7.5 ohms but ended up with around 4.5 ohms. I put them back in their covers, hooked them up and put the neck on the guitar and strung it up. The pickups work fine. They are quite snappy. I'm getting a lot of hum so I've been trouble shooting the electronics with help from people at the Hofner forum and the BeatGearCavern forum.

In my order of products from Stew-Mac, I purchased a new "delrin" nut for the Hofner. The 172 has a tremelo and the delrin nut is very slippery which will keep the guitar in tune with the whammy bar and keep the nut from pinching.

I first removed the old nut which had a piece snapped off. I broke the finish on the side of the nut with an exacto knife so it wouldn't pull wood with it. Then I wiggled it out with my pliers. After cleaning out the nut slot, I traced the old nut on the new blank. Then I shaped and sized it as best I could with a combination of my dremel tool and dragging it on some sandpaper. I marked the position of the strings and will use my nut slotting files to create the new nut slots.

Today I decided to pot the pickups. I tried doing it in slowcooker but that was too... ummm... slow! So I put the combination wax in a small tin and put that in boiling water on the stove. I measured out 75 grams of parafin and 20 grams of pure beeswax (I bought it on ebay from a beekeeper in Ontario!). I clipped the tin to the boiling pot and put a meat thermometer in the wax. It heated to about 160F. I turned the stove off and mixed the wax up until it clarified. It stayed hot for quite a while. I decided not to remove the pickups from the control and just dangled them in the wax from their lead wires. I gave them about 5 minutes each, then cleaned up the excess with paper towel while it was still liquid.

Part VII

Tonight I cut the new delrin nut, shimmed the neck and set the action at the bridge.

First I marked the string locations on the old nut by transferring them to an old credit card. I started each slot with the correct gauge nut file, then used my digital caliper to measure from the bottom to the highest slot on the old nut and dragged the new nut across some sandpaper until I got it close enough to adjust with the nut files. The old nut was very tall and had some very deep nut slots as a result.

Then I glued the nut to the fretboard FACE (not the bottom of the nut) with some medium viscosity cyanoacrylate glue and put the neck back on the guitar. Since the neck angle was still too deep, I put a small piece of old credit card plastic (0.30 thickness) at the heel of the neck pocket first. I restrung the guitar and tuned to pitch. I checked the action of each string at the first fret after fretting the string at the third, pulled the string out (with the aid of a dive bomb on the trem bar) and filed the nut slots so I had just a hair clearance.

Then I raised the bridge to give me about 5/64" clearance at the 12th fret, tuned again and it plays like a dream. It buzzes mid-neck on the low E so I might introduce a little more relief with the truss rod when i take the neck off to replace the shim with some hardwood.

Guitar = $75
Nut = $5.35
Coil Wire = $38.64
Tuner bushings = $3.00
Teacup Knobs (on order) = $40

Experience = priceless :D

1961 Hofner 172(l) Restoration Project

Part I.

I just bought a 1963 Hofner 172 on ebay. I've been looking for one for a few years as the first guitar I owned and learned to play on was a '67 Hofner 172.

Here's a photo of me in 1970 with my '67 172.



I've had some training as a guitar tech (neck resets, refrets, crack repairs etc.) but this will be the first time I've attempted a vintage restore. I want to have the guitar working and playable, but I also want to remain true to the vintage nature of the guitar within reason. I have a 1981 Rickenbacker 320JG (which could be considered vintage) and I replaced the tuners with new ones from Rickenbacker because the old ones were not holding tune and I want to play the guitar. I don't plan on selling the guitar but I keep the original parts just to ensure it can be returned to original state.

As you can see from this photo, this one has a missing knob and the rest of the tuners look pretty rusty. I don't have the guitar in my possession yet (next week perhaps). I joined a Hofner enthusiasts forum and within hours got an offer from a user in Australia to give me a spare teardrop tuner! Isn't the internet wonderful??

As you can see from this photo,the original knobs are missing. I'm guessing they were teacups originally. So I'll be on the hunt for a pair of those.

The previous owner tells me there is quite a hum out of the guitar and thinks the pots and/or the caps might need replacing. I'm guessing it just needs some cleaning and checking

Here is a full shot of it:


This blog is going to be my photodocumentary of the restoration.

Part II.

Ok. I've received the guitar and here's the problem; both pickups are dead. Now the seller informed me the guitar did not work and I took a chance it was just a wiring issue, pots or switches. I've disconnected both pickups and put them on the meeting and both read full open circuit.

I'm just looking to get the guitar working and it doesn't matter if the pickups are original. I WOULD like to keep the original pickup covers and have them LOOK like they are original from the outside. My question is, would a single pole strat-like pickup fit into this case? How would I get the Hofner screw poles to work with a strat type pickup?

My other option would be to just forget about appearance and go for a new chrome cover like these:



and if I do that, I might as well replace the tuners with some Klusons and replace the pots and switches, but keep the control plate. It would be the body, neck and trem of a '61 Hofner but play like a new guitar.

BTW, it is a 1961 Hofner 172(l) not a '63. The bottom of the pots say 250K 311 which is the 31st week of 1961 if I'm not mistaken.

Part III.

So I've decided to rewind the pickups myself. To do this, I'm making a pickup winder out of a fishing reel. I'll document that process when I figure it all out and put it together.

In the meantime, while I'm waiting for the pickup wire to arrive from StewMac, I've been working on repairing the vinyl on the body. I've taken all the hardware and the neck off the body. I scrubbed the vinyl down with some Fantastik and a toothbrush. It got much of the grime off. Then I mounted the body in my Dremel vise and took a hairdryer to the vinyl that is lifting. That softened both the vinyl and the plastic binding so I could peel it back a good distance.

I then coated both the inside of the vinyl and the surface of the body with contact cement, cleaning any cement that got on the outside surface with thinner. I let it dry, propped open so the two surfaces wouldn't touch, for about 45 minutes.

Then I pressed the top and bottom sections together with the flat of a slot screw driver.

I took the hairdryer to the plastic binding again to soften it and shape it back into the creavace and used some medium viscosity cyanoacrylate glue in the slot and pressed it down until it dried. I filled some gaps after hardening with some more cyano glue and then let it sit overnight. I cut away the excess with an exacto knife the next day.

It came out pretty well.

I then polished the frets with my dremel tool and some polishing compound being careful not to overheat the frets.

They came up gleaming but they are pretty worn. So I ordered some fretwire from StewMac as well and will refret the neck. I know I'm supposed to stay faithful to the original to keep its value, but I've decided to replace the fret dots with abalone dots instead. Many of the existing dots are chipped and to replace them with the same plain ones seems a shame. I have abalone on my AmDlx Strat and they just look so beautiful.

Here are the Hofner dots.

Here are the Strat abalone dots.

Part IV.

I've been working on the pickup winder part of the project. I started with a fishing reel thinking I could use the reciprocal action of the reel could scatterwind the pickup. However, the pickup will not fit within the diameter of the reel so all it could do is spin the pickup.

Since a drill could do that just as easily without all the manual work, I decided to look at a drill solution. However, you need to hold the trigger down on a drill and therefore your hands aren't free to guide the wire on the bobbin.

So then I looked at at sewing machine solution. This house is blessed with four (count 'em) FOUR sewing machines. One is an antique, one is borrowed, one is brand new (daughter's Xmas present) and one won't pick up the bobbin thread. So I worked on the sewing machine for a few hours and came up with this.

I like the variable speed but because the bobbin doesn't sit right on the centre of the flywheel, the wire jerks a bit and I'm afraid it might break.

So I'm taking the sewing machine motor off the machine and will mount it on a platform with a belt to a pulley using a stove bolt as an axle. The stove bolt axle will be attached to a block of hardwood at the other end where I have screwed a metal mend plate which will have double sided carpet tape on it. The pickup bobbin will be stuck to the tape. I'm also planning some sort of guide rod that will keep the wire within the thickness of the bobbin. Perhaps a piece of threaded steel with two nuts as the guides. I'll detail that as I build it.

However, the turn counter had me stumped. I had purchased a fishing line length counter but it had too much tension to it and would break the wire. Then I saw this YouTube video and this brilliant solution to the counter:

Windows/Mouse Turn Counter on a drill

What a terrific idea! So I'm buying a cheapo USB mouse and will build some sort of cam device to attach to the pulley. I couldn't clearly see what the guy was using as a switch, but it is obvious it is two pieces of metal that are forced into contact as the cam rotates. So I took apart an old oven thermostat that I had replaced years ago (keep all that junk!) and took out the copper contacts and arranged them into a homemade momentary switch. Why buy new when you can invent something? The copper blades have contacts on one end and spade lugs on the other. I mounted them in a drafting eraser which I cut to expose the lugs and then taped together with vinyl tape.

Here is the completed "Counter Mouse". I soldered leads from the two poles of the momentary switch to the poles of the left mouse button on the circuit board of the Chinese mouse (when you click it, it squeaks "cheap, cheap"). I added some hotglue around the wires to keep them from moving and breaking off the very tiny and fragile connection. I've hooked it up to my computer and squeezed the poles of the switch together and it works!

Next on the list... put the parts together. Surgite!


Part V

Well things evolve don't they?

For a couple days I worked on a plan for how to put the pickup winder together. I was planning to mount the sewing machine motor on a 2x4 and then mount a pulley that would be the axle to drive the winder and then add the switch counter. As I was doing that, I thought to myself that I was reinventing the wheel here. The sewing machine doesn't work for sewing (bobbin won't thread). But in every function needed for pickup winding, it is perfect. Why replace it?

So I attached some double-sided tape to the turny bit of the sewing machine and stuck the pickup bobbin on that. Then I fastened two angle irons to the front face of the sewing machine case. I slid a threaded bolt through the holes of the angle irons with nuts and washers to clamp the bolt and a couple of nuts to create a guide for the pickup wire. I put some heat-shrink on the threaded bolt to make the surface smooth.

Until my pickup wire arrives I can't test it. However, I think if I keep the spool sitting on the floor below me and use the foot switch to control the speed so it goes fairly slowly, I can control the tension with my fingers and move the wire back and forth over the guides. It doesn't seem that different from the $400 Schatten pickup winder.

As to the counter; well, my genius of the little switch is for not! I was looking at all kinds of ways to get the sewing machine to bounce, push, scrape or squeeze the switch while it is operating. Then came the "doh!" moment; why am I using a switch when the machine itself is made of metal pieces which come together? So I attached one lead wire from the mouse to the foot clamp and the other I threaded through the needle clamp and bend it so it will touch the foot clamp with each cycle.

Now the machine itself closes the circuit clicking the left mouse button on the equals key of the laptop's calculator program. Voila! Instant counting! I made a youtube video of how it works.

Yankee Wannabe

Is it just me, or does Harper REALLY REALLY wannabe an American? He's been using Bush's people for his own campaign, and following Bush's methods for years. Now the Conservatives, who are yet again governing as if they have a majority, have a financial plan that strips away public funding for Canadian political parties basically because they have very rich private supporters. Obviously those rich private supporters are wanting to get the very best government they can buy.

That is how it works in the US. Only the very very rich can even think of running for office because of the enormous amounts of money required. It seems Harper wants a system like that too. I'm not surprised. However, when you really look at democratic systems that actually work, those countries support the democratic system with public money. In Britain, all political parties are given time on the BBC for their advertising and supported with public dollars. Germany, Denmark, France, Belgium, The Netherlands etc. etc. all have public funding of the democratic system resulting in... well a system that works and is relatively inexpensive.

So stripping the public funds from the political parties in Canada is yet another step towards a made-in-USA system where political parties need to purchase their media time to the tune of billions of dollars. Great system... really levels the playing field between rich and poor huh? (I meant to type "eh"?)

The first reaction to this move? The opposition parties get together to discuss a merger. Maybe eventually we'll have just two parties; the Republicans and the Democrats and both will be populated with rich fat cats from Bay St.

"Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticide in grain,
For stripped mined mountains majesty,
Above the asphalt plain,
America America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines, with billboard signs,
From sea to oily sea"