James' World

I recommend ebay seller alienbid’s “New 9 Folding Multiple Guitar Bass Holder Rack Display Stand Black” if you need an affordable guitar rack.

It’s about $19.79+tax, including free delivery.

The rack is well-made from steel, and is strong. It feels like a precision instrument as you thread the bolts into place. No tools are needed, as the bolts are thumb screws.

No extra parts are included. There is a half-page assembly guide but it’s not that helpful. I recommend having somebody help with holding parts during assembly. That way you will save a lot of time and avoid stripping any bolts.

I’d prefer if the neck dividers were cupped instead of pegs. Currently I use padded mailing envelopes to ensure there’s no “stand rash” in case a guitar twists sideways and touches the next one.

I stripped one “bracket screw” during assembly, so I sent an ebay message to the seller. He replied the next business day (in the morning), and I received a complete set of bracket screws in a bag via USPS five calendar days later for no charge. I consider that excellent customer support.

It’s steel, so requires no maintenance, although I’d avoid direct sunlight on the foam parts.

I have no idea how they can make or ship this for $20. I should get a second one. 🙂

Trogly: Gibson Zither Single Guitar Stand Review (requires oiling, humidity control and avoid direct sunlight. Nitro-safe’ish. $200 and up.)

I predicted in early 2019 that the 737 MAX wouldn’t fly in 2019, based on my engineering and commercial pilot rating experience.

I was right, and most other pundits were very wrong.

Boeing lost $18 billion total on the 737, resulting in a $5 billion overall company loss in 2019 after parking 400 new and about 389 customer aircraft, and fired their CEO, as well as the manager for pilot training. Airbus is now the #1 global manufacturer, climbing from 5% of sales to more than half.

However, Boeing must be a truly dysfunctional organization to still not be ready to fly as we approach March 2020.

What’s interesting is that since Boeing said a sim wouldn’t be needed, there basically aren’t any available globally in 2020.

Additionally, more problems have been found, including wire harness chafing and FOD in fuel tanks. If the FAA decides those issues must be fixed, there’s a small but non-zero chance those 789 parked planes (389 delivered and 400 undelivered) will be scrapped.

Boeing is an enviable position where the US military and world airlines need them, but that’s in spite of Boeing management, not because of them. In the early days of aviation, a company founder could have stepped in to right the ship. Unfortunately, those days are long gone.

avweb.com: Boeing Pushes Estimated MAX Return To Midyear, Boeing Finds FOD In Stored MAX Aircraft
reuters.com: Boeing proposal to avoid MAX wiring shift does not win U.S. support
Boeing Built Deadly Assumptions Into 737 Max, Blind to a Late Design Change
newrepublic.com: boeing-737-max-investigation-indonesia-lion-air-ethiopian-airlines-managerial-revolution
youtube: Inside the Boeing 737 MAX Scandal That Rocked Aviation | WSJ – Mar 10, 2020, How Boeing Will Get the 737 MAX Flying Again, What has happened to Boeing?!

Mark 1 (12-bit DAC), Logo “DX7”, pastel, membrane

Insane custom patches – 80’s Hits, Van Halen Jump, Rush Subdivisions, Rush Tom Sawyer, UK Alaska, Berlin
Herbie Hancock Yamaha DX7 Vintage Demo 80s
Woody Piano Shack: Yamaha DX7 versus DX7ii (Mk2, DX7S)

Mark 2 (16-bit DAC), Logo “Yamaha DX7”, black

DX7s, buttons, black

Woody Piano Shack: Yamaha DX7 does hits of 2017 | Ed Sheeran, DJ Snake, Major Lazer and more

DX7II, DX7II-D, DX7II-FD

DX7 Centennial (76 keys, silver, 300 made)

Gear Forum: Yamaha DX7 or DX7S???

Note: Mark I and Mark 2 cartridges are different sizes.

How to Play Guitar Parts on Keyboards with Daniel Fisher (MODX) @15:31 “Do You Feel”

Yamaha MG10XU

How to replace the battery in a Yamaha DX7s
How to restore Yamaha DX7s factory voice and performance data

The Yamaha/Steinberg UR22C audio interface just came out in 2019, so I haven’t seen detailed information on it, aside from what’s in the manual.

I did some research, and the UR22C can be powered the following 3 ways on Macbook Pros:

1. using the included cable on Apple Macbook Pros using USB 2.0 (tested on “early 2011” MBP. “System Report … USB … Yamaha UR22C” says “Power Available: 500 mA and Power Required: 500 mA”)
2. newer Apple Macbook Pros that support USB 3.0
3. external 5 volt/500 (or more) milliamp mini-USB adapter (mentioned in the UR22C manual, but the adapter is not included, and not tested by me) – nobody has heard of an official adapter, so you very likely don’t need this.

The list above should also be a good starting point for Windows or Linux.

Another thing to know is that Mac OSX supports “aggregated MIDI interfaces”, so if you have an existing audio interface like a 22 and buy another 22, you can combine them into a 44 using the Mac OSX “Audio MIDI Setup” utility. 🙂

steinberg.net: Steinberg UR22C Manual
support.apple.com: If a Mac accessory needs more power or is using too much power

Most Yamaha music instrument and audio interface products come with a free license for the Yamaha/Steinberg Cubase DAW Windows and Mac OSX software.

The Cubase AI installation process is obnoxious and lengthy, but this tutorial should help save you time and decrease anxiety.

(I installed a Steinberg UR22C today for a Yamaha MX49 on High Sierra, but Cubase is not device-specific and is quite backwards-compatible with older versions of Mac OSX.)

The steps are:

1. Find your Cubase AI license key and serial number of the device
2. Be prepared to spend the time to download 15 GB plus 2 hours for the software installation. You should have 45 GB free disk space – note this could be a problem on 128 GB disks unless it’s a new computer.
3. Plug in your computer and disable the screensaver or system sleep function
4. Follow the Cubase download instructions, which will involve creating a Steinberg account, doing email verification, and dowloading the download helper (about 100 MB). Save the license activation code (32 hex digits) using Textedit
5. open the download helper and choose Cubase AI full install
6. it will start downloading 15 GB and will show the download rate. You can pause it and continue reliably if you need to select a faster wifi connection
7. after downloading it will start “Verifying.” Wait up to 30 minutes for this to finish. If it takes longer, quit from the installer program and look in the Downloads folder for a 15 GB file and open it in the finder. A window will open that you can click on to run the program installer.
8. It worked if you see a big green checkmark and the message “The installation was successful.”
9. Drag Cubase icon to ribbon
10. Open Cubase icon. It will start eLicenser and do start license activation. Paste in code from #4.
11. Open Cubase icon again. Test Cubase. If successful, you can delete the 15 GB dmg file from Step #8.
12. Click on the download button or link for Mac (10.12 – 10.15) and Yamaha audio firmware updates as needed.
13. Restart.
14. Open Cubase and select the audio driver for your audio interface. Note that you can switch audio interfaces during a Cubase session.