Making Hapy Sounds (Part 1)

After so many years of driving without a real source of music, I have taken the plunge. Today's post gets us grounded in my efforts to get musical sounds going.

Early Experiment

good ol' Dark Star

Recall a few years ago, I was given an old 1980's car stereo (See A Sound You Hear That Lingers In Your Ear). Since the bus is so old, an original radio probably would have been an AM radio with a single speaker in the dashboard pointing up at the wind screen. Even with the original engine and interior, hearing that radio would have been difficult. Adding the bigger, louder diesel engine makes more white noise. Hopeful, I took that 1980's stereo, and wired it into a power source. I ran speaker-wires to a pair of 5-1/4" speakers on the floor. This sort of worked. We could not get the music loud enough to hear without distortion. Without more evidence, we could not be sure if it was a radio power output issue, a weak speaker issue or a speaker-placement issue. The least expensive option was moving the speakers around, so we tried plopping them on the dashboard, one on each end near the A-pillars. This helped some, since it moved the speakers closer to our ears, but it was not really that much louder and having speakers just sitting on the dash is pretty precarious. So, I pulled the radio, wires and the speakers (the speakers are in Oliver, the MGB, now). Boo and I returned to using a little puck speaker which didn't really deliver much sound. So, ultimately, we drove for probably a year without any music at all. Honestly, we like to just talk about stuff anyway, so the drive to Chinook Fest (See Chinook Fest 2017 - Road Report), for example, was great, even though we had no music and had to wear masks from the forest-fire smoke.

Sound Bar Experiment

After driving Oliver around, and enjoying a drive completely surrounded with sound, I started thinking about how to bring music to Hapy again. As I spun up ideas, C suggested that I simply get a sound bar and put it on that little shelf I built a few years ago (See Sunshade to Shelf). That little shelf gets a ton of use. When we drive, our phones, and glasses go there. I have a couple surgical masks up there in case of forest fire smoke. We keep the cords for charging our phones there. When we camp, we use that aluminum lip for clipping the front privacy / sunshade. Super handy. It has about 2-1/2 inches of height, so putting even basic tweeters up there would be difficult. Arguably, I could install speakers into the shelf so they point down (and I still might do that), but I wanted to try something less destructive first. C's sound-bar idea sounded like a great one. He recommended getting one from Goodwill, and I would have done that if I knew I could get one that (a) worked and (b) had all of its related cords. So, I bought one of these at AZN instead. For $35US, it was a viable experiment, and if the experiment was a bust the speaker could be used on our back deck.

We found that we could not drive enough source volume into the sound bar through the 3.5mm wire/plug input. We used an old MP3 player and then an iPhone that way. Max volume still wasn't loud enough, but there was no distortion. When we used blue-tooth, though, it was totally loud enough to hear. In fact, it was in this arrangement that we drove home from Eugene after JRAD (See JRAD - Eugene Road Report). We used the speaker for lot-sounds at 4Peaks as well. If the sound enveloped us more, I would have stopped right there. After Oliver, I was spoiled and wanted music at least as full as GratefulEd has in Belle.

Plan for Surround Sound

I spent some time looking around to see how others solved for music in their bus, including GratefulEd. He put his fronts into his doors but I did not want to go into the door cards. My original cards were cut for speakers and the vapor barrier (plastic film) wasn't managed properly, causing the speakers and the cards to eventually fail. My kick panels failed a long time ago, but with a plan to install new ones, they present an opportunity for speaker placement. I could put a pair of 5-1/4" speakers as high in the kick panel as I can manage. Until I acquire kick-panels, though, I will need to be creative.

Remember the speaker spot in the dash that faces upwards? I believe I can fit a pair of small (3-1/2") speakers in there, but I think I'm going to hold off on that for this first round. I would like to see how the basic 4-speaker system works first.

For the rear speakers, I was at a loss. The real estate anywhere around the bed is basically consumed. Boo and I need all of that low space for ourselves. The head-space is open and unimpeded, perfect for when you sit up or when you are going to bed. I don't want a speaker there. So, we get out of the box for the definition of "rear".... I got a pair of 6x9 speaker boxes and loaded them with speakers. This will force the wiring for the speakers to be a little more free than your more typical install. While driving, the speakers will sit under the middle-row / lot couch or on top of our camping stuff. I could use velcro to hold them in place; I'll let the driving experiments drive to that, if needed. Once we're parked, the speakers will have enough wire to move up to the pop-top or outside the bus.

Thump Thump Thump
One of the things that I thought about when I did the stereo in Oliver was the portability of the custom speaker box and amplifier. So, part of the plan for Hapy will include speaker wiring for a possible sub-woofer as well as thought around how to run the speaker wires at the head unit so I could swap the amplifier in without having to re-wire everything. This meant that the head unit needed to have greater output capability than the unit I put in Oliver, since it will probably, most often, be running without the amplifier and sub. I surmise that simply because moving the amp and speaker box will take effort, and sometimes that little extra thing is just one thing too many. So, for a head unit, I got another Sony (MEX-XB120BT, this time) which puts out 45W per channel. It also has 5V outputs for an amp, which aligns with the amp-outs from Oliver's head unit (Sony MEX-M70BT). This should support the portability I was aiming for while supporting some solid sound when I do not have an amp.

With a pile of parts (front speakers, rear speakers, 6x9 speaker boxes, a head unit and a big spool of 14ga speaker wire, I felt ready to start. As with any interesting post, this got long, so I'll stop here and pick it up next time.

Thanks, as always for following along--

Love on the Bus

Short post today, describing a day spent just doing little things on the bus in the middle of festival season.

Oil
When we got back from 4Peaks, we had a small electrical issue, that was solved in all of 5 minutes with a replacement 8amp fuse. With that quick satisfaction of a minor issue, I wanted more. Since we had driven through the desert and I wasn't really sure when I last changed his oil, I did that. Changing the oil on this engine is so easy. 15mm drain plug loosens easily and sits less than 2 inches above the drain pan, so there's virtually no mess. I remove the fill cap so it drains faster. While the last drips are coming out, I remove and replace the oil filter. This can get messy, but I have found that pulling the filter straight up with one hand while the other, wrapped in a single-use plastic grocery bag, grabs the bottom, you can contain all of the oil. This works best if you raise the filter and let it drip into the holder for a minute before you grab with the other hand. Replace both the upper and lower o-rings. You should have gotten both with the filter, unless you went super cheap, and why would you go cheap on an oil filter?

Rust

floor, when first uncovered

While hanging out in the camp zone with GratefulEd, we talked buses of course, and the topic of rust came up. He usually does some level of rust search-and-destroy every other year. Based on that model, I'm due. So, I removed the lot couch and the foam mats off the floor in the middle of the bus, and attacked the surface rust I found there. Years ago, I had cleaned up rust here after removing some il-planned noise absorption matting. The matting did not stick well, and trapped more moisture than noise. So, this time, I cleaned, sanded and re-cleaned the floor. I applied 2 coats of rust converter on the entire floor. Once cured, I applied rubberized undercoating. This should remove the threat of rust from above. This leaves the threat of rust from below, however, and this model of bus has the 2 welded-in belly pans. So, I will need to get creative in solving for that. Then, of course, there is the radiator under the center section. I will need to lower it to get after the rust potential there, but that will need to wait until October, when camping/festival season is over. I walked the bus a little bit, making note of where there was a wisp of rust either as a stain or as a bubble under the paint. There is quite a bit to look at, but none of it really terrible. It's just in lots of spots. More opportunity to love on Hapy while not taking him off the road.

Noise

after rust converter and undercoating

With the foam off the floor, I could really hear the echo coming off the steel floor. Rapping on floor with my knuckle was like knocking on the sidewall of a steel shed (clang-clang-clang). Yikes, that's just awful. No wonder my ears rang after the drive home from 4Peaks. So, I grabbed the 80mm Noico that I used on Oliver, the '78 MGB, and cut thin strips to set in the little ribs in the floor. Once all of the rib-divots had Noico applied and worked in with the roller tool, I placed 3 larger sheets down on top above the center section (effectively over the radiator). I figured the fans could be creating more vibration so having a little extra there couldn't hurt. Once rolled snug with the roller tool, I tested with my knuckles again. The clang-clang-clang wasn't as pronounced, but these sheets are not designed to lessen that kind of noise; they are designed to muffle vibrations. So, the real test is when the fans turn on and the engine is running at 2800 rpm. Noise reduction folks have said that only 25-50% of a surface area needs to be covered with these vibration things to have a noticeable impact. I covered over 50%, so, in theory, this should make a difference. Resigned to seeing how it felt when I next drove, I put the foam back down and the lot couch back in. There was no visible evidence that I had done anything, but it seemed like Hapy was sitting taller, like he was Hapy he got some love. Yes, I know that sounds silly.

When I was done with the oil, I remembered that I had an engine cover for the TDI engine in Flash that I took off years ago. I don't remember why I took it off, nor why I left it off, but there it was leaning against the wall on top of my shop bench. I think I had planned to use it in Hapy for years, but figured I needed to cut it to fit, so I just left it there. Well, today I was just puttering anyway, so I gave it a test fit. Wouldn't you know, it slipped right on. Now, the bracket which holds the vacuum ball had the cover mount cut off, so I can only hold it in place with 2 bolts (and I only had one). After pawing through a box of random fasteners, I found a M6 bolt that was 30mm long. Perfect. So, now the engine has a cover. Since I don't look at it hardly ever, the cover shouldn't be an access issue, but it should contain a little bit of the noise. We'll see.

That's really all I have today. I'm working on a new piece of furniture for when-camped, but it is still in the design stage. Until then, more shows and camping awaits!

4Peaks 2019 - Music Report

What's this? I know, I usually just have 2 posts about something interesting, so what's with this third post? Well, we tried to focus more on the music this year, so here is an entire post dedicated to it. Consider the layout of the festival grounds first. The camp zone is uphill, but also downwind of both stages, which point at the camp zone. So, when the wind is right, or very light, the sound carries directly into the camp zone. So, as you walk around, visiting friends, play games or check out the vendors, the music is there. This makes it easier to not be in-person at the stage for a performer, which is why we usually don't see much in-person. This year we saw more, and focused more on the music, but still didn't see nearly as much as we thought we would.

Lineup
Before we left home, I did some homework on the bands. Some previous years I had done that, but it has been a while since I had. With that homework came a pecking order or list of bands I wanted to see with one or 2 each day that I really wanted to see (marked with an asterisk). The list follows, with opinions following. The main stage only operates on Friday and Saturday, and interestingly, most of the bands I wanted to see were on the small side stage anyway. So, that small group who appeared on the main stage are noted.

Thursday

Time	Artist	Notes
8:00	*Lil Smokies	A blend of more bluegrass than Americana. They were good though, and it was a strong start to the music side of the festival
10:00	movie @TheJunction: UP!	Boo hadn't seen "UP", so we added that to the list. But, it was way too cold to sit out in the open watching a movie. When I say cold, it dropped into the upper 30F's, so, yeah, that's too cold to sit in a lawn chair in an open field so we sat by the buses with the propane heater instead

Friday

Time	Artist	Notes
11:00	Swindler	Described as psychedelic meets funk, these guys were good, but we didn't make it all the way to the stage. 11AM was too early in the day for them, IMHO. They really could have benefited from the cover of dark and some crowd pre-funk. Our neighbor, JerseyPaul, liked them so much that he bought their CD from the merch tent as soon as they left the stage. Strong statement
1:30	Mestizo Beat	Afro-cuban beats. These guys threw it down. Lots of really good bump in what they were doing. Again, didn't make it to the stage, but the sound across the festival grounds was really really good. We walked the vendors nearest the stage for about half of their set
4:00	Polyrhythmics	more funk. more beats. more dancing. Not as strong as I had expected, but as the day gets later, the expectations rise. Right?
6:45	*Pink Talking Fish	These guys were the buzz of our festival. Everyone we talked to, we asked about Pink Talking Fish, and they were a huge hit. Boo made it to the front of the stage, but the tent was full front-to-back of dancing. Their set included a ton of Phish (including a really good, long Bathtub Gin), but very little Talking Heads. They hit a "Crosseyed and Painless" that stayed in my head for not just the rest of the festival, but for another week afterwards. That bass/percussion groove was mesmerizing. The topper? a Beastie Boys encore: Sabotage. Mind Completely Blown. We will go waaay out of our way to see these guys again. So fun.
8:15	Los Lobos (main stage)	Los Lobos was a tale of 2 bands in one long set. They played 40 minutes of traditional Mexican music (Mariachi/Ranchera) and then switched into groovy, jammy stuff. They closed with a "Not Fade Away" into "Bertha" that had us singing along. That's some fun stuff.
10:00	*Poor Man's Whiskey	It is rumored this was to be their last 4Peaks appearance, so this would be their last special / small stage performance. But, we missed it. After Pink Talking Fish and Los Lobos, we were spent. Besides, there were friends to visit, so we took the last band of the day off for some late food. We could hear them across the festival grounds though, and they hit many of our favorites from past 4Peaks visits. They are always solid as the last band of the first full day

Saturday

Time	Artist	Notes
12:15	Maddie Carpenter (main stage)	I thought Boo would like her, since she has Bonnie Raitt and other strong female vocalist influences. I was right, and I really liked her too. It may have been a big stage for her, though, as she sounded a bit nervous, especially through quiet parts of her songs. She can totally belt though, and when she got her footing, she wailed. I had expected her to appear just by herself with a guitar, but she was backed by Poor Man's Whiskey, shy the lead vocalist, so it was an unexpected treat musically as well.
1:30	The Drunken Hearts	based a review, I had added these guys to the list. We missed them because of some unexpected, unplanned performances 2 camping spots away from us. I'll explain further down
2:45	*Sonny Mandreth (main stage)	based on reviews, I got excited about Sonny. Boo and I went down to check him out. The crowd was light, being early on Saturday, but the band was great. He started with a 25-30 minute acoustic set before launching into a full electric set. The acoustic stuff was really good, but during the break between instrumentation, Boo and I drifted away to the vendors and heard the rest of the set away from the stage. Again, the sound quality across the festival grounds is really good, so we could hear it all, but we just weren't as focused.
4:15	Sister Sparrow	I added this band for the lead singer's vocals, and she delivered. The band seemed completely designed around showcasing her singing, which is a minus. The solos were brief and just "okay", and there didn't appear to be a genre; they ranged from soul to gospel through R-and-B and blues. Had the group played like a group, the lack of style wouldn't have been such a thing. From the outside, the set was odd, but her voice is amazing.
5:15	Poor Man's Whiskey (main stage)	We tried listening to Poor Man's Whiskey through the radio simulcast. The radio fidelity was fantastic, but the delay from the stage flowing up the hill to the camp zone fought with the timing of the simulcast, creating an awful echo. It made the radio not viable for us. They were great, as they always are, but we were not "in the house" for their set, listening instead from GratefulEd's loft or by The Junction
6:45	Andy Frasco	I added Andy based on rumors. I had heard of Andy, and JerseyPaul raved about them ahead of their show. We chose to grab vendor-food and catch them in-venue. In terms of raw energy, Andy wins the 4Peaks prize. He was jumping all over the place, and whipping the crowd into a frenzy. He closed his set in his apparently-typical way: pseudo-bar mitzvah chair dance to "hora to Hava Nagila" which I thought was a little trite. It was a great show until he jumped the shark that way
8:00	Wood Brothers (main stage)	I had heard good things about the Wood Brothers, and they totally delivered. For only 3 musicians, we were very impressed for the breadth and complexity of what they were producing. Their sound was the most pure from distance, as compared to everyone else we heard from afar. I don't know if it was the reduced wind or what, but we could stand in The Junction and hear them absolutely perfectly. Every note crystal clear. And so good.
10:00	Billy Strings	based on review, we were going to go see Billy Strings. We chose to stay local, and visit with friends, thinking we could listen on the simulcast. Turns out, the simulcast ends when the main stage shuts down, so we missed them. Unlike some other bands playing on the small stage, they did not carry across the festival grounds, so we didn't hear much. Since the wind had died down, we should have been able to hear; we just couldn't. Our friends had conflicting feedback. JerseyPaul said they were "ok but lacking that special something". Another new friend, Jay, said they were "amazing, simply amazing". Further proof that beauty is in the eye, or ear, of the beholder

Sunday

Time	Artist	Notes
12:30	Scott Law	We've been trying to catch one of his shows since the Black Sheep Family Reunion when he appeared with Ducky Pig. BUT, we missed him again. We could hear some from the small stage, and when we went down, we were able to hear about half of his set as we approached through the vendors, but arrived too late to catch any of the magic. We'll get to seeing him one of these days
2:30	Rising Appalachia	I had heard rumors of their sweet harmonies, and they delivered. There are few things as sweet on the ears as intertwined female vocals in a bluegrass / Americana / folk genre. We listened while we broke camp, and it was a perfect end to a music-intensive weekend

The Junction
Unlike last year, there were performances at The Junction this year. The GoWesty folks have added a musical pod-cast to their array of offerings (see here). So, when you combine the 4Peaks interest for pop-up performances with this new pod-cast thing and then put the GoWesty folks at the Junction where the pop-up performances are desired, there's a musical storm brewing. And it stormed. There were at least 3 separate performances that we caught. In each case, the crowd was fewer than 20 people and the whole thing was located 2 buses down from us in a little performance area the GoWesty folks formed with 3 Vanagons.

Maxwell Friedman and CJ Neary
2 kids who each sat in with various bands over the course of the festival (Maxwell with Matador, and others and CJ with Los Lobos) set up as the first podcast. There were about 15 of us watching them set up and play through 4 or 5 songs. I learned after they finished that Maxwell is just turning 15, heading into his Sophomore year of high school which means that when he sat in with Karl Denson's Tiny Universe 2 years ago, he was 13 heading into 8th grade. CJ Neary may well be that old now.

Maddie Carpenter
Unlike her time on the big stage, Maddie seemed right at home standing on the lawn in front of a row of Vanagons, singing with a 4-piece backing band. Since her vocals were not amplified, some of her vocals were hard to hear from 20 feet away, but when she powered up, it carried very well. I don't know 100% who the backing band was, but I think it was Poor Man's Whiskey again. They were tight, and pulled CJ up for a song.

Unknown
There was a great 4 or 5-piece band that we didn't catch the name of. They didn't play any of the stages, but they got on the pod-cast. They had a mandolin player with a big voice and a harmony singer on a guitar who sounded so good together. Of the unscheduled, unexpected performances, I liked these guys the most, and stayed for their entire set, costing me the time to see the Drunken Hearts on the side stage.

The Drunken Hearts in a Late Night Pop-up
Saturday night, after the side stage closed up, we were visiting with friends. Boo and I wanted to stretch our legs and see the cold dark night sky so we wandered off from our camp zone. Across the fire lane, we were talking to NewTrailerRussell, and we heard about a pop-up show. "By the 4 flags" around 1:AM. Well.. it was practically 1:AM already, so we wandered towards where we knew there were 4 flags flying on one pole, and sure enough, tucked in behind 3 layers of tents there was a 10x10 with a band cranking. We worked our way to the front (Jerry's side) of the small crowd of about 40 people and caught 3 long jam-songs by the Drunken Hearts. They were great, and I was sorry that I had to make the choice between some random pop-up show and them on the small stage, but grateful that I ended up seeing both. Best of all, this set was one of their choosing for themselves, not for whatever audience they thought they were playing for.

That's it for the music review. Overall, the music was great. There is always a strong representation of bluegrass at 4Peaks, but this year it felt like the organizers were really trying to get more groove or funk happening. We liked it and we'll be back next year. I think doing the homework ahead of time gave us the means to make informed decisions about the bands, and gave us stronger reasons to get to the stages. I think I'll do that homework more as well.