Is Nostalgia all it used to be?

Doghouse Riley · 15-03-2011, 08:55 PM

This is the Japanese tea-house I built 25 years ago at the bottom of our garden. I'd just changed the roofing felt last September.

I keep this in it...

YouTube - ‪Rock-Ola 468 : The Drifters : Like Sister and Brother‬&rlm;

Err..

And this.

YouTube - ‪Rock-Ola 443 : Chris Rea : Fool if You Think it's Over‬&rlm;

trickydicky · 15-03-2011, 10:24 PM

the drifters i agree with but chris rea ????

Doghouse Riley · 15-03-2011, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trickydicky

the drifters i agree with but chris rea ????

Well, I use that as a "demo."

These things have 200watt amplifiers, two twelve inch and two eight inch speakers. Anyone who shows any interest I put that on and immediately say "Isn't the bass good on this?"
They always agree, but it doesn't come in until around bar eleven and when it does you can feel your stomach vibrate even at a not particularly loud volume which rather takes them aback. Doesn't work on Youtube when recorded on a very small camera.

Teenage kids of friends love 'em, some never having seen a seven inch single.
When they ask what they are, I tell 'em they are 300lb ipods.

The carousel on one, has 50/60s US pop and mostly Motown. The other has 70/80s pop, doo-wop and "standards" and big band jazz.
The selection is designed for all tastes. I ring the changes every now and then. My first love is old fashioned modern jazz, of the fifties and sixties and some jazz funk of the eighties, but I play that stuff in the house.

trickydicky · 15-03-2011, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doghouse Riley

Well, I use that as a "demo."

These things have 200watt amplifiers, two twelve inch and two eight inch speakers. Anyone who shows any interest I put that on and immediately say "Isn't the bass good on this?"
They always agree, but it doesn't come in until around bar eleven and when it does you can feel your stomach vibrate even at a not particularly loud volume which rather takes them aback. Doesn't work on Youtube when recorded on a very small camera.

Teenage kids of friends love 'em, some never having seen a seven inch single.
When they ask what they are, I tell 'em they are 300lb ipods.

The carousel on one, has 50/60s US pop and mostly Motown. The other has 70/80s pop, doo-wop and "standards" and big band jazz.
The selection is designed for all tastes. I ring the changes every now and then. My first love is old fashioned modern jazz, of the fifties and sixties and some jazz funk of the eighties, but I play that stuff in the house.

LOL...yeah i can see it now a teenager with a jukebox in his pocket

aah the 7" singles i remeber going to woolworhts on a saturday with my mother and always wanting a new record then the tape recorders kicked off and it was cool to tape the top 40 on a sunday and then listen to it all week

Doghouse Riley · 15-03-2011, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trickydicky

LOL...yeah i can see it now a teenager with a jukebox in his pocket

aah the 7" singles i remeber going to woolworhts on a saturday with my mother and always wanting a new record then the tape recorders kicked off and it was cool to tape the top 40 on a sunday and then listen to it all week

Amongst enthusiasts vinyl jukeboxes are far more popular than later jukeboxes that play CDs, which will go for a fraction of the price of those vinyl visible mechanism ones made in the fifties, called "the silver age" which would set you back several thousand pounds.
I'd like one but not to put in something which is just a glorified garden shed. It's a compromise with my wife as I've saxophones and an electric piano in the house.
A lot of vinyl is sold on eBay and I have quite a few mint singles of classic recordings I bought from the USA. Jukeboxes don't scratch the records so the reproduction is always first class.

I've put a lot of videos of mine playing on Youtube.
They are just "a box ticked" I usually only play them when I'm pottering around in the garden. They are far enough away from the neighbours not to cause annoyance, although I do in the summer sometime get "requests."

Doghouse Riley · 18-03-2011, 09:36 PM

If you want to add a Japanese touch to your garden....

I'm of an age when you either "did it yourself or it didn't get done" but this sort of building isn't beyond anyone with basic carpentry skills.

It took me two weeks to build in 1987. Based on photographs of Victorian era mansion owners' interpretations of Japanese tea-houses I'd researched in Manchester Central Library, plus a fair bit of imput from myself. Many Victorian country house owners became fascinated with all things Japanese which had a great influence on their gardens and homes.

It's made of rough sawn soft wood which I planed and sanded down and laminated roofing ply. But regular coats of Dulux mahogany Woodsheen have kept it free from rot. The doors and windows have opaque plastic panels instead of glass. They sit in grooves cut in the 2" X 1" frames of the doors and positioned before the doors were assembled. There's three sheets per door, one sheet for each of the two side windows. Hardwood strips are stuck on the sheets to make it appear there are more panes than there actually are.

For anyone interested enough to be still reading this, I have added some photos of the construction. Anyone with basic woodworking skills can manage it. You can see the base was a bit over engineered which was fortunate as I had no idea then the amount of weight it would have to carry twenty years on. The only tricky bits were cutting the turned up corners of the eaves. I started with four lengths of 9 inch wide timber, each was reduced down to 4 inches wide to create the right curve for each of the eight ends.

Now I have no engineering proof of this, but I think the shape of the roof with the turned up corners, effectively creates some downthrust in strong winds. Considering the considerable overhang at the front, it's been totally unaffected by winds in over twenty-five years.

There is a void in the centre below the skylight, the sides of which are panelled in as is the ceiling. I can put a ladder up in the centre and remove the skylight if I want to inspect the roof as it just sits on the top, like a box lid. Each of the corner doors opens inwards folding back against the sides. The centre door is attached by four bolts two, top and bottom and can be opened in either direction or completely removed.

All the visible joints look as if they are secured by dowel pegs. They are actually screwed and glued together, the screws being counter- sunk to a depth of half an inch or so. 1 inch dowel pegs have then been hammered in behind the head of the screws to achieve this authentic look. As well as a roofing ply floor, it has marine ply panels fitted on top of it, the interior has a further covering of a sheet of vinyl flooring. The jukeboxes sit on some left over laminate flooring to help spread their weight. Power to the building is from the garage fusebox via an RCCB in a cable threaded through some alkethene pipe buried below the side fence. I can also turn on the exterior light and an internal light from a bank of four switches in our lounge which control all the lights in our garden. All are on the garage circuit.

This old photo gives me the reassurance that my two 300lb jukeboxes won't fall through the floor.

Working late here.

Some bits were trickier than others, as I did it all on my own, my wife made lots of cups of tea though.

Doghouse Riley · 18-03-2011, 09:45 PM

You can see how the soffits turn up at the corners and the perlin passes under them and supports them from below.

Doghouse Riley · 18-03-2011, 10:07 PM

There's a lot of detail that few people notice.

That's my Budweiser fridge on a purpose built rolling stand and I've a small TV with a freeview box. The aerial is in the roof void.

The Chrysanthemum panels I cut out with a jigsaw from plywood.

I recently added these troughs, I bought them at a garden centre and gave them the "Woodsheen treatment" I had to move the return of the side bed retaining wall back a couple of feet to get the right-hand one to fit in. They are for three big pots of dahlias in each. It's to add a bit of colour to the garden later in the year.

The building has since had its Spring coat of Dulux Woodsheen.

With its opaque white windows and doors it looks quite attractive at night.
Still in perfect condition after 25 years. Although as I said earlier, I did replace the roofing felt last year.