Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The past three weeks and the next four weeks have seen and will see little forum visits from me. I've taken on a job at a plant nursery up the road a little ways from my house. It is getting me in shape, and its a workout every day. I come home tired from work, covered in bark and dirt and I'm sweaty every day.

The worst part is that my hands ache every day, and when I try to go back to playing guitar, certain chords, such as "A major", "G major" and certain barre chords, cause my hands to hurt more than ever.

However, the pay is good, so I shouldn't complain.

Have any of you worked any physical jobs before? If so, share them.

Welcome to the work force, Jake.

Never trust a man without calluses on his hands.


I've had plenty of jobs in my short life, but the ones that made the biggest impression were the hard labor ones.
When I was 16 I took up a job for my stepdad cutting steel beams in half....with a hand saw.

I'll tell ya....if there is ever an incentive to get you into some form of higher education, it's doing mindless manual labor for a few weeks. Builds character and appreciation for what others do (and what you may NOT want to do).

Soak it up!

It's all good, Jake. When that Dual Showman comes your way, those calluses and upper body strength will help you can carry that sucker up the steep flight of stairs at the local VFW, fire hall or the stage at whatever venue for your first gig!

I spiked railroad ties and did other related track-maintainence work for the Lehigh Valley RR as a summer job through my college years. To echo Collin's remarks, a healthy stint of physical labor makes you realize that you don't want to be doing it on a permanent basis. It can help provide the incentive to get to a situation where you can use your mind and not your back to make a living. It also can make you appreciate what people who do physical labor as a full-time occupation go through.

It's tough at first when your not used to hard work with your hands. You should get used to it in a while and have a stronger grip from the experience.

Good luck!

Jake, before I went full time as a musician I held a variety of manual labor jobs. I've been a cook, a landscaper, worked in a geotechnical engineering laboratory, a stable hand, a medical courier, had my own subcontracting business, worked as service technician repairing gas grills and gas log insert systems and spent over a decade as a commercial truck driver just to name a few. You'll appreciate the experience later when you're older; trust me!

When I was 15 I joined a friend of mine working for his dad, he was a construction contractor so we joined his workforce during the long school break (in Israel we have 2 months break from July to September)
I bounded steel rods to each other using a steel wire, my hands looked dead and I remember I could barely play my Les Paul (I had no Ricks back then, sorry...)
Later I was "upgraded" to help the guy who puts the floor tiles, so I had to carry buckets full of sand, the buckets had a very narrow metal handle so it ate through my palm.
Not much fun, I am very happy and feel very fortunate that my job revolves computers.

During a couple of summer breaks during college, I worked in a lumber mill. While in college I washed dishes in the cafeteria, worked one summer on a paint crew. After college I worked for a while in a factory which made photo lab equipment. Later I got a job as a janitor in a pre-school for disabled children. Worked at a civic center on the cleaning crew, and then got another janitor job at the University of Kansas. I wouldn't trade all that experience for all the Rickenbackers on my wish list, but I sure wouldn't do it all over again, either.

Now I'm teaching guitar, banjo, and fiddle at Kansas' only non-profit school of music, the Americana Music Academy, and playing in an acoustic band. Life is a lot better, now.

JimK

Yeah, but how did your toes get like that, Jim?

Seriously, I've been working since I was 18; in Chicago when I was younger, there was very little available except paper routes.

When I was 18, my very first job was as a carpenter, building parade floats 40-60 hours a week, for $1.40 an hour. I did that every summer and fall for three years.

When I wasn't doing that, I pumped gas during the day in winter and spring, and unloaded trucks at UPS in bitter cold, on the midnight shift at Christmas time. UPS paid $4.75 an hour--good money back then, except that the Teamster's Union took my first two paychecks every year for dues.

When I got out of college and there were no design jobs available, I worked as a maintenance guy in a large apartment building a few doors down from the Playboy mansion in Chicago. Purty girls. Limousines, movie stars over there. Stopped up sinks, painting ceilings, cleaning up after dead people, where I was. Paid the bills, though. Then I found a design job and still enjoyed working with my hands just as much.

I remodelled my houses and built cars for myself for a couple of decades, on the side. But my physical labor days, while over these days on the job, still continue on the side as I built my music room and remodelled my workshop in the last two years; now the shop gets redone to accommodate some new machinery, beginning next week.

In the process, over a long life, I've stayed fit, learned a whole slew of manual skills, and become self-sufficient, in the sense that if something needs fixin', I can do it myself.

Nothing wrong with hard work. And, as you adjust, your hands will adjust, too.

JakeK wrote:Have any of you worked any physical jobs before? If so, share them.

I've worked in dutch greenhouses - one being a nursery for orchids. Bark's something I'm familiar with

I've also worked in bellpeppers during my student time. Hot, dusty & sweaty... but also a time of some good fun!

I was a Bagger in a grocery store when I was 16, I still have nightmares about collecting up the carts

Just a word of advice, Jake: Work smart and use proper technique for lifting heavy objects. You want your back to last a lifetime. I've had too many jobs that involved hard physical labor and eventually I injured my back to the point that I'm now very limited in the amount of physical work I can do. At 19 you might feel invincible, but a back injury can set you up for a lot of discomfort later in life. So play it smart!

jingle_jangle wrote:Yeah, but how did your toes get like that, Jim?

Floor wax stripper. You know I can play guitar and banjo both at the same time, don't you?
JimK

kiramdear wrote:Just a word of advice, Jake: Work smart and use proper technique for lifting heavy objects. You want your back to last a lifetime. I've had too many jobs that involved hard physical labor and eventually I injured my back to the point that I'm now very limited in the amount of physical work I can do. At 19 you might feel invincible, but a back injury can set you up for a lot of discomfort later in life. So play it smart!

A great , big +1 to this Jake!! I worked construction jobs when I was young (18-24 years old) I'll be 58 next month and have had severe back problems that cropped up years after I stopped that line of work , most likely caused by things I did (or didn't do properly) back then.

I've worked as a gardener, I've detailed cars. As a grocery store employeee I used to bag groceries and push carts, and as Aclerk I stocked shelves and unloaded trucks. All good! Good for you. If your hands actually hurt to the point where it interferes with your playing guitar, maybe take some aspirin or Advil, but that should be short term, and only if your hands hurt to the point where you actually can't focus, form the chrod shapes, or play the riffs.

I worked in a liquor store. Lots of cases of wine and booze to carry around. Especially located where that particular liquor store was easy access the the largely Italian-American communities and Morris Park and Van Nest sections of The Bronx. Man, can my people go through cases of wine!!