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I know it’s polarizing, but I’m a fan of the reverse Strat. I gigged the chartreuse flake one and it was my main guitar in that band. I still have to wire up the second one I have in ye olde project pile…

I caught her with Jeff Beck on his last ever tour in October, 2022. Jeff has always been amazing live, but I left there a fan of hers too - monster talent!

He’s just coming off of an opening run for Puscifer, and is heading out for 26 more dates with them this fall. In addition to his comedy gig, he just released some new Valley Lodge, has a hard rock band with Chris Reiffert (Autopsy) and a mock black metal band called Witch Taint, and is wrapping up a solo album. He’s also recently released a 4-part comic book/graphic novel and continues to do his artwork on the side (he painted a cool axe for me last year). He’s the busiest guy in showbiz, for sure. As always, kudos to Kiz for the “SCHARTER” logo!

Who the hell just makes up these ridiculous finish names?

I love those! My wife and I try to catch the fine print because the side effects are always way worse than the shit they're trying to treat. It's good for a laugh between bad news stories.

This is all that should be needed at the end of each drug advertisement on television. Nearly all can end in death, so the "warnings" are a bit excessive and oftentimes longer than the body of the commercial. You can tell I hate drug ads...

Yes sir! I used 11s for awhile in the 90s ("SRV dick measuring" haha). Eventually went to 10s, then I hurt my left hand in a bike crash in 2010 and switched to 9s on 25.5" guitars and 10s on 24.75". I had an epiphany when I got my 1980 Ibby semi hollow; it sounded great we 9s clean, even with no compression thru a SS amp, it just has the jazz tone I've been looking for. The right guitar will sound good no matter what you string it with. YMMV

Still looking for these items...

If you take it to him again, wrap the headstock in bubble wrap and tell him you did it just in case. We saw him open for Bill Murray last year, and he really won the crowd over. Also, if anyone watches Last Week With John Oliver, Dave's band plays the theme song.

I dig it! Also the mini "Live From Pompei" aesthetic

Damn Dave, that one just makes me sad.

Welcome to old age.

And then there's this: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Hamer/Vintage-Vintage-1982-Hamer-XT-Series-Amber-Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar.gc?algoliaQueryID=102d49b9f66c2626e993382b85c9d96a&algoliaIndexName=guitarcenter I'm about 20 miles from the Rockford GC store and tempted to go and tell them how many errors and omissions are in that listing.

The Monaco is one of all Mahogany versions with the Two-Tone sunburst finish.

…does it count if I put it there? I had been chatting with Mr. Dave Hill (NOT the dude from Slade, the one from Cleveland) over the last year or two about various guitar geekery and Hamers have come up here and there. I sent him a copy of “The Book” a while back just so he could see what he’d been missing all of these years. He was intrigued by the purple Prince Studio Custom, and I offered to let him check it out and play it when he was passing through the area sometime. Dave, Stike, my son and I had gotten a chance to hang out for an afternoon back in April and he was raving about borrowing a new Veleno for the Charlotte show the previous evening and dug it (but had to give it back). I brought up the Prince guitar again and he said he’d be honored to play it sometime. I had tickets to see Dave opening for Bill Murray at The Warner here in town a few weeks ago, and had also picked up a house concert at a really cool venue in North Baltimore’s lovely Roland Park neighborhood (Club 603). Friends of ours had just been there to see Rhett Miller and couldn’t say enough good stuff about it and also let me know that tickets were going on sale the next day - they don’t advertise, really, and the 30-40 seats usually sell out right away. I scored two, and right after, Bill postponed his DC show for the second time. I wasn’t sure if Dave was going to take the train down for just the smaller show, but he’s a man of his word, and did. My son and I trucked the purple guitar up and handed it to Dave for a soundcheck. He totally wailed on it for a solid half hour with a giant smile, and he showed it off to the hosts and sound team, who totally dug it. Dave had just scored a new Dunable V, which was super cool, and similar to the ones he usually plays, but he opted to sling the Hamer instead. It sounded great for the first part of the show and unfortunately, during his EVH interlude, he hit something (mic stand) and the middle string lock at the nut somehow loosened and the guitar went hopelessly out of tune mid solo. He was in the middle of a bit, so started riffing about having broken the guitar, but it was all planned payback for Prince trashing Capt. Kirk Douglas’ treasured ‘61 Epiphone Crestwood Custom. The audience started an unprompted “Prince! Prince! Prince!” chant as he switched to the Dunable. He didn’t get to play the Hamer for the rest of the set, but felt awful that he had broken the guitar. After the finale, he headed to the merch area a few rooms away so I hopped up took a quick look and in about 5 seconds had the guitar perfectly back in tune. We chatted later and he felt awful about it all, but honestly, there was zero harm done. He definitely wants to play it next time he’s in the area, like at the Enormodome or something. He definitely did it justice while he was playing and clearly dug it.

The Country Westerns

But I thought 9.5s were the schizznit?

Both 9's and 10's 👍

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=daddario+guitar+strings+electric&crid=1Z0D1GD8U3ZNE&sprefix=dad%2Caps%2C904&ref=nb_sb_ss_p13n-expert-pd-ops-ranker_2_3

Yes, an HFCer got them.

Tension is lower and bending is easier on shorter scale. Hamers are 24 3/4” scale (Gibson scale, like LPs and SGs), strats and teles are 25.5” (Fender scale). Interestingly PRS are designed to be in the middle at 25”. You May like 9s on your fenders and 10s on your Hamers and Lps. For my working strats and teles I got conversion necks so they’re 24 3/4” too and I generally use DAddario 10s on everything. ETA: my comments were to generally address fretting hand issues, and the OP mentioned picking hand issues; relax your grip on the pick and practice the basic motion of picking the string, and try to avoid tensing up as you jam out. Ymmv Good Luck!