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Everyone knows Bubs, it’s a curse. Doc and Franky are great, we’ve met a couple of times at the last few Z Fest. Bubs= Mr. Z28

In Cleveland this week. I emailed Dr. Z support asking if I could visit and they said sure! Frank in Customer Service gave a tour, answered tons of questions and let me test drive a number of amps. My favorites were the Z Wreck, Z Wreck Jr and Z Lux. So nice and accommodating. The shop is not large but loaded with cool stuff for an enginerd like me. Here are some shots. Dr. Z at his bench, Frank, etc.

More pics -

I can't match Roberto Clemente. Damn. But actually played with or recorded with? I've been lucky. Chris Robinson (Black Crowes) sang at one of our rehearsals. We shared the room with his girlfriend's band, Doll Squad, as well as with The Jody Grind, who had a horribly tragic ending and are still revered in the Southeast today. He came to some of our shows and hung out backstage. In that same band, Billy, the keyboard player from Follow For Now played on one of our tracks. That was a great band. My next stint was a couple years with Anne Richmond Boston. I consider her a big deal, as her old band The Swimming Pool Qs, were on A&M and later Capitol and made a bunch of top ten critic lists and toured with Lou Reed. Rolling Stone named her a Top Ten Names to Watch one year. Her husband, Rob Gal, was our guitarist and also had been in the Coolies, who were pretty big on the college/indie scene. We had some famous people on the album I played on: Syd Straw, Marti Jones, Don Dixon. Oh, and Terry Adams, the keyboard player from NRBQ, played on one track. It was cool hearing Syd Straw doing harmonies on a song I wrote. I jammed with Collective Soul and Ed Roland asked if I wanted to come back, as he had not found Will yet to play bass. I declined. Ed is a really good player and a super nice guy. Also around then I jammed with Magnapop, who got fairly big. Then I putzed around with different people. I had a band with the guitarist from Crossfire Choir. They were signed to Geffen and did an album with Steve Lillywhite, and Eddie was a hell of a good guitarist. But they kind of fizzled for really crazy reasons. Then I started a band with Leah Song, who achieved a good bit of fame with Rising Appalachia, doing the world tour and legions of fans stuff. She's a sweetie. After that I had a band with Joshua Lamar, who was the drummer from Mondo Generator (Nick Oliveri's band after Queens of the Stone Age.) Josh is a hell of a drummer and I really liked playing with him. I know Hoss had also played with the Queens or maybe Desert Sessions, as Troy knew him when he came up in a conversation we had. The last album I did with I Am a Rocketship, as well as the last Aerolinea album, had Kellii Scott on drums on one song each. He was in Failure, as well as Veruca Salt, Christina Aguilera, Pink, and a Troy Van Leeuwen album or two. He's very funny, and a freaking monster drummer. It's interesting to play with people at that level. They generally are super responsible, come prepared, and are fast learners. It's not so much about mad chops (though my goodness Terry Adams can play the shit out of a piano) as just "getting it" very quickly, musically speaking.

No one is gonna top that shit, Dave. Damn. How cool.

Oh but he's there alright - in the heads of all those poor employees.

Around the upper part of South Carolina and Western North Carolina there are still downed trees from Hurricane Helene. It just sits in yards or in the the woods. That wood could be harvested to make lumber. Would you like a house made with oak 2 x 4's? Just firewood is abundant. It is all just going to waste. A friend has a sawmill, and he took away some of the fallen pine trees that were in my yard. Those trees did not go to waste. Some huge limbs fell from one of my beech trees. The beech wood is hopefully going to become a few guitar bodies.

Bravo!.. I'm all for it... Great story, I think every single fallen tree around the world should be repurposed in one way or another... and depending on the cost, I'd even buy one of these 👍

Mike Zaite is a very nice, acommodating guy. I went to med school in Cleveland. Use to tease him that I was actually the real Dr Z☺️. on a trip back to Cleveland for a conference, that seem to take place at thr RnR Hall of Fame, I called him and asked if I could have a visit. He was very pleasant and showed me around. He had recently lost his head guy to illness and was trying to get reorganized. Those were the days of my Z28 head and 4x10 cabinet. Probably the best amp I ever owned including my 66 Pro Reverb. Glad you enjoyed the visit! arniez

There appears to be a wrinkle on fraud where you receive an invite that looks like it comes from a friend. To confirm, you are asked to set u p an account and provide personal information that you SHOULD NOT give away. Always best to be safe. Contact your friend directly and don't click on the provided link.

Used to be mine. Great guitar. Looks like it's taken on a few dinks since I had her (the dink on the front on the white "tooth" by the bridge PUP was there when I got her, but the sides and back were pretty untouched from my recollection)...

I've been using these for decades... easy enough to make yourself as well https://a.co/d/0gNFgI3D Also easy enough to cut a wedge to place on the bottom. or even a kickstand in the back.

Wow! Amazing! Odd though, I didn't see @bubs_42 in any of the photos.

Heya! My friend is selling the extremely clean 1985 Hamer Special that he bought last year. Details in link, feel free to hit me up here or at the shop with any questions. Great guitar! https://www.guitarmalfk.com/shop/c/p/Hamer-Special---Vintage-1985-wHamer-HSC-CLEAN-x98256780.htm

if it's closed back and small, or has a rear panel that would help with support, - I've been using this, - and found it fits in the pocket of a gig bag or under my pedalboard in the case. plywood would be better for the connector piece, I dropped the connector shown and one of the 'tabs' broke off, and now with a glued on patch it's a little thicker than ideal. I did 45deg for this 'prototype', and it's been working great

Oh... just realized this was in the "Shishkov Guitars" category, so that Mike. carry on...

Our @bubs_42 def has the doc’s attention. Brothers in tone.

A couple different occasions in the late 90s I got to play in a very unserious AC/DC tribute act with Audley Freed and Kelly Holland from Cry Of Love, I was not worthy. I once got to sit in on a tune with The Supersuckers.

It's a great story. My father the doctor in Orange City Florida had a lab that he used exclusively that was owned by a man named Fran Monaco. Fran was best friends growing up in Pittsburgh with Tony Bartirone (the Pirates trainer). So, I got to be a batboy for three days in Bradenton during Spring Training in 1971. I was in charge of shagging foul balls at the games for those days. When you shagged one in right field, you threw it in to the right fielder (Clemente). I'd throw the ball to him and he would throw it on a line to the catcher (Manny Sanguillen). Everyone would marvel at Roberto's arm strength. After the game the second day, he jumped the fence and I threw him the last ball I'd shagged. He threw it back to me and we played catch for about five minutes. My dad has the end of it on Super 8mm film somewhere, but I've just not found it yet (Dad died in 2022). I know he had it transferred to DVD, but I've just not wanted to go through all that stuff yet. October 13 of 1971, I was a ball boy for one inning at the first World Series night game ever at Three Rivers. I ran four balls to the home plate umpire and they took a picture. As I was running back to go through the dugout to my seat, Clemente shook my hand. In January 1972, I was invited to be the guest of The Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation started by Willie Stargell. Willie's sons had the trait. So, they couldn't fly. They drove all the way to Daytona Beach for the event at the Americano Hotel (Mob owned I found out later). Major League Baseball gave 25K to Willie's charity. I presented the check to Willie. We have Super 8 of that too. At one point, Willie is asking me a question during dinner. He then takes his fork and starts to eat my vegetables off my plate. Everyone in the video laughs. He asked me, "You going to eat those vegetables"? I said no. The next day, I taught both his boys how to body surf. A great weekend. I have the picture of Willie and I in his hotel room before the dinner on my credenza in my office. Needless to say, I'm a Pirate fan through thick and thin. Mostly thin...

So, here's some "Inside Baseball" for you HFCers... My account on the WordPress/HFC site is F-ed, so I can't create the page until it's all worked out. I was working with Ted on this and he is not pleased with the web host's lack of urgency in fixing a number of issues, namely my ID and the barrage of 503 errors we had last week. One agent told him, "The page is still loading in under 10 seconds," implying that was an acceptable page load time, when in Internet time that's an eternity. I do have all of the songs, though. When my ID is fixed, I'll get back into it.

Not as simple, but very useful.....Atlas makes a set that has a second piece that allows you to tilt back a cabinet and still set a head securely on top, level to the ground. Pricey, but.... https://atlas-stands.com/index.php/product/walnut-low-rider-amp-stand-with-table-top/ I did pick up one original Atlas set at a fair price (walnut), then shop built a couple more from other woods. You can use only the lower portion for a combo amp. One advantage is that the back folds down for easy transport.

I was a little iffy about the pedal’s amp modeling at first. I’d read online that all the amp models had a harshness around 2-2.5KHz that’s supposedly characteristic of Boss modeling. When I first plugged in, I was like wow, that’s not just harsh but brittle. Thought I’d have to return it. But the global eq fixed it pretty fast. Better still, you can run a different global eq setting for the separate A and B outputs. So the output that’s in line with my real amp has no extra eq, but the one I use with the modeling for running ampless has the eq dialed in to fix that harshness. The built in IRs are okay so far. The don’t appear to be tweakable, so I will eventually experiment with uploading my own into the Boss unit. But for now the built in ones seem pretty usable. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Running ampless tonight at rehearsal for the first time. Will see how it works… 😬

Does it still smell new?

But not in the summer 🥵

Yeah, that's gotta suck, especially for a small builder who has small margins 😒

Another funny one.....We had a little garage/top 40 type band in the late 60s. Mostly simple stuff, though our drummer liked to wander off into 5/4 time like Quicksilver. No particular talent aside from our lead guitarist, an English guy that grew up learning Shadows material. Very good with then current music---Santana, Mitch Ryder, Stones, whatever. Anyway, that lead guitarist went off into the Navy (Vietnam era). So, the band was dead. Our former lead vocalist refused to recognize that we were done and decided to make a few bucks by finding us a new gig. He called a place WAY outta town that was always desperate to find a band. "Hey, you guys wanna have the "Chains of Illusion" back?" "Nah, they played here before. Anyone else?" So Scott adlibs, "How about the Warlocks?". "Sure, book 'em!" Pretty sure Scott was not aware that the real Warlocks (before they renamed as the Grateful Dead) was playing all over the west coast. And we most definitely we re NOT them. But WTF, we had a gig. What could we do? No leader, no vocals......We hooked up with a local guitarist who was 17, but was playing like Jeff Beck already. Two rehearsals where all I could do was try to keep up. We arrive at the high school, way out in the sticks. Drummer picks up the one mic plugged into a guitar amp (no PA) and announces, "Our singer has the flu and is home puking his guts out". That was the last "vocal" of the 3 hour evening. So, we jammed. Everything from "Green River" to "Greensleeves" to "Jailhouse Rock" to "Superstition" (ala Beck). That crowd had no idea what was going on. And we barely did. Few in the crowd hung out until the end. But it was the era.....And we did get paid. So I did not exactly play with the Dead.....Though our music mighta smelled like it.🤔

I sold my 3-P90 guitar last weekend...

I played catch with Roberto Clemente as an 9 year old child. Top that!

Les Dudek, Kerry Livgren.

I haven't been green with envy since Matt posted his Watsons, so I'll throw this out there: There is a shitload of talent on this board and I've heard a few great stories about some of the folks you've rubbed elbows with. What else ya got? Me? Well this part of the midwest isn't a real celebrity hotspot. Les Paul came from here and Cheap Trick were regulars in Madison, but we aren't overburdened with megastars. I was roommates with founding member of The Buckinghams George Legros, which led to several solo recordings with him, as well as a number of impromptu jams with his band that featured the one-and-only Funky Drummer himself, Mr. Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown's drummer). He called Madison home, but would receive superstar treatment (limos, hotels, big shows) when visiting Japan. He and I shared a cocktail or 2 at the local bars and he was always the most down-to-earth person you'd ever want to meet. The opportunity to play with someone at that level can take your breath away. Fucking awesome. The goat-roping band I was in contained a youngster named Kirstie Kraus, who went on to Nashville and is currently fighting her way up. Great pop songwriting chops and more drive than anyone I've ever met. We still get together when she's in town. Good kid. And then there's the local legend Steve Swadley, one of my closest friends. If you were involved in the Madison-area music scene from the '60s through today, there's a good chance you know - or have heard of - my buddy Steve. Rock and Roll to the core, you won't meet a better human being. Another roommate/ former high school bandmate was a member of Slave Raider, a Twin Cities/regional act that had some success and was a favorite of our own baloney-fryin' bud WyldBil. Apparently he wasn't in the band long enough to make it on their Wiki page(!), but there are photos to prove it. He now lives in seclusion and is a bit of a dick. So let's have some name-dropping here! Who have you guys worked with or shared a stage with or ?? Let's see the BIG names!!

I have not used any of these. How it would fit on the back of your amp has to be checked for clearance and what happens if it slips. https://www.paniquejazz.com/product/the-stick-minimalist-amp-tilt-back-stand/ https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KB60--hamilton-kb60-adjustable-tiltback-folding-amp-stand https://soundexchangeusa.com/products/triad-standback-compact-tilt-back-amplifier-support

Now there's a man who pays attention.

Had I known @bubs_42 knew him well I could have mentioned him. Or maybe not?

A fun little ditty. Good to see Dusty is finding work post-mortem.

Talking about 18 watters.. This one should make you all smile. Reeves Custom 18 | Reverb

Well, off the top of my head. “Duotone”, is a much cooler model name. That’s all I got…

Well, I've played with @Stike and @elduave, if that counts! (...and @edgar_allan_poe, of course). Above: The first chambered Standard (2004, korina with ebony board) with custom Rio Grande pickups. Below: 1972 Telecaster and the now infamous "Dad Jeans with White New Balance Sneekers" look.

Back in 2011 I was out in Vegas for a 3 day work conference. The hired entertainment was a band that, after the opening ceremony, called up a small handful of people from the crowd of about 3,000-5,000 attendees and collaborated to write a song for the conference, to be played at the closing ceremonies. Long story short, I got chosen, I came up with the main riff, and then got on stage and played the song a couple days later at the close of the conference. The band leader was Angus Clark from Trans Siberian Orchestra/etc. and I played thru his rig for the song. Never was a Strat guy, but I played his that day…

played a set with Jacob Peterson from Steve Miller band at a big Harley Davidson party about 10 years ago. got to sit in on a jam with Carlos Santana and Neil just before Neil joined the band in 1970

In the late 70's I somehow talked my way into the guitarist chair with the Madison Area Technical College Jazz Ensemble and stayed for a couple of semesters. Mostly because I kept my amp volume so low nobody could hear me. Our bandleader was a highly talented player with connections in the old school big band circles. He was able to book Woody Herman's band for a show at the school and, the day of, Woody came in early and played a song with us. We did not speak. Later in life, I worked with a law firm in Richmond, Virginia that represented local artists GWAR and Lamb of God. I negotiated LoG's first record contract with Metal Blade and did a lot of corporate work for GWAR. Robin Zander hugged me once at a trade show. I worked for the company that hired Cheap Trick to perform. @Hamerhead is the only one who will recognize these names, but I hung with the Madison bar band crowd in the 80's: Swad, Gil Jevne, John Masino, Robby "Strange" Alexander, Rich Hayne (Little Vito), Mark Frederick and Matt Ahrens of "The And", and, shortly before he passed, I had the honor and privilege of working on a soundtrack with Boyd Williamson (aka Zoid Asteroid Machine) of the Vers. Those were the best of times.

This guy played keyboards in the band I was in back in high school, so we shared a few (tiny) stages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Hobgood Later on, my band opened for the likes of Rare Earth, Joan Jett, and Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics, but we were never on stage at the same time.

How about something like this to cleanse the palate?

I live by that. Hell, it's a regular turnstile around here. 'Under a grand' is the new $350.

Close. $2500 + tax 🫠

lol - Who told you that?

Adding a few more...just because: