Leaderboard

... at least at my home: Recently I discovered this beautiful neon sign (not LED!). I suspect that it is from the 80s or 90s. I even had to buy a step-down transformer to be able to use it. Amazing that it survived all these years unharmed. With more than 40 Hamer guitars in my collection, it seemed to me to be the cherry on top. I hope you like it too.

Hi Folks, First off this is not a plea for money, I appreciate all the support that people send, and I plan to keep the HFC going until it doesnt makes sense. Feel free to read as much or as little of this as you like but I wanted to be transparent on whats going on. As many of you may be aware we have been struggling over recent months. Our hosting company was sold last year and things continual are getting worse. The service being the most obvious as you may have noticed frequent 503 errors due to them reducing the amount of resources available. They have also increased our hosting prices by over 300%. furthermore, the plan we are on no longer works for us due to the resource demands from the board and the only option for staying is Virtal Private Server which cost exponentially more than of a traditional shared hosting account or offloading the board to invision cloud hosting but that alone is over $1000 per year and I dont want to lose the other pages. This really maked me miss the old days when I hosted the HFC on a throw away 386 running linux and apache in the basement of my inlaws office. Anyway, over the last few months I have been trying to find a situation that was reasonably affordable. I am planning to move hosts and am close to narrowing down my choice. The initial costs are reasonable as they give you a deal for a year then increase your monthly the next year. One of the issues is the size of the database as I have been retaining ALL posts from when we first moved to invision 20 years ago. I like the idea of having them available to search and revisit. However, I might need to drop quite a few or them. If I do, I will keep a copy and maybe bring it back up under an archive site. We'll see. I am working on keeping the recent stuff going first. What you need to know is this migration is going to happen soon, likely in the next two weeks. The site may be down or unavailable for a while as I migrate data. maybe days but I am hoping to avoid that. Please give me some grace on that as I do have a real job as well which has been very heavy. Lastly, I want to thank each and every one of you for being here. YOU are the HFC not that site and I am going to do my best to keep this clubhouse going as long as I can. your friend Ted Martin

It's about damn time. Everyone knows that guitarists have been clamoring for something new, something different, something unique. As long as it's mahogany with a maple top and shaped like a Les Paul/Strat/Tele and sounds like a Les Paul/Strat/Tele with the same control layout.

Write an article about fake Gibsons for Vintage Guitar. Use a photo of your Chibson. Then advertise the guitar for sale as "featured in Vintage Guitar Magazine." You might even make a profit.

Been a minute since I've posted but thought I would drop a post to recognize our awesome HFC community. Our very own zenmindbegginer is being reunited with his former Hamer Monaco Elite, which you might've seen him making sonic love too in various clips for Seymour Duncan. Another member, Ting Ho Dung organized an effort on Facebook to raise over $1300 in donations and several from our great community jumped in to help. As you can imagine, Geoff is beyond grateful and stoked to be getting his axe back. Congrats to Geoff on reacquiring this beautiful instrument and hats off to Thorn for his generosity and the amazing anonymous members here for their donations! This is how it's done 👌👌👌

Someone really likes Blitzes...

As noted in a thread about a Peavey Dyna Bass I acquired a while back, I'll still poke my head into pawn shops on occasion if I'm out of town and ahead of schedule for some kind of business or medical appointment. There are certain sections of larger towns that have turned into combat zones, and I no longer look into shops in such areas. Made that (easy) decision after hearing nearby gunfire when I left such a store a few years back. So this '72 Micro-Frets Stage II came from an alternate location, and once again, I just stumbled into it. It's in Near-Mint condition and I paid too much for it but should be able to make it back if and when I flip it ...And it may be a while before I flip it on accounta this Maryland-made oddity has all sort of cool attributes and innovations: A "Calibrato" vibrato (feels like a Mosrite), a tuneable nut, and a reportedly-Bill-Lawrence-designed "Hi-Fi" circuit that suppresses 20% of the coil windings to offer a switchable tone shift. Neck profile feels like a Mosrite as well (YMMV), Instrument is fully original. Moreover, It's got the original plush-line hard case, instructions, and a November 1972 newsletter...checking out case candy is always a cool experience. Pickups are P-90ish (IMO) and it plays like butter. Micro-Frets only made about 3000 instruments during its initial existence. Finding one this nice from that era is probably a rare experience. HFC members from the Old Line State can probably relate.

OK, let’s do this: I’m selling my Hamer USA Standard Custom, built in 2007. It’s in pristine condition, complete with the original hardshell case, COA, and case candy. You guys know what these things are, so, I’ll spare you the blah-blah. Yet, worth mentioning it’s transparent red and features a highly figured flame maple top and matching headstock veneer. IMPORTANT: The pickups are Seymour Duncan JB & 59, but aren’t the ones that came originally with the guitar —I never had those. These pups do sound amazing though, you know this combo is a safe bet. Now the price: 7,500 USD, shipped in the continental US —firm. Thanks for watching!

Give me shred til I’m dead…

Nice pair of Chicago made cuties. My 1979 Hamer Standard and 1979 Dean Z. Post up some vintage goodness for all to enjoy! 😎👍❤️🏁

A recent industrial hygiene study of the Gibson plant has determined a strongly correlated root cause of nearly all QC issues. A photo montage accompanying the report provides clues: A 12,465 page report from the study concludes very succinctly, "Ladies and gentlemen, if we could put our finger on just one primary issue, that would be: it's dark. I mean, really, really dark. We've never seen a production environment with such poor lighting." The report has been published to the Board of Directors. An action committee is anticipated.

I posted a while back I had bought a beautiful 1994 USA DuoTone. Inititially I was suspect, I could tell this guitar had been cased for a long time. Electronics didn't work, fret board and bridge where super dry. I gotta say after giving this guitar some love a clean up/fix up full set up it's one of the finest guitars I own. Incredible playability and tone. What a fantastic job Hamer did building these in the mid 90's. I absolutely love it!!!

After tons of hours and thousands of co-pilot messages (amazing really) to figure out the new host created a broken VPS. The site should be back and better than ever. Beat it up and let me know what you find. That said. IPB message board we use has become bloated and is bugging me to constantly buy updates and move to their cloud services. It's to the point that I am ready to jump to another forum product. I am not planning on doing it this week. But likely in the future. If you are interested check out xenforo, its lighter weight, has a very similar feature set and much more appealing licensing. Thanks all for your patience. I appreciate every member of the first and best damn guitar forum on the internet for over 30 years your friend Ted Martin For those that have no clue what I am referring to see the back story here:

Pics of how it looked when I got it and how it looks now. Prefer to meet in person driving distance from DC area. Guitar and case are all original to the best of my knowledge, with the exception of the switch tip and possibly the brass nut. The volume pot for the neck pickup cuts in and out and probably needs to be replaced. I tried to clean it up with DeoxIT without success. There are some dings that don't photograph well, but nothing major in my opinion. This one has the 3-piece neck. The humbucker mounting rings are replacements that I thought matched the binding better, but the originals are in the case. I will follow up with more pics and will attempt some neck measurements if I can find my calipers.

Ting Ho Dung has confirmed the Monaco Elite has landed and zenmindbegginer is a very happy dude right now. Hopefully he'll stop by the HFC sometime soon to share a quick pic or video of it in action. Thanks to Thorn for facilitating this transaction and to the HFC members who contributed to this effort. And congrats again Geoff on reacquiring that badass guitar! Hope to see it in action soon 🤘🤘

Or... Wife: You have to start selling some guitars. Husband: OK, I'll try.

Musikraft neck is in. Beautiful chunk of wood.

This is what happens when the board and senior management are just investors who don’t really understand what they sell.

Thanks for EVERYTHING you do behind the scenes and right out in the open here for the HFC! I can’t believe that I’ve been on this board for close to half my life, but it’s all because of you taking the plunge and making it happen. I think most of us here have made great friends, bandmates and even adopted siblings. It truly is (and has always been) the best hangout on the dubayew dubayew dubayew. You rock, Ted!

I got to hang out with him and he took us through his touring guitar racks and let us monkey around with and shoot pics of his gear for the Hamer book. He couldn’t have been a nicer guy, nor more generous with his time. I saw him at a NAMM show 5-6 months later, and he remembered me without any prompting and wanted to know if the pics came out okay or if we needed anything else. Super talented guy, and he is so much more than just “that guy in Gwen Stefani’s old band”. I am hoping for the best for him.

Did Gene go to stomp on a pedal and stomp on your foot by accident? 😁

Good News! I have a reasonable host and am in the process of setting things up. Fingers crossed it goes well. I'll keep you posted. So far, its been a grind, but so good. Cant wait to ditch this crappy host

How about a pair of LEs: 25th and 30th Anniversaries.

A total knucklehead got banned from here for trying to pass one of those off as the real thing when he 100% knew better. That was the last straw after he had proven himself to be a bit of a scammer and just overall weirdness.

More pics:

Already at the painter's for this:

Still got mine, including the sustainblock trem arm hardware.

Kurt made one for Brad Whitford and one other for a guy in New York (he can't tell me). Both were creamsicle orange. Mine's a different color...

As they say, health forces sale. This is a '95 Eclipse 12 in very good shape. I waited a long time to get my mitts on one and it was well used but never abused, came with me to every show for years but was only used on a few songs every night. It was originally owned by the always tasteful Stevie mf'in Clay of Grumpy Old Men and I bought it through the mighty Greg Platzer. Evidently, Steve and I shared the opinion that the big chrome pickup surrounds on Eclipses were a tad too blingy. Greg fixed that with some classy, custom tortoiseshell rings and TRC. I fixed the balance issue commonly found on 12'ers with pearloid tuner buttons (originals in case) which also classed it up a little and those couple of ounces really make a difference. No breaks, major repairs or stories. There is one eraser-sized dimple (I tried to photograph it and couldn't) above the pickups on the front. When I bought it, I commented to Greg that I now had to search for coolerbetterfaster pickups. He recommended I live with the stock ones for a while. Good call. All the classic 12'er tones are in there. No regrets. $1,350 or near offer plus actual shipping. Shipping estimate provided once we have a deal. PPFF preferred, my bank isn't set up for Venmo, etc. CONUS only, packed to withstand a regional thermonuclear conflict 🤣. I'd GREATLY prefer a meet 'n' greet to hand it off if you're within a day trip driving distance of Dayton, OH This is a nice one, I hate to see it go. E-me at tomteriffic1952@woh.rr.com

Big chunk of wood!...............I owned 2 of them back in my fusion days. One I custom ordered from Gibson and the other I bought from "Pete's Guitar" in St Paul Mn. The original design from 1958 - 1962 are the real collector's item. I played one long, long ago at a guitar show. It had a mandolin on top and a six string on the bottom, but Gibson would let you custom order different configurations. Here is a photo my brother took of me back in the early 1970s.

Just saw this nice USA Artist at Chicago Music Exchange. Nice price too. Great workhorse axes! https://www.chicagomusicexchange.com/products/hamer-usa-artist-natural-2507819

First pic is from 2007. The second is from 2023.

Some more pics:

speaking of crazy, pulled this out of the case this morning and decided I'm not selling it anymore. I waited too long to find an artist this nice, and I'm gonna keep it for now.

I totally dig these Blitzs 🤩 Here are mine

I found it on "Kleinanzeigen". It's a website similar to "Craigslist". The seller is a musician himself (keybords) and had a studio in which he used the neon sign as decoration. He had acquired it many years ago when a music store closed down and now wanted to get rid of it. I had to pick it up in person, because he did not want to ship it for understandable reasons. I didn't even know that such a thing existed.

You can probably have one made for the cost of what... four Rush concert tickets?

Just don't take the gold waist chain off and you should be fine 😳

Hamer Vector Flying V 1985 - Red and Black Zulu Bengal Tiger Finish Electric GUI https://reverb.com/item/93062934?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=93062934 Honestly, this is not a bad deal considering 20 plus years ago these were averaging selling at $3,500 and this one is quite unique and are getting super super rare... I'm not into Kahlers, but if I were and had the money 🤷

It just reveals the demographic that uses it, which I think it's safe to say is a different demographic than the one that uses the HFC forums.

RE: 50 years "..and we're about to change that.", I got yer "change" right here: As inspired by the legendary house brand model for the largest national retailer back in the '60s, howzabout an amp-in-the-case with the output of a Marshall stack?

Nice! I'm still hanging on to this one.

Thanks for the update, all the best for the move! The hfc is quite fabulous. The only forum I activley follow. Cheers! C.

Big deal. You want impressive? Show me a woman that can pick up the quarter and spit out two dimes and a nickel.

PLEASE FORGIVE THE MANY GAPS IN CONTUNUITY AND SOME WEIRD TYPOS. I'M TIRED WHEN I WRITE THESE, BUT FIGURED Y'ALL MIGHT ENJOY READING ABOUT THE ADVENTURES OF MY RETIREMENT PLAN TO COSPLAY AS A TOURING MUSICIAN. March 8 I’m on the balcony of my little Vrbo apartment in Buenos Aires, and the sun is low in the sky as the sounds of traffic and children playing echoes amongst the concrete towers. I’ve been here for a few days, but I’m only now starting to feel settled in any way. Where do I start? On February 22nd Mom died. It wasn’t a shock, as vascular dementia had taken a toll, but as this condition isn't dramatic, we didn’t know what week or day she’d go. I was cycling through the center of Cannes when I got the call. Thankfully my brother is there in Decatur and could sign the various forms and such, and we began notifying the family. There wasn’t much I could do from Europe, so I went along to the Nice Carnival with my friend, not feeling festive but thinking that seeing people alive, being creative, and celebrating would help. I guess it did, and while I'm not sold on an afterlife, if there is one, I hope she got to see a bit of the Carnival. At least Argentina is welcoming. It was good to see Victoria again, and to eat food with spices and flavor again. We’ve rehearsed three times and done a lot of work on getting the presets on our digital guitar modelers to be balanced and complementary from song to song. I love seeing and hearing parakeets in the trees, and every day is warm and breezy. Tonight is the first show, in downtown Buenos Aires. Over the month besides our seven shows we’ll also go see Drink the Sea, a supergroup with Pete Buck and Alain Johannes, and we were given tickets to see Steve Hackett, of Genesis, as V knows someone in the band. I have no knowledge of Genesis aside from a fee 80s hits, so I need to some homework. March 11 Last night we played at Velazco, a cozy bar full of old LPs and art. We had trouble with the backing tracks not playing the first note or click: that made starting a song interesting. I’ll re-do all the tracks today with an extra two seconds of silence at the beginning. But apart from some minor volume things it was good. The audience was small but even the staff seemed into it and gave us a lot of compliments. I’m in Vs tiny apartment for the day until we take a bus to San Luis overnight. It’s a huge money saver to travel at night. I liked San Luis before, and it’s a cool venue with good vegan burgers and a good sound system. The local support act broke up so they’re scrambling to find another. I feel better now that we’ve started performing. The rehearsals were okay, but I had too much time to worry about banks and taxes and stuff before. Now it’s time for movement. In our true rock n roll decadent way we’re ready. After I checked out of my apartment we went to the library for l supplies. V got volume 5 of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, while got Time’s Arrow by Martin Ami’s. \m/ March 14 It’s March 14 and we arrived yesterday in San Luis. The bus ride was okay, eleven hours through the night. I was able to sleep for most of it, but sometimes the roads were rough, and having the guitar and backpack under my feet was awkward. I don’t like to have the guitar out of my sight: it’s a Fano and in fact the first of that model, built and signed by Dennis Fano. It’s so fun to play I’d miss it if it were ever damaged or stolen. San Luis tries hard. There are some charming old buildings, a tourism office, some good restaurants, lots of trees, and it’s quite walkable. There are also more police on the streets than I’m used to seeing, and loads of graffiti. The hotel is okay, probably quite nice when it was built decades ago but with no updates since then. Clean and functional but well worn. We handed out flyers in the square to promote the show, practiced the set, and had a good dinner. I’m at the pool while V practices, and we’ll do the set again this afternoon. The opener bailed so we’re doing two short sets tonight. Tomorrow we’ll have an empty day before catching a night bus, and I don’t know what we’ll do. Maybe take a taxi to go for a hike. Next week will have vocal recording and photo shoot, just one show in San Isidro. The following week is heavy with travel, hitting four cities I think. March 15 Last night was the performance at All Right in San Luis. If you’re not yet well-known and touring, it’s crucial to have a local artist on the bill. That way you get the draw of the unknown plus the draw of the known. Unfortunately our local support broke up the previous week. We unknowns posted like crazy on Instagram and handed out flyers in the city square and along the street. Sound check was okay, but the guy running sound liked a lot of low end, and it was sounding boomy through the mains and kind of loud through the monitors. We went on to an almost empty room and a few people trickled in, seeming to like us well enough. There was also the late-night covers band in attendance. The mix was fighting us a bit, as even anything on the low E string got lost (why don’t sound guys roll off below 80hz?) but the late band liked us. We had a drink and slept hard. This morning we had to leave the hotel but had 9 hours to kill before the bus to Buenos Aires so we’d booked a taxi driver who did local tours to show us the surrounding area. It was n unexpectedly great day. We went up into the mountains, which felt like another sharp and shadowy world, with grey rocks and dusty green scrubland ribboned with shining rivers and cloaked in damp clouds that slithered over the peaks. Now we’re slumped in the hotel lobby until it’s late enough to get a sandwich and head to the bus station. March 21 San Isidro is a neighborhood on the north side of Buenos Aires and seems pretty nice. It’s where we found ourselves on Thursday, playing at Cerdos Voladores, which I guess means flying pig, or something close to it. It was an okay gig but we spent a lot of time arguing, mostly from fatigue. We were tired after spending most of the previous day in a photo session and at the U.S. embassy. Because the building in which we have two apartments belonging to V’s family is next to a demolition site, from 8 to 5 there are jackhammers, sledge hammers, and various other hammers um, hammering continuously. The cacophony of car horns, unmuffled motorcycles, and construction had me mentally frayed. Then the experience at the embassy was a trip. I had to go there to get the papers authorizing Mom’s estate to go to probate notarized. No DocuSign or any other kind of non-physical authorization was admissible even if I was living in another country. The $150 notary fee at the embassy plus $100 to ship via DHL was still more practical than flying to the U.S. to get the magical sacred ink stamp of a notary, though. We’d worked with Nico, the photographer, on a music video before. Met him at a vast cemetery to take pics all over the crumbling, somber grounds until the guards told us to vamoose. We both had done some modeling in our youth and had been in enough videos and shoots to know to just assume the pose and do what you’re told. Then we went on a a city park to strike awkward poses, stare straight into the sun, lie in the grass and not make a face as insects devoured us, with poses treading a line between morbid and romantic. The next album is called The Wedding, and we wanted to have a vaguely Cocteau Twins, Cure, Sisters of Mercy kind of ambiguous life and death, blood and sky balance. We ended after dark and had an excellent meal. Yesterday we saw the unedited photos and a few were spectacularly good. That was a boost. And today we went to Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, which was fantastic. The Diego Riveras and Frida Khalos were fine of course, but they also had the biggest retrospective of Olga de Amara in 30 years, which blew me away. The imagination and skill of contemporary Latin American art is amazing and I frankly can spend days exploring new art here, while I can only tolerate a few minutes in the High Museum or MOMA. Now I’m practicing, after working out some vocal lines for the new album on keys (for some reason I prefer writing on keyboard.) Monday we’ll go to see Drink the Sea, a supergroup featuring Pete Buck and Alain Johannes, then it’s off to Uruguay for our first gig in that country. March 27 Uruguay. Well, I like Montevideo. It’s rather pretty and on the Plata. Had a good dinner on a place that had Grandaddy on the PA and met a really cool guy who was a luthier and connected us with a venue for future visits. The gig wasn’t much. The PA was sketchy and the opener was nice but more like pop karaoke than a band. So back to Argentina we go. After four trips, I am comfortable saying Buenos Aires is not for me. It has a reputation as a world capital, the Paris of South America, a cultural icon. I suppose if you’re there for three days at a boutique hotel it’s all that. If it’s your home base for a month in a normal apartment though, it’s a city where everything is cracked and covered in graffiti, it smells like sewage, drivers don’t stop at intersections because there are literally no stop signs, and the sound of un-muffled motorcycles, pneumatic drills, and car horns never stops. Yesterday I watched a cruise ship the size of a city glide past Montevideo as I walked down a silent street past a monumental, once-lovely building that had been shuttered and abandoned, sprayed with graffiti, and now gave shade to some people pushing grocery carts of gazing into space. March 30 We saw Steve Hackett play last night. I was aware of his existence as the guitarist for Genesis at their most arty and ambitious. But I’d never listened to him. Tonight he was with Genetics, who are primarily a Genesis cover band, I guess. They must be huge, as they filled Movistar Arena, probably 10,000 people. V is friends with two of the Genetics guys because they’re all in the Guitar Ensemble of Buenos Aires, so we had free tickets with some other people from the ensemble. The show was…well, terrific. Great sound, great playing, very entertaining. We skipped hanging out with the band after the show. Charlie Garcia, Argentine legend, was backstage. The next day we met some of the ensemble for JS Bach’s birthday. Five if them were going to perform Bach pieces on the subway. There wasn’t much planning, and much negotiation with police before we - ensemble, friends, and fans - got onto a train. It was moving - literally and emotionally - and hilarious in equal measure, as five guitarists battled train announcers and blaring horns. Then it was time to get ready for more gigs. Second time in Corrientes, a small city consisting of a wide, landscaped boulevard along the river and a sprawl of cracked and crumbling concrete once one ventures a block further. After the constant noise of the big city I had splurged on a room at the Marriott for our two days here. It was a scramble to work out this bit of the tour. Last week we had gigs Thursday in Corrientes, Friday in Resistencia, and Saturday in Roque Saenz Pena. Then the first two canceled because of some kind of permit thing for having concerts. V was on the phone for a day and we ended up with Thursday in Resistencia, followed by RSP and ending in Corrientes. The geography was tricky but two of the cities are neighbors so it worked out. The Marriott was nice. Quiet room, a pool, and clean. We did a lot of hanging out in the sun, separate guitar and vocal practice, reading, and swimming. Well, wading in Vs case. The gig itself was last-minute and only a handful of people were there. Some hyperactive guy who had been doing a mural at the entrance decided to unscrew a light bulb after two songs and that tripped a breaker so we had a long break to troubleshoot. People were smoking so my voice was shot afterward. The sound guy played a bit of the recording off the mixer and we realized we sounded good. Now we’re in the bus station waiting for the bus to RSP. You never quite know when the regional buses will run, but we only have to wait 45 minutes. I’ll try to get some sleep, as we got back to the hotel around 1 and woke at 7 April 2 Roque Saenz Pena is so odd, at least to me. V thinks I might be the only American to ever visit. It is far to the north, in Chaco, and as close to Paraguay as I’ll ever get. Most of Argentina is crumbling concrete, but RSP has the look of a place decimated by a plague or alien invasion. Quite empty, lots of overgrown vacant lots and empty buildings, and brapping little scooters carrying couples and helmetless families along cracked streets in scorching heat. We played here a few months ago and returned to the same hotel (the only hotel) and music venue (probably the only one.) The hotel feels like it was abandoned shortly after its 1990-ish construction and has since gone without renovation or repair. The carpets seem to have been used in a slaughterhouse, doors don’t quite close, paint is peeling, and there was what looked like a hobo cave in the wall of the pool area. The club, run by a gentleman named Beto, always has good music on the PA and cheap beer flowing. It was so hot that he suggested we set up his second PA outside and play in front of the club. We sounded good, though he kept bringing me up in the mix, forcing me to turn my Quad Cortex down and work the volume knob on the guitar. There was a decent turnout and people were recording videos and liked the music. As we ended at close to 3:00, the police came to shut us down. Rock and roll. Then a badly intoxicated goth fell down over the monitor. His goth girlfriend was walking better despite having only one leg and was yelling at some of the audience angrily. They sat at a table and were calmed a bit, but her friend who looked very much like a nighttime professional also had a scary vibe so we were glad to leave. Now waiting for a bus to Resistencia. Last show is tonight in Corrientes, then we get a day off in Resistencia before heading back to Buenos Aires. April 5 Back in Corrientes at Espacio Sexto. We played here last time, and it’s sort of a house, sort of a rambling compound, sort of an underground music venue, and has a kitchen that serves the best empanadas ever. We’re the first band on the bill, which is fine as we were playing until 3 this morning in another city, and we didn’t sleep much on the bus. Sound check was decent, and the other bands seemed really interested in what we did. As egotistical as it sounds, we’re unusual and we’re professional so people notice even if they don’t like the music. We get set up quickly, we know the material, the sounds are dialed, and we can actually sing. April 8 About 45 minutes from Amsterdam now, after almost 13 hours on the plane. It’s amazing what we can get used to. A few thoughts. The last gig was good. The volume was loud and there wasn’t much room in the mix for vocals, so we were pushing our voices. V was a little hoarse by the end. We did pics with fans and Alex, a guitarist who likes our music, gave us a ride back to the apartment. It’s always sad to end a tour though. We went to Resistencia in the morning as the flight to Buenos Aires was out of that airport. It’s not a remarkable city except for the quantity and quality of outdoor sculpture. If the essence of a place is represented by its art, Argentina is awesome. But if it’s represented by social equality, it’s less awesome. The poverty in the country is unsettling. I suppose Brasil was even worse, and what I saw of Chile and Uruguay wasn’t wonderful, but most things in Argentina seem to be hanging together with tape, wire, and hope. I’m rereading David Mitchell’s book Unruly, and in this history of England’s monarchs he points out that these rulers were essentially brutal thugs who ruthlessly gained and held power. Human nature doesn’t change. The most powerful and wealthy of us are still brutal thugs who will stop at nothing to fulfill their insane craving for dominance. V and I got along better than ever and seem to have a good groove musically and personally. We’re going to focus on marketing the band, using the repellent but effective media known as « social » and working her connections in South America. I’m looking forward to finishing the album. I’m also looking forward to doing a lot more cycling. I’m not going to do any more consulting work, as the addition of five or six hundred thou from mom’s estate provides extra cushion and my time on earth isn’t forever. And now to land in Amsterdam and run to my Copenhagen flight.

Local guy bought this and a good friend now has it. Needed strings and a proper setup. Big Ass Neck upper with the Hardtail Kahler. Didn’t plug it in. Not for me but I thought about it for a minute. Head doesn’t come off and no case. And yes it has usa after the logo.