Biz Prof

Other than the ridiculous tank armor plate applied to the body, that was the first thing I noticed. He had one job....

In recent years, I've realized that Withers was my all-time favorite R&B artist. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he wrote and recorded songs that could be fairly described as timeless in quality. He was also a musician--a guitarist, no less--and that puts him leagues ahead of the crooners in my book.

Unless I'm mistaken, the PAC611V has a 2-point Wilkinson. ETA: I was mistaken! 6-screw Wilkinson.

Missed out a PAC611VFM a year or so ago for a nice price on the local CL. Looked to be a Swiss army knife gigging machine. The vibrato would be preferred, but if I find another with a hardtail bridge for a bargain price, I'll snag it.

Looks like a Vintage S in a "faded-to-olive" Aztec Gold finish.

I always felt like Damn Yankees was one of the better supergroups from that era. Not pretentious in form or function; just good, rocking, Top-40-friendly songs with a gazillion live performances on the players' resumes. Ted's fine by me, although his more recent political posturing during certain concerts was every bit as nauseating as Bono's diatribes. Luckily for his fans, he pretty much sticks to music at his shows. Tommy Shaw's comment about not having much in common with Ted was pretty amusing. You can tell those guys got along quite well, regardless of their differences. Music's a good binding agent.

My all-time favorite Top album. Enjoyable from beginning to end, and quite diverse in terms of song structure and guitar tones. IHMO, if they'd stopped their run with El Loco, they wouldn't be as wealthy, but they'd still have a hell of an anthology. Eliminator wasn't a bad record at all, but it was to the tres hombres what Hysteria was to Def Leppard. Watched the documentary film earlier today. I felt like it had a rather generous amount of pre-Top and early era photos and footage, especially given Bill Ham's iron grip over the band's image and promotion. IIRC, the film's coverage of the Eliminator era came along when there were only 20 minutes left on the clock. The personal historical anecdotes were cool, as I'd not heard some of those factoids in the past. Beard's descriptions of his drug addiction were the most succinct and complete narrative I've encountered, and it very clearly showed how the band (and Deguello) benefited greatly from their hiatus.

I think it would look boss with a standard Tele style black pearl guard!

A few months old, but here's a rough video of the lads and I working an AC/DC cover at a rehearsal.

I'll have to come up with something. On a 14-day precautionary quarantine as of today.

Killers was an incredible NWOBHM album that's aged quite well. My Pink-Floyd-and-Beatles-loving 11-year-old listens to that LP daily and was impressed just as much by Maiden Japan. Amazing how much better the production quality got between Maiden's debut album and the follow-up. They've always been a top-shelf live act. Gotta love the similarities between the clip in the OP and the "Hello Cleveland!" segment of This is Spinal Tap. Given that Tap was filmed in mid/late '82, you'd have to believe that Rob Reiner and the guys used the Live at the Rainbow video as their inspiration for that scene. As for Jim Peterik's '70s-era band; yeah, I guess they were pretty good, as well.

I always found that the various segments that comprise "Master of Puppets" were good for practicing fast riffing and alternate picking, even if you slow it down. Hetfield's solo during the slow tempo interlude is a bonus for practicing melodic passages. Also serves as evidence that he should be the primary soloist in that band.

While this is not the most aesthetically pure method, here's an option I've used on a couple of guitars that is relatively cheap and requires no drilling.

You're welcome! Look, there are 1936 cabs out there; just have some cash ready and pull the trigger when a legit 800-series cab hits the market.

Got an itch to find a multi channel mid wattage combo that had good cleans and crunch and that I felt comfortable taking to gigs at dive bars and honky tonks. Still love my Phaez rig, but it is unapologetically in the Vox tonal vein, and my band's song list is begging for more Blackface cleans to go along with the typical '70s crunch. To that end, I scored this minty Super Sonic 22 from a local collector who, while only having played guitar a couple of years, has amassed a jaw dropping collection of gear. Of all his amps, this SS was his daily driver until he took delivery of a $3,300 Magnatone. First impressions are positive. I couldn't find an "Hecho en Mexico" label anywhere, so I presume these are USA made. The thing is seriously loud for 22 watts. The clean channel is spanky and bright (in a good way), can be beefed up and boosted with the "Fat" switch, and like a good Deluxe, it stays rather clean and mildly compressed until those 6V6s start clipping at window rattling volumes. The "Burn" channel's dual gain controls allow for an diverse range of overdrive voices. Surprisingly useful in all combinations except when both are set at 11. Depending on how these controls are combined, you can dial in solid approximations of Vox chime, Marshall JMP crunch, or Boogie Mk saturation. Reverb is a tube driven Accutronics long tank. The stock Eminence speaker seems fine, but I'll need some quality time and a few gigs with this amp before rendering a verdict on the driver. Not sure I've read anything of these amps here on HFC. YMMV.