MCChris

More of an inside joke than anything else. But a personal bias for sure. Plus, he's responsible for some of the worst recorded drum sounds in the history of rock. Plenty of people did that before Honkyfro.

It was worse than this horseshit? "Yes, The maple top is georgous but the tone of this guitar is what makes it hard to put down. Hamer's custom shop is one of the best in the world. All of their guitars are made by hand by a small team of dedicated luthiers like the old days at Gibson and PRS. It is a difference you can feel and hear plus each guitar is unique. This Talladega is a a supereb instrument. It has that tele vibe but produces tones as sweet as honey. The sustain block bridge and semi hollow (chambered) body makes this guitar very loud unplugged and is sustains all day. The Double D single coil pickups are amazing. They are made by Seymour Duncan and sound similar to p90s in terms of range which works very well in this guitar. The action is superb and intonation is as as close to perfect as you can get. Fret work (a Hamer trademark) is exceptional. Nice smooth frets make for easy bar cords and string bends. There is not a scratch on this guitar, you could call it new but it's 3 years old. Fret wear is near nil. Buyer will also receive Certificate of Authenticty, Original Case and Case Candy." Oh, and eBay sucks.

Agreed, and guilty as charged. I'm still a fun guy to hang around with though!

I only mentioned "cred" because Grohl's speech showed him to be so desperate to have some. Turns out he has plenty ... as a major label, arena rock star and card-carrying member of the Grammy-approved glitterati. Unfortunately, he wants everyone to think he's still slumming it. Because, you know, those who do are perceived to have credibility. But, since you asked, Lemmy is a perfect example, especially when you can A/B the recent documentary about him and the recent documentary about Foo Fighters. Look where Lemmy lives. Look where Grohl lives. Look where Lemmy records. Look where Grohl records. That's a pretty good illustration. Someone in a thread about this topic on another forum mentioned Mike Ness. I think he also belongs in the "legitimately having cred" category. The question remains: why does Dave Grohl feel the need to publicly boast about how (allegedly) spartan his recording process was, or how genuine and full of soul his music is?

He learned from the best Glad I'm not the only "cynic" around here lol.

No idea what you're talking about, but SteveB is the resident expert on all things Gaga. Grohl is infinitely better than Jeff Lynne, I'll give him that.

Ah, Dave Grohl. Never misses an opportunity to enhance his carefully crafted persona of having "cred" amid all his millions and major label dalliances. "A microphone and a tape machine." You can bet your ass he wasn't talking about an SM58 knockoff into a Fostex.

Well the "button down" is actually a full length night shirt tucked into my pants. Used to roll out of bed and go to my 8 o'clock class that way during winter term. I deserve some cred for that! Or not .... Original New Originals

Yeah, you scored like Pavel Datsyuk with that one!

This pic was taken the same day. Can't remember if we had the jam session before we started burning shit in the backyard or after: As we were walking out of 8th grade English class on the last day of school, our teacher said "enjoy high school, they really are the best years of your life." He was wrong. College was better.

^^^ Close, but this is the one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47BcZHYSipg

That moped ended up in the fire soon after that pic was taken. With a half a tank of gas, no less. It's amazing I'm still alive.

Fender made those under the Heartfield name. Had the single active pickup that with those three push buttons you see by the trem bar you could select single coil, humbucker or humbucker with distortion (had three trim pots in the control cavity for tone, level and drive). I ended up selling it to the Hard Rock Cafe when I worked there so we could have a guitar on hand for Eddie Van Halen to sign when he was in town for an all-star Jason Becker benefit concert. Got to hang with him in the manager's office while he did so. Somewhere in the HRC collection this one is floating around with his signature on it.

Kizanski's revolving door post inspired me to list out all the guitars I've owned in my lifetime. I used to have one of these, which I bought mainly because it was unusual/ugly:

I worked at GC. Chicanery with cases was commonplace.

There's nothing wrong with it. Issues arise when there are complaints about prices, that the old band isn't supporting something new and therefore is doing a money grab, or if they are supporting something new, that the new stuff by the 60-year-olds somehow doesn't have the fire of their 20-year-old selves, blah blah blah. Again, reasonable expectations are the key here. And on the flip side of the rest of your post, I won't go so far as to call it "creepy" when 50-somethings take their teenage or 20-something kids to classic rock concerts, but i will say that there's something not right about it, and in fact is very anti-rock'n'roll. I was fine with my old man giving me a ride to see VH on the Diver Down tour and picking me up afterward, but I damn well didn't want him sitting next to me inside the venue. Nor was i interested in seeing Simon and Garfunkel or the 5th Dimension with him. On a side note, I'd like to clarify that while those of you who have met me in person know that I am indeed a prick, I'm not as much of a prick as perhaps I'm coming across in this thread. I just happen to be typing from a workplace that I've been let go from but still have to show up to until March 2 so I don't get dicked out of my severance, therefore I'm a bit salty. That also explains why i have so much time to respond lol. Now back to the spirited discussion, which I'm enjoying.

And what's that again?

Again, methinks your expectations are unrealistic, especially in this regard. Even Rush, who appear as genuine as can be and probably are to a large extent, are all about the cash these days. Which is why they didn't play "Caress of Steel" or even "2112" or "Permanent Waves" in their entirety on the Time Machine tour. Sure, the rabid fans would have eaten that up, but the *casual* fans (a.k.a. the ones who take things over the top from a revenue perspective) would have passed on it.

Just remember that while "people everywhere" are indeed talking about and spending money on Van Halen, only we music nerds give a rat's ass about their new material. All the edgy, middle-aged, casual-fan suburbanites at the concerts will be taking leaks, buying beers and posting to Facebook about how awesome they are when "Tattoo" or "Bullethead" creep into the set.

Those guys are the exceptions (add Lemmy to the list too). And yes, even though I don't doubt they were still awesome when you saw them, they've also lost a step or two. It's just the way it is. They're not superhuman. We should all aspire to *only* lose a step or two when we reach that age.

Totally agree. Which is why the vast majority of "classic" rock bands should have simply quit a long time ago. But ultimately, guys like David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen are no different than Joe Six Pack. As they close in on retirement, it behooves them to amass as much cash as possible while they still can, and ideally with as little effort as possible. In Van Halen's case, when nostalgic fans are all too willing to fork piles of it in their direction, well, so far only ABBA has shown the restraint to say no to that.

There was a time when '70s 3-bolt Strats weren't desirable. Just sayin'.... This is the operative quote IMO:

What does fidelity have to do with the band's songwriting ability or level of energy? VH has lost a step or two because they're pushing 60! I still say that if "Tattoo" (or, more accurately, the old song it's based on) were on 1984 and "Drop Dead Legs" were the new single, people would be saying "Drop Dead Legs" sucks compared to "Tattoo." It's just human nature. The things that strike you as fantastic in your youth stick with you into middle age, and that's the bar you set for everything. Very difficult for anything to live up to that later in life.

My take is that he'd like to preserve the cherry condition. Making it playable increases the likelihood of the guitar getting nicked up and whatnot.

Pointless factoid: I sold one of those to James Iha back in the day.