jwhitcomb3

Yep, that was a good 'un!

If latency matters to you, the GT1000 is much better than the HX Stomp (or anything else). For me, nothing kills the vibe of playing like several milliseconds of latency. I moved from the GT1000 to the GT1000CORE, and am entirely pleased.

Back in 1986-7 I was music director of my college radio station, and got to meet some cool people. Pat, the station GM, and I got to talk with Mojo Nixon backstage at a show. Pat was talking to Mojo about his song "I hate banks," and asked if he'd sign his bank slip. Mojo grabbed it, shoved it down the back of his pants, then presented it to Pat, asking, "Did I get any stuff on it?" Indeed, he had.

Nice! My first electric guitar was a Guild S100 (kind of a poor man's SG), so I always figured one day I'd have an SG. Alas. I love the Fluence pickups on one of my strats. I hope they agree with you!

Here's the 3rd Vox:

Hey Bruce, that orange eclipse is one of only two guitar departures that still stings. So glad it is still getting love - no one I'd rather see with it! The Bobcat looks cool - I've never played one. Here are two of my Vox:

I'm a fan of Sheryl Crow, but don't own one either. That said, if a Korina Eclipse ever came on the market, resistance would be futile.

I'm glad it worked for you! Manchester Music Mill is a den of temptation. They know me well. Their trade-in values are quite reasonable.

Thanks - the divorce is now comfortably in the rear view mirror. Yeah, sucked. Yeah, worth it.

Two knobs. No switches. Perfect!

I just wipe 'em down before putting they go in their cases. Except in rare instances (string rust or tarnish), they seem no worse for wear after months in the case. I mostly use D'Addario, DR, and Fender Bullets. If a guitar has been in its case for over a year I sell it.

Warning: Whining old rich guy problems ahead. I'm past 60, kids launched, and still actively making music (gigging and home recording). Like most here, I've had life-long GAS, cycling through scads of gear. I now have the means to acquire gear with no wife to constrain my impulses and... There's nothing I want. Sure, I see cool stuff and have that reflexive urge to reach for my wallet, but after a moment visualizing if/how I would use it, I come up empty. I pretty much have all I want - more than I need. For electric guitars, I have duplicates of everything (somehow convinced I need backups) - three Ibanez Talman offset Teles, three Vox Virages, and two strats. Only one cost over a grand. I pretty much only play a Talman. For amps, I have 3 Quilters (and just play one). My pedal board has one compact Boss multi-effect, a compressor, and a boost. I have 7 acoustic guitars but play 4 of 'em (a dread, a parlor, and two OOOs (one just for travel)) - and am contemplating unloading the other 3. Over the past 20 years I've downsized twice (law school, divorce), and have helped elderly family members downsize to retirement homes. A buddy recently had to clean out decades of accumulated music gear from the home of his deceased brother. I don't want to put my kids through that. It turns out I prefer a less cluttered home - getting rid of books, DVDs, CDs, and crap in general. To paraphrase Mr. Spock (from "Amok Time"), wanting a thing is very different from having a thing. The thrill of the hunt fades quickly. Desire is a powerful force, and I'm slowly getting better at resisting temptation. Okay, got that off my chest. Until my next new guitar post...

Wonderful! Those korina Eclipses are rarer than hen's teeth. Would love to have one.

The legal standard is "likeliness of confusion," so basically if the color is close enough that a consumer might reasonably believe another manufacturer's pickup is a DiMarzio.

That body shape is compact, light, and well balanced, and the 3-and-3 headstock with tapered tuners gives a straight string path through the nut for very stable tuning. A really good platform. Over the years Ibanez has gone kinda nuts with it. There were the original 90s Talmans with a bunch of different pickup and bridge configs - some with "resin" bodies. It was resurrected for the 2015-2017 series (Tele or Strat setups) offering nearly identical low cost (China) and higher cost (Japan - prestige) models. Since 2020 there have been various artist signature models that don't have "Talman" in the title. Toss in the acoustics, basses, and a bewildering number of hardware/pickup choices, and it gets pretty confusing. Ibanez's naming convention doesn't help. I never saw the appeal of a Talman with Strat pickup and tailpiece configuration - might as well just get a Strat -although they did make one with lipstick pickups that was pretty cool. I only tried a couple of the Chinese Talmans, but they didn't stack up to the Prestige ones in terms of hardware or build quality. The 2015-17 Prestige models had a street price of $1200 but prices fell when they were discontinued - I got my TM1702 new for $600 in 2018. They have gotten harder to find and prices are often well above $1500. Oddly, the TM1803 (3 pickup Tele) can often be found for much less than the TM1702 (2 pickup version). My TM1803 has been my main guitar for the last year, really the only electric guitar I've been playing. Now I can leave it home and gig with the sparkly one. Here's a Talman decoder ring: https://ibanez.fandom.com/wiki/Talman_series

12" radius. Comfy!

Yeah, well, I certainly didn't NEED another Talman, but... For me, the Ibanez Talman 1702 is the perfect Telecaster - love the light offset body with tummy/forearm cuts, Gotoh locking tuners, and the Duncan Alnico II pro pickups. Then I added the Talman 1803 - same guitar adding a middle strat pickup with its independent volume control to blend or stand alone. Both in the Ibanez Prestige made in Japan line - flawless. I was tempted when the Yvette Young signature YY20 came out a couple years back with its orange cream sparkle but wasn't sure about $1100 for a made in Indonesia guitar. So when one popped up on the Manchester Music Mill used gear list I had to check it out (walking distance from my office). I was NOT expecting the Ray Gun Girl aftermarket pickguard (or the black metal dome knobs). There was not a mark on it, played pretty well in the shop (needed a setup), and it was priced at $550. And it is sparkle orange. So home it came, and after a truss rod tweak, nut slot filing, and saddle adjustment, it plays ALMOST as well as the MIJ models - same pickups and Gotoh hardware. The neck is a little beefier with more of a D profile than the others. Same great sound. This will be a fun guitar to gig with! And it's sparkle orange.

A couple more... ("Georgian Pallet" and "Passing Strength" - the Gadget App has a random title generator) Georgian Pallet.mp3 Passing Strength.mp3

I started writing songs on guitar at age 13. Horrid stuff, naturally, but occasionally one would have some merit. I was writing between 10 and 20 a year between 1976 and 2006. Then it stopped. Boom! Nothing. In 2014 I bought the Korg Gadget app for iPad. It was a closed universe DAW platform with a handful of very limited synthesizers, pianos, organs, and drum machines - cheesy, but in a good way. I had a blast messing around with it, initially producing weird synthy compositions around pulsing drum machine beats. It was addictive. As I got comfortable with the platform Korg added more and more instrument options, preset packs, and some limited audio input gadgets, so different song styles were possible. For the first time my compositions weren't tethered to guitar and all kinds of strange pieces emerged. Recently I've been importing them to my computer DAW to get better drum sounds and virtual instruments. They are usually very short (2-3 minutes), with now nearly 4 hours of stuff that is all over the place. I don't know where it comes from, but I'm having fun! These are "Stratty Funk" and "Sympathetic Punch" Stratty Funk.mp3 Sympathetic Punch.mp3

Cool! Is it me, or do they speed up as they go along?

I do love marketing speak: "The PRS Narrowfield MK pickups were carefully voiced to capture the courage of humbuckers and the spank of single coils"

Krokus wasn't on the bill at the Hartford CT show I saw. I'm one of the weird guys who liked "Crash and Burn" best.

I have never given a flying fuck what a musician is wearing. On the other hand, as much as I enjoyed seeing Pat Travers opening for Rainbow MANY years ago, nowadays I couldn't bring myself to see an artist who still sings his signature song about punching out his woman.

She does appear to be enjoying the feeling.

I have quite a few of the brass ones (full size and mini) that didn't agree with my gear (switches don't reliably actuate when stepped on). Message me if you are looking for some.