jwhitcomb3

Frank Zappa...because he made so many! Robyn Hitchcock comes in second. -Jonathan

Those are INSANE!!! Very nice! -Jonathan

Happy Birthday! -Jonathan

That's so sad. I read on Monday that his fiance was out all night with friends and came home to find him the next morning (they lived together). I couldn't help but wonder if this might have put quite a strain on him. Pure speculation, of course. -Jonathan

Yep, you're officially a man now Jonathan .... LOL Chris, you are a bad man...I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! -Jonathan

This won't end well .... Anybody feel like shooting Jol an email and putting an end to this nonsense? -Jonathan

No No No No! This was wood hand picked by the US factory and shipped to Korea because it was too good for them to work on here. And the builders who were specially brought in for this guitar are world class artisan luthiers that happened to be there that day teaching the regular factory workers how it should be done. Frank and Jol and Rick Neilson stood at the end of the production line, personally kissed and blessed this guitar as the best ever made! Then they put it in a special shipping crate and sent it directly to Bruce's dealer (because we all know that no regional distributer ever buys back a modified import and ships it out to a dealer as a brand new guitar). This guitar is certainly worth at least $1200, and Bruce would be well advised to hold onto this guitar until he gets this price. -Jonathan

Take that $450 and RUN! Then pat yourself on the back for having gotten the best possible price ever for that guitar...and then hope to hell you never run into the buyer again! -Jonathan

Did it ever occur to you that the people on this board who took the time to answer your questions actually know more about the subject than you do? It's not their fault that you don't like the answers to your questions. But go ahead, prove them all wrong! If you already know all the answers, why are you asking the questions? -Jonathan

Nothing sounds like Good Vibrations, but Pet Sounds is just flat out a great rock record. It doesn't really sound like anything...it stands on its own. This was Brian Wilson stretching to the edges of his creative abilities, and at his peak he had few peers. I was never a Beach Boys fan (liked the singles but never bought anything) until a few years ago a friend convinced me to get a copy of Pet Sounds. Now it is easily in my top 10. I like the new Smile album too, but it does sound a little out of its time. -Jonathan

Talking Heads doing "Take Me to the River" Elvis doing "Radio Radio" -Jonathan

My brother got me Gram Parson's "GP" and "Grievous Angel" on one CD. How did I live on this planet nearly 44 years without knowing this music? Just great. My wife got me the new iPod shuffle. 200+ songs in a matchbook. Too cool! Best present of all is the kids absolutely digging their stuff. Happy kids = Merry Christmas. -Jonathan

Another +1 on the Aimee Mann. Sufjan Stevens has a boxed set of Christmas stuff that is certainly aimed at the indy market. A good Christmas CD for kids (that won't make adults crazy) is "Eloise at Christmastime" on Koch. All three are on eMusic and well worth checking out! -Jonathan

I'm 43 and still love rock, but one listen to my new CD and you'll notice that my palette has expanded. I dunno if it is age or the experience of putting my iPod on shuffle, but I much prefer my rock mixed in with some jazz, folk, alt-country etc. If I go to a show and the band just has the amps kicked to 11 and playing full out balls to the wall rock on every song I just get bored. But if the band can swing on one song, lay back on the next and then come out rocking, that really makes for an exciting show. My musical soul-mate and I have played together for years in various bands. He'd be happy to play the same songs every night if it got the crowd going. I always have to shake up the set list and add new material or I just lose interest. Similarly if the band I'm playing in seems stuck in a stylistic rut I'll become less enthusiastic. For me the hardest thing about playing in a band is finding a really versatile drummer. The drummer for my band Emery's Misery is a great straight ahead rock drummer, but when asked to lay down a swing groove he was lost. So maybe I'm just becoming an old fart, but all rock all the time just doesn't hold my interest any more. Heck, Led Zeppelin is widely regarded as the greatest hard rock band ever, and they were constantly working other styles into their albums. But come to think of it, while rock has always been the, uh, rock of my musical world, it's never been the whole of it. -Jonathan

Outstanding! Many blessings. -Jonathan

It's getting even stranger, with cover bands like the Australian Pink Floyd Show selling out large venues and even selling DVDs. I'm usually most impessed when I hear bands taking a new angle on their material rather than just trying to recreate the album tracks. Joe Jackson had his band do an a capella version of "Is She Really Going Out With Him" that was amazing. Other performers like Robyn Hitchcock are great to see because their set list and between song banter changes from show to show and you never know what kind of off the wall covers he'll do. I like it when the old bands really work hard on new material. Buzzcocks, Cheap Trick, Bob Dylan and others who make new albums because it's what they do, not just an excuse for another tour. As far as seeing aging bands just trying to re-live their glory days playing the same old tired songs with minimal effort to breathe new life into them, I'll pass. -Jonathan

Double box it, with lots of padding inside the guitar box and even more between the boxes. -Jonathan

I don't really think it's about permission to buy any specific item. We just have to agree what our general priorities are and if one or the other starts making big purchases outside of those without first talking about it this can cause some problems. That said, I'm the one behind my recent guitar purge, not my wife. -Jonathan

I like the Futureheads too. I've downloaded the first Field Music album from eMusic (they have the new one too). I'll check it out tomorrow on my drive to work. The bits I previewed sounded promising! -Jonathan

Ooh...that sounds cool! And it's on eMusic! I'll check it out! -Jonathan

The Redwalls - De Nova Bob Dylan - Modern Times Tom Petty - Highway Companion The first two are excellent, the Petty disc is better than his last (The Last DJ) but still not up to his best. My iTunes collection is over 100G (and yes, it's all legal - mostly ripped from my records and CDs and the rest downloaded from eMusic), and I've spent a bunch of time rating my songs. For the past couple of months I've been playing a randomized smart playlist of my 4 and 5 star rated songs (over 18 days of music), and it's a fun way to listen...Thelonious Monk followed by the Buzzcocks followed by the Beatles followed by Fountains of Wayne followed by Allison Krauss! -Jonathan

And there's the rub: what I call a "funky vibe" somebody else might call an "annoying twang". And depending upon our playing styles, we might both be right. I play with a choppy, rhythmic style, so long sustain doesn't matter much to me. My style of playing works great on that Tonic. Somebody who plays long fluid lines might be frustrated with the response because the guitar doesn't "sing". But because I have that 30th, I can start to squeeze those long, sustaining lines out myself and explore a musical territory that eluded me for 25 years because my other guitars played to my existing strengths. Even if all this response could be listed and charted in a way that would make some sort of sense to a guitarist, he still wouldn't know if it worked for him until he played the instrument. And then there's the surprise factor: when I went out shopping for a Strat 10 years ago I stumbled across a Parker Fly in a store and came home with that. Completely different animal, and I didn't know I'd love it until I actually picked it up. One of the things that's fun about this group is that we've got players across the musical spectrum. After you've been here a while you learn who's tastes jibe with yours and those are the people who's opinions you start to pay the most attention to. So while I'll enjoy reading the posts of a metal head raving about how great his new pickup is, I won't be as tempted to go out and grab it as I would be after reading the post of a power popper saying how he's getting a ringing, chimey tone from his rig. The guitar is only half the equation: the other half is the person playing it. Until you match them up you can't tell how the combination will work. -Jonathan

I think by every measure I can conceive of the 30th Anniversary is an excellent instrument, and by similar measure the Dean Tonic is a cheap instrument. Any objective measurement would indicate this. I think each was a good deal. The fact that the Tonic has a funky vibe doesn't make it better or more valuable, it just make it unique among my collection. The 30th is an heirloom quality instrument. The Tonic is a fun toy. My conclusion was actually the reverse of your premise: that a guitar that would measure sub-par under any objective scrutiny can still be rewarding to play. And that is why the kinds of tests you propose would have little practical value. -Jonathan

I find it hard to map a guitar's price/value to my preference of playing it. I have an import Dean Tonic S. I bought it new for $100 (MF closeout) and put another $120 (Bill Lawrence pickups) into it after the original pickups imploded. It looks cheap, it is cheaply made and the finish is terrible. But the guitar is just a gas to play and sounds great. Despite everything going against it, it just has a cool vibe. I also have a Hamer 30th Anniversary LTD that I bought new for upwards of 3 grand. It is stunning to look at, exudes quality and feels and sounds great. But for some reason I reach for the Dean more often. I also write more songs on the Dean...my muse just wakes up when I play it. I don't know how you quantify that. If you measure dollars spent vs time played, then I completely overpaid for the 30th and the Dean was a steal. But I have no regrets buying either. Those Deans didn't sell well and were quickly discontinued. They would have failed any quantitative test you applied. But then I would have missed out on a great guitar. Rock 'n' roll is about attitude. That Dean's got 'tude, man! -Jonathan

I imagine that "stringing day" is pretty chaotic at your place! Where do you keep 'em all? Do you have a rotation system? Are they insured? -Jonathan