[You guys ever hear of Clitspit?]

A band with a vulgar name and no talent.  They're definitely going places.

[Wait, what? GC Brand Guitars]

If GC does this right (they won't), it could be very successful.  Thomann is making boatloads of cash on their Harley Benton line because they're huge bang for the buck guitars. With Thomann pulling out of their US warehouse setup, they've effectively left the US market.  If GC can do these right (they won't), they could fill that gap and then some.

I'm assuming this "customer designed" crap is just their way to get people talking.  They'll release some limited run of wangcasters along with their regular production line to build more hype over the regular stuff.  If they're smart (they aren't) they'll evolve that into collabs like Harley Benton had with Agufish & Guitar Max.

[New Progessive Rock Band(Get Ready to Gawk)]

1 hour ago, LucSulla said:

 

That's where I ended up with it. 

I like Secret Chiefs 3 and Mr. Bungle, so liking outside music isn't outside of my wheelhouse. Disco Volante is one of my favorite albums, and I imagine most people here would call that shit. 

However, this struck me more in the way folks like Tim Henson or Tosin Abasi do initially. I can look at that and appreciate that it is very hard and that it clearly takes talent. Then usually I lose interest very quickly after a listen or two because it's more interesting as a novelty and a skills exhibition than it is as a piece of popular music. 

But this - I found myself listening to it more and more. After your ear adjusts to it a bit, some of these songs are just straight up bangers as far as I'm concerned. The novelty is only a small part to my ear, and for me, that wearing off led to recognizing I genuinely enjoy the songs. 

I remember when music wasn't like oxygen back in the days of physical media and if you bought something you didn't like initially, your choice was to either sit with it or just listen to old stuff you already have until you built up enough yard-mowing money to go buy something new. Most of my favorite albums were stuff I thought was pretty bad the first time I listened to it. I won't lump everyone into this category - I can genuinely understand why someone would listen and say "this is not for me," but I do also think that a lot of us have forgotten what it is like to encounter something we didn't expect and have to digest it for a bit before really knowing what we think of it because it is so easy to move on to the next song these days. 

There's also a psychological phenomenon known as "reactance" that can be hard to overcome. Many of us, myself included, naturally hate anything that seems to be getting a buzz. Nothing makes me irrationally decide to never give a band a chance more than a bunch of people telling me that I have to like them. "Fuck you! I'll listen to whatever I want, hipster trash!" Luckily, these guys were already on my radar in passing, so I was able to choke that emotion down. 

there's a lot of wisdom in this post!  I'm a dinosaur so I still buy CDs, and I always force myself to listen through the whole CD no less than twice before I toss it on the "never again" pile.  Like you, I learned that not everything is something that I'll love immediately.  I'm more a creature of habit who doesn't tend to like new things. I prefer familiar things.  When I get a new album, more often than not, it's not necessarily what I expected, so there's always that period of regret or buyer's remorse.  Many, many times, by the time I got to the end of the 2nd listen, I would have a different perspective on the music, and usually for the better.  I noticed the same thing here with this band as I became more familiar with the music through a few of the videos that I've watched about it.

[New Progessive Rock Band(Get Ready to Gawk)]

I couldn't stand it the first time I heard it.  Sounded like out of tune noise.  But, as more of the youtubers that I watch kept analyzing it, I found that it was starting to grow on me... or wear me down. I'm still not sure which, but I dislike it way less than I did a week ago.  It's interesting, it's different, and it's of a high quality.  I'm not sure I'm ready to buy the album and put it on repeat, but I'm starting to find myself enjoying it in short bursts.

[Lied to myself.]

On 3/20/2026 at 6:19 PM, joshoowah said:

Ebay is chock-full of interesting korina Hamer offerings right now. My favorites are the two listings for korina Artist P90s "made in 1990..." with the same guitar and pics from different sellers in Japan.

That's pretty common. Multiple Japanese resellers will post the same guitar. If you buy it, they go buy it and ship it to you. Often if you do a reverse image search you can find the original store's website they pulled the pics from and buy directly from them for less.

[Les Paul Tuning Stability Trick]

A properly cut nut avoids all this nonsense.

[I’m having a quintuple heart bypass tomorrow]

hope all went well!

[RRHOF outrage post]

13 minutes ago, Dave Scepter said:

The sooner everyone realizes that the RRHOF was massively misnamed, the easier life will be for all

I tried to get them to name it the "Rock & Roll That 3 Dudes on HFC Approve of Hall of Fame" and was denied.  

[RRHOF outrage post]

I'm not even upset with this year's nominees, except maybe for Sade.  I really like Sade, but other than 1 or 2 radio hits, her success has been on the smooth jazz channels, not the pop channels.

 

But that brings me to the rest of them.  While we all may have a different opinion of what "rock & roll" is, R&B and pop music are absolutely part of rock & roll.  I think Mariah Carey, Luther Vandross and New Edition all fit. 

 

But let's be honest, the RRHOF has been a biased joke for decades at this point.

[Your most influential album cover]

I'm having a hard time thinking of any album in which the album cover was much of any influence.  The music, sure.  The bands, sure.  The albums, sure.  The cover?  Most of my favorite music I borrowed from friends and copied to cassette, so the album covers were never an issue at all.

 

That said, the album cover I've spent the most time staring at, and the one that I have the most copies of (multiple CD pressings, re-releases, remasters, DVDA, multiple vinyl pressings, 180g vinyl and even on a t-shirt) would be the Hotel California album.

[Can you name them in one note?]

I got 3 of them.  #10 I got instantly, but that's no surprise. It's my favorite song by a mile and I know every single note of it.

[Best TV theme song]

3 hours ago, ARM OF HAMER said:

                            Here is a different and short-lived version of the Magnum P I theme song.    

 

Wow, I never saw that before. Not that I missed much!

[Best TV theme song]

it's very obvious that each one of us posting is showing our specific age by what we're posting.  Conspicuously absent is anybody that's younger than  Gen X, which isn't surprising considering that Gen X was probably the last generation that grew up with TV theme songs.

[Best TV theme song]

had to add some more:

and pretty much anything that Mike Post was involved in.  Magnum PI was my favorite of his, but this one probably had the most commercial success:

 

[Best TV theme song]

by far the best, and it's not even close:

 

2nd best:

Honorable mentions:

 

[Lazarus has a new home.]

Doesn't surprise me that JB sold it. He's said many times that he likes them original. That's why he's no fan of Greeny.

[I would love to breathe underwater. P-90 pickups.]

If I had to pick, I'd have to go with P90s as my favorite pickup.  As I often do, I've managed to seriously over-do it in the last few years with P90 guitars.  I think part of the appeal is that unlike with humbuckers and fender-style single coils, with P90s it's pretty difficult to make them sound bad.  Ironically, one of the few exceptions to that for me is the hot ceramic Duncan P90s that Hamer put in all of their US models.  On the other hand, the alnico P90s in the imported Hamers sound fantastic.  Of all my P90 guitars, I'd have to say that for that traditional P90 raunch, nothing beats my Gibson LP Special.  It just has "that" sound.  My other favorite P90 guitar is actually my Vox Bobcat V90 that I bought a while back.  It's a semi hollow 335-style guitar but the P90s in it use alnico pole pieces instead of bar magnets.  It's really a fantastic sounding guitar.  Because of how much I like that guitar, I want to start exploring more alnoco pole P90s and even some Dynasonic style pickups.

Here's some of my P90 stuff.  This isn't all of it, but I've also moved a couple of these along, so it's kind of a wash.

My first P90 guitar, and also my first Hamer.  

 

This came with a Gibson P90 in the neck and a p90-sized JB in the bridge. I bought a set of imported Hamer P90s to swap back into it:

My Gibson that I picked up last year:

4 gold top P90s was a bit much.  The Godin was fantastic, but it wasn't getting used much so I sold it off.  The Schecter just sold last night on Reverb.  That has a set of fantastic sounding Guitar Madness A2 P90s in it.  I'll be getting another set of those for one of my other P90 guitars soon.  The US Hamer has a set of Lollar 50s in it.

The US Hamer:

The Vox with the alnico pole P90s:

One of my most recent P90 purchases is this Hamer from the rebooted series.  This guitar really surprised me.  It's a fantastic instrument.  A previous owner swapped in a set of really hot bare knuckle pickups which are surprisingly good sounding considering how ridiculously hot they are, but I think this is going to be the guitar that I wind up experimenting with more alnico pole & Dynasonic-type pickups.

Most recently I picked up an Epi LP Special to compare to my Gibson.  That's been a fun guitar.  Not shown is my Firefly doublecut.  That's the one that I will probably end up dropping another set of the Guitar Madness P90s into.

[Billy Gibbons birthday bash]

I like Joe.  He catches a ton of flack, but he's a gear nut and stupid talented.  I've followed him since before he got popular. One of my best friends went to high school with him, so I heard about him long before he got popular. I've enjoyed watching his career evolve since the early days.

[What's your favorite Christmas song?]

Brenda Lee's version of Rockin Around The Christmas Tree.  That song has the best saxophone solo ever.

 

 

[Hamer Standard XT - SOLD]

5 hours ago, mathman said:

I have this exact guitar except I upgraded pickups and tuners.  I still like it a lot.  If it isn’t selling it may be the price or the audience. 🤔

I'm hoping it's just the tight wallets at christmas time. My price seems to be below the going rate for imported Standards.  We'll see what happens as we get past Christmas. 

[Hamer Standard XT - SOLD]

Christmas bump.  Make an offer. Worst I can do is publicly ridicule you.

[what did you bring home in 2025? (NHC)]

20 hours ago, Ua D said:

I guess this was new this year (I.e I finished it finally) but I built over the course of the 2 years prior. 

That's stunning. Do you happen to have a build thread by chance?

[RS Guitarworks reintroduces Burts Boost. Only 12 will be made. (no affiliation)]

I'll wait for the Joyo copy.

[End of the year Hamer count 2025 edition]

3 in, one out this year.

Bought my goldtop in March with plans to replace my Special with it. I swapped the Lollars from the Special into the goldtop and sold the Special.

In:

Out:

A couple months later I picked up a humbucker Special flame top:

And recently I picked up my favorite of the bunch, an imported Monaco Korina. I honestly can't put it down.  Absolutely incredible guitar.

 

These add to the existing roster:

My Studio Custom:

My very first Hamer, a P90 SATF:

Monaco import:

P90 goldtop import:

SATF import:

Oh yeah, almost forgot my Standard import that I have up for sale:

I think that's everything. 

[Screw the $800 PAF pickups. Literally.]

1 hour ago, bruce919 said:

Seth Lover, Antiquities, or PRS McCarty would be my advice for anyone wanting the "PAF" sound. 

I'll lower the bar even more and recommend that somebody could do a lot worse than a set of Toneriders or even the Fleor or other unnamed PAF pickups from amazon/ebay.  I've used the ebay/amazon PAF sets a number of times and had great results.  You can find them in A2 and A5 sets.  The sets to look for are the ones with the nickel silver baseplates, as they tend to be of higher quality overall, and the covered sets typically have the nickel silver covers too, which are more transparent than brass.