Dr. Bear

Because the phrase “as it were“ is in the subjunctive or conditional mood, not in the past tense. Moods are to tenses as modes are to scales…kinda sorta.

Yours is way nicer than mine… …with its locking tuners for which a previous owner drilled 6 additional holes, metal control knobs (now replaced), a badly re-cut nut long since replaced by my tech, and still more desecrations. And yet, strung with 9.5-44s, it plays like butter. If my mutt is fine then your purebred must be wonderful!

Bambino spoke for me as well. I mean, yikes!

A Titebond Saga I’ve never repaired anything, barely survived shop class in grade school, and became leery of any implement that could injure my hands, especially when performing nightly fed self and wife. But still, I know about Titebond. In ‘86 my band’s opener was a cover of the Hooters’ “And We Danced.” I played the intro mandolin part but had only one beat to get rid of it in order to slam the opening guitar chord. Seemed impossible until our road man, John, suggested he stand at the back of the stage to catch the mando as I threw it hard behind me. Just in case of mishap, I bought a marginally playable bowlback mando at a pawn shop for this maneuver. Sure as shootin’, one night I hurled the mando backwards a little too high and hard. Our lighting dude said he saw John leap for the mando but it sailed past. No surprise, the mando was in pretty rough shape. But, road crew being what they be, John said he could render it playable by the next night with the help of Titebond and a handful of rubber bands. He did, “and we danced,” and that’s how I learned to revere Titebond. Epilogue: Road guru John became a respected sculptor in New England. Years back when I last spoke to him he had just designed an installation for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. And another postscript: The music directors/accompanists for the Chad Mitchell Trio have included Jim McGuinn, the 12-string wizard of the Byrds, John Denver when still named John Deutschendorf, and Paul Prestopino, later on guitar, banjo and mandolin for Peter, Paul & Mary. When Paul invited me to sit in at a Chad Mitchell Trio reunion gig we traded mandolin and guitar back and forth. His mandolin was an ancient Silvertone I found all but unplayable due to sky-high action. But I gave it my best shot, and only then realized that that’s the very mandolin Paul played at the beginning of the original 1985 video of the Hooters’ “And We Danced.” I haven’t thought of any of this for decades until I read this thread about Titebond.

Amen! I have no idea what most of this thread is about but I keep tuning in to read the next installment.

The ebony ‘board The Paul (especially before Gibson added the “Firebrand” moniker) is my favorite LP variant. I still play both a ‘78 walnut with T-tops and a ‘79 mahogany. Other than butterscotch Teles, they’re the only guitars I’d sub for an oar to navigate through rapids and then bring on stage for work. They do vary, though: most are around 8 lbs but I once snared a sustain-monster ‘80 that weighed close to 11 lbs. Congrats!

Stopped using picks in the early ‘80s. Problem solved… …except not quite: cracked a fingernail on my picking hand midway through a 27 hour 4-flight trip to a gig in Singapore. (Still don’t believe that none of the flight attendants had an emory board or nail file.)

Thanks, Hamerhead.

I’ve never laid my hands on a Fender-ish Hamer and wonder if every Daytona, Chaparral, Californian, Centaura and other Hamer Super Strat-like model boasts a 14” fretboard radius? Even the Vintage S whose very name suggests a rounder fingerboard profile?

Scrumptious! But I’d love to hear it….

During decades as a touring muso I learned to carry documents proving that my instruments were made in the USA. When shipping gear home, one only had to include some variant of CBP Form 3311 - “Declaration of Free Entry of Returned American Products.” My memory is no longer great but I think I used a form like that one when freighting American-made guitars and mandolin back to the States from Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam. But here’s the catch: DHS/CBP is now so well managed that Form 3311 has not been updated or replaced even though it expired in March, 2025. One customs official might say that it’s just fine but another might notice the expiration date — it’s in very small print near the upper right hand corner — and not honor the form. Incidentally, my worst experience with customs was flying into Buenos Aires with a FrameWorks nylon string built by Frank Krocker in Germany. The Argentinian customs official insisted that I intended to sell the guitar in Argentina. We only got out of there unscathed because my wife found a photograph on her phone of me on stage with that guitar back when I headlined on some cruise ship. I’ll spare you the story of how much I had to bribe an airport security officer to let me bring spare strings in my carry-on for a flight from Mexico City to Honolulu. (Not long before, a crazed passenger had tried to garrote a flight attendant with strings ripped from a requinto.)

Yes, please. (PM sent)

Triple PM sent.

Looks like the Lightning tailpiece made in Hampshire, UK. I have ordered at least 7 and installed them on Newport Pros, Artists and Studios. “Feel” is softer, bending smoother. A light touch helps (I ditched flatpicks in ‘83). I would not recommend these tailpieces for a player with a heavy fretting hand, a heavy or extra heavy pick, or who plays mostly barre chords as it would be too easy to play sharp. But for me, they’re wonderful. One can order them directly from the UK and there is an authorized reseller in the US on Reverb. Both are very pleasant gents. Meantime, GLWTS!

I would happily have paid $2g+ here on HFC for that SC but not to a random flipper on eBay.