Steve Haynie

I need a zip up hoodie to replace the one I have. Either I get one with a band name or Shishkov. Tell me it is possible to get a hoodie.

Play the heck out of it!

I thought about the lightning bolt in the AC/DC logo. Angus' guitar looks cool, too.

First impression: Ace Frehley.

Aw, but Bubs, if you have a $4000 guitar and amp, a $4 pick is nothing.

I've shared what I'm using with a couple of members here and I can get a 150 of them for 9.99. Are you sure they are not Chinese knock offs?

One of the unbuffed picks was in the last set that came my way. It needs to be tried out on a couple more different guitars. Right now it has not grabbed me yet.

Health insurance payment money by December 31st, as always.

Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, and KISS have been offering stage played guitars for ridiculous prices. Someone plays a guitar/bass one time, signs it, that's it. People are paying thousands for those instruments. Someone was offering the pair of Hamer Rick Nielsen models on eBay for a high price recently. Somewhere out there, someone is willing to pay for anything that has a connection to a famous player.

Hmmm... We discussed a situation in which PayPal forced someone to destroy a violin due to a complaint about it being counterfeit. So, as the fakes make their way into the hands of flippers who do not know how to spot counterfeits there are going to be some very unhappy people over the next few years.

Is it bothering you when you play or do you just want everything to be perfect? If it is just a finish shrinkage, then let it go.

I just broke a V-Picks Large ULP! Crap!Crap!Crap! FOUR BUCKS SHOT TO HELL! AAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Well, some people do walk off with picks. You just have to know who is coming into your studio. murkat had them on his work bench for people to try out. That was my introduction to V-Picks. Each pick was respectfully returned, then my own were purchased.

The difference in tone between thicknesses of same sized V-Picks has been more noticeable. For acoustics my preference has always been larger sized picks. The bigger, not necessarily super thick, V-Picks have been a joy on my one acoustic guitar that is in playing shape.

OK, so who got rid of all their picks except for V-Picks? You know, who has gone through all the gear bags, shelves, guitar cases, and everywhere else picks are kept or found? Toss them all away, and then swear by V-Picks. A friend did that with his tube amps once he found the Axe FX II. About six months later he was selling the Axe FX and getting tube amps again.

I found mouse droppings and dried mouse urine inside a Fender tube reverb unit and a Fender amp head.

murkat's selection of V-Picks in his shop got my attention. A couple of picks were order from eBay. There was finally an order made directly with the company for a sampler set, and in the last week I almost placed another order. The next order needs to zero in on what is not already in my assortment, and the unbuffed picks have me wondering. Thanks for the review.

Playing an acoustic with 12's makes my rotten playing stick out. 11's are probably my enemy. Of course, practicing does wonders to overcome this problem.

Johnny Lang was posing like that when he was 15.

Robin Trower is currently on tour. Not only will he floor you with his music, he will entertain you with his guitar faces.

While working on a political campaign this year we heard from ALL the political consultants that newspaper ads are a waste of money. The truth is that there are better ways to spend campaign money, but some people like my father still read newspapers every day. Cartoonists have a tougher time launching syndicated comic strips because there are fewer and fewer newspapers. Morning and afternoon papers have combined to a single newspaper, cutting the content down to what one paper can support. Editorial cartoonists used to be on staff. Now fewer newspapers in big cities have staff cartoonists. The small newspapers in my county are divided between the bigger paper and three smaller papers produced in the same office. The three smaller papers are put together by one person who needs two staff people. There is a great opportunity for someone who wants to jump into the newspaper business... while the newspaper business lasts. Newspapers are putting content online. Some are charging annual fees to access the web site. At the same time, there are local people having fun setting up their own web sites for local news with expectations of selling web ads. Then there are those people who only live, and think, through Facebook. Get your web skills together. Learn to be your own IT guy if your server goes down, or have someone ready to fix it on a moment's notice. Set up a news site that can work well with smart phones. Work Facebook. And now for the tough part, sell Internet ads to the same customers who have been buying print ads. Advertisements are what keep newspapers afloat. Ads keep television news afloat. Katie Couric got dropped because of ratings. Jon Stewart, a comedian, has been approached to be an anchor for a network news program. It all has to do with selling ads. Content is not your focus. Ad sales are everything. Printed newspapers appeal to an older consumer base. The people who are young today will be reading news online when they are old. You have to go where the consumers are. Switching to another topic here... What is it about a newspaper that interests you? Are you looking to inform people about local news. Are you that person who likes to keep up with all the community groups, churches, schools, sports teams, and elected officials? Are you more focused on the local people who have interesting lives and stories to tell? Is it writing for entertainment or a desire to inform that appeals to you? Do you just want to find yourself in the middle of a lot of information that needs to be published as a service to the people in your area? Figure out what you want to do and then ask yourself why you need a newspaper to do it.

Look on the bright side. Now you will avoid having to replace 45 year old parts that can go bad at anytime. People will not bother you about borrowing your amp for a studio session. You will not have to answer endless questions about what work has been done to the amp over its 45 year existence.

You mean like paying to restore or reinvent guitars? Nahhh... That would be like a pickup upgrade on entry level guitar not bringing up the value of the guitar. Sometimes you get your money back. Sometimes you do not.

The repair bill on that one is going to be as much as the guitar could ever be worth. Pay it if you are going to play it enough to be worth the purchase of such a guitar. Dan Erlewine has taken a front or back plate off of a guitar to fix bracing issues. More labor. More money. This L-48 would be good for someone who has some advanced repair skills looking for a DIY project. You might have a parts guitar. The tuner buttons are easy. Remove the tuners from the guitar. Brush the stems to get off all the old plastic. (A rotary tool with a brush works well.)Holding the tuner strip in a vise, use a butane torch instead of a lighter to heat the stem.Push a new button in place.Get a few more buttons than you need because you might mess one up. You want to push them on to a consistent depth. Cheap cigarette lighters put a black soot on the metal where you are going to push on the new button. A Bernz-O-Matic torch leaves no visible residue or soot.