Steve Haynie

If you want to see what a maple veneer looks like, go to a good lumber yard. Sometimes Lowe's or Home Depot will have veneers for sale. It will be in the section with the project wood like small pieces of oak and poplar. The veneer is thin wood that is about the thickness of poster board.

Look on the positive side of things. This is a chance for you to have a fresh start in a new band. Next time you can have a keyboard player and chick singer to keep things exciting! ...running and ducking for cover...

Pearl Jam's version of was an atrocity that only showcased Eddie Vedder's inability to sing beyond his two note moaning range.

You will be e-mailing this video to all of your friends.

Those Black 'N Blue videos look like they were calculated right down to the last detail to fit the heavy metal mold.

Your photo did not show up. Here it is.

--> QUOTE(David B @ Sep 2 2008, 05:28 PM) ← Just ugly. No, I was getting fillings & he said they were cracked. I could have left them cracked, but figured I'd go ahead & fix them. They are straight now. I have had a dentist tell me he could seal enamel cracks in my teeth. Never knew the price, though.

--> QUOTE(David B @ Sep 1 2008, 03:37 PM) ← I just paid over $3700 on my front four teeth, so I need to sell a guitar. What happened? Accident?

Have a great day!

You know, it would be fun to put this in a slick looking travel brochure and sneak a bunch of them into those tourism brochure stands in airports, hotels, and rest stops.

Seeing Les Paul was my first thought about what to do in NYC. Les Paul gave us multi-track recording, and that has opened up more creativity for musicians than anything else.

That was a very non-informative rant from Roman. You have to wonder where he finds so many customers to stay in business.

That is some beautiful figuring on that top. Let us know if you notice the tonal differences Jol wrote about in his blog.

Do you want to hear stuff from when you were a kid or do you want to really find the essence of country music? Country music was called hillbilly music at one time. It got its name because people living in the country, as opposed to the city, were playing their rural folk music with instruments like mandolins, guitars, banjos, and fiddles. "City" music would have been orchestra and jazz music. Radio stations were playing music with live orchestras, but there were some programs popping up with the local string bands. That was country music. Jimmie Rodgers was doing "white blues" with his simple yodeling style. His music is the starting point for what we call country music. If you want country roots music, Rodgers' music is the place to start. He influenced many people including Gene Autry and Ernest Tubb. Rodgers was also the first person inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Western music was a genre of its own from the 20's through the 60's. The reason we have the phrase "country and western" is because sales of both were listed in the same charts. They were two different types of music, but to keep from having too many sales charts both types of music were listed together. Country singers also took on the look of the flashy cowboy singers, too. Bluegrass developed in the 30's and took on its own genre, but it has been intertwined with country music from the start. Like every style of music, country evolved and record companies started finding out what sounds they could market. The 1950's could be the peak for country music, and the influence of that time period carried on for many years. Many of the stars we heard in the 70's got their start in the 50's. Webb Pierce either held the record for the most # 1 hits or the most top ten hits from that decade. Faron Young may be one of the best examples of country music performers whose sound can be traced through performers who followed him. Willie Nelson was in his band and writing songs. An extremely important person from the 50's was Lefty Frizzell. Though he was not the biggest star, he is named off as an influence by a large number of stars. Willie Nelson did a tribute to Frizzell after he died, and Merle Haggard has done at least two tribute albums. The first time you hear Lefty Frizzell you might swear you are hearing Merle Haggard. Haggard learned to sing like Frizzell in the same way Bob Dylan emulated Woodie Guthrie. Like Willie G. Mosely said, there were no drums in country music back then. Something worse would happen in the early 60's. Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley were two Nashville music producers who created the "Nashville Sound" of the 60's to make country music sound more accessible to people outside of country's core fan group. They got rid of all the strings-- no banjos, fiddles, or mandolins with next to nothing in the way of guitars! They made those arrangements of piano, bass, and backing singers that you hear on Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, and Ray Price recordings of the time. Steel guitars got a pass for some reason. It was almost like hearing crooners from the big band and rock and roll era. Sales of country music went up, and there were crossover hits. Ray Charles was easily able to do country at this time. (He did more in the 80's.) Think of what grunge did to heavy metal in the 90's and you get the idea. Buck Owens and the "Bakersfield sound" brought in the electric twang that Dwight Yoakam has recycled and made cool again. Merle Haggard was part of that, too. It was California's contribution to country music. Thank you, California! Before the late 50's steel guitars were usually non-pedal. By the 60's the steel players were all pedalling and giving us the "crying in your beer" swells. Listening to some of the 70's country music that I remember as being crap, it still is crap. Loretta Lynn really has country roots, but she was singing songs with contemporary subjects like "The Pill." Barbara Mandrell was singing whore anthems. Every song seemed like it was about adultery. Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were doing their own different thing out of Texas, and that was good! Kenny Rogers made his conversion to country and the music changed, or expanded, a bit more. It strayed away from the 50's further. In the 80's Alabama played country like a rock and roll band. After that coutnry ceased to be anything close to what it was. During that time k.d. lang and Lyle Lovett were marketed as country performers even though their music was not truly country. If you want to hear the country music your parents would have heard when you were a kid you can go to WSM online. You can also find archived shows from the Grand Ole Opry.

Proof that the game is rigged!

I think that was a NAMM show guitar.

Happy Birthday! Do you put hot sauce on birthday cakes down there?

Ernie Ball hired people with flexible hours, trying to be work friendly for people with kids in school. They told us that at the open house I attended. I have no idea what the pay was like.

Years ago one of the people at Hamer said that it was possible for people in the guitar factories to make more money in the furniture manufacturing business. At Ernie Ball I saw a room full of people sanding guitars by hand and with specialized tools. It does not look easy, but after a short time of doing that all day those people are probably really good at what they do. It may be a job that allows them to work their way to better paying positions.

The Ovation Deacon and Breadwinner have shapes similar to the Klein.

The Fernandes Vertigo has a comfortable body shape that just does not look traditional. Unless someone has driven one, he just cannot understand the AMC Pacer.

The Hamer guitar in the photo appears to be autographed a few times, most likely by some of the visiting entertainers over there in Iraq. You know that guitar is going to be a keeper!

Happy Birthday!

That was a great music video to start the day. The guitar that Göran Söllscher is playing is quite interesting.

The Scepter was on the cover of his solo album, GilRock Ranch. In concert I saw him use one of his orangish Super-Strats and got a guitar pick on the 7 Wishes tour. He used large steel picks.