Steve Haynie

And a really cool Bigfoot, too. Bill hooked me up with some out of print Triumph CDs a while back for which I am still thankful.

Mr. Plague, if that is your real name, you cannot stay the center of attention forever. When you came to us asking for advice we gave it to you. We were honest. I was one of the first to congratulate you on picking up your Special at a great price. Many others would have been willing to help you for years to come. The experience of others and professional advice was yours if you had asked. You knew very well that you were inflating the prices of your gear beyond its value. You wanted to fleece someone through this message board without repercussions. That was insulting. Now you want to call everyone pansies and crap whores. If we could face you, we would say shit to your face. Then it would be over. We would find something to amuse ourselves, and you would no longer be relevant. This message board is as close as we will ever get, but every now and then members of this message board do meet in person. Feel free to meet with some of us if you get the chance. You will be treated with respect until you disrespect others.

Luke, reading your initial post I got the impression that I should not do business with you, but it did occur to me that you might have been sarcastic. You have clarified your position. The problem with board posts and e-mails is that no one can see your facial expressions or hear the inflection of your voice. It is always a good idea to add a disclaimer to some posts. And now an aside story... I know someone who bought a B.C. Rich Gunslinger with a broken truss rod. So, what did he do? He sold it to someone else for a "no problems" price and never mentioned the truss rod problem. That is why those of us who are considered "friends" do not trust him on guitar deals.

Yup. If the refret is done correctly it should not hurt the guitar's value. Think about this: if the guitar needs a refret how much is it worth? Divots in frets will get worse over time. Buzzing noises at certain frets are irritating. After a while, the guitar becomes kind of useless and worth a little less.

Dave, I think you have a three piece neck. Hamer matches their wood carefully, but I think I see where it was pieced together around the heel.

My guess is that the dark spot is the end of the filler strip that goes over the truss rod before the fretboard is put on.

Please post a pictures. This is definitely a rarity.

Recently I saw a video of the Osmonds doing a song called "Crazy Horses."

Photos were posted from NAMM with a little bit of discussion about those Grand Ole Opry guitars. The Grand Ole Opry just celebrated 80 years of broadcasts. This weekend there was some weird thing going on with Elvis Costello joining Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch.

Wow! Matt, is that a factory finish?

The listing has been removed.

Allow me to offer my observations from experience or what I have seen at concerts I have attended. Bluegrassholes are the worst. Their precious Martin guitars will never be electrified, even with an official Martin pickup system. So, we put a microphone in front of them. Of course, the guitar has to be louder than all the other instruments in the monitor, but it gets harder and harder to do as the guitar keeps moving farther and farther away from the mic. I rarely got a squeal, but I always got complaints. Acoustic players who sit on stools for a show are a little easier to deal with because they stay put. Ranger Doug of Riders In The Sky plays a real Stromberg onstage with nothing more than an SM57 most of the time. The Riders stand close together and do not move very much while playing, so it works. A good directional microphone is only going to work with someone who does not move much and does not need horribly loud monitors. Those microphones that are installed inside a guitar can be a major pain if the monitors are too loud, and they almost always required the bottom end to be knocked out of the monitor mix when I encountered them. I have had people show up for shows with a Martin Thinline (silver) pickup under their bridge, but no preamp of any kind. The signal is weak and thin sounding. An active direct box can boost the signal a little, but it does not work miracles. If you are going to have a pickup in a guitar, please get a preamp, too. There are plenty of outboard preamps that will get your guitar to sound its best through the PA. Spend the bucks and sound like a pro. Your tone is your reputation. Some people have noticed a change in tone when adding a Thinline pickup under their bridge saddle, but it cannot be that much of a difference if the job is done right. It may be an imagined difference. A beautiful sounding guitar is great for a recording studio or a small room that does not need much amplification. Beyond that take sirDaniel's advice that a good acoustic tone and a good amplified tone are not one and the same. How big are the places you will be playing? Are you going to be in a totally acoustic playing environment or will you be playing with a full band? The more you depend on the PA to be heard, the less you need to worry about an acoustic tone. If you are going to play in different size venues or in different types of band settings then you need to plan for the worst playing situations. Go ahead and get a pickup and preamp and do not try to mic your guitar. Takamine had the best electronics for years. While I have only heard a few great sounding Taks acoustically, every one of them sounded great through a PA. The same goes for Ovation, although I really like the sound of an unplugged Ovation.

Ace Frehley made me want to play guitar. Alex Lifeson made me want to play better. Steve Morse made me question whether or not it was worth trying.

For what Gibson demands for a dealer buy-in they ought to include a little "private time" with girls like that.

Hey, look! Austin has 666 posts! He must be evil!

Oh, welcome to my world! I had it with drunks, posers, liars, thieves, and dipshits, but I never gave up hope. I put aside the last five years to pursue some other things, but now I am open for starting something again. There are some good players that I know that will one day jam with me again. You, too, know good people who will cross your path again and again over the years. New people will move to town. New players will emerge. It is frustrating in the short term, but nothing is over yet in the long run. Do you want to be an immediate rock star? Are you worried about your window of opportunity to be a young player? Paul Dean was 38 when the first Loverboy album debuted.

For what it's worth, a friend of mine had an 80's or 90's Gibson Firebird in very nice condition. He got a real Trans Am decal and put it on his guitar. He wanted to play a Firebird Trans Am.

Thinking about it, if GMP went out of business the rights to headstock and body designs would be up for grabs in a liquidation sale. Someone has to own all of that, including the name. Other companies have been bought and sold: Danelectro, Kay, MXR, Kustom, etc. Someone could have picked up the pieces and kept something going.

You are speaking of Jackyl. Those are the local boys who did good! I remember talking to the Worley brothers back when we were in high school. They hung out after shows waiting for autographs like I did. WE exchanged phone numbers so we could try to sell gear. Occasionally they pop up in the local stores and malls. Three members of the original band (album-wise) are still together.

Chris, you went to see Stephen Pearcy? ...and I thought I was desperate for entertainment.

Ian Paice is the only original guy left from Deep Purple's debut.

How do we view bands with name changes? Alice Cooper started off with John Speer on drums and John Tatum on guitar. They were The Nazz and The Spiders before changing the name to Alice Cooper with the classic line-up. The pre-Alice Cooper material (a couple of singles) shows up in the box set because it was essentially the same group. Alice Cooper also has two opportunities to get into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He qualifies as a member of a group going back to 1969 and as a solo performer going back to 1975.

Bobby Ingram was in the Danny Joe Brown Band before joining Molly Hatchet. He joined at a time when there were a majority of original members in the band. He is now the leader of the group, and has at least 20 years of Molly Hatchet history under his belt. As for ZZ Top, generally we consider the band that appears on a first album to be the original band. That was the band that made the first impression. As far as I am concerned, ZZ Top has not changed.

That Studio sounds very acoustic!

I thought he was wearing a camo hat, but it just has a big "FU" on it.