atquinn

Happy Birthday X 2!

Great shot and that guitar looks dynamite! -Austin

To be clear, I'm not saying I don't think they were important, just that, as an "old" guy no longer in the throes of popular music, I only heard about them a year or 2 after they got big, never followed them, and so don't really care that they broke up. I think the last time I cared about a group calling it quits was Soundgarden? and that was in the last century Kind of sad considering Jack and I are the same age, but there you go... -Austin

I must be old because this news makes me feel...indifferent -Austin

Chinese Democracy?

I'm not in the market for whatever he's selling . It actually reminds me of Crumb/No Moe off of Bill Frisell's live trio album, but that's cool because the chaos coalesces into some kind of order. Derek Bailey's out there stuff just sound like someone who just discovered natural harmonics. -Austin

Looking forward to what you produce. Very exciting times I'm sure! -Austin

The majority of the time when I buy a used guitar, the frets are cruddy. Polishing them gets them nice and shiny and smooth and makes playing a much nicer experience. And I'm going to get a set of those fret guards at some point. I've been meaning to do it for a while, but I don't want to pay shipping for just those so I'm waiting until I need some more stuff. -Austin

Not masking off the fretboard would be awesome. Doing that take me more time than polishing the frets. -Austin

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I think I'll try finding a jewelry polishing cloth. Sounds like it would be the neatest option. -Austin

I've been using 000 steel wool and it does a good job, but it's a pain because I have to wrap up the body in a plastic bag and tape it off, then do a pass by with a magnet after I'm done to pick up all the stray metal bits. I'm sure there's something else I could be using, but I'm not sure exactly what? -Austin

I have a Gibson Johnny Smith mini-bucker I put on a Gretsch Synchromatic. It's pretty much the same New York minibucker as the ones you bought, but with a mounting bracket to float it above the top. It's probably the sweetest, cleanest, and most musical pickup I've ever had. Meanwhile, those hot raggy minibuckers that came standard in the Eclipse ... Well, I think they're the reason those guitars are so endearing to play but irritating to listen to. Eclipses die on the used market and few people seem to keep them around very long. People don't like Eclipses because they're funny-looking and minhumbuckers are a niche market (and because of the routing, you can't swap out the minihumbuckers in an Eclipse for another pickup type). I solved the problem by throwing the minihumbuckers I had in my Eclipse (a Dimarzio set) into a Studio Custom P90 -Austin

Physically, the 2 types of pickups are the same size, so, yes. -Austin

NathanOBF has a Kammerer guitar that he likes quite a bit IIRC. -Austin

Lovely top on that one. And I believe they only made Artists with ebony fretboards for 1 year, so pretty rare as well. -Austin

All the heavy hitters in bolt-neck guitars will do chambered/hollow guitars with forearm contours (Anderson, Suhr, Melancon and more I'm sure). If you're talking gibby-scale setnecks though, I'm not sure. -Austin

That finish is definitely Stike-approved! Welcome! -Austin

This piqued my interest, so I made a little list of the instruments designed and produced during this period: Artist Artist Studio with wraptail Daytona Duo-Tone Eclipse, Eclipse-12 Mirage Special FM Return of the Standard (1995) Studio archtop with wraptail T51 And lest we forget, the almost-legendary Boltneck 2Tek Cruise basses (4-string, 5-string, fretted, fretless)--one of the very best Jazz-type basses ever conceived and made, created in 1995 and killed upon his return in 1997 In fact, several of these were killed or dramatically changed within a year of his return, such as the T51 (killed along with all boltnecks) and the 3-hole flattop Duotone (too Plebian?) in favor of an f-hole archtop version. Interesting. I like some of those models (especially the Eclipse), but I definitely wouldn't call that any sort of golden age for Hamer. I mean, all the bolt-ons and the Mirage were pretty much reactionary moves weren't they? I personally think the Eclipse is awesome, but I can't think of any setneck Hamer makes that gets less love. I kind of see why Jol came back. -Austin

-Austin

One can only assume that there will be more economical non-signature line. Say $6,000-$10,000? -Austin

Cary and I are in complete agreement. *faint* -Austin

So Angus and McTavish are sitting around in the pub. Angus takes a long pull at his drink, looks out the door and says "Angus, you see that bridge out there." "Aye Angus, I do" "S'a goood Bridge. Built it with me bare hands I did. But do they call me angus the bridge builder?" "No angus they don't" he says sympathetically. "And ya see that roof on the school. S' a good rooooof, took me a month, with me bare hands." He takes a pull again. "But do they call em Angus the Roof Maker?" "No angus they don't" Angus takes another deeeeep pull at his beer, his face going red. "But you fuck ONE Sheep . . .!!!!" Which is to say, that as someone who was born in Michigan and lived in the midwest for my first 28 years of life, I'm rather offended that I'm being referred to as a northeasterner! I should probably get over that though. Otherwise, I not sure why you'd call us out and not Greg? Perhaps you're taking things a bit personally? -Austin

That's because you guys don't sell stuff for "dirt cheap," which seems to be the no. 1 priority for purchasers in the digital age. My priority is getting stuff for as cheap as possible, which generally means buying used (although when I was looking for something very specific and unavailable used, I did order a new Hamer from Elduave). Maybe I should feel ashamed about that, but I don't. And as far as I know, there's nothing stopping a mom & pop store from listing their inventory (particularly used) on eBay if they feel it would make financial sense to do so. -Austin

I mostly agreed with you. But there are clearly cases where a saavy buyer can "win" something on eBay. A "Hammer Guitar" that just happens to be a Watson listed at a BIN of $550 for example. Or in cases where the auction doesn't get the attention it otherwise would if the pictures were better or not enough information was given, or it ended at a strange time, or wasn't listed for very many days. So, yes, the whole "winning" thing is a bit silly and the competitive angle is certainly a part of eBay's (and auctions in general) success, but there are ways you can get an item below "market value" on eBay. -Austin

Given your story, it should be obvious to you why eBay prefers that PayPal be used. You don't have to add money to your account to use PayPal, just use a credit card. Otherwise, instead of being at the mercy of the PP, you get to be at the mercy of the USPS, and have fun with that. Meanwhile, the seller in this case gets screwed and maybe you do too if he decides to just sell his item to someone else instead of waiting for your money to get to him (which he would be well within his rights to do). Anyway, I have no problem with eBay. I use it to buy and sell stuff and haven't been screwed over yet in the many years I have used it. I can certainly understand why people don't use it, but I don't get the angst. Don't like it? Don't use it and move on. But please don't be silly enough to suggest that there is any real alternative selling venue out there that does what eBay does. -Austin