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tomteriffic

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Everything posted by tomteriffic

  1. The security guy musta been asleep, and I wound up on stage with the Grumpies. That's the only explanation I can come up with..... Me and SirDan hurting somebody in Chicago....
  2. (At the risk of howls of derisive laughter from you young pups) Early Seger. And besides, Drew Abbot was a helluva nice guy to me once when he didn't have to be.
  3. All the best from the Muddle of Nowhere, Frank. And thanks for everything.
  4. Good suggestions all. I'd second a Subway Rocket, maybe with an extension cabinet in reserve if needed. Another possibility would be a modded Peavey Classic 30. One of those and a 2 x 12 extension was way plenty even at the last Midwest Jam.
  5. Gibson #1 and #4 look like what an Explorer ought to be. That said, when I saw my first Standard in the '70's (I happened to be working in a Chicago Studio when Hamer got its start up there and several of the very first ones came through the doors there) I KNEW that that was what an Explorer would have been if Gibson had let it grow up. That Standard custom is a beaut. I waited 30 years to get my mitts on my first one. Don't be dumb like me. Get close pics of the front and back of the headstock first, though.
  6. All the best from SW Ohio for both your dad and all of the surviving family.
  7. That 80's Explorer is a nice piece and fairly priced. I played a new natural-finish Explorer in GC recently and it felt like a toy compared to a USA Standard, and generally equivalent to an original 'Slammer Series' Standard. If it were me, I'd hold out for a USA Mahogany Standard. The going rate is around a grand for a decent one and the quality is so much better as to be in a different league altogether. The one-piece bodied '97's are, short of an original '58 Korina, probably the best damn Explorer-types out there.
  8. One finally opened across town from me. I just had to go and have a look, got the 'Dude' treatment and checked out the current Gib$on version of a Mahogany Standard. Shop wear aside, that Explorer was like a toy compared to a Mahogany Standard, and I was raised on Gibsons and have a built-in bias toward them. Always wanted a plain-jane Explorer. Not any more. I think it's interesting that, since that GC opened, two more mom & pop music stores have opened on the south side of town, in the same general market as the GC. They seem to be doing fine.
  9. It's been a long, hard fight, Marty. My sympathies to your whole family, and a particular scratch behind the ears to you for all you did during a very tough time.
  10. Our setup is similar to Badger Dave's. It's worked well for a number of years now. And Jim, Admiral Grace Hopper kicked ass.
  11. Hey Tom. Is that the Red Special you sold to Ken Jones or ? Yup, that's the one. His first one was minty fresh and he was scared to gig with it, so he jumped on mine when I made it available. Oh, and Mike C. That looks a lot like mine IRL. That's a beaut!
  12. This ones not for sale, but... Second from right. I gave just under $900, sales tax and all for this '93, NOS. It was my first Hamer. Amazingly, the neck is very medium-ish.
  13. I'll bet I haven't got a single guitar out of 40 or so (all inclusive of fretted instruments in general) that is "perfect" even my new Gold Standard. It's all pretty much the 'Velveteen Rabbit" approach here. The dings and scrapes make it real.
  14. I mostly turn the amp up too damn loud these days, but I've tried almost all of the more common types of buzzbox out there. Faves: The original Rat, but it's finicky, Univox Super Fuzz (from the late '60's), Digitech Bad Monkey is a pleasant suprise, Keeley modded TS-9 (but it took him a couple of tries to get it where I wanted it, Tech 21 stuff and the XXL in particular is relentless and the Double Drive is uncommonly flexible and ballsy, and the Dano FabTone. The Visual Sound Route 66 and Jeckyll and Hyde would make it on to my pedalboard if I was in the market right now. I never met up with an original Guv'nor. I wouldn't nmind giving one a spin. Mike Lee's Fulldrive 2 was a lesson in flexibility and subtlety. There was one setting there (I think the one with the compression dialed out of the circuit) that was just yummy. Edit to add that I have a black and yellow Tube Driver that, when placed in front of a crappy little SS practice amp, and just *barely* cracked open on the drive knob, does a great job of turning the crappy little amp into a Blackface Fender. Little-known trick, that.
  15. Sweetness! That one almost made me break out of my self-imposed buying moratorium. Almost.
  16. Greg, glad to see you back, and thanks!
  17. I've seen some footage of the original band with Steve Gaines in there, and most of the guitar lineup was Peavey, with the odd Marshall head in there, mostly in the middle near the bass cabinets, but it was hard to say if they were part of the bass rig, guitar rigs, or what. Jeff, that VC-30, turned up to 9 or so on the clean channel, was all I needed for years in the clubs. I used the 50 watt head for outside stuff. Not Holy Grail stuff, but great sounding, tough and unjustly under-rated. I still have both amps.
  18. You go, Meester Reeshard. Yeah, it's wierd, but worth it.
  19. Ben, my dad needed to be hooked up to one of those. He had it so bad he sounded like Lord Vader through about 10 kilowatts of PA system. His bedroom was above mine during my teenage years and I'd wake up every morning with drywall and acoustic tile dust on my covers, in my face, etc. Hope that's working better for you. Is that a permanent thing or more like sleeping 'training wheels' (for lack of a better term)?
  20. Gary (Johnny Thunders) and I are the same age. For the last 30 years or so I've had a race between gray and nothin' going on on top of my head. I'm still rooting for gray and it's still pretty much a dead heat. Like a lot of guys, my hands/back/arms/everything hurt most of the time and it has affected my playing. My only resort so far has been some exercises my chiro showed me, and 4 Advil at bedtime so I can sleep. If I start playing, I need about a half-hour to warm up, and even then....eeeh.. I've been pathologically skinny most of my life, but now that I've quit smoking, the inevitable qweight gain has me looking more and more like a Life Saver on a toothpick I never could see, and decades of rock 'n' roll have fixed it so I can't hear either. Like Badger Dave says, I'm invisible to women under 30, but Most Esteemed Redhead says I'm still doin' fine where it counts. OTOH, I was supposed to be dead a couple or three decades ago, I'm damn glad to be alive, I don't have anything that's gonna kill me in the next week or so, and I'll keep playing until Most Esteemed Redhead says I'm embarassing her. Oh wait, that happens all the time.... Fearing death? Naaah, it's all gravy now, and even when I do kick over, it just means I'll finally get a good night's sleep.
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