tomteriffic

Damn, Flynn, you've been on a roll here lately. Now I'm SURE you don't have room for the graphic Special.

Lots of fans of them here. They'll be along presently. I have a pair in an import SATF and like them a lot. Evidently they're the shiznit in a Newport.

Oftentimes, when I'm dropping off to sleep, I'll spin tunes in my head, just make shit up, arrange it, twist it around, etc. until I go completely un-choncho. It's miles beyond my physical ability to play, but, if I'm making it up, I must like it and I go to sleep happy. Couple that with a bit more practice lately, with particular regard to scales and such, and now and again when I'm wide awake and have a bit run through my head, I can pick up a guitar and play it. Point being that, probably, the better your technical facility to begin with, the better you're able to do that.

+1 on the 20-30 year old Yamaha FG's. Amazingly good sound from what was an inexpensive guitar back when. There's a lot of neglected pawnshop prizes in those Yammys out there. Look for an FG-300 12'er. Funny about the Taylors. I had a severely figured maple one (6 string) and while the tone was very good, the projection and volume was terrible. This seems to be the case with their maple ones. One of the better ones I've played was a lower-end Jumbo 12 (355, I think) that was a cannon. They also made a few dreanought-sized 12's, model 455, out of Imbuia. They usually reserve that wood for their acoustic basses. The one I played was the Mack truck of 12'ers. Loads of power, drive and projection. The very best 12 I've ever played was a late 1950's Martin D12-35S, a 12 fret to the body slothead dreadnought. All the bass, mids and treble you'd ever want, plenty of volume and projection and it didn't sound like an oversized mandolin. Seriously, check out the Simon and Patricks. The all-cherry one that a friend of mine has is the second-best 12 I've ever played. That guitar is the reason I don't presently own a 12. I can borrow it whenever I want.

My home town! I'll have to look it up next time I'm back home. Didn't even know it was there.

Cool stuff, Travis. What store did this take place at?

I was in Beastly Buy this evening, a place I frequent infrequently, and they had the reunion concert and the farewell concert DVD's side by side on the shelf. I mentioned to Most Esteemed Redhead that it would be interesting to compare the two. I passed on the purchase, since my purpose in being there was to wrestle some money out of them, not give it to them. But, I may have to go back.

Stongemon, you owe me a keyboard!

Then one or both of the pickups may need to be re-potted.

Condolences and sympathies to you and your family, Bill.

Cold Heat = Cold Solder Joint (assuming you can get it to work at all)

Those Kittyhawk amps were great sounding, but, as you noted, had reliability issues. I passed on a 60 watt 1 x 12 combo locally recently for that reason.

Belt Sander.....

'79

Even though I lived in Chicago and was aware of Hamers almost from the git-go, the money, the guitar, and I didn't seem to get together until much later. My first was a '93 Special FM. Still have it and it's still my go-to 'something with humbuckers'. Second from the right....

Oooh, cool one! Next time Most Esteemed Redhead and I get into an inter-song patter that wanders into "life's little mysteries" territory, that one's getting used for sure!

Agumented add 9. Adds a little kick to yer basic augmented chord, especially when resolving from the dominant to the tonic (the V to the I). Easy to grab and impresses the other guitar players in the audience F'rinstance, an Eaug add9 just dying to resolve to an A6 --------x -----------7 --------5 ---------6 ----------7 -------x Edit to add: Other than that, my fave is the Q27 Demented over the square root of -1.

On most of mine, I use a mix of DR's and good ol' D'Addario's, 9's or 10's, mostly 10's. For slide, I use 11's with a 12 on top.

I'm in for a couple in anything but black.

I bought an '81 with more dings in it than a wind-up alarm clock. But it was all original, no breaks or issues and I gave $450 for it. That was about a year and a half ago.

A better-fitting replacement jack is also available from Kaman customer service. Call and ask for Kim Keller.

An AB-12 (I think) 'acoustic' 12'er bass.

Schweet!

Hmmmmmmm.... Might be doable. Somebody make sure and bring Chick Neilsen a USA Standard Custom to use.

Got any wid a BIG neck? Jim, sorry, they range from the deaded skinny-ass '93 on up to about medium on the '81 and the '94 Speical FM. Nary a tree trunk or a big-laig momma in the bunch. I guess I'm a bit less of a neck-fussy than some, although I've been leaning toward the current 'modern' carve as being about right. That's about where the '81 and '94 are.