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tommy p

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Posts posted by tommy p

  1. I don't think he's still playing, but Lindy and his brother had a band here for years. A friend of mine works for him now winding those oh-so-famous pickups. I got an awesome humbucker from him a few years back for next to nothing because my repair guy knows him really well.

    To add to the touristy things Al already mentioned, there's also the Metro Richmond Zoo. That's in Chesterfield County probably less than 30 minutes from Chesterfield. You will become very familiar with Rt. 288. It's a bypass on the Western side of Richmond that makes it super-easy to get somewhere fast; essential for driving to Charlottesville.

    • Like 1
  2. Welcome to the neighborhood! I live in Midlothian, VA which is in Chesterfield County 15 minutes away from Chesterfield the town and have lived around Richmond since 1987. Al hit a lot of the highlights but if there's anything else you want to know when you get here or before, just PM me.

    The house we've been building should be completed within a couple of months so I will be moving to the Eastern edge of Goochland County. The Short Pump Field Day of the Past Al mentioned will be walking distance from my house.

  3. Guy, sorry about this but I'm late getting the guitar out. I spent all day yesterday in bed sick until I had to go to the ER for a fever of 102. I know that sounds ridiculous but as a kidney recipient I have to call the post-transplant clinic if I have a fever over 100 and that combined with all my other symptoms gave them (and consequently, me) reason to worry. I'm back home now.

    I have it packed it up. I'll post again when it's shipped and send DavidB a PM with the tracking info.

  4. Saturday's show was up and down but still turned out fun.

    The first set was very poorly attended because of the NASCAR race but that turned out to be a good thing. We had major PA problems and my wireless was acting up. The whole band was just not clicking either. I got California Man on video playing WyldBil but that was in the midst of all the problems and I haven't looked at it yet. If it's halfway decent, I'll post it. My 50th birthday was actually 4/13 but my wife had a custom cake made so we could celebrate at this gig. We dug into that between the first and second sets. Got some cool pics of that too.

    I'll be packing the guitar up tonight and shipping it to DavidB tomorrow. I'll send him the tracking number as soon as I get it.

    • Like 3
  5. Sorry I haven't been here to comment, but I'm glad this worked out.

    I left last Tuesday for a week in the Florida Keys for my 50th birthday and Thursday my uncle died. I had to scramble to get a flight home and cut the vacation short by a day to make it back for his funeral. We had just celebrated his 91st birthday with him last month, but I can assure you he was NOT an old man - he could still go sailing and went to the gym regularly so it was actually a terrible surprise. He had some pain, went to the doctor, found he had cancer and died in less than a week.

    Gene, thanks for asking about the benefit show for the family affected by the house fire. Here are some links with everything you'd ever want to know:

    My band Rockslide's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rockslide/60874067665

    Link to the event announcement: https://www.facebook.com/events/469532973147411/

    Link to a page accepting donations for the family: http://www.gofundme.com/7mqgso

    You can also donate through PayPal directly to me at tcpear@verizon.net if you'd like. Just mark it "benefit" somewhere. I will remove this information Monday 4/21.

  6. Not trying to break in line here but I think I've been lost in the shuffle. I spoke with Gene about a week ago about this.

    I'm trying to get the Wyldbil for a 2-fer. My band is hosting a 5-band benefit gig 4/19 for a family of 6 that lost their home and both vehicles to a fire, and I have a regular gig on 4/26. I'm just outside of Richmond, VA and could get the guitar back down to NC or up to the DC/MD guys on 4/27 by car, or ship it anywhere on 4/28. I felt like playing it for the benefit gig would be kind of a cool thing, and I could send it back out after that and forget the 4/26 gig if timing is an issue.

    I think Steve Haynie is waiting on the guitar right now and I'm sending him my shipping info to try to get it in time for these gigs. If someone else has it and could ship it directly to me, let me know. I'll ship it or drive it wherever it needs to go next.

  7. Where is the Wyldbil guitar now and is it spoken for next?

    On 4/19 my band is hosting a 5-band benefit show for a family of 6 that lost their house (a rental), everything in it, and both vehicles to a house fire. They barely made it out with their lives. It would be pretty special to play it at a gig like that. I also have a gig 4/26 so it would defiinitely see double-duty if I can get it in time, and it could go from me to the DC/MD area peeps next really easily.

  8. I'm in.

    I live just about halfway between Chris Matthes and Tommy P, so I can be the method it gets from one to the other.

    Nathan just bought my Classic 30 so we have a tested transfer method, right Nathan?

    When I get it, I'll keep it only long enough to play one gig. I think it should make a live appearance if it's going to travel all this way.

    • Like 2
  9. Count me in!

    I did a similar thing a few years ago. A friend of a friend was in a coma after an accident and he loved music. His favorite bands are Kiss, Thin Lizzy, and Cheap Trick. He loved the "more cowbell" sketch from SNL so our mutual friend bought a cowbell that traveled the country getting pics taken at touristy spots in the places it visited. When I had it, I got Bun E. to autograph it and thought that was pretty good, but later someone had a video of Satch with a personal message to the guy!

    The good news he got better.

    • Like 2
  10. Isn't it true that Angus Young barely used anything other than a little volume gain from his amp. A little overdrive sound, no effects at all, and a dam good guitar and cranked up amp?

    True, but he dimes all the tone pots or either dimes bass and treble and puts the mids on half. Can't remember which.

  11. The best part of the Kiss announcement: no possibility of Dave Grohl horning in on the performance in any way.

    Didn't need fixing - I said Lick It Up on purpose. Vinne definitely raised the bar talent-wise and wrote some great songs on Creatures, but that was their worst-selling tour and album up to that point (and probably still is). They also chose to downplay Vinnie's involvement at the time by using Ace's picture on the cover. However, on Lick It Up Vinnie was fully acknowledged as a member of the band and that was the album that put them back on the map and for better or worse, MTV.

    In and of themselves, record sales do not equate to quality. If they did, we all better start worshipping at the altar of One Direction. Similarly, speed does not equate to talent on the guitar. Creatures is the better album, and Ace is the better guitar player. Vinnie 's true talent is in hard rock songwriting.

    The only reason LIU put them back on the map is because they removed the makeup.

    Hey, I like Creatures better than Lick It Up too! I assume when you say Creatures was a better album than Lick It Up that you know Vinnie played on Creatures as well? I think Vinnie is a far better player than Ace and not just for speed although that's certainly part of it. Vinnie could play fast cleanly and with a variety of licks and runs. When Ace played tried to exhibit speed it was just pulloffs and even then sloppy 95% of the time. I saw Kiss live with Ace twice and Ace solo once and live his playing was just awful. The Kiss fans I went to these concerts with even thought Ace was a joke.

    It's been my experience that folks who think Ace is a good player were Kiss fans from way back, whereas I didn't start listening to them until fairly recently as I said in my earlier post. I listened to every album they did, in order, and there was a big jump in good guitar playing in general and imaginative lead guitar in particular after Ace left.

    Sorry if I'm offending anyone by not rating Ace. His solo album was by far my favorite of the 4 simultaneously-released albums, and I actually have Anomaly and a Frehley's Comet album too. I think he's funny as hell and his rogue spirit against Gene and Paul back in the day (Tom Snyder interview, anyone?) was a thing of beauty. Highly influential? Yes. Great guitar player? No. Right guy for the right band at the right time? Undoubtedly.

    • Like 1
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