crunchee

I remember back in the late '70's/early'80's, practically everybody who was familiar with those LPs in transparent colors (Standards, Customs, etc.) with maple tops wished that Gibson would use two- piece maple tops (like '50's models) instead of those three-piece tops, me included. Hell, it didn't even have to be figured wood, plain two-piece maple tops woulda worked just fine. it didn't make sense to me or anybody I knew why Gibson didn't do that from an aesthetic viewpoint, I always thought a three-piece maple top looked mismatched; also, maple was probably the cheapest of any of the woods that Gibson used on LPs, too! Nowadays, Gibson probably charges a premium for 'vintage accuracy', for using three piece maple tops.

What's the point of having a limba body if you're just gonna cover it in black paint? They shoulda done it up in Butterscotch Blonde Transparent. Plus, how many pieces of limba did it take to make the body?

Article byline says it was written by 'Janelle Borg'. Maybe it was!

Sonny Curtis, member of the Crickets who wrote the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" theme song, dies at 88 - CBS News He started out as an early music partner of Buddy Holly in the 1950s, but was probably best known for his songwriting...and he wrote a lot of tunes that made it into the charts and got covered afterwards by others, too: If this song sounds familiar, it should; it was a big hit for Leo Sayer when he covered it in the '70's: He wrote and sang the Mary Tyler Moore theme song 'Love Is All Around', as mentioned in the news article above:

This appears to be the official demo video, as it's on the Gretsch website:

Seems like something's missing in this article. Interesting old photo, though: Why Lita Ford is still partial to her Runaways-era Gibson SG – despite wielding B.C. Rich guitars for decades

Cool guitar! What kind of wood is the body made from? I've seen similar Eastman models listed at DGS as having an Okoume body, anybody know for sure?

Here's a bit of Gretsch trivia; I had heard that Pete Townshend used a Gretsch 6120 in the early '70s (it was a gift from Joe Walsh), but I didn't know how often or where he used it...and it turned out that he used it a lot for recording. In 1973, the BBC asked Townshend to shorten the performance of the song '5:15' on the Top Of The Pops TV show due to the TV show's time constraints, so of course he reacted predictably: The guitar was repaired after this 'little accident', and he still used it afterward on occasion in the studio. Gretsch 6120 ‘Chet Atkins’ | Pete Townshend’s Guitar Gear | Whotabs

I'm not much younger than you, and I still have my old video game callous on the side of my right index finger from playing tons of video games at arcades years ago back in the '80's and '90's. I very rarely play video games anywhere nowadays (can't remember the last time I did), and I don't have a game system at home; but the dang callous keeps growing back, so I keep filing it off/down. The only thing I really regret is not having all those quarters I spent years ago!

Apparently just announced within the last week or so: “Makes next-level Gretsch style and sound more accessible than ever”: Gretsch brings its iconic Falcon and Nashville hollowbodies to new-low price points with unveiling of the Synchromatic Collection | Guitar World I've already got a few Gretsch G5420T hollow bodies that scratch my Gretsch itch just fine. Comparing the new ones to the ones that I already own now (Electromatic series, MIK manufacture, made in the late 2010's to the early 2020's and costing me roughly $600 each used including the correct-sized TKL Canadian-made Gretsch cases), I don't feel any need to run out and throw money at these new Chinese-made Synchromatics. It probably doesn't bode well for those Gretsch owners that try to sell 'upgraded' Electromatic G5420s by modding them with TV Jones pickups and jacking up the used prices 50% more or even higher, though. What say you?

IMO, the 'punch' and distinctive sound of the 12-string bass is helped out a lot by the thinner gauge strings. Take away the midrange frequency strings, and all you've got is a short-scale (usually, depending on the model) 4-string bass. Midrange is where the clarity lives anyway, otherwise if it was all very low bass frequencies, you might have a tough time trying to figure out exactly what tune was being played; just like if you were being passed by a car blasting a loud stereo, where all you heard was buzzy low end. The Mythbusters TV show once had an episode where they built one huge speaker mounted in the entire passenger area (interior removed) of an old Mercedes. It was plenty loud (measured at about 160db), but the speaker eventually self-destructed while the car and windows didn't.

Just stumbled upon these videos today while looking for something else, old videos but this guy does like his Hamer 12 basses:

Early (late '70's/early '80's) Sunbursts and Specials used thin figured maple veneer for their tops, on the front over the solid mahogany bodies. Sounds to me to be the same general construction as those, perhaps?

Yep, I think that was the topic I was thinking of, no heat gun involved so please disregard that bit. I believe it was about having the side of the candle glass next to the guitar binding at the affected area to warm it (candle being lit, of course), then gluing.

Seems like somebody here on the HFC asked that same question several years ago, but I couldn't find the topic. IIRC I think (and I could be wrong) it involved heating the area with a heat gun to make the binding a little more malleable and close the gap, then regluing the area. But don't quote me on that. As small as these separations are, you might not even need the heat gun. Maybe Murkat can help?

Like the old saying goes...'Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.'

No affiliation: Used American Performer Mustang w/added Kahler '21 – Dave's Guitar Shop

Dunno about the current setlists, but unless things have changed the drummer is Daxx Nielsen, Rick's kid. I wonder if Rick taught him how to play guitar, too?

The Rick Nastly mashup's been kicking around for years, along with this one:

What, no love for a Wyldbil-style fried bologna sammich?

I noticed that also with the Fender Vintera II demo he did: Seems to me to be a two-edged sword...yep, he sounds like Billy Gibbons, but then again he always sounds like Billy Gibbons. Would anybody recognize him if he wasn't playing, and he shaved his beard off?

Apparently so, as of August 29th, according to this CNN Business article. This article is a bit different than past conjecture, as it gives a firm date regarding when it goes into effect. Japan, Australia and Taiwan suspend some US parcel shipments as tariff exemption ends | CNN Business Does this affect, for instance, ordering Schaller parts from Germany (parts that you can't find anywhere except Germany), as some HFC members have done in the past; also ordering from Thomann? The focus in the CNN article is mainly on items from Asia, but it doesn't necessarily mean that everything else is untouched.

Nice looking guitar! Are the original knobs included?

I still don't get it...what's so valuable about the price tag? Or was the title caption written by an AI?

So, which was screwed worse, the guitar or the next owner?