crunchee

There was a news item on both CBS and ABC (US) TV network evening news shows tonight mentioning that the Stones' 60th anniversary is coming up on July 12, and that they're currently out on tour in Europe. And Keef is still alive, apparently. https://rollingstones.com/tour/ https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sixty-years-of-the-rolling-stones-anniversary-event-tickets-333452103217

Looks like there's more to the recent KISS story, including more live videos: https://guitar.com/news/music-news/rare-live-footage-of-kiss-has-appeared-online-and-fans-are-going-wild/

BTW, this Brittanica link was buried in the Smithsonian article about Celluloid, referring to John Wesley Hyatt, Celluloid's developer: The Hyatts concentrated on forming celluloid into sheets, rods, and other unfinished shapes, usually leaving their fabrication into practical objects to licensed companies such as the Celluloid Brush Company, the Celluloid Waterproof Cuff and Collar Company, and the Celluloid Piano Key Company. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wesley-Hyatt Celluloid and piano keys is also mentioned in the Wikipedia-equivalent article on Hyatt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hyatt

I'm not so sure, celluloid's been around since well before 1897: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/once-upon-time-exploding-billiard-balls-were-everyday-thing-180962751/ You mean, also like the 'Ivoroid' binding that Hamer used to use? Quote from Wikipedia, under 'Uses': "Celluloid is useful for producing cheaper jewellery, jewellery boxes, hair accessories and many items that would earlier have been manufactured from ivory, horn or other expensive animal products. It was often referred to as "Ivorine" or "French Ivory". For this use, a form of celluloid was developed in France that had lines in it to make it resemble ivory. It was also used for dressing table sets, dolls, picture frames, charms, hat pins, buttons, buckles, stringed instrument parts,accordions, fountain pens, cutlery handles and kitchen items. The main disadvantage the material had was that it was flammable. It was soon overtaken by Bakelite and Catalin. Table tennis balls were made from celluloid until 2014.". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celluloid

Are you sure that the keys have genuine ivory facings, or is it celluloid or another form of imitation ivory?

I thought Clapton was playing Epiphones now.

I've been a student of the buying & selling game for at least 25 years, because I've never been able to afford/keep very much over the years (It don't cost nuthin' to look and watch), and I've never seen 'prices returning to normal' as a group. Here and there individually? Maybe, depending on a lot of variables, including the economy, the time of year, musical trends (or the lack thereof), tonewood availability (or wood in general), and so on. But once a guitar category/model reaches a certain price point as a group, it's pretty difficult to get prices to go down as a group on a category of gear. For instance, many popular used MIM Fender guitars used to go regularly for $500~$600, but now popular used ones go regularly for $800. Yes, I know, 'askin' ain't sellin''; but once sellers get used to gear being at a certain price point, they don't want to go back, not as a seller anyway. Just my two cents.

Like everything else in life, it's only cheap if you can afford it. I had one (long gone, BTW), bought mine brand new (and on sale!) at Music Land KEY in Shibuya (Tokyo) around 1998, back when I was stationed with the U.S. Navy in Japan, bought it at the store and brought it back to base on the train. These guitars were a 'Japan only' run by Hamer, and other than the 'Signature' logo (and the fact that they had to move the 'Hamer' logo to the end of the headstock to make it all fit), it was a Arlington Heights-made standard Standard Custom (a '96, I think) in all other respects. Nice guitar, but IIRC it only cost me about 1/3 (in the US $ equivalent at the time) of what they're asking for it now...and that was back when it was new, though IIRC the original non-discounted 'list' price was a bit more than Y300,000 in 1998 funds, according to the store brochure. If you have a Feb. 1999 copy of Vintage Guitar magazine (the infamous 'Exploer' issue), a couple of photos of that guitar are in the 'Readers' Gallery' in the back of the magazine.

Very cool guitar (I had one years ago), the main reason that keeps me from shopping for one is that I remember what they used to sell for 20 years ago in nice used condition, and my wallet refuses to open.

The 'takeaway' (pun not intended) I get from this thread is that: if somebody's still catchin' Covid, then somebody else is still givin' Covid. If all else fails, washing your hands after coming into contact with something that somebody else has touched is a good place to start. Handwashing was constantly hammered into me in Nursing School, and that was long before Covid. Plus, don't forget the old joke that if somebody goes to the bathroom, touches their junk, and doesn't wash their hands afterward, then that means that technically you can come into contact with somebody's junk as often as you touch anything they've handled, in a second- or third-hand way. It's not like somebody's going around sneezing in people's faces all the time, y'know.

Ruokangas Guitars in Finland makes guitars with Spanish Cedar: https://ruokangas.com/specifications/spanish-cedar/ IIRC, so did Robin for some of their USA-made guitars. Wood Database rates it's hardness (Janka rating) as pretty darned close to that of Alder AKA Red Alder: https://www.wood-database.com/spanish-cedar/ https://www.wood-database.com/red-alder/

Anybody here ever actually won one of these fancy-pants auctions? Unless you can win or have very deep pockets, I don't even see the point in looking at 'em, unless it's for research. The last auction I actively looked up online was this one, to find out the details without looking for a reference book...and even then the auction was long over with: https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/71/lot/27930

They've got a rep to maintain y'know, since they're within walking distance from Gruhn's.

Snagged this guitar last week, basically got it for a pre-Pandemic price. This isn't my first Godin Core, the other three I have are the HB-equipped versions; obviously, I like 'em a lot! The last time I had a guitar with stock SD P-90s was a Hamer Special...I didn't care for those P-90 PUs much in a Special (though that was at least 20 years ago since I had one) but they sound great in this guitar, maybe my sonic tastes have changed over the years. The body is 'chambered' similar to an old Gretsch Duo-Jet, which makes for a guitar that IMO sounds good and is easy on the shoulder. The body shape is the same style that Godin has used for at least the last 25 years, maybe longer, at least since their bolt-on neck LG models; though the Core model has a set neck. The body shape reminds me a bit of the old Guild Aristocrat/M-75; when I see these being sold, sellers often want to call them Les Paul clones, but they're not, I can get a lot more range, sounds, and styles out of a Core than I ever did with an LP: https://reverb.com/item/56376961-godin-core-p90-seymour-duncan-honey-burst Once I can get a camera to interact properly with my computer, and when the weather (hopefully) cools down a little, I'm hoping to have an outdoor Godin photoshoot. My verdict (YMMV):

From what little I could handle of reading this article, it makes me think it's the journalistic equivalent of one of those faux-collegiate Gothic typeface rear window decals that Spencer Gifts used to sell, that reads 'Your School Sucks'.

I got this article yesterday in my Premier Guitar web feed: https://www.premierguitar.com/pro-advice/acoustic-soundboard/inflation-rate-2022 Interesting thing is, the article's focus was only on brand-new guitars, not used. I don't think I've bought a brand-new guitar or amp in the last twenty-five years, and from the looks of things, I don't think I'm gonna start now. I don't want to rehash the whole Covid thing of the last two years, and the resulting price increases on used gear simply from that. And I sure don't want to reminisce about what '70's inflation was like, as I remember it all too well. But the last paragraph of the article got my attention, because it read to me like typical Musical Instrument Industry buy buy buy 'Boilerplate': The takeaway from all this? Financial forecasts suggest that inflation isn’t going to back off in the near future. Buying that dream rig now rather than later is probably a good idea, especially if you put it to good use! In the meantime, I'll be buying gear like I always have (used and on a budget), and not because the Industry drones want me to.

Slowly degrading foam padding, meet nitrocelluose finish. With any luck, it'll just crumble off of the neck. The neck finish, on the other hand...well, no way of knowing what's going on under that crud until it's scraped off.

There's always used Carvins/Kiesels (yes, I'm aware they're not the most popular brand around here), they seem to have built figured solid maple bodied guitars a lot in the past...though most used ones are neck-thru models. One of the first listings I found on Reverb was this one (no affiliation), asking price is way too high for my taste and an ebony fretboard would probably be hard to scallop, but the description is somewhat entertaining. I'm not sure if he means that he's spent loads of money getting the guitar in and out of hock, or just spent a lot of money at that pawn shop, or needs to move to a less theft-prone neighborhood, or what: https://reverb.com/item/56177531-carvin-v220-hard-rock-maple-book-matched-tiger-stripe-with-case-1985-hard-rock-maple-book-matched-tiger-stripe?bk=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJqdGkiOiI1ZDY4Y2Y3ZC0wNWQxLTQxYjEtODE5My1kYzg1NzlhOTQ4ZDMiLCJpYXQiOjE2NTQ5MDQzMTAsInVzZXJfaWQiOiIyODU1NjYiLCJzZXNzaW9uX2lkIjoiNzEzNGY5ZjEtMjk3MC00MDViLTg1YTYtMjZmYjhjYjdkZmQ4IiwiY29va2llX2lkIjoiYTJlYzk4NjYtMzgxNS00MWYzLWI3YzQtNDA3OTllZThkODVlIiwicHJvZHVjdF9pZCI6IjU2MTc3NTMxIiwic291cmNlIjoiTk9ORSJ9.2zHKa_gpLJcwi_CQe5zMQf3acnEj_ZqrK7EZ5lYmODg Quote: I've Spent More Than 10x What It's Worth, By Being In the Pawn Shop All Of This Time. But It's Been Worth It. My Apartment Was Broken Into 3x.

A new aroma for vintage-style cases, 'Outgassing Foam Rot'?

So, anybody gonna plan to do a cover of Black Sabbath's 'Stonehenge' for their gig list?

It's probably 'If you have to ask' pricing...as in, 'If you have to ask, you can't afford it.'

They'd probably call that the 'everything' package.

What's next, 'vintage reissue' cases that have your choice of odors, from Heavy Tobacco Smoke, to 'Drank Too Much' Puke, to Dog/Cat Piss? And of course everybody's favorite, Damp Rot & Mildew?

That shop is sittin' on a group of expensively 'fancy' Hamers like that one. At their prices, they can sit and spin until the end of time as far as I'm concerned.

I never had any doubt that Kiss was doing a song with a Disco beat, if I was driving at night and it came on the radio, I used to head-bang in time to it a la 'Night At The Roxbury' style, long before that was ever an SNL skit. 🤘