velorush

Quoting myself from the 'Chase A Guitar For Years' thread: I've been begging to buy back a guitar I sold to a buddy twenty years ago - late '60's ES-355, mono, non-Varitone - refinished, yes, and all the gold hardware swapped out for nickel, but nothing sings like that guitar! Thing is, he no longer plays and it just sits under his bed. He won't sell it because, even though he no longer plays it, if he sells it he feels he no longer will be a "Guitar Player." I've offered to trade him something just so he'd have something under the bed, but nothing doing.

Great work Feynman! Jeff R: you guys sound fantastic! Well worth the effort to post!

12Mb!? What were you guys covering? 2112?

Don't forget changing out the transistors to germanium. All those other mods are useless without the germainums! Yep, looks like he swapped out the indicator needle for the Calaham CNC'd one, too. Very nice tuner! Edited to add [in all seriousness]: I liked that cut so much I listened to all six you had posted there. Very nice work. Any more posted anywhere?

Part of the agreement for the custom color included a gag order on the upcharge - but yes, given sufficient 'incentive' it can be done.

The initial Lifestyle article seemed to infer a "Jimi Hendrix" brand in the making, as illustrated in the beginner pack photo, but I'm with you, the photos from inside the plant look like higher grade WIP materials.

Couple of points: just my $0.02: 1. finding fault with Gibson here is like finding fault with anyone who capitalizes on a potential profit making opportunity. If the Hendrix estate came to me with an offer to capitalize on Hendrix' legacy, you better believe I'd come up with something - Hendrix' legacy (from a pure marketing standpoint) is an absolute cash cow waiting only to be milked. Now, putting the emotional attachment back into Hendrix' legacy, what a misstep for the Estate: asking anyone but Fender to put out this guitar is a shame. Of course, we don't know if Fender was approached and declined, but, again, given the potential, I can't help but assume the Estate chose Gibson only on the basis of what was in it for them rather than historical accuracy. That is a shame and I believe will result to their detriment rather than their benefit ((Fender lower per-piece return + huge volume) > (Gibson higher per-piece return + low volume)) - my opinion. 2. a disconnect between Gibson's management and its market seems rather evident given the line of recent missteps. The fact that such marketing flops as the Roboguitar and this odd duck have been brought all the way (well, nearly all the way in the most recent case) to market makes it seem like they are holed up in a room and the committee is believing their own BS rather than performing basic and necessary due diligence in the market. To me Gibson has an advantage on other companies Gibson just doesn't seem to get. I can take any guitar any where and no one makes a comment, but when I pull out my Gibson non-guitar playing people take notice. Everyone knows the mark and, whether accurate or not, the non-guitar playing public (especially those over the age of say, 50) holds it in high regard. Marketing missteps and the perception of QC problems (whether valid or not) in the regular production lines can and will erode this very quickly. Whereas the prior generation believed in the Gibson name, folks my age and younger have a hard time pulling the trigger on non-CS Gibsons without playing them first (a problem many other companies just don't have). And, whether you like or appreciate Juszkiewicz and his team or not, from the standpoint of corporate turnaround (i.e., return to shareholders) this Gibson thing has worked out marvelously. If I were to get his ear and if he cared to listen, I'd recommend he stop with trying to develop the newest goofy guitar and get back to basics. Use the other brands (and he has a ton of them now) to develop robots, zoot suits, etc., and concentrate on making the best Les Paul, SG, Firebird, etc. in the market. Milk the legacy. Expanding the legacy is watering it down. Again, just my $0.02. YMMV, IMHO, etc., etc.

I like the pickup covers and knobs, but I'll have to +1 Chris on the sticker - mostly because of the fantastic grain! If you refin, PLEASE consider a translucent color. That's (IMHO) way too nice to cover up.

Okay, I clicked the link expecting THE Zombies (SLGLY), not actual zombies! Listen to the keyboard lick in the first several seconds - I defy you to convince me that it's not the organ riff from the theme to the Munster's!

Well, he was unanimously voted Coolest HFCer!

He had a pretty interesting column in Premier Guitar this month about American-sounding speakers... probably took a good bit of time to get together and was great advertisement for Tungsten Amplification's T12Q Webers. He closes with a "See you next month!" so I don't think I'd go waiting by the mail box.

^^ is a great post. I have been noodling with the TM60 for a couple of weeks now and, like Jonathan said, I'm finding best results when I ditch my preconceived notions about what I think will sound good and just tooling around with it (like your example of the SS Fender models). I can say that so far I am getting much more instant gratification out of Channel 1 ("clean") than Channel 2, especially in a live context. You've inspired me to go back to square one on channel 2, forgetting what the manual calls the presets. Thanks.

This one looks reasonable.

Absolutely! Can you tell it's Friday before a three-day weekend here at work?

Hysterical. Brooks: impressive recall on Uncle Lumpy. Suffice it to say, "Ack!" Wait, wasn't that was they said in "Mars Attacks," just before disintegrating everyone? I'm just sayin'...

Hysterical! And exactly right - she nailed it!

Killin' me. I know we've discussed this before, but how's the neck on that one?

^ intermezzo ^ Next course, por favor!

Congrats to all gigging HFC members. I looked back on my calendar and determined that I haven't had a true gig since May. I need to come up with a new descriptive term for myself: former guitarist ex-guitarist (Python reference) guitarist on hiatus guitarist on unscheduled and indeterminable leave of absence guitar hermit

My first Strat was an S9 series in factory natural finish. If anyone remembers, the poly was so thick on those (and the similarly finished Teles) that if they got too cold (say, overnight in the trunk of a car as one buddy with a Tele found out) the finish would shatter. Mine was hanging in the store, shattered, which made the price in 1986 (w/o case) a reasonable $250. It was interesting because no matter how bad the finish was broken, it would not chip off the guitar. Sold it because the neck was the size of the business end of a Louisville Slugger - funny, that neck would probably appeal to me now...

Thanks for posting. I could actually hear some useful comparisons. That seems to be one fine guitar.

Much butt that does kick! Thanks for posting. I did just learn that I missed them in Memphis on July 21st. Crap! It takes months for news to makes its way here through the sunshine pipe!

This one? Way cool. Probably the only non-reverse Firebird I've ever liked! And that's probably only because of who's driving it.

Ghetto? My board laughs at your refined, well-fashioned board! Feast your eyes on what happens when you have no board but get tired of setting up and tearing down pedals every gig/practice, find a can of high heat WalMart spray paint, an old bicycle chain and a piece of scrap 5/8 plywood under the house (JEM-inspired monkey grip): The backline is just a bit more upscale: an old Kenneth Cole briefcase from my days as a banker, more plywood and bicycle chain: The coiled tubing houses two 20' George-L's cables for the loop, another cable for the amp-to-frontline link and the cable for the amp's footswitch. I have about $2 (wood screws) in the whole rig. At the time this was put together I needed to throw something together quickly, but this has worked just fine so I haven't bothered it. I'll get around to that some day, but in the mean time it's super ghetto!