Nuclear Wessel

Yes, Joe's korina Virt was originally owned by someone else who in the DIY guitar hot rodding craze of the 80's/90's removed the last several frets and routed out the body to install a full size humbucker where the Hot Rails originally was. I have seen pics of one Virt, owned by someone here, that has a factory Trembucker full size humbucker. It's Pepto pink. That may be the only one that came from the factory routed for a humbucker.

Thanks, everyone! The Hamer family is a very special bunch. I appreciate all the friends I've made and the good times we've had here on the board, at the midwest jams, and selling & trading guitars. God bless.

I really wanted hectop's too, but didn't have the funds at the time. I have played that guitar before. It's awesome. Not to mention the rarity of a solid quilt body. There have been a few for sale on E Bay in the last few months. One had a starting price of $2,500. It didn't sell. I think one did sell at $1,000 recently. Back in '99, sellers had trouble moving them at $650 on E Bay. They're getting more expensive as well as rare.

peso, you're in luck. Flat like a shredder neck, but not quite as wide as some shredders.

Heard that too. And I've seen it. I was checking out Gibby Les Paul Jr's at Mars a few years ago. They had specimens that had the neck put on crooked! Looked at a Jr at the local retail location of Cascio/Interstate, and I couldn't believe the difference! It felt and looked like a guitar that was made right, with attention to detail, not slapped together any old way like the ones at Mars.

Saw that this afternoon. That one was just on E Bay a few weeks ago. The deal either didn't go through or the new owner is flipping it. Awsome instrument.

Tony Banks Jon Anderson David Torn After dinner, a prog riffing jam/songwriting session!

Sorry to hear of this, Bill. Warmest sympathies to you and your family. Rob

Glad to hear your son is safe! I'm also for rising above, and looking very closely at what legal steps could be taken to declare her unfit for custody of the boy so he won't find himself in another dagerous situation of her making.And then, if there's another hurricane and she tells you she thinks she can ride it out, don't discourage her.

Very cool! I still have mine: I bought it NOS in '94. Not my fist choice in color, but I've grown to like it. It sounded better than a blue Chapp with boomerangs that they had at the same store. They had a few other Hamer orphans there including an red Blitz with a chrome Kahler, a TLE with a maple top, a Chapp with a lime green mteallic finish and a TOM bridge/stop tailpiece (!) and a later model Chapp Sustainiac that they wanted a lot more $ for. I finally chose the pink Chapp, and many other Hamers followed in the years to come.

As for the Virt being an ugly guitar, maybe. But the appeal of its rarity and unique features has blinded me to its aesthetics. I can't justify paying that much for it but with its extended scale length, the korina one would be a fun guitar to put heavy strings on and tune down to B to B. As someone else mentioned, while the price may be fair, it's a little high for "once in a while".

The Sharp channel in my Hafler (Bogner designed) Triple Giant preamp nails that sound. It has a little extra fur. I don't use it much since we don't play much 80's material. I usually use the Brown channel, which is just perfect for classic rock. Great crunch, but less "zzzt" than the Sharp channel. Sorry, I know a pic would be worth 1000 words but I don't happen to have one. Greg, thanks for the info. That explains a lot of the lyrics & song titles in the 80's - compensating for inadequacy!

belgian, you have outstanding taste. The aesthetics of that guitar are so tasteful! Congrats and Happy Birthday!

I don't remember those. Just the Preacher and Viper models. I love that magazine ad. Very 80's.

Well said, Ted! The editting power you have when recording to a computer is great, which makes it great if you're recording a friend's band that kinda sucks, but it's always better to have a great song and get great tone and before it hits the "tape". We guitarists are all about getting great guitar tone, and I also think a discussion on plugins is relevant to that.

Paul, I've demo'ed Ozone and was really impressed. I was thinking of getting it in the next couple of weeks until I read the thread yesterday with the comments about pro mastering. It's one of those situations where you're GAS'ing for something really bad, and then all of a sudden you can't decide if it's the best use of your hard earned $$. It puts your whole life into a tailspin.

I use the Kjaerhus Audio EQ and compressor, and the Sonalksis EQ, compressor as well as multiband dynamics plugins on most tracks. On some vocal tracks I use Voxengo Voxformer. The Kjaerhus and Sonalksis stuff adds a little magic to anything you use it on, like running your signal through high end analog gear. Since I got Cubase SX3, I'm back to using rack reverbs. They sound better than any of the plugin reverbs I had. But since then I've gotten SIR, Pristine Space lite and Glaceverb. I'll probably use those as well as the hardware units. Matt, I've debated getting PowerCore just so I can use the Oxford EQ and dynamics. Between PowerCore and those plugins, that's quite a bit of cash, but we guitarists are always obsessed with getting the best tone possible, so the Oxford plugs are definitely somehting to budget for.

Good question. I never got into Eric Clapton. I absolutely can't stand his big radio hits (Lay Down Sally, I Shot the Sheriff...) and a lot of the rest of his material, I've just never latched onto. I never liked the Rolling Stones. I sorta liked a few songs (You Can't Always Get What You Want, Hot Stuff, You're a Fool To Cry), but most of their bigger hits (Jumpin' Jack Flash, Brown Sugar...), I'd switch stations the instant they came on. When I was a kid and into my teens, I didn't really like Led Zeppelin. I can appreciate them now, but as a kid, their music never connected with me.

80's synth pop/new wave. I hated it at the time, but I confess I like listening to the local 80's retro station every now and then. And though I don't feel guilty about this at all, being a rock guitarist, maybe I should: my favorite music for putting in the CD player while just kicking back around the house is Steve Roach or some other electronic ambient/new age synth stuff. Oh, and I also like to listen to hard core techno.

Anybody heard of, or remember the Fents? They released one album that I know of, "The Other Side" on Passport Jazz (now out of business) in '87. Great fusion album. Instead of sounding like jazz musicians trying to rock, these guys were definitely rock musicians with jazz accent. Their guitarist Ted Hall is great. I learned a whole bunch of licks from that album, many of which I still use, and as often happens with guitarists who've been playing a long time, those licks have evolved and from those seeds, whole new crops of musical ideas have grown. The guy was a great inspiration to say the least.

Great topic, and there's lots of great music out there that you won't hear on hit radio! My faves: Ozric Tentacles Cocteau Twins The Innocence Mission and from way back, Starcastle.

That finish is so 80's! From the pics, it doesn't look so beat up that it's painful to look at. From what I see in the pics, I'd keep it.

It's supposed to sound like the solo in "Paranoid" or at the end of "I'm Bad I'm Nationwide". I've never really felt like I needed one, except if I were to want to nail the authentic tone in some tune where the guitarist in the recording used one.

Must have been the dirty Chicago air seeping into the drying room at the Arlington Heights factory.

A lot of 80's shredder guitars had frets so tall you could see light under your finger when fretting anyway. What's the point of scalloping the fretboard?