jwhitcomb3

I ordered a Salen Classic NX from Sweetwater about two years. It was terrible - lousy fret work, buzzing, sloppy workmanship. Nothing close to what I would expect from a guitar in its price range. I returned it immediately and have no further interest in Strandberg.

I started recording on a Teac 4 track reel-to-reel in 1979 (it is in the corner of the room I'm typing from). All my recordings were analog up to 1996 or so. I've cleaned and demagnetized tape heads more times than I can remember, used several noise reduction technologies, experimented with different tape formulations, recorded time code to a tape track to synchronize with MIDI devices, and had racks of signal processing devices with miles of inter-connecting cables. Then I moved to digital: first ADAT, then direct to hard disc, now direct to SSD. I DON'T MISS ANALOG AT ALL. I spend my time capturing a good performance and not wiring/rewiring/calibrating/maintaining gear, or recording over a pretty-good take in hopes of getting a better take. Given that 99% of listening is done on a phone or car speakers, the whole "analog sounds warmer" argument seems academic.

And nobody will EVER make them sound like he did.

So great to see Tony Levin completely rocking it at age 78!

I took my son to the New Hampshire show last night. MIND BLOWN. Four peerless musicians playing their asses off, having a ball. There was extended technical difficulty with Belew's rig (the 20 minute intermission stretched to nearly an hour as four worried crew members furiously tinkered away - what happens when you tour with rickety 40 year old guitar synths), but otherwise brilliant. My son (who was not familiar with the material) was effusive all the way home - and now wants a Chapman Stick. We were thrilled, and so grateful to be able to see this performance. BRAVO!!! FWIW, Belew's "noise" has always been an integral part of the glorious cacophony that is King Crimson, essential glue that holds the sound canvas together. But I could say that for each of them. King Crimson's sound is so much more than the sum of its parts (and the parts are awesome). Now waiting for the THRAK tour...

I was doing pretty well until my drummer posted a link to Korg's outlet store on Reverb. This brand new Korean made Vox Bobcat was $500 shipped with a quality hard shell case. Such a great guitar - the pickups can do both the JazzMaster and P90 thing with a twist of the volume knob.

I haven't had much success with them. I mostly use Boss multi-effects, and the toppers I've tried don't work reliably if you don't hit them dead center. Right now I just have one switch topper on my Xotic RC Booster-V2, where I only want to hit one of two switches that are very close together - the other switch is always on.

I played a gig this past winter where we set up our own PA, and I was still setting it up while the others disappeared to change clothes. They immediately wanted to start playing when they got back (we hadn't even tested the monitors), and afterward gave me grief about what I was wearing.

Rock can swing.

Ick.

Music has been so stagnant for so long. Is the AI stuff going to be any worse than the dreck that's currently being consumed?

My musical preferences rarely line up with anybody's list, but I agree Songs in the Key of Life and Abbey Road are great albums.

Crashed and burned this year. Sold three, bought five. Sold: 30th Anni, Eclipse 12, Huss & Dalton 00SP Bought: Vox SSC-55, 3 Bedell acoustics (dread, grand auditorium, parlor), 1 Alvarez Masterworks acoustic 000 Overall quite pleased with the gits, and netted mucho clams

My family bought me an engraved BlueChip pick. Love it. Best of all, my 13 year old daughter took it upon herself to learn ukulele (she's already a capable violinist), and led us through several carols. We spent Christmas afternoon calling relatives and singing at them, even my 16 year old son, who normally avoids singing. My wife bought me a cocktail shaker that leaks terribly, but has a cap with a wonderful ringing tone when struck, which was lovely for "silver bells." So for Christmas, we became a family band with my daughter on uke and my wife on lead cocktail shaker. Awesome.

Ah, the poor, deformed Eclipse, with its anemic little stump for a lower horn, and only partially developed humbuckers. This is what happens when Specials have abortions. And my last Hamer standing. Love it to pieces.

BlueChip picks came to my attention for non-musical professional reasons (I'm a patent lawyer, and the patent application process for these picks caught my eye). They are made of a VERY expensive material used in electronics and medical devices that has some very interesting properties. It is self lubricating, so extremely low wear characteristics, and is super smooth yet is very grippy on the fingers. Musically, it produces very little click on the strings (important for acoustic players), and very nice flexibility characteristics so the picks flex enough to very your attack, but they snap back to position quickly, so they never feel "floppy." These are marketed to bluegrass players as a tortoise shell replacement, and are pretty thick picks. Reading the patent prosecution and the discussions on the Acoustic Guitar Forum got me interested enough to spring for one. I now have two, and am considering a third. It turns out they have another benefit I'd never read about before: very clean attack which results in very accurate tracking on Roland guitar synths. Some folks seem offended that a pick has the audacity to be so expensive.Yeah, they are stupid expensive. Are they worth it? It depends on what you need in a pick. I like mine and have no regrets.

Serious zombie thread! I only have one electric guitar from when I started this thread, so clearly I swap guitars more often than I swap pickups. I dropped Bill Lawrence pickups in my Dean Tonic because the plastic stock ones imploded when I was adjusting them. Major improvement. My USA Eclipse has the DiMarzio minis it had when I bought it, and they sound great, although I also love the Duncan Antiquities in an Eclipse. My other three electrics have stock pickups. I thought about changing out my MIM Strat pickups several times for no real reason, but I like 'em fine. The S22 pickups in my Carvin Fatboy 2 work really well with it - very versatile (I rarely like full sized humbuckers). And the stock Coaxe pickups were a major reason I bought my Vox SSC-55. As an aside, more often than not, I am fine with stock pickups on an electric guitar. On acoustic, I have never found a pickup I like, except when I run it through a Fishman Aura system, but even then only when an well matched image is available.

My Carvin Fatboy 2 with synth access is getting a bunch of play. I put flat wound strings on it which lets me pull cool jazzbox tones from it, but it can also twang and jangle just fine. The flatwound strings also improve synth tracking. Overall, just a joy to play, and very versatile.

"Lost the first round"? Rubbish. What shoddy journalism. The judge denied a motion to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction. There has not been a hearing on the merits.

Kasim Sultan (Utopia).

Dunno where it fits on the curve spectrum above, but my Carvin Fatboy 2 has a very hefty neck, and it is super comfy. Not much V to it at all, so I'm guessing it is in the "Fat" ballpark. Never been married to a particular neck profile, and I've enjoyed everything from the Fatboy to the super skinny Parker Fly Deluxe. Similarly, I like flat Hamer boards and 7.25" radius Fender boards. My Gurian S3M has a 1-5/8″ nut, and my Lowden O32 has a 1 25/32" nut.They all take my playing in different directions, which for me is a good thing. The only thing I can't do is a super thin (fretboard to back of neck) acoustic guitar neck. I had to sell my Composite Acoustics OX guitar, because it killed my hand.

I sold two of my three most valuable guitars this spring, which leaves me with the Lowden O32 as my most valuable guitar (I'm guessing somewhere north of $2K). It is a strange time for guitar valuation, and I am finding it harder to predict what my guitars will sell for. Also, I'm finding the quality of lower priced imports is making me less tempted by higher priced instruments. I am getting at least as much pleasure playing the two Asian made guitars I purchased with the proceeds (Korea (Vox) and China (Bedell)) as I did the USA built guitars I sold, and had enough money left over for a nice family vacation and two weeks at camp for my daughter. As a heads up, if you are looking for a quality, all solid wood acoustic guitar, Zzounds and American Musical Supply are blowing out Chinese made Bedell guitars at very low prices: http://www.americanmusical.com/Bedell-Guitars http://www.zzounds.com/prodsearch?q=bedell&pa=29&key=q&form=search I have played about a dozen Chinese made Bedells, and have been very impressed. I purchased a parlor (OH-12-G) and have an orchestra (MB-17-G) and dreadnaught (TBCE-18-G) on order.

Don't know how this album escaped me for 40 plus years, but Billy Preston's "Encouraging Words" is flat-out brilliant. What an explosion of joyous and funky music! http://www.allmusic.com/album/encouraging-words-mw0000618856

Sounds like they are pushing their luck. The Taurus line resolves differently from the opening run of Stairway. Also, the Stairway run has a counterpoint where the high A walks up while the low A walks down. Taurus just walks down the root. Besides, Stairway has several motifs, and none of the others conceivably draw on Taurus.

Glorious!