Lunch Report for Monday, June 28.

Hello ya'll. Woof here. I have been missing in action for quite a while now. Partly one long brain fart, the new format confused my little analog brain and it took me a bit to get it together and re-register (which I did not know ou had to do). I also had to get some music out of my system and went on a playing bing. Played anyplace and anywhere - most of the time with an acoustic. I played until my fingers felt like hamburger.

Lunch today will be a mixture of the sacred and the profane. A friend back east took pity on me and sent me a Kosher salami which has been hangng in a brown paper bag on a door to dry out. I also have one jar left of Zabar''s mustard. Now is where the whole thing kinda falls apart - the bagel. Round these here parts what they call a bagel is some round, soft thing with a hole in it. It should be illegal to even call the thing a bagel. Anyway, that will be joined by some potato salad (bought at a local "deli" counter), a bag of carrot sticks, radishes and snap peas , and to wash it all down a Muggs root beer.

Me and BBE.
I guess all my dogs were not barking up the same tree for a while because it was a couple of years before I realized that BBE was Barcus Berry. Got a big Whoa out of me when I found out. Barcus Berry is a legend among us geezers. Back in the early 1970s I was playing fiddle with a blues string band and wanted to electrify the thing. I had always relied on DeArmond 210 pickups for my guitars so went out and found one of their contact mic things for the fiddle. I attached it with a big rubber band. Absolutely horrible sounding. Someone suggested I try a Barcus Berry Pickup which
attached to the bridge with something that resembled silly putty. While pickup has certainly been eclipsed as technology marches on, back then it was state of the art and the best there was. Now I know ya'll play G&L guitars but anybody also using BBE pickups?

"Goin' down to Lillian's Music Store to buy a Black Diamond string"
Tom Petty
While on the topic of blasts from the past any of ya'll recall Black Diamond strings. I do believe they are back now. You could get them at your local music store, hardware store, the Five and Dime, anywhere. The windings on these things had a nasty habit os separating in several places and you could actually slide the sections up and down on the core. The G string in particualr was a killer. I also recall more than once when the stores were closed having to twist the high E and B together above the nut to be able to play.

Anyway, here is the display you used to see all over the place.






Anybody who has some cool piece of music memorabilia - lets see it.

I figure I would introduce ya'll my little guitar family this week. At present I am only the semi-owner of a G&L which means it is mine but I have yet to pay for it. More on that maybe tomorrow.

Here is the old man of the bunch - born in 1931 or 1932. A National Duolian. It looks black but is actually a very dark mahogany color.



Happy Eating Folks.

Hey zw. Nice start!

I'm going to have to mail you some bagels. I'm particular about these as well, but believe it or not, we have a place within a couple of miles from me that makes them right. The guy says he imports his water from New York even, but I'm not sure I believe him. What do you think the best way to send them might be. I'm serious!

Yeah, my first awareness of BBE was with one of them silly putty acoustic guitar pickup things. Sounded great but tended to fall off the guitar at rather inopportune moments. Finally duct taped the damn thing to the guitar which solved the problem but was less than aesthetically pleasing.

Black Diamond Strings: Used them early on when I first learned to play. Spent a lot of time trying to get and keep my guitar in tune in those days. Coincidence? Hmmmm.....

That old National looks compelling. Hope to try her one day.

Thanks for taking my hand-off and the Honor for the week! - ed

Not sure what you are getting at with bagels, so I will just smile and nod. I have probably never experienced the 'real thing'.

I am not really an acoustic player, so not familiar with BBE at all, and nowadays the acoustic pickups I have heard of are Fishman mostly.

Not really a fan of cheese strings, but don't those ones you mention just sound dandy. Reminds me a bit of the bass strings I learned on, they came on the bass in 75 (flats, MIJ jazz knockoff, was my dad's). They were power cables, when I finally changed them (and discoverred round wounds) I had to fill and refile the nut, as nothing could compare to how huge these old strings were. See a lot of young players get upset if their action is high (I too like low action now that I am priviledged enough to have it) but parking those power lines with the stratospheric action on that machine made my fingers what they are. Strings really have come a long way.


That is a sweet looking resonator there, I used to tinker in a bit of slide, but after my plexi slide was 'returned' to me by my friend (lost it and claims he returned it), and I never got around to getting another plexi (all I could find was a steel/chrome) I never got back into it. Don't like the feel or sound of the steel slide.

I do believe BBE is actually a spinoff of the original Barcus Berry folks.

Hey Ed, I will be waiting on those bagels.

What kind do you like? - ed

That National guitar is cool, but what caught my eye is that Silvertone amp. I had one like that back in '69 and was too stupid to know what I had.

Dang...it's been a little while since I've replied to a LR. I never heard of BBE until I learned about G&L. The only cool piece of "memorabilia" I have is my neon sign.

Good eye Suave Eddie - that is a '66 Twin Twelve.

Ed - Onion, sesame seed and everything for me. Emma though only eats the plain ones. You da' man Zap!

Late reply here, but my eye immediately caught that old Sears Silvertone as well. They were actually pretty decent amps in the day. Sorry for the lousy photo, but if you look closely enough, you can see a Silvertone just behind me. It looks to be a slightly different model, though. The photo was taken in 1968 but, unfortunately, I don't have the amp anymore.

I used a Silvertone Twin Twelve cabinet to play bass through on my first gig. The head fits inside the cabinet.
Cool amps.