Tuesday 25 September 2012

Thanks to those who stopped by and to those who posted yesterday.

Lunch
I worked from home today so that I can stay focused on a couple of key projects. Wouldn’t you know that mid morning and with no announcement, someone decided to upgrade the remote access software and it hasn’t worked since. The poor helpdesk team has been getting hammered. Anyway, being home I made up a cold chicken and salad and got to eat it out on the patio.


G&L Topic
While I’m restricted as far as showing gear that I have bought, there’s no barrier to showing stuff that I haven’t. A couple of years ago we were revamping the set lists for one of our “incarnations”, adding new material along the lines of The Butterfly Effect’s “Gone” and other similar contemporary rock songs. I was scouting for a modern looking and sounding twin bucker guitar that would suit the revamped incarnation and saw this advertised on ebay USA.



It looked perfect for what I was wanting but at the end of the day the overhead of international shipping took me to my limit before the bidding peaked. [Note to self – must ask Elwood the secret to $38 guitar and case shipping]

It was advertised as an out of the factory Legacy but I can’t say I’ve seen one like it before or since. Perhaps it was a special order or an employee build. Anyone have any information or thoughts?

Q1(a) Have you ever stuck to your limit on a unique G&L and then realized that you probably won’t see another one like it and wished you’d gone just one more bid … just one more …
Q1(b) Conversely have you ever gone just one more bid for one that wasn’t quite so unique and a better deal on a similar guitar would almost certainly have been available down the track.


More Signs of Spring
The bottle Brushes are opening ...



Non G&L Topic - Favourite Music Era
Q2 What’s your favourite music era? What music most influenced your musical journey?

Driving home last night I played a cd that my son received a few years back packaged with a computer game. I’m not into gaming but this one – Battlefield Vietnam - has a great sound track of music from the mid to late 60’s. Tracks like CCR’s Fortunate Son, Edwin Starr’s War, Martha and the Vandelles’ Nowhere to Run, Deep Purple’s Hush and Jefferson Starship’s Somebody to Love.

Listening to this cd had me thinking about all the great music that was produced in that short period from say 1963 through to 1970 and the amount of change that occurred – just look at how much the Beatles evolved during that period for example. While I can find great sounds from any genre and any era, I think this is the period that has had the most profound influence on me musically.


First Peoples - Singer Songwriters and Activists

Q(?)3 I’m still very interested in seeing and hearing more of the music from first peoples in your part of the world.

Here are a couple of singer songwriters from the great southern land.

Kev Carmody’s Dylanesque protest song Thou Shalt Not Steal
[youtube]L6fem7-ucxg[/youtube]

Archie Roach’s lament for the stolen generation ... of which Archie was one (note the final line of the song)
[youtube]aywDT6yHMmo[/youtube]

Tomorrow some of the pioneer Aboriginal bands

cheers, Robbie

Nice Legacy. This similarly gorgeous one was posted on the G&L Facebook page. Really makes you wonder what the actual limit of a custom order is, beyond what's on the order form.



We have a bottle-brush next to our gate which grows at just the right height above the path for my head to touch the flowers as I walk down the path. I often find petals in my hair a few hours later Australian native flowers are pretty strange looking things, but undoubtedly beautiful. One of my faves is this Banskia. Makes a pine-cone look like a daisy.


Favourite era - I love the "cool" of the '60s, the excess of the '70s and the pure cheese of the '80s. Not a lot of music outside those eras that isn't a slight variation on a type of music conceived in those eras, interests me.

Q1a) Yes and (b) no. When I first had the money for a G&L I missed out by $2 on a clear forest green ASAT Special with black crinkle hardware and pick guard. I ended up spending approximately double the cost of the used green one on the Classic S I bought. I don't regret it. I love the CS, and don't think the appeal of a green guitar would be as long lasting as the old school tobacco burst on the CS. Same goes for the Korina Jr. I could have got a used one for less but really like the one I've got.

Robbie, I am fired up this morning. I am through the kidney stone episode which is enough to fire me up but then you post the most beautiful Legacy I have ever seen and Jamie follows up with another killer, my blood is cooking!

Before my rant, I will answer the questions.

1. Hasn't happened on a G&L but has on others. Now when I see a hot G&L I do not waver, I have learned that waiting on opportunities often result in missed opportunities.

2. I haven't really experienced that but I know a fellow who learned the hard way. I was looking for a Tele Plus a while back and saw one on the local CL as perfect. I met the guy and looked at it. It was anything but perfect, almost a rat. I told him that I was disappointed in his description of the guitar and he confided that he had been caught up in an E-bay bidding war. He overpaid and the condition wasn't described accurately to him and he was stuck with it.

3. In my opinion, the 50's and 60's were pivotal in the American music scene. I am still in that rut. 70's disco turned me away from listening to music on the radio. Most of the new country I find sounds the same and the new country is in a rut and needs to get out. I recall my college days when I was studying music and returning to the dorm to listen to the Kingston Trio, old country and 60's rock. Teaching music was not in the cards for me. I would have been fired for teaching 60's rock and country!

Now we get into rant mode! PRS advertises 10 tops (I have one) and Suhr has some cool woods as do others. I have ranted about the woods used in G&Ls many times on the forum. The two Legacys shown today are "11" tops and they don't get any better than that. I am going to continue by showing another G&L that I consider an 11 top. Robbie has shown us the ultimate Legacy and I hope he smokes others out today! Here are some pictures of my F-100 Return. I have to give Ginny credit as I have never been able to get closeups with the camera. She is taking a camera class this week and told me if I would listen to her she would show me how. I took her advice much to my chagrin.



Close up showing the dimensional grain




Now I feel better -- Darwin

1) Yes, it was an ASAT Deluxe. To make up for it I bought an F-100 prototype with PTB wiring.

2) Not yet. I have been very lucky to have found value in most of the thongs I have bought online.

Thanks for the topic of native musicians. Its something I've never really given much thought to. I'm having a hard time naming anybody who wrote songs about their Native American heritage or what it meant to be Native American. I'm sure there are many if I looked it up on Wiki or something, but none that come to mind.

Q1(a) Have you ever stuck to your limit on a unique G&L and then realized that you probably won’t see another one like it and wished you’d gone just one more bid … just one more …

Yes, a 1961 Gibson Barney Kessel Left Handed & Blond. Still regret... Oh, G&L. A couple Skyhawks passed me by a few years ago.

Q1(b) Conversely have you ever gone just one more bid for one that wasn’t quite so unique and a better deal on a similar guitar would almost certainly have been available down the track.

No yet.

Native American artist? Stevie Salas is a good guy...


Cheers,

Will

Q1(a) Have you ever stuck to your limit on a unique G&L and then realized that you probably won’t see another one like it and wished you’d gone just one more bid … just one more …

I haven't been in this situation with an auction (yet), but there are a few regrets on G&Ls that were either out of my price range or just for sale at the wrong time:

- JonC's G-200 that went to Buffalo Brothers this summer;
- A fretless Leo-era bass (L1K or L2K) that went on the old G&LDP for something like $300, when that was far above my limit;
- A blonde/BEM '98 L-1500 that went cheap on Talkbass this summer, but too soon after my last purchase;
- A blonde fretless ASAT Bass that received no bids (starting price was $550), which was posted the day after I bought my gold flake ASAT Bass;
- An '86 ASAT with Kahler that Guitar Center sold for over $1000 last year.

On the bright side, that same ASAT showed up at the same Guitar Center three months ago, at half the price. It's about five feet away from me as I type this, and was worth the wait...

Q1(b) Conversely have you ever gone just one more bid for one that wasn’t quite so unique and a better deal on a similar guitar would almost certainly have been available down the track.

I haven't done this with a guitar or bass(yet), although I have been very tempted a couple of times. I have jumped on quite a few pedals that I've never really ended up using, just because the price was right. I could probably make enough selling them off to bring in another used G&L, without ever noticing they're gone.

Q2 What’s your favourite music era? What music most influenced your musical journey?

I couldn't even begin to pick a favorite era. If I look back over the music that makes its way to my playlist again and again, some of my top eras would be:

- Post-bop and "New Thing" jazz from the 50s and 60s: John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Mal Waldron, Albert Ayler...
- Post-punk from the late 70s and early 80s: Joy Division, Public Image Limited, Wire, Mission of Burma...
- Early 80s pop/rock (proto-Indie?): The Church, Psychedelic Furs, Ultravox, REM...

As I've dug back into playing bass guitar after several years focusing on other instruments, I've been trying to get to the core of what a solid bass line really is. In the process, I have just become aware of how strongly I was influenced by funk and soul as I grew up in the 70s and began playing in the early 80s. I was completely oblivious to it at the time, but now I realize that being surrounded by those styles down in the Carolina Lowcountry made a lasting, if subconscious, impression. As a case in point, I picked up Curtis Mayfield's Superfly soundtrack this weekend; I had never heard it before that I can remember, but as I listened I realized that many of the bass guitar parts were exactly what I've been trying to piece together in my head.

Q(?)3 I’m still very interested in seeing and hearing more of the music from first peoples in your part of the world.

The first peoples are long gone from Maryland. They are also long gone from the area where I grew up on the South Carolina coast, but I was exposed as a teenager to the local Gullah and Geechee cultures that had deep roots in 18th Century West Africa. I need to get some rest for a 4:00 AM phone conference tomorrow, but if I'm not too wiped out tomorrow night I will try to dig up some examples of the music of these rapidly disappearing groups.

Ken

Hey Robbie,

Cool plant! I dig being in this part of the world and seeing 'new' plants, birds, insects... so much different from where I'm from.

That's one Sweet axe - I'm not a fan of humbuckers but I dig the stylings on that one. I hear you bout the international shipping - bloody expensive!
A1a) Haven't had that experience on auction sites but I've been stung long ago by not paying that extra bit...
A1b) Sorta in that I bought something using BIN and turned out I didn't really dig the instrument once it was in my hands.

A2) I started off with the Beatles @ age 10 so I would say they have most influenced my musical journey...
The early/mid 90's is my favourite era as I was in my 20's and there were lots of fresh voices.

Here's 2 of my faves from that time that tie in with your video game theme - can you suss why??
(Btw, seems to me that Jack White's recent video to Freedom @ 21 is either a nod to or blatant rip-off of this one)
[youtube]bRGfC5QSpUk[/youtube]

One of Seattle's most underrated bands of the 90's -
[youtube]q0uxu50ffAU[/youtube]


Thanks for those vids - 2 powerful and hard hitting artists & tunes. I did not know about the Stolen Generation - Very sad & very unnerving.

A3) Here's a hard hitting tune from a Mexican-Native American artist you're hep to -
[youtube]oKFkc19T3Dk[/youtube]

Another Fine LR today...

Cheers,
Kf

Hi Robbie, thanks for dropping in and taking the reins this week.

Signs of Spring: The golden wattles are out down our street, which is always a good sign that warmer days are not far away. Wattle trees in full bloom also remind me why Australian national sports teams wear such garish green and yellow uniforms. In early spring it actually makes sense - and then reverts to being visually offensive for the rest of the year.



Favourite Musical Era: I feel short changed that I grew up in the eighties and missed the 70's and 60's. I spent almost the entire 80's listening to 60's music and it still amazes me how much ground was covered from 1963 to 1970, and the sheer quality and quantity of music in all genres that was produced. The first decade that I actually lived through and enjoyed the music from was the nineties. It's ironic that songs from the eighties are now played non-stop on some commercial radio stations as if they represent the pinnacle of modern music. I can still remember how crap it was - the hair, the fashions, the boredom. It was so boring I became interested in sport for a while. Thank God the nineties were better.

Looking forward to the rest of the week, workload permitting

It's ironic that songs from the eighties are now played non-stop on some commercial radio stations as if they represent the pinnacle of modern music. I can still remember how crap it was - the hair, the fashions, the boredom. It was so boring I became interested in sport for a while. Thank God the nineties were better.

Not too long ago I looked through lists of top record sales and airplay in the 80s, and was reminded how horrible the radio was in those days. There was a lot of good stuff going on musically IMO, but you definitely wouldn't find much of it on the radio and MTV, or in the chain record stores in the US. A lot of stuff from the 80s that's look upon favorably now was pretty far from being popular back then...

Ken

there was a whole lot of good music in the 80's. in the 90's some, but not so much.

Thanks again to those who stopped by ansd those who posted.

Jamie – I remember seeing that one and yeah, it seems like the custom order options can be pretty flexible. Fine example of a Banksia! Perfect and succinct assessment of the decades LOL.

Darwin – Glad to hear about the stone. There’s very little in life that I regret, but I do regret not going the extra yard or two for that Legacy … particularly since one gig would have more than covered the extra cost.. Anf I have to agree that the 50s and 60s laid a pretty firm foundation for contemporary music.

Nut Brown Ale – An F100 Prototype would be cool compensation for missing the ASAT. As for the music of first peoples, as I said on Monday it ticks a lot of my boxes as far as having something to say and being delivered from the heart.

Will – Man, I can feel your pain on the Gibson. I’m with you on Stevie Salas – I first discovered him when I went looking for the fingers behind Rufus’ shredding in Bill and Ted LOL. … but that in no way defines the guy!

Ken – There’s a few in your close encounter list that I’d be more than a bit disappointed at missing out on. Great list of artist there too … I’ve got at least one album from each of them with the exception of Albert Ayler (something for my birthday list next month). I’m looking forward to your Gullah and Geechee posts – I’m resisting the temptation to go looking before you do.

Kf – Cool clips and Road Rash has been added to my list. Matthew Sweet and the gaming connection – dunno – Ummm, with the baseball cap and glasses he looks like a gaming nerd whose never had a real girlfriend or seen sunlight? Or the clip has a connection to some of the chase games like NFS or GTA that the boys used to play? And ah my old companion Sixto … Cause was a favourite.

Philby – I’m with you on the green and gold. Also with you on commercial radio … which is why I tend to listen to community radio for their more eclectic sounds and Triple J for their commitment to new and live music.

Louis – Agree with you on the 80s – there was a lot of good and creative stuff around if you stayed away from the popular media. I think the 90s push back from 80s pop and synth based dance stuff put guitar oriented music back in the frame.

Cheers, Robbie

Hey Robbie,

Hammerbox is that band on the road rash vid. The song 'Trip' from their album "Numb" was used in EA's video game Road Rash. Doubt that you'd ever stumble across a copy in this part of the globe but if so grab it - its superb. Anything's possible -eh?

Re Mr. Sweet.... yah he looks pretty geeky in that clip... Didn't know this for many years but his album Altered Beast was named after the Sega video game. Couldn't exactly tie in a Kate Bush song (tho Deeper Understanding would be close) so there ya go...

Cheers,
Kf