11-8-12 thursday

today's report will be short, this is my busiest day,, going from 8 til 11.

here are some of my other favorite guitars that i cherish.

my chris clem custom strat.



my srv i paid 400 bucks for




my acoustics, a 77 yairi classical, brazilian rosewood back and sides, a cheap ovation and a taylor gs mini.




my sq squier i bought new in 83. some mods for sure.



and my mahagony body frankenstrat that is made from a squier satin trans fat.




a video playing the white strat

[youtube]zfkt7rR3x5s[/youtube]

and the purple mahagony one. with tom anderson pups.

[youtube]PkPpi4v4K2w[/youtube]

question of the day. what do you guys think about minivans? i am thinking about picking up a used one, so i would appreciate any input and experience some of you may have had, good or bad.

Minivans - This past weekend we rented a Kia Carnival for an interstate band trip. What a great car. Plenty of room - we fit four fat guys, a drum kit, 4 guitars, 3 amps, bedding for each of us, plus personal baggage and still had room. Very comfortable seats. Good mileage on the highway but absolutely shocking around town. Beat the pants off of a Toyota Hiace we rented earlier in the year. No idea what the Kias are like long term but each of us came away from the trip thinking that they'd make a good purchase.

Louis, I like the guitars! What is the black gizmo next to the nut on the Chris Clem? Is it for compensation? I have a high end Ovation Nylon and an Adamas 12 fret. I still think they're the best recording guitars around.

I didn't see links to the videos and considering your work day, it would be easy to miss.

Minivans? They are awesome. I had a Dodge mini in the early 2000s. I sold it at 200,000 miles and went back to a car. I finally ran out of room early this spring and Ginny talked me into fixing the problem. I have a Chrysler T&C and it is the best thing I have ever done. I have it stacked to the ceiling when Kari and I go on gigs. I carry 3 bass cabinets, the Custom 15, PA speakers, 4 monitors, PA head, Mic and cable case, large grip for cables and wireless for my bass, lighting and stands for the speakers and lighting and up to 5 guitars plus guitar stands and whatever else we need. Also a box containing DVDs and posters to sell at gigs. Add the clothes we change into and we are set. The T&C is awesome and as Jamie said, the mileage on the highway is awesome and not so great in town. I can now load all this stuff without breaking my back. Looking forward to tomorrow Louis.-- Darwin

question of the day. what do you guys think about minivans? i am thinking about picking up a used one, so i would appreciate any input and experience some of you may have had, good or bad.

As a mechanic I can tell you that some mini-vans can be a real bastard to work on. The Chevrolet, Astro is the best minivan ever made. There are bunch of them on the road with over 300,000 miles on them. Unfortunately, they don't make them anymore. If your looking for something newer the Chrysler, Town & Country and Dodge Caravan are good vans.

i agree with sprinter, my last astro ( 1999) gave me 380,000 before i parked her my current ( 1992) is at 115,000 and purring like a kitten. i prefer the older less atractive ( pre 1995) less things to go wrong .

blarg, i'll check that kia out.

darwin, the video links are live and well. the video should show up and be able to play in the comment.

sprinter, i am definitely looking to buy used, so i'll check out the astros.

sscandyman, i have no problem with older cars, a pre 95 astro is just fine. i have a 93 corolla and it has 250k< and running just fine.

stay away from the 95 , its a transition year and repairs can be problematic

I have a 2010 T & C, 25,000 miles, no worries so far (knock on wood). My Voyager van was still going strong at 170k when I traded it in. Odysseys and Siennas are the highest rated vans, but they do cost more. BTW, as to Astros, EVERYONE I know who owned one had major, major problems.

As for yesterday, I usually don't mod my G&Ls, but one has locking tuners added, three have after-market pickups (Duncan Antiquitys), and the occasional Sperzel strap locks.

For other brands, I'm a huge Martin fan, but I also have Taylor and Ibanez dreads and my two acoustic 12-strings are Takamine dreads.

I've always been a fan of Gibson. I currently have eleven Les Pauls, and two ES-335s. Really nice guitars, I am very fortunate, indeed. I want to like Heritage, but the Gibsons are better; seems like every Heritage I play has major finish flaws. Just looked at a 550 and a 575 in the last month and no sale, even though they were good deals. I don't think you could convince me that Heritage is as good as Gibson.

I also like my Ibanez Artstar AS-120 and my Ghostriders, and my MusicMan Sabre IIs.

Bill

I have never owned a mini van. A friend of mine has an Odyssey that he really likes but they are expensive.

I have not , nor do I wish to mod either of my G&L's. There is nothing that needs to be done to them.

As for other brands, I like Gibson acoustics. The Advanced Jumbo I own was the first nice guitar I bought , coming up on 5 years now. Its loud and is long scale just like our G&L's. I wouldn't mind an LP or maybe an SG someday but I'll get another G&L before I do that. ( unless a spectacular deal comes up ).

Actually, I have changed the tuning machines on my Gretsch to mini grovers but thats about it.

That squier looks fantastic. I have always liked that colour scheme. Never sell that guitar. You should post a vid playing that one, I'd like to hear what it sounds like.

glv, here is a video of the squier. the pups are d allen hot vintage. i bought it new and i am definitely never selling it. had to smuggle it out of hungary, and sleep with it in my bed in the refugee camp to make sure it didn't get stolen.

[youtube]PD6YDEgxKak[/youtube]


darwin, that black gizmo is called the buznut and it mutes the open strings when i want it to.

bill, i would love a sienna or odyssey, but even older ones retain value pretty well. i am not interested in acquiring debt, i am interested in buying a car, so it will be all cash.

Great playing Louis. Tone is in the fingers and you got it!

Thanks for that Louis, the guitar sounds great. Quite a story behind it, I don't think anybody would be dumb enough to try to take it from you now.

LTC, thank you, much appreciated, but i do thinnk the guitar and that ampeg reveberocket did have something to do with it as well

glv, yeah, if i could only keep one guitar, that would be it, even though it is not my best guitar anymore, it is still a great one, and the history we have just goes back too far. very little original parts, just the neck and body, it has locking tuners, 6000 frets, sanded down neck, the thirst bridge on there, a wilkinson, probably to stay for good, was routed for a humbucker in the bridge (i did it with a chisel) and i used that to be able to put in a reverse slanted bridge pup that i always wanted. the original color scheme was all black, but i like the semi gilmour look. another story about it, when i got here to the u.s., i carried it onto the plane as i only had the gigbag it came with. they put it in the captains closet, no problem. then, from jfk we rode to la guardia, and we were to get on a single prop 30 seater plane to go to woonsocket rhode island. as i strart walking up the stairs ( in 89 that's how it went), they try to grab the guitar from me to put it in the cargo. i spoke no english, and i am holding on for dear life. i let them know that i go with the guitar, even if i have to fly in the cargo hold. i guess the rules against people in the cargo were more strict than a guitar on board, so finally after a 15 minute combat they let me hold the guitar between my legs, as there was no overhead on that plane, nor a closet. it was very small.