
Greetings from the future (its Tues here) and from Land of the Long White Cloud or aka Land of Lord of the RIngs - Yep - we're talkin New Zealand.
I know there's a lot of new folks on here now so I'll give a brief introduction...
My name is Jason and I'm 44 years of age. Aside from being a musician and a fan of all things Leo I am a Board Certified Reflexologist. If you're not hep to Reflexology, I highly recommend checking it out and giving it a go as its Fab stuff!
I am orginally from Seattle, WA but also lived in San Diego, CA for 2.5 years. I moved here 6 mos ago (today to be exact) to start a new life with my partner, Jackie. SHe is a Certified Reflexologist as well and a Reiki Master. We met 2 years ago this month when she was in Seattle teaching a reflexology workshop and I was actually doing LR duties! Man, how time flies...
Anyway, this is my 5th time now as LR'r if I recall correctly, so I'm not new to this board but I don't frequent it as much these days - one reason being is we have limited internet usage and this site eats up heaps - the other is I spend more time playing & making music now. Still, I like to log in from time to time to see what's new. I have to say the new site looks great and it seems like alot of the bugs have been worked out plus there's a lot of new blood. All very cOol. THis past month I've been doing a housesit so I've been taking advantage of having unlimited internet and catching up on music vids & reading gear reviews. Gear over here is damn expensive and I'm in the process of building back up my arsenal so been checking out gearsites & viewing youtube vids. I plan to share some of what I've stumbled upon hope to provide a fun week's worth of porn, music vids, plus trivia and try to tie it all together. So to quote Marty Dibergi - Enough of my yak'n...
LUnch for me is the smallest meal of the day if I eat it at all so that's why in the past I havent reported them. Today tho, I'll be seeing a client + doing some work of a farm (lots of em here) so my lunch will consist of some leftover salmon from the night before that Jackie fixed w/ soy sauce, miso, sesame seeds and garlic - Yummy stuff! - on top of some organic brown rice. Probably will have a cuppa of earl grey at some point as well as some fruit. Exciting stuff - eh?
Here's is my main guitar, Char, and at the (mo)ment my only electric... I got her back in August of 2003 for $10 at the now defunct Midway Swapmeet bout 20 miles south of downtown Seattle. She had nearly perished in a fire and looked pretty much unplayable with the p/g melted up into the strings. The seller thought she was basically worthless hence the low price. Needless to say I was stoked (hehe) to get her esp since 2 weeks before I had sold all my guitars Including a very cool sounding (orig pu's) mustang body SC-2 I had put together to finance a move. Anyway, I took her home, cleaned her up and plugged her in. TOok her to my first singing & playing gig the following weekend and later replaced her original melted p/g with the one pictured which I bought from a member of this board for $5. I also had my guitar tech, Mike Lull, clean her up and install a bone nut. My friend, Mean Joe Page, dubbed her Char and it stuck. Many folks have seen her before so I took some new pics yesterday...





I recently swapped out her stock MFDs with some Custom made alnico ones and that's what you see in the pics...
More on the new pu's later this week...
I got bit by the gear bug back in '91 not long after discovering that particular swapmeet. That led to me getting back into playing guitar which I had stopped for a few years... and subsequently unearthing and procuring heaps of guitars, amps, f/x pedals via classified ads, Pawnshops, Thriftstores (called opshops here - short for opportunity shops), swapmeets and occasionaly used/vintage music stores.
Finding & scoring gear cheap was always a rush and that brings me to the next bit...

THis column in Guitar Player Magazine started circa '93 and became an instant hit. Each month Mr. Art Thompson would feature some really cool stuff - usually overlooked and not well known.
So what's the tie in with G&L? THe debut column featured....
YEp, Leo-era G&L guitars - titled Leo's Faux Fenders
A broadcaster and a hardtail F-100 to be exact...
So, what I propose is that every day this week folks share a piece of gear that they scored on the cheap in the past - AND (esp if you havent done so) take some time out of your busy day and go into a local pawnshop and see what you can find.... JUst like the lottery - you can't (score)win if you don't (go)play.... Use your lunch hour if you have to - you may thank me later.... Seriously.
A lot of folks think now that shops can look things up on the web, that's there's no more good deals. Nope, most pawnshops don't bother spending alot of time with checking things - they just want to sell stuff & get it out the door fast. Besides, for most pawnshops, music gear is just a small bit of what they inventory. And even tho it sounds absurd to us, guitars look all the same to folks that don't play...
I know a guy who repeatably would get 80's AM STD Fender strats at Mexi strat prices b/c the shops wouldnt take the time to spot the diff! You also have to remember, shops loan/pay out at best .25 on the dollar for what they're acquire so they're way ahead of the game even if they let things go cheap.
Having said all that, as far as sharing stories, I'll widen the scope to include finds from opshops, flea markets, gifts from friends & family and items found in dumpsters or on the side of the road. But really, I encourage ya'll to at least one day this week hit up a pawnshop and report back what you find. C'mon, DO IT.
MOving On....
[youtube]HVPzWkdhwrw[/youtube]
Bloody Hell...Try this -
http://youtu.be/HVPzWkdhwrw
I just fin'd reading NOT DEAD & NOT FOR SALE - Scott Weiland's recent book on his life & times... good read. STP are one of my fave bands and I am quite pleased that they reformed (Velvet Revolver wasnt my thang) and that Mr. Weiland is still with us.... Like him or loathe him, the man's got talent and has been quite successful in the music biz.
This vid's special guest may appeal to those on this board that arent a fan of the band...
[youtube]g6Hn7X8r-hY[/youtube]
Una mas -
and this one will shed some light on the band to those that aren't hip to them...
[youtube]DPtJIZ4xYz8[/youtube]
Crikey Dick... Grrr http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPtJIZ4x ... B7C02F6630
Trivia -
What is the correlation between the big gorilla in the first posted STP vid here and the band?
Bonus Question - Who is Marty Dibergi?
And fInally....
A teaser for tomorrow's report -
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =399615604
That's it - Have a Good Day!
Cheers,
Kf