'Scales

Its kind of hard to call. Either by 2100, the true meaning of the messaging hidden within this song will be understood (though still robustly debated among rival theologians) and this will provide the keystone knowledge leading to subsequent decoding of the entirety of Trout Mask Replica such that true believers will be provided extraterrestrial guidance to enlightenment across all lifeforms,... or else this chance will have been missed and basically "our" music will simply be considered a quaint and naive era outside of a few enthusiasts of the "analogue age". Perhaps. herein lie the answers for those with the mind to seek:

The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get

Awesome - my favourite of theirs. Steve Marriott, Bon Scott, Paul Rodgers - ROCK voices defined !

So very sorry to hear about your wife Phillip - wishing you well mate. Music has great healing powers and that is a beautiful instrument. All the very best to you.

Yep, that sounds about right. I think so even in nominal terms over last decade in the main (see earlier post page 1). CNCs and Boomers with disposable $$$

c'mon, you know damn well what puppies are . HeII, I see plenty of 'em everyday at the gym! The couch is gone?....that cannot be. Still in the family but, hey?

maybe not Sarge - according to this (undoubtedly knowledgeable) article by a certain smiling and dapper looking Phil O'Keefe, back 10 years ago the Les Paul Standard was $5,014.00 MSRP, $2,942.00 "street", and if I look now at the Gibson website...well, its a bit confusing cos there are 50's, 60's, Modern etc but best I can tell a Les Paul Standard is between $2499 and $2999. https://www.harmonycentral.com/expert-reviews/guitars/2014-gibson-les-paul-standard-r137/ My parents bought me an Aria Pro ll "The Cat" model about same time as Sheepdog's did - I think it was about $480 at the time. Guitars cost quite a bit in 1980's salary terms.

Interesting that they have built a melody maker as a true beginner guitar like in the old days - and looks ok in Vintage Sunburst and probably plays adequately for the purpose. On price - they have just released those expensive 'inspired by Gibson' guitars so you'd have to look at it on an overall basis I would think - make good on some products and maybe near zero on others, so its not like these are the only thing you sell so how can you run a factory on such slim margins...it doesn't work that way so you don't. My thoughts were "nice work Epiphone - lets see how the dodgy Chibson builders match that!" - maybe a few might cease business....and if you wonder how little they make on these, then it stands to also wonder how much profit is made on the standard US models that cost 10-12 times that, let alone the high price custom stuff - its the business of the business. Exploitation? - I doubt the workers are paid less to do the minimal assembly work on a $180 guitar versus the same minimal assembly on a $1200 guitar in an automated factory, but I don't work there so can't say for sure - how much work is actually required (versus say Rabs building a Rabswood from a block of timber) anyway? They probably aren't paid a big wage but they may well also not be up to their eyeballs in college/truck payment/credit card/healthcare/mortgage/ etc debt either, so hopefully it is working out ok for them.

My live set up for gigs: Tell you about it? ... well, it has some pretty lights that move around, and it shows letters. There are buttons that probably do something too!!

All good. You'll find the road from Umbrage to High Dudgeon is scattered with many churches.

Sarge, just quietly man, you do know this was just an April Fools Day stitch-up right? (same with the tone plastics thing you posted) ...just saying cos friends don't let friends suffer such miseries indefinitely....no matter how funny

I'm not sure the contractual stuff and who pays but I would guess its Gibson and I'd guess its from money they make selling guitars - now it could be that the money comes from selling all those Theodores and Murphy's or could be from selling the thousands of Epiphones? - I truly don't know. My point was, that Chinese made guitars are primarily expected (at this point in history at least) to be cheap to buy. That is the main production requirement. Otherwise they could be made to an exceptional standard - imagine what the factories could build if they were provided the same budget to build each guitar and could sell it to the public at what a Gibson costs. I'd think we'd be looking at some stellar guitars were that the case.

must be frustrating for Chinese producers of anything intended for international consumption - there they are with state of the art facilities and the cash to do whatever, and they are expected to make whatever they produce based on it being cheap, cheap, and cheap - oh, and better make it of a lesser quality too because that's expected by the consumer. "hey boss, with this new hi-tech equipment we can make the best (fill blank) in the world!" "sorry, Chen Bo, this is for western markets - please just use the cheap materials and program the robots to include annoying defects. Yeah I know, I know....look, its what they expect"

...and the next day, it was April 2nd

I'd think any move away from low price options for Epiphone would be a bit of a killer to that brand Rabs - Epi would be seen as an introduction to the Gibson brand primarily by the company I'd think - assuming these top line Epi's are priced like say a Gibson LP Studio then that would become an interesting buying choice between Epi features versus Gibson name and perceived inherent quality, that would then depend on individual buyer motivation and preference rather than price...but yeah, I agree it is nice to have the cheaper Epi options available.