ksdaddy

Lots of spam lately. It used to be that new members had to be approved by a mod. Gibson changed that so anyone can join. I balked. They did not listen. So here we are.

Elixirs haven't been discussed for, oh, at least a week, so I thought I'd share a few observations. Please rhyme or refute. I bought a used HD28 in 2017. According to a slip of paper in the case, it had Elixir nano 13-56. I messed with the saddle (and realized Martin knows more about proper saddle height than I do after I choked the tone out of it and replaced it with a new factory one). In the process of saddling, I broke a string and replaced them with a new set of nano 13-56, which have been there ever since. They are shedding fuzz and turning black but I like the sound of them.... I guess... I have NO basis for comparison. I have no aversion to having 4 year old strings on my guitar; if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But I wonder what it might sound like with something else? Do coated strings last longer at the expense of muffling? Or no? I put a set of Elixir 10-46 on my Les Paul a couple years ago. I don't play it much at all, and since I put the Elixirs on it, I played it even less. I couldn't put my finger on it until the other day I realized they are too slippery! My fingers slide all over them and I don't have any tactile feedback... and it makes the LP feel fretless, which I don't like. They will be changed anon. I have a surplus of GHS boomers due to the untimely death of a friend. I had Elixir 11-49 on my Strat and it also fell from grace. It just stayed in the case. Taking up space. I might have had the same sensation as the LP but couldn't identify it. I've since put Ernie Ball 13-56 on that thing and it's a monster. No bendy G string on that one. But both Miserlou and Peggy Sue sound "right" now! Strats ain't all about "Lay Down Sally", thank God. Last fall I received a set of Elixir sample strings. They wanted me to put them on and try them for a while. they were 12-53 and I don't typically use that gauge. I put them on a Martin DM that I keep lights on. I didn't use the guitar much, and certainly didn't go along with their survey in any helpful way. Today I took it down and played it. The strings felt like they were coated in some kind of clay. Not coated, but very 'grippy'. I actually kinda liked it. It was likely oxidation of some kind, which flies in the face of what Elixir is all about.

It's for this reason I started not bothering with tube amps years ago. I think the only tube amp I own is a Peavey Classic with 2-6L6's. Most of the time I use a 1986 Bandit 65 or a 1973 Ampeg GT-10. Not denying that there is a difference in tone, but I don't want to get hung up on something I might not be able to use at some future date because I can't get replacement parts. And the Telecaster seriously does not care what it's plugged into.

They’re Klusons with incorrect buttons jammed on! I took the cover off and they were clearly stamped.

They're on an old unbranded (but clearly Kay) archtop.

All true, but I played a fingerstyle version of Perfidia on the classical this morning and it sounded tee eye tee.

I was up at 5 this morning. While the dogs were out peeing, I sat down in a spare bedroom with the Tele and noodled unplugged. It occurred to me that I spend just as much time tuning a Fender as I do playing one. Yet here I am. Here many of us are. After coffee and shower I walked into the bedroom, reached to an upper shelf in the closet and grabbed my plywood 1988 Seresta classical, which I bought in 2005 for $10. The strings have been on it since 2014. I haven't played it in at least a month. It was in perfect tune. As I expected it to be. smh...

I've never been an amp freak. I understand the importance, it's just that my go-to is the Telecaster and it doesn't care what amp I use. Anything is fine. I've had the old amps, and a few Twins, an Earth Revival, which was like a Fender tweed sorta. One of my "there" amps is a Fender Frontman 25R in Texas Red that has enough reverb to drown most any domestic animal. Never had the reverb unit of which you speak. I've always relied on the internal tank. I would strongly consider it though.

Here's my placeholder:

^^ They no longer make the AVRI stuff except in the Custom Shop. They do, however, make the American Original 60s Jazzmaster at $2149, which is tempting....but apparently they're still covidified and they aren't available at the moment. Jazzmaster for the 25.5 scale and cleaner glassy pickups. I grew up listening to the Ventures and they were certainly talented and the most commercially successful instrumental group playing that type of music. However their stuff is hit or miss with me. I guess I lean more towards the darker stuff like Pipeline or Point Panic (Chantays, Surfaris). More angry reverb than fluff instrumental pop. I never much cared for D-ikk Dale but I've watched a couple videos from the 90s and the man was insane. I need to dig deeper. Speaking of what an AVRI Jazzmaster can do..... this is a bit over the top, but why go in halfway?

Over the course of my life I have fooled myself into thinking that buying a certain guitar is going to magically transform my playing ability to match the instrument. It took many decades and many many thousands of dollars to make me realize that something from the 335 family is not going to turn me into BB King, a 175-ish thing is not going to turn me into Joe Pass, a Gretsch CG = Chet, LP =LP, you get it. Having said that, I grew up on reverby surf music, influenced by no small amount by my brother blaring his '66 Mustang and Heathkit amp from the next bedroom and my "borrowing" of his 1962 album "Welcome to the Ventures Dance Party". I like surf music, I like playing it, and even though I suck, I suck less at surf than I do other genres. I do play surf on the Tele and Strat, and sometimes the Hopf Saturn 63. I've owned Jazzmasters and Jaguars in past decades, long long ago. I've owned lots and lots of guitars years ago... No delusions about a pre-CBS Fender making me something I'm not. For once, I will provide the fingers, and my spending big bucks is more to get closer to the authentic sound than I can otherwise, and also a great deal of nostalgia for clay dots and brown cases.... the feel of shiny Braz rosewood and a maple neck with zero lacquer left on it. It's all what we choose to place value on. For once in my life I am confident in what I can do, and simply choose to pay for the tool that I want to use in the process. I will drive the guitar this time, because I've learned the hard way, the guitar will never drive ME. I had a feeling I would make a stupid decision in my haste to own either of the Fender J's, so I had to act with short money before spending long money. The local music shop had a Daphne Blue Squier 60s vibe Jazzmaster that I scored for $380. I figured that would keep me sated somewhat, so I could shop and not just pull the trigger on the first one. I did make a new bone nut for it, shimmed the neck, filed the jagged fret ends, polished the frets (they looked like they had been "polished" with 180 grit sandpaper from the factory), put 11-49 strings on it, and today I ordered a vintage style bridge for it so I can match the radius (something the stock bridge does not do). It is turning out to be a great guitar and may just stay around even after I pay the long green for something pre-CBS. Seems like there are a lot more Jaguars for sale and at better prices. I negotiated on an all original but heavily used 1964 in Texas and before I pulled the trigger, I thought, I need to get something in my hands with the same 24" scale and see if I like it, and I need to do it now! Luckily someone local had a Squier Duo-Sonic that they had for sale, originally for $500, then $350, and yesterday I got it for $280. Setup was poo, so I spent an hour last night giving it the best pit stop I could in that time. By the end of the evening it was clear to me that the 24" scale was not going to work and by contrast the Indonesian Jazzmaster was like going to a grand piano after playing a Casio. So that guitar is now on ebay and reverb, just looking to get my money back, and even if I sell it at a loss, it will be a cheap lesson learned, rather than spending over 5K to learn the same lesson. I'm not even going to gripe about the price of vintage stuff. I'm going to forget the fact that in 1985 I bought a 1962 Jaguar for $100 or in 1998 I sold a 1965 Jazzmaster for $800. That's old news. I have reaped the benefits of flipping guitars and taking advantage of increases in market value.... karma dictates that I am now the one to buy in a seller's market. I once was the windshield, today I am the bug. I am now ready to take my punishment and pay like everyone else.

I have 178 calendar days until I retire. That's 124 work days. Between what I have on hand and what I will accrue, I will have 46 days of Annual Leave to use between now and then. I could get paid for it but they will take 40% off the top, likely. I'd rather have the days. I do not hate my job. It's a good job that anyone would kill to get. But I want my days. People say "you'll be sorry, you'll go nuts." Okay, first of all, I'm already nuts, so no travel time lost there. Second, my job is not my identity, like many folks. Nothing wrong with it, it's just not me. My occupation(s) have always been nothing more than a way to keep from being homeless. I want to take all day to make a bone nut if I want to. I want to be able to mow my 4 acres of lawn at a leisurely pace and not like I'm racing a thunderstorm. I want to be able to sit and read a book and not have one eye on the clock because I need to be somewhere or I need to get to bed so I can get up and besomewhere. If an amp has a scratchy pot, I want to be able to take the time to dig in and do it right and not worry about going back to work. Or time in general. I want to smash every clock in the house. I'm not stressed. Nope. Not me. I'm not a time bomb.... And if I were a time bomb, I would be disarmed on August 27th.

I have sent a message to one of the site administrators. Hopefully they will find the time to look into this.

I can’t. There are zero restrictions on your account and I emailed you screenshots showing that. I have no idea why you are seeing that screen.

Yes, lock the screws firmly.

A 1976 J200 would have a rectangular label and would say "J-200 Artist". There are numerous other ways to distinguish a 76 from an 06 but that is the tip of the iceberg. I lost track of Gibson's numbering system in the 00's. We're running out of headstock space.

Agreed. Years ago my dogs slept in their kennels and dog houses. I was convinced they preferred it and didn't like being cooped up inside overnight. Idiot. In 2009 I brought my 13 year old Golden inside for a meal and I never put him back in the kennel, ever. I sold the kennel and put the dog house in the burn pile. He lived the rest of his days warm and dry. My dogs go where I go now. I have Maggie, a ten year old Golden Retriever who sleeps 23 of the 24 hours, and Daisy, a 2 year old Jack Russell Shorty who is my shadow. They go out to pee and romp, and they wear PetSafe containment collars when they do. My Impala's seats have a layer of Retriever fur.

In 2011 I was recently widowed and was pursuing a dumpster fire of a beautiful but crazy blonde drunk. She had a son who had a history of violent outbursts, group homes as a youth, and jail as an adult. Slim Shady and Lurch had a love child. He rented a trailer from a short little jailbird creep who looked like Steve Buscemi. In 1985 this individual snorted coke off my coffee table and then had intimate relations with my girlfriend at the time, while I was at work in a french fry factory. Back to 2011, the short creep's house was right next to the tall creep's rented trailer, where they both sold drugs. Not just weed btw. Lots of underage girls hung around there. Draw your own conclusions. One evening the drunk blonde called me up (drunk) and said that her son's dog may or may not have eaten rat poison. She was too drunk to walk, let alone drive, so of course since I really wanted to see her naked again, I came to the rescue. I exceeded the posted speed limit, stopped at Rite Aid and got 3 or 4 bottles of peroxide. I got to the dope dealer's "compound" and proceeded to dump as much peroxide down the throats of their dogs as I could. They both had boxers. They walked around the yard, snorting and foaming, for a good 20 minutes, when they both vomited all over the lawn. Lurch's dog's vomit was nothing but kibble. Buscemi's dog's vomit had probably 50 or 60 little blue pellets, identical to the rat poison. Could that poison have killed the dog? I have no idea. I got a mumbled "thanks" from the dope dealers and a couple "wow, man" comments from the stoned 16 year old girls. Didn't gain me anything with the dumpster fire. I doubt she remembered it the next day.

Agreed 100%. This one, like most Squiers I've had, can be brought up a few notches with the right tools and a loupe.

Yesterday I bought a brand new Squier "60s vibe" Jazzmaster in Daphne Blue (rosewood board and tortoise guard of course). $380 out the door with gig bag. The quest continues for a clay dot with no delusions of stealing one, but the urgency is slaked to some degree. Or it will be, once I make the neck so it doesn't look like a longbow, cut the nut slots down so I'm not tempted to use it as a Dobro, and polish the frets with something other than 240 grit, which apparently they used in Indonesia. Other than an evening's worth of detailing, it's super. Not a clay dot but not 9K either.

Good on you!

I'm looking to buy a clay dot Jazzmaster (pre-CBS). I know I will pay dearly, and I think karma has caught up with me. I've flipped many guitars and made out really well. It's time for me to close my eyes and think of England. Bite the pillow and all that. Stuff has gone up so much. My god. Chatting with a guy last night about a vintage piece. He said, "You know, this value of this thing has tripled during this whole pandemic thing." Huh? I know the prices have doubled on many vintage pieces. The asking prices. Not sure if anything is actually selling. People see what the Japanese are asking, so they match them or go higher. I will not get a bargain. Guaranteed.

Anyplace else I can do a search?

Haven’t tried D’Addario coated. I put a set of Elixir Nano 13-56 on my D-28 in 2018 and they’re still on there, fuzzy and black.