Lord Summerisle

By that logic, this thread ought to have been nuked 7 pages ago. What the hell happened, anyway? I hadn't been here in the best part of a decade, until recently. Once upon a time, the man Nelson/Uncle Al called "Dwayne-us" would show up, briefly and inevitably mention his 1981 Les Paul Deluxe or whatever it was, and swiftly detonate anything vaguely political or related to current events. Is the sand-box self-regulating, these days? And where the hell is Charlie Brown? Please tell me he's OK and listening to A Hard Day's Night for the 5 billionth time; he's a nice guy.

And for once, I'm in full agreement with you. I know this is now in the public consciousnesses because of a movie from a couple of years ago, but the story is much older than that, and very disconcerting: That article reminds me of many things I have read about the AZT trials in 1985 and 1986, (the "drug that had to work"), and was rushed through its Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials. And it did work, until, as one of the NIH researchers observed, "It turned out to be like Flowers for Algernon." Short-cuts often seem to lead to false dawns.

Wow, zombie thread time. Where have 11 years gone? The mythology around those Czech Epis endures...European, so gotta be good, right? And rare, and special. Yeah, well. British Leyland cars were 100% manufactured in the United Kingdom.

Now it's set up and playing to your satisfaction, settle back and enjoy it. It's a shame about the decline of bricks & mortar stores. I bought my Hagstrom Viking in 2009 from a little Mom & Pop store called "Bluesmaster Guitars" in Durham, North Carolina - alas now closed, so I hear. After I decided to buy it, the owner, who really knew his business, set it up for me beautifully - I went back a couple of days later to collect it. His price (+ case) was more or less the same as the online price from a big retailer - the set up was essentially just part of the service. Not bad for what was then a $700 guitar. The modern day Hagstroms are mid-priced guitars, but my own experience is if you find one you like, it becomes a true keeper. In the 11 years I have had mine, other, much more expensive stuff has come (and often gone). As the old cliche goes - if I could have only one guitar, it would be this one. I thought about buying a Rickenbacker 620 for my 40th a couple of years ago. Saved up the money, was ready to pull the trigger.....and never quite did. Ending up putting the money into the down payment on a new (to me) car, instead. I can't imagine how many playing hours I must have put into that Hagstrom. It's been gigged, and carted around to endless jams at friends' houses. A few years ago I needed a bit of electrical work doing on it - nothing major - the luthier who did the work, a rather upscale shop where I now live in Virginia, rather condescendingly said "Well, not wishing you bad luck, but the frets will lift on these Asian made guitars eventually, that's just a given." 11 years in, hasn't happened yet. If it does, I'll take it somewhere else to get it fixed. As I type this, it sits on its stand next to my American Standard Telecaster. I think I'll go and play it. None of this is intended as that silly hyperbole one sometimes reads online about how some guy is convinced his 335 knock off is actually better than a Gibson Custom Shop at three times the price. This guitar is certainly not equal in quality to an expensive Gibson. I just like it. If I bought a Gibson 335, it would gather dust on a stand next to the Hagstrom, not as an inferior guitar, but because I'd still prefer my old Hagstrom. Some guitars are just that way. Good luck with yours.

Is that new Epi Firebird a through neck?

Greetings from the Shenandoah. I had the air con running over the weekend (only for a while, but still)... The weird thing is, we'll probably get a heavy snowfall in mid-April.

I've given up on Craigslist. The cashier check scams are one thing. What made me despair was when I was selling a really nice US Strat, reluctantly, to help pay for a transmission repair. A man showed up at my house, played it, put it in its case, agreed to buy it, then when it came time to give me the cash wandered out to his truck (I made him leave the guitar in my house), reappeared with a huge, beat-up looking tube stack of some sort, and began arguing for a straight swap. He got very angry when I said, "The mechanic doesn't take old amps, just dollars." He got back in his truck cursing about idiots who don't know what a great deal they're getting. It got quite nasty for a minute, because he really wanted that Strat. In the end a friend bought the Strat, and all was well. When I sell gear now (rarely, thankfully), I give a photo and details to my wife who sells it on some sort of Facebook market thing. Not sure how it works, because I don't "Facebook." But I've found sensible and serious buyers that way, for a couple of things - some guitar related, others not.

Good luck in your new home in your new state. I have traveled through the Tri-Cities frequently (I live further up the 81 in Virginia), but have never stopped there for long - but I've always meant to. It looks like a nice area. When you fancy a truly spectacular drive one day, take the 26 South to Asheville. It's practically America's emptiest piece of interstate, and the mountains are spectacular. Good luck with your new Tele. Best guitar Leo ever made - like you, the only Fender I have...although I could be tempted towards a Jaguar, too, one day.

Organisers plan to lay more than 400 stones in the next 20 years, with 20 in the works for 2020. Acts including Madness, The Clash. All Londoners. Not saying this thing (whatever it is) is going to be restricted to Londoners, but perhaps it's reasonable for them to start that way? The Stones weren't a true London band, in terms of where the individual members came from, originally. More the Home Counties (the counties that surround the City of London), with the exception of Brian Jones who came from even further away - Gloucestershire. Perhaps that explains why the Who were the first, and the Beatles have yet to be even mentioned? If it is London-centric, the Kinks belong in there, too, ASAP. A proper Norf Laandan band. In a way, I hope it is regional (to London). There's already the Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH, all of the North John Street area of Liverpool (my home town) is devoted to Beatles' memorabilia... I'd say, all these years later, half a century after his death, what difference does it really make laying a paving stone as a memorial to someone like Hendrix, his legacy long-since secured, in a city thousands of miles away from his home in Seattle? But in a way Hendrix has a pretty strong connection to London, too. By that logic, if he's included, I'm sure Stones' fans won't have long to wait. But with 400 stones to lay, I'm guessing this will end up looking like a classic rock radio station's playlist, embedded in cement.

The Japanese Jazzmasters and Jaguars were as close as you could get to the real deal without dropping the serious money on a US made reissue. They rattled and buzzed just like a Jazzmaster or Jaguar should. The Mexican made ones are nice, too, but they fixed the problems, and lost some of the character in the process.

Probably the "SG" I've had that I liked the most was a 2006 G-400 made by DaeWon (China). Wish I'd never traded it. I know it wasn't a "proper" SG. But guitars are guitars, they have their individual merits, and their own idiosyncrasies, for good or ill. It was the best SG-shaped guitar I've ever owned, or, at least, the one I preferred...

I doubt that! 😄 Sorry for bringing tires to a guitar forum. Online car forums are...intimidating. I want to drive my old Buick to work, not drop it 3 inches and take it to the track. Thanks for all the advice, here, by the way. Hankook tires have found a new fan. The car handles much better, and is very quiet on the road.

Thanks for the good wishes N'hawkChris. Yeah, I decided there's cheap and there's too cheap. The ones I listed reflect the mid-range; I'm not interested in the really cheap stuff. My old man always told me "Don't buy cheap tires." I don't do a ton of miles (about 10,000 a year), so it's been a little while since I bought tires. Seeing the $750 prices for 4 brand name tires with an alignment on top sent me looking to see what's available lower down the price range, without really clambering into the bargain basement. I suppose I was thinking I wanted the higher speed rated tires (H) for a big 3.8 litre Buick. But let's face it, it's a Buick and I'm not Steve McQueen. The T rated Hankooks are probably perfectly adequate for the job. With tax and everything, he promises I'll be out of his shop only parting with 5 Benjamins. Looking online, Hankooks seem to be a brand people seem to like. I think for a while Hyundai put Hankooks on all their new cars - which may mean something, or not.

I don't have anything negative to say about buying online as a concept. For those of us in very rural areas, the likes of Sweetwater brings an entire range of instruments to our front doorstep, and that's far more appealing than driving 4 hours to Guitar Center in the DC metro area to see what's hanging on the wall. That raises the question of what is the consumer paying Sweetwater for? It sure as hell isn't to take a box off one truck and put it on another. I expect the dealer to inspect the merchandise and ensure all is well before supplying it to the customer. That's what they're being paid for - customer service. I guess that's why Sweetwater touts its inspection of instruments before shipping them. *I am aware that we don't know this guy bought from Sweetwater, I know that Sweetwater has several big online competitors; I used them as an example because that's who I buy from - and dealing with them, I've never had a negative online guitar buying experience, in the sense I've never ended up stuck with a guitar I didn't want.

I think this goes back to the complaint that is sometimes heard in the brave new world of online retail; the retailer is abdicating responsibility. Yes, if the guitar isn't up to par, you can be disappointed with Gibson, but your real beef is with the dealer. Why won't they take it back, or address the problem? You've just made a very substantial purchase and you're very unhappy with the product they supplied. Make their sales manager's phone ring, 24/7. If you bought used or from a non-authorized dealer, then it's caveat emptor. Under those circumstances, are you, um, quite sure that the guitar is what it purports itself to be? If you bought from a dealer, though, well the high cost of these guitars also includes the dealer's cut - so why pay for a service you're not receiving? Badger the dealer.

I know it's a guitar forum, but I get the impression there's a fair few car guys, here, too. Long story short: to get through its Virginia inspection, my car's going to need new rubber. It's a Buick LaCrosse (basically a Chevy Impala in a prettier dress). Owing to some recent medical bills for my wife, I'm fairly broke. Normally I'd be thinking Goodyear or Michelin or Bridgestone or Continental. But, as with the man who wants a Gibson and is then very pleased to discover Epiphone exists, I'm now looking for bang for buck, without spending many bucks. So, for roughly $450 - $475 plus pocket change one way or the other, fitted, balanced, front of the car aligned, and out the door, the big tire joint in town is offering me: Kelly Edge/AS. 55,000 miles. H rated. Falken Sincera. 65,000 miles or 75,000 miles. H rated. (65k are $450, 75k are $500). Dunlop Signature II. 65,000 miles. T rated. Hankook Kinergy. 70,000 miles. T rated. I don't know these brands (although I think I once had a car with Hankooks, briefly, and understand they are a good brand). The car currently has General tires on it, which were nice but a touch too pricey to replace. Any insight into cheap-*** tires, especially those by the brands mentioned, would be very much appreciated. Thank you! * People reviewing tires tend to review them straight after they've been fitted. Of course they're awesome, they've got 350 miles on them. Hence asking around!

I'm glad you like your SG. Congrats and may it give you countless hours of playing enjoyment. Gibson knows that a guitar in that range, of that price, should come with a hard shell case. There is no argument to the contrary.

This actually is quite relevant. When people thing about musicians and conscription (being "drafted") in the '60s, they understandably think of stories like the one about whatever it was Jim Morrison did to dodge the draft. I also read Jim Croce's biography - as I recall he ended up in the National Guard in Pennsylvania. Because conscription ended in the UK in early '60s, it had less of an effect on the music scene of that decade. But to someone born in 1940, it was certainly very much a thing on your mind. My Dad was born (coincidentally, in Liverpool) in February 1940, and fully expected to be conscripted, pretty much right up until the time he discovered he wasn't going to be. Because he didn't want to be a National Serviceman in the Army, he had already begun the process of enlisting in the Royal Navy. His bother, born in 1937, had joined the Merchant Navy and trained as a Radio Officer, and so was exempt from conscription. For men born in the UK in 1940, the prospect of being conscripted was most definitely something that hung over you. Reading about the Beatles' backgrounds, perhaps Ringo would have been exempted on medical grounds. John Lennon was lucky Parliament repealed the Act, otherwise he may well have been "Private Gripeweed" in real life.

You have to admire guitar manufacturers' marketing shtick. The made a copy of Bonamassa's 1963 Firebird I, stuck an Epiphone TRC on it, and sold it for what - $900? They make a guitar based on a 1964 Firebird I of the same vintage that Clapton used to own 50 years ago, but no longer has, throw in some case candy, and sell it for $8000.

It isn't the guitar that makes the loud noise! Check out the little Yamaha THR series amps...

Zombie thread time! 10 years later I still have the Viking. It's held up very well. Still my "go to" guitar. To answer Marek, I think there's plenty of people who have played hard rock on 335 style guitars.

I can't Imagine what he was thinking when he wrote the intro.

Noel Gallagher certainly borrowed bits from the Beatles, but I always think Oasis owed a much larger debt to Slade, overall. Back on topic. I don't think the Beatles would evolve as the Beatles if they started today. Their early stuff reveals where they came from, and it was a stage they had to go through on their journey to all the great albums people here have mentioned (Rubber Soul, Revolver, etc). The early influences were clearly Elvis, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins... All great artists, but somehow their music is now locked within its time - the '50s and early '60s. If the great British bands of the '60s were starting today, I think the Stones would actually have an easier go of it: American Blues is timeless, and Chuck Berry, although also of his time, isn't quite such an artifact of his era in the same way that Buddy Holly is trapped in the late 1950s. I'd also throw in that rock endures far better than pop, which is why, when you turn on the radio in the US on 2019, you're still blasted with Led Zeppelin, etc; and the Beatles were never a "heavy" rock band. We can argue about the extent to which bands which became rock bands owed a debt to the Beatles, but I think it was a tangent that would have developed anyway, With (or without) The Beatles (bad pun). Cream's earlier pop dabblings aside (Wrapping Paper, and that kind of thing), you can always clearly hear the debt to the Blues. In a Beatles-free landscape, where would a 2019 Beatles begin? Who would be their influences? As British artists, it certainly wouldn't be 1990s Britpop, because that likely wouldn't have existed without them. Presumably they wouldn't be dipping back in history to the old artists who were the 1960s Beatles' influences. Being rooted in rock would produce a very different product to the one they came up with, back in reality (the time in which they existed).

In the Year 2525 The weirdest thing to ever be a hit, in the news lately because it was No 1 at the time of the moon landings. The Wall Street Journal (of all the unlikely papers to cover something like this), even ran a piece last month on how strange it was. Apparently its writer, Rick Evans, who died in 2018, retreated to obscurity in New Mexico to live in isolation and look at the sky, which actually seems rather nice and fitting for the man who wrote 2525. His sidekick, Zager, makes guitars, the virtues of which are (ahem) a somewhat contested topic on acoustic guitar forums.

An interesting comparison. I own a Buick (a brand I expect won't be around Stateside much longer). Love it, great car. What is a Buick Lacrosse? Simple answer: it's a Chevy Impala with a facelift. GM is GM. When GM learns to put panels together like Lexus or Mercedes, Cadillac might be a luxury brand rather than a rebadged Chevy wealthy old people use to go to church or the country club. And all the whining about Gibson's quality control over the years suggests American workers often encounter the same (or more) problems as people in Qingdao operating the CNC machine. Or building to a price point, even a high price point, is much harder when you've factored in far higher production costs. A brand is a brand. With GM, there is no inherent difference between the tiers, other than the marketing. Guitars aren't quite like that. I do expect a US-made Les Paul to be better than an Epiphone Les Paul. At the end of the day, discerning buyers look at a product, not the badge. For those to whom the badge matters, the fact that the product exists across a range and price points still grants confidence that they've bought at the right price point in the range. The guy who just dropped huge money on a Fender Custom Shop Strat doesn't feel cheated when he looks at the MIM Fender Strat hanging around the singer's neck, and sees the words "Fender" and "Stratocaster" on the headstock; he wanted a better guitar, he paid for a better guitar, odds are that he has a better guitar.