'Scales

...and probably even more boobage!! Good stuff!

hi Unc - sorry I missed your question before but it was actually ok with seating - they put some tables together running away from the stage and various other places to sit around the room and people basically just rocked away where they sat - not too different from most originals gigs where they tend to stand there and do much the same. Set list was the usual style - medium start, build it up, bring it down a touch, build it right up to a peak at the end... anyhoo - here's a bit of the show if interested (trying out a new song)... https://www.instagram.com/p/CL0CFh2pXUj/

well, frankly it was a pleasure just to get back out and play - a few sound/tech issues to start, couldn't really hear anything much on stage...the usual cr@p... but it went down well with the crowd so that's the main thing and we raised some cash on the door for charity. I believe dancing and mingling in pubs is back any day now so normality is returning. A few venues round here are having live music again - could yet be a a few gigs this year if we want!

'twas. Zeppelin were the kings.

No, I'd suggest Lars' drumming is maybe his strongest attribute. I guess lots of bands have that '3 album peak' where they can do no wrong - Powerage to Back in Black - Beggars Banquet to Sticky Fingers - .... Metallica just did it with their first 3 albums and it was then a pretty steady path they trod through to St Anger, Lulu and such.

sadly, my 3 favourite members of Metallica are Dave, Cliff and Jason. The first 3 albums were cool, and I actually didn't mind Load as something different ...it didn't need to be done twice though.

tasteful!

24 hours from now - (so that's Saturday morning in UK and ...? sometime last week in the US..?) - we'll be back on stage in a sweaty rock pub...actually the same pub we were last on stage in 14 months ago. 12 songs, 45 minutes - usual strategy for me: slam down a beer, grab another, stride on stage and hope for the best! We are in the middle of 3 bands which is great cos the sound should be sorted out and we can sleaze out quietly just before tear down time - just taking our amp heads and guitars and mics the rest is sorted. It will be a bit weird (even more than usual) as crowd will be limited to about...I don't know 50, 80 ? its a small room anyway, but they'll be sitting at tables cos you can cant walk around drinking yet under Covid here in Oz for some reason. Whatever...I'll crank it up a bit extra for y'all! hope things be likewise in your towns soon!

you just peaked.

The Wizard of Walthamstow is back in action!!!

I was just wondering....Have they had any issues with the name Tonemaster given the Magnatone amps of the same name?

Very awesome job Dub - now, all you have to do is relic the crap out of it and market it as a faithful copy of a Junior home build by a dude back in 1959 getting instruction, advice and encouragement from people he never met via some weird pen pal system. Henry J would love the concept!

My brother in law just got one and loves it. I went to a music shop to see if I could lift one with one finger - yup. I just smiled knowingly at the assistant. I thought it didn't have a drive/lead channel but it might've called something else?

G'day Dave - I'm an Aussie but was born in Edinburgh and love Scotland and hope to see it again for the first time in a while after the pandemic gets better. Welcome. -check out the Gibson lounge and Epiphone lounge.

Interesting guitars - enjoy! i must have been about 9 or 10 when they toured Australia for I think the unmasked album. The songs off Dynasty were on the radio and it was Kiss mania in Oz! One of my earliest memories of being aware of a major rock act and their songs, just after AC/DC I guess. They were surely the biggest act around in about 1980. I liked the Alive album a lot but wasn't into the other albums, a bit softer and less edgy than my tastes at the time but credit to them for taking the world.

Classy and cool mate.

and Lemmy

I'd be quite keen to see Gibson build some exact and precise (molecularly correct plastic, Japanese elm etc) reproductions of 1980 Ibanez, Aria Pro ll and Tokai copies of the Les Paul Standard. Heck, the Custom Shop could even bring out a special edition of relic'd versions of actual Japanese LP copies built to exactly replicate ones played by people we never heard of in bands who never got anywhere! I'm somewhat surprised Henry J didn't release such a series...maybe he baulked at the cost of suing himself?....but then again, there just may already be a prototype or two kicking around in the storeroom if they care to check.

Cheers gents, it was indeed a blast and we rocked out and then went to work kicking our 3 new songs into shape, because...(drumroll)...the other band offered us a slot between them and the headline local act at an honest to goodness full on pub gig at the end of February. Same cramped sweaty dive we played end of 2019 but it's a proper originals bands rock venue pulling a crowd of local muso's in the nearby city/town. I won't hold my breath until I see the posters up cos we all know how reliable bands are when it comes to organising things, but fingers crossed and just to have a couple of rehearsals coming up where you narrow it to a 45 min set of your best 12 tunes will be a thrill in itself. Rock n f n Roll !!

Sounds like Dweezil will give himself a bad name.

hmmm. ok... a Les Paul Standard with: uncomfortably wide neck, brass zero-fret nut that wears away quickly, childlike scribble of the Les Paul logo on the headstock plus a weird hologram of Les doing a Star Trek greeting on the back, super cool looking G Force robo-tuners (this should really be mandatory), in an odd looking brown plastic case. ...oh, and at the 2015 extra high prices please!!

Not a huge fan of Gibson colours, but I like TV yellow, Polaris white and Silver Fox. Most Gibson guitars look good in black too I reckon.

I'm no expert but if that's a volute then it puts it in the 69-7x range somewhere I think?

Our last official gig was December 2019. In 2020...nothing apart from some rehearsals - sometimes with a few people there, sometimes just us, couple new songs...that's it. Well, today is a glorious sunny Saturday here in our corner of the blessed Covid-less land of Oz and this afternoon we will be playing our bass players birthday at his house in the rainforest to hopefully 20 people, maybe more - nothing too amazing about that, but for the first time in more than a year we are breaking out the big guns - half stacks for both guitars, full stack for bass, big kit for drummer, whatever amount of PA we can muster. Going to be loud! And we have at least one other band opening for us with a set - our old bass player is in it and they also do original rock and we haven't seen them play - that will be fun, I haven't seen another live band in quite a while. So, somewhere in this world today a bit of normality will be returning to some lives - keep the faith, good people...we'll all get there.

Jay I'd take it to a really pro luthier if there's one you can get to and I'd expect they'd be able to tell you if it can be fixed with absolutely no risk of it coming apart - the top guys should know, I know mine would. Then just size up their bill and how much you like the guitar versus the cost and your capacity to replace it with similar. i think I recall your Goldtop was given to you when your great friend was dying...your gut will tell you better if you want to play it out rather than me or anyone here.