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That is sad to hear - GG was always enthusiastic and polite with forum members and certainly enjoyed his passion of collecting instruments and equipment.

I think in black, with regular headstock, pickup covers, and poker chip....that might just about be the LP for me

In 2016 I was in the UK and saw Dr Feelgood at the 100 Club in London. The "classic" lineup of the band was pre 1977. As members left, by c'83 it was eventually only singer Lee Brilleaux, but to almost everyone Lee and the departed Wilko were the band anyway so this was fine... and so it continued until Lee's death around 1994. Here's the thing - whilst not original or peak period members, the other 3 guys in the version of the band I saw had been playing with Lee for several years (some a decade - in fact longer than the classic lineup), including for studio and live albums at the time - they continued from the late 90's with a lead singer from the Animals and when I saw them he had been 17 years in the gig and the rest of the band anything up to 30 odd years. Did I hand on heart feel that I had seen Dr Feelgood? - frankly no, to me the "real" band died with Lee... but did I enjoy hearing the most legitimate bunch of guys on Earth to be playing the songs they did so well to an adoring crowd who knew the score?...absolutely!! I think if it were Skynyrd I'd be the same, but ticket prices would need to reflect that it was none of the original guys, as was the case for Feelgood. here's a song I video'd the night in question

I'm on the verge of purchasing tickets for 2 concerts in 2024 - Dinosaur Jr (original members) and Iron Maiden (all members from their biggest era I think). Dino Jr costs about the same as filling my car's fuel tank. Maiden costs 1.5 tank fills for the floor/cheapest seats and 2.5 tanks for OK seats (or up to 4 tanks for the premium packages). I am ok with those prices, my life's too short to spend time filling up the car. If Dino Jr was a J.Mascis "and friends" type show I'd still be ok with 3/4 the cost. If Maiden were not damn close to the big era line-up I probably wouldn't be bothered going as it would likely still cost the same.... but every such decision would be on a case by case basis - my wife would go to see bands with no original members just because she liked the songs and its a night out with a great light and sound show... and who am I to judge. I'd suggest there is no right or wrong, just what you like when it comes to the arts.

The bloke's stamina must be good for starters , but even moreso that's a helluva good memory for someone in their eighties - here's the setlist for his current tour here in Oz : 1. Can't Buy Me Love 2. Junior's Farm 3. Letting Go 4. She's a Woman 5. Got to Get You Into My Life 6. Come On to Me 7. Let Me Roll It 8. Getting Better 9. Let 'Em In 10. My Valentine 11. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five 12. Maybe I'm Amazed 13. I've Just Seen a Face 14. In Spite of All the Danger 15. Love Me Do 16. Dance Tonight 17. Blackbird 18. Here Today 19. New 20. Lady Madonna 21. Fuh You 22. Jet 23. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! 24. Something 25. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 26. You Never Give Me Your Money 27. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window 28. Band on the Run 29. Get Back 30. Let It Be 31. Live and Let Die 32. Hey Jude 33. I've Got a Feeling 34. Birthday 35. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) 36. Helter Skelter 37. Golden Slumbers 38. Carry That Weight 39. The End

I don't think doctors/lawyers is so relevant nowadays - they would mostly just be paid by someone else to work in a business . Pro sports maybe...you know, win some golf tournament or sign a baseball/football contract and celebrate with a 59 Les Paul...or two! (more tasteful than those chunky gold necklaces at least)

Ah, that's cool to hear you've been seeing plenty of action. I think we've had 4 gigs this year ...but there's still time! I found a quick video grab from one couple weeks back: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cxxiv2Fh2E0/

Cool, the Gibson Lounge is now defining what constitutes Art!! What a magical mystical fantastical place we populate here!

Live rig - 1984 Aria Pro II RS into Hiwatt G200R.

Cool amp mate! On solid state, I use them and the ones I have now I enjoy - a couple of c1995 made in US 60w Fender Princeton 112 Plus combo amps which sound like any proper Fender and are great for rehearsal or small gigs through a splitter, and this Hiwatt in the video below for louder gigs - I love it as much as this reviewer. Never any chance of it not working perfectly, well made (all knobs make noticeable change at every level and feel like they are ideally greased resistance wise). I think they made these around 2005-10 ? - very inexpensive, mine had just been serviced and cost about equivalent of $150 US/ $120 GBP when i got it used about 6 years ago. Good video review here by the way if you like reviews without too much talk - nice variety of guitars, though I suspect he left reverb up high for the o/d channel tests which I would not do. He's given me some cool ideas to try settings on mine - usually it is just left in standard gig settings.

I think that's about right - once the BB1's (pre 56) die or become to old to bother pontificating on line/be relevant, then there will not be much reverence left. Its flickering already. Everyone has a soft spot for and will defend the music of their coming of age years. As Billy Connolly once said, (something like) - " its not the old days I miss...its my youth".

I can relate to all 3 comments above - Cody, to me they were 'Dad's music' and the songs were too light and fluffy to be of interest. I bought Abbey Road as a teenager but never owned any others until Dad died so I now have the first few LPs. To Murph's point, yeah - they must have seemed like the coming of punk, metal, psych, prog etc all at once compared to the likes of Buddy Holley, Elvis, Bill Haley or whatever was before them - and whilst nowadays people will flag bands that were around at the same time that had some sort of edge, next to nobody would have had heard of those bands at the time, whereas the Beatles cut through in a world where radio and TV were otherwise local affairs. And to jvi's point, the Beatles' story, life journey and music would have been quite incredible to masses of young people of that generation in the world in which they lived at the time. I virtually never listen to their music, but respect that they, more than anyone probably, shaped a rock music scene that gave those of us who came later what we got - and today I play rock not that far removed from their heaviest stuff in a 4 member band consisting 2 guitars, bass and drums. Kudos 🤘

it has probably changed over time. I remember a local band I loved as a late teenager and the guitarist's Strat was beat up and he rocked it and I would think I'd love to have a guitar that was revered as a tool by its owner so much that it was played almost to death. Nowadays my main guitar looks kind of like that as it is so worn that there are dark little finger shaped trenches on the fretboard in the pattern of most played notes, the sides of the neck are worn dark and rubbed smooth by wedding ring and sweat and their is a worn stripe down the back of the neck which is smoothed by sweat (and some steel wool used long ago to remove sticky lacquer). The body is dented and lacquer worn away from forearm rubbing. I like how it looks but I play it for how it plays. I was in a band where other guitarist had a factory relic'd Strat which I though looked awful as it had the same basic (pretend) wear as mine, but without all the wood pores being sweat stained over the years it just looked like virgin light coloured wood showing through - that looked lame to me, especially the fingerboard wear...but... as that becomes what people think relic means then I guess some will like it? Some of the Gibson LPs from 5-10 years ago did look much more authentically () worn though.

yeah, when you consider that (list price, before any retail discounts) an SG Standard in cherry is $1799 and a Les Paul Studio in dark wine red is $1699, and that there are less expensive models available below that, it seems pretty good these days for US made gigging guitars. The more exclusive/individual stuff costs more but that's kind of irrelevant unless you want somethings specific to collect, so I don't really care re those. Not sure if they still make Byrdlands?

Some Kind of Monster....and (to me) it just doesn't get any easier to watch after all these years.

Watching Duran Duran A Hollywood High.... not sure why cos they didn't appeal to me back in my early hormonal youth in their peak period so I didn't expect them to now, but nostalgia I guess. Its mainly a boutique concert. The singer, bass player and drummer seem like quite nice blokes in the interviews, but that said...now I don't like to call any music awful, but this is truly hard to listen to. I shoulda known I suppose. Oh well.

The second single seems OK to me - reminiscent of some stuff from c 1970.

Just watched Gimme Danger (I've watched it once before but it didn't feel familiar - must have been a while). Ron Asheton & J.Mascis among my very favourite guitarists ever so this was cool. My band has a gig on Friday night and suddenly I feel very ready to rock. 🤘

Us+Them is on TV, they are calling it a documentary but really its not (probly just as well...) but rather a concert. Pretty good set, great special effects with 'floating' power station, and no doubt the sound would have been amazing live. Doesn't really compare with a Gilmour concert of same era (say @ Pompeii) but I guess there's the non-musical aspects that Waters' crowd digs rather than just pure majesty of music. Not bad, I wouldn't watch again, but quite enjoyable as a one-off.

That's impressive!

How many hours of your time working is required to purchase X is the thing. Over the years some things cost less hours of your labour and some cost more. Now with people living to such old age a challenge arises...people still need things/services but many are perhaps not working for maybe 30 years? Difficult.

needs more relic'ing...

No, I meant giggling at the idea that they might ever be considered part of a socialist establishment...they sure ain't that.

Private equity company KKR (the owners of Gibson) would be giggling if they ever bothered to visit here.

have the prices really risen that much? - i read that in the 2018 catalog for US models (not custom shop) prices were $1000-$3500. Checking the range now it seems $1000-$3000. For those (like me) outside the USA exchange rates and shipping costs are obviously considerations, but its not necessarily inflation if US buyers are paying same as 5 years ago for US made product.