NighthawkChris

Love Megadeth music mostly, but damn when I heard Dave close out Peace Sells live… cringe!

Thanks everyone, good advice all around. Sort of difficult to change eating habits and try to work some more exercise in the schedule, but I'll find a way to do it. I'm just trying to eek out as many fruitful years as I can to give to my children most importantly. If there's something I can get ahead of, this sounds like that something that I should be getting ahead of before I get issues with this stuff. I had other tests done too on my blood-work - blood sugar. etc... Those all came back acceptable, so have to be happy about that one! Thanks again though, stay healthy everyone!

I went to the doctor's office for my annual physical, and I got a lipid panel done. Results were not great unfortunately for me... I have high levels of triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and high LDL cholesterol. So the solution they have me looking into first is to adjust my diet and exercise to see if this helps - otherwise going on cholesterol meds. It may be genetic to how my body apparently manages cholesterol... I'm not a doctor, so forgive me on the fine details here... but these numbers seem to alarm my primary care doctor's office, so working on doing something to get better lab results next time I get a lipid panel done. So I was thinking about fast food this fine day while I'm having a salad for lunch - where I used to casually get a burger or taco at one of our favorite fast food places. I was doing a little reading on the interwebs here and decided to search for worst nutrition for fast food joints ranked - to make me feel better about eating my healthy, not as tasty salad for lunch. Of course this is somewhat subjective who's the worst to some extent, but there's no mystery, we have TONS and TONS of these places nearly everywhere we look selling us garbage food that kills us about the same rate that smoking cigarettes could do IMHO. What's worse, dying at 70 with COPD issues from cigarettes, or dying as a fat turd that has cardiovascular disease because of the massive amounts of cholesterol and fat these places serve us - for not even cheap prices today, the irony of it all. We are just fed a ton of garbage food, whether it be on every street corner or in the aisles of our grocery store. To me, it's almost like an epidemic. There's no mystery that fast food is addictive, an it's made convenient for us to pay for really, a bunch of empty calories. I usually found that in the rankings per my searches, it was a recurring theme to see McDonalds there, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Arbys... I even read that the "meat" isn't even pure meat these places use. I read about this a while back, but the claim resurfaced in my readings. Things that we even think might be OK such as lunch meats, pink hams (because of the sodium nitrate they are loaded up with), hot dogs... All horrible for us. Meat is NOT pink. It just "looks" better - thanks sodium nitrate! Sugars in nearly everything, and we even put corn-based sweeteners that are really worse because of the massive fructose content (interestingly enough, fructose is equivalent to alcohol in terms of how the body processes these - all done by the liver ONLY). Fructose I think somehow screws with our pancreases and the pancreas doesn't caloricize fructose... There's no feedback to you when you consume it to tell you, "You've had enough!" Again, trash food and trash components of the food we eat. There's my rant. Has anyone else banned themselves from eating any of this crap I mentioned for whatever reason? I admit, I think these foods taste good, but that doesn't equate to GOOD food. On the contrary, it actually can cause more issues than help if these are consumed regularly.

No problem man but I can’t answer that. I’m just a regular guy who contributes here when I feel fit. I do not have anything whatsoever to do with Gibson the company, or their affairs. My point was that this discussion will not resolve anything to do with your woes. I would think nothing intentional is being done to screw Italians from getting their Gibson coming from the US. Gibson the company deals with entities they authorize - typically don’t sell directly to individuals as myself. I go to Guitar Center, Sweetwater, local music shops, etc. - all authorized dealers.

Understood the frustration but nobody here is going to resolve how Italy gets its Gibsons. You’re doing the best you or anyone else not at Gibson could do.

@ghost_of_fl yeah, I laughed! America throws down the dollars for some football, doesn't it... What we pay for men who can carry an odd-shaped ball over a line on a field over and over and over again... What we - the people - value for these men... Now that college players can be paid or something like that now... Don't know much about it, but I think I heard about this somewhere. I don't pay much attention though to football. I understand the game and all that - watch a game here and there with my friends. But, I was one of those engineers in a classroom where the ceiling leaked every time it rained. I'm doing good today thankfully. So whatever though to these brave young lads who test their physical limits every time they step out on the field for a friendly game of football. Best of luck to them all! 😁 I feel like I should have ripped down the goalposts when I graduated with my degree, haha! Yeah! You like that!?

If it’s loose and can vibrate when played would be what I’d worry about with this one in terms of sound. But I’ll bet that guitar wasn’t cheap so depends what you’re willing to live with given an exchange or return is on the table for you. In all reality the guitar isn’t going to completely fall apart because of that. Good looking over on the acoustic though.

Agreed with fake conclusion - no doubt for me. Can the neck be made straight? There's hope if there is. To me, nearly anything with a guitar can be fixed - within reason here - if the neck is good. Give that ol' truss rod a crank and see if you get the targeted relief such as 0.012"-0.010" give or take a thou... With a good neck, you can get frets leveled where choking and buzzes can be eliminated. Hopefully no loose frets - just more work, but fixed for reasonable cost. But in sum, since this was inherited, you're playing with a counterfeit Gibson there. I wouldn't pay more than a couple hundred to make that guitar work given it needs fret work and the like (personally I would not want to entertain this project, but if I had to throw some bucks at this thing...). The guitar just isn't worth much more than a couple hundred give or take on the Chinese market. Not that I have been interested in a fake or anything like that... I just saw the sites where you might want to line one of these beauties up for yourself, haha! It has been my experience that people buy these and then pay more for the components a REAL Gibson has and dump them into said Chibson. THEN, they have to pay a luthier to fix sharp fret ends, loose frets, unlevel frets, poorly cut nut (usually 100% of the time some cheap plastic POS), etc. I find this to not be worth it. But if it is inherited, MAYBE it doesn't need as much work, but chances are it's in need of a luthier to make that guitar-shaped object work like a decent playing guitar.

I have been inspired to light up the neighborhood with some Morbid Angel. Hey at least it isn’t rap…

IMHO, custombuckers = awesome, awesome pickups. These and 57s are my favorite Gibson pickups - humbuckers that is. I’m general though I can’t think of Gibson pickups I tried I don’t care for - just like some more than others.

Lol I didn’t see the angry James pumpkin coming!

Aside from pushing a string down to the fretboard business, I’m one to believe that in the case of an electric guitar, whatever material makes up the fretboard will have no impact on the tone of the instrument. The main driver of one’s sound will be the pickups and amp on a properly setup guitar. Just saying… guitars aren’t really rocket science. The industry has put this notion into our heads that insignificant BS makes up your “tone mojo” that is demonstrably false. So many people online have had experiments to prove this to where even the electrical signals were compared after replacing only the neck. And what do you know, the signals look identical. It is what it is. I could say the same about the body, but we are talking fretboards haha! As far as aesthetics go, different story. Maple just looks right on certain guitars and wrong on others. Oddly enough to my eyes, RW doesn’t look that bad in more situations… The OP talked about fretboard material and perhaps implied how bends are easier? - threw that in for god knows why. What does maple or RW have to do with this? Radius makes a difference for sure with bends. If you had a RW or maple board with same radius, don’t believe anyone could tell the tonal difference given all other factors are the same - pickups, setup, radius, etc. Yeah maintain your RW. When it shrinks and expands, fret ends can show their ugly faces. It’s worse when you have binding on the neck and this happens. Don’t know what can be done other than don’t expose your guitar to dry environments. Lube it up all you want haha! So not getting my panties in a bunch here just that I feel I did enough exploration into this realm to look past the BS. I won’t pay extra for BS that is ineffectual.

@kidblast that 7.25” radius sounds awful. I heard they fret out with big bends but do bends take the string to the fretboard? And no haven’t tried a vintage-spec’d Strat. I like baseball bat Gibson 50s necks, but I’ll pass on some of those Fenders.

I was going to say… you shouldn’t be touching the fretboard really at all when bending notes… meaning the string shouldn’t actually ever touch the fretboard or the frets are too low. So I agree with @Dub-T-123

It’s an expensive and possibly sought after guitar right there. It is probably a prehistoric - a reissue made before the Custom Shop came about. That’s what you have. Call Gibson to get details to know more about your guitar and then when you see what the market is asking for others like yours, then you might have an idea how much it’s worth if you care about selling. Nice looking guitar BTW.

legit, no doubt

I agree with Trogly though. I’m going further and saying taking off the finish is a half off MINIMUM, automatic. That $5k plus guitar is probably worth about $2k at best - I’d go even less that they decided to sand off the S/N. Not that I’d want to front that price tag. I don’t buy guitars that have obviously been screwed with like that. Won’t even pose the question here haha! You know, like those guys that ask if a headstock repaired Gibson that’s listed is a good price. A lot of fish in the sea to be bothered with the likes of Tom foolery. But that’s just me, others’ MMV.

Haha! a $4500 LP Custom modded and they even got the tuners installed crooked. Sanded off the S/N... Listed in EXCELLENT condition. What a deal!

Survey says… return the guitar. Better luck next time. Sucks you have to deal with that crap for a guitar you probably were excited to pick up. Stick with it because you will eventually get the guitar you really like.

@Whitefang yeah, let's see what Stevie can do. He was may favorite player of all time. Class act, great star center. I was elated when I got his autograph back in the day.

@Sgt. Pepper with you about the social media stuff... I don't think it's as bad as it could be here - definitely not as bad as the "main" ones... Regarding hockey, glad you're a fan! I think playoff hockey is the most exciting/stressful thing to experience. Hoping to have that happen again some day for the RWs.

Lol yeah nothing like a good ol fashioned hockey brawl to get the spirits up. I like it when hockey players smile and reveal their lost front teeth haha! What knocked their teeth out back then, pucks or fists or both 😆

I know a lot of Americans don’t like hockey as much as other sports, but it to me is the best game on earth. Got to see some great hockey in the days of the Red Wings claiming Detroit was Hockeytown and stuff… I played too when I was a kid. When are the Leafs gonna win a cup? Feels like it’s been a while

@Dub-T-123 thanks for the compliments on the guitar. It’s my favorite looking guitar I have. I like it more than my R9 in this regard. The R9 feels better to play because it’s lighter and “the feel” is “better”, but I’m a sucker for Gibson’s triburst finish haha! Don’t get me wrong, 57 Classics and historical appointments and such… plays top notch, but if I had to pick a player… I got this one a little while back and still looks as good as the day I got it. It isn’t a case queen, but it stays home.

What isn’t expensive today? Everything from getting a fast food whatever to buying a house is a rip off. It’s just one big cash grab and another way the wealthy are inflicting the pain on those that don’t have. Guitars aren’t essential items, but things like guitars have been price hiked where they just don’t fit in any responsible person’s budget. When it costs me nearly $100 to fill up my truck with gas and that extra $100 a month for groceries and internet costs going up… what isn’t going up in price today? To boot, production is scaled back to increase demand/price… just a rigged game it feels like. More and more is becoming unaffordable - medical, dental, prescriptions, childcare… I haven’t had any inclination to buy any of the guitars out there because used or new - all overpriced. That’s just my perspective. I’ll bet some here share the sentiment.