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Post by impulse on Jan 24, 2022 15:40:58 GMT -5
Man, you guys have some nice guitars. One day I'd love to have enough guitars that I never have to change tuning again.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 24, 2022 16:32:51 GMT -5
Man, you guys have some nice guitars. One day I'd love to have enough guitars that I never have to change tuning again.
Thanks, but I haven't even gotten around to posting "the good stuff" yet!
One thing's for sure though. Over the course of the last 25 years I have learned a lot about guitar maintenance, repair and set-ups. I do it all myself... everything short of full re-fret jobs. I leave that to the pros. I even have several Nashville-area musicians come to me for set-up jobs, tweaks and minor electronics work (pickup installs, pots, wiring & switch installs, etc).
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 24, 2022 16:37:49 GMT -5
Most listened to songs of 2021 # 62 - Mr. Bojangles - Jerry Jeff WalkerI talked about this one when JJW passed away in 2020 and in last years list. So what more is there to add. Walker penned an American classic that has worked its way in to the lexicon of great songs. This, along with Arlo Guthrie's version of "City of New Orleans" were big favorites of mine as a kid in the 4th grade. Back then, I didn't understand how a dog "up and died" though... it was just my lack of understanding of the use of the word "up" in the phrase. I also wondered if he was dancing in his birthday suit, since he "shook back his clothes all around". As a kid, the mind's eye can see some weird things when interpreting lyrics in a literal sense! Later, I figured it just meant that he shook his jacket and possibly his shirt off.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,571
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Post by Confessor on Jan 24, 2022 18:02:11 GMT -5
Talking of guitars, I put my Martin DM acoustic guitar away at the end of a gig on Dec 12th last year. I next got it out of its case to play at a gig last week and it was still in tune! I didn't have to touch it at all. Damn, I love Martins: such great sounding, great playing and wonderfully reliable guitars.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 24, 2022 18:08:17 GMT -5
Talking of guitars, I put my Martin DM acoustic guitar away at the end of a gig on Dec 12th last year. I next got it out of its case to play at a gig last week and it was still in tune! I didn't have to touch it at all. Damn, I love Martins: such great sounding, great playing and wonderfully reliable guitars. If you're not playing an original song, please tell me you're playing a Davey Graham or Richard Thompson tune in that pic...
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,571
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Post by Confessor on Jan 24, 2022 18:15:22 GMT -5
Talking of guitars, I put my Martin DM acoustic guitar away at the end of a gig on Dec 12th last year. I next got it out of its case to play at a gig last week and it was still in tune! I didn't have to touch it at all. Damn, I love Martins: such great sounding, great playing and wonderfully reliable guitars. If you're not playing an original song, please tell me you're playing a Davey Graham or Richard Thompson tune in that pic... Ha! While I did play a couple of originals and a couple of folkier things (the traditional folk song "John Riley" and "Codine" by Buffy St Marie), I think I'm actually in the middle of doing "Cinnamon Girl" by Neil Young in the photo, judging by my hands (double drop-D tuning ).
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2022 18:25:06 GMT -5
First off, anybody sporting an MC5 t-shirt wins the coolness award in my book, and also a very nice Martin Confessor! I'm also enjoying the amazing gear rundown by tartanphantom (if we haven't gotten to the "good stuff" yet, holy cow), and I wasn't originally going to post this, but what the heck, since we're having some fun here's a snapshot of some of the old collection. And yes, clearly I'm a very classy musician as established earlier.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 24, 2022 18:41:00 GMT -5
First off, anybody sporting an MC5 t-shirt wins the coolness award in my book, and also a very nice Martin Confessor ! I'm also enjoying the amazing gear rundown by tartanphantom (if we haven't gotten to the "good stuff" yet, holy cow), and I wasn't originally going to post this, but what the heck, since we're having some fun here's a snapshot of some of the old collection. And yes, clearly I'm a very classy musician as established earlier.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2022 18:49:55 GMT -5
I used to hold my head upside down and Aquanet the heck out of it before gigs to get that effect.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 25, 2022 9:21:29 GMT -5
Most listened to songs of 2021
# 61 - Country My Ass - Dale Watson
Dale Watson is an unapologetically old-school country guy. And he unreservedly hates popular radio country. And you have to love him for both. He also admits that the writing of the first verse of this song was "sour grapes" about getting bumped from the televised portion of The Grand Old Opry for some snot-nosed flash-in-the-pan. So that's a fun thing.
I know that Dale would recognize that there's a lot of great country music out there. You're just not going to find it on the radio or on TV.
This live video is great. Watson, just has to amazing live. Song is maybe not entirely safe for work.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 26, 2022 11:01:31 GMT -5
Most listened to songs of 2021
# 60 - Rake - Townes Van Zandt
Off Townes' 1971 album Delta Momma Blues, this one was written earlier because I've seen indications of Townes playing it as early as 1969. This is just a beautiful, dark, haunting song that shows off Townes at his peak as a writer. If there's a problem, it's with over-production, which was a general problem with Townes' early albums. This one is maybe not as egregious as Jack Clement's production on the early albums that they did in Nashville, but Townes always benefitted from a stripped-down gritty sound.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 27, 2022 10:28:39 GMT -5
Most listened to songs of 2021
# 59 - Georgia on My Mind - Ray Charles
There's a reason they called Ray Charles "The Genius." This was always a beautiful composition by Hoagy Charmichael and Stuart Gorrell. But Brother Ray transformed it in to a thing of almost otherworldly beauty. It's not every performer who can have their specific rendition of a song become a state song. And while Charles always absolutely killed on this song live, there is just something special about the 1960 version from his album "The Genius Hits the Road."
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 28, 2022 0:10:49 GMT -5
Most listened to songs of 2021 # 59 - Georgia on My Mind - Ray Charles There's a reason they called Ray Charles "The Genius." This was always a beautiful composition by Hoagy Charmichael and Stuart Gorrell. But Brother Ray transformed it in to a thing of almost otherworldly beauty. It's not every performer who can have their specific rendition of a song become a state song. And while Charles always absolutely killed on this song live, there is just something special about the 1960 version from his album "The Genius Hits the Road." As much as I love brother Ray's version, over the years I've come to slightly prefer Jerry Reed's version (another Georgia native). Sure, it doesn't have the window dressing of the great backing vocals or the orchestral arrangement, nor does it have the power of Ray's delivery... but man, it is heartfelt, laid back and as expected, Jerry's picking is impeccable.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 28, 2022 11:25:37 GMT -5
Most listened to songs of 2021
# 58 - Drunken Poet's Dream - Hayes Carll
This song was co-written by Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard and appeared on Carll's 2008 album "Trouble in Mind." Hubbard's version would appear in 2010. That 2008 album was a break-out for Carll and would mark him as one of the better young singer-songwriters in the Americana movement. This song, really has Hubbard's fingerprints all over it, though.
I like Carll a fair bit and this song is great...but Steve Earle's diss of Carll will never not be funny as all hell.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 28, 2022 21:20:49 GMT -5
Tartanphantom's Guitar Roundup, Part III
This post is covers another group of miscellaneous electric models in the Tartanphantom menagerie-- most of these are a little upscale from the instruments in the previous posts, but they are still by and large gigging workhorses. So buckle up, @jaska and Confessor , things are getting interesting.
First up is the first electric guitar I ever owned--
1979 Electra MPC X-340 model-- In 1985, I was fresh out of college with a BBA degree in hand and working my first full-time post-college job in Memphis, TN. I was completely new to the city, and didn't know a soul. I had my own frugal 1-bedroom "bachelor pad", and when I wasn't working I had a lot of time on my hands.
I had played drums and percussion instruments from 9th grade onward, all the way through college, including playing not only in marching and concert/symphonic bands, but also served as drummer in stage/jazz band throughout high school and college. I originally wanted to major in music, but thankfully my parents talked me out of it and I pursued a degree in Banking & Finance instead, which has provided for a rewarding career over the years. Anyway, there was no way that I could play or practice any sort of drumming in my apartment... this was the mid-'80s, and electronic sets were few and far between and very expensive. Instead, I decided to take up and learn guitar. I could also sing, play mallet percussion instruments.. I could sight-read music fairly proficiently and I understood basic music theory, so my musical experience wasn't limited to just drums. One day, I drove down to Bob Fisher's Music on Summer Avenue in Memphis... after much discussion with him, I walked out with a new Alvarez acoustic guitar, a couple of Mel Bay books, a small Peavey Backstage 30 amp, and this:
The Electra MPC series was made in Japan by Matsumoku for St. Louis Music-- a big player in the '70s and '80s. SLM was also responsible for Crate amps as well as the revival of the Ampeg amp line. The MPC line was the crown jewel of the Electra guitar line, and was quite revolutionary for its time. These guitars were built as well as the much-lauded Yamaha SG series electrics, and their quality and playability are comparable. The MPC series featured a modular onboard effects system wherein various modules could be swapped for different effects combinations. I won't go into details, but instead, this old catalog page will give you some of the details:
Here's another favorite, my 2006 Squier Telecaster-- heavily modified by myself.
Next is another oddity-- 2005 Dean Psychobilly "Cabbie" model. This one was only made for a few years by Dean. The finish (banana yellow with checkerboard sides and blackout hardware) is completely stock... I just added the goofy sticker (one of my band logos), aftermarket split-coil pickups and re-wired it with push-pull pots for the coil split funcitons. A second photo is included on this one so that you can better see the paint scheme.
Now we come to the 2007 DiPinto Belvedere. This semi-hollow is loaded with Gibson Firebird pickups and an extremely trailer-park-trash original cosmetics-- there's nothing quite like the chintzy appeal of a "mother-of-toilet seat" pick guard! And yes, even this one gets gig-time!
Here's my trifecta of the original Squier '51 series. The '51 was a moderately-priced Squier-exclusive model produced from 2004 to 2006. These guitars featured a P-bass style body married to a Tele style neck. They were available in three original finishes-- Black, Blonde and Sunburst. During the mid-2000's these guitars became quite popular as modding platforms, and original stock models are somewhat scarce. I did modify the electronics on the sunburst and the black model, as well as give them new custom pick guards, but the blonde model is bone-stock OEM. These guitars feature a volume control, a 3-way rotary pickup switch, and NO tone control... incredibly fun to play!
Now we come to a pair of nice Yamaha instruments--
2003 Yamaha SGV800-- aka the "Flying Samurai" or "Flying Katana" model. This is a modernized reissue of the original late-'60s Yamaha SG2A model.
Another hard-to-come-by guitar, the SGV800 became extremely popular with the surf-guitar crowd several years back, due to its super-smooth floating vibrato and the Mosrite-flavored pickups.
Another seldom-seen Yamaha model is the SA503TVL Troy Van Leeuwen model-- also produced for just a few years (mine is a 2008 model). The guitar is semi-hollow with a solid mahogany centerblock... it will "sustain for days", as the phrase goes. Loaded with three P90 pickups and an all-way switching system that allows the pickups to be selected in all possible combinations.
I'm closing this post with the 2003 Carlo Robelli CRB1955 model. The backstory on this one is a bit unusual. If you're thinking that it looks a lot like a Gretsch, there's a reason for that. The guitar was built by Peerless Guitars of Korea as a house-brand instrument for Sam Ash Music. Interestingly, Peerless used the same build foundation for a limited-run Gretsch model, the G3131 Streamliner.
That brings this edition of the Roundup to a close... still much more to come!
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