A Portrait of the Dumbass as an Old Man

Where The Hell's The Continuity?

So, reading thru the recently tres spotty blog, I know that all Inquiring Minds would Want To Know that:

I got my 1961 Gibson Les Paul Jr (Ur-SG) back from RS GuitarWorks about a month ago. They did an amazing job for $200. You cannot tell there was ever any problem with the head. There is some black on the back of the head/neck junction, very professionally blended, that didn't used to be there. But, RS got the guitar through Blackrider Guitars, my local guitar shop, who told them (incorrectly) to minimize cost. I think that the Blackrider guys told them that because we had a Pricing Contention incident. They had been charged with getting my ~50 year-old Multikord 6-string ghetto pedal steel back into working condition, which primarily involved replacing a dead pickup. They had quoted me what I thought was a Fixed Price. But they put in a normal guitar pickup, whose screws did not line up with the pedal steel strings, because the neck is wider, leaving me with a somewhat dead high E string (the ghetto pedal steel I tune to an open E chord). So after replacing the normal guitar pickup with a bar pickup, which greatly helped the "somethat dead high E string" problem, I refused to pay The Amount Invoiced, based on the fact that I thought I had been given a Fixed Price Quotation for a solution.

In the interim, while waiting for my SG, I bought from Lindsay Olive, the alpha guitarist of the Lynagh's "We're Here For The Party Band" crowd, a 1978 blond Fender Telecaster. In ~ 1967 I had a chance to buy a blond Tele for $100 -- but I didn't have $100 then, and ever since, I have always wanted a blond Tele to go with my cherry Gibson. So I now have one. Odd tho, for a few years there, Fender was making these from virgin-growth Canadian ash, and the guitar's heavier than I would like, but, great Tele tone.

I have also convinced my wife that my guitar buying has been greatly suppressed from what it should have been for the last 20-30 years. So, I now need to buy, I think maybe every year or two:

• a Fender Stratocaster, not sure what color;
• a Gibson Les Paul, sunburst I think;
• a Gibson ES-335 (semi-hollow thin, like B.B. King plays). Richard Zvonar, founder of Salamander, played one of these, cherry;
• a Parker, like T.D. plays ("fly" model?);
• a Gretch; Blackrider has a bunch of Chet Atkins just in; that or a Tennessean or a Country Gentleman;
• maybe a Gibson Firebird; I have twice played in bands where the other guitarist played one of these;
• maybe a Paul Reed Smith; these are pretty guitars;

Also, POI, I have not had a cigarette since 4/23/7 at 7:30 am. Today is the 1st day I haven't worked since then and by far the worst day. It's like, relaxing, chillin', goddamn, I want a smoke!!! I've been drinking heavily in the evenings -- drinking you can't start til the evenings, smoking you can do anytime -- I started a little early today (5:30), hopefully will pass out soon, then back to work tomorrow, easy to ignore urge to smoke there ...