Sunday, April 29, 2007

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 ...

2 comments:

Erica said...

There was a big article in the New Yorker last week about Ken Parker... unfortch only the excerpt is available online. The Fly looks gorgeous, wonder how it sounds. He said Joni Mitchell said "it looks like something you find washed up on the beach." Someone else said "why's it have to look like an assault rifle!" Parker said, you think these rock guys would be all progressive, but they all want their guitars to look like a Les Paul. "That kid with the purple mohawk, he won't play anything that wasn't around in 1960 -- kid, you weren't even around in 1960!"

Erica said...

Oh, here is the audio version, "with lots of guitar clip samples to illustrate"

http://www.newyorker.com/mp3/2007/05/14/070514_theperfectwave.mp3