BS: This Thread Is Open.

Subject: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 18 May 15 - 01:13 PM

It's a nice bright sunny spring day...

..no harm in being open to positivity for a change...😜

.. and don't this thread title already make mudcat look a friendlier & more inviting place...???


So despite all the bleakest shite life can throw at us.....

=====================================================================

Me ?, I'm sort of feeling an open vibe
because the mrs has just agreed I can buy a new 'power user' specced computer,
so I've now nearly got all the gear I need to start recording my assault
on trad folk music......

then within hours, the big old microwave combi oven completely packed up,
so we'll have to buy a replacement for that first.. oh well...

but it was a pleasant experience to feel positive for a short while....
===================================================================
Right then, this is all your thread now..
do what the **** you like with it.....

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 May 15 - 01:22 PM

Is it open as in open for business, open as in not secretive or open source? Or some other meaning. Maybe to do with golf...

Whichever, yes, positive is good. As long as negative does not take offense at that.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,Pete from seven stars link
Date: 18 May 15 - 01:23 PM

.....Murphy's law..,!

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 18 May 15 - 01:24 PM

It's a nice bright sunny day in The Backwoods of Lincolnshire too, now that this morning's rain (for which I was grateful, having just put weed 'n' feed granules down on my lawns, which needed watering in) has moved away.

I'm a happy bunny, having got my Lowden back from the Lowden workshop, replete with a new truss-rod, fingerboard, nut and saddles - playing and sounding better than ever. Cost a packet but, hey, some things just gotta be done! 👍

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 18 May 15 - 01:39 PM

I love the concept of "open". Me and the better half are planting veg tomorrow and I am open to a new plan for the root veg. Built a raised bed last autumn and all root veg will go there.
Tomorrow I have to cook for six, I am open to suggestions.
Great concept, hope it stays "open" and positive.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 18 May 15 - 01:55 PM

Sorry to be like Eeyore, but I don't think that it will take long for it to be changed into a thread that is ripe for closing.

Hope I am proved wrong.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 18 May 15 - 02:03 PM

what electrics have you got in the lowden, johnny?

i never really loved the lowden enough to buy one. then this guy down here, Mik Parsons ( he wrote the folksong for the Portland Bill kids tv program) showed me this sort of Lowden called Avalon. very expensive -two and half grand, and I really loved it. that was the gold series - its got Lowden belly but a sort of gibson j45 neck.

after that i bought a cheaper silver series - more for the white hiscox case than anything. i think the sides are laminate. nice guitar though - probably as near to a lowden as I'll ever get. I daren't take it out to gig as you need gynaecologists fingers to change the battery.

did three gigs last week with the trusty yamahas. I had retired then the central heating boiler went west so I am wearilly treading the boards once again. theres a lot of acoustic work down south, and every ten yards you come to a village with some sort of festival. you'd like it!

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Musket
Date: 18 May 15 - 03:33 PM

Nice to hear Uncle George has returned the Irish plank. Hope he did you proud. Don't forget, The next time you get a 24 pass, to bring it over to Ep'th.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: gnu
Date: 18 May 15 - 07:14 PM

Lovely thread. Doug.... as for trolls and such degrading it... only if you let them. There is an old tradition at Mudcat... overwhelm them with comical and even inane posts until they give up trying to be Ahole attention getters. Old Mudcat saying... ignore the trolls.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 18 May 15 - 08:11 PM

A thread without any vi-troll?
Sounds like a good idea to me.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 May 15 - 02:33 AM

Al - I have K&Ks in all my guitars and mandolin - passive, very 'natural' acoustic-sounding, no quack, no ugly barn-doors, no heavy batteries that can leak. I use an outboard Orchid pre-amp if I'm going to a PA or, if I'm using my Roland AC60 acoustic amp, I just plug straight in to the instrument channel. They all sound excellent.

Instruments are very much a personal thing, we all like what we like and nobody can tell anyone else what they **should** like, IMHO. I have three Martins and a Lowden and I love them all, absolutely no desire for anything else (except maybe a Jim Olson, but I'll never be able to afford one of those!). It's "Pay yer money and take yer pick" isn't it?

Musket - they did a great job at GLG, they even replaced the old unbound FB with an ebony-bound one, very smooth and very nice. I'll present it for your perusal next time I get to The Mowbray.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 May 15 - 03:16 AM

As long as we try to remember that "troll" does not mean the same as "a person who dares to disagree out loud with me". Several self-appointed anti-trollers have form in that regard. Cast out the plank. Anyway, back to the fun...

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 May 15 - 03:18 AM

I found 330 4-leaf* clovers in a space about 6 square yards. In 2 hours, between showers.
Was that lucky?


* I say 4-leaf, quite a few were 5-leaf and some 6-leaf.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Stu
Date: 19 May 15 - 03:33 AM

Rumour on our street is there is a pair of Goldcrests nesting in a tree in one of the front gardens. I'm going to have a look when I walk past this morning. To see one would be pure joy!

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 15 - 03:36 AM

"* I say 4-leaf, quite a few were 5-leaf and some 6-leaf."

errrmmm.. do you live near a nuclear power station or biohazard disposal plant ???

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Musket
Date: 19 May 15 - 03:42 AM

If you grow grass in your shower, you need a cleaner with bleach in it.

BWM. I'll bring the magnifying glass. I had been considering an Uncle George as an every day guitar for when I get bored with the Rainsong. To date, that hasn't happened. My time with the Rookery's Collings does make me look admiringly at your HD28V that it is based on.

So many guitars. So few places to stick 'em!! I must have a clear out. EBay perhaps, but never sold anything on it before.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 May 15 - 03:48 AM

Never sold a guitar on EBay, but I've sold a few other odds & sods - a soundhole pickup, a DI box, my old sailing-jacket and salvo petted. Didn't hit any problems but I'd be nervous trying to sell anything expensive on there.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 May 15 - 03:51 AM

'Salvo petted'? WTF? When I typed it and read what I'd typed, it said 'salopettes'.

Shitty f***ing iPad predictive text - f**k off! 😡

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 May 15 - 04:01 AM

I've sold three guitars on eBay - a custom classical guitar, an acoustic/electric bass guitar and a G&L ASAT (bit like a Fender Tele) - and had no problem whatsoever. All good, honest buyers and good payers. Packaging was a pain - wrapping a solid case in plastic and tape took for ever - but all went OK.

I've only ever bought one on eBay - and it was a 1961 Otwin, an East German jazz guitar by luthier Othmar Windisch - just because it was like one I bought in 1968. It was as cheap as chips, and I fitted it with a floating Kent Armstrong mini-humbucker p/up - sounded sweet!

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 May 15 - 04:05 AM

My hero, Will - I admire your courage! 👍

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Musket
Date: 19 May 15 - 04:11 AM

It isn't the expensive ones I was thinking about. A Yamaha APX4-12 (one went for £300 the other month which pleasantly surprised me) a Jim Harley dreadnought and possibly a LAG copy of the Maccaferi petit bouche. A few hundred at most between them. Make way for a decent big name to complement the three I usually use. Rainsong, Eastman and Albert Special (Reiner to everyone else.)

I might look at offloading a couple of unused electrics too.. Especially the Pacifica that hasn't been used in anger for many years now.

Sorry. Thread drift. If that's possible on this thread??

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 May 15 - 04:29 AM

The only possible unwanted drift in this nebulous in scope thread
would probably be negativity and closed mindedness...😉


In my 40s I bought a ridiculous number of cheap guitars off ebay
with very few real problems...

.. seemed like a good idea at the time...

Now I'm not too far off 60, and the quality of life in our house is suffering
due to my years of unreasonable OCD collecting & hoarding.
I also may soon need to investigate selling most of 'em off...

errr.. for example..

.. did I really need nearly every pickup configeration variant of the "Switch Vibracell Futera "...???


.. well... obviously... yes... of course I did...!!!!😎

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 May 15 - 04:59 AM

"Futura" not "Futera"....

can't blame predictive spelling, just my shite typing...

you can laugh at the "Burns Flyte" inspired body shape,
but not a bad sound for 'revolutionary' dense plastic foam synthetic 'tonewood'...

Shame most guitarists are generally such a conservative bunch of fender/gibson clone lovers
that nobody bought them at full retail price and the company went bust..

still... on the other hand I wouldn't have picked one up off ebay for 50 quid...😜

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 May 15 - 07:45 AM

well this is it. people get very snotty about my approach to folk music - say i'm prostituting myself playing in pubs, etc. i've heard it all in folk clubs and read it all on mudcat.

however doing it for money does impose a sort of discipline. you buy the guitar you need for the best price. and when the need finishes - you move on , take the hit - cos you always lose on the deal, and get the next guitar that will put food on the table.

yes , you could cry when you think of some of the guitars you let go for nothing. cry when you think of some of the classic guitars you could have bought for just that extra couple of hundred quid - but you just bought the cheapest that would do the job.

of course you don't get it right. unless you're a millionaire - i guess no one does.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 May 15 - 07:55 AM

I think my GAS is in remission. I haven't bought a guitar for a couple of years and I even passed up on one Hagstrom J-45 and one Daion THE80W. I would like to try one of the dreadnought Rainsongs though (not the OM-size one).

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 May 15 - 08:45 AM

Yep, I played cheapo guitars for donkeys' years, Al - mostly Yams, but also a Tanglewood and a Heartwood (The Music Room's 'own label' range). But I don't feel any need to apologise to anyone for picking up a few pricier ones in the past ten or fifteen years - I worked and paid my taxes for fifty years, paid off my mortgage, raised my kids, paid for my divorce and my second wedding,nI've never smoked, I don't drink alcohol (medical necessity), I don't run expensive cars, I haven't got a motor-home or a caravan, I don't have a Harley, I don't spend fortunes on expensive clothes....but I like what I consider to be nice guitars and mandos.

I guess we all have our weaknesses! 👍😄

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: ranger1
Date: 19 May 15 - 08:47 AM

Stu, I had to look up what a goldcrest was. What a delightful little bird! Very similar to our golden-crowned kinglets here in the northeastern part of North America. Hope you get to see them!

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 19 May 15 - 09:20 AM

HI

A positive thread eh?

I had my share to "guitaritis" ( buying guitars you don't actually need !!) but a few years ago I decided to stop and sold several leaving me a couple of cheapo's to mess about on. Like Al I didn't make anything on them.

But the buying bug didn't go away. Now I buy Photography equipment and this can be far more expensive than music making.

I can afford it and my good lady is supportive so hey life is great !!

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 May 15 - 09:27 AM

Oh yes indeed Mike!

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 15 - 09:27 AM

Quickly, before some Mudcat-ette can as the question:

I daren't take it out to gig as you need gynaecologists fingers to change the battery.

You mean you have to hold your hands in ICE WATER before a
battery change?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 May 15 - 09:41 AM

I heard a definition of gynecologist as a person who could decorate an entrance hall through the letter box.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 May 15 - 09:44 AM

About 3 in the afternoon, 2 days ago, I was on the phone to my old mum [she's 83]
looked out the kitchen back window
and came face to face with a Great Tit 'hovering' a few inches away outside..

[I say 'Great Tit' because it had a black cap to the top of it's head
and the picture on an internet identification site was the nearest resemblance..
plus I had all the required "Ladybird" books when I was a small kid]

I instinctively held the phone up to the window to show my mum,
then realised I was holding the dumb BT dect handset,
not a smart cam phone...


Too be honest, I was surprised to see any kind of bird out there,
due to the mob of cats that patrol our back wall.

It was a bit scrawny looking, so hunger must have made it risk coming down
rooting for food in the purply pink flowers under the window.

I have a 12 string 1980s Washburn Heavy Metal guitar
the same bright yellow as that tit's breast plumage.😎

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Stu
Date: 19 May 15 - 09:47 AM

" Hope you get to see them!"

They're our smallest bird, but exquisite and very similar to your Kinglets (thanks for the link). First look this morning and no sightings. They're only a few gardens away so I'll look into treats for the bird table that might attract them.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Amos
Date: 19 May 15 - 10:11 AM

My old Martin D-35 is my ultimate resource in times of trouble, or noodling at home. When I go out to play, I take my Apollo, built by Nick Appolonio in Portland, Maine, a guitar I love. In the wall of my living room there are three guitars hanging side by side, looking very beautiful--the Martin, a classical Spanish style I inherited from a dear brother, and an old 12-string I picked up for $200 long ago, seldom played.

Oh, and speaking of positive vibes, I now have an electric guitar! Who would ever have thought? A gift from Barky!! An Epiphone KrazyKat, I think it is. Fun to fool with. It has a bend-bar which makes it go wah-wah, and ruins the tuning when used. Clever, eh?


Sunshine and light winds in a blue4 sky. Life is simply the best alternative!

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 May 15 - 10:32 AM

my view has always been,
for the price of one excellent custom shop guitar,
somebody else can buy a pretty decent second hand car...

or I can buy anywhere between 10 to 20 or more completely adequate cheap ebay guitars.

All of 'em fit for purpose as gigging and recording instruments.😎

Maybe when I'm 60 or 65 I might think about disposing of my 'collection'
and putting any money into one or 2 'proper' guitars
like a genuine USA made Telecaster and Les Paul.

Primarily just to claw back living space,
definitely if we move into a smaller retirement home.
Besides if I were to drop dead before then
the mrs would be faced with an overwhelming task
clearing out all my accumulated gear.

Though I'm still checking ebay,
what I really desire more than any other guitar
is a late 70s/early 80s Yamaha SG1000/2000

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Musket
Date: 19 May 15 - 10:42 AM

Bridge. I tried most Rainsongs before settling on the OM1000. It is the best of the bunch by a long shot. I was lucky enough to get the N1 solid neck before they stopped doing them, and with the optional LR Baggs electrics, it is my guitar of choice for gigging, especially plugged in. It is not only the smallest and lightest guitar I have, but is also the loudest. The clarity is stunning. Depends what you do really. It isn't a flat picking guitar to be fair, and if I flat picked more, I'd consider a dread from the same stable.

Like BWM, I can indulge myself these days and yes, as a nipper, it was a cheap Yamaha F series for folk clubs and cheap Yamaha Pacifica for the rock band. I bought a solid top, back & sides Jim Harley thirty years ago after saving up, (babies, mortgage....) and still have it to this day. Most of my collection has been over the last five years. I wouldn't gig with many of them, and wrap them in cotton wool a bit. Noodling guitars really. Perhaps local folk clubs, but never on stage.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 May 15 - 11:26 AM

yes the sg was nice. it had these knobs that not only went round - allegedly if you pulled the knob out - you turned the guitar from a les paul into rickenbacker.

thats the trouble with yamaha - lots of good ideas for guitars - they change their models too often. they have now brought out a great model which requires no battery. no stability.

and they haven't brought a cedar topped model for yonks.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 May 15 - 11:41 AM

I gig with any and all of my guitars - they're insured for stage use, theft (including being left in an unattended vehicle) etc., and I have £1m PL cover with the policy. If some drunken buffoon knocks one off its stand (and I had that happen to a Gibson ES330 at the Lumpers Club in Grimsby many years ago!) it'll be repaired or replaced, and if an old dear trips over the case and breaks her leg, I'm covered.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 May 15 - 12:15 PM

I learned a bit of a lesson
when a mate of mine back in London was suddenly diagnosed with cancer
and died a few short weeks later.

He was in his early 30s and gigged every week in a very popular pub 'classic rock' covers band.

His workhorse guitar was a Squier Strat, but he saved all his cash
for a dream guitar brand new Rickenbacker.

Which he managed to buy only months before he died.

Trouble was, he couldn't then afford insurance and daren't risk gigging it
in rowdy London music pubs.

In fact other members of the band weren't even allowed to touch it
when he showed it to them in his bedroom.

He was finally laid out in his coffin with his prized Epiphone Everly Brothers acoustic;
which may have been cremated with him..

Dunno whatever happened to the Rickenbacker ????

Anyway, the lesson I learned was there's not much point in owning mega expensive dream guitars
you are too afraid to risk scratching and denting.

Hence my love of cheap 2nd hand battle scarred well worn in cast offs,
and my limit of never spending more than £200 on a single brand new guitar;
unless exceptional circumstances when I went up to £350 ish
on a few rare occasions.

eg.. original retail £900 knocked down to a third of the price in a flash clearance sale.

Mind, I've got my eyes on the Fender Coronado reissue
which still hasn't budged from extortionate 600 quid....

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 May 15 - 12:26 PM

Anyway, the lesson I learned was there's not much point in owning mega expensive dream guitars you are too afraid to risk scratching and denting.

Too right. None of the guitars I gig regularly with cost less than £600 - most of them custom-made for me - and all of them show some signs of wear and tear.

They're for playing - not for pretty ornaments.

You can see them at:

My instruments

There are sub-pages under the main "Instruments" link.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Stu
Date: 19 May 15 - 12:58 PM

Guitars - yawn. Always dum-chucking their way loudly through lovely Irish tunes. Aural polyfiller happily trowled on by the million John Doyle wannabes.

Now an Irish bouzouki, there's an instrument.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 May 15 - 01:05 PM

but that's modern folk music...innit...???

8 to 16 over syncopated frenetic jazzy strums per bar
when just one good drawn out slow sustained strum
could do the job much more effectively...😜

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 May 15 - 01:10 PM

What a strange comment - as though guitars are only used to play folk music - and Irish folk music at that.

Here's what I do with mine:

Honeysuckle Rose

Don't think there'd be quite as much expression available with a bouzouki, somehow...

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 May 15 - 01:20 PM

errrmmm.. do you live near a nuclear power station or biohazard disposal plant ???
the incinerator hasn't been built yet.
Berkeley Power Station is being de-commissioned (nuclear, 20 miles) but there is a nuclear reactor irradiating the plants 14 hours a day at the moment. And judging by the plethora of quatrafoils this year (though not in all the usual places) I suspect that there is maybe less ozone above us right now. Or the fungii, insects, bacteria, or viruses have been more active this year with a warm spring and wet start to the summer. But 2015 is more prolific than (say) 2014 with the same nuclear power station the same distance away.

Yes it is a good year, this year. For many reasons.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Ed T
Date: 19 May 15 - 01:33 PM

Canadian Navy techs scour eBay for parts to keep 1970s vintage supply ships running:


Ebay 

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 May 15 - 02:09 PM

i'm reasonably careful with my guitars, but they all get bashed about.

i love the new epiphone reissues. they really are terrific value. there's a guy running an open mic in Dorchester who plays one of the hummingbird copies. its a really delightful guitar.

i couldn't resist the j200 copy. about 230 quid with fabulous electrics. mind you a decent case for it cost nearly 100.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Musket
Date: 19 May 15 - 02:20 PM

You could play football round the stage with my Rainsong. Although it is the musical width that accommodates all styles that makes it the gigging guitar. Over two grand mind, so I am not exactly keeping the expensive ones in cotton wool. Any road they all get to folk clubs. Just stage gigs with leads lying around and others walking round setting up where delicate guitars don't go. Had a few guitars go flying that way.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 May 15 - 04:38 PM

Then again there are the amps I no longer have.

HiFi - Radford SC22P and STA60. G-d they would be worth a load today

Guitar amps - a V-front Watkins dominator, a Linear 50, and a Selmer Bassist Major.

Ho hum.

And my Hornby Dublo 3-rail train set.

Oh, and the guitar I didn't buy because I was too scared of what my wife would say - a Watkins Rapier 4.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Amos
Date: 19 May 15 - 04:44 PM

I sometimes have to strain to remember, when too much polyfiller comes my way, that the thing I most like about people at open mics is the desire to make music and the courage to do so. This outweighs--most of the time--my occasional flinch at the dumchukkery to which they resort. I know for sure that if they knew a better arrangement they would use it, and the fact that they are standing up and singing forgives a great deal of error.

Subject: RE: BS: This Thread Is Open.
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 20 May 15 - 12:00 AM

I used to have a Watkins Dominator and a Linear 50 too, back in the 60s. And a Watkins Copycat echo-unit that used tape-loops like it was going out of fashion - at least three per gig. Jolly Sunday afternoons spent cutting up recording tape from a reel, and splicing it into loops for the following week's gigs and rehearsals. Couldn't afford the 'proper' shop-bought Watkins loops.