Print

[razgueado]

Slide guitar is increasingly important to Fumblewump, so I needed a guitar devoted to it. Playing slide requires higher action, bigger strings, and open tunings. At the same time, it's all about the strings, the pickups, and the slide, so fancy and expensive tonewoods are meaningless.

I have a number of electric guitars, but none that I was prepared to devote to these requirements.

A friend of mine offered these, already loaded with upgraded parts and set up correctly for what I needed. I ended up buying both for $800 - which by way of  comparison is less than a quarter the cost of my Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul, and less than a third the cost of my TMG Telecaster.

I wouldn't remotely consider either of these  for normal playing. I don't like the neck profile on either, I don't like the Pau Ferro fretboard on the Goldtop, and I don't like the ergonomics of the SG. But after thoroughly working them out over the weekend, they're going to be spectacular for slide.

[Travellin Dave]

We had a delightful weekend at my brother's and now it's back to hitting the pavement.

Looks like my 5-hour interview will be on Thursday. I sent the HR lady an email asking what the heck is going on and she just replied. Details are pending but at least I know it's not tomorrow.

Tell them your camera went out for a bit and have yourself a cigar or two.

[Travellin Dave]

Slide guitar is increasingly important to Fumblewump, so I needed a guitar devoted to it. Playing slide requires higher action, bigger strings, and open tunings. At the same time, it's all about the strings, the pickups, and the slide, so fancy and expensive tonewoods are meaningless.

I have a number of electric guitars, but none that I was prepared to devote to these requirements.

A friend of mine offered these, already loaded with upgraded parts and set up correctly for what I needed. I ended up buying both for $800 - which by way of  comparison is less than a quarter the cost of my Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul, and less than a third the cost of my TMG Telecaster.

I wouldn't remotely consider either of these  for normal playing. I don't like the neck profile on either, I don't like the Pau Ferro fretboard on the Goldtop, and I don't like the ergonomics of the SG. But after thoroughly working them out over the weekend, they're going to be spectacular for slide.

So they're perfect for the proper application.

[Travellin Dave]

Speaking of guitars and page 3...

[Travellin Dave]

Now page 3 for the rest of us.

[Travellin Dave]

Happy Birthday!

[Travellin Dave]

Slide guitar lull?

[razgueado]

Slide guitar is increasingly important to Fumblewump, so I needed a guitar devoted to it. Playing slide requires higher action, bigger strings, and open tunings. At the same time, it's all about the strings, the pickups, and the slide, so fancy and expensive tonewoods are meaningless.

I have a number of electric guitars, but none that I was prepared to devote to these requirements.

A friend of mine offered these, already loaded with upgraded parts and set up correctly for what I needed. I ended up buying both for $800 - which by way of  comparison is less than a quarter the cost of my Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul, and less than a third the cost of my TMG Telecaster.

I wouldn't remotely consider either of these  for normal playing. I don't like the neck profile on either, I don't like the Pau Ferro fretboard on the Goldtop, and I don't like the ergonomics of the SG. But after thoroughly working them out over the weekend, they're going to be spectacular for slide.

So they're perfect for the proper application.

Well, these will be fine for me for this application. Perfect? Ain't no such thing. Other players would find these perfect for any application. They are very good guitars, all things considered. But they aren't in the class of my main instruments for "normal" playing.

The experience of playing the guitar is very different for every player, and especially so the more skilled and "serious" a player is about the craft. Once a player starts spending a lot of time onstage or in the studio, everything gets intensely personal, and what works for one player in one genre of music doesn't work for another player or another genre.

Disposable income, for the serious player, doesn't factor in reliably to define what works. We have a pejorative title for players with more disposable income than skill, talent, or sense. We call them "guitar lawyers." They always have the finest and most expensive guitars, amps, and effects, and tend to sniff at what they consider to be "lesser" gear, but they aren't great players and spend most of their time putzing with gear alone at home. Guitar lawyers would flat out turn up their noses at these two guitars, and insist that I would sound SO much better playing slide on a guitar like my Gibson R9. But that's because they don't really understand physics, and they've spent more time buying and selling boutique gear to get the next "best" things than actually playing.

[razgueado]

Speaking of guitars and page 3...

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, in the first picture. I admire the heck out of Welch as a songwriter and Rawlings as a player. I met them at the Wintergrass festival here years ago and was impressed that Rawlings was so devoted to his old Epiphone Olympic guitar. It's not a common choice of instruments in the Bluegrass or Americana genres. He let me play the instrument, and that led me to seek one out. I never found one, but it did lead to this very similar instrument being gifted to me by a friend who is also a fan of Rawlings and Welch. Mine is a 1934 Orpheum, and it is an amazing and very unique instrument akin to Rawlings' Olympic.

[razgueado]

She ain't exactly our definition of a "Page 3 Girl," but since I'm in a guitar and music mindset, birthday girl Brittany Howard gets a shout-out. Alabama Shakes is a lovely counterpoint to the state of pop music.

https://youtu.be/Le-3MIBxQTw?si=l81ySsoE7IVS8f0O

[Travellin Dave]

She ain't exactly our definition of a "Page 3 Girl," but since I'm in a guitar and music mindset, birthday girl Brittany Howard gets a shout-out. Alabama Shakes is a lovely counterpoint to the state of pop music.

https://youtu.be/Le-3MIBxQTw?si=l81ySsoE7IVS8f0O

Yea, should have added her at a Raz Birthday Girl.

[LuvTooGolf]

She ain't exactly our definition of a "Page 3 Girl," but since I'm in a guitar and music mindset, birthday girl Brittany Howard gets a shout-out. Alabama Shakes is a lovely counterpoint to the state of pop music.

https://youtu.be/Le-3MIBxQTw?si=l81ySsoE7IVS8f0O

Yea, should have added her at a Raz Birthday Girl.

Still would've gotten 4.

[razgueado]

She ain't exactly our definition of a "Page 3 Girl," but since I'm in a guitar and music mindset, birthday girl Brittany Howard gets a shout-out. Alabama Shakes is a lovely counterpoint to the state of pop music.

https://youtu.be/Le-3MIBxQTw?si=l81ySsoE7IVS8f0O

Yea, should have added her at a Raz Birthday Girl.

She's something of a modern incarnation of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, right down to her choice of the Gibson SG as her instrument, and I'm happy to be associated with either in any way. ;-)

[razgueado]

Sister Rosetta, since I mentioned her.

If Chuck Berry is the Godfather of Rock N Roll, then Sister Rosetta is its Godmother.

https://youtu.be/Y9a49oFalZE?si=4h6E5I9Anbnv9lec

[LuvTooGolf]

Hazzuh!