Etienne Rambert

I am an accordion player' date=' and it is a beautiful instrument.  It really carries the stigma of being a "polka" instrument even though there are a lot of other styles of music that can be played.  I personally hate polka, so this is a bit discouraging.  Anybody else noticed this?

[/quote']Agree they are beautiful sounding instruments - very evocative and full of nostalgia.No need to come back. They are still here. Cajun dance music and esp., French / Italian music.Play that stuff and make beautiful music. To hell w/ what American market wants.

All those people rickrolled? And they paid good money for it too. Isn't that a crime?

Zager has a simple formula:

 

Start with an average $200 Pac Rim guitar, something like a Samick.

Lower the action.

Put on extra light strings.

Mark the price up a couple of hundred percent.

Represent this product as a miracle of modern science and craftsmanship, worthy of the exorbitant price.

Exploit all available media resources to build this image by flooding them with fake endorsements and false praise.

Nuff said. :-)

I endorse Zager guitars. And I have come to praise them, not vilify them.

Chew on this Mr.Fret Fiend:

--------

"In the year 4545

You ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes

You won't find a thing to chew

Nobody's gonna look at you..."

----

They won't be looking at you because they won't have eyes Fret Fiend. But even so, that Zager guitar warranty will still be good. Mr. Zager himself will be there to back it up. How far out into the eons will your Martin carry you Fret Fiend? Not very damned far I'd bet. But Denny Zager will be right there, taking care of his sightless, toothless customers.

How many million selling records did Christian Fredrich Martin have? Not even one. So I rest my case.

I see a lot of spam here for these Zager guitars and how great they are.

But in every several acoustic guitar forums I visit (very reputable ones) they say that Zagers are kinda junky or of marginal quality' date=' sometimes having poor fretwork, so-so tone, etc, etc.

Is it possible that the other opinions are wrong?... or dead on correct?

From their website, they look pretty decent to me. But I have no personal experience with them, other than what I've read, which seems to be... well, not very enthusiastic, to say the least. Yet, at this place, I see folks who swear by them.

Admittedly, I don't hang in this forum as often as most of you, so maybe I'm missing a big joke here.

Anyway, here's your chance to sound off on these guitars. Your opinion will be just as valuable as the overt spammers that have plagued this forum.

So, here we go... let's put this to rest!

Zager guitars, yay?... or nay?

Inquiring minds want to know!

(poll to follow)


(Edit: I'm going to be buying a new dreadnaught with my tax return money and would consider a Zager if they're really as good as people claim.)
.

I don't have much time for music anymore. I'm in the gumbo trade. But I still dabble.

cE_5gCMqrH4

New apartment - new gear arrangement.

Wow TB. LOVE that F47! Love it! What a dream guitar!

*****

I picked up a new MIDI controller today.

Here's the front view of my cable spaghetti command center.

Another view (w/guitars):

(NB: the big arch-top & the cutaway Guild), beat anything I've ever played.)

From front: Vietnamese-A/E Classical, Vietnamese arch-top, 1988 Guild D-60, 1997 Guild F65ce.

It's sounding mighty-fine too, through that Roland AC60.

Let me know if you want Mr. Binh to make you one.

Definitely not. I like the logo. It's a great old brand.

Is that a bullet hole in the finger-board?

Do you mean a DV-52?

At Westerly Guild Guitars, I can find no mention of a D-52.

DV-52's are much loved and highly sought after Guilds.

Go to Let's Talk Guild and you'll read people raving about them.

DV-52's are among the most sought-after Guild flat-tops.

They're considered the equal of D-55's at a lower price.

This article is really worth reading. He deconstructs the song.

He quotes de Chirico as once saying,

"It is necessary to go about living in the world, as if in an immense museum of strangeness.

Obviously, I dissent from the literal interpretations.

Nhat Wilk II hit something on the symbolism of the sun

being the source of life and the moon being a dead reflection.

Streets full of people, all alone

Rows full of houses, never homes

Church full of singing, out of tune

Everyone's gone to the moon

Eyes full of sorrow, never wet

Hands full of money, all in debt

Sun coming out in the middle of June

Everyone's gone to the moon

Long time ago, life had begun

Everyone went to the sun

It's a simplistic view of a long time ago.

But the transition from a life focused on the sun

and a life focused on what nhat wilk referred to

as the "dead reflection" of the moon is there

in the lyrics.

But meaning, like beauty, is in the eye (or ear)

of the beholder.

The song to my ears, is as moving today, as it

was when I was a kid and heard it in my Dad's

car radio.

This is a very mysterious piece of work.

And that's what makes it art and I think, timeless.

--

http://60x50.blogspot.com/2008/05/sentimental-lunatic.html

Here is a serious article about the song, written by a kindred spirit to myself.

He loves de Chirico's work. My avatar is by de Chirico. He invokes de Chirico

in his critique of King's song. Both de Chirico's art and King's song are

replete with mystery.

His experience with Jonathan King's song was about the same as mine.

We were about the same age when we heard it.

De Chirico's "Gare Montparnasse" from the aricle:

He and I both come down firmly in the non-literalist camp. It does not mean we are correct and

Lee Flier and Lee Knight are wrong. It just means there are different schools of thought about this

song and all deserve serious consideration.

I think Jonathan King

Lee Knight, is "Gone to the Moon" slang for "barking mad"?

That would certainly explain the title.

Lee Knight:

Your wife is English, right? Is that part of the slang?

That adds something to the critique.

I think it's more beautiful and mysterious though. I don't see it as a political critique of wasteful spending on the space race. A critique of selfishness? Yes. A critique of modern life gone wrong? Yes.

Arms that can only lift a spoon, logically, cannot lift anything else.

"Only" is a universal. So that line indicates weakness, to me.

But Jonathan King was being a poet, not a logician.

Maybe he was referring to the weaknessand decadence of the well-born.

He went to Cambridge where he certainly learned about both logic and

the well-born.

If "Gone to the moon" is slang for what I've heard Brits call "barking mad", that explains a lot. But it doesn't explain everything.

I think about this line, Eyes full of sorrow, never wet,.

People lead aching, bitter lives, but they can't even cry anymore.

Yet, you see it in their eyes. That's not about wasteful spending on NASA.

And I prefer hearing this song in AM mono.

BTW Rasputin, I disagree about stereo. This song sounds best played on an AM car radio, preferably late on a starry night as you're driving around aimlessly.

Maybe I'm being theatrical. But it definitely sounds better in AM mono IMO.

Rasputin:

It's poetry. It's an image that evokes pity, sympathy, an image of pathetic humanity, maybe an infant or maybe an invalid.

It's poetry. It evokes melancholy, pity, curiousity. That's what poetry does.

Another poet, Leonard Cohen, had these lines on that subject.

So the great affair is over, but whoever would have guessed,

It would leave us all so vacant, so deeply unimpressed;

It's like our journey to the moon, or to that other star,

I guess we go for nothing, if we really want to go that far.

It's like our journey to the moon, or to that other star,

I guess we go for nothing, if we really want to go that far."

Death of a Ladies' Man (Closing lines)

Aren't some of those lyrics wrong?

Sun coming out in the middle of June...

That correction is clear from the vocal.

Less clear, but more logical is this one:

Hearts full of motives painted green

(Get it? Green with envy?)

But I admit, the singer sounds like he says "motors".

Maybe he means the engines of envy. Or maybe, as I

suspect, he says "motives".

I don't care about the meaning. This is one of the best

and most poetic lyrics to come from the British Invasion.

I consider it one of the best orchestrations (outside Petula

Clark/Tony Hatch collaborations) of the British Invasion as well.

This song for me, is a work of genius. I understand the

singer and author had some problems later in life.

He went to jail. He deserved to go to jail.

But this is a magnificent piece of Pop songwriting.

His work stands the test of time. I'd trade the

entire 60's British Rock catalog for this one.

I think in every respect, the lyrics, the vocal,

the eerie string orchestration, it's a Pop masterpiece.

And it was too good for the Pop audience of that day.

And it's too good for the audiene of our own time.

But it still sounds lovely, doesn't it?

AFAIC, Dylan, Leonard Cohen or Lennon/McCartney

never wrote a better set of lyrics. Cohen now & then

might have had a better orchestration though. But not

very often.

Thanks for posting this gem Rasputin.

I don't think the Harmony double pickguard is ugly. At least, it's not nearly

as ugly as this.

That one reminds me of That Girl's Mother.

It's not as ugly as this Yammie:

The Yamaha in silhouette, reminds me of That Hot Girl.

It's not as ugly IMO as the Blueridge.

The Blueridge reminds me of That Girl's Toilet Seat.*

(*I don't want to imply that I've ever been sniffing around That Girl's toilet seat.

I don't want to imply that I wouldn't either, back in her prime. As long as

it was her fragrance - and not her husband Phil Donahue's, I wouldn't have ruled it out.)

The Harmony is not as ugly IMO as this Mickey Mouse Ears custom job either:

In fact, it's my opinion that Harmony was not competitive in the ugly pick guard sweepstakes.

I remember "That Girl".

That girl had a nose job.

We had a thread about that guitar recently. Some of us speculated it was the guitar used on "Marie's the Name of His Latest Flame". Others speculated reasonably, that

it was just Black Diamond flat-wound strings that created that strum sound.

I don't know. I know I can't get that tight, compressed sound out of any acoustic guitar I've ever played.

It's all attack -- almost no release.

NupAWDO6axE

.

Elvis had a leather-covered J-200 too.

I never thought his leather-covered guitars were ugly. That's just my opinion.

Gaudy maybe. But that's what Elvis was all about.

I think it looks cool. I just think $9,000 is a bit steep.

The Martin Wagonmaster for $5000 OTOH? That pick guard is 100 proof distilled ugly IMO.

I watched an old Hammer film, "Scars of Dracula" on DVD last night. That pick guard reminds me of the bat in that flick.

And a late entry from Blueridge:

Definitely ugly. Is it a prize-winner?

Here's another color-coordinated stunner from Gibson's design team.You can buy it at MF.

Gibson is a veteran in these competitions. In fact, a cottage industry has sprung up

around the Gibson tradition. If you don't think your Gibson pick guard is ugly enough,

you can customize one to make it even uglier.

It's just my opinion, but I'd say that Team Gibson is the New York Yankees

equivalent in ugly pick guards on acoustic guitar competitions.

Can Blueridge compete with Gibbys or Martin's Wagonmaster?

It looks like Guild simply can't compete anymore. TAH nominated this Guild's pick guard

in an earlier thread. He said it's both ugly and useless. He's right. But this is a

minimalist approach to ugliness.

Guild is getting timid. It is definitely not competitive in this competition.

Guild can't even manage to make a double pick guard ugly.

Here is their lame attempt at ugliness on a double-pick guard model.

But taking up Guild's slack is Yamaha. This looks like the Batmobile tribute model.

Wow! That silver pattern would look good if it were a tight dress on a shapely woman.

It looks like a time-warp vortex on a natural Spruce top of a dreadnought.

I almost expect a spaceman to emerge from it and say "Klaatu, Barata Nikto".

Martin is coming on strong late in the game!

I thought Gibson had a lock on this competition.

Not anymore.

I'm not giving my vote away. But that Porter Waggoner D-41

fills me with sheer horror. I thought it was Martin's Count Dracula's tribute edition.

From what I've seen it comes down to Martin's Wagonmaster and this:

Gibson has always had championship-caliber ugly red pick guards.

But for some owners, one ugly red pick guard is insufficient. So they

buy a second after market pick guard, to ugly it up some more.

After looking at these pick guards, I think the mustached bridge actually looks beautiful.

Martin is a late-entrant into the competition. But I'm not counting them out.

This custom pick guard on a D-28 is at least as ugly as the others - maybe more.

Can that truly be a pick guard? Or do I have it wrong?

It looks like a blister on the wood.

---

Wow! Martin is coming on strong late in the match!

Oh the horror!

The Porter Waggoner Wagonmaster D-41.

And that one is stock baby!

Just in time for Guild to enter another guitar into the competition.

Thus far, it looks like it's down to either Gibson or Guild.

Can Gibson top that?

I think Gibson is dominating in the ugliest white pick guard category.

millenium 03 - I really like the finish on that front guitar.

--

Here are 2 new additions:

Guild F-65 1999 Westerly, Rhode Island

Guild 1976 D-40 also made in Westerly, Rhode Island

If Biz keeps up like it is - one of these days -- I'll get a D-55.

Fred Fartboski:

Yeah. Same guy I usually buy from. Or at least the same shop. With the Kent Armstrong floating p'up, the archtop really kicks *ss. W/the Schallers, it stays in tune extremely well.

I'm getting an Ebony wood tailpiece for it pretty soon.

BUT..I am not happy about one thing. For some stupid reason, somebody put 2 fret dot markers on the 9th fret! They should go on the 12th fret. It's a real pain too because the fret marker dots aren't just painted on. They're lightly pressed into the bone binding. So you can't just erase one dot and paint one elsewhere. So I had him put 3 dots on the 12th fret. But it's still not right. I'm thinking of having the neck binding pulled and replaced just for these stupid fret marker dots.

That's Vietnam for you. They do amazing work with their hands and make stupid mistakes with their heads. Notwithstanding any of that, this is a $1200 guitar easy! I paid $390 including Kent Duncan and Schallers. An Aussie importer ordered 5 just like mine. He is selling them straight from the shop w/o p'ups, w/o pickguards, w/ Korean tuners for $800 USD. He paid $200 each for them. (I paid $250 for mine before the p'up & tuners).

He told me they're all sold too. It's the best guitar I've ever bought over here. Action is smooth as silk. It's an awesome archtop.

Those are two fabulous-looking Taylors. I'm sure they play as sweet as they look.

My latest addition:

(Solid Mahogany-Ebony fretboard & bridge. Brass tailpiece. I'm replacing the tailpiece

with an Ebony wood model.

People fall in love with this guitar. The results are in. Bargirls love

it better than my other two guitars. And it looks so sweet in their

laps when they're trying to play it. I'm happy to give lessons too,

more or less free of charge.)