csm

Let's see ... Hair metal ... Tom Cruise ... Think I'll go see Batman, Spider-Man or Prometheus instead.

Will you bring charlie and hookers? What, me and some of John Lee's relatives?

Would YOU trust a mod who hasn't been banned at least once?

If I played for a living, I'd've starved to death decades ago. I play guitar because it's fun, because it's a vital form of non-verbal expression for someone who makes his living with words and because it's a serious buzz to be in a good band with nice people (as I'm currently fortunate enough to be) and combine the noise I make with the noises other people make to create music which, most of the time, other people seem to enjoy almost as much as we do. After having been in bands more or less continually between 1977 and 1995, I took a dozen-year break and didn't realise, until i was back in a band again, how much I'd missed it. Towards the end of that break, i started playing solo, then met up with a kindred soul in the form of harpmeister Buffalo Bill Smith ... and then we expanded what we did as a duo by adding a rhythm section and morphing into the first line-up of Crosstown Lightnin', a four-piece blues band ... plus jamming with other bands on harmonica or guitar and doing (very occasional) sessions. 'Stardom' isn't the issue. Neither is money, beyond a desire to at least break even. It's about playing because I love it, and because it adds something to my life which I can't get from anything else.

Why?

Guitarists admired by other guitarists for their technical skills =/= guitarists whose music pleases listeners who may not be musicians. Deal with it.

I know it's blasphemy to say anything remotely bad about Hendrix, but I would disagree. Clapton is a singer/songwriter as well, he's from the same era, and he hasn't written anything of substance in years. He has continued to recycle his past hits with whatever flavor of the month phenom is hot at the moment. The only singer/songwriter/guitarist I can think of from that era that has even remotely remained relevant (writing new material that people want to hear) has been Neil Young, and that may be a stretch. It's hard for any performer to continue to be relevant for very long. I don't think a living breathing Hendrix in 2012 would be any different. Hear those goalposts move ... I was responding to a comparison of Hendrix with Jeff Beck and Carlos Santana ... not with Clapton ... who, incidentally, has written fewer songs in his entire long life than Jimi did in four years.

^^^ Unlike JB or Carlos ... he was also a singer and songwriter. Even in the mere four years he was around, he amassed a serious catalogue of wonderful songs ... and songwriters always last.

Very witty, Carruthers ...

I used to call my 1963 black Strat 'The Old Bastard' because it was so mean and cranky ... But it's now 'The Old Soldier' because (a) 'bastard' implies that it was put together post-facto from bits, which it wasn't, and (b) because when my modern Custom Shop Strat started to misbehave, the ancient heirloom which I considered pretty much retired stepped up to the plate and sounded fantastic, felt great and proved ultra-reliable. [video=youtube;7naGiKyO1o4]

There was ... but it was stolen by junkies and traded for a wrap of skag.

'Did you approve of my book? If you did, would you like me to sign your copy?'

Bet it plays like butter.

there's a kernel of a good guitar in there. That's a major factor.

You're too frakkin SOFT! This is a hard, cruel world.

A little corny, don't you think?

Maybe it was Dennis Hopper who got spotted at Euston the other day ... EDIT: Actually, no -- he's currently seriously unwell in California.

... so I'm staying around for the foreseeable future. Just thought I'd mention it.

i miss all three of the Vox AC30s I had in the late '70s (two blonde ones and an incredibly battered but still fabulous blue piggyback). The blonde ones had to go to help our manager pay off his debts after the band collapsed, and the blue one went because ... Well ... ... because I was stupid and figured I needed something more flexible and 'modern' for the '80s. Yep, I was the dumbass who sold a 1964 piggyback AC30 and bought a Peavey Deuce. Pillory me commencing ... now.

How many other players in your band? What's the instrumental line-up? If there's another guitarist, what does he/she currently use? All this stuff is context-dependent ... difficult to answer in a vacuum (the lack of air doesn't help, either).

I have a Lemon Drop and it's a GORGEOUS guitar indeed -- perfect weight and balance, lovely neck profile and exquisite low-output PAF-alike PUs. It needs a LEEDLE fret-coddling before it'll be 100% giggable, but I've played it at a couple of rehearsals and can't wait to be able to use it live. In fact, I'm now endorsing it ... http://www.jhs.co.uk/charlesshaarmurray.html ... as is your friend and mine Marc Jefferies, better known to you and some of me as metalheadUK. Marc also owns one of Trev W's Vintage Strat-alikes and is considering checking out their basses.

Damn right I do. I worship at the shrines of Pete Townshend, Lord Keef, Jimmy Nolen, Johnny Ramone and the greatest rhythm guitarist (most of) you never heard of -- WILKO JOHNSON.

That reminded me, sorry to hijack a wee bit, but CSM, are you still using the Vintage Lemon Drop? How is it, now you've had it a while? Still sounds and feels majorly sweet -- but the cold weather may have affected the fretboard slightly and now the top E string sometimes catches on the 2nd or 3rd fret. Gonna need that seen to before I gig it -- otherwise I'll be in trouble by the third bar of the opening number. Maybe I can blag a mate of mine into wielding his fret files ...

Greeny -- best of the 1960s Brit blues guys. NO EXCEPTION.

I could NEVER steal a guitar ... because in my time I've lost two treasured instruments to theft. One was a lovely old Gibson B-25-12 acoustic and -- get ready to flinch'n wince -- the other was a salmon-pink (ie faded Fiesta Red refin) 1963 Strat. Neither were filched from a gig or nicked by a burglar -- both had been loaned to fellow musos I thought were trustworthy and weren't. Knowing how much the loss of these instruments hurt me, I could never put anyone else through that kind of pain, and I know that I could never enjoy playing an instrument that I knew I'd ripped off from someone else. Funnily enough, I don't even have fantasies of beating up the respective thieves -- only that, one day, there'll be a buzz at the door and someone hands me a guitar case and says, 'I believe this is yours.' Never happen, tho' ...