craigb

Well, I hate to break this to you, but even without that you ended up in the Coffee House (v2) forums... ?

I got lucky. I helped Jeff (the luthier) out on his first album and he offered to make the first custom (and, actually, all three) at prices that barely covered the costs of the material. All of them were super usable and flexible, the beauty was just pure gravy (and, I think, the main thing Jeff wanted to create - lol). He only made about a dozen customer guitars and I was lucky enough to get three (one, as mentioned above, now residing with Space Cowboy and, when I can afford to, I'll try making him an offer he can't refuse to get it back ?). Since, at the time, I had the money and no desire to waste/invest it in something like a nice sports car (been there, did that when I was young), I let him go full speed ahead on the looks except for minor input. There's nothing like the results of someone who knows what they're doing and loves doing it! The only reason I have the aqua one shown above and in my avatar now is because it was completely paid for before the s**t hit the fan. It still had a long way to go before being finished so Jeff (who was moving to a new, fixer-upper house on five acres himself) and I (who was just trying to survive) decided to put the project on hold until we both felt it was time. So, for over TEN years that guitar has been waiting for us and we finally decided to get it finished last year. The funniest part is that the pickups were originally meant for the first custom, but we went with a different pickup configuration (two humbuckers) so they were saved. They "aged" over 13 years before I ever got to play them! (And they sound unbelievable!) I love how light the Korina, or Black Limba if you prefer, is on the aqua guitar! The one I sold was about TWICE as heavy because the main wood was wenge, but ohhhh what sustain that one had! What I think would be really cool is to come up with what would be the minimum requirements in terms of decent tone wood and parts, then keep the design similar (as I did with the three) but create several different guitars to cover everything. I will eventually want to replace my baritone, my bass, add a Fender bass VI type and a 12-string... *Looks at what he just wrote and realizes he needs to get back to work!* Ok, I'm off to make some money! It's obvious I've got some gear to buy (and that's after I find a larger place to live! LOL). ?

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If I had Kenny's talent, I could play a cardboard box attached to a baseball bat with strings... Sometimes I feel just as good staring at mine as playing it.

That's how much this one is worth. Fully custom. The body style comes from a Les Paul Double-Cut I liked, the scale length matches PRS's 25", the fretboard is modeled after a Music Man Axis, the pickup configuration starts as a Fat-Strat, adds a Wilkenson tremolo, the pickups are custom wound from Bare-Knuckle Pickups in the UK and there's a lot of special wiring in there that give me a LOT of options (see Tone Options ). Then there's the wood (including the Master's Grade, beyond 10-top curly maple top), attention to detail and well over 12 coats of stain and clear coat (with hand sanding done between the stain coats). This is currently the only guitar I have left (I lost everything during the 2008-9 credit crunch amongst a lot of very illegal banking actions - two houses, a vehicle, my music studio and over $830k). I had two other customs based on the same design and feel that covered other ground. My luthier is keeping one (the raspberry one which has Line 6 Variax guts hidden in it) until I can afford to build my studio again and Space Cowboy (a member at the old Coffee House) bought one (the poorly pictured blue one below). So, besides what I mentioned above, what makes a guitar worth $7k? I used to have 17 different guitars. They all did different things, they all felt and played different too. These three replaced all of them and provided me with at least three times the sonic options I had with the 17, plus they all felt and played the same (except for some rather extreme weight differences!). Kind of like when you have decent golf clubs.

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Here you go! What a bargain!!! ? (Can't believe you don't get free shipping at that price though...) The link I took today (April 6th).

Intel knows everything is safer removed from Windows! ? (Good luck with it!?)

I loved hardware synths and ROMplers! I could control them with my Korg N5, MS2000 or MIDI keyboard and save all of my CPU's processing power for real-time effects. That said, the next DAW I create will be as beefy as I can make it so I can add more software synths.

I couldn't even play that on my air guitar... ? (My fingers can't move that fast after I broke my arm...)

An oinkment (specifically becan ? ) is best. ?

My landlord/roommate gets up at 3:30am. I'm sure I'm in agreement with the neighborhood that we all he doesn't adopt this approach! LOL! ?

NI and S are holding out for stiffer punishment? ?

Just one? Amateur! ?

Maybe. Could be gas though... ?

That's very the Nice of you to say??? ?

Depends on which of "us" you're referring to, the "smart" one or the "smart-ass" one. ?

Hey, I know people like that! ? But, more on topic, it's always a good thing to narrow down what, exactly, is the part that's failing. In a few decades of doing IT, I've seen it all!

Keeping it musical! ?

Sorry, thought you were trying to make a record. My bad. ? It looks like you're getting some really good advice now though. ?

Ha! Just found the exercise in a video!

We all know lots of vocalists use exercises to prepare their voices for singing, but I've always used the following exercise back when I was a DJ (1980-83) and before I did any voice-over work: It's called the "King Kong" exercise. Basically you say the following three phrases (in any order really) with the goal of stretching your vocal chords so you can have a lower pitched voice. "King Kong!" (at a comfortably low pitch) "Ding Dong!" (at a lower pitch) "Bing Bong!" (at an even lower pitch but where you extend that finally "onnnnnnnnnnnng" lower and lower) I like to run through it a few times varying the order of phrases. Works great!