More on Sandy’s comments
Another article on Judge Sandy’s comments. My conclusion: she says that there is room for some influence and does not endorse using other countries’ laws. Good. Seems the WashTimes fudged it.
LeanLeft has more. As does Clayton Cramer.
October 31st, 2003 at 11:54 am
So, now it is no longer acceptable to to keep chicks as property?
Humm, okay going to have a busy weekend.
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:17 pm
[…] think the assholes at the Knoxville Metro Pulse will get the picture? Don’t hold your breath. Nov 22, 06 | 12:50 pm AxeBitesVarious guitars I see floating by, mostly Gibson and mostly Ebay. The best photographs ofa Les Paul Custom that I’ve seen in a long time. 2004, in Wine Red. Excellent look at what it’s all about. 1988 Les Paul Custom Showcase. Full Custom dress, with black hardware (stoptail and Rotomatic tuners) and EMG active pickups, in Ruby Red. “Lawdy lawd; the fire department won’t do, somebody call the law!” Lefties need Les Pauls too! 1972 Custom, in Wine Red. Superb photographs. Right off the bat: a left-handed Les Paul is a very odd thing to look at, at least to me. It’s just one of those things that I never really get used to. Anyway, this one’s a stoptail, ABR-1, with Grovers. Exposed (which I always think is tacky) T-top Humbuckers. Brass nut — that’s thing with the grooves cut in it for strings at the bottom-end (up by the machine head) of the fretboard: I can’t even imagine that’s original. All in all, though, that’s a nice-looking Norlin relic. 1999 SG Supreme. Wow. This is a late-90’s concept, featuring 24 frets: two more than ordinary. They’re dressed like a Custom, although the ebony fretboard is marked with split-diamonds from the third fret. SG’s are normally all mahogany: I’m pretty sure that the Supreme and the Elegant are the only maple-topped ones, and this is a splendid tiger-stripe grain under a tri-tone burst finish. Gold hardware: Grover Rotomatic tuners, Nashville bridge and stoptail. The topper: P90 pickups. These are very anti-traditional, and they have a hard-core following. I can definitely see it. 1966 SG Custom. Nevermind the Godzilla monsters & stuff — I don’t know why this guy does this. It’s all about the guitar, anyway. (sigh) I will always have a soft-spot for these things. (I could tell about the one that escaped just beyond my timing out of the Custom Shop before Gibson’s CEO put the shits to that deal…) I just melt over them, even though that triple-Humbucker setup is an acquired touch. You see, it’s very easy to keep banging one’s pick on the middle one. It takes a fair bit of practice. Oh, but the variety of sounds out of such a rig, and the full Custom dress on an SG. “Ultra rare” is a bit over the top in describing the ebony fretboard: it’s just that one has to go back to the mid-60’s for these kinds of materials. Vintage Anal Nazis make a considerable case that nothing later than 1968 should be called “vintage” because of changes in materials supply and construction methods. Polaris White, this one, which is nearly standard on the SG Customs of the era. It’s actually rare to find them in any other color. It’s beautiful, in the manner of a woman aging beautifully. Look at the close-up of the triple-bound machine head: the black wood of that face is holly, and it always comes on very distinctly under a crackling, yellowing laquer-coat. ABR-1 bridge, engraved Lyre tremelo. Look at the gold plating: this guitar has not been handled like a full-time player all its life. That’s just wonderful. Dig this 2001 Les Paul Standard out of the Custom Shop. Nothin’ to it, really except that blasting emerald green quilted maple top. (sigh) I don’t like to complain in this column. But I cannot wait until people begin to learn how to photograph guitars without the goddamned flash in their fucking digital cameras. Nice guitar. Too bad we can’t see it right. 1972 ES-150D, and this seller has one thing wrong: this is not the guitar that became known as the “Charlie Christian”. This is, and it’s a categorically different guitar. Almost always, a trailing ‘D’ in an ES designation means “dual pickup”, and the only exceptions I’ve ever seen were incomplete labels inside the instrument. The ES-150D is the only full-depth dual-pickup double-cutaway semi-hollowbody that Gibson ever made. This one is the Natural finish, which is the one made in the least number. It looks to be in beautiful shape with its nickel hardware; trapeze tailpiece and ABR-1 bridge. Body-binding top and back, bound rosewood fretboard with small blocks from the third fret. The extra knob on the upper treble bout is a master volume. That’s a very nice guitar. God bless it. 1980 Les Paul Artist. Dressed like a Custom, with Schaller tuners and TP-6 fine-tuning tailpiece, and a lovely Tobacco Sunburst finish with black speed knobs. Quite the looker. The thing here, though, is the Moog active elex, rather like the RD Artist. Hint: this guitar requires a 9-volt battery. Look at the access cover on the back (as well as the PC-boards under the cover), and you might imagine. “Rare” is not too much of a stretch, here. These aren’t exactly laying around in everybody’s garage. Protector I case, too, which you have to love. 1978 Les Paul Pro. This is essentially a Standard, but with an ebony fretboard (instead of rosewood), chrome hardware (instead of nickel) and P90 pickups (instead of Humbuckers). Black, this one, with gold speed knobs and white plastics. (I’d ditch the pickguard, of course.) Vintage Anal Nazis wouldn’t go anywhere near it because it’s a Norlin, but those types blow off a hell of a lot of great gear anyway, so that’s just what it is. But this thing would rock, and it looks bloody terrific. Very cool axe. Custom Shop: 1968 Reissue Les Paul Custom. Brand new, presumably: it’s not dated. The regular Custom-series drill: all dressed in pearl, gold and ebony. Stoptail. What’s glorious here is that tri-tone sunburst finish. I’m ordinarily not crazy about that real tight “BBQ grill” flame pattern in the maple top (I prefer a tiger-stripe or quilt), but that’s quite lovely, innit? Fascinating: 1980 SG-R1. The seller’s calling it an “RD1”, but I think the Wikipedia reference is correct. (It was changed to “SG Artist” in 1981, and then promptly disappeared.) This is the SG variant of the “active” series guitars that began in the late-70’s: RD, Les Paul Artist, and there was a 335 Artist as well, all with the active Moog electronics featuring onboard pre-amp, compression and expansion, tone controls that actually worked as notch-filters, on & on. All these guitars were a serious study. Until a couple of years ago, I hadn’t known that they’d actually done active SG’s, and here’s another unique aspect of them: this guitar is about a half-inch thicker than a regular SG. I wonder what that’s like. The SG body is a very unique feel in all of electric guitars, and that variation alone would have me most curious. Black, this one: chrome hardware except for the Grover tuners. Long-throw “harmonica” bridge, and speed knobs. Dotted ebony fretboard, crown machine head inlay. The whole thing is extremely unusual — “rare” is not unreasonable here at all — and it would probably be very interesting to work at getting the hang of one of these. Never seen this before: 1954 Reissue Les Paul Standard out of the Custom Shop, of indeterminate vintage. The main thing about the ’54’s is that combination stoptail bridge, and how close it is to the rear pickup. This is something to watch out for in the case of, say, a ’54 type that’s been modified with Humbucker pickups: the pickup mounting ring precludes changing the top E-string without relaxing tension on all six strings. (Like; forget about changing it on the fly during a set.) However, in this case, it’s not so big a deal because the rear pickup is a P90, which is narrower than a Humbucker so there’s room to do it. Then, of course: the other two pickups are P90’s. A triple single-coil Goldtop Standard. That is very unusual, distinctive, and I’ll bet it rocks. Wow. Look at this 1955 Les Paul Junior. They’re not exactly terrific photographs, but they’re enough to see what’s going on here. Look at the tuner buttons: they look like they just came out of the factory. You’re not going to see a fifty-one year-old guitar in that shape every day. God bless Renee’s father. 1966 Melody Maker. Worker-grade: the little single-coil pickups and the slide-switch pickup selector. Short Maestro vibrato unit. The thing here, however, is the Pelham Blue finish. I like that in general, and it’s pretty cool on these slinky little solid-bodies, which are seriously under-rated. Star Guitar? This 1967 SG Special is claimed to be a survivor of a 1970 show by The Who at Anaheim, California. It allegedly ended up in the audience: with a broken neck, the strings wrapped around the seller’s neck and bits of it stuck in his chin. It’s quite a story. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing I ever heard that was true. P90 pickups, stoptail combination bridge, and Grover Rotomatic tuners, which are definitely replacements. Any SG Special of this vintage is a worthwhile prospect, and this one is pretty interesting historically. Townshend was destroying these at a pretty good clip there for a while, but this one’s been brought back from the dead. Johnny A — indeterminate age but this whole concept is only three years old. From the top of its old-school narrow machine head to the tail of its tiger-stripe top, it’s just a killer beauty. 1980 Les Paul Pro. Essentially, a Standard (e.g., crown markers starting at the third fret) but with chrome hardware, P90 pickups, and the ebony fretboard. Cherry Sunburst finish plaintop, quite rather pretty. Protector I case. That’s just about the way a Standard ought to be done. 1958 ES-335. This looks like a grail guitar. First year of the type. The bound fretboard only turned up after production began that year and some people might kick over that, but that’s an extremely fine line. Nickel hardware, down to the stoptail. PAF pickups, natch. Looks very nicely taken care of and I’ll bet it’s a blaster. Moderne — 1983 “reissue”; it bears the quotes because the thing never came to market in 1958. There were a couple of prototypes alleged to have been made for a trade show that year, but they disappeared with Jimmy Hoffa. The body shape just about says it all: “Very space-age… I dig the fins.” (Flo & Eddie, FZ, Fillmore East) Never seen one of these in real life, but I do wonder. 2003 Les Paul Studio Platinum. Brushed chrome hardware to ice the look, with unmarked rosewood fretboard. That’s almost too cool. […]
February 5th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
[…] Jeremy Burnside, whose article I criticized here, has been engaging me in comments. It was civil, until he took his ball and went home. Or, you know, said Uncle. If you leave a comment, be nice. […]