Pinkies and Lemons...

Well, end of the day excitement. Another magical package of cool stuff arrived today from Marc at Mojo - a nice Broadcaster pickup and Esquire wiring loom for The JoBo One. Can't wait to sort that one out tomorrow as it feels a long time coming for some reason.

But the fun never stopped there, oh no by gum, there was also a lovely, tres bon de lovely Vintage Lemon Drop Les Paul-a-like, for me to practise the bit of Black Magic Woman I can remember on with proper hollow middle soundedness.

And very cheerfilled to play it is too. The foney relic job is less annoying than I expected and it doesn't have that tacky shininess I've always hated about Epis. So in summary I'm rather pleased.

Typically it seems to have had a jiggle or three on it's way as one of the pickups didn't initially work, but a drop of solder or three sorted that out, so no big deal. No doubt I'll be flogging it in a fortnight, but nice it is, so I be pleased at the mo.

And that was that in truth. Not a lot achieved but set-up nicely for the morrow methinks.

La la laaa

Of Lemon Drops and Swiss Army Knives

Well, as I probably mentioned I have a spare place in my guitar-collection-of-three since I had the cull a few weeks back and really quite fancied something with 'buckers to join my Jazzmaster and Gordo (even if it still remains sans pickups).

Long term I will buy a nice Gibson Les Paul Traditional, keep it for a week and then sell it on, of that    sure, but to tide me over I was thinking a cheap Tokai - though I want mahogany and maple, and  they aren't these days, or maybe a Chinese Burny - though they seem to have the same slant on woods. So I wasn't sure really.

I used to have a Vintage V100 which was lovely good, and they are crazy cheap, so I'd pretty much decided to get one of those and generally pimp it up a bit. And then somehow I seem to have snaffled one of their 'Icon' range, which I think are meant to be a little bit better or aged anyway and it will save me having to attack it with a belt sander. Assuming I had one.

So Monday will hopefully see a courier turning up with a nice Vintage Lemon Drop, which I've fancied for a while as the couple I've tried were pretty cool, and though I'm not really a Fanboi of anybody these days, I love the Peter Green in-betweeny sound and it'll save me having to flip magnets or stand on my head whilst playing or something. Plus I like the colour, which is more usually my top criterion.

Anyway, no doubt more on that when it arrives, assuming it arrives in one piece, which would make a chance Mc Pleasant on recent form.

Of more interest, I've been on a bit of a knob-fest (steady) and treated myself to a couple made out of twelve-bore shotgun cartridges, and a few more that have been made out of Craps Dice from some hotel in Las Vegas I'll never see. I'm not really sure what I'll use them for, though the dice might be good on The JoBo One and the Remington one could go well with The B Movie One.

In fact there, I've made a decision to at least try them, Jooky inaction, here right before your very eyesomes.

It feels odd in England buying gun related bobbins, as it is never part of real life - guns I mean - outside of the inner cities and country piles, and well, Manchester I suppose.

And having guns at home seems such an alien thing to do, and I guess when you look at Charlton Heston it just gives that nutter vibe to gun ownership, and you assume that people with guns in America are crazy-weird and warmongerish bigtime.

But then you look at the ultimate peace-filled land of Switzer where every adult male legally has to own an automatic weapon and know how to use it, and that is the world's beacon for peace, so I don't know.

Who can really tell?

I always thought it odd that you could get Swiss Army Knives when they don't have an army. I guess though that maybe they used to and are selling off all of the old stock, but then you don't see too many ex Swiss Army anything-else's and in truth if they only had knives and no guns it was probably best that they never got into any wars as they wouldn't have done too well really.

Hmm, think I'll stick to thinking about guitars. Guns make my head hurt

La la laa

Hope and Reality

Midge Ure Plays a Vintage
So Who Am I Kidding?

Well, not a lot else to report at the moment, so I've been mooning around thinking that I really shouldn't have got rid of both the Les Paul Studio and the Sonex at the same time, as well as nicking the pickups out of the Gordo. Or the PRS One. Or the other ones I forget.

Not the best piece of guitar husbandry, I must admit, especially as The Raspberry Ripple One is off on it's travels now, leaving me light-of-'bucker. And more to the point down to one usable guitar.

This year gets weirder.

All of which set me off on a Les Paul trip again. It's something I've thought about a fair bit and yes, I know it is sad as I am only ever likely to be a 'Retired' guitar player as far as getting out of the house with one goes, but I really want a proper Les Paul.

I mean, I loved that Studio - it was perfect, it played great, sounded great has every mod done I would have done and it looked beautiful; but I'm not talking about rational thought here, I'm talking about sadboy mid-life crisis and I haven't got the roots-count for a pony tail or the balance for a Harley, so this is as good as it gets.

(I think I said I had my proper mid-lifer at 21 and have been seriously worried for the last couple of years, since I hit 42, but that isn't what I'm on about.).

So putting the sad-getted-ness out of mind, and the fact that having a grand to waste on a guitar for me to play in my living room is unlikely, what I really want is an old style Les Paul that hasn't had it's innards removed, hollowed out or filled with American air and is sort of, well, solid.

It should have a maple cap, not bothered about it being figured, plain looks better imho, but I wouldn't run away from one if that was the case. I know they look a bit tacky, but I like cherry sunburst or lemon drop or honeyburst kinda looks, and if I'm dreaming it should be bound of body and neck, have olde worlde wiring and caps and nickel bits 'n' bobs too..

As I probably describing something old or custom shop, that is never going to happen, so I'm thinking a LP Traditional is probably as close as I am likely to get in this lifetime. Which is OK, it is kinda possible if I set my mind to it over the next decade or three and forget about kids in cardboard shoes stood in puddles and everything else..

So that is my long term aim, and I fully accept it will never happen. And though I can say that and know it is true, there is this corner of my brain that will be forever named hope.

But in the short term (real world) I still fancy having something LP-like to play, so I might treat meself in the coming weeks to a Vintage or an Epi or something.

The Vintage V100 I had was lovely, and they are pretty cheap, or I have always fancied one of the 'Peter Green' Lemon Drops too. Hmmm... It has to be 'hog and maple though, none of this poplar top with a creme brulee filling and 0.3 micron-thin veneer.

But will I be happy? Probably not, but then happiness is such an overrated concept, don't you find?

And no amount of thinking that it is good-enough-for-the-likes-of-me will help anyway.

I'm not sure this degree of self-awareness is good for me.

I'm off to try and make a scratchplate out of an old Beach Boys record - wish me luck.

La la laaa