Smoking Monkey Diary's

Wow this dude is like a celebrity..

2006-11-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

Hey I think I know this dude.....? He is like a celebrity of something, isnt he?

the long silence

2006-07-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well I been away for a bit and ready to re-start the banter. more soon....

The STEW

2006-04-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

Why is it when you tell people you dig Vinnie Moore they think you are talking about the Stew - Dinty Moore?

Meltdown is right. His best tune - next to "Free"

Yngwie

2006-04-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

Yngwie J. Malmsteen.... he uses the "J" as not to be confused with all the other Yngwie Malmsteens out there. This has got to be the most challenging guitar part I ever heard.

a great tune that kicks my butt

2006-03-26T05:16:00.000-08:00

Vito Bratta - very musical this guy very musical I say

2006-03-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

The Re-Issue that started it all

2006-03-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

Well some of you may or may not know that Charvel is back in full swing. The recently released strathead guitars as a custom shop order and have released production Jackson headstock guitars again. All fine instruments. My bud Kev busted his hump along with GuitarXpress owner Lloyd to get together and awesome reissue. It is known as the GX bullseye. I have the second one off the line. Kev has the first. Simply amazing.

I am a firm believer that this guitar run really started a revival of the charvel custom shop guitar. Kev deserves a credit for getting this one going. It turned out to be a great one. Thanks Kev.

Pure Genius - ENJOY

2006-03-09T06:05:00.000-08:00

Blue one done

2006-03-05T04:44:00.000-08:00

Well I finally got around to taking some pics. This is about 90% done. I was thinking I ma going to go gold Floyd and brass knob on her. I also am going to add pickup rings and logo. I also am going to swap the pick up from her. I may try a full shred. The Custon thats in it is a little flat ion this guitar. I think the anagre neck has something to so with it. The maple/maple neck on the red one really cuts through.

Here is a close up of the body again populated, I love that body. Like a swimming pool

Here they are side by side. They both turned out really great.

Got to love me. I DO!!!

More cool trees and stuff

2006-02-25T23:10:00.000-08:00

You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.

Saint Bernard, Epistle
French abbot & saint (1090 - 1153)

There's nothing that keeps its youth,
So far as I know, but a tree and truth.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Deacon's Masterpiece, 1858
US author & physician (1809 - 1894)

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
Joyce Kilmer, "Trees" (poem), 1914
US poet (1886 - 1918)

We think in generalities, but we live in details.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

Fish Fish and more Fish

2006-02-24T00:37:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy all of the weird things the ocean has to offer. The ocean is magnificant and a great subject for endless amounts of photos. It doesnt get any better that looking at all the cool variety of species and formations that evolved of millions of years under the sea. I have a few interesting photos I would like to share with you. I shot all of these with either a Canon SD400 or a Nikon D100 and a 24 - 120mm lens.

This photo is an amazing example of a reef. the detail and complexity are amazing. Makes me wish I could do some diving and swim around it for some cool actions shots.

This is a "sand worm" type of fish. Pretty cool. Just hanging out in a sandy bottom. These things seem to hang in groups. When I shot this I captured one but there was several in a small group all doing the same thing. - Just hanging around.

Here is a small jelly fish. I mean small. The size of a 25 cent coin. Completely transparent. Wonder how big this one gets? Is it true you can get pee'ed on is you get stung and it helps stop the pain?

Man where is the budda? MMM MMM good!!! This guy was about 3 feet across. It moved really slow kind og like a spider just trucking along in the sand.

Dont know what this guy is other than a fish. Cool colors. He was about 4 " long - just a little guy.

Here is a family of spotted eels. Nasty personality. Nothing more than eating machines. I managed to hang around long enough for one to swim out of the rocks. It was at least 4 feet long and really fast.

Finally I found some sand shark of sorts. Shy fellows in all. They really just tried to hide under the rocks when someone walked by the tank. They pulled the " head in the sand" deal when I walked up.

Thats all I have for fish at the moment. Hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed taking them. SM out.

Ever had one of those days that goes on for a few weeks?

2006-02-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

So I turn off windows update. Everyone should. What happens? Windows updates itself. WTF. Cheeso pizza. My machine went belly up. Deader than dog shit. I get a blue screen and a stop error eberytime it boots. oh well..... I try to install windows from CD but ALAS is doesnt support RAID.... JESUS. SO I try to load the driver via floppy. NOT A FRIGGIN PRAYER IN HELL!!!! I finally rip the machine apart and move the drinve from RAID to IDE and reinstall windows. This ofcourse hammers half the software on my machine including my iTunes. THis process took 5 days of my time. I want compensation.. eh fuck it.. who is listening anyway.

F windows !

Man I got another one coming PART II - ITS HERE.

2006-01-03T08:22:00.000-08:00

Well its here and its amazing... They really did a great job of selecting the maple for this one. I am very pleased. It looks as good in person as it does in the pics.

Its a bit heavier than I thought it would be. Interesting thing about this body is that is was built to order so they routed everything and then finished it. Actually they dyed it then routed then sprayed the clear on it.

I am really inpressed with the book matching that they did. You can see there was very little loining that needed to happen. It looks liek they ran the piece of maple through the joiner before the cut it in half.

I threw some parts in it to mock it up. I made the choice to leave the pickup rings off and go ringless. I will need to paint the pickup cavities and fill the recess holes for the screws. I labor of love.

I scored an awesome anigre neck for it with a macasser ebony board. The frets are 6100's - why use anything eles I say!!

As you can see the back of the neck had a really nice figure to it. Not very common in Anigre. It has a satin finish and and unfinished ebony board.

More Construction progress as it happens.

SM OUT>>>.

Pointy Neck Restoration PART 1

2005-12-31T08:23:00.000-08:00

I scored this pointy neck from bret. It was jacked up. I traded him a computer for it. It was also jacked up. So I am experimenting a bit. I am going to paint the head stock and see to those frets. The fret board is actually all screwed up from someone sanding against the grain - who doesn't know not to do that.

I received this with the cap removed and a slight sanding. I sanded it to 220 and brushed on a thin coat of black gloss enamel. The sanded the brush marks and bubbles out of it and reapplied a thick of the same. I sanded it again with 220 and stepped up to 320. I sanded it using an aluminum sanding block and sanded it level. The issue I am seeing with enamel paint and with brushing is the ability to get the finish level. HMMM. More on this later.

I think I can use a straight cabinet scraper to scrap the fret board level and smooth. The scratches are quite deep from the sandpaper. It may not be able to be saved... in which case I have other plans for it. The frets were leveled and need a good crown and radius. This neck does not appear to be a compound radius as I expected.

Brass Floyds and other metal stuff

2005-12-30T23:30:00.000-08:00

Well.. Everyone love's a Floyd Rose trem. I found myself in love with it's look and the feel I get under my palm. One day I realized I never use the bar it just dangles and looks cool. I says to myself "Self... Why not take the fine tuning and locking capability and combine it with the brass v-trem brightness adn tone?" Floyds can be tone killers. I am still working on ideas for how I am going to work out a height adjustment scheme but I think I may still use the pivot studs and some shim stock.

Here is a trem taken apart. I will take the parts (saddles, screws and so forth ) and replace the plate and fine tuning tree ( upper left ). This I will reproduce in brass - I hope. I will need to buy some fine tuning screws. The company that made these trems knocks a slug from the bottom of the screw to keep it from being removed and lost. I have been using the spring block ( upper right silver piece) as a great sanding block for finishing. It works great for between sanding and is good enough to get a flat enough surface.

I was lucky enough the stumble on this mechanical drawing and just need to figure out how to use it to get a mill program written. I am going to exclude the trem arm socket although I may use it for registration.

If you look the trem pivot stud would be a great way to ensure you have the trem straight and at the appropriate 25" scale length. They sell some sort of bar that runs across between the two studs for softer woods the prevent the studs from moving forward. I may adopt that as a stiffener piece on the front.

I was talking to some cats about this and they have some valid points.

It may too damn hard to make.
Who need fine tuners when you don't have a trem are to wank on?
why not just go with a v-trem.

I have one simple answer - because I want to!!!

I addition to that I want to make some pickup rings. My bud K.L. sent me these brass pickup rings. They are original Dimarzio/Charvel brass pickup rings. Quite a score I must admit. Thanks again K.L.

The one on the left was polished with a bit of FLITZ. This stuff kicks ass so hard I can't stand it. Its a great polish for brass. It will take the oxidation off and adds a little corrosion protection. I use it on all of my brass stuff including my Chadash neck plates. It works wonders for frets. A little on the fret and some elbow grease and they are shiny new. ( see the fret scraping thread of the Red Chewbacca guitar.)

Anyway... I plan on making a few replicas of this from a Black plastic stuff I got laying around. Its about 0.7" thick and I need about 0.4". I will make a few pickup rings as well. I really don't know what I will do with them.

Well we shall see how it works itself out. I feel like a mad scientist. maybe I will call it my frankentrem!

Inventor: A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization. Ambrose Bierce

Polka Dot Fret Puller

2005-12-09T05:18:00.000-08:00

Well I finally got around to pulling the frets on the scalloped jackson neck ( see Nov 23rd post). What a pain in the rear. I used a little heat from the soldering iron and then realized that I was going to get rid of the fret board anyway so there was no need to worry about it. I went ahead and yanked and pulled. As you can see the fret board took a beating. The board flaked like you see in the pic because the rosewood was allowed to dry out.

SO the next step is to ge tthe nut off the guitar.

I haven't really thought about it yet. I am not sure how I am gunna do it. Maybe just brute force and knock it out with a hammer and chistle. Trying to save it and not have it crack will be quite a task I am sure.

Of course I am open to suggestions...

A little Cocobolo in your coffee sir?

2005-12-08T05:21:00.000-08:00

Well you got to love cocobola. Almost looks like a nice chocolately desert - creamy and all. This is a wonder book matched set I scored off ebay. Who sits around trying to score wood anyway?
well I plan to mount this on a 2 piece ash body and go vintage with it. Most likely try some nice creme binding as well.

It is a full 1/8" thick and will require some sanding and joining. I will use some special adhesive I found through Lutheriers mercantile. It is specially designed to adhere to oily woods like cocobolo. Its called Smith 2 part wood epoxy. That's the major plus for this stuff. It also has a 24 hour cure and a 2 hour pot life which makes working with is a pleasure.

Both photo's show one of the sides. I have not decided what side will be used for the face of the guitar but I plan on finishing it in a crystal clear top coat. Most likely in KTM-9, which is a nice cross linked lacquer like water base top coat. It's actually a urethane/acrylic co-polymer.

There is this small issue of filling the pores. This type of wood has a very open pore structure to it. This will require the use of an epoxy I think. Maybe some system 3 clear although I may go black to see how it turns out.

It think this will be quite challenging as finishing is usually the hardest part of any project. Will post pics when I get moving on it.

A little about Cocobolo:

Dalbergia retusa - COMMON NAMES - Cocobolo, Nicaraguan rosewood, Granadillo, Jacarandaholz, Palisander, Palissandro, Nambar, Rosewood, Pau preto Urauna, Palo negro, Funera, Cocobolo prieto, Palisandre.

Environmental Profile
This species is reported to be relatively secure within its natural habitat in most areas in its range, including Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama, but it is officially classified as either in Extinct, Endangered, Rare, or Vulnerable Costa Rica. The actual status in Costa Rica is uncertain because of inadequate information(Source - World Conservation Monitoring Center - 1992 ).?

Distribution
Cocobolo is reported to be found in limited quantities in the Pacific regions of Central America, from Panama to southwestern Mexico. It usually grows in the drier uplands.

Product Sources
Some material from this species is reported to be available from environmentally responsible or sustainably managed sources.? Supplies of Cocobolo are reported to be dwindling and the price is becoming more costly. Veneers with highly figured grain patterns are reported to be occasionally available on the market. The following species in the database has been suggested as a substitute for Cocobolo for the production of knife handles: Goncalo alves (Astronium fraxinofolium, A. graveolens ).

Tree Data
The size of the tree is reported to be small to medium. Mature tree heights are reported to be often 45 to 60 feet (13 to 18 m), with trunks that are usually of poor form reaching diameters of about 20 to 24 inches (50 to 60 cm).

Sapwood Color
The freshly cut wood is reported to be variable in color.

Heartwood Color
The color of the heartwood varies when freshly-cut, and is described as a rainbow-hued. Exposure is reported to darken the lighter colors and merges them with the darker colors. The wood becomes deep red with irregular markings of purple or black and various colors of the rainbow. Boiling the wood in water is reported to remove some of the color.

Kent restoration

2005-12-06T05:16:00.000-08:00

Well what you see there is my first real electric guitar. Amazing flame maple on that I must admit. I always loved the tobacco burst color and flame top scheme. It has two Evolution pickups in it. I havn't heard them before and am wondering how they will do. The stock pickups were terrible. You know the type - a humbucker with one wire coming out of it and it wieghed about 1 oz.

I ma not a huge fan of creme binding but I think it looks great on this one. Creme just looks like old dirty neglected white in my opinion. I will most likely leave the v trem on it and put some brass knobs on it with a creme tipped switch.

The body is mahogany and is made from one piece. The top is a full 1/8" if anything. When they made this guitar they routed the body and attached the top. You can see that the routes were made as the top has a finish on the back side. Makes em wonder how it was glued to the body. The neck pocket is a little longer then typical and the other dimensions are slightly different. Even with the crappy pickups it sustained for days. It could very well have been that the original neck fot very well and with the deeper neck pocket more mass of the neck touched the body and transfered the resonence around the guitar. Fittting a new neck will be quite a challenge.

I think this will turn out pretty decen when I get it done.

Unfinished maple quilt top

2005-12-04T02:12:00.000-08:00

This was purchased off ebay and was going to be a template for some other guitars I was going to make. The problem was the guy didn't make it a bent top like I asked for. I am going to use this I think to make another guitar as opposed to template body. I am undecided as to what color I want to use. I think I want either a emerald green or a tangerine orange. All transparent dyes of course. I think around the edge I will use a natural binding and not roll the top over the edge and paint the back gloss black.

The body is basswood. Basswood isn't really my favorite but it was cheap and readily available.

I am thinking of using this neck on her. Nice ebony slab with am anagre neck. It has a very nice figure which is relatively rare for anagre. I think it looks great.

It is definitely an acquired taste. I wanted to try a non traditional neck wood something other than maple or mahogany. For you wood nerds this species grows in Africa and is reported to occur from Guinea to Ethiopia, and is also found in Zambia and Gabon. It has properties that make it a blend - tonally - of maple and mahogany. It should be interesting with the ebony board.

Collections?

2005-12-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

collection
n 1: several things grouped together or considered as a whole [syn: aggregation, accumulation, assemblage]

You got to wonder what make someone collect. I am a collector of many things. Guitars is only one of the things I tend to collect. I also have a huge comic book collection and continued that for years until they got too expensive to bother with anymore. Now I can't seem to shake the guitar collection bug. The sickness have moved from buying whole guitar to literally building my collection by building guitars. I have now accumulated more guitars than I can possibly play, yet not more than I can enjoy. A collector is a pack rat and obviously has some sort of disorder.

And that still is not all of them. I have many more floating around that didn't make the picture. I was bloggin my new Solar and thought to myself "I am F**d up" .

When I get one of these I hope someone puts me out of my misery. I mean you'd get arrested for running your hand up and down the shaft eh neck eh whatever. What happens if you are really playing great? Next thing you know the neck gets all warped and soft.

Anway. It does feel good to be out of he rat race of collecting production guitars. Like with any collectible they become over priced and there is no rational reason for paying those prices. I remember seeing Charvels for $500 with a Kahler - today $1200 for some guy that wants one to " be in the club". Little does he know there is no club and he will never be in it.

The accumulation of numbers always augments in some measure moral corruptions,...

So for further insight into the above quote by falconer see my ONE RING blog. Yes it is good to be free and enjoying music and guitars again.

The infamous Chewbacca guitar Part 2

2005-12-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

I was searching some old photos and found a print of the Chewbacca guitar before it was sent to the shop for routing. As I said in the previous post you can clearly see a face. Clear as a damn bell. I see a devil, while others see chewbacca. At any rate this is simple and amazing piece of wood. Imagine how many of these go into someone's fireplace? Now I need to get off my rear and get some decals and logo's made up. and finish the head stock with a official Chadash logo.

Limited Run Flame Top

2005-12-02T00:57:00.000-08:00

Well I was talking to another guy about how many of the cool simple guitar designs seem to have gone away. To make a long painful story short we ended up throwing together a limited run guitar through a boston vender. I received it a few days ago and haven't had a tremendous amount of stick time with it but is perfect.

The bottom line was

It has a Maple lam top. Looks like a 5A graded piece but given the way things are graded in some worlds it is a 3A top. Neither here nor there it is spectacular. The finish is flawless of course and the binding job amazing. They made a great lumber selection for this guitar as well in terms of the base billet. It is mahogany "Rich Mahogany" for you Anchorman fans.

We tried to get as close to the catalog guitar as we could get it. The Solar color was a significant departure from the original catalog color. There is a little controversy I understand among the unwashed as this guitar has a V-trem and a pointy headstock

This guitar is the first of ten in the series. The back of the headstock is signed by Mike Shannon a long time employee of the custom shop at Jackson/Charvel. While the idea is cool that have this guy sing the guitar I certainly think that it would have been just as amazing had he not been involved. Don't get me wrong the guy has a lot of talent but he isn't the only guy there that can make a great guitar. I had it done as all of them were going to be done and it's kind of weird to NOT have one of them done.

In the end I am very happy with mine and will keep it forever. As seen with all of the other limited runs people start selling them soon after they get them. I think its because they fall in love with the idea of owning a new charvel and not really interested in getting another great instrument to play.

Arpeggio warm up

2005-12-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

This is a nice little warm up I use based on a simple arpeggio. I always alternate pick, sweep and then legato this excersize. I usually just end up throwing this around for a while in between noodling. Hope you get some benefit from it. $35 unlimted use. Copywritten by me!!!

I really dig photography

2005-11-28T22:45:00.000-08:00

It amazing I can even take a picture. Simple amazing. Its also amazing that I can have $5000 worth or camera and $7500 lens and still suck. Here are a few shot I took that came out looking ok in my opinion. If you click the photos I think you can get a larger view of them.

These geese hang around every year and have chicks in the spring. I was never able to get any good shots as the geese were really protective. This was shot with Nikon D1H and a 500mm lens. I was sitting on a bench and happened to be looking to my left and there they were just wandering up the street.

I was able to grab two shots before some people came and scared them into the weeds. The older I get the more the simpler things in life amaze me. This is one of those things that is just perfect.

The next two I call infestation. Every 17 years or so the cicada bug comes out of the ground and swarms the earth, breed and die in about 2 weeks. These things are everywhere and make quite a racket

The last two are those things that you stumble on and wish you had a camera - but never do. Well in this case I had a camera and got some awesome shots.

I hope you enjoyed these as much I do.

Jackson Polka Dot restoration

2005-11-23T05:39:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to score a really cool old Jackson from a music store where I grew up recently. I got it so around $200 and its a legit San Dimas Jackson serial number in the early 1100's Here is a shot of the body.

As you can see it went from at Kahler to a Jackson trem to a Floyd in the bridge. The bridge Humbucker is original to the guitar but the two single coils are not. It is hard to tell from he picture but there are 3 mini switches and 2 knobs on this guitar after the modifications. My plan is to partly restore it to original. I say partially because I have a chance to utilize someone else's work to my advantage. I will most definitely leave it in the Floyd Rose configuration as I prefer that type of bridge. But a Kahler is really nice as well.

I have done a mock up of what I think it will look like when I am done.

As you can see its gunna be great. I think as I stare at it I will leave a neck single coil pickup in it. Still one volume knob and a 3 way switch as opposed to the mini toggles. I think I ma going to scuff the body and repaint the entire guitar. If it is indeed polyester I can top coat it with polyurethane base products. What means I have no idea.

the neck was a real honest to goodness mess. It had a typical thick slab Jackson Rosewood board on it with the ever so popular shark fin/tooth inlays. The original owner for some reason felt it appropriate to scallop the fret board. MY GAWD what a travesty.

As you can see the inlays were crudely glued back in. I think they attempted to actually bend them into place. I bet they lasted for about 10 minutes and began cracking and popping off. I was suck a shame to see them mess with this neck. I understand the body, but not the neck.

I will update with work progress pics as I go along. As you can tell I have many irons in the fire at the moment.

One final parting shot.

Man I got another one coming.

2005-11-21T06:09:00.000-08:00

Isn't she a hoot. It almost on the way. Another fine warmoth product. I was on the phone with these guys for about an hour explaining what I was looking for in a top. I am making a replica of this guitar - sort of. I stumbled on a figured Anagre neck with and ebony board. Anagre sounds a lot like maple with a touch of smoothness. Who doesn't love ebony? Anyway this baby will have a Duncan custom in the bridge and I am not sure for the neck - maybe a buckshot.

This guitar embodies a philosophy I have. If you are going to cut a tree down make it live on forever. A fine musical instrument is one way to do it. A guitar should not only sound good but should really celebrate the life it took to make it. It interesting that the Quilted Maple is actually a genetic defect. She evolution can be a wonderful thing!!!!

Use those talents you have. You will make it. You will give joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: The woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best. - Melzer

Well time for a little fret work

2005-11-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

This is a guitar I told you about earlier. I built it for a variety of reasons. I was so excited to get the parts that I threw her together and simple started playing it. After several months of playing it I realized that I had to scrape the frets. See the neck you buy from warmoth come with finish over 100% of the body as you would expect. That means the frets are covered in finish. Since the finish wasn't wearing evenly I decided it was time to scrape. I removed the strings and went for it. Simple process:

1. The center tool is a spatula used for plaster sculpture. It has a wonderful little Burr on the end of it that makes it great for scraping. I scraped and scraped. Once I could see the shine of the fret I stopped and went to the other tool.

2. The second tool is a sandpaper stylus. Wonderful invention. It has a wheel on either end and is fitted with a band of sandpaper. I used it to knock off an scratched, burs of residue of finish. I also ensured that the tops of the frets were flat - that's my preference. All it takes is about 5 or 6 light strokes.

3. Last step. "000" steel wool. This is used for a polishing and getting rid of any left over finish. It gives a great shine. I used my finger nail to scrape over the fret and see if I could feel and defects. If she was smooth then she was done.

I set her back up and she plays like a dream. I cant wait for the next project.

"That is why no one will remember your name...." - Achilles

Cool warm ups

2005-11-20T05:31:00.000-08:00

I will most likely post many more of these in the near future. These are actually copywritten so I dare you to take them and post them elsewhere. Unlimited use of this is $35.00. Enjoy

Neck Plates and Logo's

2005-11-19T22:46:00.000-08:00

So I am in the process of ordering all these parts for the Red warmoth guitar and realize I should make a logo and my own neck plate. For those of you that don't know I really hate assholes that logo GMW guitars and others to say "charvel". Its plain and simple --> dishonest. I will agree that the look is just not complete with out that little guitar shaped logo but many guys sell them as charvels.

I was chatting it up with a guy one night all bored and I came up with this logo.

This is how it turned out. Yeah its a Charvel copy logo BUT no one will ever mistake it for a charvel.

In my hunt for a neck plate I decide to use solid brass. I commission a guy "dave" aka budman for the job. When I got them I was very happy with the quality and detail of the work. OFF TO THE ENGRAVER for the logo. I decided to have them put on sideways for a few reasons.

I wanted something different from the ordinary typical plate.
I wanted to be able to read the text under the logo
I went with the engrave and fill option so why not change it all around anyway

So there you have it. I haven't gotten around to making waterslide decals yet but its coming soon

The infamous Chewbacca guitar

2005-11-18T05:39:00.000-08:00

Well here is my Chewbacca model guitar.

Its my first end to end project. She is all warmoth parts. Mazing Neck and Amazing Wild Maple figure with a sweet Red Dye on her. the pickup is a Duncan Custom which I really like a lot. The Floyd is NOS and is the older Gold plating that actually looks like gold.

This is a close up.

I lost the original pic of this guitar before it was routed but needless to say under the trem it had a devils face. The wierd Goatee, horns and all.

So the Chewbacca. I am tlaking to my man Sully one night. Sully is like the peoples poet. Who often can spin a tail that would make a grown man laugh to tears. On this day I got him. ANd got him good. Sully had been trying to sell me his Purple Sully guitar for months. I just couldnt get past teh knob location. Drove me Crazy. So one day I says " Hey Sully, Give the old lady a chewbacca tonight and I will buy it" He says " what?" "A chewbacca you know chewy." I said. "WTF is a chewbacca" he says. So I explain:

"While your girlfriend is sleeping, climb on the bed and put your nuts right in front of her face. Then, give her a sharp jab in the side. When she suddenly wakes up, your pre-positioned nuts will enter her mouth and produce a muffled scream similar to everyone's favorite wookie. RRRRHHHHHGGGGGGGG!!!!"

And that is of course History. I never bought the purple guitar but did go and build my own. The devils face could also look a bit like chewbacca too... so she was born on that day. The first of many more to come.

Rings or Guitars

2005-11-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

I bet you are wondering what that means. RINGS or GUITARS. If you are a tokien fan you can relate even if you are not a guitar nut.

One ring To rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Well that sums up the world of guitar collecting, or more so, the people in it. Everyone know when Smeagul found The Ring he slowly became Gollum. Tokien was a master at metaphor and the like and its funny many rabid fans don't see the meaning behind the name. Let me help:

An artificially created human being that is given life by supernatural means

that's the pure meaning it is commonly known as a "monster".

It seem to me there is a direct correlation between JRR Tokiens and Charvel land. It funny how the people there don't see their own corruption and blood lust at the hands of the "Ring" (aka. charvels ). I have seen it happen time and time again. Youthful desires played out at the hands of "adults". Amazing how it gives some people the ability to be "REGIS IMMORTALITAS" in their own little world. It seems people focus on the "precious" and not the things that matter most: the music, human relationships and of course music. Slowly they change. Change for the worse. You see I have seen several generations of "collectors" do the same thing. The Power of the RING is too much. I feel very much like Bilbo with no Frodo. I was able to live with the RING but not destroy it, no one to pass it to but in the end able to give it away to prevent it from destroying me. I think maybe there was a small fellowship for a while - yet it too was broken. There is always a Boromir in any Fellowship a sit were true here. Hell I can even see a Denethor in all this.

The saddest statement is that this in time shall too pass and there will be no memory of it. Rumor will turn to story, story to myth and myth to legend. It shall repeat itself. The RING always corrupts.....

But the hearts of men are easily corrupted... And the ring of power has a will of its own.

Welcome to the monkey pit

2005-11-01T03:22:00.000-08:00

Hi all:

Here is a little therapy for me. Seems I have completely lost my mind over the last few years and gotten all wrapped up in some internet guitar forum horseshat. Funny how that worked - I got into the interent forums becasue I wanted to chat with guys that shared a passion with me concerning guitars, metal and of course playing. I stepped back and looked at it and realized all I was doing was surfing friggin message boards. Very little playing, Very little playing. Sad Sad Sad.

It funny as I started a new job recently and my boss wanted to learn how to play guitar. So I helped him buy a new guitar and gave him a started lesson. When I pulled my guitar out and couldn't play a darn thing I knew I had really screwed myself getting sucked into the other world. I have decided to slowly bail on the internet forum nonsense and fade away doing things that are a little more productive. I am going to provide myself with a little more happiness which always has been playing guitar.

The rants here are free. Stop back anytime. There most likely wont be too much personal stuff as this is more of an escape for me. I have to be a grown up all day and this allows me to be whatever I want to be.

Smo'g Mon'y out............