(second block, fourth letter of the prisoners' quadratic tap code...)

image
...am here to tap through the walls.


Wed Jan, 12 2005

"In The Long Run"

"'Why stir up a political hornet's nest . . . when there is no urgency?' said Rep. Rob Simmons (Conn.), who represents a competitive district. 'When does the program go belly up? 2042. I will be dead by then.'"
There's responsible representation for you, ladies and gentlemen.

Nevermind the "dumb stunts" that people like me put up on their weblogs. Nevermind the conceptual basis of freedom for protests that people ought to be left alone to attend their own affairs without the forcible interference of various imperiots. You're living better than a hundred or a thousand years ago, and all the Web-order catalogs prove it: you're free to buy anything you want with the productivity that you are permitted to dispose, and that's the thing that counts.

John Maynard Keynes always had the right idea.

Who cares?

(Ransomlink)

Jan 12, 05 | 9:44 am

AxeBites

Various guitars I see floating by, mostly Gibson and mostly eBay.

Early Norlin ES-335 -- 1970, in Walnut ("ES-335TDW"). This is a period-piece look and feel, and arguably the sound as well but that's to cut things very finely. A "classic" 335 would be the original of 1958 in the Sunburst or Natural finish, or the Cherry Red of 1959; the Walnut of 1970 (second year of that finish offering) is not really a "classic" 335. In the history of the Gibson aesthetic, this is analogous to, say, vertically-striped polyester bell-bottoms or Bahama Blue shag carpeting. None of this is to say that they're not cool guitars, and this is a nice one. Excellent photographs.

Chrome hardware, featuring the trapeze tailpiece (like my L-47 and I've always liked it) and ABR-1 bridge with period-typical nylon saddles. Bound rosewood fretboard, with small block markers, and then the crown inlay at the machine head. These would be the T-top Humbuckers. Vintage Nazis would moan that the upper bouts are pointy (the body templates were wearing-out in the factory) and the fourteen-degree machine head with the volute signals a sometimes not-fun era of the line, but these things really do rock or moan or whatever you want a 335-type semi-hollow to do. ...which, of course, is because it really is a 335.


In the months since I've let AxeBites languish all to bleedin' hell, Gibson's Robot Guitar technology has sifted out to other models than the original Les Paul application. I don't know how it's going: I still haven't even seen one of these self-tuners. I don't see piles of them burning on the sides of the highway, nor reverent hangings in display cases over bars, so who knows? This 2008 Robot SG is ready to rock in the Metallic Red. Nickel hardware; it's the stoptail wired for data to send to the tuners, with dual Humbuckers. It's a bound rosewood fretboard, but I really like the single-bound machine head with the crown inlay. That's a real cool old-school look, right there, to set off that crazy-ass color. {nod}