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

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...am here to tap through the walls.


Wed Aug, 23 2006

These Worthless Lumps

Well, the airports were ridiculous, of course. At Detroit, I watched someone get on the airplane with a cup of coffee from Starbucks. I don't know how he got it through security: I didn't see that part of it. I only know that he was sipping away as he came down the aisle of the airplane. Last week's panic is working out great: everybody know what they're doing now and we're all on the same page.

As I checked a bag, the TSA lump gave me the jazz: "Are there any weapons in this bag?"

"No." (Flat as possible.)

"Are you carrying any gels, liquids..."

"No." (Still taking him exactly at face-valule, but just barely starting to roll a sneer at the corner of my eye, which he initially took as a joke, but then figured it out when I didn't start laughing with him.)

"Have a nice flight, sir."

(Turn on a heel without a word...)

Just ice 'em. Put them in their place. "You are not my savior, you idiot. You should get a real job and get out of my way." Eye and attitude are everything. Occasionally, a word or two turned just right, but not often. Just watching them, putting them where they belong with a look, and speaking to them only within the strict bounds of their blinders will do it. One can get right up next to them and nobody can put a finger on it, but they'll know without a doubt what they're worth to someone with a brain in head.

Aug 23, 06 | 12:06 pm

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}