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

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...am here to tap through the walls.


Sat Feb, 21 2004

What The Thing Really Is

My old friend Bruce McQuain is just wrong.

"What is inflation? It’s a sustained rise in the general price level."
That is simply not true, and I don't care who says it. In the comments, I've made the point that "complaints about 'doctrinal purity' are actually complaints against conceptual precision." I've been told that "arguing FOR 'doctrinal purity' when it serves no useful purpose in what is being described is absurd."

To begin with: the words "doctrinal purity" are not mine, and they mean nothing to me in terms of the issue at hand, except for this: I know a pejorative when I see one.

The "useful purpose" of my argument is about describing reality. The general thrust of Bruce's post is very good. However, there is no point whatever in pandering to a popular nonsense just because it's popular. Every dolt on the street -- and most of 'em in the governments -- thinks he knows what "inflation" is, in no small part because of the way officials have used the term in their own interest for generations, now. However, the fact of the matter is that they're all talking about effect instead of cause, and they don't know the difference.

My general question: what possible good can come of discussing something so politically charged in terms that have nothing to do with it?

Feb 21, 04 | 11:40 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}