Ron S

That looks great, Scott--much classier looking and now it doesn't look like Darth Vader's guitar (did you know he played?) . I'm sure it now sounds as good as it looks. Too bad Arkansas isn't a little closer to Philly--I could have given you your next project. I just took my new Agile Cool Cat jazz box to a luthier to change the pups to Duncan Seth Lover 55's and to do a set-up.

You know, you can download the entire catalog from the Fantasy web site as a 23.1 MB PDF file. Of course, it helps to have a broadband connection.

Isn't that what I FREAKIN' SAID???

Nice setup, and that's a sweet guitar! I used to have a Roland JC-120 amp like that. I wish I still had it. I picked up the Roland a week after getting the Ibanez. I had been running my tele through a Line 6 2-10 amp, and it just was not a good amp for the Ibanez (which incidentally had been souped up with the addition of Seymour Duncans) This particular Roland is a newer generation amp, and it just isn't as quiet as the old ones were - or at least I think so. Is it normal to hear a hiss when no signal is going through the amp? I mean, it is powered up of course, and the gtr is plugged in, but even with the volume on the gtr dialed down, I hear hiss. It isn't that bad, but I guess I expected total silence. One other thing, the amp is a bitch to cart around; I am grateful for the casters. I just got a new 30-watt Vox Valvetronix (has a tube in the preamp), and also was surprised to hear significant hiss coming from it when the master volume is up a bit, even when there's nothing plugged into it. Jeff Blake told me that his tube amp also has hiss, so I just assumed that it's because of the tube.

And don't forget Rex Harrison in MY FAIR LADY.

300 block of Pine. Is that your flag?

aka Buck Chuckley. I thought it was Bucky Upchuck.

In the interest of full disclosure, I think you should change your screen name to "Bradford".

Columbia Small Group Swing Sessions, Disc 7--Herb Ellis

It's actually Main Street, Disneyland, but I thought it looked cool. Seriously, though, I don't know exactly where it is, other than somewhere in Society Hill--I pulled it off the internet.

Speaking of excessive running of red lights, Philly--that backwards, rickety, corrupt city that fails to respond to 21st-century demands--has recently begun installing a high-tech system of cameras at traffic lights to record license plates of cars that run red lights, and then the registered owner gets a citation in the mail. Also, the Mayor is now pushing for the installion of a high-speed wireless network throughout the enitre city that could be accessed by all residents, making Philly the first big city to become one large hot spot. Not bad for a city stuck in the 18th century--although that also has its charms:

Home sweet home! For complete authenticity, it needs a little fine tuning: YO, YOUSE! Shut da fuck up, so's I can finish watchin' dis here movie:

I'm happy to see these words on the discography page: Mastered using 24-bit resolution by Malcolm Addey at the Malcolm Addey Studio, New York City Hopefully Addey worked some magic on some of those early 50s sessions And hopefully there's improvement in the sound of the 2 albums with Joe Williams which, based on their currently available early '90's CD issues, could use it.

Then don't buy 'em from anyone who looks like this:

Just don't turn it into THIS kind of bolt on neck:

What kinda pups you gonna put in that bad boy?

YEAH, BABY!

BTW Chris, were those date books also buried in some closet in your apartment?

Thanks, Chris. I knew about the info on the Mosaic site, but I'm trying to find out where couw got what appears to be some sort of circular. But sometimes it seems that trying to get information out of him is like trying to get it from Harpo Marx:

Where did you get that? Or did you just whip that up in Photoshop? not me So then you got it from . . .? (Man, getting an answer out of this guy is like pulling teeth! )

Where did you get that? Or did you just whip that up in Photoshop?

Seconds on the Monk's Cafe recommendation. I am Philly born & bred. The usual things people complain about Philly: it's old and dirty and redevelopment is proceding in a pretty weird fashion in the downtown area--there are still wastelands 5 minutes from the most expensive real estate in the city. The town kinda looks drab in many ways because a) the city has never gotten its act together on presenting itself well to visitors and b) it's an eighteenth century town and it's just hard to do a lot of things the twenty-first century demands. So there's a feel to it similar to say, New Orleans or the older parts of London. It seems decrepid. Myself, I LIKE that. But I also used to play in a junkyard. Eric pretty much explained above what I didn't I like about Philly. To be honest New Haven (which is a 120K town, not a metropolis) is nicer, and I'm not the Haven's biggest fan. On the other hand I grew up in suburban CA from the age of 10 and my tastes are tainted accordingly. Guy I suspect you didn't see and experience of lot of the really nice stuff the Philly area has to offer. Unfortunately, for whatever historical or sociological reasons, a lot of Philly natives (Eric excluded, of course ) tend to see only the negatives of the city, and not the positives, and they FAIL to see that other large cities have many of the same negatives. As a result, I think, the rest of the country also has a blind spot to Philly's many amazing amenities. For example, did you hike in some of the more remote areas of Farimount Park? Watch rowing and skulling on the Schuylkill River, widely considered the rowing capital of the US? Visit the Chadds Ford/Brandywine area made famous by artist Andrew Wyeth and his family? Visit the New Hope area of Bucks County? Go to Valley Forge National Park? Visit the wonderful neighborhoods of Manayunk, Chestnut Hill, Society Hill/Washington Square, the Italian Market and South Philly, and Rittenhouse Square? Did you know Philly has the largest indoor Flower Show in the world during the darkest, coldest part of winter? Did you know the Philly area is home to more public gardens and aboretums--including some of the most famous--than any other area in the country? And that's just a start. As you can probably tell, criticism of Philly hits a raw nerve with me. I'm not originally from Philly, and have lived as an adult in New York City, DC, Miami, and Texas. But I've been in Philly for 15 years now, and can say with great confidence that Philly's problems with crime, urban wastelands, poor city services, corruption, etc. are really no worse than any other major city's, and it has wonderful neighborhoods, streetscapes, and scenery both in and immediatlely outside the city that are truly special. Now I'll shut up.

Brad, based on that and other communications you've received from them, it sounds like they're not aware that the box is SUPPOSED to rust, although obviously the discs should not be marred. The funniest thing will be if they decide to sell "faulty" rusted sets at a discount... maybe $99? That may have been what originally happened.

Peter, A little off-topic, but I have a CD of him with Joe Sudler's Swing Machine, a great local Philly big band, from about 10-15 years ago. Ever hear of them?

Brad, based on that and other communications you've received from them, it sounds like they're not aware that the box is SUPPOSED to rust, although obviously the discs should not be marred.