jazzbo

Okay, I've been fiscally reckless and spent money from savings I shouldn't have this year, but I finally really know what I want in a guitar and have been able to really get guitars I can't stop playing. . . . I boutht a Phil Gawen (Phiga) Stephen Cripe "Lightning Bolt" copy as the Irwin and Cripe guitars are always fascinating to me. The "Lightning Bolt" was a steal, beautiful wood and excellent craftsmanship, fantastic playability and sound. This got me thinking that what I've really wanted all along was a Doug Irwin "Wolf" style guitar. So I did a lot of research and decided to try out a Troy Post model, he calls it the "GT" for "Garcia Tribute." This one is unlike the real Wolf as it has a bolt on neck (maple with a rosewood fingerboard), and a simplified "sandwhich" body, but then it didn't cost even as much as an American Standard Fender Strat. I had him add Gotoh tuners, a brass nut, and the later Wolf complement of pickups, Dimarzio SDS-1 single coil and two Super 2 humbuckers. The humbuckers are coil tapped. The body is black walnut with a poplar "binding layer." I think this damned thing is beautiful. And boy, is this an expressive guitar, real clarity and speed to the sound and lots of sustain. You can get the Garcia sonic world and also do a Santana thing, lots of sounds in this dog. It plays really well. I think it's beautiful and I haven't picked up another guitar since it arrived on Friday last. Can't stop playing this guitar. It has a brighter, crisper sound than I'm used to but I'm making it work. Definitely captures the sound of the strings in the way that the real Wolf does on recordings I have (listened yesterday to one of the discs on the new Legion of Mary set and immediately heard the similarities). And it's got a great neck, it feels and the attack is a lot like my Fender American Deluxe Mahogany Strat, one of my favorite Strats, while sounding so different. It is an odd sensation of familiarity and exciting new.

I find cdjapan easy to work with and doing business with them is a success.

I don't have a special method for putting on strings. Shawn may weigh in here, he's very good with new strings, he spends a bit of time stretching each string as he winds it up and after the first tuning. I tend to wind a few revolutions of string around the tuner peg, that's how I was taught by my pal Rabbi way back when, he says that helps the string stay in tune. Dan, you should notice a difference. They should ring out more, should have more "resonance." I don't change my strings that often and it's so odd to have that sonic change that at first I really feel it's 'not right.' Then I get into it and go 'oh yeah this is really good' and then. . . they get older and that special signature goes away. I know some guitarists that then change them. I play them for months afterwards.

EMI Japan put out the two non-OJC ones a few years ago and they sound fantastic. This could all be put together from better sources. . . may take a little patience.

Thanks Stuart, listening to a disc right now, definitely enjoying it. I hope I can enjoy it with my friend Dave Laczko one of these days, he and I tried so hard to get this when it was first released, he was then (and for a total of seventeen years) the jazz buyer at Tower Records in Austin.

Okay, I received that set from amazon marketplace. It is indeed the gold cd edition, in absolutely pristine condition, cellophane still on the box. Sounds is quite nice, softer, mellower sounding than the US version. Took far too many yeas, but I have a copy. And I'm happy.

Whatever Scott. I hear what you hear in the stuff, but value it less than you. I over heard this stuff and it hasn't worn as well for me as the later Beatles.

Trust me, I know I've heard these things more times than you, I'm fifteen years older. Yeah there's some raw stuff on there but I turned on the BBC one day in Africa and there was Cream and Hendrix and even the rawest of the early Beatles just sounded like stuff made for the kids. There's good stuff in there but I don't value it the way you do, possibly because I lived through their time and have the awareness of their presence then and now. Your view of the early Beatles is not right for me. I'm going to listen to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" from Hey Jude, that will be my next Beatles listen.

I'm not sure I don't "get" it but I just don't really enjoy it. Never had. Sometimes being around and listening when music was first out one reacts differently to it than hearing it later on in its release life. When it came out in my experience in my then world this was music that girls went nuts about and that guys were like . . . okay, what's the big deal? I still sort of see it his way, it's cute and pop music and I really don't like those guys til they tried to be heavier and harder.

But my point is that the same songs isn't the point about this set for many, it's the same mixes, sound and albums. I've relistened to all the early stuff several times via the '09 mono and stereo versions. I still don't get that excited about it, just too pop and peppy for me for the most part. To each their own.

Not entirely true, and why this release is pissing off so many (who didn't read about this in advance, Apple did exactly wha they said they were going to do though this is not what many fans wanted). The US albums were from different tapes and there were differences in many tracks. The "Capitol Albums" box sets of the past took care of this for the US, but of course had that earlier cd sound. This box set really doesn't duplicate the US albums precisely, and collectors can often be all about the details and they got left behind here. I can sympathize in spirit with them even though I don't give a darn in this instance. Beatles pre Rubber Soul means little to me, didn't much like it in the past and I've liked it even less since. I first heard these in Africa in UK versions, and never bought the US albums.

I could certainly see the allure of this if I were a huge American fan, grew up with the lps, and hadn't gotten the UK versions in '09. None of that is really true in my case.

As far as I can tell of what I read in the massive threads about these on the Hoffman board they basically use the same mixes as in the '09 releases except for a few dozen items where the US mix was different. Also there are a few "incidental music" cuts from one or both of the movie discs not available in UK editions, and "The Beatles Story" (an interview disc) is only available in this box set--not available separately in the '09 releases. In this box all the albums but "Hey Jude" and "The Beatles Story" have both the mono and stereo versions of the album on one disc. I bought and received "Hey Jude" because this was the album I listened to most in the 'seventies from the Beatles and I really like a lot of the material there and am so used to the sequencing. That's all I plan on buying of the US "albums."

Missed this in the theater (haven't seen any movies there in six months) but making up for it.

I know you didn't. I'm just so sick of the hostility here to anything high end audio, and I'm just going to try to discuss music and not equipment here from now on.

Sorry Scott, I'm tired of the ridicule that some heap on anyone who expresses any interest or ownership in high end audio here, I'm bowing out of these type of discussions and I'm not going to share pictures. And I'm not a photographer and don't really have any to post regardless.

"I Talk with the Spirits" is a flute only album by Kirk, and it's one of my favorites of his. This is the desert island Kirk for me, for whatever reason it keeps fascinating me.

Expensive enough, I've so far avoided these new Mosaic LP sets, but I might go for this one. The material is really good. I agree with the Mosaic statement, "Spirit" and "Rip, Rig and Panic" are incredible releases.

My guess is from Columbia's tapes.

Yes, it was a 10" I believe.

I have all the US cd reissues, and many of the Japanese. I've always liked Bethlehem; this is the digital series of theirs I like the best.

Well at least they have hired very competent engineering staff for the US leg, and those they lease to in Japan are doing stellar work.

Sent you an order Allen. Congrats on the first good review.

Where do they get that Trane "led" this band? I don't recall ever hearing that before. I don't recall hearing that either. Smells funny to me.