jazzbo

Wow, it's hard to believe that came out 12 years ago! I remember my Sun Ra Fever of the time. Yesterday got in the Antique Blacks and the Horo. Will spin those soon.

I played Working Man's Dead and American Beauty a lot in the 'seveneties. . . not so much since. I sort of stopped listening to the Dead when I stopped smoking a certain herb with frequency after that decade ended. When I came back to listening to the Dead in the 'nineties, it was to Wake of the Flood and beyond mostly. . . and mostly the live shows. Wake of the Flood always seemed a turning point for me. Their own label, a new sense or arrangement and instrumentation, a new set of songs to turn into concert staples. I would guess it's my "desert island Dead studio album."

Glad you got to hear it. It's rather reasonably priced here, I got mine for 1200 US, you can get it directly from Sony for 1500. Sorry if that's over your price range (I totally understand).

And only one of the concert sets was released officially in Japan! I think it's possibly all the box sets. In the brass spine edition. Set to fit in special foam slots.

Wow. Too bad I HATE PHONES. Wouldn't make sense to get an iPhone and never use the phone part, right?

Buy Wake of the Flood in the 2001 series. See, I told you which version to buy! It's my favorite. Not sure why, well maybe it's just the sort of fusion of styles that seemd new at the time and is still to me fresh.

I know Allen, I'm sure I'd love one, but am keeping myself from checking one out til I'm working again and have more money coming in than going out. I did pick up an interesting amp that needs a little work: a Fender Bantam Bass (30 watt, two channel, hand wired) in a custom built walnut cabinet with two 12" Eminence, white diaphragm speakers. A little noisey, but a really fine guitar amp (I was hoping that it would be a better bass amp than it is, but part of the reason it isn't is that the bass channel's bass control is not functioning). Really pretty cabinet, very well built, with a custom flame maple face for the amp! Solid. When I get it checked over and up to snuff, it will be my bedroom amp.

I'm mainly playing a sort of clumsy jazz on my own with all my planks of wood. . . . And playing along mainly to blues, jazz and what my neice calls "Bazillion" music. The '59 Bassman LTD amp makes it all sound right for me. Neck pickup plus warm head and 4 10s. . . now that's the sound I love.

Oh I can understand that. My favorite Strat has a hard tail. And it makes a difference. And the Strat I have with a tremolo (which I don't use) is different in that it's a mahogany bodied Strat, with the tremolo blocked. Has amazing tone (and yeah, it's a bit heavy). My Jazzmaster is my favorite of the guitars, and it has tremolo, but floating springs in a tailpiece, which actually improves the sound somewhat, makes it seem as if it were an archtop in some aspects of the sound. The hole is at the bottom of the body, covered, and rather small in comparison to Strats. I just don't like the few Teles I've played very much. I was excited about my '72 Thinline reissue for a while, but ultimately the sound is not variable enough, and the fingerboard is too curved for my hand.

I ordered mine from amazon.fr at the same price. Should have it in a few days. Brownie has given good descriptions of the set, I'm sure it's spectacular.

Just one day I found one that had a wonderful neck, which was what never worked well for me before. And then I learned to look for THAT neck, and every guitar that I played with a neck in those specs played very easily and well. And when I finally spent a lot of time with Fender guitars, I figured out how to make the sounds I like from them. I don't know why, but Fenders now feel really "right" for me. They "strum" really easily and I get exciting sounds from them. That led me to explore Fender basses and I now play my Fender American Deluxe Jazz basses (one with a fretless rosewood fingerboard, one with a maple fretted fingerboard) almost exclusively, haven't been playing guitar much lately, mostly basses. All the guitars and basses sound wonderful to me through my '59 Fender Bassman reissue amp, and the '63 reissue reverb head. I'm "set."

Welll, after the PRS for a while you can try out other guitars yourself. I didn't get "Fender" for a long time but one day they just clicked and now I'd get rid of every nonFender guitar I have before I let any Fenders go (and he's right in that the American made ones I find much nicer, but still like Mexican and "parts custom" ones.)

Okay I didn't read your post closely. In this internet age of used cds from amazon, ebay, half.com etc. I really wouldn't have called these particular ones hard to find at "reasonable" (say 15 to 20 dollars) prices. One Step Beyond may have been the hardest to find(?)

According to their web site, it's been "discontinued." Sam Ash had a Custom 24 on sale for $389 on Black Friday, which Guitar Center matched so I purchased it. Well, actually my wife got it for me as a Xmas present so it's under wraps until then. My first real guitar. Congrats Brad!

They did fix One Step Beyond. You should be able to find the others. Have you done a search of the usual suspects (amazon, cd universe, Blue Note site,etc.)?

I can recommend the book heartily as well.

I can recommend the book heartily as well.

Should have my Getz (and Fitzgerald) box in the mail from France soon. Right now, the Miles Davis Columbia Album Collection box set. Wow.

Well, with VAT deducted, etc. the box cost me 207 including shipping. At that price it's a great bargain. If I wanted to, I could sell a number of Japanese and US cds cheap and make up the 207. If I wanted to. . .

Buy everything on the Jazz Oracle label. Everything. http://www.jazzoracle.com/catalogue/index.asp

I've got that Don Martin set. Very well done!

Well, I still don't think you'll see many of these at bargain prices, but I hope so for you hopefuls! Just got my copy about three hours ago. The front edges of the box cover had ripped loose at the seams, and eight discs had glue residue. It was packed with just a big wad of brown paper inside the box and was bounding all the way from Germany. I cleaned up the discs with "Goof Off" remover and a Fender guitar polishing rag. Very easy to get the glue off, it just smears off. No disc was scuffed or scratched. I've played one of the glue discs before I removed the glue and it played perfectly. Sound on all the discs that I've played are exceptional. The "Star People" sounds considerably better than my European copy of quite a few years back. "Miles Davis at Fillmore" sounds a lot like the Sony copy I have. "Porgy and Bess" and "My Funny Valentine" (which is the one I played with the glue) sound phenomenal. I'm happy! I like this set. Now it's time to listen, compare, etc.

Let me throw out another possibility. I have been using two cd players as sources, and can't decide which one I like best, but I do know which is the most versatile: the Sony ES Series SCD-XA5400ES player. It is built like a tank, weighing 23 well-designed and assembled pounds. It has the best SACD sound I've heard and incredible cd playback. I'm just amazed at the sound of this machine, detailed but still warm and not at all harsh. Took a few hundred hours to really bloom but when it did it really seduced me. I paid 1200 for mine, and I think that it's of a build quality and a sonic quality that you don't usually find unless you spend two or three times that much. I can really recommend it. I was really surprised as Sony cd players haven't generally appealed to me without modification. This one I wouldn't be surprised to find is underpriced compared to what it costs to build. At Crutchfield: http://signature.crutchfield.com/s_158XA54...0ES.html?tp=197 At Sony: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores...552921665537319 Long thread at AVS forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....055&page=26

I agree with mr jazz wholeheartedly! How speakers sound in the show room, in your room, with music, with dvds, with lps, can all be very different and your personal expectations are what should be met.