Scott Fraser

Uh, yeah . . .

If it's a 6120 it's not Chinese. The 6xxx models are made in Japan at the Terada factory, & are outstanding guitars. If it's Chinese it's probably a 5120 or 5420 or 5455. If it's a 6120 it's worth a lot more than $899, generally well over $2k. If it's a 5xxx that's list price for current Electromatic models, not a discount.

Always the case. The fact that 90% of YouTubes utilize overdriven tones to demonstrate something other than the overdrive device is just typical of how poorly informed a lot of so-called experts can be. I generally turn off any video when they get to the distortion settings, at least if they're talking ostensibly about guitars or guitar parts. Less mass means more string vibration is transferred to the neck, which we interpret as resonance. More mass means the energy stays in the string longer, less is transferred out of the string, thus more sustain.

Pickup selector on the bass bout, master volume on the treble bout.

It's not sudden, but Gretsch has had affordable Electromatic series guitars since the brand was revived in the late 90s. They are very well made, great playing instruments. The 'Gretschbucker' pickups are, meh, but modifying & upgrading Gretsches is a very common practice. I haven't tried the entry-level Streamliners yet, but the Electromatics are wonderful guitars. I have a half dozen or so.

And so does my Korg MS20 when played with a lot of portamento, in fact any sine wave source which glides from note to note. But a real Theremin uses body proximity to control pitch (usually) or some other parameter, and it's that control via body capacitance that constitutes the unique aspect of what a Theremin is. I just wish that pedal didn't misuse the name, maybe the "Pitch to Voltage Controlled Oscillator" pedal might have a special ring to it.

OK, but a 100% misleading product name. Nothing Theremin-like about it, unless he was waving his foot in the air over the pedal off camera.

I was always amazed they fizzled after one giant hit. They could have been another Cars; jumpy, infectious, meaningless, fun, teen-oriented pop. Who knows, did they piss off the wrong cigar-chomping suit in the music industry machine?

Sounds hugely interesting. Stretch has me very intrigued. Going to do some searching & researching.

My favorite Fleetwood Mac lineup was the guitar triumvirate of Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer & Danny Kirwan, so I missed the Bob Welch era.

You know what they say, "We don't need no stinkin' badges."

All the best to your wife, DBM. May she recover quickly.

It was a year which sucked less than 2020, which I know is a pretty low bar to hurdle. I have avoided the plague, by following advice from medical experts rather than ideologues. I have reunited with my girlfriend, after a lengthy split. I have resumed touring with Kronos, which I love. Vaccinated musicians have started to come back to the studio to record, which I love. I lost a dear friend & musical collaborator. I have more arthritis, tendonitis, & back pain. Kind of a year like many others, good mixed with bad, and life goes on. Peace, & good vibes unto you all.

Best to all.

He shoots, he scores!!

One of the best guitars I ever played was a Bluesbird, highly chambered, thus lightweight yet very resonant, equipped with P90s. Beautiful axe, discontinued long ago.

Sad to see him go.

Hatred is an attachment. Maybe hearing those songs as, ahem, mature adults allows us to let go of those bonds. Maybe that song wasn't so bad after all. Maybe it was actually bad for real, identifiable musical reasons which we can now articulate as objective violations of aesthetic & theoretical rules. And sometimes (cue "Puff the Magic Dragon") it's because the sappiest, most simperingly emotionally manipulative, junior-high-school-poetry-class lyric is tied to a memorable melody which sticks like epoxy to our idle brains.

Why? She was quiet as a mouse... and the other guys didn't mind. And the reason they didn't mind is that they knew she had just suffered a miscarriage a couple of weeks before and she and John were mourning and inseparable. I've always reflexively hated "Yoko hatred," and "Linda hatred." They were there and involved because they were the center of these men's lives. The most positive thing I've seen come from this special is the "we all owe Yoko an apology" thing. I also like her music. The first time I heard The B-52's I said "hey... there's some Yoko in there..." So did John, apparently, which is part of what drove him to make "Double Fantasy," because in the new wave/no wave/punk scene he heard echoes of her work. I've been a Yoko fan since her book "Grapefruit" came out. Conceptual art was a big deal for me. Musically & vocally, not so much, but as an artist, she was a force in avant garde circles. I deplore the "Yoko broke up the Beatles" myth because it makes no sense. They broke up because the Beatles were no longer the most important thing in their own personal lives. They had families & no longer had any big hurdles to conquer. And after Brian Epstein died they then had to start taking care of their own business & then it wasn't fun anymore. I think Yoko had a very important & positive role in John's life, if for no other reason than that she fulfilled the missing mother role for him.

I believe you can sign up for a subscription to Disney+ and get a free one week demo. Then you can cancel during that week, and not be charged, if you only intend to watch Get Back. I think it's worth that hassle to get 8 hours of Beatles.

Just finished watching the series. That this all happened half a century ago, done by four guys in their 20s, and that it is still so relevant & crucial to the evolution of popular music, as well as cultural attitudes, is simply astounding to me. I loved it, partially because they were so great, but maybe more importantly because it allowed me to be a teenager again, or at least to reconnect with my teenage self, to relive what I loved about discovering music as a youth in the 60s & what the Beatles brought to the world of music & 60s pop culture. What a wonderful peek inside the process of making Beatles music, music I never tire of hearing. Musically, they were gods, personally, they were very human. Highly recommended to anybody whose musical life was influenced by all that the Beatles were, & are to this day.

Big congrats to you two!!

RIP Emmett. I jammed with him once & had a serious jones for taking up the Stick, but thought better of the necessary time investment. He was a very cool dude, very patient, seemed rather like a Hobbit, a unique inventor.

For both my Moderna jabs I couldn't tell when the needle went in. Absolutely painless, though I guess that speaks more to the skill of the nurse than anything else.

Cool. I'm waiting for Moderna to be approved as a booster. Should be pretty soon.