Sharkman

Oh nooooooo! Damn it. He was one of my favorite guitarists for almost fifty years. I just read that he died at the age of 78 from bacterial meningitis. In the July 1977 issue of Guitar Player magazine (which I happen to have in the basement), Jimmy Page said that Jeff Beck was the best guitarist out there. I have no argument about that. Bye Jeff.

Depending on how you want to look at it, this was either a really great year or a really lousy year for me. Nothing bad happened to me in 2022. I didn't get sick or injured, I didn't get shot at, and while business wasn't great, it was good enough. On the good side, I got my Yamaha Wave Runner in July, and I had loads of fun riding that all the way up to the second week of November. It's now winterized, shrinkwrapped, and sitting in my backyard until April. Other than that, it was a pretty dull and uneventful year for me.

We're a helpful bunch.

If you get that Roland, get 24 AA rechargeable batteries, or maybe some 14500 lithium ion rechargeables. Eight batteries in the amp, eight for backup, and eight at home either recharging or recharged. I have sold literally hundreds of flashlights over the past seven years, and I have learned that good quality rechargeable batteries are your good friends.

I'll give you the good news first, and then the bad news. I found an amp at Sweetwater that will do just what you want, running on eight AA batteries. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CubeStEX--roland-cube-street-ex-50-watt-2x8-inch-battery-powered-combo-amp And now the bad news. The price is double what you want to pay. If someone else here can find a similar amp for under $300, please let everyone know about it.

When Fiji, my ex-girlfriend's 80 lb. pitbull would stay at my house, he would eat approximately 2 3/4 pounds of either boneless skinless chicken breast or boneless pork chops for dinner. If I gave him 2 1/2 pounds, he wanted a little more. If I gave him 3 pounds, he couldn't finish the last couple pieces of meat. Some questions are vague only because you haven't experimented enough to get a concise answer. I don't miss the ex at all, but I sure miss Fiji.

It's Friday, but only until tomorrow.

If I had to name one guitarist as my favorite, it would be Jimmy Page. But since everyone else is naming a few, I shall do the same. Jeff Beck, Edward Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and the truly incomparable Les Paul.

Michael Jackson??? Are you talking about the dead pop star who made the Thriller album? Because he wasn't a guitarist. I can't think of any noteworthy guitarist named Michael Jackson. A little clarification would be helpful.

Brand new lava rock, being made fresh daily.

It's a copy of a Gibson Hummingbird, but I have no idea of who made it.

Either a Yamaha or an Epiphone acoustic would be my choices. In fact, the first good guitar I bought back in 1981 was a Yamaha acoustic.

Since I don't have a bass guitar (yet), I got out my Les Paul and pretended it was a bass in standard EADG tuning (with the first and second strings not there). If each of the 17 strings were tuned to a chromatic note, with the 17th string at E, you would have E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F. F#, G, and G#. So, that would work, if your intention was to play open strings instead of fretted notes for most of a song. But when you factor in the size of the neck, headstock, body, and bridge, that bass would have some incredible sustain, so all your notes would moosh (I hope that's the way to spell it) together. I'm pretty sure this is not the bass guitar that I'm going to buy someday, just so I have one.

www.chorderator.com is my favorite chord website. You should go there and look around to see if there is anything you would use or adapt for your project, or if there is anything you would change.

I like I'm a Believer, along with a lot of Monkees songs. But one song that makes me change the radio station while swearing loudly is "I Don't Want To Lose Your Love Tonight" by The Outfield. I hear that song played almost every day on one of the two Detroit area classic rock stations. I am so sick and tired of hearing that Josie's on a vacation so far away. I hope Josie got eaten by a shark, or maybe trampled by a herd of buffalo.

That makes sense. The reason I bought a Stihl chainsaw with an 18 inch bar instead of the usual 16 inch was so I could say "Mine is two inches longer than yours".

Can anyone here explain to me how to play a 17 string bass, and/or why anyone would need something like this in the first place? I heard about Elwood Francis, the new bass player for ZZ Top getting one of these things, and after looking at it, my big question is WHY?

It sounds like you need a manager or booking agent. Unfortunately, the only person I know that lives in Hawaii is you.

As a musician and an entertainer, Jerry Lee Lewis was spectacular. As far as his personal life went, lets just say that Jerry Lee Lewis had a history of making some pretty bad decisions. But this is a music website, not a gossip one, so I will stick to Jerry's musical contributions. His showmanship was unrivaled, and he paved the way for exciting live musical performances, and not just in the rock and roll genre. Jerry Lee Lewis influenced many performers to not just stand there like a statue, but move around and have some fun on stage. He was a great innovator, and not an imitator.

All the way down to 9??? In January 1985 there was one morning where it was 20 below zero outside, and it warmed up to zero later in the day. I had to work, so I drove in that bitter cold. The heater in my car got up to kinda warm, but that was it. In January 2013 I had a hearing in Livingston County Circuit Court for a lawsuit I had. It was 13 below zero that morning. When my lawyer showed up, I told him "Jim, we're the only ones here. There are literally no other human beings in the circuit court section of this building." We had to reschedule the hearing, because while I was able to drive forty miles in that bitter cold, and my lawyer drove about sixty miles, none of the judges, clerks, bailiffs, or anyone else working there drove to work that day.

About 20 years ago I went down to Orlando, Florida in January for a business trip. When I arrived, the cab driver who took me to the hotel actually apologized for the cold weather, since it was in the upper fifties that day. I told him when I left my house in suburban Detroit that morning it was 10 degrees outside, with a foot of snow covering my front yard. Upper fifties felt like summer weather to me.

Earlier today I was telling the story about my moose hunt up in British Columbia back in October 2002. One night, the hunting guide was talking with one of the other hunters who lives in Montana. The guide looked at me and said "What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Montana?" I replied "Dental floss." Everyone looked at me with this bewildered look on their faces, and I looked back at them also in bewilderment. I guess they never heard of Frank Zappa. Another night, during dinner, the topic turned to music, and I calmly said that Led Zeppelin was the greatest musical group ever in the entire history of all mankind. One of the other hunters, an older guy from northern California named Dan, muttered "Like Hell!" At first, I was shocked, because this guy just did not talk. I was wondering if maybe he was mute, or maybe he just brushed his teeth and didn't want to open his mouth and get them dirty. I later discovered that Dan was a square dance caller, which is why he would probably be unfamiliar with Led Zeppelin. Rock and roll was as foreign to them as square dancing is to me, but it was fun to meet new people whose lives were so different from mine. Oh, and yes, I got a big moose. 350 pounds of steaks, roasts, and burger, along with a big head hanging on my wall just a few feet away.

I was in suburban Cleveland on a business trip over the weekend, and while I saw a lot of people wearing Indians jackets, hats, and shirts, and plenty of pictures of Chief Wahoo, I did not see one single Guardians jacket, hat, or shirt.

Yeah, I was just having fun with my new Sheldon Cooper time machine.