Recent content by Verne Andru

And some, like the Chrysler TC by Maserati, had Maserati engines.

Early 70s into the 80s was the start of the "fuel efficiency" and pollution controls that killed performance across the board. Then Detroit was caught flat footed when small imports like Honda and Toyota delivered cars that were efficient and cheap on gas. My 74 Ranchero, which had a huge 400cc...

Totally love the Avante. Reason I got the LeBaron is it reminded me of it, style-wise. Big fan and look forward to seeing it restored. Those were way ahead of their time (designed in the 1950s).

Yeah, the Special was special. For me it was the perfect combination of Triumph Bonneville/Norton Commando done with reliable Japanese engineering. I was doing a lot of highway driving with it and found it just too rough, which is why I got the larger Vulcan later. That Special was perfect for...

62 Mini, 67 LTD, 74 Ranchero Squire, 75 Gremlin X Levis, 76 Gremlin, 80 Honda Accord, 84 Honda Accord and a 87 LeBaron makes 8 total. Most valuable one is the Mini - those old ones with sliding windows go for a fortune now. Got the LeBaron new and it's been my main driver since. No need to...

I put one on my Longhorn but for a different reason - with a normal button the strap was rubbing the end of the horn and was wearing off the finish so I had one put on to stand the strap away from the body to solve the problem. Can't comment on balance as these long horns balance well to begin...

Have you checked to see if your nut is in the correct spot? I've had a few instruments where the factory didn't trim the fretboard properly and the nut ended up being too far from the first fret. Easy fix when you figure it out - cut off some fretboard and re-glue the nut - but it caused all...

When I originally got my bass I had intonation issues and "warbling." Turned out the factory strings are put on by auto winders that twist the string causing the problem. Fix is to take the strings off and let them unwind/twist, or to replace the strings with fresh ones.

That's a great deal. IIRC the original Flea Bass was supposed to address the "young musicians don't have the means to be able to acquire their own instruments" issue but seems to have taken a different course over time.

Yamaha made some like my BB405 - it came with 2 J pups. Their BB-NE2 is the bomb.

I've watched Yamaha basses over a number of decades and it's interesting to see how their product lines have evolved. (I'm shooting from the hip here so feel free to correct details.) They had the 'traditional' BB line and separate Motion bass that became the Nation East signature. The TRB line...

Thanks. Yeah, it's a great piece of kit. Electronics were designed by Paul Rivera with the intent of making a 100 watt solid-state Fender Deluxe that doesn't distort as I understand it. Jazz players like Mike Stern and Pat Matheny were notable users. Parametric EQ is the bomb. Mine is a G100-210...

I got introduced to baritone by Paul Chandler at a NAMM show way back. I had just got a Danelectro double-neck and thought 2 six string necks a bit redundant, so I bought the baritone neck Allparts had on their display during load-out and swapped them out. The baritone tuning was a lot of fun...

Baritone strings are thick so you might have some issues stringing with those ferrules.

FWIK, and as others have stated, it's a variation on 5th tuning used on mandolin, mandola, cello, violin/viola, tenor and etc. I did a deep dive into mandolin and have worked my way through tenor to settle on what I call extended range tenor - Bb-F-C-G-D-A. If NST is C-G-D-A-E-G it's basically...