Yeah, on top of that, they seem to have digested through Houses of the Holy and stopped there. So, it's even a limited Zeppelin imitation. That I thought they sounded like a LZ outtake with Robert having a day with a weird, reedy voice when I first heard them didn't help. Their denial of the influence of Zeppelin after that made me truly wonder how you could be an unwitting Zeppelin imitation and not realize it.
I dunno, they're young, and it's not like it's Vanilla Ice levels of make believe. Maybe they'll get past it and go somewhere interesting. Even though I sold my LZ collection in the late 80's to buy other records; I have re-acquired copies of I, II, and Presence (my darling never let go of her copy of III), and listen to at least parts of them every few months, because those records have parts that I still love that don't get over played on the radio these days. GVF sounds something like a mishmash of all of the songs that really are over played still, and I callously spin the dial when I hear them.
Ok, I'll stop telling them to get off my lawn, now.
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WARNING: Mixed guitar/bass content follows. And on preview: Jeebus on a pogo stick being chased by velociraptors, that reads like an encyclopedia entry. I'm sorry. There's a picture at the end.
In the world of things that make me inordinately happy, I have one new guitar in my life, and a bass I can finally call mine.
My super wonderful wife bought me a guitar for my birthday. One that was a particular model that I didn't know existed. She was worried enough about whether I liked it that she let me open it a week early, just so she could be sure. She's a mad woman for ever wondering, it's an amazing guitar. She got me a Guild S-200 with a stop tailpiece, loaded with Guild's version of P-90s in Pelham blue. Dang, woman. You know what I want when I don't even know it existed. I thought about an S-200 or a reissue loaded with Guild humbuckers and their floating vibrato when I guitar splurged and bought my Gretsch Billy-Bo. I don't think I even mentioned it, but the lady knows me. If it had come loaded with P-90s at the time, much less in that color, I probably would have gone for it.
While super proud and loving the sound of the thing as soon as I opened it about three weeks ago, when I sent a pic to a friend, he agreed that it was gorgeous, but felt it cried out for a Bigsby. I could not honestly disagree. Fortunately, relatives had sent just about the exact amount needed in birthday funds for a B5 and a Vibramate, which is a mounting device I was unaware before hand. It mounts to various existing points (such as the stop tailpiece inserts in my case), and provides an aluminum plate to mount the Bigsby to. Amazing. The hardest part was re-stringing the guitar after mounting the vibrato. It arrived at 11:30, and I was breaking in the new strings by 12:30.
So, yeah, NOT A BASS, but if one of you guys who moonlights as a guitarist wants to add a vibrato to your Gibson style trapeze or stop tailpiece guitar or Tele, check out a Vibramate. I originally bought it because I wasn't sure if a Bigsby would fit the S-200's pickguard, and I could just move it to another stop tailpiece guitar I have if it didn't. It made the whole fitment so easy, I wouldn't buy a Bigsby without one now.
In the bass world, I was finally allowed to buy the P-Bass that made me like/need a P-Bass. I never liked the feel of their necks below the 5th fret on any of the ones I'd tried in the 30 years of getting a chance to play them. I could do it, but I didn't like it. Plus, I rarely liked the sound of the split humbuckers in them. So, it wasn't my thing.
In the current band, I worked through a lot of different basses I already owned, and even bought a few trying to get a fit. I used everything from a Danelctro Longhorn to a Epi long scale EB-3. Some worked, but none ever sounded quite "right" across all the songs. The lead guitarist said "I have an 80's Precision, if you want to see if it works, I can bring it out." So, even though it was *the* model of bass I didn't want to play, I told him to bring it to practice and I would try it. Motherscratcher, it actually does sit perfect in just about every song, its pickups sound great, a bit microphonic for my gain, but I can deal, and I really enjoy how it plays, what the hell is it? I checked it out, and it was a MIJ E serial P-bass. I begged him to sell it to me, but he bought it when he was 18, and well, the only way he was willing to sell it to me was if I sold him a dog ear P-90 that I had put in a guitar when I was 20, which is supposedly from a '50s LP Jr. Nah, as long as I can play it for this band and look for one to make mine, I'll play yours.
About a year later, I found my black E series MIJ Precision (with slightly more microphonic pickups), and was able to retire my Squier Jazz and use his Precision as the backup (yeah, I break strings often enough to need one). But, even with the black one being the one I use/abuse/love on. I couldn't really forget how good that blue one made me feel when I played it. So, when out of the blue he asked me if I was still interested in buying it this week, it was only a question of price. I negotiated him to the same price as I paid for the black one, because I slightly overpaid for it because it was pretty, and I kind of owed him some rent on the blue one. Either way, I'm happy to be able to call it mine, because I had too many good times with that bass. After I paid him, he pointed out that we hadn't actually used it on a recording, at all. By the time I was converted, I had the black one, and used that. I hope to fix that in the next year.
Here's a bad cellphone pic of the two together:
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Oh, and Neil Young said every guitar has at least one song in it. These two have given me more than that each.
