My friend Jorge says I should change my name to DeeVeeUs™ instead of DeeBeeUs™!  :D

Long & McQuade in Oshawa, Ontario, 30 or 40 km east of Toronto:

1. David: They said the album cover is a bit sexist.  Nigel: Well, so what? What’s wrong with being sexy?  David: Sexist, Nigel.
2. A tank for some reason.
3. Joe Perry “Boneyard” signature Les Paul
4. Fender seems to be coming out with more and more “Select” series models.
5. A truck for some reason on highway 401.
6. A used Custom Shop Deluxe Strat for $1,995??  That may just be the cheapest price I have ever seen on a Custom Shop Stratocaster!
7. The Tele on the right was one of the “Telebration” series form 2011.  This specific model was built from wood that came out of a  100 year old barn!  I have seen one other example of this model…over a yea ago at Steve’s Music in Toronto.  It was very light..I think it may be pine, but don’t quote me! 

So here’s another quick poll:  which knobs look best on this 2009 Gibson ES-339?

1 - The original black “Top Hat” knobs

2 - Amber “Bell” knobs.  Aesthetically, these look the best to me…but they are a slightly different design, and there’s about a 3 mile gap between the top of the guitar and the bottom of the knob.  OK, yes, that is a bit of an exaggeration.  It’s no more than 2.9 miles!  BUT: there is a very noticeable gap between the top of the guitar and the knob if you are looking at the guitar from any angle except straight on!

3 - Gold “Top Hat” knobs - same design as originals, so they sit down nice and close to the top, but they are gold instead of black.

Opinions?

Better late than never:  I took these shots in May…May 25 to be exact…but I forgot to Tumblr-fy them!

• 2010 Gibson Custom 1960 Les Paul Special VOS Double Cut.  
• Red dragon strap by Jaykco.  
• Classic American muscle car by Dodge (a 1971 Charger I believe!)

We made a trip to two stores I had never been to becuase they are on the other side of the city…and it’s a pain in the but to get there!  here are some shots from the Long & McQuade stores in Oshawa and Pickering Ontario, just East of Toronto:

1. Ibanez makes some pretty fierce looking basses!
2. April showers.  No wait…it’s June!  WTF?!?
3. Third guitar from the right on the bottom of the rack is an Epiphone Nighthawk.  $410 brand new…what a value.  I had one but sold it when I got my Gibson Nighthawk in New York last year.
4. Lefty American Standard…every time I see a lefty Strat I think about how much fun it would be to buy it and flip it over for a “reverse Jimi Hendrix Experience”!  ;)
5. Another cool-looking Ibanez bass.
6. Haha…believe it or not this is NOT a Hofner!  It’s an Epiphone!
7. Limited edition 50th anniversary Marshall 1 watt amplifier.  This is the 80s or 90s tribute model…I have one of the 60s tribute models and I love it.  Pricey but great!
8. I like Larrivees in General, but I go absolutely apesh*t when I see one of their “P” (as in “parlour”) models.  This one is a P-05 - the first one I have seen in a glossy finish (which I like better than the usual “satin”, but it was about $300 more than the last non-glossy P-05 I saw.

2009 Gibson Custom Les Paul Special (single cut).

TV Yellow is the name of this colour.  The colour was invented (hmm…is “invented” the correct word here?) in the mid-1950s because white guitars would cause too much glare on black and white television broadcasts.  TV Yellow eliminated the glare.  

I was poking around the extensive parts wall at my friend Peter’s guitar shop (Mojo Music of Oakville, Ontario, Canada), and I found a lovely Allparts ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic with brass saddles for cheap.  

I grudgingly admit that the Nashville TOM bridge is technically a “better” design than the old ABR-1design - it’s wider, so allows more adjustment for intonation, and the adjustment screws are sealed into the bridge assembly…so they won’t fall out all over the place if you happen to invert the bridge while the strings are off!   But, I think the ABR-1 wins hands down from an aesthetic perspective.  The Nashville is bland.  The ABR-1 is beautiful…especially with brass saddles!

Photo #1 shows the stock “Nashville” bridge on my new Flying V…and the others show the ABR-1 after I installed it.  

In fact…I may just convert all my other Gibsons with “Nashville” bridges to ABR-1s over the next few months.  Even my Nighthawk!  :D

2008 American Std. Stratocaster - it’s a “lefty” that I converted to right-hand so I could play a guitar like Hendrix did!

I gained an even higher level of respect for Hendrix’s playing after I converted this lefty.  Why?  Because it’s so much more difficult when everything is upside down!  Here’s a short list of things that make playing it more difficult than a “regular” guitar:

1. The upper cutaway is now on the bottom, so it’s harder to reach the high notes
2. There are no dots on the underside edge of the neck, so when you flip it over, you can’t easily tell which fret you are on (unless you bend your head over and look at the fretboard itself!)
3. The “comfort contours” for your right arm and stomach are now on the bottom…so the guitar no longer has that comfortable “fit” like it used to.
4. The knobs, pickup switch and jack are now EXACTLY where your strumming arm wants to be…and they interfere with its movement!
5. The knobs function in reverse now: clockwise is “down”, not up, and counter clockwise is “up”, not down!
6. The pickup selector is now backwards too…so the furthest position away from you is now the neck pickup and the closest is the bridge pickup.
7. The tremolo arm now hangs down right over the bridge saddles…and interferes with the right hand - especially when palm muting!
8. The tuning keys, in addition to now being on the bottom of the headstock, are also in reverse order…the low E is now the furthest away and the high he the closest.  I keep reaching for the wrong tuner!  

Despite all these oddities, which I am sure could be gotten used to with time and practice, it’s still pretty cool-looking though…  :D

Strat #10:  2008 American Standard in Blizzard Pearl, lefty.

But wait…I play right handed!  Why the heck did I buy a lefty for myself?  Well…I always wanted to try out my own “reverse Hendrix” and when I found this guitar used at a local shop for under $700, I figured I would give it a try.

So…how do I like playing an upside down guitar?  Let’s put it this way:  I used to have an enormous respect for Jimi Hendrix’s guitar playing.  After playing my own upside down Strat, I now have EVEN MORE respect for his abilities!  It ain’t easy to play an uside down guitar for many many many reasons…which I may talk about in a future post…it’s a LONG list!  :D

So I have never really liked the action on my upside down lefty American Standard Strat.  But the saddles were almost as low as they could go…and and the neck had virtually no relief, but STILL the action was too high.  

And then I remembered something I read on the M&M Guitar Bar blog (if you don’t already follow them, I highly recommend you do…they are experts in the guitar field and have taught me a TON of stuff!) about shimming the neck pocket which tilts the neck back ever so slightly to improve the string height.   So I thought I would give it a try!

Long story short: it worked VERY well!  The action is now extremely low…I might even have to raise the saddles slightly!

Oh also: only AFTER I took of the neck did I remember that most, if not all Strats since the 70s have a little screw you can access through the neck plate which pushes up on the back of the neck - basically doing the same thing as a shim but with no need to remove the neck!  This was called the “Micro-Tilt” system and it was one of the last things Leo Fender designed before leaving the company.  I can never remember the name “Micro-Tilt” though.  I always call it the “Tilt-A-Whirl”…

A visit to The 12th Fret in Toronto is always chock full of fun and loveliness!

1. Rainy day on the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto.
2. ES-335 satin finish…only $1500!  When was the last time you saw and ES-335 for that price?  Exactly: NEVER!
3. Vintage (1960s I believe) ES-175
4. Shopping for guitars always makes me hungry…
5. 1930s Gibson Archtop
6. 1920s Gibson Archtop!
7. Late 50’s Les Paul Jr. TV!  I didn’t ask the price because knowing it would just serve to remind me how poor I am…  ;)
8. Some new and lovely instruments including a couple of ES-330 VOS (one in natural and the other cherry), a fancy new ES-390 (super light too!), an recent CS-339…or CS-336…or…well anyway, one of them Gibsons what look like a 339, but have a ton more fanciness!  Oops…almost forgot the pelham blue Firebird reissue!

The two amps I am using these days around the house.  Marshall JTM-1C and Blackstar HT1-RH.  Together, they pump out an ear-splitting 2 watts of raw rock n roll power!  :D

SG Standard P-90 and SG Junior 60s

I was at the 12th Fret in Toronto yesterday and saw these two late 50s Jazzmasters.  

• Left: 1958 Jazzmaster, paint stripped:  $3,000.
• Right: 1959 Jazzmaster, original sunburst finish: $6,000

So: 50% of the value got “stripped off” along with the paint!  

This is a good practical lesson on why you should NEVER refinish your guitar!  :D

La (Flying) V(ie) en Rose!

Lyrics translated to English for those who don’t speak French:  http://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-vien-en-rose-life-rosy-hues.html

And while I am at it, thinking of cool songs by French women, here is a more recent one that I have loved since I first heard it on CBC in 2004…

Translated lyrics (to English): http://nichitastanescu.wordpress.com/2007/04/05/quelquun-ma-dit-carla-bruni-translation/