We’re not lottery playing people in this house. Jen and I will splurge for a ticket or two when a jackpot gets insanely huge.
Powerball is insanely huge.
We bought a couple of tickets.
We had to drive to a store tonight (a drive through, social distance like a boss) and on the ride over we planned out what we will do with our winnings. Our boat load of winnings.
I plan on calling Kirk Hammett and asking him how much he wants for Peter Green’s Les Paul.
If I were to mod my 1978 Les Paul Custom to make it act more like a late ’50’s Les Paul Standard, this is probably what I would do.
Brandonwould 1959 clones. The question would be do I get nickel pickup covers, which would be correct for a Les Paul Standard, or gold pickup covers, which would be correct for a Les Paul Custom. Gold is more appropriate for my guitar, but they are also super expensive.
For changing out the pots and the switches and the wiring (my ES-335 needs this more than my Les Paul does, but I’m fantasizing here so leave me alone) I would get a wiring harness. The question then becomes, do I get a 50’s wiring harness or do I get a 50’s wiring harness that includes the Peter Green out-of-phase mod? I think I’d do the Peter Green thing. If so, I’d probably go with Gunstreet Wiring Shop- Les Paul Standard – 50S Out Of Phase – Wiring Harness.
Obviously I am way too much of a wuss to even daydream about installing any of this stuff myself. If I do it, I’m getting an experienced tech to do it. That goes without saying.
On a similar topic, when I bought my Les Paul in 1990 it was 12 years old and it was seriously modded already. Both of the original pickups were gone, and it had a Bigsby vibrato. The pickups bothered me. The neck was a DiMarzio which sounded nice. The bridge was a Jackson that was crap, although it had a seriously high output that I liked. I removed the Bigsby within about 10 minutes of bringing the guitar home, but it was years before I did anything about the pickups. I had always thought about trying to bring the guitar back to stock, or at least as close as I could get them. In 2006 (I think) I had Larry replace both pickups with Gibson Classic ’57s. Again, the Neck was nice but the bridge wasn’t. A few years ago I had Guitar Center swap the bridge for a Gibson Dirty Fingers reissue. Again, a really high output.
Now, after doing some research I know that the correct pickups I would need to get back to 1978 stock would be TTops. I can get clones of those too, even with the gold covers. I think I might have a good chance of getting actual 70’s TTops on ebay rather than clones, but if I am going to do this I am going for some really sweet PAF clones. Screw period correct, I want 50’s everything. I wonder how much it would cost to get the body refinished and painted gold like a 1957 Goldtop Standard. I bet that would cost a small fortune. Then again, if I wanted to be Les Paul Custom accurate I would have to paint it black, not gold. Prior to 1958 standards were gold and customs were black. Black Les Pauls look awesome, but nothing beats the old Goldtops.
Suffice to say, if I ever hit the lottery for hundreds of millions of dollars, the first thing I’m buying is a 1957 Les Paul standard. The second thing I’m buying is a 1959 sunburst Les Paul Standard. A ’57 would be insanely expensive. A ’59 would cost me pretty much all of my lottery winnings. Totally worth it though.
ADDENDUM: I tried to write about the Peter Green “out of phase mod” and typo’d it to “out of phrase mod”. I am clearly mentally defective. I fixed it though.
I’m still making my way through the audiobook version of Neil Peart’s Ghost Rider as part of the on-going Neil Elwood Peart Memorial Festival. In this morning commute’s “reading” (was it in a letter to Brutus? Most of the book is letters to Brutus) he mentioned Nantucket. He didn’t go there, although I did get a mention of riding through Massachusetts today, he just mentioned it.
I’ve never been to Nantucket. I have never been to Martha’s Vineyard either. Growing up we used to take occasional weekend escapes to Cape Cod, but its been over 30 years since I’ve crossed the bridge. I’d like to go back. I’d like to see the islands. Maybe this summer I can talk the family into making a mid-week escape. Getting to the Cape on the weekends is hell on Earth, so it would need to be a mid-week thing.
Today’s “reading” also included a discussion of the Pacific Coast Highway. Jen and I have driven on some stretches of that road. Hearing about it today made me miss California. It made me miss the Pacific ocean. It made me want to go back to San Diego. It made me want to stick my toes in the water again. It made me want to drive through the mountains to the desert and see Julian. Neil’s description of the Saltan Sea was far from favorable, but Jen and I drove out to it once and even though it was bordering on ghost town I wouldn’t mind seeing that again. What about Joshua Tree? What about Palm Springs? We drove through that town once, but didn’t stop anywhere.
Our last few big trips have been to Florida, and our next one will be as well. After that there’s another one on the agenda for next year too. I love going there and I will never say no to an opportunity. I just don’t want to get used to it. I don’t want it to become common enough that it stops feeling special. I also want to go to other places.
Ah, just ignore me as I fantasize about world traveling. I just need a vacation.
Going to work yesterday after the four day weekend was brutally difficult. For some reason though, going to work this morning seems 100 times worse.
I need a vacation.
I need a long vacation.
I need a 60 year long vacation (at least).
Where is that Powerball winner I’ve been promising myself?
It has been decided. We are moving to San Diego so that I can fulfill my lifelong dream of being a busker on Mission Beach. We have rented a beach front condo with 100% glass walls facing West. My beloved Jennifer has been offered a position as CTO of both Google and Apple. She will run both companies remotely from a home office with an ocean view. The kids, while only aged 12 and 10 have been given full scholarships to the University of California, San Diego. True they will be 10 years younger than their classmates, but the university has assured us that they are also at least 10 times smarter and 10 times more mature than the rest of the student body, so there will be no issues for them.
As for me, I’m just going to sit on the beach with my sweet new 12-string and play old blues tunes. I won’t even ask for money. After hitting the Powerball last week I don’t need it.
I’m living the dream!
At least I was until I woke up. You mean I have to go to work tomorrow?
Ah, crud!
Inside the Red Head's Head 