I Don’t Hate It

The Gibson Theodore… a lot of people hate it. I… I guess I… I guess I don’t hate it. I sure don’t love it, but I don’t think I hate it. I almost think it’s cool.

I’ll embed a video below that goes into depth, but the deal is that a few years ago Gibson unearthed a guitar design that was unused back in the golden era of the 1950’s and did a short, very expensive, run out of their custom shop. Recently they released a standard production model that is also grossly expensive, but a whole lot less expensive than the original version.

Yeah the body shape is kinda dumb. I liked the custom shop’s use of P90 pickups rather than the USA version’s use of humbuckers. I like the four knobs on the custom shop over the two master controls on the USA. I very much greatly prefer the bridge on the USA version.

I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t love it but I don’t really hate it. Weird, huh?

Change of subject: unrelated, both the Bruins and the Red Sox won today. The Red Sox snapped a really ugly four game losing streak. The Bruins… I think… clinched the Atlantic Division title… I think… didn’t they? No… did they? I knew they needed a win over Pittsburgh tonight, but I can’t remember if it was a win OR a Florida Panthers loss would clinch things, or was it a win AND a Panthers loss? Also, did the Panthers need to lose, or lose in regulation? I don’t remember. The Bruins won in regulation and the Panthers won in overtime. I guess I’ll find out the answer to this question in the morning. Whatevs, both of my teams won today. Happiness.

Back to the main topic. Where does the Theodore sit on my Gibson Guitar I-Want-One list?

Les Paul Junior
Les Paul Standard 50’s with P90 pickups
Firebird, but not a studio. I want the Firebird mini-humbuckers, not standard humbuckers
Les Paul Deluxe
Insert the Theodore here? Maybe.
Les Paul Special, or SG Special, or SG Junior
ES-330

Damn… that’s a long list. It’s also an insanely expensive list. Come on, Gibson USA. Help a brother out. Bring those prices down. I don’t want to start thinking about Epiphones. I’m a Gibson snob after all.

I Need to Practice

As mentioned yesterday, I need to practice.

I really need to practice.

I mean it. I need to practice.

I need to practice.

(think writing self-guilt trip posts will help encourage me to practice? Probably not)

New Strings

My 2000 Les Paul Standard 50’s has new strings. Now if I just had calluses on my finger tips and had the nine songs on my to-do list all practiced up and rehearsal ready. Ugh.

Hipstamatic shake to shuffle to celebrate.

Which Guitar?

I have two musical goals for tonight after work.

First: Put together a playlist of the songs on our potential-singer-audition-songs list so that I can start practicing the holy hell out of them.

Second: Decide which guitar I want to use for the band’s come back work. As of right now I am leaning toward the birthday Les Paul that my wife bought me for my 50th birthday almost three years ago. I’ve been playing the two 70’s Gibsons that I had all of the repair work done on since November or so, but I think I want to start the return-to-the-band process with my newest guitar.

Whatever guitar I decide to use for the band’s comeback (which is scheduled to start this coming Sunday) is going to need new strings. I have a couple of boxes here, but I might need to order some more from the Amazonians today. We’ll see.

It’s time to start focusing on getting the band running again. I’m mentally ready for it, but not quite ready from a guitar playing ability standpoint. I have a lot of rust to shake off.

These are pictures I took for today’s photo a day challenge, but they are not the guitar I am talking about. Oh well.

Happy Friday

Happy Friday, everyone. Hopefully Friday has meaning for most if not all of us. It has extra meaning for me this week. Starting this month my company has changed it’s hybrid work requirements. Where it used to be that we had to be in the office for 20% of each pay period (basically one day each week), as of March 1st we have to be in the office for 40% of each pay period (basically twice per week). Today is my first, second day of a week. None of us our happy with this, but it’s a whole ton better than being back 80%, which is what we had prior to the pandemic shut down. Oh well. I’ll deal with it. I am still coming in every Wednesday. My group has Wednesdays as a mandate and the second day each week is at everyone’s personal discretion. I am sort of planning on making Mondays my regular second day, just to get it over with, but that didn’t work this week due to the contractors working in the kitchen. Friday was the only day that worked for me. Fortunately there was zero traffic today. I made the 40 mile drive to the office in 45 minutes. If only it were like that every morning.

In other news, the kids are on the ground. Bellana’s flight landed in Georgia (the US state, not the European country) before I went to sleep last night. Harry’s first flight landed in London well after I nodded off for the night, and his connecting flight landed in Scotland before I woke up this morning. All is well on both of those fronts. Here’s hoping they both have a great time on their trips.

I am taking advantage of the fact that I am 40 miles from home right now to make my way to IKEA after work. IKEA is about 60 miles from home, but only 20 miles from work. I will head down there as soon as I am free and go to the returns department and bring back a great big pile of stuff that IKEA included in our kitchen redesign blue print that we didn’t end up needing. There is a lot of stuff to return. A lot of stuff. If I get it all done tonight then we don’t have to worry about it, and with the money we get back maybe I’ll be able to afford a hair cut this weekend because damn, do I need a hair cut!

Anyway, here’s today’s photo-a-day picture. I took it before I did my workout this morning at about 5:40am. It’s only 9:14am now but it’s already felt like a long day.

All Fixed Up

I can’t wait to play this guitar with the band again. It’s been ages and ages.

Welcome home, my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro!

There is a new pot under that volume knob even though you can’t see it because it’s under the knob

It is Ready

I heard from the guitar shop. My guitar is ready. I am going to pick it up tomorrow during my lunch break.

Can I get a, WOOHOO people?

WOOHOO!

More Luthier Updates

The Luthier I took my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro to one week ago today posted two more updates on his bookfayce page. Lots more pictures.

The guitar got new frets yesterday. Today it got a new nut, a new bridge, and a new volume pot. Damn if I didn’t know there was something wrong with the wiring beyond it just being old and dirty. I feel vindicated!

Here’s hoping I will hear from him soon and I’ll be able to set a time to go and pick my semi-hollow baby up and bring it home!

I’m getting excited, folks!

Going in the Shop

Guitar number two (more like guitar number 1A) is going in the shop tomorrow. I am fully nervous again, even though guitar number one came out great.

Frets? Probably. Bridge and nut? Likely. Wiring harness? Could be. I should have it re-painted (white? red?) and re-finished too, but those are expenses I am not willing to take on.

335

I think this week the time will arrive. My second 1970’s guitar, my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro, may be ready for it’s trip to the shop. I am going to give them a call and see if they can help me bring this baby back to life.

I put my ’78 Les Paul Custom into the shop a few months ago to get the frets replaced. I was scared to have the work done, but I should not have been. The results were fantastic. I am so pleased. Now I need to have the 335 looked at. The frets are in better shape than they were on the Les Paul, but they are still pretty bad. I expect it’s time to have them replaced.

This time there is a second issue at play though. The electronics are in rough shape. The last time I used this guitar at a Lizardfish show the signal cut out and wouldn’t come back. That had happened off stage a few times in the past but once it happened in front of people? Yeah, that’s bad. If you can’t rely on the electronics, what good is the instrument? It may be time to replace the wiring harness. If they can salvage what’s there, meaning clean it up and maybe re-solder some of it, then that is fine. If they can’t save it, then I’ll need it replaced, and hopefully I can get a good 50’s style wiring schematic installed. I don’t want to change the pickups on this guitar. 335 Pros come stock with Gibson Dirty Fingers pickups which are the meanest, nastiest, dirtiest Gibson pickups ever. They are punk rock machines. The wiring and the pots though… we’ll see.

I am planning on calling the shop either tomorrow or Tuesday to see if we can schedule a slot for me to bring it in and see what they can do for me. I am still nervous about this, but given my last experience I am more excited than scared.