Rudi

I was shown this (dancing hair) at a presentation by a pychologist who did a lot of work for the Home Office (uk gov).

Right. So I go to Nevada to try the Gibson ES175. I cant find it anywhere so I speak to an assistant, who checks and discovers that despite the web page entry, they havn't one in stock. To salvage something of the visit, I ask to try the Epiphone Broadway, The fattest archtop there. As soon as I picked it up I knew it wasnt going to be good. It wasnt, it was nasty. It felt uncomfortable, and it sounded poor too. It was run through an orange amp on the clean channel. I tried every configuration of the pickups & tone/volume controls. Everything sounded nasty. Instead of rich mellow dark tones, it gave me mud. The string tension was pretty high. I would rather have a high action than taut strings like this. It may just have been that guitar, but it doesnt bode well for my further outlook concerning Epiphone Archtops. Yes, the strings were regular medium gauge and had not yet settled in. They were going out of tune a lot. The PU selector was poor and crackled badly time I touched it. The only other likely looking candidate was an odd looking matt blue Ibanez which had a lower action and flatwound strings. I didnt try this however. Maybe I'll persevere with my nylon strung guitars for a while. They sound a lot sweeter than that Broadway.

Shooting At The Moon - Kevin Ayres & The Whole World

Slow Consumption - Ry Cooder

Sapphire - John Martyn

I have realized that Nevada have the proper Gibson original. http://www.nevadamusic.co.uk/p/ES75VNNH1/electric-guitars/gibson/gibson-1959-es-175-vintage-sunburst but at £3,399.00 its likely to stay in the shop. Since this is close, I will see if I can try this first. I hope I like it, but not enough to want it. Just about to check on Mike's E Durham (though I 'spect he's still playing it).

Further to the side alley detour from the 'effects chain' topic, and Tapper Mike's new archtop announcement (yet another guitar!), I have found myself here. An Epiphone ES 175 with gibson PUs. http://www.andertons.co.uk/semi-hollow-amp-hollow-body/pid33215/cid670/epiphone-es175-premium-outfit-electric-guitar-in-natural.asp?LGWCODE=33215;56375;2717&utm_source=googlebase&utm_term=ET75NANH3&utm_medium=pricecomp&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=CJy9rLHo5sECFazItAodmxsA4w At least Andertons now has stock. A few days ago it was 'available to order' only. I've never been to this shop. Its in Guildford, about 55 miles north of me. According to one web page its 46 minutes away (faster than it used to be when I worked in Weybridge but we only had farm trails & horse transport then). This 'Club' version may be the business, I really have no idea. I am thinking of nipping up there after xmas to find out.

I'd have seriously itchy fingers by now.

Wow! Nice

Free To Be Stoned - Clark Hutchinson

i bROUGHT tHE rAIN - Houndog Houndog is Mike Halby & David Hidalgo.

Spider Fingers - Bruce Hornsby (+Misty and more) the link is Arthropods. Sorry about that but Rob's post was a challenge. At least you get the opportunity to hear Bruce though.

I think Gretch are ok but cant imagine using one for jazz. I had a quick visit to Nevada today and saw nothing close. But... apparently they have a Epiphone Broadway there. I didnt find it. Saturdays are busy. The demo rooms were full of pimply nippers doing the metal thing anyway. 2 shops within a 70 mile radius advertise ES-175s. One is a Epiphone eClub 2014 ES-175 My biggest concern is about nasty narrow necks.

I had not planned on gigging this. Anything is possible, but I'm presently looking to record only. I have experimented with using elastic bands to dampen strings before without much success. I didnt think of foam, nor the first fret either. I may nip over to Nevada Music on Monday to see what they have (though the web page is not encouraging).

foam rubber in the sound box?

I have played a Gretch semi with a floating bridge. I even redesigned / engineered a perspex replacement component for this to enable action adjustment for the owner. Floating bridges are ok. Wound thirds. Hmmm... could be painful! Never liked these but if it suits the style I can probably adapt.

My spanish guitar could be used for a trampoline. Its a challenge to play. The gigging jackson has standard slinkys. They usually are shipped with lighter super-slinkys (as with the studio Elite). I like to have a little something to fight against with a guitar. I tried flatwounds on my acoustic once. It sounded terrible. I never tried them on an electric.

Mike, I misunderstood part of your earlier message about downstrokes. You were speaking of chord playing. I mentioned Wes only because I read an interview with him where he said he had revised his picking style to alternating up & down strokes (and the way he held the pick). I dont especially favour Wes over other jazz players, but he cant be ignored. This led me to using alternating up & down strokes and making it a major part of my lead style. Thumbpicks: I have used thumbpicks for years, but only when fingerpicking a steel-strung acoustic. I have no idea how anyone would make an upstroke with a thumbpick. Seems to me it would pull the pick straight off the thumb. I may look into finding another guitar for jazz. Could take a while. Gibsons have narrow necks and I cannot get used to those (I tried for 30 years).

The equinox & solstices are something I try to watch out for. They are visible waypoints of the orbit around the sun.

This is a microscopic movie of a stereocilia hair cell (one of thousands) that live in your inner ear. This is what they do when music is playing.

News to me

Mike, Thank you. All this is going to take a while to digest. Yes I am using Jacksons, and yes I had a nearer jazz tone using a standard Strat. My Spanish guitar is pretty good for tone but I want to use techniques that dont work on a nylon acoustic. As for down strokes, I began using alternating up-downs because its what Wes Montgomery advocated (he changed to this later in his career). I will go through your suggestions and listen to all the links properly over the next week. Thanks again.

I leave the amp in the cupboard and use the edited DAW patches. BUT... I cannot construct a half decent jazz sound. Also, some of the patches that sound ok superficially are rubbish for solos. Specifically for 'picking'. I suspect that the attack is useless for anything other than hammer-on/pull-off. Maybe its time to get the amp out.

Mike, It could always be worse. I have just had a massive personal setback and the last few weeks have been a struggle. We don't have any choice but to struggle sometimes. Find the strength and keep going. Good luck.

ok. Done. I was unable to confirm the chain with a listing, but I'm pretty sure its right.