TheInvisibleDan

For the past couple nights I've been rumbling with A-D-G-C-E-A. Dramatic spaghetti western-cowboy-meets-grunge-rocker setting. made all the more illustrious with the Bigsby.

Polar Bear -Was the acoustic a Veilette guitar by chance? So far I'm finding the sound of the baritone to be indeed warm and much fatter, having the sustain of a grand piano. It's breathtaking. I've got the volume on my Vox valvotronix amp set at a comfortable room level, at the "Clean" setting, and I can attest, the Gretsch can produce a very sweet acoustic sound, with varied subtle chime and bell-like tones, depending on how you play. I must confess I've also become sold on P90 pickups over the past couple days. The P90s have an open, raw, unpretentious clarity and responsiveness I've never encountered with Humbuckers. Eastwood Guitars offers a "Baritone Jack" at a fairly reasonable price, that sports a set of P90s. I would have picked that up awhile back had it also a trem. Chas, the idea of putting superglue on my fingers almost scares me (lol), though I might be more tempted to try that on my right picking hand than my left. I generally keep my nails short on my left hand, and let them grow on my right, though I know well already that the baritone is going to wear down completely my natural 'fingerpicks' in no time. I'm still considering trying out some kind of "press-on nails" because so far I haven't been too successful with those slip-on fingerpicks. Danny

My fingers hurt. Chas, you must have pretty good callouses on your fingertips from playing your bass.

I'm starting out with some light D'Addario strings - from .013 through .056 - my local music store didn't have any proper sets of baritone strings so we put together a set from the individual strings they sold. I thought it best to break in both guitar and player with lighter strings. I'm aware others set up their baritone guitars as 6 string basses, going with heavier strings. Later I'll try out some different gauge strings, I'm sure. Last night I corrected my mistake with the input jack (I got the wires backwards - duh!), and shielded the control cavity, and when I finally plugged into my amp, I was absolutely blown away by the sound of the guitar with the p90s, and the incredible "sustain" of the instrument. At one point, I set the guitar on its stand, struck an E chord and walked away, - and it was still rumbling a couple minutes later, like that final piano chord in "A Day in a Life" (lol). So far it's got quite an impressive tonal palette, which I look forward to exploring further after I get out of work tonight. Danny

If St.Victoronius' ecclesiastical succession at the sacred city of New Knoxville were even one iota of half the man the holy father had imagined himself to be - or wished to be -, the first session of "the Power" would be broadcast 'round the globe for free - to every man, woman, young person and child and any other created thing above, below and upon the inhabited planet. The Path would be broadcasting its doctrines 24 hours a day via satellite and shortwave, drawing from the archives of the sacred father's recorded utterances from the BRC on the mount. DVD sets of the Power would slide through the pews like hot pancakes. And everybody would be talking about it. And there would be much dancing of wallets and pocketbooks, leaping for joy in New Knoxville. But we live in the Dark Universe.

Further off the subject - a "baby picture" of my Gretsch baritone, the project guitar I picked up a month ago - for your viewing pleasure through the magic of my cheap "Glass Darkly" camera. Specs: StewMac Double action truss rod, Grover tuners (vintage late 70s), Bigsby B50 Trem, Wilkinson roller bridge, a set of 1957 Gibson Les Paul P90s, Graph Tech nut. The double-action truss rod is just what this neck needed to help get straightened out, to undo all the excessive relief caused by the previous owner overtightening the original single action rod and snapping it. About a single turn in the forward bow direction restored a more even surface on the neck. So far the action is beautiful, and it sounds interesting, aside from a few more minor adjustments still needed to finish it.

The roller feet were similar, but my robot was more box-like. Primarily blue, square body, square head, with eyes that were yellow plastic rings. With doors in its chest-plate concealing plastic missiles of mass destruction. My brother would set the bot on a chair, firing off missiles across the kitchen table.

I had an "old robot" given to me when I very young. It was about 2-3 feet tall, made out of plastic and metal and God-only-knows-what-else. It could roll across the floor, and shoot out plastic darts from its innards. That thing was cool. Then one day my older brother took it completely apart, and never could get it back together again.

Offering oneself as a martyr for one's spiritual convictions is one thing, but in the context of business, where religion is not so much the central issue, but the integrity of your company and those who work with you - we may be talking apples and oranges here. Perhaps reviewing Jesus' parables in the gospels concerning stewards and merchants might be interesting to consider, where such are depicted in certain cases of doing whatever they had to do to preserve their position and livelihood. Your a good man , Mark. My thoughts are with you. Danny

I thought of this old thread on Herbert Armstrong earlier today when I clicked on an advertising link from Drudge Report - http://www.raisingtheruins.com/ Though apparently written by an Armstrong worshiper, I found the parallels between the successors of the WCG and those presently running TWI most striking. Namely, in terms of these successors milking a once 'profitable' cash cow. Yes, the present WCG has attempted a more orthodox veneer, but then, what does it matter to those pillaging and living off the assets of a once, fairly successful enterprise, and what better way to continue their activities than under cover of a more acceptable, doctrinal attire? Had TWI had grown as large as the WCG, the present administration probably would have changed their position on the "Trinity" and the state of the dead. In any event, the excerpts at the above link are quite interesting, as the reviews for this book at amazon. ANd here's another interesting link on Armstrong's sexcapades

Oh c'mon, ladies - there's no reason in this day and age (and at least in this part of the world) why women desirous of doing so couldn't partake in the art of lutherie. Danny

That guy's like the JAL of luthiers - I don't think I need more classes though - I need more clamps (lol)! But I did install one of Mr. Erlewine's "Hot Rod" truss rods in the neck this evening, re-attaching the fingerboard to the neck via 10 clamps and 6 tie wraps, and of course some Titebond glue. In three days, I'll release the neck from its jaws, and "raise it from the dead".

After an all-nighter spent in my evil workshop, the Gretsch fretboard has been (for the most part) successfully removed from the neck intact (despite a minor skirmish with some stubborn wood near the beginning of this venture), and the truss rod exposed as indeed the culprit - it had been so overtightened as to snap the weld of the flexible parallel bar. About a couple hours after I started......this is the steam iron "riding" down the fretboard at a snail's pace, followed by a razor blade and a sharpened putty knife....yup... Near the end...sorry I didn't have space here for all those action-packed pics... Viola! I took a pic of the truss rod by itself, but only my thumb and a different part of the room came out. As I mentioned earlier, it's a very cheap camera!

Actually, I like "Lex Luthier" but someone else has already laid claim to that name in another forum.

Oh I may still employ a hammer, though ever so cautiously, in concert with a putty knife, a razor blade, and a hot steamin' iron. The Gretsch baritone arrived safely yesterday, shipped in a taped-up Ibanez "Artcore" box. Not a shred of hardware on it save for the plate and screws attaching the neck to the body and the wholly frozen non-functioning truss rod in the neck itself. My gut inclination is remove that nasty truss rod from it as soon as possible, to replace it with a Stew Mac two-way adjustable "Hot Rod" and perhaps some carbon fiber reinforcements. And then I will proceed onto giving this thing a bit more character beyond the average stock Chinese "Gretsch".

Hi Kathy - Will be glad to do a photo shoot and some sounds samples when completed. It will give me a good reason to upgrade from my cheesy $10 digital camera which I picked up at Walmart a couple weeks back (lol). Danny

Lone Wolf saith It is ludicrous, because I did not say "understanding" - I said "Christianity". Is "understanding" and "Christianity" synonymous? No, I don't believe the Church Fathers or their writings are infallible, nor are they unbiased, nor are they always reliable. They nonetheless comprise and preserve accounts of the Christian religion from its earliest centuries, from which resources one may even glean critical information for reconstructing the views and even lost writings and canons of different Christian movements which the Church Fathers wrote against, - movements which may have even preceded that of the Church Fathers themselves, which have since then largely receded into the fog of history. As I said from the top, one need not necessarily agree with the views of the Church Fathers themselves, to gather and weigh information from them concerning Christianity (or Christianities) descended from the first century, if indeed it actually goes back that far. But as I also mentioned - like it or not, -the Bible which you place all your faith in as the super-duper, infallible "Word of God" is essentially the editorial production of these "losers". You hate them, yet as long as you place your complete trust in it as "The Word of God" which filtered down through their hands to you, they have you by the proverbial gonads. So which capsule will it be - the red or the blue?

Chas, Does your husband know about this website - www.projectguitar.com ? It's a cool site, which has proven for me a great help through their tutorials and forum. Their information on how to remove a fretboard with a clothes iron is pretty EZ, and really works. :) It's amazing the online lutherie resources readily available today to kids both young and old . Why back in 1978, I had to walk 30 miles in the snow just to measure my friends' guitars. The only reference I had back then was Hideo Kamimoto's "Complete Guitar Repair". It's held up quite well. Danny

I've become something of a "hobby luthier" this past winter, when I pulled out my closet a solid-body electric I had built in my high school woodshop back in '78 ( I posted a pic earlier in this thread, back a hundred pages or so :) ) and decided to give it a makeover. I was never satisfied with the neck , so I reshaped it, removed the old mohagany fretboard and installed a double-action trussrod and an ebony board. Now I'm working on the body, having added a brass control plate and am in the process of designing and making a pickguard. And some handmade ebony pickup rings. Don't know how it's going to sound yet, but it will look good - like a Rickenbacker's "evil twin". Does your hubby already own a lot of tools, or a workshop? That would be a great retirement job! The cost for tools does add up though... :)

Chas, Haven't the foggiest idea what that thing's been through - it was a very impulsive bid on my part. My guess is either the truss rod is defective, or the previous owner over-tightened the rod. I'll most likely replace the rod to be the safe side. But I'll know more when it arrives. I already have a set of tuners, a couple bridges, and some pickups that might fit. All I need is a Bigsby or Bigsby-clone. And some strings. Look forward to playing around with a baritone. None of the guitar stores in my area carries them.

My next project guitar is on the way, and should arrive before the end of the week. Most likely the truss rod will need replacing in this one (the previous owners cannibalized all the hardware from it), but with the fresh experience of having replaced a truss rod a couple months ago with another guitar I'm still working on, it should be a piece of cake. Danny

One need not necessarily agree with the views and actions of the Church Fathers to derive much invaluable information from them concerning the history and development of early Christianity; they also comprise a wealth of information concerning movements and beliefs which eventually became largely superceded. Without their writings we would know very little. In fact, it is my view that through a careful review of scriptural citations throughout their works, can enable one to reconstruct an earlier state of the New Testament books than are not available through surviving NT manuscripts. Critical NT editions such as Aland-Nestle include cross references to "Patristic" citations. The Church Fathers btw were not all homogenous in their views or their manner of expressions. Tertullian, for example, has quite a sense of humor when writing against Marcion. Epiphanius, on the other hand, strikes me a tad mean-spirited and hot-headed. Whereas the Syrian St. Ephraim has a very eloquent style, even seemingly adjusting his tone accordingly to whom he is addressing. You failed to mention, btw, which recension of St. Ignatius you quoted - the longer version of his epistles, or the shorter? If the Church Fathers be "losers" then you are a bigger fool, because you are dependant upon the very version of the NT canon which they (and/or those among them) had in fact a hand in ultimately producing. The canon of the NT which you read and stake your faith in today comprises the outcome of all their work. There were no leather-bound "Companion Bibles" at the turn of the second century. It was the Church Fathers and their contemporaries which produced the canon which came down to us. Consider, for example, St. Jerome. The NT was not born in a vacuum, or isolated from views and events and even personalities which surrounded its production. For this the writings of the Church Fathers are essential. You will not arrive anywhere near "first century" Christianity without them. Danny

Most people don't but some people do - Shakespearean Authorship Question

Oh goody, do I win a prize?

Yes, but the kangaroos there speak no English.