Posted on 03/12/2012 3:56:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
Author’s note: This column is based on a metaphor I stole from Scott Klusendorf. As such, I owe him and Oliva V and a trip to the Texas Roadhouse.
Like most of you, I try to be financially responsible. For example, I pay my IRS estimated pre-payments well in advance. I also make conservative estimates of what I owe the IRS. Therefore, I usually end up getting a nice tax refund. When I get it back, I buy something I really don’t need. Two years ago, it was a Fender Telecaster. Last year, it was a Fender Stratocaster. I don’t mind splurging every year just as long as I wait until I actually have the IRS check in hand. Just last week, however, I did something I should not have done: I spent my tax refund before I actually received it.
But I had to have it. The Mesa Boogie Express 525 amplifier is one I’ve been eying for the last couple of years. When I finally got it home and plugged it in it did not disappoint. I’m already thinking of getting another Mesa Boogie – this time an Electrodyne 2x12. But before I take the big plunge, I’m going to drive out to California to tour the Mesa Boogie factory. When I get there, I’ll have an opportunity to see them put a Mesa Boogie amp together, piece by piece.
They’ll probably start by fastening four pieces of solid birch together. But when they finish fastening them together, they won’t yet have a Mesa Boogie amplifier. Next, the engineer will bolt in a 12-inch Celestion speaker. But it still won’t be a Mesa Boogie amplifier. Even after he fastens the tubes into the chassis, it still won’t be a Mesa Boogie amplifier. When they finally put the knobs on the outside of the amp, we’ll be pretty close to calling it a genuine Mesa Boogie. (For the record, if they ever build me a custom amp, the volume knob had better go to eleven. Ten just isn’t loud enough for this aging rock-and roller).
But after the input jack is installed (so I can actually plug in one of my guitars) I will concede that we finally have a Mesa Boogie amplifier. And that will be well worth driving across the country to see.
And so I’m off to Petaluma, California. Spring break is this week and I am about to head west on I-40. Just a couple of miles from my house, there is a sign that says “Barstow, California, 2,554 miles.” I’m not stopping for anything except gas until I get to California. On the way home, however, I plan to take a detour and stop by the Grand Canyon.
The first time I went to the Grand Canyon was 1973 – the year the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. I was just eight years old. The sight was so beautiful that I took out an old Polaroid camera and snapped a picture from atop the deepest part of the canyon. As it began to develop, it was only a tiny blob. It was too small for me to tell what it really was. In fact, it was kind of ugly at first. A few minutes later, however, it became apparent that something very beautiful was developing out of that tiny little blob. When it was done developing and ready to pull out of the camera, it was a beautiful thing, indeed.
Human beings are not put together from the outside like Mesa Boogie amplifiers. Therefore, there is no legitimate debate about when a human becomes a human. From the very earliest stage of life, humans are actively involved in the process of developing themselves from within. That’s why it is so tragic that in 1973 the Court decided that a woman has a right to disrupt that process by destroying the tiny human in the womb.
Those who understand liberty believe that living entities should be left alone to develop themselves from within. The only thing standing in their way is a living constitution constructed gradually from the outside. Tags: Abortion , Constitution , Roe vs. Wade Mike Adams Mike Adams
You must be a fan of “jangle-y” guitar sound. Play Byrds much? ; -)
That said, I buy all my guitars and basses here: http://www.rondomusic.com/I've been to their website a dozen times and boy I am tempted but I get confused at the different grades & models of their guitars.
I can't tell what's cheap-cheap (that'd I'd buy for my grandkids, aka-beginners) or what's the 'good value guitar that's inexpensive' for me to play. As the pictures all look great.
Plus their spec's aren't exactly clear: Neck Scale length, fret board radius, or body construction - plywood, basswood, alder, whatever.
It’s fitting that an article written as an excuse to write about guitars & amps got hijacked by freeper gearheads! Disclaimer: My Mesa rig is my favorite, but I am also happy with my Blues Jr. after some simple modifications. I am currently lusting for a “Brave Little Toaster”: Mesa Transatlantic 15/30. These days I appreciate the sound I like in a smaller, lighter and quieter package. My amp is always miked, so a softer stage volume is appreciated by all. Yes, my power soak works just fine, but I am carrying a lot of gear to end up at the same place!
It’s nice to have both flavors. I love my Strat, until I am playing a song that really needs the sound of a Les Paul...then I love my Les Paul until I am playing a song that really needs the sound of a Strat (rinse & repeat)!
I avoid the Douglas stuff. I have six basses I bought there. All are great except one. But it was a six string that I got really cheap. It allowed me to stick my toes in the water on six string.
The neck had to be removed and a spacer added. The low “B” string is WAYYY too loud compared to the others, even after adjusting the pickups. One of the frets on the smallest string (tuning varies) close to the body is so low that it might as well not be there. ;-)
The rest of them are great. The most I paid for any of them is $149.
Frankly, it’s not that hard to make a solid body guitar or bass. With modern tools and computers, it should be pretty hard to screw it up.
I understand his analogy, but really, nothing is made from the outside in.
And the "creation" begins with the thought.
Oh, the 12-strings do that well, but the richness of the Rickenbacker tone is a wonderful thing.
Of course, that Rickenbacker sound is particularly strong in my quiver of 4001, 4003 and 4004 basses. Prescence and authority speak deeply from these instruments, especially when pumped through tubes...
...after lending a wasteful government YOUR money interest free. Brilliant!!!
What he needs to say is something much simpler. There are two ways of becoming. Compare carving a statue of a lion out of a block of marble, vs. a newly-begotten lion gestating in a lioness' womb.
The block of marble could end up being anything -- a statue of Diana of the Ephesians or a tombstone or a pile of ashtrays --- because it is an article of manufacture. It is not "lionish" from start, and does not develop spontaneously through the various characteristic leonine stages.
But a lion whelp is lion from the start, derives its nature from the fact that it has a lion sire and a lion dam, and develops itself from its own plan, from within, given an appropriate environment with time and nutrition.
It's not just a matter of "thought," because thought goes into, for instance, the blueprint for a house. But you can't plant a blueprint in the ground, and get a house. It does not have a nature that unfolds from within.
I am and I do. Byrds and Beatles. I also have a Pimmentel Jumbo 12-string.
NO kidding.
Although the correct set-up is Gretsch through a Vox.
THIS.
Although I got rid of my 325 because I didn't dig the short scale.
I agree, it was poorly written. Not up to his usual standard.
Beauty! A Ric 360 is definitely on my wishlist . . .
I thought the writer was going to say he used the amplifier to hear a fetal heartbeat.
I remember back in 1995 just one month after my son was conceived being in the OB/GYN office and having them place the heartbeat monitor on my wife’s abdomen and hearing a very rapid, but very distinct heartbeat of our son. I also remember being at the same office at 15 weeks after conception and seeing the first ultrasound of our child. He probably was less than 3” long, but was fully recognizable as a human....in fact we could even tell his gender at that time. He moving around and looking very human.
I was already theoretically pro-life and anti-abortion, but those experiences really solidified my views from theory to practice. I knew I had a son, in utero, that was growing to be a person. He is 16 now and the joy of my life. Although, I really suck at being a father....I love him more than my own life. This is something I didn’t understand until he was born.
Just because some other person’s “yet born” child is not wanted, they become so much tissue to be riped out and destroyed. This just doesn’t make sense to me. A baby in utereo isn’t just potential person, it is a person under development.
We have, in this country, condoned the genocide of innocent women and children in war. We prosecute those that practice it as war criminals. Then we allow it to take place everyday in our country. There is something terribly wrong with this situation.
Sorry, for the sermon.
I have made some sweet music with my ‘76 Les Paul custom but after acquiring my tele, it’s all I play anymore. I keep the Les Paul around because it’s beautiful, somewhat sentimental, and, at nearly 40 years old, irreplaceable to me but I rarely play it. The tele rocks man.I tried but couldn't wrap with a Telecaster. To me it felt like a six-stringed boat oar and didn't sound half as deep. I appreciate that those who love them love them, but it's just not the guitar for me.
It’s fitting that an article written as an excuse to write about guitars & amps got hijacked by freeper gearheads!Ain't we a stinker? ;)
. . . the correct set-up is Gretsch through a Vox.Not for playing the blues it isn't. ;) (I tried, believe me. Just didn't have the ring and chime I was looking for . . .)
I thought the writer was going to say he used the amplifier to hear a fetal heartbeat.Actually, I did, too.
(Now, can you imagine if you could hear a fetal heartbeat through certain amplifiers? Say, a Marshall? The poor kid would sound like he was beating war drums before screaming, Lemme outta here! Lemme outta here! I'm getting claustrophobia packed inside this pear! Either you give birth to me now or I'm gonna kick your lobster dinner right the hell back up your pipes!!)
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