John's Blog

Happy Opalia

The job hunting seems to be going well so far.  I posted my resume on Monster and now I'm talking to so many recruiters I'm forgetting which one was which.  Hopefully something will pan out.

You know two blog posts ago when I posted the picture of the weird old timey guitar?  Well, these guitars look like a psychedelic rehash of that idea.  It's been claimed that they were played by the "Incense and Peppermints" band Strawberry Alarm Clock.  However the website of former S.A.C. member Ed King seems to refute this.  Whatever they are... they sure look strange.

Strange Guitar Mystery #583

So, I was watching this odd video on YouTube, and I saw (at about 22 seconds in) this old picture of a guy with his weird guitar.  It looks like a normal acoustic guitar with a giant extra piece stretching up from the body and around the headstock.  I'm assuming that it was mainly there to allow the player to hold the guitar in some now-long-forgotten posture and play it in some lost-in-the-shadows-of-time style.  However, I'm having problems imagining exactly what that posture might look like.  Your rampant speculation is welcome.

Most Ridiculous Guitar Ever?

So, maybe it's not as ostentatious as Rick Nielson's guitar or the Pikasso, but what it lacks in impracticality it makes up for in affordability.  I'm talking, of course, about Dean's V Coustic -- their "Flying V" shaped acoustic guitar.  I'm no sound engineer, luthier, or, even much of a guitarist, but this just doesn't seem right...  My gut has always told me that acoustic guitars are all shaped the way they are for a reason.  How well could this guitar possibly work? 

10 Highly Pretentious Musical Instruments

Ok, so, what the heck where they thinking when they made number four?  I would question whether that thing is anywhere near seven times as awesome as your usual number ten.  You can decide for yourself.

ROCK x 5

I saw this on Fark.com today and I just assumed it had to be a faked image.  No way would someone make a monstrosity like that.  Or actually strap it to their chest and actually try to play that thing in concert.  What I forgot was, doing stupid stuff is exactly what rock 'n roll is all about.

That man, as it turns out, is Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick [site auto-plays audio] and that is one of his five-neck guitars.   In fact, Hamer Guitars have custom built him three different five-neck guitars over the years.  You can see Rick showing off (but not playing) one of these things on a clip from Alan Thicke's 1983 talk show (and you can finally stop wondering about why Alan Thicke no longer has a talk show...)

In other guitar-related news, after letting Scott try it out, I really think that fuzz pedal I got was probably intended for a lead guitar, and not a bass.  But if Rick Nielsen can play a five-neck guitar, I think I can play bass with an inappropriate effects pedal.  That's just the kind of crazy rock rebel I am.