Posted on

The Ibanez AF125AMB Artcore Custom Review

UPDATE: May 20, 2011 — After a week of playing this guitar every day for at least three hours, it’s starting to warm up and loosen up a bit.  The wood is “coming in” and the sound reverberation is much more pleasing and enjoyable now.  This is, in large, a relief and I am starting to like the creamy Jazz sounds oozing from this box.

As I move my Blues guitar playing deeper into Jazz territory, I decided I wanted to dip my fingers into a more complex Jazz box — a traditional archtop — to see if I could more easily replicate that classic Jazz guitar sound.  I know you can play Jazz on any guitar, and my ’57 Les Paul Black Beauty and my ’56 Les Paul Goldtop both sound great playing Dave Brubeck and Wes Montgomery, but I wanted to get into Joe Pass, Tal Farlow and Jim Hall hollow body territory.  I decided on the Ibanez AF125AMB Artcore Custom and the price was right at $900.00USD after a $100 instant rebate from SamAsh.com.  I was set.

Continue reading → The Ibanez AF125AMB Artcore Custom Review

Posted on

Missed Trader Joe's Cheesy Handshake

I was with a friend at Trader Joe’s in the Union Square area of Manhattan, looking for a certain sort of vegetarian cheese. The first thing you should know about this supermarket location is that it is so popular that the line to the checkout counter is frequently long enough to wrap all around the store and come near the entrance of the store, with employees holding signs to indicate where to enter for various numbers of items per shopper. That made it sufficiently difficult to find anything without bumping into several people.

Continue reading → Missed Trader Joe's Cheesy Handshake

Posted on

The 1957 Gibson Les Paul Custom Three Pickup VOS Review

One of my most expensive and cherished guitars is my 1957 Les Paul Custom Three Pickup VOS guitar in black.  It looks great.  It feels great.  I don’t play it.

Continue reading → The 1957 Gibson Les Paul Custom Three Pickup VOS Review

Posted on

The Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster Review

There are guitars — and then there are GUITARS! — and while I haven’t written about it much yet, I share with you today that my current favorite guitar for playing the Blues is my Eric Clapton “Blackie” Signature Stratocaster made by the Fender Custom Shop.  I don’t have the $24,000.00USD Guitar Center Blackie tribute guitar — I just have a regular black “Blackie.”  Oh, and yes, I too, made the switch from Ernie Ball Slinkys to D’Addario EXL110’s… just like Eric did.

Continue reading → The Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster Review

Posted on

Google Custom Search Business Edition Review

Yesterday, The Google announced the availability of their Custom Search Business Edition and I immediately signed up all my websites for inclusion in that keen opportunity.

BEWARE: You can only add THREE domains per Custom Business Search! If you have lots of unified domains across more than three domain names, you will have to split up your domain searches — and pay for them — in groupings of three domains per search box. I added logos to all my Custom Business searches so my visitors will semiotically know which of my sites they are actually searching!

Continue reading → Google Custom Search Business Edition Review

Posted on

Bathing and Showering

In the old American West, the Saturday night bath was a ritual women, children and cowboys all enjoyed. They’d fill up a metal tub with warm water and take a bath in the order of least dirty to filthiest because each bather used the same bathwater as the person before them.
Are you a bath person?

Continue reading → Bathing and Showering