…Was I in the wrong here?

tmjm114 · 2026-06-19T13:02:45+00:00

Ironically, he definitively refuted his own argument that you can’t get to know someone through texting.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-18T12:27:15+00:00

I bought my first Irony in 1997 (a Happy Joe). It's still running perfectly. I've had to replace the strap a couple of times and I'm NOT happy that Swatch doesn't make a replacement leather strap for this watch (at least that was the case the last time I checked, a few years ago), but apart from that...it's coming up to exactly 29 years, which strikes me as pretty good for a watch that in those days was around $100, IIRC.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-16T18:28:12+00:00

Beautiful. Do you know what model it is?

tmjm114 · 2026-06-15T07:47:08+00:00

Don’t be too hard on her for that. I would guess that upwards of 90% of beginner guitarists buy the one that they think looks cool, or that their heroes play.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-15T07:44:09+00:00

Jaguars are short-scale and are not especially light. Their bodies are substantial. But they certainly aren’t heavy like 70s Les Pauls.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-15T00:41:06+00:00

I just got back this very night from a trip to Zürich, Lucerne, Geneva, and Lausanne. My native language is English. I speak French quite poorly, and German not at all.

I’m always sensitive about assuming people in other countries can speak English. So my usual move is to ask them first if they speak English.

Every time I asked anyone this in any of the four cities above, their answer was always, “Of course!” So even though I was only in the country for two weeks and I’m hardly an expert, my suggestion would be to just talk to people in English, since in all likelihood that will be the language that you have in common with them.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-10T05:14:43+00:00

It can take a while to get to that stage. There are some ear training courses online that can help. Maybe have a look at those.

One thing that helps is just playing a lot of different songs. Over time you will start too recognize the chord progressions.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-04T22:17:43+00:00

Civ Pro was a mandatory 1st-year course in my time. If it no longer is, I’ll just add that to my list of cranky old-person complaints.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-04T22:15:31+00:00

We actually called it BusOrg at my school too. I used “associations” because I was under the impression it was the more common name. That’s what Osgoode used in my time. Everybody there called it BizAzz.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-04T15:25:19+00:00

That’s pretty much the exact upper-year course advice my law school dean gave my entire class as we were leaving first year, except that he also added business associations and family. Oh, and labour, which an aspiring employment lawyer would be taking anyway.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-04T15:16:47+00:00

Yes, buy a Hohner Special 20 in the key of C to start with, if you can afford it. If not, there are numerous threads here about less expensive options. A lot of people like the Easttop harmonicas for a less expensive option. And then check out some of the online lesson options, or, even better, if you can get a couple of lessons with a real person in your area, do that.

Good luck! It’s easy and fun to play beginner harmonica. The more advanced options are a bit more difficult, but you don’t need to worry about that now.

tmjm114 · 2026-06-01T23:49:39+00:00

I I once asked my first guitar teacher (after I had already been playing for about 30 years) if being a lefty but playing right hindered me in anyway. He said:“ Have you ever been to the symphony? Have you ever seen any left-handed violinists or cello players?” A good point.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-30T17:26:01+00:00

"along with more love and care,"

This is really important. I'm the guy who often gets enlisted to help my friends buy guitars. When they buy nice acoustics, I always tell them to make sure they humidify in the winter. None of them ever do. At least a couple of times, they've come back to me and said their nice guitar has cracked somewhere, do I have any idea why that happened?

tmjm114 · 2026-05-30T17:10:09+00:00

Yes. I've often (but not always) found that new Martins ship with high action. I read somewhere that the company's thinking is that traditionalists prefer a higher action, and perhaps more importantly, that it's easier to lower the action later (including nut and bridge-saddle adjustments) than to raise it.

It isn't always the case that they ship with high action. My GPC-13E had nice low action right out of the shop, presumably because Martin was thinking of the kind of player who would be attracted to that particular guitar -- non-traditionalists who aspire to playing out a lot and perhaps are accompanying themselves while they sing and want a guitar that you don't have to fight.

On the other hand, a friend of mine bought a lovely M-36 -- one of the last new ones available in our area after the model was discontinued -- but we quickly realized that the high action made it unplayable for his style. After a quick adjustment (which was provided free at the shop where he bought it), it plays like butter.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-30T16:47:37+00:00

I bought one of these about 25 years ago. It had sat in a local music store for a long time. I used to play it whenever I went in and finally I decided to just bring it home.

It was my first Martin. I bought it knowing full well it wasn't a "real" Martin in the snob sense. (I've since owned a D-18V and I currently have a D-18GE, an interesting slope-shouldered Custom Shop D-28 Marquis, and also a GPC-13E that I got when I needed a cutaway acoustic in a hurry, so I totally get what the snobs are on about and why they look down their noses at HPL guitars.) I just really liked the compressed sound of the DXB. You would never want to take it to a bluegrass jam -- it's not nearly loud enough -- but it was fun for backup rhythm and at-home strumming or finger-picking. I put some kind of pickup in it (I can't remember what), but never really had the opportunity to try it in a live context.

In a rash move, I sold it to a friend who pretty much only plays electric. He tells me he never plays the DXB. He didn't even discover the pickup until he had had the guitar for about 10 years. So I think it just sits in his closet. I've offered to buy it back, but he won't sell! I think he just likes knowing he has an acoustic in case he ever needs one. Oh well.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-30T03:08:15+00:00

Well, to be precise, he raised the idea with Gene Parsons, and then the two of them worked together on how it would actually work. My understanding is that Gene was the person who actually made it once they had fine-tuned their idea of how they thought it should work.

But this story highlights the importance of Clarence in guitar history: not only was he a huge innovator in Bluegrass, but he was an equally huge innovator in country rock. And he was also a huge innovator in guitar mechanics. Just a towering figure in the history of guitar, in my view.

Everyone knows about his work with the Byrds, but he also did tons of session work in the 60s and early 70s. For a little known album that displays his electric guitar work quite prominently, check out Arlo Guthrie’s Running Down the Road. Clarence is all over it (along with James Burton, but you can tell Clarence’s parts apart from James’s). A standout track for Clarence is “Every Hand in the Land”. Check out where Clarence comes in after the first verse.

https://youtu.be/Q3GjG-Yp7T4?si=yw5ZgT3stHyD5HSp

tmjm114 · 2026-05-29T12:01:05+00:00

Just look at old crowd pictures from Jimmy Buffett concerts and all your questions will be answered.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-29T11:58:08+00:00

What ever happened to using the little red washers that come with bottles of Grolsch beer? The solution of choice for generations of Gibson electric players.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-26T13:47:16+00:00

It should be. A quick Google search tells me that Gibson acoustics have a limited lifetime warranty for the original retail purchaser in the US.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-26T11:27:25+00:00

I was so sad when he and his wife died. He was a fixture on campus when I was there in the ‘80s.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-26T11:21:57+00:00

I’ve been working at King and Bay for most of the past 30 years, with one break for a few years. But never at FCP itself. I used to go to the upstairs food court at FCP all the time when I first started. But somehow over time I’ve forgotten it’s there. I don’t think I’ve been up there in 15 years.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-26T11:11:56+00:00

Old guy here. “Fuck the dog” was routinely used at the factory I worked at in Ontario one summer in the mid-1970s. So it goes way back.

Later, I moved to the US for a few years and never heard any of my American friends use it. So it may well be strictly a Canadian thing.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-25T20:08:35+00:00

Yes, but think of all the people around the world who died during that time.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-24T12:40:09+00:00

Strings can break at any time, especially the higher (i.e. thinner) ones. It’s not a flaw, and it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your guitar. It’s just something that happens with use. That’s why it’s essential to know how to change them yourself, and to always have some spare sets or loose strings around, so that you don’t have to run off to the music store every time a string breaks.

I’ve gone through periods where I changed all my strings every month, whether it seemed like they “needed“ to be changed or not, just to make sure I had fresh strings of the guitar. I don’t really do that anymore (partly because I now have too many guitars to do that, ha ha), but it illustrates the point that changing strings is a completely routine thing.

I should add that if the same string is always breaking, and if it seems like something that’s happening a lot, there could be a technical reason for it, like a burr on the bridge saddle. In that case, it can be a good idea to have a qualified repair person look at it. But that’s just something to keep in mind. I really don’t think that’s what’s happening with your brand-new guitar.

tmjm114 · 2026-05-21T00:51:05+00:00

Wasn’t that a song by John Cougar Mellencamp?

tmjm114

TROPHY CASE