I shouldn't even write what I'm gonna write here. It's bad mouthing, and we wouldn't want that on this board... It's Mike, or is it all the boys together?!? They give stuff away for benefits auctions as we know. I just read that they are doing it again, see: http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/PearlJam/rumorpit/rumorpit.html
The auction will be on e-bay. They are giving a signed poster and a singed copy of Riot Act. Mike gives a guitar... A Squire guitar and some picks. My problem is that a Squire is just such a cheap instrument! Don't tell me that Mike actually plays those! So, he would have gone to the Guitar Center on Westlake, uh... wait a minute, he wouldn't go there himself to get that! K. Curtis' staff did or something like that. He-they picked whatever Squire in the racks, paid the 99 to 199 dollars ( depending of model) it's worth brand spanking new, picked a black sharpie and put his name on it. Damn! I wouldn't even bid on that guitar myself! OK, it's a benefit, giving is just enough I should be thinking. If at least he was giving a guitar that's worth something to start with! Isn't a benefit auction's purpose to RAISE money? Here is my letter to Mike.
"Mike, give those people your old plain white T-shirts and I assure you, these will raise far more serious money then that cheap guitar you never even layed your eyes upon. Or next time you plan on destroying one of your Stratocasters live (that you bought exactly for that purpose), think about the next auction you'll be solicited about. People will be far more interested in those!"
Little things that insult me. I shouldn't be that sensitive but I can't help it. When you plan on getting involved, doing something, do it right for f's sake!
I know, I know, they will raise money with it anyway, it's a good cause, those are good guys, hey, at least they get involved etc... etc... blah blah, blah...
Does anyone knows about the other guitar he-they gave away, was it last spring, how much it was sold for?
I feel a little uneasy about my reaction. Pearl Jam is known for being very generous with their time and money, and I praise them for that, I shouln't talk the way I do but, I dunno, picking a guitar of his own, one he doesn't use anymore or like I said earlier, a better guitar then this one... It wouln't be to much of a drag for him, would it? Ahh... anyway...
i've got a squire myself... it sounds great, it looks very unique, good quality, etc. ... i know that these are usually cheap guitars... but i paid about 400 dollars for it and i could have easily gone for a fender but of all the instruments i tried out (and it was huge shop) this one was just the best deal... i don't like spending money on a brand name when i can get the same thing for less money...
i know that mine isn't what you normally get when you buy a squire and i have never seen another one like mine again... maybe i was just very lucky...
but i just wanted to point out that "squire" doesn't automatically mean that it's a bad instrument...
then again i don't think that mike even went to buy it himself...
and he didn't play it in concert or anything, but i'm sure he strummed a few chords on it... let a guitar player near any guitar and see what happens... it's a natural reflex
but it's for charity... and have a look what most artists gave them... one signed poster or something like that! and pj gave them 3 items...
and guess where the guitar is going to end up?
on some fan's WALL! or would you actually carry mike's guitar round to gigs and have it being scratched or stolen or whatever?
i think it's a very cool thing to donate this guitar to charity...
having said that i wouldn't mind if mike was going to give me one of his guitars instead of smashing it
I think I went a little overboard with this... sorry for my bad mouthing... people and brands and tastes and choices... not really proud of myself. I was having a bad day. But that's not an excuse.
Hello Psycosmic, Refreshing to hear that! I appreciate your comment about not taking every PJ related thing as "holy". Actually, PJ is the probably only band I feel that kind of closeness to, they are so stripped down as public figures, they feel more like buddies then idols, at least to me. But yet, they manage to remain grand, you know, just like your best friend, you know him-her thoroughly (even the not so nice aspects) and yet, your love and fond respect abides.
I find it kind of tough sometimes to chat on the net because you don't know who you're talking to, and so many people "worship" more the anything else and it gets difficult to speak frankly. You know, you don't want to hurt people. So, let me put it frankly here, it's you I'm talking about here. I fear I might have insulted you most with my comments on Squire guitars.
I too have a couple of "cheaper" pieces of gear that served me very well until I was able to get better equipment. I just sounded so boastful and don't have much to justify it.
no need to apologize... i don't feel offended at all!
fender won't pay me any money for defending squire guitars and it's a fact that most of them are crap anyway... i'm just defensive when it comes to my own little baby...
but i agree that it's difficult to talk to people online... and i appreciate everythink you said!
Psycosmic, How sweet it is!!! You know, I own this Japanese made Fender Precision (medium scale that 32", it's FAST) with a Jazz neck that I wouldn't let anyone even touch! And "she's" got a name, Rosie! I fell in love with bass playing with "her", I even wrote a song about her!!! I too will ferociously defend my babies!!! I will never part with her. I actually been thinking or revamping the little babe, put a set of EMG's or Bartolini's, fret job and change the nut for bone, and she'd need serious shielding. "She's" so easy to play!
Hey, tell me more about you, you play with a band? Do you write music? Record?
i always refer to my instruments as "she" too... i always thought guitars resemble women... and as there's nothing more beautiful in the universe than a woman, well, it's quite natural to call them "she"
my strat is called "becky" for some reason that's not really important... she has a nice turquoise see-through coloured body with a mother-of-pearl pickguard, a natural neck and gold mechanics... she doesn't look like your average squire at all... but i might get some new pickups soon... i'm such a dumbass when it comes to the technical side of instruments... i basically only go for how a guitar feels, sounds and looks...
my new electro-acoustic yamaha's name is "sun green"... she's not green and her only connection to "sun" might be her bright natural body... but i bought her the day after i went to see neil young performing greendale solo acoustic in london, so there's your connection
i've also got a nameless ukulele that i don't play very often... and sometimes i pick up my brother's ibanez bass... i should ask him if she's got a name, too
well, what should i tell you about myself? i'm in no way a good guitarist... but i can fake it for the non-musicians in fact, i think that i'm very limited in my style... i used to play in a couple of bands but somehow never found other musicians with whom i REALLY connected... this year i played quite a few mostly acoustic open-mics with a friend who is a great singer and it really clicked... but no more, due to me having to move...
so i'm just playing and writing and recording crappy songs on my own... not being able to really sing doesn't help either but i just love music so much... i'll never give it up... and i never had higher ambitions than just being a hobby musician... then again i wouldn't say no to a multi-million record deal either
i make music by myself for myself... and i don't really know if other people like it... and i don't care... if you really want to know you should ask laura because she has heard some songs but she'd be too polite to say anything bad...
Hi again Psycosmic, I learned A LOT about tech stuff in magazines, in my case Bassplayer. But I don't subscribe anymore, it got redundant after awhile. But man! I learned so much stuff!!! Although I never spent much time reading Guitarplayer or Guitar World, I imagine they'd do the same thing. For the longest time, my favorites were the colums at the end!!! I learned to setup a neck and harmonics in Bassplayer magazine!! I even ajusted some of my friends'. You'd learned the basics at least, you'd know what questions to ask to a repair-luthier guy. The info in there is really valuable. Check it out! "Becky" really seem to look beautiful, you describe it well! Yeah, changing the pickups is going to be like changing instrument!
You seem to put yourself down pretty easily... To me, once you play out there and write songs and record, you ain't crappy. Hats off to you attitude though, music for the sake of music, that's when one plays "real" music, it comes from the bottom of your soul, not from the last trend.
My main insturment, my baby, is ...Charlotte, '72 Fender Jazz, maple neck with black block position markers and perfing around the fretboard. I'm in love with her The paint was stripped eons ago, used to be "Olympic White", bought it from this guy that was into the Jaco Pastorius thing, so he stripped her down to the grain! The action is amazing. she's in need of a fret and fingerboard job though, she never had any since her exiting the shop in '72. But that doesn't affect the playing in any way negative. Aside the other Fender (Rosie), I own a Micheal Kelly acoustic electric, it's kind of an average instrument, it looks nice and sounds alright but it's not very comfortable to play, it's a huge intrument to hold on your lap, but it's good for acoustic gigs. I don't have an electric guitar, that's my next purchase, but I have a very sweet sounding classical and a old Kork M1 keyboard, that I use(d) mainly as a midi trigger for pre-prod. I'm computer based, it's cheaper and it takes less space.
I have been a member of several bands, I gigged, travelled and moved quite a bit in the last 8 years. I'm not involved in anything right now cause I've been ill for quite some time now and actually bearly played at all this last year. I wrote some 4 or 5 song in 2003 but haven't recorded anything for a little more then a year. My computer tech has my soundcard (Event electronics Layla) so I can't record anyway. I sing, not lead though, I do sometimes but I don't want to be a lead singer, but it's useful for backvox and writing. I also play a bit of guitar, actually, half the stuff I write is on guitar, but I'm not a guitar player in any way. I was told I was a kick ass bassplayer a couple of times, that's nice to hear!!! but it seems that I lost my edge, the illness surely not helping. I guess I'm an alright bassplayer.
But music isn't a hobby to me, it's the center of my life. I think that life should revolve around ones aspirations and talent, however little or grand it is. That's the fuel of life. PJ/Jeff have tought me that more then anyone else out there. Music has turned into an industry of gigantic proportions, which in turn takes away from the music, PJ showed that it can be taken back and kept it has it should be, pure, from the musician to the listener. That speaks to me.
So lately, I've been keeping busy with researching on Jeff's basses, trying to get as much info as I can on each and every one of them, some history, tech stuff and other, eventually that work could end up here, on Laura's site. I have been talking about it with her and she said she's interested. I have a lot of time to dedicate to that because of my health situation (housebound), and I check this board everyday, I have gotten some suggestions and good ideas from people here, It's pretty cool!
depending of model) it's worth brand spanking new, picked a black sharpie and put his name on it. Damn! I wouldn't even bid on that guitar myself! OK, it's a benefit, giving is just enough I should be thinking. If at least he was giving a guitar that's worth something to start with! Isn't a benefit auction's purpose to RAISE money? Here is my letter to Mike.
