OK. You've heard the phrase; "it's a small world"...


Erm, not only do I know Mansons, it so happens that outfit is half owned by a gentleman called Adrian Ashton. He's a fine bass player - and he and I were in a couple of high school bands together more decades ago than I want to admit (I was the drummer in those days). Frankly, we were awful! Neither of us likely want to be reminded of the noise we made... but it was a beginning.


Uh-hu... I actually lived in Kenton from the age of 11 to 16, when I fled back to London. My mother carried on living there for many more years so I'm only too familiar with the sound of Chris de Burgh drifting across the deer park of a summer's evening at their ghastly middle-of-the-road version of a stately home outdoor festival. You'd look up from your beer, see the lasers firing into the sky and think; "Oh heck, Chris is back up at the castle again. Where's the earplugs...?"


Where Forum user AndyBigHair does his funky thang!


They certainly do! And fabulous wine as well. And some brilliant food. And very nice people, in my experience.

And some, but not enough good cheese. Welcome home!

Cheers - C

Thank you, Blertles! Very kind. I certainly feel the same way about this common sociological phenomenon. And as a bookseller by training I can say it has a tendency to drive you nuts. For instance, this apparent urge to CAPITALIZE and emphasize !!!! everything. I try not to let it bring me down, but it ain't easy! as I'm sure you all know. If an entertaining read on this and many other noteworthy topics may be suggested, I will point to the works of Terry Pratchett, creator of the so-called Discworld and author of the following very true sentence: "Multiple exclamation-marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind." Ironically, fate has it that dear Mr Pratchett is now suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Obviously, I wish him all the best.

A place I've heard of, and seen pictures of, and feared and avoided. I know they make a fine brew, but there is a certain "touristy" air to the whole thing there. Maybe at some point the off topic discussion will go off topic and we'll talk about beer (never ever happened on this forum I know... at least not in any of the build threads, eh? ). I know a good "Weizenbier" (wheat beer, always go for the milky hazy ones) is hard to find at a reasonable price in the UK, so maybe an import service needs founding.

Yep, 'tis my mind thou speakest! The difficulty lies in convincing people of that, and for this you need to take them down the back lanes, and there they shall tremble from the exquisity of the cuisine, and bow and hang their heads and say "Alas, we have learnt! It is truly a Great Britain!" But it will probably take another century to get the cliché of "bad english food" out of peoples heads - and not only out of those of foreigners! Many Brits still cook and eat like they barely just survived the war... which is a shame as there is so much to discover!

Yeah, I know the feeling! A gift of the cosmos, I call it. Though we mustn't show off! So sshhhh...!
Soon they will have difficulties understanding the meaning of the word "keyboard". And not because they're deaf (which many are, due to the use of (in)earphones and the likes...).


Wow, well I dare say you're right, small world! Cool! Do you get a rebate? No, seriously, I love the place. It's top of my Devon list, and I bought a very nice Freshman acoustic guitar there, and had some soldering done on my electric and so forth... very helpful, very pleasant, and a good selection. Worth a visit every time!
World is getting smaller and smaller! Sheer miniscule! My Uncle lives in Kenton, so there you go! And I do remember them reporting their de Burgh experiences - seems like a tradition of some sort, maybe some leftover from an ancient cleansing ritual... high-pitched shrieks calling through the night, as the Lady in Red comes dancing with him (I wonder when she'll get bored of all that dancing...). Not to "bash" Mr. de Burgh, but I do now get the point of earplugs. Although I'm not sure if those foamy bits should keep the sound out or soak up the blood running from your ears... just kidding. He wrote some world famous and very successful tunes. Kudos for that!

Yeah, so I gather! Cool! good to know there's at least one familiar soul in the region, even though only "virtually". I really like the way his cat Randalf directs Andy's current build. Very professional! Ceri, you made my day with that! Thank you very much!



edit: long post brings lotsa mistakes.

More importantly, when can we expect some more guitars from Fender?

Seems no one knows that for sure. However, the good news is we have learned where to find the best cheeses.

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I'm almost out of stuff to sell.

Pratchett's wife now has alzheimer's too.

What a terrible time that poor bloke is having. Just finished his last book, Unseen Academicals. It was fairly good, some genuine flashes of utter comedy brilliance in it, much like his earlier books. (the mental image of a reluctant necromancer playing football. Whilst the ref aint looking, attacking the opposing players with a joke rubber knife will never leave me). The previous book, Nation I did not find so enjoyable. I could put it down to his illness, however I prefer to think that you can't please all the people all the time. Maybe it's just the naive hope that he'll be writing books forever.


Sad, sad, shame.

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No no and no

Yes. Now if only I'd been able to catch this a couple of months ago, when I was in England visiting relatives!

But on the plus side, England provided the best beer of my European trip. Wonderful bitter. And the best wines were certainly in Italy.

Here is what was posted on page two. Fender is releasing more all the time. They are just way behind in production. We kind of beat this subject to death and moved on to various cultural foods we love and detest. It has been a fun journey!

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Must admit, the "more importantly" bit of that post had me somewhat confused.


No. And feeling sick with greed over the Manson brothers' gorgeous guitars is how I got started building my own...


We lived in the middle of a small row of thatched cottages a stone's throw from the church. LOVED those church bells on their practice session, every Monday night! Miss that.


Why not?

...I also have stuff to say about the wonders of Continental beer drunk at source (the real Budweiser, for example) - but I have a feeling Mssrs ebaysux and Unadan don't want to hear about it. No worries: that's what Andy's thread is partly there for - right, Andy?

Cheers - C

Tis indeed Mr C!



Andy

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Pending Greatness

It is indeed a terrible shame.

I'm forever grateful that he leaves behind him my favourite series of books of all time. The Discworld series is one of the true greats of any sort of writing and comedy. I have read each one and I feel as if I know all the characters as my own friends/enemies/anything. The mix of sheer hilarity, ridiculousness and all the while using astoundingly sound logic has produced a fantasy world I have longed many a time to fall into.

Genius indeed.

There's a new one coming out soon, "I Shall Wear Midnight", a Tiffany Aching novel and part 38 of the Discworld series. I have high hopes that he at least collected and prepared enough material to make the round number 40 become reality. Who knows? Anyhow, it's more important they stay well, he has given many so much joy over the years. And to people of all ages, too, quite remarkable. For someone unfamiliar with his novels (and especially if they're a musician or otherwise musical) I recommend "Soul Music" as a start. It is a very smart and humourous rendition of the genesis of Rock Music, though in the parallel universe of the Discworld. Only there, they describe it as "music with rocks in it" (because frankly, there are...). Well Ceri, I think I'd probably go for one of your designs rather than a Manson - not because any of both ar superior, more because if I went with yours, I'd have better chances of following along via intraweb on yet another exquisit Strat build!
They still do bell ringing of course. Though you can still detect a slight difference between the A-Team and the B-Team! Oh well, we shall shift the beer discussion to Andy's kind hosting environment, since I certainly wouldn't want anybody to be ...cheesed off... and maybe I can put up a few tips, as I am currently in Austria for a few days (yes, my family are everywhere, I apologise) and am testing different kinds as I have the chance. There will be a beer festival (imagine that!) on 2nd and 3rd September here (Salzburg), and I gather there will be lots of beer waiting to be tested and cherished and caressed and so forth. Although I never really drink alcohol much I like to educate myself on different brewing processes and tastes and colours and so on.

Indeed! And to you , o'course!

I was not as confused as I was mystified!!!

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Who's got the toe fetish, Andy?

Not I!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Funny story about London and beer. You see my parents for a graduation gift purchased plane tickets for my girlfriend and I to go to Europe. Neither of us at the time were any kind of world travelers...just spoiled Americans living in the land of abundance and taking everything for granted.

I could write pages and pages of our experiences, but I will stick to the beer story. She is not much of a drinker, myself have been known to indulge. We were both hungry as well but really wanted a snack more then a meal. So we figured we would hit up a few local taverns/pubs whatever..and sit down, order a couple of beers and some snacks..and all is well.

We found out rather quickly this is not the way they do it over there. First mistake may have been the time of day. We have dubbed this time of day as the "stampede of suits". In other words, we are just settling in and want an easy beer and snack...when seemingly out of no where, hundreds upon thousands of men in suits are coming at us. We did not know if we should run the other way..duck and cover, or just shield our faces with our hands and ram into the pack. We chose to run for cover at the closet pub.

Thinking we could sit down and have a simple cold beer and snack turned out to be something not quite in the cards for us. First thing we noticed...no seats. Then we noticed...that yes...it seems in that town, they stand while they drink.

We asked if there was a way to sit down at a table or something and order a snack to hold us over..and we were basically snickered at.

I was a bit disappointed, but figured.."when in Rome"..so until the roads were clear of the stampedes, we stood in the pub drinking tepid beer with the suits...until we no longer gave a rats $@!.

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I'm almost out of stuff to sell.

That may be the case..but then what would be the excuse then for any delays with naturals?

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I'm almost out of stuff to sell.