Aussie Off Topic Chat Thread

Move along, nothing to see here.

That's a link to a private group.

Bugger

I know of a substation where the remains were found.. cremation had already been performed.

That's a big bug zapper.

https://www.mcnews.com.au/john-mcguinness-awarded-mbe/

Jolly good show old chap!

And sIr Lewis Hamilton!

Son Ewan and I will be in overnighting in Melbourne CBD this Saturday, he wants to have pizza and pasta and I could make the effort to join him
Where do you suggest is the best.

Villa Romana Lygon st

University Cafe does best (real) Italian Pizza.

I have a new 690 enduro r Clutch failed after 1 ride From what I have been able to read it will be the seal on the slave cylinder
If the dealer just offers to replace the seal am I just setting myself up for another failure? Should I be installing a rebuild kit ? Advise from others who have experienced this problem would be appreciated Cheers

Bit of talk in another thread but I thought I'd mentioned it here rather than go off topic.
Looking to buy a new guitar as I'm not 100% happy with my current one. (it's a Seagull made in Canada)
It's almost impossible to buy a guitar under $800 that's not made in China.
Even brands like Yamaha and Fender have some of their guitars made in China.
In the current climate and trying to make informed purchases it's becomes clear that we have all become accustomed to buying cheaper Chinese products.
As a newby player I don't want to drop a wad of cash on something I really can't appreciate or have any guarantee that it's built any better than a Chinese equivalent.
But I don't want to support an economy backed by the CCP.
Don't want to drag this down to CSM, it's more just an observation.

hi Wodgder63, for years it's been my practice to play the most expensive guitars hanging on shop walls, and then search for that sound & feel in a guitar which I could or wanted to afford. To my shock I discovered that the most expensive part of any factory guitar is the brand name on the headstock - that, and sentimental background info such as 'this guitar is built from timbers ONLY grown in Austin/Texas, felled by hands ONLY from Austin/Texas, shaped & finished by hands ONLY from Austin/Texas, strung up & shipped out by hands ONLY from Austin/Texas'. Unfortunately it didn't come with $10k worth of sound. Some shops also can't be trusted to do the right thing by a guitar re humidity control & temperature, e.g. I found luthier built guitars ($5-7K) on shop walls with cracks, dulled/mildued varnish, rusty strings due to negelect.

Last time I wanted to treat myself to a guitar to celebrate some milestone, my daugter & I went for a music shop crawl. I played some really expensive guitars, most sounded like wet cardboard (shop's damp ambience storage) ... then I just grabbed a guitar from the lower levels. Even my daughter (bored teenager at the time) listened up when this particular guitar made the rest of the instruments room hum along with the briliant tone and full sound it pumped out! I didn't quite trust my ears and tried some others (more expensive) again ... same result (lame). But when my daughter said, dad - that particular guitar is the best sounding one - we bought it. It was a $700 Cort which ran rings around the Matons in that room! That was about 10 years ago, Chinese-built didn't have quite the stigma as it has right now.

Meanwhile I spent a few years doing a master luthier course and build acoustic guitars myself. The difference between factory & luthier built guitars is VAST! A good factory guitar is the one which they can put in any idiot's hand and it wont come back with problems or damages. Hard flamenco slaps? Massive changes in humidity? Leave in a car? Play around the camp fire? Factory guitars are overbuilt to be able to cope with all those stresses, a bit like a learner's car Belmont version ...

If you're limited by a budget, buy what sounds best and don't worry about anything else. Like you said, it's almost impossible to buy anything in a budget range which doesn't contain Chinesium in some shape or form ...

...though if you wish to tickle out a tune from a Tassie log, why not PM me



PS: Once I went to a big guitar shop in Melbourne's northern outskirts, saw a $7k Taylor, fully tricked out, mother-of-pearl inlays everywhere - the Rolls Royce of Taylors at that time. I played it (with the fearful shop owner hovering in the background), it sounded fantastic! Once the owner realized I could play a bit, he offered it to me for $3500 on-the-spot. See, it was the Ferrari in his stable of donkeys. Wrong shop. Wrong location. Wrong clients. That suburb wasn't frequented by people seeking to shell out big $$$ for a prize guitar. I couldn't afford it at the time, just saying that browsing shops in certain areas might throw you a surprise ....

Look no further

I just listen to whatever Jimmy Page is playing.

I still can’t play at all but when I bought my first guitar I let the guy running the shop play the ones in my price range that I was interested in and just sat back and listened for the one that sounded good to me. Then have a little play to make sure it’s comfortable and away you go.
China didn’t come into it back then so I personally would be looking at where it was made as well if I were looking now.

I still have that first guitar a Vox Standard 24 Made in Japan I believe. I can’t find a lot of information on it.

You happy tiger

A mate had an Ibenez 12 string that he could get people on side with, he did have an ear for tuning and often called for a capo.
John Denver was in the play list.
John himself liked Yamaha enough to ask them to build him one.

Good tunes

Hilarious looking at the machine head of the yam, some amusing ‘guitar tech’ with the neat trimming and the string outer winds teased on a couple of strings

https://guitars.com/john-denver-instruments

Not a musical bone in my body but I love music and can fix stuff, not a luthier but appreciate what goes into a project.

May the tunes ring true for you, for now and evermore

A strumming tune

If you don’t like led zep tune out now