104 Comments
User's avatar
Kevin Baruth's avatar

I hadn't realized that Hillary Clinton murdered Harambe but I suspected, all along, that she had her hand in it somehow. Finally...the truth comes out as it always does.

Jack Baruth's avatar

There are only two kinds of people: the people who hold Hillary Clinton responsible for Harambe's death, and insane conspiracy theorists who think it could have happened some other way.

Kevin Baruth's avatar

Exactly. There are even people out there who believe zoo security shot Harambe.

Chuck S's avatar

there's no way a lone gunman took him out.

Kevin Baruth's avatar

Don't discount the possibility of a hoax...just like the assasination attempts on President Trump.

Speed's avatar

so hilary was (one of) the gunmen

guess her aims gotten worse over the years

-Nate's avatar

"This won’t make you a better musician but it will gratify you in many different ways. " I can dig this .

It's a poor Mechanic who blames his tools yet at the same time using *just* the right tool for the job at hand is a joy few ever experience .

Me, I can't carry a tune in a bucket but this axe is lovely to look at .

"After all, Willie Nelson played the same cheap acoustic his whole career. " See my 'tools' comment above .

-Nate

Gianni's avatar

Supposedly Willie paid $750 for Trigger, his Martin n-20 in 1969, which is 6,800 in today’s devalued currency.

Jack Baruth's avatar

That's about right, given that a Martin to those specs costs now.

-Nate's avatar
20hEdited

I tend to buy mostly used tools due to my budget .

Often I find some incredibly rare old dealer tool or like that for sale where they have no real idea what it is, I think if one is able to afford top notch tools, one should .

That being said most of my Snap - On tools are 50 + years old and again, no one has any idea what the hell they are until I bring out out and do a job with it, then they're all goggle - eyed .

Has to be the same with musical instruments .

I knew a really good man Pit Kinsolving, he'd played with Pete Seeger on his bout in the 1960's and had multiple string instruments that were priceless, I was given them to hand to whomever wanted them at the Topanga Banjo & Fiddle show before the fire some years back, when I handed them over and watched them open the cases, their eyes nearly popped .

-Nate

Landon McMeekin's avatar

Old Snap-On stuff is my very favorite. Damn hard to find, though.

Pete Madsen's avatar

My father dug up with the bulldozer a chunk of hardpan that was rust-colored instead of the usual gray. He threw it into a bucket of diesel fuel and left if for a while. It turned out to be a 3/4" drive SK ratchet. He took it apart, cleaned it, and it became part of his tool set.

Jack Baruth's avatar

This is a GREAT story.

Chuck S's avatar

I have to think Snap-On gear from the late 1960s / early 1970s is light years ahead of anything manufactured today, including Snap-On tools.

Steve Ward's avatar

Same with Craftsman.

Chuck S's avatar

agreed. I've got a decent number of Craftsman tools that I inherited from my father and they're all quite robust.

Chuck S's avatar

guitar tech Mark Earlwine giving Trigger some TLC at his shop in Austin. part one of two:

https://youtu.be/uhQuJTc5yFY?si=nI_xar4sBxSM7gHe

part two of two:

https://youtu.be/1fDij2CWLZY?si=bGYU3oMj2bwRc4Q6

David Florida's avatar

Recently I listened to Mike Campbell's "Heartbreaker" as read by the author. He tells the story of buying his Fender Broadcaster for $300 when he could barely afford rent before mentioning that another of that rare model had auctioned for $4M. Think his Broadcaster, like Trigger, will beat that mark?

redlineblue's avatar

Isn’t that a *great* book? The counselor who got him to Gainesville ‘bout brought me to tears, and *most* of his guitar acquisitions seem more like destiny than commerce.

Zanes’ Petty bio is awfully good too imo— one of those books you needn’t care about the Subject Matter to find enriching.

Gianni's avatar

I think I’m going to submit the Squire Telecaster I bought off Craigslist for $75 for the next Harambe.

Chuck S's avatar
18hEdited

Hound Dog Taylor played any Kawai S-180 he could find in a pawnshop or department store and usually paid $20 to $50 for them. He played them through a Sears Silvertone amplifier with six (!) speakers, one of which was torn. Retail price, $249.

Some of the best tone ever recorded using gear that cost all of $2,500 in today's dollars, and here I am with a Custom Shop Stratocaster and unable to play any song all the way through.

Gianni's avatar
15hEdited

I have a ‘67 Kawai Mayfair I picked up for a couple hundred bucks at a local record store a few years ago. Fun to look at, but I prefer playing the modern stuff I have.

Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

That Sears Silvertone with a six speaker cabinet was the 1485, essentially a 1484 "Twin Twelve" amp with twice the power and three times the number of speakers. There's one on Reverb now for $1,400. I have a 1484 head. The Twin Twelve is one of Jack White's favorites and regarded well enough that there are at least a couple of amp-in-a-box pedals that reproduce the tone.

My late friend, David Parker had a gorgeous black Les Paul Studio that sounded delicious through the Twin Twelve.

Chuck S's avatar

Jack White (along with Dan Auerbach and Beck) is the reason Silvertone prices are so damn high! lol

Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

For a while Mojotone offered a kit for the Twin Twelve that they claimed was built to deal with the rigors of touring.

Nat Daniel was a genius. I bet he and Earl Muntz could compare notes on cost engineering.

Steve Ward's avatar

And I’d forgotten this man story: https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2026/05/someone-you-should-know.html

We are doomed if all we do is rely on AI (automated idiocy).

Jack Baruth's avatar

I'll remind my son of this. It is a story he should know.

Rick T.'s avatar

The very embodiment of The Right Stuff. Ironically, another Cooper may have been the first to use the phrase in the modern sense.

https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/right-stuff

Steve Ward's avatar

Yeah, icy nerves and brass balls.

Speed's avatar

i should literally saw my penis off becuase im nowhere near the man he is

Jack Baruth's avatar

In all seriousness, every Private Stock guitar represents an ASTOUNDING amount of environmental impact. Especially the Brazilian Rosewood neck guitar I sold last year.

Tim's avatar

Sort of like ivory stocks. You don't think they're worth it until you handle a set of genuine ivory stocks on a custom 1911 and then you go "Oh...well, if dumbo has to buy it to get me this, so be it."

Speed's avatar

"theres no way its that hard to dodge a poaching charge"

Lynn W Gardner's avatar

Tim I don’t have a 1911 with ivory but I have a Remington typewriter on a book shelf with ivory keys and I will point out the keys when some leftward leaning people visit just to get their reaction, usually something how could they do that!!!!!

Rick T.'s avatar

Now I’m wanting a whale oil lamp on an elephant’s foot end table.

Gianni's avatar

Next to a polar bear rug.

Rick T.'s avatar
4hEdited

Damn. Yeah. Thanks for the assist!

CJinSD's avatar

I grew up with Danish rosewood furniture. When I was buying a black laminate covered dresser from what passed for a hoity toity furniture store in Charlottesville thirty-five years ago, I received a stern lecture on environmental justice for requesting rosewood handles. I can't even imagine what would happen there today.

Rick T.'s avatar

Wow. That’s a name I hadn’t thought about for years. Thanks for the reminder!

Day's avatar

Every PRS I've ever played has been felt so nice and sounded so fantastic. I just cannot get into them, aesthetically. It's probably generational. Too strong of a Nickelback/Creed-type divorce-core rock association for me. I was way too punk rock in the '00s to listen to that. Can appreciate now but the aesthetics scream true religion + tapout. Could never see myself playing one on stage despite how just absolutely fucking great they are as instruments. "Let's fix everything wrong with the legacy manufacturers' most popular models" and they did, they really did.

Jack Baruth's avatar

'Too strong of a Nickelback/Creed-type divorce-core rock association for me.'

Ah, this is where being a jazz nerd helps me. I never listened to that stuff, not at all.

So to me PRS is "Al Dimeola and John McLaughlin and, lately, John Mayer."

My kid and I *play* Creed for fun but I didn't know any of the songs back then.

Chuck S's avatar

you really need some big semi-acoustic box to really get your jazz on.

and your Nugent. crank that sucker up and bask in glorious feedback.

Jack Baruth's avatar

At one point I owned six Gibson and Heritage L-7 style guitars.

Now I'm down to just one Heritage Eagle hollowbody with a custom neck by the late Aaron Cowles.

James Burns's avatar

Gibson Byrdland just like Uncle Ted

Chuck S's avatar

through a Fender Super Twin pushed almost to implosion.

Gianni's avatar

If I was going to get a big hollow body, I’d get a Gretsch White Falcon with a Bigsby and Dynasonic pickups.

Chuck S's avatar
13hEdited

get your Billy Duffy on!

https://youtu.be/ZCOSPtyZAPA?si=s0_VGJ_tFZpG-SGQ

don't hate on me. I've got a weakness for post-punk gothic rock.

Hex168's avatar

I know it's not the guitar's fault, but Al Dimeola had the WORST guitar tone ever. I liked the notes he played but cannot stand the sound. (I'm referring to old Return to Forever here, not later - after that noise I did not seek him out.) Loved Return to Forever post-Flora Purim otherwise, mainly for Stanley Clarke.

Jack Baruth's avatar

Anyone who thinks Al D had the worst guitar tone ever in a first-rate player has never heard Mike Stern nor Robert Cray. Seriously, though, I know EXACTLY what you mean. He played those albums on a 1971 Norlin Gibson, probably weighed twelve pounds.

Day's avatar

I learned about Return To Forever and, subsequently, Di Meola pretty early on. But this was way before YouTube and I never saw any videos so I didn't form any association. That makes sense.

Chuck S's avatar

Most of my friends who play guitar have no love for PRS and describe them as "too pretty" and/or "furniture." There is _some_ truth to that, in that I'm not sure any working musician would gig with the truly gorgeous stuff.

With the exception of the Silver Sky, I've loved every PRS I've ever played, including the bargain-basement made-in-Korea SE models. The guy knows how to build a guitar.

Matthew Horgan's avatar

Technically perfect, but no soul.

Chuck S's avatar

you've described Rush.

hey-oh!

(I can make this joke... I've been a fan since Moving Pictures was released)

Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

That's interesting, all the guitar players that I know think the Siver Sky is a great guitar.

Chuck S's avatar

don't get me wrong - it sounded and played beautifully (relatively speaking - I'm a hamfisted hack with a guitar). but the plastic tuner heads, pickup selector, and knobs felt cheap. I know it's shallow, but it turned me off on the model.

I'll be in Chicago next week. Maybe I'll stop by Chicago Music Exchange and give it another try.

Steve Theodore's avatar

Although I'm no musician, I certainly enjoyed learning more about your special guitar and also enjoying the video provided. Way to go Jack!

John Van Stry's avatar

Wow, that is nice. Wish I knew someone I could point at this.

Hex168's avatar

Why non-bookmatched? Looks odd to me.

Jack Baruth's avatar

Not everyone likes the "chevron" look, especially among PRS people. The very obvious bookmatch is done at the lower PRS levels. It's like hand vs. machine stitiching.

Tim's avatar

Interesting note, Harambe was killed by a 12 gauge slug from a Remington 870.

Accredited zoos in America have multiple weapons...usually shotguns...kept in close proximities to the most dangerous animals. The apes are the most dangerous of all due to a combination of strength, agility, and intelligence. When you see concrete planters and the like near the enclosures for these creatures, in at least a couple of them there is a hidden lock box with a loaded shotgun ready to be used like a .72 caliber stopping rifle.

Just about anyone in America can own a similar setup for home defense...although a Brenneke slug that will lay out a gorilla in a single shot may have a considerable overpenetration concern when used on a 200 pound felon at home defense distances. For the uninitiated, "overpenetration" means the slug that will drop a 450 pound gorilla will likely punch entirely through the anatomy of a 200 pound felon and go on to penetrate through most other things you can find inside a typical residential structure.

...and then continue to penetrate into *another* residential structure which might be more excitement than you'd like to give your neighbors.

The bad guy is unlikely to complain as the slug will tend to punch a BFH (big fuckin' hole) through him letting copious amounts of blood out and copious amounts of air in, which tends to be against the advice of 9 out of 10 doctors. It also puts out a pretty impressive temporary stretch cavity as it does so, tearing lots of tissue due to the physics of a full ounce of hardened lead moving at ~ 1,600 fps truckin' right on through.

I know of a couple of real life occasions where particularly good marksmanship resulted in a slug that penetrated through the sternum and punched out through the spine, taking chunks of the spinal column out the back of the in-fact-murderer (victim didn't make it), achieving what one officer described as "immediate compliance."

I can also tell you from first hand accounts that the shotgun slug does a tremendous job of putting down deer, wild boar, black bear, and one zebra. Apparently there are a number of rich people in the rural areas of northern Virginia for whom horses are insufficiently spendthrift and so they have acquired zebras and said zebras are *really* territorial.

Territorial to the point that they have no respect for a sheriff's deputy hunting a wanted killer who jumped into the field that belonged to said zebra. The zebra's zealous civic virtue in mauling that particular ruffian was unfortunately overshadowed when he decided that he would just as enthusiastically go after the deputy who was pursuing said scofflaw.

So while I'm not worried about having to end a great ape with my gauge, I do keep similar ammunition on hand because a big black bear, a big wild hog, or a really pissed off black Angus bull are realistic problems we might have to deal with at some point.

Drunkonunleaded's avatar

It blew my mind that there was a level to horse ownership disease where some of them have actual Zebras.

It was kind of like the time I was like 23 and my hairdresser explained to me how many women receive Botox.

Jack Baruth's avatar

Women?

I've done it three times. Literally helped me get a job at NVIDIA.

Drunkonunleaded's avatar

Respect.

Every time I hear a guy trash Botox, I immediately assume that his wife is ugly.

Steve Ward's avatar

Just doing the needful, …. or should I say, the needlefull.

Jack Baruth's avatar

It doesn't even hurt. Not compared to the laser peel!

Speed's avatar

i gotta looksmaxx to get places in life dont i

Jack Baruth's avatar

Nah, I've met you, you are starting off WAY ahead of me.

Speed's avatar

well shit

i was hoping i could go through life knowing it would be completely useless to me but i guess there might be some justification

Drunkonunleaded's avatar

A lot of people get it just for jaw pain and migraines.

Scott A's avatar

A lot of people SAY it's just for jaw pain and migraines to not look vain.

Drunkonunleaded's avatar

It relaxes overworked jaw muscles by reducing cramping and fatigue. Botox is a gift to men on many fronts.

redlineblue's avatar

My gf is from the Virginia hunt and her brother still works there, for 9-digit owners of a 1000 acre estate. He shares stories that I think just have to be the Limit, but the next harvest is always deeper into Ripley’s.

Ask him about the horse-drawn carriage pileup on Trappe Rd, or why there’s bottles growing in those pear trees…

Speed's avatar

maybe the 12ga slug gun was the real big game rifle this whole time

.460 weatherby who?

Drunkonunleaded's avatar

It seems like yesterday we were discussing Harambe’s murder on RG. Time flies.

At the time I remember thinking,

“What kind of terrible parent lets their kid meander into a gorilla enclosure.” That sort of behavior wouldn’t even be a Tweet today, let alone a cultural milestone.

RE: LA, we were looking to take a trip out there this summer. I was disappointed to learn that The Sunset Grille closed. I’ve never been a huge Don Henley fan, but I always wanted to eat there if only because my dad made me listen to that song 8 trillion times.

In case you all were wondering, we settled for Branson.

Jack Baruth's avatar

"RE: LA, we were looking to take a trip out there this summer. I was disappointed to learn that The Sunset Grille closed. I’ve never been a huge Don Henley fan, but I always wanted to eat there if only because my dad made me listen to that song 8 trillion times."

You're kidding. I have had two dozen meals there. I loved that place. Somehow I always ended up there at 11am, vaguely hungover, and eating all alone!

"All our friends are here!"

bluebarchetta's avatar

There is still an excellent Sunset Grille in St. Augustine Beach. Try the triggerfish!

Drunkonunleaded's avatar

Yeah it closed in 2024 and became a Mediterranean restaurant that’s now listed as “temporarily closed”.

Chuck S's avatar

I lack both the talent and the money for so fine a guitar.

I would take a pick though.

I COME IN PEACE's avatar

That's FANCY

A wise man once said "gold hardware means you are number one."

I'm having enough trouble blowing out half of my worn out workman grade bass gear as it is. I can't imagine it being any easier liquidating the top shelf stuff. Hey, why don't we open up a MusicGoRound franchise in some underserved, artsy fartsy town? Do kids even like to play bad music in their parent's basement anymore?

Jack Baruth's avatar

'Do kids even like to play bad music in their parent's basement anymore?'

Now they go straight to YouTube.

Rick T.'s avatar
21hEdited

“…so I could do stuff like race a V-8 Radical and eat two meals a day…”

“…in order to facilitate other acquisitions such as a Glashutte PanoLunarMatic and/or next week’s meals…”

I think I’ve spotted the problem. Seriously, I’m not a musician and never played an instrument except a flutophone in the 4th grade where I deliberately flunked Twinkle Twinkle Little Star so I wouldn’t have to be in a concert. Mozart weeps.

https://youtu.be/tGSDVrnjDqI?si=R8OisuQabzDLcH0Y

But I can appreciate it as a functional piece of art. Or is it craftwork?

Jack Baruth's avatar

Ah, the sheer cynicism of it. You just KNOW it's the product of two Cheetos-dusted atheist Supreme Beings.

sgeffe's avatar

Not a guitar person by any means, but that particular piece is gorgeous!

Gianni's avatar

Nice guitar, but I really want a skateboard guitar like Drew Steele had.

https://youtu.be/7Sbz--gRylA?si=fJY4UTWX8VGDhz31

Speed's avatar

"If you’ve never had the chance to take delivery of an $11,000 guitar and put it directly into a Rolls-Royce coupe, I don’t even know how you’re getting up in the morning."

neither do i but ragebaiting people online is fun

"inlays of abalone and mother-of-pearl which are hugely labor intensive and are now a six thousand dollar option on their own"

good lord what a flex

"As I reach what is charitably called late middle age"

middle aged in the same way that im average height

anyway its a slick guitar in ways i cant appreciate other than the wood and finishing is spectacular