No, not one with four wheels or a health drink – an acoustic guitar pick-up…….. I was ready to lay down some acoustic guitar tracks for the song I wrote, but didn’t want to use a mike because the old living room is not soundproofed from the noisy neighborhood and with 100+ temps, I wasn’t looking forward to recording with the A/C off……. So, I was going through all my musical paraphernalia looking for my “Buffalo” pick-up I purchased in the ’70’s that you just stick-on near the sound hole with some poster putty…… I didn’t find it, but I ran across the old DeArmond pick-up my dad used on his Martin guitar in the ’40’s…… I thought what the hell, I’ll try it…… It works great and there’s not even any noise in the volume knob like you get with new stuff that is only a few years old…… Not bad for a piece of equipment that’s over 60 years old!…… Here’s a pic of what it looks like in my 00-15 Martin….. It’s the RHC model with the integral volume controller…… This is what every guitar player used to amplify their guitars before Leo Fender came out with his revolutionary “Broadcaster” electric guitar in 1948…….

Here’s a little history on Harry DeArmond:
Harry DeArmond (born January 28 1906, died October 12 1999) invented the first commercially available attachable guitar pickup in the mid 1930s. He established a working relationship with Harold ‘Bud’ Rowe’s company to manufacture and develop these items. The company was located in a former schoolhouse at 1702 Wayne Street in Toledo, Ohio.

Initially there were two models for flat-top guitars (the RH and the RHC which incorporated an integral volume controller) and two for archtop guitars (the FH and FHC with a volume controller). Both types of pickup, initially called “guitar mikes”, were passive electromagnetic, employing the same wide shallow coil shape with individual Alnico 2 pole-pieces.

What is the name for the dancing mania which in 1800 appeared in Tennessee, Kentucky, and

Virginia? Those of you who have played in a band may be familiar with particular malady.

……or am I just the only person who runs into them?…… I sold a piece of property a few years back…… The person I sold it to was a friend of a co-worker……. Seemed like a nice hard working person with limited resources, so I sold him the property on a payment plan spanning over a three and one-half year period…… I didn’t charge him any interest…… I had to defer 6 monthly payments over the life of the contract because he was unable to pay on occasion……. I even dropped off the last $1,800.00 to help him out…… He now has the property up for sale…… My brother’s property adjoins this property and he wants to buy 1.4 acres from this person to allow a bigger buffer zone between him and whatever new owners might buy and sub-divide the property…. I thought, well, I’ll make the deal with him since I had helped him so much in acquiring the property (which he couldn’t have gotten otherwise) in the first place….. It ended up that my brother is going to have to pay him three times what he paid me for the property and I had to agree to do all the revised survey maps, the deed for the 1.4 acre purchase, the revised deed for the remaining property, and the deed for the secondary property (the land I sold him was on two separate deeds) when and if he manages to sell the rest of the property…… And he acts as if he is doing us a big favor…… Have we really turned into a “I, Me, Mine” society?….. I’m a lot put-out with Humanity right now…… I hope somebody “just shoots me” the next time I consider helping someone, because I now have the feeling that if the time comes around when/if I need help, all I’ll get is a “Boot to the Head”……. Auurgh!!…..

Who said “Disorder breakfasts

with plenty, dines with poverty, sups with misery, and sleeps with death”? Heavy!

What’s that rumblin’ in the distance?  Oh, My, Gawd; It’s a Dodge!  The new 2008 Dodge Challenger that is.

Picture yourself in a seat of a rever
With tangerine paint and big Hemi thighs
    -John, Paul, George, Ringo, Petty

Chrysler has finally announced that the Challenger is graduating from Concept Car to Production Car.  Here’s a CNN article with a bit more info.

Better line up now while you can afford gas.

FYI, here’s the original New Dodge Challenger MRC post.

Here’s an

easy one. So, rush to the phones. What does “Da Capo” mean. Since it is so easy I will expect a complete answer.

Have fun and don’t blow-up anything important (like your person or MRambler Central)……. Enjoy your “FREEDOM”!……..

I’ve wrote a few in the past and have been struggling with one the last three days straight, and the end is not in sight……. I don’t know the “by the book” method…… I start with either a few words I like or some music riff I can’t get out of my head…… I’ve found that the lyrics constantly affect the music and the music, in turn, affects the lyrics, and in most cases the end result seldom resembles the original idea…… This one started out simple enough, but has evolved into a tribute to a friend of mine that I used to play in a band with, who passed on before his time……. I’m up to the eighth variation on this one….. I thought I had the lyrics “set in stone” last night, and this morning, I made more changes to the words than in the last four revisions, but I think I’ve got this time….. Of course, this called for musical changes also…… I seem to drop lines out and then find that they work in later revisions, so I don’t throw away anything until I”m finished, although, I find it hard to call a composition “finished”……. I usually let it set for a few hours/days and it looks and sounds different to me than when I last called it done…… I’m letting it “ferment” for while right now, but, I’m fighting a self-imposed deadline for a party this week-end with some other members of that same band (I have the option to “chicken-out with self-doubt”, which I can easily do as I have not told any of them of the venture)……..

Since we do have musicians in our mist, I was wondering how others approach and/or attempt song writing…… When do you decide it’s good enough?……. The best you can do?……. The time to end it before you “muck it up”?…….. Any suggestions?………

What “Peanut Head” writes those games, anyway?……. I have a Motorola V60i which is ancient by today’s standards and it has only three games on it in the first place…… You’d think that they would make them so that you could at least have a 50-50 chance of winning – better still, they should be made so you win over 75% of the time…… Why?….. About the only time I ever use them is at the doctor’s office or somewhere you need to kill some time, usually waiting on something that you are stressed-out about in the first place…… S-o-o-o, I’m at the VA in the waiting room and decide to play a little “blackjack” to ease the tension and take-up some time…… I can’t win one out ten hands!…… I get 21 and the damn cell phone gets 21 – tie – it wins…… I hold on 20 and it gets 20 or 21 with up to five cards – it wins…… I get 17, decide to hit and get a face card – it wins……. I’m now so mad at the cell phone it’s destructo-time, although, I guess I’m not as mad at the waiting room wait now, so there is some good to it, but, I would have been much happier and the time would have passed just as fast if I would have won most of the games….. Hell, I would have been happy with being even……. Damn programmers!…….

Reminder to vote

for best answer on quiz 13 or I will indiscriminately award 5 points.

Y’all got me workin’ this week…so…the quiz’s are goin’ to get progressively harder.

WHO FOUNDED THE SPANISH

INQUISITION?

Something a

little harder……….”Cogito, ergo sum”………..a famous quote. Who said it and what does it mean?

Lets get serious after last week. This weeks question is…..WHAT IS A BUTTERFLY KISS? And lets keep it clean and

educational.

We have the makings of a super group here at MRambler Central. So what say all of you lets start making some music. With the advent of recording software that I’m sure that we all have or have access to we can “telerecord” We have a Drummer, (Me) a guitar MR, Keyboards Jek, Vocalist RTG. I’m sure somebody can play Bass. Whadda say?

Well, it’s been 17 days since I made my political bid Post and the results were disappointing to say the least…. Out of 14 registered users, I received answers to my poll concerning voting from only 4 users, that’s less than 30%, but I guess that’s about par for most elections in this country, if not a little better….. Of course, this just means 4 out of 14 vote, it doesn’t mean they would vote for me and Anon uses bones and chicken parts to determine who he votes for (he should use the face – Chicken Face – it works better)…… So, I’ve concluded, if you want to win an election, you have to have lots of friends (real or bought) who will go and vote for you combined with lots of money to be able to go around to all the old folks homes, pick-up and transport all of the registered voters at each home, give ’em a few bucks and meal to vote for you, and take ’em back to the home….. You could also hit the homeless shelters, but it’s harder to find registered voters….. Once you’ve won a few minor elections using this method, you will have name recognition and voters you don’t even know will vote for you because they think you’re experienced and a good guy…… I guess it boils down to “Honesty in Politics” does not exist, so I withdraw my candidacy for Prez and I’m just “Waitin’ for the Bus” at the old folks home to go vote…..