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BoomMF

Burnt Ends
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Posts posted by BoomMF

  1. If you haven't already and you're a fan of the band, check out the book Runnin' With The Devil: A Backstage Pass to the Wild Times, Loud Rock, and the Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen by then manager Noel Monk.  Highly recommended.

  2. 21 minutes ago, Mojo Hand said:

    Unless it's in a glass case on your wall, it's not just art.  If you're carrying it, it's communicating something about you.  I could recreate military medals or a Hells Angels cut and call it art, but I'd be communicating something if I wore them out in the world, and it wouldn't be good   The entire reason relic'd guitars look cool is because they reflect the passage of time and heavy usage.  They are specifically designed to reflect pick marks, fretboard finger grease, and scrapes and nicks from the road.  It's not random aging of wood and finish; it's designed to give the impression of heavy playing.   And that means something, even if wear is not a perfect reflection of how much you actual played it. 

    It's true that you can baby a guitar and keep it clean despite heavy use, but that doesn't mean the converse is true -- that even random wear picked up over the years is meaningless.  It still tells a story.  That's exactly why people fake it with relics, to get that story. 

    That's cool if it's your thing.  There's an element of fantasy to all of it.  I've sought out guitars that look like those my guitar heros played.  For me, though, a relic'd guitar represents more than I want to communicate to the world. 

    That's a strong point, of course.  But I will check out of this threadjack by saying that I think photostatic copies of important pieces of art or photographs engender the same emotional reactions as their original handpainted counterparts.  It's the art that matters.

  3. Hagar Van Halen never had the swagger as Roth Van Halen.  With Hagar they were a good rock band. With Roth they were dangerous.

    And musically, for entertainment AND import, nothing in the catalog compares to I, II, and 1984.  Nothing.

    • Like 1
  4. What about a 2018 model 60s era reissue amp with period correct grille cloth and offset nameplate?  Does it feel fake as well?  Is that too different a scenario?  (I'm open to the idea that's it's too different.)  It's going to perform as a 2018 amp but LOOK like a cold war battlehorse...

  5. I just don't see the difference - or a distinction without a difference.  Whether your roadie is a bumblefuck and can't be careful or you treat your instrument like a precious artifact (which I do), those nicks and bruises are little different than a factory fresh finish - it's arbitrary.  For art, it's the end that matters and less-so the journey (you guitar falling off its stand isn't much of a story, or it's a story that holds as much value as that ding getting there by some craftsman skilled at making dings).  And you could play 80 years and no amount of "honest work" is going to wear a modern finish.  The only thing that holds true is what the guitar looks like, and in the case of a pre-worn neck, how it plays. "Honest work" doesn't contribute a thing where art is concerned.  The only "relic'd" guitars that have value for their relic beyond appearance are guitars owned or played by famous or important musicians at famous or important gigs.  Joe Blow's 40 years of "honest work" adds little to no value where art is concerned.  And where art is concerned, pristine and relic'd are the exact same thing.

    But, on the other hand, Rat Rods do nothing for me.  I'm complicated.

  6. Guitars are the only thing in existence where I see that aging and this it's gorgeous. It's weird. I'll even eventually pay to have that effect done on purpose. We live in strange times.

    • Like 1
  7. 9 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

    I have no clue.  I  got it up and running about a year ago out of curiosity.  I beta tested SWG years ago ('02 or '03?) but never got into it. I At the time I didn't understand what kind of game it was, and was looking for a Star Wars version of Everquest or something.

    I still have that white envelop the beta came in.  You're right about the marketing though, it wasn't what people were expecting.  I think that and the growing pains turned a lot of people off.  It's a shame really, because it made money (until WoW came along and showed everyone what making money actually was) and to this day no game approaches the magnitude of its sandbox world.  Raph Koster is a legend.  John Smedley, not so much.

  8. On 3/30/2018 at 2:50 AM, Modessit said:
    On 3/30/2018 at 2:41 AM, BoomMF said:
    I have a Mortal Kombat upright in the living room.

    First one? See 2 and 3 a lot. Used to be a good market for the first one because you could never find it.

    First one.  I picked it up when I was in college because I spent so much time on it when I was in middle school and there wasn't a faithful recreation of MK1 available on home consoles (still isn't).  MK2 and on have versions readily available that rock, MK1 not so much.  I even picked up an extra MK1 jamma in case mine ever goes down.  Took a while to find that extra because all I could find for reasonable money were late BIOS versions, which fixed a lot of stuff I didn't want fixed like multiple fatalities and such.

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