Gibson Tour Bus VIP Visit

[Stratcat]

As some of you know by now both me and my daughter who's 14 are amateur musicians. I have been a Fender man all my life but my daughter has went to the dark side and become a Gibson fan (just kidding I love me all), so a friend of a friend made arrangements for her to have a private VIP tour of the Gibson Guitar Tour Bus. The guys treated her like a celebrity and it was a very special visit for us both. Thought I would posta couple of pics they took.

They even gave her an $8,000 59 re-issure Les Paul to play around on, very cool indeed!!

In the Warm up room.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/stratocurtster/Carson%20on%20Gibson%20Tour%20Bus/20080326_44.jpg


In The Sound Studio Room
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/stratocurtster/Carson%20on%20Gibson%20Tour%20Bus/20080326_46.jpg


Chilling in the lounge/kitchen
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/stratocurtster/Carson%20on%20Gibson%20Tour%20Bus/20080326_48.jpg

Outside
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/stratocurtster/Carson%20on%20Gibson%20Tour%20Bus/20080326_50.jpg

They even let me on with her wearing a Fender Shirt LOL...
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/stratocurtster/Carson%20on%20Gibson%20Tour%20Bus/20080326_40.jpg

[eagleeye]

Hey stratcat,

How cool is that for your daughter? Lucky her.
BTW, I've listened to some of your blues-----very nice.

Steve

[hipshot]

hey strat!
my next door neighbor, has a "les paul, t.v. model".
at least i think that is what it's called. circa 1957!
at all the "internet", places that he checked. $ value was around $4000.00!
Gibson, has always been my SECOND, favorite, in the acoustical line!

i do dearly love the sound of an "auditorium", martin!
just jt

[Stratcat]

Hey stratcat,

How cool is that for your daughter? Lucky her.
BTW, I've listened to some of your blues-----very nice.

Steve

Thanks Steve just amateur hack stuff but we have fun with it!

[Stratcat]

hey strat!
my next door neighbor, has a "les paul, t.v. model".
at least i think that is what it's called. circa 1957!
at all the "internet", places that he checked. $ value was around $4000.00!
Gibson, has always been my SECOND, favorite, in the acoustical line!

i do dearly love the sound of an "auditorium", martin!
just jt


I'm with ya on the Martin!! Yeah those 50 and 60 vintage Gibson's and Fender are highly collectible. I saw a 64 Strat the other day for $24,000.00 I had several of that era whan I was a kid, wish I would have hung on to them LOL!!:guitarist 2:

[Squidley]

I have an uncle that is very into guitars, he would go insane to be in that bus :) I'm sure you and your daughter were probably the same way :happy34:

[Stratcat]

I have an uncle that is very into guitars, he would go insane to be in that bus :) I'm sure you and your daughter were probably the same way :happy34:

Yeah we are and I was going to let you know today I received the package yesterday! I owe you one buddy and if Ican ever return the favor you let me know!!

[Squidley]

Yeah we are and I was going to let you know today I received the package yesterday! I owe you one buddy and if Ican ever return the favor you let me know!!

No sweat Curt, like I mentioned, Pass it on and I know you will. Your enthusiasm on the site is good enough payment for me :happy34:

[Gambler]

Hey Stra
When U & your daughter make the big time , can I drive the tour bus

Gambler:dancefool:

[Stratcat]

You got it gambler!! Althought I think we'll probably just stick to the music room in the house and a few small gigs here and there, it's all for the love and fun of music.

[Gambler]

Thats great news, now get your butt out there & make a name for yourself

Gambler

[Stratcat]

Thats great news, now get your butt out there & make a name for yourself

Gambler

:guitarist 2:Ok then :big-grin-emoticon:

[DragonRider]

I am not a big fan of Blues, but I have been listening to some of your selections on your MySpace page and I am very impressed with the talent you and your daughter posess...........Keep it up, post some of these on Utube and you might get noticed a lot more............its been done before...............Keep em coming..........

I also watched the vid of you and you brother jamming together, very cool, you guys rock...............

The tour must have been awesome, those Gibsons are fantastic guitars, I used to play bass back in the day and I always tried to borrow my buds Gibson bass when I played, it sorta spoiled me for my old bass. Would like to see that bus myself.

[Stratcat]

I am not a big fan of Blues, but I have been listening to some of your selections on your MySpace page and I am very impressed with the talent you and your daughter posess...........Keep it up, post some of these on Utube and you might get noticed a lot more............its been done before...............Keep em coming..........

I also watched the vid of you and you brother jamming together, very cool, you guys rock...............

The tour must have been awesome, those Gibsons are fantastic guitars, I used to play bass back in the day and I always tried to borrow my buds Gibson bass when I played, it sorta spoiled me for my old bass. Would like to see that bus myself.



Thanks man, but we just play for fun. Let me clarify we weren't on tour we were just give a little VIP taste of what it would be like to be on tour in this cool machine. Our Myspace page is just for fun, we're not trying to make a name for ourselves, just posting it up for friends and family. We're just a dad and daughter having fun and lovin music!

:big-grin-emoticon::guitarist 2::cool10:

[DragonRider]

You guys really sound good, so keep up the good work and have fun, and keep us posted on new music you guys record..........I like what I have heard so far...................Its a lot better than some of the stuff that passes for music............

[Stratcat]

You guys really sound good, so keep up the good work and have fun, and keep us posted on new music you guys record..........I like what I have heard so far...................Its a lot better than some of the stuff that passes for music............


Thanks your to kind!

[Freebird]

Great pictures of what was obviously a fantastic trip. I can tell that from your daughter's lovely smile.

I'm not a HUGE Gibson fan except for electrics. I will probably own a Les Paul one of these days. That has always been my favorite electric.

For now, I've been wanting a 12 string. Finally bought one tonight on Ebay. Got a GREAT deal on a nearly new Seagull 12. Now I just have to wait for it to get here. :) I've tried a lot of 12 strings lately and really hadn't decided 100% on which one I wanted but the Seagull was one of my preferences. I love the slightly wider neck on it. I already have a Seagull S6 Cutaway and like it a lot.

[Gentleman George]

Hey Strat!
You guys get to the Sault area and vist me on my Sat morning show and play some music on the air. AM 1230 WSOO.. I have a 67 Les Paul and a 62 Gibson SG bass that I played in High School and still gig with. give me a call when your comming to town,,,:080402gudl_prv:

[Captainkirk]

Too cool...looks like you all had a blast! Really great pix, as well!
I'm somewhat of a "strat cat" myself, owning a '65 as well as a new '05 Mexican Strat amongst my Epi Casino and 6 and 12 string acoustics, so I can really identify with this trip. Hope the memories last a lifetime!

[Stratcat]

Great pictures of what was obviously a fantastic trip. I can tell that from your daughter's lovely smile.

I'm not a HUGE Gibson fan except for electrics. I will probably own a Les Paul one of these days. That has always been my favorite electric.

For now, I've been wanting a 12 string. Finally bought one tonight on Ebay. Got a GREAT deal on a nearly new Seagull 12. Now I just have to wait for it to get here. :) I've tried a lot of 12 strings lately and really hadn't decided 100% on which one I wanted but the Seagull was one of my preferences. I love the slightly wider neck on it. I already have a Seagull S6 Cutaway and like it a lot.


Awesome on the 12 string your gonna love it for sure! Yeah I am not a big Gibson fan, I bleed Fender like I bleed Yamaha. The on going joke around here since I taught my daughter to play is she has gone to the dark side with her favorite SG and her 2nd favorite Les Paul. So when we went I had to wear my FENDER shirt :rotf:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/stratocurtster/Carson%20on%20Gibson%20Tour%20Bus/20080326_40.jpg

I was poking Wrench today when I visited him, that he and I should make your maintenance day extravaganza a road trip for the two of us. If we can work it out that would be awesome. Look very forward to meeting you my friend, and jammin a bit!

Until then may good weather be you friend! :You_Rock_Emoticon:

[Stratcat]

Hey Strat!
You guys get to the Sault area and vist me on my Sat morning show and play some music on the air. AM 1230 WSOO.. I have a 67 Les Paul and a 62 Gibson SG bass that I played in High School and still gig with. give me a call when your comming to town,,,:080402gudl_prv:


George just so happens we started planning our trip to the Sault, night before last, since we now have commitment from our house/pet sitter.

Looks like it will be the week of July 20th, we'll probably arrive on the 22nd (my 52nd birthday and our 2005 Stardays Wedding Anniversary), visit some of Debbie's family she hasn't seen in over 20 years, Deb has some sites in mind for us to ride to (some falls or something) where she used to ride way back on her 1985 550 Virago and then attend her 30th high school reunion that Friday, Saturday and probably head out Sunday.

So for sure we'll look you up maybe you'll have the time to get a ride in with us?

Nice axes you have there and worth some money by today's standard for sure. Don't know about playing on air, but we can sure jam a bit :guitarist 2:.

Look forward to meeting you for sure!!

[Stratcat]

Too cool...looks like you all had a blast! Really great pix, as well!
I'm somewhat of a "strat cat" myself, owning a '65 as well as a new '05 Mexican Strat amongst my Epi Casino and 6 and 12 string acoustics, so I can really identify with this trip. Hope the memories last a lifetime!


Thanks Cap'n!! It was a great trip we'll both remember for sure. Nice collection you have, saw a 64 Strat in our local Vintage store (Guitar Emporium http://www.guitar-emporium.com/) a week or two ago, for $24,000.00. Damn I wished I would have hung onto my old guitars :confused24:. All I have now days is a 91 Fender a American Standard Deluxe, an mid 80's Ovation, A Walden acoustic my newest and a Squire Strat, I bought Carson to get her going. She now has her own, Walden, Epi SG, and a Epi Les Paul. So we love em around here as well.

Thanks again!

[Captainkirk]

Here are a few photos you might enjoy; I had them saved to my hard drive.
The Casino I bough brand new in '74 as a sophomore in high school...still in great shape and the pickups sound so much better with age! Hardly a scratch on it, either!
The '65 Strat I bought in pieces and rebuilt it, puting in all new wiring, a DiMarzio Fat Strat in the lead position, new pots, Schaller tuners and dressed it up with the chrome pickguard and Tele knobs. It was quite the look in the seventies. I s'pose now you could call it retro? It's been rode hard and put away wet, like an old cavalry horse. Rory Gallagher would be proud......
The Mexican Strat is in perfect condition with the exception on the fretboard, which has quite a few areas of finish worn off. I get my money's worth. I compared it to an American Standard, but honestly couldn't hear or feel $500.00 worth of difference! Anyway, enjoy!
CLICK ON THE THUMBNAILS FOR LARGE PIX

[pegscraper]

Wow, what a fantastic opportunity for a teenager, to be able to visit that bus. It looks like you and she have a blast together.

I'm a Gibson man myself. I used to own an '89 Les Paul standard with a Marshall 100W half stack, as well as a mid '60s Discoverer Tremolo practice amp. I've been meaning to scan some pictures I have and put them up here. I always liked the fat crunch of a humbucker, and the tone quality that a slightly shorter string scale and slightly lesser string tension of the Les Paul gives. I think the covers on my pickups lasted about a day before I took them off. I never knew what to do with a whammy bar anyway. Obviously I was best at rhythm. I have long since sold all this stuff off though, as life moved on and I just didn't have the time to play anymore. Now I have a Washburn 6 string acoustic that I don't even play enough to keep my fingertips broken in. After reading this post a few nights ago I got inspired to get it out and play, and my fingertips still hurt. Most of the stuff I used to know doesn't translate real well to an acoustic anyway. At this point I sort of wish I had a classical guitar. I would probably do more with that than anything. But I wish a lot of things. I'll see if I can get some pics up here for you soon.

[Stratcat]

Here are a few photos you might enjoy; I had them saved to my hard drive.
The Casino I bough brand new in '74 as a sophomore in high school...still in great shape and the pickups sound so much better with age! Hardly a scratch on it, either!
The '65 Strat I bought in pieces and rebuilt it, puting in all new wiring, a DiMarzio Fat Strat in the lead position, new pots, Schaller tuners and dressed it up with the chrome pickguard and Tele knobs. It was quite the look in the seventies. I s'pose now you could call it retro? It's been rode hard and put away wet, like an old cavalry horse. Rory Gallagher would be proud......
The Mexican Strat is in perfect condition with the exception on the fretboard, which has quite a few areas of finish worn off. I get my money's worth. I compared it to an American Standard, but honestly couldn't hear or feel $500.00 worth of difference! Anyway, enjoy!
CLICK ON THE THUMBNAILS FOR LARGE PIX


Super nice colllection man!! Love the Casino!!

[Stratcat]

Wow, what a fantastic opportunity for a teenager, to be able to visit that bus. It looks like you and she have a blast together.

I'm a Gibson man myself. I used to own an '89 Les Paul standard with a Marshall 100W half stack, as well as a mid '60s Discoverer Tremolo practice amp. I've been meaning to scan some pictures I have and put them up here. I always liked the fat crunch of a humbucker, and the tone quality that a slightly shorter string scale and slightly lesser string tension of the Les Paul gives. I think the covers on my pickups lasted about a day before I took them off. I never knew what to do with a whammy bar anyway. Obviously I was best at rhythm. I have long since sold all this stuff off though, as life moved on and I just didn't have the time to play anymore. Now I have a Washburn 6 string acoustic that I don't even play enough to keep my fingertips broken in. After reading this post a few nights ago I got inspired to get it out and play, and my fingertips still hurt. Most of the stuff I used to know doesn't translate real well to an acoustic anyway. At this point I sort of wish I had a classical guitar. I would probably do more with that than anything. But I wish a lot of things. I'll see if I can get some pics up here for you soon.


Great would love to see them!!

Yeah it comes and goes in my life as well, when I was rasing my girls now 31 and 27, it very little priority, so quit gigging and just played once in awhile. Got divorced in 01 after 20+ years and picked it back up again and started playing out again. Got married to Deb in 05, inherited Carson as my step-daughter and see didn't like me even a little bit. She got interested though in the guitar watching me play, so I taught her and she was a natural, now were super close and have a wonderful relationship. So music has a special place in her's and my life.

Keep playin, it's good for the soul!

[pegscraper]

Here they are. I posted earlier to get myself to get these scanned. This is me about 18 years ago. Man I wish I could still get into that size of pants now. The Gibson guitar is an '89. It had a gorgeous flame top to it. I had seen many flame tops I didn't really like. I had picked up some push/pull volume controls which I was going to use to wire up different series/parallel pickup combinations. But the more I played it, I didn't really see a need. Being a rhythm boy, I seldom played anything but the bridge pickup. I never cut the excess string ends off at the tuning machines, and still don't. The Marshall is a JCM900 lead series. Soon after this pic I sold it and got the JCM900 dual channel model. Both of these had a quartet of EL34 power tubes in them, which were my favorite. These were the first models into which Jim Marshall designed the extra gain stage in the preamp, to design properly and offer from the factory what many customizers were doing a lousy job of in their home shops. That extra gain stage gave those amps some serious balls. The Gibson Discoverer Tremolo was in excellent condition, not a ding nor a tear in the covering anyplace. It was a fantastic little amp. It had a pair of EL84 tubes in it, which when run at their max, man they would really sing. It sounded real similar to the Vox amps, and IIRC it had the same power tubes in it as they do. I replaced the power supply caps in it when I got it, as like most old tube amps, they had gone bad and it would hum loudly. Sometimes I miss this stuff, but oh well, that was then, this is now.

What kind of amp do you like to use? I don't think I've seen that mentioned here. With a Stratocaster, I'm going to guess Fender equipment.

This vacuum tube guitar amplifier equipment spoiled me for wanting vacuum tubes in all my audio equipment. To this day, my main stereo is a Fisher 400, which I saved from someone's trash pile when I was in junior high. The thing must be over 40 years old. All vacuum tubes. I tried a couple solid state amps in there for a while, because after all, if the latest technology wasn't better, they wouldn't be using it, right? Hah! Solid state sucks. Those things are in my shop now where they get dirty and beat around. It's all they're good for. And the vacuum tubes are back in my audio rack. I'm in the middle of building my own vacuum tube preamp using 6SN7s and 6SL7s, and a class A push pull power amp using some 6SN7s and KT88s. I love those octal tubes. The chassis look nice, but they're not wired up yet. There are a couple other designs I'd like to build also, like a single ended design and also a direct coupled design - no capacitors in the signal path, but I can't do everything at once.

I'm glad you and Carson are getting along. That's also a great thing for a teenager. Dad and I never got along, and it never got any better as I got older. We haven't spoken to each other in several years now.

[Stratcat]

Here they are. I posted earlier to get myself to get these scanned. This is me about 18 years ago. Man I wish I could still get into that size of pants now. The Gibson guitar is an '89. It had a gorgeous flame top to it. I had seen many flame tops I didn't really like. I had picked up some push/pull volume controls which I was going to use to wire up different series/parallel pickup combinations. But the more I played it, I didn't really see a need. Being a rhythm boy, I seldom played anything but the bridge pickup. I never cut the excess string ends off at the tuning machines, and still don't. The Marshall is a JCM900 lead series. Soon after this pic I sold it and got the JCM900 dual channel model. Both of these had a quartet of EL34 power tubes in them, which were my favorite. These were the first models into which Jim Marshall designed the extra gain stage in the preamp, to design properly and offer from the factory what many customizers were doing a lousy job of in their home shops. That extra gain stage gave those amps some serious balls. The Gibson Discoverer Tremolo was in excellent condition, not a ding nor a tear in the covering anyplace. It was a fantastic little amp. It had a pair of EL84 tubes in it, which when run at their max, man they would really sing. It sounded real similar to the Vox amps, and IIRC it had the same power tubes in it as they do. I replaced the power supply caps in it when I got it, as like most old tube amps, they had gone bad and it would hum loudly. Sometimes I miss this stuff, but oh well, that was then, this is now.

What kind of amp do you like to use? I don't think I've seen that mentioned here. With a Stratocaster, I'm going to guess Fender equipment.

This vacuum tube guitar amplifier equipment spoiled me for wanting vacuum tubes in all my audio equipment. To this day, my main stereo is a Fisher 400, which I saved from someone's trash pile when I was in junior high. The thing must be over 40 years old. All vacuum tubes. I tried a couple solid state amps in there for a while, because after all, if the latest technology wasn't better, they wouldn't be using it, right? Hah! Solid state sucks. Those things are in my shop now where they get dirty and beat around. It's all they're good for. And the vacuum tubes are back in my audio rack. I'm in the middle of building my own vacuum tube preamp using 6SN7s and 6SL7s, and a class A push pull power amp using some 6SN7s and KT88s. I love those octal tubes. The chassis look nice, but they're not wired up yet. There are a couple other designs I'd like to build also, like a single ended design and also a direct coupled design - no capacitors in the signal path, but I can't do everything at once.

I'm glad you and Carson are getting along. That's also a great thing for a teenager. Dad and I never got along, and it never got any better as I got older. We haven't spoken to each other in several years now.


Very Cool!:cool10: I'm lovin all the pics! Sounds like your a lot more techy than I am. I'm just a player/singer.

Back in the 60's - 70's all I could afford the Fender and Gibson stuff but I loved and still do the old tubed Silvertone Stuff like the 1485 and 86. Silvertone's head and cabinet or the Twin Reverb wanna be.

In fact here recently I have started to collect some of my earlier axes. To start my first guitar was the Silvertone 1448 tube amp in a case with the cool little short scale Danelctro's couldn't afford anything elese back then. I have snatched two of them recently on Craig's List, they are getting quite collectable on Ebay. They're awesome.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/stratocurtster/Trials/silvertones/1448-1.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff242/stratocurtster/Trials/silvertones/1448.gif

In Fact I have some vintage 8mm of us jamming Silvertone Style when I was around 12 on my YouTube Site. No sound back then so I laid a little Vintage Byrds down for a soundtrack, we even had GoGo Girls :rotf:

YouTube - Music The Early years

Man you guys are taking me back, can't wait to get together at some function and we can do some jammin and sing'n! :guitarist 2: