Travel Tips from a Frequent Flyer

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I fly a lot. I once flew 110 times which is more than twice a week for an entire year. I’ve flown on every conceivable type of plane, been delayed more ways than you can imagine, been canceled, been rerouted, had my luggage lost, had my property stolen, been detained by customs in three countries, been upgraded, downgraded, and everything in between.

I’ve been in planes during emergency landings with firetrucks zooming along beside us as we landed. I’ve been in aborted takeoffs, aborted landings, terrifying turbulence, near misses, and even managed to have a crazy passenger escorted off the plane in handcuffs when we landed. I’ve seen it all. Here are my tips. (more…)

Cozy Tales: 44. Not so Bright

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OldFlashlightBW
As you might have guessed by now, I’m a bit of a nerd. I like gadgets and have way too many hobbies. I play the guitar, have a ham radio license, build my own computers, fix old tube amplifiers for fun and generally baffle my wife with an endless desire to acquire some new toy or learn some arcane skill. My interests have led me to amass a wide ranging collection which includes guitars, tube amplifiers, fountain pens, headphones, cameras, telescopes and a wide variety of other things. Of course, some of those hobbies get me into trouble. (more…)

Cozy Tales: 43. Fame

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CozyFamous
Since my Cozy had her own website that many people in the Newfy community routinely visited, her page had references on thousands of other pages. This was at a time before Myspace and Facebook, when the average person was just learning about the Internet. Google did not yet exist, and Alta Vista and Yahoo were the big names in search engines.

I often receive emails sent by people from throughout the world commenting on Cozy or Daisy and how much they loved the pictures and updates, and those who searched for terms such as Newfoundland dog would find Cozy’s page since it was so popular. One day in 2002 I received an email from the Army Corps of Engineers asking if they could use one of the images of Cozy for a project. (more…)

Guild 2015 Newark Street X-175B Guitar

GAD 2 Comments

Guild-NS-X175B
I’ve owned a few nice Gretsches including a Setzer SSLVO, a Setzer Hot Rod, and a Gretsch Billy Bo, as well as a couple of Gretsch Electromatics. I’ve also owned two Guild X170s, a pile of Guild Starfires, both of the III and IV variety, and too many other guitars to count. I have a thing for hollow-body guitars with a Bigsby, or as we in the Guild world call them when they say Guild on them, a Guildsby.

After seeing this video put out by Guild, I decided that I had to have one of these Newark Street X-175B marvels. I finally got my hands on one for a great price and was thrilled when I played it. Let’s find out why this guitar excites me.  (more…)

1997 Guild Bluesbird Guitar

GAD 4 Comments

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Today’s review is for a 1997 Guild Bluesbird guitar from the Westerly factory that I picked up on eBay for a great price. I didn’t need it, but it was so pretty that I couldn’t resist. Sadly, that happens to me a lot.

The Guild bluesbird of this era is quite clearly inspired by the Gibson Les Paul, but there are some important differences. First, and perhaps most important, the Bluesbird is chambered which makes it lighter than the average Les Paul while also making it more resonant with a more open sound. The shape is a bit different, and Les Paul purists will likely rebel against that, but for me, it’s every bit the guitar that even an Historic Les Paul is. Let’s find out why, and talk about some of the differences between the Guild Bluesbird and a Gibson Les Paul.  (more…)

Cozy Tales: 42. Down the Shore

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CozyBeach3
Lauren grew up spending her summers at the Jersey Shore, loving everything about it from the sand between her toes to the nasty jellyfish in the surf. For her birthday in 2002 she wanted to go back since it had been far too long since her bare feet had felt the sand.

We decided that it was far past time to take our water-loving dogs to see the ocean. We had talked about it forever, but somehow life had gotten in the way and it had never happened. While taking two huge dogs to the beach was difficult enough, we were now faced with the prospect of bringing two huge dogs and two small children to the beach. We figured it was never going to get any easier, so we loaded everyone into the Outback and trucked on down the shore. (more…)

Guild 2015 Newark Street S-100 Guitar

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I used to have a reputation on the Lets Talk Guild forum as the guy who hated Guild S-100 guitars. I just never saw the lure, probably because I loved other models so much. When the opportunity arose to score one of the newer Newark Street models for a song, I jumped on it, figuring I could flip it and make a couple bucks profit. Sadly, I wasn’t prepared to be impressed by this guitar.

I bought this guitar used on LTG along with a Newark Street (NS) X-175B, which I will review in another post. I’ve discovered that these import Guilds absolutely crush the competition in the same price range. Let’s see why. (more…)

Cozy Tales: 41. Cozy gets Spayed

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CozyBear
Putting our fears aside, and having had enough of Cozy being in heat twice a year, we decided to do the right thing and schedule Cozy for surgery to be spayed. This seemed simple enough; drop her off, wait a few hours, then pick her up. We had read that Newfoundlands might not need as much anesthesia as other dogs, and that we should use a vet with a lot of experience with the breed. We decided that instead of using Dr. Fritz, we would use the vet group that our breeder used, which happened to be staffed entirely by women. Being the pig man that I am, I of course assumed a veterinary office staffed with supermodels all wearing French maid and nurse’s outfits. I’m not sure where the French maid thing fit in, but we pig-men are  not really a complicated bunch. (more…)

Guild HB1 Pickups: New vs. Old

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NewHB1
As you may know, I am a huge fan of Guild guitars and especially their vintage HB1 pickups. Guild recently released a new version of the coveted HB1s, so I bought one and decided to see how it compared with a vintage model. As of right now, this comparison is only regarding appearance and size. I’ll report on sound differences later.

Short story: they are almost exactly the same size! Let’s look at the details.  (more…)

Cozy Tales: 40. Daisy’s Bloody Nose

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Daisy
With my life as an international drug smuggler behind me, I spent most of my nights studying for my next try at the CCIE exam. On one such night the kids had been put to bed and the dogs were eating their dinner upstairs. I could always tell when they were eating because the hardwood floor was directly above my office, and since Cozy’s eating had never been a gentle affair, the large stainless steel bowl would rattle and scrape against the floor while she devoured her food. Daisy was more demure when she ate, having no doubt been schooled in the art of fine dining. While dinner was loud, it was brief, so the distraction never lasted long. This time though, the sounds of Cozy eating were interrupted when Lauren called me with that it’s an emergency tone. (more…)