What have you guys done to me ??

RioRico · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 7:34 am Post subject:

I may have mentioned this (tl;dr) but since I have no disposable income to spend on my own goodies, I must sell stuff before I can buy stuff. So as long as all photo costs come out of my PayPal account and don't appear on a credit statement, everything is peaceful at home. Oh yeah, she buys many shoes, but she returns most of them. Lenses and shoes don't bend our budget -- ethnic crafts do. My office may look like a lens and guitar warehouse but the rest of our house looks like an anthropological museum.

You think LBA gets expensive? Try IAA (Indian auction addiction). Are you awed by price tags in a Leica showroom? Walk into the antique-crafts galleries on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, where one old olla (large clay pot) costs more than a complete Red system. No piss-ant whining over lens prices, now -- lenses are comparative bargains. Ten or twenty Fleks for one small Maria Martinez plate, that's about the going rate.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Fleks win over plates any day for me!

I'd let the wife buy such a plate then use it as justification to go out and buy a whole range of nice lenses such as Zeiss Jena P6 ones, Russian Red P early M39 ones or Schneider Retina DKL ones.

If it's a really pricey plate go the whole hog and buy some T* Zeiss glass...

Eye for an eye and all that! lol

RioRico · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:46 am Post subject:

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Good on ya, RioRico. I doubt seriously that I would either. I have a similar problem as you. My wife is ethnic Chinese, and over the past 20+ years we have accumulated a rather large collection of Chinese jades. I suspect that some of them are worth a LOT of money, but we continue to hang onto them, more like a retirement fund I guess than anything else. Besides with jades its really all about finding the right buyer or auction house to represent you, and we just haven't really gone to the trouble yet. Although we have talked seriously about selling off some of our collection.

Here's a page I put together earlier this year about our collection:
http://michaelmcbroom.com/chineseart/?page_id=2

I couldn't help but notice that you mentioned "guitars." Okay, fess up. I know all about GAS, and the "G" doesn't stand for "gear," either. I have probably somewhere around 15 guitars myself, 4 or 5 which I built. So, what sort of guitars do you have in your collection? Don't mean to derail the topic with talk about guitars and jade, I'm just curious. You can PM me if you like.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

You guys should start a thread on art, guitars etc, I would be very interested to read it!

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Not a bad idea, Ian.

RioRico · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 11:44 pm Post subject:

Since it's not totally off-topic, and I hadn't inventoried my string instruments, here's my current list.

Tamara electric bass guitar -- Orlando 5-string banjo, with resonator back -- Guckert Duplex banjo-mandolin circa 1890 -- unknown banjo-ukulele, similar vintage -- Maffick and First Act 4-string mountain dulcimers -- unknown cigar-box 3-string electric guitar -- Academy 6-string resophonic (dobro) guitar -- Aria #1261 jazz-electric guitar -- Art et Lutherie and Martin Backpacker 6-string acoustic guitars -- Ibanez Performance PF-5 electrified acoustic 6-string guitar -- Windaroo electric 6-string guitar (Les Paul clone) -- Ovation #1115-1 acoustic 12-string guitar -- Aloha lap-steel Hawaiian electric guitar, with matching amp, vintage 1940 -- Kay acoustic mandolin -- Cümbüş 11-string fretless and 12-string fretted ouds -- Virtuosa quattro (12-string Mexican mandolin).

Some of these have stories. The Guckert banjo-mandolin was my grandfather's. The Ibanez guitar and Kay mandolin were cheap at a garage sale. The First Act mountain dulcimer is Chinese-made and was dirt-cheap at a WalMart on the Arizona-Sonora border (it's not really suiited for Mexican music). The Martin Backpacker doubles as a canoe paddle. I got the Virtuosa quattro from its maker's shop in Paracho Michoacan Mexico. The Aloha Hawaiian keeps sliding off my lap so I may sell it and its matching amp soon. The fretted 12-string Cümbüş (JOOM-bush) sounds like the loudest funkiest banjo you ever heard, especially played with a bottleneck in open turning.

I used to build mountain dulcimers but haven't kept any because I sold them because I needed the money which is why I built them, eh? I didn't include a handmade 3-string standup bass because it got left behind in Guatemala and I don't know if I'll ever get it back. I also don't count the washtub bass because it's been converted into a watering trough. And the aeolian harps just blow...

I'm not satisfied. I need a good classical guitar from Paracho -- there was no room left in the car, last time I was there. I want a bowed psaltery. I need to replace a zither. I want a dulcimer-tuned long-neck Cümbüş. A tri-cone metal-body National resophonic guitar calls to me. I have materials left for one more mountain dulcimer and should build it sometime soon. Et cetera.

Next, I must inventory my accumulation of reeds, recorders, nose flutes, slide- and tin-whistles, ocarinas, chanters, Tonettes, kazoos, harmonicas, digiridoos, etc. Too bad I donated the slide trombone. I used to honk that at New Years Midnight, the dulcet blasts reverberating up and down the Russian River Valley. No, 2012 just won't be the same without it.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

I started a collecting thread here -- you might want to copy the above post over to that thread:

http://forum.mflenses.com/collecting-and-collectibles-of-the-non-photographic-sort-t45799.html

Let me know if you decide to sell your lap steel. Years ago, I had an old Rickenbacher that I let a friend, who collects them, talk me out of it. I wouldn't mind getting another one someday. Heh. Shocked

I just took a look on eBay at lap steels. Shocked

Never mind. Dang it, wish I'd never sold that Ricky! !!!

RioRico · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 4:51 pm Post subject:

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

If I were in your position, I'd show that lap steel to my grandson, but that's all I'd do. I'd let the interest he might have percolate until he shows a genuine interest in it. And even then I'd express some hesitancy in allowing him to play it. Get across to him the value of the instrument and its accessories, if you will. Make him earn it with his desire. I wouldn't just give it to him because he might not show it the respect it deserves.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Show him some Seasick Steve performances on youtube, the guy plays so simply but makes an awesome sound, shows you don't have to be a virtuoso to make great music.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

There is a SS performance where he plays a crude homemade lap guitar, I just suggested his work as inspiration as it's so simple, won't put a kid off, show him Jerry Garcia and he might think 'I'll never be able to do that'.

BTW, I'll take Steve over The Dead anyday, not much of a Dead fan, guess you had to be there!

stratboy99 · Joined: 15 Nov 2011 Posts: 23 Location: M'sia

RioRico

stratboy99 · Joined: 15 Nov 2011 Posts: 23 Location: M'sia

NewStuff · Joined: 31 Mar 2011 Posts: 847 Location: Wales, UK

hoanpham · Expire: 2015-01-18

RioRico

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

I've learned my lesson about pianos too. We bought a nice upright that took up most of one wall in our living room. Bought if for our daughter who never played it, preferring a small battery powered Casio keyboard instead. For Christmas this year, I bought the family a nice Casio 88-key keyboard with piano action. Relatively portable, nice sounds, and loads of built-in voices. I even bought my daughter a decent Yamaha 48-key portable so she doesn't have to dink around with that little Casio anymore.

RioRico, if that were my in-law, I would become an indispensable best friend. Very Happy

RioRico · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 2:04 am Post subject:

stratboy99 · Joined: 15 Nov 2011 Posts: 23 Location: M'sia

RioRico

stratboy99 · Joined: 15 Nov 2011 Posts: 23 Location: M'sia

[quote="RioRico"]

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas