Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Or this.....

Or this.......

Jeffrey,

Lovely...is it your's?

No, it belongs to a good friend of mine. He want to sell it but wants top $$$ for it. I keep telling him he's dreaming!

it is a McCarty Artist Archtop.

I like ridiculous guitars and sparkle finishes are ridiculous. I like silliness and weirdness and wackiness and hilariousness on guitars and in general.

I like that PRS and I like that 4001.

I think that whether you like the Sparkle PRS or not is purely subjective - (kinda goes without saying, but I'm going somewhere with this;) if you were playing in a Rockabilly band, this guitar would be PERFECT. (except for the fact that it's not a Gretsch or a Tele.) I think the pearliod naked lady TRC, skull knobs, and black hardware make perfect sense together on the Sparkle finish. The only thing I'd change is the dove inlays - change them to lightning bolts or crosses or something else equally Rockabilly. This guitar definitely has it's place. It's like a rich man's tricked out Cadillac. Now, you might not want to show up at a jazz gig with it, but conversly if you showed up at a Rockabilly gig with a perfect stock custom 24 whale blue PRS, you've get tossed off the stage. The relevance of the axe is dependant upon the music your playing on it, from an aesthetic standpoint. The purists who got ruffled by this guitar are going to have compete cranial meltdowns when they see Russ Rubman's Gretsch Bettie Page special. Any pics, Russ?

Lots of abbr's in this thread! IMHO, OTT, IYF... I'd like to introduce a few more, like GOI, KMA, GTFU, and WFC.

Allright,
She ain't quite ready for her debut but here is an early preview of Bad Bettie with her amp - no hardware installed yet in either case at the moment.

Too far out, man; crazy, man, crazy...

walker wrote:I think that whether you like the Sparkle PRS or not is purely subjective - (kinda goes without saying, but I'm going somewhere with this;) if you were playing in a Rockabilly band, this guitar would be PERFECT. (except for the fact that it's not a Gretsch or a Tele.) I think the pearliod naked lady TRC, skull knobs, and black hardware make perfect sense together on the Sparkle finish. The only thing I'd change is the dove inlays - change them to lightning bolts or crosses or something else equally Rockabilly. This guitar definitely has it's place. It's like a rich man's tricked out Cadillac. Now, you might not want to show up at a jazz gig with it, but conversly if you showed up at a Rockabilly gig with a perfect stock custom 24 whale blue PRS, you've get tossed off the stage. The relevance of the axe is dependant upon the music your playing on it, from an aesthetic standpoint. The purists who got ruffled by this guitar are going to have compete cranial meltdowns when they see Russ Rubman's Gretsch Bettie Page special. Any pics, Russ?

Mark, Now don't go picking on Whale Blue Custom 24 PRSs.... In all seriousness, you've put it very well and I agree with most everything you've said. I thought that your comments relating the "look" to the style of music were very insightful. It made me stop and think about how my underlying assumptions contributed to my initial reaction. Having that kind of awareness is always a good thing...thanks.

This will be slightly off topic, but only as an analogy to the original discussion. Using Mark's description relating style to music, is there a comparison or connection betwwen guitar "looks" and clothing "looks?" Let me explain. Imagine a man with two different sets of clothing (instead of guitars). One is a Savile Row suit and the other is the clothes he uses to do yard work. Now imagine two scenarios where he might wear these clothes. The first is at an interview for a job at Fortune 500 Company, the other is sitting down with someone who is homeless and trying to relate to them. I would suggest that he could be successful in either situation if he wore the suit, but wouldn't even get in the door for his interview if he wore his work jeans.

I wonder if the same might be true of guitars? Would you really get thrown off the stage at the Rockabilly gig using a Custom 24? Never having played one, I'm not going to pretend to know, but I would hope not. Like you, I would avoid taking the "Sparkler" to a Jazz gig, but I bet you could overcome the initial reaction to the "look" of the guitar by the way you played, and the tone you got out of it. The average person might not even notice what kind of guitar was being played. I always need to be reminded that most music lovers don't know or care about the details we get so up in arms about.

A couple of months ago, I was in DC for business and one evening, as I came back to the hotel, I heard some really nice Jazz coming out of the hotel bar. In I went. The first thing I noticed was the guitar player using a Parker Night Fly Mojo. My initial reaction was less than positive, but as I listened to the rest of the set, I was amazed at all the sounds he got out of that thing (besides being a a very good player).

So what's the conclusion? First, I agree with Mark that issues like this really are subjective. But more importantly, what matters is not the "look" of the axe, but how it cuts.

It's the same old discussion about the clothes making the man, IMO.

A person showing up with a PRS at a rockabilly gig, will have to deal with a certain amount of cynicism from "knowledgeable" (read: prejudiced) onlookers, which depending on the venue, could land the performer in the hospital or jail...

Imagine a Beatles tribute band that would be 100% authentic gear-wise, but the drummer insisted on a full set of electronic Rolands.

People have categories in their heads, they don't like to have their preconceptions shaken up. But with a bit of sonic persuasion (or playing behind a screen, perhaps?) most will come around.

I liked the PRS I recently tried out at GC. Great feel and I could bend the strings from here to Denver. Amazing guitar. But I had the nagging feeling it's not quite rock and roll, and it would look pretentious in a band such as mine. More Lee Ritenour than sloppy pop.

Now, if it had a paint job by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth...

(RIP)

Mark sorry about the acronyms – I worked for a long time for an aerospace company. I guess it’s engrained a little. Tricked out Cadillac is a really good analogy. I will mention the blot fret board inlays. He talked about doing something on the neck but didn’t want to get so far as to not be able to undo the changes and really didn’t want to mess with the neck. Bolts would be cool!

This is an ’In Your Face’ guitar. Like I said this is a disjointed Frankenstein approach, a visual dissonance. Big flake glitter that almost looks liquid and dazzles under a spot. I think the midnight blue PRS or the butterscotch Strat would be the selection at a jazz or blues fest. But this is definitely a statement ax and it does sound nice. Much as John noted - the thing I have noticed over the years is that no matter how out of place the guitar, if the tune and performance is halfway decent the nonoccurrence fades away as the tunes drift on.

We (The Quantum Kids) don’t do tributes, so I don’t think that would be an issue. Matter of fact the closest we have come to covers (in the last 6 years) is Peter Gun theme tune (in five) and Red by King Crimson…. Too many years doing cover bands plus we have fun doing our stuff. And believe me this PSR fits right into some of it. I have never been one to say that just because something has been done one way that it always has to be done that way forever – OK so I am a rebel. But yes dress for a funeral or a wedding if you are going to those functions. If I was attending a Beatlemania type show, I’d expect the props (the musical instruments in this case) to look the period. But if I was going to see a band that played Beatle tunes, I really wouldn’t care what they played them on as long as it sounded good. I really don’t think there would be beer bottles flying at a C&W bar if the guitarist had a Gretch instead of a Telecaster. Now if the play sucked that would be a different matter.

I doubt I would ever have the balls to do a Nightmare bass (although I did toy with making my 4001 look like a dragon once – another story) nor do I think I would have Betty’s likeness on one of my basses, but I do LOVE these concepts. Russ - There WILL be pictures upon completion…. Right? Unique can be cool too. Just a matter of preference.

Jerry – I have seen PRSs in everything from heavy metal to country rock bands all over the spectrum. Just like we do with our Ricks – tweeking the electronics, strings, rewiring pickups…. can get the sounds and tone refinments you may be looking for. If it feels good – play it!

So all in all - Subjective – Yes. Expectations – Sometimes…. I say VIVA LA DIFFERENCE!

I feel ya, Tom! And no worries on the abbreviations, e-language or what have you. I just find it amusing from a practicality standpoint. Like, whoever invented these abbreviations had time-saving in mind. And how much time does abbreviating "your mileage may vary" really save you? To me that's like programming 9-1-1 into your phone as speed-dial #-3-7. But I also like to antagonize just for antagonist's sake, so how much time does THAT save me? All in the price of being a RWA* I suppose.

*resident wise-***

walker wrote:...whoever invented these abbreviations had time-saving in mind....

Mark, Too funny! Your post really made me chuckle. I not only work for the government, but in a technical field and having acronyms embedded within other acronyms is pretty standard fair. I'm sure the people who dream them up think they are saving time for themselves, but the poor suckers down the road who have to constantly ask, "OK, what's this stand for again?" lose a lot of time trying to learn the "code" of the realm.

For what it's worth, I think the Sparkle PRS is fine. I was joking around and saw an opportunity to show off one of my guitars. If the guitar pleases the player, then it's a good, maybe even a great guitar.

John those are nice PRSs or is that Paul Reid Smiths??? - hahahahah ! The acronyms even become more amusing as you look them up – RADAR has 14 listed in http://www.acronymfinder.com with Radio Detection And Ranging being the original – most humorous Radical Arkansas. Some are time and paper efficient (i.e., LASER = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation & LSD = d-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide). But In My Humble Opinion, I think, that most uses today are generated by text messaging and laziness… I agree some are just pure ridiculous. Personally I cannot spell worth a s##t so I guess I fall into the lazy class.