Ampeg Scroll Bass and Legacy

This post will be a little bit fatter than usually, because I wanted to share a little inquiries I made about the Italia Imola 6 guitar, that lead me to rediscover the fabulous Ampeg AEB-1 aka the Horizontal Bass aka the Scroll Bass aka the F-hole Bass, and a couple of its descendants.

There was already a post about this bass last year on Guitarz, with a picture that gives a good idea of what wearing it must feel, with its huge double bass headstock. You can also find a very complete database about it on Johnson's Extremely Strange Musical Instrument Company 's website. Bruce Johnson builds nowadays quite acurate copies of the Scroll Bass that you can see on the small picture on the right.

The first big pic shows bass amps builder Ampeg's first series of 'horizontal' basses, starting in 1966 - their previous and first instrument was the 1962 Baby Bass, a small body fiber glass/plastic double bass. There are 3 Scroll Bass models, let's keep the Devil Bass (center) for a future post ; the f-hole models are the 1966 AEB-1 (AUB-1 for the fretless version - the very first fretless electric bass), and its 1968 upgraded version the AMB-1/AMUB-1.

Of course their most remarkable features are the 2 f-holes cut through the solid body, and the headstocks directly inspired by violon family instruments. It's quite of our time that a retro inspiration would result in such an inovative design!

The AEB-1/AUB-1 was designed to be appeal to upright bass players and featured a weird hidden pickup which was essentially a steel diaphragm over two magnetic coils set into epoxy. This meant that the bass could use gut strings. Notice also the way that the tailpiece extends beyond the body - this was so as to achieve the correct string angle over the hidden pickup.

The later AMB-1/AMUB-1 is a logic adaptation to modern rock sound, with more classical humbucker single pickup for metal strings, smaller head and Fender style tailpiece. You will find a very complete description of all these instruments on Bruce Johnson's website linked above.

Bruce Johnson's contemporary versions AEB-2/AUB-2 intend to be humble improvements of the original model, with the benefit of 40 years on electric lutherie. The few changes are meant to - as Johnson puts it - "bring the Scroll Bass design up to its full potential". That is definitely an instrument I'd love to play!

This is what Eastwood Guitars made based on the second model of the Scroll Bass - the AMB-1.

Eastwood's EEB-1 is also a quite faithful reproduction, a noticeable change is the slightly shorter lower f-hole and the pickguard curling around it, and of course you can see that the scroll headstock is gone. I can understand that a modern guitar needs to get rid of vintage oddities - and the replacement headstock has a good design - but you probably loose the feeling of playing a horizontal double bass...

Like Ampeg, Eastwood proposes also a fretless version, the EUB-1.

Now this is the Italia Imola 4 Deluxe in Cherry Sunburst. As you can see, the shape is the same but the two cut-through-body f-holes have been replaced by a more classical one (I actually read contradictory information about this f-hole, here it's called a "faux f-hole", there a "solid body f-hole", also this bass is said to have a "chambered solid body" but without "glued top", so something like vintage Rickenbackers... if someone knows more, it's welcome).

The big contoured pickguard is also there - without the lower f-hole - and the headstock is more classic (and very 60s - it looks like the one of my Musima ES-335 style bass). The pickups are completely different and are closer to a J-bass than to an Ampeg. This bass exists also fretless and/or 5-string.

No matter how much it betrays its Ampeg model, it's a beautiful instrument.

And finally this is the Italia Imola 6 Standard with which the all thing started. For this model Italia didn't try to reproduce a vintage model but extrapolated from their own interpretation of the Ampeg Scroll Bass. The result is a rounded Jaguar shape with a characteristic f-hole partially covered by a large pickguard. The 6 tuners in line headstock is inverted, that seems always to me the logical thing to do - the tuners have easier access and the tension suits better the different string gauges (and it's not only true for metal guitars).

Imola 6 doesn't only stand for 6 strings (as in Imola 4 or 5 for the 4- and 5-string basses) but mostly for the quite original 6 pickups - 3 vintage Teisco style split singlecoils. These pickups and the two 5-way levers allow many combinations - 25 -, some of which are probably quite original and must give this guitar a quite unique sound.

You can find a detailled review on musicradar.com and nothing on italiaguitars.com where the guitar is not even mentioned, though you can find it on their newer (I suppose) JHS website - where the bass models are completely missing... Italia people, please make some maintenance, it's confusing!

Italia is a brand created by Trevor Wilkinson - THE Wilkinson - and intends to combine vintage creativity (isn't it contradictory to look in the past for creativity?) and contemporary technical qualities.

thanks to blogmaster GL Wilson for his expertise about the Scroll Bass.

EDIT. This is a close-up of the scroll headstock of the 1966 Ampeg model - none of the previous pictures give a clear look of it.

EDIT 2. Just found a blog about the original scroll Bass, it's here.

Fender Swinger / Musiclander

Faithful followers of this blog remember the Fender Bass V, the first 5-string bass with its bizarre elongated body and short neck that offer thus the same range than a longer neck 4-string bass (you can find a good review on Vintage Guitar's website). You know then that this bass was a flop - too radical for the average Fender customer probably...
So CBS-era Fender decided to recycle Bass V left over bodies and created the also short lived 3/4 scale student guitar Fender Swinger - combining these reshaped bodies with bits of Musicmasters, then Duo-sonics (then it was called the Musiclander). About 300 - more or less as many as the Bass V - were produced in 1969 ; its pointy headstock earned it also the Arrow nickname.

You can guess at first sight that this guitar was doomed - 3/4 guitars are anyway never taken serious and are mere student guitars - and if the "Italian-style" body shape could have been a new standard, it feels that the designer stopped his job before it's finished - and didn't even start to work on the headstock... The only pickup claims anyway the cheapness of the whole thing.
So this Swinger is quite anecdotic and Fender should probably have kept its Bass V bodies until it becomes a collector for a reissue - well they couldn't know at the time, but can you imagine Gibson giving up for good Explorer and Flying V designs in 1958?

More info about Fender short scale guitars here.

bertram

1960s Italian Sano/Goya solidbody

Here's a beauty from the beat boom era of Italian guitar building. It's a rare Sano/Goya guitar, this particular model bearing the serial number 1000. The seller sings its praises endlessly, even saying that it's a better guitar than a Fender Jaguar or Jazzmaster. It's a great looking guitar, and if it sounds and plays as good as the seller says, then this may be one to getting bidding on now!

Get Better, Not Bitter

There will be setbacks.

There will be critics.

There will be raised hopes that are crushed, and expectations that are never fulfilled.

There will be difficult stretches.

There will be high hurdles.

There will be a lot of waiting. A whole lot.

There will be blows to your pride.

There will be attacks on your person.

There will be rejections, and more rejections, and even more rejections.

There will be people who don't think you can do it.

There will be people who don't think you should be doing it.

There will be hundreds of things that will make you consider quitting.

Don't get bitter.

Get better.

Write more. Improve your craft. Learn the business.

Make success your only option.

Take joy in the good things that happen, and grow stronger from the bad things.

No one likes a whiner.

Everyone loves a winner.

Be a winner.

Get better.

Kraushaar KRS

This Kraushaar KRS guitar has a classical simplicity that makes it very elegant, including a beautiful headstock.
You have to admit that some guitars can be extremely vulgar, and if the vintage trend made it better for a while - at the price of creativity -, it's getting worse than ever now with the road worn finish, flashy paintings and sculpted bodies than turns guitars into Spice Girls style platform sneakers of the mid 90s...

Anyway, I found out about this German guitar company Kraushaar on eBay.de and when I checked its website, I discovered some interesting guitar, acoustic guitar and bass designs (I particularly like the 'Commic' model). There are a few complete disasters but that is the risk you take when you try to invent something new. Just wish their website was in English and with better pictures.

Flying V Bass

This Flying V bass is an oddity. The headstock bears the Gibson name but it has a bolt-on neck. You'd suspect that someone had applied a Gibson decal to a bass made by another manufacturer, but actually the logo tells no lies. It IS a Gibson. Sort of. But it wasn't always a Flying V.

The bass started life as a Gibson Grabber and was customised by KGB Musical Instruments for Noz Easterbrook of 60s psychedelic band The Klubs, using as many of the original Grabber parts as possible.

Whether the body was re-styled and re-used, I do not know, but I'd like to think so, otherwise it's just a Gibson neck and hardware on a new body.

The other thing that strikes me is that it's not as HUGE as genuine Gibson Flying V basses. Apparently it was styled on a Flying V guitar body which is, I believe, smaller than that of its bass counterpart.

Fender Jaguar building diagram

Look at this, isn't it beautiful? It looks like a futurist Mona Lisa - could be a painting of Francis Picabia...

Teisco Leftie, circa 1964

I'm not sure what model Teisco this is. It's not covered in the ID Parade section of the Teisco Twangers website, which I realise is not an exhaustive list. But all the Teisco trademarks are there - the 4+2 headstock, the striped metal pickguards, the "rocker"-style pickup selector switches, the gold foil pickups... Nice to see that the trem is all present and correct too. The fact that it is left-handed must make it quite a rarity. how often do you see left-handed Teiscos?

Who likes pinstripes?

This "Parts-o-Caster" Strat has been finished with the dreaded pinstripes.

C'mon, it's time to stand up and be counted. Who actually likes pinstripes?

I've heard many opinions about pinstripes over the years, all of them negative. I've never heard a good word said about them, so why does the design persist? Someone must like it.

Personally, I think it looks bloody atrocious. You may as well let a toddler loose on your guitar with a selections of Sharpies.

Nick Page's new model Baron

I didn't check Nick Page Guitars website for a while so I just found out about the release of the Baron and I looooove it! I saw its prototype in their workshop months ago and I was impatient to see it achieved - and I'm not disappointed at all.

I was told then that they started from the idea of merging a Fender Mustang and a Rickenbacker 4000 and if the references are clear and honest, the result is just excellent, sexy, classy and original without being eccentric. Even the "Sherwood Green" finish - though this kind of color is ordinarily not my cup of tea - contribute to its aristocratic line... I should go soon to listen how it sounds!

I first noticed Nick Page's guitars for their aluminum front tele-style Lucid model, that is also something to check...

Zed Guitars's Zeppelin

There's not only looking for the odd and old rarity and the cool vintage, nowadays guitars can still bring good surprises, such as the Zeppelin by quebecois luthier Zed Guitars. It has a strange but enjoyable mix of roughness and sophistication and the headstock is particularly good.

I prefer the black model with metal pickguard, but I couldn't find a good picture of it on the Web - well this is a small company with little visibility but I like their spirit.

March Guitars J-Walker

Originally designed as a travel guitar, the J-Walker from March Guitars of Montréal is a high-class compact guitar that can hold its own against the best guitars on the market in terms of sound and sustain. With a 24 3/4 inch scale, it has a headless design set-neck on a compact mahogany body with a choice of lacewood, curly or birds eye maple top. The guitar is equipped with two Seymour Duncan humbuckers with volume and tone controls, each with push/pull function to select single-coil mode and coil tap, making for a versatile instrument in a small package.

Meazzi Meteor Bass

Meazzi Guitars were produced in Milan, Italy, in the 1960s by the Meazzi brothers. The Meteor Bass was produced between 1964 and 1969 and came in one and two-pickup versions, the Meteor Bass I and the Meteor Bass Extra respectively.

The bass appears to be very thin-bodied, and has some pretty heft hardware on it - check out that bridge cover - but controls-wise the bass is quite conventional, unlike some of Meazzi's other guitars with sliders for treble and bass and a quick silver kill switch activated when the instrument is put into a horizontal position.

However, is it just me, or does the action look a little too high on this bass? (And why was that model's head cropped off in the above pic?)

Renaissance plexiglass guitar from 1979

Apparently only a very limited number of these USA-made Renaissance guitars were built. Which might explain why I've never heard of them before (not that I'm a walking encyclopaedia of guitar builders and luthiers).

The body is made of a smoked effect transparent acrylic and has a neck of flamed maple with an ebody fingerboard. The pickups are a pair of DiMarzio humbuckers with a volume and tone control for each plus pickup selector. It would appear to have a pair of coil-tap switches also, allowing for a versatile range of sound options.

Note how the control cavity has a metal plate at the front and back of the guitar. It should be nicely screened, at least.

It's a classy-looking guitar, and with those DiMarzios in a perspex body, it should be able to scream and sustain along with the best of them.

Riverhead Unicorn Bass

First produced in 1980, the Riverhead Unicorn Bass was one of the first designs to jump on the small-bodied headless bass bandwagon following the introduction of the seminal Steinberger L-series bass.

Note also the body design, clearly borrowed from the Burns Flyte.

Notable players include Dave Pegg of Jethro Tull.

Brain Donors

Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed a lot of really stupid behavior lately.

Here are some of the dumbass characters I've recently run into on the World Wide Web.

THE ONE STAR WHORE - Some folks go on certain review sites and feel the need to bash stories with one-star reviews. Why? I can only deduce some over-inflated sense of self-importance that compels a percentage of the population to see their diatribes on the internets, sort of the equivalent of a giant refrigerator door. Look what I did, Mom! I'm a negative prick!

JOE'S RESPONSE - Negative reviews amuse me. I don't complain about them, or try to have them removed, because I believe rational people can come to their own conclusions about whether or not to read something, and aren't influenced by poorly-worded hate-fests. I particularly love the reviews from people who got the book for free and then feel the need to warn folks against ruining their lives by making the same mistake they did and reading the offending material. I bet your family can't stand you.

THE SPOILING CRITIC - Getting professional reviews is important to writers, and it comes with the territory that a certain amount of them will be negative. But some asshole critics think their job isn't to rehash and rate, but also to spoil major plot points in the book.

JOE'S RESPONSE - Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, critique. Those who can't critique well, spoil. How frustrated a person do you have to be to want to ruin someone else's potential enjoyment? Perhaps we should ask the folks at Kirkus that very question.

THE CONTEST MOANER - I was recently a contest judge, and some folks took exception to my list of "don'ts" I recently blogged about. They feel I'm not fair.

JOE'S RESPONSE - Don't enter contests. If your story is good enough, find an editor who will pay for it. But guess what? If you do the things I mentioned not to do, you won't find an editor. Also, someone is knocking on your door. It's Life, and he's holding a big sign that says "I'm Not Fair." Maybe you should let him in and get to know him.

THE WOE IS ME AUTHOR - We all know the publishing industry drops books and series all the time. They have a myriad of reasons for doing this, many of them impenetrable. But whining about this in public, no matter how much it stings, is asking for sympathy, which is pathetic.

JOE'S RESPONSE - You do not get future book contracts through sympathy. Yes, the publishing industry is often unfair, and sometimes downright idiotic. But airing your dirty laundry isn't the way to fight back. Fight back with great writing. We all get kicked. But we don't have to acknowledge it. After sincerity, the thing all people must learn to fake is confidence.

THE ENTITLEMENT JUNKIE - These folks seem to think they deserve some sort of success, and like to spout the Conspiracy Against Them and publicly wonder why they aren't getting what they're due.

JOE'S RESPONSE - No one deserves anything. There is only luck and hard work. Once you feel you're due something, or that people are keeping you from getting yours, you're on a slippery slope that usually ends in obscurity.

THE GREEN FAIRY - Envy is a disease. It's easy to look at other writers and compare yourself to something they possess; money, fame, awards, print runs, bestsellerdom, talent. It's also easy to take pot shots at these writers, while secretly (or not so secretly) wishing you were them.

JOE'S RESPONSE - Your race is with yourself, not with your peers. Never compare yourself to another writer for any reason whatsoever. Once you start wishing for someone else's career, you aren't tending to your own.

THE ME ME ME - The definition of a bore is someone who talks and doesn't bother to notice if anyone else is in the room. Writers may be more self-absorbed than most, but they shouldn't mistake this for being so fascinating that every other word they speak is "I."

JOE'S RESPONSE - If you're in a conversation and more than half of it is coming from your mouth, it isn't a conversation--it's a monologue. If you're in a conversation and the only questions you ask are directed at yourself, I pity the poor saps stuck in your orbit. At least have the decency to pass out cyanide capsules when you walk into the room.

THE INSULTER - Nothing says "I'm pathetic" like name-calling. Yet some folks feel the need to hurl insults, and direct criticism toward the person rather than the comment. This, like many of the above, is a result of the Internet, which buffers accountability. As such, some folks feel it is okay to be rude little twits, because they're protected from being socked in the mouth.

JOE'S RESPONSE - If you wouldn't say it to a person's face, don't say it on the net. Ideas and opinions are a lot of fun to discuss, defend, and attack. But once it becomes personal, you've lost control, and lost the discussion, you asshole.

THE SELF-PUBBED MARTYR - There's nothing wrong with self-pubbing. But the majority of the writers in the world won't equate it with traditional publishing, for too many reasons to be discussed here. If you want the respect of your peers, it isn't going to be by logically presenting your points and calmly discussing why their views are irrational, any more than intelligent discourse saved anyone on the Trail of Tears. And bemoaning your lack of respect in the publishing world is just a rally for more people to attack you.

JOE'S RESPONSE - If you want the respect of your peers, get a traditional publishing contract. Personally, I think peer respect is useless, and trying to join a club that doesn't want you is futile. Stop trying to convince the world you're relevant. The world will ultimately figure that out for itself.

THE KNOW IT ALL BLOGGER - This guy spouts advice and opinions like he's God's Gift to the World, guising his superiority under the banner of "being helpful."

JOE'S RESPONSE - Thank this man profusely, and buy all of his books. The latest is CHERRY BOMB, now on sale...

Some more scary "harp guitars" on eBay

Harp guitar banjo - wouldn't the 5th string tuner on the banjo neck get in the way when playing the guitar neck?

The 18-string Thing - with 10-string nylon-strung neck, and inexplicably 8 additional steel treble strings on the body. The cutaway hardly looks very useful either.

The 15-string Electric Upright Harp Bass - I reckon they are making these things up as they go along. I don't think those treble strings would be very reachable when playing the bass in an upright position. I'm a little suspicious also of inlays in fretless fingerboards, which need to be as smooth as possible with no potential ridges or edges that the strings might catch on.

26-string Harp Guitar

There are some particularly wacko guitars on eBay right now, which is good news for this blog. This 26-string harp guitar is an acoustic with two six-string necks - one steel-strung, the other nylon, a set of six sub-bass strings and a set of eight treble strings. I understand the concept of sub-bass strings, but I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with the eight treble strings on the lower part of the body. Tune them to a chord perhaps?

The guitar is being sold by the ebay seller tropicalmoonmusic who have in the past sold some crazily-designed guitars from the Tennessee brand which have turned out to be very shoddily built and virtually unplayable. This harp guitar is very likely from the same source, even if it doesn't carry the Tennessee brand name. If you click through on the link and look at some of the other photos, it does look rather cheaply built. Look at the back of the two six string necks. They are virtually square.

It looks like fun, but I'd approach this guitar with caution.

60s National Studio 66

This is a National Studio 66 from the early 60s - with a fiberglass ("res-o-glas") body. What this guitar is seems so clear just from looking at it that I don't feel like telling much more...

Enjoy!

Fender Custom Shop "La Florita" Strat with matching amp

This one off "La Florita" Stratocaster was masterbuilt by Chris Fleming in the Fender Custom Shop and purchased by its original owner at the NAMM Show in January 2005. It is part of a combo with a Fender amp, both of which feature artwork by Kid Ramos.

Standel Custom Deluxe Model 101 (1966)

Don't you think that this 1966 Standel Custom Deluxe Model 101 is absolutely stunning? It has everything I love on a guitar - the psychedelic long pointy horns, the metal front plate (on which if I understood well the bridge and the trem are fixated) and the plastic one which design visually modify completely the strat shape, the switches, the simple though extremely original headstock... Does anybody have an idea of who ever played this guitar?

I didn't know Standel until now, it's worth having a look here to know more about this aborted rival of Mosrite. I just noticed already before some other crazy headstock design on semi-hollow vintage guitars, somewhere on the Web...

Bertram

A little help...

Hey everyone, it GLW back here again. I'd like to thank Bertram for keeping this blog going for the past month whilst I've been otherwise engaged on a writing project. He's done a sterling job (even if he does have a worrying penchant for 8-string guitars) and I see that the number of Blog Watchers keeps going up and up.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to string a few words together for an introduction to this book I've been writing and need to springboard a few ideas off you guys.

What makes a guitar a guitar?

What makes it so universally appealing?

Describe the guitar in one brief sentence. (Not one particular guitar, just "guitar" in general).

Agile Intrepid 8-string

Well I have to say that I have this thing with 8-string guitars - maybe that will stop when I actually played one - and I have it now for the Agile Intrepid here... I like it better in 'bloodburst' (that's macho talk for good old 'transparent cherry') but I didn't want to use a catalogue picture...

Tried to find a demo of it on YouTube but each time it was someone playing Meshuggah (I have nothing against Meshuggah, they're quite good but I find them girlie - probably because that's the kind of music that my girlfriend likes...). But I say it again: you don't have to play metal when you have more than 6 strings!

Tyler Studio Elite 'Burning Water'

I usually don't like stratoscasters and even less fancy custom paint but I have to admit that I find this Tyler Studio Elite with its 'Burning Water' finish pretty cool. So everything is possible, eh?

Bertram

Nylon string acoustic double-neck

Another noticeable double-neck guitar is this nylon string acoustic one by luthier Fred Carlson. Here the body is hardly bigger than a single neck one - and this is good. Though it has six nylon strings, the longer neck could be considered as a bass one since its scale is 34' - but the baritone label doesn't require a strict scale and baritone guitars can have various scales, starting from 27'... The strings make the difference, for example the famous Fender Bass VI (30' scale) can be a quite different instrument with bass strings or baritone strings.

The other instrument on the picture from the same luthier is a sympathetic guitar - called Sympitar - with 12 sympathetic resonating strings inside the neck.

18 strings, not bad, eh? (this is my 'the more strings the better' of the week).

Bertram

BC Rich Bich double-neck

Another double-neck guitar I do like, with its also divergent necks is the BC Rich Bich. You might be repulsed by its too pointy look but I find it quite elegant, and quite fonctional - that is often related. I was first interested in the Rich Bich 10 - also a good concept with 4 double strings and 2 single low ones - but the double neck works quite well too. If I was to buy a 12/6 one day, it would be probably this one..

Bertram

60s Mosrite Joe Maphis double-neck

Many reactions on the previous post about the Gretsch Baritone double-neck, including a comparison with the great Mosrite Joe Maphis that has indeed a much cooler look and more important has non-parallel necks, that is more organic and allows a smaller body... I just regret that it only exists as a 12/6 and not baritone/6. Also it's long time discontinued and therefore unaffordable.

About why do people use double-neck guitars, if it's just to have a rhythmic neck / solo neck for a song, I'm far from convinced - would be more interesting to develop solos with 12-string, and unless you're Jimi Hendrix ou David Gilmour, solos are so often just fillings that they don't require something so sophisticated as a double-neck guitar... Jazz à la McLaughlin feels more relevant. And I know what to do with one too (but I'm not McLaughlin, for sure).

More double-necks later!

Bertram

Gretsch G5566 Jet Double Neck Baritone

this Gretsch Jet double neck Baritone is on my list of must have - at least of must play (not a fan of the sparkle finish)! A Baritone double-neck is something - more interesting to me than a 6/12. I would open-tune the regular neck for slide so I could play it from upward and shift super quick from one neck to the other.

Two Bigsbys are a lot but I'd probably enjoy them if I was better at using them!

It's hard to comment more on a Gretsch guitar since I assume that they are perfect and that you just have to write Gretsch.

Danelectro also produced a baritone double-neck - I don't know other brands that did it.

While researching this guitar, I discovered that Gretsch also releases its own line of ugly ridiculous painted guitars - we are fronting terrible times for guitar lovers...

bertram

Cherry Bomb by JA Konrath

NEW BOOK NOW AVAILABLE

My sixth Jack Daniels book, CHERRY BOMB, is available today in hardcover.


I encourage everyone to buy several copies. If you have any money left over, pick up ABANDON by Blake Crouch (the co-writer of SERIAL), which also comes out today and kicks absolute ass. If you like my books, you'll love this.


BOOKLAUNCH PARTY

If you want to meet me in person, and also meet authors Henry Perez and Jeff Strand, my booklaunch party is at:

CENTURIES AND SLEUTHS BOOKSTORE, July 12, 2pm-4:30pm, 7419 W. Madison St. Forest Park, IL.

Feel free to bring people along. All of my books will be for sale, and the beer is free. You don't think I'd have a booklaunch without free beer, do you?

PODCASTS

If you want to kick back and listen to me talk shop and crack wise, I've recently been on two podcasts.

You can hear me and Blake talk about SERIAL, CHERRY BOMB, ABANDON, and many other things on Diabolical Radio at www.blogtalkradio.com/diabolicalradio.

Then, if you want to hear me really get silly, check out the podcast at www.Genrefinity.net. You should bookmark Genrefinity--it's a fun site run by some crazy guys who love everything genre. The podcast is at www.genrefinity.net/genrefinity_podcast-ep013.mp3.

NEW EBOOK

Finally, for those who missed my previous announcement, I wrote a horrific thriller novella with Jack Kilborn called TRUCK STOP. It's available exclusively as an ebook, and features Jack Daniels.

Which brings me to a question I'm often asked. "Joe, can you list every Jack Daniels story?"

THE JACK DANIELS UNIVERSE

WHISKEY SOUR - Book #1, Jack chases The Gingerbread Man. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2004.

BLOODY MARY - Book #2, Jack chases a rogue cop. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2005.

RUSTY NAIL - Book #3, Jack chases The Gingerbread Man's family. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2006.

DIRTY MARTINI - Book #4, Jack chases The Chemist. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2007.

FUZZY NAVEL - Book #5, Jack chases the Urban Hunting Club and Alex Kork. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2008.

CHERRY BOMB - Book #6, Jack chases Alex Kork. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2009.

THE LIST - Jack makes a cameo in this technothriller novel. Available on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

SHOT OF TEQUILA - Jack co-stars in this crime novel, which takers place in the early 1990s. Available on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

ON THE ROCKS - Jack in a locked room mystery short. Originally appeared in Ellery Queen. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

WHELP WANTED - Jack's ex-partner, Harry McGlade, acting like Harry. Originally appeared in Futures Magazine. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

STREET MUSIC - Jack's criminal buddy, Phineas Troutt. Originally appeared in Ellery Queen. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY - A Gingerbread Man short story. Originally read by me at the end of the Whiskey Sour audiobook. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

WITH A TWIST - Jack in a locked room mystery short. Originally appeared in Ellery Queen. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

EPITAPH - Phin in a revenge tale. Originally appeared in THRILLER edited by James Patterson. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2006.

TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS - Harry being Harry. Originally appeared in The Strand Magazine. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

BODY SHOTS - Jack in a school shooting. Originally appeared on Amazon Shorts. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

SUFFER - Phin as a hired killer. Originally appeared in Ellery Queen. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

OVERPROOF - Jack Daniels and a suicide bomber. Originally appeared in CHICAGO BLUES edited by Libby Fischer Hellmann. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2007.

BEREAVEMENT - Phin making ends meet. Originally appeared in THESE GUNS FOR HIRE edited by JA Konrath. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

POT SHOT - Jack partner, Herb. Originally appeared on Amazon Shorts. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

LAST REQUEST - Phin on a quest. Originally appeared in my short story collection 55 Proof. Available on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2007.

SUCKERS - Harry, teaming up with Jeff Strand's Andrew Mayhem. Originally appeared as a limited edition hardcover. Available on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2007.

FLOATERS - Jack, teaming up with Henry Perez's Alex Chapa. Originally appeared in MISSING edited by Amy Allesio. Available on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

PLANTER'S PUNCH - Jack, teaming up with Tom Schreck's Duffy Dombrowski. Originally appeared on Kindle. Available on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

TRUCK STOP - Jack facing Taylor (from AFRAID) and Donaldson (from SERIAL). Originally appeared on Kindle. Available on my website, SmashWords.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

SCHOOL DAZE - Harry being Harry. Coming July 24 in UNCAGE ME, edited by Jen Jordan. 2009.

THE NECRO FILE - A Harry novella. The funniest thing I've ever written. Originally appeared in LIKE A CHINESE TATTOO edited by Bill Breedlove. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2008.

SHAKEN - Jack Daniels book #7, currently being written. You can check out the first few chapters in the FLOATERS ebook. Available on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

That comes to twenty-seven stories in the Jack Daniels universe, plus a work in progress. Also, in CHERRY BOMB, there's a cameo by one of my characters from my medical thriller DISTURB, along with a cameo by one of the characters from THE LIST.

Let's have some Q & A.

Q: Do these have to be read in order?

A: No. Though FUZZY NAVEL should be read before CHERRY BOMB for maximum enjoyment. The shorts can be read in any order at all.

Q: When does TRUCK STOP take place?

A: Before AFRAID, SERIAL, and FUZZY NAVEL.

Q: What's your favorite novel?

A: I don't have one. But I'm really fond of CHERRY BOMB. I think it epitomizes the kind of book I write.

Q: Which is?

A: Breakneck pace, lots of conflict, scary scenes, and bad jokes. Plus, if you haven't heard, CHERRY BOMB has a lot of sex in it.

Q: What's your favorite short story?

A: STREET MUSIC. I love the last line.

Q: Will you revisit Jack Daniels?

A: Absolutely. I'm working on another Jack book, called SHAKEN. But it isn't one of my priorities.

Q: I want more Jack!

A: That's not a question. But trust me--Jack will be around for a while...

Gibson Firebird VII Vibrola reissue

You have the classic, the bizarre, and the classic bizarre (or bizarre classic) such as the great Firebird - here a white Gibson Firebird VII with its three pickups and Vibrola trem. This white one seems to be a very rare model...

And you know what? Heaven on earth is seeing PJ Harvey playing a Firebird... And I hate that I missed her concert with John Parish last May in Berlin, it was sold out within hours when they put the tickets on sale in January and it really SUCKS! Sorry, I had to tell it to someone...

bertram

60s Framus Billy Lorento BL10

This is a late 60s Framus BL10 Billy Lorento (aka Willi Lorenz aka Bela Lorentowsky aka Bill Lawrence).

Herr Lorenz is without any doubt an authority in guitar pickups, but this model looks like a shaped planck - that is always a failure for a guitar. On the other hand the shape itself is quite good, and in my opinion an unexplored yet direction for future guitar design.

bertram

Truck Stop by Jack Kilborn & J.A. Konrath

As of this writing, SERIAL by Blake Crouch & Jack Kilborn has been downloaded over 70,000 times. The majority of these have been on the Amazon Kindle.

Of course, SERIAL is free, which helps. But it's still gratifying to know that our little short story has been read (and in some cases, hated) by so many people.

Naturally, I've been thinking about how I could follow this up.

Regular blog readers know I've been doing pretty well selling my old short stories and unpublished novels on Kindle. But I've never actually written anything specifically for the Kindle.

Until now.

Jack Kilborn and I got together and did a prequel to SERIAL. Not only does it feature one of SERIAL's bad guys, it also features Taylor, one of the Red Ops from Kilborn's horror novel AFRAID.

I wracked my brain trying to figure out a good protagonist to throw into this nest of vipers, and came up with the obvious.

Jack Daniels.

The novella is called TRUCK STOP.


Before the events of Jack Kilborn's epic horror novel AFRAID...

Before the events of J.A. Konrath's critically acclaimed thrillers FUZZY NAVEL and CHERRY BOMB...

Before the events of Jack Kilborn's and Blake Crouch's #1 Amazon Kindle bestseller SERIAL...

Three hunters of humans meet for the ultimate showdown at the TRUCK STOP.

Taylor is a recreational killer, with dozens of gristly murders under his belt. He pulls into a busy Wisconsin truck stop at midnight, trolling for the next to die.

Chicago Homicide cop Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels is a long way from home, driving to meet her boyfriend for a well-earned vacation. She pulls into the truck stop for a quick cup of coffee and stumbles into her worst nightmare.

Jack's no stranger to dealing with psychos, but she's got her hands full trying to stop Taylor. Especially since he's getting help from someone just as deadly; a portly serial maniac named Donaldson...

TRUCK STOP is a 15,000 word thriller novella that ties together Konrath's and Kilborn's works, with terrifying results.

A prequel to SERIAL, which has been downloaded more than 70,000 times, TRUCK STOP is an eighteen-wheeled ride straight into hell. Not for the faint of heart. Let the reader beware.

This ebook also includes an exclusive interview: JA Konrath talks with Jack Kilborn, plus excerpts from their latest books, CHERRY BOMB and AFRAID.

Here's the Kindle link: http://www.amazon.com/Truck-Stop-Psycho-Thriller-ebook/dp/B002G99RRK

I'm really curious how this will sell, because Kilborn has been doing better than Konrath on Kindle. I'm also interested to see if this does anything for my backlist of Kindle books.

If you don't have a Kindle, and want to download it as a pdf (or many other formats), I also uploaded it to Smashwords.com.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2743

I'll keep everyone posted. In the meantime, feel free to spread the word...

Casio MG-510 / MG-500 MIDI guitars

Why is it almost impossible to have a good picture of a guitar from the 80s?

Anyway, here are the Casio MIDI guitars MG-510 (the strat clone) and MG-500 (the cool bizarre shaped one).

So no, Casio didn't just issue cheap watches, pocket calculators and toy keyboards for minimalist German electro-punk bands, they also produced some very interesting MIDI guitars - at least they provided the concept and the electronics and had famous guitar manufacturer FujiGen Gakki make the guitar parts.

It seems that these Casios where some of the best MIDI guitars of their time, a. o. since they completely integrated the MIDI system and the controls - no other did... You can get more info here.

And I think that the design of the MG-500 is one of the best of its MIDI 80s kind.

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How Not To Write A Story

This is a repost of a blog I did last year, because once again I'm judging a short story contest, and once again I'm ready to fling myself off a cliff.

-----

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm in a bad mood. For the past few days I've been wading through hundreds of short stories. I'm a paid judge for a big contest, and my verdicts are due.

This bad mood has been brought about by seeing the same story mistakes, over and over and over and OVER AND OVER...

So, for the benefit of the newbie writing world, and to save me future pain if I ever judge a contest again, please take the following to heart:

DO NOT START A STORY WITH WEATHER
Yes, you can work weather into the scene. But I don't care that it was sixty-five degrees on a spring morning, and if you make that your first sentence you're going to remain unpublished.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH CHARACTER DESCRIPTION
Your protag may be named Bob McTestes, and he was born in Sunnydale, Ohio in 1967, but you need to work that into the body of the story and not make it the first sentence. Better yet, don't work it in anywhere.

DO NOT START A STORY BY ADDRESSING THE READER
"You'll never believe what happened on July 2, 1943." You're right. I won't believe it, because I just stopped reading.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH PREMONITION
"Phil Assmaster didn't know he was going to die that day." But Joe Konrath knows you're not going to win this contest.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH THE PROTAG WAKING UP
Frankly, it shocked me how many stories began like this. More so than any other way I'm warning against. Opening your eyes because you had a bad dream or heard a strange noise is a quick way to put the reader to sleep.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH CLICHES
Once upon a time. A long time ago. This is a true story. Ugh. Next time, save me the trouble and put the story in your own recycle bin.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH SETTING DESCRIPTION
"Moronville, Ohio was a town of 8371 people originally founded in 1872 by Quakers." Hopefully, one of those Quakers has a gun and will shoot me.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH TELLING
"Josh felt terrible." Really? How am I supposed to picture that? Maybe I picture Josh's stomach aching, his head throbbing, and the hole where his heart is supposed to be. If I'm picturing that, perhaps you should have as well and written it that way.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH ANY DESCRIPTION
I don't care if you're describing a person, place, thing, era, or whatever. I want to read about conflict, not helper words.

DO NOT USE HELPER WORDS
Force yourself to pare away every adverb, and half your adjectives. Also kill any speaker attribution other than "said" and "asked."

DO NOT START A STORY WITH A PROLOGUE
Your short story doesn't need a prologue. Your novel probably doesn't either.

DO NOT USE EXCLAMATION POINTS!
Especially a bunch of them!!!!!!!

DO NOT USE THE SAME FARUQING WORD TWICE IN THE SAME FARUQING PARAGRAPH
Get the faruquing point?

GRAMMER AND SPELING SHOULD BE PREFECT
If you don't care, why should I? Ditto annoying dialect spelling. Y'all get a-ight wit dat sheet, 'kay?

And finally:

DO NOT MAKE YOUR MAIN CHARACTER AN ANIMAL
Ever.

Are there exceptions to these rules? Of course. There are always exceptions. But I didn't see any in the 2000+ stories I had to endure.

Also, for the love of all that is good, use 12 point Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman, double space the text, one inch margins, and indent each paragraph but don't add extra spaces in between them. One staple, in the upper lefthand corner.

Rant over. Ignore at your own peril. Now I'm going to go have some bourbon and scour my eyes and brain with steel wool.

And if you want an example of what I've had to endure, here's another blog entry I did on this subject:

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2008/01/bad-stories.html

70s Hayman 30 30

I say, a guitar with a transparent pickguard and a fridge knobplate (not to mention the bridge) is a good guitar... So Hurray! for this Hayman 30 30!

I feel a little bit lazy today so if you want to know more about Haymans, please check here.

bertram

60s Framus 5/119-54 Television

It's been a little while since we've showed some nice German vintage guitar here (OK, just one week...) so here's a Framus 5/119-54 Television (not 100% sure because the gear is chrome, not gold). We've actually had the bass version shown here a few months ago but I like this guitar better for its fanned pickups, that with the asymetric F-holes make it quite unique.

There are many good pics of it on the eBay page where I found it - it worth having a look. You can also go directly to the excellent framus-vintage.de website, on which - what an excellent idea! - you can learn anything about the whole Framus production since almost ever. Other companies should really do that (Rickenbaker has something similar but not so complete), and I realised how interesting Framus guitars are - or at least have been - and I will be more aware of them now.

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Eastwood Guyatone LG-200T

I've already written here how much I appreciate the work of Eatswood, reissuing guitars from more creative times and places - so plenty of 60s Japanese ones, like this Guyatone. I don't think that there are many other guitars built recently that have this kind of combination of 4 pickups, not to mention its interesting shape.

(Hey Mr Robinson, I say a lot of good about your company, can you please send me an Eastwood Wandre Doris? A Deluxe one, black with a vibrato - thanks).

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Are You There, Amazon? It's Me, JA

An open letter to Jeff Bezos and Amazon.

I want to tell you why I haven't bought a Kindle yet.

I'm still considering it, because I made about $3000 in June selling my unpublished novels and published short stories on the Kindle. Three grand is a nice chunk of change, and it will be interesting to see if those numbers stay strong through oncoming months.

But even with this success, I can't bring myself to buy a Kindle.

Here are the five main things preventing my purchase:

1. Cost. A Kindle is simply too much money, especially compared to other electronic gadgets that do more. While I'm sure manufacturing costs are high, all costs reduce with time, and if I were Amazon I'd spend a lot of time and money figuring out how to get the price down so more people buy Kindles.

2. Most of the books on Amazon are too much as well. This is the publisher's fault, because they set the price. So perhaps Amazon should stop dealing with publishers and start dealing directly with authors. Mr. Bezos, if you want an exclusive JA Konrath title, contact me.

2. DRM. When I buy a book, I want to own a book and do whatever I want with it, and copy-protection makes that impossible. Again, this is publishers doing this, not Amazon, but it is preventing me from buying Amazon's Kindle.

3. Format. There are too many ebooks available on the net for cheap or free that aren't compatible with Kindle formats. The Kindle DX reads pdf, which is terrific, but it costs a hundred bucks more than the Kindle 2. Give me this feature for less, and I'm sold.

4. Unitasking. A mini-laptop costs the same, is only a bit larger, and can do a billion things. As of right now, the Kindle is limited in what it can do. It does what it does very well, but people like their gadgets to have cross-purposes.

Unfortunately, Amazon hasn't released a Kindle app for PCs, and I have no idea why. The laptop minis are perfect for reading because they are so portable.

But Kindle has released an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. My son recently got an iPod Touch, and I played with it for a few days.

Wow.

I love this gadget. Reading on it is ridiculously easy, not only using the Kindle app, but using other readers like Stanza (also owned by Amazon.) Many books also have their own app, including my novella SERIAL, which doesn't require a reader--you simply download the free ebook and the reader is included.

I had no problems curling up with the iPod for an extended reading session, and enjoyed the experience. While I don't believe this is going to be the de facto way of reading ebooks in the future, for the time being it's a nice placeholder.

So what will the breakout ebook reader be like? Mr. Bezos, take note.

1. Under $150, and available at retail outlets like Wal-mart and Best Buy.

2. Wireless Internet capabilities for downloading books.

3. Able to read many different ebook formats, with no DRM.

4. Adjustable font size, type, and contrast.

5. A built in light.

6. Color no-glare e-ink.

7. Upgradable memory and operating system.

8. Long battery life, scratch proof, and water proof (or at least with skins available to make it waterproof.)

9. E-Book 2.0 capabilities.

What is E-book 2.0? And why aren't more people thinking about it?

Here are my Criswell predictions for E-book 2.0:

• The books will be interactive, the words clickable on a touch screen. You click on the word "lugubrious" and it gives you a dictionary definition, or the word "Taj Mahal" and it shows you a jpg picture.
• Ebooks will have extra content, such as author annotation, first drafts, deleted chapters, extra short stories, interviews, essays.
• The ebook version and audio version will be packaged together.
  
• There will be options for ambient sounds while reading, as well as music.
• Ebooks will be upgradable, meaning the author can continue to add DLC (downloadable content, which is hugely popular in videogames) to books. A reader can buy the first part of a chapbook, then automatically get each new chapter as the author finishes it.
  
• Ebooks will link to book-specific forums, where readers can review the book and share thoughts and interact with other readers.
• The touch screen will be signable, so authors can autograph their books (much like signing the electronic screen on a credit card machine.)

Will these things come to pass? Honestly, I think they will. Playing with the iPod Touch, seeing the unlimited potential of a handheld electronic device, there is no reason why books shouldn't go the same route movies have gone, getting deluxe DVD editions with extra Rom content. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.

In the meantime, I'm going to be reading on my son's iPod, waiting for the Amazon Kindle to catch up...

Gibson Nighthawk 1996

Three different pickups on a single guitar - or when Gibson is forbidden to be creative by its own customers... This short-lived mid-90s Gibson Nighthawk seems to have been a flop but I don't know why - look at it, these three pickups look so cool and promising of unexplored sonic areas...

So why why do people want the same Les Paul again and again when they have the opportunity to have something different. If the inventors of rock'n'roll would have reacted like this, we would still be listening to calypso, musette, Umpapah, doo-wop and whatever you should be happy to never have heard about...

bertram