Well, looks like they got a rock and roll guy heading up Gibson now, I wish him and the company good luck as they emerge from bankruptcy and hopefully onto a path back into solvency. I’ve loved the dances I’ve had with their guitars over the decades, and you can bet your left whatever that if I had won the lottery I’d have been buying a few. The basses? Meh, I have an old EB3 that’s beat but has a story and it did influence the Cortobass in ways, so I keep it around. Other than that one specific bass, their basses… meh. And I did offer to help in any way with short scale designs I KNOW work well but even with a connection inside I couldn’t even get near the moat. If anyone from the new regime even has a clue we exist, look up our reputation and know the offer still stands. I know we’re tiny but we’re pretty good. Give me 5 minutes in a room with someone who can make decisions and I’ll offer whatever I have that that may help that area. Good luck to all of you over there! Simplify and focus.
Sometimes design is not what’s added, but what is left off. Just like if you leave a few empty spots in a bass line, those rests give it groove. Composing with silence as an ingredient. In the sharpening of a knife, or a life for that matter, or even the ways of a giant guitar company - it’s what is removed by the process that hones it sharper to be more effective. A photograph with just the right amount of empty space can bring more focus to the main subject. You might ask yourself “What does this guy do for laughs?” I know that’s something I always wonder about people. And just how does this tie into what we were just talking about? We’ll save minimalist road travel, sitting in the woods until my bone marrow hums, and plain pizza for other times and go with a little tomfoolery on the ‘net, shall we?
To me, like in years past when I would send odd, random items back in the self-addressed stamped envelopes of junk mail that clogged my mailbox, and go right to bizarre-land with phone solicitors, if your ad shows up on my screen you’re fair game to have a little fun with. And this… this is a perfect example of refining out just a few superfluous things and suddenly the design is SO much better.
Here (above) we see the graphic that accompanied a marshal arts ad that showed up in my feed. A nice, if sketchy, kick to the side… pardon that pun. And below, by quickly removing just a few excess lines, now it’s a good square kick right in the applebag. Straight to the shenanigans! Right in the ol’ Paulie Walnuts.
Took all of three minutes, I laughed myself silly… and I reposted it in the comments underneath their ad. Just a little assistance; you know I try to be helpful. Anyhow, it still amazes me during the process how a small refinement can make such a vas deferens.
Moving along, the rain finally let up a bit so it’s been, well, balls out here catching up on the things we simply won’t do when it’s 90 per cent humidity outside. I like my routs to stay tight, my glue to stay strong, that sliced to stay straight and those sanded to stay smooth. We’re in high gear. It’s that time of year, too – the end of the year (“EOY” on the build sheets in here) push. Not faster, just more focused and longer hours at it, doing a few extra steps every day. I live for this. As I told one client, “I’m all over it like a bad suit!” The new camera is here and working, still putting pictures up on the builds page. Life is good. Go make it happen.
Listening to: Boz Scaggs Live 2004 (on YouTube) (it’s awesome); WTF podcasts; a mixtape CD called “Eclectic” a neighbor gave me of everything from Sting to Fever Tree, Chris Isaak, Redbone and Tina Turner); and some live Jerry Garcia Band.