February Chop!!Saturday the 16th @ Wheelers!!

Wow, trippy, just bought my son an acoustic & electric for his 9th B-day! I know what you're saying about the school thing, I'm getting him a private teacher local, but he wants me to learn with him so, break out the guitar I bought for myself years ago that I don't play (or know how to!) and cough up the bucks for both of us, I guess!

That's a Squire and an Ovation, but what's the one on the far left in the coffin????

Git pickin'!

Schools should simply have an optional guitar program with regular inter-school contests. You need a small book of classic songs with rhythm, bass and lead tab. And an explanation of tab terms. It's friggin' easy.

Anyway, I've gotta make some stuff for the Tiki Farm sale, so there has to be some Tiki Tyme around here somewhere....

It' not a name brand, just a 1/2 size beginers.

I got a couple of them guitars. In fact, one for every occasion:

Fender early 80's Jap Strat.

Hey Cammo, I paid $75 for that strat back in high school. It came with a Sidekick amp, the case, a mic and stand, and 2 crappy generic electric guitars.

Tricked out Washburn:

Ibanez acoustic/electric

Ricky Bass:

So Cammo, you're a full time roadie for your son now?

Buzzy Out!

Sadly, I actually carve better than I play.

My pride and joys....

Hash pipes?!? :lol:

Actual Feb 16 chop talk continued in this thread: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=27294&forum=17&3

"So Cammo, you're a full time roadie for your son now?"

You see anybody else applying for the job?

And Holy Krapolies, what a deal on that Fender! Did you get it off some then recently de-brained glue connoisseur?

And OF COUSE Kate can play. There are very few things on Earth Kate can not do when she decides to give it a go.

What about a Tiki Jam? You folks can play Reggae. Anybody can play Reggae. There has to be a drummer out there somewhere...

I have a Celebrity Ovation (acoustic/electric), has the beautiful red/brown starburst pattern with the leave cut-outs and a cool Crate amp....but I'm embarrassed to mention....I don't know how to play it.
Took lessons, but couldn't get the hange of it. That's why I took up the uke (less strings)

On 2008-02-08 07:02, Cammo wrote:
Did you get it off some then recently de-brained glue connoisseur?
There has to be a drummer out there somewhere...

No. That was actually the only piece of equipment I didn't get that way. I got a Crate bass head and cabinet, a Marshall half stack, a carvin pa with EV speakers, a vintage carvin travelling mixer, two drums sets, and most of those guitars from debrained glue connisseurs who found themselves in debt at some point in time. I used to be a walking pawn shop...
My travelling Rogers set:

I also have an old matching Pearl 5 piece that is much nicer than this one, so it's not at my house.

The story of the guitar as I remember it:
I got it from a good friend of mine from the wrestling team. His whole family all lived in one house and worked at the restaurants they owned. One of the brothers I didn't hang with stole a bunch of money from the restaurant. He bought all the guitar stuff with the money. As his punishment, the family took the stuff from him and sold it to me, not caring how much they received for it. They all knew me well and knew I had just started playing music. It was more a lesson to him than a recovery of funds deal. I checked at Guitar center after I got it and the guitar without the case was $549. I think we settled on $75 because that is what it cost to join a health club with a jacuzzi and sauna we were going use`to cut weight during the season.

This is the #1 thread on TC!
take that other february chop thread!

Buzzy Out!

My brah Roscoe is a crazy drummer who was brought up on Pearls.

He's always visiting in the summer and never tells us how long he's staying. Last time it was supposed to be 4 days and it became 3 weeks. He made us banana pancakes every morning so we really didn't care. He's in Ireland right now, where he enjoys getting slightly drunk and playing drums with a pub band each night. He's a big galoot with a heart o' gold. He even looks Irish.

He's the guy who found the perfect summer job. He actually was paid to drink beer and fish for bass ALL SUMMER LONG. I have the story sitting around somewhere.

Be warned; I'll make sure he shows up for Oasis or something.

Ok, well I might as well get in on the action too! :)

My dad's a self taught piano player, and plays completely by ear. He played in clubs for over 50 years. He bought this baby grand piano before I was born, and I grew up hearing him play on it my whole life.

He shocked me about 7 years ago when he gave it to me for my birthday!

When I was 6 years old I started taking piano lessons, and took them for about 4 years until I decided I wanted to play this....

The flute, not the tiki! :) I played in school bands (yes, I was a band geek) from elementary school, junior high, and high school. In my senior year I decided I wanted to play the tenor saxaphone. I taught myself how to play over Christmas vacation, and joined the Jazz band when the next semester started. After high school I dabbled with guitar for a little bit, and played that Strat and Rickenbacher Bass of Buzzy's. Or maybe faked my way through it because I never had real lesson's, but was taught the song's that the band played. (I think they probably just wanted a chick in the band so it didn't matter if I didn't know what I was doing. :) ) Then about 8 years ago I joined a concert band out of Carlsbad, and played the flute with them for 7 years until last year when I had to take some time off. (My practice nights ended up being the same night as my son's baseball, and couldn't be two places at once.)

When my son was 3 he wanted to play drums so I got him this starter kit...

He just played around with them really, and a year later got an electric guitar for Christmas. I never pushed anything, but always said when he wanted to take lessons to let me know. So a little over a year ago he came to me begging to take lessons, and I signed him up and had his first lesson that night. He's been playing ever since. Here's our collection of guitars...

We have a great time all playing together, and just recently my dad got this killer Kawai electric piano...

This piano has every bell and whistle you can imagine. Even has a 16 track cd burner built right in.

So that's some of the stuff I have! Oh yeah, and I'll admit it, I'm my son's roadie too so don't feel bad Cammo. :)

Zaya

Perhaps we should stop having Chops and start having jams instead!

It's a 2001 Fender P-Bass. Nothing too fancy. When I was growing up my best friend who played guitar and I played in different bands for several years. I pretty much sucked, but he went on to get together with some guys at UCSB in the late '80's and formed Ugly Kid Joe.

I used to have a Rickenbacker 4001 like Buzzy's (but dark blue) so I could be like my 2 fav bass players at the time: Geddy Lee from Rush, and Lemmy from Motorhead. Now there's a pair! Hang on to that Ricky, Buzzy. They're worth a fortune nowadays! In the catalogs they won't even show the price.

I had no idea you folks were so plugged in! Cripes, Zaya sounds like a music prodigy and Dave played with ugly guys called Joe!

There is no feeling on Earth quite like turning on an amp.

The early days of electric guitar making fascinates me, Rickenbacker was right there from the start. The original Beatles lineup of guitars is a great snapshot of the evolving electrics exploding at the time.

And anybody who hasn't been to Buffalo Brothers, even if you aren't greased lightning on a fret board, you gotta go see the place. It'll give you goose bumps, it's two floors packed with guitars, some going way back. It's right off Cannon Road - El Camino Real, on a stretch of road that looks just like Olde California from the 1930's.

http://www.buffalobrosguitars.com/

On 2008-02-08 19:20, Bowana wrote:
Perhaps we should stop having Chops and start having jams instead!

Or both together! Chop-Jam!

ive got a fender strat too, but i play my uke, theremin, and melodica better

On 2008-02-09 08:36, tikithomas08 wrote:
ive got a fender strat too, but i play my uke, theremin, and melodica better

Theremin...YEA!

Thomas, what the heck is a Melodica and where can we see you play?

And - anybody want to hear my story of Roscoe's Perfect Job?

Remember the eighties band The Hooters?

Anyway, Cam, meet the late Augustus Pablo, master of the melodica...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiaekG1Q0UE

[ Edited by: hodadhank 2008-02-09 15:21 ]

These guys are pretty good....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AHZeyNUJig

Nice ties, too - a proper lot of neat fellows they are.

I'll be happy to be the stoner in the front row....lighter held high...head nodding up and down rapidly...RAWK ON CHOPPERS!!

However, I'm in the wings if you cats should ever need a kazoo player who can spout wild ass abstract poetry in a deep voice...

Oh, I can also make a farting sound if I put my hand under my arm pit and flap like a chicken...Ya never know when that might come in handy?

You cats are also going to have to figure out how to get your hands on an extra pop up to keep your new flock from passing out from heat stroke at future Chops...

You forgot somebody, Bill! :D

On 2008-02-04 06:28, Babalu wrote:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILLY THE CRUD!!!

Hey, thanks all!!(And thanks for the Mai Tai, Buzzy!) Been busy as hell with work and getting shit ready for the buy/move. Real estate crap is a REAL pain in the ass!! I've got to plan on getting this damned condo rented out and coordinate all of that with the move-in of the new place, after we close escrow........Housewarming party to follow. Any suggestions on a theme?(haha)

Count me in for the 23rd!

Happy Birthday you Cruddy Billy!

Just for you, here's the absolutely true story of . . .

Roscoe’s Perfect Job

Roscoe had disappeared. Nobody seemed to have talked to him for a really long time. I used to get regular emails from him, he’s one of those footloose guys who use library computers, but nothing had come back for almost a year. It was spring, which was when Roscoe usually called, hinting about coming to visit us and staying for weeks at a time. We were getting nervous.

One year he had come and wanted to go camping. I kept explaining that I had work to do and just could not go out into the woods with him. He kept at it and finally I got mad and drove him to the grocery store, told him to buy some grub, and then dropped him at a campsite outside Julian. He called a few days later, explaining that he had somehow lost his wallet, all his food, and apologized for wrecking the sleeping bag I had also leant him. The Park Ranger had taken pity on him and he had been living at the Ranger’s home for the last three nights, laughing it up, watching football and drinking beer with the guy.

This pattern would be repeated over and over with Roscoe.

So when he disappeared at first I didn’t worry too much. He always turned up. His great love of hockey, beer and Pearl Drums always controlled every aspect of his life. It probably had something to do with them.

But all through last spring there was no word. Finally it got so aggravating I took the ultimate step and called his Mom.

His Mom is the very proper, socially conscious wife of the town surgeon. She looks and acts exactly like Martha Stewart as long as you don’t ask her questions about her son. Then she gets nervous and evasive and it’s really embarrassing.

So I called her. There was a slight chance he was living back at home. Everybody knew you weren’t supposed to ask her direct questions about Roscoe. It wasn’t done. But I asked her right out –
“Hi. This is Cam. Can I talk to Roscoe?”
There was a pause. Just for a moment.
“No,” she answered, “he isn’t here.”
“Oh,” I plunged in, “Is he living there now? I haven’t heard from him for quite a while.”
“No, he’s at the studio.”
What the….?
“The studio? Is there a phone there? I’d like to talk to him.”
Now these all seem like pretty normal questions, right? To anybody else this would be a relaxing conversation. But Roscoe’s Mom’s voice was screwed up tight with terror at this point. She had gone up two octaves and was biting off the words like I was twisting a corkscrew into her knee.

“No. There’s… no phone there… I’ll tell him… you CALLED.”
“Thanks.” I hung up. Whew!

The studio? What the heck was the STUDIO? It had an intentionally hazy quality to it. Could mean anything.

I had a creepy feeling, so I called my Mom next. Son of a GUN she actually knew what was going on; turns out everybody in town did. Roscoe was working at a microbrewery, “Wheatfield Ale” right down the road. He seemed to be living there. I told her all about the ‘studio’ and she said sometimes you called a 1-room apartment a ‘studio’.

I decided to give Roscoe one last email chance to get back to me, and sent him one saying that I had called his MOM and asked her what was going on. That ought to scare him a bit.

He responded in about 4 hours, his email giving me a number I could call him at and telling me that he was working in town making beer, that it was the greatest job in the world, and please don’t call his Mom anymore. He didn’t want anybody to know what he was doing. Not because he was ashamed. Because he was paranoid that other people would want his job and KILL him to get it.

“You’re kidding,” I said to him on the phone that night, “what’s so great about a job making beer?”
“You don’t understand, Cam. You know how they make beer? You know how hard it is?”
“Uh, no. It’s hard?”
“No Cam it’s EASY! You just dump everything into a big pot, stir it once a day and let it sit there. That’s it.”
“I thought it was complicated.”
“Hell no! You don’t do anything! Then you just tap a mug-full once in a while and see when it’s ready.”
“So they’re paying you to do nothing but drink a beer once a day.”
“Yeah, I’m the tester. When I get drunk it’s ready.”

Now you might think that’s a pretty good job, but somehow it got better in stages. Roscoe would actually call me once a week now with updates.

“My boss Jim owns a junior-A hockey team and I go to the games every day. I might play forward in practices in the fall. On of the kids on the team is the grandson of Gordie Howe. I saw Gordie last week.”

And next week –
“My boss Jim is a band nut. He wants to turn the back room into a music store. I’ll handle drum sales, and still get to test the beer. And play hockey.”

And his description of where he was living –
“I live for free in the cottage that’s next to the brewery. It has a view of the bay and a porch. And a grill out front. I grill all my food, it goes great with the beer.”

But it got better and better – I thought he was lying but he was so covert about this stuff it must have been the truth –

“My boss Jim has a fishing boat and he wants it kept clean and gassed up so I go fishing every morning and I just caught a five pound bass down by Hanson’s Reach!”

But the best was right at the start of last summer. He called me up and almost yelled at me –

“I GOT THE PERFECT JOB! It’s the greatest job! Don’t tell anybody!”

“Settle down, Roscoe, what’s up? What happened?”

He caught his breath, then – “We made a documentary on beer. Well, the CBC did, you know, and they picked us as the best microbrewery on the East Coast! The CBC came down here last Saturday and did a tour of our place, filmed the whole thing, and went through the whole beer making process step by step. How to make a batch. But Cam, it wasn’t a real batch. We just faked it for the cameras. And we didn’t get sales tax permission for it.”

“What’s that?”

“They tax a batch of beer when it’s made. Even before you sell it. This one we got permission from the tax board to make but not to sell. It took some doing. We had to show them the CBC contract and everything. They finally believed us. But we can’t sell it, see? And we gotta get rid of it!”

I’m not the smartest guy, but he was starting to make sense now.

“So guess how you get rid of beer? You can’t dump it. It pollutes the lake. You can’t flush it, you can’t just throw it on the ground. And we can’t sell it, it’s illegal! My boss Jim doesn’t want people knowing exactly where the brewery is, so he can’t really have a party and give the stuff away. The tax people won’t even let him do that anyway, it’s advertising and bingo they’ll tax it.”

“So..”

“So guess what my job is this summer! Guess!”

“You have to drink it.”

“YUP! All 500 liters! And I’m ready! I got my chair all set up with a view of the bay and my big mug, that big one with the Calgary Stampede logo on the side! I got it all worked out. Ten liters a day should put me right into August.”

“Ten liters a DAY?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Roscoe, the part I hate about this is I was planning on going there this summer but I switched plans last week.”
“Oh,” his voice sounded real sorry, “that’s too bad. My boss Jim would have paid you too.”

On 2008-02-09 10:22, Cammo wrote:
Thomas, what the heck is a Melodica and where can we see you play?

And - anybody want to hear my story of Roscoe's Perfect Job?

yeah as hodahanks link showed, its basically a small keyboard looking thing, that you blow into to play. this is the theremin i use. im saving up to get a moog though. I admit my theremin is rather odd looking, but it fits in rather well in my band. and the only pic of it online has "sold out" typed on it

and its eyes light up

Roscoe is going to die of liver disease, Cam.

Thomas -

You are freaky! You can make a Theremin real easy if you want to try. (Looks like you have a nice one already.) Have you seen the Movie 'Theremin' about its history?

Billy -

The update of this is that my parents were driving through town and narrowly missed hitting a guy strolling across Main St. He had waddled out right in front of their car,and the guy was HUGE. He was like an observation balloon with little teeny arms and legs sticking out. My parents screeched to a halt, and the guy's leetle tiny head turned slowly towards the car. My Mom almost screamed when she realized it was ROSCOE! She called me up and said it looked like Roscoe was on an all-beer diet, which of course he was.

There's a moral to this, which is; if you're going to drink that much beer, just vomit it up right after like the Romans. Then you're OK.

Circumstances have changed...if the chop is on the 16th, I can make it. I'm sharpening my chisels!
I think Wheeler did mention the 16th up there. If it is, maybe the "official" date can be posted on the top of the thread. :)

The other chop thread

Buzzy's right - time to close this thread down. It's getting too many hits and confusing things.

No Way! This is the chop thread. They should close that other one down!

Long Live This Chop Thread!

Buzzy Out!

Actually, I wanna hear more about Thomas's band. Where is he playing? Is the band any good? Is it a fun band or an angry band? Are they posers or hosers?

Any band that has a 2 foot long kazoo with a keyboard attached and a Theremin Baby Head has gotta be pretty watchable.

Hey, Tommo, get yerself a booking at the Pink Elephant on Tuesdays and we can all hang out.

What's like, that band's name?????

Yeah, we don't need no two stinking chop threads, maing. I started this chop thread the day after I missed the last one, back in early January. The 16th is fine with me. So is the 23rd.

Okay, duh...16th at Wheeler's -- didn't notice the other thread -- sorry! My bad!

Hey Billy -

Just rename this thread "TikiThomas Mystery Band" or "Scheduled Appearances of the Theremin Baby Head".

On 2008-02-12 05:57, Cammo wrote:
Thomas -

You are freaky! You can make a Theremin real easy if you want to try. (Looks like you have a nice one already.) Have you seen the Movie 'Theremin' about its history?

Billy -

The update of this is that my parents were driving through town and narrowly missed hitting a guy strolling across Main St. He had waddled out right in front of their car,and the guy was HUGE. He was like an observation balloon with little teeny arms and legs sticking out. My parents screeched to a halt, and the guy's leetle tiny head turned slowly towards the car. My Mom almost screamed when she realized it was ROSCOE! She called me up and said it looked like Roscoe was on an all-beer diet, which of course he was.

There's a moral to this, which is; if you're going to drink that much beer, just vomit it up right after like the Romans. Then you're OK.

He's going to end up diabetic AND with a failing liver. Basically, all of the organs that were meant to filter out poisons are going to fail and he's going to turn yellow..........he's going to be in his casket, looking like a giant papaya! Poor Roscoe!

ahha yeah i gues si kinda invaded this thread.

cammo i have not seen that flick but ill check it out. and i hear theremins are easy to make, my friend made on out of a cigaret carton.
im in a science themed ska band called Dr.skavra, take devo, but if they played spooky ska tunes and thats us. Im still working on getting the band to play some more surfy tunes though. and were not an angry band, were told we play "high energy shows" everyone has fun. Id love to play at the pink elephant though. and our recordings on our myspace are horrible, they dont do us justice at all. when we first became a band bout a year ago like on our second practice we put a mic in the middle of the room and played 2 songs. were "in the studio" now working on recording an album.

http://www.myspace.com/drskavra

[ Edited by: tikithomas08 2008-02-13 15:32 ]

[ Edited by: tikithomas08 2008-02-13 15:34 ]

This is my lates finished piece. I think Babs needs to get out of my head!!!

Front

Braids

LSD

I also posted a blog/message to all new and potentially new carvers on our Myspace page:

To new carvers as well as OGs,

The reason I myself learned to carve was because I couldn't afford $500 to $800 bucks for an original tiki and was not ABOUT to go to Home Depot and pay $280 for a mass produced tiki from Bali. Now I carve my own and have gotten better at it than I ever imagined I would, thanks to the direction and influence of some great and generous carvers(so I've been told-I still think I'm a hack), so I trade tikis for other tiki stuff, body work on my classic truck, etc. It's a cool deal if you keep your head right about it. Too many carvers enter into the "Dark side", which is trying to scalp people for their renditions of a stolen art form. Respect the islands and their people and you will be happy and make others happy with your art and carvings. We were invited to carve @ the PIFA this passed year and I'll tell you that nothing feels better than when a Fijian, Samoan, or Hawaiian native walks by your work and says, "that would look GREAT in my garden". It feels even better than when a Haoli walks by and drops three bills for a piece.
This may sound a little Pagan, but Tiki is respect for the earth. Tiki is for everyone.

Billy The Crud

Billy, I for one think that is one really nice lookin' Tiki. Super hand-carved looking. The staining and under-painting are perfect. I love the horns, this proves you are one horny guy.

And Thomas, that sounds like a reslly cool band. Just get a gig somewhere and heck we'll show up. There's lots of places to play.

Nice Billy! Keep riding the edge man...this guy RAWKS!! My favorite of yours to date.

Billy, its killer dude. i remember you carving that at the tikiland/hotrod surf chop

and Cammo, were playing this sat at the epicenter in mira mesa, but its same day as the chop, so im not gonna be abble to make it. were working on some shows at soma, and possibly the zombie lounge though

On 2008-02-13 21:09, tikithomas08 wrote:
Billy, its killer dude. i remember you carving that at the tikiland/hotrod surf chop

and Cammo, were playing this sat at the epicenter in mira mesa, but its same day as the chop, so im not gonna be abble to make it. were working on some shows at soma, and possibly the zombie lounge though

I can talk to Joe at the Zombie, but you all have to be 21.

i guess we cant play there then, thanks though dude

Kam's Kustom Klub -

I'm customizing my kid's black Strat with a bridge-end Dimarzio Virtual Vintage (brighter vintage hum-free 50's sound; a stacked-humbucker style coil) pickup, a white pearl pickguard, and replacing the two tone knobs with Q-Parts knobs in chrome with mother-of-pearl tops. The volume knob will be chrome with a clear crystal, diamond-style top.

Eez gonna look real flashy.

Eez a suprise for him.

Lucky kid, man. Now you need to get him a real Fender Bassman Tube-amp and a vintage reverb tank and he'll be set to rip some thick and meaty power chords.

Zactly.

If he could play half as good as this guy I'd be more than pleased.

Hell, that's Les Paul, himself. Legendary.

On the chop.......If it's OK with the host, I'm bringing my brother from Salt Lake and Captain Diego Silang to the chop on Saturday and we're all riding in my truck. Diego(Pilipino Dino) was born in Guam and has been interested in tiki for a while, but has always had to work on chop days. You guys will love him. We will be bringing extra food as well.