u/PRW9497

First off, I know one is thicker than the other and one has real F holes and the other one has fakes and one has a 1-inch wider body than the other. Let’s take those off the table. I’m also talking about the Pro Line models.

What are the relative advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses, quirks both positive and negative of each model? And would one model be more conducive than the other for someone who’s primarily a rhythm player and doesn’t get any dirtier than the often mentioned “edge of breakup?”

I posted the other day about having a line on a 5420 with TV Jones Hilotrons installed, got some good responses. I'm still interested in that, the price is right, but I'm now wondering about going in a different direction and getting a Gretsch with humbuckers because I currently don't have any humbucker guitars in my arsenal, they're all single coils, and I'm thinking that might be a better plan.

I played a 5420 at a local dealer and liked it, I think I can get along with the neck unlike another one I tried out and the body depth didn't bother me. It's Anniversary Green, however, which I'm not a huge fan of so I don't know if I'll go for that particular example.

The FT-5E pickups were OK but if I got a 5420 I can see myself doing a pickup change at some point. I've actually been looking at the various offerings and listening to various audio clips of the different pickups on TV Jones' website and it's about to drive me crazy, because what I've listened to have all sounded so good, I don't know if I could choose just one with a gun to my head.

The Classics, Classic Plus, Ray Butts, Setzers and Yandell Duotrons all sound good to me and like they'd meet my needs. I’m the rhythm player in our group, I will do some chordal leads and some riffs and fills, but I learned a long time ago that’s my niche and I am good with hanging out there and contributing my bit to the whole of the sound. He’s not a Gretsch player that I know of, but Peter Buck of REM is my guitar hero/spirit animal as far as my playing style, I like jangly generally clean or on the edge of breakup and I don’t use a lot of dirt, my No. 1 right now is an Epi Casino and all I do with those P-90s is pick harder if I want to get dirty. I don’t know if that would influence where I would need to go in the TV Jones world. Any thoughts?

I have also looked at Synchromatics, which wouldn't be a whole lot more than a 5420 and a pickup upgrade and I probably wouldn't need to swap out the pickups on one of those, but at that point I’m wondering if you'd do just as well holding out for a used Pro Line.

Just some random thoughts from someone who has a serious Gretsch itch that he's trying to scratch.

I may have a line on a Gretsch 5420 that already has been upgraded with TV Jones Hilotrons. Has anyone else done that modification and if so, how did you like it? And how close is that going to get me to a 6119 Tennessean/Tennessee Rose? That’s actually my dream Gretsch but a 5420 is probably going to be a lot more doable for me than a 6119.

Hello folks, posting again from Alabama. My wife and I will be in Everett for the fourth time in late October to visit relatives (it’s not prime tourist time but the visit is linked to a birthday so the weather will be whatever it is) and we can’t wait. As I’ve noted in previous posts, we’ve grown to absolutely love the area and if our lottery tickets come in (which is what it would take LOL) we’ll be out of the South and in the Pacific Northwest permanently so fast heads will swim at warp speed.

Anyway, we always do one date night, money is no object dinner while we’re up there and I’m trolling for restaurant recommendations for some place with a reasonably romantic atmosphere and most of all with great food. My wife has specifically requested a seafood restaurant, which doesn’t bother me at all, so if anyone has any suggestions for any place in Everett or within a half-hour, 45 minutes or so from the Inn at Port Gardiner, I’d certainly appreciate it.

We’ve eaten at Anthony’s next to the hotel and Ivar’s in Mukilteo and would certainly go to either again … the cioppino I had last year at Anthony’s was practically a religious experience … but first choice would be something different.

According to multiple Facebook posts including some from drivers so it seems to be on the level. Latest report is he came through it fine and will get to go home in 4 to 5 days.

Smut is 76 now, he is a good guy who did the best he could with what he had to work with for a lot of years.

… on the connection between Bela Lugosi and the Frankenstein movies and as Select _Insurance2000 who recommended it to me advised, I was not disappointed.

I’m not going to give you spoilers, only will say that to my eyes and mind at least, as best an author who was not there to witness the events firsthand can relate through research, it pretty much gives a plausible if not definitive assessment of what probably happened in 1931, what happened to bring about Ygor and, above all, what probably happened with Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.

I couch my comments with “probably” because, again, the author wasn’t there but has done a yeoman’s job of research to back up what he’s written.(And the book is 400-plus pages.)

It did make me reassess Curt Siodmak’s dialogue for the monster in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, which I had thought to be cheesy. I now understand it better; he was using “Ygorstein,” which is how the author refers to the monster with Ygor’s brain, as a metaphor for Hitler. You sit down and read it carefully and a huge chunk of that dialogue could have come out of Hitler’s mouth.

But I still think it might have been out of place in a 1940s horror melodrama that people were likely paying to see as escapism from what was going on around them. And it certainly didn’t register with the folks from Universal who previewed it and had a conniption, causing the producer and director to panic and wreck the film at least on Bela’s part by eliminating the dialogue and references to him being blind.

Which was sad because … my one spoiler … the author makes the case that Bela didn’t take the part he always ridiculed, and literally drive himself to physical collapse playing it, because he needed cash, he wanted to be able to speak those lines because Ygor was his baby and because Bela was as ardently anti-Nazi as anyone in Hollywood.

Title is pretty self explanatory ... my wife and I are a couple in our late 60s looking for a romantic place we've never been to for a five- or seven-day or so getaway next year. We were interested in St. Augustine, my wife because that's actually where her parents honeymooned and she's always had an interest in going there, and me because I technically have been there, LOL, but only to get gas headed south on U.S. 1, LOL, and what I saw passing through interested me.

The thing is, we aren't beach or water people at all, other than looking at their scenery from afar, and that's magnified by a medical condition that my wife has that requires her to take a drug that makes any sun exposure very problematic, she has to cover up with a jacket any time she's out in the sun even if it's 100 degrees.

However, it still appears from some research that there are plenty of other things to do ... shops, museums, attractions, restaurants ... that would make a visit worthwhile, and I guess I just wanted to verify that.

Also we were looking at late spring or early- to mid-fall as a time frame next year ... we already have a big trip lined up for this year ... and was curious about the best time frames to beat the worst of the heat, but when things will still be open. Thanks!

I love Creed’s Millésime Impérial but Creed is above my wallet at this point, have been using Parfums Vintage Rush of Unicorns Intense as a clone but bought this Dua with a coupon to try it out. I absolutely love it out of the bottle and on me from what I can tell … I try to be careful with fragrances because I have always been of the mind that if you can REALLY smell yourself, you’ve used too much … but I was in an especially close quarters situation with my wife today in the smallest of our vehicles, and she wanted to know if I was wearing something new.

I told her no, I’d had it for a while, but she told me that while the fragrance was not unpleasant at all, something was literally burning her nose to the point where she was in tears. And she knew it was me because it eased up when I got out of the car and went into the grocery store.

Has anyone had this problem with other Dua fragrances? I was considering trying out something else from them, but if their stuff makes my wife miserable to the point of tears, that’s sort of a problem.

A P-90 sized one to keep from having to hack on the guitar and to make the modification perfectly reversible.

The idea is to get something akin to John Lennon’s early 1970s Les Paul Junior without having to spend $7k or $8k for one of the Gibson reissues.

What say you? Would it work? Would I need to do something with the pot values?

Just a wild hair idea, LOL, because I always liked the sound of that guitar of John’s. (Already have a Casino.)

2024 iMac, M4 chip, it's pretty much just a daily driver desktop that we got because even though my wife and I both have iPads and iPhone 16s and she has an iBook, and we use those a lot more than the iMac, we simply like the stability of having an old-school desktop around. There's nothing plugged into it except a Canon printer and we don't do any gaming or anything on it.

We've not updated to Tahoe because I didn't think it was necessary because to me it doesn't seem that anything Tahoe offers is really that conducive to an old-school desktop setup or usage, and because of all the bugs that had been reported which I understand have since been pretty much addressed.

But bottom line, I'm sick of looking at that damn red "1" on the settings icon. So what say you, should I update and be done with it or keep the damn red "1" on the settings icon?

I have the family lipid curse, have been dealing with it since my 20s and I am in my late 60s now. For the longest time, I kept things in check with a combination of 40 mg of Pravastatin and 160 mg fenofibrate.

However, I had a cardiac scare last year. I had a funky EKG on a routine physical and a funky result on a PET stress test, which led to a heart cath. That turned out smashingly well, I have only the mildest of blockages, 30%, which given my family history of lipids and heart disease left both me and my cardiologist overjoyed.

My cardiologist is intent on keeping things at that level so she went aggressive on cholesterol meds, the full ride of 80 mg Lipitor while discontinuing the fenofibrate to avoid potential side effects there. I’m tolerating it well with zero side effects or liver issues.

I just had my first lipid panel done since the medication and got great results as far as cholesterol, my total cholesterol is 132, my CHOL/HDLC ratio is 3.3, my HDL cholesterol is 40, my LDL cholesterol is 66 and my non HDL cholesterol is 92, all improvements. But my triglycerides jumped 47 points from 138 to 185, I’m sure because of discontinuing the fenofibrate.

I have a message in to my cardiologist so I’m not running to this sub first, but I thought I would toss it out here to see if any other people are in the same boat.

I already limit my refined sugar and exercise regularly, my A1C was 0.4 lower (5.8) on my last CBC. But my cardiologist believes my lipid issues are of a level that diet is not going to control them to her liking.

I like what the 80 mg Lipitor is doing cholesterol wise, I’m not anxious to go back on the fenofibrate given the potential for side effects paired with max Lipitor, is anyone doing anything non-medication wise to work on triglycerides? I take an assortment of supplements but the only thing cardiovascular related is CoQ10.

I have a 1989 Gibson J-160E, one of the earliest reissues, not plywood like the Beatles-spec model but all solid woods and X bracing, has the P-100 magnetic pickup instead of a P-90 and an end pin jack instead of the jack in the side.

Because of this being a great acoustic guitar, I would like to add an acoustic pickup to it so I can amplify it as an acoustic guitar rather than depending on the magnetic pickup, which P-100 or P-90 is not going to give you optimal acoustic amplification.

I want to go with a Baggs Element VTC under saddle pickup. I am quite aware that the bridge plate pickups like K&K, Dazzo, Trance Amulet, etc., are better at reproducing the acoustic sound of a guitar. However, the J-160E’s, even the solid-wood ones, are odd ducks because they have 15-fret necks as opposed to 14 like a J-45. Because of that, I have found out, the bridge plate is jammed farther up into the bracing and it doesn’t leave a lot of room to work with as far as installing or, more importantly, properly placing bridge plate pickups, so while it’s not impossible it’s problematic to go with one of those on a J-160E.

I think the UST with an IR is the way to go, plus I actually think it will better suit this guitar, because even with a solid top, because of the 15-fret neck and the placement of the bridge plate and sound hole in relation to that, the guitar is brash and cutting, a guitar for rhythm strumming, actually closer to the Beatle-spec model than a typical solid dreadnaught.

Here’s the issue. I want to keep the mag pickup. Some people who own a guitar like this have disconnected it and left it only as decoration, but I want to reserve the right to play the I Feel Fine riff if the notion strikes me. That can be done by installing the Element VTC, disconnecting the stock jack and installing the Baggs pickup’s jack, and running the hot and ground leads for the mag pickup to the auxiliary lugs on the Baggs jack. That way I could have one jack and use either pickup or both pickups through a stereo cord and a splitter box.

However, even though it’s supposed to be a simple modification and the instructions for doing it with an Element VTC are on the Baggs website, I can’t find a tech or luthier willing to even attempt it let alone do it for me. They’re either afraid of fubaring the Baggs pickup and voiding the warranty, or they have zero clue what I’m talking about even when I show them the instructions.

The other option is installing a separate jack in the end block for the Baggs pickup, something that is not unprecedented, John Leventhal has two pickups in his Collings with a separate jack for each one. However all I hear is how horrible that would be and how it would damage the value of the guitar. Although it would be a very simple solution.

So, given this situation, how squeamish would you be about adding a second jack? I mean, the resale value of this guitar ain’t that stout given that not only is it not Beatle spec, it’s black instead of sunburst. It would add more utility to the guitar and it should not cause any structural issues, should it?

Or should I keep calling people until I find someone willing to solder two wires to the Baggs jack?

Used the Memorial Day sale coupon, I believe, from Dua to try one of their offerings for the first time and decided to go with Imperiale Pasteque.

Ages ago when I could still afford Creed I had a bottle of Millesime Imperial and loved it. I’ve since tried Parfums Vintage’s Rush of Unicorns Intense and thought it was OK, but a shadow of the Creed it’s mimicking.

The Dua is a whole different animal, it’s absolutely dead-on at least to my nose … YMMV certainly
… to the Creed I had ages ago because it nails the watermelon note that the Parfums Vintage clones miss.

Now I am wanting to try their Water of Arabia (clone of Silver Mountain Water which has been my main scent for years, I currently am using Al Wisam Day as a clone), Vert Gentilhomme’s Instinct (merger of Green Valley and Green Irish Tweed) and Origins of Tabac (clone of Vintage Tabarome). Anyone have any experience with those?

I have a Polytune 3 tuner that I prefer to use onstage (I only play in the worship band at church these days) rather than my Peterson StroboStomp HD because of the simplicity and quickness of the Polytune’s needle mode.

I fully accept and concede that the Peterson is the superior product. I fully accept that it gets my guitar “more in tune” than the Polytune. But while I am a lot quicker and more fluent with reading the strobe than when I first got the pedal, given that sometimes I only have seconds to check my tuning, I am willing to accept not being “only a dog’s ears can tell perfectly in tune” as a tradeoff for, again, the quickness and simplicity of the Polytune.

That being said, I hate the blasted Polytune because no matter what I do, it’s constantly giving me that polyphonic “check all the strings at once” deal that I care nothing about and never use, even when I am plucking one string at a time and simply want to check each string’s tuning, one at a time. But it will not let me do that, again it’s constantly going to the all six strings deal although I thought that was only supposed to engage when you strummed all six strings at once.

It’s making it more time consuming than the StroboStomp to tune and was particularly bad in today’s service, I finally just gave up and I hope I was in tune.

Am I doing something wrong with the Polytune, because I used to have a Polytune 2 that did the same thing? Is it just part of those tuners’ mojo? Honestly I am about ready to chuck the thing and get a TU-3 which should be equally simple and is supposedly bulletproof (our bassist tells me he’s been using his TU-2 for 20 years).

Subject line is pretty explanatory. I had to have No. 3 which had received a root canal probably 9 or so years ago extracted after the root cracked. I had bone grafting done at the time of the extraction and I went back today for a 90-day checkup and the oral surgeon told me I am not a candidate for an implant, even with the graft I don’t have enough bone there to do the implant, it would be sticking too far up in my sinus.

I am assuming that a bridge is the next option, I plan to discuss that with my regular dentist when I see him for my regular checkup in about a month, but should I be concerned about the poor bone there even with getting a bridge? Would I be setting myself up for failure there? Are there any other options I don’t know about? I am missing some other top teeth, particularly No. 15 which I also lost to a root canal failure and according to the oral surgeon isn’t a candidate for an implant either, but I am really feeling the loss of No. 3 as far as chewing.

I’m a male, soon to turn 68. For the last three years I have been dealing with high ferritin, ranging from mid 400s to mid to high 500s, and my hematologist has no clue why.

At the start of this journey, I was dealing with a mild anemia. My primary doctor prescribed iron pills. I don’t know if it’s related but after a couple of rounds of those is when my ferritin count spiked. It had been normal previously.

I am having no symptoms.

My basic liver numbers are normal. A liver CT was normal.

I have no chronic inflammation that I am aware of. Technically I am pre-diabetic but my A1C is only 5.8 and my glucose 91.

A genetic test showed no hemochromatosis. My TSAT was 24.

Does it sound like anything has been missed? And is this something I should even worry about? Can people’s ferritin just be high, for no good reason?

Again I am having no symptoms but having no answers is kind of weighing on me.

I posted, then embarrassingly had to delete, something regarding Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch this morning. I posted it because I saw it on a longtime, old-school racing message board that usually doesn’t fall victim to scams. I immediately deleted it when responses started saying it was AI s**t.

I have spoken on this forum about being a longtime journalist who covered NASCAR, which makes falling for this drivel even more embarrassing for me, but for the last little bit I have been using my reportorial skills to try to see where this originated. And I found the original TikTok video that started it.

The person who created that, taking advantage of this tragedy to get monetized clicks, is pond scum. And AI is a pestilence that is ruining not just social media but conventional media, making it difficult to determine actual reality. All for monetized clicks.

And it’s worse with this in particular because it’s the kind of story that people, damn it, hope is true, want to be true.

She said on Dirty Mo Media today that AP called her in and told her that they were taking her off the motorsports beat because “they wanted their best people covering their biggest stories.” She said that she asked them “What about me and racing” and was told she could cover Michael Jordan, court cases, scandals, major breaking news and three races: Daytona 500, Indy 500 and one Formula One race. So she walked.

Moving forward, I would not expect much racing coverage from AP.

My wife and I are in our late 60s, retired, and through hard work and living modestly and investing wisely we are debt free as of roughly 2023. That certainly wasn’t the case for a lot of our marriage, at one time we had more than $35k of credit card debt on top of our mortgage and various personal loans, but we got out of it and now the only balances we carry are on Discover for various regular monthly fees and a Shell gas card, which we pay off every month. We also use Discover for Amazon purchases, paying them off immediately. Our house is paid for.

Along with Discover, we have six other MasterCard or Visa accounts sitting there with zero balances that we haven’t used in ages, plus the Shell card is about to become a MasterCard. Two of those accounts were Penney and Sears accounts that morphed into MasterCards.

Most of these accounts range from 30 to 40 years old.

We got a letter the other day that one of those accounts is going to be canceled if we don’t use it within 50 days. That got us thinking about how many credit cards we have floating around, and whether we should get rid of some of them to lessen the risk of some miscreant doing something with the account numbers.

You never say never but it is our hope that we never have to borrow money ever again. We’ve paid cash for our last two cars (they weren’t new, we’re not rich), strongly disappointing the dealers LOL. But given our circumstances, how would canceling two or three of those cards impact our credit rating/score?