Guitar-making and the State of Ebony in our World's Forests Today

Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars made a video back in 2012 - we just found it at Reverb.com.

If you have 15 minutes available, please take a look at the video made by Bob Taylor and listen about the use of ebony and the changes that humanity has made of the earth.

Goodbye Lemmy

On December 26, two days ago, Lemmy Kilmister was notified of a particularly aggressive form of cancer.

Today, December 28th, two days later, Lemmy died.

Lemmy first got his start as bass player for a band in the 60s called the Rockin' Vicars (now found as "Rockin Vickers"). He then graduated to 70s space rock group, Hawkwind. Here's Wikipedia's profile on him...

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History of the ProCo Rat

Everybody seems to know about the KitRae Big Muff Pi Page, which, admittedly, is probably the most authoritative page on the internet about the history of the Electro Harmonix Big Muff distortion pedal .

It includes all the different versions, and each of the permutations of parts within each version.

What we didn't think there was an equivalent for, as the title of this article makes clear, was the same kind of page exulting the ProCo Rat... But there is!

1984 Whiteface ProCo Rat Pedal
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Do It Yourself Online Pedal Merchants

Hello Team.

Once again, I made the trek to Santa Monica - and this time the $30 Dunlop GCB-95 I bought arrived. Unlike the last time I made the trek to Santa Monica, I wasn't listening to any KCRW or being thrown into horrendous confusion with southbound 405 traffic to Long Beach backing up for miles. No, today was different; and the traffic was surprisingly easy.

But, it did give me a chance to muse on some pedal things...

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Grandpa Rocks Out, Stunning Store Staff

Posted by our friends at the Society of Rock. Video of 81-year grandfather showing everyone how it was done when he was a young lad.

So, "rocks out" as a description is probably a bit strong, if only on two accounts:

1.) He's 81 and probably doesn't move so fast any more.
2.) When he was 18 in 1951, "Rocking out" probably meant something different

Grampa kills it on guitar shocking patrons staff and family
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Planet Caravan Reworked / Stairway to Heaven on the Gayageum

Here at Thermionic, we're not always open to new interpretations of heavy songs, however, the past two days have been interesting. Yesterday, driving back from Santa Monica I was listening to KCRW. DJ Raul Campos played a tastefully remixed version of Black Sabbath's Planet Caravan.

Black Sabbath Planet Caravan Poolside Luna Lee Stairway to Heaven
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Liner Notes We Love: Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak

One of the great things about buying an album used to be the collateral that came with the album. It wasn't just the music. It was the other things that came with the music in the physical album. There was always a sleeve that came with the physical media (the vinyl record, the cassette, or the CD) that you purchased the music on. The least imaginative record labels used the sleeve to hawk their other bands.

Jailbreak Album Cover Thin Lizzy Liner Notes 1976
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Interesting Gear Page Thread on Phase Inversion

So there's a really interesting thread that was started on The Gear Page that we happened upon a few days ago and it really got us thinking - not just about guitarists, but about bass players, keyboardists, and singers too. Yes, yes, we know that drummers get no love - but drummers don't seem to use, or even need a lot of effects in their repertoire and so, perhaps, this isn't as germane.

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