[Daryl Jones]

OK, in all honesty I stopped the playback not far into the first song (if you can call it that?) so I can’t judge more than his quoted comment ” I listened to it so you wouldn’t have to”.
I cannot abide by “techno” voicings and any kind of monotone drivel that somehow passes for top (pick a number for ratings charts) anything and I don’t do Spotify either so. And now I certainly won’t be tempted to try it. Just hearing that Neil Young spurned Spotify was enough to keep me away, and I hate what Neil has become since the days of Crazy Horse and Cinnamon Girl. I even gave away my Harvest and After the Goldrush albums. And I love just about “anything” vinyl so that should tell you where that’s at.
I thank you Jung for bringing this to our attention, I know now not to punish myself with listening to more of this painful stuff that is somehow qualified as music. Yeah, I have my prejudices, I ain’t perfect either haha.

[Daryl Jones]

Happy Easter Jacki and everyone! Finally we’re hitting some pleasant weather and can enjoy the outdoors some.
My M-in-law is a non-ambulatory hospital shut-in so we rented the local handi-bus and got her out on an excursion to the local Royal Canadian Legion for the weekend meat draw and beat the deck game. Very enjoyable for her. She’s only 83 but has many complications with her health so it’s hard to get her out and about anymore. Visits to family houses and such are all but impossible anymore due to her fragile condition so it’s nice to be able to get her out to see friends and get some enjoyment out of a few select things, especially for Easter and other holiday festivities.
Blessings all!

[Daryl Jones]

Yep, mine arrived a couple days ago. I was expecting the loud appearance, but it still knocked me back a bit. The jacket is very nice, but that pressing is out of this world bright!🤣

[Daryl Jones]

Cool to see another Murphy descendent in the mix! On me Mum’s side, the family hails from a more uncommon ground a few klicks SE of Belfast. Typically the Murphy clan runs in the more cCentral and Tipperrary regions, but the small village of Crossgar is my ancestral home. I visited there in 2011 but due to sad circumstances there are no records left of my family origins. A distant cousin tracked the history many years back, and we spoke often of it. Sadly she passed before I got a chance to really go through all that she found and having no direct family herself, the work she did is now lost too.
We toured mostly by motorcycle and train while there, and honestly, the Irish countryside is stunning. The experience of enjoying it on a motorcycle is surely one of the best ways to see the land and mix with the local people. Irish hospitality is second to none and we were warmly welcomed and treated incredibly well. I had many friends from an online community (motorcycle based) and these folks showed us some sights we would have never found on our own. Life long friends came out of a mere chance meeting on a motorcycle site half a world away from me/us.
Truly there are no strangers in this world, only friends yet to be met.

I don’t drink, haven’t for years, but I was never one to turn down a Guinness or a Jameson on St Paddy’s Day. Never did go the green ale thing though!🤣

[Daryl Jones]

Well done Jung! My heartfelt wishes to Mona, Lisa, Michaela and all the lady MLT Club supporters!🥰

[Daryl Jones]

I “camped” in my car too! My oldest brother lived in Port Hardy and my Monza Spyder was my motorhome. Folded the back seats down, rolled out a sleeping bag and caught some z’s at the rest stops. Ah, to be young and single again…Was great to go to BC then since there were always beer strikes in AB!😆 Coming home that trip I hit the last town in BC and loaded the back of the car with all the suds I could afford at the time. Which wasn’t all that much haha. Amazing how many of my friends were so glad to see me!!!

[Daryl Jones]

Cool info David. I still speak with Tim often so I’ll ask him about them.

[Daryl Jones]

I thought Steve Vai’s triple header axe was insane, this is a whole other animal. Eric Clapton had to take time out from a tour from the constant weight of his Strat for crying out loud, I can’t even imagine having that beast hanging on my neck and shoulders. Let alone trying to play the darn thing!

[Daryl Jones]

That’s awesome! Some of our best fun in Ireland was evenings in the small pubs full of local families singing, playing and dancing. We originally went in for a traditional meal, but ended up staying for the good times. The small seaside towns and villages were the best! Cork, Dublin and Belfast were great too, but I’m a country soul so that’s where things hit home for me.

[Daryl Jones]

Tube amps are like the resurgence of vinyl in a way. They have their own very distinct sound. Hard to put into words if you’re a non-tech doofus like me, it’s a visceral thing for me. But yeah, heavy and the tubes do burn out and require maintenance/repair work far more than the ones I use. But they are to die for, like the Hammond and Leslie. My jamming pal has an old 40w VOX that he picked up used for $40 and it sounds killer! Looks like it’s been through a war but that doesn’t matter at all with what comes out of it.
Cool joke about the Tesla!🤣 My daily driver is a 3/4t Duramax diesel truck so I’m on the other side of the fence on that argument. But I need that truck for what I do. And 30 mpg on the highway (empty) is really exceptional for a beast like that. I also tow a large (#15k, 35 ft long) 5th wheel for my racing and travel addictions, need the grunt and size to handle the load.

[Daryl Jones]

Tubes are amazing aren’t they? The way they glow just says “happy” to me.

My guitar amps are digital modeling amps so no tubes. Doesn’t mean I don’t long for one though. But for my limited abilities (and I really don’t do gigs) my Fender Mustang and Boss Katana do everything I kneed at the flip of a switch or touch of a button. I only have one foot pedal (overdrive) and if I was to get an EVH 5150, PRS Archon or a Fender Reverb then I’m into more pedals and boards and God knows what all else my weak mind and limited wallet condition would get me involved with!
Blast it all if sometimes I don’t wish I was 30 years younger again; I’m running out of time in this life for what I want to accomplish now that I don’t have that work affliction…🤣

[Daryl Jones]

Very cool description of the workings of the Leslie. Now I want to hear it with the reverb option!

[Daryl Jones]

That happened to me a while ago too. Hasn’t done it since. But I don’t recall hitting that button to start it either….

[Daryl Jones]

That’s a pretty good explanation David. The inadequacies of the human auditory capability leaves much to be desired in many ways. I remember when CDs first became the main go to and my stereo shop buddy (read: salesman 😂) had a display set up with an oscilloscope for comparison basis of the two media of CD and LP formats. It was an invitational customer appreciation night and I was fortunate to be one of Tim’s rather good customers.

Now you have to understand that “Harold’s Stereo” was the high end audio store in Edmonton during the day and what my friend’s boss was doing was to impress people with his stratospheric price point Denon stereo amplification pairing (pre-amp and 200w power amp) and turntable. The CD player was also a Denon so it was far from cheap too. There was a 16 oz ball peen hammer sitting om the top of the CD player. So I asked Tim about it. He smiled and picked up the hammer, turned and hit the top of the CD player with it! Not a full force blow but definitely hard enough to bust the carpal bones in your hand. No skip, no jump on the playback, nada. He offered me the hammer…I politely declined. Now just the tone arm on the record player was $1500 (sans cartridge)so the player was no bargain store issue by any means! The entire system was over $50k including two massive speakers that I can’t even recall the name of. They were approximately 2′ x 6′ and had no visible drivers at all, just a metallic mesh screen and a black anodized framework and a small connection panel in the lower rear. All I know is they sounded killer no matter where you stood in the 4000 sq/ft showroom, including directly beside them about 10′ away. That in itself was scary. Hearing that kind of sound playback with no moving drivers or voice coils…no actual cabinet, just that funky see-through screen!
Long story short, they played two of the same recordings (Lorena McKennitt’s Mask and Mirror) on each of the CD and turntable and you could watch the sound waves and reproduction peaks and valleys on the green scope screen to compare. The scope also provided a printout so that you could see side by side the differences. The vinyl recording was vastly superior to the CD on both high and low frequency response, even if most human ears could not readily notice the difference without a visual comparison. Whatever the whole thing boiled down to, it had the desired effect, Tim sold 4 of those monster systems that week, one that evening I was there.
For my own personal experience, I thought the CD was a tad sharper and brighter but where the record shone through was the bass and mid response, and the vocals were more “moist” and real. And it may have been the 3 or 4 glasses of champagne Tim plied us all with too. Whatever transpired, I was determined to keep my turntable and I walked out with a new CD player (but not the Denon) I’m a tad crazy, but not stupid enough to start divorce proceedings, since my Yamaha 1100 had suffered a catastrophic transport drive failure; which was the real reason I was there in the first place.

[Daryl Jones]

You are so right Len, it will stay alive; at least as long as there are like minded people such as we around. Sadly, I am located a long way away from any distributors or outlets for pre-owned or new vinyl copies, other than Amazon of course.
I tend to avoid cities like the plague, I’m a rocker at heart, but I am a “country boy” by birth and my own lifestyle preferences. I only go to Edmonton or Calgary out of necessity or event location reasons. Well, there is my occasional trip into my favorite Long & McQuade store for a new/used guitar or amp should my bank account and herself indulge me…😂