Hello you Brummies, Brummies Abroad and other assorted chums.
Ah, what a beautiful summer is upon us, BBQs, lounging on a sun bed sipping a cold tequila sunrise and of course the best music festival in the world, Glastonbury on the TV. Macca did it again, putting on a brilliant show at 80 years old, pure class that only one other musician has matched through his own 80 years and that is the wonderful Brian Wilson with both celebrating their 80th birthdays last month.. Both are huge fans of each other and have been the driving force that inspired the two biggest bands in the world from the UK and USA of the 60's and beyond to better each others Albums. The songs they individually crafted will be with us for many, many years and I'm so pleased to have experienced hearing them from their first airing, so exciting. God only knows I need the warmth of the sun to keep having those good vibrations inside......!!COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
There has been a bit of an ongoing cyber glitch with the
BRUMBEAT.Net website with some of you guys having problems trying to link to the site from the blog or vice versa. Should you experience any difficulty trying to access the blog from BRUMBEAT or any other link, you can simply Google "Bulls Head Bob" and there I am, at the top of the page, so with one click you will arrive at the blog ready to be amazed by the ramblings of a genuine old git!!FENDER METEORA. The guitar I can't Buy!!!
Back in April I wrote about the stylish Fender METEORA and, having written about it, I convinced myself that I should own one right now, with my choice being the stylish 3 colour sunburst with maple neck. There were good reviews on Youtube from the usual guitar review sites even though the guitar is made solely in Mexico, which meant I would normally avoid buying it because, in the past, it would mean stripping out inferior electrics and putting in something more reliable and potent.
I logged on and went to the Music Store site, credit card in hand, bursting with anticipation to get my grubby little mitts on it, I hadn't been this excited since the days of perusing the Bells of Surbiton guitar catalogue looking at a Watkins Rapier.
So, I got to the Fender page and there was the METEORA in all its glory and then I noticed, written in red ink
"Estimated to be in stock April 2023!!!"...."What? Kin Hell" I thought stuffing the credit card back into my wallet, "that can't be right! It must be a typo". I then proceeded to Thomann with the same result, except the wording was "available between 13 and 19 weeks".
The next stop wasAndertons, normally very reliable but their site too was bad news saying "available in 3 months". I searched other outlets who said they had the guitar but their prices had been inflated by 2 or 3 hundred pounds more which I wasn't willing to pay. I am not at all surprised that this sunburst model is so popular but there is also a real downside to buying a guitar in demand and that is Fender rushing to get the product out to the shops which could impair their quality control which, I have to say, has been a Mexico problem in the past.
So, with that in mind, I shall wait until the situation quietens down before venturing forth. There doesn't appear to be as big a problem with the Meteora in other colours, although the silver grey Sunburst is in demand too now. I saw it in action with the brilliant Declan Mckenna at Glastonbury and it looked and sounded great.GRAHAM ASHFORD
The Brumbeats vocalist Graham Ashford is currently taking a "break" from "right hand activities" after getting a bone replacement and tendon repair to his right hand recently. There is no truth in the rumour that he broke his hand himself because his wife Caroline had been receiving too much attention from friends after being in plaster herself for 4 months after breaking her left arm in a fall.
We know that the older you get, the longer It takes to heal and Caroline had just got back to her old self in time for Graham to get plastered! I hope you recover soon Graham so you can get back to painting.
It won't interfere with his singing voice though so he and his Hawaian band will still be " giving it some" in the bars.
WEM SAPPHIRE
It was 1969, the glory days of the Watkins Rapier budget guitar that inspired a nation had passed, Watkins or WEM as it was now known had become one of the leaders in the field of amplification and great PA systems. In a bit of a last gasp they released the Watkins/WEM Sapphire guitar.
It had, in fact, been released in 1968 as the Wilson Sapphire, and had been badged accordingly with a different headstock and control knobs. This rare beauty is really reminiscent of a few Burns models with the shape of the body identical to the Short Scale Jazz, the scratch plate layout just like the Burns Marvin and the controls from the Burns London split sonic. This particular guitar is currently for sale on EBay from Germany at around £1000.00. There were not too many of these made so it is a rarity worth buying for keen collectors of old British guitars. FINALLY
There's absolute bedlam at British airports. The Govt gave the airlines a load of dosh to pay furlough wages to staff who were being laid off but they sacked the staff and kept the money and are now blaming the Govt. What a disaster.
Take Care you Guys, it's a greedy world right now.
Bob
Copyright: Bulls head Bob
Contact: Bobsbullocks@Gmail.com
