The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

[crusty philtrum]

Well folks, it's time to pass this on. I've had a fun time and
look foward to all that follow.

I thought it would be nice to keep the "Well" downunder for another
round and have asked Crusty Philtrum to be the host and he's accepted.

Ok guys, thanks for the run.

Cheers, Will.

Hi everyone

As you can see above, Will wants me to do this thing. I do feel a bit weird as i know there is a list of people on another thread who are up for this gig, but i am sure this may be the shortest Well ever, hahaha.

So....nothing's sacred here, i'll do my best to answer any questions as honestly as possible, so....fire away........:beerchug:

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Tell us a funny story that occured to an Aussie kid in the late 70's.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Wow...that's a good one, GJ.....the memory seems to get blurry around then, so i guess i was having a gooood time, hehe. I'll keep thinking about that, meantime here's something from the early 70's.....

1971.... A 15-year-old English kid (me) emigrates to Australia with his family. The long, tiring and mind-numbing flight from London to Sydney first touches Australian soil in Darwin, a small city on the northern edge of the country. We disembark into a heat such as I'd never experienced before and walk to the airport building, which back then was little more than a house. I remember going into the main room, which was basically a bar. I saw the pilot of the plane sitting at the bar drinking a beer (it was about 7 a.m. if i remember !)
I was desperate to take a pee, so i searched out the toilet. I walked in and couldn't find the trough, so i went into one of the 'sit down' cubicles and drained the snake. When i came out of the cubicle, i noticed a teenage girl standing there looking at me with a blank expression. I was a little surprised, but i figured it must be some minor cultural difference to what i was used to back in the UK. She watched me as i walked out. As i re-entered the main room, i turned to close the toilet door, and it was then that i noticed the logo on the toilet door...I had just used the ladies toilet.

This was my first experience on Aussie soil. Somehow maybe it was the beginning of my incredible life as as social incompetent, a square peg in a round hole, a weirdo, possibly a loser and definitely Python-esque (as in 'Monty Python', but also relevant to that little story as a 'trouser snake').

I'll keep sifting through the remains of the brain cells to try to find something from the late '70's........hehe

 

[supernosher]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

what has more mojo, a koala or a SD pickup?

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Tell us a funny story that occured to an Aussie kid in the late 70's.

OK...late '70's.....

About 1978/9, i was living down the road from a hotel called the Shellharbour Inn. (a couple of hours south of Sydney). It was known for having great bands and a great crowd, musically knowledgeable and appreciative. I started drifting up there every Saturday night, having a couple of beers and generally clowning about. I began to meet band members and their friends and in a short space of time became accepted into a circle of musicians who were also wonderful people. Some of those guys have remained my friends until the present day, except for one who sadly passed away in 1994. From there, i ended up playing in bands with some of those guys.

One guy who became a really close mate was an awesome guitar player called Mick Stills. Mick and i became best mates and played guitar together almost endlessly. We scored a regular gig at a late-night pub, the Oxford Hotel, where we would play from midnight or 1 a.m. until 3 a.m., 3 nights every week. That enabled us to do other gigs beforehand, then race to the Oxford gig, thus doing 2 gigs in the one night. We were employed simply because it was very contentious back then for a bar to stay open so late, and the law required that they either served food or had entertainment consisting of at least 2 people if they wished to stay open past midnight. I guess we were cheaper than serving food.

It was a rough venue. People would drink elsewhere and when those places closed, they would stagger into the Oxford. So it was primed for trouble. A guy was murdered there one night. On more than one occasion, the bouncers ('Security' ?) would be 'assisting' a difficult patron out of the door nearby where we sat to play, but curiously would fail to get the drunken patron through the door but put their face through a glass window next to the door, right beside us. One time, a girl came up to us and said "You guys are so callous!"....we asked her why....she said that the bouncers had just put a guy's face through the glass right next to us and we didn't even skip a beat while we played. I remember Mick and I both nonchalantly shrugging our shoulders, we genuinely didn't really notice as we had become so used to it, de-sensistised I guess. It was only years later that i was really able to appreciate the girl's sentiments. The walls in that place were often smeared in blood.

One day, Mick and I went into Sydney to do some busking. We had both been playing acoustic guitars endlessly and had an almost telepathic way of playing. At one point, we were moving from one busking spot to another and decided to drop into a cute little corner pub for a liquid lunch. We parked out guitar cases next to a couple of bar stools and had a drink or two. After a while, a voice said..."Are you guys gonna play those guitars, or what?" Mick and i simply opened the cases and got our guitars out....now....these old pubs were often a tiled room with a horse-shoe shaped bar in the middle, everyone sitting around it. I was playing a Takamine dobro. We both fingerpicked using thumbpicks. The sound in that pub was huuge! We didn't look at anyone or even each other, we didn't need to. We just played our rambling, improvised 'contemporary acoustic' styles for a while until we both stopped to roll cigarettes. When we finally put the guitars down and lifted our heads, there were fresh beers in front of us....a huge long line of them going in both directions along the bar. There would have been twice as many beers there as there were people at the bar.

 

[ginormous]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

I've noticed a few US companies 'borrowing' Aussie car designs. Any vehicles of merit that the Yanks would really go for?

How did you arrive at your screen name?

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Ever get drunk and wake up next to a Koala?

Hehe....down here, there is another word to describe the act of f*cking....the word is 'root'. And there is a little Aussie joke that goes like this....

Q. Why did the koala never stay long at a party?

A. Because he eats roots and leaves.......


So you can see that as cuddly and cute as they are, they're not going to stick around to make you breakfast......

....and those scratches can take a *long*time to heal, hehehehe....

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

what has more mojo, a koala or a SD pickup?

Well, i've used SD pickups pretty much since they first appeared down here, must be close to 30 years now. My first thought is that both need to be attached to wood to function properly (and i *do* mean trees, in the case of the koala here guys, hehe). The SD pickup can have mojo in the right guitar. The koala can probably have mojo by being a living being, and possibly by the fact that it has a mostly unseen agenda during the night, but appears as cute and cuddly when seen by humans. And of course the koala spends most of it's life completely stoned from eating gum leaves all the time.

So it's a hard call, but my opinion is that the koala probably has more mojo due to it's being out of it's head, a creature of the night in an impossibly cute fur coat. Their numbers always seem plentiful, too, so i guess they are having plenty of night-time fun......

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

I've noticed a few US companies 'borrowing' Aussie car designs. Any vehicles of merit that the Yanks would really go for?

How did you arrive at your screen name?

Hi Reggie

Wow, i always thought most of the cars down here were pretty much designs from the USA, UK etc. or at least variations on those designs. We really only have Ford and Holden down here doing local designs. I think Holden are, or were at least, a part of General Motors. Other overseas manufacturers have factories here, but i think it is mostly only Ford and Holden who have specific Aussie designs. I may be wrong.

For years, Ford has built vehicles in their 'Falcon' range, and Holden has had a model called 'The Commodore', though both have other models. I don't think any of them would be too far different to their American versions, in fact some may be exactly the same but with different names (obviously we have the driver controls, pedals and steering wheels on the other side). It's a good question, i will keep thinking about it, but i don't think we have anything very different to what you already have. There was a Holden model called The Monaro, which was originally a bit of a muscle car, and a new Monaro emerged a few years back...i do believe that model was introduced into the USA.

My user name here at SDUGF? Hehe....ok.....the 'philtrum' is that little channel under a person's nose, where the 2 little ridges run from the bottom of the nose down to the top of the top lip. The 'crusty' is like when a little kid runs around with a runny nose and it dries up....on the philtrum. It's a kind of more polite version of a name i used to use somewhere on line once..."Snotboy'....in fact, i think i have noticed a member here known as 'Snottyboy' or something similar, so it was probably lucky that i went with Crusty, hehehe.

cheers, neiL.

 

[Will S-T]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

So you're a 70's lad and a Pom? and this is coming from a 70's Wog!
I'm so glad you took this on mate, have fun!!!!
Mate, where in Melbourne are you? I take it close to St Kilda or Richmond?

Now, what's your rig? Axes and amps and poison?

Do you still have an accent?

Do you need bail money?

Cheers, Will.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

So you're a 70's lad and a Pom? and this is coming from a 70's Wog!
I'm so glad you took this on mate, have fun!!!!
Mate, where in Melbourne are you? I take it close to St Kilda or Richmond?

Now, what's your rig? Axes and amps and poison?

Do you still have an accent?

Do you need bail money?

Cheers, Will.

Hi Will

Yeah, i was born in Wimbledon in 1956, came out here in 1971. (My grandmother had married an Australian soldier and they moved out here after the First World War and set up a sheep station outside of Albury. They had 2 children here and then moved back to England, where other children were born, my mother amongst them. The first year we were here, we went to see the sheep station my grandparents had set up, it was still within my grandfather's family).

I come from the central south of England so i never had a very strong accent, very rarely does anyone pick the English element when i speak. One guy i used to know, his partner said i speak like a radio announcer, hahaha.

I live in an ancient house in Yarraville, so i am very close to the city. Trouble is, my house backs onto Francis street, the most heavily-used truck road in the country, and beyond that is a Mobil Oil and petroleum storage facility, about 30 or more of those huge white cylindrical tanks you can see from the Westgate bridge. Gazillions of litres of petroleum products.

I don't need bail money yet, but sometimes i can be so ....errr....reactive, i often think that one day i'll overstep the mark and need that bail, hehehe. I probably get saved to some degree by my age.....

My poison? I don't drink a whole lot, I like good Scotch and Guiness. I mainly only get my Scotch from a mate in NSW who makes it, really top-shelf stuff. Mostly i just enjoy a little greenery in the evenings these days.


OK....my gear. Over the years, a lot has come and gone. I build amps so i now only use stuff i built for myself.

Amps....I have several amps that are the Vox AC4 circuit from the '60's, an EF86 preamp into an EL84 power stage. Great sounding circuit.

I have built a Matchless DC30 clone, though i am tweaking it this way and that, and

I am building another head, 50 watts, a pair of 5881's. which will be somewhere between a Fender and a Trainwreck.

I have a 2 x 10" cabinet, a 2 x 12" cabinet and a 2 x 15" cabinet, all Celestions. The 12's are from my old Selmer amp, gold circular lables on them, would date back to the 1960's i guess, though they have been rebuilt. The 15's are 60's vintage too.

Guitars.....

2004 Hamer Studio Custom (USA) with SD hybrid pickups (59/Custom bridge, 59/Jazz neck, both A5

1982 Fernandes (Burny) Les Paul, same pickups as the Hamer

1974 Fender Telecaster Custom (owned it for 25 years now)

1969 Fender Stratocaster, currently being rebuilt with Callaham bridge and Bareknuckle 'Irish Tour' pickups

1982 Tokai Stratocaster with Callaham bridge and Bareknuckle 'Apache' pickups

1984 Fender Jazz Bass Special, 1st generation Japanese instrument, Bartolini pickups, EMG preamp.

J&D Midi guitar, kinda shaped like a Parker Fly...pretty ordinary but good for the Midi side of things.

Blueridge BR143 'OOO' style acoustic guitar

Monterey classical guitar with cutaway and pickup system

Stella acoustic 'campfire' guitar i got S/H in England when i was eleven, almost impossible to play but it has the best authentic blues sound.

and of course 'Linda Guitar', which i designed and a friend and myself built in 1994....i will add a pic of this guitar....headless, miniaturised Les Paul style 1-piece body, Honduras mahogany and neck, New Guinea ebony fretboard.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Exactly how crusty is your philtrum?

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Exactly how crusty is your philtrum?

Haha, it's funny you should ask that, I've just got up and my nose was running a little bit, so at the moment it's in the pre-crusty stage, it should be dry and starting to crust over very soon for the day. It's always kinda comforting to have the crust there. Of course when i was young, there was my mum always at the ready to de-crust my philtrum, but now that i'm a big boy living alone in the big city, i like to be rebellious and wear my crust with pride.

Anyhoo, now i'm off to jump up and down on the beds. Ah, i just love being home alone without adult supervision........

 

[Will S-T]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Mate we need to catch up for a toke!
I live out near Calder Park Raceway and work in Sunshine,
we manage a few properties in Yarraville too.
We have alot of work do's at the Commercial, it's the "community services" pub.
Would like to know more about your amps also.

Cheers:beerchug:

 

[Diocletian]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

How come you've only got 556 posts? I seem to see you posting all the time on here, I can't believe you have such a low post count.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Mate we need to catch up for a toke!
I live out near Calder Park Raceway and work in Sunshine,
we manage a few properties in Yarraville too.
We have alot of work do's at the Commercial, it's the "community services" pub.
Would like to know more about your amps also.

Cheers:beerchug:

At first i was thinking of Sandown raceway, which of course is over the other side of town; only later did i realise you had said 'Calder', and thus are out here on the western side. Indeed we should catch up sometime, i can be anywhere at anytime, so let me know and we'll do it. Look forward to it.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

How come you've only got 556 posts? I seem to see you posting all the time on here, I can't believe you have such a low post count.

Yeah, i have noticed similar things with other members. Some seem to be almost invisible yet they have huuge post counts, and others seem to be everywhere but they have low post counts. It's a strange thing. All i can think is that maybe some people seem more noticeable because of their user names and/or avatar pics, or maybe because of the content of their posts. I know my post count has never been tampered with or altered, that's for sure.

I once saw Grumpy say something that i felt applied to me also, and i have since seen someone else say the same thing about themself....something along the lines of whenever they, (or I, in my case), post, it seems to be the death of that particular thread, or when they start a thread, it sinks like a stone. I came close to using this particular talent recently when a Yngwiestein thread about 'Lord Yngwie' re-surfaced recently as a zombie thread and i thought maybe a post from me might finally kill it, hahahaha.

Oh well, if i'm right about my thread-killing capabilities, i can always serve the forum as a weapon against zombie threads i guess........

...."Oh NO !! Look out guys !! A zombie thread !! GET CRUSTY !!!!!!"

hehehehee !

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Ok, i'm just looking around here for some pics of my guitars to post. The camera i was given is funny...a very early Sony 1.3 MegPixel job that uses a floppy disc as it's storage medium, it slides into the side of the camera. It's very primitive by today's standards, probably barely as good as most people have in their mobile phones these days. But at least it might give you a bit of an idea, so here goes.....

First, my Les Paul...I won it on Ebay for a very good price, but it had been hacked around and had a middle bucker added. I did a lot of work, did a great job of filling the hole but it was just toooo hard to make an invisible repair on the sunburst top, so in the end i re-finished it in a sort of dark candy apple red with a black burst within the red finish. The pics won't really do the new finish justice, but here's the 'before and after' anyways....('before' pics on the right, 'after' on the left...)

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

Here's the Tokai Silver Star Strat ('Silver Star' are the 70's replicas) *after* i fitted the Callaham bridge, BK pickups and used cream covers and tortoiseshell scratchplate.....you can see it also in the second pic in it's original form next to my '74 Tele Custom, which used to be sunburst until a while ago when i stripped what was left of the finish....and boy, it sounds so much better without all that goop all over it !! You may notice that the Tele has a custom scratchplate and control layout, i did that many years ago, it works well for me.

Then there's the Hamer USA Studio Custom.....

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: The Well part LVII...Crusty Philtrum

I presume you started off living in NSW/Sydney.Did you live at one of those awful places for immigrants with the Tin huts?There was one near where i grew up in Melb. Most of the people there were from England and the Kids attended the same high school i went to. We thought they were really cool because they had British accents like all our music heroes of the time[Mid 60's].
When did you move to melbourne? Have you ever spent much time " on the other side of the river"over on the eastern side of town?