Triggers : various inspirations.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 8:07PM As Little Design As Possible : The Work Of Deiter Rams by Sophie Lovell
A beautiful book that arrived at my part time bookshop job today ... inspiring in it's starkness, it makes me want to design something and then simplify it and then throw out all unnecessary elements and then sart all over again with a simpler objective.
Not very rock n roll ?
Keep it simple stupid.
Simple, but not easy.
AP
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 2:13PM 
My gorgeous 60's Guild Polara in repose on her in-built chrome kickstand in Saguaro National Park just outside of Tucson AZ. Thanksgiving 2003.
I had a month in the U.S. just looking around, taking photos with my little $5 Ricoh 500GX rangefinder in my pocket. I purchased this guitar from Dan's Chelsea guitars ( yep, next to the Chelsea Hotel in NYC ) and it was still rattling around in the boot of my crappy rental car by the time I got to Arizona, so this was a photo-op that i couldn't resist.
The Polara ( with rarer Jetstar shape headstock and maple headstock overlay ) has been a good friend to me through many recordings and gigs. The neck pickup sound on this guitar is where I call 'home' and the Hagström made bridge and vibrato are so slinky, staying in tune through many mid-song Reg Mombassa wangles.
The pickups ( one of a few kinds referred to by Guild factory staff as 'Mickey Mouse' due to their el-cheapo nature when compared to Guild's more revered mini-humbuckers and larger P90 style efforts ) are microphonic to the extent that I can sing through them and loop my voice behind the chorus of a song as I play my solo San Antone ( audio coming soon* ) gigs.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 6:16PM more ancient audio artefacts ...
some of these will end up on guitars and the best ones will be replicated in resin for future use.
those switch knobs with the paddles on them are gonna be handy for pickup selctors !
AP
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 12:31AM New drill presses are rubbish ... there, I've said it.
This thing turned up on a certain online auction website here in Melbourne's burbs last week.
It's heavy, it's at least 55 years old, it cost AU$76, it hums quietly to itself whilst shiny new tools grind and wobble their way all through the livelong day ... in short, I'm delighted to make it's acquaintence.
tomorrow I'll be making a mobile stand for it ( I need the bass quadbox for a gig on Sunday ... )
... looks at home next to my McPherson 4" jointer that i picked up a few months back for AU$100
now that's heavy ...
Cheers, AP
Monday, November 29, 2010 at 11:38PM Man, I love these little things ... these aren't my photos but i find them everywhere that I find old, heavy, beautifully over-engineered workmanship ...
Sure is 'spartan' with only two screws ...
Nipper !
Nice ... the good ones have images and text etched into the plate, not just screened on top ...
Wow, I've been looking for someone who still does this kind of plate - I guess for the numbers that I'm going to need I may as well screen them myself onto aluminium sheet, maybe leave a 'field' for stamped serial numbers and such ...
I might try some little black waterslide decals that are inspired by this kind of I.D. plate ... I could picture them on the back of guitar headstocks.
Cheers, AP
