My favorite fragrances

[dogbone]

The top must be castor bean oil,followed by cam 2 racing gas.  The best smelling car was my 1959 XK 150 S, the leather was great. 

[Jeri Danger]

Hi
Back in the late 60s I bought a new old stock
Gretsch 6120 Nashville  1959 model guitar.
I purchased it from a music store in Memphis
that was going out of business and this instrument
has been in their warehouse for a decade unsold.
It had been in its factory case for ten years unmolested.
The aroma that came out of that case and guitar was
just magic! Never will forget it.
And a magic instrument also!
The wonders that Gretsch could do with wood metal and glue.
Way can't we still do stuff like that here(USA) anymore?
I R&R with that 6120 for 40 years she is now retired
and living with my daughter in Texas
Jeri

[Eamon]

Hi
Back in the late 60s I bought a new old stock
Gretsch 6120 Nashville  1959 model guitar.
I purchased it from a music store in Memphis
that was going out of business and this instrument
has been in their warehouse for a decade unsold.
It had been in its factory case for ten years unmolested.
The aroma that came out of that case and guitar was
just magic! Never will forget it.
And a magic instrument also!
The wonders that Gretsch could do with wood metal and glue.
Way can't we still do stuff like that here(USA) anymore?
I R&R with that 6120 for 40 years she is now retired
and living with my daughter in Texas
Jeri

Rickenbacker still makes their beautiful guitars here in America, and I know what you mean about the aroma of a fine guitar and case!  My 1967 Fender Corondao XII had it the most strikingly, but my Rickenbacker 330/12 did(does) too.  I can still clearly remember the first time I opened up the case!  I think my Rickenbacker deserves a Gretsch as a stable mate one of these days, but I doubt the $$$ are going to be available any time soon.  By the way, did yours have a Bigsby on it?

Eamon

[Jeri Danger]

Hi
Yeah, has a Bigsby on it
I think that was standard on 6120s, never seen one
without a Bigsby mounted on it.
What I think also was standard was the two DeArmond(1959 model)
pick-ups, which mine has also.
Real 6120s have just gone out of sight price wise of late.
Since I retired my guitar and needed a replacement I started looking
around for something a little less expensive.
I found a almost new Guild x-150 Rockabilly(that wonderful neck thing)
Large archtop like the Gretsch, same DeArmond pick-ups
and Bigsby wammy bar.
Way better than a new Jap made Gretsch(they have no soul)
And a couple k cheaper than a real Gretsch 6120
Jeri

[ace.cafe]

I  used to work in a Luthier shop for about 6 years, making custom acoustic guitars.
We build mostly dreadnaughts on a modified Martin pattern, and the were totally handmade customs.
Yep! We still make 'em in America!

Here's a few pics of one that I made. Everything was done by me, including all the inlay work. It's a super-fancy cocobolo body(with sapwood streaks), maple neck, cocobolo(w/sapwood) fingerboard and pinless bridge and our signature headstock. Master-grade fancy "bear-claw" Caucasian Spruce soundboard.
Inlays are Red and Green Paua Abalone
Totally awesome sound, and look.

[Jeri Danger]

Hi Ace
Does it play and sound as good as it looks?
If it sounds half as good as it looks!
What scale is it?
I hate to ask about the price
Jeri

[dogbone]

That's a fine looking ax, but how does it smell !!!???
 

[ace.cafe]

Hi Ace
Does it play and sound as good as it looks?
If it sounds half as good as it looks!
What scale is it?
I hate to ask about the price
Jeri

Hi Jeri,
Yes, it plays real fine.

It has a 25.4" scale, and we make a thinner, faster-playing neck than a Martin.
We also tighten up the radius on the back and the soundboard, so that it's a little more "sprung", and this really perks up the percussive attack.  It's beautifully delicate and complex with rich harmonic structure when played softly, and can be really driven hard without washing out.

Additionally, we use a "pre-war" style Martin x-bracing, fully scalloped braces that we make ourselves. and we have our special bridge design which has more mass and surface area on the bass side, and lighter mass on the treble size, to corrrespond with the needs of the amplitudes and frequencies at either end of the spectrum.
It's a set-neck, and this one was a 5-piece laminated maple, with center stripe of cocobolo and maple. We hand carve all our own necks.

It's a shame that I didn't have a pic of the back side. The back side was a spectacular set of fancy cocobolo with a big sapwood streak down the middle, just like the headstock has, which I did purposely so it would carry the styling cue from the back around to the front.
That guitar sold for $7800.

As for the playability and sound, our professional endorser, Gold-Record winning artist John Andrew Parks loves his, and says "it sustains into the middle of next week".
Just as a comparison, John Andrew Parks had previously played one acoustic guitar for his entire career, and that was his 1969 Martin D-45 that he bought new back then.
He now plays our custom dreadnaught that we made for him, and it sounds way better than that vintage D-45. And it's only just now starting to open-up because it's only 2 years old now. That should say something.

Here's John Andrew Parks playing one of our guitars at the Paso Robles Festival last fall. He won a Gold Record a while back for the song "Planet Texas", which went gold with Kenny Rogers singing it. John also does that song himself, and it's a standard on "Texas Rebel Radio" around the Austin area where John lives.

This is a flamed maple dreadnaught with maple neck and maple fingerboard, and trimmed in Bloodwood, with an inlaid Celtic Rope rosette around the sound hole. Equpped with a Fishman pickup for performing amplified.

[ace.cafe]

That's a fine looking ax, but how does it smell !!!???
 

Cocobolo is a rosewood variant, and smells just like rosewood. It's a very good smelling guitar! Nothing like the smell of fresh-cut rosewood.

BTW, I emailed my luthier partner, and asked him to send some uploadable pics of a few of the other guitars he's got over there that are done. There are some utterly stunning guitars over there that would smell awesome, and the look will floor just about anybody.  Even me.

It's his shop, and I go there one evening a week to work on guitars with him for fun. It's just him and me.

[Jeri Danger]

Rickenbacker still makes their beautiful guitars here in America, and I know what you mean about the aroma of a fine guitar and case!  My 1967 Fender Corondao XII had it the most strikingly, but my Rickenbacker 330/12 did(does) too.  I can still clearly remember the first time I opened up the case!  I think my Rickenbacker deserves a Gretsch as a stable mate one of these days, but I doubt the $$$ are going to be available any time soon.  By the way, did yours have a Bigsby on it?

Eamon

Hi Eamon
I owned a Ricky 330/12 ,a very old one
It was a wonderful guitar.
A few years  back I decided for some reason, I had too
many guitars. I had a sell off on ebay
The Ricky was one of the ones I sold
I regret that lots, very stupid of me
Jeri

[Jeri Danger]

Hi Ace
Well concerning being two years old and "opening up"
That I have noted about Martins, seems like for
a Martin that period is  approximately 5 years.
When new they are just dead(and set up badly)
Get them set up and wait 5 years for them to come in
and you have that C.F. Martin sound.
Go to a Music store and play a new one and you will
be disappointed
Jeri
PS Do you have a price list or web site?

[ace.cafe]

Hi Ace
Well concerning being two years old and "opening up"
That I have noted about Martins, seems like for
a Martin that period is  approximately 5 years.
When new they are just dead(and set up badly)
Get them set up and wait 5 years for them to come in
and you have that C.F. Martin sound.
Go to a Music store and play a new one and you will
be disappointed
Jeri
PS Do you have a price list or web site?

Jeri,
The issue with "opening up" comes from the characteristics of the soundboard and the lacquer finish that's used. It takes some time for that to "work in" to get to vibrating the way it should. Our guitars do that too. They pretty much all do that.
But the point I wanted to make is that D45 is 40 years old and played alot, and is fully opened-up and aged very nicely as a vintage Martin. While the guitar we made is still not yet at its fully "opened-up" state. When our guitar gets "matured" it's going to really be freaky good.
I am aware of that "new guitar sound" not being what they will eventually end up as, and as a luthier, I'm decently versed in what that's all about.
Plus, almost every Martin made since 1970 is a factory-built guitar, and they stopped scalloping the braces, and the fitting isn't what it was back in the 1930s and 1940s. Nowhere even close to the old quality. You have to buy a $10k+ custom-built Martin to get what the old Martins used to be like.

We used to have a website, but we took it down. The guitars just weren't selling since the downturn in the economy. That's why we still have a few left that haven't been sold. We make very few guitars, and it takes us about a year to finish each one.
Just the lacquer finish alone takes 3 months to do. We specialize in the most exotic woods obtainable, but we can make a plain one to order, if that's desired.
Our "plain wood" versions use top quality woods too, but not super exotic woods that are very costly to buy. They would run in the neighborhood of around $2500 and up, depending on options, for like a nice Maple, or Indian Rosewood, or Mahogany.
I  think we still have 2 nice mahogany ones with black Ebony trim, that we made a matching set of 3 guitars, all the same, except one a regular dreadnaught, one a dread with Venetian cutaway, and the  other a dread with Florentine cutaway. All with Honduran Mahogany necks. Very elegant looking,  but relatively plain-figured high-quality wood. Cedar soundboards, complete the monochromatic look, with very striking contrast to the black Ebony trim. Those are relatively affordable, and in a similar price range as a factory produced guitar from Martin, below $3000 each.
As the makers, we don't have to include any dealer mark-ups, and our prices reflect that.  Our guitars at a custom dealer would all be over $5000, and most would be over $10,000.  We are able to sell at much less than that, because we are not using dealer distribution. We don't make enough gutars to have dealers, anyway.

We do have a few stunning exotics that are complete.
We do 25.4" scales on everything, unless specified otherwise, and all modified Martin pattern construction..
We have a dreadnaught in quilted Bubinga that has to be seen to be believed!
We also have a quilted Sapele dreadnaught, and a matching dreadnaught with Venetian cutaway, which will knock your eyes out.
And we have a super-fancy Brazilian Rosewood with fancy figure and sapwood, and an Adirondack Red Spruce soundboard, which is the "signature combination" that was used on the pre-WW2 Martins and is so desireable for that "pre-war sound".
We might still have a nice Madagascar Rosewood Jumbo around, but I'm not sure.
Those are all some pretty expensive guitars, and I'll  have to get some prices from Bob on them.
I've asked him to send some pics to display.

I'll put up some pics, when Bob emails them to me.
These guitars are worth seeing, regardless of any interest in buying them.
They are most certainly some of the most exotic and beautiful guitars that you will ever see.
We basically make our guitars as art, visual and musical. I don't think we really make any money at it, once it's all said and done, with the amount of time and effort we put into each one. It's  mostly because we enjoy the creation of the instrument, and exercising our creative desires.

Our "motto" for creating an instrument is "Nobody will ever ask you how fast you got it done, or how much money you made on it. The only thing that will endure is the quality of the instrument, and the lasting impression it makes on the owner and audience".
We might not make money doing it, but we hope that the future will look on our instruments as the ones that people will fight to get ahold of the few that we made, after we're gone.

[Eamon]

Hi Eamon
I owned a Ricky 330/12 ,a very old one
It was a wonderful guitar.
A few years  back I decided for some reason, I had too
many guitars. I had a sell off on ebay
The Ricky was one of the ones I sold
I regret that lots, very stupid of me
Jeri

I had a newer, but still very nice 330 six string for a while as well, but sold it when some medical bills started piling up.  I thought I could always get another one for what I sold it for.  Not so!  Within six months the price of used Ricks just skyrocketed.  I'm still kicking myself in the ass    I got rid of other equipment that I regret too, but have vowed not to do it again.  Oh well, I know I'll never part with the 12 string.

Eamon

[Ukuvox]

It's his shop, and I go there one evening a week to work on guitars with him for fun. It's just him and me.

Meanwhile, I sit hear with ENVY! It's just "him" and me. 

[exiledcarper]

My favourite fragrance is "Eau De Redfish", the sweet smell of success.  If I come home stinking of Reds, then i've had a good day 'at the office".
  Another old favourite was "Eau De Well Thrashed two Stroke", nothing quite like it after a good hard ride on my Yammy RD400.  Man that was a great little bike, very reliable too.  A mean lean little wheelie machine, with good bottom end torque too. One that they got "just right" in my opinion.

[Ice]

Too many to choose just one.

[ace.cafe]

Since I was grossly out of line with previous hijacking of this thread, I'll get back on topic.

Some fragrances I like are:
Castrol R
Fresh brewing Kona coffee
Steak on a hot charcoal grill
1982 Chateau Cheval Blanc
Connolly leather
Virginia tobacco
Honeysuckle in bloom
Cool mountain air
IMR 4895
Cordite

[Ice]

 Sunoco 260 gasoline with real tetra ethyl lead 

[r80rt]

Sunoco 260 gasoline with real tetra ethyl lead 

Oh yeah, I'm with you on that one.

[jdrouin]

I like the hot metal/oil smell of the primary case when opened up.

Am I alone in liking the fumes that come out of the breather hose when the bike has been running for a while?

Re: guitars: I started playing at age 12 on my father's 1964 Gibson Country & Western that he bought used in 1965, which has been with me for 21 years now. It's the precursor to the Hummingbird without the flashy inlay (I think Cheryl Crow plays one). If honey had a sound, this guitar would match it. It smells like old rosewood and rotting skin/oils from all my playing.

That reminds me I need to clean the fretboard and replace the strings.

[baird4444]

     


                                  " I love the smell of NAPALM  in the morning... "

[Cabo Cruz]

[REA Member 131]

1) New Car smell

2) WD-40

3) race gas

4) new blue-jeans

5) my own farts

6) Honeysuckle

7) that mimeograph ink they used to print everything with in grade-school

the inside of a brewery

9) those Bounce things I put in the dryer

10) rain

[t120rbullet]

5) my own farts

You are one sick individual.
You ought to fit right in here.
Welcome to the group.

[1Blackwolf1]

  Black powder
  Cordite
  Ketone
  Rose wood

[Cabo Cruz]

The scent of a woman after a shower!  (There is not a need for perfume, an even expensive and very pleasant fragrance, in this case!)

[r80rt]

Cabo, I like the way you think.

[1Blackwolf1]

The scent of a woman after a shower!  (There is not a need for perfume, an even expensive and very pleasant fragrance, in this case!)

  Sly dog....   Will.

[Cabo Cruz]

[HRAB]

My list of favorites is long, and I just added a new one. On my trip I crossed the Eastern Washington desert area westward out of Coulee Dam.   It began raining that morning and the desert turned green, and gave off a most fragrent, sweet spicy aroma. The best I can describe it is: Sage mixed with sweet floral.

Then the showers passed and it reached 104 farenheit. It just smelled HOT.
jim

[Blltrdr]

The whiff of fresh cold air as you break through the first hard frosted grass of the fall. Also the wildberry/wildflower smell as you hike along mountain trails in the early summer.

Sometimes while I'm listening to the radio a song will play that triggers a certain fragrance from my past that instantly and vividly transports me to that very special moment in time when I first experienced that certain fragrance. The human brain is quite amazing and wonderful when functioning properly, or possibly in my case, improperly.  

[Ice]

Thank you Blltrdr, Reading your post triggered the recollection of the first frost of my fourteen autumn which triggered,,, well you know how this works.  It is a indeed a wonderful thing.