New Gibby flattop semi

Click image for a biggy.

Years ago an old luthier friend once showed me how to check the grain features of an unfinished piece of wood. It was as simple as giving the wood a wipe with a damp rag and the grain would jump out at you. Wouldn't you think the woodworkers at Gibson would know this trick? If so then how can they pass a top-end Gibson through QC with such prominent joins in the top of the new Gibson Midtown Custom? Other than that and the fact that a flattened 335 style guitar does look a little weird this is a beautiful instrument. A nicely bound neck in glowing white plastic encases the ebony and pear block finger board and quite jumbo frets. The neck felt really comfortable like a good old Les Paul standard, not slim but also not too chunky. The head was the Gibson 'custom' style head with the diamond inlay and multi bound. The body of this 335 sized semi was constructed from a solid mahogany body strategically chambered for optimum resonance and capped with a solid maple top, them's Gibson words. I would say this is quite a cheap construction method compared to a true semi, not to mention it would make for plenty of router dust.
Well I have been fooled again. A quick look at the Midtown's specs I see the finger board isn't ebony but in fact Richlite (tm). What's the bet they make Richlite from mahogony dust and die it black?
Making all the noise are a pair of hot Burst Buckers which feed the usual Gibson three way switch and volume and tone controls setup. Interesting is the side mounted output jack and not front mounted as on the 335's. Hardware is standard Tone Pros bridge and stop tailpiece with a tail strap button and a button mounted on the top 'ear' and not at the heel of the neck.
This is a luxury guitar with its triple white binding but I would have liked to see it with gold plated metal bits and in true 'custom' style, with three hummers. Probbably nit picking here but what's with the elcheapo plastic speed knobs? Easily changed but for those that like to keep their instrument as it came off the line, mmm?
All up I would give this about a 7.5. It is a modern take on the full sized semi and a nice player. It is obviously made to a price but they could have done a better job in matching the tops of the see through finish models and only time will tell on how the Richlite will stand up to serious bends.

Check it out here..
http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Designer/Gibson-USA/Midtown-Custom.aspx

WSS 2012 - run and won

Congrats James McFadden and the TWW team on what was a great series win. Well all I can say is that I'm discusted with the speedway media in not reporting James' win on Sprintcarworld and not even on the WSS site. Why should us fans support speedway or it's advertisers if you, the speedway media, don't recognise the countries premier speedway series winner. Bloody pathetic If World Series Sprintcars can't put together a series for 2013 then I couldn't give a rats. They don't deserve to. As for Sprintcarworld, are the politics all a bit much for you? Guys spend millions of dollars on hardware to tow all over the country, most spending more than they get in return just because they want to race. They need to be recognised for their achievemnts with a bit more than a couple of lines in the Warnambool Standard. It must be so hard for guys like Wade, possibly the biggest fan and promotor of sprintcar racing, to see the total lack of media coverage every year. It just dosen't ever get any better. We have to put up with the latest Kardashin's crap or Krudsy's blooper tape yet you, the speedway media, can't get a line in the mainstream press or be bothered to report it at your own websites. Try harder or it will be gone one day and soon. The economic squeeze is still with us in case you haven't noticed. Families are having trouble affording major speedway events. It's not half the enterainment is could easily be and if WSS have no Dumsneys, Tatnells and Farrs next season, no one will be coughing up 30 bucks (or prob 35 next season) for what amounts to a local show with a sprinkle of  midfielder Yanks. Wake up!!

On the home straight

What with the tyre controversy, the series prize money issue and whether or not the series winner will be a non-contracted driver and if so, will the purse go to the highest point scoring contracted driver? These are all unresolved issues our guy James McFadden has to deal with going into this final round. It's 20 grand that James won't get if they do finish the series on top however the team aren't being phased and will just get on with the job. Quote: "I’m going out there this weekend to do whatever I can to wrap up the World Series and nothing else,” commented a confident McFadden. “At the beginning of the season we had planned to just pick and choose our race meetings, but since our form was so good we decided to continue on. It would’ve been stupid not to. The World Series rules state that if you aren’t a contracted driver, then you're ineligible for the end of season prize pool. Although the extra prize money [$20,000] would be nice for our team’s budget, we don’t do it for the money. If we did, we’d be doing it for all the wrong reasons.”
Night one of the two night final started with the all important time trials and James was to only manage a 19th place which means some hard racing and passing to get a starting place in the A main tomorrow night. Jason Johnson, James' closest rival for the series title time trialed behind James but both Brooke and Robbie had the better time trials and a bigger points haul. Heat one of the final round saw James off the outside front row with James making short work of local W.A. racer Nathan Bradley on lap one to go on to win the race. Brooke and Jason finished 6th and 8th in their heat and Robbie 5th in his so the night was coming James' way. Jason Johnson found himself in the preliminary B-main out of a lowly 15th but with a strong drive worked his way up to a 5th finish giving him a transfer position to the preliminary A-main. It was an on-fire Cameron Gessner who won the night one A-main with rivals Brooke and Robbie home in 3rd and 5th. James went backwards slipping to 10th for much of the race from a 6th place start. With a hard charge in the final 5 laps James made it back up to finish in 7th.
Well it's only WSS that know the round points as we go into night two however I do believe with only the one round of night one heats drivers were awarded double points. James should benefit from this with his heat win. Rolling on..

Max quits World Series Sprintcars in protest

After winning seven WSS championships over the 25 years the series has been running Max has decided to quit the series as both the tyre supplier and driver. Max claims he was not consulted when the WSS promoters decided it would be a good idea to introduce a left-rear control tyre to the already mandatory Hoosier right-rear. In a group hug Tatnell, Farr and many of the other top drivers thought it a little unfair on Max that WSS had given the tyre contract to American Racer and they to possibly won't be running the series next season. We shall see?
Max has devoted his life to racing and particularly sprintcars. Some years ago Max scored the Australian distribution of these expensive balloon's of rubber, the Hoosier racing tyre. Good on him, it's called business.
Max has been the most popular racer over these past 25 years with race fans and has been perhaps the biggest promoter of sprintcar racing. Unfortunately politics in sport has eventually 'got him'.
Read what they had to say in the Warnambool Standard where Max hails from and has his biggest fan base.
http://www.standard.net.au/news/local/sport/motor-racing/dumesny-quits-wss-in-protest/2458565.aspx

Fenders and more Fenders

The new breed.

Fender are releasing new guitars by the dozens. Here are just a few I had a play on today down at KC's Rockshop. The nice Candy Apple Red Strat and the Surf Green jobs in the picture are the brand new for 2012 Vintage Modified Surf Stratocasters by Squier. These are made in Indonesia and not of the best quality I've seen from this factory. The Candy paint was rather shallow on the red one and the surf green one was pretty insipid. Tepid you might say.

Oh dear, what now?

Spotted an NAMM recently on the Why? stand was this monstrosity. Any guesses? It looks Les Paul juniorish but it has what appears to be an ash slab body and a neck with a maple finger board. I think you're right, this is some sort of a mutant Gibson but the P90's with a Tele shape pickguard and that hard tail Strat type bridge they used on the Nighthawk.? oh no, I've just noticed that it even has a B-Bender. Surely this isn't to be part of the Gibson line, it has to be some kind of prototype from the workbench of an apprentice. Come on Gibson, we love the old Les Pauls, the ES semis and the big jazz boxes. I suppose to be fair some people even like an SG but give us a break with all these pathetic inventions.

We're warming to the upcoming season

Ferrari not happy, McLaren and the Red Bull blown away by Nico Rosberg's last years Mercedes but things are looking the best for the Loti from the recent Jerez test days. Check out this article on the sports pages of The Guardian

One to go

Round 13 of the WSS saw the team at Manjimup Speedway and James with a solid fifth place finish giving him enough of a points break on his rivals to take the championship at Bunbury last night. Didn't happen. Farrell was to take the win with Johnson, Farr and Tatnell all finishing ahead of James Mc it has set things up for a slim possibility for one of the contracted touring drivers to take the additional twenty g's trophy money. Unfortunately if James goes on to win the series championship then WSS get to pocket the dough as James isn't a series contracted driver. Tough. As we go into the final at the Perth Motorplex this coming weekend James hold the points lead on 4053 points from Johnson 3669, Tatnell 3569 and Farr 3521. Should be good. 

V8 Supercars to loose Aussie identity



Car of the Future.. future what?

Well Skaify, between you and Cockhead you've finally taken the Aussie out of V8 Supercars racing. Those great days of Ford v's Holden will be behind us and its back to the old what you race on Sundays is what 'sells' on Mondays. It sounds like corporate racing to me. Yes we know Nissan is a motorsport giant and that the pressures that be to take 'our' racing offshore must be huge but.. Perhaps it will be a good thing? Gary Rogers is talking Chrysler's, anyone mentioning Kia? Have a read of the Kelly Racing press release here and see if you can find any reference to racing.

Albany WSS R12

Albany WSS R12. The night got off to a great start with James top time trialing. Heat one was a battle with Ryan Farrel for a sixth place. Another sixth in the second round of heats got James into the Gold Shootout and an out of three start in the A-Main. A mistake from pole sitter Kerry Madsen saw James take the lead in the opening lap which he held to lap 24. Jason Johnson made the pass and went on to win the round. James holds on to the series lead on 3497 points ahead of Tatnell on 3088 and JJ on 3067. The key is a good Time Trial, can James hang in there for the remaining three races?

Tracking James

It has been mixed results for James over the recent non-WSS races. The Prelude to the Championship on Jan 25 didn't happen as scheduled so it was straight into night one of the Title. With a heat win and an 8th place finish James only earned enough points for a 17th place start in the preliminary night one Main. It was a battle but James made his way forward to finish 11th. A rainout on the Saturday night saw the teams back late Sunday afternoon for the final round of heats and the all important mains. With a 5th and a 2nd combined with the Friday points James found himself starting out of 11th alongside Brazier. James slid past Dylan Jenkins on lap 12 for the next 9. Some good dicing with Matt Egel followed until the 40th came around seeing James with an 8th place finish.So with the title run and won by Brooke Tatnell it was time to head west for the final leg of the WSS. First up was Round 11 at Kalgoorlie International Speedway. With a 3rd best time trial it gave a good bag of points to start the night with. The first heat was a dud sparing with arch rival Jason Johnson all the way and finishing 8th (of 9) but ahead of Johnson.The second heat was a disaster only making 3 laps and recording a DNF. While there were a few surprises in the B-Main James wasn't one of them taking his start in the A-Main out of 12. It was a good run up to 6th but Steve Lines proved to be a hard nut to crack and James had to settle for 6th.
Series points after R11. James leads on 3193 from Brooke and Robbie who are closing in fast. It will be a nail biter of a finish to the series.

No changes to the #1 car

Brooke checks the wing on the #1

Brooke Tatnell wins the 50th running of the Australian Sprintcar Title for his 5th time in a race that wasn't exactly plain sailing. Brooke started the A-main out of sixth to be passed at the start by Tassie Jamie Bricknell. Brooke took the place back on lap 2 of the 40 lapper and started his march to the front. After some heavy dueling with Dave Murcott Brooke found himself in second place behind young Shaun Dobson until the opening came on lap 31 where Brook made the pass for the final ten laps.
Read all about the 2012 Title race at the Speedway City web site here.. http://www.speedwaycity.com.au/release.asp?NewsId=42892

McLaren unveil their Red Bull buster.. ?

The 2012 MP4-27

Will Lewis and Jensen have the wheels to challenge the Red Bull's this season? On paper maybe and will the Jerez shakedown this week set them up for a great race in Melbourne in a few weeks. Yep, that time already.
Read all about the MP4-27 and its development right from the horses mouth.. http://www.mclaren.com