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Got off the phone with Mike a while ago he said to send an update if I wanted. He sounds good seems to be in decent spirits. Going to go to Rush Hospital to have a few things checked out in the next few days that might make things easier for him. He then told the story I never heard how he is got the name big mike.
Seems back 30 years ago he was working as a Chef in a high-class place, I believe in the Bay area. They had retail operation too that sold all kinds of cooking supplies and books, gadgets and ect. Seems that was where the real money was made not so much the restaurant portion of the business. Well apparently, a guy was shoplifting books and hiding them in a rolled newspaper and Mike got word. He then chased him down on the streets and caught up and demanded that he return the merchandise. The guy was pretty scared and basically dropped in all and gave it back took off.
Mike returns to the business and the owners told him that he certainly could have gotten hurt or shot or whatever in that situation. Then another employee comes up and says, it was quite a thing to do and after he is Big Mike right? So, the name stuck. In today's world that would be crazy and possibly a fatal error.
Now back to guitars I have not played all day.
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07-08-2024 06:16 PM
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I've known Big Mike for over 20 years and never knew that story! He's always been an interesting, tough, multi-talented guy with a big heart.
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Thanks to Big Mike for sharing. I love this story and how that name became part of Mikes person and how our doings in general tend to define us.
I come to think of another similar kind of story which is one of my sketch favorites, and that is the scene where W.C. Field explains how he got the name "Honest John". I hope that it is not seen as bad taste to post it here but it may bring out a smile. Hopefully also for Mike, if he sees it.
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He used to transport expensive jewels and knows a lot about them. That's high risk, too.
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I bought a 1979 Ibanez GB20-NT online today, and read the listing details later, the seller saying it came from Big Mike's collection.
I did some reading here tonight, and was sad to read of Mike's health problems...anyone's actually. I wish him well.
I will do my best to take care of Big Mike's big guitar. It might be the heaviest guitar I own and I'm a runt.
Murray
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Best wishes to Big Mike, from Big Rob!
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One of Mike's favorites.
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Hello Big Mike. Good to hear from you..
Pilotony
Tony D.
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Here is Big Mike talking about this guitar...
Originally Posted by murrayatuptown
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A 'foodie' might not be a violent type (unless their meal order takes too long).
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Big Mike is passionate about three guitar flavors: the GB, Unity brand, and Campellones. He also liked many fine Gibsons and Heritages. There were even more that I don't recall, some truly unique ones.
Sometimes I wish that I was the sort of person who had a guitar and felt like there's no point in having a second one while the first one works. When I was in the school band playing clarinet, I never thought that having two would be better.
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As I'm reading your post, MG, I'm in my living room looking at my Ibanez GB10, my Gibson ES-175, my Cushman archtop and a pile of gig bags containing two Telecasters, a Stratocaster and a thinline nylon string. That is actually almost all of my guitars, so I don't have as many as some folks in the forum do. But I have too many.
Back when I was gigging fairly regularly, I would take whichever guitar presented itself to me on a whim on my way out the door. We recorded most of our gigs, try to figure out ways to get better; I often noticed that if I didn't know which guitar I was playing, I couldn't really tell just from the tone. For both better and worse, I just sounded like me no matter which guitar I was playing. I keep hoping I'll eventually buy the guitar that makes me sound like somebody good.
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And IIRC, Eastman/Wu/Yolanda etc. Originally Posted by Marty Grass
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The wood is beautiful. I don't smell anything offensive in the case or pickguard yet. Interestingly, there is a fair amount of dullness on the pickup corners, both sides, not just adjacent to the pickguard/finger-rest. Maybe they were lacquered over the plating (I'm guessing) and it wears off from cumulative pick abrasion.
The volume control is pretty scratchy. I had some total loss of sound but no hum, & it was one of my low-budget cables...replaced it and now just scratchiness.
I probably should have measured, but assumed metric hardware (M8 hole?) & ordered an Alpha mini 500k audio taper pot from Stew-Mac along with a Schatten T-2 dual 500k pot + capacitor set from Stew-Mac. I was put off by postage amount from Canada when I found Schatten-Canada, looked at Stew-Mac, thought the postage was just as high, & added some other things to stop me from looking elsewhere (no Schatten T-2 found on Amazon!). I added the volume pot & some clearance old-style terminal lug strips for amp projects to spread the postage over multiple items ;O(.
I think I will split the dual Schatten board into two and find another capacitor. One for the GB20 and maybe the other on a Loar 350VS that I never noticed (!) had no tone control. I play it unplugged more than plugged-in and realized it only this year (?).
Someone had asked (hopefully in this thread) how the Schatten PCB mounts. It comes with strips of 3M VHB (tm) foam tape. "VHB" if I remember, stands for Very High Bond(strength). I won't say non-removeable, but not practically repositionable. Maybe there is a very short time after initial placement, but it's used in manufacturing as a substitute for hardware or permanent adhesive. Removeable like removing paint. Possible, but not supposed to be easy.
I usually plug 'new' guitars into a small amp, but for some reason went straight for the Vox TB35C2 which might as well be a bass amp compared to what I was used to.
The guitar has sustain I had not really noticed on my other archtops...I told a friend 'like a solid body guitar', not really meaning it...but I can't say that's wrong either.
Seller said the original tuners (in the case) were replaced with Grover's. But they are marked Schaller :O)...butter bean shape rather than the round front, angled back F-series. Doesn't really matter, but since I'm typing about them, I'd rather avoid errors to correct later.
The guitar sounds very nice plugged in or acoustically, but I'm not too picky. Strings it came in with are 11-49, non-wound G.
Does anyone know if the adjustable screws on the split tailpiece are actually 'fine tuners' as a friend said? Or maybe wolf-tone dampening mass-adjusters. Double/contra-bass builders sometimes add adjustable mass to tailpieces for such problems (but look quite different).
Thanks for reading
Murray
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