Your suggestions in Comments.
Month: August 2020
Kim’s Back Yard
Following yesterday’s post which mocked the British ideal of “dream garden”, here are my own (ranked) top ten desirable backyard features:
1. four-bay 25-yard air-conditioned indoor pistol range
2. 100-yard rifle range with back stop and shaded shooting benches
3. sporting clays area, with six or more stations
4. six-car garage
5. climate-controlled storage shed for ammo and sundry shooting supplies (maybe backing off one of the ranges) with a decent reloading setup inside
6. outdoor kitchen with both charcoal- and gas grills, including a bar counter
7. woodworking shop, e.g. Norm Abrams’s “New Yankee Workshop”
8. swimming pool
9. surrounding the entire back yard with a couple extra corners thrown in, a go-kart track which could accommodate grownup cars e.g. a Caterham 500
10. Guest house where my friends could stay for their (probably weekly) play dates.
Okay, the race track is possibly something of an overreach, but not necessarily.
As for the “garden” idea… meh. Patio or deck with pool and BBQ grill, no lawn. Pots with artificial flowers.
Practice Room
If I had the money, I’d buy a house that would include space for a sound-proofed music room. Then I’d load it up with guitars and a few amps, just to mess around on (when the weather’s inclement).
“Which guitars?” you ask.
Kim’s Top Five Favorite Electric Guitars
Fender Stratocaster
I like playing rock ‘n roll, and the Strat practically defines the genre. Also in rock:
Gibson SG Deluxe
This version, with the triple humbucker pickups, still sounds better than just about any other. For some reason, I just prefer playing it, over the
Gibson Les Paul
Don’t get me wrong: it’s #3 on my list, and I’m a really fussy listener when it comes to sound. And for a change-up in the sound, my #4 pick is the
Rickenbacker 350
That jangly, chime-like sound reminds me of the 1960s, and how bad can that be? But assuming I wanted a more stripped-down, basic sound (and I would), there’s nothing better than the
Fender Telecaster
I prefer the Thinline semi-acoustic body, as pictured.
For a practice amp, I’d actually have two, the Fender Twin Reverb and the Vox AC-30 for that old-fashioned (but still wonderful) sound of my youth:
…and the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, for the more modern stuff:
That’s about it, for guitars.
Now for my favorite noisemakers…
Kim’s Top 3 Bass Guitars
Rickenbacker 4001 (or 4003) S
Nothing compares to the Rick — not the Fenders, nothing — and frankly, I only need the Rick (as did the late Chris Squire of Yes). But just in case I ever got bored (unlikely) and wanted a different sound, then:
Gibson Thunderbird
It has a sound unlike any other bass guitar (listen to any Wishbone Ash album), and played loud, it sounds like a wild animal growling. Finally, I’d like a fretless bass — I used to play one occasionally when we wanted a “nightclub” sound for early evening sets in a restaurant setting, but the one I really want is the
Rickenbacker 4001 FL
Rickenbacker doesn’t make a fretless bass anymore (the fools) but I bet I could find a decent luthier who’d swap out the fretted neck for a plain one. (I don’t need the dots — just plain maple like the one pictured, or rosewood.)
As for amps, I’d need only two, the Roland 120XL, whose COSM simulator would give me room to play with different amp sounds:
…or, if I just wanted to plug in and forget about fiddling about, then the wonderful
Orange AD200B, with the BC 115 15″ 400w speaker cab
While I like the versatility of solid-state / transistor amps like the Roland, nothing beats the sound of valves; and I like the ability of 15″ speakers to push those deep bass notes (it’s all about pushing air, and a powerful amp and 15″ speakers get it done). I never actually owned an Orange, only played a three-month gig with a borrowed one — but oh baby…
…just looking at all the above makes me want to play in a band again.
Anyway, I thought I’d put this up just so people could realize that this website isn’t all gunsgunsguns. I have a gentler, more artistic side too. And it was sparked by this article.
Safe Queen
I think I’ve said before that I can understand why someone won’t shoot a particular gun — its extreme age makes it risky, its historical value, or maybe shooting it would devalue it from its “unfired NIB” value, to give but two reasons — but all I’m saying is that I sure as hell wouldn’t hold off from popping some lead downrange with it.
Here’s a prime example, from one of the Usual Suspects, of a presentation-worthy Browning Medalist target pistol:
(The link has all sorts of fine pics, showing the engraving and so on.)
Now Barnett wants $7,500 for this unfired beauty, but there’s something eating at me about it (other than the silly price, of course; maybe it’s worth it — I don’t move in the Browning Collector Set circles, so I wouldn’t know).
A precision target pistol is made to be used. All that smithing and careful detail in both its design and manufacture is completely wasted when it’s just going to sit unfired for 35 years in some guy’s safe, and only taken out to be lovingly wiped down (or shown off), then put back for another decade until, eventually, it gets sold. I mean, WTF?
Sorry, I just can’t get my head around it. And let’s be honest: what might make the next owner not want to shoot it is the fact that he just dropped over seven grand on its virginal goodness. We don’t even know if the thing is accurate — it’s precision is all potential, not actual.
All I can say is that it’s a good thing I haven’t yet won the lottery, because if I had, that Medalist would now be in my possession with its trigger pulled well over 500 times. And if just the thought of that makes you get the shivers, we live in different worlds.
And if it’s too pretty to be fired, then I wouldn’t buy the stupid thing.
Supplies
Mr. Free Market writes to inform me that he’s off to the North for a spot of bird shooting [jealous], and has laid in an adequate supply of the necessary, to whit:
Off-camera: the case of Scotch.
Remember: there’s no danger of Chinkvirus infection at a driven bird shoot, seeing as the shooters are spaced thirty-odd yards apart.
It’s the after-shoot activities that should give cause for concern… just not to me nor, it appears, to Mr. FM and his shooting buddies.
Dream Garden
According to Some Survey Or Other (Science!!!), this is what most Brits dream of when thinking about their ideal garden:
Okay, some of them are just daffy — a maze? — and good luck getting the go-kart track past the neighbors (unless you’re going to be racing electric go-karts).
I am as given to dreaming and wishful thinking as any, and probably more than most; but I can’t help thinking that having so many outdoor activity features (yoga areas, outdoor gym etc.) are not going to be used that often given a climate in which Britain’s principal export is rain.
Also, excepting bloated plutocrats such as Mr. Free Market (whose estate holdings make Prince Charles look like a slum dweller) and Top Gear’s Richard Hammond (who has a castle), most Brit houses have an average outdoor area which can be measured just as well in square inches as feet — and not the 88-foot “desirable” backyard they dream of.
In Kim Terms, 88 feet couldn’t even accommodate a 25-yard indoor pistol range, which leads me to my next point.
Notably absent from all the Brit dream gardens is anything devoted to shooting. I know that the BritGov (a pox be upon it) seems to frown on the shooting sports, but nowhere on the above do I see listed even something as innocuous as an archery range. (I have a well-founded suspicion that a similar list taken from a poll of my Readers would have a 100-yard rifle range near the top, followed closely by a 1,000-yard playground where one could happily play with Barrett rifles etc.)
So, on to just such a poll. In Comments, please list — in order — the top 10 most desirable features you’d like to see in your “back yard” (define it however you wish: “back forty” is also acceptable). Don’t bother with explanations or exposition; the inclusions should be pretty much self-explanatory, e.g. “four-bay 25-yard air-conditioned indoor pistol range” (which would be in my own top 3, incidentally).
No mazes. Also exclude strange exotica such as “hippie burial ground” and the like. This is a serious poll. [eyecross]
Have fun with it, and limit ten, please.