big bad - first off.... maple is a light wood.. rosewood is dark..

they do feel different....

'Pride' [my '78 Strat] has a maple fingerboard....
maple is hard, very tight grained so it's very very smooth feeling... and under a ton of laquer some would argue that it feels plastic and synthetic...
I love it.. a joy to play...

'Avarice' [my custom Universe] has an ebony fingerboard
again like maple it's hard and tight grained, super smooth...
the ebony though is simply oiled so you can feel the wood.. this makes for a less synthetic feel but it's still very smooth...

the rest of my guitars are rosewood.. this has a more open grain for it feels less smooth.. a slightly rougher texture...
however, 'Wrath' and 'Lust' are still quite smooth.. just less so... this means that you can feel the fingerboard more under your fingers...
I'm used to all three... it makes no difference to my playing...

the only thing I would say is that swaping from maple to a dark wood and vise versa can be a little disorienting for the first few minutes.... simply the change in colour...

thanks guys, i didnt know that there was that much of a difference between the 2, i have 2 guitars and both are rosewood, im looking to get a fender standard strat for mainly blues, and i like the way the maple looks but i dont know how different it will be to play. i want a mix of SRV and clapton and i know srv uses rosewood and clapton uses maple so im not sure what to do.

also if anyone has any experiecne with the texas special strat pickups and could let me know how they like them it would be great. thanks

civgeek...I applaud your desire to want to read music proficiently...I learned when I was a kid for both guitar & drums....seeing as though I really have no need for it anymore...I don't practice reading...I figure out anything a really what to learn by ear...which is another joy altogether. If you've got to learn other tunes on the fly...then reading sure is a useful skill....

More on Bush: "The officer is now in hospital, the Whitehouse claims that Bush falls off his bike regularly"

Subject: Hollywood Squares

If you remember the original Hollywood Squares and its comics, this will bring a tear to your eyes. These great questions and answers are from the days when "Hollywood Squares" game show responses were spontaneous and clever. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course.

Q. Do female frogs croak?

A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads

under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at

least how high should you be?

A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking

should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000

years.

A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way

sometimes.

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep.

Are you probably a man or a woman?

A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me

awake.

Q. According to Cosmo, if you meet a stranger at a

party and you think that he is attractive, is it

okay to come out and ask him if he's married?

A. Rose Marie: No, wait until morning.

Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as

you get older?

A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. In Hawaiian, does it take more than three words

to say "I Love You"?

A. Vincent Price: No, you can say it with a

pineapple and a twenty.

Q. What are "Do It," "I Can Help," and "I Can't

Get Enough"?

A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming

from the next apartment.

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more

or less with your hands while talking?

A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old

question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll

never forget.

Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?

A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too

easily.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow

strawberries. Are you going to get any during the

first year?

A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy

growing strawberries.

Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?

A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.

Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two

subjects at nudist camps - One is politics, what is

the other?

A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.

Q. During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom

or in the closet?

A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I'm always

safe in the bedroom.

Clarky - Guitars and Jerry cans seems to be the height of livin in my book!!!

Big bad moon The cool thing about the maple neck is that they look like this after a while if you play them a lot. Personally I like the feel alittle better too.

thanks civgeek, i think im gunna go with the black with white pickguard and the maple neck like clapton..

Rapper Lil' Kim Gets 366 Days for Perjury ~ By TOM HAYS ~ Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Rapper Lil' Kim escaped a stiff prison sentence Wednesday after telling a judge she was a "God-fearing good person" who regretted lying to a federal grand jury about a 2001 shootout outside a Manhattan radio station. The Grammy winner was sentenced to one year and one day for perjury and conspiracy - a term far less than the three years and seven months sought by prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Gerard Lynch said he had weighed the public perception of sending a young black entertainer to prison far longer than Martha Stewart, who spent five months in prison and remains under house arrest after a false statements conviction.

Lynch suggested Lil' Kim (real name: Kimberly Jones) deserved more time because she had lied about a violent crime, not a white-collar scheme. He also noted that unlike Stewart, she took the witness stand at her trial earlier this year and repeated her lies.

"You sat right next to me there and stared in the eyes of the jurors, and you tried to charm them and you tried to fake them out," Lynch said.

But the judge also credited Lil' Kim with returning to court Wednesday and admitting she had lied all along to protect members of her entourage.

"At the time I thought it was the right thing to do, but I now know it was wrong," she said, her voice breaking.

Lil' Kim said she wanted to "take complete blame" for the actions of her assistant, Monique Dopwell, who's awaiting sentencing for the same crimes.

She also asked the judge "to consider my entire life's work and not just the days in the grand jury and on the witness stand in the courtroom. I'm a God-fearing, good person."

Lil' Kim, who was ordered to report to prison Sept. 19, left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.

Some fans who showed up outside said they were relieved that the sentence wasn't harsher.

"I'm just excited 'cause it's not that long," said Alfredo Borbon, 22, a waiter who wore a pair of boots with the rapper's name on them. "We can wait; us fans can wait that long."

The artist, who turns 30 next week, was the sidekick and mistress of the late Notorious B.I.G. As a solo artist, she has become known for her revealing outfits and raunchy lyrics.

The case stemmed from a gun battle that erupted outside WQHT-FM, known as Hot 97, when Lil' Kim's entourage crossed paths with a rival rap group, Capone-N-Noreaga.

Lil' Kim's group confronted the others about the Capone-N-Noreaga song "Bang, Bang," which contained an insult to Lil' Kim from rival Foxy Brown. One man was hurt in the shootout that followed.

Before the grand jury and at the trial, the rapper claimed she did not notice two of her close friends at the scene of the shootout - her manager, Damion Butler, and Suif Jackson, known as "Gutta." Both have pleaded guilty to gun charges.

Jurors at Lil' Kim's trial saw radio station security photos that depicted Butler opening a door for the rap star, and two witnesses who once made records with Lil' Kim said they saw her at the station with Butler and Jackson.

The defendant's career began with an impromptu performance for Notorious B.I.G. on the street in their Brooklyn neighborhood. She became "Queen Bee," the only woman in his otherwise all-male clique.

Her 1996 debut album, "Hard Core," was laced with sexually explicit lyrics and became a big hit, thanks to songs such as "Crush On You" and others with unmentionable titles.

She won a Grammy in 2001 for her part in the hit remake of "Lady Marmalade."

In sentencing Lil' Kim for perjury, the judge cited the unsolved slaying of Notorious B.I.G as evidence of a troubling code of silence in the hip-hop community.

"It's because people did what you did, that we still don't know who killed him," he said.

I've been reading music since I was 10 or 11. But only with a horn in my hand.

fnarf fnarf yak yak...

wow ,london hit with a terrorist attack? do they know this dor sure?

hey joe, hey guys

wow im really shocked to hear about those terrorist attacks in london. im suppose to be goin to hyde park to see Queen tommorow, is there anyone from here goin who thinks it'll be cancelled?

im really unsure whether to go and risk anything.

peace

The Farting Gnome

Id ring where u got ur tickets, the'yll know for sure

Judas Priest News

Judas Priest recently performed two songs acoustically for an appearance on VH1 Classic, which will air on Saturday, July 16th at noon and midnight ET. While acoustic performances are relatively new territory for Priest, guitarist Glenn Tipton told The Zone that the band may explore the idea further: "We're actually enjoying ourselves talking about some possibilities of what we could do acoustically, like an acoustic version of a metal song, not just an acoustic version of an acoustic song. So we're putting our heads together at the moment and trying to think how we can rearrange some of this stuff that would be interesting and valid."

Priest has been performing its cover of Joan Baez's "Diamonds And Rust" acoustically on its current world tour.

Tipton also told The Zone that Priest has tentatively settled on a title for the band's upcoming DVD, which was filmed earlier this year at the legendary Budokan in Japan. As Internet rumors have suggested, it will probably be called Re-Unleashed In The East.

The DVD is expected out sometime in the fall, although no official release date has been set yet.

Blasts Hit London, Killing at Least 2

LONDON - Three explosions rocked the London subway and one tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour Thursday. The blasts killed at least two people and injured about 190 in what a shaken Prime Minister Tony Blair called a series of "barbaric" terrorist attacks.

Blair said it was clear the attacks were designed to coincide with the opening of the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. The prime minister said the meeting of world leaders would continue but that he would return to London.

"Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilized nations throughout the world," said Blair.