madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828 
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Post by madmax on Dec 5, 2014 19:45:51 GMT -4
I'll get back to the food in a moment. Wed, before I went to the library and made my posts, I went back to the one pawn shop. They had a Rogue strat. They also had one of those Behringer guitars that you can hook up to your 'puter with a USB cable. There was a Kramer superstrat that I think was $199. I don't know if it was an original or a reissue, but the price may be a clue. The Marshall head is a TSL 100 and the Marshall combo it is sitting on I think is an 8240. The model number is in tiny type above the input jack. I actually picked up the Ibanez amp to see what the model was, and only vaguely remembered what the model was, so I just did another Google search and went to Ebay and saw one there. It is a GT10DXR.
The reason I was in the general area of the Salvation Army thrift store and the junk store was that I was picking up some more Asian food to try. It took me a while at the store I ended up getting my stuff at to find the last item I wanted. I tried asking an employee, but I think she might have thought I was looking for something else, or I misheard her. When I was over where I think she was trying to send me, I went a few feet over and found what I was looking for.
I got a bunch of snack foods, and I'll post them in the order I had them. I also got 2 meat items, and something in a jar(which is what took me the bunch of time to find).
These product names look a bit strange when typed out. They make sense when you see the packaging.
The first thing was Twin Lotus Atori Biscuits Stick Super Tasty flavor from Siam Foods Industries Co Ltd from Thailand.
It's time for me to go again, so I'll get back to this in the future.
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Dec 10, 2014 19:56:57 GMT -4
Hello again. I went back to the pawn shop today. The Kramer guitar is a Focus 2000. It was one of their import models back in their heyday. The mystery Ibanez might be an AXS 32, but those were made in Korea, and this one said "made in Japan". I'm going to ask on the metal guitar site about this. These guitars might be deals, but I'm not looking for stuff like that right now. Well let's get back into the food. I started with the Twin Lotus Atori Biscuits Stick Super Tasty flavor from Siam Foods Industries Co Ltd from Thailand. They looked like these i5.walmartimages.com/dfw/dce07b8c-61b8/k2-_3d33b251-eea9-4258-9983-5ce24925ca2c.v1.jpg but with a flavor coating. The package had a drawing showing a salt shaker that was half gray and half white, presumably salt and pepper, another salt shaker that was brown(don't know what that would be, maybe red pepper?), a red bell pepper, a yellow bell pepper, and a thing of garlic, which I assume were what these were supposed to taste like. These things were actually pretty good, but you don't get a lot in the package. Next up were the Twin Lotus Atori Biscuits Stick Nori Seaweed. They were the same as above, but in nori flavor. These weren't as good as the one above. Next was Calbee Grill-A-Corn Hot & Spicy Flavoured made in China. These are an Asian Cheetos-style snack food. They were good, but I don't recall if they were really "Hot & Spicy". At least not compared to Flamin Hot Cheetos. Next was Tao Kae Noi Super Crisp Kim Chi Flavour grilled seaweed from Thailand. These are actual nori, but made in Thailand, and supposed to taste like kimchi(from Korea). These weren't hot, and didn't taste that great. Even though they were in the snack food section, and the bag made them them look like a snack food, I don't know if they are supposed to be eaten on their own or used like nori. The last snack food was Cuttlefish Crackers from Dragonfly out of Malaysia. They were shaped like tiny shrimp. I thought they would taste like seafood, and maybe only like 2 of them did. I was disappointed with these. |
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Dec 10, 2014 20:04:54 GMT -4
I don't know what just happened! I might have done it myself accidentally from a brain fart.
For the third time....
The first item was Lee Brand Minced Crab in Spices from Nr Instant Produce Co Ltd of Thailand. This looked like cat food topped with some of the grease you get when cooking canned chili. It didn't taste that good, but you could tell it was Asian.
The other one was Lee Brand Minced Prawns in Spices. It was the same as above, but tasted a bit better.
Let me start a new post here to see if everything's sorted out.
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Dec 10, 2014 20:25:33 GMT -4
I think I was doing CTRL-N(new page) when I just wanted a capital n. RRRRGGGGHHH
The last thing I wanted to say about these meats was I don't know how you are supposed to use them. I just ate them from the can. Maybe they are supposed to be mixed with veggies and served over rice or noodles, or maybe they are to be used in whatever the Asian equivalent of a sandwich is. They might taste better when spread on a Triscuit or something, even though those are not Asian.
The last item is the thing I spent the buttload of time looking for. It was "pickled" tofu. The jar had a pic of an older woman that didn't look too happy, and the writing was in Chinese.
I think I want go home now, so I'll finish this up Friday, and get to the beverages.
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Dec 12, 2014 19:01:32 GMT -4
I'm back.
When I was typing up my stuff Wed, I looked up "chili oil" on Google, and found that the company, Laoganma, that made the tofu I bought is a major producer of chili oil.
As I said, the jar had all Chinese characters, except for the website, which I noticed when I looked at the jar when I got home. There were 3 English language stickers. One had an ingredients list. Another had the nutrition info. One of these two also had the distributor name, Walong Marketing in California. The third label said "Chili Oil Beancurd", and had the weight. The tofu was cut into small cubes. It had an interesting taste. If it was spicy, it would have been near the bottom where the spices settled. I should have turned the jar upside-down some time before I opened it in order to let the spices mix up. The tofu was very soft, possibly even spreadable. Maybe this would also be good with Triscuits.
After I finished the tofu, there was some chili oil left in the jar. I just sipped on that, or put it in my mouth after putting some of those cuttlefish crackers there first. The oil was a bit on the hot side.
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Dec 12, 2014 19:41:21 GMT -4
Now for the beverages.
The first thing I tried was a bottle of Ramune. This is the Japanese soda famous for having the glass ball that you push down with a plunger thingy. I got this at the same store where I got the meat and tofu. I was actually looking for some sort of Asian non-sweet drink(like V8 in the US), but there were none. I just got the Original flavor, since I thought it would be something Asian, but which I found out later was lemon-lime. It actually wasn't that good; stuff like 7Up and Sprite are a lot better. Also, the bottle is very small. I should have tried the lychee flavor. Even though the Ramune is a Japanes product, it had an English-language label. Looking inside the bottle, the label doesn't appear to be pasted over a Japanese one. The distributor is Walong Marketing. I didn't drink this with my Asian food.
The first of the alcoholic beverages that I tried was Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout. I didn't buy it because it's organic. I seemed to only taste the chocolate only when taking a sip and when I was sipping some of the foam head off when I first poured it. It seemed to taste more beery than the burnt taste you often get with a stout like Guiness.
I had also bought 11 of those mini airplane bottles, and I've only tried 5 so far.
The first one I tried was a black spiced rum called The Kraken. It tasted the same as the rum my parents used to have. I didn't like it, but on the plus side, I couldn't taste it when I put some of it in the Squirt soda I was drinking.
The next one I tried was RumChata. This is rum mixed with cream. This is goooooooood! It reminded of this cake with cream cheese frosting my dad used to make. I couldn't really taste the alcohol. This also tasted good to sip on while also drinking root beer and/or cream soda.
After that I tried this this flavored vodka called Kinky Blue. I can't remember if I could taste the alcohol. I do remember that it tasted like shitty fruit punch.
Next up was Tippy Cow Vanilla Soft Serve. This is like the RumChata, but also with vanilla flavor. I didn't like this because the alcohol flavor was too present. They also have chocolate and mint flavors, which I will try if the store has the mini bottles.
The last one so far is Bacardi Limon, which is rum with lemon-lime flavor. While you could taste the l-l, the alcohol was really strong. I imagine this is what a lemon-scented cleaning solution would taste like.
Check back on Wed, because I think I might open another bottle.
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Jan 7, 2015 19:06:22 GMT -4
Well, I have a lot to get through but I'll start with a beverage.
I was going to post on the 17th, but I stopped sampling alcohol for a while since I was taking Ibuprofen on and off for my elbow area. I think I have the condition known as Tennis Elbow even though my attempts at tennis were many years ago
The next alcohol I tried was a rye vodka from Poland called Sobieski. It is raspberry flavored. While there is some raspberry flavor, you get more of the alcohol taste. Since this is the real deal vodka, it is strong. I took a sip and swished it around in my mouth to see if it would taste different after a while, and it was burning my tongue.
Last night, I finished up the little bit that was left. I was sitting watching tv while holding the bottle in my hand. The vodka had warmed up above room temp. I didn't seem to taste any of the raspberry flavor.
They have a bunch of different flavors that seem interesting, but I don't know if they come in the mini bottles. Well, there may have been some there at the store that I wasn't interested in. But I am kind of wary seeing as how the raspberry one was.
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madmax
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Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Jan 7, 2015 19:59:00 GMT -4
I went to a ton of places during the past 2 weeks. I was kind of in a hurry, so I didn't really pay attention to the prices.
The first 3 places I went to were on Dec 24.
The first was the outskirts of the 'hood Cash America. There were a bunch of non-J Squires. There was one of these: macserver1-528.lidgerwood.k12.nd.us/studentwebsite/Lhs/AshleyBosch/Graphics/GuitarPics/ElectricPics/E-pic7.jpg I tried playing it unplugged, but I don't remember how I felt about it. There was also a fancy-looking Ibanez superstrat that I didn't play.
The next place was the Cash America that I mentioned on 11/28. This time the yellow strat was in the main area. I think I did play with it a bit. The green one was still behind the counter, but this time there was a Squire tele next to it. I asked the guy there where it was made, and it wasn't Japanese. Amp-wise, there was a green Vox AD5.
The last place I went was the "crazy" pawn shop. There was some Crate amp, that looked upscale. I don't know what model it was, but the knobs were on the top towards the back. The knobs were gold-colored, and were in groups of 3 in triangle patterns. In case I'm having a brain fart, it might actually be a VTX 200 S. There was also a Carvin Vai combo for $699. For guitars, there were 3 Deans: an ML(I think a Dime signature), a V(Kerry King sig I think), and some single cutaway thingy. There was also some tele-style guitar(not an actual Fender) with a picture of James Taylor and his autograph. In the gun section, there was a Remington 870 shotgun that was maybe a good price. I think there were some more interesting items, such as a HK 91(or a copy).
On the 26th, I decided to go to the places I originally was planning to on the 31st. These include 2 places I only go to around this time because they are way out of my way.
I'll stop for now, and hopefully continue on Fri. |
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Jan 9, 2015 19:39:17 GMT -4
I'm back! It's a little hard to type right now , so I'll do my best.
The next pawn shop has a western theme, and the employees dress like cowboys.
First, I visited the gun area. There were 2 Mossbergs that might have been good deals. There was a Ruger Mini 14, or a copy. There was also an authentic(made in Israel) Uzi. I think it was $2189.
Right next to there is the counter with guitar fx and $$$$ guitars behind it. There was a Gibson LP(maybe a Studio), some model of Thunderbird, and 2 ES335s.
Sorry, I'm taking off!
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Jan 14, 2015 18:40:04 GMT -4
Today I'm posting from work at my desk, so hopefully it's quiet, and I won't be crowded. Friday at the library, I sat at a 'puter between a kid and some big goon. The kid left, so I thought I could get some elbow room. But a few minutes later, this family that is always there, came in. This was the first time I was there before them. The huge son sat down where the kid was. At least he was polite in that when he bumped my chair a couple times, he said "excuse me". A little while later, the lady sitting on the other side of the big goony guy left, and I thought he would maybe shift over a few inches, but no. It was so uncomfortable trying to type. I don't know if it would have been easier if I had narrower shoulders.
Now back to the action.
Also I think behind the counter was one of those Pawn Shop series that Fender put out that looks like a cross between a Strat and Tele. If not, I saw it somewhere else.
I then went over to the amps, but I'll get back to them in a bit. They only had a few Casiahas, in regards to keyboards.
There is a big wall of guitars that you can play on. I don't remember if I played any. All the Squires were not Japanese. There was another short wall with a few guitars. There was a Paul Stanley Washburn. There was also a bolt-neck Jackson Rhoads. I did play with this one, and it sounded pretty good.
According to my notes, there was also a Danelectro, but I can't remember if it was on the short wall or behind the counter.
Now back to the amps. They had a small Vox, which I think was a Pathfinder. They had a Carvin SX300. I think that was $300. These places seem to price them to correspond with the model number. There was a Marshall power amp that was something like $959. There was also a Marshall head. It had a gray faceplate, meaning it was for bass and/or playing shitty music. There were 3 Peavey amps. One was some combo I don't recall. Another was a head that looked to be geared toward more metal, etc. music, and a mystery one which I'll get to in a moment.
Hold on, the 'puter is acting up.
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madmax
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Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Jan 14, 2015 19:40:38 GMT -4
That was odd. After I hit the Create Post button, stuff was working again.
There was also a Randall RG-60 that was something like $129. It had the orange stripe, so it is one of the original models. It might be one of the good models.
There was another amp head I hadn't heard of with the brand of KMD. I think they wanted $149 for it. I turned it around to see if I could tell if it had tubes. There was a tiny sticker on the back that inculded "6L6", which is a kind of tube. After doing a bit of research, it seems this company made low budget amps. I tried to find some YT vids of this, but couldn't find any.
Now to the mystery Peavey amp. The tolex and speakers looked like Peavey. I don't recall if there was a nameplate on the grillecloth. What was odd was where the controls/electronics were. It looked like 2 rack units. The bottom one was a Peavey Rockmaster. The top one looked to be the power amp. I could have sworn it was only 1 unit high, but all the Peavey power amps are 2 or more. Also, I thought the knobs were situated on the left side while Peavey's are in center. Finally, there was some empty space between the second unit and the top of the cabinet. I don't know if Peavey made a speaker cab with empty rack space to install your own stuff, or somebody gutted the elctronics from a Peavey amp and put other stuff inside.
Next was the pawn shop in Grandview. When I got there, there was a sign saying they were closed for Xmas and that following day. When I was looking through the window, I saw what looked like 2 strat-style guitars and 3 Les Pauls, one of these with 3 hb. I also think there was some model of Line 6 amp. As I was going back to my car, a car pulled up. It was a guy who worked there. He said he couldn't let me in due to insurace reasons(probably that they were oficially closed). He said one of the strats was a Harmony. He also said one of the Les Pauls was a Chinese Ace Frehley model. I think he meant it was an Epiphone, and probably was the 3 hb model. He also said that he hade more electrics than were on display.
I told him I was kind of looking for a 12-string electric. He told me had sold one on Monday. He said it was a Yamaha and that it went for $600. I asked him if it looked like a strat, and he said kind of. I was thinking they really ripped somebody off, because the strat-style Yamaha 12's go for way less than that brand new. I then thought it was a SG model. I asked the guy if it was an SG and he said he hasn't seen one of those in a while. I don't know if he specifically knew what I was talking about, and thought I was talking about a Yamaha copy of a Gibson SG.
When I went to the library on the 7th, I did a bit of research. I wanted to see if Yamaha made a 12-string version of their SG series. When I say "SG series", I am refering to the models that looked similar to Ibanez's Artist series. Apparently, Yamaha originally used "SG" in the model name of all their solid-body electrics. There was a model of Yamha guitar that did come in a 12-string model. I'll get to that Friday, since my computer here won't let me paste text into the Reply box for some reason, and I'm not going to hand type in a URLs for images.
See you Fri.
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Jan 16, 2015 19:40:16 GMT -4
I'm back, and it's piccy time! First, here is a pic of the Yamaha 12 string that looks like a strat: www.guitarguitar.co.uk/large/110/px-G15ES2404.jpg What people think of when you mention Yamaha SG: 3.bp.blogspot.com/-k3k1CVD2y0U/UbZMYuwskrI/AAAAAAAAEV4/1uk6teiDTpo/s1600/yamaha1.jpg Here's what I'm thinking the guy sold at his pawn shop: media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/cd/7c/12/cd7c12b30ec6d8e511fd16a838077514.jpg If that is the case, that makes sense, since it's considered "vintage". In the world of guitars, vintage means that it's old and cost a lot of money, regardless if it's awesome or a piece of shit. After that pawn shop, I went to the Cash America and the other one in the 'hood. A little bit before I pulled into the CA, a police car pulled in with lights and siren. When I got in there, nothing was going on, so I guess one of the employees accidentally hit a silent alarm switch. Apparently there wasn't anything of note since I don't remember anything, and didn't type any notes up about it. At the other one, they did seem to have less guitars and amps than last time. There were quite a few Squires, but none Japanese. I think there might have been 2 of those MAC10 kind of guns, but my memory is fuzzy. There was a pair of these odd-looking guns on the wall, but I didn't ask any employees about them. There was also a guy in there that BO that almost smelled like a skunk. Next was the Raytown Cash America. The MSV and the mystery goo strat were gone. There was another Dean V there though, along with an ML with a wood stain finish. The Roland was still there. There was a Yamaha MM6 synth there too; I don't know if it was there before. The final stop was the Noland Road Cash America. The only things I denoted was a Peavey Raptor EXP(strat style) for $109 and a Jay Turser copy of a double-cutaway LP. There were 2 items I recall seeing, but not where. One is a Dean Markley K-20X guitar amp. The model name doesn't make sense because it is only 15 watts and that it is a guitar amp. A lot of times, amp's model number will denote wattage or speaker size/number, and it makes more sense to use K for a keyboard amp(G would have been an obvious better choice). The other item was some kind of Peavey guitar that was overpriced. |
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Jan 16, 2015 19:46:08 GMT -4
I also went to a few places on Dec 31.
The first place was the main music store in KC called Big Dudes. First I went past the $$$ room. I'll start with that next time.
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Jan 21, 2015 20:19:43 GMT -4
All right, let's see how much I can post today.
In that $$$ room were a bunch of Fender guitars and like 2 Charvels, probably all USA-made. There were also Fender and Mesa Boogie amps in there as well. I the main area, there was a Charvel star guitar for maybe $589. There were also a Fender Coronado reissue and Starcaster reissue. The Starcaster was $8??. Both of these are semi-hollowbody guitars.
After that, I went into the keyboard room. They had a bunch of Roland stuff. There was a used Alesis Quadrasynth + Piano there for I think $199. It was plugged in, so it would turn on, but it wasn't plugged into any speakers, so I couldn't hear what it sounded like. If I had brought my headphones, I would've used those. The kb I did play on was a Korg Kross. It had a ton of sounds, but I don't recall it having any that sounded like VH's Jump. With the organ sounds, I tried doing something like Child in Time by Deep Purple, and the intro to Stealin by Uriah Heep. With the synth sounds, I think there was one that could be used for ELP's Lucky Man. There was also one that sounded like the synth part on Heart's Magic Man, but I couldn't get the pitch to drop as low as in the song.
Next, I went to a guitar store in a posh suburb. This place had a large acoustic room that I didn't go inside. There were a lot of electric guitars and old amps. There was at least one new Gibson LP. There was also an Epiphone V, but I don't know if that was new or used. Regarding the amps, there was a Polytone Brute, a Traynor combo, and a LAB half-stack. There was also a rack with a bunch of smaller combos. The biggest amp was a Peavey TKO bass amp. There was also a Laney, but I don't know if that was tube or solid-state. They also had some small Ibanez amp and a Marshall Valvestate. The last one I remember was a Roland Cube 40 from the 70's or 80's. After asking about an EH LPB-1 I had on consignment there, I made my last stop. Well, I did stop in a junk/antique store right before.
My last stop was the pawn shop in Riverside. There still were a bunch of strat-style guitars. The amp that I thought said 525 actually is 535 and made by a company called Stradolin that is more famous for their mandolins. If this amp is tube, it may be worth the $10 for modding purposes. I went to the counter and looked for the Ibanez guitar*. The worker said that some guy came in and bought it playing it much and/or haggling over the price. This time behind the counter, there was a Carvin strat for $300, and a Peavey strat for $250.
Today I went to the one pawn shop I go on Wed after I get food. There was some tiny combo amp for $39. There was some kind of SG Junior for $299, but I don't recall if it was Gibson or Epiphone. It wasn't behind the counter. There was a Dean V acoustic. The one I played at a Cash America many years ago actually sounded pretty good. Also, the big headstock doesn't look as shitty as it does on the electric. The final item of note was a Casio keyboard. The model number might have been 2080. I forgot what the price is.
I'm taking off. See you Friday.
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madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 828
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Post by madmax on Jan 23, 2015 18:24:51 GMT -4
I'm back. I left early on Wed because there was a mentally disabled kid that was having some kind of medical problem at the next computer over in the hexagonal cluster of computers I was at. I called the library today and they don't know what happened to him or how he's doing.
Now back to last time. The Casio appeared to be a CTK 2080. I forget what they wanted for it. The keys were a bit better than what you usually find on this type of kb.
I also didn't get to mention something else important. When I was looking up Yamaha guitars on Google, I think I id'ed the mystery Ibanez guitar. It appears to be an Ibanez Musician. If so, $249 might actually have been a REEEEEEEEAL good deal, and why the guy that bought it did so very quickly.
Today I went to the thrift stores in town. The first one had a Wurlitzer Omni 1000 organ. I didn't look at the price tag. The next place had a trombone for $100 and 2 beat up acoustic guitars. The Goodwill had some no-name kb that said Fun Time on it.
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