Girl with a Strap on

[candid_x]

“Here's a toast to your new bride who has everything a girl could want in her life, except for good taste in men!” ...and vv

 

[SharonG]

As a female who has been playing for 25 years, seeing woman like Crow, KT, and who is Katie Melawhatever, doesn't inspire me to play guitar. They strum. My influences are Page, Zappa, EVH, Allman Bros., and so on. Wendy Melvoin is the only female player who rocks my world. It shouldn't take seeing a woman playing good guitar to inspire women to play. Regardless of sex, you either have the drive or you don't. And younger girls are taking lessons. I live right across the street from a guitar store (an EBMM dealer no less) and I see girls going in for lessons all the time over there.

Yup - I've been playing for over 30 years, and I while I enjoy the artists Smelly listed, my inspiration comes mostly from male artists, Pastorius, LaRue, Mingus. That being said, I do love Bonnie Raitt's steel guitar, and years ago Tina Weymouth was a hero for a while.

The thing I've found myself with female players young and old, there's alot more support for playing amongst guys for each other than there is among girls, or at least that's the way it used to be. Not amongst players, that is, but from people who don't play. Generally guys who don't play admire guys who do. Girls who don't play often think that girls who do are weird - especially during teenage years when kids are most likley to learn and develop their skills the fastest. I think this is changing, though. Right now, none of my daughters plays, only my son. If one of them does pick up guitar, bass, drums, or whatever, I think their friends would be much more accepting than kids were umpteen years ago. (and I would would be cheering them on for sure!)

As a parent and female player, pictures like this one are part of the scenery. It's not what I'm about or what music is about for me, but I'm not offended, either. I guess that's the point I try to make with my girls - it's there, but it's limiting. Girls can be about so much more than that!

Enough sermon - rock on, Ladies!

 

[emkey]

I know the world and marketing demands such things...but the point is that EB makes instruments to play. Distinctive, effective and BEAUTIFUL...and they don't need Jenna Jameson (or alike) on the cover to attract people like Jackson needs...because it would hurt the nobleness...but just as BP said - "It doesn't make it right but it is the world we live in"...

 

[Shnook]

As a woman, obviously I'm not going to buy a product because an attractive woman is seen photographed with it. I gernerally think, 'wow the product most not be up to par as they have to appeal to lesser intelligent men to buy it.' Harsh but the truth. In fact, this kind of advertising works opposite with me. A year or so ago I was really interested in buying a Goodsell amp. Then I started seeing thrashy looking models posing on or with the amps. Lost my interest in the amp completely. I'm in the process of buying a nearly $1800 Swart amp instead. So far, Mike Swart has let his product sell itself and hasn't fallen back on some cheesy marketing tool. I'd love to know how many of you guys would buy gear that had a hot MALE model associated with it's advertising?

 

[silverburst]

Go to any bigger guitar shop in Japan, and you will see plenty of younger girls that are learning to play, and to SHRED.

 

[Ricman]

Cool BP,


and Ricman, 9 year-olds and the internet do not mix, your the parent, it's your job to sheild those younger eyes from the dangers of the big bad world.

Smelly out.

Nine year olds and the internet do mix. It's part of the National Curriculum and an essential life-skill. My job as a parent is to steer them towards the appropriate parts of the net.
I thought I had.
Clearly not.
If you think jokes about "strap-ons" and "parking your balls" on a pair of breasts adds to this place then fine, my boy is out of here.
It doesn't offend me, I just think it's tacky.

 

[Shnook]

Can I ask why this type of humor appeals to grown men? I really don't understand. I expect stuff like this from 12 year old boys.

 

[tommyindelaware]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRFkOrnds8I"]YouTube - Tal Wilkenfeld Bass Solo at Bass Day Clinic 2006[/ame]

 

[Shnook]

YouTube - Tal Wilkenfeld Bass Solo at Bass Day Clinic 2006

Awesome!

 

[tommyindelaware]

gotta take the bad w/ the good.................& there's plenty of both to go around.

i'm thankful we have the freedom ........& so many options to choose from.

 

[Beth]

As a woman, obviously I'm not going to buy a product because an attractive woman is seen photographed with it. I gernerally think, 'wow the product most not be up to par as they have to appeal to lesser intelligent men to buy it.' Harsh but the truth.

I think you hit the nail on the head, Shnook. EB has never resorted to using sex in marketing and the advertisments we've made have won awards. We certainly don't need to hide behind a pair of juggs or even Smelly's bum to get our message across. The pictures and all of your responses just lack class, and I'd hate to see you drive away the few women we have here because you want to make locker room jokes about boobs and balls. If you haven't burned bridges there yet, why not just bring this stuff over to the DP where you'll get some better validation for it and be able to slap some virtual high-fives?

The point about this type of sexploitation advertising is it serves two purposes: 1) it cheapens the image of the product and 2) it cheapens the image of women in people's minds. Women now are at a lose-lose standpoint when they come to fighting the cheapening of them on a large scale: we've either allowed people to do it, or if we don't, we're forced to have people make judgements upon our sexual orientation.

 

[brasco68]

The original purpose of this thread ranks up there with "that's what she said" and a frat house with a bunch of Beavis's having a belch contest.

The women in my life...your women...the ladies that are part of this forum certainly deserve better than this....regardless of who it does or does not offend.

 

[paranoid70]

I pulled up behind a cadillac;
We were waiting for the light;
And I took a look at his license plate-
It said, just ice.
Is justice just ice?
Governed by greed and lust?
Just the strong doing what they can
And the weak suffering what they must?
And the gas leaks
And the oil spills
And sex sells everything
And sex kills ...
Sex kills ...

Doctors pills give you brand new ills
And the bills bury you like an avalanche
And lawyers havent been this popular
Since robespierre slaughtered half of france!
And indian chiefs with their old beliefs know
The balance is undone-crazy ions-
You can feel it out in traffic;
Everyone hates everyone!
And the gas leaks
And the oil spills
And sex sells everything
And sex kills ...
Sex kills ...

All these jackoffs at the office
The rapist in the pool
Oh and the tragedies in the nurseries-
Little kids packin guns to school
The ulcerated ozone
These tumors of the skin-
This hostile sun beating down on
This massive mess were in!
And the gas leaks
And the oil spills
And sex sells everything
And sex kills ...
Sex kills ...
Sex kills ...
Sex kills ...
Sex kills ...

- Joni Mitchell

 

[bovinehost]

Can I ask why this type of humor appeals to grown men? I really don't understand. I expect stuff like this from 12 year old boys.

I thought the concept of girls' underpants was hilarious until I was about....eleven.

To my knowledge, I have never purposefully made a joke about Sterling's last name. (With a first name like mine, you become sensitive to these issues.)

A girl falling out of her clothes has never convinced me to buy a guitar, bass, car, set of strings or anything - other than maybe another drink for her.

 

[candid_x]

LOL... Jack

I like this thread.. the balance, and shaking people and their views from their trees.

I spent 25 years in advertising, and have pretty good instincts about what sells. That skank-ho speaks to the lowest common denominator in a buyer and the product.

On another note, my dad's and uncle's ornamental ironworks shop had a display of Vargas Girl calenders across one wall, which also had the company's name "A. Grilli Iron Works" printed on them. As a 10 year old kid, I spent as much time as I was allowed in the shop. Somehow, those pictures were not destructive to my mind or morality; or at least nothing that a Saturday afternoon confession to the priest wouldn't fix.

Is there a difference between the Vargas Girls of the 40's and 50's, from the strap-on chick at the beginning of this thread? To me there is, but maybe I'm just old.

 

[mesavox]

I know that when Jackson started advertising with Jenna Jameson it not only pissed me off, but further cemented my belief that humanity, despite what you will be told in biology class, hasn't evolved in the slightest. We think our sensibilities are better than the past because we now have women voting, don't accept slavery as ok, and push for the criminalization of calling a homosexual gay. In fact, we've just shifted those sensibilities to other things, and we're more arrogant, cocky, full of ourselves, and think that history is for old farts who don't know any better all the while we continually repeat the same stupid things that we've done for centuries.

It was brilliantly mentioned in a post that it says something about the intelligence of a guy who buys a guitar because of the model in the ad. I think however, that it says something about the intelligence of the advertising agency. They understand something very key. The trick isn't to get someone to buy your product, it's to keep it on their brain when they go to make a choice. The lack of intelligence is on the guy who stops and stares at that advert for 10 minutes with his tongue hanging out while there are real beautiful women out there waiting to be met who actually have an intellect that will bring growth to whomever her partner ends up being.

I see this a lot as a 30 year old college student. Mini marriages everywhere and the girl believes he loves her and she hasn't figured out that he loves her sex and cute butt and that's why she's always frustrated that he flirts with every other girl he sees so extremely that everyone in the room is wondering if he's trying to pick her up.

That's what women are to these guys. The girls are too young to realize their game, even though the gripe about players every day of their lives. So, they put up with his Playboy posters because they know he's "just looking" and wonder why he's pinching that other girl's butt. Then they wonder why all the guys that are their loyal friends are frustrated that they just "can't see them in that way" when they get asked out by that loyal friend.

My point? Unfortunately the girls in those adds demonstrate that this is a society where women, for some reason, find it exiting that they have the kind of control over men's desire, and perpetrate it...and then wonder why they can't find a mature man when they find themselves getting past that aspect of society... and they still can't see that that loyal friend is still in love with them but wouldn't approach them now with a ten foot pole because they're tired of the same hurtful answers.

I can't say I find that girl ugly or hard to look at by any means.... But, I still find the philosophy to be catering to our animal instincts and counterproductive to the progress we insist we are making as a race of humans and a society of people.

One of the key factors listed in human's ability to evolve where we have is whatever caused us to have a sense of family and monogamous outlook in general. It caused us to nurture our children longer, which caused more verbal interaction over time, which caused stronger and more intelligent offspring when sent out on their own. Everything about our sexual pop culture is the sort of thing that dates back to our animal instincts and is literally de-evolutionary in concept.

 

[roburado]

YouTube - Tal Wilkenfeld Bass Solo at Bass Day Clinic 2006

Tommy, thanks for the tip. I just watched that video and some more youtube videos of Tal Wilkenfeld, and I promptly bought her album.

 

[dannymusic]

after reading this... is it still okay to oogle the Dean Girls at NAMM?

 

[Dizzy]

Whooah, this certainly opened up a can of worms !
Whatever the level of offence some may have taken, None was intended.

I did think this thread over, and knew it'd be borderline......... and it seems my judgement was right, as BP has let it live.

But, as I also have control over the existence of the thread :

The pic is gone

I'll kill the rest of the thread later - after what's below has been addressed :

My final thoughts: Dizzy must have had enough respect for me to ask me to skirt the regular channels and arrange for him to buy a pickguard direct from me in an email he sent just hours after he posted this thread.

Beth, is this a dig at me ??? - i think so.
Is it an attempt to shame me ?? - i think so.
Did I get a direct reply via email ? - no.

So, as we're dealing with this in public, let me copy & paste part of a reply from an email you replied to me on September 20, when I contacted you about a new neck for my JP.

Hey Dizzle!

You could either do it through us, or CMC, the Aussie distributor (or have Colin handle it for you).

Cheers!

That is the only reason I emailed you direct !
(and it was a replacement backing plate for the trem cavity, not a pickguard)

"Skirt the regular channels" ?? - you're EB customer service, and if asking YOU a simple question is skirting the regular channels, then I'm sorry !!
Your reply is the ONLY reason i emailed you direct, as your reply indicates that I could source the replacement part direct from EB ! You did clarify later that you'd need the old neck back, which (in hindsight) would indicate it would be a warranty / exchange thing.

If I was mistaken - sorry !........ how was I to know ????

You mention respect.
Although my sense of humour is way out there, respect and integrity is something I take very seriously when it comes to things that MATTER.

A couple of jokes about a tacky picture on an internet ad doesn't even come close to the lack of RESPECT and the personal attack on my integrity that you have made.





.

 

[candid_x]

Listening to Tal Wilkenfeld's Truth Be Told.. wonderful stuff. She must be an old soul.