Where I used to work...

[David Schwab]

Wow, thats quite a stash! The only thing wife and I have left is a 9500 dual and an 8500, the first of the AV machines. Gathering dust of course.

When I got married (4 years ago... tomorrow!) My wife asked me "Why do you have all those old computers? Do you need them?" She wasn't a Mac head back then, and didn't get it. Well now she loves Macs and still doesn't get it! That includes other things I collect as well.

So the Macs went, except one of the Pluses (which has an external hard drive and external extra floppy drive), my PowerCenter, which I was running OS 9, BeOS, and Linux, which then went to my 15 year old son (now it's in the basement), the Mac Portable, and I think I have a Centrus 610 kicking around.

The Plus and Portable have some old software on them.. MS Word 2, Photoshop 1, Aldus Pagemaker 2, Illustrator 88.. and some other stuff like Clarus Works. I think they have System 6 on them, but I don't remember.

My current machine is a PowerMac G4/466 Digital Audio with a 1 GHz upgrade card.

OK.. I didn't mean to highjack the thread...

[Possum]

ooops....

oh yeah pickups....

[NightWinder]

Dave makes the most fabulous album covers too. I really like the one you showed me last yr. That was awsome............Dave has skills!!!

[Possum]

no glory....

Well when all is said and done there's not much glory or money in album design work or graphic design. I concentrated most of that career in the music industry, and did enjoy it but never even had a decent car. Graphic design field has gone to shit, there aren't alot of long time professionals left in it, the proliferation of computers flattened the field economically. Its kinda like whats happening to pickup making, the easy availability of pickup parts from StewMac etc. and now there are something like over 500 "boutique" pickup makers out there, most of whom know little about what they are doing, couldn't make a pickup from scratch if their lives depended on it etc. When the internet crash hit, alot of professional designers had put all their marbles in becoming web designers and all those clients and jobs disappeared literally overnite. I was trained as a designer, I know how to spec type and actually DRAW and use a real airbrush, now anyone can do those things on a Mac. A lifetime of gut wrenching deadlines and a huge debt with the IRS, no health insurance, no retirement, this is where it all landed me :-) Wife and I may be making a big comeback in web design, she found a niche and is getting alot of recognition and higher paying jobs so this year will be good, but most out there compete for horribly low paying gigs and have to fight competition that is unskilled and do more damage than good.

On the pickup side of things I think the "door" closed on anyone becoming a pickup star about 3 years ago when Lollar was still active on the forum. I kind of felt that this was an opportunity to grab onto at the time, my marketing and advertsing knowledge helped alot and I've gotten a really good reputation but not sure how far I'll take it. It IS hard work and a bitch of a business to rely on for sole income.

Wolfe is probably the last guy who really has the opportunity and drive to really take his business to the top and he's making good products en masse. Anyone getting into this now, good luck, every month there is someone new selling StewMac kit humbuckers on Ebay further diluting the field with unprofessional work with no knowledge behind whats being sold. I stick with it because I love tone, am an inventor at heart and love to tinker. Giving musicians happiness with great tone is worth the meager profits to me. But crank out 100 pickups a week? Not for me....

[NightWinder]

Yeah...Theres so much bullshit right now. Seems last week was one of my best.....Lots of pickups sold, and a real bitch spending it all on parts, tooling and now prototype tooling that may or maynot work for punching. I bought a bridgeport....In hopes to help financially down the line with makeing my own dies and punches. Bought a surface grinder too. Now I am spending more time learning machining skills that I have'nt used in 15 yrs. To think I'd be more happy......Im depressed as hell about the pickup parts. I started WAY back in the day making my own and for friends, and now that Its offically a business and my sole income, nature shoots at me daily, determining that Every little turn is going to be hard and near impossible.

[David King]

Well join the club. I have to keep looking over my shoulder at all the neighbors heading off to work at 7:30 Am, 5 days a week while I basically get to do what I want all day and if I don't like it today, it'll be waiting for me again tomorrow.

Where did you put your Bridgport? I need to move mine out of the garage and into the basement so I can see something. You got three phase to run it?

Mines a '64, beat to hell but functional.

[Possum]

!!!!!!!!

Holy Christ that thing is BIG!

[Joe Gwinn]

A thousend and one pounds of fun

Holy Christ that thing is BIG!

It's Heavy Metal, of course.

Probably 2,500 pounds or so.

I have a Millrite MVI, which looks and works like a Bridgeport, but smaller, only 1,200 pounds. The Millrite I have was built in 1965, and is in pretty good condition, although it looks beat. I've been spending weekends cleaning it up (removing encrustments of hard-caked oil), lubricating it, and adjusting it.

A Bridgeport is too tall to fit in my basement.

[NightWinder]

I just recieved The Bridgeport maybee 2 weeks ago. And the surface grinder friday. The guy deliverd the surface grinder! $600.00. Im clearly excited about that!! Theres a auction next week from a shop going out of business, we will be the first ones there. The bridgeport is in my brothers garage....for now. I have'nt used it yet. Yeah, spend lots of money and not use it. LOL