TheFretShack

I am getting ready to move my wife and I and our businesses 1,800 miles across country.

I am considering liquidating my sizable compact disc collection rather than moving it.

If my library makes the move, however, I need to catalog and value it for moving insurance purposes.

My library has been boxed up for years and I don't know the quantity, but I'd guess a few thousand titles. I'm sure there are plenty of imports/rarities in the mix.

I need an app that will allow me to quickly scan the CDs via barcodes and/or album covers ... that IDs, organizes the library, and assigns fair market values individually and/or in common or user-defined subsets.

Being able to download data into spreadsheets for whenever it's time to sell would be a huge, huge plus.

I will pay a reasonable subscription fee for the ideal tool.

I'd love to hear what the much more serious CD collectors and buy/sell/traders use for their own libraries and catalogs. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

In the middle ...

For portable, versatile and every want/need box checked for Madison Square Bedroom or recording, take a look at the Boss Katana series; and Positive Grid's Spark series. I have the latter, specifically the Spark 40.

I too have big and badass all-tube amps, and I'm graced with a workshop in which I can open them up and peel paint. Yet the Spark gets probably 90 percent of my playing time.



Both Katana and Spark come in multiple sizes, wattages and speaker configs. You can't pick wrong with either brand or series, you can instead pick what's best for your needs. I will probably buy a Katana at some point just to have one - they are "that" good too.

Be aware too, both Katana and Spark amps have been out for a while so there are great deals to be found on the used market.

Despite his having a long formal relationship with Epi and Gibson (including several sig models), NG recently took delivery of his first set of Carondelet Pickups, via a custom commission with a different Nashville-based guitar company with whom I work.

I say "first set" because my source tells me NG was impressed enough with the builder and his team, their guitars and the pickups, that he ordered another axe with identical specs. All while the rumor mill is murmuring about an Oasis USA stadium tour in 2027.

So no matter where you rank the band in the big picture, at least give NG a few brownie points for supporting your pal on TD :)

Adding a battery box is easy for a competent tech. Not only does a battery box make changing them fast and easy, not having to lift the guard means you're not potentially creating more problems and/or delays by snapping soldered connections, introducing more dust to the cavity (a common contributor to scratchy pots), stuff like that.

Buy alkalines, Duracells or Energizers, don't buy cheap carbons for active electronics applications. The only thing musical I use cheap carbons in are vintage circuit fuzz pedals. Duracell or Energizer for everything else.

Avoid generics unless you want to test their life compared to the more expensive batteries.

And most importantly, do not get batteries from Amazon, whether it's the Amazon branded or discounted name brands. You may be buying old overstocks and/or closeouts that lost some of their lifespan already.

Get your batteries from stores that sell a lot of 9Vs, meaning they are constantly turning their stock and you are getting 9Vs that haven't sat around on shelves long.

A Google search just told me Wal-Mart sells more 9V batteries than any retailer in America. I'd buy my batteries there.

I have Carson's LP's SN on file so I probably photoshopped the actual number out to not share it with the Chibson sweatshops.

Patrick should be chiming in soon. Meanwhile, from my days at the helm ...

The big Q that determines headstock repair prices is if the client wants only a structural repair; or wants the repair plus cosmetic work (filler and spray prep, partial or full respray with compound and/or color match, wetsanding and buffing) to make the fix invisible or as unsightly as possible.

Simple structural repairs (clean crack or break) with light cosmetic cleanup (Carson's example) were typically between $100 and $200 when I did repair work.

Add missing wood and/or cosmetic cover-ups, however, and it will go up exponentially. Partial respray alone, depending on nitro vs poly, solid color match vs. transparent color concealment (EXTREMELY difficult, even for very experienced shops) ... expect at least double or triple, possibly even quintuple or sextuple, the price.

Yes it is, my most recent acquisition in fact.









Been wanting one for 40 years, specifically since "The Ultimate Ozzy" came out on VHS in August 1986. Finances and availability always got in the way.

Fast forward to 2026, and I start winding pickups for and working on guitars for the man himself. No more excuses or procrastinating, now I HAD to get my own blueburst to assist in "our" pickup prototype testing. How convenient :)

I got an LT25 as a travel/hotel room amp several years ago. Great little amp tonally, don't let the digital and push buttons turn you off. Peruse the manual and learn the buttons (easy and quick), the features are very instinctual and well thought out IMHO.

I ended up selling the Mustang because I prefer travel amps that can run off battery power (pet peeve fueled by owning a Roland Micro Cube as my first travel amp). I replaced the LT25 with a Positive Grid Spark 40 that I rigged up to run off either wall juice OR a rechargeable battery pack I sourced affordably off Amazon. I adore this amp, I play it more than my full-sized "real" amps, it's fair to call it the MVP of my entire gear arsenal.





I also recently got a Spark GO for my guitar tech workbox/travel box that is insanely good for its size. Because the "brains" of Positive Grid amps is based in a phone app and in shared cloud files, I was able to take all my Spark presets and move them over to the GO, and then edit the patchs to compensate for tiny, tiny speakers.

Not used to having a killer little amp that's the size of a Boss stompbox. I joked on social media that I've bought bars of soap that were larger and heavier than this "amp."

I still haven't experimented with voicing great splittable mini humbuckers because of limited demand (you're still the only person who has ever asked me for this).

And mainly because minis were engineered and voiced to sound like hum-free Fender pickups (specifically JM-girth-meets-Jaguar-sparkle single coils) from the get-go.

The only takeaways from a split mini is the addition of 60 cycle hum, plus a significant volume drop because you are effectively shunting 50 percent of the pickup's output to ground.

You can get around that using a compressor to boost the split H signal, but it will also boost the 60 cycle hum. And compressors typically add considerable noise just by the circuit itself and how they are commonly used.

If that is what you want, I will wind a four-conductor mini. E-me at info AT carondeletpickups DOT com to initiate the custom order. And heads up, it will cost considerably more than a GFS.

Fret Shack Jeff is up to his eyeballs in Carondelet work orders, and Fret Shack Patrick in fretted repairs and upgrades. Great problem to have!

Fender's original "torino red" debuted on the Clapton sig models and was inspired by Eric's Ferrari's red color.

It has shown up in the Fender line as both a polyester variant finish (production model guitars) and as a nitrocellular lacquer finish (custom shop, vintage RIs).

As for cars/metal paint vs. wood paint vs. whatever ... you have to match the type of paint. Compatibility is the key, not the canvas on which it sits.

Your Epi (like most MIK, MIJ, MII guitars old and new) is a poly finish. So you will need a poly touch-up pen. Gibson shoots everything in nitro so my hunch is that their product is incompatible for your needs.

Be aware that poly is very difficult to touch up invisibly even for a pro, you will have trace evidence of your spot work. If you want your boo-boos to disappear without trace, you will very, very, very likely have to refin for desired results.

If the Strat is a player's tool, you can add a fast-access battery box to the back of the guitar. Here's a step by step I did a few years ago ...

Adding a battery box to a PRS Brent Mason Signature

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If you want fast 9V access with no mods ... store it in the trem cavity between two heavy tension springs. Run the 9V clip leads into the conrol cavity through the claw ground's wire channel.