2017 CB1100 EX First Ride Review

[Wisedrum]

Guth, I didn't have eighth-row seats, but I was there for the L.A. Sports Arena stop on the SRV-Jeff Beck tour. I also saw Beck at the A.R.M.S tour in '83, in which he shared the stage for the first time with both Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. I saw SRV one other time, as well, at the Hollywood Bowl, with Bonny Raitt opening up for him.

Yep, my red CB1100 and 335 are twins, to me. As long as I play guitar, I will have that red '63 335, and as long as I continue to ride I don't see myself ever selling this CB1100.

I think you gather now how badly I've obsessed over the CB down through the years, and now you know how deeply I was blown away following my first real ride on her. Now, two days and two more rides later, I love her even more. She satisfies in ways no motorcycle ever has before.

At this point, I am as off the merry-go-round as I could ever imagine, both guitars and bikes.

You and me both. People that have never been on the merry-go-round (the lucky ones) might not appreciate how satisfying it can be to finally be free of that cycle, but I can. I realize that in this case one doesn't happen without the other, but freeing yourself draws more applause from me than actually landing the CB1100. (But that's still pretty cool in my mind as well, lol.)

Good stuff VLJ.

While were at it, I imagine this classic tune, “Over The Waves” might capture the essential CB1100 ride. Played on my custom electric mandolin...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R376IamlZcI

VLJ, I'm going to drift a bit far in response, but hey it's your thread and I own the place so what the heck.

I too had been on the guitar merry-go-round in the past. In my case for many, many years. (Hard to avoid it when you live in Austin, lol.) I've bought and sold so many guitars that I'm not sure that I can remember them all. During some of our earlier discussions I seemed to get the impression that you might have had a similar habit with motorcycles. This is one of the reasons that I might have come across a bit skeptical about your then pending CB1100 purchasing decision. About six years ago, I finally tuned out all of the noise on the internet (before online forums, I was a member of a guitar listserv) and just started to focus more on being happy with those guitars I already owned. After this happened, I started to enjoy playing the guitar a lot more instead of wasting my energy focusing on what latest guitar everybody else was raving about. It's now been almost six years since I've bought/sold/swapped a guitar and I couldn't be happier. I've said here before that online forums can have negative impacts, and I meant it. Motorcycle forums aren't any different for those people with a personality type similar to mine. So with all of this in mind, I truly hope that you're able to enjoy your CB1100 for a very long time to come. I've actually come to appreciate mine more now than when I first bought it.

As far as your guitars are concerned, that 335 is stunning — what a beautiful guitar. It gives me a little more insight to your 2017 EX purchase as it's the perfect guitar match for your CB1100 from a visual standpoint! And you can't go wrong with any variation of a Strat. I've always had a weakness for white Strats (the cover of Jeff Beck's "Wired" album is largely responsible for this) and have a minty white/maple necked Fender Squire Strat from Japan that I bought new back in 1984 (I couldn't afford an American Strat back then but now even the old Japan Squires have started to become collectible — crazy). I had a cool little black face '64 Vibro-Champ amp that I used for the longest time but I gave it away to my brother as a gift a few years back. Speaking of Jeff Beck and SRV, I saw the two of them together from the eighth row back when they toured together not too long before SRV died. It was such an awesome evening for me. Beck was truly one of my guitar heroes when I was in high school, but watching Stevie play sober for the first (and sadly only) time was a mind-blowing experience.

Now as far the guitars that I really like to play are concerned, the recording that I used for the CB1100 video featured my '08 J45 TV and it's my favorite. But I've got a '07 Custom Shop Advanced Jumbo that has the most beautiful maple that I've ever seen on a guitar (or maybe on anything for that matter). You can see birdseye, quilted and flamed patterns all in the same piece of wood. I traded away my Collings acoustic (the company that I almost went to work for when I still lived in Austin) for this AJ and it represents my very last guitar transaction. The AJ is spectacular, but I simply prefer the tone of the J45. I can geek out over guitars with you via PM if you'd like but I can't include photos, so I'll just do it here (yes I realize that I'm taking advantage of my status here but I'll stop after this post, lol.)

As far as my music goes, I'm not really sure where it comes from. I listen to a little bit of everything but blues has long been one of my favorite genres (it's how my wife and I met for one thing). Yet most of my tunes are not blues'ish at all. I just play what seems to naturally come out of my fingers.

[url=http://billguthrie.com/music/]You'll find some of my music here.

Here are a couple of photos of the maple AJ...





Sorry folks, I'll now return you to our regularly scheduled programming, lol.

Really enjoyed your tunes Guth. Music and riding motorcycles seem to be synergistic.

Thanks Mandrau and thanks for sharing your playing as well. (Electric mandolin? Wow, that's pretty wild). The funny thing is that these things that initially drew me in as a kid because they were "cool", have turned into the saviors of my sanity at times. Music and motorcycling are amongst those key things that I turn to in order to help keep my mind off of all the crap that life throws at us at times.

Music and motorcycling, both great and time consuming parts of my life, They both have in common that I started them with and out of fascination and love for them. Both have stayed with me once I begun. The difference lays in the fact that music is my profession I work with for my living. But it still keeps the love that has brought me in so many years ago.

I do motorcycling for fun and entertainment as my time allows and because it's another food for my soul with unknown resources wether on or off the bikes. I won't be without it.

Wisedrum