The Royce Files

This Epiphone bass looks like the Rivoli, but it is not. Gibson started to move most Epiphone manufacturing to Japan in the late 1960s. The Rivoli line of basses disappeared then were resurrected in the 1970s as the Japanese made EA-230. Most models of this bass I have seen are in need of neck work. My was no different. The action got high past the 5th or 6th fret. I sold mine recently after having been the owner for ~17 years. I bought it at a Music Go Round when I was just starting to play bass at the Hill. It served me well and was certainly a nice looking instrument.  

Not much has been written about Lionel structures from the MPC  to early modern era. Most of my searches just direct me to ebay or another site which re-directs me to ebay. Lionel released some really interesting structures during that period. Today, I pay homage to a humble track-side structure. Personally this freight platform is one of my favorite track-side structures. I assembled this late MPC era kit ( in the photo above) in Fall and gave it some paint. Really smart looking building. Not sure if there was a prototype but such a building is plausible. Lionel has released this model numerous times since the MPC/General Mills era. They mostly referred to the structure as a freight platform although there is documentation that it was also called the hideout shack. First released as a kit which required assembly and glue. I wholeheartedly disagree with a claim on an early box that it is a snap together structure. It is not. But later on Lionel rectified that by offering it a...