LR for Monday, December 23, 2013

Good morning everyone. I am Les Davaz, your weekly lunch reporter for Christmas Week 2013. I am a 56-yearold American westerner living in Charlotte, NC for the past 31 years, married, father of two sons (17,21). I am employed by a big international bank. I work with about 150 families in the US and Canada in a "private client" relationship addressing investment, tax and legal affairs. Most important, I have been a guitar player for 42 years. I am overdue for LR duties, because I can't do much from the office. As a result, these will be early on my workdays this week. Also, I would like to discuss general or specific music questions during the week and also get some personal topics going in an effort to promote fellowship in the forum. Beginning tomorrow, I hope to post some pics of my modest collection of G&L's.



LUNCH--

Today, I am having lunch out. I am a creature of habit and already know it will be a wedge salad with sirloin (medium well) and bleu cheese dressing. Appetizer: fried pickles. Drink: sweet iced-tea.

BLACK, BROWN OR WHITE? FAT, SKINNY OR MEDIUM? JUMBO, MEDIUM OR CLASSIC?

No, I'm not talking about women, but rather necks. I buy guitars when I sit down in a store and bond with the neck. It is the single most important factor in the design of a guitar in my opinion. Lindy Fralin told me once that he thought the neck contributed about 10% to the overall tone of a guitar. I have always been fascinated that LF was not a player, because he so nailed state-of-the-art neck design.

What is your single preferred neck/fret combination on a G&L, and why?

Mine is maple neck and board with dot markers and jumbo frets, slim carve. I have all three combinations, but this is it for me. I was also surprised to find a different neck carve on a replacement 1998 ASAT Classic I bought recently to replace one that I gave to my oldest son. It's a little more C- than D-, if you know what I mean. I've never bothered to get acquainted with the codes G&L assigns to those.

ACOUSTIC OR ELECTRIC? RATIO, AND WHY?


Andres Segovia thought electric guitars were abominations. I started on a nylon-string acoustic guitar AT 14 but jumped to electric within a year and never looked back. I play acoustic guitar less than 10% of the time. To me, the shortest time period measurable is the lifespan of acoustic guitar strings, so it's that and the innovation that electronic volume and tone represents. Plus, I think they are uncomfortable. What it your ratio of acoustic/electric? Should G&L build acoustic guitars? Obviously, I would probably not be interested, unless it were a chambered Chet Atkins-/Godin Multiarc-type nylon sold-body. I think they could do that very well. What do you think?


HOW DO YOU GET THE NEWS, AND WHAT DO YOU FOCUS ON?

I have the TV on CNN between 6&8 everyday, only half paying attention. I read the Wall Street Journal intently M-F, and skim our local paper on-line, focusing on local government and spend/tax stuff. I read a ton of internal work-related stuff that is newsy. Regardless, I probably spend the most time reading opinion, both that I agree and disagree with. I think it's mostly opinion/infotainment anyway, so why not get right down to it? How about you?

Regards,

Les

Hi Les:

Thanks for being the LR this week, cool!

Not sure what lunch is, but I bet it'll be left overs!

I have a number of necks and for some reason, I really like the maple neck with Ebony board.

I have 2 heritage guitars that have rosewood boards and the fretboards are good, but I'm not crazy about the gibson style finish on the backs of the mahogany necks.

I have had 5-6 acoustics and have never bonded with any of them. I play electric. I do have a new breedlove acoustic and its by far the best I've had and I play it more often now. I think because they nailed the ebony board on it and the action is really low.

Not really a news junkie since I get the news online most of the day, but my wife is a weather junkie, she can watch the weather channel 24/7...

great start to the LR!!

Ah lunch, when I work I usually skip it or get a couple of oranges or a banana. I look forward to it on the rare occassions I bring something from home.

Necks:

Not sure about the sizes on my G&L's, they both feel great. Years ago I played a Fender with a " U " neck and I really liked it. Actually , I like a lot of fat Gibson style necks. All my guitars including my acoustic are quite slim and I get along fine with those so go figure. My best, smoothest feeling neck is on my American P-bass I bought last year though, everytime I play it I always note how great it feels. It sounds great but I bought it because of the neck. They all have rosewood boards except for the P-bass which is maple.

I have a Gibson advanced jumbo acoustic. At the time I bought it I had planned on just sticking with one guitar. Grands plans of not having to buy amps, pedals electrics.... blah blah. So the more I played this awesome acoustic the more I wanted to play guitar in general.
I held out 2 years before I bought my S-500. Now the ratio is 90% electric. I still play my AJ because nothing can match the tone of a great acoustic ,however most of the stuff I practice now is electric based. It would have to be some kind of guitar to get me to consider a G&L acoustic.

I get most of my news from online newspapers. I have access to thousands thanks to my trusty library card. Television news is tough to take for me. I can't stand the " if it bleeds it leads " mantra. Leave it on CNN or BBC and its just constant repetion. I can't stand commericals either so at least with newspapers I can scan though quickly.

Great to see you doing the LR and great questions.

As for necks, I have most of them and I do not wrap my thumb around and use except on a few licks. The neck size isn't important to me. What is, is the action. I am very sensitive to the action and if the guitar is set up properly, they all work perfectly. Just last week, I adjusted the relief on my Grosh with the fat neck and it plays perfectly. I prefer maple fretboards only because I can see them better. I have ebony, rosewood and maple basses and they all work fine but I can see maple better with the stage lighting.

I have acoustics including a nylon and I use them only for recording. I am a believer that electrics are better to do guitar work and give you a lot more freedom to do thing like bending and things that are difficult to do on acoustics. of my 45 to 48 guitars, only 3 are acoustic and they get virtually no play time.

I watch the local news in the morning. I seldom watch TV and do check the newspaper but only when I have time. If something of significance happens, you hear it everywhere. I am not a news or media junkie. Last night Ginny told me the original Sound Of Music was on. I didn't watch but that would be worth watching but I have seen it so many times and have it on DVD.

Lunch is unknown. I am unloading the van this morning and still trying to recover from our weekend blast! -- Darwin

Les,

Thanks for jumping in on Christmas week. My lunch will be picking at stuff while we are cooking today.

I am a maple / maple neck guy, who has progressed from a #2 7.5" fan to a #1 12" fan over the years. Snap and feel of maple for me.

Have two acoustics and in the market for a Classical right now. Most of my time (when can squeeze it in) is spent on electrics. Ah the lure of that rock and roll

Since the inception of CNN, Fox News, Headline news, and ESPN news is almost instant these days, all of which I tune into regularly. I get the local paper, check on general internet news sites, USA Today and Wall Street Journal when on the road, because USA and WSJ get free at hotels.

Hi Les, thanks for taking the reins this week.

Lunch today is the kids' leftover pizza from the weekend, followed up with some fresh mango, peach and nectarine to unclog my arteries.

I couldn't agree more with your assessment of the importance of a neck in choosing a guitar. My guitar collection is nothing more than a series of comfortable necks (for my hand) attached to almost randomly coloured and shaped bodies. I've said this before, and it's probably sacrilege, but the satin finish maple board on my Tribute ASAT Classic, with 9.5" radius feels like home to me. I'd pick it out in a blind test every time. It seems slightly wider than my US G&L necks, is more of a D shape that fills my hand better, and the edges feel like they've been rolled so it's easy to throw the thumb over. The frets have never been levelled and they haven't needed it. Everything was perfect out of the box.

I have only 1 acoustic guitar, a Larrivee L-03. It's a beautiful sounding instrument but has a really chunky neck that takes some getting used to. I tried a Taylor Mini a couple of weeks ago. It was love at first strum. It struck me as the Holy Grail of an acoustic guitar that is as comfortable to play as an electric. I can definitely see one of these in my future.

As far as news goes, I tend towards print media or the radio. I don't like the violence of TV news or the lack of any context. It's a kind of macabre global body count and can be quite overwhelming. TV news in Australia is also pretty superficial and cuts to the sport about half way through. In fact the breakdown of content goes something like: Headlines/global body count (10 minutes), local and secondary news (5 minutes), sport (10 minutes), weather (5 min). On the commercial networks you can cut out a further 5-10 minutes for advertisements and cross promotion of other shows.

As I get older I'm becoming more tired of the commercial news outlets and their thinly veiled attempts at pushing a particular world view or political agenda in the guise of heavily editorialised 'news'. I'd like to take Rupert Murdoch out in a dark NYC alley and kick him in the nuts to be quite honest, but it sounds like his latest ex-wife already did that for me. I prefer to have the facts reported objectively and to make up my own mind on things, but it's becoming harder to discern what is objectively true in this country if you read the news. I've got a feeling most people don't bother running any kind of truth filter. Although I have little interest in finance, the Australian Financial Review seems to give a pretty unbiased take on news and global affairs.

Hey Les, good to see someone take what may well be the final week of lunch report duty.

There are two necks that I've played that have felt perfect to me - one was on a Music Man Van Halen model in the mid-'90s, the other on a Trussart Steel-caster. I don't know the specifics of those necks, but both had an oiled finish that feels so much warmer than heavy gloss. I tend to stick the G&L #1 neck and have owned 4 G&Ls with it. Each of them feel slightly different in size, one has more a rounded fingerboard edge and is my favourite for the same reasons Phil pointed out. That's something I'd REALLY like to see G&L offer as an option on the necks - rolled edges.

I'm on the lookout for a better acoustic. At the moment I have a Chinese Guild that sounds and plays nice, but I wouldn't mind something better and less glossy. I also have a very nice Spanish nylon string that has been living at my parents house for too long now, I miss playing it.

The only news I read regularly is rugby union news, the rest I find infuriating and depressing. The most popular paper in this state - the Herald Sun - is a joke. Occasionally if I'm having lunch alone there'll be a copy in the cafe that I flick through and I swear I can feel my brain dying.

And a big +1 on kicking Rupert Murdoch in the nuts.

I like the number 1 with satin neck ..... I have 4 with the number one and all feel about the same to me , I like and have all fret board's but I order rosewood on my new ones .... color would also have a influence on fret board chosen too ...


I have a Ovation acoustic but don't get it out any since I've had the electric bug .... I have no immediate plans to get another acoustic


I watch the local news for weather but the political stuff is depressing on most channels ,

As to necks, I like the #1 necks the best. I have some several guitars from the mid to late 90s that are identical and feel just perfect. I don't care whether it is ebony, RW or maple...I like them all. I have 55 guitars, so I'm constantly changing from one profile and scale-length to the next. I've got a couple that I don't like the profile of, but often an odd profile can be acceptable if the set up is right for that guitar.

I split my time these days pretty evenly between acoustic and electric. When I did a solo act back In the day, I did the balance on electric, say....70/30. My Seattle band in the '90s was all electric; we try to sneak in some acoustic and bluegrass banjo with my current band, depending on the gig. I do a lot of acoustic open mics, and I often have an acoustic near me on the sofa and I often write songs on acoustic.

I have 13 acoustics: nine are Martin dreads; a Taylor 710CE, an Ibanez Artwood dread, and two Takamine 12-string dreads. It is insane, I know, but it is a great collection and they all get played.

I check the CNN and Yahoo news feeds on my Android phone, and I usually watch the 11p.m. local news. We get the print subscription to The Oregonian but they are now only delivering four days per week, with the other days available online.

You must remember...all of the news is filtered and edited. You only see what they want you to see.

Bill

Necks: I prefer a wide shallow shape with jumbo frets in maple or ebony.

Acoustic to Electric Ratio: I like to switch but I mainly play 10 to 1 in favor of electric. My acoustic is just a Taylor Mini which sounds remarkably good for the price and size but the neck is not comfortable to play.

News: I read all over the internet when something catches my interest. I would like to find a decent source for news but it seems to me that every source is pushing a political agenda. I really detest broadcast television news......the talking heads, the commercials, the egos, the attempts to be the ideal persona for delivering news, etc. There is so much going on in the world. What does reading about it and/or listening to it and/or watching it on television everyday accomplish? Unless you are politically active it just ruins life having all of the garbage presented to you. And those final segment goody stories don't come close to balancing the scale. So I try to keep some distance.

I like a polished feel, so maple is my go to. I've polished/burnished some ebony and dark rosewood boards
that feel real nice to play.

95% Electric , I think I'll give the Alvarez some time tonight.

News: International if I can...US news is just hype of one flavor or another.

check this out:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-media-channel

Great start!
elwood

Great questions !

I don't remember the lunch of yesterday, my two kids being ill, I didn't slept more than 3 or 4 hours split in 2 or 3 parts, so lunch didn't matter anyway

My first G&L was a '94 Legacy special, that had a skinny rosewood board neck, I found it nice at the time, but now that I have 3 other G&L with the #1 neck, I love it.

I don't have any acoustic at the moment except my newly acquired Eastman AR371CE that is a ES175 clone better than the original according to some, I don't know, but it's a darn good guitar, I don't think it qualifies as an acoustic, event though it is essentially an archtop guitar with a pickup.

I read the news online and try to avoid TV news (make me wanna throw it through the window), I listen to radio news at breakfast exclusively

We are the 24th and it is 14.30 PM, not far from christmas eve, so Merry Christmas to all of you, I wish you lots of good stuffs and guitars !!!