Lunch Report, Thursday April 1 2010

We saw some serious looking Basses yesterday. Thank you Lowenders for sharing those. If---only they were mine!!!! So today is April fools day but you don't fool anyone in this bunch. We even had a confession yesterday so if you have it in you mind, and its nagging at you, today is the day to fess up. So do it here, it beats having the Mrs. to confess to.

Lunch today will be leftover Pizza from Pa Pa Murphys. It is a Chicken Garlic and pretty darn tasty. It was with a brew last night but will be a Diet Pepsi today. It was almost 80 here yesterday so we had dinner outside with the Kittens last evening.

Today is G&L day. Here is another photo.


Left to Right, Asat Classic S GOT neck, The new F100 Return , and a Candy Apple Red Legacy with a Natural Binding.

As you have seen already, I have quite a few Fenders and I first looked at a used G&L a year ago last July. I traded an American Tele even up for for a Legacy Hss in Transparent Red. Now the nice thing in America is that we have a lot of choices. The Legacy blew me away when I really started to examine it. Plug in trem handle, with no spring to fall out, DF bridge that really works and the fit and finish were incredible with a wood grain that would knock your socks off. Now my American Deluxe Strats have a plug in trem bar but they are a lot more money and they use alder on the transparent bodies. About a year ago I inventoried a small guitar collection for the family of a person who was deceased. He had 3 G&Ls and I bought all 3. I did not know what I was getting but one was the Classic S, The Candy Legacy on the right with the wood binding (I had never seen a wood binding) and a Tribute ASAT Special all in as new condition. I get them home, set them up, and then I jump on this G&L Forum and discover the Classic S. I later bought an ASAT Classic Blues Boy used off CL and get home, set it up and back on this G&L site to do some research. Turns out it is a Special Build Mahogany Blues Boy from the first run in 2006. The guy who sold it didn't have a clue. Now I will not bore you with more details but this G&L product is top shelf and why don't more people know this????? So here are the questions for today and they have to do with options.

I would like to have Stainless Steel Frets. Do you have any experience with them or opinions?

How about a Compound Radius Neck? They are available after market and Fender just announced them on the American Deluxe Series. I have never played one but would like to try one. They make sense to me. What do you folks think?

I have 2 Piezo bridge guitars, an Ernie Ball John Petrucci and an Ovation VXT, a 2007. I think that they do a pretty decent acoustic sound. They can be stereo so two amps can be used or an amp and the pa system. In mono you can blend and get a lot of variation in sound with one amp. Would you like to see this option from G&L?

I know the perfect guitar question has been covered many times but are there options that you would like to see that are not available? Lets hear them.

The last subject for today is for those who have several guitars and do not store them in the cases. Ginny got on my case when I had a closet filled up, no more room under the beds and started on a second closet. I had to do something and I ended up using space that wasn't used for anything else. My carpenter skills leave something to be desired but here is my attempt at Case Management 101.



Have a fine Thursday. --Darwin

I would like to have Stainless Steel Frets. Do you have any experience with them or opinions?

How about a Compound Radius Neck? They are available after market and Fender just announced them on the American Deluxe Series. I have never played one but would like to try one. They make sense to me. What do you folks think?

I have 2 Piezo bridge guitars, an Ernie Ball John Petrucci and an Ovation VXT, a 2007. I think that they do a pretty decent acoustic sound. They can be stereo so two amps can be used or an amp and the pa system. In mono you can blend and get a lot of variation in sound with one amp. Would you like to see this option from G&L?

I know the perfect guitar question has been covered many times but are there options that you would like to see that are not available? Lets hear them.

I have stainless frets and a compound neck on my Parker Fly. Love or hate Parkers most folks agree that the action is very slinky.
I've had SS frets on a couple Carvins too. For my money, I'd love to have them on everything. My Fly obviously has a piezo bridge. I like it and use it....but....I could
probably live without it. I can see how it might be a real asset in certain band situations.

Perfect guitar....there are so may choices these days you can just about buy one off the rack that has the features you want.

Stainless frets are great, they last forever and don't change the sound. Back in 1963 when building his red special Brian May was only able to get hold of stainless fret wire. Apart from the zero fret which was replace in 2008 non of the playing frets have ever been changed on that guitar. A more recent convert to stainless frets is Eddie Van Halen according to the EVHgear site he used to have to refret every couple of months but his current main guitar is three years and counting. I have them on my Ibanez bass and they are great.
Compound necks are for me like all necks I've played a few and liked some and not others. I can't say I've ever noticed anything major about them. The last one I tried was on an eight string guitar and I think the novelty of two extra strings offset any feeling of the neck (as did the looks from the people in the store while I played Jazz licks on a metal guitar)
Piezo bridges are an asset.

My perfect guitar only exists in my head. I'm always looking to design it. Right now my main guitar is a self built version of a Fender Nocaster. I liked the reissues but they had too many problems for me to buy one so I built my own. I have a very heavy one piece ash body and a very clever bridge (looks good and intones) she sounds amazing and feels wonderful.

I would like to have Stainless Steel Frets. Do you have any experience with them or opinions?

Don't have any guitars with SS frets. But from what I'm hearing, it might be a good idea to try one. Unfortunately, as all business people know, perfection can only sell once. So I'm not so sure if a company like Dunlop would be endeared with the idea of selling something that apparently lasts a lifetime (I'm about as old as Dr. May's 'red one')

How about a Compound Radius Neck? They are available after market and Fender just announced them on the American Deluxe Series. I have never played one but would like to try one. They make sense to me. What do you folks think?

Have to suspend an opinion here. My guitars have many different necks and I'm not really a stickler for a particular size/width. With the noted exception that I dislike the baseball bat style neck I experience when I played a Dicky Betts RI '57 Goldtop. I like the V-shaped neck on my George Fullerton as much as the beefy neck on my 25th Anniversary as the sleek neck on my Legacy as the Wide Thin on my PRS's.

I have 2 Piezo bridge guitars, an Ernie Ball John Petrucci and an Ovation VXT, a 2007. I think that they do a pretty decent acoustic sound. They can be stereo so two amps can be used or an amp and the pa system. In mono you can blend and get a lot of variation in sound with one amp. Would you like to see this option from G&L?

Talk about PRS, this is the only non-acoustic guitar with a Piezo pickup in my collection:

Would be interesting to equip something like a Bluesboy Semi-Hollow with one. Fender just released an acoustic version of the Tele. And in my experience, the sound of my G&L Bluesboy S-H produces without being plugged in is already fairly appealing.

Just have to figure out how to handle the controls. Three controls: volume, tone, mix maybe?

I know the perfect guitar question has been covered many times but are there options that you would like to see that are not available?

Perfection is hard to achieve and, as stated above, only sells once. But that Piezo equipped Bluesboy has grown on me over the last 5 minutes that I've been thinking about it

My carpenter skills leave something to be desired but here is my attempt at Case Management 101.

Looks good enough to me. And I love that oversized guitar pick with "Darwin's Guitar Lounge" on it!

Happy April Fool's Day everybody! Be careful out there ...

Last edited by yowhatsshakin on Thu Apr 01, 2010 9:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Case management. Well I keep half my guitars in cases stowed away in various places (behind doors mainly), the other half roams free on wall hangers, and 1 on a guitar stand. I rotate them out every couple of months, so they all get played.

I think a compound radius option would be cool for G&L to offer.
I remember playing my buddy's Parker Fly with stainless steel frets, and they seemed cool to me.

My Gretsch has a zero fret on it, and it wears out the quickest because the strings wear on it the most. I need
to get that guitar refretted at some point. The only achilles heel of my 6120 is the narrow vintage frets. I'd like
to get medium jumbo frets. Might see how much stainless would add to the price.

I have a bit of a K.I.S.S. philosophy with guitars. Thinks like Piezo Pickups, and midi pickups are cool, and they
add tons of versatility to a guitar, but it's just more knobs to twiddle.


Happy April Fools Day ya'll!

On the issue of stainless steel fret wire: I have stainless on only one guitar (a Tom Anderson Hollow Atom) and I find that I have to play that guitar differently than my others because I find that the stainless makes my attack more percussive - if this makes any sense. I find myself having to dial back my enthusiasm a bit when picking individual notes.

Never played a compound neck.

Have yet to find a piezio bridge system that sounded real natural to my ear, though admittedly I haven't tried many.

Thanks for asking! - ed

Jazzrat writes:
"I have stainless frets and a compound neck on my Parker Fly. Love or hate Parkers most folks agree that the action is very slinky.
I've had SS frets on a couple Carvins too. For my money, I'd love to have them on everything. My Fly obviously has a piezo bridge. I like it and use it....but....I could
probably live without it. I can see how it might be a real asset in certain band situations."

Jazzrat, I have heard people say that they can't stand the looks of a Parker. I like them. I have been watching a Nitefly Southern (T Style) recently. I played it and like the frets and neck. If it is around long enough , my interest may heighten. I have also been looking at Carvins for some time. Their body woods and SS fret options appeal to me. Thanks for your input. --Darwin

John L writes:
"Stainless frets are great, they last forever and don't change the sound. Back in 1963 when building his red special Brian May was only able to get hold of stainless fret wire. Apart from the zero fret which was replace in 2008 non of the playing frets have ever been changed on that guitar. A more recent convert to stainless frets is Eddie Van Halen according to the EVHgear site he used to have to refret every couple of months but his current main guitar is three years and counting. I have them on my Ibanez bass and they are great."

John, that would be my thought to. Speaking of Brian May, I bought one about a year and a half ago. It had many great features and the pickup switching was great. It had many tonal possibilities. It also had a good trem (Wilkerson), and GOTO locking tuners. Other than a thick neck it was a neat guitar. I put it on CL this winter and never had an inquiry. I traded it toward the F-100 Return. For some reason no one wanted it. It had appeal to me. --Thanks--- Darwin.

I would like to have Stainless Steel Frets. Do you have any experience with them or opinions?

"Don't have any guitars with SS frets. But from what I'm hearing, it might be a good idea to try one."


"Talk about PRS, this is the only non-acoustic guitar with a Piezo pickup in my collection:"

Nice PRS you have!

"Would be interesting to equip something like a Bluesboy Semi-Hollow with a Piezo."


The pick sign in the garage was a gift from a relative. I thought it was cool. Thanks Yow.----Darwin

Shawn writes:
"Case management. Well I keep half my guitars in cases stowed away in various places (behind doors mainly), the other half roams free on wall hangers, and 1 on a guitar stand. I rotate them out every couple of months, so they all get played."

At your young age Shawn, you could easily be a candidate for Case Management 101 in a few years! Good Day to you too.-- Darwin

At your young age Shawn, you could easily be a candidate for Case Management 101 in a few years! Good Day to you too.-- Darwin

HAHA....hope you're my teacher! You look you've got it figured out.