Lunch Report &-17-2017

Hi, Tom here. I'm a Floridian by choice but currently living in the DC area of N. Virginia.
This is my first attempt at a LR so please bear with me. At least I don't think Craig will move my post. LOL (I really don't like using LOL because I think it's lazy. When there were only telephone keyboards to spell with I got it. What do you all think of these shortcuts?) That is not a subject but feel free to speak about it.

Lunch:

A couple cups of coffee and a bagel. Nothing too exciting but my wife is doing this modified Atkins diet (we're going to the beach for a week later in the summer) and I kind of get stuck with it too. So when I can sneak in a few carbs it tastes so good. I have lost five pounds though.

As far as a G&L topic:

With all the different Bridges available, or built in the past, what is your favorite and why?
Mine is the Leo Fender fine tuner bridge coupled with either locking machine heads or the lock down mechanism at the nut. The latter being my least favorite way to lock the strings but once you find the magic amount of slack, which can be different from one guitar to the next, it stays there and does it's job. The bridge itself has easy tune-ability and stays in tune for days. The sustain and tone are right up there with any of the hardtails and even if you don't use the whammy bar (I don't use it a lot) nothing gets in the way or hurts your picking hand with contact with the bridge. The box steel bridge tends to mess up the outside of my hand sometimes.

The Main Event:

The real reason I wrote this LR was to get the opinion of the folks here about a short story someone sent me on FaceBook with a clip of Joe Satriani having a good old time playing the guitar. The premise of the article was "Is the age of the guitar virtuoso over?" With the likes of Satriani, Bonomassa, Santana, Vai, and all the other still alive guitar heros of our day, even the older ones or country, jazz etc, who is coming up the ranks to fill their shoes? To be honest, The last one to come to light for me is Derrick Trucks perhaps and that's sad. Furthermore, what is the future of the electric guitar as a front line instrument? Will there still be electric guitars featured prominently in popular music of the next decade? With all the cool guitars owned by all of us on this forum, will they one day just be things we keep in the closet and take out periodically to reminisce about the golden age of guitar? Is their stock going up or down? After all, most popular music can be produced on a mildly powerful PC and a keyboard. Live performances are becoming so expensive that even they may soon fade into the twilight. After all, why pay a band when there are so many talented people out there that can actually do it all. Just look at Bruno Mars, he can play everything and sing and dance. Where is the guitar?

So let us know what you think on the future of the guitar please.

Last Course:

What ya growing in your garden this year?

Because my health has gone down hill I have had to severely cut down every year on the gardening thing. This year I am only growing the porch garden. I do this every year in addition to any open ground growing. It consists almost entirely of herbs. Rosemary, Parsley, Thyme, Basil and this year I planted some Serrano peppers in a large pot. There are always a few house plants that have to be brought in every year that are getting to be almost too heavy to keep moving around. I have a beautiful Christmas Cactus that Blooms like crazy right on Thanksgiving. I'm going to have way more peppers than I know what to do with them so I might have to dry them. There's nothing like fresh herbs to elevate your favorite recipe to spectacular culinary delight.

Well, that's about it. Hope I did well. Enjoy your lunch today.

Tom

Wow, a lunch report! Thanks, Tom.

I'm no expert on guitars so there's not much I can contribute to in terms of bridges. I have both saddle lock and dual-fulcrum bridge G&L guitars and I don't feel any difference to me which I'm playing. I tend to play more toward the neck pickup than the bridge pickup unless I'm doing palm-muting, so that may be why the kind of bridge does not affect me. Both work great although I tend to use my SC-3 with dual-fulcrum because some songs I play requires the use of a tremolo, and I don't want to bother switching guitars when I play.

It appears that the days of 2 minute-long guitar solos on songs are gone, but I honestly don't particularly miss it. There are still instrumentals featuring guitars that are great music, and at least half of what I hear on popular radio still feature guitars, but mainly as a rhythm instrument. I think guitars as part of the rhythm section will still be around just because of the versatility of it and the unique sound of the instrument. I play in a hobby/semi-professional band and our only instrumentation is drums, bass and guitar, with guitar really the main melodic component. For the most part that's all we need. We have attempted to add a keyboard player, but have never found anyone that fits in with us.

Last week I bought myself a used Tribute Fallout. I am still tweaking it as it is still lacking in some areas and I am trying different things to make it play like I want it to. I may very well be back on here shortly for advice if my efforts don't work out.

I have seldom tried to grow food in a garden. I remember trying to grow tomatoes a few decades ago and had to race the snails to the harvest. But I have to say I do a bit of cooking, and nice herbs do make a big difference.

Hey Tom,

YES a lunch report, man I've been hungry for one of these and yer questions got her off to a great start!

As far as typing shortcuts, I'm just happy to get the point across. I am the poster child for computer illituracee (actually was online with my company IT today trying to fix another slow down issue.

My favorite bridge is the saddle lock. Easy to set up, rock solid and I believe it adds to sustain. If we had a saddle lock on an ASAT Classic then we could do some comparing.

I think the guitar virtuoso will still be here, just finding them will be more difficult. The future of guitar in pop music is another story. But who will take up the flag from here on? There are a handful of metal shredders who are keeping the virtuoso world going, but here are a few non-shredder players that have good tone and getting some recognition. Ideally looking for under 30 years old - Gary Clark Jr. (blues / blues rock) and Richard Araiza The Buttertones (The Doors and Lou Reed/Velvet Underground and 50's 60's twang) come to mind. Nita Strauss is 30 and touring with Alice Cooper and is one incredible player, much more than a metal shred fest player. Tobin Abasi (Animals as Leaders is 34 but a prog player extraordinaire). Wish they could all get more exposure.

This years above ground box garden has cucumber, banana peppers, tomatoes, garlic, cabbage and lettuce. Most luck with cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. Wish I had planted serranos.

Stay healthy and play more guitar.

Howdy Tom,

Thank you for picking up a long standing tradition on this forum!

Lunch: A quick one. Just a bowl of tortilla soup. This knowing I'd take my team out for pool later this afternoon with a vegetable plate with some good dipping sauces, and chips and salsa.

G&L topic: I'd agree with you the LFV is an amazing contraption, especially with Leo's string lock mechanism and/or locking tuners. But boy. That Locktight/StringLock bridge is amazing too.

Main event: I try to remember where I read this good article on the slowly disappearing guitar hero. Was it Reverb? Again, do not remember. But the gist of it was this: the current musical mavens are more into sequencing, sampling, etc. So that generation does not care about Berry, Cochran, Richards, Clapton, Hendrix, Townsend, Green, Allman, Vaughn, Bonamassa, Mayer, Trucks, etc. Little sad, but hat's what it is.

Last course:
More the thing of my lovely wife. Lots of herbs, carrots, tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, etc. Lots of stuff. Some successfully so, some not so. But that's life.

- Jos

Thanks for the LR Tom. I remember the day when it was an honor to do lunch reports. I recall doing a couple of hours each day trying to make them interesting for everyone.

Lunch yesterday was some celery and cherries. I eat a lot of veggies since my heart attack 6 weeks ago. I was very fortunate to have a successful stint and I feel great, better than I have for some time.

There are a lot of good bridges on the market. I think that all of GL's bridges are good. I happen to prefer the DF type. I think the fine tune DF would be nice to own. I have never had one.

Guitarist like everything else is evolving. I happen to think that Doyle Dykes is a good one but the new generations are different styles and that is okay by me. I can still listen to what I want. It is true that recordings can be done easily on todays software. Ii do not go to live concerts anymore as I will not pay the price. I hate to pay a lrage price to have the people in front of me standing up all the time.

We have a great crop of tomato's and green peppers that are starting to mature. They will be put to good use!!!! -- Darwin

Thanks for the responses gents, it looks like my very first LR is somewhat successful except the fact I just noticed I F'd up the title. It was supposed to be a 7 not an &. Oh well.

I have been wanting to do a LR for a while, just never came up with a good topic...and I don't eat lunch too often.

tom

Thanks for the LR Tom. I remember the day when it was an honor to do lunch reports. I recall doing a couple of hours each day trying to make them interesting for everyone.

Lunch yesterday was some celery and cherries. I eat a lot of veggies since my heart attack 6 weeks ago. I was very fortunate to have a successful stint and I feel great, better than I have for some time.

We have a great crop of tomato's and green peppers that are starting to mature. They will be put to good use!!!! -- Darwin

Darwin, music soothes a mending heart. I am glad that your treatment was beneficial!
Here's to many more lunches, and LR's!

Lunch: Skipped it and got REALLY over hungry later.

G&L topic: My favorite bridge is not on my favorite guitar- the Dual vibrato boss Fine Tuner. This allows me to use the trem on either the upper or lower, vibrato bar and the resulting effects responds differently depending on which it is mounted. I am certain that the original idea was to offer one production part for both left and right handed guitars. In the end, it is probably too bulky for most people's taste. The size doesn't bother me. The Fine Tuners are great and in combination with the factory Wilkinson Roller Nut, it never goes out of tune. The pickups, I wish were better.

The Main Event: I think that young music makers are already reaching back to acoustic and analog instruments and even releasing recordings on vinyl because they see limitations of digital sounds. That said, digital sequencing, sampling, and production are nowhere near going away. I think there will be a renaissance of the electric guitar as a mainline instrument. The player that comes along will have a much different frame of reference than we do.

Last Course:

No veggies, just Sunflowers. Red ones, Yellow ones, Orange ones.

Burger and fries here , haven't had one in awhile so it was pretty tasty

I seem to like all G&L bridges , Saddlelock and DF my favorite if I had to pick, I have a guitar with Piezo bridge and like that combined in stereo with a Acoustic amp and my Dual Recto

Ed Sheirdan (SP?) is one of the few youngsters that made it with a one man band and guitar , heck of a player , Sterling Ball has a comment in the new Guitar World Magazine basically saying nice simple songs inspire people to take up guitar and start bands , like Beatles ,Stones , Nirvana ect reap guitar sales and NOT so much Yngie or Steely Dan or high technical players as good as they are , just nice simple catchy tunes moves/sell Musical equipment


Our garden has Flowers and we are getting a little old to maintain it

Haven't had lunch yet, but I ate some chicken on a bun for breakfast.

I started off in a blues band, and being narrow minded musically speaking (in the "bad" way), I didn't care for any other genre than my own, and as "whammy bar solos" were all the rage in my most formative years, I got up on my high horse of pride - not that I had enough talent to even sit upon that horse - and declared that I shall never learn to use a "whammy bar" and shall instead learn to play the guitar as God intended: sans vibrato. Well, by the time I realized what an idiot I was, I was too far gone in my ways. I have several guitar with vibratos, but I never use them, having long since compensated as best as anyone may, with old fashion bends and vibrato. I've since tried to build some proficiency, but I'm at a place now (playing for 30 years) that I find myself more focused on music than technique. That being said, I like everything about the saddle lock bridge.

I think the age of guitar heroes was a musical anomaly. It was a big deal when Dylan moved from acoustic to electric (gasp!). Not that Dylan had anything to do with it - but that the age of guitar heroes seems to linked to the advent of the electric guitar. Before the age of amplification - and the age of recorded music - guitars were not really solo instruments. They could do a solo, but an acoustic solo is not going to be heard over a drum or an orchestra. The newness of an amplified (distorted) guitar certainly caused people to think differently about the role of a guitar in music. Artists began to use the guitar, for more than accompaniment - they began to explore the guitar as a solo instrument - and the age of the guitar solo (and thus guitar heroes and virtuosos) began. It helps to remember that before the guitar hero age, was the piano hero age. Guys like Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and even Ray Charles, with the advent of amplification - started a sort of golden age of the piano player front man. It had it's run. Players like Elton John and Billy Joel came along well after the hey day, but let's be sure - the hey day was a one timer because amplification was new. The same (I think) can be said of guitars. There was an initial hey day, and great players still come along, but the age where most of the bands are guitar-o-centric is probably over - unless something as paradigmatic and new as amplification (when it first arrived) comes along. I am glad I was around to enjoy the latter half of it, but life moves on. My favorite band at the moment doesn't even have a guitar player in it (Twenty One Pilots).

The only thing growing in my garden is the chives we planted two years ago. They're veracious!

Nice to see a new lunch report!

music soothes a mending heart. I am glad that your treatment was beneficial!
Here's to many more lunches, and LR's!

Thank you John, it was a total success! -- Darwin