Midday no-meal report for Tuesday, 6/15/2010

Pay yer taxes.

Lunch? Umm… not today. Or not much, anyway. Dinner last night, some pizza, must have included a lit charcoal briquette. Mashed potatoes are sounding REALLY good about now. Did you know that retail pharmacies such as CVS no longer carry syrup of ipecac? They stopped carrying it because of abuse by people with eating disorders. I really could have used a hurl assist last night.

What makes cheap guitars and basses sound cheap?

We had a discussion about that very thing over at BassesByLeo a while back. Naturally, it was bass-centric, but wouldn’t some of the same basic things come into play with guitars? What say you, the skinny string brethren?

Random pr0n



Ken…

Yesterday it was Salad. Today, you confess the urge to purge. Just what are we supposed to think, Ken? ;+)

More on topic, rattles, buzzes, crackly electronics and thin tone make instruments sound cheap to me. - ed

Based on my experience with cheap guitars sounding cheap, it was due to crappy tuners and bridges. The pickups on a cheapo guitar I had years ago actually sounded really good when I swapped them into a different guitar.

1) Syrup of iPecac:

No matter what you say, it still doesn't taste good on pancakes.

Damn. That's just wrong. Kinda like Ex-Lax for after-dinner candies. Funny though.

Oddly enough ~ there's been quite a number recently of really well made asian guitars and the ONLY fault I've found is a desire to toss in some CTS pots which is cheap enough to do and made a world of difference.

Tributes have been excellent since the move to Indonesia. Maybe they were using ground up pencils for pots in Korea? But yeah. The Indo product does seem to be pretty good. Tributes and Lakland Skylines are two very good examples.

As to pots, I've seen a pretty good amount of anecdotal evidence that the Mity-Mite (sp?) line is excellent. They're generally metric, so fitting to a USA G&L is a small challenge, but they're good. I wish CTS pots were easier to get, but alas can be a bit tough to find in the configs we might be after.

Well, gotta run and see how ipecac goes on waffles.

Heh. You be sure to let us know how that goes, 'kay?

Yesterday it was Salad. Today, you confess the urge to purge. Just what are we supposed to think, Ken? ;+)

Gee, Ed, I dunno. I was a bit confused myself earlier. 24 hours later, I'm feeling mostly human. Just really tired.

The salad just kinda sounded good to me, though I ended up with a bowl of soup. As to the other... well it weren't no fun and was a VERY urgent need to get my upper GI cleared. Ended up having to literally gut it out.

Ken...

My Tribute Legacy was cheap, but I consider it one of the best guitars I have played. Perhaps the new move has motivated that factory to do an exceptional job. If there are flaws in this Legacy, I have yet to find them.

Syrup of Ipecac - Not at CVS! What's this world coming to?
I guess you just have to use a finger. LOL

Cheap guitars- The problems are not always related to the price paid.
Some basses or guitars are made from green wood. It just not dried properly and it will move and cause all kinds of problems over time.

Bad fret work is not easily fixed, but I am encouraged by what fretwork I see on the G&L Tribute guitars and basses. The pickups kick ass too.

Tuners are a nice upgrade like the Hipshot minis the previous owner put on my Tribute L-2000. That bass is now very nice and it rivals my USA L2k.