TGIF Lunch report 9-14-18

Following Dan's fine report from last week I am hoping to keep the ball rolling. A little late, this work thing keeps getting in the way of my fun.

Today's Lunch:
After a “healthy” breakfast of biscuits with bacon and honey, a fried egg (hard center, not a fan of runny eggs) and hot tea today’s lunch was a pimento cheese sandwich, apple and water.

Speaking of eggs, how do you like yer eggs? Fried with soft middle, Fried with hard middle, Scrambled, Soft boiled or Hard boiled. I usually go with fried hard or scrambled.

G&L Topic: G&L exposure:
With the new CLF and Fullerton Models on the G&L page, do you think this will help bring more exposure to G&L guitars or more confusion?
As long as we can get G&L high on search engines I like to think when people see something new they look longer.

http://glguitars.com/product/asat-class ... -standard/

I personally like all the options but at first look was lost on what they really meant. On the G&L web page, the “Option Order Models” is still a little confusing, not clear on how some of these options are applied to the models, but hey, I am a little slower than the average bear.

A program like the old guitar configurator that floated around here would be a FANTASTIC tool. If only there was someone who could do it…

Music Topic:
Heard some Allman Brothers last night and forgot how much I like that band, heard the ever popular Midnight Rider. Duane playing slide is good any day of the week. At my young age, he was the one who brought slide playing to my attention, but it wasn’t until many years later did I try to use a slide. Way too daunting for me then and I am still mediocre but continue to work on it.

Midnight Rider, Blue Sky, Jessica, Whipping Post and Statesboro Blues are popular Allman Bro. songs, but right now I am really in the mood for Ain’t Wasting Time No More.


Thinking of the Allman Bros., who’s a fan and or user of slides and b-benders round here?

I have two guitars with Hip shot B-Benders and a handful of slides pulled out when the mood strikes. Of the slide options, glass, metal and ceramic there are ceramic slides from Mudslide I like a lot, the two in the middle most. Will Ray’s ring slide is a cool tool as well.



What do ya use?


Non-Music: Natural disaster

With hurricane Florence on the east coast, who has lived in an area that experienced a natural disaster, large or small. I lived in Savannah, GA when hurricane Hugo hit South Carolina. Fortunately Hugo did no major damage to Savannah but I did get my stuff (guitars and dog) and got out of town. The uncertainty of it all prior to landfall is a very strange feeling.

Was in a couple of very minor earthquakes in Los Angeles and Memphis. This was in my younger years so I thought it was cool, but have a greater appreciation for the damage these things can cause after watching coverage of the San Francisco and Los Angeles quakes later on.

Those in North and South Carolina and Virginia stay safe!

Sit down with us the lunch table today…

Lunch
I'm at Kaaboo music festival in Del Mar. It's not lunchtime but there are a lot of good vendors and I'll need something that will help me keep cool as it's pretty warm out.

G&L

I think the average G&L buyer will not notice a difference. Since options are still available on request anyway I think buyers who want them will continue to request them, and buyers who pick up or view "standard/Deluxe" models will continue to be pleased.

The most I can do for my part regarding G&L's exposure is completing the refin of my F100

Music Topic Never been inspired to pick up a slide. For sure respect it, just not really a blues rock fan so I don't hear much slide.

Natural Disaster Many coworkers in our East Coast offices are affected. I'm happy/guilty to be in perfect 75-80 & sunny San Diego weather. But I did have a wildfire start a few blocks from my house last year; a big one. That was scary, lucky wind was in our favor. Bad year for all that.

TGIF indeed!

Lunch was a reuben and some veggie veg soup at work, 15 min of solace.

re: G&L Fullerton models etc., I'm not in the market for a new one but I think it's cool that they are enticing the market with new and different options and staying on the radar screen. I am more excited by what they're doing at CLF research bringing back the old Skyhawk designs and some of the old basses with a modern twist. Like many, I think the old Skyhawks are pretty sexy and great sounding and playing guitars, have been gigging with my '84 recently and enjoying that.

re: Allmans, I have been listening to them a good bit over the past year since they had some tributes at the Peach Festival in Scranton Pa summer '17, which was a privilege to witness. I recently picked up "live at Fillmore East Feb 1970", not the same as "At Fillmore East" which is from 1972. The feb '70 (3) shows were recorded by Grateful Dead engineer "Bear" Stanley (the Dead and Love were playing at those shows as well) and the recordings have been resurrected and remastered with surprisingly fresh sound quality. I bought one at LOCKN' recently and have been enjoying it, here's the set list:
"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" (Dickey Betts) – 9:19
"Hoochie Coochie Man" (Willie Dixon) – 6:01
"Statesboro Blues" (Blind Willie McTell) – 4:18
"Trouble No More" (Muddy Waters) – 4:12
"I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town" (William Weldon) – 8:28
"Whipping Post" (Gregg Allman) – 8:12
"Mountain Jam" (Donovan Leitch, Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks, Jai Johanny Johanson) – 30.48

re: slides, I have a few. used to use a steel one back in the '70's on "Freebird." Now I fool around on different ones, have a couple Dunlop glass ones, one is thick and short, my fav, also have a bronze one I like. The old rule is use glass on an electric and metal on an acoustic or resonator, but people do what they want. I like to use an 1800 tequila glass for a slide, nice and thick, gets good tone. Johnny Winter used to say he liked using a metal slide on electric cause it sounded "nastier." I just saw Derek Trucks using a glass coricidin bottle on his SG and that guy has a unique style with tons of feel and technique. I always liked George Harrison's slide work which I think is "haunting." I am also a huge Sonny Landreth fan and am going back to see him in October here in Delaware. IMO he is best slide player on the planet.

re: disasters, I think flooding is one of the worst things that can happen, and those folks down in Carolinas are going to have their hands and their basements full, which is just horrible. Sincere best wishes to anybody down there. I remember Tropical storm Sandy in 10/'12, which devastated the Jersey Shore. My Aunt lives down there in Bay Head NJ, flooded the basement and 1st floor of her home and her hardware store. The water was chest deep - chest deep! - on bridge avenue, the main street in town. Their electric was out for 4 months after the storm. We get upset when ours is off for more than 2 hours. The Ocean carved a new inlet to the Barnegat Bay in Mantaloking. amazing and disruptive/expensive in a big way for sure.

Thanks for the LR Sam! We need to keeps these going. I'll need to type some up so I can quickly copy and paste them in during lunch at work.

No lunch yesterday, had been in Fargo for work all week and was flying back to Chicago during lunch. was getting tired of eating out. Good to be home!

My take on the new line up is G&L is coming more in line with other guitar manufactures. I'm not sure if it will cause confusion or not. Looks like the laser SN on the back of head stock will distinguish which line-up the guitar fall into. If I was buying new, I'd would probably still go the "Option Order Model" still. In the used market, not sure it would matter to me as long as I felt I was getting a good deal.

Speaking of the Allman Brothers, Devon Allman and Duane Betts are carrying on the tradition. Here is a good interview:

phpBB [video]

As for slide, I do not own a slide but have been wanting to give a try. There have been some songs at church that I feel some slide leads would be ideal. Seems like it would be tricky to switch between slide and regular fretting. I have a feeling I'd get the slide accidentally fretting...

I have a sister and nieces down in Raleigh, NC. Last I heard school was cancelled Thu and Fri. Friday the rain started off and on and winds picked up later in the day. So far no bad news from them.

As for natural disasters, I've been near tornadoes in the past but never directly hit. Last year we had significant flooding in my area. Luckily my house stayed relatively dry (though my street was flooded). I did volunteer with the relief effort helping people pump out there basements and just talking with them giving them some relief and sense of normalcy (take their minds of the destruction).

Here is a Devon Allman tune that I thought was appropriate for the subject of natural disasters.

phpBB [video]

Cheers, Dan

Thanks for the replies guys.

Danley- tell us about the music festival, type of music, size etc. Fires are scary things. A former co-worker out in San Diego lost everything when the Santa Ana fires hit so bad. F100 refin's are like a G&L gateway drug for sure.

John - Reuben's are tasty for sure. Was tempted by a Skyhawk years ago, will find one somewhere and try to see if I get the bug again. Will find.that Allman's 70 show based on yer recommendations and that set list! +1 on Sonny Landreth.

Dan - you should do a LR, the copy paste approach is best for me. Obviously didn't work out that way this week. If I was to buy new would probably go "Option order model" as well. Would still like to get an ASAT HB before buying new right now. Devon's stuff is pretty good in my book. If you can work some slide into the songs at church, let us know how it goes. Hope yer family fared well.

The Lunch Reports. I think I've done 5 weeks all together.

I prefer eggs benni, with or w/out lobster. Otherwise, a fried egg on just about anything will do.

Love what G&L is doing. Great options, great images, just need more great examples in the wild.

My glass slide spends most of it's time in the case. Dig the sound, but my fingers do the walking.

Stay safe and have a great weekend!


Cheers,
Will

[ytv][/ytv]Hey Will,

Good to hear from you!

Can’t believe I left eggs benni off, love those.

Glass would be my second choice after the ceramics, but can’t find mine.

Danley- tell us about the music festival, type of music, size etc. Fires are scary things. A former co-worker out in San Diego lost everything when the Santa Ana fires hit so bad. F100 refin's are like a G&L gateway drug for sure.

We've been to this festival the previous two years, and in all honesty I feel this year has the least interesting lineup. The festival always had a pretty eclectic mix (with a focus on a few classic acts along with some three-hit wonder nineties rock bands like Sugar Ray in 2016 and Smashmouth in 2017,) but I feel like they must have spent a bit more on the hip hop bill this time (no interest) plus Katie Perry, and blew the rest of the rock budget on the Foo Fighters (who were pretty awesome after all.) Yet this is the first sell-out year for the festival. I do have to say, even without Scott Weiland (or even Chester Bennington) I was REALLY happy to see Stone Temple Pilots for the first time. They played a few surprising favorite songs of my own, that I never suspected they'd do in concert. I really feel like both Robert and Dean are very underrated musicians and songwriters. Got to be in the front row

Last year had two of my old favorite bands on the bill; Red Hot Chili Peppers and Weezer. RHCP did an... Ok set. I have to say I enjoyed STP without Scott more than I enjoyed RHCP without John. I was excited to see Weezer because their White Album was recent, and that is actually a great effort by a band I'd previously written off; maybe even my new favorite in their catalog. But they blew it by only playing the worst song from that album, and then only playing some of their most mediocre singles. Guess for my taste they played too much for the festival audience than to a hardcore fan. Out of all the performances I've got to see there over the years, Jack Johnson stands out as the obvious best. The band Collective Soul also gave an amazing performance considering their obscurity at the event two years ago.

I hate to say it, but due to some family difficulties I may miss tomorrow's final day of the event. The only band I really wanted to see anyway was Alice In Chains, but I've seen them before; again I'm looking forward to a grunge band without the original singer.

Glass would be my second choice after the ceramics, but can’t find mine.

Sorry about that...

Danley - sounds like a fun festival, would like to see the new STP live. Saw them on a tv special in the summer and the new guy has enough of his own vibe to not be a Scott Weiland cover band. I did see Velvet Revolver first tour and he was a true showman, great band and super show.

Will - nothing I can debate there, that’s just funny, have to leave the coricidin bottle in the lost round the house category

On slides: After trying many brands, sizes, materials, etc. always having problems finding the 'right one' for my knuckles, I recently started using Rockslide slides. I have a Pete Anderson Limited polished brass, Original Polished Brass, and several clear moulded glass slides, all large, and they fit my ring finger absolutely perfectly. Their inner bevel is the thing!

- Jos

A little late to the party...been on vacation (moron that in a bit).

No lunch so far today, slept late and just finished my coffee.

Love eggs any way, although they don't always agree with me, not sure why it's only sometime.

I have not seen the G&L site recently but it was not looking as good as the old site. I hope they get it together someday. The Guitar Configurator is a great tool and I hope that someone builds another up-to-date one.

Love the Allman brothers Band. Another tragic loss like Lynyrd Skynyrd. Did anyone see that recent documentary about Skynyrd on Showtime. It was pretty good as far as those things go.

I have tried to play slide over the years but never quite got the hang of it. Kind of like playing the harmonica. I used to play a lot of Neil Young songs and the harmonica part always left me missing something. Performing solo I couldn't play the guitar and the harmonica at the same time. With a band I was usually lucky enough to have someone in the band who could fill in the harmonica parts.

As far as hurricanes go, I lived in Florida for 23 years in Orlando and probably experienced a dozen or so hurricanes. Some really peter out by the time they get 60 miles inland and some don't. I was always fortunate to live in communities where the utilities are underground and for some reason never got too much damage where I was. However, a mile down the road could be complete devastation by wind or tornados. Rarely any severe flooding that far inland. I woke upon night at like 3 AM to the sounds of a severe thunder storm. I heard what I believed to be the longest sound of rolling thunder that turned out to be an F3 tornado a mile down the street. It did massive damage to Winter Garden, FL. and even picked up the better part of a trailer park and placed it right on I-95 blocking both North and South bound lanes. The trailers were, for the most part, not very damaged. However, while the residents came to try to salvage whatever they could from their displaced homes, the National Guard brought in bull dozers and pushed the trailers off the highway destroying any contents just to get the road open. Enough of those disasters, I could go on all day about the destruction I have seen.

Here's the story of My recent vacation.
Last year, my wife and I bought a time share in a brand new high rise building right on the beach. They have properties all over the place but we were unable to get to our particular one until this September. We had stayed a couple of times in Orlando properties as we just also had our first grand baby but had been looking forward to spending a week at the building where we own enjoying nothing but time on the beach with no other obligations to keep us off the beach. We arrived on Sept. 9th for stay through the 16th. We spent a wonderful day on the beach on Monday. On Monday evening the property informed us that we needed to be out of there by Tuesday at noon as the Governor had issued a mandatory evacuation. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we were in Myrtle Beach SC.! When we left to go there they were still so uncertain as to where Florence was heading we thought we would be ok. So, we packed up all our stuff and went to Ocean City Maryland where the weather was not great but at least we got out of SC before all the traffic. That place is devastated I have never seen so much flooding so far inland. They had to shut down I-95 in both directions due to a long stretch of flooded road.

So, sorry for the long story, but that's what I have been up to and some of the weather I have seen. This is why I live on the East coast not the west. You don't see earthquakes coming but at least you see hurricanes coming and can get away. If you don't evacuate when they tell you to (and this was the first time in my life I was given mandatory orders to evacuate) you are foolish. So listen to the experts.

Tom

Great post Sam! - I love reading through these, though I am late to this party also. No excuses, just didn't get around to it.

I had a salad (arugula/Broccoli/Cauliflower/Spinach with deep fried Jalapenos, boiled eggs, and salsa instead of dressing) for lunch that Friday. I like my eggs in an omelette (best), but they don't travel as well in my lunch bag as hard boiled eggs. I usually have 3 in my daily lunch salad.

G&L Topic: As I understand it, exposure has more to do with advertising that site design - meaning that people won't be exposed to these guitars without advertising, so it doesn't really matter how the page is set up (from an "exposure" perspective). The question is whether the categories and arrangements on the site are confusing or intuitive. I lean towards confusing rather than intuitive. If that can be true for uses of a brand specific forum like this, (i.e. if someone from this forum, where the average user has a great deal more product knowledge than the average consumer, can find the site confusing... I think it is safe to say that the way these things are being presented has room for some improvement).

Music Topic: Great tune by the Allman Brothers. Love all the songs listed (and a few more besides). I started playing slide because I was a big Delta blues fan. I was a Robert Johnson fan in the 80s, before it became momentarily cool to like Robert Johnson, and learned a few songs note for note. You'd think that would make me a great slide player today, but no. I didn't keep it up, and I never really learned to play slide over an open tuning. I played mostly with a brass slide, though I had a few glass slides. I didn't like them as much. I still have my old brass slide, and pull it out every now and again, but I keep it reeeeal simple. I've never played a B-Bender, but I almost bought one a few times in the past few decades.

Non-music: Natural Disaster. I live in Winnipeg - a city in the middle of a large flood plain. But before I was ever born our city created a floodway (the "Red River Floodway") to route flood waters around the city proper. To build it they moved more dirt than was moved in the digging of the Panama Canal (This is a fact and not hyperbole). There've been a few floods, but as I live in the city, and the city was protected by the Floodway, I've never really had to deal with a natural disaster. We have a tornado season each year, but while the damage can be severe where a tornado touches down, they seldom touch down for any length of time, or in populated areas. Most of the population of Manitoba lives in Winnipeg, and the rest are scattered about with a whole lot of pristine trees and lakes in between. In the south there is a lot of farmland, and tornadoes can wreck a farmer's field or two - but these are so localized, even though they are 'natural' and constitute a disaster for those few who are affected - we don't think of them as a disaster. The floods are more disastrous, because they can affect hundreds of square miles, but if you live in the Winnipeg, you don't "feel" it. The same floods that have devastated Fargo ND time and again, have merely surrounded Winnipeg like an untouched island. Since such natural disasters haven't really affected me or anyone I know personally, I don't have the same perspective that a local farmer, or such might have. We don't get earthquakes up here, so I don't know what I'd do if I was in one. We do get some pretty nasty Blizzards (6 ft of snow dumped on you in a single night, locking down the city for a few days) - and 6 months of winter that often includes long stretches where the temperature stays around -40 C. But that's all part and parcel of Manitoba living. You don't think of it as a natural disaster, you think of it as a normal winter.

I think I'd be afraid to live where there were poisonous insects and snakes, large reptiles, or earthquakes and hurricanes. Those are fears I've never had to really face. But I can live just fine with wolves, bears, and mosquitoes, and a nasty winter each year. I guess it's the enemy you don't know that scares you.