Lunch Report 24 SEP 18

Lunch today will be a turkey with avocado sub sandwich, a banana and lemon flavored sparkling water.

G&L Topic

There are certain guitars that I never expect to find for sale, not that they aren’t sold, just that they are sold infrequently and having to match that up right when you are looking. One of those guitars for me was the ASAT Z-2.. With only 10 of them ever being produced, I figured I would never find one for sale. So, I was quite excited when I was able to acquire #1 of 10 earlier this year. Do you have any G&L elusive unicorns out there? If so, what is it? For me, it would be one the HG guitars, either HG-1 or HG-2.

Non G&L Topic

I decided to dive into the world of guitar pedals this year. Previously I used a Vox Tonelab EX and the church I play at has a Line 6 multi-effect board (don’t recall the model). I never been that happy with the multi-effects. They all seem to come preprogrammed with patches on any given back that really don’t go together. Because of this, I find they limit my use. Individual pedals certainly cost a lot more, but I find it much more intuitive to dial in the tone and I have more flexibility to turn on and off effects on the fly. I have received quite a few compliments on my tone since switching to my pedal board at church. On my board, I have: Volume pedal, tuner, overdrive, fuzz, chorus, delay, and reverb pedal. Not sure I can say which is my favorite but the following three are really close: Greer Ghetto Stomp, BBE Two-Timer, and EHX Neo-Holy Grail. The Ghetto Stomp give a real nice tube amp crunch, very natural and sounds wonderful to me. The delay is really solid and easy to dial in for an analog delay. It so trippy in a good way. The plate reverb on the Neo-Holy Grail is so haunting – love it. So, do you use multi-effects or pedals? If so, what are your favorites?

Music Topic

I love hearing music live and seeing the artist live. I’m a bit bummed, was to go see UB-40 next weekend, but the show has be postponed, date TBD. There are certain artists I’ve seen more than others. If I had to rank the top 3 artist I’ve seen it would probably be: Adam Ezra Group (or solo) at least 8 times, Poi Dog Pondering at least 7 times, and The Replacements at least 6 times. What are your top acts to see live?

phpBB [video]

Travelling tomorrow, but have more lunch reports prepared for Wed-Fri… Maybe I'll try to make a quick report before I leave in the morning...

Cheers, Dan

G&L Topic
So many G&Ls seem scarce enough not to yield any for sale at a given time; scary IMO, if I needed a replacement for my F100 hardtail Series 1 - There aren't even any hardtails for sale at the moment on eBay or Reverb. Also didn't realize how infrequent matte hardware is. It's an ebb and flow though- at a point last year two G200s were on eBay/Reverb at the same time, but I haven't seen any since. Anyway- I'd be (and have been) interested in any guitar I can get a deal on. But I'd love to find a late-production F100 with the bicut neck & non-string through saddle lock; just to prove whether they even exist as claimed on some websites

Pedals
Not a huge pedal user but never used a multi; I'd love to try it though. Most of my playing is recorded through an interface/laptop, but there's satisfaction in pedals/amp as well. For a while I collected Devi Ever fuzzes, which are pretty novel & attractive art but have little use if I think about it. Fulltone Fulldrive 2 MOSFET is probably my 'best' pedal, but a BBE 427 is my go-to of late. Also love my MXR Blue Box

Music
Greatest performers I've seen: Green Day, Aerosmith, Foo Fighters, Collective Soul (really,) All American Rejects (maybe just fresh on my mind but they were good.) Not necessarily my favorite bands. Stone Temple Pilots also put on a really great show. My favorite bands unfortunately didn't put on the best live shows- Alice In Chains (only ok,) Red Hot Chili Peppers (again just decent,) Weezer (played some of my least favorite songs, making their final cover song insulting.) I really admire musicians who can put on a great live set, but since most of my music gets listened to while driving, it's not required.

Hey Dan,

Great stuff, and we may get a full week!

The elusive G&L’s... for me it is the Z-2 (you snagged that one from GC before I could), an ASAT HB and maybe a JD-5. These seem to be in hiding.

Pedals, I love pedals. BBE pedals I use are the Sonic Maximizer, two timer delay, mind bender, and green screamer. (My son snagged my 427). Pulled out me bench press compressor this weekend for some country stuff and realized I forgot about that pedal. Non G@L pedals that get regular use are the Fulltone Fulldrive mosfet, Suhr Jack Rabbit trem, TC Electronics flashback delay, a DIY multi distortion/mosfet, and Morley Vai Wah. Others in there as well.

Missed the Mats unfortunately but did see Paul Westerberg solo that was good. Most memorable shows would be Bob Mould (Bob at a bar on a stool with a strat a Fender twin and a mic) was next to the stage, Jerry Garcia at the Stone where I sat at a table maybe 20 feet from the band, Marillion in Vienna Austria, Warren Zevon acoustic in a small bar sitting on the floor by the stage, Frank Zappa, and AC/DC with Bon Scott opening for Kiss, blew them away. Love seeing shows, many more that left an impression.

G&L

I'd say most 1980's Lefties could fit in that category. If I can't get/find an HG, maybe an ASAT w/ 1 or 2 HG pickups is in my future...

Non G&L

Pedals: Here's a few of my most used.

https://palaia.com/i/bbe-mbender.jpg

https://palaia.com/i/pedals.jpg

Music

Seen Live?
The Police (of course)
Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band
Bon Jovi
Grateful Dead
Little Feet
George Thorogood


Cheers,
Will

* I was not able to post the images. Stated that it could not tell the dimensions...

It's call for rain so the fields will be wet which means the trip is postponed... Got material for Tue-Fri now...

I'd be (and have been) interested in any guitar I can get a deal on. But I'd love to find a late-production F100 with the bicut neck & non-string through saddle lock; just to prove whether they even exist as claimed on some websites

I'm with you Danley! I'm always looking for a great deal. Being watching for F-100 myself. Lately they seem to all be DFV.

Fulltone Fulldrive 2 MOSFET is probably my 'best' pedal, but a BBE 427 is my go-to of late. Also love my MXR Blue Box

(My son snagged my 427)

When I was shopping for my pedals, I was seriously considering the BBE 427. Sound like it would have been a good choice. However, I have been happy with the Ghetto Stomp.

The elusive G&L’s... for me it is the Z-2 (you snagged that one from GC before I could), an ASAT HB and maybe a JD-5. These seem to be in hiding.

Sam, you can never have too many ASATs! If you would have beat me to the Z-2 I would have been happy that is stayed in the club and went to an ASAT fanatic. But I am very happy I scored it!

Bon Jovi

I believe they opened to the Scorpions. That would have been the first show I went to. I would have like to have seen The Police and George Thorogood.

I'd say most 1980's Lefties could fit in that category. If I can't get/find an HG, maybe an ASAT w/ 1 or 2 HG pickups is in my future...

Everytime I search for an HG all I find is a print ad. I've been temped by the 25th Anniversary ASAT, but seems that everyone comments on the neck be very chunky...

Missed the Mats unfortunately but did see Paul Westerberg solo that was good. Most memorable shows would be Bob Mould (Bob at a bar on a stool with a strat a Fender twin and a mic) was next to the stage, Jerry Garcia at the Stone where I sat at a table maybe 20 feet from the band, Marillion in Vienna Austria, Warren Zevon acoustic in a small bar sitting on the floor by the stage, Frank Zappa, and AC/DC with Bon Scott opening for Kiss, blew them away. Love seeing shows, many more that left an impression.

AC/DC with Bon Scott would have been epic! Same with Warren Zevon (guess we all have to sleep sometime...). Bob Mould is a favorite too. Last time I saw him was the 25th anniversary show at the Metro. Recently picked up Young Savage Du. Great box set of early Husker Du.

I enjoy the 427 ; but the thing is, it's VERY much like a DS1 (but better.) For some reason, rolling back the volume on your guitar will make it sound more splay & fuzz-ish, if that's your thing; very un-like a DS1 .

I mentioned earlier that the FD2 MOSFET is a great pedal; I also have a Fulltone Distortion Pro. Maybe I'm just not using it as intended, but I really cannot get a decent sound out of the thing; totally murders the harmonic content of notes, has six knobs (AND two internal) yet they don't make it sound any better. Apparently leftover cases for these got patched with a plate on top to become the Plimsoul among other things.

Really I only have drive pedals. I have no use for time-based effects for the most part; especially flange. I've never played one that didn't sound like a toilet continuously flushing behind the guitar sound.

Anyway, I mentioned Devi Ever so I might as well post (stock pics of) the ones I have. Apparently I like pedals made by people who are disliked on the internet:

(I also have a USA, but no post as no fancy artwork on that one - even though it's probably the 'best' pedal.) The last pedal is the "Zero Good/NoFi." It is the most preposterous pedal I have ever played; TONS of volume boost that is so gated a single coil almost does not work with it, until you really dig in. Then BAM. Your whole sound is converted to distorted low-end. Really needs to have a different fuzz in front of it; but Devi seems to build them to stack.

Thanks for posting Dan.

G&L
To use your term, I have quite a few 'unicorns', including Leo's Interceptor II (S/N G000002), the HG-2 prototype, 'The Rembrandt', one of the 4 'Buck Owens' ACls, George's AC Signature w/gold hardware and LFV, ASAT '50 #1, 20th Anniversary #1, the only Trinity in Clear Red built for Bob Page, and a slew of prototypes both pre- and post-BBE. And yes, to get those, browsing the auction sites and certain dealers is almost a 'day job'.

Pedals
I have a love/hate relationship with pedals. From no pedals, just a Boogie DC-3, to a Lexicon MPX-G2 inside a complete Mesa rack gear setup, to now just a Boogie Express 5:25 with a Carl Martin TremO-Vibe in the effects loop. In all, I seem to gravitate more to the bare setups.

Live acts
I have seen Pat Metheny more than 30 time by now in all kinds of settings. Never miss Jeff Tweedy with or without Wilco. And since he lives nearby, Bill Frisell tops the list in number of performances seen.

- Jos

G&L
The only 'unicorn' I have is one of the LEs from 1999, I have #22 of 25. For non-G&L I have a 1976 Yamaha SG1500 which is one of the early ones and is impeccably made and plays and sounds amazing.

Pedals
I am a minimalist when it comes to pedals. I have a Tubescreamer made by a person who built them out of kits, but added a feature where you can switch the order of the distortion and the boost. The only other pedal in my chain is a echo unit. I have several more pedals which just sit in their boxes. I do also use the tremolo and the reverb on my Swart AST.

Live acts
I use to go to live concerts a lot back in the 80s, but haven't done in much since. I did catch Tommy Emmanuel about 15 years ago and that was surely a highlight.

Let's see...lunch was leftover chicken and a jug of water. Nothing too exciting.

There are a few guitars that I seek and like Jos said, cruising the auction sites is a daily job and part of my daily rituals. An early Comanche VI with three bolt neck in a solid color. An Interceptor III, first version in any color but those flame Maple ones would be awesome. Some of those old guitars that Dave keeps digging up in the attic at G&L and posting on Face Book make me nuts. I wonder what else had been discovered over the years that we never heard about and are in the clutches of some collector out there. I would love to have some of those for pure Mojo's sake even if they don't sound too good. not sure why they wouldn't sound good). I have collected most of the guitars that I want and am fortunate to have done so. Right time, right place made most of them possible cause some of them I have not seen for sale since. Such as the two ASAT HB Special Build that are all Mahogany with less than 35 built. Interestingly though they both came up for sale within a month or two of each other and I have not seen one since. 16 are registered on this site. My Broadcaster #3 and my prototype F-100E are pretty much priceless to me so I feel pretty fortunate to have come across these guitars and been able to buy them.

On a side note...when you go to the registry page, as we all know, the first thing you see is a list of the "Rare Birds". Why is there not any rare birds since the Blondie was made in 2007? Is there really no candidate for eleven years? Any nominations to pass on to the folks in the Mother Ship?

Peddles, I too am a bit of a minimalist. I have a Boss Wah peddle and a Boss distortion stomp box and that's it. I also have a Green Pony that I built but I'm not too thrilled with it so Don't use it much. I really only got it for something to do and see if my soldering chops were still up to snuff, which they are. My Wah peddle has something funky going on with it so I am thinking of getting that BBE peddle mentioned in another thread here.

Live music has become a somewhat unavailable thing for me. I spent most of my life in the entertainment business and always knew someone on tour with any act I wanted to see and got good tickets, or hung out on the sound riser or backstage. Before that I knew the girl that ran the local Ticketmaster machine at the record shop and despite huge lines, she would let me in five mins before the shop opened and the tickets went on sale and usually walked away with a handful of front row seats. Sadly, I have been out of the business for a while as have my friends. The road is a hard life, that's why I never became a road sound engineer despite my ability to do so. Family is more important and it doesn't pay like it used to, after all, everybody knows their job, and sound. (What's the difference between God and a sound engineer? God doesn't think he's a sound engineer!) So, that and the price of tickets even to get in the building having skyrocketed, let alone really good seats have kept me away from live shows. I think the last show I saw live was Dweezil Zappa about ten years ago. Great show with Steve Vai showing up and Terry Bozo on drums, not to mention a couple other little known Zappa alumni.

Here are a couple pics of some of the shows I saw years ago.

Pink Floyd, The Wall at Nassau Coliseum. One of seven shows (the last one) performed on the East cost, and I believe four shows in Cali. I have those hammers tattooed on my shoulder.


Carlos...later autographed.


The Dead at Radio City


And finally, the Man himself Who I say close to seventy times


Just a few that I have some crappy photos of on my PC.

Most shows of the rock greats I have seen, including Skynyrd before they had that plane crash. I never did see Lou Reed or Bob Marley which I regret to this day. otherwise I have been blessed to see a lot of great acts, take a few pics here and there but nowadays it just costs too much.

Good LR, Thanks,
Tom

I did catch Tommy Emmanuel about 15 years ago and that was surely a highlight.

Amazing guitarist and musician! I've seen a special on him on PBS, blown away by his technique.

G&L
To use your term, I have quite a few 'unicorns', including Leo's Interceptor II (S/N G000002), the HG-2 prototype, 'The Rembrandt', one of the 4 'Buck Owens' ACls, George's AC Signature w/gold hardware and LFV, ASAT '50 #1, 20th Anniversary #1, the only Trinity in Clear Red built for Bob Page, and a slew of prototypes both pre- and post-BBE. And yes, to get those, browsing the auction sites and certain dealers is almost a 'day job'.

Yeah, I just have the desire to search daily. But agree, if you want to catch the right time on some of these it essentially a daily task. That an impressive list you looking for to go with your already amazing collection!

Most shows of the rock greats I have seen, including Skynyrd before they had that plane crash. I never did see Lou Reed or Bob Marley which I regret to this day. otherwise I have been blessed to see a lot of great acts, take a few pics here and there but nowadays it just costs too much.

You must have a sense where I'm going... To be be revealed later this week!

On a side note...when you go to the registry page, as we all know, the first thing you see is a list of the "Rare Birds". Why is there not any rare birds since the Blondie was made in 2007? Is there really no candidate for eleven years? Any nominations to pass on to the folks in the Mother Ship?

Tom

Tom,

There is no continuation because those pages are remnants of GbL v1. As long as you don't touch them, they will properly connect to the old DB (which also contains the Registry data) and render just fine. They'd need to be rebuilt entirely for the current version of the forum.

- Jos

On a side note...when you go to the registry page, as we all know, the first thing you see is a list of the "Rare Birds". Why is there not any rare birds since the Blondie was made in 2007? Is there really no candidate for eleven years? Any nominations to pass on to the folks in the Mother Ship?

Tom

Tom,

There is no continuation because those pages are remnants of GbL v1. As long as you don't touch them, they will properly connect to the old DB (which also contains the Registry data) and render just fine. They'd need to be rebuilt entirely for the current version of the forum.

- Jos

I commented about this and Craig pointed out this link for rarbirds:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5987