LUNCH REPORT - One more day to go 27 SEP 18

Been a busy week, something is occurring every evening this week in my family. As result, dinners have been grab what ever leftover you can find or make a sandwich. As result, there wasn’t much to make a lunch today. Grabbed an Italian sub from the cafeteria to go with my overly bruised banana I brought in and tangerine La Croix.

G&L Topic

I have a couple Tribute series guitars: the ASAT Special Deluxe I brought up earlier in the week and a JB-2 bass. The ASAT Special Deluxe really hooked me on G&L guitars. The large MFDs, are so full, thick, clear, and retain their brightness. They are not muddy at all. Muddy pickup are a definite turn-off. The guitar is light, not much heavier than the Z-2. The neck is thinner than the USA guitars but is comfortable. It is a great guitar. The JB-2 is finished in three-tone sunburst with a satin maple neck. It has the more robust six-bolt neck. The first time I played the JB-2 at church (it was the first time I played bass at church as the normal bass player had retired and moved south), the drummer said, “you brought the boom!” I enjoy the tightness of the jazz pickups. They cut a bit more without being overpowering in the mix. I also like the combination of a “precision” style body with jazz pickups. I wish they were still making USA JB-2’s. So do you own any Tributes? What are your thoughts?

Non G&L Topic

Normally I don’t have an issue with my strap popping of the strap buttons. Normally when it would happen, it would be on my Washburn Idol. I always attributed it to the how the weight of the guitar pulls the strap towards the button rather than against the body (like my G&Ls). A few weeks ago, I had my LE-2 pop off; luckily, I caught it before it hit the floor. This got me thinking about strap locks. I currently do not have any strap locks. Do any of you use strap locks? If so, which ones? What is your impression of them and do you like them?

Music Topic

Lately Fender is reporting that about 50% of new guitar sales are by women. For a long time, it seems that if a band included women they were either vocalist, keys, or bass players. Rarely did you see women playing guitar. Personally, I have been pretty impressed by the emerging presence of female guitar players. I hope this trend continues and we see more. I have been really enjoying some of these bands. Earlier this year I saw Wolf Alice in Milwaukee and they were great (wish the crowd would have been). Others I have been very impressed with: Bully (Alicia), Courtney Barnett, Best Coast (Bethany)… What artist / bands are you impressed with that prominently show case women musicians?

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Cheers, Dan

Thinking about grabbing sushi at the Japanese market that opened near my house/work.

G&L

I have possession of my Dad's Tribute ASAT Deluxe Carved. He bought it after seeing it on sale, and watching a video on YouTube demonstrating it. Very good guitar, with a few caveats:

• It arrived new from the box totally without a setup. No attempt had been made at intonation. High action. Not an issue for me, but my dad wondered why it never played in tune till I got a hold of it
• Upper treble side frets are not leveled well; doesn't matter to me because I like the action sort of medium anyway but you couldn't go max-low with it
• Matter of taste, but I dislike satin/un-tinted necks. That said, the satin Tributes use is at least not papery/nasty like a Squier or other cheap guitar, and tinted/gloss necks are available on Tributes. I do really like the finished headstock
• Pickups are also not bad and it's a gorgeous guitar- But I'm really not in a mindset where I want to buy import guitars any more. US-made models are inexpensive used and much better

Strap
I have two guitars with strap locks but never use them; never had an issue when I was performing/playing with others regularly, I just use standard/cheap straps and buttons. What I worry about are hard bits on straps dinging the back/sides of the guitar.

Females
Doesn't surprise me- But I don't think a lot of women play electric. For sure more power to female guitarists, acoustic or otherwise. Listened to a band called Best Coast that does some sort of retro surf stuff where I believe the singer (female) also plays. Good stuff. I really dislike the 'modern' female singing style that is in vogue though- Everyone thinks they need to try to sing "soulfully" or "like they have pipes;" it's basically a pastiche. It'd be as if all male singers regardless of genre tried to sing like Sinatra all the time. It's unfortunate those are the female musicians who get attention and not guitarists.

Lunch: Same as yesterday, and every weekday really: Kale/Jalapeno/dice Hard Boiled Eggs/Salsa.

G&L: Two tributes, 2012 Comanche (flame maple top) amber burst. love it. The other is a new Blueburst Asat special. love it also.

Strap Locks: I use em. My first guitar (a 70s Les Paul Deluxe) came with Dunlop some old Dunlops, and as I bought more and more guitars, I didn't bother buying more straps, so I put Dunlops on all those as well. I don't think Dunlops are the best, but I personally haven't had a problem with them in 30+ years that wasn't a result of my own slackness. All my (electric) guitars have Dunlop Straploks, even though now each guitar has its own strap. I like to be able to swap straps when I'm in the mood. Unfortunately, my G&L Tribute guitars come with GIANT SIZED strap screws whose head won't slip through the Dunlop Straplok. For my Comanche, I took the screws and filed around the head of each screw to make them fit. I haven't got around to doing that for the ASAT - it's a lot of annoying work, and there is not easy way to automate it. Can't find a similarly (GIANT SIZED) screw with a smaller head no matter where I looked. I emailed Dunlop about it, and their answer was the old toothpick and glue in the hold answer. I'd rather not, so I'm stuck with filing the heads. I'll get around to that one of these weekends.

Female musicians: I don't really think of guitarists in terms of male and female guitarists. There's a lot more guys out there playing guitar than there are gals, even if girls are buying more guitars these days. I like Tal Wilkenfeld on the bass, and she is not a bad singer to boot.

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Lunch was a pimento cheese sandwich and a piece of left over birthday cake. My daughters birthday was the other day and birthday cake is good anytime!

G&L Topic
I have two tribby's, an ASAT Deluxe Carved Top P-90 and an ASAT Special that I turned into an ASAT Z2 with a B Bender and a tribby Legacy neck. (12" neck versus 9.5" neck, way better IMHO). Overall G&L has put together an incredible value with the Tribute line. The ASAT Special was a great guitar in the first place, I can see why people who want to "try an ASAT" could go this route and get a taste of BIG MFD's. I have considered the Tribute Fallout which is a crazy good, and would like to get a tribute Will Ray and do some ASAT Studio VI mods.

P90 version has great P90 tones


The "Will Ray Z2" is a TON OF FUN!!


Non G&L Topic
Only one guitar wit strap locks, an ASAT Custom, that came with the guitar when I bought it. They work well and I can see the utility but I have used the good ol' strap on guitar buttons for so long it is not that big a deal. Would rather spend the strap lock money on something else, and I am pretty cheap in general. Maybe if I say "frugal" it will sound better.

Females
A few female guitar players on the scene now, there are a few I like. I have heard Wolf Alice and they are a good listen. Nita Strauss has been touring with Alice Cooper and she wails. Orianthi was with Alice before and she was very good as well. Lzzy Hale from Halestorm is pretty popular now, but she is more of a singer who plays some guitar to me. And we always have Jennifer Batten!

Last edited by sam on Thu Sep 27, 2018 5:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

thursday lunch was brunch, egg and cheese on some whole grain bread.

G&L tributes: my first G&L was a tribute Legacy, which I gigged with several times. Loved the CLF-100 p'ups and the PTB, they just sounded great. I sold it on Reverb after I got my comanche, for obvious reasons. My second was a tribute ASAT special, mahogany body with tobacco sunburst finish. What a great guitar. I shimmed the neck and then it was perfect. It played, looked and sounded great. I played entire gigs with it. When I got my '89 ASAT, I gave the tribute to my oldest son who is an excellent guitarist. There are days I regret parting with it, but I love the neck on the '89 so we're good. I do think the tribute sounded better in some ways. The current large coil MFD's are overwound compared to the 80's ones. The '89 has its own great voice and mojo blues vibe, but the tribute sounded GREAT.

re: strap locks, i use dunlops on my les paul since the strap end broke mid-song during a gig in the 70's. I had to sit on the edge of the stage to finish the song. It was a VFW and the song was "brown sugar." I use warwick's on my comanche and my bluesboy. everything else I just use good straps. The G&L strap buttons are nice, too.

re: lady guitar slingers, I just saw Susan Tedeschi wielding a Les Paul and a strat. She plays some respectable lead solos and plays tele's as well. I've always thought Joni Mitchell was awesome. I saw Bonnie Raitt in New Orleans and she kicked a$$. Good slide player too. I was listening to Jeff Beck today, with Jennifer Batten, on his record "Who Else" from '99. I also think Tal Wilkenfal is amazing, as Dan mentioned. She has played with Jeff Beck as well, but her solo stuff is very Jaco-like. I think Chrissy Hynde is bad a$$ as well.

I shimmed the neck and then it was perfect.

Perhaps if G&L is listening, they can devise a way to adjust the neck angle without needing to shim If only some famous inventor/founding member of the electric guitar community had that figured out...

Anyway- I should mention I do want a Fiorano Would fill a gap in my quiver of tools.

Thanks for another LR!

No Tribbies, but they are great!

I like Schaller's strap locks.

Dude, Tal Wilkenfeld. I'm a fan.


Cheers,
Will

I have possession of my Dad's Tribute ASAT Deluxe Carved. He bought it after seeing it on sale, and watching a video on YouTube demonstrating it. Very good guitar, with a few caveats:
It arrived new from the box totally without a setup. No attempt had been made at intonation. High action. Not an issue for me, but my dad wondered why it never played in tune till I got a hold of it
Upper treble side frets are not leveled well; doesn't matter to me because I like the action sort of medium anyway but you couldn't go max-low with it
Matter of taste, but I dislike satin/un-tinted necks. That said, the satin Tributes use is at least not papery/nasty like a Squier or other cheap guitar, and tinted/gloss necks are available on Tributes. I do really like the finished headstock
Pickups are also not bad and it's a gorgeous guitar- But I'm really not in a mindset where I want to buy import guitars any more. US-made models are inexpensive used and much better

I don't know if is a big box store thing or not. I'm not going too name stores, but my JB-2 which states was inspected and set up in the factory didn't appear to be (unless putting strings on constitutes a setup). When I tension-ed the string to bring in to tune the strings buzzed all over the fret board. It needed quite a bit of truss rod adjustment. Similar story with my daugther's Epiphone ES-339. It has a lovely decal on the back of the headstock stating it was set up and inspected in the US factory. Again, major fret board buzz, significant truss rod adjustment and bridge height adjustments required to eliminate the buzz, plus needed intonation. Finally my Guild which was from a different big box store was so bad when I first got it, I was't sure I would get it playable - but I was. It is almost like the big box stores have these direct shipped from the foreign factories. Stuff I've bought from small mom and pop shops have usually been reasonably set-up when I took possession of the guitar.

Female musicians: I don't really think of guitarists in terms of male and female guitarists. There's a lot more guys out there playing guitar than there are gals, even if girls are buying more guitars these days. I like Tal Wilkenfeld on the bass, and she is not a bad singer to boot.

I feel the same way. I just brought up the topic because I do see a lot of comments (especially on you tube videos) that sexist and hyper-critical of female guitarists - and that bugs me. The main reason I read the comments is often you find a nugget if you like this band you should check out _____... I found some band I probably would have never run across if I hadn't read the comment. In my twenties, several prominent female band where in the scene: Throwing Muses, Breeders, Belly, Veruca Salt, Liz Phair, Babes in Toyalnd, Hole... But then it seemed to drop off. With the way the industry is now, being more DIY, it may have more staying power and I look forward to that. In the end, I just looking for more good music regardless of gender.

Thanks for sharing the Tal Wilkenfeld video. That was some artistic and delightful number!

G&L Topic
I have two tribby's, an ASAT Deluxe Carved Top P-90 and an ASAT Special that I turned into an ASAT Z2 with a B Bender and a tribby Legacy neck. (12" neck versus 9.5" neck, way better IMHO). Overall G&L has put together an incredible value with the Tribute line. The ASAT Special was a great guitar in the first place, I can see why people who want to "try an ASAT" could go this route and get a taste of BIG MFD's. I have considered the Tribute Fallout which is a crazy good, and would like to get a tribute Will Ray and do some ASAT Studio VI mods.

I always thought that was a Tribute Will Ray that you removed the middle pickup! So, did you have to route it? I would think you would have for the bridge pickup.

G&L tributes: my first G&L was a tribute Legacy, which I gigged with several times. Loved the CLF-100 p'ups and the PTB, they just sounded great. I sold it on Reverb after I got my comanche, for obvious reasons. My second was a tribute ASAT special, mahogany body with tobacco sunburst finish. What a great guitar. I shimmed the neck and then it was perfect. It played, looked and sounded great. I played entire gigs with it. When I got my '89 ASAT, I gave the tribute to my oldest son who is an excellent guitarist. There are days I regret parting with it, but I love the neck on the '89 so we're good. I do think the tribute sounded better in some ways. The current large coil MFD's are overwound compared to the 80's ones. The '89 has its own great voice and mojo blues vibe, but the tribute sounded GREAT.

I've been looking for a ridiculous deal on either a Tribute ASAT Special (either the current Irish Ale or the Mahogany Three Tone) was my first project guitar. I'g like to put an F-100 MFD pickup in the neck position and an gold anodized aluminum pickguard. Haven't found a ridiculous low priced one yet...


Thank you everyone for the strap lock advise. I think I am going to try to avoid them for now. The G&L's have been pretty good, just the one time and there was some weird circumstances leading up to it. It was probably more a fluke.

Cheers,
Dan

Dan,

Yes there was a little routing done to accommodate the Z coil pickups. Also, just picked up a Z3 guard and put a sticker over the middle hole. I would still like to get Chandler to custom make a Z2 guard.

So I'm a little late to the party....

Tributes
I've got a tribute SB2 that I picked up for a great price. Great bass.

Strap Locks
sorry can't provide any input here

Girl Rockers
Always loved Joan Jett
Tal Wilkenfeld - heck yeah!
Julie Slick - bassist for Adrian Belew's power trio. Seen her a couple times with Adrian.
St Vincent. - have a couple of her record and saw her live a few months ago. She can wail!

-Jeff