LUNCH REPORT 12-19-18

howdy campers, few things on my mind lately so thought a good ol' lunch report was in line.

Lunch
Unsure of what the taste buds will want, feeling like soup or chili today.

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G&L Topic - CLF RESEARCH CO.
Thanks to Craig for the regular G&L Facebook page - CLF RESEARCH CO. posts.

I have both enjoyed and learned a ton about our leader Leo Fender. I am not on Facebook, so this is my way of getting this information. Trinkets like old Peterson tuners, letters to his sales team and mule instruments shine a light on just how involved he was in so many facets of his businesses.

Reading these posts only makes me want more, and two things come to mind that I would like to see.

A link to all the “re-built” or prototype instruments and MusicMan amps posted played live. Maybe a CLF RESEARCH CO. section in the GLDP board index.

More pictures of players and celebrities visiting Leo would be cool to see.

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Music Topic - concert
This has been a great month for guitar music for me.

Saw the Generation Axe show two weeks ago and Guitar Collective this past weekend. Generation Axe was Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Zack Wylde, Nuno Bettencort, Tobin Abasi, and Guitar Collective was Nita Strauss, Angel Vivaldi and Jacky Vincent. Both shows were very good and different enough to not feel like I saw the same thing twice. Wanted to take my son to both but he wound up with a school event that kept him away from Generation Axe. My wife went and even though she said she “Only came to see Yngwie”, she left as a Zach Wylde fan as well. Could be because he walked into the audience a couple of times and she got closeup pictures. My son did go to the Guitar Collective because he is big Nita Strauss fan through Alice Cooper.

Generation Axe covered mucho ground. Tobin Abasi with his 8-string guitar was something to see, and hear. Nuno was the biggest and very pleasant surprise. Cool shredder but pulled out an acoustic and impressed the crowd. Loved his comment to the audience, which included all ages from young teenagers to old gray heads. “It doesn’t matter if you play in the basement by yourself, for you wife, or you play in a band, just play every day.” Important words for any guitar player. Zach Wylde was the heavy crunch player of the bunch. With his Ozzy association he played War Pigs which got a great response. Steve Vai was typical Steve Vai. Technically exceptional and enjoyable but not the best show of his I’ve seen. Yngwie was the headliner as he should be, and amazed all. Would have more pics but spent time watching the show.




Guitar Collective was a different show, not quite the playing variety, but not a letdown at all. The opener was a bass player that was pretty darn good. Seven string bass that went way beyonf thump - thump. I had never heard of Angel Vivaldi but he is a talented player. I could hear him in Dream Theatre maybe. Nita Strauss can rock with the best of them, and she is as entertaining as anyone out there. Jacky Vincent was good but kind of shred of the day. This was a birthday present for my son, it was the night before he turned 16. So, I took him and his best friend, who he plays in a band to the show. The highlight for him was getting to meet Nita Strauss after the show. That’s a birthday he will remember.







Link to her show


After two weeks watching all these incredible guitar players I am glad I will have some vacation time for Christmas, it will be spent practice – practice - practice.

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Non-Music Topic – Holiday Food
With holiday festivities in full mode and it's a lunch report let's talk special food for the season. A few questions to ponder:

Do and your family you have a unique dish reserved for this time of year?
Ours include "chocolate bark" (crushed peppermints and melted chocolate mixed and spread on a tray then cooled and broken.
Cheesy Peas – English peas with melted Velveeta cheese. The kids always want this.
My mom makes mini fruit cake cookies. Actually tastes much better than fruit cake.

What is the main dish served on Christmas day? (if not Christmas, your specific holiday season day)
A big pork tenderloin is the main food centerpiece at our house

Is there any food you try to avoid?
Not a fan of canned cranberry sauce

BTW - Have a new phone on order so future pictures will be better than the crappy pics I have put up for so long

Hey Sam, thanks for the LR.
I am just having coffee for now, had some medical procedures yesterday, didn't sleep well and am trying to get the anesthesia through my system.

I too really enjoy the CLF postings on face book and thanks to Craig for keeping up with posting here. It must be fun to be able to rummage around in 50 + years of leo's work and stashed away stuff. I would give anything to be able to spend a couple days there with Dave or Johnny discovering magical things at every turn. It's also cool that they might get some inspiration from what they find to bring back some of the vintage instruments with modern building techniques, new materials but built to vintage specs. I am really looking forward to the day they build a CLF F-100 with vintage specs. That may well be the first brand new G&L I buy. Although, the V-12 is knocking at my door. I am not a big fan of the Doheny in general but after hearing some of the demos on line, I think i like it more each time i hear one.

Great concerts and a good review. Any one of those guitarists on their own would be good to see. I have not been to a big concert in years. Just too many personnel space issues, but don't get me started.

As far as holiday food goes, it's mostly just the wife and I for diner at holiday time anymore so recently we decided to forgo the usual fair and get and eat things we might not splurge on normally. For years I always deep fried a turkey and we made all the usual trimmings, stuffing, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes etc. This past Thanksgiving we had some dry aged ribeye steaks that were fabulous. I made my own homemade mushroom soup to go with the green beans and made Cauliflower mash which is like potatoes but better for you. I was a bit paranoid that I would overcook the steaks but with diligent use of an instant read thermometer they came out perfectly medium rare.

Not sure what I will do for Christmas but I will have to decide soon. Maybe lobsters. New years is a food holiday too and it's our wedding anniversary so I have to figure that one out too. Any suggestions?

Food I avoid, anything with beets or liver.

What kind of phone are you getting? I might get my wife a new one for either X-mas or anniversary and we are Apple users so I was wondering about the X version. She has the 6-Plus now. Is there a big difference and anyone know where the best place to buy them is?

Thanks again Sam and Merry Christmas and Holidays to you and your family.

Tom

Hey Tom,

Hope you are feeling better as the day goes on and all results are what you are shooting for.

I'm with you on the V-12 pickups. The Doheny's not my favorite body style, but would love to see those pups in the online store. That's a subject for another lunch report. You may be on to something with vintage spec guitars. A CLF F-100, maybe an HG-1, G-200 or Intercepter? I know that's just crazy talk.

We have started making the Cauliflower mash a lot as well, pretty good IMHO. Those dry aged ribeye's sound fantastic. Anniversary food......lobster sounds good to me! Congrats.

With you on the beets and liver. My wife likes beets, so she knows I won't be taking them from her.

Phone will be an iPhone of some variety. It's a work phone, so probably not the latest and greatest. The one I have now is a 5S if that tells you anything.

Merry Christmas and Holidays to you and yours as well.

Had a rough/stressful day at work and didn't have time for lunch. I'm for sure grateful for the Facebook pics being posted here, I got sick of social media a couple years ago; don't need the trouble it brings (and if I think I need it, it's usually because I'm *really* in trouble ) I really hope the F100's inevitable re-issue includes the pre-amp and string-through design on that note. That's a cool concert series I'd love to see at least once. Even if none of the artists is really on my playlist I def. acknowledge that group of guitarists as amazing; nice that your family gets enjoyment from it as well. As for food, I get sick of Thanksgiving/holiday food long before the season even starts; not big on ham/turkey. My extended family usually eats the stereotypical items; green bean casserole, scalloped potatoes, etc. Really heavy and sweet food I never have any appetite for.

My wife started ordering groceries on Amazon, and had the terrible idea to pay some ridiculously cheap amount for a grab-bag of random groceries to be delivered each week; basically what vegetables stores were going to throw away. Good thought, but in practice this means: Beets. Usually I eat whatever she cooks, but I had to draw the line after the fifth week straight of her trying to incorporate both beets and their greens into damn near every meal; I could just tolerate them at first, but after a while they just taste like sugar flavored dirt. I think that and the fact that she ordered coffee made of fungus grown on insects without realizing it because it was like a penny (not kidding, google 'Cordyceps') finally got her to quit buying cheap/random amazon groceries.

The worst thing about the season might be holiday beer though- thick, sticky molasses flavored porters and stouts dominate brew-taps, and it's basically never in season in SoCal, where the likelihood is average highs around 70 throughout December. But all the local breweries like to be 'cute' and offer sugary pumpkin spiced, fruitcake, or mulled/cinnamon flavored beers and it gets tiring.

...I sound bitter today, so I'll end it on my immediate family (sister/brother/spouses) tradition: Christmas eve we all say screw it to all the typical holiday food and eat fish. Sushi, swordfish steaks, crab cakes, etc. My brother and sister are both vegetarian (as I used to be, but quit a few years ago) however they will both eat fish, on this one occasion per year. Their spouses do eat meat, so there usually is some sort of that around too. The only other seasonal food my family really has is Cornish Pasty but we eat that on Father's Day.

Hey Sam, I'm always envious of your concert attendance, its very impressive. I really dig Yngwie and am glad he headlines those shows. I have his DVD with the Japanese philharmonic and its fantastic, he looks so happy to be doing it.

The CLF stuff is great, and I like your idea about artists visiting Leo, the couple I've seen have been great. I'd like to see where on Leo's taste in music, and did he actively pursue any of the artists he liked to give endorsement to them?

Our special family dish at x-mas is bread sauce, its an old English recipe so its not unique to our family but at the same time not many people know about it. Sounds boring but its amazing, and always the subject of sibling infighting. This year the centrepiece will be a boned, rolled shoulder of pork, stuffed with prunes soaked in calvados and seasoned with 5-spice. All encased in crackling. I'm the chef.

ah, pre-Christmas hump day lunch: chinese glazed chicken over brown rice

recent guitar concerts: Sonny Landreth and Dweezil Zappa, both worth the dollar and the time.
I haven't seen the others, but I have seen Nuno B with Extreme, opened for Bon Jovi at the Spectrum in Philly back in 90's, also saw them at Hammerjack's in Baltimore, also late 90's. Great band w/chemistry. Gary tried too hard with Van Halen v3.0. But he's really a terrific vocalist, and with Nuno they create some great tunes/bitchin' rock.

I have enjoyed seeing the CLF research output as well. I have an '81 F-100 (hog/string through/lock tite bridge/series 1 12 inch rad, and an '84 Skyhawk (Jan 84, black, a month out from the nighthawk) and both of those gtrs get my juices flowing. I'm not an offset guy, but I agree with Tom, that Doheny V12 looks very unique.

re: Christmas foods, my wife is good for an excellent pecan pie. Christmas morning we usually have a feast with some egg casseroles, w/w-o meats for the veggies in the family, waffles on ye olde fashioned john o waffle iron, mimosas, and you guessed it...leftover pecan pie

had a recent gig and snapped a shot of the backline prior to 1st set, my main axe is the comanche, brought along the SG this time for variety on a Beatles and a Boston tune



Merry Christmas, y'all G&LDP'ers!

Thanks for additional replies.

Danley - sorry to hear of the rough day hope today is better. I missed out on one of the original F-100 for about $250 years ago, still think of that every now and then. Will watch this space for updates from Darth! Not aware of the Amazon food grab bag, but can imagine it being what you said. I would starve if it was only beets. I do like the seafood option you guys have though.

Jamie - Concerts are so expensive these days so I try to choose carefully. With a son who lives and dies music it gives a reason to justify some shows. The Nita Strauss/Angel Vivaldi show was only $20 however. Will look for the Yngwie DVD. Since she has toured with Alice Cooper for the last few years she did break out Eighteen which the crowd got into. Yeah, I would like to know the acts Leo truly endorsed. As far as food, I married a Brit so we get Yorkshire pudding with roast in the winter. With the pork centerpiece you described you may be surprised with a table full from GLDP!

John - Sounds like you caught a couple of great shows, two acts I would like to see as well. I agree with you on the Van Halen v3.0. And another F-100 reference. Pecan pie can be served any time any day of the week in my book. In honor of pecan pie here is the one and only Golden Smog with their homage to this tasty treat!



Nice set up ya got there. Is that a Boogie Mark V I see? Which songs do you use the Boogie and wghich ones the Carvin V3?

John, love that SG. I have the same one. It was the first guitar I bought when I got divorced after not being able to play due to the whole family thing and the volume. It's a beast, all Mahogany and Ebony, my favorite combination in a guitar, but not the only thing I like such as my G&Ls.

Tom

Tom, I like how light the SG is, so comfortable and minimal neck dive. It's a great lead guitar, with wide open exposure to the whole neck, and the shorter scale, easy to play. Has a pretty thick neck. I have played SG's that were "dead", but mine is very resonant. The p-90's are cool in their own way for blues and rock stuff. The bridge p-90 is a lollar, 5% overwound, sounds better than the original gibson. But, those things aside, it just doesn't sound as good as the G&L's, big coil mfd's or z-coils rule in the tone and freq range department!

Sam, the Mesa is one of our rhythm guitarist's, a Mark V - 25. It's a potent little beast. He plays a '75 LP deluxe through it, sounds very nice. It has alot of eq options. I like my Carvin V3m better, though. It's very versatile, the gain stage sounds more crisp and marshally if you tweak it, and the G&L's just rock through that thing, lucky find. It is also potent. Has 7-22-50 watt settings. I play @ the 22w setting no matter where we are, even big hall or outdoors, just crank it up a bit more and it really pushes some air, feels like a 100 watter back there sometimes!

love the Golden Smog pecan pie, Thx!

Evening Sam
Sorry if I'm a little late for lunch

Yeah I'm digging the CLF research posts. What a treasure trove they've got there!

Concerts:
I do enjoy your concert reviews. You've seen some good ones lately.
The past couple of months have been pretty active concert wise for me.

I saw Gov't Mule last month for the first time. They've been on my bucket list to see for some time now. Seems like every time they've come thru town I either have plans or I'm out of town or something. They did not disappoint. Great live band and they played for 3+ hours so I got my money worth.

Couple of weeks ago I saw Steven Wilson. Another artist I've missed the past couple of tours for similar reasons. They say he is the heir to the prog-rock throne and I'd tend to agree. But he has plenty of stuff thats very accessible with great hooks and melody.

I've tickets to see Umpreey's McGee next week. Really looking forward to that.

Holiday Food:
We usually keep it pretty traditional for the holiday food prep. I did get turned on to the "trash can" turkey method a few years ago so we've been doing that for Thanksgiving and sometimes Christmas and/or New Years.
This Christmas we are heading out of town to see family so we had our little Christmas celebration a couple of days ago. Since it was just the 3 of us we figured we could eat what we wanted. And we all wanted pizza! It was great.

BTW - I LOVE that cheap canned cranberry sauce


-Jeff

Hey Jeff,

Never to late to come to the lunch report table. I’ve seen Warren Haynes but not Govt Mule, always wants to them. Same for Steve Wilson. Porcupine Tree stuff is great and he is definitely to the top of the prog list. Umphrees McGhee is on my list too but none never saw. Sounds like a fine month of music for you as well. So good to see so many guitarists on tour!

Jeff, give us your impression of the umphrey's show. They've been one of my fav's for the past 10 yrs, and I make it a point to see them 2-3 times a year now.

Hey John,

Just to let you know you and your wife were mentioned around the dinner table on Christmas!

My mom brought over two pecan pies for the festivities. Pictures taken while still on the table

hah, hah. they sure look good!