Munch Report

Wed Aug 28, 2019 10:09 pm

Greetings, GbL'ers,
Lunch today was a piece of multigrain toast with spicy guacamole spread on it, and coffee, my wife's idea, not bad for the short term, especially since I skipped breakfast. Tonight I returned from a band practice close to midnight, and made a low cal marguerita and had some salted carbs with it. Munchies.

G&L topic: what's your favorite G&L guitar for personal practice or rehearsal and why? If you have one G&L, that's an easy one. Tell us about it. If you have more than one, please elaborate!. Tonight i took my bluesboy with me. It's a 2015, with a seymour duncan seth lover at the neck. One of the things i love about this gtr is how light it is, 7lb, 1 oz. I'm not sure why. Build sheet does not describe chambers. No f holes. It's just light. Has same body width as a Fender Tele. Has a body contour. Top is black limba, so beautiful, body is swamp ash. It's even light in the hard shell case. Plenty of great tones in this guitar between the SD SL 'bucker and the MFD bridge p'up. controls and p'up selector so simple, smooth rolled edges on the rosewood fretboard, medium jumbo frets allow me to squeeze out some very toneful notes, and smooth bends with the 9 inch radius. Modern classic neck, perfect. It's great for rock or blues, or anything. I don't always take it to gigs but it is one of my fav's for just playing or rehearsal. My late 50's shoulders are appreciative of the weight, for sure.

BBE Topic: BBE purchased G&L not long after the passing of Leo Fender, in 1991, and they have their own line of products including many effects pedals. Do you use any other BBE products aside from G&L guitars, and if so, what are they and why do you like them? I have a BBE wawa pedal, originally called a Ben Wah pedal, that i acquired in 2018 to replace an ailing crybaby from the 80's. I like the bypass of this wah when inactive, doesn't seem to adversely affect the guitar's tone when i am not using it. It has a nice smooth transparent tone, and an eq potentiometer that varies the range of the sweep of the wah and therefore, its tone. I don't use it very often, but did a good bit last summer when i was playing some reggae gigs.

General music topic: what was your most recent concert/listening experience? I saw Pat Metheny last evening in Wilmington DE at an intimate venue. He was playing with a trio which included 2 young and extremely talented musicians, James Francis on keyboards, and Marcus Gilmore on drums. Pat played through a broad representation of his catalog, from PMG favorites to tunes from various trio's he's played in, also some new stuff including a rather complex opus that showcased the abilities of his young partners. I hope he records this tour, named "Side Eye", as the performance was simply amazing. I also just returned from the Lockn' Festival in Arrington Va, with many excellent performances, the highlights of which included Trey Anastasio's band, which was most impressive. Trey seems to have shed some demons, was happy, loose, playing some really upbeat world jazz type stuff, horn section, percussionist, 2 of the 3 brass players were women. Great rhythms. His solos and phrasing were unique. He's really a great player, was not flashy or self indulgent, but refined and very interesting. Derek Trucks joined him for the 2nd set and there was some intense jamming between the 2. Gary Clark Jr. was playing with another guitarist and a keyboard player which really rounded out his music and variety. Tedeschi/Trucks highlighted Sat PM and were simply awesome. 12 piece band. Susan has one of the best voices in the business, and can hold her own on the guitar, was playing a LP and a strat. Steel Pulse was an amazing reggae band, and VulfPek was astounding with regard to their musicianship and was very entertaining. Great fusion and humor. Multi-instrumentalists they are.

Non-music topic: did you do anything fun this summer? Camping, beaches, boating, traveling, hiking, sports, whatever? share an experience!
We have been spending some time down the New Jersey shore, and a bit of time on the water, in Cape May and also Brick, NJ. Cape May has these wonderful post-civil war era bed and breakfast homes you can stay in. The Queen Victoria is very nice. We like boating and said goodbye this summer to our 17 foot bow rider of 19 years. A little sentimental, raised our kids on this one, tubing, fishing, water-skiing, cruising, lots of fun memories, and of course a few breakdowns as boats will. We are looking into a bigger one for cruising. You thought there were alot of used guitars on the market? Take a look at the used boat market, OMG!

Re: Munch Report

Thu Aug 29, 2019 7:34 am

Nice to see these again! My breakfast of coffee, oats & apple has become blunch.

The only G&L I use now is this one. Very used, with some cleaver fixes/etc... I had a LH Z-Coil-type pickup made a few months back, but it's lost my interest; just wanted to see how easy it was. I guess it's all about demand. Moving on...

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This is the only BBE pedal I use. Actually got it as a Lunch reporter on here a few years back. My studio work has been mostly clean and direct (with my Parker; yeah sterile, but consistent and effects can be added in the box). My rig is simple: Soldano amp(s), analogman mini-bi-comp, KoT V2 Jumbo, an original Wah, and this:

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Next show for me will be King Crimson in Chicago on Sept 10. Other than that, still trying to get the old band back together...


Cheers,
Will

Re: Munch Report

Thu Aug 29, 2019 8:03 am

Lunch will be a baby arugula leaf salad with jalopeno crisps and feta.

G&L topic: My favorite G&L guitar for personal practice or rehearsal and why?

Last week I would have said that it was my Tribute Blueburst ASAT special. It just plays great, and sounds awesome. Notwithstanding, my go-to has been my Amber Burst Tribute Comanche. But I bought another Blueburst ASAT Special - a semi-hollow US build - a few months back that I took to rehearsal last night for the first time. I bought it through Reverb, and changed the strings when it got here (10-52), which meant setting the intonation etc. My main amp isn't at the house these days, and the only practice amp I have at home is a solid state Marshall that I didn't want to be the first amp I plugged the new guitar into. So I'd been playing it unplugged and hadn't really bonded with it yet. But man-oh-man did it sound great through my fender last night. It has jumped the queue to the top of my favorites list for now at least. Great, rich sound.


BBE Topic: Do you use any other BBE products aside from G&L guitars?

No. But I am willing to try. ;)

General music topic: what was your most recent concert/listening experience?
I took my two older daughters to see Twenty One Pilots this summer. Helluva show! They're not a guitar band, but they put on a great and memorable show. When my oldest daughter began to develop her own taste in music she would often be singing songs from this band. One day, I thought it would be fun to google some of the lyrics I was hearing, find out who the band was, download the song on iTunes, and learn it so that I could nonchalantly walk through the house one day singing another song from the same album. My plan was to surprise my daughter - who assumed like all daughters do, that her dad only liked old music. I hadn't planned to actually like the group. But I ended up liking the song so much I learned another. Then another - then I bought an album, and another, and another. Pretty soon I was as much a fan as my daughter - and in the meantime my other children became big fans. The last time they came to town my oldest daughter wanted me to pick up some tickets for her to see them, and I didn't manage to. So when this latest tour was announced, I bought three tickets - one for her, one for her younger sister, and one for me. It was a great time of bonding and a great concert.

Non-music topic: did you do anything fun this summer? Sshare an experience!
The concert above was this summer. Normally I don't do things in summer. I like to take my vacation in the off season. I did go out camping two weeks back - with the younger kids (Age 9,12) to watch meteorite showers, and eat hot dogs. It was a pretty great time. My favorite moment was the bunch of us huddled together between a hammock and a zero-gravity lawn chair - covered in blankets looking up into the sky - waiting for the tell tale streaks of light and just chatting as a family does in moments like this. Daddy, what was it like when you were young? Mommy, did you ever watch the stars when you were a kid? Is that the little dipper? Is that a UFO? (No, it's a satellite!). How come we see so many stars in the country, but few in the city?...

We hit the beach too - which was nice. But my favorite times were around the fire, and gazing up at the sky huddled under warm blankets.

Re: Munch Report

Thu Aug 29, 2019 8:47 am

Was at the Farm Progress Show yesterday, so lunch was a pork chop sandwich, bag of potato chips, and a Dr. Pepper. Normally try to avoid the the sodas, but for some reason it sounded good yesterday.

I probably grab my Tribute ASAT Special Deluxe most often when just having fun at home. For rehearsals, I do try to stick a strict rotation on the guitars so that they all get played. Why the Special Deluxe? I really love the jumbo MFDs, so rich, full tone and very dynamic (good as it forces me to work on my dynamics). Easy access, as it is one that I do keep hanging on the wall. I have only three I keep in their cases. this Tribute is extremely light, less than 7 lbs. Only my Z-2 is lighter. It is just incredibly easy to play with a set of 9's on it.

I have a BBE Two Timer delay and love it! Probably one of my favorite and most used pedals. Seems very sturdy and has such a natural tone to it. The only issue I has with it was the pots were not quite concentric with the counter bores in the case. So the knurled knobs initially bound on the ID of the counter bores. So I had to work the pots back and forth so that the interference wore away and permitted fairly free range adjustment of the pots. I recently decided to pull my nano big muff pi off my board. I rarely used it and left me uninspired. I considered several different pedals to replace it: BBE 427, Katzenkonig, Kilt V2, Hypathia... I enjoy Josh Scott's pedal vlog. He had one episode covering BBE pedals and mentioned that the 427 is one of his favorite overdrives. I live how he's has a lot of positive things to say about other pedal producers and doesn't push his products. I ended up getting a EQD Gray Channel (found one used for a good deal on Reverb), but the 427 was 2nd or 3rd in the mix along with Hypathia.

Other than the free summer concerts at Independence Grove, I haven't been to anything recently. To me the highlight of the summer concerts was the Adam Ezra Groups which I have talked up on here previously. I'd love to catch Social Distortion's 40th Anniversary Show. The line up looks great!

https://loudwire.com/social-distortion- ... y-concert/

Adam Ezra Content:

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Family went to Spain and Iceland for two weeks. They had a blast. I stayed home and took care of the animals. My youngest has a guinea pig (it is actually a cute pig) and we have tiny Rottweiler (she's only 68 lbs). Rottweiler has crazy energy, very social, and separation anxiety. I've had other watch her, but usually only a week max, so I wasn't comfortable being gone two weeks. But I made the best of it, took her for a lot of walks (she like to walk 3-5 miles a day), got a lot string time, got to turn up the amp, tended the gardens and enjoyed plenty of craft beer. Last few years, we would go camping with friends this weekend, but between the kid's job and HS marching band it is not working out this year. Other than that, went on a few college visits for the oldest. Time sure flys by fast.

Thanks for the munch!

Cheers, Dan

Re: Munch Report

Sat Aug 31, 2019 7:53 am

Oh, and this guy. Classic and still working!

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Re: Munch Report

Sat Aug 31, 2019 11:30 am

Lunch today was cold pizza. Kinda gross.

Favorite G&L is my first. My 88 ASAT. Just a great guitar. OLS. Light and comfy. Awesome tone. Plus years of memories associated with it.
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My newish Bluesboy 90 hangs on the wall though so it ends up getting the most playing time of late.

No other BBE gear. Maybe someday but I have never really used many effects and such.

Not too many options for shows in Northern Michigan but we did see Mart Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives this summer. He opened for Steve Miller. We didn't stay for the all of the Steve Miller set but Marty and his band were great.
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A cool video going into his Tele. The first B-bender. Talk about mojo.
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We have had no trips this summer save for a couple quick trips downstate. We do have time off soon but I don't know that we'll go anywhere. We may just camp locally for a few nights. This summer has gone by far too quick. Highlight I suppose would be inheriting my uncle's 1941 Martin D18. If I ever get pics uploaded I will make a thread. This guitar is sublime!

Re: Munch Report

Sat Aug 31, 2019 7:01 pm

Hey Munchers, thanks for your thoughts!

Will, that's an interesting chorus/vibrato pedal. Do you use both effects together??
I saw King Crimson in one of its iterations back in the 80's after the Discipline record, A Belew, R Fripp, T Levin, & Bruford.
Quite memorable. I still revisit court of the crimson king from time to time for inspiration and re-grounding.

Dan D, I share your love for the comanche and the ASAT special. Prefer the former for performance and the latter for home and jams, but they are interchangeable, and alot of times i take both to gigs. They both have so much to offer.
I've had those under-the-stars, "why are we here," revelations many times, including tonight walking home from a neighborhood party, Venus was shining bright in the south sky and the big dipper was northwest. We are not alone! I haven't checked out Twenty One Pilots yet but i may have to, I see lots of people wearing their shirts. Sounds like their music is infectious!

Dan W, It's unanimous, the large coil MFD's rule! Thanks for the rec of the Two Timer delay and the 427 OD. I use a Boss DD-3 which is fairly simple and not impressive, but it usually gets the job done. I haven't tried other stand alone delay pedals, yet, but have used delays that were pretty nice in digitech multi-effects pedals and an Alesis Midiverb4 rack mount unit I have which is dated but does sound beautiful and is highly programmable.
Thanks also for the Adam Ezra rec, sounds like great stuff.

Mutts, your ASAT has the same finish and hardware as my '89, but the DFV is unique on that gtr. Bet it sounds and plays great. I also like the OLS width of the body and the tone and vibe. It's one of my favorites for blues. Thx for the Marty Stuart clips, that's an earthy Tele for sure!
A '41 D-18, whoahhhh! u b lucky! post that one when u get a chance. David Crosby has one like that.

Re: Munch Report

Thu Sep 05, 2019 8:32 pm

Late but:

Lunch: A handful of pistachios and some red vines. Went to a Melvins concert last night (band I wanted to see forever - whole show was *not* a disappointment) so I'm lucky I woke up for work. But when I did, I was in no mood to eat anything.

Favorite G&L guitar for personal practice: My G&Ls are sort of special guitars to me; if I'm just practicing and knocking something around I usually pick up a Squier, and leave the G&Ls for 'when it matters.'

BBE Gear: I use a 427 sometimes; it's like a DS1 that turns somewhat fuzzy when you turn down the volume. Funny pedal, I like it.

Concert: Per above: Melvins, with Red Kross and opening act The Side Eyes (who were actually pretty great.) Red Kross was ok. Melvins were everything I ever dreamed; seeing a Melvins show now looks like almost exactly what I imagine they were like in 1986 . I was super impressed that these fifty or so year olds (still) have an audience of 13/14 year old kids- in the pit! All was well-behaved but manic, great mix of young reject kids moshing and older people in slacks. There were even girls. Thoroughly impressed at their energy and longevity.

Did I do anything fun this summer: Less than usual. The weather in SoCal has been (relatively) cool, although when we left the concert last night at 1:00 AM it was still eighty degrees in the air. It finally feels like Summer began here, which in a way is sort of depressing. We chose to stay-cation and enjoy the house repairs we otherwise budgeted for a trip. Went to the beach a bit, but it's just not as warm as it should be. I really wasn't in a traveling mood this year, but I picked a bad year to stick around considering all the gray/gloom we've had this summer while the rest of the US has the warmest weather in recorded history. I'm about to give up on Summer 2019 ; here's to next year.

EDIT - Never mind my cop-out on the G&L question, spamming new pics of my fave ever (yeah, I probably polish it more than I play it; that's what happens when you restore a guitar and dislike relics) :

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