Lunch Report for Monday 7/26/2010

Introduction

I am Kit and I started hanging out on the GbL board in 1999. I live in Portland, Oregon, and play guitar in a hobby band for fun. I live an ordinary life with my wife and children and worry about my children's college education needs and retirement. Just the usual stuff we worry about.


Lunch

I'm not much of a cook, and there are only a very few things I can make that my children will eat. Pork with rice is one of them, and we have leftovers from the weekend and that will be my lunch today.


Travel Picture

A few weeks ago we went on vacation. Since I'm not coming up with many ideas for lunch report I thought I put up a picture from our trip.

Our boat was leaving Miami when I caught this view. The juxtaposition of the vertical and horizontal was what I was trying to capture with this photogragh.



I enjoying photography as a hobby, and If you have interesting photographs post some for us to see.


My Instruments

I have about 10 instruments, and here's a start of a chronological pictorial.



This is a 1975 Stratocaster that I bought in either 75 or 76. I bought it from a guy who had it for 2 weeks. He said some friends told him he should learn how to play guitar so he bought it. But in 2 weeks time he realized he had made a mistake. The guitar as you see it in the picture is the way it was when I bought it save for the pickguard, which he had sprayed painted sparkle orange (rememeber this was the mid 70s). I tried to remove the spray paint but only managed to scratch up the original pickguard. I replaced the pickguard with a metal one, but after some number of years it got really tarnished. So some number of years ago I replaced it with this 3-ply pickguard in the picture.

The guitar actually plays and sounds great, although I have to confess to having fiddled with the setup obsessively. It also acquired some character with typical discoloration on the side of the maple neck, and the lettering on the knobs have faded to green, but still it is in excellent shape. It is funny to think that a 1975 Stratocaster is now investment-grade, but who am I to argue?




In 1976 I went to a store in Oakland, CA, named Leo's Music looking to buy a Les Paul Custom. The sales guy had me try a Yamaha SG1500 and I was floored. I already know that Santana played an SG2000 and may be I can play like him if I play this guitar! All kidding aside this is just a great guitar, and to this day is still my favorite guitar to play and I have loved it for 35 years. The only way I can describe this guitar is that it feels like an old friend.

I always enjoy guitars with stories. I'll be more than happy to hear you share some stories.

Kit

Kids and food - while it ain't gonna win me father of the year I believe in two very magical words - Happy Meal.

Looking at your pics it dawned on me that in some 50 years of playing I have never owned an electric made in the 1970s.
I have owned 'em built in the 1950s and 1960s and the 1980s (those would be my G&Ls). Also the one Classic S built in the decade which we are currently in and the only electric I ever bought when it was brand spanking new. I think by the time the 1970s hit I was pretty well settled in with what I was playing and had no real desire to look at anything else. I probably went well over 2o years without buying any guitars.

Funny thing with me though is, I do not think I have ever even gone out with the intention of buying a guitar. I seem to have always just stumbled across them or had them turn up at my door.

Hey Kit. Just checking in for Lunch. Pork with rice sounds good to me. Do you do a stir-fry, or something else?

I love your Miami picture. I can see you have a good eye. Hope you share some more of your images this week. I'm not a very good photographer, but sometimes I manage to capture something interesting. I took this shot a couple of winters ago from my back door. Although it's not great and was shot with a cheap point-and-shoot, it depicts a winter sunset scene, showing the frozen lake and surrounding wooded parklands. I really like the way the orange color in the sky came out.


- ed

btw, I like your quirky-looking Yamaha guitar. My first guitar (an acoustic) was a Yamaha, and I've owned a bunch of different Yamaha products over the years. I can't recall ever being disappointed in any of them, and they all represent a great value as well. Nice start!

Vacations? I've heard of those. They sound like fun.

Love the photos, guys. Kit, that Miami shot is unbelievable.

I've heard good things about those Yamahas.

Vacations? I've heard of those. They sound like fun.

I've only heard rumors.

Great photo. I think that you accomplished your goal of mixing the vertical and the horizontal. Nice.

I've heard good things about Yamaha instruments and amps. They seem to be of consistent quality. Nice looking axe there too.

Like zombywolf, I hadn't played any 70's guitars. The eighties and nineties covered it. However, this has changed with the addition of my '74 Les Paul Std. Despite it's virtual "fretless wonder" fret condition, it still plays nicely, with no buzz, and does provide a very nice tool for tone.

Vacation Photos:

Here's a picture I took a few weeks ago while on a fishing trip in Alexandria, Minnesota. The picture was taken at 10:00pm looking across Lake Le Homme Dieu.



Guitar Story:

I purchased a '92 Legacy on Ebay last week. This is how it was shipped:






Luckily the guitar was OK and plays good. Here's the Legacy:



The Legacy is green in person, but every photo I've taken of it turns out blue.


Sprinter

Thanks all for dropping by.

Ed and Sprinter, your pictures are spectacular. Sprinter, I live north of the 45 parallel and during the summer we get sunlight just like that at 10pm. I never saw anything like that while I lived in California. And I was just about to comment that it is a nice blue. Green? What kind of a green is it?

Hey MrRoundel, how do you like your Les Paul Std? Please give me a sound critique. I used to own a 1979 LP Custom, but it paled in comparison to the Yamaha that I posted about today. I sold it on eBay a few years ago.

Kit

Hey Sprinter - did you make over to the KC Guitar show?

Not a photographer, so I can't share anything in that sense.

Nice guitars though, I just fought a battle with my contour to get a bridge add working, eventually I won. It was wired wrong from factory and I noticed 2 days ago, then I became obsessed with correcting it. I discoverred the neck pickup for the first time too, as the wrong wiring mirrors 1-2-3-2-1 on the 5 way, and down was in that mode (up was off, odd stuff).

Sprinter, I live north of the 45 parallel and during the summer we get sunlight just like that at 10pm. I never saw anything like that while I lived in California. And I was just about to comment that it is a nice blue. Green? What kind of a green is it?

I took a couple of pics with my old camera and they came out better, but it's still much more green in person. Here it is:





I have most of the G&L catalogs and none of them have this color. I have it in the registry as emerald blue, but it isn't. I've had some emerald blue guitars and they were different.

Sprinter

Hey Sprinter - did you make over to the KC Guitar show?

I went Saturday. Overall it was a good show with plenty of interesting stuff. I only saw three G&L's and they were priced high.


Sprinter

Hey Kit, nice shot! What's your fave camera? I've been a Canon guy for a long time and am about to drop a chunk of change on a DSLR (the 7D is high on the list, though I may come to my senses and settle for a Rebel T2i and some decent glass).

I had a film and video business back in the 90s but eventually lost interest after I got sucked into programming. Silly me! Several months back I bought myself a Canon G11 (great little camera!) with the intention of getting back into photography. It worked! I've been shooting like a mad man. Recently I've been posting a daily shot for my friends on Facebook--mostly of places I've stopped at during my commute home from work. FB isn't a good place for decent photo display so I'm currently working on a blog that I'll launch in the not too distant future. Here's a shot I took last week:



The image is of current painting and construction going on under the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. (It was a foggy afternoon on the bay.)

Peace...

GDub

Sprinter, it does look kind of emerald blue now with your new pictures. My color memory is not that good, and unless I have the two colors side by side I probably won't be able to tell one color from the other from memory.

Hey GDub, long time no see. All I have in cameras is a several-generation old Panasonic point and shoot with a built-in longish zoom. I don't have any real talent in photography in that I can't compose a shot from nothing; if the shot happens to be there already I would shoot it and sometimes it comes out worth keeping.

In Portland in June we have the Rose Festival, essentially it is a parade with floats similar to the Pasadena Rose Parade. I have gone and taken pictures of the parade. I've had people wonder about some of my shots since I tend to take pictures of the details on the floats rather than the floats themselves. Your picture of the Golden Gate Bridge makes me think of those comments. I like it since it is the sort of thing I would do.

Kit

Great photo!

I've had a couple of good guitars from the '70s, like my Les Reissue '55 Special from 1975; my 1972 D-18 and 1975 D-28 Martins; and my c. 1979 Music Man Sabres. Quality as a rule was down for most of the manufacturers as guitar sales boomed and they struggled to keep up with demand, but there are some reall gems out there. And you're right prices have gotten crazy.

I've always wanted an SG- or SBG-2000 Yamaha. I've played a few over the years, but never hd the chance to buy one. I think these have a large brass block under the bridge to promote sustain. I remember the pickups being clearer than a Gibson PAF. And of excellent workmanship.

Bill