Friday (I'm freee muahahaha) Lunch Report

Hello Everyone, time for you all to kick my snarky punk arse to the curb again.

No clue what I will be eating for lunch today, my selection seems limited in the homestead currently.

G&L topic, the little things.

I will start with the knobs on my ASAT special, not sure I like em, they feel odd, and have a strange shape. Feel plasticy, and given the light weight I wager they are. Not to mention the pots are very stiff, lots of friction. I find the tone knob more usable than others I have encounterred however, it changes things nicely.

The top hat selector tip broke on day 2, probably got hit side ways and got crazy glued together. I am going to be switching it for a much smaller tip though, the huge one is a nuisance and gets too close to the volume on bridge, and too far in the middle on neck.

I am not used to having a string tree, I am more akin to tilt back headstocks. A much better design imo. The tuning stability on this beast also cannot match my Carvins, I need to tune it every time I pull it out. I will attribute this to settling in for now though, give er a month. This pretty much sums my review on the guitar. A keeper by all means, and definitely different.


Not really sure what to throw in for off topic today, so I am just going to talk straps. I have a variety of straps, the newest was a nice leather levy for the tele, which has schaller locks on it. I like the strap, nice and thick, solid, comfy. I hang my guitars pretty high on me, a little lower for the bass though (not much) so my straps are also not interchangible in the least. Do you wear em high like a square or around your knees like a poser?


Fusion is something I can impreciate immensely when I hear it, I also enjoy some good guitar jazz. Not going to say much else about that stuff, but I value the soundscape highly.
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The only issue I have had with knobs is their placement. On Strats and Strat-like guitars like the Legacy) I tend to hit both the knob closest to the strings and pickup selector when I play. Then again, I have never been accused of having a light touch.

Straps - Although my favorite strap is one that has a picture of Gumby on it (given to me by a friend) most of mine are homebrew jobs. I still have one I made from a nice piece of leather back in the 1960s which has the cover of the primary chain case off my Triumph motorcyle sewn on to it. I have two I made out of rifle slings I picked up at an army surplus store and modiified. Took a bit of work to get them soft enough to be comfortable but I think they are cool. I keep thinking about buying one of those expensive handmade jobs though. I just like straps.

Not sure whether I would prefer to be called a poser for wearing my guitar too low or a geek and dork for hoisitng your guitar up high to your nipples. I wear my guitars where they are confortable which has changed a bit over the years. When I wore a younger man's clothes I would say my guitar hung a bit low. Not as low as Pagey but it touched my keys. Nowdays a little higher - just below the waist.

Fusion - I apprecaite the talent it takes to play that suff but it ain't to me liking. Gimme some good old pre-War blues or streamlined Chuck Berry-esque Rock & Roll any day.

Good Job This Week

Zomby- what for me is hitting the knobs/switch is my pinky/ring finger. I don't play wit ha tight fist (feels weird to contract it at all) so it takes a bit of space. I think a strat switch tip will help tonnes though.

Neat strap stuff, I have one my dad made of out buckskin in his teens still. It is pretty comfy. The wearing your guitar thing was intended to be tongue in cheek, mine hangs well above my waist .

I think my guitar hangs pretty well in the middle...right around waist level. Much lower and I can't fret properly. These guys who play at their knees either have ape-long arms, or are gonna have serious back problems by the time they're my age! And I ain't THAT old yet!!

Strap-wise, a local shop sold these Martin straps several years ago...the main part of the strap is wide black cotton and the ends are black leather. VERY comfortable and pretty affordable, so I picked up a couple. Don't think they make them anymore, though.

I like fusion, but don't have much in my collection. It's true they are great players!

When it comes to ergonomics, I just don't think there is a better guitar than the strat layout. My Music Man Sabre II is also very good. I very rarely bang the switch or knobs and knock them out of place. With the arm cut and the belly cut, they lay in a perfect position. I really have a lot of trouble when I move to one of my Gibsons--neither the Les Pauls or the ES-335 are great when it comes to reaching the controls or the switch. SGs are even worse, because the knobs are so close together. I'm not a big fan of Teles either, though my old Thinline Tele was decent, even with the Bigsby.

String trees don't bother me one bit. The Graph-Tech trees that G&L uses are friction-free as they are; i put a tiny dab of the Big Bends Nut Sauce underneath anyway. Total non-issue for me. The nut has more friction.

I have a different strap for each guitar, so that that's 48 LEATHER straps. I probably have a fortune in straps! I only like leather. I make sure I never leave the strap in contact with the guitar's finish when they're in the case. I have a lot of straps from Greg Bennett's Franklin Strap Company, and the next is probably Levy's Leathers. The chocolate brown 3" wide strap that came with my first Sabre II is branded Music Man (possibly Levy's), and it's one of my favs. I have a Martin strap that dates back to 1973--I bought if for my first D-18. I have straps from Atlas, Fort Bryan, Eyeland, Double Treble, Italia. I have a couple of the Dunlop Harley Davidson straps. One strap is hand-tooled custom made--a gift from a former lover. One is a Washburn SlingStrap; one from Gruhn's Guitar's in Nashville; one from the Tradiong Musician in Seattle. The strap now on my Precision Lyte bass is by Bobby Lee--I originally used it on my 1975 LP Special.

It's a real coup to find the right strap that perfectly fits a guitar. And fortunately, my financial advisor and fashion consultant agrees. Lucky me!

I have quite a bit of padding in front of me, so I don't wear them too low. The Dreadnoughts, 335s, and the Les Paul Supremes seem to work better higher; but everything else rides just above my belt-line. My biggest problem is finding a strap that is long enough, due to the extra padding I carry around. I need to work on that.

Without a doubt, my favorite fusion guitarist is Buzz Feiten. Check out his work with keyboardist Neil Larsen.

Bill

I have had a similar experience with the knobs and switch tip on my newest ASAT. The pots are very stiff and thus need extra time to change volume mid song. When it arrived (it was also a custom order) the switch tip was broken clean in half. I contacted the dealer but they chose not to respond, which I found very strange as it was the second USA mad G&L I'd bought from them. Anyway, I bought a couple of generic top-hat tips and have them around as spares. It also had issues with the screws used for the strap buttons (the damn thing broke, leaving me with no choice but to drill it out and dowel the hole in order to fit locking strap buttons) and the bridge, they seem to be made of inferior steel, very soft and when I took the bridge off to install a different pickup I very nearly rounded the head just by applying the required force to loosen it.

I can't say that I've ever noticed a tuning problem on any of my G&Ls. They have been in tune (give or take a tiny bit) straight out of the box after traveling half way around the world! Do you have locking tuners on your guitar?

I wear my guitar nice and high - the bottom of the guitar sits about an inch below my belt. This feels much better to me than low slung as my wrists are not flexible enough to bend back on themselves! My favourite straps are the cheap Fender 'vintage style' ones with the thin leather strap and thicker shoulder pad. I do have one very nice hand made strap but the leather is just a bit to tough to be comfortable, I need to break it in a bit more.

I find that fusion can be wonderful and absolutely awful. I can't stand Weather Report, for example, but don't mind Return To Forever. I really like Al Di Meola as a fusion player. Then there's Allan Holdsworth, who is in a league all of his own - I'm sure you're familiar with him Kyle, he's a Carvin user, comes from a prog background and is well known as a fusion/jazz dude.
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Hey Kyle,

Great week, wish I could have jumped in more but as Willie would say, "On the road again". Thanks for the nod to next week's LR, should be fun.

Quick reply to some some posts this week. Gotta say I grew up with some C&W always in the mix, growing up in the South. Still listen to Paisely, Willie, Strait when I can and am a big fan of Alt Country i.e. Uncle Tupelo, Jayhawks Son Volt... some tasty licks can be found.

Speaking of licks, yer post on shredders, I still like that genre in small doses. Saw G3 a few years back with Satch, Vai and Yngwie, wow! May see Satch in a few weeks unless funds go elsewhere....tune in next week and see. In the latest Guitar World Satch is on teh cover and in his interview he talks about the shred players and says the original "shred" movement was Alvin Lee, Ten Years After, at Woodstock. After that reference I have to see that DVD again.

Can't say I have to many issues with today's G&L. Yeah some knobs can be tight, but again a rarity for me. Tilt back is another thing I don't have much experience with.

My take on fusion is another small dose, but since I listen to prog on a regular basis, I can listen to Alllan Hodsworth anytime! The dude can play.

Thanks for a great week and nod to next week's LR, have a fantastic weekend!

BoogieBill - The string tree on mine is a cheap metal thing, ala vintage fenders. I might look into a graphtech one.

Blarg - The first thing I did, before I even sat down for my first real session , was install schaller straplocks. I reused the original screws, I will keep a close eye on these.

Sam- I have tickets to Satch Dec 8th, Wife and I saw him on his last tour too, great shows. Paisley is playing in January, tickets are not on sale yet but we are watching. I can definitely see how Satch drew from Alvin Lee though, and agree he was a very early Shredder. Slow blues in C is a favourite of mine. Holdsworth is actually something I do not listen too.

Signing off, just got in from a brewery tour with the professional engineers of Ontario, my local chapter. Good time.