Worn-out Wednesday

It's a glorious spring day in Melbourne today, and I can almost see the weekend if I stand on a chair.....

Lunch
For lunch today I’m having left over Goan fish curry from the weekend, served on coconut rice and heated up in the office microwave. Goan fish curry is probably my favourite Indian dish and contains fried onions, chillies, cumin, ground coriander seeds and mustard seeds. It is all simmered in a tomato based sauce with coconut milk and the fish is added at the end to keep it nice and moist. Tamarind or lime juice can be added to give a slightly sharp, sour edge. If it wasn't for all the coconut milk it might be considered healthy. Maybe.



Like most curries, it tastes best the day before it turns. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow you’ll know I was a day late…..

G&L Topic
I have 8 guitars and the last 3 of them have been G&L’s. The main reason for this is the high level of build quality in each instrument. I’ve played about 2 dozen G&L’s in different shops over the years and I’ve never seen a neck joint that is not super tight or frets that are poorly finished. Since G&L have invested in a Plek machine it is obvious that they aim to take build quality to yet another level again.

Yet, despite the high build quality of my G&L’s, the pickups still hum noticeably. It’s a problem that has always afflicted single coil pickups and player’s responses seem to range from ‘just put up with it’ to ‘I can’t stand that darned hum one second longer, get me a humbucking guitar’. I keep buying single coil guitars so I think I'm somewhere in between.

But does it have to be like this?. Another of my other guitars is a mid-90’s Fender strat. It’s nothing special as far as strats go, but it has always been quiet. Not silent, but much quieter than my other instruments. A couple of months ago I dropped some new pickups into it and found, on removing the pick guard, that it had been shielded at the factory. The swimming pool routing was coated in a thick layer of black conductive paint, and the whole reverse surface of the pick guard was covered in aluminium foil. It wouldn’t have been very difficult to do, but it was very effective. I popped the pick guard off my S-500 (probably my noisiest G&L) and there was no shielding to speak of - just a small triangle of aluminium foil on the pick guard.



So my question is should/could G&L do more to shield their guitars in line with the overall high build quality of the instruments? I suspect the old black crinkle pick guards used to provide some shielding being metal, but I wonder if anybody has any concrete evidence of this versus the current plastic guards?

Does anyone know if Fender still shield their guitars, or was it only a 90’s thing?


Off Topic
I’m really stoked because last night I won one of these on Evil Bay for $61.



I had one way back in the late 80’s primarily for delay effects, but it also had a very strange backwards tape looping effect that was fantastic on anything from voice to guitar to percussion. De-tuning the pitch shifter ever so slightly gave a great fatness to guitars too.

My unit was stolen during a burglary in 1996 and I’ve been looking for one ever since, so my quest is almost at an end.

Anyone care to chip in with gear you wish you’d never parted with, or you’re trying to get back again? These stories are always interesting…..

I too was surprised the back of my ASAT specials guard was not shielded. I am working on getting some shielding tape as we speak to rememdy that but I will say this. My ASAT special doesn't hum much if at all, even at very high gain. The noise level is not noticably different between either my humbucker or single coil guitar, which suggests it is just the nature of the beast with the tube amp (they are not known to be dead quiet anyway). The old metal guards did effectively work as shielding.

I have never had anything stolen or sold anything I regret.

I'm one of those people who isn't bothered by hum from single coil pickups. At all. I'm usually too busy playing the guitar to care about it. A friend of mine was going crazy over the hum from his tele and amp. He kept whining about and eventually, when he finally beleived what I told him about the unavoidable hum and background noise in amplifiers, he conceded defeat. I think G&L could do some wax potting on the standard ASAT Classic bridge pickup. Microphonic feedback is a very, very common (3 out of 3 on mine) problem, and really, it shouldn't be. I have other pickups, standard T-type bridge pickups, which feedback less. The neck pickup is fine, you can have a couple of drive/fuzz pedals on full whack and it wont feedback.

One thing I regret selling is my Marshall Vintage Modern combo. That was a great sounding amp. It was plagued with problems though - the lights stopped working, the effects loop broke, the reverb broke.... In the 6 months I owned it it spent 4 months in the repair shop!!!! Seriously!!!! The guy I sold it to has had no problems with it - doh! It had every single guitar sound I ever wanted in it, and Celestion greenbacks are by far my favorite speakers. I also regret selling my Mesa Boogie F30. That was a great little amp too. I've sold a couple of Strat's in the past but the money from them has been turned into G&L's so I have no regrets there. I sold my Gibson ES335 to fund the purchase of my car - I had change too! - no regrets there either. My SH BB sounds waaaaaaaaaay better than that rickety thing ever did!

Microphonic feedback is a very, very common (3 out of 3 on mine) problem, and really, it shouldn't be.

Testify brother!

Tapping the pickguard on my S-500 while the middle pickup is selected is like a roadie tapping the microphone at a sound check.

I'm with blarg, the hum doesn't bother me, it's just the nature of the beast and I like single coils and tube amps too much to change. That being said, guitars with known/common microphonic/feedback issues, like the asat classic, should be fixed. If I ordered direct from the factory and dropped $1k+ on a guitar I would not expect to have to remove pickups and send them out to be wax potted or put wax on the under-side of the bridge plate, etc. etc.
I have both aluminum and plastic guard ASATs, the aluminum is quieter but there is still hum, I think it's more my amp because some days there's more hum than others on both guitars
As for gear I regret selling, back in high school my art teacher sold me a 1976 Marshall JMP head for $450, my truck promptly decided it was jealous and the driveshaft fell off, literally a week later, so I sold it for what I paid and repaired the truck I never even got to use it at band practice, and back then I didn't really know what I had, so I probably don't miss it as much as I should, lol, the truck by the way then got hit and totaled, that amp was definitely worth more than the truck. In hindsight I'd have sold the truck.
The only other was a 1994 USA Fender strat, I picked it up used around 1997-98ish and it was perfect, excellent neck on it, happened to be birdseye maple (I still prefer a birdseye neck/fingerboard because of that guitar) it was a metallic red with white pickguard, I sold it because I had moved to Arizona and had no one to play with so all my electric gear went and I kept only my acoustic guitar. Out of the other 3-4 guitars that have come and gone that is the only one I miss.
If I hadn't sold that strat though, I may have never come across my blue asat which also happens to have a birdseye neck and introduced me to a "V" profile which I didn't even know it had when I bought it (online), but instantly became my favorite. I'm hoping to add a Legacy to the collection at some point, but I've been on an asat/"t" style guitar kick lately.

-Dave

Dave -

If you like the v-profile neck, then you may want to check out a George Fullerton (instead of a Legacy) when you intend to add an S-type to your arsenal. - ed

Thanks ed, god suggestion, I always keep my eye out for the Fullerton signatures but they tend to carry a higher price tag, the lowest I've found is $950 http://columbus.craigslist.org/msg/2046960548.html ,good price for that guitar but I've seen some USA Legacy's go for under $600 recently. Someday maybe I'll have enough to get one though. I don't have the money to buy any guitar right now so as long as we're dreaming why not make it the Fullerton

-Dave

I think G&L could do some wax potting on the standard ASAT Classic bridge pickup.

All G&L pickups are wax potted at the factory. As with other potted pickups, over time some do need re-potting.

Hope this helps.

Lordy, just a bone chilling dizzle out here in the heartland today. Not a fit day out for man nor beast.

I always assumed that that unless G&L was taking their cue from 1970s Fenders, the pups are potted.

Regarding noisy pups. Maybe it is because I cut my teeth on 1950s Telecasters but a little 60 cycle hum never bothered me. Ya only hear it when your not playing. And the noiseless pickups I have heard just come off as downright sterile sounding.

There are way too many pieces of gear I parted with that should never have left my side for me to go into. It just dredges up memories I prefer to remain packed away.

I've had very few true single coils in my guitars...did have a lipstick in my Charvel Surfcaster a few years back, don't remember being bugged by the hum. My Legacy has DiMarzio Area series pickups in it, so no hum. Though if I get Legacy HB as I'm planning, I plan to try it with the SCs in the neck and middle positions, so we'll see how that works out. My LP is humbucker equipped.

The only gear I kind of regret selling is the very Charvel Surfcaster I mentioned earlier. It was a beautiful and unique guitar (Green Burst finish over quilted maple, mahogany back with a clear finish). I never really quite gelled with it's tone, so when I bought my Marshall JVM and needed cash to finish paying for it, I sold the Surfcaster...because I'm not really a collector and it wasn't getting played. But if money were no object, I would have held onto it, and some days I wish I had!

Interestingly enough, the exact guitar has been listed on e-Bay for months now, so I could buy it back...for a small fortune!! It looks like they've actually lowered their asking price by $500 now...but they are still asking 3 times what I paid for it and sold it for! Here's a pic:

Last edited by Muleya on Wed Nov 17, 2010 1:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I'm really not too concerned with the level of noise I'm getting from my single coils. The metal guard on my ASAT does help, maybe they should make metal guards as an option. But yeah, I am kinda surprised that G&L doesn't do more shielding at the factory. That's the time when its easiest/cheapest. And it would be another selling point they could use.

Nothing from the past that I really regret selling. But there are a few things I regret buying!

Jeff

I love Indian food, and fish in curry sounds very good indeed.

I have guitars with humbuckers, guitars with single coils, and a guitar with noiseless single coils (Kinman pickups from Australia). I have only had hum issues with single coils, and it is not constant or consistent either. This past Sunday I took my G&L SC-3 to band practice. When I turned the amp on there was a loud hum coming from the amp. I've had hum problems at practice before with single coil guitars but never this bad. I fiddled with the amp and moved it around and couldn't get rid of the problem. Finally I started to investigate the guitar end of the chain and after flopping my guitar cable around a bit the hum went back to the level that I normally get with the SC-3, which is quiet enough to be manageable. I still don't know what caused the hum this time. I was using a Monster cable from my guitar to my pedals, but it is a cable that I've been using for a long time. I also use Bayou cables and I found them to be better than the Monster, although I will need another one to fully connect my setup. And, as expected with guitars with 3 single coil pickups, positions 2 and 4 are quiet.

Kit

Muleya, that Surfcaster is one darned sexy looking guitar - and this is from a guy that has trouble looking past strat and tele style guitars. Pity the tones you wanted weren't in it.

You could've just hung it on the wall as a work of art!

Muleya, that Surfcaster is one darned sexy looking guitar - and this is from a guy that has trouble looking past strat and tele style guitars. Pity the tones you wanted weren't in it.

You could've just hung it on the wall as a work of art!

Thanks! Yeah, it is kind of a pity, isn't it?