Tuesday 31st July

Really glad everyone liked the Mia Dyson clip yesterday. Buy her albums – they’re all good!

Lunch today was breakfast coming back up and a glass of water. I feel awful today.

Seeing as none of you like the Olympics I’ll leave that topic alone! What is our favourite sport? I’m a rugby union person myself.

G&L
My Korina Jr came today! It’s all in one piece too, which is a huge relief. In fact it arrived, like the other two G&Ls I’ve had shipped from the USA, in tune. The guitar was a present to myself for my 30th in June – this guitar left the factory a week after my birthday, kind of cool.

First thing I noticed was that it balanced different to my others, the neck felt heavier – could it be the pau ferro (pau iron???) fret-board? The fingerboard edges have a rounder edge to them. It’s my third guitar with the #1 neck and it feels different to the others. Strangely, I find the Tune-o-Matic bridge very comfortable to play on, probably because of the flat top on the guitar. I’ve been playing ASAT Classics for a while now and have grown used to ‘hugging’ the lower lip of the ashtray bridge with my pinkie, and I find that I can ‘hug’ the post of the T-o-M in much the same fashion. I’m just waiting to see how long it is before I break a string…
I’ve seen a couple of negative comments about the finish, lack of certificates, flat sawn necks (specs say ¼-sawn), squealy, microphonic pickups, too heavy... This one is flawlessly finished, immaculately set-up, has a ¼ sawn neck, has the certificates, the pickups don’t squeal, and isn’t too heavy. And it sounds DAMN good. The P90s are a lot of fun. AND the girlfriend likes it too.

Gripes – the knobs. Metal ones with grip would be my preference, and I’ll change them as soon as I can be bothered. Also, I don’t like the license-plate serial number tag. Didn’t think I’d mind it so much from the pics, but in person not at all.

Have you had any experience with Custom Creations department guitars

Music
The Drones – Shark Fin Blues
[youtube]lvFKQrlaIfg[/youtube]

Hey Jamie.

Good to see you picked up on the LR duties.

I am yet to watch any of the Olympics. The TV ratings in the US , I hear is excellent. I have no idea what Dressage is, so I voted for walking.

Do you guys downunder use a different metric system? I get Canadian stuff all the time and it never matches the American dimensions. What a pain!
Hope you find easy replacement knobs.

I find some guitars balance better than others within the same model. It has to do with a lot of factors. The weight of the wood doesn't mean the tone is better or worse.

have fun playing your new rig.

Hi Jamie
Hope you pick up quickly…. and that yesterday’s Hor Fun and Teh Tarik isn’t implicated! I love a good Hor Fun and some of the best I’ve had has been at TQR Vietnamese Restaurant on Sterling Highway in Nedlands.

Didn’t manage to get lunch today so I’m hoping we’re having something interesting for dinner.

Olympics. Have to agree with your assessment of the Aussie coverage. Using two channels to broadcast the same coverage is I think a little insulting to their audience. One of the attractions of the Olympics is, asyou said, the change to see sports that are otherwise rarely covered.

Most Boring Olympic Sport. Of the offerred choices it has to be dressage … I really don’t get what horses trotting around a sand pit is all about. I did enjoy some of the cross country riding last night though.

Mia Dyson. Great entertainer and try to catch her shows whenever she makes it over this side .l.. which hasn’t been all that often since she’s been working in the US for a couple of years. These were some great amps made in Aus in the past but they seem to have all gone by the wayside .... shame.

The Drones. Gareth Liddiard would take my prize for the least understandable vocals anywhere. I recall that a couple of years ago a diverse group of respected contemporary Australian songwriters voted Shark Fin Blues as the Greatest Australian Song. I do love the song and its fun to play live for the right crowd but I was a bit surprised when it received that accolade.

… Oh, and congrats on the Junior. How do the G&L P90’s compare with others you’ve heard?

Cheers, Robbie

Do you guys downunder use a different metric system? I get Canadian stuff all the time and it never matches the American dimensions. What a pain!.

As far as I know the metric system is the metric system is the metric system We use kilometres, not miles, and grams and kilograms, not ounces and pounds.
Totally agree with you on weight not affecting the quality of the instrument.

Robbie - TQR is a great restaurant! Fried rice served in a pineapple is hard to resist! On Nedlands restaurants, there's a French place with two names- L'Hermitage AND Allegro Pizza - a bit further along the Stirling Hwy towards Claremont which makes the best pizza I've ever eaten, it's my first stop when I go to WA - have you ever been there?
I agree with you on Liddiard being incomprehensible. As for 'Shark Fin Blues' being the greatest Australian song, well thats definitely debatable.
The P90s in the Jr are excellent pickups. I've not played any others at length before so it's impossible for me to compare them to any other P90s.

Bum bout your lunch today - I can relate. I had a deep tissue massage yesterday and now dealing with the detox factor - isn't much fun but nearly thru it now.

Congrats on your new addtion! Buying a new axe w/o playing it first is always a bit of a gamble - cool to hear you're digging it.
Any Pics??

Negotiating differences btw gats can be tricky - I'm trying to get to were Jos is at where he's cool with it all.
I sold my '82 refin Strat b/c the neck profile was so much smaller than the one on my '90 ASAT Sig. Everytime I picked up the latter it felt huge... then I got my '90 Classic which has #4 neck and makes the '90 ASAT Sig feel small tho not nearly as much.
Small necks feel great to me when I'm just sitting around noodling but playing live I find bigger necks more comortable and stable.
Not sure what that's about.

My strat was nearly 5kg as it was dense ash - heaviest gat I've owned. The cool thing was it made my '90 ASAT SIg(4.2kg) feel light
So it IS possible to make heavy guitar lighter - just get a heaviier guitar!

I'm into Leo-era stuff for the most part so haven't had any experience with the Custom Creations Dept.

Hope you're on the mend soon!

Cheers,
Kf

Hi Jamie, thanks for stepping up to the plate this week. Sorry to hear you're not in the best of health, but a new guitar would have to compensate a little for feeling so crap.

Favourite Sport: I grew up in regional Australia, so if you didn't follow football or cricket you were likely to be picked on and called gay etc. etc. Now that I'm older I barely watch those sports at all and find myself sitting in front of the men's tennis more than any other sport. I'll watch women's tennis as well if it's on, but with the sound turned down to cancel out all the squealing. When the soccer World Cup is on I usually make an effort to catch some games too.

Custom Creation Guitars: Never had any experience with them, but I hope to one day!

I'm with you on the serial number tag. I saw my first one on a 2011 Legacy a couple of weeks ago and it spoilt an otherwise lovely instrument. IMO a tag like that belongs on a piece of industrial or scientific equipment, not a highly crafted, highly aesthetic object like a guitar. It looks and feels like an afterthought.

I hope the bonding process with the new axe is going well.

Howdy Jamie,

Lunch today was at Green Leaves where we had the '#78' again. I believe there was a question last week on what '#78' actually is. According to the menu it is the 'Deluxe Vermicelli Bowl': take a bowl, put some angelhair noodles on one side of the bowl, salad of bean sprouts, carrots, celery, cucumbers, and the like on the other side, cut a fried spring roll in fours, add chicken skewer, beef skewer, and prawn skewer on top and finish with a cilantro, lime dressing.

Back to the questions:
My favorite sport would be baseball. Within the context of the Olympic Games I would gravitate more towards the Winter Games (ski jump, speed skating, biathlon) but for London I'm looking forward to the water polo event which kicks of tomorrow (my time).

G&LHave you had any experience with Custom Creations department guitars

Yes! Their stuff is worth collecting BTW, I played my Junior II over the weekend and what a great guitar it is.

Thanks for another interesting music clip. When I heard it the first time I was transformed back in time when I got Lou Reed's The Blue Mask in high-school. Similar kind of raw guitar sound and somewhat warbled barely in tune vocals. Cool stuff!!

- Jos

Jamie, glad the JR came in pristine condition. P90's are sweet and hope that you have a chance to gig it soon.

I have not watched the Olympics at all. I mentioned that our Sam cat was ill and that has been something that we have been keeping on top of. I think that he is recovering. he is a young cat. Now this old cat has different issues. The index finger on my right hand has been sore for months and this is not ideal for a guitar or bass player. I went to the doc and had a cortisone shot in the joint today. Damn, I wish I were a young cat like you guys. (30th birthday, congrats by the way). You gave yourself the perfect gift!

I do have a custom creations, the F100 Return and it is stunning. I don't gig it but it is like the day I got it. here it is.


Great LR's Jamie, I still wish you would post the video your band did about a year ago. It was a kicker!-- Darwin

Congrats on your new addtion! Buying a new axe w/o playing it first is always a bit of a gamble - cool to hear you're digging it.
Any Pics??

Funnily enough, I prefer the G&Ls I've bought without playing them first! The only one I played before I bought it was the silver ASAT, and I've just sold that because I didn't like it anywhere nears as much as the others

Jos - #78 sounds familiar. Spring rolls as an ingredient in something is nothing short of inspired genius.

Phil - Nail hit on the head with the tag.

KF - I'll put some pics up once my camera batteries charge

Darwin - You mean this one?
[youtube]arlO9I0rjNs[/youtube]

Yep, that is it Jamie, if that one doesn't get them on the dance floor they are ready for the morgue! Awesome tone on the Asat.-- Darwin