Lunch Report - Wednesday January 16th, 2013

Got a bit of spare time on my hands today, so here goes. Lunch was sundried tomatoes and white cheddar on crusty bread with a dessert of berries in vanilla yoghurt, accompanied by a homemade soya café au lait.

G&L Question for you: How blemished, if at all, are you guitars. My old Gibson Sonex came to me with a couple of marks but it has received plenty of dings throughout the years. My Legacy however, is without a scratch and I live in terror of the first time I dent, ding or gouge it, and yet I absolutely love the look of well-played, naturally relic'ed guitars. What is your approach? And what was your reaction to that first disfiguring mark?

Non G&L question: Is the boutique craze too much? I recently picked up an Epiphone Valve Jr. amplifier and was blown away at its tonal qualities. I went online and discovered that there are dozens of mods (some of them costing up to four times the price of the amp) to bring it up to "boutique" quality. Is this more marketing BS or is this for real? Yeah, I realize that players may want to squeeze every ounce of tone out of their gear but where does the law of diminishing returns come in?

Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.

And for your musical enjoyment, Heart doing Crazy on You in 1977 on The Midnight Special.

[youtube]V44HiAX91Hs[/youtube]

There's barely a blemish on any of my G&L's. One has buckle rash on the back, but it's pretty superficial and I imagine could be buffed out if I was so inclined.

Boutique stuff can be good, but I have found that is rarely the case. As for 'mods', I think that there is sooooo much stuff on the market that if you buy, for example a Boss DS-1, with the intention of sending it to Keeley or whoever to have 'modded' (I HATE that word....) then you'd be better off just buying something else to begin with.

Thats some great outfits in the Heart vid!

The condition of my guitars is a mixed bag. Some are still pristine with hardly a scratch, others are wonderfully relic'ed. I guess that is to be expected when most of my guitars were bought used. Some were well taken care off by the previous owner (or rather recently purchased by them); some were played the crap out off.

As far as boutique stuff is concerned, I'm with Jamie. Some stuff is most excellent, a lot of stuff is marketed as a wonder elixir. It is hard to see the forest for the trees that way. But then again, Randall Smith of Mesa/Boogie fame started out modding Princeton amps.

- Jos

My G&Ls are, on average, 25 years old, and all came to me used. I have three pristine instruments (the '00 L-2000 fretless, '98 ASAT Bass and '95 John Jorgenson Sig ASAT). The others range from very clean to "somebody should have his G&L privileges revoked".

My '82 SC-2 sat in its case for thirty years. According to the shop I bought it from, the previous owner was a local pro classical guitarist who bought it new in an attempt to expand her horizons. She gave it up right away, and left it safely in its case until she sold it in 2011. It still has the string from the hang tag on it, and all of the original case candy. I managed to lift about a 1 mm square bit of finish when I removed the neck to check production dates. It had no real effect on the guitar's value or appearance, but I am still kicking myself for not working a razor blade around the joint first.

Boutique: The only thing I own that could possibly be considered "boutique" are several Moogerfoogers, a couple of CoPilot pedals, and an EdenAnalog overdrive. I may send my Moogerfooger Analog Delay back to the Moog factory to install their "spillover" switch, but that's the only change I will consider making to any of my gear.

As for 'mods', I think that there is sooooo much stuff on the market that if you buy, for example a Boss DS-1, with the intention of sending it to Keeley or whoever to have 'modded' (I HATE that word....) then you'd be better off just buying something else to begin with.

+1.

Ken

Blemishes....I put a ding in my Gibson AJ about 5 minutes after I brought it home. Had the case open and was a bit over anxious pulling it out when I bashed the lower bout against one of the case buckles. The result was a nice little 1mm dent. Other than that it looks great and is not readily noticeable. Other than that, my other guitars are in great shape. I take care of my instruments but scratches will happen.

Boutique has gone way overboard. A Klon Centaur is a prime example. That being said , I did upgrade the speaker and tubes in my chinese Fender amp. It sounds better than it did, and it sounded good stock. As long as people are willing to endlessly tweak instead of endlessly play, then the boutique market will go on forever.

Good Heart post. They recorded some of their early work at Mushroom in Vancouver. Long live the Pacific Northwest !

There's barely a blemish on any of my G&L's. One has buckle rash on the back, but it's pretty superficial and I imagine could be buffed out if I was so inclined.

Boutique stuff can be good, but I have found that is rarely the case. As for 'mods', I think that there is sooooo much stuff on the market that if you buy, for example a Boss DS-1, with the intention of sending it to Keeley or whoever to have 'modded' (I HATE that word....) then you'd be better off just buying something else to begin with.

Thats some great outfits in the Heart vid!

I posted this to facebook, asking, "Is that Luke Skywalker on lead guitar?"

I agree about mod overkill. I bought a couple of Squiers with the intention of swapping components and I've ended up selling them, mostly because I haven't gotten around to making the upgrades and because, even with the upgrades, they are still beefed up Squiers. My next move is getting the blown caps in my '66 Traynor YGM-2 replaced and installing new tubes, but no mods either. I really don't want to mess with attempting to mod it into a Fender clone when it has a really happening sound of its own.

Boutique has gone way overboard. A Klon Centaur is a prime example. That being said , I did upgrade the speaker and tubes in my chinese Fender amp. It sounds better than it did, and it sounded good stock. As long as people are willing to endlessly tweak instead of endlessly play, then the boutique market will go on forever.

Good Heart post. They recorded some of their early work at Mushroom in Vancouver. Long live the Pacific Northwest ![/quote]

Upgrading speakers and tubes is one thing. Rewiring, adding circuits, attenuators, etc., gets to be crazy after a while. I looked at a Squier Custom Vibe that somebody had modified with Tex Mexs, updated pots and a bizarre take on a Gilmour switch. The guitar was nice, but just nice, and the seller had boosted everything on his Bugera amp to demo it. When I flattened that sucker out, the guitar sounded dead. No sparkle, no life, etc. The dude had a rack of part caster Squiers, boxes full of pickups and buckets of tools. I'm thinking that those seven guitars don't add up to a single Legacy.

I love the intro to Crazy on you
The whole song is great as well.

I recently but my first real crack into my ASAT, just small. So small you can only really see it in some light and feel it and it's right under where I usially rest my arm so it's not where anyone but I can see it.
I was oddly ok with it after I made sure there wasn't any structural damage and it was just cosmetic.
Other than that it seems like every guitar I have has at least a ding somewhere, especially any guitar that I bought used

The boutique craze has been around since before I started playing so it's kind of always been there, I just go for what has the best components available and sounds the best to my ears.
I also like anything that's old or unique (weird) or preferably both
I have a fender excelsior and it sounds pretty unique on it's own (15" speaker and 13 watts, three inputs all that jazz) although I could make it better with a new speaker and new circuitry (like a blend knob for the bright dark switch) but I'll just probably pick up better tubes and that will be it.

Good morning CGT. I'm a day late but ready to roll!

I would describe almost all of my guitars as pristine. I have an L-2500 that has been gigged for about 16 months and it does not have a mark. The neck is starting to gloss up but I like that. I don't have any relics and do not buy unless they are as new. and remember than many of them are wall art. I do not keep guitars in the case for another reason. it is amazing how many guys have damaged a guitar by removing from or placing in the case. It is easy to hit a latch or latch tang. I have also seen the case lid drop while someone is removing the guitar from the case. These problems are eliminated by using Wolfpak cases for gigging. I have a couple of project guitars that I bought with the intention of a resto.

I am not into boutique although there are some guitars I would like to try. Is modding a way of becoming boutique? If it is, I have reached boutique status by having my kidney stones removed yesterday!-- Darwin

Good morning CGT. I'm a day late but ready to roll!

I would describe almost all of my guitars as pristine. I have an L-2500 that has been gigged for about 16 months and it does not have a mark. The neck is starting to gloss up but I like that. I don't have any relics and do not buy unless they are as new. and remember than many of them are wall art. I do not keep guitars in the case for another reason. it is amazing how many guys have damaged a guitar by removing from or placing in the case. It is easy to hit a latch or latch tang. I have also seen the case lid drop while someone is removing the guitar from the case. These problems are eliminated by using Wolfpak cases for gigging. I have a couple of project guitars that I bought with the intention of a resto.

I am not into boutique although there are some guitars I would like to try. Is modding a way of becoming boutique? If it is, I have reached boutique status by having my kidney stones removed yesterday!-- Darwin

My main worry with the Legacy is precisely bumping in when I remove it from or place it in the case, but I have pets and no wallspace, so leaving it on a guitar floor stand with the remote possibility that it might be toppled by a rampaging beast is not an option.

As for your kidney stones, they might be considered vintage, have you thought about putting them up on the Marketplace?