Tuesday, February 5 2013

Good Tuesday to everyone! I big thanks to all who read and especially checked in yesterday.

Behind the Scenes

I wanted to make sure that the space would be suitable to house my guitars, so proper insulation and heating were a must. Since it was the garage space i choose to do in floor radiant heat. I was surprised to find out that the outside garage wall was only 2X4's so i strapped it and added styrofoam insulation on the inside.

For the guitar wall (which is an inside wall) i knew i wanted to hang as many as i could but just really couldn't be sure of a final arrangement until i was in the space. I ripped out the existing drywall, and put 5/8" OSB (strand board) up before putting new drywall overtop. It insured me that no matter how i chose to hang the guitars they would be 100% secure.



So todays non G&L question : Behind the scenes - Factory Tours. Have you ever been on a Factory Tour? I have done Martin Guitars, Harley Davidson and Hershey Chocolate to name a few. Loved every minute of them!

G&L

How cool would it be for a behind the scenes sub-forum on GbL. A members only place (like the LE-2 sub-forum) Where Darth, Craig or any other G&L "insider" could post pics and cool happenings at the factory! While i realize it will never happen…. It would be cool to see more pics of great customer ordered guitars (the G&L Facebook space had posted a few way back) and even cooler to see more prototypes, especially prototype finishes (Like "Smoke") Maybe if we get enough responses we can urge the powers that be to give us a little more behind the scenes love!

I was gonna try not to post a video this week….. But i just couldn't do it! I have been using my iPhone a lot lately to shoot some behind the scenes stuff at rehearsals. It is so convenient to just set it up hit record and share with the band mates. We had just jammed "What is and what should never be" by Zep. (Played on my Semi-Hollow Special through a Dr Z route 66)
[youtube]6ut-h23g99o[/youtube]

Have a great day everyone
Scott

Most of the 'factory' tours I've done have actually been 'distillery' tours....

Glad you did post the video - I enjoyed that. Nice guitar tones, and a vocalist who does a good job of some of those awkward Robert Plant sounds.

I have bad enough GAS at the moment without more behind the scenes factory pictures, but that's not to say I wouldn't like to see more!

So todays non G&L question : Behind the scenes - Factory Tours. Have you ever been on a Factory Tour?

I've been on a few factory tours. The first one was the Rainbow Bread Bakery in St. Joseph, Missouri. That was back in the mid 70's and it's been closed for years. Another interesting tour was the stitchcraft plant for Winnebago in Lorimor, Iowa. They made all of the blinds, sheets, bed spreads etc. that went into Winnebago motor homes. That plant closed a few years ago. The last tour I went on was the General Motors plant in Fairfax, Kansas. They build the Chevrolet, Malibu and Buick, Lacrosse at the Fairfax plant. They also build the Buick, Allure which is the Canadian version of the Lacrosse. This factory I'm glad to say is alive and doing well and is in the process of expanding! The Fairfax plant is one of the newest factories General Motors has. It was built in 1988 and produced the front wheel drive Pontiac, Grand Prix and Oldsmobile, Cutlass.

G&L

How cool would it be for a behind the scenes sub-forum on GbL.

I don't think there is a need for a sub forum.

I'm in Goat's camp: only done tours at places where they make beers and spirits. But than on the other hand, I have given enough tours myself showing people around places where they make science or games ...

- Jos
P.S. Enjoyed the vid! Great playing! If that as recorded on an iPhone it didn't sound half bad as far as quality goes.

No major tours for me, but a couple smaller luthiers in New Jersey. A "What's Going On" forum would be nice if it were kept-up...


Cheers,

Will

Hey Scott,
Like a couple of he others, just beer factory tours for me
Great guitar groove and tone . The singer handled Plant's tricky range well
You've got a good space to rehearse in
Anthony

Hey Scott,

Factory tour - Boeing plant back in the early 90's... was the biggest building in the world.

Nice Jam! You guys groove.

Cheers,
KF

No music related tours for me. The ones I have done include Anheuser-Busch, Jack Daniels, Herseys, and Ben&Jerrys. Hmmm just realized they are all food and drink related. I'd love to see a G&L - or any guitar factory tour for that matter.

Nice video, sounded good.

Jeff

Scott, a bit late but I have been misbehaving today! Lunch was leftover Pizza again.

Nice guitar room build. Good choice on radiant heat. I heat my garage with overhead radiant. Looks like you space will not use a lot of energy.

I haven't viewed the video yet but will later.

I took a tour of the Gold Wing factory in Marysville Ohio where my Gold Wing was born. It was very interesting but like some others that have responded, I have toured many breweries. It is always good to see that their quality is up to snuff. I don't like to do it but someone has to!-- Darwin

Again, my factory tours have been mostly booze related. Never done a brewery, but have done plenty of wineries (the smell of a barrel cellar is amazing) and a German apfelwein (dry, flat cider) place. That was the best one as anyone with an apple tree could come in with sacks of apples to sell and was like that factory that jack built, with all sorts of hoses and makeshift supports in place. Had a look around a small-goods place while I was there too, that was fascinating. Of course, it was all proper meat and offal being used there, none of the "pink paste" used in mass manufactured hot-dogs.

+1 on the factory insiders sub-forum. Even a sticky at the top of the main forum would be good.

I love that Led Zep tune, such a cool song that you don't hear any bands doing! You guys do it real good too. On Led Zep realated stuff, I bought one of these the other day for half the price of a new one.

It's supposed to make you sound like Jimmy Page at the Royal Albert hall concert (*cough-bull$hi#-cough*), but I got it in an attempt to get closer to that '70s clean-but-dirty rock sound. Seems to be doing the job at home, but the real test will be at a gig this weekend.

Hey All,

Thanks for all the replies today.... I unfortunately seemed to notice that guitar playing and booze seem to go hand in hand (Says the man typing at his computer with a glass of wine beside him on a Tuesday night - It has been a long day!) There certainly have been a lot of booze tours

Jos, that was taken on my iPhone 5. The camera itself is not so great in lower light, but the audio is really good. Jamie, let us know how your transformation into Jimmy Page goes!

Scott

I did a PRS tour back in the late 80's at their first factory. My wife and I just dropped in while walking around downtown Annapolis and it was very cool.
I have also toured a few winerys around MD and VA, so I'm in step with the booze and guitars theme. lol
-bassman Bill

I went on an unofficial tour of the SLM Ampeg/Crate amp production facility in the mid 1990s. Way better than an actual official tour of anything, and fun to see where my Ampeg 810 was made (though none were on the line that day).