Lunch Report - Wednesday Feb 13, 2013

Lunch- I will probably go out for a roast beef sub today along with an IBC root beer to wash it down.

Sorry about no questions in yesterday’s Lunch Report.
I realize that there won’t be too many responses if I don’t ask for answers or comments so I will make up for it today.

I my continuing saga of truss rods and basses and the final chapter on the Spector bass is that it is fixed and working fine. I have used it on some gigs and it has a very punchy “in your face” rock sound that is appropriate for that kind of music.

My next truss rod problem is in my ’83 L-2000. It has a rod nut that doesn’t work any more and I think it is stripped.
I bought the bass knowing this so I got a substantial discount from the original asking price. To deal with this I just swapped necks with one of my 1980 L-1000 basses so the bass now has a maple fingerboard when it originally had rosewood. The neck has yet to be repaired. You can see this bass in my avatar. It sounds great the way it is but I want to get it restored and fix that original neck.

A few recommendations when dealing with truss rods:

It is often best to loosen a rod before trying to tighten it.

Make sure that you have the correct size and type of wrench before attempting a truss rod adjustment.

Always flex or clamp a neck in the direction of the adjustment before moving the rod nut.

Start practicing on adjusting inexpensive instruments and build your experience. Then when you have to adjust your high dollar guitar or bass, you have an idea of what a rod adjustment should feel like.

Today’s questions:
Which is your favorite G&L truss rod and neck by default?
The original bi-cut single action bullet truss rod or the newer double acting rods in the Pleckked neck?

Do you have experience with high end cables?
By these I mean cables that are very expensive and promise much better fidelity.

Take care and have a great day,

Last edited by bassman on Wed Feb 13, 2013 8:12 am, edited 2 times in total.

I enjoy the truss rod talk, I've yet to pull one, but I'm building a few necks from scratch;
short of embedding angle iron in them, I'm thinking I better learn about 'em.

I've yet to play a plekked neck...someday I'll buy a newer G&L and then I'll get back to ya .
There's dual truss rods in my alembic bass , I think side by side . The ones your referring to are opposing action
rods ? ...or are they like in the Alembics?

I have tried Zaolla cables, not even a question...THERE IS an audible difference.
Though Warren Haynes uses 20ft cheap cables to connect his wah pedal...to cut the highs.

I like just dialing back the tone to almost zero and I can get some pretty great tones that don't hurt or fatigue the ears.

elwood

Last edited by Elwood on Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:52 am, edited 3 times in total.

You caught my mistake in posting Tuesday. LOL I need more coffee in the a.m. -bassman

You caught my mistake in posting Tuesday. LOL I need more coffee in the a.m. -bassman

Noone would have noticed...now it's public record...LOL

happy coffee bassman !

Great stuff this week. I may be subbin' it too today. I like the bi-cut necks. Although I'm open to new stuff. I had a bad experience with two of the newer necks and they felt like balsa wood. Maybe a thicker/non-satin one would sway me. I have been using Mogami Platinum cables and they do the trick.


Cheers,

Will

Today’s questions:
Which is your favorite G&L truss rod and neck by default?
The original bi-cut single action bullet truss rod or the newer double acting rods in the Pleckked neck?

I prefer the new neck. I've had a few bi-cut necks with issues.

Do you have experience with high end cables?

I use good qualty cables, but not the high end ones. I only play at home and I don't record, so I don't see a need for high end cable.

Lunch was a quick tin of my favourite green Thai curry soup. Always good!

I only have experience of one G&L neck so far, so I can't really comment on that.

I do think cables have a noticeable effect when I've played through other guys expensive snakes, so my current Fender cable is about to give way to a Colossal.
I'm going to change my patch leads between pedals too, but haven't decided what to go for there. Any recommendations would be welcome!

Haven't had opportunity to play the with the dual action rod or a Plek board.

Haven't used an expensive audiophile cable. Run a Spectraflex.

jamie

i don't think g&l uses dual acting truss rods on the new guitars. it's still single action, only adjusts in one direction. i like the bicut necks, but i also like the chunkier newer ones.

i switched to colossal cables, and the difference is well worth it, they are not nearly as expensive as some of the other high end cables, but every bit the quality. for the pedal board i use george l's only.

I really like the necks on my G&Ls, one a 2008 blues boy, one a 2011 asat special deluxe. Haven't had an issue with the necks, but the 2008 neck "settled" over the first two years and needed tweaking. Since then, perfect. Never had an issue with the other one.

The special deluxe has SS frets and I know it was plek'd. Not sure of the 2008.

My luthier is very very fussy with regard to frets and he said that no plek machine could ever do a fret dress as well as he can. I've had him do a light fret dress and one heavy dress on all my guitars and they are better for it. Even better than the factory.

Alf

i don't think g&l uses dual acting truss rods on the new guitars. it's still single action, only adjusts in one direction. i like the bicut necks, but i also like the chunkier newer ones.

Louis,
I believe that they do work in two directions. Ken Baker has a very good demo of the dual acting rod on his site:
www.bassesbyleo.com or at least he did.

The basic rod structure of one of these dual acting rods is two rods welded or attached together at the far end and at the other end one rod has an adjusting nut (the active rod) and it is flexing the passive rod as it is tightened. You are right in saying that his rod only works in one direction if the active rod cannot stretch the passive rod as it is loosened. That depends on how the active rod is attached to the passive rod.
Since I don't own a newer G&L, except for a Tribute, I don't know exactly how they made this feature on their rods, so you may be right, but the advantage of these rods when they are dual acting is that you can counter a back bow in a neck that has that tendency.

Todays lunch was chicken noodle soup with some pound cake!

I think I like both systems. The only problems I have ever had were on 2007s where two of them wouldn't adjust and they needed washers although I discovered that one of them had a nut that hadn't been drilled enough. Easy fix for me but who knows if I had taken it to someone. I may have had the bad neck diagnoses. Like you Bill, I am not afraid of necks other than the Fenders. The only good thing is that there are all kinds of replacement necks for Fenders. Interesting discussions this week Bill. I spent last evening dressing the neck on my John Mayer. I bought it new (Cheap) supposedly with a bad neck. I had it steamed, put washers under the truss nut and it has been fine for a year and a half. The last three frets, nearest the pickups were high. I dressed them last night and the results are wonderful, another success story. So my John Mayer, which I was going to make into a baritone is alive and well.

I don't use cheap cables and buy them at a Sound Place in St. Paul and am very happy with them. All our mic cables are from them and I have yet to have a failure. I build my own speaker cables.-- Darwin

Roast beef and root beer sounds good. I could go for that.

I've only played one bi-cut neck, and I prefer the new ones. They seem to resonate better which is probably because of their increased size.

I stay away from high end AND low end cables. I personally don't hear any difference from a budget cable to the middle of the range ones I use, the only difference is that the budget ones break after a couple of weeks. A cable that lasts is good enough for me. I've got a DiMarzio cable with Switchcraft jacks that I've been using for 10 years without a problem, and a bunch of cables I got made up in Singapore with Neutrik jacks and Klotz cable. No problems there either. Same thing with strings. I've used Ernie Ball strings for years because I've only ever had one break on me and even then it was entirely my fault.

i don't think g&l uses dual acting truss rods on the new guitars. it's still single action, only adjusts in one direction. i like the bicut necks, but i also like the chunkier newer ones.

Louis,
I believe that they do work in two directions. Ken Baker has a very good demo of the dual acting rod on his site:
http://www.bassesbyleo.com or at least he did.

The basic rod structure of one of these dual acting rods is two rods welded or attached together at the far end and at the other end one rod has an adjusting nut (the active rod) and it is flexing the passive rod as it is tightened. You are right in saying that his rod only works in one direction if the active rod cannot stretch the passive rod as it is loosened. That depends on how the active rod is attached to the passive rod.
Since I don't own a newer G&L, except for a Tribute, I don't know exactly how they made this feature on their rods, so you may be right, but the advantage of these rods when they are dual acting is that you can counter a back bow in a neck that has that tendency.

Truss rod technology has evolved over the years, and G&L has carefully studied design options before finalizing its latest design. This contemporary design incorporates a secondary, flat-sided rod which bows away from primary rod. Unlike a vintage truss rod, this design does not compress the neck longitudinally in order to function; compression contributes to distortion of the fingerboard curvature. Operation is both fluid and accurate with the articulation of the neck, the "relief", being very consistent across the length of the neck. Unlike similar rods available today, G&L's rod has an additional anchor for the heel end of the neck, to help ensure long-term stability and ensure that the rod will never shear through the adjustment end of the neck. Finally, the channel for the rod is also carefully designed to provide a snug fit for the rod while ensuring free and complete articulation.


it's a non compression design, using 2 pieces, but it's not dual action.

I have had no truss rod troubles... yet but I'm sure as the years go on something is going to need a big adjustment.

I have only seen maybe one classic neck and I liked the looks of it and again, nothing to say much with truss rods

I have not used super high end cables, I've used some 20 dollar L&M cables that kind of suck.
I use Mogami with my G&L that I bought from Lavacable a year ago and they are very clear to my ears.
I am looking at maybe getting some George L to use with my other gear instead of the L&M cables.

All of my necks are the bicut design (I think), but I can't really say that I have a favorite. I think sometimes we obsess over minutia and fail to keep track of the end result. If it feels good, sounds good, looks good...it is good.

Same with cables. I have a variety of cables, though none are real expensive. Bottom line is...I'm happy with the sounds that come out of my amp...whether it goes thru Live Wires, Mogami, Monster, Planet Waves, Road Hog, Spectraflex or home-made Belden.

Bill

I like the newer necks and the older was fine.

Used to buy cheap cables. Now I build cables to my own specs. Switchcraft much better than Neutrik as connectors go.
I hear no difference other than, now they work and any problems they have are my fault.

I like the newer necks and the older was fine.

Used to buy cheap cables. Now I build cables to my own specs. Switchcraft much better than Neutrik as connectors go.
I hear no difference other than, now they work and any problems they have are my fault.

i like amphenol pro series connectors better than either. using silver coated copper conductor and pure silver solder is better, but harder to work with. i would be curious how you'd compare your cables to evidence audio or colossal.

I like the newer necks and the older was fine.

Used to buy cheap cables. Now I build cables to my own specs. Switchcraft much better than Neutrik as connectors go.
I hear no difference other than, now they work and any problems they have are my fault.

i like amphenol pro series connectors better than either. using silver coated copper conductor and pure silver solder is better, but harder to work with. i would be curious how you'd compare your cables to evidence audio or colossal.

I am happy the Canare and Switchcraft because they work and I can get back to doing other things.
Time, money, reviews, how it coils, will be factors as to why I did not try each and every manufacture out there.
Cheap cables waste my time, once broken, throw it out. I can build one using the above and it will last for years.

Sure, the science is there. We know there can be a sound difference between cables, but for me, that task takes too much time out of the day. There can always be improvements, I just weight the cost and decide if it is worth it. S-500 can be a little bright. Having "darker" cables might be good. Who knows.

If I was a sound engineer, it might be something worth to consider and investigate. I'm happy with a working environment that I have.


Canare Gs-6 for 10ft cable = $8.40
Evidence for 10ft cable = $115.00

This reminds me of the Black gate caps that every one raves about. Or the mundorf caps. Sorry, not spending that money.
Not wasting my time trying each and every cap out there to see who gives the best tone.
Give me the lower quality end that works and I'll never know the difference.