Wednesday Lunch Report 3/20/2013

Lunch: Today's lunch was a salad.

Today's G&L is the only bass in my collection. It's a 2002 JB-2.





After listening to sound samples and trying different basses I decided that the JB-2 was the bass for me. I bought it three weeks ago. The bass came with Sadowsky noiseless pickups in it and the OEM pickups were in the case. I installed the original pickups in it and promptly removed them. They are extremely micro-phonic. I'm pleased with the tone of the Sadowsky pickups, so I'll leave them in it. I don't have a bass amp so I've been using a Peavey, Delta Blues with a 15" speaker. It sounds good but I'm afraid that I'm going to hurt the speaker. I've been thinking about installing a bass speaker in the Peavey and keep using it instead of buying a bass amp.

G&L Bridges:

The saddle lock bridge squeezes the saddles together for improved resonation. For years I've been wondering why George & Leo or anyone from the current G&L engineering department doesn't lock the saddles together on a dual fulcrum tremolo? It would also keep the saddles in place when the tremolo is dive bombed.

Hobby:

My non guitar hobby is sprint car racing. I've been a crew member with a team for 22 years. We race with and without wings. Yesterday I posted a picture of our non wing car. Today's pictures are the wing car:





This is our race car hauler:



What are your non guitar related hobbies?

Tomorrow I'll post a photo of the best playing G&L I have and one of my favorites.

Steve, I finished off the leftover bean and ham soup today. It was some of the best Ginny has ever made.

Very nice JB. I have had a couple of American Fender jazz basses and have really migrated to more snarl like the L-2500. I went from the jazz bases to Music Man and to G&L although I now use the Carvin a lot. It is light but doesn't quite have the growl of the L-2500. The Sadowskys should sound good. I also practice using my Custom 15. I wouldn't worry about hurting it unless you crank it up! Has this bass had a bridge mod or do the JBs come with bridge mounted strings and not through the body?

I agree on the saddle lock on the DF. I brought that up here 2 or 3 years ago. It would be easy to do and had thought about building my own clamp mechanism over the saddles. I am surprised that G&L hasn't built a DF with a ridge on each side to try this.

Is the wing on the Sprint for stability or turning. It would seem that on a light sprint car, the wings would react to gusts or strong winds.

My other pass time at the moment is to get my Mac back in good health. it is getting more memory and a new internal hard drive.--Darwin

Is the wing on the Sprint for stability or turning. It would seem that on a light sprint car, the wings would react to gusts or strong winds.

The wing increases stability and helps to lock the car down to the track. A wing car is faster because it goes through the corner straighter. The non wing car takes a lot more driver skill. The wing can react to wind. I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska is one of the worst. I-80 always has strong west wind. The grandstands are on the west side so that the wind is at the spectators back. The cars hug the front stretch fence. As they enter turn one the bleachers end and the track is open to the wind. The wind will push the cars to the bottom. Another big plus to the wing is it slows the car down during a rollover and acts as a cushion. The top wing is 25 square feet and it weighs 30 pounds.

G&L Bridges:

The saddle lock bridge squeezes the saddles together for improved resonation. For years I've been wondering why George & Leo or anyone from the current G&L engineering department doesn't lock the saddles together on a dual fulcrum tremolo? It would also keep the saddles in place when the tremolo is dive bombed.

That is one of the best idea's ever!

I have no spare money for other hobbies

I don't own a bass, but would love to get my hands on a Danelectro Longhorn one day. I have a Longhorn Baritone that I'm borrowing from a friend and just love the shape and feel of the guitar.

I wouldn't worry about hurting it unless you crank it up!

+1

I agree on the saddle lock on the DF. I brought that up here 2 or 3 years ago. It would be easy to do and had thought about building my own clamp mechanism over the saddles. I am surprised that G&L hasn't built a DF with a ridge on each side to try this.

great minds think alike I see...
I did this !( on my mexi-strat ), the tone immediately comes alive .
This could be partly due to added cross talk between the saddles...a little more mass to anchor those high notes that don't have as much total kinetic energy compared to the lower strings.
Though it would would follow that the higher overtones would be preserved better even on the low strings.
That theory is reinforced with what I have heard with my ears...there's something to it.

Some ridges on the outer sides of the e saddles, and a heavy brass strip with a little screw on one side. Patent pending
It gives the picking hand a place to rest that's comfy.

Other hobbies....painting and marbling, though it comes in waves. Lately I've been doing my best to
spend any spare time on something music related ( guitar buildng , 'lectronics, cabs, etc.).

The tribby JB-2 I bought for a client sounded pretty good, I didn't notice any microphonics. The body was real nice, neck was acceptable...not USA quality, but it'll serve him well.
I can't get over how good the new to me '91-92 L2000 sounds , those things can be monstrous and delicate all at once.

elwood

As far as the Saddle Lock goes, it is a wonderful bridge, and very comfy, but overall, the locking mechanism makes little different to me. I don't notice it having any particularly qualities beside other guitars. What it does lack, is saddle chatter, saddles vibrating off of each other, which some less well designed bridges, or bridged with too little pressure (see low break angle) can have. I always thought this was more the point of it, as the rest is pretty well negligible in quality bridges.

One of the big downsides of the saddle lock is consequently screw chatter. The saddle screws, as there is less pressure on them (as everything is mashed together) have a tendency to back off a bit over time and then vibrate in a very annoying and loud (to the player) fashion. You then need to break out the allen key and tighten the offender, oh so delicately.

That might be the reason behind not doing it on the trem, all the changes in pressure on saddles during motion might work to loosen the screws faster and make this very annoying, minor problem, an absolute nightmare.

Hey Steve,

Another great looking G&L you got there. Bursts with wood binding are gorgeous.

I too think the DF with locking saddles would be a great idea - seems like a no brainer to me!

As far as non guitar related hobbies go, i am passionate about the water! I grew up boating and it is something i want to pass down to my kids (and hopefully their kids someday.... ) For me, nothing beats getting out for a cruise and spending the day on the river.



Scott

That might be the reason behind not doing it on the trem, all the changes in pressure on saddles during motion might work to loosen the screws faster and make this very annoying, minor problem, an absolute nightmare.

Nope, it works great for me .