Monday March 25, 2013 Lets start at the bottom ....

Hi gang,

First my gratitude to Steve for a fine, fine week of Lunch Reports even while being really busy. For me this week it is pretty much the same. You see, I work for PopCap Games building the back-end server solution for one of our big franchises with a updated release on the horizon later this year. And it is crunch time right now. So all the Lunch Reports were actually written last weekend, will be posted early in the morning (my time) and I will only be able to react to your input sparingly. But lets see how it goes …

Lunch:
They provide lunch and dinner for our team so we don't have to leave the building. But I actually hate that. I rather spend money to get out of the building than to eat at my desk. So my gut-feeling (no pun intended) is that it will be Thai-Monday; just like always. In my later Lunch Reports I'll let you know what I had for lunch the day prior.

Steve's Friday LR on Saturday featured his red SC-1. Sometime last year I got me a black one and was immediately bowled over. Which got me interested in G&L early to mid-80's G&L entry level instruments. Not withstanding the 'entry level' moniker, the instruments have proven to be amazing sonic tools: you'd frequently read somebody on this board extol their virtues. After all, the main reason to get an SC-1 was to find out for myself what this KenC fella was writing about all the time (sorry Ken ) I have never played a Tribute series, but I also frequently read great reviews for that line of instruments.

G&L question:
Do you consider the Asian produced Tribute series to be G&L's entry line of instruments or are they a 'separate' thing entirely? And if you own a Tribby, how likely is it for you to ever get an US G&L, either as replacement or as an addition? Or is the Tribby already good enough by itself? (See Poll above)

Since I mentioned Ken, I thought it would be cool to feature the low-end member of the student models: the SB-2. You might know that the SB-2 is still part of the G&L line-up. But when initially released, it had a different pickups configuration:

In 1985, this configuration was renamed to Lynx (which in turn was discontinued at the end of '91) and the SB-2 went on a 2 year hiatus only to come back with its current Jazz/Precision combo of pups in '87, this time to stay.

A couple of weeks ago my wife expressed an interest to learn to play the bass. The L-2500 in my collection is pretty heavy and the ASAT Commemorative Bass is just heavy on pretty. So we started looking around CL and eBay to see if there would be something suitable and this one popped up. Look, I'll be honest, in those kind of situations I have no qualms saying 'Yes dear!'

General question:
What is the weirdest excuse you've ever used to buy an instrument?

Like my other student models, it is a beautiful Black and has a great looking neck with nicely figured grain on the fingerboard. It came in the original hard shell case with its funky corners (like many original student model cases) and has this funky block attached to the divider to avoid the instrument to slide around:

And it turned out to be an early one produced shortly after the model was introduced in November '82:

I have been playing this thing all week now, and am again surprised by the great tone coming from this modest model. Yes, you have to dial back the highs a bit but it has this beautiful sound. Not that my other basses are not great, but sometimes simplicity is just the ticket.

Hope to be able to check in later this day,

- Jos

Jos, good to see you back and I remember the days of meeting deadlines and the crunch. I now have the greatest job there is! Now if I were 40 !!!!!!!!!

I didn't vote as I have many American models but the Tributes are really decent and can actually be a great guitar. Steve gigged his Asat Special again this weekend and absolutely loves it. He was Fender guy for years and thinks this Tribute has the best neck that he has ever played. I have to admit that I put a lot of time in the fretwork and it really paid off. I would probably buy a Tribute, especially if the wood grain jumps out at me. I have owned them but do not currently own one.

I wonder why an SC-1 would be much different than an SC-2 using only the bridge pickup? Is the pickup location different? I haven't really looked at that.

What is the weirdest excuse you've ever used to buy an instrument?

The Kensington Rune Stone has Hooked X's on it. I found a Stingray 5 a few years back that had a figured swamp ash back that had hooked X,s in it. I told that to Ginny and I got the look! I did buy it and we called it the Rune Stone guitar. I traded it over a year ago for my L-2500.

Nice bass you picked up for your wife. Weight is a factor and for that reason I have been gigging my Carvin KOA a lot recently. It makes a difference especially two nights in a row. It is 2.5 Lbs lighter than my L-2500. The L has the best tone of any bass that I have owned. I hope she like the new bass and gets into it. Ginny took some lessons a few years back and I think found it more difficult than she had anticipated.

Don't see the point of the tribute line, but then again I am never in the market for a not quality axe. I know some folk like to tote imports to gigs, but I will tote any axe to a gig (if I was gigging, which I am currently not). The tools for the job are never furniture so I see no qualms if they get beating up living up to what they were made for. Given this I don't own any 'import' or 'budget' level guitars. You always lose something in the trade. "Student" models are a little different as if they recieve the same attention to quality, with a stripped down feature set that is all good (which is my understanding of the early G&L ones). Bling is just that, bling, completely not necessary.

I consider the tribute line merely a means to tap into that mid range market that is what guitar shops really live on. Nothing more. Then again G&Ls are not in the upper end of the spectrum anyway, so I can't say I get it, given how 'close' they are together price wise. Guitars don't cost very much overall, (even the expensive ones) so I see no problem waiting a little longer (if that was the case) to get something I will want to play. Unfortunately ignoring the mid level instruments is a mistake in the modern market. I consider them teenager guitars personally. Those who want something but do not have the means yet, or the patience. Fair enough in that case.

Not having a neck pickup though, pass. I don't see anything gained with single pickup guitars, only something lost.

As far as excuses to buy instruments. I don't have any. I say I would like to buy this and then I do.

you'd frequently read somebody on this board extol their virtues. After all, the main reason to get an SC-1 was to find out for myself what this KenC fella was writing about all the time (sorry Ken )

Setting a goal of one of every SC/SB model was a lot cheaper than going for every possible ASAT variant! I was just glad somebody already had that theme taken.

Since I mentioned Ken, I thought it would be cool to feature the low-end member of the student models: the SB-2. You might know that the SB-2 is still part of the G&L line-up. But when initially released, it had a different pickups configuration:

In 1985, this configuration was renamed to Lynx (which in turn was discontinued at the end of '91) and the SB-2 went on a 2 year hiatus only to come back with its current Jazz/Precision combo of pups in '87, this time to stay.

I have been playing this thing all week now, and am again surprised by the great tone coming from this modest model. Yes, you have to dial back the highs a bit but it has this beautiful sound. Not that my other basses are not great, but sometimes simplicity is just the ticket.

I haven't played the newer style SB-2 yet, but I would love to try one. The first style SB-2 (and the Lynx) can cover a whole lot of sonic ground. Depending on the strings, they can take on a lot of different sounds. My preference with the SBs is something just short of flatwound. My Lynx is wearing a Rotosound Jazz Bass set, and gets a great mix of punch, clarity and sustain. My SB-1 came to me twelve years ago with a set of black tapewounds, which I absolutely loved. One of those strings just broke, so I'm on the hunt to figure out what the brand and model were for an exact replacement. They actually worked well as rock strings with the MFD pickup, with plenty of top-end ring and zing.

The Lynx was slightly different from the early SB-2. It had very comfortable (IMO) forearm and belly cuts, and normally had a rosewood fingerboard. It also came in poplar and ash as well as maple. The pickups and controls were the same as the first-style SB-2.

A couple of weeks ago my wife expressed an interest to learn to play the bass.

I've never been able to get my wife interested in playing music. I have been able to get her ever so slowly to recognize guitars and basses as works of art in their own right, though.

General question:
What is the weirdest excuse you've ever used to buy an instrument?

The worst excuse I ever gave my wife was for the Skyhawk: "It's such a pretty shade of yellow. I thought you'd like how it looked."

Ken

Jos, Great stuff, as usual... I dig free meals too. PopCap is a division of EA, right? Well done. I wrote my LR's ahead too, except for the lunch...

No Tribby yet, but they are nice; especially the carved-tops. What is the weirdest excuse you've ever used to buy an instrument? "I'll need this one day", "It's the last one!?", you know those reasons.


Cheers,

Will

Jos, good to see you back and I remember the days of meeting deadlines and the crunch. I now have the greatest job there is! Now if I were 40 !!!!!!!!!

I didn't vote as I have many American models but the Tributes are really decent and can actually be a great guitar. Steve gigged his Asat Special again this weekend and absolutely loves it. He was Fender guy for years and thinks this Tribute has the best neck that he has ever played. I have to admit that I put a lot of time in the fretwork and it really paid off. I would probably buy a Tribute, especially if the wood grain jumps out at me. I have owned them but do not currently own one.

I wonder why an SC-1 would be much different than an SC-2 using only the bridge pickup? Is the pickup location different? I haven't really looked at that.

What is the weirdest excuse you've ever used to buy an instrument?

The Kensington Rune Stone has Hooked X's on it. I found a Stingray 5 a few years back that had a figured swamp ash back that had hooked X,s in it. I told that to Ginny and I got the look! I did buy it and we called it the Rune Stone guitar. I traded it over a year ago for my L-2500.

Nice bass you picked up for your wife. Weight is a factor and for that reason I have been gigging my Carvin KOA a lot recently. It makes a difference especially two nights in a row. It is 2.5 Lbs lighter than my L-2500. The L has the best tone of any bass that I have owned. I hope she like the new bass and gets into it. Ginny took some lessons a few years back and I think found it more difficult than she had anticipated.

a one pup guitar, even if it's identical in every to a 2 pup guitar is gonna sound very different than the bridge pup on the 2 pup version. that is why lp juniors and melody makers were also popular. the magnetic field of the neck pup does interfere with how the string behaves, even when it is not selected. if you have a 2 pup guitar, try removing the neck pup and see how different it sounds.

Lots of SC1 talk recently - I hope that someone at G&L notices

A couple of weeks ago my wife expressed an interest to learn to play the bass.

I've been trying to get my girlfriend interested in learning bass. A few weeks ago I saw a lady playing a Danelectro longhorn through an SVT in one of the best local blues bands around - she's dead cool, plays bass better than just about anyone I've heard and is a lovely person too - a good role model and hopefully will inspire the GF to take it up! It would make buying birthday/xmas presents soooooo much easier!

The survey doesn't allow for USA owners who bought tribbys to chime in. I am one and I would do it again if the price was right.
That is- Buy a usa G&L or a Tribute instr.

Great choice on the early SB-2. I am amazed that you found one and that it is in such great shape.
You are extra lucky that it has its original case. They are rarer than hen's teeth.
I have a white first gen SB-2 and it is a great bass. I recently took it to a gig with my big band and played it all night. It sounded great and mine has the lacquer sanded off the back of the neck, so it is very easy to play.

Hi Jos,

Good to see you back on duty again.

I'm with Bassman - I don't really make a distinction between Tributes and US models. I've bought both based entirely on how they feel and value for money. I don't regard my Tribute as a poor man's G&L. In my experience there are good and bad examples of both, though the USA models are generally set up far more carefully and have better quality control.

As far as purchase excuses go, my wife let me buy the Legacy in my avatar because it matches the sofa. I'm working on getting a mirror image Legacy (black body, white guard, maple fret board) using the same logic. I'm not sure if using the same excuse twice will cut the mustard.

Howdy gang,

After leaving the house at 7am PDT, I finally got home at 8:30pm PDT. But I have been checking in once in a while just to see the reaction come in. And thanks for those, folks!

Darwin, I'm with louis on the SC-1 vs SC-.2. There are definitely similarities between the SC-1 and the SC-2 on the neck, but enough noticable differences too. So in my book, these guitars each have their own character.

sirmyghin: First good to see you post again. At least in my mind it seesm you have been away for a while. I'm with you when it comes down to buying the right instrument and rather save up a bit more if necessary. But then again, I wish many of these mid-level instruments were available in my cash strapped youth. I might have learned to play the electric guitar on a considerable better guitar that I did in reality. So I certainly can see that point too.

Will: Yes, PopCap got bought by EA in the summer of 2011. So far, they have stayed out of my kitchen for the most part. But all the things that have gone wrong with Sim City and The Simpsons over the last half a year has increased the pressure to avoid these kind of errors. So that is what I'm working hard for to avoid. At least my background as an experimental nuclear physicist helps me out quite a bit.

Blarg: as long as your GF does not get the idea you want to exchange her for the bass playing variety ... That might be more trouble than it's worth

bassman: No I didn't add entries for users owning both because I was hoping to get more participation of the Tribby wielding newcomers. Although there are more votes than actual written reactions, I still think I missed out on my target audience As far as being lucky finding great examples, I have had that quite a bit. Every time I think I have missed out on that especially spendid specimen, it either reappears miraculously or an even better example turns up. Be assured, I do count my blessings ...

Philby: It is good to see confirmation that the Tributes are not second rank citizens by definition. I can certainly assert a similar thing for the SC/SB series of instruments, hopefully with data on the HG in the future. In both cases, the fact that a lot of the hardware is still shared between 'professional' and 'entry' level instruments might have a lot to do with that.

Well, it's time for me to hit the sack to be up early at dawn again tomorrow.

- Jos

I bought an earthquake damaged Tribute Legacy HB from Christchurch NZ to support the local economy - just a couple of cosmetic dings and it gives me a decent alternative to my Will Ray Asat. It had to be a G&L and it had to have a whammy bar as I didn't have a guitar set up that way at the time. I'd like a US model but I don't really need one as I am happy with the sounds and feel of my Will Ray and the Legacy tributes - but it doesn't stop me wanting maybe an ASAT special or an SC2 to try the sounds of the big soap bar pick ups! Can't fault the tributes I have in any way to want to be in a hurry to replace them.
Lunch was a hot pork roll with salad.

Jeremy

Hey Jos,

Late to the party... but really looking forward to this week (Almost as much as my wife is looking forward to the upcoming PopCap release "Plants vs Zombies 2! - She'd be a great beta tester )

SC1...... SC1......SC1......

Maybe if i start a board wide chant someone will hear it Wouldn't it be great if G&L did a limited run?

As far as Tribbys go, i have played a number of them at the local dealer and do agree that they are very nice instruments. Great value for the money. I was there when some of the new ones came... The lake placid blue Legacy is outstanding in person, a real sharp looking guitar. It was pretty poorly setup, but once the tech tweaked a few things it felt really nice. I am sure it won't last long at the shop!

Scott

Hey Jos,

Late to the party... but really looking forward to this week (Almost as much as my wife is looking forward to the upcoming PopCap release "Plants vs Zombies 2! - She'd be a great beta tester )

PvZ2? I know nothing, I know nothing, ....

- Jos

Maybe if i start a board wide chant someone will hear it Wouldn't it be great if G&L did a limited run?

We tried that with the LE2 - either an SC-1 or HG-1 - but G&L wasn't open to the idea of a single pup guitar other than the Rampage.

Ken

At least my background as an experimental nuclear physicist helps me out quite a bit.

Sure, and Pop goes the world! Ah, the joke was there...


Cheers,

Will

after being on this site three months and a member for 1 , a tribute G&L would be fine by me .... but I went to the top the first try when I ordered a new USA Legacy , then bought a used ASAT Classic for 675.00 from my local G&L dealer ..... when I asked why he didn't stock any tributes he said they have plenty of nice used MIA and MIM strats to "fill" the lower price range gap guitars at wich he does have a bunch of Fenders from 300.00 to 750.00 range that were all beauty's ..... I have a chinese LP with wilkinson pu's that plays and feels good for new under 300.00 so the foerign guitars wouldn't bother me at all .... but at my age and with all but one kid out of the house I kinda been splurging a little on myself here lately, plan on ordering a third G&L new SC2 here soon ..... but if they had a bunch of tributes sitting there to try out I would not be afraid to pull the trigger , but if I have to order one I'll go USA not to mention there are some good deals on G&L's in the local CL

I had 4 piece chicken dinner with fries and salid

Guys,

I owned a ASAT Classic tribute MIK I bought from Buffalo Bros at the Arlington Texas guitar show. I had already had for several years a USA Legacy.
I never bonded with the Tribute. I traded it in with a Fernandes LE2, S style and $50.00 for a 2002 USA Fender Fat Strat Texas Special.
I now own a ASAT III that is one of my main guitars.

As far as import guitars. I own a Tokai and a older Fernandes LE1 that has the truest Strat tone I own. I own a Squire Classic Vibe 50's Tele that plays like a dream. I play anywhere I take the Classic Vibe.
I also own 3 Gretsch Electromatics MIK and MIC, a 5120 a newer Double Jet and a ProJet all three are quality interments' and build with enough quality that I have no desire to get a Pro line Gretsch that are MIJ or a older Gretsch. I don't have a issue with import interments'.
I have more of a issue calling older guitars vintage interments'. That's a different story.

I think Tributes are some of the best values out there I just couldn't bond with mine.


Chet