Friday, March 29, 2013 A pictures tells more ...

Wow! On this last day of the workweek, I must admit that yesterdays sad tidings got to me a bit. As pointed out by Gabe in his elegant eulogy, Mr Hyatt is the 'father' of about every G&L I dearly love, whether it be the SB and SC's in my collection or any and all Broadcaster/ASATs.

Lunch:
Yesterday was Vietnamese sandwiches for lunch and catered Mahdu Indian for dinner. And Jamie is right in his reaction to yesterday's LR, I rather would have dinner with the wife. Lets hope crunch time is not forever.

Back to one of the scions of Mr Hyatt's contributions to the music world: an ASAT. I own 5 Korina guitars: the regular ones and 2 prototypes. One of the prototypes is a Korina ASAT Classic and has also been featured in other posts. When I ordered that guitar from ProGuitar Shop in Portland, OR, they sent me the wrong guitar apparently not realizing there was more than one Korina in the warehouse. It was another prototype, a Korina Deluxe with a Saddle-Lock bridge and uncovered SD-pups. I had that guitar at home for a day and really liked it. But I would only get my AC if I would ship it back. Strangely enough, 14 months later I got another opportunity to get that very same Deluxe for a very decent price. So this time it is here to stay:


I never really realized it has a Honey finish until I got it again. But what a beautiful finish that is over Korina! Both this Deluxe and the ASAT Classic were never featured on the prototype page on the G&L web site. The body was produced the same day as the AC: January 24, 2011, but the neck is from November 2010 and must have been laying around already:

The 'Steve' mentioned on the neck heel is likely Steve Grom, Director of R&D and the CCD at the time. A similar remark is found on the neck heel of my AC. It is hard for me to hear a real difference between the Korina Deluxe II in my collection and this one. So no clear verdict on whether the Saddle-Lock is (sonically) superior to a TonePros Tune-O-Matic bridge. What I do find remarkable though is how good the coil-split function works on both. On this guitar it is basically the go-to setting with wonderful tones from both neck, bridge, and combined pups.

I have noticed that there a about a dozen prototypes of all different kinds associated with the Korina Collection which I compiled in a chronological table with all prototypes I know off. Note that all but one actually have a Korina body but I have included engineering models. On the other hand, one should realize that that particular model serves at much purpose as a prototype to the Black Ice ASAT Deluxe II as to the Korina Deluxe II and Junior II. In the description I only describe the deviations from the Korina Collection spec: Korina body with Aged Natural Gloss finish, TOM bridge for Junior II and Deluxe II, quartersawn maple neck with Gloss Light Tint finish, and Pau Ferro fingerboard. Again, all but the 2 I have are on the G&L prototype page.

Korina Collection prototypes

S/N	Model	Finish	Completion Date	Description
CLF59703	ASAT Deluxe	Honey	01/24/2011	Saddle-Lock bridge, flatsawn neck, rosewood fingerboard, no pickup covers, black knurled knobs, no spec sheet.
CLF061042	ASAT Classic	Natural Gloss	02/28/2011	Only Classic. Flatsawn neck, rosewood fingerboard.
CLF60349	ASAT Classic Bluesboy	Aged Natural Gloss	04/04/2011	Flatsawn neck. Otherwise first cosmetically correct Korina.
CLF60344	Legacy Deluxe	Aged Natural	04/14/2011	Only Legacy. Black knurled knobs, flatsawn neck.
CLF60340	ASAT Deluxe SH	Aged Natural	04/26/2011	Black Limba (dark Korina) body, flatsawn neck.
CLF60381	ASAT Bass SH	Aged Natural	04/26/2011	Black Limba (dark Korina) body.
CLF60204	ASAT Deluxe II	Honeyburst	05/12/2011	Engineering model. Swamp Ash body, black knurled knobs, no pickguard, flatsawn neck with Clear Satin finish, rosewood fingerboard, Gloss Black headstock.
CLF60423	ASAT Deluxe II	Aged Natural Gloss	06/02/2011	Flatsawn neck.
CLF60323	ASAT Deluxe II	Old-School Tobacco Sunburst	06/05/2011	Flatsawn neck, ebony fingerboard, no pickguard.
CLF60641	ASAT Junior II	experimental blend	07/06/2012	Different finish which evolved into Autumnburst later. Ebony fingerboard.
CLF065956	ASAT Deluxe II	Old-School Tobacco Sunburst	10/29/2012	No pickguard, another test for Light Tint Gloss neck finish.

Yesterday I had a conversation with James of the Seattle Guitar Shop and we debated how cool the Prototype web pages actually have been. You get a nice picture and a good description of these special instruments. And it draws a lot of attention, not only from collectors like me but from guitar/bass lovers in general. I sensed a similar sentiment when talking to Eric Martin of Martin Music Guitars. And for me the same holds true for the pages talking about instruments released by the Custom Creations Department. Hence this question:
G&L question:
Should G&L do more of this, e.g. maintain a picture production log with all the (unique) instruments it builds ? (See poll above)

Guess now Spring has arrived it is time to prep the garden and pea patches. With all the stuff happening at work, I hope to get a couple of hours in and get outside sticking my hands in honest to goodness dirt. And maybe get the grill out for the first cook-out for the season.
General question:
Any plans for the weekend? Is the grill out already?

Thanks again everybody for participating. Have a great weekend..

- Jos

Hi Jos

Great week, really enjoyed reading it all.

I think G&L should keep a photolog, but not sure where they should keep it, web site, facebook page, blog, not sure.

The prototypes are really cool, but they don't do anything for us lefty's, but it allows us to drool.

No major plans for the weekend, just family for dinner tomorrow, the weather is finally starting to warm up here a bit, so the BBQ has been used a lot this past week.

Alf

I love the lunch reports great photo's

Lunch today will be at the restaurant that my wife chooses

I myself love looking at photos of guitars always makes me want to buy.It gives me new ideas that I wouldn't of thought of. I'd like to see G&L keep a photo log. The digital online world has made viewing things like that accessible to almost everyone.

My wife has volunteered me to grill chicken for her Saturday sew day. Imagine 7 to 10 women with sewing machines all talking at once.

Nice work this week. As for production logs, Anderson has a system where you enter the serial number and the spec sheet pops up. That is nice, but maybe too big a job for G&L to accomplish.

My weekend is a big question mark. An Easter get-together for sure, but where?


Cheers,

Will

Lunch was home-made soup before the Good Friday service. My weekend will be spending as much time with my girlfriend as possible. And the Easter Day service, of course.

I'd love to see more 'special builds'; I really enjoyed the prototypes page on the G&L site.

I'll have to catch up with the rest of the week another time. I've been away at a wedding and the rest of the week has been a bit hectic, but I've really enjoyed the bits I've read! Thanks Jos.

Lunch was home-made soup before the Good Friday service. My weekend will be spending as much time with my girlfriend as possible. And the Easter Day service, of course.

I'd love to see more 'special builds'; I really enjoyed the prototypes page on the G&L site.

I'll have to catch up with the rest of the week another time. I've been away at a wedding and the rest of the week has been a bit hectic, but I've really enjoyed the bits I've read! Thanks Jos.

i'll be celebrating today, as it is a big task we accomplished on this day. i am just not sure what people celebrate on sunday. that we found out we failed? i don't get that.

Very enjoyable week Jos. The Honey on Korina is a great combo. I suspect Honey on EM would also be sweet.

I am impressed with the prototypes and I also think that it is a good marketing concept. I much prefer that over a bunch of Artist models as Gibson keeps doing. I think that G&L should keep the build sheet for any guitar on file to be accessed by serial number. As for pictures, I think it would be much better for G&L to have the Guitar Builder on their web site or available to their dealers to post on their web sites. That would be the ideal solution in my opinion. The build sheet has all the pertinent information to the instrument. I am still bummed about them dropping the JJ Asat. Nice data supplied in the post today Jos.

No digging in the dirt here. There is still more than a foot of snow in our back yard. I grill on the deck all winter and will be grilling Sunday morning for our annual brunch. Everyone comes to our house for holidays and I and thankful that Ginny and I are still up to doing it. We had a drought here last fall and the ground is frozen so most of the melt will run off not helping the situation. One of the popular local lakes is down 5 feet with the docks sticking way up in the air. No one is sure what to do. Thanks for the entertaining week Jos. It will be a long time before you run out of guitars to show in the LRs!!! -- Hope that everyone has a great weekend.-- Darwin

This was a great week Jos! I was busy being a single Dad while my wife was taking care of some stuff with her family, so I didn't have much time for posting. So after a week of lurking, here's my 1000th GbL post.

My big event for the week was having my ten year-old son ask me to show him how to play guitar. He's already had a year of cello at school (which he remembers none of), and is taking string bass lessons and playing in the elementary school band (after six months he almost knows the D major scale). He also has a short-scale electric bass (an eighth birthday present) which he has shown no interest in playing. I had no expectations when I strung up our project DuoSonic and showed him an E minor chord. Against all odds, after five days he can play all of the open major chords and a couple of minors and has actually been working on playing/singing a song this afternoon. The upside of his time on the cello and string bass is that he has not complained once of sore fingers.

G&L question:
Should G&L do more of this, e.g. maintain a picture production log with all the (unique) instruments it builds ? (See poll above)

I think so. It would also be nice to have pics of some typical production guitars with the image size and detail of the prototype photos. IMO, the ones on the site now just don't convey what the instruments really look like.

General question:
Any plans for the weekend? Is the grill out already?

My wife and youngest son are flying home tomorrow, so the morning will be spent cleaning up a week's worth of bachelor mess and the afternoon/evening will be family time.

The grill will be fired up for the first time of the year on Sunday. A couple of years ago I started a family tradition of lamb kebabs on Easter. My wife cooks all of the other holiday meals, so this is my one time to prepare a big meal on my own.

Ken

I am still bummed about them dropping the JJ Asat.

Darwin,

Your JJ Sig ASAT is taking up space in my closet. Just let me know when you're ready...

Ken

I guess that now that all G&L guitars come with their own particular spec sheet it would be easy enough to save a copy for their records - maybe they already are. Adding a picture to this would be nice.

We'll be smoking some meat on the Weber tomorrow if the weather hold out, its supposed to rain. It always rains on weekends...

i'll be celebrating today, as it is a big task we accomplished on this day. i am just not sure what people celebrate on sunday. that we found out we failed? i don't get that.

Ramen to that, brother

Jos,
Thanks for posting this question.
My thoughts and proposal to G&L would include having dealers that opt in to pay an extra $25 per instrument that would be put up on the G&L custom build page. The only guitars that would go up on this page would be ones that were ordered by dealers for store stock, not for customer builds. The reasoning is simple. G&L guitars and basses are so unique and have so many options that it is hard for the lay person to really understand how cool this is.. I have no doubt in my mind that this will increase the amount of new owners immediately. It would also force me to really think about ordering the most interesting guitars I could have built.

I guess that now that all G&L guitars come with their own particular spec sheet it would be easy enough to save a copy for their records - maybe they already are. Adding a picture to this would be nice.

We'll be smoking some meat on the Weber tomorrow if the weather hold out, its supposed to rain. It always rains on weekends...

i'll be celebrating today, as it is a big task we accomplished on this day. i am just not sure what people celebrate on sunday. that we found out we failed? i don't get that.

Ramen to that, brother

Ramadan maybe? Ha!

Jos - So sorry to have been MIA this week and for several past weeks. Long story short, my wife is a CPA and she's buried in tax returns to deal with in addition to her real (CFO) job. So MY job is to keep the kids from distracting her, and they've been on Spring Break this week. Although we found some activities/
camps for them to do, I've been driving, shopping, cooking, laundry, etc. in addition to my own (legal) work.

I'm not sure how to answer your questions, except I'm big on keeping records and making them accessible to folks who are interested. Is that a lot to ask? No, as long as I'm not the one who has to do it without a proper budget for it. Anyhow, I hope to to read the rest of your week (though I think I read Monday and Tuesday without time to respond) and perhaps I'll have something worthwhile to say. That would be something new, eh?

I'll conclude this way: My older boy spent this week at a Rock Band camp and although he's more comfortable on guitar, they needed a bass player. So I gave him my first-style SB-2 in Bahama Blue. Today (the final day of camp) was their "performance." So here's a pic of my kid rocking Leo's best "Jazz" bass (IMHO) in a short-lived band they called the Black Vipers:


btw, if you ever think of trading one of your korina G&Ls for something vintage, give me a heads-up, eh?
- ed

i'll be celebrating today, as it is a big task we accomplished on this day. i am just not sure what people celebrate on sunday. that we found out we failed? i don't get that.

Ramen to that, brother

Let's show a modicum of respect for eachother as fellow G&L enthusiasts here, shall we? To disagree does not necessitate disrespect. That is what keeps discourse civil.

As for me, I will be playing my G&L during this enigmatic Easter Sunday celebration.

what I would to see G & L do is post some real pictures of the color and finish choices ..... I here members here say the "guitar-builder" doesn't do some of the colors any justice , like shoreline gold for example , ruby red metallic , you can't tell any difference between fullerton red and candy apple red on the "builder" but i'm sure theres a big difference in real life ..... I wanna see some real pict's so I am not dissapointed in something I've ordered with out seeing first hand .... my next G & L is going to have some "color" and would just like to see the colors in a real picture ..... maybe a little advertising to educaute people on G & L's and get re-sale value were it should be , I'm surprised at how many people never heard of G & L's but yet they know who Leo Fender is (me included) .... if it wasn't for UG.com I would have never found G &L , you can thank Justrooster for that !! ..... getting ready too order my second new G &L and haven't even got my first new one delivered yet ..lol

thanks for listening , Eric "the new guy"

It's Saturday morning and the sun is out here in the Pacific NW. Already made my wife's weekend by scoring tickets for John Mayer playing The Gorge this summer. What a great start of the day! Time for some reactions before work will take over again!

Alf: I had completely overlooked that G&L indeed already has a presence on Facebook and that is where I have seen particular instruments being featured. Problem for me is, I am not too endeared with Facebook and feel that other people start to experience similar feelings. I need an FB account for my work but since I worked on a project where we were not planning to integrate with FB at the time, I hadn't logged in to it for months even up to the point I had forgotten my password And then there are all sorts of legal issues over who actually owns what is posted on social media sites which would include any and all written and picture material.

cuzwilly: Thanks for the kudos! But the whole purpose of a picture is to whet the appetite of course! At least since the screen is usually upright it is harder to drool all over it. The keyboard on the other hand ...

Will: I like the Anderson idea. And I thought that the whole purpose of the spec sheet was to build such a similar system. I'm fuzzy though on whether G&L ever intended that system to be outward facing. But that would be cool nevertheless.

Goat: Take it is easy this weekend. And I hope you had fun at the wedding.

louis: I may a devout atheist but I'm still gonna look for these eggs tomorrow

darwin: Guitar Builder on the G&L website? Now there's another fine idea! Hope the run-off replenishes the lake at least to some extend. (Potable) water management is going to be THE problem in our not too distnace future in my book. And might there be a JJ ASAT in your future?

Ken: Congrats with reaching a 1000. I hope you had the opportunity to crank that amp while your wife was away and show your son what it means (to move air' But what a great father-son bonding project. At least it was his own initiative which many times makes all the difference whether kids stick with something or not.

Jamie: Hope it stays dry. Like I stated above, we have an early summer here. It might hit 70 degrees Fahrenheit here this weekend. And summer is supposed to only start July 5th over here ...

James: Like I stated in our conversation, I think it is a good idea at least worth pursuing. You are the best to know what effect the particular presentation of the prototype models had on your business.

ed: Nice son, nice SB-2 too. And now I know myself how great these instruments sound. On trading any of the Korinas, right now don't keep your hopes up. I'm still in the hoarding phase of collecting

Patrick: Hope I can do the same this weekend and get some time in with my pretty ones.

Eric "the new guy": You bring up a good point in regards on how certain colors can be captured on photofilm and/or screen. It is a tough problem for a photographer: how do you convey a quality like sparkle, which implies movement is involved, on a static medium of a CCD. In that sense the real article can be the only arbiter.

Thanks again everybody for participating. Just noticed that nobody has signed up for the next 4 weeks. Hint, hint, ...

- Jos

Last edited by yowhatsshakin on Sat Mar 30, 2013 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't think anything so elaborate as a full picture build log is required, or necessary (in fact I prefer it isn't there). As far as better pictures of finishes, that would be great Eric (NG), but as Jos mentioned those flake / sparkle finishes are very, very difficult to photograph. You need lights and angles and a whole slew of other stuff to get them right, and about 5-6 pictures to get the full ideal. I was trying to photo one recently and it could be a downright nightmare.

Going to work Wednesday, (hence me not signing up til 4 weeks from now) so have a good one folks, I'll be MIA.

some colors will be hard for sure .... I like the multi pict idea ...... was thinking of ordering a purple SC2 but I'm not a big purple guy , but there are a couple shades of purple I absolutly love , same with blues ..... now I like all kinds of different reds ..... serching through epay last night at G & L's I saw a ruby red metallic with a lot of good picts , and yes I did too , I went right down to C'ville Music and ordered a new SC2 ruby red today ...lol .... wasn't willing to risk ordering royal metalic purple with out a bunch of picts first and then not like it when it comes

One of the problems viewing pictures on a computer monitor is that the monitors may not be perfect in displaying colors.-- Darwin