The Late, Late Lunch Report : 2013-08-27

Welcome to the Late, Late Lunch Report! I'm your host, the Internet's Brock Frazier. Please sit down!

Seriously, the day owned me and when I realized there was no report for the day issued yet, lunch was long gone. But it's still the 27th, so here I am.

Lunch
The wife and I want to Wok Inn Noodle. I had the Beef with Vegitable prepared extra spicy. Soooooo good. Here's a picture of my meal.


G&L
Pick a personal favorite year of G&L. Not a range, an era, or a for ???? this year, but just one year. Four numbers. There's less than 35 choices total. How hard can this be?

Administrative note
Again, sorry about the late arrival and the brief nature of this report. As mentioned yesterday, it's a busy week for me.

-Brock

the only G & L's I've ever played are my own , so in my little collection I would have to say 1998 ASAT , it seems to be the guitar that I compare my other guitar's too , feel and sound the ASAT is probably the winner , my 1984 Cavalier is probably second choice in the "feel department" although I have yet to rate the sound from the Cav

My personal favorite year is 1984. Bi-cut necks, black crinkle hardware, smaller headstocks, and lots of model favorites:
• First-style SB-2
• L-1000
• El Toro/Interceptor Bass.

...and the guitars are probably great too

I own three G&Ls. Two are 1984 models (SB-2, El Toro).

I can't give an exact year, since I don't have any idea what year any of my G&Ls were made in. I have never bothered to take the neck off of any of them to check dates. Exact date of manufacture might be an interesting factoid, but in most cases it's not a big deal for me. The exceptions might be for certain Gibsons and Martins. Then again, if it feels good, sounds good, plays good...it is good. That's all I need to know, isn't it?

That said, I have several from the BBE three-bolt era, say 1992-97, and these are among my favorites.

Bill

I'm sure that lunch looked delicious. A plate of food never looks appealing when it's 3/4 eaten!

I have two G&Ls made this year and both are excellent, so I guess that makes me a 2013 favorer. There have been a couple of neat guitars released too, the reissue LB-100 and Solamente being personal faves. I'm sure the Savannah collection would be great too, I'm just a bit dissappointed that they're not that different to the Korina collection from 2011.

Brock, I can relate to the world of working, although much less now! I am no longer under a time crunch other than doing everything I want to do in my time left. A lot of guitars to cover yet.

My favorite G&L period is probably is the last 18 months. They have been coming up with some very interesting woods and paint combinations. Overall I have been trying to compare the new/old and I don't have an old one. I did get the 1996 yesterday and have studied it closely. If anything I think that the saddles are improved today. I like the frets better. The 96 has flatter top frets which may be due to factory dressing rather than plek. The fit and finish is flawless on the 96, good neck pocket fit and the trem fits and works very well. I think the guitars have improved in general fit over the years and are probably more consistent, especially the necks. One thing that has surprised me is that each G&L that I have feels like it has a different neck. It wasn't until I measured them that I found that most of them were the same but had a different feel. I always thought my Fender necks felt the same between guitars. I like the G&L's very much but they feel different. I much prefer the older string tree (plastic) over the recent ones but that is just preference. I think the necks today are very well done.

On a side note, the first thing I noticed about my 77 Vibrasonic amp last week is that the guitar cords fit into the input jacks nice and tight. It just has that solid feel that I haven't noticed in a recent amp. Times are changin'. It has true 1/4 in jacks where today everything is metric.

Hows the TV Cycle doing Brock? -- Darwin

Hang in there Brock. I just came of a year of practically constant crunching so I know how it feels.

Favorite year: 1991
By new Years Eve that year, the G&L line-up included Signature models, the Commanche (V), the ASAT Classic, single-bound, double-bound, and triple-bound ASATs, Lacewoods, and Commemoratives. Especially in September and October of that year, the music world experienced the last hurrah of Dale Hyatt in building some darn special and spectacular sounding instruments. Of course that had everything to do with a sad event in March that year..

- Jos

Favorite year for G&Ls -1980
The year my L-1000s were born.
One piece necks -with better truss rods in them- (at least mine have not given me any trouble) and ebony fingerboards and mahogany bodies with lacquer finishes on the necks and bodies.
These are great G&L basses!
Good to see you at the helm, Brock. TV-CYCLE- another great concept!

1982

I can't narrow it down to one single year, since the models changed so much early on. Here are my faves:

1. 1980, for exactly the same reasons Bill gave.

2. 1982 gave us the SC series and the S-500. Almost every G&L guitar model since then can be traced back to those 1982 innovations. It was also the year of the ultra-sweet first style SB-1 and SB-2.

3. 1986 brought the ASAT, and was a bit of a cross-over period where many early models were still around - SuperStrats and Interceptors on the guitar side, and the El Toro, Interceptor and Lynx for basses. Maple bodies still ruled the line-up, and the "student" end of the range was being done in style with the SC-3 and SB-1.

4. 1998 brought a whole lot of innovation and energy with Custom Creations. I have yet to play a '98 G&L that didn't wow me.

Each of these has been my "favorite" year at some point, usually depending on the most recent G&L to join my flock. For some reason these four years dominate my collection. At the moment I'm leaning toward '86 because of the SB-1 I just picked up a couple of weeks back...although I was really feeling the love for '82 while playing an SC-1 last night...

Ken

I really do find it amusing, despite the clear instuctions, how many people failed at delivering a single year.

-Brock

I really do find it amusing, despite the clear instuctions, how many people failed at delivering a single year.

-Brock

Maybe has something to do with that gray area between our ears .

I'd say 1988...or '89 , ah shoot. You ask hard questions

elwired

I really do find it amusing, despite the clear instuctions, how many people failed at delivering a single year.

-Brock

Four numbers: 1980, 1982, 1986, and 1998. Did you mean four digits? That wasn't clear...

Ken

Hang in there Brock. I just came of a year of practically constant crunching so I know how it feels.

Favorite year: 1991
By new Years Eve that year, the G&L line-up included Signature models, the Commanche (V), the ASAT Classic, single-bound, double-bound, and triple-bound ASATs, Lacewoods, and Commemoratives. Especially in September and October of that year, the music world experienced the last hurrah of Dale Hyatt in building some darn special and spectacular sounding instruments. Of course that had everything to do with a sad event in March that year..

- Jos

+1 on that!

my fav year 'till now is '93, because my 2 G&L's are from that year !

Favorite year for G&Ls -1980
The year my L-1000s were born.
One piece necks -with better truss rods in them- (at least mine have not given me any trouble) and ebony fingerboards and mahogany bodies with lacquer finishes on the necks and bodies.
These are great G&L basses!

It was a great year.

this thread needs more pictures:


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1981-VINTAGE-G-L-L-1000-BASS-GUITAR-ORIGINAL-ROAD-WORN-CONDITION-RED-STAIN-BODY-/300956925647?pt=Guitar&hash=item46126e3ecf

Favorite year for G&Ls -1980
The year my L-1000s were born.
One piece necks -with better truss rods in them- (at least mine have not given me any trouble) and ebony fingerboards and mahogany bodies with lacquer finishes on the necks and bodies.
These are great G&L basses!

It was a great year.

We shouldn't forget that 1980 was also the year of the large hex MFDs:



Ken