Wednesday Lunch Report 10/16/2013

Lunch: Today was another crazy 10 hour day at the garage. I worked through lunch today.

Guitar: I've been experimenting with wound G strings. I think they sound better than a plain G string. What's your preference?

Amps: Are high end and boutique amps overrated? I've owned plenty of high end and boutique amps and I keep going back to my old reliable '71 Fender, Princeton Reverb.

Cars: How often do you change the oil in your car? Do you do it yourself? I change the oil in my trucks every 2500 miles.

I never have experiment with strings yet



I haven't tried any boutique amps yet either , my Peavey Classic 30 gets the most play time mostly because I can leave it in the house not mess with the wife's decor as it fits just perfect under her end-table , otherwise my Fender 65 Super Reverb would be my favorite , I will sure be interested in what the other's have to say


3000 miles max , sometimes I do it myself , sometimes the guy's will do it for me , just depends whats going on when they need changed , they all get check over real good while on the rack

I've been experimenting a lot with bass strings, but I'm a bad enough guitar player that I don't reach the full potential of cheap Ernie Ball and GHS strings. I went over to heavy guage jazz flats on my old 1980-ish Epiphone before I got into G&Ls, and loved the feel of the wound G. Then again, I play mostly chords and chord melodies so that worked well for my style. If I had a newer G&L guitar with a thick neck I would seriously consider putting heavy flats on it. They just wouldn't feel right on my slender Leo-era necks, though.

My most recent string experiment was to order a couple of sets of quarter rounds to try on my El Toro and Interceptor, and some La Bella tape wounds to put on one of the SBs. I absolutely hate the first set of quarter rounds on the El Toro, and haven't even bothered to try the second set on the Interceptor yet. I decided to string the '86 SB-1 with flats, and try flats on the El Toro as well. I was feeling cheap and had Guitar Center do a price match on a couple of sets of GHS Chrome flats in two different (light and regular), but now I'm thinking of returning them and pulling the trigger on some La Bella Deep Talkin' flats instead. I figure there's no point in spending the couple of years it would take them to wear out wishing I had that slightly better tone and feel I get with the La Bellas.

I haven't gone the boutique route with amps yet. I have been happy for thirty years with my '82 Fender Bassman Ten on guitar and bass, and have used a Blues Junior for the past couple of years for lugging from room to room in the house. I was completely happy with the Blues Junior until I tried it with a Sonic Stomp. It sounded so much better that now I'm wondering what a higher end amp would be like in comparison. On bass, I'm completely satisfied with the B-15. For what it does, it would blow away any boutique bass amp that went up against it. It probably isn't great for "modern" flashy playing, but it set the standard for just about any "old-school" sound.

I don't do my own oil changes on my VW diesel or my wife's Volvo. I prefer to support a wonderful neighborhood garage instead. The Volvo gets fresh oil every 3K miles, but the diesel is only supposed to get changes at 10K miles. VW recommends against any shorter interval.

Ken

I've had wound G's on my shorter scale guitars before and liked the sound, but went back to unwound in the interests of playability. Like Ken said, big heavy strings would feel funny to me on slender G&L necks. 11's are the limit for me.

I've never owned a boutique amp, but have played through some BadCats at a local store. The sales guy was in raptures about them, but I plugged into a stock Chinese Vox AC30 straight after and much preferred the big 3D Vox sound. I'm guessing what you pay for in boutique amps is build quality rather than sound quality. The boutique amps will likely still be going strong years after the Chinese Vox bites the dust.

I don't change the oil in my car, though I have done in the past. I get a local garage to do it at the recommended 10 thousand km interval. As an auto repair professional, do you think modern synthetic oils need to be changed more frequently than the usual 10 thousand kms?

Strings? I like the 10's G&L's comes from the factory with. I used to play 9's and sometimes 8's. I play differently with 10's and it is how I prefer things nowadays.

Initially, boutique was trying to be what standard was years ago. So, yes, it is overrated especially when people, both builders and buyers, misunderstand believing it is something unique rather than quality and reliability vs. homogenized cheaply manufactured junk.

Never have changed my own oil. I detest working on cars while I think of good mechanics as rock stars. I bought my current car brand new and was prompt getting to the dealership for scheduled services. I went with everything the service tech recommended each time. This was until about 110,000 miles. Then I moved and my commute was reduced to 10-15 minutes @ 3.5 miles to work and back (7 miles round trip) with an occasional 50-100 mile trip. Now I miss the scheduled dates for each service all of the time. I never have the accumulated miles by the date. I know time is just as important but I still miss the date by months. It is shameful. I should just end myself here and now.

I use a string set with a wound G now.

I love it

Good morning Steve. I have been using D'Addarios for some time. I prefer 10-46 but have used 9s on some of the Fenders. The 9's are a bit rubbery to me and I prefer the solid feel of the 10's. For bass strings, I used to play flatwounds on my basses to prevent buzzing. They are a bit dull for me and I am back to D'Addarios wound and just pick up my fingers a bit more to avoid the buzz.

I have played some boutiques at AGB and haven't found anything better than my Fender with the 15 JBL.I know amps are subjective as each person may be looking for something differentbut I prefer my Fender clean sound and the reverb is super.

I currently have semi synthetic in my T&C and with mostly highway mile this time I will run it 5k. I usually go 4k. With the fuel injection systems we don't have the amount of contaminants that we used to have. I used to do all my own service work but I do now have oil changes done. They are cheap as they try to find other things to do. Last time in they told me my tires were unsafe, The throttle body intake and injectors needed to be cleaned and the power steering fluid needed to be changed. My tires still have 20 to 30 k left in them. It was a tire store who did the change. -- Darwin

I typically play with 9's but I've only been playing for a year. The stock 10's that came on my new G&L are as exotic as I've gotten in that department. It's probably about time I start experimenting with what's out there.

I have a soft spot for the vintage amps, my favorite amp I've played is my brother's '65ish Dual Showman. I have this dream that I'm going to find a 60s Twin Reverb for pennies on the dollar at a Craigslist estate sale with a someone who doesn't know what they're sitting on. Well, hopefully not actually sitting on...

My oil change rule is at the dealer until the warranty is up, and then I do it myself.

lunch: nothing special from the local deli..

strings: i pretty use ernie ball "power slinky" (.11-.48 iirc) but I've never tried a wound g. of late I've been thinking I should experiment more with string brand and gauge. It is probably the second most important aspect of the sound.

amps: I really doubt I'll ever own a true boutique amp. I just don't fancy myself that much a guitar sophisticate. Maybe because I'm still relatively new, but I honestly don't hear so much difference that the price tags are justified.

car: I used to change my own, nowadays I just take it by a local shop. Its just way to easy. I'm terrible about sticking to a schedule with it. I've consistently gone way past the recommended 3k miles but my car is happily approaching the 200k mark. Its a personal goal of mine to get it to 200k before I stop driving it.

I'm guessing what you pay for in boutique amps is build quality rather than sound quality. The boutique amps will likely still be going strong years after the Chinese Vox bites the dust.

that's a excellent way of putting it to words ..... and makes sense

I've owned some great vintage amps, both Fender and Marshall, but I feel like I really found my soul-mate in Mesa. Are Mesas boutique?

I used to change my own oil but quit doing it in 2001. I usually go 3-4K. I prefer Castrol...GTX is good, but if I could afford it I would use synthetic.

I like the tone of a wound G for jazz, but all my electrics use a plain G.

Bill

Lunch- I had Chinese food today- Shrimp and brocolli, very good

Wound g strings- I have one on my old Guild, but it is flatwound.

Oil- I still change my own oil. I've let it go longer since I use synthetic oil. I go about 5-7k miles before changing it.

Boutique amps- I own several old Fender guitar amps- a '65 Showman with a 15" cabinet and my Ampeg B-15 and a B-18 bass amps. So I kinda revel in the real thing when I want tubes- I got 'em. I also have a blues Jr. and a Mesa boogie Mark III.