Lunch today will be a stop at a DQ as Ginny and I are heading "up nort" as they say. Any questions from today will be responded to on Sunday when we return.
I gathered the crew last evening for a group photo and here is our G&L family:
From left to right is:
L 2000, Twin Vintage White Legacys, Mahogany BB, F-100 Return, CAR Legacy, ASAT Classic S, ASAT Z-3, Legacy and a Tribute ASAT Special.
Back to some basics as to why I like G&L. I got back into guitar in 2004 after a 40 year absence. By 2006 I had four Fenders, Strats,Tele, and JB, all American Deluxe. I continued to buy Fenders and some other brands. In the summer of 2007, I saw a for trade ad on CL. This guy had a 2006 Transparent Red Legacy HB. We traded even up and he got my Natural 1997 American Tele as he wanted an ASAT/Tele. He couldn't find an ASAT locally from a private party. Both guitars were in pristine condition and we were both winners. I did a setup when I got it home and it was love at first sight. I became serious about collecting guitars and we now have a family of over 40. There are Gibson, Ovation, Fender Hamer, PRS, Music Man and Gretschs in this family and a quarter of them are G&L. My Fender share has dropped. Why? Value and quality of G&L second to none. I doubt that newer Fenders will be collectable. Thumbs mentioned the other day that he thinks quality at G&L is better that ever. I agree. The White Twin Legacys were a value package of some type by G&L and came with gig bags. They are no different that the other American G&Ls that I have, in fact, they have slightly figured gloss necks. and I believe they are 2007 vintage. Even the standard tuners are designed to lower the string to the headstock. That is a Leo design. I have locking tuners on all of them but they are a value no matter how you cut it. Have I said enough about the woods this week??????? The list goes on.
I would like to see some changes. I think a perfect design would be to put a saddle lock system on the DF vibrato. I have had string buss on several guitars, mostly Strats and the high E string is most common. Buzz caused by saddles not being tight together, but close. Do not confuse this with fret problems. I have corrected this with shims between the saddles. Look at any American Fender Strat Hss at your local GC and you will the string alignment over the humbucker is bad. I correct this with shims. If there were a saddle lock it would really complete the job. When I bought my L-2000 the Saddle Lock screw was backed way out. Tightening it changed the alingnment of all the saddles. I think the DF should have a lock. There isn't much else I would mess with on a G&L. Strap locks on these beauties is a must. I use Schallers and I have Ernie Ball straplocks on my Stingray 5. I caught the body as it fell because the lock was not set properly. I now double check it every time I use it. Schallers will never fail like that. What are your thoughts on these items? Straplocks would not add that much to the cost of the guitar. The only other change I would make is to become an adoptive parent to some I have seen here this week. Boy,would I love to be a factory dude building these beauties.
I have enjoyed being the LR this week. Some thoughts on Lunch Reports. It seems like most of them recently have been getting anywhere from 60 to close to 200 hits a day. Someone is looking at them. Therefore they are serving a purpose. It is easy to browse and takes a lot more time to respond. Responses seem to be anywhere from 6, 8 a day to as high as in the 20s. It does take time to do the LR. I was using Imageshack to post my photos and I had so many problems that on Wednesday I signed up on Photobucket. That got me through the week. I prepare the report the evening before, save it, and post it in the morning. My first stint was last March just after the new system was up. After doing it once, I had high expectations for myself if I were ever chosen again. My intent was to post MP3 tracks from our latest CD each day. I failed as I discovered that I will have to get the license for MP3 in Pro Tools. I will do that and I think I am now at a point where I may be able to figure out how to post an MP3 track. I find that most of you are way ahead of me in using this forum. But it is rewarding as I learn it and I continue to learn as I use this system. I am better in the school of hard knocks that classroom training. I have had no training in Pro Tools other that doing it. After a couple of CDs I have learned a lot. So, if I had not had the opportunity to be the LR this week, there are many beauties out there that we may not have seen. Also there were some pretty darn cool stories from many of you. Now here is the punch line, I will be fully retired in about a week. So, lets keep this thing going so I can sit here every day and drool over beautiful guitars, cool information and a tale or two. Thursday we really had an abundance of Red beauties to enhance the autum colors. Low-Ender day was hard to top.
I would like to close this week with one more thought. I see guys setting up guitars at the GC all the time. They take the guitar form the customer, look down the neck, made an adjustment to the truss rod, play a few hot licks and hand it back and say, "Try this". The customer walks out thinking they did something amazing to the guitar. I happen to have a Stew Mac set up kit, and for a proper setup, you do need some setup tools. My point is that it is all logic and with the help of others on this board you may be amazed at what you can do and how well it works for you. GPD on this board has a setup procedure documented that works extremely well and it clearly explained. I am finding the Bass Forum to be full of shared knowledge. There probably isn't any guitar problem this board couldn't solve. I'm not sure I would go to them for relationship issues with the misses. That could be more trouble! Thanks for having me this week and I am leaving you with a picture of our band (OTD and we represent Social Security very well).
and a picture of Magic doing a final inspection of the Z-3.
Have a great weekend everyone!-- Darwin
