http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2490
Lunch
Yesterday’s curry had no ill effects, so I must’ve eaten it just in time.
Today is a dreary, drizzly spring day in Melbourne. I’m sitting at my desk eating a variation of Monday’s lunch – 7 grain bread, French Dijon mustard, smoked ham, cheddar cheese, tomatoes and rocket lettuce. My stomach is demanding something heavier, so I’m going down to the Monash university cafeteria to get some hot chips (fries) and chilli salt after this.
Dessert is a banana and a bunch of the largest green grapes I’ve ever seen. My kids love them. They’re from California I believe. I never cease to be amazed at where supermarkets source their produce from, or how it can be profitable to move it over such long distances. Australian grapes are just coming into season now, so the days of the USA grape are numbered until next year.
Do you guys in the US ever see any Australian fresh produce when local stuff is out of season?
G&L Topic
Like most people here, I’ve got more guitars than I really need. Just keeping strings on them is a full time activity. But there’s always nice ones up for sale, and discovering a new guitar is one of life’s guilty pleasures so I always keep my eyes peeled, just in case. You never know when the other 8 are all going to get consumed in a house fire / earthquake / tsunami / [insert unlikely disaster here].
One of the biggest problems in bringing a new guitar home is getting it past the household operations manager (my wife). I know I am definitely not alone here. I’ve read about guys going to extraordinary lengths to sneak a new axe into the house e.g. leaving an upstairs window open and hauling the guitar up with rope.
But it turns out my wife is not resistant to guitars per se, in fact she quite likes them. She is resistant to BORING guitars. ‘Is there any such thing’ I asked? ‘Well yes’, she said. ‘Most of yours are boring’. ‘No way’, I said. ‘Yep’, she said, ‘they’re all dark and woody like furniture. Or they’re red. That’s really boring’.
It’s true. I have mainly sunburst or candy apple red guitars.
So we sat down last night in front of the G&L website and I asked her to identify what is NOT boring and what would be agreeable to her sensitive female aesthetics. I was quite surprised by the results. Note: here is the link to the page we worked from, and I’ve written her comments as we worked from top to bottom.
http://www.glguitars.com/instruments/US ... /index.asp
ASAT Classics – ‘Ooh that one is nice’, she said pointing at the ASAT semi-hollow.
‘Nice shape, nice colour, I like the chrome bits and the colour of this thing (the neck) matches really well. The violin hole is cool too. I’ll have that one’. ‘Not so fast, there’s more’, I said.
ASAT Specials – ‘I don’t like any of these. They’re boring like your guitars. They’re red or furniture (sunburst)’. I have an ASAT special. I guess she doesn’t like it.
ASAT Z-3’s – I was going to skip past these but she stopped me. ‘That one is REALLY nice!’ she said.
‘I don’t like the chrome bit on the end (the B-bender), but all the other chrome is nice and I like the colour. It’s like a hot rod’.
ASAT Deluxes – more furniture. I was starting to get the picture by now.
Comanche – I was going to skip the Comanche’s, but no, 'this one is nice and curvy, it has chrome knobs and I REALLY like the colour’. I should’ve known – it’s the same colour as our car, which my wife also chose.
F-100 = furniture
Invader – she won’t like these I thought. Wrong. ‘This one is quite nice’.
‘Why isn’t it furniture’ I asked? ‘It’s got a different shape that I really like and this bit matches (the headstock). You don’t see orange furniture either’. Fair point.
Legacy – ‘these are a nice shape but I don’t like any of the colours’. I’ve got a lake placid blue S-500. Alas it fails the colour test.
Rampage – ‘it looks like a boot’. End of topic.
S-500 – ‘Are there many more?’. She was texting a friend by now. ‘Just one more’, I said.
SC-2 – ‘Wow. That is beautiful. It’s my favourite colour by far. It is simple and uncomplicated. I like the big black thingies (pickups) and the shape is really balanced. It looks like fun to play’. ‘I’d let you keep that one in the living room’. I’ve never heard those words before. Woo hoo. Imagine that. A guitar in the living room.
I know what my next G&L is going to be!
Perhaps G&L should do a poll of what our wives/girlfriends like best and put up a range of female-preferred axes? The ladies have far more purchasing sway than most guitar makers probably realise. G&L could call it the Iced Vovo range (apologies if you haven’t read Tuesday’s lunch report).
Off Topic
I’ve spent too much time on the G&L topic, so just a few piccies here. Most international guitarists are not aware that Australia has two very respectable guitar makers, Maton and Cole-Clark.
Maton are the oldest and most established, and have made some fine instruments over the decades. You can check them out at this link.
http://www.maton.com.au/
I’ve just discovered they’re only a block away from my house and I never knew! Time to book a factory tour.
This guy briefly played a Maton while his Gretsch was being repaired.
Cole-Clark are a much newer company formed by a couple of guys who used to work at Maton. They make some VERY nice acoustic guitars with great stock pickup systems. You can check them out here.
http://www.coleclarkguitars.com/
They're only a 15 minute drive from my house and I didn't know that either!
They’ve started cranking out electric guitars again after Fender threatened legal action over their first efforts. I’m lucky enough to own one of the ‘lawsuit’ model teles, called an Offender. It’s number 54 of about 100. The stock pickups sucked but the rest of the guitar is awesome.
The strat models were called Defenders. Fender didn’t like their name appearing in Defender or Offender, so Cole-Clark cheekily changed the name from the Offender to the Culprit.
That’s more than enough for today. I’m pooped.
"the Iced Vovo range" - Ha! Pink Sparkle with red pickups should get pretty close. I'm very surprised you managed to get you wife to look at the G&L website if she wont let you keep a guitar in the living room! We always had a guitar in the living room when I was a kid - there still is at my parents house. Oh, and she's wrong about orange furniture - my couch is orange, as orange as that Invader. 
)
We'll cross that bridge when we come to it....or go around it 
