Lunch report, December 3, 2010: Friday On My Mind

[yowhatsshakin]

Hi gang,

Didn't have a lot of time yesterday write a response to your reactions. But thanks again. Many of the songs I didn't know, but they were all worthy. David Gilmour's solo on 'Comfortably Numb' was indeed another solo that stopped me in my tracks. Anyway, the first order of the day is the nomination for next week Lunch Reporter. The lucky winner of my completely unscientific drawing is: ... sickbutnottired! And you know what, he already gracefully accepted! Thanks Jeremy!

Second agenda item is ...
Lunch
We have a company party with all people of what is called 'The Studio' at PopCap. These are all the people that create, write, develop, perfect, and bring you our fun games. So lunch will be provided. Don't know what it is yet, but I do know I don't have to worry about food. Then in the early afternoon we will all be heading out to 'The Garage', a pool hall/bowling lane on Capitol Hill.

Third agenda item will be
Non G&L related
Because I reacted somewhat late on his e-mail, initially Craig had announced that this week was Open Mic. But I did offer to take next week. My Monday story I had ready to go. Monday the 6th is St. Nicolas Day and the Dutch have a 'rich' St. Nicolas tradition. I think the 'clearest' explanation of how St Nicolas works on The Netherlands was provided by, of all people, David Sedaris who in his story Six to Eight Black Men exposed all the silliness. When you follow the link, you can either read the story, or hit the play button in the upper left corner to have David read the story to you. Great fun! It is now hard to believe that as a kid you believed this man was for real. A steamboat from Madrid, Spain? They have a great harbor there

The LR will not be complete without something
G&L related
For many years, G&L not only sold tolex hard-shell cases in their Online Store. They also had tweed cases available. I wish I had bought one for my Butterscotch ASAT Classic when I ordered it. For my third guitar, a George Fullerton, I spent the extra charge for a tweed case. Two of my guitars are still stored in a thermoplastic case and all others have a tolex case, But I still wish I had bought a tweed case from the Online Store before they ran out of stock and never offered them again. I've scoured the web trying to find one and even bought a Chinese made tweed case. But they are too angular and just not as sturdy as the G&G's. I've called many a dealer to see if they could order one but to no avail. So I'll use the last LR of this week to issue a heartfelt plea to bring back the tweed case in the Online Store. I mean, look how beautiful that case is:




Bonus
Name the artists referred to in the titles of the this weeks Lunch Reports. The first one to give the right answer wins a pat on the shoulder and the awareness of being the first one to know all the answers! Most of them are gimme's but heck ...

Talk to you later,

- Jos

Edit: fix image link after album was lost.

[zombywoof]

Da' wife and I actually went out to lunch today - one of our favorite little local spots - Annie's. I had the chcken salad and cheesy potato soup.

Cases - yup - I still like the old black tolex case. The tweed is cool but I will always associate it with Fender just as I associate the brown Lifton cases with Gibson.

When I was first starting out in my field of choice many decades ago I worked for an historic site - Van Cortlandt Manor in the Hudson Valley. Every year we would tell the tale of Sinterklass and get the beehive oven going to bake some pepernoten and other traditional goodies.

Good LR Week Hoss, Thanks.

[Craig]

Thanks for being Lunch Reporter this week on such short notice

Your bonus question is quite "easy" ...

"The Easybeats"

I'd like to add to your case discussion with this link to the Gallery:
Instrument Cases

And the new case thread I posted when G&L made their announcement earlier this year. I plan on getting some photos of these new cases to add to the Gallery
on my next visit to the factory, hopefully this month.

[sirmyghin]

I like tolex cases, they are the most durable, and dang the one G&L sells is a good case. Thermoplast cases are alright, permitting they are form fitted, unlike the ones Carvin sells with their guitars. I love the fitted cases G&L sells, and to me the fit is more important than the type of material on the outside. I say tolex and wood are probably the most durable though.

That Christmas story might be one of the more bizarre, thanks for sharing Jos.

[darwinohm]

Yow, thanks for the great week! Good questions for discussion all week.

Favorite cases. I guess that I some of most types. The Tweed hands down for looks. They only continue to look good if you don't use them. The Tolex that came with the F-100 return is very nice. I also have an Army Green tweed case for one of my basses. The Thermoplastic cases are the most durable in my opinion for general use. I was fortunate 2 weeks ago when the fellow I traded amps with showed up with a Strat in a pristine mid 90s Fender Plus case. The original store stickers were in the case. They are very hard to find. I mentioned that I would love to have that case. He called back the next day and said he would trade that for a Fender Tweed case. This old boy hasn't moved that fast in a long time. I now have a Plus case for my pristine 88 Srat Plus. I have the Original Plus case for my Tele Plus. I have two White Legacys that came with G&L gig bags. They are a fine gig bag and I like them. But, there isn't much that I don't like!!

I think the fitted case is the best of all worlds for the person who moves them around.

I saw an ad on the local CL this morning for an ASAT at Pawn America. I went and looked at it. It was a 3 bolt Special in metalflake Purple. It was double bound and extremely clean but it had a nasty chip on the lower front of the body. They were asking $800. If it hadn't been for the chip I would have been doing some heavy duty negotiating. I think there price is quite high. It did have the original case. It saved me a lot of explaining to Ginny. It is sad to see that someone had to pawn an instrument like this which had obviously had some decent care other than the chip Thanks again for the interesting Yow.--Darwin

[Madcity Fats]

The only recent era G&L cases I have experience with are the molded plastic variety. The most recent version of those (made by Gator, I believe) was a huge improvement over the older kind, but I still prefer the early era tolex cases which were nicely padded to protect the models they accompanied (though perhaps not "form fitting," per se). I like that G&L is returning to the form fitting tolex variety for its US instruments.

I have a couple of nice leather, heavily padded gig bags I typically use to haul basses to gigs and practice, just because I like the convenience of them. But my preference for a "home" for any of my instruments is tolex over plastic, any day of the week. Never knew G&L had been in the business of tweed cases. I agree, that looks pretty sweet, albeit a bit generic as the interior goes.

[sickbutnottired]

lunch, had a brew and burgher with the wife, it was fun.

Cases, I don't have much experience with the G&L supplied cases. I had a molded case with a ASAT Classic I sold. I have a G&G tolex that came with my ASAT Deluxe. It is solid. I love that they are going to a fitted case, though. I wonder if I can buy one of the F-100 ones for my OLD f-100? We'll see, but I carry one guitar a lot. And having a fitted ASAT case that would protect against a drop better would be great.

Great discussions this week. hopefully we can find something to discuss next!

[blargfromouterspace]

That Six to Eight Black Men story is great - what a fantastic custom, I'll have to go and see it one day! In Australia we just change the words of well known carols to have a more Australian theme. Boring.... I wish our Santa was as bad ass as Dutch Santa.

Tweed cases do look nice, but as Darwin has already pointed out, once you start taking them out of them house they get grimy quick. I narrowly missed out on one of the new style fitted cases, but the tolex ones I have for two of my ASATs are good sturdy cases. Heavy too. The old molded cases are far, far lighter and also very good. I'd really like a combination of the two.....

Great week Jos!

[standards guy]

For local gigs I actually prefer a Carvin gig bag I have so I can bring extra stuff. The G&L (SKB?) plastic case that came with my S500 offers much better protection for out of town or even in the house, but everything I put in it falls out at inconvenient times (like trying to get going on a gig).

I love the look of tweed cases, and have had a couple over the years, but they sure take up a lot of room in a packed car and/or block rear view vision if I stash them standing up behind the driver's seat.

Over the years I've learned to be pretty careful with gig bags so have never acquired a nice neck dent or anything. Besides my fakebook fits in there.

[willross]

I really like Calton cases. I've have a 59' LP sleeping in one right now. Otherwise, I have a few custom TKL's that they don't make anymore...Boo!

BTW, this is my first post with my iPad. The page is slightly irregular, but I'll deal.


Cheers,

Will

* the prosilver2 works better.

[zapcosongs]

Wow. That Fullerton is something. A thing of beauty for sure! Great week! - ed

[yowhatsshakin]

Every year we would tell the tale of Sinterklass and get the beehive oven going to bake some pepernoten and other traditional goodies.

Hope my wife doesn't read this because she would nbe on your case! She loves 'pepernoten'. Some friends just got back from the Netehrlands with about 2 lbs of that stuff for her, so I guess she has enough supplies to last about a weekend! But if that's not the case we have to get all the way out to Poulsbo by car and ferry to score a batch.

- Jos

[yowhatsshakin]

Thanks for being Lunch Reporter this week on such short notice

No prob!

Your bonus question is quite "easy" ... "The Easybeats"

Well, that's just Friday what about the other days?

- Jos

[yowhatsshakin]

Never knew G&L had been in the business of tweed cases.

G&L actually has their cases made by G&G. I don't know what year they started to have a G&L logo under the handle bar; not all cases have one especially the older case. See Craig's link to the gallery provided above. The only exception I know of a non-G&G case being used are the ones provided with the ASAT '50 and Blues Boy commissioned by Buffalo Brothers. These cases were made by TLK and pictures if these so-called 'faux tweed' are also available in the registry.

- Jos

[sirmyghin]

For you tweed heads, I have heard spraying tweed cases with clear coat (5-6 coats) can really toughen them and protect from grimey. Seen a few carvin guys do it.

[yowhatsshakin]

... I now have a Plus case for my pristine 88 Srat Plus. I have the Original Plus case for my Tele Plus.

That is quite a score. Not that this applies that literally to these models, but a vintage Burst LP without an OHSC is worth about $3k less according to the latest Vintage Guitar Price Guide. That's a $3K case right there! No wonder they ask so much money on DaBay for these kind of cases. So to have a 'complete' package of an original case with the guitar is definitely worth something.

This also reminds me of a story Tim Buffalo Brothers told me when he gave me some more background info on my ASAT '50 #1. He originally had intended these models to be issued with a tweed thermometer case, just like the early Fenders. Unfortunately, these cases could not be produced in time at the right price and that's why they came in a TKL 'faux tweed' case. Would have been very cool though!

- Jos

[yowhatsshakin]

For you tweed heads, I have heard spraying tweed cases with clear coat (5-6 coats) can really toughen them and protect from grimey. Seen a few carvin guys do it.

Good tip!

That Christmas story might be one of the more bizarre, thanks for sharing Jos.

That Six to Eight Black Men story is great - what a fantastic custom, I'll have to go and see it one day!

And strangely enough not too far from the truth as I perceived and experienced it in my youth. My direct family definitely used the 'coal in your shoe' and 'be captured by Black Pete to be taken to Spain and processed into cookies' threads in the days. When you're 7 or older and 'know' you laugh about it. But it is serious business when you are young and impressionable. Guess it is our equivalent of the 'Boogie Man'.

- Jos

[yowhatsshakin]

... Over the years I've learned to be pretty careful with gig bags so have never acquired a nice neck dent or anything.

It is true that technology used in the production of current gig bags is so much better than say 30 years ago. I remember that my very first electric, a Hondo LP rip off I got in '78, came in a gig back with walls so thin that the pair of socks I currently wear are even thicker! And when I really had to schlepp that thing around to play gigs with the choir band, changing to a cardboard 'hard-shell' case was already an improvement. But now I know more about cases it is hilarious to compare the card box case I keep my Ibanez AW-25 12-string with the TKL arched case my 2 Collings acoustics standing next to it. I better not step on one of them

- Jos

[yowhatsshakin]

BTW, this is my first post with my iPad. The page is slightly irregular, but I'll deal.

Coming through loud and clear!

Yes, and for the real serious, touring musician, getting Carlton cases would be a highly recommended way to go. There was a rather intersting comparison between 5 brands of high-end cases in Acoustic Guitar a couple of months ago. Their testing methods were thorough: measuring bending moments and water-tightness among them. But one thing all had in common was that they were expensive. I mean for some of them, I could buy another second-hand ASAT in a tolex case, and given a choice ...

BTW Will, given one of my responses above, do you still have the OSHC of your '59 LP?

- Jos

[standards guy]

...a cardboard 'hard-shell' case was already an improvement...

I remember those!

I had a '61 J-45 Gibson that came with a "Kivverboard" case, standard, for $165 (list price was $175 and "case" such as it was- extra).

Gawd, I'm such a geezer.

[willross]

BTW Will, given one of my responses above, do you still have the OSHC of your '59 LP?

- Jos

Actually, when I got that one it was in a gig bag. The case is my favorite combo; dark gray w/ vintage green interior.


Cheers,

Will

[Craig]

Thanks for being Lunch Reporter this week on such short notice

No prob!

Your bonus question is quite "easy" ... "The Easybeats"

Well, that's just Friday what about the other days?

- Jos

Oops thought you were just referring to today only. Monday is The Mamas and Papas, Tuesday is the The Rolling Stones, Wednesday is The Guess Who, Thursday is John Mayer and Friday is The Easybeats.

How'd I do?

[yowhatsshakin]

Oops thought you were just referring to today only. Monday is The Mamas and Papas, Tuesday is the The Rolling Stones, Wednesday is The Guess Who, Thursday is John Mayer and Friday is The Easybeats.

How'd I do?

Meatloaf sang two out of three ain't bad so I would mark 5 of 5 outstanding! And you're still the 1st submission even at the end of the day

- Jos

[RickT]

I use gig bags for my solid body guitars. I've got a leather reunion blues gig bag that houses my Grosh Retro Classic and I've got two Levy canvas and leather trim gig bags to transport my G&Ls to the gig. I keep the hollow body guitars in the hard shell cases. The PRS case is suede covered, which is just about the most useless material to use while the Hamer case is your standard tolex covered case.

RickT