Lunch Report Monday, March 28th

[mikenov]

Good morning folks, or good day depending.
First, thanks for having me. I am new to the G&L Forum but a huge fan of the guitars. My #1 is an ASAT Special. Just sounds and plays awesome no matter what.
So, I am currently on vacation, stealing my internet from a hotel down the way on Tybee Island, Ga. Lunch is going to consist of some eggs, bacon, coffee, and maybe some more eggs. We just got back from the Breakfast club and the sign there said,
"Now serving:
Poptarts in your kitchen, were closed."
G&L topic - I have a Blue Legacy that someone "upgraded" by putting a JB2 in the bridge.
Question, is it a G&L without the G&L pickups?
I have always thought the thing that makes G&L's special is the custom pickups but on the legacy they are pretty traditional. What do you think?

General topic - We had a power outage last night. Lots of storms running through Georgia right now. Is a stormy day at the beach still considered a day at the beach?
Looking forward to meeting everyone and hearing your thoughts.
Thanks,
-Mike

[astutzmann]

Hi Mike and welcome. Good start!

I have a legacy with a DiMarzio in the bridge. I love it, gives the bridge extra bite and sounds great in the 4 position with the middle brought in.

Still a G&L in my mind! I have the old G&L bridge pickup as well, need to find something to do with it.

I spent last march in florida, weather was horrible, so this march I stayed up north. They are having a great march and I am missing it. Sitting at 10 degrees F and snow on the ground is not good. So, a bad day at the beach, beats a day at home, anytime!

[astutzmann]

Hi Mike and welcome. Good start!

I have a legacy with a DiMarzio in the bridge. I love it, gives the bridge extra bite and sounds great in the 4 position with the middle brought in.

Still a G&L in my mind! I have the old G&L bridge pickup as well, need to find something to do with it.

I spent last march in florida, weather was horrible, so this march I stayed up north. They are having a great march and I am missing it. Sitting at 10 degrees F and snow on the ground is not good. So, a bad day at the beach, beats a day at home, anytime!

[astutzmann]

Hi Mike and welcome. Good start!

I have a legacy with a DiMarzio in the bridge. I love it, gives the bridge extra bite and sounds great in the 4 position with the middle brought in.

Still a G&L in my mind! I have the old G&L bridge pickup as well, need to find something to do with it.

I spent last march in florida, weather was horrible, so this march I stayed up north. They are having a great march and I am missing it. Sitting at 10 degrees F and snow on the ground is not good. So, a bad day at the beach, beats a day at home, anytime!

[astutzmann]

Hi Mike and welcome. Good start!

I have a legacy with a DiMarzio in the bridge. I love it, gives the bridge extra bite and sounds great in the 4 position with the middle brought in.

Still a G&L in my mind! I have the old G&L bridge pickup as well, need to find something to do with it.

I spent last march in florida, weather was horrible, so this march I stayed up north. They are having a great march and I am missing it. Sitting at 10 degrees F and snow on the ground is not good. So, a bad day at the beach, beats a day at home, anytime!

[astutzmann]

Hi Mike and welcome. Good start!

I have a legacy with a DiMarzio in the bridge. I love it, gives the bridge extra bite and sounds great in the 4 position with the middle brought in.

Still a G&L in my mind! I have the old G&L bridge pickup as well, need to find something to do with it.

I spent last march in florida, weather was horrible, so this march I stayed up north. They are having a great march and I am missing it. Sitting at 10 degrees F and snow on the ground is not good. So, a bad day at the beach, beats a day at home, anytime!

[darwinohm]

MIke, welcome as the lunch reporter for the week. You are lucky to be on vacation although I hope the weather is vacation type weather. It is sunny but cool in Minnesota and I am on vacation every day regardless of the weather.

You can have a great lunch when they open. I am going to treat Ginny to lunch today. We have not yet decided where to go, although I suggested Maple Grove. She picked up on that right away as that is where AB&G is located and she has suggested that I stay out of there.

Mods do not change the fact that they are G&L. I have not changed any pickups but have made some mods that are not reversible. It is always a risk but, if done well, can even increase the value of a guitar. G&L does have outstanding pickups. Leo was into electronics.

I would think that any day on the beach is a good day! The lakes will be open here in about a month.-- Darwin

[astutzmann]

sorry for all the posts, am having issues with the website, anyone else getting an annoying error of too many logins?

[Halowords]

Hey Mike! I hope you enjoy your vacation and have fun with the Weekly Lunch Reporter posts. I enjoyed doing them. Anyway.

Lunch is going to consist of some eggs, bacon, coffee, and maybe some more eggs. We just got back from the Breakfast club and the sign there said,
"Now serving:
Poptarts in your kitchen, were closed."

For lunch I want four whole fried chickens and a Coke. I'll probably settle for some barbecued pork left over from a baby shower my wife threw for a friend. That and some passing Blues Brothers references.

G&L topic - I have a Blue Legacy that someone "upgraded" by putting a JB2 in the bridge.
Question, is it a G&L without the G&L pickups?

I'd say so. However, more so than a lot of brands and actually similar to Carvin, the pickups seem to be a defining trait of G&L's. However, G&L seems to me to be a result of Leo's continued vision. Not JUST the electronics (although he was a notorious electronics tinkerer, correct?), but also the further tweaking of the designs he started at Fender and arguably finalized with G&L.

Speaking of G&L pickups, the Z-style pickups seem to be something special and reasonably unique in design. I would think changing/removing those would not change them from being a "true" G&L, but would seem to be more fundamental since it'd have to change the design. I'd be curious how different those function compared to MFDs or standard single-coils.

General topic - We had a power outage last night. Lots of storms running through Georgia right now. Is a stormy day at the beach still considered a day at the beach?

I got one for you. Is it still considered Spring if you have a two-day ice storm the first week of the new season?

-Cheers

[mikenov]

Breaking News....
Bacon cooked
Pancakes cooking. Must... resist... bacon...
Thinking about making a guitar and bongo raid on our buddies house and have an afternoon cloudy day jam.
Vacation rocks.

[Dave_P]

Hey Mike! welcome! Man I could really use a vacation, looking like August before I'll get a proper one though.

If you ask me I prefer a stormy day at the beach to a hot one, a lot less people and I always enjoy the waves

I'd say it's still a G&L without the pickups. The MFD's are part of the equation, but the build quality, woods, and attention to detail are the majority of it. The legacy has vintage voiced alnico pickups which are far from exclusive to G&L, so if you like the JB2 I say keep it

-Dave

[BadJaxx]

yeah, rub it in that you're on vacation, knowing most of us are stuck at work...

once you changed the pickup, it's not a G&L anymore...just a worthless jumble...since i'm such a nice guy, i'll give ya $50 for it so you can start saving up for another one...

probably a candy bar for lunch....

P.S. --typical Canadian repeating themself over and over, eh?

[KennyE]

Hey Mike, glad you made it over!

Lunch today was a package of cheese/peanut butter crackers. Oh ... so ... yummy!

G&L still a G&L without G&L pickups? I certainly hope so. I bought a rather cool looking Legacy, mostly for the neck. But because I wanted another G&L. Played this thing for a good month or more before getting curious about the pickups. Uh .... dude had swapped them out for .... mmmm, NOT G&L pickups. I kept the bridge HB (sounds surprisingly good split!) and stuck two custom winds I had in the neck/mid. Still a Legacy to me.

Stormy Beach? Kinda like "Any day away from work is a good day" sort of scenario to me.

[sickbutnottired]

Welcome to the board!

Lunch - Left over Gen Tso's chicken & fried rice.

Swapping out the pickups on a G&L? heck yea it's still a G&L. Did they improve it? Hard to say might have, might not have...In my opinion lot's of folk get into modding for the sake of modding or being different. So I think a lot of mods get made without improving the instrument...to each his own. I need to spend that time practicing!

A stormy day at the beach is all what you make of it...and a raid to get some noise makers sounds like your on the right track!

jeremy

[supereiv]

Stormy Beach? Kinda like "Any day away from work is a good day" sort of scenario to me.

it sure is here too

My legacy special is no more special, mmh... actually is has dimarzios area's, and it sounds like a big guitar plenty of overtones and sustain and... and...and... so does that define a G&L ? listening to my last G&L aka my asat classic custom, i'd say yeah baby !! it's still is a G&L despite the swap !
the major point for me is that no matter what, I have to force theses guitars to sound bad !

[repoman]

I think you can safely still call the Legacy a G&L. Heck lots of folks swap pickups. Just don't tell Leo.

A rainy day at the beach...isn't that like the bumper sticker "A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work" ?


Jeff

[mikenov]

BadJaxx - Pm me. Your right. It's junk. Send the $50 and I will ship it out. : )
Of course it's still a G&L right? Just testing.
One thing about being away for a week from guitars. You sure miss em.

[blargfromouterspace]

Hi Mike, and well done for stepping up to LR duties.

A Day At The Beach: Sounds like a Queen album... You can have a day there if its stormy. I surfed when I was in high school and we spent plenty of stormy days at the beach. This is the beach we'd always go to




That's about as crowded as it gets there too - really. Western Australia has the best beaches I've seen. I miss them a lot. They're a bit crap in Melbourne.



G&L Pickups: . On a Legacy I think you can put whatever pickups you want in it as they are 'normal' pickups. If we talk about guitars with the MFD / Z coil then it maybe slightly less of a G&L, but a G&L nonetheless. I experimented with different pickups in my Classics and have gone back to the MFDs. They're to good to replace.

[Philby]

Hi Mike,

Lunch today is a wholegrain bread sandwich with smoked chicken, cucumber, field tomatoes, cheese and dijonnaise dressing.

G&L Pickups: I think a Legacy with different pickups is still largely a G&L, but any of the Z-style or MFD equipped instruments would lose some of their G&L mojo with replacement pickups.

Beaches: A stormy day at the beach is fine with me, especially if I've got my camera close at hand. There's something about beaches and storms that makes for awesome, moody images. And there's been no lack of storms this past summer that's fer sure........

I agree with Jamie that, on an Australia-wide scale, Melbourne beaches are a bit crap. There are some excellent surfing beaches about an hour down the coast though.

This was my local beach when I was young and I see it's still overrun with people (apologies to Rhana Griffin for nicking your photo ).

I'm heading down there with the family for a week this Thursday. I hope the weather holds out!

[blargfromouterspace]

Phil - Where is that? I need a good beach to go to!

[Philby]

Jamie - it's Sisters Beach, NW Tasmania, a 45 minute flight due south of here. Or a long swim......

Have you been to Rye, Gunnamatta and some of the ocean beaches on the Mornington Peninsula? They're pretty nice spots. Not too overpopulated either. There's a mineral day spa complex down there which might score you enough points with your girlfriend to sneak another G&L through the door.

[blargfromouterspace]

Phil: Probably a bit far away for a quick trip then! I've been to Rye, it is very nice there. Thing is it's such a long drive away that by the time you get home on a hot day you need to go for a swim again.... The mineral spa idea might just work - she's been stressed out recently and I still haven't go that Special/SC2/Z3......

[Philby]

Jamie,

Half Moon Bay / Red Bluff are good suburban beaches, and not too far away. They're down in Black Rock.

We can't have you without a local beach mate

[sirmyghin]

Seems I am in with the Aussies, (scary place to be) Z coils and MFDs make a G&L, but a legacy, that is fair game for modding the pickups up (I am sure Leo would encourage modding too). I don't think I would be caught dead replacing the pickups in my special, but a legacy I very well might, depends how they got along with me.

[sam]

Hey Mike,

Thanks for jumping in this week. Bummer about the weather on Tybee Island. I used to live on Wilmington Island (stones throw from Tybee) and hung out at TYB many hours. Lived there before the pier was built, nice addition.

G&L topic - Question, is it a G&L without the G&L pickups?
I hope so, my ASAT Deluxe p-ups were changed. Those don't have Leo designed p-ups so that does not "un G&L" too much. I agree with others that there are many facets that make up a G&L guitar and changing p-ups doesn't take away the G&L vibe. However, take away Leo design, MFD's especially, and some of the G&L package seems to be missing. Imagine a Broadcaster with replacement p-ups or a Z3 with no Z-coils.

General topic - Is a stormy day at the beach still considered a day at the beach?
Any day at the beach is a day at the beach. When it rains just plug in and play!

[cmguitar]

Lunch- Leftover Popeye's fried chicken- I was in the office untill 9 pm doing taxes to send to the c.p.a. by Thursday.

G&L question - I wonder how my Legacy and ASAT III with a set of RD,Rio Grande or Van Zandts in it. but it is not a pressing issue with me.
I have no reason to change I like G&L Alinicos and MFD pickups just fine.My fender has a SD Pearly Gates Plus, but its factory installed too.

I know Rio Grande makes replacement G&L pickups but I never hear too much about them I know there Tele and Strat and humbuckers pickups are killer.

Vacation! Whats That!!!


Chet

[yowhatsshakin]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for picking up LR duties. Much appreciated.

Lunch: Thai monday. Same as always ...

G&L question: I never swapped out pups and I think my ASAT Deluxe had either the SD's swapped out for G&L buckers or the latter came stock. But otherwise, I am sure all my G&L have stock pups. That might be completely boring, were it not for the fact, a true fact one would say in modern day America, that they sound so darn good!

Non G&L question: One of my favorite spots is Kalalock in Olympic National Park along the Pacific Coast. My wife and I have spent many a mid-week and/or long weekend there while the rain came down in buckets. But it is still a nice day at the beach especially when low water and tide pools are out there. Yes, you get soaking wet, but nothing a nice fire in the wood burning stove of bluff cabin can't solve!

- Jos