Lunch Report - Friday May 6, 2011

[gitman001]

The Friday Lunch Report – Gig Night Edition

Wow, what a great week, it certainly has flown by….. I have said it before and I will say it again – I can’t thank all of this weeks participants enough, it was a great experience for me reading all the complements and great reply’s from you guys all over the world. I know it probably won’t be the last time as the lunch reporter......

Up next week we will be hangin’ with CGT, my thanks to him for accepting the nomination.

Next order of business, by a final vote of Black 10, Cream 8, The Black pickguard wins and will make its debut on the ASAT semi tonight. I could have really made a strong case for the cream - Ed wanted a second vote, and my wife really liked the cream ( her vote probably really counts for 2 ) but the people have spoken and black it is!

Today’s lunch is back to a sandwich – today is ham, with a chocolate chip granola bar and a banana. I have another day teaching at school but luckily college has rapped up and I have a few hours of downtime before tonight’s gig. I not sure how it is done where you guys are but in my town gigs consist of playing from 10pm to 2am, with tear down after that. I should be good and tired when the kids get me up at 7am Saturday to play!

G&L Content
For this weeks final installment I will show you my 25th Anniversary model. For those who don’t know it, it is all mahogany with rosewood fingerboard and humbucking MFD’s. Of all my G&L’s it is the one that I play the least, I think mostly due to the fact that it is a limited run and I would be super mad if someone at the local bar knocked my mic stand into it (which has happened to my s-500 one night making the 12 fret unplayable for the rest of the gig!). The 25th is probably the most resonant guitar I have ever played – the thing just sings as soon as you strum it. I don’t like teaching on it either - I have a bad habit of flipping guitars over to use as a desk to write out notes, and I just can’t bring myself to do it with this guitar.

Here are some pics



So on to this weeks question. By now I’m sure everyone has seen more than enough of my playing to know that I am a rock guitar player at heart. I love a loud amp with a little crunch. No effects. No reverb. So my question to you is what kind of player are you at heart with your G&L? No doubt we are all versatile… I love blues and love the complexity of a good jazz chart anyday, but deep down I am that rock guitar player. Let us know what you do best on your G&L.

Non G&L

There have been a few gear related responses this week, so I thought I would share what you can’t see in the video’s- the amp and pedalboard. Here are the pics




The amp is a DR Z Route 66 (15th anniversary edition) Its powered by 2 KT66’s and it’s the loudest 32 Watts you’ve ever heard. Its based on the original Marshall Plexi – I love that it has 3 knobs –Volume, Bass, Treble…. What more do you really need when your plugging in your G&L? For Pedals, I run the signal this way =Xotic AC+ = Fulldrive 2= MXR Phase 90 = Dunlop Volume/Tremolo = Xotic RC = Korg stage tuner. I keep the last RC on all the time more as an EQ as the 66 can be a little bit Mid heavy sometimes. A pretty simple setup really, I use the AC and the fulldrive like different channels on the amp. I think am ready for a change from the fulldrive thou. I don’t know. That actually brings me to the question. Do have as much pedal GAS as you do guitar GAS? I know I do… I have 7 or 8 other pedals kicking around the house that I don’t have a need for on the pedalboard, but they are pedals I’ll never get rid of.
I will leave you guys this week with a couple of tunes that didn’t show up earlier in the week

I only have 1 video with the 25th... A cover of Queens Fat Bottom Girls This was only the 2nd time we played through it as a band, so mind some of the vocal harmonies! It will give you an idea of what the 25th sounds like, and thats the most important thing anyway
[youtube]dvFkD4aNFUY[/youtube]

Here are a couple of bonus vids to leave you with for the weekend
I remember reading a while ago on here a discussion about Ritchie Sambora…. Here’s our JBJ cover
[youtube]1q7DxC2s5tk[/youtube]

And one more classic….
[youtube]gn891pDk6H4[/youtube]

Thanks for tuning in this week, and as soon as I hear anything on my SC-2 I will post immediately.
Thanks again
Scott

[gitman001]

I forgot to include this pic above, I wanted to leave you with a shot of the 5 Together



Scott

[BadJaxx]

i've morphed over to the Blues mostly, but still rock out some too...when i was going to the Blues Jams, the band variously called me their "Latin Blues Guy" or "The Rock Guy"...due to getting them to play some minor blues like Black Magic Woman and occasional forays into rock like Brown Sugar or Crossroads (which i'd do a slowed down version of)...
i had a lot of fun doing those jams...one nite, while they were talking about what to play next, i couldn't keep my fingers still, so softly started playing a lick i'd made up for trying out Strats...the drummer liked it and joined in...then the bass player...then the rest...we jammed on it for about 10 minutes...thank God for I-IV-V cuz i had improvise it...

i'm running into a Carl Martin compressor > SD Twin Tube Classic > BBE Sonic Stomp > Line6 GuitarPort > computer...all FX are set low for coloration...
i've previously talked about it but just added the Sonic Stomp...it's not on all the time and is new to my rig...it does a nice job of adding clarity...so far, i like it best with humbuckers...it's set very low...

great week, Scott..really enjoyed the vids and wargaming out the Invasion of Canada....i'm pondering which G&L i'll allow you to keep when we start confiscating guitars after the war...

[yowhatsshakin]

Fantastic week Scott. After a week of LR's with sound clips by Darwin, a full week with video's by you! What is CGT supposed to do now? Have fireworks everyday? Rocket launches? I wish CGT the best of luck, and don't take it too serious. We all like to yak about G&L anyway, sound clip/vid or not.

The 25th Anniversary has one of the most beautiful colors I know. This pic of mine always brings a smile on my face:

I do play mine whenever it is 'guitar of the week' and love the ballsy sound which is well demonstrated in your video. But it has a little more than just 'Big Bottom'!

I'm not much into pedals but it is changing a bit. What I still call my main gear has a Mesa Tri-Axis preamp with SimulClass 2:90 stereo power amp. When putting it together 11 years ago, I looked at effects gear and the Lexicon MPX-G2 was one of these new gadgets. Has decent analog models of distrortion pedals, and a lot of Lexicon's beautiful lush delay and reverb algorithms. There are only two cables coming out of the rig: a long Monster instrument cable and the MIDI cable for the Lexicon MPX-R1 Midi control pedal which is also hooked up to a a Tech 21 Midi Mouse and Peavey Voltage Control pedal and I use for channel switching of the Tri-Axis. Very compact and efficient. And I could have reduced the number of cables by one if I had used wireless.

But now I mainly use my Mesa Express 5:25 and am a little more into 'real' (analog) pedals. My signal path is now BBE Soul Vibe => Carl Martin Quattro => BBE Sonic Stomp in front of the amp and a Carl Martin TremO'vibe in the effects loop of the amp. And I like that a lot and can see why people like to try out different pedals.


Thanks again Scott.

- Jos

Edit: fix image link after album was lost.

[blargfromouterspace]

Great week Scott. I love it when people share their playing with us

I have GAS for everything That Dr.Z amp is my sort of thing - three knobs. Beautiful. I'm a huge fan of simplicity in an amp. My main amp these days has two channels and a reverb but has made two pedals of mine redundant so I'm probably ahead in simplicity based on number of knobs requiring tweaking. Like Jos, I like 'real' pedals - I discovered Menatone earlier this year and probably won't be buying any other brands for a while. My board is down to only a few now, and is very simple: the BBE Sonic Stomp (3 out of 3 responses!), Menatone Foxy Brown (which I use kind of like a fuzz, but with more definition), Durham Sex Drive, a Boss tuner and occasionally a Boss tremolo. Five is a good number, any more than that and I get preoccupied with changing my sound. Of course there is at least that many again lying in piles around my study.... I bought a Danelectro 'Reel Echo' this week for the bargain price of $70 but don't think it'll earn itself a spot on my board - very nice sounds but it's just too damn big!

I'm going to bed now - all those beers at tonight's rugby match are taking hold.....

[sirmyghin]

I am very much a prog musician, all kinds of whacky ideas to get out of my head sprawling over many many instruments. Straight up rock just doesn't do it for me.

I have more pedal gas than guitar gas nowadays. I have one of the last 'missing pieces' of my collection being built, I will likely add a hollowbody thereafter but no rush, I can play jazz on my ASAT just fine. There is a long list of pedals I want, headed by a TC corona chorus and a Strymon BlueSky Reverberator. A eventide pitchfactor has found its was on for whammy type effects (w/ expression pedal) harmonies, and octaves, I wouldn't mind an OD to boost my signal either. I could use a compressor with the ability to squash some (Tc nova dynamics is the prospect) as my Strymon OB.1 is very very nice but can't do very high sustain stuff, great for chicken picking though, wow. Then I could probably use a second delay, albeit my El Capistan is very very good, need to get a favourite switch for that to store a second preset. A volume pedal wouldn't hurt, and EH-FReeze looks like a fun toy. (get the hint yet?) I have a sonic stomp but I don't use it, it does nothing for my boogie..


Also Gitman, your amp is missing the most important dial THE MIDS!

[CGT]

I am so screwed! Scott and Darwin have raised the bar way up high! And I think Scott may have poached part of my Monday G&L question. (Just teasing).

I've yet to have lunch, so I'm going to eschew comment on my midday meal, but it's looking like turkey burgers.

Like sirmyghin, I too fancy myself a proghead, but sadly I haven't developed much skill at that genre. If I can define my present stage of playing, I'd have to call it ambient improvisational blues. I just sit down, start playing and hope that the resulting music has some melodic and thematic coherence. (I may inflict some on you if I have the time to shoot some video next week.)

With respect to pedals, I am gassing (passing? passing gas?) for an overdrive pedal. I want to add crunch to my rig without having to play at the earsplitting volumes required to overdrive my tube preamp. Any suggestions would be welcome. On the whole, however, I'd like to keep things simple right now as I want to fully explore all the sonic possibilities available in the guitar.

I am very much looking forward to being your lunch reporter next week. Thanks, Scott. Terrific job.

[Muleya]

I play and enjoy music from lots of genres, but I guess I always come back to the stuff that I listened to as a teen...80's hard rock and metal! Anything from Boston to Dokken. But I also love blues, jazz, some pop, and have even started playing a few country tunes!

Pedals...well, for the most part I'd say I don't GAS for pedals...though I just bought one yesterday! My new Legacy HB wasn't working with my current distortion pedal into my home-brew blackface amp. It does great with the Marshall, but seems flubby on the bottom end with the pedals I have. I had kind of written off Boss distortion pedals, but a couple of people who I trust tone-wise highly recommended the new Boss Power Stack pedal, so I picked one up from the same dealer I purchase the G&L from. He's agreed to give me a few days to return it if it doesn't work out for me, but so far it seems promising!

My other distortion pedal is a Jekyll & Hyde, and it's huge bottom end is great with my SSS Legacy, but is too much for the JB pickup in the Legacy HB. Anyway, this weekend's task will be to thoroughly check out the Power Stack.

Apart from that, I keep a OD(BBE Green Screamer), compressor(BYOC), chorus(DOD), EQ(Boss), delay(Boss) and reverb (Line 6) pedals on my board. I'm considering upgrading my compressor, chorus and EQ pedals, but that seems to keep getting put off, so I must not be GASsing too much for them!

CGT - depending on what you have to spend, you might check out the Rothwell Hellbender. Pro Guitar Shop has vids of it that really impressed/tempted me...though it is somewhat pricey, which has basically prevented me from getting one...so far! If you want something tube-screamer-ish, the BBE Green Screamer is very nice...true bypass and all that.

[bassman]

Scott,
You have done a great job on the LRs this week. Your 25th Anniversary is a beautiful guitar as are all of your G&Ls.

I am not a big pedal user, but I do have a Sonic Stomp and a Green Screamer to play around with.

I played bass through a friend's 1965 Fender Bandmaster last night it was plugged in to a bass cabinet and it sounded great and I kept it to a low volume.

I really like your band but I urge you to wear ear protection of some kind if you are not already doing so.

I think it is really sad to see good musicians lose their hearing in their 40's and 50's.

I love to rock, but I do wear ear plugs now and I know that I have suffered some hearing loss from not wearing anything for many years.

I don't want to bring you down. You had very good questions every day this week. That is no small feat.
Have fun picking out your gift pedal from BBE and have a great weekend!

bassman bill

[gitman001]

Hey Guys,

Its supper then off to the gig.... there are a few replies i want to make, just don't have time tonight, the kids have to eat! Check back on the weekend.

Scott

[Muleya]

Got a chance to watch your vids. Top notch guitar work on the Bon Jovi cover!...though personally I would have enjoyed a little more distortion on both that one where it kicks in, and Fat Bottomed Girls. But that's just me, your overall tone is great!

[Boogie Bill]

First, a quick catchup on yesterday: I do keep all of my guitars in their cases when I'm not playing them. I learned a hard lesson with my Martin D-28 after that last big quake up in Seattle in 2001.

Interesting question about genre. I'm pretty versatile. I spent so much time playing rhythm, backing my singing, that my growth as a lead guitarist was stunted. I mostly flat-pick on the acoustic, but I'll fingerpick on a James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot or Paul Simon tune when needed. When I did a solo act, I liked to do a quarter to a third on the acoustic guitar, and I still try to use it in my band.

I love the blues; like most players I'm drawn to the darkness of minor blues. I don't like playing the blues all the time, though--I find it boring. My parents liked and listened to country music, and there's a lot of "Classic Country" I really like. Buck Owens will always be a favorite--I love the Bakersfield sound. And I loved Chuck Berry and Elvis and Little Richard and Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis when I was just a kid--and that grew into The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Cream, Santana, etc. And as my taste for the guitar grew, so did the scope of my listening--into flamenco, classical and jazz.

So, I know I'm not The World's Greatest Guitar Player, and that's fine with me. I want to be known as an entertainer.

But I guess, I'd have to say as a guitarist, I'm the "Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None."

Here's a pic of my Furman pedalboard for my electric. (I have another one for my acoustic guitar.) This photo is slightly dated, as I recently bought a Boss Pitch Shifter/Harmonist, and it went on the board in place of the Line 6 Echo Park. The Rocktron Short-Timer and the Boss PS go through my effects loop. I can't speak highly enough for the Short-Timer. It doesn't do nearly what the Line 6 could do, but what it does is does very well.






The chain is:

DOD FX10 Preamp
Boss Compressor
Boss TU-3
Real Tube 901 (with a Groove Tubes GT12AU7 tube)
Thomas Organ Crybaby Wah c. 1971
Boss CE-3 Stereo Chorus
Boss PH-1r Phasor

Nothing real high-tech or exotic or boutique, but it's paid for. I still have some pedal gas. I'm looking for a distortion box that would give more of a Marshall sound than I get from the Mesa's. Thinking about replacing the Boss Chorus with the Digitech Hardwire chorus.

Here's the acoustic board:




Boss Compressor
Boss TU-2
MXR 10-band Graphic EQ
DOD Performer Series Chorus
DanElectro Mini Delay
Radial Pro DI Direct Box.

The DOD Chorus is one of the best I have ever heard. I think this board is going to go through some changes pretty soon. I'm thinking about going with the Fishman Aura direct box, so some of those pedals might go away. I also have a couple of Boss DD-3s kicking around so one of them might find a spot on here.


Amps that I gig with are usually:

Mesa Mark IVA 112 EVM combo with a Mesa 112 Theile cab underneath;

Mesa Mark III Simul-Class, Reverb, EQ, 112 EVM combo with a Mesa 112 Theile cab underneath. This rig is very rare blonde tolex, and really beautiful;

Mesa Mark III Coliseum 200-watt head, Reverb, EQ and a Mesa Halfback cab with C90s/EVMs;

Mesa Maverick 212 V30 combo, usually with Mesa Horzontal Recto 212 V30 cab underneath;

Mesa DC-3 112 V30 combo, usually with the 112 EVM Theile cab underneath.

I love them all, but they do have some different characteristcs. The Maverick in particular is a very different sounding amp than the Mark Series amps. I try to pick the size of the amp to match with the size of the gig. But I also have some amp gas; like for a Mesa Mark V combo, and Electro-Dyne combo, a Stilletto Ace combo, a Lonestar, and a Heartbreaker 212 combo. Probably not all of those are going to happen.

Good music, and a very nice job on the Lunch Reports!

Bill

[KenC]

Great week, Scott!!

I'm not sure what to call my guitar playing. Since all of my gigging over the past couple of years has been on the upright bass, the guitars are just for my own entertainment (and obsessive collecting) these days. I guess I'd call my typical playing some sort of ambient jazz with a lot of droning thrown in. If I play for a long time, though, it somehow comes around to cover songs I've played in the past, mixed with attempts at rendering 80s synth pop on the six-string.

I definitely GAS on pedals, possibly more than I do on guitars. I always run the guitars through a Carl Martin compressor. Beyond that point, I go many ways. The latest pedal acquisition was a used Moogerfooger low-pass filter, which seems to be the King of the Wahs. I sometimes use a digital delay or a digital reverb with a volume pedal to build up layers of tones. Everything else is analog. My favorite recent find aside from the Moogerfooger is an "Antenna" by CoPilot FX. The guys in the music store said they couldn't figure out what to do with it. I spent about 20 minutes trying to get a usable sound - any usable sound - out of it, and then I hit the right combination of knobs. After that, I can't seem to dial up any tones that I don't like. It's definitely not a rock or blues pedal - it seems to be some sort of cross between square wave distortion and ring modulation, but it handles chords unlike any other ring mod I've tried. My next pedal indulgence will probably be either the Moogerfooger phaser, or something else by CoPilot.

For electric bass, I plug straight into an '82 Fender Bassman 10. I've been running that way for 29 years and don't see myself changing anytime soon. I have experimented with an EHX Bass Muff on the upright when I had a duet gig with an African percussionist. Distorted bowing seemed to work well in that context.

CGT - I'm hoping to hear about the experiment with New Standard Tuning next week!

Ken

[Dave_P]

Thanks for a great week of lunch reports!

Lunch: Today was a sad sad day in lunch land. Left work early on a beautiful sunny day, whistling as I walked down the street to enjoy my most favorite sandwich on the planet only to find the sub shop had gone out of business So now I have to find another Italian grinder (that's RI for sub) that can come close. Today I tried Jersey Mike's subs, good but still not even close, at least they had the hot red peppers which is more than I can say for most places.

G&L: I am and probably always will be a rock guitarist at heart, but lately I've really been getting into bluegrass. Can't get enough, it's got me GAS for a mandolin, banjo, resonator even a fiddle I still haven't even gotten the hang of chickin' pickin' so I've got a long way to go.

Non-G&L: It's funny you posted this question, I've been looking a pedals all day. Never had a proper pedal board, for a while now I've just been using the Green Screamer and the tremolo on my amp(when it worked). In the past I've had multi-fx boards and have drifted sharply towards "real" pedals but the damn things are expensive. Just found out about the old DOD pedals, very good bargains to be had. USA made and a lot of great sounding pedals if you know which ones to look for, hopefully a couple will be joining the Green Screamer this weekend...as long as all goes as planned on ebay (already got "sniped" once today).

-Dave

[sam]

Ditto on all kudos for the week!!

From yesterday, I keep all guitars in cases except for the tele copy and a mini strat out for the kids to play with.

I'm a rocker at heart with a heavy slant to Dead (jam) and alt country. Try and stay versatile with acoustic at close reach.

Pedal gas...oh yeah. Unable to post pics now but do have 14 pedals on my pedaltrain. A/B pedal, bbe sonic stomp, mxr carbon copy, bbe two-timer, bbe mind bender, dod phaser, bbe tremor, nobels TR-X, boss MT-2, proco rat, bbe green screamer, boss ds-1, bbe orange squash and a foxx wah/volume. Also include boogie pedals and single button (replacement picked up today for last one that died) for blues deluxe channel switch. Would like to try the bbe buckshot, nova repeater, a timmy and NEED a new wah. Never enough pedals, but need to look at 2 or three pedal set ups for specific purpose to prevent tone suck.

I want a 25th Anniversary model. A perfect match for my ASAT JR.

Great week and keep posting the vids!

[darwinohm]

Scott, It is Sunday and I finally had a chance to catch up. Great week this week and the videos were outstanding. Your 25 Th that you posted Friday is sweet. I had a Mahogany Bluesboy with the arm taper and it was also a cool guitar. I traded it to a fellow in February and he has already been trying to sell it on CL. Bassman has some good advice on saving the ears. I started wearing aids a year and a half ago. Musicians often lose the midrange hearing which is my problem. I am glad that CGT is on board for next week.

A great picture of the fab five. They look at home together.

You had asked me a question earlier this week. I was majoring in reed instruments and had played Tenor Sax throughout high school. Bassoon became my major instrument during my music studies. I have not played any reed instruments, or read notes since 1961. I instead chose the electronics field, the computer industry in its infancy. It was a good choice. I traded my Sax for my first guitar, a Gibson in 1962. Do I still wish I had it? I would have never used it. Thanks for the superb week Scott and am looking forward to CGT next week. Have a great Mothers Day everyone and hope that those of you that still have your Mothers or Mother in Laws, made it a very special day for them!!!!-- Darwin