Early LR for July 29th

[sirmyghin]

I am going to be out and about today, so I will try to wrap this up early. In spirit of next weeks lunch reporter, I give you some odd happens in my relative area http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/28/an ... -runners-2. Red wings attacking runners eh? Fun stuff, teach them to try and run. Next week's lunch reporter is none other than Ed / Zapcosongs.


G&L topic of the day

Anyone got a clip of the P-90 yet? Otherwise I am just about tapped in this department.


Non-G&L topic of the day.

As an oddity, I don't have an MP3 player, so unlike my generation I can pay attention to what is going on around me. I also do not carry a cell phone, as if I am out and about I sure as hell don't want people bothering me. I may appear a bit of a luddite I suppose, but the distraction factor is bordering on extreme nowadays. There have been kids getting hit by busses, snowplows, and biking into the side of stationary tour buses and being injured or killed, all with these distractions present and accounted for. People are looking for ways to dodge everything they don't want to experience, and it is making our world a lot more dangerous. To top it off it is destroying any attention span kids might have, and their memory with it as they are never focussed on the task at hand. What do you think of the current technological trends?


My 7 string won't make it for the birthday tomorrow (mine and the wifes), which is unfortunate but I haven't heard from them in a bit. Should probably be seeing it next week, but we'll just have to play it by ear. We are waiting on a switch that seems to be taking it's sweet time.


Enjoy the weekend folks, I will round it off with a holiday monday (the civic holiday) which has no purpose so I have taken to calling it August day.

Kyle

[willross]

Angry birds are striking everywhere. There's even an iPhone game now... As for G&L, that P-90 looks interesting. Maybe put it in the Classic Custom? Or the Special and/or SC-2? I guess we'll see where it goes.

Technology. It all started in the 60's & 70's. Those HUGE portable AM/FM headphones and boom boxes! You just have to carry it around, huh... Now we carry everything.

The only thing I haven't seen yet is a precise amp simulator. Until then, I'll stick with the tubes:




Cheers,

Will

[sirmyghin]

Will - There are a lot of folks, particularly in the metal community who rave over axe-fx. I don't like wading through menus and crap to play guitar though. To top it off when Axe-FX2 was announced they were all selling as fast as they could to try and beat the price drop for the new units, which sound 'even better' and 'closer to a tube amp' This modelling craze has been going on for a long time though, people will always want to believe it can keep up with the real deal. While it may be very close, and nice to have any sound you want at your finger tips, you can't beat a couple knobs and being able to change your settings effortlessly. Can't say I am surprised with you haveing a Soldano, which model is it? Lucky 13 with chicken head knobs?

[willross]

Hey, I guess when you add "close enough" with talent anything is possible... That Lucky 13 50W was a custom order by the guy whom created the "Lucky 13". It's serial number "0007" and signed by Mike Soldano Jr. The cab is #2 made and bigger than what they sell now. It also has two pieces to the back instead of closed. They told me they replaced the tubes with biased ones that are "the best in the world". Hmm. It does sound better than I've EVER heard and like a Swiss Army knife of amps. I've yet to check it out, but believe every word. I'll open it and take a picture, so we'll see...






Cheers,

Will

[sirmyghin]

Haven't played it yet? So a new acquisition then. My Mark V (mesa) is a very very good swiss army knife amp. I can do classic rock, hard rock, country, metal, and anything else I feel like. The Cleans are where I spend most of my time though, they are really good.

The big difference with the modellers, as I understand is FEEL, they are missing that airy speaker movement/can't replicate it. I can see an Axe-FX being very nice for recording though.

[CGT]

I have no comment on the G&L question. Haven't been playing this week due to work and personal considerations. With respect to gadgetry, if it wasn't cell phones, drivers would be distracted by cigarettes, radio dials, CB radios, conversations with passengers, etc. Also, I don't think that attention spans have been altered by technology however the way we remember things has: memorization is no longer vital when information can be quickly obtained via a smart phone. I don't think children's attention spans have changed. Whether in libraries, schoolyards, parks, or online, kids are constantly seeking out input and when they find something that interests them, they'll be engrossed for hours.

I may not like being connected at all times (which is why most my clients don't have my mobile number) but having a mobile device is certainly valuable to me. Between instant public transit updates, mapping software and the ability to do business on the run (e.g. sending email, reading documents, doing research online), I am very much enamored of my iPhone. Can I live without it? Probably. But it's certainly nice to have. (And one of my apps includes a guitar tuner, so DOUBLEPLUSGOOD.)

As for iPods, I live in a big city, so what I'm mostly filtering out is the ambient noise or cars, trucks, construction equipment and boring conversations about people's jobs. As for not being representative of your generation <cough cough> WalkMan. This is nothing new, simply refined. Ray Bradbury was reacting to transistor radios and earbuds in the 1950s.

[willross]

Haven't played it yet? So a new acquisition then. My Mark V (mesa) is a very very good swiss army knife amp. I can do classic rock, hard rock, country, metal, and anything else I feel like. The Cleans are where I spend most of my time though, they are really good.

The big difference with the modellers, as I understand is FEEL, they are missing that airy speaker movement/can't replicate it. I can see an Axe-FX being very nice for recording though.

No, I've played through it. Just no stage time...yet. Just haven't opened it up yet. It's cleans are great all the way up to "13"! Yeah, the dials go to 13...

As for speaker movement, what about a robot speaker that changes its shape, etc.? Hey, I said it here first!!!


Cheers,

Will

[zapcosongs]

I want to hear about your lunch, dammit! You can't do this to us!

Technology: I'm with you. I have a cell phone. It's seven years old, only makes and takes calls, and it is off unless I'm out of the house and I want it on. I don't text. No music, movie downloads. I do have XM radio in my car though. I like that.

Happy birthday to you and your honey. Hope you get your candle waxed, I mean, hope your instrument comes soon ;+) - ed

Nice week. And thank you too for the honor of your nomination to be Lunch Reporter next week. Need to think now.....

[sirmyghin]

I want to hear about your lunch, dammit! You can't do this to us!

Technology: I'm with you. I have a cell phone. It's seven years old, only makes and takes calls, and it is off unless I'm out of the house and I want it on. I don't text. No music, movie downloads. I do have XM radio in my car though. I like that.

Happy birthday to you and your honey. Hope you get your candle waxed, I mean, hope your instrument comes soon ;+) - ed

Nice week. And thank you too for the honor of your nomination to be Lunch Reporter next week. Need to think now.....

I just ate chicken and cheese, toasted on a sausage bun in the over with lettuce, some italian dressing and some honey mustard (uncrushed seed, not paste). Going out to a hopefulyl nice restaurant today to test for our wedding 'reception'. Should be a good weekend all around .

XM is cool stuff.


CGT , I agree to an extent, but only the CB radio or talking with a passenger threaten the same level of distraction. The mental portion is by far the import one, but the laws try to curb the physical portion. It is the equivalent of a band aid, looks better, nothing more.

[willross]

Ok, here's a picture of the inside. Also, congrats! Hope that restaurant fits the bill.




Cheers,

Will

[sirmyghin]

Very nice, my Mark has 7 (7!) preamp tubes, and the don't have access from the front behind the grill like on older Marks, so V1 is right behind a honking transformer, I broke a tube trying to get it in without taking the chasis out and that was the, I just take it out, pain that it is. Never understood heads with hanging tubes though, you get better heat dissipation if they are upright, shows a skipped step between combo to head design. My Mark also suffers that same deal.

[willross]

Cool. This one has 6 pre and 2 power tubes...


Cheers,

Will

[blargfromouterspace]

I don't have an mp3 player either. One thing I hate is those portable DVD players you see kids watching everywhere - restaurants, trains, cars, shopping centers etc.

I too look forward to hearing what those P90s are like. I'd buy one of those Korina Jr's if it had creme binding and creme pickups....

[Philby]

Thanks for a great week Kyle.

Re. technological devices, I consider it a basic human right to take a walk in the sunshine without headphones blaring or a device buzzing in your pocket. My wife doesn't get it. She thinks owning a mobile phone means it should be turned on 24/7 and you should be carrying it at all times. I delight in leaving my phone off and in my bedside drawer. My phone is 4 years old and makes calls very well. I don't have any interest in it beyond that.

Re. practice amp technology. I've got Guitar Rig 4 installed on my PC which I bought for $50 on promotion. It may not be perfect, but for the $$$ it is REALLY good.

[sirmyghin]

Cool. This one has 6 pre and 2 power tubes...


Cheers,

Will

I would say 7 tubes is expensive not cool , I guess that is the price you pay for versatility in both our cases.

[Aussie]

Some cool discussions this week. Haven't been able to participate though as weekday minutes are as precious as diamonds for me during June and July.

G&L Topics: It will be interesting to see if the P90s make it into general production or whether they are going to be restricted to this limited edition run and are destined to be trophy pieces. I think a P90 option would be a good inclusion in the G&L range and if they can produce a great version in house that would be even better. May encourage a different demgraphic to take a look at G&L.

Devices: I'm certainly not a technophobe but I don't carry any portable media devices. I'm with Philby ... take sme time to experience and enjoy the environment and company you are in. I only carry a mobile phone because I needed to spend a LOT of time working from home last year due to family health issues. Now that I'm back working from the office it hardly gets used - if I'm not at my desk to answer my desk phone I'm probably off at a meeting somewhere and the mobile will be switched off so just leave a message on the office voice mail and I'lll call you when I get back!

Previous Topic - Board Games. For most of the last 20 years we've had a family night each week where we'd have no TV or music and we'd spend a large part of the evening playing board games with the kids. Started out when they were real young with cards games like snap, moved through a whole range of board games like mousetrap and on to Monopoly, Cludeo, Squatter etc, and the knowledge games like Trivial Pursuit, scrabble etc . Wasn't so much about the games as it was about having the five off us sit around and actually talking to one another rather than being off in our own little personal cocoons all the time.

Next Week: Looking forward to Ed leading discussions next week.
cheers, Robbie

[Brock]

and biking into the side of stationary tour buses and being injured or killed, all with these distractions present and accounted for.

Listening to tunes and riding (or jogging) is nothing new. People had SONY Walkmans about 30 years ago. When I'm on a bike (or a pedicab) I listen around. Always. Other than those bike unfriendly Priuses, pretty much ever other vehicle announces it might move prior to starting via a noticeable sound declaration.

I see a lot of riding that makes me go "What?!" but the biggest ones are when people are riding in dumb places (like when there's a nice thoroughfare half a block away), when they have headphones on, and when they do really bad maneuvers.

Cycling would be much more difficult if I couldn't hear.

-Brock