Lunch Report for Wednesday, October 26th 2011

[Sean Clavin]

Lunch:

Peanut butter and strawberry preserves with a small glass of milk with my granddaughter Laila.
We've decided (again) that crunchy is better than creamy! And now we watch our favorite show on NetFlix........Strawberry Shortcake!! She does reassure me that my tattoos make me tough.....I, however, am not so sure


G&L topic: Saddle Lock Bridge on a lap steel.

Here's my thinking on this, I really want to start building a couple of lap steels and have been going round and round about a few things. The one that I think would make it a killer sustain machine is the Saddle Lock Bridge. ToM, Tele, Hardtail Strat or other type bridges have been done, but I haven't talked to anyone that has used it yet. Think it would be worth the effort? Anyone out there tried it yet?

Non G&L topic: Amplifiers!

Some of you may know that I have a small amplifier company (Hooligan Amplifiers, you can check us out on face book) and over the years I have come to the conclusion that the less crap in front of the amp and less crap in the amp, the better the tone. I have been one of those guys that has always had a few OD's, a delay or two, cry baby, compressor, EQ, etc.. and would do the pedal dance when going into or out of a solo. Then getting tired of all the jumping around, decided to go with a digital amp with all the features and toys that anyone could want in just one tap of a foot switch. Then a few years ago I decided to start building an amp for my personal use. I went with a relatively simple circuit with enough volume to play in a club. I plugged it in and was hooked on building amps. The one thing I noticed is I started to get back to basics in my playing as well as my rig setup. Pedals started to slowly stay in the gig bag and eventually (about 5 years ago) I have been playing without any pedals (or reverb for that matter which is really surprising to me even now) and just relying on the volume pot on my guitar to go from clean to dirty. The only exceptions are 1). Recording. If I'm doing a jingle or album for some one else, I'll have to give them the sound they want. 2) I'll use a cry baby when doing blues gigs and if the venue is big, I'll use a higher wattage amp and use my Visual Sounds Rt 66 pedal for some dirt.

Soooooo, where do you guys stand on the issue of effects? Never? Some? Can't live without? Please discuss.

[willross]

Stock up on peanut butter. A shortage is looming... Unfortunately, no Saddle Lock experience yet. I use pedals if the sound I'm trying to emulate can't be done otherwise.


Cheers,

Will

[Dave_P]

Lunch today in the cafeteria at work was pizza and potato skins, while this sounds good to some (even me sometimes) the streak of fried lunches had to end. Not sure how healthy it was but I had a stone pot bibimbap at a local Korean place. Rice, veggies, beef and an egg then mix it up and add the hot sauce also came with some miso soup

G&L topic: not sure on the lap steel question, I've never played one. But I say why not, it's a fantastic bridge.

Effects/amps: If an amp has more knobs than I can count on two hands, I am usually not interested. As for effects, I was playing out for a while with just a tube screamer just to boost solo's for a while. I've been adding a couple things here and there but top out around 5 or 6 max in a full band set up. Band broke up and I've put together a side project that is acoustic, so the pedals aren't getting much use. The one thing I would like to add to my acoustic rig is the BBE acoustimax or even just a sonic stomp.

-Dave

[darwinohm]

Lunch was one of my homespun sandwiches with chips.

There was a lap steel discussion a couple of weeks ago. I would think that the saddle lock would be a good bridge on anything. I have noticed that bass guitars on the average seem to have large mass bridges and G&L uses the saddle lock bridge on their basses. Fender has some lighter bridges but many replace them with a BadAss. Again, on a lap steel I would think the pickups would be very important.

The only pedal I use is the sonic stomp. I use an A/B to select amps and I always use my G3 wireless. It gives great battery life and has never fail me. I generally set the contols on my amps before the gig and do not change them. If I use my Cybertwin SE I rarely use more than 4 different settings. Sean, it sounds like you build an interesting amp. I have to admit I like a bit of reverb if I am gigging regular guitar and not bass. Have a great day!-- Darwin

[sickbutnottired]

I know nothing about lap steel. Or any other kind of steel.

Effects, I have been playing with effects the last 18 months or so, more so this year. I find it really easy to get goofed up and create a cacophony. I am really looking for flexibility, including additional clean headroom.

jeremy

[blargfromouterspace]

... if the venue is big, I'll use a higher wattage amp...

That'd be a higher power amp. No such thing as wattage. Grrrrr.

Lap Steels - I'm not too sure about the saddle lock on a lap steel. The bridge on my steel is very crude, just a piece of metal with slots for the strings. It sounds fantastic and there is absolutely no problem with sustain. Also, there is no call for adjustable intonation, so if the SL was used there is a possibility of it being over-engineered.

Check out the bridge on this one - a brass rod. Sounds fantastic too.

[youtube]iWWLY-BfWBY[/youtube]


Amps & Pedals - I like a simple amp. My amp has two channels, each with adjustable tone and volume, reverb and master volume and has only seven knobs. Perfect. It sounds really good by itself so there is little need for effects. I use effects sparingly - I use a overdrive every now and then, a tremolo for a couple of songs, a delay on a couple and of course a fuzz when its called for, which I wish was more often. I love fuzz.

[Sean Clavin]

.....oops, I meant higher powered amp. Or sometimes I just might use a more efficient speaker.

[darwinohm]

Sean, I just noticed that your ASAT in your avatar is one of the great colors on the planet!--Darwin.

[Sean Clavin]

Sean, I just noticed that your ASAT in your avatar is one of the great colors on the planet!--Darwin.

Yes, thank you for noticing! I love the gold flake, some people around here call it a bass boat guitar, my wife calls it my Liberace guitar!

[Ledergeist]

Peanut Butter: Jif crunchy. Accept No Substitute.

Lap Steel: Never really messed with one, and for all I know, they can be made from just about anything. Keep us posted on any progress...

Amps and Effects: If there's anything I learned early on, it's to keep your signal path as simple as you can. Those are some sweet amps you're doing, the .45 Cal looks like my kind of thing....

Thanks for manning the LR's this week...
BW

PS. BTW, here's the bad porn stache shot I promised during Bill's LR week.... Yikes!

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

...here's the bad porn stache shot I promised during Bill's LR week.... Yikes!

That is one of the nicest sunbursts I have seen on a LP.

Could be the photo but I like this darker tone over the lighter Jimmy Page bursts.