Aging & Changing Lunch Report

[asphalt-abate]

Day 3 of 2012.

For lunch today I’m having left over salmon and some millet medley (birdfood) stuff.

Let’s talk about change, change in age (sometimes called aging) and in music, both in what we play and what we listen to. Just about the time I hit 49 things started happening to my health that weren’t good. They weren’t real bad, nothing alarming but definitely telling. My body was letting me know that I was no longer a young man. My goal of climbing Mt Rainier with my kids when I turn 60 now seems questionable. Thankfully my fingers have not been affected. Over time my direction on guitar has changed as well. I’m much less interested in heavy soloing and much more interested in using the guitar as an accent or compliment to a good singer or a good song. I’d rather contribute tasty fills and a sweet short solo to a song than a scorching 4 minute lead. If I had to choose a guitar related epitaph for my tombstone it would read, “Here lies Tom, Bandmate, Utility Man.” What would your epitaph read?

Here’s George Jones on growing old.

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I’m not sure what scared me more, George’s hair or the obligatory video shot of the front row women dancing?

Today’s Irrelevant Contest. My avatar picture is a picture of my pet dog Sasuke. Sasuke is getting a little white in the facial hair just like his master. He was a pound dog but he is a pure bred. What breed is my pet dog?

Today’s G & L question. It looks like G & L is focusing once again on developing pickups. What would you like to see G & L develop? I’d like to see them experiment with some different alloys and make something like Seth Lover did for Fender when he made the wide range humbucker using a copper/nickel/iron alloy for the magnet pole pieces. Another uniquely, “G & L” pickup with unique materials would be cool.

Happy Lunching!

[darwinohm]

Tom, we had Salmon last night also but none left over.

Climbing Mt Rainier with you kids when you reach 60 sounds like a good plan to me. If you feel good,do it!

Aging of performers is an interesting discussion. I think that many of them are better than ever as they grow older. There are other vocalists that slide around when they get older and seem to forget what got them there. In my own case, I am still developing and improving as I play more, especially more often. Aging can be a benefit but I am I starting to have pain in the finger joints. The excitement of gigging keeps me from noticing it. The day after a gig I am pretty much dead meat and a two nighter really does a job on me. It is worth it.

Funny you should bring up pickups. I don't change pickups but last night I was doing research on Don Mares for one of my American Teles. Am I branching out or what?? I am afraid that pickup could become an obsession if one were a tone freak. I hear a difference in pickups but have never had a preference as such. G&L has some good ones. Steve, our lead player describes my Legacy as a Strat on steroids. Glad to see that G&l is experimenting as that was Leo's forte

No idea on the pooch. I would guess Rot but the head doesn't seem wide enough. Have a great day everyone.-- Darwin

[louis cyfer]

difficult pic to tell from but my guess is german shorthair pointer.

[sam]

Tom,

Great topic for today, aging related to music and in general. Love the idea of Mt Rainer with the kids, hope health is maintained well until then. Call it incentive for healthy living and Aleve!

Good ol' George. This makes me wonder, does a rocker become a bit long in the tooth playing past a certain age or who cares about age, if you can still play and wanna rock go for it? As long as I'm above ground I say go for it, just don't try to do too many Pete Townshend jumps with hip/knee implants.

Not sure about an Epitaph right now, will take time to figure that out.

Gotta go with Louis on the german short haired pointer. Reminds me of a Weimaraner I had years ago, great dog. Pound dogs are the best, we have rescued two labs, one mix and our current is pure bred.

New p-ups would be cool, expecially on the hummer side.

[louis cyfer]

Tom,

Great topic for today, aging related to music and in general. Love the idea of Mt Rainer with the kids, hope health is maintained well until then. Call it incentive for healthy living and Aleve!

Good ol' George. This makes me wonder, does a rocker become a bit long in the tooth playing past a certain age or who cares about age, if you can still play and wanna rock go for it? As long as I'm above ground I say go for it, just don't try to do too many Pete Townshend jumps with hip/knee implants.

Not sure about an Epitaph right now, will take time to figure that out.

Gotta go with Louis on the german short haired pointer. Reminds me of a Weimaraner I had years ago, great dog. Pound dogs are the best, we have rescued two labs, one mix and our current is pure bred.

New p-ups would be cool, expecially on the hummer side.

i thought of weimaraner or vizsla, but while the head should work, the color if different on both. there are a few hound breads that look kinda like that, it is a very difficult angle, and not even a full head to tell.

[repoman]

Yikes, George's hair looks like he may have borrowed a Devo wig! That hair would probably stay still in a wind tunnel.
But its good to see him still rockin. That's an interesting question. I'm curious to see how long some of the classic rockers will keep going. Guys like the Stones could still put a lot of younger bands to shame when they hit the stage.

Pickups? Hmm. maybe a stacked humbucker to fit in a single coil slot?

My first guess on the dog was Weimaraner, but I see Sam beat me to it.

Jeff

[louis cyfer]

Yikes, George's hair looks like he may have borrowed a Devo wig! That hair would probably stay still in a wind tunnel.
But its good to see him still rockin. That's an interesting question. I'm curious to see how long some of the classic rockers will keep going. Guys like the Stones could still put a lot of younger bands to shame when they hit the stage.

Pickups? Hmm. maybe a stacked humbucker to fit in a single coil slot?

My first guess on the dog was Weimaraner, but I see Sam beat me to it.

Jeff

if it's a weimaraner, the color is off in the pic. it looks chocolate colored, more than greyish in this pic.

[bassman]

I'll guess Chesapeake Bay Retriever as your doggie's breed.

Getting older means that lighter equipment is the way to go. I like wide straps and light basses as I get older.

I'm only two years away from 60 now, so its getting close but I would like to hike Mt. Rainier if I had the chance or somewhere in the Colorado Rockies if I get out there.

G&L pickups- bring them on. I think all guitar and bass manufacturers should investigate new and different pickups.

There are a lot of good pickup design ideas that should see the light of day, so to speak.

[Kit]

I do know about aging, especially since I turned 60 a few years ago. I need to stay active for my kids who are still in high school. I've also been pretty good about keeping myself in reasonable shape the last few years. As far as guitar playing goes, other than a bit of joint pain in my picking hand I am holding up fine for playing. I figure that as long I still can find new music that I like I'm not too old.

Kit

[blargfromouterspace]

You gotta love George Jones, even with his frozen, Lego-man hair.

I haven't given my epitaph any thought, but I'd like it to be written by someone else. My grandmother put a very simple, very touching one on my grandfathers - "I will love you forever".

That's not a dog, it's a cat.

[asphalt-abate]

Thanks everyone for the response. There were some good guesses on the Sasuke. Weimaraner and Vizsla being two. But Louis with his observation on color was correct. Sasuke is a German Shorthair Pointer. Sam guessed correctly also.

Congratulations Louis you are two for two!

Darwin - you are an inspiration and I mean this sincerely.

Sam - from your avatar pic you look like you have a long way to go before you get old.

Jeff - Stacked bucker. Good call they seem to be pretty popular. I see them all the time on Craigslist.

Bassman - Nice to hear from you. Rainier is very doable for 60 plus. Many people climb it who are over 60. The first woman who climbed it was wearing a wool skirt.

Kit - You look really good for over 60. I couldn't make it over this time down (family time) but I'd love to get together again. Look for an e-mail soon.

Jamie - Of course you think it's a cat. You're looking at it upside down. I knew you'd appreciate George Jones. But that hair is just freaky.

Thanks all!

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

Climbing mountains.......this year (EDIT: last year now) I found out I had a heart murmur. Long story shortened, I had a nice talk on the phone with the heart specialist after some tests and found out I was born with a heart defect that essentially means I have a heart with a valve of someone 30 years older than me. Oddly enough the heart specialist said if I wanted to climb Mount Everest he would say go ahead and do it. When I was in my early twenties I was all packed and ready to drive up and climb Mount Shasta in California. It is one of the tallest mountains that does not require technical climbing to get to the top. At the last minute I decided not to do it. Years later I met a guy who had done it except he made the grave error of casually strolling up there unprepared like he was just going for a hike in a park. On the way up someone on their way down insisted he take their special sunglasses because the thin atmosphere is harder on your eyes than you expect. It was too late. Soon after his eyes started to feel like there was sand in them. He turned around and managed to get down to where some people rushed him to a hospital. He had sunburned eyes. Ouch! Anyway, like Evil Knievel, sometimes you have to face reality and adjust the Grand Canyon to the Snake River Canyon and even then you might run into trouble. At 60, Mount Shasta might be a cakewalk for you compared to Mount Rainier. Shasta is not a bad alternative.

I love to play guitar and I like playing each role. "...I’d rather contribute tasty fills and a sweet short solo to a song than a scorching 4 minute lead...." 4 minutes is not very long and that also would be a tasty lead. That is such a good description "tasty fills." In blues the rhythm often contains some very tasty rhythmic fills after turning in a lead. It is like the guitarist says now it is your turn (to do whatever vocals, keyboards, 2nd guitar, harmonica). Somewhere on the internet is a recording of Johnny Lang singing and playing lead with Stevie Ray Vaughn on rhythm guitar. SRV contributes the most melodic rhythm passages. Louis uploaded a video of himself playing his Bluesboy at a gig and while Louis is turning in a scorching lead the rhythm guitarist is laying a red carpet out for him with tasty fills.

G&L pickups: Unfortunately Leo is gone. He was the Master of pickup innovation. I would like to see G&L make a very serious effort to develop the best sounding noiseless single coil pickups ever designed.......not talking about anything like blades that are essentially humbuckers either.

Too late to guess the dog.

Let's see other pictures of the dog now that its bread is known.

[asphalt-abate]

Michael:

Thanks for the reponse. Your suggestion to substitute Shasta with Rainier is a good idea. It will depend on how I'm getting along when I turn 60. When jamming I often do 4 minute plus solos. And you are correct a 4 minute solo can be quite tasty and well laid out. I guess I view he guitar and its place in a band more holisticaly now. A lot just depends on the type of music that you are trying to play and I've really toned it down in the last few years. I still love a good hard rocking song however and I always will. I just won't be playing them too often anymore.

Where do you live? It wasn't apparent from your response yesterday.

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

Where do you live? It wasn't apparent from your response yesterday.

Santa Cruz, CA..........yesterday I don't recall exactly what I said but this was close by when I lived for years in the SF Bay Area but I avoided it. The route has evolved since then and the highway drive "over the hill" is much safer and better in many ways. Generally there were always too many other people headed to Santa Cruz when I would have been so I did not make the trip very often. I started coming over here for the fresh ocean air when I was going through a rough time after a couple of family members passed away. The air did so much for me. It seems to clear my mind and emotions. I realized I had to live here. I don't know if I can live away from here now.

[louis cyfer]

michael, thank you for that compliment. that was a fun gig. the other guitar player was smoking. really made the solo easy. i love to play with players who are better than me.
my cousin went to uc santa cruz. she played soccer for them , also she played for the national team world cup and olympics.

i wish g&l would work on the mfd pups, but using alnico magnets. vintage vibe pups do that, and they use interchangable magnets on the pups. fralin also does the same design as mfd, but with alnocis and those sound incredible. i think that would be some nice new options to offer for g&l.

[Dr B]

As for my Epitaph.....spike milligan said it best...... "I told you I was ill"