Early Monday Lunch Report - 3/26/12

[KenC]

First off, a big thank-you to Darwin for the nomination to be this week's Lunch Reporter. His posts from last week will be a very hard act to follow!

It's been about a year since my last turn as LR, so I'll start with a brief bio. My name is Ken, and I live near Annapolis, Maryland, USA, with my wife, two sons and thirteen G&Ls. I'm an ameteur bass player (on electric and upright), and a living room guitar player. I bought my first G&L, an early SB-1, about 13 years ago. I participated in the G&LDP back then, but drifted away until last year. While I have been extremely impressed with several recent G&Ls I've played, it's the old ones that cause major GAS for me. All but one of my G&Ls are from the 1980s, and most from 1982 or earlier.

Lunch: I'm posting this before I head into work, but most likely I will head down to the building's cafeteria shortly after noon for a cold roast beef sandwich, bag of Sun Chips and a diet soda. It's my default lunch. If the workload permits I will eat down in the cafeteria. If I'm too busy to take the time, I will carry it back to my desk and work while I eat. At least I really enjoy what I do, so I don't mind working through lunch when I need to.

That leads to the non-G&L topic of the day:
What is a typical Monday like for you? I get up at 4:00am, drive seven miles to a Park & Ride in Annapolis, and catch a bus that will take me on a one-hour ride to my office in downtown Washington DC. I work from 6:30 until 3:30 (if I can get out on time), and then ride the bus an hour back to Annapolis and drive home. I'm usually home in time to help the boys with homework before dinner. Since the days are getting longer, we have daylight left to be outdoors and active for an hour after dinner. Checking in on the G&LDP and hopefully some bass or guitar playing time comes after the boys are in bed. Lather, rinse, and repeat until Friday...

G&L topic of the day:
Now that we've talked about how our weeks begin, the next question is about how our signal chains begin. What, if anything, do you do to refine the sound of your G&Ls before they hit an effects chain or the amp? I'm not talking about distortion, modulation or delay here, but rather compressors, clean boosts, Sonic Maximizers, etc. I've never needed anything for my basses, and have only run the guitars through a Carl Martin compressor when I play through a Roland Jazz Chorus. With the Blues Junior I use 99% of the time, I run straight into the amp. Does the signal straight from the pickups do it for you, or does it benefit from a bit of tweaking? If you have more than one G&L, is there a difference between them in this respect?

Ken

[louis cyfer]

my schedule is all over. i work when others don't some days i have 4 clients, some days 12. sometimes i get up at 5, sometimes at 10. am that is. overall, i make my own schedule though, and having the middle of the day off is awesome. usually from 2-5, sometimes 1-4. sometimes the whole afternoon evening. now that i get paid to work out at least 3 time s a week, that makes it easy to practice more. my commute to work is almost 2 minutes by car. i refuse to live far from work, just won't do it. done it before, i couldn't stand the waste of rime. i have to go back and forth to work several times a day, sometimes 4 times each way.

i use a 7 sisters compressor as an always on effect, and an xotic ep booster as an almost always on. it's not that the guitar doesn't sound good without it, but there is some magic dust in those boxes, does something remarkable to the tone. the sonic maximizer goes at the end of the chain, last thing before the amp. i also have a second clean boost later, after the od's to use as a real boost for solos. i noticed a big change when i started using sweet fat colossal cables. like a blanket taken off. the cables and the pick make a huge difference in tone, that i only started paying attention to a few years ago. now i search for picks with a better tone instead of just better playability. my bass i just run straight into the amp. the other thing i focus on more is the speakers. sometimes you get an amp, and it is just not sounding good. a speaker change can make a huge difference. if the speaker is not a great match for the amp, it won't work. i learned this when i got my twin. i bought 2. one with the jensens and the other, thw anniversary edition with the eminence. what a difference. not even the same amp. the eminence was 10 times better. recently i changed the eminence delta pro in my cab for the ots 50 to an eminence cannabis rex. the delta sounded great at home, or on its own at gigs. but with the band, the guitar just wouldn't come through. got loud, but still couldn't hear it. too much low end and the mids were muffled. with the cannabis rex it is just singing. at half the volume the guitar cuts through without the whole stage rumbling.
another thing one can do with the speakers is to adjust the overall volume of the amp. if the amp needs more headroom, put in a more efficient speaker, if one needs more breakup at lower volume put in a less sensitive speaker. a 10 watt amp can sound as loud as a 40 watter with more sensitive speakers, and a 30-40 watter can be brought down to 5-7 watt level sound with a less efficient one.

[gitman001]

Hey Ken,

My mondays are a long day for me, up at 6:30 out the door to teach by 8:15, then wrap up lessons at 9:00pm. Nothing like a solid 12 hour day of playing guitar! (actually there isn't - I LOVE what i do!). The only downside is i don't get to see the kids today at all, they are in bed by the time i get home.

and an xotic ep booster as an almost always on. it's not that the guitar doesn't sound good without it, but there is some magic dust in those boxes, does something remarkable to the tone.

+1 Louie! My Xotic RC booster is always on, I use it over the EP as it has a bass and treble control which helps dial in the subtleties of the different guitars, or the room i am playing in. After last years lunch report i took the rack mount sonic maximizer to use with the PA, next time i am thinking about the pedal version. Louie, do you use it in combo with the EP, and does it add much after the Xotic is engaged?

Have a great day everyone
Scott

[jakkanen]

Sun Chips is my favorite.

On a typical Monday, I get up around 7, clean up, and check work emails for any hot issues. I usually wait until past 9 before leaving the house, my hours are flexible and I like to miss rush hour traffic. My commute is about 35 minutes on a good day and I don't care to make it any longer. I work until 6:30 or 7. Once in a while a friend of mine hosts a Monday night jam at a restaurant bar and I try to join in for the second half of the evening.

My guitar signal chain usually starts with me plugging into a Tim pedal. For a while I used to plug into an active volume pedal as a kind of a combo preamp and volume control, but adjusting the volume with my foot never began to feel natural. Eventually I figured out that I never really need to do that since there's a handy volume knob right on the guitar. Every now and then I pack a TC Nova Dynamics compressor pedal and use the first half of it as a noise gate and the second half to add mild compression.

-Jukka

[darwinohm]

Ken, I love the what do you do on Monday! Pretty much the same damn thing I do every other day of the week , in fact sometimes I have to think about "what day is it"! It took many years to get there but it is the best job around. To bad we couldn't retire when we are young and can have all kinds of fun and go to work when we get older and are bored from having too much fun. Sometimes life seems backwards.

I always use a Sonic stomp on my bass or guitar and an 882I maximizer on the vocals. They do work. Thanks for stepping up this week.-- Darwin

[astutzmann]

well, I retired in 2004 (it was time plus I had aging parents to take care of), on 3 boards then, back to work in 2008/2009 but got laid off due to the recession.

This year I started back at cisco as an education consultant, I do customer assessments of skills and gaps and build them a training plan. Great gig so far, its a semi retirement role, I work about 20-30 hours a week and I work from home.

So, my day starts at 6, coffee, coffee, coffee. Then I start work between 6:30-7. I get a ton done by 9 am. Then I take a break to do a workout, shower and get back to it by 10-10:30. I take 5 for lunch and then I start to drift off in the afternoon, like playing guitar from 4-5..........

So far, I am having fun!

I have my clean amp and I have a boss me-70 multi pedal in front of it, but all I really use it for is to tune and then I play with the pre-amp on and reverb on....that's all, the guitars sound great by themselves.

[willross]

Great Start! My lunch today will be left-over stuffed shells I made for a party yesterday. People are telling me to package them & sell on the freezer isle... maybe. Work? Well I am currently being bought-out of my fitness company. That's good because it took too much time away from everything else in my life. Then I will be completely unemployed, therefore weekends become meaningless... Pedals? I have good amps, so clean and mean most of the time. I do use a Dunlop Wah, KoT V2 Jumbo & old school Zoom 505(only use for studio work occasionally). I have a rack mounted Focusrite Red compressor, BBE Sonic Maximizer, and a few others too. Good instruments and amplification go a long way...


Cheers,

Will


*** On a side note: Has anyone noticed that Will Ray's "WR" brand is identical to the "Woody's Roundup" cattle brand logo from Toy Story 2??? It is... Maybe Will should take this up with Disney/Pixar.

[louis cyfer]

Hey Ken,

My mondays are a long day for me, up at 6:30 out the door to teach by 8:15, then wrap up lessons at 9:00pm. Nothing like a solid 12 hour day of playing guitar! (actually there isn't - I LOVE what i do!). The only downside is i don't get to see the kids today at all, they are in bed by the time i get home.

and an xotic ep booster as an almost always on. it's not that the guitar doesn't sound good without it, but there is some magic dust in those boxes, does something remarkable to the tone.

+1 Louie! My Xotic RC booster is always on, I use it over the EP as it has a bass and treble control which helps dial in the subtleties of the different guitars, or the room i am playing in. After last years lunch report i took the rack mount sonic maximizer to use with the PA, next time i am thinking about the pedal version. Louie, do you use it in combo with the EP, and does it add much after the Xotic is engaged?

Have a great day everyone
Scott

i use the somic stomp at the end of the chain and is always on. it works really well there. it adds to what the ep does, in a good way. i have found that i don't need the eq in the front, the ep is exactly right. if i do need to adjust the low and high, the sonic stomp will do that. so yes, it's in a combo together.

[louis cyfer]

Great Start! My lunch today will be left-over stuffed shells I made for a party yesterday. People are telling me to package them & sell on the freezer isle... maybe. Work? Well I am currently being bought-out of my fitness company. That's good because it took too much time away from everything else in my life. Then I will be completely unemployed, therefore weekends become meaningless... Pedals? I have good amps, so clean and mean most of the time. I do use a Dunlop Wah, KoT V2 Jumbo & old school Zoom 505(only use for studio work occasionally). I have a rack mounted Focusrite Red compressor, BBE Sonic Maximizer, and a few others too. Good instruments and amplification go a long way...


Cheers,

Will


*** On a side note: Has anyone noticed that Will Ray's "WR" brand is identical to the "Woody's Roundup" cattle brand logo from Toy Story 2??? It is... Maybe Will should take this up with Disney/Pixar.

what fitness company?

[willross]

Millennium Fitness Ltd / http://gwerx.com


Cheers,

Will

[meowmix]

Hey KenC, glad to have you as our host for this week.

Nothing exciting about my lunch. I have been buying dry beans in bulk and cooking them for the week. Not bad. Can get boring.

30 minutes or so to work, is not bad, but an hour bus ride. I hope you have a laptop.

I get great sound out of my amp with nothing in the signal chain.
My amp is great it will be even better when I am finished building it. Kevin @ LondonPower suggest a de-tuned cab which I had built with an EV-Force 15" speaker. Speakers do change tone, since they no longer make the EV-Force 15", Kevin suggested to get Emenience instead.
If you are ever interested in getting different tones out of the speaker cab, do a google search on detuned cab. They really do sound more open and clear.

[blargfromouterspace]

I don't envy anyone who has to get up at 4am on a Monday! I'm at uni, so my schedule is inconsistent. My Monday begins at 8.30, I have a class from 9.30 to 11.30 then I'm done for the day. I wish I could use the rest of the day for fun but it usually gets eaten up by homework. Then I'll cook us dinner (roast chicken last night) and that's it.

I play clean 90% of the time and if I could get away with just a guitar and an amp I'd be happy. I run a pretty modest sized pedal board (5 pedals) but even that sucks some tone out. It's noticeably better when I plug straight in, to me anyway. I only use a clean boost for solos, no compression at all and no 'always on' pedals.

[Boogie Bill]

Morning is a nice concept, but it happens at a bad time of day for me!

My secret weapon on my pedalboard is the ancient DOD FX10 Preamp. I generally run the gain knob at noon, adding just a slight boost; the tone knob might be fudged a bit towards the one 'clock position to add a bit of treble. It's first in the chain and I usually run it "alway on", but I will sometimes click it off with the HB guitars. With such a moderate boost, mine is very quiet.

I also run a compressor, a Boss CS-3. I usually leave this one always on, too. My rule of thumb is that if I can hear the compressor work--it's too much compression.

From there, I go to the TU-3 tuner; Real Tube 901 OD, Thomas Organ Crybaby Wah, Boss CE-3 Chorus, Boss PH-1r Phasor--into one of my Mesa amps. I use a 12' cable from guitar to pedalboard, then a 15' to the amp.

I currently use a Rocktron Short-Timer delay, and a Boss Pitch Shifter/Harmonizer (PS-5?) in the effects loop. I only use the PS for ONE song (which is kind of crazy), to create a twin guitar solo effect. Crazy, but it is perfect for that song.

Bill

[meowmix]

Morning is a nice concept, but it happens at a bad time of day for me!

My secret weapon on my pedalboard is the ancient DOD FX10 Preamp. I generally run the gain knob at noon, adding just a slight boost; the tone knob might be fudged a bit towards the one 'clock position to add a bit of treble. It's first in the chain and I usually run it "alway on", but I will sometimes click it off with the HB guitars. With such a moderate boost, mine is very quiet.

I also run a compressor, a Boss CS-3. I usually leave this one always on, too. My rule of thumb is that if I can hear the compressor work--it's too much compression.

From there, I go to the TU-3 tuner; Real Tube 901 OD, Thomas Organ Crybaby Wah, Boss CE-3 Chorus, Boss PH-1r Phasor--into one of my Mesa amps. I use a 12' cable from guitar to pedalboard, then a 15' to the amp.

I currently use a Rocktron Short-Timer delay, and a Boss Pitch Shifter/Harmonizer (PS-5?) in the effects loop. I only use the PS for ONE song (which is kind of crazy), to create a twin guitar solo effect. Crazy, but it is perfect for that song.

Bill

Here is a picture of his setup.

[louis cyfer]

Millennium Fitness Ltd / http://gwerx.com


Cheers,

Will

thank you. looks interesting. i couldn't find a price. i have several clients looking for a home gym.

[KenC]

Today was destined to go off my normal Monday schedule! My bus was almost a half hour late picking me up. When I got to work, I realized my ID card was at home. Security is very tight at US government buildings, so even though the guards recognized me I had to wait ten minutes for authorization to go up to my office. This one is kind of embarrassing, but I ended up locked in the restroom for about ten minutes and had to call maintenance to let me out (there was a door knob malfunction). Finally, I had to deal with a situation in California this afternoon and ended up working a couple of extra hours because of time zone issues (for those outside of the US, the west coast is three hours behind the east coast - that's better than Cincinnati, which is a couple of decades behind ).

There's been some great discussion today. Thank you Louis and Meowmix for the suggestions on speakers. I've always just gone with what came in the amp, but in the future I will think seriously about the speaker if an amp doesn't sound optimal. Louis and Scott, I will definitely look into the Xotic products. Somehow I've missed hearing about them before now.

Jukka, the Nova Dynamics sounds interesting. It sounds a bit like the Moogerfooger boxes that contain two inter-related modules. I love the flexibility that can bring.

Darwin, I need to give the Sonic Stomp a try with the basses. I have an older Sonic Maximizer 264R that I've used in front of the Jazz Chorus with good results.

Alf, having fun at work makes all the difference in the world. One of my professors in grad school had done a lot of work on job engagement, and found it was a bit of a "silver bullet" for many chronic health problems. When I went into the Navy, my first Chief Petty Officer told me to "keep on doing this job until it isn't fun anymore". That advice has served my very well over the years.

Will, those are great observations on the value of a good guitar/amp combo. Before I started playing G&Ls, I needed pedals to get anything close to a decent sound. Now they are purely for an occasional change of pace. Hopefully the "WR" brand overlap will send a subliminal message and draw the next generation of guitarists to G&L...

Bill, that sounds like a versatile pedal board. I have a soft spot for old DOD pedals. Is there a reason for such long cables? Do the FX-10 and CS-3 make up for signal loss?

Jamie, I'm sure engineering school has enough challenges without having to wake up early. I did my graduate work in a school of engineering, and have not-so-fond memories of homework that consisted of a single question but required an all-nighter to answer it!

Until tomorrow...now I need to cook up some vintage G&L goodness.

Ken

[willross]

thank you. looks interesting. i couldn't find a price. i have several clients looking for a home gym.

They are now exclusively for fitness center/group fitness environments. When the company started, the emphasis was direct to consumer, but then we created a group fitness program (patent pending & certified ACE & continuing ed.) that caters to clubs, etc. We also place them in hotels, corporate fitness rooms, and rehab clinics. No doubt, best program and system out there... Thanks for the interest.

[bassman]

I have a rack setup with a Sonic Maximizer paired with and A.M.P. bass amp. It sounds incredibly good.- Bassman

[louis cyfer]

thank you. looks interesting. i couldn't find a price. i have several clients looking for a home gym.

They are now exclusively for fitness center/group fitness environments. When the company started, the emphasis was direct to consumer, but then we created a group fitness program (patent pending & certified ACE & continuing ed.) that caters to clubs, etc. We also place them in hotels, corporate fitness rooms, and rehab clinics. No doubt, best program and system out there... Thanks for the interest.

i am not talking about direct to consumer. it is a fitness center environment, but in the homes. then group training for the family. not interested in the program though, only in the equipment.

[willross]

thank you. looks interesting. i couldn't find a price. i have several clients looking for a home gym.

They are now exclusively for fitness center/group fitness environments. When the company started, the emphasis was direct to consumer, but then we created a group fitness program (patent pending & certified ACE & continuing ed.) that caters to clubs, etc. We also place them in hotels, corporate fitness rooms, and rehab clinics. No doubt, best program and system out there... Thanks for the interest.

i am not talking about direct to consumer. it is a fitness center environment, but in the homes. then group training for the family. not interested in the program though, only in the equipment.

Hey, I dig it. I have two gyms that recently celebrated their 10th anniv. without a broken or worn-out part. Before these, I've broken more than a few gyms just by using them... Request a video/DVD; they're free.

*** They also look great w/ a G&L! - This is not a solicitation....

[zapcosongs]

I have a rack setup with a Sonic Maximizer paired with and A.M.P. bass amp. It sounds incredibly good.- Bassman

I can vouch for this personally.....

Hey, I'm guessing you get on the train at New Carrolton. I used to do a car to train to office commute, and it wore me out after nearly a decade. But DC is a cool place. My brother lives out your way in Gambrills. Maybe we can meet sometime, Ken. I got boys too. Do you fish? I got a lake.... - ed

On topic, I've been playing mostly acoustic lately, and when I have the chance to go electric, I usually plug right in to a 1964 Vox AC-4, Fender Super 60, 1966 Fender VibroChamp or a Superchamp XD (channel 1).
I do like my Green Screamer a lot, as well as my Japanese Boss Chorus and Vox King Wah (Sepulveda, CA).

[KenC]

Ed,

I would love to meet. I haven't wet a line in several years, but I used to spend every spare moment on the water when I lived in Maine. To clarify, I spent every spare moment on the water for both months that it wasn't frozen solid...

I usually take the MTA bus from Annapolis that stops at the front steps to my office, but if the bus schedule doesn't work out I drive to New Carrolton. The bus is much more comfortable, and since it's all business commuters I hardly ever have to sit next to somebody who is drunk at six in the morning like on the Metro!

That's a nice amp line-up. I have a silver face Champ that I picked up along with the Blues Junior as a package deal. It's very close to mint condition, so I leave it in a protected corner of the basement and wait for the collectability to creep up. I need to dust it off soon and warm up the tubes.

Ken