********* Monday Lunch Report ***********

[Katefan]

Greetings from Aotearoa - Land of the Long White Cloud!

Katefan here - welcome to what will hopefully be an enjoyable week of LR's...

As some of you know, my name is Jason and my handle refers to being a fan of Kate Bush. I'm 45 & 1/2 (more on that later) and i stumbled across this site about 12 years ago. I'm originally from Seattle, WA. I spent a few years in San DIego, CA and now call Auckland, New Zealand my home. I moved here 1 & 1/2 years ago and live with my girlfriend, jackie, and our kitty, Matisse.
Jackie & I met 3 years ago this month when she was visiting Seattle - I had recently moved back to the Emerald City - missed the trees! SD is great but there aint no trees! Auckland to me is the best of both worlds(cities).

So here we go - Lunch today was leftovers nachos from the other night.



I'm a dyed in the wool fan of all things Leo so when I spy a G&L this is the first thing I look for - the Union label so to speak.
I've owned over a dozen G&Ls and all but 2 were 3-bolts. Not to say the new stuff ain't happening (the current stuff looks FAB) the old ones just floats my boat.
I realise things change and have too as the only constant there is IS change but I wonder if its time to bring back some of the George & Leo magic - What say you??

Many of you have seen this but there seems to be a lot of new blood as of late so here's some recent pics of my '90 ASAT SIgnature...







I got her at the Midway Swapmeet south of Seattle summer of 2004 for ten bucks. She was in a fire, looked quite a mess and the seller thought she was a goner so hence the ridiculously low price. I took her home removed the plastic p/g which had melted up into the strings and spent a couple hours cleaning all the soot and black grime she was covered in. The bicut neck seam separated a bit and the some of the tuner caps popped off but happily, the stock pu's didn't get stuffed from the heat.
I took her to my first singing & playing gig the following weekend... a friend dubbed her Char as in Charcoal.... and she became my main axe. I don't know if the heat did something to the MFD's but everyone seems to comment on how good this guitar sounds -regardless of the amp I'm playing through. Could just be sim;ple Leo-goodness. At the first gig I used the house band's gear which consisted in part of a 80's Peavey Backstage and I got compliments of my sound!
Re the p/g - I found a LH Leo-era white alum p/g on eBay for cheap. Bought it, smeared cooking oil on it and baked it in a toaster oven to get that effect. Took a few tries hence the oil - mixture of Olive & Sesame. I tried several p/g's over the years but didn't really dig any of them so I sorta made my own.

Next up....

New music -

Here's a current/former NZ band - Unknown Mortal Orchestra... I say former as most if not all the band members moved to Portland, Oregon.
[youtube]_ZGa8fA48SY[/youtube]
I dig this as it sounds fresh to my ears... Gotta say I'm not too impressed with what a lot of new bands are putting out these days... perhaps I'm just getting old.

What new/current band(s) do you dig that seem to stand out and/or offer something new? Post vids if you can (hint use the long link under options - under the Share)

Old Music -

I'm currently reading Steven Tyler's Rock n Roll Memoir so thought this would be fitting....
One of my favourite tunes from back in the day. This album, Toys in the Attic and LIVE Bootleg are embedded in my brain cells - from age 10 til my first year of High School the only 2 bands I listened to was The Beatles and Aerosmith.
[youtube]-_fK0u7uobE[/youtube]

I saw them in '84 once they reformed and apparently had cleaned up... Tyler fell off the stage tho so perhaps not!

Any fans out there and any memorable shows/memories?

Hometown Heroes -

Flight of the Conchords are a local NZ comedy Duo that had a show on HBO in the not too distant past...

Here's their latest --
http://ondemand.tv3.co.nz/Red-Nose-Day ... fault.aspx

Nicely done -eh?

Trivia Question -

Since its Monday for most of ya here's an easy one....

Who is known as the Million Dollar Quartet?

A) The Kingston Trio + Pete Seeger
B) The Beatles
C) Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash
D) The Monkees
E) Lee Majors, Lindsay Wagner, Oscar Goldman, that German Shepard dog


Will leave ya with some George Carlin -
[youtube]ZkU3kiuZVuE[/youtube]

More tomorrow!

Cheers,
KF

[louis cyfer]

i love that asat signature

[blargfromouterspace]

Hey Jason - That George Carlin bit cracked me up! The UMO thing is unavailable in Oz due to copyright blah blah blah...

Love the pics of Char

[astutzmann]

Jason, great start.

The Beatles...................


Congrats on the move to NZ. I spent 5 weeks in NZ in 2005 and fell in love with the place. We went everywhere, except we didn't go much further north than about an hour or so north of Auckland. We saw the rest of the two islands and our last week was spent downtown in Auckland, near the harbour. FANTASTIC.

My wife and I were going to go back in 2009 but with the recession, etc, we cancelled the trip. One day, maybe in a couple more years when I retire again.........

I always said that if I had the balls, I'd sell everything and move there. I hope you are really enjoying it. What part of the city are you living in?

Good luck,

Alf

[darwinohm]

KF, don't know the trivia question but would guess the Beatles.

Great looking ASAT and it is amazing that the heat didn't destroy the pickups. That guitar defines the term "Roasted".

I haven't viewed the videos but I was totally oblivious to the music scene in the 80's. When disco first came out I was pretty much done and didn't return until the late 90's. I am not into the new music scene but our band ladies did a new song this weekend called "Pontoon". Boy, is it a cooker, I love it, and I understand it was recently released so I haven't given up!

I like the poll and wish that they had the 4 bolt with micro tilt. I haven't needed the micro tilt on the recent ones that I have bought but do have G&L's that I have shimmed.-- Darwin

[huck]

That my friend is the most interesting asat I've ever seen and I bet you get a lot of questions about how it came to be?
Anyway I like the four bolt, but a micro tilt might be nice? and since I live in florida I'm having Hurricane Isac for lunch..lol.

[y2kc]

Jason,

Yeah give me a micro tilt any day.

That Asat is well done,

y2kc

[oneeyedog]

amazing looking guitar
trivia... its the sun session guys i think

I'm liking this guy at the moment...... not really a new sound but I like it
[youtube]</vsZiKSCAwY0?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/youtube]

[Ledergeist]

Greetings KF...

Trivia answer - C

Aerosmith - Yep, saw them a bunch as a teen in the 70's, and every show was a dud. Only to find out in later years that they were completely wasted during those gigs... lol

Interesting treatment you gave the pickguard there.....

[oneeyedog]

i'm not getting this embedded thing from my post above... which part of the embedded code is used? any helpers?
john

[oneeyedog]

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vsZiKSCAwY0?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[oneeyedog]

sorry for the dumb ass previous posts!! read craigs how to's, eh!!!!
[youtube]vsZiKSCAwY0[/youtube]

[Philby]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for picking up LR duties this week. I love NZ. I'm from Tasmania, which is like a chunk of NZ sitting on the arse end of Australia, so NZ really feels like home to me. Wellington in particular.

That ASAT is amazing. A truly authentic, extreme relic.

As Blarg pointed out earlier, EMI have unfortunately blocked the UMO clip in Oz. I've got all the Flight of the Conchords DVD's and have watched them right through several times. The guy who plays Murray is very funny in his own right.

I don't get out to gigs much these days, but I saw these performances on a local music quiz show called RockWiz a few weeks back and was very impressed. In this age of autotune, it's always encouraging to see young musicians who can cut it live.

New Music
[youtube]gBhsHofznB8[/youtube]

Old Music
[youtube]XHHpelRxeB8[/youtube]

Having a stab at the trivia question, I'm guessing (c).

Looking forward to the rest of the week.

[zapcosongs]

Jason,

Yeah give me a micro tilt any day.

That Asat is well done,

y2kc

KC - I almost peed myself a little. Thanks!

KF - Great start. No time today to talk as the little bastids had their first day of school and we have lots of forms to review and sign and stuff. But that ASAT is certainly something special (no pun intended!) - ed

[Brock]

That house fire ASAT is most interesting. It's sad that it was in a house fire, but at the same time it's really cool. What's with the control plate and the bridge? I would guessed those to be black crinkle from the factory. Did it bake off, or was it scraped off, or ??????

As to fire treated MFDs, Will Ray has some deliberately "baked" MFDs.

Do you find the finish to be extra brittle or is it kinda "baked on"?

What an interesting and cool guitar.

[Boogie Bill]

Glad to have you do the LR! But I thought the "Kate" was for Ms. Beckinsale! I'm definitely a fan of hers!

I too bought a guitar at the Midway Shop meet, probably back around 1996-97. It is my first Ibanez GR-520 Ibanez Ghostrider in Vintage Sunburst. Wasn't 10 bucks, but it was a heck of a deal anyway. I love that guitar! I'll have to get a pic up. Yours is quite the ASAT--a true Phoenix, risen from the ashes.

I am a big fan of the Micro-Tilt. Use the old 3-bolt, or a new 4-bolt--I don't care...but bring it back!

Bill

[Katefan]

Hey guys -

Burning the midnight oil here -

A few quick replies -

Alf - Cool! Sounds like time well spent. We live in a suburb called Mt. Roskill which is near the end of 20. We used to live in New Windsor which is a few minutes from here and which is a hop skip and jump from Avondale. Lucky You - you've been to the South Island. I've seen much of the North island but have only got have far south as Rotorua. Hope you and the Mrs can head back over soon as!

Jamie - Good to hear - bum tho bout no UMO....

Huck - LOL - Nice!

Darwin - Cool to hear bout the new song and you're still hangin in there!

One eye - thanks for the clips will definitely check em out when the dust clears...

Casey - HA! CHeers,

Ledergeist - I'm not surprised to hear that... still I bet some of the 70's concerts were a blast!

Philby - You're welcome. Interesting! Good to know. Thanks for the clips!

Ed - Thanks! No worries - hope it all went well and stuff

Brock - Agreed. Nah, its a Sig model so the chrome bridge and control plate are chrome. Strange tho that it had a single ply black p/g on it as everyone I've seen came with a white powdered alum. I have no reason to believe it had been changed but who knows...
BOth - the finish on the top seems more brittle esp where it bubbled and burst (circular bits near the Leo SIg) Some of those have enlarged and less of the signature is visible. The back side tho is all baked on and smooth as!

Bill - Midway Swapmeet - Yah! Its a Lowe's store now. Good to hear... yeah post some pics!
Straight up on the tilt adjust!

Cheers,
KF

[sirmyghin]

Good to see that axe still kicking, definitely has the look to it. Not a BS crap 'relic'd' axe either so all the better.

I'd like to see tilt + 4 bolt. Not coincidentally my 4 bolt is shimmed to get more break over the saddles.