The Lunch Report - Hump Edition

[Katefan]

Kia Ora Folks - Its Wednesday! Welcome back to another NZ edition of the LR.

Thanks to all who participated and posted stuff - - much appreciated!

Lunch today was leftover meatloat (AKA meat cake) with some mashed potatoes... tasted better than it sounds.

The answer to yesterday's Trivia question was Sam Phiilips.... bit of an extreme statement perhaps but I've read he was firm believer in being yourself. Good thing that-eh? - what does the Bible say? - to thine own self be true - or is that Shakesphere? I can't recall - I'm pretty knack'd at the mo - been a long day and I didn't get as far as I planned yesterday pulling double duty... Btw, I will reply to yesterdays responses soon.

Today's main topic is doing things differently (DTD) DIYOW, DIY( here In NZ also known as DON"T INJURE YOURSELF)

But first we'll start with -

Some of you are probably hep to the fact that G&L offered a whole range of replacement pickups back in the day.
I remember seeing them advertised in the back of guitar mags all through the 80's.
I got these when I picked up my latest G&L acquisition. The seller had some extra G&L parts that he graciously threw in with the deal. I recently put them to use but more on that in a min...

So I was thinking bout what Sam Phillps said and it occurred to me that many innovative artists and musicians came to fame by 'breaking the rules' and doing things differently... whether using things as they weren't originally intended or putting chord(s) or notes in a progression where they don't 'naturally occur - Carl Perkin's Blue Suede Shoes comes to mind... Dave Davies of the Kinks slicing his amp's speakers w/ a razor blade to get a distorted sound, Hendrix's extreme use of the whammy bar and sheer volume, the Beatles overloading the recording console inputs which resulted in a compressed and super cool tone.... Eddie Van Halen using a variac on his Marshall Super Lead 100 to achieve his 'brown sound' - the list is endless...
So my first question is - Have you come up with a unique way of doing something - whether its using a piece of gear, a tuning, an amp setting... to achieve a cool sound or effect? If so and you're willing to devulge your method(s) of madness - pls do so...and/or add your .02 to the above list.

2nd question - Michael Yonkers - anyone heard of this guy?

His story goes something like this - In 1968 as a teenager he was signed to SIre Records... he recorded a bunch of songs with his band for his debut album. He then had a falling out with his manager and his contract was revoked. The album he recorded remained unheard until 1997. Long story short - a guy stumbled across the recordings, search for & found him and made a deal to release them. A seven track album titled Microminiature Love eventually appeared in 2002 on vinyl. A year later a CD appeared on Sub Pop with 6 more previously unreleased tracks.... Yonker suddenly found he had become a cult hero!

Being fascinated with gadgetry, he built his own effect pedals & low budget synths, sliced his speakers w/ razor blades & customised his Fender Telecaster. The droning guitar sound he discovered when he knocked his guitar off a stand and kept the unusual tuning that resulted.
His story gets weirder.... after being dropped from Sire, his band disolved and he took a job in a electronics warehouse. There he was involved in a horrendous accident where a pile of equipment toppled over on top of him and destroyed his back. After spine surgery he developed a degenerative spinal condition that he treats by dancing.
Here's the title track -
[youtube]jF-F2bW13fg[/youtube]
The cool thing is he's still writing & performing and there's a documentary in the works...
[youtube]0K8IDltpHes[/youtube]

So is anyone handy with a soldering iron and into making their own amps, f/x, or ??? I was a electronic tech in a former life so that's proven helpful when it comes to fixing & wiring things up... which brings us back to the MFD's...

Here's where they're at @ the moment. No - its not a G&L but it does have a bicut neck design and a tilt adjust...




Yep - its an early 90's USA Peavey Predator. Showed up a while back at the local Sunday Market and i got it for $50! I tricked it out w/ the pearloid p/g + extras.

Here's the original p/g assy


Not flash tuners by any means but they actually work fine...

I was thinking of putting this on but I don't have any saddles and there's a string/pole piece misalignment on the neck pu so thinking of putting the original p/g assy back on & keeping it as my beater/loaner/don't care if it gets lost or stolen/guitar.


This brings me to the Trivia question -
but today gonna do things a bit differently...
Take a look at the above photo and this one as well -


What do you notice? Yes, its an early Dual Fulcrum Bridge Assy with the S/N stamped on the bridge plate but... there are 2 distinct differences - can you spot either or both of them?

Moving on - The Micheal Yonkers tune sort of reminds of the Sonics which are today's Hometown heroes.
I know, they're not from NZ, they're from Tacoma, Washington but I saw them here a few months back and they put on one heck of a show.
http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/utr/more ... d-Show.utr

HUGELY influential band that ironically were only together for a few years... They got back together in 2007 and have (most of the orig members) been touring the world! It was a kick to see them still knocking it out + they have a new album out!
Anyone seen them - then or now? What shows have you attended as of late? Any highlights?

Next up -

Today its New & Old Music combined because I'm guessing most of you havent' heard of this guy... I hadn't tll last month.
[youtube]HyrnXa90S6w[/youtube]

Jackie & i attended the NZ International Film Festival a few weeks back and watched a documentary called Searching for Sugarman.
Some films are best not knowing anything about them prior to watching them - this is one of them. I recommend you resist any temptation to look this guy up on the net - just find out where the movie is available/showing and go see it. I think you'll be really glad you did.
Here's one more -
[youtube]lj4f-JUcaxs[/youtube]

OK, that wraps it up for today....

Til tomorrow!

Cheers,
KF

[Aussie]

Kf - good to see the ISP has been kind to you so you can spend more time back on the GLDP

Been laid low for a couple of weeks first with a gastro virus and then before I was over that I was taken out by the flu. Checked in on Brock, Bill and your reports but apologies to all for lack of participation as I just didn't have the physical or mental energy to reply,

Some cool pics this week and its always great to get another look at Char.

Q1 Doing thing differently. Sorry, nothing springs to mind at the moment

Q2. Yonkers Nope ... another blank. Hadn't heard of Michael Yonkers but I like. Cool story too.

Rodeiguez. Man, I'd forgotten all about him. He was actually pretty big around these parts in the 70's - Cold Fact would be playing at just about every party you went to. We had a cassette copy on regular rotation in the car when we went crusing on the weekends. Ah, the memories!

Old Music, New Music and artist with an arrested career and interesting story. OK ... these guys fit all of the above categories. They recorded 7 songs back in the 70s (old music?) but the record company dropped them before anything was released when the band refused to change their name. The tracks were finally released a couple of years ago (making them new music?). Here's Death

[youtube]OwehxN2ipCU[/youtube]

and here's their story in words and in moving pictures

[youtube]-nkIeo0XShw[/youtube]

cheers, Robbie

[yowhatsshakin]

Hi KF,

Don't have a lot of time right now for a long answer. Hopefully later today. But on your trivia question, one difference id that the trem block only has provisions for 2 springs instead of the customary 3. The other difference eludes me in the short time I could look at the pictures. Is it the material for the block?

Hopefully 'til later.

- Jos

[sirmyghin]

Well I am damn handy with a soldering iron, but I don't do much beyond wire guitars and make cables. Put together a BYOC kit one time ,and really I didn't enjoy it so I never delved deeper into that whole ordeal.

What do I do 'completely' different. No clue, my best guess would probably be I compose more in the classical sense (no instruments in hand). Removes a lot of my limitations.

No clue who this Yonkers fellow is, not really for me though.

[JagInTheBag]

Old Music, New Music and artist with an arrested career and interesting story. OK ... these guys fit all of the above categories. They recorded 7 songs back in the 70s (old music?) but the record company dropped them before anything was released when the band refused to change their name. The tracks were finally released a couple of years ago (making them new music?). Here's Death

[youtube]OwehxN2ipCU[/youtube]

and here's their story in words and in moving pictures

[youtube]-nkIeo0XShw[/youtube]

cheers, Robbie

This is friggin' cool! I would have LOVED to hear their career progress. Such a shame, perhaps if they changed their name to "Napalm Death" that would have been okay, LOL!

[darwinohm]

Great week KF and I love the pictures of the Predator, NZ and the old G&L pickups.

I am an old electronics guy and I have many hours of soldering under the belt. I did repair on aircraft control systems for some time but the final soldering on a repair was done by ladies and then we would retest. They were good. I have only one guitar with replacement pickups and that was done before I bought it. I do go out on the limb at times. In 1992 I installed a a 10 CD changer, a subwoofer I designed and a 200 watt amp on my 1990 Gold Wing. To this day, I have not heard anything near it on a motorcycle. I also designed and built a plastic optical lens to direct the display of my radar detector to my eyes. It was cool. Back in the 90's I designed a system to turn you auto headlights on when you wipers went on. A friend of mine tried to convince me we could get rich on this. I laughed at him and he tried to market it. He is still as poor as I am!

I do not know the artist in question 2 but it is a great story.

I think you could still salvage the pickguard and pickups on the Predator. I believe that you have enough room to redrill the holes in the body and it would not show. It is skewed. I had to do the same thing to a brand new Brian May as I did not want to send it back. It worked out great.-- Darwin

[blargfromouterspace]

I really enjoyed the Michael Yonkers stuff, and that band he's got backing him sound fantastic, I'll be looking them up later on

We're currently learning a bunch of songs for a backing gig, and one of them has a thunder storm sound effect in it. I don't plan on actually doing it in the concert, but you can get a pretty reasonable approximation of a thunder storm by kicking an amp with spring reverb. Made for a bit of fun in rehearsal anyway!

On Sam Phillips - I learned recently that a on few of those Sun Studios records the drums are in fact a telephone book! Still beats a drum machine

I have an amp kit on the way - I bought a Weber 5E7 kit a week or so ago. It'll be the first amp I've put together, and while I'm excited about the project, I'm not looking forward to any problems. Troubleshooting electronics can be a pain in the arse.

[KenC]

Hi KF,

You've stumped me on the vibrato, but then again my newest DFV for comparison s from '85 or '86 (I can't bring myself to remove the neck on my Skyhawk to check dates, because the action is absolutely perfect). The only thing I can notice is the addition of a third spring. They were still stamped "PAT. PEND." when my 'Hawk was built in the mid-80s, but I'm guessing that's changed by now...

I haven't attempted anything with a soldering iron, but would like to try building my own lo-fi effects someday. It's pretty far down on the project list though.

Interrupted careers: The most interesting one I know of is Henry Grimes. He was a very prominent upright bass player with big name jazz acts in the 50s and early 60s, and then became the definitive bass player among the free jazz movement in New York in the late 60s. At the height of his career he went to Los Angeles for a gig and wasn't heard from again. The assumption was that he had died and his body wasn't identified. Over thirty years later a fan tried sorting through Social Security records to see if he could learn more about his final days, and ended up discovering that he was still living in LA. It turned out his bass was damaged during the trip, and ended up having to sell it in LA to afford food and shelter. He gave up music, worked odd jobs to survive, and began writing poetry. When he was "discovered" in 2003 he thought the demise of vinyl albums meant his music was out of circulation and his long list of royalties had dried up. He was given a bass by one of his many fans, and within a couple of weeks was playing professionally again. Now he is in as much demand as he was 45 years ago, and has toured the world performing. I almost took my nine year old son up to NYC to see him play at a festival this summer, but the show was just going to be too late at night to have him out in the streets of New York.

Ken

[Katefan]

More catch up....

Hey Ken - Yep, you got it. That's the main diff.
Yeah, I hear ya bout not wanting to remove the neck... i avoid that whenever possible.
Thanks for chiming inn & for the tip on HG.... unreal.


Hey Blarg -
COol - yeah that's what I'm talking bout... re Sun.. yeah I heard that two... I think Lindsey Buckingham did a similar thing on his Out of the Cradle CD + he recording it in mono.
Sweet on the amp kit - yeah I hear ya... just go slow and avoid late night soldering sessions...


Darwin - Cool, another thing we have in common. I worked for Collins Avionics for 5 years....
Sweet re the Goldwing sound system... I bet. Man, it sounds like you have quite the knack for inventions...
Thanks for the p/g tip - I think you're right. I 've decided tho to return it to stock and sell it to a friend of a friend who's in need of good inexpensive axe.
Thanks for chiming in and glad you enjoyed the NZ pics!

Jag - True dat!

Hi Tim!
Life here is good - just a bit wet at the mo!
Straight up... I don't know if they originally came with an instruction manual but I have the cardboard inset, pink packing foam thing and this -


Drawn up by your good buddy, George!

COoL re Carl... IMO, he doesn't get the recognition he deserves.... That Cat was ahead of his time!

Ha - re soldering Well its definitely apparent that your talents lay elsewhere...
Thanks TIm, Hope things are well and warm in SoCal...


Sirmy - I hear ya... its like cooking... I'd rather eat food than prep it...
Interesting... that raises a good point.. that you can compose and practice away from your instrument - same exact thing but like you say - limitations are removed. COol.
Cheers for that.

Hey Jos,

Yep, that's it. Nicey done!
WOrd.

Aussie -
Thanks - yeah our ISP double our monthly allowance and then double it again - at no extra cost! Think they were afraid of losing folks...
Sad to hear bout not feeling well. I think something sim was going round here. HOpe you're on the mend and back in the saddle soon.
Thanks - CHeers.
Cool - re Sixto.... yeah, I've read that. Ha - you and a few other's Def check out the film when you can... You'll be able to relate.
I just found a CD copy of it last week at the local market for $1 - best find this year!!

Hey thanks for the post on Death - very COOL - what a great story/band!!
Cheers Robbie