Friday Lunch Report: 14 June 2013

[Greenblues]

Rotisserie chicken and french fries at Jerry's Uno doesn't really warrant a photo, does it? The link below will take you to the Jerry's Uno site, but apparently they don't think their own excellent chicken and fries are worth a photo either because they specialise in Mexican food. Or maybe the shop near my job is the only one that serves rotisserie chicken? Personally I think that and their jerk chicken are way better than their tacos. It's all very confusing to me. http://www.jerrysuno.com/ (don't bother with the English page, just enjoy the visuals!)

For today's non-G&L topic, I need some advice about a common issue for many of us. While I already hinted at it in Monday's report, we didn't really go into the subject of amps that sound good at "bedroom-volume" for "late-night practice" (could we combine these as, bedtime volume?) For that I got an original Little Lanilei 1/4 watt amp about a year ago, but it really sounds best at studio-volume. Fortunately, my Valbee does the job adequately, but still needs some work to reduce the noise, and a better speaker like the Little Lanilei's.

Anyway, what do you use for bedtime volume practice when headphones simply won't do?

Likewise, for today's G&L topic, I'd like to raise the issue of shielding again since Tuesday's report didn't spark any replies. Is your G&L sufficiently shielding, and if not what did you/will do/should we do about it?

[louis cyfer]

the semi hollow asats don't do well with shielding, so it's not really an issue with that. a legacy or s500 i would shield properly with copper sheeting. all my strats are, although 2 are factory fender with the paint, and they do work adequately. i do use the aluminum plate under the pickguard, much better than the foil that is just glued to the back of the pg.
i use my two rock to practice, even at late night and it still sounds great at that volume. i don't even use the attenuator that i have. i hate practicing with headphones, nor do any of my amps have a headphone out. no thank you. you realize that a 1/4 watt amp is only 1/4 as loud as a 40 watt amp. the efficiency of the speaker has a lot too do with it. a 1/4 watt amp with a speaker of 103db sensitivity will be louder than a 4 watt with 96db sensitivity. also, less than a 10" speaker is not that good at any volume imnsho.

i have a friend visiting from tokyo, and she says that she is having a hard time finding a gym nearby, and she doesn't drive. she is a couple of stops outside of shibuya. are gyms really that hard to find? it seems healthy eating is not that much of a concern in japan. how is the working out culture?

[LeoFThe Champion]

Man you eat some good lunches.
I rock my 62 Fender Blonde Bassman everywhere . At home I just plug in an overdrive and turn down . Last week I received a BJFE Model G straight from Bjorn.I 'm happy with my bedroom tone. But I am on an elusive search for a 68 or earlier Princeton Reverb , now that's a mighty bedroom amp. I last heard one in the 80's
Anthony

[Greenblues]

i use my two rock to practice, even at late night and it still sounds great at that volume. i don't even use the attenuator that i have. i hate practicing with headphones, nor do any of my amps have a headphone out. no thank you. you realize that a 1/4 watt amp is only 1/4 as loud as a 40 watt amp.

Yeah, I was hoping to try out a Two-Rock at a boutique a few stops Shibuya this weekend, but it looks like the staff went abroad for some American guitar shows. I wasn't aware of the math behind watts/dbs, but my ears (and wife) definitely concur. That quarter-watt is LOUD. I used to share you feelings about speaker size, but have found that the lack low-end of 6-8" speakers is desirable for home practice, since it's the low frequencies that shake the walls and piss everyone off. I always find myself turning the amp's Bass/Low control down to 1 or less.

i have a friend visiting from tokyo, and she says that she is having a hard time finding a gym nearby, and she doesn't drive. she is a couple of stops outside of shibuya. are gyms really that hard to find? it seems healthy eating is not that much of a concern in japan. how is the working out culture?

I don't know how your friend is failing to find a gym. Gold's Gyms is everywhere, and there are at least three other domestic major franchises I know of, and I'm not even a gym-guy. Many of my coworkers have a gym membership, but don't get a chance to use it because the working-culture dominates the work-out culture. My friend talked me into signing up at Gold's once, and I noticed that most of the other patrons are retirees and house-wifes.

And it may not look like it from my high-fat/sodium lunches, but I eat pretty healthy. Portions are smaller, and my wife cooks fresh fish and vegetables several times week for breakfast and dinner. Plus stuff like green tea and tofu which supposedly lowers the risk of cancer. On the other hand, it's unusual to find a places with a salad bar or macrobiotics (my wife just discovered that this year), organic, vegan, no-carbs, etc. This is what gives the impression Japanese are not health conscious, but all those schools of thought are kinda redundant here, IMO.

[louis cyfer]

don't eat tofu, or soy in general. it is healthy for women, but it has phyto-estrogens and it will lower your testosterone.

[darwinohm]

GB, I have enjoyed your reports this week! The lunches have been fun to watch.

Bedroom levels? I usually sit and practice unplugged on the couch in the morning. Doesn't even pi** the cats off!. I have used headphones through my Tonelab for practice and the sound is incredible. I was always a headphone fan in the old days of stereo with vinyl, a lost art.

In my opinion G&L is not well shielded and I have shielded several, especially against pickguard static. it is so simple to fix I am surprised it isn't done at the factory. Bur they have a great product at about half the price of my Grosh which is shielded superbly.-- Darwin

[Fumble fingers]

the shielding will eleminate PG static ??.. my legacy gets a lot of PG static , I keep a drier sheet close by but would rather a permanent fix

good LR GB ... I don't have much to offer but learn a lot and enjoy reading

Eric

[Greenblues]

don't eat tofu, or soy in general. it is healthy for women, but it has phyto-estrogens and it will lower your testosterone.

Yeah, I was alarmed when I read that, too. Easier said than done, though. So far I haven't grown boobs or lost any body hair yet, so I guess I'm not consuming too much.

[Greenblues]

GB, I have enjoyed your reports this week! The lunches have been fun to watch.

Bedroom levels? I usually sit and practice unplugged on the couch in the morning.I have used headphones through my Tonelab for practice and the sound is incredible. I was always a headphone fan in the old days of stereo with vinyl, a lost art.

Cheers, Darwin! +1 on morning practice and Vox box.

About two years ago, I recently became reacquainted with vinyl, after missing it for about 10 years, but forgot what a pain in the posterior it was compared to digital. Lots of my friends here are/were/aspired-to-be DJs, and I was lucky to inherit some of their gear.

[Greenblues]

my legacy gets a lot of PG static , I keep a drier sheet close by but would rather a permanent fix

good LR GB ... I don't have much to offer but learn a lot and enjoy reading

Eric

Thanks, Eric. I don't really have very much to offer either, actually.

Never noticed any pickguard static from my guitar. Maybe that only happens in drier climates?

[louis cyfer]

don't eat tofu, or soy in general. it is healthy for women, but it has phyto-estrogens and it will lower your testosterone.

Yeah, I was alarmed when I read that, too. Easier said than done, though. So far I haven't grown boobs or lost any body hair yet, so I guess I'm not consuming too much.

you will not lose body hair or grow boobs. you will lose some muscle, may experience mood swings, depression, and generally feel more tired, less energetic.

[Greenblues]

you will not lose body hair or grow boobs. you will lose some muscle, may experience mood swings, depression, and generally feel more tired, less energetic.

Ok then, no more miso soup for me.

[blargfromouterspace]

I do late night practice without an amp, not as fun but quiet and free. Like Louis said, even small amps are loud. I've tried the headphone out on my little Peavey but its like sticking burning needles into your ears.

I have no concern about the estrogen in soy, and eat tofu at least a couple of times a week like many, many men in Asia do and have done for centuries. I ride a push-bike to my place of daily toil and still find it easier every time so my muscle seems to be growing. I'm generally a pretty happy person too. I suppose if you ate a ridiculous amount it might be worth worrying about, but the same could be said for anything.

[KenC]

I'm much more concerned about synthetic estrogens in dairy products and ground beef. Cows (breeding females, especially on dairy farms) are pumped full of them. I only let my kids drink milk from dairies that don't use treated cows, and completely avoid fast food hamburgers (where those treated cows end up when they're too old for milking).

I deal with "bedtime volume" almost every chance I have to play, since the kids are in bed by then. I play unplugged most of the time, but my Blues Junior gives a decent sound at very low volumes. I also have a mid-60s Harmony H-400. It needs new tubes, but when it's running I can completely break it up into overdrive and still be able to hold a conversation.

I haven't noticed any shielding issues with my G&Ls. Most of mine are early models, and have either shielding or metal pickguards.

Ken

[meursault]

never noticed any shielding issues with both my guitars...

i had a fender roc pro as practice amp, it sounded decent but damn too loud...

now i'm waiting my marshall-like 18w (1974) with the TMB mod to be build... i know, 18w is loud BUT it will have the VVR power scaling which is supposed to keep the tone at any volume... quite curious... anyway, i'll have to wait a month to try it out !

[Greenblues]

Based on my experience and everyone's responses, low-power (and perhaps smaller speakers) is only part of the solution. I've had amps so quiet you could heard the acoustic sound of the solid-body above it, which kinda defeats the point of using the amp, doesn't it. You WANT to feel that air pressure from the speaker, and the room resonate around you, right? So that means that what I really need is:

1) Soundproofing or at least dampening
2) An alternate location to play
3) A new place to live

For me, option two is actually the most viable now. The windows in my room do a lousy job of keeping the cold air out, and the vibrations in even with a little Smokey Amp. Fortunately, there are cheap rehearsal studios I can use a few minutes away by train. I also tried practicing in my car in a store parking lot after hours. However I am now seeking a new place to live after two years of conflict with my landlord since the "morning Mesa/Boogie incident."

So in conclusion, it seems the real benefit of a smaller low-wattage amp is for the best tone at a volume that isn't going to damage my own hearing, because even half a watt of electric guitar is going to offend everyone around me within a 5 meter radius.

[louis cyfer]

or just don't worry so much about the neighbors feelings. i also think the better you play, the more people are ok with hearing it. i have asked the people across the street if they hear my guitar playing, and they say "sure, but we like to hear you play". my neighbor who moved in recently played for the first time for 10 minutes at a much lower volume than i usually play, and the police was called. he had to build a soundproof room in his garage to play.

[suave eddie]

my neighbor who moved in recently played for the first time for 10 minutes at a much lower volume than i usually play, and the police was called. he had to build a soundproof room in his garage to play.

What time of day was that? I can't imagine anyone calling the police for 10 minutes of moderate music noise during normal daytime hours....unless of course he really was that bad!!

[louis cyfer]

my neighbor who moved in recently played for the first time for 10 minutes at a much lower volume than i usually play, and the police was called. he had to build a soundproof room in his garage to play.

What time of day was that? I can't imagine anyone calling the police for 10 minutes of moderate music noise during normal daytime hours....unless of course he really was that bad!!

it was 2pm. they also called his landlord.

[suave eddie]

my neighbor who moved in recently played for the first time for 10 minutes at a much lower volume than i usually play, and the police was called. he had to build a soundproof room in his garage to play.

What time of day was that? I can't imagine anyone calling the police for 10 minutes of moderate music noise during normal daytime hours....unless of course he really was that bad!!

it was 2pm. they also called his landlord.

That's insane. I didn't think there were any noise restrictions until after maybe 10PM.

[louis cyfer]

my neighbor who moved in recently played for the first time for 10 minutes at a much lower volume than i usually play, and the police was called. he had to build a soundproof room in his garage to play.

What time of day was that? I can't imagine anyone calling the police for 10 minutes of moderate music noise during normal daytime hours....unless of course he really was that bad!!

it was 2pm. they also called his landlord.

That's insane. I didn't think there were any noise restrictions until after maybe 10PM.

there is no official time, nor noise level that is legal. the law is vague, just if it's causing a disturbance. and anyone can complain, the police decides if the complaint is reasonable. completely subjective. the police did not think he was too loud, but they still have to come out when someone complains. the only enforced time restriction is on construction work and gardeners.

[Goat]

Still thinking about some lunch.

For late night practice I have been using the Vox Amplug headphone amp, which is not very satisfactory, and the Roland Microcube, which is actually not bad for what it is. But I just splashed out on a much more serious bedroom amp; a Cornell Romany Plus. It has selectable power settings of 10, 1.5, 0.3 or 0.05 watts. I've only just got it and haven't really had time to play with it much, but first impressions are favourable (as you might expect - Dennis Cornell makes Clapton's amps).
I don't know how available Cornell are in the USA, but they are worth a look. http://www.dc-developments.com/cornell_ ... _combo.htm

[Elwood]

the police did not think he was too loud, but they still have to come out when someone complains. the only enforced time restriction is on construction work and gardeners.

We've had similar visits...midday practices (though at full volume). The last time the officers explained the same
situation, they had to swing by. They said it sounded good and we should just keep playing as we were.


For late night jamming I run a line out from my trio pre through a small rack and into the studio monitors.
You don't get the cab resonances and chest thumping goodness, but I can play for hours like that and never tire of the tone. I just wish there were more insomniac musicians in my neck of the woods.
I have a V-drum set , so drum tracks at night are do-able also. I have a butt-kicker driver in the drum throne so that helps with the illusion of higher spl's.
I should sit there while putting down bass tracks . I am in love with my new old ('91) L2000 BTW...what a machine !!

elwood

[Philby]

don't eat tofu, or soy in general. it is healthy for women, but it has phyto-estrogens and it will lower your testosterone.

You can add mint to the list of things that are bad for testosterone levels too.

But compared to the sea of estrogen mimicking chemicals in meat, plastics, petrochemicals, pesticides, herbicides etc. a serve of tofu or mint tea isn't about to worry me.

Testosterone levels in men in 1st world countries has been on the decline for over 50 years, but people were eating tofu and sipping mint tea long before that. Industrialization and unregulated use of chemicals in the food chain has got a lot to answer for.

[Greenblues]

What a great discussion on complaints!

In my case, my landlord threatened to terminate my contract if I get another complaint. So I told him I wanted to apologize and have a chance to at least work out some kind of compromise with the neighbours, but I've never been granted the opportunity to face my accusers. It's extremely frustrating. The police never got involved which is probably good because they are not likely to side with a non-Japanese, no matter how good I sound. This weekend I used my Loop Station (auto-pilot for guitar) to see how badly the sound is leaking with the Little Lanilei at its lowest volume. It's no louder than my nieghbor's TV as far as I an tell and totally drowned out by wind, rain, and passing cars/Chinooks, but I think the idea of an American living next door bothers them more than the sound, and the guitar is just a blatant reminder that I even exist when they'd like to forget.

Re hormones, I actually try to get plenty of sleep, exercise and eat foods which are good for testesterone production. So any extra estrogen should just help me relate to my wife and mother better, right.

[meursault]

I'm always amazed when I hear how xenophobic Japanese are... :-/

[louis cyfer]

What a great discussion on complaints!

In my case, my landlord threatened to terminate my contract if I get another complaint. So I told him I wanted to apologize and have a chance to at least work out some kind of compromise with the neighbours, but I've never been granted the opportunity to face my accusers. It's extremely frustrating. The police never got involved which is probably good because they are not likely to side with a non-Japanese, no matter how good I sound. This weekend I used my Loop Station (auto-pilot for guitar) to see how badly the sound is leaking with the Little Lanilei at its lowest volume. It's no louder than my nieghbor's TV as far as I an tell and totally drowned out by wind, rain, and passing cars/Chinooks, but I think the idea of an American living next door bothers them more than the sound, and the guitar is just a blatant reminder that I even exist when they'd like to forget.

Re hormones, I actually try to get plenty of sleep, exercise and eat foods which are good for testesterone production. So any extra estrogen should just help me relate to my wife and mother better, right.

well, get in the gym, grow some muscles, intimidation is also a great way to keep the complaints down if being good doesn't cut it. i know i am bad for using it, but i do get away with a lot of stuff other people don't just because i look mean. it is also sad that i have to look a certain way to get treated in a way that should be the norm to everyone. all my neighbors are well aware that i am a very nice guy as long as someone doesn't piss me off. complaining to someone else about what i do would definitely qualify. i have told all of them, if you have any issues, please tell me directly. i also told my neighbor, please do everything as if i didn't exist. if anything bothers me, i'll let you know, but please don't hold back out of consideration for me. nobody complained to me so far.

[Greenblues]

well, get in the gym, grow some muscles, intimidation is also a great way to keep the complaints down if being good doesn't cut it. i know i am bad for using it, but i do get away with a lot of stuff other people don't just because i look mean. it is also sad that i have to look a certain way to get treated in a way that should be the norm to everyone. all my neighbors are well aware that i am a very nice guy as long as someone doesn't piss me off. complaining to someone else about what i do would definitely qualify. i have told all of them, if you have any issues, please tell me directly. i also told my neighbor, please do everything as if i didn't exist. if anything bothers me, i'll let you know, but please don't hold back out of consideration for me. nobody complained to me so far.

It's already a long standing joke amongst friends that I look more like an Arab insurgent than and American corporate lackey/jazz musician. Maybe some tattoos and a shaved head would make them think I'm yakuza, but this would probably increase the chance of a visit by police.

A more effective approach might be knocking on doors with the little amp in one hand and my son in the other looking embarrassed, asking if we've been making too much noise recently, and if we could humbly receive a call from their honorable selves at the number on this professional looking name card in the event we cause a disturbance and disrupt the peace.

Sounds like many of you have already taken the initiative to establish some kind of relationship or at least mutual respect with your neighbors, which is why you tolerate each other. Now they have actually have real person to associate with the sound you make. Yet, to some of my neighbors (likely aging homeowners and their unmarried daughters), I'm probably not a real person yet -- just a collection of irregular sound conjured up by some alien monster that landed in their quiet suburb.