tbonesullivan

Now I'm hearing on the book of face that they are done. I went to the website and their store is now a bunch of "page not found" errors. I'm also reading now at the G&L guitarsbyleo forum that workers were furloughed on Monday Sept 15, with an expected reopening on Sept 29...

I certainly hope not. The saddle lock bridges are insanely good for a hardtail. I just wish pretty much that I was more of a strat guy. At least there are and will be a good number on the secondary market. But the videos I have seen were pretty much right: they suck at marketing their product. I don't know if it's the company or more the dealer reps they send out, but they pretty much should have "Leo's ideas, perfected" (even if it isn't really true) or maybe "the final evolution of Leo's designs". I didn't really understand what Ed Friedland was talking about with G&L basses until I got one. Now, I understand.

I don't know how many of you pay much attention to the internet scuttlebutt, but there have been a few youtube videos as well as posts everywhere that G&L Guitars is not really doing great, and that they may close their doors. There are also rumors that fender is going to buy them. Judging by the dealers I follow and social media, it would seem like that wouldn't be the case, but one never knows. They started selling through Sweetwater a few years back, and they always have made a product, so it would be a shame for them to go away, especially when they make what is, IMHO, the best feeling non-locking dual fulcrum tremolo ever made. They also make fantastic basses, so I for one would be sad to see them go away.

That's actually a super clean job. I wonder if they plugged a bunch of holes, as I googled what the body of those looks like without the original bridge, and it's kinda bad. they definitely routed out an area and put in a bunch of wood, and then even repainted it. Kinda makes you wonder why someone who spent that much time and/or money on getting it like that would sell it.

Hell yeah! Jesus just left chicago! Such an awesome song. And yeah, I'm pretty sure that BFG can make just about anything sound awesome.

Looks like he needs to hit the gym more likely. Or get some type of hook on his shoulder for the strap to go around. He couldn't get it to stick.

I mean... they are now plentiful on reverb and ebay, and also plenty cheap. Apparently Bruce Springsteen mostly recorded an album on one, and now a current guitarist who goes by Mk.Gee (from New Jersey) has been using it a lot. https://www.musicradar.com/guitars/guitar-pedals/hes-not-using-a-guitar-amp-hes-using-a-tascam-424-jhs-pedals-puts-a-portastudio-in-a-pedal-to-help-you-recreate-mk-gees-elastic-lo-fi-tones

Well, Now I have both books in house, and man, there is so much information in there. I'm also AMAZED at how the Beauty of the burst was put together THIRTY years ago. How the hell did they manage to get that many bursts photographed? Did they travel to the bursts, or did they have some big Les Paul burst convention? At the time, those guitars were all about 35 years old, and now they are almost TWICE as old. I'm sure many of them are now more faded, especially those that see a lot of use, like Pearly Gates. Next up I definitely need to pick up some Willie G stuff.

FYI, if you want that Lo-fi Tascam 424 overdrive sound, JHS pedals just put out a pedal that is pretty much one of the channel strips.

Incidentally, did you get the first version of the pedal, or the newer Kaluna II? They added a little switch that controls the "gain structure", like I've seen on many of the higher gain Friedman amplifiers.

I believe that a foundation owns most of the blue guitars now, and I think they have been maintaining and traveling them them. There also are some new blue guitars, made using the same Mohawk blue color. I think Maegen Wells made one, and I saw a few others. https://www.instagram.com/p/C_HEV7oO61J/

There is, kinda. It's called the mod shop. And it results in stuff like this happening:

They have so many different versions of the Telecaster out now that I can't keep track anymore. As someone who doesn't really care if it "looks old", I honestly don't care about that aspect of the design. I also generally don't like their Ultra, or Ultra Luxe offerings. Much rather just have a plain ol' tele without any fancy noiseless stuff or the S-1 switch, that now apparently delivers "authentic single coil tones"? Yeah no.

So yes, I've got a copy of the Hamer Book, and I've also got a copy of Billy Gibbons Rock & Roll Gearhead. These are both GREAT reads and full of pictures and information, and now I'm picking up Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass. Just wondering what other "gearhead" books people may have picked up, especially ones that are just as good of a read as they are to look at.

I'll have to get it on a scale. I have one at work but forgot in my rush to get it back home to blast it. I THINK... it's a swamp ash body. But part of me thinks it looks a lot more like alder.

The best "plexi" tone I get with a pedal is still my Radial Tonebone Hot British, the tube version. Why the hell did they stop making it and the plexitube. They were such great pedals.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who quickly looked to see if I could buy one somewhere. Google showed this:

Those are also great, with the pickup in the "P-bass" position. It really is amazing how Leo Fender managed to pretty much invent and then re invent the bass guitar so many times.

Also looks like the scale length is 24.594, so I guess it's a bit more "G-brand" than the regular McCarty, which is 25" scale. This also has reminded me that i don't think my PRS CE 24 has seen the light of day for over a year. I should unleash it a bit more often.

I may or may not have been influenced by Ed Friedland getting a L-2500 750 recently, but after owning an G&L SB-2, I decided it was time to check out the last member of Leo Fender's bass designs. The L-1000, L-2000, and L-2500 are not nearly as famous and ubiquitous as the Precision and Jazz Bass designs, or the Stingray, but there are some who swear by them, and they are definitely a bit of a unique take in terms of pickup and preamp design. It's also got the G&L "Saddle lock" bridge, which has a set screw on the side that presses the saddles together, and the bridge itself has a protrusion on the bottom that sticks into the body. The electronics on the bass are mostly passive, with a take on the G&L Passive Treble Bass system, which are the three knobs. Top switch is for the pickups, center switch is for series or parallel wiring, and the bottom switch is an active preamp buffer, which is off, on, or "treble boost". It's mainly designed for signal integrity over long cable runs, and with it on you do get a bit more bass. However you don't really NEED it in most situations, as the output from the MFD pickups is MASSIVE. I used to have an SB-2 years ago, and like that bass, I need to have the "active" switch turned on to avoid clipping out the preamp of my bass amp. All the sounds are usable, and are somewhere near a p-bass and a stingray in a way. In the series mode the sound is quite aggressive, while the parallel mode is more scooped, and there is definitely more of a variation than I get on my Stingray 5H, which has the series parallel option as well. This has the "old" headstock for G&L 5 string basses, which has a string retainer for the A string, something I DEFINITELY want. Makes it so much easier to really dig in on the open A string without worrying about nut buzz. I also really don't like their current headstock for the "CLF Research" line that they have now, which looks pretty much like a bloated fender headstock. I also like having the little "spike", which is distinctive to G&L. Only question left is whether I want to go for the black, red, and white switch tip covers that the OG front routed basses had, and currently have.

Is the SG body even thick enough to handle the hamer neck joint? Might just not have been any interest in them. Hamer already was making LP Junior style guitars that actually had a neck joint that didn't fall apart, unlike Gibson. Maybe they figured it wasn't worth it trying to improve the neck joint. The Guild Polara was one attempt to "fix" the SG style guitar, and I believe former Gibson Employee Jim Deurloo was at Guild during that time, though I could be mistaken.

Aside from the extra controls, how do they compare with the "regular" McCarty? I mean I guess if you are nuts about intonation, the 594 would be a no brainer, but tons of people seem to love the compensated single piece bridge. dang they do have a lot of interesting double cut designs.

Do you use mostly humbuckers, or also single coils, especially in the bridge position? The Plex has both volumes for both channels, and I believe it really helps to tune in a strat for that classic Marshall sound. For me, My choice was to go with the JEL-50, which has that "Plexi" style clean channel, but also the Hot-Rodded JCM 800 style lead channel. It also has an Effects loop, which the plex does not. It's pretty much a pure modern version of a Plexi, modeled after Dave Friedman's favorite plexi. Things like an effects loop could get in the way of TONE, according to plexi purists, which is why it was left off.

The IR-J might be the way to go. It has a built in booster, and the "plex" lower gain channel has the variable bright setting, which is really helpful at lower gain levels. Though if you want THAT plexi sound, almost full out is the way you are usually gonna go, in which case the bright cap is pretty much bypassed anyway. Now, having a post phase inverter master volume is always a nice thing to have. Very few amps have such a thing, as they are almost always pre phase inverter, so you miss out on overdriving that tube. Having a built in variac along with a secondary bias circuit for the reduced voltage is also nice. Being internally jumpered? also nice. That, is the Friedman PLEX.

I mean, it's good to have a lot of options. If they all produce relatively similar results, this really lets people get "that sound" from a variety of rig configurations.