For every guitar player there comes a time where a guitar they know and love gains a new “battle scar”. Whether it be from a fall, a knock, your pick, your belt, or a throw, signs of wear and damage appears that you can choose to try and have fixed, or leave as a story to tell.

Occasionally, damage can occur that will require a fix. Today I’ll be going over the steps to carving and replacing a piece, that, if damaged, can render the guitar unplayable. Not only that, but simply changing it out for something made of a different material can have a major impact on your tone and sustain.

Replacing a Guitar Nut

Small cracks and chips in the nut can grow to the point where you literally lose a piece of the nut. Improper filing can cause strings to sit too low to the neck or too close to each-other. While filing nut slots and gluing pieces back together is possible, there comes a time to consider putting in a new one. You can get pre-fabricated nuts, but in order to have one that is fit specifically for your instrument, you’ll have to cut it yourself.

Before you begin, you’ll have to…

1) Take off the old nut.

Here I am using my fret hammer and fret setter to gently tap the nut out of its seat. Note the lacquer that curves up towards the front of the nut – it may be wise to carefully score along the edges with a modelling knife to prevent chipping the paint. If the nut doesn’t move at first, don’t smack it. Keep tapping gently until it comes loose.

With the nut removed, you’ll want to file off the remaining glue to make sure you’re gluing the new one to the original wood slot. Once the area is clean, you can start work on the new piece!

2) Fit your nut blank into the slot.

The first thing you’ll need is a nut blank of a material of your choice. Nuts come in all kinds, but for tone quality and ease of carving, I would suggest going the route of bone or TusQ (synthetic material made to mimic the density of bone.)

Success! A new nut!

Not yet. Obviously this blank is too long and wide to fit in the slot, so there is lots of work to be done. First things first, you’ll want it to at least fit in snuggly. Sticking a piece of sandpaper (110, or 220 grit if you want to take it slower) to a flat surface, sand the flat side of the nut that meets the fingerboard until it slides in so it is flush at every edge. Make sure you check periodically so you don’t overdo it.

As you can tell, a lot of nut material had to come off of this one to make it fit! Once it did though, it was nice and snug…

3) Size it up.

With the nut in place, you’ll want to make all your guidelines and measurements necessary so you’re confident when it comes time to cut. The first thing you’ll do is just trace the contours of your fret board onto the nut with a sharp pencil.

So, this is the outline of your fret board. For the actual nut height, you obviously don’t want to shave right down to this line. Next you’ll need to measure the height of your first fret.

The height I measured on mine was about .034”. To factor in the distance between the top of the fret and the bottom of your strings, add about .030” to whatever your fret height is. This total, (0.064” for me) is how much you want to add to the line you had drawn across the radius of your fret board. This is how far you can now file or sand down the top of the nut, while using the fret board radius line as a reference point for shaping a radius to your nut.

Next you need to mark where you are going to cut your string slots. It is vital that your strings are spaced properly so they are not falling off the edge of the neck, not too close together, and not too far apart. One millimeter off is noticeable when playing, so make sure you repeat every measurement until perfect.

The first two strings you’ll mark will be the outer E strings. Instead of measuring in from your markings on the nut, for this step you want to measure in from the bevels of the first fret. Again, you don’t want the string to slip down off your neck when playing. A general rule is to make your mark 1/16” in from the fret bevel on each side.

My ruler here isn’t marked in inches on both sides, so the best way to accurately get this measurement was to press the millimeter side right up to the nut, and use the edge to measure 1/16”. Make sure your nut is placed in the slot so your pencil marks line up with the fret board contours before you mark your lines.

Once you’ve got these two outer lines marked, you need to draw on the remaining four. The absolute best, and easiest way to do this is to use the “Stewmac String Spacing Rule”

It works with a few different slots in a ruler that you basically just have to line up with the two lines you’ve just drawn. When you find two that line up, the lines in between are pretty well placed for you.

The alternative approach would be to measure the distance (in mm) between the two marks you just made, and divide it by five. For my nut, this would have been 38 divided by 5 to give me 7.6. This number is the equal distance between each string. The trouble with this method is that, of course, some strings are thicker than others, and in order to be exact, you would need to factor that into your equation. You can get pretty good results without doing that, but it’s very time consuming and there is a lot of double checking involved as you make your cuts. As you may be able to tell from the picture, I didn’t have the “string spacing rule” on hand and went without, all the while wishing I could’ve used it!

Cutting the slots.

When your pencil marks are all in place, you can begin to cut your guide slots. Clamp the nut into a vice, and using your thinnest nut file cut starter grooves along each line. Go slow to ensure you don’t slip!

With small cuts made, you can use your sized nut files to cut the correct sized groove for each string. Don’t cut too far down yet, just enough to allow the string to sit comfortably.

Next, you can place the nut back in its slot and place the strings into their respective groove. Check to make sure everything looks good as far as string spacing and height from the first fret. This is the part where you’ll either breathe a sigh of relief or mumble a curse of frustration.

If everything looks good, you can cut your nut slot depth. Take the measurement you used before that was your fret height plus .030”, and stack up some feeler gauges to total that number. Place it along the side of the nut, and file each slot down with the proper sized file until it touches the feeler gauge. Make sure you file in a downward motion towards the headstock to allow for a natural slope of the string.

Shaping, polishing, and gluing!

It’s almost done! If you breathed that sigh of relief before, don’t think it’s easy sailing now though. Be cautious making the next few steps to completion.

From here, you can shave off the edges of the nut up to the original lines you made around the finger board, and then contour and polish the nut with increasing grits of sandpaper (I used 220 followed by 320). After sanding, you can polish it with a general polishing compound. I like a product called “ScratchDoctor”. When all’s said and done, you should have something that looks like this:

Lastly, you can glue it on to your guitar! Just a few dabs both in the slot and on the nut will do. No need to lather it all over. When in place, put the strings into their slots and tune up to pitch, wipe off any excess glue, and let it dry.

Voila, a new guitar nut:

Happy Playing!

Vincent’s Guitar Workshop – issue 13 from MyRareGuitars.com

Sometimes, however, we can be thrown for a loop. There’s the rare occasion where we hear something through our speakers that makes us second guess what we’re hearing, and wonder if it’s even a guitar making those sounds. In this issue, I’ll talk about three (perhaps lesser known) techniques and devices that have been used to create strange, cool, and even iconic sounds by many great players of the past and present.

The E-Bow

For those who thought that a guitar pick or your fingers were the only method of setting your guitar strings in motion, you’re in for an interesting surprise…

For those who want to try something other than a pick and still sound good, (sorry Nigel) there was a device invented in the late 1960’s that could be used in place of a guitar pick that created a sound that mimicked that of a bow on the strings. Aptly named, the “E-Bow” (short for electronic bow) works using a magnetic field that slowly brings the string into vibration.

This means there is no pluck, hit, or attack – you simply get the “hum” sound seemingly from nothing. There are different ways you can use this; single string guitar solos sound really cool while under this effect, and you can even glide the E-bow across the strings while holding a chord to create violin-like arpeggios. The trick is finding the resonant “hotspots” on your string. Depending on the location you place the E Bow over the string, you can create a few different sounds. If you want an idea of what this thing sounds like, check out Steve Hackett’s playing in “Carpet Crawlers” or David Gilmour’s in “Take it Back”.

The TalkBox

You may have heard this sound before and either thought there was some kind of effect added to the singing, or that it was a simple guitar “wah” pedal. Peter Frampton would tell you otherwise!

The TalkBox is similar to a guitar effects pedal, except for the fact that it’s your mouth that’s ultimately altering the signal. The unit takes the guitar output from the amp, and sends it through a plastic tube that the guitarist holds in their mouth. When the shape of the mouth changes over the tube, so does the output sound coming from the tube. That sound goes through your mic and voila! The talkbox sound. You can use this effect to literally sing the words of songs and have them sound robotic and electronic, or you can just shape different sounds to make a unique effect. It definitely comes in handy – especially when your mouth is moving around while you’re soloing anyways.

Have a listen to Joe Walsh in “Rocky Mountain Way”, Peter Frampton in many of his songs but especially “Do You Feel Like We Do”, or for an example in heavy rock music check out the solo in Tool’s “Jambi”.

The Kill-switch Effect

                  For those of you who may not know what a kill switch on a guitar is, it is usually a control that comes in either the form of a button or a toggle that simply cuts out all output from your guitar. The original intention for this would be, of course, to limit stage noise when not playing. Simply flip the switch, and there’s no hum from the guitar amp! Just remember to flick it back on when it’s time to play. Though this was the original intent – many rock guitarists now see a function like this more so as an effect, thanks mainly to guitarist Tom Morello.

While fretting notes with your left hand, you can rapidly flick on / off the kill switch to create a more “intense” sounding tremolo effect. Instead of your output fading in and out quickly, it’s literally shutting off and on. You can use this technique on its own to create an interesting effect, or add other signal processors into the equation to mimic other instruments.

No killswitch on your instrument? Not to worry! If your instrument has two pickups each with independent volume controls (like a Les Paul configuration), you can simply turn one pickup all the way down and quickly switch the toggle from neck to bridge pickup to get the same effect. You can hear the effect in action in a lot of Tom’s work as well as a few other artists who have adopted the technique, but to hear a couple good examples check out “Know Your Enemy” for a sound that’s almost harmonica-like, or the solo in “Bulls on Parade” that sound like a DJ scratching a vinyl. Both songs are by the band Rage Against the Machine.

Unconventional, but cool! Sometimes it’s refreshing to think outside the box – you never know what you might come up with.

Happy Playing!

Tips on Tone – Issue #14 from MyRareGuitars.com

Double Popping

Most people who have only recently started playing the bass guitar make themselves content with a simple slap groove. This is because few novice guitarists are aware of advanced techniques like double popping, which makes use of other fingers and creates more complex arrangements of popping.

The formula for a double pop is simple to memorize and master.

1. Start with a slap (S).
2. Proceed to hammering on (h).
3. Pull-off (p).
4. Pop using your first finger.
5. Pop using your second finger.

Sweep Picking

With sweep picking, and especially through arpeggios, the best thing novice bass guitarists can do is to take things step by step. Begin with sweeping two strings. Master this. Conquer it. And only after that should you move on to something more advanced.

When you research online for tips and exercises for sweep picking, you’ll notice that advice tends to vary about the finger positioning and the upstrokes and downstrokes used. There is no right or wrong advice, though. What matters is that you choose the method which you’re most comfortable with.

Harmonic Tuning

Techniques are not all about playing. There are also essential advanced techniques which focus on maintaining the quality of your music and the condition of your instrument. Using harmonics to tune your bass guitar, for instance, is a critical technique to learn because you get to listen to both notes as you work on the pegs.

Harmonic tuning works best when you’ve plugged your bass guitar. Now, start by placing our finger over the E string’s fifth fret. Play it using either your thumb, picking finger, or with a pick. The high-pitched note it produces is a harmonic. Release the string and allow the harmonic to play out. How was it?

Practice, Practice, Practice

The techniques listed here for playing the bass guitar are just the start, of course. There are many other techniques to learn. If you want to be a great bass guitarist then you need to constantly practice. You should also welcome every opportunity to learn new things because that’s the only way you can hone your craft.

About the Author: Belle writes for SherwoodMusic.org, where you can read her recent post on guitars and beginner piano lessons online. You can also check out her other writings on Bill Monroe Bluegrass Music, her other musical love.

What You Should Know About the Different Bass Guitar Playing Styles from MyRareGuitars.com

The second factor is to use good quality mics and pre amps as you will only get good clarity and detail in depth on a recording with good mics. If you don’t have a good source signal it will be incredibly hard to get a good final sound. The other factor is to ensure the player behind the kit is of a good standard for the music you are recording and has the ability to be tight with the band and know when to and when not to overplay. Being able to use dynamics within their playing can make a difference on a recording and paying attention to detail is always important when playing drums on a recording. The most important thing though is to be as tight as possible with the rest of the rhythm section.

The Bass Drum

One of the most important decisions when recording drums is to decide what mic or mics you want to use and getting the right positioning for them. The most commonly used bass drum mics are dynamic mic with the AKG D112, Shure Beta 52a, Audix D6 and the Electrovoice RE20 being popular choices. I personally would favour a Senheisser 421 on the beater and a good Neumann outside the bass drum to pick up the sub frequencies to blend with the clicky signal.

The close mic on the bass drum will have spill from the other drums and cymbals in particular the snare and tom toms. The best way to get around this is to use a gate. The attack should be set quite fast like with most other drums, in order to get a punchy sound. The release should be set to close fully once the sound has finished so you don’t hear the spill but watch you don’t set the release to quick and lose some of the source sound. Most drawmer gates can do a job on a kick drum.

The next thing is to set up a compressor on the bass drum. If you set an attack time which is a little slower (10 to 20mS), it will allow the click of the drum hit to pass through the compressor it is being compressed. To help get that clicky sound on the kick, use a ratio of around 3:1 and have the threshold set around an average of -4dB of gain reduction to each beat beat, the release should return to normal before each beat. A good kick drum compressor I find the TLA Audios Valve 5051 is a good kick drum compressor. You just need to make sure you drive the input to get a punchy sound.

If the kick doesn’t have enough presence then try equalizing around 4 and 7kHz on a mid Q just adding a little gain where you feel appropriate around these frequencies. This should give the kick more definition and make it cut through the mix. Most good Equalizing units should work but a personal requisite of mine is to use a valve EQ for added warmth. A good EQ for this although not valve and used more for mastering is Massenburgs GML 8200, this unit has several bands of fully parametric EQ for ultimate control.

The SPL Transient Designer allows you to change drum sound envelopes, meaning it possible to add or subtract attack and sustain. Once this has been done listen to the kick drum with the overhead mics and see how they sound together. With the overheads added the Bass drum should sound more natural and slightly ambient. Adjust the compression and EQ again if it needs it, but bear in mind that once the rest of the mix is added that the sound will might need minor adjustments again.

Snare Drum

The best way to record a snare drum I find is to use 2 mics, one above and one below the snare drum with the above mics phase reversed. Shure SM 57s tend to be a popular choice while I sometimes find 2 AKG C451s can do a good job.

Snare mics tend to pick up a lot of unwanted low spill from the kick drum and toms, and may pick up the hi-hats to. For this again gating is necessary preferably a frequency based gate with some bass end and treble rolled off where the problem occurs the side-chain input could be useful if found necessary. If the snare needs more definition I tend to find adding around 1.8khz on a fairly tight Q is where the crack of the snare is and can make it cut through the mix really well. If you need any extra crispness, then try a little high EQ at between 4 and 7kHz. To give a bit more body to the snare, sometimes a little gain between 110 to 160Hz can work well but watch you don’t add to much as too much in this frequency range can muddy your mix.

Compression on the snare is also recommended to get a tight punch sound. Try not to over compress and be sure not to have the gain reduction go over -3 or 4 dbs. Most drawmer mics can do a good job on the snare although I quite like using an Urei 1176.

Toms Toms

The most common Tom mics are the dynamic Sennheiser MD421 which tends to be clipped onto the toms. As toms are normally hit during fill-ins and rarely anywhere else, then a gate is needed when they are not in use. Take off some low end from the gate’s side-chain input will eradicate false triggering from kick-drum spill. If you struggle with getting a suitable gate a good alternative is lose the spill after the recording in your sequencer or tape machine.

I tend to give the Toms some definition give the small tom some boost around 6k the mid tom 5k and the floor tom some 4k. Obviously this is hugely subjective and depends on the sizes of the toms you are working on. Adding between 100Hz and 200Hz I tend to find good frequencies to work with for picking out the resonance of each tom. A fairly small reverb can be a good idea also to have the toms sit in their own space in the mix and also give a bit more of a live sound that the processing might have lost.

Again compression can be a good idea when recording the toms. Be sure to listen to the Toms with the overheads and not just isolated as the overheads play a large part in the final sound of the drums.

Hi-Hats

The AKG C451 is a popular hi-hat mic which works really well pointed away from the kit. No gating is needed for the hats. Rolling off all the low frequencies is advised to lose the spill of the bass, snare and toms.

Overhead Mics

AKG 414s tend to be very popular overhead mics for a majority of people although I sometimes find them a little clinical. A personal favorite of mine are Coles 4038 or 4040 Ribbon Mics. They seem to get a great smokey sound that oozes expense to me. As Overheads pick up the cymbals and hats getting good definition on these mics is really important. For indie and jazz, using a lot of the overhead mix can be imperative. For rock and pop, I tend to use more of the individual mics and add a little over-heads subtly. I tend to find the overheads need no compression and should never be gated so an open sound is achieved.

A little equalizing is sometimes necessary on the low end where the kick overspill may be a little much and there may be some phasing issues on the low end having used several mics in a relatively close space. Rolling a little low end here can help with both these potential issues. If the drums were recorded in a fairly small room sometimes a reverb can be added. I tend to find a Yamaha SPX 900 or the more expensive Lexicon PCM 80 can do a really good job here.

Post by: Matt Walters
Matt Walters is an experienced drum player and has 15 years experience as a sound engineer. He currently runs his own recording studio.

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Getting a Great Drum Sound from MyRareGuitars.com

The minor pentatonic scale is created using the root (or 1), flatted 3rd, 4th, 5th, and flatted 7th of a major scale. Notice that there is no 2nd or 6th scale tone used. There’s an interesting reason for that but it requires a substantial amount of music theory to explain it and this isn’t really the place for that.

To create the minor blues scale we take the minor pentatonic scale and add a flatted 5th (or sharp 4) to it. In the key of A, this creates a scale with the notes A, C, D, Eb, E, and G in it. Some people don’t differentiate between the minor and the major blues scales. If someone calls a scale a blues scale, assume they mean the minor version.

A major pentatonic scale is created with the 1st (root,) 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th tone of a major scale. In C that would be C, D, E, G, and A. To make it a major blues scale you add a flatted 3rd which gives you C, D, Eb, E, G, and A in the key of C.

Notice that the rule governing relative major and minor keys/scales is also in effect here. If you look at the keys of A minor and C major, which are relative, meaning they contain the same notes, you’ll see the same group of notes.

The A minor blues scale is A, C, D, Eb, E, and G. The C major blues scale is C, D, Eb, E, G, and A. Same notes, different starting point. This sort of thing happens all the time in music. This is of particular interest if you’re playing blues lead guitar because you can see that your blues guitar scales really do double duty. Once you learn one pattern, it’s really useful for 2 keys, one major and one minor.

So how to we apply this scale to a standard 12 bar blues chord progression? What’s cool is that the simplest approach is really simple. Whatever the first chord of the chord progression is, let’s say it’s A7, use that minor blues scale to solo over the song. There’s no need to change scales at any time.

Keep in mind that this is only one possible approach, and in many cases it’s not the best approach. There are several ways to play over a 12 bar progression, or any other kind of chord progression. Many of these approaches use some combination of major and minor blues scales.

It is easy to find the 5 “boxes” or patterns of the blues scale on the internet. A simple search should turn up hundreds of choices. Once you learn the blues scales and have them under your fingers. You’ll want to start jamming with them and learning how to make the sounds you want to hear.

For more blues guitar lessons and help with your blues guitar scales, check out Playing Through The Blues, my blues lead guitar course.

Post by: Griff Hamlin
www.PlayingThroughTheBlues.com

Blues Guitar Scales: How Blues Scales Work in Lead Guitar from MyRareGuitars.com

Keep in mind that many guitarists are satisfied with their ability to play just a few songs here and there. There are many guitarists who enjoy performing in clubs for larger audiences. Others strive to become accomplished nationally and internationally. The practice habits for all are different, because the goals are different.

For the purpose of this article, I believe it’s safe to say that those who enjoy playing a few songs here and there, will, most likely, bypass the rigorous schedule of scale and chord practice.

For the intermediates, advanced, or professional players, scale and chord practice is absolutely essential. In fact, daily practice sessions are in line with these levels of musicianship. Why? The development of strength, endurance, recognition of melodic and harmonic structure, and, of course, more facility on the guitar.

The leap from good to great on the guitar is actually a short distance. Shorter than one might think. It’s really all about the level of desire and commitment one has, that will determine the actual distance. However, willingness without action equals fantasy. Good intent means nothing if one is not prepared to act.

None of us believe that, as guitarists, our fingers somehow magically end up on the correct note, the correct string, at the right time, merely by accident. In fact, a great melodic solo and chord work is generally reflective of many years of pure practice. It’s almost a guarantee that behind every great guitarist, there are thousands and thousands of hours of scale and chord practice. It’s important to remind ourselves of all the benefits as a result of this hard work.

For starters, practicing scales develops finger strength, wrist control, picking techniques, pivot techniques, thumb placement, fret logic, and a multitude of other essential elements needed in order to execute in a professional manner. By practicing scales as scales (not musical statements per se), we learn very good habits and general rules of performance. We also learn that rules are made to be broken. When we, as experienced guitarists, break a rule, we at least know that we are, in fact, breaking a rule. Further, we all know that it’s permissible to break certain rules due to the impositions of certain styles of music, among other things.

For the experienced guitarist, I truly believe it’s important to remember how we arrived at our proficiency level. This is important because, in reality, we should never stop learning and progressing.

As a progressive guitarist, I enjoy those over-the-top solos that generally send chills up the spine of the listener. However, I also enjoy the hours of personal practice that allows me to execute those solos. Performance is one thing and skill development is another. It’s beneficial to enjoy both.

Imagine setting aside approximately eight straight hours of practice time and devoting a good share of that time to practicing one or two scales only. The thought of this routine might surprise some of the more experienced players. Once again, why practice scales when we can solo into infinity? The answer is forth coming.

I can almost guarantee that after a few hours of practicing a scale, the strict succession of the scale tones will disappear and will be replaced with new musical statements. Further, fresh new techniques will also emerge. For example, one might discover a new way to pick a string, cross a string, mute a string, embellish the scale tones, as well as many, many other discoveries. How’s that for progression?

A hardcore practice session can easily turn into a fantastic creative session. This is great news for the original guitarist and songwriter. Need a new guitar lick or song? Practice, practice, practice.

Everything discussed thus far, pertaining to guitar scales, also applies to practicing guitar chords. In music, time waits for no man. Chord construction and execution takes practice. Especially, when dealing with extended chords and altered chords (let’s not forget inversions). Not all of us will have the opportunity to encounter a major 11 Augmented 13th chord. However, what happens if we do? Answer; play it at the speed of right.

Whatever your level of musicianship, be sure to practice for the sake of practice. Great things will result from your hard work.

Post by: Michael E. Fletcher
©2008 Michael E. Fletcher. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
www.UltraGuitarMethod.com

Practicing Guitar Scales & Guitar Chords: The Inherent Value from MyRareGuitars.com

Patterns and Modes
Modes don’t require learning additional patterns. Modes stem from the same patterns as the major scale. Understanding how to play and apply major scale patterns is the key to grasping the modal concept.

Patterns of the Major Scale
The notes of the major scale cover the entire guitar neck. Instead of tackling the whole thing all at once, the fretboard is always learned in steps by focusing on one position, or pattern, at a time. This is usually accomplished through 5 patterns. Once the individual pieces are memorized they can be connected to complete the whole scale template. Each pattern may make a unique shape, but they all are simply broken pieces of the whole form. So, the individual patterns don’t become new scales on their own. They are all simply different arrangements of the same scale tones.

Playing Over Chords With Modes
The major scale can be played along with any one of its notes or chords. For example, the G major scale includes the chords G major, A minor, B minor, C major, D major, E minor, F# minor b5. The whole scale can be played over any one of these chords. When the G major scale is played over a G major chord a typical, happy, major sound results. To hear this correctly, guitar players need to have a friend strum the G chord or perhaps record or loop a rhythm track to play over. Any part of the G major scale, in any position or pattern, can be played. It doesn’t even matter what note is used to start. Guitarists can jump into the scale anywhere they like and use the notes in any order. The root G may be emphasized in order to tie the scale to the chord better, but the modal concept still works without doing so.

When the G major scale is played over the second chord, A minor, the sound of the scale changes. Again, guitar players need to have a friend strum the chord or perhaps record or loop a rhythm track to play over. Now the same scale tones sound minor, dark and jazzy. Any part of the G major scale, in any position or pattern, can be played. It doesn’t even matter what note is used to start. Guitarists can jump into the scale anywhere they like and use the notes in any order. The root A may be emphasized in order to tie the scale to the chord better, but the modal concept still works without doing so.

Seven Scale Modes
In the above example, the sound changed when playing over G and A minor because mixing notes and chords no different from mixing colors. Yellow and blue make green. Red and blue make purple. And so it is that the G major scale played over a G chord makes “Ionian Mode” (or the Ionian scale) while the G major scale played over an A minor chord makes “Dorian Mode” (or the Dorian scale). Each major scale degree, or chord, has a unique tonality and sound. Patterns, positions and starting points don’t effect the modal sound. Rather, the note or chord the scale is being played over establishes the mode.

Hearing and Playing Music Modes
Mixing colors has to be seen in order to be understood. Likewise, music modes have to be played and heard. In fact, many music theory concepts have to be applied and experienced this way. Theoretical explanations alone can’t demonstrate how modes work. Guitar players need to apply the concept to the fretboard.

Seven Greek Mode Names
Each major scale note, or chord, has its own unique sound characteristics and corresponding Greek mode name. The seven Greek names have origins in the church and include Ionian Mode, Dorian Mode, Phrygian Mode, Lydian Mode, Mixolydian Mode, Aeolian Mode and Locrian Mode. All musicians use the same Greek mode names because this music theory concept is relative to all instruments.

How to Learn Scale Modes
With music theory, each concept builds on the next. Guitarists should never get ahead of themselves by studying topics that they’re not ready for. The modal concept is related directly to major scale patterns and guitar chord progressions. To learn modes, guitar players must first master the major scale and its patterns. Next, guitarists should learn how the major scale is used to build chords. Finally, all good players should learn about chord progressions and playing by numbers. Then, guitar modes will be easy to understand and apply.

Play Until Your Fingers Bleed!

Post by: Mr. Desi Serna
Author of Fretboard Theory
www.Guitar-Music-Theory.com
Scales, Chords, Progressions, Modes

Guitar Modes: The Modal Scales of Popular Music from MyRareGuitars.com

Now, within lead guitar there are two main types of learning – the physical techniques (such as hammer ons, bends, vibratos etc.) and the theory. The first step with the theory side of lead guitar should be to get a basic understanding of scales.

Think of scales as pots of “flavours” – each scale has its own unique flavour because of the different notes it uses. Different notes act as different tensions over a particular chord, and eventually guitarists learn which tensions compliment particular chords. Of course, it’s a matter of personal taste what goes with what. That’s where your creativity takes over.

Technically, a scale is merely a sequence of notes – that’s it! However, it is the intervals between each note in the sequence that defines its structure and flavour. For example, we have the natural major scale (also the 1st mode called Ionian). The numerical notes of the major scale are:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Simple, eh? That’s because the major scale is the basis from which we build all other scales. Even minor scales are referenced against the natural major scale. For example, the natural minor scale (also the 6th mode called Aeolian) is:

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 – the “b” means “flat”, so what it’s really saying is “the 3rd, 6th and 7th tones of the natural major scale have been flattened”. This is what creates what has been named the natural minor scale (or Aeolian).

All scales work in a similar way, being noted against that original major scale position.

Therefore, in light of all this, it would make sense to learn the natural major scale first! Once you’ve done that, you have your foundation scale upon which to build all other scales/flavours.

Now, when learning a scale, the notes will be spaced out over the 6 strings. These are known as intervals. Looking at the major scale once again…

1 W 2 W 3 H 4 W 5 W 6 W 7 H… then the sequence starts again at 1.

The W stands for “whole step” – this is the equivalent of a two fret space on your guitar. So, if you were on the 3rd fret on the low E string (the note G), moving up a whole step would put you at the 5th fret (the note A).

The H stands for “half step” – this is the equivalent of a single fret space on your guitar. So, if you were back on the 3rd fret on the low E string, moving up a half step would put you at the 4th fret (the note Ab).

Obviously though, to be practical, we want to play the scale across 6 strings, not just 1. This is where you need to know about string relationships and how a note at one fret on the low E string is the same as another fret on another string. That’s what allows you to condense the scale into a “box” about 4 or 5 frets wide, across the 6 strings of your guitar.

Essentially though, it’s these whole steps and half steps that determine the structure of notes/tones in a scale and therefore determine the overall flavour of the scale!

At this stage, it’s not that important to know the actual notes you’re playing (e.g. the notes of the “B major scale” would be: B C# Eb E F# Ab Bb), but rather just understand the sequence of intervals in the scale. This will allow you to visualise the scale more generically, in any given key.

The A major scale, B major scale, C major scale, C# major scale etc. all have their own notes, but the intervals they all use are the same… the major scale’s sequence of intervals!

There are many resources on the web to help take you to the next stage of learning scales. Once you know how intervals work within scales, you can also learn how chords and arpeggios are essentially created from the same bag.

However you progress, don’t become complacent and learn things parrot fashion – don’t just learn scales… understand them!

Post by: Mike Beatham
Mike Beatham runs a free, easy to follow guitar lessons site with backing tracks and audio exercises for you to develop your own unique playing style. Visit FretJam.com/ to learn guitar at your own pace.

Guitar: Understanding Scales from MyRareGuitars.com

How Many Songs Should I Record?
Please try and decide this before the session starts as this can kill studio time. If you’re unsure how many songs to record, get in touch and we’ll talk you through it. We’ve worked on thousands of sessions, so we have a good idea of what is achievable.

Quality or Quantity?
I feel quality is always better than quantity. Most venues, management companies, publishing and record companies will probably only listen the 1st minute of each song and won’t get past the 4th song, judging you on the songwriting, production, level of musicianship and the quality of the recording.

Equipment
Turn up on time with all your equipment checked and ready. We’ll be there on time getting set up so the clock will be ticking. Bring everything with you that you’re likely to need. Spare strings, plectrums, batteries, leads, etc. You can guarantee that the item you forget will be the one thing you need. Test all your gear the day before. Instrumentation, Scores and Lyric sheets – Please try and have all scores, lyric sheets written and brought to all sessions where needed. Think about different vocal parts like backing vocals and harmony parts before sessions. Also think about any string arrangements or percussion that might be needed.

Arrangements
Rehearse your songs thoroughly and make sure all band members know all their part(s) to each song.

Less is More
Your recording is not the time to try out your chops and blistering solos. A simple part played well tends to be more effective on recording rather than someone’s flashy self-indulgent routines. Remember the song is the most important thing, not your playing.

Click Track
I highly recommend that you play to a click track as this not only keeps the tempo even through the song, but makes over-dubbing process more straight forward. It also makes any track editing easier and more accurate. We cannot, for the sake of example, take a bass phrase recorded during the first verse and copy it to the last 2nd verse if the song speeds up, So playing to a click gives you more flexibility at the production stage and enables things to be achieved faster.

How long does Recording last?
This is a bit like asking how long is a piece of string of string. If you are organized, well rehearsed and tight the recording procedure will obviously prove a lot quicker. Also if you are working with session musicians this will usually save time as they are used to working in a studio environment daily and will tend to race through their parts. Either way preparation is the key and around 70% of your session should be spent on the recording phase.

Mixing
Once all the recording is done, the next stage is the mixing. Mixing is where we apply EQ (equalization) and dynamic effects (e.g. compressors, expanders, noise gates) to each track, and set the correct track volume relative to all the other tracks. I also decide where each track should be panned in the stereo mix for the arrangement to gel and to highlight certain aspects of the arrangement.

How Long Does Mixing Last?
Similar to recording this can vary. It depends. On how much track editing there is, whether you want to alter the sound of any tracks using other effects, whether you have a clear idea of how the finished track should sound. Simply put, the more time you can devote to mixing, the more likely you are to come out with something that you are really pleased with. As a very rough guide, i would suggest planning to spend 20% of your session time on mixing. This is estimation and can be less or more.

When Do We Mix?
I recommend that you don’t mix straight after finishing recording because you will be tired. Leaving at least a week between the recording and the final mixing session will enable you to come back with fresh ears and fresh ideas about the songs you recorded.

Mastering
This is the process where we prepare and transfer your recording to a format that can be duplicated on CD. During mastering, the final stereo mix will be processed to even out the highs and lows, boost the overall volume, and make it sound more consistent across different formats and playback systems. I myself use a combination of PC based audio editing and mastering applications to achieve this. And yes the mastering and CD burning stage will probably take at least an hour. So this is another thing to factor in when considering how long you need.

Lastly, despite everything I have said, I always say to my clients who come into my London recording studio, to come prepared to have fun and enjoy the whole studio experience.

Post by: Matt Walters
Matt Walters is a professional sound engineer/producer and runs his own recording studio in London.

Planning Your Recording Session from MyRareGuitars.com

First some quickie suggestions right off the bat for you guys and gals.

Phase 1

1. When using a wah wah and a distortion always have the wah wah before the fuzz box (how’s that for old school?) in your chain. You want to effect your guitar signal before you distort it. When using a clean boost that should be last in your chain right after your distortion units.
2. Use as few pedals as you can. The more effects you use the more your sound suffers. If you are using more than 5 or 6 pedals try using an A/B switch and set up two loops to keep the chain as short as possible.
3. If you like a tight sound, ceramic speakers are a good way to go. In general AlNiCo speakers tend to be a bit more saggy. But there are some Alnico speakers that are clean too, these tend to be the higher quality ones. And as they break in the ceramics tend to be tighter and cleaner.
4. Lower output pickups tend to be thinner eq wise, and subsequently a hotter pickup tends to be darker sounding. If you want to use a lower output pickup for the reason that they reproduce your playing dynamics better, you must use a higher output amp. Again, if your guitar is a high output axe you can use a smaller amp, and still achieve a nice fat sound.
5. Shorter scale guitars make light gauge strings feel extra light, and consequently longer scale guitars make light gauge strings feel a bit heavier. This is why back in the day when light gauge strings were not readily available, guitar players preferred Gibson guitars over Fender.

1962 Fender Telecaster Electric Guitar (Vintage)

Phase 2
Next on the cavalcade of hits, I will give you some examples of typical setups for certain types of music. Remember you can mix and match these suggestions for your signature sound.

Clean Country Sound:
This is a sound made popular by country pickers since the 1960’s. It’s a clean sound, very little if no distortion at all.

• Guitars: Fender Stratocaster, the bridge pickup for a bright twang with a bit less output and fatness then the Tele bridge p/u. You can also get a great albeit a more modern country sound using the between the pickups sounds (2nd and 4th) on the Strat. For all you Eastwood fans check out the Wandre and the Joey Leone Signature Models for a great bunch of aforementioned country sounds.
• Gretsch models w/ DeArmond Dynasonic pickups give you a great country sound with alot of dynamic range for subtle to ear splitting tones. For those of you who want to dabble in some cool country tones try the Eastwood Classic 6 for a very reasonable starter country axe.
• A Gibson thin line arch top like a Byrdland is also a great clean country axe, don’t believe me? Ask Roy Clark and Hank Garland (Mr. Sugarfoot Rag). One of my idols Scotty Moore (of Elvis fame) played an L5 and an ES-295 during his years with the King.
• Amps: The cleaner the amp the better, period. A Twin Reverb comes to mind immediately as well the solid state high wattage steel guitar offerings from Peavey like the Nashville and Session 400. Amps with at least a 12-inch speaker will help you get that twang. If you are the only guitar player in the band consider using an amp with a 15-inch speaker. You can also use a smaller amp at a lower volume with a mike on it.

Gritty Country Sound:
Same guitars choice as above, just crank your amp up. 10 inch speakers are okay for this application. The Marshall TSL Series, Fender Deluxe. Vibrolux, and Super Reverb will make you smile.

Heavy Rock Sound:
Again I remind you I am an old school guy so I say….

• Guitars: Gibson SG w/ humbuckers is my choice for ultimate heavy rock guitar. It cuts and yet is still as fat as your fifth grade Home Ec. teacher. Tony Iommi, Angus Young, and Glen Buxton (the most underrated heavy rock guitar player) are shining examples of what an SG in the hands of a capable axe murderer can do. Gibson Les Paul Customs like Steve Jones and Mick Ronson used to play also kill.
• Those pointy guitars from the 80’s, Jackson, Charvel, Ibanex JEM and ESP’s are all a bit more edgy and hotter then a stock SG or Les Paul.
• I also love the sound of P90 equipped solid body axes for a great crunch sound, maybe a more punky sound is a better explanation. Les Paul Jr.’s ala Johnny Thunders and Leslie West are prime examples of this guitars sound when cranked. I am sure these guys influenced Billy Joe Armstrong in his choice de axe. Again, Eastwood offers some great single coil guitars of this ilk, the P90 Special, Stormbird and JR Elite just to name a few.
  1962 Fender Telecaster Guitar – Sunburst
• Amps: Marshall, Marshall and more Marshall. The JTM 800 is numero uno in my book, as well as the JCM 900 for a more modern shred vibe. I was also impressed with the Carvin stack offerings back in the day. THD, Randall, and Peavey also have really good sounding shred generators in many configurations.

Marshall Guitar Amps

Rock and Alternative Sound:
This is a potpourri of suggestions, please take one and pass the rest back.

• Guitars: Well take your pick, I am just gonna rattle em off….first the off the wall ones. These are the “next big things.” Maybe? Remember Cobain’s JagStang? Gretsch solid bodies from the 70’s and 80’s ugly as your neighbors AMC Gremlin. Silvertone’s and Danelectro’s from the 60’s. Link Wray, Jimmy Page, duh! Kramer’s from the 80’s, Eddie something or other played one of these. Carvin solidbodies from the 80’s. Still a great deal on Ebay. Ovation guitars form the late 60’s and 70’s (the Deacon, the Breadwinner, and Tornado.) The pickups were nasty sounding, but oh so cool. Legit ones. Fender Telecaster, Rickenbacker solid and semi-solid guitars, Gretsch arch tops, Mosrite solidbodies, and Gibson solidbodies guitars w/ P90’s.
• Amps: The Vox AC-30 is a seriously important amp in the history of rock and roll, for a very good reason, it’s an original. History tells us that early Marshall’s are in essence copies of a Fender Tweed Bassman. So the Vox is the only original amp design of the “Big Three”. Best news about that is that it sounds great! The Vox AC-15 is also a slammin’ amp. Portable, strong and ballsy just like my first wife.
• Fender Deluxe Reverb, crank it up and feel the magic. The singularly most versatile amplifier in the history of guitardom. This little dynamo is IMHO the best sounding amp ever made (Blackface models produced from 1964 to 1967).
• The Silvertone/Danelectro Twin Twelve. What a great/cheap amplifier should be. Two twelve inch speakers (usually Jensen’s) a killer tremolo and reverb. Most models I have seen run four 6L6’s in the output section. Although I own an early Danelectro Twin Twelve which runs a duet of 6L6’s that is a great amp. Also any of the Valco made amps will do the trick (Supro, National, Airline, Montgomery Ward).
• There are so many great boutique amps out there that are really well built and versatile. They are expensive, usually very expensive. Also they are tough to try out as many of these amps are not in music stores. Making it hard to test drive them . And if they do have one, that’s the problem they only have one, so you can’t a/b them with your favorite guitar plugged into them. Some of the ones I have either owned or played are Victoria (a tweed Fender vibe), Matchless (some Vox like models). I also really liked the early Bedrock amps that were basically JTM 45 clones.

Getting Your Own Sound with Guitars & Amps from MyRareGuitars.com

The topic is… branding.

WAIT!

Before you click the back button, hear me out.

The simple definition of the word ‘brand’ is the image that a particular product has in a person’s mind. Let’s use some examples to illustrate this idea.

If I were to say the word… facial tissue… and ask you what product name comes into your head first, those of you in North America would likely say… Kleenex.

If we were talking about cars and I said… safety… what car would you think of? Most likely Volvo. Staying on the car theme, what if I said… ultra-luxury? Rolls Royce, right?

OK, you get the picture. Now, let’s play the same game only related to guitar amps. Here’s a couple to get you warmed up.

Metal. Let’s see, I would probably say… Mesa Dual Recto. Jazz. Hmmm… I’d go for Polytone Mini Brute. Rare. Easy! I’ve only ever seen one of these… on stage behind Robben Ford… Dumble.

Wanna have a go at it? Just copy the following table, paste it into an email (click on the link at the bottom of this article), fill in as many answers as you want and click on send. I’ve left some blanks so you can even write in a few of your own categories. Easy! I’ll tabulate the results and Next month we’ll see if there are any surprises! I’ll also let you know how the answers varied in each category.

Let’s have some fun!

Guitar Amps: What’s in a Brand Name? from MyRareGuitars.com

More tone controls are better – treble, middle, bass – a tone stack for every channel! Always has been, always will be… maybe not!

WHY?

Tradition is a powerful thing and change is hard to make. But, if you consider how tone controls affect an amp’s signal chain, investigate what a guitar and amp sound like with minimal tone controls (or none!) and then decide if you REALLY need them, you might be surprised at your conclusion.

Tone controls change or modify the tone of an electric guitar signal as it passes through an amp. However, the primary determinant of how your electric guitar sounds is the instrument itself, the amp’s overall design (gain stages, pre vs. power tube overdrive, etc.), its tubes, the speaker(s) and YOU the player. Tone controls are but one in a long line of factors strung between your brain, your gear and your ears.

We all have used tone controls to change the sound that our amp produces. Roll off the bass for a humbucker equipped guitar; trim the treble when you plug in that ice-pick Tele; peg the bass when playing your Strat; boost the mids to cut through the mix. All useful stuff. But, what would you sound like if you didn’t have tone controls at all?

In my opinion, despite their tone tweaking usefulness, traditional tone controls can detract from the quality of the tone… if you consider what your amp would sound like without them. Let’s dive into the nature of tone controls to find out why I hold this wacky belief!

Virtually every tone control you’ll run across, at least in a typical tube amp, is a ‘passive’ device. That means that it cuts or reduces the volume of certain frequencies. A passive tone control cannot boost frequencies.

Terminology check: tone controls are often referred to as ‘tone stacks’. The passive components that comprise tone controls – resistors, capacitors and potentiometers – are connected in such a way that when they are drawn on a piece of paper – a schematic – the treble, middle and bass controls look like they are ‘stacked’ on each other. That’s where the term tone stack comes from.

Because tone stacks are constructed from passive components, even if you turn the knobs up to 10, each tone control still reduces certain frequencies.

Yes, that’s right. With passive tone controls there is no such thing as a TRUE ‘flat’ setting where the signal is not affected in any way there is always some signal loss.

What the heck does all that mean?

Below is a graph that shows the frequency response of a typical treble, middle, bass (TMB) tone control often used by an amp company originally located in southern California. The graph depicts the level of frequencies with all the tone controls set to 10. As you can see the signal level at all frequencies is well below 0 dB — that means that the signal level is being attenuated or reduced as it goes through the tone stack – even at a 10 setting (yes Nigel, the same would hold true at 11 too!).

What does this mean? Two things.

First, a tone stack reduces the overall level of your signal. That’s why amps with traditional tone stacks need an extra gain stage to return the signal to its level before it got hosed down by the tone stack – more components, more cost, more complexity.

Second, even when all the knobs are on 10 the stack is changing the tone profile of your signal. The tone stack’s frequency response as shown in the graph has a big dip centered on 300 Hz. That means that the volume level of those frequencies around 300 Hz is a lot less than the rest of the frequencies – a cut in the low mids.

Here’s our tone stack’s frequency response set to provide a flat frequency response. Note that although the tone controls are not shaping the tone – all frequencies are being passed at an equal level -the signal has been severely attenuated across the board.

• 10Hz
• 100 Hz
• 1000 Hz
• 10000 Hz

You’ll likely be surprised to learn that to produce this ‘flat’ response the controls have to be set as follows:

• Bass = 1
• Middle = 8
• Treble = 0

I bet that’s not where you set your tone controls!

There are a few things at play here. First, at this flat response point you have to really boost the volume to compensate for the gain loss through the tone stack. Second, it shows how much the typical tone stack scoops mids – bass and treble have to be severely attenuated to match the low mid-frequency response of the stack. Finally, this shows that the tone controls are highly interactive and changes in one dramatically affect the other – you have to dial in crazy settings to get a flat response.

So, if it takes this dramatic an alteration of your tone controls to get a true representation of what your guitar sounds like why bother?

Is all this ‘bad’? Not necessarily. The tone stack in question has been used in dozens of amp designs that produce great tone. Maybe you won’t like the true sound of your guitar!

However, I want to plant a crazy idea in your brain: what would happen if you didn’t have a tone stack or you had a very simple tone control that could make subtle tone changes, but would not suck nearly as much gain and would not dramatically alter the frequency response of your guitar?

Well, in my experience you can really ‘hear’ your guitar (!) … you’ll hear a more balanced tone coming from your rig. Your tone will have more presence and, with an amp that has been designed with minimal or no tone controls, you will experience a more responsive, dynamic feel. If you like that sort of thing it’s VERY cool!

Of course, it’s impossible to properly convey the sound of a ‘tone-stacklessR17; amp on a piece of paper … you have to hear the difference!

So, when you see amps with minimal tone controls don’t dismiss them. Play through them when you get the opportunity so you can see for yourself. You may be surprised at what you hear and feel!

Send me an EMAIL (Don Mackrill) if you would like to discuss this further!

PS: Crystal ball time! I predict you’ll see an increasing number of amps with ‘lift’ switches that take the tone stack completely out of the circuit. A few big name amps have had this feature for years labeled as a “solo” switch. Why call it a solo switch? Because eliminating the tone stack increases gain and midrange response – both perfect for bringing your sound front and center! Wouldn’t that boost in tonality be a good thing all the time?

Consider having your local amp tech add a lift switch to your favorite box so you can experiment for yourself … the stack might get lifted and never put back!

Amp Tone Controls: Tone & Gain Sucking Leeches? from MyRareGuitars.com

My first home recording set up was an Akai ¼ inch 2 track and a Harmon Kardon cassette deck, no EQ, the only effects I had were a few effects pedals. I would program one of my primitive drum machines or use a factory preset non-programmable rhythm machine while I was recording that I would usually add my bass or rhythm guitar. And after a suitable take I would ping pong the tracks back and forth from the 2 track to the cassette, adding effects on the fly.

My next home recording rig was a Teac 3340 4 track with a Biamp 6 channel board with internal spring reverb and a stereo 10 band graphic equalizer. Boy that was the real deal.

I did learn a lot about recording guitars and basses from my home recoding experience and also from listening to my favorite records too. So here is my top ten tips on recording guitars and basses.

BTW please send me some of your first home recording Frankenstein laboratory creations, I would love to hear them.

#1: Use chord fragments instead of whole chords

Like a good B-3 player who uses two or three fingers, your chords and their voicings should be well thought out and economical. Try not to use roots or fifths unless the fifth is an altered fifth like a flat 5 or augmented 5th. Analyze the melody notes and try not to crowd them with notes that proximate in the same octave i.e. if your melody note is a root middle C and you want to use the 9th in the chord use one either an octave higher or lower..

The whole idea here is to give room for the other instruments or just to open up the music and let the notes you leave out be implied as opposed to being heard, it’s an interesting concept check it out!

#2: Utilize ghost tracks when recording bass guitar

This is a very useful technique when you want to change the texture of your bass track, without changing the integrity of the original. First you will need to clone the track, once you have done that clone it a second time. Now you should have three tracks, eq the first clone track very bassy and cut all the highs. Now do the opposite to the second clone track, eq it high and cut the lows. Now instead of changing the original track you can just add the clones to your taste.

A few pointers on this technique, first I think you should electronically clone the tracks and not shadow them by recording another bass track (that is an entire different idea). Now when eq-ing your clones try to do it while playing it alongside your original track, that will give you a better picture of where to go with the eq.

#3: Have a guitar strung up to Nashville tuning.

Nashville tuning for those not familiar with it is a six string guitar tuned with standard first three strings and the next three tuned up an octave. It’s like a twelve string without the low strings, pretty cool idea. They call it Nashville tuning because that’s where it started in the studios in Nashville. You can’t play lead with it, or accompany with it alone, but where it comes into play is adding it to a track where you want to add a highlight to your track. A twelve string will sound a bit muddy in comparison. Try some alternative voicings, and work it in and out of the mix.

Prepare yourself to adjust the truss rod as this tuning puts almost no tension on the neck.

#4: Use stereo delays to fatten up rhythm guitar parts.

This is a method I have used for years, I especially like using the stereo delays on funky or single note rhythm parts. I will usually use a delay of 75ms to 150ms, panned hard left or right. The dry guitar panned one way the wet guitar panned the other way. This effect also works well on ½ note and ¼ note parts, like reggae-type feels.

You can also open up the delays for melody parts. What I like to do is set my time delays immediately when I record. I do this by counting the beats per minute and setting the delays accordingly. So if yourBPM’s are 105 I would set my delays at 210ms, 420ms and 840ms and use and combine them to taste.

One suggestion is to get a feel for it when you bring up your tracks, but I really start to get creative when it comes to the mix. Make it sound big, and don’t be afraid to get buck wild!

#5: Bass players use those flatwounds dammit!!!

Yes Mr. Bassman start recording with flatwounds and hear the magic. Don’t forget that drums record better when they are muffled (ask Ringo) and don’t decay, well boys sorry to tell you that unless you are playing Stanley Clarke style fusion your bass should not be sustaining all over the place. All it does is make the track feel real loose. Studio bass legend Joe Osborne recorded hundreds of sessions in the 60’s with the same set of “dead” strings for over four years! And when he did change them, he had to fish the dead ones out of the trash.

All your favorite James Jameson / Jerry Jemmot records of the 60’s were also recorded with flatwounds. Just try it!

#6: Always record a direct sound on a separate track

Whether you are recording through a POD or miking up your favorite amp, having the track recorded along side direct will always be a plus. You may never use it or just bleed it in, but you will feel better just knowing its there. The other plus is you can always “reamp” it by feeding the dry track through any device or by using a device such as a Reamp which allows you to run a recorded track back through an amp after the fact.

That’s the first part of this column – and remember, that you do not need a 24 track studio to create great music, you need go concise ideas and tons of overdubs and other filler. Reminder, Sgt Pepper recorded on a four track, Blizzard of Oz, 8 track, Uncle Meat a 3 track, all the early Motown hits two 2 tracks in sync, Dark Side of the Moon, 8 track – ..see a pattern developing?…..Part 2 next month.

Peace,

Joey Leone

P.S. Mike Robinson and I have been working on some custom designs – the first is the Joey Leone Signature Model – for the past 18 months. We are getting close to the release date and will have some information available in the next newsletter. In the meantime, drop me an EMAIL and I can fill you in on some preliminary information. Here are some sneak peaks at the prototype.

Joey Leone Signature Guitar Prototype from Eastwood Guitars

Joey Leone Signature Guitar Prototype from Eastwood Guitars

A Baker’s Dozen Tips: Recording Guitars & Basses (Part 1) from MyRareGuitars.com

This month I will be discussing a much overlooked aspect of guitar playing and appreciation, the professional setup. As I always say – this is not MY Guitar until it is setup to my specifications. I think perhaps 90% of today’s guitar players do NOT have a personal guitar repair technician that they work with. People have a favorite video / music store with a favorite clerk that helps them with selections, a tailor, a banker, a doctor, a dentist, a lawyer… yet they don’t have a favorite guitar tech. Why? Here are three scenarios that will exemplify this point.

Scenario #1: My Seagull sounds better then my Martin!

How many times have I heard this story, “I bought this cheap guitar at a local music store for $200 bucks, and it really needed a good setup and strings, and afterwards it sounded amazing!” The truth is that this is no urban legend – the professional setup is the real deal – and can make a decent guitar play and sound very good and sometimes even great. This is true for electrics and acoustics equally, although the most obvious is the acoustic as they are usually more prone to neck and body adjustments due to heat and humidity (or lack thereof). But, the electric guitar also needs a good setup as well.

Scenario #2: Music store guitars.

In my 30+ years of perusing music stores I have rarely entered a music store where the guitars were maintained w/ fresh strings and a good setup. As a matter of fact they are rarely even in tune to concert pitch (A440). I know – the profit margin, the man hours, blah, blah, blah – the truth is Mr. Music Store owner you will sell more guitars if they are maintained. Truth be told unless you are talking about a high end guitar shop where they have to sell guitars to pay the rent, guitars are usually hung up on the wall and expected to sell themselves.

So if you are really interested in buying a guitar in a music store, ask them to restring it and set it up for you. I mean don’t be an idiot and jerk the guy around for no reason, but you should know what it sounds like before you buy it. For a guitar under $1,000? Probably not. But for something more expensive, you bet.

For all you vintage guys out there how many times have you picked up that prehistoric Strat and were disappointed with how it played, knowing full well that it probably has been sitting for a long time without the benefit of some needed tweaking. Most dealers will say, “dude I left it as I found it” like that is a favor to you, how convenient! It’s really a disservice to those who’ll plunk down 20 G’s for a piece of guitar history, because these fellas know as well as we know, that just because it was made 50 years ago don’t mean it’s a good guitar, and the only way to know is? You guessed it, if it’s setup professionally.

Scenario #3: Online Purchases.

Online mega stores, Ebay auctions, direct sales, mom and pop sellers, third party sellers, yes my friends this is where a majority of guitar and guitar related commerce is done, online.

I must confess that I was one of those “I ain’t buying what I can’t play” guys. The idea of paying for a guitar that I had not seen gave me chills, and even more frightening to this paranoid guitar buyer was the fact that I was buying one of many guitars in that model that they had in stock. Who was going to pick the one I was getting? Beavis or Butthead? Or what does “very good condition” mean? Now we deal with words like “vibe” “correct” and “players” guitar – and are supposed to know what that means. I know what new means, it means new! I know what a demo is, it’s a demo! Alas, now I have learned how to buy guitars that I cannot play, one way is to buy from someone who is reputable and has a track record. Another is to buy what you know, a 1970 ES 335 (if it has no issues) is a 1970 ES 335, you will pay for it, and 99 times out of 100 get what you expect (from a reputable dealer or seller).

BUT… Now please my friends, pay attention here because this is the gospel as I know it. Never take a guitar out of a box after it has been shipped to you, and expect it to play right. To me that’s an unreasonable expectation. You buy a guitar on the merit of its sound, playability and pedigree (where and who it comes from). Like I said earlier, you can’t expect the store owner to take a lower cost guitar, re-string it and setup to your specifications, just for you to try it out. All players have different ideas about string gauges and low action etc, etc. That is why you need to find your own local technician, who will begin to understand your personal preferences and expectations. These guys can make a $500 guitar play like a $5000 guitar, and the more they know about you the better a job they can do for you. So, as soon as you get your guitar, inspect it for shipping damage and for flaws. As far as flaws are concerned, be reasonable, as far as I am concerned my expectations on a guitars fit and finish are directly related to its price.

Here is what I believe are the necessary parts of a good setup:

• A neck adjustment (if needed)
• Intonation
• Action adjustment
• Fret work (leveling if needed)
• Pickup balancing
• Nut filing (a way underrated aspect of tuning issues)
• New strings
• Cleaning scratchy pots (used guitars)

These tasks should be done by a qualified guitar repairman. You should have a local guy who knows your likes and dislikes. I personally like a flat neck adjustment with almost no bow and a higher action then most would like. You have your own expectations for a setup, communicate these to your local repairman and than enjoy your guitar.

Guitar Tech Setting Up a Guitar

I will say again – any guitar I own is not truly mine until it is setup to my specifications.

So in closing my friends I respectfully say don’t decide whether a guitar is a good guitar or not until it is setup professionally.

So many guitars, so little time.

That Is Not My Guitar Until It Is Setup To My Specifications from MyRareGuitars.com

Frank Zappa

One of the greatest musicians of the 20th century was also a damn good guitar player, he stands alone as a composer, instrumentalist and satirist beyond compare. His name was Frank Zappa. Frank is still IMHO the most underrated musician in the rock and roll era.

Frank was a master at the use of wahwah (check out his early wah solo on Orange County Lumber Truck from the album Weasels Ripped My Flesh), one of his techniques was using the wah as an EQ boost. His feel for the wah was so good he could feel the notch in the pedals throw that would give him (for most part) that growling round sound that Frank was known for during the 70’s. Try it yourself plug in your SG (or any humbucking solidbody guitar) and get your favorite distortion sound. Now go to the neck pickup crank it up but do not roll off the treble as you would if you were trying to cop the Clapton ‘Woman tone’, leave it up full and roll off the highs using the wah. This will give the wah a full spectrum signal for it to work with.

Another Zappa secret was his uncanny ability to combine exotic scales with the pentatonic blues scale. If you watch any videos of Frank playing you will notice he is not in the “normal guitar boxes”. Viva la Frank!!!

Speaking of Frank Zappa, it is well documented that growing up two of his favorite guitarists were Guitar Slim and Johnny Guitar Watson. Frank in a Guitar Player magazine interview said that his favorite guitar solo of all time was Guitar Slims Story of my life. This solo has a tone and approach that is very Zappaesque.

Guitar Slim

One of the secrets of Guitar Slims sound was the fact that he preferred to plug his guitar into a PA amp as opposed to a guitar amp. This was probably a Bogen or Premier. What Slim liked about these amps I am sure was the loudness (I have seen p.a. amps from the early 40’s using 2 6L6’s way before Fender used these tubes for his amps) their high end, and most important their reaction to the signal of his guitar (Slim was reported to be using a Strat and a 52 Les Paul) which gave out more signal than the microphones of that era. End result? Distortion mmmm yummy yummy!!!

Jimmy Page with his Fender Telecaster

How come I don’t sound like Jimmy Page when I play the intro to Heartbreaker when I use my Les Paul? Is it because I don’t own a 59 Burst? What can I do to make my Les Paul sound like Jimmy’s? Well first of all you would have to transform it into a Telecaster. That’s right a Telecaster. Now let me explain how this happened.

A young Jimmy Page was the protégé of British studio legend Big Jim Sullivan. Jim was a member of an elite group of cats who like their American counterparts the “Wrecking Crew” played on most of the hit records of the 60’s recorded in England. The fact is that 95% of the records we grew up listening to in the 60’s were made by the same two dozen or so musicians. The truth is no producer (the music industries version of a movies director) would put his reputation on the line using some prettyboys who were signed because of the haircuts or their trousers. (Rutles 101). This fact by itself is what separates the Beatles, the Stones from everyone else, they were the first truly self contained band.

Now back to Sully, Page and the Tele. Sullivan could be seen weekly in the UK and US as a featured player on the Tom Jones Show. Sullivan was known for his swarthy good looks and his White Telecaster. Being a studio player Jim knew the merits of the Tele, how it cut through the mix and was a safe bet at sessions as far as its versatility. (A side note; there was a guitarist across the pond making ground breaking records with his Telecaster, his name was Joe Messina one of the house guitarists of Motown’s Funk brothers).

When Jimmy took his formidable talent and studio experience to the studio to produce the first Led Zeppelin record Jimmy had an early 60’s rosewood board white Tele in tow just like Big Jims.

Jimmy had already toured with the Yardbirds using the Tele as well as the first go round with Zeppelin in the UK (check out Zep on the DVD Supershow). But Page felt that the Tele was not fat enough sounding for a power trio setup, Jimmy soon switched to the Les Paul for good.

Jimi Hendrix in Studio

Jimi’s tone using the Fuzz boxes of the 60’s. We all know how thin sounding the fuzz boxes of the 60’s were. Whether it’s a Big Muff, an Octavia,or a Tonebender, they were all pretty thin sounding. Jimi Hendrix used all of these at one time or another, yet his tone was mostly pretty fat and round sounding (unless he was looking for a special effect) This leads us to Jimi’s secret tone maneuver.

It’s a really simple one. We all know now that Jimi used Marshall’s most of his career and we also know that Jimi made use of the channel jumper cable (as seen in many of Jimi’s live video’s) Jimi’s trick was to boost the bass sounding channel to even out the thin sound of the fuzz box. This gave Jimi the desired fat tone he was accustomed to when he came up using Fenders and Ampegs. The other benefit was that when Jimi would simply turn down his volume for his rhythm sound it was still quite big sounding. Rarely in the videos I have seen (many) did Jimi ever step on a fuzztone for a lead, when you have seen him go to a pedal for a lead it was to a wah for the tone boost.

Surf guys outboard reverb unit trick. Boy did the surf records of the early to mid 60’s blow my mind. Imagine guitar records with no singing, simple melodies that almost everyone could cop, and tons of self important guitar slinger attitude. I ran into a surf guitar legend years ago and I asked him how he ran his reverb, because I could see that he had something funky going on there as I saw that his guitar was plugged directly into the amp.

He smiled and told me that he and some of the other cats of that era were using a primitive effects loop so to speak. Here’s how they did it.

He ran the guitar into input one of his Showman and then ran a cable from input two to the input of his Fender reverb unit and ran the output of the reverb to the input of channel two (or normal channel). This way he could not only tailor the sound of the unit with the onboard controls he could also utilize the second channels volume and tone controls.

One benefit he did not realize too, was that the guitar running direct into the first channel did not have its dry input signal colored by the reverb unit! This setup is also called the poor mans effects loop.

Adrian Belew - The Twang Bar King

What the hell is all that duct tape doing on the stage? Did you ever notice that when you have a single coil guitar plugged in that the amount of noise changes as you turn or move around? Yeah me too! Did you also ever notice that there were certain spots on the stage that you could get really good feedback if you turned a certain way? Yeah me too!

Over the years I have heard stories about how Hendrix would spend over an hour at his sound check finding those hot spots on the stage. Legend has it that Twang Bar King Adrian Belew took it to a new level by incorporating this feedback and sustain into his tunes as part of the melody and arrangement. This made it necessary to make these markings on the stage part of his setup. No room for spontaneity for Mr. Belew, he needed what he needed when he needed it.

So here’s the trick after the band sound checks bring out the tape and find your hot spots, even if you don’t utilize feedback you will still benefit from knowing where on the stage your guitar will be most responsive.

Joey Leone with his amps

That’s it for now my friends so, “keep those cards and letters coming in.”

Secrets of the Great Guitar Players from MyRareGuitars.com

MXR Micro Amp Guitar Effects Pedal

#1: MXR Micro Amp

This is by far the most useful pedal I have ever used/seen. What this pedal does is so simple yet so valuable to any guitarist playing any kind of music. What it does is makes your sound either a bit louder or much louder. Don’t sound like much, but think about it, how many times were you playing and thought gee I would like to be a bit louder without changing my sound.

So before I get all excited, let me tell you what this pedal actually does. The Micro-Amp is an FET preamp with a 0 to 20+ db gain structure that does not color your sound at all (aside from the fact that you are pushing your preamp section of your amp harder which usually causes your sound to be a bit darker). In my effects chain it is my last in line (btw I only use 4 pedals). Over the twenty-five plus years I have owned one I have used it not only as a boost but have also used it to boost line levels when using long cable runs to isolation booths when recording. I have also used it in a pinch when amplifying an acoustic guitar with a piezo pickup and no onboard preamp. One other comment about this pedal, the battery life (especially the early versions with no LED) is extremely long. Yipee!!! Check one out you will not be sorry.

Uni-Vibe Guitar Effects Pedal

#2: Uni-Vibe

Yeah I know Jimi Hendrix used one, and after he died Robin Trower used one on his post Procal Harum albums. There is a reason these cats used one, I think the reason is that there is a magic to the Uni-Vibe that you can’t put a finger on. The best way I can describe it is that it’s thick yet lets the guitars dynamics come through. I have also always believed that it works best with single coil guitars, again I believe this is due to its fatness. IMHO if you want a similar vibe (pun) for your Les Paul or SG use a flanger.

I recommend the original of course, they are not cheap and not too road worthy but they sound unreal. The Dunlop reissues sound okay but I believe the Line 6 Modulation POD Uni-Vibe sound is better and cleaner. I also recommend the FulltoneDeja-Vibe.

Ibanez Maxon AD9 Analog Delay Guitar Effects Pedal

#3: Ibanez (Maxon) AD9 analog delay

The AD9 is a great sounding analog delay, with three controls, feedback (repeats), delay time, and mix. These pedals were made in the late 80’s if my memory serves me correct. Before my brief analysis of this pedal let me proudly say that back in the late 80’s when we all got sucked into the idea that “digital delay was so much cleaner” mentality, I remember saying to my friend Jimmy Agnello “I dunno I like analog delays alot better”. Well now I think we all know that if it’s a toss up between sounding like Chet Atkins or Big Country…. well you get the picture.

When comparing the AD9 to its predecessor the AD909 I think the AD9 sounds more guitar friendly and less science-fictionary. I think that the AD9 sounds more Echoplexy than the Boss DC-2, and lets face it isn’t that what we want.

Musitronics Mutron V Envelope Follower Guitar Effects Pedal

#4: Musictronics Mutron Micro V Envelope Follower

I bought one of these little buggers back in the early 80’s when I was playing bass and wanted to funk up my sound a bit. It worked pretty good on the bass, but when I shifted over to guitar and finally got the nerve to plug it in it really started speaking in funky tongues. Although all it had was one button, dude that’s all it needed. It also sported a switch that went from high to low, which accentuated the higher or lower frequencies. I can’t say for sure whether Frank Zappa used the MicroV or the full sized Mutron for his auto-wah effect but this pedal cops his signature auto-wah effect perfectly.

I also love the Ibanez offering from their early small button series, but this one sounds even better. Another aspect of this pedal that I like is that it is a bit more touch sensitive than any other Envelope follower I have tried.

Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro Guitar Effects Pedal

#5: Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer

What can you say about a pedal that sells for ten times its initial price only 20 years later. The 808 in its original form had a small square on/off button on top, three knobs (distortion/tone and volume) and an LED light.. For most of us that have used this pedal the best way to describe it is its warm sounding even at its most trebly setting and it compliments the sound of any guitar and amp combination it is used with.

The pedal has its own sound no doubt, but part of that sound is its ability to not color your sound so much. To me it’s the perfect distortion pedal if you are prone to go back and forth from a cleaner sound to a slightly dirtier sound. The 808 is virtually indestructible and its battery life is pretty good.

Now onto the reissues and clones, first I will say that I like the reissue Ibanez TS808 that is currently available. I have A/b’ed it with a few of my original 808’s and they sound almost identical. I wish the lED was briter as on the originals you could gauge your battery life with it. The Maxon version which is in a smaller, flimsier case is not roadworthy at all. It sounds similar but not as close as the Ibanez reissue. The on/off switch is noisy and the pots are too close together for that foot adjustment we all have gotten used to with the original 808.

I must also mention a fellow Vermonter and electronics whiz Mr. Denny Coleman make a great version of this pedal under the name Musicians Junkyard Screamer this pedal is very close to the original, although I will say that it has a texture that my 808 does not, a kind of barely audible octave overtone that I like very much. Check it out.

Vox Clyde McCoy WahWah Guitar Effects Pedal

#6: The Vox Clyde McCoy wahwah pedal (model V848)

Yes my friends I know that there are many wahwahs that are classics and similar (Cry Baby’s etc.). I owned and used an original “Clyde” for years without knowing what a classic and valuable pedal it was. During this time I was using a Cry Baby also and was easily able to hear the difference between the two pedals.

Now I will also say that over the years I have had many guitar players complain about their wahs, and most of their complaints were based on the pedals not being setup right. The “throw” or the aperture (opening) needs to be set to your own taste, and that usually rights whatever problems you might have. (That adjustment is easily made by loosening the retainer screw which holds a plastic piece that comes down from the pedal and once this screw is loose you can adjust the throw on the potentiometer that controls the wah effect.

As far as the sound is concerned, I think that what separates the Clyde from the CryBaby is that it sounds a bit fatter in the low end and a bit less harsh in the open position. I also think that is has a nicer notch in the middle which helps for that wahwah sustain that Jimi used so well. I have never been a fan of the Morley pedals as their throw is too big and I can’t use them comfortably while standing.

Vox has reissued the Clyde with a true bypass and I own four of them and they are great, maybe even a bit cleaner than the originals which is a 50/50 aspect, some might like it, some won’t. I like these so much that I did sell my original Clyde for an insane amount of money.

Dan Armstrong Purple Peaker Plug-in Guitar Effects Pedal

#7: Dan Armstrong Purple Peaker Plug-in effects

These very cool little pedals were designed by Dan himself. They plugged right in the guitars output, which makes them IMHO a more studio friendly effect, but with a very simple reverse wiring you can plug them into the amp, and you’re good to go. The real winners of the line were the Orange Squeezer and Purple Peaker. Both of these add-ons were used by RyCooder, and David Lindley, and Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo used the Blue Clipper Fuzz duct taped to his guitar.

Here’s some really good news, after some really poor quality Korean copies of these high quality units were made back in the 90’s, these great little units are being handmade again in the USA using the original designs, and they sound great!!! Rumor has it that there will be some stomp box versions out soon too!

Now here’s some quickies….

• Vox Tonebender: classic 60’s fuzz box
• Boss pitch shifting delay pedal: very cool pedal for that quick harmony
• Ibanez Phase Tone: early script lettering one button, one pot, not the most versatile phaser but a great one
• MXR Dyna Comp: great compressor, can be very subtle as well as a real scwelcher. Also a great combo with any Chorus/phaser/flanger
• Boss Distortion (Orange Box): great direct into the board distortion effect, used it many times in the studio always with a shocked look from the engineer.
• Boss CE-3 Chorus: “the” chorus pedal as far as I can tell, it has the sound. It’s versatile, not very noisy and sturdy as a Tonka Toy.
• DeArmond Volume Pedal: until the Morley volume pedal strolled onto the scene this was the only show in town. The DeArmond was the industry standard throughout my formative years in this business. Keyboard players used it as well as horn players as well, but as a guitar player it affords you the luxury of leaving your guitar full out taking advantage of its full tonal voice.
• MXR Phase 90: another industry standard, sturdy, sounds great how can you look yourself in the mirror knowing you don’t have one kicking around your effects bag.
• Sam Ash fuzz box: red box probably made by Unicord, anyway old school fuzz box and ugly as a monkey’s rear end.

Some many effects so little time….

Please send me your favorite effects and I will add them in future columns.

A Gaggle of My Favorite Guitar Pedals, Effects Boxes, Units, Whatever!!! from MyRareGuitars.com

Below, I lay out the answers, based on the classic traditional surf sound of the Sixties. Whether you want to nail the sound with vintage gear, or whether you are on a budget, you’ll find useful guidelines here.

Surf Guitar Gear Basics

Instrumental surf music has its own distinct sound – influenced by both the natural sounds of waves crashing on the beach, the typically rudimentary skills of its early performers, and technological breakthroughs in amplified guitar technology during the hey-day of surf music, the early 1960s. In short, the key characteristics of the surf guitar sound are a clean tube-amp tone and heavy reverb. Not coincidentally, those sounds are closely associated with Fender musical instruments. Back in the day, all Fender instruments were made in Southern California, just a mountain range away from the Pacific Ocean. Naturally, Fender had a huge impact on the early surf musicians blasting out their instro tunes in the music halls of SoCal.

Surf Guitars

Most early surf bands made use of a full array of Fender gear, beginning with the famous single-coil guitars that still define “the Fender sound.” Dick Dale, the father of surf guitar, played his staccato machine-gun sound with the help of “the Beast” a highly personalized Fender Stratocaster.

Today, the Strat remains a favorite choice for surf guitar slingers. The most popular Fender surf machines, however, are the Jazzmaster and its twangy, shorter-scaled cousin, the Jaguar. While nothing tops a vintage Jazz or Jag dated anywhere from 1958 (the first year of the Jazzmaster) to about 1966 (the venerated “pre-CBS” era, when Fender was still owned and operated by Leo Fender), you’ll have to shell out mucho dinero for the authentic item.

Fender Jazzmaster.. proper surfin’ vibes!

Fortunately, Fender has created excellent reissues of its classic instruments. Most players would agree, Made in America (often designated as “MIA”) vintage reissues of the Jazz and Jag come very close to the sound and mojo of the originals, and can be had new or used for less than a king’s ransom. For those on a budget, the Made in Japan/Crafted In Japan models (often denoted as “CIJ” and “MIJ”) come very close to the feel and tone of the American-made models, at about half the price.

A minority of players seek out other vintage guitars popular among early surf bands. Mosrite guitars, made by California’s Semie Mosely, were made famous by The Ventures – not strictly a surf band, but still a vital group in the pantheon of surf music legends. Other popular surf guitars include single-coil models manufactured by Japanese manufacturer Teisco Del Rey, American-maker Danelectro, and the Italian firm Eko. Plus dozens of Japanese guitars churned out during the 1960s and 1970s.

Any of the recent Eastwood Mosrite Reissue models are a great choice if you want to go down the Ventures route:

Eastwood Sidejack, a great option for surf music

That said, anyone new to the surf sound can get by with most any solid-body electric guitar featuring single-coil pickups. For the economy-minded, a Fender Squier Strat is a good choice. Yamaha also makes some surfy guitars loosely fashioned after the wild SGV models of the late 1960s. Other brands to consider are the Danelectro-style guitars made by Reverend, the retro-60s guitars made by Eastwood, reissue Danelectros, DiPintos, and the many Strat-clones made by just about everyone.

Back in the early 1960s, strings were quite heavy when compared to the light, thin, slinky strings favored on most guitars today. If you want a dedicated surf guitar, as opposed to one set up for playing a wide array of rock music, you’ll want to stock up on the heavier guages – high “E” strings of 11, 12, even 13. The true surf sound was typically played on ribbon-wound or “flat” wound strings; these help reduce string-slide sounds and have a mellower tone than the more common round-would strings. However, this is an item of personal preference; many surf guitar players swear by flat-wounds, while most continue to play the cheaper and more widely available round-wounds.

The Ventures, one of the greatest surf bands ever, played Mosrites

One last note: one other characteristic of the surf sound is whammy bar dips. Not the dive-bombing acrobatics of Eddie Van Halen, but a nice quarter or half-tone warble. Any worthy surf guitar should have a bridge set up to create this sound; used judiciously, they will stay in tune. Hard-bridge guitars, such as most Telecasters, lack this feature, making them less desirable among surf guitar players.

Surf Bass Guitars

Surf music played a big role in the acceptance of the electric bass and the movement away from the standup basses used by Jazz, blues, and rockabilly musicians of the 1950s. The surf players ushered in the era of the electric bass, launching the modern rock bass sound. Of course, the surf bands used Fender basses, both the Precision bass and the Jazz bass. Another popular brand was the Danelectro Longhorn bass, with its distinctive double-cutaway body.

Just as if their guitars, Mosrite basses were also used by surf bands, such as The Ventures. The Eastwood Sidejack Bass 32 is a pretty good choice, if you want something similar:

The Sidejack Bass 32… great choice for surf music

Surf Guitar Amps

Think clean, sparkly treble and a round, clear bass tone. That’s the essence of surf amp sound. The most famous and venerable surf amps are the classic Fender Showman and Dual Showman. These were early amp “heads” intended to be played through Fender amp cabinets, typically with big 15″ JBL D-130F speakers. These setups have mountains of clean headroom, sufficient to spread the sweet surf guitar sound across an entire auditorium of stomp-crazed beach kids looking for some fun on a Saturday night. You can still find a bargain on Showman heads by shopping eBay, but snapping up the matching cabs with JBL speakers will cost you a month’s salary or more.

Fender Bandmaster

Other popular early Fender amps are the Twin Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, Bandmaster, Vibrolux, and Super Reverb. Any of these true vintage Fenders will likely put you deeply in debt. Fortunately, Fender has revived many of its timeless designs, which are available as the reissue series. The ’65 Twin Reverb, the ’65 Twin Reverb Special 15, Custom Vibrolux, and the Deluxe Reverb Reissue are all excellent choices for surf music. If you want to lay out serious dead-presidents, the VibroKing Custom comes with a built-in ’63 Fender Reverb (see “Reverb” section, below), while the new SuperSonic combines the tones of the classic Vibrolux, ’66 Bassman, and modern high-gain amps.

That said, there are many other affordable – and not so affordable – amplifiers from which to choose. For novices who want to play at home, the Fender Blues Junior gets great tube tone. Other good choices are the Fender Blues Deluxe, a 40-watt with great versatility, and its beefier brother, the Fender Blues Deville (also sold as the ‘Hot Rod’ series amps). A bargain-basement amp that has excellent surf tone is the Fender Frontline 25R, a surprisingly warm-sounding solid state amp. Of course, you can play through a classic Marshall stack or Vox AC30 (the amp used by the fab British instrumental band, The Shadows). Anything is possible – just bear in mind, you’ll be straying from the classic surf sound.

Another choice (and this is mainly for guitar players with lucrative careers as doctors, attorneys, business execs, and mafia captains) are boutique amps. Many makers, most notably Kendrick and Victoria, have re-created hand-wired amplifiers based on the classic Fender circuits. You’ll get classic Fender tone without having to worry about the reliability issues that come with owning a 50-year-old piece of electronic gear. Unfortunately, the boutique makers seem to focus largely on the tweed-era Fenders of the 1950s, rather than the black-face amps of the 1960s, when surf guitar ruled. So, some of the boutique amps seem better suited to mildly distorted blues than to crystal-clear surf.

Surf Guitar Reverb

Ahhh, reverb. One of the earliest effects created for guitar, and the essential ingredient of surf sound. Originally intended to create an ambient atmosphere, like a large music hall, reverb came to the fore in surf music with the creation of the Fender Reverb based on the G15 circuit. Turned up midway, they do capture the sounds of amplified music bouncing off the walls at a high school hop. But turn the dwell, tone and mix knobs up past the mid-mark, and you start to get the wonderful resonance of a guitar played at the bottom of a well, or in a long tunnel, or perhaps through the barrel of a breaking wave. Coveted by surf musicians, these original tube reverb units are the standard by which all reverb is compared – and by which most fail.

Basically a stand-alone box, tube reverb works by taking the original guitar signal, pushing it through a series of springs mounted in a box, then recapturing and amplifying the sound again before sending it along to the amplifier. Soon after the creation of the tube reverb effect, Fender began adding reverb to nearly all of its popular amp models; however, most will agree that the reverb effect built into the amp itself is a pale and sickly cousin when compared to a true Fender reverb.

Today, you can buy reissue models of the classic Fender ’63 Reverb, but bear in mind, these are not actual copies of the originals. While the circuits are similar on paper, the newer units have circuit board construction, rather than the hand-wired circuitry of the originals. You can, however, find hand-wired reverbs by boutique makers such as Victoria, Soldano, and Kendrick, all based more-or-less on the original G15 circuit. You can also buy a kit and build your own (Weber Vintage Speaker Technology of Kokomo, Ind., is a good source for such kits).

If you can’t spend the $250 for a used reissue much less the $600 or more you will pay for a vintage Fender reverb or a boutique clone of the original, you can go with a variety of pedals, starting as low as $35 for a Danelectro mini-pedal to about $150 for a Little Lanilei reverb pedal that actually uses a spring reverb tank. Other popular models include the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail and Holier Grail, the Verbzilla, and the Digitech Digiverb, which all get excellent reverb sounds for just over $100.

Finally, you may find that the reverb in your amp works plenty good. You may not get the sputtering “boosh” sounds of a true Fender Reverb, but you may find that it’s enough reverb for your throbbing versions of ‘Pipeline’ and ‘Miserlou.’ Then again, you might be like surf guitar aficionado Jeff ‘Big Tiki Dude,’ who believes that there is no such thing as too much ‘verb.

Good surfin’!

Post by: Gavin Ehringer

Let’s Go Surfin’: How to Get the Classic Surf Guitar Sound from MyRareGuitars.com

Rickenbacker 360/12 Old Style 12-String Electric Guitar

For me, it all started with the two Godfathers of the electric 12 string: George Harrison of the Beatles and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds. Obviously, the first ingredient is a great 12 string. The Granddaddy of them all is the Rickenbacker 12 string.

Ricks have been handmade in the same factory in Santa Ana, California for many years and if you can find a dealer that sells and stocks Rickenbacker, you will pay thousands of dollars and you may end up waiting many months for the model of your dreams. I waited 8 months for my 360/12 Old Style when I bought it in 1990.

If you play in a weekend band or jam with your friends, you may find that the electric 12 string, once you have done all of the mandatory Beatles, Byrds, Animals, Who, Tom Petty, R.E.M., and Smiths tunes, has a rather limited use for the rest of your repertoire. Or, maybe not. If you’re like me, you’d happily play the electric 12 all night!

12-String Guitarist: David Love & His Rickenbacker 12-string

Crank up the input gain, compress the bejeezuz out of your 12 string and jangle away!

Tone Secret Number One: Compression!

George Harrison’s great 12 string tone came from a combination of three things: his matchless technique, the venerable Vox AC 30, and the Altec limiter that was in the Abbey Road studios. The Vox, with its all-tube EL 84 platform and its GZ34 rectifier gives any guitar that creamy, brown, compression sustain and chime but it really sparkles when you play an electric12 through it.

The Altec limiter is an old tube-type studio compressor/limiter that squishes the sound at the mixing console and simply enhanced the sound of those old AC 30’s.

Roger McGuinn of The Byrds has said that his tone came from recording his Rickenbacker directly into the console and running it through not one, but two Pultec Limiters at the same time! Listen to the opening figure of “Mr.Tambourine Man” and you’ll hear those compressors squeezing away!

Now I know many of you don’t have George’s or Roger’s technique (neither do I), or access to old AC 30’s (that can cost upwards of $5,000 for collectible examples) or old pieces of studio gear like Altec or Pultec limiters, but you can achieve the same effect with a good quality stomp box compressor. My personal favourite is the Diamond Compressor made here in Canada but any good compressor will do: Keely, Ross, Analog Man, Barber, MXR DynaComp, and the old standby BOSS CS-2 or 3.

Tone Secret Number Two: Flatwounds!

I discovered this Tone Secret the day I got my Rickenbacker 12. I had played other makes of electric 12’s before but they had never produced “that sound” that my Rick had. What was different about it? The single coil pickups that come standard on a Rick? The way Rickenbacker arranged the strings with the root string on top and the octave string underneath?

Both of these things had an influence on the way it sounded but the most important difference to me was the strings. They were not round wound like 99% of the strings that are on the market these days: they were flat wound!

Back when George and Roger were young men (1964), and before the late Ernie Ball started making round wound light gauge guitar strings in California, almost everybody played flat wound strings – that’s what was widely popular and available at the time. Round wounds were available but it wasn’t until The Shadows made them popular that there was a demand for them in Europe. The best flat wound strings in the world came from Germany (and still do) and were sold under the brand names of Pyramid and Thomastik.

Rickenbacker in California was buying Pyramids from Germany at the time (presumably because of the relationship they enjoyed with West German music retailers who were selling Rickenbacker guitars) so that was the string that was being installed on Rickenbackers from the California factory in early ’63 and ’64. So, the sound you hear on Beatles, Byrds, and The Who recordings – those are flat wound strings! The great Pete Townsend refers to them as “tape wound”. He won’t play his 12 string with anything else but!
Pyramid strings are still available to this day (you can find them on the Internet) and Rickenbacker still sells their Number 95404 Compressed Medium Round Wound.

(ground wound) set for about $20.00 a set. I buy them by the box of 12 from a store in New York. I prefer the Rick strings: just a tad brighter than Pyramids.

Round wound strings on an electric 12 string sound like doo-doo. Too crashy and too clangy. Flat wounds or ground round wounds are the way to go if you want “that sound”. If you can’t find Rickenbacker strings where you live, your local music store probably sells or can order D’Addario Chrome singles in a flat wound with which you can assemble your own 12 string set.

The string gauge shipped on every new Rickenbacker is as follows from low to high:

• .042/.026
• .034/.020W
• .026/.013plain
• .020wound/.010
• .013/.013
• .010/.010.

12-String Guitarist: David Love & His Rickenbacker 12-string

Tone Secret Number Three: Use a light gauge pick!

Try it! It works! A medium is too stiff and , in my opinion, “sends” too much signal to the pickup. I have found that with a light gauge pick, you can strum harder but still have a sound that doesn’t break up from string distortion (over strumming).

That kind of vibe (string distortion) works great for, say, a PRS through a Dual Rectifier but not for the sweet chimey strings on your 12 string. I keep a medium and a thin pick in my back pocket whenever I’m on stage depending on whether it’s a 12 string song or a 6 string song.

The great Colin Cripps of Hamilton, Ontario, revealed this Tone Secret to me many years ago. Colin is the guitar player/composer/producer of bands like Crash Vegas, Junkhouse, The Jim Cuddy Band, and Kathleen Edwards.

Tone Secret Number Four: Get your 12-string set up!

Find yourself a good guitar technician and get him or her to set up your 12 string.

The #1 complaint I hear from new 12 string players is that they put the guitar down because it’s too difficult to play.

The 12 string, by its design, is a different and difficult instrument to play because basically you are stuffing 12 strings into the same real estate as 6 strings. Players with small hands (like me) don’t find a problem especially with Rickenbackers, which have notoriously narrow necks.

A good guitar tech will straighten the neck as well as it can possibly can be – this is really important. He/she may also suggest that the frets be “dressed”, polished and leveled. This will benefit your 12 string and make it very playable. Ask him/her to set the action as low as possible – this is really important!

Another innovation that Rickenbacker has developed is the 12 saddle tuneomatic bridge, which ensures near-perfect intonation. If your 12 string doesn’t have one, don’t despair. Any good guitar tech worth his or her salt will get your 12 string intonated as close as it can possibly be even if you have a 6 saddle bridge – very important if you want those big jangly chords to be as sweetly in tune as they should be.

A well-set electric 12 string should play like a brand new PRS or (insert your favourite guitar brand here). If it doesn’t, find yourself a new guitar tech!

The best affordable 12-String Guitars

As a professional musician – yes, I’ve got the Vintage AC-30 and the Ricky 12 – hard to see it any other way. However, there is a price to pay for perfection, and therefor II recommend to my guitar-playing friends who jam for fun, to buy an electric 12 that’s a little more affordable than a Rick. There aren’t many electric 12 strings on the market these days but a few models by Eastwood fit the bill very nicely, such as the Eastwood Nashville 12 (discontinued) or the Classic 12.

The Eastwood Classic 12, setting a new standard in price vs. affordability

Mike Robinson from Eastwood consulted with me prior to the development of the Nashville 12. We discussed a variety of options and settled on this style as is was possible to achieve the tone (mini-humbukers) and setup (flat neck, low action) that would make it a “professional” grade instrument at an affordable price. Last month I visited Eastwood Guitars and took the prototype for a test drive. Two big thumbs up…… jangle away!

Currently, though, the hugely popular Eastwood Classic 12 is the model setting the standard for affordable, high-quality 12-strings, and is the best bet if you want to discover the joys of playing a 12-string guitar:

Still want more? Visit the Eastwood Guitars website for a look at their full range of 12-string guitars:

Suggested Listening:

• Mr.Tambourine Man by The Byrds
• I Should Have Known Better by The Beatles
• A Hard Day’s Night by The Beatles
• The Waiting by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
• Kicks by Paul Revere and The Raiders
• You Were On My Mind by We Five
• Turn!Turn!Turn! by The Byrds
• Can’t Explain by The Who
• The Kids Are Alright by The Who
• It’s My Life by The Animals

Tone Secrets of the Electric 12-String Guitar from MyRareGuitars.com

What makes a song a hit and what is it that you remember? Melody .

What is the only aspect of music that you can copyright? Melody.

Melody is boss. Which is why I always shudder a bit when I hear ‘scales’, ‘modes’ and ‘improvisation’ mentioned in the same sentence. (I just shuddered).

Sure, you can rattle off scales and string riffs together and throw in the odd mode or two, but unless you’re thinking melody, you have not made music; you are not improvising. You may have confirmed that you know which building blocks fit, but you’ve created nothing new. Improvisation to me implies invention, and you don’t invent scales any more than an artist invents Cobalt Blue or Vermilion Red. Scales and modes are like the squirts of paint on a palette. You have to choose carefully which to use, which to blend. Start mixing too many colors and you wind up with mud.

Think melody, is my advice. Don’t let your hand dictate what you play. More often than not, two or three well-chosen notes are far more musical (melodic) than a run through a scale, or worse, an inappropriate modal… thing. Let your heart lead you. Of course you should know your scales, just as an artist should know his or her colors, but to truly invent something new, like a spontaneous melodic line, you can’t be thinking scales or modes.

The rules of improvisation are set by the key of the piece of music generally, and specifically, by what I call the ‘chord of the moment’. Both provide the framework upon which you can drape your melodies. When chords from outside the key intrude, consider them as key changes.

On the face of it, music seems like a highly complex set of relationships: intervals, chords, scales, modes, keys, harmony, rhythm, tempo, ‘feel’. But really, all these elements are there because of melody. In fact, the entire multi billion dollar music industry exists because we love melody.

If you’re still looking for a way of ‘seeing’ the music on the fretboard, a way of distilling any musical moment down to it’s barest essentials, visit my site and read about my book PlaneTalk-The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book. It is a comic strip conversation in which I describe in great detail (in plain old English) the trick I use to keep track of everything, a simple visualisation trick that years ago opened up the whole fretboard to me.

And remember, Melody is boss.

Melody is Boss from MyRareGuitars.com

The key with the least number of barre chords is C, with F being the only non-open chord, so I guess it’s the easiest for a beginner; E, A, D and G are the next in rank of easiness as they also consist mostly of open chords; B and F are getting trickier to keep track of and play with ease, and the sharp/flat keys — forget it! Even after 42 years of playing, I don’t bother even trying. The way I see it, the guitar was designed to ring loud and clear, and it’s next to impossible to get that ringing without open strings doing the work. Barre chords, by their very nature, will always ring less.

That’s where capos come in. Whoever invented the guitar must have already thought of the capo, which compensates for the unfriendly keys. A simple idea, it effectively moves the nut up the neck by clamping down all all strings at once. The result is to raise the overall pitch while keeping the relative tuning of all the strings intact. This allows the player to choose another key to play in, a more friendly key. I should really say ‘pretend key’ because the key doesn’t change at all. Only the fingering changes, as if it were a new (friendly) key.

I have put a chart together here which shows as a graph the 12 keys and their seven notes/chords. It will allow you, if you’re wondering about the subject, to see how it all works. The 12 keys read horizontally, and their scale/related-chords reads below them, vertically. You will see at a glance which are the least complicated keys… they’re the ones without all the fly specks around them. The fact is of course, they’re all identical – it’s only the guitar’s design and tuning that makes them seem different – but try telling your brain and hand that.

There has always seemed to be a bit of a stigma about capos, like you’re cheating if you use them. If being able to ‘see’ a song quickly in terms of I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi and vii and giving the guitar a chance to ring out with nice open strings a vibratin’ and have all the years of playing in nice friendly keys another chance at it — if that’s called cheating, then let it be so. I’ve always felt that the music reaching the ears was the main thing, and I’ve always found that MUCH more comfortable in the friendly keys.

Capos only move the pitch up, never down (unless you’re moving down form a higher already capoed position) and when reading the chart, you can only pick keys lower than the original. They’re on the left of the original key.

Remember that all that changes is the letter. The major or minor or 7th or sus4 — the chord flavors — remain the same. The left hand column indicates the Roman numeral value of the note/chord and by its use of caps and lowercase, indicates the major/minor quality. Remember though, these can change. The composer can pick chords other than those to write a tune.

Capos can misbehave and be a bit of a pain in the neck sometimes. It’s usually best to keep the capo as close to the nut as possible, just for the sake of the tuning. The higher up the neck you go, the more likely it is to pull the tuning out a bit. If you clamp the capo too close to the fret wire, you’ll probably sharp everything a bit; too far back and you might lose good string contact with the fret wire and it will sound choked. Experiment, and find the happy medium. Make sure you put it on straight – parallel to the fret wire, or you’ll pull some strings out of tune and not others, and that’s as sour a sound as you can get.

There are many designs of capos and all have pros and cons. None are foolproof. I’ve tried them all and I think to this day I prefer the little Dunlop variety that have a little nylon belt and rack and pinion type clamping device. They’re adjustable, and can be very reliable. They all tend to pull the strings sideways slightly as you apply the final clamping action, whatever it is, so you’ve got to be ready and compensate by holding it firmly. It’s when you’re playing with others that you have to be careful about these slight discrepancies as you can quickly be out of tune with the band if you’re not careful.

Guitar Capos & Transposing from MyRareGuitars.com

We all associate bass notes with root notes. It certainly makes sense to play, for example, an E note as the bass note of an E chord, or a D note as the bass note of a D chord — after all, that’s the note which names the chord. But what about the other notes that make up a chord? Simple chords consist of the I, III and V of the scale, I being the root note. Can the III and V be used as bass notes also?

They sure can. Let’s use G as an example. A simple G chord consists of G(1), B (3) and D (5), and is written “G”. If we want to use the 3 as a bass note, we would write G/B, pronounced “G over B”, meaning “a G chord sitting on top of a B note”; if we want to use the V as a bass note, we write “G/D”, meaning “a G chord sitting on top of a D note”. All three are G chords, but all have a different context. These chords are sometimes referred to as “slash chords”, because of the “/” used when naming them.

Go to this lesson page for a look and listen to what I’m talking about. I’ve loaded up some RealAudio files of an example progression. I play the chords normally first, then play them using alternate bass notes. The example uses the III as the bass notes of a few of the chords, and you should be able to hear the difference.

This lesson highlights the need to be able to zero in on chord notes in terms of their scale value. The 1, or root, or tonic, is always easy to spot, the 3 and 5 need to be memorized in the context of the chord shape. Once you can pinpoint the scale values of all notes in a chord shape, you will then be able to visualize the scale notes that surround the chords. This is an integral part of being able to improvise, whether chords, melody or harmony.

Have fun with this one. It will open up a whole new world of “inversions” for you to look into, inversions being the term used for this alternate order of chord notes. For simple chords, the usual inversion is (from bass to treble) One Three Five. The other two are Three Five One, and Five One Three. You should always investigate the sounds of these inversions in the context of the piece of music. More often than not, there’s a more interesting way of “voicing” your chords.

Don’t forget, the ‘trick’ to keeping track of music, including all the above, is revealed in my book PlaneTalk — The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book, and demonstrated on the video. If you want to save yourself years of poking around the fretboard looking for the “constant”, the one landmark that everything else refers to, I divulge the one I discovered in this package.

Bass Note Savvy from MyRareGuitars.com

I recently received a letter with the question — How do I mix scales? (Thanks Andreas)

This, with a few additions, is the answer I sent him:

How do you mix scales?

By forgetting about scales completely.

I have hated the idea of scales all my playing life. I never use them (consciously), and never think them. I think melody. I don’t know, or care to know, the names of the various scales and modes. I know the major scale and see all others as being distortions of it. I am also aware that there is the chromatic scale (all twelve notes) to use at all times. You can link any interval with semitones if you so choose, any scale note to any other scale note, from any scale you care to name. It becomes a question of timing, to get to the note you want in the time left to do so, if you follow. All twelve notes are there for the asking.

But seriously, do yourself a favor, stop thinking about scales and concentrate on melody and viewing notes simply as Ones, or flat Threes, or sharp Fives or whatever. You can name all twelve notes like that.

i.e., in ascending order (major scale notes are in bold):

• One (or Tonic, or Root note)
• Flat Nine
• Two / Nine
• Minor Three
• Major Three
• Four / Eleven (often referred to as Sus Four)
• Flat Five
• Five
• Sharp Five (the augmented note)
• Six / Thirteen
• Dominant Seven (or plain old “seventh”, or minor seventh)
• Seven (usually referred to as “major seventh”)
• and One again.

All scales and modes that ever were fit into the chromatic scale.

I have often likened improvised lines to little trips away from home, with “home” being the 1-3-5 of the “chord of the moment”. These are usually, and I stress ‘usually’, your starting notes and finishing notes. The other notes used to link home notes can be any of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. Naturally, the 2, 4, 6, and 7 (which are the other scale notes) will be favorites, but any of the others (non-scale notes) can be seen as linking notes – notes not to linger on, but notes to fill the gaps. Basically, any fret will do. However, timing becomes paramount. “Phrasing” might be a better word. You must mold your line so that you wind up passing through the home notes at the right time, and most importantly, resolving them on time. By that, I mean get home on time. How do you do that?

Another way of looking at it: you create a simple melodic line, one that fits the changes, and then you fill in a few gaps (in space and time) with notes from the chromatic scale. Before long, you know what every one of those twelve notes sounds like in context. You’ll know where each one leads, and which tensions are set up and resolved with which notes.

A good example is the blues. Again, I never think “blues scale”, but I know that (in a major key) the 3 hovers between the minor and major versions. It never settles, so I avoid it as a resolve note. I know that the seven is the dominant 7th, the flat 7. So I make sure it winds up in my lines, not the major seven. The flat 7 really is a blue note, and can be used as another home note. All intervals can be linked with semitones. Strictly major music never uses the flat three and only uses the flat 7 for the V chord.

Major key music which isn’t the blues never uses the flat 3 and uses the major seven, except for the V chord, which uses the flat seventh. (Why? Because it’s one of the scale notes.)

Minor music is minor music. I was asked that question in another letter.

What is a minor key?

I’ll answer that next time.

The Chromatic Scale from MyRareGuitars.com

Music is Mathematics

There are two basic numbering systems in music. One has to do with the scale, the other with the key.

Let’s look at the numbers relating to the scale first.

There are seven notes in the scale. Simple enough. The order of intervals, or spaces, between these 7 notes is what makes it unique. The formula, as we should all know by now is Tone, Tone, semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, semitone.

Pythagoras ratios for guitar

Understanding the notes

So our first little bit of math is to understand that from the TWELVE notes of the chromatic scale — all the notes — the scale uses SEVEN, spaced out as described. If there were six notes in the scale, you could imagine them evenly spaced a tone away from each other. But there are seven, so there have to be a couple of semitones thrown in.

(These seven notes by the way, weren’t simply chosen by someone long ago to be the ones we’d all use. They also come from mathematics, from fractions. For example, a vibrating string tuned to A440, when halved will produce another A note, but vibrating at 880 cycles / second, an octave up. That same string doubled in length will vibrate at 220 cycle / second, yet another A an octave down. That same string cut in 3 will produce E notes, and if you cut it into quarters and make 3/4 of it ring, you’ll be listening to a D note. Try it out on your guitar, you’ll hear for yourself. By the way, the halfway mark of guitar strings is the twelfth fret, the one third mark is the seventh fret, the one quarter mark is at the fifth fret.)

Back to the seven scale notes. Chords are made by combining alternate notes from the scale. The simplest chord of all is the triad. It uses three alternate scale notes. The old one-three-five.

You can add other scale notes to those to make an extended chord. The next alternate note is the seven. So a One-Three-Five-Seven combination is called a major seventh.

Mathematics Quote from Oswald Veblen (1924)

You can add a ‘Two’ note to the chord, but it has be added on the treble side of the grouping, so you’re actually using the ‘Two’ from the next octave up. Since the root (One) note of that octave can be seen as the eighth note of the scale, a ‘Two’ note is the next one up, the ‘Nine’.

You can use the ‘Four’ note if you want, but since it’s only one semitone away from the ‘Three’, it actually replaces the ‘Three’. This chord is called ‘Sus Four’. It begs to be brought back to the Three.

If you add not the Seven note that is in the scale but the next note down, the ‘minor Seven’ it’s sometimes called, you wind up with a Seventh chord, as distinct from the major seventh. They’re also referred to as ‘dominant’.

‘Elevens’ are ‘Fours’, ‘Thirteens’ are ‘Sixes’. (Simply subtract seven from those big numbers to find out which note is being called for). And so on and so. It’s pretty straight forward really: the numbers refer to the the seven notes by their order. Just remember that the One-Three-Five are taken for granted as being present.

The next set of numbers refers to the chords within the key. Each of the seven scale notes qualifies as a starting note to build a chord using the alternate note rule. These chords are often written as Roman numerals.

I — II — III — IV — V — VI — VII

Sometimes, you’ll see them written like this:

I — ii — iii — IV — V — vi — vii

This is a good way of doing it because it shows the major / minor quality of the chords. As I’ve been trying to impress upon you, it’s really important to instantly know what all those chords are for any key. Remember The Music Building I wrote about recently.

Let’s say you see a chord written as V7. What does that mean? It means it’s the Five chord from whatever key you’re in, and it’s the Dominant Seventh version. So if you’re in C, you’re looking at a G7. Or a vi7? That would be Am7.

Record producers often write tunes out simply using the numbers. If they’re unsure of the singer’s range, they will choose a suitable the key in the studio. Only then will the numbers become actual chords, mentally converted by the players. Nashville is famous for this kind of notation.

Of course, time signatures and tempo are also related to mathematics. In fact the method we use to crank up a song is for someone to yell out ONE – TWO, A ONE – TWO – THREE – FOUR. The whole of music is one seething mass of numbers when it comes down to it. Lucky for us it sounds and feels so good to make listen back to, otherwise who would bother trying to figure it out?

I hope this article hasn’t put anyone off. The fact is, all these numbers simply become music when you do put a bit of effort into practising it. The layers of music become distinct and workable. Then the fun begins…

Kirk Lorange is one of Australia’s best know slide guitarists. He is also the author of PlaneTalk guitar method. Check out his sites: www.KirkLorange.com and www.ThatllTeachYou.com

Music is Mathematics from MyRareGuitars.com

Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits)

There are many fine guitarists out there, but if you think about it, the ones that stand out are the ones with their own sound. Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, JJ Cale, James Taylor, Robbie Robertson, Ry Cooder, Keith Richards… What do they all have in common apart from being great players? They’ve all got their own distinctive sound. You can recognize them instantly.

On the other hand, I know many many great guitarists down here in Australia who have got wonderful technique, great chops and musical knowledge, but who are indistinguishable from each other. Nothing in their playing makes them stand out. This can also be a plus. Often, these are the players who become quite busy in the session scene. Producers sometimes prefer for the guitar part to be anonymous with no personality showing through. It’s less distracting to the star.

David Lindley has worked with Jackson Browne & Warren Zevon

In the long run, I think having your own sound and being recognizable is the way to go if you aspire to being a professional. How to go about getting your own sound? Play, play, play and play some more, never learn someone else’s licks exactly and explore the fret board as much as you can. When you practice, concentrate on making the sounds you like and trust your ears. There are only twelve notes to play with, but an infinite number of combinations. All those great guitarists I mentioned before had confidence that the direction they were choosing was the right one for them. It obviously paid off for them. They’re all household names. Naturally, your fingers and your gear will contribute to your sound, but I think it’s more note choice and phrasing that distinguishes each player from the other, a way of thinking about music that comes out in the playing. Until next time, and as my ol’ pal David Lindley (another great player with his own sound) says,”Keep on Twangin’“.

Getting Your Own Sound from MyRareGuitars.com

Which bits and pieces? The best way to approach it is to ask yourself “what is the essence of the chord?”

If it’s a simple major chord, include the major 3rd to establish its major quality. The major 3rd and the 5th, or the major 3rd and the root will do that for you. Go looking for all the places you can find these two-string chunks.

If it’s a minor chord, same thing. The minor 3rd is the note that says “minor”. Add to it the 5th or the root. If you’ve located the majors, you’ve also located the minors. Simply flat the major 3rd for a minor 3rd. The root and the 5th played together will fit against either minor or major.

If it’s a 7th chord, include it in your double stop (another way of saying two notes played together). The major 3rd and the flatted 7th together will state the quality of any 7th chord. The flatted 7th and the 5th to a lesser extent, but it still works.

Sus 4 chords obviously require the 4th, which replaces the 3rd. The root and the 5th are your only choices to add to it.

After a while you will find you can string melodies together using these bits and pieces, weaving through the chord changes. Remember that “the chord of the moment”, as I call it, dictates the rules. Never forget what key you’re in and what the chord of the moment is.

Next, go looking for double stops that use notes two strings apart. Again, look at any old chord and select notes from it which are two strings apart, a “sixth” away from each other. By that I mean they are separated from each other by an interval of six scale notes. Build melody lines out them in the same way, by keeping track of each chord of the moment.

Practice by playing along with your favorite records, or better yet, with someone else. If necessary, write the chord changes down so you’re always aware of the chord of the moment, which is the most important thing.

Keep practicing — it can be worth it. I read The Eagles did a New Year’s Eve gig to bring in the Millennium, for $10,000,000!!

Think Small With Chord Changes from MyRareGuitars.com

I felt the same thing years ago about guitars. I had been playing for Four or five years. I can’t remember the brand of instrument I was playing. It was a nylon string Spanish guitar, the rosette around the sound hole was a decal, it was a piece of crap. My playing had hit a plateau, and my plan to master the instrument was looking shaky. I just couldn’t do the things I wanted to do, and I thought it was something to do with me.

Then I went to a music shop and played a good guitar. It’s still with me, leaning over there against the wall. A nylon string Goya, made in Sweden, a real guitar. Within minutes of buying it my playing ability had doubled, no, tripled. I had been wasting my time on the other thing, limiting myself to it’s mediocre workmanship.

If you’re one of those players — frustrated in your playing by an inferior instrument — do something about it. Either get it fixed up (if that’s possible — some cheap guitars are so poorly made that they can’t be adjusted) or save your money and buy something decent. You won’t regret it.

And how to find the perfect instrument? I’m asked that question all the time. “What kind of guitar should I buy Kirk? What’s a good brand?” My answer is always this: There is no such thing as a good brand. Sure, Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, Gretch etc. are all ‘good’ brands. They meet a certain standard. But there are some great guitars out there of unknown brand, and even out of a hundred seemingly identical ‘good brand’ guitars, there will only be 10 or so which will really be outstanding and only a couple greats. The rest will be good guitars, but I’m talking about upgrading to an instrument YOU LOVE to play.

You’ll know it when it happens. My favorite guitar is still my little Gibson nylon string I bought maybe fifteen years ago. I was in a shop and was intrigued because I didn’t even know Gibson made nylon strings. I picked it up to try it out and was still there plunking away a couple of hours later when the shop was closing. They couldn’t pry it out of my hands so I bought it. I had to have it. It was made for me.

I digress. I titled this article ’10 Golden Rules I just made up’. Here they are:

1. Get tuned up and stay that way. There’s no excuse these days for being out of tune. You can pick up an electronic tuner for just a few bucks these days. If your guitar doesn’t stay in tune, or is out when you play up the neck, chances are you need new strings. If it’s out of tune with new strings, have the intonation adjusted.
2. Listen.
3. Pay as much attention to what you don’t play as to what you do. In other words, let the music breathe, let it be an exercise in contrast. The holes you leave make what you do play sound better. Even if you don’t hear it at the time, your audience will. The great players we know and love wouldn’t be household names if they over-played. They’d be sitting at home wondering why the big break hadn’t arrived for them.
4. Listen.
5. Avoid alcohol when playing. It makes you sound bad and look stupid. A few years ago, my band, The Train, was playing in Sydney at a venue where a certain ex-Rolling Stone, had been playing the night before The manager asked if it was alright if he got up with us and had a play. We were thrilled of course. “Yes, by all means”. Unfortunately, he was pissed as a fart, couldn’t play a thing, kept stepping on MY effects pedal, was abusive and I had to ask him to desist. Alcohol. (Mick, if you get to read this, it was at The Bridge in about 1995. I know you won’t remember. I hope you’re feeling better)
6. Know what you’re playing. Never play anything without knowing its context, how it fits into the tune. By that I mean: know what key you’re in; know what chord is being played (the chord of the moment) and its role within that key; know which notes you’re playing in the context of that chord (is it a I, II, III, flat V, VII) etc. This becomes automatic after a while. It’s hard work at first, but stick at it until it does become automatic. Playing away without knowing what it is you’re doing will get you nowhere fast.
7. Listen.
8. Play within your own limitations. We’re all made differently. Some of us have long quick fingers, some of us are getting old and stiff. There is nothing worse than listening to someone trying to play beyond their capability. Much better to make beautiful music with one or two notes than to go for twenty and muff them all. Lucky for all of us. playing guitar was never a contest.
9. Let the song rule. Guitarists often think they are indispensable. So do drummers and bass players and keyboardists… I won’t even mention singers. The fact is, the piece of music is boss. Let it be so.
10. Listen.

There. I’m sure many of you have different ideas about the discipline of being a guitarist. These are mine.

Have a look at the new-look PlaneTalk site. All of a sudden, I can do anything I want design-wise. I have so many options, the difficulty has become settling on one. In all the hours I spent changing my pages, this iMac didn’t freeze once. I love it. Don’t forget, if you still haven’t ordered PlaneTalk, the ‘trick’ to keeping track of all music is written in and illustrated in it’s pages. The Guitar Slide Rule that comes with it is so revealing that even I, its inventor, marvel at it. All for the cost of a couple of lessons! And now, you can order it through a secure online shop. How much easier could it be?

Those who have ordered it (thanks) won’t even be reading this. They’ll be playing the guitar. You can read some of their comments on it at the Testimonials page at my site.

Until next time.

– Kirk Lorange (written in 1998)

10 Tips to Becoming a Better Guitar Player from MyRareGuitars.com