Guitar Licks

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A Lignum Vitae guitar pick

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woodguitarpick.jpg I have a pick made of gold, honestly I do, and I’ve used it too … but one made of wood – never heard of one.

They say the Surfpick Lignum Vitae is much denser then white oak, gives you a richer warmer tone and that it makes your sound free from the dreaded pick click sound.

The wood is rare so it’s no wonder they can’t ship out of the US.

The wood is so dense it will sink in even salt water.

It was also prized for use for fittings on tall ships hundreds of years ago.

You can even watch it burn on the video.

If you have one of these picks in your arsenal, will you get back to us on what your thoughts about this is?

Keep on Jammin’




My Fender Lead II

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I have been using my Fender Lead II as of late. I only have one guitar stand and I rotate the guitars that I put in it many times throughout the year.

I got this guitar off a exchange student from Japan around 1984-85. Oddly enough, this is a Student Guitar, meaning the body is smaller making it easier to play. He was a little low on funds and he wanted to know if I wanted to by it. At first I started to give him lessons and he was not that bad if memory serves me correctly.

While looking at my black Fender I started to wonder what year this baby was built so a Googling I will go!

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This site was the one that I ended up at. You can normally determine the age of your guitar by the serial numbers. Mine is “E0 09736” so it’s made in 1980, that makes it 27 years old! If you have a Fender guitar just sitting around the house, go and get it and find out how old your is. Get back us on that one if you have one.

I just love the sound of the X-1 single coil pick ups on this one. You can raise the pick ups by turning the 2 screws at either end of the pick up clock wise. This adjustment brings the pick up closer to the strings thus you get a stronger signal.

There is a phase reversal switch that works when you are in the middle position or using both pick ups at the same time. This switch is really nice to have at your disposal.

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I know I will try to get a picture of mine up here soon!It has 21 medium Jumbo frets with a 4 bolt neck piece. It has a “Soft V or C” profile neck, which means the part of the body which attaches to the neck section of the guitar. The neck itself is maple. The small headstock is a nice reminder of the past Fender guitars that were built between 1954-65. Oh, headstock is part where you tune the strings on the “head” of the guitar in case your unfamiliar with guitar terms.

The bridge, where you put the strings on the body of the guitar, is designed after a Fender Telecaster. Keith Richards plays this type of an axe.

As far as I know it was made at the Fender Fullerton California plant. It was also one of the last fender guitars to be made at this legendary location!

So hats off to my 27 year old gal and hope we’re together a lot longer!

Keep on Jammin’

General Information about Glenn Gould

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A little bit of Glenn Gould trivia for all of those interested.

(1) Glenn Gould’s mother played the organ at St. Andrew’s Church, 73 Simcoe Street, Toronto. Central Presbyterian church in Toronto

(2) His childhood home was32 Southwood Dr

(3) His summer home in Uptergrove Ont., near lake Simcoe/Orillia.

(4) Buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto Canada in the Eastern part, section 38, plot 1050 row 1088

(5) His apartment was at 110 St. Clair ave W.

gouldspiano1.jpg

Keep on Jammin’

My new fingernail experiment

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Well good readership, I have been going on for a while about fingernails. Let’s make things clear, I’m talking about the ones on my right hand only!

I envy people with finger nails that they could use as screw drivers! I just wish that there was a product that really made a difference on mine. The only thing that I found on line is the Guitarist Guide to Fingernails.

At work in the surgical area, there is a new finding that acrylic finger nails trap germs on them and that we are told not to use them. Ahhhhhhhh, but I need mine to play at the level that I am accustomed to. So, I have decided to go a different root this time. I am forgoing placing the regular acrylic tips on and just placing the hardener right on to the nails themselves. This totally eliminates the tips that are causing the problem.

In order to pull this off, I had to let my nails grow a bit longer then I would have them praying just to have a larger surface to work with. You know just in case things went south very quickly.

I am now back from my secret manicurists hide out and we’ve successfully applied the above mentioned hardener right onto the nails on my right hand. To the axe cave I go! I then picked up the axe and started to put my experiment to the test!

At first, I tried a bit of Bruce Cockburn’s If I had a Rocket Launcher and it was not that bad. I then began to adjust the length and shape of the nail to my specifications with my handy dandy file.

Now it was time for tougher challenge, playing Blackbird at warp speed! They are holding their own so far. Finally, the acoustic version of Neon from John Mayer, perfect!

Now let’s hope that it will continue this way!

Keep on Jammin’

The Dream Theatre Rock experience

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I first heard of this band by my buddy Tony when we were standing next to the speakers at the Saga concert that I was at recently.

He had told me that his son that has his own band, loves this type of Rock. He quickly described it as a hybrid of RUSH, Saga, Yes and Heavy thrashing metal. These guys I had to check out!

I first headed off to what in the world is that obscure site called … oh ya, youtube and listened to a few of Dream Theater’s tunes.

This is the one song that really caught my eye. It was everything that Tony had told me about all wrapped up into one song.

The keyboardist sounded like a young Rick Wakeman near the beginning and the bass player sounded a bit like Chris Squire. The guitarist had that Alex Lifeson sound that he had on A Farewell to Kings album one minute then a hint of Permanent Waves the next! The vocalist at first sounded a bit like Jethro Tall then Michael Sadler from Saga.

Todays music in my mind, sometimes lack the feel of musical diversity. There is so much influence out there that bands just don’t tap into. Remember, there is no such thing as a completely new style that has never been heard of before. We may use multiple approaches/styles to create these new sounds but we all use outside influences to create our own individual stamp of music.

I now think that it’s time to let Rick be exposed to this style and see if he can incorporate some of this into his unique approach!

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Keep on Jammin’

Trying out Thumb picks

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While looking for thumb picks to try and spice up my picking style, I came across the regular/traditional plastic ones and the newer look and feel plastic and metal ones.

I know that you’ve all seen the plastic thumb picks before and they all seem to have the same feel to them. When you put them on they have this loose tension to them. It has the illusion that it would slide off my thumb fairly easily and that poses a problem with me. While playing hockey I tend to almost squeeze the sap out of it when playing and I bring that attitude to my guitar game.

The one that Tim Cameron directed me to was the National “L” one. nationalthumbpick.jpg

This one has a different feel to it all together. It has a nice firm feel all the way around your thumb, but the exposed pick maybe a little bit too big and clunky for my liking.

The next one that I was shown was a little bit unique from your everyday thumb pick. This one is called the PROPIK.

metal-plasticthumbpick.jpg

The one to the left is called a Good Grip Thumb Pick.

I liked this one because it allows me to adjust the tension of it to my liking. The best feature of this one is that the exposed pick that I will attack the strings with is smaller then most thumb picks.

I do not need a big clumsy thing on my thumb that is not as precise as a regular guitar pick. Therefore I give this product one thumbs up! Get it?

If you use any of these picks, please let us know the pros and cons of each one!

Keep on Jammin’

New Look

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So what do you think of the new look of Guitar Licks?

I think it’s much better than the old look! When I created this blog my wife quickly picked out a theme and we realized fairly fast that we really didn’t like the look of the theme. Unfortunately I don’t do any of the design work. Tricia does all of that stuff. She’s been so busy with her other blogs that she just didn’t have time to get around to changing this theme. It’s always been on the list … but ya know, other things come up and a big job like this gets pushed aside.

Anyway, she worked all evening modifying a theme for this site. I like it.

Searching for new guitar picks

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As you know I’m trying to add a little something to my guitar picking techniques. I went to the 12th fret in Toronto and looked at some unique picks that I have or have not used in the past. As usual Mr Tim Cameron was the one who stepped up to the plate and let me delve into his insight of guitar picks and styles.

I had told him that I was trying to use a regular pick with thumb and index finger then move it to the ring and pinkie. He then tried to show me his way while playing air guitar,but then he decided to pick up a guitar beside him in order to show me the fine details.

He tends to grasp the pick with his index finger and then he closes his hand to where the knuckle and palm of his hand meet. It’s almost like making a fist, but he uses all the other fingers to pick.I never thought about way this, but the only problem with this is that I want to use my index finger while picking.

He uses a Snarling Dogs Brain pick that has tons of grip on the top portion of the pick. Check this out and look at the larger view. I’ve never seen, heard of or played with this type of pick before, but if you are a player who sweats a lot while playing then this IS the pick for you.

fenderheavy.jpg He then showed me the traditional Fender HEAVY pick, that has a tortoise shell swirly design. It has a Reuleaux triangle configuration.

This pick is just about the correct size I need, but it is too smooth to move back and forth from the intended positions. If it had finger grip patterns on it, it would be not bad. I bought it anyway and will try it out for a while.

Next topic will be the traditional and non-traditional thumb picks.

Keep on Jammin’

Indie Update – read about up and coming Indie Bands

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You just have to love Indie music! Since the turn of the millennium Indie bands have been using the Internet to promote their music and they’ve been quite successful. Their success of course is directly related to consumers use of the internet as a medium for listening to new music, gathering current information about bands and of course buying the music produced by these bands.

Another great thing about the success of Indie music on the internet is that these bands don’t have to bow down to the rules of the big labels. They can stay true to their music. Some of these brave souls just like to create music to be appreciated and listened to while someone else takes the spot light, no biggie for them.

I recently visited the indie music blog. It’s official name is Indie Update. On this site you’ll find honest articles and opinions about up and coming Indie bands.

One of the write ups – The onerepublic review – talks about how this indie band has had great success on MySpace and how Myspace is offering Indie bands a great new way to gain exposure. I believe that each of the Indie band articles on this blog have a link to each bands MySpace page where you can listen to samples of the bands music and learn more about the band members.

I was captivated by the Indie Music history series. In this series of post you can read how Indie music came about and how it’s evolved from the 1960’s to the present day. The author has really done their research for these Indie Music History posts. I’m sure you’ll be fascinated when you read them.

If you enjoy Indie Music I think you’ll want to bookmark or subscribe to the Indie Music blogs rss feed so that you can keep up with the latest Indie bands on the scene.

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