Guitars, tips and great music discussions
Mark Goffeney is definitely in the running for my vote for the most unique guitarists to have come around in quite some time.
I saw this somewhere and when I saw it I knew that I had to post about it.
I mean have you ever tried this feat, no pun intended!
It is hard but this guy makes it look just plain old easy? Check out his site and enjoy the show!
Mark also has a great myspace account.
Keep on Jammin’ indeed!
Has anyone out there heard of this guitar maker? I found out about these guys through a patient that I was taking back to their room after a procedure. The patient was a bass player and said that it was the pride of the collection. So curious about it I went and googled it.
To my amazement the makers were none other them Leo Fender – Maker of all pre-CBS Fender as well as Music Man instruments – and George Fullerton.
Leo Fender, we all know who he is but, the other guy, not so much. George Fullerton is the co-creater of the Fender Stratocaster. Not a bad thing to have as a lasting legacy of a man now is it!
G & L was the result of Leo having to sell his company in 1965 due to health problems that he was having in the early 60’s. It was started up in 1980 at the same location that had housed his Clarence Leo Fender Research (CLF) facility.
Some of the musicians who use these beauty’s are personal favorites of mine. For example:
Carl Perkins, Canada’s own Gord Sinclair (The Tragically Hip), Peter Frampton and Bob Mayo (Peter Frampton Band), Neal Schon (Journey), Davey Johnstone (Elton John band), Gary Hewitt (Gary Allan Band) and all the guitarists from Aerosmith and INXS. Just to name a few.
If you happen to come across this post and own one of these beauty’s PLEASE write a comment here about your experiences about your axe. We’d really like to hear from you, please?
Keep on Jammin’
My question to all of you guitarists out there is, does anyone out there place their guitar picks in between their 4th and 5th (consider their thumb as 1st finger etc.) finger while using their remaining fingers to play bare finger picking during certain parts of a song?
I’ve been trying different ways to bring the pick from the 4/5th fingers up to the regular position for years with very slow results.
I am just missing a fine detailed part of the process to make it flow effortlessly.
Can anyone out their give me a different aspect on how to do this?
If someone knows of a video on line to assist me I’d be in their debt forever.
Keep on Jammin’
I was made aware of the Saga concert on the morning of the show.
Tony, God bless that guy, called me on Saturday morning and asked if we were going to see them that night. I had told him that I knew nothing of the show and hung up to get some tickets on-line.
My wife was not feeling up to going to the show so I naturally decided to contact my keyboardist friend Rick to drag him along.
The tickets were $20.00 Can. the seating was in general admission. We were one the first one’s there so we decided to stand beside the stage. We waited for a long time until Tony,the old keyboardist from Pylis and his beautiful wife Laurie to meet us there.
Last time we saw Saga live was around 2 years ago at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Toronto. That night we stood on the right side of the stage were Ian Crichton the guitarist traditionally played. Tony wanted us to be on Ian’s side of the stage so I could be amazed by his wizardry. At this point I was recovering from a heart problem and I thought that it was really nice of my old buddy to be thinking in this way!
This time I thought we should be on the keyboardist Jim Gilmour’s side because of Tony’s nice gesture the last time we saw the boys in the band.
We were around 15 feet, yes 15 feet away from him and it was wonderful vantage point to see the band from. Tony couldn’t have been happier.
Here is the set that they played that night!
Trust
That’s as far as I’ll go
Wind him up
Your not alone
The one
The Perfectionist
Conversations
Scratching the surface He did this solo and it was dedicated to a married couple that he knew.
The Flyer
The Perfectionist
The Runaway
See them smile
Compromise
Careful where you step
Don’t be late
Don’t be late is my favorite Saga of all time! It really was the best song that I have ever played then and now!!!
Encore
Humble stance
On the Loose
The end of a Rocking Roll/Progressive Rock era ladies and gentlemen.
Keep on Rockin’ Saga!
My wife and I are going to a blogging convention in Las Vegas in November, but we both need passports! If we don’t get them we won’t be able to fly into the United States.
I had to get photo copies of this that and the other thing Sunday night, get our photo’s from this Greek Photo Finish shop in the heart of Greek Town (The Danforth to Locals) run by this really nice little Asian couple on Monday. Gotta love the big city or what?
I went downtown one day last week. On that day I got up at 6:45 (early for me) so I could go see my old buddy Dave the Criminal lawyer guy downtown Toronto to do his part with the Passport legalities! When that was done I was going to go home pick up the wife, go back downtown to do the Passport paperwork stuff when it dawned upon me that, “Why don’t I just do it when I was downtown doing some paperwork stuff with Dave? So I did it, thus eliminating around 2 hours of driving downtown.
While driving home I picked up some earth worms for our pet turtles. Nice! Had to go there anyway at some point in time. I was busy that day. I also ended up getting the muffler replaced, now our car doesn’t sound like some kid’s street racing machine, that just got his ride pimped right!
While I was waiting for the car to be finished I walked up to my favorite store in the world, the 12th Fret and bought some new strings for my Fender Lead II. Walking into the store I was greeted by the presence of a new White Gibson SG Double neck, now that’s a greeting! It was about $3568.00 (Can) by the way in case your wondering.
While walking back to Speedy Muffler King to pick up the improved ride, I walked into this neat sidewalk patio and had a few light refreshing liquid beverages. The finger foods were nice too, as was the conversation with the owner an older Macedonians lady.
When I finally returned home I had a well deserved rest. What a busy day that was! Cheers!
Keep on Jammin’
I was introduced to the Vox Tonelab SE peddle by a guy who I was playing with this past weekend at the Arlington Hotel’s Capron’s Cavern, Paris Ontario.
The event was being held for a dear family friend who was celebrating his 50th birthday. Craig Peeler was the guitarist who played a wide variety of tunes. I brought along my Larivee and he graciously let me jam with him on stag that night.
Wow, I was at Steve’s Music on Queen St. in Toronto today and I was looking at a Vox ToneLab SE. This thing looks HOT! Unfortunately they did not have this in stock but was getting them in this week.
John Boldt was the rep. that I was talking to and he was very up to date on his pedals. He was saying that 12AX7 dual triode vacuum tube is used at the end/output of the inside mother board of the floor peddle. This has quite the warming effect on the sound. The tube is not used for the power of this system! He said that most pedal companies are using the vacuum tube at the beginning of their process but Vox was using it at the tail end instead. This makes sense because you would always want a warmer tube sound coming out the speakers.
I would recommend this little piece of equipment heaven for anyone’s collection!
Keep on Jammin’
Now I already have a good pick-up system in my Larrivee L-03 but when went into my favorite guitar store, the 12th Fret in Toronto, I feel madly in love with the L.R. Baggs IMix.
Now I have been looking to update my pick-up system in my L0-3 lately and found many systems in which to chose from. I have narrowed it down to two items. (1) the Fishman Ellipse Blend vs. (2) the LR Baggs IMix.
When I went in I talked to my favorite guitar guy Tim Cameron. Being the honest guy that he is he immediately directed me to a acoustic guitar pick up god named Nevin. I told him what I was looking for and told him that I was just looking to hear the differences between the two and he paid as much attention to me as if I was going to pick one up right then and there, now that’s service!
He brought me two guitars that had the pick-up systems already in them and put me in their little music room, plugged me in and let me got at them. Wow, was I impressed with both!
First I tried the Fishman Ellipse Blend. It had a real nice sound but I was detecting feed back. I know that I was in a little room but for some reason the feeling and sound was off to me. I realize I am knew at the finer subtleties of acoustic pick ups, but it was a gut feeling. It was very refreshing to see that you can adjust the position of the mic inside.
Then I tried the LR Baggs iMIX. The sound was full, responsive to very fine picking and it can overpower your senses, in my view that is.
Guitarist realize that since the sound of the acoustic guitar is very complex and fickle, so therefore it is a must to use more than a single pickup to attempt to sense it.
The iMIX uses the Baggs iBeam under-bridge pickup with a Baggs Element under-saddle piezo. The Element pickup senses the strings and provides the presence and feedback resistance of piezo while the iBeam reads the sound inside the guitar and adds natural fidelity, albeit with increased feedback sensitivity. The signals from the the two pickups are blended, in this case via the rotary blend control, on a side-mounted, Baggs iMIX Onboard, pre-amp. This pre-amp also features three slider controls for volume, treble and bass, plus a phase reverse switch for a measure of elementary feedback control. A fingertip pressure releases the battery from its compartment for a quick change when required.
iBeam
Element
Now all that I have to do is get my wife on board!
Keep on Jammin’
The one thing that I see in the evolution of the acoustic guitar today is its link with the past from Canada’s own, Glenn Gould.
He used a unique approach while playing in his later years, around 1983, when he took away part of the piano body to let the sound come out of the instrument in a unorthodox way.
First of all, the guy was way ahead of his time. What he did was to remove the wooden cover section that is used to cover the piano keys. He removed this part entirely. He would also close the piano lid on his concert piano, allowing the sound to be sent through the missing cover section of the piano.
This allowed him to hear the subtle tones while playing his music.
This was best shown in his 1980’s work of the gloomy nature of life. The slowness of some of his canon’s reflect the need for this type of sound exposure that the musician needs to fully understand what the audience hears, but as a very unique approach.
Second of all, the guy went to places that no one probably ever thought of venturing. I wonder if the person who thought of the guitar side ports ever watched Glenn Gould Hereafter? If he did, I bet this is where he may have got the idea, but then again I could be dead wrong.
I have been toying around with the idea of putting in a new state of the art pick up system in my Larrivee. The system is called the LR Baggs iMIX. It captures a lot of the character in my guitar with an active response to it. That means that the pickups pick up the aggressive or passive playing of the strings on the guitar.
Now in order to place it in there, I must have it installed inside the body above the sound hole, closest to my face. That’s fine with me. The next question is what in the world do I do with the hole that the factory installed system sat in? It would look mighty funny just viewing a rectangular opening right there in my face. Do I just leave it there or what should I do with it? Here is my best option, I think.
I have always wanted both of my acoustic guitars to have pick ups so I can have a back-up on stage. So why not put my old pick up from the Larrivee into my old Aspen acoustic guitar. Perfect, I think? Unfortunately if I do this I will have this opening on the side of the body near my chest where the old system was. It would look so odd and out of place that I would be reluctant to let anyone look at my guitar. So while talking about my problem with the guitar tech at the 12th fret, he gave me this fabulous idea of the side port!
They could change the look of the old hole and create a fancy looking design in it’s place!
This will allow a small portion of the sound to come up directly to me acting like another sound hole or a monitor if you will. This will not effect the tonal qualities of my baby I have been told. The tech had one in this part of the workshop that he made and let me try it out. Not only did it look very cool and original, but it was nice to have some sound coming from a part of the guitar that I have never heard it coming from in the past.
Now all I have to do is convince my wife about this one, wish me and my Larrivee luck will you all?
Keep on Jammin’
As you are more then well aware I am a huge lover of Prog Rock or you could even say challenging music to play!
Prog Rock is better known as Progressive Rock. Examples of this is YES (the four-part “Close to the Edge” or “The Gates of Delirium” from the Relayer Album), RUSH six-part “Hemispheres”, Klattu, early Genesis, Jethro Tull or Saga. If you think that just listening to this style is enjoyable then you you should try playing it live!
Of coarse there are always bands that I strongly feel that should have placed in there but have not for some reason or another. The one band that comes to mind is Toto, SOME of their earlier stuff that is.
Their first album Toto, is the greatest one that they have put out and the only vinyl one of theirs that I have ever bought. As a matter of fact, I just bought CD version on-line a couple of minutes ago. This album really brings back memories of the my early years of playing rock guitar/music.
I had just been let go by Phylis and I was a little bit bummed out to say the least. I had just found out only last year by the keyboardist Tony, still a great friend to this day, that my parents were quite worried about my playing with them on the road in bars. I think they believed that I might be influenced by the rock & roll life style that accompanied being on the road at such a tender age of 15.
Anyways, during this period I was desperately trying to get out of my funk and at the time was desperately looking for another musical genre to put under my belt. This band had it all.
They were challenging to play live, a bit jazzy and a little bit of pop to round it out. Yes I did say pop. My great wife Tricia has always thought of me as a player who was a rocker at heart but for some reason loved pop music. She always has that look on her face when I play some great rock tunes only to be followed by some popish sounding stuff.
I fell in love with Child’s Anthem as well as Girl Goodbye because they have that Prog Rock like progressions to them.
I found I’ll Supply The Love, Georgy Porgy and You Are The Flower to have this Earth Wind and Fire feel to it. “Taking it back” has influences of Gino Vannelli’s Brother to Brother album, I also happen to know the brother of the drummer on this particular album.
So I hope that this post helps you better understand my childhood influences that I had growing up and the styles that has helped my playing of today.
Keep on Jammin’
The Rick Wakeman concert that I saw a couple of weeks ago left me in a state of music appreciation overload. The level of musicianship at the show was in a realm that only a very talented few ever get to venture into or near.
They were so tight that it just made R. Jackson’s and my head just shake thinking to ourselves that this just can’t be happening right in front of our eyes and ears. When they played a staccato’ed note and then stopped for 2 or more seconds, the whole hall went eerily quiet. Now that’s scary! These guys have a kindred spirit/musical ability all rapped up into one.
Mr. Rick Wakeman was his usual stellar self but his supporting cast took a while to bring it up to his level. The only stand out in both of our eyes was ‘Pearly’ Lee Pomeroy the bass player and when he got going it turned out to be a night to remember!
His regular gig is with this band called Tar Babies.Their site is a MUST to check out in it’s entirety, but don’t let the Tom foolery misguide you. He comes across on stage of the perfect band mate. Always smiling and with positive energy to burn!
The one thing that caught my eye maybe half way through the show was that he was a left handed bass player and here’s the kicker, he had it strung upside down. He places the thick strings that normally go at the top of the neck on the bottom part.
Now to put it in a way that non musicians can understand, just envision this for one second, imagine using your keyboard turned upside down and having to type that way. It’s almost like walking backwards, you could do it, but when it comes to running it’s a whole new ball game.
So to give the nod to the best player in the band besides Rick Wakeman, Mr Jackson and I would have to give it to the guy above … really you had to be there!
Keep on Jammin’