Guitars, tips and great music discussions
I’ve said before that I was directed to Mississippi John Hurt by way of Bruce Cockburn.
It was not for his personal charm but for his technique.
This musician has had a huge influence on Bruce’s approach to acoustic guitar picking so once again, if it’s good enough for Bruce then it’s good enough for me!
Now if I came across this little gem of a video before he sent me his way, I think that I would have looked him up anyway. Decide for yourself.
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’
This is another song from Saga that we played in Pylis. The song starts up with an acoustic guitar that then goes into an electric. My Gibson RD Artist fulfilled that dual roll quite admirably I must say.
It wasn’t until recently that I re-visited this song on my Larrivee L-03 acoustic.
The lyrics were just fascinating to listen to and the guitar forms are much more complex then I remembered. As you may or may not know, I’m not a lyricist by any stretch of the imagination. I just pay attention to the level of difficulty of the guitar, the overall structure and emotion that a song provides.
Later on I will start teaching people how I “interpret” how a song is played. So check out this song, and try to pick out all of the guitar progressions and remember them when I start video taping my version.
Keep on Jammin’
NOTE: This is for beginners -as in people wanting to learn more about restringing techniques.
You know, this is my favorite but most dangerous part of guitar maintenance that I or you will ever do. Watch you fingers when working with the strings at the head of the the guitar. Look at some previous posts for medical advise.
(1) Take the strings out of the package. You either have strings that are colour coated, with a chart on the box or you can figure them out by looking closely at them. The thickest string is at the top and the thinest at the bottom.
(2) Put the string through the tail piece (on the body of the guitar).
(3) Place the body of the guitar on a table, with blanket on it so you don’t scratch the bottom of guitar. It also helps you move the guitar fast and smoothly when working. Make sure that you can have access to a chair so you can work at a good eye level to watch closely at what your doing.
Part (4) is background info that you need to understand before proceeding to part (5) & (6)
(4) Follow these visual steps. The last picture shows a little gap from where the bottom of the string is to the remaining part of the shaft of the tuning peg. I leave enough string or slack allows me to keep turning the tuning knob until the bottom of the string completely fills that space. I do not like to see any part of that shaft exposed. The more string that is attached means, a tighter wind and less room for the string to stretch. A change in the tension of the string = a change in tuning.
NOTE: This is the tricky part that you will have to determine by yourself because every guitar dimensions are different. After doing a couple of strings, you will get the hang of it. IF YOU DO THIS WRONG, YOUR GUITAR WILL NOT BLOW UP, ok? Just relax. Do not attempt while intoxicated.
(5) Move the guitar on the table so you can sit in a position that will allow you have the guitar head over and away from the table to let you start winding the strings.
(6) At this point we actually can start the winding process. Now with your right hand, grab the string that your working on by having fingers (index to pinkie), pulling up on the string while using your thumb pushing down on the string.
NOTE: Have your thumb push the string down on the fret board, right near the nut, where the string is suppose to be on the neck of the guitar. This will provide a small amount of the tension you will need to start winding the tuning peg.
(7) SLOWLY turn the tuning peg in the direction that you want. For guitars with 3 strings on each side of the head of the guitar, turn the head counter clock wise; for all others go clock wise. Pay close attention to the string that it follows going down the tuning head that will cover the gap that I talked about in part (4). The more you reach the bottom of this tuning peg, let the tension that you thumb is exerting on the string off little by little until you have covered that area of the shaft of the tuning peg.
(8) Place any finger you want to use (I use my index) directly on the nut (the white piece between the top of the neck and head of the guitar) of the guitar that corresponds to which string you are replacing. I want you to put pressure on that direct spot that holds your new string in place. This will stop the string from moving anywhere while you are doing the next part.
(9) With your right hand, grab the string that you are working on and pull the string in a upward and downward direction. Remember to keep your finger down tightly on the nut. What this is doing is, by pulling upwards and downwards on the strings, it tightens or pulls the strings coils on the tuning head closer thus making them less likely to move or slip.
Note: A change in tension = a change in the note or key of the string. When they slip or loosen up, the guitar string goes out of tune. The exact tension of the strings determines how they vibrate. The vibration is the note you want. Think about how a sign wave works, if your not sure or want to know more look up the details. Remember, knowledge is power.
Keep on Jammin’
Finally the pedal that I have been looking for is available in a real foot pedal! I was just surfing the Electric Guitar Review today and came across one of his posts about it. I have written here before about this Line 6 product that only came as a “plug in” for a mixing board. I was first exposed to this baby by my good friends at G-Force Media and now it is in a foot pedal version.
The Line 6 Floor POD is a very versatile piece of equipment that I would love to get my little hands on. The sound reproductions and clarity are out of this world. This little piece of heaven is compact enough to go anyway you want to. The above link takes you to the sounds that it can reproduce.
This one suits me just fine thank you. I would use this more for my acoustic guitar and at the drop of a hat, have my electric collection do likewise. The sample sounds, for this product, on their site is a good mirror of what I do anyway.
With the Floor POD, you can have 64 pre-set sounds that also allows you to create you own unique sound signature and then save it as a pre-set one. You can also use your existing pedal along with it if you wish. As well, you can plug it directly into a PA system and hook up a CD player if needed. Best of all you can plug in your head phones and just enjoy the raw power that this thing punches out without the wife or neighbours freaking out!
The only drawbacks are that you cannot use Gearbox software or Line 6 Edit. You also cannot back up your patches
I love the effects that come with this puppy. They are Insane Melodic, Big and Wide, Harmonic Chorus, Harmony & Rhythm, Clean Chorus, Steely Montgomery and Double D. Insane Melodic gets an honorable mention here as well folks.
So now I have to find out where I can take this pedal out for a spin here in Toronto. When I do, I’m sure your hear about it!
BTW, my wife just made $2500.00 US with one of her online companies so I could be “off to see the Pedal” (use the Wizard of OZ theme song here folks), before long, … maybe.
Keep on Jammin’
If I Had a Rocket Launcher by Bruce Cockburn, performed live (10/21/06) at the Tarrytown Music Hall. Marty Balin featuring Slick Aguilar, Charlie DeChant, Gordon G.G. Gebert, Dave Trupia, Michael Sciotto.
Video 8:01 minutes
This is a favorite song of mine to play live. If you ever get the opportunity to see me perform, it will be on my play list. I do the acoustic version very well. The solo parts are challenging enough, and this is maybe the only song beside Neon that I can always change up every time I play or just have an extended solo to it.
Bruce plays the song in so many positions that he makes it all look easy, but the great ones always do don’t they.
My Larivee L-03 has the depth that you need to pull off a technical song like this live. My DigiTech chorus pedal is the perfect fit for this tune – like it was made for it. Hopefully when I find the time, I’ll tape video of it and let you be the judge on how to improve portions of the song, or which parts to eliminate. Hopefully the latter won’t come into play. 😉
Keep on Jammin’
I’ve used these strings exclusively on my Larrivee L-03. I play with the “Light .012 – .053”, with great results. They honestly last longer then most and the have a great range of sound. They also allow me to slip and bend the strings with great ease. I might add that they keep tune for ages as well.
The I love the sound I get on the bass end especially when I am in “open D” (DADGBE) when slapping the bottom D with my thumb on songs like “Peggy’s Kitchen Wall, BRUCE COCKBURN” and “Neon, John Mayer”. The mid’s are fantastic on “Penny for your Thoughts, Peter Frampton”.
I change my strings every 4-5 months and they still keep up their sound intensity, but after that my pickiness and stubborn ways would come back into the fold. When I was a struggling musician, I would boil, yes boil, my strings and then place a cloth around the end of the string and wind the string in a circular motion to eliminate the dead skin that had developed around the outside exposed part of the strings.
I haven’t used my electric guitars in a while so I unfortunately haven’t gotten around to try the Elixir‘s on them.
Has anyone tried these strings on their electrics?
Keep on Jammin’
I am the type of guitar player who uses a combination of playing with a pick, pick with finger nails and nails exclusively.
My style of playing is that of a aggressive one. This is not to be confused with a THRASHING technique. I also playing with a lot of a dynamics’s. I mean having the ability to play any song very quietly/soft (PPP, triple piano) or very LOUD (FFF, triple forte). I find that being able to do this allows me to change the mood of the piece at any given time.
I love the straight forward playing with a pick style but having the tools to be able to incorporate all the fingers is useful as well. But my new re-found love is to get back to my roots and just use my nails. I played classical guitar for a while and did not play ANY ROCK at all.
I wasn’t a BRUCE COCKBURN fan until 1986, this when I was living in a dorm/frat house in Toronto (Bloor and Spadina). Here I would be able to play acoustic guitar for hours straight, but I sure as hell wasn’t! I started to finally listen to HOW he was playing. I had thought that he was using a pick because the only player in the world at that time, so I thought, that used his fingers was Mark Knopfler, boy was I wrong!
So listening to his music I found this thing called ” Open Tuning “. The first open tuning song I did was “Tokyo” by BRUCE COCKBURN. I played this tune for days on end! It was new, refreshing and something that I had never done before. So, one day I got out the phone book and looked up his name, found his number and called him. Sure enough, it was his number and his wife at the time answered and she told him “that he would not be home for some time.” Well at least I tried! True story.
Anyways, when I first started to take my nails seriously (this was in grade 9 remember),I had used MANY products to strengthen my nails. I had gotten use to shaping them to fit my attack. The long nails held out not bad but I was always pissed when they broke!!! This was just something that I had to get use to. After I had had enough of this style after 2 yrs., I went off to different ones. I loved to try different styles that I could bring to my playing.
So fast forward to July 8th 2005, my birthday. My wife was working as a ER nurse in a Toronto Hospital and I had just dropped her off at work, it takes literally 1 minute, we live just down the street, and I had a finally got up the nerve to try this fake nail thing, YES FAKE NAILS! When I was done I just had to go back to work and show her. She just laughed and laughed, not to mention her buddies as well, I work with them all so that was fine.
I just love them! I can play at any time without having to worry about them braking and not having them when I want to play. The only thing that I don’t like is the fact that when they grow out they look weird. They look like I have jaundice of the finger nails, they have a yellow hue to them. Women are lucky because they can just throw some nail polish on them. If I do first would be divorced or placed on the H6 Ward of our hospital.
The cost is around $10.00 and that’s not bad. Does anyone have any other ideas that they use for their nails other then the fakies that I use and please tell me how durable they are and be honest!
Keep on jammin’