Guitars, tips and great music discussions
I imagine that having an extra digit on your left hand must have it’s con’s, but the pro’s might just make it worth it!
Playing a 7 string guitar would come in quite handy with a hand configuration like this? When playing difficult chord progressions like the ones that Bruce Cockburn and John Mayer use, wouldn’t it be nice to have another finger just hanging around the old fret board?
Wow, keep on Jammin’
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!
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.
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’
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. 
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.
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’
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’
Has anyone ever wondered what the tremolo setup in their guitars look like, but was too afraid to take it apart. I’ve never had a guitar with a tremolo bar but my buddy did and one day he decided to show me.
My buddy in Brantford was a collector of guitars. He was rather talented, but was more into collecting them, then playing them. Nice hobby if you can afford it. I was very fortunate one evening to see a “59 Fender Strat” that he had picked up for his collection.
One night I was invited to bring my HiWatt and Gibson RD to his house with a couple of buddies to jam. I had come in, set up my amp and he gave me a beer. The boys always looked forward to jammin’ with me because I was one of the few guitar players who liked to challenge myself with different playing techniques. Most of the time they just watched and asked questions. That always drives me crazy! Then my buddy went over and brought out a guitar case and placed it in front of me.
When he opened the case, I felt my body shaking inside. It felt like someone had just opened up the “Ark of the Covenant” and was looking at the “10 Commandments” written by God and given to Moses on the mountain, inside!
I had never seen this legendary 59 Strat let alone had the ability to play it.
I just looked at it for a while and then he said “why don’t you plug it in?” I then picked it up and studied it intensely. After 10 minutes of viewing every angle and part of this mythical beast, I plugged it in and played for around 2 hours straight.
After I stopped playing I asked him “What does the Whammy (Tremolo) Bar system look like?”. He drew a quick picture on a pack of smokes and then asked me if I wanted to see this one’s? The guy who he had bought it from then took it from me and started to take off the back to expose the inner workings of it. It looked something like this:
Now to give you a better understanding how it works, I have a video for you.
So if you have one of these on your axe, you now have a better idea of how it works and how to roughly adjust it. I strongly recommend that you take the back cover off it and just take a look around just for an educational experience.
Remember by taking the cover off the back of your guitar to take a look, you won’t blow it up! This will make you more aware of your overall guitar and make you feel more comfortable with it. Knowledge is power and besides, it makes you look like you know what your talking about.
Take pictures and save them. Later on this may become a life saver if you do start adjusting it. This will allow you to see what it looked like before you started. Actually, take pictures of every stage of it. There is nothing worse then having a couple of screws left over when you think your done! It happens to the best of us!
Keep on Jammin’