The Doc is blind by the way.
For those of you who dig the Piedmont fingerstyle of the North American East Coast here is traveling bluesman Jim Bruce showing you how to play the Doc Watson version of Deep River Blues. Jim makes his living traveling and playing on the streets of Europe.
You can find out more about Jim Bruce and his guitar playing travels here and here where he showcases some great ragtime techniques and Blind Blake songs.
Bill has always been an exponent of an healthy array of effects – most notably delay, reverb, chorus and more rarely pitch shifters to create unique tones and sounds; a uniquity exaggerated by his jazz leanings combined with clean sustain and an emotionally oblique sense of melody.
He does however ensure that his use of processing, or effects, don`t colour his sound in a way that might obscure the emotional intent or message and seems incapable of descending into gratuitous, meaningless affectation. Bill often sounds as if his notes are shards of ice slowly melting as they descend through warmer water and the overall impression is of a glacial and ambivalently jazz-blues fusion. It`s a novel approach to sound, feel and melody that conjures up a sense of constant ideation….like your distortion – sometimes it only counts when you turn it off. Use it in your own playing. If you`d like to achieve similar sounds consider adding a good old Fender twin reverb (or similar) to your set up, a delay pedal for broad stereo ambience, a touch of lexicon reverb and a little chorus effect.
Cheers,
Jake Edwards.
The tesla birdfish sounds like the the country cousin of God`s oddest mix up the Duck Billed Platypus. The egg-laying, venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it but there is no reason to be baffled by either the birdfish, the niwa, or the tesla – these are a series of guitars hand built by Ulrich Teuffel and they are beautiful machines where form and function precisely and naturally intertwine. The Birdfish features two tone bars and movable interchangeable pickups for example.
And, as Ulrich says “What if your wife loved it madly?”
Teuffel is perhaps the most evolutionary guitar maker with his designs and ideas- his Tesla model for example with clean modern circuitry incorporates contact points and push-buttons all over the body, which, when pressed, activate the imperfect sounds of unwanted primitive guitar technologies such as background noise, humming and signal interruptions. MASSIVE! Here`s Cameron Morgan using one and it sounds absolutely fantastic. MY personal favourite is the Niwa, it`s just such a fantastically thought out and beautifully designed guitar!
Now you know what your cash is really for HERE`S THE LINK to www.teuffel.com
Cheers,
It may look a cross-pollination between the ideals of a swiss cheese master craftsman, a Dali soft watch and a carbon fibre pretzel but the XOX handle guitar tries to push guitar manufacturing beyond the scope of the usual materials, componentry and ergonomics. Many companies have tried to free the electric guitar from the vice like grasp of tradition in the past but to no avail. Leo Fender`s and Les Paul`s designs have become such classic icons in their fusion of design, sound and playability that many significant changes and improvements just don’t make it into the mainstream.
If you listen to most of the guitar players from the last 50 years you`ll agree that there`s nothing quite like the sound of a strat’ bridge pick up with the tone rolled off through some burning vacuum tubes. Ask Eric.
Can there be any more?
Well, in a world that’s ultimately soaked and aged in the single malt, tried and trusted, eulogised traditions and techniques of the cannon of popular guitar music, recording and performance then the answer must be a resounding “No!”.
Some artists (Jack White) go to great lengths to take their modern song writing performance and bathe it in the holy waters of yesteryear with a penchant for vintage valve amplifiers, 2 and a quarter inch tape, leslie cabinets, and even rusty old strings. Wouldn`t you want to play with some of Hubert’s rusty old castaways from the Wolf Days?
Anyway if you’re not neck deep in the sand and you fancy embracing something a little more modern then maybe designer Peter Solomon’s cutting edge Handle might grab ya. With a single body of carbon fibre “its mono-chassis construction favors direct transmission of acoustic vibrations without sound dampening nor loss. The entire guitar is hollow sectioned, creating a resonance chamber similar to that of a semi-acoustic guitar”.
Tomorrow I`m going to have quick look at one of the most esoteric, exotic and unusual guitar makers - Teuffel…
In the meantime, in typically unrelated fashion, here’s Adrian Legg pushing the playing parameters with style and a relaxed, natural attention to sonorifics, showing us exactly where it`s at!
If you like the sound of Adrian’s incredible guitar music then you must get your hands on his album Guitar Bones and also have a listen to The Ginger Baker Trio album Going Back Home with Bill Frizzel. Both of them are must haves. More on Frizzel later!
Cheers,
Jake Edwards.
After writing this post yesterday I just had to insert the full video version of guitar genius Adrian Legg using his tuning pegs to simulate country pedal steel guitar sounds whilst playing a melody of such plaintive yet sun-filled, pseudo tropical country styled design through an almost African rhythmic template. This is indeed a feat of absolute technical mastery combined with an otherworldly sense of feel, pace and melody whilst bringing different genre motifs together. Thanks to Adrian I`m off to burn my stratocaster! Yeah!
Here`s a link to Adrian’s own personal instruction DVD that will help you to become a more creative guitarist PLUS a link to Adrian’s album Guitar Bones.
Even better still this video features the added bonus of Brad Jones taking the Flatt and Scruggs route to the old nylon string in a piece called Funky Fingers. Country is where it`s at when it`s played with the blistering skills and gusto of a five finger hurricane like Brad – fo’ sho’ man – fo’ sho’ !.
What’s interesting about the stick is it’s ability to play chords, leads and bass parts simultaneously.
This is an invaluable mode of thought when approaching the guitar and most players want to bridge these gaps – the long sustain capabilities of an electric guitar for example mean that with some manual dexterity you can attempt to create some interesting harmonic combinations – plus blending in tapping techniques like those of Eddie Van Halen and Joe Satriani stretches the Stick metaphor. If you`d like to venture into modern acoustic territory then have alook at some of the newer percussive styles of playing:
Cheers,
Jake Edwards
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