Monthly Archives: September, 2009
If you own an iphone the world is your lobster ; sorry…er…oyster….because now you can dial up some serious guitar tones and rock out wherever you are on your iphone!!
iShred
iShred from Frontier Design is yet another guitar simulator for the iPhone, this time with an eye towards electrics, complete with stomp boxes and pedal effects. Unlike a lot of the other guitar apps out there, though, iShred looks fairly practical to use as a real instrument, allowing you to assign up to 10 chords to buttons at the top of the screen, leaving your other hand free to pick or strum. It’s the only practical way to do it—as cute as it may be to try to play chords on a virtual fret board, it’s nearly impossible to do so with any accuracy on the iPhone’s wide touch screen. iShred is $5 from the App Store.
Pocket Guitar
PocketGuitar turns your iPhone into a virtual guitar. Choose from six instruments — Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Muted Guitar, Electric Bass, and Ukulele — then press and strum the strings to play. Even apply different effects such as Distortion, Chorus, and Delay. Not only can you play your own songs, but you can even play along with any stored music you have on your iPhone too – that`s right you can jam along man!!
Keep it groovy!
Cheers,
When it comes to the guitar it’s all about tone so today we’re going to have quick look at how different tonewoods affect the overall sound of a guitar. Unfortunately this is a rather dry, academic post with no room for humour but if you are thinking of buying an acoustic guitar this is ESSENTIAL information.
Even within a species, no two pieces of wood are exactly alike. Environmental conditions, genetics, the age of the tree, annular growth patterns, grain orientation, curing conditions, and so on all have an effect on the tonal properties of a piece of wood. In addition, tonewoods respond differently in the hands of different makers. They can also take on different characteristics when used in different models of guitars-even those built by the same maker. And whether a particular wood sounds good or bad depends partially upon who’s doing the listening. So any attempt to sort out distinctions between tonewoods can only be offered from a relatively subjective point of view.
If you could consider emergent, ecologically friendly materials for construction you may be helping pioneer a movement toward a manufacturing industry with a holistic, low-impact, earth friendly ethic at it’s heart.
Purists may want the best in woods but in an increasingly threatened world our destructive practices need to look beyond past tradition toward a future for everybody; else we`ll all be going to hell in a handbasket sooner or later…
Click here for some Ecologically Sound Guitars including the beautiful Mada guitars, Zero Impact and Flaxwood guitars.
World-wide demand for wood has increased by 64% since 60s and continues to rise. Over 20 African Nations have had all of their forests destroyed. Almost half of Brazil’s once plush forest landscape has gone too. And every year the US loses 10,000km2 of intact forest. So where do guitar makers fit in?
A. 200 different species are used to make musical instruments.
B. Trees like mahogany, rosewood and ebony are often solitary growers which are hidden away amongst other species. For loggers to reach the target trees, large areas of woodland need to be cleared.
C. There’s a belief that old growth timber gives superior tone and depth.
Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars recently remarked,
“Our beloved Brazilian rosewood was taken from us more than 25 years ago. Adirondack spruce was logged out. Today we see the signs of our current woods being diminished to a point of unavailability.”
If you can`t bear the thought of playing a guitar constructed from non-traditional materials then consider buying second hand. When it`s possible I`ll be looking at fission amps, solar powered effects and guitars that recycle ambient energy.
There is a very interesting page on the Taylor Guitars website detailing the effect of string type, string guage, BONE TONE and pick materials.
TONE WOODS GUIDE
Wood for the top
In very general terms, the top, or soundboard, seems to affect the guitar’s responsiveness, the quickness of its attack, its sustain, some of its overtone coloration, and the strength and quality of each note’s fundamental tone.
Spruce is the most common wood in guitar tops. For a good top, you will need wood with a tight grain. This means that it must be wood that have been growing slowly, as it does in fairly cold areas..
Adirondac (red) spruce (Picea Rubens). Characteristics similar to high elevation European alpine spruce. Red spruce was abundant in the 1930s and used on Martin guitars of that era. Its extraordinary tone, prized for its projection and tonal clarity, has created a resurgence of demand for “Adirondack” spruce. It has one of the best stiffness to weight ratios of all spruces and is very hard. It is seldom used in Classicals.
Sitka spruce (Picea Sitchensis) (Canadian and Northwest Alaska) is probably the most common wood used for steel-string tops. Extremely vibrant , bright and loud, providing an ideal “diaphragm” for transmission of sound on any size and style of stringed instrument. Primary top wood for Martin guitars. Chosen for its straight, uniform grain, longevity and tensile strength. It is not very much used for classical guitars. But there are some excellent classical guitars with Sitka spruce tops.
European spruce (Picea Abies)typically from Germany or Italy. There are several names for this wood such as Alpine Spruce; German Spruce, Silver Spruce or Italian Spruce. What ever it is called, it is perhaps the best all around wood for classicals. Often used on premium priced acoustics from custom luthiers. At a recent luthier’s convention, four top classical makers in a panel agreed that they have the best results with European Spruce! The characteristic of this wood is to contribute a noble tone with shimmering trebles and good strong basses……..but you have to pay your dues. This wood takes time to play in and it can slowly mature over a period of years until it will match anything that Cedar or Englemann can do and excel them in overall quality.
Engelman spruce (Picea EngelmannII ) Prized for its similarity in color to European (German) white spruce as well as its extreme lightness in weight which seems to produce a slightly louder, more projective or “open” sound than Sitka spruce. Very light in colour. Expect to pay more for this type of wood. It offers a middle ground between Euro Spruce and Cedar. It plays in very quickly and gives a spruce like treble. It is a softer wood and will yield good basses right away also. It is the most popular spruce used by American Classical guitar makers. Englemann can come with “BearClaw” figure which gives some visual interest and there is a debate about it’s acoustic effect. I tend to believe that it lends some stiffness and therefore I work it a little thinner.
Western Red Cedar has rich mid to dark brown colour with an extremely open, played-in sound right off the bat and sounds good almost immediately. Has long been used for classical guitars due to its warmth and openness. In steel strings it is coming into its own largely due to the efforts of Seagull Guitars (Canada) and Lowden Guitars (Ireland). If you go to a show where (classical guitar) luthiers are displaying their instruments, you’ll probably notice that most of the instruments are Cedar. That is because Cedar can make the new instrument sound it’s best right away. The other good thing about Cedar is the aesthetic of the dark appearance which matches up well to many classical guitarists preferences. Cedar often sounds louder to the guitarist while Cedar’s basses are typically huge and impressive.
Koa (Hawaii) (Acacia Koa) : Beautiful grained wood that produces a very bright sound with less volume than Spruce or Cedar.
Mahogany (South America) (Switenia Macrophylla ) has historically been used on less expensive guitars (and ukuleles too!). A mahogany-topped guitar is somewhat mellower in tone and has an
emphasized midrange.
Back and Sides
Besides serving to form the enclosure of the soundbox, the back and sides of the guitar also act as a sympathetic resonator whose oscillations contribute greatly to the harmonic mix. When judiciously selected (with due consideration given to design criteria and the other tonewoods used in the instrument), the back and sides can have a tremendous effect on the overall tone of the instrument.
The most preferred wood in high-end guitars is Rosewood.
Brazilian Rosewood (Dalbergia Negra) has a very beautiful, often stunniung visual appearance. Highly resonant, with full, deep basses and brilliant trebles. Brazilian can yield a dark bell like sound that is both deep and brilliant. No other wood can quite match it. It is generally considered the best tonewood by most luthiers as long as the quality is up to standard. This species of rosewood is no longer harvested so when the available supply is gone, it’s gone! Fortunately, many builders and manufacturers still have some on hand for use in guitars. Unfortunately, due to its “nearly extinct” status it is formidably expensive (Martin rosewood models before mid-1969 were Brazilian rosewood, thus their exhorbitant price tag on the used market). One luthier says he charge an extra $ 1.500 for a classical guitar with brazilian rosewood, compared to the price of the same model with Indian rosewood.
East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia Latifolia) is a very richly grained dark brown wood. Very resonant, with a deep warm bass. Sources of supply have been well managed, reliable and of consistently high quality. A tad heavier than mahogany. There is a reasonable consensus that Indian will give a warmer bassier sound relative to Brazilian.
Cocobolo Rosewood (Dalbergia Retusa) stands fairly close to Brazilian in tone and has a very beautiful wood with a lot of variation in figure. It is somewhat warmer that Brazilian but it can still produce brilliant guitars. It is a heavier, denser wood than Brazilian with all of it’s faults in terms of workability.
Mahogany: Much lighter in weight than rosewood, Koa or Maple. A nice loud sound with an emphasis on clear, bright trebles.
Figured Mahogany: Beautiful and rare (often quilted) variety of genuine mahogany occurs in a very small percentage of mahogany trees. Though difficult to bend, figured mahogany shares the same tonal properties of the unfigured mahogany..
Maple is available in a variety of figure and it is an excellent tonewood. It sounds very neutral and allows the top wood to bring out it’s own sound. It is very capable of brilliance and less capable of warmth until it plays in. Less common than Mahogany or Rosewood, it is used primarily on archtop (Jazz) guitars. It is extremely hard and reflective giving it a loud, powerful sound. But the classic Gibson SJ-200 has maple body.
Quilted Maple (Acer Macrophyllum). Quilted maple is of the Pacific northeastern “bigleaf” variety and is less dense than the European hard maple varieties. The tone is slightly darker and warmer.
Flamed Maple (Acer Pseudoplantanus). Also called Fiddleback or Tiger Maple. Traditional tonewood for violins. Highly dense and reflective, wood yielding a loud, projective, and sustained tone. The classic Gibson models SJ-200 and Dove both have bodies made from flamed maple.
Birdseye Maple (Acer Saccarum). Typically forested from hard maple stands in the midwest and northeast USA. Relatively rare figuring displays tonal properties similar to flamed maple.
Walnut: Walnut is becoming more common due to its availablilty and great sound. Similar in density and grain structure to Hawaiian koa. It lies somewhere between mahogany and rosewood in terms of tone, weight, density, resinousness, etc. George Lowden has proclaimed it to be a superior tonewood for acoustic guitars.
Koa. Again, very beautiful looking stuff which is less bassy than Rosewood and less trebly than Mahogany. A well balanced compact guitar with stunning good looks.
Cherry. Density and reflectivity approach that of maple. Cherry produces a rich, projective midrange and balance without favoring the bass or treble frequencies. Vibrant, beautiful grain.
If you’ve made it this far , well done!
Here`s a bit of fun!
And great news for the fashionista, cool-hungry dudes and dudettes out there amongst you. You can now style yourself completely from head to toe in custom designed guitar fashion of your own design. Yesiree – now that’s HIP!
IF you’ve already designed yourself a custom pick here at Steve Clayton Picks USA then you can also design a strap to match.
Yes it’s a serious business playing the ole’ guitar but at the end of the day sounding good is looking good!
(oh no it’s not!)
Strapgraphics have come to the fore with a W.Y.I.W.Y.G online guitar strap design interface that allows you to upload your own designs and customise straps using downloadable templates.
If you’re an artist Strapgraphics are also looking for talented designers to endorse, so if you’ve worn your fingers down to the bone playing and fancy a break then this might be your chance to shine!
We’re always looking for talented artists to endorse. Email your digital press kit to the following address, or send a hard copy to our PO box. We’ll take a look and get in touch with info about our endorsement program.
endorsements@strapgraphics.com
Hope you have fun!
Cheers,
How lucky can you get!
Today I`m going to spend ten minutes with highly accomplished south pacific blues master Darren Watson. You may not have heard of Darren but in a career spanning three decades Darren has worked on the bill with such blues luminaries as Robert Cray, Koko Taylor, George Thorogood, Billy Boy Arnold, Doug MacLeod, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Dr. John and Keb Mo . . certainly no bunch of blues slackers by any stretch of the imagination and testament to Darren’s sure skills as a musician.
To those who remember New Zealand music in the ’80s, or who have a passing interest in blues, the name Darren Watson will bring a knowing smile. As founder and leader of Wellington powerhouse Chicago Smoke Shop, Watson enjoyed a six year stint in the public eye with chart singles like Mind On My Sleeve and I Can’t Live Without Your Love.
He has been nominated a colossal six times for New Zealand Music Awards for a body of recorded work that includes two Top 40 albums and singles and three critically acclaimed solo albums including 2002′s Tui Award nominated ‘King Size’, and 2005′s stunning and genrebreaking ‘South Pacific Soul’.
Darren is the real deal when it comes to blues guitar. I’ve been listening to guitar myself for 30 years and Darren has style, taste, timing, technique and tone…and what the hell else is there ?
SO, if you`d like to have a listen to some of Darren`s music click here.
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1.
Jake:
Hi Darren, kia ora, How`s it going man, and how`s the weather up there, blue enough for you ?
Darren :
Heh heh… not today, bro`! It’s nine degrees and raining! Wellington in springtime.. heh heh
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2.
Jake:
Darren, our readers are more often than not beginner guitarists so I`d like to start by asking how, when and where you first became seriously involved in the guitar – was there anyone in particular that helped steer you in the right direction?
Darren:
I grew up in the era just after The Beatles broke up so their shadow loomed large in my life. That, and my cousin was guitarist in a pretty popular band in NZ in the 60s – the Librettos – so I got to hear a fair bit about how cool rock n’ roll was. I played some drums, piano and trumpet before I actually thought I had settled on bass. My first couple of years playing was on bass . . a regular rightie Macca heh heh…. in my DREAMS!
But, yeah then I stopped playing in covers bands at about 17 and started taking guitar seriously instead. About the same time I discovered blues for myself.
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3.
Jake:
And, did you start out with a high-end guitar like a gibson 335, or like most of us, begin playing on a rotten old plank from Walmart? (myself – I had an old plank but I had to take a ferry from the fretboard to the strings the action was so damn high!)
Darren:
LOL…. No way man. My first six-string was a nasty Carlos Les Paul copy. The neck warped within a couple of weeks. Grin* A total P.O.S..
I didn’t have my first real Strat` until we had a record in the charts when I was twenty-two!
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4.
Jake:
Okay. So, do you have any advice for those who are struggling to get to grips with the instrument? Can you remember your early days, and which artists really inspired you back then?
Darren:
I am really lucky in that music has always come really easy to me. I feel like I have always understood how it works, even before I had NAMES for things. Getting to grips with the guitar was all about mechanics for me – and I think it is for a lot of people – you know, finding a technique that works for them. I don’t buy this idea that there is only one ‘right’ way to play.
As for inspiration on guitar, I was hugely inspired by the ‘lefty-upside-down’ players like Albert King, and Otis Rush. Also really got into guys using different techniques and tunings – like Albert Collins and Skip James. You can’t go past early BB King either. I mean his 1950s stuff is almost without peer vocally and for the guitar stuff. I also like Robert Cray and early Jimmy Vaughan with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. I reckon Cray is the most important guy in blues today – he’s actually got his own voice. Too many Stevie Ray Vaughan clones out their, may he rest in peace one day…..
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5.
Jake:
Well Darren I`ve got to say I agree with you there. And why is the blues a great place to start when approaching the guitar? is it because there are a range of styles and forms from the simple to the highly complex that allow players such a depth of expression ?
Darren:
I think it’s because to make it sound good you really have to get to grips with rhythm and your sound. There’s nowhere to hide melodically or harmonically. If you just wail away playing scales you are guaranteed to sound shit in my opinion. It forces you to be inventive with time.
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6.
Jake:
That`s a smart smart answer people! Right Darren; you`ve got a killer guitar tone – what`s the deal with your guitars and amps, have you got any particular amps and guitar combinations that you prefer for electric blues playing?
Darren:
Thanks man. I have really concentrated on this for most of my life. I used to think it was about gear but the older I get the more I realize it’s mostly in the hands. You can line up 30 people playing through the same gear and they’re all gonna sound completely different. Having said that, great gear helps plenty. At the moment I’m mostly playing a Fender ’59 ThinSkin Strat through a Headstrong Lil King-S. It’s like a souped-up blackface Princeton, LOL, but not as souped up as a MK1 Boogie! I run a HBE compressor and a MXR CAE clean boost into the amp and that’s it as far as effects go. The comp for slide and the boost for… um, well boosting. Grin*
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7.
Jake:
Awesome Darren, just awesome. I just love the MK1 Boogies; but they`re definitely supercharged amp’s. The MXR CAE clean boost sounds great – and unusual; I’ve never heard of one before. Cool man.
For those out there just beginning to become familiar with the language of the blues are there any fundamental scales that you tend to use ?
Darren:
I’m a big believer in playing the changes and not getting too hung up on scales. Most of my favorite blues players aren’t big on the minor pentatonics like a lot of blues/rock players tend to be. I get modal from time to time but I really don’t think about it too much. I teach people how to use their ears and play the changes first. Too many people I hear playing in music shops and (God forbid!?!) sometimes on stage sound like they’re running exercises as solos. Rambling and phrase-less. I actually think we can all learn from singers and wind instruments. BREATHE in between those phrases, baby! Heh heh Make the notes count. Soloing is basically composition on the fly – so let’s have some hooks. I would rather play a fat groove than solo anyway.
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8.
Jake:
(smiles) Yeah Darren; I`m with you on that one it’s saxophonists for me!
So, when it comes to playing acoustic fingerstyle blues what do you look for in your guitar sound – I see you`re using a `58 Gibson LG-2 – could you also tell me what’s so special about this instrument and how it informs your playing?
Darren:
Oh man, that guitar is a total babe! I’m so lucky I found her. It’s the first small box I have found that lets me really dig in and doesn’t choke. You can also play whisper quiet and the tops are just so silky sounding….. I’m in love with that guitar, man. It cuts without ever sounding nasty and there’s not a hint of nasty boxiness. But it’s also not a boomy strum box like the D28 etc. They’re o.k. for some stuff but for what I do a small box is perfect and this is about the best example I’ve played.
Jake:
I May have to translate that for our readers a little Darren!
What Darren is saying is that this guitar allows him to really rhythmically groove, like a steam train, without losing any tone or characteristic timbre and clarity at high or low volumes. Here is what it sounds like:
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9.
It would be great Darren if you could pick five inspirational records and maybe give us a short explanation as to why they resonate with you:
Darren:
1. BB King – Live At The Regal
The ultimate blues performance? Probably. BB King at the peak of his powers. 40ish and taking no prisoners. The band swings like a whorehouse and even the audience is amazing.
2. The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Girls Go Wild
This album totally changed my life. Recorded in 1978 but it sounds like it could’ve been made in the 50s. I discovered Jimmie Vaughan and (harmonica great) Kim Wilson through this album. He was channeling all the great old blues players here – and his tone is to DIE for. Unlike Stevie Vaughan who was all about flash and brute strength, Jimmie had sweet touch and a rare economy of phrasing that puts Stevie in his place I reckon. If you haven’t heard this album I suggest you try your darndest to pick up a copy.
Tom Waits – Swordfishtrombnes
I was at high school when I saw a clip of Tom on TV. In a world of vapid synth-pop and dumb ass post-punk pop this record really spoke to me that blues, jazz and weirdness could still be grown and merged successfully. I’m a huge fan to this day. Not particularly about guitar this album but then neither am I really – I always reckon music counts above petty things like what it’s played on.
Top Of The Stax – Various Artists
Steve Cropper is a big hero of mine as a writer and a session master. He plays on most of the tracks on this Stax records compilation. He never played two notes when one would do – and how about the total genius of reversing the chords for the intro of Midnight Hour to make the riff for Knock On Wood. And getting away with it! Brilliant.
Muddy Waters – His Best 1947-55
This guy did more to teach me about TIME and tone than anyone else ever did. This is the best Muddy compilation and avoids a lot of the later crap that Chess Records led him into in search of a hit.
10.
Jake:
Thanks Darren – these are great great discs and I think your comments about timing will really, really help some of our readers.Finally I noticed in some of your early performances with the big band sound you`re rocking a rather large quiff that gives you the suave yet dangerous appearance of a riverboat gambler – does this help at all – and can it be performed without blues supervision?
Darren:
LOL – yeah well at least I never sported a mullet, bro! 
Jake:
Fantastic !!
Well there you have it everybody , THE WORD from none other than south pacific bluesmaster Darren Watson. Thank you Darren for talking to us and for giving us such an invaluable insight into your approach to guitar and for sharing your time.
Darren is available for one on one lessons if you are in New Zealand’s north island in the beautiful harbour city capital of Wellington. Click here for details…
Thanks again man.
Cheers,
Jake Edwards.
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