Tag Archives: acoustic

Harmonic Capo

Written by admin on January 24, 2012 — Leave a Comment

If you’re into alternate tunings and experimenting with new and interesting sounds on your guitar, then you’ll love the Harmonic Capo created by Bob Kilgore. Unlike a regular capo that presses the strings down at the desired fret effectively changing the placement of the nut, the Harmonic Capo gently rests on the strings.

newsletter26 gear bobkilgore hc Harmonic Capo

The effect is what you would get if you lightly placed your finger over the strings at a harmonic node and struck the strings. The most common and strongest harmonic nodes are at the 5th, 7th and 12th frets (and 17th if you can reach it).

Also, unlike conventional capos that allow you to only play in-front of where the capo is placed, the harmonic capo, allows you to play both in-front and behind the capo opening up a whole range of possibilities worth exploring.

The harmonic capo works in tandem with open tunings such as open C (Low to high: CGCGBE) open G tuning (low to high: DGDGBD) or open D tuning or DADGAD. With an open chord being played with no fingers being placed on the fretboard, this enables you to explore different melodic runs while adding in colorful harmonics throughout.

Of course, if you’re new to open tunings, it’s worth taking some time to familiarize yourself with the different shapes to produce chords of one tuning, before moving onto another. It might be helpful at this point to write down all the notes of the fretboard as they have changed with the tuning to get a better picture of what your working with.

newsletter26 gear harmonicapo Harmonic Capo

With all this in mind, use of a Harmonic Capo really benefits finger style playing but that shouldn’t really stop anyone, who is interested in exploring the possibilities the Harmonic Capo offers from having a go. If you’re intrigued to hear some examples, head over to Bob Kilgore’s site and watch a few of his videos. Check out the video below, a number of excerpts from his latest CD offering.

His playing is sure to inspire you to push your playing in a new direction, even if you return having decided that it’s not the path you wanna take.

Enjoy!

ab4e2097d32a3cfb2d407817c82c42dd Harmonic Capo

Posted by Dan Orr.

Posted in acoustic guitars, art, Artists, fingerpicking, gear, Guitar Tools, music | Tagged , , , ,

Manzer Pikasso Pat Methany

Written by Jamorama on September 14, 2009 — Leave a Comment

picasso2 300x238 Manzer Pikasso Pat Methany

Okay, breathe deeply; when we’ve modified our guitars to the hilt will it then be time to modify our bodies?

“I’ve gotta gig this weekend, can I install a couple of extra sets of hands please Doc?” This Manzer custom build for Pat Methany features 42 strings…and yes Pat is still only using two normal hands of five digits only.

This remarkable guitar is known as the Pikasso guitar, after its likeness to the cubist paintings of twentieth century artist-genius-pioneer Pablo Picasso.

The Pikasso guitar was built for him by luthier Linda Manzer in 1984 and can be heard on his song “Into the Dream” and on the albums Quartet, Imaginary Day, Jim Hall & Pat Metheny, Trio Live, and Metheny Mehldau Quartet his 2007 second collaboration with pianist Brad Mehldau. The guitar can also be seen on the Speaking of Now Live and Imaginary Day DVDs. Pat Metheny has also used the guitar in various guest appearances on other artists’ albums and on the Legends of Jazz TV show, where he referred to it simply as a 42- string guitar.

The body is tapered so that the side closest to the player is thinner than the side that rests on the players knee, thus leaning the top back towards the player for a more aerial view. This is also more comfortable under the player’s arm.

The instrument is outfitted with a complete state of the art piezo pickup system including a hexaphonic pickup on the 6 string section that allowed Metheny to access his Syclavier computer system thus triggering any sound including sampled sounds.There are even two mounting holes on the treble side so that the guitar can be mounted on internal brass insets attaching to a stand, leaving hands free for playing or viewing.

There is some frequency of the guitars appearance in the early cubist works of one of the twentieth century’s greatest minds and artists Pablo Picasso.

Picasso first began to explore the instrument in the South East of France in Ceret, near Perpignan. The steady rhythm of the sardana Catalan dance served as the model for Picasso’s choice of geometric shapes and provide the defining characteristic of and backbone for his Cubist paintings. Cubism was invented around 1907 in Paris by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. There is a certain movement and expressive musicality in the omniscient cubist perspective.

Cubism had two distinct phases. The early phase which lasted until about 1912 was called Analytical Cubism. Here the artist analysed the subject from many different viewpoints and reconstructed it within a geometric framework, the overall effect of which was to create an image that evoked a sense of the subject. These fragmented images were unified by the use of a subdued and limited palette of colours.

With this structure in place, the Céret music’s freedom and energy gave Picasso a goal to achieve with his own art, and we witnessed Picasso’s progression as he incorporated these elements into his guitar paintings.

Cubism was born in France but emigrated across Europe and integrated with the artistic consciousness of several countries. It emerged as Futurism in Italy, Vorticism in England, Suprematism and Constructivism in Russia, and Expressionism in Germany. It also influenced several of the major design and architectural styles of the 20th century and prevails to this day as mode of expression in the language of art.

Well, That`s all folks,
Cheers…

Jake Edwards

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Choosing Acoustic guitars

Written by Jamorama on April 1, 2009 — 15 Comments

honey 300x211 Choosing Acoustic guitars

If you’ve been following the progress and adventures of my recordings on the Elijah Few blog then you`ll know that thus far I’ ve had to do battle with some extremely unversatile firewood. Yes, I`m talking about acoustic guitars and I`m going to try and outline what you should be looking for in your search for acoustic guitar satisfaction and it applies to any guitar, whatever your price range. Dan receives alot of questions in customer support regarding these matters so I`m going to outline a strategy to help make the right selection.

Apparently “a bad workman blames his tools” and to some extent this is true, but a good workman will select his tools wisely. If all you have available is a plank then that’s what you have to use, and I’ve been there myself and still managed to muster a half decent sound…In the picture below one of these guitars is an old plank, the other a mellifluous heaven of tone:

The kind of tone you are looking for should be along these lines -  smooth, rich and highly natural; bright, lively and warm with an entirely even response across the strings. A breeze to play, with a low action,  and when simply strumming an E chord resonates with rich, manuka, gently oscillating overtones.

blackstrap Choosing Acoustic guitars

If this kind of language baffles you some, then here is my strategy for discovering exactly what I mean and finding the right guitar for you. Begin at your local retailer by selecting guitars that fall somewhere near the most expensive available in the store – these will be guitar brands such as Martin, Taylor, Gibson or Guild.

Don’t be shy, because it`s all about sound. Play them and get a good feel for the different sounds that each produce. You will notice that different materials used for the soundboard, upon which the bridge sits, will produce different sounds. Simply try strumming an E chord on each model and place your ear on the top of the body.

Also pay close attention to the high, mid and low tones that each model produces – in an expensive model these should harmoniously blend together and there will be no noticeable loss of volume, attack or tone from string to string.

Honey bee 300x191 Choosing Acoustic guitars

Consider the feel of the neck profiles as well, and how they sit within your hand. The action of the strings, the gap between the fretboard surface and the strings, should be low, but with no abolutely buzzing anywhere. Play up and down the neck and spend a bit of time getting to know each instrument. It`s a good idea to give each guitar a name that relates to how it sounds – molasses, coffee, warm, bright, hollow, rich, liqourice, etcetera. It`s all about the sound and the feel of the guitar – you should know which one you prefer almost intuitively – trust your instincts and use your HANDS and YOUR EARS – never use your eyes.

Narrow it down to your favourite one…Next start comparing and playing the guitars from your price range against the expensive guitar you most liked. Try and find one that most nearly matches the qualities you had admired in the more expensive model. You will have to make a compromise somewhere but hopefully you`ll be on your way. Better still sleep on it and go back the next day and spend some time playing the model you chose the day before just to see if it sill sounds good to your ear.

Best regards,

Jake Edwards

Posted in acoustic guitars, gear, recording | Tagged , , , ,

Percussive Acoustic Rhythm Guitar

Written by Jamorama on January 21, 2009 — 2 Comments

Moses, one of our guitar tutors, rocks. Moses is working on some syncopated, percussive acoustic methods, using hammer on, pull off, open string and sound board rhythm techniques. Today Moses is using an Ibanez Artwood acoustic guitar with a very rich, warm, coffee roasted tone.  It`s really nice to combine this style of playing with some smooth, fluid, legato lead lines (on the old Stratocaster).

If you really like that combination of melody and percussion check out Andy Mckee or Andrew White !

Andrew White seamlessly blends rag, jazz, classical, modern and blues styles in this piece below. It is absolutely stunning.

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