Tag Archives: string

Eric Johnson

Written by Jamorama on September 17, 2009 — Leave a Comment

Today we’re going to try very, very hard not to smash and burn our guitars because we’re looking at the unique approach of uber-talent and tastemaster extroadinaire Eric Johnson and…he is rather good….

Eric is from Texas. And while there’s definitely something in the water in Texas it`s affected Eric a little differently because his approach to the guitar is somewhat idiosyncratic. Besides, it must be talent, melody or some kind of mystical otherworldly pan-galactic musical goodness flowing from those southern taps and Eric Johnson is definitely drinking it.

Man, I’m thirsty this morning.

gatdrink Eric Johnson

EricJohnson 300x196 Eric Johnson

By the time Johnson released his Capitol Records debut Ah Via Musicom in 1990, he was regularly winning awards for his musicianship in the guitar press. During this period, Eric Johnson was also drawing recognition for the rich, violin-like tone he coaxed from his vintage Fender Stratocaster.

The instrumental “Cliffs of Dover” exemplified his unique sound and won Johnson a 1991 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The album Ah Via Musicom was a crossover hit, and was soon certified platinum. Here`s Eric playing “S.R.V.” an undoubted piece of absolute fretboard excellence…

Johnson`s approach to sound tends to blend clean, highly melodic and dramatic guitar runs, licks and arpeggios with a fusion of eastern and world approaches to tone such as koto like string effects and bends with subtle tapping and harmonics fuelled by a devastatingly precise and accurate picking technique and  knowledge of the fretboard washed down with bucketloads of talent and a hint of psychedelia. What’s highly noticeable about Eric J.’s approach is that he likes to literally “think outside the (scale) box”:

I tend to stay away from the box fingerings a bit. Instead, I kind of connect different things together and try to be a little bit methodical in my approach. I jump around as per the string tension and the kind of sound and tonality I want.

To re-iterate whereas some players tend to play up or down a scale using almost predictable scales and licks Eric makes a conscious effort to jump across wider intervals and bridge uncommon scales & elements  and in doing so create a whole new ultra-fresh guitar sound.

If you`re thinking of taking the guitar to a new part of the melodic galaxy unfettered from the chains of the blues-rock tradition then Eric’s music is a great place to look for inspiration. DON’T, no; DON’T allow the complexities of Eric’s style phase you out though – adopt a less is more approach and think about the more classical elements in the playing. A touch of reverb won’t go amiss here people! It’s a heady mix of influences from Wes Montgomery to Jimi Hendrix to Jeff Beck with maybe a touch of Bach or Paganini thrown in.

Eric fuses a more classical sense of melody with a highly accomplished and adult sonic palette blending vibrato, bends, scales and tones in a way that avoids the hair-metal neo-classical plagiarism of guitar for guitar’s sake and the time honoured cliches of the ‘been there, done that’ blues-rock guitar cannon.

Here he is playing “Manhattan” – so, listen up and listen good because it’s said that Eric can tell the aural difference between the brands of batteries in his effects pedals.

So where does this leave the rest of us, down here on the ground? Absolutely Nowhere! But fear not the awesome and versatile koto string bending technique is available for us mere mortals down here on earth and here is how you can learn to do it.

Fret a note with your picking hand index finger.  Pick right behind your index finger with your picking hand thumb. These two steps occurs almost simultaneously.  Next you can choose to bend this note by stretching the string with your fretting hand.  Then you can pull off from your picking hand index finger to your fretting hand.

G DEC

Eric has also got together with Fender to endorse the G-DEC practice amplifier.

The G-DEC is a guitar practice amplifier which incorporates:

  1. A modelling amp, which can sound like any of 17 different amplifiers
  2. A digital effects processor containing 29 effects (many in stereo) so you can add reverb, phasing, flanging, wah, etc.
  3. An on-board General MIDI synthesizer with MIDI In and Out jacks on the front panel
  4. 50 preset and 50 user-definable presets combination backing tracks
  5. A 14 second phrase sampler, so you can record licks and practice against them
  6. Auxiliary input for CD or mp3 player
  7. Phones jack can be used with stereo headphones or as a stereo Line Out jack
  8. A second input jack on the rear panel
  9. A chromatic tuner

There’s a great interview here for those who’d like to find out a little more about Eric’s approach to the guitar.

echoplex3 296x300 Eric Johnson

Several years back I walked into Guitar Village in the U.K. to have a look at an Echoplex they had acquired.
Yeah!
The sales assistant was gushing with enthusiasm because this baby had been previously owned by none other than Eric Johnson himself. When he started the machine we heard  Eric’s instantly recogniseable tone and playing coming off the tape.

Wow! “How much is it?” I asked.

I think he said it was somewhere around the 800 pound mark! Phew!
I decided to save a massive 783 pounds- and go and buy one of Eric’s C.D’s instead – smooth.

Have great weekend!

Cheers,

Jake Edwards

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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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Time and Space

Written by Jamorama on March 16, 2009 — 2 Comments

In around 162o Galileo Galilei postulated that the uiverse was entirely composed in the language of maths.

Music is mathematics. Yes, it sounds scary but it`s true. If you are looking to mess with time and space simply try playing a few octave sequences.  Consider your open A string, the halfway point is at the twelfth fret and this is why intonation, the fine tuning of the string length is crucial to playing tight and true notes at higher frequencies! Basically when the string is played open it is twice the length (space) than when played at the twelfth fret, but vibrating at half the speed (time).

The open A string is resonating at 440hz and when halved at the twelfth fret will produce another A note, but vibrating at 880 hz, an octave above. Cut in 3  or played at the seventh fret it will produce E notes, and if you cut it into quarters  by fretting at the fifth you’ll be listening to a D note. To simplify 440 pockets of  air are hitting your ear per second. In this sense you might like to consider the quantum nature of what you `re doing when you pluck a guitar string. The strings hardly make any noise at all – and a sound wave is just a disturbance of the air. This may take you along the path of the Pythagorean concept of the Music of the Spheres, Johannes Kepler or even Plotinus.

In 2006, Greg Fox divided the orbital periods of the planets in half again and again until they were literally audible. The resultant piece was called “Carmen of the Spheres”. Furthermore in his book Das Universum Singt Wilfried Krüger mapped the mathematical relationships within, for example, the carbon molecule (I think) and discovered the C Ionian scale.

When you stretch that string you`re stretching your life. Just something to think about.

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