The Handle and Adrian Legg – Modern guitar
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 sinlge 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 than 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”.
17th Century Schizoid Man II – updated
In the previous post I took a rather circuitous journey from the lute through to the Chapman stick – a lute-like modern fret based instrument that occupies a unique space in between the guitar , the lute and the piano. If you have ever wondered why the mathematical complexities of a 6 string guitar account for the 3rd string anomaly then here’s Bob Chapman’s illumination upon the matter – it`s all about playing in keys…
17th Century Schizoid Man I
The lute’s strings are arranged in courses of two strings each with the highest-pitched course usually consists of only a single string. An 8-course Renaissance lute will usually have 15 strings, and a 13-course Baroque lute will have 24.
If you listen carefully to the lesser known songs on albums by Cream you will hear the classical training of maestro Jack Bruce evident in passages redolent of the Bream Consort above.
Nile Rodgers, Hip Hop, Electro
Aggregators, connectors , samplers, grooves, licks and threads! What does it all mean. Well, here at last its the post we`ve all been waiting for. It`s the behemoth of influential guitar-production genius that is Nile Rodgers!
I`ve previously mentioned the sheer genius of the Sesame Street Band! Well NIle started off there when he was a teenager, moving to the house band at the Apollo theatre – he was always destined for great things. IN the mid 70`s being black meant Nile struggled to get a deal playing rock but in 1977 he put together the band Chic. The songs “Everybody Dance,” “Le Freak,” and “Good Times” are some of the most sampled records EVER and have formed the scratching backbone of a limitless number of electro, breakdance and hip-hop records. If you`re hearing a DJ scratching and the hook sounds familiar it`s most likely something from Nile`s band Chic.
Yeah! The original Hip Hop opus “Rapper’s Delight” by Grand Master Flash and “Another One Bites the Dust” by rock megalith Queen are built on samples lifted from Nile`s Good Times. To say that Rodger’s guitar prowess & playing was understatedly, groovy, tight, and precise would be down playing it somewhat and to say that his production skills were`nt astronomical would be madness.
Girls Guitars
Being a lazy, good for nothing, low down, dirty, blagger will never get you anywhere on the guitar Lee. But it does get you first prize in the creative letter writing competition and free access to the chord book.
Sound like Clapton- updated
What I really wanted to focus upon today was the great offering of idiosyncratic guitars over at DiPinto`s Vintage Inventory, and boy have they got some sure-fire stuff for your guitar playing delectation, as well as some fantastic amplification and keyboards from the days of yore. What`s especially great amongst this set of old gems […]
Never Trust a Man with Egg on His Face -updated
Are Radiohead the new Bob Dylan…what? Is Banksy the New Dali? Are there Space Invaders in my cereal? How can this happen? If you were born after about 1975 bad luck. You really have missed out on alot. But good luck too – we live in a almost completely free world. So keep rockin’ in […]
Blues Threads – Mojo Hand
…you`re stuck between a rock and a hard place ?
…up to your middle at the crossroads trapped amid the gleam of a loamy moon?
…or find yerself petitioned by the Baron, aboard the skullbone trap of the Devils midnight charter?
Well, if your black cat bone just evaporates into an unholy dust, your Black Spider Dumpling gots the taste of a drowning witch – sold to you by a snake oil trickster with badluck in his teeth then you better head on over to
Son House Blues Legend
Yessiree, here`s the mighty Son House. I`m not going to say much except this man is 100% the real deal and spent the first half of his life in the Steam Age and the later half working on the New York Central Rail line. If this man`s music doesn’t move you – nothing will. You must be dead. In my humble opinion Son House is the greatest blues player of all time…
House was born in 1886 (officially) 1902 in Clarksdale, Mississippi and in his mid twenties, inspired by Willie Wilson, he bought a guitar and played alongside Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. Son House even spent time on Parchman Farm for killing a man in self defence.
Dylan, Bloomfield, Son House and the Highway 61 Blues
SO if you dont know who Mike Bloomfield is here`s a chance to catch up. Bloomfield was one of the first popular music stars of the 60s to earn his reputation entirely on his instrumental prowess and his early supporters were Buddy Guy, B.B.King, Muddy Waters and Dylan. Bloomfield got together with Elvin Bishop and Paul Butterfield and formed the Butterfield Blues Band who were in part responsible for bringing that whole Chicago sound from a black to a white audience. Butterfiled was famous for his cross-harp inverted harmonica style. You can hear them both hear prior to Bloomfield`s departure to form Electric Flag.