Tag Archives: live

Manzer Pikasso Pat Methany

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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.

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Known as the Pikasso guitar, after its likeness to the cubist paintings of Pablo Picasso, this one pictured belongs to jazz supremo Pat Metheny, one of the most famous jazz guitar players of our time.

The Picasso 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.

Moog guitars, magnetics and other mad craziness

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Fresh!
Hello Jamorama people – today we`re going to look at some rather exceptional new developments in the world of string theory. If you`re a proponent of holographic consciousness, quantum gravity or the cosmological horizon you are on the wrong page unless of course your name is Jimi Hendrix and you are reading from nearest black hole.

How this actually works is through using magnetic pick ups to actually change the MOTION of the strings..allowing you to mix up muted banjo sounds with sustained notes as you can hear. WHY SO?

Well, a magnetic pickup consists of a permanent magnet such as a AlNiCo, wrapped with a coil of a few thousand turns of fine enameled copper wire. The vibration of the string modulates the magnetic flux linking the coil, thereby inducing an alternating current through the coil of wire. This signal is then carried to amplification or recording equipment via a cable.

Here though is a guy who just doesn’t need anything but an amp, a guitar and a fuzzface. Yes it`s Jimi Hendrix inventing time travel in 1970…

Bill Frisell – glacial effects

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In a recent post featuring Adrian Legg I slyly suggested that Bill Frisell was definitely another idiosycratic guitarist to look for in your listening research. 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. Use it…

Jeff Beck

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I`ve been lucky enough to spend an entire gig standing next to Jeff Beck, drink a few beers, chat awhile and ask him some questions about tremelo and the performances I`d seen at Hammersmith Odeon. I also saw him at The South Bank in London and he played with John McLaughlin and The White Stripes.

Future Guitar

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The future of the guitar – what is it? We`re still using designs that are around 60 years old: Gibson Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster, Flying V, Explorers, Jaguar, Firebird etcetera. Commonalities include double or single cutaways, magnetic pickups, tone selectors, strings, tremelo arms, bridges, frets, tuning pegs.