Tag Archives: string

Eric Johnson

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Eric Johnson;

there’s something in the water in Texas and it must be talent, melody or some kind of mystical otherworldly pan-galactic musical goodness and Eric Johnson is definitely drinking it.

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.

Eric fuses a more classical sense of melody with the 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 difference between the brands of batteries in his effects pedals.

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.

Time and Space

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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 E 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 if played at the twelfth fret but vibrating at half the speed (time).