the jazz thing again

today is the start of winter break. so I was reading up on the ii v i chord progression in jazz. i found a nice backing track in youtube and played in major pentatonic. ah, so nice. got me thinking about jazz again. blues can't do everything -- no one form can. i'd like to add something to my playing that's outside of blues. and ii v i jazz with major pent is a great way to start. i still feel intimidated by all the theory and chords and scales of jazz, but I can take it slowly, piece by piece, at my own pace. i also feel that my improvs are more jazzy than bluesy, in that my lines are longer and more flowing and to me sound more jazzy, and less bluesy.

so, the wife and i are talking about the "next" guitar. you know, in theory! and nothing soon! i'm pretty happy with the gibson and fender. but you know, if i did get another .... my theory is to get a different sound. i've got gibson and fender covered, in my mind, so it would be another american made guitar. well, there aren't that many, really. gretsch is all foreign made. and I like semi hollow and hollow bodies. so not much out there, except for..... rickenbacker. the wife and i both like the rick 330. heck, it looks like a beatles guitar of course! they go for 1800 new. but first i have to play one and see if i like it. blues and jazz on a rick... why not? one can always, dream of course.....

two new videos

here they are:

slow blues in G

and

blues in A 11 Dec 2010

that is all.

recital video

here it is:

recital video

enjoy!

recital went well tonight

yup, I think I did OK. I'll post the video in a few days. a few flubs in my performance, but nothing too noticeable. I felt pretty good on stage -- just nervous a little. I played the VG strat set on a 12 string telecaster setting -- so it sounds like twin teles, I guess.

here's a saturday morning version of willie dixon's "you shook me"

you shook me

video is gladys knight and the pips, midnight train to georgia, 1973.

here's a video i made today:

blues in A nov. 26

it's a bluesier version of the piece I performed at my first recital.

a-ha moment with I IV V

so it hit me today after watching a video on using 6th and 9th chords in the blues. the I IV V form works with any sorts of chords with that relationship. 7ths, major chords, 6ths, 9ths, etc. It's the relationship between the three, the I IV V thing that makes it the blues. The chords themselves can be of any (I guess) form. So now I see how to use 9th chords that we studied in my lesson.

the youtube lesson was a good one; here it is:

youtube lesson on 6th and 9th chords

and here's my own 12 bar in A6:

A6 12 bar

epiphone dot is home & new video

the epi dot is back, and it's the house guitar now. the yamaha pacifica is resting quietly upstairs.

also, a new video:

alternate 12 bar pattern in A

videos of Hong Kong & the blues

some more videos:

339 blues in E cut short

Lake of Fire Blues

alternate blues pattern in E

beeen busy!!!

Decided that the best way to get better with videos is just to make videos, mistakes or not. Just work it out of the system. Somehow catching the spontaneity of playing is hard. Once the 'record' button is hit there are mistakes and hesitation. Just gotta get over it. So be prepared for a batch of mediocre playing! Also, the universe is a tautology. Isn't it?

2 new videos

vg strat blues in E with 12 string acoustic modeling.

vg strat blues in A with 12 string acoustic modeling.

OK, here's 2 videos to show the 12 string modeling. my playing is not so good, but I just sat down and recorded -- no warm up or practice!

Also, I suspect my strings are not 9 gauge like they should be. They feel stiffer than my 10's on the Gibby (if they are 10 -- they are the originals). I don't like them and I gotta get some 9s!

major and minor pent together

my guitar teacher has me practicing major and minor pentatonic in my improvs this week. In particular, I'm to look at first position for major and minor and work with them in G. I even get to use some paper with a guitar neck printed on it to mark out the fret positions, red for minor and blue for major. We tried a little improv in the lesson today and I like the sound. More color and variety than just minor pent alone. So in the same area of the fretboard I'm moving between major and minor phrases and licks.

Also had a breakthrough with the Lake of Fire solo; now I understand the phrasing more clearly.

all steel

going all steel is working out just fine. the nylon acoustic has done it's job and is back upstairs. I can do everything with gibby, fendy, and yamaha. It's really fun to go back to fingerstyle playing, to augment my pick playing.

Now I really feel that I need no more guitars. I've got enough. The whole range of needs. Those three and the epiphone dot in the office. That's enough!

so, my guitar teacher has me working on "lake of fire", a song by the meat puppets. We're using the Nirvana version from the MTV unplugged session. The solo is all a first position minor pentatonic thing in G. It's a good piece, and I've transformed it, parts of it, into a classic blues piece, GCD.

Maybe this weekend I'll post some sound samples from the VG strat on youtube, just to get a sense of how the Roland synth works in it.

acoustic put away

OK, I solved the problem. I found that I can play fingerstyle on my electrics -- my fingers have toughened up enough. So I don' t need the nylon acoustic. Note that my fingerstyle playing is a little ragged and untrained. I'm not very systematic or smooth; I more like claw at the strings! But I like the rough quality of it. It's more like plucking with five fingers, or fewer if needed. And then strumming downward with the back of my fingernails. I like it so far.

I've got the yamaha pacifica out as my "cheapie" guitar to play when I don't want to be so careful. I can grab it at a moment's notice and play -- unplugged of course.

hearing and nylon guitar

oh, that little classical guitar is so much fun to play. I play better with it than with my gibby or fendy. But -- there's gotta be a but -- its acoustic qualities do a little number on my damaged hearing. Just a little, but it's noticeable. I stuffed the guitar with t-shirts today to muffle the sound, and that helps, but I must admit to myself that it still, in the lower range, is not too good for me. I am super cautious about hearing. A few nights ago, after a day of intense nylong string playing, i could tell at night that the ringing was more pronounced. So I gotta lay off the acoustic.

Well, semi-hollow electrics are just made for me! Not too loud, not as quiet as a solid body. Just perfect for my hearing issues. Funny, but I like electrics because they're not too loud!

I still love the easy playability of the nylon strings -- so maybe someday I'll get a chambered semi-solid nylon stringer. Epiphone makes one for like 350. There are other brands too.

I've gotten requests to put some music online at youtube (1 request, you know who you are!). yeah, I wanna do that sometime. Probably at thanksgiving break. The weeks just pass by, and with grading on the weekend, etc. etc.

yeah baby

OK, tonight I finally got it. A blues piece that's got all the parts; it's got the rhythm. it sounds good. turnarounds, several bass lines, some decent improv. A blues in E minor. Good old E. Played it on my little cheapo oldie nylon stringed classical guitar from Japan that cost about a hundred bucks. A little 3/4 scale student model with the same strings since 1998.

I'll record it sometime and put it online. For me it's an achievement.

I really like my little cheapie nylon guitar!

I got a strat!

Yeah, it happened sooner than I thought, but I bought a new American strat. To be more specific, I bought one of the oddest strats ever made, I think. It's a VG strat. OK, here it is: It's an American standard strat with a built in synthesizer from Roland for modeling other guitars and tunings. So it has the 3 standard strat pickups, and acts like a strat through them. It also has a fourth Roland pickup right at the bridge. The strat has the typical volume and tone controls, and two more: T and M. M is for modeling or something; it switches from natural strat, modeling strat, telecaster, humbucker, and acoustic. The T knob is for various tunings, like open G, drop D, baritone, another one or two, and also for 12 string. So these knobs can be combined in various combinations. You can have a strat, tele, humbucker or acoustic sound with any of the tunings or 12 string. I love the 12 string acoustic mode! It sounds like the Byrds. The T knob can be bypassed also, so it can be a straight Strat with no modeling.

The Roland system runs on 4 AA batteries. You insert them in the back. The Roland circuits are at the base of the guitar in a routed out section in the back.

So this thing can make great combos like 12 string strat or 12 string tele. cool!

OK, Fender made this model from 2007 to 2009 only. It originally cost about 1700 dollars at any guitar shop.

I got it, new, as clearance at a Guitar Center for 870. That includes a hardshell molded case. So that's 50% off what it sold for a few years ago! A regular American Standard strat goes for 999, so in that sense too it's also a deal. Mine is black. It was made in black, sunburst, and a few in blizzard pearl. I got one with a maple neck, my first, and I love it!

I really like the modeled sounds. I think they sound great. Are they 100% right on? Of course not. Get a real 12 string if that's what you need to hear. For synth I think it sounds pretty good.

The alternate tunings are synthetic; the strings stay absolutely the same.

Battery life is maybe 4-10 hours, depends on who you ask. I'll get some of the recommended NimH rechargeables.

Poly and I went to the guitar center to look at a used American deluxe strat that was on the website (this is the GC in Rockford), but it wasn't available; they said they were gonna use it for parts 'cause it had a broken truss rod. Then the sales guy showed me the VG strat. I took my time playing it. I just really liked it, and so did Poly. It's like buying 5 or 6 guitars in one.

We took the leap and bought it, then drove home and went online to look it up. I was fearing that the Roland unit was crappy or had bad reviews or would die soon. Nothing like that at all. I DID buy a 2 year extended warranty just in case (I almost never get those), and if anything goes wrong GC will replace the strat or give me my money back.

The reviews are very good, mostly. You know musicians, you could give them God's own strat and somebody wouldn't like the pickups, etc.

I think Fender is unloading these great VG strats because they didn't sell; a lot of guitarists are skeptical of active electronics or onboard advanced circuits and stuff, so it probably didn't sell well. Plus at 1700 it was pricey, as much as a Deluxe American strat. Oh well, good for me! I think I got a hell of a deal.

In terms of making music I think it's the most versatile strat they've ever made. I don't play gigs and I don't need extended battery life. but anyway, you can take out the batteries and it's still a strat and plays like one. I've done it. Same 3 strat pickups, no batteries needed.

check it out online. They are cool!

care and feeding of a 339

Today I bought some supplies to keep my 339, Gibby, in good health.

1. Gibson guitar polish. Pump spray on a cotton cloth lightly and wide down the guitar. good for all metal, wood, plastic, etc. It got rid of the stickiness of the back of the neck that had been bothering me. It also made it shine real pretty!

2. Fast Fret. a solid mineral oil on a wooden stick, sort of. Rub it on the strings and frets, wipe off the excess, and zoom! Fast strings, less rust and crud on them.

That's all so far. I still need to get Roche Thomas fretboard oil, but that can wait until I put in a new set of strings.

Gibby is shiny and happy!

Tube Amp!

Yup, I spent that 50 dollar gift certificate on a tube amp. A Bugera V5, a 5 watt little tube amp with digital reverb. It sells for 149 and I paid 99. Pretty good deal. I got it tonight and have only played it a little, but it sounds good. Tubey, like it's supposed to. It's got a power attenuator so it can be set at 5 watts, 1 watt, or .1 watt. I use .1 watt so I get that good tubey vibe without a lot of volume. the Gibson sounds pretty good in it.

Chords!

yup, I'm no longer afraid of chords! My rhythm playing has really improved lately (from nothing to something!). It just started clicking. My chords are for blues 12 bar, like a7, d7, b7, g7, e7, etc. I'm expanding my call-response form and getting better at jumping from chords to lead. Much fun! This is the kind of blues I wanted to play!

Garage Band figured out

OK, with a little help I can now use Garage Band. Wow, what an improvement! No mics to worry about, and much easier multitracking. This is the way to go from now on. Luckily I had an adaptor from the 90s or 80s so I could plug in the guitar to the laptop. So now I can make rhythm tracks and then put various leads over them. go to my youtube channel and take a listen!

2 track test with mime video

OK, here I tried out 2 track recording:

youtube video

I recorded the rhythm track using Audacity software on the little mac laptop and a cheap microphone. Then I put that file on the big mac laptop and ran it through the amp while playing the lead and recording it on the little mac. Finally, for visuals, I made a video of me faking it, using the photobooth app that comes with an apple. It's all crude, but an experiment. I need some real recording equipment!

new pick: Dunlop 88s

OK, so I'm trying the Dunlop .88 mm pick, the one just below the 1 mm. I tried the .73 mm, but it was too thin. One too thin, the other too thick, so the 88s should be just right, using Goldilocks logic. I'll work with them for a few days and let you know how they feel.

blues exercise on ootoob

OK, here's a sample of the blues piece I'm working on:

blues exercise in A

new recording method with external mic in front of the amp. it really picks up the great sound of the 339.

new mic set up for youtube vids

OK, I got tired of the poor audio quality in my youtube vids. Yes, the guitar is unplugged, but it's too much of a hassle to bring the amp over here or the laptop over there. I just wanna plunk out a few phrases for my licks library.

So I went upstairs and dug out the rocketfish external microphone I bought a few years ago. It took a few attemtps -- I had to max out the mic level on the youtube set up and change from built in mic to external mic, but this video shows the improvement. Not super great, and not as good as I hear it, but better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5rGmNhRE6Q

so now my audio notebook will be easier to listen to.

50 dollar gift certificate

OK, so I bought the 339 at a Guitar Center, and today I got a 50 dollar gift certificate from them, good for any purchase, one use only, no leftover dollars allowed. So what do I buy? a new amp? I've been looking at the fender g-dec 30 for 300 bucks. a tube amp?

Gibby is back!

on Tues. the 3 year old left with his mom, so the Gibson, Gibby, is back from its undisclosed location in my closet. Gibby is a GOOD guitar, by the way. Usually I don't even plug it in -- it sounds so good unplugged. The notes ring out clearly; it just sounds great. And it feels so good to play, as if it's easier to play and the strings are easier to work with. My epiphone Dot now sounds gritty and muddy.

Gibby! My guitar! I don't even want any others!

And I'm really loving this call/response blues thing I'm working on. It sounds like a full blues piece -- what I've been striving for.

working on a solo blues piece

I'm working on a solo blues piece in A that will include both strumming the I IV V chords and single note leads. Kind of a call and response thing. It's one of my goals to play a complete work that doesn't require a second guitarist or a backing track. I'll youtube it when it gets better.

dunlop heavies are out

I tried the dunlop heavy picks again and the joint pain in the thumb started coming back. So I'm back to Fender mediums. I wanna try a dunlop medium; I like the grip area, but the heavy has no flex and it puts too much pressure on my thumb.

a guy like me in Japan

Here is Kerry's youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/KEREECHAN

He's a guy in Japan, about my age or younger, with a red 339. He plays in a band, and he's got videos of himself at home playing with backing tracks and videos of his band. I wrote a note on one video -- I hope he can read English! Yeah, he's like a Japanese version of me!

back to fender medium picks

yup, I"m back to fender medium picks. Why? I still like the Dunlop heavies, but it felt after a time that the stiffness put pressure on my joint in my thumb and it began to hurt. The fender medium pick has enough give in it that it flexes so that I don't get that joint pain. So, the switch. Who knows, someday I'll switch to something else. I'd like to try different picks and see how they work out. Cheaper than buying new guitars!

new melodies

check out a few new simple melodies I developed today;

Rob's YouTube Channel

I'm not plugged in so the guitar sounds pretty feeble, but you get the idea!

mid summer update

things are going well. practicing every day. feel better and better with the penta patterns. improvising. just more comfortable. no sudden breakthroughs, but everything is easier. playing the yamaha and epiphone; the gibson is hidden in the closet until the 3 year old has left!

pull offs -- got it!

OK, today I managed pull offs better than ever before. I don't know why, but I could do them today with much better sound. Hammer ons are easy; pulls offs are harder! My left hand is getting more bluesy! I think this will help with my need to get better swing time; to play more bluesy rhythmically. Not just eighth note after eighth note. With hammer ons and pull offs added in the mix along with bends -- I can get a bluesier sound.

turnarounds figured out!

last night while lying in bed i figured out how to do a turnaround. so, I know how to do one in the key of A. but i didn't know how to move it around to other keys. then last night I'm lying in bed and duh! it hits me. the turnaround (the one know) starts at the top of the first position (penta minor) using the 3rd and 5th strings and goes up (literally, from higher to lower) the fretboard 4 half steps and ends up on the root chord (A7 in this case). then it ends on the V chord, E7.

not hard at all; I just never put the pieces together.

so this morning while poly was walking skye to school i got out the 339 and tried it in A and B and C and voila it works! so now I can add a turnaround to my improvs. it's about time!

summer guitar plans

Tom, my music teacher, set out some things for me to do this summer. Primarily he wants me to practice moving between major and minor pentatonic when improvising. Specifically he wants me to, for example, play a minor riff in first position and then play a major riff in the major first position, right in the same part of the fretboard. I've been working on it and it certainly opens up a lot of interesting phrases and riffs. The sound is more full and complicated than just minor pentatonic riffs. I still have to work on my ear to get something that sounds good; the move from minor to major sounds a little odd.

after working on first position, the plan is then for second position major and minor riffing. Then third, fourth, and fifth position major-minor riffing.

By the end of summer I hope to be comfortable in major-minor riffing anywhere on the fretboard. And to sound halfway decent, too!

what's a 339 anyway?

here's a good post from the Gibson forum on what a 339 is...

In the smaller semi-hollow and archtop Gibson's there are two main lines

The ES-339 and ES-359 are 'brothers' sharing the same construction methods with the only differences coming in detailing and appointments. These are built like the classic ES-335: a center block surrounded by pressed-ply tops backs and sides. The 339 has the simpler appointments: dot inlays on a rosewood fretboard, single-ply binding, decal headstock, nickel hardware, usually plainer top woods.
The 359 has the "uptown appointments" very similar to an LP Custom: ebony fingerboard with big block inlays, the split-parallelogram inlay on the headstock, inlaid logo, gold hardware and triple-ply binding around the rims.
Everything else (pickups, construction, size, etc) is the same.

The CS-336 and CS-356 are another set of brothers, but from a somewhat different family: they are the same size & shape as the 339/359 but have a completely different "archtop" construction. The back & sides are routed (oops: "tonally carved") out of a single slab of mahogany, leaving a centerblock that's integral with the back and sides. They're then capped with bookmatched maple slabs and then "carved" or dished much like an LP top. Gibson's launch site for these in 2002 said that the top slabs and the back slab had sort of puzzle-piece protrusions & slots that helped connect the top to the centerblock for increased "tone coupling" (or something like that).
The CS-336 has the same general appointments as the 339: rosewood fretboard, nickel hardware, single-ply binding.
The CS-356 has the LP Custom style appointments: ebony board, fancy headstock, triple-ply binding, gold hardware.

All four guitars use Classic '57 pickups, but the ES ones use a different wiring scheme. All four are the same size/shape (substantially smaller than a 335, not much bigger/wider than an LP) and similar weights (usually between about 6.8 and 7.8 lbs, very balanced but lighter than a typical LP and most 335s). Neck profiles vary in hand made guitar necks, but all four have been made with both "60s" and "50s" sized necks.

It is said that perhaps the 339/359 has an "airier" sound slightly more 335-ish, while the 336/356 is capable of both a warm neck position and bright bridge position with knob twiddling, perhaps leaning a little in the LP direction on the 335-LP continuum. But these are, imho, very subtle differences... and of course generalizations. Individual guitars vary in sound, but the general character of all four of these is very similar, imho. To me, it's a very versatile design, and they all can do anything from jazz to blues to rock with ease.


And... if Gibson ever puts the 336, 356 and 339 back on their website along with the specs, I won't have to type this up every 5-6 weeks.

339 video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwmUpFWlGv4

video of the 339

the 339 is at home

the 339 is safe at home now. Wow, does it sound great! Now I know what a really good guitar can sound like. The tone is amazing. Now I realize that my epi dot is somewhat crude sounding -- cheaper pickups and lower grade wood, I suppose.

Pics and video links soon. I'll be raving about this guitar for weeks, I suppose. Plays like a dream, feels so comfortable. perfect perfect perfect.

this is The One.

recital video for post #200

here's link to the recital video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS-3IarKs2w

enjoy!

recital tonight

just got back from the recital. It went well. Tom thought we played well. I didn't screw up, mainly! I'll post a video soon.

breakthrough with "you shook me"

Finally! On the last day we're practicing it before the recital! I got the darn song right! (mostly right!). There was one note I was playing wrong, and it threw me off; my timing was messed up and it just didn't sound right. But I didn't catch it until today. Now I sound much better! NOT perfect (there are other timing problems I'm still working on), but at least this part is figured out!!

Also, tomorrow I will call back my contact on the 339. I hope he has good news. I've been thinking of a plan B if he can't get one. Anyhoo, let's wait and see what he says.

from blues to jazz

yes, I think the transformation is beginning. I plan on another year of blues, and then I want to move to jazz. It seems to fit my personality more than blues.

plans for the 339

plans to get the gibson 339 are underway. I've got the name of a contact. there should be a discount. maybe in a few weeks I"ll get it. We went to a GC yesterday to try out the two neck profiles, 50s and 60s. Very little difference, I think. I"ll go with either; the 50s style is more like my epi dot. The color is still red.

new loops and youtube

i'm using more of the loops on the fender g-dec jr. amp. the hip hop and shuffle loops are great for pentatonic scale improv. one or two others are pretty good too.

I'm putting more of my improvs on my youtube channel; it's my sketchbook of ideas, riffs, and the record of my playing.

blues jam

new youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/robfilmer?feature=mhw5

audio quality is adequate only!

great jam session and jazz tracks!

had a great jam session today; about 2 hours.

found out that i can improvise with jazz backing tracks with pentatonic scale! Wow, that opens up a whole new world. it works most of the time, except when the song changes key, but that's usually only a brief section. We'll see how it goes. But, jamming with jazz tracks.... that's great!

And my epi dot's tone is really well suited for jazz; better than for blues, actually, since I don't use any overdrive.

jazz!

current amp and guitar settings

for my current tone (good for jazz and blues!)

amp:

gain on 0

volume on 2

tone on 5

amp modeling: tweed 2/2

effect: reverb 3/4

guitar:

neck pickup only

volume on 10

tone on 8

2 more robert's riffs online

2 short robert's riffs were put online today. check 'em out!

http://www.youtube.com/user/robfilmer

play that guitar!

still playing the acoustic a lot. it's so portable, light, and easy. no plug in required. i sometimes bring the laptop to the kitchen so I can sit and play the acoustic with a blues backing track on youtube. of course when I play the epi dot it's immediately apparent that it's a significantly better sounding guitar. gain on zero and lots of reverb is the trick; plus the amp is modeling a fender tweed. and use the neck pickup only with tones on 5-7 on guitar and amp.

it's spring break week so i hope to get lots of practice.

when will i get a 339? summer time, maybe. no real rush. i like my epi dot.

i've been making more videos, too. check 'em out!

another thing i like to do is to use the amp's loop station to play a 12 bar blues while i play the acoustic. good times!

the yamaha is upstairs. two guitars at a time is about all I want, or have room for in my room.

if i did get a fender someday..... i like the idea of a thinline telecaster. semi-semi-hollowbody. i wanna play one at a music store again; it's been a while. it's possible i could end up with the thinline before the 339, or even instead of it. depends on another sound check to see it it's good enough unplugged. i got the fender case already. and i'm not afraid to use maple neck.

the line of telecasters has more variety than the strat line. more variations in pickups than strats.

i can handle both scale lengths, too.

acoustic is de-gluing itself!

yeah, this guitar is about 12 years old. Today I found that, at the base, the top is starting to separate from the sides. The separation is about an inch long, right at the middle. Probably the glue is starting to decay. It's still a narrow area of separation, but I suppose it will get worse. I doubt it can be re-glued very easily, or cheaply. More likely I'll get a new acoustic someday. But this little guy could hang on for a while -- a year or more. who knows? It still sounds OK -- it never sounded great anyway.

I will play it until it falls apart. Already the fretboard has numerous wear spots -- it's so cheap and not rosewood!

Well, i will keep on playing it!

the acoustic is back!

OK, so I put the Yamaha away -- I felt I didn't need two electrics in the room. Instead I took the old 3/4 size classical guitar I got in Japan in the late 90s from upstairs. I put it beside the computer desk and I'm using it to sketch, noodle around, browse and play. Good so far. Then today I (duh!) tried something new. Turned on my amp and got the loop track going, and boom! I'm jamming with my little classical guitar! It's fun, it sounds decent... it's like having a new guitar. I don't have to plug in or anything, just sit and jam.

Too bad it doesn't have the things for a strap. Makes me think of getting a folk guitar so I can stand and play.... well, no rush for that.

The little classical is a no namer I got in Japan for about a hundred bucks. It's tiny, but it stays in tune really well. Still using the original strings!

So, playing the blues on a 3/4 classical guitar..... today's update!

robert's riffs

http://www.youtube.com/user/robfilmer?feature=mhw4

Here's my utube channel, with my new playlist, robert's riffs. it's my sketchpad for little blues riffs, melodies, and other things I discover on the guitar. enjoy, and look for updates!

picks do make a difference!

Attention all guitar players....

OK, maybe you already knew this, but picks do make a difference in your tone! Today I bought some Dunlop 1 mm heavy picks, and wow! My tone sounds significantly better! Before I was using Fender medium picks. Also, these dunlops have a rough surface at the top grabbing area and are much more secure in holding. It feels great to use it! It's a more substantial feeling in the hand, with more heft. There's no bending of the pick, and the strings are hit straight on. It especially sounds better in the high strings. I get more volume and more depth out of them. and all for 40 cents each! How's that for a cheap tone improvement!

Also today I bought a new cable, one with a right angle jack for my epiphone dot. I'm electric again!

AND, i bought a portable folding music stand. I play standing up, so it really helps to have music stand for sheet music.

So think about your picks! Are you using the right one? Try some different ones. go heavy!

guitar cable broke!

yup, my cheapo 15 foot, 15 dollar guitar cable from Best Buy is on the fritz. It ain't working. Tried it with both guitars, and nada. The amp works, and I can get a little signal, but no music. So I gotta buy a new cable. this time I"ll get a good one!

ipod touch, amp, blues tracks interfaced!

Here's a cool thing I finally (duh!) figured out...

I use my ipod touch to get a blues backing track on youtube. i connect it to my amp (with that little 6 dollar cable from guitar center -- gotta have it!) and voila --- i've got tons of blues backing tracks to play along with.

i've gotten tired of the ONE blues loop on my fender g-dec jr. amp -- and now i have many to choose from, in all sorts of keys and styles.

I was gonna figure out garageband on the mac and make my own tracks, but now I don't have to. the ones are youtube are really nice! and in the future I can record this way, too.

playing the yamaha again

ok, i stopped playing the yamaha pacifica because the high tone of the single coil pickups got my ears ringing. i think i've found a solution. i drop the tone to zero on the guitar and the amp, and use the bridge humbucker pickup. that seems to help. so i have the tone at zero on both, and the gain at zero. the amp is still at tweed 2 and reverb 3. i will play it with this setup and see how it goes.

i'm still working on the You Shook Me song. it's an accurate transcription of the jimmy page part of the led zep song. in a sense it's kind of fragmentary, and not meant as a stand alone piece. it moves in and out of the melody --sometimes playing it, and sometimes not. it's a good technical exercise in various playing techniques, but it doesn't really stand by itself as a blues piece. i will learn it for the techniques.

this is part of the question of -- what is my goal? blues is mostly an ensemble form, or maybe a guy singing and playing guitar. i'm interested in solo instrumental stuff, and there's not much of that. This is where backing tracks come in for a lot of people. it's instrumental soloing -- useful if you're not in a band and don't sing.

airline guitar contest

just entered to win an airline guitar from Eastwood signed by david bowie. contest ends feb. 28. at guitar world. com

you shook me

the first song tom and i are working on is 'you shook me' from led zeppelin's first album. it's a willie dixon song, but we're doing the led version. it's a slow blues in E.

the tone i found

OK, so here's my tone:

guitar: volume on 10, tone on 10, neck pickup only

amp: gain 0

tone 10

Tweed 2 (mimics a fender tweed amp, a 2 out of 2)

effects: reverb 3 (0ut of 4)

volume controlled at the amp, around 2 or so.

it makes a nice rich sound, full and bluesy. no overdrive required!

one idea of blues tones

here's something from the Gibson forum discussing the es 339 and blues tone:

" I may be a one trick blues pony, but a good classic blues sound requires a good axe and amp (reverb, trem & speaker(s) to get the SOUL! ES-339 has that tone! Listen to Big Jack Johnson, Larry Garner, Eugene Hideaway Bridges, etc. to get the idea. All clean, no gain, and sustain. Solid bass, intense mids, and sweet highs. Alnico speakers with later breakup help. Soul blues is fat tone like Gospel."

so, like I'm thinking... no gain, but use of reverb instead. this guy from the forum says he is an old chicago blues player since the 60s.

my current search, since I've found my guitar, the 339, is the search for a good blues tone that doesn't set my ears ringing.

3 more guitar contests

2 contests at ultimate guitar.com:

1: an aristides 010 guitar; contest ends feb. 1

2: a Schechter guitar (Seek Irony band and ulti.com); contest ends Feb. 6

another contest for a daisy rock guitar from Allison Iraheta website; contest ends feb. 3; jfk dob.

tone and hearing

OK, 2 things:

I'm searching for a new tone for my epiphone dot. you know, the "sound" you want to produce from your guitar/amp rig. What motivates this for me is that during the break I got a nice slightly overdriven sound from the yamaha using the neck pickup. It sounded great. But also, it touched a sensitive spot in my hearing, in my tinnitus. That scared me, so I dialed back on the overdrive -- it's the high tones that bother my ears. So, not having overdrive as an option got me to search for a replacement tone. I have to get a good sound playing the blues, with no overdrive.

One change that helps is the neck pickup -- I use it only and not the bridge. That cuts back on high tones. But to replace the nice crunch of overdrive I've gotta find something else. I'm messing with reverb, adding as much as I can to thicken up the tone.

Today I put the amp on the "hot rod" setting that mimics fender blues amps. it sounded great, but once again my ears are ringing a little. And a little is just too much for me -- I"m very touchy about worsening the ringing in my ears.

I'm sure I'll never play in a band -- too risky! Or maybe with ear plugs.

So now I gotta go back to my previous amp setting, tweed (which mimics another line of fender amps). I can increase the reverb to fatten up the sound, but it's still not to my liking. my other effects are chorus, delay, flange, tremelo, and nothing. the other amp settings range from acoustic to heavy metal, and generally are in a scale of least to most overdrive, but with other subtle differences too.

my tinnitus is moderate, and usually doesn't bother me in the daytime. At night I use a little white noise beside the bed and that's all I need. But I gotta protect my hearing so it won't get worse.

Today was a disappointment -- I got some ringing even with no overdrive. I've got the gain at zero, effects at reverb, and amp at hot rod. But somehow it touched a sensitive spot.

I hope that with the es-339 I"ll get a better sound than with my dot -- otherwise what's the point?

Should I go acoustic? Frankly, acoustic guitars seem boring to me. At most I'd play a hollowbody electric -- something with pickups and electric guitar strings! I remember acoustic steel strings -- they hurt! With a full hollowbody I could keep the amp low.

Should I see an audiologist?

One thing I"m gonna try is a suggestion from an online article -- try different picks. It said that jazz guitarists typically use heavier picks for a mellower sound. I'm gonna try that. Now I use Fender medium picks. I"m gonna try the heavy gauge.

bc rich shredder git contest

just entered a contest at ultimate guitar.com to win a b.c. rich shredder guitar signed by the slayer band. contest ends feb. 6. jfk dob, if it asked for it.

strat contest from ulti git and etc.

entered a contest to win a standard strat hss from ultimate guitar and full sail university. contest ends feb. 8. jfk dob.

new strat is 800 bucks

the new american special strat is 800 bucks, putting it between the highway one and the american standard. so sometime in the future i'll aim for the highway one.

i'm still getting an es 339. the strat will be a secondary guitar. why not have both??? !!

hardshell case arrived today!

finally, the hardshell case for the epiphone dot arrived. it's perfect! I got it from same day music dot com. they shipped it monday and it arrived today, wednesday. in perfect shape, except for one minor scuff. it's also the new version of the case. the dot fits quite well, and the case is well constructed. now i can take the guitar places -- take it to school and elsewhere.

hooray!

also in the news, fender is coming out with a line called "american special" -- supposed to be a budget line of strats and teles made in america. don't know the prices, but my guess is that they'll be cheaper than the 700 dollar highway ones. the mexican strats are 500 bucks, so maybe their price will go down and the new line will be around 500. the mexi strats might be in the 350-500 line. gotta wait and see!

john mayer stratocaster contest

a contest from guitar world.com to win an autographed john mayer strat and a fender princeton amp. contest ends feb. 12. office phone.

epiphone bass contest

oh yeah, today i entered a contest to win an epiphone firebird bass; contest ends jan. 31. just email given. i don't care much for basses, but what the heck!

yamaha is sounding good

I've got a great tone on my yamaha pacifica..... I use only the neck pickup, with a little reverb in the fender amp.... plus the right gain and tone. It has that necky sound I like... hard to describe... I guess more of a jazzy bluesy sound with a little overdrive roughness. I tend toward the neck pickup. The bridge pickup puts out a lot of high piercing tones that hurt my ears, so I gotta stay away from it.

I'm trying to get a good sound with the Epi Dot, but I'm not satisfied yet. Oh yeah, the crucial part of the Yamaha sound is that I raised up the neck pickup, got it closer to the strings. That helped a great deal. So I gotta try that with the epi dot.

also, yesterday i ordered the epi dot hardshell case from same day music. it might arrive by friday. I've been waiting since october for a case! It should be the new design, but even if it's the old one I don't care. just gotta have a case so that I can take it to school for guitar lesson.

jan. 1 contest

entered a contest at epiphone to win one of 10 wilshire guitars. contest ends march 10. jfk dob and office phone.