15 bucks from guitar center

so GC gave me a 15 dollar gift card. cool! I bought two sets of ernie ball strints, 9s and 10s, and a 12 pack of my favorite dunlop nylon .73 mm picks. thanks, gc!

it was part of their big weekend presidents sale. our GC here didn't have any amazing guitar deals, just the usual stuff. fenders were 15 % off and gibsons were 10% for 2 hours this morning, but their on site stock wasn't very great.

anyhoo, i don't need any more guitars, right? who needs more than one? i've got two great ones, so i'm holding back the GAS for as long as possible. a year or two. and really, do i need more? don't they just sit there and gather dust? I'm not a pro, i'm a home player. my vg strat and gibson cover a lot of sonic territory. what else do i need? nothing really.

ok, stay strong!

clean strat sound

so now that I'm into my strat lately, I've developed a sense of the tone I like. Distortion is bad for my ears, so it's a very clean Fender sound I'm after. After fiddling around with my amp I've settled on the Jazz setting, which emulates an Fender Jazz King amp, and medium reverb. I have the tone somewhat more than half, so around 6 or 7 on the amp, and maybe 7 or 8 on the guitar. I minimize gain and max out the volume on the amp -- that gives the volume I want with the least gain.

This gives me a great clean Fender sound. I use the bridge and middle pickup, and I get a good fender "quack" or "spank" in the tone. Overall I hear it as a sort of 50's tone, before distortion took over -- maybe a Buddy Holly strat sound. I like it -- it has that 50s retro-future feeling in it -- just like the design of the strat has those 50s curves. It's a sound a Gibson can't mimic. My gibby gives me another great tone that the Fender can't do.

Too bad my recording equipment can't do it justice on youtube.

Certainly the amp matter quite a bit. The other settings on my amp can create an entirely different clean tone. I like the jazz clean tone, with more tone than a jazz guitar might use.

a secret of nightclub blues

so, I've wondered why I couldn't sound like some of the blues guitarists I listen to. I call this genre nightclub blues: BB King, Son Seals, Luther Allison, etc. There was something in their songs I just couldn't seem to imitate, even at a lower, beginner's level. I had my 7th chords and the minor and major pentatonic scales, but it wasn't the same. Adding the major pent certainly helped to sound more like BB King, but still I wasn't there. So in this week's lesson I asked my guitar teacher about minor blues (among other things we discussed). He played a I-IV-V in minor 7ths, and there it was. I played minor pent over those chords and I got that "nigthclub blues" sound -- more mournful, more soulful. That's what I was missing. It was the rhythm guitar, not the lead.

so of course now I'm working every day with minor 7ths and trying to put together some rhythm/lead switching so I can approximate it in one guitar.

Rhythm guitar is so important in blues, I'm finding out. It's equal with the lead in many ways. the lead by itself is sort of out there, somewhat skeletal. It needs the muscles and bulk of the rhythm to play against, for color. that's why you gotta learn about minor 7ths, power chords (5ths), 6ths, 9ths, etc. The same lead played over these various chords will create different songs.

another reason i like my strat

so, another reason i like my strat is the scale length as a challenge. if i can play it in 25.5, then it will be easier in 24.75. simple. so far the 25.5 doesn't pose any problems; i've outgrown my earlier dislike of it. Now I can reach better, my hands are stretched out more, etc.

tone: strat vs. 339

the strat tone is metallic. i use the bridge and middle pickup, and it's got a good "quack" to it. i like the metallic quality of the strat tone -- it sounds like a 50's tone, again the retro-futuristic mood like in the body design of the guitar. the tone is metallic, sharper.

the 339 tone is, as i said before, rich, thick, creamy, woody, deep.

i like both tones. both are great blues tones -- just depends which flavor of blues you want at the time.

here's my latest video:

latest video

here's the description:

some riffs using 5th chords in E. bluesy stuff like zz top or something. i like 5th chords. they are a nice change from 7th chords. and i'm liking my strat tone!

why I'm a strat rat again

surprising to me, but I've really gotten to like my vg strat. OK, so here's why I play it more often than my Gibson:

1. It's tough. The 339 is a beautiful instrument, and has a better tone than my strat. But it's a little bit delicate! I can't casually put it down on the couch or bed and run off to do something and then come back. It has a few minor dings on the side from me bumping into furniture. The strat is built like a tank. I just feel more comfortable playing around the house with it.
2. 9 gauge strings. I like the feel of 9's on the strat. the 339 has standard 10's, which I also like, but for string bending 9's are just great. To put 9's on the 339 would take a trip to the tech guy for a new set up, and I don't wanna do that.
3. maple fretboard. crazy, 'cause I never thought much of maple boards before, but I've come to really like it. Visually it makes the strings very easy to see.

OK, here's what makes the 339 a better guitar:

1. Tone. It sounds so amazing. Creamy, woody, with depth. It sounds like I think an electric guitar, semi-hollow, should sound like. Something like an electrified acoustic with more sustain and a rich creamy tone. And really, we're trying to make music here. These guitars are made to make beautiful sounds. Gibby wins the tone award.
2. Ease of playing. The Gibson scale length is just easier and more comfortable to play with. The fender 25.5 is something to be dealt with, but I don't find it the most comfortable. Whatever I play on the strat is easier on my hands when I switch to the 339.
3. Style. I like how the 339 looks. Classic semi-hollow, but a little smaller -- best of both worlds. The strat has a cool 50's retro-futuristic look, but it's also very very common. Also, my strat is black with a white pickguard and a maple neck. Not a fan of black guitars. the 339 is beautiful antique red.

So there we go. 3 points for each. I still play the Gibson almost every day, and I like to record with it. but I must admit most of my guitar hours are with the Fender. comments, anyone?