13 years ago
Showing posts with label guitars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guitars. Show all posts
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Strings on Fire update
I was pleased to see I made the first cut in the Strings on Firecontest. Like I've said before, I don't take these contests seriously in the competitive sense and certainly don't consider myself a state-of-the-art shredder, but it feels nice anyway. Cool.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Firebird Strings On Fire
Another take of the Strings On Fire track (see previous entry) playing what else? The mighty Gibson Firebird V... there's nothing else like it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXXr4d7SgBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXXr4d7SgBE
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Strings On Fire
Here's another video for Truth In Shredding. I don't take the contest aspect of it too seriously, but enjoy the challenge of playing over the unfamiliar. Kind of rough & tumble... I just got home from a bar gig and decided to give it a shot before the deadline, so in just under the wire. If it wasn't for the last minute nothing would get done. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf8Q32t_h7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf8Q32t_h7w
Monday, August 31, 2009
Shred this...
I made this video for Truth in Shredding which is a guitar-centric web site run by a fellow named Laurie Monk. It's for a guitar contest called "Shred this..." where a bunch of guys (and girls) play over a simple backing track and strut their stuff. The winner gets some kind of prize and bragging rights... maybe even a trophy!? lol ;) Actually, it's really mostly about networking, but it's a fun idea anyway.
I've never entered a talent contest before for a plethora of reasons... so I looked at it as more of a challenge than a competition. Being involved with a community of guitarists seemed like a nice idea and I thought 'well, if I'm so cool I should be able to do this'... I also thought it would be a good way to launch my new youtube channel, or at least have something up on it for now anyway (youtube.com/billberends), so here it is, shred this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMroSLqbxd4
My real goal was to see if I could make some kind of video with the limited means available to me... i/e no video camera, so I rigged up a webcam and gave it a go. Some of the other entries are obviously overdubbed or punched in and that's not *truth* in shredding as I see it, but I don't think there are actually any rules. I just plugged into my little Fender Champ and played straight thru, so it is what it is... me & my guitar in the wee hours, a little buzzed, and tired of dicking around with computers. But I had to make the deadline! Yes, I'm something of a slacker... if it wasn't for the last minute nothing would get done.
As for shredding... I never really liked that term but have come to accept it in the vernacular. There are some interesting entries from what I've seen, then a slew of Satri-vai-howe type stuff. Pretty much what I think of when I hear the word shredding. I prefer a more natural stream of consciousness 'I-don't-practice-scales-all-day' kind of playing and was never big on two hand tapping, or what Frank Zappa referred to as "stunt guitar". I also like a more natural guitar sound with just a bit of tube grit and a touch of reverb. I just play a guitar like it was originally meant to be played... old skool. It is interesting to note I didn't see many other Gibson players. Mostly Ibanez & Strats.
Anyway, it's a cool website with lots of guitar info, news, links, and players. The Shred This Competition is a good clean fun way to draw some attention to the site, so check it out.
ps1: Bb at the end of the video refers to the key of B-flat, *not* a guitar friendly key. That might explain the dodgy bits. :P
ps2: thanks to Cheryl the flute mistress for inspiring the webcam idea and posting often enough to get me off my butt.
ps3: if anyone wants to donate a digital video camera you'd see a lot more video from me! Seriously... just a thought. :)
I've never entered a talent contest before for a plethora of reasons... so I looked at it as more of a challenge than a competition. Being involved with a community of guitarists seemed like a nice idea and I thought 'well, if I'm so cool I should be able to do this'... I also thought it would be a good way to launch my new youtube channel, or at least have something up on it for now anyway (youtube.com/billberends), so here it is, shred this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMroSLqbxd4
My real goal was to see if I could make some kind of video with the limited means available to me... i/e no video camera, so I rigged up a webcam and gave it a go. Some of the other entries are obviously overdubbed or punched in and that's not *truth* in shredding as I see it, but I don't think there are actually any rules. I just plugged into my little Fender Champ and played straight thru, so it is what it is... me & my guitar in the wee hours, a little buzzed, and tired of dicking around with computers. But I had to make the deadline! Yes, I'm something of a slacker... if it wasn't for the last minute nothing would get done.
As for shredding... I never really liked that term but have come to accept it in the vernacular. There are some interesting entries from what I've seen, then a slew of Satri-vai-howe type stuff. Pretty much what I think of when I hear the word shredding. I prefer a more natural stream of consciousness 'I-don't-practice-scales-all-day' kind of playing and was never big on two hand tapping, or what Frank Zappa referred to as "stunt guitar". I also like a more natural guitar sound with just a bit of tube grit and a touch of reverb. I just play a guitar like it was originally meant to be played... old skool. It is interesting to note I didn't see many other Gibson players. Mostly Ibanez & Strats.
Anyway, it's a cool website with lots of guitar info, news, links, and players. The Shred This Competition is a good clean fun way to draw some attention to the site, so check it out.
ps1: Bb at the end of the video refers to the key of B-flat, *not* a guitar friendly key. That might explain the dodgy bits. :P
ps2: thanks to Cheryl the flute mistress for inspiring the webcam idea and posting often enough to get me off my butt.
ps3: if anyone wants to donate a digital video camera you'd see a lot more video from me! Seriously... just a thought. :)
Saturday, June 13, 2009
It's that time of year again
Truss rod adjustment time. It comes around twice a year in the Spring and Fall. Now the rainy season has been upon us for a few weeks the effects are starting to appear. I first noticed my long scale bass buzzing around the lower frets. Next, the Firebird was buzzing on the open D string and first fret. No coincidence as these two have the longest, slimmest necks of all my instruments. I haven't played either for a little while so the change seemed to come on somewhat dramatically. Huh?! WTF? Oh right... it's been raining for two weeks. I learned to recognized this effect early on in my guitar playing career, but it is still a pain in the butt if you pick up a guitar to play and there's a bzzzzz that wasn't there a few days ago.
The reason for this is humidity of course. As it becomes consistently higher like it does near the Jersey shore (oppressively humid in the warm season), the wood in the neck and fingerboard begins to swell giving the neck a slight backward bow causing the strings to lengthen and lower. On my instruments with beefier 50's style necks like the SG Special and Melody Maker, the effect is less immediate. Even though my old '68 SG has quite a narrow neck, it is not as shallow as the slim 60's profile of the Firebird, so it may not need adjustment for a while. Haven't played the 335 in a week or so, but I'm sure it will be affected soon being a slim 60's profile.
To the seasoned player all this surely comes as no surprise, but for the less experienced, you may just pick up your axe one day and go "huh? It played fine yesterday, wtf?" If your action is high you may never experience string buzzing, but it will affect your intonation regardless of the action. Since Gibson guitars have mahogany necks they may be more sensitive to humidity than hard maple necks which have tighter grain, thwarting humidity more effectively (I would imagine, you'd have to ask a Fender player).
For some, making a truss rod adjustment themselves is unthinkable and prefer to take their axe to a pro for an adjustment. It really isn't that difficult! If you're even slightly serious about playing, you should learn this stuff. Also, when the truss rod is adjusted, quite often you'll need to tweak your bridge height and intonation as well. Although you would think in theory if the neck is tweaked back into position, the rest would fall back into place, that's not always the case. These adjustments are simple as well once you know how to do them. I would love to have a full time guitar tech to deal with this stuff, but not being the case I have always done all my own guitar work.
To offer some advice from my experience, just be careful and go slowly. It often takes 12 to 24 hours for a truss rod tweak to take effect, so don't over do it! I usually find a quarter turn of the nut is enough, but on newer guitars which seem more susceptible to humidity changes, you may need a full half turn. But do it in two stages to be sure you don't go too far... quarter turn looser, maybe another quarter turn the next day if need be.
If you are traveling or use your guitar in a lot of different places, sometimes you need to adjust more often. For years I just left the truss rod cover off of my SG and tweaked it as often as needed... but that is ugly I suppose and I've become more conscious of that in these times of vintage guitars and their 'purity' lol... be careful not to lose the little cover screws, they're a pain in the butt to find on the carpet and a hassle to get proper replacements.
On a side note, Gibson guitars are a joy to adjust with a full size nut on the truss rod end. Asian imports (and Fenders) have allen key adjustments which are a royal pain... firstly, just finding the proper size allen wrench is a challenge (since different brands use different sizes) and, they are very easy to strip out. If your truss rod nut is really tight, chances are a steel wrench will easily strip out the soft brass bolt rendering it useless. Nightmare! Gibson TR nuts have greater surface area for a socket to grasp, sockets are more readily available in the average tool kit than metric allen keys (tho' you should carry one with your guitar), so yet another reason for my Gibson preference (Orville Gibson invented the truss rod FYI).
To wrap this up, obviously in the Fall the opposite is true. As things dry out and your guitars are living in a drier, heated environment, the wood shrinks and you need to tighten the truss rod as the neck begins its bow forward. The symptoms of this are higher action and the intonation going out. Back to tweaking, I have recordings to make!
Remember: righty tighty (Fall), lefty loosey (Spring)
The reason for this is humidity of course. As it becomes consistently higher like it does near the Jersey shore (oppressively humid in the warm season), the wood in the neck and fingerboard begins to swell giving the neck a slight backward bow causing the strings to lengthen and lower. On my instruments with beefier 50's style necks like the SG Special and Melody Maker, the effect is less immediate. Even though my old '68 SG has quite a narrow neck, it is not as shallow as the slim 60's profile of the Firebird, so it may not need adjustment for a while. Haven't played the 335 in a week or so, but I'm sure it will be affected soon being a slim 60's profile.
To the seasoned player all this surely comes as no surprise, but for the less experienced, you may just pick up your axe one day and go "huh? It played fine yesterday, wtf?" If your action is high you may never experience string buzzing, but it will affect your intonation regardless of the action. Since Gibson guitars have mahogany necks they may be more sensitive to humidity than hard maple necks which have tighter grain, thwarting humidity more effectively (I would imagine, you'd have to ask a Fender player).
For some, making a truss rod adjustment themselves is unthinkable and prefer to take their axe to a pro for an adjustment. It really isn't that difficult! If you're even slightly serious about playing, you should learn this stuff. Also, when the truss rod is adjusted, quite often you'll need to tweak your bridge height and intonation as well. Although you would think in theory if the neck is tweaked back into position, the rest would fall back into place, that's not always the case. These adjustments are simple as well once you know how to do them. I would love to have a full time guitar tech to deal with this stuff, but not being the case I have always done all my own guitar work.
To offer some advice from my experience, just be careful and go slowly. It often takes 12 to 24 hours for a truss rod tweak to take effect, so don't over do it! I usually find a quarter turn of the nut is enough, but on newer guitars which seem more susceptible to humidity changes, you may need a full half turn. But do it in two stages to be sure you don't go too far... quarter turn looser, maybe another quarter turn the next day if need be.
If you are traveling or use your guitar in a lot of different places, sometimes you need to adjust more often. For years I just left the truss rod cover off of my SG and tweaked it as often as needed... but that is ugly I suppose and I've become more conscious of that in these times of vintage guitars and their 'purity' lol... be careful not to lose the little cover screws, they're a pain in the butt to find on the carpet and a hassle to get proper replacements.
On a side note, Gibson guitars are a joy to adjust with a full size nut on the truss rod end. Asian imports (and Fenders) have allen key adjustments which are a royal pain... firstly, just finding the proper size allen wrench is a challenge (since different brands use different sizes) and, they are very easy to strip out. If your truss rod nut is really tight, chances are a steel wrench will easily strip out the soft brass bolt rendering it useless. Nightmare! Gibson TR nuts have greater surface area for a socket to grasp, sockets are more readily available in the average tool kit than metric allen keys (tho' you should carry one with your guitar), so yet another reason for my Gibson preference (Orville Gibson invented the truss rod FYI).
To wrap this up, obviously in the Fall the opposite is true. As things dry out and your guitars are living in a drier, heated environment, the wood shrinks and you need to tighten the truss rod as the neck begins its bow forward. The symptoms of this are higher action and the intonation going out. Back to tweaking, I have recordings to make!
Remember: righty tighty (Fall), lefty loosey (Spring)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Gibson prices part 2
hey I just read that Gibson has lowered the prices of new SG's big time! Seems they priced themselves right out of the marketplace so they're now about 28% lower. I guess they read my blog! Greedy bastards. ;) So, in turn, hopefully used prices will drop as well. Good news for real musicians... Gibson SG new prices
Sunday, April 19, 2009
New Gibson prices
It's no secret I am a fan of Gibson guitars both old and new, but the retail prices of new Gibson's has finally entered the realm of the totally ridiculous. $899 for a new faded SG special? Get real... I got a sweet deal on mine in '06 from a buddy at Guitar Center and paid $450 for it new which I thought was semi-reasonable. The actual GC price at the time was $579 in a gig bag which even then I thought was pretty high for an instrument with a five piece body.
Since I don't like new Gibson cases I picked up a vintage 1970 Gibson case on Craigslist for $80 which was a steal. I prefer the slim profile of the old cases and hate cases that balloon out at the headstock, it just looks so goofy. I figured out why it was so cheap tho' when I got it home, it stunk of mildew and I had to rip out all the cloth and reupholster it. Did a great job if I do say so myself. Anyway...
I wanted an SG I could bang around at gigs and not worry about like I do with my '68. The faded is a nice guitar, it really is! But to get it to sound decent I had to swap the pickups for '57 Classics (another $100 on ebay) and I put Grovers on so I have about $600 into it. Now I wish I had sprung for the Standard as I am really missing binding & inlays. Out of curiosity I started poking around and found new SG Standards (still with shite 490/498 pups) have shot up to $1,649!!! Geez.
On the flip side of the coin, it seems used prices aren't climbing as fast... probably because nobody has any money to spend, but I fear getting a guitar off ebay sight unseen. Gibson QC is notoriously inconsistent and quite a few newer SG's I've played had necks like baseball bats. Real clunkers. Not to mention dealing with people on ebay. So I will keep an eye open for a deal. I doubt I can get more than $550 for the special - I am holding on to the case - but I see them go for $500-$550 all the time w/ the Gibson HSC.
BTW my original SG Standard cost $225 w/case back in 1968 so the dollar is worth roughly 15% of what is was back then. Even so, this inflation calculator shows the new price should be about $1,375. The funny (sad) thing is, if I want a new SG closer to my old one I'd have to go for the '61 reissue which costs $1,999... so it may be a while.
Since I don't like new Gibson cases I picked up a vintage 1970 Gibson case on Craigslist for $80 which was a steal. I prefer the slim profile of the old cases and hate cases that balloon out at the headstock, it just looks so goofy. I figured out why it was so cheap tho' when I got it home, it stunk of mildew and I had to rip out all the cloth and reupholster it. Did a great job if I do say so myself. Anyway...
I wanted an SG I could bang around at gigs and not worry about like I do with my '68. The faded is a nice guitar, it really is! But to get it to sound decent I had to swap the pickups for '57 Classics (another $100 on ebay) and I put Grovers on so I have about $600 into it. Now I wish I had sprung for the Standard as I am really missing binding & inlays. Out of curiosity I started poking around and found new SG Standards (still with shite 490/498 pups) have shot up to $1,649!!! Geez.
On the flip side of the coin, it seems used prices aren't climbing as fast... probably because nobody has any money to spend, but I fear getting a guitar off ebay sight unseen. Gibson QC is notoriously inconsistent and quite a few newer SG's I've played had necks like baseball bats. Real clunkers. Not to mention dealing with people on ebay. So I will keep an eye open for a deal. I doubt I can get more than $550 for the special - I am holding on to the case - but I see them go for $500-$550 all the time w/ the Gibson HSC.
BTW my original SG Standard cost $225 w/case back in 1968 so the dollar is worth roughly 15% of what is was back then. Even so, this inflation calculator shows the new price should be about $1,375. The funny (sad) thing is, if I want a new SG closer to my old one I'd have to go for the '61 reissue which costs $1,999... so it may be a while.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Three Les Pauls
I've never been a fan of the Les Paul guitar... not that I don't love the sound, I do. Several of my all time favorite guitar recordings were made with Les Pauls!* I just never liked the feel of them... too heavy, oddly balanced, awkward to play sitting down, tough to play the upper register, pickup switch too far out of the way. It just wasn't me. Plus the image of Jimmy Page playing one down around his knees always annoyed the crap out of me... but I digress. I am not alone in shying away from the Les Paul, the line was discontinued a few years after it was introduced due to lack of sales and the SG was introduced to address all the above issues. But then in 1966 Eric Clapton played one on the Bluesbreaker's "Beano" album and their popularity exploded. That album was the defining moment of the Gibson/Marshall sound... and that Gibson was a Les Paul. Even so, I never wanted one.
Tonight a friend who is something of a guitar trader brought over three Les Pauls for me to check out, a Waren Haines signature model, a custom shop '58 reissue, and the 50th Anniversary model. He also brought over a nice little Fargen 2x12 amp. I played them all at various levels though both the Fargen & my JCM800 Marshall, carefully A-B'ing one against the other in different registers and volume settings, occasionally picking up the SG, 335 or Firebird to mix it up, switching amps etc, and I gotta say I really do like the sound of them. The Warren Haines model was my favorite, perhaps because it was loaded with WCR pickups, I'm not really sure. It sounded best when the little pre-amp inside was bypassed and I would describe the sound as being more detailed than the others, bright & clear yet full at the same time. The pre-amp seemed to kill the detail.
The 50th Anniversary was my next favorite, with Burstbuckers it was bright & clear but not quite as full sounding. The '58 reissue didn't have the clear voice of the other two and was a bit midrangy although they all had a basic similar sonic quality. It may be the pickup differences, I don't know. The WCR pickups seem to have something special going on. In conclusion I have to say I still don't like the feel of them for all the reasons I listed above (not to mention being ridiculously over-priced) but damn, they sure sound sweet. Maybe there will be a Les Paul in my future at some point. Yeah I think I could deal with that. Santa are you listening?
* Favorite Les Paul recordings:
Beano, Fresh Cream, The Inner Mounting Flame
Tonight a friend who is something of a guitar trader brought over three Les Pauls for me to check out, a Waren Haines signature model, a custom shop '58 reissue, and the 50th Anniversary model. He also brought over a nice little Fargen 2x12 amp. I played them all at various levels though both the Fargen & my JCM800 Marshall, carefully A-B'ing one against the other in different registers and volume settings, occasionally picking up the SG, 335 or Firebird to mix it up, switching amps etc, and I gotta say I really do like the sound of them. The Warren Haines model was my favorite, perhaps because it was loaded with WCR pickups, I'm not really sure. It sounded best when the little pre-amp inside was bypassed and I would describe the sound as being more detailed than the others, bright & clear yet full at the same time. The pre-amp seemed to kill the detail.
The 50th Anniversary was my next favorite, with Burstbuckers it was bright & clear but not quite as full sounding. The '58 reissue didn't have the clear voice of the other two and was a bit midrangy although they all had a basic similar sonic quality. It may be the pickup differences, I don't know. The WCR pickups seem to have something special going on. In conclusion I have to say I still don't like the feel of them for all the reasons I listed above (not to mention being ridiculously over-priced) but damn, they sure sound sweet. Maybe there will be a Les Paul in my future at some point. Yeah I think I could deal with that. Santa are you listening?
* Favorite Les Paul recordings:
Beano, Fresh Cream, The Inner Mounting Flame
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