Baritone Guitar: How to Transpose on the Fly

Posted on January 9, 2022 by Tom

To transpose on the fly with a baritone, knowing a little music theory goes a long way. This is different than slapping on a capo or imagining your guitar with a capo that can lower the notes, all of the notes are in different places. Even tuning takes on a slightly different meaning. Let me explain.

The Gretsch G5260 baritone guitar

If you’ve never even heard of a baritone guitar, let me recommend a couple of players for you: Mark Lettieri and Joe Bonamassa. There are many others but those are the two I’m grooving to these days.

Tuning

First things first, right? My baritone is tuned down to B as if you were starting from the B string and continuing from there. That would work out to B-E-A-D-G-B. However, that messes up the tuning such that simple chord shapes like C, no longer play correctly. Remember that your tuning from the frets goes 5-5-5-4-5, This results in a tuning like this: B-E-A-D-F#-B. If you use a tuner, like I do, that F# is a critical detail. Now, when you play an E chord, you are actually playing B. That is, the E chord shape in the first position results in a B chord – B-Eb-Gb. Playing the C chord shape results in the G chord.

From here, we are going to get into a bit of theory. A little goes a long way and you can get more from a previous post (Why Learn Music Theory? I Play By Ear!) and for still more, hit my course on Basic Theory for Guitar.

Getting familiar

After getting the tuning straight, take care to notice where the notes are positioned. If you have been playing for some time, you should have the notes mapped from the nut to the fifth fret. Just looking at the roots of your chords will get you familiar with the bass strings. The rest should be easy to fill in just from tuning and knowing how scales work.

That low B string now follows the same pattern you know from the high B sting: B-C-C#-D-D#-E. From there, you know an E shape gives you the B chord. The next fret up would normally give you F but now it is C. The third fret will give you D and so on.

Transposing on the fly

You might be seeing how this going to go already. When I look at the neck and have the map of the notes in mind, transposing on the fly becomes easy. For example, the notes on the strings follow the same pattern as before:

Using the frets, we have 0, 1, #2, 3, #4, 5 on the 6th and first strings. On a standard tuned guitar, that would be E-F-F#-G-G#-A.

On the baritone, we now have: B-C-C#-D-D#-E

Armed with that knowledge and the CAGED system, we can derive our chords. Giving the shape then the equivalent chord in first position (i.e. your cowboy chords) look like this

  • C becomes G
  • A becomes E
  • G becomes D
  • E becomes B
  • D becomes A

The trick is to remember what the bass or root note is when you fret the shapes. For example, when you put your fingers on what would normally be C, the root note your third/ring finger rests on is actually G. That gives you the G chord on the baritone. Add the fifth for the root which would normally be C/G, you get G/D. That low-low D note fills the bottom out rather nicely. A bit of earthquake timbre added to your tone!

What else can you transpose on the fly?

As you transpose, remember to add in the bass note transitions for some real grumble and thunder in your playing. Now you can go from E to C# with some serious authority. Dropping from D to B (bass notes: D – C# – B) or even simply going from D to A/C# is easier than on a standard tuned guitar. What was once a stretch to the fourth fret is now right in reach on the third fret.

That should get you primed for your own baritone adventures! Typically at church, we have a three song set right at the start. There is no time for changing guitars; so, the choice needs to be made early and practiced to get familiar with the new layout. Baritones are not very expensive and may be worth looking into for your own arsenal. Let this be your primer!

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The Magic of Practice: How to Super-Charge Your Progress

Posted on July 2, 2021 by Tom

Practice is the way to get better, nobody doubts this and everyone pushes it in one form or another. I was thinking about this as I sat through a series of mediocre players at a local open mike night. I wrote about this in my last post, Going Live: How to Make Open Mike Memories. In case you are thinking, “Well, you may not have been any better” here’s my performance: Open Mike Won’t Get Fooled Again. You decide for yourself. By the way, that’s my wife playing guitar on the far side of the singer, Jordan Evans. I taught her and you can see how easy and relaxed she is on the stage, no music stand, smiling. Again, you decide.

Open mike performance
My wife and I performing at a local outdoor open mike event.

I take my own advice – no music stand, my own cables, practiced. My wife also. She is not going to take the guitar world by storm but she is competent enough to have handled herself capably on a stage. Yeah, we made mistakes and you can hear them if you listen and watch carefully but it didn’t fluster us. Again, I take my own advice and play through the mistakes. How did we get to this point? Let me tell you and it’s more than “just practice”…

The Keys to Practice

As I have written about before, Guitar Practice Makes Perfect, you must get the fundamentals down but there is much more to it. What makes a solid player into one that is entertaining and engaging? There are plenty who can play well but seem uncomfortable and even awkward when they perform. Many do not seem to be able to “get off the page”, that is, play without written music in front of them. I’ve seen this with even people playing their own originals. Here are the keys:

  • Play songs repeatedly
  • Play often
  • Learn to play through mistakes and distractions
  • Learn to get off the page
  • Get a routine going

Practice Songs Repeatedly

Preparing for a performance such as an open mike requires you to be so familiar with your music it can’t help but pop out of you when you strap on your guitar. I mentioned being able to play a song in your sleep in a previous post. That’s bears repeating! We went through the songs for the open mike performance three or more times in a practice session before moving on to the next one. In my band days, I would go over and over the music until I needed a break. I loved it and found it hard to stop many times! Two hours later I’m wondering where the time went!

Once you get comfortable with a song and don’t need to put in so much time on the one, add your next song and use the previous one for warm-up. As you build a repertoire, begin to select songs that help you build up to more difficult ones gradually. Starting out with a tough song will not give your muscles time to limber up and can lead to injuries and muscle pain. Let’s keep it enjoyable!

Practice Often

This can be a challenge for those of us with families and full time occupations. Just like getting exercise, you need to make time everyday if you can. Try at least 20 minutes with longer sessions when it is more convenient. Getting your hands working often pays great dividends in increased strength and dexterity. Adam Neely mentions musicians as athletes of the fine motor muscles in one of his videos (unfortunately, I cannot remember which video).

I found that committing to playing for church forces me to play a few times a week at the very least. You may not be a church-goer and balk at this idea but you may need something to prepare for to get you playing often enough. My wife has this issue. She needs something to prepare for in order to put the pressure on her to practice. Hence, the open mike was instrumental in her recent practice regimen.

You may have heard that it take 10,000 hours to master a skill (more or less, but it takes time). How do you get that many hours? Commit to something and prepare for it! The hours will actually fly by before you know it and you will steadily improve. A year from now you will be saying, “Why did I think that was so hard?”

Mistakes and Distractions

In my opinion, mistakes are distractions. They get me off my train of thought and down the rabbit trail of how I could have avoided that or made it better. It is a skill to be able to recover gracefully and not wreck the train. I suggest you let the kids wander in, the dog to jump on you, the leaf to fall without missing a beat in your song. Arlo Guthrie played Alice’s Restaurant all the while telling a story about how the lyrics came to be, sort of. Get that familiar.

I was at a friend’s house one time when his children were small and still running around the house. I picked up his guitar and played a couple songs all the while interacting with the kids at key points as if I was singing the song to them specifically. They were amazed at how I was able to keep the song moving and say things directly to them without stopping. That takes practice and learning to play through anything.

Getting Off the Page

If you are willing to put the time in, work to play without sheet music. A couple of pointers here, though:

  1. You will get to a point where you expect certain chords or notes to follow each other and that will make it easier.
  2. A little music theory goes a long way.

Your ear will improve and soon the obvious next note or chord will come out seemingly effortlessly. Play something very familiar and the expectation of the next thing to play will take over. Memorization is helpful and is part of this but getting to a point where the music just comes out is where you need to get. Read ahead and look away from your music playing from memory. Let the feel of the movements guide you. Like a dancer, remember sequences of movements rather than trying to see and read the music in your head. It should “feel like this should come next” and match what you expect to hear giving you auditory confirmation. Try it and allow yourself to make the mistake (see previous point above).

Having a bit of theory under your belt can be extremely helpful. Most beginners play music that is “diatonic”. That means the chords and notes come from the same key and there is little deviation. If you know the key of a song, then you know what chords are most likely going to be used. It takes some of the guess work out of the process and narrows the choices down considerably. Many times, a complex chord can be substituted with a simpler form and sound fine until you get more advanced in your playing. Take advantage of the structure to boost your skill.

Practice Routine

This sounds like a pain and you may be thinking, “I will do scales, then chords, then…” but that is not what I am referring to. This is more about habits like exercising I mentioned earlier. I mentioned volunteering for church. You could also volunteer for some other group such as a local addiction recovery group or get together with another musician and prepare music you will play together. Maybe a monthly session you must work towards. Check out your local open mike nights and see who might be willing to work with you.

I have thought about this a lot lately and am working to set up an online session for those who are learning. Keep your eyes on this spot and sign up to my courses for FREE to get the update: Just 2 Play Guitar

The plan at the moment is to use iReal Pro or a Real Book to get started. It can be a big effort to produce lead sheets and we don’t want to run into copyright issues. Coming soon!

Put these things into **practice** and you will find you are progressing at a rapid pace. You may find yourself saying what others say, “Why did I think this was so hard?”

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Going Live: How to Make Open Mike Memories

Posted on June 6, 2021 by Tom

I attended an open mike night recently and have a few observations that will help should you decide to try one. Having played in a number of bands, played acoustic music at coffee houses and led worship for many years, I see some common things to look out for. Most are easy things to fix but some of these will take time – take the time!

silver corded microphone in shallow focus photography
Photo by Kane Reinholdtsen on Unsplash

Opportunities to play are everywhere, see The Voluntary Musician, and open mikes are another way to get out and perform. However, the devil is in the details; so, resist the urge to skip these points because “every one knows that.” Yeah, you know you need to”be prepared”,”need to practice”, and “need to connect with the audience” but because “everyone knows that” most open mike performances are clearly amateurish and awkward for everyone. It is the rare performer who really commands the stage and stands out from the crowd. I want the audience to turn their heads in surprise and respond with “Yeah! That was killer! You really nailed it!” with copious applause and cheers. How are you going to do that?

Preparation

Open mike preparation is key. You have no control over the venue, sound, equipment (except your own) or who you follow. Therefore, it is critical to attend the one you want to do and take good notes – mental or otherwise.

Venue: Inside or Out?

Being inside limits the variables such as weather and extraneous noise (cars and planes going by) but present other challenges such as proximity to the crowd. Be aware of how close you are to the front row of people. Sound disperses much more outside but inside, you may be blasting those closest to you. Room to move may also be limited. If you are outside, you may have plenty of room to move – use it. Not necessarily all of it but loosen up and move.

Sound

Note details about the P.A. Ask these questions:

  • Who is running it?
  • Is it set up for your type of act? Band or soloist?
  • How will you get connected – microphone, direct in to the board, borrowed amp?

Open Mike Equipment

Bringing a load of equipment is usually not feasible for open mikes. Most of the time, you will plug in to someone else’s amp and use their mikes, cables, and stands. A lot can go wrong that is beyond your control. However, you can control these things: fresh batteries, reliable jacks on your guitar, clean controls (not scratchy racket every time you touch the volume), and cables. Make certain every thing works before walking up! It is super embarrassing to find out the battery died in your guitar or effects pedal as you hit that first chorus.

Cables may be mostly supplied by the venue but you can control the cable from your instrument to the amp or P.A. in most cases. Make sure your cables are long enough!

If you play acoustic, consider getting a direct box. This will allow you to plug into a mike cable and go “directly” into the P.A. For acoustic players, this should be a part of your “go kit” for performing.

Timing

Finally, make sure you bring only what you need. Keep it simple. Less equipment means less to go wrong and quicker setup/tear down. The amount of time is severely limited. Don’t waste it having lots of junk to deal with when it is your time.

Open Mike Music Choice

While choosing your songs, keep in mind you only have a brief time to make your mark. Make selections geared to excite. Pensive, finger tapping, acoustic guitar may be great and show off your talent but it will fade into the background noise quickly. A tepid bit of applause is about all you can expect. Also, complex progressive rock may get some reaction but it should be something that is well known such as Roundabout by Yes. Every one knows it and may even get some to sing along! Complex originals are cool but will lose your audience quick unless it is insanely great. If it was, you wouldn’t be doing an open mike, just sayin’ 😉

When performing, put some life in it! If you are not into the song, guess what? Nobody else will be either. Make sure you put the right emotion into the song, though. Love songs with a huge smile across your face look odd. Standing there stone faced as you mechanically reel off the song will not fly either. Express the song with the emotion and feel of the lyrics. If it is just a fun song, have fun with it! Love song? Croon, baby croon! Which brings me to my last chunk of advice:

Practice Until It’s Second Nature

You already know to “practice, practice, practice” but do you practice to the point of being able to hold a conversation while you play? Now you are ready! Get to the point where the music becomes second nature – you hardly have to think about it. For me, this means memorization. Learning by ear helps me do this as I can remember songs I have learned by ear far easier than from a written chart. Practice moving around while you play. Look around and avoid staring at your guitar the whole time. Staring at the ground only works for shoegaze music. If you must, do it sparingly. Jim Morrison of The Doors was known for closing his eyes during performances but that was then and him…and them. Again, if you must…

Get off the written chart

First of all, reading off charts as you play keeps you from connecting with your audience. Eye contact and expressions are key to success.

Second, music stands look amateurish. Coming up to the stage with your gear and then plopping down a stand comes off as well as a kid at a grade school talent show – Don’t do it!

Play in Your Sleep

Get to the point where you can just about play in your sleep. Another way to put it is to get almost to point of being sick of the songs you have played them so much. There are a ton of distractions when playing live and knowing your music cold helps you keep rolling despite the people moving around, equipment failures and extraneous noises.

Once the song just comes out of you, it becomes easy to interact with people. Winking at the audience or singing a line directly to someone you make eye contact with can engage the audience as you reach “through the veil”. In acting, this phrase indicates when the characters intentionally interact with an audience as part of the show. In television, it is when the actors speak to the “TV audience” who are not really there beyond the camera as in shows like The Office.

Once you get so familiar with a song you can play it in your sleep, start messing around with it. If an idea occurs to you for an improvisation, try it! This will help you get used to deviations and test how well you really know the material.

Finally, play through your mistakes without losing the beat or track of the song. There is no opportunity to stop and try it again once you begin performing. Learn how to recover from mistakes gracefully. I had a piano play friend once remark, “You never mess up!” How wrong a statement that is! I have learned to keep the song moving despite my flubs. The singing technique know as “Scat“, you may be surprised to know, sprang out of a singer who forgot the words. Dropping out is not an option! Repeat a verse, a line, or scat. Do what it takes.

Take this advice to heart and you will stand out like a shining light in a cave rather than a sore thumb we would rather forget. It usually does not take much at these things but does take something.

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Cleaning Your Guitar: What is the Right Chemical?

Posted on May 16, 2021 by Tom

It is high time you cleaned your guitar. You use the typical window cleaner or some light furniture polish but some parts need something different. Using the right cleaner is important for a couple of good reasons: make the job easy and avoid damaging the finish. Here is an explanation of the best chemicals to use for the job that you may never have considered. This post expands on the topic of The Care and Feeding of Your Guitar.

Cleaning guitars takes more than just window cleaner
Photo by Oliver Hale on Unsplash

List of Chemicals

  • Naphtha – lighter fluid
  • Vinegar and baking soda
  • All purpose cleaner or window cleaner

You may be thinking Naphtha? What is that? It may become your go-to friend once you understand what it is used for, especially for a gigging musician. I put that first for a reason with the all purpose cleaner at the bottom. Follow along for a beautiful result.

Sticky Problem? Think Naphtha

If you have seen the clip of Jimi Hendrix burning his guitar at the Monterey Pop Festival, this is the stuff he used.

Tape is everywhere, especially if you are actively gigging. It is great for all kinds of uses but seems to get stuck in the worst places leaving behind a sticky residue. If this is on the finish of your guitar, it looks terrible and collects every dust and dirt particle from 100 yards away! There may have been a label or sticker on your guitar that left behind a gooey spot. Maybe you want to remove a sticker that was “so cool!” back in the day.

Naphtha is your chemical.

While not a general purpose cleaner, any sticky residue can be easily removed with a few drops right on the spot. Naphtha will not damage the finish and it evaporates quickly. It is highly flammable, hence why it is used as lighter fluid. You can pick up a small can at your local drug/grocery store or larger quantities from a hardware store.

To remove stickers, simply squirt some around the edges and begin to work up an edge. As the sticker comes up, squirt more along the line where it is sticking and slowly peel it off. Don’t go too fast or you risk tearing the sticker and making more of a mess. Finally, wipe the area clean with a rag using the left over naphtha on the rag to remove any remaining residue.

Chrome, Gold and Vinegar

If you own a resonator guitar, you will really need this chemical. Our body chemistry can take a toll on the various metal parts of our guitars and that is where vinegar and baking soda can lend a hand.

The salts from our perspiration can leave behind a crust on pickup covers, bridges, tailpieces and resonator covers. Start by moistening a rag with vinegar and applying to the area. You should only need to wipe and not scrub. Scrubbing may cause more wear when the vinegar should do the job of loosening the crust on its own. Re-moisten the rag often.

With larger surfaces such as resonator guitars, add a little baking soda to make a paste. After the area has been sufficiently wiped down and any residue removed, let the guitar sit and dry. I have found that it takes time for chrome shine to return after cleaning. Something about the chemical reaction but be patient and resist the urge to rub until the part is shiny. Get the surface crud off and then let it sit.

Finally, Cleaning Your Guitar With All Purpose Cleaner

All purpose cleaners are good but should not be overdone. They contain water which leads to corrosion. The cleaner should also contain ammonia. Ammonia is an important ingredient as it does not leave behind streaks. You may think, “I can just spray it on my guitar and wipe, right?” No. That is the wrong way – remember corrosion?

To clean with all purpose cleaner:

  1. Spray a clean, soft rag (e.g. t-shirt) away from the guitar. Spraying directly on the guitar may get metal parts and circuitry damp causing problems later.
  2. Rub down the surfaces feeling for any crud that may need some additional attention. Use a cotton swab for tight corners and edges.
  3. Work under a bright light so you can see any streaking or residue left behind from the above two other cleaning efforts. Naphtha is very streaky and needs to be followed up by an all purpose.

That should result in a flashy, clean axe ready to impress your next audience!

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Creating Unique Music: How to Have Staying Power

Posted on May 9, 2021 by Tom

If you want your music to have staying power, i.e. music that will stand the test of time, here are some things to consider. Lately, I have been hearing about modular synthesis and it reminded me of groups that became studio bands such as The Beatles and Steely Dan. The question I ponder is: If it cannot be faithfully performed live or needs something unique in order to reproduce it, will it stand the test of time?

black and gray audio mixer
Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

As a guitar player and writer, I think about this occasionally. Continuing on previous posts, MIDI For Guitarists and Do You Have G.A.S? on the virtual realm, and learning about modular synthesis (Is This the Pedal Rig of the Future?) I am thinking more about this. Let’s consider these aspects of music:

  • Repeatability for performance
  • Communicating our music to others now and down through history
  • The need for special instruments

Repeatability and Staying Power

Think about how we start to learn to play. We copy others either by learning to read the written music notes or hearing and translating that to guitar (i.e. learning by ear). For me, I started with guitar instruction books and a teacher who would come by the house for lessons. However, I really didn’t start to “learn” my instrument until I found I could learn my favorite songs by ear. It was a bit of a revelation and opened the instrument up to me. One of the things I realized was that my instructor taught me how to play a few songs incorrectly. It may have been that he knew what I could handle at the time but my ears became attuned to the nuances in the music after this time.

Now, let’s say the music required particular instruments or sounds that I could not replicate on guitar. Would I have learned them? Not likely. There are some songs I tried but was not satisfied with the results and moved on. For example, the sitar of The Beatles Within You Without You from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club. The melody was easy enough but I could never get the right feel. I also attempted a Billy Joel song and, while I could get the basic song down, the piano was a tough instrument to capture on guitar.

Still, I could get these songs to a point of being recognized by others. Would I play them in a cover band on guitar? Maybe not. I would try them on solo guitar, though. There is enough there to satisfy and recognize. I tried these more as challenges than actual songs for a repertoire. Much easier to crank out Sweet Home Alabama, eh?

The Challenge of Communication

On to passing our music on to the next generation. How will that happen? Clearly, you could write it down as has been done for generations. Recording also preserves the performance reliably for the most part.

Written music has staying power

There is more written music than anyone could possibly consume in a lifetime much less master. We all concentrate on the stuff we enjoy the most and that narrows the scope considerably. The sheer volume is still overwhelming and continues to grow. The issue with writing music these days is going beyond the standard components of music. Adam Neely explores this topic occasionally on his channel.

How do we include micro-tonal notes or electronic instrument settings in modern music notation? Many of us try to get the right sound of guitars in our favorite songs or ones used by our favorite artists. It can become a passion and even an obsession (G.A.S.) to get “the tone“. The ultimate communication may be the recording but it is not without its challenges.

Recording as communication through the ages

Getting our music down on some medium may be answer. At the very least, the precise sounds we want to produce are captured for all time. Or, is it?

Consider the lowly vinyl LP. Once as ubiquitous as the CD was. These days, it is downloaded digital media. As we have progressed from one recording medium to the next, music is lost. Visit a local estate sale or yard sale and you can find recordings that are no longer available except at this sale as a used record.

Tape is even worse. Originally relegated to the studio and then a convenient, portable medium, tapes wore out. My collection died years ago and I rarely see tape for sale anymore. Try finding decent cassette machines now. Some studios still use tape but you are not going to get to touch or even see those. A fire at Universal Music Group saw to it that even the master tapes of many important recordings are now GONE!

How will music be remembered down through history? Some will and some will not be remembered.

On a side note, it seems some recording labels and artists are bound and determined to make sure their music is forgotten. See this video by Rick Beato: Blockers!! How Rock Music is destroying itself.

Special Instrumentation

There is quite a bit of music that is meant to be a one-off effort. Typically, this is done by studio bands who never intend to tour. Their music is more like a fine painting or sculpture. Copies may be made but they are just that: copies. Attempting to recreate them live was never the plan. Take, for example, The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows. A wild work of studio wizardry that took enormous effort at the time but now can be done digitally with ease. Cut and paste anything to create to your heart’s content!

Consider the modular synthesis mentioned above. Rhett Schull makes the comment in his video that sounds are basically, one-offs. Super creative but never to be repeated.

My question is this: will anyone know or care 20, 50, 100 years from now? It may sound cool and great but it also may be dated. Updating a one-off may be impossible. The bones of the song (notes, chords, beat) may be the only thing preserved as the changes in the recording medium have moved on and the originals are long gone. The original intent and sound will be lost.

Staying Power or Not

If you are simply playing other’s music (i.e. covers), staying power is not a real concern. The music you want to play is right here at your fingertips. Somebody has done the job for you but you don’t know what you are missing. As a director of my high school plays would say after a poor performance: The audience does not know what they just missed. The music you know now is standing the test of time, for now.

If you are creating for the sheer joy of it, staying power is not a real concern either. Have fun and enjoy the ride! Exploring the ways you can express yourself can be rewarding enough and is fulfilling in and of itself.

I straddle the two. I would like my creations to be more than just a one-off but I enjoy the process of creating just for the joy of it all! Who knows? Maybe someone will find one of my recordings and make a million with them years from now. More power to ya!

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Can Your Guitar Be Collectible? How to Add Value

Posted on April 22, 2021 by Tom

If you have a collectible guitar, this might not be the post for you. It is likely you already know what makes a guitar valuable in the eyes of collectors. However, my wife asked the question, “What makes one guitar so much more expensive than another?” and I really had to think about it for a minute. I used to call myself “the purveyor of cheap guitars” but that was mostly because I could not afford an expensive instrument. Most of us can relate to that, right?

man in black suit playing brown electric guitar
Photo by andre mosele on Unsplash

I just finished watching Five Watt World’s video titled, The Bursts: A Short History. These little snippets of guitar history are interesting even if I am not a collector. Being a techie guy at heart, I enjoy the stories of how things came to be. In this video, Keith Williams goes into the lore of the late 50’s Les Paul sunbursts. An extremely collectible guitar that only the privileged few could ever touch let alone own. Williams actually says something that, after some thought, I answered the question above from my wife in the same way. I’ll get to that in a minute…or two 😉

What makes a guitar collectible?

There are basically three things that make a guitar desirable by collectors:

  • The look
  • The tone
  • The owner

The Look

Of all of the guitars around, the ones that catch your eye and caught the eye of many others are the ones that still catch your eye. Some guitars age in ways that make them just increase in coolness while others were groundbreaking designs in their day. Think of the Fender Stratocaster. It was a complete divergence from the designs prevalent at the time it was introduced. My blog post about, MAYA: How to Go to the Edge Without Going Over, I talk about the concept of familiar yet surprising design. Some guitars have done just that and vaulted themselves into collectability.

Simply a new finish such as the gold top Les Paul can find itself highly desirable. There is much more to it though. As a finish ages, things like patina and checking become qualities people want. A few years ago, my wife and I were looking up chandeliers on Ebay and found that two of the same models could be vastly different in price if the seller simply labeled it “shabby chic”. In my opinion, a nice way of saying beat up and well used. However, people pay good money for stuff that is roughed up these days! They even pay for perfectly nice, new items to be “stressed” by beating it with chains.

Older guitars tend to have a bit of both – patina and checking. Checking is simply what happens when the finish is subjected to rapid temperature changes. The wood responds at a much different rate than the finish to temperature and that causes the cracking. Patina is when the white parts yellow over the years. I have a Rickenbacker 4001 from the ’80s that I remember all of the binding being bright white when I bought it. It ain’t that way now!

The Tone

We all know it may look cool but what does it sound like? If it had a part in creating an iconic, unique or special sound, people are going to want it. How many of us want to sound like our guitar hero? The video above mentions the Eric Clapton “Beano” album and how that set a standard in guitar tone emulated by millions of young listeners back in the day. It has also contributed to the demand for that tone from that guitar. Think about the Beatles and their tone. It is still used as a selling point: “The jangly sound of the 60’s”.

Move to the 90’s and Kurt Cobain set the world on fire with his tone. His guitar of choice was the Fender Mustang. It was a lower priced model to the Fender line (see The Fender Mustang: A Short History). You don’t need an expensive guitar to make a mark in history. Just get playing and put your heart and soul into it!

My personal journey has been finding decent instruments that I could get for cheap because they were broken and fixing them up. They will never be collectible but they sure have a lot of my history in them both getting them playable and then playing them. I don’t worry about dings and scratches or wear and tear. Player grade is what some call guitars that have been modified from stock. This is another great option.

The Owner

Who owned a particular instrument and what they played it on can make all the difference in the world. Would anyone care about Danelectro guitars if Jimmy Page had not used one on Kashmir? I don’t think so. The Telecaster and Stratocaster were not expensive guitars at the time they were introduced compared to the Gibsons of the day. It’s all about who played them. That is the one thing that will definitely make a collectible guitar.

So, you want to make your guitar collectible? Become famous! Easy, peasy!

The Bottom Line

Actually, my point is that it really doesn’t matter if your particular instrument is, was or will be the next million dollar collector’s item to cross the auction block. Stop worrying about it. Make your axe and your sound your own. The things I look for are what draw my ears and eyes. I really don’t care what others think about it. You may have heard this before but it bears repeating: the tone is in your fingers.

The one thing that sets one instrument apart from another is who is actually playing it and that includes YOU. We can readily identify who our favorite players are by their tone and technique. Make it your own and forget about trying to sound like whoever.

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MIDI for Guitarists: How to Unlock Infinite Potential

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Tom

MIDI for guitarists seems like an oxymoron that only a moron would actually consider. However, I have been hard at work getting the latest addition to my home rig configured – a MIDI pedalboard. Back in my post entitled, Do You Have G.A.S?, I mention my virtual studio. It is one of many paths to consider. It used to be that MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) was the sole domain of keyboardists and synthesizer aficionados, but that is Sooo 80’s. With limited space and infinite combinations, this is something you might consider for yourself. Let’s get into the Why, What and How of this subject.

grayscale photography of man in striped shirt
Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

Why MIDI for Guitarists?

If you have ever been in the situation as the poor guy in the photo, trying to find a cable problem in a sea of pedals, you might know the answer to this question. This is one major way of simplifying your setup. Face it. The popular systems are basically a configurable pedal board going through a computer to an amp, right? Think of Line 6, Kemper, and Helix to name just a few. (Here are a few more rated by Guitar World Magazine) Just about all of the major manufacturers are stepping into or have stepped into the world of virtual amps and equipment. They are all variations on a theme – simplified control over a greater variety of sounds. With that you also get some reliability.

Right Tools, Right Job

If you have a pedalboard that you switch around for the occasion OR you maintain more than one pedalboard for various occasions, this is for you. Not everyone can be or wants to be like Josh of JHS pedals and own a copy of every pedal ever made (“He has the box!”). I don’t think my wife would go for it, first of all 😉 You can, however, get the virtual equivalents and control the world through MIDI.

There are basically two major things you can do:

  1. Control individual pedals
  2. Change entire setups amp and pedals

Changing entire setups really opens up the possibilities. No more wishing you had brought along pedal X for song Y. It can be right there at your feet in a second. I like to program for genre but if you have a stable set list, you could program for each song and be ready in a flash. Sounds attractive, right? Playing for church has me jumping from genre to genre and style to style. More variety is necessary for this application.

What MIDI Gear?

You may be asking at this point, what MIDI gear? I settled on IK Multimedia but there are many others. The bigger question then becomes the controller at your feet. Being that I was looking to just dip my toe into this technology, I did not want to spend a bucket of cash on something that was going to gather dust in a closet a year from then. I chose the Behringer FCB1010. Decent product for the price and there are others such as the Roland foot controllers. There are many other options to build with single switches and expression pedals. I have one each of those for another rig I use with my iPad.

One great thing I found about the Behringer product is the UnOfficial (UnO) upgrade. I was amazed at the enormous community support. Brings a tear to my eye as I got started in computers and technology through local community support and online Special Interest Groups (SIGs, for short). Long story for another time, perhaps. This is somewhat like the open source movement in computers. There is a basic hardware platform that others have started contributing ideas and creating DIY projects since the dawn of the technology.

How to get started with MIDI for guitar

You can get started with very little cash. Amp modeling software can be downloaded for free. My choice, Amplitube from the aforementioned IK Multimedia, is a good way to start. There are many others. You may also start with a DAW and plugins for various pedals. My bit of advice before you jump in and get frustrated by the technology: learn a little about MIDI itself. The format of the signals and variety of commands can quickly get overwhelming and it is not plug-n-play. Manufacturers go to a lot of trouble to make it easy but you may still need to know a few basics.

What to Know First

The first thing you need to know about MIDI for guitarists is that there are two types of messages when it comes to controlling devices:

  • Program Change (PC)
  • Control Change (CC)

PC is typically used for the initial equipment setup mentioned earlier i.e. the amp, effects, speaker cabinet, post-processing, mikes, etc. On my board, I use the upper set of pedals to select the various configurations this way.

The second, CC, is typically used to control individual functions such as a single stomp box effect or an expression pedal for volume or wah. Until the CC is properly configured for a given pedal, the software will not recognize the command for a specific purpose. In the case of the FCB1010 and Amplitube, the CC has to be set for the software to ‘learn’ the pedal press or movement. The bottom row of pedals are reserved for my stomp box controls.

I say this to save you some heartache. Been there already and had it for you 😉

Now it Gets Fun!

I was ready to chuck it until I stumbled on the resources for the UnO mentioned above. Now, I am just having fun with the myriad of possibilities. I am a constant knob twiddler and this just feeds that obsession like nothing else. Experimenting with your signal chain just got a lot easier!

What comes first? Second? Now you don’t need to spend time cabling everything up to find out. Just drag and drop the effect where you want it.

Playing with some of the lesser understood effects such as compression is a snap!

Give it a try and let me know how it turns out!

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3 Problems You Didn’t Know You Had and How to Fix Them

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Tom

Recently, I was shopping for a 12-string electric guitar and found a great deal on one. A floor model D’Angelico Premier in transparent red. Nice wide neck for my fat fingers and sounds like a dream. I played a Danelectro 12 and had a Fender 12 but found my fingers bumping up against adjacent strings near the nut. In my opinion, 12-strings are at their jangly best when played with open strings e.g. C, G, E. The only problem: fret sprout. Fortunately, I know how to fix this problem. Surprisingly few guitarists realize this is a problem and know it can be remedied easily.

A guitar with fret sprout. Beautiful but painful to play.

Guitar Problem 1: Fret Sprout

I wrote about the problem of too much moisture from humidity in The Care and Feeding of Your Guitar, June 29, 2020 blog post. This is from the opposite problem – too little moisture.

If you have ever felt like the neck of your guitar has become a saw as you run your hand along the neck, you might be experiencing this issue. I have had several guitars come to me for repair for completely different reasons and I would go ahead and correct this issue for no charge. Customers would invariably call me back to first, thank me for fixing their guitar and second, comment to say they did not know the frets could be fixed. Not cheaply, anyway. I just did it as an added service when I found it.

The problem is this: When a guitar is allowed to dry out over time, the neck shrinks in width and the frets will begin to stick out of the sides of the fretboard. In rare cases, it can push the binding out with them. Ugly and uncomfortable.

How to fix: Get your local guitar tech to file down the ends to be flush with the sides of the neck again. The details are more than I can go into with this blog but the tech should know to file down just enough to avoid damaging the finish – just kiss the edge.

I will be creating a video showing exactly how to do this on my guitar repair YouTube channel, Fast Way Guitar Repairs. Here is an example video: How to Restring a Classical Guitar.

Guitar Problem 2: Buzzing

There are three places that typically cause buzzing:

  • Frets
  • Nut
  • Bridge

Frets

Frets are the easy culprits to find. Play individual notes up the neck and listen for the buzzing or notes fretting out. This can be corrected with a tweak of the truss rod. You can do this yourself and save yourself some money, time and frustration. Go slow as a little tweak can go a long way. Also, realize that you do not want to remove all buzzing as there will always be some when playing hard. That is the nature of the instrument.

Remove all buzzing and you may find your guitar is now unplayable.

Sometimes, how to fix buzzing requires tapping down a loose fret or even filing it down. The worst cases are when the frets are worn and pitted from the strings. This requires what’s called a “fret dress and crowning” or “dress and crown” for short. A friend calls it “Bluegrass wear” as Bluegrass guitarists tend to play in the first few fret positions and wear those down first. It can also be caused by excessive pressure of the string against the frets. The cure? Lighten up, man! You only need to get the string down to the fret. Don’t mash the string to the fretboard. That hurts and de-tunes the notes anyway.

Note: Fret wear can only be cured by an experienced guitar tech. Don’t try this at home!

Bridges and Nuts

Nuts and bridges can be a source of buzzing from incorrectly cut slots or improper string gauge. They are somewhat related. If you have changed string gauges up or down and not adjusted the slots to accommodate, you may have just bought your problem with your new strings.

Strings too small and the string may slop around in the slot and vibrate against the sides. Strings to large and they will not seat properly riding over the slot bottom vibrating against it. How to fix something like this requires simple re-cutting of the slots. Going up in size can also damage the nut and even break it off at the low ‘E’ string. Bassists see this frequently as those are some beefy strings.

Guitar Problem 3: Noise

Finally, how to fix the racket that erupts when you jiggle your cable or adjust the volume.

There are basically two causes for this issue:

  • Loose wiring
  • Dirty controls and jacks

Wiring problems can come from loose components (jacks and pots) or poor soldering work. Loose parts cause you to twist the part around and eventually weaken or break the wire connection. Check your guitar for loose parts when you change your strings. When you encounter something loose, resist the urge to just finger tighten. Get the right tools and avoid rotating the part while you tighten. Use a dot of Loctite Blue to secure the threads.

Now, you need to re-solder the broken connections. You can learn to solder with the many tutorials on YouTube and elsewhere. Rhett Schull details how he built an amp from scratch in a class. Great way to learn! I learned working at NASA. Good luck trying to get that training 😉

Finally, cleaning controls and jacks. Get yourself a can of Caig DeoxIT D5 and gently spay a small amount into each control. Rotate the pots back and forth several times to get the fluid spread around.

For jacks you will need a cotton swab. Spray some of the DeoxIT onto the swab and rub the contact surfaces well getting the fluid onto the surfaces as completely as possible.

I produced a video going through the repair of a guitar suffering this problem, noisy pots and jacks, that you can view: Gretsch Van Eps Repair.

Finally

You may have noticed the symptoms of the problems described but did not now what caused them nor how to fix them. Most repairs are simple and not expensive from your local guitar tech. Go ahead and clear up these issues and you will be a new musician for it.

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Chick Corea: How to Honor the Masters

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Tom

Chick Corea, one of the greats in the fusion genre and a jazz keyboardist extraordinaire, is an inspiration not just for his compositions but for who he employed in his various projects. Like me, you may not play keyboard or piano but you can get inspiration from Chick Corea. A great way to honor him is by following those who played with him over his amazing career. Some musicians are noted for their ability to recognize talent and launch careers through their own bands and projects and Corea was one of them.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, Charlie Daniels, inspiration comes from many players and many genres. Keep their legacy and music alive by delving into their music and those who followed after.

person playing black and white piano
Photo by Carlos Urrutia on Unsplash

I was introduced to Chick Corea through his first Elektric Band album in 1986. My older brother was always looking for something new and gave me a cassette of that album. At first, I was a bit taken back. I had listened to some fusion before but nothing like this album. Listening to something this different and new can take a few listens to absorb. I have to admit, this took a few listens. First, I was not a “keyboard guy” and synthesizers were something from the New Wave music. I was a bass player and guitarist for cryin’ out loud!

The Bassists

But, hold on a sec…who was this bass player? That guy was amazing! John Patitucci not only kept up with the wild swings of the music but added his own unique flavor that I could immediately latch on to. Next was the guitarist, Carlos Rios. Another unknown to me but, again, he popped out to me as one to check out further.

I read about Allen Holdsworth in Guitar Player and picked up one of his recordings, Road Games. It was a bit over my head at the time. His angular approach and lack of attack was something I needed to get used to. However, I went back to that album and looked up the bass player on his album, Jeff Berlin. That led me to his album – Pump It! A bit more accessible for me.

Dipping into Corea’s catalog a bit further brought me Return to Forever and Stanley Clarke – should be a household name among bass players. If you are a bassist and don’t know Clarke, you are doing yourself a disservice. In the same way as Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke paved the way for much of what we take for granted in modern music.

The Guitarists

In those days, I relied on copies of Guitar Player magazine to help me get to know guitarists but I had to dig if I was going to find truly unique players to for inspiration. This was clear from my experience with Chick Corea and the Elektric Band album.

One guitarist I had already gotten to know was Al Di Meola. His name had become a regular reference by many guitarists around that time. Thanks to Guitar Player, again, for introducing me to his music. What I did not know was that he also came to prominence through the work of Chick Corea. If you want to know fast, he set the stage for the later speedsters like Eddie Van Halen. Whether he was an influence or not is not clear but the world had gotten exposed to really fast guitar solos from his work.

Al Di Meola led me to John McLaughlin for some more mind-bending fusion. The collaborations between these two are nothing short of astounding. The interplay is enough to keep you busy for a while.

How to Honor The Masters

So, how do you honor the masters? Dig into their catalog and get to know their music, of course. However, take the next step and see who they played with. You cannot deny the influence. You certainly cannot deny the fact that the masters provided launching pads for other greats that we may never have had the chance to hear.

I did not mention the various drummers and percussionists but I leave that to the ‘A’ students. If you are a bass player, dig in and drink deep. Drummers jam with other amazing rhythm sections and bass players are a huge part of that.

You have a lot of music to listen to; so, get on with it! Some of the old recordings are getting harder to find. Fusion was never a big seller but the lamp is kept burning by a few of us. Broaden your catalog and perspective. You don’t have to play like them but you should try to get a little of their inspiration and let that take you to new places.

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Feedback: How to Crush It or Sing With It!

Posted on December 19, 2020 by Tom

Feedback is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it is the sweetness of sustain, while other times it is killing your performance. Let’s a take a look at what it is and how to channel it for musical nirvana.

boy singing on microphone with pop filter
Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

Feedback: Understanding It

Before we can really know how to either defeat feedback or use it, let’s take a moment to understand it (for the uber geeks among us, here is a rather technical discussion of feedback in control systems). You may know it can be positive or negative.

The Plus

Positive feedback means the signal or sound is adding to an existing signal. That will increase the strength of the signal and loudness of the sound. If you take that new signal and plug it into the input again (i.e. feed it back in), the sound will grow. Keep that up and you either have your audience yelling to turn it down or jamming along with you.

The Minus

Negative feedback, on the other hand, takes away from the signal and is a darn good way of controlling an otherwise unruly sound. The gain control on an amp is a feedback control in the circuit, for example. The knob controls how much signal is fed back to the input. In the case of negative feedback, the signal polarity is reversed and fed back to the input. Feed the same signal strength to the input in the reverse polarity and the original signal is cancelled. Use smaller amounts of reversed signal and the original will be quieter.

The Context

Some amplifiers use feedback in the circuits to control the size (or amplitude) of the signals in the circuit. Vox is one manufacturer of guitar amp that used no feedback in what is called an open loop circuit. The one common element in all sound systems that provide feedback no matter what is YOU. The input is your guitar or microphone and the sound comes out the speaker only to be picked up by the guitar or mic again and run back through the amplifier. This regenerative process builds until the amp can no longer go any louder. This is always positive feedback.

Finally, there is the aspect of resonant frequency. Microphones have one element and a single frequency they will best resonate. That is the frequency that will scream when the mic is pointed at a speaker. There is enough ambient noise around to start the mic vibrating and then it is off to the races – Scream!

Guitars, on the other hand, have strings at different resonant frequencies that can be caught in a feedback loop. The volume of the amplifier is the main determinant in getting the desired string and note to vibrate and – Scream!

Defeat Feedback or Use It?

Now the question arises, what do we do with it? If your mic is feeding back, that is bad and can be an ear piercing experience for your audience. Your acoustic instruments may also need some attention to avoid unwanted sound emanating from them. Let’s start with how to quell the unwanted.

Quieting the Scream

As mentioned earlier, microphones have a single frequency they will usually resonate best on. Defeating that one frequency typically requires cutting it with a graphic equalizer or turning down the tone control for that range of frequencies. Without a graphic equalizer, it will be a bit of a compromise between sound quality and feedback elimination. Once you find the right frequency and cut it sufficiently, you can point the offending mic right at a speaker and it will be quiet as a mouse.

For acoustic guitars, the resonant frequency is usually the soundboard resonant frequency. Some acoustic preamps have feedback canceling circuitry that works quite well. Another common trick is to fill the soundhole to 1) keep the sound from entering back into the guitar body and 2) deaden the vibrating top. Anything from socks to commercially available soundhole covers will do.

Lastly, employ the same technique you would as with a microphone: notch out the offending frequency or frequencies. That can be done with a pedal graphic equalizer thereby maintaining a good sounding signal to your preferences. Again, everything is a compromise. Remember, It’s All About the Tone, Man.

Singing With Feedback

Ok, so you want to get that searing lead that sustains forever and screams in the night like that lonely howling wolf, right? Just crank your amp and let ‘er rip! Not so fast! Controlling the scream can be a bit trickier than it looks. Sometimes you want it to take your note to the next level and other times, it is a nuisance. Let’s learn to control ourselves.

Guitar feedback is a matter of volume and proximity. The louder the amp or the closer you are to the speaker, the more likely you will get feedback. As the signal gets stronger near the guitar, the strings will vibrate on their own. Once you get the strings to vibrate, you have feedback i.e. the signal from the guitar is going through the pickups to the amp, out the speaker and vibrating the string or strings to repeat the process all over. The limiting factor here is how much the string can actually vibrate.

Volume

Simply pushing your volume for your solo can give you enough volume to get the ball rolling, so to speak. Pedals are handy here but you can also use the volume control on your guitar. Strats are particularly good for this with their control right up near the strings in easy reach. Otherwise, a good volume pedal will do the trick or use a boost pedal and click it on at the right time.

Proximity

Another technique is to use proximity to your advantage. This also makes for a good show as you move around to the music accentuating notes and phrases with a bit of feedback. Simply facing your amp can get a response or moving closer may do it. This takes some practice and finesse as you find the sweet spot. Jimi Hendrix was an early master of this technique.

Concluding Feedback

Whether you are trying to defeat or sing with it, understanding feedback is an important part of a guitarists knowledge. There will be times you will need to employ one or the other: kill it or enjoy it.

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