A heart-felt thank you…

…to everyone who participated in the annual GUITAR reader polls and voted for “Talking Hands”. It turns out that it was voted the most popular instructional column, and that means a LOT to me! I am glad that you like the series, and I hope it helps you to develop your skills and get some new ideas for your soloing!
It was quite a surprise to see the results, and i am eternally grateful to everyone who gave their vote to TH. THANK YOU!

Its also very very cool to see Eddie on the cover (I always loved the Frankenstrat), and there’s a long article about him and his playing in this issue, so check it out! Also, there are reviews by yours truly about a Framus guitar and a new Seymour Duncan pedal. And, the mag comes with a free issue of the new magazine by PPV Media, Guitar Dreams!

More random thoughts on effects…

I posted thoughts on effects before, but today, when I was teaching, some more thoughts came up. I hope some of these will be interesting to you…

I do love effects. Most guitarists do… so many of us constantly change their pedalboard around, new pedals are added, old ones go back into the storing crate (or on Ebay). While that is a quite normal thing (sometimes resembling toys… its almost cute), one thing I always stuck to is: you can spend SO much time constantly changing your rig, time you could invest practicing and playing, so try to stick to something for a while…

Effects really can bring you new ideas, unleash your creativity, enable you to get sounds you couldnt usually get. I am quite glad that the old cliché “Ahh, you dont need any effects, they just cover up bad playing, the less effects, the better” almost disappeared… some players are quite legendary for their use of effects… think of Robert Fripp, David Torn, The Edge… anyway, one thing that I really recommend to try with pretty much any pedal: try all of its options!

For example, there are SO many things you can do with a good delay pedal… whether its Brian May-style layering, Nuno/Albert Lee/Yngwie-type “delay lines” (runs with notes added by a delay), or crazy stuff like the intro to PGs “Get Out Of My Yard”. I remember seeing Vai live during his “Sex & Religion” tour, and he did this whole little song with delays, had several guitars on stage, all hooked up to delays…

Now, other than just using a delay for a slapback-sound or some of that ambience-type delay, try to go extreme. Try to come up with riffs based on what the pedal does. Or, something that works with quite a few pedals like the Boss-delays or the new Satriani Time Machine Delay by Vox: turn up the feedback and then play with the delay time-knob… you can get some insane, crazy, and very inspiring sounds that way.

And that works for other pedals too! Take i.e. the Whammy Pedal. A lot of guys take that and just do the same thing they do with a whammy bar, like doing divebombs. But listen to i.e. the “chorus” of Joe Satriani’s “Searching”, or the chorus of Dave Martone’s “Four Horseman”, Bucketheads “King James” or Steve Vai’s “Touching Tongues”… where the whammy is used on just a few notes of a line, creating huge interval leaps and a crazy sound…very inspiring. You can do so much more with it too.

So whenever you get a new pedal, play around with it, dont stick with the recommendations in the manual, go wild and see what happens!

On the technical side: experiment with the placement of the pedal! Some pedals sound better in certain positions in the signal chain. A compressor is a good example… you wanna put that first into your signal chain. Or a Wah… there has been that age-long discussion on whether to put it before any distortion (thats what I do, too), or put it behind a fuzz/drive-pedal (I think thats what Zakk Wylde does, for example). Matter of taste, but you should try both. Some pedals even require a certain position to work… kinda. There are some fuzz pedals that need to be early in the signal chain, with no compressor or anything in front of it. Then again, some pedals sound even better with a compressor before it. So that is something you should try! There are some quite general guidelines like “compressor first”, or “delay and rvb into the loop”, but you can get some nice results by trying something different. As far as I know, Tom Morello puts (or used to) his Whammy pedal into the loop of his amp… I saw other guys do that too, while I would use it in front of the amp.

Effects are more than toys or little tools to make it sound “more puhrdy”… they can be musical tools that can help you to express yourself, achieve sounds you couldnt get any other way, inspire songs…
Of course, its not mandatory to use them… if you look at Derek Trucks, he plugs his guitar straight into the amp and thats that, but I recommend to try things out, experiment and you might just find something that gets you started on a new tune…

Guitar sound epiphanies

Is “epiphanies” the correct plural of epiphany? I sure hope so. Well, anyway, I hope you get the idea.
I had the idea for this post sometime this week, when I was teaching… I introduced a rather new student (he’s 13) to Van Halen. He only knew like 2 or 3 songs, and wasn’t familiar with the first album. So of course, I played him “Ain’t Talking Bout Love”, “You Really Got Me” and… “Eruption”.
Now, the second he heard the first powerchords of YRGM, his eyes lit up and he said “Wow, how does he get the guitar to sound THAT awesome??!?!”

Well, first of all, I thought it was awesome that he was that intrigued by the “brown sound”. I mean, how could he not be, but then again, this is 2009, and that student had mainly been listening to stuff like Disturbed, Metallica, SOAD etc… so he was familiar with some heavy and distorted sounds. People in 1978 were so blown away by Eddies sound because you didnt get to hear a hot-rodded awesome sound like that very often back then, but today…

Anyway, I figured Id list a few of those “wow” moments that I had throughout the years. Some of those sounds have become benchmarks for me, and whenever I feel kind of in a rut playing- or sound-wise, listenening to them always is an eye-opener. So here I go, starting of course with…

Eruption – Eddie Van Halen
I remember hearing this the first time. I was like 11 or so, had just gotten a tape of the first VH album, and when I heard Eruption, I was just blown away. It wasnt only the playing, it was the power and aggressiveness and fire of the guitar sound… I mean, take for example the very end with that harmonic slap and the dive-bomb… so powerful, and what a great sound. I could list many moments like that having to do with Eddie, but for now I am gonna settle for this one and focus on sounds by players other than Eddie.

Mutha (Don’t Wanna Go To School Today)- Extreme, Nuno Bettencourt
It was a really tough decision whether I should list this one or the whole Pornographitti-album… I love the sounds on that too. But this one… it starts with an insanely hot, aggressive solo, and I love the sound of that. Not sure whether he was using the ADA MP-1 already (which was the main-amp on Pornographitti), but whatever it is, I love this sound.

Cliffs Of Dover- Eric Johnson
Even before I actually heard Eric, I had read someone describe his sound as “a 1.000 pound violin”. And once I heard the intro of this song, I knew what that meant and how well the description fit. Beautiful, just like his amazing clean sound… for a great use of all his sounds back then, check out the amazing intro of his “Total Electric Guitar” video.

Frenzy – Paul Gilbert
He was still using more gain than he is using now, but to me, its already that aggressive, trebly, stinging (in a good way!) PG-sound…

Remember When – Blues Saraceno
His albums blew me away, not only because of his taste and phrasing, but also because of his guitar sound. So juicy and tasty. One day, I’d love one of those amps his dad built for him (which is what he used on those albums).

Texas Flood – Stevie Ray Vaughan
What an awesome, raunchy, warm and fat blues sound…

Deliver Us – Andy Timmons
I can’t praise that album enough, and the guitar sound on this is so tasty and beautiful. And the Wah-sound in this song became kind of my benchmark for a great Wah-sound.

Seven Friends – Abi von Reininghaus
The german tone ranger. What a juicy, warm and singing sound. And the crushing sus2-chords in between the verses sounds like a wall of amps with the biggest guitar in the world.

Superstitious – Kee Marcello
The playing on Europe`s “Out Of THis World” album is awesome, some of the best 80s-metal-soloing ever, and the sound is perfect as well. Kee definitely ran the whole 9 yards on that album.

Friends – Joe Satriani
Joe had a lot of nice sounds throughout the years, but just like “The Extremist” is my favorite Satch-album song- and vibe-wise, the sounds on this are my favorite Satch-sounds as well.

Rumblin’ Train – Badlands
Jake E. Lee had an insanely gutsy, dry and heavy sound on this, and that, combined with the incredibly bluesy and tasteful playing on this album, makes this another favorite.

I will prolly think of a gazillion more, so I am gonna stop for now…

New Bugera amps about to hit the market

Bugera clinic Nov 08

I am sure you have heard about it, or read some reports on it, or have seen those amps at NAMM:
Bugera presented two new guitar amps there, the 1960 and the 1990.

The 1960: Vintage-style ECC83/EL34-equipped 100 W head. Even though its designed kinda 60s style (at least regarding layout and features, it has an FX loop, which Im sure a lot of people will appreciate)  (click the image or this link to go to the product page at bugera.com)

The 1990: More modern style 2-channel head with ECC83/5881 tube setup. This is switchable from pentode (full power) to a more compressed, lower-volume triode mode (60W instead of the full 100). Click the image or this link to go to the product page.

They’re about to hit the market, and I can’t wait to try them out. I wouldnt be surprised if I’ll  be playing those at future clinics, as the first sound files I heard sound awesome, so Ill try them out asap.

Rant: Signature stuff and special promo-methods

Warning: rant ahead!
One of the things that bother me sometimes, for sure… I just read about a new signature amp being released (the Joe Bonamassa one by Carol Ann amps), and there is a special thing available there: they will only make and sell 12 of the 6L6-version during the first year, and each one of them will be played at one concert by Joe, then signed, and sold to the future buyer with a certificate signed by Joe.  (there will be an EL34 version without signature etc available too, and if people would prefer the 6L6s, I wouldnt be surprised if they could order that option when they buy, or have the tubes changed by a tech)
Well, at a popular guitar website, I read a news report about that, and then checked out the comments about it by some of the readers. And as usual, there were quite a lot of people complaining about this, calling it a rip-off, making fun of the whole idea and saying that it wasnt worth the money etc.
Now, regardless of what I think about this whole thing (its not the point), what bothers me is how people flak away at ideas like this (same thing happened when a guitar company released those EVH-style guitars that he played at shows and signed for the future buyer, and there are a gazillion other examples of special limited edition stuff etc.). Because: my approach to stuff like this is: if you don`t like it, don’t buy it, but also, don`t complain about it and spoil it for people who love the idea.
The thing is, there ARE people who love ideas like that, and don’t mind paying for it. Maybe they just want it as a piece of memorabilia, maybe they are enthusiastic fans and buy it because of that, maybe they love the amp (or those guitars) and have the means to afford it without having to think about it too much. In any case, its their right to buy it without being ridiculed for it, or having the product or idea being shot down by others. Its not like those amps (or guitars, I am not only talking about the Carol Ann-thing, but all these kind of promo-ideas) are the only amps available.
This is for collectors, or players who like the sound of the amp and like the extra-kick of it being “test driven” and signed by Joe B. (or Eddie). If they decide they want it, than that should be respected and not complained about. There seem to be a lot of people who dislike stuff like this, or consider those amps or guitars to exxpensive. Well, boutique amps are never really as affordable as some mass-produced stuff, and limited editions often are expensive whether its by a boutique-company or a big manufacturer. They are for a selected amount of people, and I have met some people who have bought stuff like this, and love it, are glad they did. Some of them worked hard to afford it, and would do it again if they’d have to (and no, I am not talking about myself).
So instead of spreading a lot of negativity and shoot down a product while not even being interested in buying it, just spoiling it for others, I wish some people would just accept its not meant for them, or is just a special treat for fans or collectors or whatever. Sure, everyone has a right to express his or her opinion (after all, that’s what I do here), but also, the future buyers of stuff like that have the right to make that decision, and sure don’t need anyone acting as if they have to, I dont know, uncover some conspiracy or whatever. Whoever buys stuff like this sure knows the prize and made the decision to buy it anyway, and is free to do so. There ARE buyers for it, if there weren’t, companies wouldnt put this stuff out.

Just to make clear: I havent bought stuff like that yet, and I am not affiliated with Jackson, Carol Ann or other companies who offer stuff like this. My point is: even if I am not interested, I leave the decision to buy it or not to everyone, and dont belittle the company or people who buy it, and sometimes I think it would make sense if others would do the same. Just my opinion though =)

Joe Bonamassa – The Ballad Of John Henry

I find myself listening to the new album by Joe Bonamassa (“The Ballad Of John Henry”) a whole lot recently, and I recommend it to everyone who’s into blues and blues rock… and great guitar-playing (of course, the songwriting rocks as well). I enjoy this album even more than his last studio album, this one, to me, has even more vibe, and I love the versatility… from laid-back, New Orleans style stuff to straight blues rock and harder-rocking stuff (reminding me of some 60s and 70s stuff), there’s a lot of great music on this album. The guitar sounds, tone and playing rock, as usual.
I also recommend to check out Joe’s recent cover story in Guitar Player magazine… not only should give that gear-heads something to really drool about, but some of the stuff Joe says really is worth reading. For example his view on success and his attitude regarding “I’ve seen many people climb the mountain to the top as quickly as possible and then falling. I rather prefer to climb up 3/4s of the way and stick there, instead of falling and ending up in base camp” (I’m paraphrasing). I really wish him a lot of luck and success, and I love his attitude there.

He seems to be a great, down to earth guy, a great entertainer, and someone who just loves to play, loves music and does his thing… very inspiring.
Check it out (click the cover or this link to go to the amazon-page for that album)

Random thoughts on…pickups

Writing about Dave Hunter’s book on pickups in the “book recommendations” post made me think of some things regarding pickups. After all, I was interested in that subject early on, ever since my guitar teacher back then introduced me to the concept of replacing the pickup in your guitar in order to get a different sound:
At first, I did so to “get a bit more out of the guitar”… I couldnt afford any decent guitars back then, so I bought a cheap one and then added a different pickup in order to get a slightly (or rather way) different sound out of it.
Now, here is one of the truths I learned throughout the years: Not even the best pickup will turn a really crappy guitar into an awesome one. If it could, you could just slap a good pickup onto a 2×4 and have a good sounding guitar. Thats not so… of course the instrument you put your pickup in is a big part of the equation (same goes for the amp etc, of course).

However, you may be able to get a more appropriate sound (for your style of music) out of a low budget guitar… or fine tune an instrument thats not exactly meant for your style to make it a better fit… think of Iron Maiden and their use of humbucker- and FR-equipped Strats for their brand of classic metal.
Sometimes, even a mid- to upper-prized guitar might sound better with a different pickup, and it surely depends on your taste. If you like the feel of a vintage-style Strat, but love distortion and metal-style sounds, you might wanna replace the vintage-style pickups with humbuckers (like, SC-sized ones).

Another thing that I learned and that still seems to confuse people: the impedance will NOT always tell you what a pickup sound like. If you take i.e. a pickup with 8 KOhm and one with 12 KOhm, the one with the lower value might still sound hotter and louder than the other one. Sure it might be a good way to get a general idea (say you look for vintage output and have a choice between a humbucker with 19 KOhm and one with 5K, you will prolly prefer the second one).
However, there are other important values and data, not all of them measurable as the impedance.

One of the other factors of course is the magnet material used. There seems to be a common prejudice about Alnico vs. ceramic magnets. It seems as if a lot of people think the ceramic one will automatically sound louder or more aggressive or more sterile, with the Alnico being the more “classic style”, more “musical” magnet. Not so! There are some great ceramic-based pickups that can get you great vintage sounds, warm and full musical vibes, while there are some Alnico-based pickups sound exactly like the “bad ceramics”-cliché.
Also, not all Alnico-alloys do sound exactly the same, so an Alnico 3 alloy by one company might bring different results than the same alloy by another one.
There are a LOT of factors involved, like what wire was used, what pole-pieces, how many windings, how far/close are the pickups to the string.

Example: for a while I always put all pickups as close to the string as possible. Of course I knew about “Stratitis” and wolf tones, so I watched out for that. However, I eventually learned that putting the pickups (or one of them) further away from the string might result in a bigger, warmer sound, and some pickups actually don’t “shine” unless you lower them a bit. I once tried a rather popular set of singlecoils that were installed in a students guitar (a decent one). At first I was kinda shocked because those pickups didnt sound all that great (I knew the sound of the guitar before the pickup-change). Then, just for the heck of it, we experimented with pickup height and lo and behold, suddenly the pickups started to deliver the sound that was promised by the manufacturer.

You should experiment with that, for sure! And keep in mind that even half a millimeter can make a huge difference! And even if you use the same pickup model in each guitar, you might wanna experiment, as a certain pickup-string-distance might work in one guitar and might not in another.

Another thought? In order for the best noise-cancelling effect of a humbucker, both coils should be as symetrical as possible. However, a lot of times, humbuckers with non-symetrical coils might sound better than ones with almost absolutely symetrical ones. There are some humbuckers with coils that are not symetrical at all that sound just awesome even though they might not be that successful when it comes to “bucking the hum”.

Or, while we’re at it: Potting a pickup will sure make the pickup more resistant to microphonic feedback, but then again, potting it can change the sound as well!

Some of this might be nit-picking, some of it definitely is not. I have tried out so many different pickups, have done shoot-outs, tried bunches of different pickups in the same guitar, or one particular one in different guitars, and there is a lot to discover! And before you subscrie to some of those “cliches” or “golden rules”, try them out and use your ears!

Book recommendations

If you are a guitarist and you haven’t checked on books by the Backbeat Publishing House (by the way, I am not affiliated with them!), I really recommend you DO take a look at them, especially at the books written by Dave Hunter (you might be familiar with his work already, among other things he is writing articles for GW magazine).
Dave really is a great writer… he puts things in an easy-to-understand way even if you are not a total gear-head, he approaches stuff as a PLAYER, and he does great interviews too!

Here are some of the books by him that I read, click on each cover to go to the Amazon-page for it…

The Guitar Pickups Handbook

THis, I believe, is his most recent book. Its quite similar in structure to some of his other works, like the Effects-book. He starts with some general information on pickups, describes how they work and gives us some history (some very interesting details in there!), then goes ahead and describes pickups by some of the major manufacturers… Fender, Gibson, DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, plus some smaller companies, like Joe Barden. Each manufacturer-section has a very handy short description of the most popular pickups by the respective company, with tech details and a quick description of the sound. Very cool, might be handy when you look for new pickups.
THe part I enjoyed the most (same as with the book on FX) were the interviews (“Meet The Makers…”) at the end… Larry DiMarzio and Steve Blucher, Seymour Duncan, Joe Barden and others. The interview with Barden has some cool stories about Danny Gatton and Bonnie Raitt, which is a great read.
To sum it up, a very well-written book on pickups, not only for gear-heads, but for pretty much every electric guitar-player! Amazon link

Guitar Effects Pedals – The Practical Handbook

As I said, very similar to the pickup-one. History and general info on effect pedals, then Dave goes through some legendary and more recent pedals by some of the major makers as well as some smaller companies, and at the end, there again are some great interviews with some of the “makers”, like Michael Fuller and Mike Matthews. By the way, most of Dave’s book come with CDs where you can hear some of the items described, like the effects in this book! Amazon link

The Guitar Amp Handbook

The topic itself (amps) can be quite complicated, especially if you don’t know much about electronics in general or how an amp works in particular. This book is a great starting point if you wanna get into it, not only a great resource to learn about how amps work, but also has a lot of great info on how to get the most of your amp, and of course, interviews with some of the makers. Unless you are already very familiar with the topic, you might wanna look at this, it’s more than a great starting point! Amazon link

The Electric Guitar Sourcebook

This is another great one… it starts with general information on the components of the electric guitar… different kind of woods and how they affect the sound, hardware, etc. Then, Dave walks us through different kinds of guitars, from legendary and more recent solidbodies to semihollows and jazz boxes. The CD is great, as you get to hear i.e. different starts (vintage ones and a new one) played through the same amp, so you can get an idea about how different they can sound. Very interesting read, and some great pictures in there too!
Amazon link

Guitar Rigs

This is a fun read, and the pictures in here are awesome! Dave writes about some classic guitar/amp combinations, like the “Hendrix-rig” (Strat and the Marshall-stack he used which was reissued a while ago), or a jazz setup, or a classic blues-setup. Not only do you get info on those rigs, but also some great historical infos on the companies that made them. And its fun to just look at those great photos too! Amazon link

Well, that’s it for now. However, Dave Hunter has written some other great book. I just recently checked out his “Totally Interactive Guitar Bible” (comes with two books, 2 DVDs and some great lessons especially for beginners) and “Play Acoustic“. He has written even more, and based on the books I have read, those should be worth checking out too!
I might post another recommendation list with titles by other authors in the near future, and I hope the ones in this post were interesting to you. Oh, and once again, I am in now way, shape or form affiliated with Dave Hunter or Backbeat Books!

While we’re at it…

…I’d like to share some more thoughts on Jeff Beck. Listening to the album reminded me of how I discovered the “Blow By Blow” album, and especially “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers”. That ballad is just so beautiful, and not only is it like a blueprint for so many instrumental guitar ballads, its just a beautiful lesson on phrasing and tone.
I even found myself picking up a guitar and playing along to it again. I had learned the song back when I first got into the album it is on, and one thing I quickly realized back then: even though the melodies themselves are not all that complicated, the way he plays them is amazing. If you really pay attention to how exactly he plays them, you’ll hear how many different things he uses to play them.
He might take a simple 3 note figure, and play them “the regular” way the first time, then use slides or a chromatic passing tone the next time, and then use a bend or pre-bend the third time.
Of course you might ask “Why should I learn all those details and play it just the way he did? After all, it’s HIS statement, his version, and he plays it a little different every time he performs this song anyway!”
Well, you are right, and of course, if you play this, you should also try to interpret it YOUR way, taking those melodies and play them your own way, put your voice, your spin onto it.

BUT!

Playing it as closely to Jeff’s way as possible, using his way of phrasing it is just a great lesson! There are so many little details in it that you might miss when first hearing it, so it might take some time to figure out how he does all that, but when I learned it back then, it really was a great lesson in phrasing for me, and gave me a bunch of new ideas and things to work on. Also, back then, I at first thought learning it would be so easy compared to some of the other stuff I was working on (like some shred-stuff).
Well, it took just as long, maybe even longer (don’t remember, it’s been a while) because of all those little things he put in there. It’s amazing to notice all that, and I really recommend to a) try to play some parts or the whole song the way Jeff does and b) learn the tune anyway and play it your way. Sit down with it and try to play those melodies in as many ways as you can think of, use your own way of phrasing, your voice, turn it into a personal statement!
And most of all, if you are not familiar with the song, check it out, whether it’s the original version on the “Blow By Blow” album or the most recent one on the live-album I mentioned in the listening recommendations.