Any Marshall lovers out there?

[Les]

I have no idea what you guys are talking about, but I sure am learning and enjoying it! Anything that has to do with wood, wire and "hot air" coming out of a person's mouth fascinates me.

All I knew about gitters came from K-zoo and the Gibson Co. My Grandfather made a couple of fiddles and my Father had an L-something Gibson that supposedly was valuable. We have a local music shop, Elderly Instruments, that displays instruments under glass and in climate control rooms that have price tags of new Corvettes!

Keep the thread going, I am learning!

[ozofprev]

Me too, Les.

I love the diversity of talents here. The arts are undervalued these days. I am still working on the "gitter". I'm just about ready to move beyond the basic barre chords, and the beginning lingo of hammer-ons, pull-offs, and the like.

There is nothing more humbling than learning a new instrument.

[SonOfSwamp]

Originally posted by Bain

I saw an article about the self-tuning Les Paul earlier this week. Like lots of rock-n-rollers, I've always tuned a half-step flat. I wonder if the tuners can be adjusted to do likewise. And what about open tunings? Isn't almost every Stones tune played in open G?

Keith Richards uses more than one open tuning, best I know.

As for tuning down a half-step, there are standalone tuners that let you do that. One is the Peterson StroboStomp, which is what I use: http://www.strobostomp.com/

Integrating a fractious electro/mechanical tuning system into a guitar is just nuts. Anybody who can't tune his guitar with his ears and a good tuner shouldn't waste money on an expensive guitar like the Gibson Robot.

WJ

[SonOfSwamp]

Originally posted by Tim H

Walter, I have a 1960 Strat that needs to be restored, anyone you know in Nashville that you could recommend? I need to find someone close to Alabama so that I could drive it to the shop. I really dont want to ship the neck.

Tim

You want Joe Glaser, here in Nashville. Accept no substitutes. I'm toying with the idea of having him build me a custom Strat. He's built 'em for Ricky Scaggs and Vince Gill...

You do know the Strat is probably worth as much as a Lexus, right?

Joe Glaser

Glaser Instruments

434 East Iris Drive

Nashville, TN 37204

615/298-1139

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[Bain]

I said almost every Stones song, Walter. And I was dead-on.

Also, it sounds as if you haven't played much in front of audiences. I have, and there's nothing more frustrating than when a guitar goes out of tune midway through a set. You can't very well pull out an electronic tuner or stand on stage twisting your keys when there are people in front of you and there's lots of background noise swarping around. You can plug direct into most tuners these days, which eliminates the background noise problem, but still, that isn't practical.

I've never seen automatic tuners and don't know if they do their thing in five seconds or five minutes. But if they work, and work fast, they'd be pretty handy to have on board.

I bet you can't use a tremolo bar with them. My Floyd Rose is tuned down at the saddle.

[SonOfSwamp]

Originally posted by Bain

I said almost every Stones song, Walter. And I was dead-on.

Also, it sounds as if you haven't played much in front of audiences. I have, and there's nothing more frustrating than when a guitar goes out of tune midway through a set. You can't very well pull out an electronic tuner or stand on stage twisting your keys when there are people in front of you and there's lots of background noise swarping around. You can plug direct into most tuners these days, which eliminates the background noise problem, but still, that isn't practical.

I've never seen automatic tuners and don't know if they do their thing in five seconds or five minutes. But if they work, and work fast, they'd be pretty handy to have on board.

I bet you can't use a tremolo bar with them. My Floyd Rose is tuned down at the saddle.

Well, I pretty much made a living playing live from age 12 to about age 30. Weekend gigs as a teenager; six-night-a-week gigs after that. In the 70s, I played seven nights a week in the house band in James Brown's house band, at his club, the Third World. That's where Cornell Dupree walked up to me and said, "You are the funkiest-playing white boy I ever heard." At the time, I didn't know who Cornell Dupree was, and I didn't know how much that compliment meant.

I played lead guitar on a six-night gig with Brook Benton, played for the circus, played in the orchestra pit at an old-fashioned minstrel show, and worked hundreds of corporate gigs, weddings, bar mitzphahs, etc. I even played bass on a big-band gig. With no charts! Conductor left the charts at home.

Since age 30, when I became a freelance writer, guitar-playing has been limited to mostly sit-ins and jams. As I tell some of my buddies who invite me to gigs: These days, I just don't go to places where people puke in the toilets.

FWIW, I find the StroboStomp to be infinitely practical. Mash the button on the floor, tune the string(s), carry on. Background noise isn't a problem. The tuner only "hears" the string that's getting tuned. There's no signal to the amp when the tuner's engaged. If the guitar's not all messed up, one can tune up over the course of one measure.

Best I can tell, the Gibson Robot takes a little while to tune up. There's button mashing and blinkylights involved. I saw some demos on a Gibson website, but I don't have the URL.

Maybe it's just me, but I think it's a sad day when a guitar player can't tune his own instrument without the help of a "robot." Hell, all the thing's doing is "listening" and turning the tuning pegs. The listening part's easy, whether it's a person or a tuner doing the listening. In a peg-turning competition, I think fingers beat robots.

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[Bain]

Don't misunderstand and think I'm disagreeing with you, Walter. In the early days, I'd tune my guitar by spinning an album, getting the A or E string in sync, and going from there. I still own and use a Korg electronic tuner that I bought back in the seventies just 'cause it's old and funky and still works perfectly. Except, that is, that the battery drains really quickly now, even when the tuner isn't used much. Jim K. probably knows how to correct the problem, but I don't want to test his immeasurable kindness and patience by asking him about it.

When I was a youngster, I supported myself and paid for college by teaching guitar and playing in bars, clubs, and high screwl gymnasiums. I remember playing Free Bird three times in row at a senior prom because the boppers kept requesting it so they could flail away at their air guitars and humiliate themselves by dancing in a disjointed, clumsy way that was pretty much the same way I danced at the time.

I was in California for a couple of years after college with my band, Broken Toys. Don't say anything. It's punishment enough for me to have to type the words and remind myself what a dopey name it was. We actually developed a decent following, and became regulars at the Roxy and the Whisky a Go Go. But . . . the Reader's Digest version is that it didn't work out.

Back on topic--a musician can't play her instrument if her ear isn't sensitive enough to tune it in the first place(Then again, Bob Dylan never hit a note and made millions, didn't he?). But for a working musician, it would be pretty handy if every couple of songs he could push a button or pull a lever and render his guitar perfectly in tune. I wasn't inferring that the gizmos could or should take the place of talent or perception, just that they might be a handy addition to all the other toys and gadgets we musicians tend to accumulate.

[John Dirks Jr]

guess who?

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[SonOfSwamp]

Originally posted by Bain

Back on topic--a musician can't play her instrument if her ear isn't sensitive enough to tune it in the first place(Then again, Bob Dylan never hit a note and made millions, didn't he?). But for a working musician, it would be pretty handy if every couple of songs he could push a button or pull a lever and render his guitar perfectly in tune. I wasn't inferring that the gizmos could or should take the place of talent or perception, just that they might be a handy addition to all the other toys and gadgets we musicians tend to accumulate.

The Gibson Robot's on YouTube. Looky here:

It'll tune itself down a half-step to Eb, and/or it'll tune to any number of open tunings, such as open E, DADGAD, etc.

It costs two grand. If it were me, I'd add a grand and get a luthier to build a one-off custom job to fit my hands.

Is it just me, or is the thing just a leetle out of tune after the guy says it's all tuned up?

And am I the only one who thinks it's kinda creepy when the tuners start turning all by themselves?

Amityville guitar.

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[Bain]

A little creepy, indeed. I think I've altered my position on the things after checking out that video. I wonder how many falls from guitar stands or knocks against walls the mechanics within the tuning keys could withstand? Also, there's a lot going on within the potentiometer that the guy refers to as the "control knob." I'll bet that the loss of one LED equals total replacement of the pot, which you know has to be expensive.

You've convinced me, Walter. I'm gonna stick with my ancient, funky Korg.

[Les]

As for me - I continue to read and listen. I can tune a '55 Chevy but still have a problem with more than one knob on the radio.

[Bain]

If you ever need help with that radio, Les, you can count on me.

[davidlord]

My son (7) wants to learn guitar so I figured I would also learn (being as how I can play wipeout on the countertop). My question is acoustic or electric?

[ozofprev]

I'm definitely not the expert, but I was glad I started with the acoustic because:

1) I built up my callouses quickly.

2) Increased finger strength.

3) I was happy when I went to electric. (The other way might be disappointing.)

I like to play both - not that people like to hear either. There's not always an amplifier around when you are out camping, so acoustic is necessary to that extent. I prefer electric, but that's personal choice.

GET BOTH! Good stuff isn't much money. Once your kid becomes a rock star, then he can buy the ones that cost the same as a Lexus.

I'm sure it doesn't matter to the experts who can make either sing.

[SonOfSwamp]

Originally posted by davidlord

My son (7) wants to learn guitar so I figured I would also learn (being as how I can play wipeout on the countertop). My question is acoustic or electric?

No reason not to have both if you don't mind paying for two.

The kid will tell you which he wants to play. If he wants to play coffee shops, acoustic. If he wants to play clubs or arenas, electric. Of course, when you buy the electric guitar, you have to buy the amp, the wobbler pedals, the cables, the tuner, etc.

I say buy a good tube amp, not a solid-state amp. Solid-state amps sound like crap. (That said, the kids like the Line6 Pods. Tiny, cheap, and sound good to kids who don't know any better.)

Odd as it seems, cheap electric guitars are pretty good these days. The $300 Mexican Fender electrics are useful. An excellent acoustic guitar is a lot harder to build. A decent one could easily cost you $1K.

You can buy a decent acoustic/electric for under $1K. Thing is, it's just an amplified acoustic guitar. Won't howl like an electric electric.

WJ

[Inspectorjoe]

I enjoyed this thread the first time around (although the technical talk was Greek to me), so I thought I'd revive it. I have absolutely no musical talent, but I do have a love of music.

Twenty some years ago, I used to tape bands at the local dive known as the 4 G's Hotel, and play the shows on my weekly college station radio show. I did it on a shoestring, using stuff from Radio Shack, and I figured out how to do it as I went along. They didn't turn out too bad, considering that I was wearing several hats: recording engineer, cameraman and most importantly, a bar patron out to have a good time.

I recently dug out the tapes and started putting putting some things on Youtube. The one below kind of stays with the topic, since the guitarist uses a stack o' Marshall's. This guy has a PhD in microbiology and now makes a living as a writer, but back in the 80's, his main goal in life was to lead a biker band, Dick Destiny and the Highway kings.

[utube]

[/utube]

If that's a little too hard-edged, here's some straight blues from the Tall Guys.

[utube]

[/utube]

[gtblum]

1997 Les Paul custom shop florentine with a rare solid birdseye maple top. Line 6 amp, usually set like a 68 Marshall plexi. sounds close but it's no Marshall.

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