Archive for November, 2009
A steel stringed electric guitar is a remarkably built musical instrument. From the hollow body of an acoustic guitar to the solid body of a bass guitar to the semi-hollow body of a jazz style electric guitar they all have one thing in common, because of the stress on the neck caused by the tension of the steel strings they all have truss rods in their neck.
Because of the tension on the neck sometimes the neck on a guitar can become bent, think of it like you have a very tight rope tied from your head to your toes, your head would be pulled towards your toes bending you till you were hunched over, another example would be like a recurve bow, take a 36€³ staight stick put a 30€³ string at one end and pull it tight so you can attach it to the other end, this action would bend the stick creating a bow so you can attach the string to the other side.
To check your guitar you need a 36€³ straight edge, while holding it against the neck if the neck is not flat against the straight edge you need to adjust it. When you bought your guitar it came with an allen wrench, that is what is used to adjust the neck, the access for the allen wrench is behind a plate in the front of the head stock on some guitars, in the back of others, for s0me guitars it’s where the body meets the neck, for hollow body guitars you might need to remove the strings and reach up in the sound hole towards the neck.
Very important, when making any adjustments only adjust 1/4 turn at a time, after each adjustment use your straight edge and check the neck it’s that simple. DO NOT OVERADJUST or you will break the truss rod and you will be stuck with a costly repair or you will be buying a new guitar.
Bass guitar is a great instrument to play. Unlike rhythym guitar that has to play the melody without strayng, playing bass guitar you can either play the root notes which is very plain and boring or if you learn to play chords you can put together interesting bass patterns.
Most of the time the use of bass guitar in music is that of a back up instrument. Once in a while a there is a song that along with the vocals features the bass in front of all other instruments.
Several of these songs come to mind “Miss You” by The Rolling Stones is one of them, with its toe tapping bass line it will definitely keep your interest. Paul McCartney is one of the masters at inserting interesting basslines, take a listen at “Silly Love Songs” a song he wrote and recorded with his group Wings. Again here is a prime example of what I am talking about. A third song I thought of is a song put out by one of the forgotten bands of the 60’s The Critters, the name of the song is “Mr. Dieingly Sad”. The bass player for the group was Ken Gorka, And while the bass line is not complicated it is right there with the vocal as a lead instrument on the song.
There are some bands that are easy to remember like The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Beatles, AC~DC, Queen, they are either remembered for a particular song that you like, or you remember them for a particular musician. One band that comes to my mind as not being well remembered is The Amboy Dukes.
In 1968 The Amboy Dukes came out with a single “Journey To The Center Of Your Mind”, this is the song I remember them for. The electric guitar that was played for this song is a Gibson hollow body guitar played through a Fender guitar amplifier, the guitar was attached to a musician by the name of Ted Nugent. His so called signature sound was achieved playing only with Fender Amplifers.
Maybe you agree, maybe you disagree with his personal or political convictions but one thing you have to agree on is this guy can play guitar, listen to the song I mentioned above and listen for yourself.
I just finished reading a thought-provoking book by Malcolm Gladwell titled “Outliers: The Story of Success.” The idea behind the book was to investigate why certain individuals excel at various pursuits and industries while others flounder in mediocrity. It concludes that many of the most successful people have more than just raw talent in common – they also put in hours and hours of dedication to their craft.
The Beatles are presented as one case study supporting this theory. Before they became a breakout hit in Britain and swept across the Atlantic to perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” the Beatles were just a bar band doing tons of gigs in Germany. They spent so much time playing together and tightening their sound that they were light years ahead of many more experienced bands. Even if you as a fledgling guitar player aren’t aiming for fame and fortune, you can improve by leaps and bounds by putting some dedication into your custom acoustic guitar playing.
The name of this song was arrived at after watching a club band, and after their set at the end of the night the lead singer would announce thanks for coming out “We Are the Sultans Of Swing”. The “Sultans Of Swing’ was recorded by a band by the name of Dire Straits.
Dire Straits were a british rock band formed in the 70’s and while punk rock was more popular at the time they chose a music style that was more conventional. Their approach to music was very different than other bands then or now in that they preferred their sound be lowered when playing gigs so that people could converse while the music is being played.
Mark Knopfler is the singer and lead guitarist for Dire Straits, he also iss their songwriter. He plays electric guitar with a fingerpicking style that is more associated with playing an acoustic guitar. His favorite style electric guitar is the stratocaster, although in the 80’s he would use also use a (LP) Les Paul style guitar. His electric guitar packages would include various combinations of guitar amplifiers to produce the sound he was looking for.
As a musician when I see a band I always look at what style or make of electric guitar is being used, is the bass buitar a P-Bass or a J-bass or possibly an LP bass, what configuration is used by the drummer. When plying a particular song the guitarist will change from one electric guitar to another or even to an acoustic guitar I try to observe the particular sound he is looking for.
The shape and style of a guitar has an effect on its sound. In the earlier days of rock and roll the telecaster style guitar was more sought after as a lead guitar while the stratocaster style guitar was used more for rhythym. You’ll find a Gibson Les Paul model guitar will sound different from a Fender Stratocaster style guitar. I wrote a blog on Terry Kath who installed a Gibson pickup along with his Fender pickup that was already on his telecaster so he could go switch between a Fender sound and a Gibson sound.
Another thing that will change the sound of their guitars is feeding it through different amplifiers and pre-amps. It has always fascinated me the different configurations some of these musicians come up with to achieve their sound.
Just as electric guitars and bass guitars have their place in music so does outrageous outfits or costumes. Earlier bands were very neat , normally wearing matching suits and ties, some groups would wear the same style jacket or suits while eveyone would have coordinating colors it was like going to a wedding.
Today everybody is familiar with AC~DC, watching Angus Young with his familiar Gibson electric guitar and his likewise familiar schoolboy uniform, however he isn’t the first one to don the knickers. In the mid 60’s there was a band known as The Young Rascals today they are called The Rascals, they were the first to wear school uniforms but with them the whole band would be wearing knickers.
In the 70’s there was and still is a band perhaps you have heard of them Kiss. They are known for their highly entertaining stage performances along for their outrageous costumes. A group that shared the music scene with Kiss during the early 70’s but actually started during the mid to late 60’s is Paul Revere and the Raiders, like the attension getting costumes of Kiss and as their name emplied Paul Revere and the Raiders wore colorful soldier outfits from the American Revolutionary War.
For the bands or music acts today such as Lady Ga Ga, wearing what could be called outrageous costumes today, it is not much different than some groups of earlier times.
When you talk about or even think about rock and roll you immediately think electric guitars, bass guitars, and drums. Through the years the use of other instruments not associated with rock have been used.
Going back to late 50’s Buddy Holly and the Crickets used a “Celesta” in the song “Everyday”. If you have never seen a celesta it looks just like an upright piano. It is also related to the “glockenspiel”, although with a softer tone. The celesta was used on Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy”, that’s how rare it was to rock and roll at the time Holly used it.
During the 70’s there was a band called Starbucks, the name of the song was “Moonlight Feels Right”, this song made use of a xylophone. Also in the 70’s and 80’s ELO who in the year 2000 started up again made use of violins and cellos, as they were known as a symphonic rock group.
These are only a few of the non traditional instruments that have been used along side the electric guitars of rock and roll.
There are and have been some outstanding groups, some have good sound without having an outstanding lead guitar or bass guitar. There are some bands that focus more on vocals, which is OK, then there some that have really good stand out musician.
Two bands that come to mind are Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Although Led Zeppelin was primarily known as a rock band, Black Sabbath was a heavy metal band. The two bands share one thing, they both have a lead guitar player of an 0utstanding caliber. Tony Iommi is the lead guitarist for Black Sabbath and Jimmy Page is the lead guitarist behind Led Zeppelin.
Both are among the top guitarists on the list of “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. They are both credited with pioneering some of the greatest electric guitar riffs of heavy metal.
Tony Iommi has had a series of Gibson SG electric guitars while Jimmy Page made famous the use of a double neck electric guitar by Gibson.
To often in my opinion is the fact that in today’s music the roles of the members of the band playing electric guitars is not defined. For me it is hard to seperate the lead guitar from the rhythym.
Maybe it is the fact that music is recorded digitally today. In the 60’s when a song was recorded in stereo you could hear the distinctive instruments like you were sitting in the studio when the song was recorded.
Take the song “It’ Only Love” recorded by The Beatles the roles of each of the band members stands out, listen to the lead guitar of George Harrison, in my opinion that is what a lead guitar should sound like. Listen close and you will hear the rhytym guitar of John Lennon, and the bass guitar of Paul McCartney both serve as purely background instruments on this song.
This song appears on two Beatles albums “Help” and “Rubber Soul” and for my taste is what is lacking in the music of today.