Archive for January, 2010
You just received the new bass guitar you ordered by mail and can’t wait to get started playing it. You are all excited opening the box, you undo all the packing and carefully take it out of the box, put your strap on it and start to play.
In playing a note on the first fret you notice the strings are high and it is very difficult to play or there’s a buzz on the string. You try the next string and find the same, you discover all the strings have the same problem, don’t be alarmed this is not an uncommon condition, and is easy to remedy.
On the bridge of your bass guitar there are barrel like pieces that the strings sit on these are called saddles. These saddles need to be lowered if the strings are too high, or raised if you are getting a buzz.
The saddles are easy to adjust, do one string at a time then adjust the remaining strings the same way. If you are raising the saddles don’t forget to let up on the string tension with the tuning peg, and don’t forget to tune your bass guitar when you are finished. Lots of luck, I know you can do it.
Wether you paid one dollar or one thousand dollars for your electric guitar or electric bass guitar they all have something in common, they all need maintenance at some time or another. Here are some simple tips you should apply for keeping up your guitar or bass.
If you find your strings are either hard to play or have lost their luster try wiping the strings with a polish, or if that doesn’t work replace the strings then wipe them down regularly. Is your bass guitar looking dull and dirty clean the wood with a polish that is recommended for guitars, and don’t use just any old cloth, again use one that is recommended for your guitar and won’t scratch it.
Where you keep your guitar or bass can have a big impact on the way it looks and plays, don’t keep in a place where there is too much moisture. The humidity should be about 45 to 55 percent in a room where the temperature is 65 to 75 degrees. Not enough humidity will cause the wood in your guitar to dry out and crack, while to much humidity will cause the wood to swell and crack.
You have already purchased a bass guitar package and have had it for a while. You’ve practiced everyday and have become fairly proficient at it and are ready to take the next step, however you’re not sure what wether to try another style of bass guitar, or get a bigger bass amplifier.
Why choose, consider the advantages of having both another style bass guitar, and another amplifier. With the right bass guitar package you can have both. As with electric guitars all bass guitars don’t play alike, or sound alike. Having another style bass guitar gives you the flexibility to experiment between the two when your playing a song, you might like the sound of one over the other, or the feel of one over the other.
When looking for another bass guitar package look for one with a different size amplifier than that of the one you already have. Again this gives you more flexibility, let’s say you already had a 10w bass amplifier and have now picked up a 20w amplifier, you can either play either bass guitar with either of the amps or you can treat one amp as a pre-amp. This is achieved by running one cable from your bass to the first amp (lets say the 10w bass amp), next you would run another cable from the headphones jack of the first amp to the input jack of the second amp. (by the way the second cable you get along with the 2nd bass package). Don’t be afraid to experiment with it that’s how the professionals get their sound.
Carlos Santana is a Mexican born rock star whose career spans 5 decades. The unique sound he arrives at from his Gibson custom electric guitar is purely his own.
Today’s generation mostly know him from his many collaborations such as “Smooth” featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty doing the vocals, and Carlos Santana supplying guts of the song with guitar fills and runs that we have come to expect from him.
Some of the kids today might be familiar with some of his older songs like “Evil Ways” and “Black Magic Woman”. These songs were made up of that Latin electric guitar style that drew us all in like a magnet, along the vocals that were provided by Gregg Rolie in those days.
My particular favorite song by Santana is “Everything Is Coming Our Way”. I don’t know why but I consider this a sexy song, I guess it’s just the way it comes across to me. It’s one of the rare songs that features Carlos Santana doing the lead vocals, the solo is provided by a keyboard with Carlos playing rhythm guitar
There are many different styles and shapes of electric guitars. There’s also a few different styles of acoustic guitars. When I started to play in the mid 60’s your color choices were also limited.
These days you can get a guitar in just about any shape imaginable, I’ve seen guitars and bass guitars in a vee shape, and shaped like a star. A guitar that I think has a weird shape is the Gibson Firebird. Gibson produced this guitar to compete with the Fender Telecaster guitar. A guitar that was pretty much made famous by heavy metal bands is the Gibson Explorer.
For me the best style guitars are the ones that have become a standard in the industry. Guitar shapes like the Les Pauls, Telecasters, and Stratocasters have proved themselves to be ergonomically balanced, and the most comfortable.
One thing that has changed dramatically with electric guitars, bass guitars, and acoustic guitars is the color and the finish you can get on them. In my day there was a choice of standard colors like black, red, blue,white, and sunburst. Today you can get the same colors but you can also get those colors in a metallic finish, and different color bursts. You can find guitars in hot pink, purple, green, animal stripes, anything you can think of you can find. Some of the finishes I particularly like today are the ones that show off the wood grain. Woods like quilted maple, and ash, with transparent colors, or different color stains like walnut, along with a high gloss lacquer finish makes them among my favorites.
Southern rock is a category of music that combines rock and roll, blues, and country music. Southern rock mainly focuses on vocals and electric guitars.
Many of the first wave of stars in rock and roll were southerners. Its’ origin can be traced back to the 1950’s with rock and rollers like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, and Little Richard.
The British invasion was responsible for taking rock and roll out of the south and moving it overseas to places like Liverpool in the 1960’s. The Allman Brothers around 1970 were one of the bands credited for bringing rock and roll back to ts roots in the south. Other bands around that time were Wet Willie out of Alabama, and the Marshall Tucker Band from South Carolina.
Another wave of bands in the 70’s were Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, and .38 Special. You can just hear the rhythm guitars when these bands are mentioned, and how about the guitar solos.
Have you heard the Doobie Brothers lately? I’m not just referring to the recorded songs you hear on the radio, I’m talking about some of their live music.
If you are not familiar with the Doobie Brothers they have been around since 1970 have to date sold over 300 million albums. While most of the band have been replaced through the years Tom Johnson and Pat Simmons have been with the band from the beginning (give or take a few years). Tom Johnson handles most of the lead vocals along with guitar, Pat Simmons is a good compliment to Tom on vocals as well as on guitar, John McFee has been on and off with the band since 1979 and is another good compliment to the guitar package of Tom and Pat also helps with the vocals. Skylark was added to the band in 1995 and is a great addition, his bass guitar style is effective yet simple. The bass guitar sound he provides rounds out their guitar package.
One particular song of theirs shows off their versatility, the name of the song is “Steamer Lane Breakdown”. While alot of their other songs are make use of electric guitars and vocals this one is a bluegrass instrumental, it features Tom playing rhythm on an acoustic guitar, Pat finger-picking on a acoustic guitar and John with some great work on a steel guitar.
Scrambled eggs is the original name of a song written in by Paul McCartney in 1964, and recorded by The Beatles in 1965. It is one of a half dozen most performed songs, along with being the having the most cover versions of all time, being covered by more than 3000 times.
This controversial song almost didn’t make it as John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr felt it wasn’t like any Beatles song to that time. After the song kicked around for a bit was finished using Pauls’ Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar, and recorded by Paul by himself using the same acoustic guitar and being accompanied by a string quartet.
Despite being recorded in 1965 and because it wasn’t accepted by the other Beatles along with others, it wasn’t release in the UK as a single until March of 1976 ten years later.
A poll taken by a BBC radio station in 1999 stated this song was voted the Best Song of the 20th Century.
Having just the melody with no lyrics the song was titled Scrambled Eggs as a joke until it got its’ real name. The name of the song is “Yesterday”.
In music, a short piece of music wether it comes from the rhythm of an electric guitar, or the individual notes of a guitar or bass guitar, as long a it is played in repetition and is always of equal sounds is called an ostinato. A riff is essentially a slang for a ostinato.
Through the years there has been some really great and memorable riffs, ”Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple is one of them, it is recognized by us older citizens since it came from our era, and it is known by the younger generation thru video games. “The Wall” by Pink Floyd is another popular riff known by millions.
Riffs are not just popular in rock, your also hear riffs in jazz, R&B, country and every other kind of music.
Guitar Hero was a hit for several years in Japan before it came to the United States and took the console game world by storm. Guitar hero allows players to play a guitar in a game, and Guitar Hero itself has done much in terms of sparking interest and creating more aspiring guitarists. Electric guitars have become the standard in new music throughout the last century, and kids and teenagers all over have shown a greater interest in guitars because of game titles like Guitar Hero. While playing an electric guitar in Guitar Hero is nothing like the real deal, it does generate interest in performing the actual art.
Learning to play the electric guitar is an excellent activity to motivate children to learn more about music and have a fun and valuable skill for the rest of their lives. For those who aren’t sure if they’re interested, Guitar Hero makes a superb start! If you are thinking about trying your hand at the real thing, check out some cheap guitars before making a big investment.