We here at the 5th Fret try our best to maintain a level of professionalism, maintaining an image that is hopefully both family friendly and fun to read but we are human. As humans we have passions (like music and guitar) and where there is passion there are strong feelings on a variety of subjects. It is only natural to feel these emotions and get these opinions and every now and then unleash them on whoever will listen.
I unleash to you. Please, allow me to speak my little editorial.
Right off the top of my head I can probably think of no less than ten bands that I either don’t like or think are overrated. Dare I name them? I don’t. And the reason I don’t is NOT because I do not want to call them out, or inspire comments about how wrong or right I am, but because it doesn’t really matter.
Everyone has bands they like. Everyone has bands they DON’T like. This is fine and natural and I think if you want to voice what bands you don’t like, go right ahead. A band is in a public arena, putting their stuff out practically begging you to critique it, so why hold back? Knock yourself out. Go nuts. Because music isn’t a one size fits all thing regardless of what the music industry seems to be pushing on you.
I think it’s fine to say “I don’t like Y band.” I even think it’s fine to go into WHY you don’t like Y band. You don’t like the guitar riffs, the tone, the singer’s voice, the lyrics, the way the drums overpower the song, the way there’s no hooks or too many hooks. That’s all well and fine.
However, when you step across the line from saying you don’t like a band because of a legitimate reason (and even “I just don’t” is considered a legitimate reason) and start making personal attacks that are unfounded or resorting to name-calling, you are only bringing yourself down.
If I am hanging out with someone talking about music as I like to do and the say that they don’t like a band, whatever the band is, and starts calling them names, insulting names, and attacking them for reasons that are just plain silly it becomes a magic trick to me.
*Poof*
Any respect I had for your musical opinion disappears. More than likely any respect I had for you as a PERSON disappears too. And I know I’m being rash and it’s a silly thing to get so worked up about, but this isn’t JUST about music anymore. This is about a person being immature. Unless you’re ten I can safely say “You aren’t ten. Stop acting like you are.” More than likely I’ll just let it slide and not say anything but the next time you recommend an album, I probably won’t check it out based on your recommendation.
If you aren’t following me, I’ll give some examples. Somewhere on the internet someone said that they didn’t like the Living End because the bassist plays a stand-up bass saying “everyone else plays an electric one. What makes you so special?”
Elsewhere on the internet, someone insulted Noodles, the guitarist for the Offspring saying “What’s with the glasses, get contacts and stop being so weird.”
They didn’t like Noodles because he wears GLASSES.
How ridiculous is that?
These are the examples that have stuck in my head for years as an example of how NOT to act as a human being. So if this is you, and you blatantly insult artists or bands you don’t like for ridiculous reasons, please stop. You aren’t impressing anyone. By saying these incredibly negative things that don’t even make sense you are isolating yourself from people that may be very into music and wanting to talk about it. Maybe they like the band you’re blasting. If they are anything like me, they’ll never want to talk music with you again.
So grow up.
-Pappy
Tabs
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Guitar Search 09 Pt II: The Fender side of things...
So last installment I talked about the current guitar stash and the
search for a new one. So far I've considered 3 Baritone guitars, which
I have yet to try out. Being in Middle Georgia doesn't necessarily make
for an easy opportunity to get out and play non-traditional guitars, so
eventually I'll make a trip up to ATL or someplace closer to try a few.
Next up in my consideration are more classic guitars. I'm looking at
Fenders almost exclusively in this case because I don't really care for
most Gibson shapes. When it comes to the classic shapes, I know there's
many out there but for me it boils down to Strats, Teles, and Les Pauls.
I already have a V and an Explorer, and the SG, Jag, Stang, Jazzmasters,
etc don't appeal to my sense of "style". I know many of the readers of
this site are well-enamored with Gretschs and hollow-bodies and while
those are beautiful guitars, I don't really envision myself playing one
anytime soon. I know that Fenders are what the average non-guitar
player would probably see as iconic, but I've never really been a fan of
the shapes and designs until the last few years. I really don't like
their older Plain Jane color schemes, but the wonderful colors that are
starting to pop up in finish and pick-guards the last few years has
really caught my eye. I'm not looking for a Steve Vai neon-colored
guitar, but something other than the typical Fender base colors appeals
more to me. That and I really do not like white pick-guards... except
on black guitars. Just a personal preference, and that's what matters
in buying a guitar.
The Fender Search:
Given what I've already said above, my search is going to consist mainly
of Stratocasters and Telecasters. I know this makes things a little
more interesting because I play mostly metal music and there's not many
artists out there associated with metal playing Fenders, Jim Root
(Slipknot/Stone Sour) and Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) notwithstanding.
The good thing about most of these models is Strats and Teles are a lot
easier to find in the average guitar shop than say... the baritones I
was looking into. You can buy a Strat at Best Buy or Target now, which
is just plain crazy. Now that I'm no longer a teenager struggling to
find the money for a guitar I can really look at some of the pricier,
more expensive options above the base models. That being said, I am
self-admittedly a cheapskate and prefer to get the most bang for my buck
as possible. So while Fender offers tons of expensive, fancy
multi-thousand dollar guitars, that's not the range the everyday shopper
(and def not me) has to work with. Fender is cool enough to offer
PDF-downloads of their '09 catalog on their website so I downloaded it
and took a gander at their current offerings.
Strats:
Highway One Stratocaster HSS: I like this guy for two reasons: larger
70s headstock and an Atomic humbucker in the bridge. My biggie here is
the humbucker. Even if I go for a Strat shape, I really have no desire
to sit with its basic single coil sound. It has a white pickguard, but
a new one could be bought easily enough. I've played enough Strats to
know that I generally like their tone and most necks commonly available.
Deluxe Lone Star: Once again an HSS, but the single coils are Texas
Specials and HB is a Seymour Pearly Gates. A little more power in the
tone and down and dirty, more my angle. I'd like to note that I've
played some strats with the noiseless pickups and honestly I'd rather
get something that screams a bit more like this.
Special Edition Aerodyne Classic Strat: Now this... I like this. The
profile has actual angles, it's not the standard strat that's rounded
off on the edges... Most models even have a "binding" and the pickguards
mint green. Nice. I guess the most famous example of this I can think
of is Tom Morello's Black/silver "Peace" Strat. This isn't from his
Rage days but it had tremendous tone. I really envied it.
Teles:
Jim Root Signature Series: Mohagony Body, EMG pickups (a '60 and an
'81), 3-way selector, volume knob. It's pretty basic in controls, which
the more I play the less I really mess with anything. It's available in
Black with a Maple fretboard and White with an Ebony Fretboard. I've
played a few Teles in the past, and the thing that kills me most about
them is the thick neck. I'm not into thick necks and most Teles with
Humbuckers are not on the inexpensive range. This one however has a
thin neck and two solid humbuckers well associated with Metal. Even
better, its fairly affordable as well AND comes with a case. My
understanding is this guitar is made in Mexico, but once again I'm not a
stickler for American made guitars.
Special Edition Spalted Maple Tele: A Tele with 2 Seymour Duncan
humbuckers with push/pull coil taps. On top of that, it's a carved top
that's just ridiculously beautiful; never seen spalted maple before now,
but wow. I have got to try one of these. I couldn't find the neck
shape, but I'm generally not fond of the thick necks found on Teles.
While I'm not qualified enough to be a shredder and rarely ever actually
attempt to, I prefer the thin necks associated with shredding guitars.
Jackson: Oh ho, I'm throwing you for a loop! Yes, Jackson/Charvel is
technically now part of FMIC so I'm kind of cheating throwing these guys
in. The main reason I'm tacking them in is Pappy recently pointed out a
model of theirs for me to look at.
Demmelition King V: Who here has heard of Phil Demmel?? Anyone? Ok, so
he's only the lead guitarist of one of my favorite bands, Machine Head,
and they're pretty much the reason I play in Drop-B. So lo and behold,
he gets his own signature guitar which amazingly enough comes straight
from the factory tuned to Drop-B. It's got an EMG 81 and 60, much like
the Root Tele, but it also has a Floyd Rose Tremolo, which honestly I'd
probably not even use. It's a King V, but they added a new "inner v"
inside the larger V at the base of the bridge. You honestly need to
check it out to see what I'm describing. It comes in three diff
two-tone colors (body/bevels): red/black, black/silver, white/black. I
like the black one myself. This is the perfect guitar for me with the
exception that I already own a Black Jackson King V... see last blog.
Interestingly enough, while this and the Jim Root Tele are made for low
tunings, they are not baritones.
What to do, what to do?
Pappy and I planning on heading to a large nearby metropolis (ATL) when
we get back from this extended "vacation" and I'm honestly looking
forward to trying some of these guitars and seeing what really gets me
going tonally.
Choices: They're a good thing to have and a hard thing to make.
-MASK
search for a new one. So far I've considered 3 Baritone guitars, which
I have yet to try out. Being in Middle Georgia doesn't necessarily make
for an easy opportunity to get out and play non-traditional guitars, so
eventually I'll make a trip up to ATL or someplace closer to try a few.
Next up in my consideration are more classic guitars. I'm looking at
Fenders almost exclusively in this case because I don't really care for
most Gibson shapes. When it comes to the classic shapes, I know there's
many out there but for me it boils down to Strats, Teles, and Les Pauls.
I already have a V and an Explorer, and the SG, Jag, Stang, Jazzmasters,
etc don't appeal to my sense of "style". I know many of the readers of
this site are well-enamored with Gretschs and hollow-bodies and while
those are beautiful guitars, I don't really envision myself playing one
anytime soon. I know that Fenders are what the average non-guitar
player would probably see as iconic, but I've never really been a fan of
the shapes and designs until the last few years. I really don't like
their older Plain Jane color schemes, but the wonderful colors that are
starting to pop up in finish and pick-guards the last few years has
really caught my eye. I'm not looking for a Steve Vai neon-colored
guitar, but something other than the typical Fender base colors appeals
more to me. That and I really do not like white pick-guards... except
on black guitars. Just a personal preference, and that's what matters
in buying a guitar.
The Fender Search:
Given what I've already said above, my search is going to consist mainly
of Stratocasters and Telecasters. I know this makes things a little
more interesting because I play mostly metal music and there's not many
artists out there associated with metal playing Fenders, Jim Root
(Slipknot/Stone Sour) and Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) notwithstanding.
The good thing about most of these models is Strats and Teles are a lot
easier to find in the average guitar shop than say... the baritones I
was looking into. You can buy a Strat at Best Buy or Target now, which
is just plain crazy. Now that I'm no longer a teenager struggling to
find the money for a guitar I can really look at some of the pricier,
more expensive options above the base models. That being said, I am
self-admittedly a cheapskate and prefer to get the most bang for my buck
as possible. So while Fender offers tons of expensive, fancy
multi-thousand dollar guitars, that's not the range the everyday shopper
(and def not me) has to work with. Fender is cool enough to offer
PDF-downloads of their '09 catalog on their website so I downloaded it
and took a gander at their current offerings.
Strats:
Highway One Stratocaster HSS: I like this guy for two reasons: larger
70s headstock and an Atomic humbucker in the bridge. My biggie here is
the humbucker. Even if I go for a Strat shape, I really have no desire
to sit with its basic single coil sound. It has a white pickguard, but
a new one could be bought easily enough. I've played enough Strats to
know that I generally like their tone and most necks commonly available.
Deluxe Lone Star: Once again an HSS, but the single coils are Texas
Specials and HB is a Seymour Pearly Gates. A little more power in the
tone and down and dirty, more my angle. I'd like to note that I've
played some strats with the noiseless pickups and honestly I'd rather
get something that screams a bit more like this.
Special Edition Aerodyne Classic Strat: Now this... I like this. The
profile has actual angles, it's not the standard strat that's rounded
off on the edges... Most models even have a "binding" and the pickguards
mint green. Nice. I guess the most famous example of this I can think
of is Tom Morello's Black/silver "Peace" Strat. This isn't from his
Rage days but it had tremendous tone. I really envied it.
Teles:
Jim Root Signature Series: Mohagony Body, EMG pickups (a '60 and an
'81), 3-way selector, volume knob. It's pretty basic in controls, which
the more I play the less I really mess with anything. It's available in
Black with a Maple fretboard and White with an Ebony Fretboard. I've
played a few Teles in the past, and the thing that kills me most about
them is the thick neck. I'm not into thick necks and most Teles with
Humbuckers are not on the inexpensive range. This one however has a
thin neck and two solid humbuckers well associated with Metal. Even
better, its fairly affordable as well AND comes with a case. My
understanding is this guitar is made in Mexico, but once again I'm not a
stickler for American made guitars.
Special Edition Spalted Maple Tele: A Tele with 2 Seymour Duncan
humbuckers with push/pull coil taps. On top of that, it's a carved top
that's just ridiculously beautiful; never seen spalted maple before now,
but wow. I have got to try one of these. I couldn't find the neck
shape, but I'm generally not fond of the thick necks found on Teles.
While I'm not qualified enough to be a shredder and rarely ever actually
attempt to, I prefer the thin necks associated with shredding guitars.
Jackson: Oh ho, I'm throwing you for a loop! Yes, Jackson/Charvel is
technically now part of FMIC so I'm kind of cheating throwing these guys
in. The main reason I'm tacking them in is Pappy recently pointed out a
model of theirs for me to look at.
Demmelition King V: Who here has heard of Phil Demmel?? Anyone? Ok, so
he's only the lead guitarist of one of my favorite bands, Machine Head,
and they're pretty much the reason I play in Drop-B. So lo and behold,
he gets his own signature guitar which amazingly enough comes straight
from the factory tuned to Drop-B. It's got an EMG 81 and 60, much like
the Root Tele, but it also has a Floyd Rose Tremolo, which honestly I'd
probably not even use. It's a King V, but they added a new "inner v"
inside the larger V at the base of the bridge. You honestly need to
check it out to see what I'm describing. It comes in three diff
two-tone colors (body/bevels): red/black, black/silver, white/black. I
like the black one myself. This is the perfect guitar for me with the
exception that I already own a Black Jackson King V... see last blog.
Interestingly enough, while this and the Jim Root Tele are made for low
tunings, they are not baritones.
What to do, what to do?
Pappy and I planning on heading to a large nearby metropolis (ATL) when
we get back from this extended "vacation" and I'm honestly looking
forward to trying some of these guitars and seeing what really gets me
going tonally.
Choices: They're a good thing to have and a hard thing to make.
-MASK
Monday, March 2, 2009
Great Expectations: Make-Up and Bands
KISS, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper... what do these guys share in common?
Costumes, makeup, check.
The first time I saw all three I thought "Wow, this is what hard
rock/metal is all about, this should be good". And then I heard them.
I think it's fair to first say that I enjoy all three's music. That
being said, it was quite a let down to see these scary guys and then
hear how mellow their music is. Hell I'd even go so far as to say none
of them really sang evil-sounding ever. KISS and the 'Crue both spent
most of their time singing about partying and girls. What a let down
for a young kid like me. At the time I got into metal, I was still a
little young and didn't have the burgeoning interest in women all of us
have as we progress through adolescence.
Now let's try an experiment. Take a Kiss video (ok, skip the 80s ones,
they weren't in makeup) and put it on "MUTE". Next fire up Slayer's
"Reign in Blood" or any other suitable crazy thrash/death metal album.
It's quite a more imposing force isn't it? Don't you think parents would
REALLY had something to worry about then? That's what I was expecting
the first few times I saw them. By that time I had already read or
heard all the "Knights in Satans Service" and such, so I truly thought
these guys would sound kinda scary. Instead, they have some kind of
lame factor ingrained into me. These guys aren't horrible, but nothing
that just makes me as a guitar player reach up and want to break out
into a Kiss song. I know I'm in the minority here, but my favorite Kiss
era was when they ditched the makeup. Fat guys in spandex wasn't cool,
but the music was probably the hardest it ever was on those albums. I
genuinely like some of those riffs.
Next, there's Motley Crue. I love the 'Crue! Well, let me clarify
that: I've enjoyed about 3 songs off of every single album and the rest
could have been thrown away. They started off with "shout at the devil"
and wearing all the spikes and pads, but their music actually started
off in the more punk three-chord song structure. But not in the Sex
Pistols/The Refused kind of dangerous sounding punk; more a slightly
metallic version of the Ramones or something. Now, they've expanded a
lot over the years and the music got better. Mick Mars can really shred
when he wants to... but he doesn't seem to want to that often. And for
being such an awesome guitar player, why did Nikki Sixx write all the
songs? And that leads to another rant. Did anybody hear Sixx's "Sixx
AM: the Heroin Diaries?". Not as good as most Motley songs, but #1) I
think Nikki could have sung better than Vince Neil all those years and
#2) SIXX AM features one of my favorite guitarists, DJ Ashba, who used
to rock the house back in a band called Beautiful Creatures (think
nu-metal meets the 80s of bands like Crue and LA Guns). But off that
rant and back onto them... At no point in Crue's music did I ever think
they sounded "dangerous" and certainly not enough to even tack that onto
the image they had.
Now I don't expect people who play scary music to dress scary. It
doesn't have to be part of their image, I just think that people who
wear dark costumes should have music that somewhat reflects that. There
are plenty of darkly-imaged folks out there playing heavy music too, but
how far does it go before it just becomes a joke. No offense to the
crazy Swedish death metal bands with the white/black facepaint and
cookie monster vocals, but I don't really view you as that scary most of
the time.
So I pose this question for you. Who HAS managed to blend the two
effectively?
I'll start with a couple and y'all are more than welcome to
agree/disagree with me here.
Marilyn Manson. Now this guy's music didn't start out too heavy in my
opinion, just kinda sludgy, like a dark Nirvana. I didn't start seeing
a real transition until around Mechanical Animals and Holy Wood. That's
when the music finally matched the image. Both are creepy as heck and
can be intimidating at times. I'm almost never bound to agree with
anything he has to say offstage, but I really dig a lot of his music.
Weirdo, yes. Music that matches, yes!
Slipknot. I'm from the mid-west, so I've been aware of these guys since
they were still slummin' in Des Moines. Like most folks, I shrugged
them off as more punks in costumes. I even listened to their first
album and didn't really think much either. But then I saw them live. I
was there to see Fear Factory, who'd recently reformed, open for
Slipknot and figured I'd already driven 3 hours for the concert. I
might as well stay to the end. And WOW, these guys delivered. The
costumes, combined with the intensity they played with really created it
all for me. As a concert experience, it's one of the best I've ever
seen and I've liked them ever since. But once again, the music matches
the image.
Granted, these are the "scary guys" of my generation, and the other guys
I talked about were the scary guys of the last generation. Who knows
what the next one will be like. Ten years from now, someone will be
talking the same trash about the guys I listed here haha. 50 years ago,
it was Elvis and the Beatles who had parents running for cover.
-MASK
Costumes, makeup, check.
The first time I saw all three I thought "Wow, this is what hard
rock/metal is all about, this should be good". And then I heard them.
I think it's fair to first say that I enjoy all three's music. That
being said, it was quite a let down to see these scary guys and then
hear how mellow their music is. Hell I'd even go so far as to say none
of them really sang evil-sounding ever. KISS and the 'Crue both spent
most of their time singing about partying and girls. What a let down
for a young kid like me. At the time I got into metal, I was still a
little young and didn't have the burgeoning interest in women all of us
have as we progress through adolescence.
Now let's try an experiment. Take a Kiss video (ok, skip the 80s ones,
they weren't in makeup) and put it on "MUTE". Next fire up Slayer's
"Reign in Blood" or any other suitable crazy thrash/death metal album.
It's quite a more imposing force isn't it? Don't you think parents would
REALLY had something to worry about then? That's what I was expecting
the first few times I saw them. By that time I had already read or
heard all the "Knights in Satans Service" and such, so I truly thought
these guys would sound kinda scary. Instead, they have some kind of
lame factor ingrained into me. These guys aren't horrible, but nothing
that just makes me as a guitar player reach up and want to break out
into a Kiss song. I know I'm in the minority here, but my favorite Kiss
era was when they ditched the makeup. Fat guys in spandex wasn't cool,
but the music was probably the hardest it ever was on those albums. I
genuinely like some of those riffs.
Next, there's Motley Crue. I love the 'Crue! Well, let me clarify
that: I've enjoyed about 3 songs off of every single album and the rest
could have been thrown away. They started off with "shout at the devil"
and wearing all the spikes and pads, but their music actually started
off in the more punk three-chord song structure. But not in the Sex
Pistols/The Refused kind of dangerous sounding punk; more a slightly
metallic version of the Ramones or something. Now, they've expanded a
lot over the years and the music got better. Mick Mars can really shred
when he wants to... but he doesn't seem to want to that often. And for
being such an awesome guitar player, why did Nikki Sixx write all the
songs? And that leads to another rant. Did anybody hear Sixx's "Sixx
AM: the Heroin Diaries?". Not as good as most Motley songs, but #1) I
think Nikki could have sung better than Vince Neil all those years and
#2) SIXX AM features one of my favorite guitarists, DJ Ashba, who used
to rock the house back in a band called Beautiful Creatures (think
nu-metal meets the 80s of bands like Crue and LA Guns). But off that
rant and back onto them... At no point in Crue's music did I ever think
they sounded "dangerous" and certainly not enough to even tack that onto
the image they had.
Now I don't expect people who play scary music to dress scary. It
doesn't have to be part of their image, I just think that people who
wear dark costumes should have music that somewhat reflects that. There
are plenty of darkly-imaged folks out there playing heavy music too, but
how far does it go before it just becomes a joke. No offense to the
crazy Swedish death metal bands with the white/black facepaint and
cookie monster vocals, but I don't really view you as that scary most of
the time.
So I pose this question for you. Who HAS managed to blend the two
effectively?
I'll start with a couple and y'all are more than welcome to
agree/disagree with me here.
Marilyn Manson. Now this guy's music didn't start out too heavy in my
opinion, just kinda sludgy, like a dark Nirvana. I didn't start seeing
a real transition until around Mechanical Animals and Holy Wood. That's
when the music finally matched the image. Both are creepy as heck and
can be intimidating at times. I'm almost never bound to agree with
anything he has to say offstage, but I really dig a lot of his music.
Weirdo, yes. Music that matches, yes!
Slipknot. I'm from the mid-west, so I've been aware of these guys since
they were still slummin' in Des Moines. Like most folks, I shrugged
them off as more punks in costumes. I even listened to their first
album and didn't really think much either. But then I saw them live. I
was there to see Fear Factory, who'd recently reformed, open for
Slipknot and figured I'd already driven 3 hours for the concert. I
might as well stay to the end. And WOW, these guys delivered. The
costumes, combined with the intensity they played with really created it
all for me. As a concert experience, it's one of the best I've ever
seen and I've liked them ever since. But once again, the music matches
the image.
Granted, these are the "scary guys" of my generation, and the other guys
I talked about were the scary guys of the last generation. Who knows
what the next one will be like. Ten years from now, someone will be
talking the same trash about the guys I listed here haha. 50 years ago,
it was Elvis and the Beatles who had parents running for cover.
-MASK
Snake Oil
Greetings from afar! I apologize for the slow-down in my posts, but work has gotten the better of me and I’ve been a little indisposed. It isn’t that big of a deal though, as I’ve been thinking about things to write anyway.
Being away from family is always tough but I try to find things to make it not so bad. I have a Squier Telecaster that I bring everywhere that is getting pretty beaten up (I don’t put it in a case but unbolt the neck and just put it in my suitcase) and is in desperate need of a new neck. A couple of the tuners are not working as they should and as a result, I am playing a four string guitar for my duration here. That isn’t too bad because I still have E-A-D-G which is good enough for most punk, metal, and rock stuff so long as you don’t want to go crazy on the B or high E string. The bad thing is that I was kind of getting in the mood to learn more flash on the high strings (and high frets). Lots of hammer ons and pull offs. Oh well. A four string guitar is better than no guitar.
I also snatch up just about any guitar magazine I can. These are the times that I pay attention to Guitar World. I’m not a HUGE fan of the publication, but they do have some interesting articles and the ads are always drool-inducing.
One thing you can guarantee with Guitar World is that you will probably never see anything bad written about Eddie Van Halen (EVH). Guitar World actually seems to be inspired BY EVH to be a rock guitar magazine. And while I have never been a big fan of EVH, I am getting more and more into his playing. It’s tough sometimes as so many of the songs seem WAY over the top, but when I just pay attention to the guitar, it’s pretty cool.
I also enjoy hearing covers of Van Halen.
But I digress.
The recent Guitar World with EVH on the cover had an in-depth article about his new signature model that looks almost exactly like the Peavey Wolfgang (which makes sense since EVH came up with the shape and owns and all rights to it) but now features five ply binding, signature pickups, stainless steel frets, and a bunch of other stuff.
The things that they were saying about this guitar were honestly pretty tempting. I have no hero-worship case with EVH so it isn’t his name that draws me to the guitar but statements like this:
“My guitars get subjected to all kinds of crazy temperatures on tour. It can sit in the back of a cold truck for 16 hours and then be brought into a warm venue. Even during the walk from the dressing room to the stage the temperature can change drastically. I would turn the studio temperature down to about 55 degrees and then take this guitar out in the sun, and it wouldn’t change.”
Snake oil or not, that’s a pretty cool thing. I know bringing around my Tele that it is very susceptible to temperature changes.
Also, EVH talks about his latest invention, the Drop To Hell tailpiece. You may be familiar with his D-Tuna a pull switch on the low E string you can put on a Floyd-like tremolo that can switch the E string to D and back again which comes in handy when you play in both tunings. Apparently the Drop To Hell tailpiece can drop an E string to an A “as quickly as you can flick the lever” and go anywhere in between and “even lower.”
And while I personally have no reason to want to drop just one string all the way to A while everything else stays standard, Chip Bruck says that while it only works on one string right now, it could affect all strings which to me sounds like MAYBE there’s something in the works that would be a bridge that could drop all strings down to wherever you want.
I think that would be pretty cool.
I’d like to try one of these out. They seem genuinely cool and I really appreciate the fact that there is no stripe option for the guitar (at least, not yet). I like the stripes, don’t get me wrong, but I can see where people might be buying it just for the stripes and not because it’s a great guitar. Taking the stripes out of the equation means you’re not going to be as obviously playing EVH’s guitar which may seem like a bummer to some, but seems pretty awesome to me. It’s like he wants you to be you.
I’m also impressed with some of the stuff I’ve seen from his own line. His strap in particular seemed awesome enough that when it comes time for me get a new guitar or maybe swap out the strap on the Tele for a more grippy leather strap, this may be the way to go. I’m pretty sure I’m also going to replace the strap buttons on my Tele with eye-hooks so I don’t have to worry about them coming loose ever again.
All in all, I’m very impressed with what I’m hearing about the guitar and while some instincts are saying that the cost is WAY too much for a plank guitar in general but a plank guitar with a bolt-on neck it’s just ridiculous, there is still quite a bit of me that really wants to try this out.
-Pappy
Being away from family is always tough but I try to find things to make it not so bad. I have a Squier Telecaster that I bring everywhere that is getting pretty beaten up (I don’t put it in a case but unbolt the neck and just put it in my suitcase) and is in desperate need of a new neck. A couple of the tuners are not working as they should and as a result, I am playing a four string guitar for my duration here. That isn’t too bad because I still have E-A-D-G which is good enough for most punk, metal, and rock stuff so long as you don’t want to go crazy on the B or high E string. The bad thing is that I was kind of getting in the mood to learn more flash on the high strings (and high frets). Lots of hammer ons and pull offs. Oh well. A four string guitar is better than no guitar.
I also snatch up just about any guitar magazine I can. These are the times that I pay attention to Guitar World. I’m not a HUGE fan of the publication, but they do have some interesting articles and the ads are always drool-inducing.
One thing you can guarantee with Guitar World is that you will probably never see anything bad written about Eddie Van Halen (EVH). Guitar World actually seems to be inspired BY EVH to be a rock guitar magazine. And while I have never been a big fan of EVH, I am getting more and more into his playing. It’s tough sometimes as so many of the songs seem WAY over the top, but when I just pay attention to the guitar, it’s pretty cool.
I also enjoy hearing covers of Van Halen.
But I digress.
The recent Guitar World with EVH on the cover had an in-depth article about his new signature model that looks almost exactly like the Peavey Wolfgang (which makes sense since EVH came up with the shape and owns and all rights to it) but now features five ply binding, signature pickups, stainless steel frets, and a bunch of other stuff.
The things that they were saying about this guitar were honestly pretty tempting. I have no hero-worship case with EVH so it isn’t his name that draws me to the guitar but statements like this:
“My guitars get subjected to all kinds of crazy temperatures on tour. It can sit in the back of a cold truck for 16 hours and then be brought into a warm venue. Even during the walk from the dressing room to the stage the temperature can change drastically. I would turn the studio temperature down to about 55 degrees and then take this guitar out in the sun, and it wouldn’t change.”
Snake oil or not, that’s a pretty cool thing. I know bringing around my Tele that it is very susceptible to temperature changes.
Also, EVH talks about his latest invention, the Drop To Hell tailpiece. You may be familiar with his D-Tuna a pull switch on the low E string you can put on a Floyd-like tremolo that can switch the E string to D and back again which comes in handy when you play in both tunings. Apparently the Drop To Hell tailpiece can drop an E string to an A “as quickly as you can flick the lever” and go anywhere in between and “even lower.”
And while I personally have no reason to want to drop just one string all the way to A while everything else stays standard, Chip Bruck says that while it only works on one string right now, it could affect all strings which to me sounds like MAYBE there’s something in the works that would be a bridge that could drop all strings down to wherever you want.
I think that would be pretty cool.
I’d like to try one of these out. They seem genuinely cool and I really appreciate the fact that there is no stripe option for the guitar (at least, not yet). I like the stripes, don’t get me wrong, but I can see where people might be buying it just for the stripes and not because it’s a great guitar. Taking the stripes out of the equation means you’re not going to be as obviously playing EVH’s guitar which may seem like a bummer to some, but seems pretty awesome to me. It’s like he wants you to be you.
I’m also impressed with some of the stuff I’ve seen from his own line. His strap in particular seemed awesome enough that when it comes time for me get a new guitar or maybe swap out the strap on the Tele for a more grippy leather strap, this may be the way to go. I’m pretty sure I’m also going to replace the strap buttons on my Tele with eye-hooks so I don’t have to worry about them coming loose ever again.
All in all, I’m very impressed with what I’m hearing about the guitar and while some instincts are saying that the cost is WAY too much for a plank guitar in general but a plank guitar with a bolt-on neck it’s just ridiculous, there is still quite a bit of me that really wants to try this out.
-Pappy
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