Guitar Smashing

When I was young and wanting to get a guitar to learn how to play I would see people smash their guitars on stage, on recorded concerts, on Clash posters, all over the place and I always had the same sentiment: Why not just give it to me?

Of course it's not like they knew me as a person and smashed the guitar because I wasn't around saying "hey, I sure would like to learn how to play and since all you plan on doing with it is compacting it to a size more compatible with a garbage bag for its future transport to the landfill, why not give it to me?" but I find it hard to believe that they know no one like that.

Or that they know of no one who may indeed play guitar but would like the guitarist's.

Here's the situation as I see it: who is enjoying this guitar smashing? I have never liked it as a guy who wanted to learn how to play and as I was dealing with frets that weren't level or tunings that wouldn't stick, these folks would be playing professionally set-up instruments and destroying them when I would not only use them past the planned point, but also appreciate them. I don't know anyone that thinks it's cool to do this. I've never met anyone, guitarist or no, that says smashing guitars is cool.

It seems to me that the joy lies solely with the smashing guitarist.

When Limp Bizkit was at their zenith, Wes Borland said he never PLANS to smash a guitar and rarely does so, but when the band is having issues, or fighting, or the venue isn't cooperating, or it's just a really bad show, sometimes the anger gets the best of him and he smashes a guitar or stabs and amp cab. While this doesn't say much for the control of his emotions, at least he said he doesn't plan these instances.

In Metallica's Cunning Stunts DVD (which is a great DVD by the way, and arguably one of their better shows) Kirk Hammett would end the first set by throwing his guitar up in the air into what looks like the crowd. It wasn't really the crowd but the ground and his roadie would pick it up and either repair it or trash it depending on the damage. You know this is going to happen because Kirk switches from one of his actual signature guitars or at least the guitars you've always seen him play (like the Gibson Les Paul Custom or Jackson V) to an LTD bolt on guitar. The roadie says he tries his hardest to repair them but after a few shows it's all over.

I didn't freak out when he threw the guitar thinking "WOW! Look at that! The mood of the music overtook him and in an emotional climax, ups shoots the guitar to a satisfactory end." If, however, he had thrown the guitar into the crowd to someone, or walked down to the rail and passed it off, that would have been cool. It would have also generated quite the response from the crowd.

Alright, maybe not the response that would be appreciated what with all the hitting, trampling, possible killing but a man was lit on fire night after night so obviously Metallica wanted to offer a little more than just a night of music.

Perhaps they could have had a door prize where a number clicker at the door would pull aside the 666th person and slapped a bracelet on him and was directed to keep this to himself and to come to a pre-designated location after the show for something cool.

The cool thing would turn out to be the LTD.

Even way back when smashing a guitar was supposedly meant to be some sort of protest it always struck me as silly. You're protesting something by smashing something you're using to protest? Wouldn't that be similar to buying a gun for home defense and then bending the barrel to the point where it will never shoot because you are unsatisfied with the price of ammo or the gun-maker's policies or a slew of other reasons?

What if it REALLY mattered to the recipient and they appreciated it and used it and maybe one day passed it on themselves? Don't think it can happen? Check out this snippet of an interview with Kris Roe (guitarist and singer for the Ataris) conducted by Guitar Center on an undetermined date:

GC: Tell me about your guitars. What type do you use and why?

Roe: I use a 1980 Les Paul Standard because Les Paul guitars are the greatest. We are endorsed by Seymour Duncan, and we have other guitars that I use that I've put my Seymour Duncan pickups in, but with my Les Paul I won't change the pickups. They are 1979, awesome vintage Les Paul sound. I like to sound really across-the-board rock, not too overpowering. I know a lot of bands like to use a lot of distortion. Me, I like to use a JCM800 Marshall head, that used to belong to the singer of Jawbreaker. Well, actually, I bought it from my friend that is in the band Nerf Herder who used to be roommates with the singer of Jaw Breaker, one of my favorite bands. Blake (Schwarzenbach) from Jaw Breaker- I met him and asked him where he got it. He told me that he got it from Ian Mackay from Fugazi and Minor Threat while they were on tour in Washington, DC. Ian was actually helpful to him because his amp blew up while they were on tour. He had another Marshall or something, and Ian had this amp that he used to write songs during Minor Threat. He only sang in Minor Threat. He told him, "I have this trusty amp that I will sell you." He nearly gave it to him. This heirloom has kind of been passed down and fell into my hands, and I am never going to get rid of it. That, combined with the Les Paul, is just straight-up great rock distortion. I do not use any pedals or anything. On our records, I use about the same. On our new record, we actually used a Fender Twin, for left and right tracks, so we can make the guitar sound different. I also bought this new head, too, that I keep at our practice space. It's a Sun amp by Fender. I kind of think it was kind of a mistake to buy it because it was too expensive.

Now, while Roe is planning on not getting rid of it, it has still seen its share of great bands and I'm sure he thinks it's a cool story and appreciates the amp.

Famous guitarists: This story could feature YOU. A super rich guitar player puts an ad in the paper offering a guitar for next to nothing and sells it to someone who will love and appreciate it (and hopefully not just say so right before putting it on eBay) and the story will live on in an incredibly positive way.

Now, I could rattle on and on about how it's a shame to destroy your equipment, equipment that most of us working stiffs save for months or years to buy only to see you treat it like a tissue to be used once and thrown away in a mangled and destroyed mess but it seems so obvious.

So I say if you are a fan of smashing/destroying your gear, please comment on why. I'd love to hear the rationale.

For everyone else, I'm not crazy or alone in thinking this way. Just look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5begHSoQ1s

-Pappy

Guitar Aficionado VS Frugal Guitarist

In case you haven't heard, Guitar Aficionado has created quite a stir amongst guitar fans, some saying it's fine and they see nothing wrong with a magazine catering to the tippy-top of standards, while others think that it is not really a guitar magazine, but a magazine for the rich in general that happen to play guitar.

Right now, it is the most searched item that lands new readers to this blog. Overwhelmingly so.

But instead of going on about G.A. I figured I would offer an alternative to those who think that G.A. represents something bad: the opposite.

Frugal Guitarist specifically.

You can find them here: http://www.frugalguitarist.com/Frugal.aspx

It is so frugal in fact that it does not release its magazine in print, but online for you. Free.

Here's what they have to say about their own publication:

"FrugalGuitarist.com is an eZine dedicated to providing monthly visitors with detailed and honest reviews of under-the-radar gear and guides to the best bargains on the net. Additional features include free guitar online lessons, articles focusing on the general musician lifestyle with a frugal slant, and sound clip demonstrations of much of the reviewed gear. New issues are published bi-monthly on the first Monday of the month."

They also have a blog that you can subscribe to.

So if you have not found Frugal Guitarist yet, check it out and get back to me. It's very definitely the yin to G.A.'s yang. Even if you have no feelings about G.A. one way or the other, Frugal Guitarist is still a great publication to check on and subscribe to (as easy as entering your email address). I hope you enjoy it!

-Pappy

The Podcast Directory

If you do a search for "guitar" in the iTunes Podcast database, you'll come up with quite a few results. More than fifteen PAGES of results. And with all these potentially awesome podcasts just waiting to be put on your iPod and listened to at your leisure, who on earth is going to help you pick and choose which ones make it?

I am.

Well, actually, WE are. All of us. Those of us that listen to podcasts anyway.

If you listen to guitar podcasts and think some of them are particularly awesome, feel free to comment with the titles.

Here's what I'm subscribed to right now (listed in no particular order):

1) Fender's podcast

2) Flatpicking Guitar Magazines podcast

3) Gibson.com's audio and video podcasts

4) The Guitar Shop podcast

5) Premier Guitar Magazine's podcast

6) Pro Tone Pedals' podcast

7) Six String Bliss' podcast

8) Stuff From The B Side

9) SteevC recommends the Boss Pedals podcast. If you type in Boss Guitar Pedals it will be the only result.

That's quite a few podcasts, I know, but if you like talking about guitars or hearing about guitars, listening to music, I'm sure you'll enjoy at least some of them.

Remember: if you have recommendations, comment here.

-Pappy

Ernie Ball Fretboard Cleaner

First, let me say that I'm sure there are folks out there that are far cleaner than me when it comes to their guitars - or at least how I used to be with guitars. I received a Les Paul and learned just about everything on it. I'd lock myself in my room and play along to two Misfits CDs and Metallica's second disc in their Garage Inc. set. I'd be headbanging and sweating all over my poor guitar. I would go a month, maybe more before polishing it and I never worried about the fretboard.

Ever.

As a result, the fretboard is completely covered in eleven year's worth of gunk. Leftovers from my fingers smashed into a gnarly paste and glued to the fretboard. It looked awful - just awful.

Since then I've become a much more careful guitar owner. Gone are the days where I would sweat all over my guitar, or if they are still around (because that theory doesn't get many opportunities to get tested being in an apartment with a baby and a pregnant wife right now) I bet it wouldn't be long after the session that I would clean my guitar. It has nothing to do with the guitar, just me realizing that these are good guitars - great guitars - and I should take some pride in my ownership. I'm not saying they're trailer queens of guitars, but they're a far throw from a jalopy if you know what I mean.

Yesterday I was cleaning out a closet and found a small box of Ernie Ball Fretboard Cleaner wipes. I had bought them maybe more than six months ago and used them once on my Gretsch 6118T and thought it left the ebony fretboard a little greasy. I had to go over it with a paper towel after wiping it down with these moist cloths.

But my annie has not had eleven years to accumulate dirt and grime to the extent of some TV infomercial and it was pretty clean to start with.

I just recently, within the last few months, received my Les Paul back from storage, the fretboard just as nasty as the day I put it in and decided I should remedy this. I found the fretboard wipes, and took off the strings. Wishing I had longer fingernails I went to work scraping with what fingernails I DO have through the cloth from high E to low E and back, paying particular attention to the frets and areas immediately surround them. Yes, the fingerboard was filthy, and yes, these cloths had a LOT of work to do and there was high hopes.

After an hour of scrubbing down section by section, working from the nut down (it's important to start on one end and not jump around. You might forget which fret you've already cleaned or you might miss one thinking you did clean it, AND it's impressive to see what you've accomplished. It's your own before and after picture) I scrubbed and scrubbed, finger going red, fingernail always catching the outer edge of the fretboard. But the rosewood fretboard began to look dark and vibrant (after drying, of course it's going to look dark and vibrant when it's wet) and the grime was gone.

In its place were the marks of use you see often on relics with maple fretboards where the fingers were supposed to have spent the most amount of time. They aren't THAT extreme, my marks, but they're there and I'm glad. I like that. No more grime, just the result of hours and hours and HOURS of playing. Thinking about that right now, it makes me wonder just how many hours I've been playing the guitar for. I would keep a time log, but something tells me it just wouldn't work out in the end. Too many bouts of a couple minutes here while I'm waiting for my wife, a few minutes here before my daughter decides SHE'S going to play it, etc. etc.

The stuff works, pure and simple. It's a good ten (or less) bucks spent, ESPECIALLY if you have a fretboard like the one I described. You'll definitely get your money's worth out of it then. If you have a normal fretboard that isn't all that dirty, you'll probably still get use out of it so it's still worth buying.

The pros with the product are: The lid holds the moisture in. I've probably had these for half a year and they're still as wet as day one. Caveat: I wouldn't leave them outside in the sun all day for six months to test my statement, let's be reasonable here. If you store it in a closet or guitar toolbox, they'll be fine.

Again, they really do work. That's the biggest pro of all.

The cons are: there's a LOT of wipes. And while you might think this is awesome, I can't imagine needing this many wipes at once unless you're setting up guitars professionally (and I'm talking about the smallest pack possible. They have huge JARS of these wipes too). If they were to offer smaller packs, like travel kleenex-sized packs, those would be the ones I would buy.

They are also incredibly oily (for obvious reasons: the wipes have oils int hem to nourish your fretboard) so you'll want to be careful not to get any on your guitar and you'll want to wash your hands immediately after you get finished using them.

Helpful tip: you'll also want to set aside some time for your fretboard to dry. I cleaned mine from one to two in the afternoon and when I went to bed at eight, the board was still wet in places (and if you have inlays it will probably never dry on them) so be patient. This morning, the fretboard's looking amazing. The marks I talked about are subtle and the board itself looks like a Gibson Les Paul's fingerboard should.

Overall, it's a great product and if you have a guitar toolbox (string clippers, string winders, assorted screwdrivers, allen wrenches, solid wire, braided wire, soldering iron, tuner, strings, tubes, cords, etc. etc.) this would be something you'll want to throw in it.

Looking at the results, it's the best ten bucks I could have spent on my Les Paul.

-Pappy

All That Shimmers Is Not A Gibson Les Paul Gold Top

Apparently a gentleman by the name of Joe Bonamassa has gone completely unnoticed by me (and it seems me alone) as he's become huge. I feel like I missed the boat on this one. Not because of his playing, I've never heard it - I'll check it out, I promise - but because he's not your standard blues player.


He's got a signature guitar, but unlike a ton of blues brethren, he plays a Gibson Les Paul. And frankly, if you can have a signature Les Paul, considering it's ALREADY a signature guitar, well, that piques my interest.


I saw Mr. Bonamassa on the cover of April's Guitar Player (a great issue not only because of a wicked cool "country jazz" scale, but also because of an in depth review on an amp that everyone seems to love, the Egnater Rebel-20) with his signature Gold Top Les Paul and two things instantly jumped out at me:


1) He strings his guitars the same way I do, with the strings going through the tailpiece backward and then wrapping AROUND the tailpiece and then on to the bridge. It may sound more cumbersome than your average straight through the tailpiece - past the bridge - and up the neck route, but it's worth it. It increases acoustic resonance and (dare I say?) tone.


If you have a Les Paul-ish tailpiece, give it a shot and see if you like it. I bet you will. Heck, PRS got rid of the actual bridge all together in favor of their take on this method on their non-trem models, so you know there's SOMETHING to the theory.


But that detail is just something you notice right away if you do it. Kind of like when you buy a car and then realize that everyone in the world drives the same car.


But moving on!


2) The bottom two knobs on his LP are silver. It just stood out to me.


The fact that the gold top is absolutely stunning is a whole separate piece of the pie and something I quickly became attached to. I have a fondness for the gold tops and for no real reason other than they look good. I don't think they help with tone and have heard no reports that say otherwise.


The fact that they age, crack, wear and ding beautifully is a huge perk too.


Some guitars look amazing pristine and in no condition but pristine. Some guitars look wrong in pristine condition and just look right with wear, age, and maybe abuse showing (The Fender Strats and Teles instantly jump to mind and make me think this is probably the reason their relic line for both MIA and MIM guitars are doing so well). The Gibson Les Paul gold top looks great in every stage of aging.


Brand new it exudes class. Something about it is high brow, but not snooty if a guitar could ever be given human personality traits. As it ages and finish cracks appear as the guitar gets transitioned from hot to cold without proper adjustment time, it still looks great. The guitar on the cover of said magazine looks like it has these cracks, but it may just be a trick of the light. And then you have the guitars that have been with someone and has aged gracefully, looking like its been around the block a time or two but not looking like it took everything in stride without getting too bogged down.


Check out this picture of what I'm talking about:

This one belongs to Curt. Many thanks to him for letting us use this photo as a prime example of how amazing a vintage gold top can look.

-Pappy

Metallica Slows Down

Check this out: http://www.fretbase.com/blog/2009/05/metallica-on-discoverys-time-warp-video/

I don't think there's anyone that isn't at least a LITTLE bit interested in anything that gets played slower than it's supposed to be. You can see it anytime a major department store is playing one of those videos of flowers slowly blooming. People will slow their stride, sometimes stop entirely and check out this flower, that's just blooming (not to take anything away from the flower).

So imagine how cool it would be to watch Kirk Hammett play hammer ons and pull offs with some sense of speed and slow that down.

Way down.

It's in the first video and yes, the show is probably not meant for guitarists based on their lengthy explanations of hammer ons and pull offs, but that's OK because the money shot of Kirk wheedling away on the fretboard is incredibly entertaining.

If you're in the mood to see something a little more... well, gross, check out the third video where James Hetfield is recorded singing. Here's a tip (assuming you read this before going to the link) if you do not like the idea of body fluids being evicted - no - ejected from the body, you may want to skip the first half. The second half of the video is of James smashing guitars.

Smashing guitars is always a little tough for me to watch but again, if you can watch a flower bloom...

-Pappy

Guitar World: Jeff Loomis Shred DVD

On the box it says "Master Class."

They are NOT kidding.

I bought it as I have GW's instructional DVDs for blues and blues rock and the hard rock and metal DVD. Both of those were for beginners or intermediate players and the instruction is good. I think anyone can pick up something from these DVDs.

But this Jeff Loomis DVD is beyond my grasp - at least for right now.

There is just one issue I have with it and it does not involve the skill necessary to play along or learn with any sort of pace with the DVD. It is that Mr. Loomis uses a seven string guitar. The TAB book also reflects seven strings. And while it's true that there are quite a few shredders who use a seven string, for some of us it would be - or at least start out as - a one trick pony. No offense to seven string guitarists out there, I used to own one myself, but I would have to buy one to learn all the licks correctly or at least in accordance with the DVD and that seems a little unreasonable.

However I do not hold this against GW or Mr. Loomis. Back when I owned a seven string I wished more TAB covering bands that used seven string guitars actually had seven lines and not six tuned down to X with all sorts of note substitutions. Because of this knowledge I bet there are a lot of seven string shredders that would really like this DVD.

I say good for you! Me, I'll have to work for a LONG time to be able to even start to learn from this DVD as it has an incredibly steep learning curve. For an intermediate player (at best) like myself, Mr. Loomis should have opened up the video by saying "Hi! I'm Jeff Loomis and you may not know it yet, but you want to play the drums!"

But one day I will be able to shred hopefully at least at half speed and I'll have this DVD on the shelf ready for that day.

For 10.00 it's worth buying. You can pop it in and watch your own jaw drop over and over again at the finger acrobatics going on, or use it as an inspirational video, or if you're good enough, simply to learn from. I mean, it's TEN dollars so why not? Most instructional videos cost FAR more than that so there's a bit more risk when you roll the bones but at this price you can't lose.

Well. Back to the woodshed.

-Pappy

Mr. Big / Chickenfoot - The Return of Guitar Pop?

The blog I Heart Guitar recently posted a blog with the following video in it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPLy3GJ6D3M

The Chickenfoot CD that is approaching release has me pretty excited and lately I've been in the mood for some guitar work that isn't quite so cut and dry as what I usually listen to. This is something that I might have to check out too.

It's obvious that at least in the guitar circles that the Chickenfoot CD is highly anticipated and maybe the new Mr. Big CD will become a success too. Perhaps we're going to see a resurgence of music that was around in the 80's, just not quite so 80's visually? There's no denying that there was a ton of great music in the 80's but the look is hard to swallow and I think the look had just as much to do with the downfall as the theory-heavy guitar work (that found shred and like a dog with a bone refused to let it go).

I'm kind of excited about the potential here. Listening to pop radio when I go anyplace with my daughter (she's a fan of pop) has me thinking that it sure would be nice for music that was pop-ular in the 80's (to quote EVH "they call it pop music because it's pop-ular") to be around now.

-Pappy

Nike + (For The iPod Toting, Running / Walking Guitarist)

I debated with myself for a little while on posting this blog but since it has to do with music I figured why not? Surely someone out there is a runner or walker or trying to set up a workout routine and maybe they are also a guitarist AND a blog reader (I know, I'm really starting to narrow the field down here) and is sitting around thinking that their iPod on shuffle just isn't doing enough for their workouts.

I recommend Nike +.

Now, Nike wants you to spend a ton of money on running shoes that have a little slit in the sole where you put a sensor that keeps sends a signal to a receiver connected to your iPod. I wouldn't recommend it. You can go on Amazon.com and get a small bag that attaches to your shoelace. The pros here are that you save a ton of money (potentially) on running shoes AND you get to choose the shoes you want instead of selecting from one company's line.

You can make a playlist if you like or just use your iPod like you normally would to listen to your music and choose your workout from distance, time, custom, or open ended. I chose "time" and started walking. It faded my music out and a pleasant female voice told me I had completed five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, thirty minutes (halfway point) and then it started the countdown. Fifteen minutes left, ten minutes left, five minutes, four minutes, three, two, one and then she congratulated me on completing my goal of moving for an hour. I could continue the workout if I chose or I could end it by pressing "Menu."

Once I sat down at my computer I plugged in my iPod and it sent Nike Plus' website the info from the workout and I was able to see my progress. Over time the progress from multiple workouts will make it incredibly easy to keep track of my workouts and progress. It's almost like collecting data, something I'm a huge fan of anyway.

You can make a little avatar of yourself and you win accessories by hitting certain distance goals and you can post your avatar along with your workout progress on MySpace or Facebook or your blog.

For about $25-30.00 it's a good way to keep track of what you're doing. The fact you can listen to the music you want to while you're working out AND keeping track of how far you're going and how fast, is pretty great. It makes working out fun.

By the way, in a further effort to tie this to music, by doing cardio like running or walking you increase your stamina making for a potentially more energetic (and less sweaty) performance on stage.

-Pappy

The Fifth Fret Interviews Six String Bliss

Please, allow me to indulge for just a bit in nostalgia, or at least origin stories.

When I was driving to and from work I would listen to a podcast I had discovered at the time called Six String Bliss (I've blogged about 6SB a couple of times now and if you aren't hip to the show, check out their site here: http://www.sixstringbliss.com/index.html) and found myself wanting to respond or elaborate with the guys but obviously that can't happen.

So I started writing blogs using 6SB as a springboard for a lot of the ideas.

I'd blog quite a bit about music and guitars and the like on my personal blog and my wife would say that she starts reading the blog and if it's about music or guitars she reads no further, so I decided I should probably make my own guitar blog. My stab at it, anyway.

So there it is. The origin of this particular site comes from 6SB for inspiration and my wife as a catalyst.

Well, the hosts of Six String Bliss asked me to interview them in an episode full of egotism in celebration of making it to (and past) 150 episodes. I was more than happy to oblige, quickly whipped up some questions, and they called me the next night.

I was pretty nervous, I'll admit. I mean, just look at the story above. These are the folks that are responsible for my blog and now I'm going to interview them. I'm sure you'd be a little nervous too.

So, sitting there writing a blog set to come out on Friday (hint: it involves the lead guitarist from Nevermore), I had just gotten done with the last period and signing my name when the phone rang.

I said hello and a woman's voice responded. I don't know what's up with that so, confused, I said hello again and Pipes and PT were there and talking. I'll admit, I was still nervous not only because of the above story but because this is my first audio interview ever. Let me say, interviewing in text is significantly easier. You can bounce emails back and forth as much as you want asking follow-up questions and scrutinize, but when you're doing audio interviews you need to be more on-the-ball with your questions. Even with that, I was jotting down follow-up questions left and right based on their answers and I think that if I had been doing a face to face interview that would be considered rude.

So I think, from my limited experience, the ranking of interview difficulty goes like this: text, audio, and audio face to face.

But it was fun and I think it worked out very well. Their answers were great and entertaining to me as a 6SB listener. It was like I was IN the podcast and it was a weird feeling, like maybe walking on your favorite TV show set. It was cool. I had a great time and if you would like to listen to the episode (honestly, you should be listening to the show anyway, but if you haven't this is a good episode that introduces you to the guys) you can find it on iTunes in the podcast section - just search for Six String Bliss - or you can go directly to their site located here: http://www.sixstringbliss.com/. The episode in question is number 151.

Check it out and share the excitement.

-Pappy

Pro Tone Pedals' Shrunken Heads Update

Who here likes amps? Go ahead, raise your hand.

OK...

Who here has a list of amps they really want but will probably never be able to afford? Don't be shy.

OK. I'd say a lot of us out there are in this boat. I know for me I've always wanted a classic Marshall JCM800, a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier and an Orange of some sort. But the prices of those amps are ridiculously high considering I want more than one amp. They would go so well together, right next to one another for different songs and tones and while that's cool, spending over 1K on each head (sometimes over 2K on each head) is too much money for one piece of a complete set. If I had just one amp that I really wanted, one tone that I was really after, really driving for, I could say to myself 2K IS a lot of money but it's the only amp I want.

I've grown to accept my dream just won't happen.

But then Dennis from Pro Tone pedals decides he's going to make pedals based on these three amps (and a couple more) with a specific goal of NOT offering your usual VOX/Fender emulations, but something more.

Here's a quote from his blog:

"Analog Amplifier Emulations that kill! We're not fucking around with the standard Fender or VOX emulations... we're going for the bone crushing tones of modern amps along with some time tested metal giants!"

Doesn't that sound like something YOU want? I know it sounds like something I'd be interested in. And look at the pictures above! Promises of great tone with looks that will make your neighboring guitarist do two or three takes, and say "Man, what is THAT?!"

So what is going to be offered from these shrunken heads?

I'm so glad you ask.

Just to let you know, the names of amps the pedals are emulating is for reference only and are subject to change.

Pictured top to bottom:

100 - Soldano Super Lead 100

Flipper- Ampeg Flip Top

Miik - Orange MKii

Professor Plex - Marshall Plexi

Rec'er- Mesa Boogi/Diezel-ish uber metal

Pedals can be expected somewhere in mid to late August with a sticker price between 229.00 and 249.00.

Even if they all cost 250.00 you can get five classic sounding amps in great looking stomp boxes for an amount less than or equal to one of the amps being emulated. Five for the price of one, so to speak.

And if you buy all five, Dennis at Pro Tone will make it worth your while and you'll walk away knowing you made out like a bandit.

Anyone else excited?

-Pappy

Guitar Aficionado

Looking at guitar magazines you can see the kind of people that the magazine is trying to attract, whether they are trying to attract everyone, or people that gravitate more toward specific genres or goals. Some magazines offer a ton of learning material spanning different genres and skill levels, while some offer significantly less of that and more stories from the road of rock and roll and all its excesses.

But there is one crowd that I have NOT seen addressed and that is the affluent crowd.

Until now.

Guitar Aficionado is the magazine for those players who like REALLY expensive things (not just guitars but cars, houses, fashion, trips, etc. etc.) and for just 7.99 - the same price of a Guitar World - you can see what the upper crust of guitar players are up to. It's kind of like trespassing on a rich person's lawn to peek in their windows.

They have a watch page where the lowest costing watch is $8,000.00 US. They have an interview with Joe Perry which manages to balance the interview fairly evenly between the guitars he plays, the Boneyard studio, his house and his prized horses. They have an interview with Tom Colicchio, head judge from Bravo's Top Chef (the greatest reality show in the history of television) and they have a slew of other stuff. They interview a guitar collector who's day job is making award winning wine. They feature the top five guitars they would recommend buying if you are trying to build a vintage guitar portfolio as an investment. They feature reviews of alcohol AND reviews of guitars.

The magazine has articles that are well written with photographs that are pretty spectacular (not up to the standard set by Fretboard Journal but still really good) and it seems like it would be enjoyed by more than just guitarists based on the variety of content. It is not JUST for the guitarist, but anyone who likes fancy stuff and happens to play guitar. I'd be willing to bet that even people who like fancy stuff and DON'T play guitar would find it interesting.

So if you think those other magazines are a bit too low brow for you, check this out. Even if you don't think the other magazines are too low brow you should still check it out, just to try out something a little different. I'm glad I bought it and read it, but in the end it didn't have enough guitar in it for me so I'm not sure if I'll be buying another issue, but only time will tell.

If you've read it, feel free to comment on it here. I'd love to read other people's opinions about this magazine which manages to stand apart from the others.

-Pappy

Pro Tone Pedals "Shrunken Head"

Hey, everyone! I wanted to write with some super great news. I've been going through my collection of blogs that have accumulated over the last couple of months and came across this from Pro Tone pedals. It seems their Shrunken Head pedals will have just as amazing graphics as their other pedals.

I know I plan on buying one and when I do, I'll let everyone know how it is, but for now I'll just have to tease with a picture that was included in their blog.




By the way, for those who don't subscribe to the Pro Tone blog, you should. It can be found at this address: http://protonepedals.blogspot.com/

You should go there right now and check out a teaser video with what looks to be a hint of things to come. Seeing the heads all lined up in the video certainly made me think how cool it would look to have them all lined up in front of an amp.

I have one, count them ONE kidney for sale in case anyone wants it. :-)

-Pappy

Forgery Of The Highest Degree

Hello, everyone! Pappy here. I wanted to talk about something near and dear to all of our hearts as guitarists. It's a dividing topic if there ever was one. If you were to buy a guitar, even one that's been custom made for you, would you want someone other than the person who built it's name on the headstock? A lot of folks seem to be after a custom piece that replicates an original Telecaster (for instance) brand name and all, even if Fender had nothing to do with that particular guitar's creation.

I thought about this for a long time about how I feel about it and times that I would or would not say it's fine to put someone else's logo on your guitar and it basically boils down to this for me (just me, like I said, this is divisive): if it is a custom guitar made by someone else for you then their name should be on it. It's only fair to the builder and to you. If you're thinking of getting a guitar to sell in the future, the guitar's actual builder's name needs to be on it. If you're looking to make a replica guitar, say, of Joe Strummer's Tele or Jeff Beck's Esquire and you do not plan on selling it and want it to be as accurate as possible, then I personally see nothing wrong with putting another company's name on it, but if someone were to ever make ME a Jeff Beck Esquire, when I would post pictures of it, I'd make SURE to say it is NOT the $10,000.00 Fender model, but a replica made by X. That's my first inclination anyway, but upon further consideration I would say the actual builder's name should still be on the guitar. Something about the idea of anyone even thinking I spent ten grand on a guitar makes me feel uneasy and besides, the builder should get all the credit in the world. Especially if it's a great guitar!

That's just me and while it would probably be good enough to put that out there on its own I wanted to offer a little more food for thought and found Benford Guitars (talked about on Six String Bliss quite often so I had to check them out). Here's what they say on the "About Us" page:

"Benford guitars is a small custom shop located in a northern suburb of Milwaukee. We specialize in custom one of a kind electric guitars, basses and lap steels.

We also offer A full line of repair services: Everything from a simple restring to full re-frets and electronic work.

Getting a one of a kind instrument doesn't have to cost $3000.00. Email me with your ideas. We'll work together to create something special at a price that wont break the bank."

Looking at the price list for the Standard Series which are Strat or Tele Style guitars (with a twist) he will BUILD you a guitar for about $400.00 which is a smoking deal no matter how you look at it.

But in the price list for half and full custom guitars (because if you have a shape in mind, he'll entertain the thought) I found this quote that inspired all of this:

"From time to time I get requests to build a guitar and apply XYZ companies logo on the headstock. First off that is a illegal, second that is just plan rude to ask. Next time your at Burger King, have them make you a Big Mac and put it in a McDonalds bag. See how well that goes over!"

I thought it was pretty great to hear something honest from a builder, and it might just be me, but I'm seeing this more and more, especially with the smaller builders, like Benford Guitars or Pro Tone Pedals or companies like that. I love it. It makes the company feel less like a company and more human, something you want to get behind if their products are worth it and I'm pretty sure they are.

So I emailed Steve Benford and asked him to elaborate on his stand for the blog and he was nice enough to be willing to do it. Here's what he said:

"I'm fortunate to make a living doing what I love, making guitars. When you do what you love it sometimes doesn't feel like work. Building up a name and reputation in this business IS hard work. Word of mouth breeds name recognition, which in turn gives value to any product, especially guitars. Value is not limited to what a guitar is worth. Value also includes the pride you feel when you take a hunk of wood and turn it into a playable piece of art. This is where I get confused with some guitar builders out there. I have seen a lot of custom guitars. Along with that I have witnessed people putting in extraordinary amount of time into a build only to slap and decal from a well known company on the headstock. Why would someone do that? Are they trying to pass it off as the real thing? Are they to embarrassed to put their own name on there? What's the thought behind that? If you played piano and sang would you put out an album under the name Billy Joel? Probably not. Take pride in what you do people. Take all the glory, you deserve it. F-brand guitars doesn't need advertising help. People already know who they are. Alternatively, people who build a guitar and leave the headstock blank drive me almost as crazy. A logo gives your instrument that value I mentioned earlier.

"This leads me to my next part of this topic. Often times I get people asking me to build a guitar and put another companies logo on it. First this is illegal, and second its just plan rude to ask. I once was called an "ego-maniac" because I refused to put another companies logo on one of my guitars. I was told by this "customer" that I had probably sold a lot of guitars and didn't need to put my name on there. Now I'm a business man. I do this because I enjoy it, but it's a business, not a community service. The customer isn't always right. Well after several emails back and forth, the guy conceded and told me I can put my logo on MY guitar. Wow, thanks. The catch was, he wanted the headstock shaped like the companies who's logo he wanted on the guitar. About that time, a buddy of his contacted me and told me that this guy intended on removing my logo and replacing it with another. He then intended to sell it as the real deal. I emailed the guy back and told him to stick it. As expected he didn't understand why I would give a crap. Its wrong, that's why I give a crap. There are a lot of guitars like this out there. With people parting out guitars on ebay, the potential to get a fake is growing larger every day. Know what your buying and ask questions. If you get a funny feeling walk away. Send me an email. I'll build you something better!"

Steve

I think Steve's got the right idea with this and applaud his forwardness on letting people know up front that it just isn't going to happen.

If you'd like to learn more about Benford Guitars, check out their website located at: http://www.benfordguitars.com/ and if you're interested in getting YOUR custom guitar made, be sure to drop him a line with your ideas. Here are some samples of his work:

-Pappy

Candy For Your Skull (Skullcandy)

If you're like many people in the world you have an iPod. If this is the case that means you probably also have a pair of the stock earbuds that are, well, less than stellar. In the matter of a couple of months I blew out two pairs of earbuds and I do not listen to music very loud (as a musician I aim to keep my ears functioning as well as possible for as long as possible to hopefully ensure a long life of music appreciation).

I think the reason these earbuds were packaged with the iPod instead of ones with higher quality ones are because a) they might have been trying to be sympathetic to third party earbud manufacturers who rely on customers being dissatisfied with the stock earbuds and buy ones from their company, b) they really think their earbuds are more than good enough except for one upgrade offered by Apple itself, or c) THEY think that CUSTOMERS will think that stock earbuds are automatically low quality. After all, if they were quality earbuds, they wouldn't put them in the same box as the player, right? They would put them in their own box and charge you almost $100.00 for them, right? Of course. And Apple offers those fancy earbuds with woofers and tweeters all in the same earbuds (even with a microphone and confusing control button on the wire too).

Ah, but this is not a review of these earbuds. This review is for Skullcandy's Asym earbuds.

Here's what Skullcandy has to say about these particular earbuds:

"The only people with symmetric ears (that we're aware of) are certain robots, and they're not really people and they probably don't listen to music. Regular people like us (we're assuming you're a lot like us, ear-wise) have asymmetric ears, so an asymmetric bud like Asym (pronounced Ay-Sim) fits like nobody's business (an idiom, meaning great). Its flush fit and wrapped cable position (the cable runs over the top of your ear, man) means you can run on the treadmill (what are you running from?) or do your Flashdance dance (without water of course...they're not waterproof), and they'll stay put. Asym also fits perfectly under beanies and helmets (for those doing the really sketchy stuff)."

I went to Best Buy to get a pair of Skullcandy's Smokin' earbuds, ones that cost about ten bucks less than the Asyms. I had the opportunity to try them recently and was very impressed with the way they almost locked into your ear. You put them in and you felt like you really could run and not have them slide out or move around to uncomfortable positions or distract you from your run and the music. This is a problem most earbuds have, or at least most earbuds I've used.

And if the earbuds DO manage to stay in, they don't sound nearly as good as over the ear headphones (or "cans").

My experience with the Smokin's was an overwhelmingly positive one and I was fully prepared to buy a set when the salesman mentioned that while the Smokin's are pretty good the Asyms have better bass response. I'll be honest, bass isn't exactly a required thing for me, but the presence of more potential bass is always a good thing.

What it came down to though was how they looked. I don't mean if they were red or black or green or anything like that, but whether these Asyms looked like they would be more accommodating to a workout.

They did so I bought them.

Testing them out I first have to say that putting them in is (embarrassingly) a little challenging the first time. You know the standard earbuds and how they look. You just put them in your ear and try to ignore them. Not so with these. You put them in almost upside-down to what you would THINK they would go in and lock them into your ear. The locking thing is really cool because your own ear is helping hold the bud in, something that seems so obvious after you put them in that you wonder why other companies haven't done this too.

If you're thrown off by the last paragraph and the embarrassing confession about the challenge of putting them in, don't worry. On the outside of the earbud is a picture of Skullcandy's logo (a cool looking skull) will tell you if you're doing it right or not based on the orientation. If the skull is right side up, you're doing it right. If it's upside down, you're wrong. Please try again.

And if the earbud doesn't fit, it comes standard with other sizes of buds because we're all human and we're all different.

One they were in (by the way, in the looks department, Skullcandy gets an A+. My pair features a clear wire shield with a red center wire that looks pretty cool) I did the obligatory tests.

The first song I tried them out on was Calling All Skeletons by the Alkaline Trio, the second song Last Caress / Green Hell from Metallica's Garage Inc. Disc 2, the third song Cocaine Blues by Johnny Cash, the fourth (and probably most important) song Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio. I say "most important" because I had to know if the salesman's claim of more bass was true.

It was.

The Smokin' earbuds can handle any genre well enough, I'm not saying they're bad earbuds at all. But the Asyms DO have more bass and in the case of Gangsta's Paradise (a classic in my book) it is appreciated.

I also listened to a couple podcasts and I'm impressed. Lows are low, highs are high, voices are clear, and you get the feeling that you probably can't get much better sound unless you reconfigure your music collection to have the best quality possible and spend hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS (who knows?) more on earbuds to get a noticeable difference.

Me, I have a tough time swallowing more than fifty bucks for any pair of headphones, be they cans or buds, so the fact that the quality is so high in these makes me feel good. Like there's a company out there who doesn't want to take as much money from you as possible based on the product instead giving you a product for a fair price knowing that you'll probably be blown away and the next time you come looking for earbuds or cans, you'll go to them first.

Kudos, Skullcandy.

You can get these for about 40.00 from your obvious retailers, Best Buy, Amazon, etc. but you can also buy them from Skullcandy themselves at their site located here: http://www.skullcandy.com/

-Pappy

Almost A Rock Star

Like I mentioned in yesterday's blog post I am in the military and because I am, I'm prone to travel to all sorts of places, some good, some not so good. It's important when you do this to bring along things to remind you of home: Photos of your wife and kids, a letter or two, your iPod, a 2007 Squier Affinity Series Telecaster, you know - those sorts of things.

Before I went on my first deployment, my wife bought me said Telecaster for our anniversary knowing that it would be brought along wherever the military sends me. So far, I have not gone anywhere that it hasn't.

And because it's a deployment guitar - a war guitar if you will - I do not baby it. The great thing about this guitar is it can take most things I throw at it.

I figured that with our love of guitars and the increasing interest in reliced guitars, this one might prove to be interesting.

Since the guitar was purchased it has been to the Middle East, South Korea, Japan, New Mexico and Arizona (though the trip to Arizona was personal, not business). It's covering a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

You can see from the general front shot above that there are dings on the body and scratches on the pickguard. These are to be expected as I don't even use a case with it. Instead, before I deploy I take the strings off it, unbolt the neck and put it in my bag. Looking at just how little room it takes up makes me wonder why people are so willing to buy travel guitars when this is such an easy alternative that allows you to bring a tried-and-true guitar with you wherever you go.

Here's a closer shot of the dings on the front of the body. You can also see a decal a wonderful sign maker in North Carolina named Paul Setzer made me. I'm an enlisted flyer for the US Air Force and wanted my wings on the guitar but the size restraints meant that we couldn't squeeze the eagle that is supposed to be in the middle into its designated location so we replaced it with my last initial. I like it even more because there's little doubt that those are MY wings.

This one shows a particularly nasty ding that happened on the way back from Tucson, AZ but more on that later.

The strap is held on with Grolsch seals. I read about someone using them on a Joe Strummer Tele and they do work fairly well however in the near future there will be an upgrade to the EVH way of things with eye hooks and metal clips. It's hard to argue with the durability of those.

The ding on the end of the neck is one of those that you find on most expensive reics and it was pure accident that it happened. When I first got the guitar I thought I was going to document ever nick and ding but as you can see, it has acquired a few and I can never be 100% sure if they happened during the most recent flight or beforehand and I just didn't notice them.

Also, check out the neck pickup. It's caved in and scratched like no one's business but it still plays and sounds good.

The knobs have both fallen off and now the tone knob is impossible to tighten to its previous state.

Here's another picture of the wicked ding the airlines were nice enough to give my Tele. It was interesting to get home and unpack the suitcase and find butterscotch-colored wood chips amongst the clothes and to find the body looking like this.

As you can see the pickup switch has been bent. The knobs being loose, the switch being bent, the pickup cover being caved in and scratched like it is, none of these things bug me. The guiar is still perfectly functional and in the case of the switch it still has its top hat so my hand doesn't get cut open when I switch from bridge to neck pickup or vice versa. I say kudos to Squier for making the tip so durable. If my hands could talk they would say thank you too.

That's my guitar, Ol' Blood & Guts. Named after Patton's tank, this guitar fits the name perfectly. It is rock solid and is taking quite the beating without the playability suffering too much. There are some minor issues that I'll get to later though. It's coming, don't worry.

One thing to note in the picture is the warped pickguard. Heat will do this. Under it I put a ton of masking tape to provide a writing surface and the dates that I've been deployed to whichever locations are written on it.

Here's the other side, the top side. Not as many dings on this one.

I thought when I got this guitar that it was too good for the Squier name and the stigma attached. Squier, as good as they are, carry a definite prejudice of being bottom of the barrel and not being worth the money or time to play them. But they are. In an effort to show people just how great these guitars really are I cut off the Squier name and turned the neck plate around. Now I realize that people would be just as shocked if I just put it in their hands and let them play with them knowing the whole time that it's a Squier but I didn't think it all the way through back then and now that boat has sailed.

The "Hi" is from my wife. Over the time that I've had it I've received that little note and some fingerpaint from my daughter. These little things mean the world when you're so far from your loved ones.

That's my Tele. If you're interested in getting your own deployment guitar, I strongly recommend either a Squier Telecaster (maybe even a Classic Vibe Telecaster with a bit more upgrade to it than the Affinity Series) or a Squier Strat. It's important to keep the number of moving pieces down to a minimum and not get a body with the potential to snap away in parts. For instance, I would not recommend getting a BC Rich Warlock for a deployment guitar (nothing against Warlocks but for this purpose you're better off with something a little more solid). Another reason the Strat and Tele get my recommendation are their bridges. Adjustomatics, most anyway, fall off the guitar, the string saddles move in and out for easy intonation but this also means they might get away from where you set them when luggage rubs up against it. In the end, you'll just end up toting around more hardware than you would with a Strat or Tele and at the end of the day, all you really want is to be held back by four screws and a neck plate.

When travelling there are a couple of recommendations I have for you, well, one major one anyway: wrap the neck in a shirt or blanket, maybe a pillowcase, SOMETHING to protect the frets. You can play a banged up body very easily. You can adjust things that go out of whack like string trees or bushings but the frets, those really matter and if you gouge a fret you will feel it and it will make your playing suffer both in tone and in feel. It just won't be as fun to play anymore.

Of course, this Tele and any guitar being toted around in this manner is bound to undergo changes that the owner deems necessary. There are metal thread inserts you can put in the neck holes that mean when you screw the neck to the body you're screwing one piece of metal and having it lock on to another, NOT one piece of metal into the wood of the neck, something that is fine a couple of times but not something you would like to do over and over again. The bad thing is that the only time I've seen this hardware dedicated to the guitar, it cost about 100.00 which seems steep for a guitar that only cost 70.00 more. Sometimes you just need to do stuff like this though. Besides changing the strap buttons to eye hooks, this is a mod I would like to do. I'd also like to replace the neck with a maple one that is either a little more chunky in the way of the classic Tele or ridiculously thin like an Ibanez Wizard neck. I have no problem with either extreme. It's the middle-of-the-road stuff that gets me. I'm also toying with the idea of getting a thicker pickguard and removing the neck pickup to increase the stablity of the pickguard. I'd probably replace the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan Little '59 stacked humbucker, partly because of noise, but mostly because I like the PAF sound a little more than the standard Tele sound.

This is the cool thing about these guitars and why I think everyone should have one. They aren't necessarily for showing off. The dings acquired MIGHT look cool, but often times they are not in "period correct" locations. They aren't supposed to be period correct. These are honest guitars owned by honest players and any modifications to them reflect a sense of truly upgrading them for the player, not for the players AROUND the player. I might love the PAF sound and want it in a Tele but I can think of quite a few people that would stop considering it a Tele if I were to go through with the operation.

My point is that it doesn't matter what the crowd around you thinks and that these guitars, the honesty and ineguity of the wear and modifications really reflect the owner in a good way. When you think of car shows, this is comparing trailer queens to daily drivers.

Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Program...

Greetings everyone, Pappy here. I know it might look like the 5th Fret has not been that active but I have a good excuse (I was deployed to the Middle East) and the blog WILL pick back up now that I'm back. There's a ton of developments in the works and I'm happy to be here to write about them and to show you what's going on in my particular guitar universe. I'm also glad to have the other writers to share their ideas, opinions and reviews. Their points of view are different from mine and I think it makes for a quality blog.

Anyway, the statistic is that most blogs fail or die within two or three months. Usually the blog owner just stops posting and moves on with their life having that particular itch scratched. I just wanted to write and say that this is NOT the case with this blog. I love writing for it and I love that more and more people are coming to it.

So stay tuned, everyone. There's good stuff just ahead.

Thanks for reading!

-Pappy