Learn & Master Guitar Session 1

Like I mentioned previously, I’ve realized I’m unsatisfied with my playing and want to improve. I SHOULD have posted this BEFORE I bought an educational program, but I didn’t and went in and bought Learn & Master guitar, a staggering 20 DVD / 5 CD / 100+ page book set that takes you from no-kidding here’s how to hold the guitar forward.

It’s set up to be slow. That’s deliberate. I figured that, because some requested my opinions on the course, I would document the sessions and my impressions on them.

So we begin with Session 1.

Session 1 is all about familiarization and laying foundations. It lays out the parts of the guitar, the names of the strings (which the instructor quizzes you on throughout the DVD), some simple runs designed NOT to sound like good music but to make your left and right hand work together, all the while focusing on technique, and two chords the C and G7. That is session 1. I thought that, since I’ve played for over a decade that the runs were slow and the chord strums (which weren’t strums at all but slow downstrokes) were below my level of playing BUT even though I knew how to play those chords I did NOT know what they were called.

Effectively, I’ve learned two chords because now you can say G7 and I won’t look at you like you’re crazy.

The runs were very simple though, which is great for a beginner and perhaps even great for an experienced player. My technique has been getting sloppy with my fretting thumb creeping more and more over the top of the neck, so I’ve been addressing that (though honestly, when he says the wrist should be low with air between your palm and your fingers while you’re fretting a chord, I can’t help but find that uncomfortable and I’ve been gravitating more toward the “grab the neck” method but that’s just for chords).

I’m benefiting from the easiest lesson is what I mean to say. I already knew the names of the strings though in my mind I always go EADGBE and he goes EBGDAE which kind of throws me off a little mentally. I know the hardware and parts of the guitar and I’ve finally found an efficient and comfortable way to hold the pick (the way almost everyone else seems to hold it – who would have thought?).

Overall, the lesson wasn’t huge, or at least not nearly as big as a beginning guitarist would think it is, but it’s good and I’m glad that I bought it. I’m excited to go forward in it.

And I’m also excited to share my experience with you.

-Pappy

Country Clarified

Country music is a very popular genre in music with a rich history going back to fields of cotton and lack of plumbing. Through the years since to the modern days the genre name “country” as always been alive and well, sometimes with high spikes in popularity (Brooks & Dunn’s Boot Scootin’ Boogie that swept the nation) and sometimes not so much, but I don’t really think Country has ever taken a steep dive in popularity. There’s just too many fans that listen to it for that to happen.

Some people aren’t a fan of modern country though, and wonder why country music isn’t as simple or straightforward as it used to be in the days of Hank Williams (the first).

Allow me to shed my light of opinion on the matter.

It’s no secret that modern country music has few ties to classic country music. Classic country seemed to be tied to bare bones set ups perhaps even one person with an acoustic guitar and always putting out songs about real life.

But classic country is… well, it can be boring. We’ve all heard about how tough it was – or even is today. The things said back then might have been news to people but by now they’re clichéd. I bet the first time someone said they had to walk five miles in the snow to get to school every day it had a serious impact, but now we’ve heard it so many times (often as a joke) that it’s hard to restrain yourself from rolling your eyes and sighing.

So instead of going out of the way to craft new ways to talk about the same stuff, country music changed to be more akin to pop music. Pop music has very little to say and the fans aren’t really looking for depth, they’re looking for a good beat. Something to get out on the dance floor and wiggle it to. I know several people who either turn the bass in their car up so high that vocals are inaudible or turn the radio down while driving so that only the beat comes through the speakers.

This isn’t a bad thing though. I’m not insulting country or its fans. The music industry has listened to what the people want and the people want something similar to pop that is fun and disposable. The music industry gave it to them. The customer’s demand was met and in return the customer buys a ton of stuff. Win/Win.

Of course, the country music industry couldn’t just change and make pop music though. Pop has been around for a while and has built up some serious competition in that regard so Country Companies made pop music that was a little more grown up, far more accessible to the slightly older crowd that has steady jobs, debt, a family, dreams that may come true and dreams that have already been crushed. While an occasional song about going out with the pals and partying is fun, more songs about the life that has been carved out for you by your own hand are far more prevalent.

This is the similarity to classic country, I guess. Songs about real people, but the similarity to pop is that the songs are sung by bigger than life, flashy performers who haven’t worked in steel yards, don’t tame or ride horses, and maybe they don’t even have dogs.

That’s not really wrong either, after all, their job is to perform for you. If they were worn out from a long day of welding they probably wouldn’t want to go out and entertain you and even if they did, do you think a person on the tail end of a long hard day would be a good performer?

Added to the song content there needs to be a visual marker that separates this from pop. Remember, while the performers aren’t the blue collar salt of the earth, they shouldn’t look TOO MUCH like the pop performers they so closely resemble in content depth, so blue jeans and cowboy hats are a must.

Personally, what astounds me is why some teenage pop fans don’t like country music. There’s a high probability that this is what they’re going to like in ten years so why fight now?

Anyway, while fans of classic country or outsiders complain about the fashion show that is modern country music and the likeness to pop in general, I’ll say that it isn’t harmful at all. There are still people out there who sell their albums and perform after real work and who represent what country used to be about. As for everyone else, if you think country isn’t pop in a pair of Wranglers and a Stetson, perhaps you should reconsider your opinion just for a little while. The similarities are so strong from the beats to the lyrics to the emotional depth to the fact that some country artists are even trying to bridge pop and country to a ridiculous extent (Trace Atkins’ Honky Tonk Badonkadonk (hope I spelled that right) comes to mind).

Modern country music is just pop music for a more world-weary crowd so while that’s not a bad thing, pretending it’s something more is a little silly. It’s just as enjoyable regardless of what it resembles or what it truly is so there’s no reason to get bent out of shape about it.

-Pappy

Called Out!

There's an old episode of CSI, I think in the first season where the team leader was incorrect about something and literally said "I was wrong." This was a big deal to his subordiante apparently and she said that he's a little weird because most people wouldn't admit they're wrong.

The reason I bring this up is I was raised by TV for the most part and for better or worse have morals closely tied to lessons learned from shows and movies. I don't think it's a big deal. I think I turned out alright. This doesn't mean that I'm done learning from my Cyclops Of Love though, and this is one more lesson added to my rolodex of lessons.

Armed with this knowledge I wanted to put this out there. On my signature guitars post just last Friday, a reader named Larry pointed out a bit of hypocrisy by me when you combined this post and one I posted a while back located here: http://www.fifthfret.org/2009/10/wicked-pricey-sigs.html.

Here's an exerpt of what he said:

"You were critical of Parker for offering a 10K Adrian Belew Signature guitar. Keep in mind that a Fly's base price is over 3K. Now add a Sustainiac (Parker's are NOT made to have interchangeable pickups - there's almost ZERO wood for routing under the neck pickup) and the controls for it. NOW ADD A VARIAX CIRCUIT! Oh yeah, let's cram an RMC Ghost piezo saddle/ preamp system in there too, and wire it with Roland GK output. Ohohohoh -but the switching for all that $#!+ would be too complex, so let's devise a proprietary switching system, all per Adrians's specifications! Everything is done with the Fly's standard 2 3-Way Switches, but the Volume, Tone, and Piezo Volume controls are re-purposed and push-pull. You've got to see Adrian demo it to understand the simplicity and elegance. Again, HE DEVISED IT! All in all, it's about 40 hours of electronics work, on top of the base price for the guitar. All hand-done. And thre's only one man in the WORLS that does them! (The original designer of the scheme died tragically several years ago. He was THE MAN for Parker mods - absolutely world-renown. It took Parker nearly 3 years to find someone who could reverse-engineer the system, and reproduce it.)

And then let's finish it in a multi-stage Tangerine. It actually takes dozens of coats of paint, starting with a gorgeous silver as a base coat (over the primer of course!) before they apply the orange. It's always been said that a STANDARD Parker paint job ALONE is an $800 expense - they use PPG automotive paints, and meticulous application. So we're talking maybe a $1600 paint job?

These guitars are EXACTLY what Adrian plays."

He's right. In the previous post I complained about the priciness of signature guitars and then came around with this post where I said signature models should be exactly or as close to possible as what the artist plays. I unfairly lumped the Belew model in the Pricey Sig post and was called out on it.

"I was wrong."

So I thought it was only right to put out some information about the Belew model though Larry really nailed all of the really critical parts in his critique.

Here's what Sweetwater has to say about the Parker Adrian Belew model:

"The Parker Adrian Belew Signature Fly Deluxe solidbody electric guitar is an incredible marriage of technology and tone fit for a prog and experimental rock legend. Far from a slapped-on signature model, the Adrian Belew Signature Fly Deluxe is the result of years of collaboration between Adrian and Parker, and the results are breathtaking! From the built-in guitar models to the MIDI capability to the awesome Sustaniac pickup functionality, the Adrian Belew Signature Fly Deluxe is simply an amazing guitar.

Parker Adrian Belew Signature Fly Deluxe at a Glance:

• A stunning guitar fit for an amazing player
  
• Variax equipped
  
• Sustainiac
  
• MIDI capable

A stunning guitar in the hands of a true original
When Adrian personally stopped by Sweetwater to play the Adrian Belew Signature Fly Deluxe for us, it was obvious that he was very excited about this guitar. If you're familiar with this man's inimitable style, you know he's capable of wringing every ounce of usability from his guitars. And sure enough, from whammy abuse to monster string bends to otherworldly tonal squalls, Adrian put his Signature Fly Deluxe through its paces, and it didn't flinch. He spoke passionately about this guitar and how it makes him play better. Call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer today and see what this amazing instrument can do in your hands!

Variax equipped
The Adrian Belew Signature Fly Deluxe includes a complete Variax system that is nearly identical to that offered by Line 6 (25 stringed-instrument models, 50 presets, 10 user-definable locations). All of this is accessed via the traditional piezo-volume control and a five-way switch. The guitar can also be used in "magnetic" mode by lifting up the Variax control. This option bypasses the Variax, and offers, via the five-way: bridge humbucker, bridge hum/piezo, piezo, neck humbucker/piezo, and neck humbucker settings.

Sustainiac
The Sustainiac feature is accessed by pulling up the tone knob, and offers "harmonic mode" (full clockwise) and "harmonic-plus-octave" mode (full counter-clockwise). A ton of cool stuff can be instantly achieved with the Sustainiac, including full-bore feedback without a blazing amp, and eBow-like infinite sustain.

MIDI capable
The Adrian Belew Signature Fly Deluxe is MIDI-capable, which allows you to build your very own "ultimate MIDI guitar system!" When coupled with an appropriate MIDI guitar system, the Adrian Belew Signature Fly Deluxe becomes a source of an endless creative inspiration.

Parker Adrian Belew Signature Fly Deluxe Features:

• One DiMarzio humbucker
  
• One Sustainiac humbucker
  
• Fishman piezo
  
• Line 6 Variax components
  
• MIDI capable
  
• Carbon/glass/epoxy exoskeleton on the guitar's back, neck, and headstock
  
• Extremely light weight, (4 1/2 lbs.)
  
• Carbon/glass/epoxy fingerboard with stainless-steel frets
  
• The Parker flat-spring vibrato system
  
• Solid poplar body and a solid basswood neck
  
• Sperzel locking tuners
  
• 13 pin out
  
• Color: Tangerine orange; other colors available. Call for information."

So... Who wants to see pictures and video of this guitar?

Let's start with pictures (also taken from Sweetwater's website):















And how about some videos from Sweetwater to sweeten (heh heh) the deal?





All of this makes for a pretty cool guitar and while I'm much more a fan of... simpler guitars, I do think that the amount of cool stuff attached (elegantly, I might add) combined with the fact that this is actually what Belew plays live and in the studio makes this guitar worth the cost, even if it means that this cost is staggering to the everyman.

-Pappy

Signature Guitars

Orianthi is being played pretty much nonstop on the radio in my town and it's driving me up the wall. It's not that I don't like her or anything, I just don't like that song and the fact it's getting played every fifteen minutes is making me a little nuts. Normally I wouldn't even write about that kind of stuff because everyone is entitled to their own music and some people have decided to follow John Mayer's example of handing out pop music and trying to pull the wool over the mass market's eyes so that one day they can rise up and show everyone what real guitar music sounds like and be financially secure enough to not consider it too much of a gamble.

Or at least that's what I hear he's done.

Honestly I didn't know the creator of this song "According to You" was Orianthi. The DJ's never say her name. I've read her name in the guitar circles but her claims to fame just didn't interest me enough to check her out. But since she was featured in this month's Guitar Player and I read almost all of the magazine, I read her interview and found out that she uses American PRS guitars. That's not a shocker, really, since a lot of people have used and still use American PRS guitars. They're great looking, great sounding and in some cases VERY great playing (Rosewood McCarty (that's neck AND fingerboard) is my favorite PRS) guitars so the fact that an up-and-comer is using it doesn't blow my mind.

What does blow my mind is that she has a signature model from PRS that is from the SE line, their more budget friendly overseas-made line. And while SE's are great guitars in their own right, it brings up an interesting question:

Should a signature guitar be based on a guitar the signature artist actually uses?

I say yes. Jim Heath of the Reverend Horton Heat uses completely stock 6120RHH models. Chris Cheney of the Living End apparently only modifies his Chris Cheney Falcons with stickers. Jim Root plays Jim Root Teles.

The argument here is a cheaper guitar with the artist's name on it is for the people who don't have the budget to spend on a model like the one they themselves either saved up for or earned through a deal with the company for being around long enough and making enough of an impact to justify on their part.

But I just don't buy that.

See, here's the thing: You have two camps of signature guitar buyers (this is not counting the people who don't buy a guitar with someone else's name on it for whatever reasons they have). You have the people who are after the features that aren't normally found on a guitar from that company (pickups, finish fretboard radius, scale length, etc) and you have the hero worshippers.

Neither demographic is targeted with a cheaper guitar that isn't what the artist actually uses and in that case it ceases to be about the artist and more about how much more the artist's name attached to the guitar will fetch at the register.

I love Chris Cheney and his playing. It's probably a good thing his guitar isn't available Stateside or I would be more in debt than I feel comfortable being. But if that guitar WERE available in the US, you bet I would want it and without being TOO embarrassed to say so, it probably has more to do with his impact on me as a player than it does features because honestly, they're really similar to my 6118T. I want what he uses or as close to it as possible. Call it a quirk or hero worship or whatever you will, I'm just being honest here. If Gretsch offered an Electromatic version that featured a different color, no sparkle, regular humbuckers and a more traditional headstock I wouldn't buy it though. That's not what he uses and no matter what, I know that somehow, someWHERE in this signature model of his is the POTENTIAL to get his sound. I don't think that's possible with a completely different guitar that just has his name on it.

That's silly.

But what if I was just looking at it's features as something desirable? Say I didn't know who this Chris Cheney guy was but I found out he used a TV Jones Classic + in the bridge and a TV Jones Powertron in the neck, Sperzel tuners, a smaller body than a usual Falcon and I thought jeez, those sound like features I want, i may end up getting the guitar regardless of who's name is on it.

In neither situation would a cheaper guitar appeal to me.

So in the case of Orianthi and any other guitarists who are looking to offer "signature" models that don't resemble what the guitarist actually plays or includes very few of the same features it all seems like the only people making money are the guitar player and the company with very little benefit being passed down to the consumer.

Oh, but there may be a couple of demographics I didn't think of. Two jump to mind after some consideration: The people that don't know any better (a parent perhaps who knows that their child who like Orianthi and says they want to learn how to play guitar) and those that want everything a particular artist slaps their name on. Don't laugh, they exist. When I worked at Hot Topic, Linkin Park was really popular and there was a guy who came in and no kidding bought everything with the Linkin park name, logo, or art on it. Everything. He even bought the clothes specifically made for young girls and when I talked to him about it he said that he was collecting everything because he was a super huge fan and thought that one day perhaps this stuff would be really valuable. After all, he said, Linkin Park is the greatest band that's ever been and they're bound to be around and surpass the popularity of old bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

So there you have it, two other demographics that may want to pick up budget-friendly signature models.

What do you think? Which would you prefer and why? Do you see anything wrong with cheaper signature guitars or are you for them?

-Pappy

Brutal Honesty

The other night my wife asked me why I need my custom Jazzmaster (the Papmaster). Whenever anyone asks me why any guitarists need more than one guitar I always say tone is the answer. Every guitar sounds different and therefore every guitar is worthy of being bought. But before I could respond with my oh-so-canned response my wife jumped in and told me to look around, I have a ton of awesome stuff. A Gibson Les Paul, A Taylor Big Baby, A Gretsch 6118T and a Squier Tele, not to mention the opportunity to review products that companies want to send in.

It was at that moment that I really thought about it and I was honest with myself. I like the idea of getting new gear because I'm unsatisfied with my playing and it's so much easier to think that this shiny new piece of gear be it a guitar, pedal, amp, cable, etc. will make you a better player than the idea of all the work involved in actually learning how to play better. Work is not sexy and learning to play is a ton of work and it's just EASIER to think that this piece of gear, no matter how much it costs is the shortcut - the magical shortcut - that will make you play and sound better.

It was in this sudden and unexpected revelation that I became a little depressed. I realized that I'm an awful player - a truly awful player. I don't know the names of chords, I know zero scales besides the pentatonic box, I'm TRYING to learn notes but it's a slow row to hoe and I can only read TAB. Because of this I can't play with other people. This makes me a little bummed because I always hear guitar players love to play together and it's scary (and sad) to be approached by guitarists who are looking to jam and to say it's fine, give me a second and listen to this quick riff I have and then you can solo all you want over it.

It's just no fun and I feel that after almost thirteen years of "playing" guitar, it's time to realize, accept and move on.

So armed with this epiphany I decided to put all guitar projects on hold including the much-coveted Papmaster. Instead, I'll be putting that money toward a copy of Learn & Master guitar. When I'm done with it (and it will take a while considering it comes loaded with over 20 DVDs, 100 pages of book instruction and five jam along CDs) I'll be more than happy to review it and hopefully at the end of it I'll be able to play confidently or at least not shirk away from jamming with other guitarists. And maybe I'll be able to understand what I'm playing and be able to write better songs too.

I will say that even after deciding this, driving home from work I was thinking that I'm not really looking forward to all the work. It's exactly like dieting. All you want to do when you're dieting is eat and it's so frustrating to be on it but when you finally get down to the desired size after all that WORK you feel good but the entire time you're on your way there you always want to give up. Don't get me wrong, the work is worth it, it's just a matter of will and doing the work.

-Pappy

The Recycling Project dies

If you go back, you'll see that I started a project where I would recycle cans and save the money and documentation of how much money I was given and how much weight was recycled. I thought it would be fun to say "hey, I recycled a hundred pounds of aluminum and made this much money and with it I bought a Way Huge Swollen Pickle (or Fat Sandwich)."

A major reason for this is I used to drink a TON of soda but since I came back from this most recent deployment I've stopped drinking soda which means most of my can production is gone (I don't drink that much beer either) so because of this standstill, I've decided to take the money already earned and throw it into my Papmaster build. It's not much, maybe fifteen or twenty bucks, but every little bit is helping and perhaps this might push me over the edge and make it possible to order the body and bridge.

I'm excited to see how that works out.

So anyway, I just wanted to write and say that the cans project is dead for right now. Perhaps the dead will rise in the future but for now, it's just going into the Papmaster build.

I hope no one's too bummed!

-Pappy

Raving Photography's Gretsch Corvette Pictures

On Friday a review of the Patrick Stump Corvette came out and it was supposed to include pictures taken by raving Photography. Unfortunately they were not included (until now) in the review and I figured since there are quite a few out there who subscribe to this post via RSS reader, the updated post featuring pictures wouldn't come up in their readers. Because of this, I'm putting out a completely new post with just the pictures for everyone to see. Keep in mind the review has the pictures in it as well now, so if you would like to look at it again, be my guest.

Thanks for your time and have a great day!





















-Pappy

Gretsch Patrick Stump Corvette Review

In the beginning of 2009 I told everyone that I went on a trip to Scottsdale to visit FMIC’s headquarters and while there I was able to play a Gretsch Patrick Stump Corvette. It was one of the prototypes and it was equipped with different pickups than what is in the standard model which is one reason why I didn’t want to plug it in (other reasons include the fact that I was surrounded by far superior guitar players and I didn’t want to like it any more than I did playing it unplugged).

I also told you about the guitar in all of its unplugged glory. It’s a sweet guitar. The neck is thin enough to not hinder faster playing and thick enough to feel good wrapping your hand around for chords (though a thicker neck would be preferable for me), the finish isn’t sticky, the silver has AMAZING sparkle and depth to it and overall it feels just like the other Corvettes feel: like they belong in the Professional Line of Gretsch alongside the 6120, Country Club, and various Falcons.

It was such a good player and such a good looker that I had a picture of it saved to my phone and while deployed convinced a buddy of mine who was learning guitar to get one when we got back. He called up Joel at Shanghai and ordered it and has said on numerous occasions that he loves it.

Eventually though he got a new guitar and that is the one he’s really focusing on so I was able to convince him to let me borrow his Corvette to take pictures and videos of and review for both this blog and the podcast Six String Bliss. I restrung it and conditioned the fretboard which was a little dry from its recent neglect and after I strung it up, stretched the strings and tuned it up it played beautifully. The action was low without a ton of fret rattle, playing was easy all the way up the neck with a ton of access, the sonokelin fingerboard felt really good under my fingers and the whole neck felt good.

But what sets this guitar apart is the pickup scheme. That’s the biggest deal that this guitar has to offer. The lack of a Bigsby isn’t too mindblowing, and a finish change is expected on a signature guitar so it all boils down to the pickups.

This isn’t a bad thing, either. Imagine a three pickup Corvette for a moment and a three way toggle switch attached to it. When the switch is down you have the bridge pickup only, in the middle you have both the bridge and neck pickup and when it’s up you have the neck pickup only. The middle pickup never comes into play. But if you turn the rotary knob everything changes and the knob between the master volume which is located closest to the neck and the rotary knob which activates the third pick which is closest to the bottom of the guitar suddenly becomes active. It’s the volume or blend knob. Now the toggle switch (the same toggle switch as before) in the down position is using both the bridge and middle pickup (and you can turn the middle pickup all the way down or all the way up with the middle knob depending on your taste), the middle position is the middle and neck pickups, and in the up position, the position that would have been just the neck pickup on the other setting, is now ALL THREE pickups.

The tones delivered by these are great and loaded with a ton of different flavors. The middle pickup helps lower the highs usually associated with the bridge pickup which you might find useful, especially when playing a bright amp.

I also found that with just a little bit of practice you get acquired to the switching and I found it incredibly useful when having run giving the Orange Crush CR35LDX (reviewed last week) a proper run and after a while I was a switching machine. Oh, a bit too bright for what I'm looking for right now, turn the knob, ah, that's better, kind of stuff.

The Megatrons in general are great pickups too, that take pick control to a new level. They’ll be as nice or nasty as you want them to. Switch from the bright bridge pickup to the jazzy-dark sounds of the neck and everywhere between. Tim Baxter, the creator of the Gretsch Pages (http://www.gretschpages.com) said that the Corvette will give any Strat or Les Paul a run for its money and while that might seem a little far-fetched what with the fact that the Stratocaster is usually made of alder or ash and the Les Paul is almost always made with mahogany, and the woods have completely different tones but in practice, you hear that he’s right. The bridge pickup on the Corvette isn’t AS bright as a Strat’s but that also means that it’s not as ice-pickish either and when you mess with your amp’s EQ you can radically change the tone of the guitar. If you have mids in the mix you’ll get a GREAT mix of tones and the whole thing sounds very nice and full of articulation and if you scoop out the mids, it responds just as well as any Les Paul (assuming you’re scooping the mids because you’re a fan of classic metal).

The guitar also features a kill switch which works just like any other killswitch and is just as handy when you either want to silence the guitar in case it gets bumped or anything (because the guitar is dead silent when it’s not being played most of the time anyway) or when you’re chopping up notes and chords for your song’s purposes.

So what are the cons associated with this guitar? Well, there’s the fact that the finish does throw some people off but usually anything more than a color will divide up the crowd (like if you add anything froma stripe to covering your guitar with pictures of flowers) and even colors will divide up a crowd so finish will ALWAYS play a part as a pro or a con depending on who you’re talking to and what their likes are.

I DO wish they would offer this model in more colors than silver though. Patrick Stump has recently been seen playing a White one with black stripes and it looked pretty killer.

Other than that the cons are limited to three and one is that there is too much leeway in the control changing rotary knob. It should be tight so it’s quick to change the control but there’s actually a bit of spin required before you’re able to click it over to the other format which slows it down.

Another con is that the contour on top needs to extend all the way across the top. If you compare the comfort of your forearm playing while sitting down on a Telecaster and a Stratocaster you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say there needs to be a bit of a contour to be more comfortable.

.

The BIGGEST con of the Corvette is that it comes with very little literature on the control setup and this forces you to either figure it out (the bridge sounds brighter in this position than that position) or go to http://www.greatchguitars.com and read the specs which lists out the controls.

But the pros far outweigh the cons in this case and the Patrick Stump Corvette is an amazing guitar, ESPECIALLY one that can be had for significantly (and I mean SIGNIFICANTLY) less than the minimumadvertised price provided you call or email Gretsch dealers (the independent ones like Shanghai Music will give you the best deal unlike Guitar Center) and ask what the real price is.

So you have a killer playing, killer looking guitar that features a ton of sonic options, a kill switch, none of the issues of a Bigsby (I’m a big fan of the Bigsby but it scares off some and some others just plain don’t need it), and great balance.

It doesn’t hurt that every time I put it on I end up rocking out.

Overall if you’re looking for a guitar in the sub $1,000.00 range and that guitar happens to be a solid body, you owe it to yourself to check out the Gretsch Corvette in all of its incarnations but in my opinion the Patrick Stump model is the top of the heap, even if it isn’t the most expensive in the line.

-Pappy

Orange Crush CR35LDX Videos

Here are videos shot for the Orange Crush review (located here: http://www.fifthfret.org/2010/04/orange-crush-cr35ldx-review.html)

-Pappy

Book Review : The Story Of Paul Bigsby, Andy Babiuk

The Story Of Paul Bigsby, Father of the Modern Electric Solidbody Guitar.

Speak of Bigsby and most people will think of those beautiful yet industrial looking doo-dads you see guitar players hanging out of. The kind that make the notes go all wrong… and rightly so, Paul Bigsby’s invention is perhaps the ultimate guitar accessory, but his contribution to the electric guitar as we know it today goes much further than that.

Andy Babiuk’s book details Bigsby’s rise from hot-shot motorcyclist to one of the most in demand boutique guitar manufacturers. Babiuk clearly put an awful lot of work into this book, it’s a tome and a half. Every page is beautifully laid out with rare and detailed pictures of Bigsby’s guitars and pedal steels, his family and friends and even photos of him from his cycle-hound days.

The book puts Bigsby in his rightful place at the top of the pile, the Daddy of the modern electric guitar. He set standards and precedents that are still followed by guitar manufacturers to this day, and the book goes to great lengths to affirm this.

It features testimonials and anecdotes from legends such as Merle Travis (who had an awful lot to do with Bigsby’s success as you’ll find out), Bigsby’s daughter Mary and even Deke Dickerson.

Even if you can’t read, the book is worth it. It’s brimming with luscious full colour photographs of Bigby’s creations, often spanning into great lengths of foldout paper (very clever on Babiuk’s part I think). I would heartily reccomend this book to anyone with a real interest in the electric guitar.

Even if you don’t like it, you can still use the book to come round and sock me on the head with it for leading you on. It’s a biggun’!

-Tsar Nicholas

I Want This

File this under “Guitars I Wish They Would Build.” They won’t of course, but I wish they would.

…Though honestly since they don’t and there are so many great independent builders out there who would be more than willing to help you out with your builds, I guess it doesn’t matter that the big names don’t build every guitar you want. An added perk is that a lot of the builders will help you more directly and give you more options. Because of this, I think that even if Fender (in this case) DID offer this guitar I would still get one made by Benford.

So anyway, enough of the preamble.

Jeff Beck has a signature Esquire. It’s a great guitar with a thick buttery tone that’s still very “Telecaster” and the relic job is really nice. I’ve wanted one ever since I first played it but it’s ridiculously expensive. So expensive I don’t think the value will ever go up in the second hand market and because of this it’s more of a status guitar than an investment guitar.

Oh, by the way, here’s a fun little trivia fact for you: Way back in the day farmers would pay land owners to let the farmers’ animals graze on the landowners grass. Some landowners decided that a good sign of status of wealth would be to erect a fence in the front of the house, making the first front lawns. The front lawn was a thumbed nose to the farmers and a sign to the world that the landowners were SO wealthy that they didn’t need (or even want) any more money. I imagine that was a pretty impressive display of wealth.

That’s how I picture the Jeff Beck Esquire. So radically expensive and not really guaranteed (or even really likely) to go up in value that it is just a waste of money and that’s OK because you don’t need any more money. You’re so loaded you have to get rid of as much of it as you can – a sort of real-life Brewster’s Millions.

Anyway, I still really like the guitar. There are some slight things I would change though. Personally, as much as I love relics I would love the option of getting the guitars wrecked via my own hands. I just want a thinly finished (lacquer please) guitar body and neck that will display my own playing habits. I like the arm and tummy contours but I would like to swap out the pickup for a TV Jones Powertron making a bit more souped-up (and better looking in my opinion).

So I went to Benford guitars’ web site and started looking around. The Tele-style guitars that he build are made of ash (same as the JB), and while I haven’t confirmed, I BET he would be able to get a naked body and send it to me to finish (or finish elsewhere). He even includes the option to have the neck altered to include an asymmetrical shape and a compound radius to make playing up the neck even easier (a pretty sweet thing).

And I bet it would cost WELL under the JB relic.

I think I may have found the project to follow up my custom Jazzmaster (or Papmaster as I'm now dubbing the project for anyone that will be keeping up with it)!

-Pappy

The Guitarist's iPad

I think the iPad is great even though I don’t have one or ever held one or even seen one in person. It opens up a ton of potential and while there are lists of the top apps for guitarists that are available on iPhones or iPod Touch’s, those are devices where the uses for guitarists are more of a perk to a reason you bought it in the first place.

The icing on the cake, so to speak.

But with the iPad is it ridiculous to think that you can buy it with the explicit desire to further your guitar playing career? The iPad’s large screen will make the TAB programs that I expressed desire for a week or so ago a real possibility because there will be no eye-strain trying to see a device that, while big in the phone world, is tiny in the real world especially when compared to the music books and magazines we’re all used to. Perhaps this device is what music publishers were waiting for and if so, I say go ahead and wait no longer! I won’t get an iPad for a long, long time but that doesn’t mean that every application that gets released by a music company will go ignored. Far from it. It’s people like me that WANT an iPad but can’t get it yet that are busy talking about its potential instead of being wrapped up in a bigger version of the destined-to-be-classic game Plants Vs. Zombies.

Besides, say you release a program now and more companies follow suit, when a guitarist like me finally does get one you’ll see me download the apps one by one (especially if the app is free even if the content is not – remember: the application itself has to be free. People will not want to pay for the application AND the content but will be more likely to buy content if the application is free) and then start going through them. The iPad is the perfect device to learn to play or learn to play better guitar and more companies need to jump on, contact an application developer and say they want to get on board with this thing to make music books, music education tools, theory lessons and questions, perhaps even music writing tools for the guitarist who has an idea but is not able to get to a guitar, or maybe they just want to tab out their own riffs or licks before they forget them.

And the device can grow with you as a musician if you want to take it to other levels. You’ve used it to learn how to play guitar and now you are writing songs and rehearsing with a band and you start your MySpace page, your Facebook fan page, your YouTube account and the like. If you take the iPad with you to gigs you can write about the experience as you’re still shaking from how amazing it felt to be on stage and succeed.

The potential for the device is almost infinite but it needs developers to work with it and that’s the first step.

What I’m thinking of doing is taking the weekly lesson rate that I used to pay before I moved ($15.00) a week and if I stick to the budget I’ll be able to get one in a little more than 33 weeks. We’ll see if any other thoughts come to mind but right now the possibilities of Learn & Master coming to the iPad instead of books and CDs is pretty great.

-Pappy

TV Jones Gear Stolen!

TV JONES GUITARS & PICKUPS STOLEN MARCH 27, 2010
at musikmesse Hall 4.0 Stand J40 Frankfurt, Germany

We are asking all of our friends to get the word out via blogs, forums, any means possible. In the hope that we can retrieve these rare stolen instruments, pickups, and tools. Basically everything that was on display in Frankfurt was stolen (even our banners, suits & suitcases!).

Here is a rundown of the stolen items (scroll down to view photos):

• TV Jones Model 10 Prototype Guitar in tobacco sunburst w/P90 pickups (one-of-a-kind)
• TV Jones Model 10 Prototype in natural toffee w/ T-Armond pickups in P90 mount (one-of-a-kind)
  
• TV Jones Model 10 in Ice Blue w/single bridge pickup
• TV Jones Model 10 in Red w/single bridge pickup
• TV Jones Model 10 in Matte Black w/ 2 pickups
• TV Jones Model 10 in Tobacco Sunburst w/ 2 pickups
• several sets of pickups
• all of our banners and display materials
• various luthier tools

More info and serial numbers to come.

If you have any information please contact us at (360) 779-4002 or info@tvjones.com.
If you come across any of these guitars please call your local police.

Here are some photos of the stolen guitars:

Orange Crush CR35LDX Review

The Short Version

The Orange Crush series has recently gone through some upgrades and better tone is a direct result. Compared to the sounds I was used to from my older Crush 15R, I was pleased and shocked at how much better this model which is known as the CR35LDX, sounds.

This amp is pretty much the top of the line in the Crush series. It features digital effects, an on-board tuner, two channels switchable by a switch on the amp or footswitch, two different gain stages (labelled "overdrive" and "gain") which is actually really handy because if you want a more classic sound, you just turn up the gain and the tone is amazing and if you want to add gain to the signal to go in a heavier direction, you just start turning the overdrive knob up (this seems a little backward, but you get used to it). It never goes into really heavy metal territory, but it still gets to a level where it gets fun. Anything past that is merely a stomp box away.

So what all's on this amp? Here's the breakdown:

From left to right,

Phone In

Footswitch In

Line Out

AUX In

Low

Mid

High

Volume

Overdrive

Gain

Input

Under the EQ you find the FX mode knob (with menu conveniently next to it), and the FX Level knob and an LED tuner to the right of that.

These feature hieroglyphics above the labels but I am really glad that it also features a word description of the control knob. I know a few people who are confused enough with the words, so the idea of pictures only would surely overwhelm some people.

The sounds are coming out of a ten inch speaker in a wood cabinet (Orange boasts this on the box) and they even give you the option of removing a section of the back to make it a half-closed cab in the back letting more bass out of the cab (or keep it on to make the bass a bit tighter sounding).

The clean sounds are very nice and usable. I was able to dial in a pretty pleasant jazz tone but when I first plugged it in, all I really wanted to do was rock. I switched the channel and started messing with the gain and THAT is where I found some GREAT tones.

The digital effects were great. You have all of the effects on a rotary knob and the level of the effect's impact in the signal on another rotary knob. For most of the effects I didn't have to turn the mix knob up past 9:00, but for the "tremolo" effects, I had to bump it up to 12:00. Almost all of the effects were incredibly usable and I found myself writing new phrases and licks to accommodate the effects and as a result, I have new material which is great because what guitarist DOESN'T want new material?

My only complaints about the amp would be that the tuner does not cut the speaker when activated (it would be great if the audience didn't have to hear me tune my guitar between songs), and the fact that the effect's rotary knob doesn't QUITE line up with the number of the corresponding effect. If the knob took up more space it would have a better chance of lining up with the numbers. Also, since the knob is so small, it's a little hard to read the numbers without getting really close to the control plate which seems like it would be a problem in a gig environment. At 35 watts you would think that's where Orange wants you to take the amp (to the gig) but aesthetically it still looks good. I think perhaps you would just need practice or set up your set list to correspond with changes to the control plate.

What I mean is that the complaints I have are not deal-breakers. You can work around them.

The Long Version

I love the mail (regardless of who's delivering it). You never KNOW what you're going to get, and some days it's just junk, but SOME days a package arrives completely out of the blue and it takes you off guard. A while back I had contacted Orange and requested one of the new Crush amps to review since all of the other guitar blogs had piqued my interest but none featured more than a press release.

They said yes and when I came home today there was a box waiting at my door with "Orange" logos printed on the clear tape.

I opened up the box and pulled out the slightly smaller box that had the amp in it. Once that was opened, I caught a whiff of the amp and figured that this amp HAD to be brand new - like right off the line kind of new - because I could (and still can) smell the wood glue. It smells good.

But enough about SMELLS! I took that baby to my bedroom and plugged it in with a Gretsch Patrick Stump Corvette and the clean sound was the first up. I turned all of the EQ up to 12:00 and then started upping the treble to about 3:00 where I was happy. It let my guitar show off a bit more jangle and the clean was nice, but it wasn't spectacular. The clean channel does give an excellent base to check out the effects that are on board so you can hear exactly what you're going to be adding to your sound once you found your personal sweet spot. Where this amp really excels is on the other channel.

So I changed the channel to the channel that lets the overdrive and gain really come into play and began bumping up the gain knob. It was a little shocking to me that I had the knob dimed and it still only had at most a classic rock kind of sound BUT it was a really good classic rock kind of sound. The sound was that of an overdriven amp, with just a little bit of hair on the notes, great for blues or a jangly kind of punk. It was what I was after right at that moment, I was just a little taken aback that it didn't go heavier than that.

Then my eyes opened up a little more and I noticed the "overdrive" knob which adds gain to the signal which I already had saturated with overdrive (labelled "gain") and then it was able to get pretty heavy. No one would mistake me for Kerry F. King but it was still fun. Even for when both gain and overdrive were pushed right to the edge, notes were clear and I was able to articulate well. Everything sounded musical and not harsh like you'll hear on a lot of solid state amps and I even noticed that as I crept up the overdrive knob, my smile just got bigger and bigger because it was FUN to have this kind of tone at a low volume and at immediate command. There was no waiting for the tubes to warm up or the amp to get used to a room (who would have thought tube amps were so fickle?), there was just great tone inside this incredibly lightweight box available at any volume.

No offense to Orange, their previous Crush line was OK, but there was a reason I sold my Crush 15R. I didn't like the tones I was getting and the one or two good ones that I was able to coax out of it when I was armed with a bag of chicken bones and several pins lodged in a voodoo doll shaped like the amp almost always disappeared overnight (if you're a guitarist you should be familiar with this phenomenon). It was an amp that I had to constantly tweak is what I mean and as a result I almost never relaxed and just PLAYED. This new Crush is completely different though and there were a ton of tones that were lovely and completely usable. It wasn't a duct-tape the knobs situation at all because almost every time I moved them, I just found another great tone that is usable in a different sonic situation.

Both of the channels were good enough to say that the amp is a worthy amp to check out if you're in the market for an amp that sounds great at home and might even be good enough for a gig, but it's not JUST the sound that pushes this amp to the top of the Crush heap. No, what pushes it to its lofty position is the extra stuff. The amp features an on-board tuner which seems to be pretty accurate, but doesn't cut the signal when you activate the tuner. This seems like a bummer to me because when I tune my guitar I don't want anyone else to hear me.

This amp also features a slew of digital effects. The list of effects is as follows:

1. Reverb Room

2. Reverb hall

3. Reverb Spring

4. Reverb Chapel

5. Hall & Delay

6. Delay 100 MS

7. Delay 175 MS

8. Delay 300 MS

9. Delay 650 MS

10. Chorus Slow

11. Chorus Fast

12. Flanger Slow

13. Flanger Fast

14. Tremolo Slow

15. Tremolo Fast

16. Vibrato

The effects are also only customizable with the level of which it interferes with the signal. you can dial in just how obvious you want your delay or flanger to be but you can't alter the times of the effects beyond what is offered to you. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though. I think a lot of inspirations come from what you DON'T have access to. Take a volume knob for instance: if you had no volume knob but wanted to turn the volume down you would be forced to play softer and learn the art of pick attack.

The same mentality applies here. I didn't have the ability to tweak a delay just right and ended up writing new material because I was working around the effect which is great. Inspiration took hold and I was pretty pleased.

There are multiple reverbs to choose from and I was pleased to hear that they all sounded different. Does chapel reverb sound like a chapel? I don't know (never played at a chapel) but it sounds different enough from the others to be a viable option for reverb settings.

You can also plug in an auxiliary device like an iPod and play along with your favorite music as well as use headphones.

And it's a solid state amp. I recommend solid state amps to a lot of beginning guitarists because since there's no tubes, there's less of a chance of accidental damage (this amp features two switches: one for the channel and one for the power. The two options for the power switch are on and off. There's no standby, there's no tubes to worry about) AND a lot of them like this amp are feature on-board tuners, effects and amp simulators for a cost that a beginner can swallow knowing full well that this is a gamble and playing guitar might not work out for them.

In the end, this amp is a great amp for beginners with it's completely reasonable price tag of about $239.00 on the street, but it's also a viable option for living room players and rehearsal spaces. As I mentioned before, the great tone is available at any volume which means I was able to rock out right next door to sleeping kids and they didn't wake up at all. It may work in a pinch at a gig but like I mentioned in the short version of this review, if you're going to gig with it, I highly recommend planning your set list around the use of on-board effects so you aren't stuff using a flashlight on a dark stage trying to find the slow flanger effect.

I think the biggest thing this amp has going for it besides that great tone is the fact that you can just PLAY. There's no need to plug in a ton of pedals, there's no need to delay your playing to tune your guitar, you just plug your guitar in and play. If your guitar is out of tune, you just push the button to turn your tuner on, tune up and there's little to no delay. This amp just makes playing easier and when you're practicing at home that's what you really want, right?

This amplifier was sent to the 5th Fret to be reviewed by Orange Amplifiers.

-Pappy

P.S. There will be a follow-up post coming soon that will feature videos of the Orange in action so feel free to subscribe here on Blogger, through RSS, our YouTube page (the link is to the right), you can become a fan on Facebook or you can just keep coming back and checking, but I'll let everyone know here and on Facebook that the videos are up and ready to view when I get the chance.