Tavo Vega's Nocturne Pictures

I recently received my new Tavo Vega Nocturne Brain Seltzer. I traded in my classic one that was made for Filtertrons or humbuckers in general for one specifically made for single coils. It beefs up the signal even more and when compared to the classic one, this is a supercharged sucker punch to the tone and is crazy just how dirty it can get.

Don't worry, I'll be recording videos soon, but for right now, check out these pictures:

-Pappy

Lost & Found

While most of this (http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/smart-investment-0505/?RSSName=Features) article is about the collectability of guitars and their investment potential I was more intrigued by how it started, with a guy going through his attic and finding a 1959 Les Paul Standard.

I’ve heard many tales of this happening and each time I lean back in my chair, scratch my chin, look up to the ceiling in quiet reflection and think “who do I know in my family that plays guitar?”

The answer, by the way, is one other person in four generation of my family. Just one.

I didn’t know there was even one so I went around while visiting family asking “have you ever played guitar?” I’d be lying if I didn’t hope they would say “YES! By god, I remember now that I did INDEED play guitar and I think I left my 1959 Fender Telecaster somewhere… I think in the very back of the closet? Maybe in the attic? It’s SOMEWHERE IN THIS HOUSE.”

I didn’t WANT the guitar, I just wanted to feel what a discovery of this magnitude would feel like. If they happened to feel no desire to play it ever again and no inclination to SELL it, and they WANTED me to have it, I’d probably take it.

You know. So I didn’t hurt their feelings. ;-)

The whole time I was up there talking to this person and that person every one of them said they had never laid their fingers across a fretboard or felt the sting of strings in that first hour of playing. And then out of nowhere my grandmother said that she played a very long time ago for her church.

Tell me more, Grandma.

She played in a church, nothing really serious, just some hymns, not really guitar intensive and probably knew five chords total. She asked to play my guitar and I obliged and she tried to make a D chord but over the years her fingers had gotten soft and it was tough for her.

In the past, she didn’t see much need to go further so she stopped playing. She was pretty sure she had sold the guitar soon after quitting (why keep it around, right?) and she kind of regrets not sticking with it.

Why does she regret it? Not because of the challenge of learning or wanting to be the center of attention but because she felt happy knocking out those hymns.

It made her happy.

That’s awesome.

I think we all want to find something valuable like this and like I said, not only because we want it, but because that’s a pretty cool story. But it was just as awesome for me to find someone who not only played, but played for the right reasons (everything is a right reason but because it’s fun trumps all).

So maybe we can’t all find six figure guitars in the attic, but we can ask all of our relatives if they’ve ever played guitar and try to get them to talk about it. Everyone who plays guitar has a guitar story. It’s fun to listen to them.

-Pappy

Paul Gray & Slipknot

Photo courtesy of http://www.frightcatalog.com

Paul Gray recently died. For those who didn't know, he was the bass player for Slipknot. He was born on 8 April, 1972 and died on 24 May, 2010.

While death is always a hard thing to deal with in the music world, I think perhaps Slipknot should consider throwing in the towel with this news.

Slipknot has always been a band where the whole unit was better than an individual. When you remove one of the members here or there, or see a member alone doing their thing, the impact just isn't the same. In early interviews the band members said the same thing, that during rehearsals everyone needed to be there or it didn't FEEL right - something you can pick up on in the recordings and something you can definitely see in the concerts. While the DJ solo from DJ Star Scream is good, it just isn't Slipknot and Slipknot is the sum of all parts.

I'm sad to see Paul go, especially since he seemed like one of the more sane members and was even more heartbroken to hear that he left behind a pregnant wife.

From the very first time I heard the opening riff to "(Sic)" I was hooked and loved the band ever since. Creepy and pissed off, dangerous and violent, Slipknot was the ultimate cathartic experience for a teenage boy and as I grew and became more mature I was picking up on the musical skill that they were displaying more and more with every album.

So you see, me saying that Slipknot should consider the idea of stopping is not a handy reason for a person who is not a fan of the band to say they should quit but a real fan saying it was obvious that they needed each other to produce the music that they did, even if it meant a member hit a keg with a baseball bat to help keep rhythm, and without Paul, who's to say that magic can be found again?

I'm sorry to see you go, Paul.

-Pappy

Form As Function

Dennis Mollan is not a salesman. He does have products he wants you to buy, but only if you’re pretty sure you want them and if you’re on the fence about whether or not you want a pedal from him, he made it easier for you by adding another factor in the decision-making process: The art work.

Whereas most people and builder have artwork on their pedals that are either as safe as can possibly be (solid colors that are common, perhaps a subtle logo, etc) or a bit more willing to gamble by putting designs, pictures, decals etc. on their pedals the designs are usually inoffensive, with as wide of a target audience as people.

Pro Tone Pedals though, do NOT feature safe graphics though. There are monsters, shrunken heads, zombies, and puddles of blood (to illustrate just a few) and it turns out that Dennis does it on purpose, preferring to put out pedals that he has confidence in and put crazy designs on them and those designs are made to be extreme and divisive (and a reference to the skateboard deck art scene).

It’s pretty cool when you think about it. If you look at a pedal that has a puddle of blood on it and that isn’t your thing, you’re going to move on and there is going to be very little salesmanship involved since you’re already at the next booth/looking at the next company/ halfway out the door, etc. If you DO like it though, you’ve already stopped to learn more and then hear the pedal or buy the pedal to try out.

But let’s say you don’t see the pedal but hear someone playing it so all you get is the tone. If that tone isn’t up your alley, you move on again, but if the tone is something you like, well, we all know tone is MOST important and looks are secondary so if you’re impressed by the fuzzy tones of the Monster Fuzz before you lay eyes on it, yeah, you may not be a huge fan of eyes for knobs but the tone is there so you can probably get over it.

Slick. Tone and looks are the deciding factors and there’s only a little wiggle room and either way, Dennis has the ability based on these two divisive factors to sit back and not worry about harassing passers-by about his pedals.

Also, Dennis has an admirable standpoint where he doesn’t write manuals for pedals. His candid statement to me was that if he needs to write a manual for a pedal, he doesn’t release the pedal. All in all, Dennis is craftily making pedals that speak for themselves both sonically and visually with enough ease of use that you could 1) walk up to a pedal you think looks cool, 2) plug it in and due to the ease of use find a tone that may or may not suit you and 3) buy it or walk away. The only time you NEED to talk to Dennis is perhaps when you pay for the pedal.

Not that he doesn’t want to talk to you or answer any questions. He’s been nothing but nice to me when I was relentlessly asking question after question looking for a distortion pedal for me. I get the impression he just doesn’t want to be that annoying salesman that pops up from behind the counter the second your eyes fall upon one of his pedals quickly talking about how you need, need, need this pedal and what are you doing? What's taking you so long? Where’s your credit card? You’re never gonna regret it, this is the missing piece of your tone, blah blah blah.

That’s cool too. I hate being bugged by salesmen. It comes from looking at cars, but I HATE it when somebody in the guitar business – the business I love so much – tries to be a hard salesman and pressures me. That’s taking something I love and making me feel bad to be associated with it and there’s very little I hate more than that idea.

My caveat of course is that I sometimes push a pedal because it’s awesome but I’m not trying to pressure anyone to get them, just putting out my impressions that they’re awesome and leaving it to you.

So kudos to Dennis for trying to take the salesmanship out of pedal production as much as possible and just leave it to the pedals to speak for themselves.

-Pappy

Question For The Audience

So, it seems that with blogs there are people who don't post or interact with the blog for whatever reason and I completely understand why some people would not want to say anything, but please, for this post, please comment. It's super important.

I've been using Blogger now for a while and honestly, it's a little frustrating at times. I've thought about perhaps moving my blog to a different hosting site like Wordpress in the past, but always thought that I shouldn't because I've built this one up so much in the 1.5 years it's been around. People would need to update their subscriptions in their RSS readers, or update their bookmarks and this may be a bit of a pain for the readers.

So, with very little research (and work) done in looking into a blog at Wordpress, I can say it LOOKS like I would be able to create the same level of content, perhaps even a bit better (I would be able to include things like music and polls) but I would NOT do it if the response wasn't overwhelmingly positive from the readers that they would support the move.

Hopefully all previous content would be imported to the Wordpress site too, so you wouldn't need to worry about going between the new site and old site to read your favorite posts or get the references I write about.

But there would probably be hiccups, speed bumps, mistakes, etc. as I learn the new system so not only would I be asking you to make the move with me, but hopefully you would be patient as I try to get used to Wordpress as soon as possible and not totally screw up.

My point is this: The Fifth Fret as it is known today is all it's BEEN known as, so it's not like you would LOSE anything with me going to Wordpress and I know it may be a pain for everyone, myself included until I can get a grip on the format over there so I ask you (and again, please answer) the following questions:

1) Would you be willing to update your bookmarks, or RSS feeds to reflect the new blog?

2) Would you try to be patient as I potentially stumble my way through the learning process a move like this brings with it?

3) Are you happy with the way the Fifth Fret is now and desire no changes?

4) Do you think I should move?

Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated because in the end, I want to keep writing for you and because of this, I'd like you to stick around.

Thanks for your time and your comments.

-Pappy

Six String Bliss' What The Fuzz (WTF) Album

Six String Bliss Announces the Release of “What The Fuzz?”. Worldwide Launch – Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Six String Bliss, the longest-running guitar-centric Podcast on the Internet announces the release of What The Fuzz, a collaborative effort by members of their listening community. The theme of this album is the Fuzz Effect; it was not a requirement to use Fuzz specifically on guitar, but each track submitted contains the prominent use of Fuzz.

What The Fuzz will feature 10 songs performed by an international community of artists, with submissions coming from 5 countries. Each of these submissions is the work of members of the Six String Bliss listening community. This is the fifth such project produced by Six String Bliss, the first being 2007’s A Blissful Christmas, which was followed up in fall 2008 with Stay Tuned (a collection of TV Themes), last spring with Big Screen Bliss (a collection of songs featured prominently in movies), and in fall 2009 with Scales of Horror (all original, Halloween Themed songs).

According to Alicia Searcy, co-host of the What The Fuzz Episode and regular contributor to the show: “Six String Bliss’ “What the Fuzz” project is a testament to the amazing talent of its contributors. Each song really shines, and each artist has put his/her uniquely “fuzzy” stamp on their piece. Yet again Six String Bliss has raised the bar by delivering a wide range of music that is certain to be engaging and entertaining to listen to.”

All guitarists are welcome to join in the fun of the Six String Bliss Forum. Projects like this will continue to thrive so long as there is an active community to make these happen. So please come by, introduce yourself, and join in the next project!

Podcast Episode 187 which will feature What The Fuzz will be up on the RSS Feed (http://sixstringbliss.libsyn.com/rss) and on iTunes at 11:00PM (CDT) Thursday, May 20th, with the show notes added to the website soon thereafter at www.sixstringbliss.com. As always, there will be a direct download link from the main website which will include the Album itself, as well as front and back cover art and liner notes. These albums are available to the general public for free – you just have to go and get them!

About Six String Bliss

Six String Bliss is the longest-running guitar-centric Podcast on the Internet. Co-hosted by guitarists PT, Pipes, and Pappy, the weekly show caters to players of all ages and abilities, and features segments including Email of the Week, Guitarist of the Week, Guitar News and general discussion of all things relating to the guitar. Interviews have featured internationally renowned guitarists as well as luthiers, store owners, and manufacturers of pickups, effects, and recording software. In addition, each episode concludes with a listener-submitted “Outro” track; all listeners are encouraged to send in their recordings for use on the show. The website includes an active, international and welcoming forum.

Source: Press Release

-Pappy

Gretsch Black Phoenix

When I first got into Gretsch guitars it was in 2005. I had always kind of wanted one since seeing Chris Cheney play one in videos and in pictures but never delved so deep as to actually research what this Gretsch thing is.

By 2005 I was well into my love of rockabilly and psychobilly and I was getting more and more into the guitars they used in particular, the 6118T.

This was also the year that Gretsch unveiled the Reverend Horton Heat model which I instantly fell in love with. Aesthetically, I doubt there could be a guitar more “Gretsch” than this one. It features oversized F holed, a great translucent orange lacquer finish, western inlays and a G brand. I doubt even the smokiest of smoky clubs would make you think it was something else. I wanted one bad.

And fortunately for me, Gretsch was teaming up with Cream City Music and hitting the road with a ton of new Gretsch guitars and a ton of guitars owned by Fred Gretsch III himself that were moved up from their headquarters near Savannah, GA. They were coming to the next town over which was a huge shock as there is not much there.

I was going to go.

I showed up early and waited in the chilly morning air to be allowed in and was the first person to go up to the third floor and bask in a room that was more full of Gretsch guitars than I had ever seen before or since. I walked down the aisles, playing this one and that one, hooking up to a new Fender Super Reverb and really getting the chance to walk through just about everything in Gretsch’s catalog and I was in guitar heaven.

I saw that they had a RHH on a stand and I walked by admiring its luster but I did not pick it up and play it. I was a little nervous since I had built it up in my head so much. Eventually I caved and pulled it down and plugged it in and while the tone was good and the feel was good, it just didn’t cry out to me.

I was crestfallen. The guitar that I knew I wanted, it turned out I didn’t want it. To say I was a little depressed is an understatement.

So I walked the aisles looking at this guitar, that guitar, playing more being impressed with some disappointed with others, merely observing quirks for future discussions, talking with people, etc. I wasn’t in a haze, but I wasn’t in as bright of a mood as I was when I first came in.

On a whim I decided to play a different kind of guitar. Perhaps I just needed to get out of the 16” hollowbody range and into something a bit smaller. I tried a Jet and a Corvette and then a Falcon or two. I saw the Brian Setzer Black Phoenix and thought “why would anyone get this?”

See, the Phoenix has two controls: Master volume and pickup selection. That’s all. Why would you want to be limited like that?

But since I was there and Fred Gretsch hadn’t shown up yet to meet the small crowd perusing the instruments, I pulled it down, walked over to the Super Reverb, plugged it in, sighed and started to play.

I was instantly blown away. The neck carve was just like my 6118T, the feeling was amazing, the tone was awesome and the “limited” controls turned out to be the most unexpected bonus I could imagine. The knowledge that you are stuck with this tone was somehow freeing. No longer was I thinking “I should adjust the tone, or maybe back the bridge volume off a bit or which way should the mud switch be.” None of that. It was just me, my fingers, and the guitar.

And it was perfect.

Whereas all day long I was playing guitars, leaning over them to see every detail as I played, never really being comfortable, I now leaned back, smile on my face and I was back in my happy mood. It was unbelievable.

After that I moved from guitar to guitar, using them to specifically target things I liked (and in one case didn’t like) about the Phoenix. Scale length, neck carve, trestle bracing, etc. All confirmed in my mental checklist by checking it against guitars of similar stats.

Then I looked over my shoulder and Fred Gretsch was there. I walked up and introduced myself and asked if perhaps he would be willing to take a picture with me. He said yes and I grabbed the Phoenix – he perceived this as random – and we shot our photo and chatted for a bit but there was a small line building up of people that also wanted to talk to him so I thanked him for his time and went back to my guitar orgy.

I was bouncing between the Country Club and the Phoenix in particular. The scale length was comfortable as was the larger body that I could tuck into a little more and feel the resonance loud and clear against me. I put the Club back and once again went to the Phoenix. I knew I wasn’t going to get it that day – the only way I would would be if a bag of money fell through the skylight, landing at my feet and I was somehow able to pay for the guitar, get the case, and run away to my car and leave the building before the owner of the money came in looking for their cash.

This was the last time I was going to play it, my farewell riffs and licks. I grabbed it and kneeled down resting it on my right leg as I began to play, trying my hardest to memorize EVERY detail to replay mentally again and again.

As I was playing Fred Gretsch saw me and stopped the conversation he was in to shout over to me that this guitar, the Phoenix is a super cool guitar and he was really proud of it having the Gretsch name on it.

I thought it was cool that he would stop a conversation basically to say “isn’t that cool? I certainly like it,” but I knew what he meant. If that guitar had my name on it I would be proud too.

It’s a tone monster.

The Phoenix and I went different ways that day and I haven’t seen it since but over the years I realized that my dissatisfaction with the RHH wasn’t the guitar itself but it’s lack of similar feel to the 6118T which I was playing heavily at the time. I’ve played a few since and feel sorry that I didn’t spend more time with it the first time and that I dismissed it so quickly. They’re awesome guitars too (and well worth checking out) and they also have the most comfortable Bigsby handle known to man.

I’ll probably always remember that day though. It was a good one where I was taught the lessons of not putting TOO much hope in things advertised as being what you want and also to try everything out because even the things you could never imagine having a use for may be the thing you might find most useful of all.

-Pappy

Guitar Ink

Courtesy of Geekytattoos.com

Personally, I think it's a brilliant way to learn but there's a lot to be said for plain old memorization.

Still, it's always cool to see guitar related ink AND it's not a tattoo of a guitar itself so bonus points for originality.

Do you have tatts of guitars or guitar related things? Send them to rhythmandboos@gmail.com along with the name you want posted with the picture and I'll do a follow-up post dedicated to the ink of 5th Fret readers.

-Pappy

Staying Inspired

I was lured into the guitar world at an early age and ALWAYS thought it was cool (also, I thought that the singers of bands were less cool than the guitarists and get way too much attention but that’s for another day) but when I actually started to learn, I focused heavily on metal.

“Nu metal” actually. Lots of detuned seven string chugging madness was happening in my bedroom. This was not only because it was an emotional release but also because it was easy to play.

And I listened to it all the time.

But my musical taste started to shift to the more classic metal and then to punk and that’s where it stopped for a long time. I wasn’t interested in anything else because I was happy where I was. Sure, there were times when I picked up my guitar and it was more habit than fun, but I wasn’t going to let a little thing like that stand in my way of playing.

By the time I got to college though, I wasn’t that into playing anymore. I still did, but it was much more of a rare occurrence. There were days when I thought about dropping it all together. “It’s expensive to get more gear and I could probably get a little money from the gear I have,” is what I was mainly thinking.

But then I heard “Under Saturn’s Shadow” from Tiger Army and even though it was the same pace as the punk I loved with the same vocals I associated with bands like AFI, it was different. It was different enough to make me pay attention to the guitar again.

From Tiger Army came the Stray Cats and the Reverend Horton Heat and pretty soon I was swimming in recordings from Sun’s prime and loving not only life but playing guitar.

What had happened was I was stuck in a rut. A rut so deep for so long I didn’t even know I was there. The realization that there was inspiration just beyond those walls was pretty astounding and I decided that I wasn’t going to pass up music just because I wasn’t familiar with it. I would actually seek it out and try to expose and understand music I hadn’t really given a chance.

I think I’m a better musician because of it. I don’t mean to say I can play better, I just mean that when I’m writing, I have more references for what I’m going for. Big open overdriven chords like the chorus of “Prisoner of Society” from the Living End for example. In a way it lessens the musical frustration because I know what I want to hear and it raises the musical frustration because I can't play it (yet).

I also joined a few guitar forums. After being laughed off of one for extending a shop keep’s opinion that was unpopular and being flamed off of another for voicing my own opinion about a very sensitive topic I found the Gretsch Pages and I found a bunch of people that were mature and inspirational themselves. I could talk to touring musicians out there working hard to earn their keep, the occasional famous person, normal Joe’s like myself and private collectors. Everyone was very nice and motivational.

Between the new music I was feeding myself and the GDP I was – and still am – stoked to play guitar and now that I’m learning how to actually play guitar instead of just bang out some power chords that I don’t know the name of, I’m feeling even better.

But that’s just me. What do YOU do to stay inspired? Please share as I’m sure people get in ruts all the time and may be looking for options to pull themselves out.

-Pappy

Ronnie James Dio July 10, 1942 - May 16, 2010

Ronnie James Dio

July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010

I know I won't forget you and I'm sure many others won't either.

Here's a little something to remind everyone of just how awesome Dio was:

Learn & Master Guitar Session 2

In part two of our potentially 20-part review of the instructional course Learn & Master Guitar we delve quite a bit deeper into music.

This session is dedicated quite a bit to music and less to actually playing guitar. It’s probably best to do this early though to make sure you get it. Like before, the instructor feeds you a small chunk of information (in this case the first three whole notes on the high E and B strings, B, C, D, E, F, G) but UNLIKE the previous session, this is not spoon-fed to you. He does not go through every exercise in the book and he doesn’t constantly quiz you. It’s has a much faster pace, but the whole series of lessons is designed with you going at your own pace in mind.

Because of this, it may take a while to get through this session, not because I have a real problem memorizing those six notes but because this lesson also tackles something else:

Reading music.

All my life I’ve wanted to be able to read music. As a kid it always reminded me of some sort of code and like any code there’s a society, group or elite few that can be a part of it. I’ve tried to learn how to read it in the past, first when I was in the fourth grade and my school’s music teacher tried to teach us music notation for the piano (she was a great teacher and part-time opera singer but I guess she just didn’t say the right combination of words to make music notation stick for me). I’ve tried talking to band people to see if they could explain it and all they covered that I grabbed and kept was that somewhere in this maze of dots and lines are the phrases EGBDF and FACE. That’s all.

So you can imagine how happy I was to GET IT when he explained in very simple terms how music notation worked. This isn’t all music notation delivered to you at once, but what you’re going to need later on, perhaps sooner than you think.

This is when I figured it’s probably best to not try to speed through this. If any lesson in the book is an essential one, it’s probably this one because there is far more musical notation than there is TAB coming up.

I didn’t expect to be able to sight read at all and I lived up to my expectation. I’m trying to do this in a way that makes sense and has retain-ability. I learned the first three notes on the E and B string and then tackled the musical notation. I wrote down an exercise from the book in a notebook with just the notes and then went through and ALL I FOCUSED ON was what the note was. I’ll worry about timing a little later. The first time I went through the exercise it took a while as the mind has a tendency to put rust on new information quickly but after shaking it off and moving forward and writing the exercise down again, I was able to get through it pretty decently. Probably less than two minutes to figure out 18 notes.

That sounds like a lot of time for 18 notes. Don’t laugh – I’m a beginner when it comes to this.

And then looking at the notes and knowing what they are I could see where they would be on the fretboard without having my guitar in my hand which is guaranteed to be good for mental practice (mental practice is important just like looking at maps before a trip is important).

I also started tackling the time of the notes, tapping it out on my desk and counting. E two, F, two, G, two, three, four, etc.

The great thing about this session is that very little of it requires you to have your guitar so you’re free to practice all the time. On the bus, at school, at work, you can run through the whole note alphabet, remember where the first three notes are, perhaps write down random pieces of “music” (I quote that because when you write stuff down randomly for exercises, perhaps it won’t sound good at all when you play it but you’ll be able to learn the notes) and figure them out note by note and time by time.

Again, I’m taking my time with this one as it seems so important to be able to pick out quickly where the C is and what it looks like on the music staff.

I’m very excited to move on, but I’m also excited every time I look at a note and figure out what it is just a little bit faster. I really feel like I’m improving little by little and that’s a good feeling.

-Pappy

Companies Should Embrace Blogs

You know whose opinion you can trust? A person who has no reason to lie to you. A person like you. A guitarist who lives down the street that says a certain pedal isn’t even worth the muscle strain to move your eyeballs in a direction to look at it.

That’s the kind of person you can trust.

Fortunately, bloggers are (for the most part) that kind of people. It’s a good thing to consider that blogs are free or cheap (I think Square Space is ten dollars a month) so any actual cost of running blogs are low so we can be picky with who we advertise with or if we advertise at all. It’s not like we’re depending solely on money generated from advertising to put out our blogs. That is a DANGEROUS idea.

Consider this: if, say, Charvel (for instance) wants to advertise with you and you DO depend on their money to keep the blog alive and they happen to send you something to review will you be more or less likely to review it with a positive light? If you trash it, what are the odds that Charvel will pull their advertising, effectively killing you blog?

Fortunately, this isn’t the situation. I use Blogger and I’m thinking about moving to either Square Space or Word Press and only Square Space requires funds (and it’s a reasonable price).

All of that to say that bloggers are probably some of the most trustworthy reviewers out there. We are that guitarist down the street who will tell you if a guitar or pedal is good or bad only we have a much wider audience and a greater likelihood of being referenced when it comes time to consider gear.

I’m not just talking about the Fifth Fret either. Sites like Guitar Noize are known for producing quality reviews of all sorts of products.

Now that I’ve put out my own thoughts about bloggers, I have to wonder why more companies aren’t sending stuff to be reviewed by us? There are some scenarios that jump to mind pretty quickly as to why not like perhaps the blog is young and there’s no indication that it will last. Why send a product to a blog writer that won’t be writing blogs in a month or a week? What good would that do the company?

Or perhaps it’s because there’s very little accountability. If you send a product to Guitar World, you know where it’s going and you know names of people there. The gear can be tracked down quickly and there’s a reputation for Guitar World to uphold. If the blogger is a random person out there in Internet Land with a PO Box address, I can see some warranted hesitation.

Maybe it’s because bloggers aren’t expected to be nice on reviews. How would the company recover if their product was trashed online by someone who just didn’t like it for reasons unknown? Now it’s out there and every person that is doing research is going to look for the most critical review because they want to see the worst-case scenario.

So I can see why companies would be hesitant to send bloggers products to review and I say I appreciate your hesitation but I have some tips to perhaps make life a little easier for you.

Blogs are a legitimate way to get your product out there for the reasons stated above. We have no reason to lie, a bunch of us are gear nuts and we would love the opportunity to try something new and tell people about it. We’re obviously a little extroverted by nature so we want to tell as many people as possible about whatever we’re reviewing. This can work to your benefit.

1) Look for blogs that have been around for a while with fairly consistent posts. Some bloggers post every day, sometimes multiple times in one day, some post on a schedule (I know I do), etc. So long as there are current posts with no real long breaks that may indicate a lack of interest, I would say you’re probably safe. Feel free to determine just how long a blog has to be around before you feel comfortable with it.

2) Look for professionalism. It’s obvious, I know, but the blogs where writers can express themselves well are the blogs you want to reach out to.

3) Don’t be shy. Reach out and contact a blog asking if they would be interested in reviewing your product. We won’t bite.

4) Ask what we plan to do for the review before sending anything to us. I write to companies and say that there will obviously be a written review, almost always include pictures from Raving Photography, and perhaps also include videos.

5) Don’t be a jerk. This is the biggest thing. If I reach out to a company and they say they aren’t interested, that’s fine. I realize, especially with bigger companies, that a small blog like mine will probably not have the huge impact the company wants, but that’s no reason to be rude, short, or crass. That’s no way to do business, even with amateurs like us.

The point of this blog post is to let the businesses know that there’s a future with companies working with blogs to produce reviews and news and it can certainly be a bright future for both where transparency and honesty are key.

Perhaps it’s time to consider embracing it.

-Pappy

Cool Contest - Cool Guitar

I’m not usually one to forward contest information to everyone, especially when the contest is for something that I really want but couldn’t resist this time because of the statement attached.

http://www.fender.com/blog/?p=2669

“Tele’s have been my favorite guitars for years and years,” he says. “My dad was a musician and when I was a kid, he taught me to play the first couple of songs, and he had a Tele, but he only let me use it if I did the dishes. So it’s a fantastic guitar.”

-Oystein Greni

I hear you, Oystein! Teles are freaking awesome! The first mass produced electric guitar aimed at people who couldn’t swing the intricate expensiveness of older companies, the affordability and durability of it, the tone and versatility and the overall feel make this guitar something else entirely.

I’ll tell you something else: I think the solid guitar world in general has this guitar to thank for them being around. What is a Strat but a Tele with some heavy body modification? Those two shapes, the Tele and Strat must count for something like 80% of every solid guitar shape (even the Les Paul looks a bit Tele-ish with its single cutaway) and without that overwhelming majority, there wouldn’t have been people who strove to make something different JUST to prove it can be done, giving us models like the Flying V and Explorer.

If I remember right, the reason Gibson made both of those was because Leo Fender told them there was nothing else the electric guitar could be shaped like. The models were created out of spite.

So whether models were borrowing heavily from the Telecaster just with mods, or to go as much against the Telecaster as possible, it’s a very important guitar to the development of the instrument.

One day when I get a Hahn, I’m pretty sure I would use the same approach as far as letting my kids play it, too.

-Pappy

Let's Be Honest

It should be enough to be a top tier guitar company with legions of fans and press, the ability to woo away artists from other companies to play your guitars and practically drown in the rich heritage you’ve made for yourself.

Can we agree on that? That this should be enough and if a company had these traits and, say, released a signature guitar from an artist that is not commonly associated with the brand, shouldn’t they step up and say something to the effect us “they liked us more,” or better yet, not even mention their previous guitars?

Gibson released on their blog recently that Brad Paisley is getting a signature Gibson. Good for him. Paisley should be swimming in signature guitars he’s so good with them so I don’t hold it against him at all. I DO hold against Gibson that in their blog they said that since the age of 12, Paisley has always been a Gibson man.

This is the direct quote:

“Singer, songwriter, musician, performer, vintage guitar collector — Brad Paisley has been all this and more since the age of 12. Now a multi-platinum recording artist standing side-by-side with the legends whose music influenced him, his remarkable dexterity as a guitarist is finally receiving as much attention as his hit singles. Through it all, Paisley has been a Gibson man, so it stands to reason that he's well-deserving of his own model.”

This reminds me of the Gibson Strat and how Gibson tried to capitalize on it instead of being smarter and releasing budget friendly flying V’s.

When someone tell me that a guitarist either themselves or someone else is a Strat man/woman I instantly think that if I ever see them on stage, chances are they’ll be playing a Strat.

This is not a stretch, in my opinion.

So for kicks I Googled “Brad Paisley playing guitar” to see just how many pages I can get through before the Gibson man is seen playing a Gibson.

And I actually only made it to the middle of the first page before I saw a picture of him playing a Gibson acoustic. I had to go through another eight pages before I saw another picture though as every other one that actually featured him playing had him playing a Telecaster – more often than not a Crook custom guitar. Every picture I’ve seen in magazines features him playing a Tele and though I don’t watch too many music videos, the ones I have seen have him playing a Tele too.

Brad Paisley is what I would call a Tele man.

I’m not saying he didn’t pop out of the womb, his left hand grabbing thin air to pretend to play Tennessee Waltz but the major chunk of images that feature Paisley do NOT show him playing a Gibson so he’s associated with Teles.

I think my error in this situation is that this is a signature ACOUSTIC guitar so he may have always been associated with Gibson acoustic guitars and perhaps acoustic-only players have only seen him playing Gibson acoustics and therefore to them he’s a Gibson man.

I think Gibson’s error is not being satisfied that they have one of the best players in the world playing their guitars and the ability to put his name on a model and release it to the (hopefully) eager masses to help fill their pocketbooks again. They don’t need to say he’s ALWAYS loved Gibson, they just need him to show up with it.

And besides, they have everything else going for them too so there’s no need to overcompensate. Like I said, tons of heritage, models that a ton of people like or want (or want reissued – come on, the ES350 with P90s would probably make a killing if you could keep the cost under$2,500!), great players playing them and a TON of fans. You can’t have everything, Gibson, but you do have a lot already.

-Pappy