Weeping Guitars

How many times have we seen an ad in a guitar magazine for a company that says something along the lines of “boutique quality at an affordable price” only to give in to the temptation and check out the website and see that the company’s idea of affordable and yours are at two VERY different points?

That’s what I thought when I saw an ad in the back of this month’s Premier Guitar. It showed a guitar with a beautiful quilted maple top that looked like it would cost about two grand from a big company like Jackson which would mean it probably costs more what with the fact that the magic word “boutique” is involved. The body of the guitar looked like a sharper Strat, probably leaning more toward the Ibanez RG shape, but featured an oddly carved headstock that didn’t look bad at all. It looks different for sure, but I didn’t think it was visually offensive. I read the details: 25 ½” scale, 15 ¾” radius neck, 24 med. Jumbo frets, locking tuners of staggered heights that eliminate the need for a string tree, a Wilkinson trem, HSH configuration and coil splitting on four of the five pickup positions.

Yup, I thought. Definitely over two grand.

But right under that it said it had an MSRP of $1,000.00 which was shocking enough. It seems like $1,000.00 for a guitar like this might be QUITE a great bargain, but under THAT it said that the company sells them direct for $499.

If I had been drinking something, it would have shot out my nose. This DEMANDED more investigation. I went to the company’s web site and saw that they have one guitar model right now, called the Weeping Banshee and it is the one in the advertisement. It can indeed be bought for $499 or even a little less if you’re OK with a blemished model. There are even links to YouTube demos where the pickup positions get shown off quite a bit (a LOT in the genre of blues) and it sounds good.

It also turns out that the company is looking to sell their guitars to students and professionals who aren’t looking to take more valuable guitars out on the road. That’s a pretty good idea considering how often you hear about bands’ trailers getting broken in to. It was the student comment that got me though. The idea that you could give someone a guitar with a slightly higher than average up-front cost and it would be more than sufficient to get them through whatever genres they want to play for however long they want is a pretty stellar one.

Think about it. You can buy a Squier Strat or Tele for less than 200.00 and while they’re fine guitars, they aren’t exactly packed with the tonal versatility these Banshees come with. Yes, it can sound like a Strat or Tele, but with humbuckers and a mahogany body, it can also sound darker and fatter if you wanted it to. To me, it’s a mere pull of a knob separating common Strat tones and Les Paul tones. The fact the tremolo isn’t a locking or double-locking trem like a Floyd Rose means easier string changes for a student and the fact it’s loaded with the HSH setup means that if the player ever wanted to customize their guitar, they can. Easily.

It seems like an easy guitar for a student. It seems like a guitar that you can grow with as a player. You may start out playing guitar wanting to emulate SRV but along the way decide that Paul Gilbert is more your style. If the pickups don’t scratch your Gilbert itch, you can always swap them out for ones more along the lines of Gilbert’s own guitars. With the long scale if you wanted to put on huge strings and detune them to, say, A, you can widen the nut to accommodate the string and viola: A metal machine.

Personally, it’s the possibilities of the guitar, the seeming endless potential to take this affordable base and over time as you discover yourself as a player turn it into a guitar that is all you that entices me most.

The price-point supports this as well. You could easily modify it to your specifications hardware-wise and STILL probably be under $1,000.00. Even the builder echoes this statement (which I think is pretty awesome because most people would say their guitar is perfect for everyone when the odds of that being true are very slim).

For the pros, this guitar’s price-point even supports buying TWO and keeping one as a stage backup!

I’d love to try one of these guitars out. On paper they seem great and the tones on YouTube are pretty great, albeit not in my particular wheelhouse, and the idea of a student buying it and modifying it over time to be his number one that’s perfect for him is awesome.

You can learn more by going to Weeping Guitars’ website located at http://www.weepingguitars.com.

-Pappy

This post was brought to you by Shanghai Music & Sound! It's a great shop where you can get all sorts of gear from your favorite companies at great prices. The website needs updating so call or email to find out if they have specifically what you want or if they can order it for you and if SO, how much it is. A lot of music companies are adopting MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) so you have to call or email to get the REAL price. Check them out HERE.

Guitar Lessons by Bob Taylor

“Survival stories are self-evident and readers devour them even though they already know that the storyteller survived, because he lived to write the book. Knowing the ending doesn’t ruin the story. It’s the story itself that intrigues people.”

Bob Taylor was talking about how he loves to read survival stories and is not alone in his love. He knows he’s not alone because people want to hear the survival stories of Taylor Guitars. The starving years where founding members bought in to the dream of making guitars knowing that reality was probably going to set in sometime soon, but, as every dreamer who pursues their dream finds out, it hits sooner than you think. He covers the whole gamut of interesting stories documenting the early parts of his life all the way through to the current successful state of Taylor Guitars.

There are plenty of survival stories in it though.

In a world where a select few were interested in Taylor Guitars, Bob Taylor and business partners Kurt Listug and Steve Schemmer worked through the lean years. They went through bouts where they had employees, didn’t have employees, were late on payments, and the exit of Schemmer. Listug learned all about selling Taylor Guitars and Bob Taylor took inspiration and motivation from every source he could and learned from people that had been in the business longer than him. He was obsessed with making tools that made making guitars easier and was successful. The book doesn’t stop with the lean years though and there is plenty left to document the rising success of the brand and the stories about planning success, building shops, discovering the appropriate relationship with employees, investing time and resources in artists Taylor Guitars believes in, building a brand identity on par with companies like Harley Davidson where it’s MORE than a brand and closer to a way of life, and continually striving to make the best guitars possible.

The whole book is packed with personal stories that are both detailed and interesting and walks the line between “entertaining for all” and “entertaining for guitarists” very well. I think we can all admit that when you burrow too deep into a niche, be it mechanics, film, music, etc. you are undoubtedly going to lose audience members. Not so with this book. Everything that deals with guitars is briefly explained in ways that even the uninitiated can understand. It cuts through so you get the meat of the story all the while with guitarists knowing what he’s talking about. It is a fine line and it’s expertly walked.

The book itself is a quick read and doesn’t drag along. Reading other books from guitar manufacturers, a lot tend to get too detail-oriented or purely obsessed with timeline (in 1979 this happened, then in 1980 THIS happened, etc) but Guitar Lessons is short enough to not be boring and long enough to leave fans satisfied.

It also doesn’t read like the world’s biggest advertising pamphlet. The book is genuinely about the progress of Taylor Guitars and if Bob goes into making tools or the advances that he made to the acoustic design (or the introduction of the Taylor electric guitar), then these are means to the end and the end is not to say “Buy a Taylor” but “this is what we did to make Taylor the best that we could.” That isn’t to say it doesn’t raise interest in the product though. I have a Taylor Big Baby that I received as a graduation gift and while I like it quite a bit, I’ve never claimed to be an acoustic guy. I have always preferred electric guitars but now I find myself slowing down in shops and starting to look closely at acoustics thinking that maybe (probably) I’ve been missing out on a whole other world within the guitar universe. As a result, I’m pretty excited. The innovations in the book sound interesting and valuable and makes me want to look deeper into their guitars at all price-points and perhaps find one that will fit in with my lifestyle.

Personally though, I wasn’t that concerned with the guitar aspect while reading it. I was more interested in the passion. Bob seems to be the kind of guy that figures out what he wants to do, puts his head down and plows through until it either gets done, or needs to be put on the shelf until he can figure out a smarter way. Take employees for example: There were periods where Taylor had to let go of its employees and Bob kept trying to figure out what was going wrong, whether it was financial or dealt with egos and attitude or whether Bob and Listug were being less-than-stellar employers. They figured it out and now boast a large employee base that seems to be pretty happy with their jobs. Bob also set his mind to and learned how to make tools or use tools offered to constantly increase the quality of Taylor Guitars, how to make furniture, and how to cook food that sounds delicious.

I think everyone should read this book, guitarist or not. If you’re looking on this blog for good gift ideas for a loved one who plays guitar, this might be a good idea and if you’re a guitarist, this is among the best biographies of the origin and success of a company that you can buy. Throughout the book there are different topics tackled, different stories told and different challenges faced, but the thing that remains constant and motivating you to turn the page and keep reading more is the passion.

The passion was inspiring. My copy is riddled with highlighted passages and notes in the margins. The guitar stories and normal day to day life stories held equal weight for me and I found things in it that I could use in my life be it being a husband/father or writing a blog. He doesn’t tackle these specific topics directly, it’s just that I was able to pull meaning from the stories he DID provide and apply them to my own life and I think that’s pretty cool.

Just like a survival story.

Many thanks to Taylor Guitars for supplying me a review copy of the book and a special thank you to Chalise Zolezzi who brought up the idea for Taylor to write this book. Thank you, Ms. Zolezzi!

Photos courtesy of Taylor Guitars.

-Pappy

This post was brought to you by Benford Guitars. Have an idea for a custom guitar? Steve Benford can help make your dream a reality. Have an idea for a custom body but you're satisfied with a stock neck? Benford can use your ideas with the stock neck you want to achieve a guitar made for you at a much lower price than most. Just want an affordable guitar in a familiar S or T shape but tricked out with whatever mods you can think of? Benford's got you covered. You're limited by your imagination and your ability to email him with all the specs to your dream guitar. Honestly, I've emailed him multiple times about different projects and his positive responses and amazing prices never cease to inspire. It doesn't hurt that his customer satisfaction is through the roof. Check them out through the link above and see what Benford can do for you.

Red's Until We Have Faces

The early 2000’s were an interesting time. The scenery of rock was starting to shift and more and more bands were cherry picking what they wanted to incorporate into their own bands. Bands were still detuning their guitars but their lyrics were becoming more poetic and less jaggedly emotional. There was still emotion to the songs, sure, but it wasn’t quite as in your face as previous bands.

There was less crying on tracks, how about that? That seems like a good way to summarize the change.

There was also a greater emphasis on actually singing as well as letting loose and screaming or mumbling or just plain talking. Bands had singers that were actually singers. And I don’t meant that as an insult to singers previous because I think so long as it doesn’t sound awful, if the voice fits the music, then it’s a win and singing really wasn’t an option in the nu-metal of the late 90’s. There wasn’t really much room TO sing on the tracks, especially not when you look at them as cathartic experiences for the singers/bands exercising their personal demons whatever they may be.

No, the new music that came from nu-metal was interested in the emotion but not so interested they wanted to put everything on their sleeve in stark, black and white terms, the singers were actually singing and they had also developed choruses that bordered on the anthem. The guitar parts for the chorus were called “lush” by the guitarists performing them.

A lot of the bands had similar traits, but that could be because they all had similar influences and all picked the same traits from their influences that they wanted to use. I think it’s because of this similarity that bands felt the unnecessary need to change. I think it was the singer of Ministry that said if you just sit by the river you’ll eventually see the body of your enemy float by and he’s got a point – longevity counts. These bands found an odd musical piece of real estate where songs could be both popular and widely identifiable with their audience but also feel intimate, like the band was talking to just you. Because the bands weren’t labeled as “metal” they were free to do acoustic songs, incorporate string sections or even launch into a full-blown ballad with little repercussion from the audience. The singer was free to fully utilize his voice for whatever he wanted because this was a new area where the vocals are covering so much material that sometimes screaming isn’t right, or sometimes it’s just right. Talking and mumbling FITS within these songs and doesn’t sound tacked on or lazy. Basically, since the bands aren’t looking for a cathartic experience they can calm down and cover a wider range of topics and emotions and still have emotional impact, but the range requires more than just one style of singing.

As for the guitar playing, most of the time it wasn’t so difficult it took the guitarist out of the song’s feeling. They wouldn’t be on stage, eyes closed in concentration counting down until the next change. They could be IN the song, participating, feeling the emotion, acknowledging the crowd and getting just as swept up in the moment as everyone else.

It’s a cool chunk of musical land that these bands had started to occupy.

Perhaps it was because they became bored (though I can’t imagine why that would happen) or the competition was too much – perhaps they weren’t as successful as they wanted to be, but a lot of these bands either disappeared or morphed into something else entirely. Perhaps because of the variety that comes along with this new genre they were able to sample the buffet and decided that they wanted to focus more exclusively on this one thing, whatever it was. Some bands became so watered down and into themselves that there was no connection anymore, some bands dropped the softer stuff and started to focus on getting heavier. Some bands just seemed to want to progress constantly thinking that the grass is always greener over this fence, then this fence, and so on.

As a result, this odd musical area that could be played on both pop and rock radio, could be heard and understood by so many people in so many different walks of life, kind of withered away.

Of course, you can say that when a genre dies, perhaps it was just time for it to go. It had outlived its usefulness or awesomeness. Perhaps it was the audience who demanded more exclusivity and more emphasis on THIS part whatever that is. In the end though, you still have access to all the music that was around during the time and that should get you by, right?

Wrong.

Come on, even now when unearthed tracks make it out, they’re gobbled up by the fans because they still want more. It’s just natural because you know all the old songs and you’ve played them all out. You’re just looking for something fresh but in the same vein.

I know I was looking for something in this vein and the band Red supplied it. Their new album Until We Have Faces is packed with palm-muted riffing that the singer has no hesitation expressing his range over and the choruses are catchy and filled with hooks. It’s emotional, but not overwhelmingly so and in the end, you just feel like you found a solid rock band.

If you’re looking for a comparison to older bands, I thought the album sounded like it was influenced heavily by bands like Cold and Breaking Benjamin’s sophomore album We Are Not Alone, but occasional Fifth Fret contributor MASK said it reminded him a lot of Chevelle’s early work. I can see what he means.

This isn’t to say that Red doesn’t sound like a new band – they do. They have their own sound but with similar traits from bands that were making the most out of this genre a while ago. It’s like getting new shoes. You know you like Puma because they’re the shoes you have on your feet and you’ve been wearing them for years but it’s time to trade up and get some new shoes and you’re going to be looking for the same traits, just in a new package that hasn’t been worn to death. That’s Red.

The songs are great and the guitar work is very fitting. The band performed on Conan and at first I was shocked by the stage setup (it seemed like everything was colored red) and then I was shocked by how into it the band was getting. It was very refreshing to see a band get caught up playing music again. Then it occurred to me that the guitarist was using a PRS Orianthi SE which I think is kind of fitting (it being sparkly red and all) but then it occurred to me that the sound he was getting out of it was very impressive. I played one recently in a shop and while it had a comfortable neck and light weight, it didn’t strike me as a real contender for anything that could be considered hard rock. I was wrong. :-)

The guitarist, Anthony Armstrong, uses his fierce sense of rhythm to fill up the rocking songs with enough interesting ear candy that guitarists everywhere will begin to focus on it and see if they can match the rhythms and the TONE he gets on the record is amazing. Even when distorted and angry, there's still a lot of nuance to his playing as evidenced by the title track.

Not only does he know how to rock, but he knows how to fit in perfectly with the rhythm section, probably because drummer Joe Rickard would write a lot of the songs as drum parts and then give them to Armstrong to write over. There's a nice balance to the mix because of this so if a section in the track needs to be synced to maximize the output and really put a BOOM in the music where guitar, bass and drums all line up perfectly, it's possible and if it's a situation where there needs to be more going on, that can happen too.

If you feel like there’s just not enough middle ground between acts of varying levels of extremity, then perhaps it’s time you checked out Red and listen for yourself and enjoy the versatility and variety that this genre has in store for you. Red specifically has replaced all of my previous favorite bands within this genre because it’s packed to the gills with everything I like and there were no misses – no songs where I thought “that should have been left on the floor.” It’s like they took one of my favorite genres and perfected it.

Yeah, that’s it. They perfected this sub-genre in hard rock and I can’t recommend it enough. I'm really excited to check out their previous albums End of Silence and Innocence & Instinct.

As a bonus, if you look at the last post I published, Anthony Armstrong is apparently hip to the whole "teach people how to play my songs" thing and for that, I say thank you!

-Pappy

This post has been brought to you byModKitsDIY.com. They provide kits for building your own pedals or amps and they come with clear and easy-to-follow instructions. If you do happen to get stuck, they're always there to contact and walk you through whatever trouble you may be having. Save yourself some money on your next pedal or amp by building it yourself with a kit from these fine folks.

RED: Anthony Armstrong Guitar Lesson - Faceless

Hey! Amazingly it seems like either someone thought my idea was a good one (i hope this is the case) OR had a similar idea about how great of an idea it would be to have the writing guitarist show you how to play a song. Anthony Armstrong even has another video on their YouTube channel so you can learn more.

I think it's a super sweet idea and I say kudos.

I also say kudos on the tone he gets from the Orianthi sig! He makes it sound great!

-Pappy

This post is brought to you by Flatline Guitars, a small guitar company that dedicate themselves to making the absolute best guitar possible and delivering amazing tone, amazing feel for an attainable price. To learn more, check them out HERE.

AmpliTube 3.5 And Their Custom Shop

IK Multimedia recently updated their software for AmpliTube 3 and it came with some big changes, the biggest three being a free version of the software, a la carte options, and big name licenses. So without chit-chatting too much, let’s dive in and see what this update has to offer!

1) No Better Price Than Free

Amp sim software is expensive. It’s obvious when you look around in your music catalogs that to get quality sounds to your digital audio workstation (or DAW), it’s going to cost.

Well, thanks to this recent update, this isn’t really true anymore. AmpliTube is offered at the low, low price of free but does come in a limited package. Now you can download the software and build on it how you want, when you want, and at the pace you want. The fact that the software is free allows you to take your time and get to know the system before diving any further in. You can see how you like it, whether the free software is good enough for you, or even if you like working with virtual equipment.

The people who bought AmpliTube 3 shouldn’t worry though. All of the available tools in AmpliTube 3 are still there in the update to 3.5 and you can still keep building if you like.

2) A La Carte

Before I started getting into this kind of software I was always hesitant. While inexpensive compared to the physical counterparts, the prices were still well out of the range of throwaway money. You couldn’t reach into your couch cushions and pull out enough to buy a software package and because of this, I was always critical. I wanted to be able to use every amp the software had. I wanted to WANT to use every amp the software had but no matter which one I looked into, there was always at least one amp that I wasn’t interested in. My thinking was that the companies were charging me as if I wanted every amp in the package and that wasn’t true, therefore it was unfair.

My thinking on this changed over time based on the quality of the amp sims (mainly that one REALLY good sounding amp in the sim would be worth the purchase price because now you don’t have to shell out big bucks for the physical counterpart) but some of it still lingered.

And honestly, why shouldn’t it? If we can cherry-pick which songs we want to buy on iTunes, why not be able to do this with our virtual rigs?

Now we can. AmpliTube is offering you the ability to go into their “Custom Shop” and pick whatever you want. You can demo it for two days at a time (with two months before you can demo it again) so you can try it out with all of your guitars and really experiment with the amps, pedals, cabs, etc. The object here seems to be that IK is trying to minimize buyer’s remorse by giving you more time than necessary to make sure the software is right for you and then selling it to you – exactly what you want exactly when you want it. Now, just like in the real world, you can fill up your studio with the specific pieces of gear you want without worrying about amps you never use or don’t want. All of this is accessible via the Custom Shop.

The Custom Shop is set up like a guitar store. The opening graphic IS a guitar store. Inside this virtual store, navigation is easy. If I’m looking for an amp, I just click on “Amp” and then a drop down menu pops up that further breaks down my options (Clean, Crunch, Lead and Bass). I wish guitar stores set up amp rooms like this.

You can also search for what you want in case you don’t see it in a dropdown menu, or you just plain want to get to it faster.

The Custom Shop uses credits as opposed to a country’s specific currency which makes it easy and universal. X amp will always cost Y credits regardless of location. IK Multimedia provided me 125 credits to fully utilize the Custom Shop and make a fleshed-out review and I did just that. The most expensive amps cost 20 credits and most feature a cab that is specifically voiced in the demo (until you change it, that is) that costs an additional 5 credits. A credit itself costs at the most one dollar in the US and the price goes down with the amount of credits you buy. So, at the most, a complete amp consisting of head and cab costs 25 credits or $25.00.

We are certainly closer to the amount you could potentially find in the couch cushions.

As a matter of fact, the biggest reason I like this so much is because whereas usually both amp and amp sim purchases involved one fat drop of cash, this is as spread out as you like. Spending over a thousand dollars on an amp will take a lot of convincing if you have someone who is trying to be responsible with your money, but $25.00 (or even $20.00 if you are satisfied with a different cab that you already have) seems laughable in comparison and who’s to say you can’t work out a budget of, say, $50.00 a month until you have all the gear you want?

And there’s some awesome sounding gear too.

3) Big Names

This update not only brings the a la carte option to AmpliTube but also brings big names to the mix. Officially licensed products are now at your fingertips for FAR less money, all with the same looks, same control layout, and (from what I can tell), sound that’s so close to the real thing that I’m satisfied.

What big names are included? Well, obviously Fender and Ampeg are there (they have had full collections for sale for a while now), but new to the mix are Orange, T-Rex, Soldano, Seymour Duncan, Groove Tubes, Gallien-Krueger, Jet City, THD, and a few more.

I bought myself three Orange amps (a Tiny Terror, a Rockerverb 50, and an OR-120), TWO Fenders (a '65 Deluxe Reverb, a '59 Bassman LTD), a Soldano amp, two pedals (a T-Rex Replica and a Fender '63 Reverb Pedal), and an Orange PPC 4X12 cab and I bought them after going through and demoing them with different guitars and making sure not only that they were the best for me, but best for the specific sound I was targeting. For instance, I love the sound of an Orange Rockerverb but I was also looking for something with just as much gain but also a bit of a smoother sound and the Soldano more than delivered. That was a surpise find for me, having never had any experience with them. With the T-Rex, there was more than a little inspiration because I've wanted one of these pedals for about three or four years now, perhaps even five, but they've always been out of my reach. Now here I have the opportunity to buy one for a fraction of the cost!

While I was going through all these different amps and cabs it occurred to me that this was a lot of fun. It was like going to a guitar store and trying something out only this time you don’t have to deal with pushy salespeople, volume wars between you and the person sitting two amps down from you, and nothing is out of reach or tucked away. There’s no looking for cords or picks (unless you lose your own, I guess) and overall, it’s just an easier shopping scenario and just as fun.

Perhaps some of the fun is looking at an Orange amp and not one that looks similar but says something like Vitamin C or something clever like that. You’re looking at something that the big name behind the amp said sounds good and feels good standing behind and that’s an impressive thing.

Also, it’s FUN to get a new amp and experiment with it! While it’s also fun to buy the whole range of products and dive in and have fun, by spreading it out and buying an amp here, a pedal there, etc. you can still get that fun feeling of having something new to play with, but now the price-point is much lower and you can do it more frequently.

The Bottom Line

There are few things that I would recommend to everyone (beyond music) but this is definitely one of them. Every guitarist can find something in this program that they like and can use if they’re using a DAW to record demos, riffs, or even full-blown albums. Perhaps you’ll find the sound you like the pre-packaged amp sims that come with the base software (that everyone should download and try out because it’s free and there’s no pressure), or perhaps you’ll be happier with one of the amps that you can buy from the Custom Shop. Perhaps you’ll be happy having a whole range from one company! Perhaps something in the middle. AmpliTube gives you the option to buy as little or as much as you want with zero initial buy-in, so really, what’s the harm?

To me, this software, in particular the Custom Shop and it’s a la carte functionality was an eye-opener and I think this is the future of music software and honestly, I couldn’t be more pleased.

4) Sound

OK, in public speaking class they said that when you introduce your conclusion as I did just before this, not to include any new information, but I have new information to present and why shouldn't you get it, right? Who am I to deprive you, dear reader, of all the information I can possibly give you.

And I have information for your ear-holes. That's right, I recorded a clip of three presets of the Orange OR-120 using the same guitar and for the first two riffs, the same pickup (a bridge P90 in a Flatline Delta 90) and in the third clip I used both pickups on the same guitar. All of these are just presets and you can monkey with the amp as much as you want. I just wanted to record something really fast to show you the versatility of this one amp and then hopefully in the near future, I'll record more for the other amps I bought. Perhaps there would be interest in it!

Here's the clip!

AmpliTube 3.5's Orange OR-120 by Fifth Fret

-Pappy

This post was brought to you by Shanghai Music & Sound! It's a great shop where you can get all sorts of gear from your favorite companies at great prices. The website needs updating so call or email to find out if they have specifically what you want or if they can order it for you and if SO, how much it is. A lot of music companies are adopting MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) so you have to call or email to get the REAL price. Check them out HERE.

Rock and Roll Dead?

Dave Grohl was recently asked if rock and roll was dead. He basically said no. I second his statement, but honestly, I’m curious why so many people have been asking so many other people for SO long if rock and roll is FINALLY dead?

I understand that when rock and roll was possessing teenage youth and making hips move in unnatural ways. Elvis was both loved and hated in extremes and I could see, given the climate, that a lot of people were very excited to see rock and roll finally declared dead.

There have been times when popularity of rock and roll has waned, but it’s never really gone away. And why would anyone want it to? Especially now! I mean, we have more than a couple radio stations, we have a general sense of understanding and musical tolerance, and we are no longer concerned to such an extreme level about the safety of our souls in the face of the spirit-draining rock and roll. Rock has been around for so long now that we all have memories with it involved in some way or another, and I’m willing to bet that not ALL of those memories are bad. Rock has been a life-saving music, always there offering a cathartic experience to anyone who, as Meatloaf would say “put the headphones on and lets the drummer tell your heart what to do.”

There’s been so much GOOD that’s come from rock that I honestly can’t see a point in wanting it gone.

Perhaps people are just looking for the scoop and if that’s the case, it’s pretty stupid to go asking the singer of a very popular rock band that sells out areas around the world and is so popular they’ve managed to make a good living at it if he thinks rock is dead.

I think that the case is less of people asking if rock and roll is DEAD and more a case of people asking if rock isn’t POPULAR anymore. There’s a huge difference and even if rock was dead, I wouldn’t put it past it to emerge from the ground, soil-clad under a full moon and shuffle zombie-like back into our hearts and minds. So I’ll give the interviewer the benefit of the doubt and infer that they meant to ask about the current popularity of rock music and say that it isn’t dead. It’s pretty far from it, actually. Just basing my current musical knowledge of what’s popular by listening to pop radio in the car, I hear tons of guitars and I hear a heavy rock influence in a majority of the songs. Of course, that’s just an INFLUENCE, right? It’s not REALLY rock music if there’s just a hint of it, right?

Ehhhh… I don’t know. I think it’s there enough to qualify, but it seems subjective.

Besides, look at the times. We have famous singers/bands/artists that are no longer living on a diet of one musical genre and therefore forced to produce something close to what they’ve been hearing. Today there are people that are just as interested in smooth jazz as heavy metal and everything in between and as a result, their music is a little more difficult to categorize.

Besides, when has rock ever been stagnant in its style? Rock and roll played by Scotty Moore sounds nothing like rock and roll played by Keith Richards which sounds nothing like rock and roll played by Zeppelin which sounds nothing like rock and roll played by Van Halen which sounds nothing like rock and roll played by Kurt Cobain which sounds nothing like rock and roll played by Kyle Cook, etc. etc. etc.

Even if Scotty Moore’s rock and roll isn’t nearly as popular as it once was, does this mean that his particular rock and roll is dead? Hardly. There are still dedicated fans who will see him perform whenever possible and there are still people who use him as an influence and there are still people who look at that era’s rock and roll as a lifestyle.

That’s far from dead.

Rock and roll is far from dead.

Let’s quit asking this ridiculous question and start asking about what gear people are using or how the song-writing process went for this latest album, or what it was like to record in New York City or something. Almost anything is better than asking if someone thinks rock and roll is dead.

-Pappy

This post was brought to you by Benford Guitars. Have an idea for a custom guitar? Steve Benford can help make your dream a reality. Have an idea for a custom body but you're satisfied with a stock neck? Benford can use your ideas with the stock neck you want to achieve a guitar made for you at a much lower price than most. Just want an affordable guitar in a familiar S or T shape but tricked out with whatever mods you can think of? Benford's got you covered. You're limited by your imagination and your ability to email him with all the specs to your dream guitar. Honestly, I've emailed him multiple times about different projects and his positive responses and amazing prices never cease to inspire. It doesn't hurt that his customer satisfaction is through the roof. Check them out through the link above and see what Benford can do for you.

PRS GAS

PRS has a problem. They offer too many great looking guitars and great looking finishes that there’s no way that a normal guitar store can stock enough for you to go in and know that this particular finish/guitar is for you. ESPECIALLY if you’re looking for a figured wood! But the quality of play and sound remains consistent. The problem that comes out of this situation is that everyone knows a PRS plays and sounds great. Even with new pickups and configurations we can be fairly certain when we say “I bet it sounds/plays great” and because of the good level of consistency, the play and sound quality is taken for granted and shifts to the back burner and we’re able to focus on something that’s purely aesthetic:

The looks.

Like I said, there’s such a HUGE variety in finishes and woods and guitars that utilize each that you’ll probably never be able to lay your eyes on a physical example of all of them in one place unless you happen to be at the factory.

Fortunately, we have the Internet! The Internet is filled with great guitar stores who are seeming to thrive on the Internet regardless of not being part of a chain. These shops are using the Internet and a constantly-raising quality of photography to separate themselves from their competitors and make their presence known. I think it’s awesome, not only because I love having options as a buyer but also because I love seeing quality pictures of gear.

To be completely honest, I have never seen a guitar that looks as good as a PRS. There’s just something about it, the sum of all of its parts, that looks RIGHT. From the headstock shape to the inlays to the body shape and recessed knobs to the unfailingly amazing flame and quilt tops. To me, it all boils down to the most beautiful guitars I’ve ever seen.

So when PRS tries (but ultimately fails) to document all of their options and colors with real world examples, a search engine has to pick up the slack. When looking for Custom 24s recently I stumbled upon this beauty and I think it’s the best looking PRS I’ve ever laid eyes on and just like last time I posted a picture of a PRS, I was so moved by the great looks, I had to share it with you folks.

This particular guitar can be found at the link HERE and Willcutt Guitars’ homepage is located HERE. Many thanks to the folks at Willcutt for letting me use these photos and spread GAS worldwide. Thanks also to Patrick Armstrong who took these beautiful pictures! They look amazing as you are all about to see!

Get ready, people...

Here it comes!

-Pappy

This post has been brought to you by ModKitsDIY.com. They provide kits for building your own pedals or amps and they come with clear and easy-to-follow instructions. If you do happen to get stuck, they're always there to contact and walk you through whatever trouble you may be having. Save yourself some money on your next pedal or amp by building it yourself with a kit from these fine folks.

Sprouts

My daughter likes to go through guitar magazines and gear catalogs with me. She’s three and likes looking at anything with pictures and guitars fit right in with their different colors and shapes. She has said for no less than a year that she wants a guitar but it has to be pink. She saw a pink sparkle Tele and liked it, but she was two. Now she’s three and I’m still not going to buy her a guitar. When she hits eight and still wants to play, I will buy her a guitar. She expressed recently that she doesn’t want the Tele anymore but a J Mascis signature Jazzmaster.

Or perhaps I’ll BUILD a guitar (well, ASSEMBLE a guitar anyway) for her – possibly WITH her. I think that while this may not mean much to her at age eight, it would be something she could look fondly on later on in life. I think memories of bolting a neck to a body or helping choose and install pickups and knobs would be a fun thing to look back on when you’re thirty as something special you did with your dad – perhaps something you’d like to do with YOUR sprouts as THEY get older.

It would be heartwarming is what I mean.

But perhaps that’s jumping in a bit deep. Learning how to play the guitar is frustrating, difficult, sometimes painful and requires a LOT of practice. Who knows if a particular child could do this? Perhaps it’s best to start out with a tighter budget and then if they stick with it, THEN build a guitar together.

Yeah, that makes sense. After all, over the beginning years they would no doubt go to guitar stores and no doubt start soaking in information. They like humbuckers, they like single coils, they like mahogany, they like long scale or short scale necks, they like light guitars or heavy guitars, they like weird shapes or traditional styles, they’re a fan of minimal switching or all the switching in the world, etc. etc. All of this is what you start to get a grip on after you’ve been playing for a while. I mean, do you remember the first guitar you WANTED? I don’t know about you, but the first guitar I wanted was an Ibanez Iceman (a J. (from White Zombie, not J. Mascis) signature guitar, coincidentally) which is a guitar that doesn’t really fit me now.

I think there can be a compromise here. Why not ask her to pick her favorite budget guitar and then refinish it to whatever she wants?

That seems like the most logical course of action, actually.

So what about you? If you have children, are you planning on teaching them guitar? Have they expressed interest in it? If you do plan on teaching them, how what is the minimum age to start teaching them and is there anything special you’re going to do to accommodate them as a new learner?

Inquiring minds want to know!

-Pappy

This post was brought to you by Shanghai Music & Sound, a great shop where you can get all sorts of gear from your favorite companies at great prices. The website needs updating so call or email to find out if they have specifically what you want or if they can order it for you and if SO, how much it is. A lot of music companies are adopting MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) so you have to call or email to get the REAL price. Check them out HERE.

Bon Jovi's A Little Off On This One...

Jon Bon Jovi has recently said that Steve Jobs is responsible for the death of the music industry.

Which is just plain silly.

I mean come on. Really. Fiercemobilecontent.com reports that in the third quarter of 2010 iTunes accounted for 28 percent of all U.S. sales.

That’s not 28 percent of DOWNLOADS, that’s 28% of EVERY song or CD sold in both physical and digital form. The money raised during this quarter topped one BILLION dollars. Of course, iTunes doesn’t JUST sell music, so the financial gain may be a bit padded by movie rentals/purchases, TV show subscriptions, etc. etc. Still, it’s impressive and doesn’t change the 28% statement.

I’ll give Bon Jovi the benefit of the doubt and say that he was probably talking about something else entirely.

Perhaps he was talking about what the music industry WAS versus what it is now.

"Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it," Bon Jovi says.

Ah ha. This makes more sense to me. Yes, the days of going to a record store seem to be gone. The days of going to the record store with a bunch of friends and spending an hour leafing through the racks and racks of shelves looking for something unique are toast, but honestly, they were close to gone before apple even came out with iTunes. When I was first getting into music, pre-iTunes, I would go to record stores (well, MUSIC stores anyway) and look for the albums that contained a certain song. The Turtles was my favorite album to hunt for because every single music store I went to had the plastic header saying THIS is where the Turtles’ album SHOULD be but NONE of them had it.

How was I supposed to hear “Happy Together” if none of the stores offered the album?

UNIQUE offerings were unique indeed because most music stores had the same copies of the same albums that most of the population was looking for. Even smaller bands that not many people were looking for was limited to the popular offerings. You would never find Static Age from the Misfits but you would find Collection and Collection II. I can’t blame the music store for stocking what they think would sell best – it’s a business after all – but I think the move to digital is better FOR THIS EXACT REASON. You the buyer have more access to smaller bands and with the offerings available it’s possible to become SUPER into a band or genre – to become a hardcore fan. A fan of a band or genre you would have either had limited or no exposure to if you went down to your local FYE (a music store in the States).

In short, music stores have sucked since I started going to them. Music stores, like any chain restaurant follows the “if you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all” mentality with VERY few exceptions. There’s a metal record store in Indianapolis, Indiana that I’ve been to and there’s a hip hop store near Biloxi, Mississippi but they all offered the popular offerings WITHIN the genre of specialty. It’s a bummer and leads to buyers not feeling any dedication to their favorite shop.

At least, that’s been my experience.

And yes, there has been a shift from albums to singles with the advent of single song downloads but I don’t think this is a bad thing. Actually, I think it’s a very good thing. Albums are overrated and very few are solid from front to back. There’s almost always filler, is what I mean. And the idea of bands releasing quality songs ALL the time in sporadic bursts is a pleasant one. If a band is out on the road testing out songs they wrote and found that the audience is pretty receptive of them, why NOT release them individually?

Take, for instance, Metallica. ReLoad (and perhaps Load) was recorded at various recording studios throughout the country while they were on tour. It makes sense. They have their gear with them, after all and recording studios are all over the place. Why not fly in a producer and engineer when you have two or three quality songs and then knock them out in a day or two and get back on the road as your songs hit the Internet and fans can gobble them up?

You know what I DID do as a youth before iTunes? I bought a lot of albums of various degrees of garbage because they had cool covers, flying right in the face of my parents’ proverb of “don’t judge a book by its cover,” and was disappointed. A lot. What a horrible experience because as a youth money is tough to come by! I had to WORK for my money so every album I bought was bought with me saying “this BETTER be good.”

Then listening stations popped up in Wal Mart and Barnes & Noble and I was able to hear a broad swipe of just about any album and you know what happened?

I SAVED money by not buying junk.

So I say yes, the modern buyer may be more jaded and demanding and there may be a larger inclination toward one hit wonders that deliver a good song, but if any band consistently delivers good songs, then they don’t need to worry about being one hit wonders of the possibility of longevity. They can keep touring on the songs they have, adding a couple here, a couple there, and be in a state of perpetual motion. It’s high efficiency with no pauses in the time period where you’re both physically and economically willing to tour your butt off. And yes, this more demanding attitude may lead to lower album sales or even sales in general of a band, but that’s easily fixed by not recording and releasing filler because you need an album to be more than eight songs long.

In short, we may be disenfranchised or jaded with the “whole album experience” but we’re also no longer suckers.

Bon Jovi, I loved These Days and I thought that your catalog previous to that was pretty awesome, but the past you look so fondly on was one where adventurous buyers would get burned often.

And there’s nothing magical about that.

-Pappy

This post is brought to you by Flatline Guitars, a small guitar company that dedicate themselves to making the absolute best guitar possible and delivering amazing tone, amazing feel for an attainable price. To learn more, check them out HERE.

Permission to Fail

One of the best things you can do as a musician is to give yourself permission to totally suck.

Let me tell you a little story to illustrate my point. I have two friends who are very interested in songwriting. Let’s call them Frank and Beans. Both Frank and Beans love sing/songwriter types.They both play acoustic guitar and dream of playing a set of their original tunes at a coffee shop some day. However they have very different approaches.

First there is Frank. Frank knows that he has it within him to be a good songwriter. In fact, he describes himself as an ‘aspiring songwriter’. Frank dissects the great songs to figure out their structure. He reads books on songwriting. He has a notebook full of ideas for grand song-cycles and concept albums. There’s only one problem with Frank’s approach…

Frank has never actually written a song.

See, Frank has started a few songs, gotten a little bit into the process and stopped. Because Frank believes that any song he writes must be flawless, the stuff of legend, and he doesn’t feel like he is quite there yet. I haven’t talked to Frank in a year or so, but the last time I did, he was still waiting for the perfect moment to start his masterpiece.

So he remains an ‘aspiring songwriter’.

And then there is Beans. Beans writes so many songs, I can barely keep up. Every time I talk to him, he has three new songs to play me. And – I’m gonna be honest here – ninety percent of them are completely terrible. Like, raise your eyebrows bad. But Beans continues on, writing songs at a pace I can only call prolific.

And lately I’ve noticed something. Ninety percent of his songs are NOT terrible anymore. In fact, a good portion of them are better – much better even – than ninety percent of MY songs. It’s maddening! And I’m left sitting here and wondering how the heck Beans turned himself into a good songwriter.

But of course I know exactly how he turned himself into a good songwriter… he wrote a truckload of songs.

I believe that you are going to be terrible at almost everything you do the first bunch of times you do it. Whether it is songwriting or singing or playing jazz, you simply cannot expect to be great right out of the gate. So why not get those terrible songs out of you as quickly as possible?

Which would you rather be? Frank, a guy with lots of ambition but zero songwriting credits to his name? Or Beans, a guy with 90 lame songs and 10 great ones?

I know what I’d choose.

- PT

PT is the co-host of the guitar talk podcast Six-String Bliss. He also writes fiction and has been known to throw a little disc golf. He lives in the birthplace of country music

Apple iPad 2

Well, the iPad 2 has come out in the States, it’s come out Internationally, it’s come out in both wifi and 3G models and I still do not have one.

Not that I’m complaining too badly. The new iPad seems to be quite the step up from the first one. I know that when I had the opportunity to try one out, I was as good as sold. Not having a keyboard attached really frees you up and I was able to take a picture of me and my son, who is being entered this year to the Guinness Book for being “most blurred pictures due to squirminess,” with ease and all of the applications opened quickly and easily.

Don’t think I didn’t notice that GarageBand is ALSO available on the iPad. That’s a really cool thing to have and it only bolsters my opinion that the iPad is THE portable electronic device for guitarists.

The new smart covers for the iPad can also be rolled up and used as stands, something Apple is pushing as a way to have hands-free video chats but something I immediately noticed as an excellent way to keep your iPad in the best viewing angle while TAB scrolled across the screen and you played along. You can also keep up with your email, your schedule, your notes, and use it to build a better, more efficient band. That’s something to consider if you’re just scrawling notes wherever you can to remind yourself you have a gig two months from now at a club.

It’s lighter, faster, now loaded with two cameras and I want one.

I’m waiting though. There’s an important thing that is supposed to happen between now and whenever I could buy it (probably when the iPad 5 comes out) that will determine whether I will be able to have access to my Kindle books (or even Nook books since they both have similar apps) on the iPad or if Apple is really planning on changing the terms of the current agreement. Losing the ability to read my books on the iPad is a pretty big hole in the boat of Want.

Still, for those out there who are looking for something loaded with potential and getting better for guitarists every day, the iPad 2 is here and I’d say it’s well worth the money.

-Pappy

Way Huge Fat Sandwich Review

I am a fan of pedals. They offer a small, portable, and staggeringly effective change to your tone and most of the time they can be had for less money that would be required to buy, say, a new guitar or amp.

I’m especially a fan of distortion/overdrive pedals. I’m always looking for the miracle box that makes my amp transform into a believable clone of bigger, louder and much more expensive amps (Rectifiers, Bogner, Orange, Marshall, perhaps even Diezel) and have yet to find a pedal that pulls it off to my ear, but hey, it’s a fun trip. So that’s mainly what I look for when I go looking for distortion pedals, but sometimes I happen upon a pedal that isn’t after the same goals I am that floors me.

And in this case, I blame Jon from Guitar Noize. He had a review session with three Way Huge pedals and then gave them away. Of course I signed up for the giveaway and because there was such a huge response, the odds of me winning were slim and the thing about odds is you can very rarely argue with them. I didn’t win, but the Fat Sandwich was stuck in my brain ever since. My wife picked up on this, mainly because it was number one on my Xmas list and bought it.

I honestly think she bought it just because it’s FUN to order a Way Huge Fat Sandwich. It’s name is novel and she later confirmed that it wasn’t the position that swayed her but the name.

The box it arrived in was out of the ordinary and it came with pins, a manual, and, of course, the pedal. The pedal features an awesome finish where the metal’s characteristics are very much exposed but the color is nice. It stands out in the sea of pedals that are made today. It features 8 knobs, 5 external and 3 internal. The manual does a pretty good job of explaining what each knob does, but I think it could be dumbed down even more for people like me who are unfamiliar with what each stage of distortion does (for instance). The amount of knobs offer a wealth of tonal variety for any guitarist and it’s easy to tweak and find YOUR tone in the box.

What I did was set the external knobs to noon and then opened it up and manipulated the three internal knobs to find a tone I liked and then I closed it up. My logic was that the three internal knobs are more set and forget and then you could tweak the knobs on the face to suit whatever mood you’re in that day. So far I’ve been right.

The knobs matter, too. Where some companies put knobs that basically do nothing or do something to such a small degree that “subtle” is giving them quite the benefit of doubt, each knob has a huge impact on the tone you’re able to get and as such it’s difficult to record sound samples for. Some people have tried and honestly, some have done a good job, but the thing is that there are SO many tones in the box and each guitar is going to react differently that honestly, it’s impossible to create a sound sample that will cover everything for everyone.

The pedal feels strong and the battery access at the bottom of the pedal, where it’s easy to open and replace a battery is a welcome feature. I’m not a huge fan of unscrewing pedals to replace batteries and even less of a fan of batteries inside a pedal and not secured via something like a battery clip. If your pedal was shaken, the battery could do a lot of damage in there!

As for the claims to make even the thinnest guitar sound huge, the Fat Sandwich succeeds. It lends authority to your tone and gives you all the overdrive you could ever want (unless you want modern metal), especially if what you want is classic rock, classic metal or punk rock. The tone is amazingly transparent, especially considering the amount of distortion you can heap on your tone. You can hear your GUITAR through it all and that’s a great thing. I mean, you paid for a guitar that supposedly sounds better than the $50.00 Wal Mart guitar, right? Don’t you want to HEAR how much better it sounds all the time?

But I digress.

In short, the pedal is awesome. I wanted to try it out because Jon made a compelling argument but I did not expect to become such a big fan of the pedal or the company. Looking at the quality of this pedal makes me want to check out their other pedals as well. I’ve been looking for a smaller delay after all, and the new Green Rhino looks pretty amazing too!

Should you buy it? It depends on if you like overdrive. This pedal provides such good tone that I think it’s only a matter of time before this winds up on a ton (if not the majority) of pedal boards for rock/punk guitarists. And it’s pretty cheap too! Where most boutique companies START at over $200.00, you can get this pedal for $179.99. For the tone inside this beast, the price is WELL worth it!

-Pappy

The Future of Magazines

This was originally going to be a review of the electronic version of Guitar World offered on the Nook Color from Barnes & Noble and John 5's first column, but after consideration I decided to change it entirely.

Here's the review in very short terms:

John 5 column - great.

Electronic Guitar World - lacking.

Well, I can't say it's "lacking" per se because it featured absolutely every article and advertisement from the print magazine (almost like the pages were scanned in). It even featured the exact same PRICE as the print magazine even though there wasn't nearly as much money put into the production of the electronic version and it also didn't come with the CD that featured videos, reviews, whatever else they put on there. It also didn't come with the two posters that came with the print magazine.

Now, I know it's tough to include posters in an electronic file, but why not either attach a JPEG file so customers can print out their own posters at some print store or include a JPEG that has been optimized for the device's screen?

Hey... that sounds like a nifty idea. It wasn't that long ago that GW used to include posters monthly and they could bring this back in the form of your reader's desktop. I like that idea quite a bit.

So what was it that disappointed me about GW's Nook version of their magazine? Honestly it was the disregard of the potential at their fingertips. Right now if you buy the print magazine you'll see video examples in the attached CD but really, what is that CD but an auxillery tool to push a point across and what is a Nook Color but a device that eliminates the need for that CD since it can do everything a magazine can do PLUS play the auido and video files normally tucked away on a CD that most people lose before the next issue comes out anyway?

This isn't science fiction here. I'm not saying "in ten years we'll be able to read guitar magazines and not even have to bring a portable CD player or use our computer/DVD player to see the things that even further engross you in the world of guitar." I'm saying "we're able to do this."

"RIGHT NOW!"

The tools are completely at the fingertips of the publishers and they are being ignored. There's even better tools on the iPad!

That's fine though. It's a choice - a poor one, but a choice nonetheless - and it's not like one guy's rant is going to change anything. Heck, I'm even OK with magazines staying the way they are currently.

Stagnant and outdated.

But at least change the PRICE of the magazines. Most magazines are at least one dollar less than print versions and they offer you the option to subscribe to the magazines for about a dollar per month. So you pay for the initial magazine, then pay a dollar a month and never miss another issue. You save money as a consumer and if enough people do the same, the magazine still makes money. Think about all the economic benefits of printing electronically and then think about how much money you're being charged. I understand content can't be free (well, not content that looks so polished. I guess you could always think about blogs...) and I am completely cool with paying for magazines, but I, just like every OTHER person who isn't on Forbes' Richest People list, care about where my money is going and if the price is fair or I'm being gouged.

Let's not forget that they say print is dying. Well, with newspapers, that's almost certain, but I can understand how magazines - particularly guitar magazines - have a bit more staying power. The articles aren't nearly as time-based, they tend to hold the value of their information longer (guitar lessons can be referenced time and time again where the showdown between North and South Korea was only interesting for a little while) and consumers like the pretty pictures and smooth pages. So I think you can hold on a bit longer than something like newspapers, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't put a little more ffort behind this remarkable potential.

Invest in some of this stuff. Invest in the technology that lets TAB scroll with a midi background track so a guitarist can learn to the right beat. Think about saying in the magazine "click here for video example" instead of "see video example in attached CD." Include the JPEG that fits the device so you can start including "posters" again.

This doesn't just go for Guitar World either. I'm being hard on them just because they and Guitar Afficonado are the only ones available on the Nook Color right now and that may be a bit unfair but I think other magazines (and GW) can learn from these explorers who braved the deep, dark world of electronic formats.

And hey, Premier Guitar! I would still pay to receive your magazine on an electronic device, even though you offer it for free via email.

Fretboard Journal would look amazing too. Man, just thinking about how great the pictures would look makes me want to write an email to them...

We're not done here though! There's even more potential.

There's a potential for a small magazine to get started and release their magazine nation or even WORLDwide. No more worrying about printing costs or delivery fees. No more worrying about whether you're using your limited copies and putting them in the right stores that feature the demographic you're aiming for. You can make your own guitar magazine and print it.

IMAGINE!

Yeah, the future of magazines looks pretty great. If only current magazines could reach out and utilize the tools available, they could show this print world how things are done in an increasingly electronic age!

-Pappy