Seth MacFarlane's Big Band Album

Seth MacFarlane's New Big Band Album

By Pappy

It seems like every guitar blog has an upcoming album that they're very excited about be it the new Mr. Big, Chickenfoot, or Van Halen, but I am not very interested in any of them.

Not my kind of music, I guess.

But I'll tell you what I AM excited about and that is Seth MacFarlane's new solo big band album! It's supposed to come out in September (haven't seen a date yet) and there's some humor to the songs, but I don't view it as a comedy album at all, but a serious offering from someone who has proven himself time and time again to be a crooner on par with the classic names that everyone mentions from the past. But there are so very few good crooners out there today, that an injection of youth that still has class is a welcome thing.

I'm very excited to hear this and I'll let you folks know how it is.

Until then, I'm on the edge of my seat.

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8-Bit Fuzz Review

FX Doctor Super 8-Bit Fuzz Review

By Pappy

One of my top 10 movies of all time is Fuzz: The Sound That Revolutionized the World. I had never really messed around with fuzz boxes until I saw that movie and it was interesting to get a crash course in fuzz and all the notable builders and their opinions before going in. I especially like the crazy shop owner who definitely has an air of smugness as he belittles a customer for asking if a pedal is true bypass because it’s become a buzz word, something desirable but with so few people knowing why it would be.

My favorite person interviewed in the movie is Justin Meldal-Johnsen, the bassist from Beck, that said he wants to find a pedal that he can surrender to. It’s an odd request for sure, but he basically says what separates the old fuzz pedals from the new ones from big companies is that the new ones are specifically engineered to take you to specific places and little else. They don’t want you to find horrible sounds because who would want to sound horrible? Who would have a use for that? No, we want to be able to control our pedals and take them where we want to, not be led down some crazy sonic path that ends with the guitarist sweating, barely able to hold on to notes, losing them left and right and basically fighting to maintain sanity with his guitar. The small fuzz builders though, they don’t mind giving you free reign of your sound, even if you are fully able to tweak the knobs to the point where you sound awful.

But there’s still a lot of control to them, even the new ones, where you CAN take them to horrible, horrible places but only if you force them there.

After watching it, I’ll be honest: I wanted a pedal that took ME places, not the other way around. I agreed with this bassist that it would be cool to have that experience of relinquishing control and giving in to it.

And I found just the pedal to do it.

Well, I should clarify that a bit. FX Doctor makes an amazing pedal called the 8-Bit Fuzz that comes in two versions, one with one knob and one with three knobs (the Super 8-Bit Fuzz). I’ve had minimal experience with the one knob version and now I have the three knob version to review. With the three knobs you can control just how much control you have with the pedal and shape it accordingly to your personality. I think it’s pretty great, because between wanting total control and wanting zero control we all fall in somewhere and this pedal can accommodate anyone.

But what is the 8Bit Fuzz? Well, it’s a fuzz box, but it’s a fuzz box that has been taken to such a crazy extent that the sounds resemble the 8 Bit soundtracks of old Nintendo games.

And it does it proudly. It’s a loud, nasty fuzz if you want it to be and that’s EXACTLY what I look for in a fuzz box because to me, if you want it to sound subtle and smooth, that’s what an overdrive is for. When it comes to fuzz boxes I want to 1) make my guitar sound almost un-guitar-like, 2) I want to be able to make some serious noise and 3) I want to have fun. To me, fuzz is all about having fun and retreading through those glory days when you were playing in your room and just making noise and enjoying it. Fun in the purest sense.

That isn’t to say the pedal isn’t musical though. It fits in songs and acts as a unique way to radically change the tones of your solos. If you think your guitar work is going unnoticed because you blend in too much with the rest of the band’s sound, turn this beast on when your time to shine arrives and there will be NO doubt that you’ll cut through. Heads will definitely turn your way, probably just as much from the rest of the band as the crowd watching.

The controls are as follows: Gain, Volume and Stability.

Here's a sample recorded by FX Doctor:

And, like any unique pedal, it has its quirks. Say you strike a note and just let it ring out. With this fuzz it doesn’t decay in volume, fading out into nothingness. Instead, as the signal decreases, the sound drops in octaves, NOT in volume. Depending on the length of the note’s strength it can drop in obvious tones from anywhere between two to four times before it cuts out completely. That’s it. The note doesn’t decay, it just drops and then is silenced completely.

That was probably the biggest challenge to grapple with, but you get used to it and if you want to maintain a note, you just pick more and if you want to increase the speed of the “decay” you merely slide your picking hand from your bridge forward as slowly or quickly as you like, effectively muting it at a pace and not completely.

Once I got a grip on how to control this, it became one of the serious perks to the pedal. I honestly think this is the most entertaining ways to end a song. As you strike that huge chord you let it ring, the audience expecting a volume decrease increasingly interrupted with the inevitable feedback, but instead they get a drop in tone, a drop in tone, a drop in tone and then boop.

Nothing.

It’s awesome.

As far as “transparency” goes (another buzz word hated in the Fuzz movie, but a decent enough concern that deals with your guitar’s natural tone shining through the pedal’s addition to the signal), the pedal isn’t very transparent at all but I’m OK with that. I don’t really want a fuzz box that only sounds good with X guitar and I like knowing I’ll get the same fuzztastic sound with every guitar.

Regarding looks, the pedal’s appearance does a great job of conveying what to expect with the original Nintendo’s controller layout.

I think usability really depends on what kind of music you play. This may be a pedal you turn on just to accent certain licks or runs, or this may be a pedal for all of your solos or the ending of songs, or this could be a cornerstone of your tone. Personally I think there's a huge Jack White kind of tone in here and that's right up my alley when it comes to fuzz, so I've been using it more than any other fuzz pedal and loving every minute of it.

The pedals go for $120.00 with one knob and $175.00 with three knobs. To learn more about FX Doctor and their insanely awesome and over the top fuzz in particular, check them out HERE.

If you think your tone is getting a bit stale and you're looking to spice it up, add something new or just get a new toy that offers something fun and unique, this pedal is well worth checking out!

I'd like to say thank you to FX Doctor for sending me this pedal to review! I've always liked crazy fuzz boxes, but they're hard to find in local shops so whenever I have the opportunity to try one out, especially one of this calibre, I'm always grateful.

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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.

The Nashville Amp Expo

The Nashville Amp Expo

By PT

An army of guitar geeks gathered this past weekend at the Hyatt Place hotel in upscale Brentwood, TN. As my wife dropped me off for the day, we saw a woman and a man walking hand-in-hand into the hotel lobby.

“That poor girl,” said my wife.

We were at the Nashville Amp Expo. Guitar geekery at it’s finest.

At the Amp Expo, each exhibitor is given a hotel room. The attendees can then visit with the exhibitors in their rooms, chat with the company representatives and play the amps pretty much as loud as they want. It makes for an oddly intimate experience. It is not like a trade show at a convention center where you can wander past booths, stopping to chat if something looks interesting. When you step into a hotel room, you are pretty much committing yourself to at least a little discussion.

Some rooms were warm and friendly, with enthusiastic exhibitors anxious to talk about their products. Some exhibitors made me feel less than welcome, giving me the feeling I was walking into a stranger’s hotel room, uninvited. Which I guess I was. One exhibitor handed me a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon as I walked through the door. Bonus points for them.

I had the pleasure of attending the Amp Expo with my friend, the great pickup builder Clint Searcy. Our partnered approach allowed us one of us to play an amp while the other chatted with the exhibitor.

There is something magical about trying a new guitar or amp in front of the person who actually made it. Oftentimes they have the excitement of a kid showing off a new toy. “Oh, try this setting.” “Now try this other amp.” “You’ve got to hear it with the volume knob rolled back a bit.” The builders were tweaking as many knobs as Clint and I were.

The setting also made for some open and honest conversation with the builders. Clint and I were in the SamAmp room trying out some of the excellent models. The notes chimed with just enough bite as I played a Strat through the VAC 40. We commented on how cool their VAC 30R model looked. It’s a round amp about the size of a large car tire. The owner sighed and said, “Yeah, everybody says how cool that one looks. But you know what my best-selling models is?” He nodded toward a traditional looking tweed model. Guess there is not a big market for round amps. That's a shame; it is a sweet amp.

The Amp Expo was a great experience. For a $5 ticket, you get the chance to play countless boutique amps and guitars, talk with the builders and designers and really pump up the volume. But the best part of the day was meeting and hanging out with fellow guitar lovers. People like Matt and Derrick from Gear for Guitar, builders Doug Kauer and Peter Malinoski, and Josh from Guitar Lifestyle.

In our everyday lives, our love of guitar is often a solitary pursuit. We read magazines, listen to podcasts and post on message boards. But being in a hotel filled with nothing but great gear and guitar geeks? That is a good time.

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.

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PBS and Arthur

PBS, Arthur, And Guitar Lessons

By Pappy

I’ve always been suspicious of shows and channels that exist based on government, company and public funding, but I don’t know why.

And honestly, I could kick myself for holding on to these feelings for so long, because it rocks, especially for kids. As entertaining as Spongebob Squarepants is, it’s not educational in a positive way to pre-schoolers and toddlers. As I was finding out with the child that can talk starting to say things like “don’t be stupid.” She’ll have the rest of her life to learn and say those things, so for now she can knock it off.

At least learn all your letters before you call someone else stupid, is my stance.

Anyhoo, while on vacation we stumbled onto PBS, or the Public Broadcasting System, which features shows like Sesame Street, Barney & Friends and other mind-numbing shows. But it also features some seriously educational and entertaining shows. Not nearly as “stab yourself in the eye for relief” as, say, the Wonderpets! It’s great.

A couple of them even I find entertaining.

One case was a show called Arthur where in one episode Arthur becomes disallusioned with his favorite super hero, Dark Bunny, when DB pitches an energy drink that Arthur discovers is really just sugar-water. He gets down about it but becomes inspired by the great Jack Kirby and makes up his own super hero. Afterward, he realized that he can still enjoy DB, he just doesn’t have to be a sheep, easily manipulated by what the companies are trying to pitch.

This hits home with me as something I would like my kids to have ingrained in them. Don’t be sheep. I think it’s a valuable lesson.

One of the characters in Arthur, George, has a father who builds guitars for a living.

The inner (and outer) guitar geek in me squeeled in joy. It’s not every day you see a cartoon character in a kid’s show have an occupation in guitar building.

So in an episode, a guy arrives in a rainy night to George’s house on a motorcycle with a sidecar and gets George’s dad outside and says he needs help because Bonnie’s not doing so good. She’s sick. They take a goggle-wearing, blanket-wrapped bundle inside out of the rain.

The next day George is telling his friends about the weird occurrence and someone recognizes the name Bonnie and asks what they guy looks like and after the description recognizes the guy as a famous musician that his mom is a big fan of. Bonnie is the name of his guitar – a legendary guitar.

How legendary?

Well, apparently the guitarist was trying to write a song and all he had written was that he was looking for X, but he couldn’t figure out what X was. Love? Too cliché.

While thinking about it, it started to rain and the tree he was near was struck with lightning leaving only a guitar-shaped mass of wood in the middle. A magic guitar. One that became Bonnie. He named his song “Looking for Bonnie.”

Everyone was impressed with the story.

That night George’s friend showed up unannounced and ended up staying the night. It was a normal sleep-over until George’s friend wanted to go into George’s dad’s workshop to see Bonnie. Even though it was frowned upon, they did and they saw a beautiful guitar on a chair. George’s friend said that if you just touch it, you’ll see the magic it contains. Geoge reaches out and strums the low E and sees in his head a plant that isn’t doing so well, out in the middle of a parched wasteland. He pulls out his magic guitar and starts singing to the sapling and people start to show up, attracted by the music. One has compost, one has water, etc. Over time the sapling turns into a tree, all because George was playing his magical guitar.

George’s friend then wanted to try it out and strummed the low E and saw himself and a band performing at Stonehenge. No one was there to listen but as they played, people came. Then a spaceship came down and an alien beamed down. After a possible threat, it turned out the alien came to jam. So they did just that for a while before the alien was yelled at by its mom because he was late for dinner. He then beamed back up and the spaceship flew away.

So both kids have had visions now, handed to them by this beautiful guitar and they decide to leave, but UH OH, they’re locked in. So they curl up and fall asleep on the floor amidst bodies and sides being molded, saws and their accompanying dust and wood shavings.

The next morning both George’s father and the musician open the door, the father talking about how he fixed her right up and that she needed a neck adjustment and a refret (and again, I thought this unnecessary guitar-centered talk was awesome) and they found the kids who were apologetic about going in to the workshop, but they were just so excited about Bonnie. The musician chuckled and asked if the kids wanted to see Bonnie and went NOT to the beaufitul “magic” guitar the kids had strummed, but instead a plain jane acoustic that would not have caused a second glance. Then he explained that it was not from a tree struck by lightning, but Chicago where he bought it for $40.00.

The kids asked about the visions and he said that guitars aren’t magic. Music is though. Music can bring people together and make a difference or you can meet new friends, just like the kids had each seen.

Then the musician took his now-repaired instrument, put it in the side car, put motorcycle goggles on the case and drove off.

The end.

My jaw was agape as I thought that it shouldn’t be just kids who see this episode, but every guitarist ever. There’s a valuable lesson in here somewhere, I just know it.

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Bluffer’s Guide to Guitar Shops

By Dave MacLeod

One of the things I still find awkward about guitar stores is when trying out a guitar there feels to be this immense pressure to do something “special”. If it is bad now, then it was immeasurably worse when I was just starting out. I’ve hit on what I believe is the perfect solution, that almost any guitar player can use to their advantage and feel comfortable picking up and testing any guitar in any shop.

My first realisation was, that when it came to actually selecting a guitar to buy, instead of widdling and playing on cool gear, I play the guitar differently. You can use this simple approach.

Before playing anything take a good close look at the instrument, pretend to look for glue seepage, sight up and down the neck, look at and feel the fret ends. Then you’re ready to play…

First strum an open E major chord slowly. pretend you’re listening to each individual string and how it sits in the balance. Do the same with a barre chord higher up the neck. Here it helps to pull a quizzical face as if something isn’t right, then play it a couple more times but even more slowly.

Next play a chromatic scale (i.e. every note stepping up one fret at a time) starting with the low open E, F, F#, G, G#, Open A, Bb, B, C… then move the hand up to the second position and repeat all the way up the neck until you’ve played every string on every fret. I’m pretending to be listening to the tone and for buzzes at every fret. And don’t do this quickly. You can enhance the impression of knowing what you’re doing by going slowly listening to each note, occasionally pulling a face and going back and retrying a couple of notes.

And lastly, the icing on the cake – on each string, fret it at the 12th, play a note, and then play the 12th fret harmonic and pretend to listen intently. At this point make a slightly disappointed face and hand the guitar back.

If you want to play your “party piece” then feel free to do so but, and this is the important part, DON’T TRY TOO HARD. Play it slowly and, again, pretend to listen intently to the sound. Pull the quizzical face again and go back over sections again – as if there is something puzzling about the guitar, rather than your ineptitude.

Of course, if you really like the guitar you can replace any of the puzzled/disgusted/quizzical faces with a slight nod of appreciation as if the guitar has exceeded your expectations.

If you can play like Paul Gilbert, feel free to ignore all of the above advice and shred away to your heart’s content, but do so in the realisation that, no matter how good you are, everyone else in the store thinks you’re a tosser.

And if you really are buying the guitar, then just delete the “pretend” from all of the above and actually do all these steps. That way you’ll find you’re buying an instrument that is well finished, sounds pleasing and balanced across the strings, has no dead or buzzing notes at any position on the neck, and is intonated properly. And that can’t be a bad thing, right?

Dave MacLeod lives near Liverpool in the North West of England. Most of his spare time is taken up with building, modifying, playing and talking about guitars. You can follow his work at http://damacleod.wordpress.com/

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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. I have a Delta 90, myself and it's quickly rising to "#1" status! Click the above link to find out more!

1983 Stratocaster: A Model Origin

1983 Stratocaster: A Model Origin

by PT

Note : An earlier version of this post first appeared on the now-defunct Six-String Bliss blog in September 2008.

"A classic example of how CBS was squandering the Fender name." - www.strat-central.com

"The Stratocaster in its worst-ever configuration." - Western-swing guitarist Bill Carson, the man who suggested to Leo Fender, among other things, that the Strat have a contoured body.

The money was in my hand and I was about to make the purchase... my first real Fender Stratocaster. The guitar Jimi played. The guitar Stevie played. I was beyond excited. I was seventeen years old and had worked in the guitar store changing strings and stocking shelves for about three years. The salesman, a guy maybe five or six years older, looked concerned. I was walking toward the counter with the used Strat in one hand and the hardshell case in the other when he pulled me aside.

"Look, before you buy this, there is something you should know. The thing is... we're not even sure this is a genuine Fender. See how this guitar only has two knobs and the rest of the Strats have three?"

He went on to point out all the other differences in this guitar. The jack was mounted on the pickguard instead of recessed into the body. No access to the vibrato springs from the back of the guitar. 12 pickguard screws instead of 11.

I hesitated for a moment. But only a moment. My heart was set on this guitar. It played great, and I was getting a killer deal. If there was a slight chance it wasn't a real Fender... well, I had the money in my hand and I wasn't turning back now.

Still, it always nagged at me a little. This thought that my guitar might be some kind of fake.

Imagine my delight two years later when I learned my Strat was not only a member of the Fender family, but the notorious black sheep, a relic of the darkest period in the company's long and storied history.

My first clue to my guitar's authenticity - and the beginning of my obsession with learning more about the 83 Strat - came when I opened a thin book titled 'Fender: A History' and saw a picture of my guitar. And the caption beneath it: "The Two-Knob Stratocaster, one of the least popular guitar's in Fenders history".

The internet is littered with disparaging remarks about the '83 Strat. How CBS was running Fender into the ground; how the guitar doesn't deserve to be called a Stratocaster at all; how it was CBS's last desperate attempt to turn a profit from Fender guitars.

But, as guitar historian Tom Wheeler points out in his excellent book 'The Stratocaster Chronicles', the truth is a bit more complicated. "It might have looked like a quickie/cheapie knockoff of a real Strat," writes Wheeler, "But it was a serious redesign..."

In fact, the redesign was the concept of the one of the true heroes of this era of Fender history, Dan Smith. Yeah, the same Dan Smith behind the much sought after

'Smith Strats' of 1982-1983. And while the changes were made for the expressed purpose of cutting costs, the demand for a lower priced Strat came not from some CBS corporate mandate, but customers and retailers. In the 1983 guitar market, Strats cost too much.

So Smith designed a way to mount the jack in the pickguard so it could be dropped in pre-wired, and the Standard Series Stratocaster was born. The new two-knob Strat retailed for $650.

Strat fans might have been able to get by with one less knob, but the Standard Series Stratocaster's fatal flaw actually lies a few inches to the left - in the guitar's tremolo system. The springs could only be accessed from the front of the guitar, and the pivot system was extremely sensitive, causing the guitar to go out of tune if played too hard.

Despite its problems, the Standard Series made a number of successful changes, such as a wider, flatter neck designed to attract the metal crowd, and a four-bolt neck that fit more securely against the body. But the Standard Series' real legacy lies in two other features. The innovative Biflex truss rod, which allows tension to be applied to the neck in two directions, first appeared on the '83 Strat. The 1983 Strat was also equipped with bass frets.

Bass frets and the Biflex are both standard issue on American Series Stratocasters to this day.

Is the '83 Strat the black sheep of the Fender family? Yeah, fairly or unfairly, it will probably bare that label for many years to come.

Is it a real Fender? Hell yeah.

I know of few other guitars that so well exemplify Fender's spirit of innovation and creativity.

So happy 28th birthday to the PT Number One Strat. And if you are looking for a cool Fender with some off-the-wall features and a non-vintage price tag... look for the two-knobs.

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.

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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.

Taylor Finds My Fit

The Taylor Find Your Fit Event

By Pappy

I mentioned on Monday that I went to Atlanta and, more specifically, Maple Street Guitars to participate in Taylor’s Find Your Fit event. Basically, the Find Your Fit even is when a representative from Taylor – a subject matter expert in acoustic guitars – comes to the shop and gives you one-on-one time and helps guide you through the jungle of choice that is Taylor Guitars. There are a lot of numbers associated with different shapes, woods, appointments, etc. and it can be daunting to say the least.

Especially to a guy who’s been nothing but an electric player for the last fourteen years.

Now, before going to this event I had visited a shop in the next town that had a couple Taylors in stock and I kind of fell in love with the 814CE. I really enjoyed the guitar at the shop and still think it’s a beautiful guitar, but I wanted to see if there was something that was more geared toward me. I didn’t really have a goal guitar in mind (I think in this case, an open mind is probably the best bet), and I turned myself over to Taylor’s rep Aaron.

Aaron is a guy who's been working for Taylor Guitars for the last six years as a sales rep and has been playing guitar for the last 17. He says his strategy for finding people's fits is to start them off with the 814CE since it's the best-selling acoustic/electric Taylor over $1,000.00 with a very strong workhorse legacy and work from there. That's what happened with me.

Aaron had brought along with him several examples from Taylor and said that they were all pretty plentiful – not many rarities in the bunch – because he wanted to demonstrate the different sizes and woods, not really show off limited models. He ran through the sizes and woods, using layman terms and stories attached to their origins and I felt like I was beginning to understand the mysteries of woods.

Here are some of the guitars Aaron brought with him.

An example of a story: Aaron says that when the 14 size came out it was a hit and is still the best selling shape in Taylor’s offerings and something crazy like the fourth most popular shape in acoustic sales in general. But some players in Nashville wrote or called in and said that they love their 14 models but wish there was just a little bit more. “More” is a general term, but Bob Taylor understood them and released the 16 size which has the same general shape and size as the 14, but the waist is a little more wide and it’s a little bigger. In short, there’s a little “more” to the mix.

Now, before the event started Lindsay at Maple Street sat me down with a cedar/rosewood Built To Order (BTO) that was lovely to play. It had a very warm tone to it, very mellow. Lindsay summed it up nicely comparing woods to drums saying if you had a big drum there’s a big boom, but it’s slower and more subtle than a small drum which has an immediate attack and often overpowers the bass drums. That analogy worked well with the guitars.

Aaron had asked me what I thought of the cedar/rosewood and I honestly said that while the warmth was great, the highs didn’t really stand out so solos were getting a bit lost. He switched me to the 814CE and I sat back down with the guitar I had fallen in love with before, but with a more critical set of ears I lay into my collection of riffs that I think sum up guitar playing. A hybrid lick here, power chords there, flatpicking a solo, fingerpicking some stuff, jazz and using octaves. I’m certainly not arguing with Taylor regarding the fact that a 14 is a Swiss-army knife of guitars able to tackle a lot of things, but I found myself wanting a bit more oomph behind the power chords.

I expressed this to Aaron who then handed me a guitar similar to the 814 but it was bigger putting it in 816 territory and there wasn’t a cutaway nor electronics. I liked this quite a bit more when I played power chords. There was the oomph I was searching for but when I started to lay into a solo, the highs were getting a little lost. Then I started to play fast and was a little disappointed that every pluck of the string wasn’t shining through. Aaron saw me playing quickly and recommended trying something a little different out. He pulled down a 616CE which has a spruce top and maple back/sides. He said the maple tightens things up and will really let fast runs shine through. He also said it’s a great guitar to lead a band with because the maple cuts through the mix and if you’re a percussive kind of player, it does well with muted strums as well.

Basically it’s a bright guitar.

I had tried a 614CE in the past and the brightness had thrown me off, so I thought I would just be polite and try this one out before handing it back and going back to the spruce/rosewood combo, but was completely shocked when it was perfect for me.

The maple made the solos stand out. Hybrid picking equally displayed finger-picked and flat-picked sections with the same brilliance. It WAS very nice for muted strumming and the bigness of the 616 still made the power chords deep and powerful. Octaves jumped off the guitar and jazz was sweet with the articulation really letting tricky fingerings of complicated chords shining through (you do want credit for teaching your hand to remember those chords, right?).

In short, Aaron had helped me find my fit. I had zero complaints about the tone, nothing to say about improvements. It. Was. Perfect.

It was also a smidge cheaper than the 814CE which is good for saving purposes.

But I was actually a little depressed because there were some things I really liked on the 814CE that is not on the 616CE. Wood binding being one thing. But even when looking at the 814CE I always thought the Cindy inlay would look really good on it.

And since it’s the perfect guitar SOUND-wise, it might as well be the perfect guitar LOOKS-wise too, right?

So I broached the topic of a custom guitar with Aaron. He explained the process which goes like this: You fill out a six-page booklet that has every feature and option possible. All of the prices are next to the options. You add up the prices of the features and then reduce it by whatever percentage the shop is willing to save you and viola! The price of your very own one-of-a-kind custom guitar.

Aaron recommended coming back to Maple Street Guitars when I was ready to order my custom (if I ever was ready to order it – there was zero pressure in this regard both from Aaron and store manager Lindsay) because Lindsay has a lot of experience with BTOs. He orders them and sells them all the time, apparently.

I didn’t even look at the packet until I got home.

Some of the things in the packet I am not familiar with, but I’m sure Lindsay will be able to provide a ton of guidance with these. For now I Googled that part, took an approximated guess at what it was and marked the sheet accordingly, knowing I might very well change the sheet if it ever came time to order. At first it was going to be really simple: flamed maple binding, Cindy inlay on an 616CE. But then some of the options got me. The binding for instance: It’s offered in a few woods, not just maple and I am a sucker for the beauty of koa, I just don’t want a guitar with koa as the top. Visually, I think a little goes a long way. But koa binding sounded pretty awesome to me. And the sound hole rosette was also offered with a koa middle. The headstock overlay was the same. I could choose gloss or satin on the different parts of the guitar and in the end I think I wound up with a pretty great guitar on paper.

It made me think it would be really nice if Taylor were to make an acoustic virtual builder to match their electric one, because I would REALLY like to see this guitar to see if it looks as good in front of my eyes as it does in my brain.

Yes, it became a little more elaborate but I think it’s still nicely understated. And it had a total cost after the percentage reduction that was shockingly low. I hate to tease, but if you're looking for a new Taylor and would like even one thing changed, you owe it to yourself to check out how much a custom would cost. It might be too much to warrant the change, but it might be low enough for you to be able to get your perfect guitar, the one that sounds, feels, plays and LOOKS exactly like you would want it to.

Your dream guitar.

And they aren't limited by the option son the sheet either. I saw that one person had replaced a part of an offered headstock inlay with a Canadian Maple Leaf!

In the end, I felt INCREDIBLY satisfied. I had a great time trying out different guitars at a great store, and both Aaron and Lindsay showed me great personal attention while bouncing around the shop showing attention to others and not pressuring anyone to give up a guitar, stop playing, buy a guitar or anything like that. Aaron had led me to a guitar that honestly astounded me at how well it fit me, we talked with no pressure about ordering a custom guitar and the price of said custom was much, much lower than I could have ever expected.

The day was a win. No doubt about it.

If you have the opportunity to attend one of these, please go. You’ll have a great time. I know I did.

To find the upcoming dates in YOUR area, check HERE.

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Pro Tone Pedals make some of the most unique sounding and looking pedals I've ever seen in my life. His pedals will always stand out on a pedal board and when you click them on, there's going to be heads turning. They make high-quality, investment-grade pedals that have amazing sounds to match their amazing looks. Check out their site and take a look at the videos, listen to the sound samples and see what Pro Tone can offer you!

Tremolo Pedal Kit From MOD Kits DIY

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August, 2011

The Trill - Tremolo Pedal Kit

New from MOD^TM Kits DIY

The Trill tremolo pedal offers classic tremolo tones in an easy to build kit.

The Trill’s speed knob provides a wide range from a very slow to rapid fire effect. The depth knob varies the ratio between effected and dry signal. Using modern, low noise transistors makes operation of The Trill quiet with no signal drop when engaged. The Trill uses true bypass foot switching so it is out of the signal path when not engaged.

MOD^TM Kits are designed to give novice and experienced musicians the opportunity to build their own amps and effects pedals. All kits come with clear and easy to follow well illustrated drawings, easy to follow instructions and use point-to-point wiring. A pre-drilled enclosure and all parts are included. All you need to provide are hand tools, a soldering iron and solder. The effect pedals operate on 9V batteries which are not included.

For a complete listing of kits available from MOD^TM Kits DIY visit

www.modkitsdiy.com

Maple Street Guitars

Maple Street Guitars

By Pappy

In a very pleasant part of Atlanta, GA, lies a great music store called Maple Street Guitars (conveniently located on Maple Street). It's unassuming on the outside, but inside it is stocked with a ton of cool gear that could satisfy just about any guitarist. No less than four walls are filled with guitars, two of which are mainly acoustics, one wall of electrics, and one of electrics and hollowbody electrics. But cool gear only means so much and it wouldn't matter if the store was staffed with a bunch of jerks.

Fortunately, Maple Street Guitars is not. The store is the epitome of a mom & pop shop and the owners are the best kind of mom & pop (I'll get to that in just a second)! I walked in about a half-hour early for the Taylor Find Your Fit event and the staff was more than accommodating to me. I asked if I was allowed to take pictures inside the store and, once approved, in a valiant display of unprofessionalism, whipped out my ancient iPhone and started snapping. Once I was done taking broad pictures of the shop, I started talking to a manager of the shop, Lindsay Petsch. I told him that I was fairly new to acoustics and we started talking about my previous Taylor interactions - mainly falling in love with an 814CE. We talked about some of the other wood options and he showed me a Built To Order (BTO) guitar that he configured that featured rosewood back and sides and a cedar top.

Let me say right now that Lindsay is a great guitar player and he did something you rarely appreciate: he played the guitar for me as examples before handing the guitar to me. With an electric guitar, this is a fairly useless exercise - just let me plug into an amp and leave me be, but with an acoustic guitar it sounds different when you're playing it and when you're in front of it. It's a valuable thing to do considering that you are going to be pushing music and tone out on your friends. You may want to find out if that's a pleasing tone. Much like buying a new car and sitting in the back seat. Sure, you'll never sit in it again, but you want to make sure your friends will be comfortable.

That's just being a good friend.

I was very impressed with the professionalism of the shop. I think stores like Guitar Center has spoiled the guitar playing community where you can go in and pull down any guitar, thrash around on it, put it back on the shelf and leave. Eventually this makes the guitars... well, they get beaten up. Then people go in, find a guitar they like and ask if the shop has one in the back that hasn't gone on the scenic tour of hell, fell off the trolley and dragged themselves back to the world of the living.

Unless you're buying a relic, of course (but honestly, you probably still want all the nicks to be factory-inflicted, not 14-year-old-shredder-inflicted).

What store wants stock that won't move?

But Maple Street Guitars goes out of their way to make sure their guitars stay pristine. They have removable pickguards, for instance, that they put on guitars so you don't have to worry about scratching them, and I was asked by one employee to move my sunglasses which were hanging off my shirt. At first, yes, that stung, but that's just me being selfish. Every single guitar on their racks looked brand new - even their used ones. If that means I have to put my sunglasses in my pocket, I'm totally fine with that. I got used to it pretty quickly and started to appreciate it.

It was as I was playing a guitar that I met a beautiful person, store owner Claire Petsch (Lindsay's mom). First off, Claire doesn't look like she could be Lindsay's mom. She looks young, her voice is jubilant, she's funny, she knows the guitar to a crazy extent (she's a classical guitarist!) and when she started hunting for a removable pickguard to put on the guitar I was playing, she said that it was so I didn't have to hold back.

That is the nicest way possible of saying "I don't want you to scratch my gear and leave without buying it."

In short, I developed a huge crush on Claire (don't tell her husband, George, another owner who is also a classical guitarist and guitar builder in the shop!).

The final stroke from Claire though on this crush canvas was when we were talking about the guitar in my hands. I'll go more into the Taylor Find Your Fit event on Wednesday, but (spoiler alert) I ended up with a 616CE in my hands and loving it. It's a bigger body so the lows are more powerful, but the maple tightens everything up and brings the highs through the mix. In short, it's the perfect guitar for me. Claire asked how I liked it and I said it got me with the octaves. They were well defined and when you added that quality to the lows and highs and cutting potential, it fits me like a comfortable sweater. She knew exactly what I meant and offered her opinion that as you get bigger in acoustic body size, you need a brighter wood to hold everything together. Yes, spruce and rosewood make a great combination, but on bigger body notes and intricacies start getting lost.

I agree.

Now, the whole purpose of the trip to Atlanta (not exactly a nearby place) was to find a Taylor for me - to educate myself, and this shop was completely OK with that. The whole staff seemed to be OK with this idea and I think it's brilliant. Some shops you visit, when you play the gear to see if you like this or that, once they get the sense you're not going to buy anything they go cold and you pick up on the vibe. The folks at Maple Street are more than happy to help educate you, give you advice, put a guitar in your hands, even show you to a private room so you don't have to worry about making a fool out of yourself with your "sub-par" playing (always a fear of mine) and then they'll leave you alone until you approach them. They're not trying to rush you through the shop.

The knowledge of the staff about the ins and outs of the guitar is commendable and I felt that even if Taylor wasn't about to host an event specifically to guide me to my perfect Taylor, that the staff could have done it alone. That's how great they are. They were explaining shapes and woods in ways that even I could understand and when I would say something about the tones or what I was after, they listened.

And they remembered my name. Amidst a store full of customers, they would pass by and ask "how's that guitar treating you, Russ?"

Also, my real name is Russ.

I really feel like I was taken care of while I was there by a staff that knew their stuff and even when I asked about ordering a custom guitar from Taylor they didn't blink an eye. They walked me through the process that I WOULD go through, were I to order one, and there was no pressure to do so. In Taylor's case, it's easy to order a custom guitar. You get a six-page packet with every option possible and their prices listed. You pick the options you want, add it up and then reduce it by X percent (the X being the percentage of discount the shop would take off).

Lindsay has a ton of experience ordering BTOs and will prove to be an invaluable source to me if I were able to save up for the expensive (but oddly enough, not astronomically high) price of the guitar and order it. With Lindsay's guiding hand, experience and style (he's got a pretty awesome mustache), I'm sure I would walk away with an amazing guitar on order.

If you are anywhere near Atlanta, you need to go to this store. I can't say enough good things about it as it is probably my favorite thing about the state of Georgia. I can't wait to find an excuse to go back.

-Pappy

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The Case for Solid State

The Case for Solid State

by PT

I want to tell you about a used amplifier I bought a couple years ago. It’s a Fender 2x12 combo with Celestion speakers. It is equipped with spring reverb, an effects loop, a balanced XLR line-level output and 160 watts of power. It has one of the sweetest clean tones I’ve ever heard.

How much did I pay for this amp?

$175.00 That’s right. A 2x12 Fender amp with Celestions and spring reverb for under two hundred bucks.

Why so cheap?

It is a Fender Stage 160. A solid state amp.

Compare that with the similarly-featured but tube-driven Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12. That one goes for $500-$650 used.

Tube amplifiers have a powerful hold over the collective consciousness of the guitar community. And with good reason. The vast majority of our favorite albums were recorded using tubes. Most of our rock and roll heroes play them. And there is that classic tube sound we have heard - and heard about - all our lives.

Think about all of this, paired with the indisputable awfulness of the very early solid state amps, and it is not surprising that guitarists are tube biased (pun intended).

Don’t get me wrong; I love tube amps. I have owned a number over the years, and I hope to add another tube amp to my collection in the near future.

At the same time, the extreme tube love is a little silly. Watch the amplifier section of your favorite guitar store for an hour and you will see the following scenario play out numerous times: Guitarist sees an unfamiliar amp model on the sales floor, stares at the control panel for a moment, glances at the price and then looks in the back of the amp. If he sees tubes back there, chances are he is going to ask for a cable to try it out. If there are no tubes, you will see a disappointed frown appear on his face, and he will walk away without giving it a test drive.

There is a lot to be said for a solid state amp, and not just for metal and jazz players. If you are looking for a clean and consistent palate on which to build your sound, you owe it to yourself to give solid state a fair shake.

I think of it this way: A tube amp is like a movie star. So many movie stars are great at playing one type of role. George Clooney is always going to be the charming guy, and he probably does it better than anyone. In the same way, a tube amp may give you that one perfect sound.

A quality solid state amp is like a great character actor. Plug a few pedals into the effects loop, and it can be whatever the situation demands.

Maybe that is a bit of an over simplification, but so is “tube amps are better than solid state amps”. I love amplifiers, and with the vast universe of sound possibilities, I believe there is room for both tube and solid state.

On the other hand, if extreme tube bias continues, I will still be able to get killer solid state amps for under $200.

And I am okay with that too.

- 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.

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