Guitar Tune Ups - Truss Rod Adjustments

So I've been feeling brave and adventurous lately. I absolutely love my Ibanez AM77 semi-hollow body, but couldn't help thinking it could stand a few improvements here and there. The first was regarding the action, or string height. It comes with a bridge that is Ibanez version of a Gibson tune-o-matic. I was having problems with fret buzz, so to fix the problem I raised the bridge until the buzzing stopped. While the strings now rang out nice and clean, the high action made it a little more difficult to play. In my research I determined that the most likely cause of my fret buzz was in the neck. On most electric guitars, you don't want your neck 100% straight, you want a little forward bend to allow the strings to vibrate freely when fretted. You can adjust the bow in your neck by tightening or loosening your truss rod. This is a threaded steel rod that runs through the neck of steel stringed guitars to help keep them from warping under the tension of the strings. By tightening the truss rod (righty-tighty) you are bending the headstock backwards(away from the strings) By loosening the truss rod, (lefty-lousy) your are allowing the natural tension of the strings to pull the headstock forward.

Measuring for proper relief is very simple. Place one finger of your left hand on the first fret of the low E string. Place the pinky finger of your right hand on the 14th fret. Now look at the distance between the string and the 6th fret. It should be a little more than the thickness of a business card. Any more or less should require only small adjustments.

A necessary word of caution. If you tighten your truss rod too much, you will crack your neck. That is what we call "very bad"!! Make only minor adjustments. If you have to turn it more than 1 or 2 full rotations, allow your guitar to sit for a couple of days so the wood in the neck can conform to it's new shape. If you felt your neck is too tight but you still have buzzing issues or improper relief, take your guitar to a trained luthier.

Keep rockin'!!

And remember, whether it's learning a new riff or adjusting your truss rod...

Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast!!

A Year of Fun and Learning

It was just about a year ago that I started playing with the group of guys I now refer to as "the band". I've already shared quite a bit about a lot of the fun and learning that has taken place in these last 12 months, but I had a real eye opener just this morning. At our last practice session, we began talking seriously about gigging. We all feel pretty confident in our abilities, and we are looking for the next step, to help us take it to the next level. One of the first things we did was to start talking about a set list. Our drummer, Andy, sent out an email with a list of the songs we play on a regular basis. To my suprise, there were almost 30 songs! He did not include the songs we have only played a couple of times, or the ones with which we are still struggling and tweaking. These 30 songs are songs which we would feel comfortable playing in front of paying customers. Add the other odd numbers, and we are at roughly 35. On top of that, I have a out 10 or 12 songs that I play on my own, but don't do with the group. So in short, I have gone in one year from not knowing how to play the guitar to playing nearly 50 songs, and most of them pretty darn well (at the risk of sounding a little arrogant).

So what's my point? By learning a few simple chord shapes, a couple of scales and finding a group of like-minded musicians to play with, I have been able to go from "guy who thinks it would be cool to play the guitar" to "guy who plays guitar in a legitimate band". It's far from impossible, in fact I wouldn't even go so far as to say it's even been difficult. I don't say any of this in an attempt to toot my own horn. I bring up the point to illustrate that anyone at any age can make the decision to pick up an instrument and start to play and have fun. For that matter, it's not even limited to music. If there is something you've always wanted to do, play guitar, get a degree, run a marathon, write a book, whatever, the only thing stopping you is you! Don't let fear and intimidation keep you from living the life you want to live.

In the mean time, crank it up to 11, and rock out!

And as always don't forget... Slow is smooth, smooth is fast!!

Low Cost Gear Upgrades

            In my last post, I talked a little about good sound on a budget. Specifically regarding several articles I had read recently about well-known artists who use low end guitars both on tour and in the studio. That got me thinking about my own situation. A while back I won a Fender American Standard Strat in a Fender giveaway. The guitar is a classic piece of work; I am just not a big fan of the single coil sound. So for several months I have been speaking with guitar shops about possible trades to get into something with humbuckers. This has been a pretty discouraging undertaking so far. For the most part, even though the guitar is like new and sells for $900-1000, guitar shops only want to give around $300 in trade-in. I am not going to trade a $1000 guitar for a $300 guitar, just on principle. So, up to now, I have held on to it and it sits in its custom hard side case in my closet.

            So, taking a bit of my own advice, I have started looking at upgrading the stock single coil pickups with after-market humbuckers. I am intrigued by the humbuckers that are the same size as the single coil pickups, allowing me to upgrade without having to replace or alter my pick guard in any way. My research so far has revealed that I can get into a set of Strat humbuckers for $200-300. Even cheaper than that, I can buy a single bridge humbucker for less than $100 and have it installed for about $15 so I don’t have to mess with any soldering myself and screw anything up. I am also looking into upgrading my pots. Just for the record, up until about two weeks ago, I had no idea to what the term “pots” was referring. Now I know that “pots” is short for potentiometers, aka….. your knobs. Pot’s sounds cooler… Anyway, I have read that when upgrading from single coil to humbucker pickups, one should upgrade the tone and volume controls to higher capacities. Another cool option in to get push-pull (aka. coil tapping or coil splitting) knobs. This allows you to change whether your pickups operate in parallel or in series. By changing these settings, you can alternate between single coil and humbucker tone. It really makes for a win/ win. I can upgrade to having a humbucker available, without losing the single coil sound if I need it in the future. New pots run about $15 and another $15 labor to have them installed.

Long story short, instead of going out and spending a thousand dollars on a guitar with humbucker pickups, and taking a $700 bath on my new Strat, I can spend a little over $100 and make it into the guitar I want it to be. Now the challenge is figuring out which pickup to buy. That’s OK, it gives me an excuse to go on guitarcenter.com and look at a bunch of stuff that I don’t have the money to buy!

Keep rockin’ and have fun.

Remember….. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast!!

Playing with Sounds and Textures - Magic Carpet Ride

The last time we got together and played, a couple people brought some new songs to try out. The one I had the most fun with was Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf. First, the song itself is very simple to play. Basically goes like this-

(I like to dream....)

D - D - C - G - G 

(Right between the sound machine...)

D - D - C - C - G - G - G

Repeats...

(Close your eyes girl...)

G - A# - C - G

As always, go online and listen to the song on uTube, Grooveshark or some other online music resource, and it's pretty easy to figure out the rhythm. Once you have the feel for it, play around with the syncopation, and it gets pretty funky pretty fast.

On the second to last verse, on the second time around of the G - A# - C - G, instead of going back to the D - C - G progression, go to the E chord (A shape bar at the 7th fret... play the open low E as well to add extra punch). On Steppenwolf's version, they do this extended, psychedelic, feedback driven, distorted jam. I haven't counted to see for how many measures they do this, but we do it for about 20 measures or so. As a rule of thumb, wait until it feels like it has been going on for an uncomfortably extended time, and go one more measure just to be sure. I'm typically not playing up to this point, we have two other guitars, one playing bar chords, the other open chords through the verses and chorus. When the jam starts, I come in with an over driven, distorted tone. I also use some touch wah and sine chorus to add to the psychedelia. 

I typically don't have feedback issues with my semi-hollow body despite everything everyone told me when I bought it, but in this instance, my goal is to get a very full, warbling feedback. I'll typically come in playing the E, then slide up to a Cmaj7 (A shape at 10th fret on the D - G - B - e strings) and alternate between strumming and picking alternating notes. The chord looks like this:

.e:--12

B:--12

G:--12

D:--10

A:--X

E:--X

After about 20 measures or so, it cuts right back into the first verse (D - C - G progression). I'll have my neck pickup volume set at 0. To act as a cut-off switch, I'll flip from bridge to neck, and go right into the first verse vocals. It makes for a really cool tonal transition!

I know it's hard to conceptualize sounds in words, so  pick up your guitar and play around with it. As a rule in general, but for this song in particular, the louder the better. Get some ear plugs and crank it up. You can't get the same sounds out of your amp at 2 that you can get at 10!

On a side note, I put my first ding in the new Ibanez playing this song. While playing with the angles of the pickups to the amp and changing the tone of the feedback, I accidentally bumped the headstock against the wall..... another cool sound! So, needless to say, this was repeated several times to play with the different sounds and textures. WARNING!!! Don't do this if your guitar is your baby! You will end up with dents and scratches on your headstock.To me, my guitar is a tool, so I'll do whatever I need to in order to get the sound I want out of it. Probably another good reason that I won't buy a guitar for more than a couple hundred dollars. Reading articles in Guitar World the last couple of months, I have read multiple interviews with popular, professional, touring guitarists who have Squire Strats and other similar low budget guitars in their arsenal. What these guys do is buy pickups and electronics that they like, and swap them out with the stock electronics in these cheap guitars. So much more of their tone comes from their amps and effects that the differences between tone woods and construction in a $200 guitar and a $10,000 guitar are negligible. I guess the moral of the story is this.... You don't have to spend a ton of money on gear to have a great time and play great music!

So go get 'em!

Have fun and practice, practice, practice

Remember................ Slow is smooth, smooth is fast!!

B

Milestones to Success

I'm pretty excited that with this posting, I will more than likely meet one of my personal milestones, 100 pageviews on my blog! I appreciate everyone who stops by and checks out the updates. I know that 100 pageviews isn't a huge accomplishment. There are plenty of websites out there that get hundreds, even thousands of views every hour (some of them even feature people with their cloths ON!!)

The fact that it isn't a gigantic success isn't the point. Just like with your personal progress with the guitar, there is nothing wrong with setting small goals for yourself. First learn one chord shape, then two, then learn how to take three chords and play a blues progression. It doesn't have to be huge, just keep moving forward. The point for me is that it is helping me to organize my thoughts and my practice routines, and most importantly, helping others learn to enjoy guitar the way that I've come to enjoy it. I have received several emails from you guys, saying that you have been thinking about starting, but never really had the motivation to take the plunge. The questions range from gear recommendations for beginners, to fears about how difficult starting to play may be. That is awesome, because it's exactly what I want this blog to be. I want to help others learn and grow musically, which I believe, also helps them learn and grow personally.

So keep the questions coming! Tell your friends about it! Eventually, I would like to get enough followers to get the attention of some vendors and retailers, and be able to give away some gear to help make it even easier to get started... Nothing easier than free stuff. The next goal is 10 followers, so next imte you stop in, be sure to register and become a follower. Thanks again, and I'm looking forward to talking to you again soon!

As always, don't forget;

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast

B

Simple Songs: AC/DC - Back in Black

Music doesn't have to be complicated to be good. Take one of my favorite bands for example... AC/DC. The song Back in Black, a rock and roll classic, is basically three chords repeated, E-D-A. Don't believe me? Try it out here.... Think about the rhythm and play these chords:

E--D-D-D--A-A-A 

The first little turn around is a very simple backward E scale, looks like this:

.e:--3--0---------------------

B:--------3--0---------------

G:-----------------3--2--0--

D:---------------------------

A:---------------------------

E:---------------------------

Then right back into the chorus, E-D-D-D-A-A-A. The next turn around is a simple walk up, looks like this on the low E string:

E:--7--4--7--5--7--6--7--7\0

When you play that last note slide down to the open E and start the E-D-D-D-A-A-A rhythm over again. Basically every verse just repeats these alternating chords and turnarounds. Now, for any melancholy purists out there, I don't care if this is how Angus played it on the original studio cut in 1977 or whenever. The point is, it's simple, it's easy, it rocks, and it's fun to play! Especially if you can get some distortion out of your practice amp (now your all kinds of Rock Star!!) Learn this and whip it out at your next party or social gathering, just make sure your wearing your shorts, chucks and school-boy jacket when you do it, and you'll bring the house down! Seriously, everybody knows that rhythm, don't care who they are.

The chorus, if you get really adventurous, just a simple play on this E scale:

E Scale

.e:-------------------------------------------0--3--

B:------------------------------------0--3---------

G:--------------------------0--2--3---------------

D:-------------------0--2-------------------------

A:---------0--1--2--------------------------------

E:--0--3------------------------------------------

And this A scale, which looks just like the E scale, just move it up one string, like this:

A Scale

.e:----------------------------------0--3--

B:------------------------1--3--4---------

G:-------------------0--2-----------------

D:---------0--1--2------------------------

A:--0--3----------------------------------

E:-----------------------------------------

Run up and down those scales a few times, then try this out for the chorus:

E Riff

.e:-------------------------------------------

B:-------------------------------------------

G:-------------------------------------------

D:-----2--0-------------0-----0-----0------

A:------------2--0---------0-----1-----2---

E:--0----------------3----------------------

Play that four (4) times, then shift up to the A scale:

A Riff

.e:------------------------------------------

B:------------------------------------------

G:------2--0------------0-----0-----0-----

D:-------------2--0--------0-----1-----2--

A:--0----------------3---------------------

E:-----------------------------------------

Play that twice, then back to the E riff and play it two more times (E-E-E-E-A-A-E-E). Now, bring it aroooouuund toooowwwnn back to the verse:

.e:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

B:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

G:---------------------------------------0----------------------0---------------

D:-------------------------------------------0----------------------0-----------

A:--0-----2--0--2--0-------2--0--2------------0------0--------------0-----0--

E:------0----------------0----------------------------3---------------------3---  

Play this whole thing twice.... then G bar chord:

.e:--3

B:--3

G:--4

D:--5

A:--5

E:--3

And finally, resolve to a few D bad chords:

.e:--x

B:--7

G:--7

D:--7

A:--5

E:--x

That is basically the whole song minus Angus' solo. Remember what I said about playing with tab. Tab is a tool so you know what scale and chord shapes to use. Before and while you are playing, go on to youtube or grooveshark, and look up the song. Listen to the rhythms, pause it and practice it a piece at a time. When you have the rhythm down, practice playing the whole thing through, along with the song or video. Start slow... a little piece at a time.

Always remember....

Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast!!

B

What I'm Listening To: 1/25/2011

I love Pandora Internet Radio..... Love, love, love it!! If you are already familiar with Pandora than you probably already know why I am so enthusiastic. If you aren't in the know about Pandora, let me bring you up to speed. Pandora is an internet "radio" service that takes a song or artist that you like, matches it with other similar songs and artists, and plays a mix of music that is similar in one way or another to what you like. For example, my favorite Pandora channel is my White Stripes channel. Because of the eclectic style of Jack White, I get a wide range of interesting music, from rock (Wolfmother, Black Sabbath) to blues (Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Canned Heat) to alternative (The Hives, Cake) to bluegrass (the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack). By getting a good mix of styles and artists, I have been introduced to music that I probably never would have listened to before. Granted, not all of it is great, but if I don't like it, I just give it the big "thumbs down", and never have to hear it again.

The last four songs I have set out to learn have been "300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues" by The White Stripes, "All Night Long" by Buckcherry, "Get Over It" by Ok Go, and "On My Way" by Billy Boy on Poison. What these songs have in common are 1) They are all rather simple to play with bar chords, 2) they have a little bit of guitar vamping, but nothing really crazy as far as solos, and 3) they all have kind of foot stompin', and heavier "good times" rock and roll beats and rhythms. I can hear a "style" starting to come through in my playing, something like a mix between an AC/DC style rock with a heavy blues influence. Besides the fact that these are the kinds of music I enjoy, they also play to my strengths (and weaknesses) as a player. I am sure that my abilities have influenced my music choice at least as much, if not more than the pure esthetic.

For the time being, I am not going to tab songs on this site, maybe some time in the future, but for now, I get pretty much anything that I play from Ultimate-Guitar.com If you are new to using guitar tab, here are a couple of hints. Don't try to figure out a song just by looking at the tab. If you aren't really familiar with the rhythm, the tab can be really frustrating.  If you want to learn a certain song, the first step is to listen to it... a lot...  If you don't already own a copy of the song, you can get a video for just about any song there is on Youtube, or you can go to an iTunes or other digital music site and download it for  around 99 cents. Once you have the song, and can listen to it over and over, try to play along. This is where the tab comes in handy. Use the tab to identify the chords and changes, then follow along as you listen to the music. A warning.... not all tabs are created equal! A lot of tab is submitted to public sites by regular Joe's (or Jane's as the case may be) just like you and I, who liked a song,  sat down and banged out something as close as they could to what they are hearing, and wanted to share that with others. That being said, use tab as a guideline, not a rule. If you play the tab and it doesn't sound just right to you, then change it up!

Keep rockin', and remember.....

Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast!!

B