guitar

Gibson’s 5 Freakiest Guitar Designs of the ’70s and ’80s

2009-07-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

Gibson’s R&D departments in Kalamazoo in the 1950s and ’60s, and in Nashville in the ’70s and beyond, have turned out some of the most celebrated electric guitars of all time. But even the creators of iconic designs such as the ES-175 and the Les Paul Standard are allowed a false start now and then.

As often as not, these models had plenty of creative new features and bags of design integrity, but just didn’t take off with players. In earlier decades these guitars were often just ahead of their time, too radical for players of them to take to heart (see Part One: Gibson’s 5 Freakiest Electric Guitar Designs of the ’50s and ’60s.)

In the ’70s and early ’80s, however, these hit-or-miss ventures were far more miss, and have yet to be celebrated with the high vintage values and Custom Shop reissues that have brought many underappreciated early experiments back to life. Some of these even sold in very respectable numbers in their day — far more than the legendary Flying V and Explorer, certainly — but somehow remain products of their time, somewhat dated perhaps, and arguably less appealing to today’s players than other more timeless Gibson models.

We’re actually starting with a model from the very end of the ’60s, and that’s because the general failure of the Les Paul Personal — and the Les Paul Professional and Les Paul Recording that followed it — represent a certain irony of guitar design and endorsement. Les Paul, a jazz and pop artist of the 1940s and ’50s, was Gibson’s first major endorsement, and the Les Paul Model to which he both gave his name and an element of design consultation is arguably the most iconic electric guitar of all time. Shortly after putting his John Hancock on this legendary instrument in the ’50s, however, Paul — an inveterate inventor and tinkerer — further developed his own ideas about the form this model should take. Paul had long been a fan of low-impedance pickups, which do offer certain advantages of fidelity and clarity but which have never superceded traditional passive, high-impedance pickups with the majority of players. He was also fond of adding extra gadgets and preamps and switches to his own guitars. In 1969, shortly after the return of two more traditional Les Paul models to the fold, the Les Paul Personal appeared, with a wider mahogany body, oblong low-impedance pickups, phase switching, and 11-position Decade control, and even a microphone socket on the upper bout of the guitar (with its own output and level control!). Needless to say the model never really took off, and only 370 were ever produced.

George Fullerton dies at 86; musician helped Leo Fender create his unique guitars

2009-07-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

George Fullerton, a longtime associate of Leo Fender who played a crucial role in the electric-guitar innovator's extraordinary success through his broad-based skills as a musician, artist and technician, has died. He was 86.

Fullerton died Saturday of congestive heart failure at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, said his son Geoff.

www.LaBelleDame.com
While Fender tinkered away, coming up with improvements in guitar design that led to the creation of his revolutionary Telecaster and Stratocaster electric guitars, Fullerton was charged with making those innovations practical for mass production in their Orange County factory that opened in the late 1940s. Nearly 1,000 people were working there when Fender sold it to CBS in 1965.

"Leo's domain was the lab: innovation, getting ideas together on the conceptual level. George's domain was the shop," said Richard Smith, curator of the Leo Fender Gallery at the Fullerton Museum Center and author of "Fender: The Sound Heard Round the World." Fullerton "made the machine that threaded the guitar necks. He came up with the neck shaper and all these unique tools they used. If Leo had problems, [Fullerton] needed to solve them."

Fullerton's lifelong interest in art allowed him to create sketches of new designs based on his conversations with Fender, whose background was in accounting and electrical engineering.

George William Fullerton was born March 7, 1923, in Hindsville, Ark. He was one of six children in a family in which "everyone was musical," Geoff Fullerton said. "There was definitely a music gene going on there."

Fullerton moved to Southern California shortly before World War II. He picked up technical skills working in an aircraft manufacturing plant during the war, after which he periodically ran into Fender, who ran a radio repair service and retail store.

Fender had begun making guitars -- originally focusing on steel guitars -- and amplifiers with Doc Kaufman (under the K&F brand), but their partnership ended quickly because of differing ideas about how to run the business.

Going it alone, Fender offered Fullerton a job helping with radio repair, but he soon shifted over to provide warranty service on Fender's steel guitars and amplifiers. Fender was as impressed by Fullerton's musical credentials -- he was playing in two bands at night after work -- as by his technical know-how. Fender was confident in his own technical expertise but often hired employees who also were musicians because he could barely play a note, much less a song.

In the late 1940s, various guitar makers were experimenting with ways to amplify the sound of a guitar to allow it to be heard in larger dance halls and ballrooms that featured live music. Fender wasn't the first to come up with a solid-body electric, which could handle a much greater degree of amplification without the sound feeding back, but his innovations in design allowed the instruments to be mass produced affordably -- something no one else had then figured out how to do.

They started working out of Fender's small shop in Fullerton, then expanded to two buildings. The early Fender team also included Don Randall, originally a salesman who became Fender's chief sales and marketing executive. At its height before the sale to CBS, Fender was turning out a guitar a minute from its 27 buildings in Fullerton and Anaheim.

Fender said he never regretted the sale, but he did have reservations about leaving many of his associates behind. Fullerton stayed on for about five years, but was disheartened by what he considered the new owners' bottom-line mentality.

"Quality issues were always at the forefront of his mind," Geoff Fullerton said. "The people at CBS would tell him 'We can save a nickel by doing this,' and his response would be 'Yes, but you'll screw the guy who's playing it.' So immediately there was a conflict there."

He teamed again with Fender at the Music Man amplifier company, creating a new line of guitars, then they created G&L Guitars around 1980.

In recent years, Fullerton had served as a consultant to the Fender Custom Shop in Corona, the company's high-end division that crafts upscale custom guitars for superstar clients as well as meticulous recreations of celebrity guitarists' favorite instruments. "George was very passionate about music, as a lot of the people who worked at Fender were," Smith said. "They thought they were doing something great for musicians, and they were. That whole spirit originated with Leo, that spirit of building better instruments to help musicians."

Besides his son, Fullerton is survived by a daughter, Diane, and two grandchildren. A memorial has been scheduled for 10 a.m. July 25 at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. Instead of flowers, the family has asked that donations be sent to the St. Jude Memorial Foundation.

randy.lewis@latimes.com

Building the perfect electric guitar

2009-07-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - When University of Maryland Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Bruce Jacob played guitars in the past, he just wasn't satisfied with its sound.

His solution? He chose to design his own.

Jacob's guitars differ from others because they include a great range of tones, allowing performers to forgo switching instruments.

His new guitars go on sale this week through his company, Coil LLC. Guitars are priced from $1,000

vintage electric guitar

2009-02-04T04:51:00.000-08:00

“Negative Boy is what I am. Destroyed by fear and nerves within; internal battle until the end. The time I’ve wasted is a sin. At last I think my time has come. To rid these demons, I’m duty bound. Laugh it off, or stay and wallow: I think I’ll live and fight the battle.”

But the songs appear to be the work of somebody outgoing, who is introspective enough to analyse any misgivings that may have occurred throughout his life. Be that as it may (psychoanalysis over!), the songs are well crafted works that blend everything from the genres of pop, punk, and rock. To say there is something here for everybody is an overstatement, but you would be hard-pressed to locate anything unsavoury.

Album opener Monkey is a contentedly upbeat pop/punk romp, while dealing with personal issues (a recurring theme on this album): “I’ve got a monkey on my back. I’ve got a monkey on my head. I’ve got a monkey in my life...” It’s enjoyable, as opening tracks go, but on first listen it appears clumsily thrown together, and could benefit from a little extra overdrive on some guitar parts. At times it simply feels as though it is lacking in something, but it’s difficult to put a finger on what exactly.

Gillick lists some of his influences as the works of Nirvana and Oasis, and it is apparent at times where their stylings tie in. But for the most part, if you were to analyse his sound, it would be a heady mixture of The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, The Dandy Warhols, and some of Queen’s later efforts.

What You Want From Me is probably the most definitive track on the album as regards this combination of styles. It opens with a jangly, acoustic riff accompanied by some descending harmonised vocals and successive fifths on the piano. Some might find the lyrics to be ludicrously simple, following a steady rhyming pattern.

Several lines are awkwardly phrased due to this pattern, and as such the timing can seem a little off. But this only seems to add to that same indie vibe. At 2:20, the song dips into a stripped-down, vocal showcase. There’s nothing dazzling here, but it is a nice contribution to the overall structure of the song.

All Alone

All Alone breaks up the tedium nicely though. While the previous three songs were almost riotous in getting their message across, this track holds little more than an electric guitar on a clean channel, bass and drums. The vocals over the instruments make this an interesting little ballad, which is perhaps more reminiscent of The Raconteurs or the Foo Fighters. Or even Tom Waits and Nick Drake, depending on where your musical loyalties lie.

There are really so many features which complement each other, that I can safely leave it in your hands to decide on the influences.

In any case, it’s not too difficult to figure out where the lyrical content of the last song originated when you listen to All My Friends. The verse is centred around the lines “All my friends are idiots. You know, when they get drunk they make no sense. All my friends, they broke my heart... All my friends are good to me. When I was down, they broke me free.”

This song is definitely in the top five of the album in terms of craftsmanship and structure, oscillating from love to hate in the lyrics like a pendulum in full swing. By Your Side takes a stranglehold on the lounge and soul genres, and forces them towards each other on a course for collision, with an inebriating dose of jazz trumpet for good measure.

To sum it all up: Broken Son isn’t really my cup of tea. Yes, it changes styles rather well between tracks, but at times the performance feels lacklustre to my ears. It can be difficult to decide whether or not an artist piques your interest through reading a review when you have no prior knowledge of their work.

So I’ll leave you with this closing sentiment. This is a fledgeling recording artist who genuinely deserves to be heard by those who have a taste for all things vintage rock, with a dash of the newer music scene. This album is available to buy in Multisound, Main street, Cavan, and is well worth the purchase price if you’re interested.

Broken Son can be heard playing at Origins, in McGinnity’s bar on Friday Nights, and can be contacted at brokenson@live.ie.

bossa nova guitar

2009-02-04T04:46:00.000-08:00

I have the VHS version, it is good and will teach you a few things, but all you find is etudes and they are "short". You won't find this, or any complete song there. A bit dissapointing if you ask me. Most Bossa books and videos all do the same, teach you some rhythmic comping, some chords, and good luck! you are stuck with the task of creating your own arrangements I guess. I wish someone would write a book with just bossa songs, not jazzy wannabes either

how to read guitar tabs

2009-02-04T04:44:00.001-08:00

The following tutorial will help to explain to you the basic concept of reading guitar tab. Although it may seem complex, learning to read tab is quite simple, and you should find yourself reading tab easily in no time.

Guitarists are a unique breed. Chances are, if you play guitar, you are either self-taught, or have taken a small number of lessons via a friend or guitar teacher. If you were a pianist, however, you almost assuredly would've learned to play the instrument through years of private study, which would include both music theory lessons, and heavy focus on sight reading.

Nothing wrong with taking the more informal approach to learning music, but it does create some inherent problems when it comes to laborious duties like learning to read music. Learning to sight read takes a reasonable amount of work, without immediate benefit, and it is these sort of duties that self-taught musicians tend to avoid.

It's never too late to learn to read music... if you want to get serious about a career in the music industry, it really is essential. However, guitarists have created their own method of music notation, guitar tablature which, while admittedly flawed, provides a simple and easy to read way of sharing music with other guitarists.

A tab staff for guitar has 6 horizontal lines, each one representing a string of the instrument. The bottom line of the staff represents your lowest "E" string, the second line from the bottom represents your "A" string, etc. Easy enough to read, right?

Notice that there are numbers located smack dab in the middle of the lines (aka strings). The numbers simply represent the fret the tab is telling you to play. For example, in the illustration above, the tab is telling you to play the third string (third line) seventh fret.

Note: When the number "0" is used in tablature, this indicates that the open string should be played.

This is the concept of reading tab, at it's most basic. Now let's examine some of the more advanced aspects of reading tablature notation, including how to read chords in tab.

more http://guitar.about.com/library/blhowtoreadtab.htm

guitar scales

2009-02-04T04:32:00.000-08:00

The February issue of Metal Maniacs features an interview with CANNIBAL CORPSE bassist Alex Webster about the band's new album, "Evisceration Plague", and the legendary diminished fifth. Excerpts from the conversation follow below.

Metal Maniacs: What's the darkest scale in metal?

Alex Webster: Believe me, we've asked ourselves that question… I would say that the scale we use the most, because we have found that it can be used in a way that makes the darkest and most sinister-sounding riffs, is the diminished scale, which is a half-step, whole-step; or, it could be whole-step, half-step. I guess you would call it a symmetrical scale as opposed to a more traditional church mode diatonic kind of thing like major/minor. Any scale we can, we'll mess around with and try to find a way to make it sound dark, but a diminished scale is pretty much guaranteed to sound dark. We tend to keep going back to that one a lot.

Metal Maniacs: Why do you think that is?

Alex Webster: It's the intervals. What makes music sound dark is the order that you put the notes in; if they're played together, they sound a certain way. Like when you play a major third, it generally sounds happier than a minor third. A diminished scale has both of those in it, so if you're trying to make stuff dark, you have to beware of implying a major tonality; but it also has the triton — the diminished fifth — which is the darkest-sounding interval you're going to find. It has minor thirds in there, major sixths, which are inverted minor thirds — you're dealing with a lot of the darker-sounding, more mysterious-sounding intervals. It just lends itself to death metal. If some musicologist ever cared to study our band or other death metal bands, they'd probably just see that scale popping up all over the place, because it works so well.

Metal Maniacs: Is that the scale that's used in "Black Sabbath" by BLACK SABBATH?

Alex Webster: Yeah, I mean it's a diminished arpeggio, I guess you could say — "Bomp Boomp BAAA" — there's the root, the octave and then it goes to the diminished fifth, the third note; it's a root diminished fifth octave arpeggio basically, in that song. It's gotta be one of the most, if not the most evil-sounding riffs in metal history, and it's the song that kind of ushered in the dark side of rock…

Metal Maniacs: I hope we aren't getting too technical here. But it is very interesting…

Alex Webster: Honestly, as much as CANNIBAL CORPSE is a band known for controversial lyrics, artwork and that sort of stuff, what we're really focused on is music. We're probably more of a musician's band than a lot of people would think at first glance. Get me started talking about intervals, scales and rhythms and things like that, it'll take a while to get me to stop.

The February issue of Metal Maniacs is on sale January 27.

For more information, go to www.metalmaniacs.com.

martin guitars

2009-02-04T04:29:00.000-08:00

For well over a century and a half, The Martin Guitar Company has been continuously producing acoustic instruments that are acknowledged to be the finest in the world.

Roland and Martin Guitar, producers of the finest acoustic instruments, have partnered to introduce the new Roland AP-1 preamp. The AP-1 will be available in several new Martin models which include the 00C-16DBGTE, DC-16OGTE and the OMC-16OGTE. The AP-1 is Roland's new onboard acoustic guitar preamp. It uses Roland's advanced Composite Object Sound Modeling technology to produce three body-specific tone variations and includes a programmable seven-band EQ, anti-feedback control, digital chromatic tuner, digital reverb and LCD display.

The 00C-16DBGTE is a small-bodied Grand Concert-sized Venetian cutaway guitar with a deeper body depth. This particular shape allows for great player comfort while extra depth provides presence, projection and power to the tone. The soundboard is polished to a high gloss while the genuine mahogany back and sides are finished to a soft satin luster. Appointments include a bold herringbone rosette, black Micarta® fingerboard and bridge, black Boltaron™ top and back bindings, chrome enclosed tuning machines and Style 28 bridge pins.
Most Martin cutaways are stage and studio ready, and this model is no exception. The new Roland AP-1 onboard electronics system features three body-specific COSM tone variations and includes programmable seven-band EQ, anti-feedback control, digital chromatic tuner, digital reverb and an LCD display. Each 00C-16DBGTE ships in a durable 334 hardshell case with a light brown interior.

The DC-16OGTE and OMC-16OGTE feature Ovangkol (also known as mozambique, shedua, or amazakoue), an African tonewood that ranges in color from a tawny olive brown to a deep chocolate with dark striping. In Martin's continual search for alternative hardwoods that provide great tone and visual beauty, they are pleased to introduce two new models with ovangkol back and sides. The DC-16OGTE is a full-bodied Dreadnought and the OMC-16OGTE is a smaller-bodied Orchestra Model. Both models feature rounded Venetian cutaways for full access to the upper registers and polished gloss tops with satin-finished back and sides. The 3-piece back is comprised of solid ovangkol wings with an East Indian rosewood center wedge.

Other features common to both models include a 1 3/4" (at the nut) modified low oval neck, a bound fingerboard, chrome enclosed tuning machines, a 345 hardshell case, and of course, the new Roland AP-1 electronics. Both models offer versatility onstage or in the studio without sacrificing any of the acoustic power and depth that you have come to expect from Martin guitars.

For more information, visit their web site at www.rolandus.com.

free guitar tablature

2009-02-04T04:27:00.000-08:00

If you want to record music, you must know how to play it. Learning to play an instrument takes practice and a good instructor, whether you’ve never sat down at a piano bench or whether you want to add another instrument to your musical repertoire.

Practicing is up to you; but with your Mac, some software, and access to the Internet, you can learn to play (or improve upon) an instrument as well as learn something about what makes music work.
Guitar

You may have the moves and clothes, but true guitar heroes must know the basics of getting around their instrument. Several resources can help you on your way.

Beginner Guitar Lessons For wannabe guitar players, iPlayMusic’s $40 Beginner Guitar Lessons, is a good start. The boxed version of the software includes a DVD with more than four hours of video lessons demonstrating chord construction, strumming techniques, and drills. It offers movies in a split-screen presentation so you can view the instructor and each of his hands. And you can slow down or speed up the movie without changing the audio’s pitch. Beginner Guitar Lessons also includes an 80-page PDF guide that walks you through the topography of the guitar, shows some basic tablature, offers tips for practicing, and reinforces some material presented in the videos.
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guitar chord charts

2009-02-04T04:24:00.000-08:00

The situation: You hear it on the plane to Hawaii as background music in the pretty tourist videos. There’s a duo strumming tunes in the arrivals hall. The sound spills out from hotel plazas and shopping center cabanas and the radio in your rental car. It’s the sweet melodic song of the ukulele, and you realize you have got to find a way to make that music a part of your life.

This is Hawaii, so take it easy. Before you lose your heart to the first shiny, four-stringed instrument you see, take time to explore the ukulele landscape. Follow your senses, and learn a few things about this little instrument—which, you’ll be delighted to learn, is small enough to make a convenient travel companion for the musically inclined. And, yes, it fits in the overhead compartment.
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guitar hero cheats

2009-02-04T04:21:00.000-08:00

It was a long wait (almost a full year) for Aussies to finally get Harmonix's magnum opus, Rock Band. In fact, it was so long that America actually saw a full-blown sequel with improved instruments before the first instalment hit our shores. It was amongst this tide of discontent that Activision saw their chance to launch the good ship Guitar Hero World Tour in Australia alongsideRock Band's release As the true follow up to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, World Tour offers a full band's worth of gameplay (including lead singer, lead guitar, bass and drummer), 86 songs drawn from official master tracks, a 'revolutionary' music creation mode and improved instruments. With online play and downloadble content to boot, is there anything stopping this megalith of musical might?

World Tour is developed by Neversoft, the guys behind all those Tony Hawk games over the years, and is their second attempt after Guitar Hero III, after Harmonix were acquired by MTV to start the Rock Band franchise. As such, it's even more impressive that they've attempted something on the scale of World Tour with comparatively less experience. One look at the track list will tell you that it has some serious muscle, with Jimi Hendrix, Metallica and even Tool. There's also some popular favourites such as Michael Jackson and Coldplay rounding out the list, making for a game that's likely to have something for everyone.
As with all Guitar Hero games, the main draw of the title is the Career mode, which can be played either by yourself or co-operatively with others as a band. It plays slightly differently to previous entries in the series, as instead of playing one song at a time, unlocking new venues as you go, you're presented with a billboard which gradually fills up with setlists, which contain several songs. Upon choosing a setlist, you'll be required to play all of the songs on that list in order, without a break (excluding of course the surprisingly helpful pause function, which actually counts you down back into the song once you resume). You'll often unlock more than one setlist, so you're given some freedom in which songs you tackle first, but it's not exactly the most non-linear game ever made. It's a far cry from the ironically titled 'World Tour' mode in Rock Band, which is far more complicated and even has some RPG elements (such as gaining fans and stars). Career mode is perfectly adequate for parties and short performances, but offers little meat for gamers looking for a serious challenge.

Career mode is also spiced up a little with celebrity appearances from rock legends such as Ozzy Osbourne, Sting and a freshly re-arisen Jimi Hendrix. You'll sometimes be required to go head-to-head with these gods of rock, and if you succeed they just might join your performance for some real hardcore rockin'. However, if you're more interested in creating your own star, then you'll find ample room to experiment in the character editor. There's a vast array of customization options for your rocker, from body shape to clothes, tattoos and the component parts of the instruments you play. You can even choose opening and victory animations for your character, in a feature that seems to take notes from the extensive animation options in the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw series. Besides career mode, Guitar Hero World Tour also offers an easy to use Quick Play mode, as well as several head-to-head competitive modes.
Of course, the main addition to the Guitar Hero franchise is the ability to sing with a compatible microphone or smash out a rythmn with a compatible drum kit. The official drums are a sight to behold, offering a snare, two toms and two cymbals, as well as a kickpedal and a very cool design. Due to their velocity sensing feature, the drums can detect how hard you hit them, and some notes in-game actually require you to hit harder to score points. Unfortunately, there are some sensitivity issues with this kit, although Activision have responded by releasing a downloadable tuning kit utility to manually set these levels. The official guitar now has a touch-sensative panel, which is used both for 'tap strumming' regular notes and for touch-sliding along particular sections of a song, where the appropriate notes are connected by a blue line. It's a nice addition, although it can take a while to get used to. It should also be noted that the note-detection in World Tour feels a little more lax when compared to Rock Band, which may be good or bad depending on your viewpoint, but definitely makes for a different feeling game. Finally, the microphone works much as you'd expect it to, with no noticeable issues to speak of.

The last major feature of Guitar Hero World Tour is its music creation mode, which allows players to create their own music featuring lead guitar, bass and drums. Don't expect too much though, as the songs resemble MIDI tunes more than they resemble actual pieces of rock music. Using the Recording Studio, several people at a time can contribute notes on their respective instruments, which seems simple, but can be hard to get the timing completely right. For more precise control over your creation, you can head over to the GHMix mode, which is on the opposite end of the scale in terms of ease-of-use. It's hideously complicated, and will probably scare off anyone but the most determined would-be rock artists. That's not to say you can't get the hang of it eventually, it just takes a while to know your way around the interface without constantly having to refer to the help guide. On the other hand, it's quite easy to find other people's created content using the GHTunes option in the menu, as you can browse the most popular songs or just search for something in particular. Although, to be honest, most of the entries on there currently consist of Nintendo themes and Final Fantasy battle remixes.
The presentation of the game is a little hit and miss. While the scope of the game is epic, with impossibly huge stages and props which would never pass safety regulations, sometimes the graphics just don't seem to match up to the vision, with some blurry textures and some glitching that we encountered throughout later levels. However, the game does hold up at a very fluid frame-rate, and there are some nice touches throughout like the Gorilliaz-style animated sequences which bookend the Career modes. It also goes without saying that the sound quality is excellent for all of the included tracks.

Guitar Hero World Tour is an ambitious step from Neversoft as they try to keep up with Harmonix's Rock Band franchise. While Aussies still have to wait to see what Harmonix's sequel will bring, World Tour offers an unbelievable soundtrack in the meantime. Even if the more hardcore Dream Theater or Tool aren't your thing, there's still plenty to do in the game's several modes. It's a shame that the Music Creation mode is just too convoluted and produces subpar-sounding music, because otherwise it could have been a revolutionary feature. Little niggling issues throughout the game also drag it down, but when the game works, it works extremely well. There's still nothing that can beat you and three mates hitting star power just at the right moment to collect an insane amount of points, and if you're willing to risk some technical issues with its instruments, Guitar Hero World Tour offers a lot of rock and roll for your buck.
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christian guitar tabs

2009-02-04T04:04:00.000-08:00

Top Web Resources for Christian Guitar Tab:

Christian Guitar Resources - everything for the Christian music fan, including guitar and bass tabs

Rockin With The Cross - Christian Guitar Chords & Tablature

Christian Guitar tabs - ChristianMusicWeb features tabs, lyrics, chords, and MIDI files

Christian Alternative Guitar Tabs - archive of tabs and chords

Christian Guitar Tabs - TotalTabs section for Christian tabs

Christian Guitar Online - small set of Christian guitar tabs and song book resources

Charlie Christian Guitar Tabs - jazz guitarist transcriptions

Christian Guitar Tabs - About.com Christian Music category has tabs and chords

Free Christian Guitar Tabs - small collection on personal site

guitar song chords

2009-02-04T04:00:00.001-08:00

When the singer-songwriter Schuyler Fisk was 17, she up and moved from Charlottesville, Va., to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actor. Her parents could have freaked, but instead they asked a lot of questions and then made sure that she got settled properly.
Schuyler Fisk performing songs from her self-released debut album, “The Good Stuff,” at the Bell House in Brooklyn.

That’s partly because her parents not only understood the impulse, but had also lived the life in Los Angeles. Her father, Jack Fisk, is an Oscar-nominated production designer, and her mother, Sissy Spacek, is, well, Sissy Spacek, nominated six times for an Oscar and winning in 1981 for “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

Ms. Spacek left Quitman, Tex., when she was a teenager to take a shot at being a folk musician in New York. Things didn’t go exactly as she planned, but they turned out pretty well.

Ms. Fisk, 26, who performed with her band at the Bell House in Gowanus, Brooklyn, last week, has had a similar bounty of good fortune, although not exactly on plan, either. As a young actress with a freckle-faced openness and an easy smile, Ms. Fisk (her first name is pronounced SKY-ler) had significant roles in the films “American Gun,” “I’m Reed Fish” and, most notably, “Orange County.” She also worked on her music, some of which was folded into films; “Paperweight,” a duet with Joshua Radin, was on the soundtrack of “The Last Kiss” in 2006.

Somewhere along the way, the actress with an interest in music became an actual working musician. Once signed to Universal Music, she is back on her own and will self-release her debut album, “The Good Stuff,” on iTunes on Feb. 17. Although she has lots of running buddies in the Los Angeles folk-pop scene, her Virginia roots show through in the loping cadence of her clear, remarkable voice and her obvious crush on Sheryl Crow. She has a girl-to-woman lyrical perspective, a willingness to walk past irony to a self-defined truth in a way reminiscent of Taylor Swift. Ms. Fisk’s songs head directly at the things she holds dear:

From where I’m standing,

You’re the quiet side of the road.

You’re looking so lonely,

And I can’t stop looking at you.

She said that she and Universal parted ways because although the label had lots of ideas for what direction her music should take, none of them meshed with her idea of just being herself. Now the public awareness she developed as an actress is helping her build a route to a musical audience. Even though a long tour in an RV and an opening slot on the club circuit (for Ben Taylor, the son of James) is about as far from the movie lot as you can get, Ms. Fisk plans to stay on the road as long as people will have her.

“I’m not saying I would never do acting again, because I love it, but there really is nothing compared to getting up in front of people and singing your music,” she said in an interview on a couch at the Bell House. “I love going into a dive where they have no idea who I am or haven’t heard my music and try to win them over.”

Dave Bassett, a California musician who helped write some of the songs on “The Good Stuff” and produced it, said Ms. Fisk was not searching for an identity or for industry approval.

“She has learned a tremendous amount as a musician, but she was very clear on who she was from the very start,” he said. “She can be really stubborn about that, and I think it’s the reason that what she does is not going to go out of style. This is the kind of record that people will make their friends listen to because she has a kind of conversational writing that pulls people in.”

In conversation and onstage, there is very little reflection of what would seem to be a rarefied childhood — she talked with a great deal of enthusiasm about the pulled-pork burritos she was going to whip up for the band in the Crock-Pot they are traveling with — probably because it wasn’t all that rarefied.

“We moved from Los Angeles when I was very little, just a few months old,” she said. “My parents wanted me to grow up around horses and open spaces.”

She appreciated all that fresh air, to a point.

“When she was very young, we went to Los Angeles and were driving around,” Mr. Fisk recalled in a phone interview. “And she asked me: ‘You and Mom both work in the movie business here. Why don’t we live here?’ And I mentioned the smog and the traffic, and she said, ‘But I like the smog and traffic.’ ”

When Ms. Fisk was 16, Ms. Spacek, who performed all the songs in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” showed her daughter a few guitar chords.
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Ibanez XPT700 Xiphos Electric Guitar

2008-10-08T01:54:00.001-07:00

The Ibanez XPT700 is definitely an eye catcher. Ever since Ibanez released the Iceman, they have been pushing to produce more radical body styles and different forms of the X and V Designs. The Neck-Thru body design of the XPT700 delivers the ultimate sustain. The addition of the Edge III Tremolo strength and tuning tuning stability. Ibanez has also been working on a new way of painting the guitars, and they have done it. The Chameleon Paint is an awesome innovation in guitar finishing. The paint responds to light and it appears to change color as the guitar moves. It's very pleasing to the eye and less money that lacquer.
Technical Info
Neck: 5pc Wizard II Thru-Neck

Body: Mahogany Body

Frets: Jumbo Frets

Fingerboard: Bound Rosewood

Inlay: Reverse Sharktooth

Bridge: Edge III Bridge

Neck Pickup: DiMarzio® D Activator™

Middle Pickup: DiMarzio® D Activator™

HW Color: CK

Ibanez S5470 Prestige Electric Guitar Finish (With Case)

2008-10-08T01:44:00.000-07:00

The new 2008 S Prestige is the guitar that, in the future, all metal-minded axes will be judged against. 24 frets of slippery fast neck, new tonal possibilities and a new, revolutionary tremolo make this new, Japan-made Ultimate S the sign of great things to come.

24 jumbo frets. Mahogany body ZR2 bridge/ZPS3 spring system. New Hot Grinder and Short Tracer pickups. Gotoh precision tuning machines and deluxe Prestige case.
Technical Info
Neck: 5pc Wizard Prestige neck

Neck Type: Wizard Prestige

Body: Mahogany body

Frets: Jumbo frets

Fingerboard: Rosewood

Inlay: White Off-set Dot S Prestige

Bridge: ZR2 bridge

NeckPU: HGD1 neck pu

MiddlePU: ST1 mid pu

BridgePU: HGD2 bridge pu

HW Color:CK

Ibanez IJX40 Jumpstart Electric Guitar Package

2008-10-08T01:42:00.000-07:00

You've got everything you need: axe, amp, cord, instruction book, and more. Don't confuse Jumpstart packages with other value packs that contain bottom shelf generic grade equipment. Jumpstart has name brand, good stuff that you can still use when you get good yourself.

Features:
GRX neck

Maple neck material

Mahogany body

22/medium frets

Rosewood finger board

FAT6 bridge

PSNDS (S) neck PU

PSNDS (S) mid PU

PSND2 (H) bridge PU

Pearl dot inlay

GRX Neck
25 1/2 in. scale neck with 19.5mm thickness at the nut offers the RG/Wizard feel at a more affordable price. Superior in quality and playability to other necks in this price range.

Rosewood Finger Board
Rosewood offers a strong, bright sound and an attractive appearance with a long grain.
Technical Info
Neck: GRX neck
NeckType: GRX
Body: Mahogany body
Frets: Medium frets
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Inlay: Pearl Dot
Bridge: FAT 6 bridge
Neck Pickup: PSNDS neck pu
Bridge Pickup: PSNDS mid pu
Middle Pickup: PSND2 bridge pu
HWcolor: Chrome

Ibanez SZ520QM Quilted Maple Electric Guitar

2008-10-08T01:40:00.000-07:00

Evolution doesn't have to mean more complicated. The SC and SCA S Classic axes and the new SZ have evolved into even simpler instruments than their famous S ancestor. The comfortable slim body with fat Mahogany tone and sustain that made the S famous is there -- but the SZ and S-Classics feature simple fixed bridges and a 25.1 scale neck that has a different feel than the S guitar's 25.5 scale.

Series Features:
Thru-body, staggered stringing compensates for different string thicknesses and provides superior tonal balance, feel, articulation and sustain.

3-piece set in neck for better upper fret access and sustain.

Quilted maple top and slightly thicker S mahogany body provide incredibly full sound with a wide range of overtones.

New Gibraltar III bridge offers fixed bridge simplicity and sustain. No sharp edges for longer string life.

Have you seen the headlines? "Guitar rock is back."
We're happy to hear it. Except at Ibanez, guitar rock never "left" - and if you're the type of player who reads Ibanez catalogs, you've been too busy playing guitar or bass to worry a whole lot about the media's take on music. However, the papers are right about one thing: there are more new guitar and bass guitar styles than ever before. That's why there are more different kinds of guitars and basses in the 2003 Ibanez line up.
Technical Info
* SZ set-in neck

* 3pc. Mahogany neck material

* Mahogany/Quilted Maple top body

* 22 medium frets

* Rosewood Finger Board - Rosewood offers a strong, bright sound and an attractive appearance with a long grain.

* Gibraltar III bridge

* IBZ SZ1 (H) neck PU

* IBZ SZ2 (H) bridge PU

* SZ special inlay

* Nickel hardware

Ibanez IJX121 Shred Hed Jumpstart Electric Guitar Package

2008-10-08T01:37:00.000-07:00

You've got everything you need: axe, amp, cord, instruction book, and more. Don't confuse Jumpstart packages with other value packs that contain bottom shelf generic grade equipment. Jumpstart has name brand, good stuff that you can still use when you get good yourself.

New for Summer 2008 is the IJX121CAM Shred Hed Metal Mission Package featuring a Camouflage finish GRG guitar and Camo pattern GTA15R 15 watt amp.

Features:
GRG neck

Maple neck material

Basswood body

24/jumbo frets

Rosewood finger board

Standard bridge

STD C (H) neck PU

STD C (H) bridge PU

Pearl dot Inlay

Basswood Body
Basswood is a comparatively lightweight wood, which makes it very comfortable for extended playing. With a good balance of highs and lows, Basswood is right in between Alder and Mahogany in sound character.

24/Jumbo Frets
Jumbo frets offer easy playing for leads and chording.

Rosewood Finger Board
Rosewood offers a strong, bright sound and an attractive appearance with a long grain.

Ibanez RG370DX Electric Guitar

2008-10-08T01:35:00.000-07:00

The RG guitar line is the unchallenged standard in hard and heavy rock guitars. The RG370DX employs several of Ibanez' most-popular upgrades, including the Edge III bridge and Wizard II neck.

Have you seen the headlines? "Guitar rock is back."
Ibanez is happy to hear it. Except at Ibanez, guitar rock never "left" - and if you're the type of player who reads Ibanez catalogs, you've been too busy playing guitar or bass to worry a whole lot about the media's take on music. However, the papers are right about one thing: there are more new guitar and bass guitar styles than ever before. That's why there are more different kinds of guitars and basses in the 2003 Ibanez line up.
Technical Info
* Wizard II neck -- 25.5 scale neck is 2mm thicker than the super-thin, super-flat Ibanez Wizard.

* 3-piece Maple neck material

* Basswood body -- Basswood is a comparatively lightweight wood, which makes it very comfortable for extended playing. With a good balance of highs and lows, basswood is right in between alder and mahogany in sound character.

* 24 jumbo frets offer easy playing for leads and chording.

* Bound Rosewood finger board offers a strong, bright sound and an attractive appearance with a long grain.

* Edge III bridge

* IBZ INF3 (H) Neck PU

* IBZ INFS3 (S) Mid PU

* IBZ INF4 (H) Bridge PU

* Sharktooth inlay

* Black hardware

Ibanez RG1527 Prestige 7-String Electric Guitar (with Case)

2008-10-08T01:02:00.000-07:00

Since 1987, the Ibanez RG has been the weapon of choice for visiting sonic mayhem on the metal masses. With the right choice of pickups, flat and fast necks and double-locking trems, the RG has divebombed and crunched its way to classic status. To the RG's lethal combination of features, RG Prestige models add the comfortable, rounded feel of Prestige neck finishing, drop-dead good looks and top-shelf electronics and hardware.

Basswood Body
Basswood is a comparatively lightweight wood, which makes it very comfortable for extended playing. With a good balance of highs and lows, basswood is right in between alder and mahogany in sound character.

24/Jumbo Frets
Jumbo frets offer easy playing for leads and chording.

Rosewood Finger Board
Rosewood offers a strong, bright sound and an attractive appearance with a long grain.
Technical Info
Neck Profile: Wizard-7 Prestige

fender giutar models

2008-10-08T00:07:00.000-07:00

stratocaster

telecaster

classic

jaguar

jazzmaster

classic

Minor maintenance jobs

2008-10-08T00:05:00.002-07:00

Now that you've got your guitar properly set up, there are just a few little jobs left to do that will ensure that it's in perfect playing condition and ready for anything.
Cleaning
Apart from the obvious cosmetic benefits, a clean guitar is generally a more efficient guitar. Do wipe the neck and body, as well as the strings, after you play. The sweat and natural oils exuded by the human body can make strings deteriorate more quickly and also, if left on the finish, cause marks which are sometimes impossible to remove. My Les Paul came with a pink plush-lined case which has the habit of transferring the dye to the cream body binding if I don't wipe down those parts which are in direct contact with the pink plush. In fact, I now wrap the body with a cotton muslin scarf prior to putting it away in the case.
There are various guitar polishes and cleaners around which all seem to be OK. For stubborn marks, naphtha - or liquid lighter fuel - is safe to use, but it won't be needed very often.
You can clean the fretboard with a clean, soft cloth, although if it's very dirty, you may need to give it more of a clean than this. For maple necks, a soft, barely damp cloth is all right to use as the dirt just lies on top of the lacquer, if you've got any left. For rosewood and other dark wood fingerboards, you may need to scrape away the gunk that builds up on it. Don't be squeamish - it's your gunk! Use a very blunt knife, a steel rule or even an old credit card and scrape away the dirt between the fretwire with the straight edge of whatever you're using, going with the grain. Don't press hard - you don't want to scratch the wood. You can then oil the fingerboard, if it's rosewood or a similar wood. You can buy various oils, but I prefer pure lemon oil. It's rather expensive, but a small bottle lasts for ages and it smells good, too. When you're putting new strings on, with the old ones off, just apply a little oil to the board with a soft cloth. Let the oil sink in for about a quarter of an hour and then remove the excess with clean cloth. Then put the new strings on. I oil my Les Paul's fingerboard about twice a year. Don't overdo it; you don't want the wood to get soggy.
It isn't just the body and neck that you can clean. If you have a crackly switch or a pot or two, get some WD40 and spray the moving parts with a small amount of this. If you look closely at these components, you can often see an access point where some of the lubricant can seep in. I've found that most crackles respond to this very well. WD40 can also be used to clean and lubricate other things like tuner gears - if they're not enclosed - and bridge components. Just make sure that you're sparing with the spraying. You don't want any WD40 to get into screw holes, otherwise the holes can get soggy and won't grip the screw threads.
Tightening
With the best will in the world, two things can gradually become loosened which can really screw up your evening - the jack socket and the strap buttons.
Don't just tighten up a loose socket without taking it off the guitar first. If you do, then the socket may turn inside the guitar and tear the solder joints. Remove the socket - there's no need to disconnect it - and hold it as you tighten up the nut. Then replace the socket. If the nut is prone to loosening, just dab a little clear nail varnish between the nut and the thread. This will just crack if you have to take the socket out and won't harm it in any way. Don't get any on the finish of the guitar, however. I hate to think what it would do to the finish!
Strap buttons often come loose and need to be well-secured. Now's the time to invest in some sort of replacement locking system. Strap holes can become worn and will eventually slip off the buttons really easily. Not a good thing if you have any instrument around your neck that you have any regard for. Straplocks are easy to install and will last you a lifetime. However, even the replacement buttons need tightening periodically. If any button gets too loose, you may have to plug the hole with wood and glue - not superglue! - and a new hole then drilled.
I change strings about every three weeks on guitars that I don't gig and about every three gigs with ones that I do. I check the jack socket and strap buttons every time. It doesn't take long and either, if loose, could ruin the gig - not to mention the guitar, possibly.
Well, that's about it as regards guitar maintenance and set up. If I've missed anything out, or you have suggestions for future articles, let me know - also if I've got anything wrong.
I hope that this series of tutorials has helped you understand your guitar better and also saved you some money. Don't forget what I've said throughout. If you encounter difficulties that you can't sort out, take your guitar to a tech. Ask him about the problem and ask him to explain what he did to remedy things. That way, you'll learn a little more which may help you next time you set your guitar up.

Adjusting the truss rod

2008-10-08T00:05:00.001-07:00

To hear a lot of people talk, you'd think that the long, thin piece of metal we call the truss rod was a cross between the Holy Grail and a Plutonium fuel rod. Yes, you do have to take care when adjusting it and it can break, but if you approach the task with a little respect for the rod and some common sense, there's no reason why you can't do this job yourself. Having said that, if you're in any doubt as to what you're doing, then leave the job to a competent guitar tech. It isn't the most difficult adjustment in the world, and, provided no work is required on the frets, should be quite inexpensive.
The truss rod is essentially a long metal rod that is inserted into the neck of the guitar and fixed. Tightening and loosening in it flexes the neck and allows curvature to be applied to the neck, altering its characteristics and, hence, its playability. Before I describe this adjustment, a few caveats.
1) It may be, that after adjustment, the neck isn't quite right and you may need to look elsewhere to solve the problem. The frets may need stoning, for example, which is outside the scope of this series of tutorials.
2) Try and get hold of the factory spec for your guitar - Fender actually have theirs here - and see how a standard truss rod set up suits you. It's a good basis on which to start, and you can always deviate from it.
3) Be aware of the advantages and benefits of the various sorts of "action". A very low action means that bending is slightly more difficult and the sound has less body. On the other hand, the strings are much easier to fret. With a high action, the reverse is true. I know that there are a lot of SRV fans out there, and he played with very high action, which explodes the myth that a low action is always the one to shoot for.

When to check the truss rod
The rod needs to be checked whenever you string the guitar, although if you use the same strings - brand and gauge - you can make the checking intervals a little further apart. Also, because wood and metal expand and contract according to temperature and humidity, you may find that the neck shifts according to these factors. Also, if you become aware of buzzes that weren't previously evident, it's a good idea to check the neck.

How to check the truss rod
Rest the curve of the bass bout on the floor, and sight down the neck towards the body, looking along the edge of the fretboard. then flip the guitar over onto the treble bout and repeat the operation. Observe how the line along the edge of the fretboard runs. If it seems to curve so that it bulges out away from the body, the neck has a backbow. If it runs the opposite way, the neck has relief. (For those of you who are familiar with trussrods, I know that there are other conditions that I haven't mentioned, but I haven't got the time to write a book on the subject. I'm just outlining the most common truss rod states.) It may be that you see that the neck is dead straight, of course.
So, to sum up. you have three main neck states:
a) relief
b) backbow
c) dead straight
Here's a pathetic diagram I drew to help you visualise them.
neckdiag.gif (13063 bytes)
If the neck is dead straight, and you have no buzzing and you like the way it feels, it's pretty safe to assume that your truss rod is adjusted just right. Most techs try and shoot for a straight neck. Even if you have a little buzzing, if you don't hear it when it's plugged in - assuming that it's an electric, of course - then you can leave it. Not all buzzes will sound through the amp. If it still buzzes when plugged in, then this doesn't necessarily mean that it's the truss rod that requires adjustment. You might find your problem is solved by raising the bridge or bridge saddles. If this doesn't work and you don't eliminate buzzing by adjusting the rod - more on that below - then you may need some attention to the frets.

(The lesson to be learned here is that all the various stages of adjustment - the nut, the bridge, the rod, etc - are interdependent and adjustment of one of these factors on its own may not be sufficient to achieve the set up you're after.)
If the neck has some relief and you're happy with it, then you can leave it alone. However, if the relief is too pronounced, causing a very high action which causes intonation problems when you fret a note, then the neck will need straightening by tightening the trussrod.
If the neck has a backbow, this can cause some of the higher notes to fret out. You may find that when you play say, the B string at fret 5, the string is fouled by the higher frets and the sound of the note isn't clear. The truss rod will then need to be loosened to apply some relief.

Where to adjust the truss rod
This differs from one guitar to another according to brand, model and type. Gibsons have the adjustment end of the rod under a small plate on the headstock. Some Fenders have the business end here as well but with no plate. Others have the adjustment end where the neck joins the body, in which case you have to remove the neck to adjust it and keep on fitting it back and taking it off until the rod is right. I'm not going to deal with such adjustment here. Some acoustics have the adjustment area inside the guitar where the neck joins on. There are also various methods of adjustment. Some rod ends have a screw slot, some a nut, and others a hex slot. So, you'll need a screwdriver, a socket of some sort or a hex key. Obtaining the right hex key can sometimes be a problem, but the right one's out there somewhere!

How to adjust the truss rod
OK - this is the moment you've all been waiting for!
Using the right tool and a well-fitting one as well (you don't want to mess up the slot or nut shoulders!) insert it into the truss rod end.
If you want to apply relief to the neck you loosen the rod by turning the rod end - the nut, slot, whatever - to the left, or anti clockwise.
If you want to straighten the neck and eliminate backbow, tighten the rod end to the right or clockwise.
Remember - "righty tighty"!
Apply a one-eighth turn at a time and sight the neck as described above. If the neck is how you want it - stop! If not, apply another one-eighth turn and sight it again. Repeat until the neck looks right.
If the rod won't shift, don't keep on trying to turn it. Take it to a guitar tech. Similarly, if it squeaks or grates, leave well alone and take it to - you've guessed it! - a tech.
The biggest danger is over tightening. In this case, the worst scenarios are stripped threads on the rod, or even a snapped rod. In such cases, the repair can often be more expensive than buying a new guitar. However, you have been warned! If you're in any doubt about your own competency to do this job, take your guitar to a tech and if you encounter a truss rod that won't co-operate, do the same!
Just use a little care and common sense and you should be OK.
I realise that this tutorial is little more than an outline. However, for those of you who want to learn more about this aspect of guitar maintenance and everything else you can do yourself, the best book I've found is "Guitar Player Repair Guide" by Dan Erlewine. It's a fantastic book with lots of tips and practical advice from a guy who has looked after some of the greatest players' instruments.
Good luck!

Adjusting the nut

2008-10-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

Even though your average nut is simply a narrow piece of bone or plastic with six slots in the top, it is a vital part of a guitar that affects the instrument's overall playability and sound.
Generally speaking, there are two main problems with nuts. Either the nut slots are too shallow, or they are too deep. The solution to slots that are too deep is simple, but radical - remove the old nut and replace it! What happens in this case is that the deep slot makes the open string contact the first fretwire and produces an annoying and unmusical sound. All that can realistically be done, in the case of a standard plastic or bone nut is to replace it - not an easy task and one outside the scope of this article. You see, nuts are bought as blanks and need shaping and profiling like the original. They aren't bought ready-shaped, I'm afraid! If you find that your locking or roller nut is too low, you can usually buy shims to raise it. If not, you can make your own, although you will have to experiment with different materials and the thickness thereof.
The most common problem is nut slots which aren't cut deeply enough. This is a problem that you particularly find with cheaper guitars, although even my Les Paul, which cost not far off a grand (Ј1000), needed some work on the nut when I bought it. If the slots aren't cut deeply enough, the string feels very high off the board when playing open chords and notes on the first few frets. This will also cause intonation problems. The watchword here is caution. If you take the slots down too deeply, then you'll have to replace the nut.
So, if you need to deepen the slots in the nut, you will need a flat needle file with a "V" profile, and an Exacto saw or what I use, a small piece of junior hacksaw blade with the set knocked out. See the tools article for photos and more details.
With the guitar flat on its back and resting on a soft surface- a piece of carpet on a table is ideal - get some masking tape and stick a couple of layers of this on the fretboard in front of the nut and on the headstock behind the nut. It's possible and, indeed, essential to do this with the strings on. As you work on each slot, just slacken the string slightly and pop it into an adjacent slot.
As a rule of thumb, the wound strings need about half their diameter's clearance between the underside of the string and the first fret, whilst the plain strings require a full diameter. If you can't do this by eye, use a feeler gauge. In time, you'll come to rely on your own judgement.
The slots need to be filed sufficiently wide enough so that the strings don't "bind" in them. This is important, otherwise bends and trem bar use will put the strings out of tune if the slot walls don't allow the strings to return to where they were before you moved them. On the other hand, if the slot is too wide, the string may move from side to side in it as you bend or move the string in any way. The note may sound rather dull, and you may even be able to hear the string rubbing against the bottom of the slot - nasty! Also, the slots need to be filed so that they run at an angle which descends towards the head end. This way, the string has a sharpish edge on which to rest in the slot, giving a cleaner note at this "break" point, and, besides, the scale length is calculated from the front of the nut, ensuring the correct intonation of each string.
Now, to the nitty-gritty.........
Check the string's clearance between the underside of it and the first fret. If it seems OK, leave it. If it seems too high, slacken off the string slightly and park it in the next slot. Take the file and gently place it in the slot. File gently, backwards and forwards - remembering to keep the tool angled down towards the headstock and the tip of it away from the headstock surface. Pop the string back in the slot, return it to pitch and check the first fret clearance again. If it seems OK, go on to the next string. If not, slacken the string and repeat the operation. I can't emphasis enough the need to file away only a little of the nut at a time. The difference between a well-cut nut slot and one that's too deep is measured in thousandths of an inch. Too much and you're into new nut territory - a lot of hard work if you do it yourself, and a hefty bill if you take it to a tech. You may need to keep filing, retuning and checking quite a few times. That's fine - just take it slow and easy.
The actual depth of the nut - not just the slots themselves - is important too. The strings should not be buried in the slot. Rather, the wound ones should sit with about half their diameter in the slot, whilst the plain ones should have about their whole diameter in there. So, you may need to remove some nut material from the upper surface. Just take care not to remove too much so that the strings pop out of their slots when you're playing. It'll mean a new nut time if that happens. Now's the time to get rid of any sharp corners at the ends of the nut, too.
In the couse of playing over the years, nut slots can become worn. If you notice a sudden tendency for the open strings to start buzzing on the first fret, and you can't see any other cause, this may be the problem. As you wind the strings and use the trem bar, they will gradually wear away the bottom of the slots. The only practical remedy, then, is to install a new nut. I have tried experimenting with various materials to fill slots that are too deep. Dust made out of the original nut material mixed with superglue seems to work the best, but this is really only a temporary measure at best.
As I said above, you can buy nut blanks and replace the nut yourself, but it is a lot of hard work - time-consuming and very precise. I've done it to my guitars when necessary, but if you're in any doubt as to your ability to do this job, my advice is take it to a guitar tech.
Now that your nut is sorted out, you should check the intonation again, which may have altered slightly. You see, one small adjustment to one factor that affects the action and playability of the guitar will almost certainly mean that the other factors will need checking again. So, taking the main factors as nut, trussrod, intonation and bridge height, you'll find yourself shuttling between all these after you've addressed one of them. There's a lot of very subtle interaction going on between these factors that you must recognise if your set up is going to be a good one.

Setting The Intonation

2008-10-07T23:57:00.001-07:00

If you want your guitar to play in tune all the way up the neck, you have to set the intonation correctly. this involves adjusting the "speaking" length of the strings - i'e' the distance between the nut and the bridge saddles.
For this job you'll need some screwdrivers and an electronic tuner or some other sort of pitch reference such as pitch pipes. I'll cover the subject with regard to both Gibson Tune-O-Matic and Fender Tremelo bridges. Before I proceed, however, a couple of important points.
1) Ensure that you have a set of new strings installed before you attempt to set the intonation and have the guitar tuned to pitch. For information about how to change your strings, click here.
2) Setting the intonation is but one aspect of setting up a guitar and should not be viewed in isolation. Don't think that because we're dealing with the bridge here that we won't have to come back to it. When we go on to sort out the overall action, the bridge will need further adjustments.

Gibson-type Bridge
This bridge has six individually-adjustable saddles which are adjusted by means of the screws you can see at the bottom of the bridge facing the stop tailpiece. The screws are of the slot head variety. On some Gibsons these screws face the other way (usually on the older or replica models) and are slightly less accessible.
Using a tuning reference, play a 12th fret harmonic on the bottom E string and then compare this with a note fretted at the 12th fret. The two notes should be exactly the same. If the fretted note is sharp, then the saddle needs to be moved back towards the tailpiece. If the fretted note is flat, the saddle needs to be moved the oppostite way - forwards towards the pick-ups. When the two notes are the same, the string has the correct intonation set. I find that the easiest way to remember all this is to think about flat and forward both beginning with the same letter.
If you have to adjust the saddle, place a soft cloth below where you're going to insert the tip of the screwdriver to avoid scratches if the tip slips. Turn the screw clockwise to move the saddle back and anti-clockwise to move it forward. It's best to just make small turns, as a little turn can make a lot of difference. After every adjustment to the position of the saddle, retune the string to pitch and compare the 12th fret note with the harmonic. Repeat the operation until the string has the correct intonation. then move on to the next string.

Fender-style Bridge
Although the Fender bridge looks rather different, the principles of setting the intonation are exactly the same as for the Gibson bridge. You move the saddles until the note at the 12th fret and the 12th fret harmonic are identical.
If you look at both bridges, you can see that the saddles are both arranged similarly, with two offset rows of three saddles each. This is the sign of a well-set-up guitar and after a little practice, it is possible to set the saddles by eye to this arrangement and find that the guitar has almost perfect intonation! If you're buying a guitar it's a good sign to see this as it means that the instrument has been properly set up at some time or other. Don't do as one of my students did and move all the bridge saddles into a nice straight line!
When do you need to set the intonation?
Well, I always check the intonation whenever I change strings or I think that the intonation is suspect. Guitars are very susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity and this may cause some need for adjusting the intonation. If you keep your guitar in a case in an environment which has a constant temperature and use the same gauge and brand of string you may hardly ever need to adjust the intonation. It's a good idea to check it whenever you restring your guitar and this will reassure you that you'll be playing in tune, especially if you're stringing your guitar ready for a gig.
Really, setting the intonation is very straightforward and there's no risk of damaging the bridge. Just work carefully and turn the saddle screws just a little bit at a time and just keep on checking the intonation until it's correct.
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Stringing your guitar

2008-10-07T23:53:00.000-07:00

When it comes to choosing strings, select those which are most appropriate. If you like a light gauge suitable for rock lead work, most people feel happy with a set of 9's on a Fender scale length neck, whilst 10's feel right on the shorter Gibson scale length. If you're a rhythm player - or a Stevie Ray Vaughan fan - you'll probably want a set of 11's or 12's. Remember, the lighter the string, the weaker the tone. I have a friend who puts 8's on his Les Paul and he has zero tone........Still, it's all a matter of individual preference.
When it comes to removing old strings, there are two schools of thought. Some people say you should take them off one at a time, to maintain some tension from the strings which counteracts the tension of the trussrod in the neck. Others say that you can just take the whole lot off at once. Personally, I take the whole lot off, which is also necessary if you want to clean and oil the fretboard. In this case, I'd recommend working as quickly as possible, so if the neck is going to move, it has as little time to do so as possible. I haven't noticed any ill-effects on any guitar I've ever owned by taking them all off at once. In the end, it's your decision. I can't be held responsible for your '59 Les Paul Sunburst losing its neck!
Just slacken the strings off and then cut them in the middle of their length with your wire cutters. Then throw them away - carefully. Now's your chance to get rid of all that dust under the strings! This is where the stringwinder can come in handy if you're taking the strings off an acoustic. The built-in bridge pin puller removes the pins easily and without any damage to the bridge or top of the guitar. Sometimes, the pins are reluctant to budge. In that case, place a piece of padding - a duster or soft cloth - around the reluctant pin and carefully remove the pin with pliers.
Unwrap the strings carefully taking care not to kink them in any way. In the case of my Les Paul, I thread all the strings through the stop tailpiece at the same time, and with my Strat I thread them all through the trem block in one go, too. For some reason, I string my acoustics one string at a time.
Starting at the low E string, I pass the end of the string through the hole in the tuner post. Experience will eventually teach you how much needs to go through. Allow enough to ensure about three or four winds on the wound strings and about five or six on the plain strings. About two to three inches is about right. The wound strings tend to bind together better where they go round the tuner post so they need fewer winds.
Make a sharp bend in the string where it exits the hole and, ensuring that the string is going round the post in the right direction (hands up who's managed to get it going round the wrong way at some time or another!), make one turn of the string pass above the hole. Then, on subsequent turns, make sure the winds go below the hole, with the winds going successively towards the bottom of the tuner post. This will make the strings "break" over the nut at the sharpest angle. On some guitars with standard nuts and trem units, too steep an angle can cause binding of the strings in the nut slots. In this case, don't have the winds too close to the bottom of the tuner post. This may indicate that the nut needs some attention; the slot widening or lubricating, but that'll have to wait for a future article in this series.
Don't forget to use your stringwinder. If you have to restring a couple of guitars, you'll want to save your energy for playing guitar afterwards!
So, you should end up with a neatly wound string, with the first turn going around the post above the hole, and the rest of the winds going below it, trapping the end of the string between the upper and lower winds. In this way, the string is "locked", with the end being gripped between the top wind above the hole and the first wind below it. Hopefully, the picture below of the head of my Les Paul will give you some visual clarification. Click to enlarge.
lphead.gif (143801 bytes)
(If you look at the fifth string, you can see the end it poking out below the first wind.)
Remember to clip off the end of the string. You can do this when you have passed the string through the post hole if you're confident you've got the length right, or you can leave it until you've wound the string on. You may find that the string end gets in your way if you go for this latter option. If you leave about half an inch sticking out, this should be ample. Trailing string ends are dangerous - they can poke your eye out if you're not careful! They look messy too. Also, just bend the cut end up a little so you don't get those horrible circular scratches around the tuner post where the sharp end digs into the face of the headstock as you wind the string. Some people try and wind as much of the string on as they can in case of breakage. This isn't a good idea as you then have lots of windings on top of each other and you may get tuning problems as they "bed" down. Also, if the string breaks, you'll either break it at the bridge, or somewhere along the length of it - then you've lost the ball-end - or, it'll break near the tuner end, in which case you've probably not got enough useable length left.
There are some other methods, but this one has served me well for about 30 years and I've never had any problems with strings slipping out of pitch. If it ain't broke.........etc.
At this point, I ought to mention locking tuners. I have these fitted to my Strat Plus and they're fantastic things! All you do to put a a string on is to pass the string through the post hole - you don't need any slack at all - and then lock the string using the knurled knob on the back of the headstock. This causes a pin inside the post to be forced against the string, locking it securely in place. On the other hand, locking tuners are expensive, and with practice, stringing a guitar with standard tuners can become a very speedy operation.
Well, that's it for stringing tips. I hope you found it useful. Remember, this is what works well for me. You may find other methods which work just as well, if not better. Whatever method you use, you should end up with a guitar that sounds "brand new". Now play it and enjoy the sound of new strings. Take a break - you've earned it!

Guitar Set-up Tools

2008-10-07T23:33:00.000-07:00

Always buy the best tools that you can afford. Not only do they last longer, but they also don't damage your guitar. As an example of this, cheap screwdrivers are badly made at the tip and can chew up screwheads, making adjustment or removal well-nigh impossible.
Here's a collection of tools that I have acquired over the years. I haven't described or shown you the whole lot, just those which will make up a basic set-up kit. If you want to see the tools more clearly, just click on the thumbnails.

Screwdrivers
You need a range of these but, as a rough guide, you'll need a large and a small one for slot screwheads and the same for crosshead screws. You can get sets of tips with a handle, but you don't want to be replacing tips all the time, so my advice is to use separate screwdrivers. You need screwdrivers for very obvious reasons - undoing screws - but a less-obvious use, until you come to do it - is adjusting a trussrod which has the screw at the body end of the neck. You also need screwdrivers for pick-up height adjustment and for setting the pole-piece heights. Trem adjustment is also impossible without them.

Allen or Hex keys
You may be lucky and get these with your guitar, in which case, keep them with the guitar and look after them carefully. Hex keys are easy to obtain and generally cheap.
I've put handles on a couple of mine. It makes them easier to use and more comfortable. The small one is for the bridge screws of my Tele and Strat and the larger one for adjusting my Strat's trussrod. Hex keys are also necessary to adjust locking-type trem units.

Wire Cutters
Guitar strings are made of very hard steel and you need good quality cutters to cope with them. Cheap cutters just get nicks in the blades and are useless almost as soon as you start using them. There are a couple of types I use. The side cutters do for all sorts of jobs, but the others are good for accessibility around the head of the guitar.

Steel Rule
When it comes to this item, you need to find one that is graduated to sixty-fourths of an inch. Not easy to find, but not impossible. You need this to set action and pick-up height amongst other things.

Feeler gauge
You'll need this to measure the action. A set of both imperial and metric are handy. I think these are sometimes called spark plug gauges

Socket Wrench
Sometimes, as with my Les Paul, the trussrod adjustment is made with a socket. Because of the access you need a socket attached to a screwdriver handle. It also helps if the socket is a "long throw" or deep type

Nut Tools
Needle files are good for cutting the nut slots for the wound strings, whilst a piece of junior hacksaw blade with the set knocked out will cut slots for the plain strings

String Winder
An invaluable tool! saves hours of winding and also has a bridge pin puller for acoustic guitars. Buy one. Don't put it off. Buy one now!

Bridge Radius Gauge
As long as you know the radius of the fingerboard of your guitar, you can make your own. You will have to compensate for the fact that the wound strings have to be set slightly higher at the bridge. You need this for Fender bridges where each string saddle can be adjusted individually. Gibson saddle heights are preset. With Fenders you have to "mirror" the fretboard radius in the saddle heights

Neck Block
This keeps the guitar head off the flat surface you're using to work on and also makes working at that end a lot easier. I made mine out of a couple of bits of scrap pine I had left when I put a new door on my bathroom. I then padded it with foam to protect the guitar neck.
You also need a piece of carpet to lay on your work surface to protect the back of the body and some means of tuning the guitar to pitch. This could be an electronic tuner, pitch pipes or a tuning fork. I use an electronic tuner myself. A capo will also be needed when you come to adjust the trussrod.
A good purchase is a small tool box in which to store the various tools. some are quite small and easily lost.
Of course, you may have many of these tools already and only need to buy a few to make up your set-up kit.

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The Starpex full-sized guitar

2008-10-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

This is the main event right here. Peak has designed a full-sized Rock Band and Guitar Hero controller made out of real wood. It's wireless, although you can use a wire to hook it into your PS2 system. There are also two dongles for the PS2 and PS3. Sony fans have a lot to be happy about as this works on both its systems and is wireless. The action on the buttons is a little odd, and it's slightly squishier than the stock guitar, but once you get used to it, there isn't a problem. The second set of five buttons closer to the body aren't smaller as they are on the stock guitar, so that is also a little unexpected.

And... that's all there is for bad things. The strum bar is more responsive than the normal Rock Band guitars while being quieter than Guitar Hero guitars. The whammy bar has great actio and sits closer to the body than other guitars, making it simply easier to use in practice while feeling wonderful. The added weight and size of the Starpex also makes you feel like you're using a real guitar. Oddly enough, I found this took the hardest time to get used to, as my hands know a smaller neck means a plastic guitar. My brain gets confused when I pick up the Starpex and don't find strings.

The best thing, however, is the Overdrive/Star Power button that sits slightly under the strum bar. Even experienced players can blow their note-streak by tilting up as high as some guitars require to turn on overdrive, so being able to tap the button is an absolute life-saver.

The downside? $180. But I think it's worth it, because this is one of the best "fake" guitars on the market. For most people, that will be simply too much money to spend on a gaming peripheral. Peak also has yet to make a model available for the Xbox 360, but when it does come, hopefully we'll keep the wireless functionality.

Verdict: If you have the means, I highly recommend it
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Mad Catz Fender Precision Bass Guitar

2008-10-07T23:15:00.001-07:00

It's rare that anyone wants to play bass in Rock Band; it's the instrument you trade off on between rounds on the guitar, or you give it to the least-talented member of the band if you're breaking in a new player. The Mad Catz Fender Bass looks to change that, however, by making playing the bass fun. The instrument is much larger than the stock guitar, and looks much more like an actual bass. The main difference is the strum bar: it's split into two pieces with a thumb rest on the top. This allows you to play quickly and easily by strumming upwards with your index and middle fingers. It takes some getting used to, but the effect almost immediately improved my scores playing bass, and was easier on my hand muscles in the longer stretches of notes. The strum bar is much chunkier than the stock guitar, with a nice click and thick feel. I liked it very much compared to what I was used to.

The longer neck also feels and looks great when you're playing, although it does seem a bit thin. The tuning pegs also feel slightly cheap, but that's not a detail that's worth getting upset about.

The real downside to the guitar is the fact that it's wired, and while Mad Catz wouldn't confirm that was due to licensing issues with Microsoft, the existence of a sealed battery pack on the back of the guitar that you can't open and a sticker over the model number points to the fact that this was a change made late in the game. Luckily the cord is long, so moving around isn't an issue.

The other problem is that there is no whammy bar; you have to twist a knob on the body of the guitar. Since the "Wah" movement gives you extra Overdrive, and it's nearly impossible to reach the knob, twirl it, and then get your hand back to strumming easily, you may find yourself with less overdrive than what you're used to. Activating overdrive can also be a slightly dicey proposition, but most of the time, there is no issue. That has been the case of every guitar with overdrive, however.

The $70 price is slightly higher than other guitars, and the overdrive issues are a large knock against the guitar, but I do find myself settling into the role of bassist in the band, even when offered the guitar. At the end of the day the larger bass and the more authentic finger-plucking action are just fun.

Verdict: fun for bassists, but the whammy solution could be a deal-breaker
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Rocking out with a pair of full-size Rock Band guitars

2008-10-07T23:12:00.000-07:00

Both Guitar Hero and the Rock Band series continue to be big sellers and impressive draws in getting casual players to buy expensive peripheral-laden games. With the news that peripherals between both games should be completely compatible, a new market has popped up for more expensive instruments. The ION Drum Rockers made waves for being a $300 add-on to Rock Band and Rock Band 2, but there's also a handful of premium guitars available for those titles; we're going to explore that world today.
Specifically, we're going to play with some full-sized premium guitars. We look at two of the best-looking plastic (and now wood!) instruments for present and soon-to-be-released rhythm games. First off, something for the bassists.

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Dierks Bentley Has One Wild Ride of a Weekend

2008-10-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

To say country superstar Dierks Bentley had an exciting weekend would be an understatement. Bentley and wife Cassidy welcomed their first child, daughter Evalyn (Evie) Day Bentley, late Saturday night (Oct. 4) at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. And just a few hours later, he helped raise $275,000 for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt during his third annual Music & Miles for Kids celebrity motorcycle ride and concert.

"This night has come full circle for me," a beaming Bentley told the crowd Sunday night (Oct. 5) at Riverfront Park in downtown Nashville where his celebrity motorcycle ride ended with a concert with performances by Tim McGraw, Jamey Johnson, John Rich, Halfway to Hazard and many others.

But long before Bentley or any others could reach the stage for the concert that lasted more than three hours, he first joined the celebration early that afternoon with 1,500 other motorcyclists in a ride that began in the Cool Springs area south of Nashville. Played out like a line from his "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)," a sunny day in Tennessee set the mood for him and his friends who made their way to the stage later that afternoon. Though Bentley made several appearances to repeatedly thank the crowd for its support, he didn't officially take the stage until sundown.

After Heath Haynes and the Hi-Dollars opened the show with a vigorous set of classic country music, special guest Lee Brice made his way to the stage and sat down with a guitar for a quick set featuring his first single, "She Ain't Right." He then offered "More Than a Memory," a No. 1 for Garth Brooks that he co-wrote, and his latest single, "Upper Middle Class White Trash."

Chad Warrix and David Tolliver of Halfway to Hazard followed with "I'm Tired" and "Daisy" before surprising the crowd by bringing out Brice and Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelley for a rocking rendition of Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance."

The screaming and yelling only got louder as the next artist hit the stage for a brief acoustic set of songs. Decked out in a tight coral-colored V-neck T-shirt, pink bandana and matching Band-Aids on both thumbs, Tim McGraw performed the heart-wrenching "You Had to Be There," followed by an upbeat favorite, "Something Like That." Though his tear-jerking "If You're Reading This" was interrupted by scream after scream from the women in the front rows, he was still able to create a serious and somber moment as he sang about a soldier's final words.

Award-winning songwriter Jamey Johnson then took to the stage with only his acoustic guitar and performed "High Cost of Livin'" and his current single, "In Color." But it was his version of "Give It Away," the award-winning George Strait hit Johnson co-wrote with Bill Anderson and Buddy Cannon, that compelled most fans to sing along to every word. Johnson even managed a couple of grins himself after revising the final verse of the song to say, "And they gave me an ACM and a CMA/And I bought myself an Escalade/And, hell, George Strait even knows my name." Fortunately for the crowd, Johnson extended his set with a medley of songs from his latest album, That Lonesome Song.

The benefit concert was not limited to country artists. Performances were provided by award-winning Christian artist Jeremy Camp and his wife Adrienne. During his set, singer-songwriter Mat Kearney joked that it was probably the only time McGraw would ever open for him. One of the biggest surprises came when NASCAR driver Kyle Petty performed a song with Richard "Richie" Supa, a songwriter who has frequently collaborated with Aerosmith, as well as Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora. Petty also introduced his son-in-law, singer-songwriter Randy Montana.

As the concert progressed, an autographed Fender guitar was auctioned off for a whopping $10,000 before John Rich showed up to sing Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line." He then went on to play Big & Rich's "Lost in This Moment" and also two new songs, "The Man" and "Drive Yourself to Drink," that will be featured on his upcoming solo album. He ended his set with "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" with Two Foot Fred even making an appearance onstage.

Bentley finally made his way to the stage to perform at nightfall. Joined by the Warren Brothers, they first began with "Feel That Fire." Bentley played the rest of the evening with his full band and performed a set filled with favorites such as "Lot of Leavin' Left to Do" and "What Was I Thinkin'."

"This is a really bad lead-in. But if you're to ask me how I'm doin', I'd say pretty good," the new father smiled. He then took the crowd from cheering and shouting the words to "How Am I Doin'" to dancing and even kissing during "Come a Little Closer."

"Love is in the air!" he shouted.

He went on to dedicate "Every Mile a Memory" to anyone who has ever been on a bike, again thanking the fans for their donations to the children's hospital. "It brings this town together," he said.

Before heading offstage, he ended the day of sunshine, music and motorcycles on an appropriate note with "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)."

The First Guitar Hendrix Set Alight Sells For £280k

2008-10-07T22:40:00.000-07:00

The first guitar later rocker Jimi Hendrix set alight on stage fetched 280,000 pounds at an auction on Thursday night.
The Fender Stratocaster was torched by Hendrix at the end of a London gig in 1967.
The flames were extinguished by roadies, and the rock legend was treated for minor burns.
Hendrix later became famous for burning guitars.
His press officer had kept the original Fender guitar that was sold on Thursday.
The guitar was found by the press officer's nephew last year.
Music collector Daniel Boucher, 51, is said to have purchased the guitar.
Boucher travelled all the way from Boylston in Massachusetts, US, to the auction in Shoreditch, East London.
The guitar had been expected to fetch 500,000 pounds.
"I thought I'd have to pay a little bit more for it. I'm going to play it I hope some of it rubs off on me," British tabloid The Sun quoted Boucher as saying.
Other items that were also put up for sale were The Beatles' first contract, which sold for 10,000 pounds less than its 250,000 pounds estimate.

A Guitar Is the Star on a Night of Tributes

2008-10-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

For a misfit guitar, the Fender Jazzmaster has managed to hold its own through a half-century. On Friday night at the Knitting Factory, this guitar mustered the college-radio guitar heroes Tom Verlaine (of Television), J Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.), Nels Cline (of Wilco) and Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth) for a concert to celebrate its 50th anniversary. In their hands it was a guitar suited both to fine detail and blistering noise.

The Jazzmaster was supposed to be the next step after Fender’s solid-body successes the Telecaster and the Stratocaster. Although jazz musicians largely ignored the Jazzmaster, its bright tone found other takers: surf guitarists and, later, nonconformist punk and postpunk players including Elvis Costello (who holds a Jazzmaster on the album cover of “My Aim Is True”), Johnny Marr of the Smiths and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine.

Songs started and ended the concert. The opening band, Edison Glass, played surging minisuites that juggled math-rock picking patterns on the way to choruses hinting at the Police and U2. And Mr. Mascis closed the concert with a trio set that was barely contained by the room. (Last year Fender released a J Mascis signature model Jazzmaster.)

Leading Dinosaur Jr. since the 1980s, and on his own, Mr. Mascis has united indie-rock introspection with unbridled guitar jams. On Friday his band was a full-tilt power trio, with Dave Schools (from Widespread Panic) on bass and Kyle Spence on drums. Mr. Mascis sang in a bemused drawl about being bereft and confused. But the music declared otherwise with earthy, distorted riffs — twangy roots-rock marches and choppy postpunk dissonances — leading into brash, extended solos that climbed from chiseled melodic lines to racing, spiraling, frenetic peaks.

The other headliners turned toward improvisations, as if examining how the capabilities and quirks of the Jazzmaster shaped the music. Mr. Verlaine, in a duo with the guitarist Jimmy Ripp, played an absorbing modal reverie. It was a translucent lacework of quiet arpeggios and hovering chords, with Mr. Verlaine offering glinting bits of melody and more insistent phrases: a scalloped, Celtic-tinged line and some shared strumming that picked up a pulse and a folky melody, eventually taking on a brusque rhythm. “Oh, the light in you is everyone,” he sang.

Mr. Moore and Mr. Ranaldo used their two guitars to create a Sonic Youth crescendo in a slow-motion close-up. Along with fingers, they used, among other things, a tuning fork and drumsticks on the guitar strings, making them clank and ring and buzz. They generated siren wails and thick distorted blotches of feedback, and at one point Mr. Moore played something like a heavy-metal lead-guitar solo, minus the reference points of harmony and beat. It was as if they had climbed deep inside their guitars, finding threats and exaltations.

Mr. Cline’s partner, in a duo project called Stained Radiance, was a painter: Norton Wisdom, who used watercolors on a large plastic panel, rapidly daubing images and splashing them away. There were faces, phantasms and hints of politics; one scene had a six-pointed star, a crescent and an oil derrick. Meanwhile, Mr. Cline ran his Jazzmaster through electronics to create a steady-throbbing drone, blasts of white-noise distortion, jabbing loops of a lead line, pitch-shifting chords, and calliopelike tootling — a wild, ominous, fascinating excursion amid sounds far removed from fingers on strings.

Even on a night devoted to one particular guitar, Mr. Cline had an admonition. It’s not the instrument, he insisted. “It’s the imagination.”