I thought I had resolved this
Ed Edelenbos
I've come to the conclusion that 25.5" scale, 14 fret guitars just don't
work for me anymore. Between apparent shrinking (down to 5'5"... I used to
be 5'7"!!!), having started off short to begin with, and general aging, my
left shoulder and elbow just can't seem to handle anymore than about 20 min.
with 'em. About a year ago, I started with the idea of selling my Taylor
422... the one that was *it*. I had played electric for a bunch of years
and then got interested in acoustic. I went through about 5 years of
various guitars... a couple Taylors (500's), a Gibson, a couple Guilds,
even an (gasp!) Ovation (which actually started the acoustic bug for me). I
ended a long journey with the Taylor 422... beautifully figured maple back
and sides, (bearclawed) spruce top. You could tell by the dings (each of
which I remembered inflicting) and case wear that the thing had been
actually used.
Today it left the house. It sort of hit me when Cori (my wife) looked at it
and got a sort of pained look on her face and before the guy got out the
door she said, "you sold *that one*? That's your baby." Lots of memories
wrapped around that box.
The young fellow who tried it out talked about how he was "just getting
together with a couple buddies to do some playing out" and he needed a
better guitar that was better than the Harmony he had and stuff. It's a
good thing... it's off to a future of joyous noisemaking like it
deserves... and like I say, I thought I had resolved this... but...
Oh well, the angst makes sense to me.
Ed
Geezer51
"Ed Edelenbos" <ed...@spookeasy.net> wrote in message
news:7pnoqn...@mid.individual.net...
Welcome to the world of the "Little People"
You will now grow horizontally instead of vertically...
It's a curse.
Get used to it.
Geezer
persisten...@yahoo.com
Makes sense to me too, Ed.
I don't know how many guitars I've been through (In fact..I'm not sure
how many I've got..:-)
When I got married I had a blonde Telecaster, which I'd had re-fretted
by Julian Bream's luthier (big mistake - it was an awful refret) so I
flogged it PX for a Peavey T60 (T90 - can't remember), which I gigged
with for about 12 years with a soul band. That was good fun. Every
time some girl tried to chat me up at the bar after a gig the singer's
wife would show up and magically transform herself into my
girlfriend/wife/S.O./whatever so I didn't get in trouble.
Have children..have no sex life even if you are a hairy Rock & Roll
guitarist...fuckinell...
In the meantime...I accumulated a few more guitars and got rid of
quite a lot of them, but the Peavey stuck with me until I realised
that actually, the neck was too small at the nut and I couldn't get my
fingers round the fancy-ass lead riffs for which I bought it in the
first place.
So I got Alan Marshall to make me an electric..which is awesome. It
kinda went downhill after that...who has three guitars made by a
bearded git in Derbyshire..?
Anyway, I sold the Peavey to (and I am, slowly, getting to a point
here) a guy who played and sung in my son's band and what did he do?
He stencilled the whole of the front of the thing (and it was a
beautiful piece of wood) with a paisley pattern, did a few gigs and
got laid every single time he put the strap round his neck.
I hate him. Really, really hate him.
Pete
Madgamer
ED,
The main reason I am having the new Baxendale 12 built as a long body
12 is even though it is the same scale(25.5) it is easier for me to play
than the 15 fret guitars except for American Spirit. I knew that
getting old would require changes in my life style but I did not know
exactly what but as I just passed my 69 birthday this month I am like
you finding out.
Its a brave but sad and necessary thing you did for yourself and your
Taylor. It takes courage to do what you have done and a salute you for it.
Larry A
Mike Brown
I reckon that it's better than seeing a nice guitar sitting around
unplayed. I've sold a couple of nice ones for the same reason, too big
for my aging frame. Luckily both have gone to good friends so I still
get to see and hear them.
MJRB
Mouldytone
Ed I`m sorry to hear that you`ve had to let your "baby" go. I think a
lot of people don`t understand the emotional attachment that comes
with acoustic instruments. People who haven`t been lucky enough to own
or play beautiful guitars seem to think that they are just inanimate
objects or musical tools. We know differently. When we are lucky
enough to find a beautiful instrument that matches our playing style
they are invariably linked to many wonderful times and memories
involving friends and great times. I think a period of grieving after
having to let an acoustic friend go is completely understandable.
Sentimental? Of course. We`re talking about music. All we can do I
guess is as Mike said, make sure our cherished instruments go on to
play some more, even if it has to be with someone else.
Tony M
persisten...@yahoo.com
Strange. isn't it, that we can become attached to stuff which is
completely inanimate until we pick it up and do something with it.
Every guitar has it's own personality, but then every car I've ever
driven (and I'm an even worse driver than guitarist) has had it's own
character.
My favourite guitars have all been ones I've sold. By extension, that
means I'm left with the guitars that I don't neccessarily like that
much but they're all guitars that I still have something to learn
from. Perhaps that's what make them keepers.
It must be terrible being a luthier....
I found a ding (quite a nasty one - good bash in the lower bout just
below the strap pin) in the Northworthy the other day - don't know how
it got there - looks like someone picked it up and bashed it on the
corner of a table. Phoned Alan Marshall about it...he sounded as
though someone had drowned his cat.
It's a wonderful guitar (and a great many of you lot have played it),
but now it's injured, but..it's only wood and steel.
If I keep saying that, perhaps I'll believe myself.
Pete
Tom from Texas
I actually started with smaller body guitars, classicals or 00 to 000 sized,
then bought some dreads and jumbos. I'm on the short end of the height
scale but handle the larger sizes okay. I do prefer the smaller body
short-scale guitars (really like mandolins). I keep my Leach Saratoga,
Guild Jumbo XL, the no name Selmer D-hole, the Martin D, and the Blueridge
BG140 around and play them often but in the music room, I don't play any
guitar or other instrument before long until I decide to grab another.
Call me fickle or diverse.
I take the Martin D-16GT to the bluegrass sessions but spend most of my time
playing mandolin. I do buy and sell and trade (on occasion give away)
instruments but I usually have gotten or am fixing to get something to
replace the hole the other filled. But that's just me.
I do have the Gibson A-1 mandolin and the Martin 000-18 that I've had for
over 25 years and aint going nowhere while I'm still breathing and my girls
say will stay in the family after all the others have been sold.
--
Tom from Texas
(The Tom Risner Fund for Deserving North Texas Guitarplayers is not liable
for any slander, hurt feelings, pointless moaning, or achy-breaky heartache
any post under this name should cause. Yall want easy cash or sympathy...
ye can kiss my grits!!)
JD
It all depends on *how* I'm playing; standing with
a strap it doesn't seem to make a difference but
if the truth be told I can't help but think a
Taylor LKSM 6 with a 1 7/8" nut, 12 frets and the
existing cutaway would be a good thing. It still
wouldn't fill the niche left by McA Lucas OO for
fingerpickin' in general and noodling on the couch
in front of the boob toob. All in all, I think a
12 fret with a cutaway totally supplants any
reason to have a 14 fret.
Mike Brown
Sorry about the ding, it's almost worse when you don't know what
happened, some cruel illtreatment that was thoughtlessly inflicted.
You always remember the first ding (well I do). The first in my parlour
was at a song circle and an Irishman (who's contribution to these
evenings I don't care much for) caught the edge of the lower bout with
one of the machines on his bouzouki and walked off without a word.
Did I say that I don't care much for his playing ?
Bloody Irishmen <g>.
MJRB
Mike Brown
It does for me.
MJRB
Tony Done
I can empathise with you, it is difficult to let stuff go that you have
grown attached to. I sometimes frustrate myself by wondering which guitar I
would keep if it came down to just one. It isn't healthy to get too attached
to material things, and with guitars it should be the music that matters,
not the instrument. So it would probably be best to sell/give away the lot
and start afresh something fairly ordinary.
I don't have any age-related physical limitations yet, but I have been
taking out insurance in the form of electric guitar, lap steel and slide.
Tony D
persisten...@yahoo.com
Well....any guitar is better than none, eh?
P
persisten...@yahoo.com
wrote:
Electric is great. If you know your scales you're in business.
Pete
alcarruth
"It must be terrible being a luthier.... "
Well, actually, I, and most of the luthiers I know, are really happy
to see them walk out the door. There are several reasons for this.
One is, of course, simply that you can't possibly play all the guitars
you can make, particularly if you make them full time. After all, when
you put in eight or more hours in the shop every day, that doesn't
leave the kind of time you'd like to have for playing the things,
particularly if you've got a few on the rack. It's sad to see a nice
instrument that's not being played.
Besides, if you play them, you might ding them, and then you either
need to fix them, or drop the price a bunch.
Most luthiers live for the times when we hand somebody a guitar, and
they get 'that' smile. It's almost better than getting paid! It's nice
to think of them out someplace enjoying the instrument.
But the biggest reason it's not hard to sell them is that _we_ know
where the mistakes are! Now, mind you, what a luthier thinks of as a
'mistake' is not necessarily what you'd call a mistake. I mean,
sometimes we make the sort of bonehead boo-boos that anybody would
pick up on. But, more often, it's something that a 'civilian' would
not think of as a mistake at all. Whenever a luthier starts building a
guitar, there is this notion that it _could_ be the greatest guitar of
the early 21st century, if only you don't screw something up. That
'something' could be leaving a brace a little too high, or shaving it
down a little further than you should, and ending up with a sound
that's nice, but not the angelic chorus you were hoping for. Or the
inlays might look pretty good, but if you'd only gotten a somewhat
nicer piece of pearl for that one section.... So, for whatever
reasons, by the time most luthiers get an instrument done, they've
seen enough of it. It's time to get out another set of wood, and make
a _really good_ one.
Which is only to say that most of us are artists to some degree. After
all, if you're any kind of musician, you've got to admit that you've
never played the 'perfect' gig. No matter how well it went, it could
always be better.
Alan Carruth / Luthier
Tony Done
<persisten...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:8fofj5p7382kdlaoe...@4ax.com...
<g> I've avoided that issue by mostly playing slide in open tunings and
playing chord/melody much as I do on an acoustic. Controlling the sustain is
a bugger. Anyone mentions scales in the context of electrics and I think of
big hair and spandex, neither of which would look good on me.
I got a Pandora PX4 recently, I'm having a lot of fun with the harmoniser
doing instant jazz. It was a great deal, same price as four sets of JP
strings, and I paid for it with a load of bottlenecks.
Tony D
Ed Edelenbos
"alcarruth" <alca...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:a26c6a49-329b-48dc...@z41g2000yqz.googlegroups.com...
> It's sad to see a nice
> instrument that's not being played.
>
And that, as Frank Zappa might have put it, is the crux of the biscuit.
(grin) That is why my "baby" (see note below) had to go. It wasn't getting
played and it was too nice to sit in it's case. A few other comments said
exactly that.
Side note... you think they don't notice the little stuff, but again today
(and this time without prompting) my wife said something about, not
believing I sold the "baby". In some ways, it's nice to know she "gets it".
But then, she is a musician with some nice "axes" (in the guise of reed
instruments), too.
I'm all that much more psyched for the Larrivee 00 that's due on Wed. or
Thurs.
Ed
Madgamer
> It must be terrible being a luthier....
>
> I found a ding (quite a nasty one - good bash in the lower bout just
> below the strap pin) in the Northworthy the other day - don't know how
> it got there - looks like someone picked it up and bashed it on the
> corner of a table. Phoned Alan Marshall about it...he sounded as
> though someone had drowned his cat.
>
> It's a wonderful guitar (and a great many of you lot have played it),
> but now it's injured, but..it's only wood and steel.
>
> If I keep saying that, perhaps I'll believe myself.
>
> Pete
>
so it looks like late Jan pick up date for both as I do not want Spirit
sent through the mail during the winter weather so my Taylor 710 and
Guild F412 will have to do (SIGH)
Larry A
Madgamer
What has fishing got to do with guitar playing?
Larry A
hank alrich
So, like, get a paisley jump suit or somethin'.
--
ha
shut up and play your guitar
http://www.armadillomusicproductions.com/CarryMeHome.html
http://hankalrich.com/
hank alrich
hank alrich
Misifus
> Madgamer <madg...@mchsi.com> wrote:
>
>> On 12/27/2009 4:41 PM, persisten...@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>>> Electric is great. If you know your scales you're in business.
>>>
>>> Pete
>>
>> What has fishing got to do with guitar playing?
>>
>> Larry A
>
> Can you catch bass with a treble hook?
>
Oh, you know better than that!
-Raf
--
Misifus-
Rafael Seibert
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafiii
home: http://www.rafandsioux.com
JD
I used to think that was true until someone who
knew I played slapped cheap POS in my hands and
wanted to hear me play. Never again.
Wilbur Slice
>>
>> Well....any guitar is better than none, eh?
>>
>> P
>
>I used to think that was true until someone who
>knew I played slapped cheap POS in my hands and
>wanted to hear me play. Never again.
One time I had a buddy come visit. He is the best guitar player I
have ever personally known. Jokingly, I handed him a guitar that my
wife (who didn't play guitar) had had since childhood. The thing put
the "shit" in POS - it was made out of formica or something like that,
has a warped neck and rusty strings that had probably *never* been
changed.
Worst. Guitar. Ever.
And my buddy tuned that sucker up and proceeded to play some blues
that just made me cry. Sounded like Robert Johnson himself was in the
room. And that's when I learned for sure that it ain't the guitar,
it's the guitar player.
Ansel Adams could take great photos with a Quaker Oats box with a
pinhole in the side. And if you're a crappy guitar player with a
$20,000 custom-built guitar, you'll play crappy guitar that has really
nice tone.
JD
True dat. I made that POS sound better than it
EVER had before but still, it wasn't what I wanted
to hear and the effort to extract anything
remotely musical out of it was nigh on herculean.
If that's all I had to play, I'd quit and take up
bodhran.
Mike Brown
> have ever personally known. Jokingly, I handed him a guitar that my
> wife (who didn't play guitar) had had since childhood. The thing put
> the "shit" in POS - it was made out of formica or something like that,
> has a warped neck and rusty strings that had probably *never* been
> changed.
>
> Worst. Guitar. Ever.
>
> And my buddy tuned that sucker up and proceeded to play some blues
> that just made me cry. Sounded like Robert Johnson himself was in the
> room. And that's when I learned for sure that it ain't the guitar,
> it's the guitar player.
>
> Ansel Adams could take great photos with a Quaker Oats box with a
> pinhole in the side. And if you're a crappy guitar player with a
> $20,000 custom-built guitar, you'll play crappy guitar that has really
> nice tone.
>
I agree . . . . .but . . . .
If you have a guitar that sounds good and that you enjoy playing you
will play it more (I know that I do) and you will get better.
Perhaps not brilliant, but better.
At least that's the plan.
It seems to be working slowly.
MJRB
persisten...@yahoo.com
wrote:
The thing with electrics is that they're useless on their own (which
is, of course the beauty of acoustics - they don't need a band or a
rhythm section).
I only ever use two scales - a minor pentatonic and a straight-up
major scale. Can't be bothered with the Spandex stuff.
If you google UKMG 2009 Buxton (I would put up a URL but that would
mean farting around opening new windows..) and go to part 2 of the
manglement jam you get a bit of me (about 3 minutes in) demonstrating
just how to play electric guitar with minimal skills. I'm the twat
with the hat.
Controlling sustain is simple. Turn the gain on your amp right down,
turn the master volume right up (to about, say, 7) then bring up the
gain to meet it until you get the right tone. I always find that I
need the gain up a lot higher if I want a good slide tone, but YMMV -
I like a fat Bonnie Raitt greasy tone. If you're after a more precise
sort of 1930's (or even 1950's rockabilly) sound then you need to take
it off a bit so it's more brittle.
I've got no idea what a Pandora PX4 is - The last Pandora I heard of
opened a box and caused all kinds of trouble..:-)
Did find a Vox Cry Baby in the linen cupboard the other day though
whilst looking for some Christmas tree lights...can't wait for the
family to bugger off so I can make a din with it.
Pete (Why does our linen cupboard have electric guitar equipment and
Christmas tree lights in it?....Why does my wife open bottles of
Champagne at 9.30 in the evening and leave the Bailey's unopened?...)
persisten...@yahoo.com
wrote:
If you get it right, you make a nasty smell.
Pete
persisten...@yahoo.com
wrote:
Somewhere on the net, there's pictures of me in worse...
Pete
Misifus
Smelt?
Geezer51
"Misifus" <rafse...@att.net> wrote in message
news:7prs3l...@mid.individual.net...
Sure Raf,
You remember...he who smelt it...dealt it!
Geezer
Tony Done
<persisten...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:horgj597lbjpvrsb3...@4ax.com...
I'll have a look for the Buxton bash. I'm still experimenting with sounds;
clean is fairly easy, and it gets increasingly difficult as you
overdrive/distort and compress the signal. Sonny Landreth uses extreme
distortion/fuzz, and I can't control the stray noise at all when I try that.
I like Bonny Raitt's sounds, though I've found that I prefer the warmer
tones of P90s and humbuckers, especially when overdriven.
I reckon you can use an electric as a solo instrument for vocal
accompaniment (Bruce Springsteen) and even for some instrumental styles
(tapping comes to mind), but it has to be a lot less polyphonic (eg lean
fingerstyle) than acoustic or the sound turns to mud.
The Pandora PX4 is a Korg Toneworks multiFX with user-friendly controls in
belt clip size. It has dynamic and envelope FX, amp/cab models, modulation,
reverb, delay, noise reduction etc. The FX are mostly pretty good and a lot
of fun to muck about with either through an amp or with headphones. Eg the
fuzz works for heavy slide and octave down for bass emulation.
Tony D
Sean
> I reckon you can use an electric as a solo instrument for vocal
> accompaniment (Bruce Springsteen)
Billy Bragg!
Misifus
Absolutely!
David Hajicek
Does this mean you are without a guitar? Horror of horrors! Or does it
mean you found a short scale guitar to replace this one?
It sounds like you need a nice little 00 12 fret, short scale.
Dave Hajicek
Ed Edelenbos
"David Hajicek" <haj...@skypoint.com> wrote in message
news:1Lidndsrv6680aTW...@skypoint.com...
Dave,
LOL!!! Without a guitar? Perish the thought. You really ought to know me
better than that by now.
I'll always (hmmm... maybe I should start to veer away from the word
"always") have my Larrivee Parlor, and a few other acoustics, not to mention
the electrics. And, I *just* (moments ago) got word that my new Larrivee
00-03 (00 size, mahogany b/s, sitka top, 12 fret, 25.5" scale) shipped
today. I should have it on Wednesday. A new "baby" to get acquainted with.
(grin)
Ed
chaya
world, though you still beat me by 5".
Mike Brown
I was listening top Jeff Buckley "Live at the Sign-e" yesterday. He
managed to sing with a solo electric.
MJRB