If you haven’t heard, we’re in the midst of our Annual Fundraiser / Giveaway. We beg for money from you to help run the website for the next year and just for fun, we give away $12,000+ in free gear to reward you for supporting the website. To read more or to make a donation (and enter the drawing) just click on this LINK

Cool Twang Personified

The guitar comes in a very nice black tolex case with an embroidered Custom Shop logo inside on the back “fur” lining.

There is heavy relicing going on here. If you win this one (sorry… when you win, many of you just corrected me) don’t worry about knocking a bit of a finish off the body on this one. The neck is perfect — thick, but not too, and feels completely worn in. Cool pearl button turners and a giant Fender logo unlike any other.

This guitar has only one pickup, and it’s a wicked TV Jones Classic pickup and has a meaty kind of Tele Twang that is different from a Tele pickup but nonetheless twangs with like a Tele should. TDP Moderator Tim Armstrong was here today and when he played the Especial he said, “crank the delay this guitar is made to rock-a-billy.”

It’s light and custom in every way. Including the special La Cabronita Especial decal on the back of the guitar.

Let’s face it, this is an expensive one of a kind Custom Shop kind of guitar — one that you’ll want to take home to your house on November 18th. How expensive? Well the CS Price List shows an MSRP of $4,800 for the STOCK colors. I don’t want to ask how much a special color adds to the pricing.

Here’s a video from the Fender Custom Shop showing off both this model and the Two Pickup version. So, you can get an idea of the sound you’ll get from this beauty when it’s in your home.

Will this especial guitar make it’s new home at your home? Only time will tell. Somebody has to win it. It might as well be you. Don’t you agree?

To read more or to make a donation (and enter the drawing) just click on this LINK

Certificate

Specs (adapted from two pickup model):

Series: Limited Collection
Model Name: La Cabronita Especial
Model Number: 923-6666-(Color #) (two-p’up model)
Colors: (606) Black, (644) Shoreline Gold, (Nitrocellulose Lacquer Finish)
Body: Select Lightweight Alder
Neck: 1-Piece Maple, Large “C” Shape, (Nitrocellulose Lacquer Finish)
Fingerboard: Maple, 9.5” Radius (241 mm)
No. of Frets: 21 Dunlop® 6105 Narrow Jumbo Frets
Pickup: 1 TV Jones® Classic Pickup (Bridge)
Controls: Master Volume, and Tone control
Bridge: Deluxe Chromed Brass Bridge Plate with Solid Stainless Steel Saddles
Machine Heads: Sperzel® Die-Cast Tuning Machines with White Pearloid Buttons
Hardware: Nickel/Chrome
Pickguard: 1-Ply Parchment
Scale Length: 25.5” (648 mm)
Width at Nut: 1.6875” (43 mm)
Unique Features: La Cabronita Especial Decal on Back Rear of Body, Knurled Chrome Tele Knob, Bone Nut, Relic® Finish Shows Natural Wear and Tear of Years of Heavy use, Nicks, Scratches, Worn Finish, Rusty Hardware and Aged Plastic Parts.
Strings: Fender Standard Tension™ ST250R, Nickel Plated Steel, Gauges: (.010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046)
Accessories: Deluxe Black Hardshell Case (Black Crushed Velvet Interior), Strap, Cable, Polishing Cloth, Certificate of Authenticity
Case: Deluxe Black Hardshell Case

WHAT IS PRESENCE?
In a nutshell, the Presence knob is mainly a Negative Feedback Loop control (NF), and in plain language this means a bit of the output (directly from the speaker jack) is fed back into the amp’s signal to:

• Widen the frequency response (lower lows, higher highs).
• Flatten frequency response (make lows, mids, and highs more even in volume to each other).
•  It reduces distortion and increases headroom (more clean on the Volume knob) in the areas affected by the NF circuit.
• Finally, it changes the way the amp responds by reducing the reaction between the amp and the speaker. Amps with NF are tighter and have better bass, amps without are more dynamic.

IT ALSO SHAPES CERTAIN FREQUENCIES
A final addition to most Presence/NF circuits is a capacitor which bypasses certain frequencies. What this means is that usually the highs are NOT fed back into the amp’s signal, therefore they’re not “balanced” out or tamed and are more present or bright.  A Resonance control is a NF that allows Bass frequencies to bypass the loop and therefore adds more Bass instead.

WHERE TO PLACE IT
It is also crucial where you place the NF circuit.  Most are fed into the unused input of a Phase Inverter.  Some PI’s do not have an “extra” input there or place the NF into an earlier part of the preamp (in single ended amps, it might be the only place to put it since they lack Phase Inverters).

GO WITHOUT?
And even some amps (like the Vox AC30 and AC15 and Fender’s tweed Deluxe, or “57 Deluxe”) do not have NF or Presence controls. This lowers headroom and makes an amp have a more gradual change into overdrive, making it good for players who like to find the “sweetspot” between clean and dirty on their amp’s Volume setting.  Therefore, some blues players may prefer an amp without NF for its feel.

NUTS AND BOLTS
Commonly, there are at least two parts to a NF circuit: the NF resistor (from the speaker jack) and a shunt resistor to ground.  Lower valued NF resistors makes for more NF, likewise larger valued shunt resistors also make for more NF.  Replacing the shunt resistor with a Presence/Resonance pots makes the amount of NF adjustable.  A capacitor (depending on value) at the pot can determine what frequency avoids NF attenuation.

Typically, classic blackface Fender amps use more NF (820 ohm with a 100 ohm shunt) than Marshalls (100k with a 5k shunt or Presence pot) and both are placed at the PI.  A very basic NF example is the Fender Champ’s 22k NF resistor from the speaker jack to the preamp’s 2nd stage cathode.  Some folks add switches to turn On/Off NF from the amp, some add Presence and Resonance controls, and some customize their NF circuit values to taste.

Compare some of your favorite amp layouts (for beginners) or schematics and follow what happens from the speaker jack back into the amp circuit and get ready to mod Negative Feedback/Presence circuits in your own amp!

Schematics:
www.schematicheaven.com

I developed an Excel spreadsheet that will take the following inputs:

• String Diameters (read from the pack)
• Margin from the edge of the nut to the outside edge of strings 1 and 6 (usually 0.120”)
• The nut length (measured with a caliper)
• The fretboard radius (either known or measured)

The spreadsheet will calculate the centerlines of the string spacing so there is equal distance from the edge of one string to the edge of the other. A graph is generated to depict the diameters and spacing It also takes into account the radius of the neck. This improvement in accuracy by taking the radius into account is negligible. I just did it because I could. The spreadsheet is in the Musician’s Workbook downloadable here:

http://terrydownsmusic.com/technotes/MusiciansWorkbook/M_FRIEND.XLS

Here is a demo of the spreadsheet.

Once the centerlines are calculated, one can use a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program to draw a paper template that can be cut out and glued to the nut for precise cutting. There is a free CAD tool available for download here:

http://www.cadstd.com/lite.html

 Here is a video demonstrating how to draw the nut template with CadStd.

Here is the template glued to the nut.

A 0.009” fret slot file can be used to begin the slotting process for the most accuracy.

I’m sure most of you think this is overkill, but if the capability exists, why not use it? Happy nut cutting.

The first thing you must do is find musicians that exemplify your style and who possess a great deal of vocabulary. For example, Brent Mason for country, Johnny Winter for Blues, Eric Clapton for classic rock and Bill Evan for jazz. Find a solo that has licks you will be able to use in a variety of situations and that is very typical of the style. Then start transcribing it.

Transcribing is the action of writing down the music that you hear in a recording. For those of you who don’t yet have the skills to write down music in notation form, I would recommend that you create a “tab”. Relying on memory alone will not work and you need to archive your vocabulary.

If the song has lyrics, write them down and learn them; it creates a deeper bond with the piece of music. You must transcribe the melody and the chords, if you don’t have them from a book or from tab. The melody is what helps you locate yourself in a song while playing it (i.e. not getting lost in the chords changes or form) and the chords you will need to practice your solo over, and your licks afterwards.

When doing a transcription, slow the music down to half speed or slower if you need to, again I would refer you to Terry Down’s article. The idea is not “how fast can your ear hear and process the music” but rather “can you hear every note perfectly.” I’ll assume from this point that you have the chords and melody from a book and that you are working on a solo. Now you have to set up your paper.

I am sure they are many different ways to proceed here but here is what I do. First I divide the staves on my manuscript paper into four bar parts. I use pen to draw those lines so mistakes can be erased without having to re-do the layout of the page. Then I write the chord symbols on top of my staves in a different colour ink (i.e. red; visually this works for me). Secondly I figure out how many measures are in the section I am transcribing. After this, I figure out the beat that the solo begins on. This may require that you go back to the beginning of the song at times.

There are no great secrets to transcribing music, you listen to a part or the solo, sing the first note, keep on singing the first note until you find it your guitar and then write it down on paper. Double check it by playing against the slowed down recording and then move onto the second note. At times you will find it easy to write down several notes at once, other times you will be stuck on one note for a little while. You repeat the process until you have finished the entire solo. As a beginner I found at times this process slow and frustrating and kept on wondering if pro’s had a better ear than me or knew something I didn’t. Now I’ve realized that the concept is exactly the same between a beginner and more advanced player. It’s only with time and repetition that you get faster at it.

If you find yourself particularly frustrated by a section, move on to another part of the solo. When you come back to the following day the difficult section is usually easier. Just make sure to count very carefully when you are jumping over a section, you need to be exactly sure when the next part begins. I usually conduct (in a basic way) with my picking hand while transcribing. I find it makes the music easier to see.

Conducting pattern.

It’s also been my experience that when having difficulty, I start analyzing the music and think “it must be this note because of the chord or key signature etc”. This is usually where I make my biggest mistakes. Always trust your ear; just listen to the music until the note becomes clear. This is a process that takes a long time but you just have to keep going at it. The payoff is worth it.

Now that you have transcribed your solo, you must now learn how to play it. The first thing you do is create yourself a backing track. Put your metronome on 2 & 4 (the beat that is often played on the snare drum), play the chords to the song and record it. Don’t play fancy rhythms in your backing track; just hit the chord on beat “1” and hold. The speed at which you record your track is determined by the tempo you need to play the solo at perfectly. There is no such thing as too slow, it depends on you. If you need to play it at 40 bpm to get it perfect, that’s where you start. Once you’re comfortable at a certain speed, move up a couple of clicks on the metronome until you get comfortable there. You keep on doing this until you can match the speed of the original recording. At times I use my notation software to create a backing track because I find it easier to manipulate the track to move up in tempo and it’s therefore less time consuming. Mind you it’s very sterile sounding.

Now this leads us into the problem of fingering; where to play it on the guitar neck? This is what has worked for me but by no means is a rule: try to keep the fingering in the section of the neck that will give you access to highest and lowest note of the solo without shifting position and find what the most solid and comfortable fingering for you. The latter is the most important, which leads me to have position shifts while playing my transcribed solos.

As you progress in speed you may find that a fingering that worked at 120 bpm does not work at all at 180 bpm. You need to revisit this section of your fingering and find a combination that will allow you to play it fast. The more experience you gain the less you have to do this. Once you get to the original speed of the piece, record yourself playing with it. The goal is that you are able to play the solo at full speed by yourself and sound like the original recording.

After you have succeeded in this, you must find the vocabulary in it. Look for licks that will be the most useful for you. In a jazz transcription I will look for a line (lick) that will fit or can fit over a ii-7, V7, IMaj7 progression, while in blues and rock I will look for shorter licks. Always transcribe a lick that you like and find a way of using it. You should find 10 licks before moving onto the next step; this may require several transcriptions. Depending on the style you are working on, you may want to have two fingerings for each lick. This will give you more options while soloing.

Now comes the “Pavlov’s dogs” effect I talked about in the previous article. You play your lick(s) slowly at first over the chord(s) that it/they originally appeared on in 14 keys (treating C#, Db and F#, Gb as different keys). For example, if you took a lick that was recorded over a E7 chord, you play it over a C7, F7, Bb7, Eb7, Ab7, Db7, C#7, F#7,Gb7, etc…until you’ve covered all keys. Then repeat the process with licks 2 to 10 until you can play them at fast tempos. Once you are comfortable with this, change the process slightly; take your ten licks and play them all in one key signature, then move on to the next. The first approach you play the lick over all the keys while the second approach you play all the licks over one key at a time. The idea is that you eventually get to a point where you hear the chord and play the lick “reflectively”, like “Pavlov’s dogs”.

The final step is to take a song with a varied chord progression and play your licks over it in order. For example, take a blues:

On each chord that has a number, play the lick with the corresponding number as you go through the form. Repeat this process with a blues a half step high and one and a half steps lower. This puts the licks closer to a playing situation.

Once you have done all this, try to use your licks in a real life playing situation. I know the process may seem (and is) long but the end result is well worth the work. Music is fair that way; you get back exactly what you put in.

Bill Lawrence stated that, “It’s been some fourteen years since we first discussed working together with Jeff and Don Lace — we have always had so much in common. While most of our industry has been focused on merely recreating the past, we’ve both both been working on new, original ideas to advance the art and science of the pickup. Over the years, we’ve developed a close friendship and mutual respect based on our common principles, but until now the time for a joint venture never seemed quite right.”

“Given my current health issues,” Lawrence continued, “Becky and I maintaining our own production facility was no longer feasible, and a partnership with our old friends has become the logical way for me to continue my design work and bring my latest ideas to fruition. I simply can’t imagine better manufacturing and marketing partners than the Lace family and their team — both companies have established their own unique places in the market, each with very different design and marketing approaches that I’m sure we can maintain side by side into the future. It’s a classic win-win situation for us, our distribution channels, and the pickup buying public.” Jeff Lace, who has succeeded his late father Don Lace Sr., as Lace’s lead designer, said, “This is a remarkable opportunity for our companies — not only will we continue making the best pickups on the market today, but we’ll also be expanding our product portfolio with more original designs that are unlike anything else available.”

Both Lawrence and Lace hold numerous technology patents in the pickup arena, with Lawrence’s design work dating back some 60 years including historic stints with giants like Gibson, Framus, and a virtual who’s who of the guitar industry, and Jeff Lace following in the footsteps of his father’s unique “Fender-Lace Sensor®” design dating from the early 1980s. More recently, Jeff has created Lace’s Holy Grail® and Alumitone® pickup technologies, both featuring zero noise and full-range bandwidth. Lawrence, known for decades as the industry’s most dynamic and knowledgeable pickup designer, is responsible for the SCN (Samarium Cobalt Noiseless) line of pickups currently offered by Fender both in their prestigious American Deluxe guitars and basses and as popular aftermarket upgrades.

“Bill has established a great legacy of design innovation that we will honor and continue just as we’ve carried on our father’s wishes and aspirations,” Jeff Lace declared, “We’ve been looking forward to working with Bill and Becky for a very long time — and together we have so many exciting ideas that we can’t wait to bring to the market!” Don Lace enthusiastically pointed out good omens for the new venture by noting, “This year marks Lace’s® 30th anniversary — and what a way to celebrate our success, with the introduction of our new Helix® bass and guitar plus this monumental new pickup partnership happening simultaneously. This is going to be a truly exciting year for us and the industry!”

The sales and distribution approach for Lawrence products is currently being finalized, with a detailed announcement expected shortly. No changes in the established distribution channel for Lace® products are planned. More information on Lawrence is available via www.wildepickups.com and www.billlawrence.com or by calling 951-371-1494. For Lace®, visit www.lacemusic.com or call 800-575-LACE.

It was there that I learned a crucial lesson; to play like the great players you have to learn their “vocabulary”. The idea was that to imitate great musicians (not only guitarists), you must first learn their solos, be able to play these solos perfectly at full speed with the original recording and later chose “licks” (lines, musical sentences, “musical motifs” etc) from several solos and learn how to play them in 14 keys (treating C# and Db and F# and Gb as different keys) over chord changes. Like Pavlov’s dogs, you hear the chord and you play the lick reflexively…at least that’s the goal. Of course we talked and worked on scales, shapes, patterns and arpeggios but to only understand the fundamental of music and the guitar, not as “The” tools used for soloing.

Now I’ve had students who start lessons thinking that if they learn their diminished scale they’ll play like John Schofield or because they know their blues scales they can play like Buddy Guy. That couldn’t be further from the truth. What they don’t understand is that these players are relying on a vocabulary that has a rich history and that they have taken the time to learn it before creating their own.

The first notion that must be understood is that improvisation is never pure. It is not the myth of the musician holding his instrument and suddenly inventing beautiful music while soloing out of thin air, it’s worked out ahead of time. Yes, you read correctly, a soloist is using many pre-prepared licks to create his solo. It’s the same idea as talking, you don’t; always know what you’re going to say ahead of time but you have the words to say it. The great players, regardless of their style of music, have been absorbing vocabulary for years, that it be Jimi Hendrix, Brent Mason or John Coltrane.

These players have been practicing these lines relentlessly over chord changes or songs. So when they are soloing they are using this rehearsed vocabulary to speak and the combination of their musical sentences becomes improvisation. It’s not left to chance, they’re not thinking: “hum, I’m playing in front of 5,000 people tonight and I’m going to explore my Locrian mode”.

For example if you listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan carefully you will hear that he will repeat licks in different solos. I can think of a blues lick that involves the ninth of the scale which keeps coming back throughout his playing. Well, if you know your SRV you know how much of fan of Jimi Hendrix he was and it turns out that Hendrix played that exact same lick. It may vary in rhythm and articulation but so does anyone when they speak. Hendrix probably got it from another player before him as well. It’s an aural tradition that is being transmitted musically.

In articles and interviews Stevie Ray Vaughan talks about emulating his heroes or he demonstrates perfectly how one of them would play a musical passage. He may not have been “formally schooled” in music but he knew and understood the vocabulary that came before him and applied it. Hendrix is another example; one story relates how he and a friend could sing an Albert King solo note for note. Or if you listen to how he played chords you can hear the omni present influence of R&B/Soul and so much more. Brent Mason is another one; in his “Hot Licks” DVD he talks how he got certain licks from different guitarists. These are players who have taken a lot of time learning and imitating great musicians before them, in short, learning vocabulary.

Let’s look at it in another way. You are one of my students and one lesson I give you a sheet with a foreign alphabet on it and teach you how to pronounce each letters. Next lesson you come back and I say: “Please speak in this language”. The best you could do would be to string some of these letters together or even recite this alphabet at an incredible speed but you still would be incapable of speaking this new language. Therefore, scales, arpeggios, patterns and shapes are but a first step in a long journey ahead. Yes they do have a significant place in the evolution of a player but soloing using just these is like a child saying singing his “ABCs”. They’re fundamentals but not the end result. You have to learn the “words” of style to play it. Mind you, don’t misunderstand me, music is not a language, you can’t order beer with it.

This is not to say that great players do not invent their own musical sentences or explore certain scales because they do. The point is rather that before they began creating “their” vocabulary, they had a deep grounding in the tradition of their style(s). Only then does their originality become convincing to us.

Another notion to remember is that you get good at what you practice. If you practice scales and arpeggios, you’re good at scales and arpeggios. You may as well be spending your time practicing vocabulary that you will use in a live situation and this way you are training your brain to react to chord changes in real time.

In my own experience of learning (and teaching) the guitar, I only started to feel confident about my playing when I started to transcribe solos, learning lines from them and using that vocabulary when I was soloing. That’s when I felt my playing was convincing and I knew then that I could participate in higher levels of playing. Check out Terry Downs’ article on the TDPRI homepage to find links to free tools which can assist in applying the approach detailed here.

Victor Guerriero (Voicing 13 on the TDPRI) has been playing guitar for 19 years and has degrees in Jazz Studies and Education.

One of the foremost influences on 20th century sound and responsible for the world’s most famous guitar, the Les Paul model, Les Paul’s prestigious career in music and invention spans from the 1930s to the present. Though he’s indisputably one of America’s most popular, influential, and accomplished electric guitarists, Les Paul is best known as an early innovator in the development of the solid body guitar. His groundbreaking design would become the template for Gibson’s best-selling electric, the Les Paul model, introduced in 1952. Today, countless musical legends still consider Paul’s iconic guitar unmatched in sound and prowess. Among Paul’s most enduring contributions are those in the technological realm, including ingenious developments in multi-track recording, guitar effects, and the mechanics of sound in general.

Born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin on June 9, 1915, Les Paul was already performing publicly as a honky-tonk guitarist by the age of 13. So clear was his calling that Paul dropped out of high school at 17 to play in Sunny Joe Wolverton’s Radio Band in St. Louis. As Paul’s mentor, Wolverton was the one to christen him with the stage name “Rhubarb Red,” a moniker that would follow him to Chicago in 1934. There, Paul became a bona fide radio star, known as both hillbilly picker Rhubarb Red and Django Reinhardt-informed jazz guitarist Les Paul. His first recordings were done in 1936 on an acoustic—alone as Rhubarb Red, as well as backing blues singer Georgia White. The next year he formed his first trio, but by 1938 he’d moved to New York to begin his tenure on national radio with one of the more popular dance orchestras in the country, Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians.

Tinkering with electronics and guitar amplification since his youth, Les Paul began constructing his own electric guitar in the late ’30s. Unhappy with the first generation of commercially available hollowbodies because of their thin tone, lack of sustain, and feedback problems, Paul opted to build an entirely new structure. “I was interested in proving that a vibration-free top was the way to go,” he has said. “I even built a guitar out of a railroad rail to prove it. What I wanted was to amplify pure string vibration, without the resonance of the wood getting involved in the sound.” With the good graces of Epiphone president Epi Stathopoulo, Paul used the Epiphone plant and machinery in 1941 to bring his vision to fruition. He affectionately dubbed the guitar “The Log.”

Les Paul’s tireless experiments sometimes proved to be dangerous, and he nearly electrocuted himself in 1940 during a session in the cellar of his Queens apartment. During the next two years of rehabilitation, Les earned his living producing radio music. Forced to put the Pennsylvanians and the rest of his career on hold, Les Paul moved to Hollywood. During World War II, he was drafted into the Army but permitted to stay in California, where he became a regular player for Armed Forces Radio Service. By 1943 he had assembled a trio that regularly performed live, on the radio, and on V-Discs. In 1944 he entered the jazz spotlight—thanks to his dazzling work filling in for Oscar Moore alongside Nat King Cole, Illinois Jacquet, and other superstars —at the first of the prestigious Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts.

By his mid-thirties, Paul had successfully combined Reinhardt-inspired jazz playing and the western swing and twang of his Rhubarb Red persona into one distinctive, electrifying style. In the Les Paul Trio he translated the dizzying runs and unusual harmonies found on Jazz at the Philharmonic into a slower, subtler, more commercial approach. His novelty instrumentals were tighter, brasher, and punctuated with effects. Overall, the trademark Les Paul sound was razor-sharp, clean-shaven, and divinely smooth.

As small combos eclipsed big bands toward the end of World War II, Les Paul Trio’s popularity grew. They cut records for Decca both alone and behind the likes of Helen Forrest, the Andrews Sisters, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Dick Hayes, and, most notably, Bing Crosby. Since 1945, when the crooner brought them into the studio to back him on a few numbers, the Trio had become regular guests on Crosby’s hit radio show. The highlight of the session was Paul’s first No. 1 hit and million-seller, the gorgeous “It’s Been a Long, Long Time.”

Meanwhile, Paul began to experiment with dubbing live tracks over recorded tracks, also altering the playback speed. This resulted in “Lover (When You’re Near Me),” his revolutionary 1947 predecessor to multi-track recording. The hit instrumental featured Les Paul on eight different electric guitar parts, all playing together.

In 1948, Paul nearly lost his life to a devastating car crash that shattered his right arm and elbow. Still, he convinced doctors to set his broken arm in the guitar-picking and cradling position. Laid up but undaunted, Paul acquired a first generation Ampex tape recorder from Crosby in 1949, and began his most important multi-tracking adventure, adding a fourth head to the recorder to create sound-on-sound recordings. While tinkering with the machine and its many possibilities, he also came up with tape delay. These tricks, along with another recent Les Paul innovation—close mic-ing vocals—were integrated for the first time on a single recording: the 1950 No. 1 tour de force “How High the Moon.”

This historic track was performed during a duo with future wife Mary Ford. The couple’s prolific string of hits for Capitol Records not only included some of the most popular recordings of the early 1950s, but also wrote the book on contemporary studio production. The dense but crystal clear harmonic layering of guitars and vocals, along with Ford’s close mic-ed voice and Paul’s guitar effects, produced distinctively contemporary recordings with unprecedented sonic qualities. Through hits, tours, and popular radio shows, Paul and Ford kept one foot in the technological vanguard and the other in the cultural mainstream.

All the while, Les Paul continued to pine for the perfect guitar. Though The Log came close, it wasn’t quite what he was after. In the early 1950s, Gibson Guitar would cultivate a partnership with Paul that would lead to the creation of the guitar he’d seen only in his dreams. In 1948, Gibson elected to design its first solidbody, and Paul, a self-described “dyed-in-the-wool Gibson man,” seemed the right man for the job. Gibson avidly courted the guitar legend, even driving deep into the Pennsylvania mountains to deliver the first model to newlyweds Les Paul and Mary Ford.

“Les played it, and his eyes lighted up,” then-Gibson President Ted McCarty has recalled. The year was 1950, and Paul had just signed on as the namesake of Gibson’s first electric solidbody, with exclusive design privileges. Working closely with Paul, Gibson forged a relationship that would change popular culture forever. The Gibson Les Paul model—the most powerful and respected electric guitar in history—began with the 1952 release of the Les Paul Goldtop. After introducing the original Les Paul Goldtop in 1952, Gibson issued the Black Beauty, the mahogany-topped Les Paul Custom, in 1954. The Les Paul Junior (1954) and Special (1955) were also introduced before the canonical Les Paul Standard hit the market in 1958. With revolutionary humbucker pickups, this sunburst classic has remained unchanged for the half-century since it hit the market.

With the rise of the rock ’n’ roll revolution of 1955, Les Paul and Mary Ford’s popularity began to wane with younger listeners, though Paul would prove to be a massive influence on younger generation of guitarists. Still, Paul and Ford maintained their iconic presence with their wildly popular television show, which ran from 1953-1960. In 1964, the couple, parents to a son and daughter, divorced. Paul began playing in Japan, and recorded an LP for London Records before poor health forced him to take time off—as much as someone so inspired can take time off.

In the 1977, Paul resurfaced with a Grammy-winning Chet Atkins collaboration, Chester and Lester. Then the ailing guitarist, who’d already suffered arthritis and permanent hearing loss, had a heart attack, followed by bypass surgery.

Ever stubborn, Les recovered, and returned to live performance in the late 1980s. Until recently Les continued to perform two weekly New York shows with the Les Paul Trio, even releasing the 2005 double-Grammy winner Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played, featuring collaborations with a veritable who’s who of the electric guitar, including dozens of illustrious fans like Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Joe Perry. In 2008, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid tribute to Les Paul in a week-long celebration of his life which culminated with a live performance by Les himself.

Les Paul has since become the only individual to share membership into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Les is survived by his three sons Lester (Rus) G. Paul, Gene W. Paul and Robert (Bobby) R. Paul, his daughter Colleen Wess, son-in-law Gary Wess, long time friend Arlene Palmer, five grandchildren and five great grandchildren. A private Funeral service will be held in New York. A service in Waukesha, WI will be announced at a later date. Details will follow and will be announced for all services. Memorial tributes for the public will be announced at a future date.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Les Paul Foundation, 236 West 30th Street, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10001.

Today, I stumbled across this “podcast” on the subject of the music business and its future and thought I’d like to share this with folks here. Since many of you are in the music business either part time, or full-time this is an issue that relates to you directly.

Greg Kot, is music critic for the Chicago Tribune and others, and he wrote a book called Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music. In a recent podcast interview on Public Radio International, he enumerates the precise downfall of record labels and why iTunes isn’t their savior.

Greg Kot

In his interview in the podcast below on — The Sound of Young America, Kot states that the music industry was actually one of the primary causes of piracy. The corporatization of radio, tightly controlled playlists and even the explosion of boy bands in the late 1990s, meant in turn that commercial radio was nearly ruined. There was little or no room for new groups or even genuine out of the box geniuses like, say, Prince or David Birne, and devoid of “good” music, the market simply reacted with Napster and others. It was the only way for people to actually find “good music.”

Kot lays out all the standard points—most artists don’t make money on record sales and the download revolution has encouraged the indie groups and a huge variety of new and exciting acts. Plus he says that the RIAA’s insistence on trying to sue piracy out of existence only led to the public having absolutely no guilt about pirating music. He also doesn’t think that iTunes, is the savior of the music business either.

Take a listen to this podcast below… and then use the comment form below to give me your take on it:

The Sound of Young America

NOTE: I’ve been told that Internet Explorer is not showing the embeded audio player that other browsers are showing in this post. If you don’t see the player above then follow this link: Greg Kot Interview

This article demonstrates the usage of two FREE software tools that will help you learn and archive guitar licks. There are better tools out there, but you must pay. The lick used here is a fairly simple lick, that I wouldn’t consider it complicated enough to require slowing it down. But I didn’t want to dive into something too complicated for the first example.

Slow that Lick Down
I spent a lot of my early years trying to learn guitar licks. I got to a point where I could quickly copy anything that was of a reasonable speed and was comprised of a diatonic scale. Chromatics, particularly diminished and augmented notes would twist my ears and made it more difficult. Then of course the faster the lick, the harder it was to pick out the notes. I’m better now with diminished and augmented phrases, but speed can be a problem.

The old record player I used had four speeds. 16, 33-1/3, 45, and 78RPM. Slowing 45s down to 33-1/3 didn’t work well at all. None of the 78RPMs had anything I wanted to learn on them. But, slowing a 33-1/3RPM record down to 16RPM was very close to an octave. The comparison note was an octave low, but it was still helpful. It would need to be 16-2/3RPM to be exact. I remember taking my mother’s fingernail polish and applying it to the stepped shaft of the motor to increase the 16RPM section closer to 16-2/3RPM. I added too much and made it worse. I tried sanding it down, but never got it exactly right. 

We are now in the world of digital signal processing. The tempo of a song can be changed without changing its pitch. There are several software tools especially made for this application that work really well, and are worth the money of you do this frequently.

I found a free software application called Audacity. It has an amazing amount of capability for free. A free copy can be downloaded here.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows

The processing of the audio is comprised of three steps.

1. The song length is trimmed down to part of the song that has the lick you are trying to learn. This makes for a smaller archival size, and allows you to set your audio player to loop mode so it can be played over and over.
2. Slow the tempo down. The further slowed it is, the more “choppy” the sound is. I often find that 30% of the original tempo renders audio that is generally useable for learning the lick.
3. Filter out the unwanted spectrum of the audio. The guitar is in the midrange of the audio spectrum. The bass and high treble can be filtered out so it is not distracting.

The slowed down lick does not sound that good, but it is plenty adequate to learn from. Here is a video demo on using Audacity to trim, slow down, and filter a guitar lick.

(You may want to double-click on the video below and go to Youtube to play this full screen)

Here is the MP3 File of the slowed down lick.

Transcribing Guitar Tablature
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I guess I’m considered by some as an old dog, but I can learn new tricks. The problem is, I forget them! Short term memory degradation is really a tough thing for me. I can remember my 1^st grade school bus number, but can’t remember what I did yesterday. There are licks I learned back then that I will never forget. There are licks I learn now, that I document, but look back on my computer a year later and forgot that I documented it. However, I believe anyone should archive licks. Once learned, it is good to go back and rehearse it. 

There are numerous music score and/or guitar tablature editors. Early forms of guitar tablature had a major flaw, since no time notation was included. Most of the current tablature editors allow the user to input the notes in tablature, along with the duration of the note. The software will simultaneously generate conventional music score, and use a MIDI player to playback the notes. Having the ability to playback the music is most valuable. The user can confirm the correct notes and the correct timing.

Here is a concise webpage on tablature.
http://www.jazzguitar.be/how_to_read_guitar_tablature.html

I recently found Power Tab, and free tablature editor application. It has a few bugs and issues I don’t like, but what the heck. It’s FREE. The free download can be found here.

http://download.cnet.com/Power-Tab-Editor/3000-2133_4-10502034.html

Here is a video demonstrating how to use Power Tab, documenting the slowed down lick above.
(You may want to double-click on the video below and go to Youtube to play this full screen)

I hope you find this useful.

Leo Fender is often cited as one of the most influential figures in the development of electric instruments in the 20th century. August 10, 2009 is the 100th anniversary of his birth. He died in 1991 and is survived by his second wife, Phyllis Fender.

Leo Fender’s enormous effect on music worldwide is simple to describe — music simply would not sound the way it does today without him. His revered classics of design; the Telecaster®, Stratocaster®, Precision Bass® and Jazz Bass® guitars changed the way that music was performed and recorded by the entire world.

It’s difficult to overstate Mr. Fender’s impact on the music industry. Leo altered the look, the sound, and the personality of music around the world. Yet, it would be hard to imagine a man of more common appearance or one more modest and unassuming. Long time Fender employee, the late Freddie Tavares said, “He never wore any kind of clothes that you’d expect a person in his position to wear. People didn’t have the slightest idea he was any kind of a wheel. I would have to point him out to someone who didn’t know him. ‘See that man over there? He owns everything.””

Leo Fender never drank nor smoked and, outside of his work, had few close friends. He had no children. “His guitars and amps, those were his kids” one associate is quoted as saying about him. He was described by more than one person as something of a recluse. While he dabbled in photography, liked to play pinochle, and owned an expensive boat, his only true hobby, perhaps his obsession, was his work. He was a man of few words. He did not play guitar.

Yet the world of guitars owes everything to the contributions of one man, Leo Fender. Happy 100th Birthday Mr. Fender. We all celebrate your life and will for another 100 years to come.

No matter our playing level, we all appreciate the electric guitar—especially Telecasters—and at the end of the day we like to plug into something that makes them sound great. As with all guitar gear, our decisions usually fall into two categories. The first is; will it give me that elusive tone I’m looking for and the second; can I save a few bucks and still get that sound? 

One of the best ways you can save money and still own a customized, hand wired tube amp is to build it yourself. I know what you’re thinking; Whoa, schematics look like Chinese take-out menus to me! Well, my answer is: if a numskull like myself can build my own amps, then ANYONE can.

Some TDPRI members are electrical engineers, some are amp repairmen, and some are untrained but have lifelong experience with amp building. The rest of us, including myself, are none of the above. When I stumbled across TDPRI I didn’t know much and still don’t. But, like most guitar players, I am obsessed with guitar gear. One week I was posting about an old ’70s Fender Champ Amp I just bought and how it needed some servicing. As the week progressed many TDPers gave me the confidence, knowledge, and internet resources to repair the amp myself to save money. As I considered replacing aging capacitors and looked at a few old hand drawn Fender Champ amp layouts—since I couldn’t read schematics, I thought “I bet I could just build one of these for half the price of buying one!”

Naturally, for a guy without any amp repair/building experience, the hardest part was just jumping in and doing it. And, the experienced guys on the forum constantly reminded me that amps have high voltages, even when turned off or unplugged and can shock or even kill. This, of course, scared the hell out of me. This is not to say they discouraged my desire to build my own amp. But, with a great deal of patience and kindness, fellow TDPRI members helped educate me on the basics of safety and amp building.

Fast forward several years, and here I am – sitting in my home studio with over a dozen amps and speaker cabinets I built for myself. I still don’t have an electrical engineering degree, I am awful at woodworking, I’m still not the sharpest tool in the shed, and I have had some speed bumps in the learning process. The one thing I do have (other than too many amps and too little room to store them) is proof that it can be done by anyone.

It is my hope that with this and future articles I can give you some confidence and motivation to start down the road to building your own great homemade amp (or amps).

In future articles I will be discussing safety concerns and a few of the basics, later articles may discuss footswitching relays and other atypical aspects of amp building.  In the meantime, visit the Shock Brother’s DIY Amps forum here on TDPRI to get a feel for the subject at hand.

Until next time: keep soldering!
JohnnyCrash

The 70’s had some ground breaking music indeed and that was a great time to be learning guitar. That trip to Dad’s studio left a big impression on this kid. I wanted…  I needed to own a studio someday. I started thinking of the importance of writing original music and the desire to hear it on tape.

I bought some studio time at Tom Rowe’s studio in Auburn, ME. Tom was the bassist for the internationally acclaimed “Schooner Fare” and he had a sweet little 8 track facility in his shed. That was where I recorded the first version of  my first original song “Better Years” when I was 16. I recall Tom suggesting a solo on acoustic before the big lead solo. Very seventy’s indeed and it was a great idea.

In 1979 while living in Kennewick, WA I recorded at the legendary Kaye Smith recording studio in Seattle. The two room studio had a pair of API consoles and a Studor 24 track tape machine. Heart recorded “Barracuda” on the same console we used in studio B. That was my first taste of the big time recording machines. The sound we got was incredible. The Ampex 2 inch tape was expensive as hell and we barely had enough money to record the 2 songs we wrote.

In the 80’s like most other musicians I had various 4 track cassette recorders. I spent endless hours noodling away with my guitar and my brain’s third hemisphere that old tape machine. I went through a lot of girlfriends back then they didn’t appreciate the competition for my time I guess?

1985 I signed a recording contract with Brighton Road Productions a small artist management company run by my good friend Russell Whitaker. Russell built a studio in Austin Texas and later moved it up to Dallas. He named it The “Dallas Sound Lab” and it is still there. The name has changed to “Media Tech Institute” and the facility doubles as a school for the recording arts and sciences.

Russell and I became great friends over the years and I recorded several albums at his studio. Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top, Pantera have all recorded there and the list goes on and on. Tim Kimsey engineered a lot of my music and his skill behind that SSL SL6056E console was an inspiration to me. In 1997 Russell asked me to come work as an engineer at the lab. How could I refuse what I had considered a dream come true. To work at a world class facility.

While working there I had the opportunity to do some fantastic and tough engineering jobs. Half time commentary with Pat Sommerall and me engineering in Dallas, producers in N.Y. and the game was in L. A. all live on a ISDN lines! Whether it was Reverend Horton Heat in studio A or Tiger Woods dad in studio D it was always something big. I remember Russ calling me after I had just left the studio and a long day of editing and saying “Get your ass back down here U2 will be here in 1 hour and your assistant engineer! Then there was the time we did ADR for a movie called Titanic.

Family obligations sent me packing and I had to move back to Maine. So I thought maybe it’s time to spend some money on a home studio? A real one that would be sonically and economically feasible. Bought a Mac G5 and Pro Tools. One of the best investments I have ever made. Been laying down tracks ever since and getting a decent sound like the big rooms.

Recording songs like “Oasis” and Waylon Jennings  ”Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way“ has been a blast. Add the fact that I can do it on my own time at home and relatively cheap. I have even had all my old 2 inch 24 track analog tapes and 24 track digital stuff converted to DVD’s so I can load em up in PT and have a modern go at them. A good example of this would be “The Cowboy Song” an old tune by The Amazing Rhythm Aces we recorded in Dallas. I used drums from 1987 and laid guitar and vocals in 2007 at home.

It’s fun recording the sound of yesterday today!

George Fullerton wasn’t a household name, but he contributed as much to modern music as just about anybody. With the massive media coverage surrounding a slew of celebrity deaths, the mainstream media overlooked the news that George Fullerton died on July 4 at age 86. But as one of those who helped put the twang in country music, it would be a travesty to overlook his passing.

Many would say that George Fullerton was an essential part of the Fender Company’s DNA. Fullerton was Leo Fender’s right-hand man during the key years of the Fender guitar company in the ’50s and ’60s. Leo Fender came up with the basic ideas for the guitar designs, but Fullerton helped refine them and figured out how to manufacture the instruments as a product most musicians could afford. If they had done nothing else, their place in music history would be sealed by creating two iconic electric guitars — the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster models.

But George’s impact didn’t stop there. When CBS bought the company from Leo Fender it was George that helped guide them through the transition and showed them what a real Fender was. And, when Leo started up a new guitar company later it was George and Leo that made the G & L Brand (hint: George & Leo = G & L) of guitar the next great thing from Leo Fender.

George was involved in everything. But perhaps he’s best known for his impact on the design and production of the Fender Stratocaster — Leo’s iconic Rock Guitar as a follow-up to his Telecaster "Country" guitar. A guitar played by Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler and many other rock legends.

It is more than amazing to think that Fender and Fullerton dreamed up those guitars and that their designs from more than 50 years ago are still embraced by so many musicians and is really the pinnacle of guitar design for going on 60 years now.

That was until a friend of mine Chris Hancock called me one day and said “Arlo have you seen this Glendale guitar site? The guy makes Telecaster body’s out of Pine!” Chris and I met on a forum. We were members of a WWII Submariners forum. We were posting about U-Boats and found out that each of us lived in Maine [The Pine Tree State]. Immediately the two of us hit it off and although never meeting face to face we talked almost daily on the phone. One day Chris mentioned that he played guitar and I proceeded to tell him that I did as well and from that day forward we were very good friends. We had a lot in common and we didn’t even know what each other looked like. Sound familiar?

Forums, what a cool invention indeed. They can be loaded with a wealth of knowledge and on the flip side of the coin a lot of stupidity. Forums are a strange unforgiving world of words. You post make friends, acquaintances, enemy’s, call some members, talk and learn from each other. Joining a good forum can be a serious eye opener. For me it was becoming a member of the TDPRI that opened up the world of guitar building and specificaly the use of Pine. At first I was bursting with questions about Pine. Was it too soft? Does it have good tone? How to paint it?

I found the TDPRI Googling for Pine Telecasters. Chris and I had made a bet to see who would be the first to own a Pine Telecaster. We were very competitive in many ways. Unfortunately my dear friend Chris died before either of us had the opportunity to actually meet face to face. Ironically it was an email from a friend of Chris’s that informed me of his death. This thing called the Internet is complex and yet so incredibly informative.

After joining the TDPRI and asking how to find a Pine body I was directed to a guy in upstate N. Y. by the name of Marty McClary. He had 3 completed Pine Telecaster body’s for sale at the time and all of them looked superb. So I bought em all. They were all Eastern Pine which is commonly found here in Maine and the North Eastern provinces. Two of them were straight grained and quarter sawn and both were one piece.  The third was a reclaimed barn Pine two piece and said to be over 100 years old. One of the quarter sawn body’s became my beloved Ol’ Piney.

Chris and I had a plan to have a Pine Telecaster with no finish. That is why Ol’ Piney never got a coat of paint. I simply used Howard’s Feed n Wax as a preservative. That guitar is fragrant like Pine to this day.

The Pros of building with Pine.

It is a very beautiful species of wood. It is from the same family as Spruce and has an elasticity that according to my good friend Bill Lawrence propagates sound waves very well. It can be finished in a number of ways. And probably one of the biggest reasons people like it is it’s weight is usually very light. This of course depends on the species. Not all Pine is created equally my friend.

The Cons of building with Pine.

It is soft and can dent very easily. There are some people who use wood hardener. I personally have never used a hardener. Ron Kirn has an ingenious method of removing a dent using a steam iron and cloth. Some species of Pine like Southern Yellow are very heavy. I have used a species from California called “Digger Pine” that is a heavy species. Excellent for a bass guitar with a long neck or a baritone guitar. The weight helps counter balance the long neck.

There is a certain stigma that follows the word Pine. Pine used to make me think of junk wood. You know like “If your going to build a tree house in the back yard for the kids you might as well use a cheap wood.” Cheap wood usually means Pine. Easy to see why it is not considered to be a superb wood for an electric guitar. But not everyone will agree with that line of thinking at least in some circles. I am not just a Pine believer I am convinced.

Watch this space for his first article on the subject.