Dolphinstreet Guitar Blog

Use the 6th in blues

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Use the Major 6th when improvising blues

Here is a quick tip for those who are stuck in the pentatonic or blues scale, when playing blues leads. Try using the Major 6th (often guitarists will call it just the 6th, even though there is also a minor 6th, which is not used nearly as much in blues).

Let's say you are playing in the key of A. If you play the A minor pentatonic backwards, the next note you arrive at is G. That's a good one when playing blues, because it's the minor 7th note, if we're talking intervals. It's a very strong note to end licks on.

Now, to find the 6th, just play the next available lower note - F#. This is the major 6th from the A major scale. It works great, because that note can be used in most minor and major scales, so it won't sound very out there. In fact, if you listen to blues players like BB King and Clapton, you hear they do it frequently.

It's probably not as strong as the minor 7th for ending licks on, but it works great as a lead-in note, or as a part of a good phrase. I use it all the time.

BB King example

Listen to the three notes at 0:13-0:14 into the video. That 2nd note is the 6th.

Clapton example

Listen to the notes at 2:34 into the video. Can you identify the 6th?

The 6th gives a slightly different sound to playing blues. I think it sounds happier, so to speak, or at least less static than the usual minor blues pentatonic. Use it to your advantage!

You can of course use the 6th in any kind of music; it's not just for blues. Try it when playing rock or funk or whatever style you play - it really works for almost anything.

Interval Reference

Wikipedia - http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(music)

In case you are interested in lessons from me on this subject, I do offer web cam guitar lessons.

Tube Mic Preamp

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Tube Mic Preamp

The world of mic preamps is a large and confusing place for newbies. Questions inevitably come up. Should you get a tube preamp or solid state? Should get one with eq options on, compressor, class A, mono or dual preamp? Digital outs, phantom power, variable impedance? It can be confusing, to say the least.

I bought an ART Tube MP Studio Mic Preamp a while back, initially intended for voice overs on videos. I also tried it for my SM57 when miking my guitar amp.

This preamp is CHEAP, about as cheap as it can get. I knew it was not going to be stellar, but for 30 bucks, hey I'd like to try it, especially since I saw so many glowing reviews for it.

Well, I can't say it's a terrific preamp, and it should come as no surprise. Ever heard of the expression - you get what you pay for? Well, when it comes to this kind of technology, it is largely true.

On the good side, it does the job, and it made my microphone sound fine. Not stellar, but definitely not a bad sound. Lots of gain on tap in this unit, and the voice overs I made sounded quite alright.

The ART has decent features too:

Provides Superior Preamplification for: Microphones, Instruments and Line Level Sources
Analog VU Meter
OPL Output Protection Limiter
Hand-Selected 12AX7A Vacuum Tube
Variable Input and Output Gain Controls

On the bad side? Noise. Bad noise. I don't know why, but in one location, using a condenser microphone, the noise was acceptable for a video voice over. I later used the ART preamp for miking my amp in my studio, and boy - the noise was unreal. I could not dial it out. I tried many different ways, but in the end, a low humming noise destroyed any chance I had of making a good recording.

The tube in this preamp is more of a gimmick than anything else. It doesn't do a whole lot to improve the tone.

In summary, if you want the cheapest microphone preamp you can get, just to boost your signal, this one might work for you. If you want low noise, excellent sound, look elsewhere.

If you are interested in a high quality, great sounding mic preamp that doesn't cost a fortune, have a look at the Golden Age Project Pre-73 Preamp. This preamp is one of the better ones you can get at this price point, and it doesn't have any of the noise issues that the ART tube MP preamp has. I will write more about the Golden Age Pre-73 later, as it is one killer unit if you are interested in getting great sounding recordings.

New Dolphinstreet Logo

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:01 GMT

New Dolphinstreet Logo

I have created a new logo for Dolphinstreet. Check it out in the header at the top of the page.

It is quite simple, but that was my intent - a simple, effective logo for my website. What I had before was really just a mess. I'm hoping this will make the name of the website clearer, and the picture of me and my Suhr guitar indicates what this is all about.

New John Hiatt Album - Open Road

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:01 GMT

New John Hiatt Album - Open Road

John Hiatt just released a new album yesterday. I bought it on iTunes the very same day, and I've been listening to it today.

I have been a fan of John Hiatt for a long time now. He is a tremendous song writer, and it's always fun to check out a new album by him.

It is probably too early to give a good review after listening through to the album just once, but my first thoughts are the album could have had stronger tunes. The opening track Open Road is awesome, I really like it. After that, there's quite a few non-memorable tunes. In fact, I felt the same way after his previous album Same Old Man, which also seemed a bit weaker than most of his work during the last 2 decades.

The production sounds sloppy too. I mean, I like dirty, down to earth, rough recordings, but there are some tracks on this album which sound almost too unpolished, if you know what I mean. A bit more strong vocal harmonies would have helped too, to make the tunes more catchy and melodic.

Lyrics are great though. Hiatt has an amazing ability to write interesting lyrics about every day life. Hiatt has his own style, and I find him quite unique as a songwriter and singer. If you haven't heard him ever, you need to go check out the albums Perfectly Good Guitar, Bring The Family and Slow Turning. That's Hiatt at his best, in my opinion.

However, I will give the new album Open Road more chances. You know how sometimes an album gets stronger the more you listen to it? Always give yourself enough time to really listen to new material.

You can have a listen on John's Myspace page, and see what you think. I'd love to hear how you like the album.

Youtube comment of the month - February 2010

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Youtube comment of the month - February 2010

Ok, I admit I don't look like George Clooney or Cary Grant... so here are two funny comments, which share the award for February.

I am always entertained reading the youtube comments - and I do get a lot of positive feedback. Occasionally a few crappy comments pop up, but that's no problem.

Hey, I can take it! My skin is pretty thick.

Its only the glasses that give the creepy vibe.

From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIJxv3WJocU

ur a funny lookin' fella

From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQuVRnNfoeU

Darwin Quotes

Website Award from Jemsite

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:01 GMT

I won an award from Jemsite

Website Awards are something I don't win a whole lot of. The fact is, my website could use a face lift. I've been so busy with other things, and the task of making this place look a bit tidier has ended up on the back burner. So, winning an award is definitely flattering.

The website Jemsite is a cool guitar place too. They have lots of members and plenty of interesting topics to read. I imagine the website must have started out being focused on Ibanez guitars, but there's a lot more than just Ibanez on there now.

The Award

Jemsite contacted me and said:

... quite a few Jemsite members write to me to tell me about how much they enjoy your site and think its a great guitar resource. Thus, that has made to decide to award your site our new "Recommended Reading" medal (see below) and list you on our site's Recommended Reading page.

I'm honored! Here is the award graphic. I would like one made out of gold sent to me though! Haha!

Jemsite proudly awards
this site asRecommended Reading Please vote for itin the community!
Vote for us!

Hockey Fight Song

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Hockey Fight Song

A while ago, my friend Stefan in Sweden asked me if I was interested in adding a guitar solo to a "hockey fight song" he had written. This song was meant to be used by a hockey team in Sweden, and the thought of my guitar solo being heard by hockey fans and players everytime the team had a game must have appealed to my ego... so I did it.

I think it's a great hockey tune. Lots of whoooo's and distorted guitars. For the guitar solo, I used my Suhr Classic through a Line 6 Toneport. I think I used the SLO amp model, and I added some delay in Garageband. There's a lot of distortion on this guitar tone, more than I usually use. I also tried to play a bit differently than I usually do, in order to get the solo to fit the tune. I am not sure how well it worked.

Here is the tune, for you listening pleasure (or not). BHC hockey song - it is hosted on Box.net.

Another thing, which I will write more about at a different time, it is absolutely possible to get good guitar tone from software modelers. The Line 6 Toneport and Pod Farm combination is really good, and I highly recommend using this for practice and recording. It is also very affordable, and gives you most of what you'll ever need for home recording projects.

Youtube comment of the month - January 2010

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Youtube comment of the month - January 2010

You know, I get a lot of comments on my youtube videos. Some of them are really funny too, so I've decided to post the funniest or most interesting comment for each month here on my blog, from now on. This should be an interesting journey! I do have a lot to choose from, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Canada Blues

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Canada Blues Music

What, there are good blues artists in Canada? Well, yes there are! Although live music seems to have become more scarce in recent years, there are still great blues artists out there, and there are plenty of good ones in Canada.

The Maple Blues Awards is Canada’s national blues awards program. Its goal is to promote blues music across Canada, and to recognize outstanding achievement in the field.

As a fresh way to find out what award-winning Canadian blues sounds like, let's have a listen to some of the Canadian artists who were winners at the Maple Blues Award 2010. These are youtube videos I found of these artists.

Special mention - do listen to the late Jeff Healey clip - it's from another great album called Mess of Blues (2009). The award for Recording of the Year 2009 is for the album Songs From The Road. Jeff was an incredible player who is sorely missed.

Electric Act Of The Year & Entertainer Of The Year

Monkey Junk

Tiger In Your Tank

Acoustic Act Of The Year

Harry Manx

Female Vocalist Of The Year

Suzie Vinnick

New Artist/Group Of The Year

Blackburn

Recording Of The Year

The late great Jeff Healey at the Islington Academy in London, England 2007

Practicing Guitar vs Buying Guitar Gear

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Practicing Guitar vs Buying Guitar Gear

Are you someone who feels you are not spending enough time practicing guitar, yet you look on eBay and guitar forums everyday to see if you can score some new guitar gear? I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, but I think this is a common "problem" among many guitar players. I am guilty of this too, I openly admit it. How do you think I acquired all the gear I have listed on this website!

However, I have noticed this G.A.S (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) is an illness that comes and goes for me. Lately, it's been mostly "goes", and perhaps that's because I have enough stuff now to play with. Although I could always use one of this or that, my little devil on the shoulder tells me... and sometimes he wins, sometimes not.

Now, the easy answer here is of course - stop buying gear, start playing guitar - if practicing and improving your playing is important enough for you. If you'd rather just have fun with gear, well then there you go. But if you want to improve as a player, you need to schedule time in for practicing guitar.

There is no substitute for hard work and time spent practicing when it comes to playing an instrument. There are many studies on this topic, and here is a study regarding children where improvements were seen on tests measuring verbal ability and visual pattern completion (skills not normally associated with music).

Bottom line is - if you want to play better, play more! And stop buying gear all the time, if you are "one of those guys..."

I do think many of us put off practicing, because they think it won't do much for their improvement, and it's easy to find excuses to not work on things that require some level of structured effort. I am guilty myself! I am busy with running, family, video lessons creation, etc. I could practice more than I do, and in fact, that is one thing I intend to improve upon in 2010. I want to get a better. I am working on knowing the fretboard better, chord voicings, finger picking, soloing concepts, etc. By the end of the year, I hope to have a recording or two, where I'm happy with my playing.

So, which one of these two "stereotypes" are you?

Digital Wireless from Line 6

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Digital Wireless from Line 6

I have not used wireless systems myself, because I have not had a need to. I usually just stand in one spot, more or less, when I gig. I remember in the past, some friends of mine used wireless systems. They were going for that stage presence idea (read: jump around on stage like squirrels on caffeine) and needed that freedom of no cords.

What I also remember is that those guys didn't have good tone. In those days (80s), these rigs were pretty big and everyone was using lots of effects, so perhaps it didn't matter that much that their tone suffered. In any case, I was never impressed or interested in that technology.

Fast forward to today. I recently discovered that Line 6 has developed a system with a whole new idea. It's a digital wireless technology, which is said to not alter your tone at all. This sounds very interesting. Not having to worry about cables while still having a excellent signal going into one's gear certainly sounds appealing.

I have not yet tried this myself, but I have talked to some guys who use it, and they told me your tone is not suffering at all when playing through this system. It's just like playing through a quality cable. Wow!

This looks like a great product for those who are gigging lots and need that freedom on stage, without guitar cables. If you try this, let me know what your impressions are.

Video

Here is some information from Line 6 about this system.

LINE 6 LAUNCHES RELAY™ DIGITAL WIRELESS SYSTEMS WORLD WIDE

"Relay digital guitar wireless systems represent a revolution in wireless technology," remarked Darrell Smith, Category Manager of Guitar Wireless Products at Line 6. "They were built from the ground up, for guitarists by guitarists, to provide unprecedented performance on all fronts that matter to musicians: tone, dynamics, dependability, and ease of use. Plus, they’re approved and ready to tour all over the world."

The Relay line, which includes two stompbox-style systems and one rack-mountable system, delivers the kind of high-quality audio normally associated with expensive audio cables. The digital wireless systems provide full-range 10Hz-20kHz frequency response, exceedingly low noise with up to 120dB dynamic range (compared to the 50Hz-15kHz frequency response and >90dB dynamic range offered by comparable analog wireless systems), and studio-quality resolution with 24-bit A/D conversion.

The digital transmission is protected by a variety of proprietary technologies. VWT™ (Virtual Wire Transmission) ensures a cable-like performance, and DCL™ (Digital Channel Lock) technology ensures dependability by locking out all sources of interference. With all channels available all the time, complex channel co-ordination and searching are simply not required.

Built for worldwide use, Relay digital wireless systems broadcast in the 2.4GHz band. This avoids signal interference created by high-power sources and analog wireless systems. It also certifies that Relay digital wireless systems will operate with the same audio quality and ease in every country and region that they are used.

Other innovations featured in each system include cable tone simulation, out-of-the-box operation, and internally mounted antennas.

Relay G30, a six channel stompbox-style system released earlier this year into European markets, has garnered critical acclaim. The system was named "Guitar Accessory of the Year, 2009" by MusicRadar.com, the #1 website for musicians. "It's time to be brave and cut that cord," wrote MusicRadar.com. "The freedom afforded by a reliable and good-sounding wireless system shouldn't be underestimated. Line 6 has truly picked up the baton."

Steve Stevens, legendary guitarist for Billy Idol and others, remarks about Relay G30: "I am stunned by how amazing it sounds. Did [Line 6] make a pact with the devil? Because there are systems that cost well over $3,000 that sound nowhere near as good. It is also such a refreshing aspect that it uses a normal quarter-inch cable."

Billy Sheehan, in-demand bassist and songwriter whose resume includes David Lee Roth, Mr. Big and Steve Vai, offers "[Relay G30] sounds excellent! [It has] lots of great features nobody else thought of – like the 1/4 inch jack!"

"I just wanted to let you know how great I think the [Relay G30] wireless units are," wrote Alex Suarez, bassist for New York City synth-pop band Cobra Starship, in an email to Line 6. "I really couldn’t believe how compact the units actually were. And I like how simple and easy it all runs together. They sound and work great. Its compact size makes it really easy to bring overseas too!"

Relay G30 ($419.99 MSPR) is now available in the United States and around the world. Relay G50 ($559.99 MSRP), the 12-channel stompbox-style system, and Relay G90 ($839.99 MSRP), the 12-channel rack-mountable system, will be available worldwide March, 2010.

Hagstrom Swede Video Review

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Hagstrom Swede Video Review

Or, "how many guitars does a guy need?"

My local music store Music Centre Canada has had this gold top Swede guitar on the wall for a long, long time. I played it in the store a few times, and every time, I was amazed at the sheer quality of this guitar. It's priced right too, and I've been sure next time I stop by, someone will have bought it. Nope, didnt happen. The store sold several white Swedes, so perhaps the gold top colour doesn't appeal to everyone. I think it's classy!

So, long story short - I bought it. I stopped by the store to pick up a book. I tried the Swede yet one more time, and felt like it spoke to me: get me, we'll have fun together!, or something like that. I do know guitars don't usually speak to people, but I promise - it got into my head somehow!

This weekend, I've been busy getting set up in my new studio (more on that soon), and of course, playing my new baby! I posted a video demo today of this guitar, so here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think.

Hagstrom Swede Video

Musicians Friend has these

Hagstrom Swede Electric Guitar Gold Top

Marshall JMD:1 amps

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Marshall JMD:1 amps

New 50 and 100 watt Digital Marshall amps? Yep, it's true. Marshall now introduces the JMD:1 Series. The Marshall JMD:1 integrates an all-tube power amp, advanced digital preamp and studio-quality multi-effects to deliver an amp with a lot of versatility, from what I understand.

The idea seems to be to combine the benefits of new technologies and the legacy of tube power. The Marshall JMD:1 is marketed as the ideal amp for the modern musician seeking an authentic tone.

Video Demo

Overview

The preamp offers 16 presets divided into clean, crunch, overdrive, and lead categories; all are easily accessed via a single knob. These 16 settings reflect tones from a wide range of current and historic popular Marshall amps. Patented technology, developed in conjunction with the Swedish developers Softube, provides a truly natural playing experience. Unlike preamps that simply mimic a certain sound, the JMD:1 uses complex algorithms to replicate amplifier topologies at the component level, providing a much more interactive performance. Featuring four fully-programmable channels, the JMD:1 Series also include Marshall's STOMPWARE® foot controller, providing instant access to 28 programmable sounds.

On the power stage side, the JMD:1 uses the acclaimed EL34 pentode vacuum tube to provide the distinctive Marshall sound. The 50-Watt models use two EL34 valves; the 100-Watt models employ four. External speaker jacks are provided in both 8-Ohm and 16-Ohm configurations. The amps??? design allows changes in the digital preamp settings to affect the valve power stage, creating a more musical and well-defined character for each sound.

The JMD:1 effects fall into three categories. Modulation Effects include a choice of Chorus, Phaser, Flanger or Tremolo. The Delay offers Tap-Tempo timing, as well as Hi-Fi, Analog, Tape or Multi voicings. The custom-voiced Reverb operates independently. The Series/Parallel FX Loop offers a dedicated Dry/Wet Mix control.

The back panel provides a balanced XLR line output featuring emulated speaker cabinet characteristics. This can be used live without the need to mic up the amp's speakers. The Standby/Silent Recording mode allows this output to be used while muting the speakers, for recording in a confined space. A Headphone Output, Line Input, and unbalanced (1/4") Line Output are also provided. MIDI ports allow up to 128 sound memories to be accessed via MIDI.

Hmm... my thoughts? Dunno, really. If it sounds good and doesn't break down, well then brilliant. However, the price point seems to be fairly high, compared to the competition. I guess time will tell how this pans out!

What do they cost?

JMD100: 100 Watt Head MSRP: $1500.00 Availability: February 2010 JMD102: 100 Watt 2 x 12" Combo MSRP: $1650.00 Availability: February 2010 JMD50: 50 Watt Head MSRP: $1350.00 Availability: February 2010 JMD501: 50 Watt 1 x 12" Combo MSRP: $1550.00 Availability: February 2010

Joe Bonamassa - great guitar player

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Joe Bonamassa - great guitar player

Joe is a great guitar player and a fairly young one too, but he's certainly no newbie. He's been around for many years already. I've seen an old clip of him on youtube as a kid with Danny Gatton. Awesome.

Joe is in some circles known as the new master of the Les Paul, although he's played Strats and Teles earlier in his career. It seem the Les Paul is his main love nowadays though.

He is also known for his amazing guitar tone, and he certainly is a guy who knows good tone. He's always got several amps running together, and his tone is always fantastic and inspiring. Marshall Jubilee, Van Weelden, Bogner, Carol-Ann are some of the amps he uses.

Oh, I forgot something important - he kicks ass on the guitar too! Great chops and feeling. I guess you could call him a rock player with great blues knowledge and feeling. Or perhaps a blues player with great rock chops? Hardly matters how you label him. I find him very inspiring to listen to, and I like his rock influences, as well as his amazing tone.

One more important thing to mention - he sings really good too. Not many great guitar players can sing well, but Joe is a great vocalist. Oh man, I wish I could sing like him!

Enough small talk - here are some cool clips for ya, including his amps, guitars and effects:

Scale Practice Tip

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Scale Practice Tip

Practicing scales while practicing finger stretches

Sometimes I get asked about how to practice scales and exercises. In fact, one of my guitar students asked me yesterday about finger exercises and whether they are worth doing.

That is a good question! What do I think? Well, if we are talking about playing random notes on the fretboard in a myriad of ways, I highly question the value of this. Think about it this way. If you have the option between these two:

playing something that makes musical sense while still giving you finger stretching practice.
playing random notes with random fingering and sounding completely pointless at the same time.

Which do you pick?

Subtle Hint - the answer is Option 1 ! Always try to make music as you practice. Music is, to most of us at least, not about random notes - it's about playing something melodic and musically interesting. So how do you do this then?

Well, it's simple, really. What you do is to practice a scale, arpeggio or perhaps even a short lick. Something musical, that you don't already know inside out. Learn this in several position on the neck, using different sets of strings.

It's important to not try to learn everything in one sitting. Only take on a little bit at a time, something you can handle without getting frustrated. Focus on memorizing the fingering, visualize the notes on fretboard before you play them, as well as after. It just takes time, and patience. Over time, you'll find yourself being able to play useful scales and lines effortlessly. Naturally, your fingers have been practicing these stretches in a way that makes sense - by playing music, which means the question about working on finger exercises can be thrown out the window. Finger exercises is exactly what you get when you practice scales and lines as I described.

For a practical example, try this. Go to Chordbook scales and decide on a key. Let's go with C for now. Next, pick a scale. Let's try C major scale. You immediately see how the black dots appear on the fretboard? Below the fretboard on the left is a play button. Click it. That is how the C major scale sounds like for that position on the neck.

Next, click on one of the scale variation buttons, numbered from 1 to 8, located to the right of the fretboard. Now, the C major scale is displayed somewhere else on the neck, probably using different sets of strings too. Practice that position for a while.

See the point with all this? You are practicing the C major scale, and you do get to practice stretches as well, while at the same time you learn where to find the scale in several places on the guitar. Very useful! You can continue this process now by picking different scales and keys in the dropdown list on that web page.

Last thing - don't try to do several positions/scale variations in one sitting. Take your time, because you can't rush memorization. Work on one position until you think you know it. Work on the next one, and when you think you know that one, go back and combine the first one with the second one. Do you still know them both well?

Hope you find this useful. Remember, we are learning for life, and there are no shortcuts or secrets to getting good at this stuff. Put in the time and the effort, and you will be rewarded by being able to play better and better, for the rest of your life.

Jet City Amps

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00:01 GMT

Jet City Amps

People are talking a lot about Jet City Amps lately, I've noticed. I can see why. These guitar amps are "designed by Soldano", but they are inexpensive. Furthermore, from what people have told me, they also sound very, very good.

There are so many good guitar amps out there today. The market seems packed with great amps, so it's not easy for new amp brands to stand out. The Jet City Amps already have the guitar community talking, so they must be doing something right.

The idea with these amps is to us a simple design, a cool look and a great price (KISS - Keep It Simple, Soldano). The amps are hand-built, although I don't really understand how that goes along with the low price tag. Either they are super fast to build or perhaps the person building them is working for peanuts?

The company themselves says - " Each amplifier is hand-built and rigorously tested, ensuring 100% legit tone, and unflinching reliability. When other brands snap like toothpicks, Jet City Amps eat it up and ask for more — no mods necessary. Welcome to Jet City Amplification."

I have not had a chance to test any of these amps yet, they are so new on the scene. It is very interesting that Mike Soldano is involved - he is a respected amp builder and knows how to build killer amps.

A friend of my bougth the JCA20 watt tube head, and he is very impressed by it. So is Guitar World, who gave this amp the Gold Award.

Videos

To get an idea of what tones these amps can deliver, have a look at the following video from Guitar World Magazine.

Jet City Amplification Product Line

JCA20H 20 watt all-tube head JCA100H 100 watt 2-channel all-tube head JCA2112RC 20 watt combo with reverb and 1x12” Jet City Custom Eminence driver JCA12S 1x12” extension cabinet with Jet City Custom Eminence driver JCA24S 2x12” extension cabinet with Jet City Eminence drivers JCA48S 4x12” extension cabinet with Eminence drivers
Pico Valve

http://www.jetcityamplification.com (really cool website!)

You can get a Jet City Amplification JCA20H 20W Tube Guitar Amp Head Black/Blue from Musician's Friend

Jet City Amplification JCA20H and JCA12S Half-Stack

The Jet City Amplification half-stack built on the 20W JCA20H tube guitar amp head and the 1x12 JCA12S guitar speaker cabinet, delivers killer tube tone in a nicely priced package.JCA20H 20W Tube Guitar Amp Head The Jet City JCA20H tube amp head delivers pure tube tone from a single-channel amplifier with absolutely no gimmick features to dilute the all-tube signal path. Elegance of design both inside and out deliver unflinching reliability in a guitar amp good-looking enough to make a girlfriend jealous.

With full EQ control and separate Preamp and Master volumes, Jet City JCA20H can deliver spanky cleans through crunchy overdrive.JCA12S 1x12 Guitar Speaker Cabinet The Jet City JCA12S guitar speaker cab is a straightforward tone box. The cabinet packs 70 watts of power, pumping through a 1 x 12" custom Eminence driver for killer Brit-inspired tone. Part of the "Design by Soldano" series, this extension cabinet features multi-ply hardwood cabinetry, 16-gauge steel chassis, custom transformers, and 2 oz. copper traces on thick printed circuit board for durable, roadworthy performance.

Happy New Year!

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Happy New Year!

On behalf of myself and my imaginary friends, we would like to wish you a very happy, healthy and successful 2010!

Thanks for all your support in 2009. We hope you learned something useful at Dolphinstreet.com, while having fun and getting inspired at the same time.

2010 will be an active year here on Dolphinstreet.com, so to speak. I have big plans for several upcoming lesson series, and I will keep you informed about this as the time gets closer to the products being finished and released.

Wishing you much success and happines in the year ahead and all the best to you and your loved ones…

Here's to an awesome 2010…

Streamlight Stinger

Camrose on Boxing Day

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Camrose on Boxing Day

Amalia and I went down to Mirror Lake in the afternoon on Christmas Day. It was a beautiful winter day, around minus 5 and lots of people out on the ice; some skating, some playing a game of hockey.

I was spinning around the ice with Amalia, and I also took a few photos of this beautiful day. Have a look here below.

I used my Olympus E-410 with a Zuiko 45-54 mm f/2.8-3.5 lens. I am really liking this lens!

Avatar is a great movie

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Avatar is a great movie

The movie Avatar is impressive, grand, beautiful and powerful and visually stunning. James Cameron knows how to create movies that have a strong and long lasting impression.

Story

The story is set in the year 2154. The people on Earth have used up most of the natural resources by wasteful living. The humans now plan to use military force to conquer a planet by the name of Pandora. This planet, about the size of Earth, is inhabited by peaceful people called the Na'vi. The Na'vi have blue skin, and are considerably larger than humans. They have wise and deeply respect nature. Pandora is rich in a kind of natural resource that people on Earth really want badly.

The people from Earth send in special forces and mercenaries with powerful weapons, with the intent to conquer Pandora, even if that means killing and destroying the Na'vi and their culture. The diplomatic attempts so far have not achieved much in getting the natives to relocate as the earthlings want. However, the Na'vi are no direct threat to the people of Earth in any way.

It is not possible for humans to breathe in Pandora's atmosphere, so the military have developed mind-controllable "avatars", which look identical to the Na'vi. One of the Avatars, a Marine soldier with missing legs, get very close to the Na'vi and helps them in every way to defend their land from their attackers.

Criticism

This story has received some interesting criticism so far. Looking at the story line, it's not surprising. It is not too hard to relate to the real world anti-war movement and environmentalist thinking. For example, see the Yahoo write up about the hidden messages of Avatar.

Yes, I believe it has a green/environmental as well as anti-war message. James Cameron is hardly denying his political views. I also think it's destined to develop a cult following, for several reasons. It has a pro-environmental and anti-war message, and it is also technically extraordinaire. The visuals in this movie are completely incredible and immediately made me want to go watch this movie again.

Personally, I love the message, I love the way Cameron develops the story and and the characters. Technology and effects are not used only to impress, but to better communicate the passion and beliefs of the Na'vi vs. the humans. There is a lot to see in this movie, and if you haven't seen it yet, trust me - it is a must see. It is one of the best movies of 2009 without a doubt - quite likely the best one, in my opinion.

Silent Night Guitar Melody

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Silent Night Guitar Melody in PDF and GP5

I wrote this simple arrangement of Silent Night for my students. It's a way you can play the melody by using (mostly) just 2 strings at a time.

When you play a melody like this, by harmonizing the original melody, you the effect that you can almost "hear" the chords.

This is also a good way to familiarize yourself with a major scale, in this case the G Major scale.

I will be posting a video of this really SOON! I am getting my studio built right now, and currently I have no place to record decent videos. Soon, I will have my own studio however, which means I'll be working more on new videos and other materials.

Let me know how you like this arrangement.

Line 6 JM4

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Line 6 JM4 Looper Pedal

Line 6 has come out with an interesting looper pedal. It has powerful looping capabilities, and it is also an amp modeler, effects unit, as well a composing and practicing tool. Have a look at this device if you are interested in a looper pedal that has a combination of high-quality jam tracks, built-in effects and tones and easy recording capabilities.

What it can do

The JM4 Looper features over 100 jam tracks and drum grooves in more than 10 styles. The tracks are actual recordings by professional musicians. These are useful for coming up with song ideas or for practicing.

This unit provides up to 24 minutes of recording time, and storage for up to 100 recorded jams. A 2-GB SD card provides additional space. You can also transfer the .WAV files to your computer or recording software. You can of course also use the SD card to import your own material into JM4 Looper. This way, you can loop, transpose or time-stretch to your heart's delight.

The looper has dedicated foot switches for Record/Overdub, Play/Stop, Half Speed and Undo actions. It also has a built-in tuner.

Guitar Tones

The JM4 comes loaded with twelve Line 6 amp models; from clean to insane, and it has seven "smart control" effects and reverb. There are over 200 artist-created guitar tone presets.

Ins and Outs

Ins - separate instrument, aux and mic inputs, as well as an input for a CD or MP3 player. Outs - outputs for an amp, stereo headphones and stereo line out. A Master Volume knob controls the output, and there is also a trim knob to adjust the gain of the mic input.

Where to get one

Musician's Friend sells the JM4

Line 6 JM4 Looper Guitar Effects Pedal Silver

The Line 6 JM4 guitar looper pedal features over 100 jam tracks performed by A-list studio players including Jason Bonham, Tony Franklin, Carmine Appice, Gregg Bissonette and many more slamming the drums, thumping the bass and hacking away at guitars. It's a fully featured looper pedal with sound-on-sound loop recording.

Along with looping capabilities, the JM4 contains an instant collection of amazing tones including 200+ artist-created presets, 150+ song-based presets, 12 original Line 6 amp models, seven guitar effects, vocal effects and 36 banks for saving user-created tones.

It's a portable, heavy-duty, all-in-one effect pedal with an enormous amount of features, tones and opportunities for inspiration. Casual and serious guitarists in search of jamming, practice and performance helps will find the JM4 looper invaluable.

The JM4 supplies you with awesome Line 6 tones and effects. It provides a backdrop for players to explore different musical styles and jam with studio-quality musicians. The guitar pedal features exciting, energized jam tracks. It's like playing with a real pro band, because you are playing with a real pro band.

Can you help? Google Autumn Photo Challenge

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Google Autumn Photo Challenge

I am a finalist!

I submitted a photo to the Google Autumn Photo Challenge a while ago, just for fun. To my surprise, I received an email stating I am now one of the 12 finalists! This is sure a surprise for me, as I'm just a hobby photographer and this is actually the first time I've ever entered a photo contest.

I now need your help. The winner of this contest is decided by the number of votes each photo receives. Voting is now officially open, so if you like my photo, please go to Picasa Autumn Challenge Contest and vote for it. To vote, simply click on the Like link below the photo. Voting ends on December 21st, 4p.m. PST. The picture with the most "like" votes wins the challenge. Create a Google Account if you don't have one, so you can vote!

Thank you for the support. I took the photo when I was out walking with my camera in November. I was lucky to get a nice shot of the golf course here in Camrose, when the weather was just right to capture this type of photo.

The Picasa Autumn Challenge Contest .

I'm 40 years old today

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:00:01 GMT

I'm 40 years old today

Wow, time flies, eh?! I have now lived in Canada for a few months over 10 years, and a lot of things have happened in my life. Things that I am very grateful for. I have a wonderful family and I live in a great small city and I have a great job. I couldn't really ask for more.

Some people have asked me if I'm experiencing any mid-life crisis or if I'm starting to feel old. What, old? Heck no! The only thing I am noticing is that I'm not able to run as fast as I used to, and it takes longer to recover from hard workouts. As a result of turning 40, I'm now entering the Masters category as a runner, and I hope can place well in this category in 2010, seeing as I'm the "young pup" in this category now...

Musically speaking, I have learned quite a bit during the last 10 years. The reason for is that I have been teaching guitar more, which forces you to learn new things all the time. This has been great to me, as I've improved as a player, musician and teacher. There haven't been so much gigging or composing in a long while now, but my goal for the next decade is to work more on this. I have a brand new studio being built right now, and it should be ready around Christmas.

I'll likely play a few more gigs in 2010 as well, since me long time friend Jaron Rovensky is going to be around for a while. He is a great performer, and we work really well together, so we'll want to play some gigs together in the new year. If time allows, we may also write and record some new original material together.

Today will be a relaxing day. I would like to be outside a bit with Amalia, but that is not really an option today, since it's around minus 37 C (-35 F) today and it is going to get even colder over night. Brr! My car wouldn't even start yesterday.

We are going to the matinee today to see a good family movie. Looking forward to this (that is, if I can get the vehicle started - it's refused so far..). The day already started great - I received a bottle of 12 year old single malt whiskey! After that, we'll go out of for supper and perhaps I'll have time to play guitar through my amps a few times too.

Best Overdrive Pedal

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Best Overdrive Pedal

What is the best overdrive pedal? Not an easy answer, since the number of good overdrive pedals available these days is mind boggling.

I have started a top overdrive list here, and I am trying to stick to pedals that deliver overdrive more than distortion, although many pedals cover both territories. It's also sometimes difficult to distinguish between overdrive and distortion. I have written about the difference between overdrive and distortion on this site, and you may want to check it out.

My personal favorite overdrive is the Zonkin' Yellow Screamer Mk II, built by my friend at Duhvoodooman.com. It is based on the BYOC overdrive, but Bob has added some very cool features to it, which makes it flexible and great sounding.

Best Overdrives - the LIST

Here is a starting point for checking out some great overdrive pedals. Some may cover both distortion as well as overdrive tones, so keep that in mind. Feel free to add your comments if you think I missed some! Note: The order of the pedals listed has nothing to do with how good I think they sound, so a higher number does not mean it sounds worse than a pedal listed with a lower number. Only YOU can decide which you think sounds best.

Here is a great deal on the Cool Cat Pedals

Danelectro Cool Cat Series Cat Pack Guitar Effects Pedals Package

Now get 3 Danelectro Cool Cats effect pedals in one hot package with the Cat Pack—the CV-1 Vibe, CT-1 Tremolo, and CTO-1 Transparent Overdrive effect pedals.Cool Cat CV-1 Vibe: Gives you a metal stompbox for the price of plastic. Dial in your Mix, Speed, and Intensity for organic, swampy, trippy tone.Cool Cat CT-1 Tremolo: Better tone than your vintage amp. You'll dig the Square Wave setting.Cool Cat CTO-1 Transparent Overdrive: Adjust your Treble/Bass and Gain for anything from clean boost to glassy crunch. It has a durable metal construction, like all its Cool Cat cousins.

Zonkin' Yellow Screamer MK II
Maxon OD-9
Way Huge Pork Loin
LovePedal Eternity
Menatone Red Snapper
Danelectro Transparent Overdrive
Danelectro Drive
Hermida Zendrive
Hermida Mosferatu
Analogman TS-9/808
Keeley TS-9/808
Maxon 808
Ibanez TS9
Ibanez TS808
BYOC TS808
Analogman TS-9
Analogman TS-808
Analogman King of Tone
Electro-Harmonix XO Germanium OD Overdrive Guitar Effects Pedal
T-Rex T-Rex Twin Boost Overdrive
Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor Overdrive Pedal
Krank Krankshaft Overdrive Pedal
DOD 250
Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal
Carl Martin PlexiTone
Plush Noxious Overdrive
Fulltone GT-500
Radial Bones R800-7110 Texas Overdrive
Lovepedal Purple Plexi
XOTIC BB Preamp
TREX Alberta
Digitech Hardwire Tube Overdrive
Timmy
Tim
Delta Labs Tube Driver
MI Audio Blues Pro
Klon Centaur
Fulltone OCD
Barber LTD
Damage Control Womanizer
Visual Sound Jekyll and Hide
Reverend Drivetrain 2
Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive
Keeley TS9DX FLEXI-4X2
Boss Blues Driver
Keeley BD-2
Radial Tonebone Hot British
Blackstar HT-DUAL
Blackstone Mofset Overdrive
Hughes and Kettner Tube Factor
Banzai Cold Fusion
Crowther Audio Hotcake
Digitech Bad Monkey
DigiTech Screamin Blues
Vox Cooltron Big Ben
Boss FBM-1 Fender Bassman
Behringer VT999

Musician's Friend has most of these pedals

Have a look at the selection from Musician's Friend.

M9 - great stompbox modeler

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:00:01 GMT

M9 is a great stompbox modeler

I just got this stompbox modeler called M9, made by Line 6. This modeler has a variety of vintage and modern tones all packed into one convenient package.

The M9 Stompbox Modeler provides brilliant tones, ease of use, and portability. The M9 (or its bigger brother, the M13), can absolutely be the all-in-one stompbox solution for every guitarist, replacing most or all of your other pedals.

The M9 has all the effects from best-selling Line 6 pedals and other units. Here are the famous sounds from the DL4, DM4 Distortion Modeler, FM4 Filter Modeler, MM4 Modulation Modeler, Verbzilla, Echo Pro and even more.

The M9 is built like three side-by-side effect units, and you can run any three effects simultaneously. You have complete control over the placement of effects as well as the type of effect. You can go for the common set ups many guitarist use, or you can follow your own creative path and come with completely original tones.

I was immediately impressed by how the M9 Stompbox Modeler is so incredibly easy to use. You can tweak your tones on the fly using the dedicated knobs. All you need to do is turn the knobs, and that's it. The settings are automatically saved, even if you unplug the unit. No hassle with holding 2 buttons at the same time in order to save, etc.

The Line 6 M9 also comes with a full-featured 28-second looper. It has all the necessary looper controls via dedicated footswitches. There are functions for Record/Overdub, Play/Stop, Play Once, Undo/Redo, Half Speed, and Reverse, and they are all very simple to use.

The unit is built very tough, with all-metal construction. No flimsy plastic here. It also has a built-in chromatic tuner - no need for an extra tuner pedal!

I can say right now that this is a heck of a steal at $399.99. You get so many great sounds in one unit, and it's portable, cool and small. Quite possible the ultimate solution for pedals and effects! The M13 has a bit more flexibility, but it's also quite a bit bigger. Either one is highly recommended. It's killer, I tell ya.

Get one from Musician's Friend

Line 6 M9 Stompbox Modeler Guitar Multi-Effects Pedal

Wah pedals reviews

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Wah pedals reviews

A comparison (or maybe just a demo) of the Dunlop Crybaby, EVH Crybaby, Fulltone Clyde Wah, and EX-7 with 2 wah models (Crybaby and Vox McCoy). Using a Marshall JVM 410H. Guitars were my Suhr Classic and my Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow with Rockfield pickups.

I suddenly felt like I needed to look into playing with wah pedals more, so I started by digging up my Fulltone Clyde Wah and my Digitech EX-7. I also went to Music Centre Canada and they were kind enough to let me take home a regular Crybaby and an EVH Crybaby by Dunlop for testing.

I played these pedals for quite a bit over the weekend, and they all have their own thing going for them. The EVH Wah surprised me. I thought it sounded really good, especially with some gain. The regular Crybaby didn't seem to suck tone and have any drawbacks really, although I have read comments about how some think it's poorly made and a real tone sucker. Didn't notice.

The EX-7 wah models on the default settings did sound a bit so-so, in comparison to the other pedals. However, these wah models can be tweaked quite a bit, something I didn't do this time.

So can you guess which of the Dunlop Wah pedals I bought?

Videos

Here's what my messing around with da Wahs sounded like. Let me hear which pedal you think sound the best!

Zuiko 50mm Macro Lens

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Zuiko 50mm F/2.0 Macro lens

I did quite a bit of research about recently, about digital SLR cameras. I was thinking about switching to Nikon or Canon. Those are the most commonly used camera brands on the market today, or at least that's what it's seems like to me.

Long story short, after reading and reading about Olympus, Canon, Nikon and some other brands, I've decided to stick with Olympus. I have a very basic Olympus E-410, but I like it and I really like the Olympus lenses. I believe it is too easy to get caught up in the hype about what gear to get. It's just like guitar gear - it's easy to forget how important it is to use the gear well! I think the Olympus lenses are of really great quality, and that together with capable hands is in my view more important than what brand the pro photographers use. There's so much hype and misconceptions out there about gear, whether it's about guitars or cameras or whatever. I'll rather spend time using what I have than just sitting around wanting something "better".

With that in mind, I bought a Olympus Zuiko DIGITAL ED Macro lens - 50 mm - F/2.0. This is a dedicated lens for macro photography. The 2.0 maximum aperture makes it excellent for available-light shooting while the attachment of macro flash systems is also possible.

This lens is amazing. It produces incredibly crisp and sharp images and I love it for portraits of the kids. It also works really great in low light, especially compared to the kit lens that came with the camera.

You can of course get really, really close with this lens, and I intend to post some examples soon so you can see for yourself. Great for professional looking food and candy photos! It's quite amazing the amount detail you can get. It is extremely sharp, and I love how much detail I can get of a flower or insect when stopped down to around f6.3 - f8. As well, you can get a wonderful limited depth of field when set to the f2 aperture.

For doing portraits, this lens is simply brilliant, it captures so much detail. People you take photos of might even complain that it captures too much detail!

The only drawbacks I've found are the AF is slow and it does not have internal focusing. Other than that, this is close to being a perfect lens. The Zuiko 50mm f2.0 macro lens takes incredible photos. If you have an Olympus DLSR and don't yet have this lens, do yourself a favour and get it. Just get it, and you'll be amazed at how great and useful it is.

Is learning guitar licks bad?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Is learning guitar licks bad?

How to really learn from guitar licks

I sometimes end up in discussions with guitar players about playing and learning how to play, and I have noticed that some players who have been playing for a while often frown on learning guitar licks or copying other players ideas (often referred to as transcribing, especially when the notes are written down). Their attitude is that learning guitar licks is a bad thing. I hear statements lie, "You only memorize something somebody else came up with, which is bad. You won't ever remember it anyway. Come up with your own ideas instead, develop your own voice, etc." So what's the truth here really, are they right by saying these things?

Well, I will tell you my view. Learning licks is NOT bad. In fact, learning by copying other is one of the BEST things you can spend time on as a musician! Yes, I stand by that statement. I think it is very simple. Humans learn by copying, and we do it in many areas of life. As small kids, we learn by copying our parents; we learn to write by copying the instructions from our teacher, etc. It is in our nature to observe and imitate. The same goes for music, we learn from what we hear, and I do find this perfectly natural.

So will copying other musicians make you sound like a copy cat with no style of your own? NO! It won't, not if you get your inspiration from several sources! The reason is because if you spend time learning from a variety of players, you will inevitable develop your own style in the end. You may learn a few ideas about bending from Jimi Hendrix, some ideas about vibrato from B.B King, a few cool octave tricks from Wes Montgomery, etc. In a way, you are take pieces from your musical environment, building a " better you", so to speak, if that makes sense.

Now, what you need to realize is that you should analyze what your transcribe or learn from others, in order to really take advantage of it. Find out what makes that guitar lick work. Is it that major 3rd over that dominant 7 chord that makes it sound cool, or perhaps it is that triplet that makes it groove? Or maybe it's the whammy bar or bending technique, etc - you get the idea. After that, do practice this lick in several different ways - at a different tempo, over a different chord or chord change, with a different guitar tone, in a different style of music, etc. Get to really "know" this lick, and twist and change it until you have found "your own" way of playing it. This is really important and valuable, I cannot stress this enough.

If you don't take the time to learn from licks and ideas, you are mostly wasting your time. If I sit down and transcribe a musical idea or lick that I don't understand or perhaps have trouble being able to play well because it's technically too difficult, it's a terrible use of my time. Instead, I transcribe little things all the time, and I learn from them. I may only be focusing on 2 notes by Stevie Ray Vaughan or David Gilmour, but I take my time time to figure out why those 2 notes sound so good, and how can take those 2 notes and put them into a kind of guitar lick or phrase that I like to play. In other words, I'm copying a little here and there from others, but the end result is another cool line with has "my sound" all over it. If you do the same and continue this same process, you will end up with many good ideas and a large vocabulary of licks and phrases. The only problem is that you will need take the time to study other musician's solos and phrases as I've mentioned, which can be difficult and time consuming, of course. But you know what? There is NO BETTER WAY TO LEARN! That's how most of the jazz giants like Charlie Parker and others learned - they jammed and listened to each other and took a bit here and a bit there and came up with amazingly creative material in the end.

If you have never sat down and really learned by listening to other musician's recordings, it can be hard to know where to start. If you have a guitar teacher, I would recommend you ask your teacher to help you with this. Perhaps take a simple blues tune and find a couple of good sounding licks and ask your teacher to help you transcribe them. Ask also with help in analyzing and understanding the lick, which could mean you talk about intervals or chord notes, etc. You try to figure out why it sounds good, and learn from that. Ear training is also an important part here, because you need to be able to hear a note, and find it on your guitar.

If you don't have a teacher, find a tune with some guitar parts that are simple enough for you to handle. Let's say it's a pentatonic sounding lick that has 4 notes. Slow down the lick by using Quicktime or Windows Media player and listen for one note at a time. As soon as you hear the note, pause playback and immediately try to find that note on the fretboard. Play the lick again, now this time listen for the second note and find it on your fretboard. Then play it yet again, and play along with your guitar. Did it sound right? If so, continue with the 3rd note, and so on. If it didn't sound right, go back and play it over and over again as you play along with it. Which note is wrong? How much off is it? Are you playing it wrong in time, etc. This is a process of repeating and repeating until you get it right. It can be a lot of repeating before you get it right... be this is great practice. Be patient, and take your time. It's going to be worth your time.

Once you get it down so you can play along with it, you need to understand it. What's making it sound good - is it perhaps very melodic, has a certain rhythmic figure, or perhaps certain intervals such as the minor and the major third are repeated several times? Whatever it is, make a mental (or written) note, and now try to play this lick over a backing track of some kind. Maybe you find you want to add or remove a few notes to better suit you - that's great! Tweak it, understand it, own it. Make it part of you and put it in your musical toolbox, so that you can pick up some version of this lick at any time you want.

I hope this made some kind of sense to you. If you are a complete beginner,then this may be a bit over your head. However, if you are an intermediate guitarist who may be thinking your soloing all sounds the same and you feel stuck in a rut, then you NEED to start transcribing other players. I say it again - it's the best way to learn and improve. You are in fact teaching yourself, at your own pace, and you will probably be much more motivated than if your teacher gave you some homework that didn't inspire you, or those DVDs you bought just aren't interesting enough.

Now, run off and transcribe something and come back and tell me what you learned!

Rock on, brother.

Steviesnacks.com is a great site

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Steviesnacks.com

If you are interested in playing blues in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan, I am sure you know of Steviesnacks.com. If you don't, well then you are missing out on some really cool stuff.

Steviesnacks.com is run by Anthony Stauffer, a guitar player, web designer and guitar teacher. I have communicated with Anthony a few times, and he's a nice guy with a passion for what he does. We obviously have a few things in common, and although some people may think we are "competitors", in that we both offer lessons for sale our respective website, I highly recommend you go check out the lesson material he produces. It is of high standard and the videos are available in HD. Furthermoe, the videos look very professional and you can easily tell he puts in lots of hard work in creating his lessons.

I believe in giving credit to any sources or tools that can help people play better. After all, I think that is what we all strive for in the end.

I also have some good resources on my links page, so have a look there too if you haven't already.

To have a look at what Anthony has available on his website, just go to Steviesnacks.com and have a look.

Changing guitar strings

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Changing guitar strings

Ok, I admit it, I am lazy. So lazy, that I haven't ever changed strings on my SX acoustic yet... and the Michael Kelly I bought in January still has factory strings on! That guitar hung in the store for a good while before I bought it, so these strings qualify to be called really old by now.

And why do I so rarely change my strings? Well, I guess I don't care that much. Especially since I haven't been gigging much lately. However, when I have an important gig or want to record something where I really want a good tone, I will use a guitar with fairly fresh strings.

How often do YOU change strings? If I played gigs regularly, I supposed I'd want to change strings every week, but as of now, I'm mostly doing video lessons and gear demos on video, and it's not imperative that I have fresh strings every week. Plus, it's so boring to change strings, I don't really enjoy it much!

Speaking of changing guitar strings, I thought I'd mention how I do it. On my Suhr, I have locking tuners, and with these, I stick the end of the string through the hole, tighten the locking screw and cut off the leftover piece of string with some clippers. Then I just tune like normal, and the guitar stays in tune beautifully, even though the string may not even go one lap around the string post. Effective those locking tuners are, Yoda would say.

On a guitar with a hole through the string post, I just stick the string through the hole, leave some slack and the leftover piece of string goes under and then over the string. As you then tighten the string, it will nicely lock that leftover piece. Tune the string and then cut off that leftover piece of string.

When I now read that description I just wrote, I realize it's pretty hard to understand! Some things are just hard to describe in words, so ain't it handy that I have a video camera close by! I'll demonstrate how to change strings as described above through a video. Here it is below, using my Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow.

How to wind the strings around the tuning peg

The Woodstock Amp

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The Woodstock Amp

I recently got a very interesting low wattage amp. This a hand-built, Class A boutique amp built by TT Amplification, and it is available to a very reasonable price. The amp delivers about 5 to 7.5 watts output and is plenty loud if you want it to.

The amp has toggle switches for on/off and for on/standby. There is 5K to 7K switch on the back, which only changes the amount of available headroom by changing the input impedance. It does not change the output wattage of the amp, that remains constant. There is also a speaker out and a chicken style know lets you switch between 4, 8 and 16 ohms. I have to say it is very nice to have this option. On the front, you have a volume knob and a tone knob.

The Woodstock amp has a single-ended output section, so it is true Class A. The amp is point to point wired by hand; there are no circuit or turret boards being used. It is both simple and elegant. It looks cool too!

After having tried this amp for a few days now, both with and without pedals, I have to say I am very impressed. I will soon put up some demos so you can hear for yourself. In the meantime, I'll tell you my impressions.

First of all, the clean tone is very rich and has nice bottom end. It's sort of a Blackface tone but with richer mid-range. Very touch sensitive and it brings out the tone of the guitar you are playing nicely. I have played many low wattage amps, and many of them sound a bit thin, because they don't generate enough bottom end, which results in a flat sound. The Woodstock amp sounds more like an 18 or perhaps 30 watt amp in this regard - much more oomph.

Secondly, since it is a Class A amp, I expected a fair amount hum and noise. I nearly dropped my jaw when I cranked up the amp and heard no hum. What!? Was it broken? I hit a chord and LOUD IT WAS, yet hardly any hum or noise! Truly remarkable. I can't understand how that's even possible, but it sure is a very useful feature - the quietness of the amp.

Thirdly, the amp takes pedals well. I have tried 4-5 different kind of gain pedals, and it strikes me that each pedal sounds very different from any of the other pedals. If I am not crazy, I think this amp brings out the true sound of a pedal better than my other amps. I need to test this more, but this is my first thought. For example, I can often get a tubescreamer type of sound with my SD-9 in other amps, but with the Woodstock, the SD-9 sounds very different from my tube screamer I have plugged in next to it. If this assumption is truly correct, you can be sure that your overdrive pedal WILL sound quite a bit different than your distortion pedal, etc.

Other things to note. The amp starts to overdrive when you go beyond 2 o'clock. It's a nice, compressed and dynamic slightly overdriven tone. A great tube amp tone to base your overall sound around. If you crank it all the way, the amp goes a little over the top and it starts to sound a little muffled and unclear. I like the amp best between 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. There is quite a bit of volume difference too between those two settings. I can easily do smaller gigs with this amp without any problems. I can also be played at low volume for practicing, but I find it sounds best when the amp is pushed up a little bit more.

In summary, a very fine amp indeed, and if you are interested in great sounding small amp heads, you definitely need to look at this amp. It works great for blues, country and it can rock and heavier tones easily if you add a gain pedal. The amp takes any kind pedal very well indeed.

Video

So what does it sound like? Well, I have prepared a couple of videos so you can hear for yourself. The first clip is using a 2x12 Avatar speaker cabinet with Eminence Wizards. I am using my Suhr Classic and a few different gain pedals as well, so you can hear how the amp sounds with and without pedals.

On the 2nd video clip, I am using a 1x10 Mack open back speaker cabinet, which has an Eminence Ragin Cajun in it.

Features

1- 12AX7, 1 EL-84, 1-6X4 tube compliment.
On / Off and Standby switches.
Point to point hand wired.
Volume and Tone adjustments.
Clean classic 60's blackface tones to juicy, sustained overdrive.
Switchable Input Impedance Toggle Switch to add headroom.
Switchable speaker impedance 4, 8 or 16 ohms.
5 - 7.5 watts output.
Ideal for home and studio use.
Optional carrying case.
Approximate dimensions –
10” wide X 7.5” high X 6 1/2” deep.
Weight 8 1/2 lbs.

The website for the Woodstock Amplifier is http://www.ttamplification.com

Guitars in Vegas

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Guitars in Vegas

I am taking a trip to Las Vegas in December with my wife. We are going to run the marathon, and I'm going to check out some guitar stores as well!

The guitar stores I have found so far are, Vegas Guitars, Cowtown Guitars, Las Vegas Guitar Works, Fremont St. Guitars, Las Vegas Guitars, Ed Roman Guitars, Guitar Center. Did I miss any?

So, while I am in Las Vegas waiting for the marathon run and later, being completely exhausted after the 26.2 miles of pounding roads, I plan on visiting some guitar stores and see what cool guitar stuff Vegas might have for a guitar player like me. Any tips, suggestions?

While in Las Vegas, we have so far planned to go to Red Rock Canyon, to see the Cirque du Soleil show "O" at the Bellagio. I also want to go to Mario Batali's restaurant B & B Ristorante - I heard it's great.

What else would recommend to do and see in Las Vegas? Any good blues or jazz joints?

If you live in Las Vegas or happen to be there during December 4th - 7th, let me know and maybe we can hook up for a coffee or jam a chord or two at a music store!

Low wattage guitar amp - Mack GEM

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Low wattage guitar amp - Mack GEM

The new Mack GEM is out, and I have played it quite a bit over the weekend. This low wattage tube amp is very cool. First of all, it looks killer! My friend asked if it had been built my smurfs. Well, it sure is small. Our daughter thought it was a lunch box. Keep the jokes coming if want, but it delivers plenty of grit and volume; even the smurfs might have to run for cover when you crank this baby.

The Mack GEM is available as a head, or as a combo. I have the head version, and I also have a matching Mack 1x10 open back cabinet, which houses an Eminence Ragin Cajun. This cabinet is very well built, and super handy. I will likely use this little cabinet with other amps as well, since it's so portable and sounds really nice.

Mack Gem Specifications

4 watts switchable to 0.4 watts
1 - EL84 cathode biased, Class A
1 - NOS 6AC10 triple triode preamp tube
Solid state rectifier
Switchable preamp gain stages
Volume, gain, tone controls
Speaker output: 8 ohms

Gem Head

Anodized aluminum, red cabinet
8" W x 5 1/2" H x 4" D
117/120 VAC, 60 Hz
4 lb

Gem Combo

10" Eminence Ragin Cajun ceramic magnet speaker
Medium density fibre board (MDF), glued, screwed and power nailed
Black tolex
117/120 VAC, 60 Hz
14" W x 16" H x 8" D (same cabinet as the 1x10 OB speaker)
20 lb.

The Gem has a power switching circuit that changes its single EL84's power output from 4 watts to 0.4 watt. You might be thinking, 4 watts must be too "weak" for most people. Well, I will tell you, this 4 watt tube amp can be LOUD, if you want it to. I can easily play smaller gigs with this amp.

I have so far played this amp with 3 guitars - my Squier Tele, my Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow and my Suhr Classic. I get classy tones with all three. I find that I can coax some big EL84 tones out this 4 watter, very similar to my Mack Heatseeker 18 watt amp, only at lower volume. The Mack GEM has big tones, even though it is small.

Another particularly interesting feature in this amp is the switchable pream gain selector. The Gem features a NOS 6AC10 preamp tube, which is a triple triode tube. The three tube sections in the Gem's 6AC10 provide some interesting preamp flexibility:

Low gain mode. Two of the sections are paralled and cascaded into the third. This provides warmth and touch sensitivity with extra gain from the third stage.
High gain mode. Flip the Preamp switch and the three triode sections are cascaded one into the other. This produces higher gain rock tones quite different from any other Mack amp.
Power amp AND preamp distortion. As you turn up the gain control, adjust the volume control and you can dial in preamp distortion or power amp distortion or both at the same time. This is available at any volume level.

Video

Enough talk, you probably want to hear what it sounds like? So, I recorded a video the same they day I received the amp, have a look. This is me playing the amp for the very first time. I wanted to capture the moment on video - I had no idea what to expect, and you can see how I'm turning knobs and finding tones as I go. I used my Suhr Classic, plugged straight into the GEM, without using any pedals or effects.

This video below features my Zonkin' Yellow Screamer MkII pedal, and a Boss DD-20 delay. This amp takes pedals well. I think this gain tone is really good. Realize that the volume is really low. You can hear me flicking the pickup selector switch as I holding a distorted note or chord. You can even hear the guitar strings acoustically sometimes, if you listen closely, while a good overdriven guitar tone is still being produced. Sweet!

In the next video below, I demonstrate how the sound doesn't change as you switch from 4 watts down to 0.4 watts. It just gets quieter, and the tone remains unchanged. Very cool. I am using my Squier Tele and Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow on this video.

Marshall Class 5

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Marshall Class 5 amps

The Marshall Class 5 amp is a simple five-watt, class A, tube combo It uses ECC83s in the preamp stage and one EL84 power tube for power. It's a very simple guitar amp, meant for smaller gigs or practice.

The front panel has a Plexi look. The knobs you find here are Volume, Treble, Middle and Bass. Super simple! This is a Class A design, and even though it is simple, you can get a lot out of it. It is touch sensitive and responds very well to pedals and adjustments to the guitar's volume or tone knobs.

This little thing looks cool too. Nobody is going to laugh at you, even though it is small!

The price? About 400 bucks for a five watt tube guitar combo. Expensive? Nah, this is a different animal than the cheap solid state or modeling amps. You get serious tone and lots of volume and oomph for the price. I don't think it's expensive, considering the quality.

The speaker is a 16 ohm 10 inch Celestion G10F-15.

By the way, there is a headphone out, which mutes the amp's output for when you want to practice silently. There is also a 16 ohm speaker output, so you can even hook it up to a 4 x 12 cabinet if you so wish.

How does it sound?

It is very hard not to like this little amp! Thumbs up.

Victoria Marathon 2009

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Victoria Marathon 2009

The weather was perfect for running on Sunday's Victoria Marathon. First place went to Hilary Cheruiyot with 2:19:26 and in second place, Steve Osaduik in 2:22:42, and in third place with 2:24:43, Lameth Mosoti.

My friend David and I got to the start in the last minute (several reasons for this), but it was all good. We started out at a relaxed pace. David pulled back at about 2km, and I continued with my plan, which was to try and run 38-39 per 10km. I passed 5km in 19:07 but I felt like it was work. I had been feeling great this last week before the marathon, but on race day, it seems the legs didn't want to work as I had hoped.

I passed 10km at 38:12 and it wasn't any easier. By 15 km (57:38), I started to try and pick up the pace a little to see how it would feel. I wasn't really going faster, due to some hills, but I was working fairly hard. Still, it seemed okay and I passed halfway at 1:21:10. This was slower than I had wanted, but I was really doing all I could at this point.

I kept up the pace for a while further, and it actually felt better now (1:43:33 for 27 km). I saw a guy in front of me, and I was slowly catching up to him, so I was certainly motivated.

Then a few hills came, and my pace started slowing. By 30 km, I was hoping I could get it back on some of the downhills, but I knew it was over. My legs started giving up on me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I was down to 4 min/km now, and I hoped I could hold this up for a good while, but nah, that wasn't going to happen either. Still, I passed others who had gone out fast and blowed up. So, I was in good company, you could say...

From 30 km to 40 km, I had the blazing split of 42:30. The last 2 km was at 5 min/km pace, and a few people passed me, notably they were mostly women! One guy came up on my side with 200 meters to go, but then my competitive mind flared up, and I put on a big kick and kept him off. I finished in 2:48:20. My previous 2 marathons this year were both faster than this, but on the other hand, before this year - this time would have been my 2nd fastest marathon ever.

I was hurting after. My legs were spaghetti, and I felt completely drained. My friend David came in some 13 minutes later, and I think he was in about the same boat as me this time. Some days, things are not going like you want them to, but you have to take it with a smile and come back stronger some other time.

I surprisingly enough placed 4th in my age category, and received a plaque for that. I have already signed up for Las Vegas marathon on December 6th, and I plan to get some good training in for that. I am going to try and run well there - I know I can do it. I also will check out some guitar stores in Vegas and have some fun! If you have any tips for things to do in Las Vegas, let me know!

My wife and daughters also ran this weekend. The wife did the whole marathon, and it was tough for her too, mostly because of lack of training. Our 16 year-old was 8th in her age category in the 8 km race, and our 6 year-old blasted through the 1.2 km race with a big smile on her face. It was a beautiful and enjoyable weekend even though the run was hard. Honestly, I am grateful to be able to run at all. There are others who can't do what I do, and I know it. I almost gave up on running after a knee injury, and I'm really just happy to be able to do what I do, regardless of speed.

Marshall MA Amps

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Marshall MA Amps

Marshall has a new series of amps out called the MA Series. They are entry level all tube amps, so they will cost less and have fewer bells and whistles than other Marshall amps like the JVM or VM amps, while still not sacrificing tone. Classic Marshall tone in a simple, affordable way. Sounds like a great idea to me!

There are 50 watt and 100 watt combos, and 50 watt and 100 watts heads available. All models have the same features and controls.

The amps have 2 channels, clean and overdrive. There is also a switch for boosted overdrive, which is almost like having a 3rd channel.

The clean channel has eq for bass, treble, middle and volume.

The overdrive channel has eq for crunch balance, gain, bass, middle, treble, volume.

The master section consists of reverb, resonance and presence.

This amp doesn't use digital reverb - it comes with a spring reverb instead.

There is an effects loop available as well, and the MA amps also come with a 2 way footswitch.

The boosted overdrive switch will take the overdriven tone into higher gain territory for solos and heavy riffs, a nice feature and it makes the amp very versatile for gigging musicians. The included footswitch will let you switch between clean and overdrive, as well as between normal overdrive and boosted overdrive.

On the rear panel, you will find speaker outputs, effects loop and the amp uses ECC83 preamp tubes and EL34 power tubes.

This is an interesting move by Marshall. I think it is a good move, since the good sounding powerful tube amps by Marshall tend to be quite expensive, until now, that is. So much are they? Well, I wish I knew. At the time of writing, I have not found any pricing information, so keep your eyes peeled on the online guitar stores or ask your local dealer.

Floating bridge guitar setup

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Floating bridge guitar setup

Here is a tip for those who have a non-locking style floating tremolo bridge on a Stratocaster type of guitar, and are having trouble staying in tune. Most of us know that you need graphite or pencil lead in the nut of the guitar to help with tuning stability. That sure helps, as it allows the string to travel more freely over the nut, and it's doesn't get "hung up", so to speak. However, there is another potential problem. More specifically, I have noticed that when the bridge is set to float, and you pull down or up on the whammy bar, some strings actually go sharp! What's that all about? Is the the springs, or the bridge screws aren't set up right? Well, in my case, and perhaps in yours - neither!

The answer came from Master guitar builder John Suhr. I asked him about this problem, and he gave me some very good advice. His customer service is fantastic, by the way, and John builds some of the finest guitars on this planet. What John recommended is to try some lubricant where the strings sit on the saddle. I have some Big Bends Nut Sauce Tuning Lubricant, which I applied under the strings, right where they sit on the saddle. I then tried pushing the whammy bar up and down a few times, and normally this leads to some strings going sharp. After applying the Nut Sauce however, it is perfect! I am amazed at how well this worked.

So the lesson to learn here - if you have your tremolo bridge set to float and it is a non-locking system, you probabaly have noticed this problem with strings not staying in tune (they go sharp) - apply some lubricant where the strings sit on the saddles. I recommend Big Bends Nut Sauce Tuning Lubricant because it is well known and doesn't turn into rubbery goey stuff after a while. However, there are other similar products that would work just as well. The goal is to make it possible for the string to glide over the saddle as smoothly as possible.

I am so happy now that I have learned how to deal with this issue. I especially noticed this "strings go sharp" problem was even worse just after I had changed strings. So, from now on, I ALWAYS apply a lubricant where the strings sit on the saddles, everytime I change strings. What a world of difference this makes... I guess should have known this a long time ago, you might think, but as with anything in life, sometimes there are things you miss.

Oz Noy Schizophrenic

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Oz Noy Schizophrenic

I am a big fan of Oz Noy. He is one of the most exciting guitar players out there today. His playing is very tasteful and he is a real virtuoso guitar player, without being a showoff. As I was browsing iTunes, I noticed this album Schizophrenic just came out today. So of course I had to buy it. You know what? I am glad I did!

This album is awesome! Please excuse my inability to hold back my excitement. Truth is that Oz Noy is playing some truly wicked and inspiring guitar here. His tone is better than ever, and his solos are jawdroppingly fantastic. Dang, this guy can do it all I think. As for the tunes, they are really nice. Oz Noy is known as a groove player, and he does not disappoint in that regard. Funky grooves with intelligent and inspiring use of effects, as well as ballads and some rockier material. I am floored. Schizophrenic is his fourth release by the way.

Description from Amazon: Oz Noy, one of the most proficient, fluid, and inventive contemporary instrumental guitarists in the U.S., unleashes the sonic equivalent of a high-performance sports vehicle that hugs the highway and cruises in the fast lane. Helping Noy realize his musical visions is a stellar cast of musicians such as guitarist Steve Lukather (Toto, Michael Jackson), drummer Dave Weckl (Chick Corea, Robert Plant), drummer Keith Carlock (Sting, James Taylor, Steely Dan), drummer Anton Fig and bassist Will Lee(both of Late Show with David Letterman)and bassist James Genus (SNL).

Oz Noy's way of using effects is right up my alley. It's often effect in - effect out. He doesn't overdo effects, even though he uses lots of them in his music. What he does however, is to use effects in the right spots in compositions. He may add a fast tremolo stutter or an octave fuzz tone in certain places, and soon there after there's a fat distortion tone for a few seconds. In the end, it never sounds overdone or too much to me. No, it's tasty and makes me go "whoa, what was that unearthly cool thing he just did?". Needless to say, his way of using effects really inspires me.

If you like Oz Noy, you must get this album now. Never heard of him? Well, let me entertain you then. Here are some youtube videos.

You should also have listen here www.myspace.com/oznoy - there's music from this last album there.

Robben Ford has a new album out!

Robben Ford's new album "Soul On Ten" is worth a look too. Eight of Soul on Ten's ten tracks are live from two nights at San Francisco's The Independent, but the closing two tracks—the ambling, jazz-centric "Don't Worry," featuring a saxophone solo by Karl Denson and bluesier "Thoughtless," with guest spots by B-3 organist Larry Goldings and bassist Jon Button—are live-in-the-studio recordings.

Oz Noy Videos

Tremolo Pedal

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Tremolo Pedal

Tremolo is a nice, simple and useful effect I like to use when playing guitar. I find it sounds best with a fairly clean guitar sound. I also think tremolo is underused as a cool effect in many styles of music.

What kind of effect is tremolo anyway? Well, all the tremolo effect does is turn the volume down and back up repeatedly.

Most Tremolo pedals have several characteristics which will shape the sound. The Depth controls how extreme the volume change is. If you set the depth low, you can an effect like turning a volume knob back and fortt just a little bit. A higher amount of depth would be like turning your volume all the way up and down repeatedly.

The Rate controls the speed of the volume change. This rate is controlled by a knob, and some pedal makers even have a tap tempo function, which makes it possible to sync the rate with the beat of a song.

The Waveform shape affects the type of tremolo too. The two types of common waveforms for tremolo are sine and square waveforms.

A Square waveform is abrubt like a lightswitch - it can only be either on or off. This means the volume is either on or off, and there’s no transition between of and off. The effect is a very choppy sounding tremolo effect.

A Sine waveform is similar to a dimmer switch, because it has a smooth transition between all the way up and all the way down. This setting is less abrupt and extreme, and sounds more pleasing.

Some pedal makers have other options too, for example tap-tempo and the ability to mix Square and Sine waveforms, for more control of the tremolo.

Cool Cat Tremolo

Personally, I have settled for the inexpensive Cool Cat Tremolo. It has a "soft" and "hard" switch, which refers to the sine and square tremolo effect types, respectively. If you are looking for a good, affordable tremolo pedal, you've got to try the Cool Cat Tremolo. I love it! Here is a demo I made, using a Suhr Classic through my Mack Heatseeker 18 watt tube head.

Musician's Friend has Cool Cats

Danelectro Cool Cat Series CT-1 Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal

For some other examples of good use of tremolo in music, have a listen to "Feels Like Rain", by John Hiatt:

Creedence Clearwater Revival also used the Tremolo effect quite a bit in their music. Here is an example.

See also a tremolo pedal article in Guitar Player Magazine from Feb 2008, where they tested 11 different tremolo pedals.

Fretboard visualization

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Fretboard visualization

Would you like to be able to you play what is in your head? A recent discussion brought this topic forward, and I would like to share my thoughts on this subject.

Most of the time when I play something, there isn't much thinking involved - the notes just kind of come out by themselves. Sometimes it sounds pretty good, sometimes, well not so good. When it doesn't sound good, I notice and try to determine what the problem is and make corrections as a result. The point is that I usually don't think ahead much regarding what I am about to play, even if I have a good idea what I want to play next.

Over the years, I have developed good ears for finding notes, both in my head and on the guitar. However, these are two different things. I can put it this way, if you develop a good ear and can "hear" the music in your head, you can also get to the point where you are able to "transfer" this music or these notes onto the guitar, without thinking.

Sounds too good to be true? Well, it is true, but it involves both spending time doing ear training, as well as practicing how to find notes on the fretboard effortlessly.

The first step is to focus on ear training. There are courses you can buy on DVD for this; there's software you can buy, and there are also websites that provide tools for ear training. I believe it is extremely useful to be able to instantly determine any of the 12 intervals in western music. Can you tell the difference between a Perfect fourth and a Perfect fifth? Are you able to pick out a b7 immediately? How about a Major 7 or Major 9 chord, can you hear this right away without having to go to the guitar or piano to try and figure it out?

The key to being able to understand a melody in your head is being able to know/hear all these intervals instantly. Why? Because you can break a melody down into intervals and make specific sense out of it that way. Once you can do this in your head, you can then transfer this knowledge to the guitar.

Learning the intervals on the guitar is a different beast in itself though. Here the problem becomes where are these notes and how can I possibly remember where everything is? Well, the way I do it is to see "shapes" of notes. You can learn to visualize a Major 3rd or a Perfect 5th (a Power Chord!) on the fretboard, and once you have these down, you can actually play what's in your head!

Okay, perhaps this sounds confusing, so let's try an example. I am assuming you have some knowledge about intervals, but if you don't, have a look at Wikipedia's Interval entry or see the resources below.

Let's check out "Itsy Bitsy Spider", I am sure know this one. It starts on the root note, until the "y" in "Bitsy", at which point the interval is a Major second. On the word "Spider", the interval is now a Major third. We can continue analyze the whole melody this way. Because I have learned how to find all intervals on the fretboard, I actually visualize these notes in my head (call it a mental fretboard) as they are being played on the guitar fretboard. When I later pick up the guitar, it is simply a matter of playing the notes I have already visualized. At this point, you are actually performing the easy part.

Now, the more you practice ear training and fretboard knowledge, the easier this process becomes. However, this visualization process is of course more difficult when the tune or melody is more complicated. Still, the more you do this, the better you will become at it.

You can do this too, but you will have to have patience, as this usually takes some time to learn. For some it can be a matter of months, for others it could be years, it all depends on how much you practice and how easily you learn. No matter what, do believe in yourself and know that this is not impossible or will only work for musical geniuses. Not so! Patience, brother - practice, stay focused and never give up. Words I try to live by as well.

Ear Training Resources

Good Ear - free ear training website.

Fretboard Learning Resources

I, Flathead - Ry Cooder

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:01 GMT

I, Flathead - Ry Cooder

I have always liked Ry Cooder. He has always been a great musical storyteller, whether it's a film score or a folk of blues tune. His latest album, I, Flathead, is the last installment in the Californian Trilogy, beginning with Chavez Ravine and continuing with last year’s My Name is Buddy.

The final CD, I, Flathead, is billed as the product of fictional musician Kash Buk and his band, The Klowns, their exploits further detailed in a 95-page novella.

It's a quirky album - it is both vintage and futuristic as the same time. There's country, rock, blues, roots, swing and jazz in here. There's also plenty of humour all throughout the album. Cooder brings out the slide as well, and Pink- Boogie is a killer tune, that's for sure.

I like this album, because it's very different. It's not guitar music of the kind I often buy. This is Ry Cooder, a man who is a fantastic guitar player and songwriter and who doesn't always go in the direction you might expext. However, he is in many ways returning to his good old self, if I dare to say so. He plays lots of great guitar on this album, and he sings great and it seems he is really having fun with this.

I give this album about 3.5 to 4 points out of 5. Ask me in a few weeks, and I might have upped it by then. It's definitely different, and I LIKE different.

Good guitar straps

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Good guitar straps

I've been looking for some great leather guitar straps for a while now, and there is never anything good in the local stores. After looking around online and checking reviews, a few names have come up. Moody straps, Levy's Leather, Eldorado straps, and Italia straps.

I imagine all of those mentioned are good quality. However, I settled for an Italia strap, and it just arrived the other day. I got the Black - Black strap as seen on www.italiastraps.com/black-guitar-strap.html.

I can not stand those cheap nylon straps you get for free when you buy a cheap guitar. They are thin and uncomfortable, really worthless to me. I am unable to wear such straps more than 5 minutes.

First impression of this Italia Strap - this is a very high quality leather strap. It is made out of finest Italian leather. I was pleasantly surprised to see how thick and soft the leather is. Very impressive indeed.

There is a lifetime guarantee on these straps, and I particularly like that there is not any hardware that can dig into my shoulder or my guitar.

I set the strap to be very short, as I am a short guy who prefers to wear my guitar high. Since the leather is so smooth and soft, it is very comfortable with any guitar.

If you want a custom-made strap, Italia straps have you covered. The company listens to their customers' needs, and will make you a strap to your specifications.

This strap is now my main strap, and I use it on my main guitar - my Suhr Classic. A great match! The white guitar and the black strap, perfect contrast.

In summary, if you want a quality leather strap, look no further than Italia Straps. I can not give anything but a big thumbs up for this strap! I will probably order another one, to use with my guitar number two.

Jeff Beck Live

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Jeff Beck Live

Jeff Beck is one fantastic guitarist. He's got chops and feeling and is just different than anybody else.

The thing is, I personally did not discover Jeff until fairly recently, can you believe it?! Well, I had heard him and knew some of his famous tunes, but I hadn't really listened, if you know what I mean? I have some of his studio albums, and they all feature some really cool guitar playing, although I may not dig all the tunes themselves, but Jeff's playing make it all worthwhile listening to anyway.

Jeff's technique is very interesting. He constantly uses his whammy bar in very creative ways. Playing like that is hard; it's easy to mess up notes, but Jeff is in complete control. In addition, he is constantly adjusting his tone by adjusting his volume knob. This style of playing is extremely difficult to master.

He also doesn't use a pick - just his right hand fingers. I really like his tone. You always get a much better tone by using your picking hand's fingers instead of a pick. Jeff uses 50 watt Marshall amps too, from what I have read.

I have friends who have seen Jeff Beck live, and they all say the same thing - wicked and brilliant. I sure hope he comes this way sometime, because I do think, as a guitar player, experiencing Jeff Beck live would be one fantastic event. I've looked on youtube a bit, and there is some great Jeff Beck stuff available. If you haven't heard any of his live playing, check out these videos below. Quite the guy, isn't he?! He seems to completely excel at live playing - just like a great player should. The live performance of Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott's is another must-have. Both CD or DVD can be purchased. Here is a review.

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat / Brush With the Blues

Cause We Ended As Lovers

A Day In The Life

From Crossrads 2007

Marshall Haze

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Marshall Haze

Marshall has come out with a interesting new amp, called Haze. Currently, there is a 15 watt head and a 40 watt combo available.

The Haze15 has 3 ECC83 preamp tubes and two 6V6 power tubes, but the Hazel40 has two EL34 tubes for the power section.

Both amps come with digital effects and reverb.

It is a great idea by Marshall to offer real tube amps with a bit lower wattage, as many players today opt for smaller rigs. A Marshall stack is never wrong, but not everyone likes hauling around a 100 watt head with accompanying 4x12 cabinets to every gig.

Both the 15 and 40 watt amp have two channels. The "normal" channel handles clean to crunchy, and the "overdrive" channel goes from crunchy to high gain. The combo also has a boost function that is available for both channels.

With the Haze 15 and Haze 40, Marshall is providing a simple, good sounding low powered tube amp to an attractive price. I think many players have been missing what the Haze amps offer - good Marshall tone at lower volumes and a reasonable price (without any need for pedals). The 40 watt Haze combo is currently selling for around $700.00.

Lately, there hasn't been that many competitors to Fender's Hot Rod amps in this price range, at least not amps with the British Marshall flavor. This is a REAL Marshall, of course!

This could become a very popular amp, because of the reasons mention above. I think Marshall is doing the right thing here. Take one for a test drive if you have the chance!

Marshall Haze demos

Marshall Haze MHZ15 15W Tube Guitar Amp Head Black

The Marshall Haze MHZ15 tube guitar amp head is brimming with 15W of power, iconic looks, and most of all, exemplary Marshall tone. This compact all-tube head features effects, reverb, and classic looks without a big footprint. The Haze is covered in a vintage-style vinyl and fitted with protective corners. The hand-stretched baffle fretcloth, with its white piping finish, matches the complementing Haze cabinets, meaning you can combine it with 1 or 2 of them to create one cool-looking mid-sized stack. Just because the Marshall Haze head is smaller than a standard tube head doesn't mean that it's quiet or lacking in power or tone that you expect from a Marshall amp—its 15W of all-tube power guarantees you the full Marshall experience. The head is driven by an ECC83 preamp stage and 6V6 power amp stage, combining to create fantastic tube tone that belies its size. The Haze 15 has both normal and overdrive channels with a shared EQ and onboard effects, providing a versatile sound set and delivering an all-tube tone in a compact package that performs just like an all tube amplifier should. Designed in the same style as traditional Marshall Head amplifiers, the 2 distinctive footswitchable channels of the 15W Haze amplifier offer a variety of tonal possibilities. The Normal mode has bags of headroom and provides a rich and organic clean sound. With the Overdrive channel the Haze amp head delivers a warm overdriven tone, and its separate Gain control makes it possible to dial in preamp drive, distorting your tone before it reaches the power stage to deliver a more gritty rock tone. A Bright switch is shared between both the Normal and Overdrive channels. When engaged it lifts the overall sound achieved adding extra bite and sparkle and defining the edge of your tone when you need it. Both the Normal and Overdrive channels use a shared 3-band EQ, allowing you to adjust the treble, middle, and bass response to suit your taste. The effects section of the Haze 15 contains custom-voiced effects and reverb that have been specially designed by Marshall to complement the feel and tone of the amplifier. Each effect selected on the channel will be remembered when you return to the channel, meaning you can set up your clean and overdrive sounds and return to them over and over again without having to readjust your settings. The warm emulated spring reverb has its own independent control, allowing you to add as much or as little reverb as required. For those who want to completely remove the reverb circuitry from the equation, the reverb control is fitted with a positive off switch. Rotating the control counter-clockwise you will feel a click indicating that the reverb circuitry is disengaged. The 3 selectable effects in the Haze 15 reflect the overall feel of the tone available and have been designed to work with the tone of the amplifier to ensure that every one feels rich and satisfying.

Marshall Haze MHZ40C 40W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp Black

The format and versatility of the 1x12 40W Marshall Haze combo makes it the perfect partner for guitarists looking for a gig-worthy compact workhorse with enough features, power, and tone capabilities to handle a wide variety of situations. The cabinet is finished in high-grade vinyl with protective corners. Its vintage-style baffle is covered in a hand-stretched, acoustically transparent fret cloth, and the cabinet is finished with white piping and hard-wearing cabinet furniture to ensure your Marshall MHZ40C looks great.With its EL34 power stage and ECC83 powered preamp, this portable 40W combo is designed to deliver to the guitarist's expectations through the power and feel of its tubes. Laid out in a top-loaded format, the Marshall Haze sports 2 distinctive footswitchable channels. In normal mode the tone circuitry of the Haze 40W provides low-gain sounds that are crisp and honest, providing a really nice clean tone. Dialed from a single volume control, the normal channel provides ample headroom to play at volume without losing the definition of your guitar. The amp's boost switch in normal mode pushes the lower shapes of your tone by adding more gain and extra punch in the lower midsection for a fuller sound, perfect for fattening up thinner-sounding single coil pickups. The bright switch delivers added sparkle enhancing upper range of your guitar's sound and adding a crisper edge and more defined, brighter feel. Combined, the boost and bright switches will allow you to push the normal channel so that it stands out above the unmodified normal sound. The overdrive channel of the Marshall Haze 40W delivers a classic tone option with a separate gain control. It's possible to dial in preamp drive that distorts the sound and makes it easy to access that more aggressive rock and blues attitude without losing the definition of your guitar. The addition of the boost switch to the overdrive sound really pushes you into lead territory with sustain to spare, ensuring that you can access that extra punch when required. Both the normal and overdrive channels on the Marshall Haze amp use a shared 3-band EQ, allowing you to individually adjust the treble, midrange, and bass to suit your taste. The effects section of the Haze MHZ40C combo contains custom-voiced effects and reverb that have been specially designed by Marshall to complement the feel and tone of the amplifier. Each effect selected on the channel (normal, overdrive and overdrive boost) will be remembered when you return to the channel, meaning you can set up your clean, overdrive, and lead sounds and return to them over and over again without having to readjust your settings. The warm emulated spring reverb has its own independent control, allowing you to add in as much or as little reverb as required.

Anthem Guitars

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Anthem Guitars

Anthem make really nice and affordable guitars

New guitar day! In my hands, I have a black Anthem WTR30TBK guitar, a high gain shredder guitar with 24 Frets, floyd rose tremolo, zebra style humbuckers and jumbo frets. It even came with a cable, nice strap and strings as well. The body is made out of basswood, and it has a 3 Piece Bolt-on Canadian Maple Neck. The scale length is 25.5 inches. It is a joy to play! I am very picky about guitar necks, and this one is really, really nice. It has a flat but solid 17" radius; it is very easy to play fast lines on it, while at the same time it is not annoyingly superthin either. I really like this neck.

I plugged in this guitar into my Marshall JVM410H and set up a high gain tone. Wow. The pickup must be good, because it sounded FAT! I will produce some video demos of this guitar, but my first impression is that this guitar sounds very good. It is light weight, and it looks really cool. I have the Transparent Black, but it also comes in a Metallic Platinum.

This is not a complete review, as I have yet to set up the Floyd Rose and play the guitar through several amps. I can tell you though, that a high gain amp like my Marshall and this Anthem guitar are one fine match. What a fat and rich tone!

Anthem Guitars are relatively new on the guitar scene. What they are doing, is making quality guitars similar in pricing to Mexican Fenders, Epiphone, etc. They are made in China, and the first impression when I picked this up was, wow. Very nice quality for a Chinese guitar. In fact, this guitar is similar to Ibanez, Michael Kelly or Schecters, but I feel the this Anthem guitar is built with the attention to quality and detail than many of the competitors lack. You won't find any any sharp fret edges or crackling pots, etc., something I find far too often when I try guitars in this price range at music stores.

Most of the Anthem guitars are in the price range of $500 - $600. If this WTR30TBK is any indication, I think Anthem guitars have a good future ahead of them, because of the quality you get for this price. If you see an Anthem guitar in a store, grab it and see what you think. I suspect you might pleasantly surprised.

I also have my eye on the PST20, which is more of a Les Paul design, and it comes in pretty and colorful finishes. For more information about these guitars, go to Anthem Guitars Website.

Music on Main

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Music on Main

Our band played at Music on Main this last Thursday here in Camrose. It's a nice program, supported by Martha's Music and the local businesses downtown Camrose, and we appreciate the opportunity to play at this event.

It is a great idea, where the local businesses stay open late, and people can shop a bit, listen to live music a bit on a nice summer evening. There could be more people coming out though, not sure what is keeping people from a great program like this.

We had rehearsed a bunch of new tunes for this gig, and it mostly went well. Some new SRV tunes, BB King, Joe Bonamassa, ZZ Top and other stuff, and it was great fun to have some (for us anyway) "new" material to play.

I used my Reverend Hellhound with a Blues Driver and a Maxon SD-9, and I of course used my Suhr Classic most of the time. Such a great sounding guitar. The reason I brought the Hellhound is because it's easiest to haul around. I usually bring my Mack amp, but then I need my cabinet too and sometimes it's too much to haul around when we have to set up quickly, like this time.

This band loves coffee, as you can tell from the picture below. Maybe we should call ourselves the Java Bean Band or something, haha!

Hideaway - Freddie King

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Hideaway - Freddie King

I've always loved playing blues guitar, and one great blues player that has influenced me quite a bit over the years is Freddie King. He had such a great feel in his playing - very tasty player, he was. I can also hear a lot of Freddie when I listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan since it wasn't just Albert King who influenced SRV. Hideaway is a song many associate with Freddy, and here is clip from 1966. Really cool ideas in this one. Notice how he doesn't use a flat pick. I've read he often used a plastic thumb pick and a metal index-finger pick. His guitar of choice was a Gibson ES-335.

Freddie had a great voice too. Really growly and with lots of feeling. His guitar style is the same way - very melodic and expressional. Going Down is a great tune, and saying that Freddie does it justice is an understatement. Have a listen.

It's too bad Freddie left so early. He passed away in 1976 from a heart problem, only 42 years old.

If you want to hear more, search for more clips of him on youtube; there are quite a few available there. I have the album "The Texas Cannonball" and it's great. All of the albums he recorded are well worth buying.

Gibson stole my photo

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Gibson stole my photo

Stealing is bad, and it has happened to me before. This time however, the thief ended up being the mighty Gibson,
and I'm not happy about this.

Here's the story. A little while ago, I was browsing Google news, reading about guitar related news. I spotted a little thumbnail photo that I immediately recognized. Hey, wasn't that... my pedals? How could that be? The article was not something I had written. So, I clicked on the link, and it took me to http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/back-to-basics-603/ which is a page written by Dave Hunter about using effects pedals. The first thing you see on that web page is - my photo. There is no doubt about that, since the photo is from my page at http://www.dolphinstreet.com/guitar_pedals/pedal_board/ where I wrote about how I built my pedal board out of a suitcase. This is the photo in question:

So what is the problem here? Well, I was never contacted by the author of the article. I am not credited as the source of the image either. He blatanly saved the image from my website and posted it on the Gibson website, without checking with me if that was cool. My website even has a copyright notice at the bottom of the page. Even so, any original artistic work is automatically copyrighted by law. Have a look at the this page about Copyright Law in the United States. I reside in Canada, and the Copyright Act protects original artistic works here in the same way.

I would not have minded if I was asked if it would be okay to put my photo on the Gibson page. In fact, I would have been flattered and would probably have said something like "yeah sure, as long as you also add a link back to my website, or reference me by name." since that would be proper, and I would get some website traffic in return.

The Correspondent page for the author also shows my picture, but this time it has been cropped. I don't recall having told anyone it's okay to not only steal my photos, but also tamper with them and post them on a different website.

When I noticed this photo theft, I sent a polite email the very next day to the Gibson webmaster email address. I mentioned that I had not given permission to the author to use my image on the Gibson website, but I said I would not mind as long as I was credited in return. I receive no reply from Gibson. This was on June 8th, 2009.

Personally, I'm not hurting really bad or anything because of this. Photographing pedal boards isn't my livelyhood, but on the other hand, it's never too late to make things right. I would not have a problem if Gibson contacted me (albeit late) and said they will credit me for using the photo. I would just say thanks for doing the right thing.

I am disappointed that the author of the article was not professional enough to do the right thing, which would have been to just ask me before taking my photo. I am also disappointed that I didn't hear back from Gibson.

I guess it's also possible that Gibson would have just removed my photo and used a different one instead of mine, if I had ever gotten through to Gibson. That might have been the end of the story. As it is right now, my photo is still sitting on their website.

What are your thoughts on this? Maybe it's not a big deal, but I do think professional writers and one of the biggest guitar companies in the world should respect copyright laws. If you have any suggestions or ideas, let me know. Feel free to spread the word about this, if you think it will help.

By the way, I also immediately saved the Gibson page as PDF document, in case their web page gets removed or modified. :)

Update - July 27, 2009

Today, Gibson suddenly removed my photo from their webpage. I have not, at any time, been contacted by Gibson or the author about this whole issue. I was hoping for an apology or explanation, but it looks like that won't happen.

Update - July 28, 2009

I added a comment to the Gibson page yesterday, and today I am noticing there are no comments displayed at all on that page. They seem to have been removed - perhaps because they were mostly critical comments, pointing out the copyright violation? Wait a minute, now the comments are back again - strange. One minute there are no comments, next minute the comments are there.

Cheap Studio Monitors

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Cheap Studio Monitors

I have been putting off buying studio monitors for way too long. Instead of using some real studio monitors, I've been using headphones when mixing and recording. Not so smart. It is tiring for the ears with headphones, and it doesn't sound the same as through monitors.

So, what studio monitors to get? There are a lot of options out there, and depending on your budget, you can spend thousands or under a hundred on decent, good or professional monitors. I did some research and found interesting studio monitors by M-Audio, Yamaha, Edirol, Alesis, Behringer and others. Some are cheap, some cost a fair bit, but as always, you get what you pay for. A higher end studio monitor is necessary for those who want really good sound for mixing, recording, etc.

So, I talked to my local music store, Music Centre Canada, and they had just gotten some Eden EM-3 in. I hadn't heard of these before, so I headed over there and had a listen. You can see more details about these monitors at www.eden-electronics.com/products/monitors/index.asp. Recently, they had a sale on their website, and then a pair of EM-3 monitors were sold for $69.99! Incredible. Well, the price has now gone up.

The Eden EM-3 studio monitors are really small, but they are quite powerful. The sound is clear and they sound "flat", which means they don't boost the bass or other frequencies - a neutral sound, so to speak. This is just what I wanted. Even though they are only 10 watts, it's more than adequate for my needs, which is record and mix at low volumes at night.

These Eden studio monitors are really cheap, but for they money, the do the job well. I am frankly quite impressed. The sound very clear and crisp, and there is enough volume for guys like me. The flat eq is good, I think, because it suits my style of music. If you are into techno and such things, you might want monitors with bigger bass response. They are also very small, kind of cute actually (!), and don't weigh much.

If you can't find Eden speakers close to you, here are some other good studio monitors, available from Musician's Friend. I do recommend you test before you buy, especially if you are investing serious coin into this. The ones I have listed below have received good reviews and are all excellent choices.

Edirol MA-7A Stereo Micro Monitors

The MA-7A Reference Speakers are the ideal solution for musicians and computer users who must have the best audio quality possible in a very confined space. They are extraordinarily small reference speakers, yet are capable of producing incredible sound. ÿThe MA-7A has a built-in bass enhancer that operates on psychoacoustic principles. It converts low frequencies into a series of overtones that the human ear cannot distinguish from the original low frequencies. Thus you don't overdrive the speaker yet hear bass frequencies that are outside its normal range. If you need more low end, the MA-7A offers a sub-out jack for connection to a subwoofer.The MA-7A offers conveniently placed volume and tone controls on the speaker's front panel. You can also connect 2 different sources directly into the MA-7A, such as your computer and your stereo, so can hear either source without switching cables. You can also plug headphones directly into the MA-7A. Plugging in headphones automatically defeats the speakers, allowing you to monitor without disturbing anyone.The MA-7As are magnetically shielded for close proximity to your computer monitor.

Fostex PM0.4 Powered Studio Monitors - Pair

l studio use with an internal digital-audio interface. M1Active 520 USB is a pair of active, bi-amplified, two-way reference monitors that play from 20,000 Hz all the way down to 56 Hz to cover nearly all frequencies audible to human ears. You can take digital signal out of your computer via USB and input it to M1Active 520 USB thanks to their digital input. Priced attractively for any studio's budget, M1Active 520 USB perform with linearity, clarity, and neutrality typically reserved for monitors that cost much more. Reference Monitoring>Br> Alesis has built M1Active 520USB around their popular five-inch polypropylene low-frequency driver for full, smooth response in the low end and a one-inch silk dome high-frequency driver for absolute clarity in the highs. A custom crossover avoids the crucial vocal midrange, ensuring that your mixes sound the way you recorded them. The low-resonance bass reflex cabinet features radiussed edges to reduce edge diffraction and a tuned port for bass extension. A bass boost switch offers low-frequency enhancement to further accommodate for room conditions requiring a little more output in the low end.

Olympus 70-300mm Lens

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Olympus 70-300mm Lens

Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 ED Lens

Olympus lenses are very good, I have to say. I believe they are at least as good as the competition, although there may be less to choose from. The Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 ED Lens is very nice lens for the money.

I have had my Olympus E-410 for about a year now, and it has worked really well for me. I have only been using the kit lens that came with it, a ZUIKO Digital 14 - 42 mm F3.5 - F5.6.

The kit lens is quite decent, and it's a great all-around lens for the price. However, I have been thinking about getting tele-zoom lens, so I can get closer to what I'm shooting. A lot of the times, I'm doing running photos or shots from somewhat far away. For some things like that, the kit lens has it shortcomings.

So, I looked around for good zoom lenses for my Olympus camera. I first thought about getting the Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 50-200mm f2.8-3.5 SWD, but I didn't really want to spend that kind of money. A friend of mine mentioned the Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 ED Lens instead, and after seeing some nice example photos on www.pbase.com, this seems like a great choice.

I went to McBain's in Edmonton, and they had this one in stock. I took a look at it and was immediately impressed from just testing it in the store. I was lucky too, they had marked it with the wrong price, so I got $50.00 off the regular price!

Description of this lens:
The high-mobility Olympus Zuiko lens offers a field of view to 600mm (35mm equivalent), and 70-300mm super-telephoto lens is an ideal choice for sports, nature, and other types of long-distance photography. The lens incorporates three extra-low-dispersion (ED) lens elements, which combine to offer a sharper, higher-contrast imaging performance, The lens's Four-Thirds system, meanwhile, ensures that you don't lose your macro or super-telephoto versatility when you switch to a different camera body. The lens also supports tele-macro photography thanks to its 1x magnification (35mm equivalent).

Specifications
- Focal length: 70-300mm - Maximum aperture: f/4 to f/5.6 - Lens construction: 14 elements in 10 groups - Angle of view: 18 to 4.1 degrees - Closest focusing distance: 3.14 feet - Maximum image magnification: 0.5x - Filter size: 58mm - Dimensions: 3.14 inches in diameter and 5 inches long - Weight: 21.9 ounc

es - Warranty: 1 year

See more details specification at the Olympus E 70-300mm product page.

I have not used the lens extensively yet, but so far, I am impressed overall. It is light and I have found it quite easy to get sharp photos without a tripod, but with a steady grip. That is, unless you zoom in all the way, of course.

I like the autofocus. It reacts fairly quickly if you are shooting moving subjects, which is perfect for my situation. This lens is perfect for any nature photographer. It is not fast as a pro lens, but for most people, it will be more than adequate.

I find this lens produces outdoor photos with rich colors and really good contrast. It will also deliver nice isolation and nicely blurred backgrounds. I am still amazed by the low price of this lens, considering what it delivers!

The drawback with this lens would be that the autofocus has trouble in low light conditions. Once you get the autofocus right, the photos are tack sharp, however.

In summary, this lens is a great addition to the kit lenses that come with the Olympus cameras. The price is right, and for the money, you really do get a fantastic lens. It's not a professional lens, but use it under the right circumstances, you will get professional looking photos. Don't spend thousands on a good tele zoom lens, when you can get the Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 ED Lens!

How To Practice Guitar

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:01 GMT

How To Practice Guitar

As a guitar teacher, I have found that students are not sure how they should practice. As a result, they often don't improve as fast as they could, because they are not using their time playing guitar effectively. I think this applies to many players, regardless of ability. Many feel they are just not getting any better, and frustration comes easy as a result. I have to admit, it happens to me too!

So what can be done about this? Are there any "secrets to practicing guitar"? Not really, no. However, what we all need to do sometimes it to take a step back and take a look at where we are now, and where we want to be. This is different for everyone, depending on their level of skill, but what most of us have in common is the need for a practice plan. I believe that in order accomplish things effectively in life, regardless of what it is, having a plan in place is essential.

Are you noodling around for hours and hours, playing the same stuff you already know over and over? If so, why? Probably because you never stopped and thought about it for very long. There is a big difference between practicing and noodling. Practicing is learning new material, gaining new knowledge or skill, and refining and improving upon what you already know. Noodling is not necessarily bad, not at all, but we should look at developing a plan that also includes other essential parts of playing guitar.

So what does a practice plan look like then? The first thing I recommend is to work with a metronome. If you have access to a drum machine, even better. Metronomes can be quite boring to play, so playing to a drum track is way more fun. They both will do the job though, which is forcing you to play well by keeping good time. Whatever you are working on, play it slow with a metronome/drum machine first. Make sure it is accurate and clearly executed. For example, you may be playing 1/4 notes - one note per beat of the metronome - so play it over and over and make sure you are keeping time with the ticking of the metronome. Practicing with a metronome early on in your career is so important. Your timing will become great as a result, and you will sound great when you play. This is especially true when you play in a band. Just be patient, and practice at slow tempos at first, and only speed up the metronome when you are able to play it perfectly at the current tempo.

If you are having problems learning a particular part of a song or lick, etc - narrow down the problem area and tackle that problem separately. It might be a bend, a strumming pattern, a chord, etc. Play that part slowly until you are able to play it well. Then move on to the next parts. Some things take more time to get down, so be patient and repeatedly work on difficult parts - it will get easier over time, I promise.

Here's another thing to try. Use a timer and set it to 10 minutes per each subject of study. Keep practicing the same thing until the timer goes off. Good job! Feel free to noodle around for a few minutes, before you move on to the next subject of study.

Suggested Guitar Practice Schedule (80 minutes)

Other than #1, feel free to practice these things in any order! You don't have to do them all in one setting either. Do a few at a time, and next time you practice, do the other items in the list you didn't do the first time, etc. Also, feel free to change the number of minutes for each to suit your own needs. Maybe you want to practice for 2 hours, maybe just 50 minutes - it is completely up to you. You can view this schedule as a skeleton or blueprint which you can modify to fit into your own situation.

Warm-up - 5 minutes. First of all - tune your guitar! Then, play anything you like, but don't do anything that is really hard on the muscles in your hands. Let them get warmed up first.
Scales - 10 minutes . Work on scales you don't yet know well. You probably have scales tabbed out and printed. Take your time and play these slowly with the metronome. Play the notes of the scale in question in any order, random, sequential, etc. As you do this, try to visualize in your head the patterns this scale creates on the fretboard. Over time, you will be able to "see" the scale on the fretboard without thinking much about it.
Arpeggios - 10 minutes. Do the same as with the scales mentioned above. An arpeggio is a group of notes which are played one after the other, either going up or going down, where the notes belong to one chord. Again, visualize and try to remember the patterns you play.
Chords - 10 minutes. Learn new voicings of chords. Learn new chords. Practice chord progressions with some of the new chords you are learning.
Theory - 5 minutes. Get a good book about music theory. There are many out there. This one is great - Alfred Essentials of Music Theory: Complete Self-Study Course (Book/2-CD)
Technique - 10 minutes. Work on things that need improvement or that may be new to you, for example - hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, strumming, alternate picking, sweep technique, tapping, etc.
Fretboard training - 10 minutes. Set the metronome at a low BPM. Start with any note you want. Find and play that note for every click of the metronome on every string, but start with 2 strings at a time. Once you have that down, move to 2 more strings, then practice finding that note on those 4 strings. Continue with the last 2 strings and finally do all 6 strings. Play the notes in any order and direction. The purpose here is to find the note in question as quickly as you can. It will become "transparent" with enough training - you will be able to find any note anywhere on the fretboard without having to think
Work on a song - 10 minutes. Work on a song which has something challenging in it, something that gives you an opportunity to practice something new.
Reading music - 10 minutes. Work on reading TAB and music notation. Practice reading rhythms, notes and sight reading.
Transcribe something - ANY minutes. This is the best way to teach yourself, and it's fantastic ear training. Listen to a few seconds of a song, over and over. Imitate best you can, try to figure out one note at a time. This means replaying the same sequence many times. After a while, you will be able to do this quicker, as well as picking out more than one note at a time.
Play anything - ANY minutes. Noodle around and play whatever you want - playing should first and foremost be FUN!

Important things to remember

Always tap your foot with the metronome and the rhythm you are playing. That way, you will lock your body into the meter, and you will become good at playing tight. Good timing is soooo important! I cannot stress this enough.
Use that metronome/drum machine! Any time you are working on something with a beat to it, get that metronome/drum machine going. You get two benefits at one time - you may be working on scales, chords, etc, but at the same time, you will also improve your timing when you practice this to the metronome.
Visualize the notes you are about to play. Practicing enough will get you to the point where, for example, you can see the note "A" on the B string before you actually play it.
Record yourself regularly, and then listen back to it with critical ears. What problems do you notice? Timing issues? Are notes played cleanly and accurately? Determine what the weaknesses are, and focus on correcting them.
Sing the notes - as you are playing through, for example, a scale or an arpeggio, sing the notes as you are playing them. This will train your ear and will also help you learn where the notes are on the fretboard.
Play with others - jam with friends, your teacher, anyone. Play something for your friends and family. Get a little gig somewhere - it will help you stay motivated. Playing with people with improve your ear and you will develop your musicianship further and quicker.

Hope you find these tips useful. Remember, a focused practice routine will lead to improvements faster.

Last thing - don't forget to the most important part - to have fun!

Resources:

Alfred Essentials of Music Theory: Complete Self-Study Course (Book/2-CD)

The Alfred Essentials of Music Theory: Complete Self-Study Course is a practical, easy-to-use music course that is perfect for pianists, guitarists, instrumentalists, vocalists, songwriters, arrangers, and composers. Includes 2 ear training CDs to help develop your musical ear. In this all-in-one music theory course, you will learn the essentials of music through 75 concise lessons; practice your music reading and writing skills in the exercises; improve your listening skills with the enclosed ear training CDs; and test your knowledge with a review that completes each of the 18 units. Answers are included in the back of the book for all exercises, ear training, and review.

Musician's Institute Practice Trax for Guitar (Book/CD)

Based on the famous Open Counseling class at Musicians Institute, this one-on-one lesson with MI instructor Danny Gill lets guitarists practice soloing with a real band! The CD features 20 full-length jams in the style of Satriani, Beck, Zeppelin, The Beatles, U2, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and more! Each song is analyzed by key, mode, and pitch axis. Patterns for the major and minor scales, major and minor pentatonics, the blues scale, modes, and altered scales are also provided.

Canon DM-100 Review

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Canon DM-100 Directional Stereo Microphone

I have noticed a bit of noise and unclear sound with my Canon HG-20 camera, and in order to improve on this, I bought the Canon DM-100 microphone, which is made specifically for Canon camcorders. It fits nicely into the mount (hot shoe) on top of the camera.

This mic provides three sound acceptance patterns (shotgun, 90-degree stereo and 120-degree stereo spreads), and comes with an effective windscreen. This windscreen looks like squirrel tail or something, and some people refer to it as a dead cat.

The DM-100 is a big improvement in sound. It makes the DG-20 and similar video camcorders quite a bit more effective and professional.

My video camera (and most budget camcorders) have built-in stereo mics that work well, but are sensitive to the slightest wind, and they are often producing a bit of white noise. This external mic solves the wind noise problem - by using the windscreen/dead cat, the wind problem is virtually a non-issue. It works very well for outside filming.

The switchable polar patterns and superb frequency response add depth and dimension that is simply not possible with the on-camera mic.

As a result, my videos will from now sound better and clearer, and there will be less white noise in the background. If there still is noise, I will blame it on my tube amps! :)

Other microphones worth having a look at would be the Sennheiser MKE 400 and the Rode VideoMic - both get very positive reviews. I decided on the Canon because I know it will fit, it has good reviews and is the most affordable of the three. I am not sure if these other microphones mentioned are a lot better or not, but they would definitely be worth checking out. They do cost more though.

Final word - the DM-100 is a bit expensive for being just a microphone. I guess is somewhat typical - you get a video camera for a decent price, but most accessories you buy for it will cost you. That's something we've all seen before!

In summary, this is a nice microphone for Canon video cameras. I will absolutely recommend it, since the sound quality, versatility and windscreen improves the sound dramatically over the built-in microphone. The only drawback is that it's somewhat pricy. However, the improvement in sound makes it worthwhile.

Buying tip - check B&H Photo Video for buying the DM-100, as I find they have very good prices and are great to deal with. Highly recommended place to buy camera equipment!

Video Review Test

Small guitar rig works too

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Minimal Guitar Rig for a Gig

On Friday, Myra, Brandon, Al and I played for about an hour at Jaywalkers Jamboree in Camrose. I had brought my Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow, my Reverend Hellhound and my Pedaltrain 2 loaded with some cool pedals. This type of setup I often bring to gigs when I don't want to haul my 2x12 and a head along. For this gig, I had to carry my stuff quite a bit, since I wasn't able to park close to the stage.

When I got there with my gear, it was time to set up real fast so we could get started. The sound guys even helped me set up my gear. Nice fellows. As we were getting the pedal board out and took away the flight case, I realized - I had forgotten the 1-Spot Adapter at home! Think quick - what do I do? My Hellhound doesn't get enough distortion for all the stuff we do with this band. Some dirt pedal would be necessary.

They sound guys offered me power, but I don't think that would have worked so well since I have so many pedals hooked up. I could have used that power adapter they had for just one pedal I guess, but I then remembered that I had a Cool Cat Distortion with a fresh battery laying in the cabinet of the Hellhound. That would just have to do. So, the Pedaltrain was packed up again and taken away.

So, I hooked up the Cool Cat Distortion and a volume pedal between the MK and the Hellhound, and this setup rocked. I got really good tone, I thought. The MK has high output pickups, and with the volume pedal to "wimpify" the distortion when needed, I had a set up that was minimal, but worked well.

I may have missed some delay on some tunes, but to be honest, it was fun to play with just this distortion pedal on the whole time, and using the volume pedal to dial back the gain and volume. I used it on ballads (I sometimes rolled off the volume knob on the guitar too) and I turned everything on 10 for leads. The sound guys took care of boost the volume for my solos.

People came up and said my guitar sounded great. I really enjoyed the gig, and I have to confess, I really dig humbucker guitars now and then! The fatter gain the MK gives me is fun for blues and rockier stuff. My hand kept searching for the tremolo bar though... there is no doubt my Suhr is my #1 guitar, but the Michael Kelly is no slouch either, and makes for a good alternative for different tones.

So, this was a good example of how a minimal rig can work so great for a gig. It's fun with cool pedals for a variety of sounds, but there is also value in one basic tone and a lot less to carry, set up and tear down. If you haven't gigged with a minimal rig recently, I recommend you try it, just to see how it feels. It made me focus more on dynamics with my volume knobs and volume pedal, and it kind of made me feel a little proud that I really don't need a bunch of pedal in order to sound good. If I may say so.

The drawback for this gig was actually a band aid, which made playing a bit difficult. You see, I cut my left index finger a bit with a knife earlier in the week, while trying to slice a dried up bagel. Note to self - don't be an idiot! Cutting bagels with a bread knife is usually not a problem, but when the bagel is a bit dry, do be careful! Or just get one of those bagel holders - very simple innovation that makes the procedure safe. I hope I learned my lesson... :)

How to lose 5 pounds in 2 weeks

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:01 GMT

How to lose 5 pounds in 2 weeks

I want to share with you my experience of losing 5 pounds in 2 weeks. Here's how I did it.

In order to lose weight, we need to take in fewer calories than we use. The result will lead to a loss of overall weight. Pretty simple logic, and I am sure we all know this. There is of course more to it. For one thing, we can add exercise to this picture, which means more calories are burned and the weight loss comes sooner, at least in theory.

We need to keep in mind that a quick, temporary weight loss diet isn't necessary a good thing. We lose some weight, just to gain it back when the old bad habits creep back upon us. What we should aim for is a day-to-day habit of eating healthy food and not too much of it either. Cook your own food, use fresh ingredients, and get a little bit of everything. It's not rocket surgery - eat normal amounts of lean meat, carbs, fat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, bread, etc. Easier said than done?

So how did I suddenly lose weight, and why?
Well, I am a runner, and a few weeks before a marathon, I noticed I had actually gained some weight. Not a big problem; I am pretty lean overall, but I wanted to see if I could drop a little bit before the race. I don't recommend doing what I did, but here goes.

First of all, I cut down the size of my meals. My portions were about half the size of what they normally are. Naturally, this leads to cravings and feeling hungry all the time. I have realized that when I get hungry in the evenings, I often end up eating chips, cheese, cookies and other fattening stuff. Sounds familiar?

So, here's my secret - I curbed my cravings by eating apples, grapes and carrots. I ate half size lunch and supper meals. As well, I drank lots of water. That's it! Pretty simple, huh? As an afternoon or mid-morning snack, I would eat an apple or some grapes. Perhaps an orange or a pear for variation. These kinds of fruits have low amounts of calories.

Interestingly enough, I did not find this whole process as difficult as I had imagined. I had been worried about feeling starved. Well, for one thing, I was determined from the start, and I made a conscious decision to skip food with lots of calories and fat. As I ate smaller portions, I was just thinking, "I'll just drink lots of water and have some fruit later". And it worked! I was not feeling starved all the time.

For me, this was just a temporary experiment, so to speak. I am not overweight to start with. However, I learned some things from this too. I realized how easy it is to eat too much all the time, because I think it's in our nature to eat until we are really full.

The thing I will take with me from this experiment is that I will skip the unhealthy snacks in the evenings, and go for fruit and vegetables instead. Eating calorie-rich food during evenings has sometimes lead to sleeping difficulties for me, as I my stomach would be really busy during the night, and I often woke up as a result.

Eating less in the evenings, and eating low-calorie snacks if i do, means I can then eat regular size meals during the day and I will sleep better at night.

If you decide to try this, please don't go overboard, and think long-term. A quick loss of weight is usually not a good thing, and I do recommend developing good, healthy eating habits that will over time lead to a normal, healthy body weight.

Learn more about how to lose weight safely over at the Nahanni River Herbs website.

Best stratocaster for the money

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Best stratocaster for the money

There are many options today for getting a good Stratocaster. I am a Stratocaster guy. I have always loved these guitars, and not matter what other type of guitars I play, I always come back to the Stratocaster. It is for me the ultimate guitar. Here are my thoughts on the matter of the best Strat for the money you spend.

Mass-produced guitars are usually hit and miss. Fender have made many good Strats over the years, both cheap and expensive ones. The thing is, there is usually a gem among the lot. My best advice for buying a great Strat is to go to a well equipped guitar store and try all of their Strats. Take your time, you may end up with a cheap, great Strat and find yourself shaking your head at some of the expensive, dull Strats...

One real issue here is that Fender raised their prices recently quite a bit. There are many disappointed guitar players out there after that happened, but what can you do? Look for used ones, I guess.

The American Standard Stratocaster is usually a good buy. They cost from around $1,200 and up. They have good parts and good pickups. However, not all of the Am Strats I've played have been great, although you've got pretty good chances of getting a good guitar if you go with one of these.

The Custom Shop Strats are of course awesome. They are perhaps the best Strats Fender offers, but they sure are not inexpensive. Over 3 grand, in many cases. Still, have a look at these if you want the best Fender Strats available.

The new RoadHouse Strats are interesting. They cost $740 - $790 or so, and they are quite nice. They look cool and have Texas Special pickups. Worth a look.

The Highway One Strats are USA made, and although some might not dig the big 70s headstock, fat frets and the available colours, these guitars are a lot of bang for the buck. I almost bought one once. Price is around $890 or so I think.

The Deluxe Player's Stratocaster is another nice Strat. It's about $800 and it has Vintage Noiseless pickups and a really nice 12" radius neck. I think it's one of the better Strats for the money. It is made in Mexico.

The Custom Shop Artist guitars are absolutely amazing, but also amazingly expensive. I've for example tried the Jeff Beck Strat, and it was fantastic. Stayed in tune exceptionally well too. It's about $3,500 I believe. The Eric Johnson Strat is really nice too. However, some of the Custom Shop Strats can cost as much as 12 GRAND! Eek!

The last Strat I want to mention is perhaps the best bang for the buck. The Standard Strat, which goes for about $500 - $550. The reason it cost less is because it is made in Mexico and has less cheaper hardware than the American made ones. However, I think this Strat can be a great one, but you MUST try several of them and try to find that gem among the turds. It is sometimes possible to find a great Standard Strat that plays better than a US made one, but you'll have to be patient and keep looking.

There are other models too offered by Fender, for example, the Classic Players 50's and 60's need mentioning as well - they are really nice for the money and also worth a look.

Final word - my Suhr Classic is obviously not a Fender, but it's a Strat design all the way and honestly, I think it's better than any Fender I've ever played. It costs a lot more than a Fender Standard Strat, so if you are on a budget, definitely consider the Standard Stratocaster from Fender.

You can buy one from Musician's Friend

Fender Standard Stratocaster

The Fender Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar is the guitar design that changed the world. New features include a tinted neck, parchment pickguard and control knobs, and a '70s-style logo. Includes select alder body, 21-fret maple neck with your choice of a rosewood or maple fretboard, 3 single-coil pickups, vintage-style tremolo, and die-cast tuning keys. Standard Strat guitars now feature a thicker bridge block for increased sustain and a more stable point of contact with the strings. At this low price, why play anything but the real thing?

Fender Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar Brown Sunburst Maple Fingerboard

Red Deer Marathon 2009

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Red Deer Marathon 2009

I finished in 1:14:57 and placed 2nd in the half-marathon. I am happy with that performance; it is almost 3 minutes faster than last year.

The weather for the race in Red Deer was fabulous. Perfect temperature, and just a light wind. The race start was not crazy fast this time. I stayed behind the eventual winner Brian Torrance for about 2 km or so. At that point, I felt the pace was a bit slow, so I figured I should just go to the front and help with the pace. So, I went to the front and suddenly I noticed I got a bit of a lead. This kind of surprised me, since I know Brian is faster than myself. I kept going at a pace I thought I could keep for the whole distance, and I knew pretty well Brian would catch me later on. I figured it would happen going around the island at 11 - 12 km or so, and sure enough, that is what happened. I find it hard to run on that gravel stuff around the island, but Brian is a great cross-country runner and he kept a good speed going around this part. I had trouble keeping up with him.

Matt Norminton, the fastest runner in this field, was running behind us at a slower tempo pace intentionally (he was pacing the lead marathon runners for the first 10 km or so), but apparently he was picking up the pace and was chasing us down. Brian knew this, and ran like a bat out of a very hot place, and I did my best to keep up with him, but could not quite do it.

I was not too far behind at about 14 km, but at about that point, my legs started to give up a bit and I had to slow down, while Brian actually picked up the pace. Up until this point, the pace had been about 3:32 per kilometre, and as I was starting to slow down, Brian went even faster. Impressive.

I was worried Matt would come from behind and blow by me towards the end, but fortunately for me, he didn't. I probably slowed down 10-15 seconds per km on the last 3-4 km due to fatigue, but I tried hard to keep up a decent pace even though both lungs, heart and legs were exhausted.

Right at the end, there is a "famous", fairly steep hill that always seems so hard to run up. Because it comes so late in the race, it seems tougher than it really is. I stumbled up it, and at the top I looked behind me, expecting to see Matt come up it like a locomotive. Nobody there, sigh of relief! It's just downhill from here to the finish, which is nice.

A few minutes later, as I am running towards the finish clock, I see I will at least go under 1:15. I am happy with that. With a taper and a flatter course, I think I could go under 1:14.

Next is Calgary full marathon in 2 weeks, and I have no idea how that is going to go. Realistically, I am think 2:48 to 2:45 is doable. There will be many fast runners in this race, and a top 5 finish won't be easy! I just hope I can have a good race where I don't totally crash at the end. We will soon find out!

Photo from the 2008 race

8 km road race

Sat, 16 May 2009 00:00:01 GMT

8 km road race

Puffin for a Muffin

This is a local race here in Camrose that I'm involved in organizing. On May 3rd, we had an 8km race, 3km and 1km fun run/walk. There was also a Kids' Fitness Challenge, where kids were doing fun things under supervision, while their parents ran/walked.

This race is organized by the Camrose Family Resource Centre Association "A Parent Link Centre" and the Camrose Running Club.

All in all, I think it went quite well. The weather was okay, although there was a very strong wind this day.

I had a good run, and placed first in a new course record time of 27:13. David Arial was 2nd, Nathan Erickson was 3rd and David Ball 4th of the men. The wind was quite fierce on the way out, but having the wind in the back as we were running back towards the finish felt nice. I was very happy with my time. The course has one long hill, and with the wind as well, really fast times would be hard to accomplish.

The top 3 women overall were Kathryn Stone, Emily Cole and Paddi Grant.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the race, we'll do it again next year I hope! And yes, we NEED to have porta-potties, I know!

Video clip from the race!

The background music was written and recorded by myself. Thanks to Kevin Nagy for doing the filming.

A very late gig

Fri, 08 May 2009 00:00:01 GMT

A Very Late Gig...

I just have to tell you about my latest gig. I guess we can call it "interesting". My friend Jaron and I had a gig up in place called Fox Creek, and it was a fundraiser for breast cancer, which meant only women in the crowd. Sounded good to me. :) This place is a 3.5 hour drive one way from here.

We were told there was a PA available, but the organizers didn't know if it was powerful enough for us to run our instruments through it, so they were going take pictures of it and email us.

I hooked up with Jaron at 11am at the local music store. The photos showed a minuscule system that would never work for us, so we had to rent a sound system. Problem was, our local music store had rented out all their gear. So, we drove an hour to the bigger city (Edmonton) and rented a decent PA. Now it was time to go north so we had time to get set up before all the women arrived to the venue.

My pal then realizes he forgot all his CDs at home. He usually sells a lot of CDs at gigs, so it's understandable he wants to get them. So, we drive an hour back home again, pick up the boxes of CDs, then head north again for the 3.5 hour drive.

When we finally get there, the event is well under way. We try to sneak in the side door while there are emotional speeches taken place, and I feel a bit awkward hauling gear while they are talking. The curtains on the stage are down though, so we head up on to the stage and start setting up. There are 250 women sitting out front, listening to various speakers and having wine and dessert (we missed the dinner too by being so late). Needless to say, we can't do a sound check.

We plug in the gear, and make sure it works at least. I have no chance to test my guitar rig, so I just hook it up and hope I will get a good tone. At this point, I'm thinking they probably want us to start playing pretty soon. We are told everything is a bit delayed this evening. We head to the hotel room, check in, make a set list and grab a sandwich at Subway. Thus, the waiting begins...

It's been a long day already, and we haven't played a note yet. It's about to get much worse. The event goes on, long emotional speeches, bra contests, an auction, etc. More than once, we're almost falling asleep since it's been such a long day. Jaron hardly slept at all the day before either by the way.

I look at the watch, and it's well past midnight! But suddenly, it finally seems like we are going up on stage after waiting for hours and hours. I brought my video camera so I set it up, and we plug in and start playing. It is now 1am in the morning.

Guess what? Everybody left! The 250 women had been there since 4pm, and after all the events that took place throughout the night, I can understand them for wanting to go home - I mean it IS 1am in the morning!

The handful that did stay wanted to dance... like we are a dance band. Okidoki, we did what we could and played some jumping tunes best we could as a 2-piece. We sucked, big time. I mean we were exhausted and had hardly anyone to play for.

So, we struggled on for an hour and a half, sounding worse for every tune I think, but at this point, who cares? We just want it to be over so we can go to sleep.

Last thing is we are getting a ride back to the hotel with a limousine. Cool, never traveled much by limo. So we wait and wait and wait for the limo to show up. It finally arrives, and we get to go to bed at about 4am. A few hours of sleep and back to load all the gear back in the van and drive 3.5 hours back home...

What a gig! I won't forget this one any time soon. Ahh, the glorious life of being a gigging musician....

Youtube Guitar Lessons

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Youtube Guitar Lessons

So, I have decided to use Youtube as the main source for my guitar lesson videos from now on. I've been using Revver for quite some time, but that ain't working to well anymore. Too many problems with Revver means I'm fed up with their service.

Don't know what happened to Revver. Well I know they wre acquired by LiveUniverse, and ever since - things have sucked big time over at Revver. Uploading videos often result in errors, getting a video approved takes several days, the site is down half of the time, etc. Enough of this! Ok, rant over.

So youtube, here I come. I have a good HD video camera now, and youtube supports HD video, which is really great. That means you can watch future guitar lesson videos by me in fantastic quality on youtube. I have also figured out a way to embed the youtube videos on this site in HD version. The drawback is the videos don't fit into the width of the design of this website, so I guess I will have make the website layout wider to accommodate for this.

My youtube channel is at youtube.com/user/rotren - feel free to subscribe!

One drawback with abandoning Revver in favour of youtube (the only drawback really), is that there won't be an option to download my videos any more. Youtube doesn't have such a feature, and considering how huge the HD videos are, that's probably just as well.

I have had a busy winter and my guitar lesson productivity has been low. I have had so many other irons in the fire. This year should be better. I'm finishing a room in the basement, which I will use as a studio where I can record videos and music. However, until this is finished, there may not be so many new videos, but hang in there - good things come to those who wait!

Since I started with my little guitar lessons a few years ago, many other have started to do the same thing on youtube. The "competition" has grown incredibly.

Today, I looked at the number of subscribers to my youtube channel, and it's at currently 4,649. That's amazing to me - that so many people are interested in my little guitar videos! I'm flattered and glad that people enjoy checking out my videos.

Hopefully, my subscribers and viewers will enjoy all the future HD guitar videos I am planning to post. I just bought a new external hard drive so I can store all these huge files that the HD format produces.

Oh by the way, a question for you. What do you enjoy more - the guitar lessons I make, or the gear demos (pedals, amps, guitars) I do?

Here is an HD video demo of the Cool Cat Distortion and the Maxon SD-9. It should now play back in High Definition.

Puffin For A Muffin

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Puffin For A Muffin

Hi, if you are a runner or walker in Alberta, here is some important info. Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary runners - everyone is welcome!

If you are interested in runnning/walking an 8k, 3k, or 1k, this is the race for you. You can bring your little kids too - there is a supervised kids "fitness challenge" while you run or walk. Great family fun!

Please come and run our local race in Camrose - Puffin For a Muffin. All the details are on the website - www.camroserunning.ca.

The race date is May 3rd. Register now - the price goes up by $5.00 (3k & 8k) on April 20!

You can register online on the website, and all major credit cards supported and the transaction fee is small.

Sign up today, and maybe see you there! Please spread the word in any case - we are hoping for a good turnout on May 3rd.

www.camroserunning.ca

Thanks,
Robert

Learn guitar fretboard

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Learn guitar fretboard

How can you best learn the notes on the fretboard?

Well, what I recommend to my guitar students, is to learn shapes and patterns. That is how I make sense of the 6 strings and all these frets. Since the fretboard is a grid, we can navigate it by using patterns and shapes.

When I started playing guitar, I practiced scales up and down a lot. What I later realized was especially good from this was that I learned to "see" a scale. The Aeolian scale looks a certain way on the fretboard, and by practicing it over and over, I started to know it really well. Same with any other scale. After some time, I was able to "see" the notes before I actually played them, and I also knew what they were going to sound like before I played them, due to this visualization.

This is really nothing special. It is about practicing, and spending time with something until it becomes transparent. You can do the same.

I find it works well to look at notes as a group of 3 when are learning them. We can also do this on the next adjacent string. By playing 3 notes on 2 different strings, we have 6 notes - almost a complete diatonic scale!

For example, start with the C major scale. If we play F - G - A on the low E string, and B - C - D on the A string, it creates this pattern: E|-------------| B|-------------| G|-------------| D|-------------| A|---2--3--5---| E|---1--3--5---|

This pattern can be memorized. Make sure you know which is the root note especially, but do learn the names of the notes too. Say them out loud as you play them.

Now what we do next is to move up to the next available notes in the C major scale, using the same 2 strings. Then we get this: E|-------------| B|-------------| G|-------------| D|-------------| A|---3--5--7---| E|---3--5--7---|

You can see how the first 2 notes on each string were the last 2 notes in the first example. All we are doing is adding on one new note per string (fret 7 for both strings). This creates a new pattern. We are now playing a pattern with 2 identical shapes - what I mean by this is that we are playing frets 3 - 5 - 7 on both strings - a symmetrical pattern that is easy to remember. Make sure again you know which note is the root note.

This same concept can now be continued. Move on to the next 2 shapes. There will be just one new note for each string - can you tell which note and which fret?

Now, take on just a few patterns at the time, and practice them in different ways, play the notes in different order, etc. Just make sure you play them slow and focus on learning them. In fact, I think it's a bad idea to try and play them fast at this point - it will make it harder to memorize them.

Go back and forth between new patterns you learned, and the previous ones you think you know. It's amazing how quickly we forget some times... but it's normal. I'm the same. Just take it slow and easy and take your time. After all, we want to enjoy playing guitar for a life time, don't we? So take your time and play slowly and accurately.

You can use this tool below for finding which notes to play next. There are many tools like this available on-line, just Google "fretboard", "fretboard generators", "fretboard layout", etc.

Fretboard Generator

If you want more help and assistance, take a look at the recommended resources here below. These are proven methods by highly qualified instructors. It is good to have a book or DVD to help guide you through fretboard practicing. When I started playing, there wasn't much good video instructional material like this available. How times have changed, eh!

Recommended Resources

Musician's Friend has a great selection of guitar resources - here's three good ones.

Bill Edwards Publishing Fretboard Logic Special Edition Book

A bound combination of Books I and II in the Fretboard Logic guitar lesson series. Volume I explains the guitar's unique tuning and a basic set of fretboard patterns. Volume II integrates this foundation into an exploration of chords, scales, and arpeggios.

Hal Leonard Fretboard Roadmaps for Acoustic Guitar Book and CD

By studying these fretboard roadmaps, you'll learn to play lead and rhythm and chords and progressions anywhere on the fretboard, in any key and in a variety of styles. You'll expand your chord vocabulary and learn to think musically, the way the pros do. Each chapter presents a pattern and shows how to use it, along with playing tips and guitar insights. An absolute beginner can follow the diagrams and instruction from the beginning. Intermediate and advanced players can use the chapters non-sequentially to increase their understanding of the guitar. The CD includes demos of all the exercises as well as six practice tracks to help you learn six different soloing techniques.

Rock House Fretboard Autopsy- Scales, Modes & Melodic Patterns, Level 1 Featuring Rusty Cooley DVD

Rusty Cooley was named one of the top 20 fastest shredders of all time, and has been an influence to many guitarists including Mark Tremonti and John Petrucci. In Fretboard Autopsy- Scales, Modes & Melodic Patterns, Level 1 Rusty teaches you his unique fretboard visualization through shapes, patterns, and years of modal knowledge. Learn how the modes are covered across the neck, 5 and 6 string root modal patterns, extended and split patterns, and single and double string techniques. Rusty shows you the modal sequences he uses, and then challenges you to play the scales and modes. Apply all these techniques and develop your own style over the full band backing tracks included in this program.

Marshall Line Out

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Marshall Line Out

The Marshall JVM410H has a speaker emulated line out that is automatically engaged when the amp is in standby mode. This is a very interesting feature. I made a short and quick test of this feature the other day.

I ran the emulated line out from the Marshall into my Line 6 Toneport USB interface. I loaded up the GearBox software and turned off amps and speaker cabinets. This way, I was just using the Toneport as an audio interface and nothing more.

There are 3 guitars on this clip. The rhythm guitar is on Clean channel, green mode. The bass line and the lead guitar is on Crunch channel, orange mode.

It's really useful to have an amp that has a good sounding line out. That way, you can record any time you want without worrying about disturbing people. I can rarely crank up any of my amps and record clips, because of amount of noise that creates...

How does it sound? Does it sound like micing a real amp?

Marshall JVM Emulated Line Out Demo

The guitars were recorded without any effects, but I added reverb and delay later in GarageBand.

Marshall JVM Series JVM410H Tube Amp Head

Best Distortion Pedal?

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Best Distortion Pedal?

What is the best distortion pedal? A question that may enter the mind of a guitar player from time to time. I am, like many other guitar players, interested in getting good sounding gear, and since a distortion pedal is one of most frequently used effects pedal, it is a good question to ask what the best distortion pedal might be.

By the way, also have a look at the best overdrive pedal write up.

Best distortion pedal? Well, this is of course a loaded question, since as always, it is a matter of preference. When it comes to guitar equipment, there is really no single one "best" of anything, since we all have different ears, taste, and preferences.

What we can do, is discuss what commonly used pedals are out there, and why we like them.

First of all, I think a good distortion pedal is a great addition to a guitar players arsenal of gear, and it is often the first pedal a guitar player purchases. I like distortion pedals, because good ones can be very versatile and useful. For example, a distortion pedal is essential if you have a cleaner sounding amp, but you want some fat rock tones without having to buy a new amp.

Many modern amps have a lot of sounds of them, and often they pretty much eliminate the need for a distortion pedal. However, even if your amp has a distortion channel, you can still make good use of a distortion pedal. For example, you can set the amp up to be " semi-dirty", and then add a distortion pedal for extra gain and volume. Perfect solution for playing solos, when you may need a bit more bite and volume.

You can also use the distortion pedal this way - set the gain low and turn up the volume knob on the pedal. This way, you get more volume happening, but not so much extra gain. This is how I personally set up my distortion pedals. I like having a bit extra hot signal going in to my tube amp, which tends to bring a better tone out of my amp. I then use the volume knob on my guitar to control how "hot" my tone gets. How much gain to use is again a matter of preference. I aim for a sound where when the volume knob on my guitar is halfway up, the sound is fairly clean, and when I roll the volume knob up almost all the way, I get a nice distorted tone.

Lastly, you can run one distortion pedal into another distortion pedal. Caution is needed here though, because depending on the amount of gain on each pedal, you can get some over-the-top distortion happening... meaning uncontrollable feedback as a result. I do use this technique quite often though, with one pedal gives me a rhythm distortion sound, and adding the 2nd distortion pedal produces a high gain solo tone. I am of course careful with the amount of gain used on both pedals. This is a trick that many players use; Eric Johnson and Michael Landau being examples of this technique.

Ok, so let's list some distortion pedals that are popular and nice sounding. There is no way I can mention all pedals available on the market, so I'm focusing on the ones I have tried, most of which you can purchase in most guitar stores. The first one that I think most players have tried at some time or another is the Boss DS-1. It has the classic distortion tone, similar to Marshall amps, and it's definitely a nice pedal. It's also been around for ages and has stood the test of time.

One of my personal favourites is the Rabid Rodent, built by DuhVoodooMan. It's a RAT clone, but with some great additions and tweaks. It sounds fantastic.

The Cool Cat Distortion by Danelectro is a great distortion pedal and it's attractively priced. It's true bypass.. You'll find some videos of me using here on dolphinstreet.com. This pedal delivers the classic rock tones of yesterday and today, and it is quite versatile too, since it has a treble and bass knob. The Wasabi Distortion pedal by Danelectro is a fat sounding distortion pedal for low dollars.

I also like the Maxon Sonic Distortion SD-9. It is true bypass, costs a bit more than other pedals, and it sounds very good. It works especially well with tube amps and humbucker guitars. It has a very powerful tone knob, which can make the pedal sound almost like a tubescreamer or a high gain lead solo pedal, depending on how you set it.

Fulltone makes many great pedals, and the Fulldrive, Fulldrive2 and Fulldrive 2 Mosfet are great, well built, delicious sounding pedals. Very much worth a look at the Fulltone line. The OCD is also much liked by many players.

The Vox Joe Satriani Satchurator Distortion is a cool pedal for getting that signature Satriani tone. Joe is closely involved in any product with his name on it.

The Hot Head Distortion by Digitech is quite similar to the DS-1, and I personally like it even better. It has a useful eq options, and is a very versatile pedal. Not true bypass. Digitech has a new line of pedals out called Hardwire, and although I've yet to try one, I have heard the new SC-2 Valve Distortion pedal is very, very good.

Many players like the ProCo Rat - a pedal that has stood the test of tim. John Scofield uses one of these, by the way. Great pedal.

A more aggressive sounding pedal that many players like is the Boss Metal Zone. I like it too; it's very fat sounding and has tones of gain and is great for heavy metal and "meaner" sounds. The Metal Core by Boss is also woth a closer look.

Another good Metal pedal is the XMM Metal Master Heavy Metal Distortion pedal by DigiTech. If you want rage out of your amp, try this one.

Radial Engineering makes very nice pedals too, and the Trimode, Plexitube, Classic and Hot British are worth taking a closer look at. Very nicely made and great tones.

MXR Distortion+ is a classic distortion pedal that many players seem to love. They work well into a overdriven amp, for getting a good lead tone.

Line 6 has many interesting products, and the DM-4 Distortion Modeler gives you 16 models of great pedals (some are not distortion models). This would a good option if you want one pedal with many different sounds, instead several pedals in a row. Their M13 Stompbox Modeler is another great unit by Line 6.

There you have it, a selection of good distortion pedals of different flavours and at different price points. Which is the best? Well, that is up to YOU to decide! Try as many as you can and see what works for you. Remember that amp, guitar and other effects will have huge impact on how the distortion pedal will work for you. Testing, testing and testing is the only way to figure out what is best for you. Trust your ears! In the end, that's all that matters - that you like what you are hearing.

This overview of good distortion pedals is by no mean complete. There are many pedals out there that sound good; many I haven't even heard of. Please add your suggestions to the list. Maybe this can become the best distortion pedal list on the web!

Here are some good ones available at Musician's Friend

Cool Cat Distortion

The Guitar - Strumming Away Your Blues

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The Guitar - Strumming Away Your Blues

This is a guest article by Holly McCarthy.

Of all the musical instruments that have been invented, the guitar is by far my favorite. I know I should have a better word to describe it, but the one that really fits is “cool” – yes, any man who knows his way around this stringed wonder is sexy and cool in my eyes; you have to admit that a guitar adds dollops of sex appeal to even the most normal of men.

Well, getting on to the music that comes from a guitar – the only kind I’m not really fond of is the heavy metal kind. But I do love rock and roll and blues. Eric Clapton, Bryan Adams and Jon Bon Jovi are among my personal favorites. And if you’re looking at the more recent additions to the music hall of fame, I kinda like David Cook, last year’s American Idol winner – now he could do things with a guitar that added more effect to his soulful voice.

A guitar is more than just an instrument for those who play it; it’s an extension of their hands. And for listeners like me, the sounds that come from these instruments are an extension of our emotions. Tears roll down my eyes and I have a lump in my throat every single time I hear Eric Clapton sing “Tears in Heaven”, plugged or unplugged. I’m really not sad, but the song makes me connect with my softer emotions. And each time my iPod rolls around to playing Bryan Adams’ “I Wanna Be (Your Underwear)”, my feet find a mind of their own and begin to dance with the beat.

It’s not just the men in the music world who have a way with guitars – my favorite female guitarist is KT Tunstall. This enormously talented musician blew me away the first time I saw her perform, and even now, I’m still as much in awe of her talent as I am in love with her music.

My biggest regret in life is that I didn’t learn to play the guitar; I did try at one point in my life, but I was going through a bad personal phase and my heart was just not whole enough to give the attempt my wholehearted efforts. Now, even though I still have the inclination to give the instrument a shot, I have too much on my plate to be able to handle another hobby or passion without compromising my other responsibilities.

And so mastery over the guitar still remains my holy grail, they one I hope to achieve at some point in my life. Till then though, I’m so grateful for all the wonderful artistes out there who bring soul and joy to my life with their amazing music.

This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of a recognized online university. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com.

A good distortion pedal - Cool Cat Distortion

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:01 GMT

A good distortion pedal - Cool Cat Distortion

I just got this red Cool Cat Distortion, and I had high expectations, since I just loved the FAB Distortion pedal that Danelectro put out earlier. The Cool Cat however, is a much sturdier and higher quality pedal, and not surprisingly, it also sounds really good.

This pedal is not for metal, no it is more old school rock tones that you can expect to get out of it. It works really well with a clean sounding amp, whether it's tube of solid state.

The Cool Cat Distortion is in some ways similar to a tube screamer, but it is fatter and has less pronounced midrange. It does however clean up nicely as you roll off the guitar volume knob a bit. If you like to control the amount of dirt just by how you set your guitar's volume, this pedal is for you.

This pedal is also true bypass, which I like. The casing is made out of solid metal and the switch is heavy duty. Quite the upgrade from the previous plastic flimsy things Danelectro put out (although they sounded good too).

If you are tired of the tube screamer sound, give this pedal a try. It sounds fatter and richer than a tube screamer, in my opinion.

Get a Cool Cat Distortion at a good price from Musicians Friend

Danelectro Cool Cat Series CD-1 Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal

Video Demo

Cool Cat Distortion video

Marshall JVM410H

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Marshall JVM410h

A Fantastic 100 Watt Marshall Head

A 4 channel tube head with 3 modes for each channel. What is it? It's the Marshall JVM 410H!

This amp is awesome. It's a fairly new offering from Marshall, and I was not expecting it would sound anything special. Well, it does sound very good. It's got 2 rows of knobs, so it looks complicated and I'm a simple man. However, it turns out it is really easy to dial this amp in. It's basically just 4 channels, each with their own EQ. Not that hard to figure out.

Marshall JVM Series JVM410H Tube Amp Head

I've been testing Marshall DSL amps and other similar amps lately, and I have to say this may be the best Marshall amp purchase you can make today. It's got its own sound, but you can get very close to JCM 800 sounds, as well as scooped metal tones, blues SRV tones and of definitely Plexi flavoured goodness. It's all in there, however unlikely it would seem. The clean channel is the cleanest Marshall tone I have ever heard. It's really, really clean, if you want it to be. Amazing.

I have to admit, when I see a lot of buttons, knobs and LEDs, I get doubtful of getting really nice amp tone. I guess this amp proved me wrong. It has fantastic tones in it, and it's modern - it has 2 effects loops, several speaker out options, and lots of TONE.

The other nice thing is that the master volume design works really well. I can get really fat and rich tone even a very low volume. Kinda a weird to have a 100 watt powerhouse and create high gain distortion and whisper volume... ;)

So, there you have it. If you are looking for a versatile Marshall head that sounds great and have a lot good things going for it, this would be it. From the research I have done, I haven't found many complaints about reliability, something I have heard regarding some of the earlier Marshall offerings.

As with anything, don't take anyone's word for it (mine included); go and try one and see what you think. All I know is that I am very impressed with the amp, and I can't think of a style of music it wouldn't work for.

I have also written a more complete Marshall JVM410H Review in the amps section.

Video demo

Here is a video demo from yours truly.

Features

# 100-Watt valve head # Valve complement: 5 x ECC83 (12AX7s) in preamp, 2 x EL34s in power amp # 4 independent, footswitchable channels-Clean, Crunch, OD1 & OD2 # Each channel boasts 3 footswitchable modes Green, Orange & Red # Studio quality, footswitchable digital reverb with level controls for all 4 channels. # 2 footswitchable master volumes # Two FX loops Series/Parallel & Parallel # Series/Parallel FX loop is footswitchable # Emulated line out # 6-way, 7-LED footswitch with memory capabilities # All switching can be done via MIDI
Marshall JVM Series JVM410H Tube Amp Head

For more JVM talk, check out the JVM forum.

Rock'n Roll Backing Track

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Rock'n Roll Backing Track

Johnny Be Goode is a classic rock'n roll song that everyone has heard, I bet. It's a great and simple tune to play as well. My latest backing track for practicing is very much inspired by Johnny Be Goode.

As a lame joke (I have many of those), I gave it the title "Billy Was Bad"... :) I know, it's bad.

The track is very simple, it's just a 12 bar blues progression played similar to how Johnny Be Goode is played. The track doesn't have any fancy drum fills or a lot of variation, but again, it's just for practice.

I have used this track with my students, and they enjoy playing it very much. I have some lead ideas I first demonstrate to them and have them learn to play over this track. It's a fun way to learn some simple lead riffs that you can then later use in other songs too.

This rock'n roll backing tracks is now posted on my blues backing tracks page. Look for the cheesy title "Billy Was Bad"!

Let me know your thoughts on this simple backing track. I think it may be useful to have a slower version of it too? It might be a tad fast for someone who is new to this.

Minor jazz blues

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Minor jazz blues

I used GarageBand only the other night to create this minor jazz blues backing track in C Minor. I love playing minor blues, whether it's straight blues or swinging jazz.

Maybe you want to grab this jazz backing track and have a go at it too? I have set up a new page for
jazz backing tracks so have listen and give me some feedback.

The form for the progression is: Cm7 | Cm7 | Cm7 | C7 Fm7 | Fm7 | Cm7 | Cm7 Gb7 | G7 | Cm7 | G7

For my improvisation, I used mostly Dorian and Melodic Minor for the minor chords. For the C7b9 chord, I like to use the Altered scale. For the Ab7, I use the Lydian Dominant (or Eb Melodic Minor). For the G7, I use Altered scale or Diminished, starting with a half step.

I try to not just play scales though, but I probably do too much any way. I'm not much of a jazz guitarist really, but I have an idea what can be done. Executing it is the hard part though...

Basically, it's about playing great lines, whether you use modes and scales as helping tools or not. I know some incredible jazz guys who never think in terms of scales and modes - they just play want they think fit. Now, that's probably the hardest thing to do well. Most of us need "helpers" such as scales, arpeggios, triads, etc.

Let me know what you think, again, the page is at http://www.dolphinstreet.com/jazz_guitar_backing_tracks/

I used my Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow into a TonePort with GearBox loaded with a AC30 Top Boost for lead, and on my solo, I added some 1987 Jazz Clean for rhythm. I used mostly my high output humbucker pickup with the volume and tone knobs rolled off slightly. Pretty nice tone I thought.

Sonny Landreth King Of Slide Guitar

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Sonny Landreth King Of Slide Guitar

I've been catching up on Sonny Landreth for a bit now, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on his playing. Sonny Landreth is not that well known (yet) to the general public, but many guitar players interested in blues and roots music are well aware of fantastic playing.

Landreth is from southwest Lousiana and has worked steady as a session player as well as touring with well known names. Some of the artist he has worked with would be Eric Claptoon, John Hiatt, Jon Mayall, Gov't Mule, Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Buffet.

What I think is so interesting and cool about Sonny is his phenomenal technique when using a slide. He often frets notes behind the slide to create more "advanced" chords and melodies. Since he has the slide on the pinky, he can use the other 3 fingers for fretting if he wants to. His right hand technique is also very interesting. He does slapping and picking in unusual ways, and the result is a very interesting sound and way of playing. His technique is nothing but mind-blowing.

I also love that he plays Stratocasters. He uses an old Fender strat and for amps, I think he uses Dumbles and Demeter amps. For effects, he uses delay a lot and he also has some chorus/leslie effect here and there.

Check out Sonny Landreth's website for more information about his gear and setups.

Now, I'm not a fan of guitar players who always try to show off, and even though Sonny has ability to stun with his technique, he plays music first and foremost, and he uses his technique in "mature" and musical ways, if that makes sense. I especially like players who think musically first, and tecnically second. Maybe that's why I like Sonny so much. He's got such control over his sound and you can instantly tell when he is playing. Such is his style and technique, that he sounds like no one else.

His music is very blues oriented, and you can also clearly hear the Cajun and Zydeco influence on his material. I think Texas blues and Texas rock is in him quite a bit too. He writes beautiful ballads too, where his slide work really shines.

The albums I have that I like the most are Grant Street and The Road We're On. The newest album is good too, but it features guest guitar players and as a result, the album seems a bit fragmented to me. Don't get me wrong, it's great fun to listen to, but if I had to pick one album to get, I would say Grant Street. It features a three piece band completely cooking. Sonny's vocals are good too, and he's got some very nice grooves happening with his band.

You should also check out his work with John Hiatt and the Goners. That my friend, is some fantastic music and great guitar work. I think John Hiatt is one of the best song writers who ever lived, so with Sonny playing, the result is some fantastic music.

I found some videos on youtube that would give you an idea of the greatness of Sonny. Have a listen if you haven't heard these before and let me know what you think. When I think of Kings of modern slide playing, there are only 2 names to come to my mind. Derek Trucks (I'll cover him some other time) and Sonny Landreth.

Videos

Guitar players - protect your ears

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Guitar players - protect your ears

So, we had a gig on Saturday. Now, 2 days later, my ears are still ringing. Sounds like a crappy old amp buzzing in my head. Man, I should have wore ear plugs!

The gig itself was fun. I played with Jaron Rovensky at Boston Pizza here in Camrose, and a big crowd came. I thought we were really rocking the place, and I had a great time. I used my Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow as well as my Suhr Classic. Both delivered good tones.

One thing I noticed with the Michael Kelly guitar is that even if you roll off the volume knob down to 1, it's still plenty of volume and grit coming through. The pot seems way different than what I'm used to from my Strats and Teles, where you can roll down the volume knob and get less grit and also a bit less volume. I messed up on a few spots because of this, since I expected I would get a nice, mellow tone with volume at 4, but uh uh - it was a dirty loud tone coming through still. Oh well, this is how some of us learn (the hard way). Other than that, the MK guitar was fun. My Suhr is my number 1 guitar though - make no mistake.

Back to the topic. Damaging ears. Well, for the last few years, I've played with should I say, mellower bands, where the volume was not much of a problem. This time though, the band hit it hard, and apparently it got really loud by the end of the night. I didn't really notice until after the gig was over. I was wondering what all that noise was, when I realized it was "all in my head"...

So my advice to anyone starting to play in a band. Get some cheapo ear plugs, and have them ready at a gig and/or rehearsal. If the drummer goes nuts or others start cranking up, get those ear plugs out and PROTECT YOUR EARS. Believe me, you will thank yourself later, when you have to yell at all your old buddies you played with, because they have trouble hearing...

I do have some decent ear plugs made for musicians, but I never thought about bringing them. I had forgotten how loud this band can be. I use some cheap ones by Hearos (www.hearos.com) and they do the job. Any ear plugs will take away a bit of clarity of the sound, and it can take a while to get used to them. Still, I strongly recommend using them when the volume is loud. You can never repair serious damage done to the ears, as far as I know. The only solution to improve upon hearing loss due to exposure to high volume "noise", is to get a hearing aid. How fun is that? They are not exactly cheap either.

As for me, that's probably the road I'm on - getting a hearing aid. I'm not yet 40 years old, but I often have trouble hearing what people around me say, and I have to ask people to repeat what they are saying. Makes me think of guys twice my age.

So, to sum it up - rock'n roll is not worth going deaf for! Get some ear plugs first, and then you can crank it. I'm bringing some ear plugs to the next gig, you can count on that. Huh? Sorry, what did you say?

I bought a Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

I bought a Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow!

I couldn't resist any more. I bought the Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow, and I'm glad I did. It's an inexpensive guitar, but it rocks. I am still impressed, and as a Suhr owner, I know what a decent guitar looks and feels like.

The neck is so nice, smooth frets and fretboard, and it has just the right neck shape for me. It's fast but not superthin - just right. The scale length is the shorter, Gibson-style scale length of course, so bending is easier than on a strat. I guess you can play faster on a guitar like this.

The pickups are hot and fat sounding. I don't find them overly agressive though to the extent that they would only work for metal sounds. No, on the contrary. I can get very nice bluesy tones too, or I can easily add a distortion pedal to get heavy rock tones. Fun stuff.

I recorded a few quick test clips the same day I got it.

First clip is heavier rock style. Two guitars were recorded playing the same riff, then I panned them left/right. The "amp" used is TonePort Marshall Super Lead with Distortion stomp box model added.

Heavy Rock - 1st test

Next clip is slow blues. Here I use the Super Lead model again, but without the distortion stomp box modeling. One rhythm guitar. The lead guitar plays on the humbucker at first, then halfway through, I switch to the neck pickup in split coil mode, in order to get that "hollow" sound.

Bluesy Marshall - 2nd test

You can also listen to a Michael Kelly Patriot Video here.

As a Strat lover, I think this is the perfect combination for me at this time. This guitar looks fantastic, and it sounds really good, and it's a humbucker guitar. This gives me great tonal variety for gigs and recording. I guess the only thing I'm missing at this point is a hollow-body guitar, like a 335 kind of guitar. Well, a Hagstrom might find its way into my home one day, who knows.

I have a gig this Saturday, with Jaron Rovensky. Come see us if you are in the vicinity of Camrose on January 24, 2009! It should be a fun night and I'll be using both my Suhr Classic and my new Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow. The gig is at the Boston Pizza lounge.

I'll be writing more details about his Michael Kelly guitar soon, along with videos of course. I must recommend this guitar. Simply because the quality is very good, and the price is low, at least I think so. Under $400 USD for a great Les Paul type guitar is nothing the complain about. If you need a LP style guitar, take a close look at the Patriots - they are definitely nice guitars.

Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow Electric Guitar Ebony Satin

It's dark! It's clean! It's the Shadow! The Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow Electric Guitar is the perfect instrument for a walk on the dark side. It's all-satin black finish is in stark contrast to the standard high gloss electric guitar. The matte black looks great under stage lights and its all black hardware continues the Patriot Shadow's understated appeal. The tone on this ax is loud and bold. Equipped with hot dual PAF plus pickups, each is coil-tapped for a single coil option.

In summary, a rocking axe worth having! You should definitely try one out, if you are interested in a rocking axe with fat sounding humbuckers.

Greg V - great Nashville player

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Greg V - great Nashville player

I stumbled onto Greg V one day. I think it may have been because of an ad in a guitar magazine, I'm not quite sure. However, I took a look at his website and bought his album Tailgate Troubadour. It is an instrumental album, and I think it's a must have if you are into Telecasters and Fender amps. The tones Greg is getting on this album are gorgeous.

Greg V resides in Nashville, and does many sessions. He has worked with people such as Wynona Judd, Double Trouble, Buddy Miles, Rascal Flatts, LoneStar, etc. In other words, he is a very versatile player. He is not just a country picker, no he plays a variety of styles, and it's quite a treat to listen to.

The album Tailgate Troubadour is Greg's solo CD debut. There are twelve soulful instrumental songs that are all very interesting to listen to. They have a rootsy vibe and feel, and Greg give us a "tone road trip" by using Nocasters, Telecasters, Gretsches, Dobro, Lap Steel, Baritone, Mando-guitar and sweet sounding vintage amps.

He seems to favour Fender Pro Reverbs, as well as Super Reverbs and other vintage Fender amps. Swart amps are highly regarded by Greg as well.

On Greg's website, there's plenty of information about the gear used for each song on the album. I found it both fun and educational to read the recording notes for each song on his website, while listening to those songs. There interesting sounds and effects which you don't have to guess what they are when you hear them - it's all explained on the website.

If you are like me - interested in rootsy, twangy, lap-steel, emotional Americana soundscapes with fantastic vintage guitar sounds - get this album. I think you will enjoy it a lot.

Learn more about Greg V at http://gregv.us

Michael Kelly Patriot - nice axe

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Michael Kelly Patriot

I'm on a hunt for new guitar. You see, we had a raffle on www.thefret.net and it so happened I won the pot! I never win stuff, so I was very surprised. Now, the deal is that I have to spend the money on guitar gear, and while I didn't win enough to cover the total cost of a new guitar, I'll chip in some savings so I can get a nice but affordable guitar.

I will make my purchase at Music Centre Canada here in Camrose, and I've been spying on the guitars there for the last week. My mind has been set on either a Hagstrom Viking or a Swede, but then the other day, I tested a Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow guitar sitting there plugged into a Peavey Vypyr. So I tested it. Whoah, this thing rocks! I was very impressed. It has a very good sound, and the humbuckers are fat and hot. I usually prefer low output pickups, but on the other hand, maybe I should get a guitar that is very much the opposite to the ones I have. This would be such a guitar.

I played it with high and medium gain amp models, and boy, it just screams. I had so much fun playing 80's rock stuff and some of my lame shredding attempts. Since the pickups are high output, you get a soaring sustain with this thing. And that's fun sometimes...

I figure I can use this a LP substitute. It will give me more crunch and gain than a regular LP, but I noticed it sounds nice with the volume knob rolled off a bit too. My amps are quite clean sounding by default, so this guitar would give me some fat, distorted tones without much help of pedals. Sweet!

I think it looks awesome too. All black and mysterious... I love the looks of it.

I also have to say that the workmanship impressed me considering this is really a cheap guitar. It doesn't feel cheap though. On the contrary, the neck is very nice and smooth. No fret ends sticking out, and the ebony fretboard makes if fast and fun to play. I definitely think the sound and feel of this guitar is a step or two above the norm for a guitar at this price point.

I'll soon decide which guitar I'll get. I very much think it will be either a Hagstrom Viking or a Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow.

Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow Electric Guitar Ebony Satin

In summary, a rocking axe worth having! You should definitely try one out, if you are interested in a rocking axe with fat sounding humbuckers.

Guitar Backing Track - Wreck Me, Baby

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Guitar Backing Track - Wreck Me, Baby

Earlier this week, I sat down one evening with my MacBook Pro and GarageBand with the intention to make a blues backing track before the evening was over. I recorded 2 rhyhtm guitars and I used my SX bass for the bass groove. Drums are EZ Drummer. I did get it finished in about 2 hours, not too bad. The drums are a bit boring, I know. I'll probably go back and add some fills here and there to liven up the track a bit.

I called the tune Wreck Me, Baby and feel free to download it and record your solos over it. Maybe I will too... ;)

If you don't mind, maybe you can help me out here. I'd love some feedback about the direction I'm heading here. These blues backing tracks I'm working will be used in guitar video lessons, and my intentions are to show how to play the rhythm guitars as well as some solo ideas/licks for each track. Thoughts on this? Any suggestions?

I figure that a beginner or intermediate player will be interested in solid rhythm guitar playing, as well as lead playing. I haven't seen too many blues guitar lessons that cover both (although I've not been looking very hard).

The thing is, being able to play solid rhythm guitar is soooo important. I often see players at jams that do not have this down very well, and I'm always thinking they should really work on timing and chord inversions - it makes a huge difference. You have probably heard the term "playing in the pocket" - basically it means to play very tight and solid together with bass and drums.

I will also make available all these backing tracks on my website of course, and if you use them and publish them somewhere, I would love to hear what it sounds like. Please send me a link to any recordings you make from my backing tracks. For commercial use, you must get my written permission.

Now, how's this first track sounding? I intentionally made it very simple and I just copied and pasted a 12 bar progression over and over in GarageBand. When I show how to play the different parts in an upcoming video lesson, you can play along with the track and have no surprises. The track might get boring that way, but there won't be any surprises when you listen to it. The purpose is for practicing only, really.

Again, the track is here -> Wreck Me, Baby.

Added a guitar solo to a friend's tune

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Added a guitar solo to a friend's tune

My good old friend Mathias contacted me the other day and asked if I could add a guitar solo to a tune he recorded. Sure, I said! Mathias and I used to play together in a fusion band called Local Gossip, back when I lived in Sweden. He's a great keyboard player and musician, and this time he added some vocals too.

I fired up my Line 6 Toneport, my Suhr and my MacBook Pro. I use GarageBand for recording, mostly because it is so simple and easy to work with. It doesn't have a lot of fancy things to it, but I like that. I'm a simple man...

This song is called "Give Me" and it has a key change halfway through the solo. I realize I've been so much into blues for last few years, so that playing lead over a song like this was quite difficult. I had to try a few takes to see what kind of stuff would sound good.

I used a Marshall Plexi model on the Toneport together with the tube screamer model. It seems I lean towards that amp model anytime I want some good rock tones, although I like most of the available amps on the Toneport. Most of them can be tweaked to sound pretty good. Well I guess I'm not a great fan of the Insane Distortion stuff, but it can be cool too!

Have a listen and let me know what you think of my solo!

Listen to the tune Give Me by Mathias Aberg.

It might sound a bit different that the stuff I usually play, let me know your feedback. I hope to do more collaborations with Mathias, and perhaps other musicians too. It doesn't really matter where people are in the world - the Internet connects us nicely for musical collaborations like this.

Music Dictionary

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Music Dictionary

Have you ever wondered what Acciaccatura means? How about a Half cadence, Eclogue or a Darabukka? And what does Pianissississississimo really mean? Ever seen a Wurstfagott? Me neither.

I found this well done multimedia music dictionary so I thought I'd share this discovery with you. It's really done, and it was created by the Virginia Tech Department of Music.

There are of course lots of obscure terms here, many of which I've never heard of. However, sometimes, I forget what a term like Decrescendo or Diminuendo means when reading over some sheet music. At such times, this dictionary can come in handy.

Another cool thing is that all of the musical terms in the glossary have AIFF files associated with them, so you can listen to the pronounciation of the term.

Take a look at the Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary and see what you think.

How to learn guitar scales

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:01 GMT

How to learn guitar scales

I hang out on several guitar forums and I also get a lot messages through my website. One thing that I've noticed in messages lately are ideas of "better" ways to learn scales. I want talk a bit about this.

Take the A minor pentatonic scale for example. The notes are A - C - D - E - G, that's it. Five notes. I've seen many different approaches in trying to teach people how to play these 5 notes. We have the 5 "pentatonic boxes" of course, and they are a good way to start. The point I'm always mentioning to my students is to practice the different boxes together, in a myriad of ways.

You don't necessarily need to learn this scale by using these boxes only though. You can practice the scale on one string to start with, then focus on the next string, etc. You can analyze it further and focus on how you can stay in one position on the neck as you are playing different keys, just to minimize hand movement. I'm sure there are several other ways to practice this scale too.

Anyway, the point of my little rant here is the same as I tend to repeat quite often - there is no silver bullet. No "tricks" or "secrets" will ever replace practice. It's that simple. If you want to know a scale inside and out, you HAVE to spend time with it. Get to know it all over the neck, figure out what fingerings work best for you - there is wrong way to do it.

I just see so many hoping there is a way to replace hours and hours of practice with some "magic formula" or silver bullet as I call it, and I'm happy to say - no sir, no can do. Only by practicing something over and over can we master a skill, whether that is knowing a scale really well or learn the multiplication table.

Don't be afraid of practice. Embrace it, and realize the more you devote time to practice and learning something, the better you will be able to play.

Finally, practice can be done in different ways, and my advice is to take only a certain amount of difficulty in one setting. Perhaps it's learning A minor Pentatonic in 2nd position. Next time you play, practice combining 1st and 2nd position, perhaps. Maybe you then try do the same thing, but now in the key of G minor, to force you to really learn this well.

Play the scale in different ways, not just all the notes back and forth. Make little melodies. Play just one note in each position, then 2 notes, then 3, etc. Skip every 2nd note, or perhaps you can play 3 notes in a row, then play 3 more, starting for the 2nd note in the first sequence. See, there are many ways of practicing a scale. Take advantage of this! Soon, you will internalize the scale, meaning you won't have to think when you play it. You'll start playing little motifs, phrases and melodies out of scales, and it's happening unconsciously. It will come naturally if you stick to practice habits and don't look for the silver bullet that doesn't exist.

Ok, rant over - hope this makes sense and that I didn't completely bore you!

Disneyland & Tone Merchants

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Disneyland and Tone Merchants

Happy New Year!

Wow, this year went fast! I have a New Year's Eve gig tonight at the Player's Club here in Camrose. I've got some new toys I'll be using tonight. Looking forward to it!

This year has been good for me, and I have gotten more (mostly positive) feedback than any other year about my website, lessons, gear demos, etc. It seems people get something out of what I put on this website, and that makes me glad. Thanks for hanging out on dolphinstreet! I have the intention to make more good material for this website, and I do try, but forgive me if the wait seems to be long at times regarding new content. Work, family, marathon running and other things make it hard to have enough time to work as much on the website as I would like. More good things will appear here in 2009 though - be sure about that!

I'm back home again after spending the holidays at Disneyland with the family. It was a lot of fun! There are a lot of fun rides for both kids and adults. The California Screamin' roller coaster had me smiling big time - it's so fast! Christmas at Disneyland is an exciting time. They have so much stuff going on at that time. We were also lucky that the weather was a bit cold and wet the first time, because that meant hardly and line-ups for the rides. The last day we went, it was sunny and nice, which meant very long lines and way too many people.

I also managed to sneak away for a bit to do some guitar-related visits. First, I located my friend Mark Wein, who is a guitar teacher in Orange, California. We spent some good time together talking about guitars and we also jammed a bit over some blues and funk grooves. It was a lot of fun. I have gotten to know Mark via various websites but this was the first time I had the opportunity to meet him in person. He has a teaching studio where several other teachers also teach music, and it was very interesting to see his studio. His website is at www.markwein.com - check it out because he has some great lessons there.

Then, the next day, I went to a very interesting guitar store called Tone Merchants - a veritable candy store to be for a guitar aficionado like me. They have a lot of great amps, guitars and effects, and I tried as much as I could while I was there. And there was a lot.

There weren't a lot of people in the store on that Saturday I was there. Good for me - I could try anything I wanted without having to wait for others to be done in the amp room. I can't even remember all the gear I tried, but I took lots of photos.

I tried a few Suhrs, and they were great as I would expect (I have a Suhr Classic myself as you probably know). I also tried Nash, K-line and Grosh strats, and they were also really nice. I also tried a Tyler strat, but I didn't connect that much with it for some reason. Same with the Nash strat - was not that impressed. Now, the K-line strat felt and played really fantastic. It felt like the best vintage Fenders I've ever tried and was the winner in my book of all the strat type guitars I tried. Well, the Grosh was a close second.

Regarding amps, I have to be honest and say I fell in love with the Custom Audio Electronics OD-100. Man, what a great amp! I also tried Germino amps, Blankenship, Goodsell amps. The Germino was interesting but I didn't connect with it - maybe the guitar I used didn't work so well with it or something. I am sure it would sound terrific with a Les Paul. The Blankenship amp sounded like the best Plexi clone I've ever heard. Very impressive amp! I tried a big Goodsell with 6L6 tubes that sounded completely amazing for cleaner tones. Fantastic tone, and a very good choice if you want a big, cleaner sounding amp for blues, jazz and country.

The CAE OD-100 however, impressed me the most. It is incredibly versatile to say the least. It has Fenderish cleans with some Marshall flavour, and the gain channel sounds big and fat even at lower volumes. I found the distortion very pleasing and fun. Sort of a more modern Marshall tone but still able to get Plexi flavor with the gain turned down a bit. I was surprised it could do so many great tones so well and at lower volumes. They had 2 versions, Standard+ and SE+, and both worked great with a strat. I probably liked the Standard+ more, but I would honestly love either.

Lastly, I felt I should buy something after being there for hours and playing fantastic equipment. I saw a Scott Henderson signature RC Booster, which I had read about. It's a little upgrade from the original RC Booster - more or better bass frequency or something to that effect. I tried it through the OD-100 and Blankenship, and it was very impressive. I got a good deal on it too, it comes with a signed photo of Scott, and one of his CDs (one I actually didn't have!). Needless to say, I got myself another (late) Christmas guitar present!

I had a fantastic time at Tone Merchants, and I highly recommend going there if you are in the Anaheim area. The staff is incredibly friendly and knowledgeable, and they have the most amazing guitar gear you'll ever see in a guitar store.

Season's Guitar Greetings

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Season's Guitar Greetings!

It is that time of year again, Christmas is almost upon us! I don't know about you, but I tend to get that extra need to buy guitar gear around this time of year... so, I have a little guitar Christmas present in the mail and it should show up any day now. Curious?

This year, our family is going on a trip to Disneyland during Christmas. We are looking forward to getting away from this crazy weather we've been having here. It's been minus 26 to well over minus 30 degrees Celsius most of December! That's around -15 to -25 Fahrenheit, by the way. As a runner, this is terrible. Luckily, we have an indoor track that I'm able to use quite often. I can't let the cold weather stop me from running!

Now, I don't know if there are any interesting guitar stores around Disneyland, but I'll keep my eyes peeled. It's always fun to check out guitar stores when you go on a trip, isn't it? You never know what you might find... I am also hoping to meet up with my friend Mark Wein, since he's in that neck of the woods, and he'd know any guitar store locations, I'm sure.

Last time I posted the tab and GP5 file for The Christmas Song, and I'd love to hear if anyone has tried my arrangement. I had Chris Isaac's version in my head as I wrote that arrangement, so you may want to check out his version. He released this Christmas album a couple of years ago, it's really nice.

I received a comment about playing The Christmas Song with a chord melody arrangement. Well, I'm not the best chord melody player, but I tried it and I managed to struggle through the tune playing chords and melody at the same time. However, I find it is really difficult and I would definitely say it's not for beginners... it takes many hours of practice to get it right, and honestly, I prefer just singing the melody as I play the chords. Maybe I'll write down the chord melody arrangement for next year - I don't have any time to do it now before I go.

So, I wish you a holiday season full of joy and guitar happiness. Stay healthy, spend quality time with your loved ones and enjoy this time of year. If that guitar gets a bit of rest during the holidays, that's okay too.

Thanks for taking the time to hang out on dolphinstreet.com and thanks for all the feedback! It's great for me to hear what people think of this website. I am going to work hard on making it even better in 2009.

Happy Holidays!

Learn The Christmas Song on guitar

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Learn The Christmas Song on guitar

Soon Christmas is all over us again, so what better can I offer you than a nice Christmas tune?

I made an arrangement for the popular song, The Christmas Song, you know, "chestnuts roasting on an open fire...". My students love the challenge of playing this tune, and I also play this tune with my friend Myra sometimes. Maybe you'd like to learn it too?

It's got a lot cool chords in it. Take a look at the PDF of The Christmas Song.

I would definitely recommend the Guitar Pro 5 version, since you can much easier follow along with this excellent guitar learning program.

Here is the Guitar Pro file of The Christmas Song. Let me know if you find any mistakes.

Download Guitar Pro

I highly recommend you buy Guitar Pro - it's the best software I have found for learning guitar tabs and chords. I try to make all my lessons available with Guitar Pro files. You can download a trial version on the Guitar Pro website to see if you like it (I think you will).

Brossard Picks Review

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Brossard Picks Review

You can call me picky about picks (pun intended), but I really prefer thick picks that give me a good tone. For my style of playing, thin picks just don't work. I find that the pick material is also very important for the tone. So, I'm always on the lookout for interesting picks.

I saw Brossard Picks advertised in Guitar Player, so I went to their website and took a look. They sure look interesting but of course they cost a bit more than regular picks. Some people think it's a waste of money to buy picks like these, because they are easily lost. Well, I keep pretty good track of my picks, especially the expensive ones.

After browsing through the website, I ordered the The Bone and Dirty Blond Horn Set, since that seemed like a good deal. You also get a little pick pouch with the two picks.

A bit later they arrived, and I was excited to try them. I got a bone pick and a horn pick. Both picks are very shiny and smooth, and a bit larger than a normal pick. They also both have a very pointy edge, which makes them great for fast speed picking. I was surprised at how accurate my picking was, and how easy it was to play alternate picking.

The bone pick is very hard, and has a "sharper" tone than the horn pick. They are both comfortable to hold and very thick, which I like. The picks taper down significantly toward the pointy edge.

The horn pick is my favourite of the two. It sounds a little softer and give me a slightly smoother tone. It is also very hard but must be a little bit softer than the bone pick, I presume.

Drawbacks? Well, picks are a very personal thing. I prefer picks that give me a round and smooth tone. These picks are a bit on the hard side, which means the tone is a bit sharp for some of the styles I play. However, when I want to play more alternate picking and country style guitar, I find they work very well. I also have not had them that long and I'm still exploring the tonal options they give me. Another thing I noticed is that if you sweat a bit when playing, they get slippery. The material is very shiny and at the last gig it was hot on stage and I noticed the pick was sliding around in grip.

In summary, I think they are very interesting picks and they definitely have a place in my world of guitar playing. I use them regularly and find they sound different from most other picks, and they are great for fast picking. They cost quite a bit more than regular picks, but if you are like me and think that the pick is an important aspect of playing guitar, I recommend you try these. I only regret that I didn't get some Brossard picks made out of wood, because they would likely sound smoother. I guess I will need to go back to the Brossard Picks website some day soon and order some of those!

Update March 2010 - I have some Ebony wood picks now - here is my demo of the Ebony, Horn and Bone picks.

Randall RM100 head

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Randall RM100

A friend at the local music store just bough this amp, the Randall RM100 MTS Series 100 watt tube head. I tried it yesterday. I must say I am impressed. Randall amps have never appealed to me, but I must say this thing impressed me.

This amp has a lot of features. Incredibly versatile. You can use 6L6, EL34, EL34L, 5881 tubes and you can even bias them yourself. You can buy and plug in all sorts of cool modules - 13 to choose from. This means mean you have the ability to have 13 different channels to pick from, although only 3 at a time.

There's also a density control for adjusting the low end and a presence control.

I used a Dean Michael Shenker Flying V through this amp, and I tried the Plexi and the Dan Donegan modules. Very impressive tones. The Plexi I really didn't try enough. I'm not sure about that one yet - hopefully I get a chance to try it again soon.

The Dan Donegan module (1086) is fat and crunchy, and also very tight sounding. I turned up this 100 watt head to 3 or 4, and that was plenty loud. The matching 4 x 12 cabinet together with this amp did a great job of getting that thick, dynamic amp distortion that you get with a quality amp. It reminded me of a high gain Marshall. I usually don't play with this amount of gain, but I have to say it was a lot of fun to just hit some power chords and get that big OOOMPHH as you hit the strings.

I'm not planning on getting one of these, since I prefer simple one channel amps for the stuff I do. However, who knows, if one of these shows up for sale used somewhere locally for a decent coin, it might be worth getting just for the fun of it.

If you are looking for a very versatile and loud 100 watt head, where you can buy specific modules for a variety of sounds, this might be just the ticket. Incredibly versatile I must say, and the tones sure are impressive.

For an overview of the available modules, check the Randall website.

Players Club Gig

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Took my Suhr Classic out to a gig at the Player's Club

Last weekend, I got a last minute gig at a local bar called The Player's Club. I also brought my Mack Heatseeker 18 and some good pedals attached to my Pedaltrain. Good tones were happening.

The stage is quite nice at this place. It has a lots of soft material around it, quite good for sound. Myra and I and Rocky started out doing some softer tunes. My Suhr sounded great of course. Nice clean and huge tones came out with little effort.

For cabinet, I used my Avatar 2x12 with Eminence Wizards. It is a bright sounding cab, but I like it that way. I tend to turn down the tone knob a bit on my gain pedal so that the overdriven tones are not too bright.

For the second and third set, we had a good drummer by the name Jim join us. We did a few rockier and bluesier tunes, and I kicked in my Maxon SD-9. Sweet tone! I am noticing big time that the SD-9 sounds more natural than ever with my Suhr Classic. It's like I can't get a bad sound, no matter what I do. It's fat and juicy but not harsh at all. Very organic. Very nice combination, the Suhr, the Heatseeker and the Maxon SD-9.

I also like to use a Boss Blues Driver for some semi-gain sounds, like SRV tunes and similar. Works great for that. My BD-2 is also modded, and I keep the tone on it rolled back a bit.

I was not imagining that I had a good sound. Several people came up and told me I sounded better than ever, and I would have to agree. At least about the sound (never mind the playing...) but I probably play better too when I enjoy my tone. I kept the Heatseeker fairly loud, and that is a GOOD thing. A tube amp like this, with no master volume, needs to be pushed hard. Even an 18 watter can be loud when pushed, but for this gig, it was just right.

I had a lot of fun, and my daughter and later a friend took some good photos. Here they are.

Gig Photos

iPod Classic 120 GB Review

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

iPod Classic 120 GB Review

Just got me my first ever iPod. I have been using a Creative Zen Micro for years, but it's starting to show its age. So, the obvious choice was to get an iPod.

I decided to go with an iPod Classic 120 GB, mostly because of the storage capacity. I have more music than I can fit on a 16 GB iPod Nano, so the Classic 120 GB was a natural choice. Finally, I can have all my music in one place and bring it along where ever I go.

My iPod Classic is the black one. It looks really nice, and the size is a bit bigger than my Creative Zen Micro. It has a good screen on it, and perhaps I'll get some more videos on it in time. Definitely want to add some cool guitar pics and family photos to show off to friends! On this screen, it will look great.

I took it along for a jog today, and it fit snug into my running jacket's breast pocket. It's not very heavy, even though it is not a small unit.

iTunes and iPod goes hand in pocket. The integration between the two is very slick. Of course, iTunes has a lot of great music, and it is so easy to find it, which also means it's VERY easy to buy music! I have to be careful so I don't go overboard with buying music on iTunes. Once you go on a search and find some gems, you can't help yourself and those Buy buttons are like magnets...

There are of course games to be bought on iTunes too, but I doubt I'll be doing much of that.

I also like the coverflow feature, the calendar, alarms, and watching photo slideshows. You can even hook up the iPod to a TV! That's pretty slick. The stopwatch I'll definitely use sometime, since I'm an avid runner and running coach.

I am very happy with this iPod so far. It is easy to use it, and it both sounds and looks great. What more is needed? I guess FM radio would have been nice, and voice recording too (oops - it has that already). The metal back got scratched easily, although I don't really care much about that. But overall, I highly recommend the iPod Classic if you want to store, listen and bring along lots of music with minimal hassle.

Technical Details

Brand name: Apple iPod Classic 120GB
Generation: 7th
Storage capacity: 120 GB
Color: Black
Drive type: Hard drive
Compatibility: Mac/Windows
Width: 2.4 inches (61.8 mm)
Depth: 0.41 inch (10.5 mm)
Height: 4.1 inches (103.5 mm)
Weight: 4.9 ounces (140 grams)
Audio controls: Hold switch, click wheel
Supported audio formats: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Song storage capacity: Up to 30,000 songs
Display size: 2.5 inches diagonal
Display type: Color LCD with LED backlight
Display resolution: 320-by-240-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch
Supported video formats: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Video storage capacity: Up to 150 hours of video
Supported image file types: Syncs iPod-viewable photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG formats
Image storage capacity: Holds up to 25,000 iPod-viewable photos
Battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
Battery life: Music playback time: Up to 36 hours when fully charged; Video playback time: Up to 6 hours when fully charged
Battery charge time: Fast-charge time: about 2 hours (charges up to 80percent of battery capacity); Full-charge time: about 4 hours
Headphones: Earphones
Headphones Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Headphones Impedance: 32 ohms
Input: Dock connector
Output: 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Mac system requirements: Mac computer with USB 2.0 port; Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later; iTunes 8 or later
Windows system requirements: PC with USB 2.0 port; Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3; iTunes 8 or later
Operating temperature: 32 degrees to 95 degrees F (0 degrees to 35 degrees C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4 degrees to 113 degrees F (-20 degrees to 45 degrees C)
Relative humidity: 5percent to 95percent noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
What's in the box: Apple iPod classic 120 GB Black, Earphones, USB 2.0 cable, Dock adapter, Quick Start guide

New guitar - Suhr Classic

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

New guitar - Suhr Classic

Big News - I am very excited to finally have a Suhr guitar! I have been planning, for a long time now, to get a Suhr some day. Some weeks ago, I tried out a few nice Suhr guitars at a music store in Edmonton. I was mighty impressed, but they were out of my price range. Last week, I spotted a very interesting used Suhr for sale on a guitar forum. Long story short - it worked out great and I now have a 2004 Suhr Classic!.

This Suhr is in great shape. Only a couple of small dings, otherwise it's in mint condition, pretty much. I was worried about buying a guitar unseen. It's not like me to do that, because I want to try before I buy. However, this Suhr is just perfect for me. The neck feels just right, it is easy to play and it sounds better than any Fender Strat I have ever played.

The colour is Olympic White; it has stainless steel frets, parchment pickguard, Suhr V60 LP pickups (sound fantastic), rosewood fretboard, alder body, Gotoh 1088 bridge, Sperzel locking tuners, and a 10"-14" compound radius neck.

It is very easy to play, this guitar. I use 09-42 strings on my Fender Strat, but this Suhr has 10-46 strings on it, and I don't think I will go back to 09s. The fretboard is flatter on this guitar, which makes it easier to play.

I wrote up a Suhr Classic Review as well.

If you haven't heard about Suhr guitars, go take a look at the Suhr Guitars website. John Suhr has been building high quality guitars for a long time, and he definitely builds some of the finest guitars available anywhere. I am very, very impressed with the build quality. To me, it is the perfect Strat.

Gig photos from last night

Check out a photo slide show from yesterday's gig at The Player's Club. I played with my friend Myra Marshall, Al Chomlak and a drummer whose name I've forgotten. My guitar tone was very, very good. I used my Heatseeker by Mack amps, and a variety of pedals. Several people came up and asked about my gear and said the tone was great. They were surprised when I said the amp is only 18 watts! It is a great amp, but it has never sounded this good with my other guitars. The sound is richer, fatter and more balanced than ever with this Suhr Classic - the guitar I completely adore at this point... :)

My Suhr Classic video - first time I plugged it in!

Teach yourself guitar

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Teach yourself guitar

Is that even possible? Don't you need a guitar teacher in order to have a chance of getting anywhere?

Those are good questions. Let's take a look at them in more detail.

First of all, I think having a guitar teacher is the best possible situation. Teaching yourself to play guitar can be done - I did it that way. The main drawback is that it will probably take longer to get anywhere. You have no skilled teacher to ask for feedback, or to ask "what should I be working on?".

Teaching yourself takes extra discipline. You will need some sort of guide, whether this consists of books, DVDs, audio, computer software, etc. Personally, I learned by listening to tapes of the Beatles and Heavy Metal bands from the late 70s. I kept listening to a short part of a song on the tape, playing a long with guitar at the same time. I tried to figure out what chords and/or notes were being played. Listening for 3-4 seconds, imitating, rewinding, playing along, thinking, repeating over and over. Getting anywhere this way took a long time, but in the process, I also developed very good ears for hearing notes and combinations of notes. This, I realize now, was VERY rewarding for my future guitar playing.

However, if I started from scratch again, I would try and find a good guitar teacher. With a good teacher, you can progress much quicker than by yourself, not only because of the instruction part, but also because the teacher will be able to give you very constructive feedback. When teaching yourself, this can be difficult. How can you be sure what you are doing is good, correct, etc?

It can be hard to find a teacher that works great for you, but don't give up. Talk to several teachers and see if you can start out with just a few lessons. Try to get a feeling for if this teacher communicates well with you and you see the potential for good progress. If not, try a different teacher.

If you do decide to teach yourself, ask on web guitar forums and check reviews of Guitar DVD's and books. Amazon has a good selection of material which is user-rated, so that you get an idea of useful people find it.

Above all, you must realize that practice is what will make you improve on your instrument. Whether you have a teacher or you are teaching yourself, set aside as much time as you can per week for practice. It's really only during practicing you are really learning; the rest of the time you are taking info in some way. I would say try and play an hour per day, at least, and set aside at least 3-4 days per week to practicing. Otherwise, most people will not progress as quickly as they would like.

Now, if you can't find a teacher where you live, I can perhaps help you out with my web cam guitar lessons. The way this works is we do one-on-one lessons, using a webcam and necessary software. It's almost like having a real teacher in your living room.

You probably know that I also have blues/rock guitar DVD material on this website. There are lots of blues licks, scales and exercises on these, as well as song snippets and intros.

Whatever you choose to do, have fun with it, and remember that you have to spend time practicing your guitar in order to really progress. Don't let that discourage you, however. Practicing can actually be fun! The more you practice, the more you improve, which motivates you to practice more! If you are serious about improving your guitar playing, practicing won't be a problem for you.

Peavey Amps

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Peavey Amps

Peavey amplifiers have been been making guitar amps for a long time. Since 1957, to be exact.

Peavey is known for making amps that are reliable workhorses. One of my first guitar amps ever was a Peavey Special. It was a very good sounding combo amp for its time and price point (yes I am old!).

I eventually ended up with a Peavey Deuce for a while too, and 2x12 combo, but this one had some issues and blew fuses all the time.

With the birth of the Classic series amps, I think the sound quality of the Peavey amps went up a bit. I got a 20 watt Peavey Classic which sounded really good. I had to sell it when I moved to Canada, otherwise I would still have it today.

I have played the Peavey Classic 30 and 50 several times at gigs, and I am always impressed by how great these amps sound. In fact, I often recommend the Classic 30 to people who ask about a versatile combo that doesn't cost a fortune. This amp continues to be one of the best deals you can make, if you need a tube combo for playing blues, country or jazz.

More recently, Peavey have put out several interesting and good sounding amps. We have the Windsor, ValveKing, Vypyr, 6505, JSX, Bandit, Delta Blues, Classic, Rage, Envoy, Audition, Valve King Royal, Triple XXX, Transtube, Penta, Jack Daniels 30. Phew! I probably missed some too, but that's quite a few models of guitar amps! Anything from practice amps to screaming half-stacks, Peavey makes them all.

I haven't personally tried all of the different models, but I have tried quite a few, and not surprising, the more expensive the amp, the more impressive it is. For metal heads, the Vypyr is an incredible deal, since it costs so little but have such great metal sounds.

Perhaps Peavey used to be known as the budget line of amps, a few steps below Fender and Marshall in tone and quality, but I don't think is true anymore. Peavey has improved and matured, and their best amps can hang with any of the major amp manufacturers out there. If you see a Peavey in a store, try it out. The are usually cheaper than Marshalls and/or Fenders, and you might be surprised at the quality of tones you can conjure out of Peavey amps.

Peavey amps summary

Here are some of the amps in the Peavey line. I'm not saying this is a complete list either; it's just a few of the amps I've heard of, and several of them I have enjoyed playing.

Peavey Valve King Royal 8 5W 1x8 Tube Combo Amp Black
Peavey Classic 30/112 Tube Combo Amp Tweed
Peavey Peavey Vypyr Tube 60 60W 1x12 Guitar Combo Amp Black
Peavey Vypyr 30 30W 1x12 Guitar Combo Amp Black
Peavey 6505 120W Guitar Amp Head
Peavey ValveKing 100 Head
Peavey Windsor Studio 20W 1x12 Tube Combo Amp Black
Peavey Penta 140W Guitar Amp Head
Peavey JSX Joe Satriani Signature Head
Peavey JSX Mini Colossal Guitar Amp
Peavey Delta Blues 115 Tube Combo Amp Tweed
Peavey Windsor Tube Amp Head
Peavey Triple XXX 120W Guitar Amp Head
Peavey Envoy 110 Guitar Amplifier with TransTube Technology
Peavey Bandit 112 Guitar Amplifier with TransTube Technology
Peavey ReValver MK III Amp Modeling Software Plug-In

Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster

The Squier Classic Vibe guitars are getting some very favorable comments from a lot of people. The reason is obvious - it's and inexpensive but very good guitar. The options are the Classic Vibe Telecaster '50s, the Classic Vibe Stratocaster '50s and '60s and the Duo-Sonic '50s.

They look great too. The Tele especially has been getting a lot of attention. It's got a blonde finish and the body is made out of pine. That's the first time I've heard of a pine Telecaster. The neck is maple and has 21 medium jumbo frets. The radius is 9.5 inches, with a modern C shape.

The pickups are Alnico III, and they do sound very good. I don't think it's necessary to upgrade the pickups, unless you need noiseless perhaps.

The bridge is a Vintage style string-thru body with a 3-Brass Barrel saddles.

It's a vintage looking guitar with a cool vibe - the black pickguard makes it look quite awesome I think!

I have an older Standard Telecaster, but if you are looking for a good Tele for not much money, I'd say get this one. Many people think it's as good or better than the Mexican Fender Telecasters, so I would recommend trying both and see what you think. It sure isn't a big investment, so I would highly recommend the Classic Vibe guitars from Squier to anyone looking for an old-school type of guitar with high quality for low dollars. Great sound, fantastic value, great vintage look. What else would you want?

Get one right away from Musician's Friend

Vintage Electric V6 Icon Series

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Vintage Electric V6 Guitar Icon Series

I tested a cool looking strat copy today, called Vintage V6 Icon. It's yet another inexpensive guitar that impresses. It recently arrived at the local store, so I had to take it for a test run.

What stands out right away is of course the aged look. These guitar look fantastic, that is you like that relic'd look. It's all about relicing here - the body, neck, hardware, pretty much everything is "aged". I like it, I think it's hip.

The guitar sounds good acoustically. It has a little dull sound, a bit mellow and not so much snap. It could be because of old strings, perhaps.

Plugged in, the pickups impressed me somewhat. I need to repeat again this guitar is cheap, so I wouldn't expect it to sound like a high end guitar. It doesn't, but it's not bad at all. I enjoyed all the tones I could get out of the 5-way switch. I played it through a Roland Cube-60, and it was fun. The neck feels great, very much like a vintage Fender, except the wood isn't as good and the one I played had some buzzing problems. I quick look along the edge of the neck showed why - it was not completely straight.

It has Wilkinson hardware, which surprised me considering the price point of these guitars. I would imagine Wilkinson must have lower-end parts as well as higher-end manufacturing. The guitar did stay in tune fantastically well though, but I did not use the whammy bar either.

In summary, the guitar has an incredible vibe of coolness. It looks awesome with that relic look, and it sounds more than decent. The neck feels nice but I can tell that overall the quality control is so-so. I bet that if you play a dozen of these strat copies, you may find one that it really kicks but. That's one thing to keep in mind when buying guitars, especially cheaper ones - not all of them are created equal. Test many of them, and eventually you might find that gem where every part is great and the whole guitar becomes a few notches better than it's sisters/brothers. If you want a cheap strat copy that sounds and looks great, take a good look at Vintage Electric Guitars. There are more models than the V6, so look around. I would give this guitar a 6 out of 10.

Features

Body: Eastern Poplar Neck: Hard Maple – Bolt On Fingerboard: Rosewood, V6MRBK Maple Scale: 25.5"/648mm Frets: 22 Neck Inlays: Pearloid Dot Tuners: Wilkinson® WJ55 E-Z-LOK™ Vibrato: Wilkinson® WVC Pickups: Wilkinson® Single Coil x 3 (N)WVS (M)WVS (B)WVS Hardware: Chrome Controls: 1 x Volume/ 2 x Tone/ 5-Way Lever

Country guitar picker in Ontario

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Country Guitar Picker

I had a great time in Kingston, Ontario this last weekend, where I spent the the weekend at the CCAA National Championships (I'm one of the coaches). Our teams did well on the Fort Henry course. It was a European-style course, very open, no trees, short hills, and soft grass. The main loop was 2.5 km and had many turns back and forth, which made it terrific for watching. The women did the loop twice and the men ran it three times, plus a 500 m loop. It had been raining all night and all morning, but finally quit raining just before the women's start. Because of the rain, the course was soft and not at all easy. Our women did a great job and finished 4th out of 17 teams, and our men finished strong as well and came in at 5th place out of 18 teams. It was the toughest field I've ever seen at a CCAA National Championship race. Well done!

The same evening, we went to a few pubs. The musical treat I was about to get was actually quite amazing. We went to three pubs within two blocks from our hotel. Those pubs were all in a row. The first one had a band called "The Firm" playing there, and they were very impressive. They played 70s, 80s and 90s music, anything from Bee Gees, Village People, Santana to Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. They were great players, and they were a 6 piece band - drums, bass, two guitars, vocals and keyboards. Anyone listening probably knew 90% of the tunes, and people were dancing and having a good time. The sound was great - they had their own sound engineer and effects were used in a very good way, so that it would sound close to the original tunes. Very professional band, and it was clear that everyone in the band was a pro at what they did. I noticed that one of the guitar players had a nice looking Suhr guitar, while the other was playing an Ernie Ball "Luke" guitar.

Next pub had a three piece band playing louder and heavier. They were more like the typical bar bands I've heard. Lots of punk and rock influences here, and a fat sounding Les Paul through a Peavey 5150 made people jump with joy. I got bored pretty quick though, since there weren't really any dynamics and everything started to sound the same after a while. I'm also not a big fan of punk music.

The last band I found in between the first to pubs we went to. I could hear some interesting swing coming from inside this place which looked like it was closed for repairs. I tried to get in but I only found locked doors. Weird. After a while however, I found the entrance (although it didn't look at all like the door into an establishment). In a small, strange looking place, I found a jazzy sound band consisting of drums, bass, soprano sax and two telecaster players. They were mostly jamming and they sounded alright. Great bass player and sax player. However, one of the guitar players, a smoking country picker, just completely BLEW MY MIND! Unfortunately, I only heard a couple of songs, since the band was at the end of their last set. However, I didn't need to listen very long to his playing to realize this guy is a monster player. He had and old Tele, a Boss ME-50 and a volume pedal into a Fender Hot Rod DeVille. His tone was good.

I looked him up on the Net, and his name is Steve Piticco. He is one of these players who make it look sooooo easy. Chicken Picking, steel guitar style bends, fast and ultra-cool legato runs that made my eyes pop out - this guy can do it all, and with style. I've heard plenty of Albert Lee, Brent Mason and other fantastic player, but I'm here to tell you - if you like that style of guitar playing, do check out Steve Piticco. He is one the finest Canadian country guitar players I've heard. Some videos:

Check out his myspace page here - Steve Piticco - he also has CD's for sale.

Tom Cochrane in Camrose

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Tom Cochrane in Camrose

I enjoyed a concert with Tom Cochrane last night here in Camrose. The World Junior A Hockey Challenge is on here in Camrose from Nov 1 to Nov 9, 2008. Yesterday, after the opening ceremonies, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider performed. It was pretty good. Big sound and great show. Tom seemed full of energy. The played some of the big hits - Life Is A Highway, Lunatic Fringe, Big League, etc.

The guitar player in Red Rider had some great tones happening. He played a guitar with TV Jones pickups; it may have been a Guild, not sure. He also played steel guitar and he had a huge sound on that thing. Very cool.

The Encana Arena should have been more filled though - it looked a bit empty, considering a big name like Tom Cochrane performing. Camrose is a small city though and getting people to come from far and wide is not always so easy.

The guy who opened for them was really, really good (Shaun Verrault). He is most known for playing and singing in the band Wide Mouth Mason. Yesterday he did a great job with just acoustic guitar and his voice. I was very impressed by his talent and his show. See him if you ever get the chance!

Life Is A Highway

Lunatic Fringe

Big League

Difference between distortion and overdrive

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:01 GMT

What is the difference between distortion and overdrive?

Distortion and overdrive pedals are both sometimes referred to as gain pedals, or perhaps dirt or crunch pedals. These types of pedals add extra grit to your guitar tone, and in the process they can also boost the volume a bit, if so required. Whether it's called gain, dirt or grit - the idea is the same. There is another type of gain pedal that should be mentioned here as well - the fuzz pedal, as it also belongs to this family of pedals. However, I'm leaving fuzz pedals out of the discussion for the rest of this article.

Depending on who you ask, you might get slightly difference answers to this question about the difference between distortion and overdrive. I find it is hard to describe in words the difference between the two. The easiest way to get an idea would be to start by having a listen yourself. Here is a video clip of each type of pedal:

Maxon SD-9 Distortion Pedal

Cool Cat Drive Overdrive Pedal

If you still insist on a description, I would say think of distortion as a crunchy, edgy type of gritty sound with plenty of sustain. It is the basic sound of the classic rock bands as well as heavy rock bands all the way to metal bands. Many guitar amps can create a fat, rich distortion by themselves, and then a distortion pedal is often not needed. However, there are also many amps that don't produce much distortion, so adding a distortion pedal can then give a player a lot of versatility by transforming the clean sound to a fat rocking tone.

Overdrive, to my ears, has a more hollow sound, usually less sustain and a more "bluesy" sound. There are many overdrive pedals out there, but the one with the most fame attached to it would probably be the Tube Screamer, by Ibanez. There are nowadays many companies making tube screamer type of pedals. Stevie Ray Vaughan used Tube Screamers throughout his career, and partly because of the huge influence he continues to have on so many people, you often find a Tube Screamer of some variation or another on most guitar players' pedalboards.

The difference in sound between distortion pedals and overdrive pedals can sometimes be very subtle. I find I can set my distortion pedals to sound very much like an overdrive pedal, by turning down the gain a bit, while also turning back the tone knob somewhat. Turning those knobs in the opposite direction however, would create a more typical high gain distortion sound on most distortion pedals.

Getting an overdrive pedal to sound like a distortion pedal is harder though. I find they sound best on medium gain settings through a clean or semi-clean amp. Again, have a listen to almost any bluesier or rockier Stevie Ray Vaughan song, and you can often hear how he kicks in a Tubescreamer when he takes a solo. The tone gets louder, and changes from semi-clean to rich, dirty and gritty.

How to use distortion or overdrive pedals

A gain pedal can be used in several ways. You can use it with a medium gain setting through a clean amp tone in order to get a good gritty rhythm guitar sound. You can use it as a boost, with a low gain setting but the volume turned up through an already semi-dirty amp. This will make the signal into the preamp a little "hotter", which will lead to increased sustain and fatter tone. Maybe you have good amp distortion already, but you want more crunch - kick in a distortion pedal of your choice and you're rocking! Experiment - try different variations and combinations to see what interesting tones you can get. There are no rules for how to use pedals - as long as it sounds good, your're on the right track.

Using two gain pedals together

Here's a little trick you should try if you haven't: using two gain pedals together. It's an interesting way to get versatile tones, and I often do this. I may use my Maxon SD-9 for distortion, then add my Boss Blues Driver for additional gain and volume. Perfect for plaing lead stuff. Again, there are no rules - try both overdrive and distortion pedals together and see what you come up with. You can for example have them both set up low amounts of gain, but together they deliver lots of gain. Or, you can have one set up with a fair amount of gain and the other with just a touch of dirt and perhaps slight volume boost. This way, you have the perfect setup for playing solos and leads.

If you are thinking about getting a gain pedal and don't have much experience with these, I would recommend you got to a well equipped music store and ask to try a decent overdrive pedal, as well as a decent distortion pedal. Have both of them hooked up together and try all combinations and settings. See what tones YOU like out this gear.

Here are some recommendations for pedals - just remember that there are so many people making great pedals today, and these recommendations are by no means meant to represent the best pedals available - they are just some examples that came to mind as I am writing this up.

Suhr guitars are fantastic

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Suhr guitars are fantastic

I recently went to RKM Music in Sherwood Park and Mill Woods (Edmonton), and I had the opportunity to play 3 Suhr guitars. I have read about Suhr guitars, partly because guys like Scott Henderson, Mike Landau, Guthrie Govan, etc, work with John Suhr. Look the list of Suhr artists - quite a few killer players there!

A Suhr guitar is one fantastic instrument. I am a Strat guy as you probably know, and a Suhr strat is really the best strat you can possibly buy, from my perspective. These guys are fanatical when it comes to detail and quality. A guitar from Suhr Guitars won't be shipped out if it doesn't meet the stringent quality tests, so you can be certain you will get a fantastic instrument.

Just from strumming the first chord, you can tell this is a GREAT guitar. The ones I tried all oozed quality and finesse. Without plugging in the guitar, it was very resonant and inspiring to play. Then when you plug it in, oh my gosh! These Suhr pickups are fantastic! Well, the guitar just sounds fantastic, and I'm sure there's more to that than just the pickups, but I was floored by the strat tones I could get out of it. Very, very addictive and I really did not want to stop playing these guitars. Apparently, a lot of time is devoted to picking out the best possible wood for the guitars Suhr make. All is hand-built, assembled by one guitar builder. Quality is what Suhr is all about.

The Suhrs I tested were all different. The first one was a Strat with humbucker/single-coil/humbucker configuration. It had a fairly fat neck, but still fun to play. The frets were so nice. The intonation all over the neck was impeccable. Sounds was great, even the humbuckers made me smile. The Buzz Feiten Tuning system seems to be a great tool for perfect intonation. Next, I tried a Suhr strat with all single coils. Wow, the sound was a dream. The guitar was very light, and extremely easy to play. It had a beautiful birds eye maple neck, but I hear it's a soft wood and I would prefer a hard maple neck for durability. The last Suhr I played was a butterscotch Tele. It has a chunkier neck but still not hard to play. The sound again - fantastic tones all over. Tele lovers, take a close look at the Suhr telecasters!

So why don't I have one then, if they are so good? Well, all this talk about how fantastic these instruments are aside - they are expensive. Most of them are around $3,000 USD and above. Compare to a Fender Strat - the American Strat Deluxe is less than half of that. Now, I have played several Fender Strats, including the Custom Shop ones, and none of those were anywhere close in feel, looks and sound compared to the Suhrs I tested. The Suhrs are just in a different league, in opinion. Thereby the price... I don't have that much money to spend on a guitar at this point. However, I am still looking at ways to fund such a purchase. I am trying to sell off some things in order to raise funds.

I have been playing guitar for, well let's see now - over 26 years now I think. I have had some nice guitars over the years, Hamer, Steinberger but nothing close to a high quality guitar like a Suhr. So, I'm considering ordering a Suhr. Yes, they do design the guitars according to your specifications. Pick and choose the parts and specifications so you get exactly the guitar you want. No need to compromise. Can't get anything like that with a Fender!

For me, there is no immediate hurry though to get a new guitar of this caliber. I don't play that many gigs these days anyway. There are also other options for good strats. Anderson, Grosh, Nash come to mind. I'm sure there are others too, but I can tell you that after playing those Suhrs, my current guitars seem like firewood!

Suhr Tele and Glasstone amps

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Suhr Tele and Glasstone amps

Today I took a trip to RKM Music in Millwoods, Edmonton. I found some really nice gear, and what stood out the most for me was the Suhr Butterscotch Tele and the Glassworks 30 watt head.

I played a Suhr Tele and a beautiful Suhr strat with birds eye maple neck and quilted maple top. A beauty. That Suhr tele - wow, it was drool time again - tone, feel, looks - this thing impressed me a lot. It was very very articulate and the sound was so much better than all the other teles I played there. The Suhr strat was very nice too, but it actually had some very minor buzzing problems. Could be because of that bird's eye maple made the neck need some adjustments. The sales guy said nobody has really played it for a long time and it hasn't been adjusted in a year. Probably an easy fix with a truss rod adjustment.

I tried some G&L guitars - Legacy, Comance, ASAT Classic. Only the Legacy was fun to play, but it sounded pretty crappy compared to the Suhr. Decent neck though - but completely unfinished wood.

I played a couple of Blade guitars, and they were quite nice. Well made and nice to play.

Ever heard of Cole Clark guitars? Me neither. I played one, but the neck just wasn't for me.

The amps I tried were good. 65 amps - always nice big tone, but I want a bit more gain, so I tried a El Diablo Genz Benz next. Very versatile amp, and many cool sounds. I wasn't quite getting any drool happening, and it could be because I didn't play it loud enough.

I found a Marshall DSL 401 in there and of course I had to try it. Yeah baby! It sounded awesome! Very nice tones with the Suhr. Plenty of gain, but worked great for bluesy overdrive stuff too. Man, this would make for a fantastic combo. This means I am still in full drool mode for a DSL100 - I think I will have a lot of fun with one of these. Heck, even that combo would do it for me, but I do prefer head and cabinet setups.

I tried a Blackhearts 5 watt amp too, and it impressed considering the price. Crank that sucker and you get a fat juicy tone. Nice bottom end too.

The last amp I tried was a Glasstone Legend 3015. Wow, that is a great amp! It's built locally in Edmonton. I got some serious tone with the Suhr when I cranked up that 30 watt head. It's a dual channel, all-tube guitar amp head. Both channels are fully independent (including preamp tubes) and include gain and volume controls, as well as 3-band passive tone controls. The power amplifier is a non-feedback design using a pair of EL34s configured in a push-pull class AB circuit, with power output switchable between 30 and 15 watts. A series tube-driven effects loop allows you to patch-in effects between the preamp and power amp. The Glasstone 4x12 with V-30s sounded sweet, my friends. See their website - glasstoneamps.com.

Ahh, Gas - what a feeling! I am not sure what I will do next. I guess I will go where GAS takes me.

I'm selling guitar gear

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Guitar gear for sale

I've decided to sell off a bunch of my guitar gear. If you are interested, let me know. I would prefer to sell locally but I'll also ship anywhere. I don't know shipping costs for all of these things, but shipping a pedal to the US would be about 10 bucks.

I am selling off extra gear I don't think I really need. I have come to realize I use my tube amps most of the time anyway. My Heatseeker and Hellhound are both very nice, and using them with pedals is what I do all the time. I am keeping my Squier Tele just because it sounds so great. I will replace the Fender Strat with something similar.

Here is the list. Use my contact form to send me a message if you are interested in any of these things.

PB J Delay $30 DOD DFX91 Delay/Sampler $40 Ibanez TL-5 Tremolo $25 Chicken Salad $15 DOD FX80B $25 DOD FX64 Ice Box Chorus $20 Squier '51 $150 Vox AD50VT $280 Squier Strat (Mexico, from the 90s) $140 Fender Deluxe Players Strat $490

What guitar pedal to get?

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:01 GMT

What guitar pedal to get?

After getting a guitar and a guitar amp, many guitar players start looking for options for getting a variety of sounds out of their gear. I think the most common way to do this is by getting a guitar effects pedal, sometimes called a stomp box. These have been around for ages, and probably the first brand people would think of would be BOSS, because they have been extremely successful in promoting the guitar pedals over the years.

There are so many options out there these days. When I started playing, pedals were expensive and there wasn't much to choose from either. These days, we have cheap, mass-produced pedals (many of which sound great) and we have boutique pedals, carefully crafted by hand by small companies wanting to offer nothing but the best. It can sure be confusing to know the differences between all the alternatives available.

What kind of guitar pedal do I recommend?

Well, I think the first pedal most guitar players look at is a distortion pedal or an overdrive pedal. The difference between these two effects is subtle, yet important. Both type of pedals add gain to the signal, and transform the sound in a way that is great for rock and blues, and especially lead playing. Many guitar players have both type of pedals - I do. Overdrive sounds more "bluesy", and distortion is more "rockier", and some pedals are somewhere in between.

You may not need an overdrive or distortion pedal if your amp has good gain. By gain, I mean natural overdrive/distortion from the amp itself. Most amps start to produce gain as you turn them up. Amps geared toward heavier rock have lots of natural gain. Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Soldano, Line 6, Randall, for example, all make amps with lots of gain. If you have such an amp, you may want to try a Booster pedal. What a booster pedal does is to increase the level of the signal going into the amp, and it usually brings in a bit of gain at the same time. The result is a pedal perfect for solos and lead playing. The pedal will add more volume and produce more gain as well. Some examples of booster pedals - Dunlop Micro amp, RC Booster, ToneCandy Big Boost, Keeley Catana, Keeley Java Boost, Dirty Boy Ball Buster, 19 Sixty 3, Behringer PB-100 (very inexpensive), etc. I could go on and on.

The next type of pedal you may want is a Delay pedal. This kind of pedal adds an echoing effect to your sound, and I pretty much always use a bit of delay. You can set it to long repeats to get a big, majestic sound, or you can set it to short repeats and get a rockabilly slapback sound. A player who uses delay as a big part of his sound is the Edge from U2. Many country players will use a short delay in order to get the right sound for country picking. Remember to put the delay last in your effects chain or even better, in the effects loop of your amp (if your amp has one) for the delay to sound the best. I use a BOSS DD-20 which I really like. Other good delay pedals are MXR Carbon Copy, Maxon AD-999, Line 6 Echo Park, Digitech DigiDelay, Ibanez DE-7, Behringer DD400 and Danelectro PB & J (both inexpensive).

If have both gain and delay covered, some sort of swirly effect is fun. By swirly, I mean modulation effects like Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Vibe, Tremolo or similar. These effects can be a lot of fun if you use them right. Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus, Tremolo and Vibe, Digitech CF7, Line 6 Space Chorus, MXR, Behringer UF100, Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus and Tremolo, Boss CE-20 Chorus Ensemble. The list goes on.

If you have gain, delay and modulation effects togeter with good basic amp tone(s), you can cover a lot of bases. For me, this covers most of what I do live. I may add some other type of effect like a wah or octave pedal once in a while, but the effects previously mentioned cover 95% of my needs.

Distortion, overdrive, booster, delay, chorus, etc

Here are some good pedals you may want to take a look at.

guitar, pedals, stomb box, pedal, effect, chorus, delay, distortion, overdrive

Good guitar lessons are hard to make

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Good guitar lessons are hard to make

So I had some free time tonight, and I thought I'd try and whip up a short little guitar lesson. I ended up just noodling for over half an hour, not getting anywhere. I have learned over the years that it's not easy to create good guitar lessons, and trying to throw together one on a whim like that is really not a very good idea. I'm just wasting my time and I get frustrated. Should have used that time to plan a good guitar lesson for another time! Arrghh!

I actually do have a plan, which will be a series of blues lessons. However, those are not ready enough to make videos of yet. I keep thinking I can throw together some cool little lesson in a short time by improvising, and it just does't work.

From all the feedback I have gotten this last year, it seems a majority wants to learn to play lead better. Usually it's blues or rock they mention. I'm starting to think the more I do this stuff, the harder it gets. For example, playing lead is hard. It takes a lot of different type of skills together with experience to make it sound good. I don't really know how to teach this well. I am talking about right hand/left hand techniques, sound and tone, style, attitude, confidence and experience. There's also a million ways to do it.

I also want to gear more lessons towards beginners, since I think I could reach more people that way. The problem is, I find it harder to do the beginner material compared to more advanced topics.

This is turning into a pessimistic post, isn't it? Hmm, I'm sorry. I guess I need to go do something else for a while.

I do appreciate any and all feedback you might have about my lessons and learning guitar in general, so drop me a note if you have ideas or feedback.

Crate V-18

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Crate V-18

These are very popular of late - many retailers have been dropping the prices a lot on the V18 amps. They are pretty good sounding, and would be a great buy for anyone wanting an 18 watt amp with EL84 tubes.

I tried the V33 a while ago, and I was frankly disappointed, due to the weak sounding gain channel. The V18 doesn't have a gain channel. It's a class A amp, and the one I tried had one 12 inch speaker.

The knobs are - gain, volume, treble, middle, bass and reverb. The reverb sounds okay at low settings - does the job just fine that way.

The amp doesn't have a lot of headroom, but for semi-dirty tones, it works fine. Many people report the speaker should be swapped and better tubes installed (I hear that a lot about new, cheap combos).

The Crate V18 is a great little blues and rock amp. I would highly recommend it for someone wanting a simple and decent sounding 18 watter. It's not as good sounding as my Heatseeker, but it's also way cheaper. $149.99!

Crate V Series V18-112 18W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp

The Crate V18-112 combo features a single-channel 18W Class A design with gain and master volume controls, 3-band EQ, and spring reverb for awesome tone and versatility. Its dual cathode-biased EL84 output tubes pump their searing mojo into a single 12" speaker.The V18's Class A design delivers the hot guitar tones of early British valve amplifiers with smooth clean sounds and thick, meaty overdrive. Take a simple cathode-biased Class A tube circuit, add a tone stack and 12" speaker, and you've got a small recording/practice amp with some lead in its pencil. Tubes! Just the smell of those glass bottles blazing with fire gets amp aficionados to perk up and lose their cool. Giving our all for the evolution of all-tube tone, Crate's V Series combos and stacks produce the sweet cleans and earthy distortion that can only come from tubes. Roadworthy construction, modern features and genuine value are causing legendary players and novices alike to develop a thermionic love-Jones for the Crate V-Seriestube amplifiers.

Cool Cat Vibe and Tremolo

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Cool Cat Vibe and Tremolo

I finally received my Cool Cat pedals I've been waiting for since April - the Vibe and the Tremolo. I have not played them enough for a full review, but so far I am liking them.

The Vibe is similar in sound to the old classic Chicken Salad, but it has different knobs. It also sounds much clearer. I love it!

The Cool Cat Vibe has an Intensity knob, a Speed knob and the very useful Mix knob. With the mix knob, you can blend the effect tone with the clean guitar tone as much or as little as you want. I love this feature. This way, you can get a lot of different sounds. Really fun pedal. You can make it sound Hendrixy or really trippy and far out.

The Cool Cat Tremolo is a nice tremolo pedal and it's already made itself a good home on my pedal board. It has a Depth and Speed knob, as well as a switch between hard and soft. The hard setting makes it very "hard" - a choppy, stuttering type of tremolo that is cool but I probably won't use it that often. The soft setting is more musical and warm, but who knows what I'll end up using. This pedal is just so fun to play with the knobs with!

Both these pedals are true by-pass and have a sturdy metal casing as well as quality jacks. I don't notice and bad tone sucking or messing up of the original guitar tone.

I highly recommend these Cool Cat pedals. I now have 4 of them, and I dig all of them a lot! They are cheap enough that most people can afford them. The do sound very good.

I'll be back soon with more comments and of course videos.

Update: Here is a Cool Cat Vibe demo!

Marshall DSL 100 demo

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Marshall DSL 100 demo

I am starting to look around for (yet) another good tube amp. I believe the time has come for me to get a righteous Marshall amp. Marshalls have a way of making me excited. After all, they were the amp choice for Jimi Hendrix, and a numerous other more or less legends.

I played a 70s Marshall Super Lead 100 at a gig once, and I still remember how exciting that was. That amp was pure magic, man! I won't find one just like that one in my neck of the woods. However, there are many Marshalls that sound great.

I've been researching Marshalls for a while now. The model I'm closest to getting is the DSL 100. There's also a 50 watt version, and probably either of them would make me happy.

So what's the Marshall DSL100 all about? It's a fairly simple 2 channel amp, and I like fairly simple amps. I don't like too many options, to tell you the truth.

Features

• 100% pure valve signal path using Svetlana EL34 valves [when not using the Reverb or Effects Loop].
• Two channels - Classic Gain and Ultra Gain.
• Crystal Clean to massive Crunch switching on the Classic Gain channel.
• Lead 1 to Lead 2 switching on the Ultra Gain channel.
• Tone Shift switch to reconfigure the way the tone section [particularly the
• Middle control] works.
• Deep Switch which introduces unique Marshall resonance circuitry for increased bottom end.
• Effects Loop with level selection switch.
• Technical Description
• Output: 100 watts
• Channels: 2
• Modes per Channel: 2
• Reverb
• Tone Shift
• Deep Switch
• Effects Loop
• Pre-Amp Valves: 4x ECC83
• Power Amp Valves: 4x EL34
• Dimensions: 748 x 297 x 214 mm
• Weight: 19 kg
• Footswitch: PEDL-00001 (supplied)

For a good idea of what this DSL 100 is all about and what it can do, take a look at these demos:

Video

Based on the clips above, I think I will like this amp. It has lots of good tones in it, and it has all the features I need. The only thing I am not so sure about is reliability. I have heard mixed reviews in this area. If you know something I don't - let me know.

I did actually own a couple of Marshalls way back in 80s. Stupidly enough, I traded them for something I can't even remember. I had a little 50 watt tube combo that was really nice. I should have kept it!

I will go and try a few good Marshall amps some day soon, or I might just buy a DSL used if I find a good deal. I've just got to get myself a Marshall, don't you think?

Tech Tags: marshall dsl dsl100 amp