AG Acoustic-Guitar-2013-06.pdf

4 SONGS TO PLAY

SIMON AND GARFUNKEL “The Sound of Silence” TOWNES VAN ZANDT “If I Needed You” THE ROLLING STONES “Angie” ALEX DE GRASSI “The Monkulator” JUNE 2013

F O R E V E R Y P L AY E R I N A N Y S T Y L E

TOWNES

VAN ZANDT A Songwriter’s Legacy 44

COOL NEW GUITARS, ELECTRONICS, AND ACCESSORIES LESSONS

Slapping and Tapping Rhythm Rudiments

LEARN 8 EASY ROCK STRUMMING PATTERNS GEAR REVIEWS COLLINGS CJ35 KALA U-Bass BAGGS Lyric Mic

Black Prairie’s JON NEUFELD

SUMMER GEAR GUIDE page 60

Australian Songwriting Legend

PAUL KELLY

ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM

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JUNE 2013, ISSUE 246

VOL. 23, NO. 12

departments 14 PRIVATE LESSON Eclectic Americana: Black Prairie’s guitarist Jon Neufeld on using his bluegrass, Gypsy jazz, and folk-rock influences to write original tunes. By Orville Johnson

NEW GEAR 18 Collings CJ35: Responsive, huge-sounding

42 features

42 Townes Van Zandt The ultimate Texas troubadour inspired countless tunesmith

slope-shoulder dreadnought blends traditional and contemporary features. By Adam Perlmutter 22 Kala U-Bass-SMHG: Tiny bass with a ukulele-size body has serious low-end tones. By Greg Olwell 26 L.R. Baggs Lyric: Internal guitar microphone delivers highly accurate acoustic tone. By Teja Gerken

30 SONGCRAFT A Change in the Weather: Australian songwriter Paul Kelly crafts a sparse-yetthrilling song cycle, Spring and Fall. By Mark Smith

heirs to dig deeper and write simpler. By Adam Levy = video at AcousticGuitar.com

50 New Gear 2013 The latest guitars, amplification, and electronics.

By Teja Gerken

songs to play 48 “If I Needed You” Townes Van Zandt 79 “The Monkulator” Alex de Grassi

Rhythm Rudiments: Use drum practice patterns to hone your picking technique and create new sounds. By Sean McGowan

76 WOODSHED

SUMMER GEAR GUIDE, page 60

Slapping and Tapping: How to extend your technique and sound with both hands on the fingerboard. By Alex de Grassi

STEVE SALMIERI

in every issue

June 2013 ACOUSTIC GUITAR

Gerald Sheppard Guitars: Tennessee luthier draws on his own playing experience to create individualized custom instruments. By Teja Gerken

70 WEEKLY WORKOUT

80 “Angie” The Rolling Stones

Editor’s Note Music Notation Key Ad Index Marketplace

Rock Strumming Patterns: Eight popular rock rhythms (and variations) used by the Beatles, Coldplay, Buddy Holly, and more. By Andrew DuBrock

66 SHOPTALK

12 “The Sound of Silence” Simon and Garfunkel

8 10 83 84

36 THE BASICS

86 GREAT ACOUSTICS ON THE COVER: Collings CJ35. PHOTOGRAPHER: Barbara Summer.

1995 Danny Ferrington. By Teja Gerken

AcousticGuitar.com 7

EDITOR’S NOTE

IF YOU’VE CHECKED OUT the new AcousticGuitar

.com (and if you haven’t, what’s keeping you?), you’ll know that one of the new elements of Acoustic Guitar’s new online world is a weekly

EDITORIAL Group Publisher and Editorial Director Editor Managing Editor Senior Editor Digital Content Developer Assistant Editor Contributing Editors

“feature” in which we explore a particular subject with seven daily entries, many of which include video and/or sheet music, and a reader poll. For example, in the first few weeks of the new website’s launch, we took a look at rock fingerpicking patterns, various aspects of the blues, affordable small-body guitars, and home recording tips. These web features give us a way to cover some favorite subjects in unique ways and to revisit topics that we’ve recently (or not so recently) covered in the magazine. So when you’re online, be sure to check out the weekly feature—with new content available daily—and search the feature archives for other subjects that interest you.

Dan Gabel Scott Nygaard Mark Smith Teja Gerken Dan Apczynski Amber von Nagel Kenny Berkowitz, Andrew DuBrock, David Hamburger, Steve James, Orville Johnson, Richard Johnston, Sean McGowan, Adam Perlmutter, Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, Rick Turner, Doug Young

Senior Designer Barbara Summer Designer Kay Marshall Production Manager Hugh O’Connor

Meanwhile, in the magazine, we’re featuring a musician, Townes Van Zandt, who has arguably had more impact as an inspiration to other artists than for his own recorded output. It’s hard to imagine the Americana/alt-country scene in its current incarnation without his influence, having shown Guy Clark, Steve Earle, and many others the way to a songwriting approach that combines many of the more creative aspects of the 1960s songwriting explosion with a grounding in roots styles and simple storytelling. In addition, Van Zandt’s guitar playing, though generally unheralded, is a model for fingerstyle and flatpicking song accompanists, so we’ve included examples notated (and played on video at AcousticGutar.com) by Adam Levy. Our other magazine feature this month (“New Gear 2013,” page 50) demonstrates how thoroughly the musical products industry has revived after a few years in the wilderness, with

ADMINISTRATION Publisher David A. Lusterman Office and Systems Manager Peter Penhallow MARKETING SERVICES Marketing Services Director Marketing Services Managers (East) (Central) Marketing Services Operations Manager

Desiree Forsyth

Cindi Kazarian Claudia Campazzo Sarah Hasselberg

numerous new guitar models, amplification innovations, and accessories to check out. Enjoy the issue, SCOTT NYGAARD GOT A QUESTION or comment for Acoustic Guitar’s editors? Please send an e-mail at [email protected] or snail-mail Acoustic Guitar Editorial, PO Box 767, San Anselmo, CA 94979. TO SUBSCRIBE to Acoustic Guitar magazine, call (800) 827-6837 or visit us online at AcousticGuitar.com. As a subscriber, you enjoy the convenience of home delivery and you never miss an issue. Sign up or renew your own subscription now and you can also purchase a gift subscription for a friend. A single issue costs $6.99; an individual subscription is $39.95 per year; institutional subscriptions are $39.95 per year. Foreign subscribers must order airmail delivery. Add $15 per year for Canada/Pan Am, $30 elsewhere, payable in US funds on US bank. ONLINE If you’re a subscriber to AcousticGuitar.com or a member of the Acoustic Guitar Club, you already have access to our exclusive online content. Don’t know if your subscription allows you access to AcousticGuitar.com? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. ACOUSTIC GUITAR U Enjoy all the benefits of an Acoustic Guitar magazine subscription plus unlimited access to streaming video and audio instruction that is not currently included with Acoustic Guitar Club, magazine, or website subscriptions when you subscribe to Acoustic Guitar U—the new standard in online guitar learning. Upgrade your current Acoustic Guitar magazine subscription or start a new subscription to Acoustic Guitar U at AcousticGuitarU.com. SHOP Visit store.AcousticGuitar.com to purchase Acoustic Guitar books, sheet music, instructional audio and video guides, and back issues of the magazine. Check back often for new products and special offers. ACOUSTIC GUITAR NOTES All subscribers are eligible to receive our free daily online newsletter, Acoustic Guitar Notes. TO ADVERTISE in Acoustic Guitar, the only publication of its kind read by 150,000 guitar players and makers every month, call Desiree Forsyth at (415) 485-6946, ext. 606, or e-mail her at [email protected].

FINANCE Director of Accounting and Operations Anita Evans Bookkeeper Geneva Thompson Accounting Clerk Coral Cogbill INTERACTIVE SERVICES Interactive Services Director Marketing Designer Editorial Assistant Digital Developer Subscriptions Single Copy Sales

Lyzy Lusterman Joey Lusterman Maura McElhone Breeze Kinsey Jan Edwards-Pullin Tom Ferruggia

CORRESPONDENCE Mail PO Box 767 San Anselmo, CA 94979 Shipping 255 West End Ave. San Rafael, CA 94901 Editorial E-mail [email protected] Subscriptions E-mail [email protected] Customer Service (800) 827-6837 Website AcousticGuitar.com Telephone (415) 485-6946 Fax (415) 485-0831

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AG SUBSCRIBERS Take care of all your subscription needs at our online Subscriber Services page (AcousticGuitar.com): pay your bill, renew, give a gift, change your address, and get answers to any questions you may have about your subscription. RETAILERS To find out how you can carry Acoustic Guitar magazine in your store, contact Alfred Publishing at (800) 292-6122. Except where otherwise noted, all contents © 2013 Stringletter, David A. Lusterman, Publisher.

8 AcousticGuitar.com

PRINTED IN USA ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013

NOTATION

music notation key

Dropped-D Tuning: D A D G B E

ˇ

D Guitar tunings are given from the lowest (sixth) string to the highest (first) string; standard tuning is written as E A D G B E. Arrows underneath tuning notes indicate strings that are altered from standard tuning and whether they are tuned up or down. In standard notation, small symbols next to notes refer to fretting-hand fingers: 1 for the index finger, 2 the middle, 3 the ring, 4 the little finger, and T the thumb. Picking-hand fingering is indicated by i for the index finger, m the middle, a the ring, c the little finger, and p the thumb. In tablature, the horizontal lines represent the six strings, with the first string on top and the sixth on the bottom. The numbers refer to frets on the given string. Slur markings indicate hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides; indicates a bend. The number next to the bend symbol shows how much the bend raises the pitch: ¼ for a slight bend, 1⁄2 for a half step, 1 for a whole step. Pick and strum direction are shown below the staff ( ≥ =downstroke, ≤ =upstroke), and slashes in the notation and tablature () indicate a strum through the previously played chord. Chord diagrams show where the fingers go on the fretboard. Frets are shown horizontally. The top horizontal line represents the nut,

A7

œ

# # 4 œ œ œ3 & 4 œ œ 2

m p

3

œ œ

1/4

œ

i p

m p

m p

1/4

2

B C

x 32 0 1 0

0

0

G

A7

1 3 1 2 11

3 2

0

0

3 20004

1/4

3

3

1/4

D m7

5 fr.

x1 3 1 2 1

5 fr.

1/2

unless a numeral to the right of the diagram marks a higher position (“5 fr.” means fifth fret). Strings are shown as vertical lines. The line on the far left represents the sixth (lowest) string, and the line on the far right represents the first (highest) string. Dots show where the fingers go, and thick horizontal lines indicate barres. Numbers above the diagram are fretting-hand finger numbers. X indicates a string that should be

œœ Û Û Û Û Û Û Û œœ œ ≥

0 2 0 2 0

≤

≥

≤

≥

≤

≥

≤

À À À À À À À

muted or not played; 0 indicates an open string. Vocal tunes are sometimes written with a fully tabbed-out introduction and a vocal melody with chord diagrams for the rest of the piece. The tab intro is usually your indication of which strum or fingerpicking pattern to use in the rest of the piece. ag To receive a complete guide to Acoustic Guitar music by mail, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Music Editor, Acoustic Guitar, PO Box 767, San Anselmo, CA 94979-0767. The complete guide can also be found online at AcousticGuitar.com/notationguide.

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? 1 Get more details at guysgrids.com


ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013

New Sounds. New Songs. Your New Voice.

The B1 Baritone offers the comfort and playability of a grand auditorium sized guitar while producing full baritone guitar tone. w w w.w a ld e n g u it a rs.c o m

ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

plays a similarly sparse pattern, but only picking out G notes on the sixth, third, and first strings. Then he quickly shifts into more of a standard alternating-bass fingerpicking pattern, like the second pattern below. At the close of the first verse, Simon plays the sparse Asus2 pattern again for the last time (until the very end of the song). At the second verse, he begins strumming a fairly steady eighth-note strum pattern and swaps the atmospheric Asus2 chord for an Am chord in the following verses. Any time he holds a chord for a measure or more, Simon embellishes his chords on the ands of beats 2 and 4 by lifting his fingers off the strings, shown in the “Strum/Fill” patterns for G, Am, and C. —ANDREW DuBROCK

The Sound of Silence Words and music by Paul Simon “THE SOUND OF SILENCE” was initially recorded as a simple mix of acoustic guitars and upright bass for Simon and Garfunkel’s 1964 debut record, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. But when record sales slumped, Simon and Garfunkel went their separate ways. However, producer Tom Wilson thought the group had something in “The Sound of Silence,” so he took the track and overdubbed electric guitar, electric bass, and drums on top. Released as a single in 1965, it steadily made its way up the charts. Simon and Garfunkel reunited, hastily recorded the balance of their second album, Sounds of Silence, and the rest is history. Simon begins with a sparse fingerpicking pattern over an Asus2 chord, shown as the first fingerpicking pattern below. For the next G chord, he

Ax0sus2 12 00

G

A sus2

œ œ œ œ & 44 œ œ œ œ

Am

x0 231 0

3 2 0004

Pick:

C

pmi m pm im

F

x 32 0 1 0

0

1 34 2 1 1

2

0

0

0 2

0

0

B Asus2

1.

G

œ œœ œ œœ œ Û œÛ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ

p m p i p m p i *Strum: 0 0 1 1 2 2 2 0

Am

Û

0 0 2 0 3 0

1 2 2 0

œœ Û œœ œœ œœ Û œœ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ

Û10 1 Û10 20 2 20 2 0

Am G

C

œœ Û œœ œœ œœ Û œœ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œ

Û10 1 Û10

1 0 2 3

20 20

C

00 0 20 2 3

F

C

Am

F

C

And touched the sound of silence

Take my arms that I might reach you”

Am

But my words like silent raindrops fell

F 3.

C

G

And in the naked light I saw

C

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

00 20

Hear my words that I might teach you

C F

C G

Am

Am

And echoed in the wells of silence

Am

Ten thousand people, maybe more

F

And the vision that was planted C

C

F

G

C

People talking without speaking

Am

In my brain still remains

F

G

C

In restless dreams I walked alone Am F

Am

To the neon God they made

C

C

G

C

F

C

In the words that it was forming

Am

F

Disturb the sound of silence

And the sign said “The words of the prophets are

Am

Written on the subway walls and tenement halls”

C

C

’Neath the halo of a streetlamp F

F

And the sign flashed out its warning

Am

Never share, no one dared

Narrow streets of cobblestone C

G

And the people bowed and prayed

F

People writing songs that voices Am

Am 5.

C

People hearing without listening

Asus2

Within the sound of silence

2.

Û

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 2 3 3 0 3 * = down; = up

C

Because a vision softly creeping

C

Am

Of a neon light that split the night

I’ve come to talk with you again F

G

C

Hello darkness, my old friend

C

Strum/Fill Patterns

Am

C

I turned my collar to the cold and damp F

4.

G

“Fools” said I, “You do not know Am

C

G

Am Asus2

And whispered in the sounds of silence

Silence like a cancer grows

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash 12 AcousticGuitar.com


© 1964 PAUL SIMON MUSIC, USA (BMI). INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

Picking Patterns

Chords Capo VI

PRIVATE LESSON

There’s a lot of talk about form, but we’re not following classical arranging ideas exactly. There are some pieces that come in kind of set, but the thing I really like is having strong song forms with some improvisation mixed in.

Black Prairie’s guitarist Jon Neufeld on using his bluegrass, Gypsy jazz, and folk-rock influences to write original tunes. By Orville Johnson

IF YOU PERUSE a bunch of 2012’s Top Albums lists, including Acoustic Guitar’s, you’ll find Black Prairie’s A Tear in the Eye is a Wound in the Heart turning up frequently. The Portland, Oregon–based group came together in 2008, with the musicians taking some time from their regular groups to work on original tunes with an acoustic bent. Bassist Nate Query and dobroist Chris Funk came up with the idea to start an instrumental string band during their down time with the Decemberists. As more members came onboard, the scope of the music broadened to include touches of klezmer and jazz, evolving into an uncategorizable style resembling a soundtrack for a movie yet to be made. Fellow Decemberist and accordionist Jenny Conlee, drummer John Moen, and violinist/singer Annalisa Tornfelt joined to add vocals and more exotic rhythms, and guitarist Jon Neufeld brought his bluegrass, Gypsy jazz, and indie-folk expertise to the band along with a satchel of quirky compositions. “I’ve been waiting to find people crazy enough to play these tunes with me!” he says. Neufeld grew up in Chicago in a musical family and started playing drums at the age of three. His father, singer-songwriter Chuck Neufeld, gave him his first guitar, a 1972 Guild, when he was 15. Shortly after that, Jon started studying music theory and listening to a wide range of music, from Frank Zappa and heavy metal to bluegrass, Clarence White, and the Byrds. Trips to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, helped him hone his bluegrass chops and learn more about the music. Moving to Portland in 1997 and diving into the thriving music scene there gave Neufeld a chance to exercise all his influences, playing Gypsy jazz with the Kung Pao Chickens, bluegrass with Jackstraw, and electric guitar with indie-folk-rockers Dolorean. His recording work includes appearances with fellow Portlander Laura Viers and singer-songwriter Martha Scanlan as well as Black Prairie’s first release, Feast of the Hunter’s Moon. Neufeld developed a signature acoustic guitar sound upon switching from dreadnoughts to archtops, using a custom-made guitar from luthier John Sullivan. “There wasn’t anyone really using [archtops] for bluegrass,” Neufeld says. “I don’t know why. To me it’s the perfect instrument. It projects like a big mandolin.” In Black Prairie, Neufeld found a kindred group of songwriters and players who pull diverse inspirations together to craft a stunningly original collection of sonic landscapes. We sat down in Seattle, Washington, before a Black Prairie show and talked about the band, the songs, and archtop guitars.

Listening to the album, I get the impression that there is improvisation going on, but there’s a strong compositional element, too. So Black Prairie doesn’t really fall into the jam band category, right? NEUFELD It’s really the opposite! People improvise their solos but this is the only band I’ve been in where you bring in sheet music to show your new piece of music. 14 AcousticGuitar.com

Everyone is credited for the songwriting. How do you work together in the course of doing that? Take “Dirty River Stomp,” for example. NEUFELD That’s one of Jenny’s tunes. She was thinking of doing a traditional stomp on it but we kind of Black Prairie-ized it. Its one of those processes where she has an A part [Example 1] and a B part [Example 2] and we fool around with different people taking the parts or maybe doubling up. So Chris and I doubled up on the A part: he’s playing banjo and we play that line together. Then we transition into a Cajun-sounding thing. The song has about 25 chords in it and later in the song, where we start changing keys and adding other melodic things, we all contribute. Tell me about one of your songs. NEUFELD “34 Wishes: The Legend Of” was written on my 34th birthday. I had a dream and the song was in my head. I woke up and went upstairs and five minutes later I had recorded it. The first half of the song actually came from two separate dream songs and the last section, the kind of math-y metalesque part, came from Chris and I getting together to try and write a metal song. We were sitting around listening to this band Mastodon and we got into the whole metal world again, noticing how quickly things change—there’s this section, then another section, with no easing into it at all. We were going to write a separate song but I had this first part [Example 3] and we thought, let’s put them together, and suddenly it’s like a seven-minute super tune. This is one we’re going to arrange and play with the Oregon Symphony for a special show later this year. I played a big bass drum and gong on the record. I used to play percussion in the orchestra so it was my dream to have tympani on this one. I wanted the real big sound, so I’m excited to get to do it with a real orchestra. What’s your approach to playing rhythm on a song like this? NEUFELD I’m using more arpeggiation of the chords instead of strumming. This is my rhythm for that section of the song [Example 4]. One thing I do a lot of is not playing. That’s one thing I love about this band. I don’t have to come up with a part for every section; I can lay out and listen. In this song, after I lay out, I come back in with Annalisa playing fiddle and me playing the arpeggiated chords and everyone else stops playing. ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013

DAN GABEL

Eclectic Americana

See video of the music examples at AcousticGuitar.com

Ex. 1

1.

3

2 3

2 3

3 2

0

4

B

0

4

0

2

3

3

5 3

2

0

3

4 3 0

0

3

0

4 3

Ex. 2

2.

6

2

0

3

1

3 2

0

0

4

5

3 3 3

4 5 0

5 3 3

3 2 0

0

B

4 3 0

3

0

 4

3

0

5

3

4

5

3

4 5

3 3 3

0

5

3

4

3

3

0

B

3 5

2

4

4

3 3 0

0 3

3

Ex. 3

B

10

8

7

8

8 10 8 10 11

8

8

10

8

0 10

7

8

8

8 10 8 10 11

1

9

8

9

0

8

10

8

7

8 10 8 10 11

2.

3



3

3

6

8

8

8

10

8

8

10 11 10 8 10 8

11 10 x

10

11

B Ex. 4

B

Gm

1.

B

0

3

3


3

3

0

1

Gm

3

3

3 3

3 1

C

0 3

10 10

3

3

10

10 11 10 8 10 8

2.

C

dim

3 3

11

10

4

5

3

5

3

5 0

C

0 4

8

D7

dim

0 3

11 10 11 10

1 0

  2

1 2

2 1 2


PRIVATE LESSON


Ex. 5



 0 2

B

0 2

0 1

3

3 0

0

3

0

3 4

3 0

4 5

3

0

3

1.

0 5 7 4

8

8

0

2



2.

7

7

5

8

8

8

5

5

7

8

B Tell me about “For the Love of John Hartford.” NEUFELD I usually end up throwing the more bluegrass-tinged songs into the group. This is one I wrote some time ago and tried with Jackstraw but it didn’t stick there, so I brought it in to Black Prairie when we were gathering stuff for the record [Example 5]. It didn’t have that title. I think Annalisa or Chris said it sounds like a John Hartford tune, so we got a


7

5

5

7

8

5

5 0

2

0

2

0

1

clogger to come in and dance on it. This is one that got changed by the group. I originally had a little straighter chord progression and they shortened and lengthened some things. Sometimes it’s hard to see, when you’ve written a tune, other options that are obvious to someone else. It’s like, what if we left that chord out and you’re thinking, I’ve always played it this way, but, yeah, that sounds kind of cool. It’s another very collaborative tune.

5

7

8

7

5

0

5

7

8

Besides your work in Black Prairie, you play bluegrass and Gypsy jazz but always use an archtop guitar. What drew you to that sound? NEUFELD The thing I love about archtop guitar is that even when you play a full chord you can hear each individual string. It’s like an orchestra—they’re all playing one note at a time. On a dreadnought you get that mush of sound, kind of like all the notes


washed together. With the archtop, I feel however many notes you’re playing in a chord, you hear that number of notes coming out. Do you have any tips for using it in these different styles? NEUFELD The back of it is where a lot of the bass response comes from, so whether I’m sitting or standing, if I push the back up against my stomach, I can mute it. If you’re playing bluegrass, you can play hard with a driving rhythm, but with a lower volume, and when you play a solo, you pull it away a little and you get all this bass and volume back and it opens up a lot more. When I’m playing in a group with someone else playing a flattop guitar, I can hear my guitar real well. We take up different frequency areas. I feel like the archtop is more in the vocal range, the midrange. The dreadnought seems to have more highs, more lows, but this guitar feels focused all on the midrange. Any other things you find unique about the archtop versus flattop? NEUFELD One important thing I learned playing archtop is there’s no anchoring [the picking hand]. When I played flattop I always had my wrist on the bridge. I’d see people playing with real loose wrists and hands above the strings and wonder how they did that. Playing an archtop, you can’t plant your wrist. It really helped me relax my right hand. I feel like my big goal for the rest of my life is to get more and more relaxed while playing the guitar. It

should be like combing your hair or brushing your teeth. ag Contributing editor ORVILLE JOHNSON is a Seattlebased singer, guitarist, arranger, teacher, writer, and author of the Acoustic Guitar Guide: Acoustic Blues Guitar Basics. He has recorded several albums and instructional DVDs (orvillejohnson.com).

WHAT HE PLAYS ACOUSTIC GUITARS: John Sullivan custom archtop (the first of only three Sullivan has built). John Sullivan custom dreadnought (for open tunings). AMPLIFICATION: Schatten custom Archtop Guitar Pickup (slightly wider than the standard Schatten to accommodate the wider bridge on Neufeld’s guitar) built into the bridge. L.R. Baggs Anthem electronics in the dreadnought. Ear Trumpet Labs Edwina external microphone. Fishman Loudbox Artist amp. Neufeld runs both the pickup and Edwina mic through the Fishman amp and sends a blended signal to the front of house. Fishman Aura pedals. Divine Noise cables. Boss Rotosphere pedal (Leslie simulator). Lehle switching pedal. Pedaltrain pedal board. Voodoo Lab Pedal Power. STRINGS: D’Addario EJ16 phosphor-bronze light gauge on the dreadnought and EJ17 phosphorbronze mediums on the archtop. FLATPICKS: Wegen Trimus 350 and TF 140. CAPOS: Paige.

LICK OF THE MONTH Of this snaky melody from his tune “Back Alley,” recorded on Black Prairie’s first album, Feast of the Hunter’s Moon, Jon Neufeld says, “The melody’s kind of nerdy. It uses all the chromatic guitar chords. It’s sort of in G.”

2 3 2 0

3 2 0 0

3

2

2 3 3 5 0 0

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NEW GEAR

See video review at AcousticGuitar.com

Collings CJ35 Responsive, huge-sounding slope-shoulder dreadnought blends traditional and contemporary features.

By Adam Perlmutter

GIBSON’S J-35, a distinctive slope-shoulder flattop intended to compete with Martin’s dreadnought, was conceived as a budget model, selling for a mere $35 when it was introduced in 1936. The J-35 was replaced in 1942 by the J-45, which had slightly different bracing and cosmetics. Also a bargain at $45, it would become affectionately known as Gibson’s “workhorse” as a result of all the great music that players like Buddy Holly and Bob Dylan made on this no-frills instrument. Despite the slope-shoulder’s humble origins, numerous high-end makers have been crafting their own interpretations, including Collings Guitars’ CJ series. Having conducted an exhaustive survey of golden era designs of all kinds, it is only natural that the Austin, Texas–based company has long offered a range of slope-shoulders, and earlier this year, it added the new CJ35.

At Once Vintage and Modern The CJ35 departs from Collings’s standard CJ (which has a long scale, making it more like a Gibson Advanced Jumbo) in a few different structural ways. The soundboard support incorporates unscalloped Adirondack spruce bracing with three tone bars as opposed to scalloped Sitka spruce with two tone bars (the earliest J-35s had three). The scale on the CJ35 is shorter at 247⁄8 inches and the new straight-style bridge has a saddle that is 25⁄16 inches wide rather than 23⁄16. The CJ35 we received was assembled from an especially nice selection of tonewoods. The grain on the spruce is consistently fine, and the grain on the mahogany is straight but complex. With its swirls of rich browns along with black streaking, the African rosewood used for the fingerboard and bridge closely resembles Brazilian rosewood, particularly on the bridge. At a glance this CJ35 could be mistaken for a 75-year-old guitar in museum condition. Graduating from a deep brown to a glowing orange, the sunburst finish looks vintage-correct, an effect enhanced by the plastic firestripe pickguard. The back, sides, and neck have been given a warm brown stain, also consistent with the old school. And, as on a typical original slope-shoulder, the CJ35 doesn’t have much in the way of ornamentation—just grained ivoroid binding on the body, matched by a heel cap and end stripe, a walnut back stripe so inconspicuous that it almost blends in with the mahogany, and a rosette with cream-andblack rings. All that’s on the headstock is an


ivoroid Collings script logo, complemented by pearl dots on the fingerboard. But the CJ35 is modern in subtle ways. The top of the headstock, for instance, has Collings’s trademark “haircut,” or asymmetric contour. A more significant detail isn’t visually obvious: as on all Collings guitars, the neck has a mortise-and-tenon joint that is bolted to the body rather than a traditional glued dovetail joint. As expected, the craftsmanship on our CJ35 is breathtakingly fine. The gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish doesn’t have a single imperfection and has been buffed to a splendid luster, while the binding is perfectly flush with the wood throughout. The nut, bridge, and fretwork are all meticulous, free from any sort of jaggedness. Inside there’s no roughness or evidence of glue on the prewar-style scalloped bracing or kerfing, and even the mahogany wood plugs have been carefully selected and aligned to blend in with the neck block.

Highly Responsive, Huge Sound The CJ35’s generous, vintage-inspired neck profile was developed specifically for the model. The nut width and saddle string

AT A GLANCE SPECS: Slope-shoulder dreadnought body. Solid Sitka spruce top. Solid mahogany back and sides. Prewar-style straight X-bracing. Bolt-on mahogany neck. African rosewood fingerboard and bridge. Bone nut and saddle. 24 7⁄8-inch scale. 13⁄4-inch nut width. 2 5⁄16-inch string spacing at saddle. High-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish. Nickel Waverly tuning machines. Medium-gauge D’Addario phosphor-bronze strings. Made in USA.

PRICE: Starts at $4,320 ($4,860 list as reviewed with sunburst finish).

MAKER: Collings Guitars: (512) 288-7776; collingsguitars.com.


cordobaguitars.com

NEW GEAR spacing are a generous 13⁄4 and 25⁄16 inches, respectively. As a player accustomed to smaller and narrower necks, I initially found this neck to be cumbersome, partly because the factory action was slightly higher than I’m used to, especially up on the neck (about 1⁄8-inch at the 12th fret and about 5 ⁄ 32 at the 19th). But the neck’s girth and action must influence the sound of the instrument, which is refreshingly buzz-free and deeply resonant. It completely won me over with the first open E chord, exquisitely balanced and defined, impressively sustaining, and unexpectedly loud (considering its mahogany body) when played with an unforceful strum. The natural

harmonics are uncommonly crisp and vivid, even at odd locations like the second and fourth frets. When played with open-position cowboy or basic barre chords, the CJ35 responds beautifully to the most delicate strumming as well as the most aggressive, on account of its generous headroom. It’s easy to discern the individual notes of each chord, and voicings that use open strings sound especially robust and shimmering. The CJ35 also works just as well in more complex situations, such as fingerstyle jazz comping with walking bass lines. Single-note lines on the CJ35 are thick and warm in all registers. Played with palm

Portability. Power. Options.

muting, bass riffs leap out with great power. Excursions on the higher strings are similarly satisfying. The treble is just as sturdy as the bass, and lines played with a light attack from the flatpick have a surprising amount of presence and color. Given its wide nut and saddle, the guitar is accommodating for both flatpicking and fingerpicking. Playing Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” capoed at the third fret, the guitar responded beautifully, amplifying pickinghand nuances while resonating with a marvelous natural reverb—as it did for improvised fingerpicking in tunings like D A D G A D, open G, and open D. And the Waverly tuners, with their 16:1 gear ratio, make it a breeze to switch between different tunings. With its new CJ35, Collings has created an impeccably built and awesome-sounding slope-shouldered guitar with vintage vibe and outstanding playability: a modern workhorse and future classic for sure. ag ADAM PERLMUTTER is an Acoustic Guitar contributing editor who transcribes, engraves, and arranges music for numerous publications.

EDITORS ’ IMPRESSIONS TEJA GERKEN: The Collings CJ35 embodies everything that fans of

LUCAS Nano is a phenomenally portable and powerful sound reinforcement solution that combines the ease of a hand-carried all-in-one PA with the sound quality and output of comparatively larger systems. It features a dedicated subwoofer with a built-in three-channel mixer and two incredibly small–yet surprisingly powerful– satellite speakers. They can be easily mounted directly atop the sub with no additional wiring, placed on HK’s optional stand system or even traditional mic stands, and connected with standard instrument cables for an amazing stereo experience.

the Austin, Texas–based brand have come to expect: it looks gorgeous, has flawless craftsmanship, sounds amazing, and plays great. I was surprised by how versatile a dreadnought with unscalloped bracing could be. I enjoyed playing the guitar on any style I tried. Whether it was traditional fingerpicking, strumming, or flatpicking single-note lines, the guitar responded with a highly complex voice and huge dynamic range. The wide string spacing is more often seen on smaller guitars, but it resulted in excellent playability for tricky fingerstyle maneuvers. SCOTT NYGAARD: An immaculately constructed, deliciously flamed instrument, the CJ35 has piano-like note separation and the dry clarity of a prized

*pictured with optional HK Audio stands

vintage specimen. Though it seems odd to single out on such a fantastic-sounding and -looking instrument, what struck me most about this guitar was the neck. Its perfectly set up medium action and rounded shape allowed me to really dig in without any fear of the guitar breaking up. I’ve played few guitars that were so precisely aligned that I could slam into

HKAUDIO.COM


single notes up the neck and have them ring out as clear and round as on this guitar.


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TOWNES VAN ZANDT “I

belong to a cult that came up around Townes Van Zandt,” says fellow Texan Steve Earle, who lives in New York City these days. “I’m a member of it, Guy Clark is a member of it, Lucinda Williams is a member of it. We all knew him. When it gets down to it, we’re cult members. He was that strong a deal in our little world.” That’s mighty praise from Earle, himself a venerable songwriter. If you’ve never heard the late Van Zandt’s recordings, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Even if you have heard some of Van Zandt’s records, you may be left wondering that. Van Zandt’s catalog rarely shows him in the best light, due to misguided production aesthetics and the singer’s apparent lack of interest in the record-making process. “I don’t think Townes ever made a great record,” says Earle, “except for possibly The Nashville Sessions—and even it’s flawed. His records were very spotty, at best.” Van Zandt released a handful of studio albums in the late 1960s and early ’70s, beginning with For the Sake of the Song in 1968. To get to the core of Van Zandt’s brilliance, it’s probably best to dig past the studio releases and listen to his live recordings instead. One in particular—Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas—is considered by many to be the finest recorded example of his work. Recorded at the tiny namesake venue in 1973 and first released in ’77, the double album features many of Van Zandt’s best-known songs—such as “Pancho and Lefty,” “To Live Is to Fly,” “Two Girls,” and “If I Needed You.” (For a transcription of “If I Needed You,” see page 48.) It’s these songs, crafted at the beginning of his professional career, that were the basis of his status as a songwriters’ songwriter. “Pancho and Lefty” has been covered by numerous artists—including Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Earle himself. Here’s the opening verse:

TOM ERICKSON

FPO



BY ADAM LEVY June 2013 ACOUSTIC GUITAR

Living on the road, my friend Is gonna keep you free and clean Now you wear your skin like iron Your breath as hard as kerosene You weren’t your mama’s only boy But her favorite one it seems She began to cry when you said goodbye And sank into your dreams

The ultimate Texas troubadour inspired countless tunesmith heirs to dig deeper and write simpler. You’d have to scan the entire lyric—four verses, plus a recurring bridge—to appreciate the full arc of the story. Even in this snippet, though, you can begin to see the qualities that make Van Zandt’s work remarkable. The poetry is plainspoken and the ABAB rhyme scheme is simple enough, but no word is wasted. Every line is either a payoff or a setup to a payoff, and yet nothing feels overwrought. Of course, the lyrics don’t exist in a vacuum. Van Zandt coupled his poetry with a straightforward guitar style, sometimes using Merle Travis–inspired fingerpicking, sometimes flatpicking. Either way, his style was his own. “I thought his songs and the way he played guitar were perfectly matched,” says Rosanne Cash—a celebrated singersongwriter in her own right. “It seemed that each served the other in a really seamless way.” (See “Van Zandt’s Picking Styles” on page 44.) Cash got to know Van Zandt just a bit, in the late ’70s. She met him through singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell— her then boyfriend and, later, husband. “When I first got together with Rodney, he was very close to Guy [Clark, legendary songwriter] and Townes. And Townes and Guy were particularly close. Guy would have these songwriters’ get-togethers out at his house, and that may have been the first time I met Townes. Even then, Townes was mythic— even to his friends. He had this presence, and it was kind of accepted that he was the genius.” Among Cash’s favorite Van Zandt songs are “Pancho and Lefty” (“One of the greatest country songs ever written,” she says) and “Two Girls” (“If I’m sitting around just playing guitar for myself, inevitably I start playing ‘Two Girls’”). Cash recalls that it was hearing Van Zandt’s “To Live Is to Fly” that initially made her take notice of just how advanced he was. “The first time I heard it,” she says, “I thought, ‘Wow, I will never reach that—ever.’ Very few people will reach that level of songwriting.” Asked if she feels that any of her own songs have had some measure of Van Zandt in them, Cash says that a couple of the new ones she’s now working on may be on that level. “It took me this long—to get into my 50s—before I could think that maybe a couple of the lines that I’ve written approach Townes,” she says. AcousticGuitar.com 43

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NEW GEAR


Kala U-Bass-SMHG Tiny bass with a ukulele-size body has serious low-end tones. By Greg Olwell

SOMETIMES YOU SHOW UP for a picking session and you’re out of luck. There are already too many guitarists and you don’t want to add another six-string to the party, but hey look, nobody’s playing bass! Or, maybe your home recordings need some low end and you want an easy-to-play bass with a big sound. If this sounds familiar, the U-Bass from the ukulele specialists at Kala Brand may be just what you need. With its small size, the U-Bass is easy to carry and play, and when played through an amp, produces a big bass sound. With its small body, ultrashort 21-inch scale (compared to a typical Fender-style bass’s 34-inch scale), and thundering plugged-in bass sound, the U-Bass defies all sense of proportion. However, spend a little time with one and you may quickly find that the U-Bass moves past “brain-warping novelty bass” to become an inviting instrument that could be a very useful and inspiring tool. Kala has an extensive line of U-Basses, with different woods and body shapes (traditional, cutaways, and solidbodies), as well as fretless versions. We checked out the entry-level U-Bass-SMHG.

Mahogany, Baritone-Uke Size Body Though Kala never refers to this instrument as a “ukulele bass,” coming from a company that is one of the biggest players riding the current wave of ukulele mania, it’s hard to think of this instrument any other way. Roughly the size of a baritone ukulele, the U-Bass has a slightly longer neck (a 21-inch scale versus a baritone uke’s 19-inch scale), and the mahogany neck, with 12 frets to the body, is stout, feeling much more like a full-size bass guitar neck than that of a ukulele. The U-Bass’s body is built with a solid flamed mahogany top and solid mahogany back and sides. The top and back are bound with tortoiseshell-color plastic and the soundhole is ringed by a simple white rosette. The frets were nicely dressed, never causing a buzz and free of sharp edges. One of the U-Bass’s unusual features is the small hatch on the back, directly behind the bridge area, which allows the instrument’s unique rubber strings to be fed through the top and bridge. To amplify the U-Bass, Kala chose Shadow electronics, consisting of a Nanoflex undersaddle pickup and small preamp mounted on the bass’s side, with a chromatic tuner and controls for volume and tone. The preamp is powered by a pair of CR2032 button batteries, which are loaded through a small sliding compartment near the standard endpin jack.

Unique Strings The heart of the U-Bass’s one-of-a-kind feel and sound is its strings. Thick and stretchy like gummy worms, the U-Bass’s polyurethane strings have a smooth, slick texture and are a nice evolution from


AT A GLANCE SPECS: Four-string miniature acoustic bass. Solid mahogany top, back, and sides. Mahogany neck. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. Graph Tech nut. 21-inch scale. 1 13⁄16-inch nut width. Matte finish. Hipshot Ultralite tuners. Pahoehoe Polyurethane strings. Shadow Nanoflex bridge pickup with SH NFX EQ-T onboard active electronics. Made in China.

PRICE: $660 list/$550 street. MAKER: Kala Brand Music: (877) 853-3853; kalabrand.com.

the sticky silicone strings used on the U-Bass’s ancestor, the Ashbory Bass, a minuscule bass sold by Guild and later DeArmond. The strings’ elasticity, low tension, and superthick gauges are key to the bass’s gloriously thuddy sound, but the very same qualities that yield a convincing upright bass sound also require frequent tuning. They’re just so stretchy and rolypoly under your fingers that changes in temperature or humidity, or enthusiastic playing, can knock them out of tune faster than you might be accustomed to with steel strings. So, I appreciated the highquality Hipshot Ultralite tuning machines, onboard tuner, and Graph Tech nut for making tuning easy. Though the U-Bass comes with a Graph Tech nut, which should help the strings slide smoothly across the nut during tuning, I took the additional step of equalizing the tension on either side of the nut by gently lifting the strings slightly above the nut. I found this helped cut down on intonation changes during playing. Thanks to its size, guitarists might have an easy time adapting to this small bass. The spacing is tighter than a typical guitar, but it feels friendly and was easy to get used to. The neck shape felt familiar, too, and made playing for extended periods comfortable.


problem with feedback; even when I tried to induce it, the little guy wouldn’t cooperate.

Take It Along

Little Bass, Big Boom With its tiny body and big, flappy strings, the U-Bass has an acoustic volume that’s fine for plucking at home, but it probably won’t be loud enough to compete with most other acoustic instruments. You’ll need an amp for that and when you plug in, you’ll find that the bass’s real strength is its plugged-in sound. At low volumes, you’re probably fine playing through a standard acoustic amp, though higher levels would benefit from a dedicated bass amp. I played the U-Bass through Fender Bassman TV and SWR Baby Blue bass amps at a few rehearsals with my jazz big band and experienced a bit of cognitive dissonance: the plugged-in sound from this laughably small bass was as authoritative as James Earl Jones’s voice. When I switched from amplified upright bass to the U-Bass during our louder, more rocking songs, the sound from the little bass was nothing short of thunderous. Even plugged into my amp’s active input, which attenuates some input signal, the Shadow pickup’s output was tremendous, requiring me to lower my amp’s volume from the upright’s setting. The U-Bass had some of the most delicious, no-nonsense fundamental bass tone imaginable. Even with the onboard electronics’ tone control turned up to its most trebleheavy setting, the tone was pure, thick fundamental, nearly free of all the upperend information acoustic guitarists crave for a sparkly sound. Instead of creating a lacy, high-end sound, turning the tone control up gave the U-Bass a little more click on the notes’ attack, which helped provide more right-hand detail. But, for my ears, I preferred the onboard tone control down in its lower half, which trims the high-end, much like a tone control does on an electric guitar, leaving a thick, supportive sound. For a bass player, this meat-and-potatoes sound is the foundation you’ll need for most of your bass lines. I also never had a


For anyone who needs an acoustic bass, or simply wants to explore the beauty of some low-end sounds, the Kala U-Bass should be high on your list of basses to demo. You won’t need to be in a ukulele band to pull it

off either—several top-shelf bassists, like Bakithi Kumalo, Leland Sklar, and Abe Laboriel, have discovered the charm of the U-Bass and use it regularly onstage in a variety of venues. Far beyond novelty, the U-Bass is a real-deal bass, built well to deliver serious thunder. The best part? Its tiny size makes it perfect to carry along with your acoustic guitar gear, in case the jam calls for something besides another guitar. ag GREG OLWELL balances playing too many stringed instruments with his day gig as senior editor of Strings magazine.

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The easiest way to record your uke! 1. open GARAGE BAND or any audio recording program 2. plug USB CABLE into the ukulele & the computer 3. press RECORD

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Checkout the All Guitar Center Locations All Music and Art Center Locations All Sam Ash Locations All George’s Music Locations The Fret Shop

309 Jordan Ln Huntsville, AL 35805 256-430-4729

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4300 Rogers Ave Ste. 55 Ft. Smith, AR 72903 479-783-3050

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Chico Music Connection

(The Music Connection) 973 East Ave Chico, CA 95926 530-898-0110

Rockin Robbies 1835 Colfax St Concord, CA 94520 925-687-4220

Starving Musician

3939 Stevens Creek Blvd Santa Clara, CA 95051 408-554-9041

Starving Musician 1400 Ocean St Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831-426-1975

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250 East Palm Dr Florida City, FL 33034 305-246-9980

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4900 Whipple Ave NW Canton, OH 44178 330-546-7076

103 West Dakota St Butler, MO 64730 660-679-3500 539 East Main St Bozeman, MT 59715 406-587-4761

Fuller’s Music House 2310 Trebt Rd. New Bern, NC 28562 252-638-2811

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203 Racine Dr Wilmington, NC 28403 910-538-3419

Russos Music

720 North 114th St Omaha, NE 68154 402-493-2116

Ear Craft

432 Central Ave Dover, NH 3820 603-749-3138

SRH Soundworks 176 Washington St Claremont, NH 0 603-543-1002

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377 Irwin St Philipsburg, NJ 8865 908-454-3313

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Music Go Round 833 Bethel Rd Columbus, OH 43214 972-315-3611

Music Go Round 1329 Stoneridge Dr Gahanna, OH 43230 614-473-0100

Music Is Elementary 5220 Mayfield Rd Lyndhurst, OH 44124 800-888-7502

Pfabe’s Music 1484 Mentor Ave. Painesville , OH 44077 440-357-5513

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Candyman Strings & Things

Saied Music

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Saied Music 9320 E 71st St Tulsa, OK 74133 918-252-5541

The Music Store 9120C East 31st St Tulsa, OK 74145 918-664-7333

Apple Music Row 225 SW 1st Ave Portland, OR 97204 503-226-0036

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79-7412 Mamalahoa Hwy 8016 Olson Memorial Hwy 52335 National Rd East Kealakekua, HI 96750 Golden Valley, MN 55427 St. Clairsville, OH 43950 763-525-0311 808-322-0808 740-695-5929

137 S.west 3rd St Corvallis, OR 97333 541-754-6098

2142 Murray Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15217 412-422-0710

Fretz Music Center 740 Route 113 Souderton, PA 18964 215-723-3195

Galucci Music

224 Wyoming Ave Scranton, PA 18503 570-347-1753

Keswick Musicworks 363 North Easton Rd Glenside, PA 19038 215-887-1462

Pittsburgh Guitars 1305 East Carson St Pittsburgh, PA 15203 412 431 0700

Taylor’s Music Store 116 West Gay St West Chester, PA 19380 610-696-1812

Capital City Guitars 108 4th Ave. E Olympia, WA 98501 360-956-7097

Hugo Helmer Music 1025 Goldenrod Rd Burlington, WA 98233 360-757-0270

Kennelly Keys 4918 196th ST SW Lynnwood, WA 98036 425 771 7020

Kennelly Keys 121 106th ave NE Bellevue, WA 98004 425 455 8282

Kennelly Keys 200 Andover Park East Tukwila, WA 98188 206 431 9195

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L.R. Baggs Lyric Internal guitar microphone delivers highly accurate acoustic tone. By Teja Gerken

ACOUSTIC GUITAR AMPLIFICATION has matured incredibly over the past couple of decades, and excellent onstage sound is now the norm for most acoustic guitarists, but the goal of complete transparency remains elusive. Many factors contribute to how an acoustic guitar sounds once it’s plugged in to an amp or a PA, including the guitar, pickup, preamp, sound system, and even the venue. Since most pickups add a sound of their own to the equation, many guitarists believe that the most natural acoustic sound can be achieved by using a microphone. But as simple as this may seem, it’s not necessarily an easy path to great amplified tone. Feedback at higher (and sometimes not all that high) volumes is the biggest concern, but woofy tone can also plague an external mic used in a problematic room or with an inadequate amp. And mics mounted inside the guitar often sound boxy, since guitars are built to sound great on the outside, not inside the body. Acoustic amplification pioneer L.R. Baggs has long used internal mics as part of its systems, which include the Dual Source and more recently the Anthem (see review in June 2010), but now the company has come up with its first internal mic designed to be used on its own, rather than working in tandem with a pickup. The Lyric was introduced earlier this year at the Winter NAMM show.

Familiar Tru-Mic The heart of the Lyric system is the Baggs Tru-Mic, which is familiar from the company’s Anthem systems. Attached to the guitar’s bridge plate inside the body and mounted in a special housing that places the mic capsule a mere three millimeters from the bridge plate’s surface, the mic is designed to sense only the sound coming from the top of the guitar. The Tru-Mic is designed to cancel reflections from the guitar’s back, which, according to Baggs, means that the sound that the mic hears is more like what you’d hear from the outside than the typical boxy sound AT A GLANCE picked up by most internal microphones. While the Tru-Mic is fundamentally the same SPECS: Bridge plate–mounted Tru-Mic internal as the microphone part of the Anthem microphone. Preamp with ¼-inch endpin jack. system (other than its tortoiseshell coloring; Soundhole-mounted volume wheel and the Anthem’s Tru-Mic is beige), the capsule presence control. Nine-volt battery. Made in in the Lyric has a different frequency the USA. response than the one in the Anthem, which PRICE: $289 list/$199 street. allows it to transmit lower frequencies than the Anthem, where it is primarily responsible MAKER: L.R. Baggs: (805) 929-3545; for the upper frequencies. L.R. Baggs handlrbaggs.com. selects the capsules used in the Lyric according to tighter tolerances in their specs


than what is the case with the mics used for the Anthem. Much of the Lyric’s success is due to its patent-pending preamp technology. Built into an endpin-mounted circuit board and powered by a nine-volt battery, the design uses specific preset EQ curves and frequency-specific compression and limiting to eliminate problem areas that often plague internal mics. The Lyric also includes a small module that mounts to the edge of the soundhole, with a volume control and small dial (to be adjusted with an included screwdriver) for matching the system’s high-frequency response to the specific guitar it is installed in. The preamp also offers soldering pads for connecting a second source (such as a pickup), the signal of which goes unbuffered to the ring-channel of the output jack.

Pain-Free Installation Early in the development of the Lyric, Lloyd Baggs and his team were hoping to create an amplification solution that bluegrass players would want. Besides realizing that many bluegrass pickers have an aversion to pickups (in part because the sound of a guitar amplified with a pickup can be difficult to blend onstage with the sounds of unamplified instruments like fiddle and banjo), Baggs knew that if the Lyric was going to find its way into vintage dreadnoughts, it should require minimal modifications to the guitar. As such, the only irreversible modification required when installing the Lyric is the enlargement of the endpin hole to accommodate the jack—a fairly benign and standard procedure that many owners of vintage instruments accept in return for being able to plug in without hassles. The Tru-Mic and the soundhole control module are installed with removable double-sided tape, while the battery rests in a small bag secured at the neck-block or another convenient location with self-adhesive tape and a hookand-loop fastener.


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But with a bit of processing, tracking with To ensure the best installation possible, we the Lyric could be a fine option for recording sent a guitar to L.R. Baggs so the technidemos or in situations where the guitar is cians at Baggs could install the Lyric thempart of a larger mix. selves. The guitar wasn’t just any guitar, but Overall, the Lyric is a very impressive a 1956 Martin D-28 that belongs to Acoustic option for amplifying an acoustic guitar. As Guitar editor Scott Nygaard. We tried the with any highly accurate pickup or mic, the Lyric out in a variety of settings: in the guitar the system is installed in is critical, Acoustic Guitar video studio, running through and results may be difficult to predict until a Fishman SA-220 PA or Vox you hear the system in your AGA30 amp, with and without an own guitar. But there is no L.R. Baggs Venue preamp; question that L.R. Baggs has See video review at recorded directly to Pro Tools; and created a great option for AcousticGuitar.com onstage at Berkeley, California’s acoustic pickers searching for Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse transparent amplification. ag through its state-of-the-art Meyer Sound PA (see Editor’s Impression). EDITOR S IMPRESSION Plugged in to the SA-220, it was remarkable how natural the tone was right off the bat. It’s a bit of a cliché to say that it SCOTT NYGAARD: I had the opportunity to test out the Lyric in somesounded just like the guitar, but in this case, what ideal conditions, installed by it’s a fitting description, because the tone Baggs in a guitar I’ve been playing for more was devoid of inherent artifacts—whether than 25 years. My first test was in the Acoustic complimentary or distracting—that pickups Guitar video studio plugged into a Fishman often add to the sound. Starting at low SA-220 PA and my AER Compact 60 amp. The volume, I slowly turned the SA-220 up to sound through both was immediately warm about the level I might use to play a small and full, with a very natural-sounding high end. club, and the tone remained very much like The Lyric sounded better and clearer than most what I would expect to hear when using an systems I’ve used with the Compact 60, which external mic under ideal conditions. It was can have a somewhat problematic midrange, only when I turned to partially face the and I was able to crank it up to levels I would SA-220 that the sound became slightly rarely need with no feedback, even while facing tubby and unfocused and feedback began the SA-220. to be an issue. The best test, though, was at the end of a It was also impressive how the Lyric soundcheck at the Freight and Salvage, where I conveyed the D-28’s complex dynamics. was using an AKG condenser mic to amplify Whether I played soft fingerstyle tunes in the guitar. I didn’t have much time to try it out D A D G A D, strummed chords in standard but, with the Lyric running through a Venue DI, tuning, or flatpicked single-note lines up and all tone controls set flat, the Freight’s engithe neck, the guitar’s inherent character neer brought up the monitor to a level I would remained, rather than being overshadowed normally use with a medium-size bluegrass by the amplification system’s tone. band, and the sound was immediately compaPlaying through the much smaller Vox rable to the AKG, without any tweaking—the amp, it took a little more work to get the engineer’s response was, “That sounds great. best sound. While the full-range SA-220 What is that?” I agreed and quickly boosted never made me want to reach for EQ, cutting the gain on the Venue to a level I’d want if I some lower mids and fine-tuning the bass was trying to get lead lines heard above a and treble using the Venue preamp helped semi-electric band. While the sound had a little produce the most pleasing results through more lower midrange than I would like, it was the Vox. certainly usable without any EQ and would be Having experienced the Lyric’s sound easy to tweak given a few more minutes to through speakers, my hopes for a greatwork on the sound. sounding direct recording were high, so I One of my main considerations with any plugged the D-28 into the Venue and then amplification system is how good it sounds into the XLR inputs of a rack-mounted given little or no time for a soundcheck. I’ve Digidesign 002, which fed an iMac running played countless festivals where I had to walk Pro Tools. In this context, the Lyric captured onstage, plug in (or quickly adjust a mic), and a high degree of the guitar’s character but, hope for the best. It’s hard to imagine anything perhaps due to the lack of air moved by a working any better in that situation than the speaker, the recording had a slightly boxy L.R. Baggs Lyric. sound, with a bit less dimension than what I heard through the Fishman PA or Vox amp.

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SONGCRAFT

Australian songwriter Paul Kelly crafts a sparse-yet-thrilling song cycle, Spring and Fall. By Mark Smith

AUSTRALIAN SINGER-SONGWRITER Paul Kelly knows how to write a good song, but he’s the first to admit that almost four decades of experience hasn’t made the process any less mysterious. “It doesn’t seem to be any harder, and it doesn’t seem to be any easier,” Kelly says with a laugh. “I average probably 11 or 12 songs a year. Some are better than others.” Kelly’s latest album, Spring and Fall, falls directly into the “better” category. It tells a story of love blossoming, maturing, and ultimately faltering in a direct, unvarnished manner, devoid of maudlin or overwrought touches. And although Kelly can turn a phrase with the best of them, he opts for clear and direct language over cleverness for the sake of cleverness. That approach extends to his melodies and acoustic guitar accompaniment; as a result, the album’s 11 understated songs flow effortlessly, an exhibition of consummate songwriting skill. Kelly’s songwriting career began in the mid-’70s in Melbourne, Australia, extending through his ’80s output with the Messengers, a group that flirted with commercial success in the US but never quite broke through. (“Dumb Things” from 1988’s Under the Sun marked the peak of Kelly’s popularity in the States, but his sustained success in his native Australia has made him a national treasure.) Since the early ’90s he has written songs for other performers and released a series of adventurous solo albums, all marked by his economical yet emotionally rich style. In early February, Kelly stopped by the Acoustic Guitar office at the tail end of a short American tour—mere hours before boarding a plane for the long flight back to Australia to play dates with Neil Finn of Crowded House fame. We discussed the process of writing Spring and Fall, the importance of collaboration, and why songwriters need to keep their eyes and ears open for inspiration. Your latest album, Spring and Fall, is a song cycle about the rise and fall of a relationship—was that something you set out to do, or did the connection of those songs reveal itself later? KELLY I didn’t sit down and think, “I’m going to write a song cycle and start from scratch.” But at some point I realized that I could make a thread between the few songs I had. At that point I got more conscious about it. I had an old song, about six 30 AcousticGuitar.com

That song has a real push and pull between desire and realizing what you have, and also being honest about the existence of that conflict. You can feel the struggle. KELLY Well, it was a struggle to record it! I remember taking it to the band about six or seven years ago, and they just stood there looking at their shoes. We sort of had a go at it, but the subject matter is tricky, and also technically it’s a tricky song to do—it’s a soliloquy, someone talking to themselves. Musically, it has a melody that sort of needs to be pushed out. It has a slightly more operatic melody than I might normally write. It always sounded to me like it should sound big and have strings—have an epic feeling. So does that mean that you’re thinking early on in the writing process about arrangements and instrumentation? KELLY Yeah, but often they’re quite vague— they’re not that definite. You get a little bit of a picture. Most of the songs on this record were conceived as being done very sparsely. That ties into the idea of the song cycle. If you go back to classical song cycles like [Franz] Schubert’s Winterreise, they’re usually very minimal—piano, violin, short pieces. I wanted to keep the pieces short—a song cycle is really one long song. You don’t want to have long symmetrical sections or too much padding; you want to keep things moving for the story. When you’re working on songs and start to get lost in the weeds, maybe lose focus—do you have anyone you can turn to and say, “Listen to this, what do you think?” Or is it strictly internal? KELLY It’s never strictly internal—I’m very collaborative in the way I work. I worked with my nephew Dan [Kelly] on this record quite a lot, and he’s quite direct when something’s not working. He’s a good critic. I do write sort of randomly, and songs come along—but I think songwriting is mainly just paying attention, and part of paying attention is that things come at you sideways. Someone says something at a bar or a gathering, you read ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013

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or seven years old, called “When a Woman Loves a Man,” that I had written for another singer in Australia, Renée Geyer. I had always wanted to do it myself, but I was waiting for when it would be right. That is a beginningof-love type song, and then I wrote a song that is more of a leave-taking song. I realized that I had these two polar opposites—one was a springtime song, one was a fall song. And I had this other song—“Someone New”—that to me was a hinge song. It was about a person in the middle of a good relationship who is pondering those age-old questions: security versus adventure, and so on.

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something in a book or a line of poetry, or you hear something in a song—songs come from all directions. I just try to pick up on that and write songs. When you start to funnel songs into an album, you choose songs that fit. It happens with every album—you try to get songs that talk to each other and get an album with coherence. This record was about pushing that idea further. Once I had the spine of it, those three or four songs that talked to each

See video of Paul Kelly performing songs from Spring and Fall at AcousticGuitar.com

other, they sort of help you get your mind going. There’s always a bit of a gallop toward the end of a process like that, where the last few songs come quite quickly, when you’re filling in those gaps in the story.

So you were the writer and the unsentimental editor in this case? KELLY Yeah, but all writers need an editor. A good band should be able to argue with each other without anyone taking it personally. Arguing with respect is what you aim for. I like to work with opinionated people.

When you’re filling the gaps it must be difficult to let go of a song that doesn’t fit the narrative. KELLY In this case, I was much more hard-line about it than Dan and [producer] Jay [Walker]. There were a couple of other songs they wanted on it.

Do you sometimes struggle with removing your ego from the process, since you’re the one writing the songs? KELLY I’m not always sure I’m right. I’ll often lose arguments in the band. The people you play with, they have to own what they’re doing—I mean, yeah, you get bruised sometimes, but the next day you’re OK. “Someone New” is one of those examples—I could tell the band wasn’t happy about it. Even when I brought it back with Dan, and we played it live, he didn’t know where to look onstage [laughs]. I had put that song away for six years, but it was right for the record. It’s an uncomfortable song. I played it Friday night and sang the first line, and people just laughed. I sang the second line and there was a little bit less laughter—and nobody’s laughing by the end of the song. When you get stuck and have writer’s block, what do you do to break out of that? KELLY To me, that’s the normal state of a songwriter. It’s like fishing, or doodling. For years and years I would sing ideas into a cassette recorder, and now I use a Zoom [digital recorder]. So when I get stuck I go back and listen to stuff. Do you put all ideas down, even if they don’t initially strike you as being strong, or do you only record those sketches that seem to have promise? KELLY If I think of a half-decent idea, I’ll put it down. And sometimes it turns out that what I thought was a slight thing can be a lot better than I thought it was. But it has to be on the way. Have you ever used songwriting games or other methods to spark your writing? KELLY Well, anything to get the wheels turning. If you go to songwriting workshops and things like that, they can be kind of excruciating—you’re working with someone and you have to get a song in a certain amount of time, and it might not work. You have this day of failures or squibs, but then you go home and bang! Something just comes out. Do you find that you’re more of lyrics-first kind of writer, or does the melody come first? KELLY Melody. Usually there’s a scrap of words or a phrase attached to it, but often it’s



SONGCRAFT

about trying to get the lyrics to match the sounds. I mean, I think lyrics are important, but I would never have a set of lyrics to put music to. When you’re writing the lyrics, do you find yourself recasting the words into a different point of view, say from first person to third person? KELLY I do, but that happens subconsciously. The first person is my main mode, but for people who know my work, they know it’s fiction. I’ve never pushed the line—my songs are not autobiographical. I’m just doing what an author or actor does—take on a persona, a character’s point of view. Nick Cave once said that he rents an office so he can have a dedicated space to write— a place where he can work as if it were a 9-to-5 job. Do you have a space that’s dedicated to writing? KELLY I don’t—I work at home generally. I think the Nick Cave model is brilliant—but for some reason I don’t do it. Carving out time is the thing—today I’m not answering the phone, checking my e-mail, or answering the door. People still don’t think that writing is real work, and in a way it’s not, I guess. I’ve also written a book, and I found that quite different. Every day was more like laying bricks and mortar—I would write a certain number of words a day. But songwriting has never been like that for me. Most of the time, nothing is happening—and then, something happens. I find songwriting boring—I mean, when something happens, it’s the most exciting thing in the world. But you have to get through the boring bits to get there. ag

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WHAT HE PLAYS ACOUSTIC GUITARS: Maton ECW-80 dreadnought. Maton EBG 808-TE. 1938 Martin D-18. “When I’m at home, I tend to play the Martin,” Kelly says. “But I’m one of those people who makes all guitars sound the same. I’m not a big collector.” ELECTRIC GUITAR: 1975 Les Paul Signature Guitar Gold. “It was the first guitar I found when I got my first royalty check in 1988,” Kelly says. “It still sounds great.” AMPLIFICATION: Onboard Maton electronics. Kelly plugs straight in to the house DI and does not use effects. STRINGS: D’Addario. PICKS: No particular brand, .60 and .73 mm.


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JOHN LENNON HELD MANY BEATLES SONGS TOGETHER with great rhythm guitar parts. Although we can listen to the finished recordings of these songs, what we don’t hear are the countless hours Lennon spent crafting new rhythmic ideas for his parts. Playing effective rhythm is more complicated than simply learning how to strum along with a beat—it involves finding the unique groove that fits each song best, whether that’s integrating strummed passages with bass notes, palm muting, syncopation, accents, or other techniques. In this lesson, we’ll take a look at eight popular strummed rock rhythm patterns that you can use or adapt for your own songs. Grab a pick and let’s get to work!

Simple Rhythms Make Great Patterns Sometimes, you only need a simple trick to create the right feel, and that’s the key to the groove in Example 1a. The steady eighth-note pattern is about as simple as they come, but it’s the consistent use of downstrokes that gives this rhythm pattern its character. This steady chugging sound provides more of a constant rhythm than alternating between downstrokes and upstrokes, and you can hear it in countless songs, like the Beatles “Across the Universe,” which has a similar sound to Example 1b. Play the progression in Example 1c with a heavy hand, and it sounds similar to the overdriven fill section of Coldplay’s “Yellow.” Lighten up the strums, and it sounds like the verse backup to the same song. But this I–V–IV–I progression can sound like a completely different song with just a few more tweaks—add a little palm muting and chunk through just the lower portion of each chord to get a powerchord type accompaniment similar to countless songs (Example 1d). And make sure to play around with any rhythm pattern you come across. Alternating between the power-chord type sound for two strums and the full-chord strums for two strums provides a more varied sound (Example 1e), and playing around with all of these variables gives you many more options. Another pattern—this time lifted from the bluegrass boom-chuck rhythm—alternates bass notes with strums, as shown in Example 2a. You can mix bass notes and strum patterns in many ways. Use them in the C–C/B–Am7–D7–G7 chord progression in Example 2b, and you’ve got a rhythm pattern similar to the Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon.” Or add a few walking bass lines, like Example 2c, and you start to sound more like Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young on their classic “Teach Your Children.” Blues and rock are two styles that are heavily intertwined, and the rhythm pattern in Example 3 instills more of a bluesy sound into your rhythm simply because it’s a common rhythm pattern in blues tunes. Try it with a swingy triplet feel to sound like the Beatles on “Revolution.” Or, try it with straight eighth notes to get a bluesrock feel like Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” or the Beatles’ “Come Together.” You could play this with all downstrokes on slower songs, but you’ll likely find alternating ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013


Ex. 1a

Ex. 1b

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4 2

4 4 4 2

4 2

4 4 4 2

4 2

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0 1 0 2

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Ex. 2c

D7

G7

C

D

G

D

A7

3

B

0

2 1 2


1 0 0 0 3

3

0

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3

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THE BASICS

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between down- and upstrokes much easier for uptempo songs. Stretch out your little finger to grab the five-fret span in the third measure and—if you find this stretch too difficult—you can play the regular G5 power chord throughout the measure. A great way to add a percussive pop to your rhythm patterns is to play scratch rhythms on beats two and four of each measure, simulating the sound of a backbeat snare drum. Example 4a shows how you might do this for a thick C chord. Make sure to damp all the strings on beats two and four by lifting your fretting-hand fingers off the strings just enough so that they don’t ring out as you strum through. You can add extra pop by slapping the underside of your picking hand against the strings at the moment your pick connects. The straight-ahead groove in Example 4a is reminiscent of many songs, like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version of “The Midnight Special,” for instance. But you can use this backbeat scratch rhythm on a huge variety of grooves, like the slow and funky pattern in Example 4b. Keep fretting each chord while strumming the prescribed pattern. For the scratch strums, damp the strings with your fretting hand while you simultaneously slap them with your picking hand, just as we did for Example 4a. You’ll find that you may naturally damp a few strums on either side of these percussive strums, which is fine; just don’t accent these strums as much as the damped ones, and you’ll achieve the desired effect.

Funky Rhythms The backbeat in the previous example started pushing us in a slightly funky direction, so let’s follow that. A great place to start is with the so-called Bo Diddley beat, shown in Example 5a. This pattern may seem difficult at first, but if you break the beat down into a 16th-note subdivision, you’ll find a 3–3–2 pattern in the first half of the measure that may help you get a handle on it. Slow it down and count out every 16th note if you have to, then gradually speed it up until you can play it at the speed you want to. Diddley’s name graces this pattern since he popularized it in tunes like “Bo Diddley” and “Mona.” You can play the complete one-measure pattern over a single chord as shown in Example 5a, but you can also switch chords in the middle of the pattern (Example 5b). This example includes a few more strums than the rhythm pattern in Example 5a, for a pattern similar to the Rolling Stones’ cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away.” Notice that the accents place the emphasis on the same beats as Example 5a. Interestingly, Buddy Holly’s original version used a less-syncopated pattern similar to Example 5c, which is virtually identical but ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013


D

Ex. 3

A

G

D

# 4 & # 4 œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 2 0

B

2 0

4 0

2 0

2 0

2 0

4 0

2 0

2 0

Ex. 4a

4 0

2 0

2 0

2 0

4 0

2 0

5 3

5 3

7 3

5 3

5 3

5 3

7 3

2 0

5 3

2 0

4 0

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2 0

2 0

4 0

2 0

Ex. 4b

C

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D

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0

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THE BASICS

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accents the eighth-note upbeat on beat one, instead of the following 16th note. As these Diddley-type examples show, you can (and should!) come up with your own variations on any rhythm pattern you encounter. Example 6a shows another syncopated rhythm that has become a staple of classic rock, modern rock, and pop. This pattern looks a little different, because it stretches across two measures, but it’s usually played at a brisk enough tempo that it ends up being quite similar to the Diddley variations in Example 5. Strum through this pattern on one chord, and you can hear the verse rhythm behind the Strokes’ “Last Night,” the rhythm pattern behind Hall and Oates’s “Maneater,” or the recurring anthemic rhythm in the Doors’ “Touch Me.” But you can also switch chords in the middle of this rhythm to get a sound similar to the Young Rascals’ “Good Lovin’” (Example 6b). Some modern rock and pop tunes get a boost by injecting a laid-back groove with a 16th-note swing feel. Example 7a shows one common syncopated groove you can get with this feel, and Example 7b shows how you might embellish it to sound similar to Train’s hit “Drops of Jupiter.” You can also mix a 16thnote swing feel with a bass/strum approach for a percussive pattern like Example 8a, which is similar to what Tom Petty used in a number of hits like “You Don’t Know How It Feels” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.” Palm mute the bass notes on riffs like this to bring out the strummed chords on top. Example 8b shows an example of this pattern with more of a modern rock chord progression.

Finding the Right Fit With all these patterns to choose from, which one should you pick? It all depends on the type of song you’re working with. If you play around with the different patterns and rhythmic feels, the right one should become apparent. For instance, if you want a driving rocker, try the patterns in Examples 3 and 4a, and if you have a slower paced tune that you want to liven up, try the slower but funkier patterns in Examples 4b, 7a, or 7b. On the flipside, it’s also interesting to try something completely different than what you’d expect. One of the Beatles’ first huge hits—“Please Please Me”— was written as a slow number, but producer George Martin had the band speed it up, and the upbeat version helped create Beatlemania. Above all, remember that these patterns are just a small sample of what’s possible. Don’t be afraid to experiment! ag Learn more acoustic rock strumming patterns in Andrew DuBrock’s complete “Ten Great Rock Strumming Patterns” download available at store.AcousticGuitar.com. Includes video.




Ex. 7a

3

Swing ( q q = q q )

A

# # # 4 . œœ Û Û Û Û Û >Û Û Û >Û Û Û >Û >Û Û Û . . & 4 . œœ œ > > 0 . 22 À À À À À À À À À À À À À À À . . 20 . B E

Ex. 7b

A

3

Swing ( q q = q q )

œœœ Û Û œœœ Û Û œœœ Û Û œœœ Û Û œœœ œœ Û Û œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœœ > > > > > > 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 À À 2 À À 0 À À 2 À À 0 2 À À 2 2 0

2 2 0

2 2 0

D

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2

B Ex. 8a

1 2 2 0

1 2 2 0

1 2 2 0

1 2 2 0

3

Swing ( q q = q q )

## & # 44 .. B

1 2 2 0

E

A

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0


1 2 2 0

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Ex. 8b

G

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3

2 0

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3 3 0 0

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TOWNES VAN

FPO



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TOWNES VAN ZANDT Economy of Verse

of Van Zandt in his guitar playing as well. “I spent a lot of years listening to Townes’ records and watching guys who had learned from him,” he says. “It definitely shaped my own style. Learning to fingerpick, playing those simple melodies while keeping the bass line going, dropped-D tuning, and basic blues playing—those were all things I got from him.”

Everything is not enough And nothin’ is too much to bear Where you been is good and gone All you keep is the getting there

One of the hallmarks of Van Zandt’s writing is the condensed nature of his poetry. He could pack so much emotional power into each and every turn of phrase. Hayes Carll—a fellow Texan and acclaimed tunesmith—says that, in this regard, Van Zandt’s song “To Live Is to Fly” was the pinnacle for him. “As a songwriter,” Carll says, “you’re lucky to get one great line in a tune. That song has a career’s worth. I didn’t really ‘get’ Townes until that song, but after hearing it, a whole new world opened up to me. I went from being a casual admirer to a full-blown disciple.” Here’s the song’s second verse:

“No Place to Fall” was actually the first Van Zandt song that Carll heard. “A buddy of mine in Arkansas played it on guitar for me when I was 18 or so,” he says. “I vividly remember hearing the lines ‘I’d never tell you no lies / I don’t believe it’s wise / You’ve got pretty eyes’ and thinking how simple and beautiful it was.” Carll says that he has tried to emulate Van Zandt’s handiwork—particularly in an early song of his called “Arkansas Blues.” “I was trying really hard at the time to emulate Townes in style and substance,” he says, “but I think that song is the only time I got close.” It wasn’t just Van Zandt’s writing that influenced Carll. He says that there are echoes

Days, up and down they come Like rain on a conga drum Forget most, remember some But don’t turn none away

Van Zandt’s Picking Styles

One Guitarist, Two Styles Earle knows Van Zandt’s playing inside and out. In fact, he was once enlisted to play guitar behind the man himself on a rerecording of “If I Needed You” near the end of Van Zandt’s life— after many years of hard living. That version— along with Earle’s “Goodbye” —were included on a companion disc to Joyce Maynard’s novel Where Love Goes. “This was around 1995 or ’96,” Earle says. “He’d suffered enough nerve


Much of what Townes Van Zandt played to accompany his songs can be boiled down to two primary techniques: Travis-style fingerpicking and a flatpicking approach that comingled low-register melodic lines with feathery high-register strumming. Illustrating Van Zandt’s fingerpicking style, Example 1 is based on his recording of “Cocaine Blues” from Live at the Old Quarter, Houston,

Texas. Example 2 shows his flatpicking style and is based on his song “Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold.”

Capo IV Ex. 1 C

j œ œ œ. 4 œ Œ & 4 œ œ œ œ 3

B

3 3

1

0

C j jœ j F j . j j j j j œ j j j œ œj œ œ œ œ œ . œ œ œ j œ œ œ . œ #œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ E7

0

0

3

0 1

3

2 0

Œ Œ

1

3

0

3

0

3

0 1 0

0 1 0

B 44 AcousticGuitar.com

2

0

Ó Ó

œ

2

Dm

œ 0

1 3 2

œ

1 3 2

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0

0 0 0

3

0 1 2

0 1 2

2

1

3

3

1

2

3 1

0

0

2

3

1

2

2

0

2

0

0

3

C

0 1 2

0 1 2

0 1 2

2

0

2

3

0

3

Am

œ œ œ œ œ

0

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0

2

1

0

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2

1

œœœ œœ œ œ œ œœ œœœ 0 1 2

3

4

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1

0

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Capo II Ex. 2

3

œ œ & œ œœ œœ œ œ œ

3 1

3

6

B

1 0

0

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3

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0 1 2

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0 1 0

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ETHAN A. RUSSELL

“I thought his songs and the way he played guitar were perfectly matched. It seemed that each served the other in a really seamless way.” —Rosanne Cash

damage by that time that he couldn’t really play the way he used to. He sang, and I played for him—played just like him. I got to be half of Townes. It was kind of weird.” Earle emphasizes that Van Zandt was masterful at two distinct guitar styles. One was kind of country-blues fingerpicking, with simple melodies atop steady alternating-bass patterns. “If you hear the more melodic fingerpicking stuff I play,” he says, “songs like ‘Ft. Worth Blues,’ ‘Halo ’Round the Moon,’ or ‘God Is God’—that’s just me being Townes Van Zandt. But the way Townes arrived at it is different from the way I arrive at it. He used


metal fingerpicks and a thumbpick. He used three fingers, I use one. I just started using a thumbpick recently. Before that, I’d always just used my bare fingers. Somehow, he got a really warm sound out of the fingerpicks. I could never do that.” The other key Van Zandt style was a flatpicking approach that often included a phantom clicking sound. You can hear prime examples of this on “Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold” from Live at the Old Quarter and “Snake Song” from Flyin’ Shoes. Earle picked up this style too, learning the quirky technique from Guy Clark. “I couldn’t figure out what Townes was

doing,” Earle says, “and then Guy showed me. Townes used a medium pick—a pick with some give to it. He didn’t choke way down on it to make it stiffer. He held back on the pick so it was flexible. That click is actually the pick releasing to the next string. To make it work correctly—to make it be rhythmically in time—you have to follow through all the way to the next string. It kills the string behind it, and it changes the nature of the overtones. It’s a strange technique. A really good example for listening to it in the clear is his version of ‘FFV’—an old public-domain song, which is on Delta Momma Blues. It’s like all that flatpicking


TOWNES VAN ZANDT

STEVE SALMIERI

that Dylan did on the first couple of records that’s, you know, some version of the melody.” Earle appropriated this melody-plus-strumming approach for some of his own songs, such as “Tom Ames’ Prayer” and “Ben McCulloch.” “That’s what I’m doing on all that stuff— imitating Townes,” Earle says. Earle’s adulation of Van Zandt goes back a long way. He first began hearing the singer-

songwriter’s name in 1969, when Earle was just 14 years old. He lived in San Antonio, Texas, at the time. “I used to hang out at a coffeehouse called the Gate House,” he says. “Townes already had two records out by then—or actually three, by the end of ’69. Older folkies that came through there were always talking, ‘Townes Van Zandt, Townes Van Zandt.’ There were guys that had gone to Houston and Austin to see him play, because Townes never came to San Antonio.” Earle himself went to Houston around that time, running away from home and spending a month in the town. “I tried to see Townes,” he says, “but he didn’t really live anywhere and he wasn’t around that month that I was there. I went back when I was 17 and it took me months to actually run him aground. He was banned from several places in town already and pretty much just played the Old Quarter. This was not long before that Live at the Old Quarter record was made. I was impressed with him as a solo performer. That’s what I was aspiring to. When I first saw him, in 1972, he was really good.” When Earle finally saw Van Zandt play live in Houston, it was at the Sand Mountain Coffeehouse. “He was pretty sober,” Earle says, “and in pretty good shape. I knew what to listen for on the records after that—if that

makes any sense. He had a way of commanding an audience without doing very much. He’d tell really bad jokes. And, the rest of the time, he’d close his eyes and just play. It was a pretty mesmerizing show.” Asked whether there is one Van Zandt song that influenced or inspired him more than any other as a songwriter, Earle says “Pancho and Lefty” was the one that first grabbed him. “That’s when I realized how special he was as a writer. Probably my second favorite Townes song is ‘Two Girls’—which is a song a lot fewer people have heard. Sometimes I’m more impressed with ‘If I Needed You’ in some ways. As a writer, the super simple stuff—once you’ve been doing it for awhile—starts to impress you more.” Here’s the first verse to “If I Needed You”: If I needed you Would you come to me Would you come to me For to ease my pain If you needed me I would come to you I would swim the seas For to ease your pain

Understanding Townes In 2009, Earle released a tribute to Van Zandt,

THE SIGNAL OF A NEW ERA

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JAYME THORNTON

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“He had a way of commanding an audience without doing very much. He’d tell really bad jokes. And, the rest of the time, he would close his eyes and just play.” —Steve Earle simply called Townes. The album features Earle’s rendition of his mentor’s best-known songs, and some lesser-known gems as well. For anyone unacquainted with Van Zandt’s canon, this recording would make a solid introduction to Van Zandt’s music—sung and played by a man who knew the man and his music better than most. (If you’re already familiar with the original recordings, Earle’s renditions of these songs may shed some fresh light.) If you’re curious to learn more about Van Zandt’s influence on Earle and other fellow songwriters, you may want to pick up I’ll Be Here in the Morning, by Brian T. Atkinson. This 2011 book features Atkinson’s interviews with dozens of songwriters—including Van Zandt contemporaries such as Clark and Billy Joe Shaver, as well as modern-day balladeers Scott Avett and Jim James (of the Avett Brothers and My Morning Jacket, respectively). For another perspective on Van Zandt’s legacy, check out the 2004 documentary Be Here to Love Me. The film is chock full of poignant anecdotes and remembrances from Van Zandt’s friends and fellow writers and features several clips of Van Zandt performing live. Seeing and hearing Van Zandt in action June 2013 ACOUSTIC GUITAR

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may make his mythic status a little easier for neophytes to appreciate. As Earle told us, “The first time I heard Townes was on record—which is maybe not the best place to hear him for the first time.” (However, the Sunshine Boy double album released in early 2013 may help redress the bad reputation of Van Zandt’s catalog. It comprises a dozen previously unreleased demos and 16 alternate studio takes, including a stripped-down mix of “Pancho and Lefty.”) If you do read up on Van Zandt or watch the documentary Be Here to Love Me, you’ll not only appreciate his rare gifts but you’ll also get a glimpse of how troubled he was— struggling with drug addiction, alcoholism, and depression throughout his life. Says Cash, “It felt to me like all of this information and art came through Townes, and that it was so huge that he didn’t have clear boundaries where he stopped and it began. You can’t really live in the world like that—and he couldn’t.” ag ADAM LEVY is an itinerant guitarist and performing songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Read more of his writings and hear his music at adamlevy.com. AcousticGuitar.com 47

TOWNES VAN ZANDT

If I Needed You

match up with how he played the song in the many live performances found in online videos and recordings. Van Zandt played this version of “If I Needed You” in G position with a capo on the fourth fret, though he was as likely to move the capo down or up a fret for other performances. He uses an alternating-bass fingerpicking pattern throughout the song, picking out a melody with his fingers that mirrors the vocal line in the verses. That gives the intro (and later breaks) a strong melody while also supporting the vocal line during the verses. Play through the intro and first two verses, then follow the D.S. sign back to the intro for another instrumental. Play the third verse, the reprise of the first verse, and follow the D.S. sign back to the intro again for a final instrumental, which is repeated and faded out on the recording. —ANDREW DuBROCK

Words and music by Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt wrote “If I Needed You” in his sleep, while dreaming that he was singing the song. “I happened to wake up, wrote it down, and went right back to sleep,” he told a Holiday Inn audience at a private concert in 1988. “In the morning, I picked up a guitar and played it straight through and it never has changed,” said Van Zandt, conceding that one line did change after the record company didn’t “get it.” Over the years, Van Zandt recorded and released a few different versions of the song. His initial version on The Late Great Townes Van Zandt nestled his double-tracked acoustic fingerpicking between electric and steel guitars, drums, and bass for a full country sound. Later versions of the song featured sparser arrangements, including several solo acoustic renditions, as he would play the song live. But whatever the setting, Van Zandt picked virtually the same pattern on guitar. Although this transcription was taken from The Late Great Townes Van Zandt, the parts

* Intro

Capo IV

G

0

0

B

0 1

0 0

3

0

3

0

0

0

3

0

3

0 1

3 0

0

3

1

0

3

0 0

0

3

0

3

0 1

3 0

3

0

0

3

3

0 0

1

3

* Repeat and fade intro after final verse.

C

D7

G

6

0 0

B

1

0 0 2

3

0

0

0 1 0

2

0

3

0

0 0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

3

0

3

0 1 0 3

Fine (fade out at end)

C

0 0

0

0

3

0 3

D7

0

0 1 3 0 3

G

12

B

0 3

1

0

0 0

3


0 3

1

0

3 0

3

0 3

0

3 3

0 0

0

1

0 3

1

0 0 2

0

0

0 1 0

2

0

3

0 0

0 0 3

0

0

0

0

3


© 1972 (RENEWED 2000) JTVZ MUSIC (ASCAP), KATIE BELL MUSIC (ASCAP)/ADMINISTERED BY BUG MUSIC AND WILL VAN ZANDT PUBLISHING (ASCAP)/ADMINISTERED BY BUG MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD CORP.



Verse





18

1. Well if

0 0

B

0

I need

ed you 2–3. See additional lyrics.

0

0 1 0

3

0 0

3

3

3

0 3

0

0

3

0

0

1

0

1

0 2

3

3

0

0

0

to me

3 0

0

3

1

0

Would you come

0 0

3

0

3

ed

me

0

3

3



my pain

0 1 0

3

2

If you

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

3

need -

0

0

3



-

0 1

0

G

and ease

 28

1



to me

3

0

D7



23

0

0

C



B

0

0

0

3

would you come

0 3



I would come

to you

I would swim

the seas

 1

B

0 0

3

0

0

0

3

0 3

C

0

1

3 0

3

0

1

0

33

for

to

ease

3

3

0

1

0

3

G

0

3 0

0

3

0

3

0

1

3

D.S. (after third verse, with repeat) D.S. al Fine (after reprise of first verse, repeat intro and fade)

your pain

G

D7

0

G

Well, if I needed you, would you come to me? C

0 0

D7



1.

0

2. Well in

G

2. Well, in the night forlorn, all the morning’s born C

D7

G

3.

the night

G

The lady’s with me now, since I showed her how C D7

G

Would you come to me and ease my pain

And the morning shines with the lights of love

To lay her lily hand in mine

If you needed me, I would come to you

And you will miss sunrise if you close your eyes

Loop and Lill agree she’s a sight to see

C

D7

G

I would swim the seas for to ease your pain

C

Instrumental June 2013 ACOUSTIC GUITAR

D7

G

And that would break my heart in two

C

D7

G

A treasure for the poor to find Repeat first verse AcousticGuitar.com 49

AR GE N E W

THE LATEST GUITARS, AMPLIFICATION, AND BY TEJA GERKEN

2013

The best place to get an idea of what new

guitars, accessories, and amplification gear will be in the stores in the coming year is the Winter NAMM show, which is held every January in Anaheim, California. As we do every year, Acoustic Guitar editors roamed the exhibit halls to see all the new products and hear directly from manufacturer representatives about new additions to their lines. For video demos of many of these products, check out the Acoustic Guitar magazine YouTube channel.

See video of select products at YouTube.com/ AcousticGuitarMag

Graph Tech Ratio Tuning Machines


Guild Orpheum Jumbo


ELECTRONICS. GUITARS ALVAREZ-YAIRI DYMR70

Andrew White Freja 112

$3,699, alvarezguitars.com THE SPECS: 12-fret slope-shoulder dreadnought. Solid Sitka spruce top. Solid rosewood back and sides. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. 25.5-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. Gotoh 510 tuning machines. THE STORY: Handmade in Japan, Alvarez-Yairi has long been known for its fusion of value and quality. The DYMR70 combines a vintagestyle slot-head 12-fret slope-shoulder design with unique Alvarez-Yairi touches, such as the direct-coupled bridge, a two-piece design in which the bridge pins are seated directly into the top.

ANDREW WHITE FREJA 112 $1,099 (street), andrewwhiteguitars.com THE SPECS: Grand auditorium body. Solid Sitka spruce top. Solid rosewood back and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 25.5-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. Artec electronics. THE STORY: After establishing himself as a custom luthier, Andrew White is now working with a South Korean company to offer affordable versions of his designs.

BOULDER CREEK ECGC-2N $499 (street), bouldercreekguitars.com THE SPECS: Cutaway grand concert body. Solid spruce top. Laminated rosewood back and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 25.625-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. Boulder Creek electronics. Suspended bracing system. THE STORY: Part of Boulder Creek’s new Gold Series, the ECGC-2N includes the company’s innovative suspended bracing system in the top, an offset soundhole, and an additional soundport in the side.

BOURGEOIS AGED TONE MAHOGANY D

Bourgeois Aged Tone Mahogany D

$5,995, pantheonguitars.com THE SPECS: Dreadnought body. Solid “Aged Tone” Adirondack spruce top. Solid mahogany back and sides. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. Ziricote binding. 25.5-inch scale. 123⁄32-inch nut width. THE STORY: Using Adirondack spruce tops that have undergone a special “thermo-curing” process, Bourgeois’s Aged Tone series (which consists of six models) seeks to create tone reminiscent of vintage guitars.

BREEDLOVE C20/SMYE $1,499 (street), breedloveguitars.com THE SPECS: Concert body. Solid Sitka spruce top. Solid myrtle back and sides. Maple neck. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. 25.5-inch scale. 13⁄4-inch neck width. Fishman Ultra Tone pickup. THE STORY: Breedlove’s new Oregon series is the entry point of the company’s US-made instruments. The C20/SMYe is built with several woods native to the Pacific Northwest. June 2013 ACOUSTIC GUITAR


AR GE N E W

2013

COLLINGS CJ35

$4,550, collingsguitars.com THE SPECS: Slope-shoulder dreadnought body. Solid Sitka spruce top. Solid mahogany back and sides. Prewar-style straight X-bracing. 24.875inch scale. 13⁄4-inch nut width. High-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish. THE STORY: Using a prewar Gibson J-35 as inspiration, Collings has created a new variation on its slope-shoulder dreadnought design. See review on page 18.

CÓRDOBA C12 $2,025, cordobaguitars.com THE SPECS: Classical guitar. Solid cedar or spruce top. Solid Indian rosewood back and sides with flamed maple center wedge. Ebony fingerboard. Rosewood bridge. 650-mm scale. 2-inch nut width. 1920s Esteso-style rosette. THE STORY: Córdoba’s new Luthier series includes this thoroughly modern classical with lattice bracing and an elevated fingerboard.

D’ANGELICO 1943 EXCEL USA MASTERBUILT REISSUE $9,999, dangelicoguitars.com THE SPECS: Archtop guitar. Solid carved spruce top. Flamed maple back and sides. Ebony fingerboard. Trapeze tailpiece. 24.75-inch scale. 123⁄32-inch nut width. Varnish finish. Lollar Johnny Smith pickup. Grover imperial tuning machines. THE STORY: Built by a team led by luthier Gene Baker at the Premier Builder’s Guild in California, this guitar is an accurate re-creation of the iconic 1943 D’Angelico Excel archtop.

EASTMAN E6D-12 $1,200, eastmanguitars.com THE SPECS: 12-string dreadnought. Solid Sitka spruce top. Solid mahogany back and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 25.5-inch scale. 115⁄16-inch nut width. THE STORY: A 12-string version of Eastman’s popular value-priced dreadnought. 52 AcousticGuitar.com

GIBSON J-35 $2,190, gibson.com THE SPECS: Slope-shoulder dreadnought. Solid spruce top. Solid mahogany back and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 24.75-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. L.R. Baggs Element pickup. THE STORY: A new slope-shoulder guitar based on the classic natural-finish J-35. A “firestripe” pickguard and “banner” Gibson logo contribute to the vintage vibe.


Huss and Dalton 0-SP

GRETSCH G9500 JIM DANDY $239, gretschguitars.com THE SPECS: Parlor-size body. Laminated agathis top, back, and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 24-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. THE STORY: A re-creation of Gretsch’s “Rex” guitars from the 1930 and ’40s, the Jim Dandy will be familiar to many guitarists. Updated with X-bracing, quality tuning machines, and easier playability than the originals, the instrument is a fun and functional reminder of a classic entrylevel guitar.

GUILD ORPHEUM JUMBO $4,799, guildguitars.com THE SPECS: Jumbo body. Solid Adirondack spruce top. Solid mahogany back and sides. Ebony fingerboard and bridge (pyramid style). 24.75-inch scale. 14⁄ 5-inch nut width. THE STORY: In celebration of Guild’s 60th anniversary, the Ren Ferguson–designed Orpheum line (which includes orchestra and slope-shoulder models) imagines what Guild guitars might have looked like if the company had been around during the Golden Age of acoustic guitar design in the 1930s.

HUSS AND DALTON 0-SP $4,025, hussanddalton.com THE SPECS: 12-fret 0-size body. Solid spruce top. Solid mahogany back and sides. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. 24.9inch scale. 13⁄4-inch nut width. THE STORY: The 12-fret 0-size 0-SP is a new addition to Huss and Dalton’s catalog of vintage-inspired instruments. With a matte-finish neck, solid headstock, and Huss and Dalton’s typical bolt-on neck design, the 0-SP combines a classic design with modern features.

IBANEZ GA35TCE $449, ibanez.com THE SPECS: Cutaway acoustic-electric classical. Spruce top. Mahogany back and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 650-mm scale. 113⁄16-inch nut width. Ibanez pickup and AEQ210T preamp. THE STORY: Known for its easy-playing electrics, Ibanez is applying a narrower-than-classical neck with a 14-fret joint to a stage-ready nylon-string with a shallow body. ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013

Córdoba C12

Ibanez GA35TCE

Eastman E6D-12

D’Angelico 1943 Excel USA Masterbuilt Reissue



AR GE N E W

2013

Martin OM Authentic 1933



Lakewood Sungha Jung Signature

Simon and Patrick Pro Folk Mahogany HG


LAKEWOOD SUNGHA JUNG SIGNATURE

OVATION FIGURED KOA ELITE 1798

$3,487, lakewoodguitars.com

$5,199, ovationguitars.com

THE SPECS: Cutaway grand concert body. Solid European spruce top. Solid Indian rosewood back and sides. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. 25.6inch scale. 1.73-inch neck width. Schaller M6 tuning machines. L.R. Baggs Anthem electronics.

THE SPECS: Cutaway roundback deep bowl body. Solid flamed koa top. Quantad T-shape spruce bracing. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. Offset bass-side soundhole. 25.25-inch scale. 111⁄16inch nut width. Ovation OCP-1K pickup and OP-PRO preamp with 1⁄4-inch and XLR outputs.

THE STORY: After several years away from the North American market, Germany’s Lakewood Guitars are once again available through California-based distributor Dana B. Goods. Built for South Korea’s fingerstyle phenomenon Sungha Jung, this signature model is one of many instruments in Lakewood’s catalog.

RainSong Parlor

MARTIN D-17M $1,999, martinguitar.com THE SPECS: Dreadnought body. Solid Sitka spruce top. Solid mahogany back and sides. Morado fingerboard and bridge. 25.4-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. THE STORY: Combining the plain appearance of the classic style-17 with a spruce top (17s traditionally had mahogany tops), the D-17M represents a great value for Martin fans who are looking for a guitar that puts functionality and tone over elaborate appointments. Also available in a 12-fret 000 body (000-17M).

MARTIN OM AUTHENTIC 1933 $6,499, martinguitar.com THE SPECS: 000-size body. Solid Adirondack spruce top and braces. Solid mahogany back and sides. 25.4-inch scale. 13⁄4-inch nut width. Waverly tuners. THE STORY: The first OM in Martin’s acclaimed Authentic line. Based on a 1933 OM-18 owned by vintage guitar expert Fred Oster, the guitar includes hide glue construction, accurate bracing patterns, neck shape, etc.

MORRIS S-AHUM $6,087, morris-guitars.com Ovation Figured Koa Elite 1798

THE SPECS: Cutaway grand auditorium body. Solid quilted maple and Madagascar rosewood top, back, and sides. Maple neck. Jacaranda and maple fingerboard. Jacaranda bridge. 25.67-inch scale. 125⁄32-inch nut width. THE STORY: The Morris S-AHUM is an experiment in combining woods in unusual ways. Quilted maple is used for one half of the top and back, as well as the treble side. Madagascar rosewood is used for the other top and back halves and the bass side. Even the fingerboard is made of two different woods. Lattice top bracing and scalloped-X back bracing complete the instrument’s unique construction.


THE STORY: Limited to 30 guitars, the 1798 is built in Ovation’s original Connecticut facility and has a premium-grade koa top. A shallow-body version (the 2098) is also available.

RAINSONG PARLOR $2,666, rainsongguitars.com THE SPECS: Cutaway parlor body. Hybrid carbonand-glass-fiber body construction with unidirectional soundboard. Available with a shortscale (24.875 inches) 12-fret neck or long-scale (25.4 inches) 14-fret neck. 13⁄4-inch nut width. Fishman Prefix Plus-T electronics. THE STORY: The latest in RainSong’s growing number of body styles is a parlor model that measures 131⁄3 inches at the lower bout. Designed as a full-sounding instrument, the Parlor is a standard-size guitar that would also make a good travel instrument.

RECORDING KING RJ-06 $299.99 (street), recordingking.com THE SPECS: Jumbo body. Solid Sitka spruce top. Mahogany back and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 24.75-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. THE STORY: Recording King’s first jumbo-size guitar features an original design with a distinct vintage character.

SIMON AND PATRICK PRO FOLK MAHOGANY HG $899, simonandpatrick.com THE SPECS: Folk-size body. Solid mahogany top, back, and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 24.84-inch scale. 118⁄25-inch nut width. Optional B-Band electronics. THE STORY: The latest in Simon and Patrick’s recently updated Pro Folk series, the Mahogany HG features an all-mahogany body and slotted headstock.


AR GE N E W

2013

TAKAMINE LTD2013 SE $5,099, takamine.com

Taylor 210ce-K

THE SPECS: 12-fret parlor body. Solid bearclaw spruce top. Solid koa back and sides. Maple binding. Ebony fingerboard. Rosewood bridge. 24.75-inch scale. 13⁄4-inch nut width. Takamine TLD line-driver pickup. THE STORY: The current edition of Takamine’s annual limited edition guitar, the LTD2013 SE has a parlor-size body and mountain climbing– theme inlay.


TANGLEWOOD TW130 $449, tanglewoodguitars.com THE SPECS: Orchestra body. Solid mahogany top, back, and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 25.5-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. THE STORY: One of Tanglewood’s new Premier Historic collection (which also includes a parlor and slope-shoulder dreadnought), the TW130 seeks to deliver vintage all-mahogany-body tone at an affordable price.

Takamine LTD2013 SE

Washburn Lakeside Jumbo

TAYLOR 210CE-K $1,858, taylorguitars.com THE SPECS: Cutaway dreadnought body. Solid Sitka spruce top. Laminated koa back and sides. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. 25.5-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. Taylor ES-T electronics. THE STORY: Taylor has championed Hawaiian koa for nearly its entire history, but until now, the wood hasn’t been available on its standard entrylevel instruments. Now Taylor is offering a koa option on two of its 200-series guitars: this dreadnought and the 214ce-K grand auditorium.

WASHBURN LAKESIDE JUMBO $5,332, washburn.com THE SPECS: Jumbo body. Solid Adirondack spruce top. Solid rosewood back and sides. Handscalloped Adirondack X-bracing. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 25.5-inch scale. 111⁄16-inch nut width. Wilkinson tuning machines. THE STORY: Based on a 1912 Washburn, the Lakeside Jumbo is built in the USA under the direct supervision of luthier Terry Atkins. A lowercost imported model with a similar body style is also available, as is a baritone. 56 AcousticGuitar.com


AR GE N E W

2013

AER Compact 60/3

Radial StageBug SB-1

Caption

AMPS & ELECTRONICS AER COMPACT 60/3 AMP

INTELLITOUCH FREEDOM ONE

$1,299, aer-amps.com

$149.95, intellitouch-usa.com

THE SPECS: 60-watt amp. Two channels with 1⁄4-inch and XLR inputs. Eight-inch twin-cone fullrange speaker. Digital reverb, chorus, and delay. XLR and 1⁄4-inch outputs. 14.3 lb.

THE SPECS: Wireless guitar system. 24-bit digital audio. Operates at 2.4 GHz. 30-foot range. Battery operation for both transmitter and receiver.

THE STORY: The latest version of AER’s workhorse Compact 60 amp is lighter than its predecessors and voiced for a more contemporary sound.

THE STORY: Clip-on tuner pioneer Intellitouch is introducing a compact wireless system that includes a large-display chromatic tuner on the pedal-style receiver.

L.R. BAGGS LYRIC INTERNAL MIC

MI-SI MAGPIE PICKUP

$289, lrbaggs.com

$239.95, mi-si.com

THE SPECS: Bridge plate–mounted Tru-Mic internal microphone. Preamp with 1⁄4-inch endpin jack. Volume control mounted inside the guitar’s soundhole. THE STORY: L.R. Baggs has fine-tuned its acclaimed internal Tru-Mic microphone (part of the company’s Anthem system) for stand-alone use. See review on page 26.

Levy’s Leather Distressed Strap

THE STORY: Mi-Si’s latest soundhole pickup has a smaller and lighter enclosure than previous designs. Like all Mi-Si pickups, the Magpie uses a rechargeable design rather than onboard batteries.

RADIAL STAGEBUG SB-1 ACOUSTIC DI

$349.95, digitech.com

THE SPECS: Miniature active DI box. 1⁄4-inch input with –15 dB pad switch. XLR output. Phasereversal switch.

THE SPECS: Vocal processor. Sixty-five digital vocal effects, including reverb, harmony, pitch, and more. Sixty-second looper. Anti-feedback functions. Phantom power. Three foot switches.

FENDER ACOUSTASONIC 15 AMP $139, fender.com THE SPECS: 15-watt amp. Two channels with 1⁄4-inch and XLR inputs. Three-band EQ (shared by both channels). Chorus effect. Headphone output.


THE SPECS: Magnetic soundhole pickup. Active electronics. Volume and tone controls. Removable jack.

DIGITECH VOCALIST LIVEFX VOCAL PROCESSOR

THE STORY: The latest in DigiTech’s line of Vocalist processors is designed to bring studioquality sound to the stage.

DigiTech Vocalist LiveFX

Mi-Si Magpie

THE STORY: The smallest and least expensive of the Acoustasonic line features classic Fender looks and clear sound for modest volume needs.

$80, radialeng.com

THE STORY: Designed to fit into the accessory compartment of most guitar cases, the SB-1 is voiced specifically for acoustic instruments and features 220-kohm input impedance. Phantom power operation eliminates the need for a battery or AC adapter.

TC ELECTRONIC DITTO LOOPER $129 (street), tcelectronic.com THE SPECS: One-button looper pedal. Five minutes of recording time. Unlimited layering. Multiple undos. True-bypass wiring. THE STORY: An ultra-simple looper pedal, the Ditto has a tiny footprint and intuitive basic functionality.


ACCESSORIES BAM L’ETOILE CASE Zoom A3

$1,200, bamcases.com BAM’s latest line of cases combines the company’s trusted lightweight ABS-shell Hightech model cases with a fashionable leather exterior. Available in classical and dreadnought sizes, with suspension foam blocks for fitting to individual instruments.

TASCAM DP-006 MULTITRACK RECORDER $199, tascam.com THE SPECS: Digital six-track recorder. 44.1 kHz 16-bit audio. 1⁄4-inch inputs. Built-in stereo condenser microphones. THE STORY: Tascam’s newest musical sketchpad, the DP-006 runs on batteries, is easy to use, and includes a 2 GB SD/SDHC memory card.

YAMAHA THR5A AMP $199, usa.yamaha.com THE SPECS: Ten-watt amp. Two full-range stereo speakers. 1⁄4-inch input. Digital microphone modeling. Multiple digital effects. USB connection. THE STORY: A new version of Yamaha’s innovative THR amp optimized for acoustic guitars. Mic modeling and effects can be edited via the unit’s USB connection, which can also be used to record to a computer.

G7TH NEWPORT PARTIAL CAPOS

G7th Newport Partial

LEVY’S LEATHER DISTRESSED STRAP $81.05, levysleathers.com

$39.95, g7th.com G7th has expanded its Newport line with two models made for partial capoing. The Partial 5-String is designed to clamp strings one through five, leaving the sixth string open. And the Partial 3-String is made to clamp strings three through five or two through four for a simulated D A D G A D or A-major arrangement.

GRAPH TECH RATIO TUNING MACHINES Starting at $99, graphtech.com Featuring a different gear ratio for each tuner, the Ratio machine heads allow each string to be tuned with the same amount of turns for equal changes in pitch. Using an enclosed hardenedsteel design, the Ratio tuners are available with chrome, gold, black, or nickel finishes and with a variety of button designs.

Made from distressed carving leather, these new straps are extrasoft and comfortable. The 21⁄2-inch-wide straps have a burnished edge and are embossed with a tribal design.

MONO M80 ACOUSTIC CASE $215, monocreators.com Highly rigid gig bag. Features include an internal neck-fastening mechanism and special shockabsorbing padding. Multiple pockets allow carrying of music binders, cables, pedals, etc. Adjustable backpack straps. Available in dreadnought, classical, and electric guitar sizes.

SHUBB C1N CAPO $26.95, shubb.com The latest in Shubb’s ongoing development of its clamp-based nickel-plated brass capo, the C1n features a roller mechanism and rounded corners.

ZOOM A3 PROCESSOR/DI $199.99, samsontech.com THE SPECS: Multifunction DI box and acoustic processor. Two channels with 1⁄4-inch and XLR inputs. Three-band EQ. Digital modeling of 16 guitar body styles. Forty digital effects. XLR, 1⁄4inch, and headphone outputs. Footswitches for effects, anti-feedback, and volume boost. Chromatic tuner. THE STORY: Combining the functions of a preamp, DI box, mixer, tuner, and effects processor in one compact box, Zoom has created a unit that’s equally at home onstage or in the studio.

Shubb C1n Capo



BAM l’Etoile (left), MONO M80 Acoustic (right)


Summer Gear Guide!

Catch this summer’s wave of ingenious accessories, amazing instruments, and excellent music from advertisers in Acoustic Guitar magazine.

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45th Anniversary!

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(651) 341-9955 www.acousticremedycases.com

Acoustic Quick Release System The patented Planet Waves QuickRelease System converts your favorite straps into quick releases and is one of the most popular acoustic guitar accessories available. With easy setup/removal, there are no knots or need for second strap buttons. And with an extra-long cord to prevent hand interference near headstocks, it’s your acoustic “must-have.”

…..The Hands Are to a Musician ……What the Legs Are to an Athlete

Yesterday’s hand exercisers strengthen the wrong part of a musicians hands. The last thing musicians need are stronger, tighter gripping muscles.

Fits both hands

Adjustable tension

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D’Addario, along with legendary designer Ned Steinberger, offers the NS Mini Headstock Tuner—the world’s smallest and most visually appealing headstock tuner ever. It’s accurate, quick, rotational, invisible to audiences, and can stay on your instrument as long as desired. NS Mini tunes guitars, basses, mandolins, banjos, and other stringed instruments.

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Fishman SA220 Portable, powerful performance in a lightweight, easy-to-use system! 220W line-array system equipped with two mic/instrument channels, each with three-band EQ, phantom power, reverb, and feedback-fighting notch filter and phase controls. List price: $1,539.95 Street price: $999.95

Fishman Acoustic Amplification (978) 988-9199 www.fishman.com


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+ Full Capo + “Flip-Fingers”

•

Soft leather protects the neck

•

Weighs an ounce!

(845) 679-3391 www.spidercapo.com

NS Mini Headstock Tuner

D’Addario/Planet Waves

Without De-Tuning Your Guitar

“. . . the fun doesn’t stop . . !” —Acoustic Guitar Magazine

CMT, Inc. (978) 768-2555 www.habitatmonitor.com

MSRP: $29.99

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Deering Releases the Goodtime Zombie Killer Banjo Did You Know Banjos Kill Zombies? Inspired by the movie “Zombieland” featuring Woody Harrelson whose character uses a banjo to fight off Zombies, Greg Deering created the Zombie Killer Goodtime banjo. With a “blood splatter” resonator finish and a “saw blade-edged” brilliant red flange made with a cut-out zombie themed pattern to match the fingerboard inlays, the Zombie Killer will kill it with audiences!

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SHOPTALK

Gerald Sheppard Guitars Tennessee luthier draws on his own playing experience to create individualized custom instruments. By Teja Gerken LIKE MOST LUTHIERS, Tennessee-based Gerald Sheppard began building guitars because of his passion for playing the instrument. An accomplished fingerstyle player who has released an album of instrumental solo guitar music (In the Morning, available at sheppardguitars .com), Sheppard had an industrial technology background when he started to teach himself about guitar building by reading every book he could find on the topic more than two decades ago. Now in his 20th year of building guitars, Sheppard offers a full line of body styles and options, but he considers himself to be a custom maker, rather than someone who re-creates standard models. As a regular at North Carolina’s Swannanoa Gathering (he’s been the Guitar Week’s staff luthier since 2003), Sheppard built an instrument commemorating the camp’s 20th anniversary in 2012, and the guitar was raffled to benefit the Swannanoa scholarship fund. Sheppard currently builds 14–18 guitars a year, and his prices start at $8,190. Can you describe the sound you are aiming for in your instruments? SHEPPARD While I want to build an instrument that is true to the music all across the tonal spectrum, how my client uses an instrument and the type of music he or she primarily plays is key to the sound I aim for. I build several styles of guitars and see them as tools of the trade. Like a toolbox with several types of wrenches, each type having been designed for a particular job, guitars should be designed to fulfill a particular need for the job at hand. For example, my dreadnought design has a big, bold tonal signature with overtones working to increase the presence of the guitar when played flat-out in competition with other instruments. Conversely, my grand concert and grand auditorium designs have more defined fundamentals for rich melody lines and non-complex overtones that support harmony lines without covering the clarity and separation of melody notes.

Is there any particular instrument (vintage or contemporary) you’ve modeled your sound on? SHEPPARD Not particularly. It’s fair to say that the historic innovations of guitar makers have set the bar for contemporary designers. My designs have benefited greatly from these innovations. The Martin OM is a wonderful example—credit where credit is due.



SHOP PHOTO COURTESY GERALD SHEPPARD

Luthier Gerald Sheppard holds a Madagascar rosewood back in his shop.

Sheppard’s “Mad Rose” guitar, with a Madrigal model body, multiscale fingerboard, soundport, German spruce top, and Madagascar rosewood back and sides.

How much does your tonal goal change according to what your customer is looking for? SHEPPARD My tonal goal is defined by the customer, so it’s my job to discern what my client needs and find a solution for the need. That said, sometimes customers will ask for a combination of things that inherently conflict with the tone or the response they want. When that happens, I usually remove my “guitar maker” hat, and replace it with my “consultant” hat and work to help the client become more knowledgeable about the building blocks required to achieve a particular sound and feel. For example, a client will sometimes request a wood based upon visually aesthetic attributes, but then also express interest in a tonal quality that the requested wood is clearly not best suited to. At that point we discuss the tradeoffs and re-establish what can be expected from the different choices available.

The headstock of a guitar Sheppard built for the 20th anniversary of North Carolina’s Swannanoa Gathering.

allows me to meet the needs and wants of any client. Is there a particular instrument style that you consider to be your specialty? SHEPPARD The design, or style, of an instrument always evolves as a result of a combination of factors as defined by my client. It is important to understand what it takes to meet the various needs, whether they be tonal, playability for a particular style, ergonomic factors, etc. My specialty is not a particular instrument style, but rather the ability to provide the best design for a particular player.

What part of your design contributes most to your tonal ideal? SHEPPARD In my view, tonal ideal is subjective. As a lifetime player who has spent many hours onstage, I found that “good” or “appropriate” tone is often based on the instruments the guitar is being played against or the style of music being played. And it’s not one particular part of a design that most contributes to a tonal ideal, but rather a holistic approach to achieving the desired tone. For example, for a fingerstyle player who wants clarity, separation, and balance, a combination of factors will achieve the desired tone, including wood choices, chamber size and shape, bracing design and tuning, body depth, and even relatively new concepts such as sound ports.

What do you look for in an instrument yourself? SHEPPARD There are a couple of very important attributes I would want in a guitar designed for my playing style, which is fingerstyle. First is playability as it pertains to the fingerboard design and scale length. I like a design that allows me to move about the fingerboard playing open chords and notes against fretted ones without unintentionally muting strings. A second important attribute of a fine fingerstyle guitar is the ability to control the instrument’s dynamics. A great fingerstyle guitar will be responsive to a light touch for soft passages but will also have the headroom for clarity during loud passages. I enjoy an instrument that allows me to build or retard dynamics effortlessly, one that gives me the ability to change and control those dynamics without constantly having to damp the strings because of unwanted sympathetic overtones.

Do you think your instruments are best suited for a particular kind of player or style? SHEPPARD For the most part, I design instruments for fingerstyle players, merely because that seems to be my primary market. But I build five different body styles, each of which have different attributes. This

What is your favorite combination of tonewoods? SHEPPARD I love the combination of rosewood back and sides with German spruce. Most rosewoods impart a rich low end; but I am partial to Brazilian rosewood, Madagascar rosewood, Amazon rosewood, and cocobolo. But wood choices are best

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SHOPTALK

determined by the client’s style of play and tone preferences.

articulate

Are there any unique design or structural elements you’ve developed? SHEPPARD Nothing completely unique, structurally. Just about everything imaginable has been tried before. Some elements that I think are important are concentricity of the lower bout, depth of the chamber, and top tuning. All of these impact the player’s ability to control clarity and dynamics of a piece of music. In the past few years I have been trying carbonfiber elements with some happy results. Describe the guitar you have provided for our video and pictured here. SHEPPARD This is my personal guitar, built with a German spruce top and Madagascar rosewood back and sides. It is a multiscale guitar (24.9 inches at the treble side, 25.56 at the bass side) with several cool options. While it is basically my grand concert design, it also has a beveled Venetian cutaway to facilitate access to the higher frets and two lower-bout comfort bevels. It has a lower-bout side port to open up the chamber and allow the top to move more freely. The multiscale design is particularly favorable for the player who enjoys alternate tunings or low tunings similar to that of a baritone guitar. ag

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WEEKLY WORKOUT

of the fast lines you’ll play will occur among slower passages (as opposed to nonstop 16th notes). Example 4 also incorporates the fretting hand with chromatic lines that use all four fingers.

Rhythm Rudiments

Week Two

Use drum practice patterns to hone your picking technique and create new sounds. By Sean McGowan

EVERY MUSICAL GENRE seems to have at least one instrument that—often undeservedly—bears the brunt of bad jokes. Drummers are often on the receiving end with zingers such as, “So, what sort of people hang out with musicians?” Answer: “Drummers.” But drummers are particularly undeserving of these types of jokes because the practice habits and routines of skilled, competent drummers are among the most organized, disciplined, and comprehensive of any musician! There are even collections of standardized, international drum rudiments published by the Percussive Arts Society (pas.org), including the original “Standard 26 American Drum Rudiments.” Just imagine if there was a published set of “Standard American Guitar Flatpicking Patterns”! In this installment of Weekly Workout, we’ll take a look at a few of the more common drum rudiments and apply them to the guitar, specifically to picking, strumming, and fretting patterns. By adapting some or all of these patterns into your playing—especially for lead work—you can expect to develop some serious rhythmic acuity, pick speed, and new phrasing ideas.

Week One Let’s start by taking a look at some rudiments known as “roll rudiments.” Drummers practice these patterns and variations using only the sticks on a snare drum, in an effort to achieve control, balance, tone, and independence, which ultimately leads to technical proficiency on the entire kit. We can adapt these roll rudiments to picking warm-ups and workouts. We’ll start with the first of the groups of rudiments called “single-stroke rolls.” Drummers practice constant right-left-right-left strokes, alternating between the two hands; we will adapt this to develop evenness and balance using alternate picking. Example 1 is a simple but effective exercise of crossing the open strings using strict alternate picking. Note that throughout this article, the musical examples in notation and tab are preceded by the original drum rudiments from which they are drawn. You may want to simply tap the rudiment with your hands on a table at first, to get the rhythm in your ears and body. All these exercises should be played slowly and solidly, with a tension-free posture and goals of rich tone and clarity. Example 2 is a variation on Example 1. Example 3 illustrates a rudiment called the “single-stroke four.” This is a great picking exercise, and classical guitarists often use this rhythm to develop “speed bursts” and tremolo technique. Drummers alternate the hand that starts the pattern, for example right-left-right-left, followed by left-right-left-right. We can approximate this by starting each group with either a downstroke (the first bar) or upstroke (the second bar). You’ll probably find that starting the pattern with an upstroke is considerably more difficult! If so, isolate that group and practice on open strings first. Example 4 introduces the “single-stroke seven,” essentially a sextuplet followed by a quarter note. This concept of “burst” followed by “rest” is important, since many 70 AcousticGuitar.com

This week, we’ll start working through the second category of international rudiments, the so-called “diddle rudiments.” The most famous of these is the “single paradiddle.” In Example 5, rather than directly adapting the drum pattern to picking strokes as we did in the first week, we’ll adapt the pattern melodically. Try using alternate picking throughout this example, and you’ll notice that a wonderful, propelling rhythm will start to emerge. This kind of rhythmic pattern can really help drive a single-note solo or rhythmic breakdown. Example 6 takes this pattern a step further by applying it to a chordal riff balancing double-stops with the open D string. Again, try using alternate picking throughout. Example 7 takes it up a notch by moving the bass note around between the open D, A, and E strings. Example 8 features a “double paradiddle,” which adds two strokes to the rudiment, creating a sextuplet grouping. In this example, apply the stroke pattern to your picking as notated. The most difficult part of this pattern is the two consecutive upstrokes at the very end. Practice this slowly and faithfully, and you will be amazed at how powerful your upstrokes will become.

Week Three This week, we’ll try some “flam rudiments.” A flam is essentially a grace note: you play two notes in rapid succession right on the beat, as opposed to before or after. Pick the first grace note and immediately slur into the next note using a hammer-on, pull-off, or slide. This technique is quite popular in many styles of acoustic music, from modern bluegrass solos to Irish fiddle tunes. Example 9 (page 74) introduces the flam, using hammer-ons (for grace notes below the target melody note) and pull-offs (for those above the melody note). Examples 10a and 10b use the “flam accent” rudiment on some melodic lines in 6/8 time. You can hear how easily this technique translates to fiddle tunes. To incorporate a flam into any melody, simply add a grace note (usually a half step or whole step above or below, but always use your ear as a guide) with a hammer-on, pull-off, or slide, which works from both directions. The next few examples feature a really cool rudiment called the “single ratamacue,” from the “drag rudiments” category. This one sounds like a typical marching-band snare rhythm, which is essentially the triplet/ ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013


Week One Single-Stroke Roll

Ex. 1

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Week Two Single Paradiddle

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eighth-note figure in the “single-stroke four” rudiment in Example 3. But this time a “drag” is added: two grace notes played with the same hand. Rather than hitting the drum repeatedly, drummers let the stick roll and bounce off the fingers, ensuring a smooth, effortless, and economical motion. We can approximate this with “directional” or “sweep” picking, which uses the same pick stroke directions when crossing adjacent strings. Let’s start by just playing the basic rhythmic pattern in Example 11a, starting with a downstroke (measure 1) and then an upstroke (measure 2). Once you are feeling comfortable with these variations, try Example 11b, which adds the sweeping, double grace notes. Again, you’ll probably notice that the second measure is more difficult because of the emphasis on upstrokes. Just keep practicing until it sounds smooth and becomes second nature. “Drag” is actually a good term for this exercise, because we are dragging our pick across the strings. Example 12 applies this to a bluesy lead line over a G chord. Gypsy jazz guitarists and flatpickers Bryan Sutton and David Grier often incorporate these types of drags in their solos, giving a defined, rhythmic propulsion to their lead lines.

Week Four In the final week’s workout of the month, we’ll take a look at and work through two more sets of flam rudiments. The “pataflafla” features 16th-note groupings with grace notes occurring on the first and fourth notes of each grouping. Example 13 introduces this pattern by simply hammering up into the target note. Example 14 uses grace notes from both directions with another bluesy-sounding line in G. Feel free to experiment using slides in place of hammer-ons and pull-offs for the grace notes. Finally, let’s play a “Swiss Army triplet” pattern, which incorporates flams into continuous triplet figures. Example 15 is a rocksounding lick over G that uses double-stops and will work great in a break or at the end of a tune. You’ll notice that we’re back to alternate picking, here and in Example 14. These are just a few examples of rudiments borrowed from the 40 rudiments published on the Percussive Arts Society website, where you can listen to all of the rudiments demonstrated by a drummer to ensure you are playing the rhythms correctly (pas.org/ Learn/Rudiments). ag SEAN McGOWAN (seanmcgowanguitar.com) is a jazz guitarist based in Denver, where he directs the guitar program at the University of Colorado. See video of the music examples at AcousticGuitar.com


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WEEKLY WORKOUT


Week Three Ex. 9

13

Ex. 10b

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WOODSHED

Slapping and Tapping How to extend your technique and sound by using both hands on the fingerboard. By Alex de Grassi

METHODS OF PRODUCING SOUNDS on the guitar that require something more than plucking and fretting notes are often called extended techniques. In this lesson we’ll look at slapping and tapping, a pair of extended techniques that involve the use of both hands on the fingerboard.

Slapping String-slapping techniques can be used for both percussive effect and to produce individual notes and chords. Slaps can be executed with an outstretched pickinghand finger at any location on the strings. When the slap is over the fingerboard, specific frets may be indicated. The notation may indicate a picking-hand fingering—if not, i (index) is the default finger. With the extended picking hand either resting on the top of the guitar or about an inch above the top, raise the hand by bending the wrist back and then slap the hand across the strings near the bridge with the i finger. Moving your picking hand slowly toward the fingerboard as you continue slapping will cause the timbre to change as different overtones are emphasized. If the palm of the hand is allowed to come down and strike the top of the guitar as the finger slaps the strings, an additional low-drum (kick) sound is produced. Slapping over the fingerboard adds the percussive sounds of the strings pressing against the frets, and also the sound of the slapping finger bouncing off of the fingerboard (see photo above). Experiment by slapping the open strings at different locations—from near the bridge to over the frets—as shown in Example 1. String slapping can be used simply for percussion, but it is more commonly used to play notes and harmonics. The chords in Example 2 are held with the fretting hand while the i finger slaps only the indicated strings. This requires adjusting the angle of the index finger relative to the plane of the strings. For the individual notes in measure 4, the i finger needs to bend in order for the fingertip joint to come down more perpendicular to the strings. The very end of the fingertip slaps the string. It takes some practice to develop the precision to avoid slapping strings not to be played. Available fretting-hand fingers can also be used to mute open strings.

Slapped Harmonics Both natural and artificial harmonics can be produced with the slapping technique. The standard harmonic symbols—the diamond notehead in the notation, and the dot 76 AcousticGuitar.com

in the tab—are accompanied by the word slap. For chords or single notes composed only of natural harmonics, the frets to be slapped are simply shown in the tab with a dot. For artificial harmonics, or chords containing both harmonics and regular notes, the tab displays the position of the fretting hand, and the frets to be slapped to trigger harmonics are shown in parentheses just to the right. Example 3 shows a series of slapped harmonic chords at various positions on the fingerboard. The first occurs at a natural harmonic node (12th fret), and the second and third are artificial harmonics slapped 12 frets up from a barre at the third and fifth frets, respectively. The fourth chord (anticipating the third measure) combines artificial harmonics (12 frets up from notes fretted at the third fret) with nonharmonic pitches (the open strings and notes fretted at the first fret). The final chord leaves the fretting hand in the same position, but becomes a new chord when slapped at the 12th fret. Combining harmonics with normal notes is a very effective method for creating unusual chord voicings with a big range. For example, with conventional techniques it would be difficult to play the E and B in the bass in D A D G A D and reach the high C and D notes as shown in measures 2, 3, and 4.

Tapping Tapped notes are initiated with a single hand using a “hammer-on from nowhere” technique, thus eliminating the need to pluck the string with the other hand. The hammer-on from nowhere can be executed with either hand, or both hands. Tapped notes also encompass hammer-ons, pull-offs, and other techniques that don’t require a second hand to pluck strings. Tapping evolved as an electricguitar technique, and a major challenge for tapping on an acoustic guitar is to produce sufficient volume and quality of tone that integrates seamlessly with conventionally plucked notes and other techniques. Hammer-ons from nowhere are graphically represented by a short tie-like symbol connected to the left side of notes and tab numbers, and either a fretting-hand (1–4) or picking-hand fingering (p, i, m, a, c) to designate the hand and finger used. The hammer-on from nowhere is executed as a somewhat exaggerated hammer-on. The fretting-hand finger may need to be lifted above the fingerboard higher than for normal hammer-ons in order to attack the string with greater force and speed, thus setting the string in motion and producing a clear pitch. The note is then sustained for the written duration, and can be given articulations like vibrato, etc. Like any other note, tapped notes are “live” and can be followed by a pull-off, a normal ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013


Tuning: D A D G A D Ex. 1

ˇ

ˇˇ

slap sul tasto

ponticello

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⁄ BI

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26

BV

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5 (17) 5 (17) 5 (17) 5 (17) 5 (17) 5 (17)

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4 5 0 AcousticGuitar.com 77

WOODSHED

hammer-on, or any other way of playing a note. Pay close attention to the distinction between hammer-ons from nowhere and the other hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides in Example 4. Note that the last note of the example (D in measure 4) is plucked with the index finger. All other notes are played with the fretting-hand fingers indicated. In measure 2, uncover the fourth string and stop the third string with i as the fourth string is tapped. In measure 3, leave p on string 6 and mute string 4 with finger 3 as it plays the fifth string. Move p to strings 4 and 5 to play the first three notes of measure 4, then pluck the fourth string with i at the same time that the fretting hand pulls off—both notes sound simultaneously.

Damping any unwanted resonance will allow the tapped notes to “speak” more clearly. To tap notes with the picking hand, place the picking-hand thumb on the upper edge of the fingerboard at an angle of approximately 30 degrees. This supports the tapping fingers. The thumb should be relaxed, relatively straight, and not touching the sixth string. It should be stationary but also able to move easily between positions, generally keeping one or two frets closer to the bridge than the notes being tapped. The tapping finger is “cocked” by opening the hand, recoiling the finger, then attacking the string with force and speed. The last two joints straighten out as the finger comes down right behind the

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fret. The fingertip impacts the string at approximately a 60-degree angle, allowing the picking-hand fingernail (which should not be too long!) to stay clear of the string and fingerboard. This impact angle will vary depending on what’s being played, size of the hand, etc. Example 5 begins with the picking hand positioned somewhere between the eighth and the ninth fret in preparation for tapping at the seventh fret. (The fretting hand could be covering the first five strings to control resonance until needed for the hammer-on.) The picking hand taps the note, holds it for an eighth note, then pulls off to the open string. The fretting hand then covers all six strings during the rests. The fretting hand is in second position, standing by to hammer the third and fourth notes (F and G) in measure 2. The A on beat three is tapped with i, but note that it is slurred, thus a normal hammer-on—not a hammer-on from nowhere. Measures 3 and 4 progress to the fifth and fourth strings with an interplay of fretting hand and picking hand in a series of tapped notes. The C slides to the last note, the higher D. The i below the low D indicates that i should pluck the open sixth string from the picking-hand tapping position. This happens at the same time that the fretting hand slides to the D an octave above. Practice the exercise as a continual loop, striving for evenness of volume and tone. Tapping, slapping, percussion, and plucked notes are all integrated with an up-tempo swing rhythm in the excerpt from my composition “The Monkulator” on page 79. The transcription is sufficiently complex to merit the use of separate staves for the notation. Keep in mind that both hands play notes ALEX DE GRASSI FINGERSTYLE GUITAR in both staves. The METHOD tuning, D A D F G C, allows for some interesting jazz chord voicings. Note that the slapped chords in measure 4 combine both natural and artificial harmonics with the nonharmonic pitch (G at the third fret). The slapped chords in measures 7 and 11 combine natural harmonics with nonharmonic pitches. The percussion breaks in measures 4 and 8 are played with the picking-hand thumb on the top of the guitar, just above the soundhole. Playing near the curve of the upper bout yields a brighter sound, and playing closer to the soundhole gives more of the kick-drum sound. ag THE COMPLETE EDITION

FOR O C CLASSICAL SS C GU SPANISH REPERTO

Q

Q

BOLER Let Acoustic Guitar help you become the best M SONGS guitarist you can be with our extensive range ER-STYLE WRITING NCING Maintenance of instructional guides. START c Guitar ACOUSTIC BLUES GUIT Q

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Learn to position the picking hand for efficient Honeproperly your technique and and comfortable playing. deepen yourfingerstyle understanding contemporary fingerstyle QofHow to grow and shape guitar this full method your with fingernails taught by a master of the Q Where to place your picking genre. With notation and tab the best tone forhand 200for musical examples, excerpts from many Qplus Detailed instruction on of deplaying Grassi’s arrangements rest and free and compositions.

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The Monkulator

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Music by Alex de Grassi

Tuning: D A D F G C

ˇ

3

ˇˇ ˇ3

3

m

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m



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B VII

© MAKAI MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

m

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SONGBOOK

Words and music by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

“ANGIE” was released as a single in the summer of 1973 and appeared on the Rolling Stones’ album Goat’s Head Soup, which was released several weeks later. An acoustic ballad, “Angie” received a lush mix on record, with acoustic six- and 12-string guitars, bass, drums, piano, and a string section all backing up Mick Jagger’s vocals. The song became a staple on the band’s touring set list, both in acoustic and electric settings. This transcription follows the most prominent acoustic guitar (a six-string), which picks fills and embellishes chords in the left channel throughout the song. An acoustic 12-string enters later in the right channel, adding thickness by strumming through unembellished chords (but staying away from fills that would get in the way of the primary part). Don’t worry about fretting full open-position or barre-chord shapes for the chords shown in the transcription (particularly the E7, F, and G type chords), since fretting full five- or six-string shapes would make the embellishments difficult or impossible. For instance, to play

Intro

U

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when will those clouds all dis - ap - pear

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4

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most of the E7 chords, you can use your index and middle fingers on the second and third strings, completely omitting the fourth and fifth strings from your picking. (You’ll have to use your index and ring fingers for the E7 chord in measure 2 so your middle finger can grab the G note on the sixth string.) For the G- and F-type chords, play the four-string shape with your ring and middle fingers on the fourth and third strings while your index holds down a barre on the top two strings. That enables you to use your little finger for the sus4 and add9 embellishments found throughout the song. To navigate through the entire song, play the first three verses before heading back to the D.S. sign for a slightly truncated fourth verse. Then follow the coda marking to reach the bridge. At the end of the coda (bridge), follow the double D.S. back for a final verse and finish at the Fine sign on the third beat of measure 12. —ANDREW DuBROCK

0

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© 1973 (RENEWED 2001) EMI MUSIC PUBLISHING LTD. ALL RIGHTS FOR THE US AND CANADA CONTROLLED AND ADMINISTERED BY COLGEMS-EMI MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED. USED BY PERMISSION. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD CORP.

Angie

Am 9

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5 5 3 5 5 5 3 5 5

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lov - ing

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where will

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it lead us

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in our

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well you can’t say we nev - er tried

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I hate that sadness in your eyes Am

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But Angie, Angie, ain’t it time we said good-bye?

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Ooh, yeah

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You can’t say we’re satisfied Am

2.

E7

Gsus4 G

Fsus4 F

Csus4 C

Angie, you’re beautiful, yes, but ain’t it time we said good-bye? Am

E7

Gsus4 G Fsus4 F

Csus4

Bridge Dm

C

Gadd9

Dm

Dm

Am

All the dreams we had so close seemed to all go up in smoke C

Fadd9 E7

Gsus4 G

Gadd9 Fsus4 F

Dm

Am Am

E7 E7 Gadd9

Gsus4 G Gsus4 G

Csus4

C

C

Fsus4 F Fsus4 F Dm

Fadd9

Gadd9

Come on, baby, dry your eyes Csus4 C Csus4 C Am

Whoa, Angie don’t you weep, all your kisses still taste sweet 82 AcousticGuitar.com

Am

There ain’t a woman that comes close to you

Angie, Angie, where will it lead us from here? 3.

Am

Everywhere I look, I see your eyes

Well, let me whisper in your ear Am

Am

But Angie, I still love ya, baby

Angie, I still love ya, remember all those nights we cried?

Am

5.

E7 Gsus4 G Fsus4 F

Csus4 C

Angie, Angie, ain’t it good to be alive? Am

E7 Gsus4 G

Fsus4 F

Csus4

C

Angie, Angie, they can’t say we never tried ACOUSTIC GUITAR June 2013

NEW

from Acoustic Guitar Guides GOSPEL SONGS FOR FINGERSTYLE GUITAR

CARTER-STYLE GUITAR BASICS

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CARTER-STYLE GUITAR

FORKED DEER

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

FIDDLE TUNE ESSENTIALS Q

Complete music for the traditional tune “Forked Deer”

Q

Learn a classic fiddle tune arranged for flatpicked guitar with tab and standard notation


By Scott Nygaard

Learn to play classic fiddle tunes arranged for flatpicked guitar.

By David Surette

Master the basics of Maybelle Carter’s distinctive playing style.

By Steve Baughman

Speak to your spiritual side with gospel songs for fingerstyle guitar.

Each guide comes with video and written instruction. For these and all other Acoustic Guitar Guides, visit store.AcousticGuitar.com

ADVERTISER INDEX Acoustic Guitar, acousticguitar.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Gibson, www.gibson.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Acoustic Guitar Books, store.acousticguitar.com . . . . . . . . . 78

Guy’s Publishing Group, LLC, guysgrids.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Acoustic Guitar Guides, store.acousticguitar.com . . . . . . . . 83

Hohner, Inc., hohnerusa.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Acoustic Guitar Subscribe, acousticguitar.com . . . . . . . 21, 72

Homespun, homespun.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Acoustic Vibes Music, acousticvibesmusic.com. . . . . . . . . . 40

Huss & Dalton Guitar Company, hussanddalton.com . . . . . . 75

Alvarez Guitars, alvarezguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Juststrings.com, juststrings.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40, 67

Ameritage, ameritage.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 L.R. Baggs, lrbaggs.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Bourgeois Guitars, pantheonguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Bread & Roses, breadandroses.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Breezy Ridge Instruments, Ltd., jpstrings.com . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Collings Guitars, collingsguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Cordoba Guitars, cordobamusicgroup.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Phoenix Guitar Company, phoenixguitarco.com . . . . . . . . . . 40 The Podium, thepodium.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Radial Engineering, radialeng.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 RainSong Graphite Guitars, rainsong.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Red House Records, www.redhouserecords.com . . . . . . . . . 29

Steven Kaufman Enterprises, Inc, flatpik.com . . . . . . . . 38, 72 RS Muth Guitars, rsmuthguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Korg USA Inc., korg.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Luthier Music Corp., luthiermusic.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Saga Musical Instruments, sagamusic.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Luthiers Mercantile, lmii.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34, 57

Shubb Capos, shubb.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Mandolin Bros., Ltd., mandoweb.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

SKB Cases, skbcases.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

C.F. Martin & Co., Inc., martinguitar.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Miranda Guitars, miranda-tech.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Spindrift Guitars, spindriftguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

D’Addario & Company, www.daddariobowed.com . . . . . . . . . 3 Music Development Program, D’Angelico Guitars, dangelicoguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 DR Music, www.drstrings.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Earthworks Audio, earthworksaudio.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Fishman Transducers, fishman.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 G7th, Ltd., g7th.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 George Lowden Guitars, georgelowden.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4


Stewart-MacDonald’s Guitar Supply, stewmac.com . . . . . . . 28

musicdevelopmentprogram.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 The Music Emporium, themusicemporium.com . . . . . . . . . . 17 Original Guitar Chair, originalguitarchair.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Paul Reed Smith Guitars, prsguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Swannanoa Gathering, swangathering.com . . . . . . . . . 34 Sweetwater Sound, sweetwater.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Takamine, takamine.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Peterson Electro-Musical Products, petersontuners.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Walden Guitars, waldenguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11


M A R K E T P L AC E

A Guitarist’s Dream Durst Ergonomic Lower Bout Cut Away

ACOUSTIC CONNECTIONS.

Microphones and pickups for guitars, violins, mandolins, banjos, and other stringed instruments. Brands include: MiniFlex 2Mic Soundhole Microphones; GHS Soundhole mics; McIntyre, L.R. Baggs, and B-Band pickups; Elixir strings and Homepsun Tapes. International orders are welcome. On the Web at www.acousticon.com

DurstGuitars.com Custom Handcrafted Guitars

WWW.CHARISACOUSTIC.COM 989.686.9775



M A R K E T P L AC E Introducing Finger-Tone® Fingerstyle 'UITAR0ICKSBY0RO0IK® Now you can get the same pure sound of fingernails and fingertips from a light weight metal finger pick s.OFINGERNAILSTOFUSSWITH s&INGERTIPSTOUCHSTRINGASYOUPLAY s,ARGEANDMEDIUMSIZESAVAILABLE AVAILABLE AT YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC STORE OR CONTACT:

GUPTILL MUSIC (714) 556-8013 www.guptillmusic.com

LUTHERIE INSTRUCTION

WILLIAM“GRIT”LASKIN Guitarmaker since 1971

GUITAR BUILDING AND REPAIR SCHOOL Comprehensive courses in acoustic, electric and bass guitar construction and repair, finishing and guitar electronics. For occupational training since 1974. Accredited member ACCSC. Financial aid available for those who qualify. Inquire about our amplifier-building course and other workshops. Veterans benefits available to those who qualify

1012 NW Grand Ave. Phoenix, AZ. 85007 www.roberto-venn.com 602.243.1179 Email: [email protected]

a Originator of the “Armrest” body-bevel a Co-originator of the Sideport Soundhole a Original AwardWinning Inlay Art

(416) 536-2135 www.williamlaskin.com

MAKERS

TONY GRAZIANO UKULELES INSTRUCTION

1016 Seabright Ave. Santa Cruz, CA 95062 (831) 479-3590

www.grazianoukuleles.com

SHOPS

HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT STRINGS Thousands of different singles, sets, and bulk strings! See our advertisements on page 40 and 67. www.juststrings.com

MUSIC THEORY COURSE FOR GUITAR Correspondence, complete curriculums, (skills, ear, theory) certificates. Jim Sutton Institute of Guitar 23014 Quail Shute Spring, Texas 77389-3944, USA (800) 621-7669 [email protected] www.JSIGuitar.com

0DUN+DQVRQ·V$FFHQW2Q0XVLF

*UHDW*XLWDU7LWOHV 6XPPHU6HPLQDU IURP0DUN+DQVRQ

ACCESSORIES

BULK GUITAR STRING SETS Phosphor Bronze $2.30 80/20 Bronze $2.21 Electric $2.13 Details www.hotworship.com/euphonon or call 1-888-517-4678 Euphonon Co. Luthier Supplies Orford NH


)LQJHUVW\OH6HPLQDU -XO\3RUWODQG2UHJRQ 7LWOHV )LQJHUVW\OH-D]]%OXHV )RON$OWHUQDWH7XQLQJV $UWLFOHV
$&&(1721086,&&20 AcousticGuitar.com 85

GREAT ACOUSTICS

1995 Danny Ferrington

See video of this guitar at AcousticGuitar.com

By Teja Gerken

BASED IN SANTA MONICA, California, Danny Ferrington has been a highly successful luthier for decades, yet he functions almost completely outside of today’s high-end guitar-making world. Ferrington has never had a website, he doesn’t attend luthier shows, and his guitars rarely show up on the used market. But his clients include high-profile players such as Richard Thompson, Ry Cooder, Dave Stewart, Elvis Costello, and dozens more. Ferrington doesn’t have a set range of models, yet they all have quirky, often asymmetrical, designs. Completed in 1995, the guitar shown here was commissioned by Northern California guitarist Kurt Huget, whose interest in Ferrington arose when he saw the coffee-table book Ferrington Guitars (currently out of print). Fascinated by what he saw, Huget requested a guitar with a body style similar to one that was built for Neil Finn, a neck shape based on that of his Telecaster, and fingerboard inlay that included Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais and the four elements of air, fire, earth, and water. Although the guitar’s asymmetrical body and triangular soundhole give it an unusual appearance, further inspection reveals fairly traditional construction. The guitar is built with an Engelmann spruce top and mahogany back and sides, and its tortoiseshell binding gives it a Martin Style 18 vibe. The guitar’s top has a delicate X-bracing pattern and, with its 25.5-inch scale and 15.5-inch wide lower bout, the guitar could almost be thought of as a kind of modernistic OM, which is also the sonic territory it operates in. The instrument’s most significant departure from traditional construction is that its neck is bolted to the body with four screws that go right through the top of the fingerboard (two at the 14th fret, and another two at the 17th fret). Outfitted with a Highlander pickup, this Ferrington has accompanied Huget on countless gigs, and it has the scars to prove it. Told about the guitar’s worn condition, Ferrington says, “I love that. There’s nothing I hate more than a pristine guitar that has never left its case!” ag

Acoustic Guitar (ISSN 1049-9261) is published monthly by Stringletter, Inc., 255 West End Ave., San Rafael, CA 94901. Periodical postage paid at San Rafael, CA 94901 and additional mailing offices. Printed in USA. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Pitney Bowes International Mail Services, P.O. Box 32229, Hartford, CT 06150-2229. Postmaster: Please make changes online at AcousticGuitar.com or send to Acoustic Guitar, Stringletter Publishing, PO Box 3500, Big Sandy, TX 75755.


ACOUSTIC GUITAR

June 2013

Photo by Eric C. Newell

Learn how North Carolina’s rich musical heritage influenced Seth Avett’s sound at martinguitar.com/Seth. Order the new Martin D-35 Seth Avett Custom Signature Edition at your local authorized Martin dealer.

AG Acoustic-Guitar-2013-06.pdf

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