Rebuilding the Site

Caution strong language to follow…

When I returned to making content for this site, I did so because I wanted to give back to the guitar and related kit community. I’m not getting paid for it and for sure it’s because I want to do it. I am not sponsored by anyone, and what stuff I do review, I either buy with my own money, or get to try for a short time because of great friends in the music industry.

I was working on an article today, the first one ever with audio clips. After saving the draft, I got an email from Wordpress that something had gone wrong. This was the third day in a row that Wordpress had started sending me alerts, first about PHP and then some other nonsense and finally this one. Imagine my horror to find that I could not login to the site at all and when I tried to connect to it as a viewer, it was gone.

My hosting provider is Netfirms. They take my money and for the most part are invisible. I chose Wordpress because it was included in my plan. I have another Wordpress site, also now gone for the same reason. I had issues with Wordpress before and moved the site that was on it to Squarespace. That migration was very smooth. This time, there was apparently nothing to migrate.

Fortunately, for me, I prefer using Red Sweater Software’s MarsEDIT for post creation. It is brilliant, but cannot work with Squarespace. I have most of the words in MarsEDIT but none of the images, so I am SLOWLY copying and pasting the text and with some time will go back and put images into the reposts as I am able.

This is definitely going to fark things up around here. I’m not exactly sitting around with my feet up eating candy. Apologies to regular viewers for the delay in getting stuff fixed.

I fucking hate Wordpress. I should have known better that to use it again.

One of my favourite effects - Rotary (Leslie)

As musicians, we develop affinities for different instruments, amps, techniques, sounds and even effects. In the effect realm there are thousands of offerings and if you gather a reasonable collection of those focused on their craft, you will find plenty of opinions. When presented openly, this can be really cool.

One of my favourite sounds is that of the rotating speaker as commonly defined as the Leslie. The effect is based on the Leslie design (there are more than one to be clear) which comprises two speakers, a base unit and a horn unit. The speakers don't actually rotate, enclosures around the speakers rotate, and the rotation rates are independently controllable. This produces a sound that is sometimes described as swirly or like a tremolo (volume change) or even nauseating.

The system was designed by Donald Leslie who was trying to get a Hammond organ to sound more like a pipe organ or theatre organ. He found by enclosing a speaker inside a rotating baffle he could achieve his goal, and the Leslie speaker became a popular add-on to the even more popular Hammond organ. Inevitably, guitarists tried the device and found that the liked it.

Leslie design, image courtesy Wikipedia

The more common design, known as the 122 had a single woofer and a single treble horn. This design resulted in a rather large and cumbersome unit, with a special connector to achieve a noise reducing balanced input. Other versions went to unbalanced inputs and AC motors instead of DC motors.

A Leslie 122 unit looks more like furniture than an audio effect

Original Leslies incorporate a tube amplifier and purists prefer the to later units such as Fender's Vibratone that used a solid state amplifier. The solid state units tended to hold up to touring better, but the size and weight were still issues.

The first popular foot pedal designed to approximate the Leslie sound is the UniVibe. Many musicians used the UniVibe a lot and this set the groundwork for the adoption of the Leslie sound in the guitarist's toolbox. I confess that while the UniVibe is "vintage", I prefer the sound of more modern effects. They are less noisy and provide more control.

Which brings me to today. Some pedals such as Strymon's Mobius or Eventide's H9 incorporate rotary speaker effects. They sound very good, but as rotary is a less in demand effect, multi effect units cannot do rotary and a separate effect simultaneously. This suits pedal geeks just fine as we (I am one) are quite happy with dedicated pedals. I own three dedicated rotary pedals myself as I like to experiment and build different pedal boards for different amps.

The Strymon Lex is the rotary pedal that I use in one of wet/dry rigs which puts the dry sound to one Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Mk IV and the wet sound to a different Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Mk IV. I recently started down the wet dry path with learnings from Dan and Mick over at That Pedal Show, two wonderful fellows who help me overspend on pedals and now amplifiers. The Lex is a really nice pedal with a lot of options to try out.

The Lex does a lovely job of emulating the tube overdrive you get on a real 122 in a very easy to use pedal.

My next rotary that I happily recommend is the microVent 122 from Neo Instruments.

It is a simulator of the Leslie 122. There is also a microVENT 16 model, but I have not used it. It is similar in operation to the Strymon but with a smaller footprint. I have this on my board for my Fender Blackface Twin Reverb.

In an earlier post, I wrote about how much I love the Boonar from Dawner Prince. The Boonar does the best dedicated representation of the Binson Echorec in my opinion. I do own Strymon's Volante which is excellent but more than just an Echorec. Recently Dawner Prince made their Pulse unit available in Canada and given my happiness with the Boonar, when I could, I bought a Pulse and installed it on the board for my Blackstart Club 40 Mk II Custom, the same board that holds the Boonar. I find myself using the two together quite often for clean sounds, and with a Diamond compressor when I am pretending to have any skill at jazz. 

One of the major differences between the Pulse and the other units are two separate variable rate controls for the woofer and treble horn. I like this feature and like the other pedals, this one offers the Leslie standard options for Fast and Slow. 

Fast is very swirly, whereas slow is less so. The good news is that you have a large range of adjustment available with any of these pedals.

I have tried other rotary pedals and like so many things, there are a few great ones, and a lot that left me seriously underwhelmed. You should get what you like, but if you are not sure, picking any one of these three will give you pleasing tone without frustration. As with any modulation pedal, experimentation is the key to finding YOUR sound.

As none of these pedals are widely or generically available, I purchased all of them through my preferred high end pedal vendor, Electric Mojo Guitars.

Thanks for reading and until next time, peace.

Open Your Mind to Multi-Scale Guitars and Basses

The first time I saw a multiscale instrument in a guitar shop it was a Chapman 4 string bass, a signature model for someone I did not know. Since I didn't care if it was a signature model (and still don't - that's typically just an ego tax) I though I would give it a go. I played it for about fifteen minutes in the store, the first ten really just getting my head around things. Then it clicked when I stopped caring about which way the frets pointed and discovered how comfortable fan fret instruments can be. Unfortunately this particular instrument had some serious build quality and sound quality issues and I moved on.

But the concept stuck with me. When I decided I wanted to go beyond six strings for guitar, I started looking at eight string instruments, not because I wanted to Djent, whatever that is, but because I liked the idea of drone notes like you get on an old style harp guitar and I also liked the idea of extended tonal runs. I tried a few and then took a chance and ordered a Strandberg Boden Metal online. The only stores that had them were at least six hours and one province away. So confirming that I could return it at my shipping cost if I hated it, I bought it. Some player friends asked if I was getting into Metal or Djent because I got the metal model. I discovered that there is nothing particularly metal about this eight string other than metal players seem to have been more open to deep bass sounds from a guitar. So, no metal for me. It's not my thing.

The Boden is very easy to play. The body is very light and perfectly contoured for playing sitting or standing. The Fluence pickups give lots of very clean variety and it works well through pedals or into a clean or dirty amp. What is most pleasing to sixty year old hands with a bit of arthritis is the complete lack of pain after playing for an hour or so.

Here you can see the multi scale impact at the neck body joint. It is more evident closer to the nut

So when I decided I wanted another five string bass to go with my Fender Precision 5 String, I started looking for a multi-scale bass and found one from Ibanez. I bought it online from a shop in Ottawa because they had stock and the instrument was on sale. It's my second Ibanez, my first being a mid-seventies Artistwood Doubleneck like the one owned and played by John McLaughlin, although I learned that some twenty years after finding the guitar and adding it to my rack.

Just like the Strandberg, the Ibanez bass is very comfortable to play for an extended period and after I changed to flat wounds, I find myself able to get the tones that I like and without any pain or cramping.

There is a perception that multi scale only really matters if you are going to tune down and thereby reduce tension on the bass strings which in turn leads to them flapping about. This makes perfect sense from a physics perspective, but I can honestly say that I have ever tuned down a bass string, except once or twice on my EVH Wolfgang which has a D-Tuner. 

I do keep a Strat in E Flat but that's a different thing entirely. I like the E Flat for the same reason I like Baritone guitars. They sound different and encourage me to try different things.

My recommendation to look more seriously at multi scale really comes entirely from a comfort and fluidity basis. My hands are much older, larger and less dexterous than Strandberg artist Sarah Longfield, whose work I appreciate, so it's not about hand size. Everyone that I have met with a negative opinion about the 8 string Strandberg neck design admitted to never having touched one. They just didn't like the idea. Then again, they did not like the idea of multi scale and had not tried that either.

Whether you call it multi scale (because the scale length is different for each string) or fan fret is just verbiage. If you get a chance, try one out but give yourself at least 15 minutes to settle in. You may find it's something that makes a lot of sense for you.

Until next time, peace

The Most Important Accessory

As musicians we are all excited to some extent by add-ons. As guitarists and bassists we look to pedals, amps, special strings, magic cables where the electrons travel more efficiently in one direction than another and other hoopla.

BC (before COVID) I used to love going to guitar shops and in the brief period between lockdowns continued to do so. I would always see people trying out instruments, and other accessories and this is what is great about brick and mortar stores, you can actually check something out before spending money. Try that on Amazon, but I digress...

I do not have perfect pitch by a long shot. I could not make the sound of A 440 out of my mouth and while I might get close by turning a peg to the frequency of a high E string, I have no delusions that it would be on the money.

I'm not trying to sound like a dick, but if you think so, oh well. I hear lots of folks pick up a guitar and start going at it. There is an inverse relationship I find to the volume level employed and the level of skill. There's also an inverse relationship to the volume level and the tuning accuracy. For the love of Pete, or whomever you prefer, tune the darn guitar. No one wants to hear anyone bashing away on a guitar that is not at minimum in tune with itself and certainly not out of tune into that Mesa Rectifier at anything over 1/10th chat.

Decent guitar stores will make clip on tuners available to you on request. All that they want is that you give it back when you are done. I have seen people put loaner tuners in pockets and I will often ask if they are done with the tuner, could I use it please. Some look embarrassed and others look annoyed. It's happened to me that I have left with a loaner tuner which I promptly return, not because I am some kind of hero, but if I don't, stores will stop loaning tuners and I will have to endure more out of tune Nirvana at full blast.

The common ST-8 Snark. Impossible to beat for the price

If you got a guitar over the holidays and did not get a tuner, treat yourself. Yes there are free tuner apps available for your smartphone and they are almost as useful as mouthful of bees when you are in a busy guitar store. A clip on tuner such as the incredible for the price Snark series is something everyone should have at least one of. Get a few because they are under $30 and you will leave them lying around. Not only will you be able to stay in tune better, you also are getting free ear training so you learn what in tune sounds like. Heck you might keep one in your jacket pocket or bag along with a few of your favourite picks so when you find yourself in a guitar shop you are ready to go. I mark my Snarks up with a gold Sharpie so I know that they are mine. 

You can certainly spend more on a clip on tuner if you want to. Petersen and tc Electronics both make nice ones at a higher price if you insist.

While some folks say that a looper should be the first item on your pedalboard, in my opinion, the first pedal should be a tuner. Digital tuners are everywhere, and because they are digital, unless the unit is made of crap parts, you do not need to spend a fortune. The case durability is probably your biggest concern and while it is easy to spend nearly $200 on a stomp box type tuner, you do not need to. If a Snark at $30 works, why spend $180 on a stomp box tuner? Personal choice of course. I have gotten the Petersen Strobostomp HD on sale a few times for about $150. I like it because the display is really big, I prefer strobe tuners, and it stays running whether you mute the instrument or not. Buy what you like, but no need to go overboard.

Peterson StroboStomp HD. A great tuner with selectable display colours

A tuner or collection of tuners are incredibly useful. They last until you lose them and are simple devices. Not super expensive and the difference between being annoying and behaving like a responsible musician.

Your First 2021 Gift for Yourself

If you are even marginally like me, you get pleasure from playing your guitar, regardless of where you fall in the continuum of skill. Sometimes however, a much loved instrument just isn't doing what you want, or feels "not quite right" to quote my English friends.

A new pedal, or new amp, or even a new guitar may take your mind off things for a bit but all are expensive to some degree or another, so consider a low cost investment in making that guitar great again.

How?

Get the guitar professionally set up.

I've been playing for over 45 years now and while I have built some skill in doing setups on all manner of guitars, it's safe to say that in that time, I have probably done over 200. Given the time required to become good at this skill, I would conservatively say that 50 have been decent jobs and still none as good as one done professionally.

A proper set up is a series of steps that go in a particular order and some of those steps involve tools that in the hands of an amateur can do more harm than good. Let me take you through the basic steps of a proper setup.

Get the old strings off and polish the frets. This is much more than using a rubbing stick from Amazon although at the minimum it doesn't hurt.

Check the frets themselves for flat spots and ensure that every fret has a proper crown that delivers minimal string contact. The more surface area of the fret that touches the string, the poorer the tone. That's why so many people struggle with the old Gibson "fretless wonders". If the frets are misshapen, or loose in the slot, STOP here and get your guitar to a trained and proven technician. If not, cover your pickups with masking tape and get yourself a set of fingerboard protectors. These come in different widths for different width frets. If you have a maple fingerboard mask off the fingerboard areas with low tack masking tape (like the blue painters masking tape - regular tape could lift the lacquer finish). Now GENTLY polish the frets with #0000 steel wool. This is going to leave detritus everywhere so put something that you can toss away under the neck first. When you do each fret one at a time, check it not only for lack of crown but for nicks and divots. After polishing and wiping, run your finger over the fret. If it does not feel perfectly smooth, STOP here and get your guitar to a trained and proven technician. You can play a guitar with damaged frets, but you may not like it, especially once you know you have damaged frets.

Side view of fretwire. Image courtesy Premier Guitar

The material used in fretwire varies. Stainless steel is most expensive and hardest to work. So called Nickel Silver has no silver at all and is typically 18% nickel and 82% copper and other metals. Popular fretwire suppliers are Dunlop, Jescar (not to be confused with Mandalorian Bescar armour - as far as we know) and Stewart-MacDonald. Stew-Mac is the best place to buy luthier's tools when you really want to learn and or make a mess of things.

If you do find flattened or damaged frets, your technician will be able to advise whether he or she can recover the frets using proper fret finishing tools or if it is time to have the neck refretted. Some people lose their sh*t when they think about refretting as if it will diminish the guitar. Does your car perform better with good brakes or bad brakes? A well played vintage guitar has likely already been refretted at least once. A refret job is not cheap, so think about the value of the instrument to you first. Also note that the type of fretwire used is one of the places where you find lower quality softer fretwire found on instruments made in the far east. Some builders are very specific about the fretwire that they use, but don't expect Dunlop or Jescar fretwire in a guitar built to sell under $500. I will talk about refret work in a different article.

A precision straight edge to determine if you have frets that are high or low. Image courtesy Stewart-MacDonald

Take a proper straight edge and measure the neck relief (amount of bow or lack thereof) with the strings off. If the neck has a lot of forward bow with no string tension, it's going to have more with strings on it. It takes time and experience to set the neck relief without strings and on many Fender guitars, you can only adjust the truss rod with the neck off. If when you check the truss rod, it is already tight and the neck is still forward bowed, STOP here and get your guitar to a trained and proven technician. The amount of bow that will work is going to be impacted by the strings that you use. Assume that if you are changing string gauges that some level of neck relief adjustment will be needed. If you are going from 0.010s to 0.009s there is adjustment required. If you are going from 0.008s to 0.011s more adjustment is required because you are increasing tension significantly.

Unbleached natural bone nuts. Image courtesy Stewart-MacDonald

The nut should then be examined for cracking and wear. A nut slot needs to allow the string to move without binding. If your guitar came with a plastic nut (many so called "bone" nuts are actually bone coloured plastic, yes F company I am looking at you) and you are sending the guitar in, you might consider having the nut changed to real bone (many players prefer the tone of bone although if you live in heavy distortion world, you probably won't notice a difference). Other options such as graphite or so called Tusq Ivory (a marketing name) exist. You want the strings to slide in the nut smoothly and ride in the slots enough so they don't pop out easily. Some guitars come from the factory with the string riding the top of the nut slot. This is a choice of course, but in my opinion, sub-optimal as I prefer the string to sit in the slot and do not care if the top if the nut is higher than the string in the nut. Your choice.

Next you want to measure the distance between the string and the first fret. Your technician can recommend the proper distance for you and to measure this you need a proper technician's ruler to measure from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string. You may need a magnifier to see the measurement. A nut slot that is not deep enough makes fretting at the first harder and one that is too low needs replacing. If the slot is too high, you can try a nut file. If you do, I recommend budgeting for the file, and a nut replacement by a competent technician since your odds of messing this up the first several attempts are high.

Before you restring, clean the fretboard. If the fretboard is not maple or lacquered maple, you can use one of the popular fretboard cleaner oils. There are a zillion of them. I have found that my preference is the Taylor branded fretboard oil. Apply gently and rub it into the wood a bit with your fingertip then wipe off. If the fretboard is untreated maple, a damp cloth followed by a dry cloth is ok. Lacquered maple can handle a gentle damp slightly soaped cloth, followed by a clean damp cloth and then a dry cloth. You don't want a lot of water because it can cause the wood to expand and also contribute to corrosion in the frets due to the high copper content.

Graph Tech String Saver Classic Saddles for Stratocaster bridge. Lined with teflon - no binding! Image courtesy Stewart-MacDonald

Examine the bridge saddles for burrs and sharp edges. If they exist, they are going to contribute to string binding and increased risk of breakage. Cheap bridges have cheap saddles. You can use a needle file and and then a cream polish to try to smooth them out but if the saddles are chromed, the chrome is going to come off.

My personal custom set of Extra Light Balanced Tension strings used on my Explorer, Flying V, Moderne and some Les Pauls made by Curt Mangan.

Put new strings on. Strings are relatively cheap, so don't try to reuse old strings. Use whatever strings that you like, but if you want maximum life before you have to change strings, consider one of the coated strings from D'Addario or Ernie Ball, or if you like, custom strings from a dedicated supplier such as Curt Mangan or StringJoy. There are many fine string brands, but not all brands actually make their own strings. Choosing strings is the subject of a different article.

Bring the strings up to tune whilst stretching them many times. Stretch now and enjoy stable tuning or don't stretch now and spend the next two weeks constantly retuning. Your choice. If you do not know how to stretch strings, a quick way is to bring the string to tune, then pull up on it. Then fret every other fret and keep pulling up. Once all the strings are done, tune to pitch and stretch the strings again. As an aside, I've noticed over the years that PRS guitars come with properly stretched strings and are typically in tune right out of the box. I have not found that with any other maker. 

Now check the action of the strings. This is commonly done at the 12th fret using your luthier's ruler. A common setting is .4 for the high E and .7 for the low E. The higher the action the greater room the string has to move because a struck string vibrates in a mostly round pattern with anchor points at the saddle and the nut. Too low an action is going to create fret buzz. If you play through a bunch of Metal Zones all the time, you won't care probably, but if you don't there you go. Most acoustic guitars do not have adjustable saddles, so if the action is still too high or low after setting the neck and nut, STOP and get your guitar to a proven and experienced guitar technician. On electrics, there are a variety of ways to adjust the action from single string saddle adjustments such as found on Stratocaster style saddles (note that Mexican and Japanese made guitars have saddles that usually need metric Allen wrenches whereas American made guitars typically have saddles requiring Imperial Allen wrenches), or dual string saddles such as on most Telecasters, or a single height adjustable bridge such as Gibson style Tuneomatic bridges. Loosen off the strings a bit before changing the action, down a few full tones, and then retune up after adjusting. Check and refine until you are happy and the guitar "feels good" to you.

You won't find these fellows to set your action or intonation, but this is where the work gets done.

Finally set the intonation by comparing the tune state of the string fretted at the 12th against the harmonic at the twelfth. Remember "flat forward sharp back" If the fretted note is flat compared to the harmonic, you shorten the length of the string between nut and saddle by adjusting the saddle towards the neck. If the fretted note is sharp, you need to lengthen the string to move it backward. Use a proper tipped screwdriver and do adjustments no more than ¼ turn at a time. Once you have the harmonic and the fretted note within a few cents, you are good.

I say this because it is not possible to get a guitar in tune at all places on the fretboard. It just doesn't work. You can get close and this is where intonation lives. If you have an acoustic guitar, you probably have no intonation capability natively. If your bridge floats as on many arch top guitars, use blue painters tape to hold it to the body when the strings come off otherwise you will be in intonation hell after restringing.

This has been a long article defining a BASIC setup. You can do most of it yourself with time and practice. If it sounds like a pain or too much work, that is ok. That's where you work with a professional.

I am very fortunate to be able to do so. My local guitar store The Arts Music Store has a pair of great techs in Kevin and Braeden. They are trained pros with many years of experience and thousands of guitars worked on. I trust them with working on my guitars as I have worked with Kevin specifically for years. He not only knows guitars but he knows me and what I look for in a set up. For the cost of a proper setup (about $75 or so, not including strings or any custom work), I get back a guitar that I can play right away.

COVID-19 has increased demands on techs as more and more people are playing now. Also many guitar stores offer a free setup on the purchase of some guitars and with the exception of PRS Maryland built guitars, I have never had a factory guitar regardless of purchase price that did not need some work done on it to make it ideal. COVID requires that instruments be in quarantine for a bit to protect the technicians and many are booked solid weeks out. If you only have a single guitar, that can be discouraging.

While you can buy instruments on line and often not from proper guitar stores, bear in mind that all guitars need maintenance just like your car does. Finding a good tech to work with is an investment that you make for yourself. It will save you time, money and frustration. There has only ever been one time where Kevin could not fix an issue, but he alerted me to a defect in the manufacture of the instrument and to their complete credit, Gibson gave me a full refund for the defective instrument which I applied immediately to a guitar that ultimately has made me much happier. That particular 1960 Reissue ES-355 has gotten even better with a set of Stormy Monday pickups from Tim Mills and his team at Bare Knuckle Pickups. Kevin installed those pickups and did the setup that the factory new guitar still needed to be awesome.

A good setup can make that old instrument feel new again. I own a 1993 PRS Custom 22 that had fallen out of favour with me. The original owner had changed the HFS pickups for PRS Dragon I pickups which I found to be muddy. I hired Kevin to install the Bare Knuckle PG Blues pickups in the guitar, and he called me to note that over the years, this guitar was in desperate need of a full setup. I told him to go ahead, and I can say with enthusiasm that the PRS that had fallen from favour plays better than it ever has since I bought it used in 1995.

Invest in a proper setup and enjoy your guitar more. If you are in the area of Newmarket Ontario, I highly recommend the team at The Arts Music Store.

Recording At Home

With my area back in full lockdown due to government mandate to attempt to control the spread of COVID-19, I have been reexamining the entire process of recording at home. I'd like to take it a bit farther than plopping down an iPhone or Zoom recorder, although they are excellent fast ways to remember chord progressions and riffs that you create.

I avoided recording for a long time, because while I love playing, I still think that I am a lousy player and wonder why I would ever record anything that I create. I don't play out, I suppose no one is these days, and don't bother to learn entire songs because I don't play out and don't work with a band. So I have had to force myself a lot to get this done.

I do a lot of video and audio work for clients and for podcasts and web shows so I have a bunch of kit and in talking to other musicians in the period when we could actually go into a music store, what I learned was that many folks avoided anything more serious than the smartphone was the perception of complexity.

I would like to help you gentle reader, to get past that.

Interestingly, the audio interface wasn't the big issue for many people that I spoke to, their concern was getting the sound to the interface and how to buy and how to place microphones. This is an important thing for studio recordists for certain, but maybe less critical in getting started, so for the moment, I am going to skip miking amplifiers and acoustic instruments entirely, but will come back to it in a future article. The reason for this is the plethora of microphone options and that choosing an ideal microphone is highly dependent on your use case. Alternatively if we start with the end in mind, you might be farther ahead.

The DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)

Sounds complicated. It's just software. Software designed for a purpose, like photo software or even a good spreadsheet. Ease of use is paramount, and while there are very high end products that are used in professional studios, maybe you don't need all that.

I'm a Macintosh user and will keep my article Mac oriented, but be certain that if your computer runs Windows, there are good options for you that I will talk about further along in the article, including how to get them at no cost.

Let's start with FREE. Meaning the software either comes with the machine or is available at no cost. Since we are talking Macintosh, we are talking about Garageband. I see Garageband poo-pooed often, mostly by people who have never used it.

Garageband comes with a number of defined project starters. Think of them as templates, but remember that even if you choose the simple Songwriter template, it does not mean that you need to do something for all the tracks. What is useful is the variety of drum tracks and different kits IF you want a drum track and a) are not a drummer or b) are a drummer with a kit but without a stack of microphones and mixing board or c) have a set of electronic drums that has an output to a recording interface. I am not a drummer, it's not a talent that I have, although I do like to play drums from time to time. Sometimes I just want a simple drum backing track to play against. Sometimes not and Garageband makes it easy to include or not include a track. The default setup includes a grand piano. I am not a piano player and while I have a keyboard USB interface to make sounds, I don't do piano music, so I just turn the track off. Off is a very powerful tool as it removes a lot of confusion and complexity.

The Audio Interface

Focusrite Solo Studio

Next we want to get the sound from your guitar into the computer. This does assume that your guitar has a pickup of some kind. Most guitar pickups are high impedance so you need an audio interface. Don't get scared. Think first about how many tracks that you will record at the same time. Garageband allows you to have a ton of tracks but you do not have to record them all at once. If it's just you, all you need is an audio interface that has a single input that can handle a high impedance signal and a low impedance microphone. While I use interfaces from Universal Audio for my client work, they are rather pricey, so let's start with something proven, with a very decent microphone preamp that plugs in via USB and is inexpensive.

There are lots of audio interfaces. I am going to cut through all the noise and get you started with a simple yet really nice sounding interface. It is called the Focusrite Solo Pack Mark III. Here's a link to where you can buy one online from my friends at The Arts Music Store.

https://shop.theartsmusicstore.com/products/focusrite-solopackmk3-scarlett-solo-studio-pack-usb-audio-interface-mic-headphones-and-software-1

Low cost point of entry. Focusrite SOLO with microphone, headphones, mic cable. Just add a boom microphone stand

The unit is is Focusrite's Scarlett range and includes the Focusrite Solo USB interface, a pair of monitoring closed back headphones and a decent condenser microphone that you can use for vocals, miking an amp or an acoustic guitar. The only thing missing is a microphone stand. Find a boom stand that fits your budget and you are done, and if you don't need the microphone right away, you can wait. The entire kit sells for about $329 CAD at the time of writing.

The audio interface connects to your computer via USB. Sure you can spend more for Thunderbolt interfaces, but then your computer has to have Thunderbolt. Every computer has USB and it's a single interface so you really don't need massive horsepower. There is an input that takes a high impedance signal from a pickup with it's own gain control and a low impedance input with dedicated gain control to capture the signal from a microphone. There is a headphone jack with it's own level control for monitoring. If you happen to have a microphone or add one in the future that needs what is called Phantom Power, basically +48v to drive the microphone, that is built in as well.

The USB connection is USB-C, so you can use it with your computer or if you have one of the appropriate iPads, with the tablet as your recording platform as well. On the back are two ¼" outputs for connection to powered desktop monitors if you have such things. You don't need monitors to get recording done, but they are nice if you want a higher fidelity playback, and you can use them as your computer speakers as well because the SOLO is a bi-directional interface.

One of the things that I like about the SOLO is that setting it up involves plugging it into the computer or iPad. No drivers to fuss with. It just works. The SOLO will appear as an input source and an output target automatically. It does not get easier.

If and when you do use the microphone the SOLO includes the Focusrite AIR function which modifies the preamp response specifically for use with microphones to provide a more open and full sound. You can certainly do this in Garageband but pushing a button is so easy.

The SOLO also includes what are called plugins. Plugins are tools used by your recording software to allow you to enhance your recorded sound. I encourage owners to invest a bit of time to download the Focusrite Collective and RED plugins. The RED equalizer and compressor are really nice. No rush to do this, but know that your investment yields access to some very useful tools

Hey Windows users, or Mac users who don't want to use Garageband. Your SOLO purchase also gives you Pro Tools Lite and Ableton LIVE Lite, two very fine DAW offerings. You will have to register online, do the downloads and then install the software but it's pretty easy.

Easy Recording

Ok back to recording. You have your SOLO plugged into your computer and Garageband (or whatever) running. Choose the SOLO as your audio input and audio output. Plug your guitar into the SOLO and plug in the headphones. Enable the track where you will record your guitar by making it ready to record. Then adjust the input level so the meter floats between -12 and -6dB. At 0 the signal will start to clip (distort) and you do not want that when recording. Garageband comes with a number of guitar amplifier emulations so if you would like the sound of a different amp, click the amp and choose a different one from the comprehensive list. One of the things that I like about Garageband is that it gives you on screen controls for your virtual amplifier so you can tune your sound the way you want it.

Once you are ready, you can press the record button. You can set your bpm and a metronome will provide you a click track to stay on time if you wish. It will even count you in if you would like. 

This isn't tape, so if you make an error, just take a break, count yourself in again and do another take. No need to continuously start and stop because this is digital audio. You can cut and move a track as you wish. If you have a perfect part and just want to keep repeating it, perhaps as a rhythm track, copy / paste works for this. In this way a solitary musician can build up a pretty rich piece of music on your own by recording different tracks.

Save your work regularly as you would with any digital file. Remember, storage is cheap, heck you can get a 4TB USB drive for well under $200 these days, so record to your heart's content.

So Get Started

You don't need 4 or 8 concurrent track recording. You don't need to spend thousands on an interface and more thousands on microphones and even more on a DAW. For most of us, the no cost / low cost options are going to do the job beautifully and simply. While I have very high end UA gear, I still have Focusrite interfaces in daily production because they are simple, low load and do a great job.

If you are locked down as I am, you can shop online for your interface. Use the link above to get your Solo Mark III recording kit from The Arts Music Store. They ship all across Canada. By the way, I am not compensated in any way for recommending the store. I have been shopping there since the early 1990s and find them to be a great shop with great people who are all very positive and having a superb customer focus.

Talk to you again soon.

The Humbucker Secret

Ok, I really didn't know that this was a secret but apparently it is.

You get the greatest range of tones, and dynamics when your humbuckers aren't nailed at 10.

The caveat of course is that you want to hear everything which probably means you aren't playing death metal or running your signal through a chain of Metal Zones or whatever. If you like that sort of thing, go for it, but the secret won't matter to you.

No matter what kind of amp that I plug humbuckers into, I set the amp volume with the volume pots on the guitar no higher than 8. Some guitars have better volume pots than others so your mileage may vary as it will depending on how hot the pickups are. The hotter the pickup, the more you might want to dial the volume down for maximum tonal range and complex overtones. For example, on my 335 with Lollar Imperials or the 355 with Bare Knuckle Stormy Mondays, setting the volume knobs at about 8 really deliver incredible range. I have an older MusicMan AXIS Sport with really hot pickups and for that I roll the volume off between 6 and 7 if I want the maximum tonality.

The body wood also matters and while I know that there are folks who say that body wood does not contribute to tone in an electric guitar, all I can say is you're doing it wrong. Since you don't have a lot of room to wander in the wood, we spend little time on it here.

With single coils, the output is typically less strong and so you probably will not find this secret makes much of a difference, but if you have stacked singles or noise reducing singles, there's another magnet in there somewhere and the secret may fit for you. I have an old Fender Eric Clapton "Blackie" with Lace Sensors and it is one of those guitars where rolling off the guitar volume and lifting the amp a bit does make a difference. Mind you, those Lace Sensors and the rest of the electrics are headed for the bin now that I have received a new set of pickups mounted in a scratchplate with new electronics from Tim Mills at Bare Knuckle.

Back to your humbucker equipped guitar. If you want to see if you can get more out of the instrument you have, there's no harm in trying out this little secret. The worst thing that can happen is that you don't hear a difference. My experience with good pickups into a nice tube amp or into a Kemper then into the DI, I do hear a difference to the positive.

First Look : Sire Larry Carlton H7 - the Sire "335"

There is a sound that comes from a semi-hollow electric guitar that is unique and special. There's no solid body or chambered solid body that delivers this tone. Where a solid body transient on picking is snappy and right up front, the transient on a semi-hollow rolls up on you, like a smooth rolling wave and embraces you in ways that you will never get with a solid body.

The challenge for some time is that the real poster children for these instruments has been the Gibson ES-335 and family members such as the ES-345 and ES-355. They are all double cutaway designs, elegant and graceful.

Some folks think that a semi-hollow suffers for rock and roll. I would direct your attention to a Mr. E. Clapton who created some of classic rock's most wonderful guitar tones on a 335.

When Sire decided to build their own deviant of the classic ES-335, they went to the man best known for the 335, Larry Carlton, aka "Mr. 335"

I was in The Arts Music Store in Newmarket Ontario today as they were unpacking the long awaited shipment of the Sire H7 guitars, what you and I would call the Sire 335.

I personally unpacked the one featured in this article and used it right out of the box. It wasn't checked or tweaked in any way. I took it out of the protective shipping bag and tuned it. I did not even dust it off. These things are like hen's teeth and I wanted to get this first look done before it was sold out of my hands. The Arts Music Store has stock, and that in and of itself is a rarity. They also just got stock on the Sire "Strat" and I think that I saw boxes for the Sire "LP". 

Back to the H7. I played it first acoustically and being a 335 owner, as well as multiple 355s, I noted immediately that the acoustic voice was very pleasant. It was not overly bright, nor overly boomy, very much like my '63 Reissue Gibson. The guitar is finished in poly, as expected these days and while the back of the neck is finished, it did not get sticky in any way. Fit and finish was excellent, and you can really see this by checking the binding at the f-holes which is wear things typically fall down for 335 clones. 

Sire is already renowned for their superlative rolled fingerboard edges and this is the only guitar in this value range that I have picked up that required no work on sharp fret edges. Sire has done a great job on this instrument. Like a real 335, it is made from laminated wood and the finish on the maple top is beautifully done. There is nice transparency in the amber and the transition to black in the two tone sunburst is very nicely down. I did not peel the protective plastics off, so if the photos look a bit off, that might be the reason. I normally use the maker's images, or shoot my own with studio gear, but I had to work quick so all images here were shot with my iPhone.

In my opinion, the headstock treatment is very classy, with minimal flash, a delivery model that I personally prefer. No enormous logos, no candy colour, no metal flake. Simple and clean, keeping with the classic, dare I say "iconic" body. Normally I hear makers use the words iconic and authentic and I throw up because of their self serving attitudes, but in this situation it applies.

I then plugged the H7 into a Fender FSR Princeton amplifier in Seafoam Green. For a little tube amp, it is surprisingly loud. With the tone controls all at 5, and reverb at 4, I tried out the H7. The neck pickup is rich and toneful, but a bit brighter than I expected. I had to roll the tone control off a bit to get what I was looking for. I chose the Princeton, because I see no point in auditioning pickups through pedals or dirty channels, and the Princeton tube amp is a known quantity to me. The bridge pickup is also nice and bright but in line with expectations. One thing I noticed is that the tone controls are done properly. Unlike so many guitars where the volume falls off a cliff when you roll the tone completely off, the Sire H7 just rolls the treble off without impacting volume. Switching between pickups is positive and silent in the signal chain. I was less thrilled with the volume pots, because I like to do manual volume swells from zero, and the pots go from nothing to HELLO rolling from 0 to 1. Reminds me of a Deluxe Reverb amplifier. Not a show stopper by any means, and since most folks use a volume pedal or swell pedal for that sort of thing, likely not a serious consideration.

The Sire came strung with Ernie Ball strings, which is nice as most often the first thing that I have to do with a new guitar is replace whatever shipped with it, with good strings. The thicker strings needed a bit more stretching to hold tune but once done, they were fine. I use the ever trustworthy Snark to tune and also used it to check intonation and found that the guitar was well set up. Action was good, no fret buzzing and no fretting out with aggressive bends.

Moving from blues and classic rock to a jazz theme, I found I had to roll the tone off more than I do on my Gibsons. That's just acclimatization. I still hear to near 17KHz and would rather have too bright than too dull. The sound from the pickups is very nice, about on par with a factory Gibson, or one of the PRS SE Hollowbody guitars. 

The Sire H7 was tagged at $1099.99 CAD. For that investment, it's awesome and I personally preferred it over similarly priced Epiphones. The body is larger than a PRS SE but it is also less expensive. The one downside is that like all Sire products, there is no case or gig bag so when you buy yours, or someone buys it for you, be sure to get a gig bag or case for it.

If you like the idea, head over to The Arts Music Store right away, these guitars will not stay in stock for long and it takes a long time for stock to arrive.

REVIEW - Cornerstone Gladio Overdrive - Dumblesque?

Hey folks.

That's a pretty dumb question since if you really want the sound of a Dumble amplifier, you need to get a Dumble amplifier. Too expensive you say? Yeah I'm there. Never played a Dumble? Yeah I am there too and so are lots of us because Dumbles aren't sitting around in most guitar shops waiting for us to show up and plug in.

So why the myriad pedals focused on being Dumblesque? Probably because it makes them sound like more Unobtainium, although there are a stack of so called Dumblesque pedals.

I bought the Gladio because I liked the sound that Mick Taylor of That Pedal Show was getting. Overdrives continue to enthuse me, because I am always chasing that perfect tone, whatever that actually means. I checked in with my supplier of more esoteric gear and he became the Canadian dealer for Cornerstone. I got one of the first Gladios to come to Canada via that route and love the darn thing,

The Gladio is a dual preamp pedal. I'm not an engineer so I don't know if it is a real preamp (meaning that it could replace the front end of an amplifier and only need a power amp) but I do like the sound regardless. Via a switch you can set the preamps as always independent or stackable. I tried it both ways and for me I preferred stackable. It allows me to chain the two gain stages and set each one up to be decent on its own but strongest together. Since doing so, I have it in a loop on my pedal switcher with both sides on all the time.

That board also has a Voodoo Labs amp switcher. I can send the signal to a Boogie Mark V, a PRS Dallas, a Marshall Silver Jubilee or an aged Super Lead Mark II. The Super Lead Mk II can be very clean to the point of deafening, and if I push it into that Marshall gain tone, the dB level is a health hazard. It runs through a WAZA Amp Expander to the Marshall 4x12 A and B cabs and I can get that Marshall gain tone without killing myself or summoning the police, but to roll off enough volume to clean things up, gives me inconsistent volume and a bit of high end pain.

Enter the Gladio. Now with a tap of a switch I can go from the very classic Marshall clean tone, which is often overlooked in favour of their overdrive tone to a wonderful gain tone. Marshall clean is not Fender blackface pristine, not VOX chimey, but lovely none the less, like an old Fender brown face amp. The overdrive driven by the Gladio sounds like it should out of big Marshall stack. It's so good that I was continually pushing the volume playing a 1960 Vintage Reissue Les Paul that my little handheld sound meter, encouraged me to stop as did the ringing in my ears. Fortunately the neighbours did not call the police.

There are a number of Youtube videos out there with tone samples of the Gladio, although I personally recommend those from That Pedal Show because I know them best. Andertons in the UK usually does some good videos, but their Cornerstone video was horrible and does not do the company or its products justice in any way.

One of the things that makes some folks think that the Gladio is trying to achieve a Dumblesque label is the control markings. You will see a Jazz / Rock switch as found on some Dumble amps on the right side preamp. You also have an option to add some compression on the left side preamp. The centre switch lets you control how the preamps work together or work independently. The other controls are simpler with options for Gain, Volume and Tone, with independent options for each preamp. There are no secret squirrel button hold downs or other nonsense to get in the way of your use. This is a performer's tool, less a tweaker tool although I have found the range of adjustment options to be significant.

Personally, I don't like overdrives that artificially bump a specific area of the spectrum to the disadvantage of others. That's one of the things that I dislike about tube screamers and their millions of variants. The other thing that I appreciate about the Gladio is that it does not artificially shelve off the high end. There's less likelihood of getting that overdrive mud sound. Now if you like that sort of thing, the Gladio is not for you. 

I've written mostly about how the Gladio sounds through the old Marshall. It sounds very good through the Silver Jubilee as well, although if I have to pick, I like it better through the Super Lead Mark II. I am less fond of it, or any overdrive for that matter, through the Boogie Mark V. In that amp, I prefer the built in crunch and overdrive channels because they do a better job of maximizing the headroom. The PRS Dallas is Paul Reed Smith's take on a classic American amplifier, more brown Rolex than Blackface. It is a beautifully clean amp, but with less jangle than a Fender Blackface Twin. The sound of the Gladio through the PRS is also lovely, albeit with different settings than with the Marshall.

The pedals takes a 9 volt supply. On that board I have a CIOKS DC7 and CIOKS 8 to provide power to the pedals and each pedal is on its own loop in a Cusack Pedal Tamer.

The Gladio is not in every store. I got mine from ElectricMojoGuitars. At $549 CAD, no one can call it inexpensive. It's more expensive than a Keeley D&M Drive which I own and that lives with a Victory Viscount or the Hudson Broadcast dual preamp that lives with a Fender Custom Hot Rod Deluxe. Both are fine products, but if I could have only one, it would be a Gladio.

Check one out and until we meet again, peace.

The Influx of new cheap pedals

I am a fan of Josh Scott, founder of JHS Pedals. He is passionate about his work and the people that he employs at JHS. Forty people, pedals made in the USA. A pretty wide range of options, often based on a popular pedal from the past, but extended to be something more than the inspiration. For this, a buyer pays a fair, but not low, price and for the most part, seems to like the pedal. I own a few products from JHS, preamps, switchers, a really cool box that goes in the effects loop to reduce the volume of the amp without needing a big chassis or complex modelling, along with a couple of more traditional pedals. The build quality is excellent and while I have not loved one or two, overall, I am inclined to encourage folks to give them a try.

I am also aware of some Internet based hate a thons pertaining to Mr. Scott. I have never met the man, but have friends who know him. If you hate him, your business, I don't care and it has nothing to do with this article.

Recently JHS released their 3 series. These are what one would call basic circuits in a plain white box designed to hit the $100USD mark. I am in Canada, so by the time they get here, it's more than just US-CAD exchange, and the deal is less outstanding. While being basic circuits in plain white boxes, these sound very good and are made in the same factory, by the same people. In business this is recognized as simplification and margin reduction in order to gain volume.

The COVID pandemic has to a large extent helped the guitar and effects marketplace. Sales of guitars, effects and amps are up in every shop or online only seller that I have talked with. Pickup makers like Bare Knuckle are busy. The only big concern for independent stores is how much stock they have to buy now in preparation for the next phase / mutation of the COVID virus.

We can agree that there are already more pedals out there than any one player can own. Some, like those from Strymon, are expensive, state of the art constructs. Others are ridiculously priced remakes of pedals from the sixties that were noisy, tone sapping, volume sapping junk, but they were "vintage man" and fortunately for owners of the original stuff there are more than enough people with lots of money who will sacrifice a vital organ to get a mid sixties whatever because they think it's better. I'm ok with this. I have some really old pedals that I don't use, that I can scuff up and call vintage and sell to someone on Reverb or eBay and then buy a couple of brand new pedals that work and sound a lot better.

If you want to see a great comparison of vintage and new, head over to this episode of The JHS Show. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJYxsG0N0nk&feature=emb_logo

It was successful because it induced either dark laughter or apoplexy depending on your level of delusion about old capacitors and resistors.

Now about those cheap pedals. They are coming from Asia, with a lot of them coming from China. There are folks who will not buy from China for emotional and political reasons and in that to each their own, but not buying goods made in China is pretty darn tough. Yes the people get paid less. Yes the quality control is not there (yet). Yes they may use components of lower quality or consistency. However since the average buyer is chasing the last dime, none of this matters to the majority. Your super expensive Apple or Lenovo computer is made with components produced in China and may actually be built there. If you have a smartphone, it's coming from Asia. It's all pretty to kvetch about China but sorry to tell you, that ship has sailed.

A Chinese manufacturer called NUX is in the market offering inexpensive, read cheap, pedals. Construction quality is meh, there is nothing special here, and the circuits are copies of other circuits done elsewhere for years. In China there is no such thing as copyright or patent protection. Not just China of course, but that's another conversation. The NUX stuff hits a price point and could make it possible for a buyer whose circumstance prevents buying a TC Electronic or ElectroHarmonix pedal to get a decent sounding pedal for not a lot of money. This should not cause fear for good makers, but in all the yap about free markets, there is also a lot of yap about protectionism. As Robert E Heinlein wrote, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch", or to paraphrase you cannot have a free market while creating protectionist policies. 

I credit Josh Scott for his attitude here. He understands that the person buying a cheap product is not the person who would be buying a JHS pedal today. However, if that person enjoys their pedal, and plays more, that person may at some time choose to upgrade to something better. My box of old stuff is there because that's what happened with me. Delivering pizzas in my teens didn't generate enough spare cash to buy higher end kit, so I went with what I could afford. And back then, it was all good. When I decided it was no longer what I wanted to hear, I replaced it, and that has continued for 45 years.

Now Amazon in the US has added guitar pedals to their AmazonBasics lineup. This line recognizes a marketplace for low price commodities. That pedals are to some extent a commodity is excellent news for the music industry. It means that there are lots of people playing and buying guitars who want effects. The AmazonBasics stuff is made by NUX. They sell for less than the NUX branded boxes which are identical. The difference is that you might get decent packaging and a bit of support from NUX and you won't from Amazon beyond a flexible return policy and a low price.

I understand that there are people whose heads explode when you say Amazon. Ok, they hate Amazon, everything about the company, its practices, its business model and would like to burn Jeff Bezos. Here's an idea. Instead of twisting one's shorts into a private part crushing tourniquet, don't deal with Amazon. Don't shop there. Don't support the business. Move on and enjoy life. Your ranting on some forum on the Internet will not change anything and it's bad for your blood pressure.

Am I going to buy an AmazonBasics pedal? No. Because for me, as an alleged musician, a pedal is not a commodity. I much prefer the Cornerstone Gladio made in Italy to anything from effects monster Boss, let alone a Chinese made clone of someone else's design. 

Heck I will pay more for nicely soft non-tearing toilet paper, so I guess even that is not a commodity. 

I choose to buy Duracell batteries. I have tried the AmazonBasics. It did not go well, and I will never buy them again. However, for the young person who needs a stack of 9V for their pedal array, they will get the job done. Maybe poor consistency and with a higher failure rate but when they cost about 25 cents a piece instead of two bucks a piece, that's going to be ok with some folks.

If you think an AmazonBasics effects pedal is a horrible idea, don't buy one. But don't give a bunch of grief to the ten year old kid cutting lawns all summer so he or she can get a couple of effects on the floor. That kid could be the next Hendrix, or the next person who just plays for his or her own pleasure and in either case, it's not your problem nor your business.

Review : BOSS RC-10R Looper

Loopers. Some folks, like the amazing Peter Honore, propose that a Looper should be one of the first pedals that any player gets. When you see and hear what Danish Pete can accomplish with a looper, you may agree. I have also seen how KT Tunstall uses loopers to do most of the pieces to Black Horse and the Cherry Tree on her own via skilled use of loopers on her rig.

If you have ever watched the videos from Norm's Rare Guitars, you have seen Michael Lemmo use a TC Electronics Ditto looper on many of the demos. And we are seeing more and more effects come with a looper and even an announcement from TC Electronics of a new version coming of the so common Ditto.

So why then would you spend more money on a looper from Boss?

The answer for me was to have a backing drummer available to jam against, in the tempo and style of my choice. Certainly I could go buy and download backing tracks and I will do that from time to time, but since getting the RC-10R, practice time is more fun and more inclined to encourage me to experiment. It's also a lot more fun than a metronome.

It's easiest to think of this as two devices. Think high end very powerful looper pedal and a very capable drum machine. The drum machine side has over 280 built in rhythm styles with intros, outros and transitions to choose from. You control the tempo and the style. It's like a Roland drum machine without the programming. Indeed it sounds as good and is faster to use than my Roland TR-8, and is a much better drummer than I am myself. There are also 16 different drum kits to choose from.

It's easy to create loops, add to them, layer over them and if you mess up to back up. Do take the time to read the docs to get up to speed quickly.

You can also update the device from your computer and also download the free Boss Tone Studio for RC-10R from the Boss site. Tone Studio is available for Windows and macOS computers.

Describing a looper in text is pretty tough, so I will provide you with two YouTube links that I highly recommend. Both feature Mr. Peter Honore of Anderton's Music. I am not sponsored in any way by Mr. Honore or Anderton's Music, I simply find these to be excellent practical demonstrations of the RC-10R by a true professional.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5j3_2y_C34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SkUTsbv9d0

I also like that I can set the RC-10R to sound best when going to a guitar amp or to a full range sound system. There is also full MIDI support using the smaller ⅛ style plugs. BOSS does sell converters from the small connectors to the larger multi pin MIDI connectors if you require such things.

While it could look a bit complicated, particularly compared to one button loopers, the power and flexibility here is pretty amazing. If you want to practice or jam alone to something more flexible than a metronome and without having to figure out how to bring backing tracks into your game, this may be the perfect solution for you. And if maybe your timing on loop starts and stops is far from perfect, there is functionality in the box that helps there too. Sure helped me.

The Whole Relic Thing…

I've noticed that the vast majority of instruments coming out of the Gibson and Fender Custom Shops are delivered with fake aging. This is probably true for other makers as well, but it is these two that I have been thinking about a lot lately.

I have learned from Lee Anderton of Anderton's Music in Guildford, Surrey that when they order custom shop instruments on spec for sale through their retail shop or their wide reaching web store, that they are pretty much guaranteed to sell out if these instruments are what the industry likes refer to has having a relic treatment. Different levels of this aging are available from something as gentle as NOS (new old stock) such as one would encounter in a guitar that spent its entire life in a case in an environmentally controlled environment to the "heavy relic" where the instrument looks like it spent the last half century being played behind chicken wire while an audience of drunks and fools threw beer, food and bottles at it, and then the player casually dropped it several times a week.

I have seen these relic instruments, and also the real thing, the real thing being an instrument well played by a musician or musicians for decades, not with intent to damage but where actual wear and tear has worn through finishes, where there are dings and dents and perhaps the odd beverage or dozen has hit it accidentally. I have played and handled instruments from the fifties and sixties, played regularly through their lives and with rare exception, none of them are in truly execrable shape.

This happens with parts as well. I bought a second set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups for a reissue 1963 SG because I like the sound of the set installed in my 1971 Les Paul (a Norlin era Deluxe, modified by the original owner to take humbuckers). When the pickups arrived, they sounded great, but the covers looked like they had been dug out of a collapsed basement bar. I really hate that look.

I recently saw an interview of the blues great Walter Trout. He's an amazing man, with a wonderful attitude who still plays his original 1973 Stratocaster. He loves the guitar. It looks like warmed over shit, and to some extent has probably aged the way it has because it's a proper CBS era Strat from when quality control were two words that never went together. Sidebar, anyone who tells you that they have a "vintage" 70s Fender is putting lipstick on a decade of instruments where vintage means old guitar that was crap from its build day. I was there then. There is nothing vintage about a late CBS instrument or a Norlin era Gibson for that matter. 

Mr. Trout believes, and so do I, that a guitar, like a person, earns its scars through real life, not through makeup and prosthetics. I have argued on multiple special orders with Gibson that if they dared VOS (vintage old stock) my order, I would refuse it. Many times it took months to resolve even though the fakery should have taken more time and cost them more. Gibson in the early 2000s was a very customer disoriented company, and may be getting better although their constant babble about authentic and iconic sets my bullshit meter to breaking.

So I am one of those people who isn't interested in a relic instrument. I will buy and have bought old instruments that have suffered their aging. The ones I paid for, I determined had earned their stripes. Others were just old junk, and I expect someone else bought them.

This fake aging foolishness came about during the first boom in "vintage" guitars, a marketing term to attempt to assert that anything old was more like unobtainium than just an old guitar. Norm Harris of Norm's Rare Guitars actually brought awareness of the facility of older instruments very much to the forefront. Nothing wrong there. If you want to pay through the nose for an old instrument not necessarily built better than one from the current excellent options, that is entirely your business. Mr. Harris does have some truly lovely vintage pieces, albeit at prices that will forever be outside my range and return on value.

When the boom started a lot of people who were not musicians started buying old guitars not to play but as investments or pieces of art. The strings were not touched, the instruments went into display cases and were hung on walls. As happened with old motorcycles, a bunch of people with money but no true passion drove prices up by making these things collectable.

The makers were troubled to see all this money changing hands and none of it going through their own hands. So they built guitars and started fake aging them to give the buyer the illusion that he (mostly he) was getting an instrument that had been through the wars. Did this make the buyer feel that he got a better instrument? Perhaps, although the reality is more likely that it served to puff a deflated ego. I have encountered the vintage owner more than once who alluded to owning a really old guitar, when it was only a new guitar made to look old. I understand a love of older, simpler things, such as old cars, or old motorcycles or old instruments. Most of these are used by the owner to drive personal pleasure from them, not to play show off to a bunch of other show-offs, although that is not uncommon. Some may like the idea of collecting up 1950s vintage furniture of real wood and interesting design, but the market for yellowed and cracked 1950s vintage linoleum has not broken out yet. So why would you buy a perfectly good instrument and then pay extra to have someone abuse the finish with acids, hit the body with chains to dent it and rub charcoal into a fretboard after sanding the finish off? Does the instrument play better?

There are some who say that an aged instrument is popular because buyers are afraid of damaging a new pristine instrument and are more comfortable with something is already broken in. Please sign me up for when the same people want a new car that looks broken in. I will be happy to help them out to make their new vehicle look like it survived a tour in a war zone. Said this way, it sounds really stupid, and that's because it is stupid.

I have old amplifiers where the Tolex is worn and torn at the corners from having people bang the cabinets into stuff, likely too narrow doorways of too many clubs. One old Marshall head has duct tape on the back plate to remind the owner of the impedance settings because the original lettering was long gone. It plays well, although it is a bit noisy and like most real old Marshalls, needs to be cranked to the point of deafening and police summoning to breathe well. Thank goodness for the Universal Audio OX, I just wish it had two speaker cabinet outs...Marshall 100 watt heads are meant to sit on top of two 4x12 cabinets. Just saying...

This nuttiness even exists in pedals. The original ToneBender was popular in the 60s with players who wanted something different. The componentry in it might have a value of about six bucks, although new old stock germanium transistors, that I call roulette transistors because they are not predictable, are getting harder to find. 

I cannot imagine that if Jimi Hendrix were still alive he would still be playing his old Fuzzface. He showed innovation all the time, so it is unlikely that fifty years later he would still be using those old effects. That Jimmy Page used an old ToneBender in It Might Get Loud, is not an indicator that this is the only tool he still uses.

Do you need to go buy a vintage (aka old) tube amp to get a good tone? Of course not. Collector extraordinaire Joe Bonamassa, who actually owns the amps that people aspire to, will tell you that you don't have to have tubes to get a good tone. If you like the feel of tubes, good for you, but there is little rationale to spend twice as much for tubes over solid state if you cannot tell the difference over YouTube (and no, the limitations of bandwidth mean you cannot actually hear a difference). Otherwise why would so many players be skipping amps entirely to go direct to the board with amp emulators and speaker IRs? Why is the seemingly most popular amp these days the Boss Katana? In full disclosure, I own the lunchbox version and while I have issues with the user interface and the need for a bluetooth connected smart phone to actually leverage the capability, and the idiocy of using AA batteries instead of a lithium power pack, it's a pretty awesome little practice amp with incredible versatility when connected to a smart device and wonderful tone for its size.

I very much like guitars built today to the specifications of their aged predecessors. I own a number of reissue Les Paul guitars that are built like they were in the year that the reissue is meant to exemplify. They are all different, and I went through a number of iterations of a specific reissue to find one that felt right on many occasions. I very recently played five different Gibson Custom Shop 1960 Les Pauls with the v2 neck profile to find one that I could bond with. How fortunate for me, that any age fakery was minimal because that guitar sits in a stand beside other guitars and gets played regularly. Yes it was stupid money and while I do not think it is necessarily a better guitar than a modern Les Paul, I bought it specifically because I was born in 1960 and will never afford an actual 1960 Les Paul.

Some makers are taking this rebuilding old instruments pretty far. I can now go into a guitar shop (thank goodness the Internet has not killed actual guitar shops) and pick up a reissue 1970s Fender, with bullet truss rod and three bolt neck. I can only hope that the buyer does not get an accurate 1970s CBS Fender replica for their dollar. Perhaps Gibson will remake early Norlin era Les Pauls with the resonance killing sandwich body and bursts sprayed by those legally blind. Or perhaps they already did so. I do see a lot of 1970s era Les Paul Customs (painted because there was no figure to the tops and the paint conceals the horrible sandwich bodies) on Reverb for ridiculous money. The original Les Pauls from this time were really horrible, why would you want to pay six times what it cost new for a what was a pretty lousy guitar? Oh yes, so you can have a "vintage" guitar.

I have another idea. Go try out a bunch of guitars. Find one that feels right under your fingers, that appeals to you and that suits what you like to play. Forget what the marketers and the advertisers and the YouTubers say. You can do it. They aren't helping. Then buy it and let it get old along with you. That's how you get a real aged instrument. As you see at the top, it worked for Rory Gallagher.

Review : Line 6 HX Effects

While it may seem that multi-effects units are on the wane, that may be an exaggeration. The big name multi-effects units are commonly discussed in the topics of amplifier modeling and profiling. However, if you don't need modelling or profiling, but do want a giant drum of high quality effects options along with incredible ease of use, there are very credible options available. I recently added one to my range of tools, the HX Effects from Line 6.

This unit has all the same effects options as the powerful Helix Floor and Helix LT devices, without a built in expression pedal or any amplifier simulations. That brings the price down substantially and if you shop you can often find it at the same price as the less powerful Line 6 HX Stomp.

Regular readers know of my tendency to go for individual pedals and often those from less known makers, so why consider a multi effects unit from as big a name as Line 6, which is owned by the even bigger Yamaha?

While Line 6 is owned by Yamaha, in my opinion they still have some of the agility found in a smaller company. There's also the fact that for many musicians, the sounds delivered by Line 6 effects are perfectly effective. Remember that these are the same effects as found in Helix used by many professional musicians. 

I find the HX Effects quite easy to set up to suit and easy to make changes if you want to switch one of the effects for another one. You can also use it just like a traditional pedal board and can also control the routing of your effects. In my use case, the HX Effects serves as the board for a Koch Multitone and the flexibility to have some of the effects in front of the amp and others live in the amp's effects loop if I wish brings me the kind of flexibility that I desire. 

Unlike the big Helix, I still need a guitar amp and that is likely true for a lot of us. We have guitars and amps that we already own and like, but just want a compact pedal setup for gigs and easy travel. For me, tear down is just unplugging cables and the expression pedal that I have connected to the HX Effects. No power supplies, no patch cables, and the thing is light enough to go in a backpack. And, if you run all your effects in front of the amp, then cabling is super simple as well.

The other difference I see compared to some other alternatives is build quality. The box itself is tough and the foot switches feel the same as the switches on the full size Helix. This device can be used at home or even in the bedroom for practice but is tough enough to hold up on stage. I find it very quiet and that it works well with a variety of different pickups and guitars which is nicely flexible.

As you can see on the rear of the unit, the connections are well labeled and you can control the unit via MIDI if you wish. There is also a USB connection to manage firmware.

While a lot of folks use it as a giant stomp box collection (I do) there is also the ability to run the unit in preset mode which allows you to group effects together into a preset for easy large scale changes. The CPU in the box is powerful enough to run up to 9 effects at the same time. You can also load IRs into the device if you'd like.

The unit comes with a cheat sheet and I have to say it gets you started but if you don't download the full manual and spend time with it, you are missing out. This is a very powerful device with a ton of capability that could go unused without spending time in the documentation. Consider yourself warned.

Tone is very subjective, but I am going to give Line 6 a lot of credit in their delivery of effects simulation. In addition to the Helix effects which are typically mono/stereo (the whole box is stereo capable with independent right and left channels), there are what Line 6 calls Legacy effects, which are the effects from older dedicated Line 6 pedals such as their now very desirable delay device. 

For my use cases, I found the Minotaur to be very Klon like, certainly close to the original just remember to adjust the settings as the initial start of the Minotaur is more harsh than a lot of people would set their Klon. The LA Studio Comp is a wonderful emulation of the fabulous Teletronix LA 2A. The Vermin Dist is very much like my old ProCo RAT and the Courtesan Flanger is reminiscent of the EH Deluxe Electric Mistress without the excessive noise. I also was pleasantly surprised that the Elephant Man delay sounds like my memory of my long since dead EH Deluxe Memory Man. Finally while I am not a Tube Screamer guy, the emulated TS is pretty accurate although my preference is the Valve Driver option that is really a wonderful clone of the old Chandler Tube Driver.

If you don't care for any of my faves, that's cool because there are over 100 effects built in. You can tweak with the knobs or even with your feet via the switches if you are so dexterous.

Could you buy nine individual effects, the power supply, the cabling and the board for less than the HX Effects? Not likely if you were going for better sounding pedals, and then you would have only nine decent pedals without the option for 91 alternatives.

For a lot of players, the HX Effects could very well be the right answer. Perhaps even for you. Consider your personal use cases and when you can head into your preferred guitar store, audition the HX Effects against individual pedals. It might be precisely what you are looking for.

Review : Cali76 STACKED Edition from Origin Effects

What could be better than one compressor? Two compressors! Specifically two compressors that are joined together in the same box. Especially when they are the modern equivalents of UREI 1176 class studio processors.

Now I understand that a compressor may not be on the top of your must have list, but you might be amazed by what a difference a really great compressor can make in your tone.

For a lot of folks, the word compressor brings to mind the classic Ross style guitar pedals, or the many alternatives using a similar circuit design. You also hear the term "chicken picken'" in relation to compressors. This naming has been known to drive away players who don't play "country". That's too bad because a good compressor can help any tone.

The Cali76 Stacked Edition is based on a very different circuit, the same model as the famous UREI 1776 studio rack compressor. It's very different from a classic "squishy" compressor. The tone is different, richer, wider and while all compressors reduce dynamic range to some extent, the Cali76 family have none of that squishiness. Some compressors also introduce some unpleasant boost effects. Not this one. While you can dial in a small amount of boost, this is not a boost pedal

What it is, is two compressors that work independently and where you have the ability to control how much of the first compressed signal hits the second compressor. I have heard compressors described as "overdrive for your clean tone". I presume that by this the person saying so is describing the increased sustain that can come from a decent overdrive. A good compressor can certainly do that for your clean tone, but the non-squish kind can also benefit an overdriven tone. I am not a user of distortion or fuzz and they introduce so much compression themselves, I cannot comment on the need for a compressor for those playing through such devices.

What I like about the Cali76 Stacked Edition is that I can set each compressor to do what I want. I will typically set the first compressor to increase sustain and increase fullness. This is my always on option. I can then use the second compressor to further increase sustain with some more compression of the dynamic range or just let it control peaks in the signal, typically associated with variations in pick attack and where on the string I hit in relation to the pickup poles.

There is no one size fits all setting. Different guitars and different pickups deliver different responses. When you see the Cali76 Stacked Edition as two devices, it gets a lot simpler to understand and use.

The Cali 76 Stacked Edition requires a power supply that is not included. There is no battery option and for my use cases, that does not matter to me. My unit is on the split board for my AC30 with the Cali76 Stacked Edition, a Frost Giant Treble Booster and ThorpFX Dane into the front of the amp, with the delays and chorus effects in the effects loop. As I often use single coil pickups through this amp, I use a TC Electronics Sentry to control noise. I like the Sentry because the one pedal works both in front of the amp and in the effects loop.

Playing a Strat, a Tele or a Rickenbacker through the Cali76 Stacked Edition into the AC30 is a wonder of chime and sustain, and I will use the compressor even when pushing the signal with the treble booster or the Dane and am very happy with the tonal results.

This is a boutique pedal and if you want to get one, I heartily recommend going to ElectricMojoGuitars to get yours.

Let’s Talk About Pedal Power

If you are, as I am, somewhat of a pedal geek, you know that getting the right power to your pedals is a real thing.

For those of us who may be inclined to use pedals that are more demanding than the commonplace units that don't need more than 9V or 100mA there are lots of inexpensive options out there. Yet when we read up on power supplies a couple of things come up very quickly. The first thing is that each power tap is fully isolated. Why we would care is simply noise. Some pedals are noisy. Some are really noisy. You don't want that transitioning to being electrically noisy down your chain. Even with good inexpensive chain supplies like the well respected OneSpot devices isolation can be a problem.

In my case, I have purchased a number of pedals that cannot get by with 100mA. Some have different power connections or flip the centre negative to centre positive and this starts to mean a plethora of wall warts. To be candid, I have found that some of these wall warts are not really well shielded and become little noise antennae all on their own.

What really struck me was the price jump from non-isolated to non-branded may be isolated supplies to name brand isolated supplies. Talk to a pro tech and they are using Voodoo Labs or Strymon power supplies. The rationale is proven reliability, flexible voltages, support for diverse connections and the ability to drive more amps to demanding pedals.

I am a fan of boutique stuff, or higher end kit, such as Strymon for example. Many of their products come with wall wart supplies because they are demanding of amperage. Some devices also sound better if you can feed them more power.

I was planning on buying a Strymon power system when I learned from my friend Charles of ElectricMojo Guitars about CIOKS. 

I have had nothing but good success with Charles so I went with a DC7 unit. The connectors on the block are RCA style connectors so not the more standard DC power sleeves. The cables come with the unit, in a variety of lengths and with reversed polarity and ⅛ inch options. The greatest thing about the DC7 is that each output is selectable for one of 9, 12, 15 or 18 volts with plenty of mA available in every case. I have been very successful with the CIOKS except where I screwed up and used the wrong cable with a Diamond Halo Chorus and fried the voltage regulator. Diamond has excellent service and the repair was cheaper than what it cost me to ship the unit to them.

I mounted the CIOKS DC7 to the underside of a PedalTrain board. This particular board is for DI recording use and headphone practice only. Even with a full load of Strymon effects (it is an all Strymon board - except the Tuner) there is no problem and things sound fabulous.

When I started moving away from the OneSpot stuff, my first step was to one of the Donner units available on Amazon. Says that they are fully isolated, but I found that they were randomly glitchy. Promised LEDs worked only some of the time and I would get weird things. As I maintain a number of boards for different amps, the Donners were an inexpensive solution, but are proving to be suboptimal.

The other problem that I have run into, is my love of pedals in general. 7 or 8 power ports aren't enough, so either I needed multiple blocks or the ability to extend.

The DC7 has a 24V extender port to which you can connect other CIOKS products designed to be power extenders. The CIOKS 8 is such a product. It is powered from the DC7 and gives you an additional 8 fully switchable and fully isolated ports.

CIOKS 8

Even for a geek like me, this is enough. I also find the full isolation helpful as some of my boards are split with some of the pedals in front of the amp and others in the effects loop. Where I have encountered strangeness in the past with other supplies, no such thing is so with the CIOKS stuff.

CIOKS was founded in Denmark in 1991 by Poul Cioks. They are one of those small, highly focused manufacturers that do what they do extremely well and don't try to be everything to everyone. The boxes themselves are really tough and nice and compact. For the stage performer, they have the durability you would need and for the recording artist, they are perfectly silent.

I've tried more power supplies than I want to admit. For my use cases, with boutique pedals with different power demands, and wanting something reliable that was going to last and that would do what it says it would do while having lots of power availability, the CIOKS family is perfect.

If you want to buy a CIOKS, I will always recommend ordering from ElectricMojoGuitars

Thanks for reading and we will speak again soon.

Review : Revival Drive Compact by Origin Effects

As guitarists the correct answer for how many overdrives we have seems to be at least one more than what we already have. I count myself in this space. I've not thus far been much enamoured of distortion and fuzz pedals but overdrives are an issue for me, and while I sometimes find other reviews to be JAFO content, I have to say that the Origin Effects Revival Drive Compact does not fit in that bucket.

The Compact is a smaller version of the double sized and nearly double priced full unit.

The full size Revival drive

You'll notice that the Compact has half the functions of the full size leaving out the Silicon Rectifier side. This was ok with me and why I chose the Compact model.

The controls are incredibly simple, and Origin provides some suggested settings in their documentation to get you started for different configurations.

My test environment is a very lean board (tuner, Revival Drive, Keeley Delay) into the front of a Fender '65 Twin Reverb Reissue. I love the Twins enormous power and tendency to stay clean at all volume levels. Twin users know that at full pop, a Twin will blow you through a wall, so I tend to play it with the volume relatively low. Using the Revival Drive gives me a lot of tone control without having to have the amp too loud not that it would overdrive much anyway.

I have tested the unit with single coils from an SRV Strat which has the Texas Specials pickups, an Eric Johnson Strat, a rosewood Telecaster from the 80s, a Gretsch White Penguin 59VS and a Les Paul 57 Black Beauty. Obviously I need to alter the settings on the Revival Drive for these different guitars, but in every case I have been successful quickly in getting an overdrive tone that I like without having to resort to black magic in the guitar settings. If I could say that about all the other overdrives that I have owned and tried, I would have a smaller number of them.

My Revival Drive Compact came from my good friends at Electric Mojo Guitars. They are my primary dealer for boutique stuff and my provider for my other Origin Systems gear. I find Charles to be both knowledgeable and helpful with excellent pricing and very fast delivery. Origin Effects kit is not found in many stores, partly because they are a small company and also frankly because the price points are well over better known overdrives and the buyer market is fairly vertical.

However, if you are tone hound and are looking for an overdrive that really kills it, but that is also versatile enough that it's not a one trick pony and that plays nicely with other amps (I have used it with an AC30, Marshall 2555, PRS Dallas, Kock Multitone and Blackstar Club 40). I even tried into the front of the tiny Yamaha THR30 II. All good sounds, although I admit a preference for valve (tube) amps.

If you can handle the cost of acquisition, this pedal is the finest that I have found for this kind of task.

Review : Dawner Prince Boonar

There are a few products in the market that aspire to bring the sound of vintage Binson Echorec delays to the pedal marketplace. I have already looked at the Catalinbread offering and have not yet found the opportunity to test out the Strymon Volante in depth. The Volante is more than just an Echorec delay, and more than what I wanted specifically. Charles at Electric Mojo Guitars recommended the Dawner Prince Boonar Mk II.

He has never steered me wrong. In fact, his company is where I go for boutique pedals because, frankly, he has them and knows his stuff.

Dawner-Prince is out of Croatia. Origin should not matter, but while we see lots of pedals from Japan, the US, the UK and even Canada, I was not aware of a high end Croation builder. Now I know better.

The Boonar is a recreation of a Binson Echorec in a pedal. It is very small and does this one job with great aplomb. If you are a fan of the work of David Gilmour, you know the sound of the Echorec. It's not a tape delay, it is a rotating magnetic drum with four equally spaced playback heads. What makes the Echorec special is that you can activate any combination of the playback heads, and the four simple buttons on the Boonar make this a complete treat. This was one of my complaints with the Catalinbread. I also note, that in my opinion, the Boonar just sounds better. It is more expensive to be sure, but for glassy clean tones with just the right magnetic drum delay, there is nothing else that I have tried in depth like this device.

You might be wondering what all the fuss is about a device designed to sound like a drum based echo device with four fixed playback heads that first showed up in the late 50s. Partly it is the idea of renewing a vintage sound, partly it’s the desire to emulate the sounds of artists that we like, and partly it’s the reality that a genuine Echorec sounds like nothing else.

The Boonar does a great job of being an Echorec.  There are four “playback heads”, buttons really that you can turn off or on.  The delay between heads is always consistent, whatever delay you set, is the same separation between heads.  Whichever heads you activate, create echoes that are governed by the global settings, so you can get repeat patterns really not available on a different type device and certainly not with the high level of simplicity.

The controls are powerful but still simple to use. There is documentation included, but I really liked that I could plug the device in and get good sounds without having to traverse the docs.

Across the top you have a volume knob, to control, you know, the volume. Next up is a tone control, handy because the nature of a drum is that it can lose a bit of high end. You have more control with this. Then there is a level indicator because the Boonar has a preamp and you will probably want to know when it is clipping. Then there is the Swell knob which controls the modulation of the echos. Finally there is the Drum speed, basically a control on the rotation speed of the virtual drum. Think of this as the delay control. Each of the playback heads is an illuminated push button. Push to turn the playback head on or off. Simple as can be. There are two foot switches, the left most used to configure your swell or repeats setting and the right one to turn the effect on or off. There's a small knob on the top that lets you set the age of the drum. This gives you some very nice textural control, similar to the wow and flutter controls on the better tape echo simulators. On the right side is a small control to allow you to manipulate the input impedance to better match the pickups in use from 100 kOhm to 1 mOhm.

Power requirements are 9V minimum, but you can use a supply up to 15v. The input power is converted internally to 24v.

I have tried several different Echorec effects. In my opinion, the Boonar kills all the others. Yes it is more expensive and worth every cent. I live in Canada and sourced my Boonar from Electric Mojo Guitars, the company that I use for all my boutique pedals. I highly recommend them.

A Live Introduction to Boucher Guitars

Last night, February 4th, 2020, I attended a "clinic" at The Arts Music Store in Newmarket Ontario where the store hosted Boucher Guitars and their ambassador JP Cormier.

Before I get into what I saw and heard, a word or several on JP Cormier. I first saw JP a couple of decades ago in Nova Scotia. In his show he played guitar, fiddle and mandolin and absolutely blew me away with his talent, stage presence and humour. Tenure has made him a bit more direct, but he is absolutely amazing and if you would like to learn more about his music go to https://www.jp-cormier.com You can also find his music online on Apple Music if you are a subscriber. Chet Atkins, yes THAT Chet Atkins called JP one of the most important guitarists of his generation. No argument from me.

Back to the guitars. The website for Boucher Guitars is https://boucherguitars.com (surprise!). It's possible that you may not have familiarity with the brand so let me help you out. Boucher was founded by luthier and player Robin Boucher. The factory that produces hand-made guitars is located in Berthier-sur-Mer in the Canadian province of Quebec. While many folks hear Appalachian and immediately think of the Appalachian range in the United States, the range starts in Canada and the town is right there. One of the greatest tone woods coming out of Appalachia is the Red Spruce aka Picea Rubens. While most of us have heard of Sitka Spruce, and Engelmann Spruce, Red Spruce is much rarer and has a very different tone, at once more dynamic and more even across frequencies. You will find red spruce used in the tops of custom shop builds from other makers at substantial cost, or as the default top in ALL Boucher guitars. Does it sound different? Oh yes.

In the clinic session, JP played an assortment of Boucher guitars. They do three lines; Studio Goose, Bluegrass Goose and Heritage Goose. I have heard some dimwits take the company to task for using the word Goose in the names. There is good reason for doing so, explained on the company website. At least they never use the words "authentic" or "iconic" in their messaging.

The Studio Goose and Bluegrass Goose lineup have similar body style options and even similar wood choices for sides and back, but differ in their bracing patterns. The reality in my opinion, is that either line is perfect for any use, but the joy is in the playing and finding the one that is the most "you". The Heritage Goose line is built to feature only the small body acoustics, the 000 12 Fret and the Parlour 12 Fret. More on these later.

JP Cormier with a Bluegrass Goose Dreadnought before clinic start. The Arts Music Store Assistant Manager Ryan Ainsworth introduced the clinic and welcomed the guests.

Dreadnought style guitars are very popular and you can find this body shape in both the Studio Goose and Bluegrass Goose lines. Studio Goose Dreadnoughts offer the buyer the choice of African Bubinga, American Walnut, Brazilian Mahogany or East Indian Rosewood. Bluegrass Goose Dreadnoughts offer the buyer the choice of Brazilian Mahogany, East Indian Rosewood, Madagascar Rosewood or Brazilian Rosewood. That last one is NOT a typo. 

JP Cormier with a Studio Goose OM body. I think that this one had Rosewood back and sides but hard to tell from the crappy iPhone image.

Jazz and finger style players often prefer the OM (Orchestra Model) size bodies. The Studio Goose OM line offers the buyer the choice of African Bubinga, American Walnut, Brazilian Mahogany or Canadian Curly Maple. Bluegrass Goose OM guitars offer the buyer the choice of Brazilian Mahogany, East Indian Rosewood, Madagascar Rosewood or Brazilian Rosewood. 

Those desiring a classic Jumbo body will find these in the Studio Goose family. The Studio Goose Jumbo line offers the buyer the choice of African Bubinga, American Walnut, Brazilian Mahogany or Canadian Curly Maple. 

Players desiring a 12 string can find OM size bodies in Brazilian Mahogany, Dreadnought bodies in East Indian Rosewood and Jumbo bodies in African Bubinga and Canadian Curly Maple.

JP Cormier with a Heritage Goose 12 Fret with Bubinga back and sides

The Heritage Goose line is smaller, limited to the 000-12 Fret and the Parlour 12-Fret. I am a fan myself of the small bodied guitars but have been challenged in the past that their voicings were unassuming. I was completely blown away by the power of the voice of the Heritage Goose guitars. The 000 family is available in African Bubinga, Brazilian Mahogany, East Indian Rosewood and Canadian Curly Maple. The Parlour guitars are available in African Bubinga, Brazilian Mahogany, East Indian Rosewood and Canadian Curly Maple. All the guitars in the Heritage Goose collection are built with classic design slotted peg heads.

Boucher Guitars also offer a variety of customization options and player packs. These include different finish options, electronics options and are well detailed on the website. You can also order your Boucher with a Venetian cutaway. These are handmade instruments, so you can get what you want, so long as you are not expecting assembly line delivery.

JP made the point that he doesn't bring his own Boucher guitars for clinics because the Boucher recipes are so consistent. He says he can pick up any Boucher instrument of the same body and tone wood build and it will sound the same as another one. He played every instrument using only a microphone in front of the sound hole, even if the guitar had a pickup installed. Many of us have already noted that a mic'd acoustic sounds better in general than one with an active pickup. JP does recommend the optional K&K pickups over any of the powered alternatives.

No Jumbos or 12 strings were available at the clinic for attendees to try out but that did not seem to matter to the 100+ musicians who came out. There was enormous enthusiasm to try the guitars out and the single example of the brand new JP Cormier Signature Heritage Goose 12 Fret with Cutaway was sold during the intermission. Rumour has it that is is the first one that was made available for public purchase. (JP has number 0 and Robin Boucher has number 1). The buyer will know if his is indeed number 2 when he picks it up in a week or so. Cannot imagine who that buyer might be. :D

JP Cormier showing his signature series Heritage Goose 12 Fret with cutaway. This guitar was bought during the intermission.

I had been looking to try out the Heritage Goose 12 Fret or a Parlour regardless. I like the small bodies but wanted to check on the tone as experience with other very small bodies had been interesting but not fulfilling. I have never heard anything that sounds like the Heritage Goose guitars and I was front row and heard the native guitar and not the PA tone.

I confess that I also really liked the Dreadnought and OM models. I already have a number of dreadnoughts from Martin and Gibson and like them very much, but I have only one Martin 000 and a single Taylor OM style. I may find myself on a waiting list for a Bluegrass Goose OM in Brazilian Rosewood sides and back. Of course I would have to pay for the aforementioned Signature first. This guitar thing gets expensive.

Jacob Lauzon and JP Cormier

JP also brought out a newer Boucher ambassador, Jacob Lauzon who he met at a clinic last year. The two players are amazing together. Jacob also did a song with his friend Alanna, both playing their personal OM series instruments.

The conclusion to this article is pretty simple. If you love playing guitar and you are considering a professional grade acoustic such as a fine instrument from Martin Guitars or Taylor Guitars, or perhaps one of the Gibson acoustics from the Bozeman Montant factory, you are cheating yourself if you do not play a Boucher before making your purchase decision. There are a few good dealers of Boucher and obviously I heartily recommend The Arts Music Store in Newmarket Ontario. I have owned Martins and Taylors for a long time and love them very much, but I am comfortable saying as a generalization, I get more for my money with a hand made Boucher than either of these other very excellent lines. 

The only way to know is to play one yourself. The sound is killer and remember that if you want a pickup, go for the K&K option. Tell them that I sent you, with the guidance of JP Cormier.

Goodbye to a Long Awaited Friend

This post has little to do with guitar. I am simply devastated by yesterday's (Jan 10th) announcement of the passing on January 7th, 2020 of the man who in my opinion is/was not just music's greatest drummer, but also its greatest lyricist.

I was aware that Neil Peart's health had not been good. I was not aware of the three plus years he was battling brain cancer. I did know that he was in chronic pain as a result of being an incredible drummer for over 40 years, driven by incredibly high standards.

There have been many Twitter and elsewhere tributes to Neil. The majority of them refer to his irreplaceable talent as a drummer. All accurate. Fewer recognize his incredible lyrics that for many people, so I understand, told stories of their own lives that they could not say themselves. Some lyrics provided listeners with targets to aim for, as well as offering reminders that it was ok not to be cool, not to fit in and to go your own way.

Much was made of Neil's early adoption of the principles of Objectivism and his use of concepts from Ayn Rand's Anthem and The Fountainhead in his songs. Much later, he was quoted as saying that he had changed to become a "bleeding heart libertarian". Many critics and writers took this as a refutation of objectivism. The reality is that a bleeding heart libertarian is a not-unreasonable characterization of many of Rand's protagonists. Libertarianism is an outcome of Objectivism. Caring about letting others lead their own lives is part of Romanticism. Those who have a massive hate on for Rand, either don't know or choose to ignore her philosophy text, The Romantic Manifesto.

Disagree if you wish, your choice, and that's the whole point. I'm wearing a "Who is John Galt?" shirt as I write this, so you have a good idea where I stand.

Neil once wrote that he could not "pretend a stranger was a long awaited friend". This is both indicative of his quiet, shy and private nature, as well as his conviction not to be inconsistent in his life. While I have met and spoken with both Alex and Geddy, I never got to meet Neil. In my younger years, I wrote to him. I never received a response, but that has always been less important than the writing of the letters in the first place. It's funny to say that while we never met, I always felt that he was a great friend, albeit at a great distance.

Neil's work did not change my life, but his elocution and thoughtfulness did give me opportunities to see things in different ways, and to learn many things that I had not understood. For these gifts, I am eternally grateful. Neil's autodidactic nature reminded me that one could learn without necessarily attending a school or following a set curriculum. Indeed, I have come to believe that following your own course of learning, exposing yourself to multiple approaches can be superior to a single structure.

One of the most poignant lyrics Neil wrote is in the song Losing It. I am glad for him, that he never arrived in the place identified in that incredibly sad song. 

I did cry last night, as I sat playing along with the songs on A Farewell to Kings. It seemed the right record to listen to because Neil Peart was a king of sort to me. He never chased that role, and never claimed it. One of the many things that made him a king.

My thoughts and best wishes go out to Carrie and Olivia, and to Alex and Geddy. We have all lost a great man.

What Does Balanced Tension Mean?

When I first heard Dan Steinhardt of That Pedal Show talk about his use of balanced tension strings, I became curious. To my science trained mind, it sounded like it meant that each string would exercise the same amount of tension on the guitar regardless of string gauge. 

When I started looking at tension charts, when the makers published them at all, it became clear to me that most string sets, including ones that I liked and even preferred, did not have this balanced tension thing happening, so I started doing some research.

I found articles that were qualitative but not quantitative and I wanted to see numbers and science to stand up the claims, and I also wanted to purchase a set of balanced tension strings to see if they felt different or sounded different to me.

I ordered a set of D'Addario NYXL Balanced Tension strings in their 11-50 set. I had to go through Amazon, because none of my local shops stocked balanced tension strings, thus my first learning was that this was not something in particularly high demand. 

I had to restring my old PRS CE22 as I decided to use it for some upcoming lessons that I signed up for. As happens, the strings on it were old but still sounded fine, a tribute to that last batch of PRS branded strings that I had used.

But, I had a scientific experiment to perform! First step was to find the documentation on how to best use the very old style PRS winged locking tuners. Lots of gripes and YouTube vids, but PRS does an excellent job of maintaining support documents and I found the official instructions on one page quickly. Suffice to say, that they were all I needed and I was reminded once again of how awesome those PRS winged locking tuners are.

Note that the package specifically states Balanced Tension. These are the 10-46 set. I could not find an image of the 11-50 set that I used in my experiment

Opening the package revealed, surprise!, guitar strings in a sealed pouch wound in pairs, just like every other D'Addario package I have opened in the last little while. The strings did not feel any different when mounting them to the guitar. They tuned up quickly and after a couple of stretches, have held their tune very well. Whether this is the nature of the NYXL build, or a combination of that and the locking tuners, I cannot tell. It's good enough to know that the string change was fast and easy and that the new strings once stretched are holding tune well.

The strings do feel different. Not in terms of slipperiness but more in terms of bending. The G, B and E strings require about the same amount of effort to bend, which is different from my experience with non-balanced tension strings. I suspect that with practice, that this might mean that bends will be more consistent. The bending of the E, A, and D strings were also very similar but heavier than the high strings as one might expect. My common high E is a .010 and for this set I went to an .011, again based on the opinion of Dan Steinhardt, who was using the 11 - 50 set on his red Telecaster some months back. It does make the E a bit tougher to bend, but as my intent for the lessons is to learn more jazz chording and chord inversions, I thought it might be worthwhile to give the nominally heavier string a try.

I found a video from a custom string maker called StringJoy out of Nashville. The video presenter offered a spreadsheet for download that allows you to enter some information such as scale length and string gauge that uses mathematics calculate the string tension, which could be handy if the maker does not provide this information. It also makes some assumptions about string weight, which is going to differ from maker to maker based on string construction, so I am going to call it close but not exact, except for StringJoy's own strings, which I admittedly have not tried. Their online web calculator is at https://tension.stringjoy.com

D'Addario offers a web based application that allows you to see how you could achieve balanced tension based on your own entries or starting with one of their existing packages at http://stringtensionpro.com It's interesting, but I missed how one could order a set resulting from the app.

As some of you know, I have been moving to Curt Mangan strings recently. That company does not have an interactive tool but does produce a string tension chart that is very usable. What I liked about these folks is the ability to build your own custom set very easily and to add your name and even a logo directly to the package.

In building packages for electrics, I used the PRS scale length and built a set of Curt Mangan strings based on the Monel construction with gauges, 10, 13.5, 17, 26, 36, 48. For my acoustics, I again used the Monel construction with gauges 11.5, 15.5, 20, 30, 42, 56 I admit to be really taken with the Monel acoustic tones and recently put a set of Curt Mangan Monel strings on my '57 Black Beauty and am really pleased with the tone. This Les Paul is very heavy and I think that the 10-46 standard Monel strings are good on it because it can be a bit boomy because of the excess weight, as it is nearly a 12 pound guitar.

The strings I install the Les Paul R7 Black Beauty

Hopefully this short explanation of what balanced tension is and why you might be inclined to give balanced tension strings a try has been interesting to you.

Play on!