Hello friends, I know it's been a while but I'm back, and I bring with me a very profound declaration: I like flatwound strings.
For those of you who don't know, flatwound strings are wound with steel ribbon instead of wire, making for a smoother slide and less string noise. They are sooooooo comfortable; it's like giving your fingertips a massage while you play! Sure they're not quite as crisp and sustain-y as traditional roundwound strings, but they do sound great. Don't listen to any of those stuck up ninnies who insist that flatwound's are only for jazz, they can give you a great rock tone too! And did I mention how friggin' cool it feels when you play. Trust me, go out today and pick up a set to try on one of your guitars. Several companies make them and they range in price. Yes they're a bit more pricey than regular strings but none of fortunes will fall significantly over a few bucks. If you don't like 'em then that's ok too, but you owe it to yourself to give it a go. Until next time, adios -Mikey
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The capo is one of the most essential tools for a guitarist. I might even go so far as to say that a capo can be as important as a tuner! The ability to play songs in any key while utilizing open chord voicings is crucial as a songwriter, and ultimately, due to the way a guitar is tuned, there are certain licks and melodies that simply cannot be played correctly without a capo! The term “capo” is derived from the Italian words "capo tasto" which means head fret. This makes sense, as a capo's function is essentially to move the first fret anywhere you choose on the fingerboard. Early capo designs that were widely used throughout the 60's and 70's utilized an elastic band that stretched around the neck of the guitar securing a bar over the fretboard. Though these classic elastic band style capos are not widely used anymore, the basic functionality of any capo remains the same: to hold the strings down anywhere on the fretboard. These days, the most common capos used are built by companies like Shubb, Kyser, Paige, and G7th. Modern capos range from simple in design to more elaborate. The G7th Performance 2 capos for example, have a very sleek, space age appeal, while also being highly functional and easy to use. I recently started using this capo and have been very happy with it so far. One bit of advice I would offer to those of you who are thinking about getting a capo is to avoid the "economy" models, while these will typically save you a few bucks, they are generally not built well and require extra time to put on and take off -- not good if you are in the middle of songs and want to avoid that awkward stage silence! For $20 you can get a great capo that will last you years -- or as long as it takes you to lose it! -McCoy McCoy Tyler is a salesman at Sylvan Music with an aptitude towards acoustic guitars, amps, and pickup systems. When he's not spouting musical knowledge on the sales floor, he can be found doing some hot picking and sweet singing with his group The McCoy Tyler Band. Do you want to play an instrument but don't want to 'learn' anything? Well then you're a perfect candidate for the AUTOHARP! It's just barely harder than playing the radio. All you need is someone to tell you what chord to play and you just press that button and strum all the strings. It's that easy!! We even have an electric autoharp in our shop so you could plug in and get crazy psychedelic if you so desired. There's nothing stopping you. If you have 2 working hands and you're not in a coma then you could master this thing by the end of the day!
-Mike I thought I'd attempt to tickle your funny bone this week so here's a list of some good music related jokes. Most of the musicians or instruments in the jokes are interchangeable, so you can change them to rib whichever bandmate shows up late for practice. "Whats the difference between a large pizza and a drummer?" "A large pizza can feed a family of 4" "What did the banjo player get on his exam?" "Drool" "How many bass players does it take to change a lightbulb?" "One Five One Five One Five" "How can you tell if the stage is level?" "The banjo player is drooling out of both sides of his mouth" - A man walks into a music store and says to the clerk, "I'd like to play that big red saxophone". The clerk replies, "You must be a banjo player". The man says " I sure am, how'd you know?" Clerk scoffs, "Because that's a fire extinguisher." "Whats black and blue and lying in a ditch?" "A guitar player that told too many drummer jokes" "How does a lead guitarist change a light bulb?" "He holds it and the world revolves around him" "What is a gentleman?" "Someone who knows how to play mandolin but doesn't" "What does a mandolin player use for birth control?" "His personality" "How can you tell there's a mandolin player at your front door?" "They can't find the key, the knocking speeds up, and he doesn't know when to come in" "Whats the difference between a ukulele and a trampoline?" "You take your shoes off to jump on a trampoline" "Whats the difference between and ukulele and an onion" "Nobody cries when you cut up a ukulele"
Fifty years ago or more I spent hour after hour staring at and dreaming about the electric guitars on display at Lyon & Healy, Chicago’s largest musical instrument store.
This was the era before Fender Strat and Gibson Les Paul copies so dominated guitar design. Local guitar manufacturers such as Kay, Harmony, Valco, Supro and more were experimenting with wonderful “out of the box” designs. These were soon followed by imports such as Teisco, Greco, Guyatone and others. Crazy shapes, crazy electronics, crazy colors and crazy materials; I drooled over them all. Some had vibrato systems, most of which barely worked. Some had built in speakers – you can imagine how that sounded. Body styles and designs were as varied as can be. Remember, this was the time when automobile design was featuring fins and tons of chrome. Product design in general was beginning to reflect the culture’s fixation on outer space. Electric guitar design didn’t escape this trend. But all of these electric guitars had one thing in common – they were cool, very, very cool! And now Sylvan Music is about to make that cool available again. We’re set to receive our first shipment of Airline electric guitars in about a week and we’re all excited about it. These instruments have the same cool factor as the originals but are built much better, sound much better, and feature better overall playability than the originals. Best of all, this retro cool is available at very reasonable prices. Make sure to come by soon and try them out. - David There's been a lot of hubbub over balanced tension string sets lately. What the hell are they? Can you even tell the difference?? I'm going to attempt to give a simple explanation of balanced tension sets and offer a bit of insight into their growing popularity and what makes them such a hot topic in the string world. There are two basic components that make up a steel string: a core and a wrap. When you look at the two smallest strings on an acoustic guitar, you are basically looking at an unwound core string. Wild, huh? Those naked little B and high E strings look just like their four bigger brothers minus that shiny bronze wrapping. Now, when we talk about tension on a guitar we are pretty much talking about lateral tension -- that is, the force that the individual strings exert laterally across the neck and soundboard of the instrument. [Note: this differs from instruments with floating bridges (mandolins, banjos, arch top guitars, etc.) where downward, or vertical tension becomes more important -- for more on this check out Siminoff Strings]. Now given the two basic components of a steel string, what would you say determines lateral tension? Well, if you guessed the wrapping, I'm happy to say you are absolutely wrong...It's the core, of course! A string's core determines its lateral tension -- remember that! D'addario Balanced Tension sets are developed with this in mind: each core string is made to expend an equal amount of lateral tension, thus creating a more "balanced" feel and sound across the strings when they are strummed or plucked. In theory, this should make for a better playing experience. But who am I to say? Pick up a set and see for yourself! -McCoy McCoy Tyler is a salesman at Sylvan Music with an aptitude towards acoustic guitars, amps, and pickup systems. When he's not spouting musical knowledge on the sales floor, he can be found doing some hot picking and sweet singing with his group The McCoy Tyler Band. Sylvan Music carries almost every stringed instrument imaginable. But here’s one that just wouldn’t fit! It’s the Octabass.
First introduced around 1850 in Paris, it has three strings, and is essentially a larger version of the double bass. Because of the extreme fingerboard length and string thickness, it requires the musician to play it using a system of hand and foot-activated levers and pedals. The pitch of the Octabass’s highest string is the same pitch as the lowest note of a modern double bass with a low C extension. The lowest string is tuned to C, 16.25 Hz, one octave below the lowest note on a piano. By the way, you can see an Octabass at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ. It’s a great museum with an amazing collection of musical instruments from all over the world. You don’t have to be an ethnomusicologist to be in awe of this incredible collection. -David Musicians are notoriously "picky" about gear--what gauge strings they use, which effects pedals, capos, tuners, slides...right on down to how many thousandths of an inch they prefer their flat picks! Over the years I've grown to prefer thicker picks for acoustic guitar, anywhere from 1 to 1.5mm. For electric, anywhere from .88 to 1mm tends to work well. But that's just me. Every customer has a very specific pick preference, and I'd like to think that we stock something for everyone here at Sylvan. With all that demand for specialized thickness and feel, there are now companies making boutique and customized picks. Would you believe that?! Who knew that their would be a demand for $40, $50, $75 picks! Crazy, I know. Companies like Blue Chip and Red Bear picks are just a couple of the brands slangin' high dollar plastic. But luckily, you don't have to spend the big bucks to get great tone out of your instrument. Here at Sylvan, we stock a wide variety of picks by companies like Wegen, Dunlop, Clayton, Golden Gate, and many more. One line that I am currently a big fan of is the Primetone by Dunlop. I will forego an explanation of what makes these picks so great and direct you to a description from their website: Primetone Sculpted Plectra will glide off your strings and bring out the true voice and clarity of your instrument. With hand-burnished sculpted edges, these picks allow for fast, articulate runs and effortless strumming. Made from Ultex for maximum durability and superior tonal definition. Available in three different shapes with a low-profile grip or a smooth traditional surface. There you have it! These work for me. How picky are you going to be the next time you stock up on plastic?? McCoy Tyler is a salesman at Sylvan Music with an aptitude towards acoustic guitars, amps, and pickup systems. When he's not spouting musical knowledge on the sales floor, he can be found doing some hot picking and sweet singing with his group The McCoy Tyler Band. Once in a while someone will come in our shop and say "hey, why does that guitar have a hubcap on its face?" The first answer is usually "Well sir, that is actually a car, not a guitar, and you might consider updating your prescription lenses." Once the cavalcade of ensuing laughter subsides, we give the real answer which is, as you might have guessed, "why, that's a resophonic guitar!' Invented in the late 1920's to compete with loud banjos and brass instruments, resophonic guitars use an internal aluminum speaker cone to 'amplify' the sound of the guitar. The strings sit on the bridge/saddle which either sits directly on the cone, or on a 'spider' mechanism which in turn rests on the cone. The vibration of the strings causes the cone to flex, just like a speaker cone, and the resulting sound is a louder, more metallic tone than a standard acoustic guitar. There are also 'tri-cone' versions that use three small cones as opposed to one large cone. The tone on these is not quite as loud, but a bit more defined and articulate. National was the first company to bring these to market in 1928 and they soon offered a wide array of models in both single and tri-cone. They made 'Spanish' guitars, tenor & plectrum guitars, 'squareneck' guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles and many of their instruments were adorned with beautiful hand engraved scenes and motifs. Today, National ResoPhonic Guitars in San Luis Obispo carries on the tradition. They manufacture spot-on re-creations of the original National guitars as well as several of their own modern designs and models. Their guitars sound and play as good as the old ones but are even more durable and road worthy, and have modern updates like better tuning gears and truss rods in the neck. Whether you're a beginner or a long time player, if you haven't played a resophonic guitar, you owe it to yourself to try one. So come play a hubcap guitar, it's guaranteed to get your musical wheels spinning! -Mike Strings are very important, don't let anybody tell you otherwise. From ukulele to double bass, the kind of string you use is a huge factor in the sound that will come from your instrument. Finding the right gauge (thickness) is the first step in finding your perfect string match. Make sure your instrument is setup properly otherwise you may be dooming yourself from the get go. I always recommend starting with light gauge since that's right in the middle of the gauge spectrum. If you feel like you want a thicker, heavier feel then you can move up to mediums, heavy's, or some kind of hybrid set. If you want a looser, slinkier feel then you can go to a thinner set like custom or extra lights. As with the instruments, there are more string companies now than ever before so, once you've found your gauge, try a different brand of that gauge every time you restring your instrument. Some companies use different mixes of metals in their strings and some have different core tensions so take note of what you like and dislike about each brand and use that as a reference for your next choice.
Until you settle on the perfect brand and gauge, always keep the empty pack of whatever strings your currently using in your case/gigbag so you don't forget what your using. I can't tell you how many times people come in the shop and say "I love the strings on my guitar but I forget what I used. Can you tell me what these are?" Unfortunately most strings look the same so it's very hard to accurately answer this question so the best we can do is measure the thickness and get you something that's the same gauge. As always, consult your friendly guitar store employee to get a good recommendation and to answer any string questions you might have. |