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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Oh my God do I hate packing peanuts!! As a retail shop, we receive anywhere from 10-20 shipments each week. Most of them come from distributors and manufacturers that are well versed in fitting product into a box with minimal or no packing materials. The nicer instruments we receive usually come in heavy duty boxes with special inserts at the top and bottom that cradle the instrument and protect it from damage during shipment.
But at least once a week we get a box, usually from a private party, sometimes from certain distributors, that is filled with these horrible packing peanuts. Why these infernal pieces of waste have not been nationally outlawed is beyond me. Not only are they made of styrofoam, one of nature's worst enemies, but it is absolutely impossible to unpack a box containing peanuts and not get them everywhere. Thanks to static they cling to clothing and skin and usually whatever you're trying to get out of the box. Those that don't cling will just fly out of the box willy-nilly while they try to scatter themselves all over your freshly vacuumed floor. Due to my utter hatred of these devious bits of Satan skin, I have actually paid to send a box full of nothing but peanuts back to the sender just so they would have to deal with it! I know, I'm very petty, but they got the message............I think. Till next time, Mike In a few short weeks the very first Fretboard Summit will be taking place just north of our fair city in Pescadero. This summit is being put on by the Fretboard Journal which, if you're not already familiar, is arguable the best stringed instrument magazine ever published. It will feature such illustrious speakers as Dick Boak (Martin Guitars), Richard Hoover (Santa Cruz Guitars), and Bill Collings (Collings Guitars), and amazing performances from the likes of Bill Frisell, Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge, Blake Mills and more.
The Summit is taking place at the fabled Costanoa Resort which is about a 25 minute drive north of Santa Cruz. This beautiful property has stellar ocean views and rustic indoor settings that is surely going to give the weekend a magical feel. And as luck would have it, you can buy tickets to this amazing event from Sylvan Music. Give us a call or stop in to buy tickets and check out the Fretboard Summit website for any further details. Can't wait to see you all there! For the 12th year in a row, our little town has been lucky enough to host the annual Mandolin Symposium! For those who aren't familiar with the Symposium, it takes place up on the UCSC Campus and it's basically a mandolin fantasy camp. The instructors are David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Roland White (Bluegrass), Don Stiernberg (Swing and Jazz Master), Rich DelGrosso (Blues), Drew Emmitt (Jamgrass), Caterina Lichtenberg (Classical), Tim Connell (Irish Trad/Brazilian/Improv), Sharon Gilchrist (Mandolin Fundamentals), Dudu Maia (Brazilian Choro), Eric Stein (Klezmer), Mike Mullins (Artist in Residence).
These are 12 of the best mandolin players in the world (factual) and they spend the week teaching classes and workshops to the lucky few students from around the world who attend. The focus ranges from bluegrass to classical to klezmer to blues and way, way beyond. Tomorrow (Wednesday) night is the instructors concert where they each come out and play solo and with each other to demonstrate their mastery of the instrument. It's the type of performance that will make you either want to give up the mandolin completely or go home and practice for 12 hours straight! I will be attending this concert and recommend you do the same; it's only $15!!!! For you mando players, stay tuned to their website and sign up for next years Symposium. If you're serious about improving and learning from the greats, it's the best way to do it. -Mike 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 love music and I love movies, so naturally I love movies about music. In recent cinema history we have been blessed with a bevy of great music documentary's and I thought I'd share some of my favorite's. My number one has got to be The Band's 'Last Waltz.' I know it's almost 40 years old but it is absolutely timeless. Aside from the song they do with Neil Diamond, all the music is spectacular. From the song choices to the stellar list of musicians that join them and even down to the killer velvet suit that Van Morrison wears, the whole thing is just a masterpiece. Next is a more recent one: Rush's 'Beyond The Lighted Stage.' Now, I like a lot of Rush tunes but I am in no way a die hard Rush fan. That being said, this documentary is so engaging from start to finish that it made me appreciate the band in a whole new way. There are great stories from the band members and from other musicians who toured with them and who were influenced by them. there are hilarious moments and heart breaking ones and the director does a great job of always keeping it interesting. My next two picks are both very informative and very, very long. George Harrison's 'Living in the Material World' and Tom Petty's 'Runnin' Down A Dream' are each nearly 4 hours long, but cover every single facet of their respective lives and careers, both musical and personal. I know it's hard to set aside 4 hours to watch a dang movie, but if you split it up over a few nights it'll be well worth it. Or just wait until you get mono and can't leave your room. I'll leave you with a short list of some of my other favorite's: - Rolling Stones 'Crossfire Hurricane' - Bob Marley 'Marley' - 'Buena Vista Social Club' - 'Festival Express' - with the Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy & more! - Metallica 'Some Kind of Monster' - so funny to see what tools these guys are! -Mikey Mike Sparber has been roaming the hallowed halls of Sylvan since 2004 and is an admirer of all stringed instruments. He moved here from the DC suburbs in 1999 and can usually be found with his wife at concerts around the Bay Area or with his dog, Ernie, at the beach. Have you ever thought, "I'd love to play guitar but I'm afraid of steel strings touching my delicate, soft skin?" Well, good ol' Mikey's got the answer for ya': Use a slide! It's easy, accessible, fun, and it's sure to broaden you're ability and approach to playing guitar. Though often used as an additional tool in a guitarists arsenal, most folks don't know that playing with a slide was actually born out of necessity. Back in the 1920's Tennessee, a man named Cletus Earnest Henry McCracken was playing around with his guitar while maintaining his daily ritual of draining as many bottles of wine as he could muster. Sure enough, about halfway through the day he wound up getting his left ring finger stuck inside the mouth of a wine bottle. After, he and his drinking buddies tried desperately to pull it off to no avail, he figured he'd just break the bottle. So he whacked the bottle on the rail of the nearby train tracks and it broke. Well, most of it broke. He looked down to find that the neck of the wine bottle was still stuck on his dang finger! "Aw, to hell with it," he said. "Let's keep pickin." And with that he picked up his guitar and commenced to sliding his bottlenecked finger up and down the strings and, wouldn't you know it, it produced a not altogether unpleasant sound. Cletus' eyebrows arched upwards! "I reckon I like this here sound!" As he continued to slide his finger along the strings he exclaimed "By golly, I've invented a new kind of playing! I think I'll call it 'broken-bottle-stuck-on-yer-finger style!'" Before long, word spread of Cletus' 'broken-bottle-stuck-on-yer-finger' style and soon people just took to calling it slide. Now you can follow in Cletus' footsteps, but it's much easier to just go to your local shop and buy a pre-made glass or brass slide. So go on and get yer' slide on! -Mikey Disclaimer - This story may not be true 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 When was the last time you went to see live music? If your answer is not at least "sometime in the last few months" then you are doing yourself and the musical community a disservice. And you deserve a paddlin'! There is so much good music being played right now and odds are there's even some happening in your town..... tonight!
Not only is it soothing for the soul, but it's increasingly becoming the best way to directly (financially) support music and musicians you like. AND, you can can look at it as a lesson as well as entertainment. I've learned so much just from watching musicians up close at concerts. Technique, chord shapes and changes, and gear choices are usually very easy to gleam from a musician at a concert, assuming it's not a huge venue. And on that point, the smaller the venue, the better. It's very hard to connect with a band in a stadium, especially if you're not in the first 30 rows. In closing, get out there and see some gosh-dang live music! Tonight!! -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. |