Way, way back in the late 1960’s I was rehearsing with a small avant garde multi-media ensemble in Chicago. This group was lead by William ‘Bill’ Russo, former head arranger for Stan Kenton. Russo was also founder of Columbia College’s music department and director of its Center for New Music. During one rehearsal, Russo said we were going to have a special visitor drop by. Later that evening the special visitor arrived. It was Duke Ellington. We were all, of course, completely star struck; it was as if a god had walked in. Ellington listened for a while and during a break spent a few minutes with each of us individually, encouraging us to ask him questions. When my turn came I asked Ellington how can I become the best musician I possibly can. His response was “Always seek opportunities to play with musicians that are better than you.” And as he did with everyone he spoke with, he smiled and kissed me on both cheeks. Playing with musicians better than yourself is the best advice I ever received - and it’s the advice I have told countless players over the decades - ever since hearing it from the Master. -David David Robin got his start in the 1960's Chicago rock n' roll scene and has built up an impressive, lengthy musical resume in the years since. After all these years, his love of the guitar is as strong as ever.
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What’s “High Strung” or “Nashville” tuning? You hear it on songs like Pink Floyd’s “Hey You”, “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, and the Stones’ “Wild Horses”, not to mention countless others. Specifically, High Strung/Nashville tuning uses standard 1st and 2nd strings, and one octave higher on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th strings. Strings 3 through 6 are actually the ‘octave strings’ from a 12-string set. High quality string manufacturers like D’Addario make dedicated High Strung/Nashville string sets. You can purchase individual strings as well. Typical gauges (high to low) are: .010 .014 .009 .012 .018 .027 High Strung or Nashville tuning is most frequently heard on acoustic guitars and is commonly used to “double” a standard-tuned acoustic. Strung in this manner, a guitar takes on an entirely different character. It sounds bright and almost piano-like. Capo up at the fifth fret and the guitar begins to sound like a harpsichord. At about $5 a set, High Strung tuning is the simplest and lowest–cost change you can do to enable your acoustic guitar to sound like a very interesting and entirely different instrument. Give it a try. - David David Robin got his start in the 1960's Chicago rock n' roll scene and has built up an impressive, lengthy musical resume in the years since. After all these years, his love of the guitar is as strong as ever. Last week I touched on the importance of EQ with regards to getting a natural sounding acoustic tone from your amp or DI box. I would like to delve a bit further into that topic this week and discuss how we can think about EQ relative to the instruments themselves. Tonewoods on an acoustic guitar dictate the overall responsiveness of certain frequencies that are produced when the instrument is strummed or picked. As an example, our 1958 Martin D-28 has Brazilian Rosewood back and sides, which generally have a "scooped midrange" type sound, meaning the lows and highs are more pronounced and the middle frequencies less so. This type of response can compliment a singer very well, as the guitar's natural "smiley face" EQ curve leaves room within the mix for the voice which, for most of us, happens to be naturally mid-rangy. Conversely, mahogany tends to be more mid-rangy, with the lows and highs falling off a bit--a "frowny face" if you will. Our 1937 D-18, for example, has a big robust sound that would do well in a bluegrass jam or acoustic ensemble because the abundant mids allow the guitar's voice to cut through in the mix. (Check out the video below of Tony Rice and Norman Blake--see if you can hear the difference between the 14-fret D-28 with Brazilian Rosewood that Tony is playing and the 12-fret D-18 with Mahogany that Norman is playing!) These days, there are a plethora of different tonewoods available--yet another factor to consider when making your next guitar purchase. Stop by the shop sometime and try a few out! -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.
Today I would like to talk about EQ and specifically how it relates to acoustic guitar amplification. I should note that these are solely opinions that I have gathered through my own personal experience and the various research I have done on this topic. Let's take a given range of frequencies produced by, say, an acoustic guitar--the way that our ears naturally interpret those frequencies offers us some clues as to how we might make EQ adjustments on our amp or preamp box. The frequencies that our ears are most attuned to exist in the midrange. Thus, when we plug our acoustic guitar into an amp or PA system (with the system's EQ set to flat), typically a cut (or decrease) somewhere in the range of 200hz-1500khz will yield a more natural and balanced response. Of course there are other factors to consider when tampering with your EQ--at what volume are you playing? Are you a singer songwriter, or are you playing in a group/ensemble? (More on this in my next post!)--however, I have found through personal experience that most acoustic guitars have what I might call a "naughty zone" in the middle frequency range (more often than not in the high-mids) that can be managed adequately with a bit of tone shaping. Try sitting down with your Fishman Loudbox amp or LR Baggs DI sometime and listening carefully to what those little EQ dials do. They were put there for a reason, so why not use them? -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. I'm building my version of a Jumbo Acoustic guitar and in the last week, I built this jig to perform the operation of routing out the end strip channel on the guitar. It's made of a plexiglass base, two oak clamping rails, two 1/4" all thread metal struts , and 4 screws to hold the plexiglass base in position.
Just a little reminder about basic instrument treatment. We're coming up on the warmer months, and the glue that holds most instruments together is usually heat soluble. This means that if you leave your instrument in a hot car for a while, you'll probably be bringing it in to us for some sort of repair. So even though we'd love to see you, please don't leave your instruments in your car on hot days. It's probably not a good idea to leave your instrument in your car ever. - Alan Alan is the newest kid on the block, but a welcomed addition to the Sylvan family. You can find him in the repair shop working on a variety of stringed instruments that need some TLC. If you have any questions or concerns about your instruments call or just come on down and Alan will be more than happy to assist you. |