ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

1972 Gibson Es-175D, Acoustic Image Clarus 2R with Raezers-Edge Stealth 12, Acoustic Image Coda Plus, and in the background ZT Lunchbox Amp with extension cab The previous post [below] which has a virtual MP3 player plays some sound files of my guitar playing. This post is the content since I didn't know how to combine the MP3 player's HTML coding with Blogger's WYSIWYG editing. The accompaniment to my amateurish playing was by Band-In-Box software:a fantastic sotware just listen to the acoustic bass, the drums and that great piano playing. However the files further down the list from song 5 or so downwards were recorded with earlier versions of Band-In-A-Box, and in these the accompaniment is MIDI unlike the real sampled sounds of the later songs. All guitar players yearn for that awesome tone, which for electric guitars is the result of the combination of guitar, amplifier and the player's touch. And yet, the final tone that comes out of the speaker is the result o...

Believe it or not, guitars breathe, and they do need to breathe if they are to sound good. Take out a guitar that has been kept in its case for ages, especially an acoustic guitar, and pluck the strings. It will sound muffled and stifled. The ringing sustain with clear overtones that you expect from a good guitar will be absent. But leave the guitar outside its case for a few days, in a place that's not so humid, and there will be a difference in the sound. Good wines breathe, and so do guitars. The type of finish (paint) used on a guitar is a very important factor in its ability to breathe. Many vintage guitars sound great because they do not have thick coats of paint but were au naturel, or had only a thin coat of paint followed by a top coat of nitrocellulose lacquer. The ban on nitrocellulose lacquers (for health or environmental reasons I think) and the fashion for guitars to have custom colors like Shell Pink, Pacific Blue, Candy Apple Red, etc resulted in guitars that could...

* photo shows a collection of jazz archtops, seen through the locked grill door of GuitarsNJazz, a shop in Summit New Jersey, that sells only jazz archtops and jazz guitar amplifiers. If you are a jazz guitar player, I suggest you pay him a visit. He's a great guy and he gives great advice . Fact: 95 % of guitar players own more than one guitar. This is because many guitarists suffer from a disease known in guitar-playing circles as GAS or Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. GAS manifests itself as an itch which can only be temporarily relieved by the purchase of a guitar. Severe cases of GAS can make the patient accumulate more than 100 guitars. GAS has been known to be the cause of broken marriages, financial bankruptcy and unemployment. Nevertheless, there are sound reasons why guitar players have more guitars than drummers have drums, piano players have pianos and sax players have saxaphones. 1. A Steinway sounds different from a Yamaha piano. But A Fender Stratocaster sounds even mor...