Posts Tagged: Guitars

hmm. From Cunning stunts.

Guitar Legend Robin Trower talks about the gear he is using on his US tour 2009. Also mentions his new CD “What Lies Beneath”. Enjoy this video and many more at www.harmony-central.com

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This month at Guitar Center we feature guitarist Steve Vai who helped establish the shred guitar phenomenon in the Eighties, and transcended the genre from the very beginning becoming a legendary guitarist in his own right. Vai has remained as popular and influential as ever thanks to his adventurous, exploratory spirit, which constantly reveals new possibilities for the guitar.

This is a lesson that shows you how to set the intonation on your guitar. Visit www.rockguitarpower.com to learn more!

The history of guitars traces back to India and Central Asia. It is derived from the Sitara. The oldest known iconographic depiction of an instrument displaying all the required features of a guitar is a 3300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard. Earlier a guitar was known to be an instrument with a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides. The modern guitar owes its origin from the Spanish guitarra derived from the Latin word cithara. Cithara comes from the Greek word kithara, perhaps derived from Persian sihtar, which in turn related to Indian Sitara.

Following the history of guitars the modern guitar comes from the Roman cithara brought by the Romans to Hispania around 40 AD. They further modified and developed it with the entrance of the four string oud, brought by the Moors. In other parts of Europe, the native six strings Scandinavian lut (lute) had gained in reputation in areas of Viking incursions across the continent.

The composers for the string instruments wrote mostly in tablature notation. During the 17th century, Italy was said to be the capital of the guitar world. In France, the guitar was considered to be the instrument of the nobility. The Spanish school of guitar creation flourished after the end of the eighteenth century. The works and composition of the composers traveled widely including the Italians composers who were involved in a number of substantial works.

One of the most vital factors in the history of guitars was the addition of the sixth string during the middle of the eighteenth century. The changes in social conditions and improvement in the mode of transportation during the 19th Century contributed to the growing understanding of the guitar and enabled performers to travel with their composition. Guitar music thrived Spain more than others in the 19th century.

The early 20th century saw the European emigrants coming to America brought a number of highly skilled instrument makers among them, including those who were expert in the manufacturing of steel stringed acoustic guitar. Two types of construction evolved, the flat top guitar and the arch top guitar. Martin and Gibson were two of the original and most significant of all American acoustic guitar makers.

A well recognized name in the history of guitars, Antonio Torres Jurado (1817 to1892), developed the modern feature of the guitar in Seville during the 1850s. George Beauchamp in 1936 patented the electric guitar, which used the horseshoe magnet pickup. However, Danelectro was the first to produce electric guitars for the wider public.

The requirement for something with an amplified sound became noticeable during the big band era of history of guitars. Amplified devices became necessary in order to fight with the loud volumes of the large brass sections common to jazz orchestras of the thirties and forties. To begin with the component of electric guitar, this consisted primarily of hollow archtop acoustic guitar bodies to which electromagnetic transducers had been fixed.

The original recognized use of the electric guitar in the history of guitars was during October 1932 in Wichita, Kansas by guitarist and bandleader Gage Brewer who acquired two instruments directly from George Beauchamp of Los Angeles, California. The first recording of an electric guitar was by jazz guitarist George Barnes. He recorded two songs in Chicago on March 1st, 1938. These were Sweetheart Land and It is a Low Down Dirty Shame.

Buying a guitar is really exciting. But it will be appropriate only if the whole buying process can be judged properly. Once you have decided what to buy, next question is, where to but it from? A proper decision should be taken after a proper research is done regarding the place from where to purchase the guitar.

Basically there are two options to buy a guitar. One is to buy it from a store selling guitar and other musical instruments and the other is to buy it online. However, in each case there are pros and cons. These should be known to the buyer as it will help to settle for the best choice. So let’s find out what extract can be taken out from buying guitars online vs. buying guitars from a store.

Talking about buying guitars online vs. buying guitars from a store, the first fact that strikes the mind is inspecting the product. As it is known that it is necessary to examine the model properly before buying it, therefore, in this regard it is better to opt for the store. The reason is simple; it is only possible in a store to check out different guitars at a time before buying. The same is naturally not possible in case of online buying. Also here the payment has to be made first i.e. before the guitar is delivered. But some of the online sellers have return policies too which enables the buyer to return the defective instrument after examining it within the given time .

Next point about buying guitars online vs. buying guitars from a store, is that the buyer will have to depend on the advertisement in case of online process. Whatever it will portray about the company and the model, the buyer will have to believe. On the other hand while buying from the store the facts stated by ads can be easily verified.

Then again, in case of buying guitars online, sometimes the shipping costs for buying or returning the guitar can be expensive. On the other hand, the stores don’t have such kind of issues. Most of the time there is no shipping charge. With it comes the oppurtunity of negotiating the price, which is not possible in the online buying process.

Surrounded by drawbacks, the online process has many advantages too as compared to the stores. Needless to say, the online process is really very comfortable. The main reason being the fact that it can be done from home, which saves the trouble of visiting a store that is situated far off.

In the debate of buying guitars online vs. buying guitars from a store, the next fact that comes along is getting a guitar expert opinion. While buying from the store you either have to rely on your judgment or dealer’s words. But while buying guitars online, this facility is provided by way of product reviews from experts as well as comments from users who have experienced buying from a particular site before.

Digging out the next fact from the discussion regarding buying guitars online vs. buying guitars from a store, is the variety option. The online process offers endless options about the guitars. Any kind of model or brand, sometimes even the rare models are easily available on the Internet. Whereas, in the stores the options are most of the time less and the rare models needs placing special order.

One of the important fact regarding buying guitars online is that most of the time the online companies have no sales tax charges. This saves you some money when you buy guitar online.

These were some trade offs to be considered while deciding on buying guitars online vs. buying guitars from a store. The final decision to a large extent depends on the individual preference and circumstances.

How a cheap guitar can hinder your progress.

A problem with cheap guitars, especially steel string acoustics, is that the strings are set way too high off the fretboard, making it overly strenuous to fret the chords.

What beginner guitarist don’t always realize, is that it’s much easier to train your fingers to play the guitar on a slightly more expensive guitar that’s been worked on by a luthier.

The luthier just needs to do a few small things to make it play better.

The most important procedure is to level and crown the frets. On acoustic guitars I would take it even further and lower the bridge as well.

Acoustic guitars very often have high bridges which make them very uncomfortable to play.

Some acoustic guitars that I’ve played where well set up, but this has been a rarity. For the most part, I am appalled that some guitar manufacturers can market these guitars and still think they’re providing a service.

The advantages of learning to play on an electric guitar become glaringly obvious to anyone who’s tried to learn on a cheap acoustic guitar.

Relatively cheap electric guitars, costing anywhere between 100 and 200 dollars, easily beat similarly priced acoustic steel string guitars when it comes to playability.

The danger of learning to play on such cheap guitars, is in the development of what someone so aptly called the death grip.

This is a bad habit, in fact it’s more of a conditioning, that causes the guitarist to clench the guitar neck so tightly and apply too much pressure when fretting notes, that the ability to develop any meaningful degree of speed and dexterity on the guitar is seriously hampered.

The amount of pressure that someone who suffers from this condition applies to the fretboard when playing, can be enough to actually push the strings out of tune, even though the guitar is still perfectly tuned when someone else uses it after them.

I have a friend who has this condition. Try as I might to make him use less force when playing, he can’t seem to get it right.

How to overcome the Death grip.

Once you’ve developed this habit there’s only one or two things you can do. One is to take time every day unlearning it, by applying only as much pressure as is needed to play the notes and chords.

The other thing to do is take your guitar and have it seen to by a professional repairman or luthier.

He should be able to lower the strings and set the guitar up for maximum playability.

You’ll still have to practice lightening up on your grip though.

This is why I prefer electric guitars.

They’re so much easier to work with and set up correctly, not to mention far more playable.

Although there are several kinds of guitars the two main ones are the electric and the acoustic and even within these two categories there are many variations.

The acoustic guitar is made of wood and the sound it produces depends upon the shape of the guitar and the strings. The body is usually hollow and nylon strings are used. It does not need to be connected to a power supply unless, of course, it is an acoustic electric guitar. There are no effects boxes of any kind required as with the electric guitar. These are some of the guitars which fall within the acoustic group:-

- Classical – this is what most beginners choose and it is played sitting down

- Flamenco – like the classical but slimmer and produces a crisper sound

- Steel-top – this one has a larger body than the classical guitar, is toughened for sturdiness and produces a warmer tone

- Twelve strings – the six normal strings have another set an octave higher. This guitar produces a very tuneful sound

- Resonator – quite like the steel-top but the center of the soundboard is made of steel which acts as a resonator. Different guitars within the resonator group can be played on the lap similar to a keyboard instrument. The resonator is the guitar regularly used to play the blues

- Arch-top – this one is frequently the chosen guitar of jazz players. It has f-hole design and is usually an expensive guitar to buy.

- Acoustic bass – normally four-stringed but does come with five or six strings too. This guitar is played without electric pick-ups.

Moving on to electric guitars, these need playing through an amplifier and if they are not connected to one, the sound is barely audible. When used with many types of sound boxes, different effects are produced. The tone and the volume are varied by the use of control knobs as is the shift from treble to bass intensive. To create a “crying sound” whammy bars are regularly used, but this is not recommended for cheaper guitars as it can result in the guitar ending up out of tune.

The strings of an electric guitar are thin and made of steel. They need less effort to push them down as they are closer to the neck of the guitar. The body of the electric guitar is made of solid wood, smaller than the acoustic, and therefore heavier. The electric guitar comes in both six and twelve strings, and in a variety of shapes; some models have even been carved to give the appearance of a hand.

As mentioned earlier, some acoustic guitars can also be electric, whereas this cannot be said of electric guitars – they can never be acoustic.

 Every guitar player that has ever been born lives for the day when he/she can pick up a vintage guitar. Vintage guitars are available in all major manufacturers and brands. But it’s not only musicians and guitar enthusiasts that are attracted to these masterpieces. Vintage guitars can also be viewed as an investment.

You’re probably saying to yourself right now “How can a guitar be an investment?”, “Is buying a vintage guitar really a good investment?” Allow me to enlighten you a little. To the untrained eye, a guitar is a guitar. Now we aren’t talking about the walls of instruments you see at Guitar Center or Sam Ash. We are talking about those special few extraordinary guitars that just scream to be torn into.

Guitars are a great investment for a few reasons. First, they are beautiful and command a room where they are displayed. Second, vintage guitars don’t depreciate or lose value with time. On the contrary, these babies appreciate and gain value as they age, especially if they are kept up nicely. Third, they have superior tonality and action when played due to the quality workmanship that went into their construction.

Undoubtedly, the most popular is the Les Paul by Gibson. This guitar carries the name of the man who invented the solid body electric guitar. In the 1960′s, the Les Paul was just about THE choice of instrument. These are still made today, but the older ones were made of superior materials like mahogany and oak. Some even had gold frets and mother of pearl inlays on the fret board.

Fender also has a stranglehold on a couple of highly sought after guitars, especially the Stratocaster, the Telecaster and the Thunderbird. These were favorites among blues and rock players alike. Again, the ones everybody wants were made in the 1950′s and 1960′s.

Certainly among the reigning Kings of vintage guitars are those made by the CF Martin company. Martin emigrated here from Europe in the late 19th century and set up shop in New York. The craftsmanship he imparted is not only extraordinary. It is absolutely earth shattering. Martin pioneered the X-bracing system for acoustic guitars adding years to the longevity of the instruments he made. Many Martin’s are still in use at nearly 100 years old!

Guild is another vintage guitar that is vastly overlooked these days. Guild was only in operation for about 25 years and was bought by Fender in the 1990′s. Some of the older Guild guitars are extremely rare and sought after as they exhibited the same quality as the Martin instruments of the same time period.

Every one of these guitar manufacturers has made an exceptional line of guitars. Players like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, Chet Atkins, Roy Clark and Les Paul have chosen them time and time again as their guitar of choice.

When bought as an investment, the vintage ones hold the possibility of giving a fantastic ROI (return on investment).

To see a collection of vintage guitars that are available right now, get on over to http://www.vintageguitarzone.com and see what you can get your fingers around for a great price.