Strap Lock Update: Its a Grolsh Bottle!

May 13th, 2012

If you have read my recent post on an inexpensive(ie, really cheap) way to create your own strap locks with your stock strap buttons, then you will be pleased with this short update.  I wasnt really happy with the ones i had bought from the local hardware store, so I went to the music store that had been selling the pink washers.(see last post pics).

They were of course out of this item, but the store owner then confided in me that these were actually the rubber stoppers that you find on your standard Grolsh Beer bottle.  So he said in a pinch I could go buy a 6-pack of Grolsh, and not only get the rubber stoppers I needed as strap locks but also enjoy a cold one on the back patio while strumming my favorite guitar.  Awesome!!

So now you know.

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Strap Locks on the Cheap

April 29th, 2012

Saw these at a local music store a few months back, and grabbed a pair.  Basically they are a rubber washer that the guys said works really well as a budget strap lock on your guitar. Just keep your regular strap buttons on the guitar, put on the strap, and slip one of these babys over each strap button.  After trying it out for a few months I found they work like a charm, and they are about 50 cents each.  You cannot beat that, and I know most guitar players are incredibly cheap, like me.

What I also like about them besides saving $20 on strap locks, is that the strap locks I have tried all seem to have one or another slight annoyance about them. I have used the two most common brands, the Schaller and the Dunlop “solutions” for strap locks.  Don’t get me wrong, both of these have never failed to keep the strat on the guitar, so using that metric they are both great products.

I find the annoying things about both these conventional designs are:

-once you have them installed, the strap button/lock combination just sticks out really far from the guitar.  Just try leaning the guitar up against anything and its like the guitar is one on long stilt. Its all balanced on that lower button.

-Plus if you dont take the strap off your guitar, the Schaller at least will wear a hole straight through that gig back of yours.

-You can only use the straps that have the locks attached and cant also use those straps on another guitar in a quick pinch that may have standard strap buttons.

Anyway, I went to the local hardware store and couldnt find the exact size the music store had(1″ diameter x 5/16″ hole), but I did find the black one you see in the pick(3/4″ diameter x 5/16″ hole). The pink rubber one is also a bit thicker, so its really a tighter and more secure fit.  The smaller ones I picked up are not as secure but definitely keep the strap on the guitar.

So there you have it, incredibly inexpensive, easy to install, easy to change to other guitars, and effective way to add strap “locks” to any guitar in your arsenal, without any modifications.

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New Product Review: TUSQ Guitar Picks

April 15th, 2012

This is an unofficial product review of the soon to be released guitar picks made from a material called Tusq.  They are manufactured by Graphtech, and I was able to score one quite randomly at the NAMM show in January.  I happened to be walking by their booth, and they had some samples sitting on this table to take.  I snagged one, put it in my pocket and sort of forgot about it.  About a week or two later I am digging for some change at the coffee shop, and there it was.

Anyway, the pick is really thin, and my taste has always been towards a more stiff, thicker guitar pick. I tried it out anway, and was immediately surprised at how stiff this pick was, even being thinner than I normally use.(Its the A3 size, 0.88mm)  I have being using it now almost exclusively for electric guitar playing the past month and I really like the playability overall.  I am looking forward to ordering more as I keep worrying that I am going to lose this one pick I have.

Being thinner it feels lighter and the stiffness allows fast picking without losing energy with a floppy pick.   Only downside I have noticed is that the edge of the pick seems to be wearing quite quickly. One evening I had to use an emory board to get the edge back without it snagging on the strings.

TUSQ itself is a madmade product that mimicks bone.  Its been used for many years now on guitar string nuts and acoustic guitar saddles as an alternate for standard bone, amongst other items.

http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?CategoryID=22

Looks like they are ready to ship these out very soon, mid April, so look for them in a store near you or online.  I’d like to try the even thinner .68mm picks when they are available for general sale.

So to wrap it up:

Pros:  much stiffer material allows for a thinner pick, lighter, and faster response to picking.

Cons:  seems to wear quickly and get rough edge that can catch on the strings.

Available: After April 15th

Sizes:  0.68mm, 0.88mm, and 1.0mm

Colors: white, black, cream

 

 

 

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Rickenbacker Amp Repair and “Its Almost April Already??”

March 21st, 2012

Yes, our blog is alive (if not well) finally here in the year 2012.  After taking a little hiatus due a combination of a lack effort and being extremely busy, I think we are over the hump and back in the saddle.  And so without further explanation…..

Here is an odd site, its a guitar amp from the Rickenbacker company that came to our repair shop last week for a little refurbishment.  Known of course more as a guitar manufacturer, it appears after some research that Rickenbacker has made amps on and off in the past.  This amp, model TR-25, looks to be from about 1977, and is a 25 watt solid state beauty with built in reverb and tremolo.

American Made: Santa Ana, CA

The main issues were very scratchy sounding pots, speaker wires not soldered(just loosely wrapped around the posts), and non functioning reverb.  Once I took the amp apart and removed the very tiny reverb unit, it was thankfully very easy to identify that problem.  A very small wire within the reverb unit had a broken solder joint and had come loose.   Here are a few photos of the inside of the amp.

One thing that I did find incredibly surprising and amusing was the reverb manufacturers stamp on the side of this unit.  Apparently someone had a sense of humor and figured these would never be seen by the end user customer anyway.  Check it out.  I still can’t stop laughing. Definitely some late 70′s vibe going on there.

Well, after all that, I put the amp back together and it was time to see if this badboy was going to work properly.  The amp fired right up and sounded surprisingly good. The reverb works perfectly now and the tremolo is very cool too.

Mfg Plate on reverb tank

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Happy New Year!!

January 5th, 2012

Hello everyone! Just wanted to say Happy New Year! Hope to see you at the shop sometime soon in 2012.

Check out this video of Billy Gibbons at the Roxy on the 23rd, sitting in with the Camp Freddy gang for their annual December residency on the Sunset Strip. Just doesnt get any more blues than this.

Billy Gibbons tears it up

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Guitar Collection: Guitar or Canoe Oar? You make the call…

December 14th, 2011

Ok, this is definitely the cheapest and ugliest guitar in my collection. I make no bones about it,  and make no excuses.  It served a purpose even if it doesnt get played very often these days.   I bought this Montana Brand(mfg in Romania- hotbed of guitar making knowledge) for $90 in 2003 mainly as a travel guitar for a 5 week trip to Europe and to practice some guitar repair techniques after leaving Summit School of repair in Canada.

it started out with this horrible fretboard; no radius, aweful cheap frets and poorly painted black wood.  So the first thing I did was yank those frets out, sand in a 12″ radius, stain the light wood a cherry color and refret.  Then I installed that Select single coil pickup I bought for cheap from Stew Mac along with a volume knob. 

After that the guitar at least played a little better. I had to stick with acoustic strings as electric strings pulled the intonation out really bad.   I brought the guitar back to the shop where I bought it, and the salesman there was impressed and a bit jealous.  He had the same guitar setup with a pickup for slide but it wasnt nearly as nice as this one.

Turns out this guitar, although it still sounds like crap acoustically, sounds REALLY  good plugged into an overdriven amp, tuned to open D and played with a slide.   It has the electric sound with a nice hint of air to it, but doesn’t feed back.   So that is primarily what i use if for anymore.

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Guitar Collection: Bottleneck Blues Baby

November 30th, 2011

Yet another guitar in my meager collection, this one has the main distinction of being the the first brand new guitar I have bought in a long, long time. I bought it just last year in 2010.  For some reason I am usually drawn more to used guitars(better price, already dings so I don’t have to be careful, who knows?)

I have messed around with electric slide guitar for a few years and had done some on my regular acoustic, but I finally wanted to delve a bit further into that true delta blues sound, and get a real resonator guitar; mess with some open tunings.  Frankly I just wasnt ready for that metal National or Dobro tone just yet, and I finally stumbled onto this Fender model.  Since they are not the most played guitar I could not find a used one.  I finally just bought in new after searching for a few months.

I have not been disappointed.  It is not as loud or metallic as the above referenced guitars, but it is still PLENTY loud.  Plus the combo of wood body with that resonator, I thing, just rounds the tone out nicely.  The guitar also has a telecaster style pickup and under saddle pickup both of which you can blend together.  So it really makes for a great recording and live gig instrument.  It is Chinese mfg but its been very reliable, great tone, and good looking finish.  Definitely gets some looks when somone comes to the house.

 

About slides themselves,  like everything there are far too many  shapes, materials, sizes  of slides on the market to test every one of them, unless you just plunk down about $400 and order them all at one time.  After a few years of trying a few different ones, and asking questions of some great local  slide players here is what I prefer to use, for the time being.  Again, this can always change.  Right now I love using the brass slide on the left for acoustic and resonator slide.  The extra weight feels great, and it has a slight curve to it so its easier to play 5 strings at a time without fretting out. The Dunlop slide on the right, the glass one, is my go to for electric work.  Just the opposite I like that its very lightweight and short. That way I can fly around more for single note solos or riffs higher up on the guitar neck.  The one in the middle is this ceramic slight I bought at the NAMM 2010 show.  To be honest I like it less than the other two but sometimes it has just a different vibe that sounds cool, so I let it stick around.   Last but not least, I wear the slide on my pinky finger. Again, everyone seems to learn it differently but I like being able to make chords with the other three fingers still if need be. 

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Recent Visit to the Everly Music Laboratory

November 15th, 2011

Had the chance to visit the facility that manufactures all the Cleartone Brand guitar strings recently, Everly Music right in North Hollywood, and see what they were cooking up in their evil product development lab.   As you may know, Cleartone strings are what we stock in the shop these days as standard.

One item that was of particular interest is a yet-to-be-released product called Phil’s Guitar Clay Detailer.  The idea is to use a similar process that they use on new car finishes which is a mulitstep process:  first lift minute particles off the surface with a clay bar product, and then do the final polishing.   I was told the idea is to not swirl those particles around during polishing and thus potentially actually scratching the surface instead of getting a mirror like finish.   The clay in this kit is formulated for guitars, it is a bit softer than the clay bar they use on cars.  They gave me this starter kit and asked me to try the product in our shop and give them some feedback. I have just the guitar for the job, an old Ibanez I have which I was upgrading the electronics on.  I’ll let you know what I think.

 

Some other items they shared with me, and that I will testing in the shop are some string sets beyond the standard electric and acoustic.  Everly now has a set of treated classical strings, the Sevilla brand in both std. and heavy tension,  bass strings, and also their Red series in both six and twelve string acoustic sets.  The Red series is a new copper/bronze blend that gives the strings this reddish tint. I have a set on my slide guitar, gives it a little warmer sound.  I like it so far.  Would be great to hear on a twelve string guitar.

If you are interested in trying any of these string sets bring your guitar in for a setup and we can choose which strings may fit your playing and tonal preference.

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Guitar Collection: Rockabilly Heaven

November 1st, 2011

Next up in my personal guitar collection is this model 77 DeArmond guitar that I bought sometime around 2004 when I joined a rockabilly/roots style band. I was looking for a guitar with attitude and a Bigsby tremolo, but I didn’t want to break the bank at the time.

I had done some heavy internet research, priced a few out, and had even tried some semi hollowbody guitars like a Guild for example. Then I stumbled upon this brand, which was owned by Fender at the time.  This model in particular got great reviews and folks on forums had good things to say.   The guitar is made in Korea, but has American made DeArmond pickups just like the ones they used to use in Gretsch guitar. It had the Bigsby and is also chambered to keep the weight down and add resonance. 

So I called up some guitar stores, and lo and behold, Fender had discontinued the whole DeArmond line.  A Sam Ash store way out in Ontario(Inland Empire) was the only one with any stock left; they had 6, AND they were blowing them out at only $267/each instead of the original $600 price.  I hightailed over there the same day to check these guitars out.  When I got there they had this Orange one and a few of the Gold Top ones left. 

The guitar was alright, felt like it needed a setup bad, but for the money it was mine. I kept thinking maybe I should just buy a couple more and sell them at some point. In retrospect I should have, could have made some good money.  There isnt a guitar in that price range that can sound like this guitar, and I have run into some folks since who love this guitar.  Oh well, opportunities lost.  At least I got this one, and its a prized possession of mine, and a staple in my guitar collection. 

Those pickups and that Bigsby capture the blues/roots/rockabilly tone SPOT ON.  The pickups are more of a single coil sound with sizzle;  no heavy rock or metal here, but it will get to ACDC territory if pushed.  Plus I just love the Burnt Orange translucent stained look of the front of the guitar, reminds me of an old Gretsch too.  I would say this guitar is modeled for the most part on a Duo Jet.

I did eventually get crazy and customized the electronics and added the cool cat dice knobs. They were not stock. Basically the guitar originally had two volume and two tone knobs. Being a strat player mostly I am used to just one volume knob, so….I rewired the guitar to have one master volume, one tone, and added a Seymour Duncan boost switch with gain knob.  Now its a real rock n roll machine!!

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I’m Back!!!(Take Three)

October 23rd, 2011

(third time writing this. mysteriously all the text disappeared the first two times. Spooky!!)

Anway, Just letting everyone know I am back and finally updating my blog on a regular basis again.  I chalk it up to an intense case of laziness the past few months. Actually been just the opposite, always busy with something. My goal is to get at least two updates a month from now on, and maybe even more. Woohoo!!

I attended a small concert a few weeks ago at the Fret House in Covina,  a guitar duo of Carl Verheyen and Steve Trovato.  It was just an incredible showcase of what you can do on guitar without a distortion pedal, including a mix of fingerpicking blues and folk, the hottest country licks, jazz and some of their originals.  Both Carl and Steve are well known in LA but probably not elsewhere. Carl Verheyen happens to be an A list sessions musician in the area. I can attest to the fact that he is equally as impressive in live situations.  check him out with his full band, December 1st at the Canyon Club. 

http://www.carlverheyen.com/tour-dates.html

Also, the ever popular Musician’s Swap Meet will be held on November 20th at the usual site, Old World Festival Hall in Huntington Beach.  They also serve brautwurst and beer so its definitely a good way to spend a Sunday. 

http://www.musiciansswapmeet.net/

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