I have the great, good fortune now in my retirement to spend as much time as I wish focused on all things guitars. After a harrowing visit to the Mayo Clinic for an annual physical, I was eventually declared good to go, so when I returned home I felt even more fortunate to have time to develop my musical sensibilities and skills.
To that end, I scheduled my first “gig” at the local coffee shop for early April. Along with my friend Grant, we will perform for a couple of hours on a Friday night. Cup of Joe is a pleasant, low pressure venue to perform… the coffee, tea and snacks are great and the people are kind…
Cup of Joe in Cedar Fall, IA
Grant and I will take turns alternating at the mic during the evening. He plays his original Folk-Punk-Americana on acoustic guitar, while I play finger-style and bottleneck country blues on a couple of resonators and a Taylor hybrid acoustic/electric guitar. So we are both feverishly sharpening our chops for the performance next month.
I am not particularly anxious about this gig, as I’ve performed at Cup of Joe numerous times at Open Mic Night… This time it should be more pleasant for me, as I won’t feel the time pressure that you do when all you have is fifteen minutes at the mic and there are people lined up to play after you…
In addition to working on my chops, I also have the freedom to read as much as I can abut all things guitars and blues… Here are some the books, on my short stack that I am either reading, have read, or intend to get to in the short term:
I just finished reading this wonderful book. Compiled by Jas Obrecht a lifelong musical journalist for journals like Guitar Player Magazine. Of the dozens and dozens of guitarists he’s interviewed over the years, he offers in this book some of the very best. It was fascinating to read what some of the best players think about their music and how they approach the instrument. Included are interviews with Neil Young, Jerry Garcia, Tom Petty, Carlos Santana, Ben Harper and Johnny Winter. Highly recommended if you love all things guitars! Published by the University of North Carolina Press, so it’s a classy binding.
I was so pleased with Obrecht’s Talking Guitar, I went ahead and picked up two of his other books that fall right into my wheelhouse of interest. Both new books are about blues players. The first about the early pre-electric country blues players and the second about the players who led the transition to Chicago/Detroit style electric blues. Reading these books should add to my knowledge base when I banter with an audience about the music I play…
Pedal Crush is a monumental tome about anything you could possibly want to know about the pedals that are used to augment and enhance the sound of a guitar. Published by Bjooks, I had to order this one out of Denmark. It’s coffee table book big and pricey, and I am just about 1/4 of the way into it. Including interviews with various pedal builders and guitar players who use pedals, it is a comprehensive and wonderful journey through this particular world of technology.
If you’re wondering why I am so fascinated by pedals, here’s my latest board iteration. It’s great fun to sculpt sound with a pedal board. For more details about most of my pedals, check here…
Hybrid Acoustic/Electric National Reso-Lectric is a Singular Guitar
National Reso-Lectric
A couple of weeks ago I made the trek across Iowa and Minnesota farm land to Dave’s Guitars in LaCrosse, WI and purchased a new resonator guitar. I traded in a steel bodied National NRP Black Rust for a National Reso-Lectric.
I’ve played the Reso-Lectric quite a bit during the past two weeks and have conjured up my review of the guitar. There are just a very few reviews of this guitar out there on the web probably because there are not that many Reso-Lectrics out in circulation. The only “celebrity” musician I found by googling around who’s played one publicly is Metallica’s James Hetfield and that was revealed with only a single still image and that’s it. It should be noted too that Hetfield’s Reso-Lectric is the all mahogany version referred to as the Revolver.
I’ve seen suggestions out on the web that this guitar is capable of playing in overdrive/distortion mode but that is NOT my intension. I play finger-style country blues and as far as I am concerned the Reso-Lectric is a pickup enhanced acoustic resonator designed for country blues and bottleneck/slide playing and that’s how I am going to use it.
The Reso-Lectric is not the only National Resonator I own. I also play a Reso-Rocket WB (wood body). It’s a fantastic guitar that is equipped with one of Mike Dowling’s Hot Plates as a pickup. As wonderful as the Reso-Rocket is, it does not offer the sound palette that the Reso-Lectric brings to playing the blues.
Let’s examine the physical nature of the guitar first and then explore what it sounds like in some of its various modes. Let’s follow the string-line from tailpiece to tuning posts and see what the Reso-Lectric is…
On first view, it is a combination of stunning and unusual in appearance… a remarkable and unlikely looking guitar. Enhancing the singular appearance of the guitar is the sunburst treatment of the figured maple top, upon which the polished resonator cover rests, the art deco logo on the kitchen counter plastic cover and the 1950’s era sci fi nuclear reactor pick up control dials. Finally, the headstock is treated with a mother-of-pearl veneer cap, gleaming retro Kluson tuning pegs and capped off with another art deco National logo.
Examination of the back of the guitar indicates a nice solid block of mahogany serving as the guitar’s foundation and mounted to the body is a figured maple neck, which as with the rest of the exposed wood on the guitar has received a satin finish. The necks on all my other guitars are mahogany with a gloss finish, so this neck is taking some getting used to for me. The neck appears to be attached to the body with screws, which makes me a bit anxious. I would feel more comfortable if they were bolts… perhaps they are, but I am not willing to pull one to find out. I did have to gently snug them up as they were not all-the-way tight.
Also on the back, you will note a screwed on battery cover. Six wood screws are required for removal to get into the battery compartment where two 9 volt batteries are housed to power the guitar’s Fishman preamp. My Taylor acoustics and the T5z all require 9 volt batteries but only one. The Reso-Lectric is a power hungry thing. Leaving the guitar plugged into an amp when not in use will drain the batteries, so unplug…
At the base end of the guitar the characteristic National tailpiece is locked into place with a strap mount button. On my other heavier guitars like the Taylor electrics, I have changed out the stock strap buttons for locking Schaller’s. Given the relatively beefy 8 lb (3.6 kg) weight, I think it would be prudent to have strap locks on this guitar at some time in the near future.
From the end of the tailpiece the strings traverse under the polished hand rest and are then situated into appropriately sized grooves cut into the guitar’s bridge, which for National resonator’s is most commonly referred to as the biscuit. The biscuit/bridge is comprised of two pieces of wood glued together: a circular horizontal piece that is glued to the metallic resonator cone and a vertical slice of wood with grooves cut into it to guide the strings like a guitar bridge. The whole enterprise, biscuit bridge and resonator cone are covered with a shiny and elaborate hubcap-like cover, which is very characteristic for resonator guitars.
When the strings are plucked their energy is transferred to the biscuit/bridge which downwardly vibrates the spun aluminum convex shaped cone which serves as a speaker and radiates sound outward creating the characteristic bonk and splang for which resonator guitars are known. Most importantly, for this guitar there exists a piezo pickup which is mounted in the lower part of the biscuit bridge, the signal which captures the sound emanating directly from the cone is sent to a Fishman preamp located under the volume control knobs in the upper bout of the guitar. The piezo is one of two ways in which the guitars sound is amplified.
Following the string-line past the biscuit/bridge and up towards the neck of the guitar, the strings flow over another electric pick-up. Covered in black plastic is a Lollar P-90 single coil pick-up. I believe this version is referred to as a “Soap Bar.” So, in sum, this guitar has two pick-ups available to sculpt its sound. One below the biscuit/bridge and the other located at the sweet spot just below where the neck joins the body of the guitar.
Control of volume and tone knobs are located on the top of the upper bout of the guitar. There is a toggle switch to move between the two pick-ups for individual selection, or the center setting will deploy both simultaneously. Unlike a lot of electrified guitars, this one does not have a tone control; however, tone control is managed really well in my judgement by blending the volume of the two disparate pickups.
So what do we have here for controls besides the pickup toggle? Referring to the image of the controls, the one positioned lowest is overall volume control. The middle switch controls the output of the under biscuit/saddle pickup and the uppermost control does the same the P90 pickup. The sounds offered by the two different pickups are distinctly different so it is possible to create a wide array of sonic possibilities by playing the pickups individually or by blending them through control of output. I will revisit this subject a bit later with some sonic examples.
After crossing over the neck pickup the string line advance along the ebony fretboard mounted on a maple neck. The fretboard is marked with inlaid dots, is 14 jumbo frets long off from the guitar’s body, with a longish scale length of 25 21/32 inches (65.2 cm). The strings finally arrive at the headstock, passing over the bone nut with a width of 1.73 inches (4.4 cm) which is fine for both slide and finger-style playing. The strings end their journey on the posts of Kluson tuners, which are elegant appearing and smooth operating.
I’ve included below are some sound samples for the National Reso-Lectric. I play a opening section of Blind Willie McTell’s Wake Up Mama with the guitar’s pickups set three different ways:
First I play Wake Up Mama with the biscuit/bridge piezo pickup engaged alone:
Biscuit/Bridge piezo pickup alone
To me, the biscuit bridge pickup alone sounds the most acoustic. Of the two pickups, I think the one on the bridge also has the most bite, which is typically true of most bridge pickups on electric guitars. I am not inclined to play the bridge pickup alone as it comes across to me as a bit thin and tinny sounding which does not appeal to my ears.
Second, I play the same tune with the neck pick only engaged:
Neck pickup alone
The neck pickup alone demonstrates, by comparison to the bridge pickup, a warmer, rounder, fatter tone which is also consistent with other electric guitars. I like the tone of this pickup but used alone it just lacks a modicum of bite that would make it most appealing to me, especially for a resonator guitar.
In my judgment, the best way to play this guitar and to elicit from it the most lovely tones it is capable of is to mix together the output from both pickups simultaneously. What I would call the Goldilocks tone. I tend to balance the tone more towards the warmer neck pick up but dose in enough bridge sound to add some edge. Let’s take a listen:
The first time I ever played a resonator, it was one of those moderately priced Fender wooden jobs and it was fun to play finger-style, especially my genre of choice, country blues, but it did not feel like a particularly substantive, quality instrument, so I decided to go top drawer and get a National NRP Black Rust for my own.
I’ve written about this before several times on this blog, that the NRP was pretty much a fine guitar for bottleneck playing, but for me it was basically unplayable finger-style because of the way it was set-up with very high action. I am delighted to report in this review that the Reso-Lectric is mac easier to play finger-style. Below I run through one of my favorite country blues finger-style tunes, Cocaine Blues (as arranged by Stef Grossman).
In the past I’ve purchased guitars and suffered from buyer’s remorse of varying levels but no so in the case of the National Reso-Lectric! For the genre and style I like to play it is a perfect complement to my guitar collection.
As a final note… National provides as nice a guitar case as I’ve seen… solid, sturdy, well padded and the guitar fits snugly into its place. Still… even so I would not check it through an airline! I don’t know how they do it but National managed to embroider a logo onto the top of the case… so cool…
Love this axe…
Please let me know what you think of this review and hit the follow button too!
Last week, I wrote in this weblog about my experience in La Crosse, WI at Dave’s Guitars when I purchased a new hybrid acoustic/electric National Reso-Lectric resonator guitar. What I did not mention was the brief conversation I had with JR, the sales rep I worked with about the age of the strings on the instrument I was procuring. He thought the guitar had only been in stock about 3 months since last November, but threw in a set of new strings he thought would work on the guitar as part of the deal…
As part of my own due diligence I followed up with National and asked them if they knew when the guitar was built to get a better idea of the extant string age. National was great and got back to me quickly. The guitar was actually built in August 2018 and delivered to Dave’s that very month. The fact was, the guitar was probably hanging on a hook at Dave’s 19 months instead of three! So, the strings surely need changing. It also explains why the guitar was a bit grubby when I initially decided to purchase the thing. JR did a nice job cleaning it up but there was still some junk adhering to the fret board that I needed to get clean off.
A set of John Pearse Jazz Mediums…
As further due diligence, I ran down the recommended string sizes for the Reso-Lectric on the National website and the strings JR gave me were too light by comparison. So I ordered online a set of the recommended Reso-Lectric strings, as seen on the right. Ordinarily, I might buy strings from my local shop as they are priced competitively; however, they along with every other guitar shop I’ve been in do not carry Pearse strings. I’ve used them on all my resonators and they must always for ordered in.
Taking advantage of the fact that my wife was away working, I set up the dining room table as my guitar maintenance/string changing site and a photo of it can be seen below:
In the foreground above you will note the guitar resting on a MusicNomad rubber mat and neck rest. For years I worked on my guitars without a mat and neck rest, but I learned quickly after purchase that this is really the only way to fly! Behind the guitar are numerous tools I set out to do the job properly… Let’s take a closer look below:
Tool array for guitar string change and routine maintenance
Moving left to right above:
Dave’s Guitar Shop wipe towel which was swag thrown in by Dave with the guitar purchase. Useful for wipe down during cleaning.
Ernie Ball Power Peg Pro makes winding the tuner pegs during string change so much easier and more efficient than one of those rotating hand winders. Takes a little getting used too and should be used with caution around Pearloid tuning pegs.
Electrician’s tape to hold the strings into the guitar’s tailpiece during the wind-up.
MusicNomad Tune-It lubrication for the nut. This will be the first time I ever use this stuff. I noticed during tuning of the original strings that a couple of them seem to hang up a bit riding through the nut. Perhaps this will help.
Microfiber wipe towel. Can’t have too many wipes during guitar maintenance.
Fender Bulletguitar tuner to get those new strings where they need to be.
Small diagonal wire cutters to trim the string. Pretty essential unless you want to circle them up like Bob Dylan did on the cover of Nashville Skyline..
Taylor Guitar Polish to clean up wooden surfaces. I think MusicNomad makes this stuff.
Dunlop 65 Fretboard Conditioner. Mostly lemon oil with a nice applicator. Not necessary for every string change, but this guitar has a nasty looking fretboard from hanging out in a store for many months!
MusicNomad Tool Set. Various screw drivers and wrenches for “just in case” something requires tightening. Just used it the other day to open the rear battery cover on this axe. A very handy collection.
Martin Simpson’s A Closer Walk with Thee which is a lovely cd of guitar instrumentals based on old American Gospel tunes. This in the background music to keep me calm during string change which can be a little never wracking if the strings misbehave.
So… let’s change the strings on my Reso-Lectric… shall we?
Backwinding the strings. Note the string loosening up.
Step One: Using a string winder like the Power Peg Pro, back wind the tuning pegs until the strings can be removed from the peg and later the tailpiece. Because I want to clean the fretboard, I will remove all the strings; however, some people might remove just half the strings and replace them before doing the other half. The decision may also depend on the bridge that you are using. For example, with a Bigsby, I would only do at most half the strings… perhaps, just one at a time.
Tailpiece and biscuit region of the guitar. Here the strings have all been removed.
Removing the string from the tailpiece on a National resonator is easy as it pops right out of the slot. There are no pegs holding the string down as is common on an acoustic guitar. A bit of caution is required getting the old string through the bridge/biscuit area because it is protected by an overarching hand guard. You wan to avoid damaging the soft wood biscuit or moving it around. I often cut the string in two pieces which makes removal from the biscuit region much easier.
Step Two: Clean the fretboard. You will note how grungy the fretboard was. Perhaps a customer who played this guitar at Dave’s before I got to it was eating a Twinkie and it was all over his hands…
Applying the fretboard conditioner down the neck.
Next I applied the Dunlop fretboard conditioner down the entire neck. This is the first time I used this product and its great. There is a pressure sensitive wick that wets out with conditioner with a downward push and applies easily with a simple wiping motion.
After application of the condition, it must be buffed down with a soft microfiber cloth or cotton rag. The grunge on the fretboard I was dealing with was quite tenacious and required some serious buffing to finally get it removed!
Buffing the fretboard after application of conditioner.
Strings laid out and ready to go.
Step Three: After the fretboard is cleaned it’s time to wind on the new strings. I like to remove the individually wrapped strings from the main package and lay them out arranged coarse to fine. The heavier strings are usually easiest to manage and might as well get them out of the way first.
As seen below start by running the string through the biscuit region and then slip the string into the tailpiece hole/slot. I found out from experience that unless tension is kept on the string it will most assuredly pop out of the tailpiece. It’s near impossible to keep tension on the string while you are winding up at the head stock, so I find that a piece of electrical tap laid over the tailpiece works wonders in keeping the string properly positioned.
On the left the string is located in the tailpiece. On the right you can see a strip of electrical tap holding the string in place.
Below, you can see a side shot of the biscuit underneath the guitar’s hand rest that sits above and protects it. The wooden biscuit transmits the string’s vibrations down to the aluminum cone to which it is glued, consequently creating the characteristic resonating sound known for these guitars. In the case of the Reso-Lectric there is also a piezo pickup located underneath the biscuit region of the cone. You can see that the biscuit is a saddle and has six differently sized grooves cut in it to accommodate the path of the strings, so it is important to make sure the string rests in its appropriate groove when winding it to proper tension. In this image the largest string can be seen on the right resting in its groove.
Sideview of the biscuit with large string resting in its proper groove.
Measuring out the string length to wrap around the tuning post.
It’s very important to get enough wraps of the string around the tuner post to keep the string in place when tuning the guitar. In the image to the left, I have the largest diameter string pulled through the post and am measuring off a section of string about the length of the next post. There should be no slack in the string between the tailpiece and the tuning post! This distance is a good rule of thumb; however, as the diameter of the strings progressively shrink in size, I will extend the string out a bit more to increase the number of wraps around the tuning post.
String bent at point of desired overall length before winding
After I’ve measured out the proper string length for the wind, I will then back the string off to the chosen end point, controlling the now slackened string with my right hand. What I like to do now is bend the string at the post and then wind the slack up around the post using my power winder in my left hand. I keep tension on the string with my right hand until the slack winds out. The aforementioned bending of the string is a great trick for controlling the string and keeping it from popping out of the tuning post as it winds on. Often I will have to bend the long tail end of the string upwards out of the way as it winds around the post to keep it from tangling or beating up the guitar’s head stock!
You can see the tail end bent upwards out of the way as the wind-on commences. Note the coils moving downwards.
I recommend winding the string with the string winder until the slack is gone and there is a modest amount of tension on the string. As you get to the finer strings it is easy to overwind and break them so some caution is required. The coils wrapping around the post should move downwards from the post hole toward the surface of the headstock. If proper tension and guidance of the string is not done, it is quite easy to tangle up the winds.
Making the final cut.
Finally, after the string is wound on to proper tension, it’s time to cut off the slack with wire cutters like the small diagonal side cutter I use. I cut the string pretty close to the post because the cut end can be a bit sharp and you don’t want to stab yourself later if you brush your hand over the headstock. I suggest 1/4 to 1/8 inch (3 to 6 mm) extending from the post hole. If the cut end is pointing upwards, I will gently push it down to horizontal with the lead end of the wire cutter.
Starting the replacement of the second string.
As you can see in the image to the right, I repeat the string replacement steps until all six strings are wound on. Note that, I peeled back the electrician’s tape to begin the wind of the second string. I will continue to work my way across, peeling and then replacing the tape to hold the strings down into the tail piece. The adhesive on the tape is robust enough to hold throughout the process.
Proper string wind orientation.
Here in the image to the left I am measuring out the string length for the upper most post on the headstock. I am guesstimating the proper length since there is no post above to use as a reference point. Also note, very importantly, that the wound strings come off the post towards the inner part of the headstock for best alignment within the guitar so choose your winding direction accordingly!
Strings lining up properly in the nut.
When the strings come off the posts in the proper orientation as mentioned above they line up nicely in the nut, which makes tuning accuracy more probable. The last step before final tuning is to gently stretch the strings. Note below the I use my left hand to pull upwards on the string and with my right, I gently old the strings in place so that they do not pop out of the biscuit grooves. It is possible to overstretch the finer strings and break them so use some caution. After stretching, I will tune the strings. I go through the stretching/tuning process three to four times before the strings stabilize. As Carlos Santana says, “You got to let the strings know who is the boss!”
Gentle string stretching on above left and above right holding the strings down in their biscuit grooves
For best accuracy I use an electronic tuner to get my strings to proper pitch. I never had the ear to tune strings, so the tuner for me is an absolute requirement. I own multiple tuners like the Fender Bullet below left but find the clip on tuners sometimes non responsive, which is frustrating. My best go-to tuner is the Boss TU-3. It always delivers. Of course you must have a guitar that you can plug-in to use a TU-3! I tune to standard EADGBE for starters, but tune down to Open D for bottleneck work on the Reso-Lectric, which is DADF#AD.
Two methods for electronically enhanced tuning. If I can, I will use the Boss TU-3.
Step Four: Wrapping things up… so, we’re almost done… as I mentioned earlier in this blog, I decided for the first time ever to use some lubrication in the nut grooves to enhance the ease of tuning… sometimes a wound string can “hang up” in the nut creating unwanted tuning errors. I suppose the grooves in the nut could be routed out a bit, but I think trying lubricant is the least aggressive approach to this minor problem.
Applying some slick ’em to the nut grooves to enhance tuning ease.
Applying the lubricant is pretty painless. It is a viscous vaseline-like fluid that I squeezed into a small bowl and then daubed a micro brush into it and subsequently wiped it into the nut groove. I loosened the strings enough to lift them out of the way during application and then re-tuned afterwards. So far, tuning accuracy seems a bit better now!
And then the last step… Applying some guitar polish and a final buff down:
After a 2.5 hour trek across frozen farm country in Iowa and Minnesota, I cross the Mississippi River into Wisconsin and spend several hours at one of the preeminent guitar stores in the U.S.
My first resonator… A steel NRP…
I play finger-style country blues and those of you who’ve read this weblog know that… I take lessons at my local shop which is an excellent guitar store and the community is blessed to have it… After one of my lessons a couple of years ago, I decided to noodle around with a resonator guitar and the shop had a modestly priced Fender that I picked up and tried out.
The Fender was a wooden bodied resonator with nice low play so that fingering the guitar was quite easy. I played through a few of old country blues tunes on the resonator and was smitten. I loved the bonk and splang of the guitar. I decided then that I would acquire a resonator, and guitar snob that I am, I was not inclined to purchase a Fender… Instead, I wanted a National because those guys invented the resonator… Well… it’s a little more complicated then that… I think the National/Dobro company that originally produced the resonator went out of business for some years, and was reconstituted as a manufacturer of resonators in 1989, but for all intents and purposes, it’s symbolically and culturally the same company, as they build their guitars just like in the old days and have added new innovations too along the way…
Mr. Catfish Keith playing a Tricone (from his website)
Fortunately for me, eminent country blues performer, award winning recording artist and resonator aficionado Catfish Keith gave me some basic beginner’s points on shopping for a resonator. He recommended a single cone guitar that fell into the Duolian or Triolian class as a good place to start. Keith also is a representative for National Guitars and will sell you anything in their product line. At this point, I was thinking a pre-owned instrument was my best choice to save some money and thanked Keith for his help.
National guitars were not to be had in Cedar Falls, IA, so I jumped into Reverb world for the first time and found a pretty good deal on a “mint” steel bodied NRP Black Rust that was designed to emulate the original Duolian steel guitar that famous bluesmen like Son House played. It was perhaps a bit too adventuresome on my part to buy an NRP without ever having played one, and when it arrived I was appalled at how high the “action” or string play from the fretboard was and how heavy the instrument settled onto my lap. To save my life, I could not fret the neck properly to play finger style on the NRP and was pretty distraught until I decided I would learn to play bottleneck style to justify the purchase!
National Reso-Rocket WB with Hot Plate pickup
Now, I really like playing bottleneck and will always remember that the NRP led me down that path… I was so enthused by bottleneck playing, I decided to broaden my tonal range by purchasing a wooden bodied resonator and again through Reverb received a “mint” conditioned National Reso-Rocket WB (wood body). I loved this guitar to the point that I rarely picked up the NRP anymore, and when I did the splanky overly metallic sound compared to the woody/mellow toned Reso-Rocket put me off…
Recently when my guitar teacher learned I wanted to dump the NRP, he was initially apoplectic, defining the NRP as one of the “coolest” guitars ever; however, after hearing me play my WB and also playing it himself, he thought it was a more natural axe for me given my style and sentiments.
So, recently I tried to sell the NRP by consignment at my local shop, but that did not work out… I concluded after a brief experience that there was a low probability of selling an expensive resonator in Cedar Falls. I took the guitar back home to keep, but it sat there barely being used like a sore tooth and I eventually took another route to rid myself of it.
Some years earlier, I was informed by the local guitarati that a wonderful guitar shop (Dave’s Guitar Shop) existed in La Crosse, Wisconsin that not only had a huge selection of guitars (over 2500 according to their website), but in addition, Dave has an enormous personal collection of specialty guitars (over 500) on display up on the second floor that contains some of the most interesting and rarest guitars and amplifiers on the planet Earth.
Besides being a leading dealer for Gibson, Fender, Martin, Gretsch, Taylor, National and PRS etc., Dave’s also has a brisk trade in used and vintage guitars. In fact, they have a no muss/no fuss electronic form to submit to get an estimate of the trade value for your guitar, which is I what I did last Sunday night for the NRP.
The very next day, they offered me a straight cash exchange or a better deal if I rolled the money over into a new purchase. So, being retired and healthy and having all the time in the world, I took off on a cross country drive the next day to visit Dave’s Guitars. Fortunately, for me the terrible weather over the past several days had abated temporarily so I had safe driving for the 2.5 hour trip.
Two lane blacktop through Iowa & Minnesota frozen farmlands…
Frankly, 2.5 hours through frozen tundra was a long drive, but it was exciting to finally cross the Mississippi into Wisconsin, enter La Crosse, and find the guitar store practically on the riverbank. The shop itself is a substantial two story building. It was impressive from the outside. I was told by my contact, a fellow identifying himself as JR to find him in the “acoustic room.”
Main floor at Dave’s… the electric guitar space…
So I entered through the double doors and landed in the electric guitar space. You can see in the image to the left, some of the Gibson ES models for sale. Well, I marched through the electric guitar space and was directed to the right side of the main floor where the acoustic room was.
Besides the store staff, I noticed mostly alte kakers (yiddish for old duffers) like me patronizing the store. One might conclude that lots of alte kakers play guitar and like to hang out where they’re sold!
Well… my man JR had to take care of a pair of alte kakers before he could meet with me, which was fine as I found a stool and took in the world around me. As you can see in the image below, I was surrounded by choice acoustic guitars, including, Collings, Santa Cruz, Gibson, Martin and Taylors. Not being in the market for an acoustic guitar because I own two lovely Taylors, my eyes sort of glazed over… the sheer number of high end, premium factory produced guitars was just overwhelming…
In fairly short order, I had the full attention of JR and the first thing he did was look over and “test out” the NRP whilst plugged into an acoustic amp. Then he went “all airline” and starting plugging away at his computer, until he made a final offer, which was actually higher than the initial one given to me the day earlier via email. I was pretty delighted and took the deal to roll the “offer” into a replacement guitar, either pre-owned or new depending upon how my search went. The guitars I was considering during my drive over were as follows: (of course only one would I purchase)
The National Reso-Lectric, because it looked and sounded as cool as a cucumber when I did some online research. Plus, Dave’s had a used and new one so I could compare them and I had a fascination for this unusual appearing and sounding axe. I will speak to this try out momentarily below.
The National M-1 Tricone Cutaway Wooden Body. As I said earlier, I already own a Reso-rocket WB, so I was concerned as to whether the M-1 sounded different enough to justify purchasing it. Further, I wondered how it could be amplified… my Reso Rocket WB has a hot plate installed and I want my guitars amplified when I perform. A tricone is more difficult to amplify and it’s probably expensive to do it well. Sadly, Dave’s just sold the last one in stock. It was a very cool guitar.
Gibson ES 335. I play finger-style country blues almost exclusively and this guitar is a semi-hollow bodied electric classic; however, I own a lovely Taylor T3 Custom (flamed maple) with Vintage Alnico humbuckers and I wondered if they are too close to each other to justify getting one. I actually tried one out. It was a pre-owned “Custom Shop” guitar at half the original premium price, and it was very, very nice, but it did not capture my imagination. Further, I was also surprised how grubby it was, which turned me off… Is that a thing? Selling vintage guitars in grubby form to make them appear more authentic? Bad form…
American Professional Strat. I do not own an electric guitar with single coil pickups though I have some that will split their doubled coiled humbuckers… As I said, I own the T3, and I own a Taylor T5z Pro which is very different from a Strat and finally I own a beautiful 2007 Taylor Solidbody Custom Walnut with mini humbuckers and a newly replaced neck… So the question was do I really need a Strat both for my own personal experience or to round out my stable of sounds? I decided at this moment no. I have enough electric guitars for the time being. If I ever buy a Strat one day, it will probably be at my local shop.
My tryout space where I could plug into a Fender Princeton Reverb, similar to one I own…
Now for the fun part of the trip. At my kind request, JR pulled out the used and new National Reso-Lectrics and found me an amplifier similar to one I have at home, procured a cable, let me plug-in, and then he left me to my own devices, suggesting I seek him out if I need any help or information. I greatly appreciated that he did not hover over me.
So, I picked up the used Reso-Lectric first as I really wanted to like it because it was considerably less money then a new one, and it was clean as a whistle. Sadly, I did not like it very much… It was thin, whiny and shallow sounding. Although it had nice low string play, which made for easy finger picking, it was unforgiving when I played with my brass slide. Too clangy… I tried a ceramic slide… no better.
I began wondering then if the Reso-Lectric was the guitar I had hoped it would be. It certainly sounded nice on some of the Youtube videos where I’d seen it reviewed, but this one was a bit of a dog! Perhaps it needed new batteries, or a reset, or pickup adjustments, but I did not have the time or patience to fight through that battle… I unplugged the used guitar and set it aside.
Then I picked up the new version of the Reso-Lectric and plugged in. It looked virtually the same as the used one aside from some finishing details on the headstock and the color of the plastic scratch plate and pick up cover. But, this guitar was very friggin’ different… it had a deep throatiness to it that was missing on the first one I tried… this guitar could go low and swampy, which is where I like to be! The play was still accessible for finger-style which delighted me; however, there was enough action to easily accommodate the slide too. With all systems go, I happily played through some of my Open D repertoire and the more I played it, the more I was convinced that this was the guitar I would walk out with…
When I was playing the new version of the Reso-Lectric a fascinating thing happened to me. Several of the old duffers hanging around the store came by and congratulated me on my playing! I was astonished because I was somewhat insecure playing out in the middle of one of the biggest and most discriminating guitar shops in the Midwest… One gentleman came by repeatedly, complimented my playing, asked for advice and told me how much he learned by our interactions! Wow… But the kicker, was when a store guy dropped by and told me that I reminded him of Ry Cooder’s Paris, Texas movie soundtrack referring to the slower, more languid and accurate playing of the slide that I was producing… He said that it was rare for someone to play like I was performing in the store. I was really taken aback and thanked him for his kind words…
I’ve not seen Paris, Texas but looked up a sampling of the soundtrack on Youtube, which I post below. It’s quite nice and appeals to me and I can see some similarity in how I approach playing slide. I am definitely not in the same universe as Ry Cooder, but it was nice to be compared to him in such a manner.
Ry Cooder doing the languid thing…
JR and I pose with the National Reso-Lectric… I am delighted…
After I played for quite a while, I decided to take the Reso-Lectric home with me and asked JR to prep it for sale. There was a bit of schmutz (yiddish for gunk) that he cleaned off on the shiny metal parts and he performed a slight adjustment to the neck.
It really is a fascinating looking instrument. There is an art-deco sensibility to the design and the control knobs remind me of a 1950’s era kitchen toaster! Combine the sunburst finish with the resonator cone cover and the aforementioned flourishes and you have a completely unique looking axe.
For all intents and purposes, the Reso-Lectric is a hybrid acoustic/electric guitar. The combination of an acoustic designed piezo pickup under the biscuit where the strings rest on the resonator cone, and the traditional electric P90 single coil up near the neck gives the player a fairly wide ability to influence the tone along the acoustic/electric spectrum. Combine the guitar controls with a Princeton Reverb Amp, echo delay, octaver, and tremolo pedals and it can create quite an alluring sound when played with a slide! Below you can see the guitar ready to go…
Take me home to Iowa…
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about the Reso-Lectric, I embedded below a factory tour of National Guitar focused entirely on the production of that particular guitar. The tour was done by a German outfit, so it begins in German language, but the tour itself is in English!
One of the rituals involved with visiting and/or shopping at Dave’s Guitars is to ascend to the second floor where Dave’s personal collection of historic, rare, and unusual guitars exists. This I decided to do and I took some shots which I post below. The sheer number of guitars and amplifiers is overwhelming. I knew I was in the midst of guitar history and museum quality greatness but did not have the wherewithal to take it all in, but it was fun to be up there for a while to wander around in awe… Sadly, I did not get to meet Dave himself, but if you scroll down below my shots of the collection there is a 45 minute interview with Dave and a detailed tour of the collection hosted/conducted by Premier Guitar Magazine… It’s worth the viewing if you have the time and the interest.
Some shots of Dave’s historic guitar collection
Below is the Premier Guitar Magazine interview with Dave of Dave’s Guitars:
Was the visit to Dave’s Guitar shop worth it? You Betcha!
A few weeks ago, my friend Jacob Lampman made a house call to help me set-up a my Taylor T3c from a tone perspective. It was a great visit and an education for me and is well-documented in a prior posting.
In short Jacob, who is an accomplished guitarist, guitar instructor, and all purpose floor guy at my local shop, Bob’s Guitars agreed to work with me at my home with my three electric guitar’s tones as barter for a very nice, barely used hand-tooled El Dorado guitar strap.
Left Taylor SBc Walnut; Right Taylor T5z Pro, Ltd
The guitars remaining for Jacob to work with were a 2007 Taylor SBc Walnut (SB stands for solid-body) and a 2019 Taylor T5z Pro, Ltd (Molasses Burst).
The SBc is an interesting guitar. Taylor manufactured solid body guitars for only a brief time. They had developed a set of “innovative” pickups when they designed the hollow-bodied acoustic/electric hybrid T5 and sometime thereafter introduced their solid bodies to the marketplace so they could deploy the pickups in other guitars. They produced multiple designs with varying specs and the one I purchased last summer off of Reverb was one of the nicest ones that they made. My SBc had a Walnut top laid into a routed out Sapele body, and equipped with mini-humbuckers. The unusual appearing aluminum bridge was also a Taylor invention that allows multi-directional setting of the guitar string.
Taylor’s solid bodies reviewed well among the guitarati; however they did not sell enough of the product to justify continuance of manufacturing and phased them out. As a caution to anyone else inspired to buy one of these on the used market, they can be found at reasonable prices; however, make sure to carefully check the Sapele neck for twisting/warping as I have heard of several units, including the one I purchased, that suffered from the aforementioned malady. I was exceptionally fortunate in that Taylor replaced my neck, but I have heard again from multiple other sources that they no longer will do replacements.
The other guitar for Jacob’s review was a 2019 T5z Pro, Ltd. The Pro version is made with a flamed maple top inlaid into a routed out Sapele body. You can spend more and get a Koa top if you wish, which would be a T5z Custom. Other than gold-plated works and the top wood, the guitars are spec’d the same. The T5z is sold as an acoustic/electric hybrid with a 5 way switch to vary the choices of which of three different pickups (2 humbuckers of varying design and location and an acoustic body sensor under the bridge) with combinations thereof that can be selected. Unlike the recently introduced Fender Acoustasonics, there is zero modeling or sound alteration internally taking place with the T5z other than the preamp tone controls. The T5z is a lovely, small hollow bodied guitar with three nicely designed pickups.
In the rear left a Fishman Artist Acoustic Amp and on the right a reissued Fender Princeton Reverb. In the foreground my pedal boards.
The purpose of Jacob’s visit was to help me sort out how best to used the above described guitars as they interact with my amps and pedals, which can be seen on the right.
For a more detailed discussion of my various pedals please refer to here.
During his previous visit Jacob and I worked exclusively on my Taylor T3c, which is a semi-hollow bodied electric guitar with two full-sized “vintage” alnico pickups. and the goal of that set-up with to keep a relatively clean sound with enhanced mid-tones to suit the electrified country blues that I like to play.
Jacob working on the Solid Body (SBc)…
We opened our discussion of the Solid Body by speaking to the differences between my full size vintage humbuckers on the T3 and the mini humbuckers on the SBc. The minis have a more focused tone and a clearer, brighter sound because they sense less string vibration with their smaller size. Further, mini humbuckers will create more “grind” when pushing the amp with extra gain, which increases the power of the signal from the guitar to the amplifier.
Jacob quickly disabused me of the notion that the Solid body was designed to play clean as “country water” like the T3. As suggested above, to sound its best, a solid body with mini humbuckers requires some extra “grind” or “grit” to take best advantage of the instrument, which means sending increased gain to the amplifier. The implements for that process would be my two Mesa Boost/Overdrive pedals. In sum, Jacob said we should seek to achieve a “hairier,” more intense driving sound from the mini-humbuckers.
Why Mesa gain pedals? Well, the marketplace is awash with pedals of this type and choosing proper ones can be overwhelming. I had owned an Electro-Harmonix Soul Food and an MXR Boost, but decided to dump them because I thought they added unwanted noise to my pedal signal chain. Rummaging around one Saturday at my local shop I noticed the Mesa pedals. They were originally very expensive but were marked down and the guys in the shop demonstrated them for me. I grabbed the Tone Burst that day and the Flux Drive a month or two later. The Mesa pedals were produced by a company (Mesa/Boogie) that makes high-end guitar amplifiers so they know what they’re doing, the pedals were well reviewed, they are beautiful, well built objects and I got an excellent price for them. Bob’s your uncle…
Mesa does not make a plethora of pedals and they focus primarily on the gain/drive/boost sort. The Tone Burst is mostly a gentle boost and tone modifier, while the Flux Drive acts more like a pre-amplifier with the purpose of adding enough gain into the signal chain to overdrive the amplifier and create break-up or distortion.
Mesa Overdrive Pedals… Tone-Burst on the Left and Flux-Drive on the right… note Jacob’s recommended settings for the Taylor SBc when played through the Fender Princeton…
Despite almost a year of fiddling with guitar pedals I am still a relative neophyte, particularly with the application of gain and overdrive to the signal chain. As a general rule and personal preference, I do not like playing with a lot of distortion. I agree with the late great Charlie Christian who preferred his guitar to sound electrified but not electronic! Because gain pedals are so omnipresent, I put a couple of them on my board because I thought I needed them, but because I am loath to add distortion, I used the Tone-Burst to lightly thicken my sound and actually rarely utilized the Flux-Drive.
Jacob was adamant that it was time to deploy both Mesa pedals to get the SBc properly sounding. In fact, he had me rearrange the order of the two pedals, flipping the Flux-Drive from behind to in front of the Tone Burst in the sound chain. With this arrangement, the Flux-Drive would determine “how thick the bread slice would be.” In other words, the Flux-Drive would be used to fatten the sound, and then the signal would be “sculpted” afterwards by the Tone Burst to bring out appropriate “highs” and “mid-tones” as determined by Jacob. The goal was to be within the scope of sound quality that I am comfortable with, and that works well with the electrified country blues that I play.
Taylor T5z five-way selector switch set to 4th position to use both humbuckers in parallel
We left the modulation control settings on my pedal board, including Reverb, Delay, Vibrato, Tremolo, and Chorus the same as used with the T3, which can be found here. Jacob is not a big fan of pitch shifting, so we left use of my Octave pedal to my discretion. I like to the way it punches out the lower tones. And that was the end of our work with the Solid Body.
Jacob and I spent less time with the T5z mostly because it is a very acoustic-sounding electric guitar and though it can handle gain and distortion, it is not how I would ever play it. Plus it was getting late and we were getting tired. We did decide that for my purposes, using the 5 way selector switch in the 4th position to deploy both the “hidden” neck and stacked “lip-stick” humbuckers simultaneously and in parallel would be a good setting for my purposes.
Onboard preamp settings at neutral detent locations.
We dabbled with the onboard bass and treble controls provided with the guitar’s preamp but were inconclusive as to how to best set them, leaving them to my discretion. I tend to drop the treble and to increase the bass signal a bit to suit my ear. The preamp controls are actually very sensitive and a light touch best serves proper sculpting of tone.
Jacob’s settings to complement the T5z.
Finally, Jacob and I considered the broad array of pedals I have at my disposal for use with the T5z. We turned off the Flux Drive, which has true bypass, and left the remainder of the pedals set similarly to how I had them for the T3; however, Jacob saw fit to fine tune and adjust my chorus pedal to complement the T5z. I am actually not a big fan of chorus effects but Jacob was insistent that for the acoustic nature of the T5z, chorus is an important effect to use to sweeten the sound. As described by Reverb, “Chorus effects thicken your signal by copying it multiple times, coloring the copied signals, and playing them back slightly delayed.” Jacob readjusted every setting on the pedal while I played the guitar to best suit the T5z! I suppose I will use the chorus effect for a while to see if it suits me… As of this writing I actually prefer a bit of delay with my MXR Echoplex over the Boss Chorus…
Jacob and me at the end of our session…
So in the end, it was a great learning experience for me having Jacob make his house calls and was well worth the barter of the El Dorado guitar strap.
To Study the background of and learn to play Rollin’ & Tumblin’ Blues…
Those who read this weblog know that a good deal of my retirement time is spent learning guitar. I play almost entirely from the country blues canon. I’ve written earlier about the allure of playing country blues. Historically those tunes were most frequently played on acoustic and resonator guitars, which I do; however, I also like to play them on electric guitars too!
By no means an expert on all things country blues, I am gradually getting up to speed and built a considerable library on the subject, though there are many of which I still need to read. I do know this… As with all forms of music, there are standards recognized by most people familiar with the genre and Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues (sometimes just Rollin’ and Tumblin’ or even Roll and Tumble Blues) is one of them… Like many blues tunes, Rollin’ and Tumblin’ has multiple interpretations, some of which I’ve gathered below.
For starters, most people are familiar with the Mtv series unplugged, and Eric Clapton’s segment was arguably one of the most famous… though British, Clapton built is career mining and then interpreting the blues, which was a distinctly American idiom. In fact, were it not for musicians like Eric Clapton, John Mayall and the Rolling Stones many of the blues classics we are familiar with may have in all likelihood passed by our notice!
Eric Clapton is important in Rollin’ and Tumblin’ lore because he played an incredibly rousing version of the tune during his Mtv Unplugged show, which millions of people witnessed and as a result its become one of the most recognizable interpretations… The irony is Clapton’s band and the director charged with filming the show were completely unprepared for Clapton breaking out in an unplanned, impromptu version of the tune! Nevertheless, he and the band quickly recovered and began filming; however, it is one of the reasons the song begins so abruptly on the recording… It can be seen just below:
According to what I’ve learned, Clapton was visibly delighted with his performance and shouted to the director afterwards, “did you get it?” While Clapton’s performance was a cultural milestone, I still think that famous bluesman Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) recorded one of the definitive versions of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ and the one I like best of all! You can listen below:
The earliest recorded version (1927) of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues was attributed to Hambone Willie Newbern, which can be played below. It is somewhat different from the Clapton and Water’s versions and is closer to version that I am learning from Stef Grossman’s DVD Bottleneck Blues Guitar. You’ll note too that Newbern’s version was titled somewhat differently as Roll and Tumble Blues…
https://youtu.be/gOtyJs5SoSE
As you might expect Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues is a sad, dark tune about a man who’s woman walked out on him… the original lyrics are listed below…
Roll And Tumble Blues — Hambone Willie Newbern
And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long And I rolled this mornin’, mama, and I didn’t know right from wrong
Did you ever wake up and find your dough-roller gone? Did you ever wake up and find your dough-roller gone? And you wring your hands and you cry the whole day long
And I told my woman, Lord, ‘fore I left the town And I told my woman just before I left the town “Don’t you let nobody tear the barrelhouse down”
And I fold my arms, Lord, and I walked away And I fold my arms and I slowly walked away Says, “That’s all right, sweet mama, your trouble gonna come some day”
Other musicians have altered the lyrics or added to them… In fact, as is his wont Bob Dylan almost completely changed the lyrics with the exception of the opening line and claimed writing credit for the tune… below you can listen to a live version the GOAT’s version, which is great:
https://youtu.be/QSx6x9VXQn0
And then there was the King of Blues, Robert Johnson, who took the tune and changed the lyrics as well as the title to Traveling Riverside Blues:
https://youtu.be/XrExBI7PtLc
As I said earlier, the version I am working on was arranged by Stef Grossman on the DVD pictured on the left. It’s is a double disc collection with bottleneck slide tunes arranged in either Open D or Open G tunings.
I play slide tunes exclusively on my National Resonators, with an NRP Steel body tuned to Open G and a Wooden Reso-Rocket kept in Open D. Frankly, I would play more plain old fingerpicking tunes on my Nationals, but the string play is set so high off the fretboard, I stick to bottleneck tunes. The Nationals are real cheese graters.
I actually like the Open D tuning more as well as the wooden bodied resonator, so that combination gets most of my attention. In fact, I came within a whisker recently of selling my NRP.
I am very fond of Grossman’s arrangements, his teaching style and his accessible tablature, though his formatting of tab takes some getting used to. Typical tab coding uses a horizontal line to represent a string, while Grossman uses the space between the lines, which is a bit disorienting to those who first see it. While preparing this blog entry, I was delighted to find a fantastic live performance of Roll and Tumble Blues performed live by Stef Grossman along with the inestimable Keb Mo:
I’ve been working on Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues in Open D now for a few days, and as I write, I just completed a good practice on the piece. Earlier today I recorded myself and posted it below via Vimeo… it’s rough and the phrasing is just taking form so this is a work in progress… but that’s ok… music for me takes time and effort, and this recording will be an archived stepping stone along the way. You may also notice that this arrangement uses a different opening riff to establish the tune’s groove. Grossman decided to incorporate what he defined as the Fred McDowell/Furry Lewis riff approach to the tune, which gives it a bit of a different flavor, as opposed to the Hambone Newbern/Robert Johnson groove most commonly employed. You can click below to hear Furry Lewis’s version:
My latest version of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Blues. I swamp it up a bit:
As I said earlier, country blues tunes were originally performed on acoustic instruments in solo form; however, when the technology became available the tunes were often adapted to electric guitars and played in accompaniment with a band. Here’s a great example of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ with electric guitar. Obviously, the above shown recording by Bob Dylan’s band was an electrified version, but R.L. Burnsides below captures better the early conversion of country blues to electric guitar with a band. It’s fantastic!
Rollin’ and Tumblin‘ was one of those country blues tunes that became a foundational rock and roll tune emerging in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. Below is a recording of Johnny Winter’s energetic and rocking version of the tune which is a classic:
The tune continues to live on… here’s a another rocking version of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ by the Lovell sisters, known more commonly as Larkin Poe… when you listen you can see Johnny Winter’s fingerprints all over the sister’s version!
Thanks for looking in… leave a comment or follow me… is anyone out there?
The scene at Cup of Joe in Cedar Falls during the early stages of Open Mic Night… Hosts Rick Vanderwall and Bill Guernsey…
It’s been two months since I played at Open Mic night at Cup of Joe, located in downtown Cedar Falls, IA… I missed the last one to attend a Wilco concert in Cedar Rapids.
Wilco playing at the Paramount in Cedar Rapids, IA
The Wilco show was a lot of fun and it was a treat seeing Nels Cline play guitar, as he is one of the top players in the country. The venue in which Wilco played was also quite marvelous. It was an ornately restored old downtown theater with marvelous acoustics.
Nevertheless, I was glad to be back at the Cup again with a chance to perform in a small intimate setting… I am clearly not a headline performer… instead, the specter of performing in front of people really motivates me to work at the craft of playing guitar!
Me and my Taylor Solid Body Custom Walnut, with a newly replaced neck…
In the above image, you can see I was delighted to be back. This is me posing before the coffee counter just before my performance… Call my performance costume, ” old man cool-eclectic.” 😁
It was a big night for me because I was going to play publicly, for the first time, Stefan Grossman’s arrangement of A Tribute to Lonnie Johnson… this piece is epic in length and requires a reasonable amount of finger-style skill to pull it off so for me at least it marked a stage of development along my guitar playing journey…
I’d been working on the Lonnie Johnson piece for weeks and weeks and though I’ve pretty much mastered it, it is still difficult for me to play it flawlessly even alone at home, so playing it publicly was going to be quite an adventure for me, but I was looking forward to seeing how well I could do.
A year ago, my fingers would sometime disassociate themselves from my brain on pieces of music much simpler than the Lonnie Johnson charts, so I set a high bar for myself.
Taylor T5z Pro Ltd; Molasses Burst…
I actually began working on the Lonnie Johnson piece using my newest guitar, shown above, the Taylor T5z Pro, which is an acoustic/electric hybrid that sounds great whatever you play on it, but especially nice when playing old finger-style country blues; however, at the last moment I decided to play that night on my Taylor Solid Body Custom, which you can see me holding above. After playing the T5z for weeks on end, I think I just needed a change of pace. I am holding the Solid Body in the photo at the top of this article. It is a lovely instrument and plays like butter… While the T5z plays beautifully too, it is bit more demanding than the Solid Body, and that is probably why I made the last moment switch…
I’ve written before on this weblog about finger-style blues and why I am so dedicated to that genre:
It’s a musical style that can be played strictly instrumentally or accompanied by singing. In instrumental form, the music holds up on its own, so it is suitable for a single guitar player to perform without accompaniment. Since I have no interest in being in a band, this genre is perfect for me.
Country blues pieces span from the elegantly simple to the moderately complex and there are available lots of charts and educational videos from which to learn, so it is a great genre to develop playing chops, which can be very satisfying.
While there is a very active global community of country blues players, they are still diminutive in size compared to other musical genres, so it is a smaller fairly supportive group of players.
As a baby boomer, I grew up with early rock ‘n roll and this music serves as its foundation. Country blues are THE essential roots of much of the popular music that I grew up with. My experience is that audiences are not exposed to country blues that often but like it when they hear it. Much more interesting than the millionth cover of Moondance they’ve heard before.
While players use picks or strum through country blues, the really authentic way to play it is with the fingers. Finger-style playing is way too cool… just sayin’
As testament to the roots nature of country blues, I am embedding a link through the photo of classic bluesman Charlie Patton on the right. It leads to an interesting blog article that gives a nice comparative sampling of rock music to its original country blues form. The blog is called Please Kill Me… This is what is cool… Click on Charlie Patton and then come back!
Grant and me at Bob’s Guitars, our favorite hang out…
As is typical for me, I signed up to play first. There are actually only 6 15 minute slots available for open mic wannabes, so I usually get to the shop about 45 minutes before Rick and Bill, the hosts arrive and when they do I hit the sign-up sheet promptly. My friend Grant is almost always there too and he signs up to play second. In fact, we are hoping to play a full set on our own at the Cup some time in the near future!
That particular night I played in the following order:
A Tribute to Lonnie Johnson in Drop D tuning… (Stefan Grossman) – I did ok… shanked some into the rough, but pulled it off… at Open Mic it would be too challenging to record myself; however, I do have a decent sampling of Lonnie Johnson that I made at home, which is embedded below. Note that I am playing the T5z.
Spoonful in Drop D tuning… (Charlie Patton, arranged by Stefan Grossman) a briefer and lighter tune to cleanse the palette after the heavy low down Lonnie Johnson piece…
Cocaine Blues… (traditional, arranged by Stefan Grossman) a favorite of mine and the rare tune I have completely memorized… breezed through it… a crowd favorite too… a lovely, complex finger-style tune that stays at home in the top three frets… relaxing and also cleansing to play…
Police and a Sergeant… (Robert Wilkins, rearranged by Catfish Keith) I love this piece and it’s a great way to end the set. It’s very meaningful to me because I took a lesson with Catfish Keith to work on it! Last time I played it at the Cup, I pretty much lost my way and unravelled, though I got through it somehow… The other night I played it clean as country water…
Below you can see a photo that my wife took of me playing… it’s been post processed and posterized a bit to make it more fun… Note that I am for the first time performing with my iPad and foot pedal for page turning…
It was a great night closed out by the Jacobs playing some jazzed-up seasonal tunes!
The Jacobs knocking out jazzy holiday tunes…
Thanks also to my friend Grant for the call out at the end of my set! He played a fine set too!
When I purchased my first electric guitar I was really not sure what I was doing. I’d played only acoustic guitars for years and decided to dip my toes in the electric waters, so I googled around looking for the best acoustic to electric transition guitar, and as a result decided to acquire a Gibson ES 335.
I remember marching into my local shop and asking to see their ES 335’s and was informed immediately that the store did not carry new Gibson’s in their inventory. There were some used Les Pauls hanging on the hooks but no ES 335’s. Ever mindful of making a sale, the store guy stuck a Gretsch Silver Falcon in my hands, which was a semi-hollow bodied guitar sort of like the ES 335. I fumbled around comparing it to a Fender Strat and a Les Paul and eventually purchased the Silver Falcon, which was a big heavy guitar. Because it was so big and heavy, I suffered some buyer’s remorse when I got it home. I also felt like a poseur playing such an iconic guitar with so little experience.
El Dorado Fancy-Pants guitar strap
To cope with massiveness of the guitar, I went shopping for a strap that would mitigate the weight of the instrument and I ended up purchasing a rather lavish and pricey hand tooled leather strap with a sheep skin cushioned shoulder pad. It was pretty cool and included a cowboy-belt buckle up front! If you click on the image to the right you will connect with El Dorado, the strap’s manufacturer. I subsequently bought a very cool snakeskin strap from El Dorado that I use with my resonator guitars.
Taylor T3B
I never did bond with that Gretsch guitar and eventually traded it in for for a guitar reminiscent of a Gibson 335, that being a Taylor T3B, which suited my sensibilities much more and I remain very fond of that guitar. I added two other electric guitars to my stable since then and will typically pick an electric up to play more often than an acoustic guitar nowadays. It is important to note that the sound I prefer from an electric guitar is more acoustic sounding the then often over-driven, distorted sounds frequently used in rock and roll.
The El Dorado strap I bought does not work with my electric guitars so after it hung in my closet for months I had a brilliant idea. I would barter the strap for some in-house guitar set-up consultations with Jacob Lampman who works at my local shop. Jacob, who works the floor, teaches lessons, and plays all over town is a local treasure and he agreed with the deal!
My music space with left to right a Taylor Solid Body Custom, a Taylor T3B Custom, and a Taylor T5z Pro. Note the pedal board and the Fender Princeton Reverb (Black Face) Amp.
So last Thursday evening Jacob arrived at my home for my first consultation. We’ve planned on three visits in total… In preparation I set up my music space and pulled out all three of my electric guitars. In the end we only worked on the Taylor T3B as it takes quite a bit of time to set up a proper tone palette for a particular guitar! Perhaps it will be easier when we do the other two… I don’t know for sure…
After Nettie, Jacob and I consumed a pot of Chili that I had previously prepared, along with cheese curds and Egg Nog that Jacob brought along, we went down to the music space and began the program.
Jacob running the T3 through its paces.
Jacob began the process by running the T3 through its paces. It is important to note that I play finger-style country blues so the tonal set-up we created was done within that musical context. Jacob, having heard me play in the guitar store and at open mic night from time to time was aware of my musical predilections.
Jacob plays a Gibson ES 335 so I was curious how he thought the Taylor T3 compared. He was very complimentary of the tone palette and playability. You will note that I replaced the original high definition pick-ups with vintage Alnico ones for the rounder/warmer sound that appeals to me for the country blues. He pointed out that the T3’s neck was considerably wider than the ES 335, which is actually a good thing for finger-style players like me. He did say, however, that the individual pick-up volume controls on the ES 335 was a feature that was not available on the Taylor, and it was a trait he frequently used when he played.
Jacob set out immediately after playing for a bit to adjust the dual layered tone controls that are on the Taylor. In sum, he suggested that I had the high tones boosted too much, which caused the guitar to “scream out that it was electric!” Instead, it was his philosophy to boost the low mid-tones to pull out the real beauty of the guitar’s combined of wood and pick-up construction. Given the challenges I have with hearing (yes… I use hearing aids) I suspect that I boosted the high tones to compensate for my incapacities; however, after playing the guitar the way Jacob recommended I have come to appreciate the mid-tone sensibility he suggested. In fact, the tone set-up of the guitar may have been the most important thing I learned that night!
Further, where I’ve been predisposed to use the warmer sounding neck pick up, Jacob recommended using both pick ups simultaneously to broaden the sound palette of the the instrument.
After guitar tone and pick-up set up we moved onto the amp and pedals. Jacob recommended setting the amp tone controls to a mid setting of 5. At my request we lowered the controls to barely audible for the amp reverb controls because I create tone modulations through my pedal board instead. I like this arrangement because my pedal board is portable and I frequently take it to performance settings, whereas the amp is more cumbersome to move around.
Here are the recommendations that Jacob made regarding how to deploy me pedals with the T3, within the context of the type of music I play
Do not use the Octave Pedal with this guitar. Jacob did not like the octave effect on the T3. I intend to reserve judgement on this recommendation because I don’t think Jacob used it properly.
Set the JangleBox compressor for constant use. Jacob recommended leaving the toggle at “dark” setting to avoid enhancing the high tones too much.
Deploy the Mesa Boogie Tone Burst to fatten the sound a bit, but avoid the more aggressive overdrive offered by the Mesa Boogie Flux Drive.
Under another MOST IMPORTANT recommendations, Jacob believes the platereverb is a much more suitable setting for the Boss Reverb than the more overpowering hall setting I was using. Jacob, pretty much, recommended leaving the reverb on all the time, as he set it up.
Jacob convinced me to use the tape degradation feature on the MXR Echoplex Delay. I had avoided that feature because I thought it muddied the sound of the delay but Jacob was adamant that it was the coolest effect and we set it to “slurp-up” the sound a bit, as he described it.
Finally, we fine tuned the Vibrato, Tremolo and Chorus pedals for the T3. Of course, they are to be used independently of each other, not in combination i.e. one or the other but not together. The depth and time controls were set at Jacob’s recommendation though I pushed to limit the intensity of vibrato effects below Jacob’s preference level because too much vibrato makes me a bit seasick!
Below I am attaching the raw notes written in my hurried chicken-scratch for the pedal settings recommended by Jacob, if you’re interested in the finer details:
All in all, it was a great fun for me to have Jacob over for his consultation. Next time, after a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs we might tackle the Taylor Solid Body!
I can think of three basic reasons to film yourself playing guitar:
It’s really informative to film yourself playing and then to study your technique, sound, and musicality. This can be a somewhat painful experience but one that leads to deep learning if you can fight through your feelings about lack of perfection.
In many respects performing in front of the camera is similar to playing live before an audience. The nervousness, stage fright, fighting for concentration are similar and the more your do it, the easier it becomes.
Filming yourself and posting it on social media is a way to communicate to your friends, family and perhaps general public about your level of development with the musical instrument.
Another important element is how to film yourself so that you look reasonably professional and the video recording captures the fidelity of the sound as closely as possible.
For a while I was filming with my iPhone leaning against a music stand or some other piece of furniture that was reasonably close to my performance space, but that gave mixed results both in my appearance and sound. For example, I run the risk of looking like a turtle when the camera shoots me from below.
I do own a professional caliber DSLR (Nikon D810) with an external mic which actually does a good job, particularly when someone is behind the camera managing it, but it tends to hunt focus in and out when left to its own devices on a tripod. In addition, it is a lot of trouble to pull out and set up and then to transfer the files to my MacBook. Secondly I have a mid-sized Brittany dog dashing around the house and don’t want my expensive rig knocked over by her occasional oafishness.
Just within the past few days I’ve established a reasonable filming set-up that allows me to make a modestly more professional film of my playing:
On the left is the front end of the camera that faces the subject and on the right is the screen view of the scene to be filmed…
The foundational set up consists of a Gitzo tripod and a Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head upon which my DSLR is usually mounted. Both of these items are several years old and have been used extensively in my prior photographic pursuits… What’s new in this arrangement is a recently acquired Really Right Stuff phone clamp that is mountable on the original ball head. The phone clamp is flexible in size and is capable of firmly holding my rather large iPhone 11 Pro Max. Finally a Shure MV-88 microphone is mounted on the iPhone via the charging port (a lightning connector) allowing a high fidelity capture of the guitar’s sound coming from the amp. I think I got a sweetheart deal for the mic during Cyber-Monday. The MV-88 is pointed in the general direction of my Fender Princeton Reverb amp.
The raw video was AirDropped from my phone to my MacBook where it was edited in iMovie. The edits included clipping off some wasted time at the beginning of the film when I was settling myself in, some cropping of the scene, adjustment of the color to give an old time sepia sensibility to the video, and finally a sound fade and black out at the end. The film was then uploaded to my free Vimeo site and next embedded in my WordPress blog.
I am playing Stef Grossman’s piece entitled A Tribute to Lonnie Johnson which is comprised of Lonnie Johnson inspired riffs, licks, runs and bends. Lonnie Johnson was a highly respected and lauded blues guitarist in the 1920’s. Though I’ve been laboring to learn this piece for weeks, it’s a work in progress; still, I hope to play it reasonably well during Open Mic night a couple of weeks from this writing.
Finally, I played this piece on a Taylor T5z Pro and ran the signal through a Boss Octave, Jangle Box compressor, an MRX EchoPlex Delay and finished through a Boss Reverb.
Because of holiday travel it’s been a while since I posted on my blog… I actually have some longer blog ideas that I am percolating, but this morning I was inspired to write a relatively brief commentary about the artistry of Muddy Waters on bottleneck slide and how it influences my approach to playing.
National NRP B Resonator Guitar
The inspiration was a combination of me pulling out and practicing a Charlie Patton tune on my National NRP, a guitar that I’ve neglected for far too long, combined with stumbling across a Muddy Waters video I had posted on Facebook a year ago.
Before I go further, I must note that there are a many extraordinarily influential and skillful blues players that established the foundation for this marvelous genre; however, I personally do not believe there is anyone who matches, let alone, exceeds the importance of McKinley Morganfield, more commonly referred to as Muddy Waters (1913-1983).
Following you can see a great example of a Muddy Waters performance of the classic tune Honey Bee using bottleneck slide on an electric guitar and below the embed I will offer some observations about his style of play with a slide.
In the case of this video, Mr. Waters is playing an electric guitar. He owned an array of electrics and acoustics. In the case of this video I think he’s playing a Fender Telecaster, which he frequently favored. He can be seen playing slide on an array of acoustic and electric guitar in still images and videos; however, I cannot find any documentation that he played a resonator. I like to play slide on a National resonator because it’s set up to do so with high string action and it evokes the old classic Delta sound that I like.
Similar to Muddy Waters I like to keep the slide on my little finger because it frees up my other fingers up to fret the strings, which I find most natural. The ring finger is also a common place to wear a slide, but I never felt comfortable using it at that location. There are no hard fast rules where to place the slide. You can see people using a slide on the index finger too. Nevertheless, small and ring fingers are most common.
Left to right: nickel-coated brass, brass, long ceramic, short ceramic, long ebony wood
There are a variety of materials that can be used to slide across the strings of a guitar, examples from my collection can be seen in the above photograph. Commonly used slides can be metal, glass, ceramic, and even ebony wood, which Taylor Guitars recently brought onto the market. One of the earliest references to county blues slide playing indicated that the guitarist used a pocket knife as a slide. Accomplished slide player Duane Allman supposedly used a glass Coricidin pill bottle.
It appears in the Muddy Waters video that he’s using a short metal slide that resides above the middle knuckle of his little finger. The above knuckle location allows him to bend his small finger as much as 90 degrees to play the slide, which is exactly how I like to do it too. Other players cover the entire finger with the slide and must bend at the wrist to engage the slide, which I find very uncomfortable, so like Muddy I ride my slide above the middle knuckle of the little finger.
I like a metal slide too that is a bit on the small side so that it is not ungainly feeling when located above the middle knuckle of the small finger. The two “tone dome” metal slides shown above on the left are my favorites.
The occasional problem I find with the smallish slide is that some tunes call for a full across six string slide, which is pretty much impossible with a small slide, so on occasion when I play a six string slide tune like Charlie Patton’s Spoonful I will use the longer ceramic slide that I own. Sometimes I will use the longer wood slide but it creates a somewhat undesirable muted sound.
Finally, it is difficult for me to observe from the video how tightly Muddy Waters likes the fit of the slide on his small finger. Personally, I favor a relatively firm fit, so that if I hold my finger down toward the floor the slide will not drop off my finger from gravitational pull. Other players don’t seem to mind a loose fit, but not me. Because my fingers are relatively small, I must do some alteration to the interior of the slide to “tighten” it up, and as can be seen in the photograph above I like to line the interior of the slide with a nice “grippy” moleskin that adheres with pressure sensitive adhesive. A good pair of tweezers will help do the job.
I usually play the Tone Dome backwards to get more string to string coverage…
