Willie Nelson Inrtoduced by... Dan-freaking-Rather?!

The following account is true: It is not "fake but accurate."

Gates at the Gallego Center opened at 6:00 this evening, but I didn't expect that Willie would start playing until after 7:00 PM, so I was in no hurry to wait around. My afternoon nap ended itself at 5:45, so it was about perfect: I brushed my teeth while I nuked some leftover coffee, checked my e-mail while sipping the stale brew, showered, shaved, and was out the door by 6:45. Since I know the Sul Ross campus well, I went in entrance four off of the loop (The most remote side entrance), parked up at the top of the hill by the Fine Arts building, and walked the rest of the way. Beautiful evening with a rising full moon. Probably about 55 degrees.

Down on the floor, I found my seat and checked my watch: 7:10. This guy came on stage at about 7:15 - he was not introduced, or I didn't hear any introduction, anyway - and he started talking about the usual things I would expect at a benefit for a new Public Radio station: How much work it was, how much money it cost, the selfless dedication of the people involved. Yadda, yadda, yadda; blah, blah, blah. I was mostly checking out the chicks and saying "hi" to friends. It struck me as odd that this fellow - who looked like he had just walked out of a Banana Republic with all of his new pseudo-safari duds on - had cultivated an accent just like Dan Rather's. Then I had one of those thunderous ear-ringing rushes as I realized that it was Dan Rather! In Alpine? At Sul Ross State University?! At a Willie Nelson concert?!

Of course, my attention shifted from the skirts to the stage instantly, and I started listening more closely. Syntax? What's syntax? And Bush gets bashed for that? He made a series of amusing plural versus singular blunders that I didn't expect to hear coming from the former anchor of see-BS News. But hey, he was actually quite charming and it was a nice thing he did for Marfa's new radio station. If he had been any other guy performing that function, I would have thought he did fine, and so he did. No axes to grind here, only axes to play.

The only time he really irritated me was when he said, "This radio station will bring the world closer to you, and you closer to the world." Wha?... He really just doesn't get it, does he? I mean, there is this thing called the internet, and even us poor knuckle-dragging cow-pokes (Or guitar-pokes) out here in far west Texas have access to it. And why is "the world" always somewhere else, anyway? We don't qualify as "the world" out here? Humpf. It is no wonder to me that the paleo-media is now just a desiccated exoskeleton of the globe-encircling information-spider that it used to be. How the mighty have fallen... behind. Anyway...

*****

Dan's comments were appropriately brief - thankfully - and Willie hit the stage at... about 7:30, just as I had predicted. About a year ago Willie got quite ill and had to take a doctor-ordered four months off, during which time he wasn't even supposed to speak unnecessarily, so I was a bit worried about how the concert would go. That worry was unnecessary, as worry always is, and Willie was in fine voice and high spirits. He sounded just like he did twenty years ago, and was quite highly animated during the show. Not bad for a man of seventy-three years. Not bad at all. The high part of his range had that plaintiveness we all know and love, but the lows were as solid as a brick shithouse you could crash-test semi tractors against; yet with a rich, velvety quality. I never noticed that in his voice before.

I was sitting - literally - right beside the sound man and his mixer, so I had the best seat in the house. The SPL's weren't to high, and the set was fabulously diverse, as Willie's always are. A bunch of his stuff, of course, but also a series of hat tips to Waylon, Hank Sr. and others, and even a great rendition of Django Reinhardt's Nuages! The sidemen (and woman) were all quite competent, if not exactly awe inspiring, and the set lasted about an hour and a half. Willie said he could only do two encores, so - of course - he did... four.

Willie has gotten to the point - for me anyway - that his performances are so poignant as to give me the occasional case of goose-flesh. I even welled up a few times (Which means less than nothing: I cry watching Lassie and Flipper, for Christ's sake). I sit through countless performances of classical music without ever experiencing any of that. Not surprisingly, some late-career performances by the late Johnny Cash affected me in the same way. Though it's a difficult phenomenon to identify, much less quantify, I know it has everything to do with expressive nuance, and nothing whatsoever to do with pure technical ability (Though technical ability is obviously omnipresent in these cases, it is somehow effortlessly transcended). I once heard Winton Marsalis say, "The ultimate expression of technique isn't velocity, it's nuance" and that's it exactly. Plus, when an artist with the depth of a Willie or Johnny reaches a profound state of maturity, that nuance expresses an understanding of the life-experience that, well, makes the hair follicles on the back of my neck snap to attention (Since I shave my noggin, there's no there there, or "hair there").

All in all, a wonderful experience that I'll remember forever. Especially "On the Road Again," which filled me with an ominous sense of foreboding.






I love "kicker chicks."

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Glissentar Strings! Glissentar Strings! Glissentar Strings!

The title of this post is a little bit of "Google Chumming" since I have noticed that an inordinate number of non-regular visitors to my blog are looking for... Glissentar Strings via Google. So, I thought I'd start today's post off with a little PSA for Glissentar owners.

Here's what you have to do: 1) Find a music store that carries Godin guitars, Seagull guitars, Art & Luthiery guitars, Simon & Patrick guitars, or LaPatrie guitars - any one of those brands, any combination of those brands, or all of those brands - because they are all manufactured and/or distributed by LaSiDo. 2) Tell a salesman there you are looking for Glissentar strings. He won't have any (Unless you are stupid lucky). 3) Then tell him you would like to order some. He won't think he can do that for you if they aren't a Godin dealer. 4) Then tell him that they are distributed by LaSiDo, who also distributes "XYZ" guitars that they sell, so he will be able to order them for you. 5) Then - and this is very important - have him call the LaSiDo rep while you are there. Even reps in weird and remote regions should have one or two sets on hand, as mine did, so you can get them sent to your dealer right away. 6) This will tide you over until you can get an entire box of ten sets ordered. It will take weeks, perhaps months, for these to come in. Ask (politely) every couple of weeks how the order is coming. If at all possible, have the dealer e-mail you and cc you on any correspondence with the rep. Having the rep's e-mail can be a life saver if something "weird" happens: My order happened to go in the week of the NAMM show, and it got lost in the mayhem, for example. A kind follow-up by me via e-mail reminded the parties involved of the ball which had been dropped. Oh, a box of tens set will be about $200.00-300.00 USD, depending on the relationship you have with your dealer, so read my previous post about doubling your string life.

UPDATE: My invoice just arrived, and the dealer cost for a set of Glissentar strings is "circa $8.00" (That's as speciffic as I'm willing to get) with the MSRP set at $25.00. This is about the right markup for string sets, which are traditionally a high profit-margin item (How else do you think dealers can afford to do "two-for-one" string specials?). Add shipping and handling to that, and your dealer will be out about $85.00-95.00 for a box of ten. I like to buy local and support my area dealers and reps when I can (I've worked at countless music stores over the years), so I'm pretty generous with my opening negotiating point (And as a result, they almost always take my first offer), but I'll leave that up to you. Keep in mind though that if you pay them fairly for the service, they will be much more willing to re-order for you when you need them to. In fact, they will make your business a priority.

*****

I'm going to go hear some longhair music tomorrow night:



No, not classical longhair music, country longhair music.


I was shocked when I heard that Willie Nelson was coming to tiny Sul Ross State University in little Alpine, Texas to benefit even smaller Marfa, Texas' Public Radio station, but here he is. I didn't even have to wait in line for tickets and I'm in a nice spot down on the floor. Will wonders never cease. Willie is one performer who definately makes me feel young, and it seems like he's been a Texas institution since I can remember. My first great guitar teacher, Jackie King, played with Willie for years in the Willie Nelson Family, and he's the (freaking amazing!) guitar guy on those jazz albums Willy has done. Should be fun.

*****

Noticed at the gig tonight that my strength has already markedly increased: The action of the Multiac now feels implausably light after several days of strangling the Glissentar. I'm wondering what I'm going to have to get to make the Glissentar feel light. A six-string acoustic bass guitar, perhaps! I actually wouldn't mind having one of those.

*****

Happy Valentine's Day!

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How To: Effectively Double the Life of Your Guitar Strings

Well, I'm addicted to the fretted Glissentar - as I'm sure you've guessed - so theory/comp blogging is on hiatus while I learn how to play my new axe. The first time through my rep was excruciatingly rough: It took me four days to play through two hours worth of music. After about twenty minutes the muscles on the inside of my left forearm started burning, and a half hour was all I could play before crying uncle. Being a runner and having a Bowflex, I know about training and over-training, so after a half hour I'd just switch to one of my six-stringers to keep from potentially injuring myself.

By spacing this introduction to the instrument out over four days, not overworking myself, and allowing for some recovery time, I am actually shortening the time it will take to adapt. Muscles build in response to new workloads during rest periods, so you've just got to give them time. And getting plenty of sleep helps tremendously (I love afternoon naps). The "no pain, no gain" thing is a truism, but if you take it too far, you risk tendon injury: Muscles build up much faster than connective tissue - and that leads to damage regularly when too fast a progression is attempted - and so I'm also going to pick up some Glucosamine/Condroitin/MSM suppliments to help that along.

As expected, this current second time through the repertoire is going better, but the "guitar" is making me feel foolish, and like a beginner. Some of the recent preludes I've composed - which I call Hard Chord Guitar (Get it?) - are simply impossible at this point. Harmonic structures which require wide spans and for three or four notes to be fretted simultaneously are actually physically painful (And are still filled with buzzes and thuds!). My various two-part counterpiont pieces are not as bad physically, but when an arpeggio skips quickly up the neck, I often land on the wrong fret due to the 22 versus 19 thing and the body/neck joint difference, just as I suspected would be the case.

Amazingly, my right hand is not having much trouble adapting to the courses, but they don't like rest strokes very much, so I'm having to modify a few right hand parts, but it seems pretty intuitive and is proceeding smoothly. One thing I'm having to deal with is the fact that stringed instruments with courses - Baroque guitars, lutes, theorbos &c. - are almost always played without nails: Just the pads of the right hand fingers are used. Since I play electric and acoustic six-stringers as well, this is not an option for me. Well, unless I wanted to learn the Emilio Pujol no-nails technique, which I in no way am interested in (Not that I don't love the late maestro Pujol's music, as I most certainly do, his approach is just not for me).




I use nylon nails on my p, a, and c fingers: The p wears faster than it grows, and the others are always getting broken.


I've made some progress with the sound: I'm running the fretted Glissentar through the same Lexicon MPX-G2/Bryston setup that I use for the Multiac, but I am having to modify every single virtual acoustic environment I've programed to have less of each effect overall, except for reverb. The reason for that is with the courses, the instrument already has some natural phase and chorus effects built into it, and too much of those in the patch muddies up the sound. As a result, there are now two programs for each of the twelve suites in my set: One for the Multiac, and one for the fretted Glissentar.

The EQ settings are also radically different between the two instruments: The Multiac likes a flat treble and mid setting with quite a bit of boost for the bass - and sounds like a gargantuan guitar as a result - but the fretted Glissentar wants almost all of the midrange to be scooped out, and much less bass boost (So it sounds much smaller and more delicate, which I really like as a contrast to the ¡mui macho! Multiac).

I was dreaming of a electric Baroque guitar or electric lute kind of sound when I started this project, but since I play with nails, it doesn't really sound like that. Just as the Multiac with the Polydrive doesn't sound like an acoustic classical guitar, this instrument also sounds unique and unlike anything else I've ever heard. I like that too. In fact, the L.R. Baggs ribbon transducer is turning out to be a better ally than I at first thought it would.

*****

Strings. This post is supposed to be about strings.

This is one of those things that makes perfect sense when you think about it, but I'm always amazed by how few guitarists actually think about it. In the spirit of full disclosure, I had been playing umteen years before I figured this out.

With the D'Addario EXP basses I use, I can get three to four weeks out of a bass set, and I use three bass sets before I change the trebles. I gig at least three nights per week, and practice and compose a lot on the same guitar during the week as well, so this is pretty amazing. One of the reasons is D'Addario's EXP (EXtended Play) coating that is on those basses: I don't know exactly what it is, but it's a miracle of modern science as far as I'm concerned.

Being a caucasian, I am genetically predisposed to perspire easily and have sticky earwax (Hey, it's a problem, and you white chicks sweat too, so nya, nya). Asians and african peoples are genetically predisposed to sweat less and have flaky earwax (I read some weird studies in scientific journals). As a result, my hands are murder on guitar strings. Before the EXP coating came out, I used to clean the strings assiduously, but it was really no use, because the damage was done while I was playing. The EXP coating (Some teflon-like material, I'm guessing) protects the metal of the strings from the corrosive effects of my hand's hyper-active sweat glands. This has been a major boon for me, and that's one factor that allows me to have the brightness in the basses that I like for such a long time. But there's another trick to it, and it is indeed a trick (Albeit a simple one).

If long string life is important to you (And given what a chore changing strings is - waiting for them to settle into tune, &c. - and how expensive good strings are, who doesn't think it's important?) you simply must take a LOT of time doing the job!

If you look at it logically, what makes a bass string bright is a combination of lack of corrosion on the surface of the silver plating, and the integrity of the wrap-to-core interface. The patina can be kept from forming on the silver by the EXP coating, but the wrap-to-core integrity depends solely on you, and how much time you are willing to invest in bringing the basses (especially) up to pitch.

Since it takes so long for a classical set to even become playable, the natural inclination is toward impatience in this area. As one of the greatest teachers I ever had used to say to me - all the freaking time - whenever I used to whine about this, that, and the other, "Well, what you have to do is change." I have changed. I have become patient in my string changing, and I plan it out so that while a new set is settling in, I have another guitar to practice on, and no gigs for a couple of days for the guitar being refreshed at least.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVER PULL ON A STRING TO STRETCH IT IN AN ATTEMPT TO GET IT TO SETTLE INTO TUNE FASTER!!!

When ever I see someone doing that, I wnat to walk up to them and say, "Hi! My name is George, and I just wanted you to know that you just took at least a week off of that string's life! Have a nice day!" It's positively idiotic to stretch a string - especially a wound string - because you are just ripping the winding from the core when you do that.

What you are supposed to do is tie the string off and bring it up to pitch by hand (NO peg winders!) very slowly. When you have brought the low E up to pitch, forget all about it; you're done with it for now. Then repeat the process with the A and D strings. Do not go back and bring the other strings back up to pitch in between working on the "new" ones. When you have brought the trebles up to pitch, you may go back and readjust the trebles again, but leave the basses a...lone.

Then, put the guitar down and back away slowly! Leave it alone for at least forty-five minutes to an hour, and whatever you do, don't try to play anything on it!

Pick up a different guitar or otherwise distract yourself for the alotted time, and then repeat exactly the same process. It will take you all day to get the guitar playable if you start in the morning, but your basses will live long and beautiful lives. Just remember: Think of the basses. They give their lives for you and your music; the least you can do is insure that their lives are long and happy ones.




I could take about forty-five minutes to an hour with her ice cream "problem." (I scream, you scream, baby).

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Dear Hucbald: "Which Classical Guitar Strings Do You Use?"

Most of the off-blog e-mail questions I get concern some arcane aspect of music theory or composition, and I don't usually think them worthy of an entire dedicated post - though I might work the answer I come up with or parts of the discussion into some latter post or posts on a related topic. Well, I actually got a question from a bright young dude named Paul at USC about selecting the right strings for nylon string guitars that got me thinking. I don't usually consider myself any kind of expert on the classical guitar, because I didn't start concentrating on it until I was twenty-nine years old, and I'm really just a composer who plays a little better than the average bear. I was actually kind of shocked that anyone would e-mail me for advice in that area. Then I thought, "well, it has been nineteen years now that I've been playing nylon string guitar, and I have learned quite a bit in that time" so why not. I would never presume to give anything like authoritative advice on technique, for example, but strings? Yeah, I know a little bit about strings:





As I've mentioned before, every guitar I've ever had has "wanted" a certain set of strings (Or, in a lot of cases, a combination of two or more sets of strings), and a lot of what I percieve the guitar "wants" is simply the result of my subjective taste in sound quality that I, personally, find desirable. So, to keep those issues seperate, I'll tell you what I like, and the qualities I've discovered that certain kinds of strings have.

For the metal wound bass strings, I like a very bright sound that is rich in harmonic content. Not quite that "brand new string set" sound, but the sound particularly bright basses settle into after about four or five days of being played. The trick for me is, obviously, to get a bass set which displays this characteristic for the longest period of time. Savarez has never made a bass set I like, period. They aren't bright enough to start off with, never mind how long they last. Otherwise, however, they are fine strings if you like a more traditional "round sound" (I know a lot of nylon string players who actually like a fairly dead sound for the basses, and I think my preference for a bright sound comes from my history as a steel string player, so I'm probably atypical in this regard). Galli basses are plenty bright, but they don't keep that characteristic for very long, otherwise they too are excellent strings.

Years past, I used Augustine Blue basses on everything, but then they started cutting their strings so short I didn't have enough string to tie them the way I like, so I ditched them. But, they are bright, and they do last a fairly long time, so they are otherwise fine. I just get torqued when I feel a manufacturer is trying to save a few pennies by suddenly cutting all of their strings shorter, so I blew them off entirely.

The worst experience I ever had was with Hannabach, however (That large pile of useless red string sets at the top left of the photo). I tried them because Richard McLish (The "RMC" of RMC Pickups) recommended them for the Polydrive. Well, I call them the "Mission Impossible" strings, because they self-destruct in five seconds. The D's in the Super High Tension sets I got started breaking - not at the barrel, the nut, or the saddle; but right, smack, dab in the middle of the string - after being on the guitar for only a few days. They never broke when I was playing them, but overnight: I'd got to the studio to find the D had disintegrated at the core. Some of the D's actually broke before I ever got them up to pitch (!) and I could hear the core strands snapping as I tightened the strings. I e-mailed Richard about that, and he admitted to modifying his nut and saddle to put less stress on them. I'm sorry, but that is simply not acceptable, that is a design flaw. I kept them to use the E's on my fretted Glissentar, and I've never had one of them break. This problem with the Hannabachs is a shame, because otherwise they have all of the qualities I look for in a bass set.

Without a doubt the best sounding bass set - to me - that I've ever heard was the original D'Addario EXP coated basses. They were copper and coated with the EXP coating, but they were not silver plated. This lack of silver plating made them stupid bright, and the EXP coating made them last for... ever, with one slight problem: The copper was so soft that the winding on the D's would wear through too fast. This happened at the second fret E for me, as I do a lot of trills there. This was a double shame, because not only did they sound excellent, but the copper color looked way cool. So, D'Addario re-worked the strings in a silver plated version, and while not quite as bright - and not nearly as fetching to look at - they are otherwise better in every way. I am on my way to using these basses exclusively on every guitar I have except the fretted Glissentar, which I've described my travails with previously.

For trebles, there are two very different classes of strings available now: Traditional nylon, and the newer carbon fiber synthetics. When Savarez came out with the Alliance CF trebles back circa 1988, I was an early adopter. They don't stretch nearly as much as nylon, so they settle into tune much more quickly. They are also harder, so they last... well, I changed them when I got sick and tired of looking at them. Eventually they will divot underneath from fretwear - and I usually noticed that due to arising intonation problems - but it takes a lot of time and effort to get them to that point. A couple of issues with these strings are that, since they are harder, they are quite prone to shearing. The biggest headache Ed and I have dealt with in getting them adapted for the B's and E's on the fretted Glissentar is that they were first snapping at the nut because the string channels were too tight and the edges were cut too sharp, and then they started shearing at the barrels of the tuners because of a metal insert that Sperzel had fitted to them. After the nut was properly modified for them, Ed tapped the inserts out of the Sperzels for the unwound strings (Only the B's and E's on the fretted Glissentar, which uses steel wound G's), and now they work fine.

I used the Savarez CF trebles with Augustine blue basses for years on all of my guitars, but eventually I came to a point where I couldn't get the range of tone I wanted from the CF's. They are unholy bright, and lack body or "weight." Part of this is the fact that they are MUCH thinner than any other treble set for their tension level, so there just isn't enough mass to them. This characteristic is perfect for the fretted Glissentar, since I'm going for a "smaller" sound with it that is closer to a baroque guitar or a lute, but I became dissatisfied with them for my Murray and my Godin Multiacs.

The Galli Titanium sets have carbon fiber trebles, and they have diameters which are a little closer to traditional nylon (Though still a tad thinner). As a result, they last forever, are quite bright, and they have more body to their sound. My Murray loves them, and that guitar now uses those exclusively. They also have a tres cool blue hue to them, and the combo of the blue Galli trebles and the old copper D'Addario EXP's was super-fab (Hey, I was a rock guitar god once: Showmanship is a good thing).

If I had a nickle for every classical guitarist I've met who has said, "I hate carbon fiber trebles!"... They may or may not be eloquent with the details as to why that is the case, but I believe that - in a nutshell - no carbon fiber set has the weight or rounded tone that is possible with nylon, and only nylon. The problem with nylon is that it is soft, which makes manufacturing them from the melted substance problematic: Uniform string diameters are difficult to achieve. So, you get intonation problems. Augustine was the worst for this in my experience. It is because of this vast potential for inconsistency that you have sales slogans like "laser-selected" and "gound trebels" ad absurdam. The traditional nylon Savarez trebles are quite nice, very consistent, and they have a slightly frosty patina to them wich makes fingering them more secure. They can also get quite dark sounds - darker than I personally care for. The problem with that frosty surface - for those of us with clawing, amateurish technique - is that they sometimes give off high frequency squeaks if you slide your fingers along them. Otherwise, they are superb.

The D'Addario nylon trebles are my personal favorites (D'Addario does not make any carbon fiber trebles that I'm aware of), because they are smooth, consistent, ubiquitously available, and they have a nice combination of brightness and weight to their sound. Because of this, I'm in a position I have not been in for over a decade: My Godin Multiac Grand Concert SA uses a matched set! I'm referring to the D'Addario EXP 44 Extra Hard Tension sets at the right mid-field of the photo. It's a shame D'Addario does not make a CF treble set or two, because I'd endorse them exclusively if they did.

Concerning string tensions: To my taste, the higher the better. I can get a lower action with less breaking up of the sound with higher tensions. There is one caviat to this: Extra High Tension strings are hard on some acoustic guitars. I uses standard high tension sets on my two Murrays, but since the Godins are so over-engineered, they get the super high tension strings (Well, the Multiac does; the Glissentar uses a weird combination of tensions that really does not relate to six-stringers at all). CF sets do not come in extra hard versions for some reason, by the way.

I think that about covers it. Best advice would be to do a lot of experimentation for yourself: It takes time and it costs money, but there really isn't any better way to do it. Oh yeah; and it's a never-ending process.




Reason #2 why guitars are better than girls: Guitars only come with six to twelve strings attached. This one looks like she has more strings than Helen's harp. But I'd probably let her tie me up.

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Performing on Radically Different Instruments

Today was a two gigger: I had a private function in the late afternoon and a dinner gig in the evening. Usually, I perform on my Godin Multiac Grand Concert SA with my mini-PA sound system, but this afternoon's gig was in a very small space with just a few people, so I played my Anthony Murray acoustic classical. I love performing on the acoustic, but the only chances I get to do that are at art galleries or other very small spaces that are going to be quiet. In order to keep myself comfortable performing acoustically, I play for a half hour before services begin on Sundays at my little local LCMS Lutheran church. Most Lutheran churches have pipe organs, but my particular congregation is so tiny there is no way we could afford to call a music minister (We even share our Pastor with two other congregations!). Needless to say, they love having me and even work me into the services from time to time.

The Godin and the Murray are radically different for a pair of six-string nylon string guitars. The Godin is a cutaway, while the Murray is a non-cutaway; the Murray's body is over twice as thick as the Godin's is; the Godin probably weighs twice what the Murray does; and the Godin's fingerboard is radiused, while the Murray's is flat. The Murray is set up with a very low action - more like a Flamenco than a Classical (Which has everything to do with Tony's philosophy, and nothing to do with any changes I made to the instrument) - so the string heights are about the same between the two guitars, but overall the Murray is more difficult to play because all of the sound is coming from the guitar; I don't have the amplification system doing a lot of that work for me. It's like I never have to strain past a forte on the Godin, but the Murray requires more of a fortissimo level of playing. Then, of course, I have to finger some things differently that are up at the top of the fretboard on the non-cutaway, so that's a major consideration since I write a lot of stuff that goes up there.

*****

Many years ago - when I was doing my undergraduate work at Berklee - I discovered that if I put a set of strings on my Martin D-28 that had an unwound G-string (So that I could do string bends on it) and did most of my practicing on that instead of my electrics, I developed much more physical strength in my forearm so that when I played the electrics it was nigh onto effortless. But I still had to do a certain amount of practicing on the electrics, or the longer necks with cutaways would confuse me: I had to balance it out. Going from a Martin D-28 to a Gibson Les Paul is even more of a sudden switch than between my current six-stringers because the Gibson had not only a cutaway, but a thinner neck and more frets: Easy to get confused up at the top. At least that isn't an issue between the Godin and the Murray becase they both have 2" nut widths, nineteen frets, and the neck joins the body at the twelfth fret.

As a result of this, it's actually a little easier for me to go back and forth now than it used to be. Or rather, it was. Now I have the Glissentar to deal with. It's much more difficult to play in terms of the effort required due to the string courses, the body is even smaller than the Multiac's, the fingerboard has twenty-two frets instead of the nineteen I've dealt with almost exclusively for nearly twenty years now, and the neck joins the body at - are you ready for this? - the 15.5 fret position (?!), which is... ah... absurdly weird. Admittedly, the neck joint position has everything to do with the fact that the stock instrument is fretless and nothing to do with capriciousness on Godin's part: The scale length I wanted just made it end up that way.

Though this is going to be a bit uncomfortable for a time, in the end I know that the Glissentar will improve my technique because it is so much more demanding to play. That's a good thing.

*****

One of the reasons I bring this up is that I've noticed over the years that students of mine who have a variety of guitars learn faster and play better. Many classical guitarists are entirely hopeless in this regard if they play exclusively on a single guitar or just a couple of instruments that are almost identical. As an anecdote - and a chance to name-drop - back in 1989 at the GFA John Dearman of the Los Angles Guitar Quartet graciously allowed me play with his seven-string Humphrey Millenium when I told him I'd like to see if it gave me any ideas for composing for it, and I couldn't even play things I knew on it! It was that weird and different. A guitar so exotic I couldn't even play it at all. That taught me a lesson I'll never forget, and as an asside I have an incredible luthier working on a unique guitar for me: A seven-string acoustic nylon stringer (With a low B) that has a Dreadnought size and shape to the body, but with a radically light and innovative construction. No cutaway, but the neck will join the body at the fourteenth fret. It'll also have the same internal condenser mic system Linda Manzer uses in some of her instruments plus an RMC Polydrive. BWAAHAAHAAHAAHAAAaaa!!! Wonder how long that will take me to figure out how to play.




Left to right: Godin Multiac Grand Concert SA, Anthony Gaillard Murray, Godin Glissentar w/Ed Reynolds fretted neck.



Reason #1 why guitars are better than girls: You can have more than one; the other guitasrs don't get jealous. Of course, just one like her would be enough.

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This Just CAN'T be Right

For crying out loud. One of the reasons I hate insomnia: I get into all sorts of trouble.

You scored as Tuba. You're a tuba. Ummmmmm. That's all. Tuba 92% Cello 83% Oboe 83% Violin 75% Percussion 67% French Horn 67% trombone 58% Flute 58% Bassoon 50% String Bass 42% Viola 33% Trumpet 33% Clarinet 8% If you were in an orchestra, what instrument would match your personality? created with QuizFarm.com

I mean, if I had to be a tuba, it would be something like this:



Back when it was in its prime, of course.



Picture perfect, huh? Sheesh.

Grudging hat tip to that darned oboist (Who is really a closet violist. Tee, hee, hee). At least I scored higher on the oboe than Pat did. HA! Waitaminut...

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Custom Fretted Glissentar Update

Sussing out a new electric nylon string guitar is always a nightmare. Each different transducer system or internal mic system makes different demands. For example, the first electric nylon string guitar to appear, the Gibson Chet Atkins CEC, had a solid body and infinite sustain, but it sounded muddy and overly heavy in the midrange. There were literally no strings on earth that would let me get the sound I was after, or even a reasonable compromise that I was happy with. But, it was the only game in town at the time, so I suffered with it. I was using a MESA/Boogie Triaxis all tube preamplifier, a Lexicon MPX-G2 Guitar Effects Processor, a MESA Stereo Simul-Class 2:Ninety tube power amp, and a pair of Boogie 1x10" open-back cabs with EVM-10M's for that guitar, so you might expect that I got a good sound. Not so. Even adding a stereo 31 band graphic EQ didn't do the trick with that guitar, but I lived with it for several years anyway.

Then Godin came out with the Multiac Grand Concert guitars, and things improved. The first one I got was the Duet with the L.R. Baggs Duet system, which consisted of a ribbon transducer under the saddle and an internal condenser mic. That guitar was a breakthrough on several levels over the Chet. First of all, is was a hollow guitar, so it 1) Weighed a ton less than the ridiculously heavy Chet Atkins, and 2) It actually sounded more like a classical guitar. The Duet allowed me to shed a lot of unnecessary weight from my guitar rig: After twenty-seven years of using MESA/Boogie amplifiers exclusively, I got rid of the TriAxis and the Simul 2: Ninety. The Duet didn't need nearly the business the Chet did in the EQ department, so that went as well. What I ended up with was startlingly simple: Just the Lexicon MPX-G2 in stand-alone mode as the preamp and effects unit, and a solid state Bryston 2B-LP stereo 60 watt per channel amplifier running a pair of Yamaha AS-108 II mini PA speakers. My lower back thanked me.

By that point, I had learned a lot about electric nylon string guitars versus electric steel string guitars. With a steel string electric, the amp system is just as much of a musical instrument as the guitar is: Over 50% of the sound you end up with is the amplifier at work. As a result, a nice tube amp like a Boogie, Marshall, or Matchless is the way to go there. Not so with a nylon string electric: All of those amps sound like crap for that application. What I learned is, with an electric nylon string guitar, the guitar is the instrument, and the amplification system should ideally be invisible: You don't need a fat midrange sound for warmth, what you need is a colorless, odorless, and tastless ultra-clean sound with a deep-black noise floor. So, the Lexicon in stand-alone mode with the tony Bryston power amplifier (Which is a super high-end piece of recording studio gear designed to run near-field monitors) ended up being perfect, and I mean perfect.

But I still ran into limitations with the Duet: It was prone to feedback at the SPL's I get to during outdoor concerts, and it was super-choosy about strings. I tried Galli Genius Titaniums, but the carbon fiber trebles were too harshly bright (Which was a shame, because they last for... ever). The G was always flabby, and that's where the feedback problem originated. I ended up using D'Addario Pro Arte' EJ46C composites, and the J4603C composite G-string made the guitar manageable. But, I was still not completely satisfied.

So, I found a good deal on a Multiac Grand Concert SA (Roland synth access) with the RMC Pickups Polydrive, so I thought I'd try it out. BAM! Eureka! Whatever you say, this thing rocked! The Polydrive is immune to feedback so far as I can determine, it is very forgiving of string choice, and the range of usable tone is quite broad. One thing: It doesn't sound like an acoustic nylon string guitar. It sounds like... well, it sounds unique.

That taught me something as well: The electric nylon string guitar is an electric guitar: I never demanded that an electric steel string sound acoustic, so why should I demand that an electric nylon string sound acoustic? Getting through that biased mindset literally set me free to explore the potential of the Lexicon. Some of the virtual acoustic environments I program - the more complex athmospheres, anyway - use reverb, pitch shift chorus, phase shifting, flanging, comb filtering, etc. now: I'm letting the instrument be what it wants to be, which is an electric guitar.

Enter the Glissentar (You just knew I'd finally get around to it). The Glissentar comes from Godin as a fretless eleven-string nylon string instrument which is inspired by the Arab al-ud, which is the fretless ancestor of the lute. Talk about going back to the beginning for inspiration! I had dreamed for years of an electric baroque guitar with unison courses or something along those lines, so I decided to get one and have someone fret the stock neck for me. Well, one thing lead to another and a $300.00 fretting job turned into a gazillion dollar custom fretted neck by Ed Reynolds (Eric Johnson's guitar tech). Since the Godins use a bolt-on neck system, this was not as difficult as it might sound technically.

With anything this radically experimental, there are going to be teething pains. For some reason known only to God and Godin, they decided on ball-end strings for the Glissentar. That limits your choise of string sets to one - The Godin Glissentar set - unless you are willing to make your own ball-end sets up. Fortuanately, the Glissentar set Godin sells are made for them by D' Addario and are just like the Pro Arte' and EXP sets I prefer for electric nylon strings anyway; but there were still some issues.

First of all, the low E-string is a single string and not a course. This results in the bass being weak when played on that string. So, I got a D' Addario .047 Super High Tension EXP E-string for more output. Since the winding on those strings thins out to make them easier to tie off, I was just able to knot them behind the regular metal ball end, and it worked fine... in principle. In reality (The one I inhabit, anyway), Ed had cut the nut to perfectly fit the stock strings, so I had to get the E-string slot widened out.

The A, D, and G courses from the standard Glissentar set work perfectly. The G's are metal-wound, and I like that so much, I'm going to go to wound G's on my Multiac GC SA too: When you think about it, all four of the lower strings are tuned in fourths, so they should be wound to match the string tensions more easily. After the major third form G to B, then use unwound nylon. The nylon G is the source of all the feedback problems anyway (Due to its flabby low tension). The reason this isn't done more often? Tradition and the fact that the thin windings on the metal-wound G's tend to wear through quickly. Since the G is so much more problematic on an electric than on an acoustic due to its tendency to feed back, I think this tradeoff will be worth it for me.

Now for the B and E courses. The Glissentar uses a ribbon transducer under the saddle, which is by L.R. Baggs (It's like half of the Duet system). I don't like this. At all. It's fine for single line fretless runs, but it isn't nearly as clear for harmony and polyphony as the Polydrive is. Richard has spoiled me with his wonderful invention. At some point, I'll probably change out all of the electronics, but for now I just want to get this itteration of the instrument sounding as good as it can. The B and E courses are traditional nylon in the Glissentar set, and they have a very low tension to them. This was positively unusable, as the wound strings just completely overpowered them. It actually sounded like two different instruments from the wound to the unwound strings, which were quite dull by comparison. What I needed was a super-bright treble set with a strident output level. There is nothing like a carbon fiber set for that, and Savarez Alliance CF trebles are very, very bright, plus they are small in diameter for their string tension, which is a definate plus when working with courses of strings! POP! Just tying these strings behind a bead didn't work, as they are so super-smooth the knot would just slip through the bead. I finally got my rusty Boy Scout knot tying skills polished up and figured that out. SNAP! The string channels were too narrow for the Savarez strings, so back it went for more nut work (On the nut and by a nut. But a nice nut). Ahhhhhh! Finally. I bought the Glissentar last September, and here I am, almost half a year later, and I'm just beginning to get it in the pocket. I won't tell how much this all cost me, but once I get an idea in my head, I am nothing if not persistent... and profligate in my spending.

I'm quite pleased with it, and it is now at a point where I'll be able to begin to work it into my set. Just as soon as I develop the Schwartzeneggeresque forearm muscles it will take to play it! In order to get the strings to ring clean, I had Ed make four saddles for me: Ridiculously low, low, high, and ridiculously high. Ridiculously low and low didn't work due to buzziness, and ridiculously high was like trying to harpoon Moby Dick or something, so I have settled on high. It's still going to take a while. But it sure is FUN!





Not tonight hon, I have a new axe (As if).

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