OK folks.
As a keen fan of slide guitar music, I thought I’d talk you through the art of making your own bottleneck.
But first, a brief history. (more…)
March 27, 2014
The embarrassing plectrum.
Ladies and Gentlemen, there is nothing more embarrasing than standing in front of a festival audience of 100 thousand people, going for the mega solo and ……..ping! Your plectrum jumps out of your fingers into the 3rd dimension. Where else would it be? You look down and it’s nowhere to be seen. And you look for your roadie (sorry, I meant guitar technician) and he’s busy taking down the email address of a beautiful blonde.
So what is the solution? (more…)
March 18, 2013
Back in the Day.
Did you know modern guitar has very ancient roots? There are 3000 year old stone carvings showing stringed instruments that can be seen as the ancestors of the Strat and Martin, but the origins could be older than that. And many different cultures have contributed to the story.
Greece, Persia, North Africa, India, Scandinavia, Germany, Spain. All of these countries and civilisations have used stringed instruments not dissimilar to the guitar to make music. (more…)
March 18, 2013
My beautiful Blade Guitar.
Over the years, a lot of people have asked me about my Blade guitar. It’s a black Levinson Blade R3. One of the first ones that came into the UK. I’ve used it on hundreds of gigs and recording sessions.
I don’t like changing guitars through a live performance. My old Blade guitar gives me lots of different sounds at the flick of a switch. Apart from the 3 pickups (2 standard Levinson single coils plus a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail), there’s an onboard pre-amp with different settings. So I can flick a switch to get an acoustic guitar sound, then flick it the other way to get brilliant overdrive. And it plays beautifully! Gary Levinson is an American living in Switzerland where he constructs his growing range of guitars. Check out Blade guitars here. I’d love to know what you play and why you chose that guitar.
March 18, 2013
Favourite guitar moment?
Can you remember what it was that inspired you to start playing guitar? Was it something you heard on CD or YouTube? Did you see a great guitarist in full flow and say to yourself , “That’s what I want to do”?
A great inspirational moment for me was quite recent. I saw Tinariwen play at a festival. They are Tuareg musicians from North Africa.
The guitar playing was very simple. No big show off solos. Everything the guitarists did was stripped down to bare minimum. And I know that has had an impact on my playing.
And if you want to know which guitarist I most wanted to play like when I was starting off….it was the great Peter Green.
Peter Green with his Gold Top Les Paul.
So what about you? Who inspired you?
Posted by admin in Discussion, Guitars, Uncategorized and tagged as guitar, history, lessons
March 1, 2013
Ladies, your attention please.
I’d like to know why so few women play guitar compared to the opposite sex?
Let me know what you think.
And who is your favorite female guitarist?
Posted by admin in Discussion, Female Players, Uncategorized and tagged as gear, guitar, heros
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