I was referring to the new Fender Marauder. By the way, Guitarfetish is having a clearance sale.
http://www.guitarfetish.com/Spring-Cleaning-BLOWOUT-Sale-At-or-BELOW-COST_c_185.html?referer=mailid:36
Aaand it looks like the pickguard issue is going to resolve itself in a slightly different manner than planned.
Wow, a triplebucker? Huh. Kids these days. 
Thanks for the pointer to the GFS clearance, it’s been sparse in there for quite a while.
It’s wired like a HSS strat. But I really like the offset nature, the jazzmaster neck pickup, and the old '70s headstock. Sounds pretty good, too.
There’s an 1840 Martin at the 12th Fret in Toronto that folks over in the Vintage Corner message board are drooling over, including me:
CF Martin came to the States in 1833. This is a museum-quality guitar and just beautiful. Thought I’d share; hope you enjoy.
Wow! Thanks for sharing that. Amazing condition, considering the age.
I think it looks pretty cool, too. And I watched the demo video on Fender’s site, and it sounds nice as well. I was surprised that the top “blade” wasn’t darker sounding, but it had a nice bright, punchy sound.
Guitars I am currently using:
Acoustic:
Electric:
Amplifiers:
The song I’m currently working on is I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) by The Electric Prunes.
For inspiration, watch some of your favorite players in action. It helped me quite a bit.
-Larry
I remember that Wordman appreciated a good slide guitar performance and who better to give one than Derek Trucks.
At the 5:30 mark he starts a slow solo buildup to some furious playing. The film quality is excellent and they give you want you want - closeups of the musician playing. It’s almost a clinic.
The only drawback (besides the 30 sec ad before the clip) is that Youtube has plastered a Nicki Manage Ad all around the video box. I know I sound rude but it just seems wrong to show the face of a plastic pop star while a quality vocalist like Susan Tedeschi is singing. Luckily the video quality is good enough that I could take it full screen and make the ad disappear.
Can’t wait to check this out - thanks!
Since that doesn’t happen to me, I’m going to once more give thanks to the combination of Firefox and AdBlock Plus.
The only time I’m ever aware of ads on the internet is when I see other people complaining about them.
I just wanted to toss a quick link to the Premier Guitar gallery from this year’s Montréal Guitar Show. Sadly, I was unable to attend. It has now changed to a biennial event, so the next one will be in 2014. I’m hoping to be there…
Wow, that resonator on pages 9 & 10 looks amazing. I don’t really grasp how you would play such a thing.
Going by the appearance, the bridge and nut are both high enough that I don’t think you could play with anything other than a slide. I think it’s meant to be more of a Veena (or Vina is the other spelling in Latin characters) than a guitar. Grant Wickland has built several instruments for Harry Manx, including -
German Silver resonator guitar.
Black Walnut and Brass 6-String Banjo.
Box Dobro.
Here’s Harry playing the Mohan Veena.
…and some more shots in an article from Acoustic Guitar magazine. Dang, I’m wishing I’d gone this year…
Nice stuff, Ministre. And thanks for the extra Veena/Vina info.
Have you ever played a fan fret guitar? What’s that supposed to be like? They look so odd, I think they’d be odder to play.
I’ve played several, at the 2010 Montréal Guitar Show and at the home of my friend Ed Klein. (His guitar, The Ellipse, is a fan-fret.) It took about 5-10 minutes of noodling to get the basic hang of it; essentially, it is based on the way your fingers work. I’ve never played one in concert, but my main hesitation is financial. The more I talk about getting a harp guitar or a 8-, 9-, or 10-string, the more luthiers start suggesting fan-fret as the only practical way to make that work. Aaaand how much do I need to earn with my present collection before I can talk about getting someone to build an $8,000 to $10,000 instrument?
My two big caveats:
I have no idea what it would be like to switch between a fan-fretted instrument and a straight fretted instrument in concert, but I think that might take some serious getting used to, and:
The instruments I’ve played were all acoustic ‘Art’ guitars, whether classical, archtop or dreadnought steelie - it just never occurred to me to try a series of parallel open fifth power chords on the lower 3 or 4 strings. I’d have to try it before I could say this definitively, but I don’t think that would be any fun at all.
And playing overhand looks like it’d be right out…
If you think the following is basically accurate, please tell me why you think it is the case. If you don’t, please don’t ask me to support it, because it’s just an idea I have for which I have done no research, and is based purely on my personal observations. To wit:
Why are bluegrass musicians much more likely to use Martin acoustic dreadnoughts, while rock musicians are more likely to use Gibsons? I have personally left off why I think this would be the case for the time being, so as not to unduly influence any who choose to answer.
Ministre, thanks for the reply. Yeah, I was also thinking that barring anything near the nut would be darned uncomfortable. I can’t play overhand, so no opinion there. Wiki says the main advantage to fan frets is deeper tone and better tuning – what did you mean about it being how your fingers work? Wiki mentions ergonomics but gives no details. I can see maybe the notion that you have to turn your wrist less on higher frets because of the angling, is that what you’re referring to?
I really don’t know, but I’d guess that since rock is amplified and bluegrass isn’t, a bluegrass lead player would favor a really bright, and especially LOUD guitar to compete with the other acoustic instruments. Maybe the Martin fits that requirement?
Coming to this a few days late. Been away, and fwiw, will probably be laying low and lurking for a bit - lots going on IRL.
To speak to this post, yes, that is the conventional wisdom, with Country a blend of Martin and Gibson. It’s based a lot simply on role models/tradition - we play what our heroes play. But, using electrics guitars as an analogy: Martins are more like Fenders - funtamentally great at clean sounds, crisp attack with great string separation. Gibsons are more like, well, Gibsons - warmer, thicker-sounding; if you play them harder, the energy starts to convert to a “distortion” sooner - the chords you play compress together with less string separation. A bad Gibson gets muddy; a great Gibson sounds like you hooked up a dirtbox to it (at a very low setting of course). That’s a great foundational rhythm tone for rock.
With those generalizations, the tendencies for each make to fit with certain genres makes sense. But the generalizations I shared are old school and mostly associated with vintage examples of Martins and Gibsons - each company today has models which have features of the old designs of each brand these days - the vintage designs have become “canon” that pretty much all makers, big and small, build from - again, like the canonized Strat, Tele, Les Paul and 335 designs for electrics. And it doesnt take into account the emergence of Taylor, which has made huge inroads in the strummy Rock and pop-Country areas, but little in Bluegrass. Or that exceptions abound - e.g. Stephen Stills and other rockers playing Martins. Bottom line is to play whatever moves you to keep playing.
Hope this helps.