So good. Chet was just the coolest, and Mark is one of my all-time guitar heroes.
Brothers in Arms was the first tape I ever bought with my own money (well, in a tie with Van Halen’s 5150). At age 13, I consumed it very uncritically, thinking of it as all just music, not realizing how incredibly diverse it was. Not to mention how incredibly anti-commercial it was outside of “Money For Nothing” - some of the long slow jazzy jams on the back half of that album are just…well, a really far cry from the deep album cuts on a Springsteen or Prince or Billy Joel album, to name just a few other best-selling artists of the day.
When I revisited the album as an 18-19 year old who actually knew a thing or two about music, I remember thinking that “Walk Of Life” had to be the most honky-tonk-sounding song ever to be a Top 10 pop hit while being completely ignored by country radio. This rendition just underscores that for me - “Walk Of Life” was a country song recorded by a rock band who really just wanted to do nightclub jazz…while still socking away some money for the kids’ college funds.
What a wonderful clip - that is the real shit right there.
And you are trying to say that fingerstyle is foreign to you? Come on, man!
For me, if you know me here, it has been Jeff Beck. I don’t play anything like him, but seeing how dynamic he was using his fingers, it kept diggin’ at me. Finally I was noodling through Spirit in the Sky and started chugging that riff on A using my pick and my fingers, hybrid style. It was a slippery slope from there.
ETA: while watching the clip you linked to, it showed me a Vince Gill clip as a suggested next video. I click on it and in the up front interview, he mentions that Knopfler reached out to Vince to join Dire Straits. You clearly hear how much influence Chet Atkins and other country players have on MK, that’s for sure.
Oh, it’s only foreign to me in the sense that I can’t do it, not that I don’t love it. Of my five or ten favorite guitarists, Mark is the only one you can’t hear in my own playing.
And I can Travis-pick my way through something like “Dust in the Wind,” it’s just the stuff on the Knopfler, Beck, Adrian Legg, <insert name of any Nashville session guitarist here> level that’s beyond me.
I don’t usually care for modern pop country, but Vince Gill is awesome. Kind of the total package - great guitarist, good singer, good songwriter, funny and charismatic guy.
All good. And yeah, Gill, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban are all great players, with Gill and Paisley true gunslingers.
Yeah, I had a Dust in the Wind pattern that I applied to any attempt at fingerstyle for decades. I always wondered how Beck didn’t follow a picking pattern - he just kinda throws his fingers out there. That’s what I want to do!
I spend hours grooving from E to A playing these various twangy basslines and tossing licks over the top of it. Honky Tonk meditation, I guess. But as my fingers get more comfortable, it is just fun.
Question on cracks in the top, (or anywhere). Any science on how they affect the sound? Any science on how a repair aids the sound? Or if there is any difference anyway?
Not scientific, but my Garrison has been repaired (before I started to learn how do do this myself) for several cracks and I don’t hear any difference. The amount of wood (usu.spruce) they add to reinforce the crack is minimal, and in the more extreme examples, they add strips of the top tonewood to replace the big bits, which doesn’t noticeably change much either. This is all assuming a professional repair and not a hack job, but that should be implied.
A crack is repaired for cosmetic reasons more than anything else, unless they are into the bars or struts, in which case it’s structural to prevent the guitar from imploding.
Most cracks on the back and sides are not going to adversely affect tone unless they are quite large.
However, I have yet to see an invisible repair job, but I would look at it as relic-ing… It’s like a wrinkle on a beautiful woman; it adds character in a good way. Conversely, it also shows you probably aren’t keeping your instruments properly stored for humidity and temperature…
Cracks can be the result of a wide variety of factors, including:
Drops and impacts
Humidity and temperature issues
Structural issues, including the effects of heavy-gauge strings, a poor design that can’t handle tension, etc.
Poor repairs and maintenance - refretting with the wrong-sized fret; or doing a poor job on a neck reset.
Use and time
As you mention, they can appear all over the guitar, from the top, to the back and sides up at the neck joint, etc. Some affect playability and tone, but often don’t have to. A well-repaired neck break can still sound great, but a bunch of value has been lost if the guitar is a vintage, desirable guitar.
The more that is understood about the cause of the crack, the more you can understand how effective a repair can be. If torque has been put on the top or neck, it may be irreparable.
I’m pretty much talking about top cracks from dry air and heat, and stress cracks from the soundhole to the neck join. Not impact, or neck cracks. I already came clean here as someone who can’t keep a guitar in a case or use sponges or anything.
Big BTW, for anyone who likes John Fahey. I watched In Search of Blind Joe Death yesterday. It was really good. There was bonus performance footage of two songs. I emailed the filmmaker and he got back to me this morning. Apparently it was from a TV show and he doesn’t know the names of the tunes. The second one was really inspiring. Anyone qualified to weigh in on what it might have been?
Stress cracks suggest the guitar is under too much tension for its design. By definition that would also affect tone. Dryness cracks can also affect how the braces are attached to the top - you can get rattle and suboptimal tone. Beyond that, all of my guitars are over 70 years old - they have plenty of cracks and sound wonderful.
That wasn’t meant as an attack on you; sorry if it came across that way especially as my guitar cracked for the same reasons… These work pretty good in Alberta where it gets really dry and really cold…
No worry. I quite liked your post. I was happy to get confirmation that others don’t hear a difference. My old guild has 7 cracks in the top and my newer one just got one. I just can’t use any devices the way I roll with it. Need to have them out and pickupable all the time.
Well, if the crack hasn’t separated, and it doesn’t buzz. You can leave it. It’s a weak spot for future damage to happen, but other than it’s not fatal. Heck, Willie Nelson has a substantial hole in Trigger.
But, I have seen more than one article that addresses how to repair cracks in the top/bottom. There’s one I can’t find again which had the excellent idea of removing the strings and applying the glue from the inside after putting tape on the outside of the crack to keep the glue from seeping out. It seems like a great method to avoid having to re-finish the guitar after the repair, and I’m not sure why all of them don’t have it.
Maybe because it’s a cosmetic concern and that wouldn’t change it?
Willie is my patron saint because of that hole. I am working on my very own and with all modesty it’s going to look a lot better than the one on Trigger.
Another example of a new soundhole created through (mis)use.
FWIW, every time I see Willie and Glen’s guitars I want to run to set fire to theirs and buy them replacements. The maintainer ADD side of me twitches.
Yep, Glen Hansard’s “Workhorse” Takamine. You know, for those guys, given their relationship to their instruments, it works. They also wear leather pants, perform before thousands, have a musical image to maintain, etc. I have tried to remember that some things work better in a performance setting and shouldn’t transition to a personal setting*. A doubleneck Gibson looks bitchin’ for Jimmy Page, but pretty silly in a mid-life crisis suburban band, y’know?
When it comes to playwear, if you are doing that to your guitar I would suggest you adjust your technique. To be clear, I can get enthusiastic and leave a mark on my pricey old guitars - I play the heck out of them - but that level of wear is kinda silly for a civilian.
Wow. If you did that to Willies you’d better not go back to Texas. Witness protection would be best. I heard he has fights and cuts people out of his life for picking it up if they are not authorized.
The holes don’t skeeve me as much as the sweat, grime and bacteria that must go with that.
Glens wear pattern looks like he’s playing a little “histrionic” on the thing. No wear under the strings. I can’t figure out if those thin pieces left are real or repairs. It doesn’t look stable somehow.
