There’s actually a single page of content. One.
It’s not every day that an expensive bit of guitar-related kit outperforms expectations.
On Saturday I got fed up with flipping through and losing reams of sheets and scribbling my notes all over, especially since I have already had Forscore on my iPad for years. And I suck at turning pages.
The bank-busting purchases:
An AirTurn Stompkit pedal from Guitar Center
The Apple Pencil.
And finally, the new smaller iPad Pro 9.7" in the manly rose gold color (Pencil requires iPad Pro).
The combination is stunning.
I use DropBox to get pdfs from scanned music or stuff from Finale onto the iPad.
Everything goes into Forscore
The Pencil allows me to write flawless smooth annotations everywhere (e.g. “Drop D, idiot!”)
When performing, I can use the pedals to flip back and forth through the pages.
There are several Bluetooth page turner pedals out there, even a couple of lighter-weight versions of Airturn’s pedal, but I wanted solid reliable pedals made by Boss, not some cheap plastic junk.
I had been wanting to upgrade my older iPad for a year or so, and this gave me the excuse. I rely heavily on hand written notes for work using GoodNotes, but was getting tired of the endless parade of crappy styluses. The iPad Pro + Pencil combo is what everyone dreams of when they think of using a stylus: you can write in ant-sized print if you wish, something that no passive stylus can do.
If you have an iPad and put lead sheets on it, take a look at page turner pedals–they are perfect for guitarists.
You cam play the greatest country and rock by the same band: learn Keith Richards’ songs. The Stones are secretly one of the best country bands in the world.
That sounds so smart. Even an old fart like me can make sense of it. I avoid sheet music like the plague - I am that old joke about how to get a guitarist to stop playing (show 'em sheet music), but I would jump on this if I had to.
True. One of my top three influences. But Keith doesn’t do much fingerstyle, so that may not work for aceplace.
I have never worked it that way, aceplace. I play the stuff that gives me joy and that’s all over the map. I move into new techniques as a song requires.
I’ve been working on that C/G chord quite a bit more along with some other harder chords that require all 4 fingers and I’ve come to the conclusion that my pinkie sucks. It gets in the way too much. I just need to work on it a lot more. I’ve used the first 3 fingers so much more that they are stronger, move better and also “arch” better. My pinkie lays flatter which interferes with the higher string.
I think I’m going to fire Pinkie and look for a replacement. Index, Middle and Ring are tired of picking up all the slack.
That C/G chord can be a very useful chord to have in your “vocabulary”, so to speak. Before you give up on it, you might consider adjusting where you hold the thumb on your left hand against the back of the neck.
Here’s an exercise that might help you. P=pinky, R=ring, M=middle, I=index.
- Strum a couple measures of a Bbm ( x x 3 3 2 1). x x R P M I
B. Then strum a couple measures of an F/C (x 3 3 2 1 1). x R P M I I
III. Then try going for the C/G (3 3 2 0 1 0) R P M 0 I 0
How are you with the basic C7 (032310) (0 R M P I 0) or an E7 (0 2 2 1 3 0)(0 M R I P 0)?
The more you use your pinky the stronger it’ll get. Don’t be discouraged.
One idea was to do a LP style semi hollow body with a tiger maple double top and back but filled between the top with nomex. Then, the sides will be clear lexan with the nomex in a strip underneath as if the whole guitar is made with it. I’d likely use a double humbucker set-up with doubled push-pull pots for tone and volume (one for each humbucker. CF reinforced neck, and multiscale 26.5-24.75. I have a few others to finish before I even entertain something this complex, though. I also liked the idea of doing a Canada flag in inlay on the top, along with red and white accents throughout using only local woods.
I’ve got a lacewood and cypress acoustic parlour guitar to finish first.
Ranger Jeff - Thanks for taking the time to write all this up! I was going to give it a shot last night but didn’t get a chance. I’ll give it a shot soon. I do know that I have better luck when I plant my thumb on the back of the next rather than having it wrap around like it is with my normal playing.
wguy123,
While you’re working on strengthening your pinky, try a C/G (332010) [R R M O I O] with your ring finger doubling on both the E and A strings. And you might want to try a C or C/E with the pinky on the high G (O/x 3 2 O 1 3) [O/x R M O I P]
Another chord position you might find useful is the G NOT using your index finger. Start with your G7 (320001) then add your pinky to the 1st string, 3rd fret (320003). That position makes it a lot easier to go back and forth to a C chord. And it frees up your index finger for a Gsus4 (320013)[R M O O I P]. And the more you use your pinky, the stronger it’ll get.
For Travis style picking, especially if you’re starting out, you’ll mostly want to play in the keys of G and C. That means you’ll probably want to pick up a capo. And there’s a bit of a decision you’ll have to make…
Before I learned to finger pick, I was flat picking. I started with alternate bass picking/strums. Then I started adding some hammer ons inside the G, C, and F chords. Then (and this will really date me, so to speak) I fell in love with Alice’s Restaurant and bought the Arlo Guthrie songbook with the tabs. Now, I was playing an Aria acoustic 12 string then. It was an odd guitar in that it had a trapeze tailpiece, screws with knurled ends on either side of the bridge so I could easily raise/lower it and more importantly, as far as 12 string guitars go, it had a narrow fretboard, like a Ric 360/12. So, on my right hand, I used a thumb pick and finger picks on my index and middle finger.
Roger McGuinn can switch seamlessly from fingerpicking to strumming/lead playing. His trick is to hold the flatpick with his thumb and index finger and wear fingerpicks on his middle and ring finger. It’ll take time, but you can get used to anything.
BUT… No matter which way you learn, by the time you’ve learned it well enough to do it on auto pilot, you’ll have to start all over again to do it the other way. You’d be better off to choose one way or the other and stick with it.
Change of Subject
I’ve been thinking more about my hypothetical dream guitar. It’s a dual 4 wire humbucker style. 2 volume and 2 tone knobs. 3 way selector switch. Well, now it’s going to need a double pole TRIPLE throw switch (DPTT) for each pickup so I could select Series, Parallel, or Single Coil. Here’s my current quandary…
They make pots with push pull DPDT switches. Not with DPTT. So, I’d have to go with a different style switch. The choices are:
- Mini toggle switches
B. Slide switches
iii. Rocker switches
4th. Rotary switches.
So, what do you strumming dopers think I should use?
Sorry I can’t help - I’m a Tele layout guy, period. I twiddle the knobs a lot, so I need the knobs in the familiar spots. I even avoid a standard Gibson V and T per pickup.
I put a push-pull pot and a mini switch so I could get more options on one of my homebrews, but I don’t use them.
Question: are you messing with switches on the fly, or are you flicking/dialing in a tone before the next song? If I was doing stuff mid song, I think I’d favor rotary, simply because I would be dialing to my ear.
Also: how heavy is your attack, and how controlled? When I am selling a song, I can be an idiot - all switches are at risk of being flipped. Strats can be tough for me ;).
RJ: Thanks for all the awesome advice!
I’ve been working more on using my pinky and I am slowly getting better. I had already switched to NOT using my index on the standard G and that has helped.
Another thing I have been working on is trying to learn the fretboard and chord positions up and down the neck using the “CAGED” system. I can do the barred A and E’s without a problem thanks to my punk playing 30 years ago but the others are tough without cheating and just using the upper 4 strings. But, this also is helping to strengthen and get better “range” out of my left hand.
And as far as picking styles go: Yes, I should be focusing on one but I’m easily swayed from week to week. With Guy Clark’s death, I’ve been watching video’s and love his style of playing (I also watch Heartworn Highways this weekend - not what I expected but it was awesome). I don’t have any fingerpicks…yet.
Anyway, progressing very slowly. If I could get a little more dedicated with structured learning it would help.
I’d flip between songs. And I don’t pound the strings on an electric. Well, maybe if I’m doing Pinball Wizard or Won’t Get Fooled Again. But that’s sort of why I’m wary of mini-toggles. I suppose if they were located on the south side of the bridge/tailpiece they’d work. Slide switches are low profile; I remember replacing them on a borrowed Fender Mustang once. But while you can mount rotary or toggles to wood, a slide or rocker would have to be mounted to a plastic (or metal) plate.
I like slide switches because, if you’re careful, you can file them down to the point where there’s no way to accidentally change their position, like the controls on a Blackstone.
On the other hand, rotary switches look cool, and, if you’re so inclined, you could get one with, say, 10 positions and implement some other options - like Varitone, for instance.
My next Strat build is going to have a master Varitone, just because. Why should those Gibson guys have all the fun?
Agreed. Hey, did I know you had a Blackstone? (Blackstone MOSFET overdrive; a great dirtbox that does both overdrive and distortion and if it is the first thing in your chain, is really touch dynamic).
I love mine. I currently just run Homebrew Tele > Blackstone > Tweed Deluxe replica with an Alnico Blue speaker. I get an angry Marshall tone I can dial up and down.
Is there anybody who has a Blackstone and doesn’t love it? If so, they’d be the exception to the rule, I think. I don’t have one yet, but lately I’ve been looking for a steal on a used one, and watching YouTube vids, which look very promising.
On the other hand, I may just build one; the circuit is really simple - which I’m sure is part of the magic, just as with a Tweed Deluxe.
Seriously, that rig of yours sounds like a recipe for seriously good tone, and that’s even before you strap in a Blue.
Scary.
The Blue makes it so I can hear the wah-wah-ish sound when I am dialing in the Tone knob - super easy to pinpoint where I want to be. Kinda like Mick Ronson or Michael Schenker using an actual wah pedal, partially depressed, to get their tones.
So the Blackstone circuit is easy? I have no clue about that stuff. I assumed the whole touch-responsive, front of chain fanciness meant it had some super special chips in it or something.
I played my bass through my 6W VHT Special 6 Ultra guitar amp while cranked, (through a capable speaker, I’m not crazy) and I fell in love. Unfortunately, all the speakers I can throw at it can’t make it keep up with my drummer. A full stack just becomes a really nice, really tall end table. Contemplate it while you’re listening to the drums.
I went shopping for low wattage (or any wattage with a master volume) bass amps that could generate that kind of gain and mess. V4B? Portaflex? Nope, not the sound. They aren’t grindy, they’re more pillow-y. Orange AD200 or an Electricamp Green? Umm, I’m going to have to sell something to justify that to the wife on space issues alone, and that’s before I even think about sinking that much into an amp.
Then I got to thinking. Electicamp/Matamp/Orange originally just made one amp (and Electricamp basically still does). Bass? Guitar? It’ll work for whichever you want. Rob Wright from NOMEANSNO uses a Marshall guitar amp through a bass cab, and his tone rocks. Plus, that Marshall is really a corruption of the Fender Bassman circuit, at its heart. The Bassman’s not the most beloved bass amp ever, but I think it’s shortcomings are really down to the speakers.
So, I grabbed my Traynor YCS100 guitar amp, plugged it into my 15" cab, and wondered what I ever saw in the VHT. Even the clean channel had more grind than when I dug in when playing through my Gallien-Krueger. The Traynor has two progressively more aggressive gain channels to boot - the Big Muff is like a vestigial tail now. I didn’t run the YCS for long - because nope, I still haven’t gotten it in to get it serviced - hey, I need a 100W guitar head once in a blue moon, a 100W bass head is a different story. You can still burn hot dogs over the cooling vent. :rolleyes: I swear I’ll do that this Friday.
Either way, I’ve become one of those guys who intentionally plays bass through a “guitar” amp, even though I have purpose-built bass amps on hand. The EQ on the VHT is strangely basic, but still flexible enough to even get good clean bass tones. It’s: a three-way treble cut switch, a five way bass switch and a tone knob. The Traynor has a far more flexible tone stack. Even if it is technically centered on the wrong frequencies, they have a wide range of operation. If you turn all three bass, middle, and treble knobs down on a channel, it’s silent. I have a friend who wants me to play on some Dub songs he’s working on, and I’ll bring it with the GK as a backup. Heck, I’ll probably bring the VHT, too. That way we can get honest power section overdrive without killing the neighbors.
So that this isn’t all dry erudition, and you can actually critique the results: here’s a song idea I recorded for my band mates. The bass and guitar are both through the VHT and my GK 15" cab, with wildly different EQ settings. (yeah, guitar through a bass cab…you’re barking up the wrong tree…plus there’s ohms switching…and I’m lazy-ish). Other than a delay pedal on some very obvious portions of the bass part, thats what that particular guitar and bass sound like direct through that amp into said cab, into a SM57, otherwise dry, with a nutbag operating the whole shebang. It’s just an idea, with only guitar and bass. I’m pretty much writing those parts as I’m recording them, so be nice. 
TL;DR: Sometimes all you need is an amp and a full range speaker.
yeah, 6 watts ain’t getting over drums. Those Traynors can be great - we’ve discussed before, the earlier circuits are basically Canadian Marshalls.
Your song idea sounds kind of like Cannonball by the Breeders to me.
Yeah, I’ve seen Danny Gatton fake a wah to good effect, and I don’t know if that’s a sound you can get on anything but a Tele.
I had a Blue in my Dumble clone for a while, but the combination was just too much sweetness - like candied apples dipped in honey - so it came back out. A Tweed Deluxe sounds like a much better home for it.
The touch sensitive aspect, I think, is mostly a matter of keeping your circuit simple, and never running your gain stages (triodes in a Deluxe; MOSFET transistors in a Blackstone) too hot.
The only exception I can think of to that rule would be, of course, the Dumble amp, (a wonderful amp, but really just a cork-sniffer’s Deluxe, IMO), which is nobody’s idea of a simple circuit. But there, Mr. Dumble was uniquely careful about avoiding running his tubes at full throttle, and the result is a very open and uncompressed sound, by all accounts.
And doing a little research, it looks like Jon Blackstone might have seen something he liked in the old Hot Tubes pedal, or Anderton’s Tube Sound Fuzz, which both use the same chip and a similar enough design (the TSF sounds much more gnarly, by intent).
After starting there, it’s just a matter of tweaking for the ultimate sound, which everyone seems to agree he achieved.