We had a fire at my parents when I was 12. I smelled soot for a couple months. Spent hours with my mom trying to scrub it off surfaces. I hate that smell now. It brings me right back to that burned house.
No flamed guitars for me.
Two updates:
- the effect of old bindings: okay, here’s one I haven’t heard. I was listening to a podcast from The Fretboard Journal, a recording of a panel they held at one of their Fretboard Summits (I haven’t gone yet, but plan to). This panel was of Some of THE vintage guitar restorers. One was TJ Thompson whose queue is so long he can only work on prewar Martins. His mastery of the detailed craft and ability to get the best sound out of a guitar is legendary.
So at the end of the panel, he makes a passing comment: While they are praising the Martin Authentic line as the best guitars since the first Golden Era, they comment that they still don’t sound old yet (but will end up as amazing as the current old ones, they say). TJ says its little stuff, for instance the plastic bindings on old guitars have shrunk by a quarter inch or more over the years, which can act on the top, tightening it a bit like the ring on a drum head.
May be woo, but it’s TJ talking, so not some random forum poster.
Secondly, mindless fingerstyle: so this is how I have come to think of the technique I am after. Clearly based on what I have seen Jeff Beck do, although my playing could not be more different (as in far less good) than his. But unlike fingerpickers, there is no pattern being executed. You just throw your fingers out there. Knopfler also does this when he is playing leads, but is a top-tier pattern-based Blues and Folk finger stylist.
Beck may be able to do patterned fingerpicking, but you sure don’t see much of his in his electric playing. Also, man, he is much more…aggressive. Attacky? When he plays. Knopfler is smooth; Beck is also precise but “lets go” more in his string attack. ??
Anyway, so I am making great advances. I was playing my homebrew Tele -> distortion box -> Tweed Replica and was doing my Set up a Groove and Add Lead Fills thing. As I was dropping in a fill, my right hand pulled off a rapid-fire set of up-and-down single notes. I realized my hand was in the position that Jeff Beck’s assumes: kinda like a Thumb’s Up gesture, with the fingers lying flat, not curled in. Held down in picking position, even though the thumb and forefinger are a couple of inches apart, they function as the Down and Up of a single “flatpick” motion.
I have been faking my way through this for about a year now, snagging a finger on the string, missing the string, just slopping out. But I could move smoothly into it this time - I could feel the mindlessness taking over so I can just let a flurry rip in response to thinking about it.
Just using my hand, no pick, and moving from strumming to pattern picking to mindless fingerstyle all within a fluid seamless groove is so freaking joyous. Really mindless in every great sense of the concept. As I have said before: putting down the pick is like taking the condom off ;).
Having said that, when I do use a pick now, my playing is tons better - like riding a Fixie Bike and then getting back on one with gears and breaks: you ride smoother.
Yay.
:smack:
Fixie: gears and brakes.
Mindlessness when I think of a fill: yeah, kinda oxymoronic to “think mindlessly” - I mean my hands act on my being in the moment. Heck, you know what I mean! 
Last comment for now: by more aggressive, hmm, I think I mean there’s more “pseudo Flamenco” in Beck’s approach and what I am after. Downward splashes of fingers to spank the strings - not as crafted as real rasgueado, but in that family, coupled with various similarly-aggressive approaches to upstrokes.
Does that make sense when you think of Beck’s playing?
“While the horn is pretty charred, and the guts were trashed from water damage, the guitar is overall intact.” Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
I finally decided to learn some slide guitar. A close friend recommended Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers) 2 DVD’s and his book.
I’ve always admired slide guitarists and wanted to learn some basic licks.
Should be fun.
What am I, chopped liver?
you play slide WordMan?
I’ll be back with questions. I’ll try to learn as much as I can from Warren’s DVD’s. Then seek out extra help.
I want to eventually play the Ballad of Curtis Lowe. It’s got some great slide work.
Yeah. Tune to Open G, learn to damp the noise and kill it.
http://www.frettedamericana.com/product/1961-gibson-les-paul-sg-standard-fool
This shop is selling a replica of Clapton’s famous painted SG from his Cream days. They took a real 1961 Gibson and had some shmoe paint it. Only $16,500. WTF?!
Hey, my sister painted that! 
I guess the only way this makes sense is if you’ve got a beat up old SG with a bad finish or a repaired neck. You give some shmoe $1500 to hide the sins and you hope it reminds Jim Irsay of that time he sent his personal servant down to Sam Goodys in the Bentley in search of a Cream album: Man, what a great car that Bentley was! And Horace - nobody took better care of my Rolex collection than Horace did, may he rest in peace. Shame the V.A. gave him such lousy medical care.
So, $16,500 perhaps, all spruced up, vs. what, $3000 with the original finish? It’s worth a shot.
Open D is fun with a slide as well. Remember to place the slide over the fret not behind it when you’re sounding the note or you’ll play flat. Bonnie Raitt has some good songs to learn on slide as well.
Wordman, I’ve heard Niel Young call that loose finger style thing “picky-strummy”, it seems to fit…
I have an amp with one input jack, and I want to use two guitars on a gig. Is there a switch that will allow me to switch back and forth between two guitars into the one jack?
There’s others if you keep googling on musicians friend or sweetwater
I’m watching the Dolly Parton Telethon tonight. Most of the performers are playing solo or with just a couple people.
It’s a great chance to hear some great guitar strumming without the distraction of the band.
Some of these artists are pretty good guitar pickers. Including hammer ons and pull offs while they sing.
I always enjoy watching other players techniques. Maybe steal a few ideas. LOL
Talk about guitar porn: Great new video from Reverb with Joe Bonamassa | The Gear Page
Joe has a house that is basically a guitar collection man-cave. Wall to wall amps stacked to the ceiling and every guitar he picks up and shows us is a to-die-for Holy Grail, any one of which would be a mic-dropper in anyone else’s collection.
You know, I am not a huge JB fan - he’s technically brilliant, but I don’t find myself sticking with his videos when I surf across them on Palladia-now-MTV-Live. He’s kind of the Yngwie of blues wanking to me. But I have to say, if was I going to be a collector of old guitars and amps, I would do it his way. He gets why he is doing it, finds the best pieces and knows how to dicker to get what he wants.
As for me, of the guitars he showed, the two Teles - 1 '51 Nocaster with a humbucker in the neck, and one '55 sunburst Tele - would just drop me to my knees to be able to play, let alone own.
Enjoy.
Joe! You don’t have to add tricks to each song. Just let the song lead you.
I love his stuff, but I find that I skip a lot of his songs because they seem to be filled with flash when the song just plain doesn’t need it.
I knew he was very successful but he must have millions in that collection. What a way to spend your money.
I have probably posted this before but here is a guy I met when I was doing consulting at the IRS who has a large personal collection that are not particularly vintage or rare–it’s kind of megalomania. (This is not Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits.) http://www.petenoon.com/equipment.htm (long load time, wait for the images to come up)
Speaking of Joe B., that’s the first video I’ve seen of him in casual conversation. His speaking voice sounds nothing at all like his singing voice.
Joe B kicked ass here. Love this song.