Ah - there you go. There’s a I IV V in there, too…
Interesting if repetitive. Judging from the fretboard wear this may be the only song he knows. 
But it does show that good guitar playing comes in all forms from all places.
Spoken like a true jazz cat 
You guys know all the chords and voicings up and down the neck 
. It’s funny - but could open tunings and blues-type playing (of which this is very similar technique-wise) be any more different?? As Keef says of his Open G style “all you need is 3 chords, two fingers and one asshole”
Well, I’ve played loads of blues but I admit that open tunings are a big gap in my repertoire. Well, I guess if he has about 20 more songs using the same three chords he could play three sets.
I play in alternate tunings a lot, so that style seems quite normal to me. I’d be interested in knowing what the tuning is, I’d guess that the 3 guitar strings are tuned to major triad: 1/3/5. I keep meaning to sit down and figure out some African music. It seems to have more to do with phrasing than anything else, when I’ve tried playing along the actual harmonies are quite simple.
I’m pretty much the opposite of a jazz player: I like drones, I’m not into complex chord changes, I’d far rather play over a single chord than a chord progression. The only jazz that I really like is Coltrane-style modal jazz, where the chords are simple and the melodies can just wander off into outer space. I mean, I do enjoy other kinds of jazz but the bebop stuff with a new chord every bar just ends up irritating me.
I really should stop prevaricating and start work on recording some new demos.
I just had the notion to ask:
“What are the guitar amp speaker food groups?”
Then I realized it would come down to Celestion vs everything else. Or British vs USA. Or something. Probably too esoteric.
squeegee, I don’t think I am your guy here. I can do a minor mind-dump, but don’t feel up on them enough to layout the topic and do it justice. A few points that come to mind:
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Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 major cateogory of speaker -
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Fender - made by Jensen; often referred to as the “American” sound. A Warm sounding speaker - a somewhat looser low-end, so the notes come out a bit rounder and the overdriven sound is more open and fuzzy, a la Keith Richards. Usually in a Fender-style - open-backed - cabinet, which further gives the sound depth and less edge, since you are adding the sound emerging from the rear a tad behind what your ear hears from the front.
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Marshall - made by Celestion; often referred to as the “British” sound. A few varieties - I like Vintage 30’s. Tighter low-end - usually in a closed-back cab and suited to that design. Takes distortion like Frankenstein looking for another surge of juice. Big magnets; heavy suckers.
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Vox - Celestion Blues - Alnico magnets (not sure how magnet type affects tone/performance) - known for “chiminess” - Beatles songs, Brian May’s heavy-treble tone; The Edge’s tone - a tight response with an emphasis on the high-mids.
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Typical mods include
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Dropping a Celestion into a small Fender - my buddy dropped a Celestion knock-off into his Blues Jr. and loves it. Takes dirt pedals better for Marshall-type sounds. Super-common mod; considered kinda “assumed” but some players, like swapping pickups out in your new Historic Les Paul.
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Dropping a Blue into a Tweed - my Tweed Deluxe replica came with a Blue; in reading up, this is an established mod by Tweed fans. Adds a bit of clarity and, well, chiminess to the rawer tones of a cranked Tweed. I love mine.
I am sure I have more, but am not fully equipped to geek out on Pre-Rola Celestions, changes in amplication due to increased use of small amps in a band’s backline (and plugging into the more sophisiticated in-house venue systems of today), etc.
WordMan - as always, thanks for the great summary. I’m going to find all of your posts of this sort and bind them in book form. Well, not really, but it’s great stuff.
So, wait, Fender = Jensen? I thought Blues Jr’s and maybe others come with Eminence speakers usually. My NOS Blues Jr has a Jensen, but that’s touted as a feature that separates it from the black tolex Jr’s that have Eminence speakers.
Any comment on having two kinds of speakers in a 2x12 or 4x12? I’ve seen that some people mix them, e.g. a vintage-sounding speaker and a modern voiced one, but I don’t know any more than that.
BTW, what make is your boo-teak Tweed clone? Just curious.
Earthworm Jim is seeking the Straight Dope on inexpensive guitars
First off, I use Zzounds for my guitars. I just bought an Epiphone Les Paul copy for $399.00 there.
Secondly, those of you who use a computer program for playing/composing etc., can you recommend a reasonably priced one?
I know that one must have been posted before, if it has, sorry!
Thanks
Quasi
nm
Sure - happy to help.
Blues Jr’s are a weird being, truth be told - they run on EL84 tubes, the last thing you’d expect from a company whose bread and butter amps were based on 6V6 and 6L6 tubes. They took a variety of non “Fender” features and built and true Fender amp - simple, versatile, moddable, excellent cleans and takes pedals well for a few hundred bucks.
Lots of folks mix and match speakers in cabs - I have never had *so many *cabs that I could experiment with this. I always prioritized towards light weight (seriously - I hate lugging shit), closed back 1 x 12"…
My Tweed is a Bruno Tweedy 18. Bruno is a very highly regarded small builder - his Underground 30 amp has got a strong rep online, and he was tapped to do the design work for some big amp company recently.
I just wanted to pass a cool link on to the guitarists of the Dope. This is a CBC Concert on Demand link - it’ll probably go away in a month or two. This is Harry Manx and David Lindley in performance at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver. There’s some superb slide work going on in there, along with some just great playing.
I’m looking at rewiring my “Xavie i” Les Paul Special/Jr/whatever clone, to reduce hum and just upgrade some parts (the neck tone pot failed, wth?), and I ran across a wiring diagram for Gibson’s version, here. The text talks briefly about vintage vs modern wiring of the tone controls, and the differences between them. Does anyone here feel pro/con or have a preference for the vintage vs modern wiring setup? Or adding a “volume kit” to the modern setup?
Wordman, when I hear 18 watt, I tend to think Clapton’s Marshall Bluesbreaker design-ish. Is that a proper assumption, or am I mixing my amp metaphors?
I’ve always done it the “vintage” way when I’ve rewired that kind of guitar. I haven’t noticed a difference, but I don’t use guitar pots much anyway, they’re only there for the load on the signal path.
If you actually use the knobs on a regular basis, it might be worth experimenting, but I’d expect the amount of actual difference it’d make would be in the “small to imaginary” range.
Claptons Marshall on the Bluesbreaker cd was an 18 watter. That is also the output of a Tweed Deluxe line mine - and since the first Marshalls were based on Tweeds that makes sense. There used to be an “18 watt” website for kit makers - it basically is a shorthand for a small-but-giggable simple circuit tube amp across brands.
Shakester this is one where we are on diff pages. Im on my smart phone now or I’d link to an old thread about using tone controls. They can (and IMHO) should be qn essential part of your tone.
Oh and squeegee - there’s a ton on LP boards about that circuit. I think my LPs are vintage simply because they ARE vintage. What I’ve cared about is the quality of the components. Is that what that Volume kit is - an upgrade?
I understand why they’re important to some players, but for my style and with my gear and the way I use it, they’re not really useful. On the rare occasions I max out my little valve amp, I’ll use the guitar pots. But most of the time I’m trying for a very clean amp sound, which is kind of the opposite of what guitarists are supposed to want. And volume/tone pots don’t interact well with very clean settings.