For the past month I have been using light D’Addario strings on my acoustic guitar. I have always been using medium strings but now I have tried some light strings (0.8 I think but I would not bet my life on it) just for getting the feeling. What I could say about it is that for soloing it feels great, I could bend the G string very easy, the same as with my electric guitar. Everything works way easier on these light strings than on my medium ones. However, when strumming, I feel frustrated, I can never get that full sound of tensioned strings, feeling that I get with medium to heavy strings. I guess folk guitar players play at least medium strings since otherwise they won’t ever get that sound for their acoustic guitars. Somebody even asked me why my guitar had no “power” in it. Well, it took me some time to explain him the reason…the strings are not very tensioned,they are light and easy on my fingers.
I have a friend which is one of the best electric guitar players in Romania at this time, (we used to play in the same band for 1 year) using electric guitar strings shifted one string up. Meaning that he used E for upper E string, an other E for B string, B string for a G and so on. What I could say is that the taping went great, bending strings was great, but there was something missing in heavy chords, those power chords that electric guitar players love…

Now, If I think about, I guess Stevie Ray Vaughan had a point when using only heavy guitar strings, only heavy guitar strings could give him that spanky sound that we all know. However, those strings were not good for his fingers,not to my knowledge or experience…

So, what kind of guitar strings do you like for your acoustic or electric guitars?

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A few days ago I was thinking about how Eric Clapton’s music evolved over time. I don’t say “evolved” as in “it was bad-now it is good”, far from me such an idea, just that Clapton’s music changed over time as the music business itself. I am not a big fan of Clapton,not in the way I could say about other artists or bands. I can not say that I know all his songs and everything he does or did, but Eric Clapton always had and always will have a special place in my heart.

My first contact with Eric Clapton’s music was when I bought 2 tapes, one with Metallica and one with Eric Clapton (as you may see, my taste in music was not quite oriented at that time as Clapton and Metallica had nothing to do one with the other). The tape was kind of a best of, at that time, so it offered me kind of Clapton’s best works. From that tape I remember Layla, the electric version, and Bell bottom blues. I kept this second song till now in my memories, without listening it again for a long time since I have lost that tape and I can say that it left a strong mark on my musical path.

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Judging by my personal experience, I think that there is no guitar player in this world who never dreamed of being rich and famous. I think we all dreamed and wanted it with all our heart. I know I did! From high school to the end of the university years I have dreamed about this. I was ready to make sacrifices for this, to go anywhere for this and do (almost) everything.

I remember that at one point there was this show on TV, organized by a national television channel, where bands all over the country came and play on a professional stage on the beach, being broadcasted all over the country. Of course every band in this country wanted to get there and play. So we wanted too!

We went there, we tried on the first day but there were too many bands and we came in late, so we didn’t succeed. Because it was already too late (in the night) when we realized we will not make it for that evening, we couldn’t go anywhere to rent a room for the night(private rooms at the local people, cheaper than at the hotels). Of course, we were young and with no money so we didn’t afford a hotel so…we slept outside, on the beach.

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This article could have been named “How to buy an electric guitar” but it isn’t. It isn’t because I have no clue about which would be those great things to check when buying an electric guitar, because I consider that no matter what, the sound comes before anything. I just know that I tried to find out from the internet, I have tried to follow my heart and still I can not make up my mind. So I have named my article How NOT to buy an electric guitar! So:

For a long time, I am a big fan of Ibanez electric guitars. I just love Ibanez guitars, for me they are like the best thing a guitar player can have. Of course, if you love electric guitars, you have such a fetish too for some brand or an other

So, after fantasizing about Joe Satriani’s models and about Vai’s JEM 7V I lowered my expectations a bit and I kind of made up my mind about what guitar should I buy. I decided on Ibanez RGX350DX, white as milk and beautiful. It won in front of Ibanez S520EX which was my next choice. However, I could not just buy it without listening to it. Unfortunately, here in Romania, there are not too many places you can go to really test an electric guitar before buying and more than this, to test a particular model would be kind of a great chance.

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For today’s post I will go a bit back in time, before joining a real rock band. I was about 18-19 at that time I think. I was playing the guitar with a very good friend of mine, Mihai, who plays in the same band with me even today. So I was doing the solo guitar while he was doing the rhythm and also singing, but we decided to find a lead singer that do only the voice part. So we got together and tried to agree on what we will be looking for. Because we both loved the same music, it came naturally. We put up an announcement and it sounded like this:

“Rock band is looking for lead singer able to sing Manowar, Helloween and Iron Maiden. Call – number here”

Well, as you see, we didn’t ask for much, we just wanted a lead singer able to sing like Eric Adams, Michael Kiske and Bruce Dickinson at the same time. Well, how hard could it be to find such a lead singer? Did I mention we were about 18-19 years old?
Well, keep that in mind, please.

Tune up your electric guitars; we are going for the kill!

So we started to print these flyers with the announcement and glue them to anything we could find in our city. For a few days, nothing happened. But one day, the phone rang. A guy told me that he phoned for the open position in the band, as a lead singer. Well, what do you know?!!! We have a candidate. So, on the phone, I started to ask him a few things, you know, have you seen what we ask for, can you sing Manowar and Helloween? Yes, no problem, he says. Well, what do you know, he sings Manowar and Helloween. And can you also sing Iron Maiden? Of course, I can, I can sing anything, I can sing Elvis, I can sing…and he named a few bands that were strangers to my ears. Well, what do you know, he plays all those things. Let’s meet the man!

So we agreed on a meeting the same day. I met my friend and we both went to meet this wonder singer that God sent to us in only a few days.

To not give room for mistakes, let me draw the whole picture: we were 2 18-19 years old, long hair high school dudes in worn out jeans that were looking like the clothes of the homeless guy you see on dark streets, ear rings, with heavy metal in our brains and of course, we had guitars with us. Acoustic guitars that is, since we wanted to hear the clean voice.

So, we were waiting for a guy close to us, with same heavy metal culture, crazy for electric guitars and screaming voices, our lead singer!

And there he was, in all his beauty! A 45-50 years old dark skinned guy (gypsy that is), with a crazy colored shirt! I felt earth should open and eat me right that very moment. I was looking at my friend; he was looking at me and both to this guy before us.

…it’s you? Yes, it’s me. And you said you can sing Helloween?! Helloween, how you call it, Elvis, anything, I can sing anything, anywhere, at weddings, parties…
Well, that was it. Thank you! You know, we are looking for a lead singer that sings heavy metal, at about 18-19 years old…

Well, I don’t know if the man knew what heavy metal is, but he really understood what I meant, it was clear that he was also confused to see us and we were not quite what he was expecting, so he was probably happy to leave also.

After this, Mihai’s mother told us that she saw us with that man, she was passing by and she was a bit scared, what do with do with that man?! She knew him from the neighborhood…Of course, anything but playing hard rock!

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I discovered a good initiative while reading a blog about electric guitars: guitars blogs want to get together, well, then, here they are:
Guitar Noize | IG Blog | Strat-O-Blogster | Guitar MX | Mad Stratter | Guitarz | Building the Ergonomic Guitar | Guitritus | Musician’s Notebook | GuitarToyBox | IGUITARGOD | Mr. Blues Guy | markmcguigan.com | Acoustic Guitar Player | iFingers Guitar Experience | Play Like a Girl | Electric Guitar Review | Guitar Novice | Truth in Shredding | Thumbrella | Music Ramble | The Soul of Rock and Roll | Guitar Lifestyle | GuitaroJam News | Music Gadgets | The Guitar Channel | The Guitar Resource | Guitar Stuff | Axe Victim | Guitar Flame

So, you, reader of this post, if you own a blog about electric guitars, acoustic guitars or any other type of guitars, add your address to the list and have a post about it. The other blogs will see you and notice you and you will get links and visits from the other blogs.

The funny part is that you are not obliged to do it. If you like the idea, post it on your site. By the way, don’t copy this post since it will be seen as duplicated content. Just copy the code below, add you blog to it and publish it on your site:

<a href=”http://www.guitarflame.com” title=”electric guitars,acoustic guitars,guitar tabs”>Guitar Flame</a> | <a href=”http://www.guitarnoize.com”>Guitar Noize</a> | <a href=”http://igblog.wordpress.com”>IG Blog</a> | <a href=”http://stratoblogster.blogspot.com”>Strat-O-Blogster</a> | <a href=”http://www.guitarmx.com/blog”>Guitar MX</a> | <a href=”http://madstratter.com”>Mad Stratter</a> | <a href=”http://guitarz.blogspot.com”>Guitarz</a> | <a href=”http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com”>Building the Ergonomic Guitar</a> | <a href=”http://www.guitritus.com”>Guitritus</a> | <a href=”http://www.musiciansnotebook.com/”>Musician’s Notebook</a> | <a href=”http://guitartoybox.com”>GuitarToyBox</a> | <a href=”http://www.iguitargod.com/”>IGUITARGOD</a> | <a href=”http://www.mrbluesguy.com/”>Mr. Blues Guy</a> | <a href=”http://www.markmcguigan.com/”>markmcguigan.com</a> | <a href=”http://www.the-guitarplayer.com”>Acoustic Guitar Player</a> | <a href=”http://www.ifingers.co.uk/”>iFingers Guitar Experience</a> | <a href=”http://lorinator.feminoise.com”>Play Like a Girl</a> | <a href=”http://www.electric-guitar-review.com”>Electric Guitar Review</a> | <a href=”http://www.guitar-novice.com”>Guitar Novice</a> | <a href=”http://truthinshredding.blogspot.com”>Truth in Shredding</a> | <a href=”http://thumbrella.blogspot.com”>Thumbrella</a> | <a href=”http://www.musicramble.com”>Music Ramble</a> | <a href=”http://www.soulofrocknroll.com”>The Soul of Rock and Roll</a> | <a href=”http://www.guitarlifestyle.com”>Guitar Lifestyle</a> | <a href=”http://news.guitarojam.com”>GuitaroJam News</a> | <a href=”http://www.musicgadgets.net”>Music Gadgets</a> | <a href=”http://richmurray.typepad.com”>The Guitar Channel</a> | <a href=”http://theguitarresource.com”>The Guitar Resource</a> | <a href=”http://www.guitar-stuff.net”>Guitar Stuff</a> | <a href=”http://theaxevictim.blogspot.com/”>Axe Victim</a>

So, do you have a blog about electric guitars, acoustic guitars, guitar tabs or anything related to this? Join this!

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I have always thought about that summer camp I was telling you about and how this Guns’N Roses unplugged ballad made the change. If it weren’t those acoustic guitars maybe I would have still loved rap at this age, even if I doubt, since probably rock would have finally broken through one way or another. Today, the acoustic guitar I have in my room is one of the 3 things I need, along with my computer and my digital camera. I play every day and it clears my mind when I get back home after a long and busy day. I am also in love with electric guitars, but that is another story, I can not play the electric guitar every day since I live in an apartment and I do have my neighbors, you know…

For me, acoustic guitars are one of the most beautiful things on this earth, the sound is that pure and clear and in the middle of the night, after a few drinks with your friends at a party, this is all you need.

An acoustic guitar is the best way to bring back the long gone past

Do you realize that there is nothing better to bring back the memories of the past than an acoustic guitar, a bunch of old friends and a bottle of wine? Of course, this is if you know how to play that guitar. If you have that magic trio, then all that songs that you have thought forgotten come to life again and everybody will start singing along. That is why I love acoustic guitars, for the fact they remind me of all those lovely high school parties, of late night college fun, of playing on the seaside by night or by late nights around the fire in the mountains.

The acoustic guitar was part of my life since many, many years and I don’t know if I could live without it. I love electric guitars, I love how Joe Satriani makes those alien sounds and how Steve Vai pushes the music to where no man has gone before, but most of all, I love “Patience” of Guns’N Roses, I love Mr Big’s “Be with you” and the whole unplugged movement that started, in my universe, with Nirvana’s unplugged sounds.

That is why I love acoustic guitars…

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I remember the feeling I had when I first started to like rock music. I was in a summer camp, during high school period and it was this girl, one of my class colleagues, who was a big fan of Guns N’ Roses, and I mean really big fan of Guns N’ Roses and their music. I remember back then I used to listen rap and dance music and totally rejecting anything related or only close to rock music.

Back then, Guns N’ Roses’ “Don’t cry” was in heavy rotation on radio here in Romania and I had a lot of chances to listen to it, but I was just…turning off the radio just to not listen anymore since I was feeling that inside me, something is changing with each note I was hearing and I just didn’t want to. I was such a stubborn teenager back then, I guess…

So, I was running away from “Don’t cry” because I felt that anytime I was hearing it on radio, on TV or anywhere else, my love for rap music was fading away and it seemed less and less interesting, personal and close to my soul. Instead, rock music was gaining more and more of it. “Don’t cry” was getting to me and I was running away, I was fighting the feeling that was growing inside me for the lovely electric guitar sound, those starting riffs of Slash’s Gibson guitar and Axl’s scratchy voice. Of course, back then I had no idea what guitar Slash had, I only knew a thing or two about electric guitars but not much.

Anyway, I remember that a few months before this, I had bought an acoustic guitar of smaller size from a friend of mine (back then I didn’t know that acoustic guitars come on sizes so it didn’t make too much difference to me). I can not tell you now why I bought it, I was listening rap, no rock, but I think I just found that brownish acoustic guitar one of the things I must have so I’ve bougt it and how handy it came from that moment on.

Coming back to my story, I was in this summer camp and this girl brought with her 42 tapes (I am dead serious!) with Guns N’ Roses and some other rock bands, but mostly Guns N’ Roses. Of course Guns N’ Roses doesn’t have that many tapes, but there are compilations, best of, albums, live shows and this girl had them all! And I really mean all, plus tones of black t-shirts with Guns N’ Roses and the skull. We had some Walkmans with us in this camp and I remember borrowing tapes from her and starting to listen.

And the acoustic guitars broke the defense line

I remember the moment I dropped the defense line and I let myself in the hands of music…And, most of all, I remember the song that made this change possible…

It was not “Don’t cry”, even if it is of the songs I really love even today and it was part of my transformation. It was “Patience”, a song that broke my heart in two, a song that I found so sweet and clean that I could not resist anymore. I came back an other person, I came back a rocker. I remember sitting in the dark while driving back from the camp, at night and listening Patience over and over again, I remember the acoustic guitars, the clean sound, the sparks in those treble sounds and Axl counting in the beginning…one..two…

And so a rocker was born, a guitar player and an avid seeker of new sounds, thanks to Guns N’ Roses, thanks to Patience, thanks to acoustic guitars and their lovely, clean sound. And thanks to that girl…

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