Again related to the relic guitar topic, an idea that came to me from reading JP’s blog (Stratoblogster):

Does the price of a relic goes down with time passing?! I mean, does a relic depreciate after 10-20 years because it gets…well…scratches?!!?

That’s one of the most funny things I have heard. Imagine people paying big money for a brand new guitar that looks old and paying less money for it after 10 years because…well…IT GOT OLD!

Look man, it has scratches, I can not pay you that much for it. Yes, but it is supposed to have scratches, it is a relic guitar! No, man, I mean, forget the factory scratches, look, it has here a scratch that does not belong to the original “set”. Doh!

Now, question: if you payed like $3000 for a new guitar that looks old, EXACTLY BECAUSE IT HAS SCRATCHES AND LOOKS BEATEN UP, wouldn’t be normal that after 20 years when it will have even more damages and to value even more?

After all, the scratches it has got over the last 20 years are the real thing, right? Or not? What do you think?

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One of the things I was never able to understand is what is this thing with relic guitar?! Why is everybody crazy about guitars looking like they were played by somebody’s grandfather?!

I know that there is a high demand and a lot of love going around for those smashed, scratched, aged guitars, but is it just me or what? I don’t know, but personally I would rather play a shiny, perfectly looking, beautifully stiled guitar than an artificially aged one.

Now think about it: if you would go for the real thing, think how difficult would be, on the long run, to play one that is 50 years old. Something somewhere must crash or break. Technology wasn’t that great back then, things get broken quite often when it comes to old things. I know that with guitars it is somehow as with the wine: they get better with time, but I know the story we had here with old cars. Everybody had one 20 years back and man, the parking lot was full of people fixing them. They loved it, but it was a time eating thing. I guess it is the same with old guitars.

OK, 2 years ago I played for a show here a Fender Stratocaster that was, as the owner said to me, probably older than me, and making some calculation, it even proved to be right. It was scratched and hit and aged (naturally) but that was the real thing and it was the result of time passing, but again, why mess up with a perfectly looking guitar to make it look old?

Cary of Electric-Guitar-Review started an experiment turning a brand new cheap Telecaster into a relic. I watch his blog lately for this, to see the result when the guitar will be ready, but I can tell you I already feel bad about the guitar. It was so beautiful in the beginning…

Now, let me hear you, do you fall for this relic guitar thing or would you go for a brand new guitar? What’s the story? I guess because I don’t understand it, I can’t really see the meaning of it, but if you do, please tell me cause I really would like to know!

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It may sound like a elementary school homework but I have really thought about this these last days. I have realized why I love that much playing the guitar.

It is not (only) because I love rock music, it is not (only) because of the beautiful sound or the energy when you hear the overdrive…

The reason I love playing the guitar is the fact that it opens infinite possibilities to my music. Think about it: every time you pick up your guitar you can come up with something totally different, something new and beautiful. I love the fact that my guitar is the door to infinite possibilities of expression.

Think about is this way: me, you, Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen, Hendrix, May, Segovia, Dimebag Darrel, Paco De Lucia , Frank Gambale, we all have the same damn thing: a 6 string instrument, but each one of us makes it sound different.

I love the fact that the same 6 strings are able to produce music that is so different: rock, jazz, blues, funk, classic music, flamenco, folk, damn, there are so many possibilities out there. And all these thanks to 6 strings and a box!

I kept on thinking these days about this and I realize I love the guitar more and more each day, exactly because of this and I realize that I am so small and tiny compared to the possibilities this instrument has. If I don’t make better music is because I can’t. My guitar surely can because it showed it so many times over the years all over the world! There are so many records to prove it!

By the way, IG launched a very interesting idea, “Hug your guitar week” and I think his initiative is a great way to show your guitar you love her.

So tell your guitar here why do you love her and give her a hug on IG’s blog!

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Without wanting to hurt girl’s feelings in any way, I haven’t seen that many good girl solo guitar players so far. Again, Jennifer Batten is a great exception that kicks ass! Yeah!

But while looking around (of course, for something else) I have seen this video on YouTube of a Korean girl playing the electric guitar. Man, she is good and plays very clean so I said it would be a good thing to share it with you here! So, here it is:

And let me hear your opinions on this! Does she kick ass or what?!

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Well, speaking about stage outfits…

I think this will do just fine, if you think about it, people came in for the music, right?

Or not…

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A few days ago, my wife asked me to tidy a bit my “office room”, where I keep my desk, computer, etc. Looking through the stuff there I have found a promotional brochure of Carvin guitars, brochure that I have received when testing a Carvin guitar some time ago. I was very happy about this so I sit and started to browse it.

I saw this guitar, I am not sure what was the exact model, but I found a similar one on the internet, for the sake of the example. I found it very strange that the guitar (of course, a Carvin model) had a Floyd Rose installed on it, but no lock on fret zero (see the picture).

I am used to the double locking tremolo to have both parts, the lock and the floating bridge, but this one had no lock! I ask myself how efficient could it be and what is the actual advantage of not installing that lock?

It is considered that a floating bridge gives a weaker sustain, while through body strings give the stronger sustain, thing that I don’t dare to argue cause it is obvious. But, as far as I know, and of course, can be considered an argument if you judge by the above example with through body strings, the thing that actually lowers the sustain is the floating bridge, right? Not the lock! Because it doesn’t have mass to resonate and sustain string vibration the same way through body strings have.

Then what’s the use of a Floyd Rose system without the lock?

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I don’t think it has anything to do with music, but I think this might be the world record for right hand speed picking!

That reminds me of that joke with some guy stopping two police officers on the street asking them something in English, then in French, then in Spanish, then in German, without the policemen being able to understand anything. After they guy leaves angry at the two officers, one of them asks: Did you see how many foreign languages this guy knew?! Yes, answers the other one, but what was the use?!

So, does this have anything to do with music or not?

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I asked myself which would be the craziest guitar project you could think of? To be honest, so far, the craziest I could think of is to adapt a regular Fender Telecaster in order to add a Floyd Rose. How about it? Fender Telecaster with Floyd Rose! I would like to see one! I have seen there is a Heavy Metal Fender Tele, custom made, but however due to the color and the way it is painted, doesn’t quite look like a Tele.

I speak about a “normal” Telecaster. Like this one!

So, any guitar project crazier than this one?

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BBC News today featured an article called Why don’t girls play guitar?

Let’s ignore the fact that it is a “journal style” headline, and some girls do play the guitar, and some of them actually kick ass, if you think about Jennifer Batten, for ex, (she was always an icon to me, from this point of view, because indeed, girls do play the guitar but how many play solo electric guitar? At that level, I mean!)

So, this post is not actually about Jennifer Batten, even if I proposed to myself to cover something about her, soon, but about the preferences that boys and girl have when it comes to picking up a musical instrument.

Here’s what the study that BBC uses says when it comes to learning an instrument:

Boys play:

• electric guitar 81%
• bass guitar 81%
• tuba 77%
• kit drums 75%
• trombone 71%

This sounds like a pretty decent rock band. What are the tuba and trombone doing there?!!

Girls play:

• harp 90%
• flute 89%
• voice 80%
• fife/piccolo 79%
• oboe 78%

Well, it may be related to social preconceptions, or just to the fact that there are some physical constraints here, such as a girl having trouble playing tuba due to dimensions, or just about the fact that being a girl may be associated to being softer, quieter, nicer, AND NOT PLAYING THE DAMN LOUD, METAL GUITAR!!!

Later edit: can it be for real that  90% of the girls play harp? I ask this because I don’t know any girl in my relatively close social neighborhood who play the harp. Actually I don’t think I know any girl who play harp while I know a girl here who plays bass guitar in a rock band. 

See the article here

Hmm, so, how many girls do you know playing an electric guitar and how many playing the harp?

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If you are reading this there is a big chance that you have watched on YouTube some great performances of Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D. There are a few great interpretations of this piece of music on electric guitar because lately it became the song of choice and the speed test of young guitars all over the net.

So here’s Gustavo Guerra’s version of Canon song, a version that I adore, since compared to other versions, he has that easiness of playing the guitar that allows him to play around and add value to the song itself. From the first notes, using the whammy bar puts him above the rest.

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