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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I was not a big fan of YouTube. To be honest, in the beginning I could not understand what is all the fuss about. Some people uploading their stupid videos with their dogs at the pool or some idiots drinking Cola while eating Mentos…

That was in the beginning. Now I heavily use YouTube for watching cool concerts, songs, videos and guitar lessons, I almost all the time find something interesting to watch there and my most important (like 95%) usage of YouTube is for music.

I have seen there a lot of wannabes, a lot of people trying to play the guitar like their idols, I have seen people trying and people failing and also some of them succeeding. But what really impressed me is this guy, Gustavo Guerra!

When I have first seen him on YouTube I couldn’t believe my eyes. Or ears. Really! He seems to be in absolute the same league as Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen, Gilbert, etc. He plays guitar with an amazing easiness and feeling, speed and technique. Using specific electric guitars for specific artists made him look more than cool and built him a brand image. He must have money and a lot of passion for electric guitars, since he owns custom models of famous artists, playing Satriani on Ibanez Joe Satriani models (I have counted about 3 of them, including the chromed model), Vai on JEM model, Malmsteen on his scalloped Fender, Eric Johnson on his model, damn, he seems to have them all, he must feel like a child in a toy store, really.

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I was reading this post about air guitar championship and watched 2003 World Champion “playing the guitar”. I must admit it was a “thrilling” experience, just that I couldn’t see myself doing this. I am not such expansive on stage with a real guitar, he is without any. I must admit he reminds me of Yngwie a bit, but only just a bit…

And also I must admit that he looks less like an idiot if you compare it to me doing the same thing…

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Imagine that, let’s say, Fender or Gibson or Ibanez or whoever you would like would approach you and ask you for a custom electric guitar design because they would like to start a new line featuring John Doe’s design (no offense, I hope, we are all great people but probably compared to those ones putting their names on guitars, we are John Doe). What would you put into it? I know you look up to those custom guitars of some big shot player, but did you ever think about what would you put into you own custom electric guitar?

First of all, who would be the manufacturer? Will it be Fender? Will it be Gibson? Will it be Ibanez? Will it be Danelectro? (I put it here since I had reactions on the post about Danelectro Longhorn)

Second, what would you put on it? This post could also be called build your perfect electric guitar! Let’s see a few people answering that question: Jon of GuitarNoize.com, GuitarMX.com, JP of Strat-O-Blogster (by the way, I don’t think he would chose an Ibanez or a Gibson, I just have a feeling), Lori of Play like a girl, if she finds the time, GLW from guitarz.blogspot.com and everybody else.

By the way, Stumble this please!

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Yesterday I was caught in a traffic jam and I had noting to do than listen to the radio in my car. So I turned on the radio and there was a girl singing on top of a bass guitar, drums and keyboard. I was not paying attention to it in the beginning. Then, I remember the progress of my thoughts: hmm, sounds interesting, but for this music style it would need some strong electric guitars here, some power riffs. And I tell to my wife, sitting next to me, in what language is this girl singing? I sense I understand every word of what she sings there, just that I don’t actually understand anything, it is somehow close to English, an Anglo-Saxon language, but a Nordic one, also the way the music is composed tells me a Nordic band.

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That’s a quick one, for GuitarNoise, because I read the site almost everyday and I found there a lot of interesting electric guitars: man, you should review this one, it is one of the strangest guitar I have seen so far, how many dare to go on stage with this one? I know I wouldn’t!

How about you ?

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Since a long time I think about what is the best guitar you could have? Well, I must say that I got to the conclusion that is not you the one that choses the electric guitar, it is not even the “electric guitar choses you” idea. Let’s put it this way: you want to play jazz and you pick a Jackson KE2 Kelly like this one. Would it feel right? Well, I think not, even if it would probably do the job in the right hands, if the situation asks it and you don’t have any other choice.

How about playing heavy metal on an Ibanez Artist model? Again it does not feel right. Of course that, once more, it would probably do the trick for a situation where you don’t have a choice, but it won’t be the same.

As you probably see, I have kept Gibson electric guitars and Fender electric guitars out of this because Fender and Gibson, as the time proved it, fits any gender. I have seen Gibson played by heavy metal bands as well as blues and jazz bands, if you consider Malmsteen, then Fender would be the weapon of choice for any speed kind.

However, I think that in most cases, some electric guitars fit better some musical styles. A jazz guitar player would look and feel right with an Ibanez AS model, like John Scofield, while a shredder would probably use the Jackson model I have spoke about a bit earlier.

Electric guitars are lovely toys, but you need to feel comfortable playing them. Don’t chose an electric guitar that you don’t feel comfortable since it won’t give you the feeling you need on stage. You need to feel full, from the way your guitar stays in your hand to the way you look there. If you feel right from all point of views, then, your creativity will work best. Otherwise you will have drawbacks that will keep you from expressing the way you could. I think this is true for anthing you do in your life, you should only do what you love, unfortunately this is not always possible as all of us probably know.

Did you ever think how Slash would look with a Dean from hell guitar? Dimebag looked great with it and fully expressed what he felt, but think about that guitar in the hands of, let’s say…Clapton?! I remember once while in the rehearsal room of some local band I have tested a hollow guitar and felt like the worst guitar ever to me, at that time. Why? Because I had that “metal all over” thing and no matter if the guitar would have been the best ever, the most expensive and had some signature on it, for me it was not satisfying at that time.

How about you? Are you playing the guitar you love?

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Did you ever notice that famous guitar players have their own way of producing the vibrato? Take for example Eric Clapton, he has some fast, almost one finger vibrato. Also if you consider the fact that he has also an unique way of keeping the guitar neck in his hands, when soloing, I would say that if I would only see his hands playing the guitar, I would know it is him. Pay attention to his solo here.

OK, let’s take Steve Vai also: when  I have seen Vai vibrating a note, I was confused, he has some large, round way of vibrating a note. His (looooong) finger does at the same time a vertical and an horizontal moving, kind of a circle; I could say that he massage that particular string, like when your head hurts and you press your forehead circularly. See here in order to understand. It may be a show thing, it is more interesting for the camera, but this also gives him a low frequency vibrato that is “sweeter”.

To also consider a third  type, take Malmsteen, which has his violin like vibrato, probably because of his violin backgrounds. If you have never thought about that so far, pay attention next time you listen Malmsteen and also listen a violin player after listening Malmsteen.

Any other examples you could think of?

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I was reading this post here about top 28 most recognizable guitars. I must say that I just love this topic, even if I have never thought about it. I will not post here again the same top that the other guys posted on their blogs, just that I must admit that there are some electric guitars, mostly, that made a strong impact on the way the artist’s image was built. Indeed, think about Prince with his Purple Glyph Symbol Guitar, think about Zakk Wylde circle guitar, think about Michael Angelo Batio with his The Reverse Double-Neck guitar, etc.

I had only one thing to object to that top. I don’t see the Red Special model of Brian May and that’s one recognizable model, I think that every guitar player in this world knows it and some also know the legend of how it was built.

I would also add Steve Vai’s cut through guitar to that list and maybe a few others too. However the list is great.

Man, I just observed now: no SRV no 1 model either?!!

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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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