Ampeg T-style guitar

Ampeg, mainly known for their amps (and especially bass amps), have occasionally put their name on guitars and basses. This Tele-styled guitar is one I've not seen previously. Doesn't that headstock look really out of place on that shape body? It's an interesting one, nonetheless.

Guitar Weekends - Rock Weekend in Cumbria

Guitar Weekends - Rock Weekend group 26-28 September 2008. L-R: Iain, Gary Dunn, Tony, Yours Truly, Rachel, Mark, Gordon and Graham
On Friday morning, I took the train up north and by mid-afternoon found myself at Beckfoot House near Penrith in Cumbria. I was there for one of the Guitar Weekends that Malcolm and Lesley White at Beckfoot House run throughout the year. Now I'd been on one of these before back in early 2007. That time it was an "Improvers" weekend, albeit with a rock flavour. I had a great time on that occasion but wanted to return so as to brush up on some of the theory. The weekend I chose this time also had a "rock" theme, but it turned out that it was actually a much more advanced course.

By mid to late afternoon a group of seven of us had assembled with our guitars and other paraphenalia and after introductions, Malcolm led us through a few exercises where we looked at scales and some alternative chord shapes. As a group we played through a few songs several times with Malcolm explaining how we could improve things by sharpening up our timing and by paying attention to the rhythm patterns.

After an excellent dinner, we took it turns to play solos using the various scales relevant to the key the song was in. Everyone was put on the spot for a few moments when we were each asked to play something for the rest of the group. That was quite nerve-wracking but a good way to break the ice - a few of us fudged our playing, but no matter, we were all in the same boat. We went on playing until 1AM. Despite not starting until late afternoon, it had been a very busy day.

But Malcolm was only the warm-up man. From Saturday morning Gary Dunn took over as our teacher. A softly-spoken Geordie with a great sense of humour and a helluva lot of patience, Gary is an excellent musician and a fantastic teacher, explaining and demonstrating everything clearly. We studied some theory, such as how chords are constructed, what notes appear in different keys and why. As on the previous day, we played through a number of songs and took turns to play solos. We spent some time looking at AC/DC's "Back In Black", breaking it down into its component riffs, and then combining them into a whole. I have to confess that I was finding some of this very tricky. The theory I could follow, but the putting it into practice was something else! However, I made plenty of notes for practicing later at home.

Late Saturday afternoon we had a break before dinner, so a group of us took a walk out into the beautiful surrounding countryside (and nearly getting ourselves lost, which is what happens when you start climbing walls and fences and marching over fields). This was a great opportunity to socialise and get to know each other better.

After another one of Lesley's excellent dinners, we began our project for the night. We split into two groups, each being given a song to work on, arrange, practice and finally perform. My group had "Riders on the Storm" which we had to arrange for four guitars. Luckily it's a song with several intertwining guitar parts, so there was something for each of us to do. My main job was the rhythm guitar, but they weren't letting me off that easily and it was decided that each of us would take a solo, so whilst I soloed someone else had to take over the rhythm. One of our group, Iain, was persuaded to sing, which was a nice touch.

After about three hours of arranging and practicing our parts, both groups came back together and performed our respective songs for one another and these were recorded so we could listen back to our triumphs and mistakes! We were quite pleased with our "Riders" although unfortunately Tony's Les Paul chose to develop a jack-socket fault just as he was about to start his solo so that we had a crackle-crackle-crackle solo for a few moments before he was to get stuck in properly.

Rachel came out with a fantastic lead sound on her solo which caused a few heads to turn. I'm afraid I fluffed mine a little bit (although it wasn't that bad) but my main problem was that I hadn't set my relative rhythm versus lead volumes quite right and I was just too damn quiet. Iain having finished the vocals brought the song to a close with a nice solo on his Tele.

Then it was Mark, Graham and Gordon's turn, and they got up and performed Santana's "Samba Pa Ti" ("This isn't just any food. This is Marks and Spencers' food"), which allowed Mark on his PRS and Graham with his Brian May Red Special to indulge in a little lead guitar duelling whilst Gordon played the rhythm on his Gibson Hummingbird acoustic. Very nice it sounded too!

It had been another very busy - and long - day, so at 11:30 I decided to go hit the sack.

Sunday morning began with each of us independently working through the TAB for "Star Spangled Banner" whilst we waited to begin and trying to resist the tempation to add divebombing, explosions and rockets a la Hendrix.

Gary then came in and taught us about 9th chords and arpeggios - all of which we worked through, and together we played "Hotel California" which has an E9 chord and a solo which you can play using the B harmonic minor scale. He also used "House of the Rising Sun" as an example of how to arpeggiate. I'm glad to report that none of us had to refer to the chord sheet for that one! (As if!)

After lunch it was time to bid our farewells and make our respective ways back home. All in all, it was an intense course. It was very enjoyable but it was certainly no picnic. (If you go on one of these courses you must be prepared to work!) As I said earlier, the course was much harder than I was expecting and if I'm honest I was slightly outside of my own comfort zone, but then surely it's better to be challenged rather than to cruise through things that come easily.

Guitar Weekends offer a whole host of these intensive weekends for guitarists of all abilities - Strugglers, Improvers, Rock, Blues, Country, Django and Maintenance. Next year they are possibly going to introduce a Recording weekend. I've been on two weekends now (which is nothing compared to some people who keep on coming back for more), and can wholeheartedly comment on their excellence: venue, staff, food, accommodation, material covered - all are top notch. My thanks to Lesley and Malcolm at Beckfoot House and also to our tutor Gary Dunn.

Just stepped out for a few moments... Back soon!

OK guys, I'm taking a short break - and it is guitar-related so I'll tell you all about it when I get back on Monday.

Outrage as Stratoblogster is Censored!

Since when did Blogger/Google start censoring our blog posts?

JP Stratoblogster posted a very interesting rant recently which questioned Premier Guitar's apparent habit of giving rave reviews to their advertisers' own products. A review of one guitar in particular, the Etavonni GT-1 - a very expensive and supposedly innovative instrument, made JP think that something very fishy was going on and so he wrote this article (now re-posted).

Then the article was pulled!

Someone didn't like it! Premier Guitar? Etavonni? I don't know, but it seems that JP's comments clearly hit a nerve. Too close to the truth, perhaps? Almsot certainly, I'd say.

Why not respond with their side of the story? Why not enter into the debate in a reasonable, sensible way? Or even admit "Yes, we screwed up..."

Getting the article censored by Google/Blogger is just playing dirty tricks.

UPDATE: Kudos to Premier Guitar for getting involved in this discussion and responding to some of the issues that JP raised. (See the comments both here and on Stratoblogster).

Do you want spiders or pigs on your guitar?

This seller has a bunch of interesting customisations of cheap guitars for sale on eBay right at the moment.

Several have fabric-covered bodies which are then lacquered over. I thought that these two examples were quite eye-catching. The spider guitar would probably appeal to many up and coming rockers, but I'm not really sure who'd want to buy the pig guitar.

Unfortunately some of his other customisations are spoilt by his insistence of putting counterfeit Fender logos on the headstock. He's also very cheekily added a Gibson decal to an LP clone. Regular readers will know my thoughts on this practice.

If it's not a Fender/Gibson/Rickenbacker/(whatever) then DON'T put that company's logo on it! It's fraud, plain and simple.

The Guitarz September 2008 pick of the guitars on eBay

Rather than post items about these guitars individually (partly because I'm not going to be able to blog for a few days over the weekend), I'm presenting for you here a round-up of what I consider to be the coolest affordable guitars on eBay right now.

So, pictured above from left to right we have:

1. An Italian Elite Crucianelli guitar circa 1964 with immaculate pearloid finish and all hardware present and correct including tremolo arm.
2. A Supro (1965-1968), nice simple single-pickup guitar, notoriously good sound for blues and slide.
3. A late 60s Kingston Swinger (i.e. re-badged Teisco) in great condition and featuring a very cool and distinctive body shape.
4. A Teisco ET-230 in metallic blue - again it's in fantastic condition.
5. A Hofner Artist bass, also from the 60s, which not only good but is supposedly very playable too.

The Fender Stratocaster custom shop Yngwie Malmsteen doubleneck didn't make it to the list because its buy it now price of $5,999.99 is getting into the realms of silly money, and also that we've featured a few doublenecks recently, whereas the Vox Guitar Organ wasn't included because it's not in full working condition (and also the photos were very poor).

Nuax Guitars

Nuax guitars are a brand that are entirely new to me. It's good to see a manufacturer coming out with some distinctive and unique-looking designs, and they all look like you could play them whilst seated unlike certain guitar designs I could mention. Nuax would appear to be based in Germany, although the luthier, Leonardo Lospennato, was born into an Italian family living in Buenos Aires.

These guitars aren't cheap, but they are hand-made luthier-built instruments. They also boast bodies and necks built from FSC-certified and handpicked woods coming from well-managed and environmentally audited forests, have multi-radius fretboards, Earvana compensated nut, Gotoh 510 tuners, plus they are fully customizable.

There's a bunch of these on eBay right now, so you could pick up a bargain depending on how the bidding goes.

Guitar with no name

If you could afford the $14,995 Buy It Now price you could secure for yourself this fantastic 1975 Ibanez doubleneck as owned and played by Gerry Beckley of the band America. This guitar is the model that was later known as the Artwood Twin, but this particular guitar dates back to 1975 and so pre-dates the Artwood Twin model name. Ibanez catalogues of the period show photos of America's Gerry Beckley playing this actual guitar. He is also pictured playing it on the sleeve of the "America Live" album from 1977.

DVD Review: AC/DC - No Bull (The Director's Cut)

Let's face it, how much reviewing does this DVD need? With a band like AC/DC you know exactly what to expect: good honest, straight-forward rock'n'roll and with that all-important element of fun.

The footage on this DVD was filmed at the Plaxa De Toros De Las Ventas bullfighting arena in Madrid on the Ballbreaker tour in 1996, and was originally released to video shortly after. The director David Mallet was never happy with the results and so for this new DVD edition the film has been completely re-edited in HD and the audio remixed in both Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound.

The results are quite spectacular, it has to be said. For starters, the venue is amazing (introducing "Hail Caesar", singer Brian Johnson comments that its the perfect setting for that song), the picture is crystal clear, there are seemingly cameras EVERYWHERE so that we get viewpoints from all over the place, and the band appear to be on top form too.

I approached this video as someone who was not a fan of the band as such, although I bear them no malice, they were just a band I'd never followed. Let's just say, I've been converted. I would have loved to have been at this show, to have seen the spectacle and have witnessed the band working their arses off!

The rhythm section - Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar, Cliff Williams on bass and Phil Rudd on drums - are AD/DC's secret weapon. Those guys are so tight and together they form the powerhouse that drives the whole band along. Brian Johnson's vocals at times resemble a strangled croak, but so what? - it suits the songs - and he has the capability to produce a dirty bluesy growl on songs like "Boogie Man".

Obviously the star of the show is the SG-wielding lead guitarist Angus Young. He is just incredible, and I marvelled at how he could play a guitar solo with apparent ease whilst bombing about from one side of the stage to the other like a demented toddler. His now legendary school uniform only lasted until seven songs into the set, when he interrupted his own guitar solo in order to perform a strip tease. Now that's not the kind of entertainment you get from the likes of Eric Clapton.

There was a fair amount of OTT theatricality to this show what with giant demolition balls, Brian Johnson swinging from the clapper of a giant bell Quasimodo-stylee ("Hells Bells"), cannons firing into the audience ("For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)"), and a monolithically pneumatic Rosie making an appearance in "Whole Lotta Rosie". Somehow all this fails to detract from the band just blasting out their own brand of riff-tastic rock'n'roll. After all, the venue's big enough for all of this.

What more can I say? I think this is the kind of thing that you're either going to love or you're going to hate. I thought it was fantastic, but all the fans are going to buy it anyway. All the big hits are there. It's well-directed, well-produced. I think it's a winner.

At two hours for the main feature I'd say it was good value for money too. Additionally the special features include a couple of bonus performances from other shows on the same tour - these renditions seem somehow rawer to my mind, and are intriguing when contrasted with the Madrid show. Then there are also the alternate "Angus-cam" versions of four songs from the Madrid show, for those of you who'd like to study his technique on a Gibson SG guitar or else to copy his trademarked "spasm".

Buy it here.

Gottschall Funnel-Bodied and Double-Sided Guitars

Here's one from the Guitarz archives.

Germany's Gottschall Guitars build acoustics with their patented twin-cutaway funnel body design. Sideways on, the body of the guitar is tapered towards the neck. The insides of the twin cutaways are left open and function as the guitar's soundholes. This allegedly has the effect of increasing the loudness of the guitar by +3 dB.

The guitar pictured is a varition on the doubleneck guitar, it's a double-sided guitar with a nylon-strung guitar on one side and a steel-strung guitar on the other.

The double-sided guitar is not an altogether unique idea. Guitarist Thom Bresh uses a double-sided guitar - The Bresh Dualette - built by Langejans Guitars. This is priced on the Langejans website at $12,995.

Of course, if you can't afford that, Kevin Siebold of Krappy Guitars could build you a "Flipitar" - a double-sided electric - for considerably less.