I’ve long been a fan of looping with guitars. I had the original Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro, before it was co-opted by Gibson. Great looper, but mono and always frustrating that after creating a great composition, there was no way to save it other than just recording the combined analog audio composite. I sold the EDP when I started using Native Instruments Guitar Rig, but was never quite satisfied with the experience of being bound to the computer.
The previous edition of the Digitech Jam Man was nice, but also mono. The Looperlative LP1 and the Boss RC-50 are both stereo but are pretty expensive. I saw a new Looperlative LP2 prototype at NAMM which is much cheaper than the LP1, but it’s mono.
I’ve just returned from this year’s NAMM trade show in Anaheim (that’s the National Association of Music Merchants). Interesting, fun, exhausting – not necessarily in that order 🙂 There’s lots of cool stuff to share, which I’ll post over the new few days.
I saw and played some interesting and amazing instruments and met the artisans, luthiers, engineers, and designers that made them. They’re all there trying to get their ideas out, and hopefully make deals with retailers to carry their products.
As a software engineer for Korg R&D, I wasn’t there to make deals. I had a couple meetings, sized up some of Korg’s competitors, visited a lot of old friends, and generally browsed around getting inspired. I’ve been to this show nearly every year since 1994, and I always come away with some new energy and motivation (that is, after recovering from the soreness and dehydration).
It’s hard to describe the scale of the NAMM show. It’s HUGE. And there are just hoards of people of all kinds there- hip rockers, metal heads, punkrock girls, nerdy engineers, synth geeks, pinup girls, celeb lookalikes, and even a few business suits. The official stats say there were 87,569 registrants present.
I also saw a few gen-u-ine stars. I walked past Joe Satriani and Slash, who were signing autographs for insanely long lines of fans. Jordan Rudess always seems to be everywhere at once – really, I think he has cloned himself. I got to hang out with synth pioneers Dave Smith and John Bowen. I watched Joey DeFrancesco play some effortlessly incredible organ, Richard Devine do his knob twiddling thing with Ableton Live, and of course a number of lesser known (to me) musicians who ranged between total suck, and amazing.
Marc over at The Wood Whisperer has posted part 2 in the video series Birth of a Guitar, documenting Rick Urschel’s classical guitar project. This time, Rick makes the kerfing, builds the back and the sound board with rosette, all the bracing, bindings, the bridge, fretboard. If you thought from part 1 that it was gonna be all power tools, you’ll find a lot more hand tool and finesse work in this video. Really inspiring stuff. We get to see some of Rick’s clever jigs – like one to produce a raised curve in the top, a diy tilt-base for the trim router, a fret-slot cutting sled, and again the hot lightbulb-in-a-pipe wood bending jig. Warning, massive amounts of blue tape will be consumed 🙂
One of the most interesting parts of the video is how Rick recovers from a couple big mistakes. Every woodworker, from beginner to expert, makes mistakes, in every project. I’ve heard said that the measure of a fine woodworker is how well they hide their mistakes.
There’s a huge amount of material here, and Marc has sped up a lot of of the video to almost comical speeds. And best of all, it ends on a cliffhanger! Take a look:
Jimmy Page just rocks in this song! It’s such a cool riff! Have a listen: Black Dog Riff
I did a basic transcription while listening to it. The funny thing about this riff is that it sounds amazing and I thought it would be really hard to play, but it turns out to be basically A minor pentatonic, and it’s pretty easy once you run through it a few times.
You can see in the tab on my transcription that I was experimenting a bit (in parentheses) with alternate fingerings. Though the fingering in the second measure requires a position change, it just feels less sloppy to me rather than trying to play the high E on the B string (like I have in parentheses). Similarly, in measure 4 and 5, you can play that riff all in the same position without sliding down to the open A power chord, but it feels harder to play. Also the power chord sounds more, well, powerful in the open position. You can see if you watch carefully in this video from a 1973 concert that Jimmy plays it with the position changes. Anyway, it’s interesting and good exercise to learn to play it several different ways, and your fingers or ears may just prefer it one over the other.
There’s a cool cascading rhythmic offset in the second half of the riff. Interestingly, Jimmy seems to always rush the transition from the second part back to the first. Makes you wonder if he was doing it on purpose, or just in a rush to get a drink 🙂
It has long been a dream of mine to combine two of my hobbies – guitar and woodworking – and build my own guitar from scratch. Some day…
Today, Marc over at the The Wood Whisperer posted part 1 in a new video series Birth of a Guitar, documenting Rick Urschel’s classical guitar project. The video really shows how many steps are involved in building an acoustic guitar, and how many diverse skills are required. Just imagine what it was like building such a guitar in the days before power tools! Even with modern tools, it’s a gargantuan effort.
In summary, the necks of the Sheraton II, Dot Studio, Casino and Riviera P93 are all basically the same: 24 3/4” scale, 12” radius, 15/16” thickness at 12th fret, 1 11/16” width at nut, 2 1/16” width at 12th fret. There are small variations between the guitars, generally less than 1/32”. I guess different binding styles and materials account for the neck width differences.
The SG and Les Paul have slightly thinner necks (about 13/16” thickness at 12th fret), but are the same in every other dimension (width, scale, radius).
I must’ve looked pretty funny in the corner of Best Buy, pulling down guitars from the wall and measuring them with my calipers and radius cards.
I was just checking in at GuitarCenter.com, and it says today that the P93 is sold out or no longer available. Perhaps it’s nearing the end of its limited edition run?
Musician’s Friend still has it, with the free case. If you’ve been on the fence, now’s the time to decide. Get it while you can!
[…update November 8 – I see they’re back in stock at GC, so maybe they’re still in production…]
I’m still editing together the epic electronics replacement and soldering series of videos. Nearly done! Meanwhile, here’s a really short video on how to diagnose and fix ground connection problems in your guitar.
This time in high definition, and more importantly, with a high quality microphone instead of the webcam mic. I just run through a bunch of riffs, both clean and distorted, with the pickups alone and in combination, and also demonstrate the sound of the tone knob.
I’m using a large diaphragm Rode NT1 mic, positioned about 4” away from the grill of the Vox VT30 amp. These recordings will serve as the “before” examples for my upcoming mods.
Incidentally, I had to make a lot of changes in order to record high quality separate voice and guitar audio, instead of using the crappy webcam mic. Windows Movie Maker just doesn’t cut it. So I downloaded a free trial of Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum. It’s so much better than Windows Movie Maker! Has really nice audio editing features, and full HD support.
I’ve been asked about the thickness of the Epi Riviera P93 neck, in comparison with other Epi guitars. I’ve also measured the Epi Sharaton II, Dot Studio and Casino, and their necks are all very similar to the Riviera P93, within 1/32” for each measurement (thickness at 12th, width at nut, width at 12th). And they’re all the same 24 3/4” scale and 12” radius. The Epi Les Paul’s and SG’s have a slightly thinner neck (about 13/16” at the 12th fret), but the same width and scale.
