I'll tune each string to exact pitch using the electronic tuner, and then use the old harmonic tuning method as a double check. After that, I'll strum several chords to make sure they sound right, tweaking as I go. I also find that after this, the electric and acoustics will sound different according to the electronic tuner, even though they sound right when being played. That's the final measure ... it has to sound right all together.
3,477 2014-04-24 10:05:28
Re: Hammered (22 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Kudos to all of the Chordie mods for keeping a close eye on this stuff. If these guys really want to advertise here, why don't they contact you and ante up for some advertising space? Do spammers not get the fact that spam drives people AWAY from their offering, rather than draw them to it. It's not only annoying marketing, it's proven by the entire marketing industry to be counter-productive.
3,478 2014-04-23 20:27:47
Re: Bands That Defy Genre (20 replies, posted in Bands and artists)
Hey Lee ...
Gave several S.G.M. tracks a listen on YouTube. There's no denying the creative and unusual nature of their work. However, I do find it a bit morbid for my liking ... almost nightmarish. Reminds me of some of Tea Party's stuff from days gone by, which (if you'll pardon the pun) is not my cup of tea.
3,479 2014-04-23 09:56:29
Re: Back from my Doctor's Check-up (8 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Sorry to hear about the nasty side-effects, NELA ... what a frickin' nuisance! This clip is a bit old, but here's Jeff Foxworthy's take on side effects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSdNMRtvq5g
Hopefully a little giggle will help to lighten your load. Chin up, buddy!
3,480 2014-04-23 09:50:53
Re: the object of my desire (19 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Phill ...
Always a letdown when something like this happens. I got to play a guitar I've always wanted (Gibson L4 hollow-body) just before Christmas, and was horribly disappointed. It had a very flat, muddy sound. Hard to describe the feeling afterwards, but almost approaches despair.
3,481 2014-04-22 10:34:52
Re: Bands That Defy Genre (20 replies, posted in Bands and artists)
In general, non-musicians do seem to have non-musical interests in what they listen to.
The "mainstream recording artists" typically emphasize good vocals, which of course is needed. The various talent shows on TV do indeed feature a lot of vocal talent, and that's something that everyone who can carry a tune can relate to. Next, they'll emphasize a certain look or image, perhaps the message in the lyrics, etc. In short, popular music is popular because more people can relate to it. If the focus of a group is the musicality and musicianship, all non musicians can now only relate at just a superficial level.
This isn't to find fault with anyone, or to say that musicians are better than non-musicians. It's just that if a person can't intimately relate to what's being presented in any art form, it really is a stretch to expect them to "get it". As a musician (sort of) I can appreciate good musicianship, even if it isn't a genre of personal choice. Whereas a non-musician can only say they like or don't like something. Bands that defy genre are just that. So what if the folks doing the catalogue don't know what department to put them in? If it's good music, it's good music.
3,482 2014-04-20 17:23:06
Re: DAGGER (36 replies, posted in Songwriting)
Great stuff, Russell .... thanks!
Your song, your playing, your voice, your guitar that you built, your experiences behind the words, your technique with your recording gear ... it truly is all you! Reminds of something Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor used to say:
"If you didn't make it yourself, it's never really yours."
That's excellent work, my friend ... and it's certainly all yours from start to finish.
3,483 2014-04-20 10:45:12
Re: Easter poem (5 replies, posted in Poems)
Grah1 ... that's a good one; thanks for the chuckle. Reminds me of "Afternoons & Coffeespoons" by the Crash test Dummies:
"What is it that makes me just a little bit queasy?
There's a breeze that makes my breathing not so easy
I've had my lungs checked out with X rays
I've smelled the hospital hallways
Refrain:
"Someday I'll have a disappearing hairline
Someday I'll wear pyjamas in the daytime
Oh, oh, oh - oh -oh, afternoons
Will be measured out, measured out, measured with
Coffeespoons ... and T.S. Eliot
"Times when the day is like a play by Sartre
When it seems a bookburning's in perfect order
I gave the doctor my description
I've tried to stick to my prescription
"Maybe if I could do a play-by-playback
I could change the test results that I will get back
I've watched the summer evenings pass by
I've heard the rattle in my bronchi...
Hope the airways clear out.
3,484 2014-04-17 10:37:36
Re: Bands That Defy Genre (20 replies, posted in Bands and artists)
Hey Lee ...
Sure have heard of Patrick Healy, although never been to a show. He's often featured on some of our local radio stations, and really caught my ear with the creativity. I think we've all had enough of mainstream "recording artists" who really couldn't be described as musicians. I've typically found that one can tell whether a person is a musician or not by the type of music they like. When someone like Healy comes over the airwaves, they really stand out amidst the other rubbish.
3,485 2014-04-16 20:15:17
Re: Acoustic Guitar's Best of 2010 (5 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Thanks Z .... most of these are unknowns to me also. Could be an age thing! 
3,486 2014-04-15 22:35:14
Re: Ouch (26 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Good heavens, GTX ... more bad luck! Watch out for wayward transport trucks; they really sting when they hit you.
Phill ... for whatever reason, I find a Gibson-style of neck easier on the hand / wrist. Might be because I'm 6'4" with long arms and big hands ... dunno. More important than the actual neck shape, I find that the angle and the height of it on the body makes a bigger difference. Having it angled up at about 30-degrees, as well as having the lower bout in the lap (if seated) is very comfortable height.
I see some guitarists with the neck angled out almost parallel to the floor, and the body of the guitar down on their hips. I simply can't play that way.
3,487 2014-04-15 22:26:43
Re: Made from Scratch (27 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Good to know, Russell ... thanks. A blemish in the finish or a small ding in the wood is nothing I'd worry about. Those cosmetic issues can be fixed with some TLC. I'd be more concerned if there was a crack in a body or neck, a warp in a neck, or if any of the pre-routed electrical cavities were off measurement so that the "innards" won't fit.
3,488 2014-04-15 10:05:31
Re: Made from Scratch (27 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Russell ...
I had a look at the clearouts that Guitar Fetish has, and I gotta admit it is verrrrry tempting to tackle a project like this. They mention that most of this is "as is", so obviously I'd hate to have something sent way out here to Atlantic Canada and not be able to use it. In your opinion, how bad are their "slight imperfections"?
3,489 2014-04-15 10:01:02
Re: What The (7 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Seems to be the trend these days.
A sport fishing forum I look at is also bombarded daily with junk like this. According to the moderators, if they put a spam blocker in place, it'll also block any posts that contain links to product sites we want to see, YouTube links, etc. I applaud the mods here at Chordie for their diligence in policing this stuff, but when some of them are posted at 3:00 AM (like this morning) then it's impossible to catch them all right at the moment.
3,490 2014-04-15 09:55:01
Re: Bands That Defy Genre (20 replies, posted in Bands and artists)
Disco Suicide!
During my university years (mid-70's) a buddy and I hosted a show which we called "Disco Suicide", every Friday and Saturday night from 12:00 - 3:00, on the campus radio station (AXE Radio ... Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia). Disco fever was in full swing during those years, but not everyone liked it. We would run the gammut from Joni Mitchell to Pink Floyd, take requests, etc. When anyone called in requesting "Bay City Rollers" or "Donna Summers", we would shout "No disco!" and hang up on them.
Split Enz and the like seemed to embrace that mad scientist / insane asylum flavor that was hovering on the edges of those days. Perhaps the well-publicized schizophrenia of Syd Barrett caught enough interest, that some people wanted to explore the outer edges. I saw Max Webster open for Rush in 1977, and their show was full of spaghetti fights, nutzo costumes, a couple of nonsense poetry readings, and so on. Entertaining stuff, even if most of the audience didn't get it.
Rush began in the mid-70's also, with singer / bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer Neil Peart being the original members. They are still performing 40 years later, and their concert in Rio diJaniero is one of my favorites ... here's a taste:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZqSVTyYIkI
Amazing atmosphere with a maniacal crowd!
3,491 2014-04-14 22:40:20
Re: Bands That Defy Genre (20 replies, posted in Bands and artists)
Good stuff, Lee ...
Gave some of your work a listen to on YouTube ... very impressive! Been an Allan Holdsworth fan for decades, and especially enjoyed some fusion / prog rock stuff he did with Bill Bruford, Eddie Jobson, etc. with the British group "UK" back before I had grey hair (LOL). You really have to know your scales and modes to be able to play this kind of material ... well beyond my skills, for sure.
The 3 "unknown bands" are as follows:
1) Split Enz ... sort of an avant garde group, similar to Brian Eno and early King Crimson
2) Max Webster ... fronted by Canadian guitarist Kim Mitchell before he went solo
3) Brand X ... a jazz fusion group featuring Phil Collins on drums, Robin Lumley, John Goodsall, and some others. Their albums Unorthodox Behaviour, Moroccan Roll, and Masque are first class musicianship. Love this track called "Disco Suicide", because it's quite good, and I've always held the highest contempt for disco music:
3,492 2014-04-14 19:42:56
Re: Bands That Defy Genre (20 replies, posted in Bands and artists)
Yup, that's a hard act to pigeonhole alright! I hear some King Crimson influence, Brian Eno, Split Enz, Frank Zappa, Devo, Brand X, Max Webster, etc., but all tied together with a ton of creative originality. Back in the 70's and 80's, groups that "bent the conventional rules" like this were often referred to as "Avant Garde". Don't think I know of anything that can quite compare to these guys, though.
Bands that stand out as having no imitators have always impressed me. We'd mentioned Jethro Tull in another thread (my all time favs) and they certainly have a sound which no one else has really done. Other bands like Steely Dan, and the ones mentioned above also deserve mention.
3,493 2014-04-14 17:57:17
Re: Understanding major, minor, augmented and diminished (14 replies, posted in Music theory)
Hello DVC ... welcome to Chrodie!
The material given by Jerome and Lee is excellent. Jerome has helped me understand some music theory questions in the past, for which I'm grateful. Here's another good online resource for this sort of thing:
http://www.guitar-chord.org/chord-theory.html
One of the biggest barriers I've had in learning this stuff (and I'm a long ways away yet!) is simply the vocabulary. I've found that this site is a bit easier to understand than most. Like you, I'm a self-taught guitarist with almost zero formal training, can't read music, etc. Understanding music theory isn't essential to actually enjoying playing a guitar, but it's is necessary to make progress in ones abilities. In the long run, I suppose that in itself will increase the enjoyment.
3,494 2014-04-13 10:13:41
Re: What was your first song? (173 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Uncle Joe ... gotta agree with you about enjoying some complex stuff also.
It's a marvel to me how a good songwriter thinks to put in all of the key changes, wrinkles, and surprises here and there. I'm terrible at it, or at least it never really sounds good to me. A song with a lot of quick chord changes and strumming that I like is Jethro Tull's "The Whistler". Here's a tube of the song, followed by the transcription here on Chordie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diOuUYcenW0
http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/www.x … istler.txt
The added challenge to this is learning to sing-a-long and whistle-a-long (the flute parts) while keeping up with the chording. At least it's a challenge for me; there are others on Chordie who probably breeze through something like this no sweat.
3,495 2014-04-12 11:32:54
Topic: Great Article about Joe Walsh (1 replies, posted in Bands and artists)
There probably aren't many of us on this site that haven't heard of Joe Walsh. He's always struck me as one of those great people who never took themselves too seriously, despite having more talent than most. Here's a neat article about him doing some session work, and how it all unfolded:
http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/14149
Certainly Joe is a class act!
3,496 2014-04-12 11:04:05
Re: Made from Scratch (27 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Russell ... you've done it again! One of these days, you'll have some big name guitarist calling you to do a custom job for them. Great skill and great taste in colors! Is that a kit you built, another Rondo you've refitted, or an older guitar resurrected?
3,497 2014-04-12 10:58:49
Re: Piezo bridge (3 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)
Hi Cork ...
Been about wondering the same thing. A few guitars are made with them, and usually do it to obtain an acoustic guitar sound from the instrument. I played a Godin XTSA last year which had one, but have to say the acoustic sound wasn't very genuine. I would think it would be hard to electronically duplicate the properties of the wood resonating. Alex Lifeson (Rush) has a Piezo built into the custom Les Paul AXcess that Gibson built for him, and talks about it mimicking an acoustic in one of his "rig rundowns" on YouTube somewhere.
JTL60 .... nice to hear from someone who actually owns one. The one I played sounded exactly like what you described.
3,498 2014-04-10 21:12:19
Re: A Concert: Hurray for the Riff Raff (1 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Sounds like a great evening, NAO.
I really appreciate your comment about a band being "real". I've personally always favored live albums for this reason. If an ensemble can't do anything live that's near to what they do in studio, then something's afoot.
By far the best live show I've ever seen (there haven't been a whole lot) has been Jethro Tull. They were live at Massey Hall in Toronto in the Spring of 1975, at the tail end of their "Warchild" tour. Their stage show and musicianship were of the highest quality, and when Ian Anderson marched out with the bagpipes during "The Third Hurrah", the whole place went nuts.
3,499 2014-04-10 21:00:54
Re: Another New Amp Day! (6 replies, posted in Electric)
Thanks for the comments everyone! Beamer sent me a great email with some excellent suggestions for stompbox multi-boards ... much obliged, man! It'll be a while before something is bought, so there's plenty of time to research and try things out. The current front runner is a Zoom G5 (http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/g5/features/). But since I already have a combo wah/vol/dist pedal (Morley) I may eventually end up with something like an Electro-Harmonix "Epitome". The only effects I really use regularly are phaser, flanger, delay, and chorus. What little distortion needed will be provided by the pedal or the "Lead" channel on the amp.
3,500 2014-04-10 20:53:41
Re: Pictures (13 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)
Yep ... that's a real beauty alright! The neck appears to have a decent width to it, which is always nice for us people with big hands.