For your fingers, that is.
Most fingerstyle players would prefer to fingerpick using their natural nails. This method gives you the most direct contact with the strings, and natural nails have a good attack and produce a good tone on the string. But natural fingernails wear down, crack, chip and tear which makes them undependable. Murphy’s Law says anything that might go wrong will go wrong, and this is particularly true of fingernails. If you are a fingerstyle player with an important gig or recording session coming up, you are statistically likely to break a critical nail right before go-time.
Problem – meet fingerpicks!
Fingerpicks are steel or plastic picks that attach to the ends of your fingers and thumb. They enable you to pluck the strings fingerstyle whether or not your nails are in good shape. When you first put them on they feel alarmingly foreign, but they feel quite natural once you adjust your fingerpicking style and use them awhile.
One big drawback to me of most fingerpicks is that they cover your fingertips. This eliminates direct contact with the string and also adds an annoying sound as the hard surfaces touch the strings. So I was very happy the day my bandmate in New York City turned me on to Pro-Pik Finger-Tone fingerpicks.
The unique shape of the Pro-Pik F-Tone fingerpick allows the front of your fingertip to touch the strings while the loop-shaped pick provides the attack of a fingernail that never wears down! The sound they produce is by far the closest to natural fingernails that I’ve ever heard and the adjustment time for playing with fingerpicks is considerably reduced. Despite their fragile appearance, these fingerpicks are strong and long-lasting. The only way I’ve ever damaged one is by accidentally stepping on it!
Having bionic fingertips increases your confidence because you don’t have to worry about damaging your fingernails while you play so you can attack the strings harder, producing more volume and increasing your dynamic range.
The fingerpicks come in Medium and Large sizes. The Mediums easily fit my somewhat slender fingers and still have room to adjust larger. They also offer your choice of single-wrap or split-wrap bands. I recommend the split-wrap for maximum adjustability and the firmest fit.
Pro-Pik also makes a matching metal thumb pick and a metal-plastic thumb pick. The plastic version produces the most natural thumbnail sound. For the record, I use fingerpicks on my first two fingers and use my natural thumbnail to play. But I encourage you to try out both kinds of thumb picks when you begin your Pro-Pik experience.
Find them here.
Guitar power amplifiers have been getting smaller and smaller over the years, and now they’ve gotten downright teensy! Meet the world’s smallest – the Electro-Harmonix 22 Caliber power amp.
This baby is the size of an effects pedal, but it’s a full function 22 watt power head – that’s the same amount of wattage as my Fender Deluxe Reverb in a housing that fits in your pocket!
Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that’s been around since the late sixties. They were pioneers in fuzz and sustain pedals (remember the Big Muff sustain pedal?). They say that they’re “currently researching and developing breakthroughs in shrinking the guitar amp without sacrificing an ounce of tone” on their website, and let me tell you – it’s working.
The 22 Caliber can power up a 4×12 speaker cabinet and convincingly make those 4 12” speakers growl
. You can plug the amp into a cabinet with 1, 2 or 4 speakers, and it’s safe to use with 4, 8 or 16 ohm resistance which makes it compatible with just about everything.
The controls are simply a volume knob and a normal/bright equalization switch. At low volume the amp has a clear, clean sound that’s quite pleasing. Middle volume gives you a good distorted rhythm sound with long sustain. When you top the amp out to saturation you get a Hendrix sound with lots of screaming overtones. Big fun! And you can add whatever delay or reverb you want in front of it to tailor your sound.
Here’s the punchline: The price is $106.50 (at guitarcenter.com). That’s an amazing value for this amp, and the price includes the A/C power supply.
What do you do with a pocket-sized power amplifier? You can throw it in your gig bag when you’re going to a jam and leave your heavy amp behind, confident that you can get a great, reliable sound through whatever speaker cabinet you plug into. And if you’ve ever had an amp stop working at a gig you know it can be a show-stopper – but not if you have this handy back-up amp.
For about $38 you can upgrade to the 44 Magnum version which is the same Amp with 44 watts of power ($144.75 at guitarcenter.com).
Some guitarists like to tune their instruments lower than normal to achieve a slightly deeper sound. Drop-D tuning is one version of this, and other players tune the whole instrument down a half-step to Eb or even a whole step to D. The effect is quite noticeable and makes the music being played sound darker.
Another very cool option available to the guitarist is to play in a much lower register with a baritone guitar. The baritone guitar is a six-string instrument that falls halfway between the sound of a normal guitar and a bass guitar. It’s generally tuned either a fifth lower (A D G C E A) or a fourth lower (B E A D F# B) than normal. I opt for the fifth below.
The baritone guitar is played just like a normal guitar, except the strings are thicker (especially on the bottom end) and the fret spacing is wider.
If you’ve ever seen an early Clint Eastwood “spaghetti western” movie you’ve heard the powerful and mysterious sound of a single chord being strummed one time on a baritone guitar at key moments.
The sound of the baritone guitar is captivating. It’s an amazing sensation to play the guitar as you normally would and to hear a huge, deep, throaty half-octave-lower sound emanate from your instrument. It can inspire an exciting new direction in your playing and composing.
Danelectro introduced the first solid-body electric baritone guitar in 1957. It looked just like their standard electric guitar but with a neck that was five inches longer! They referred to it as the “UB-2 six-string bass”.
Guitarists as diverse as Jerry Cantrell, Allan Holdsworth, Ani DiFranco, Pat Metheney, Andy McKee, Joe Bonamassa and Dave Matthews have explored the baritone guitar in their recording and performing careers.
Baritone guitars are available from Danelectro, Fender, Gibson, Gretch, Schecter and Ibanez, among others. Try one next time you’re at your favorite music store.
A unique aspect of guitars is that manufacturers are always innovating and making a great-sounding instrument sound and play even better. I remember when the first Ovation guitars appeared in 1966: they were met with a lot of skepticism. Unlike past guitars, only the face of the guitar was made of wood. The sides and back were an unusual semi-parabolic-shaped solid piece of composite material. However, when they started popping up on stage in the hands of artists like John McLaughlin and Al DiMeola who made these instruments sound incredible, people gave Ovations a second look. Turns out, the optimized shape and the composite material Lyrachord combined to produce excellent resonance and sustain. As a result, the guitars soon became very popular.
When I bought my Sierra acoustic-electric, it came with an excellent built-in tuner. It was even more convenient than I would have imagined to have the tuner on hand at all times instead of having to rummage through my gear to find one when I needed it.
So, recently I was wondering what other innovative features might be bundled into guitars that make playing more fun and convenient. Here’s what I found: The Ovation iDea.
The Ovation iDea is the first acoustic-electric guitar to come with its own built-in mp3 recorder. It’s designed to give you the ability to record ideas you have the moment you think of them and then preserve them on your computer. This guitar has a bridge pickup and a built-in microphone, so you can record guitar and vocals at the same time, as well as just speaking your ideas into the mic so you can refer to them later. You can store as much as 100 minutes of material. There have been many times I’ve wished I had a recorder handy when inspiration strikes, so I love this feature.
Other features include on-board jam tracks, the ability to change the playback tempo without changing pitch (another favorite of mine) and even pre-loaded audio guitar lessons. The pre-amp/recorder pops out of the instrument, so it can be used anywhere.
If you already have a beloved Ovation that has an OP-series pre-amp you can replace it with the OPI-1 IDea Retrofit pre-amp, which can be purchased separately.
Prices for the guitar range from $579 – $649, and the Retrofit pre-amp goes for $299.
[photo: Kyknord]
I love playing in open tunings. When I first discovered them as a teenager, I spent hours exploring them and I still do so today. Open tunings allow you to create chord voicings that are more mysterious and colorful than you can get with normal guitar tuning. But there are a couple of downsides to open tunings. For one thing, if you want to switch between normal tuning and open tuning you either need two instruments or take the time to re-tune your guitar between songs. Another problem is that if you re-tune your instrument frequently the strings stretch out and lose their vibrant sound.
That’s why I’m excited about this new development in capos. The fine designers at Creative Tunings have given us the SpiderCapo, the first capo that allows you to capo each string individually. Think of the vast number of tunings that are possible when you multiply all the fret placements by all the combinations of strings capo’d or not capo’d—there are hundreds of them. The SpiderCapo also allows you to finger strings above and below the capo—awesome! What’s more, you can change the individual string settings while you’re playing. It makes your head spin with possibilities.
Find it at Guitar Center, $29.95.
If you fingerpick, you also know that fingernails are always developing rough, cracked or chipped edges. And, if you’re like the Former Me, you just reach for a nail file to deal with them. However, the Current Me has discovered the perfect response to fingernail surface problems: 3M 500-grit sandpaper. The grit is so fine that it feels like velvet to the touch, and it produces a flawlessly smooth surface on your fingernail edges. One place to get it is Strings By Mail (stringsbymail.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1320), 6 sheets for $4.99.
[photo: Kyknoord]
If you fingerpick, you know that Murphy’s Law decrees that you’ll break a fingernail right before a performance or recording session. Whenever it happens is always at the worst time. So it’s good to know that if you crack or tear a fingernail and the pieces are still attached, you can easily repair it by painting the nail with heavy-duty glue. My personal choice is Instant Krazy Glue in the brush bottle. If the glue alone doesn’t do the trick, layer a couple of layers of tissue paper and then glue. Looks wild but it works!
[photo: shannonkringen]
Many students ask me which products they should use to clean their acoustic guitars. Some of them have tried commercial guitar cleaning kits or polishes—or even (gasp!) Lemon Pledge. Don’t do it! Polishes build up on the finish of your guitar, dulling the sound of the wood. Instead, simply take a warm, damp cloth and wipe the wood down, and then dry it immediately with a soft, dry cloth. Micro-fiber cloths provide a soft, clean touch for drying. Your finish will look as good as new.
While you’re at it, you can clean those dusty hard-to-reach areas like your tuning head and the area under the strings in front of the bridge with a small (1- to 2-inch), clean, dry paint brush.
[photo: Geishaboy500]
“Sweet Chords” are first-position chords that have in common the notes D and G (fret 3) on the two high strings. These chords tie together well because of the commonality of the two pedal tones on top. They’re also considerably easier than normal first-position chords to switch between because the switches involve only the first and second fingers.
If you’re familiar with the song WONDERWALL by Oasis you’ve heard these chords in action.
Examples of Sweet Chords:
Sweet G E-3 A-2 D-0 G-0 B-3 E-3
Sweet C E-X A-3 D-2 G-0 B-3 E-3
Sweet D E-X A-0 D-0 G-2 B-3 E-3
Sweet Em E-0 A-2 D-2 G-0 B-3 E-3
Sweet A E-X A-0 D-2 G-0 B-3 E-3
In the course of work that I do with special needs students who have limited hand motion I’ve developed an open tuning that I call Sweet Tuning. This tuning is normal on the E, A, D and G strings while providing the constant notes for Sweet Chords on the B and E strings as part of the tuning.
As a result, chord changes in this tuning require only the first two fingers on the fretting hand. This makes them perfect for beginner guitarists because they can achieve fairly complex chord sounds with a minimum of effort.
Because you’re likely to break the B and E strings trying to tune them up a full minor third, this tuning requires tuning the E, A, D and G strings down a whole step. Then the B and high E strings are tuned up one half step, as shown below:
Normal Tuning Sweet Tuning
E down 1 whole step D
A down 1 whole step G
D down 1 whole step C
G down 1 whole step F
B up 1 half-step C
E up 1 half-step F
The final step is to capo on fret 2, which returns the tonality to the key of E.
This is a fun tuning to play around with. Start with the chords shown below and take off from there.
Sweet G E-3 A-2 D-0 G-0
Sweet C E-X A-3 D-2 G-0
Sweet D E-X A-0 D-0 G-2
Sweet Em E-0 A-2 D-2 G-0
Sweet A E-X A-0 D-2 G-0
[photo: Sloanpix]
Most open tunings call for the re-tuning of the existing strings on the guitar to notes other than the standard E A D G B E. “High stringing” calls for a different approach—the notes of the strings stay the same, but the bottom four strings are replaced with strings that are one octave higher than usual. This tuning is also commonly known as “Nashville tuning”.
Nashville tuning makes the guitar sound more homogeneous because the span of notes is reduced from three octaves to two. The resulting sound has a charming shimmering effect that reminds me of a harpsichord. You can hear the sound of the Nashville tuning on your guitar right now by fretting the E A D G strings over the top of the neck with your first finger on the 12th fret. That’s the sound of your open strings in Nashville tuning.
I don’t recommend tuning your only guitar to this tuning, but if you have a second steel-string guitar sitting around, this tuning provides a fun alternative with plenty of creative possibilities.
In the olden days, you had to buy a whole set of 12-string strings to get the high-octave E A D G strings. But nowadays, D’Addario has given us their EXL150H High-Strung Guitar Strings that provide the exact six strings you need for this tuning for just $3.99 per set. You can see them here:
accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/D’Addario-EXL150H-HighStrung-Guitar-Strings?sku=102243.
[photo: House of Sims]
