AJ6stringsting

Bravo .... 

gotta try this !!!!

I use a VHT Valvulator as the first thing my guitar goes into to lower the impedance before going into my effects board and i have on at the end of my board too, It restored my dynamics lost in the effects chain and put some analog tone to my multi effects floor units. This article, is to me, a very ignored issue to us guitar player .... great article !!!!

When you lower or raise the whole pickup or just only the pole pieces, you can hear the difference. I assembled an S,S,H configured guitar, to play 1980's Metal. I put a Carvin M22SD in the bridge position, it had too treble. I lowered the poles and raised the whole pick up .... and with a few minor adjustments, the guitar was perfect. Having great tones when it comes to pickup, is like that saying about business .... " It's about location, location , location.

He created some of the most unique sounds ever. I love the sound he achieved on "House Burning down" on Jimi Hendrix's , Electric Lady Land. The two swirling Flangers ( one negative, the other positive) swirling away and canceling when they meet, only to swirl way from each other.Engineers like Eddie Kramer, not only made music sound better ..... he inspired great music !!!!

William Teller said in his own dying words, that he regretted creating / engineering the atomic bomb ....Even Kolishnikov was said to said, " I wish that I would have created a better lawn mower".

R.I.P. Mr. Kakehhashi, you contribution to the art of music will always be honored !!!!

A few years back, a guy had a fall out with his gal, she threw his belongings ( amps, three guitars and 8 space rack ) on the lawn.I went over and started lugging his gear , other things in a spare room that we had. I gave the neighbors my phone number, so the poor guy would be victimized by that wicked witch. Two weeks later, he was surprised that some one would do what I did. I took him to my music room and told him, " now you know why, I did it ".I have been playing music since age 14, it carried me through awkward , good / bad times and I even made a living with music for a few years back in the 1980's.Each guitar has it own soul, tendencies, voice and if you have / had , many guitars, each one will not only sound different, they tend to make you play differently Many an ex girlfriends, have given me the ultimatum of, " Either that guitar goes or I go" , I'm so glad I knew better.As Pat Thrall ( of the Pat Travers fame ) once said after a divorce, " You can keep the car, house and take the money, but I'll keep my music and guitars".Once music is in your blood, it never leaves and many people can relate, it's like having a loyal loved one who never let you down and will always be there, no matter how good or how bad things get.

Generation "Z", are too into instant gratification, I Phones and their patients level is much lower than my Generation  "X", that were inspired by many genres of music.Today, the music is not as complex and pretty disposable in terms of standing the test of time.Then again, people predicted gloom and doom of music in the late 1970's and early 1980's, then MTV brought in new artist's of New Wave, early Alternative, Pop and Metal into living rooms and music inspired many to pickup and instrument to learn and play.

I was given a Classical guitar in the late 1970's, it got put under my bed as soon as I got Strat copy.Then, like people in my generation, Randy Rhoads ( Ozzy Osbourne's 1st guitarist ) made me pull out the nylon from under my bed, Revelation -Mother Earth , made me interested in playing nylon string guitar. I was playing in various Metal bands and Classical guitar not only improved my Rock guitar playing, it expanded my Melodic sensibilities and broaden my technique.Bach, Sor, Beethoven and Aguado, became as essential to my playing as much as Hendrix, Rhoads, Malmsteen, Van Halen or Satriani.It also inspired me to understand Music Theory and how to read music.Classical music is is not only music to be heard, it's music to expand your mind to places , your musicial sensibilities, have never been before.

I have over 14 guitars with different pickups, string heights and I listen to many forms of music and different instruments. Classical Guitar and Blues always breaks me away from my confines that two handed tapping, speed picking, legato playing traps me in. Lately, I've hanging out with one of my former band mates from my Metal years in the 80's, who is exposing me to County guitar techniques that are great.

I was in downtown L.A. when U2 did the video of " Where The Streets Have No Name ".I gave this Guatemalan woman that worked at a garment store , $5.00 so I could wear a yellow moo moo, I stood on a news paper stand and for 1 second, the cameraman filmed me. The things we do to get on T.V.I showed my woman the video from YouTube and paused the video .... To this day , she doesn't let me live it down !!!!