Saturday, July 21, 2012

Pentatonic Scales

Basic Pentatonic scales.
You should learn these scales. Many modern songs employ this basic scale and not knowing this mode means that you are a beginner. 






Wednesday, July 18, 2012

PRS custom 24 (10') top

PRS custom 24 with a 10 top. Nice playing guitar although I don't like the pickup selector. The pickup selector is hard to adjust on the fly and difficult to remember what pickup(s) you are utilizing! There are modification kits, but I like to keep all my guitars in the original configuration. Still, these guitars are very dependable, easy to graph necks, and look beautiful!

If you are looking to modify your PRS wiring system I suggest you review MOJOTONE's wiring kits. Stew-Mac also has kits for PRS SE and others. Or directly from Paul Reed Smith shopping.

Warning: Any time you change parts in a guitar you should save the old parts. Vintage collectors want all original parts. If you are a player and not a collector, saving the parts might be a good idea in case you buy replacements that are not marked with proper part numbers or values.


Pickup selections are listed below!
BLADE POSITIONS
  • Position 1: Bridge humbucker
  • Position 2: Bridge humbucker with neck singlecoil, in parallel
  • Position 3: Bridge and neck humbuckers
  • Position 4: Neck singlecoil with bridge singlecoil, in parallel
  • Position 5: Neck humbucker
These are pictures of a whale blue Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 "10 top circa 2001.

Being critical, I'd say the finish is tough but the edges are fragile at over the binding. If you chip the binding edge your only recourse is to have it repaired at the factory. This is expensive. Finally, you could have a luthier fill the chip but filling the chip is tedious and requires a lengthy process where cyanocrylate is applied in multiple coats until there enough material for the luthier to sand it down and buff out. Once that is completed the finish will be opaque but hazy. That is the best solution at this time. I prefer nitro!

Gibson ES-175 - vintage real deal

Low wide frets make this guitar play like butter. The pickups, pots, and switches are original. The entire guitar is original. I bought it when I was a teenager and through thick and thin - It's stayed by my side! If the house was (god forbid) burning down, I'd make a mad dash to retrieve this guitar with dents and all!

Thomastik-Infeld strings are used exclusively on all my jazz boxes.

Love it!

Gagnon Archtop DeVant 18" guitar

Inspiring craftmanship, even tone, excellent play-ability. That is what a Gagnon Guitar is all about. The bout is 18" across and the neck is wide and fat like a 59 Gibson Les Paul. The only fret marking is a Fleur-de-lis at the 12 fret. This guitar is simple yet complex with a AAA spruce top, highly figured maple back and sides. The guitar is surrounded with exotic wood binding (purfling) with a neck that is a five piece lamination with an ornate heel. The fret board, tail piece, bridge, and finger board is made of ebony. The finish is lacquer nitro.

I exclusively use Thomastik-Infeld medium gauge round wound strings on this guitar. T-I strings are the highest quality strings I've used.

This is a loud guitar when played acoustically and has a full big band style of tone. It will ring loud on top of the most inspired drummers when coupled to the proper amp. A very comfortable guitar indeed.

Please excuse the plants - we are conserving water! LOL

Gagnon Archtop DeVant - 17" Guitar

Tremendous archtops from Oregon. Built by Bill Gagnon. This Ice tea color beauty has a 17" inch body. The neck has a gentle "C" shape that is smaller than the 18" also featured on this website. There is ornate 3 piece mother of pearl fret markings that are set into high quality ebony. In addition, this guitar is complex mixture of the finest materials;  a AAA spruce top,  highly figured maple back and sides. The guitar is surrounded with exotic wood binding (purfling) with a neck that is a five piece lamination with an ornate heel. The fret board, tail piece, bridge, and finger board is made of ebony. The finish is lacquer nitro.

Single note phrasing or heavy chordal composition a fair game to this jazz box. Notes ring clearly and even across the board. Strung with medium gauge Thomastik-Infeld strings, this baby is ready to go! Try Thomastik-Infeld strings today!


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