I've been following Rob Chapman - a.k.a. Chappers, a.k.a. The Monkey Lord - on YouTube for a few years now, and while I continue to watch his videos for his humor and his personality, it doesn't hurt that he's also a world class guitarist and an equally good guitar instructor.
However, before he was Rob Chapman, YouTube celebrity, he was Rob Chapman, professional guitarist. After a few bands he was in disintegrated, he put out a solo EP called Red Dream and started his YouTube channel. While building his empire (he also has a guitar company called Chapman Guitars) he recorded more songs and released another EP, but none of them had a wide release.
This year, to close the chapter on his early work and forge ahead to new horizons, he's released a compilation album called Bare Bones. In it are remastered versions of songs from his Red Dream EP along with songs recorded with his short-lived band Monkey Lord and his second EP At Arms Reach. While it's a good album on its own and features some of his best work, it's lacking enough to stop it from being the definitive Chappers collection.
With my pending foray into the world of bass, I've been thinking a lot about bass players and the ones that I most want to emulate. Just as my guitar playing is influenced by a mix of several guitar players to make my style, such as it is, my bass playing will most likely be the same. Everyone has influences, everyone takes bits and pieces of other players' styles and adds some of their own flavoring to make their individual style.
Here, in a particular order, are my top five bass influences. I'm not saying this is a list of the best bassists of all time (although each one deserves a place on such a list), but it's a list of the players I most want to emulate, starting with number five.
5. Steve Harris - Iron Maiden
Despite my progressive rock tendencies, there's more than a little bit of metal in me, and to me, Steve Harris is the quintessential metal bassist. His playing is authoritative and technical and he does it all on a P Bass, no need for fancy 5- or 6-string basses. Plus he writes most of the band's music.
As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, I decided to call my new bass series "Basscapades." This first installment will focus on the arrival of the new bass, which, as you can see from the picture on the right, kicks massive be-hind. Sure it's just your average Squier Affinity J Bass value package, but I love it. It has a beautiful deep blue finish and is surprisingly well made for something so cheap. It's also my third Indonesian-made instrument along with my two Ibanez RGs, and I have to say, Indonesians really know how to make stringed instruments.
I ordered my bass from Guitar Center on October 30 and it arrived in the mail this past Wednesday. Although there's a GC close by in Fort Collins, I got it online because they didn't have a blue J Bass pack in stock, just black, and despite the fact that Geddy Lee's signature bass is black I wanted a blue one.
The bass in the picture is not that bass.
On Saturday, I decided to open up the package just to make sure everything worked. Even though this is a Christmas present, I wanted to check it out now just in case anything was broken so I could return it if need be. I'm so glad I made that decision.
After unpacking the contents, I checked out the bass first. I tuned it up and played it a little and I was impressed. It had no blemishes and everything was bolted together quite well. Then I took out the amp, plugged it in, and turned it on.
Today is my beautiful wife's birthday. It's the best day of the year for me, better than Christmas, or New Year's Day, or any other day. It's the day when I celebrate the life of the person that means more to me than anything. She's been there for me through everything, and put up with all my musical escapades.
This weekend, my wife and I completed our Christmas shopping for each other. We do things a little different than most people - we order our presents online, together. That means there are no surprises, but it also means there are no disappointments either. It works out quite well.
We usually get one big-ticket item, and this year, my big ticket item is a bass. Or more accurately, a Fender "Stop Dreaming, Start Playing" Bass Pack, complete with a Squier bass, a nice Fender Rumble 15 amp, and a wad of accessories like a gig bag, cord, strap, and tuner. I have to say, I haven't been this excited about a new gear purchase in a long time.
I decided to go with the Jazz Bass instead of the P-Bass, despite the fact that I think the P-Bass looks a lot better. There's just something about that shape that just looks right to me. Still, the Jazz Bass has the kind of tone that I prefer, plus Geddy Lee plays one, so what else do you need?
I'm also going to start a new series to coincide with the new bass that will chronicle my bass learning experience. I'm trying to think of a good name. I was going to go with something cheesy like "Bass Emotions" but I may just call it "John Learns the Bass." When I make my first post, you'll know what I picked.
Since buying the bass, I've also been listening to music differently. It's like a whole new world is opening up to me. I listened to my "guitar" playlist on my iPod - the one that has all the songs I can play on guitar - and the songs sounded different to me. I heard the bass, not the guitar. Sure the guitar was still there, but it moved to the background. I was locked into the bass lines and I heard things I've never heard before, even on songs that I've heard hundreds of times. I hope that my actual experience playing the bass is as good, because I feel like this may be My Thing. I feel like I may have missed my calling all these years. Perhaps that's why it has taken me so long to improve on the guitar. Perhaps I was meant to be a bassist. At least I'm a prog fan. I can't think of any other genre except maybe funk in which the bass is given such a prominent role.
The bass pack will arrive in the mail within the week, but I won't open it until Christmas. I really don't know if I'll be able to wait that long. Shortly after, I'll start the new bass series. I'm looking forward to re-learning the songs I already know on guitar, and beyond.
I was wrong. I do know that I won't be able to wait until Christmas. Help!
Since I've been filling up this blog with album reviews recently, I decided to change gears and talk about guitar stuff today. Over the past few years I've completely revamped my entire lineup of equipment - I have nothing that I had two years ago. Over this time I've bought and sold a host of gear for one reason or another. Now that the revamp is complete, I'm going to go through the list of things I've bought and sold and grade them, and at the end I'll tally them up and see if it was all worth it.
Things I've sold
Gear: Charvel Model 2 Reason sold: It sat in my closet for a long time collecting dust and deteriorating. Proceeds used for: I traded it at Guitar Center for my Stratocaster. Regret selling it: Yes. I had neglected it but I would have been better off taking it to a luthier and saying "fix it." The good thing is that I got my Strat for it, but I probably could have just bought the Strat outright because they didn't really give me that much on the trade anyway. Grade: D. Not a failure because of the Strat but pretty close.
When I first discovered modern progressive rock, the first band I found was Spock's Beard. This led me to Transatlantic, then to all the members' bands, starting with The Flower Kings, then Dream Theater, and then finally Marillion. Although maybe not quite as progressive as the other bands (you'll find much fewer odd time signatures and fiddly self-indulgent instrumental solos), Marillion still have many elements of prog, including poetic lyrics, strong musicianship and songwriting, and concept albums like Misplaced Childhood.
Not only is Misplaced Childhood the best of Marillion's concept albums, but it is, to me, the template from which all concept albums should be based. Many concept albums are buried under their own weight. They're just too long, too grand in scope. Many of the early ones span multiple LPs, and newer ones span multiple CDs, each one packed to their hour-and-twenty-minute max. It's just too much for one sitting, and the concept sometimes gets lost among the sheer magnitude of music. Not Misplaced Childhood. It was written as a concept album in two acts, each act fitting on one side of a traditional LP. The whole album clocks in at under 42 minutes, which can easily be digested in one sitting.
I'm sure many people are like me in that they discovered Progressive Rock fairly late in the game. Many of the great prog albums were made 20, 30, even 40 years ago. Sure, you can Google the album and maybe get a review from when it first came out (providing it's new enough), but you won't get a sense of what it's like to discover them now, long after their release date.
That's why I'm starting a new series called Retro Reviews. In this series, I will review some of the great prog albums that you may have missed along the way. I'm going to avoid some of the obvious ones - everyone knows albums like Yes' "Close to the Edge" or Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" - and focus on ones that are perhaps a little more obscure but still worthwhile. And I'll do it from the perspective of someone discovering it today and seeing if it stood up to the ravages of time.
I'm also going to branch out in both my Retro Reviews and my standard reviews beyond my progressive rock comfort zone. Although it's my favorite genre, progressive rock isn't the only one I like. I'll branch out into rock, metal, blues, and even review some albums that may surprise you.
I have two Retro Reviews coming up - one of an album that I consider a template from which all concept albums should be based, and one surprising album suggested by my wife - and a regular review of a greatest hits album from a popular YouTube personality. Stay tuned!
Perhaps one of the most anticipated new releases of the year, Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events marks their first effort without the services of drummer and co-founder Mike Portnoy, whose much publicized exit drew strong reactions from both sides - fans of Portnoy who resent the rest of the band for turning their backs on him, and fans of Dream Theater who resent Portnoy for turning their backs on them.
I won't breach that subject in this review. Instead, I'll focus on post-Portnoy Dream Theater and how this album stacks up against the rest of the band's catalog.
I have to admit I'm a big fan of Mike Portnoy. Not only is he a legendary drummer but he's also a genuinely nice guy, at least that's the vibe I got from him when I met him earlier this year after the Neal Morse show in Denver. It's a bit strange to hear a Dream Theater album without him in it. It's almost like being friends with your best friend's ex - you still like the person but you can't help but feel like you're betraying your friend.
After being relatively impressed with Neal Morse's latest effort, Testimony 2, I decided to go backwards and check out his earlier work. This sent me back to his previous release, Lifeline, which was released in 2008.
I've been a big fan of Neal since his Spock's Beard days. For those of you who don't know, Neal founded Spock's Beard after failing to make it as a pop songwriter in Los Angeles, and after six albums together (and two more with his side project Transatlantic), he became a born-again Christian and embarked on a solo career where he could more freely express his religious views.
I'm also a big fan of what I call classic Progressive Rock, something I've also heard called "retrogressive" as it has its influences in the past and doesn't necessarily progress forward. Neal is arguably the modern master of classic Prog, and losing him to Christian music was a blow to secular fans like myself. Fortunately for us, Neal never abandoned his Prog roots and essentially followed dual career paths - one as a Christian artist making typical praise albums, and one as a Prog artist writing Christian-themed music. As long as the secular fan could get past the godly lyrics, they could still enjoy listening to one of the most talented people in the world do what he does best - Yes/Genesis inspired Prog with a hint of the Beatles.
Thought I'd post a quick update today as I laze around on a Sunday afternoon. I'm excited because I will soon get to experience an NGD (New Gear Day) - I picked up an SKB flight case today for my upcoming trip to Vegas.
My wife is going to Photoshop World so I get to tag along. I'll also have a lot of time on my hands to do whatever I want. Last year I brought my Strat with me as a carry-on, but I got too many nasty looks and bitchy comments so I wanted to check it this time. Good thing we're not flying United:
I just have to decide which guitar I'm going to take. I'm about 90% sure it'll be the hardtail RG, but I still may change my mind and bring the Strat again. I've been playing the RG a lot lately so unless things change it'll be making the trip with us.
Speaking of RGs, I'm having issues again with the Edge III tremolo on my other RG. I absolutely love that guitar, but I just hate tremolos. The only one I've ever liked was the one on my old Charvel. That thing was a rock. I'd go weeks without having to tune it. I changed strings recently and after much frustration got it set up and working again. But one day, I picked it up, played it, made one dive bomb and the whole thing went out of tune. Badly. I just put it back on the stand and grabbed the hardtail RG. I know I could get it back to working condition with some effort but I just hate tremolos. I'm glad I have a guitar with a locking tremolo so I could play songs that need it but I will never own another. My own personal sound - whatever that is, I'm still working on it - will not feature anything that requires a tremolo. It's hardtails for me.
So that's it for today. Until next time, keep playing!
After I made this video Saturday morning, I have to admit I wasn't pleased. I really didn't like the way I played and I was rather bummed. But after watching it a few times, I've realized that it's not nearly as bad as I thought, and a lot of the problems are from the way it was put together.
I tried something new with this video. For my other practice videos, I played through my amp and let the built-in microphone pick everything up - that includes the backing track, which I played on my iPod through the amp's MP3 input. This time, I plugged my DigiTech RP90 right into the laptop input. Originally, I recorded the final prodct in GarageBand and planned on replacing the audio. But when I played the captured video in iMovie, my guitar sounded pretty good so I decided to add the backing track in and sync it with my playing.
That's the big issue with this video - I don't think I synced it perfectly so I'm a little off the whole time. It makes my playing sound much worse because it seems like I can't play in time with the music. The backing track, too, leaves a lot to be desired. I wanted to use a backing track so that I wouldn't be fighting with Alex's guitar playing - I wanted to hear how I sounded on my own. The free YYZ backing track I found on the 'Net is extraordinarily horrendous, but it does the job.
So now, for the good and the bad. The good: I nailed the solo, which I've had issues with in the past. The bad: I screwed up two parts of the song. I messed up one of the reggae-inspired chord progressions and I hit the wrong opening note in the post-solo bridge. In the end I didn't do a bad job, but you can be the judge!
I've decided to change the look of my blog. The original design was looking too dour in my opinion. I want this to be a happy place, but the vibe was quiet melancholy.
So I've changed the template colors to brighten it up. My lovely wife is working on a new graphic for me, so as soon as I get it I'll customize the colors to match. I'm ditching the tag line, too. It's just going to be called The Pantomime Horse Music Blog. I'm envisioning a sort of 60s-ish graphic, something lively and colorful.
I already think it's easier to read. There's something about white text on a dark background that makes your eyes water.
So stay tuned, soon this will be a happier corner of the Interwebz.
It's been nine years since Neal Morse embraced Christianity and left Spock's Beard and Transatlantic to pursue a solo career, and eight years since he tried to explain why with his prog epic Testimony. Now he's come back to finish the story with Testimony 2, which highlights his time in the Beard and delves deeper into his conversion.
In those nine years, Morse has dove headlong into his religion in both his personal life and his music. While still a purveyor of prog, his albums have become more and more religious with each offering. When Neal and the Transatlantic boys decided to get back together in 2009 and make an album, I approached the results with more than a little trepidation, as I said in my review, and lo and behold the result was more than a little church-y. So I took an even healthier dose of skepticism with Testimony 2, as there was little need for Neal to even pretend to be secular.
The album is split into two discs. Disc one includes the Testimony 2 suite broken up into three parts. It starts off with part six, much like the first Star Wars movie is actually part four. There's a second disc with three unrelated songs and a DVD chronicling the making of the disc, which I haven't watched yet.
It's been over two months since my last blog post. I guess it's about time I write another one.
So why the long break? I got a new job. I'm not proud to admit that I composed a lot of my previous posts at my last job. Even though I wrote them during break times, I wrote them so I had something to do throughout the day that I actually liked doing. See, I hated my old job. I moved from administrative IT work to programming because I thought that was the next logical step after finishing my degree. I was wrong. I hated programming and longed to be back doing server administration, network administration, hell even help desk would've been better.
Fortunately I found another position with a great company as a systems administrator. It's work I love doing, and there's a lot of it to be done, so I haven't felt the need to spend my breaks writing blog posts. To be honest, I really haven't had a lot of break time at all.
So the blog has suffered. I still enjoy it, but since I would rather spend my free time playing guitar instead of writing about it, it's sat idle for some time. I have no intention of abandoning it, but the posts will be fewer and farther between.
Even though I've been neglecting my blog, I haven't been neglecting my guitar playing. In fact, just today, I accomplished one of the goals I set for myself last year - I can play the entire first side of Rush's Moving Pictures. I've known how to play Tom Sawyer forever, but now I can go right through Red Barchetta to YYZ to Limelight. There are some rough spots but the fact that I can just start the album and play along is a tremendous boost to my playing confidence. Sometimes you go along thinking you're not going anywhere with your playing, then one day, things just click and you know you've reached another level. Today was one of those days for me.
I also got a new guitar stand. I know it seems like a simple purchase, but now I can have all five of my electric guitars out at the same time, so whatever guitar I'm in the mood to play is right there, ready for me to just grab, tune and play. It's important to match guitar with mood - anything to get you playing more is a good thing. Now I don't have to waste time putting one guitar away and taking another one out before I sit down to play. Sometimes I just didn't feel like going through the hassle and ended up either not playing or not putting my all into my playing time. Now I don't have to worry about that at all.
I also don't have the urge to buy new guitars anymore. Sure, there are tons of guitars I'd like to have, but none that I feel I need to have. There's a difference. With my current rig I feel like I have everything I need. The latest Ibanez purchase is going well. I don't miss my Gibson at all - in fact I never think about it. The only thing I need to do now is update my amp. I've outgrown the Line 6 and I want to finally have a good amplifier. I've always had nice guitars but I always had crap amps to go along with them. My wife and I talked about it and when my 40th birthday rolls around (it's a lot closer than I'd like it to be) I'm going to get a good amp. I have a few in mind that I'd like, plus something new might come out in the next few years. I definitely want a tube combo amp, nothing too powerful but not a lightweight, either. The ones I like now are the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and the Blackstar HT20.
I don't know how many watts of power I'd need - the Fender is a 40 watter and the Blackstar is a 20 watter (hence the name). Tube wattage is much different from solid state wattage - a 5 watt tube amp can blow away solid state amps up to about 60 watts depending on the amp. All you get with higher wattage tube amps is more headroom - the higher the wattage, the louder the amp can go and still sound clean. Who knows, maybe a 5-watter is all I'll need, in which case I'd be looking at either the Blackstar HT-5 or the Marshall Class 5. When the time comes, I'll have to just play as many as I can and see which one speaks to me.
Last weekend, I finally got around to taking a trip to Guitar Center to see about trading in my Les Paul Junior Lite for a new Ibanez. Well, as you can tell from the title and the picture on the right, the trade was a go and the new guitar came home with me.
My original goal was to come out of there with a guitar, a case, and a strap. Luckily I was able to do that, but not without a little help from some dead presidents.
You see, it was President's Day weekend here in the good ol' U.S. of A. which means, in the proper American tradition, that retailers everywhere held sales and specials in order to separate the masses from their hard-earned cash. Guitar Center was no exception, and fortunately for me, the very guitar I wanted was on sale for the ridiculous price of $279, a whole $70 off regular price.
It's fortunate because I ended up not getting as much as I'd originally hoped for my Gibson. Originally I thought I could get about $500 for it, but I noticed right away when I was cleaning it up for the trade that it had a lot of dings and scratches on it. I knew I probably wouldn't get what I thought, and I was right - they offered me $390 for it. Now normally I might not have went for the trade, but because of the serious sale, I pulled the trigger and was able to get the guitar, a hard case and a strap, plus about $24 in my pocket. Nice.
The two Ibani.
So I've been playing it a lot since then and I have to admit it's probably the best guitar I've ever played. Even though it's almost identical to my other Ibanez, there are two major differences - first, it has a hardtail, which I like better, and second, it has different pickups. Instead of the HSH setup on Triumph, it has an HH setup with Ibanez' V7 and V8 pickups. These are the same pickups that were in the purple Ibanez I played last year and they sounded as good as I remembered. The V stands for "Vintage" and they are voiced much more like a vintage PAF but with a little more power. Suffice it to say, I like them much better than the INF pickups that Triumph has.
I haven't named this guitar yet, but it has quickly become my desert island guitar - the one guitar I'd pick if I were stranded on a desert island. If I were to have a signature Ibanez, this would be it. I can easily say it was the best trade I've ever made.
And yes, I picked the transparent black one. It looked so much better in person than on Guitar Center's Web site.
I've had some spare time this week so I've been making practice videos. I made three, each one with a different guitar. The first one is me playing Jacob's Ladder by Rush with my Ibanez, the second one is me playing Pigeon Camera by The Tragically Hip with my Strat, and the last one is me playing The Trees by Rush on my DGW Contender. Enjoy!
Those of you who've been reading this blog from its inception know that it's about guitars and recording, not just guitars. Well, after a flurry of early experiments, I stopped trying to record and focused on guitar, mostly buying new ones.
I recently found myself with some unexpected time off, so I decided to finally try some serious recording. I turned my PC into a dual-boot XP-Ubuntu machine a while ago and installed all the Ubuntu Studio audio packages but I never had a chance to try it out. Until now.
I've mentioned this before, but I'm a fan of Rob Chapman a.k.a. Rob Chappers a.k.a. The Monkey Lord on YouTube and I became a member of his forum to help design his latest guitar. Apparently, the members of this forum have occasional collaborations and I just happened to notice their latest one, so I wanted to try to record something. I downloaded the backing track - a simple blues progression in E - and got to work trying to figure out Ardour.
My recording rig was slightly comical. I didn't want to plug directly into the computer, but I needed a way to get the sound into Ardour. So I used the microphone I got with Rock Band. Yes, you heard me, I used a Rock Band microphone. It's USB, so it worked just fine with the computer. One thing about Ardour (and Linux in general) is that it's open source, so there's a wealth of information on how to use it. I Googled "ardour usb microphone" and got my setup instructions immediately.
With the microphone set up, I got to work recording. I already have some experience with Jack, the audio connection system, and Patchage, the excellent graphical connection manager, so setting that up wasn't bad. After fumbling around with Ardour I managed to get the backing track imported and I rattled off about eight or nine solos. I also managed to figure out how to export just the tracks I wanted into WAV files, although I still don't know how to export as MP3s, so I brought the WAV into Audacity to convert it to an MP3.
I ended up with one that I thought was pretty good so I submitted it for the collaboration. It was done on my Strat through the neck pickup with the volume on 10 and tone on about 6 and a half, then through my DigiTech RP90 on a custom preset based on a Marshal JCM800, then through my Line 6 Spider III 15 as an amp only - I had it on the clean channel with a flat EQ - then through the Rock Band microphone and into Ardour.
Here it is, I hope you like it. I know it's not perfect (I messed up in a few places) but I think it's pretty good for my first attempt. Enjoy!
In my last post regarding Les Pauls and how they don't fit me, I ended with a question as to what to do with the one I have, my Les Paul Junior Special. It's a fantastic instrument, but it's not one that I see myself playing much if at all in the future. I've had it for a while, though - over 12 years - so parting with it won't be as easy as it was when I traded my Telecaster for my new Ibanez.
But, after careful deliberation and discussion with my wife, I've decided that I'm going to do it. I'm going to bring it to Guitar Center and trade it for the guitar I really want, a hardtail Ibanez RG. Or at least I'm going to try. I see no reason why I shouldn't get as much as I got for my Tele, if not more. It's a genuine, made-in-USA Gibson, and a rare one at that. They were only made for a few years - based on my research, they were made between 1998 and 2002 - and very few of them were black. Most of the ones I've seen on the 'Net in pictures or for sale are either cherry or natural. But, if they don't give me enough for the guitar, I'll bring the Gibson back home with me, no harm, no foul. I think it'll work, though. If I get what I got for my Tele, I may even have enough for a case.
Another bonus, too, is that I don't have to shop for a guitar. I know exactly what I want, and according to their Web site, they have some in stock. I want a hardtail version of my Ibanez, and I found almost exactly that - the RG3EXFM1. There are only two minor dissimilarities - it's a flamed maple top, not quilted like mine, and it doesn't have the center single coil pickup. Actually, though, I prefer the H-H setup anyway, so that's a bonus in my eyes. The only thing I have to choose is the color. They have two colors available - blackberry, the same color as mine, and transparent gray burst. The only decision I have to make is what color to get. If they only have one left in stock, well, that decision is made, but if not, whatever one looks best in person is the one that comes home with me.
They're both nice colors, though, so I'd be happy with either one. Don't take my word for it - see for yourself:
So you see, either way I win. I'll let you know if it works out. I hope it does, because I really want another Ibanez. They've become my favorite guitars. If I were a professional, I'd try to get an Ibanez endorsement contract. Really. I like them that much.
Ever since I waxed nostalgic about the Les Pauls I've owned and sold, I thought that some day I'd have another one, whether it be an official Gibson/Epiphone or a good quality copy like the ones made by Agile. The more I play, though, the more I'm learning what guitars fit me and which ones don't. Which made me come to a realization:
Les Pauls don't fit me.
Why? It all has to do with the body shape and, more specifically, the location of the lower body arch. I don't know the exact name of it, but it's the curve on the bottom of a guitar where you rest it on your right leg (or left leg if you're a lefty) when you play sitting down. There are two ways to sit with a guitar. One is the way I explained above; the other is similar to a classical guitarist, where you put the guitar between your legs with the lower curve on your left leg.
The designers of the Les Paul apparently had the latter position in mind when designing the guitar. The bottom curve is offset closer to the neck so that when the guitar is held in the classical seated position, the bridge is closer to the right leg, putting the playing area just about dead-center. The downside of this is that when the guitar is held in the right-leg position, the playing area is shifted even more to the right, which for me is very uncomfortable.
Contrast this with Fender guitars. On Strats and Teles, the bottom arch is more centrally located between the neck and the bridge, which makes the playing area perfectly placed for right-leg playing. This also holds true for Strat-based guitars like my Ibanez.
So what does that mean for me? Well, I'm a right-leg player. I try to play holding the guitar in the classical style but it just feels wrong to me. So when I play a guitar sitting down (which is most of the time) I set it on my right leg. Which is fine when I play my Strat or my Ibanez or my Durango. However, when I play my Les Paul Junior, it feels uncomfortable - it hurts my shoulder after a while because I have to hold my arm back further. So I end up switching between the right-leg position and the classical position, but since I don't like the classical position, I end up going back and forth until I just say, "Screw it" and use another guitar.
After coming to this epiphany, I naturally came to the conclusion that a Les Paul would not suit my needs. There are a few other guitars I'd like to have, and I would like to get one more guitar someday to round out my collection, but a Les Paul will not be one of them. The irony is that the whole Short List started with my desire to replace the Les Pauls that got away. I'm glad I went through the process of picking the right guitar instead of caving to my nostalgia or I would've ended up with another guitar that wasn't the right fit, like what happened with my Telecaster.
I also have a tough decision to make about my Les Paul Junior. It's a beautiful guitar and it does hold some sentimental value, but it spends most of its time in the closet because it's not comfortable for me to play. Like my old Telecaster, the Junior has real world value that could be used to acquire the gear I want if I choose to go that route. Sentimental value has a strong pull, though, so this won't be as easy as it was for the Telecaster. I only owned that for about eight months before selling it and getting my Ibanez. I've had the Junior since I bought it new in either 1998 or 1999.
I've been a bad, bad blogger. I haven't written anything of true substance for a while. I think I just put so much time and effort into the review of Shorty (DGW Contender) that I needed a breather. I also really enjoyed making the demo video. I plan on doing a lot more of them in the future.
Which brings me to the meat of this post - what's coming up. Well, like I said above, there are plenty of videos on the horizon, including an in-depth demo of Triumph, my Ibanez RG4EXQM1 that I purchased recently. I'm also going to do similar demos of all my guitars, with the hopes of getting on the press demo list for some manufacturers. I'm also going to do some play-along videos where I play along to some of the songs I'm learning. I'm doing this both for myself, as I can use the videos to critique my playing and see where I need improvement, and also for the public as I'll be using all my guitars and gear so I can have more tone samples. YouTube was indispensable to me when I was shopping for a guitar, and the more demos I can do for people the more information they'll have when they go to buy a guitar.
I was also contacted by a new progressive metal band who wanted me to review their new EP. I've downloaded it and I will be writing that review shortly. Also, I'm going to introduce a new series of posts that I'm going to call Retro Reviews. I, like most people, have discovered a lot of my favorite music long after it was released. My plan is to write reviews of older albums, but from a modern perspective. Anyone can Google an album and get a review from when it was released, but my reviews will be from the perspective of someone discovering something old. I think this will give a different take on these older albums, as I've already heard the music that was influenced by them, plus I will see if they stood the test of time, as it were. These reviews are going to be more informal than my regular album reviews. For those, I try to follow the rules of journalism and make them as impersonal as possible. But for the Retro Reviews, I'm going to use the first person and try to inject more humor and anecdotes into them.
There's a lot to look forward to, so check back often!
Hey everyone, just thought I'd check in at the ol' blog. I haven't done much here since the big Contender review, so what have I done for the past week?
Well for one thing, I've been playing. Another big plus in the Contender's favor is that, even after I pulled all my guitars out of the closet (save for the Hondo) and cleaned them up, I still grab the Contender first. I think I've officially been won over by its short scale goodness. In fact, when I played my Strat for the first time after using the Contender for so long, it felt absolutely huge! I got used to it and remembered just how nice of a guitar it is, but I found myself missing the shorter scale. I had planned on putting the Contender away for a while so I could rotate my guitars, but I couldn't leave it in there. I had to take it out again because I missed playing it so much.
I also decided that I want to make playing fun again. My biggest shortcoming on the guitar is (still) my lack of song knowledge, so to compensate for that I went out and bought the Humongous Guitar Songbook. Sixty-four songs, and I actually like most of them. Sure, there are some duds, but for the money it can't be beat. I plan on loading up on these types of songbooks and learning as many songs as I can. I'm still going to do some of my exercises and maybe go over some of my theory and scales, but I think learning these songs will make me a better player. It did once before, back in my Amethyst days, so I'm sure it'll work again.
I fight the urge to look at/want to buy new guitars every day. With the addition of Triumph and Shorty, I should be focusing more on playing and less on gear, but I love guitars so much and there are still more that I'd want. I think back to the unlucky loser, the Sterling JP50 that nearly won the Short List, and I wonder what it would've been like if I bought that one instead. I also still would love to get another Les Paul style guitar, not to mention a hardtail Ibanez, or even the Schecter Omen 6 I liked so much. Then there's the ever-present pull of the Chapman Guitars ML1, which is getting closer to sold out every day, and that's a limited run, so after they're gone, they're gone for good. In fact, if I had the money lying around, that would be the first guitar I'd buy, just to make sure I got one while I still could.
Anyway, I digress. I have a great set of guitars that should last me a while. Many people only have one or two guitars, but I'm lucky enough to have four good ones and one chock full of sentimental value (if nothing else). I want to work on my playing for a little while now and possibly look to upgrade the rest of my rig - i.e. amp and pedals - at some later date.
When I first got the Contender in the mail, I didn't know what to make of it. Was it a kid's guitar? A travel guitar? A beginner guitar? So I played it for a few weeks as my main guitar to find out.
DGW specializes in short scale guitars. The Contender has a 24 inch scale, compared to traditional Fender (25.5 inch) and Gibson (24.75 inch) scales. This scale puts the frets closer together, so it's easier to make some of the stretches necessary to play scales or more complex chords. It also decreases tension in the strings to the point where light gauge strings (9s) feel extremely loose. Less tension makes it easier to bend strings and it also makes heavier gauge strings feel lighter. The Contender I got feels like it has 10s on it but it's as easy to play as any of my other guitars strung with 9s.
After unpacking it, I immediately noticed the quality of the guitar. It is extremely well made. I couldn't find a single blemish in the finish, which in this case is a nicely done two-tone sunburst. The neck was even more impressive. Usually affordable guitars made in China have poorly finished necks, but the Contender is obviously made in one of the better Chinese factories because the finish and fretwork are exemplary. The fret ends were finished so well that I was able to slide my fingers up and down the sides with some force behind them and still not feel any sharp edges. The finish itself is a nice satin finish, which according to their Web site is gunstock oil, and it has 22 medium frets.
The hardware is also very solid. It has a Strat-style hardtail bridge (which I love as I'm not the biggest fan of tremolos) with a string-through design, a volume and tone control with metal knobs and a three-way blade switch. The pickups are Wilkinson AlNiCo humbuckers which are a surprise at this price range. They aren't the most powerful pickups - they can do metal, but they aren't happy about it - but they have a nice vintage tone that's perfect for classic rock or even country. I don't know if it's the pickups or the construction - it has a three-piece alder body and a bolt-on maple cap neck (maple fingerboard on maple neck) - but some of the tones are almost Strat-like, especially in the middle and neck positions.
Shorty is much smaller than Triumph
The body isn't contoured like a traditional Strat but instead it has a slightly carved top and a back contour that runs around the entire body. This makes it pretty comfortable while resting against your body, but not quite as nice as a Strat. Still, with the body being quite small - about 2/3 the size of a traditional Strat style guitar, as you can see in the picture on the left - it's comfortable for sitting and standing and it's extremely light. The only drawback to this lightness is that it's slightly neck-heavy. Not as bad as a Gibson, but there is some neck dive when standing.
Speaking of Gibson, the neck reminds me a lot of a Gibson neck. It has a pretty wide profile, wider than my Strat. It's definitely a wide C-shaped neck and with a 12-inch radius feels a lot like a Les Paul from the 50s. Despite this, it's still very easy to play, largely because of the shorter scale.
I was enjoying my time with the Contender but I still didn't completely understand it. I spoke with Jimmy Carabbia, founder of DGW, and he put the guitar into perspective. The Contender was designed not to be a student guitar but to be another option for those wanting to play guitar. Carabbia comes from the world of BMX bike racing, and he compared the Contender to a custom race bike. You buy a race bike to fit you, and if traditional guitars don't fit, you need another option. His goal is to educate people about scale length and give them another option. There aren't many 24-inch scale guitars available, and the micro guitars from Squier and Ibanez have a 22.5" scale which causes tuning and intonation problems. He attended a NAMM show and realized there was nothing like the Contender available anywhere, so DGW was born.
The best example he gave me, though, was Brian May from Queen. He's a big guy - about 6'2" tall, although he's probably 6'6" with his hair - but his famous homemade Red Special guitar has a 24-inch scale. So although the Contender would make a good guitar for younger players with small hands, it's obviously a guitar for anyone who just might prefer a smaller scale guitar.
The Contender is the end result of one man's quest to build a guitar that fits him. Because of his racing past, his hands have been damaged and the shorter scale better suits his limitations. The Contender is just the first step. In the future, Carabbia plans to add a Tele-style guitar to his lineup as he has received many requests for one.
As for the current Contender, the more I played it the more I liked it. The neck took a little time to get familiar with, both the scale and the thickness. I had been playing Triumph, my new Ibanez RG, and I was used to the thin Wizard profile and the standard 25.5 inch scale. But after a while, I really started to like the Contender. It has a different sound and feel and quickly became the guitar I picked up most often, and not just because I had to write this review. I decided that I couldn't send it back, so I bought it. The fact that it had a sunburst finish, the one I think looks the best, had a little to do with it, too. That's probably the best outcome to expect from a review - I liked it so much that I made it my own.
It may not be for everybody, but the Contender is a guitar that anyone buying a new guitar should consider. It fits the mold for a beginner/child's guitar very well, but it is also a viable alternative for anyone who may want a guitar but doesn't like traditional scale lengths. The Contender is available directly from Durango's Web site, so if you're interested check it out.
For additional info and some tone samples, please watch the supplemental video below.
. Sixty-four songs, and I actually like most of them. Sure, there are some duds, but for the money it can't be beat. I plan on loading up on these types of songbooks and learning as many songs as I can. I'm still going to do some of my exercises and maybe go over some of my theory and scales, but I think learning these songs will make me a better player. It did once before, back in my Amethyst days, so I'm sure it'll work again.
