The Freeguitarvideos.com Blog

Magical Guitar Listed on Craigslist

2010-03-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

It's not every day that you stumble across a "hard to find" gem of a guitar like this on Craigslist. And especially at such a bargain price. I'm just working under the assumption that the photo was fuzzy because of the magical aura that this guitar gives off. Any guesses on the custom paint job? Oysters on the half shell? Dalmation spots? Randomly painted white blobs outlined in black on white finish?

Taylor Solid Body Electric Review

2010-03-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

I feel confident in saying that over the past decade of catching acoustic guitarists playing in bars and small clubs, over fifty percent were playing Taylor acoustics. The playability and easy to use electronics have made these guitars a favorite among those who could afford them. Taylor is now setting their sights on staking a small claim on the electric guitar market. Share My Guitar has given the Taylor Electric Solid Body guitars a very thorough review. The review covers everything from the case, to interchangeable pick guards, and even audio samples. For around two thousand bucks you get a well made and versatile electric guitar. Check out their review for the full details and decide if you want to give Taylor's foray into the world of electric guitars a test drive at your local store.

Free Lesson: Amazing Grace Slide Guitar Tab

2010-03-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

Take a look at our new free lesson on learning a standard tuning slide guitar version of Amazing Grace. This arrangement by Roger "Hurricane" Wilson can be played by beginning or intermediate slide guitarists with it's single note melody line. The youtube version is embedded below but you can check out the tab and higher quality Quicktime video here.

What are Staggered Polepieces?

2010-03-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

If you have a Fender Strat you may have noticed that the metallic rods or polepieces on your pickups are at varying heights. Not all Strats have the staggered heights, but those that do are compensating for not having adjustable polepieces. But really this is just getting us to the question of why you would want to have staggered or adjustable polepieces. Fender explains:

"staggered polepieces help bring the volume of each individual string into balance so that one string or a couple strings aren't disproportionally loud compared to the other strings. This is a sonic phenomenon that can and does happen, and depending on your ear for tone it can range from mildly noticeable to outright maddening"

To read more about this concept check out the article
. I adapted the photo above from hyperbros to highlight the polepieces with my super high tech green arrows.

Probability of Breaking a Guitar String

2010-03-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

see more Funny Graphs

New Free Lesson on Playing like SRV

2010-03-09T08:33:00.001-08:00

We have a new free lesson by Jody Worrell on playing a guitar lick like Stevie Ray Vaughan. The youtube video is embedded below but you check out the lesson page for the higher quality Quicktime video and tab.

How Powerful and Loud of Amp Do You Need?

2010-03-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

Billy at 300 Guitars answers the question "how many watts should my amp be?" Like most things, the answer depends on how you will be using the amp. Performance at a noisy club? Practicing at home? Luckily, Billy provides a quick primer on the basics of amps and gets you started on the right path of picking out what works best for you.

"From the above definitions watts and decibels are two different things. You can have a relatively low powered amp that is very loud and would be able to keep up with a drummer on a stage with no problem. Just because you have more watts does not always mean you are going to be louder and the watts increase is not directly proportional to the decibel increase. Take for example two Marshall heads. Let’s say one is rated for 50 watts and the other 100 watts. By looking at the watts you would think that the 100 watt head would be twice as loud because it has twice the power right? Wrong! The loudness difference between the 50 watt amp and the 100 watt amp is only 3 decibels (dB) which is not really a drastic difference. It would take 10 times the power of the 50 watt head to be twice as loud as the 100 watt head which is 500 watts! Ouch…..!"

(photo by the yankee quido)

Make Guitar Shaped Ice Cubes

2010-03-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

The time constraints of the work week often force my longest practice sessions to happen on Friday and Saturday nights. As such, many of these one man jams also include short breaks for a sip of a beverage. But why should I settle for a drink with non guitar themed ice in my glass? Fred & Friends produces these ice molds in the shape of an electric guitar and the reviews on Amazon are overwhelmingly favorable. The molds are $9 and make three cubes at a time. Not a bad Father's Day, Birthday, Christmas, or Thank You gift for the fellow guitar players or teachers in your life.

Fender Champs

2010-02-25T09:22:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about the internet is the ability to reach a niche audience. Earlier this week we talked about Vince Gill decorating his studio in the style of an old tweed Fender amp. Turns out, there is an entire website devoted to Fender Champ amplifiers. From wikipeida:

It was introduced in 1948 and discontinued in 1982. [1] An updated version was introduced in 2006 as part of the "Vintage Modified" line. The Champ had the lowest power output and the simplest circuit for all of the Fender tube amps. The Champ had only one power tube, which meant that the circuit is single ended and class A. Five watts and the simple toneful circuit allowed the Champ to be used easily and often in recording studios."

My Fender Champ is chocked full of information about these highly adored amps. You can learn the basics about tubes, electronics, and amps in general. Of for owners or interested buyers, you can figure out how old a Fender Champ is by using this serial number guide. I love sites like these. Years ago I was given an old acoustic Guild Guitar and I've also bought an old junky Harmony flat top acoustic. By finding sites like these, I was able to figure out the year, make, and models of those guitars with serial number guides.

Vince Gill on Playing Telecasters

2010-02-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

Fender has a new video interview with Vince Gill up on their site. And other than the uncomfortably close camera shot, it's pretty good. Vince discusses first seeing Telecasters played by Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings when he was young and how it's twangy sound has been important in country. He then goes on to discussing how he bought his first Tele. But perhaps most interestingly, Vince describes how he designed his most recent home studio. Unhappy with the sound and look of his studio, he decided to cover the walls in the same tweed fabric you'd find on an old Fender Tube Amp. If you want to learn how to play like Vince, check out Jody Worrell's Vince Gill Style Solo Lessons

(picture from momentsbymoser)

Zen Principles for Practicing Guitar

2010-02-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

The Guitar Habits site has a post on adding some Zen meditation principles to your guitar practice routine.

"Guitar practice is in itself a form of meditation. You need to stay focused on what you practice and not let your mind wander. It is about concentrating on your fingers, your technique, letting go off tension, recapturing yourself, letting it happen, continually shaping and getting back to the essence of your practice."

If you live with family or have roommates then you have also been interrupted during the middle of a practice session. Here is some advice:

The best way to practice is in solitude. Tell your family when and for how long you are going to practice. Ask them to give you some privacy for the time being. Find yourself a room in the house where you can have some peace and quiet. Create your own sacred hide out where you can play your instrument, where you can practice without distractions (turn off all electronic devices) and work on becoming a better guitar player or songwriter.

Check out the post for some more tips.

Forums Spotlight: Lending Out Gear

2010-02-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

If you've owned a guitar for any length of time, it's happened to you. Someone walks into your house, sees your guitar in the stand, and asks if they can play it. Depending on the situation and the person you usually oblige to avoid seeming like a jerk. But this is on the low end of the anxiety scale when it comes to lending out your gear. The Music Player Forums have a post currently going about lending your gear out to other people. It's one thing to let someone play your guitar while you're standing close by. But what if someone's guitar or amp just broke and they have a gig tonight? Do you trust them? Will they watch out for belt buckle scratches or sweat and grease getting on the guitar like you would? For each person and each situation it may be a different answer. But it definitely can be an uncomfortable position to be in.

A sample reply from the thread:

"Maybe if we`re in the same band and I will be there for the gig. Even then I REALLY try to avoid doing that. Last night I did a short acoustic open mic set. Someone showed up without a guitar and the guy who was on after me loaned his acoustic. Well about two songs in the borrower started doing hand percussion on the guitar, with his knuckles. That would be it for me right there-give it back. Now.
Guitar straps, cables, picks-if they aren`t the really expensive ones-that`s different, mostly no problem lending those."

John Mayer on his cover of Crossroads

2010-02-16T09:52:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Guitar Lifestyle where we first saw this video of a Guitar World interview with John Mayer discussing his unique cover of Crossroads. The intro to the video consists of several comedic false intros by John Mayer. Some of Mayer's other comedic endeavors have included some misses (nsfw) but these mostly hit the mark. The meat of the interview is where it gets interesting. John discusses how he came up with the idea for his version, his tones, takes a very detailed look at his right hand technique, and discusses the music theory behind some of his choices.

For more guitar instruction on this topic, check out Jody Worrell's John Mayer Style Solos and Guy Fenocchi's lesson on playing Clapton's Crossroads.

An Easy Way to Store Your Guitar in the Closet

2010-02-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

The Guitar Hanger is unlikely to be the solution for everyone, but for certain people, the ability to hang your guitar in the closet would be incredibly convenient. It allows you to get the instrument off the floor without having to mount a hanger onto a wall if you are worried about foot traffic, pets, or small children knocking the guitar over. Single males living in dorms or apartments seem to be the most likely to have the extra closet space. Not a bad little niche product. You can pick a Guitar Hanger 1001 up from Amazon for $23. The explanation video below includes flying cats. I guess they are working under the assumption that PETA will never see this.

Brad Paisley's Pedals and Guitars

2010-02-12T09:27:00.000-08:00

Following up on our last post, Guitar Noize has a post all about Brad Paisley's guitar rig. The post includes pictures, links, and videos of Paisley's guitars, pedals, and amps.

Brad Paisley Interview on "Play", Tele, Amps and More...

2010-02-10T12:10:00.000-08:00

(picture by <3 Melissa on Flickr)

Vintage Guitar Magazine has a new interview with Brad Paisley. Most of the interview focuses on Brad's most recent album, Play, which is predominantly an instrumental album. I salute anyone willing to name a song on their album "Cluster Puck" and invite James Burton, Albert Lee, Vince Gill, John Jorgenson, Redd Volkaert, Steve Wariner, and Brent Mason to accompany them on the track. In addition to reading the interview, check out Peter Vogl's lesson on playing Brad Paisley Style Licks

Country music tends to go in phases where Tele playing is more in vogue and out of vogue. Do you think Tele is out of favor right now?

That is certainly the case with a lot of what's on the radio. There is some Tele playing on the radio, but even my friends who are session players in Nashville will tell you there was a time in the late 1980s and early '90s when you could show up to a gig and if you had a Tele with a Strat pickup in the middle you could pretty much cover anything they needed. In the early '90s, Brent Mason could just show up with his Tele and have everything he'd need, tone-wise, though I'm sure he brought more guitars to the gig.

Tell us about some of the incredible amps you've been using?

I never stop adding amps to my collection, and it's certainly past the point of being excessive...

How many do you own?

I'm not even sure. We have at least 10 heads out on the road, and I have at least 10 more at home. That doesn't include amps I have lying around, like that little Vox [points to the amp] or the Fender that James Burton gave me. And that's also not including the amps in my music room, or those I've loaned out. Steve Wariner has one of my Dr. Z Maz 18s.

Live, I am still using a Z-Wreck by Dr. Z. It's a great AC30-type amp based on the Trainwreck Liverpool 30. Dr. Z and Ken Fischer collaborated on it, and I can't confirm this, but I believe it was the last amp Ken worked on. It's a beautiful piece. I've also been using a Tony Bruno Cowtipper, which is based on a blackface Fender Twin but with a better-sounding reverb circuit. It's a very clean amp I use for certain patches live in conjunction with a Vox-style amp. He also makes a great Vox-style amp called the Underground 30, which in my opinion is one of the great amps of our time. He modified one for me to have an old-style Vox transformer, and I have what you'd call a "standard" Underground 30. But that's a bit of a misnomer in that there is really no such thing as a standard model for him. He tweaks each amp for the customer. I also have a Fender Vibro-King that I love that sometimes takes the place of the Cowtipper. [Mike Zaite at Dr. Z] is making a couple of interesting things, like the Evan, which is his take on a Fender-type amp. And then there's my Trainwreck Liverpool 30 I took off the road for a while, even though it's pampered out there - it's treated basically like a person. It travels on a padded bunk on the bus! I pulled it out because I missed it. I use it for the distorted sounds live on songs like "She's Everything," and the high-gain stuff, plus the B.B. King duet we do live. It makes such a great blues amp because it's so responsive. It's hard to live without.

David Rawlings Tiny Desk Concert

2010-02-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

We've discussed David Rawlings on here before, and we'll continue to because he's just a master of the acoustic guitar. The recently released "Friend of a Friend" album under the moniker The Dave Rawlings Machine caught me off guard. I've enjoyed it just as much as previous efforts from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, but I thought that with the group taking on his name for the project that the guitar would come even more into the foreground. However, Dave appeared to focus more on songwriting, singing, and creating a balanced approach with the Old Crow Medicine Show joining them on many songs. In this video from NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series he adds the guitar embellishments that were left off of the record. From a blistering solo on the bluegrass classic "I'm On My Way Back to the Old Home" to melodic touches to accompany Gillian's rhythm guitar on their originals, this video is not short on great guitar playing. To download this video you can get the video podcast from iTunes.

Guitar Themed iPhone Case

2010-01-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

We've featured the Living in Harmony shirt from Threadless before. But now they've turned the design into a pretty cool looking iPhone case made by Griffin.

Guitar Forum Spotlight: Taylor Classical Guitars

2009-10-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

There is a post on the Acoustic Guitar Forum serving as a buyer's guide for classical guitars. The original question is posed by an experienced acoustic guitar player who suddenly was compelled by a classical guitar in the store recently. The store in question happened to have Taylor Classical Guitars and thus begins the thread:

Question:"I have never played a Taylor classical which is really what this thread is about. Do Taylor nylon strung guitars match up to Spanish made ones? Are they value for money or are you paying for the name?"

Answers:

On Taylors:

"The short answer is, no, Taylor nylon string guitars are not much like a Spanish classical guitar. They are heavier built and sound like a nylon string guitar vs a classical guitar. They have a narrower fingerboard than traditional classical guitars. This is a good thing for some players and not so good for others. It may be good for you if you are used to playing steel string guitars."

On Classical Guitars in General:

"I bought a classical guitar about 4 years ago. I tried out pretty much every classical guitar (up to about $3500 - I did not consider the more expensive small builder classicals) in a quality shop that has a lot more classicals than most places do.

I carefully tried out Bernabe, Loriente, and some others. I ended up with a Burguet, which was about a third the price of many of the others, and really seemed to me to be the best of the bunch regardless of price. I tried out about 7 of these Burguets and they varied quite a bit. There were some that did not impress me, and others that were good, but there were two that stood out, and I went with what I thought was the best of these two. It is a great guitar that I have played a LOT. Wonderful tone, good volume, very responsive. And it was not expensive, as these things go. I have recently heard though that they have tripled in price since I got mine.

If you are not wanting to go into those sorts of price ranges, there are a variety of decent less expensive classicals that can be found in a GOOD guitar store (most guitar shops I have been in have pretty poor selections of classicals). A brand that stands out in my mind is LaPatrie, made by the same folks who make Seagulls. Like the Seagulls, these are much nicer guitars than their very reasonable prices would suggest. They don't sing quite like my Burguet, but they are darn nice instruments that are set up well, play well, and sound good, especially considering the price.

I have read on the Web (and everything on the Web is true, right?) that unless you are going to go with a very expensive classical, you will probably get a better classical guitar if you go with a cedar top than if you buy a moderately priced spruce top classical. This web site suggested though that in the more expensive classicals, some of the spruce top classicals are the best. I don't know how valid this is, but I do know that in the price range I was looking at the cedar top classicals were indeed sounding better to me than the spruce top ones. Or maybe this cedar vs. spruce thing is a bunch of baloney. I don't know.

The cedar vs spruce decision probably mostly comes down to what sound you want. In general, I don't think it would be correct to say that one is better. They are just different."

View the full thread to read all of the responses

Robin Trower Interview

2009-10-12T08:49:00.001-07:00

Check out this recent interview with guitarist Robin Trower. I've included a few of my favorite excerpts below. Also take a look at our Robin Trower style lessons.

“Albert King is my all-time favorite guitar player,” Trower said. “I listen to a lot his stuff in the car and Howlin’ Wolf is the other guy that I still (listen to) alot.

“Albert King’s playing and Howlin’ Wolf’s music and singing still have a great effect on me. As far as rock and roll goes, Pete Townshend is a giant to me. (Townshend) plays guitar to support the song, and I think he and I have that in common.”

Trower said he also listens to alot of popular music from the 1930s and 1940s.

“I quite like the music of Dinah Washington and Al Bowlly,” Trower said. “I really like early American and British popular music.”

History of Jazz Podcast

2009-10-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

If you haven't check out iTunesU yet, they have a lot of cool free podcasts of lectures up. One of the coolest being a history of jazz podcast. The lectures are by Dr. Gordon Vernick who is an Associate Professor of Music at Georgia State University in Atlanta. "Each segment is intended to shed light on important individual creating jazz musicians and specific movements/genres within jazz canon. They are intended for jazz lovers and those that are merely interested in this important American musical art form."

Each episode was originally broadcast on 1690AM in Atlanta. If you happen to live in the Atlanta area, that is possibly the greatest radio station I've ever heard. It sounds like someone with the best record collection in history is just randomly playing songs that they like. Everything from 1950's R&B to Elvis Costello. When I'm listening to it, I use Shazam at least once an hour.

Guitar Pick of the Week: Without and With Guitar

2009-09-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

from Digg

Digital Recording Tips for guitar

2009-09-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Truefire has a post featuring some helpful tips for recording your guitar with a digital audio workstation. The article is written by Rich Tozzoli who has apparently done a fair amount of work creating the audio for commercials. Here is an excerpt:

"7. Split 'em up
One great way to get maximum flexibility on your recorded tracks is to split the guitar’s signal on the way into the DAW. Using a splitter, or even a pedal with two outputs, you can run one clean signal directly into the computer and one to an amp for miking. Send the signals to separate tracks. Once the two tracks are in the can, you can add a processor/plug-in on the clean channel and blend it with your amp sound for a thicker, nastier tone. And what could be better than that?"

B.David: Believe

2009-09-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

We previously featured B.David after he came into our studios to perform a special live performance. His song Believe has become a hit single and they shot a video for it. B.David is a former guitar student of Peter Vogl's and the song features guitar work from Peter as well. Be sure to check out B.David's website and his twitter feed.

Jody Worrell on Stage with Mitch Ryder

2009-08-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Our own Jody Worrell recently had the pleasure of performing with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Jody and his guitar joined Mitch on stage at Hippiefest in Peachtree City on August 15th. Below are three excerpts from the show along with an additional video that I can't help but think of every time I hear Mitch Ryder mentioned.

Devil With a Blue Dress

Sock It to Me, Baby!

Jenny Take a Ride

And a scene from High Fidelity. This clip contains some NSFW language.