*** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** Eurydice [yoo-rid-uh-see], a forest nymph from Greek Mythology; She was the wife of Orpheus, the fabled musician and poet. What a fitting name for such an exotic guitar, right? Exotic in the concept, that is. The guitar itself is just a Taylor® GS Mini™ set-up for an 'out-of-the-box' high string tuning. I want to use the word 'just' respectfully, though, because it is a Taylor®. The GS Mini™ is the one with a Spruce top and Sapele back and sides. I removed the pick-guard because I'm not in to the stock tortoise shell (Tortoloid) look. I’ve named my tuning concept and future planned from the ground up guitar build/design as, Guitar d’Amore™ (guitar of love). The real concept here is the peculiar “high-string” tuning of E3-G3-C4-C4-D4-E4. The C notes are a 'double coarse' (tuned in unison). The guitar, when strummed openly, sounds the equivalent of a Cadd9 chord with the D sitting inside the triad or like a Csus2 with the third included. Also, the open strummed voicing is inverted with the E and G notes below the tonic. I came up with this tuning awhile back and wrote a song specifically for it. The song is titled, L’histoire De Guerre. French for, 'war history.' It’s a beautiful 'folky' finger-styled song that I’ve yet to record formally. The music is similar, stylistically, to Annabel In The Moonlight. I originally worked with this concept on a cheap 'no-name' guitar but switched to the modified Taylor® for the benefits of timbre (pronounced tam-ber) quality and intonation stability. This basically means I’m now ready and serious about recording the song mentioned above as well as using this unique tonality for new material in current production.
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*** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** A fruity treat so cool and sweet . . . a lovely mix I like to drink . . . ~Jeff Jewkes (Yeah, I made this dorky stanza up for the blog. Watcha gonna do about it?!) When I first put this guitar in my hands and began to play I exclaimed, 'Now this one's smooth!' The image of a refreshing desert like beverage actually came later. It didn't take too long, however, to connect smooth playing feel... 3-tone sun burst...'Smoothie!' So the formula of naming a guitar often goes... Physical impressions multiplied by emotional response = name. Now days, I refer to this guitar as 'Calypso.' In reference to both the music genre and the sea nymph in Homer's 'Odyssey.' A Strat.. is a Strat... is a Strat, right? We'll, no, at least not in my book. I don't know what it is about Fender® No two guitars seem the same to me when it comes to feel, built, playability, etc. I'm not just talking minor variances. I really mean no two Fender guitars feel the same to me. I demo two Strats, the exact same model, with the exact same appointments. They'll feel and play totally different from one another. One feels good, the other, horrible . . . Sometimes, both feel horrible. Sometimes, every Strat in a store feels horrible! That has been my experience, anyway. I personally came to the conclusion a long time ago that if you're into acquiring your 'special' Stratocaster®; you're going to have to find a dealer with a lot of them in stock, walk in the door, sit down, play them all, take your time and 'cherry pick' one out. It is the 'Fender way.' I guess. If I were to compare two exact models of a Taylor® guitar, let's say. The result would be that they play, sound, and feel the same. There's a consistency with Taylor guitars that you can rely on... Not so with Fender. This 'peculiarity' with Fender has evidently been around since time immortal. To prove my point, let's examine the case of Eric Clapton's famous and most favorite Strat, 'Blackie.' It is not just a 'cherry picked' Strat, but three (3) hand selected Strats in one. Around 1970, Mr. Clapton purchased six (6) 50's era Stratocasters. He gave three (3) away to George Harrison, Pete Townshend, and Stevie Winwood respectively. He then 'cherry picked' the finest parts from the three remaining guitars and, with the help of luthier Ted Newman Jones, forged together 'Blackie.' There is no intended connection with the names 'Smoothie' and 'Blackie.' The similarities with the 'ie' in both is purely coincidental, or subconscious at best. Besides, 'Blackie' is a famous Fender Stratocaster. 'Smoothie', while great in my mind will likely never receive the admiration 'Blackie' gets. In case you haven't already figured out, I'm not Eric Clapton! Neither am I the next guy I'm going to talk about, Alex Lifeson of Rush. I'll use Alex's Strats as an example of what a lot of guitar players do with their Fenders. That is, modify them to fit their needs. Mr. Lifeson (Mr. Živojinović if you really want to identify him by his real last name, or you could just call him, 'Lerxst') modified his Strats so aggressively he dropped the Fender name off of the guitars and came up with his own. 'Hentor' was the name, the 'Hentor Sportscaster' to be exact. Given Alex's typical sense of humor, he came up with the name as a joke referring to the bands producer at the time, Peter Henderson. 'Hentor was the name that we had for Peter Henderson, the producer of 'Grace Under Pressure.' When he wrote his name out to leave us his number, it looked like Peter Hentor instead of Peter Henderson, so we nicknamed him Hentor The Barbarian. I got some Letraset and put it on this white Strat that I had. It has a Shark neck - these are unlabeled replacement necks - so I threw 'Hentor Sportscaster' on there. Amazing all the mail we used to get over that [laughs]: 'Where can I buy a Hentor? How much does a Hentor cost?'" - Alex Lifeson, in the April 1986 Guitar Player magazine Alex's Fender Stratocaster ('Hentor Sportscaster'), was modified with a 'Shark' neck, a Bill Lawrence L500 humbucking pickup in the bridge position, custom cut pick guard, re-worked electronics with a Gibson® toggle switch mounted in the lower body cutaway, Original Floyd Rose® 'non-locking' tremolo and, of course, the 'Hentor Sportscaster' logo on the headstock.
So, in the tradition of countless Strat players, known and un-known, I too have modified 'Smoothie/Calypso' (an American Standard™ Stratocaster®). Actually, this guitar is not so much 'modified' as it is 'hot-rodded' with upgraded parts. Such as: Super-Vee® vibrato bridge. Schaller® locking tuning gears in 'satin chrome' finish, 3-ply (black-white-black) pick guard, and my favorite volume / tone knobs I buy from Radio Shack®. *** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** I like to say I first discovered Wechter Guitars through my many dealings with Sweetwater®. That would only be partly true though. In actuality, I came across my first Wechter in a Seattle WA, guitar store. I was there trying out various Larrivée® acoustic guitars. I remember seeing a guitar up on display with the name 'Wechter' on the headstock. I inquired about it. The salesman said a 'boutique' builder in the area made it. The salesman also told me the builders name was Ambraham Wechter and that he had a shop based in the cities 'University District.' When doing a little research for this post I discovered that Wechter started his Seattle shop in 1973. He then moved to Michigan in 1975 to study under master luthier Richard Schneider. I was in Seattle looking for Larrivées around 2001, which puts Wechter's presence there quite a ways back in history compared to the time I arrived. So, as I recall now, I'm not quite sure how I could have run into one of his early guitars. Maybe, despite the fact he moved away, he developed some kind of distribution deal with the Seattle based stores to continue to carry his instruments? Maybe, it was actually a used one left over from when he was active in the area? Maybe someone had traded it in? Hmmm ... Few 'boutique' guitar builders have national, or even regional distribution. If you want a guitar, you usually have to go straight to the source. Once doing so, there is often a several month to several year wait before you can physically acquire an instrument. It's part of doing business with a literal 'one-man-shop.' If you can afford to wait (and afford the price tag) then it might seem worth it in the end. By any means, I was at the store that day to buy some Larrivée guitars. So, I did. I purchased two (2) of them in fact. I didn't even take the Wechter off the shelf to strum it. Perhaps, I should have. Fast forward to 2009. I'm in Colorado looking through a nice fat full-colored sales catalogue Sweetwater had just sent me in the mail. Sweetwater, B&H Photo, Full-Compass and others like to send me these thick catalogues full of gear. because evidently I buy enough stuff from them that they think I'm worth the money they spend on printing and shipping the said catalogues; to try to entice me to buy even more stuff from them. I'm ashamed to say it but this strategy has worked well on me in the past. They dangle the candy in front of my face and I raid the jar in response. Dang! I guess that makes them brilliant and me a gear lusting sucker! Before you shake your head too much though, I humbly submit. How many of you also get those nice flashy catalogues in the mail? If you do, every wonder why those companies are spending the money they do sending it to you? G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), We've all had to wean ourselves off, but I digress. To make a now long story short . . . er, after being re-introduced to Wechter Guitars via the Sweetwater catalogue, I purchased a Nashville Special Elite Cutaway. It was touted as being the worlds first 'purpose built' high-string production guitar. Meaning the wood choice, body style, soundboard thickness, bracing, etc., were specifically chosen to accentuate this type of instrument. Presumably (to cut down on the retail asking price) the guitar was 'factory built' under Wechters guidance, supervision and certification in a plant located in Guangzhou, China. I was comfortable with this fact, at least in part, because I already owned other instruments, namely my Pearl River® studio upright piano, that had also been built from one of the Guangzhou factories. You can hear the Pearl River on the single, The Other Side. To this day, I still have my 'moral conflicts' when buying products made in China, the main issue being my suspicion of a Communist government exploiting it's workforce. But then again, in today’s world, how does one avoid buying anything that doesn't have at least one part of it made in China? American flags I've purchased for Independence Day celebrations have had the words printed, 'Made in China', on the spine for heavens sake! Talk about ironic... I named this guitar 'Little Wings' because it works agreeably with my Taylor 612ce (aka 'Wings'). If you look at the guitar, the Rosewood saddle block is shaped kind of like a pair of stretched out 'wings' as well. It plays great and sounds beautiful. It uses the traditional 'Nashville' (high-string) tuning of E3-A3-D4-G4-B3-E4. This, basically, gives you a six-string guitar strung-up with the 'high' strings only from a twelve-string set. The term 'Nashville' comes in deference to the long historical use of the 'high-string' concept. By musicians from the traditional Old-Time / Bluegrass / Country music scene found in and around Nashville, Tennessee. One of the advantages of using this instrument (instead of a single twelve-string guitar) is you can record a main guitar part with one set of chord positions. Then overdub the 'Nashville' guitar using inverted chord positions based off the original recorded track. Mixed together, this can produce some very pleasing richly stacked voicing in the music that would otherwise be physically unachievable with a standard twelve-string. Here's a Youtube link with Abraham Wechter himself talking about his path into guitar building: The Story Of Wechter Guitars. *** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** "Iwis it is not halfway to her heart. But if it were, doubt not her care should be To comb your noodle with a three-legged stool, And paint your face and use you like a fool." (1.1.61–65) The Taming of the Shrew ~ William Shakespeare 'I have a love/hate-relationship with Fender®. I love the distinctive classic sound one can achieve with a Stratocaster® or a Telecaster® but I hate some of the idiosyncrasies inherit in these instruments. Some of these quirks I attribute to the modern Fender Co. apparent apathy, at times, with quality control and how these guitars are sometimes put (or seemingly slapped) together these days. Believe it or not; the worst offenders I've found are the top-end American made guitars. I've quite often been presented with "American Standard™" or "American Deluxe™" guitars exhibiting workmanship, fit and finish so shoddy I felt sick to my stomach; considering how much money they cost. Some model years are good. Some model years are bad. Fender is currently the biggest guitar company in the world. To be quite candid, I think that fact goes to their heads sometimes. I certainly applaud Fenders tremendous success. Nevertheless, I often feel the company slips in and out of what I call, 'branding syndrome.' Where the 'powers that be' seem more concerned with propagating the Fender name than continuing Leo Fender's tradition of building a quality instrument. Other issues lie with the original design itself. Although Leo Fender was a pioneer in the adaption of "electrified" instruments, some of his initial ideas, by today’s standards, seem strange and clumsy to me. In Leo's defense however, I do acknowledge that Mr. Fender could not have completely foreseen the direction...the type of playing demands future electric guitar virtuosos would require of his instruments. Hence, the introduction of the 80's "Superstrat" by Kramer®, Jackson® and Charvel®, to name a few. Over the years, Fender has quietly attempted to overhaul perceived “short comings” but seemingly does so at a "snails pace". The reason Fender can get away with such sluggish progress is due to the company's accomplishments with identity and branding, I suppose. There defiantly, however, exists a modern spirit (or opinion) amongst a section of guitarists that one should not re-think the Fender look or engineering. This, despite the fact there are often better ways to go about things today. An analogy might be like a Jazz musician who has learned to play off his/her mistakes while attributing the results to, 'improvisation', instead of going back and 'wood-shedding' the knowledge of scales and modes. I named the American Special Telecaster I own, 'Kate'. This name refers to one of the main characters in Shakespeare's famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) play, The Taming of the Shrew. In the play, Katherina Minola (aka, Kate) is a harsh and unruly 'shrew' that no man, so it is thought, wants to marry. Well, this is pretty much how I felt when I first acquired this Telecaster. I put down a pretty good chunk of change for this guitar brand new. Despite my initial investment it still needed the frets to be dressed properly, the nut cut properly, the truss rod adjusted properly and the neck angle adjusted properly. All of these things SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE AT THE FENDER PLANT! This was not a Korean, Japanese, or Mexican made Fender. This was an American made one. For the price paid, the problems I just listed SHOULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN CARE OF AT THE FACTORY! One cannot set the action and intonation correctly if these things are not taken care of first. 'Fender must consider themselves too big and too busy to concern themselves with trivial things like...workmanship!' I remember thinking to myself. At the time, I needed to get a hold of a telecaster ASAP to keep up with recording production demands. So, I put even more effort and money into 'Kate' to tame all the unexpected 'wildness' out of her. I suppose I should have just returned the guitar and asked for my money back. I'm a romantic kind of guy though. Once I succumb to the charms of an instrument, even if it has issues, I tend to 'see it through.' Besides, maybe 'Kate' initially considered me to be rough and ill behaved too! Not so long ago I was recording at one of my favorite places, Wavelength Studio. Charles Thompson (aka - Frank Black / Black Francis) let me barrow one of his vintage '50s 'Broadcasters' to record with ('Broadcasters' were renamed 'Telecasters' by the mid-fifties because of a trademark violation suit pursued by Gretsch®). The guitar happened to be sitting in the studio. So, Charles graciously let me try it out. You can hear this guitar in the single, My Animal. It's the really aggressive sounding one panned to the left of the stereo field played in groups of three chorded eighth note bursts during the songs bridge section. Jason Carter, who engineered and produced the recording session, felt that its sound contrasted well against the other tracked guitar ('Smoothie', my Stratocaster). I agreed. Jason has a very good ear for these kinds of things. While I absolutely appreciated the special sound and quality of the Broadcaster, I was amazed at how well 'Kate' measured up to Charles' classic guitar; when Jason and I compared them against one another. I was delighted to discover my efforts to tame 'Kate' were not in vain after all. Despite what I considered the Fender factory's initial incomplete treatment of this American built Telecaster, 'Kate' had none-the-less been transformed into a beautifully refined instrument. This was the Tele I used for the single, Real Magik, as well as other recently released songs. *** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** I wandered one fine day into a music store called Music 6000 located in Olympia WA. I don't remember anymore what exactly brought me in. I was probably needing to purchase something trivial like guitar strings, cables, drum sticks, drum heads, etc. Anyway, I ran straight into this Taylor 612ce set up front in the guitar dept. Destiny, fate, love at first sight? One look, I knew I had to have it . . . What ever 'vibe' you want to call it, that's what hit me square in the face. When it comes to big (and expensive) equipment purchases, I'm usually pretty cautious. I do a lot of research on the gear I'm interested in. Build a list of potential candidates from different manufactures. Compare features, costs and reviews. I generally spend quite sometime narrowing things down until I reach a final conclusion. In this case, however, I was 'three sheets to the wind.' Because all of my normally heedful modus operandi... my checks and balances... went sailing recklessly out to sea. I had, by this time however, begun to develop some faith in the Taylor® brand and so assumed (naively or not) this would automatically be a great instrument. Luckily for me, it proved to be just that. The purchase of this guitar brought me out of the, "Martin camp", and into the Taylor one. Not that I have any problem with C.F. Martin & Co.®. They have a long-standing tradition of excellent guitars. This was the time though when Taylor was the emerging upstart ; about to kick the established lord off the thrown. I was ready to be part of a guitar 'renaissance.' To simply say, 'I have come to love this guitar', would be a gross misstatement. It has become much more than that. This instrument is literally a part of me. The only other guitar I can say the same thing about is 'Engedi 1.' I will have this instrument until the day I die! And then it will be passed down to my progeny. All you have to do is listen to it applied in the setting of a song like Divin' Down or Annabel In The Moonlight and you will understand. I named this guitar 'Wings', referring to its wing shaped fringerboard inlays. Also, because playing this instrument feels like flying...
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Jeff JewkesProfessional musician / composer / audio engineer who also ventures into fine art photography, geometric design, lutherie, artisan bread baking, electrical engineering, blogging, charity drives, and other things that keep life crazy and amazing. . . Article Quick Links:
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Hallucinogenic Dissociative Effects Pedal Disorder 'Pearls' Franklin's Instrument of Madness! 'Eurydice' 'Smoothie' or 'Calypso' What Ever My Preference... 'Little Wings' 'Kate' 'Wings' The Beat Goes On If It's Good Enough For Bootsy... Hello, Old Friend... The Uninvited Guest My Simmons Drum Inspiration |