Little Chords and Scales
I was at a jam session at Guitar Solutions Saturday, and got in a conversation about chord shapes and voicings. Specifically we were talking about a major chord with the third on the sixth string. For instance--if you put a barre at the seventh fret and then put what looks like an open “C” chord underneath it you would have a G major chord. The note on the sixth string would be a “b” which is the third of the chord. . The notes of the chord, low to high, would be b (3), g (R), b(3), d(5), g ( R), g (3).
While I occasionally play all six strings of this chord , I much more frequently use the shape to develop triads on the 2,3 and 4 strings.
Like this--Key of G--Chords G (I) C (IV) D (V)
------------------------------------------------
--8--------------8---------------------7-------
--7--------------9---------------------7-------
-9--------------10--------------------7-------
------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------
This is an example of what I think of as “little chords”. Little chords only have two, three, or occasionally four notes. Sometimes They don’t have a root. Freddie Green often used little chords when playing with Count Basie.
These shapes lend themselves to lead and melodic applications. There are a lot of licks available in the immediate vicinity using the G major diatonic, G major pentatonic and “D” mixolydian scales. The D Mixolydian is especially cool because it is a great all purpose scale for jamming over jazz changes such as the IIm7, V7, and I.
Here are the fingerings for those three scales
G Major Diatonic G Major Pentatonic (Starting on 5) D Mixolydian
----------------------------------------------------7-----------------------------------------7-8--10----
------------------------7--8--------------8---10--------------------------------7--8--10----------------
-------------------7-9-------------7--9---------------------------------7--9-----------------------------
-------7--9--10-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--10-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that they all use the notes of the G major scale. The main difference is the starting note.
Of course these chords and scales are all moveable and can be played in any key.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Danelectro U2
Just the Facts
The Danelectro company was founded by Nat Daniels in the fifties and made lots of low end guitars and amps. Most were marketed by Sears under the Silvertone name. However many were sold in music stores as Danelectros. For the most part, the guitars were cheap and were quite popular, especially with beginners. Tons of guitar players learned on a Silvertone guitar made by Danelectro.
Most Danelectro guitars featured a hollow wood frame, masonite body and silver lipstick tube pickups. The earliest instruments actually used tubes that had been manufactured by cosmetic companies as containers for lipstick.
The Danelectro company went out of business in the sixties but then in the nineties the name was purchased by a new company that began manufacturing authentic copies of some of the original guitars. These guitars were imports and I believe they were made in Korea. One of the first of the Reissues was the U2 model.
The Danelectro U2 features 2 lipstick single coil pickups, concentric volume and tone controls, selector switch, rosewood fingerboard, and aluminum nut. It is very similar in appearance and construction to the original.
The guitar is very light, and has a bright, snappy tone. It sounds good in a variety of applications.
Shortly after I got this guitar I was in the pit orchestra of the musical, Grease. The show was mounted with the band on stage inside a giant juke box. I used this guitar because of its appearance and also because of the sound. It sounded really great on the retro style music.
Where and When
I got this guitar for Christmas in 1998.
Why it’s Cool
It is very light and sounds quite good, especially through a clean or mildly distorted amp. It also looks really neat. It rocks--it rolls and especially it twangs, sounding quite a bit like a lighter tele.
On the Other Hand
The strap buttons are plastic and tend to come out at inopportune times. The bridge is basically a piece of wood, and is not very adjustable. The tuners are pretty cheap.
Samick GL 950
Just the Facts
Samick is one of the world’s largest guitar companies and has made guitars marketed by Hondo, Epiphone, Fender, and others as well as under the Samick brand.
This guitar was probably made in the late eighties, or possibly nineties. I e-mailed Samick and was unable to get any information about this guitar. On one of the guitar forums there are pictures of two similar guitars, but nobody seems to know much about them. About all I know about this guitar is derived from examination of the instrument.
It features a neck-through design, and in appearance is similar to some of the guitars made by Alembic in the seventies. It also resembles the Ibanez Musician, and S.D. Curley Guitars from the same period.
The fingerboard is ebony and the body appears to be maple and walnut. The model number on a little sticker on the back says GL950 NA. The NA probably refers to the natural finish. There are two humbucking pickups, a stop tail piece and tune-o-matic style bridge. The two volume, two tone, and selector switch layout are similar to most two hum- bucking guitars. The sealed tuners say Samick and resemble those made by Schaller and Gotoh.
The workmanship on this guitar is very good ,although two of the fretboard inlays are a little off center.
Where and When
I got this guitar from a friend in about 2010.
Why it’s Cool
This is a very good guitar. It is fairly light and the pickups are well balanced and sound good. It is also a really good looking guitar.
On the Other Hand
It sounds pretty much like most two humbucker guitars.
The sound is good but not particularly distinguished or magical.
I really like this guitar and would like to know more about it. I’d like to know when it was made and would be interested in any marketing materials about it. I have been reading Guitar Player Magazine since 1976, and still have most of them. I don’t recall ever seeing this model advertised.
If you know anything about this guitar let me know.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Exhibit C: Fender (or maybe Tokai) 62 Reissue Strat
Just the Facts
This is a very high quality replica of a 1962 Fender Strat. It has an authentic Fender decal on the head stock. However, it was probably made by Tokai. It has Tokai hardware and before they were replaced with EMG’s had Tokai pickups. I got it from a private party in Lake Oswego. Bob Stull of guitar crazy said that there was an attorney there who liked to put Fender Decals on various copy guitars. He thought I had one of those. Shortly after I got it I had Twelfth Fret install EMG pickups and a replica vintage pick guard.
Another possibility is that this guitar as advertised is a Made in Japan Fender reissue, or perhaps a Tokai body and hardware with a Fender neck. However, I think it most likely that it is a Tokai with a Fender decal on the headstock.
Where and When
I got this guitar from a private party in Lake Oswego, Oregon in 1987. Till I got this guitar I mostly played Gibsons, but since then it’s been mostly Fenders.
Why it’s Cool
This is a great guitar. The neck is excellent and I love the sound of the EMG pickups. It is easy to play, and fairly light.
One reason I wanted a strat was to get the Mark Knoffler “out of phase” sound and this guitar does it very well.
On the Other Hand
I’m not really a Strat Cat. I just seem to do better with Tele’s. I often use a Strat style guitar, but when I go back to a Tele it feels like I am going home.
EExhibit B: Fender American Standard Telecaster
Exhibit B: Fender American Standard Telecaster
Just the Facts
This guitar is a 1988 Fender American Standard Telecaster. Fender released the first American Standard Tele’s in 1988, so this one of the earlier ones. A previous owner had replace the stock pickups with EMG’s, and it did not have a case. Other than the replaced pickups it was pretty much in mint condition.
Where and When
I got this guitar in summer of ’93 at McKenzie River Music in Eugene. For some time, I had been wanting a tele with a rosewood fingerboard. At the time I had two other tele’s--a ’52 reissue and an ’84 Tele Elite--but I had issues with both of them. I found the pickups on the Elite to be a little too hot for my tastes, and the maple fingerboard on the ‘52 reissue got sticky after a couple of sets. I was familiar with EMG pickups and had had a set installed on a Stratocaster. After a fret dress and set up by Twelfth Fret in Portland, it played like a dream and sounded wonderful.
Why it’s Cool
The first time I saw a Telecaster was in a picture in the 1965 Fender catalog. The accompanying copy said that while Telecasters and Esquires were the earliest Fenders, some old timers still preferred them. I remember thinking that it looked funny with the huge bridge cover and funny shape. At the time I thought the ideal cool guitar was a Fender Jaguar, Mustang, or maybe a Stratocaster.
As time went on my tastes changed. Through the seventies and most of the eighties I played Gibson, mostly Les Pauls. Then in the late eighties and early nineties I started playing more Fenders. I really liked my ‘52 Tele reissue except for the late set stickiness on the strings. I thought a rosewood neck tele would probably be great.
This guitar more than exceeded my expectations. It sounds great with all three pickup combinations. It is good for country, rock, jazz, pop--anything I want to play. There is no significant volume drop off between the pickup settings and the tone and volume controls are very useful. If I could only have one guitar, this would be it.
On the Other Hand
With this guitar, there is no other hand. It has been my main ax for nearly twenty years. While I enjoy playing other guitars, I always return to this guitar for most of my playing.
Just the Facts
This guitar is a 1988 Fender American Standard Telecaster. Fender released the first American Standard Tele’s in 1988, so this one of the earlier ones. A previous owner had replace the stock pickups with EMG’s, and it did not have a case. Other than the replaced pickups it was pretty much in mint condition.
Where and When
I got this guitar in summer of ’93 at McKenzie River Music in Eugene. For some time, I had been wanting a tele with a rosewood fingerboard. At the time I had two other tele’s--a ’52 reissue and an ’84 Tele Elite--but I had issues with both of them. I found the pickups on the Elite to be a little too hot for my tastes, and the maple fingerboard on the ‘52 reissue got sticky after a couple of sets. I was familiar with EMG pickups and had had a set installed on a Stratocaster. After a fret dress and set up by Twelfth Fret in Portland, it played like a dream and sounded wonderful.
Why it’s Cool
The first time I saw a Telecaster was in a picture in the 1965 Fender catalog. The accompanying copy said that while Telecasters and Esquires were the earliest Fenders, some old timers still preferred them. I remember thinking that it looked funny with the huge bridge cover and funny shape. At the time I thought the ideal cool guitar was a Fender Jaguar, Mustang, or maybe a Stratocaster.
As time went on my tastes changed. Through the seventies and most of the eighties I played Gibson, mostly Les Pauls. Then in the late eighties and early nineties I started playing more Fenders. I really liked my ‘52 Tele reissue except for the late set stickiness on the strings. I thought a rosewood neck tele would probably be great.
This guitar more than exceeded my expectations. It sounds great with all three pickup combinations. It is good for country, rock, jazz, pop--anything I want to play. There is no significant volume drop off between the pickup settings and the tone and volume controls are very useful. If I could only have one guitar, this would be it.
On the Other Hand
With this guitar, there is no other hand. It has been my main ax for nearly twenty years. While I enjoy playing other guitars, I always return to this guitar for most of my playing.
Amps
My first amp was an 18 watt Lectrolab ordered from the Bennett Brothers Catalogue in fall 1965. It was probably a model R600C. It had two channels, a 12” Jensen Speaker and tremelo. I thought it sounded really good, but it didn’t have the umph to hang with the loud drummers I was beginning to play with. So for the next several years I was on a quest to get better amps.
Between 1967, when I graduated from High School, and 1970 when I got my Twin Reverb, I played through a variety of amps including a solid state Silvertone with 6 10” speakers, a Blackface 2--12 Fender Bassman, and a Baldwin Exterminator.
The Exterminator was kind of interesting. It stood about five feet high and had six speakers--2-15" speakers, 2 - 12" speakers and 2 - 7" speakers. It was very loud, and had colored push button tone controls. It weighed a ton and didn’t really sound very good. The only person I’ve heard of who uses one is Neil Young. I’ve never actually seen one except for the one I had.
In 1970 I got a silver face Twin Reverb. It came stock with JBL speakers, and as a result weighs a svelte 115 pounds. I still have the amp, but don’t use it much anymore. It’s just too heavy to move, even with the castors that I put on. However that was my main amp until about 1986.
Other amps I used along the way included a Carvin X series amp that was basically a copy of a Mesa Boogie, a Fender Stage Lead SS amp, a Peavey Bandit, a Fender 30 tube amp, and a Peavey Backstage Plus which was an amazing little amp.
Sometime in the early nineties I got a Fender Silverface Vibrolux Reverb amp and that has been my main big amp since that time.
Most of the time these days I use small solid state amps however. I have a Fender Princeton 65 DSP that I use quite a bit, as well as a couple of Roland Cube amps--the 30 X series and the Cube 60. Both offer modeling and various effects and in a band context sound really good. In addition they weigh less than thirty pounds which is getting to be more and more of a consideration as time goes on.
My first amp was an 18 watt Lectrolab ordered from the Bennett Brothers Catalogue in fall 1965. It was probably a model R600C. It had two channels, a 12” Jensen Speaker and tremelo. I thought it sounded really good, but it didn’t have the umph to hang with the loud drummers I was beginning to play with. So for the next several years I was on a quest to get better amps.
Between 1967, when I graduated from High School, and 1970 when I got my Twin Reverb, I played through a variety of amps including a solid state Silvertone with 6 10” speakers, a Blackface 2--12 Fender Bassman, and a Baldwin Exterminator.
The Exterminator was kind of interesting. It stood about five feet high and had six speakers--2-15" speakers, 2 - 12" speakers and 2 - 7" speakers. It was very loud, and had colored push button tone controls. It weighed a ton and didn’t really sound very good. The only person I’ve heard of who uses one is Neil Young. I’ve never actually seen one except for the one I had.
In 1970 I got a silver face Twin Reverb. It came stock with JBL speakers, and as a result weighs a svelte 115 pounds. I still have the amp, but don’t use it much anymore. It’s just too heavy to move, even with the castors that I put on. However that was my main amp until about 1986.
Other amps I used along the way included a Carvin X series amp that was basically a copy of a Mesa Boogie, a Fender Stage Lead SS amp, a Peavey Bandit, a Fender 30 tube amp, and a Peavey Backstage Plus which was an amazing little amp.
Sometime in the early nineties I got a Fender Silverface Vibrolux Reverb amp and that has been my main big amp since that time.
Most of the time these days I use small solid state amps however. I have a Fender Princeton 65 DSP that I use quite a bit, as well as a couple of Roland Cube amps--the 30 X series and the Cube 60. Both offer modeling and various effects and in a band context sound really good. In addition they weigh less than thirty pounds which is getting to be more and more of a consideration as time goes on.
Exhibit A: Fender Duo-Sonic
Exhibit A: Fender Duo-Sonic
Just the Facts
Duo-Sonics were manufactured between 1959 and 1964 when they were replaced with the Duo-Sonic II. Originally they had a gold anodized pick guard and maple fingerboard. In 1959 they changed to a rosewood fingerboard and single layer plastic pick guard. Early Duo-Sonics featured a Desert Sand finish. Later models had a red sunburst and then white finish.
The Duo-Sonic had two plastic covered single coil pickups, volume, tone, and selector switch.
The Duo-Sonic was a student guitar and was essentially a two pick up version of the Fender Music Master. It had a short, 22.5” scale, and was marketed to players with smaller hands such as students or women.
My Duo-Sonic is a 1960 model. It has the plastic pick guard and the slab rosewood fingerboard. It came with a beat up case and the ash tray bridge cover. It is pretty much in very good to excellent condition, and is all original except for the selector switch. When the original switch broke, the guy who had the guitar before me replaced it with an old strat three way switch, which required him to make a cut in the the pick guard. It works fine, but does look a little weird.
Where and When
I got this guitar in winter of 1987 from a private party in Beaverton, Oregon. We were living in Sandy, Oregon at the time, and I saw an ad in the paper. I called him up and drove all the way to the other side of the metro area to meet him at his apartment. He was a little late and I remember hanging around outside his apartment hoping he would show up. After a while he did, and I bought the guitar. I think it cost about $200.
Why it’s Cool
My first electric guitar which I bought from a friend in 1965 was a Duo-Sonic. I learned to play on that guitar, and still remember how great it sounded the first time I plugged it into his little tweed Champ Amp. I eventually traded that guitar for an Epiphone Casino in 1974.
Duo-Sonics are neat for a lot of reasons. It is small and light. The pickups sound good. The short scale makes it easy to bend. Also original pre-CBS Fenders are getting pretty pricy, as are guitars with Brazilian Rosewood finger boards.
For a while in the early eighties I played in the Jim Glass Band. Jim used a Duo-Sonic two through a Fender Twin Reverb and got great sound out of it. I think they are just really cool guitars.
On the Other Hand
There are lots of other guitars that sound as good or better, and sometimes the small size can be a little bit of a problem.
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