Vitamin Q

I retract my previous comment that electronics would probably add very little to the sound of a vintage tele..actually I am still covered, because I said some time ago that they might add to the 'tone'. On EBay right now, you can buy reproduction wax capacitors for either an early fifties Tele or a late fifties/ early sixties tele. The old capacitors looked yellow, and like some overgrown Good and Plenty candy. They look sort of cool. The old ones were made with foil and paper originally, but the NOS (new old stock) Vitamin Q capacitors are made differently. The NOS ones are made with paper and oil. These type of capacitors were originally used for military and aerospace use in the fifties. The dielectric and foil in the new ones is also sealed in a metal and glass tube, and do not drift in value, or degrade with time (like a twinkie if you left it for 3000 years). These things are known for lending a more 'musical' quality to your guitar. These little things also include original ingredients... like pitch and beeswax. The '56 -'58 Esquires take 3 little yellow capacitors (ZSW1S5 .05/150v), and also one 3.3k Carbon Comp resistor. The '58-'62 Telecasters take a ZNW1P1 and a ZYW1S5. Go check this guy out... he is at http://stores.ebay.com/Luxe-Guitars. ... and I don't get a cut of his sales....no.....

Selling your Stuff on EBay...

All musicians need to buy and sell 'stuff'. How does someone 'savvy' accomplish this? EBay. How do you list your guitar (coming from someone who has done it many times)?. First of all... avoid lying. Calling every guitar you sell "A Tone Monster" (as I have said before)... and using comments like "This Guitar would make Eddie Van Halen drool" are not encouraged... except in the very rare case it is true. If someone goes to your EBay profile, and discovers (as I have) that someone has sold 11 guitars in 3 months, and every one was a "Tone Monster".... I am going to start to think someone is either stretching the point, or lying. How something sounds is very personal too... I have thought a guitar sounded wonderful at first, and raved about it to my session friend, only to have him tilt his head and wait for me to play a little longer... after which, I sometimes change my opinion after trying all 3 tele selector switch positions, and all tone-selector combinations. At this point I might find that it is just an 'average, good playing guitar'. For the record... I have had one real dog (discussed recently)... by 'Brand X' (I don't want to hurt their business... but 'Brand X' IS NOT, repeat NOT any of the following: Nash, Monroe, Fender, Sadowsky, Linhof or GVCG...). I have had about 6 average, good players (that I would not run into a house to rescue), and 3 or 4 that were 'alive' (and I might run into a burning house to rescue... ok, I WOULD run into the burning house... at least try).

Slipcovers

What do you do with your guitar when you are not playing it? Manufacturers rightly point out that the only place to safely put your guitar is in it's case... but isn't that a little like putting slipcovers on the sofa? Where else can you put it? If you are like most people, it will go on a stand. Most manufacturers now guarantee that their stands will not affect Nitro paint... no... they will not reimburse you for damages though (if it does). A lot of guitars out there are still NOT nitro, unless you buy high-end instruments... so stands are generally safe. Even if it is on a safe stand.. is it in direct sunlight? Maybe it's sitting under that heating vent you have in your room. Maybe kitty isn't de-clawed, or fido isn't house trained. How about a wall hanger.. how about California earthquakes? Certainly don't leave it in the car... that is the biggest no-no that everyone agrees on. But I have to ask you... why does that guitar your favorite rock god is playing look so good... answer: probably because it was treated so bad... just don't leave it out in the rain.

Practice, Practice...

I recently have been thinking of someone I know who composes on their piano. They practice for a good part of six hours a day. That is my goal... practice my guitar for six hours a day... just like Jimi Hendrix supposedly did. If you hear the stories that have outlived Jimi, he slept with his guitar, and it became a part of his body... trouble is Isaac Hanson, of the band Hanson, got a blood clot in his right arm, that caused painful swelling. He attributed the clot to playing his guitar for long periods of time on tour, without moving or changing positions. I have not heard of this problem with piano composers. The guitar requires a more unusual body position than a piano... even though the Gipsy Kings may make it look relaxing. (Yes, I actually did spell Jimi and Gipsy the way the artists had it). The guitar and the piano are different instruments, and I may have to make concessions to my practice sessions... or at least move around a bit between my sets at home, in front of my dog. At least he stays for the whole set.

Lube Job..

If you read all the care-and-feeding manuals provided by guitar manufacturers, you know that they recommend
doing all sorts of things to your guitar, sometimes every time you change the strings. You are meant to get out
all sorts of things... even 3-in-1 oil... a thing I never previously wanted in the same room as my guitar. Even
though my guitar does have metal and plastic parts, I still think of it as a fine instrument... just like any other
musical instrument. Apparently, the fretboard needs frequent oiling...but with lemon oil '.. to remove perspiration and oils from playing'.
It looks like I would be rubbing, oiling and shining all day... more than my Dad had me doing as a kid Saturday morning, on
his car, and on our house... Truth be told... many luthiers and writers agree... your hand oils naturally help preserve
your fretboard, and apart from a tiny amount of a drop or two of oil in those tuners every long once and a while, not
much is really required for your guitar. A good set-up is required. No... unless you are a stage musician, you do not
need new strings every night. That 50's Tele found in someone's closet can look great... and play great...even though
there wasn't someone shining and cleaning it every few minutes. I guess all this does help the 3-in-1 oil company sell
more oil... (and the lemon oil people too).

Ugly Ducklings

What makes a Fender Stratocaster worth more than a lap steel guitar? Why do people pay more for a Tele or a Strat, than for the 'higher quality' Jazzmaster? Heck.. the headstock is even painted the same color as on the body sometimes... but to no avail. Even Elvis Costello could not really kick-start a Jazzmaster craze. Was it the 'Jazz' part of 'Jazzmaster' that was a turn-off? Not really a rock-n-roll name for sure. Possibly too many buttons... too much to work out? More likely though... the answer lies in two areas; maybe not as attractive to the eye, and the shape is not as good for great tone. Piffle you say! Ah... not so. Go watch 3:10 to Yuma, and tell me that the Colt Peacemaker is not the most attractive pistol ever made. Well you are looking at the same magical designing skills that came into play with the Strat, the Tele, and the Les Paul. The Jazzmaster has it's many followers, but is still sort of an ugly duckling in the Fender family, the one not going to the prom. (I will catch flak on this, and beauty IS in the eye of the beholder, so keep reading please). Now to how the Jazzmaster (and Jaguar) sound... in an private EMail to me, a well-known and now highly sucessful guitar manufacturer admitted that whenever he made 'J' Style Guitars he just couldn't get them to sound any good. He said it was easy (for him) to get the 'T' Style and the 'S' Style to sound great, but he hated making the 'J' Style guitars. Whether it was in the shape of the wood, or in the electronics, they just didn't sound as good. Ugly duckling lovers forgive me... and Elvis Costello, you still made your's sound great, but I'll choose a Tele or a Strat first.

Bruce Juice

Apparently Bruce Springsteen used to sweat so much playing his 'Blackguard' tele that they had to seal the pickups to make them waterproof. This is nothing against Bruce... I like him. Those lights get pretty hot, and creativity takes a lot out of you. (I don't know, I haven't been onstage at the Wiltern recently...if ever... but I do feel I create sometimes). This was many incarnations ago for his guitar... as even he will admit. Pickups are replaced and repotted, pots changed, things added, new necks attached... if you check out photos of Bruce over the years, you will see his Tele change. So why does Bruce's guitar look BETTER after all the sweat? Same for Rory Gallagher, and SRV, and Jeff Beck... the list goes on. However, I saw another guitar for sale on EBay the other day that hadn't fared so well. No... it didn't look attractive... it looked like it had been dipped in acid. Meanwhile, I face a whole other type of problem...the 'New Sneaker' syndrome we all know. We are petrified of that first scuff. I have daydreams of throwing my Tele to someone who rudely puts it in a corner. I am sitting at a bar in Pensacola, Florida (yes... McGuires Irsh Pub and Brewery), and while reaching for my end-of-the-last-set drink, my headstock knocks over my mike stand. My roadie Phil picks up my guitar by the neck, after eating a burrito... he had wiped his hands down, but there is still some burrito mojo left for my guitar neck. Then my luthier cleans things up, with a nice light scrub with lemon oil, and a little 3-in-1 for the tuners, which overflows and drips down the back of the neck, and adds even more mojo. While I am at the VIP party, signing autographs, some person has persuaded my roadie (still Phil), to let them open the case and examine the famous axe... yes, more mojo. Nothing makes a guitar look better over time than mojo... so let's all try and relax, stop worrying about losing money in damages, and start throwing that puppy to the guy in the wings.

NAMM Doesn't Want Fingerwatchers.

Last year at the California NAMM™ show Eddie Van Halen played his new Frankenstrat™ live... problem was, I had turned down an invite to the show. My good friend who used to work at Guitar Center Hollywood, and now works for a well known drumstore in London, had a pass for me at the time. This was last year... when apparently NAMM™ was more lax about who they let in. They only want music retailers, dealers and wholesalers there (officially). Anyone else who gets in is considered 'superflous'... and they are. If I had gone last year...I might have bought a new Eastwood guitar when I got home..or not... but otherwise would have been edging closer and closer to Eddie, to check out the ageing rocker's licks and see how Fender did the pickups on his new Strat. I found out recently that the front row of Beck concerts is full of people like me... watching fingers and noting how the artist is hitting a note, or how he has opted to do a bend... I think we are called 'finger watchers'. I also found out that watching Beck play, it is very hard to figure out exactly what he is doing with his fingers. In any case, NAMM doesn't want fingerwatchers. This year they are getting security as tight as a Britney Spears concert. Nice guys that sound like ex-Jerry Garcia fans are lamenting the inavailability of NAMM™ tickets this year for those not in the industry. ID's will now be checked, to actual names on the passes...security will be tight. There will be no 'riding on the coattails' of a friend who works in the Vintage room in Hollywood Guitar Center. But all of this makes me wonder what turned a Trade Show into a Britney Spears concert... I think it had something to do with Eddie Turning up last year, and giving that private performance...

Mom's Credit Card

So who makes the best guitar? Who's guitars always have tone (tone monster) mojo? Come on... gotta be one... right? Fender... Gibson, Linhof, Nash, GVCG, PRS...how about those 1980's '57 reissues I was talking about. I have bought and owned and sold scores of guitars... and even guitars by the same masterbuilder do NOT guarantee tone. I have owned two guitars, built by the same masterbuilder. One was 'nice'. I took it for a set up, and picked it up, without any comment from the luthier. The OTHER, I went down to get, and the luthier WAS PLAYING IT when I came in. Likewise, when they built all those limited edition Gibson Doubleneck SG's for Jimmy Page, he hand chose a select group out of many that he liked the sound of. I am sure all the guitars he was handed had equally good wood and workmanship... and identical electronics etc. But even Jimmy knew... some sounded great... some sounded good... and some were meant to go on a wall for display. I have bought Nash guitars... some sounded amazing, some sounded good... but so far, none sounded bad. I have bought and sold 6 Nash guitars to date... each one went to a happy home. I like what a recent rock musician said in VGM (Vintage Guitar Magazine)... I look for guitars that sound good... if they don't then I don't want them. That doesn't mean I don't pass along some winners... most of the Nash Guitars I have sold were really great sounding guitars, and one I really should have kept (but as I say, I have enough great sounding guitars). Have I had any dogs? Yes. But not in the past year... I am developing a tried-and-true process of guitar aquisition, that will not allow me to get involved with dogs. Last dog I had was about 2 years ago... let's call it 'Brand X'... I kept it for less than one day, and called up the store to return it. The guy there was angry...he actually accused me of being 15... that I had wasted his time, and was now banned from ever shopping with him again. Why? Because I am sure I was the third or fourth guy to return that guitar to him, and he knew he was now stuck with it... the guitar maker is still making guitars, so I don't want to ruin his life... but if you ever get a dog, call up the store immediately, and ask them to return it... even if they accuse you of using your Mom's credit card...

Losing Your Nut

Are you losing your nut?? I mean... like the '56 Tele I used to have. The nut slots were worn so low, that the strings barely cleared the first fret. The thing was BARELY playable. What caused this? Was it too much filing? Actually... no... probably just wear and tear from being played a lot. Nuts get worn, and then the strings 'fret out' at the first fret. Bone nuts sound better, but graphite is supposedly better for electric guitars (and might wear a bit better too). Once things have progressed to the point of a bone nut wearing down it's slots, you either have to put something under the nut to raise it up again, or start with a new nut. If you own a vintage '53 Tele, worth 35K, collectors will not like this. You will pay the price for playing that old tele. Keith Richards doesn't care (yes, I can speak for him on this one)... he plays his guitars, they are not totally original, and there are newer parts in those guitars that are constantly being replaced. If you want to buy a '53 Tele and play it, you are either Keith Richards, Bill Gates, or a liberated individual. The way to check if your nut is ok is to fret any string at the third fret... you should then be able to get a piece of paper between the first fret and the string fretted. Another way to check this is to go to your luthier and say "set it up again Fred, with a set of '11's".