Höfner-basson säätimet == The controls on a Höfner bass
Using the Volume Control to Adjust Distortion
Before the advent of channel-switching guitar amps using your guitar’s volume control(s) was the main way to adjust your gain level.
This works especially well with amps that have relatively low clean headroom and break up into distortion easily.
In this video I use an approximation of the Who’s live arrangement of ”Pinball Wizard” to demonstrate this way of adjusting your distortion levels.
Guitar: Arvo Guitar with 2 P-90s
Amp: Bluetone Shadows Jr combo (Vox AC15 style amp)
No effect pedals used!
Ukulele Strings – Nylgut or Fluorocarbon?
Where there’s a forum, there’s a fight – or at least that’s what it looks like.
Electric guitarists like to argue for ages about valve amplifiers and digital amp modellers, and which one is ”better”.
Uke players, for their part, get all hot under the collar when it comes to ukulele strings. There are two main camps – Nylgut-fans and fluorocarbon-connoisseurs. Although the uke is classified as an nylon-string instrument, very few instruments are strung with straight nylon anymore.
Nylgut and Supernylgut strings have been developed in Italy. A string company named Aquila came up with a patented way of manufacturing plastic strings, whose sound and feel is as close as possible to traditional gut strings. Gut strings have always been somewhat problematic, because it is hard to produce a string of uniform quality, when the basic material is of animal origin. Additionally, gut strings react far stronger to changes in humidity and temperature (resulting in pitch fluctuations), compared to plastics like nylon.
Aquila Nylguts have become a de facto industry standard, especially for affordable and mid-price ukuleles.
Nylguts are easy to spot thanks to their milky look and silky surface. First-generation Nylgut strings tended to have a coarser surface, which made them susceptible to a bit of handling noise (faint squeaks), but current versions have managed to do away with this problem (almost) completely.
Aquila Nylguts tend to produce a crisp, bright and open sound, which is why they can be a good choice for darker sounding ukuleles (like many plywood-bodied instruments). Some players, though, dislike the soft bendiness of Nylgut strings.
Fluorocarbon strings are a quite recent addition, too, despite the fact that the material has already been in use for fishing lines for quite some time. Fluorocarbon is a sturdy and dense material that makes it possible to make slightly smaller gauge strings than Nylgut. Fluorocarbons also tend to feel a bit stiffer.
C.F. Martin’s ukuleles come strung with fluorocarbons as standard, and many high-end makers have started to follow Martin’s lead. Fluorocarbon strings are also quite popular with progressive players and many vintage ukulele owners.
Most fluorocarbon strings are clear, even though you can also buy coloured versions of this string type, too. In Finland Martin-strings are the most widely available, but many other manufacturers, like D’Addario, GHS or Worth, make their own quality fluorocarbons.
A seldomly mentioned advantage of fluorocarbon strings is that – because of their slightly smaller diameter – they can sometimes solve intonation problems, if a uke pitches slightly sharp with a set of Nylguts.
Fluorocarbon strings tend to sound meatier and punchier compared to Nylgut strings.
****
The audio clips have been played on a pair of Martin Style 2-type sopranos – a Sigma SUM-2S (Supernylgut) and an Ohana SK-38 (fluorocarbon).
****
Read Kitarablogi’s Ukulele Round-up 2017 HERE.
Ukulelekielet – Nylgut vai fluorocarbon?
Missä nettifoorumi siinä ilmiriita – tai siitä ainakin näyttää.
Sähkökitaristit kinastelevat siitä, onko putkivahvistin parempi kuin digitaalinen vastine.
Ukulelesoittajat taas riitelevät kielistä. On olemassa kaksi pääleiriä – Nylgut-fanit ja fluorocarbon-ystävät.
Nylgut- ja Supernylgut-kielet on keksitty Italiassa. Aquila-niminen kieltenvalmistaja keksi tavan valmistaa muovisia kieliä, joiden soundi ja soittotuntuma on mahdollisimman lähellä laadukkaita suolikieliä. Suolikielten huonot puolet ovat – eläinperäisyyden lisäksi – tasalaatuisuuden saavuttamisen hankaluus, sekä se että kielet elävät tuntuvasti sään mukaan (niiden vire muuttuu).
Aquila Nylgut -kielistä on tullut edullisien ja keskihintaisten ukulelejen keskuudessa tietynlainen laatustandardi.
Nylgutit tunnistaa yleensä kielten maitomaisesta värityksestä ja silkkisestä pinnasta. Vanhoissa Nylgut-kielissä niiden karheammasta pinnasta syntyi joskus kummallisia sivuäänejä (vikinä) soittaessaan, mutta nykyisissä versioissa ongelma on saatu (lähes) sataprosenttisesti halttuun.
Aquila Nylgut -kielten sointi on suhteellisen kirkas ja hyvin avoin, minkä ansiosta ne ovatkin hyvä valinta tummasti soivalle soittimelle (esim. vanerikoppainen ukulele). Jotkut soittajat eivät kuitenkaan tykkää Nylgut-kielten taipuisuudesta.
Fluorocarbon-kielet ovat myös melko uusi keksintö, vaikka materiaalia tunnetaan jo pidemmän ajan kalastussiimoista. Fluorocarbon on hyvin kestävä materiaali, josta saa valmistettua Nylgutia (tai nylonia) ohuempia kieliä, joilla on kuitenkin jäykempi tatsi.
C.F. Martinin ukulelet toimitetaan tehtaasta fluorocarbon-kielillä, ja niiden suosio vintage-ukulelejen omistajien ja progressivisten soittajien keskuudessa on yhä kasvussa.
Fluorocarbon-kielet ovat usein täysin läpinäkyviä, vaikka värillisiä vaihtoehtojakin on olemassa. Yleisimmät fluorocarbon-kielet Suomessa ovat varmasti Martin-kielet.
Yksi etu fluorocarboneissa – josta ei puhuta niin usein – on, että kielet voivat joskus, pienemmän läpimittansa ansiosta, parantaa hieman ylivireisesti soivan ukulelen intonaatiota.
Fluorocarbon-kielet soivat tavallisesti hieman isommalla keskialueella ja volyymillä kuin Nylgut-satsi.
****
Esimerkkipätkät on soitettu kahdella Martin Style 2 -tyylisillä sopraanoukuleleilla – Sigma SUM-2S (Supernylgut) ja Ohana SK-38 (fluorocarbon).
****
Kitarablogin suuri ukulelekatsaus 2017 löytyy TÄÄLTÄ.
Rockwayn sopraanoukulele-katsaus ilmestyy marraskuun alussa: blog.rockway.fi/
Ukulelen anatomia
Ukulele on pienikokoinen nelikielinen kielisoitin kitaraperheestä. Musiikkihistorian kirjoissa sanotaan, että havaijilainen ukulele kehittyi nykymuotoon 1800-luvun loppupuolella espanjalaisista ja portugalilaisista ”matkakitaroista”. Lähteestä ja näkökulmasta riippuen, soittimet saapuivat Havaijille joko Etelä-Amerikan kautta (vihuela) tai suoraan europpalaisten maahanmuuttajien mukana (machete tai braguinha).
1900-luvun alussa Yhdysvalloissa kasvoi kiinnostus Havaijin-saaria ja havaijilaista kulttuuria kohtaan. Vuonna 1915 alkoi erilaisten näyttelyjen ja kiertävien musiikkiryhmien kautta USAssa suoranainen Havaijibuumi. Etenkin ukulelellä vaikutti olevan erityisen suurta viehätysvoimaa ja soittimen kysyntä kasvoi räjähdysmäisesti.
Jostakin syystä ukulelen suosio ei loppunut muutaman vuoden jälkeen, vaan pikkuinen soitin teki onnistuneen hyppäyksen hula-hula soittimesta varhaisen jazzin ja vaudeville-viihteen soittimeksi.
Vasta 1960-luvun beat-, rock-, blues- ja folk-aallot veivät lopulta ukulelelta sen pitkän suosion.
Nyt näyttää kuitenkin siitä, että ukulele on tekemässä suuren comebackin. Aktiivisoittajia on tulossa koko ajan lisää. Myös monissa kouluissa oppilaiden ensisoitin on yhä useammin nokkahuilun sijaan ukulele.
Kuvassa (vasemmalta): sopraano-, konsertti- ja tenoriukulele, sekä guita(r)lele.
Alkuperäisestä sopraanoukulelesta kasvoi ajan myötä kokonainen soitinperhe. Sopraanon lisäksi yleisesti käytössä ovat konsertti- ja tenoriukulelet. Pikkuinen sopranino- tai tasku-ukulele on tarkoitettu lähinnä hauskaksi kuriositeetiksi. Baritoniukulele taas eroaa muista perinteisistä ukuleleista virityksen suhteen, sillä sillä on C-virityksen (g1-c1-e1-a1) sijaan sama viritys kuin kitaran neljällä ylimmällä kielellä.
Komppisoittajat suosivat yleensä perinteistä ”korkeaa” C-viritystä – myös tenoriukuleleissa – kun taas monesti melodiaa soittavat soittajat suosivat tenoreissa usein ”matalaa” C-viritystä (g-c1-e1-a1), jossa g-kieli on soittimen matalin kieli. Jotkut taas pitävät sopraanoukulelejään vanhassa (alkuperäisessä) D-virityksessä (a1-d1-fis1-h1).
Perinteisten kokojen lisäksi on markkinoilla vielä bassoukuleleja, joilla on paksujen kumimaisten kieltensä ansiosta sama viritys kuin bassokitaralla, sekä guitalele (tai guitarlele), joka on tenorikokoinen pikkukitara A-virityksellä.
Ukulelen perusrakenne on hyvin kitaramainen – soittimessa on kaula, nauhallinen otelauta, sekä ontto kaikukoppa.
Vintage-tyylisissä sopraanoissa on usein vain 12 nauhaa, mutta isommissa malleissa voi olla jopa 18 nauhaa.
Kitaratyylisen muodon lisäksi on myös tällaisia nk. ananasmallisia soittimia (ns. pineapple uke), joilla on hieman erilainen ääni.
Joissakin malleissa voi olla muotoon prässätty kaareva pohja, niin kuin kuvan taaemmassa soittimessa.
1900-luvun alussa kaikissa ukuleleissa käytettiin virittämiseen esim. monen jousisoittimen tavoin yksinkertaisia puutappeja, joissa puiden kitka piti kielet vireessä (kuvassa: ruskeat virittimet).
1920-luvulla ns. patenttivirittimet astuivat mukaan kuvaan. Myöskään näiden metallisten viritystappien sisällä ei ollut varsinaista koneistoa hammasratoineen, vaan nekin toimivat viritystapin, metalliprikkojen ja -jousien välisellä (säädettävällä) kitkalla.
Moderneissa soittimissa käytetään yleensä joko avoimia tai suljettuja kitaratyylisiä virittimiä.
Nykyisin markkinoilla olevissa ukuleleissa voi olla joko perinteinen talla, jossa tavallinen solmu pitää kielet paikoillaan, …
… tai sitten klassiselta kitaralta lainattu, hieman monimutkaisempi ratkaisu.
Tiedote: Custom Sounds -koulutus – Soittokamojen huolto
Järjestämme sunnuntaina 13.3.2016 vuoden ensimmäisen Custom Sounds- koulutuksen. Kurssi on suunnattu kaikille, joita kiinnostaa, miten omat soittokamansa saa pidettyä kunnossa.
• Miten huollat kitaraasi?
• Miten pidät kitarasi vireessä koko keikan ajan?
• Miten pidät vahvistimesi kunnossa?
• Miten kasataan ammattimainen, kiertueita kestävä pedaalilauta?
Kouluttajina toimivat Custom Soundsin kitarahuoltaja ja kaksi Custom Boardsin teknikkoa, jotka auttavat sinua ratkomaan ongelmiasi ja pärjäämään laitteistosi kanssa täysin itse. Käymme läpi soittimet, johdot, pedaalilaudan, vahvistimen ja kaiuttimet niiden yleisimpien ongelmien kautta. Opit tekemään pikahuollon vahvistimellesi turvallisesti ja helposti.
Päivän kruunaa artistivieraamme Erja Lyytinen. Puhumme Erjan kanssa keikkailun haasteista ja kitaroiden ja vahvistimien huollon tärkeydestä ammattimuusikon näkökulmasta. Erja esittelee meille slide-soittoa ja miten hän käyttää efektejään hyödyksi keikoilla. Käymme myös läpi hänen koko keikkakalustonsa “plektrasta kartioon” -periaatteella.
Lisää infoa löydät TÄÄLTÄ.
”Just one more!” – Living with G.A.S.
****
Just one more…pleeeeeeze!
We’ve all seen the memes on social media, haven’t we? And let’s be honest – there’s plenty of truth in them!
Many – if not most – of us guitarists seem to have an annoying tendency to want to amass a wide selection of instruments and/or effect pedals and/or guitar amps for personal use. This gear lust, which often leads to crammed living conditions, empty pockets, and considerable trouble with our significant other, is generally known as Gear Acquisition Syndrome, colloquially shortened to G.A.S. (or GAS).
It seems that GAS has become ever more prevalent over the last couple of (or three) decades, but the roots of this problem reach as far back as popular music and the advent of mass media.
****
G.A.S. through the decades
The early days
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly the onset of GAS, but many people would agree that Gibson’s Nick Lucas Special signature model (first released in 1927) played a crucial part.
Nick Lucas (1897-1982) was an accomplished guitarist and popular crooner, whose biggest hits (in the late Twenties and early Thirties) coincided with the popularity of the radio and the wider availability of phonograph records.
The Nick Lucas Special was Gibson’s first signature guitar, laying the groundwork for the endorsement deals we’re familiar with these days. Apart from riding on an artist’s popularity, a signature guitar also tends to suggest to the guitarist that, were he (or she) to play this particular instrument, some of the magic (as well as the technical prowess) of the endorsing artist might rub off. In short, the message is ”buy this guitar, and you will become a better and more popular player!”
As most male guitarists not only care for their playing technique, but also for the opposite sex, becoming more popular always sounded (and still sounds) like a good idea.
The Fifties and Sixties – the guitar boom
During the first half of the 20th Century the guitar grew from a not-very-common, specialist instrument into a popular mainstream choice – not least thanks to Country music and the ”singing cowboys” featured on radio and records, as well as in the movie theatres.
But it was Rock ’n’ Roll that put the guitar in all its shapes on the top of the desirability list for masses of youngsters in the so-called Western World.
Yet, GAS wasn’t such a serious issue at that time, because musical instruments were outrageously expensive then, and some of the top US-brands almost impossible to get hold of in Europe.
Andy Babiuk’s fantastic book ”Beatles Gear” gives the reader a very good idea of how difficult it was for the guitarists of the late Fifties and early Sixties to even scrape together enough money to buy a single guitar (or amp). Owning multiple guitars was the privilege of the biggest stars only. Back in 1965 a new, baby blue Fender Stratocaster would have set you back around 3,000 euros in today’s money! This makes a current American Standard Stratocaster seem dead cheap at approximately 1,500 euros. And remember, back then there was no such thing as a quality (licensed) copy, and even substandard instruments from Eastern Europe weren’t really cheap (Harrison’s Czech-made Futurama cost him the better part of 1,200 euros in today’s money).
Still, young players were brand-conscious, at least to some degree, and lusting for the exact guitar they knew their idol was playing. Even if they couldn’t afford it…
They don’t make ’em like they used to
The transition of the plain old ”used guitar” to the ”vintage guitar” we all know today got to a start in the late Sixties, mostly fuelled by the two best-known brands – Gibson and Fender:
When flagging sales of the Gibson Les Paul prompted the company to scuttle the model in favour of the instrument we now know as the Gibson SG, nobody could have foreseen that the move would lead to the first run on a discontinued electric guitar model ever. Caused by the exposure given to the ”out of print” Les Paul Standard by the new wave of Blues players, spearheaded by Mike Bloomfield and Eric Clapton, many serious guitarists started actively searching for used Les Pauls. The fact that Gibson chose to reissue the Les Paul in the late Sixties, but failed to sense that the crowd lusted for the double-humbucker Burst (instead of the Goldtop and the Custom), quickly turned the original Standards produced between 1958 and 1960 into the stuff of legend.
Both Fender and Gibson became parts of large business conglomerates before the Sixties were over, and a feeling started to seep into the guitar community that the earlier instruments were of a higher quality than those produced under the new managements.
Big in Japan
The proliferation of reasonably well-made guitars from Japan – often dead-on copies of US classics – at reasonable prices was what truly kicked off the phenomenon we now call GAS.
For the first time amateur and semi-professional guitarists could afford to own more than a couple of guitars. Effect pedals, too, would start to benefit from Far Eastern efficiency and mass-production.
Many of the 1970s Tokai-, Ibanez- and Yamaha-guitars – as well as the earliest Roland/Boss-effects – are now considered vintage classics in their own right.
Licensed copies
The Eighties finally ”sealed our fate”, when it comes to GAS.
Many large brands started to release official (=licensed) copies of their own instruments in the 1980s, with the rest following suit in the following decades. Brands like Squier, Epiphone, or Sterling make it affordable to hoard instruments that offer at least some of the clout of their famous, upmarket brethren.
****
The Five Types of GAS-sufferers
We are all different – we don’t all lust after the same guitars, and we don’t all accumulate gear for the same reasons or in the same way.
I think one could divide us Gassers up into five basic categories, according to how and why we ”simply have to have that guitar”.
1. The Fan
The Fan is a hardcore follower of one (or two) Rock bands (or guitar gods), and he (or she) focusses on acquiring as much of the gear used by their idol as humanly possible. The Fan hopes to come as close as possible to their idol’s famous guitar tone, and he/she wants to feel (and look) the way his (or her) idol does when playing those classic riffs and songs.
2. The Nostalgist
The Nostalgist comes from a similar place as the Fan, having a clear vision of what it is he’s looking for. But, instead of trying to relive a certain band’s or player’s tone, as the Fan does, the Nostalgist wants to reclaim the (his/her own?) past. The Nostalgist longs for the classic looks and tones gleaned off vintage equipment, the sounds of a cooler, more vibrant place than the current here-and-now. Some Nostalgists also buy all the stuff they wanted, but couldn’t afford to get, when they were young.
3. The Hunter and Gatherer
The Hunter and Gatherer simply loves to get new toys, especially when he can claim to have ”snapped up a real bargain”. These are the guys that constantly trail the Internet, on the lookout for something, anything really, that might whet their considerable appetite. Very often it doesn’t even matter if it is an instrument (or other piece of gear) the Hunter and Gatherer really ”needs”; as long as it’s cool and ”a bargain” it’s a viable acquisition.
4. The Specialist
The Specialist has a strong focus on one, two or three specific pieces of equipment, that he (or she) simply cannot get enough of. These are the guys who seem to have a perfectly good reason for buying several dozen Telecasters, or a whole flock of Fender Tweed-era amps – or maybe they zone in solely on gear manufactured during one specific year…
5. The Pragmatist
The Pragmatist comes over as very reasonable, even though he’s an addict like the rest of us. The Pragmatist tells his wife that he doesn’t yet own an archtop guitar with DeArmond pickups, but that he needs just such a guitar to complete his ”colour palette” or ”toolbox”. Some Pragmatists – like professional guitarists, studio owners, or guitar reviewers – can make a real art form of their Gassing, meaning it takes the unsuspecting wife years (if not decades) to see through this charade.
Naturally, things aren’t always as clear cut in real life as they might seem on paper. Most of us GAS-sufferers tend to display a mixture of two of three of the above GAS-categories.
****
”You can’t play more than one guitar at a time!”
Does owning more than one or two guitars have real advantages? If you ask me, my answer would be a resounding ”yes and no”!
The ”yes” part of my answer has to do with the fact that playing guitar (or bass guitar) is always a tactile experience. Different instruments have different neck profiles, they have different overall dimensions, different actions, different fret sizes, different fingerboard radii, and they simply smell and feel differently.
This is probably the main reason why we don’t all play Line 6 Variax guitars. They might be decent instruments with an astonishingly realistic array of different tones, but they completely lack the important tactile element that is so crucial in inspiring you to come up with different licks and different ways of approaching the guitar as an instrument.
A big, fat Jazz box will make you play noticeably differently to a sleek Strat or SG, and the same holds true for the differences between, say, an ES-335 and a Floyd Rose-equipped Metal axe.
On the ”no” side of the equation, buying a new piece of equipment will surely inspire you, but it won’t automatically turn you into a ”better” guitarist. Even though it’s hard to admit, only regular practice will move you forward on the long and winding road to improvement.
****
Damned If You Do…
In a way, we’re extremely lucky these days. There has never been a better time to be a guitarist than now. There’s an abundance of cool gear available, and much of it at rather reasonable prices.
The downside to this is, of course, that it’s so much easier to become a gear addict, because the price tag doesn’t necessarily act as much of a threshold, anymore.
Still, I tend to see the positive side of things, because the affordability of decent equipment makes it much easier for guitarists these days to try out different stuff on their way to finding the gear that’s most suitable for the music they make.
Kitarablogi.com – Finland's premier Guitar and Bass blog 