Elixir Strings

Today I wanna talk about strings. For years and years I was a die hard GHS Progressive fan. I found that the Progressives gave me an edge that no other strings could. Then when I could no longer find Progressives locally I switched to Ernie Ball Cobalts. All of these are good strings but they all shared one common flaw they rusted profusely. No matter how much I wiped them down after playing they would still be flat, rusted, and dead after just a few hours of play time. This became frustrating and expensive for me since I play a lot. So in a desperate attempt to find a better alternative I started the journey to find a suitable replacement for my beloved Progressives. I've known about Elixirs for years and have tried them in the past but my first experiences were not good. The first coating they had was the polyweb this stuff is thick, slick, and in my opinion detrimental to you're over all tone. To my ears it seemed to bleed off much of the highs and high mids from the guitars tone but seeing how I was desperate to squeeze more life from my strings and Elixir had come out with the much thinner Nano coating I thought I would give them a try. After purchasing and installing the strings I was blown away. I have had this one set of strings on my guitar for over a year now!! The thinner Nano coating effects the tone characteristics of my guitar far less than the thicker Polyweb and they still feel and look new. I've been beating the heck out of these strings. I've played and sweated for hours on these things and they are still running strong. After trying these I probably won't be buying anything else. If you're tired of replacing strings more often than you think you should I  think it's time you to try Elixir Nanowebs they have made me and my wallet very happy.

Tip of the Day 1/ Fingerboard Care

I've been asked a thousand times about fingerboard care so I thought I would start a "tip of the day thing here and see how it goes. First tip "Fingerboard Care". There are just a couple of wood species that pretty much all guitar companies use for their fingerboards. These would be maple

, ebony

, and rosewood.

Ebony, rosewood and torified aka baked maple are almost always unfinished and require some ...care when cleaning them. I use either Simple Green or Murphy's Oil Soap if the fingerboard is REALLY dirty. Spray a small amount directly onto the wood and scrub gently with a soft brush. Wipe clean with a clean cotton cloth and allow it to air dry for a few minutes. Lastly, put a few drops of good Linseed oil on the board and buff it in good rubbing out the excess in the process, here's a link to the website where I purchase mine.www.stewmac.com Regular maple and rosewood on some high-end guitars are lacquered. These are far easier to clean as you can just take a clean rag and lightly wet it with Simple Green and rub it down. With most of these having a poly finish you can finish them off with a little high quality car polish. The board will look like a mirror and the frets will shine like diamonds. As far as oils go I don't use Lemon oil. It is nothing more than a mild cleaner- it does nothing at all to protect the wood. Lastly NEVER use steel wool on the fingerboard. You can buff the fret wire with some OOOO steel wool and it will make them smooth as glass but always protect the wood with masking tape. You don't need to tape off the whole board. Just tear off 2 pieces and walk them down the board as you polish each fret.

Ebay

Looking on Ebay!! You know just browsing to see what I might be able to buy cheap, fix it and sell for it a heap and there are many auctions on there that make me LOL. Nobody wants to buy the broken headstock off a vintage Gibson acoustic. I I will not be paying $2000 dollars for a 76 Gibson (Norlan, Fretless Wonder) Explorer that the headstock has been snapped off of, but the headstock is in the case if you want to pay another 1000 bucks for the repair. Now you've got 3 grand in a guitar you can only get about 1300 for, if said guitar was in MINT condish. Just because its a Gibson doesn't make it good. Not all Gibsons are the same. Sorry for the rant I just thought this was to funny not to mention. I really love Gibson's just not when the headstock is snapped clean off. If nothing else I got a few chuckles out of todays Ebay experience.

Inspiration

 I've played guitar for 25 years now. The first 10 were self taught and didn't yield  great  results. The next 3 I slowly started to become aware of my stagnated state and quickly grew bored of playing other peoples music. Once I was aware that I had hit a firm plateau in my abilities I became discouraged, frustrated and angry at myself. I almost gave up this lifelong passion more than a couple times. It wasn't until I began taking theory classes in 03 that I discovered there is so much more to guitar than meets the eyes. In fact the only reason why I had plateaued in the first place was because I was basing my playing ability and success on all the artists of the day. On their talents and abilities. I was cool if I could go to a family gathering and play Hank Sr just like Hank Sr. Or play Chuck Berry and sound like Chuck Berry!! Never understanding the importance of covering a Chuck Berry song in my own way. Too many young and aspiring musicians borrow way too heavily from their influences. Its ok to be inspired by an artist that gets a ton of radio play but not ok to carbon copy everything they do in hopes of capturing some of their success. If we ever expect to make the transition from mediocre guitar player who noodles in the bedroom, to a real musician who not only plays the guitar but can write songs, and understands intimately how the music feels and works than we have to break away from the mold and learn who we are as a musician . As everyone knows I worked for Guitar Center as their tech for a while, and I learned much about true musicianship while there. I got so tired of hearing Smoke on the Water, Enter Sandman, Crazy Train, Smokestack Lightning. Not because they were bad songs but because everyone who played them would play them JUST LIKE THE ALBUM. I asked a guy one day who could play many of these songs well "Hey man let me hear you're version of that song' his response was confusion and after thinking about it for 5 minutes he replied "No need to change what works". No need to change what works was the excuse I used for years to avoid change and the inevitable sting of making mistakes. Little did I realize that those were the signs of progress, something I should have been embracing and not running from. On the flip side of the coin I had a regular customer named Windall a young aspiring Jazz player. Windall NEVER played anything I ever recognized. This really struck my interest so I asked him one day "Windall why don't you ever play any of the top 100 like everyone else in hear?" His response was " Why should I worry about what someone else has done? Who cares what they've done I'm only worried about what I can do and offer to the music world. I'm not going to waste my time re-learning what someone else has already learned." The point is break out of the box. If your buddies make fun of you because you cant mimic a song on the radio then its time to find new friends!! Your guitar is a is your musical voice and the theory you learn is the alphabet. How well you will use this voice is up to you. Will you go around copying everyone else's "Catch Phrase" or will you make you're own. Stay humble guys and practice on

A New Start!

  Its been several months since I posted anything. In fact as you can tell I've completely taken apart this entire blog to start a new. There will soon be new content. New post, reviews, pics and more. I've had a lot going on in the past few months but I think I can make this better now than it ever was before so stay tuned. I'll try and keep you posted on as much new stuff as I can.