Adrian Legg Tech Tidbits

Tech Tidbits - More tidbits in the archive

Help Page - For information on string bendings and double bends
Tunings
Adrian Talks About...

>From: Michael
>Subject: Een Kleijne Komedye Key Change
>Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 15:41:36 -0500

>PLEASE, HOW IS THE KEY CHANGE DONE IN EEN KLEIJNE KOMEDYE FROM GUITAR BONES? ALL I CAN PICTURE IS A HELPER DROPPING A CAPO ONTO THE GUITAR NECK JUST IN TIME TO CHANGE, AND REMOVING IT TO GO BACK, BUT THAT WOULD BE PRETTY CRAZY. MAYBE A FIXED WAMMY BAR ATTACHMENT?

>MICHAEL
>COCOA, FLORIDA

It's a first finger bar at fret 8 for the E flat verse, then another first
finger bar at fret 3 for the B flat verse. The guitar is tuned to G6th
I like the capo idea though...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is my latest hearing check. It's pretty much the same as the
previous one about five years ago. The damage is not too bad at all
actually, and 250Hz to 2kHz, which is where the most significant
components of tone happen, is in very good shape. I seem to have got
off pretty lightly.

The loss is centred at 4k, worse and extending up to 8k in the left
ear. This is because I used to stand at stage right so I could see
my neck and the band on the same side, and most of it is down to the
ride cymbals.

What is salutary about it is that this damage occurred _before_
monitors were in regular use, in small pub and club bands with amps
on the floor, the biggest of which was usually a Fender Twin which
was never run much over 5.

One has to wonder how much damage is being done now that bands use
monitors and much higher onstage spls as a matter of course

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

August 29, 2000

This guitar was made for me by Mace Bailey at the Ibanez custom workshop in Los Angeles a few years ago. We tried to figure out the smallest space we could get a fully functional Strat layout guitar into, and then worked up a body shape inspired by an old irregularly sided Vox oddity whose name I forget....possibly it was the Phantom ? Anyone remember it ?

The pick-ups are by Seymour Duncan. The fingerboard pick-up is a standard Alnico 2 humbucker, and the center and bridge are Alnico 2s that Seymour kindly made with the third pole-piece lowered to give a more even string balance. Center and bridge are hum-cancelling when used together. The circuit is an old one from a series of wild experiments during my customising/hacking days - too late for "Customising Your Electric Guitar". The fingerboard pick-up uses an on/on/on DPDT for series/single/parallel
coils, and this operates within either a normal parallel five-way selector switch set-up, or is flipped into a series chain by a 4PDT that in the fully forward selector switch position collects from the fingerboard pick-up, but with a treble bleed via a capacitor from the bridge pick-up that by-passes the tone control. So in this setting, the tone control operates as a mid-range cut, and variations on this can be had right back to the bridge selector position, where bass is cut out quite nastily. In the parallel
4PDT position, the tone control operates normally as a treble roll-off.

Construction is straight-through maple (nice quality stuff - thanks Mace) and even Mace was surprised it came out sounding so good. It really does have an excellent tone and sustain, and is a great emergency back-up where luggage space is tight (always, on my tours). Right hand position is a bit tricky - my usual anchor near the elbow is not possible, and I wonder periodically about some kind of extension. Flip Scipio put a Steinberger thigh rest on it for me, which can give a nasty
poke in the delicate bits if a player is not careful...I wonder too about active saddles sometimes, and I probably need to rethink
the Strat style jack socket which precludes the use of my usual tank-like right-angle jack plugs.Scale length is the usual Ibanez 25"

_____________________________________________________________

"This is part of a traditional tune whose name I've currently forgotten. It
too can be played with two left hand fingers. I've put the bass in - it's
quite tricky getting the treble picking with r.h. index and middle. The bit
I mess up is the r.h. placing when the r.h. thumb (p) reaches down for the
6th string.
If you like, you can skip the bass and do the treble right hand as alternate
thumb and index, which is how I saw it done on an oldtime banjo.
The guitar tuning is D/6th, G/5th,D/4th, G/3rd, B/2nd, D/1st"

Monday, May 29, 2000

From: Axxxx Axxxxxxx <bxxx@xxx-xx.xxx
Subject: DISABLED GUITAR PLAYER

HI ADRIAN:
I HAVE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY & CAN ONLY USE FINGER 1 & 2 ON MY LEFT HAND TO MAKE CHORDS. ARE YOU
AWARE OF ANY CHEATER CHORDS OR "SHORT-CUT CHORDS" TO HELP A DISABLED PERSON LIKE MYSELF PLAY A
STRATOCASTER?
SINCERELY,
Axxxxx Axxxxxxx

Straight off the top of my head,open chords in standard tuning Em,E7,A7,Am7,D6,Dm6,G6,Cmaj7.....
I'd suggest a quiet browse through a chord dictionary at the library. Apart from that, I'd take a look at open tunings - for example DADgad has some nice simply executed voicings that you might enjoy and which are discoverable by experiment, and open G is a flexible thing for picking if you have some ok functioning right hand....
If you are able to form a barre, then a minor tuning would give you some basic major/minor options to accompany a song - you'd simply stop the open minor third at plus 1 fret for the major. Try putting up a post at Usenet newsgroup rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic - you might raise someone with a similiar difficulty and you'll probably find some folks there with helpful ideas. Just a thought - do you have enough arm movement for bottleneck ? Something else you might enjoy is using alternate and open strings for ringing scale passages. Take a look at the example. It'll work fine with two fingers. If you like the principle, you can go exploring in various open tunings and see what delights you can find for yourself.

Adrian

Listen here

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April 28, 2000

From: "C****, ****" <C****@********.com
Subject: question

What is that nifty little guitar that Adrian plays?

C***

The body is two piece swamp ash, with a cavity hollowed out before joining and then vented on the treble side cutaway.
The neck is two-piece walnut, the fingerboard is ebony.
The bridge is walnut.
The pick-ups are Graph Techs and a specially made Waffair Theene Dimarzio.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April 22, 2000

From: "Ed" <ak**i@b*******.com
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic

This has been an interesting post to read.. but if you all wouldn't mind explaining.. what exactly is a vertical slice?

Thanks, Adrian, this is very helpful and timely advice. I've been
wrestling with exactly the same problem for the past couple of weeks as I stumble
through a few of the tunes in Stefan Grossman's Fingerpicking Jazz Guitar
Workshop book. I find the vertical slice to be the only way to get the two
lines integrated, and can imagine how it might be the easiest way to learn
chord melodies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: Adrian Legg
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic

On Sat, 22 Apr 2000 7:36:14 +0100, Ed wrote

This has been an interesting post to read.. but if you all wouldn't mind
explaining.. what exactly is a vertical slice?

If you look along a real or imaginary bar-line, vertical slices along it
will give you everything that is happening in treble, bass and harmony at any
beat or part-beat-you decide how fine you need the slices cut according to
how simple or complex the material is. Then you learn one slice, followed by
the next slice and so on, and learn the piece in terms of everything your
hands are doing at any one point in time, rather than as separate horizontal
treble/bass lines along the real or imaginary music or tab. The other trouble
with horizontal lines is that there is usually information that is more to
do with internal harmony or rythm than actual melody or bass lines.

Noted players have talked about an "independent thumb" - where the thumb
theoretically goes off and boogies all on its own like an octopus tentacle
while the others get on with the melody.
Imho, what they are describing is a vertical slice based technique that has
become sophisticated enough to give an _impression_ of thumb independence.
I think it is confusing to introduce the idea of r.h. digits operating
independently to people learning basic stuff. I know _hands_ are
learned/practised separately on the piano, but I think this is probably a
different kind of mental coordination issue.
The grounds I have for thinking this way are empirical, so I could be
completely wrong. But, academically right or wrong, it has worked ok for me
so far, and seems to work ok for other folks.

If I had to offer an academic justification for it, it would be that harmony
in a piece moves and evolves as a whole, and in western musical thinking,
notes do not exist in isolation without at least some harmonic implication.
Therefore, thinking of bass or treble as independent is meaningless. They are
interdependent; each implies the other's existence.

Adrian

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April 21, 2000

From: "S**** K******" <sk******01@*********.net
Newsgroups:   rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic

I'm so proud of myself (full of? :)), I just started playing again a week
ago, hadn't played since I was a kid, and was just able to put together the
bass and lead lines of dust in the wind--probably not much of an
accomplishment to many of you, but keeping separate rhythms clear in my head
has been a problem for me.

I've seen it recommended for many songs to learn the bass and lead lines of a
song separately, and then put them together. I wanted to question this
technique. Looking at the song this way, I thought it would take me forever
to get together the skill to play both lines.

When I played both lines together (slowly and clumsily at first) I couldn't
even hear the song correctly in my mind, but just fighting through playing
both lines, even though it sounded wrong to me is what brought it together,
once I had enough speed, it sounded right, and wasn't that complicated.

Anyone have any opinions on this? Think it's better to separate and then
include the the different lines of a song, or just fight through both
together?

Steve

From: Adrian Legg
Newsgroups:   rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic

On Fri, 21 Apr 2000 22:17:22 +0100, S**** K****** wrote

Anyone have any opinions on this? Think it's better to separate and then
include the the different lines of a song, or just fight through both
together?

I think it's much better to learn vertical slices along the bar than to try
to break what is after all a harmony block into separate lines. It looks
like you've just demonstrated that quite clearly. Ultimately one can
integrate quite complex structures this way, but I don't think it ever gets
very far from the vertical slice idea.
I believe the independent thumb is a myth, and one that handicaps learning.
Maybe something that seems very much like it develops eventually, but I'd
guess by that time one is thinking in harmonies anyway.
Sure there's some kind of case for pulling out a tricky passage for closer
analysis, but blending the whole is still the priority.
That's how it works for me anyway.

Adrian

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: "D*******************************************
Newsgroups:   rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic

"Adrian Legg" wrote in message:

If you look along a real or imaginary bar-line, vertical slices along it
will give you everything that is happening in treble, bass and harmony at any
beat or part-beat - you decide how fine you need the slices cut according to
how simple or complex the material is. Then you learn one slice, followed by
the next slice and so on, and learn the piece in terms of everything your
hands are doing at any one point in time, rather than as separate horizontal
treble/bass lines along the real or imaginary music or tab. [snip]

Adrian

Thank you very much for this information.

I have taken several stabs at a method book by a well-known Nashville
fingerpicker, wherein every exercise is presented as thumb part, then
finger part, then both together.

I found that mastering the thumb part and the finger part separately did
nothing to help me do both together. The time spent learning the parts
separately was totally wasted. I thought I was the only dufus in the
world who could not benefit by learning in the manner recommended by
this famous player. Now I know better.

Yours truly,
Dxxx Mxxxxxxxx