The View from Here

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed a recurring pattern: I attend some interesting event and promise to report on it, only to get subverted by work, crowds, jabbering with old acquaintances, and jetlag. True to form, I’ve spend the first two days either demoing TriplePlay, or staggering [...]

An Alternate-Tuning Capo

UPDATE, 03.07.13: I should have mentioned a point that several readers noted in comments: The capo only alters the tuning of open strings. Which means that while you can play many harmonies normally available only in dropped tunings, any notes above the capo appear at their usual frets. For example, all barre chords are [...]

NAMM I Am

It's that time again, folks.

It’s that time again, folks.

“It’s the most won-der-ful time of the year…”

Oh wait — that was last month. Now it’s January. NAMM time!

I’ll be there for the duration, partly to hang out with my Pure Guitar pals, and partly to meet with Fishman about the upcoming TriplePlay release. But mostly to [...]

Who Dares Predict Our Fretboard Future?

We care about the future, because that's where we will be spending the rest of our lived.

“We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.” — Criswell, Plan 9 from Outer Space

UPDATE: Wow, I can’t believe all the cool stuff folks have been posting to comments. I find myself feeling quite inspired about the future [...]

A High-Tech Plastic Guitar —
from Half a Century Ago

Plastic guitars are not a new idea!

Plastic guitars are not a new idea!

In comments to a recent post on 3D-printed guitars, we were discussing the pros, cons, and general aesthetics of instruments molded from plastic. But this isn’t exactly a new idea.

Back in the 1950s, luthier Mario Maccaferri conceived a line of plastic guitars and ukuleles. (This was [...]

Guitar Lessons, Great and Otherwise

This clip from the short-lived British sketch-com Snuff Box made me think about great guitar teachers — and not-so-great ones.

I was lucky — I had some truly memorable teachers, starting with my mom, who taught me her coffeehouse folk. When she decided I needed a more advanced instructor, she recruited Larry, a friend’s [...]

Welcome to Fingerstyle Boot Camp!

I'm 200 years old, but I can still kick your ass, punk!

I’m 200 years old, but I can still kick your ass, punk!

UPDATE: I’m proud to announce that my fingerstyle video lesson based on the 200-year-old etudes of Mauro Giuliani has been selected to appear in the debut issue of Pure Guitar, a new digital guitar mag whose editorial staff includes my two music [...]

Back to Bronze Acoustic Strings

Bronze isn't so bad after all!

Bronze isn’t so bad after all!

A quick update to last week’s post about bronze and nickel strings: Over in the forum, Bear suggested trying 80/20 bronze strings. It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but I thought some of the strings I’d stocked up on and tried were 80/20s, but just realized they were [...]

Acoustic Strings: Bronze vs. Nickel

Like Talos the Giant from Jason & the Argonauts, most modern acoustic strings are made of bronze. Like him, they're loud and strong — but are they too strident and inflexible?

Like Talos the Giant from Jason & the Argonauts, most modern acoustic strings are made from bronze. Like him, they can be cruel and inflexible.

UPDATE: I’ve updated the audio examples to include 80/20 bronze strings, as detailed in this newer post.

Can I share my steel-string psychodrama?

I’m lucky enough to own [...]

Contest: Build the Tonefiend Forum!

tonefiend forum

A sad, desolate place — but not for long!

One cool thing about going indie with tonefiend  is that fact that I can finally host my own geek forum! It’s already up and running — but it’s a sad, vacant space that desperately needs to be populated by cool people and cool ideas.

How to get [...]