GuitarWarp

I found a magical guitar! I was in Thoroughbred Music when it was on Hillsborough in Tampa. This was an awesome store, especially before they opened the one in Dunedin at the historic Kapok Tree location. I had an afternoon while visiting the Bay area to play pretty much every electric guitar they had, new and used. I knew I wanted a more Strat like guitar. I had been auditioning a number of guitars for months and had been impressed by the PRS EG-1 in a Ft. Myers shop. PRS only made them 18 months...their American strat copy (neck and pick up config) but with DUAL coil tap to give full humbucking sound when desired, for a Santana like tone). And here was a hand made electric (early 90's, before PRS started making low end lines) for just $800 with the solid color paint job. I had envied a Strat with the five way switch and the EG-1 was Paul Reed Smith's implementation of it, only with low buzz in single coil mode and much, much better mechanics and intonation up the fret b...

Read the post below for the context... I missed out on that rare "magical" guitar. Things just weren't aligned financially. But I had gone from being unaware to suddenly keenly aware that a few individual guitars (whether electric, acoustic, or classic) were simply "magic," and that even the luthier who made them could not recreate that magic on cue. Not to say the probabilities are not higher with a great guitar maker. And they generally turn out very good guitars. But none turn out "magical" ones consistently any more than A-Rod can always hit a home run at will. I know. Magic can run in reverse too on guitars. The first Olson I played on was selling on consignment in a high end shop in Orlando back in the early 80's. I knew nothing of Olson except that my guitar teacher in college said they were great and I ought to go look. I traveled across the state and played it and frankly, was unimpressed with this particular one. It was a...

Why are a very few guitars you play almost "magical" in tone and playability--even if they are the same model as others you've played? It's not the price, the make, or the model. Certain individual acoustic and even solid body electric guitars just "have it" while others don't. And I'm not talking about mere "stand out" guitars. Maybe one in ten of a certain model might "stand out" as significantly better than the others for some undocumented reason. I've seen this with Taylors and Breedloves. In a large guitar shop you can always find a few "stand out" guitars. But "magical" is something you only come across very occasionally. I'm talking about an individual guitar that for some undocumented reason has almost "magical" tone, playability, resonance, and just transports you the instant you start playing it. It has little or even nothing to do with: 1. Price 2. Who made it 3. The model...

Each week I get to listen to some excellent guitar work mic'd into a sound system that is probably the best on the entire Gulf Coast of Florida. The guitar player recently acquired a VOC AC 50 to play through with a Tele. Mic'd with a Sure SM57 it sounded quite good. This was the set up for a few weeks before going "direct" out of the back of the VOX using it's built in modeling. Very nice! Yes, I said it. It sounded considerably better than putting the mic in front of it. More punch, and more of what sounded like a "genuine" Vox jangle and grit. I didn't even know the switch had been made until I complimented the player and dialing in the sound. Then about a month later, WOW! His rig sounded incredible. The best guitar tone that room had seen. The change? You guessed it. He had switched to a Pod x3 Live and downloaded patches from Lincoln Brewster. He had the Vox still sitting on stage so I thought he was still using it. I won't say...

The GNX3000 may be out of production, but it still holds it's own, and may even still surpass Digitech's latest offerings. The 3000 introduced "component modeling" where each electronic and mechanical component of an amp or cabinet was individually "modeled" to create the overall tone close to the orginal (when mic'd that is). No one would ever confuse any modeler for the real thing just plugged into a studio monitor. But mic it into a PA or in a recording and it's very close. Close enough that you would probably chalk up differences to technique or recording set up. I say it may surpass Digitech's latest, but it's hard to say because, frankly, the demo's on their site for the new gear are so lame. They need to borrow a page from Line 6 and hire some great guitarists for demos.

I was trying to play a Brian May lead the other day but even though the notes and the amp tones were pretty close it just didn't have the same "ring." A little digging on line and I found out he often used a coin (British coin...of some sort) instead of a pick. I tried it with a quarter that was lying on the desk. At first it felt really awkward...like trying to play with gloves on or something. But after a few minutes it was amazing how it dialed in some more of his tones and subtle ways of doing things. Still nowhere close to his mastery, but a step closer. Try it.

This was always one of my favorites to listen to and try to play. I think the best version was his 1977 live recording on How the West Was One. It had all the melodic elements, whereas this later version is just jamming and the solo bears little resemblance apart from the key.

Various amps plus a live performance on a real Fender from 1981 at the end for comparison (Keaggy fans scoll to end). Check it out on YouTube by clicking the title of this post above.

Phil Keaggy at Jesus '81 in Orlando. Taken as he warmed up. Keaggy loves to improvise in these warm ups and this was no exception. He's playing his standard Les Paul with customized pick ups. Amazingly he was playing the little Yahama G100-112 amp. Totally solid state, but he made it sound good. Years later a friend gave me one of these. I have to believe it had something seriously wrong with it because it was impossible to get good sound out of it at any volume or setting. I gave it away. In the background is Herb Melton and a few other players from that era. On this occasion he was using a very modest Ovation round back acoustic for the tour due to it's built in mic--a rarity in those days, but very convenient. Phil uses a Podxt some these days. Just spent a couple hours recovering a 27 year old live recording of my college band from a cassette and remixing it in Garageband and Sound Soap (noise filtering). We used to cover several of his songs, including Rejoice...

The guitar features on Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" are subtle but brilliant. About 1:40 into the track there is a riff that involves some very quick slides high on the neck with a clean amp setting. The part is easy, but the very quick slides are a twist you don't hear often. Choose a clean amp setting. I like the AC-15 (vox) on the GNX3000 with generous compression, delay and reverb. At about 1:40 listen and you'll hear the guitar. To play it, start on the 1st and 3rd strings at the 9th fret. Then very quickly slide up to the 12th fret. Stay on the 12th fret and play the 3rd & 1st strings then add the 2nd string at the 15th fret with your little finger. Next, play 3rd & 1st strings at 12th fret again, then quickly slide up to the 14th fret. To finish it off, play 3rd & 1st strings on the 14th fret then very quickly slide down to the 9th fret. Then repeat the whole thing.

I just got this pedal about two months ago and I'm loving it! I've used a Mesa Boogie Simu-class 2:90 amp and Digitech 2112 front end for years. But so many places want you to plug directly in to the PA that I needed something I could plug in and have it sound like a real amp. In this case, 41 different amps. I also record directly into the Mac with. The sound quality and modeling are amazing. After a lot of on-line auditioning I chose the GNX 3000 for it's raw ability to mimic various amps, and for it's strong direct to computer recording and playback abilities. I considered the Line6 Podxt, which I have played and heard in concert many times. It sounds great. But I thought the GNX3000 had the edge in terms of realistic amp sound. So I took the plunge and entered the land of "simulated amps." The built in patches were pretty good, and some, like Carlos (Santana), Satch, or the plain VOX 15, were outstanding! But I quickly started creating modificati...