Left Handed Guitars
Playing guitar lets you express creative energy and emotion. It gives you a way to share it with an audience – or not, if you'd rather not. Either way, it's a wonderful tool for self expression, and for creative experimentation and for pursuing musical ideas.
A guitar is easy to transport
You can carry a guitar with one hand. An electric guitar fits easily in even a small car, in either the back seat, the passenger seat or the boot, with plenty of room to spare. It can be packed in a case with all the cables and accesories you need packed in there as well. You can walk down the street with it, or catch public transport with one. There are even guys who strap them to their back and ride a motorcycle with one. Try that with your piano or your drumkit!
It's so much fun!
A friend of mine likes to remark that playing guitar "is the most fun you can have with your clothes on" – although, I guess, that's not always strictly necessary. It's hard to explain just what it is about playing guitar that can make you feel so damn great. But it's a great activity that you can enjoy throughout your life, and that will comfort you in the bad times and keep you happy in the good. There's something about it that just puts a smile on your face. Give it a try!
Buying a gift for a guitarist
Birthdays, anniversaries, christmas time – these are all times when you might need or want to buy a gift for someone. What better thing to get a guitarist than a guitar related gift? It's a good idea, but there's just so much out there you could choose from. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Picks and strings: These make a great gift idea, for a number of reasons. Firstly, because they're fairly affordable. And secondly, because guitarists can always use more of them! Even the guitarist who has everything will wear out his picks and strings and need to replace them periodically. Make sure you get the right type though! Strings need to be replaced by strings of the same gauge, otherwise the guitar will need a new setup for a new string gauge. Picks will also need to be a similar material and thickness to what the guitarist is used to. If you don't want to ruin the surprise of the gift by asking what they use currently, you can always ask their partner or somebody who lives with the guitarist to see if they can have a look at the packaging of the strings or set of picks that they last bought
Tuning a Guitar – What should you tune to?
An electric guitar really does sound a lot better when it's in tune. Even the nicest, priciest, most gorgeous fourteen thousand dollar special edition Les Paul will sound terrible if the tuning is out. If you're not sure exactly what you should tune to, here's a guide.
Standard tuning on a guitar is – going from the lowest pitch strings to the highest – E, A, D, G, B, E. This is the "normal" way to tune a guitar, and if you see a song written with no guide for what to tune to, this is what you should assume you tune to. Refer to the picture on the left for a guide.
You will often hear of tunings referred to as "C standard", "E flat standard" etc. This means that every string has been lowered from standard tuning by the same number of steps, so that the low string is set to the note in the name of the tuning. Because each string has been lowered by the same amount, the guitar can be played exactly the same as a standard tuning guitar, it will just sound at a lower pitch.
Open tunings are tunings that will play a chord when you simply strike all the open strings. They are popular with slide players, because you can get a new chord just by moving.
Drop tunings are guitars tuned to standard tuning, with the lowest string "dropped" an extra whole step. "Drop D" is a standard tuning except with the lowest string tuned down to D. Drop C is a standard tuning with every string lowered a whole step, except for the lowest string which is lowered two whole steps to C, etc. Drop tunings are popular with a lot of guitarists, who like how they allow you to play a power chord by playing the bottom three strings all on the same fret.
Tuning to Concert Pitch
Until a little over a century ago, there was no standard in western music for the correct pitch for each note. Different instruments could be perfectly in tune with themselves, and then be woefully out of tune when played together. To allow instruments to play together, some standards of pitch were introduced over the centuries, however these could vary wildly between region to region, and even in the same city.
In 1939, an international conference set a standard that the A above Middle C should be set at 440 Hz, and this is now known as Concert Pitch.
So what does this mean for you as a guitarist? Well, if you're just going to be playing alone, not a lot actually; it will be enough that your guitar is in tune with itself. But if you are going to be playing along with a band, or with a recording, then you will want your guitar to be in tune not just with itself, but with everyone else too. If you are using an electronic tuner then you can pretty much rely on it to tune you to concert pitch. If you are tuning by ear to another instrument, be aware that it might not be in concert pitch! Some pianos are tuned slightly flat, not being able to be take the strain of being tuned all the way to concert pitch, due to age or design. If you tune to one of these, and then try to jam with some dudes who have tuned using an electronic tuner then things might sound a little sour. You have to be just as careful if you are tuning by ear to a recording. Many recordings are not in concert pitch too – bands like Pantera often tuned slightly flat of the notes on purpose because they liked the sound – many older bands often didn't have an electronic tuner available, and just tuned to a note from an electronic organ or from the bass guitar. Some even had the pitch of the recording changed by altering the speed of the magnetic tape they recorded to, sometimes by accident, and sometimes on purpose. Chuck Berry was famously sped up a great deal, because the record company wanted to "make him sound younger".
Fender Jazz Bass
So does this mean you will always want to tune to concert pitch? Most of the time you will probably want to. But when you are going to be playing along to recordings or with instruments that are tuned to a different pitch, then you will want to be in tune with them. Some electronic tuners can be set to a pitch sharp or flat from concert pitch.. otherwise you can tune by ear to a note from the recording, or to one of the other instruments. If there is a fixed-tune instrument in the band, such as a piano or keyboard, then tune to a note from that.
Charvel Guitars
I'm a big fan of Charvel and Jackson guitars myself. I first became interested in them when finding out that a lot of my favourite players, such as Eddie Van Halen, Warren Demartini, Randy Rhoads, Vinnie Vincent, Richie Sambora, George Lynch, Jake E. Lee and even Billy Gibbons were, and often still are, players of the brand.
Charvel are one of the most important and influential innovators in the history of guitar making. Starting off as a repair, parts and customisation shop, Wayne Charvel was one of the first luthiers to provide exotic and adventurous finishes for guitarists not satisfied with the plain sunbursts and solid colours offered by the major manufacturers at the time. Wayne Charvel was a hotrod enthusiast, and brought the hotrod flames over to guitars, customising some of ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons' fender guitars with a hotrod flame finish. The original charvel shop also sold high quality parts, at a time when the big makers had definitely let their standards drop.
But it's as the originators of the "superstrat" that Charvel really had their biggest impact on the electric guitar. A young Eddie Van Halen bought a stratocaster style neck and body from the Charvel guitar shop, and put a humbucker in the bridge, using a nail to fix it to the body, and painting it white with black stripes. When, under Grover Jackson, Charvel started making their own guitars, this guitar was the template that they took for their superstrat. This guitar had a similar body shape to a Fender Stratocaster, but had a humbucker in the bridge, and very soon were made with Kahler and Floyd Rose tremolo systems, allowing for excellent tuning stability. The necks were made especially well, allowing fast playing and excellent access to the upper frets. They also featured rear routed electronics cavities, instead of the pickguards contained on the traditional stratocaster, making for a better tone with no plastic right underneath the strings, not to mention a more tasteful and streamlined appearance.
Charvel also introduced the compound radius neck. This is a neck that with a lower radius near the headstock than near the body.. meaning that the neck felt rouder at the nut, making chord work and riffs much easier to play. Up high though, the neck was flat and wide, making it easier to play leads and to bend notes.
The original Charvels are known as "San Dimas" Charvels, named for the neck plates which contained the words San Dimas, though only the companies PO Box was in San Dimas, while the actual production was in Glendora, California. The first runs of japanese Charvels were also exceptional quality instruments.. these being known as the "model" series guitars because they were named Charvel Model 1, Charvel Model 5 etc. These are some of the most original and innovative guitars made, offering superb tone and breathtaking styling, along with extremely high quality parts and manufacture.
Unfortunately, while the original non-american guitars were as good as the San Dimas Charvels, the company started cutting costs aggressively and making some absolutely abysmal instruments. By the end of the eighties, Charvel had gone from being a custom luthiery workshop into an extremely well recognised brand, with their guitars featured on the album covers and in the music videos of many of the defining bands of the era. As happens way too often, once a guitar brand becomes well known and sought after, it becomes possible for them to produce substandard instruments and sell them purely on the strength of the name on the headstock. This certainly happened with Charvel.. by the time the grunge revolution hit music and superstrats were no longer fashionable, the brand no longer had its reputation for quality to rely on. Charvel guitars are now owned by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and are produced in the USA again, with many of the original Charvel employees working on them. The original 80s instruments are also still available on the second hand market, and more than 20 years later remain excellent instruments.
