Butterscotch Telecaster

I picked up a Fender Squier Affinity Series Special Edition guitar today. It’s a beautiful butterscotch blonde color; the wood grain shows through very nicely. It’s my first telecaster and so far I’m really happy. My initial reaction is that this guitar has more clarity and presence than either my MIM strat or Gretsch 5120 when played through my main amp, a Fender Blues Jr. With a 10% discount, my price was $162, including tax, at Guitar Center. More at flickr.

One thing I love about the internet is how one minute you can be looking for one thing and all of a sudden you’re off on a completely unrelated quest.  It was during one such ramble that I came across videos of these two American icons, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.

They recorded an oft-forgotten album together, Nashville Skyline and these videos are from that time period. The respect they had for each other and the enjoyment they got from playing together is obvious in these clips. Plus, get a load of Dylan’s voice. I think Nashville Skyline is the only album where he sang this in this natural, unaffected style.

One Too Many Mornings

Girl from the North Country

This is a very enjoyable song musically, an interesting video with a number of guest and cameo appearances, and it’s especially timely tonight, the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech, and the night Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech as the Democratic candidate for President of the United States.

You can view full details of the video, including a list of performers, at this YouTube site.

Artist: Richard Powers
Album: More Important Than Facts

This was a fun little diversion! From Texas Trifles, via a long path back to Eric.

To make things easier to play along, I’ve copied the rules from Eric’s site:

Here are the steps:

* Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

* Visit http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the last quote on the page is the title of your album.

* Visit http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture on the page is your album cover.

I modified rule 2 by dropping an article (”the”) from the quote I used.

I hope the very talented photographer who provided the image enjoys this if he sees it.

I’ve dabbled with learning to play the guitar off and on for most of my life but have yet to progress beyond the chord-plunking stage. I did take lessons about 10 years ago, and they helped me get as far as I have, but it’s not very far. Since the lessons I’ll occasionally pick up my guitar and play long enough to re-form my finger calluses before moving on to other interests (read: working on the web and taking photos).

And so I find myself once again motivated to advance my guitar playing abilities. I’ve convinced myself that part of my lack of progress was because I didn’t like the sound of the guitar I was using, a generic, made-in-Mexico Fender Stratocaster. Looking back, I’m not even sure why I bought that guitar, but at the time I really wanted a strat, and the price was right; another case of live and learn.

On the other hand, I love the amp I found a few years back, a late-70’s silverface Fender Champ. It’s only 5 watts of power, but it’s more than loud enough for practice, and the sweet tube sound just can’t be beat when compared to similar sized solid-state amps.

In pursuit of my desire to learn to play guitar better, I’m now playing a new Gretsch hollow-body guitar, model G5120. It’s a Korean made guitar that is at the lower end of the Gretsch line, but the sound, fit and finish are on par with guitars costing 2-3 times as much. Sure, there are hardware improvements that could be made, such as upgrading the tuners or the bridge, but those are minor compared to the sound of the guitar, and the Gretsch G5120 is one sweet sounding guitar.

Having decided to pass on the strat for the time being, I spent months trying to decide which Gibson SG clone I should get. I finally realized that as much as I love the sound of an SG, what I wanted, what I really wanted, was a hollow-body guitar. The Gretsch fits the bill perfectly: it’s not as big as a Gibson 355 style, it sounds and plays great, and the orange wood grain finish is very sharp looking. My first few days experience with the guitar match all of the highly positive reviews I’ve recently read; it really is a nice guitar, especially considering its price.

Oh, and in terms of actually learning to play this thing? I’m doing a couple of things differently than in the past. For one thing, I’ve committed to giving this a go for at least one solid year. Meaning, if (when) I lapse, it doesn’t mean I lay off for weeks and months. It means a week or two off as circumstances dictate, but until the year is over, I’m going to keep coming back and practicing on a regular basis.

The other thing I’m doing is taking a new approach in how I learn. I’m still using some of the material from my first class, folk songs with easy chords, mostly strummed with an occasional bass run, but I’ve also turned to the internet for training material.

I’ve found so much great info at JustinGuitar.com that it’s hard to know where to begin. There is a ton of written material, which is very useful, but the best feature has to be the many video lessons Justin has made available; heres a complete list of Justin’s guitar lessons on YouTube. I’m currently practicing some new finger exercises, and learning some easy 2 and 3 chord songs. Overall, I am very happy and impressed with Justin’s teaching skills. By the way, he’s a young man from New Zealand who now lives in London and teaches guitar worldwide; modern times!

And so now we come to the fun part, photos!