"It's YOUR banjo. Play it any damn way you want!"

[musicbecausemusic]

Ok, I'm back as promised with a few thoughts about these pedals. Or rather, not about these pedals as such but about what they represent.

If you compare the sounds and features of the first three pedals with the second three you may be surprised at the similarities. You may then be astonished to learn that the first three cost between half and one fifth the price of their counterparts, especially as they all sound superb.

I'm not going to point the finger and use the word 'clone' because I don't want to find myself on the wrong end of a lawyer. That said, it's hard to deny you may be buying something that's more than inspired by an existing product. Joyo even refer to the 'original' pedals in some of their product descriptions. The Mooer Tender Octaver is currently unavailable, with rumours suggesting a legal challenge from Electro-Harmonix over similarities to their Nano POG.

Equipment like this raises ethical questions I hadn't considered in depth before. When we choose cheaper substitutes are we saying the consumer has the right to decide how much profit a maker can make? At what point does the resemblance to another product infringe on the maker's rights? Are there ways to copy that are acceptable, and why?

I'll give you an example. I'm told that the Joyo American Sound has an almost identical circuit to the Tech 21 Blonde Mk1. If that’s true one could argue that former wouldn't exist if not for the latter, and that Joyo haven't added anything significant to the design.

But how many of you own a dreadnought guitar that isn't made by Martin? They developed that body style and gave it the name in 1916. How about copies of Strats, Telecasters or Les Pauls that aren't at least licensed? We accept these as part of the landscape, even when the similarities are blinding.

We could extend this to design, music, or anything where someone could claim prior art. The assumption is that intentional copying took place, but what if a maker stumbled upon something without realising a near identical version already existed?

Could it be that the Mooer pedal I showed you arrived at the same magic formula as the Nano POG independently? if not, and the rumours are true, is EHX being hypocritical given that their popular Soul Food pedal is heavily inspired by the legendary Klon Centaur? Is that mitigated by the fact that the Centaur isn’t made anymore and that used examples fetch ridiculous prices?

This whole debate takes on special resonance for younger guitarists. This is an era of high-quality affordable gear, but a giggable amp and guitar is still a serious investment. They could buy a Vintage V6 Icon and a Fender Mustang III for £450 and get more great tones than they'll need, but £450 for a teenager is still steep.

Such a player is more likely to get a bullet Strat and amp package for under £200, and that's a fine way to start, but a few pedals can help to add what's missing. Does this player buy a Fulltone OCD for £130 or an almost identical Joyo Ultimate Drive for £30?

I suppose it's a matter of where you stand.

[musicbecausemusic]

I see you shiver with antici...

No, even I can’t pull off a Rocky Horror gag as an intro to a post about why I haven’t posted in so long. Let’s forget that happened.

It was terribly lazy of me, and I apologise. By means of a peace offering I shall return in a few days with a piece about pedals and plagiarism.

There may be pictures.

[musicbecausemusic]

Avoiding puns about diddling.

A couple of weeks ago I decided it’d be interesting to build an instrument, so I had a play around with kalimbas. I won’t say more about that here because the experiments are ongoing, but whilst fiddling about it occurred to me to try something else. I decided to make a Diddley Bow.

A diddley bow is a one stringed instrument that you might have heard if you own a Seasick Steve album. They’re played with a slide and traditionally cobbled together from anything that’s lying around. I wanted something that wasn’t wilfully rustic and hipster-ish so I decided to just make a clean, simple design instead of using Jack Daniels bottles and the antler from a deer. I also wanted to try to make it electric so I made a few sketches then just decided to jump in and have a go.

First thing - some wood. A strip of pine from B&Q that cost under £2. A quick once-over with sandpaper to smooth the saw marks and round off the edges a bit and we’re sorted.

Next, some electrical stuff. A pickup, a pot, a jack and a knob. I picked up a cheap dog-ear P90, which is a classic single coil design with a wide field, and a 250k & 500k pot to see which sounds better with the P90.

I already had an old tuner that I took from a guitar I was repairing so that was sorted, and various screws and fittings in boxes around the place. Time to get cracking.

The first thing was to make the bridge/nut and the tuner mount. I used some offcuts of pine and clippings from a wire coat hanger to make these.

I was intending to glue them, figuring that the downwards pressure of the string would hold them in place. That didn’t happen, but more on that later.

I also needed to mount the tuner. This was the simplest, neatest solution.

This too would cause me problems later, but as we’re being experimental here I’ll come to those as they happen.

Ok. I decided that I wanted the scale length to be 23″... because that fit on the wood I bought... so I measured up the positions of the bridge and nut and mounted them along with the tuner.

You can see there that I added a countersunk wood screw to the nut. I realised that the break angle - that is, the angle that the string creates as it goes over the nut, would be so sharp that it’d just fold the assembly over. Fortunately those metal saddles aren’t fixed, just popped into holes.

The next thing was to work out the pickup location. Even dog-eared P90s aren’t entirely surface mount - they drop slightly, as shown here.

This meant I had to chisel out a recess for this to fit into. At the same time I had an idea for mounting the electrics, so I chiselled a route for the pickup wire that would run under the rear bridge.

Yes, it’s rough as a badger’s bum. I don’t profess to be the next Fred Dibnah :)

I mounted the bridge and also added a picture hook opened out to act as an anchor for the string. Check that the ball end of the string is wide enough to go over this before you fix it in place.

Now we come to the electrics. This is about as simple as rigs get - there’s one volume control and a jack so we only really need two wires plus a small extra one to earth the third leg of the pot to its case. I decided to just go with the 250k pot in the end as those are generally more suited to single coil pickups.

Time to test it before going any further. This is not the best, safest or most sensible way to do this. Fortunately it all worked, so it’s time to move on.

That idea I had for mounting the electrics? Stick them in a tin. I wanted a cinnamon Altoids tin but it’s really hard to get them here so I settled for a tin of Marks & Spencer mints instead. A cheap electrics housing plus minty noms? Double win.

I drilled holes in the top and side to take the jack and pot, and also cut a square in the base so I could pull the electrics in and out without de-soldering. This is how it all looked when cobbled together.

Not bad eh? The advantage is that the white circle to the left of the knob reads EPIC and the one to the right reads DUDE. That’s my sort of volume scale.

You’ll notice I’ve also strung it up, using the low E from an acoustic set of D’addario phosphor bronze. Any electric or steel acoustic string will work. It was at this point that the issue with the tuner surfaced. I thought it would be mounted centrally enough to stay put with one screw, but the string tension started to rotate it. I decided to make another longer one with two screws, which worked great but the piece of pine split despite the pilot holes. It’s ok for the mo, I’ll remake it in the future. That little right angled hook was to let me experiment with a higher break angle, like a mini string tree - I can just rotate it round if I need it.

This is the entire thing finished and working.

The only improvement I still need to make is with the saddle and nut. Even though they look nice I found that the wire has enough flex to slightly reduce the sustain. If I file angles into the top surface of the wood leading down into the holes, I should be able to get the wire to sit on the surface instead of slightly above, and that’ll fix it.

There aren’t any sound clips yet because I suck at playing it, but I’ll add those later :)

This is not just a diddley bow. This is a Marks and Spencer strong minty diddly bow that’ll leave a real impression ;)

[musicbecausemusic]

Guitar effects - a great excuse to get experimental

In the previous article I suggested that guitar design was pretty conservative on the whole and I stand by that. Left-field instruments like the fascinating but oft-maligned Firebird-X or the Blackbird Rider appear from time to time but otherwise refinements tend to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Whenever a designer steps outside this rule of thumb the crowd gets angry.

Guitar effects are a different matter though. Many players are prepared to accept experimentation there and some even crave it. That said, there are still traditionalists - if such a thing is possible for a relatively recent development - who seem determined to continually re-invent the past or even claim that such equipment shouldn't be used at all.

I find this odd. Electric guitars and amps place so many components between your fingers and your ears that I can't see how a few more can be considered a crime. The implication is that modifying the sound once it leaves the guitar is 'cheating', as if those little flashy boxes not only write the song but play it for you. Mind you, this view is often found among the same people who'll spend hours arguing over which brand of Russian vacuum tube sounds the best so it's probably best to leave them to it.

As I'm writing this with new players in mind, I'll set out my position now: Effects are awesome and you should experiment with them at every opportunity. Ignore the elitists, they're a miserable bunch.

Anything that inspires you to create new sounds or find interesting ways of looking at old ones is worth pursuing. You may achieve this by just twiddling the knobs on your amp and that's great too, but never be afraid to shove your preconceptions regarding what's 'acceptable' to one side and get lateral. Some of the most memorable riffs of all time only exist because an effect inspired them - How Soon Is Now by The Smiths is a great example, made possible by a tremelo, and Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 1 wouldn't be the same without that delay.

You're spoiled for choice when it comes to the variety of sound processing gear available today, from pocket money pedals to modelling amps, so I'll introduce you to a few of your options along with the pros and cons of each.

Stomp boxes

These are the meat and potatoes of the effects world, mostly delivering a single function and available from about £25. Your most common types are distortions and overdrives (like the Metal Zone and Super Overdrive respectively) but you'll also find delays, choruses, wahs, samplers and even utilities like tuners and volume controllers. Most run from a single 9V battery but more advanced ones like loopers tend to eat through these and so require a power supply. Stompboxes tend to be simple, tough and easy to just chuck in your guitar bag. They're great if you regularly practice in rooms with hired amps because you're more likely to get close to your own sound.

You can also get more complex pedals that combine two or more effects but the price and complexity tend to increase. This Line 6 M5 is a fantastic little beast because it's one stompbox that can imitate a hundred or so different ones - you just dial in the box you want at that moment and then adjust the controls as if it's the real thing.

The only way to find out if you'll like a pedal is to jump on it and give it a go. Be conservative with the controls at first because some effects can get extreme - and virtually unusable - as you spin the dials.

Multi-FX

Multi FX units take lots of different sounds and allow you to play more than one at once or even combine them into presets that you can call up by using the foot switches; You could have a light overdrive with a touch of chorus for your verses and then switch to a heavy distortion with reverb and delay for the solos.

Multi-FX units tend to arrive with a shedload of presets built in, some of which may be designed to imitate famous songs or players. They'll also have empty slots so you can save your own presets and many will have headphone outputs and MP3 player inputs so you can play along with existing songs through your amp.

This type of unit offers a lot of power for far less money than it would take to buy all the equivalent pedals. You get the convenience of being able to switch many things on and off at once, which is hard with stompboxes, but the downside is that they're fairly big and more complex to set up than just twiddling a few dials. Is is possible to get professional level multi-FX units designed to fit into a rack, but those are beyond the scope (and price) of this piece.

The RP3 pictured above is a Multi-FX unit from relatively early on in their development and has to be programmed using that grid, cursor keys and just a 2 digit display. It's not fun. It's not small either - that pedal on the right, used to control volume, wah and whammy effects, will comfortably fit a size 9 boot.

If you're looking for inspiration or still discovering what sort of sounds you like, Multi-FX units are amazing. They're harder to test though because you need a little knowledge of how each one works. You should always try to edit and save your own sound before buying one, just to make sure that workflow feels OK - if setting the thing up is a pain, you'll tend to leave it in the box a lot more.

Virtual amps

Amp simulation and real-time processing of multiple effects are well within the reach of a typical home computer now, and if you're not interested in playing live but just want to experiment with sounds a simple virtual rig could be ideal for you.

These tend to take the form of a USB guitar interface and a software package to run it. The software will contain a variety of simulated guitar amps and effects that can be combined at will and may also offer different speaker cabinets, recording microphones and a tuner and metronome. Creating your ideal virtual guitar rig is as simple as dragging and dropping the kit you like into position and setting it up using on-screen controls that mimic the real thing.

You can get a lot of power for less than £100 by taking this route, but you won't be able to use your virtual equipment at a gig or practice session unless you install it on a laptop and plug that into a PA system when you arrive. That can be messy and makes it hard to get a consistent sound everywhere, not to mention the lack of immediate sound you'd get from an amp. You'll also need to splash out extra on a dedicated foot controller if you want it to act like a Multi-FX unit and let you call up settings whilst playing. The major benefit is that the virtual rig will be able to feed directly into recording software on your computer and may even have basic recording built in. You could record an entire album at full volume without anyone else in the house hearing a note.

You probably won't be able to test this sort of kit out before buying because it needs to be installed on something, so check out video reviews to get an idea of the sound. Be aware that cracking the seal on the software usually means you can't return it so do your research first to make sure it'll work on your computer. I recommend Line 6 Pod Studio interfaces for ease of use and sound quality

Modelling amps

Low priced modelling amps are still a relatively new development, but an extremely promising one. The amp doesn't actually have a sound of its own,but instead uses a processor to simulate a series of 'real' amps and a handful of effects. You call up a preset, add the required effects and then use the controls exactly as you would a normal amp.

Modelling amps are a great way to combine various needs into one; you'll need an amp anyway if you're going for stompboxes or multi-FX units, you can take them to other places without having to pack extra bits and you can sling a mic in front (or use a speaker emulating output if available) to record your stuff. The downside is that you'll probably need a foot controller if you want to get really experimental with it and use it live, and that can cost as much as a cheap amp.

The first modelling amps sounded quite artificial and unconvincing, often displaying latency (a tiny delay between playing a note and hearing it) and unwanted noise. We're at the point now where it's often tricky to tell the difference between good ones and the amps they simulate. I use a 100w Fender Mustang III V2 and it can knock out traditional Fender tones that you wouldn't question if you heard them on a record, yet for a fraction of the price of any one of those traditional amps.

An entry level modelling practice amp will set you back about £90 and for that you can expect five or so amp models and effects; as the price increases the power, connectivity, ease of editing and number of presets follows.

In conclusion

I like effects - you can probably tell that. I don't actually tend to use them a great deal on recordings, but they're fun to play with and often great for kickstarting a stalled imagination or inspiring a new riff.

The one piece of advice I'll give you that applies to trying out any of the above is to play the effect as much as your guitar - if you play the same riff through different kinds of effect it'll sound great on some and appalling on others. You need to experiment to see what each one is good for. I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen someone skipping through 200 patches on a Multi-FX unit and rejecting many within seconds as 'sounding rubbish' simply because they were playing a riff that didn't make the best of them.

Appendix: Quick guide to common effect types

Overdrive / Distortion / Fuzz These are designed to take your clean sound and make it growl. Overdrives tend to be relatively subtle and are often used to push an amp that's already being driven hard so that it gets a bit more screamy for solos. Distortions are much harder and will often be used to switch between a clean tone and a brutal crunch - think of the start of Enter Sandman by Metallica, Fuzz pedals tend to sit between the two but create a far thicker, buzzier tone than an overdrive.

Chorus Chorus effects add duplicate layers of your guitar sound but take them slightly out of tune and alter the volume so you get an ethereal shimmering sound. Come As You Are by Nirvana uses a subtle chorus in the clean sections. Extreme chorus settings bring all sorts of weird, pulsing strangeness.

Flanger Flangers double up your sound but make the copy drift backwards and forwards whilst filtering some frequencies to create a swooshy, metallic sound. Extreme settings can result in something that sound like a jet plane whooshing by. It's far easier to hear than to explain, so listen to Breakout by Foo Fighters for a textbook demo.

Phaser A Phaser is basically a flanger without the delay, creating a slightly more robotic, spacey sound. Wakin on a Pretty Day by Kurt Vile is a good example of how to use it sparingly.

Tremelo A Tremelo effect simply fades the guitar in and out to a given degree and at a given speed. We covered this well at the start with How Soon Is Now.

Reverb Reverbs simulate the natural echo of a room and are used to bring a sense of space. Huge reverb settings result in a cavernous sound that's extremely trippy but can get a bit indistinct. Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd is the master of tasteful reverb - have a listen to Marooned

Delay A delay pedal will create an echo of you playing and allow you to control how strong it sounds and how long it goes on for. Skip back to the start and click the link to Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 1 for a demo.

Looper Loopers allow you to capture what you just played and then play it back in a cycle until you switch it off. They're great for building layers of sound and making it seem like there are more of you playing. Asaf Avidan uses one to devastating effect on this live version of Your Anchor

Pitch Shifter / Octave / Whammy / Harmoniser Pitch shifters take what you're playing and adjust the frequencies so the notes come out some amount higher or lower than you played them. The riff to Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes isn't a bass but a guitar pitch shifted down by one octave, which is also what an Octave pedal would do. In actual fact Jack White used a Whammy pedal, which has a foot control that allows you to send the pitch wildly up and down by just rocking it back and forth. He set it all the way down and left it, but listen to those weird squealy notes in Becoming by Pantera to hear what it can do when you cut loose. A harmoniser is a pitch shifter that doubles your sound and plays the original alongside the pitch-shifted version. This allows you to create harmonies, as you'd expect, but you have to make sure you're playing in the key you set it to! Ballerina 12/24 by Steve Vai couples this with a delay to take the effect to outer space.

Wah / Auto Wah A wah pedal is a foot controller that you rock backwards and forwards to cut out certain frequencies. This was originally an attempt to copy the sound of a muted trumpet but took on new life once it became electronic. An auto wah does have a foot pedal but instead varies the sound depending on how hard you play the notes. Wah is used in so many different ways that it's impossible to find an all-encompassing example, so let's just go with perhaps the most famous and definitely the coolest - Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix

[musicbecausemusic]

Setting up an electric guitar

After the last blog about restringing an acoustic, I was given the great suggestion (thanks Jess :) ) of creating a blog about restringing and setting up electric guitars. I'm up for that.

This is slightly trickier though, for two reasons:

Acoustic guitar design is pretty conservative and there's isn't a huge amount of variety in the mechanics of how they work so the same rules apply to almost all of them. Electrics come fitted with so many different types of hardware that covering them all would be very hard.

Electrics have a wider range of immediately accessible adjustments so you need to learn a bit more in order to get the best out of your instrument.

* * *

Restringing your electric guitar

The process is pretty much the same as demonstrated in the previous article but there are two important warnings:

If you have a glossy, lacquered fretboard, DO NOT use the steel wool trick to clean it - you'll scratch it. It's better to use a damp toothbrush or the edge of a plastic card to scrape away the worst excesses. You don't need to oil such a fretboard either.

If you do use the steel wool trick, make sure you completely tape over the pickups before starting -  If you don't, the bits from the steel wool will stick to them magnetically and you'll never get them off. Masking or decorators tape is good for this, but make sure you use a low stick variety. At a push, post-it notes held down by sellotape will do. Clean the bits off, then unmask.

With regards to the ideal amount of string to wrap around the tuning peg - the 'next peg' measure is good for electric guitars like Les Pauls with three tuners per side, but for 6 in-line guitars like strats you might want to extend that to one and a half pegs.

You don't have to worry about holding the strings in with pins on electric guitars. You usually just slot them into place in the bridge. On a Les Paul or SG style guitar they slot through the stop bar (pictured) from behind.

I should also mention that the components on this style of bridge are only held in place by the strings - the stop bar is pulled forward onto the pegs and the bridge is held down by the string tension. If you look at this shot of the whole bridge you'll see that the little row of six metal screws on the front face have a long metal clip holding them in. This is known as an 'ABR-1' bridge. If this type of bridge falls off during restringing, put it back with these screws facing forwards. If your bridge doesn't have a clip, it's known as a 'Nashville' bridge and the screws face backwards.

On a Stratocaster or similar fitted with a vintage style tremelo the strings slot through holes in a plate in the back of the guitar and up through the bridge from underneath. This plate hides the springs that set how much tension the tremelo has, but we'll leave that for now.

On a traditional Telecaster the strings also fit through from the back, but the holes are usually easier to get to than on a strat. Some Telecasters and Strats have what's known as a top loader bridge where the strings just fit straight through from behind instead of going through the body.

If you're heavily into music that relies on huge, fiddly solos the chances are your guitar will have what's known as a locking tremelo, usually made by Floyd-Rose or Kahler. This type will not only have a cavity in the body underneath it so you can raise the note of the strings a lot, but the nut of the guitar may have a clamp to hold the strings in place. I don't have one of these to hand, but they're very tricky to set up so ask your guitar shop to make major changes if you're new to all of this. I may cover these in a future blog.

* * *

Setting the string height (or 'action')

It's hard to change this on an acoustic without replacing the saddle or filing the old one down, but it's far easier with an electric. Lower action makes the guitar far easier to play, but it can also cause the strings to rattle on the frets - there's a balance to be struck.

A Stratocaster style guitar allows you to adjust the height of each string individually by means of two 'grub screws' built into each saddle. These usually require a tiny hex key, which you'll often get when you buy a new guitar. You can see them in this photo

The fretboard of an electric guitar is curved from edge to edge to make it easier and more comfortable to hold down some chords. This is known as the 'radius'. The strings in the middle will have to be higher than the strings at the edge for them to all be the same height above the frets - the height of the saddles will follow the curve of the radius.

The easiest way to set the action up from scratch is to lower the strings until they're just touching the frets then bring them all up to tune. Start with the first string and put one full turn onto both grub screws, then retune and play it with your normal force at all the frets. If it chokes, buzzes or rattles on the frets then it needs to go higher; Add another full turn and repeat until you're happy. This sounds a bit long winded, but a good action setup shouldn't need to change for years so it's well worth it.

Telecasters need a similar process, but some traditional style ones have a major difference - each pair of strings shares a saddle, as you can see here.

This means that you follow the same process as above, but you only need to adjust the grub screw closest to each string to set the action for that string. The outer saddles will end up at an angle, but that's OK. If your Tele has a six saddle bridge, setting up the action is just the same as for the Strat.

If you have a Les Paul or SG style guitar fitted with a Tune-o-matic style bridge the process is a little easier because the curve of the fretboard is already taken care of - you simply adjust all of the strings in one go. There will be a large adjustment screw or an adjustment thumb wheel on each side of the bridge, as seen here.

The saddles don't appear to follow a nice curve in this shot, but that's just an optical illusion because some are further forwards than others. You'll need to follow the same process as above but lower each side until the outer strings are touching the frets; you can then adjust each outer string in turn, one turn at a time, until you have no buzz or rattle, and the others should follow suit when they're correct.

Some jazz style guitars may have wooden bridges that aren't actually attached to the body but are clamped down by the strings. These usually have a thumbwheel on each side to adjust the height, much like the Tune-o-matic. The moment you take the strings off this type of bridge it'll just fall off, and you'll need to work hard to get it back in the right place. It might be best to get it set up by a guitar tech until you've had a go at setting up other guitars.

* * *

Setting the intonation

Intonation refers to the guitar's ability to be in tune all the way up the neck. You can adjust this by changing the length of each string; there is an exception to this but we'll talk about that at the end.

In order to adjust your intonation you'll need a small screwdriver and a digital tuner. You need to make sure you've already adjusted your action correctly and the strings are in tune. I recommend only setting the intonation with a fresh set of strings, and only once they've stretched in and become stable.

Lets look at the adjustment screws on a Strat.

Each of these six screws moves the saddle it's connected to; tightening the screw moves the saddle backwards and makes the string a bit longer. You'll adjust one string at at time as follows:

Tune the string accurately

Play the string at the 12th fret to get the same note

if that note shows as sharp, move the saddle back half a turn & vice versa

Repeat 1-3 until the open string and the 12th fret show the same note

The easiest way to remember this is 'if it's sharp, it's short'

Strats are pretty easy to adjust but Telecasters can be a bit trickier. The 'two strings to one saddle' type of Tele bridge means that you can't get each string length perfect as each screw will change two strings at once.

The easiest way to adjust these is to set the first string of a pair, then set the second. Take a note of how many half turns you had to make to get the second one right, and in which direction, then turn the screw back by half of that. You're basically averaging the difference between the two strings. It's not perfect but it's part of the character. If you have a modern six string bridge on your Tele, it's exactly the same adjustment as for the Strat.

Les Pauls and SGs are very similar to the Strat, but the saddles are built into the bridge instead of resting on top of it. Each saddle has a small adjustment screw on the face of the bridge

You can follow exactly the same process as you would for the Strat, but you may find on some cheaper guitars that you can't move a saddle far enough to get the intonation right. It's not that common for this to happen, but there is a trick you can use here if you have to.

You see how the nearest saddle in that last photo is angled backwards? Imagine moving it all the way forwards; the edge that the string rests on would still be quite far back from the front of the bridge. If you're careful you can pull out the metal clip holding in the screws, remove that screw and saddle, and reverse the saddle by fully undoing the screw and flipping the saddle around. This will give you an extra 2mm or so of adjustment. Don't let all the saddles fall out when the clip is removed as they're all different heights to match the fretboard radius and you need to have them in the right order.

That exception we mentioned at the start of this section relates to how deeply the grooves in the nut are cut. You might have your intonation perfect but if the slots aren't deep enough you may still find that it sounds out of tune for chords using the first fret; a barred F will sound the worst. If you hold a string down at the second fret and look at the gap between the string and the first fret you'd expect it to be almost touching. Any higher than this and the slots probably need to be adjusted, but get a professional to do that for now.

* * *

Setting your pickup height

This is something you'll probably only have to adjust if the previous owner of your guitar made a mess of it, so it's not a common job. It's easy to do so there's no harm in having a go if it seems necessary.

You'll usually want to adjust your pickup height if one is much louder or quieter than the other(s) or if the string hits a pickup (sending a loud pop through the amp) when you play. You'll need to be plugged in to do this, and I recommend a clean tone on your amp because it's easier to judge the changes.

Most pickups will have easily accessible height adjustment screws, and some may even have another to adjust their tilt. If the pickup is mounted within a ring (like the outer two on this superstrat) the two central screws on either side adjust the height. The middle pickup has an adjustment screw at each end.

A normal Strat will have the pickups mounted to the scratchplate instead so the adjustment screws are all you can see.

Telecasters often have the adjustment screws for the front pickup hidden underneath the scratchplate but you can remove this easily without taking the strings off - you can see this if you skip ahead to the section about truss rod adjustment. A traditional Telecaster rear pickup has three screws that let you adjust height and tilt in one.

Very rarely you'll have a pickup that can't be adjusted for height without adding shims (such as a dog-ear P90) but that usually means you shouldn't have to.

To match the volumes of your pickups, first turn all the guitar controls to full. We're going to have to compare the volumes of each pickup, but not necessarily each position on the pickup switch - this is because some switch positions will combine pickups and that may affect the overall volume depending on how the guitar is wired. Let's use the Strat as an example.

In switch position one, the neck pickup is active. Play a chord at your usual volume. Now switch to position three, so only the middle pickup is active and repeat the process. Do the same for the bridge pickup with position five. If you're checking a two pickup Les Paul or SG, use the top and bottom switch positions. On a Telecaster you'll only use switch positions one and three.

You'll be able to hear if one pickup has a noticeably different volume from the others. Let's assume the neck pickup is too loud and overpowers the others.

Turn each pickup adjustment screw for the neck pickup anticlockwise by one turn. This will lower it slightly. Repeat your sound test and see if it now seems closer in volume to the others. Make adjustments and retest until you have the balance right.

You can now compare the sounds of the lowest and highest strings on each pickup in turn. You may find that the high E string seems a lot quieter because it's thinner and affects the pickup less; if this is the case you can turn the pickup screw at that end clockwise to bring it a bit closer to that string. This is the ideal pickup height for my Strat.

In making these adjustments, be wary of setting the pickups so high that the strings bounce off them when you play. This not only sounds horrible, but your amp and your sound engineer won't thank you. If this happens, drop them all together with an equal amount of anti-clockwise turns on each screw.

It's also worth noting that getting the pickups closer to the strings does give you a higher output, but there will come a point where the strength of the magnets in the pickups actually starts to kill the sustain. This is known as string pull and is quite hard to listen out for, but you may learn to spot it in time.

* * *

Adjusting the truss rod.

I've left this one until the end because it's a potentially dangerous adjustment and one you should only make when absolutely necessary. You can seriously damage your guitar by doing this, so be warned, 

The truss rod is a metal bar that sits inside the guitar neck. It's fixed in place at one end and adjustable at the other using a screwdriver or hex key. In order to understand what it does it might help to visualise a longbow - once the bowstring is on, the bow bends into a curve. This is what happens to your guitar neck too, but the effect is very small compared to a bow. The truss rod helps to counteract this curve and keep the neck straight. Some truss rods (single action) can only pull the neck backwards to remove upward curves, whereas some (double action) can apply pressure in either direction

A tiny bit of upwards curve is actually a good thing because a string fixed at both ends vibrates more in the middle - the curve (known as the relief) helps to accommodate this without the string hitting the frets.

To check the relief, hold down your thickest string at the highest and lowest frets simultaneously and check how high the string sits above the 10th fret. You'd expect the gap to be about the same as a business card. If the strings lie flat on the frets you could do with adding some relief by loosening the truss rod. If the strings are pulling the neck into such a curve that the strings sit much higher, you need to tighten it up to counteract the string tension.

You usually adjust your truss rod at the headstock but you'll sometimes have to remove a cover to get to it, as shown on this Les Paul style guitar.

Some guitars will have the adjuster exposed - Squier Bullet and Affinity models, for example. If you're really unlucky your adjuster will be hidden down inside the body at the other end of the neck. This is what it takes to get to and adjust such a truss rod on a Telecaster if you don't want to remove your strings...

The adjuster is that tiny metal hex bolt tucked away under the pickup. Early Fender guitars did it this way, but Leo quickly learned his lesson and turned it around. Some makers still copied it though so you might want to get someone else to do it if you have one of these :) There is a method that involves loosening the neck bolts and tilting the neck upwards but I'm really not keen on doing that.

The majority of steel string acoustic guitars have an adjuster at the base of the neck, accessible through the sound hole, but if you mess up an acoustic with an incorrect adjustment you have a serious problem.

Ok - if you're still determined to adjust your truss rod, this is how to go about it. Make sure you have exactly the right size of screwdriver or hex key because you don't want to damage the adjuster. Let's assume that the string to fret gap as measured above is a couple of millimetres; this means that the neck needs to pull back a bit more against the strings, and that will involve tightening the truss rod a bit.

Loosen the strings slightly and turn the truss rod adjuster anti-clockwise by a fraction of a turn - this is the wrong way for this job but we just need to make sure it isn't seized up so we don't cause damage. If it moves freely, turn it gently clockwise through a quarter of a turn. If at any point it jams, just stop - there may be an issue that needs more attention. Assuming it's all ok, retune the strings and carry out your string height check again. Repeat the adjustments until you're happy.

Some people swear by dripping a tiny amount of mineral oil around the adjuster just to help it along. I don't tend to do this but there's no harm in it - just make sure you don't get it anywhere else.

* * *

Ok, that's a whistle stop tour of the most common things you'll need to adjust. There are plenty of things I haven't talked about - wrap-around bridges, Bigsby tremelos, locking tuners etc - but I can't cover everything. If you have any questions though feel free to contact me through the 'ask a question' link.

Happy tweaking :)

[musicbecausemusic]

How to restring your acoustic guitar

I've played quite a few guitars that have tried their hardest to slice bits off my fingertips because the strings were so old and corroded that they'd be better used for grating cheese. This doesn't really help their tone either. Many guitars get to this point because the owners aren't really sure how to go about restringing them, and that's not surprising - you don't get instructions when you buy one. It's just assumed you'll figure it out.

You may even find that your brand new guitar has grotty strings because they'll have been on it for a few months since it left the factory, during which they'll have been pawed by people who just finished eating a burger before they wandered in and had a go. Strings corrode in fresh air over time anyway, so putting a fresh set on to start your playing journey is always a good thing - they'll sound better and stay in tune longer.

I'm going to be working on my favourite guitar, which is a brilliant Faith Venus Natural, but the process will be pretty much identical on your guitar. Try every Faith you can get your hands on anyway - they're amazing :)

This is the kit you might find useful to do a thorough job. In all honesty you only really need the strings and some cutters, but the string winder is helpful and the other stuff can be used on those occasions where the fretboard has become grotty too. Just ignore the bits you don't need. 

The first thing to do is to remove your old strings. Don't be tempted to cut them! Not only does it increase the chance of one whipping back and hurting you, but it also causes an immediate and unhealthy change of tension for the guitar. Used your string winder to loosen each string until you can pull it off the peg. You can safely take them all off at once unless you have an incredibly old antique guitar, in which case replacing one at a time might be safer.

The next thing we have to do is remove the pegs holding the string in at the bridge. Before we do this let's take a closer look at our string winder and discover something many people never figure out :)

You see that little notch on the end? Well it's designed to do this...

Clever, eh? :) You don't need to force it until the plastic bends - simply apply a little downwards leverage on the handle. If the peg doesn't lift out then help it along by using a finger to hold it in the slot. Remove all of the pegs and set them aside safely, then get rid of the strings.

Be aware that the saddle just sits in a groove, is no longer being held down by the strings, and can fall out. Some saddles, like this one, are 'compensated' which means they're shaped to improve the tuning of the guitar. Make sure you know which way your saddle fits in case you accidentally knock it out.

At this point I'm going to clean my fretboard and frets and oil the wood, simply because my guitar needs it. You can skip this, but it's good to know how it's done.

The first thing to do is to put some newspaper down under your guitar because we're going to be using very fine steel wool and it tends to leave little flecks of metal behind. If you have sensitive skin you may want to wear a rubber glove too.

Take a small ball of steel wool and rub gently up and down the fretboard, going with the grain. Don't be tempted to rub across because you'll leave scratches. You don't need to press hard - just keep at it until all the gunge has lifted. When you've finished there will be tiny little flecks of metal around, especially up near the nut: DO NOT BLOW THEM AWAY!

Apologies for shouting, but that's important. Get one of those in your eye and you're literally in for a world of hurt. Use a cloth to brush them away.

While we have our steel wool handy we're going to give the frets a bit of a polish too. They can become dull over time and this creates a grating sound when you bend the strings. This is where one of those many pads of Post-It notes you were given but never used will come in handy.

Tuck a pair of them up against each side of the first fret, making sure the wood is entirely masked. Use firm pressure along the length of the fret with your steel wool until it shines like new. You can re-use the post-its for the next fret, but eventually the steel wool will start to wear them away - use a fresh set before a hole appears and you end up scratching the wood. It'll probably take about fifteen minutes to do all the frets but you'll probably only do this once a year or so so it's not too bad.

Next I'm going to oil the fretboard because it's showing signs of being quite dry. I bought this bottle of Lem-Oil about 15 years ago and it's still going so it's definitely a worthwhile purchase. Again, this is probably an annual job.

Grab a cloth and drip a few drops of oil on to it, rather than directly onto the neck. You don't need much of this stuff. Wipe along the length of the neck, going with the grain, until the wood is all nicely covered. You'll notice it'll go quite dark.

Allow the oil to sit for a couple of minutes then wipe it with a clean, dry cloth. The wet shine will slowly disappear and you'll be left with a nicely moisturised fretboard. A big difference from the grungy mess it was in before.

Right, time for some new strings.

I'm using D'Addario light gauge phosphor bronze strings because I've always found them to be reliable, consistent and great value for money. I've been using various D'Addario strings for 25 years and only had one break in a strange place immediately after fitting. This was so odd that I sent D'Addario UK a photo of the break, and the next day a replacement pack arrived on my doorstep! That's how you do customer service.

These come in a single sealed pack to help them to stay fresh and to cut down on packaging, which is a smart environmental idea. The string ends are colour coded so you can figure out which is which, so keep the packet until you've finished! The 6th string is the thickest one and closest to the top of the guitar.

Remove the strings by cutting the top off the packet, not by making a finger hole and attempting to pull each one out - you'll just put kinks in them if you do that. It sounds unlikely, but I'm mentioning it because I've seem it done so often.

Starting with the thickest string, the 6th with the brass end, make a 90 degree kink just at the end of the wrap. This will hook in under the bridge when you insert it through the hole, and prevent the peg from being lifted out when you tune it up for the first time. The hook will face forwards towards the neck.

We now need to insert a peg to hold the string in place. If we take a closer look at a peg we'll see a groove that runs all the way down one side. This is where the string will sit.

You need to gently push the peg in with this groove facing forwards so it traps the string in place. Keep gentle upwards pressure on the string as you do this.

Once the peg is fully down, that little collar under the head should sit flush with the bridge.

The next step is to fit the string to the tuning peg. One of the biggest reasons for tuning problems is that people wrap too many winds of string around the peg thinking it'll help it to stay on. it doesn't. What it does do is prevent that coiled section of the string from stretching in easily, so it'll slowly give way over the next few weeks. As it does this your guitar will keep dropping out of tune. Follow these tips and it'll be stable within 30 minutes of restringing.

Pull the string through the hole in the tuning peg and grip it where it reaches the next peg along. This is the perfect amount to wrap around the peg, When you're doing the topmost pegs, just imagine the same distance and use that.

Pull this point back to the peg and place a strong kink, like a fishing hook, towards the inside of the headstock. This is the same for both sides, only you'll bend the hook the other way on the opposite tuners. I've pulled the string back through here to show you what it looks like, before pulling it back into place.

Pull gently on the string to keep the hook in place, and use your string winder to wind the excess string around the peg. Doing this by hand is fine but it'll just take a bit longer. Make sure that the string winds towards the inside of the peg, i.e. anticlockwise in this photo.

You also need to make sure that the string winds downwards with each wrap sitting below the previous one. This increases the angle and pressure of the string over the nut and helps to create a good, strong tone. Never let a wrap cross over the previous one as there's a good chance it'll create tuning problems or even cut through the string entirely. The thinnest strings will try their hardest to do this, so stay on top of them.

As you wind your string you might want to give a couple of experimental pushes on the peg holding it into the bridge, just to make sure it isn't lifting out. When you're done it'll look like this.

You can now give the hook one last press to make sure it's kinked, and trim the excess with your side cutters. I find it far better to get rid of the extra string now because it only gets in the way as you proceed. If you're using the cutting part of a pair of pliers or pincers, be really careful not to dent the guitar. 

You have everything you need to do the rest of the strings now. Use the same process for all and remember to wind to the inside of the peg. You'll then need to tune up, play a bit, then retune a few times before it's all stable, but the improvement in sound will be well worth it.

Whenever your strings start to look patchy, feel rough or sound dead, you now know what to do. Good work :)

[musicbecausemusic]

Your first guitar, and how to bodyswerve elitists to buy it

I was in a guitar shop the other day and noticed a surprising amount of small bodied guitars hanging on the walls. Not cheap three-quarter size 'learner' guitars that people buy because they think their hands are too small for a real one* but real instruments. There were 'travel guitars' which have tiny bodies and tinny voices, parlour guitars of the sort that were popular at the turn of the 20th century and a number of smaller instruments with full size necks but more manageable bodies.

My theory was that Ed Sheeran's popularity accounted for the small guitar renaissance; he plays a small bodied Martin, which is actually a pretty horrible little thing even though no guitar magazine dares to say it. The owner of the shop had a different take on it - he said that they'd had a wave of people buying them to take to festivals, so had stocked up. They often didn't know what they wanted from a guitar other than the size, so purchased without really trying them out.

Whilst I was thinking about this a woman came in to look for her first acoustic. It was clear that she didn't know where to start when confronted with the selection available, and that's not surprising. There's so much nonsense talked about acoustic guitars that it's really hard to sort out good advice from myth and conjecture. When I started I just pointed at the nicest looking guitar I could afford (£48) and took it home without even trying to play a note.

* * *

Steel or nylon strings?

You generally find nylon strings on classical guitars and steel strings on everything else. The thickest three strings on a classical guitar actually look like metal, which causes confusion, but that's just a wire wrap around a nylon centre. You can't put nylon strings on a guitar made for steel ones and vice versa... well, you can but it'll either sound terrible or fold the guitar in half.

Nylon strings are easier to hold down than steel because they're less tense. Because of this they produce a much softer, less sparkly sound at a lower volume. Nylon strung guitars can sound a bit floppy if you strum them so steel tends to be better for belting simple songs out in that way. Steel strings are also a bit easier to change because they're held in by a peg whereas nylons need to be tied with a special knot.

How much does it matter?

If you actually want to learn to play classical guitar then quite a lot - you'll need to go with nylon :) One thing to be aware of is that classical guitars tend to have quite wide fretboards to allow more complicated finger positions, and that might feel like a bit of a stretch until you get used to it.

For the most part though you'll be able to get started, work out your first chords and get a nice sound with either type of string. Many guitarists switch between both types just because they like the different sounds - Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, for example. You might like to look at the songs you'd like to play and see what those musicians use to get their sound.

* * *

What body shape?

The many shapes and sizes of guitar allow builders to to bring out specific sounds, take advantage of certain materials or technology, cater for a particular application (eg the travel guitars I mentioned earlier) or just create a particular look. The general rule is that small bodied guitars (parlour, travel) have less bass and quite a jangly tone, mid sized guitars (OM, concert) have a balanced sound across all strings and respond really well to fingerpicking, and large guitars (dreadnought, jumbo) have a huge boomy voice that can really fill a room when strummed hard.

At this point you probably won't have an idea of what sound will best suit your playing style as you haven't yet developed one, so taking a cue from musicians whose sound you like is a good idea. You could also ask the shop assistant to play you something in a particular style and see how it sounds to you.

How much does it matter?

As a beginner the thing that's most likely to affect you is how easy the guitar is to handle. If you're quite small you might find a dreadnought or jumbo a bit of a struggle. If you can hold the guitar comfortably and reach all the frets then it'll probably work for you. By the time you've developed a taste for a particular sound and started to work towards achieving it you'll have earned your next guitar, so don't worry too much about that just yet :) The only thing to be aware of with very small bodied guitars is that the sound won't carry very far or have much weight, so you probably won't be busking with one.

* * *

What woods should I choose?

Ah, this is the question that sends guitar elitists into a frenzy. Everyone knows what's best and they're all right. You'll generally find that guitars are made from a combination of varieties of spruce, mahogany, rosewood or cedar. There are less common woods and some guitars are even made from carbon fibre or composites, but those four types are the probably the ones you'll be choosing from. You may find woods like sapele used as a substitute for mahogany, but they're close enough to deal with as one.

90% of the tone of a guitar comes from the top and a surprising amount of what's left is from the neck. The back and sides make up the rest. Relatively speaking, a spruce top will sound bright and sparkly, a cedar top will sound a bit darker and punchier and a mahogany top will sound darker still, thick and woody.

Guitars with rosewood backs and sides tend to have a sharper, more defined low end. Guitars with mahogany backs and sides are a little warmer and softer all over. A rosewood and spruce guitar will tend to have a clear top and bottom end whereas an all mahogany one will be thick with a strong, chunky mid-range.

How much does it matter?

There's only one question here - do you like the way it sounds? If you haven't started to learn yet, ask the shop assistant to play the same thing on a few different guitars for comparison. Over time you'll probably come to develop a preference, but right now a guitar that sounds good to your ears will make you want to play it. There's no other reason to choose one way or another.

* * *

Solid wood or laminate?

You'd assume that all acoustic guitars are made from solid wood, but that's not the case. Many have their various parts made from three or four thinner layers pressed and glued together (laminated) into the right shapes. It's far easier to make the bendy sections for the sides this way, and you can use cheaper wood that might not be aesthetically wonderful because only the outermost layer needs to look good. For this reason laminated guitars tend to be the cheapest to buy. Many guitars will have a combination of a solid top with laminated back and/or sides. More expensive guitars tend to have solid top, back and sides. When guitar makers list the wood used for each part of an instrument, assume it's a laminate unless it specifically states solid.

As we mentioned before, the top provides 90% of the guitar's tone. It does this by vibrating when you hit the strings, similar to the way a drum skin shakes when you hit it with  stick. Solid wood tops generally have a more complex and rich sound than laminates because the glue in a laminate makes it less flexible. A solid back and sides will add a bit more subtlety to the sound the top makes. The choice of back and side wood is far less important if those parts are laminated.

Solid woods also tend to change with age and this can lead to a sweeter, richer sound as the instrument matures, but it's hard to predict if they'll change in a worthwhile way. Some solid guitars become noticeably more lively and vibrant after just a few months of hard playing. A laminate guitar won't change in this way.

Be wary though - just because a guitar is all solid, that doesn't necessarily mean that it'll sound good. Wood isn't always consistent, and the construction is important too. I've played £1000 all solid guitars that were dull and lifeless, and £200 solid topped laminated guitars that sounded great.

How much does it matter?

At this stage it doesn't matter at all. What does matter is that it sounds good to you for the sort of music you want to play. It's nice to think an instrument will grow with you, but you can never tell how much of a change you'll hear. I think that if you want an instrument for life you should allow yourself time to figure out what type of sound is important to you before splashing out. Laminate guitars also have an unexpected advantage which is that they're tough and less prone to changes in temperature and humidity. They may not develop over time but that just means what you hear now is what you'll always have.

My choices? A laminated Yamaha F310 dreadnought comes in at under £100 and is a lovely workhorse that sounds good and is tough as old boots. Faith make brilliant all solid guitars starting at about £350 that are genuinely well made. You can't go wrong with either.

Interesting note: Any Martin guitar with an X in the name is basically made of resin, paper and a weird pressed sawdust and glue composite (called HPL) printed to look like wood. If they say Rosewood HPL it means the same stuff but just printed to look like Rosewood. They do tend to have solid tops though. This is an interesting approach because it reduces the reliance on natural materials. I'm not keen on the sound and suspect you're just paying for the name, but see what you think.

* * *

Electro-acoustic or not?

Some acoustic guitars can be plugged into an amp or a PA system and have a few controls so you can adjust the sound. There are many different ways to make this happen, but there's probably very little value in discussing them just yet. You can expect to pay more for an electro acoustic over the normal equivalent model - expect at least £100 extra for a usable system. It's possible to add this ability to a normal acoustic at a later date, with a range of removable or permanent systems.

How much does it matter?

Do you want to play amplified right now? If not, save your money. There will always be room in your stable for a simple acoustic and you can consider your options when you move on to playing live. Decent venues will be able to sling a microphone in front of a normal guitar anyway so there's no rush to go electric. You really need to have developed a preference for your guitar sound in order to tell how accurately various systems can replicate it so consider holding back until you know what you want.

* * *

After all of that you should have realised one thing - a guitar is a guitar, and an awesome thing in its own right. You can make wonderful music on even the roughest guitar if you approach it the right way. Everyone you ask will have their own opinion of what you should buy, but what matters most is that it sounds good to your ears and that it plays well. I can't tell you how to listen, but I can help you with the second part.

The good news is that almost anything that isn't quite right with a guitar can be tweaked, albeit with different degrees of effort and cost. Unfortunately you won't be able to tell if many of these things are actually a problem at first because it takes practice, but there are a few things that may indicate a carelessly made instrument. If these are all fine, the instrument will probably be easy for you to handle.

1. String height (or 'action'): Look at the thickest string at the 12th fret, which is often marked with a double dot. You would expect that it'd be no higher than 3mm above the metal fret. Any higher than that and they'll be hard to hold down and keep in tune. Adjusting this on an acoustic guitar is an involved job and on some guitars may not even be possible. If it's much higher than this the guitar hasn't been very well made.

2. Tuning keys: Turn each tuner backwards and forwards by about half a turn. They should feel smooth with no slack. If you can wiggle them before they 'bite' then they're not only cheap and nasty but they may not hold the strings in tune. Treat that as a warning sign.

3. Fret finishing: Run your finger carefully along each edge of the guitar neck. past the frets. It should feel smooth all the way. If you can feel sharp edges as you pass each fret this will not only be uncomfortable but might indicate that the fretwork is poor, or the wood for the fretboard wasn't dried for long enough and has now shrunk back. There's no excuse for either, and you don't want to be trying to fix this later. Walk.

* * *

Ok, you can relax now. I hope this has given you the confidence to walk into a music shop as a beginner and trust your ears enough to walk out with a guitar that makes you happy. Opinions are useful, but they're also subjective. It doesn't matter what you play, as long as you play :)

* I forgot to write this footnote about playing with small hands, sorry about that. Don't let this myth sway you into buying a small guitar that isn't really what you want; your hands can handle it. If you play around with the position of your thumb of the back of the neck you'll suddenly find you have far more reach than you'd imagine. I've yet to meet someone who genuinely couldn't handle a standard acoustic guitar.

[musicbecausemusic]

The more things change...

When we're talking about evolution there are two linked concepts that are handy to know: adaptation is where something arises because it serves a useful need and exaptation is where something that already showed up turns out to be pretty good at something new. That's not a scientific explanation :)

I recently had a conversation regarding a situation where a brilliant piece of work by an equally brilliant musician wasn't getting the credit and coverage it clearly deserved. A typical reaction would usually be to examine whether or not it had been presented to the industry according to expectations, but whilst considering what that meant my thoughts came to a crashing halt.

Who are we talking about when we say 'the industry'? What do they do? Why are they important. and how? Have their roles changed? Where do musicians stand in relation to them? Who talks to who and how much weight do they carry?

I did what I usually do when I hit this sort of mental merry-go-round and broke out a large sheet of paper and a pencil. I started to draw bubbles, one for each type of person or collection of people that form 'the music industry', from musicians and promoters through to DJs and journalists. I then started to throw links together in the hope of formalising my thoughts about a few things:

What information flows between these entities?

Where does it originate?

How much of it is multi-purpose?

How much is duplicated?

Do some flows require more 'value' to get through?

What do I mean by 'value'?

Where are the bottlenecks?

Which flows aren't about the music at all.

This might all sound pretty fundamental, but I'd never considered it from micro to macro before. I'll leave my findings out because it might be an interesting process to follow for anyone in a similar position, but I will offer a few conclusions:

- The gatekeeper model is as strong as ever. In many cases people are gatekeepers simply because that's what they've always been. Nobody has questioned their position for the same reason nobody can be bothered changing a incorrectly coloured Lego brick in the middle of a wall.

- There are still overpowering expectations stemming from the age old 'paying your dues' cliche. This isn't romantic - it's restrictive and strengthens the status quo. Why shouldn't you want everything right now?

- Bands often attempt to do something unusual as a promotional tool, but only to reach the next rung on the ladder. Chomsky said 'The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....”. There's an uncomfortable parallel there, if only because the participants are so willing; scraps from the table aren't the same as a dinner party invite.

- Many industry information flows and processes rumble on whether there's any demonstrable success for the musician or not. It's as if there are so many traditional wheels within wheels that they must be turning at all times, so the industry generates a crappy signal-to-noise ratio and then acts surprised when something new creeps up. The aggressive reaction that often follows an independent breakthrough is a tacit admission that it's easier to stomp innovation than redirect your momentum.

- The real innovations and 'game changers' happen despite the status quo, not because of it. There's limited value in being a one-time game changer because you get a short run before your new shiny becomes the game. The industry is so stodgy that it's almost impossible not to come up with new ideas, so you need to stay ahead and keep making jack moves.

* * *

So, the evolution thing? Adaptation in the music industry is synonymous with attempting to refine what you do to meet the needs of an industry that doesn't have your best interests at heart. The industry itself changes little and regularly muscles out new ideas that threaten its stranglehold until it can own them wholesale. It doesn't have to adapt when it can dominate.

So, that leaves exaptation. This is something the industry rarely stumbles upon because it's not in the habit of self reflection. By contrast, musicians are perfectly placed to stand back, size up the available tools and them play merry hell with them in unexpected ways. As Terry Pratchett said - "Bishops move diagonally - that's why they often end up where kings don't expect them to be."

This happens more than you'd think:

Tony Wilson starts a co-operative label that owns none of the music it releases.

Mark Radcliffe introduces a feature on his Radio 1 afternoon show with Lard so he can get away with playing three great songs in the middle of dull playlists, He still does that now in spirit, although is now on a much more open minded station.

Marillion crowd-fund an album back in 1997 by appealing directly to fans.

Arctic Monkeys create a record label buzz by making their name online first,

Candy Says team up with author Miranda Ward to write a book about music, release it through a new crowd-funding website and then record an album in their garage, live on webcam.

Tessa Bickers decides to directly hire the Union Chapel and stage her own gig without going through all the usual hassles.

All these artists took things that already existed but tweaked them in unexpected ways.

It seems to me that the only way to win a game that feels rigged is simply not to play it. The moment you insert yourself into the traditional processes, you're along for the ride at a pace and direction determined by many things beyond your control. Far better to examine the process and then work out the most effective places to throw spanners.

The gatekeepers are still as strong as ever, that's true, but they've failed to notice that the wall surrounding the gate fell down a long time ago. You don't need their permission any more, but you do have to be prepared to leap off the trail for good and go around them.

[musicbecausemusic]

The voice of reason

I recently bought a bodhrán, which is a frame drum associated with Irish traditional music. I played cajon (a South American box drum) a little beforehand but a nerve problem with my fingertips meant that the hard wooden playing surface proved uncomfortable. I needed something with a lot of tonal flexibility and a softer playing feel, and the bodhrán seemed to fit the bill.

Real bodhráns are always 18" even though lots of players seem to prefer 16". The edges need to be taped. You should sandpaper both sides of the skin when you first get it. Drums made in Pakistan and China are never as good as others. Finger taps are frowned on in traditional sessions. There's no such thing as a good bodhrán player, except for some of us. Deep rims are better / worse / easier to play / harder to hold etc. Lots of opinions.

The point of this post is to point out two wonderful comments that surfaced among the chaos and serve as a reminder to approach things like this armed with a big pot of salt that you can pinch where necessary.

"There is a lot of mystique and (IMO) nonsense talked about the bodhrán, it is after all just a drum, regardless of origin and mythology. I personally have played with Folk, Bluegrass, Blues and Cajun bands on bodhrán and it has worked with them all. Because it is just a drum."

"Some people call this a beater, or a tipper, or a cipin. Where I'm from we call it a stick. Because that's what it is."

Sometimes you need that down to earth voice of reason to stop you falling into the trap of taking everything far too seriously to the point where you're scared to jump in and have a go. If you're buying a first instrument as simple as a bodhrán you're probably not going to go far wrong. It's just a wooden rim covered in part of a goat. You'll be able to do most of the things you could do with any other bodhrán - there may be differences in tone or playability next to more expensive drums but you'll discover that later as you become more comfortable with the instrument.

What matters is that you turn that initial interest into action without being put off. If you can buy a fully functional and playable instrument for as little as £30 and have a go, why not do so? Same with Ukuleles, penny whistles, harmonicas etc - just grab one and see where it goes. At the very least you can pass it on to someone else or trade it for something later. I went for an inexpensive 16" Glenluce model and it's just fine.

I'm going to be coming back to this topic later for the acoustic guitar, which is my main instrument of choice. Hopefully it'll provide the boost that some of you might need to dive in and try it without feeling that everyone knows far more than you do :)

[musicbecausemusic]

"Kid, it's YOUR banjo. Play it any damn way you want."

I spotted the quote in the title whilst looking through a post on a forum for banjo players. It's credited to a player called Ken Haferman and was deployed in response to a topic about identifying a particular style of playing from a video.

I landed on that forum a while back because I was trying to figure out what the various playing styles were; banjo players seem to set a lot of store by their own preference and even have strong opinions on how instruments should be set up for each style. By 'strong' I mean 'two beers short of a bar fight'. Lots of talk, very little in the way of consensus.

It occurred to me that this happens across all musical genres and instruments. It's one of the biggest barriers presented to listeners and musicians alike - the sense that conformity with some arbitrary ruleset is expected, whether the practitioners like to admit it or not. To a new musician or fan it can be overpowering, and I suspect many people are put off before they've really started.

It's in my nature to question everything, challenge authority, debunk nonsense and never let expectations and constraints get in the way of discovery. It's also in my nature to love music and playing, and it feels like bringing those traits together might be useful to people who find themselves feeling cornered by convention and in need of a hand.

That's what this blog is about. Music is too important to be tied down.