September 2005 Newsletter

Bi-yearly we draw a name from a hat of the prior six months Newsletter Contest Winners and give that person a FREE Eastwood Guitar! Congratulations to Bill Wagoner of Indiana who scores an Eastwood ROCKET LTD. It's that simple.... September's Newsletter Contest Winner is DYAN from Hollywood CA. She scores a T-Shirt and enters for the Guitar Giveaway; Congrats! WE NEED MORE STORIES, keep them coming! Next month we will give away a FREE guitar to one of the newsletter writers from the past 6 months, so get your article in TODAY to have a chance at winning!

Check out the sleek and sexy ELECTRA from Michael Wright, The Different Strummer. Another great educational spot from Kirk Lorange on Soloing, and Part 2 of JOHN ABERCROMBIE from Larry Payne

As always your input and comments are welcome. Enjoy the Guitarticles! Mike Robinson

I'm a musician living in Los Angeles. One afternoon, I stopped to have lunch at an outside café on Sunset Boulevard with tables so close together that they touch. I sat down next to an old guy and ordered a sandwich. A group of people immediately came up and asked the guy for his autograph. I didn't recognize him, so I assumed he was a TV actor. People are always fussing over actors I don't recognize. (I haven't watched TV since I was a kid, so I'm often off the grid when it comes to pop culture.) I forgot about the guy for a couple of minutes. My mind was on a song I was writing, and I was replaying a riff over and over in my head so I'd remember it when I got home. But I couldn't ignore the guy for long, because more and more people kept stopping for autographs...

Suppose someone offered you either a Gibson Les Paul or an obscure Electra. Which would you choose? I know which direction I jumped once upon a time! Back in the day, before the Internet brought cool guitars to your desktop, we used to have the pleasure of snooping out guitars in little out-of-the- way shops. Mac and Joe used to run one such parlor out on Woodland Avenue in Southwest Philly, a low- rent district for sure. After work I'd descend to the Green Line and catch either the 11 or 36 trolley, which dumped me full of anticipation in front of their store. What would I find today - a Hagstrom? A Framus?

The soft yet persistent tone so readily associated with John Abercrombie is more often obtained through use of a solid-body guitar than a semi- acoustic or full-bodied archtop. That shouldn't be so surprising, though, since the modern solid-body has undergone a considerable degree of scientific analysis and artistic endeavor, resulting in a number of instruments that are more playable and more accommodating than their predecessors. Abercrombie's choice, then, is a Brian Moore DC1. "Basically, it's a Les Paul style of guitar," he says. "I tend toward a solid-body, Les Paul sort of sound, anyway. I have an Ibanez solid-body, too, and a Tele-style guitar by Roger Sadowsky." He still loves a good archtop, though, as is clear from his descriptions of two key instruments...

I'm having a Birthday this month. So, I got to thinking. Why not have a Special Birthday Promotion for everyone? Nothing like getting a great deal on your Birthday. Have a wonderful Birthday!

I have hated the idea of scales all my playing life. I never use them (consciously), and never think them. I think melody. I don't know, or care to know, the names of the various scales and modes. I know the major scale and see all others as being distortions of it. I am also aware that there is the chromatic scale (all twelve notes) to use at all times. You can link any interval with semitones if you so choose, any scale note to any other scale note, from any scale you care to name. It becomes a question of timing, to get to the note you want in the time left to do so, if you follow. All twelve notes are there for the asking.