Tag Archives: open tunings

THANK YOU for visiting my teaching webpage. I hope you will find all of the information you need. I would love to help you learn to play acoustic or electric guitar, or perhaps provide you with some coaching that will improve your skills and technique.

Over many years of performing, teaching and playing in many different styles I have developed a structured method of coaching that will – in a very short time – reward you with the skills and confidence needed to become a self-sufficient player, able to make music with and for others.

Matthew performing with Wally High and the Non-Prophets, CD release 2007.

I work with a wide range of musicians-in-training across Canada and the USA, on both acoustic and electric guitar, from complete beginners to those performing and teaching at the professional level.

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Thoughts On Things Musical

Practice, Rehearsal and Performance Are Three Different Things, Part I

December 5, 2023 Matthew Woodward

PRACTICE

This refers to the hours we spend alone with our instrument, working with and attempting to master the technical aspects of what we do. In reference to the need for isolation, players call this personal quality time “woodshedding” or simply “shedding”. It includes the hours we spend reading about music theory, trying to make sense of it all. Listening to players we hope to emulate, and trying to “lift” (learn by ear) their ideas from recordings also falls into this category. If you study with a good instructor they will point out your problem areas that need attention and give you advice on how to remedy them. Listen carefully and put their suggestions into PRACTICE.

Practice involves learning new scales and chords, and pushing the envelope to find ways to keep your playing experience fresh. It means broadening your palette by learning songs in styles other than your usual repertoire. If you’re a hard rock player, learn some funk, R&B, country or jazz standards. Try to keep an open mind. Challenge is good and keeps you and your playing from falling into a rut.

Over the years many students have asked me about how often and for how long they should practice. It’s always been a tough one to answer, because I’ve never had to force myself to be with my guitars. When I was young I was absolutely driven to play and spent hours trying to figure out the songs I thought were “hip”. The question had more to do with how to get the guitar OUT of my hands so as to make me do other more mundane things like school work!

My own personal relationship with my instrument is like that with an old and true friend. Sometimes we drift apart, but when we get back together we pick up the thread from where we left off. The time apart often does our friendship good. Today, with over thirty years of playing under my belt, I tend to practice on more of a “when I need to” basis. When I have a gig coming up, or if the fancy strikes me to learn some cool jazz riff, or some interesting tuning, an idea for a song – well…sometimes I don’t come up for air for days. If you are realistic and honest with yourself about your skills and technique you will know what needs to be done to improve.

Rather than playing the entire song, a practicing musician will focus on the aspects of that song that they find difficult to play. This might mean going over the G to C chord change in a country song a million times until it’s down, or jamming in the Dorian mode over a pre-recorded play-along track for hours until they’re comfortable with using that scale to improvise.

Practice prepares a musician for rehearsal.

Let that be a lesson to you. 😉

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Practice, Rehearsal and Performance Are Three Different Things, Part II

Thoughts On Things Musical

How To Rip It Up The Right Way!

October 10, 2023 Matthew Woodward

What we generally refer to as “lead” guitar, or soloing, is when a guitarist builds melodies using single notes played one at a time in succession, rather than using chords. Whether or not the player is aware of it, the source of these notes will be a scale comprised of the batch of notes that the player feels is most suitable to the chord progression they are playing “over”, according to their own personal taste as to what sounds “right”.

It’s useful to think of how different people speak in order to understand the choices players make in various situations. Each note one plays can be thought of as a single word. Words can be used to build sentences (melodies), sentences to build paragraphs (entire solos), and so on. What a player chooses to say in any given musical situation will usually reflect their familiarity with that situation, their previous experience with other similar situations, or their complete lack of understanding of what is going on musically.

Each musical style has its own dialect, and some words, although they can be found in the dictionary, may be inappropriate for a particular style. Playing jazz licks in a hard rock tune might sound awkward, even if those jazz licks make sense in another song where that level of sophistication is called for. That said, it’s still fine to “mash-up” differing genres, as long as some thought has gone into how to go about it. Finding the right words to say at the right time is the goal of every lead guitarist.

The melodic choices that a player makes will reflect their level of experience and education, in other words, their musical vocabulary. That being said, it doesn’t necessarily follow that a lead player must have an extensive vocabulary in order to be considered good, if they play what they do know well. There are no clear-cut rules as to how to craft a “good” solo. Extremely sloppy solos have been considered legendary, despite their flaws, due to the feeling and emotion that went into the performance. Many well thought-out and technically mind-boggling solos have proven to be just plain boring!

Many players improvise their solos, allowing the notes to flow from their fingers in a stream-of-consciousness sort of fashion. They never play the same thing twice. Others are uncomfortable doing this, and prefer to carefully compose the melody of a solo beforehand. Either approach can work for the soloist as they try to create an interesting musical interlude that both supports and enhances the song. And THAT’S an important thing to always consider – does that great solo you just played actually improve the song?

Many things are involved in the production of the final sounds we hear within a solo, and the mood they are meant to create. One can “speak” with a clean tone, or with a distorted voice. Studio “session players” are often musical chameleons, carrying an arsenal of different guitars, amps and effects in the hope of providing a producer with whatever sounds they may be after. There is almost an infinite number of guitar and amp choices available to modern electric players, even before considering electronic processors such as effects pedals. Finding your sound – the combination that speaks to you is extremely important. You want to be inspired to play.

A trap that many guitarists fall into has to do with the physical layout of the notes we play on the fretboard. Since every scale can be found in some form of recognizable fingering pattern, players will often wander up and down through a pattern (or “box” as they are sometimes called) without really having an idea of what they want to say – they let the pattern they are playing in shape the music they make. It’s rather like forming a sentence by picking words at random from a dictionary.

We have all known people that talk and talk endlessly, never seeming to make a point – they ramble on. Other folks are able to sum up complicated ideas with a few simple, memorable words. They only speak when they have something worth saying. A player’s personality is often indicated by the manner in which they take a solo. Groups of musicians can also be thought of as being engaged in conversation – sometimes everyone is talking loudly all at once, sometimes folks respectfully listen, quietly support or add constructively to what the others have to say.

Good lead players try to form distinct, stand-alone melodies, and they choose their notes with care. The best lead players give their listeners something accessible, often singable, and definitely memorable. People leave the show humming the solos they played.

Aim for that.

Remember: Just because you can yodel doesn’t mean you should always be yodeling.

Let that be a lesson to you.

Not Rocket Science

Inversion Diversion

July 1, 2014 Matthew Woodward

Finding Your Voice

I had the good fortune of playing with a great Kingston alternative rock band called Gaudi Birds during 1995-6. One (okay, several) of our tunes would become long jams on a groove, as our lead singer, Justin Bird, would go into these really cool stream-of-consciousness lyrical improvisations.

I recall how one song often veered off into a simple E–D–A (I–flat 7–IV) mixolydian chord progression, reminiscent of “Gloria” by Van Morrison. For most of the jam, I would just comp on the cowboy chords in the first position. When I sensed that we were approaching the return to our own song I’d break into a descending figure using small 3-note voicings of the three chords, signalling my bandmates that the change was coming.

How I did that is what this post is about. You might, however, need a little preamble to help you understand.

The way in which the notes of a chord are arranged is referred to as the voicing of that chord. Think of your six strings as a little family choir group – daddy sings bass on the big 6th string, little sister sings the high notes on the 1st string. Each of the other four family members fit their own voice ranges in between on the other strings. Some chords we play have all six voices of the choir “singing”. Others may use only three or four while the others remain silent. You are the conductor, deciding who sings what note and when.

When changing from one chord to another we try to do so in such a way that none of the voices within the current chord has to move in an awkward way to get to the note it has to sing in the next chord. Some voices may move up while others move down. We try to avoid large leaps between notes. This careful consideration of how the voices will move is referred to as good voice leading.

Triads, such as the Major Chord have only three different notes to deal with. The standard names employed for close voicings of triads (in which all of the notes of the chord are within the span of one octave) are fairly easy to understand, even if you can’t yet read music:

Shown above are the C Major Scale and the close voicings that are possible for the C Major Triad, which combines the 1^st (Root), 3^rd, and 5^th of the C Major Scale.

If the three notes of the triad are stacked as a chord with the Root as the lowest note, the 5^th as the highest and the 3^rd between those two, the triad is said to be in Root Position.

To invert something means to put it upside down or in the opposite position, order, or arrangement. If the lowest note of the Root Position triad is replaced with its octave so that the Root is now the highest note of the chord (while the 3^rd and 5^th remain the same), we have inverted its position relative to the rest of the chord. Hence, the triad that results is said to be in First Inversion.

Inverting the 3^rd to its octave, so the triad is in the order of 5^th, Root, 3^rd, results in what is called the Second Inversion of the triad.

Finally, inverting the 5^th to its octave results in an arrangement of Root, 3^rd, 5^th– a return to Root Position, but with all of the notes now an octave above where we started. From this point, the other inversions will similarly repeat themselves in the same order.

Remember that each of these three arrangements, Root Position, 1^st Inversion and 2^nd Inversion, are the same chord. Each can be called a C Major chord on its own. These terms are used simply to describe how the notes are stacked in a particular chord voicing.

Now you’ll better understand what I did. Mind you, this is all relatively basic stuff, using root position (1-3-5), 1st inversion (3-5-1) and 2nd inversion (5-1-3) close triad voicings of E, D and A, but it’s a good exercise and also fun to see the many ways one can play the same three chords. If you can’t read, just use the tab shown below each staff.

Since the E and D chords are only a tone away from each other, I played each of them using the same voicing for each measure. Notice how in the first bar both E and D are in root position voicings, while the A is in 1st inversion. Bar two has E and D in 2nd inversion, and the A in root position. Note that I’ve also written this out with each E chord being played twice so the progression will resemble “Gloria”.

Guitar players use a lot of big, 6-string chords when playing rhythm, but we really only need the three notes of the triad to form the chord. Voicing the chords in this fashion requires that you think more like a keyboard player. It keeps the chord progression moving and interesting. In my experience I have observed how the better players tend to use smaller chords to get their point across.

Play the exercise and see if you are able to understand the order in which the inversions switch up as the progression descends. Enjoy!

Let that be a lesson to you. 😉

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Thoughts On Things Musical

Practice, Rehearsal and Performance Are Three Different Things, Part III

June 22, 2014 Matthew Woodward

PERFORMANCE

This is the main event – the “gig” at which the musician or group plays its repertoire before a live audience. Be it a campfire sing-along or a full-scale concert event, the quality of that performance will reflect the amount of time the musicians have spent practicing separately and rehearsing together.

There is nothing that compares to the experience musicians gain on stage, and when performers “click” with their audience the concert experience can be magical.

Despite hours and hours of musical preparation, performing for an audience also requires energy, stamina and above all professionalism. This means being ready for the missed cues and mistakes that always happen and knowing how to deal with them in a way that the audience (hopefully) won’t notice. As a performer, you will encounter many things beyond your control such as broken strings, equipment breakdowns,
bad connecting cables, personal illness, family and relationship problems, deaf soundpersons, drunken fans, shyster managers, insane club owners…how you react to situations is important. As the saying goes, “the show must go on”. The real “troupers” find the focus and inner strength they need to rise above whatever external issues might affect their performance.

Electric players should strive to get the best sound they can at a comfortable level, using the venue’s sound system to boost their signal. If you’re not “in the mix”, what the crowd hears will suffer. You will also annoy your bandmates, especially those who are trying to sing on pitch. For most audiences the vocal performance is the single most important feature of any song. Your chosen stage volume should never be such that it will drown out the singer(s). One of the best compliments a musician can give to another musician is to say that he or she “has big ears”, meaning that they listen to all of what’s being played and react to the others in the group. If you can’t hear the other members of your group, you’re too loud.

Working from a set list that everyone agrees upon is very important. Try to create little “segues”, transitional musical links that connect one song to the next, to avoid dead air between your tunes. A segue can be quite elaborate, involving key changes or modulations, but can also be as simple as having your drummer immediately kick into the beat of your next song. Keep your show moving along.

Be aware of which person in the group should be the focal point of the audience at any given time. If it is their time to solo, play to them, support them, encourage them. Audiences notice these things. Follow spotlights are wonderful tools in this respect and can be used to help guide your audience to look exactly at what you want them to.

Some of the best groups of musicians that I’ve worked with recorded live shows and listened to them immediately after the performance, while everyone was winding down from the adrenaline rush and memories of what transpired were still fresh. We’d listen to what we did, evaluate our performance, giving each other credit where due and respectful, constructive criticism when requested or necessary. This always helped make our next show better.

I’ve always believed that the people on stage should be better-dressed than their audience, or at least as well as, no matter what style of music they are playing. Jeans and a t-shirt are okay for Bruce Springsteen, but he’s already made it to the top with a blue collar image.Give some thought to your appearance and the impression you will make on the audience. Without adopting uniforms, your group might decide to wear only certain colours or patterns. For example, you can wear whatever you want, as long as it’s black and/or blue. This idea allows everyone freedom to dress as they like, but a more unified visual results which makes the group or band look more “together” and professional. It may sound “old school”, but it’s worth saying: DRESS FOR SUCCESS.

One last thought, perhaps most important of all…don’t forget to get paid.

Let that be a lesson to you.

Thoughts On Things Musical

Practice, Rehearsal and Performance Are Three Different Things, Part II

June 20, 2014 Matthew Woodward

REHEARSAL

This is where the practice pays off and the fun begins. Here a group of musicians meet and actually play their music together. The chosen songs are played and ideally, everyone tries to make what they do as individuals contribute to an overall group sound.

Listening to one another – not only to the musical parts each person plays, but to the creative ideas and constructive suggestions they contribute – is the key to having a productive rehearsal. Rehearsals are usually best conducted at low volumes (even for death metal bands) so that players can talk to one another without having to shout over blaring amps or crashing cymbals. High volumes contribute to fatigue and irritability, and really aren’t necessary at rehearsal. You know what you sound like loud – save it for the stage.

At rehearsal players figure out how to present a song to the best of their collective abilities. They work on a song either in its entirety, or in smaller sections, to decide upon how it should be arranged. A player may need to go over their solo section a few times to hear how their ideas fit with what everyone else is doing, perhaps make a few changes. Time might be spent on honing the harmony vocals for the chorus of the song. Groups working on original compositions will often “jam” on their rough ideas for hours, following their inspirations and hoping to strike gold. At rehearsal an entire song is usually played many times all the way through. Often groups will record their rehearsals for later evaluation.

Decisions are also made upon the order in which songs are to be performed live before an audience, with careful consideration given to such aspects as keys, tempos and mood. If the group of musicians is putting on a full-scale concert production, “dress rehearsals” may also be held, at which all sound and lighting cues are worked out with their technicians in a simulation of the actual planned concert. After all this the music is (hopefully) ready for public performance.

Let that be a lesson to you.

Practice, Rehearsal and Performance Are Three Different Things, Part III

Gear Talk For Guitarists

Notes On Tuning

June 19, 2014 Matthew Woodward

Although your guitar can be in tune with itself, to be in tune with the rest of the world we must have a standard reference pitch with which we can make sure that at least one of our strings is in tune. Once one string is in tune, the tuning of the others can be derived from it.

In the not-so-distant past folks would have to tune their guitars by ear to what they thought was right, to the nearest available piano, or to any other instrument that was considered reliable. Another method employed was to tune a string by comparing its pitch to a note produced by a tuning fork, which produces its sound when it is struck against your knee or heel and is then held by its stem against the guitar. You compare the sound of the string you wish to tune to the pitch of the tuning fork and try to match it exactly by ear.

The first tuning device I used was a pitch pipe (sort of a six-note harmonica). The six pipes play the notes E, A, D, G, B and (high) E. You blow a note on the pipe and tune the pitch of the string that matches that pipe until it sounds right, doing this for each string. Convenient, cheap, but not very accurate. If I misplaced my pitch pipe I would put a familiar recording on the turntable (perhaps a song that I knew featured an obvious A, E or D note) and tune my guitar by ear to that. Then I would walk 25 miles uphill through driving snow to get to rehearsal.

When I first started playing in bands all the touring acts carried electronic stroboscopic tuners. Strobe tuners have been around since the 1930’s, and were primarily used by piano tuners.

Although highly accurate, they were big, heavy, expensive, and sensitive to being knocked around in the back of a van.

I was amazed when the Korg GT-6 portable guitar tuner first came out in 1979 – small, affordable and made specifically for guitarists. I ran to my local music store and bought one right away. Revolutionary!

Today, electronic battery-operated, hands-free guitar tuners are inexpensive, highly accurate, easy to use, and available at all music stores. You simply hold the microphone (built into the tuner) up close to the soundhole of an acoustic guitar, or plug an electric guitar directly into the device and then tune up by watching a meter with a needle (most accurate) or an LED display of some sort. Some tuners clip on to the headstock of your guitar and work by sensing the vibrations of the instrument. “Stomp box” foot pedal tuner designs are indispensable for electric players onstage.

As with most things today, the amount you spend determines the quality of construction materials, durability, accuracy and flexibility of the tuner. Cheap tuners tend to break easily, or will go out of calibration if dropped. Pricier “chromatic” tuners will allow you to tune to any note, not just the six notes used in “standard” tuning, and are generally worth the extra cash. There are also tuning programs available as freeware on the internet.

Although electronic tuners are amazing, you don’t want to become totally dependent on them. Almost all of the “old school” methods of tuning required a player to use their ears to listen to a reference pitch while attempting to match the tuning of their string to that reference.

Listening is GOOD for you, and helps train your ear to minute changes in pitch. It’s important to know exactly what to listen for. When two notes that are slightly out of tune with each other are played together, their combined frequencies produce an effect known as “destructive interference”. We hear this as a regularly occurring drop in the volume of the two notes, referred to as “beating”. Remember that it is the combination of two almost-in-tune notes that causes this effect – both pitches must be ringing in order to hear this beating effect.

The speed of the beating effect depends upon how close in frequency the notes being compared are. If the two notes played are very close in pitch, the beating will sound like a slow pulsing wave. If the notes are far apart in frequency, the beating will be rapid, producing a fast, warbling sound. Once a player can hear this, they begin to tighten or loosen a string, listening carefully to the speed of the beating until they are able to make the effect stop completely. When the two notes are perfectly in tune with each other the beating sound disappears. You are good to go!

Let that be a lesson to you.

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Let's Talk About Guitars

Guitar Questions: Intonation

June 19, 2014 Matthew Woodward

What does the term “intonation” mean?

Simply put, intonation refers to a guitar’s ability to get in tune. Setting the intonation refers to the adjustment of the strings’ lengths to compensate for their stretching when they are fretted. This adjustment is usually performed at the bridge by moving the saddle(s) backwards or forwards until the 12th fret octave harmonic precisely equals the octave played at the 12th fret.

If the strings did not stretch when pushed down to fret notes, the intonation would be perfectly set with the bridge saddle(s) located at precisely twice the distance from the nut as the middle of the 12th fret is from the nut. Because they do stretch, the saddle(s) must be set back enough to compensate.

When setting up a guitar, intonation must be adjusted last, as any other variables such as the truss rod tension, action, or even the pickup heights can affect it. All intonation checking should always be done in playing position in order to account properly for neck flex, which affects string height and therefore string stretch.

How can I check my intonation?

Checking your intonation is easy with a quartz digital tuning meter, preferably one with a meter readout rather than one LEDs. Be sure your strings are relatively new, with at least 3/4 of their expected life left. With your guitar tuned to pitch and held in playing position, compare the note played at the 12th fret with the octave harmonic at the 12th fret. They should be the same.

If they are the same and you still have intonation problems, check the open strings and the other fretted notes. If particular frets are out and others are in, look to see if the frets are worn to the point where the string is not leaving from their centers. If so you may need a grind and polish or new frets to cure the problem. Bad scales are not uncommon on handmade or on very cheaply made instruments. If the intonation starts out bad on the first few frets and gets progressively better going up to the 12th, your guitar may have a misplaced nut. This would throw the entire scale off. You need the assistance of a competent repair person to relocate the nut.

What is involved in adjusting it?

The actual intonation consists of setting the bridge saddles so that the note played at the 12th fret is an exact octave of the open string. This is best done by a tuning meter to compare either the open string or the octave harmonic (12th fret) with the fretted octave at the same fret. Use gentle finger pressure, as any finger english or “articulation” will disturb the accuracy of the adjustment. If the note is sharp compared to the harmonic, lengthen the string. If the note is flat, shorten the string.

Electric guitars with individually adjustable bridge saddles are the easiest to set, but there are methods that can be used on acoustic guitars and other guitars without built-in adjustments, although those methods are too involved to discuss here. If you check your intonation regularly, it should rarely take more than a few minutes, provided you stick with the same action and string gauges. If you own a tuning meter I recommend that you check the intonation every time you change your strings. Even the slightest discrepancies from one set of strings to the next can make a difference. If the amount of adjustment provided by your bridge proves inadequate to intonate one or more strings, it may be necessary to have a repair person take a look. Sometimes a saddle needs to be turned around and re-slotted; sometimes the entire bridge may need to be moved. In general, however, it is a quick and easy home procedure.

One final reminder: always check the intonation with the guitar in playing position, as the flex of the neck would otherwise interfere with accuracy.

This information is borrowed from “The Novice’s Guide to Guitar Repairs” by Barry Lipman, with thanks to the author.

Gear Talk For Guitarists

What’s In The Box?

June 5, 2014 Matthew Woodward

Over the years I’ve enjoyed collecting guitar-related accessories such as effects stomp pedals, cables, straps, cords, capos, stands, slides…and it’s still FUN.

Years ago my onstage rig featured what was probably one of the first- ever “effects racks”, designed and built around 1980 by myself and my good friend, local electronic tech and Hammond B3 whiz Ken Hall, who was working at the back of Renaissance Music when they were on Princess Street. Ken and I were trying to come up with a way to get my pedals up off the floor so that I wasn’t kicking them around and unplugging them all the time, so we built them all into a 19″ rack about 2′ tall and then used a single pedal box at the front of the stage to control them all via relay switching.

This is all stuff that’s taken for granted nowadays, but remember, back then we were like pioneers with this stuff! If I remember correctly, my guitar connected to the front-of-stage switch box via an XLR connection, so I couldn’t kick it out. This pedal controlled the on/off status of each effect, with green and red LEDs as indicators. We also added in/out loops on each side of the box, one for my wah pedal on the right, the other for whatever odd pedal I might be trying out at time. From there a multi-core cable led to the rack, and the signal chain went : tuner (with improvised kill switch for silent tuning – tuners didn’t have that option back then) -> Ashley SC-50 Peak Limiter/Compressor -> Boss Chorus -> MXR Distortion Plus -> MXR Flanger -> Yamaha E-1010 Analog Delay -> Roland RE-201 Space Echo -> A/B amp selector -> DOD Dual 15 Band EQ -> Marshall 50W and Fender Twin. The rack sat atop its Clydesdale road case beside me onstage.

THE BOX

Since those days I’ve stripped things down considerably and try to pack everything I need for a small club gig into an average sized suitcase, preferably of vintage. Many shows today have multiple bands playing and it’s important to be able to get set up and off the stage quickly, so here’s What’s In The Box:
You probably noticed how the suitcase is plastered with a bunch of decals. They’re so roadies know which side of the case should face up. First, a chunk of foam to protect my pedals and keep everything snug. The pedal board fits into the suitcase perfectly, with a little room left over to the side.

I try to have things packed in the order in which I will need them as I setup, so the pedal board comes out first. Here’s what lays beneath:

It looks messy, but it’s not, really. AC power cables are on top.

Notice the orange thingy on the power bar. That’s a ground lifter. Illegal, as it omits the ground plug, but sometimes that’s the only way you can get rid of buzz & hum when using multiple amps.

Next up are my patch cables that connect my guitar to the pedal board, and from that to my amplifier(s). Some long ones, medium sized and short jumpers. At the bottom of the pic is a speaker cable used for connecting a Marshall head to its cabinet.

Finally, a collapsible guitar stand. That’s all I need to be setup.

I do like to be prepared. The box also contains a really cool tool set from Canadian Tire – cost me $5.00 and has come in handy so many times, truly saving my ass in several dire situations.

I’ve also got a little tin recipe box that I’ve had since about 1978. It contains fuses, 9V batteries, strings, pedal jumpers, capos, slides, etc.

The Heineken thing is just something I rigged up on a sunny day to provide shade for my tuner so I could see the damned thing. Last but not least, a little screw-top Noxzema bottle to hold the little things:

If you look closely, you’ll see $0.25 to use for emergency phone calls. That quarter has been with me forever. I know a payphone costs more now, but I just keep it in there for good luck.

Wait! There’s more!

Tucked into the side pouch, for making up set lists:

And in the pouches on the lid, set lists and extra blank paper:

So, that’s What’s In The Box. Hope you’ve enjoyed this little tour!

Let that be a lesson to you.

Let's Talk About Guitars

My baby: 1976 Gibson Les Paul Custom

June 5, 2014 Matthew Woodward

Lots of people ask me questions about my workhorse guitar – my friend and accomplice for 40 years – so I thought I’d post a few pics for your enjoyment.

The Les Paul Custom is the top of the line of solid-body electric Gibson guitars. Immensely playable, in addition to having a rich, dark, powerful sound it is truly a finely-crafted piece of furniture.

When I saw her hanging on the wall it was love at first sight. Purchased new in early 1977 from Sharp & Flat Music in the Frontenac Mall. I take credit for all the wear and abuse it has suffered since then.

Sporting a limited edition nitro-cellulose (now yellowed) lacquer cream finish, the body has a carved maple top and a solid mahogany back. It has multi-ply white/black binding on its top, back and headstock. The neck is maple with single-ply white binding. Tuners are gold-plated Grovers. The fretboard is ebony. Mother of pearl block inlays are on the fretboard. The headstock also has a split-diamond pearl inlay. The pickups each have separate volume and tone controls and are switchable via a 3-position toggle.

This guitar has been modified somewhat over the years. Replacement parts include gold “top hat” control knobs, cream pickup surrounds and pickguard (originally black), and DiMarzio “Super Distortion” humbucking pickups. A Leo Quan “Badass” bridge and a new stop tailpiece replaced the original gold-plated hardware that had become severely corroded. The neck was completely re-fretted in the early 1990’s with top-quality jumbo fret wire.

I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting my baby. Please feel free to share my post with others.

Let that be a lesson to you.

KINGSTON ONTARIO GUITAR LESSONS with Matthew Woodward

Tag Archives: open tunings

I Want You To Feel Welcome.

Practice, Rehearsal and Performance Are Three Different Things, Part I

PRACTICE

How To Rip It Up The Right Way!

Inversion Diversion

Finding Your Voice

Practice, Rehearsal and Performance Are Three Different Things, Part III

PERFORMANCE

Practice, Rehearsal and Performance Are Three Different Things, Part II

REHEARSAL

Notes On Tuning

Guitar Questions: Intonation

What’s In The Box?

My baby: 1976 Gibson Les Paul Custom

Learn from EXPERIENCE!