Newsletter Vol. 1 # 46 – March 29, 2002

Hello Guitar Players,

Welcome to the March 29, 2002 issue of our free weekly ezine. Before I hopelessly lose track of everything I have started noting the issue numbers of the newsletter. This week we are clocking in at issue # 46. If you want to look through older issues of our newsletter check out the Newsletter Archives.

Every week we receive a lot of interesting email. This week was no exception. In fact, I received one of the best letters ever this week. Unfortunately, it is not fit to print. Instead, the Email of the Week slot goes to Dan this week who has an excellent response to an interesting question.

In this newsletter:

News
New Guitar and Bass Lessons
Acoustic Guitar Tip
Recommended Reading
CD Reviews
New Links
Email of the Week

Why not help a fellow musician? You can do them a favor by forwarding them this newsletter.

News and Announcements

Spring Break
I have a feeling that a lot of the younger crowd may be enjoying their Spring Break. For me spring is always a time to clean, and the website is no exception. With new content being added every week the site just grows and grows – and sometimes little dust balls gather in the corners. Over the next couple of weeks I will be going through the site looking for broken links, errors and things that don’t live up to the standard of quality we have attained.

If you have come across anything that doesn’t really belong on our site, typos, or broken links please be so kind as to email with the address of the page and a description of the problem. Yes, the site has an overwhelming amount of stuff on it, reading it all is tough enough, but writing it and keeping it all together is even more overwhelming.

Guitar and Bass Lessons

Hippie Rock and Roll
Working Bands # 3
by Mab O’Connor (29 Mar 2002)
Back in 1969 I lived on Castro Street right in the Heart of San Francisco, California. Now 33 years later, I find myself in a band playing all the great songs of the Woodstock Era. So don’t ever let anyone tell you that you are too old or too young to start in a band. I will be 53 years young this May, and our band has been together two years now.

Love The One You’re With
Beginners Song # 16
by David Hodge (29 Mar 2002)
In today’s lesson, yet another (very) old chestnut from the early seventies, we’ll be seeing practical applications of the chord shapes learned there. For good measure, we’ll toss in a few (very) easy fills and then also look at how we’d play it in Drop D tuning.

Guitar Tip

This week our tip comes to us courtesy of Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar Tips.

Proper Neck Setup

I’ve read a lot of stuff on this subject and measured my own guitars. Some of the tests I’ve read even my new guitar that plays perfectly didn’t pass so I’ve come up with some sensible things to look at. This is for steel string flat top acoustic guitars only.

The first and most important thing to consider is, if you think your guitar plays great, there probably isn’t a problem. If you’re hearing extreme buzzing or your guitar is too hard to play, check out a few things.

First, sight down the neck from the tuner end. You shouldn’t see any twisting or bumps especially where the neck begins to go over the guitar body. The neck probably won’t look perfectly flat. This is normal. The neck will probably have a slight concaveness around the 6th fret. We’ll check more on that later. Now lay the guitar someplace good like in it’s case and measure a few things. Get a good metal straight edge that has measurement lines to the end. Stand the end of the straight edge on the face of the guitar in front of the bridge. You should measure about 1/2 inch from the face of the guitar to the center of the Bass E string. My guitars measure a hair more, but I’m a heavy player and like my action higher. Now go to the 12th fret on the neck of the guitar. Stand the end of the straight edge on the TOP of the 12th fret. There should be about 1/8 inch from the top of the 12th fret to the BOTTOM of the Bass E string. Again my guitars are a hair higher, but that’s my personal preference.

The last thing to check is that concaveness in the neck’s fretboard mentioned earlier. With your left index finger, push down on the Bass E string on the first fret like you’re playing a F. With your right index finger, push down on the Bass E string at the 12th fret like you’re playing a high E. Now look between the bottom of the Bass E string and the top of the 6th fret. You should be able to see a very slight gap. Just enough to see some light.

Above are just general things. Some players like things set up higher or lower. The thing to remember is if your steel string acoustic guitar doesn’t play right to you and you see anything that departs greatly from what’s mentioned above, you probably need a qualified repairman to check things out.

Gman ( o )==#

For more tips visit Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar Tips.

CD Reviews

Martin Orford – Classical Music and Popular Songs
Martin Orford, keyboard player with IQ, presents us here with a solo album. The album is brilliantly executed, with an interesting choice of material. A departure from what Martin has given us through IQ, but one that is worth taken.

New Sites

OK, if you are paying attention this week, the latest Working Band feature was written by Mab, who plays and sings in a Hippie band. If you are wondering more about them here is a link to her band’s site:

Artist Support – Calling all acoustic guitarists and acts that feature acoustic guitar prominently! Is your music on the internet? Got an mp3.com page? Got mp3’s you want more people to hear? If the answer’s yes, there’s free support for you at the Acoustic Guitar Workshop.
ROCKRGRL Magazine – Women playing music is neither “trend” nor “genre” and ROCKRGRL proves this in every bi-monthly print issue. Readers are treated to intelligent interviews with exceptional women of note from Ani to Yoko as well as poignant essays penned by our own Ann Wilson of Heart.

Email of the Week

Working as a Soundman
I am in high school and I am currently running sound for a local high school band. I love doing what I am doing because I am constantly around music. Along with running sound, I do the majority of setting up, tearing down, and I help bring equipment to the gig. However, I have been faced with a problem. The guys in the band have not paid me for quite a while. They say that all of the band’s money is going into the band’s account in order to buy other equipment. Though getting new equipment is nice, I need to get paid. I have confronted the band members about this and they tend to use my love for what I’m doing against me and tell me not to complain. I feel that I am getting ripped off and used. I am also going to be getting another job soon, and it makes no sense to take time off a job where I will be actually getting paid to work for these guys and not be guarantee the money. Should I have them sign a contract even though they only pay me $25 dollars a gig??? I would GREATLY appreciate your opinion on this. Thank you!

Dan’s Response
Wow, you’ve got an interesting problem. If no one else in the band is getting paid, then that makes it even more difficult. Who keeps and manages the money?

On the plus side, you are an energetic sound engineer who loves the music and cares how it sounds. These characteristics will serve you well.

Since no one is getting paid, then you should all be “equals”, which means that everyone has to help load in, set up, and tear down. The PA and the drums get set up first, and no one plays their guitars until the initial sound check is finished. When possible, you should go to rehearsals, and provide some creative input about dynamics, tone, etc.

With regard to your options going forward, you’ve got a couple of choices. First, if you want to get paid even if the others don’t, then you need to act like a hired gun. This means that you are no longer equals: they are the talent, you are the sound guy. You are responsible for the equipment, and you have to treat it as if it was your own. You’ll have to get to the gigs early and set up alone. In fact, it would be best if you got your own PA . On the plus side, you could then work for other bands too, and you’d be surprised how many bands really need a sound guy out front. Either way, you get paid.

If you want to stay with the band, then you should at least have a say in how the money is managed, and what equipment is bought. The band shouldn’t buy anyone personal gear like guitars or strings, but any PA gear can be owned by the group. If there are 5 of you, and you make $300 for one night, then maybe $200 goes in the bank, and each of you gets to keep $20 cash.

Also, what happens when one of you leaves the band. Say you’ve earned $5000 over the years, and spent $4000 on PA upgrades. What happens after senior year? Who gets to keep the PA? How much does that person have to pay the others? This gets very tricky.

But you can look at it simply: if you are considered a member of the band, then you should have a say in how it’s run, and be treated as an equal. If not, then you’re on your own whether you realize it or not.

Feel free to share this with the band and your parents. These are the kinds of business issues that you can talk with them about (as opposed to your respective taste in music).

Let me know how it works out.

Dan Lasley

If you know anyone who might benefit from this free information please forward your copy to them. That’s all for this week.

Best wishes,

Paul Hackett
Executive Producer