Timothy Yap did an excellent review of this album’s content, so I can do him the honor of not simply repeating the same message –‘less is more’ and all a very beautiful presentation.
But it needs to be said that Neil Diamond was the Producer on this project. My God! That is where he really shined!
Yes, the presentation did seem stripped down, but when one listens closely and repeatedly to this beautiful collection, well, the individual performances and the arrangements are genius. Now, that is what a producer does with a checkbook and a telephone, that is, if he is a great producer. Neil Diamond got the absolutely best people – the violin in “Blackbird”, the horn section in “Don’t Forget Me”, and the very heavy piano we hear throughout the entire repertoire. And all the studio time it must have taken. It was probably a considerable expense.
The Production Standards are some of the best I’ve ever seen. They remind me of the Rod Stewart ‘Great American Songbook’ collection, over the years finally getting up to Volume 5, which is really good, but they all have their merits, chiefly in the area of production values and standards. Great people were brought in and allowed the time to do their best work. And you can hear the fun they had making it.
I certainly hope that Neil Diamond’s “Dreams” is successful, or at least that it breaks even financially. Neil Diamond must have worked hard and found it very tiring, at his age, but at the same time, work of this quality is rewarding in the spiritual sense. So, if he is not financially ruined by this first installment of “Dreams”, then maybe, like the successful Rod Steward Series, we will see more of these superb collections from Neil Diamond. The titles will be fun – “Keep Dreaming” is one suggestion. Let the Old Man retire? Certainly not! There is plenty of time to retire when he is dead. If we buy these Dreams, he will keep making them because he is fulfilled by it.
And we do so much need collections of the Best. The Singer Songwriter era of music gave us so many wonderful songs, but they were only the tip of the iceberg of almost endless crap. To find the good songs, we had to suffer thousands of songs that the record companies foisted upon us. It’s the way Capitalism perverts things – original copyrights make more money, theoretically, than beautiful songs in the Public Domain, so the Capitalists wanted plenty of original copyrights – a new song every minute, but so few of these money grubbers had any true instincts for quality and culture and so most songs suck. So we were all submerged in this virtual landslide of garbage, yes, with a real potato here and a real carrot there, but mostly just garbage. The singer-songwriters were put under contract to produce, and produce they did, mostly bland stupid or eminently forgettable songs. That is why Greatest Hits albums sell so well, it is because people came to distrust ordinary albums, mostly stuffed with filler… songs nobody could possibly have been happy about, but simply produced to keep the Stupid Mindless Capitalists happy. Even most Greatest Hits albums are mostly filler. Honestly, most of the Singer Songwriters of this Era, had maybe one or two real ‘hits’ – songs that deserve to be remembered. One Hit Wonders. Any songwriter that has 3 or more actually good songs to their credit, should be honored with a ticker tape parade and a hero’s pension for Life… free coffee at Starbucks, etc. So, most Greatest Hits records should have only two or three selections. What purpose does it serve to roll out the filler garbage one more time in even their Greatest Hits Albums. It only tends to spoil the meal.
So it has become so hard to listen to any album from beginning to end nowadays. That is perhaps the most ascendant virtue in Neil Diamond’s “Dreams” , that every song is good, and one needs to skip over nothing.
So we do need Collections of the Good Songs. And it is good that one of the best Singer-songwriters of our Age uses his other considerable talents, the knowledge and taste he has acquired over the years, to give us not only the Best there is, but the Best that it can possibly be made to be. He takes the best and makes it better. We need to throw that man a parade… and buy his record.
Oh, a personal note on Neil Diamond. It’s odd, considering the body of his work, that he was never considered in the very top rank of the ‘Stars’. Maybe he wasn’t grungy enough, or he should have started off in a band. But he was always considered a fraction of a level down. Well, it didn’t keep me from buying his records. Indeed, there was a strange phenomenon that persuaded me to keep my mind open about the exact merits of Neil Diamond. I’m an amateur musician and my first love is the violin. Well, I NEVER break strings, that is, except when playing along with Neil Diamond’s “Holly Holy” . The song just builds and builds and builds, and one finds oneself scrubbing and sawing the violin like never before, trying to keep up with the building intensity. So, two or three times Neil Diamond has sent me to the store to get new violin strings. Nobody else. So when people criticize Neil Diamond… well, the Beatles never caused me to break a string… The man knows how to do a song.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Problems with Democracy
With the World now facing so many very serious problems, it is demoralizing to realize that nothing can be done about them. You see, most of our problems have been brought to us by the various special interest groups – Capitalists, Marketers, Military Industrialists, etc – and only Governments with the Power and the Will and the Ability to counter such special interests could ever hope to rein them in and advance any positive program to save the World. But most of the most powerful nations on earth are Democracies, and Democracies have almost entirely defined themselves as the Vehicles for the Special Interest Control of Everything.
Of course, Special Interests do not have an absolute hold on Politics. Racism and Ethnic Identity also fit in. Woodrow Wilson, who was a Professor of History before he became President, had issued a Theory that Democracies resolve into Ethnic Self-Determination, and so the Rise of Nazism and all subsequent Ethnic Pride Parties had been predicted. Remember that in the parlance of Politics, Ethnic “Pride” is just another name for what we understand to be racial hate and prejudice, or the distinction is meaningless as to whether they just love themselves more, or just hate everybody else a great deal, as the end results are divisive politics and Democracies that fail to represent Minority Groups, or Split Majorities – when a Majority Ethnic Groups divides along real political issues, allowing a Hate Group Minority Party to capture an election.
Anyway, even in such cases where Ethnic Parties come to power independently of Special Interests, the Special Interests are usually able to sweep in afterwards and make enough contributions to the New Power Structure to bring them onboard and at one with the Special Interest World. Those who don’t are isolated by Sanctions. For all of the love we hear about for Democracy, it only applies for those nations and people who vote in accord with the Special Interests. Palestine, Iran, Venezuela go their own way and so are treated as though they are enemies.
While Ethnicity does a great deal in distorting Democracies in their role of providing impartial and independent Governments, still, the much greater problem is with Special Interests.
How do the Special Interests control Politics and Politicians? While outright bribes are still nominally illegal, the Lobbyists have made a science of finding myriads of legal avenues through which money can go from the pockets of Special Interests to the campaigns of Politicians. Indeed, that brings us to the Paradox of Campaign Finance Reform, that it so entangled Campaign Finance Law, that now nothing in Politics can be done without the Lobbyists, as they are the only ones with enough money to hire the legal teams sufficient to keep everything straight.
Years ago there had been a fad about Term Limits – the idea being that if a Politician only ran once, he would have no incentive to sell his soul to the Special Interests. Well, what then occurred was that nobody could enter into politics as a career, and so very few truly independent people ran for office, if any, and this allowed the Lobbyist Firms to run their own people – good looking young men and women who could read a speech and do what they were told. And after their Term of Office, they could return to the Lobbying Firm they came from, with a big raise in salary. All legal.
Even if the Special Interests do not apply their monies directly to the different campaigns, they can still operate by effectively buying up Media Influence. Newspapers and Networks claim to be independent, but, really, their advertisers must exercise a great deal of influence. Or the Media Owners are so wealthy in their own right, that they are their own Special Interest, pulling the strings for whatever whim entertains their fancy, as for example, drumbeating the World to War, because Wars make the News so much more fun to print for the Media Tycoons.
But even if Special Interests, the Media and Ethnic Hatreds and Pride could be isolated away from that much of an effect on the World Democracies, still there would be one more annoying factor to deal with, and that is that Democracy does nothing to guarantee the abilities of those who run for office. Good looking people who can read a speech and make promises win elections all the time. Some of the stupidest people on earth do rather well at Politics, George W. Bush, being the first example to come to mind.
Really, what the World needs now is a Bureaucratic Meritocracy – Professional Government open to anybody who can Pass the Test. No Campaigns and no Campaign Contributions, and no Job Jumping from Government to a Special Interest Corporation – these measures would curtail most every evil from the Special Interests. Government workers would have to be in it for Life, or at least never be allowed to work for anybody or anything he had anything to do with while in Government Service. Money and Property of Government Workers would have to be monitored to assure that there was no trading of influence. This would give Government the Independence and Intellectual ability and integrity to Save the World, even while the Special Interests do all they can to destroy it, if that is what they think gives them a stronger return on their Capital for the upcoming Fiscal Quarter. Yes, they don’t mean to destroy the World… that is not even what they are thinking about.
It’s the Job of Government to think about the things that Special Interests have no interest in thinking about. And only a Bureaucratic Meritocracy could be fit for such a Job.
Of course, Special Interests do not have an absolute hold on Politics. Racism and Ethnic Identity also fit in. Woodrow Wilson, who was a Professor of History before he became President, had issued a Theory that Democracies resolve into Ethnic Self-Determination, and so the Rise of Nazism and all subsequent Ethnic Pride Parties had been predicted. Remember that in the parlance of Politics, Ethnic “Pride” is just another name for what we understand to be racial hate and prejudice, or the distinction is meaningless as to whether they just love themselves more, or just hate everybody else a great deal, as the end results are divisive politics and Democracies that fail to represent Minority Groups, or Split Majorities – when a Majority Ethnic Groups divides along real political issues, allowing a Hate Group Minority Party to capture an election.
Anyway, even in such cases where Ethnic Parties come to power independently of Special Interests, the Special Interests are usually able to sweep in afterwards and make enough contributions to the New Power Structure to bring them onboard and at one with the Special Interest World. Those who don’t are isolated by Sanctions. For all of the love we hear about for Democracy, it only applies for those nations and people who vote in accord with the Special Interests. Palestine, Iran, Venezuela go their own way and so are treated as though they are enemies.
While Ethnicity does a great deal in distorting Democracies in their role of providing impartial and independent Governments, still, the much greater problem is with Special Interests.
How do the Special Interests control Politics and Politicians? While outright bribes are still nominally illegal, the Lobbyists have made a science of finding myriads of legal avenues through which money can go from the pockets of Special Interests to the campaigns of Politicians. Indeed, that brings us to the Paradox of Campaign Finance Reform, that it so entangled Campaign Finance Law, that now nothing in Politics can be done without the Lobbyists, as they are the only ones with enough money to hire the legal teams sufficient to keep everything straight.
Years ago there had been a fad about Term Limits – the idea being that if a Politician only ran once, he would have no incentive to sell his soul to the Special Interests. Well, what then occurred was that nobody could enter into politics as a career, and so very few truly independent people ran for office, if any, and this allowed the Lobbyist Firms to run their own people – good looking young men and women who could read a speech and do what they were told. And after their Term of Office, they could return to the Lobbying Firm they came from, with a big raise in salary. All legal.
Even if the Special Interests do not apply their monies directly to the different campaigns, they can still operate by effectively buying up Media Influence. Newspapers and Networks claim to be independent, but, really, their advertisers must exercise a great deal of influence. Or the Media Owners are so wealthy in their own right, that they are their own Special Interest, pulling the strings for whatever whim entertains their fancy, as for example, drumbeating the World to War, because Wars make the News so much more fun to print for the Media Tycoons.
But even if Special Interests, the Media and Ethnic Hatreds and Pride could be isolated away from that much of an effect on the World Democracies, still there would be one more annoying factor to deal with, and that is that Democracy does nothing to guarantee the abilities of those who run for office. Good looking people who can read a speech and make promises win elections all the time. Some of the stupidest people on earth do rather well at Politics, George W. Bush, being the first example to come to mind.
Really, what the World needs now is a Bureaucratic Meritocracy – Professional Government open to anybody who can Pass the Test. No Campaigns and no Campaign Contributions, and no Job Jumping from Government to a Special Interest Corporation – these measures would curtail most every evil from the Special Interests. Government workers would have to be in it for Life, or at least never be allowed to work for anybody or anything he had anything to do with while in Government Service. Money and Property of Government Workers would have to be monitored to assure that there was no trading of influence. This would give Government the Independence and Intellectual ability and integrity to Save the World, even while the Special Interests do all they can to destroy it, if that is what they think gives them a stronger return on their Capital for the upcoming Fiscal Quarter. Yes, they don’t mean to destroy the World… that is not even what they are thinking about.
It’s the Job of Government to think about the things that Special Interests have no interest in thinking about. And only a Bureaucratic Meritocracy could be fit for such a Job.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Turning a Jazzmaster Into a Baritone Guitar
I had bought one of the new “Blacktop” Telecasters and converted it to Baritone by stringing it with the 6 heaviest strings of a set of D’Addario Jazz Light Seven Flats. It was easy, I just had to get a fresh stone-encrusted finger nail file and widen the Nut slots a bit. The Telecaster, with its Humbucker pickups was perfect for the new application. The Telecaster as Baritone, has these really nice round and clean tones.
But it was so good, that I wondered what I was to do with my Jazzmaster. The Jazzmaster, as it is, is thin on the high side … I had to adjust up the pickups on the high side, and tweak up the sound system equalization to help out the high notes. Perhaps it would be better to “bulldog” the Jazzmaster too, that is, to turn it into a Baritone Guitar and forget about the High Side by simply eliminating it
When I decided to “Bulldog” the Telecaster, I had ordered the D’Addario Jazz Light Seven Flats from two different venders, on the chance that I’d get one set sooner than later. You see, I play violin and bass too, where the strings are relatively expensive, and so the cost of guitar strings seems like nothing in comparison. Anyway, the second set of D’Addario Sevens came in today. It made me think of putting them to use.
I looked over the Jazzmaster. Convertering it to Baritone would be a bigger job than the Telecaster. Not only would I have to widen the Nut slots, but there was the Bridge Slots to deal with. And the Bridge was made of medal.
But when I cut off the old strings and just removed the Bridge simply by lifting it off the keeper pegs, I saw that the Bridge Slots were not even differentiated – they are all just the same size little “Vees”, that the strings could settle into – one size fits all. Well, that seems to be why the Jazzmasters have their famous Problem, that vigorous picking or even finger plucking, knocks the strings off their bridge seats – the bridge slots are too narrow, and ‘V’ shaped – the strings just slip up the slant with the least little sideways force.
Converting the Jazzmaster to Baritone would ‘kill two birds with one stone’; I could lower the range more into its natural bandwidth (it likes Low Notes better than High Notes), and I could work the Bridge so that it could hold the strings better.
I had to think through the process. I could use a Dremel Tool for widening the Bridge Slots, but the problem with Power Tools is that, while they are faster, they also make irreparable mistakes very quickly. So I decided to use hand tools. I found an old hack saw blade. Hack saws are made for cutting metal. The particular blade I found was something of a compromise. It would make the slots a bit too wide for the little strings, but not wide enough for the fat strings, particularly the .65 B String that would be the new Low String.
I hacksawed the existing “Vees” down so that they now had square corners. The Strings could now settle into slots. It would be much more difficult to knock a string off the Bridge now. The hacksaw might have left some rough edges, and so I got Sandpaper and folded it and ran the sand paper into the groves. For the wider slots, I folded the sandpaper around an old fingernail file. I used sandpaper from 80 grade to 220 grade. The metal had to be smooth, or the strings might be damaged. I’m an old man and so I used a jewelers loupe to see with magnification, to make sure the sizing and the smoothness was just right, but younger people would probably just ‘eyeball’ the whole process.
After having done the Telecaster Nut, the Jazzmaster Nut was easy. I finished by using a thin stick and a Carpenter’s Pencil to rub some of the graphite powder ( a very good dry lubricant) into the Nut Slots, to make tuning easier.
The skinny strings had a bit of side to side play in the Bridge Grooves, but no problem manifested while playing. Just as I expected, by squaring the Bridge Slot edges and deepening the grooves, there was no longer a problem with knocking the strings off the bridge.
How did the Jazzmaster work as a Baritone?
Now the Telecaster, converted to “Bulldog”, was superb – nice clean round tones from low to high… what was left of high, which seemed to be plenty. So I did side by side comparisons with the Telecaster Baritone and the Jazzmaster Baritone. The Jazzmaster was a bit less ‘round’ but equalization could fix that. But the Jazzmaster does have the Tailed Bridge which makes those pretty, though somewhat unpredictable, flared notes (which is why Jazz Players seem to prefer Tailed Bridges). The both of them were so good – the Telecaster with the Humbucker Pickups, and the Jazzmaster with the shallow single sided pickups and Tailed Bridge, that there really was no choosing… not, on the basis of performance. I finally decided to make the Jazzmaster the Practice Workhorse because it had the Rosewood Neck, which doesn’t stain from hours of sweat and skin oils. Also, the Jazzmaster I have has those Dual Controls… you can set up for both Lead Guitar and Rhythm and switch back and forth. I rarely use it, except for when I play Deep Purple’s “Woman From Tokyo” which is hard-driving Rock except for a very pretty middle part… with the dual controls I can go from “Hard Driving Rock” to “Pretty” at the flip of a switch.
But, yes, both guitars are extremely better as Baritones.
Oh, when I used to play normal guitars, I tuned to E A D G C F instead of E A D G B E (it keeps the string intervals at Perfect Fourths, while the B E tuning, to bring those strings down a step, it only helps with chording for people with short fingers. Who know where that tradition starte?). With the Baritone ‘Bulldogs’ I keep the Perfect Fourth tuning – B E A D G C. But traditionalist Guitar Players, with short fingers who want to keep doing their old chords, well, they could tune to B E A D F# B… you would just have to transpose a little to get the exact chords you want, but the neck would still be the same…except for being a Perfect Fourth lower.
If in doubt about String Tension, consult the D’Addario String Tension Chart on their Website, or just do a Web Search for D’Addario String Tension Chart.
But it was so good, that I wondered what I was to do with my Jazzmaster. The Jazzmaster, as it is, is thin on the high side … I had to adjust up the pickups on the high side, and tweak up the sound system equalization to help out the high notes. Perhaps it would be better to “bulldog” the Jazzmaster too, that is, to turn it into a Baritone Guitar and forget about the High Side by simply eliminating it
When I decided to “Bulldog” the Telecaster, I had ordered the D’Addario Jazz Light Seven Flats from two different venders, on the chance that I’d get one set sooner than later. You see, I play violin and bass too, where the strings are relatively expensive, and so the cost of guitar strings seems like nothing in comparison. Anyway, the second set of D’Addario Sevens came in today. It made me think of putting them to use.
I looked over the Jazzmaster. Convertering it to Baritone would be a bigger job than the Telecaster. Not only would I have to widen the Nut slots, but there was the Bridge Slots to deal with. And the Bridge was made of medal.
But when I cut off the old strings and just removed the Bridge simply by lifting it off the keeper pegs, I saw that the Bridge Slots were not even differentiated – they are all just the same size little “Vees”, that the strings could settle into – one size fits all. Well, that seems to be why the Jazzmasters have their famous Problem, that vigorous picking or even finger plucking, knocks the strings off their bridge seats – the bridge slots are too narrow, and ‘V’ shaped – the strings just slip up the slant with the least little sideways force.
Converting the Jazzmaster to Baritone would ‘kill two birds with one stone’; I could lower the range more into its natural bandwidth (it likes Low Notes better than High Notes), and I could work the Bridge so that it could hold the strings better.
I had to think through the process. I could use a Dremel Tool for widening the Bridge Slots, but the problem with Power Tools is that, while they are faster, they also make irreparable mistakes very quickly. So I decided to use hand tools. I found an old hack saw blade. Hack saws are made for cutting metal. The particular blade I found was something of a compromise. It would make the slots a bit too wide for the little strings, but not wide enough for the fat strings, particularly the .65 B String that would be the new Low String.
I hacksawed the existing “Vees” down so that they now had square corners. The Strings could now settle into slots. It would be much more difficult to knock a string off the Bridge now. The hacksaw might have left some rough edges, and so I got Sandpaper and folded it and ran the sand paper into the groves. For the wider slots, I folded the sandpaper around an old fingernail file. I used sandpaper from 80 grade to 220 grade. The metal had to be smooth, or the strings might be damaged. I’m an old man and so I used a jewelers loupe to see with magnification, to make sure the sizing and the smoothness was just right, but younger people would probably just ‘eyeball’ the whole process.
After having done the Telecaster Nut, the Jazzmaster Nut was easy. I finished by using a thin stick and a Carpenter’s Pencil to rub some of the graphite powder ( a very good dry lubricant) into the Nut Slots, to make tuning easier.
The skinny strings had a bit of side to side play in the Bridge Grooves, but no problem manifested while playing. Just as I expected, by squaring the Bridge Slot edges and deepening the grooves, there was no longer a problem with knocking the strings off the bridge.
How did the Jazzmaster work as a Baritone?
Now the Telecaster, converted to “Bulldog”, was superb – nice clean round tones from low to high… what was left of high, which seemed to be plenty. So I did side by side comparisons with the Telecaster Baritone and the Jazzmaster Baritone. The Jazzmaster was a bit less ‘round’ but equalization could fix that. But the Jazzmaster does have the Tailed Bridge which makes those pretty, though somewhat unpredictable, flared notes (which is why Jazz Players seem to prefer Tailed Bridges). The both of them were so good – the Telecaster with the Humbucker Pickups, and the Jazzmaster with the shallow single sided pickups and Tailed Bridge, that there really was no choosing… not, on the basis of performance. I finally decided to make the Jazzmaster the Practice Workhorse because it had the Rosewood Neck, which doesn’t stain from hours of sweat and skin oils. Also, the Jazzmaster I have has those Dual Controls… you can set up for both Lead Guitar and Rhythm and switch back and forth. I rarely use it, except for when I play Deep Purple’s “Woman From Tokyo” which is hard-driving Rock except for a very pretty middle part… with the dual controls I can go from “Hard Driving Rock” to “Pretty” at the flip of a switch.
But, yes, both guitars are extremely better as Baritones.
Oh, when I used to play normal guitars, I tuned to E A D G C F instead of E A D G B E (it keeps the string intervals at Perfect Fourths, while the B E tuning, to bring those strings down a step, it only helps with chording for people with short fingers. Who know where that tradition starte?). With the Baritone ‘Bulldogs’ I keep the Perfect Fourth tuning – B E A D G C. But traditionalist Guitar Players, with short fingers who want to keep doing their old chords, well, they could tune to B E A D F# B… you would just have to transpose a little to get the exact chords you want, but the neck would still be the same…except for being a Perfect Fourth lower.
If in doubt about String Tension, consult the D’Addario String Tension Chart on their Website, or just do a Web Search for D’Addario String Tension Chart.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Humbucker Telecaster (Blacktop) Turned Baritone Guitar
I had gotten the Blacktop Telecaster because the humbucker pickups, particularly the neck pickup, gave it a good clean round ‘O’ sound, much like the thin single pole pickups in the Jazzmaster. Well, I already have a Jazzmaster, but the problem with the Jazzmaster is that, with a shade too much enthusiasm, you can whip the strings off the tailed bridge (the trade off for the inconvenience of a trailed bridge, is that at certain intervals the strings have a nice swelling flare, although steals a bit from sustain).
Anyway, the Humbucker Telecaster seems like a kind of best of both worlds kind of instrument – nice clean round sound from the pickups and strings that you can get rough with without scaring them off the bridge.
Anyway, I bought it and as I was leaving the Shop, the owner of the place asked me if I thought of ‘baritoning’ it. You see, he was familiar with me going from Violin to Viola (a viola is a violin that goes lower than a normal violin by one string interval), and tuning up a step on my Fender Jazz Bass, to keep the D’addario Light Flats tight (The D’addario strings were designed for 36” Scale but the Fender Bass is a tad shorter and so taking the strings up a notch would simply keep all things more or less even). Oh, and with guitar he knew I was going from the traditional E, A, D, G, B, E tuning to E, A, D, G, C, F, that is, to keep the strings at Perfect Fourth (5 step) intervals (they only tune up the B and E strings to make chording easier for short fingers… no other reason). Anyway, the shop owner had every reason to suspect that I might try some tuning change with this new telecaster, and was simply curious about it. Well, actually, I hadn’t thought ahead that far, but it gave me the idea.
Yes, they do have ‘Real’ baritone guitars – acoustics that are built on a longer scale, because, well, with acoustic guitars it is the actual physical dimensions that resonate with and support the sound of the strings. But with electric guitars and their pickups, physical dimensions are no longer so essential.
But converting the Telecaster to Baritone would require an extra big fat string that I could tune down to B. I looked around and found that D’addario makes a set of strings for 7 String guitars – “Jazz Light/ 7-String”, ECG24-7. They were all a bit fatter than what I am used to (D’addario super light Flats), but, checking with D’addario’s String Tension Chart, they would be usable, even with me tuning up the last two skinny strings, to preserve the perfect fourth (five step) intervals. So I ordered some strings. I actually ordered two sets, from different suppliers, Wiener Music, through Amazon, and Just Strings, hoping that one would come before the other. Wiener Music won. I’m still waiting for the Just Strings set to come through, but they did email me with an apology, as there had been some kind of delay.
Oh, with using a much fatter string in the old Fat E position, and using larger strings in every position, really, I would need to enlarge the groves in the Nut up at the top of the neck. So I bought one of those Nail Files with crushed industrial diamonds… which look a lot like sand.
Meanwhile, I played the ordinary tuning, for me (E A D G C F) for a week. I even had an All Nighter Practice to get acquainted with the new instrument and its new sound.
When the strings came in, I got out my Jewelers Loupe and worked the Nut with the fingernail file until the notch sizes seemed suitable for the new fits. The new strings went on without event. The strings were a bit stretchy and required a lot of retuning between songs, but only for the first evening. They settled in after a day.
Oh, the intonation was effected. But Intonation adjusts on this Telecaster are easy – just detune the strings until you can push back the bridge block with your finger, and then just take up the slack by tightening up the screw that goes through the spring. It took a lot of adjustment… more than a quarter of an inch… the Fat B String going back almost to the ‘wall’, but alls well that ends well. I suppose the intonation adjustment was necessary because I went to higher tension strings, and not so much because they were simply fatter strings.
The ‘Bulldog’ Telecaster sounds great. Sacrificing the high E string for the low B seems like a wonderful trade-off. Just like going from violin to viola, or from a 4 String Bass to a 5 String. One loves going lower but, in the case of the Viola and Bulldog Baritone Guitar, doesn’t miss the shorted higher reach at all… to go high you can just work down the neck a bit further than usual.
Its funny, the strange phenomena whereby one gets used to an instrument’s range. When I was still playing an old 4 String Precision Bass, I wondered why anybody would ever need a 5 String, as it seemed every song could be done without going up past the nut of the 4 String’s E String. I thought the same about my violin’s G string. I play by ear, and so apparently the first thing my brain does is organize riffs and arrangements according to available range. But after five minutes with the new Range, one wonders what one ever used to do without it.
When I first got my 5 String Jazz Bass, I read on line some guy that was saying that the “common mistake” new 5 String owners make is that they play their new Fat String too much. Well, that’s not really a mistake, is it? For instance, if you have an old dog who has been kept in the back yard its whole life, and then you decide to add the side yard to his enclosure, well, where do you suppose the dog will go at its first opportunity? Of course it will sniff out its new territory. So spending a lot of time, at first, in one’s new Range is not such an odd thing for an old musical dog.
Anyway, the Humbucker Telecaster seems like a kind of best of both worlds kind of instrument – nice clean round sound from the pickups and strings that you can get rough with without scaring them off the bridge.
Anyway, I bought it and as I was leaving the Shop, the owner of the place asked me if I thought of ‘baritoning’ it. You see, he was familiar with me going from Violin to Viola (a viola is a violin that goes lower than a normal violin by one string interval), and tuning up a step on my Fender Jazz Bass, to keep the D’addario Light Flats tight (The D’addario strings were designed for 36” Scale but the Fender Bass is a tad shorter and so taking the strings up a notch would simply keep all things more or less even). Oh, and with guitar he knew I was going from the traditional E, A, D, G, B, E tuning to E, A, D, G, C, F, that is, to keep the strings at Perfect Fourth (5 step) intervals (they only tune up the B and E strings to make chording easier for short fingers… no other reason). Anyway, the shop owner had every reason to suspect that I might try some tuning change with this new telecaster, and was simply curious about it. Well, actually, I hadn’t thought ahead that far, but it gave me the idea.
Yes, they do have ‘Real’ baritone guitars – acoustics that are built on a longer scale, because, well, with acoustic guitars it is the actual physical dimensions that resonate with and support the sound of the strings. But with electric guitars and their pickups, physical dimensions are no longer so essential.
But converting the Telecaster to Baritone would require an extra big fat string that I could tune down to B. I looked around and found that D’addario makes a set of strings for 7 String guitars – “Jazz Light/ 7-String”, ECG24-7. They were all a bit fatter than what I am used to (D’addario super light Flats), but, checking with D’addario’s String Tension Chart, they would be usable, even with me tuning up the last two skinny strings, to preserve the perfect fourth (five step) intervals. So I ordered some strings. I actually ordered two sets, from different suppliers, Wiener Music, through Amazon, and Just Strings, hoping that one would come before the other. Wiener Music won. I’m still waiting for the Just Strings set to come through, but they did email me with an apology, as there had been some kind of delay.
Oh, with using a much fatter string in the old Fat E position, and using larger strings in every position, really, I would need to enlarge the groves in the Nut up at the top of the neck. So I bought one of those Nail Files with crushed industrial diamonds… which look a lot like sand.
Meanwhile, I played the ordinary tuning, for me (E A D G C F) for a week. I even had an All Nighter Practice to get acquainted with the new instrument and its new sound.
When the strings came in, I got out my Jewelers Loupe and worked the Nut with the fingernail file until the notch sizes seemed suitable for the new fits. The new strings went on without event. The strings were a bit stretchy and required a lot of retuning between songs, but only for the first evening. They settled in after a day.
Oh, the intonation was effected. But Intonation adjusts on this Telecaster are easy – just detune the strings until you can push back the bridge block with your finger, and then just take up the slack by tightening up the screw that goes through the spring. It took a lot of adjustment… more than a quarter of an inch… the Fat B String going back almost to the ‘wall’, but alls well that ends well. I suppose the intonation adjustment was necessary because I went to higher tension strings, and not so much because they were simply fatter strings.
The ‘Bulldog’ Telecaster sounds great. Sacrificing the high E string for the low B seems like a wonderful trade-off. Just like going from violin to viola, or from a 4 String Bass to a 5 String. One loves going lower but, in the case of the Viola and Bulldog Baritone Guitar, doesn’t miss the shorted higher reach at all… to go high you can just work down the neck a bit further than usual.
Its funny, the strange phenomena whereby one gets used to an instrument’s range. When I was still playing an old 4 String Precision Bass, I wondered why anybody would ever need a 5 String, as it seemed every song could be done without going up past the nut of the 4 String’s E String. I thought the same about my violin’s G string. I play by ear, and so apparently the first thing my brain does is organize riffs and arrangements according to available range. But after five minutes with the new Range, one wonders what one ever used to do without it.
When I first got my 5 String Jazz Bass, I read on line some guy that was saying that the “common mistake” new 5 String owners make is that they play their new Fat String too much. Well, that’s not really a mistake, is it? For instance, if you have an old dog who has been kept in the back yard its whole life, and then you decide to add the side yard to his enclosure, well, where do you suppose the dog will go at its first opportunity? Of course it will sniff out its new territory. So spending a lot of time, at first, in one’s new Range is not such an odd thing for an old musical dog.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Music Practice, a Poem
At first you are thinking about the Instrument, and you are listening closely, but after about 20 minutes or so you are warmed up, and you trust your playing, and instead of standing over your playing like a slave-master, you let go and just listen to what the Angels of your Higher Mind and Right Hand and Left Hand are playing for you.
The competent playing is reassuring. And so you let yourself think, you let yourself go. Your Mind drifts. You think about memories. You might even come back a little bit to think about left hand and right hand stuff, and your hands seem to take the suggestions…and then your mind wanders again. A wandering mind is like a dream.
Or it’s like being High. When you are High you think the thoughts you think are the most important thoughts that have ever been ‘thunk’, but a moment later you forget what you had been thinking about – you only remember that you had seen the Face of God, but forget what He looked like.
Music Practice is much the same. Hands flying free playing the songs of Angels, one thinks the highest possible thoughts, and you even think that you will remember to call friends, write to friends, and share these Divine Revelations that you had received during Music Practice…
But Music Practice ends. You have to cook dinner, or whatever, and all you remember was, well, it was one heck of a great music practice… it is like you know you had one heck of a wonderful dream, but just don’t remember the details. You know you had seen the Face of God, but just forget what He looks like.
The competent playing is reassuring. And so you let yourself think, you let yourself go. Your Mind drifts. You think about memories. You might even come back a little bit to think about left hand and right hand stuff, and your hands seem to take the suggestions…and then your mind wanders again. A wandering mind is like a dream.
Or it’s like being High. When you are High you think the thoughts you think are the most important thoughts that have ever been ‘thunk’, but a moment later you forget what you had been thinking about – you only remember that you had seen the Face of God, but forget what He looked like.
Music Practice is much the same. Hands flying free playing the songs of Angels, one thinks the highest possible thoughts, and you even think that you will remember to call friends, write to friends, and share these Divine Revelations that you had received during Music Practice…
But Music Practice ends. You have to cook dinner, or whatever, and all you remember was, well, it was one heck of a great music practice… it is like you know you had one heck of a wonderful dream, but just don’t remember the details. You know you had seen the Face of God, but just forget what He looks like.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Fender Needs a Premium Electric Violin
The FV1, an old thing which they still sell I believe, looks terrible. The FV3 is a gorgeous Violin, apparently made in a Chinese Furniture Factory which accounts for why it looks so much like a lacquer coffee table, but apparently the design calls for the bridge crushing down on top of the piezoelectric-pickup that lays under it in the bridge well. My FV3 had to go in for repair after less than a month. And the wood of the head and the pegs are incompatible – the hard wood of the head squeezes down and polishes the pegs smooth so that they begin to slip. Every few weeks one has to unstring the violin and sand paper the pegs so that they will grip again. I suppose one would have to experiment with light glues or bee honey, or whatever would keep the peg tuners from slipping.
And the tone of the FV3, while superior to most entry level electric violins, doesn’t come close to the pretty sound that such violins as the NS Design CR4 can make. Oh, don’t confuse the CR4 premium series with the NS Design WAV Series, which don’t sound any better themselves than the FV3, but at least they stay in tune and their pickups don’t drop dead or die out.
Anyway, the FV3 has now been around for years. I suppose it once made sense for Fender to test the Electric Violin Market, but what sense does it make to test that Market with a noticeably inferior product? … Well, inferior when compared to the Quality and Value end of the market, when price point goes much above the ‘entry level’ level.
And we are talking about Fender!? Why is Fender, of all companies, splashing around at the shallow end of the Pool, so to speak?
Fender, while not being the priciest vendor in the Guitar Market, they have always been known for a certain basic quality… and the FV3, if it wasn’t before, in a less developed Market, it is now not up to those same quality standards that we would expect of them. Such a product line, left unimproved, could only hurt them.
And who is their competition? NS Design is selling their CR4 and CR5 Series Violins and Violas at $2000+. Well, Fender is able to put out almost their finest quality guitars and basses for that price… signature editions going for only a little a bit more. We’re talking about extremely high quality product! So certainly, violins and violas are well within their engineering parameters for producing a BETTER violin than NS Design, and which they could sell for $1800, cutting the market out from under NS Design (or forcing NS Design to a more realistic price points for their relatively simple ‘blocks of wood’).
What would a New Fender Electric Violin look like? Well, it would look like a Fender. Forget the traditional Violin Head with its slipping Pegs. Use a Fender Style Head, with all the geared metal guitar style tuners on the same side and with that distinctive tilt. They could use the tuners from any Telecaster Guitar… I measured… they would work just fine. It is difficult to beat the NS Design string setup and tuners… strings on an NS Design can be whipped in and out in mere seconds, and tuning stays rock solid for just about forever… as long as one is using stable steel and chrome steel strings. But tuning holes and guitar style tuners are easy enough to deal with, and everybody is already used to them. The NS Design string setup might be inherently better, but not $500 better. And the guitar style tuners have a ‘look’… a penache… where the NS Design strings system, is, well, invisible.
Now, violin shape. Remember that traditional violins have a particular shape in order to develop a pleasing audible tone. But whatever the shape of the violin, in whatever ways it sticks out on the sides, it gets in the way of the bow… that is why they dig those indents into the sides of the traditional violins, so that the bow can come down to the sides unobstructed. But the traditional violin only offered a few inches of freedom, when really, in a perfectly free Electronic World, the violin should remain narrow all the way up its neck, so that the bow can be used, well, anywhere up and down the neck. But that would basically be a head with tuners on a neck that would go down to the bridge… basically a stick with strings. It would be fairly ugly, just as many of the better electric violins today are monstrously ugly. Again the NS Design has hit a fairly good compromise between bow friendly narrowness of body and aesthetic good looks… using some old European lute shape to give the violin some hint of character and a moderately pleasing line. Fender could try the about same thing, fleshing out a narrow body, but with a more contemporary line, using round and rolling lines where NS Design used primarily straight lines and flat edges.
Next we get to the Chin Rest and Shoulder Rest problems, and this is where Tradition haunts us with so much that is simply inconvenient nowadays. Traditionally one held a violin steady by clamping it down with ones chin against one’s shoulder. Chin rests were invented to conform comfortably to the chin, and shoulder rests were invented to conform comfortably to the shoulder. And it all works well with feather-light traditional acoustical violins… they don’t weigh anything and they are therefore easy to support in this bazaar but traditional manner. But Electric Violins are heavier, which makes the old chin and shoulder rest solutions problematic but which suggest newer and better means of stabilizing the violin for playing. Why not just collar the violin closely around the neck and play it a bit more in front instead of exactly over the shoulder, which I always felt to be uncomfortable anyway.
I played the FV3 without its stupid shoulder rest (designed to fall off anytime it was not planted firmly on a shoulder) using a choker collar tied to the tailpiece strap to keep it close to my throat and never needed to bring my chin down on the chin rest.
The NS Design has its Shoulder Rest, with its awkward bend made to go over the shoulder, but if one swings it down to be used to support the violin on one’s chest, then the shoulder curve has a bit of an unpleasant stab behind it. But as a general principle, a violin supported by a neck choker would benefit by some under-support on the chest to keep it at a flat angle or at whatever a player’s preferred angle happens to be. The FV3 was broad enough in its base so that it held itself flat almost automatically and so no under-support was really needed. So maybe if the violin is designed to have something of a broad base, no under-support is necessary at all. Also, a broad base would add to stability weight, but since the center of gravity is so close to the point of support on the choke collar around the neck, any extra weight would not be noticed by the left hand which could remain busy with the business of playing the strings and not having to hold the violin in proper position.
I’d like to be able to simply do away with Chin Rests. While the Shoulder Rest of the NS Designs can be useful, the Chin Rest simply gets in the way and starts stabbing me in the neck and throat. I had to use the Chin Rest just to keep it in one safe place where it wasn’t always trying to kill me. I finally ended up wrapping it in some ugly foam padding so I could go back to ignoring it altogether.
I thought of the Violin Choke Collar and therefore I have it patent pending, but I am so found of Fender Company, having a few of their guitar and bass models, that I would sell them license rights to the Violin Choker for a virtual song. Oh, another advantage of the Violin Choker, is that when the violin is not being played, one can simply let it drop down on one’s chest. Violins and even Violas are relatively small, and one can go about one’s business with hands free. The NS Design is a but more cumbersome, with its large shoulder rest contraption, but even all of that is not much when it is lying flat on one’s chest. I do sound studio work, and even go to the kitchen to make a sandwich, all with a violin hanging around my neck. While performing, one can break off from playing and sing a verse or two into a microphone, hands free (well, except for the bow), but immediately begin playing violin again, because one never really put the violin down.
Oh, and there is a more basic thing about Electric Violins. Everybody is using Piezoelectric Pickups or little microphones as the heart and soul of the Electric Violin electronics. Ostensively they don’t use the same kind of coil pickups that electric guitars use because some violinists still want to use ancient style cat gut or the more modern synthetic strings wrapped in aluminum, neither of which have enough feral magnetic content that they would be ‘picked up’ by a coil pickup. But nowadays most Electric Violin Players use steel strings, because of their superior tune stability and durability. And durability is no small thing. The Aluminum Windings on synthetic core strings is delicate, brittle… I heard it compared to butterfly wings in regards to its fragility. I’ve had sets of strings that did not last a week of even mellow Rock and Roll practice. Barry Manilow is too rough for an aluminum wrapped core string! Also, aluminum, even with flat windings, is NOT smooth… the molecular structure of aluminum is coarse and grabby and prevents a good finger slide, even when oiled! Whereas steel strings and chrome steel wound strings are slippery smooth and durable.
So, if steel strings are so good for electric violins, why aren’t we using coil pickups for violin. Remember, with a narrow body design, the bowing can be accomplished either over the pickups after the fingerboard runs out, or the bowing can be done over the fingerboard itself. There can be two sets of pickups… just like on the guitars – a neck pickup and a bridge pickup.
Oh, and sooner or later somebody has to figure out how to make an affordable laser pickup for strings. If they can shine a laser on a window pane of glass and use it as a spy microphone, then certainly laser reflections off a string a fraction of an inch away can be detected for audio tones. But electronic coils might be the least expensive way to go for still some time, although with technology getting cheaper and cheaper, soon it might be less expensive to produce a cheap little LED laser pickup and it logic chip than to wind an expensive magnet with expensive copper wires.
Anyway, I suppose we are all looking forward to seeing a good Fender Electric Violin in the foreseeable future… even fans of the NS Design Violins and the other brands out there who have their price point up above $2000.
And the tone of the FV3, while superior to most entry level electric violins, doesn’t come close to the pretty sound that such violins as the NS Design CR4 can make. Oh, don’t confuse the CR4 premium series with the NS Design WAV Series, which don’t sound any better themselves than the FV3, but at least they stay in tune and their pickups don’t drop dead or die out.
Anyway, the FV3 has now been around for years. I suppose it once made sense for Fender to test the Electric Violin Market, but what sense does it make to test that Market with a noticeably inferior product? … Well, inferior when compared to the Quality and Value end of the market, when price point goes much above the ‘entry level’ level.
And we are talking about Fender!? Why is Fender, of all companies, splashing around at the shallow end of the Pool, so to speak?
Fender, while not being the priciest vendor in the Guitar Market, they have always been known for a certain basic quality… and the FV3, if it wasn’t before, in a less developed Market, it is now not up to those same quality standards that we would expect of them. Such a product line, left unimproved, could only hurt them.
And who is their competition? NS Design is selling their CR4 and CR5 Series Violins and Violas at $2000+. Well, Fender is able to put out almost their finest quality guitars and basses for that price… signature editions going for only a little a bit more. We’re talking about extremely high quality product! So certainly, violins and violas are well within their engineering parameters for producing a BETTER violin than NS Design, and which they could sell for $1800, cutting the market out from under NS Design (or forcing NS Design to a more realistic price points for their relatively simple ‘blocks of wood’).
What would a New Fender Electric Violin look like? Well, it would look like a Fender. Forget the traditional Violin Head with its slipping Pegs. Use a Fender Style Head, with all the geared metal guitar style tuners on the same side and with that distinctive tilt. They could use the tuners from any Telecaster Guitar… I measured… they would work just fine. It is difficult to beat the NS Design string setup and tuners… strings on an NS Design can be whipped in and out in mere seconds, and tuning stays rock solid for just about forever… as long as one is using stable steel and chrome steel strings. But tuning holes and guitar style tuners are easy enough to deal with, and everybody is already used to them. The NS Design string setup might be inherently better, but not $500 better. And the guitar style tuners have a ‘look’… a penache… where the NS Design strings system, is, well, invisible.
Now, violin shape. Remember that traditional violins have a particular shape in order to develop a pleasing audible tone. But whatever the shape of the violin, in whatever ways it sticks out on the sides, it gets in the way of the bow… that is why they dig those indents into the sides of the traditional violins, so that the bow can come down to the sides unobstructed. But the traditional violin only offered a few inches of freedom, when really, in a perfectly free Electronic World, the violin should remain narrow all the way up its neck, so that the bow can be used, well, anywhere up and down the neck. But that would basically be a head with tuners on a neck that would go down to the bridge… basically a stick with strings. It would be fairly ugly, just as many of the better electric violins today are monstrously ugly. Again the NS Design has hit a fairly good compromise between bow friendly narrowness of body and aesthetic good looks… using some old European lute shape to give the violin some hint of character and a moderately pleasing line. Fender could try the about same thing, fleshing out a narrow body, but with a more contemporary line, using round and rolling lines where NS Design used primarily straight lines and flat edges.
Next we get to the Chin Rest and Shoulder Rest problems, and this is where Tradition haunts us with so much that is simply inconvenient nowadays. Traditionally one held a violin steady by clamping it down with ones chin against one’s shoulder. Chin rests were invented to conform comfortably to the chin, and shoulder rests were invented to conform comfortably to the shoulder. And it all works well with feather-light traditional acoustical violins… they don’t weigh anything and they are therefore easy to support in this bazaar but traditional manner. But Electric Violins are heavier, which makes the old chin and shoulder rest solutions problematic but which suggest newer and better means of stabilizing the violin for playing. Why not just collar the violin closely around the neck and play it a bit more in front instead of exactly over the shoulder, which I always felt to be uncomfortable anyway.
I played the FV3 without its stupid shoulder rest (designed to fall off anytime it was not planted firmly on a shoulder) using a choker collar tied to the tailpiece strap to keep it close to my throat and never needed to bring my chin down on the chin rest.
The NS Design has its Shoulder Rest, with its awkward bend made to go over the shoulder, but if one swings it down to be used to support the violin on one’s chest, then the shoulder curve has a bit of an unpleasant stab behind it. But as a general principle, a violin supported by a neck choker would benefit by some under-support on the chest to keep it at a flat angle or at whatever a player’s preferred angle happens to be. The FV3 was broad enough in its base so that it held itself flat almost automatically and so no under-support was really needed. So maybe if the violin is designed to have something of a broad base, no under-support is necessary at all. Also, a broad base would add to stability weight, but since the center of gravity is so close to the point of support on the choke collar around the neck, any extra weight would not be noticed by the left hand which could remain busy with the business of playing the strings and not having to hold the violin in proper position.
I’d like to be able to simply do away with Chin Rests. While the Shoulder Rest of the NS Designs can be useful, the Chin Rest simply gets in the way and starts stabbing me in the neck and throat. I had to use the Chin Rest just to keep it in one safe place where it wasn’t always trying to kill me. I finally ended up wrapping it in some ugly foam padding so I could go back to ignoring it altogether.
I thought of the Violin Choke Collar and therefore I have it patent pending, but I am so found of Fender Company, having a few of their guitar and bass models, that I would sell them license rights to the Violin Choker for a virtual song. Oh, another advantage of the Violin Choker, is that when the violin is not being played, one can simply let it drop down on one’s chest. Violins and even Violas are relatively small, and one can go about one’s business with hands free. The NS Design is a but more cumbersome, with its large shoulder rest contraption, but even all of that is not much when it is lying flat on one’s chest. I do sound studio work, and even go to the kitchen to make a sandwich, all with a violin hanging around my neck. While performing, one can break off from playing and sing a verse or two into a microphone, hands free (well, except for the bow), but immediately begin playing violin again, because one never really put the violin down.
Oh, and there is a more basic thing about Electric Violins. Everybody is using Piezoelectric Pickups or little microphones as the heart and soul of the Electric Violin electronics. Ostensively they don’t use the same kind of coil pickups that electric guitars use because some violinists still want to use ancient style cat gut or the more modern synthetic strings wrapped in aluminum, neither of which have enough feral magnetic content that they would be ‘picked up’ by a coil pickup. But nowadays most Electric Violin Players use steel strings, because of their superior tune stability and durability. And durability is no small thing. The Aluminum Windings on synthetic core strings is delicate, brittle… I heard it compared to butterfly wings in regards to its fragility. I’ve had sets of strings that did not last a week of even mellow Rock and Roll practice. Barry Manilow is too rough for an aluminum wrapped core string! Also, aluminum, even with flat windings, is NOT smooth… the molecular structure of aluminum is coarse and grabby and prevents a good finger slide, even when oiled! Whereas steel strings and chrome steel wound strings are slippery smooth and durable.
So, if steel strings are so good for electric violins, why aren’t we using coil pickups for violin. Remember, with a narrow body design, the bowing can be accomplished either over the pickups after the fingerboard runs out, or the bowing can be done over the fingerboard itself. There can be two sets of pickups… just like on the guitars – a neck pickup and a bridge pickup.
Oh, and sooner or later somebody has to figure out how to make an affordable laser pickup for strings. If they can shine a laser on a window pane of glass and use it as a spy microphone, then certainly laser reflections off a string a fraction of an inch away can be detected for audio tones. But electronic coils might be the least expensive way to go for still some time, although with technology getting cheaper and cheaper, soon it might be less expensive to produce a cheap little LED laser pickup and it logic chip than to wind an expensive magnet with expensive copper wires.
Anyway, I suppose we are all looking forward to seeing a good Fender Electric Violin in the foreseeable future… even fans of the NS Design Violins and the other brands out there who have their price point up above $2000.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Wood Brand Viper Electric Violins
Firstly, since these strange things use guitar tuning, 5 steps between strings instead of the violin families traditional 7 steps between strings, are they really to be considered as being in the violin family at all or are they simply exotic guitars, meant to be bowed instead of picked it?
And these Vipers have frets. With violins, which are fretless of course, the violin player warms up for a few minutes and then knows where all the strings are and can land his notes with absolute precision. Besides, the strings don’t change from day to day, and the Notes are always in the same place as they were before. There should be no trouble finding them again after one has done just a little bit of violin practice. So why would anybody need frets? Well, frets are for guitar players who have never learned to listen to what they are doing. They play the chords that they have learned – chords they find in books, or chords their friends teach them. So without frets – designated places to preposition their fingers – well, they’re completely lost on the violin.
So the Vipers are NOT violins at all – they are guitars sold with bows instead of picks. The Guitar Players who buy them can hope to simply do their usual chording and try to get away with it, along with co-opting the credit for having learned to play the violin, which they haven’t done at all… they’re still just memorizing chords and applying the same old fingering charts. These transplanted Guitar Players don’t deserve to use a Bow. A bow is for Violin Players… that is, musicians who hear what they play and can play what they hear… without having to consult some chart or other.
Oh, and the practical problem arises of what the heck do you do when you break a string on one of these Vipers. These Exotic ‘Violins’ have no support and infrastructure behind them. Even on the Websites that sell these monstrosities, there is no a mention at all of Strings – brand names, types, costs, venders… nothing. I guess if you ever break a sting you need to buy a whole new Viper.
Oh, and there is the Number of Strings thing. You know, more strings is not necessarily better. On the traditional violins, violas, cellos, etc. with their four strings, there is plenty of arc on the bridge between strings, meaning that with just a bit of bow control, the violinist, can easily play on just a single string at a time… to feel out a new song and work out a melody. But if you add strings to the limited curve of the bridge, then the degree of arc between the strings is greatly reduced – flattened – meaning that it is extremely difficult for the bow not to scrub more than one string at a time. In real world playing sometimes single notes need to be struck and held, or used in melodic transitions and riffs. But with the overcrowded bridge of the Viper, with six and seven strings, instead of the optimum four, well, with any pressure on the bow, no single string between any two others can be rung without accidentally buzzing the one or the other on either side. These Vipers must sound sloppy as hell, when they are played like real violins.
And these Vipers have frets. With violins, which are fretless of course, the violin player warms up for a few minutes and then knows where all the strings are and can land his notes with absolute precision. Besides, the strings don’t change from day to day, and the Notes are always in the same place as they were before. There should be no trouble finding them again after one has done just a little bit of violin practice. So why would anybody need frets? Well, frets are for guitar players who have never learned to listen to what they are doing. They play the chords that they have learned – chords they find in books, or chords their friends teach them. So without frets – designated places to preposition their fingers – well, they’re completely lost on the violin.
So the Vipers are NOT violins at all – they are guitars sold with bows instead of picks. The Guitar Players who buy them can hope to simply do their usual chording and try to get away with it, along with co-opting the credit for having learned to play the violin, which they haven’t done at all… they’re still just memorizing chords and applying the same old fingering charts. These transplanted Guitar Players don’t deserve to use a Bow. A bow is for Violin Players… that is, musicians who hear what they play and can play what they hear… without having to consult some chart or other.
Oh, and the practical problem arises of what the heck do you do when you break a string on one of these Vipers. These Exotic ‘Violins’ have no support and infrastructure behind them. Even on the Websites that sell these monstrosities, there is no a mention at all of Strings – brand names, types, costs, venders… nothing. I guess if you ever break a sting you need to buy a whole new Viper.
Oh, and there is the Number of Strings thing. You know, more strings is not necessarily better. On the traditional violins, violas, cellos, etc. with their four strings, there is plenty of arc on the bridge between strings, meaning that with just a bit of bow control, the violinist, can easily play on just a single string at a time… to feel out a new song and work out a melody. But if you add strings to the limited curve of the bridge, then the degree of arc between the strings is greatly reduced – flattened – meaning that it is extremely difficult for the bow not to scrub more than one string at a time. In real world playing sometimes single notes need to be struck and held, or used in melodic transitions and riffs. But with the overcrowded bridge of the Viper, with six and seven strings, instead of the optimum four, well, with any pressure on the bow, no single string between any two others can be rung without accidentally buzzing the one or the other on either side. These Vipers must sound sloppy as hell, when they are played like real violins.
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