One way to supply additional humidity to your guitar is through a device known as a guitar humidifier. These devices are designed to release humidity inside the guitar through the sound-hole. Sound-hole humidifiers all utilize some type of water reservoir with an absorbent medium such as a sponge, water absorbent floral foam or absorbent polymer. The medium is then surrounded by some type of cover which holds the water absorbent medium in place and restricts the flow of water evaporation from the medium. To get inside your guitar, they slip between your guitar strings and are held in place there. Depending upon the brand of humidifier you purchase, it may or may not touch the wood inside your guitar. Dampit is designed to lie inside your guitar, while Planet Waves and Oasis are completely suspended from the strings.

Water holding capacity and the restrictiveness of the outer cover are the greatest factors in determining how often you will need to refill the device. Needless to say, you can’t stick a quart container of water inside your guitar, but there are several humidifiers that will hold an ounce (30 cc’s) or more such as Oasis or Planet Waves. If your guitar needs several cc’s per day of water vapor, a humidifier that holds only 5-10 cc’s will need to be refilled every few days.

Planet Waves and Dampit utilize holes in the outside membrane to release water vapor. Oasis uses a fabric which allows the water vapor, but not the water, to pass through the material to keep your guitar humidified. One downside to evaporation holes is the risk of water leakage. Very careful handling can minimize, but not eliminate this risk. Oasis is a water-tight, sealed unit which eliminates the risk of water leakage.

When to refill your humidifier is one of the great mysteries which have been solved by Oasis. Since Oasis is a flexible sealed container, is shrinks as the water inside of it evaporates through the fabric. When Oasis begins to look like a prune, you need to refill it.

All of the sound-hole humidifiers work. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. As with any new product you purchase, please read the directions carefully before use.
product you purchase, please read the directions carefully before use.

My first electric was a Tiesco Del Ray I got for Christmas in 1967. I did get a Mattel Tiger guitar that was made of plastic and used a contact type pick-up. My brother and I each got one that XMAS so often times we’d use one of the pick-up’s as a vocal mic.

Those days’ electric strings were extremely limited in types and gauges available to young poor city folk like yours truly. I think I only remember Gibson, Fender and Black Diamond strings. This is before the Maestro Fuzz and the Vox Wha-Wha were available to the buying public like me. Back to pick-up’s!

With the limited info as to how the stars were getting THAT SOUND we just kept trying to learn guitar without how to magazines and poor sounding phonograph players playing 45’s on a tiny speaker. You could say there was no reason to discern between p/u’s.

In the mid 70’s I was already playing full time and knew about vintage Les Pauls and the legendary PAF pick-up’s that were installed in them. Around that time a N.Y. Co. was making a name for them selves as a replacement for your non- Gibson brand type (humbucking) pick-up, DeMarzio. I ended up buying one for my 76 Explorer. Mind you I owned since the mid 60’s, a late 50’s Epiphone symmetric cherry finish Coronet with a, I think someone called it a cobalt pick-up. It is referred to as the P-90, or soap bar single coil type pick-up. I loved that guitar and its sound. I just thought I should have a real vintage sounding guitar with a humbucking p/u installed. I also owned a Les Paul Deluxe with the mini humbuckers. It sounded great, I just thought it should have full sized p/u’s to sound and look right. To quote Ian Hunter in the mid 70,s, Rock guitarist’s seem to have this Gibson fetish, and I did! I wanted the look.

Gil Pini, the other Guitarist playing with me was using the DeMarzio super Distortion humbucking , and I for some reason didn’t feel good about it’s sound and feel, although it was touted as heaven sent sort of thing, especially for Marshall amplifiers back then (no master volume on the pre-amp stage). I eventually purchased a Super 2 p/u, because it had more bite. And to me, meant, it would cut through cleaner and not be as transparent in the mix. I even bought the Alembic ‘Hot Rod Kit for my 56 Les Paul Jr. (stupid) in 1976 or 77. That was supposed to be a good idea because it was hotter (better sounding) with a ceramic magnet to install, and since it was from Alembic (from California) and not some upstart p/u manufacturer it was the right thing to do. I didn’t think about the DeMarzio pick-up’s and I didn’t know that those pick-up’s used the ceramic magnets at the time.

As I started to record in major recording studios I’d learn to discern my sound. I didn’t have those how to magazines to hip me to that elusive vintage sound. Yet, I could hear my Gibson Explorer and my Les Paul Jr. distorting at all volume levels as well as attack approach. It just wouldn’t smooth out. I was puzzled. Still trying to connect the look with the sound, I stumbled through the maze for years.

Not having the patience, or the money to buy and compare p/u’s, I just tried to make a sound with what I had. I had all the right Pro equipment. Yet I was looking back, wagging the dog.

A good sound starts from the fingers, to the guitar to the P/u’s. If you don’t start there, you’re spinning in circles and you’ll end up with a transparent (fuzzy) sound without body and response. Your fingers are your tone generators. Not the amps or pedals. Those are tools to augment your expression. And if you learn anything about trouble shooting on the fly, you go down the line to find the problem with your sound or rig. The same goes for finding your sound. When establishing your sound you start with you, through the pick-up on down to the amp. With trouble shooting on stage, you should start with the amp and go down the line back to you. Which makes sense since you’ve established your rig set up, and you’re trying to fix what was working, you back track. If not, you’re spinning in circles, again!

So, I had a friend who made the point about how some pick-up’s play you and PAF’s don’t. I soon tried two 57 Classic pick-up’s installed on my 92 Les Paul Classic and what do you know? I had a sound that was tight on the bottom ringing on the top and honking clear / dirty mids when I played hard, and subtle soft tones when I backed off the and played lightly. I was in HEAVEN!! And the great thing that went with it was that, this same thing happened regardless of the volume setting on the guitar.

My experience was that the tone I got on full could be bright and tight with honk, and as soon as I backed off the guitar’s volume, the tone would take on a dark or dull shade. This meant I would spend a lot of time tweeking the blend between my rhythms (clean and crunch) and lead tones. Looking for each was a drag, and a waste of time!

I’m no tech. so I can’t and won’t waste your time with my take of their specs. I do know that there’s something about the combination of the enamel coated copper wire and the alnico magnets that give me a sound I can play with and use dynamics. It was soon after I started using the Gibson 57 Classic pick-up, that Gibson came out with their 57 Classic plus. This p/u was designed as a bridge p/u.

In the 50;s the gals at the pick-up dept. would wind these pick-up’s using an egg timer or something like that. Sometimes they’d be distracted and some pick-up’s would end up with more winds. Other times they would end up with less.

The p/u’s with more sounded hotter and when people started going for the tone, they’d notice the sound of certain pick-up’s compared to others. It wasn’t rocket science to come up with the idea to put one of those hot pick-up’s in the bridge position you would have a bright, tight, and honk’n lead tone where there wasn’t. And a whole new sub market in ‘vinatge pick-up’s ‘ came about.

Which brings us full circle, I use Gibson Pick-ups and I’m sure that the other brands quality alnico pick-ups are a good sounding product. I do know what sounds good to me and what I know from my experience. I’m a guitarist who’s been around the block and my ears have a sense as to what a pick-up should sound like, that’s what I go for all the time.

Make your self happy and keep the communication’s open!

Vibrato is sometimes confused with tremolo. Basically it is just a technique of vibrating the string sharp and flat around a root note. For example if you are playing the 7th fret on the 3rd string with your 3rd finger on your fret hand you can just push the note up slightly and them pull it down slightly. Do this in quick succession so the over riding effect is a wobbly tone around the root note you are playing. Use your hand, wrist, and arm to make the movements. Never just wiggle a finger. Some people use a technique of pulling the string down towards the floor and then releasing back up.

Try this in a variety of speeds and levels of bending during your vibrato. The trick is to be consistent and smooth with your motion. If you are playing a slow blues riff then you may want to slow down and make a wide circular motion with the string, or if you are playing a fast rock lick you may just ad a fast narrow vibrato to accent the final note in a run.

It is possible to add vibrato using any finger you play with, but it is most commonly done with the first and third finger on the fret hand. Using your first finger is a bit trickier. I usually use my first finger for fast vibratos similar to BB Kings style. I will literally lift my other finger far off the fret board, press down and just vibrate the string as fast and as open as possible. That’s funny the work vibrato is a lot like vibrate, because that’s actually what you are doing vibrating the string.

When you combine vibrato with string bending, harmonics and legato techniques you begin to discover the musician inside of you. Playing guitar is about discovering your inner flow of creativity and having the techniques to be able to express them. Vibrato is one of the more personal and effective techniques. As with all aspect of playing guitar you need to experiment with these techniques, and most of all have fun!

Then I plugged it in and hit those first magic notes….. Wow did it sound awful, maybe the worst noise I ever heard in my life. So started my journey in the world of music some 23 years ago, I found my one and only mistress, the guitar.

Today I am happily married with 3 kids, a real job, and my guitars. The only thing my wife has ever been jealous over is my guitars. I told her once I could have girlfriends or guitars, she said she’d settle for the guitars. Thus is the secret to a happy marriage.

Oh more importantly, the guitars. No two are the same, even the same model, made in the same year, with sequential serial numbers, are going to play and sound different. They have their own personalities, their own feel and their own mood swings. I have Fender’s, Gibson’s, Washburn’s, Parker’s, solid bodies, hollow bodies and semi-hollow body guitars.

Every week I go to a friend’s house, or a local store and just pickup every guitar I can and play it for a few minutes. It really is an obsession. I think, dream and dwell on playing guitar 24 Hours a day.

Is this story the same as your’s. As humorous as this may sound, many of my playing friends say the same thing. You can never have enough guitars, or spend enough time playing your guitar.

Do you have a passion for playing as well?

He recorded only 36 sides over a period of a couple of months between November 1936 and June 1937 in San Antonio Texas .These remarkable recordings still bring tears to the eyes of Blues aficionados the world over and shaped the face of the music of today.

The post-war Blues of Chicago owe a great debt to Robert Johnson and it is sad to think what might have been had he lived! In just a few short years he matured from a young black guitarist into a superstar of his day .The often repeated legend was perpetuated by his contemporaries that he sold his soul to the Devil in return for his amazing guitar techniques.

His story is one of hardship tinged with great success in his own locality of the Delta and women were said to be rendered helpless as he sang his compositions. His death at the hand of a jealous husband at the age of twenty seven robbed the world of one of Americas finest ever Musicians and Blues artists.

Years after his death in 1938, a photograph was unearthed, one of only two in existence. It shows not only his inimitable style of dress but quite remarkable slender fingers which helped him to achieve his unique mastery of the bottleneck guitar technique. He is pictured in a chalk–stripe suit which would have been somewhat overstated for a man in his position at that time .When I first saw that photograph the one thing above all else, that stood out were his beautiful long fingers that enveloped the guitar fingerboard and obviously caressed it as though it was a Woman helpless in his arms!

What about his subject matter… well nothing much has changed in the passing of time; the age old, painful process of unrequited love; of restless yearnings to move on down the line to pastures new; to unfaithful liaisons; and of course much sexual innuendo .

Robert Johnson’s skill as a poet of the time and place is absolutely unsurpassed in my estimation! For sure he borrowed words, phrases, and guitar licks from his peers, but moulded them into something quite unique that not only stands the test of time but has a relevance to today’s Rock music.

There cannot be any Blues Band on this Planet that has not been influenced by Johnson and his music and this is a testament to the greatness of the man! The list of recordings of Johnson’s songs by modern artists is endless and forms the backbone of the resurgence of the Blues in the early sixties in Britain and continues to this day! Most of the long lasting Bands of the R,n,B revolution of 62, 63, and on into the seventies have recorded several of Roberts songs. Notable amongst these would be The Rolling Stones, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Elmore James, and many more. Johnson’s songs transcribed particularly well to the new Electric guitar line-ups of the fifties and on into the sixties. Probably one of the most popular of his songs, which I can’t imagine anyone not having heard in a modern format, is of course Crossroad Blues.

This song was recorded live at the Fillmore in San Francisco in 1968 by the great Eric Clapton and his two buddies, Jack Bruce on bass and stickman, Ginger Baker .This song also featured in Cream’s farewell concert at the Albert Hall in London in 1969. I doubt whether Johnson envisaged this treatment of his song when he wrote it or that his poetry would one day be the cornerstone of the Blues Revival of the Sixties.

It is a poignant end to his story that the great impresario John Hammond, who later went onto sign –up a young Bob Dylan in 1962, was just too late when he searched for Robert to appear in the momentous concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938. Robert Johnson was dead but his spirit and his music will live on for ever in the hearts and minds of the lovers of the music we call THE BLUES .

© Robin Piggott 2004 Key to the Highway Publications.

The hammer-on is accomplished when you pick a note and then using another finger hammer down on the same string. The sound of the hammered note is less pronounced than the picked note. For example place your first finger on the 5th fret of the 3rd string, and the hammer down your third finger on the 7th fret of the 3rd string. Don’t use your just quickly strike the second fret position with the tip of your 3rd finger. This would be described in guitar tab as 5h7 or 5 hammer 7. Keep your first finger on the 5th fret because you are going to pull-off of the 7th fret in the next example.

The pull-off results when you release a plucked note with enough force such that the second fretted note rings. This may require a slight side way motion to create enough friction to cause the string to ring out. The sound of the pulled-off note is less pronounced since you arent using your pick to create it. This would be illustrated in guitar tab 7p5 or 7 pull 5.

If you combine these techniques you can create very fast note runs or licks. Imagine how this sequence of hammer-on, pull-off’s would sound when played very quickly 5h7p5h7p5. In deed the hammer-on, pull-off technique is the cornerstone for legato and most speed playing techniques.

It takes time to perfect the technique but it is worth the effort.