We originally started stocking Godin in any depth about ten years ago. Those of you out there who remember the Buster Jones gig at the Griffin know what great guitars they are. Many of our customers are owners of these fine instruments so we are probably preaching to the converted.They are a real niche product and well worth checking out. The single most important to consider is these guitars are made in North America. Any other guitar would be much much more expensisive. Combine this with the superb build quality and innovative features and you simply must take a look. We have now decided to stock the guitar again. My prediction all the staff will own one within a few months.  This is what the Godin Website has to say for itself:
 
If this is your first visit to Godin, we’d like to take a few minutes to introduce ourselves. We started building guitars over twenty years ago in a village in Quebec Canada called La Patrie. The man that started it all is Robert Godin. Robert still owns the company and he continues to design the vast majority of our guitars.

We are a Canadian company with our head office located in Montreal and we build our guitars in several different locations, five in Quebec and one in New Hampshire. For those of you keeping score, that adds up to six factories spread out over about 1000 kilometers. So why not just have one giant guitar factory? Although there are some obvious inconveniences associated with spreading ourselves out this much, the up-side is that these smaller operations promote a more intimate working environment which gets everybody more involved and this is reflected in the instruments themselves.

Godin guitars are assembled in our Richmond, Quebec and Berlin, New Hampshire factories. The necks and bodies are all made in our original location in La Patrie, Quebec.

We are also known for our other guitar brands which include our new electric line known as Richmond Guitars, as well as our acoustic brands which include: Seagull, Simon & Patrick, Norman, LaPatrie and Art & Lutherie.

From the beginning the company has been more or less divided between our acoustic side and electric side. The electric side of our business was originally that of a parts supplier to other guitar companies. We built their necks and bodies. You might be amazed to find out how many different guitar brands are all being produced in the same handful of factories. We’re not telling you this because we want to divulge somebody’s secrets but simply to let you know where we’re coming from. In any case, what started out as some generic replacement necks and bodies soon evolved into a major business producing finished necks and bodies for many established U.S. guitar companies. The great thing about this is the tremendous experience that we gained building all of these instruments to their various specifications. The down side is that the sub-contracting business is a pain in the neck, so to speak, but more importantly it does not include the best part of building new guitars and that is: coming up with new designs and coaxing them through the process that begins with a sketch and ends with the music.

New Guitar Concepts
Unlike many other instruments that follow a fairly strict set of design parameters-such as most orchestral instruments-guitars truly lend themselves to variation in design. This capacity for variation manifests itself in two distinct ways, there is the purely visual variation such as, the lightning-bolt-shaped-pointy-headstock-you’re-obviously-not-in-an-easy-listening-band guitar. In other words, guitars as fashion statements. Don’t get us wrong, we are committed to high aesthetic values in all of our designs but what we find most compelling is the other type of variation inspired by the endless musical possibilities in guitar design. From designing a Nylon string guitar that can be played at stage volumes and feel comfortable to a primarily steel string player (Multiacs) to the creation of the multiple-voice instruments in our Signature Series, exploring new design possibilities is an integral part of what we do. The Godin commitment to new guitar concepts is typified in the Glissentar which is so much of a variation on the standard guitar that it isn’t even a guitar anymore and qualifies as a whole new instrument. The Glissentar project was not born out of a marketing meeting (i.e.) “Man, I bet if we built an eleven string fretless acoustic/electric we could sell a boatload of them.” Instead the Glissentar was conceived because of the intriguing musical possibilities it promised and hearing some amazing Glissentar performances from musicians like Michel Cusson, Fareed Haque, and Sylvain Luc (to name a few) that deliver on that promise truly makes the exercise worthwhile.

Bob visited the shop the other day looking better than ever. His clean life style is obviously working for him.
Bob as you probably know is a stalwart of the South of England blues scene.If you want to check out what he’s up to visit his site.

http://www.bobpearce.co.uk/

This article is for beginners or those who simply don’t know how to set up their instrument. It is not a discourse on becoming a luthier. You may have been bought a guitar as a present but find it’s unplayable in which case this article is for you.

The most frequently asked question when  customers are selecting a guitar is has it got a good action?

Even the cheaper models of electric or acoustic should be capable of having a low playing action.

The first area to examine is the neck.

Look down the neck side on from the headstock to the body as you would checking a snooker cue for straightness. If the neck is bowed inwards ie concave the truss rod requires tightening. The truss rod is a metal bar that runs down the neck allowing compensation for movement in the neck. The key is located either at the end of the neck from within the soundhole or under a removable plastic cover on the headstock. It’s usually an allan key. Tighten if the neck is concave, slacken if convex. The guitar should be tuned when you check.  The golden rule is do not force it.

The next port of call is the bridge. On the electric guitar there are bridge saddles with vertical and lateral adjustment screws.(more of the lateral screws in a minute). On Gibson style bridges the bridge is vertically adjustable with two large slotted screws. If you aren’t sure about this ask your dealer before attempting. A locking trem system can be quite complicated so seek advice .

An acoustic guitar is  cruder to adjust. To reduce the playing height you will often have to remove material from the side of the saddle that sits in the bridge. The easiest method is sandpaper on a flat surface. You may be lucky and find removable shims under the saddle. As always take your time.

The next area to look at is intonation. When a guitar is assemble the 12^th fret should be halfway between the nut and the bridge. On an acoustic it either is or it isn’t.  If not there’s nothing you can do without relocating the bridge. A big job. With an electric it’s easy you simply use the lateral adjustment screws. A little tip just use your common sense. In the late 70’s a purchased a used Gibson 345. I could not get it to play in tune on examining the bridge I discovered there was not enough lateral movement. I telephoned Robbie Gladwell (Norlin at the time ) and he sent me a new bridfe. This is not rocket science but even a company like Gibson get it wrong. The easiest way to check is with an electronic tuner. Play the open string and then the fretted 12^th note. They should agree if sharp or flat compensate.

Lastly look at the playability in the nut area. If this seems high you will need some nut cutting files. I would advise taking this into your local dealer.

Having a relationship with your local shop is essential. Advice should cost nothing.

Have a great rocking new year from all the lads at Fret Music..

Eddy Hailwood

If like me you remember the old ice rink , standing on the ice on a Friday night watching the local groups, The Mod Ball Saturday spectaculars at the Guidhall or the pier on a Sunday night then check out this web site. It is fascinating stuff. The picture shows the Meddyevils with in the lower middle Cuddles (Martin Smith) who used to run Fret Music’s drum department but sadly passed on a few years ago.http://www.davidstjohn.co.uk/sitemap.html

Barry Moorhouse Bass Book

If you are playing at home a small practise amp 15watts plus would be OK. If you are gigging you will definitely need 80watts plus.

So my advice is buy quality every time.

Barry Moorehouse.  (House Music, The Bass Centre etc)

Advice to First Time Buyers.

The most commonly asked question of a drum salesman is ‘What second-hand drum kits have you got?, I don’t want to spend a lot, we don’t know if he’ll carry on with it’. Believe me this accounts for most of my enquiries, certainly phone enquiries. Unless you strike incredibly lucky with a second hand kit you will almost certainly end up with a load of useless junk.

If you are looking for a beginners kit go for a new set up. You will get everything you need from £249. This will include the kit, cymbals and a stool. You should add to this, for reasons of sanity, a set of practice pads and drum lessons. Please do not skip the drum lessons. This is the one thing that will ensure continued interest. They should cost you approximately £20 an hour on a one to one basis. If you can’t find a teacher phone your local Musician’s Union, they should be able to help.

What is a Drum Kit and what makes A Good One?

A drum kit is really a collection of different percussion instruments put into a handy, playing format, developed over the last 85 years. It would typically consist of bass drum, floor tom, hanging toms, snare drum, hihat cymbals, crash cymbal and a ride cymbal.

All these items would be supported and mounted with hardware. This would include cymbal stands, hihat stand, snare drum stand, tom mounts and a bass drum pedal. As this is supposed to be a brief introduction to drums I will summarise qualities to look for as follows.

Most drums consist of a shell with 2 heads and 2 tuning rims. Look out for the spec on the shells. What is it made of? Is it a good quality timber laminate? What are the rims and tension boxes like, are they substantial?

The snare drum is the most important drum in the kit and potentially the most expensive. This can be made of wood, steel, bronze or brass and comes in varying depths though normally in a 14” diameter. All these materials give uniquely different sound qualities. Check out as many different specs as you can. This is the engine room of the kit and the band.

Make sure the Hardware is Substantial

Single-braced is a single piece of metal construction on the legs and double braced is two pieces together for added strength. I personally prefer light hardware but again have a good look round at what’s available. The bass drum pedal should feel light and positive. It’s worth spending a bit more on this item.

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With the advent and popularity of keyboard in the early Eighties serious thought was given the subject of dedicated amplification. Until then, the keyboard player had to utilise the guitar combo or 4 by 12 inch cab for live performance. For various reasons this was less than adequate.

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The modern keyboard has a wide range of frequencies, far greater than other traditional instruments. It is possible to create sub to ultra high frequencies. This puts great demand on an amplification system where is essential to clearly reproduce this wide spectrum of sound. Consider a rock band “going through the P.A”. The P.A. has to reinforce everything from the bass drum to a high guitar harmonic – in fact P.A.s are wonderful thing when direct injecting the keyboard into mixing desk providing adequate monitoring is available.

My own personal preference is to use a stand-alone keyboard setup. Be aware that it is a fact the lower the pitch being amplified, the greater the amplifier power required. Don’t make the mistake of choosing an underpowered system. For live work, anything below 100 watts is pretty useless.

Typically a high-powered rating 15″ speaker coupled with a horn will give adequate reproduction. Having experimented over the years, I am still a fan of the Peavey KB series(even better when fitted with Blackwidow speaker if you don’t mind a bad back). Three channels each with its own EQ and master volume and reverb allows you to have plenty of control, without relying on an engineer when lining out of the P.A.

When using as a stand-alone, without the P.A the onboard 160 watts of power is loud enough to cope with most situations. Don’t be fooled into trying to reproduce stereo capability in the performance situation. Unless it’s a very small venue the effect is usually lost. Leave this feature for recording.

In summing up, the points to remember is – adequate power, speaker devices that can reproduce a wide spectrum frequencies and adequate equalisation.

This is intended as an introduction, if you are well versed in this subject please skip this section to PA in depth signal flow and the audio chain Remember these golden gems of advice…

Component Quality

The most important thing to remember is the chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link. If you buy an “all bells and whistles” state of the art system and use a dodgy microphone lead, you will be very disappointed with the result. All that expense will have been for nothing. It pays to examine every item you use for quality.

People Quality

The second most important thing to remember is “knowing how to use the equipment”. I have heard some real horror stories concerning so called sound engineers who really haven’t got a clue. It is essential that one interested and informed person is made responsible for supervising the set up and operation of the equipment. An old smoker of a system, will probably sound better in the hands of one who knows, rather than a posh system in the hands of an unenlightened operator. Remember that the music industry is riddled with bullshit by those with blacker dogs than yours.

Don’t be phased by those who claim to know it all , they almost certainly do not. Another interesting observation I have made is that very technical people who really do understand the electronics of it all, rarely if ever, posses a good set of ears. These are the best qualification for operating a sound system.

The Microphone

First in the chain is the microphone. This is the device that converts sound energy into electrical energy. Don’t buy a cheap mic. Buy the best you can afford. (Dependant on what system you use one of two things will happen you will need either a mixer and separate power amp or a mixer amp. In the latter case all of the following to a greater or lesser degree will happen before the speakers.)

The Mixer

The electrical current from the microphone is very small and needs to be boosted. This is the job of the preamp in the mixer. Here the signal will be mixed with other microphones or sound sources. The tones and volumes will be adjusted to suit individual needs The output from the mixer will deliver a line level signal.

The Power Amp

The line level signal from the mixer now needs to be boosted by the power amp. This will be measured in watts stereo or mono.

The Speakers

The last link in the chain will be a pair of speakers. They will convert electrical energy into sound energy. They are rated in watts to cope with the power amp output and speaker diameter for frequency requirement.

This was only meant to be a brief introduction. Please go to the article entitled “Signal Flow And The Audio Chain” by Martin McCann for the full explanation.

The best advice I can give is really listen to the sound you are trying to achieve and check out as many different effects and combinations of effects as you can.

There are broadly speaking, 6 types of effect.

Overdrive and Distortion – overdrive simulates the effect of an overdriven tube amplifier. Distortion produces harder, metallic distortion with many upper harmonics.

Delay/Echo – samples the original signal and plays it back slightly later, simulating natural echo. Makes a delay sound measured by length of delay in milliseconds and the number of repeats. Gives variety of sounds for different styles.

Modulation Devices – this includes chorus, flanger, phaser and tremolo. Chorus combines a slightly delayed signal, with the original signal and modulates it to create a thick shimmering choral sound. à la The Police.

Flanger – electronically creates a slight delay and combines it with the original signal to add a swirling doubled effect.

Phaser – combines an out-of-phase signal with the original signal, for a sound similar to that of a rotary speaker. à la Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix.

Tremolo – varies the volume of the signal for a pulsating effect as found on vintage amps e.g. Vox AC30.

Changing Tonality of Sound Devices – EQ boosts or cuts a particular frequency band for flexible control of tonality. Wah produces a distinctive ‘WAH WAH’ effect by boosting/cutting a specific frequency range à la Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix

Compression – produces a level dynamic thus improving sustain and giving a studio sound. Possibly the most important effect of all.

Pitch Shift – shifts the pitch of the original sound to various intervals à la Brian May.

You can then buy these effects as individual units or as a combined multi effect.

There is now a big movement back to individual effects that are much simpler to use and allow a personalised custom set-up.

Dick was a member of Sounds Incorporated a legendary 60’s band who toured with the Beatles on their world tour and backed all of the Rock N Roll stars visiting the UK including Little Richard and Gerry Lee Lewis. Dick wrote this for us a few years ago and it all still stands true now.

When Eddie of Fret Music asked me to write something on the above subject I decided that the way to go would be to target the beginner / intermediate player as the professional / virtuoso guys would, having reached those giddy heights, one assumes, have all the qualifications necessary to make their own judgments.

Firstly What Is A ‘Bass Guitar’?

Simply put, it is an instrument that provides the low end harmonic and rhythmic content in nearly all forms of popular music. Taking over from the double bass in an ever increasing way, since Leo Fender, first brought it to the world many many years ago. His ‘P’ precision , and ‘J’ jazz models have become the benchmarks for bass guitar design for more than four decades. It is a testament to his original designs that they are still used today in a brand new century in bands seen on current TV music programmes, promo videos etc., the bass player, more often than not is using a Leo Fender based instrument.

The instrument itself has, as its name suggests, a ‘guitar’ type body coupled to a longer neck to give the increased scale length necessary to accommodate the longer and heavier gauge strings. These reproduce the lower frequencies required to emulate the double bass . These scale lengths can vary from short / medium (some of the early Gibson models like the EB2 had a 30 inch scale ), too long, like the Fender’s which is 34 inches . The longer scale gives, without doubt, the superior sound and has become the accepted norm for four stringed basses. In recent times, some five string instruments have had their scale length increased to 35 inches to allow the much heavier low ‘b’ string to achieve its intended potential.

From the above, we can deduce that the beginner would probably benefit by choosing a long scale bass either in the ‘P’ or ‘J’ pick-up configurations. While an American built instrument would have a price penalty there are many instruments of similar construction in the market place that would from both playability and price considerations. Less than £150.00 will get you a very playable instrument. Some models to consider are the Squire Affinity P-bass , the Peavey Milestone , which has a lovely slim neck, a plus for the total beginner, and the Aria Legend . The build quality of all of these Far Eastern manufactured basses has really come on in recent times. How I wish they had been around in 1961, when I and many other early rock ‘n rollers were forced, by lack of availability / choice, to play Gibson EB2s , Hofners and the like – especially at the price they would have been then.

Squire Affinity P-bass

When addressing the needs of the intermediate player, they almost fall into the professional virtuoso category. It really depends on how they wish to develop their playing styles and sounds, types of music etc.. The options are many-fold including the following:-

1). Fretted or fretless .

2). Bolt on or through neck.

3). Active or passive eq. (see below).

4). Standard 20 fret 21fretto give a high ‘e’ on the g string or extended dual octave 24 fret

5). 4 string , 5 string or 6 string etc.

6) Standard wood neck with maple , rosewood or ebony board , or graphite / composite neck possibly matched to a rosewood or similar board.

7). Single pick up / multi-pick up , with or without pick up blend control.

8). Gauge and type of strings fitted – round wound , flat wound , etc.,

The above can all be interwoven giving almost endless permutations. It’s a case of ‘you pays yer money and makes yer choice’ – which really ought to be the other way round – choice first money later. I guess the old adage of ‘buy the best you can afford’ still holds good and the other main ingredients should be, not necessarily in this order – comfort / feel / playability/ accessibility to the higher frets, sounds available etc.,

I remember an occasion that illustrates perfectly two of the above. In the mid to late seventies, I worked as an international salesman for General Music Strings who owned the Picato brand at the time. I was on a sales trip to Scandinavia and part of my brief was to service the Hagstrom guitar company in Sweden we supplied unpackaged guitar and bass strings for manufacturing purposes. I had to wait to see my contact and in the office there was, right next to me, sitting in an open case, was a fretless bass . I naturally picked it up to while away a few minutes. Within seconds I knew I had to have it. Beautifully made in mahogany with a delightful ebony board and quality hardware, but it was the ‘Instant’ feel and playability that won me over. I wasn’t concerned about the electronics as they could have been fixed if necessary. I’m glad to say that Hagstrom let me buy it and on getting the bass home, I took the neck off and wrapped it lovingly in my dirty washing to protect it during the flight. The electronics proved to be as excellent as the rest of the instrument. I’ve still got it today some twenty years later.

Passive / Active EQ:

Simply put, the difference between the two is that passive eq is normally just an unpowered (passive) treble cut circuit, giving the impression to the ear of adding more bass.

Active eq is a powered circuit usually using one 9 volt battery allowing the addition as well as cut-off the selected bass / treble frequencies.This renders a much enhanced variety of tonal options becoming available, especially on a multi pick up instrument which usually has a plus/minus eq circuit for each pick up

A reminder on amplification:

Physics tells us that bass frequencies demand a lot of power to reproduce them as opposed to high end ones; the lower the frequency the more power needed. So the conclusion here is, for the intermediate player upwards, to buy the most powerful amp you can afford, bearing in mind transportation considerations. For the beginner practising at home, price is usually the number one consideration, especially if buying the complete starter package. The one to check out here is the Peavey Microbass . It has, as all other models in the Peavey bass amp range, a unique patented circuit called ‘ddt’ – (distortion detection technique). In essence this allows the player to have a usable average power of 50% of the rated amp output leaving 50% as ‘headroom’ to accommodate the loud bits by holding back damaging distortion . For sound reinforcement (pa) , applications The Audio Engineering Society recommends running power amps at an average of – 10db . This is roughly equivalent to 10% of the rated output leaving enough ‘headroom’ for the ‘loud bits’ to avoid damaging distortion. This could also apply to the power amp stage of a bass guitar amp which, if subject to sudden variances of demand, eg a quick change during a performance from light ‘finger style’ to heavy ‘slap’ playing, might need to be run in a similar manner. This will prevent the power amp section being overdriven. However, in my opinion, it goes without saying that the most cost effective route to help minimise this unwanted phenomenon is to buy an amp with ddt .