livemusic

Been awhile since I have played my J45. Put new strings on it (John Pearse nickel 12-54) and I am, once again, reminded how good a J45 sounds to my ears. I think I was favoring Martin SP Lifespan strings a few years ago when I was playing it a lot. Anyone found any particular string you like on J45? Note: I sometimes like to detune a half step, so, if I were doing that, I might favor 13-56 gauge.

Oh yes. I have written hundreds of songs. If I am writing a 'heavier' lyric theme, often, I get teary-eyed. And I know I am on to something. Like just this past week, I have completed a song that brought me to tears several times during its writing and rewriting. Who knows, but I think the end product is sensational lol. We'll see.

Haven't heard of it, that's bad news. On a side note, I had an 80 year old friend who was the healthiest looking 80 year old I've ever seen. He raked his arm across a corn plant leaf and caught some kind of fungus. He died in a week. Bizarre.

Yes, it's a real cello. Thanks.

On this particular song, I am producing it, even though my engineer is also a producer by trade and is helping me with the project with not only engineering/mixing but also lends producer type skills. He struggles to choose on this one, as well. But, it's up to me. I can't see suddenly bringing cello in far deep into the song. That would sound odd to me. Like, where did the cello suddenly come from! As for it being a distraction, it is not to my ear. I love it. But, that's just me. To me, it's a matter of... this lyric is all about "me alone," so, we could say that prosody could be enhanced by it being just that (no cello). Although, if we want to get technical, that would mean it would need to be acapella, no guitar, lol. I like it as guitar/vocal only but love the cello with it, too. Beats me, looking for opinions to see if I can find a consensus.

If you choose to spend 8 minutes here, thanks a bunch. Let me know which version you prefer. Might make the cut to go on my Americana album. Guitar / cello: https://soundcloud.com/bill-pittman/me-alone-acoustic-guitar-cello Guitar only: https://soundcloud.com/bill-pittman/me-alone-acoustic-guitar-only

That's very good! And good guitar work, sounds great. Gosh, I love hits of the 60s. Is this a special tuning? Easy to explain how you play that, lol?

It's not my forum, just my two cents. Sorry to be the dissenter here but I don't like the idea of a pinned thread for this. When someone wants to occasionally post something, they will get FAR more traction by posting it in the regular forum because a heckuva lot more eyeballs will see their thread. And if people are not interested in listening, they can elect to not click on the thread! I have been a webmaster of many websites, so, I do have quite a bit of experience at this. This particular forum is one of my favorites because it is Gibson, there are good people here and generally, it's just one forum. Which I like! It doesn't happen that often that someone posts a tune, I don't see it as a problem at all. I sometimes post stuff, hate to see this dedicated thread for the reason above. I doubt it will matter, lol, just thought I'd give my opinion. Also, posters get lumped in with all of the other people posting in one giant thread and it just gets hard to follow!

Thanks so much for mentioning that, DR, I really like it! Any others that come to mind?

Odd, I was thinking of this exact thing just yesterday. After sessions in a high qualify studio, I am mortified by pick noise on recordings and have surmised that, yes, type of pick makes a difference but most important, it's primarily due to my grip on the pick. For over 40 years, I have held the pick a bit too lightly, it seems. But if I hold it tighter (to reduce pick slap), I am not as free. So, I figured a thumbpick shaped like a plectrum would be an easy solution. Yet, trying one in a store, it didn't. I want to try again.

The Firebird... anyone really like the sound? What's it like? It's a good looker, for sure.

I wrote this song about a week ago, played this song at my friend's funeral (the man in the song), so I have feedback from locals, but please let me know how this song strikes you, as you do not know the deceased. I played it at his funeral a few days ago, and wow, that was hard. He was a good guy. This was done on my Gibson Gospel and I really didn't flub up until about the next to last note, wouldn't you know it. But, doesn't matter, just a rough demo. Let me know how it sounds, too, as I am no expert recorder. Thanks for feedback, good or bad. http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_8331568 (You might have to wait a minute for the song to load?) EDIT: This post was in the wrong place, had 42 views and not one comment. I moved it to here now. I hope SOMEbody likes it.