Leonard McCoy

I have yet to hear a True Vintage that disappoints. Nice recording.

I'm not so sure there is a great difference between brands, but there is definitely a great difference between acoustic string types, from phosphor bronze, coated and uncoated, to nickel bronze, to silk and steel.

It doesn't look like the 120th anniversary series ever received fret nibs. So you bought old stock from 2014 in the end? I find that pretty remarkable given how old the guitar now is. If you want to learn how to inspect and set up your guitar yourself and better understand your instrument, I recommend Erlewine's book How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great! for starters. Of course a professional setup by a competent luthier or guitar tech is highly valuable especially in the beginning.

Glen Campbell and his incredible hybrid picking are gentle on my mind whenever this technique is being mentioned.

I find with Jerry that he is an excellent woodworker, great mandolin builder, and a competent jack of all trades as a repair guy. However, some repair jobs, especially those requiring very specialized tools and skill sets (finish and restoration work, work on specific models), are best left to those who specialized in that particular brand of instruments, repair type, or field that is at issue. But those guys are hard to find and don't necessarily take on the job. Any luthier that keeps the camera rolling as uncut as Jerry does is under intense scrutiny. Frankly, I would probably not return to my local luthiers were I to review the video footage of their repairs. Repairing guitars is the most difficult field to get right because it is so wide, requires an extremely wide array of skills, jigs, and tools, and you are always working under tight restrictions (time and/or money) — oftentimes much more so than when "solely" building stringed instrument. That being said, I would probably not bring my Gibson or Ovation guitars in to Jerry for repair work. Nonetheless, I find those videos above to be very instructional. It is not every day that you see a botched bridge plate made of plywood causing deformation in the top, that that the problem was correctly identified as such and then painstakingly fixed. Bridge plates, being at the very center of the construction and tightly glued as such, are a pain, and sometimes outright impossible, to remove with access only through the soundhole and without causing major damage.

Not a Gibson.

Another one: Ruins (1972) “Ruins” is Steve’s commentary on the Vietnam War. In an interview at the time, he said, “It’s as close as I’ll ever get to Vietnam — I won’t even say the word, I had to imagine London, and in my mind I saw Oxford Street and the whole of my childhood, ’cause I’m trying to imagine when everything I know has been torn down.” The fingerpicking pattern gets more and more violent the harsher the scenes of decay and destruction get. In a more recent performance Steve’s introduction of the song to the audience (“it’s more of a downer”) remains very much the same.

I have the Scarlett 2i4 (2nd gen) — it's a fine device especially in conjunction with Reaver. However, for home recordings, I have recently switched back to an all-in-one, hassle-free tape recorder (Sony PCM-D100).

The trend continues, new tab incoming: Daytime (1978) During their stay in France, Alun and Steve spent a lot of time on the lyrics of the song. In many ways “Daytime” continues the musical and lyrical theme that “Where Do the Children Play” started, and both songs were even played together as a medley during Steve’s last appearance at the YEAR OF THE CHILD CONCERT in November 1979. What makes the song so experimental from a production standpoint is that Paul Samwell-Smith and Steve sang one note at a time for this putting them on different loops so as to mimic the basic principle of a mellotron.

You're probably right.

That's actually a more finely nuanced point than a first glance might suggest. And it's hard to argue that Murph's J-45 looks absolutely stunning. I can never get enough of that contrasted color scheme, oscillating between black and white, and the J-45's visually stunning perfect bell-shaped body.

Bridge pins made of fossilized whale penis are best for the sound. For bridge plates to get gouged out by ball ends it would need a very long time, a bridge plate made of the wrong material, size or thickness, or straightup wrong string installment I imagine. But even if they do over a long period of time, the holes can just as easily be plugged when the guitar is in for a then-much-needed overhaul. In any case metal parts don't belong anywhere inside my acoustics.

Your guitar needs a fresh set of strings (try the new Gibson ones if you will, they're excellent) and probably an adjustment to neck relief. Of course, a professional setup never hurts especially if you can't, or don't want to, set up your guitars yourself.

An SJ?

How old is the guitar? It needs at least a proper setup (the neck should be straightened some more by tightening the truss rod), if not some fret leveling. I recommended going to a luthier or competent guitar tech.

Talking unplugged, if the acoustic guitar is particularly loud or quiet, or its tonal spectrum interferes with the singer's vocal range, vocal character, or comfort zone, there is little hope the singer will gel with that particular guitar. Talking plugged, there is a lot you can do to bring the guitar in line with the vocals and vice versa, with the singer probably opting his monitors (in-ear or not) to be set up in a particular way to aid the cause. Why go to such length, though, if you can simply get a guitar that works for you? In terms of adapting your playing to alleviate the issue, there is not much hope if the guitar cuts through your vocals no matter what.

I always thought the Starburst, which is based on the J-180 jumbo body and which only features AAA-grade wood, was introduced in 1993 to celebrate the new era of Gibson acoustic manufacturing in Montana. The 30th anniversary all-maple Starburst surely looks swag.

Another new guitar tab from that album: Just Another Night (1978) Recorded in Copenhagen and Canada, and subsequently mixed in London, the song talks about the volatile nature of the show business public, i.e. not the diehard fans but "those who usually switch on to a person only because it's fashionable to do so." It also poses as another farewell to his fans saying that if they really needed him, he would be around (in his song presumably). The odd time signature lends the song a syncopated feel, yet nifty little riffs and speedy triplet strumming lighten things up. Needless to say, Steve on guitar played this one impeccably well on the record.

It's on the site.

In preparation of the re-release of Back to Earth (1978), here is a a new guitar tab: Never (1978) Of almost all the work Steve had done over the period, Paul Samwell-Smith and Steve handpicked this piece at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Canada, as a closer for Steve's final album. The song would go on to serve as a farewell, with an optimistic lookout and dedicated to his fans, for almost 30 years until Steve's third comeback. In terms of composition, the song's bridge part stows away a suspensful chordal progression, dissonant in nature but one that ultimately gets resolved in a harmonical climax bringing closure to the song and album. The E7sus4-like riff is a clever spiel on open strings, a forebearer of the dissonant parts of the composition, and the rapid chord shifts in the bridge are a demanding workout.

It's exactly as Nick says. In fact, it's already ripped the top along the neck block pretty badly. Overall, though, from the looks of it, this guitar is in for a repair job of medium difficulty (for a competent luthier) depending on whether or not she requires a neck reset as well, which I suppose she does. The current price of 900 bucks seems about right to me. I'd stash away a grand for all the obvious and hidden repairs necessary. Worth it perhaps if you're in the market for a square-shouldered dreadnought, which I am not.