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Leonard McCoy

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Everything posted by Leonard McCoy

  1. Leonard McCoy
    The screw holes were predrilled (after the finish was applied) but apparently to no avail regarding the clear-coat nitrocellulose finish around it. It matters little if the pickguard is attached; without pickguard, though, which this model was never designed for (there are other models which do feature no pickguards), you have the hole and the blemished finish around it clearly visible. A competent luthier might fill the screw holes and soften the old finish, and reapply some new layers, on top, in a most time-consuming, painstaking procedure.
  2. Leonard McCoy
    New guitar tab majorly revised (and in effort to have the entire album Mona Bone Jakon transcribed in the near future): Fill My Eyes Even for Cat himself as well as his producer Paul Samwell-Smith, this piece is a rare hidden gem. In fact, it conclusively sealed Cat’s audition with his producer. Thematically, being about a troubadour’s lost love, its haunting lyrics and madrigal melody fit the album and its breakout hit “My Lady D’Arbanville” perfectly. Originally, the album’s timeless piece “Time” was too short, hence “Fill My Eyes” had to come about for a harmonious link. It is actually one of the more difficult pieces to play on guitar. One has to get a feel for Cat’s riff spiel on D major. In Chorus 2 the spiel is somewhat analogously repeated just in E and A major.
  3. Leonard McCoy
    Instead of pumping money into a vintage can of worms, and putting faith and dough into a luthier who is ill-equipped to do it justice, I would rather opt for a 1942 Banner J-45, or any of its brethren really, from the Acoustic Custom Shop.
  4. Leonard McCoy
    New guitar tab: Where Do the Children Play? As Alun Davies put it, “[the song is] hypnotically slow, pulling everyone towards its meaning.” The song harks back to Cat’s time in Shaftesbury Avenue, where there was no playground nearby, and where even in his school the kids mostly played in the basement—all of which is contrasted with the overtechnologization of society and its looming ecological consequences. The basic track is recorded with just two guitars (Cat and Alun) and voice, with everything else (including Cat’s electric piano and vibraphone) individually overdubbed later, which is why the drums lurch a little behind. Del Newman’s did the string arrangement again. The D-G major change is Cat’s main spiel on rhythm guitar here, and transcribed as such.
  5. Leonard McCoy
    I don't get it... Dreadnought-style guitars—or really any kind of guitar—have been used for fingerstyle since their inception.
  6. Leonard McCoy
    In that case you might want to familiarize yourself with the workings of the guitar first. There is plenty of resources online to do so.
  7. Leonard McCoy
    You can always disengage the truss rod.
  8. Leonard McCoy
    The adjustable bridge gives the guitar a thumpier attack. It may be a one-trick-pony kind of sound, but it does that really, really well, especially with the ceramic inlays. The structural problems that vintage guitars from the 1960s with those bridges often come with are not so likable, though. For, if they are made out of injection-moulded plastic (as was the case in 1962 and '63), those bridges often suffer from warping and cracking of the material, and the accompanying plywood bridge plate is likewise often bent beyond the sunshine, if all the while the insides of the guitar didn't detach themselves on their own from the rest of the guitar due to the very brittle urea-formaldehyde glue (not hide glue) being used at the time. Structurally and sound-wise, I favor the oversized top belly adjustable rosewood bridge of the Gibson Everly guitars, with the strings anchoring through the bridge (no bridge pins). The sound is even thumpier.
  9. Leonard McCoy
    The problem with that is that vintage ones are not only made of a different kind of plastic no longer in use today but that they are also bevelled so differently from modern ones. On that note, even the vintage replicas Gibson themselves made are not up to par and quite inferior when compared with the actual thing. Here are a few reference shots of a well-made blank vintage replica (or so I have been told):
  10. Leonard McCoy
    I always liked those vintage truss rod covers with the bolder white bevel. But, for actual vintage ones easily set you back a whopping 300 or so bucks, I rather upgraded my custom-made Gibson J-180 with a professional nitrate replica (which wasn't cheap either). Unfortunately, I missed my chance to buy a vintage one from a Gibson Everly guitar, but its price was almost unreasonable anyway. Here is a screenshot of the new truss rod cover (upgraded from a blank standard one found on modern Gibsons):
  11. Leonard McCoy
    There is no shortage of able guitar players these days—perhaps there never was. 'Tis but the complete package that makes the curtain call.
  12. Leonard McCoy
    How instrumental Ren was in reviving classic Gibson acoustic models for a modern age, with modern production-line techniques for production economy and consistency for a new age of acoustic guitar making at Gibson, is probably clear to everyone. To see his son, who is no stranger to the business of guitar making either, and him making boutique guitars is heartwarming. The Brazilian rosewood was apparently cut in the 1970s before any agreements on restricting such exotic woods was in use. The finish looks satin to semi-glossy; whether it is nitrocellulose lacquer is anyone's guess (there is no spec sheet yet). In any case, even if you could cough up the cash the waiting list is already so long that you probably won't see the end of it.
  13. Leonard McCoy
    Here you go: https://catstevensguitar.wordpress.com/other-songs/dont-be-shy/.
  14. Leonard McCoy
    New guitar tab: But I Might Die Tonight This song was written and recorded for Jersy Skolimowski’s film Deep End. As is the case with most film music, it was a last minute rush, in this case resulting in a 26-hour non-stop marathon session at Morgan Studios, with the director waiting in the wings and the control room. There is also a movie version of the track released on the movie’s official soundtrack, a snippet of the song cued at the movie’s climactic conclusion. The Intro and Verse 1 is all Alun fingerpicking special chords up and down the neck. From Verse 2 on Cat’s rhythm guitar sets in.
  15. Leonard McCoy
    And one more majorly revised guitar tab: Lady D'Arbanville Both lyrically and melodically “Lady D’Arbanville” stands out. A single guitar can already deliver the full sound here, since tapping rhythmically on the guitar body, as Cat does in live performances, manages to substitute for the drum arrangement on the album recording. Playing along the original album necessitates precise and quick strumming. The original unique intro sequence and riff on E minor in the verses are transcribed here for the very first time as played by Cat and Alun. We have also added a bit of Alun’s addition phrasing adapted here for solo guitar (see bottom). On the original recording in the intro Cat seems to play, instead of the natural harmonic at the 12th fret adapted later on, a very high E note that is fretted on the B string directly on top of the 17th fret (thereby half-dead or muted).
  16. Leonard McCoy
    Much revised guitar tab: Longer Boats Recorded at Island Basing Street Studios, the basic track is just two guitars (Cat’s and Alun’s) with live vocal and Cat overdubbing the Hammond organ later. Cat, Alun, and Paul Samwell-Smith then tracked the additional voices (4 tracks w/ 3 vocals each), and drums and bass were added later. The actual meaning of the song was not clear to Cat until much later and at which point he also added a third verse (see below) for performing live. In 1972 at the Chicago Concert, when introducing the song to his audience of that night, making an effort to explain what the song means, he abrutly changes his mind saying “You know getting into explaining a song you take away half of its potential, so we ain’t going to do that.” As is so often the case with Cat’s songs, strong vocals make this one ring a bell in one’s heart.
  17. Leonard McCoy
    It looks like the cable tie (on self-adhesive tape) to tie the pickup cable to the sides so that it doesn't dangle around freely. Just reinstall it.
  18. Leonard McCoy
    I would ask Gibson directly or go to a good Gibson plastics replica maker of which there are plenty.
  19. Leonard McCoy
    Incendiary click bait.
  20. Leonard McCoy
    Even though the term "vintage" applies to an "original, older guitar" in the guitar world, most collectors apply it exclusively to guitars from roughly the 1920s up to (but not including) the 1970s. Guitars prior to that period are considered too primitive to be of use or value. Guitars after that time period have less collectible appeal and are not considered vintage either, not only because during the 1970s US guitar manufacturers were in dire straits as well all know (hence the quality of their guitars became sub-standard), but because guitars today and in the future are less of a hand-made item and more of a consistent CNC-made instrument that can be easily replicated with currently available materials and modern manufacturing techniques. So if you ask if your modern instrument is ever to become "vintage," the answer is probably never—but who really knows whether mahogany and CNC routers are not bound to become rare things of the past either...
  21. Leonard McCoy
    But the courtesy doesn't extend to posting a simple link to the ad? I don't get it.
  22. Leonard McCoy
    I exclusively use Dunlop medium poly picks for acoustic play (and a heavy pick for solos). Even better if you can get them as part of the Elvis artist pick edition for a superior surface texture feel.
  23. Leonard McCoy
    As far as tone, aesthetics, and size goes there is nothing that beats bridge pins made out of fossilized whale penis. Master luthiers around the world wouldn't ever want you to insert anything lesser into your guitar.
  24. Leonard McCoy
    Thanks for the snapshots of the inside. That the bridge is screwed down is a bit of a bummer but other than that it looks great from the inside too. You have got to love the gauze reinforcements for the side—a classic.
  25. Leonard McCoy
    I'm not sure what you exactly you're asking here. Shaving down the bridge to expose more of the saddle, instead of doing a much more costly and potentially destructive neck reset, is an option more commonly used in guitar repair even to date (which is by the way still in its infancy historically compared to, say, violin repair). In the end we don't get to decide either way, only the guy paying for the repair service. If you're asking if the guy in the video is a little out of his mind. Well, no one would fault you for thinking that either.
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