AlterNet tunings is all I’ve really done but that changed my life the way I play things simply put any alteration of sound from alternate tunings to a effects opens up the door to creativity it does for me and I’m sure it does for many other guitar players I love it
Hi Tony, I'm doing some catching up on Acoustic Tuesday shows and I just saw, with surprise, that you mentioned my little video for my third TACanniversary. I never imagined that "maybe one day" I would be on your show. Thank you for TAC which gave new life to my guitar journey.
Awesome show as always Tony, even more so that I’m featured with my Guitarsenal. 13:10 minutes in, wow what a surprise. Keep up the great work, looking forward to next Tuesday and TAC tonight at 4:00pm as every weekday 😎
Another great show today Tony. What got me out of my rut isnt exactly a tonal expirement, but it was a luthier experiment. And it was learning to build and play, the humble cigar box guitar. Shortly after building my first few CBGs, i found the Acoustic Tuesday show, and always had it playing in the background while building. Anyway, not only have i learned some guitar maintainence tricks and basics, but i also learned to play slide, open tunings, and the challenge of having only 3 strings, makes each note an important one. So, if your in a rut, want to learn a new technique, and get a new one of a kind instrument, i cant recommend building a cigar box guitar enough.
Great show as usual but I'm thinking you might not have as many views today or this week because of the UNUSUAL WINTER STORM. I know most people here in Central Texas do not have electricity and are just trying to survive the weather. In Houston which is the closest major city to myself which has 1.2 million people without electricity at this current moment. My grandmother is a 72 year old Texas native and has never seen anything like this here. But thank you Tony for still having your daily episode for us that have battery life on our phones. We Will Survive :)
I had my Martin guitar PLEKed My composite Martin now sounds almost as good as my 1984 Martin HD-28 I didn't play my HD much because I'm a bull in a china shop and anything in my hands tends to get damaged. But now that I love the sound of my composite I play much more. (It's hard to damage.) I don't think you can improve on a normal guitar sound so I don't need any alternatives to it's original sound if it was well built in the first place.
Years ago I got interested in Hagstrom guitars. I picked up a Viking of a seventies vintage in a music shop in Colorado. I had a late sixties Gibson Hummingbird and a sixties vintage Gibson Melody Maker both of which I passed on to my sons. When Hagstrom resurfaced I bought some of their acoustic and electric models as well as a Swede. I thought I'd try get into guitar repair with an eye on perhaps building guitars in retirement. The guitars I bought were cheap and I got them on e-bay, another story. The Hagstrom neck fits my hands and the playability is excellent. In addition I payed less than $150 for each one of the acoustics.The acoustics I got were triple O style and cosmetically looked very good. However they didn't project well. I changed the bridge pins to brass and experimented with strings, finally settling on Elixers. I also installed K&K pickups played through a fender Mustang II with a K&K pre. I have gotten a lot of compliments and curiosity with my collection when playing in public. The sound is really stunning and I long ago realized that for my ability I don't need a 10k instrument to get what I need in sound and playability. Yes I've played a lot of brands and I can hear the tonal difference and if one looks inside the body there is a lot of difference in craftsmanship. I am posting this long diatribe in order to give hope to those who don't play because of feeling they are priced out of the market. You can get a very good sounding instrument without selling your car. Just a few mods and a good setup will produce excellent sound for little money.
First off great show as always, being a TAC member keeps me motivated. I have a Republic Resonator guitar that I originally bought to try to learn the dobro. When we ordered it I had the choice of having it setup with high action for slide or medium-ish so I could play it like a regular guitar. I opted for medium, big mistake. The action was too high to play for more than a few minutes and barr chords were out of the question and too low for slide. Thanks to this Acoustic Tuesday episode I discovered the grover extender and it arrived today. Of course I had to install it right away and it is the perfect solution for my application. Now I can head down the dobro path with an insturment that will actually work for that purpose. It will likely sound like someone dropped a cat in a blender for a while but hey from here any change is an improvement, right.
I've been on a guitar expansion tear the last few months since I I got the offer to make my first album. Which I'm heading to Ohio to do this weekend!! Super stoked! Anyway though, aside from all the learning I've been doing like five finger picking, slide, piedmont, the biggest strictly tonal improvement I've made is switching to medium gauge monel strings on my jim dandy and tuning to full step down. Booming bluesy swamp punch from that little gem. If anyone does that though don't go to full standard tuning with the mediums. It will probably tear the bridge out. I love the sound so much I've been tuning down all my guitars. My resonator sounds amazing at half step. I'm gonna record a couple songs on the album with it that way. Happy music everyone it's the best! Thanks Tony. Love the show.
I added a two pole pickup under the 6 and 5 bass strings of my acoustic guitar. The pickup goes into a separate 1/4 jack. This goes into a Boss Super octave OC3 Pedal. I play fingerstyle and the alternate " bass notes "can sound like a Bass Guitar following your playing. Two pole pickup was purchased from Ubertar.com. This "add a bass" technique is widely used by Stephen King. It is surprising how much the deep bottom sound adds.
Great show! One other tone change to consider is the use of wooden picks. Especially the heavy gage picks. Create a great sound. TAC has been very good to me.
European Flamed Maple (Germany) Is a particular species of European maple, very hard and reflective, producing a loud powerful projective sound. It is a stable tonewood with a loud bright reflective voice. It balances a tight crisp high end with warm lows. Quilted Maple is generally Big Leaf Maple, softer and warmer than it's eastern cousins. It is the least common of the figured maples and can be harder to build with as it is not quarter-sawn. From: tonewooddatasource.weebly.com/wood-details-m.html
Flamed maple definitely gives you a different sound 100% I have built guitars both ways and there is an unmistakable difference when I noticed a difference the first time I decided to build multiple guitars of both flavors and I have found a Discernible difference
Hello Tony, enjoyed the program which sparked a couple of nice memories for me. On certain occasions my younger brother, Gene (who was into drums) would get his drum sticks and play on my guitar strings while I would play chords in standard tuning. I don't remember if it was very musical or not, but we had fun. The other thing I would do on my own for fun (and I guess variety) was to get my mother's stethoscope (she was a nurse) and stick the microphone part inside my cheap classical and the ear plugs into my ears. Wala, electric guitar. Clapton, eat your heart out.
Hey Tony, I'm finding a world of tonal wonders right now just with open tuning. I learned a Chris Smither version of Killing The Blues in open D for an open mic. While working on this song, I realized the chords were similar to Cat Stevens Ruby Love, which sounds great. Being Christmas, I also stumbled into a cool version of Drummer Boy using the same chords. Right now, I'm playing around with Nick Drake's Pink Moon tunings right now to do Pink Moon & Place To Be. I may go back to working on David Crosby's Guinevere, which is a total tonal head trip. All have tutorials on UA-cam.
I need help. I have a jumbo guitar with a slightly rounded back. Awhile back, I bought a Tonewood Amp to spice up my playing. While it sorta works with the rounded back, I think it would be better on a flat back guitar. I am also interested in a smaller body electric acoustic guitar, say an auditorium. I'm almost 73 and on a limited budget. What would be a good, low-cost, decent quality, small body e/a guitar with a flat back? I have looked at some Yamahas, Takamines, Washburns, etc. I wouldn,t mind an Epiphone as I had one back in the '80s that I sold in the '90s during a personal financial crisis.
Speaking of hand pain Tony, I remember you mentioning pain in your fretting thumb. I suffer the same pain from a car door as a kid. Aside from stretching what works for you? Thinner necks? Thicker?
![Is there more to your acoustic guitar's looks? [inspiration+more]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LqrG9ehwtzo/mqdefault.jpg)
![Is there more to your acoustic guitar's looks? [inspiration+more]](/img/tr.png)
DADGAD tuning is a blast .
AlterNet tunings is all I’ve really done but that changed my life the way I play things simply put any alteration of sound from alternate tunings to a effects opens up the door to creativity it does for me and I’m sure it does for many other guitar players I love it
Hi Tony, I'm doing some catching up on Acoustic Tuesday shows and I just saw, with surprise, that you mentioned my little video for my third TACanniversary. I never imagined that "maybe one day" I would be on your show. Thank you for TAC which gave new life to my guitar journey.
Awesome show as always Tony, even more so that I’m featured with my Guitarsenal. 13:10 minutes in, wow what a surprise.
Keep up the great work, looking forward to next Tuesday and TAC tonight at 4:00pm as every weekday 😎
Another great show today Tony. What got me out of my rut isnt exactly a tonal expirement, but it was a luthier experiment. And it was learning to build and play, the humble cigar box guitar. Shortly after building my first few CBGs, i found the Acoustic Tuesday show, and always had it playing in the background while building. Anyway, not only have i learned some guitar maintainence tricks and basics, but i also learned to play slide, open tunings, and the challenge of having only 3 strings, makes each note an important one. So, if your in a rut, want to learn a new technique, and get a new one of a kind instrument, i cant recommend building a cigar box guitar enough.
Probably messing around with open tunings was the best tonal reboot I have done. A 12 string in open G sounds so sweet. This is Christopher H.
I need one of those extenders
I'm very grateful to find your YT Chanel, and even more to be able to learn music stuff with this beautiful community... Thanks Tony.
Emil. 🍂
Love that the show still going! My tonal experiment: cut only the fingernails of your left hand, pick strings w/ your right :) Greetings from Germany
Great show as usual but I'm thinking you might not have as many views today or this week because of the UNUSUAL WINTER STORM. I know most people here in Central Texas do not have electricity and are just trying to survive the weather. In Houston which is the closest major city to myself which has 1.2 million people without electricity at this current moment. My grandmother is a 72 year old Texas native and has never seen anything like this here. But thank you Tony for still having your daily episode for us that have battery life on our phones. We Will Survive :)
Nicely done sir......
I had my Martin guitar PLEKed My composite Martin now sounds almost as good as my 1984 Martin HD-28 I didn't play my HD much because I'm a bull in a china shop and anything in my hands tends to get damaged. But now that I love the sound of my composite I play much more. (It's hard to damage.) I don't think you can improve on a normal guitar sound so I don't need any alternatives to it's original sound if it was well built in the first place.
Just popping on a capo from time to time, especially if I’m having trouble making something sound right, can help me listen to myself differently.
Years ago I got interested in Hagstrom guitars. I picked up a Viking of a seventies vintage in a music shop in Colorado. I had a late sixties Gibson Hummingbird and a sixties vintage Gibson Melody Maker both of which I passed on to my sons. When Hagstrom resurfaced I bought some of their acoustic and electric models as well as a Swede. I thought I'd try get into guitar repair with an eye on perhaps building guitars in retirement. The guitars I bought were cheap and I got them on e-bay, another story. The Hagstrom neck fits my hands and the playability is excellent. In addition I payed less than $150 for each one of the acoustics.The acoustics I got were triple O style and cosmetically looked very good. However they didn't project well. I changed the bridge pins to brass and experimented with strings, finally settling on Elixers. I also installed K&K pickups played through a fender Mustang II with a K&K pre. I have gotten a lot of compliments and curiosity with my collection when playing in public. The sound is really stunning and I long ago realized that for my ability I don't need a 10k instrument to get what I need in sound and playability. Yes I've played a lot of brands and I can hear the tonal difference and if one looks inside the body there is a lot of difference in craftsmanship. I am posting this long diatribe in order to give hope to those who don't play because of feeling they are priced out of the market. You can get a very good sounding instrument without selling your car. Just a few mods and a good setup will produce excellent sound for little money.
First off great show as always, being a TAC member keeps me motivated. I have a Republic Resonator guitar that I originally bought to try to learn the dobro. When we ordered it I had the choice of having it setup with high action for slide or medium-ish so I could play it like a regular guitar. I opted for medium, big mistake. The action was too high to play for more than a few minutes and barr chords were out of the question and too low for slide. Thanks to this Acoustic Tuesday episode I discovered the grover extender and it arrived today. Of course I had to install it right away and it is the perfect solution for my application. Now I can head down the dobro path with an insturment that will actually work for that purpose. It will likely sound like someone dropped a cat in a blender for a while but hey from here any change is an improvement, right.
I've been on a guitar expansion tear the last few months since I I got the offer to make my first album. Which I'm heading to Ohio to do this weekend!! Super stoked!
Anyway though, aside from all the learning I've been doing like five finger picking, slide, piedmont, the biggest strictly tonal improvement I've made is switching to medium gauge monel strings on my jim dandy and tuning to full step down. Booming bluesy swamp punch from that little gem. If anyone does that though don't go to full standard tuning with the mediums. It will probably tear the bridge out. I love the sound so much I've been tuning down all my guitars. My resonator sounds amazing at half step. I'm gonna record a couple songs on the album with it that way.
Happy music everyone it's the best! Thanks Tony. Love the show.
I added a two pole pickup under the 6 and 5 bass strings of my acoustic guitar. The pickup goes into a separate 1/4 jack. This goes into a Boss Super octave OC3 Pedal. I play fingerstyle and the alternate " bass notes "can sound like a Bass Guitar following your playing. Two pole pickup was purchased from Ubertar.com. This "add a bass" technique is widely used by Stephen King. It is surprising how much the deep bottom sound adds.
Great show! One other tone change to consider is the use of wooden picks. Especially the heavy gage picks. Create a great sound. TAC has been very good to me.
Jon Gomm seems like a interesting character. I’m going to check him out. Always find new Artist through this show. Thanks Tony.
European Flamed Maple (Germany) Is a particular species of European maple, very hard and reflective, producing a loud powerful projective sound. It is a stable tonewood with a loud bright reflective voice. It balances a tight crisp high end with warm lows.
Quilted Maple is generally Big Leaf Maple, softer and warmer than it's eastern cousins. It is the least common of the figured maples and can be harder to build with as it is not quarter-sawn.
From: tonewooddatasource.weebly.com/wood-details-m.html
Flamed maple definitely gives you a different sound 100% I have built guitars both ways and there is an unmistakable difference when I noticed a difference the first time I decided to build multiple guitars of both flavors and I have found a Discernible difference
Hello Tony, enjoyed the program which sparked a couple of nice memories for me.
On certain occasions my younger brother, Gene (who was into drums) would get his drum sticks and play on my guitar strings while I would play chords in standard tuning. I don't remember if it was very musical or not, but we had fun.
The other thing I would do on my own for fun (and I guess variety) was to get my mother's stethoscope (she was a nurse) and stick the microphone part inside my cheap classical and the ear plugs into my ears. Wala, electric guitar. Clapton, eat your heart out.
I use the variation of Nashville tuning: “Pink Floyd tuning “. The low E is also a 10, just like the first string. To be able to play ‘Hey You’.
Love the dampers on my Country Gentleman, use it all the time (I know, not an acoustic, but same great results)
Hey Tony, I'm finding a world of tonal wonders right now just with open tuning. I learned a Chris Smither version of Killing The Blues in open D for an open mic. While working on this song, I realized the chords were similar to Cat Stevens Ruby Love, which sounds great. Being Christmas, I also stumbled into a cool version of Drummer Boy using the same chords. Right now, I'm playing around with Nick Drake's Pink Moon tunings right now to do Pink Moon & Place To Be. I may go back to working on David Crosby's Guinevere, which is a total tonal head trip. All have tutorials on UA-cam.
Change strings and open tunings. Not that adventurous. But enough for me til now. Or a year ago when the D41 was added.
Interesting nut on Michael Watts' guitar. Does that affect the tone, or is it just aesthetic?
I need help. I have a jumbo guitar with a slightly rounded back. Awhile back, I bought a Tonewood Amp to spice up my playing. While it sorta works with the rounded back, I think it would be better on a flat back guitar. I am also interested in a smaller body electric acoustic guitar, say an auditorium. I'm almost 73 and on a limited budget. What would be a good, low-cost, decent quality, small body e/a guitar with a flat back? I have looked at some Yamahas, Takamines, Washburns, etc. I wouldn,t mind an Epiphone as I had one back in the '80s that I sold in the '90s during a personal financial crisis.
Speaking of hand pain Tony, I remember you mentioning pain in your fretting thumb. I suffer the same pain from a car door as a kid. Aside from stretching what works for you? Thinner necks? Thicker?
Hey, great inspiration video, any chance of a link to the website to get the Koto Converter please? Thanks
If you're bored with your acoustic tone, switch to your electric and a modeling amp, tone changes for days.
I have a son named Aedan too. He is budding guitarist.