Improving your tone

September 23^rd 1949…Freehold, NJ…Bruce Springsteen is born (in the U.S.A.).

THE BOSS IS NEARLY 60! Dude puts on a very athletic show for his age. I recently had the pleasure of seeing THE BOSS at the Richmond Coliseum, here in Virginia. Unfortunately, the pleasure was mostly visual. This is was THE WORST LIVE SOUND I have ever experienced from a professional artist. I have heard a lot of bands in a lot of weird venues large and small, but this was FAR AND AWAY THE WORST. YIKES! EVEN IF YOU ARE A ROCK ICON: SOUND MATTERS. So what does this mean to you and me (other than avoid Bruce at the Richmond Coliseum)?

First, good equipment makes a difference in every facet of your rig. Since we at JAX deal with a lot of guitar products, let me give you a guitar example. If you own a vintage Strat and play it through a vintage Fender Twin, but use old worn-out strings, you won’t sound good (or at least not as good as you should).

Second, there are things that even the best equipment cannot fix. A million dollar sound system can’t fix the bad acoustics of an out of date venue. I think that this is what happened to THE BOSS at his Richmond ‘show.’ Similarly, great equipment won’t give you great (any?) talent (Jessica and/or Ashlee Simpson, i.e.). A corollary to all this: LOUDER ISN’T THE SAME AS BETTER (Springsteen might take note of this…just a thought).

Third, little things make a big difference in sound. New strings make a huge difference in how your guitar sounds! Change ‘em often! Also, use decent guitar cables…they matter, too! Even the picks you use change the way your guitar sounds.

The good news is that sometimes little changes (picks, strings, and cables) can make a BIG DIFFERENCE! You’d be surprised how much better your rig will sound with NEW STRINGS, BETTER CABLES, and a change of PICKAGE!

The Beauty of the Beat

By Jack Phillips

September 5, 2008

At this moment, I can here the sound of some music playing in my son’s room; only the drums and bass are coming through. The ceiling fan is on, providing a steady white noise in the background along with the steady click of the chain hitting the light fixture. Somehow it is not annoying, merely comforting. The steady drip of the rain is similar (thank you Hanna). As I think about these things, the reason these sound are not annoying is that they are a steady, regular, rhythm. I feel the human mind craves rhythm, leading to my next point.

Have you ever listened to someone play an instrument that couldn’t get the rhythm right? No matter how precise the notes they play are, it just plain sounds weird. Having a sense of rhythm is essential to quality playing. A guitar player that only knows 3 open chords can sound awesome if their timing is good. How do you learn good timing? PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! If you don’t purposely practice your rhythm, you will always sound bad.

To practice, you need a steady beat to practice with. Many people use metronomes. Metronomes are electronic or mechanical devices that provide a steady sound at an adjustable interval. Many inexpensive metronomes are available that include both an aural and visual cues and are highly adjustable. In addition to a metronome, you can use a drum machine. Drum machines are really cool in that they sound like a real drummer without the fills and you can jam and practice with them. Practicing with other musicians, hopefully including a drummer, is a great way to solidify your rhythm skills and discover the beauty of the beat.