EQUIPMENT PICKS FROM Pearl Django, Elaine summers, David russell, Cats and Jammers, and Paulo Bellinati
re-creates the classic acoustic guitar tones of the Gypsy swing and jump-jazz styles of the '30s and '40s with vintage guitars from that period, as well as outstanding modern reproductions. Both Neil Andersson and Shelley Park play reproductions of the Selmer acoustics used by Django Reinhardt. A talented luthier as well as musician, Park built most of Pearl Django's Selmer-style guitars (Shelley Park, 1935 Grant St., Vancouver, BC V5L 2Z1, Canada; [604] 254-8210). In addition to his Park "Harlequin" guitar, which he says is the best-sounding of the Django-style guitars he's played, Andersson's guitar collection includes a Selmer-style instrument made by England's Doug Kyle (Fursdon, Moreton Hampstead, Devon TQ13 8QT, England) and an original plastic injection-molded Maccaferri guitar, which he used on one cut of the band's latest CD.
Dudley Hill is the renegade of the group, adhering primarily to the punchy, percussive archtop acoustics found in most American popular dance bands before the rock 'n' roll era started in the '50s. Although he's played old Epiphones and other guitars, his current instrument is a classic 1946 noncutaway Gibson L-5--still one of the most popular archtops among jazz aficionados. The L-5 is equipped with a DeArmond electric pickup.
On stage, the Selmer-style guitars are amplified with German-made Big Tone piezo pickups, which Park purchased during a trip to the annual Django festival in Samois, France.
--David McCarty
plays a Gibson Chet Atkins guitar in gigs with Pete Droge's band, the Sinners. "I like it because it's like an electric guitar, and it sounds really good," she says. On her recent solo tour, she played Droge's Gibson J-55, equipped with a Fishman pickup and preamp, and carried the Chet as a backup guitar. She's currently shopping for an old Martin or Gibson to play live but is experiencing some vintage sticker shock.
At home, she has a '63 Martin 0-16 New Yorker, which she used on her album Transplanting along with the
J-55 and several '60s-era 12-strings owned by Droge. For electric leads, a "trippy old" Epiphone gets the call.
--Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
plays a guitar built by Matthias Damman of Passau, Germany. The instrument features Brazilian rosewood back and sides and a cedar top implanted with graphite. "This guitar weighs much less than most I've used," says Russell. "It has a very powerful sound, which makes it easier to play with an orchestra. The sound is very flexible. Often cedar-top guitars force you into one sound, but this one gives a big fat sound if I want it and a thin, bright, sparkling sound when I want that."
Russell uses D'Addario normal-tension strings. "I use the lowest tension strings because you get better vibrato," he says. "You lose a little bit of volume, but each note can be more musical. I like a guitar that is easy to play. I tell luthiers that the best way to make a good-sounding guitar is to make it easier to play so the guitarist can play it better." Russell is miked for concerto work but prefers no sound reinforcement for his solo concerts.
--Mark L. Small
rhythm guitarist Sylvia Herold plays a Gibson L-5 "early advanced" model that was made around 1935 or '36. (The serial number is legible, but Gibson did not keep accurate manufacturing records.)
"An early advanced L-5," as Tony Marcus explains, "has a 17-inch lower bout--the fat part of the hourglass shape-instead of the 16-inch bout that Gibson had been making earlier. And it's X-braced, rather than parallel-braced, which is what Gibson started doing later on. There was a window of about five years in the 1930s when they were making L-5s this way."
Herold strings the guitar with D'Addario medium-gauge phosphor bronze (EJ17). Her picks are Fender extra-heavies, triangular (not teardrop) in shape. "They're the giant brown ones with rounded sides," she says. "I use them because Tony gave me a gross of them."
There's no pickup in her L-5. Instead, Herald uses a Countryman Isomax II lavalier-style condenser mic. "With Velcro, I attach it underneath my pickguard," she says. "I wrap the microphone cable with a twist-tie to make it stiffer, so it'll stay where I put it. I set it so it sticks out so that it's not right over the f-hole, but about an inch closer to the center of the guitar's top. Then I wrap the long end of the cable around the tailpiece, so if it gets pulled it can't yank the microphone out of the pickguard."
Because the mic requires phantom power, Herold uses either a small battery pack or the powered input of her Gallien-Krueger amp. Amplifying an archtop is difficult, she admits. "Even an inch of difference in proximity to the f-hole changes the sound you produce. But the way I do it, it sounds very acoustic."
Tony Marcus still has an early advanced L-5 that he bought for his Royal Society Six gig in 1986, but he hardly ever plays it in public. Indeed, though he has a modest collection of vintage archtops and can repair, sell, trade, and dispense expert advice about them, he rarely plays any of them in public.
For live performances, the guitar he plays most often is a blond, cutaway archtop that was made about 15 years ago by Kim Leland Schwartz (675 Vancouver Rd. S.E., Rio Rancho, NM 87124; [505] 896-3441). "I bought it used, so it already had some wear, and as a result I'm less concerned about subjecting it to the rigors of stage work than I would be with an old L-5," Marcus says.
For recordings, he plays another blond cutaway: a Metropolitan model recently made for him by Steven Andersen (7811 Greenwood Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; [206] 782-8630). Like Marcus' favorite L-5, though, both the Schwartz and the Andersen guitars have 17-inch lower bouts and are X-braced. He uses medium-gauge phosphor-bronze D'Addario (EJ17) sets on his Metropolitan, and in the studio he simply mics the instrument.
His stage guitar--the Schwartz--has a floating Bartolini pickup. "It's a standard magnetic pickup," Marcus says, "but it sounds more acoustic than most others I've tried." Because of the pickup, however, he has to use nickel-wound strings, and he favors medium-gauge D'Addario XL electric-guitar strings (EJ22).
"For picks," he adds, "I use the same Fender heavies that Sylvia does, but I like the white ones."
--Hal Glatzer
has a large and varied collection of instruments. His violao de seresta (steel-string serenade guitar) is a 1907 Giannini instrument that once belonged to well-known Brazilian musician Canhoto (Americo Jacomino). It has the string spacing of a classical guitar and low action, which is useful for solo playing. Other steel-string instruments Bellinati plays include another violao de seresta made circa 1935 by Silva, the four-string violao tenor, and the high-strung cavaquinho, as well as the viola caipira, a five-course, ten-string instrument.
While Bellinati loves these instruments and has devoted a recording project to exploring their sounds, he primarily records and performs on nylon-string classical guitars. He used a 1977 Paul Fischer guitar on the Garoto CD (Paul Fischer, West End Studio, West End, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire OX7 5EY, England) and a 1991 Ignacio Fleta (Calle de los Angeles 4, Barcelona, Spain) on his more recent recordings. He also has a brand-new instrument by American luthier Robert Ruck (37676 Hood Canal Dr. N.E., Hansville, WA 98340; [360] 297-4024).
--Scott Cmiel
Webb Straps
Webb Straps is offering a new line of stringed-instrument straps ranging in price from $14.50 to $55. Featuring hand-woven or solid fabrics and comfortable padding, each strap is designed to work with a particular type of instrument. Of special interest to guitarists are the G-200 and G-300, which come two or three inches wide and feature nice touches, such as a built-in cord holder, a pick pocket, a quick-adjustment buckle, and Webb's own Leash-Lock ends for extra security.
Webb Straps, 135 Cove Field Dr., Monroe, VA 29574; (804) 384-9431.
MusEdit Software
Yowza Software is offering a powerful, inexpensive notation program: MusEdit ($35), which works with various types of musical notation, including guitar tablature. Available in both Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 versions, the program runs on computers with 486 processors or better. Guitar-specific features include a dictionary of chord diagrams as well as the ability to specify alternate tunings in the tablature. The program is also capable of printing lyrics. Music educators may purchase additional copies of the program for their students at a discounted price of $13 without manuals or $18 with manuals.
Yowza Software, PO Box 4275, Berkeley, CA 94704; (800) 234-0427; yowza@ jps.net; www.jps.net/yowza.
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