L R Baggs Dual Source Pick-ups.

Pick-ups are a necessary evil. I don’t like the sound of any of them really – there’s a certain mid-range quack that I just hate hearing, and they all have it to some degree. However, to my ears, the LR Baggs Dual Source Pick-up (~ $250 + installation) is the best, most natural pick-up system on the market. The system itself comes with a ribbon transducer (under saddle) pick-up and a mini – microphone (mounted inside the guitar) blended through an onboard pre-amp which allows you to select a mono or stereo output, high or low gain, phase and,most

importantly, a bass roll-off pot. I run my system in mono, high gain, with the bass rolled off quite drastically (about 8 o’clock on the dial). The bass roll-off reduces monitor feedback – but the sound is still plenty warm. There is a controller mounted on the sound hole with two mini-volume rollers to control the volume of the transducer and mic separately. I run both at full volume.
LR Baggs tries to sell an expensive integrated active direct box to go with the pick-up. It’s fairly sophisticated with sophisticated eqs and what-not. I bought it and don’t use it – too many variables. I find that a cheap, passive, booger-head direct box works best.
I have a second pick-up installed in my Ryan Guitar as well. On the recommendation of several folks, I put in the Baggs I-Beam system. Basically, it cost me a pile of money and I never use it. It comes with a lot of hype but it sounds quite average to my ears and again, the mid-range quack is perhaps not as bad as some, but still quite noticeable.

D’Addario Guitar Strings

It’s funny how often I get asked what kind of strings I use. I think people think there is some magic in the strings that make a guitar. Although there are some perceptible differences between some brands, it is my understanding that there are only a few string manufacturers in the world and everybody buys from the same places and puts their own stamp on them.

So I’m not as loyal to one brand as I am to the particular alloy of Phosphor/Bronze. Straight bronze strings are too bright for my liking. Phosphor/Bronze seem to be a bit warmer and spicier (if that means anything to anyone.)
For years now I’ve been using D’Addario/ Phosphor Bronze light gauge strings (EJ16) – not because done extensive research, I just like them. And considering how often I change strings they are a reasonable price. I use to play medium gauge but after suffering some soft tissue stress in my arms, I was advised to lower the action on my guitar and switch to light gauge.

Recently however, I’ve switched to EXP coated Phosphor/Bronze strings. I have no idea what EXP means but the strings are a bit warmer yet, and they last significantly longer (which helps compensate for the higher price). I change strings before every concert and twice a concert if there happens to be an intermission.

For some reason, chemical make-up perhaps, I kill strings very fast. Often I’m already quite frustrated with them by the middle of a concert. The EXPs last the evening for me and that’s worth the extra expense.

Kyser Capo

The Intellitouch PT-1 is a well-conceived tuner that uses vibration to help you tune your instrument. The tuner simply clamps to the headstock of your guitar, and swivels easily out of the way when not in use. Tuning in a loud environment proved easy with the PT-1 – since it doesn’t rely on pitch to tune your instrument, the PT-1 wasn’t confused by background noise. This makes it a terrific tuner for guitarists who have to tune on stage, or in an environment in which other instruments are playing.

The fact that you never have to plug it in means it just stays with your guitar at all times. In the middle of a set you don’t have to look down on the ground to tune your guitar – it’s right there. For a tuner it is a bit expensive (~ $70.) but it is the handiest and practical new gadget I’ve come across in awhile.

Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine

I think this is the best resource out there for fingerstyle guitarists. Each issue comes with a CD of ten or so tracks of some of the best fingerstyle playing out there – artists both well known and obscure. The magazine itself has great articles introducing artists and artisans of the fingerstyle world as well as tablature for the songs on the accompanying CD.

Most of the songs on the CD are fairly advanced artistry – but it’s very inspiring to hear the virtuosity that is out there, and there is usually one or two things I can pick up to add to my tool bag. Plus it’s just good listening.

in progress

www.houseguitars.com

Josh House is a young luthier from Southern Ontario. He came to a concert of mine a few years back to show me a guitar he made. If it wasn’t his first one, it was one of his first instruments. It was a good guitar, not great, but you could tell he had talent and was well on his way to making great guitars. Over the next couple of years he showed up several times with new instruments, each a huge improvement over the last. Now he’s building first class guitars. It’s been great fun to watch him refine and develop.

So now he’s building this one for me. It will be a spruce top, mahagony sides and back with a beveled bout (for comfort, plus it looks very cool) and sound holes cut into the top side (for the benefit and joy of the player). I had to sell a spruce/mahogany Perry guitar a few years back and so I am looking forward to this as a replacement – there is something about the particular spruce/mahogany combination I’ve always loved.

I’m quite eager to get it but I think it will be a few months yet before I do. Josh has been busy with new orders and also preparing to get married soon. I’ll post pictures and my thoughts on the guitar after I’ve had it awhile. It’s like waiting for a child to be born, wondering what unique features there might be…how will the guitar itself influence your playing… what sorts of songs it will inspire. We’ll see…

-Steve B.

Iiada Mandolin

Honestly, I can’t tell you much about this instrument. I was at a music festival about 20 years ago and while the bands were changing on stage, the sound man put on an album of a female bluegrass singer singing traditional bluegrass gospel songs. The singing and playing was some of the finest I had ever heard. You must understand, I was in no way a fan of bluegrass music, but this was so wonderful I went running to the soundman to ask who’s music it was. It turned out to be Emy Lou Harris’s Angel Band album.

click image for larger view

The next day I found it in a store and played the thing endlessly for about a week. I was so charmed by the mandolin playing (Vince Gill, as it turns out) that I took my electric guitar (a Yamaha – can’t remember the model) and walked into a local music store that had this mandolin hanging on the wall. The mandolin was selling for a fairly high price (over $1000) but apparently had been there for quite awhile and the store owner was anxious to get rid of it. I asked him if he would do a straight trade for my Yamaha, he said yes and I walked out with this instrument.

Since that time, I’ve hacked away at mandolin. I do play it on my albums but one must not consider me a player. I concieve particular parts and then spend hours in the studio trying to get them right. The end product sounds like I kinda know what I’m doing but that’s just smoke and mirrors.

I tend to want to pick as far away from the bridge as possible – towards the headstock. The closer you are to the bridge the thinner the sound gets. But as a result my pick was always clicking on the neck of the guitar so I had Darryl Perry scallop the neck from the last half a dozen frets. Click the image for a larger view.

For those concerned about the rubber band woven through the strings at the tail piece, that is simply to stop the resonant vibrations of the strings on the dead side of the bridge – sounds cleaner.

-Steve B

I picked up this instrument a couple of years ago here in Winnipeg. Modeled after the original, pre-World War II guitars, these resonators are probably the foremost affordable, decent, metal body guitars on the market.

For me this is a novelty instrument. I don’t play it much but when in the studio, the haunting, hollow, metallic sound is sometimes useful. My instrument is pretty good for the price range but there are certainly better. The sloppy, hollowness of the sound is a bit out of control on mine but I just can’t justify the expense of a really good one when I’d use it so little.

Resonater guitars are used a lot in traditional blues and blues-folk. I used this instrument on the intro section of Lord of the Starfields / My Dinner with Bruce. Bruce Cockburn himself uses a resonator guitar quite a bit. You can hear it spread about on albums since “Nothing but a Burning Light” but a good particular example would be “The Soul of a Man” off the same album.

-Steve B.

• german spruce top
• koa sides and back
• slotted headstock

I met Darryl Perry about 25 years ago in my old neighborhood of Wolseley (Winnipeg). Darryl was a banjo maker and had a small storefront down the street from my house. His little shop served as a retail outlet for his banjos but he carried a few higher-end guitars as well. I bought my first hand-made guitar from Darryl. It was a Larivee that had been hanging unsold on his wall for a long time and he was about to send it back to the maker. I happened to walk in and he offered the guitar to me for cost (rather than send it back.). At the time I had no money, Nanci and I had a young family and I couldn’t imagine how I could possibly scare up the cash – but it was a deal of a lifetime and I needed a good instrument. So I went to a friend of mine, Stu Clark (now senior policy advisor for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, go figure) who graciously loaned me the money and I bought my first good guitar.

The Larivee was my main guitar for several years, and the guitar I played on Comfort My People and for most of Deep Calls to Deep. But around the time I was getting ready to record Deep, I received a call from Gord Johnson who asked if I had recently been to Darryl’s shop. Gord had just played a guitar Darryl had built and was quite knocked out by it (I only knew Darryl as a banjo maker). I tried one out and was so smitten by Darryl’s work I borrowed one to record the instrumental Cashe Island, and at the same time put in an order for one of his guitars.

My first Perry was a full size cutaway with European spruce soundboard and mahogany sides and back. Darryl’s guitars are characteristically loud and lively with deep controlled bass and fast and percussive mids and trebles. The mahogany softens and nuances the overall sound and the particular lightweightness that Darryl somehow manages with his guitars gives them a dynamic energy I’ve only experienced with his instruments. The fast attack and decay are brilliant for finger style but not as good for strumming or long-tone, single-note work. Unfortunately, difficult financial times forced me to sell that guitar a couple of years ago but it can still be heard as the dominant instrument on Burning Ember and The Feast. I miss that guitar. I named her Shannon because of the reddish tone of the mahogany, and because the first place I ever performed with her was in Ireland. It’s also the only guitar I’ve named.

I still do have another Perry though. It is the small 00 size parlor guitar featured above with European spruce soundboard and flaming Koa sides and back. It has all the features I’ve come to love in Darryl’s work; light, extremely responsive with a wide range of tones and colours. But the 00 is a small intimate guitar with a shorter string length. The shorter string length gives it a looser feel and the small body, although still wonderfully dynamic and nuanced, has a certain boxy sound unique to small body guitars – sounds great for bluesy feels and rags. There’s a bit of warble in the bottom end which you notice when recording. It’s workable, but you have to be aware of it.

What I like least about this guitar is a feature I asked for – a slotted headstock. I really like the aesthetic of the slotted headstock but in the end, it’s a pain in the butt when changing strings. As a result, I tend to not change strings as often, and therefore, play it less often as I would otherwise. I wouldn’t request that feature again.

This guitar can be best heard on my Simple Songs CD as the guitar on Foxglove and the rhythm guitar on Done Made My Vow.

The difference between a luthier like Darryl compared to someone like Kevin Ryan is that Darryl never makes the same instrument twice and only makes one or two at a time. Therefore, he is micro-monitoring materials and finessing his work constantly with each instrument. Builders like Kevin develop a few different models and then proceed to replicate at a greater production rate,  sometimes up to 25 instruments at a time. It’s hard to say which is a better method, or a better guitar. Guitars are, at a certain level, rather subjective – I can’t say I prefer one over the other – they look, feel and sound different and therefore you approach and play them different.

Unfortunately, Darryl makes few steel string guitars these days as he has made quite the name for himself as a Classical guitar builder. But if you can convince him to build you a steel string, you will have as good a guitar as can be made. Check out www.perwww.perryguitars.com for more information.

BTW arrivee rrivee is now in the possession of my brother-in-law Vince Fontaine -  songwriter/ guitar player for Juno award winning Aboriginal group Eagle and Hawk.

-Steve B.

I first met Kevin Ryan in Sante Fe, New Mexico about ten years ago. We had a mutual friend in Lou Bruno, owner of a design and marketing firm who has, on several occasions, brought me to Sante Fe for concerts. (Lou designed the cover for my Romantics & Mystics album.)

Although Kevin was in the early stages of his career as a luthier (guitar builder) he was already turning heads in the guitar world. Kevin was a devotee of James Olsen Guitars and was soon building instruments to rival Olsen’s legendary guitars.

So my buddy Lou flew Kevin from California to see one of my concerts. Afterward several of us went out for drinks and Kevin and I got a chance to get to know one another. We talked a lot about guitars of course, but Kevin is also keenly interested in theology, an admirer of G.K. Chesterton (whom I fancy somewhat myself), and a lover of good cigars and wine. It was immediately evident we would be friends and that has proven itself over time. Kevin, his wife Barb and son James are about a lovable as lovable gets. I’ve since spent several wonderful summer evenings under the lemon tree in their back yard in Huntington Beach and it was there that I first met Bob Bennett.

Six month or so after our first meeting I was the proud owner of a Ryan Mission Grand Concert acoustic guitar. And this one has been my main guitar both in concert and in studio since, as should be evident by the scars and wear.

My guitar has a western cedar top and rosewood sides and back. It has a fast, low profile neck, and Kevin’s trademark arched back. The neck itself is slightly wider than standard - just a bit more room for the fingers to do their work, and the scale (nut to saddle ) is slightly longer than standard in order to retain string tension in the lower tunings.

It is hard to say why I love this instrument as much as I do. There are so many great guitars out there. But this one just feels like home to me. Sonically, it is rich and warm with plenty of highs and no boomy bottom. It is great for finger style and yet responds wonderfully to a pick and hard strumming. In the studio it is a dream to record as it produces no unpleasant overtones for which to compensate. Basically, stick a mic in front and it sounds great.

Kevin’s guitars are very expensive and there is a long waiting list to get one. If you are looking to make that once-in-a-lifetime purchase of a magnificent instrument, check out www.ryanguitars.com .

]]> http://stevebell.com/2007/03/ryan-guitar/feed/ 0 http://stevebell.com/2007/10/stonebridge-guitar/ http://stevebell.com/2007/10/stonebridge-guitar/#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:52:46 +0000 Steve http://signpostvillage.com/thevillagevoice/2007/10/stonebridge-guitar-giveaway/

Congratulations to Matthew Nikkel of Winnipeg!

Winner of the Stonebridge Guitar Giveaway.

The Stonebridge Guitar Give-Away

by Steve Bell Oct. 23/07

Last year, at about this time I walked into a music shop in Nova Scotia looking to replace a guitar cable that had worn out on me. As I walked through the store, I noticed a guitar I had never heard of before – Stonebridge Guitars. As I am naturally curious about such things, I took the guitar off the hanger and was immediately smitten by the thing. It reminded me a bit of my beloved Perry Guitars – lightweight, punchy and loud – but somehow warm and cozy at the same time (it’s hard to explain these things in words and all attempts sound ridiculous.) My manager Dave walked by, stopped dead in his tracks and said – “you’ve go to buy that thing!” And it remains the only spontaneous guitar purchase I’ve ever made.

Only a few weeks later, after a concert in Southern Ontario, a man named Roger Schmidt introduced himself to me as the owner of a new guitar company called Stonebridge Guitars. No way! Sure enough, this man owned the company that has rebranded a hand-made guitar built by an old-world luthier in the Czech-Republic and is now marketing the instruments in North America under the banner Stonebridge.

Needless to say, Roger and I immediately struck up a friendship I hope lasts a long time. Roger himself is an extremely gifted player and composer. I hope to soon spend some time under his tutelage. But he also took an immediate interest in my growing concern for issues of hunger and poverty that plague our world today. I told Roger of my connection to the Canadian Foodgrain’s Bank and that my Symphony tour would be used to promote their work. Wanting to help, Roger offered to give away the same guitar I am now using as my main guitar to anyone at the Symphony concerts who will simply go to the Canadian Foodgrain’s Bank table after the show and sign up for a draw. There is no ticket fee, or requirement to donate, but certainly we hope folks will give generously to the Canadian Foodgrain’s Bank efforts to End Hunger. And, some lucky person is going to get a cedar-top, rosewood sides and back, cut-away Stonebridge guitar.

So, if you want a good chance at the guitar (easily one of the best guitars I’ve ever played) come out to one of the Symphony concerts this fall (check my home in the village for concert dates,) locate the Canadian Foodgrains Bank table in the foyer and sign up. But please consider the cause as well.

Draw date is December 24th.

As it turns out, Matt is a big Steve Bell fan (and assures us that this was true long before he won the guitar!), an enthusiastic guitarist, and a regular worship leader in his home church. He was delighted with the guitar, and we were very pleased to have him receive it.

For all of you that entered and didn’t win, but can’t stop dreaming about a Stonebridge guitar, you can check them out online at www.stonebridgeguitars.com

Click here for photos of Matt and Steve with the guitar.

Here is a short video of the happy moment.

[MEDIA=8]

Stonebridge OM-34-SR spruce top rosewood sides and back mahogany neck

This one is a bit of a surprise guitar. I was in a music store in Fredericton NB last December (06) looking to purchase a guitar cable, when I noticed a Stonebridge guitar hanging on the wall. I hadn’t heard of Stonebridge guitars and so naturally I was curious. I took the first one off the wall and sat down to play -  immediately I knew there was something special about the guitar. It was an OM-34-SR which has a smallish, thin body (spruce top, rosewood sides and back). Usually I don’t like these guitars as they don’t produce a lot of sound they often sound, well smallish and thin. This one, however, was so lively and responsive that I couldn’t put it down. My manager Dave came in, listened for about a minute and said, “We have to buy that!” And we did. I’ve never made a spontaneous purchase like that ever. I took it home and haven’t had a moment of buyer’s remorse. The guitar itself lacks a little in the bottom end, but over-all it’s just a perky little thing that just makes you want to play.

A couple months later, after a concert in southern Ontario, a fellow named Roger Schmidt walked up to me and informed me he was the owner of Stonebridge Guitars. Needless to say, I was quick to inform him I had just purchased one of his instruments and eagerly conveyed my enthusiasm for the instruments. It turns out that Roger is an accomplished finger-stylist himself. He has made his living in the wholesale music instrument business and recently had secured the rights to a Czech Republic handmade guitar and re-branded it as Stonebridge for the North American market. I ended up spending a good part of a day at his house trying many of these wonderful instruments. Remarkably, they are consistently wonderful; all have that immediacy and lively response that I appreciate in Darryl Perry guitars but surprisingly, they are rather inexpensive compared to the boutique luthier prices we are accustomed to in North America. I would classify the Stonebridge guitars to be in the same league as the boutique luthier guitars but with a price range of $1,700 to $2,200 rather than the $4,000 to $10,000 range one expects to pay for a comparable high-end instrument.

Check out www.stonebridgeguitars.com

]]> http://stevebell.com/2007/03/stonebridge-guitars/feed/ 1 http://stevebell.com/2007/04/walden-dreadnaught-d550-e/ http://stevebell.com/2007/04/walden-dreadnaught-d550-e/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:20:04 +0000 Steve http://signpostvillage.com/stevebell/2007/04/10/walden-dreadnaught-d550-e/ Walden Dreadnaught D550 - Price: $300

I picked up this guitar in Thunder Bay last fall but I think you can get them almost anywhere. I first encountered the Walden guitar at a store somewhere in the Okanagan valley a few years ago. Basically, they are an extremely good intro to mid-level guitar. I picked this one up because I needed a decent inexpensive guitar for traveling to areas of the world where I’m not confident it won’t be damaged or stolen. This guitar plays and sounds great- definitely worth two or three times the price. It has a solid spruce top, mahogany sides and back and a decent Fishman Classic 4 pick-up. The neck is a bit chunky but otherwise, it has remarkably full-rich tone and is quite rewarding to play. I do quite often pick it up and play it at home.

I actually took this guitar with me to Ethiopia in January but it got lost somewhere in Frankfurt and I didn’t get it back until the end of the trip.