Natural effects

Unlike the electric guitar whose sound lends itself to being modified, distorted, and morphed until it is sometimes unrecognizable as a guitar, there’s only so much you can do with an amplified acoustic guitar in terms of effects before you lose its essence as an acoustic instrument (that is, the sound it creates when it’s unplugged). I find that while modulation effects like chorus and flanger can do wonders to fatten up and give dimension to an acoustic, they can also weaken the sound and turn it to mush if too much is put in the mix. I’m no purist, but I believe there’s still no sound like an acoustic guitar’s, which is why it’s my main instrument to begin with.

Having said that, I do like to find ways to change the sound of my acoustic without having to resort to effects. After years of playing I have found ways to make my guitar sound like other instruments using some simple techniques that even beginners can employ and quickly add to their arsenal:

• Pizzicato violin. Mute the strings by placing the edge of your right palm (or left, if you’re left-handed) right on the bridge nut, giving it the classy pizzicato sound a violin makes when it’s plucked instead of bowed (if you don’t know how a pizzicato sounds, give a listen to the third verse of the Glen Frey song “Lovers’ Moon”). This is also good for getting a “power chord” sound when you strum the bass strings.
• Snare drum. When you play chords, leave some beats muted by holding and damping the strings with your fretting hand as you continue to strum. This gives the impression of a snare drum, which is especially useful when you are the lone instrumentalist as it adds a percussive sound to the music.
• Bells and chimes. When you damp the strings with your fretting fingers over certain areas of the fingerboard, you get harmonics, a sweet sound that evokes delicate bells and chimes. The strongest harmonics are over the 12th fret, followed by the 5th and 7th frets. There are some harmonics on the 17th and 19th frets but they’re harder to coax out, and they’re practically the same as the harmonics on the 5th and 7th frets. To get the harmonics, place a finger lightly over one or more strings in the aforementioned frets, then release it a fraction of a second after plucking. This takes some practice but the sound is so sweet you’ll never get tired of doing it. Bear in mind that harmonics, done this way, give a limited number of notes, so choose which strings you will do it in (not all six at the same time) and what chord they will go along with. In fact, now that I think about it, this will require an entire blog entry to explain, so watch out for it.
• Drums. Just tap on the soundboard! Different areas of the wood give different sounds: the bottom end gives a bassy sound while the upper portions are more trebly. Also, different parts of your hand will give different sounds: use the heel of you palm for bass, the length of your fingers and/or your thumb for toms, and the tips of your fingers, especially when used in rapid succession, for snare. I find it best to use this technique as a highlight or as a fill in between passages, not for any lengthy ad libs. Nuno Bettencourt does this in “More Than Words” before the second verse kicks in.
• Distorted electric guitar. Plugging an acoustic into a distortion box can yield pretty wild sounds – and not of the pleasing variety. Since a distortion does its work by boosting the guitar’s signal, you will have problems with feedback if you’re not careful (and often even if you are). What I do is simply insert a piece of paper between the strings at the bridge end to evoke that distorted sound. It won’t do much to help you play singing leads since the sound is not really boosted up, but for power chords it’s good enough.
• Japanese koto or marimba. Use a pen or stick to strike your strings, bouncing rapidly for that Japanese koto or marimba sound (the rapid bouncing is actually automatic with a pen or stick). It’s easy to do on the high E string, but it takes some practice with the others strings. I don’t use this technique much, though, because it doesn’t really fit in with the kind of music I play.

There are a few other “natural effects” I do with the acoustic guitar that are really part of my “signature” sound, and not to be selfish, I will share these with you in the next blog entry. I reserved them as they are the ones that make people sit up and notice the acoustic guitar player instead of just the singer or (gasp) the “lead guitarist.”

Last picture

Here’s another picture taken at the Lovapalooza event last February 11. We had just come from our gig at Taboan and were resting at BluGré Coffee (and waiting to get paid) when Mirror photographer Bert Tomas snapped this photo.
Another photographer was also taking pictures, which is why Ellen and I are looking the other way while Kukie is looking straight into Bert’s lens.

Unfortunately this is also the last picture we’ll have together as 220. Kukie (the one at left) has taken leave since she will be concentrating on her studies. She’s a senior nursing student and she needs to focus on graduating at the end of this semester. It’s hard to let her go, but more important things need to be taken care of. Bye, Kukie, it’s been great playing guitar beside you all this while.

Picture-pretty

Here are the voices of 220: Kukie (left) and Ellen. This was taken right after sound check at Taboan, Matina Town Square, for last Saturday's Lovapalooza. Picture-pretty, these two are, and some of those in the audience moved up close during our gig to take pictures of them. But voice and good looks aren't their only strong points: Kukie and Ellen are committed Christians and want to use music as the avenue to spread God's love. That's what 220 is all about!

Lovapalooza

As I had been writing here the past two weeks or so, 220 was slated to perform during the Davao City leg of CloseUp Lovapalooza at Matina Town Square last Saturday, February 11 (the same event was happening at the same time in Manila, Cebu, and Angeles). Notice I said “during,” not “at”: while the event was indeed Lovapalooza, we actually played at what I call the “sideshow” to the main event. There were two stages at MTS: the main one, rigged just for the event, in front of BluGré Coffee, and the “minor” one which was the regular stage at the Taboan. The main stage was where the “national celebrities” like Rivermaya, Rachelle Ann Go, Sheryn Regis, and others whose names escape me now performed. Taboan was for the “locals,” which were 220, IVPlay, and u.no.me.

Anyway, in spite of an early evening downpour there was a huge crowd at MTS, and Taboan itself was filled to the rafters. It was our first time to perform there, so the large turnout made me a little nervous. It didn’t help that the sound check that afternoon didn’t really work out too well: the sound tech couldn’t give me the right mix, and my guitar, which had been plugged directly into the mixer, kept booming when I played some low notes. Finally they gave me an acoustic guitar amp, but it sounded worse so I ended up turning it off and resigning myself to relying on what sound the tech could give me. Fortunately, after sound check I decided to twiddle with the amp, and I discovered that the graphic equalizer switch had been turned off. When I flipped it and tweaked the equalizer, I got a decent sound – still not quite satisfying, but better than what I was getting minutes before.

After dinner at BluGré (the Lovapalooza organizer, Gatchi Gatchalian, is the owner of the café) we went straight to Taboan to make it to the 7 p.m. start. We sat and waited… and waited… and waited. At 7:30 we were becoming restless and so we asked the production people what the holdup was, and we were told that the emcee was still hosting the main event and we had to wait for him to start our side of the show. After countless assurances that we were about to start, we finally made it to the stage at 8:30, an hour-and-a-half later than the set time.

I was already a little frazzled at this point from all the waiting, but we still managed to pull off a good first set. The guitar sound was decent, the microphones were clear, and the people were appreciative. We started off strong with “Change The World” with Ellen on vocals, then “Cool With You” with Kukie. After “True” and just before singing “Shakespeare In Love” I read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and dedicated it to my wife Dadai, who unfortunately had left her seat to talk with the sound guy about improving my sound. She heard me, though.

We had been given 45 minutes for each set so we were surprised when a production assistant flashed us a “one more last song (sic)” sign after the fifth number. So after singing only six songs we headed downstage, and I didn’t know if I would be happy or angry about that. On the one hand, doing only six songs meant less effort on our part; on the other hand, we wanted this Taboan debut to be good because we’re looking at playing there regularly.

The next band was IVPlay, a regular at Taboan, but they, too, were cut short after singing only a few songs. That’s what happens when an event starts late, we told each other. We then gave our last set, but this time my guitar sound degenerated into a thin, trebly mush that felt like it was coming out of a sardine can. We sang about eight songs before we were told to stop, and so all in all we performed for about an hour. In a way that was good because we were paid the same amount for working half the time, but again, we felt we were a little shortchanged because we wanted to give a strong show.

Lessons to be learned? Well, again I see that amplifying an acoustic guitar is more difficult than it seems, especially when the sound tech is used to amplifying mainly electric instruments and when the sound system is geared for electric guitars. I’m now seriously thinking of getting myself an acoustic simulator, probably a Behringer AM100 Acoustic Modeler that I saw at Perfect Pitch the other day. I’ll test it first and post my thoughts on it later.

Another lesson is to be prepared for late starts particularly for special events like Lovapalooza. Delays are perhaps part of the package when you have so many “stars” and “wannabe stars,” and maybe there’s nothing we can do about it. Next time we’ll just relax and wait… and wait… and wait…

When my wife and I went to the Yamaha music store to get my DL4 the repair guy was out to lunch, so while waiting I grabbed a shiny black Fender Stratocoustic and played a few tunes. Like the one I tested at Perfect Pitch the other week, the action on this one was a little high, but it was still playable.

As it turned out, my first impression was correct: the unplugged sound was thin and tinny, but when I plugged it into a proper acoustic guitar amp it sounded like a real acoustic guitar.

This picture, by the way, was taken by Dadai with her Nokia 6230i which has a 1.3 megapixel camera. Not bad, eh?

Back in the loop

I went to Yamaha over the lunch break (theirs, not mine, since I don’t report for work until 2 p.m.) to get my DL4. I tested it and it works fine now, and I’m excited to use it in our gig on Saturday. Apparently a power surge at the church caused a glitch/loose connection, so I’ve got to be a little more careful where I plug in. I think there’s also a problem with the church building’s wiring: my pastor told me that last Saturday morning the lights went crazy in the offices, and so perhaps some repair work needs to be done there. Me, I’m just hoping it doesn’t happen again.

Over the past weeks since my DL4 went on the blink I’ve been thinking how little I’ve been using it. One of the reasons is the Christmas break which we spent in Manila to be with my family (mother, siblings, and lots of nephews and nieces). But I think the main reason is simply that I haven’t been inspired to play loops lately. I hate to admit it, but I was in a rut and I didn’t really want to get out of it. I was playing guitar, but I wasn’t practicing my loops, and as far as the band is concerned, that’s bad.

I guess it was also good that the DL4 was fried for a while because now I miss it and can’t wait to do loops tonight when I get home.

DL4 update

I called the Yamaha repair center just now and was told that my Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler has been fixed. It was just “a loose connection,” Danny the repair guy said. And just in time, too: my band 220 is playing at this Saturday’s Lovapalooza event at Matina Town Square here in Davao city, and I had been afraid we’d be playing with a crippled rhythm section (that is, me on DL4’d acoustic guitar). Now we’re complete and raring to go!

Acoustic Strat

Perfect Pitch ranks way up there in my “I like it!” meter because it’s the only music store here in Davao City (and maybe even in Manila) that lets people play its instruments without setting a time limit. For its staff, every person is a prospective customer, so they let us hold, handle, and play the guitars to our hearts’ content. I’ve always hated stores that put guitars out of reach of the customers and whose staff are hard to talk to; when they do let you play, they’ll give you the eye to make it clear you should be putting the guitar back now, if you please. At Perfect Pitch, the staff will even set up everything for you and encourage you to keep playing.

One night last week I had a meeting at SM City Davao, and when it ended I saw that I still had about 20 minutes before the mall closed. Since it had been a long time since I was at Perfect Pitch, I decided to rush up to the second floor store to check out what was new. When I got there I saw a slew of new axes, most of them China-made Fender Squiers. But I was hearing some live acoustic music, so I went farther in and saw that a man about my age was playing an acoustic guitar (“Time In A Bottle” by Jim Croce, if I remember correctly). It wasn’t him and what he was playing that caught my attention, however: on the wall, along with other acoustic guitars (it was actually strange to see Perfect Pitch carrying so many acoustics, it being more of an electric guitar store), were a Fender Stratocoustic and Telecoustic.

First, a flashback. Back in 1992 when I was getting married I bought a “Stratocoustic” built by RJ Guitars, a local maker that had a spotty record at best. It was similar to the one I saw at Perfect Pitch, but it had no pickup and its headstock was more stylized in a metal sort of way. It wasn’t very well built but I actually used it quite a lot, and it was with it that I discovered that God had given me the gift of worship-leading. With no pickup I had to rig ways to amplify it, including, believe it or not, sticking a cheap small microphone into the soundhole. Sadly, I eventually lost that guitar when it developed a crack in the soundboard starting from the soundhole going up to the neck joint.

The real Fender Stratocoustic and Telecoustic are much better made, of course. The country of origin is China, I think, although when they were originally introduced in 2000 they were apparently US-made (see a Harmony Central news article and a nice picture here). The original also had solid spruce tops, but I doubt that the ones at Perfect Pitch, priced at around 18,000 pesos (about 346 dollars), are similarly outfitted. At that price they’re probably laminated spruce.

Anyway, as their names denote, the Stratocoustic and Telecoustic are shaped like Stratocasters and Telecasters. They are also thin and have fiberglass backs and sides, which make the guitars light but also happen to give them a rather thin sound unplugged. The necks are standard Strats and Teles, but the action on the guitars on display could use a lot of setting up.

I picked up the black Stratocoustic and began playing with the other guy, who at that point was playing a regular blues line. Like I said, the unplugged sound was rather thin, but when the Perfect Pitch sales guy plugged it into an acoustic amp, I was floored. It sounded very acoustic, kinda like my own Ibanez AW100CE, although I had to tweak the equalizer a little more to get a better sound. It wasn’t thin or tinny at all, and while it wasn’t woody, it still sounded airy and bright.

It was too bad that I had only a few minutes to spend at the store, but those minutes were enough to tell me this guitar is good. With a little setting up it could be a great guitar, and its shape would certainly turn heads in gigs. Of course not all acoustic players will like the Strat look, but if you’re an electric player looking to play acoustic, or if you’re an acoustic player who wants to rock out, the Stratocoustic or Telecoustic may be for you. The unplugged sound is not really performance level, but it’s useful for practice since you can hear yourself without having to plug in.

I would suggest stringing it with extra lights, maybe .011s or even .010s, so you’d really get the perfect mix of acoustic sound and electric feel. If I had one I would probably even have a pickup installed at the sound hole, and then bore two holes in the soundboard to install a volume control and switch so I could then flip between acoustic and electric on the fly. Yeah, like a Parker Fly, only cheaper.

Out of the loop

I was doing some loops with my Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler in preparation for praise and worship at church last Sunday when I noticed that the recorded sound was distorted. I tried it a few more times, and when the problem persisted I decided to reset the unit (pressing on the two outermost buttons while powering up). That seemed to solve the problem, and I jammed with myself for a few minutes. Suddenly I heard a small pop, and my sound died. At first I thought I had unplugged something with my feet, so I checked all electrical connections. When that still didn’t produce a sound, I jiggled the cords – still to no avail. I checked my DL4’s connections and found them all solid, so I began to panic: what if the problem was with my gadget? I frantically tried other power adapters, and my worst fear was confirmed: my DL4 had somehow been damaged, and it wouldn’t power up.

The unit is now at the repair center, and I’m hoping it will get fixed. Meanwhile, my band 220 is preparing for a gig on February 11, and I’m not sure if we can make it. As I have been saying, the loop is essential to our sound, and without it our music may be a little thin. Oh, I’m confident in the voices of Ellen and Kukie, but I’m apprehensive that we may not be able to give a good show without our trademark instrumentals, especially since the gig is Lovapalooza, a Valentine party that will try to break its own world record on having the most number of couples kissing at the same time. I’m thinking the people will be in a party mood, and from an instrumentalist’s point of view, something livelier would be in order. A looper seems to be essential.

But who knows? Maybe our music would be accepted even with just two voices and one guitar. And I may end up enjoying myself more because I would be free from having to worry about think of nailing a loop perfectly. Just playing the guitar with two great singers singing – that might be a slice of heaven right there!