My first (lame) guitar soldering job

I've been buying a few cheap older guitars recently - I'm a fan of the old Japanese guitars in particular - and that has caused me to learn some about guitar setup - stuff like fretboard/truss rod adjustment, string height, intonation ... that sort of thing. I'm too cheap to have pros do the setup work for me, and I figure I ought to learn how to do it myself anyway. Gradually the setup work led me to want to mess around with the electronics.

As my first test I was wanting to see if I could fix an old P-Bass that I'd had since high school. I'd used it to record bass on a 4-track way back then, but it had a short in the wiring and also an intermittent buzzing problem. Back then there was no such thing as the internet and I didn't know how to fix it so I'd just left it in it's sorry state for probably 20+yrs. Now with the internet though I felt I could tackle the project without making a bigger mess.

Here's my first soldering project. The hum/buzzing is gone now and the signal shouldn't have a short anymore. I'd bought some new parts with the intention of replacing the old parts, but this guitar used unusually small volume/tone pots and the new ones I purchased wouldn't fit so I just reused the old ones to see if rewiring would do the trick.


My soldering iron wouldn't quite get hot enough to solder in some places - too much heat dispersal - so I'm going to look into a better iron for future jobs, so please forgive some of the clumpy joints on the back of the volume pot - my iron just wouldn't heat enough to liquify everything. It works though and hopefully I won't have bad joints develop.

I told my wife I loved the internet after doing this project - it knows everything.
1. I watched the how to videos on you-tube. Some awesome folks have put up step by step video instructions for guitar electronics repair, including prepping the layout, preparing and tinning wires, soldering technique, along with tips on what to avoid. (need a how-too video? - search you-tube)
2. I found several appropriate wiring diagrams for this particular pickup/volume/tone setup for a P-Bass online. (It turns out the wiring on this bass was done wrong at some point before I bought it - that's probably why it was so cheap in the store. The grounding was messed up and the capacitor was wired incorrectly).
3. Internet bulletin boards helped me search for questions related to the problem this guitar was having to help troubleshoot. (search google for about any problem and you'll probably find solutions)

In a world before internet I'd have never even attempted any of this. It makes us all smarter. At least I feel a little bit smarter today - at least until the vapors off the lead solder start kicking in and making me dumber again.

Baritone guitar jam

I was checking out what baritone guitars sounded like and came across this cool little jam on you tube.

Thank You - Sly and the Family Stone - guitar tab tablature

All, I was unable to find decent guitar tab anywhere for this song, so here's my contribution to the web base for the tune. It's really not that hard to play, but it's kindof hard to hear exactly what's going on on the recording. I might have some of the voicings wrong, but I think it's in the ballpark for most of it.

Please leave me a comment if you think it needs to be changed (or let me know if you think it's right)

I've put a couple optional ways of playing it, but I just finished tabbing it a few minutes ago and haven't played it enough to know what's the best - although I think the chunky chord part lower on the neck is probably closer to what's being played.

"Thank You" by Sly and the Family Stone
tabbed by Shane Milburn

Intro and early part of main riff in song: 
| -------------------------------3-3-3------------------------3-3-3----- | 
| -------------------------------3-3-3------------------------3-3-3----- | 
| ---------------2---------------1-1-1-2------------2---------1-1-1-2--- | 
| --0--2-----2-2-2-----0-2-------2-2-2----0-2---2-2-2----0-2--2-2-2----- | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | 

Main riff variation:
It adds a little bit extra a little further in to something like
| ------------------------------3-3-3------------------------------3-3-3--- | 
| ------------------------------3-3-3------------------------------3-3-3--- | 
| ----------------2-------------1-1-1-2---------------2------------1-1-1-2- | 
| --0-2-(0-2)-2-2-2---0-2-(0-2)-2-2-2---0-2-(0-2)-2-2-2--0-2-(0-2)-2-2-2--- | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 

Or alternate way to play the riff that makes sense too without using opens

| ----------------------------------------- | 
| --------------------------------8-8-8---- | 
| --------------------------------7-7-7---- | 
| -----------------7--------------6-6-6-7-- | 
| --5-7-(5-7)--7-7-7----5-7-(5-7)-7-7-7---- | 
| ----------------------------------------- | 

The main riffs above make up most of the song with lots of repeats, but there are a couple of noticeable changes where the singing drops out and the guitar changes the riff up slightly in those musical interludes. They're shown below.

Musical break in middle at about 1:12
I think this uses this version of playing up the neck due to the low open E,

 

| -----------------------------3-3-3-------------- | 
| -----------------------------3-3-3-0-h2--------- | 
| -----------------------------1-1-1-0--0--------- | 
| -------5---------5-----------2-2-2-0-h2--------- | 
| -4-5-7-------5-7-5----5-7----------------------- | 
| ---0----------------------7--------------------- | X2

But it might be played like this too 

| ------------------------------------------------ | 
| -----------------------------8-8-8-0-h2--------- | 
| -----------------------------7-7-7-0-00--------- | 
| -------5---------5-----------6-6-6-0-h2--------- | 
| -4-5-7-------5-7-5----5-7----7-7-7-------------- | 
| ---0----------------------7--------------------- |  X2 


Another Musical break at about 2:15
| ------------------------------3-3-3-------------- | 
| --------------------------8---3-3-3-0-h2--------- | 
| -------(9)-------6--------7---1-1-1-0--0--------- | 
| -----------------7--------6---2-2-2-0-h2--------- | 
| ---5-7-------5-7------5-7-7---------------------- | 
| ---0------------------0-------------------------- |  X2 
                            ? 
Tough to tell at the “?” – more of a string rake than notes with tone

Anyhow, that's my take on what's going on for guitar tab of the riffs. I really hope this helps and saves folks time trying to figure out how to play the guitar part for this song.

Guitar Tab Tablature for "Got To Be Real" by Cheryl Lynn

Got to be Real
By Cheryl Lynn

My best guess at transcription by Shane Milburn

There’s bass transcriptions and chord charts out there for this, but haven’t seen this funky part transcribed anywhere. Wanted to post as it gave me some trouble to figure out. It’s kindof buried in the mix in the recording and none of the sheet music I’ve found seems to show what’s going on.

Move it up 2 frets when song goes up a full step key change halfway through. I’m not much of a funk guitar player, but this seems to me close to what’s going on w/ the guitar. It may make more sense to somebody who’s more familiar with the genre.

Ebmaj9....D7........... Gm7
|---------------------|-----------------------|
|--3-3-1--4---3---1---|---1--3-3-1---3--1-----|
|--3-3-2--5---3---2---|---2--3-3-2---3—-2-----|
|---------------------|-----------------------|
|---------------------|-----------------------|
|---------------------|-----------------------|
................................What you feel…

Here’s how I think I’m going to voice the chords when/if I play those. Again, move up a full step when song changes key halfway through

Ebmaj9....... D7........ Gm7
|---------------------|-3--------------------|
|------------(6)------|-3--------------------|
|--7----------5-------|-3--------------------|
|--5----------4-------|-3--------------------|
|--6----------5-------|-5--------------------|
|---------------------|-3--------------------|

Playing the (6) note on the D7 chords above with the pinky just kindof sounds cool when chording, but I don’t think it has anything to do with anything in the recording.

SRV - Little Wing

Here's a live version of Stevie Ray Vaughan playing Little Wing - my favorite tune that he plays, and probably my all-time favorite guitar instrumental. There are similarities to the studio version, but quite a bit of differences too. This is a cover of a Hendrix tune (there are some cool live versions of Hendrix playing this out on youtube also to give you an idea of how close SRV's interpretation is to Hendrix's).

You can see he has trouble getting his amp to feedback for him in places. At the end it goes into a different song.

There aren't many songs like this one. It's somewhat unique even among SRV's stuff - maybe "Lenny" is the most similar - but there's just not much that sounds like this.

Richard Leo Johnson - Glidepath

I was looking through one of my songwriting books and the name "Richard Leo Johnson - Glidepath" scratched on a page. I sometimes will jot cool things down when I see them - I guess I saw him on a TV show somewhere. For Richard Leo Johnson I wrote down "cool guitar-strum technique - reminds me some of Auten music on cable access." (the Auten mention is probably guitarist D.R. Auten - he's the only D.Auten I can find reference to on the web.)

I looked up a video for Glidepath and here's what I found. I still think it's awesome.


Here's a tune from D.R. Auten I found on youtube I thought was cool.

Steve Morse guitar solo

Steve Morse is an incredible songwriter and guitarist. I'm not even going to qualify how good he is. When I was growing up, and after going through my guitar hero stages including Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Nuno Bettencort, and maybe a few others I came upon Steve Morse and just latched on.

Comparing musicians is always difficult, but there's such an intense musicality and originality in what Morse does that separates him from the others. He does it with quality songwriting, accessible melodies, hooks, all within what to me seems almost impossible technique. While he can shred, he's different in that he doesn't use raw energy to drive his playing, but he still brings a ton of heart - it's just a different vibe - not the knock-your-head-off-with-overpowering-screaming-solos vibe, but a more finessed WOW-that-is-the-coolest-thing-ever vibe. He's considerably more refined in comparison, meticulous without being cold, and has headed far down the road less traveled in his playing. And this does nothing to take away from the other players mentioned above - but they do a different thing.

Here's a video I found of Steve Morse on YouTube. Perhaps my favorite guitarist. While the sound quality isn't the best, I found this to be highly entertaining and a good sample of what Steve Morse albums sound like. Hope you enjoy.

More guitar for beginners - 6 chords in the Ay Oh song

Based on web searches, it looks like one of the most popular posts I've put up the one for good guitar songs for beginners from a while back.

In the spirit of learning to play guitar I wanted to post the chords used in the song I worked on over last weekend and posted in the previous post.

There are only 6 common chords for this entire song: Em, D, C, Am7, G and A

Really the only odd voicing used is playing the D chord form using the low strings instead of the more normal high strings. This is done to support the bass line which walks upward on the low E string from open string to the 2nd fret (F#) to 3rd fret (G) to the 5th fret (A).


-Em--D---C---Am7----Em

-x----x----0----0------x-----
-0----3----1----1------0-----
-0----2----0----0------0-----
-2----0----2----2------2-----
-2----0----3----0------2-----
-0----2----0----0------0-----

Play 2 bars of Em (8 beats), 2 bars of D (8 beats), 1 bar of C (4 beats), 1 bar of Am (4 beats), and 2 bars of Em.

The second time through play the same progression except when you get to the last 2 bars where the Em is there's some quick chord changes where the Em is: play 2 bars of Em, G, A, G, If you listen in the song you'll hear it.

-Em--G---A---G---- repeat

-x----x----x----x----
-x----x----x----x----
-x----x----2----x----
-2----0----2----0----
-2----2----0----2----
-0----3----x----3----

After you've learned the chords you can click HERE and play along, or click HERE to download.

I didn't do a very good job of recording the acoustic guitar part in this song, but you can hear it jangling along in parts to hear the rhythm of the strum, or just play it however you like. I may rerecord it better in the near future taking care to do a better job with mic placement.

Good guitar songs for beginners

I recently had a couple people ask me about some good guitar songs to learn for beginners, and it got me to thinking about what I'd recommend. I did some websearching.

I got to thinking the first guitar song should have only a handful of chords, and the chords utilized should be common and form a foundation for future songs. Probably a I-IV-V chord combination that's found in hundreds of songs would be included

Some of the most common chords guitarists will play include G, C, D (this is a I-IV-V) chord combination in key of G. The Em is the natural "minor" chord when playing in this key.

Here are the chords and the most common voicings

-G---C---D---Em-------D7

-3---0---2---0--------2------------
-0---1---3---0--------1-------------
-0---0---2---0--------2-------------
-0---2---0---2--------0-------------
-2---3---x---2--------0-------------
-3---0---x---0--------x-------------

... and here's a couple different ways that I like to play those chords. The don't have the same names, but usually they can substitute in many songs and still work fine, and sometimes are easier to play, and I find often sound smoother/firmer.

-G---Cadd9---D---Em

-3---3-------2---3--------------------
-3---3-------3---0---------------------
-0---0-------2---0---------------------
-0---2-------0---2---------------------
-2---3-------0---2---------------------
-3---0-------2---0---------------------


After looking around, here's some starter guitar songs that I'd recommend.

Try out:
Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl

Yes, the entire set of the chords in the song is G, C, D, Em, and D7

Another using most of the same chords
Poison - Every Rose Has it's Thorn

The next song I'd recommend introduces the "F" chord.... one of the more difficult chords to learn when starting.

Steve Mille - Take the Money and Run

Here's a couple different ways to appraoch the F chord. It also has an E chord. (the F5 and E5 versions shown are version of the E and F chords that just use 3 strings and a reduced voicing of notes in the chord - the person doing the transcriptins recommends them for some of the quicker chord changes in the song)

-F----E-------F5--E5----F(barre chord version)

-1----0-------x---x-----1--
-1----0-------x---x-----1---
-2----1-------x---x-----2---
-3----2-------3---2-----3----
-x----2-------3---2-----3----
-x----0-------1---0-----1----

If you want to try the barre chorde version of F, which I recommend cause it'll sound better, stretch your entire index finger across the first fret and use the remainder of your fingers to finish out the chord. It'll be hard until you get it, so you might try the other versions of the F or F5 shown until you get it.

This song additionally introduces some fast chord changes.


Another tune that won't be too hard is
The Animals House of the Rising Sun

This song introduces the Am chord, but otherwise utilizes much of what you've built on above. Additionally this song introduces a little bit of pick control. You can strum the chords and the song will sound fine, but the way it's recorded the individual notes of the song are picked separately. The pick control is something good to introduce here.

... Anyhow, that's my 2 cents on the matter.

EDIT: JUNE 9, 2009 Go here for a song to learn 6 basic chords to play along to with a song recorded over the weekend.

Andy Mckee - Drifting

My brother sent me this link a while back and I came across it on the web again today. Pretty cool if you haven't seen it yet. Artist is Andy McKee, song is "Drifting". Here's his website.


http://view.break.com/237467 - Watch more free videos