If you're not using a capo on your guitar, you're missing out
It's not a sin to use a capo.
There are a lot of guitar players who firmly believe you should not use a capo. Ever. Why? Because they think it's "cheating", which is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.
According to certain guitar snobs, any use of a capo is failure because they feel if you want to achieve certain chords that you literally cannot fret with your hand, you should alternate your tuning. Yes, they say you should spend about, oh, five to ten minutes completely retuning your guitar, then go ahead and play that chord you wanted to. Total waste of time. Use the capo. Mounts in seconds and you get the chord you want a whole lot faster.
Some snobs will even recommend buying separate guitars just for alternate tunings. Waste of money. You already have a guitar, and it already plays and sounds just fine, yet the snob just outright tells you to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on another guitar just to do something a cheap capo can do in seconds.
When you get bored with guitar, slap on a capo and watch the magic happen
You can't really play Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? without a capo.
I'm sure there are players who have figured out a way to play that theme song without a capo. I didn't. I used the capo because it's a lot easier to just play the song using one. If I didn't, the song would be in the key of A and not C like it's supposed to be.
You don't have to play complicated stuff with a capo. Play whatever you want. You'll notice your guitar will sound totally different when you put a capo on.
Get one. Use it. You'll like it.
Cheap guitar of the week #17 - Hofner CT Shorty Travel Guitar
Behold, the only travel guitar I've ever liked. Yes, really.
I make it no secret that I don't like travel guitars. But I dig this one, and only this one. The above is the Hofner CT Shorty Travel Guitar in limited edition Metallic Orange. The regular colors are blue and red. The other two limited edition colors are Rootbeer and Surf Green. The Rootbeer finish is my second favorite.
So why do I like this particular travel guitar and can't stand others? Four reasons.
First, I really, really like the fact you get so many color choices. On most travel guitars, you only get two to choose from. Hofner offers you five.
Second, the guitar is actually styled correctly. It actually looks like a proper guitar and not something just mashed together from a LEGO kit. True, it has a quirky look, but not in a tacky way. Hofner hits all the right marks with the Shorty.
There are nice little touches on this guitar. Even the rear plate has a logo on it. Little things like that are nice. It's classy.
Third, it's a Hofner, which is a very storied brand. Guitar players who know their stuff know Hofner. You actually get bragging rights by owning one of these just because of the company it's made by.
Fourth, CHEAP! This travel guitar is priced below other travel guitars, and you get a better looking axe from a storied brand that you can actually brag about. It even comes with the gig bag included.
Even if you don't travel with your guitar, the Shorty is a truly a really nice alternative to a Strat or a Les Paul. Really simple, a truly nice looker, great brand, and barely costs anything.
From a historic point of view, the Shorty is not a new model but rather a reintroduced one. It first made its appearance in the 1980s. I'm glad Hofner decided to make it again. It's what a travel guitar should be.
Get one in your favorite color. Again, I like the orange finish because it has a cool retro vibe to it. And yes, Hofner does know how to do orange correct.
One final note: Did I mention the shipping on it is free? Yep.
Easy audio mastering for SoundCloud or YouTube using free software
Mastering audio for YouTube or SoundCloud use is easy when you know how it's done.
I use a ZOOM R8 to record my music with. A feature the R8 lacks is any way to normalize the audio in a master recording. This is fine because I can do that using the Audacity software. Audacity is free for Windows, Mac and Linux. Search it on Google and you'll find it easily.
Assuming you are happy with the recording you have in your standalone recorder and just want to get the levels and volume right, there are only three things you have to do in Audacity to get a properly mastered file. Hard Limiter, Amplify and then generate 2 seconds of silence at the front and tail of the audio file.
Hard Limiter
For the music I do, which is guitar-driven, setting a Hard Limit of -6dB works for me. You will have to experiment with this to see what setting works best for you, but -6dB is the "sweet spot" that works for my recordings.
Amplify
The Amplify effect is used to bring the audio level back up. Since I use -6dB, Audacity auto-calculates that +6dB is needed to get back to 0dB, which is correct. However, I can get away with adding in an extra 1dB. This makes the audio very-slightly overdriven, but it's acceptable.
Silence Generator
I add 2 seconds of silent audio at the front and tail to avoid sound being "chopped off." It is typical that on upload to sites like YouTube and SoundCloud that a small part of the audio will get chopped off due to the site's recompression process. Adding 2 seconds of silent audio at the front and tail adds in a buffer, meaning in the event audio does get chopped off, it's no big deal since it is only the silent parts that are affected.
The sleazy 1970s guitar sound
I posted a new song What Year Is This?. It was an experiment with a specific type of tone shaping to see if it would work or not. Did it?
Yes, it did.
The guitar used was the Jazzmaster, but the experimental part was simply this: How little overdrive could I get away with?
Like many guitar players, I used to be one that used way too much distortion/overdrive. It's just a thing you do when you don't know any better. This of course was before I discovered compression.
For this song however, I decided to turn down the overdrive as much as I could, then after that recorded a second guitar playing the mostly-same riff on another track, then panned each guitar track away from each other and see how it would turn out. The end result was actually pretty good.
The doubling-up of guitars on two separate tracks really brings a nice fullness to the overall recorded sound, so even with just a very small amount of overdrive, things sound "big."
Although the intent wasn't to sound like 1970s sleaze guitar at first, that's what it ended up being. I was okay with that. :)
Cheap guitar of the week #16 - ESP LTD EC-50
Being I mentioned hardtail guitars recently, this is one many players would enjoy because it gets several things right, but it also gets something wrong.
The ESP LTD EC-50 is cheap to buy, and comes in cool colors like red and silverburst.
I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first. There is only one problem with this guitar. It's a 24.75-inch scale length with 24 frets on it. Why is that a problem? Because compared to a 25.5-inch scale with 24 frets, you start running out of space real fast for your fingers to go after the 20th fret. If you rarely play solos after the 20th fret, this won't be a problem. But if you do, you have to be fairly precise with your fingers. If you ever wondered what a Les Paul would be like if it did have 24 frets on it with a thin "U" shape neck, this guitar is worth buying just to find out. The EC-50 may be that "fast" Les Paul you've been looking for at a very nice price.
Okay, now on to the good stuff.
LTD has hits and misses with its cheaper guitars. This one is a hit because it does several things very well.
Electronics
One volume knob for each pickup, one master tone. For many Les Paul players, this is exactly what they prefer instead of volume + tone for both pickups. There's no fussing about with the way the knobs are set up and it's really easy to know where you are at any given time.
Also, given there are two volume controls, you can do that pseudo-killswitch thing where you turn the front (neck) pickup all the way down, rear (bridge) pickup all the way up, then rapid-toggle back and forth the selector switch for a stutter type sound.
Looks expensive
The EC-50 definitely looks far more expensive than it is. The 12th fret inlay has some class to it, along with the smaller dot inlays usually only seen on far more expensive models. The body shape has nice contours to it, giving it an exotic appearance. The minimalist headstock design also gives the guitar a classy look. The lack of "poker chip" plastic on the 3-way selector also has a nice minimalist look to it as well.
In other words, unless someone were very familiar with LTD's line up, the EC-50 could easily pass as an expensive guitar, even though it's priced low.
Woods
Basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard. What this tells you is that the guitar will have a correct weight to it and not be a backbreaker weight some Les Pauls are known for. The maple neck in particular means the neck will have less flex compared to mahogany, which in this case is a good thing because with little setup, this guitar could be gig-ready fairly easily.
Shape
Very easy on the player, particularly because of the beveled cut at the top of the body. You can rest your strumming forearm there right where the bevel is. If the traditional Les Paul body shape bothers you where you wish there was a cut that didn't make your forearm feel uncomfortable, the EC-50 is definitely for you.
Sound
Pickups are ESP Designed LH-150 rear and LH-150 front and get the job done. For most players there should be no need to change the pickups. But if you want to, it's easy enough to do since the passive electronics are simple to work with.
Conclusion
Great hardtail for the money, both for beginners and experts alike that want a nice, simple hardtail Les Paul where you just plug in and go. The only thing you have to get used to is the thin neck with the 24 frets, but for some, that's exactly what they're looking for.