It better have Keith Don’t Go on it. Say it has Keith Don’t Go on it.

Ahhh, it does.

Right then, Nils Lofgren. He’s got a spanking new DVD out. It’s called Cry Tough and it covers three different and separate live performances from the bescarfed one. Each performance was filmed at different eras in Lofgren’s career and could be an interesting indicator of how (if at all) some of his songs and his style has altered over the years. A back-to-back viewing of these three shows, over two DVDs could make for an intriguing experiment. Or, you could just pop them on with some friends and crack a couple of beers. Whatever floats your boat.

The performances were filmed for Germany’s Rockpalast TV series. Rockpalast have had some great artists play for them over the years. I first became aware of them almost 20 years ago when a (then bootleg) VHS copy of a Rory Gallagher show found its way into my VCR and I’ve seen some great stuff from them since.

The performances here are from 1976 (when Nils had just released his fist solo album), 1979, and 1991 (freshly returned to solo work after a long stint with the E Street Band). Plenty of classics are covered, including of course, Keith Don’t Go.

Pop to Amazon and pick yourself up a copy. Nils Lofgren – Cry Tough

Or simply enjoy Nils playing Keith Don’t Go.

I’m not obsessed.

Woah. Thanks to the Fender blog for bringing this baby to our attention.

The video below is a taster for a new, double-disk, DVD, Leo Fender’s Telecaster – The Original Twang. This documentary film looks at the 60 year history of the Tele and its antecedents, the Broadcaster, Esquire and No-Caster. Teles from way back in Leo Fender’s Fullerton up to current custom shop instruments feature.

There are interviews, and performances, from a mass of Tele players and lovers including Steve Cropper, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, James Burton, Albert Lee, John 5, Richie Kotzen, Jerry Donahue and many more. You can probably tell from the list that this film doesn’t make the lazy assumption that the Tele’s just for country – plenty of genres are represented here.

Expert on all things Fender, Mac Yasuda and Fender historian Richard Smith are both filmed at the Fullerton Museum. Tom Wheeler, a friend of Leo Fender’s talks about his memories and some, recently discovered, film footage from the 50’s – showing the first production lines and prototype instruments – is featured. This footage was actually filmed by Fender big-wig, and Leo’s right-hand man, Forrest White.

In addition, there seems plenty of performance footage from all of the artists involved.

All in all, this promises to be a very interesting film. It’s released this month (August, 2010). You can buy this film (or the previous offering on the Strat) from the Stratmasters site. They will ship worldwide.

The pickup boffins over at Epiphone are introducing their latest, and greatest, pickup. This is the ProBucker.

The ProBucker is Epiphone’s version of Gibson’s BurstBucker (which is Gibson’s take on Gibson’s much-hallowed PAF). The ProBucker is made with bobbins that have been manufactured to the BurstBucker’s specs and with Elektrisola magnet wire (the same as that used by Gibson). The pole-piece slugs and screws are also to Gibson spec as is the nickel-silver alloy used in the covers.

The magnets used are Alnico II and the coils are scatter wound like the originals but, in this instance, the windings have then been wax-potted.

Also differing slightly from original spec is the inclusion of a four-conductor hook-up wire. Not quite so nice but it does offer more wiring and sonic flexibility.

At the moment, the ProBuckers are only being installed in Epiphone’s LP Traditional PRO but more models will feature these pickups in the future.

Pickups are often a weak link in a ‘budget’ guitar’s chain so we’re quite looking forward to hearing how these sound.

More at Epiphone.

Today, the 25th of July, marks the 30th birthday of Back in Black by AC/DC.

For those of you, like me, who went through their teenage years with this particular circle of black plastic spinning on their record players, this may make you feel a little old but the fact remains – 25th of July, 1980: Back in Black released.

Thirty years. Forty-nine million albums. That’s a lot of albums. Back in Black is the second best selling album worldwide. It’s ahead of Dark Side Of The Moon and only Michael Jackson’s Thriller has outsold Back in Black. That’s pretty impressive.

Back in Black was the AC/DC first album recorded and released after the death of, former singer, Bon Scott. Bon died, from alcohol poisoning, a few months earlier on the 19th of February. He was 33 at the time. Bon’s bandmates considered splitting up after his death but decided to carry on. Some of the songwriting for this album was already complete when Brian Johnson was hired as new lead singer

The album was recorded in Compass Point Studios in Nassau and in Electric Lady Studios in New York. The band asked Mutt Lange to produce (they had worked with Lange before and would again).

The result contains some of AC/DC’s biggest hits and best known songs. The iconic Hell’s Bells opens the album and the remainder of the track listing tilts heavily towards AC/DC’s traditional mix of some songs about their penises and some songs about where they’d like to put them. Always a winning formula and it doesn’t fail here.

While I’m a bit of a Bon Scott traditionalist at heart, it’s impossible not to love Back in Black. Johnson brought something new but not so new that it was no longer AC/DC. Back in Black is a classic and, if you don’t own a copy, you should. The Amazon link to the left will magic you off to buy one (49 million people can’t be wrong)…

First though, have a listen to a couple of AC/DC’s best tracks. You Shook Me All Night Long (with a mind-scarring Beano-in-the-bathtub moment and plenty of non-PC girlie dancing and riding of mechanical bulls) and a live version of the title track. Brilliant.

Enjoy

0% interest, that is.

Yep, for the next few months, you can get your grubby hands on a spanking new Taylor through a financing agreement with 0% interest. If you’ve been hankering after a new guitar, and considering financing it, now might just be the time. Until September, 2010, Taylor (in partnership with GE Money) are offering zero percent interest on 12-month finance agreements.

The offer covers new guitars (obviously) from the following series:

• 500 Series/Acoustic 5 Series and up
• T5 Standard and Custom
• T3 models
• All SolidBody models

Check out how to get your frugal Taylor.

What the hell is a neck reset and why the hell would you want one?

You’ll often hear talk about neck resets (or sometimes, neck sets) but the reasons it’s required are often glossed over by saying it’s just something that acoustics need sometimes. It’s all pretty simple and it has to do with geometry (stay with me…) and wood.

Huh?

Let me try to make a little sense of that.

Why would I need a neck reset?

When an acoustic guitar is made, it is designed and constructed such that the guitar’s string height or action is round about where it should be to ensure a comfortable and buzz-free playing experience. Things are all cool for a while but, as time goes on, the wood that the guitar is made from alters very slowly. The tension of the strings (which is considerable), over the years, pulls the bridge up and, often, pushes the upper bouts of the soundboard down. Click on the image above for a closer look.

This happens to pretty much all steel string acoustic guitars eventually. How quickly it occurs, and the degree to which the soundboard shifts can vary considerably due to factors like construction, timber variables and environmental variables. It can happen in a few years or in sixty years. The bellying may be severe or may be so small that it doesn’t adversely affect things.

As this process occurs, the guitar’s geometry changes. The relationship of neck/fingerboard to bridge/saddle is altered and the upshot is a higher action.

In an ideal world, a straight line along the tops of the frets should terminate around the top of the bridge. This allows a guitar’s string action be set using the height of the saddle. A good indication that a guitar is a candidate for a neck reset is when a straight-edge along the top of the frets contacts somewhere below the top of the bridge (as in this image).

For a quick, visual assessment of the same thing, sight down the guitar neck from the headstock end. This will give you an idea of the neck-set situation.

What you’d like to see is the frets looking like they’re hitting the top of the bridge and not, as in this image, somewhere quite a ways down it.

What we often see, as guitars age, is that the saddle has been lowered again and again over the years to compensate for these changes. Most guitars are manufactured with a bit of ‘adjustment’ in mind and it’s often ok to do this for a while. In most cases, it just buys time though and eventually you run out of saddle height and can lower it no more.

So what can be done about all this?

What is a neck reset?

There are some things to consider before a neck reset is decided upon and you should talk over any alternatives with your repair guy to decide the best course of action. Sometimes the top of the bridge can be ’shaved’ lower – there are times (not that many, admittedly) that this is the best alternative. Sometimes, the bellying of the top is not the result of the ageing process but an indication of loose braces. A neck reset is a relatively ‘invasive’ job and you and your repair tech should be sure before doing it.

But, in most cases, it’s usually the way to go. And, if so, this is what will happen:

The neck will be removed from the body of the guitar. On most guitars currently requiring a neck set, this means a complicated process of heating the fingerboard extension to soften the glue holding it to the guitar top and then ’steaming’ the glued-in dovetail joint to release the neck. This process is somewhat easier on some newer guitars that use ‘bolt-on’ neck systems. Many of these are still too young to need resets but it happens.

Once off, wood is removed (using chisel, rasp, sandpaper, etc.) from the bottom of the heel. Doing so alters the angle at which the neck joins the body such that the fingerboard better follows the string plane (and its own plane hits the top of the bridge as explained above). How much wood is removed is generally calculated by entering some dimensions in a formula and/or by eye (experience counts for a lot). Personally, I usually end up using a combination of both – the formula to get me close and working by eye to get me exactly where I need to be.

Once the wood has been removed and the angle altered, the neck is reattached. It’s not just a matter of slapping glue on it joint and hoping for the best – the newly modified geometry usually requires that the joint be adjusted and shimmed.

After all that’s done, it’s sometimes necessary to either level the frets, or occasionally, to refret the neck completely. A lucky repair tech will get away without fretwork some of the time.

A neck reset is a pretty big job. You need a repair guy you can trust as it’s easy to mess up. Talk through the job with your tech and satisfy yourself that you’re leaving your guitar in good hands.

Prices can vary depending on the instrument as different manufacturers use different methods of attaching necks. Martin is one of the easier neck sets. Gibsons have some quirks that make life more difficult and they finish their guitars after the neck is glued on so they’re practically impossible to set without some paint chipping and touch-up work. If you’ve got a Guild, you’d best take a seat before you get a quote – some of them make for a nasty reset.

So then, the long and short of it, if you’ve got an acoustic that’s worth keeping, chances are it’s going to need a neck set at least once in its life. Make sure you find a good repair guy to do the job and you’ll get an easier playing instrument for quite a while into the future.

As always, shout up in the comments if you’ve any questions.

This article was brought to you by Gerry Hayes from the workshop of Haze Guitars. Haze Guitars provides instrument repair, restoration and upgrade services in Dublin, Ireland.

The Lick Library are launching a new DVD tuition course.

In the wake of their Andy James’ Shred Guitar in Six Weeks, comes their latest course, Andy James’ Metal Rhythm Guitar in Six Weeks. The folks at Lick Library say they are confident that, by following the course, you’ll hear and see progress in the timeframe.

The course comprises six DVDs (that can be purchased separately or, at a discount, as a set of six). Here’s what you’ll learn…

• Week 1: Standard Tuning: drop picking and palm muting, triplets and left hand muting, alternate picking, chord variations, practice routines, getting a metal tone, four metal jam tracks.
• Week 2: Drop D Tuning: Pedal tone riffs, chord progressions and phrasing, alternate picking, palm muting, the phrygian dominant scale, technique performances, three metal jam tracks.
• Week 3: Drop C# Tuning: Arpeggiated riffs, odd rhythms over a 4/4 beat, alternate picking, palm muting, technique performances, two metal jam tracks.
• Week 4: E flat Tuning: Complete song breakdown with technique lessons focusing on triplets, pedal tones, down picking and palm muting, metal guitar jam track.
• Week 5: Drop C# Tuning: Complete song breakdown with technique including arpeggiated riffs, triplets, pedal tones, down picking, plus a metal guitar jam track.
• Week 6: Drop C Tuning: Complete song breakdown using alternate picking, palm muting, odd rhythms, phrygian dominant scale, plus a metal guitar jam track.

Andy James is one of the UK’s rising stars of metal guitar. He’s lead guitarist with the band Sacred Mother Tongue. All of the jam tracks on this course have been specially devised by Andy to support your progress and help practice what you’ve learnt.

Here’s Andy with a taster of the course.

Check out Metal Rhythm Guitar in Six Weeks over at the Lick Library. A full set of DVDs will retail for UK£79.99 or you can buy each separately for UK£16.99.

Pagey again. Jimmy Page is being sued over writing credit (and, obviously, royalties) for the song Dazed And Confused.

Jake Holmes alleges that Pagey and Led Zeppelin infringed copyright by using his song, Dazed And Confused, as the basis for – well – Dazed And Confused which appeared on Zeppelin’s first album.

Holmes is an American folk singer and, back in 1967, he recorded his Dazed and Confused on his album, The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes. Cool name.

Here, have a listen.

Word is that Holmes supported Page-era Yardbirds when they played in Greenwich Village in 1967 and it’s supposed that Pagey first heard the song there. It’s certainly no secret that The Yardbirds gigged their own version of the song.

When Page finally got around to putting the song on vinyl, by then with Led Zeppelin, Page himself was credited as the writer. There was no nod to Holmes.

So now, quite a while later, Holmes is suing Page. Legally, it seems that even a win for Holmes will be limited to the previous three years’ royalties. I’m guessing that’s probably more than the last three years royalties for The Above Ground Sound though, so he’ll probably be ok with this. There’s also the future to consider and a writing credit on Zeppelin’s version can’t hurt.

This is not the most surprising news really. I think the only surprise is that this didn’t happen before now or that a number of the other ‘influences’ that show up on the first couple of Zeppelin albums haven’t tried their luck in the vein of Holmes now has and Willie Dixon did a few years back.

More information and some words from Holmes himself at Classic Rock.

Buzz is the bane of the guitarist. Fret-buzz is the one that gets all the press and, to be sure, it’s a serious pain. Frets are not the only thing that is likely to buzz, rattle and hum on your guitar though. If you’ve got a Gibson (or Gibsonesque – the one below is a Gretsch) guitar it’s possible that your Tune-O-Matic bridge may be the cause of that buzz you hear.

If you can hear a metallic rattle or buzz when you pick a note – sometimes all notes, sometimes certain notes or strings – it’s worth checking your bridge.

The ABR style Tune-O-Matic bridge (the vintage style one) has six adjustable saddles held in place by a small retainer wire. As you can see in the photo, the wire runs across the top of all six saddle-adjustment screws and anchors in a tiny hole either end of the bridge.

This is all very good and ‘vintage’ until it starts to rattle.  If you’re having trouble tracking down a buzz, try damping the retainer wire in some way to determine if that’s the cause.  Pop a bit of tape on temporarily or have a friend poke their finger on it while you play – whatever you need to see if the bridge is the issue.

Once you determine you are actually afflicted by a buzzing bridge, all that’s necessary is to use a small, flat-head screwdriver to push down on the retaining wire between all six saddles. Doing this forces a slight kink into the wire which tightens the wire and forces it more snuggly against the saddle screws.

I recommend going from one end to the other and kinking gradually rather than forcing large kinks in all in one go. It’s possible to force one or more too far and affect their ’saddle holding’ ability so go slow.

Take it easy and carefully. You should consider it a necessity to cut some thick card (a couple of thicknesses is best) to place on the guitar top, under the bridge. It’s incredibly easy to slip and stab your AAAAA-grade quilted maple top with a screwdriver blade. You don’t want that. Protect the guitar before you start jabbing screwdrivers at it.

All going well, you should have a nice, silent retainer wire. Some wires require more persuasion than others to shut-up and it’s not uncommon to have to ‘re-kink’ from time to time after you do it as it works its way loose again. If you really mess up it’s possible to make a new retainer from a guitar string although it’s probably easier to just buy a new, ready-bent-to-shape wire.

Easy-peasy. Just don’t get cocky and forget to protect the guitar top.

As always, feel free to shout up with any questions in the comments and I’ll do my best.

This article was brought to you by Gerry Hayes from the workshop of Haze Guitars. Haze Guitars provides instrument repair, restoration and upgrade services in Dublin, Ireland.

“…Very, very soon.”

BBC 6 Music snagged a short interview with Jimmy Page and he continues his intriguing hinting at new material.

“I’m just looking forward to making some music and surprising people with it,” said Pagey, again mentioning the surprise element.

“I’ve got other ideas that have been nagging at me for a long, long time. I think the way to produce music or present music is same picture, different frame. But sometimes the frame can be quite radical and that’s what I’m gonna do,” he added.

This time, however, Pagey seems to pooh-pooh the idea of big name collaboration and any sort of ’supergroup’. What the hell is he up to? He claims it’ll be out this year so we won’t have to wait too long.

Oh, Pagey, you big rock and roll tease, you.

You can take a listen to the audio of the interview using the player below. It’s kindly provided by the BBC and, sometimes, they have location restrictions on these things so there’s a chance it might not work for you. Fingers crossed.