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VIEW OF THE DAY- ACOUSTIC GUITAR SURVIVAL KIT � by Dave Cleveland
I’ ve been tracking acoustic guitars for years now. So I thought I would share a few of the items that I consider essentials. Some of these will seem obvious but others might be new for you.
Before I share these items, I want to encourage you to have a complete warm up for three things: Left hand strength and dexterity. Right hand finger picking. Right hand flat-picking. Just this last week I showed up for the session and found out the first tune was a complex right hand picking pattern. Guess who forgot to warm up? Arrrgh!
So I quickly went to my old standby, Villa Lobos Etude 1. That’ s a great right hand warm up if you don’ t have any in your memory banks. After a couple minutes of that, I was ready to go. It’ s always worth taking time to practice
and warm up before a session or gig!
Here is a rundown of the things I take with me if I’ m not having all my guitars delivered.
I always bring a great sounding, foundational acoustic guitar. My Olson or McPherson does mighty fine! The second guitar I bring will be a layer type guitar. Either a high string, major third up guitar( G # D # B F # C # G # high to low with extra light electric strings), mandolin or bouzouki. The second guitar stays in a different range of the foundation guitar and brings a nice fresh color to the track. The third guitar I always bring is a nylon string guitar( a. k. a. gut string or classical) With these three guitars I can cover a lot of sonic space.
And now“ The List”:
1. Always bring a good tuner with fresh batteries or a reliable power supply. Just got to have that. Also, have a good tuner app on your phone in case something goes wrong.
2. Have a great set of phones or in-ears that keep the click bleed out of your microphone! There is nothing worse than having to replay something you nailed the first time to fix click bleed. The studio usually will have phones but their isolation and sound quality might not be the best. Invest in good phones. You won’ t regret it!
3. Make sure you have a good variety of picks. It’ s amazing to me how much changing picks can change the tone and feel of an acoustic guitar. Without even moving the mic or having the engineer start tweaking an E. Q., change picks. Experiment!
4. This should go without saying, but have extra strings with you. Simple, but you can bring the session to a screeching halt if you have to actually leave to go get more strings.
5. In addition to the strings, have a string winder and wire cutters with you to speed up the process.
6. A very cheap tool to keep in your kit is a nail clipper. I find that keeping the nails on my fret board hand low make for much cleaner playing and better tone.
7. Right along with the clipper should be a good file. I like the one that has four sides. The four-sided one helps take your right hand nails from ruff to super smooth. Once again, it’ s all about tone. Experiment with what gives you the best tonal results.
8. A great capo is a must! Here’ s a little trick. Make sure you put the capo on first and then tune with the capo on. Give each string a little tug and then tune up to the pitch. You should have great results by doing that.
9. I like to have a slide with me at all times. It’ s a great way to get yet another color out of your instrument. I like glass but experiment and find what you like.
10. Finally, keep a humidifier in your guitar when you put it away. I find that keeping the guitar humidified results in a more consistent, balanced feeling guitar.
That’ s my kit! Make sure you get a good sturdy bag to carry all your accessories in. I use Husky bags from Home Depot. Great prices and extremely durable! Until next time!
44 Jul � Aug 2017 CollectibleGuitar. com