Guitar talk, and easy guitar lessons from beginner to jazz with Birdsnake Brown
Here’s a video about my newest Eastman Archtop. At the time of this writing I’ve been playing it for 6 months and I still love it!
It’s a fantastic guitar with a carved spruce top, and maple back and sides. It has a floating pickup so when you play it unplugged the top and beautifully resonant.
After having the Eastman 503 and discovering how much I love playing the archtop unplugged I decided that I would really benefit from a deeper all solid archtop.
I decided to try some Thomastik Infeld JS113 flats on my Eastman and wow they sound great! The tension feels great against the pick, and the tone is punchy and warm. They have a nice even volume across the strings and up the neck… fantastic strings! Check ’em out: https://amzn.to/3uAXBiY
I mostly take one guitar, and one amp to any normal gig. Occasionally if I am in the mood to switch guitars I will bring an extra guitar, just for fun.
I will also bring a backup guitar if we are doing a private event because it looks good on stage, and if I did happen to break a string I could easily switch, but for a regular club gig, I wouldn’t even consider this. Over the years as my picking technique became more refined, I stopped breaking strings, so for me to break a string something has to be really wrong, like a burr in the saddle, or a faulty string.
As for bringing an extra amp, I only bring a backup amp if I just modified or built an amp. If I am playing a brand new guitar amp, a vintage guitar amp that I just bought, or some amp that I just repaired, then I will usually bring a small backup amp, but those are the only situations where I even consider loading an extra amp into the car.
Over thousands of gigs there have only been a few times where I needed a backup, so I believe if you have good gear then the risk of not taking a backup is minimal.
I spend most of my guitar practice time sitting around with the archtop or an unplugged electric guitar, but before I play a gig I always try to plug in and turn up.
Any practice is good practice, but the guitar reacts differently to your playing when you are plugged in vs unplugged and it’s important to practice with your amp before you get to the stage.
When you get on stage and turn up full volume, the guitar can feel almost out of control if you haven’t been practicing the same way you play on stage.
For most of my life as a musician I’ve been up late. My dad is a musician as well and when I was a kid I would stay up late and wait for him to get home from the gig.
As I got older I usually had gigs at least a couple of nights every week and I would often get home between 2-4am. I do like having a “day time”, but for some reason, I always end up staying up late.
If I have to get up early for something I will usually plan ahead for a few days and slowly adjust my schedule so that I don’t end up on no sleep.