Turning You into a Pro
Optek teamed up with Arobas Music to release Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready, which integrates the popular Guitar Pro software with the Fretlight guitar. This application gives players accustomed to tablature another outlet to be used in conjunction with the Fretlight guitar and a trial version is included. There are several screen display modes available in Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready —Tablature, Scale, and Chord Diagram. Tablature mode shows you the tabs onscreen and as you play back the files, and the Fretlight’s fretboard lights up accordingly. A cool feature is that you can download Guitar Pro files from, say, ultimate-guitar.com, and use them with the Fretlight guitar. In fact, on the Fretlight website there’s actually a song finder that finds Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight-ready files from Ultimate-Guitar.com.
One thing that might be confusing for a tablature-attuned beginner working with Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready is that while tablature symbols that indicate specific techniques like palm-muting, fret-hand muting, in-the-crack bends, vibrato, and hammer-ons and pull-offs, among others, most of these details are not indicated by the guitar’s lights. The Fretlight only indicates note location and conventional bends (indicated by three lights in a row on a single string), so success in accurately replicating a part using only the lights as a guide, might depend on your familiarity with certain guitar-specific techniques. It’s also, needless to say, unable to lend much assistance with picking hand intricacies—there are no light arrays to let you know whether a passage is alternate picked or sweep picked.
Guitar Pro 6 is still pretty smart and editable, however and the Fretlight adapts to changes you make in the tab—a good thing given how much free online tab is inaccurate. If you’re an astute guitarist, you will likely end up noticing mistakes And if you do, that change will also be reflected as the guitar lights up on the new note location.
Scales and Chords
Since its earliest incarnation when it was a self-contained unit, Fretlight guitars have offered lit-up displays of scales on the neck. Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready’s Scale mode takes this concept and integrates it with tabs. Here, if you select a fragment from a tab, the Fretlight will offer several scale options from the root of the selected fragment. And after you choose a compatible scale, the guitar will light up every note in that key and scale. I highlighted the first E5 chord in “Back in Black,” and several scale options for an E root were suggested. Of course, using this might suggest that you know enough about music theory to choose the right scale (though the Fretlight Lesson Player, which we’ll look at shortly, will come in handy for this). But a neat feature of the scale display is that you can choose to have only small portion of the neck lit up, which is helpful for isolating that uncomfortable scale position that’s been driving you nuts.
Chord Diagram mode lights up the selected chord if the tab uses a chord diagram. This is really handy for someone who never got the hang of a conventional chord diagram’s orientation (it’s common for beginners to mistakenly read chord diagrams and tab upside down).
Seeing is Believing
If tabs and lights aren’t enough, the soon-to-be-released Fretlight Player, which I tested in its beta format, corresponds to Fretlight videos produced in conjunction with Hal Leonard Corporation. Every note played onscreen in the videos will light up in real-time on the connected guitar. The videos can also be slowed down, which makes this a very effective learning tool.
Lessons Learned
The Fretlight Lesson Player application, which covers music theory, is impressively thorough. It explains fundamentals like scale and mode formulas, intervals, rhythmic notation, the cycle of fifths, and chord formulas (from triads to 9th chords) and the guitar will light up whatever you choose. For example, I chose a minor 2nd interval from Bb, and all of the Bb–B notes on the neck lit up. Between Lesson Player, the videos, and the tabs—short of a training mode with computer-generated feedback, there isn’t much more that a self-motivated and disciplined student would need to quickly advance on the instrument.
Applied Learning
And when the school bell rings and it’s time to just play guitar, the Fretlight as guitar will more than suffice. The Alder-bodied Strat-style FG-421 features two single-coil pickups in the neck and middle positions, respectively, and a humbucker in the bridge, with a five-way selector switch.
The FG-421’s 25.5" scale maple neck has a C-shape profile, an LED embedded fretboard constructed of Polymer, and a very comfortable, flattish 12” radius with 21 medium/high frets. The guitar arrived in our hands set up with a medium action. Out of the box, there was some slight buzzing in the lower frets but it wasn’t anything a minor tweak of the truss rod couldn’t take care of.
An onboard tuner is located at the base of the volume knob and is accessed by pulling up on the knob—an excellent and convenient feature. It tracked very well and tuning was a breeze. My one gripe with the tuner is that it can be slightly tricky to get a good grip on the knob to pull it up.
Ratings
Pros:
Thorough software package offers just about all the visual information you need to play guitar well if you are self-motivated and disciplined.
Cons:
Can be confusing to integrate as a learning tool if you can already play.
Tones:
Playability:
Build:
Value:
Street:
$499
Fretlight
fretlight.com
The FG-421 erased any doubts about its ability as a full-fledged performance guitar as soon as I plugged it into my Mesa/Boogie Studio .22 1X12 combo. The tones compared favorably to those from my Mexican Fender Stratocaster, which is an excellent instrument. The stock pickups sounded great both clean and dirty—free of squealing and with well-balanced output across the board. It’s also great to have a humbucker pickup in the bridge position for kicking it up a notch for beefy, sustained leads sounds.
Those That Can, Teach
As an educational tool a gimmick or a godsend depending on how you use it and how you prefer to learn. It can be a great asset for someone just starting out or even someone further along, though if you can already get around the guitar and/or read tablature, there’s a chance that adding the Fretlight into the equation might actually create confusion. Still, everyone learns differently, and the Fretlight could also be just what the doctor ordered if you’ve never been able to master learning scales across the fretboard.
In terms of execution, I have to admit that it was often hard to clearly see the LEDs at a conventional playing angle. It’s sometimes hard to tell which string the LED is under and the LEDs also don’t appear as bright when viewed from the angle that the neck is typically held at. I had to tilt the fretboard toward my line of sight and my best view of the lights came via an almost lap-steel like perpendicularity, which is far from optimal playing position.
Judged on its own as a guitar, the Fretlight is good enough to take out on a gig. In terms of tone and playability it holds up well to comparable guitars in the same price range. But when you consider how the Fretlight integrates with the feature-packed software options—many of which can actually even benefit really advanced guitarists—this guitar becomes a very compelling option for the serious beginner or inquisitive intermediate—especially with a price tag that comes in under 500 bucks.
Excelsior
In not displaying the Fender name anywhere prominently, Fender has playfully created a cool brand that never was. Indeed, the 13-watt Excelsior looks and sounds like it could have been conceived as some electronics division of Montgomery Ward or a radio manufacturer with grand designs on diversification in the ’50s. To that end, the Excelsior gets a lot of the details from that period in amplifier amplification right.
The back of the amp is wide open, with the transformer and tube section of the chassis mounted on the bottom section of the amp, and the control section placed in an enclosed section at the top—a common approach to amp layout in the ’50s. The two 6V6 power tubes are enclosed in a metal cage that keeps them cool and out of harm’s way. You’ll also notice the considerable bulk of the 15" speaker, a nod to 15-equipped accordion amps from the Eisenhower era, given how many amps from the period had smaller 8" and 10" speakers—and one that pays big sonic dividends.
The control panel, which is part of the upper-chassis enclosure, is finished in the gray finish you see on old toolboxes, and the control set is refreshingly simple: a volume knob, a knob for the tremolo rate, and a slider for moving between dark and bright settings. To the right of the volume knob, there are three inputs—a standard guitar input, a mic input that has a pad for handling high-output instruments, and an accordion input that gives you a little low-end roll off and a little more presence in the highs and midrange.
In Excelsis Play-O
If you have experience with playing little Fenders, Silvertones, Gibsons, Magnatones, and other small amps from the period that inspired this amp, you’ll be struck by how well the Excelsior nails the compressed and explosive-to-mellow character of those amplifiers. With the single-coil output of a Danelectro 3021 reissue and a Stratocaster driving the Excelsior, I could run through a range of tones from sparkling to filthy, though the amp naturally gravitates toward dirty tones at any substantial volume.
Ratings
Pros:
’50s-cool looks. Well-built. Interesting range of tones. Great overdrive.
Cons:
Not much clean headroom.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build:
Value:
Street:
$299
Fender
fender.com
Clean tones really are only available in the lower third of the amp’s volume range, and they’re best accessed with the help of single-coils—or humbuckers whose volume controls are rolled back a touch. This limitation makes the Excelsior a tough proposition for players who need clean tones at performance levels, though it records beautifully at these settings. The 15" speaker lends a little extra low-end color and headroom that give the amp a unique clean voice, and that definitely complements the amp’s somewhat bright voicing.
With the volume up past a third of full, things get gritty fast. At around noon, tones from the bridge pickup take on a cool, Tweed Deluxe-like combination of compression and bite, though it lacks the balance and airiness of a Deluxe—or a Champ for that matter. What it does share with the Deluxe is a penchant for cool, honking midrange that rules for rhythm parts and slurry, percussive, Chuck Berry-/Keith Richards-style leads. When the Excelsior is wide open, it’s all attitude. It growls with an authority worthy of early James Gang or ZZ Top—especially with the bright switch on. A hanging, first-position A chord sustains as if it were coming from an amp twice its size—thanks, again, in no small part to the larger speaker—and leads are all fangs and beautiful high-mid wail. Throw a primitive fuzz, like a Tone Bender or a Fuzz Rite, in front of the cranked Excelsior, and you’ll be awash in glorious, fried, busted, and screaming lead tones that teeter between gloriously singing and chaotic.
The tremolo is a beautifully contoured pulse—neither too choppy nor too flat—that can move from a sexy, noir-ish rate to a fast, sci-fi-wave undulation. It works beautifully with the amp’s clean tones in particular, but it will stay defined through most of the amp’s volume range. It’s only when you really push overdriven chords through the slower reaches of the tremolo’s range that you start to significantly lose detail.
The Verdict
If you’re used to contemporary clean and/or high-gain flavors, the Excelsior will take some getting used to—or it might just prove entirely outside your vocabulary. But if you need an amp that can record with personality, from clean to filthy, or a little amp that can get bellicose enough to hang with a small, rockin’ combo without pedal assistance, the Exclesior has the goods to deliver.
Greta
Dressed up more like a mid-century Japanese radio than a guitar amplifier, the 2-watt Greta looks like it was designed to live in disguise. And indeed, the primary mission of Greta is to be the amplifier you can tuck away next to the reading lamp or on your work desk without offending the sensibilities of those who don’t see beauty in a tattered Champ quite like you do. Life as a double agent isn’t all that Greta does, however.
With a 12AT7 power tube and a 12AX7-driven preamp, Greta can be a little more responsive than your average desktop practice amp. And with line and speaker outputs, you can actually use it to drive an external cabinet or run it out to a larger amplifier. It also has a 1/8" auxiliary input for plugging in your mp3 player.
In many ways, Greta is a pretty cool piece of retro design and an imaginative way to package an unobtrusive practice amp. Its radio-like lines are attractive and will likely prompt a double take among those who aren’t in on the visual subterfuge. The coolest visual element is the backlit, test-instrument-like needle readout, which provides a visual indication of where you are in the clean-to-overdriven range of the amp. However, a few design touches may strike some as less than appealing, even given the pawnshop inspiration: The sum total of the garish, lipstick-red wooden front panel, the unsubstantial-feeling, gold-colored plastic knobs, and the stamped-plastic name badge is a look you might expect from a novelty item more than a pawnshop prize. That said, overall build quality is sturdy enough.
Ratings
Pros:
Imaginative package for a practice amp.
Cons:
Few useful tones for anyone but lo-fi junkies. Some low-quality materials. Expensive.
Tones:
Playability/Ease of Use:
Build:
Value:
Street:
$199
Fender
fender.com
Little Mr. Bojangles
Once you plug in, the Greta is most comfortable delivering clean, subdued tones that won’t wake the family or neighbors. And it’s in these lowest reaches of the amp’s volume range that you also hear the most tube character. Lowering the tone control also helps enormously on this front, and a Stratocaster or Telecaster at these levels will sound great and surprisingly rich for jangling arpeggios and Mark Knopfler- or Richard Thompson-style leads that benefit from middle or out-of-phase pickup positions and a roll off of the guitar’s tone. Set up this way, the Greta is perfect for recording demos or deliberately lo-fi applications.
Despite its tube circuit, the Greta runs up against its biggest shortcomings at more aggressive volume and tone settings. When pushed, the 4" speaker tends to break up in a manner that most players probably won’t find appealing, and it gets downright harsh with both volume and tone controls wide open and a bridge pickup selected. If you move to your neck pickup and roll back the tone, it’s possible to get some pretty cool Randy California-like, super-compressed and muffled lead tones that will actually record pretty well. However, chording at these settings tends to yield a less-than-pleasant sludge unless you’re working at very slow tempos with more open jazz voicings. The amp definitely sounds better through an external cabinet, and it will drive any 8-ohm cab—though the tones will still be of the very lo-fi variety.
The Verdict
Most players do not expect a practice amp to sound like a Princeton, but even with the lower expectations this product category instills, many players are likely to see Greta’s nearly $200 street price as rather steep. Like any practice amp, she does have tones that will reward adventurous players—especially in studio situations. But she also never quite realizes the potential implied by her tube circuitry. Which is a shame, because there are other small amps on the market that will do the job for significantly less cash—even if they’re a lot less fun to look at.
1. Guitarists Michael Landau with his Strat (left) and John Bohlinger sporting a PRS while getting ready to put down some tracks with Joe Walsh. 2. Guitarist John Bohlinger (foreground) works the rhythm while guitar hero Joe Walsh effortlessly lays down the lead tracks. 3. John Bohlinger, Tim Pike, Joe Walsh, Gary Novak, Jimmy Haslip, Michael Landau, and Scott Kinsey while recording in L.A. Photos By Joseph Armario
I was in L.A. last week working on a project with philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen at his private studio. (One of the most beautiful studios I've seen, it's located in Beverly Hills and has enormous floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto Coldwater Canyon.) On this project, Paul and I were sharing guitar duties with L.A. session ace Michael Landau. Paul was recording a simultaneous session with Doyle Bramhall, so he would overdub his parts later, which left Michael and me tracking together, sitting next to each other with our speaker cabinets in nearby iso booths.
The rest of the band featured drummer Gary Novak and bassist Jimmy Haslip, who have a side project band called Renegade Creation with Landau and Robben Ford. Given Landau's legendary ability—combined with the fact that these three guys usually hear Robben playing the other guitar part—I told myself, “Leave the shredding to Michael, just work a solid support part."
Before recording, we listened to the demos, checked the charts, divided the work, and decided who would play what: “You go high, I'll go low." “You're playing the Strat, I'll go with humbuckers on the PRS." “I'll do the tremolo thing while you're doing the weird Bigsby cowboy moves."
I did take a few solos, but only when it was a solo that I had played on the demo that became integral to the song. We left room for Paul to overdub his parts and gave Landau plenty of room for guitar heroics. We fell into a rhythm and quickly knocked out some good tracks. I was happy working in the non-glamorous position, because that's where I belonged.
On the third day of tracking, we experienced a paradigm shift when Joe Walsh arrived. I'm talking “Funk #49," “Life's Been Good," and “Rocky Mountain Way." He's a damn Eagle, a rock 'n' roll legend, your Ordinary Average Guitar Genius. Walsh was there to play and sing a cameo on a song called “Six Strings from Hell." This swamp-nasty groove (a bit of a modern narrative of Robert Johnson cutting his deal with Scratch) had a low chugging guitar part welded to a high slide part that Paul and I came up with while demoing the song.
Walsh, who was producing this song, liked the interplay of the two parts and said, “Yeah, you guys do those parts, they're cool. I'll play around it." Although I played slide on the demo, there was no way I was going to pick up a slide while Joe Walsh was in the room. I don't mind a musical ass-whooping every now and then when I deserve it, but I would rather raise the white flag before we even begin.
As we talked it through the song and checked the chart, I said, “Hey Michael, I'll do the low chug and you do the slide part." Landau, perhaps reading my mind, replied, “No way am I playing slide in front of Joe Walsh."
We had a standoff. It was a bit like those ultra-courteous cartoon gophers from Looney Tunes, with each of us politely encouraging the other to go first. We spent a few minutes going back and forth: “You do it. The part on the demo is good." “No, you do it—your slide playing is way better." Etcetera.
Eventually Landau said, “You guys can fire me or whatever, but I'm not doing it."
Finally we agreed to split the rhythm riff, with Landau going high on slide, me going low on chug, and Joe doing all the fills and solos. Joe set up his own rig—Les Paul, a couple of stompboxes, and a combo amp—and stood in the center of the room surrounded by the rest of the band. He didn't tweak his tone, mess with his cue mix, or even warm up. The drummer counted it off and Walsh came in with both barrels blazing. I could not get over how great he sounded—everything he played was the perfect part. What made it even more incredible was that he was playing a song he'd just heard with a band he'd just met. No wonder this guy is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We ran the song three times and it was done. We went back to listen in the control booth and Joe picked the second take. There were no fixes. The only change from the live track was that Joe erased a few of his fills he thought got in the way of the vocal. I was thinking, “Man, this guy is throwing away cooler stuff than I have ever played." Yet through it all Joe was funny, encouraging, and incredibly generous— even bringing my wife Megan Mullins in to sing harmony with him. If you're allowed to work with one Guitar Hero in life, Joe Walsh is the one to get.
Guitar is the puzzle you never finish. Play 10 hours a day for 40 years and those sweet six strings will regularly reveal new mysteries. Michael Landau is a brilliant player, and Paul Allen and I each have our own cool bag, but combined we could never out-Joe-Walsh Joe Walsh. Everything he played sounded like a signature part. Listen to Hotel California and you'll hear how every note serves a purpose. That's what makes some players so great: They know how and they know when.
John Bohlinger is a Nashville multi-instrumentalist best know for his work in television, having lead the band for all six season of NBC's hit program Nashville Star, the 2011, 2010 and 2009 CMT Music Awards, as well as many specials for GAC, PBS, CMT, USA and HDTV.
John's music compositions and playing can be heard in several major label albums, motion pictures, over one hundred television spots and Muzak... (yes, Muzak does play some cool stuff.) Visit him at youtube.com/user/johnbohlinger
or facebook.com/johnbohlinger and check out his new band, The Tennessee Hot Damns.