Building Tone - Getting The Guitar Sound That is Right For You

Acoustic Vs. Electric - Tone Considerations

Acoustic Guitars, when it comes to tone, are much more organically arrived at, and it all starts with the sound of the guitar itself, and then playing that guitar through the cleanest PA or amplifier system you can afford - no great mysteries there.

But electric guitars are different; there are too many factors involved in getting a great tone from an electric guitar, and they can be endlessly tweaked and added to. This can be aggravating, but it can also be rewarding, when you have sifted through a myriad of factors and finally achieved the perfect tone for you.

Knowing Your Tone

The first part of getting your perfect tone is having some idea of what that tone is, and this is where the type of guitar you will want to get really comes into play. If you want wide open, airy sounding chords and clean tones it is hard to beat a single coil or strat/tele style guitar. Single coil pickups excel at this type of sound. 

This Washburn Sonamaster is an excellent example of a Strat style single coil guitar!

However, if you want your clean sounds a bit darker and denser, Les Pauls or hollow-body guitars do really well, and they are great when it comes time to pour some distortion on mix!

My personal favorite pickup configuration is a combination of the two; a strat style guitar with a Double Humbucker in the bridge position. This allows me to get the clean, airy sound that I want for chords, and the dirty growl that humbuckers excel at!

A perfect mix of single coil clean clarity and the fat distortion tones possible with a
double humbucker make the double single single configuration of this guitar my favorite!

After The Guitar

Once you have chosen the guitar you want there will be two different things that will allow you to zero in on the exact tone that will make you happy. 

Remember, when it comes to tone, there is no right or wrong answer. Study other people's sounds to see how they do it, but keep in mind that your tone is your own. Try weird things, and don't be afraid to ignore the advice of others - don't be afraid to take it either, sometimes it can save you a lot of time on your journey!

The Amp

The second leg of your tone will be your guitar amp. I personally look for an amp that has a certain clean sound that I am looking for; I can get the distortion I want through a variety of different means.

But some people want a particular amp just because it has a certain sound in the distortion mode. Mesa Bogies spring to mind for this, as well as Marshalls and Orange - note that amps chosen for this reason are usually tube amps. For this reason, this can also be one of the more expensive parts of your tone chain! 

Take your time, and play a lot of different amps, then choose the best one you can afford.

Traynors have a very distinct distortion sound but also possess crystal clear clean tones!

Fenders are workhorses, and while I do not like most of the distortion sounds on Fender Amps
the clean sound is worth it!

A Matter Of Effects

Effects, whether they come in individual effect pedals or in a multi-effect unit are the last leg of your tone, but they can be just as important as the amp and the guitar.

As with everything, getting the really good stuff costs money but keep your mind open when it comes to effects. Some cheap effect pedals are wonderful, but when it comes to music gear including effects you generally get what you pay for.

Multi-Effects and Stomp Boxes

For most of my playing career I have used multi-effect units, like the Boss GT Series or what I am currently using, a Vox Tonelab unit.

You can get some great tones out of multi-effects units, and I love them for their versatility and the fact that one button push can trigger a whole new sound set. The built in expression pedal is great too, for adjusting modulation speeds, acting as a volume or wah pedal, or adjusting many other parameters.

The down side to multi effects units is that they can be a pain in the butt to program, and if you do not have a lot of time they can be very aggravating to work with. There are some amps too that just do not like being hooked up to these units. Usually, the better the clean sound on an amp is, the better it will sound with a multi-effects unit.

Single stomp box effects, on the other hand, generally sound good through just about any amp, and it is very hard to beat the quality levels of individual stomp boxes. 

They are also much easier to adjust to get just the sound you want, but there is some degree of experimentation that you will want to do.

The Robert Keeley pedals are very hard to beat, and while they are a bit more expensive than the average Boss or DOD pedal they are a boutique pedal made in the USA, and they have unrivaled tone and adaptability!

The Vibe-O-Verb is one of my favorites, and is just $149!

Changing the order of the stompboxes can make a big difference in how the sound gets to the amp, so when you are playing with individual effects get deep into the pedal and make big adjustments to see what the pedal can really do. 

Once you are happy with that, try changing the order that the pedals are plugged into each other, and see how much of a difference putting your distortion or reverb in front of or in back of the other pedals. 

The other cool thing about using effect pedals is that it is fun to search for new little gems to fill out your sound - in fact, I am toying with the idea of re-doing my guitar rig one more time, I have found myself inspired by some of the effect pedals I have been trying out to write this piece!

To try out the Robert Keeley pedals, come to the newest music store in Lincolnton James House of Deals!We have got a wide range of guitar effects in Lincolnton and also carry many new and used instruments, strings, accessories and more!

Learning the Fretboard - A Primer On Scales, Arpeggios And Chords

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING SCALES, APREGGIOS AND DIFFERENT CHORD FORMATIONS

Most casual guitarists and many guitarists that play in successful bands do not know music theory on the level that a classical instrumentalist does – with the ability to read staff and the inherent knowledge that reading music brings to the way chords and scales relate to each other.

A WORD ABOUT CHORDS

Over the years, I have broken down guitar chords into three categories for the purposes of speaking about them and relating scales, chord forms and arpeggios to them.

·         The Open Chords - these are the chords that most people start by learning, and are played near the nut using both fretted and open strings

·         Bar Chords, Upper Register – these are bar chords where the root note is located on the fifth string (such as the D at the 5th fret or the C at the 3rd fret)

·         Bar Chords, Lower Register – these are bar chords whose root note is located at the top string (such as the C on the 8^th fret, the A on the 5^th fret, etc.)

One of the purposes of this article is to get you to see beyond these easy shapes – most chords have three main positions on the neck of the guitar: the open position, the upper register bar chord and the lower register bar chord. B and F chords can only be made as bar chords or by playing tones out of the chords.

By mapping out the locations of the notes of the chord you are working on, as seen below, you can find new ways to play the entire chord or tones out of the chord for richer, fuller songs. This will allow you to give your guitar different sounds as well as a greater ability to create subharmonies, movements and single note runs into what might otherwise simply be 4 bars of a standard C chord.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PATTERNS

Most instruments are not pattern based, but interval based. The keyboard is the classic example of this – a C chord is made of three tones, the One (which is the root note, in this case C), the Three and the Five. The notes for the C chord are below:

One – C note (root)

Three – E note

Five – G note

A minor chord is made by flatting the Three (in this case the ‘E’ note moves to ‘E’ flat).

But on a guitar or other fretted instruments, chords are represented by patterns. If you look below you will see a C Bar chord at the third fret. If you take that chord shape and move it to different frets, it becomes a different chord. For instance, the same shape played at the 5^th fret becomes a D chord.

C at 3^rd Fret (an upper register chord, where the main root is on the fifth string)

D at 5^th Fret – Note that it is the same shape as the C chord above!

(Blank circles on the D indicate root notes)

Now, we want to map out where all the notes are for this chord – in this case, laying out where the triads of the C major chord are will also map the fretboard to find the notes we want.

By looking at these patterns we can figure out different combinations of ways to play chords and chord tones – this may not seem like that big a deal, but finding new tonal combinations to apply to your music can supercharge your creativity, or turn a simple progression into a work of art by playing different inversions and selected notes out of the applicable arpeggio and scale patterns.

This gives you much more room inside the song to find the inherent melody of a progression, and to spice up the progression itself. A great example of this can be seen when we look at the C Triads on the neck of the guitar. A Triad is a three note combination that makes up the chords, but Triads can also be played out of more complex chords.

Here, we see the C Triads – these are also all the notes that make up the C major chord

From the diagram above, we can pick out the familiar patterns of the C chord in question (the Open Chord Shape on the far left at the nut of the fretboard, the 3^rd fret shape and the 8^th fret shape), but we can also see all the different notes of the C chord across the entire neck of the guitar – remember, after the 12^th fret the neck simply repeats itself.

ARPEGGIOS AND CHORDS

Arpeggios are simply the notes of a chord played one at a time, the same as a scale. If you look at a book of guitar arpeggio patterns you will see that all of the patterns will fit within the diagram above. This diagram contains all the notes on the neck that are contained in the C chord, and will allow you to quickly find shapes on the neck that will expand your concept of playing a ‘simple’ C. Mapping out your fret board with these notes will allow you to play chord and tonal variations as well as different inversions (where the root note is not played first) and pick out your own single note arpeggio runs across the entire fretboard of your guitar.

With the power of patterns, once you learn these shapes by heart you will be able to repeat them in any key by moving the starting point of the pattern to a different fret. For instance, just as the D chord above is the same shape as the C chord, just on a different fret, the mapping of the D Chord (D Triads) will show the same patterns as the C Triads, just two frets further up the neck of the guitar.

Notice that you see the exact same shapes as the C Triads, just 2 frets higher – once you learn the Triad and arpeggio shapes for different types of chords, you will know them for all chords of the same type (in this instance, simple major chords), though it will take some practice to master the way you play them!

Practice by learning all the triad shapes possible for the chord you have picked out, and then start practicing those shapes as you practice the normal chord shapes. It won’t take long for you to memorize the triad and tonal shapes that are possible, and then you will be able to see how easily those shapes can be used for any key you desire. This will open up the way you think about chords!

CHORD SUBSTITUTIONS AND EXPANDING YOUR TRIADS

Making small changes in the chords you use, or using chords that can be substituted for the chords in the base melody can greatly expand the freedom you have in playing different combinations of tones and single note runs in your songs. Changing a Major chord to a Major 7^th makes a huge expansion in these possibilities, or a Minor chord to a Minor 7^th. The seventh adds a fourth tone to the chord, and gives you many more choices for chord alternatives and arpeggios. Check out the full fretboard diagram for the C Major 7^th chord quads and you will begin to get an idea of how many more possibilities adding just one tone to a chord will give you!

Not all chord substitutions are so obvious as making a Major a Major 7^th, or a Minor a Minor 7^th though. Keep in mind that depending on the way the song is constructed, not all substitutions will have the sound you are looking for – experiment with substitutions, but don’t be afraid to abandon an idea that just isn’t working out tonally!

A less obvious chord substitution is a Major chord a third above a Minor 7th root chord. This will make a lot more sense once it is translated into patterns as seen on the diagram below. If you are playing an Am 7^th on the 5^th fret, a C major chord played on the 3^rd fret (or anywhere, for that matter) can be substituted. Not only does this give you a power chord option for a Minor 7^th sound, but it also means that you can play any of the C Triads mapped out above when your root chord is an Am 7.

This will allow you to switch between tones and inversions from both the Am7 chord and the C chord, giving you a huge amount of choices in how to play the song.

An easy way to find this pattern is to remember that wherever you play a lower register Minor 7 chord (root note on the (top) 6^th string) it will go with the higher register major chord (root note on the 5^th string) 2 frets lower. So the 5^th fret Am7 goes with the 3^rd fret C Major, the 7^th fret Bm7 goes with the 5^th fret D Major, etc.

Check out the diagram below to see how these chords fit together!

You can see the C Major chord outlined in blue, while the Am7 is outlined in red. When you look at the notes, you will see that the Am7 has just one note extra (the A) from the C Major, which is C – E – G, so the notes for Am7 are A – C – E – G. If you move the Minor 7^th chord from the 5^th to the 8^th fret, it becomes a Cm7 and the companion chord (in blue) becomes the F Major chord with the root on the 5^th string at the 6^th fret.

All the patterns for triads, arpeggios and tonal combinations that you learn for the Am7 – C pairing will be exactly the same for the Cm7 – F pairing, just 3 frets higher on the neck of the guitar.

Find a good chord book that lists alternative or substitution chords to help you explore this powerful tool, and buy a blank guitar manuscript book to do your own mapping of the fretboard. This will help familiarize you with the fretboard, and is also an excellent memory aid (writing anything down as opposed to looking at pictures or videos triggers different neural pathways in the brain, reinforcing the memories of the material copied down). Oddly enough, according to studies using a keyboard for typing or working with a screen does not give the same benefit as making notes with pen and paper.

SCALES – THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF MELODY

Chords form the basic building block of a song, shaping the song’s rhythm and giving it different tonal characteristics – minor chords for slow sad songs, happy little major chords for fun, bouncy songs, or any combination you can think of. In the example below, it shows one pattern of a C Major scale – with all scales there are 5 -7 patterns you will need to learn. All these pattern are the same scale, but by learning all of the patterns you will know the scale across the entire fretboard of the guitar, and will be able to play the C Major scale (or the same type of scale in any key, for that matter) anywhere on the neck.

All melodies are made of scales one way, or a hybrid of scales that you might stumble across. Just like chords, the scales on a guitar are learned largely by patterns. Like arpeggios, scales are usually played one note at a time, though striking multiple notes can be a great thing!

Any time you hear any single note runs in a song, they are part of a scale or arpeggio.

And, just like chords, once you learn the blues scale or the major scale in one key you will know it in every key – just start the first pattern of the scale on a different fret and it will be in a different key! Once you know these patterns there are also some other tricks that will allow you to easily change the way the scale you are playing interacts with the chords of the rhythm section, giving you different sound palettes as you build your leads or single note runs in the melody structure.

For example, moving the scale pattern below to the 8^th fret will change the scale from the C Ionian Major scale to the C Mixolydian (A mode of the Major scale). The easy way to keep track of where the scales can be used is to think about playing them over the two Bar chord shapes, the higher register C bar chord at the 3^rd fret and the lower register C bar chord at the 8^th fret. Anywhere you play a conventional C bar chord you can start the scale pattern, which will make it a different Mode of the Major scale, in this case Ionian and Mixolydian!

Both of these scales can also be played over Cm and Cm 7 chords as well, but don’t neglect learning the different types of minor scales – they offer wonderful melodic possibilities.

Once a guitarist knows the shape and patterns of all the modes of the major scale, the scale can be played in any key by simply moving the 1^st position of the scale to a different starting fret on the guitar. Find a good scale book to learn all the patterns for the different types of scales. For rock and country music, the Pentatonic scale and the Major are two of the most important scales you can learn.

Just like the Major scale, a shortcut to finding where to play the pentatonic scale can be found by rooting the starting position to the standard chord positions – in this case, a C or Cm can be played at the 3^rd fret and the 8^th fret in bar form.

The pattern below is the Cm Pentatonic scale:

 Note that this pattern of the Cm Pentatonic scale sits right on top of the 8^th fret, a prime position for the Cm chord. This pattern can be played on the 5^th fret, which makes it a C Major Pentatonic scale, but I have also had good luck playing the scale at the 3^rd fret whether the C chord is Major or Minor. As you learn the different scale patterns and how they relate to their root chords you will find that there are multiple ways to play the scale against the chord.

This may seem a little intimidating if you are not already getting into scales and arpeggios, but as you map the fretboard for chord and arpeggio locations, or learn the patterns above you will find yourself making fast progress. If you are already playing scales and arpeggios, looking at the patterns in this way can help you expand your abilities and understanding of the fretboard and come up with great new tonal combinations from simple chords and scales!

James House of Deals, one of the best music stores in Lincolnton offers great deals on instruments, PA Gear, recording equipment, accessories and much more! When you need accessories or guitars in Lincolnton come to James House of Deals!

An Affordable Powered Speaker That Sounds Great!

Buying The Right Speaker For Your Purpose

Buying PA gear always a big venture, but understanding what you are buying for will help you save money in the long run. The speaker we are going to be looking at today is an excellent speaker - for what it is.

The speaker can be run as a main or monitor

And that is part of understanding PA gear. If you are making money on your performances, or if you are playing to big crowds of people, you do not want an entry level speaker (which this PowerWerks is). 

But, if you are playing or presenting to smaller crowds (such as small churches just getting off the ground or mobile ministries), or if your kid needs a speaker for his garage band and you are on a limited budget, this may be just the speaker for you!

PowerWerks PA used to be Kustom - this 15" speaker has a nice full sound, but only pushes about a peak of 200 watts internal power, so while it does sound good at lower volume levels, it would not be what you would want to look at if you were anticipating 200 - 300 person crowds.

This speaker is in the upright 'Main' position - it also has speaker mounts which allow you to mount it on a speaker stand

The volume levels it can attain though are good for garage bands and small business or worship applications. These are also great speakers to use as an acoustic guitar amp, the 15" woofer and the true horn give a great sound to any acoustic electric guitar!

For an inexpensive speaker it does have some very nice features, and it includes two inputs, both a line level 1/4" input and an XLR mic input. This makes it perfect for mobile applications where you just need a microphone and an input to play some music from your phone or computer.

One of the neat things about this speaker is the fact that it has a link out for each input. This gives you some flexibility in how you route signals.

For instance, if you are using the speaker as a stage monitor it allows you to plug your mic directly into the speaker then send it on to the mixing board, and allows you to plug a 1/4" so that you can be fed the rest of the monitor mix. that way, you can adjust your own voice thin the speaker, and then adjust the rest of the monitor mix so you can get a better mix on stage without relying on whether the sound guy is paying attention when you need a bit more of your vocals in the monitor!

These PowerWerks monitors can do a great job as monitors or mains if you are seeking a budget conscious speaker for small crowds and small areas, or as a stage monitor to a band that has normal stage volume levels. To see more of these speakers, and to find out your best price on them, go give them a listen at James House of Deals & Pawn, on of the newest music stores in Lincolnton - they carry more PA gear in Lincolnton than any of the stress in Gastonia, Hickory or Shelby, so if you need PA Gear come to James House of Deals for the best deals around!

Copyrights - Protecting Your Material

THE GUITARISTS GUIDE TO COPYRIGHTS – UNDERSTANDING YOUR RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS

There is an old trick when it comes to copyrights – mail yourself a copy of the song and don’t open it. That method won’t do any harm, but it probably won’t do any good either – except you will have (in my case) a cassette tape to remind you, if you can ever find something to play it on, how bad your first song really was.

Trust me, mine was bad!

The idea of this ‘poor man's’ copyright method comes from being able to prove the date that the song was created. Of course, nowadays posting your song to YouTube or any other online media will also fix the date (as well as many other methods available to us).

Whether it is a song or a written work, much or copyright law works the same!

HOW COPYRIGHTS WORK – SINGLE SONGS AND COLLECTIONS

The first copyright laws were put in place in the US in 1790 – the constitution itself gave congress the specific power of enacting copyright laws to protect many different types of speech, art, intellectual property and more. Of course, here we are concerned about music!

Copyright laws are very simple, but protecting yourself and your works is part of being in the business of music. The more you understand how these processes work, the better you will be able to navigate through the business side of the music industry, and the more of your money you will be able to keep in the long run!

A copyright lasts until 70 years after the death of the writer (in the case of multiple writers, it lasts until 70 years after the death of the longest living copyright holder), and a song is copyrighted as soon as it is affixed to any tangible medium.

This could be something as complex as an entire score, or as simple as a chord chart and a set of lyrics – or in some cases, a CD or digital download. What this means that as soon as you write down your song, or record it to any medium, it is copyrighted. The process of registering your copyrighted work simply affirms the copyright on a certain date, and is the best way to collect what may be owed to you if someone ever uses your work.

PUBLISHED V. UNPUBLISHED

First off, registering a copyright for your song or music collection is very easy – you can do it online at http://copyright.gov/ - click the ‘Register A Copyright’ button and it will guide you through the process of setting up an account and sending the necessary documentation/audio files to copyright your song. You can also perform this step by mail – the same Web address above will give you specific instructions for physical filing.

Many people want to copyright a song as soon as they get done writing it, or copyright a collection of songs as they are written, but it is also a wide practice to wait to register the copyright until you actually publish the song. The reason for this is that in the past, if you did not press the song to record, tape or CD not enough people would be exposed to the song to worry about copyright infringement. A song can be dispersed widely using modern technology without be ‘Published’, so it is becoming more important to take preemptive steps when it comes to your rights as a songwriter.

That is why even if you don’t publish the song according to the rules of the copyright office, you may still want the protection and the certification that copyrighting a work brings, especially if you are posting the song on any electronic platforms.

When you copyright, you will list the song as either ‘Published’ or ‘Unpublished’. Once a song has been published, anyone can make their own version of that song, but they must pay you a set royalty fee. Your music cannot, however, be used for any video performance, including commercials, TV shows, movies or unofficial YouTube videos without your express consent – more on this in the next section!

Copyrighting your songs online is the quickest and easiest way of copyrighting them, and the least expensive – just $35.00 for a single song, or $65.00 for a collection. The collection can be as many songs as you wish it to be.

If you are using the score or chart method, sending the document as a PDF is the normal way to transmit those documents. Many people file the song in both written and recorded form.

To register your songs as a collection, they must be contained in a single ‘Collection’ under one name, and the copyright holder must be the same for each song. For instance, if you had ten songs, and one of them shared co-writing credits with you you would only be able to register the nine songs in your name. The single song with your co-writer’s name included would have to be registered individually.

WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS – MECHANICAL RIGHTS AND SYNCHRONIZATION RIGHTS

Once a song has been published, anyone can cover it under the mechanical copyright laws, but they must pay you money. As well, if you copy someone else’s work you must pay them the current fees set by law for a mechanical license. They are at the moment 9.1 cents per unit (copy) sold, whether it is a physical CD or a download (or any other medium). For songs over 5 minutes there is an additional per minute charge of $1.75.

The Harry Fox agency is one of the largest agencies to use to either pay copyright fees you may owe to the copyright holder of a cover tune, or to make sure your song is registered and thus protected. Registering your song with the Harry Fox Agency or a different listing agency will guarantee you maximum payout if someone uses your material.

When you apply for a copyright, your song is not automatically registered, but the completed copyright paperwork does give you the power to list your song with the Harry Fox Agency, among other publishers, listing agents and others.

YOUTUBE AND SYNCHRONIZATION RIGHTS

This is one of the most asked questions most musicians have when it comes to copyrights – can I post my cover of that tune on YouTube? The answer is – sometimes you can, and sometimes you can’t. This depends on a couple of different factors. Remember, as we stated above, to use a person’s song in any video format, you must gain the copyright holder’s express permission and negotiate the fees that will be paid.

Any performance of a song on YouTube, even if the screen remains black throughout the performance, is synchronized to the video, and therefor does NOT fall under the normal mechanical copyright laws that allow any band to perform their own cover version of any published song.

Several factors come into play, and several things could happen. The copyright holder could demand that the video/song be removed entirely, or that the audio containing the song be removed. This holds true whether the song is being performed directly, or whether it is playing in the background of the video.

The copyright holder can also choose to monetize it through YouTube, and thus gain a percentage of the ads that are being sold around your video.

To find out if a publisher has a deal with YouTube to grant synchronization rights through YouTube, search ASCAP and BMI to see who holds the publishing rights. If they have a deal with YouTube, you can probably post your cover tunes without many worries (the revenues will be collected from the ad revenue on the video). If they do not, it would be best if you contact the publisher of the copyrighted work you want to cover and gain the rights to make a video performance of the work.

Remember, though, without express permission, even if the copyright holder and publisher have a deal with YouTube they can demand that your specific video be taken down or that the music portion be muted.

And of course, you have exactly the same rights as a songwriter when it comes to your own songs!

LIVE PERFORMANCES AND REPLAYING OF ORIGINAL MATERIAL

If you are a band, you may have run into this already – publishers and copyright holders can and do expect to be paid when you perform their song live. The rates for this type of performance are preset, and are usually part of a bulk payment made to a publisher that allows you to play any song in their library – once again, the largest publishers are BMI and ASCAP but there are more services and registration agencies available now.

Some venues and bars will have these rights covered as part of their business, but it is always up to the band to find out whether they need to pay royalties for any cover songs they perform.

Playing the original song over any medium (other than private consumer use) is also handled on a preset basis. Mostly, this means bars with Karaoke or pre-recorded music such as jukeboxes, radio stations, disk jockeys, DJ’s and more.

Buying the disk gives you the right to play the music in a private setting – if you are playing an artist’s own songs, contact BMI and ASCAP about bulk packages that will keep you covered regarding royalties owed to the publisher. Bands can do the same thing for cover tunes as well!

It is still illegal to use a song, whether it is an original recording or a cover done by another band, in any synchronized way – video, movie, TV show or other – without the express permission of the artist. The only exception to this are the Fair Use rules, which allow, for instance, news people or critics to use samples of the song in their coverage of that song.

COPYRIGHTS ARE AUTOMATIC – PROTECTING YOUR WORK ISN’T

While copyrights are granted automatically as soon as you set your song or music down on any medium, protecting that song is not automatic. That is why registering your song’s copyright, and then listing your song with the Harry Fox Agency can be important.

These simple steps make it easy to claim your rights as a songwriter/composer if someone should decide to cover your song, or play your song on the radio. If it is not registered, even if they hear the song or see it on YouTube they will not be able to find the information in order to make payments to you. So get out there and start writing more songs, and look deeper into the copyright laws to make a truly informed decision on whether you need to register your copyright!

James House of Deals takes its role as one the only music stores in Lincolnton seriously - we want to supply great advice and customer service as well as world class deals on music gear and guitars in Lincolnton.

Jay Turser Strat Guitars

Jay Turser Guitars - A Great Alternative!

Jay Turser guitars have been around for a while now, and I have played a number of them. They are a less expensive guitar, but as time has passed they have done a great job at improving their lineup. Although still entry level guitars, they are producing some fine instruments in the less than $200 price range, and some really nice stuff in the $200 - $350 price range, which we will go over in another post. 

Today we are looking at one of their traditional Strat style guitars with a nice see through blue finish. These guitars have had some care put into their manufacture, with a high gloss maple neck, rosewood fingerboards, die cast tuners and jumbo frets.

These guitars pass one of my first tests with any guitar, running your fingers down the sides of the neck and NOT feeling frets poking your fingers as they move down the neck. You would not believe how many higher end guitars (and guitars made in America) do not pass this test.

Close Up of Jay Turser Strat Style guitar

These guitars have a very nice high gloss maple, rosewood fingerboard and a nice flat radius which make for very fast lead runs, and pretty good die cast tuners.

The pickups are surprisingly good sounding for a rather inexpensive guitar, and they deliver the airy, snappy sounds that made the Stratocaster one of the guitars to use for blues, country and rock!

The high gloss maple neck has an smooth, silky feel!

Die Cast Tuners do a great job of keeping these guitars in tune!

There is also a model of this guitar that has a Double Humbucker in the bridge position, giving it a nice fat distortion sound, but the three single coils in this guitar deliver a fistful of great tones for distortion and clean sounds!

When you are looking for guitars in Lincolnton NC come by James House of Deals to see this guitar and many more! The Jay Turser Strat with see through finish is only $169.99, but there are models starting at just $150 bucks, and we also have many different package options that come with the guitar, strap, tuner, picks and everything else you need to get playing! Come by one of the newest music stores in Lincolnton to see this and all the instruments and accessories we have for you, and remember its never to early to start your Christmas Layaways!