Posts filed under 'FJ Issue 2'
DIY Guitarist is a site that includes loads of interesting do-it-yourself guitar oriented electronics projects, including amp mods, guitar mods and built from scratch stomp boxes. Before you dig into any of these, though, you might want to check out this excellent primer on developing good soldering technique by Gareth Branwyn. As an added bonus, the soldering article includes illustrations by FJ contributor Mark Frauenfelder. (He wrote the article about Ron Saul’s uke picking machine in issue 2, which is the only FJ back issue still available.)-MJS
January 2nd, 2007
Neko Case, who graced the cover of our second issue, has just released a DVD of her August 9, 2003 appearance on Austin City Limits. A nice promo clip from the DVD appears here, and includes Neko singing “Behind the House” and playing her Gibson TG-0 tenor guitar, which she photographed for the article. Oh, and her singing is really good too. I should also mention that we are running low on copies of that back issue. Issue 1 is already sold out, so if you have any interest in getting issue 2, you should act fast.-MJS
October 18th, 2006
Andy Statman, who we covered in our second issue, was on NPR last weekend. You can listen to the show here.-MJS
September 18th, 2006
New Shabbos Waltz, the new CD from mandolin masters David Grisman and Andy Statman is now available for pre-order from Acoustic Disc. It will be released on August 8, but there are a couple of streaming clips up on the site right now so you can preview it. Grisman, of course, graced the cover of our now sold out first issue and Statman was profiled in issue 2.-MJS
July 6th, 2006
We were very pleased to have Mark Weakley contribute to our second issue even though he made the rest of us look kind of lazy. Not only did he write an article about the fabulous statue of Blind Willie Johnson he made, he also did a great drawing of Django Reinhardt for the review section. Mark has a new website that includes more photos of the Blind Willie Johnson statue as well as a recent statue he did of Blind Lemon Jefferson. While you’re there, you should also check out this drawing he did of a banjo picking bulldog.-MJS
June 5th, 2006
Mark Frauenfelder wrote about Ron Saul’s amazing ukulele strumming machine in our second issue. (Ron, you really need to get a webpage.) We were very pleased to have Mark write for us because he’s a very busy man. For starters, he’s the editor of Make, a very cool quarterly guide to, well, making things. (The image on the right is a cover from last year that featured an article on how to build a cigar box guitar. If you to try building one of your own, Make sells back issue on their website.) He’s also a co-founder of Boing Boing, one the Internet’s most popular blogs, a talented illustrator and an author. He is also the co-founder of the Ukulelia blog and he posts regularly on his own Mad Professor blog. How he found time for us, I’ll never know, but I’m glad he did.-MJS
May 26th, 2006
In our second issue we ran a page with the Martin family tree drawn by Tom Culbertson. Although Tom did do the drawing, it was based on the research of Harold Fethe, who interviewed C.F. Martin IV for the Fretboard Journal, and who used his training as an anthropologist to tease out the family’s convoluted two century history. Jason and I regret not giving Harold the proper credit. In other, happier Fethe news, I’m very pleased to announce that Harold’s debut CD has just been released. Entitled Out of Nowhere, the CD is a well-played collection of jazz standards. The most exciting part, though, is that Harold is joined by Johhny Frigo, the legendary jazz violinist. There will be a CD release party at Andy’s Jazz Club in Chicago on Friday, July 28, so if you’re in the area, please stop by and tell Harold we say hello. -MJS
May 25th, 2006
In our 2nd issue, Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance talked with Rick Bishop of the Sun City Girls about a number of topics, including John Fahey, Donovan, Gypsy jazz and improvising. After the issue went to press Bishop launched www.sirrichardbishop.net, a site devoted to his solo work, which is well worth checking out. That same article featured photos by Mark Sullo, including that great shot on the left of Rick with an absurdly thick pick. A couple of people have written asking about what Bishop calls “the Viagra of all guitar picks.” Well, they’re made in Holland by Michel Wegen, and they’re the choice of Gypsy jazzers all over the world. I’m not sure if Bishop uses the Fatone, which is 5mm thick, or the ultra thick 7mm model, but I’ll try and find out.-MJS UPDATE: Rick Bishop says: “For live shows I have mainly used the 5mm (Fatone) but last tour I tried the huge 7mm one and am now pretty comfortable with it. I imagine I’ll use both from here on out. I also have some of Wegen’s other picks laying around the apartment and I experiment with them also from time to time.”
May 11th, 2006
We’ve been getting a few letters asking how Neko Case tunes her tenor guitars. For the record, she tunes it DGBE, just like the top four strings of a six-string guitar in standard tuning. If you’re interested in learning more about tenor guitars, check out Tenorguitar.com, which has lots of photos of rare tenors, a nice history of the tenor guitar, an active and friendly chat room and a good tutorial in playing tenor guitar in the CGDA tuning.-MJS (Photo of tenor guitar fretboard coutesy of Frank Ford at Frets.com)
May 11th, 2006
