I need to run, errr… make that FLY to the Eastern USA for 10 days, and won’t be blogging much until returning around March 30th. I’ll still be able to monitor and moderate the blog and any comments.
This week’s Friday Strat may be a little late.
All you Scott Henderson fans, familiar with Scott’s most recent stuff, i.e. Well to the Bone and his 2 disc live release– get ready to pick your jaws up from the floor when you watch this clip! Watch THIS ONE next. Not only does Firkins do the same wobbly trem-in-hand technique, but, some key phrases are unmistakably ones you’ll hear in Henderson’s more recent repertoire. I’m not trying to diss Henderson though– obviously Firkins and Henderson are huge Jeff Beck fans. It’s just interesting, and tells me I should have been paying more attention to Firkins, over a decade ago.
This LINK provides a compilation of MLF reviews. He’s also known to do some unusual covers in a less than Looney Tunes fashion than say, Gary Hoey? So, check him out. Firkin’s personal website currently consists of a single page bio which doesn’t link to anything else, demonstrating a pretty laid back self-promotional approach, similar to that of David Grissom.
(photo credit: John Fisher)
The handful of frets photo pretty much symbolizes the extent of this guy’s extreme DIY process. To describe it even further, Fisher’s attitude and viewpoint, expressed throughout, in some ways turns the project into a metaphor of how to live your life.
Each page and section of the project includes inspirational quotes to sort of coach you through the difficulties and learning curves of the experience. Even if you have no intention of building your own Strat, much less from scratch, Fisher’s Chicken Soup for the Guitar Builder commentary style is sure to provide enlightenment as well as technical insights. You get the idea that this guy could easily improvise through a Tom Hanks “Cast Away” survival situation.
Here’s my favorite quote he uses in the headstock section:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, steer a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, pitch manure, solve equations, analyze a new problem, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
Robert Heinlein
What if you could blog about each of those things? Does that count?
(photo:www.charmcitycakes.com)
You’re looking at a CAKE. Food Network fans may be familiar with Chef Duff Goldman’s “Ace of Cakes” program. Goldman is a top pastry chef who has worked some of the hottest restaurant gigs around, including Napa Valley’s French Laundry– considered by Anthony Bourdain to be the world’s best restaurant.
Duff currently presides over his own Charm City Cakes, an actual bakery in Baltimore, the subject of Food Network’s Ace of Cakes TV series. Looks like playing with the oven has paid off!
Anyway, Goldman is also a musician– bass player, and thus has a special eye for detail when it comes to “music gear cakes”. His Marshall Stack cake is also a winner.
I haven’t gotten a response to my request for specs on the Strat cake, so I can’t indicate brand of pickups, V, D or C neck, tuner style, brand of baking powder, cake flavor, frosting type, etc. Basically, all the important stuff. If they get back to me, I’ll be sure to revise with such details.
Seems like a real “play with your teeth” Strat to me.
(photo:www.randyciak.com)
Dean Cascione and Randy Ciak are old school shredders who build and modify Strats in the grand tradition of Blackmore and Malmsteen.
In addition to hotrodding, aging and producing custom builds like our featured model, they are specialists at creating scalloped necks.
Today’s featured instrument, with two beautiful flame maple scalloped necks (click image for photo documentary of the build cycle), implements thru-body nylon strings on top, with a piezo bridge.
Scalloped necks scare many players, but here are few key things to understanding them. Anyone who’s played an SRV Strat, or any guitar with jumbo frets, understands that string bending and vibrato are enhanced, as more of the finger surface is able to push the string(s), also making heavier guages possible (which require more push). Intonation is crazy, especially with chords, but you get used to it and adjust. A scalloped neck is obviously more extreme, but allows the player incredible bending/vibrato potential as well as textural enhancement possibilities in terms of allowing ultra fast sweep picked staccato lines to sound more fluid, graceful and legato-like. This partly explains why Yngwie’s playing has a type of textural character you don’t hear from other players within his genre. All that said, the touch, technique and ear required for this approach is considerable, hence we don’t see scalloped necks played on every block. Good slide players deal with very similar aspects and issues, but from a different context, and likewise, good slide players aren’t on every street corner.
So there ya go (my shred pals are probably wondering what I smoked today). Hopefully this clarifies a bit of the mystery some may have about scalloped necks.
Dean & Randy’s websites provide lots of project photos, finished products, scalloped neck close-ups with beautiful cuts of maple. And they’re just crazy about Strats!
