Mike Hoodenpyle

I don't really name mine, but "they" say you're supposed to, so I thought I'd have some fun with it. Breedlove Oregon Concert, aka Faith Martin D28, aka Alison Breedlove Atlas Jumbo, aka Emmylou Fender Deluxe Nashville Tele, aka LeAnn Fender Deluxe Roadhouse Strat, aka Reba Sense a theme here? I don't have a Trisha. Gotta get a Trisha.

Good to know, thanks.

Thanks Randy. I'm sure I would lean toward the T5 rather than the T5z. I know the T5 has a larger body, flatter fretboard and standard frets, as opposed to the jumbos on the T5z. They're both short scale guitars as well, so that contributes a lot to ease of play. If the action is too high from the factory, lowering it shouldn't be a problem. Thanks again!

Those are some really nice sounds. Great playing and productions, too. Thanks for sharing. I have a Fishman Loudbox Artist for acoustic and a Fender Super Champ for electric. I could plug in to both with an A/B switch. As you said, I would need to do the same with the T5. I was just hoping to avoid carrying two amps. I like the altered tuning option, too. I play fingerstyle in DADGAD sometimes, so that could be a great feature. The only negative I see so far is the string spacing at the nut is narrow, only 1 5/8", so fingerstyle may be a challenge. I've definitely got to try one of these out. Looks like lots of fun and practical as well. Thanks again!

Thanks, Ice. I hadn't heard of this guitar. I looked at some videos this morning, and wow, this thing is just sick and twisted. Can you really get an acoustic tone that sounds like the real thing? From what I heard in the videos I watched, it sounds very good, but all kinds of tone shaping may have gone on behind the scenes/post-recording for all I know. What kind of amp do you run it through? Thanks again.

Does anyone here have a Taylor T5? If so, how do you like it? And do you gig with it? I just started playing with my church band again, and I'm thinking one of these would come in pretty handy. It would be great to be able to go back and forth between electric and acoustic with one guitar, and sometimes make the switch within the same song.

"If you miss practice one day, you can tell. If you miss practice two days, your friends can tell. If you miss practice three days, everybody can tell." - Chet Atkins

I like the tone from celluloid picks the best of any I've tried. I use Planet Waves extra heavy, 1.25 mm and Fender heavy. Fender doesn't say how thick they are, but I've read they're around .9 mm, which is probably about right based on how they feel compared to the PW extra-heavy.

That's a stunner.

I use Pro Metronome, which works very well. It has a tap feature, so you can listen to a song and tap along with the beat to determine the tempo. I haven't used that feature much, but it's kinda cool.

Just sent you an mp3, though it's over a year old. I'm working on something else I hope to have done before the deadline. Just have to find the time.

Regarding the 6th string on 5th string barre chords, you can touch it to mute it as previously stated. You can also go ahead and extend the barre to the 6th string and play it if you want. Remember, the 6th string notes are the same as the first string notes, just two octaves lower. If you extend the barre to the 6th string and play it, you're just playing the fifth of the chord as the bass note. For example, say you're playing a 5th string barre C chord. Your barre is at the third fret, so if you extend the barre to the 6th string, you're adding a low G, the chord's fifth, as the bass note. That could be useful if you want to play an alternating bass between the 1st and 5th, or there may be other times it could come in handy if you want that lower bass note or just a slightly fuller sounding chord. I don't recommend it at this stage as barre chords are hard enough to learn, but file it away for future reference.

I guess I don't really have a favorite brand. I've never been a Martin guy, but I ran across a D-28 a couple of years ago that's fantastic, so it's in the stable. The best Martin I've ever run across, to my ear, was an M body if I recall correctly, basically a OOOO. It was amazing, but I wasn't in the market at the time. That was over 10 years ago, but it still feels like it's "the one that got away." My all-time favorite is my Breedlove Oregon Concert, all Myrtlewood. It blows me away every time I play it. I've played guitars from most major brands, the aforementioned Martin and Breedlove, as well as Taylor and Gibson, that highly impressed me. But I've also played some from all those brands that were absolute dogs. The most consistently good guitars I've played have been Larrivees. I don't remember ever having played a bad one. From their 03 to 09 and 50 and 60 series, all have been good, some great.

I'll work on the nut some more next time I change strings. The set that's on it now are virtually brand new, so I'll just play it as is for a while. Fender claims their Bullet strings help with tuning stability. Is there any truth to that? I have locking tuners and I've checked them out, so I don't think they're an issue. Thanks again guys.

I widened the strings slots slightly with sandpaper, very carefully. They may still be a little too tight, but I didn't want to go too far. Then I lubed the slots with graphite. Spent a lot of time trying to balance the tension and I probably have it as close as I'm going to get it. Sometimes it comes back in tune, others times the B is just a little sharp and the other five are good. It seems to me this type of platform would be nearly impossible to stay in tune all the time. I'll play it a while as is, but will probably wind up setting the bridge flush to the body in the long run. Thanks for your help guys.

Double checked the intonation and it's good to go. The B string, however, is now going back in tune and only the G string is a little sharp.

I changed the spring configuration to where all three are straight and put some graphite in the string slots. It's better, but still not there. The G comes back just a little sharp, and the B a little sharper still, but the high E comes back in tune, so that's a little mystifying. I'll give it some more playing time and see if it improves. Thanks again.

The center spring is straight and the two outside are angled. I'll change them to all straight and see if that helps. Thanks very much.

Looking for tips for adjusting the trem on a strat. I've changed to heavier strings and adjusted the trem to spec, the back elevated 1/8" off the body. Adjusted the truss rod after a settling in period, then let it settle a few days again for good measure. Neck relief is where I want it. The action and pickup heights are right at Fender's specs, at least for a starting point. I adjusted the intonation and it's spot on. The trem is good except two strings don't come back in tune after using it. The low E is a little flat, and the G is a little sharp. I'm guessing I may need to slightly tighten the claw screw on the bass side, and slightly loosen the one on the treble side. However, I'm thinking that may mess up the 1st and 2nd string tuning. I may wind up setting it flush to the body, and that would probably make things easier, but I'd like to try and get it right floating first. I probably need to have the string slots in the nut widened as well, but I don't have the right files for that. Any thoughts?

As already stated, you need to be able to enhance the music and compliment what others are playing. Since you're playing along with worship songs, that's a good start. Some things I recommend working on: 1. Dynamics. You need to be able to play softly and louder at the appropriate times and stay on rhythm. It's common to tend to speed up when playing louder, and slow down when playing softer, so be aware of that. 2. Chord changes. Make sure you can change chords smoothly. Also, work on embellishing a little between chords, with trills or bass runs for example. (If you have a bass player, bass runs won't be necessary.) 3. Arpeggios. Strumming obviously has its place, but there are times when arpeggiating a chord just sounds better, particularly during a softer part of a song. 4. As already mentioned, try to play something that compliments the other players. If you already have rhythm and lead players, that may be tough. The trills and arpeggios could be helpful there. You also may consider playing with different chord voicings. For instance, if a song is in the key of C, you could put a capo on the 5th fret and play with chord shapes from the key of G. Just be careful to not overdo it. That may work well on some songs, not so well on others. 5. Keep it simple. Less is more. Hope that helps.

This is my all-time favorite. Breedlove Oregon Concert, all Myrtlewood. I've been lucky enough to own a Goodall Koa concert jumbo with cedar top, which was an incredible guitar. This one isn't as loud as the Goodall, but the tone blows me away every time I play it, which is pretty much every day. It's so rich and resonant, and balanced as well. I almost passed it by when I was shopping, assuming the light wood would produce a somewhat brittle tone focused on the highs, similar to maple. I was dead wrong and count my blessings that I tried it out on a whim.

Beautiful, Mark. Great playing and great tone.

Thanks guys. The pics don't do her justice. As Rainman would say, "she's sparkly."

Another way to build chords is to stick to the root's major scale. If you know a chord's intervals and the notes of the scale, it's easier than thinking in terms of a relative minor key when building minor chords. For example, the intervals of a m7 chord are root - minor 3rd - perfect 5th - minor 7th. The notes of the E major scale are E - F# - G# - A - B - C# - D#. Therefore, the notes of an Em7 are E - G - B - D. The intervals of a m/M7 chord are root - minor 3rd - perfect 5th - major 7th. Therefore, the notes of an Em/M7 are E - G - B - D#. Hope that helps.

Thank you all. Grog, the set-up was good, pretty much to Fender specs when got it, including the action. I changed to heavier strings, so I'm setting it up again to adjust. I like a low action and an almost straight neck, so I'll set it up accordingly. It has a 12" fretboard radius is, flatter than a lot of electrics, and I like it.