Bluegrass (Pickers)

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Comment by steven picheta on February 9, 2011 at 3:39pm

All are wecome, just like to hear from people with common interests. I am kinda new to guitar and very new to online community stuff.

Comment by Michael S. Jackson on February 8, 2011 at 6:45pm

Ya'll might be interested in several posts I made at the group "The Music Link Acoustic Instruments," One of the entries is on the Recording King banjo. However, there are also posts on three guitars that are pretty good deals.
Thanks - m

Comment by Ken Bellingham on February 8, 2011 at 1:21pm

Hi Michael,

   Welcome to the group.  It might be presumptuous of me to speak for the group, but I am glad to see you here, and I expect the others are as well.  Steven just began the group fairly recently, and we remain small in number, and so far, fairly inactive.  However, I would expect it to have great potential among guitar players, so I am hoping to see it flourish.  Possibly, many others consider that it has too much overlap with the "Flatpickers" discussion group to require a separate division, but flatpicking as a playing technique is applicable to many genres of music.  Bluegrass music, or acoustic string music which has developed out of bluegrass is what I listen to most often and what I am most interested in learning to play.  With your thirty years of experience, I expect you will have much to contribute. 

   Thus far, the five of us here are also members of the "Martin Owners" discussion group, so in that sense we are already somewhat acquainted.  Your interest prompts me to initiate a new discussion topic that might enable us to become better acquainted.

Comment by Michael S. Jackson on February 8, 2011 at 12:06pm

If you'll have me, I'd like to join this group. I've been playing bluegrass for 30 years, primarily banjo and guitar but also a bit of fiddle, mandolin, and dobro.

I'm curious what is written on the guitar in the picture....?

Comment by steven picheta on February 4, 2011 at 4:23am

Thanks Ken, I'm going to start looking over these web sites.

Comment by Ken Bellingham on February 3, 2011 at 7:46pm

For CDs, check out www.bluegrasssupply.com

   www.acousticdisc.com (David Grisman)

   www.fgmrecords.com (Flatpicking Guitar Magazine)

 

CDs, guitar tablature, and instructional material available at:

   www.flapickingmercantile.com  (Flatpicking Guitar Magazine)

   www.musixnow.com  (Dix Bruce)

   www.flatpik.com  (Steve Kaufman)

   www.homespun.com  (Happy Traum)

 

A couple of guitar tablature books I have really enjoyed learning from are by:

      Jack Tuttle  www.jacktuttle.com

and Rick Williams   www.bluegrassbooksonline.com

 

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine provides a lot of tablature in every issue, and you can get an accompanying CD with each issue to hear what is printed on the page.

 

Also, explore these websites:

     www.theguitarport.com/instruction.htm

     www.flatpickerhangout.com

 

This is hardly an exhaustive list, but it will get you started.

Comment by steven picheta on February 3, 2011 at 5:50pm

Hello all, Anyone now where to find Bluegrass CD's and/or sheet music?

Comment by steven picheta on February 3, 2011 at 3:40pm

I favor Martins, but like Ken wrote make sure your new guitar is easy for you to play Linus28.

Comment by Ken Bellingham on February 2, 2011 at 5:07pm

I agree with you entirely Linus.  So much of the tone comes from a player's hands.  Have you listened to the first "Tone Poems" album with David Grisman and Tony Rice playing mandolin / guitar duets?  The idea of the album was to feature the instruments, so each track was recorded using a different pair of instruments.  But they are both such good players that I was struck more by the similarities than by the differences in the sound of the instruments.

 

Have fun in your search for a new guitar.  You don't have to be in a hurry.  The search is a good part of the enjoyment, and it can take a while to make meaningful comparisons and to develop your ear to hear some of the differences.  Playability is also important.  After playing for a while, I became more particular about the shape and width of the neck, for instance. 

 

I have long been a fan of Martin guitars.  For sure, if an HD-28 is in your budget, that's going to be a top contender for your wallet.  I have a friend who brings one over to play.  It sounds wonderful, and he is greatly infatuated with it.  I have two other friends who own D-18 GEs, and they also sound marvelous.  Mahogany is probably underappreciated as a tonewood, but it has great warmth.  Sitting across from these guys when we are playing, I think I get to enjoy their guitars more than they do, because you get the fuller sound out front than from behind the guitar playing it.

 

If you are hesitant to make that kind of investment just yet, check out the line of Blueridge Guitars.  They seem to be pretty high quality for the money.

 

I have a lot of respect for the Seagull guitars, by the way.  I steered a friend into buying one for his son a while back.  Before you purchase another, you should decide exactly what you want from a guitar that your Seagull is not delivering.

 

So what tunes are you working on?

Comment by Ken Bellingham on February 2, 2011 at 12:12pm

Have you listened to what James Nash of The Waybacks can do on his Santa Cruz OM?  Of course, I realize that most of what The Waybacks play is not bluegrass, but James grew up around Nashville, and I think he cut his teeth on bluegrass.  I have heard him rip off some blazing fiddle tunes.  But I agree that the Martin drreadnought is the traditional choice.  Bluegrass is considered traditional American music, and bluegrass players are inclined to be traditionalists by nature, so it may only be for that reason that jumbos are not often seen in bluegrass bands, since they were a later development in the evolution of guitars.  I have very little experience with the jumbo model, but I would expect that they would fit in very well in a bluegrass ensemble.

 

Welcome to the group Linus28.  I understand you were only being facetious, but it was an opportunity to register a comment and reply to both you and Steven.  Of all the groups on this website, this Bluegrass (Pickers) group is the one closest to my own musical interests, and I would like to see it attract more members and flourish.

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