Japanese LOVE guitar!

So I’m finally back from my trip, and all I can really say to start things off is that Japan loves guitar more than we do.

Much more.

I mean, WAAAAAAY more.



I had known this for quite some time, having been to Japan nine times before this recent trip. You can see it on TV, in their magazines, and most definitely in the quality of music stores. In all deference to the Sam Ash’s and Guitar Center’s we have, they are really nothing compared to the Japanese guitar stores.

There is a particular place in Japan that I love to go — Jimbocho. Just in between two stations on the rail line is a long stretch of guitar stores. Wherever you turn your head there is another guitar store. Going down a back alley for a bottle of Pocari Sweat? No problem! There will be a guitar store there.

Entire stores just for acoustics?

The five-story Gibson store is quite nice. An entire floor just for semi- and full-hollowbody guitars, not to mention the 40 Les Pauls, acoustics, and every other Gibson you can think of. I found my dream Gibson ES-335 there; too bad I just don’t have the money to get one.

In Japan they even have several stores for just acoustic guitars. I don’t just mean maybe one or two, I mean several.

I’m telling you, whatever you want, they have it.

What’s best, and I apologize for the few great salespeople I’ve met here in the U.S., but what’s best about guitar stores in Japan has to be talking to the knowledgeable people working at the stores. You can tell that they not only love guitar, but they know what they’re talking about, too. You can easily find someone there who speaks enough English to have a great conversation about anything related to guitar. There was one store in particular where I spent some time with a very cool salesperson (who learned English from the UK) and we talked about Ibanez guitars for a while. For no particular reason other than just to talk about Ibanez guitars. He could tell me the differences between all of the different models, the woods, and just about anything else you wanted to know. And not just cursory information, but spec by spec. Not to mention that in general the Japanese guitar stores stock way more models — of any and all guitars — than U.S. stores do.

Build your own guitar?

One of my favorite stores is an ESP retail shop where you can choose the raw wood block to have your guitar custom made from. I had never really thought about (or cared about) this before; I figured if a guitar looks good and plays good then that was good enough for me. But, thinking about it more… the chance to actually pick the specific piece of wood to have my guitar built from is very intriguing. I’m not a huge ESP fan, but they do seem to do a good job by their supporters.

And I haven’t even mentioned the amps and effects!

Lots of great, high-end stuff for your wandering eyeballs. Just bear in mind that if you decide to buy something in Japan you will have the receipt stapled to your passport, which pretty much guarantees that you will have to pay a tax/duty for your new purchase on the way back to your homeland.

I could go on and on, but I have a few more post ideas in mind so I don’t want to blow it all at once. Suffice it to say that if you are a fan of guitar you really need to see how the Japanese do it, because they do it right! American guitar stores should all visit Jimbocho and see how the pros do it. I could literally spend a month just perusing all of the stores, making friends, and playing all of the swanky gear!

Japan Report: Part 1 – Japan Loves Guitar More Than We Do! is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Well, a new DVD has come out recently that will hopefully change that.

Every Monday night, Les took over the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City for a jam session, which usually includes any and all of the great names in music. You name the person, he was either on stage playing with Les or in the audience stealing secrets from him.

Les Paul – Live in New York is a concert DVD collection of Les’ final live performances, filmed at the Iridium in honor of his 90th birthday. With special guest performances and interviews with the likes of Steve Miller, Tommy Emmanuel, Keith Richards, and Bonnie Raitt, one only has to imagine how great this DVD is.

Well, you really don’t have to imagine it, you can watch it. Such is the miracle of modern technology. This 120-minute DVD features a full complement of musical talent (over 21 songs are performed), and a bonus feature includes nine full songs of audio.

Les Paul with his Les Paul

What I really love about the DVD isn’t necessarily the music – though believe me when I tell you that the playing is phenomenal. No, what I really love the most are the interactions between Les and the other musicians, as well as Les and the audience. It’s very easy to see why everyone loved Les; a true musical genius and very gracious and larger-than-life personality. You can tell just by watching him perform that he absolutely loves guitar and music. He truly does say more with far fewer notes than the rest of us.

You can also tell how much the audience loves and appreciates Les. Shots of the audience during the performances show an adoring crowd hanging on every word and note. Certainly, most of us could only wish for that.

Fans of Les Paul will certainly appreciate this DVD, and so recommending it to them is a no-brainer. For the rest of the guitarists out there, however, who probably don’t know much about Les past the guitar named after him, I highly recommend picking this up. Not only will you see a true guitar master at work, but you’ll understand how it’s really about what you say and not how fast or distorted you say it. Even with crippling arthritis in his fingers he still manages to speak volumes with only a few simple note choices. We could only be so lucky as to have his talent, but we can certainly appreciate his contribution by watching him perform.

Les Paul – Live in New York (DVD) is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Gibson J-45 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar

My First Electric Guitar

Well, before too long a few friends of mine put together a band, so I naturally needed an electric. Luckily, a friend of my dad’s was looking to sell a late 50′s Gretsch anniversary model plus amp, for about $150. Ah, the good old days. Playing the Gretsch with its flatwound strings was like entering another world. Here was an instrument that wasn’t fighting me, and I loved it. Well, you guessed it, the love didn’t last too long, because my friends were soon off to college, the band dispersed, and I began looking for an acoustic. Enter a 1967 Gibson J-45 dreadnought, probably one of the instruments I owned for the longest time….about 20 years. …until it had an unplanned fall and suffered a cracked bridge. I was referred to John Monteleone’s shop for the repair, and John gave me an estimate of $250 to make a completely new rosewood bridge. Since I had only paid $165 for the guitar new, this seemed a bit much, although, looking back, it was probably pretty reasonable. And, at least I got to meet  Mr. Monteleone, maker of some truly unique instruments. I finally did have the original bridge repaired, but the job wasn’t anything to write home about. For quite a few years, I barely picked up the guitar, mostly to sing for my young son.

I don’t know when the urge to pick up the guitar again hit me, probably sometime in the mid-eighties, but I do recall making many trips to the local Sam Ash music store to check out all the shiny new instruments hanging on the wall. Each one beckoned to me to become “the one” that would not only make my playing better (or at least “sound better,”)  but would fulfill that sense of “something’s missing” from the previous guitar I owned. Well, you can imagine where this line of thinking led me. Guitars shuttled in and out of my closets like locals arriving at a train station. Among them, guitars by Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker, Guild, Yamaha, Takamine, and Taylor.  At one point there were guitars in 3 closets, and none of them was “the one.”

Time to Step It Up

Well, fast forward to 2004, when I thought I had truly found the instrument of my dreams: a D’Angelico New Yorker reissue. I first saw it at a local guitar show, and finally found a New York city dealer that had one in a natural blond finish. Heaven, and all for only $3,000.  I should stop a minute to add that I did sell several other guitars to purchase this one, and if ever there’s a lesson to be learned it’s this: Give up on the idea that a guitar is a good investment & you will actually make some money on a resale. It never happened. In fact, I’ve lost money on every instrument I’ve ever sold. Maybe if you’re lucky enough to own an original D’Angelico you’ll make a profit, but not on a mass manufacturer’s instrument.

So, here I was with my latest “must have” guitar, happily playing it for a year when I began to realize that it was way too big for me and not all that comfortable. Hmmm …what to do? Risk my marriage by telling my husband this expensive guitar he had just bought for me was not filling the bill either? So, I did nothing…..I’m a good wife. Finally, I did tell him, and being a great husband, he agreed to stop by Mandolin Brothers to see what they might have, with the understanding that I’d trade in the D’Angelico. Much to my delight, I found a smaller bodied D’Aquisto reissue that had all the attributes I was looking for. So, the deal was made for another $3,000 guitar, and I soon sold the D’Angelico on eBay…more or less. That long saga of criminality is enough to fill an article of its own.

The Sadowsky Jimmy Bruno Signature Guitar

Finding the Guitar of My Dreams

So, I thought I was done with buying guitars…so did my husband…….until 2005. We attended the Classic American Guitar Show on Long Island, NY, as we always did, and through our friend, the brilliant guitarist Jimmy Bruno, we were introduced to master luthier Roger Sadowsky. As luck would have it, this was the year that Roger unveiled his new Jimmy Bruno model, a small-bodied (14″ at the lower bout) laminate guitar. As we visited with Roger at his booth, he handed me the guitar to check out. Now, I knew how dangerous this was, even if my husband didn’t. First, it was aesthetically stunning, with workmanship second to none, and it bore the name of my favorite player of all time. So, I graciously took the guitar in hand and sat down to check it out. Even unamplified, this was the guitar of my dreams, the one I had been searching for from the beginning. But, what could I do? Just the year before, my husband had bought me the D’Aquisto. I had to just grit my teeth and walk away. But, the guitar never left my thoughts, especially since I was involved with Jimmy’s new interactive website, JBGI, and saw Jimmy play it every day.

Finally, the 2006 guitar show rolled around and there we were back at Roger’s booth. I’ll never forget Roger’s first words when he saw us: “Are you back to kick the tires?”  We still joke about it. No, I wasn’t back to kick the tires, I knew this was the guitar I had been looking for for over 40 years. I had never played an instrument with a neck that rivaled this one; so smooth, so comfortable, such fast action, with the most incredible fretwork I’d ever seen. I’ve often described the difference between other guitars and Sadowskys as being the difference between driving a truck and driving a sports car. It may sound like an exaggeration, but to me, it’s dead-on accurate.

I’ve owned my Jimmy Bruno model Sadowsky for almost 4 years now, and a few months ago, added another Sadowsky to the family: a stunning natural finish semi-hollow body, based on the body size of the JB. I love them both, and for the first time in years, I can finally say that I play all of my guitars now, which is what it’s all about, isn’t it?

My 45-Year Quest for the Perfect Guitar is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.