Photos from the event.
Tonight we were lucky to have some of CRAS's own axe slingers come and give us the low down on guitars and amplifiers and what factors into the many sounds they create. The answer? Everything is a factor!! and they all work together starting, first and foremost with the guitar player him/herself. Jeff, Bobby, Terry, and Dave were able to break it down a bit more specifically for us talking about different types of tubes, speakers, pickups, tonal woods, body styles, etc.
Terry led things off by getting into the science of how tubes actually amplify voltage, and how this process in turn creates natural compression, some even order harmonics that produces the warm sound that many guitar players and listeners are drawn to.
Jeff, in honor of tubes, started us out with a YouTube video that demonstrated the different sounds of many types of speakers playing the exact same riff on the exact same set-up. This is a big part of the sound you want for playing live or recording, and Jeff showed of the versatility of a speaker cabinet he built himself that actually has 2 different types of speakers in it. Either can be mic'd up depending on the sound he's going for at that time.
Bobby took us on a journey back through time to when the first electric guitar was built (The Frying Pan in 1931), and up its family tree. A few offspring of that first guitar were the Gibson ES 150 (1935), Les Paul's first solid body in 1940, and the first mass produced electric guitars by Leo Fender in the 1950's.
Next, Dave brought his luthier knowledge to the table and talked to us about different types of wood used in the production of modern guitars. Some examples would be maple (the brightest sounding), mahogany, rosewood, ash, and alder. He also went into the basic components of bridge and neck designs. The guys fielded questions from our eager group and then....finally.....we got what we came for....the results of all those factors working together in sweet, distorted, harmony....A taste of the ear candy from the guitar gods!! Terry and Bobby shredded some licks on different amps, with different tubes and speakers, with many guitars, giving us an idea of the spectrum of possibilities and sounds from the beloved electric guitar.
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