The Twang! Gigging The Gear
Care for your equipment and it will take better care of you, says steely Dan’s Elliott Randall
Mounting the darkened stage area, I’m directed across the space by a stagehand with a flashlight, and over to my guitar tech who straps me in, waits for my quick examination followed by a thumbs up, then it’s over to my rig to plug in and get ready to make music. Let’s examine the process before the first notes are played…
Prior to being handed the guitar, it had been duly cleaned, fitted with fresh strings that were stretched and stressed – and tuned and retuned at numerous steps in the process.The fret surfaces had been checked and intonation adjusted with a high-end Conn or Peterson Strobe Tuner. These tuners are the ‘diamond standard’, enabling the operator to look deeply into the harmonic spectrum of the note being played.
There had also been a soundcheck and it had been determined that all the amps, cables, foot pedals, batteries and stompboxes were working properly while gaffer tape had secured movable items. There is a backup guitar amp behind the one I’ll be playing because, sometimes, no matter how well one plans, things can go wrong. There are also backup guitars, extra cables and a nice supply of virgin guitar picks.
This is, of course, an optimum scenario, and one that many hugely talented guitarists might never get to experience. That said, I think that the process above should be examined for use in other gigging situations. So let’s go over it step by step.
The DIY Method
Cleaning: If there is dirt on the neck of your guitar it will transfer itself to your fingers, which will then travel to the string surface and quickly cause your wound strings to sound dull. They won’t have that beautiful ring! By the way, did you wash your hands before picking up that guitar? It’s a serious question.
Here’s my own MO. After removing the old set of strings, I use a damp wash cloth to rub the dirt from the fretboard and the back of the neck. This requires using numerous small patches of the cloth. I like to use a toothbrush to get at the worked-in dirt where the frets meet the wood. Then another clean cloth for the lemon oil treatment. Use a small dab of pure lemon oil for the fretboard and let it soak in. Patience. It makes for a smooth play once it’s ready.
Fresh strings: This could be chalked off to personal preferences, but for me, a guitar sounds best when the strings are new.The resonant quality is so inspiring and when you’re looking to rock out using feedback, fresh strings simply cannot be beat. Guitar feedback is all about simultaneous oscillation (the strings, the pickup, the speakers), and since the strings are the first point of this oscillation… I’m sure you get it. The ‘stretched and stressed’ part is a technique one develops over time. If you don’t prep your new strings before playing, your tuning is likely to go south quickly – but you know that. I’m also very careful when winding the new strings on to their posts – when they’re not perfectly aligned they can slip and cause your string to go flat.
Tuning: I love this one. My personal preference is still tuning by ear. I love a good A=440 Hz tuning fork. But, realistically, when performing, it’s often too difficult to find a space quiet enough for such analogue tuning, so it’s down to electronics. Get one you can read easily. Incidentally, I find a better result (ie, clearer reading) when playing the harmonic on the 12th fret, rather than simply playing the open string. If you pay close attention to your tuner’s display, you’ll notice that when the string is first plucked, its initial pitch is slightly sharp, then it settles into ‘perfect’. It’s physics!
We’ll move further through the performance chain in my next column, but in closing, just remember that the better you take care of your equipment, the better it will take care of you.