Make a grown man cry. How to build a sad sounding blues guitar...

[David]

Hello folks.

What components would you use to make the sadest sounding blues guitar ever?  I don't mean "sad" as in the guitar sounds lame, but that it could bring someone to tears.  I know this is very subjective, but I think that is what makes is interesting.

Here are my thoughts:
All mahogany L5S body with 2 F holes.  It should be played clean on a P90 neck pickup.

I know color doesn't make a difference, but I am thinking Spectra Blue with black hardware and binding.

:sad:

 

[exalted]

The only blues that really want to make me cry are by Robert Johnson and Skip James.

And who knows what they were playing.  :icon_biggrin:

(Well, okay, I'm sure someone does...but I don't.)

 

[Nando Vallart]

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=6446.0

 

[Mor Paul]

Acoustic guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRsJlAJvOSM

After that, maybe a LP with P90s or PAF-style humbuckers.

 

[Vol. Knob]

No custom ax can play the blues.  You need a cheap Silvertone or a Kay, and the player has to be poor, drunk and hungry.  Some might suggest you can't play the blues on an ax you have to plug in.  A stock strat is too "boutique", IMHO.  But, then again, if I see one more 23 year old dork with his brand new MIM strat, bowling shirt, coiffed hair, showing up at the blues jam with his own 50 foot cable, playing all the riffs he learned on his "Play like SRV" DVD, while walking up to every chick within reach of said 50 foot cable, throwing his headstock up in the air while making a pained (and practiced) "Guitar Face"... then I'm gonna...  I'm gonna...  I'm gonna....  Well.... It won't be pretty.

What passes as "blues" these days is another genre completely, yet it falls under the same moniker.  Just like Musette in Paris of the 1910s, originally played on the bagpites, but taken over by the accordian and with all different songs, no longer a French style, taken over by Italian imagrants....  sorry...  Just making a comparison, I'm reading a book on Django Reinhardt right now and its covering the music genres of his day and their backstories...  I saw a parralel between Musette and the Blues...  I'm pestering everyone who'll listen with the aforementioned comparison....  Needless to say, my friends and family are more annoyed with me than usuall.....    

That said, play what you in your heart feels is "the right guitar", and then you will play what will make others notice.  Regardless of style or type of ax.  

A good "blues" player should be able to make his audience weep (in a good way) on a Rhodes V if he had to.

...and SRV is the worst thing to ever happen to the blues...  not that its the blues anymore... and what SRV was doing was not the blues...  It was Hendrix theft.  I can't stand SRV...  I can hear the cocaine oozing from his fingertips.  SRV is only slightly more annoying than Clapton.

 

[mayfly]

Great rant!  I pretty much agree.  "Blues" as an art form has died - all the players are doing it by rote and it's just just ... BORING now.

I show up at the blues jam and play hot country guitar  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Mor Paul]

SRV is only slightly more annoying than Clapton.

Now, what's wrong with Clapton? SRV wasn't my thing at all, but Clapton's my fav guitarist.

 

[ocguy106]

This is a guitar I built for my dad and got the exact tone I was after. Doesn't make me cry when I play it but when my dad does I come close....but I am biased I guess

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[David]

OCGUY,
Now that is what I am talking about.  Was that you playing?  Very nice.

I agree that a blues guitar should have character and a new custom guitar might be lacking the some of that, but clearly some guitars are better for blues than others.

In San Francisco this weekend I saw a homeless guy playing the blues on an super beat up acoustic guitar with a spoon.  I gave him my unfinished pizza and he was very appreciative.

 

[ocguy106]

Naw that wasn't me that was my Dad. I think his tone is incredible and his blues is very heartfelt. This was one of the first songs he played when he got the guitar so he didn't really know how to get his tone out of it yet...it has been about 6 months now and that guitar sounds absolutly beautiful now that he knows how to use it.

 

[Superlizard]

"It takes a big man to cry. It takes a bigger man to laugh at that man." - Jack Handey

 

[Sixbender]

"...and SRV is the worst thing to ever happen to the blues...  not that its the blues anymore... and what SRV was doing was not the blues...  It was Hendrix theft."

I've been saying that for years, and of course most think it's blasphemy of something. It's probably just age.
Nothing wrong with SRV, when viewed as a Hendrix cover artist.

 

[dbw]

No custom ax can play the blues.  You need a cheap Silvertone or a Kay, and the player has to be poor, drunk and hungry.

This is complete bull.  BB King does not play a Silvertone, and he is not poor, drunk, or hungry.  This is like saying, "To play punk you need a busted-ass strat with stickers on it, and the player has to have a British accent and a heroin habit."  Unless you're deaf in both ears you should just listen to the music and not worry about whether the person playing it fits your stereotypes.  Also all this moaning about how blues is dead and nobody "really" plays the blues anymore is just as annoying as people saying rock is dead, punk is dead, etc etc... if you think blues is dead then get your guitar, go out, and resurrect it.  Sheesh.

 

[Superlizard]

"To play punk you need a busted-ass strat with stickers on it, and the player has to have a British accent and a heroin habit."

Hey, I could pull that off.

Well, except the heroin habit...

 

[Nando Vallart]

No custom ax can play the blues.  You need a cheap Silvertone or a Kay, and the player has to be poor, drunk and hungry.

This is complete bull.  BB King does not play a Silvertone, and he is not poor, drunk, or hungry.

But he was...

 

[thumb55]

and then there are all the SRV cover artists....what are they exactly? :icon_scratch:

Think about it, the blues is a cover art really.  It's all these different guys playing different versions of the same songs that have been around for years.  Some take more from one guy than the others but hey we are all thieves aren't we? be honest......

Clapton admits (more or less) that he's a caretaker of the blues.  You think he hasn't spent some time listening to peoples records.

The thing that's funny about most of the people I've met is they are all about the Clapton, Beck, Page (Rolling Stones, etc.) stuff and it took a bunch of British guys to remind us of an american music style.

I know I probably pissed some people off, but there is some truth in what I'm saying.

 

[Superlizard]

Clapton admits (more or less) that he's a caretaker of the blues.  You think he hasn't spent some time listening to peoples records.

To add - Clapton lost his son - that's more than enough to have the "blues" (speaking of "authenticity").

The thing that's funny about most of the people I've met is they are all about the Clapton, Beck, Page (Rolling Stones, etc.) stuff and it took a bunch of British guys to remind us of an american music style.

...and God bless Jim Marshall.  :icon_biggrin:  :icon_thumright:

 

[GoDrex]

"...and SRV is the worst thing to ever happen to the blues...  not that its the blues anymore... and what SRV was doing was not the blues...  It was Hendrix theft."

I've been saying that for years, and of course most think it's blasphemy of something. It's probably just age.
Nothing wrong with SRV, when viewed as a Hendrix cover artist.

I'm not a big fan of SRV, but I used to have one of his records and he did a lot more blues "styles" than just Hendrix stuff. IMO.

I'll admit, I play the blues scale a lot because it just sounds good.

 

[dbw]

SRV plays blues with a heavy rock (read: Hendrix) influence.  Maybe blues purists don't think it's blues but it's pretty damn bluesy.

I'm not a big SRV fan but I am a big Clapton fan... not during his blues-rock years but I love all the bands he was in back in the day.  And his Unplugged rules.

 

[Mor Paul]

Clapton admits (more or less) that he's a caretaker of the blues.  You think he hasn't spent some time listening to peoples records.

He learned guitar by listening to those records. I don't think he had a real teacher, just a cheap guitar, some records, and a lot of practice. He also was a troubled kid, not knowing his "sister" was his mom, not ever knowing his dad, and that sort of thing.