I think we can all agree that there are a number of ways to go about learning music, but when it comes to, learning rock guitar (or any kind of guitar, for that matter) one’s choices are narrowed down a bit. Pop music songbooks usually are sketchy and inaccurate affairs with come-on titles like “Super Hits of the Eighties”, and the chord diagrams can transform a Frampton tune into something that sounds like John Denver. And you can forget finding a rock guitar solo written out either in standard notation or guitar tablature, except in rare Instances. (I will say, and I hope it gets printed, that Oak Publications offer the best guitar instruction books I’ve ever run across, but even so, Oak concentrates primarily on older stuff, traditional blues, slide, finger-picking and flatpicking styles of greats such as Doc Watson, Clarence White, and so forth. Not much help to the guy who is in hot pursuit of the contemporary rockers.) So where does this leave the student of rock guitar?

Well, what usually happens is this. The rock guitarist tries to copy licks off records by his favorite guitarists, usually with no visual aids at all, just ears, fingers, and a whole lot of determination. That is the way most guitarists learn.

One of the more exasperating aspects of all this is getting set up to practice at home. You’ve got to get your stereo system and your guitar and amp in the same place, gef everything plugged in, hooked up, tuned, and ready to go (whew!). Then it’s back and forth from the stereo to the amp and guitar, getting the volume levels the same, cueing up the song you are trying to learn, and hoping that you don’t electrocute yourself in the process. If you are fortunate enough to own a small practice amp for home use, it’s not so bad, but suppose you only have one large amp, and it is either in a club, or halfway across town at the band’s rehearsal hall, or locked up in the equipment truck. What then?

Well, you get yourself a little gizmo called a Matchmate, made by Whirlwind Audio, the people who make high quality cables and snakes of various description. The Matchmate is so simple, yet so useful, that you will wonder how you ever got along without one. What it is, and what it does, is this: It is a device that connects between your turntable and your stereo amp by way of two pairs of female phono jacks (Phono In and Phono Out, Left and Right channels). All that happens on the rear panel of the ’Mate. On the front panel, there are two standard Vi” female phone inputs for your guitar. A simple rotary pot on the top of the unit serves as a blend control that allows you to balance the guitar and stereo system signals to suit your taste without ever moving from your chair in front of the stereo. Inside the Matchmate, the impedance of your guitar’s signal is adjusted to match (hence the name) that of the stereo turntable. This prevents damage to your stereo speakers caused by a mismatched guitar signal that is too “hot” for your stereo system.

However, you must keep one thing in mind. The Matchmate is not an effect in the sense that phase shifters, echo units, and such are; it is not going to alter or enhance the sound of your guitar. It won’t automatically put you in tune with the record, and it won’t automatically make your guitar sound like Jeff Beck’s. Fortunately, those things are left up to you! It can be very frustrating to try to get someone else’s sound off a record, but you must remember that the record was made in a studio with the aid of numerous sound modification tools, and there is no way you are gong to be able to duplicate exactly the tone that you hear on the record. So don’t let that bother you; just concentrate on learning the song, the chords, the solos, the harmonies, and so forth. When you go to rehearsal and set up your stage rig, then you can try to emulate the exact sound of the song you learned at home. With a Matchmate, that learning process should be considerably easier.

YAMAHA ELECTRIC GUITARS

The January 1979 edition of CREEM included an electric guitar supplement that was intended to bring the readers up-to-date on the latest developments in electric guitar designs among the major manufacturers, both in this country and in Japan. The new Yamaha SG-1500 and SG-2000 electric guitars were not mentioned in that article simply because they were so new that we couldn’t get hold of one for evaluation in time for that issue. So, to bring you the latest word from Yamaha, here’s a brief description of two new solid-body electrics from the land of the rising sun.

The two models are basically the same, the biggest exception being that the less expensive model, the SG-1500, has chrome-plated hardware and a different body laminate construction. The SG-2000 has all gold-plated hardware and a single maple centerpiece that runs from the top of the headstock through the entire length of the body, whereas the SG-1500 has a separate maple centerpiece for the neck and another one intheceriterofthebody. In both cases, the necks are glued on, not bolted. The sides of the neck and the sides of the body on both models are mahogany, and the tops are maple. The popular double-cut-away design is used on both models, and the cutaways themselves come to a sharp Florentine-style point rather than being rounded off (they look sorta like the old Danelectro “longhorn” cutaways).

The fretboards are made of ebony instead of rosewood; Yamaha’s reasoning being the ebony is harder and smoother than rosewood, and string-bending is easier because of less resistance from the fingerboard. In addition, the inlays in the neck are genuine mother-of-pearl instead of plastic. Mother-of-pearl is harder than plastic, so by the same reasoning as that applied to the choice of ebony over rosewood, mother-of-pearl offrers less resistance to string-bending.

The truss rods in the new Yamahas are pre-curved and encased in a vinyl sheath. The curved rod distributes counter-tension and smoothly across the entire neck, rather than compressing the neck in the traditional fashion, and the vinyl sheath helps arrest sympathetic vibrations which can cause unwanted buzzes and resonances.

The SG-1500 and 2000 are both equipped with two humbucking pickups, separate volume and tone controls for each, a 3way toggle switch, and an adjustable bridge with stud tailpiece. That sould be familiar to most everybody, at least at first glance. The Yamaha guitars are distinguished by a number of subtle improvements on the seemingly ordinary guitar pickup and wiring design.

The pickups are placed in the usual spots on the guitar, and mounted like those found on everybody else’s guitars of the same ilk. But Yamaha realized that even the so-called “humbucking” pickup is not totally free of extraneous noise, since it is an electro-magnetic high impedance device, and is subject to RF interference (CB radios, neon lights, AC line hum, etc.). So they took the time to fully shield both pickups and wire the two coils of each pickup “out-of-phase”, so that an interfering hum would induce equal but opposite voltages, thereby cancelling out each other. The result: no Hum.

The volume and tone controls are unique in that they are independent of each other; this prevents a drastic alteration in tone when the volume level is dropped. Also, the volume and tone controls are smooth and consistent from 0 to 10, instead of having an uneven response (and in some cases with older guitars, no response at all past 6 or 7 on the volume pots).

The tailpiece is pretty much standard fere; individually adjustable bridge saddles for setting intonation have a slightly longer throw than most, so there should be no problem in getting the “into” adjusted. Underneath the brdige is a brass sustain block, an idea that originated with Alembic, and a definite factor in enhancing the sustain of the instrument. The thumb screws on the tailpiece are slightly bigger than most, and that makes it a little easier to adjust the bridge heighth. There’s nothing unusual about the stud tailpiece except that it has a scroll engraving which some may find attractive.

One point that the Yamaha service people pointed out to me was that although the SG-2000 looks like a double-cutaway Les Paul, itis constructed to be compatible with light-gauge strings and low, fast action. It is true that in the old days, heavy-gauge strings and a high action were the standard of the day (nobody back then played with a set of super-slinky strings and an unwrapped third string!); consequently the guitars that were built thqn were optimized for the heavy strings. Yamaha’s SG guitars come equipped with a set of slinky strings (.009, .011, .016, .024, .032, .042) and are adjustable and set up at the factory for fast action playing. The scale length from nut to bridge is 243A inches, and both the SG-1500 and SG-2000 have 22 frets. The nut, by the way, is made of ivory, something that you don’t ever see on new guitars anymore, and it adds a subtle touch of class to the instrument, aside from being the best material for a guitar nut, brass included! These guitars are lighter than a Les Paul, weighing in at 9.8 pounds. The tuning pegs are rated at 15:1 ratio, higher than most others, and they are adjustable with respect to individual tension on each tuner.

The Yamaha guitars are finished in a highgloss lacquer and bound with an attractive off-white celluloid binding on the body, neck and headstock. The SG-1500 is available in Cherry Sunburst or Black, and the SG-2000 comes in those two colors as well as Cherry, Tobacco Sunburst, and plain old Tobacco.

I don’t expect these new Yamaha guitars to be the last word in electric guitars, but I don’) know of anything else that is, either. They are simply well-made instruments, straight-forward in design, and worthy of a serious musician. I would not consider it a waste of time to try one our the next time you go to the music store in your area (and don’t forget to ask them if they have any left-handed strings!). See ya in the charts...