THE GUITAR SOLUTION

THE GUITAR SOLUTION

EXTENSION CHORDS

by Allen Hester

Every guitarist has a story to tell—usually a horror story—about his or her first guitar. First guitars are almost always bad ones, with warped necks, excessively high string action, necks that are too wide for a young player's hands, and off the wall names that nobody ever heard of. Learning to play on one of these bargain basement monsters is more of an exercise in withstanding pain and misery than it is the joyous experience of making one's own music. There can be no doubt that thousands of would-be guitarists were discouraged and gave up trying to learn to play, simply because the first guitar they picked up couldn't have been played by Segovia, much less by a beginner.

Another problem with learning to play guitar is that young people want a guitar that looks and sounds like the ones that their heroes use. As a former guitar instructor I can tell you that it is awfully hard to convince a kid who is really hooked on guitar that his 50-dollar gut-string Korean-made guitar is going to do the trick. This creates a problem for both the student, who doesn't want to practice on his cheapie, as well as a problem for the kid's parents, who cannot justify buying an electric guitar and an amplifier for a kid who may never learn to play.

So here's the rub: How do you get started learning to play rock `n' roll guitar without spending the family's life savings, and yet still avoid the pain, embarrassment and frustration of trying to learn on a guitar that is worthless? Well, you grab your old man by the arm and drag him down to the music store and show him the Peavey T15 Guitar with Electric Case. The T-15 i~ a dual-pick up solid-body electric guitar that is not just a beginner's guitar, but a real professional instrument that has been tailored, both in features and in price, to accomodate both the student and the working pro.

The T-15 has a special 231/2-inch scale length which makes for an easier reach for young players, as well as easier,,, faster playing for the experienced player. The arch of the fingerboard is on a 12-inch radius, which allows strings to be bent without buzzing and fretting out. The frets on the T-15 are made of 18% nickel-silver with a high crown and good width, so that strings can be bent easily without the fingers slipping off the strings.

The body is made from hand-selected hardwood and is slightly smaller than the T-60 because of the slightly shorter scale length. It is a double cutaway design with forearm and ribcage contours that allow the guitar to rest easily on the player. The neck is made of hard rock maple, and had a steel truss rod with rolled threads for improved strength. The topnut is made of die-cast metal, and the tuning gears are enclosed, with ivory-colored knobs.

The two single-coil pickups can be used separately on in unison, and are controlled by master volume and tone controls. A three-way toggle switch selects neck, bridge, or both pickups The exposed blade polepieces on the 1-15's pickups are more suitable for rock 'n' roll guitar playing because no matter how far a string is bent~ the polepiece is always directly underneath the string. This design goes back almost 50 years to the old "Charlie Christian model" pickup by Gibson which featured a solid blade polepiece, and other manufacturers have revived this old design and improved It to accomodate today's playing styles.

The master volume on the T-15 is a tonecompensating control, which means that when the control is turned down, high-fre quency loss is minimalized~ This is a good feature, but it is an accepted rule of thumb that volume should be controlled at the amplifier whenever possible. When operated at full volume, the master volume serves to maximize the tonal range of the guitar.

The bridge assembly is triple chrome plated, and support is provided at three points for stability and maximum adjust ment of height and neck angle. A single, intonation-compensating bridge saddle is adjustable at both the treble and bass sides:

The 1-15 is fully adjustable with respect to action height, intonation, pickup strength, and proper neck angle. It is a guitar that any player could play with pride, whether as a beginner or a veteran player. But what about this Electric Case?

Well, to start with, it should be noted that every T-15 guitar comes complete with a molded hardshell case for less than 200 bucks; the Electric Case comes with its own built-in amplifier and speaker for only 50 dollars more. The Electric Case eliminates a lot of problems both for guitar students and for professionals by making it so much easier to practice and move around without lugging an amplifier along.

The 10-watt amplifier in the Electric Case features both preand postgain controls, which enables the player to get the distorted rock sound at low practice volume levels. The amplifier has a wide range equalization control, as well as highand low-gain imputs. The Electric Case can be a real lifesaver for the student who has to ride a bus or walk to his lessons, and it provides enough of the right kind of amplification for the student until he or she can afford that first amplifier.

When that time comes, Peavey has a new Solo Series of small portable amplifiers that are fully professional. There are three new models, each of which feature a new Peavey circuit design called Saturation, which yields “gain Compression” in a fashion similar to a vacuum tube that has been driven .to its limits. The saturation feature is a breakthrough in circuitry that synthesizes the action of overdriven tubes, and the amount of this saturation effect is infinitely controllable from the front panel of the map and is remotely selectable by use of an external footswitch.

Of the three amps in the Solo series, the Renown is the most powerful at 160 watts RMS into 4 ohms. The Renown has two 12-inch Scorpion speakers, which are new speakers developed at Peavey that feature a 2V2-inch aluminum ribbon voice coil. The Renown has Hi and Lo sensitivity inputs, Preand post-gain controls, ^and two channels with Automix channel switching, footswitch included. A three-band passive EQ plus active presence control combined with Pull Bright and Pull Thick (harmonic boost) controls give the amplifier an extremely wide tonal range. The Renown has a footswitch selectable reverb, effects patching loop, impedance matching output transformer, external speaker jack and a ground reversal/lift switch.

The Peavey Special amp has all the features of the Renown, the only differences being an RMS power rating of 120 watts into 4 or 8 ohms, and a single 12-inch Scorpion speaker.

The smallest amp on the new Solo series, the Bandit, has 50 watts of RMS power into 8 ohms, and come with one 12-inch heavy duty or Scorpion speaker. The Bandit has all the features of the other two models with the exception of the impedance matching output transformer, the external speaker jack and the ground reversal/lift switch;

Once again Peavey has come up with products that are sensible, reasonably priced, and suitable for use by musicians at every stage of playing ability and experience. Whether you are a beginner or a professional, Peavey has equipment that you can afford, and that you can count on. I don’t know how they do it, but they just keep getting better every year. ^