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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<The Acoustic Guitar Wire<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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1. Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Wire No. 11
2. News and Notes
3. New at Acoustic Guitar Central
4. It's Not the Heat, It's the Humidity
5. Win a Bundle
6. Ear Training on the Web
7. Highlights from Upcoming Issues of Acoustic Guitar
8. Carvin Giveaway
9. Great New Books from String Letter Publishing
10. Win a Free CD
11. Gig from Hell
12. A.G. Wire Archives
13. Contact and Unsubscribe Info

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Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Wire No. 11.
Enjoy the latest acoustic music news, information
about happenings online, advance notice of special offers
and giveaways, and previews of new publications from String
Letter Publishing. You'll also get tips and advice about
guitars, gear, and playing, plus a few jokes and the chance
to win a free guitar and amp package or a bundle of CDs.

This newsletter is best viewed in 10-point Courier.
Our hyperlinks are formatted to be "hot" in most mail
readers. If your reader doesn't support click-through
linking from email, just cut and paste the URLs into your
Web browser.

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News and Notes

Acoustic Guitar is sponsoring the National Guitar
WorkshopÕs Acoustic Summit, to be held in San Francisco,
California, July 14-19. Instructors will include a variety
of renowned steel-string fingerstylists (Laurence Juber, Ed
Gerhard, John Knowles, William Coulter), flatpickers Dix
Bruce and Jim Nunally, and rootsmeister David Hamburger,
author of String Letter PublishingÕs Acoustic Guitar Method.
There will also be special guest appearances by classical
iconoclast Ben Verdery and acoustic wildman Adrian Legg. For
more information, call (800) 234-6479 or go to
http://www.guitarworkshop.com.

Guitar Talk is the online discussion forum at the Acoustic
Guitar Central website. For the past year or so, folks who
have been meeting in cyberspace to chat about guitars,
making music, and all sorts of stuff have been gathering to
play music together in real time. Join Guitar Talkers in
Henry, Illinois, on September 28 or in New York and Seattle
in August (specific dates TBA). Read more about the events
and post your questions in the Gigs, Workshops, and
Gatherings forum in Guitar Talk at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi.

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New at Acoustic Guitar Central

Excerpts from the June issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine are
now available online. Read about home recording on your
computer, check out the latest CD reviews, and get tips,
advice, and insights from the pros in the Q & A and What
They Play sections. See the latest at
http://www.acousticguitar.com.

Two new free online lessons are available on our site. Barre
Chords for Beginners will help you easily add this
indispensable technique to your repertoire. Our Jazz Chord
Basics lesson goes beyond the barre chord to help you add
new sounds to your playing.
http://www.acousticguitar.com/lessons/lessons.shtml

Take a guitar vacation this summer, and let A.G. help you
pick the right workshop or music camp for your interests.
The expanded Summer Study listings for 2002 are now online
at http://www.acousticguitar.com/summer/welcome.html.

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ItÕs Not the Heat, It's the Humidity

Summer weather may be great for sunbathing, but it can be
rough on guitars. In the "Beginning Guitarist's Handbook,"
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers answers 50 essential questions for
players of all ages and abilities, offering this advice on
how to keep your guitar safe all summer. Got a tip of your
own? Send it to mailto:agwire@stringletter.com

The most important factors in your guitar's welfare are
temperature and humidity--both have a dramatic effect on the
structural stability and playability of wooden instruments.
"Keep away from extremes of temperature," says Stan Werbin
of Elderly Instruments in Lansing, Michigan. "I would say
try to avoid prolonged exposure to temperatures under 50 or
over 100 degrees Fahrenheit." That means keep you guitar out
of the chilly basement and away from radiators and heating
vents as well as intense direct sunlight, whether indoors or
out. If you hang your guitar on the wall, avoid the outside
walls of the building. An extremely common guitar killer is
the trunk or back of a car, which on a sunny summer day can
do serious damage within a short period of time. Imagine
yourself in the guitar's position; only leave your guitar in
places where you yourself would be comfortable.

Humidity is a subtler though no less important
consideration. Your regional climate is a major variable--a
guitarist in bone-dry Arizona faces different issues from
someone in sticky Florida--although many places experience
high humidity on muggy summer days and low humidity during
the winter when central heating dries out the indoor air.
"Always keep your guitar well humidified," says Werbin. "At
home, if possible, use a house or room humidifier that keeps
the humidity between 40 and 50 percent. Don't trust cheap
gauges to measure humidity, since they are notoriously
inaccurate." If your room or house is too dry, or if you are
going away from home for an extended period of time, a
soundhole humidifier (available at music stores) will keep
your guitar in good shape, although you need to be careful
not to overhumidify or spill water on it. Watch your
instruments: if your guitar is too dry, the top may sink and
the strings may start to buzz on the higher frets, while
excessive humidity may make the top bulge out and the action
too high. For high humidity, a room dehumidifier or else a
silica gel pack in the case will keep moisture in the normal
range.

For more tips and advice, be sure to check out the
"Beginning Guitarist's Handbook."
http://www.acousticguitar.com/books/guidebooks.html#begin

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Win a Bundle of Great CDs from Doc Watson, Joan Baez, and
Sean Watkins.

There's always a good discussion about guitars, players, and
acoustic music going in the Guitar Talk forums. Register to
participate and automatically get a chance to win a free
bundle of great acoustic-music recordings.

Get the details when you sign up today at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi

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Ear Training on the Web

June's On the Web department in Acoustic Guitar magazine
features music editor Andrew DuBrock conducting a tour of
cyber spots that will help you train your ear. Here is an
excerpted selection of hot URL's from that story for anyone
who wants to improve his or her relative pitch.

http://www.musictheory.net
http://www.good-ear.com
http://www.worldvillage.com/~jchuang/Ear
http://www.geocities.com/musicalintervalstutor
http://www.net4music.com
(Click on Magazine, then Ear Training)

Get more when you subscribe to Acoustic Guitar every month.

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Highlights from Upcoming Issues of Acoustic Guitar Magazine:

Our July issue will be hitting the newsstands this week.
Highlights include:

--An exclusive interview with folk legend Pete Seeger
--Sixteen classical guitars under $1,500 reviewed
--Winners of our 2002 Homegrown CD Awards
--Gear, Gear, Gear! (Did we mention gear?)

In August we talk with crooner and cheap guitar enthusiast
Chris Isaak and show you how to play his hit song "Let Me
Down Easy," discuss flamenco with Latin Grammy-winner
Vicente Amigo, and transcribe the Robert Johnson classic,
"Terraplane Blues." You'll read about the resurgence of 12-
fret guitars and learn how to really change your strings.

Don't miss out on any of these great features! Subscribe to
Acoustic Guitar today. Sign up online at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/service/service.html#subscribe
or call toll free (800) 827-6837.

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Enter to Win a Great Giveaway Package from Guild!

The grand prize winner will receive a Guild F47MCE acoustic-
electric mini-jumbo guitar, deluxe archtop case, and 12 sets
of Guild Phosphor Bronze strings. The second prize winner
will receive a Guild D40 guitar, deluxe archtop case, and 12
sets of Guild strings.

To enter the contest and see the grand-prize package, go to
http://www.acousticguitar.com/giveaway2/guild/index.html

To meet some of our previous giveaway winners, go to
http://acousticguitar.com/giveaway2/winners/index.html

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Now Available from String Letter Publishing

THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR OWNER'S MANUAL

Acoustic guitarists can better understand their instruments,
preserve and protect their value, and get the sounds they
really want, thanks to the "Acoustic Guitar Owner's Manual."

Written by experts in the acoustic guitar field, this
definitive and indispensable guide begins by acquainting
players with their instruments and laying to rest some
pervasive guitar myths, then proceeds through various
aspects of basic care, setup, common repairs, and pickup
installation. A primer and glossary of terms assures that
musicians of all levels will garner a better understanding
of their instruments.

Whether it's cleaning and polishing a beloved guitar,
protecting it from theft or changes in humidity, selecting a
case, or performing diagnostics, readers will become more
savvy acoustic guitar owners and repair-shop customers.

Learn more:
http://www.acousticguitar.com/books/Guidebooks.html#agom

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Win a Free CD!

We're giving away a free CD of acoustic guitar music to the
contributor of the best music joke or gig story each month.
To enter, simply send your favorite music joke or anecdote
about a gig from hell to mailto:jokes@stringletter.com. Be
sure to include a mailing address in case you win. We'll
award a new prize with each edition. Our prizewinner this
month is Lorrie Dixon from Chilliwack, British Columbia, who
sent us this gig from hell.

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Gig from Hell

As I hung up the phone, I knew my music career was off and
running. I had just turned sixteen and successfully
negotiated my first paying gig. Twenty dollars for playing
two one-hour sets of classical guitar for the opening of a
quaint little art shop in my town. Up until this point my
career consisted of playing a song or two at an old folks
home. This was my opportunity of a lifetime and I would have
played it for free! After carefully crafting two hours worth
of tunes--a challenge for this girl who could barely fill
one--I put on my makeup, loaded my Takamine classical into
my dadÕs car, and headed off for the gig. The woman had
mentioned it was a candlelit wine and cheese evening for
adults, so I didn't bring music or a stand because I
couldn't afford a musicianÕs light. A stringy-haired woman
in a poncho met me at the door and looked a little surprised
at my age. She showed me to a small stool in the corner of
the room right beside a table supplied with plastic cups,
plates and bowls of chips. She instructed me to commence
playing two hours nonstop as soon as her first guest
arrived. My first note rang out as the first guest entered,
followed by more people and their children. Children? Loads
of them! She ushered the kids to the table by me. Right in
the middle of my sonata kids were screaming and yelling,
hitting each other and throwing their food around. I
couldn't believe it, no one could hear my debut even when
they were standing beside me. One child reached out and
grabbed my tuning pegs. As I tried to politely tell him
"no," his friends joined in and began seeing who could throw
a cheese doodle in the soundhole of my guitar. What a
disaster! I toughed out the evening, got paid, and couldn't
wait to get home. It was the hardest twenty dollars I've
ever earned!

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Back issues of the A.G. Wire are available online at:
http://www.acousticguitar.com/wire_archive/index.shtml

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Send news, comments, and requests:
mailto:agwire@stringletter.com
Copyright (c) 2002 String Letter Publishing. All Rights
Reserved. You are welcome to forward this email to your
friends. Other reproduction in whole or in part in any form
or medium without express written permission of String
Letter Publishing is prohibited. Acoustic Guitar Wire and
the respective logos are trademarks of String Letter
Publishing.

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