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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<The Acoustic Guitar Wire<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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1. Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Wire No. 14
2. News and Notes
3. New at Acoustic Guitar Central
4. String Gauges, Tension, and Alloys
5. Win a Collection of CD-Songbooks
6. Live Music on the Web
7. Highlights from Upcoming Issues of Acoustic Guitar
8. Gibson Giveaway
9. Great New Books from String Letter Publishing
10. Win a Free CD!
11. Gig fom Hell: For He's a Jolly Good Fellow
12. A.G. Wire Archives
13. Contact and Unsubscribe Info

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Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Wire No. 14

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 guitar, gear, and other great prizes.

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

The Floyd World Music Festival brings bluegrass, world
music, and healing arts together in Floyd, Virginia,
September 27-29. Attendees can take morning yoga classes
before watching performances by Doc Watson, the David
Grisman Quintet, Stacey Earle, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice,
SwedenÕs Garmarna, and South African reggae star Lucky Dube.
For information, go to http://www.floydfest.com.

Over 100 local, national, and international bands will
perform at the first MidPoint Music Festival, in Cincinnati,
Ohio, September 26-28. For a current schedule of bands and
venues, go to http://www.mpmf.com.

The Alirio Diaz International Guitar Competition, open to
classical guitarists from around the world, will award cash
prizes of up to $10,000. Finalists will perform for judges
in Carora, Venezuela, on November 23. Applications are due
September 13. For rules and entry forms, go to
http://www.sinadic.gov.ve/concurso-aliriodiaz/English/
Guidelines/body_guidelines.htm.

String Letter Publishing, publishers of Acoustic Guitar and
Strings magazines and a line of music instruction and
guidebooks, won a bronze award in the 2002 PlayersÕ Choice
Awards for Instructional Materials. The gold award went to
Homespun Tapes, and Mel Bay took the silver. The winners
were chosen by more than 11,000 guitar players, who voted
for their favorite guitars, pickups, strings, and other
musical tools via mail and online ballots. Read about all
the winners online at http://www.acousticguitar.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 and the Twin Cities (exact
location TBD) the weekend of October 26. Read more about the
events and post your own in the Gigs, Workshops, and
Gatherings forum of Guitar Talk.
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi

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New at Acoustic Guitar Central

Excerpts from the October issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine
are now available online. Read the results of our 2002
Players' Choice Awards, learn about Blind Willie McTell and
other seminal Atlanta 12-string guitarists, 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.

Learn how to incorporate some simple syncopations to spice
up your rhythm and lead playing with our new lesson, "Simple
Syncopated Grooves" by music editor Andrew DuBrock. You can
find this and more lessons online at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/lessons/lessons.shtml

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String Gauges, Tension, and Alloys

"The Acoustic Guitar Owner's Manual" is the book that should
have come with your guitar. After all, you've made a big
investment in your guitar. You deserve to know how it works,
how to maintain its value, and how to keep it sounding
great. Here's some information from Harry Fleishman on
strings and what they're made of.

The gauge of string chosen for a given pitch will determine
how much mass there is to excite the top of your guitar.
Heavier strings can move the top more than lighter strings
can, up to a point; if the strings are too heavy, they can
actually restrict the top's motion. It is a case of wasted
energy and a potential case of guitar abuse.

I wish I could suggest a rule of thumb to help when choosing
string gauges. However, even the string makers acknowledge
that strings are a very personal matter. Representatives
from each of the major string manufacturers I spoke with
agreed that all the premium strings available today are very
good. But each of us hears differently, and each string is
subtly different.

All that said, there are a couple of guidelines you can
follow. If you play a small-bodied or delicately built
guitar, avoid medium and heavy strings. Some guitar
companies even stamp it in their instruments: "Use medium-
gauge or lighter strings only." Ultra-light strings are
probably only appropriate for players who bend strings
dramatically. They have little mass and thus produce lower
volume and less tone.

As light gauges offer a range of dynamics at the quieter end
of the spectrum, providing good full tone from the lighter
guitar, heavy strings provide greater volume from a big
guitar that can take their greater tension. Dreadnoughts
tend to take well to mediums. If you play hard, try either a
bluegrass gauge, with its lighter trebles, or true mediums.
Keep an eye on your bridge and neck, however. If they show
any signs of trouble, go to lighter strings and have the
problem looked into by a qualified repairperson.

In classical guitar strings, thereÕs more to look out for in
addition to gauge variations. There are also varieties of
windings and materials that can have a profound effect on
tone. In a typical string set, the top three are plain and
the bottom three are wound, but some companies offer wound
second and third (B and G) strings as well as the occasional
wound first (E). Although these strings cause much more
finger noise than plain nylon, they also have brighter
timbre and more volume.

Most players assume that the alloy from which a string is
made determines its tone. While this is largely true, it is
an oversimplification. Brass is a commonly used alloy for
guitar strings; most of the strings called "bronze" are
actually brass. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; bronze
is an alloy of copper and tin. A string designated as 80/20
bronze is actually brass: 80 percent copper and 20 percent
zinc. Some of the bright bronze or bright brass strings are
60 percent copper and 40 percent zinc. Phosphor-bronze is a
copper-tin-phosphor alloy that has been used successfully
for many years. Phosphor-bronze strings are usually 90
percent copper and 10 percent tin, with a pinch of
phosphorous for added life.

For more tips and advice on your guitar, check out "The
Acoustic Guitar Owner's Manual."
http://stringletter.com/agowners.html

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Win a Collection of Acoustic Guitar CD-Songbooks!

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
package of six of our CD-Songbooks, including the Alternate
Tunings Guitar Collection, Shades of Blue, Habits of the
Heart, and Flatpicking Guitar Masterpieces.

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

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Live Music on the Web

October's On the Web department in Acoustic Guitar magazine
features contributor Ben Elder talking with the hosts of
three different Internet radio programs broadcasting live
folk music. Here is an excerpted selection of URLs from that
story for anyone who wants to listen to great music online.

http://www.folkscene.com
http://www.woodsongs.com
http://www.kingpup.com

Get more when you subscribe to Acoustic Guitar every month.

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Highlights from Upcoming Issues of Acoustic Guitar Magazine:

Our November issue will be hitting the newsstands in
early October. Highlights include:

-- A feature on the latest gear, seven steel-bodied
resonator guitars reviewed, and an interview with
contemporary folk musician Peter Case
--Fleetwood Mac's classic "Never Going Back Again"
transcribed
--In the studio with Norman Blake, Peter Rowan, Tony Rice,
and Don Edwards for the recording of High Lonesome Cowboy

In December, we'll be talking with newgrass wunderkinder
Nickel Creek about their new album "This Side", tell you all
about archtop guitars, and transcribe a Christmas classic
for fingerstyle guitar.

Are you looking for more basic guitar instruction and
advice? Got a friend or family member whoÕs just starting
out? Then get ready for the second annual edition of Play
Guitar! magazine, from the makers of Acoustic Guitar. The
issue will include advice on getting started, finding people
to play with, choosing gear, and practicing, as well as easy
lessons and songs to play. Pick it up in early September at
your local bookstore or newsstand.

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 Gibson!

The grand prize winner will receive a Gibson Acoustics L-200
Emmylou Harris model guitar and 12 sets of Gibson
Masterbuilt Premium strings. The second prize winner will
take home a Gibson Songbird guitar and 12 sets of Gibson
Masterbuilt Premium strings.

To enter the contest and see the grand prize package, go to
http://www.acousticguitar.com/giveaway2/gibson/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 COMPLETE ACOUSTIC GUITAR METHOD SERIES
by David Hamburger

Learn how to play guitar using the techniques and songs of
American roots music with the revolutionary new Acoustic
Guitar Method series, including the Grammy Award-winning
song "Man of Constant Sorrow."

Beginning with a few basic chords and strums, you'll start
right in learning real music drawn from blues, folk,
country, and bluegrass traditions. Working in both tablature
and standard notation, you'll learn how to find notes on the
fingerboard. You'll expand your collection of chords by
learning songs in various keys, and picking out the melodies
in the tunes you're working on.

When you're done with this method series, you'll know dozens
of the tunes that form the backbone of American roots music,
using a variety of flatpicking and fingerpicking techniques.

Acoustic Guitar Method, Book One (48 pp.) #00695648, $9.95
Acoustic Guitar Method, Book Two (48 pp.) #00695649, $9.95
Acoustic Guitar Method, Book Three (48 pp.) #00695666, $9.95

Learn more:
http://www.stringletter.com/method1.html

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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 Andrew Single, who sent us this gig from hell.

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Gig from Hell: For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

Fifteen years ago, I was in a wedding/parties/anything
band that had a fairly regular weekend gig at a function
hall. One weekend, as we arrived at a pub gig, my wife
called to say she had just heard from the function hall who
were expecting us for a wedding. We decided to back out of
the pub gig and perform at the wedding, an hour and a
half away. Des, our drummer, hadnÕt yet arrived at the pub.
We had to get going but had to contact him somehow and tell
him to go to the hall (this was before cell phones). We
called a radio station and had them broadcast a message to
him over the air--we had no idea if he would hear it or not.
We arrived an hour and a half late for the job and set up
just in time for the usual speeches. Luckily, Des got the
message and met us there. At the end of each speech we lead
the guests in "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." I was
whispering to one of the waiters about our exploits of the
day as the bride was giving a speech. I heard her say, "So
please be upstanding for a toast to my father." I started
singing "Fooooor he's a jolly good fellow!" I had sung the
line twice before I realized nobody else was singing--the
whole room was staring at me. I quickly found out that the
father had died two months earlier.

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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
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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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