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Framus SG copy
This was my very first electric guitar whose purchase in late 1974 pretty exactly dates my entry into guitar-player-hood (or hell/heaven). At that time in history Framus guitars were everywhere in Germany – right after the sought after but expensive US brands. Countless times did I look through the Framus catalog. I didn’t really…
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Framus 12 string electric
I bought this truly strange guitar in the early eighties. While playing in a band called Super Suzy in the later 1970’s I often used an Ovation 12 string guitar. Since Super Suzy was a very adventurous group I frequently experimented with various tunings on the twelve string – tuning the string pairs in…
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Frameworks Classical 7
Throughout my 35 year career as a guitar player I have always loved the sound of acoustic guitars and especially nylon string classicals. The big problem they all had was not being able to amplify them in a practical way so I could play with a drummer and keep the picking hand under control.…
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Chapman Stick
Oh boy. That story with the Chapman Stick. I still own it and every few months I will pick it up and doodle a little on it. And I use it often to record specific parts on tracks I am working on. I had been interested in a Chapman Stick ever since I read about it…
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Carvin LB 76 fretless bass
In the Fall of 2007 my wife Monika Herzig and I were invited to a concert in Frascati, Italy – that’s up in the mountains, about 15km south-east of Rome. Since 2001 we had played a few concerts in Germany on our yearly vacation trips. Every time I would pack my black Carvin LB 76 bass…
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Carvin LB 76 electric bass
After moving to the US in 1988 I noticed that I got more calls for bass than guitar. After a while I decided that I needed something more professional than my brother’s old Marathon bass. After seeing Chick Corea Electric Band live in Birmingham, AL, circa 1989, John Patitucci left a deep impression on…
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Avante AV 2E baritone guitar
In early 2006 a copy of a guitar magazine landed on my kitchen table – unusual, since I had been subscribing to Guitar Player Magazine for many years but stopped reading it because most of the content didn’t interest me that much anymore. There was nothing in that sample issue able to convert me…
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Agile Renaissance X 8 String
I am not quite sure what it is with these added strings. After I aqcuired my first seven string guitar about a decade ago I have rarely played any of the six string guitars in my office. For a while I have been fuzzing around with a Schecter Hellraiser 8. It’s great for writing…
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I Love Duos!
Falling Grace with Frank Glover. Barcelona with Cathy Morris. I Shot The Sheriff with Carolyn Dutton. Live from the Living Room with Monika Herzig, streaming live from our living room twice a week.
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Evening Piece
This is a compact little piece recorded on a recent gigless Saturday evening. Not as restless anymore like I used to be. Evening Piece
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Bach for 8 string guitar
After fiddling with seven string guitars for a decade now, I found that it had not only expanded my horizon as a guitar player, but even more so infused new ideas and inspiration into my composing (not to mention the thourough exploration of rarely used keys). So, a few years ago, I thought maybe upgrading…
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5000 Miles of Dirt
Recently I released the full version of Trail Mix, a suite of original pieces for seven string classical guitar. The fourth movement was the first piece I wrote specifically on and for the seven string. It’s a nice, melodic piece of music that developed itself out of the two opening chords. 5000 Miles of Dirt is…
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South Central Indiana Rain Dance
I finally finished my most ambitious and complex big band arrangement so far. The two words “ambitious” and “complex” can only mean one thing: this contraption will probably never get played. But then, who knows. My friend Brent Wallarab, who directs the IU Jazz Ensemble, played two of my earlier pieces this past season and…
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Latency Of Going Digital
I am the first one to admit that over my entire guitar playing career, I have never had a really great guitar tone. Where many of my guitar playing colleagues developed into instrument and amp experts (dare I say nerds) and often spent substantial amounts of money on just the right, often vintage, guitar, this…
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Diane’s Doo-Doo
After my first big band arranging experience in 2014, when I arranged a full concert’s worth of my fusion originals plus some Pink Floyd and The Police material, I thought I was done arranging. While the concert in October of 2014 was a great success and I really enjoyed my two days of fame as…
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Choros?
Wikipedia says (among other things) this about Choros: “Choro is an instrumental Brazilian popular music genre which originated in 19th century Rio de Janeiro. Despite its name, the music often has a fast and happy rhythm. It is characterized by virtuosity, improvisation and subtle modulations, and is full of syncopation and counterpoint.” Another description I…
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Music Without Space
….or something like that. This week I finished a collection of the strangest music I have ever written. Tentatively called Frozen Quasi Random Doodlings or FQRD. From my earliest days as a guitarist I have been a fan of acoustic guitars and John McLaughlin. When he released the first string of Indian influenced acoustic LPs with Shakti in the…
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Science Fiction music was a thing even in 1977
I freely admit that many, if not most, of my earlier writings for classical guitar are simplistic, juvenile and banal. On the other hand one has to start somehow somewhere, and I am glad that I held on to all of this material and didn’t put it in the garbage disposal of creative outbursts. As…