Guitars, gear, tunings and other items of interest not covered elsewhere on the site. In time, this may include "after-the-gig-reports", photos from our travels (If you have photos from Jay’s gigs, e-mail them to us and they just may end up here!), musings, reviews, recipes...

"Neume" is the name of my home studio and a type of ancient musical notation (I believe it was used for Gregorian chant music). I love the word because it expresses both imprecise notation (in other words, there is room for interpretation) and literally, "spirit" or "breath".

G u i t a r s
I’m really grateful for the wonderful instruments I get to play:

tak
www.takamine.com
Most of the tunes on Breakfast with Barnabas were played on a 1985 Takamine SEF375sc  dreadnought. I bought this one without much consideration after a Yamaha acoustic was stolen. Now I think of it as an old friend. This guitar has intonation issues and doesn’t really sound very well through a P.A. I may be the only player on the planet who would like it but still it would be hard for me to part with my Tak.

A note on dreadnoughts in general: They rock. The necks tend to be narrow (usually 1:11/16 inches at the nut) and fit small hands like mine very well.  I’ve opened for the Lost Dogs and Mike Roe/Michael Pritzel a few times, and both "Mikes" play Taylor 510’s (dreadnoughts). Michael Pritzel insisted I try his and I was suitably impressed…beautiful tone; loud (harmonics leap from the strings); and so playable. He bought his guitar used for $1,000.
Most of the ground-breaking genius of Michael Hedges was realized on an old Martin dreadnought, which many today would not consider a finger style guitar(?!). There’s always a trade-off though…There are some things that are just easier to achieve with wider string spacing, like you’d find on most grand auditorium models.

taylor
The "go-to" axe right now…and the only guitar I’ve been travelling with is a Taylor 414 ce limited edition. The "14" denotes the Grand Auditorium size and shape. Mine has a bearclaw sitka spruce top, rosewood back and sides, and the Taylor Expression system. It’s basically an 814 without as much inlay.
A preference for a certain guitar is obviously very subjective, but I’m definitely a Taylor fan. A Full Heart was recorded on a borrowed Taylor 310 dreadnought; no electronics, no cutaway. This was one of the lower end Taylors and yet sounds rather lovely, if I do say so. 
www.taylorguitars.com

karol
www.karol-guitars.com
www.kksound.com
This remarkable instrument was made for me by Mississauga luthier, Anthony Karol. Tony has justifiably received attention for building the baritone guitar that Bruce Cockburn tours and records with. Mine is a one-of-a-kind walnut guitar.  The neck is five-piece curly maple from the Niagara Peninsula where I grew up and black walnut also from Ontario. The bridge is made from African blackwood and the fingerboard from a beautiful piece of ebony, into which is inlayed a mother-of-pearl polar bear. The binding is curly maple.
The pickup system is by K&K and uses three transducers and a condenser microphone, with an external preamp with which I can control the volume, bass, middle and treble of the two signals (1.transducers 2.mic)...So cool.

stonebridge
www.stonebridgeguitars.com
www.lrbaggs.com
Steve Bell e-mailed about a Stonebridge he had played (and promptly bought!) somewhere on the east coast. Obviously, when Steve gets excited about a new guitar, the rest of us should sit up and take note. These guitars are made in the Czech Republic by Frantisek Furch and still go by the Furch name in Europe. It turns out that the North American distributor lives a half hour from me. He very graciously invited me to his home to Czech out his guitars (‘couldn’t resist). I’m now playing a Stonebridge GS-23-SR and it is sweet! This guitar sounds very even over all of the strings and should record beautifully. The back and sides are rosewood and the top is European spruce (used to be called German spruce), which has been aged using a proprietary biological process. I’m thinking they soak these tops in yogurt.
I had a Baggs Dual Source system installed (under saddle pickup and condenser mic).

P e r i p h e r a l s 

Elixir Polywebs  .012-.053  
www.elixirstrings.com
I’ve used these for years and highly recommend them. They last a long time, sound great and I do like the way the Polywebs feel. If you’re given to breaking strings Elixir’s could get expensive, but otherwise you’ll probably save some dough over time. (Really, if you do break a lot of strings, try to find out why, since you should be able to correct the problem.)

G7 Capo     
 http://www.g7th.com/
If you play in multiple tunings and use a capo, you’re either playing out of tune or tuning much of the time. I tried one of these at the Canadian Guitar Festival and have been using it ever since (They gave me one!). I have a couple of the G7’s now and they seem to work better than most by retaining the exact tension you apply. And, to quote Richard Thompson, “…it looks like a bottle-opener on a Porsche!.

Clam Flightcase 
www.casextreme.com
-Glen Soderholm watched helplessly from the airport boarding area window as the asphalt rose up to smite his guitar, which had fallen off the top of a baggage train.
-I was in Edmonton, engrossed in playing a flashy percussive riff when the moment was spoiled by really ugly  noise (“Oh, let it be a problem with the P.A.!”). Back home, Al Clegg, Taylor repair tech asked, “Are you aware that one of the pickups has come loose, and another one is leaking fluid? Did you know this guitar has been, umm, dropped?”

Having heard many such stories you, like me, may have wondered if guitars were meant to fly.

I looked into getting a Calton case. They’re great….expensive, but great. The shortest wait for the case would be 22 weeks… $900 and 22 weeks. Meanwhile, “I need a case now! I think I’ll get a Clam”.

If you need to fly with a guitar, this works. It’s a huge corrugated plastic case that cradles your regular case using C-shaped foam supports. The downside is that it’s enormous, but I’ve not yet been charged for “oversize”.  The extra room inside can be used for shoes, laundry or whatever. (I got the one with the carrying strap and detachable wheels…which you really don’t need, since airport carts are handier.)

Humidifier

We Canadian players are only too aware of the nasty affects of dry winters on our guitars, and many of us resort to in-case humidifiers of some sort.
I’ve heard many times that you should always put your guitar in its case when you’re not playing.
Here’s the thing: A guitar is more likely to actually be picked up and played if it’s immediately accessible, on a stand. It may be better for the guitar to be in its case, but it’s better for the player if the instrument is ready to go.
If you’re able to control the relative humidity throughout your home, that’s great. If not, consider a small humidifier for a single room (your “music room”). That way, you’ll have your guitar out and ready and you’ll play more.
I’ve been using the Venta Airwasher, which works fine, but any small room humidifier should do the trick.

L i v e G e a r

Lexicon MPX 100 dual channel processor (www.lexiconpro.com) - for reverb and a wee bit of chorus or flange.

DBX 266XL dual channel compressor/gate (www.dbxpro.com)

Did you do any overdubs while recording the Breakfast with Barnabas cd?

Nope. No multitracking or punch-ins. Darren (Walters "engineer extraordinaire") did some minor edits (on ProTools I think) during mixing. We nearly assembled "A Full Heart" in sections. I had finished writing the song the night before recording it, and knew going in to the studio that it would be a strain on my wrist. After an hour we took a break, I was ready to give up and do the tune piecemeal, but I came back after the break and played what you hear on the album. Strange how it goes sometimes.

There are four tunings on the album. Keep in mind that I usually tune my guitars down a half step from concert pitch. Click on the Tunings button to see for yourself.

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Copyright ©2006 Jay Calder
Last modified: February, 2009