My name is Andy. I'm a British singer, songwriter, guitarist, and online teacher. My passion is for American acoustic music. I was a drummer in blues, R&B, soul, and rock bands in the '60s and '70s. (I am that old!) From the early '70s I played guitar, Dobro and mandolin bluegrass bands, and later formed my own trios, and run an Acoustic Music club.
Before "Covid" I had taught when asked, but come "lockdown" I have been increasingly asked to teach/mentor help people world wide, via "ZOOM" - I love to help people become more proficient, and to increase their enjoyment of playing acoustic guitars. If YOU are interested in one to one Zoom lessons, please contact me on the email address below. I hope you enjoy my songs - and I hope that you find my "chatty" videos both informative and entertaining. I'm always looking for new subjects - so comments, queries and questions are welcomed.
NOTE: This channel is NOT monetised, and I don't beg for subscribers or "likes"
Very informative post. How is the wear on the Tortex vs. Ultex after beveling? Does the Tortex get more frayed due to the softer nature of the material?
Blind Willie McTell inspired me to buy a second-hand 12-string today - now I need to bring the action down on it and maybe get some new strings. It is way too high to be able to play fluently, though, admittedly, I also probably lack the skill to do so (I've only real experience with 6 string electrics). The first position is low enough to play some notes and chords on though. What an awesome, harmonious and powerful sound. I got a Yamaha with the flat headstock with regular tuners. Excited to have it feeling and playing just right so that it is as easy as possible to learn some Willy blues, I really want to sound at least a little like that.
Such a nice collection Sir ! The L4 sounds wonderful ! The Eastman sounds pretty good too. I also have an Eastman, archtop 810ce, from around 2010 ; I love this guitar so much !
Thank you this was very informative and very helpful. I have back problems and do not play in the standing position anymore. Got rid of my Martin Dreadnought and have Martin 000-15m mahogany and the Martin 0-18 and Cordoba C9 Parlor guitars playing in the sitting position. I also use the 11-52 or 12-53 gauge strings on steel string guitars and high tension nylon strings on the Cordoba C9 Parlor guitar. I play level 4 classical, enjoy blues, bluegrass and contemporary Christian music. Fingerstyle, flatpicking and strumming. I always consider myself a beginner having fun attitude. I remember Andre Segovia saying " you can be a professional player for 90 years but you never master the guitar only getting better ". My friend always have fun keeping playing music 🎶.
Great song! Coming from someone who lived that growing up in west and south Texas we wear Wrangler jeans, Resistol hats, play Gibson guitars and my favorite songwriter is Gary P. Nunn ;-)
Hi Good points ! Maybe I did wear Wranglers when I was a teenager, so long ago! I get my jeans from the supermarket now! I hadn't heard of Resistol, but Stetson seems to be used as a generic term for western hats and it wouldn't have worked in the scansion. (When I finally got to Texas, I bought my western hat from the Limpiad Hat Co in Fort Davis! I originally wrote "a battered Martin" but to those who didn't know guitars might have thought it inferred some sort of bullying. Thank you for listening so carefully.
Very nice! So much in that song I feel too. Growing up a Canadian, Texas seemed like some western movie. Funny thing, but I heard Guy and John and Townes without really knowing what they looked like. When I finally saw them in videos, all three were just like I'd pictured them in my head.
Maybe we look like we sing ?? Interesting. I suspect that most cowboy and Indian tv movies were actually made in California. Perhaps that's where they had six shooters that never ran out of bullets! Thanks for watching.
Hi Joel, I never made it to Houston, but down in Alpine, Marfa, Fort Davis , Lajitus, Terlingua and San Antonio, etc., things looked OK but it was the wonderful people that welcomed and put us up that was the magic for us. Thanks as always.
Thank you Andy, you’re quite a wonderful guitar story teller! Tell me please, have you cut any albums? I very much appreciate and enjoyed listening to you.
Thank you kindly. Yes I have made two. Home produced and out of date now. I did one of things that a US based Yahoo group decided to make, as they took so many of the solo songs I made for them, that I just stuck them together to make a promo album, and then I made one at home plaining all the instruments together.
@@SillyMoustache unfortunate that they are out of print. But again thanks again for this performance. I’m sure like many of your fans, I look forward to Friday’s and perhaps a song from you. Thank you. Be well.
My snark tuner was telling that the intonation on my mandolin was out (flat at the 12th fret), although to my ears it sounded fine. I treated myself to a Peterson Stroboclip tuner which arrived a few days ago, and it told me that the intonation is fine all the way up the neck on the A and E strings, and very slightly out on the D strings (but close enough). That's me converted to Peterson. It took me a couple of minutes to get used to interpreting the moving pattern (movement to left is flat, movement to right is sharp), but it's no more difficult to read than any other tuner - and it's 10x more accurate. I particularly like that it can latch on to notes high up on the mandolin finger board, and the mandolin sweetened tuning mode sounds good. It's way more expensive than any other clip-on I've used (just shy of £60) but it's worth every penny of that. I just hope that it can withstand the rigours of gigging!
Hi, I was sent one for evaluation, but I found it impractical when performing/playing out. I have never experienced a digital tuner that was inaccurate, and on guitar, I have my own version of "sweetened" tuning for my way of playing. I confess that I play my mando so little now but I used to adjust intonation by gently tapping the bridge feet with a very small hammer.
@@SillyMoustache The Petersons do not have a reassuring green light to tell you when the string is in tune, and the display is far from intuitive. I actually watched a number of videos about Peterson tuners before buying, so when it arrived I was well prepared and only took a few minutes to get into the groove. I did take it to a gig yesterday, but my Godin A8 has great tuning stability so all I really did was confirm that my instrument was already in tune before we kicked off. Most mandolins have floating bridges, so getting the intonation right is simply a question of being patient - or hitting it with a hammer 🙂However my Godin is unusual that the bridge doesn't move and my Snark was telling me the intonation was out. Fortunately, the Peterson tuner showed me that the intonation is just fine. Now I know why it sounded ok to my ears!
I’ve read a lot of your posts on the forums over the years but just discovered your RU-vid channel. You really know a lot about the instruments, and I like your approach when you assess their merits. I’m looking forward to more.
Hi Steve, Yup, I'm a total acoustic guitar nerd! I try to put a video up every Friday when I can, but sometimes I even just sit , sing and play the things! I regard myself as a singer who plays guitar, although my voice sometimes gives me trouble nowadays (I'm very, very, old!) At present I'm making videos of songs that I have written myself. Thanks for watching. If you haven't yet, please consider subbing. Ol Andy
I was very taken and touched by this song when I heard it in one of your earlier videos, as it conveys so much that I personally can relate to, but never find words for. It's a wonderfully written song and truly insightful. Great to have the lyrics transcript too.
Thank you. I don't get "called" to write songs like I did when I was younger. The notion of a Dad's song was a gift to me, and, yes it did prompt me to revisit my relationship with my Dad, which was not always easy, and he never spoke about his early life, which I heard from distant relations some time after. I think I rewrote it a couple of times, especially the last verse. Thanks for your interest.
Excellent as always, but I hope you will forgive a small piece of pedantry. Martin in fact made dreads from 1916, just not under their own name, but branded for Ditson. So, technically it is true that you couldn't get a dread from Martin till 1931, Ditson could and you could get one from them! 😂 Oh, and by the way the Collings is richer and less bright - mind you, it is a good bit older.
Hi Robert, you are correct of course, and thank you. I think that the first one was for a Hawaiian performer. Ditsons ordered a very small number but they didn't sell and then the company failed in , I think, 1929. I try to make videos of interest, and try to resist retelling the well documented Martin history.
One thing I've noticed is when I play an intro/verse to a song in 2nd or 3rd position (and often with a muted strum or arpeggio) and then switch to the 1st position with louder strumming as I go into the prechorus & chorus, it creates changes to the energy & volume and distinct sections to the song. This keeps the music interesting to the listener and helps prevent me from becoming background music (which is fine for restaurants but not for bars or other gigs where people are there to see the musician).
Intros are very important and useful. it allows you to confirm/adjust tempo, to "think" the key for your vocals and inform the audience to shut up and listen.
WOW! I've never played. Taking my first lesson on 7/18/24. I purchased a Seagull S6 which I think sound very pretty. I'm hopeful of learning to fingerpick. The drednaught you picked was is beautiful.
Your voice reminds me quite a bit of my dad's singing voice when he plays the guitar. And you look a bit like him too. You just popped on my feed out of now where. I take that as a sign to call my dad. From, Montana
Hi andy, i own a guitar built by a luthier who hasn't made many and its got a less than ideal gloss finish. Sort of like orange peel but not really, sort of patchy. Sounds fine but does annoy me when light catches a certain way. A guitar tech I spoke to said use ultra fine wire wool then some polish like you would use. Good advice?
Hi, the only time I have used anything abrasive was to use a scotchbrite pad to take the goss off the necks on my two Eastmans. The Regency Gold works well on all my guitars but it isn't abrasive.
As an tiny elderly lady who climbed down from her F150 in the backwoods of Texas once said to me when I asked for directions " Good lord , you ain't from round here are ya, but bless your heart, ya got here as soon as you could!"
@@SillyMoustache LOL! Of course she did! Was that anywhere near Tyler, or Lufkin, or or Jasper, or the East Texas piney woods? Longview? Did directions start with "ya go down the road for a piece until you pass the persimmon tree on the right, then take the next left and...
Interesting. I just bought an Eastman E20P upon your recommendations. Bought it sight unseen, as there ware no local music stores that carry Eastman. Well it was beautiful but lord, it was incredibly boxy. Sounded nothing like yours. Hated it. Returned it. Now I am still searching for a parlor that sounds more balanced. The search continues. Nonetheless, I do love your channel!
@@SillyMoustache The Eastman was preowned, 10 years old and well played, so it was assumed to be opened up. Compared to a CA Cargo (composite) travel guitar and a boutique Zeiler parlor with the same dimensions. Came with D’Addario 12’s. Tried Straight Up strings 12’s, and Heritage and Martins.
I prefer 45 mm or 46 mm nut width. HOWEVER, until you get to the boutique guitar market, almost ALL guitars of ALL types ALL have either a 43 mm or even a 42 mm nut width. This is INCREDIBLY frustrating, because almost ALL guitar makers have a 'ONE SIZE FITS ALL' strategy. Just imagine if you went into a shoeshop, only to be told: *'Sorry, sir, but we ONLY sell size 8 shoes. If you HAVE to have another size, then you'll have to get a shoemaker to make you a CUSTOM MADE PAIR OF SHOES. And then - and ONLY then - will you be able to buy shoes in your size.'* And yet our hands - just like our feet - come in different sizes. So much for the 'market' ensuring competition and diversity...
