Freshman Open Plains Series Just Landed

Straight from the factory, the new Freshman Open Plains series is now available in store and on-line.

The Open Plains series is made on Freshman's Cedar Creek line which make the FA350 guitars, FA400s and them amazing no-corners-cut FA500 range.  We asked if there would be any electric pick up enabled versions of the Open Plains series and it seems Freshman want to split the series between Open Plains for pure acoustic and the Apollo series for electro-acoustics.  This does actually make a lot of sense, it's all about looking at where the money is spent.  In the Freshman Apollo Series it goes into the Fishman pickups and an A grade of AA grade spruce top.  On the Open Plains all that money is going into the wood with slightly higher grade woods for your pound.






Freshman Guitars' Open Plains series split down into three series. The Open Plains 1 dreadnought coming in at the lower end with solid A grade Sitka spruce and an Open Plains 1 OOO.  There's also a sunburst version of the OOO.  Series 2 has AA grade sitka spruce and series 3 has AAA grade Sitka spruce top and a stunning quilted mahogany back and sides.  Now there's a fair old price jump between the second and third series.  There's a big jump in cost to that AAA grade Sitka spruce top and the process of making an AAA grade laminate quilted mahogany back and side make up ain't so cheap either.  The Open Plains 3 series is available in dreadnought and OOO folk body shapes.






One big difference here from what we've seen from Freshman is a neck profile.  It is thinner and so so comfortable in the hand.  Binding is walnut with a slither of maple, like on the Apollo 3s.

Sound is amazing, real depth of character even on the Open Plains 1, very pure and the kind of sound which just makes you want to keep on playing.  It's very very hard to walk past it once you know the kind of tone and feel it gives.

Search For Guitars Easier

We've just implemented a new search drill down in the acoustic guitars section on Musicianscentre.com.

You can now refine your search by body shape and brand name. We'll be rolling this out to other sections of the site soon. Let us know what you think.

The more feed back we get the better we can make the site!

Tanglewood Starter Acoustic Guitar

A quick overview of the Tanglewood Discovery Deluxe acoustic guitars in dreadnought and folk bodies.

Detuning and String Gauges For Guitarists

This is a bit of a break down of what to consider using for strings if you prefer to detune those guitar strings from the normal E-A-D-G-B-E.

Some different tunings, such as D-A-D-G-A-D which gives you an open tuning of a D suspended fourth and is very popular amongst acoustic players, don't really need a change in string gauges although there's no rules and different guitarists will have different preferences.

In the world of metal detuning is almost prerequisite, tuning down some or all of the strings gives a meatier and obviously lower pitched sound.  The very popular Drop D Tuning (from standard tuning just lowering the thickest string by 2 semi tones D-A-D-G-B-E) also means that to play a third chord over the two bass strings (often called a power chord) you only need one finger instead of two.  We often hear other drop tunings mentioned, like Drop C (from standard tuning dropping thickest string 3 semi tones and the rest of the strings 2) and occasionally Drop B or even A amongst the sludgier players.

So, as you loosen that string the pitch goes down but the amount of vibration is wider and this can cause the strings to start hitting frets and giving fret buzz.  So you need thicker strings.  What gauge strings depends on what you are tuning to and what scale length your guitar is.  The scale length is basically the distance between the nut and bridge along which the string vibrates.  This varies usually between 25.5" (Stratocaster scale length) and 24.75" (Les Paul length).  There are some shorter and longer ones than that but most full sized electrics fall somewhere between them too.

Also remember that as you are changing the gauge of strings, you'll probably need to setup the guitar.  Thicker strings have more tension and therefore pull more on the neck as well as on any tremolo you might have.  You might need to tighten the truss rod to allow that neck to fight back against the higher tension you're putting on it and the tremolo system might either need the claw screws tightening slightly (that's the screws physically screwed into the guitars body underneath which holds the strain of the springs) or an extra spring might need adding so that the tremolo sits straight and is pulling with equal tension to the strings.

Floyd Rose style floating tremolo systems are even more fun.  Same principle but because the balance of the trem is finer it can be hard work getting that tension of the springs and the strings equal to allow the trem to sit straight and for it to stay in tune.  We usually say have a guitar with a Floyd Rose setup in one tuning and then leave it, don't change to any drop tunings or anything as it will through the balance out.

The general "medium" gauge for a 25.5" scale length is a pack of 9s (9-11-16-24-32-42) and for a 24.75" it is a pack of 10s (10-13-17-26-36-46).  So to detune from E-A-D-G-B-E these strings need thickening.

This chart gives you a rough idea of what to aim for, but there aren't any rules, experiment!  We asked our Musicians Centre Facebook fans what they used and results were varied.  Bri from Bradford, heavier-than-thou sludge doom merchants Lazurus Blackstar tune drop A (A-E-A-D-G-B)... but use regular gauge strings!  Adi from Eyesore Angels sit's nicely in Drop C (C-G-C-F-A-D) with Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky (9-11-16-26-36-46).  Jack from The Marmozets plays in a Drop C tuning and uses 11s (11-14-18-28-38) but replaces the high C 11 gauge string with a 12.  There's always one.

Comment and let us know what you use and we will add it to the table.

	25.5" Guitars	24.75" Guitars
D-A-D-G-B-E	9-11-16-26-36-46	10-13-17-30-42-52

This is an open ended Blog post that will be added to and probably corrected over time.

Freshman Acoustic Amplifier AC30R Instruction Manual

We had these little acoustic amplifiers from Freshman land the other week.  They're a simple 30 Watt Acoustic Amplifier with XLR input for microphone, jack input for acoustic guitar, overall EQ with built in chorus and delay.

Great amps for this price, one thing though one of our customers pointed out.  No instruction manual.  So we thought we'd make one.  This presentation will be added to as  we get time, feel free to suggest additions if you own the amp yourself.

(Right click on slide show and click 'next' to start)

Instruction Manual for Freshman AC30R Acoustic

Getting The Most From Your Effects Pedals & Stomp Boxes Live

// BLOG SWAP //

In the coming months we will be offering up a Blog Swap where we swap blog posts with another Blog who we feel can bring something to the Musicians Centre "Inside Music".

Today we have a good friend of mine, Dan Williams from Onion Audio, a Leeds based PA hire company. Dan goes over best use of guitars stomp box pedals, how to set them up, how to use them once set up and what to do when something goes wrong. 

If you are interested in doing a Blog Swap with us get in contact. - Michael


Stomp Boxes

Depending on the type of act you play in, stomp boxes and effects pedals can play an important role in the sound of your band. From a simple distortion box, to an elaborate display of delays, samplers, chorus and flangers. Even if you only use one box, setting levels correctly and choosing your settings is vitally important and very easy to get wrong. During this article we're going to look at simple things you can do to make your effects pedals work seamlessly within your unique sound.

Setting Levels

It sounds simple but the gain structure of each pedal is vitally important to getting a smooth transition between each effect. Think about it, if your distortion is way louder than your clean sound and your chorus is a bit quieter, it's going to sound really weird out front. You can't expect the sound engineer to ride the fader, and in a small venue it wouldn't make much difference if they did.

Go though each box you have and adjust the level knob so that the volume stays the same between the dry and wet signal. Obviously having the distortion louder is desirable but it only needs to be a subtle increase, too much and it will ruin the balanced sound a band is looking for. Go through each effect and A/B between the clean and effected sound. This should give you balance from one effect to the next, it should also help if you start adding two effects together.

Looking After Cables

Between each pedal you will need a small jack lead, sometimes called a patch lead. If you ever have a problem and cant hear your guitar then chances are its one of these little babies that's broken. If you already have a large selection of effects then going through your cables to find a fault will probably be a familiar story. For those reasons it makes sense to use good quality cables and keep them in good condition.

I recommend using Vandamme patch cables. They're a lot more expensive than budget cables but they last. The wont let you down during a gig and if you look after them properly most of them will never break! Budget cables will probably last you around six months tops, they will eventually start to crackle and break. If you gig every weekend then it will happen on stage eventually and you will look stupid as you frantically change cables around to find the dud one.

Coil your cable neatly at the end of each gig and tie it up with electrical tape. Don't just throw them in the bag with all the others and pull at them when your at your next gig. Any tension on the cable increases the chance of a fault.


Keeping a record of gig settings

Another simple but effective tip is to keep a record of your knob positions. You can do this by writing them on a piece of paper or by marking on the box. Have a certain setup that you know works sorted before the gig and when you get there move the knobs to the correct position. This way you can experiment all you like in the rehearsal room but be able to get your unique, tailored and tuned sound that fits perfectly with the band straight away. Doing this when you only have a 15 minute change over saves important time.

Buying a box for the box

Buy/make a case for your pedals. Doing this will keep them safe and secure. They will be in the same place every time and wont slip across the stage floor. Setting them up at each gig is tedious and takes too much time. If you only have 15 minutes you cannot set a guitar amp up, place and wire pedals, tune guitar and everything else that needs doing in 15 minutes.

Troubleshooting!

If, after setting up your elaborate array of boxes at the gig you find it doesn't work, don't just stand there! Troubleshoot the setup. I have seen so many guitarist panic and do nothing thought I would mention what is best to do. Firstly, unplug from the pedals and go directly in to the amp. this way you can determine if the guitar and amp are working correctly. Second bypass the effects pedals one by one, start from one end and work your way across. As soon as it starts working the pedal you have just bypassed is the problem. Change the cable test the power supply and do without if necessary. 

No Way I Won't Tidy My Bedroom

The Musicians Centre are proud to support the Facebook campaign promoting the sale of Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name Of" to try and break X Factor's five year dominance of the UK Christmas number one. 


Considering the band have musical talent and do not appear on a glorified Karaoke show is something we here at the Musicians Centre wholeheartly support. To join this campaign joining the group a Rage Against the Machine For Christmas No.1.