SHIFTING GEAR
RICH ECKHARDT
Acoustic or Electric? You Don’t Have to Choose
I started playing the guitar when I was about
eight or nine years old. My brothers and I
used to bowl in a kids’ league every Saturday,
then we’d rush home to watch The Monkees
on the local station that afternoon. I always
looked forward to the song segment of the
show so that I could hear the music and watch
them play. I’d also hear their stuff on the radio
along with the Beatles, and had many debates
with neighborhood kids over which band was
better. Sometimes we’d even ponder if the
Archies weren’t in fact the best band!
With all of that curiosity in this magical thing
called music, I asked my mom for a guitar
that Christmas. Naturally, I had dreams of
getting the same sparkle-finished Gretsch
electric guitar complete with whammy bar
that I saw Mike Nesmith holding on TV, but
I was just as excited to find an inexpensive
Bradley acoustic from the Sears catalogue
under the tree that year. To me, it was every
bit as cool as the Gretsch would have been.
At that young age, I never made a distinction between acoustic and electric playing.
The electrics were louder and cooler looking, but a guitar was a guitar, so I started
playing my little knock-off acoustic and
loved it. My elementary school offered
free lessons to fifth and sixth graders who
wanted to stay after school to learn, so
naturally I started lugging my no-name axe
to school once a week to learn a handful of
chords and fingerpicking patterns right out
of the Peter, Paul & Mary and Bob Dylan
songbooks. It really gave me a solid base
on acoustic before I moved on to the never-ending challenge of electric guitar. Once I
got my tiny hands on an electric, I focused
on banging out barre chords and pentatonic
scale-based riffs, but never lost sight of how
much I enjoyed playing my old acoustic, too.
When I was 15, I bought a Guild D- 55 acoustic
and just fell in love with how big and powerful
an acoustic guitar could sound. I’m sure one of
the first things I played on it was the opening
progression to Led Zeppelins’ classic “Stairway
To Heaven.” It was the first time that something I played sounded exactly like the original
recording, and my love affair with the acoustic
was rekindled. As I listened to more and more
true acoustic players, I started to find that they
were doing things on the guitar that were so
much more complicated and challenging to
learn to play than the electric stuff was. I was
baffled. Everyone knows that Jimi Hendrix
was a better player than James Taylor, so how
could that stuff be harder? When I was in high
school, some of the struggle of learning these
acoustic pieces was lifted when I discovered
that many of these songs were being played
using an “open tuning,” like dropped C (
C-G-C-F-A-D) or open G (D-G-D-G-B-D). All of a
sudden, those songs with impossible reaches
became quite easily playable using the open
strings in their altered tuning.
One of my favorite acoustic players is a
Nashville session “A-lister” named Billy Joe
Walker, Jr. His album Treehouse was an inspiration to me as a writer of acoustic guitar
music. Around that same time I discovered
the group Acoustic Alchemy. Their album
Red Dust & Spanish Lace contained wonderful compositions for acoustic guitar, like “Mr.
Chow” and “The Rideout.” They led me to
realize that acoustic guitar is not just relegated to the hands of the “chick singer” in a
Country/Western duo, or the second banana
type who couldn’t quite master the electric. It
was in fact a full-blown animal of its own, and
an important part of any band.
Around 1999, I began what has been a very
rewarding relationship with the people at
Taylor guitars. With so many instruments in
their line to choose from, I find that they have
an acoustic for any occasion. The first guitar
I picked up from them was a Taylor 514ce.
This Grand Auditorium model was designed
with a smaller body size to be best used for
fingerstyle guitar. I immediately recognized
that it was appropriate for any style of playing, picking or strumming. I also have a Taylor
610ce, which Taylor boasts can be used for
any number of applications—and they were
right. I primarily use it when I need to be the
“tuned maraca” and lock in with the drummer as a strong driving force in the rhythm
section. It also shines when I need to be out
front, carrying the melody.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing better than standing down front with your toes
hanging over the front of the stage, cranking
out some max-overdriven Nugent-esque riff
at 126dB to a crowd of screaming fans. But
sometimes it’s nice to be able to deliver a
pure heartfelt melody on acoustic, too.
Keep Jammin’.
Rich Eckhardt
Rich Eckhardt is one of the most sought after guitarists
in Nashville. His ability to cover multiple styles has put
him on stage with singers ranging from Steven Tyler
of Aerosmith to Shania Twain. Rich is currently playing
lead guitar with Toby Keith. His album Soundcheck is
available now, with another due this summer.
richeckhardt.com
