TUNING UP
All About You...
Our mission here at Premier Guitar has
always been, and will continue to be, a passionate commitment to helping you find ways
to get the tone you desire. It seems simple
in theory, but it’s complex in execution; connecting the dots to this task is paramount to
us and something we take very seriously. We
strive to assist you in your relentless pursuit
of tone by offering useful and usable gear
talk, unbiased product reviews and objective
advice that we feel is critical to creating your
tone and improving your chops.
As far as we’re concerned, you are our boss.
We are regularly humbled by the feedback
we receive from our thousands of bosses
worldwide regarding the information you
crave—and the what, when, where, how
and why you need to integrate the informa-
tion. We are certainly not mind-readers,
so your from-the-trenches suggestions are
the compass points that guide us. Don’t
ever hesitate to let us know what your fix
is. Say there’s a piece of gear you want the
real skinny on; or you rewired your Fender
Bassman and it rocks harder then ever; or
there’s a small builder in your hometown
doing amazing things with wood and circuits—we want to hear about it, because
you are the boss.
Tone is a multi-dimensional experience that
doesn’t discriminate according to age, race
or gender, or musical styles or genres. When
it comes to tone, we aspire to walk the path
of greatness. You can walk with us. New or
vintage, tone is tone, and when it hits you,
it’s a freight train. Tone represents something different to all of us, and its pursuit
can be an incredibly rewarding journey. Your
personal journey is important to us. Thanks
to your suggestions, we try to cover a wide
variety of tone topics that include the opinions of the industry’s most knowledgeable
groovy guys and gals.
Here at PG, we make a concerted effort
to provide you with a fine assortment
of the old, the new, the good, the bad,
and occasionally even the ugly. In this
issue alone we go old school with the
myth of the Gibson Moderne, the
never-ending pursuit of what some
call the ugliest guitar ever; we go
new school with the advancements
in ecological lutherie of Flaxwood
Guitars; we go to the international
School with an East-meets-West
story about Japanese-American
guitar builders in California.
We visit the ultimate guitar col-
lector, Rick Nielsen—I would
kill to see this collection.
Talk about a cat with serious
G.A.S. I’ve been a die-hard
Cheap Trick fan since expe-
riencing Live At Budokan
in junior high. Check
out what Rick and the
boys are up to now. We
also get up close and
personal with Greg Koch
before diving in to bring
TRENT SALTER
you a host of reviews of the industry’s hippest products, from an old-school Fender
Tweed Twin reissue to new-school Rat
Bastard Guitars. Gotta love a guitar company with that name! We even got Glenn Frey
to talk to us about his new Signature Model
Takamine acoustic. Dude, it is all here.
We also know that improving your tone is a
step-by-step process. The first step always
starts with you. A strong commitment to
individual style and technique will pay dividends immediately in your pursuit. We’ve all
heard Clapton’s signature vibrato, and the
volume-tremolo effects of Satriani; those are
techniques that took years of development.
In addition to insight into the industry’s hottest gear, PG’s ultimate goal is to assist you
in improving the technique that will help
you develop your own signature tone, which
is why we include an array of instructional
columns each and every month. One lesson that caught our attention this month is
“Droning Strings.” Not just applicable to
acoustic guitar, droning strings is a shining
example how tone starts in your head, then
moves to your fingers—no matter what kind
of axe your fingers pick up.
Norman MacEwan once said, “Happiness is
not so much in having as sharing. We make
a living by what we get; we make a life by
what we give.” Here at PG, we play well in
the sandbox, and we love to share our toys.
Feel free to crack the lid off the toy box and
drag a few out yourself. After all, it really is
all about you! Enjoy…
Nuff Sed,
Trent Salter, Publisher
trent@premierguitar.com 888.247.2009
