Bill McCloskey
From:
Nanuet, NY
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Posted 22 Jan 2018 9:49 pm |
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The box arrived this morning, and I basically blew off work to play this thing. First, the eharp looks gorgeous, absolutely mint condition. I didn't have Andy DePaule's problem: perfect sounding. I changed the strings, who knows how long those strings have been on there. It is nearly 1am and I've been playing it almost non stop since. then.
First, a lot of adjustment. I immediately started digging in like I would my dobro, but this instrument requires a soft touch. Took me a while to realize the softer and gentler I played, the better it sounded.
I also had problems with the round bar, eventually getting frustrated and going back to my dobro bar. Even tried the RR2 bar which is much longer than a standard dobro bar, but in the end, went back to a the largest bullet bar I own, and, once I got used to it, became the bar of choice.
The tuning: at first I couldn't make anything sound good. Just sounded like a train wreck and I thought, uh, oh...maybe I need to switch back to something more common like everyone said.
But after probably 4 or 5 hours, I got the hang of it and it really started to open up for me. I was playing chords I've never played before, and after I figured out the secret, it seemed like no matter what I played sounded good. There are just so many possibilities with this tuning, especially for jazz, and just wild atmospheric beauty, I couldn't stop playing. For the last hour, I've been playing cherokee, which you can play all over the neck in straight bar positions.
Using 3 finger picks didn't take long to get used to and really added dimension and the grips weren't that difficult. The trick is realizing it is really 6 melody strings and four bass strings. Once you sort of grok that, all sorts of cool things open up. Like the intro to In Walked Bud where you have that descending bass that goes down in half steps. It is all right there.
I'm beat but wanted to express my joy before I went to bed. don't be afraid of this tuning. I don't sound anything like Roy, but I'm starting to sound like myself and this tuning really gives you some tools that, I can already see, will provide a completely unique approach to the steel.
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