Bron-Yr-Aur is probably my favorite Led Zeppelin acoustic song. Written by Jimmy Page about a tranquil cottage in the Welsh countryside, the song is meditative and bucolic; it always puts me in a different place whenever I hear it or play it. This version was recorded on my Taylor K22ce.
Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir Nanoweb 80/20 Bronze HD gauge set) and a Telefunken M60 microphone.
This video is meant to explore some of the different EQ and effects settings on the Fishman Loudbox Artist. This is meant to serve as a sound demo for what the Loudbox sounds like with a steel string guitar (a Rosewood/Spruce Taylor with the ES1 system). I close miked the amp to get a truer representation of the echo / reverb effects, but you get an even more open sound when you hear it from across the room. (Also note, close-miking results in a slightly more bass heavy sound due to the proximity effect. I rolled off some of the lows slightly to compensate some.) Overall, the EQ and effects on this amp are well tuned to acoustic guitar, and the overall feature set is practical and useful.
Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, Gotoh 510 tuners, strings are Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) into a Fishman Loudbox Artist amp miked with a Sennheiser e906 dynamic microphone.
Demo Guide:
Introduction 0:00
Reverb 1, Phase In 0:15
Phase button Out 0:38
Low 0:56
Mid 1:13
High 1:41
Tweeter Control 2:21
Reverb 1 (adj Time knob) 2:57
Reverb 1 + Chorus 1 (adj Depth knob) 3:07
Reverb 1 + Chorus 2 (adj Depth) 3:41
Reverb 1 + Chorus 1 (Chorus on/off) 4:21
Reverb 1 + Flanger (adj Depth) 4:54
Slap Echo (adj Depth knob… = echo time) 5:29
Reverb 1 + Slap Echo (adj Depth) 6:06
Reverb 1 (adj Time) 6:37
Reverb 2 (adj Time) 6:59
Delay (adj Time) 7:36
Delay (longer delay time / ambient delay) 8:35
Echo (adj Time) 9:19
Echo + Chorus 1 (mild chorus – nice setting!) 9:42
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Slack Key Improv on a Taylor 414ce-NR through a Fishman Loudbox Artist
While a lot of people use more common open tunings like Open D and Open G, this C6 tuning (C-A-C-G-C-E) is most often associated with Jimmy Page. Page used the tuning on the Led Zeppelin songs “Friends” (Led Zeppelin III), “Bron-Yr-Aur” (Physical Graffiti), and “Poor Tom” (Coda). It sounds great on acoustic guitar, providing you with lots of drones in the key of C. (The tuning may not easily work on electric, depending on your set-up.) I find the tuning tends to work well where you’re mostly on the I chord and vi chord, with a little IV and V chords thrown in. While I’m sure someone somewhere will figure out Giant Steps in the tuning, I try to play to the tuning’s natural strengths and focus on chords that are easy to play and make use of the open strings. I hope you enjoy using this tuning. You may also want to check out my covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” and Page / Zeppelin’s “Bron-Yr-Aur,” links below.
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Bron-Yr-Aur is probably my favorite Led Zeppelin acoustic song. Written about a tranquil cottage in the Welsh countryside, the song is meditative and bucolic; it always puts me in a different place whenever I hear it or play it. This is a relatively straight forward read on the song… The original version is a bit shorter, but I usually take a few extra passes through. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
Today’s tip involves selling off your unused gear. This video is not so much on how to do that, but is really about convincing you that it’s a good idea. Proceeds from selling unused gear can be used to buy more useful gear, including a better instrument that you might play more often. Also consider you often have to clean, service, restring, and otherwise maintain gear you’re not using to keep it in good condition, so you save money and time by not having to do that. In general, having less ‘stuff’ also gives you more mental real estate and time to spend with family & friends, playing music, etc.
People often hold on to things for perceived sentimental value or because they think the item is ‘rare,’ but this is often not truly the case. Also bear in mind that you can always buy whatever you sell (or a similar item) back on eBay if you decide you need it several years down the road. Really, this is not so much about using the proceeds to buy more gear as it is about having things that you’ll use or in some cases trading up to a better instrument. You can always do other things with the money as well.
Places to sell your gear (in addition to your local music store):
eBay – http://www.ebay.com
Reverb – http://www.reverb.com
Here is that John Paul Jones interview I mentioned:
The part about having only one bass in Led Zeppelin is at about the 3 minute mark, but the whole interview is worth a listen. (Note – this is a sponsored interview for Elixir and the back half involves him gushing over the strings. I use Elixir too, though, so I’m not knocking it.)