Mr Richard Daniels recently visited 433Eros and discussed the more esoteric, evolutionary pivot points of the guitar. It was a sweeping review of the instrument that eschews the lampooning of popular artists of our past and present in favor of examining the "Big Bang" of the instrument's development. This interaction has been transcribed and will be made available in several parts over the course of the weeks to come. Put down the Zep records and dial up the guitar background radiation detector! We continue the discussion of musical theory and how it applies to the evolution of the guitar. Richard Daniels is a frequent visitor to 433Eros. We always enjoy our time together watching the universe slide by.
E.D. Out.
R.D. The vision of the people that made the instruments in 1780 did not go “past” carved wood contours shaking, or the architecture of holding a singing string onto one box… Their envisioned goal was accomplished once the sound wave came out of the wooden sound hole… The prism that they “looked through” involved how efficiently they can transfer the physical energy of the singing string to the wooden box of the instrument. They lived for that only. That, and of course, violin greatness and grail attainment. Like it or not, the guitar has melted into the computer age… defining the new world… leaving its acoustic youth behind.
E.D. Leaving the acoustic youth behind....?
R.D. The electric guitar does not depend on sound waves, doesn't even need them… all it needs is to have the pickup magnet’s flux field within range of the singing steel strings of the guitar… pluck the string… the electronic pathway is both created (electricity is made) and the harmonic mode pattern of the strings shaking has been “mirrored” into a unique E pulse…and out and down the guitar cord the signal goes… So the electric guitar works fine in a complete vacuum like outer space… The reason the electric guitar went on to universal modern history is because the electronic signal can be worked past its origin… digitally recorded… it can be changed now or later… it can be changed every which way…
E.D. This gives a whole new meaning to turning up to 11!
R.D. The whole thing adds up to a vehicle that is endlessly more sensitive than the original physical model… Over the sixties, seventies and so forth, the electric players figured out the wild advantages of low action, lowered tension, arched fret boards, thinner strings, precision tuning, sustain, ease of playing… The electric guitar was re-discovered by artists everywhere trying to out-do each other… The piano, the violin, still depend on wood and air… the guitar alone has moved off and into a million faces, a digital army… the diversified assimilation… The guitar alone grew past its origins… Yes, I think the guitar won the instrument wars… it is clear to me… I am not preaching against the violin and piano, they remain pure as ever. I am only pointing out to the world that it is the guitar that blossomed into a million points of light and color. Of the lot, it is the instrument with the greatest future. I know the reasons it will happen that way…
R.D. So now I set my sights – not on the sole concept that the violin changed into the guitar over
time...What I see now is that it was the 1780 version of THE PIANO, THE VIOLIN AND THE GUITAR ITSELF from that period, ALL OF THOSE GREAT INSTRUMENTS SLOWLY MORPHED TOGETHER INTO THE MODERN ELECTRIC, DIGITAL, RECORDED, UNIVERSAL POWERED INTERACTIVE GUITAR… The guitar left its previous self behind, along with the well worn blueprint for finished acoustic instruments. The guitar won the adaptation of the digital age. It was electrified… Then the music was set free because of the instrument. I get the romance with acoustically pure systems... I just think of both of them together... that is all... one made the other... They are the same... see the guitar just does not quit... how far can you understand it... for the hour is much later than anybody knows... The Grail claims the future... Through the thing...
E.D. I'm note quite following... explain?
R.D. The guitar changed, in part, from gut string to steel string around the 1890’s. The flat top steel string went on to be the Delta guitar of choice by 1920. But by having steel strings the guitar was ripe to experience a quantum leap into the future by the addition of the electro magnetic pickup, sold on Gibson guitars by the mid 1930’s… This single fact allowed the platform of the guitar’s original matrix to go past the applications of the original physical model that the great instrument makers had cherished - and locked down- for centuries…
E.D. So, like fire to the first men... electricity to the guitar....
R.D. Correct, once the guitar went electric it was on its way to the entire heritage of the acoustic piano, violin and guitar as one big melted “three cheese” sandwich, the guitar broke off from itself at this point… The fact that the guitar was the first of the great instruments to be successfully “made electric” with its "acoustic output" completely, and utterly transformed into a electromagnetic pulse signal… well, that is how those rock stars like Joe Satriani can center a world tour around one guitar in one case… that is what I see… that is what I saw happen… It, meaning music history, fell to the guitar… not the others…
It is not so much one instrument against the other… the real story of Western Music is how purely acoustic instruments were reduced to an incoming digital signal… Once I saw that the guitar was ahead of the curve and ready to accept an “outgoing electric signal” revolution, then there was no stopping the dominoes of application that we all know so well, from Chicago Blues, Elvis, B. B. King, The Beatles, Jimi, Stevie Ray--- They also melt into one… The guitar got jazzed the hell up… The neck got a radius, the amps feed back, the strings got lighter, the signal got synthesized, The playing got faster, the "nailed down" classic discoveries of diatonic function funneled into and through the new thing- and mixed with old blues.
(to be continued)
