Roger McGuinn show 4/23/11 in Norfolk, CT

[beatbyrd]

Hi,
The Saturday show was the better of the two. I had a fourth row center seat for the show. Roger's guitar playing was a lot better than on Friday. He still had occasional left hand trouble on his Rick, and the outro to "Feel a Whole Lot Better" was not played cleanly. I'm not sure if he spends such little time on his 370 because it's harder for him to play - or - it's harder to play because he spends such little time on it. His Martin HD-7 seems to be the guitar of choice for him now. The crowd came to life every time that he reached for the Rick. There was actually a bit of jangle when he played it, but I didn't hear the kind of chime I'd expect with the guitar's circuit or a JangleBox. The guitar(s) sounded far better than on Friday. In Roger's defense, the sound check took a lot longer than planned on Friday night, when he had most of his trouble. On Saturday, the trouble was mostly keeping the guitars in tune. He did a lot of tuning and even brought out the "I tune because I care" chestnut. The HD-7 just wouldn't stay in tune very long.
An old high school guitar player friend of mine was impressed with Roger's singing and playing. The crowd was on its feet for 2 of the 3 encore songs.

Here are some pics from the Saturday show:

Tom (beatbyrd.com)

[JakeK]

I know how it feels when you go to all that work and no one posts ANYTHING about it...

Thanks for the show reviews, Tom. Based on your pictures, he seems to have been playing a '69 370/12 with Lightshow-style Hi-Gains, modded with his late '80s signature pickguard. Perhaps it's the narrow string spacing and pencil-thin neck that made him have all those troubles. His '88 Limited Edition should have a few millimeters worth of wider string spacing and a slightly fatter neck. I wonder why he's not using it. What I'm trying to say is, it shouldn't be as wide as a 660/12, but not as narrow as a '60s 360/12.

I love Martin acoustics, they are probably my favorite acoustics around, but I never understood his 7-string. It's often baffled me why he's so into it, and why it's got that octave string. Most people bend on the G, and I've often heard the G pair on a 12-string is the hardest to keep in tune. An octave D would have made more sense! Either way, as I've said before, he probably likes the fatter neck and thicker strings.

I enjoyed seeing McGuinn in 2008 when he came to Louisiana, but he used both the Martin and a '88 370/12 McGuinn limited edition. He used that and the Martin equally, and even pulled out a banjo for the opening numbers. He played a Leadbelly song on an acoustic 12-string which seemed to have the main strings and the octaves all tuned differently than each other. He was great, but a LITTLE bit of backing would have done him good. Before he went on, you could hear someone (either him or his tech) tuning the Ric 12, while it shorted in and out. Hearing it's compressed goodness sent shivers down my spine.

[beatbyrd]

I know how it feels when you go to all that work and no one posts ANYTHING about it...

A lot of times, you just get the sound of crickets when you post. That's been my experience. No big deal.

I love Martin acoustics, they are probably my favorite acoustics around, but I never understood his 7-string. It's often baffled me why he's so into it, and why it's got that octave string. Most people bend on the G, and I've often heard the G pair on a 12-string is the hardest to keep in tune. An octave D would have made more sense! Either way, as I've said before, he probably likes the fatter neck and thicker strings.

Roger tells his version of the "United breaks guitars" story, though in his case, I think it was Air France. He says he approached Martin about a single guitar that combines the best of a 6 and a 12, when he had a guitar damaged by the airlines. He gets the bass E-A-D strings, the octave G pair, and the ability to bend the B and high E strings. He uses the G pair for droning. This guitar seems to work very well with his particular style, and (I would think) folk music/fingerstyle in general. I also think he finds it easier to play than his Martin or Rick 12 strings. Tom