Ask the Expert: Can I Use Medium Strings on My Prewar Martin?
Will using medium strings on a 1936 Martin D-18 put too much pressure on the the instrument over time? Ask the Expert.
These articles originally appeared in the September-October 2019 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.
Pickin’: Learn ‘Sometime Next Summer’ by Master Flatpicker David Grier
“Sometime Next Summer,” from his 2014 album Fly on the Wall, reveals the guitarist’s melodic inventiveness
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Video Lesson: Bruce Cockburn Teaches His Sophisticated Guitar Style
In Bruce Cockburn’s hands, the guitar becomes a true band in a box, delivering powerful grooves, riffs, melodies, harmonized lines, and improvised solos in real time.
The Lasting Legacy of the Kingston Trio
Dick Boak traces the Kingston Trio's massive success to their folk roots.
‘Amazing Grace’: Learn Arlo Guthrie’s Take on This Great Hymn
Audiences at the Woodstock Festival in August of 1969 were treated to Arlo Guthrie’s languid folk-country version, the inspiration behind the arrangement shown here.
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Campfire Songs: Learn to Play ‘Tom Dooley’
This classic murder ballad chronicles the 1866 death of one Laura Foster, in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and the capital punishment of her lover and assailant, Tom Dula—a story that received widespread national attention when it was published in newspapers such as The New York Times.
Video Lesson: Using the CAGED System with the 12-bar Blues
The study of prewar blues includes a heavy amount of time playing in first position—between the nut and the first four frets of your guitar. However, as you learn more and more songs, you might be asking yourself, “What comes next?”
Video Lesson: How to Warm Up Smartly
You don’t just jump out of bed and run a marathon, right?
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François Vola’s ‘Back to Bluegrass’ is a Testament to the French Guitarist’s Love for the Genre
If it seems that the French Riviera is too far from the hollers of the Smoky Mountains to be authentic, think again
Review: The Waterloo WL-AT is a Vintage-Style Archtop from the Mind of Bill Collings
Styled after Gibson’s L-30 of the middle and late 1930s, its small body speaks to folksy intimacy
Album Review: Simba Baumgartner’s Gypsy Jazz ‘Les yeux noir’
On his debut album, Les yeux noirs (Water is Life Records), Django Reinhardt’s great-grandson Simba Baumgartner stretches the boundaries of Gypsy jazz, injecting experimentation and youthful energy into the genre.
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Gear Review: National M-14T Thunderbox
Although known for its steel and brass instruments, National also offers many wood-bodied guitars, both tricone and single-cone biscuit bridge style. The M-14T Thunderbox is the most recent addition to National’s M series of single-cone mahogany resonators.
Book Review: A Definitive Look at the Life of Blues Legend Robert Johnson
Bruce Conforth and Gale Dean Wardlow's 'Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson'
Gear Review: Ernie Ball Guitar Straps
These straps should suit most guitarist’s needs both functionally and stylistically, offering another way to express yourself on your instrument.
Cataloging the acoustic guitars at Woodstock
On the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival, our author compiled a catalog of the acoustic guitars played on stage by Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Country Joe McDonald, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Neil Young and more.
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Great Acoustics: Ca. 1927 National Style 1 Tricones
These two Nationals display age and use in a way that museum curators treasure. These guitars were meant to be used, and their accumulated wear and patina reveal a lot about the lives they have led and the people who have played them.
Catfish Keith Plays Some Smokin’ Guitar on ‘Reefer Hound: Viper Songs Revisited’
At 21, Keith Kozacik recorded his first song about smoking dope, and three decades later, he’s still going strong
Gear Review: G7th Performance 3 Capo
A clever new accessory from G7th, the Performance 3 capo, has a feature that sets it apart from anything else out there: namely the company’s “adaptive radius technology” (ART).
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Makers & Shakers: Talking Shop with Steve Uhrik of Retrofret Vintage Guitars
If you met Steve Uhrik, the founder of Retrofret Vintage Guitars in Brooklyn, New York, out of the context of his shop, you would likely have no idea he was “somebody” in the vintage guitar industry. In fact, he would probably reject that description entirely and turn the conversation towards…
Guitar Talk: Nashville Picker Extraordinaire David Grier is Happy to Play Anything
David Grier is the classic guitarist’s guitarist—not terribly well-known by the general public despite a long, stellar career working with just about everyone who’s anyone in the bluegrass and Nashville country music communities over the past four-plus decades, but uniformly admired by fellow guitarists for his amazing skill and versatility.
World Premiere: Learn to Play Kinloch Nelson’s ‘Solitudes’
You won’t be able to play this piece effectively unless you approach it with a meditative spirit and, most important, a delicate touch.
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Acoustic Classic: Bruce Cockburn’s ‘If I Had a Rocket Launcher’
Cockburn originally recorded the song in a rock-band setting, flush with electric guitars and synths, but when he stopped by our studio, he stripped the song down to just guitar and voice.
Video Lesson: Learn to Feel and Play Triplets
They say good things come in threes. Musical expressions are no exception to this rule.
Learn ‘Spanish Rag,’ a Spirited Instrumental
Of his solo guitar composition, Diego Garcia says, “It’s simple Spanish cadences meet Merle Travis.”
