Happy Holidaze everyone. Right now the smell of home made bread is in the air as I contemplate the end of a fabulous musical year; a year that exceeded my expectations. I played a bunch of new and old venues, new and old house concerts, filmed a half dozen TV shows, played at some great festivals, got to play with old friends and made a bunch of new ones too, oh, and I got to see a big part of this beautiful country on my Sea to Shining Sea and Back Tour. I’m excited to end the year at home with several shows to celebrate the holidays with my friend, cellist extraordinaire, Kristen Miller-check out the side bar to the right for up-to-date show information.

For the holiday concerts I’ll be bringing out the high-string guitar in addition to the baritone and harp guitar! The high-string is so perfect for the season, but after getting re-acquainted with it this fall, I think I can guarantee it a permanent place on stage as I move forward. It’s such a nice contrast to the other guitars with its music-box quality. I think you’ll enjoy it a lot. It’s very, very different, and I don’t think anyone is touring with a baritone, harp guitar, and a high-string. I’ll be proud to be the first.

I have been having a blast with the harp guitar. It’s the instrument I spend the most time with, and I’m writing with it almost constantly now. I’ll be featuring it on over half my material at the holiday concerts, and it’s getting more and more stage time in all my shows. Here’s my most recent creation. Enjoy!

I’ve finally got things figured out on YouTube and have my own channel. These are ‘home’ videos I record at my studio in Gloucester, and some are quite raw, shortly after I’ve written them. Check it out here. For more polished video click here, you can see individual songs recorded for a TV show in Salt Lake City, Brewin’ Bistro this summer. Please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel-you’ll be notified as soon as I post something new. Enjoy.

If you’re a guitarist, please consider a private workshop with me while I’m on the road.  Or if I’m not near you, consider scheduling a guitar lesson on Skype-we can use today’s technology to get you on down the road with your own playing.  I love doing 2-3 hour intensive lessons; just send me an e-mail at music AT kenbonfield.com and we can set something up.

Cheers, kb

I’m really excited as I get ready to head out on the road for some really fun shows this weekend with Kinloch Nelson.  I’ve got my new site all bright and shiny, I’ve got all my music back under my control, you can buy it right here (which help$ me the most), or you can find it on iTunes, Amazon.com, eMusic, Napster, and Rhapsody if those are your preferred options. The multiple-CD bundles, such as 20th Century Guitar are only available from my store.

I’ve also just added a video page and will be adding to it over the coming days and weeks. Right now you can view a couple of older tunes, Mystic Morning and Renaissance, arranged for high-string guitar, as well as one of my favorite oldies Steel String Surprise.

I’ve also just added a page of tablature. I’ve got three books available, Artistry of the Guitar Volumes 1 and 2 with 8 songs in each, and an Alternate Tunings Guide with over 200 chords diagrammed in DADGAD and CGDGAD.

You’ll notice that I’m offering a free song to anyone brave enough to join my mailing list. I send out about 4-6 mailings a month depending on my activity, and I won’t share it with anyone else.  This month’s free track is a bouncy ragtime piece, Mesa Rag, from my EP Harbor Town.

Make sure to check out Upcoming Shows, and if you come make sure to say hello.

Peace, kb

But in last month’s Guitar Diaries blog I encouraged all guitarists to experiment with strings and I decided that I had to follow the same advice. What really tripped me into experimentation mode was a set of strings on one of Jeff Bamburg’s guitars on exhibit at the Montreal Guitar festival July 2-4. This guitar had been played by dozens upon dozens of folks in very humid conditions, and I’d played part of a mini-concert with that guitar under stage lights in extremely humid conditions. Death for most strings, especially for me, but when I got back home and played that guitar on July 6th they sounded rich in the low end with really nice sparkly highs; not quite brand new, but I’d have had no qualms performing with them. The strings in question are called Newtone, they’re hand-made in the UK by an ex-coal miner named Malcolm Newton.

Luckily I found a couple of extra set of strings in one of Jeff’s guitar cases and he kindly offered to let me try them out. I first strung up my Bamburg fanned fret and then my oldest Carruth, a 1995 14 fret OM that is very picky about strings. I was shocked. The Bamburg has always blown me away, rich bass, clear and present highs, and balanced. I still got that, but more. The bass was richer, the highs sparkly without being crispy, and the guitar was still balanced, but louder too, much louder. I was even more surprised by what the strings did to my old Carruth which has always been a little bottom heavy. Not anymore. While the bass was still there the strings seemed to create more balance than I’d ever heard, and it too was louder. Both my wife and daughter who hear more acoustic guitar than anyone should have to noticed the differences in both guitars.

So, who’d of thunk it? The man who hates phosphor bronze strings suddenly likes them now. What gives? What’s changed in the last 15 years with phosphor bronze? Just to test things out, I tried the nation’s number 1 phosphor bronze on one of my other Carruths and I got that trash can lid sound again. So there must be a difference between the strings.

And there is. Newtone does something only two other guitar string manufacturers do; wind their strings on a round core instead of a hex core. One of the things I noticed about the two different phosphor bronze strings was their overall tension. While the pounds of tension on the top and neck are almost exactly the same between two strings of the same diameter, the feel when fretting the strings is exceptionally different. Hex core strings are much stiffer feeling than round core strings.

The round core phosphor bronze strings are much mellower feeling and sounding, sustain for days, yet they still have the beautiful rich highs without the brittle quality. Round core strings are harder to wrap, take more experience making and inspecting, and so aren’t the popular choice of factory string operations. They’re more expensive as a result, but boy howdy, the strings really rock. These Newtone strings really intrigue me since they can custom make any gauge string I’ll need to get the most out of my ‘novelty’ guitars like the Carruth baritone, Carruth high-string and Carruth harp guitar I get later this year. For those of you that can get by with standard gauging you can try less expensive options by DR; they make a round core string called Sunbeam that gets great reviews and often favorably compared to the Newtone strings. Dean Markley also makes a round core string, but they’re harder to find than either Newtone or DR.

Subsequent to the beginning of the experiment, I’ve tried strings on my Korean Regal round neck and it sounds like a 1920’s era Dobro, the baritone which is now much louder and projects like the beast it is intended to be when I’m tuned B-B, and my 12-fret OM. They all sound better, louder, richer. I’m glad I took the plunge.

I’m going to use Newtone’s this weekend for upcoming shows in PA and NY and will report on how well they handle a weekend of performance. If they continue to perform the way they have, I will be making a switch.

So, I encourage all of you to create your own experiment and try to find the holy grail for your guitars.

As you may have heard, I’m in full control of my recorded catalog for the first time in 15 years! Every note I’ve recorded and released from Mystic Morning in 1996 to Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard in 2010 is now available and includes the Bonfield & Ebel catalog, Dancing with Shadows and Kadotume, and the un-released solo EP Harbor Town that features bassist Michael Manring.

To celebrate I’m offering great deals on albums and ‘bundles’.  You can get each of the albums individually at prices ranging from $4.79 to $7.99 and save over 20% off of iTunes prices, or you can buy bundles which are collections with multiple albums at even better prices!

20th Century Guitar represents my first three albums on BWE Music-Mystic Morning, Homecoming, and Winternight, 38 tracks and all for only $20,  Bonfield & Ebel 2 x 2 which includes both Kadotume and Dancing with Shadows for $12.99, and you can get the “Stalker Package”, Artistry of the Guitar which includes every track I’ve released by myself or with Mr. Ebel, 86 tracks in all, over 4 hours of music and all for only $34.99! Click here to purchase.

Most of us fingerpickers spend hours thinking about guitars, hours investigating and playing guitars in shops, studios, homes, and ultimately investing thousands and thousands of dollars on guitars. In addition, many of us spend time obsessing about our nails, or our pickups and preamps, or if we record in either the studio or at home we probably obsess about microphones, preamps, and A/D converters. The list is endless. But one of the things you don’t here many folks talk about are strings. Even pros.

If they’re a pro they’ll tell to play the string they endorse; that’s part of the agreement, but privately they’ll tell you brand or alloy really don’t matter. Only gauge does-one strings sounds the same as all the others.

I couldn’t disagree more. Strings are the engine of the guitar. To me they are only slightly behind the guitar in importance to the overall sound of any instrument. I’ve endorsed Thomastik-Infeld strings since 1994 because they are the best sounding strings I’ve ever played. And that’s purely subjective. But from 1974-1994 I tried every type of string made for flat-top guitar. I knew instinctively how profound strings were to the sound of the guitar. But if you’re a player, think back to what it’s like when you put new strings on a guitar that haven’t had new strings in way too long. It’s like getting a brand new guitar for under $20.

What a steal. If new strings have that great affect, what happens when you change alloys? There’s 80/20, Phosphor Bronze, White Bronze, Red Bronze, Coated and un-coated strings of all flavors, polished strings, silk and steel, silk and bronze, and probably more. Phosphor bronze probably has about an 80% or higher market share. I HATE them. I find them trashy sounding with no nuance what so ever, and stiff feeling but one of my favorite guitarists sounds wonderful with them, and he doesn’t particularly like the strings I play, but loves the way I sound.

So, my pitch isn’t to make you use Thomastik’s, though I think you should at the very least try them, my pitch is to get you to try all the other strings out there too. If you’ve got the money, spend the next 90 days changing strings about once a week. It makes the most sense to keep the string gauges the same or very similar, but try all the different alloys, and try as many different makers as you can. If you have multiple guitars restrict your initial search to one guitar; try the one that you’re not quite happy with, the one that’s close to being right, but needs a little sonic help.

Take notes. What did you like, not like about each brand. Make special notes about how the string aged over time, did it feel stiffer or looser than another brand, etc. And if you can, record with each different type of string so you have a permanent, and objective sound file for each type of string. When the 90 days is up review your notes, review the sound files and pick your engine. You owe it to yourself and your guitar to find the best-sounding match you can.

Anyone ready to take the leap? To get folks started, I’ll offer a free set of T-I strings to the first 5 folks who commit to trying out at least 8 different string types over 90 days and hitting us all back with the feedback.