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Guitar Musician   e-zine     03/23//05

In This Issue:

  And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

                                                     - The Beatles, The End

Some Humor

  Little Johnny watched, fascinated, as his mother smoothed cold cream on her
face. "Why do you do that, mommy?" he asked. "To make myself  beautiful,"
said his mother, who then began removing the cream with a tissue.  "What's
the matter?" asked Little Johnny. "Giving up?"

 

Review
 
Click here for all products by Parker.
 

Parker Fly Mojo

A whole new take on the electric guitar

By Vinton Burgess

Parker Fly Mojo Parker's mahogany miracle machine builds on the revolutionary design of the Fly with a host of new enhancements. The result is a high tech tonal monster with terrific sustain, stunning looks, and the fastest, silkiest neck in the business.

Magical materials
In broad terms, the evolution of technology has been the evolution of materials. We talk about the copper, bronze, and iron ages, not the axe age or the sword age. That's because the nature of the materials available has a huge impact on what can be made with them. Ken Parker has always had a firm grasp of this fact and was among the first to make extensive use of a revolutionary new material—carbon-glass epoxy—in solidbody guitar manufacture.

With a mind-boggling tensile strength and negligible weight, carbon-glass composite is one of the most amazing developments of the late 20th century. In the early 1990s, the marriage of carbon-glass reinforcement and great-sounding tone woods enabled Parker to create a fly-weight instrument with phenomenal stability and supremely organic resonance. He dubbed it the Fly. Since then. Parker's earned a world-wide reputation for quality, versatile instruments.

Mahogany mojo
Last year, for the 10-year anniversary of the design, Parker revised all the Fly guitars and introduced the mahogany Mojo. Few woods have influenced the sound of modern guitar like mahogany. It is porous and light enough to resonate freely while being stable enough to support steel strings. Unfortunately, until now you needed a couple of good-sized chunks of mahogany to build a stable guitar. And that meant weight on the shoulder.

Parker Fly Mojo By strengthening the mahogany with a carbon glass back, Parker was able to create the lightest mahogany guitar ever while retaining the mysterious, warm, and heavy tonalities that have made mahogany guitars the favorites of many of the world's greatest players.

I'll get to all the cutting edge technology in a minute, but first I have to rave about the rapturous experience of playing this thing. It's phenomenally light, like picking up a kitten. The next treat to the senses is the amazing fretboard. The strings glide over the frets like ice skates when you bend notes.

And this baby screams! I plugged into my Marshall and pumped her up to 11. Feeling the Fly Mojo's vibrant resonance, hearing miles of sustain, and marveling all the while at its light weight, it was a serious case of love at first solo.

On the other end of the spectrum, I dialed in a surprisingly robust and warm jazz tone from the front pickup with the treble rolled off. Then I added a little of the piezo signal, which I ran from the stereo jack on the guitar into my acoustic amp. This produced a really full, round sound like an acoustic archtop.

Parker Fly Mojo Cut the fat
At the heart of the Fly's levity (it weighs in at a scant 5 pounds) is an amazing job of sculpting away unneeded wood, particularly around the neck joint. The Mojo's seamless patented multiple-finger neck joint tapers from only about 1-1/4" thick at the end of the fretboard to about 7/8" where it meets the body.

Without the .02" thin carbon-glass backing extending from the head joint to the foot, that skinny little neck joint would never hold up. With the backing, you can bridge the guitar face up between two chairs and stand on it. (Although I wasn't brave enough to try this myself.) You can easily play every string on all 24 frets. And the sculpting job looks fantastic. There are subtle curves and accents even on the back, a rounded surface for your right forearm, and a nice wide shelf at the waist for your knee.

Futuristic fretboard
The carbon-glass fretboard on the Fly Mojo is about the thickness of a business card! Still more amazing, the frets are made of hardened stainless steel and they have no tangs. Viewed in cross section, they're flat on the bottom and are simply glued onto the fretboard with a miraculous heat-activated epoxy.

Annealed to a 10" to 13" conical carve on the front of the neck, this unprecedented combination results in by far the smoothest-playing guitar out there. The carbon-glass composite gets slick instead of sticky when things get sweaty. And those super-hard frets will never wear the slightest bit.

Parker Fly Mojo High-tech to the bone
With a Seymour Duncan® Jazz humbucker at the neck, a Duncan JB at the bridge, and six-element under-saddle Fishman piezo, the Mojo leaves no tonal element to chance. The Duncans feature push-pull coil tapping on the tone knob and the piezos run through a custom Fishman stereo preamp.

One switch and one knob give you full control of the mix between the magnetic and piezo pickups. A smart stereo jack lets you run the piezo side to an acoustic amp (or the board) and the mags to your tube amp. If you plug in a mono cable, the jack automatically sums both signals. The piezo tone is full, rich with overtones, and perfectly balanced. The Fly also features a spring-steel-based rocking vibrato that can be fully adjusted without taking off the back plate and that switches easily between dip-only and dip-or-pull settings. This vibrato is enhanced by a self-lubricating nut and Sperzel locking tuners.

In sum, the Parker Fly Mojo is one of the finest guitars I've ever played. It exhibits by far the greatest degree of truly useful and innovative engineering of any guitar I've seen. And the workmanship surpasses even the best custom-made instruments. For my money, the Mojo rules!

 

Features & Specs:

  • Highly sculpted one-piece mahogany body
  • One-piece mahogany neck
  • Carbon-glass fretboard
  • 24 hardened stainless steel frets
  • Seymour Duncan Jazz neck humbucker pickup
  • Seymour Duncan JB bridge humbucker pickup
  • 6-element Fishman piezo
  • Active custom Fishman stereo preamp
  • Stereo output with smart-switching jack
  • 3-way toggle for the magnetic pickups
  • Push-pull coil tapping on both magnetic pickups
  • 3-way selector toggle for piezo, magnetic, or dual signals
  • Piezo level knob
  • Custom flat spring vibrato with floating, bend-down-only, and fixed modes
  • Self-lubricating GraphTech nut
  • Sperzel locking tuners
  • Stainless steel bridge saddles
  • Multi-finger integrated neck joint
  • Carbon-glass backing veneer on entire instrument
  • 25-1/2" scale
  • 10" to 13" conical fretboard radius
  • 1-17/25" nut width
  • 5 lbs. total weight
  • Parker Fly custom hard case

For more info on ordering this product email us

Guitar Q & A

  Tuning 12-strings

Q I have enough difficulty keeping my 12-string in tune in standard tuning. But I like to use alternate tunings, as well, and that seems to cause even more problems with my instrument. Should I look for another 12-string that will stay in tune better?

Jack Hampton
Charlestown, Massachusetts

A Changing tunings on a 12-string is not for the faint of heart, and I certainly advise against it during a performance. However, absent an impatient audience, alternate tunings shouldn’t pose much of a problem with any good 12-string. As with any guitar, there are several problem areas to monitor: make sure your strings aren’t worn out, and if they’re new, stretch them until they’re stable. Also, see that your tuning machines work properly—but keep in mind that tuning machines are often too quickly blamed before other factors are considered. For instance, unnecessary friction at the nut (which can be caused by incorrectly cut slots) binds the strings and exacerbates tuning difficulties. Sometimes these nut-slot problems are minor enough that they can be fixed by applying a bit of graphite from a regular pencil to each nut slot. There are also many special concoctions on the market (including Big Bends’ Nut Sauce) that are very popular. If these solutions don’t solve the problem, you may need to have a qualified repair person recut or replace the nut. And if the guitar seems to have inherent intonation challenges beyond those already mentioned, you may need to have a technician intonate it. This generally involves adjustments at the saddle and may cost a little more to do on a 12- than a six-string, but it can be well worth the expense.

—Teja Gerken

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Dave 'Fuze' Fiuczynski is the leader of world class outfits such as The Screaming Headless Torsos, KIF, Lunar Crash and Black Cherry Acid Lab. Fuze is also an associate professor at the Berklee School of Music. The latest Screaming Headless Torsos album '2005' has just hit the streets. Check out www.torsos.com for more details.
 

Your latest release is another Screaming Headless Torsos [SHT] album 'SHT 2005'. How does this album progress from the other SHT albums?
 

It's much more song oriented and has much less improv and is also more political (see 'suv sob', 'fuel farms', Zoom Zoroc', 'woe to the conquered')
 

Some of the material found on 2005 defies my powers of categorization
(bloody pigeonholing journalists eh!)... How would you define the music on SHT 2005 to the uninitiated?
 

Ouch! This is always a problem... hmm... how about good music??? ;-)
 

You've been acclaimed as a guitarist capable of capturing primitive beauty on a scale comparable with Jimi Hendrix...

 

Not true, no one touches Jimi
 

 

well OK Fuze; you have also been nominated for the Herb Alpert/Cal Arts 'Genius' award. Have these accolades had any negative effects, i.e. impossible levels of expectation, unimaginable self-criticism? Or have the accolades raised your confidence beyond the inherent pressure of being a Genius?
 

 

It's a great boost, it lasts for a day (maybe) and then I'm back experimenting with new ideas. When i was younger, I would flip flop more (delirious with a great review or destroyed after a bad one), but now I take it more in stride. The fact of the matter is that you're always either over-or under-hyped. It’s rare to get a review that's dead on and this isn't always a review the ONLY lauds you.

 

Your Screaming Head Torsos vocalist Dean Bowman has been hailed "the most important vocalist since Bobby McFerrin"...I mean come on, a band this good just isn't fair is it?
 

Don't hate us because we're beautiful ;-) (I’m kidding of course!!)... People say all sorts of things about Dean and all I know is that I'm blessed to have someone as unique as Dean fronting my band.

The Headless Torsos have released more live albums than studio productions. Is this because the music naturally works better in a live environment, you hate the studio, it's more financially viable or something else?
 

Well, we only have one live and one studio (make that 2 with the new CD, also, there's one instrumental studio CD). This is definitely a live band and the studio is a challenge, but in the studio i think the songs come out better, but live there's more raw emotion. I don't think you'd get the full picture if there were only one perspective offered.
 

What's your song writing process and how does it differ when writing solo material compared to band/collaborative material?
 

It's all the same. I like 'groove sandwiches'. I like current grooves
(Rock, funk, house, drumNbass, to Timbaland and other new stuff on the horizon) as the base. Rich harmony in the middle and intense singing or wild to soulful soloing on top. The only difference is with my new instrumental music I’m experimenting with east European, Turkish, Indian and Vietnamese inflections. The idea is that (hopefully) the result (through a lot of trial and error) is bigger than the sum of the elements
 

When did you start experimenting with the fretless guitar? What new techniques and sounds have you discovered?

I tried it 10 years ago, but didn't really get into it until I had a dbl neck, because that way I could draw on it whenever I needed it. It was to hard to sustain a whole gig just on the fretless. I use it for blues slide sounds with distortion and Indian and 'middle eastern' inflections. Also, I can play microtonal scales on it both to accurately intone the Turkish and Arabic scales I’m using as well as western microtonal sounds. With a delay there are also some really nice ambient things you can do. It's great I love it.
 

You are involved in a serious number of top notch projects beyond SHT; Lunar Crash, Black Cherry Acid lab and KIF. You also find time to work with you wife, the amazing Lian Amber. How do you sustain such immense creative energy?
 

I don't. We’re focusing on sht. I’m working on the next kif material and need to generate more $$$$ so Li can finish her CD
 

Has Lian had much of an impact on your approach and outlook towards creating music?
 

Yessssss!!!!!! Her phrasing, she sings far behind the beat and that's something I need to do more. it's more relaxed, sexy!! ;) She's more loving, there are emotional areas I’ve neglected that coming to the forefront and that expresses itself into more groove, taking more time in my solos to say more with less with more feeling. She used to DJ and has about 4000 records, many are world music CD’s. It’s like having your own library!!
 

Projects were couples collaborate are often tense affairs, how have you found writing with Lian?
 

Doesn't work well. She’s a sensitive, lyrical, soul diva and I’m a... well... a screaming headless torso!!
 

 

When stuck for inspiration, do you look for ideas outside of music?

 

Painting, eastern art, Arabic calligraphy and architecture, taking Indian, Turkish and Vietnamese music lessons, checking out microtonal music, living in the country
 

Hehe, Ted Nugent calls this 'outside' process 'diversionary tactics' and apparently finds melodies by shooting dear through the lungs.

Maybe that's why his career is down in the dumps

[Laughs] Do you find music helps deal with your personal demons or create more?
 

It's healing, but maybe in a more cathartic way
 

Aminute ago you mentioned taking cues from the world of fine art when writing music. To what extent do you believe this process has expanded or warped [hehe] your musical vocabulary?
 

Definitely expanded my vocab. But I can't say how and I don't dwell on it. I just let me intuition take over
 

KIF sees you exploring more exotic eastern tonalities. Where do you find time to study so many different musical cultures?

That happened over years, but it's also a more focused study. I'm primarily interested in the melodic inflections. That’s a small part of a whole music. It’s unorthodox, but it's just the way I hear things.
 

The critical reaction to your music is overwhelmingly positive no matter which genre you write within. Does it make any difference to you having such, frankly, unusual levels of media support?
 

It's great, but i still see a lot of room for improvement and that won't come from a good review. You have to learn, study, apply, experiment, apply again, perform, do this over and over and then maybe you're ready to record. Nevertheless, it's great to have that kind of support.
 

You're a visiting professor at the Berklee School of music, what does a typical Fuze seminar/class consist of?
 

Actually, I’m an associate professor and I teach full time, which in the academic world is 20 hours a week. i teach private lessons and ensembles. As soon as possible I try to get players up to speed so we can start to work on creative concepts so they can start to develop their own sound.
 

What's the most important lesson [you hope] a student will leave your class with?

 

Inspiration to find their own voice! You only get one life and it's a blessing to play music.
 

One of your Berklee colleagues, Jon Finn, wrote a tune called "If SRV went to Berklee and studied Jazz" have you ever considered penning a tune called "If Hendrix and Zappa went to Berklee and fathered a child?"
 

That's funny! Hasidic new wave has been described as " Jimi meeting Sun Ra at a bar mitzvah""... maybe that song has already been written ;-)
 

You have possibly the most impressive resume I have ever come across; how many doors has being a Professor at Berklee opened for you?

 

There are a lot of benefits here; the faculty, the facilities, the grant opportunities, the resources of the greater Boston area, but I've been surprised at how much I learn from my students. There are great players and since i have so many 'world' music interests and Berklee has a 40% foreign enrolment I’ve already took lessons and/or collaborated with a Greek oud player, Turkish fretless player, Koto, Chinese Erhu, Brazilian hand drums, Croatian guitar... and a whole lot more!!!! The student body has been an incredible resource!!!!!
 

Did Joe Satriani steal your look?
 

I thought Ben Kingsley did!!!! ;-)
 

[Laughs] What have you left to achieve?

I have a LOT of ideas!!! You’ll hear then soon.
 

Do you feel the need to match critical success with commercial success?
 

Commercial success is needed to create some of my new ideas. I look at this in the way of money being like blood. If you hoard it, it will clot. It needs to flow and it is a means not an end.
 

What's next for Fuze?
 

David Fiuczynski's Sound Of Love: harmonies like the last blush of day being chased away by slate coloured clouds or the sunrise I witnessed this morning, stupid funky grooves and melodies like... well, we'll see.

Best and thank you!

D.

All images and music used with permission of Dave Fiuczynski 2005.

Interview provided by essentialguitarist.com

Recommended Listening - this is a must for your collection.

  Michael Dregni, Django
By Dave McCarty
BOOK
He may be the father of Gypsy jazz, but guitar legend Django Reinhardt’s life and times have remained shrouded in myth and mystery. He was a reticent interview subject, mistrustful of non-Gypsies (especially writers and journalists), and he left behind virtually no personal interviews. To uncover the truth, American author Michael Dregni, a French-speaking Gypsy-jazz aficionado, tracked down and interviewed many people whose lives had been touched by Reinhardt, plumbing the guitarist’s history through their memories, papers, and photos. With deep detail on his start as a musician, the tragic fire that left his fretting hand permanently disabled, the origins of his obsession with jazz, and much more, Dregni makes Reinhardt’s world come alive. Filled with fascinating stories—such as how a chance encounter with a banjo-playing cousin led the young Reinhardt to abandon the violin for the fretted instrument, setting the stage for his later guitar pyrotechnics—Dregni’s book brings Reinhardt’s character to life and illustrates the vitality of the Parisian cultural environment that influenced the guitarist’s development. Anyone who values Reinhardt’s music will be grateful to Dregni for his exhaustive research and superb skill as a biographer. (Oxford University Press, www.oup.com)

 

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