Thanx... Mike .

"Swamp Rat Blues" was the first one I made. I did all of these in 1999 in just one take because I'm lazy. That's why they're so rough. I hope you all have a Happy New Year.

@Mean Mojo ... love it.  Again, the vibe is great!  I especially enjoy Swamp Rat Blues.

@Rich ... nice job. I really like the bends!

Hi - this is "Say What You Mean Baby" by the great Paul Delay.  I'm playing a G harp in second position (song is in D).  I am using an Astatic 200 with a vintage ceramic element and my new baby, a 90s Bassman 59 reissue.

Happy New Year - Rich Greenberg

Duke: do you mean the string willl sustain endlessly type of feed back or the string will whistle feedback if left open, or will the pickup itself screech feedback? It'll be some time before I get something done, let me know how to contact you if its successful. Those things used a really odd combination of two magnets, so I'll somehow have to see if I can cut some up to match. Over the magnet tops above the coil there are an ingenious series of magnetic conductor/diaphrams too, pure genius.....

Also are you referencing the version with two open slots in the pickup for G and high E strings, or the fully closed top one? On the open one you might try putting a piece of thick tape, maybe electrical tape might work, over the G slot and see if it stops the feedback, those slots are like the F holes in an archtop, sound purposefully gets in thru there....

I call the first one: "Swamp Rat Blues". The second one is an old Mississippi John Hurt thing called "Richland Woman Blues" I'm having fun here...

JW.....as long as you are not drooling on your guitar you are good to go!

Thanks Duke and Mike - Knopfler is a master of that brushed picking technique. I was serious about facial expressions though - anyone have any ideas for how to get a more engaging facial expression while playing? (Other than more video - which I will definitely do - the mirror is the harshest critic :-) )

@jwsadler .. Great song.  I like the playing and singing!  The mix between the fingerpicking and brushes are really nice ... gives a nice intimate feel and movement to the song.

Hi JWSadler, sounds good, good pickin' and singing. Don't be so hard on yourself! Duke

Devil Baby by Mark Knopfler - I was a Video Virgin, so please excuse all the framing and execution errors :-)

Definitely need to work on having a non-zombie facial expression too. Must. Practice. Smiling. Aaaargh!

Hi Dave, When you design that guitar microphone that fits in a humbucker ring LET ME KNOW! The only issue with that pickup is that if you use a plain 3rd string it will feed back. Keep that in mind when you are designing please! Duke

Attn: Duke

Thanx... for your comments about my slide stuff. I used my Carlo Robelli Resophonic guitar on that one. I wrote two reviews on the instument myself at: http://www.harmonycentral.com/products/84545 under the names of "Tom De Lello" and "Mean Mojo" with details about it that I couldn't go into here.

If my sound files sound to you ike the old 1937 hotel room field recordings, it's probably due to the cheap $10.00 table top mic that I used...!

A heads up about slide technique that you will appreciate: I use a typical glass slide, but here is the trick... I choose a slide with a narrow enough inside diamiter that the slide stops at the first knuckle of my pinkie finger. This is important, it allows me to bend my hand around the guitar neck better and that gives me better dexteraty to use for the purpose of damping the strings on the length of string that runs between the nut and my slide. It is important in slide playing to do that. If you study pictures of all the great slide players, like Johnny Winters, Muddy Waters and my favorites, Johnny Shines and "Homesick" James, you will see for yourself that they do that too.

Here is another one, I hope you like it...!

Yeah I love those old "moneky on a stick" DeArmonds. Harry DeArmond was a genius in my opinion, a hero of mine; the inner workings of that particular "guitar microphone" as he called it are very sophisticated, it actually is part pickup, and part microphone, thats why the later ones have an opening in the top. There's a great video thats one of my favorites of you jamming with a guy from Roomfull of Blues, or some other band I can't remember right now, he is playing an archtop with only monkey-stick pickup and you were playing a 335, ripping solos from both of you, I'm in awe everytime I see it. The tone he got was awesome. Some day I may design something similar that can be used in a humbucker housing, probably should put that on my list of new projects for 2013 ;-)  Anyway, Harry did a bunch of timeless pickup designs, several of which I've collected and dissected to learn from the master.

Hey, cool, I found that video I mentioned, Chris Flory and you :

Hey  Mean Mojo, Very cool stuff! The slide one actually sounds like an old record! That's very cool when you started it it sounds like a Robert Johnson record, how did you get that sound? Duke

Hi Dave, That was wild and fun! Sounds cool. I use DeArmond pickups often also, The original attachable ones like the guitar mic and the 1100 with adjustable pole pieces. Those are some of my favorite pickups. Duke

Thanks Duke! That means alot coming from you, knowing how much you're into vintage guitars with original pickups. Here's another jam thing I did for fun, for my Dirty Harry pickups, these are single coils copied from the old Kay flat top singles which are virtually the same as the Stratotone pickups H44, except I've wound these alot hotter than the originals, to match the wiring harnesses in modern guitars (Stratotones had 25K pots). They have a wide, flat alnico bar mounted on a steel baseplate with paper top bobbin. I build them into humbucker covers so it easy for anyone to use. Probably should do a much lower wound set but not many players are into these old pickups, mostly Junior Watson and Holstrom, we can thank them for driving the prices way up on those cheap old guitars ;-)

Apologies for going goofy with a GoPro camera, couldn't resist being crazy with it.....

Hy Duke...thanks for your comment! :) my guitar is an Epiphone EL 00....It's the replica of the gibson blues king...I use gibson phosphor bronze 0,13 tuned 1 step low...It's nice and cheap...I'd like to try an old kalamazoo one day but here in Italy is very difficoult to find one..I've listened somthing on youtube and I really like that sound...and I like Corey's parlour and Fylde guitars commonly used by Eric Bibb :)

Surly Mac...thanks for your kind words....take a look at Paris Sunrise/#7 of Mr Beh Harper..it's wonderful :))

Hi Mean Mojo .. sounds great!  Love both of them.  I really like the "feel" and vibe of your playing.  

They came through fine.  It take a couple minutes for the audio to transcode.  Thanks for posting.

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Hi All ... thanks for the kind words on Silent Night.  It was a lot of fun.  Only took 15 takes!  That's why I had the big smile at the end.  It was a great tune to learn how to play by ear and the higher end of the harp.  Jerry, thanks for inspiring me with your version.  Corey, I started to learn with Jerry's lessons.  I always loved the sound of the harp.  I'm still a beginner ... currently working on learning the holes by ear and figuring out how to bend well ... especially the lower holes.  Most of all I want to learn how Jerry does those hanging bends ... the get me every time.

@Peter ... very creative, again!  I also like the lightning and nature sounds.  Evokes a certain emotion and feeling.

@Dave .. I really like your second video, especially the double stop riffs.

@Surly-Mac .. love it.  The space, tone and phrasing of both your vocals and harp are great!   The song draws me in (like Steve's Thirteen).  

@DaddyRay .. wish I could play harp that good when I'm well !!

I got more, but that's enough for now...

pthhh...ttt...!!!

Hummm...

I think that worked...!

One more... see if this one works too... 

I hope this works...!

I made these in 1999 with a Squire Strat through a 15 watt Peavy amp with reverb. I used the Windows "Voice Recorder" and a $10.00 table mic. They came out better than I expected. I did some others with my Carlo Robelli recophonic.

These are twelve years old and I haven't got any better...! I got stoopid fingers...!

I will upload some more, if this one works.

Dave Stephens - Very nice playin' & a great sound!

Alex SJ - Very cool slide work... thanks for posting.