Greg Ruby

1 month ago | acousticguitar.com | Teja Gerken |Doug Young |Greg Olwell |Greg Ruby

Amplifying an acoustic guitar can be a daunting task, often complicated by the very qualities that make a guitar sound great acoustically. After tackling this challenge for 50 years with a popular line of acoustic pickups, L.R. Baggs has taken a different approach: designing a guitar from the ground up for amplified performance.

2 months ago | acousticguitar.com | Alan Barnosky |David Hamburger |Adam Perlmutter |Greg Ruby

In the late 1930s, 16-year-old Barney Kessel met his musical hero, swing guitar legend Charlie Christian. When Kessel asked Christian for advice, Christian said, “The main thing is to concentrate on swing first. Then, if you can make some interesting harmony after you know how to swing, that’s fine. But to begin with, swing alone is enough to get you by.” Evidently, Kessel took Christian’s advice, as he went on to become a jazz guitar legend in his own right. But what did Christian mean by swing?

Aug 14, 2024 | acousticguitar.com | Emile Menasche |Doug Young |Adam Perlmutter |Greg Ruby

“It’s just a guitar—simply in its purest form, open and woody,” said Steve Nall, director of manufacturing for Collings Guitars, during a recent phone conversation about the new model he had sent me to review. Officially debuting this fall, the guitar is part of the Hill Country series—the first new line of Collings steel-strings since the Traditional series was introduced in 2016.

May 24, 2024 | acousticguitar.com | Jane Miller |Michael Chapdelaine |Josh Workman |Greg Ruby

Playing in the pocket, or keeping consistent time, is an essential musical skill for all guitarists regardless of style or context. Yet, I have found that a basic understanding of rhythmic notation and its application to strumming can be a challenge to many guitarists. That’s a real shame because of the benefits it can give to your overall musicianship. Notation is simply a code of instructions—once you understand the code, it becomes much easier to know what to do and when to do it.

Apr 7, 2024 | acousticguitar.com | Adam Perlmutter |Adam Levy |Greg Ruby

Ever since C.F. Martin & Co. first set up shop in America nearly 200 years ago, its instruments have been the gold standard for acoustic guitars. For a legacy company such as Martin to name a new model Inception, one should consider what this might be the beginning of. With a continuing decline in the availability of traditional hardwoods due to tropical deforestation, the guitar industry faces the existential crisis of how to build high-quality instruments from sustainable woods.