Hard Days Night First Chord

I seen videos and read discussions about the mysterious opening chord to a Hard Days Night.  A friend emailed this audio track to me recently. This nails it!

The speaker is Randy Bachman from his Canadian Broadcasting Company show called Vinyl Tap. He is discussing a conversation he had with Chris Martin who is the son of Beatles producer George Martin.

The explanation of THE chord is so simple, it make me wonder why no one figured it out before.

Blueberry Guitars

Asian and Pacific Rim guitars are common place in these days. Squier, Epiphone, Yamaha, Washburn, Gretch and even Martin have developed relationships with Asian factories that turn out some of the lower cost instruments.

It may surprise you that many of these guitars are built of high quality tone woods, by superbly skilled craftsmen. 

The way I see it, as world trade becomes more robust, and the quality of guitars built internationally improves, the phrase “made in the USA”, will longer carries the weight it once did.

A few weeks ago I heard a radio story about Blueberry Guitars.  I was vaguely aware of these instruments. I had seen them online, but I knew nothing virtually about this company.

The Blueberry saga began when Montreal native, Danny Fonfeder was on a business trip to Hong Kong. 

Fonfeder is the president of Buffalo-Eastcantra Inc., a school-supply company founded by his father and a partner in 1960. His company's customers include giants like Wal-Mart, Zellers, Jean Coutu and Costco. 

This business has a 70,000-square-foot warehouse in St. Laurent, but the Buffalo-Eastcantra factories are located in Asia. And this is where Fonfeder spends around 3 1/2 months of the year.

It was in 2005 when he decided to take a week off from his business in Hong Kong and make a side trip to Bali. He forgot to pack his Martin guitar, leaving it at his hotel. While in Bali he searched shops for a guitar. All of the instruments he found were cheap and unplayable. 

He noticed a myriad of furniture shops that were selling beautiful and intricately hand-carved wooden furnitureand statuary. 

So Fonfeder bought a cheap guitar and took it to one of the shops and asked to carver if he could make the most beautiful hand carved guitar ever, decorating the body, neck, back and head.

The carver that Fonfeder met in that shop was Mr. Wayan Tuges.

In 1988 Wayan had attended an International Woodcarving Symposium held in Finland.  Tuges was taught the art of carving by his father and grandfather. Balinese wood carving is a slow process, but at this symposium Tuges had just one week to finish a project that would be displayed.

He chose to create a wooden statue of a Balinese witch. The judges and public were very impressed with his work. Mr. Tuges decided to leave the statue behind, due to its weight. However, he made headlines all over Europe and became well known in the wood craft arts industry.

Teak Wood Guitar

So it was fortuitous that Danny Fonfeder happened by his shop. When Fonfeder returned to pick up his guitar, he was impressed with its design, but its sound was terrible. The instrument was made entirely of teak wood, which is not conducive as a tone wood.

But all was not lost, because Fonfeder, at this time had he one of those eureka moments, that come along once in a blue moon. 

The thought occurred to him, "What if some Balinese wood carvers could receive professional training to become luthiers and make profession quality, great sounding guitars decorated with intricately carving work?  These guitars would be not only be beautiful, but desirable instruments."

Fonfeder’s plan was to hire a Canadian luthier to go to Bali and train wood carvers in the art of luthery. Unfortunately he was unable to find a Canadian willing to take up the task. 

He then inquired with a member of the American Guild ofLuthiers, Vermont native Greg Morris. Morris has been instructing students in the art of guitar building for more than 30 years. Morris agreed to take the job.

Greg Morris spent the next two years training local Bali citizens to build a guitar that not only looked great, but sounded great too.  

The first attempt was made using the typical tone woods,  such as spruce, rosewood and mahogany,  that were imported from North America,. However since the climate in Bali is much more humid than the climate in America and Europe.  When these instruments were built and shipped to their destination, the guitars would develop cracks.  

Morris decided the solution to this problem was two fold. First kilns were set up at the Bali facility. The wood was dried in them for at least six months. The second plan was to use local woods, such as acacia. These solutions alleviated the issues.

Watch the video below and you will see that some of the employees of Blueberry guitars work creating the guitars, while others carve those incredible designs and perform the complicated inlay work that makes these instruments works of art. It is fascinating.

From all reviews that I have read, Blueberry Guitars have an excellent sound and are great players. One reviewer compared their sound to Larrivee and Fox guitars. 

Some of these creations are uniquely built with a split top, using rosewood for the top covering the bottom three strings and spruce for the portion of the top that covers the tops strings, thus giving the bass strings a mellower sound while the top strings produce a brighter sound.


Blueberry also offers triple wood tops.

Incidentally, Danny Fonfeder named the company after his daughter, whose name is Blueberry.

These guitars are priced similar to what you would pay for a mid-range Martin and probably less than a new Gibson instrument. Most sell for $2500 to $3000 USD, but a very ornate instrument may cost considerably more.

Blueberry Guitars are all handcrafted. Some of them have a 5 month delivery.

From what I gather, most of the guitars are sold directly from the manufacturer through their eBay store. There are but a few authorized dealers.

They also hold an auction and a contest on their webpage.

Blueberry makes not just acoustic guitars, but solidbody hand carved electric models as well.

Blueberry guitars are perhaps the most incredibly beautiful and unique guitars that I have ever profiled. They would certainly make for an eye-catching instrument during a performance.

Wayne Henderson - The Stradivari of the Blueridge

Anton Stradivari is the prestigious builder of violins and other stringed instruments. His creations, known as Stradivarius or Strads are nonpareil and the standard by which all violins are compared. Virginia resident Wayne Henderson is a luthier that has earned the title of The Stradivari of the Blueridge (mountains).

Last year my brother made me aware of a book called Clapton’sGuitar – Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument. The book tells the story of how Eric Clapton played a Henderson guitar in a recording studio back in 1994 and decided he had to have one. The wait period for a Wayne Henderson guitar is ten years, even for well known celebrities, such as Clapton. Henderson does not take shortcuts when it comes to his craft. Clapton received his Henderson in 2004.

Wayne C. Henderson is an American Luthier who specializes in the crafting of handmade custom Acoustic guitars. He has studied Martin guitars from the 1930's and early 1940's and has designed instruments that many feel are superior. I certainly agree.

Wayne humbly states all he does is take a sharp knife to a piece of wood and cuts away all the parts that do not look like a guitar.

But he does so much more than that. His guitars all have a signature crisp, clean and sweet ringing sound that steel string acoustic players have come to desire.

The spruce braces he installs are hand cut with 'a sharp knife.' Actually it is his pocket knife. He chooses wood for the soundboard that has a nice ringing tone.  Everything about his guitars, with the exception of the tuners and the bits of inlay are hand made. Henderson carves nuts and saddles out of aged beef bone. Henderson does all the inlay work on his guitars and as you can see from the picture at the top of the page, the results are exquisite.

Wayne Henderson also occasionally makes other stringed instruments, such as mandolins, banjos and fiddles. His focus is on guitars and he has a long waiting list. 

From Fret Board Journal

Henderson works out of a small shop which is based in Rugby, Virginia, population 7, Grayson County, Virginia. His red brick shop is about the size of a large garage.

As I have mentioned, Henderson's guitars are inspired by those great pre-World War II guitars of C.F. Martin and Company. In essence, Wayne runs a one man shop, so he has built and sold only a limited amount of guitars. Those who own a Henderson guitar say it is worth the wait.

In a 1995 White House ceremony Wayne Henderson received a National  Heritage Fellowship Award in recognition of his extraordinary luthery talent.




In addition to the 2004 book, Clapton’s Guitar, was the subject of a 2008 Appalshop Documentary, From Wood to Singing Guitar.

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Henderson has built guitars for Tommy Emmanuel, Doc Watson, Peter Rowan, and Gillian Welch.

Wayne Henderson is also an incredible fingerstyle guitar player. You can often find him playing guitar with friends on his front porch.  But Henderson has played guitar at Carnegie Hall and participated in three national tours of Masters of the Steel-String Guitar and and done seven Asian tours of this show.

Henderson works alone in his shop, although he is sometimes aided by his daughter, Elle Jayne Henderson and by aficionados that travel 100’s of miles just to get the chance to work with this master luthier. Wayne is happy to share his knowledge.

After all, some of the world’s finest guitars are made in that small shop.

Wayne’s daughter, who goes by the name Elizabeth, has become very involved in her Father’s work. She has interrupted her law school classes, to learn to be a luthier. She has said, “I think the name that he’s made for himself as a luthier is so significant that it shouldn’t end with him, he is a master at it and I’m his only kid. I think it’s really important to carry on a tradition like this.”

She wants to build instruments that move away from the traditionally favored exotic but unsustainable woods. For centuries, luthiers have sought out woods like Brazilian rosewood and Honduran mahogany to craft their superior instruments. “I can go to my Granny’s land a mile away and cut a walnut or Appalachian spruce or gather some that’s already fallen,” Jayne says. “That movement is happening with our food, why not try and make this more sustainable too?”

In joining her father’s business, the Hendersons’ concern of late is producing a sustainable guitar that will not erode the world’s natural resources.

Wayne Henderson only produces about 20 instruments a year, which explains the long wait.  

Some of Henderson’s instruments are elaborately decorated, while some are rather plain. Henderson’s goal is to make a guitar with excellent volume and tone.

From Fret Board Journal

To give back to his Appalachian community, The Wayne C.Henderson Music Festival and Guitar Competition was established in 1995 in recognition of this master luthier.



A portion of the proceeds from the Festival are placed into a scholarship fund to aid young musicians in continuing their education. The competition winner receives a Henderson guitar.

From Fret Board Journal

By the end of 2012 and by his count, Wayne has built 549 guitars, 116 mandolins, 104 fiddles, 15 banjos, 14 ukuleles, five dulcimers and two dobros in his career.

So far Elle Jayne is working on two ukuleles and her eighth guitar, a cutaway model with koa sides and a spruce top, as gifts for her cousins. With each one, she comes closer to her goal of a sustainable guitar of the quality her dad instruments.

The video below features Elle Jayne's Eighth Guitar.

Bob Brozman - National Steel Guitars

Santa Cruz, California native Bob Brozman passed away at his home this past April 24^th. He was only 59 years old.

Perhaps some readers may not be familiar with Brozman as his style of playing guitar was very eclectic.

Much like Richie Havens, Brozman interests lie in Folk Music. However in his case the type of folk music he performed and studied included Gypsy, Jazz, Calypso, Blues, Ragtime, Hawaiian and Caribbean music. 

Brozman collaborated with musicians from Africa, India, Japan, New Guinea, Trinidad, and other islands.

In addition to performing, his studies in ethnomusicology led him to an adjunct professorship at the Department of Contemporary Music Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney Austrailia.

Brozman was a fount of knowledge when it came to American music of the 20^th Century.

He recorded numerous albums, books and video tutorials. He was a three time winner of the Guitar Player Magazine Readers Poll.  Brozman kept up a steady world wide tour schedule and founded guitar seminars. 




His tours were remarkable. He was very recognizable from his dark hair and dark beard. Bob Brozman generally performed solo with several of his silver plated National guitars , his National ukulele, and a Bear Creek lap steel.

However there were times when Bob would play with a group of musicians that did not speak any other common language except music.

Brozman is best known for his use of National resonator instruments from the 1920’s and 1930’s. He also used a Weissenborn hollow neck acoustic as a lap steel and a baritone version of a National Tri-cone resonator guitar and a National resonator concert ukulele.  

He was not only the worlds preeminent  authority on National steel string resonator instruments, Bob was an amazing instrumentalist.

Brozman developed a love for world music as a boy, listening to Calypso songs from Trinidad and the traditional music of Hawaii that he acquired on 78 rpm recordings. 


His field of undergraduate study was ethnomusicology at Washington University of St. Louis. During his college years he would trek through the southern United States to learn jazz and blues from musicians that were playing in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

During these days he learned how to play slide guitar, using a home-made slide that was actually the neck of a wine bottle.

As a music anthropologist Bob was very interested in what happens musically with the guitar when it is left behind in a country and culture that knew nothing about the guitar.

In an NPR interview that was done 10 years ago, he told radio journalist Marco Werman, “I made it into this book called ‘1000 Great Guitarists of All Time,’ the little paragraph under my names says, ‘Brozman will never be well known because he plays too many kinds of music.”

Brozman was a contributor to several guitar publications and did instructional videos for Happy Truam’s Homespun Tapes. Bob Brozman was also associated with and endorsed Bear Creek Guitars. Bear Creek makes accurate and extremely well made reproductions of Weissenborn style hollow body lap steel guitars as well as steel string guitars and ukuleles.

Bob Brozman may have been better known throughout other parts of the world than in the United States.

Brozman was one of a kind. (March 8, 1954 - April 24, 2013)

Richie Havens - The Guild D40

Richie Havens, a long time member of the New York folk scene of the '60s, died Monday morning from a sudden heart attack. He was just 72.

The world first took notice of Havens’ amazing voice and rhythmic style of guitar playing when he performed at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.

In those long ago times there were white singers and white groups and black singers and blackgroups.

The Color Line was seldom crossed.

Then Richie Havens came along and sang music written by George Harrison. He sat on a stool and played guitar like a folk singer. But he possessed this brilliant soulful baritone voice that was unique from all other singers, black or white.

Watch his performance at Woodstock and you will see the crowd was spell-bound.

Woodstock was a thrown hastily thrown together production.



The folks that put on the event had no idea this would draw so many people and were totally unprepared.  Havens was the first act to perform.

His performance was extended to 3 hours that day, since many of the other performers that were unable to reach the site due to the teaming crowd.  Much of what he sang that day was improvised on the spot.

Richie Havens was a native New Yorker, born in Brooklyn in 1941.  As a young man he was drawn to the beat and folk scene in Greenwich Village and Washington Square.  In the 1950’s he performed in Beatnik clubs reading poetry, drawing portraits and singing.

During the folk years of the early 1960’s he played guitar and sang in Village folk clubs. He was discovered by Bob Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman who signed him to a recording contract.

By alluding to the fact he played guitar, I have to say that he never actually learned the guitar in a conventional manner. He used the guitar as an accompaniment instrument for his incredible voice.

Havens tuned his guitar to an open chord fretting the neck with his first finger and massive left thumb.  He playedguitar like it was a drum with a fierce right-handed strumming attack.

A year later Havens appeared at the 1968 Isle of Wight concert.

Havens’ breakthrough hit was his passionate and fast version of the George Harrison song, Here Comes The Sun that was released in 1970.

Throughout his career Richie Havens played Guild guitars. Perhaps he may have been influenced by the fact they were made in New York City. His favorite model is the Guild D40. Because of his heavy-handed right hand attack, Havens Guilds were usually badly scarred on the top.

It wasn’t until a few years ago, Guild Guitars put out a Richie Havens model D40.

This is a beautifully made in the USA dreadnaught instrument that features a solid Sitka spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, rosewood fretboard, a bone nut and saddle and a double pickguard.

The headstock has a polished ebony cap with Guild’s crown inlay and the Guild logo, all of which are inlayed. A FishmanMatrix Infinity pickup system is included. The guitar is available in a natural or black finish (Havens played both.)

Richie Havens continued to tour through his 70’s.

On March 12, 2012, the singer announced on his Facebook page that he would stop touring due to his health concerns.

The Vo - 96 Acoustic Guitar Synthesizer by Paul Vo

Ever since the 1920’s, guitarists have sought to make their instrument sound different.

Witness the Vivitone guitar by Lloyd Loar, the Dobro by the Doperya brothers,all the early electric guitars by various inventors and all the stomp boxes and signal processors, both analog and digital.  

All were designed to make the acoustic guitar sound louder and different.

I profiled the Moog Guitar back in June 2012. 




Unlike most synth guitars The Moog Guitar uses proprietary infinite sustain technology and harmonic blending to coax new and exiting sounds out of this instrument. 

The Moog Guitar works best with the customized strings that give optimal sounds based on the strings metallurgy.

Some of you may recall the Moog Guitar was created by Paul Vo. Mr. Vo has taken guitar technology to “infinity and beyond.”

Recently Mr. Vo has developed a new way to modify the sound of instruments with his most recent invention, the Vo-96 acoustic synthesizer.

Last year Vo unveiled the concept of turning an acoustic guitar into a synthesizer with his LEV - 96.  Through the new Vo – 96, Mr. Vo has taken acoustic guitar synthesis a step farther.

The battery powered Vo – 96 fits on the lower side of an acoustic guitar’s sound hole and extends to the bridge.

The Vo – 96, like its predecessor works on “vibration control technology.” The unit physically alters how the strings vibrate, creating a whole new soundscape.

Most synthesizers use microprocessors to alter digital waveforms or with analog, alter the oscillation of the waveforms to mimic sounds of instruments. 

Roland technology uses the strings vibration to send signals via the hex pickup to the synth unit. The guitar becomes more of a controller.

Vo has changed the way to modify a guitars sound. This can be applied to other stringed instruments as well.

Normally magnetic guitar pickups turn the vibrations of a string into electronic signals that are then amplified.

Vo’s unit takes the vibration or waveform that the guitar string is producing and has the ability to determine 16 different harmonic partials per string. 

Each string can be separately controlled. Multiply this time 6 strings and the result is the Vo-96 can control 96 harmonic channels.


All this is done in real time and creates a myriad of possible sounds.

The unit is not for sale. As of this writing, it is just a concept.

The LEV-96 is a reality, but is being beta tested by guitarists such as Phil Keaggy and Kaki King.

There are but a few requirements a user would need once the Vo-96 goes on the market.

You have a steel string flat top acoustic guitar. Your guitar should have a standard sound hole in the usual position.  A standard guitar sound hole of near 4 inches in diameter is necessary.  At its closest, the sound hole edge should be located at least 3 inches away from the raised wood of the bridge of the guitar.

The spacing of your strings at the bridge measured between the E1 and E6 strings should be between 2 1/8″ to 2 3/8″ or 2.125″ to 2.375″.  

The guitar body must not be unusually thin. The Vo-96 reaches 3 inches down into the instrument measured from the top surface of the guitar.

The waist of the guitar – the narrowest portion of the body – must measure at least 8 1/2 inches across.

Most common acoustic guitars will meet these standards.

The one thing that could be an issue is string height. There needs to be adequate room under the strings for the Vo-96 unit. There needs to be at least a 1 centimeter clearance. This is about the width of a AAA battery.

The features of the Vo-96 include:

• 12 physical sensor actuator channels, 2 per string
• 96 virtual channels of harmonic control, 16 per string
• Capacitive touch interface with LED status indication and lock-out
• Power, harmonic blend and note duration touch-sliders
• Adjustable modulation effects with instant preset save/recall
• 6 quick-change presets in 3 sets of 2 using odd, even and all harmonics
• 3 harmonic arpeggios unique to six presets independently triggered on 6 strings
• Hex random harmonic modulation with average rate and amplitude adjust
• Hex Tremolo with separate triggers per string and rate touch-slider
• Bluetooth Wireless connectivity for firmware updates and TBD advanced features
• No moving parts - built to last as long as your guitar
• Attaches and removes without marring your guitar
• Designed to run on optional internal battery power or external power adaptor
• Optional 4/hr advanced LiFePo4 battery with integral charging
• Hardware platform has large uncommitted resources for firmware expansion 

It is a very interesting concept to utilize Bluetooth Technology instead of a guitar cord connected to the amplifier or even a radio controlled signal.

Kaki King with the LEV - 96