Wayfaring Stranger Improv

[Mark Gunter]

atsunrise - Thanks for the analysis on playing tremolo for a tune with swing rhythm. I have never really thought about the swing angle regarding tremolo timing. I'm a novice with tremolo. At least food for thought.

Jim1959 - Thanks for the comments. That song is old as the hills, been covered by so many people it would be a task to list just the ones I've heard. I mentioned in an earlier post that I heard it first from Burl Ives, because my Dad had folk music records and country music records, and played folk music, country (think Marty Robbins, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash). But as you can tell by the sound I use with it, my later influences are more prominent in my own playing than that Burl Ives version.

It's great that you are playing this one! It remains popular with acoustic musicians to this day. I'm looking forward to hearing what you do with it.

Yes, I've watched Mike's video on tremolo numerous times. Also, a whole bunch of others. I also started a thread about tremolo a year or more back and got a lot of input and a lot of other references for help. It's something I continue to struggle with, but on a good day I can have it sounding OK, so there's hope!


You asked about the guitar. It is a Harmony Patrician. I call it a 1949, but I'm not sure of the actual age of it, because the Harmony date stamp is pretty much illegible in there. The Patrician was (is) a nice guitar, with solid wood construction: Mahogany neck, back & sides, carved spruce top, rosewood finger board, MOP dot fret markers, trapeze tail piece. I found it in a local pawn shop and was impressed by the decent action and the sound, and it became a gift to myself at Christmas 2016. To record this, I used an AT PRO 35 condenser clip-on mic, and I have to say that the end result actually sound better to me than my acoustic-electrics (Breedlove Atlas and Washburn WD10SCE) with their piezo pickups and built-in preamps.

I bought the AT mic for use with my mandolins, but am seriously considering about buying another clip-on just for this guitar.

Edit: Describing the guitfiddle - I forgot to mention the binding (body only, front & back) is a cheesy but charming celluloid imitation tortoise shell, and on the front it has a WBW purfling as well.
Also, the tops were pressed, not carved, as I wrote earlier. Sorry, the Demont site refreshed my memory on that.

Harmony 1407

[Jim1954]

Jim1959 - Thanks for the comments. That song is old as the hills, been covered by so many people it would be a task to list just the ones I've heard. I mentioned in an earlier post that I heard it first from Burl Ives, because my Dad had folk music records and country music records, and played folk music, country (think Marty Robbins, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash). But as you can tell by the sound I use with it, my later influences are more prominent in my own playing than that Burl Ives version.

It's great that you are playing this one! It remains popular with acoustic musicians to this day. I'm looking forward to hearing what you do with it.

Yes, I've watched Mike's video on tremolo numerous times. Also, a whole bunch of others. I also started a thread about tremolo a year or more back and got a lot of input and a lot of other references for help. It's something I continue to struggle with, but on a good day I can have it sounding OK, so there's hope!


You asked about the guitar. It is a Harmony Patrician. I call it a 1949, but I'm not sure of the actual age of it, because the Harmony date stamp is pretty much illegible in there. The Patrician was (is) a nice guitar, with solid wood construction: Mahogany neck, back & sides, carved spruce top, rosewood finger board, MOP dot fret markers, trapeze tail piece. I found it in a local pawn shop and was impressed by the decent action and the sound, and it became a gift to myself at Christmas 2016. To record this, I used an AT PRO 35 condenser clip-on mic, and I have to say that the end result actually sound better to me than my acoustic-electrics (Breedlove Atlas and Washburn WD10SCE) with their piezo pickups and built-in preamps.

I bought the AT mic for use with my mandolins, but am seriously considering about buying another clip-on just for this guitar.

Edit: Describing the guitfiddle - I forgot to mention the binding (body only, front & back) is a cheesy but charming celluloid imitation tortoise shell, and on the front it has a WBW purfling as well.
Also, the tops were pressed, not carved, as I wrote earlier. Sorry, the Demont site refreshed my memory on that.

Harmony 1407

Yes, very old song, love those that are so old that the writer is unknown so it's just known as "Traditional". Only info I found was it "likely originating in the early 19th century". I think I first heard it in the film Cold Mountain which has a lot of great old songs and great musicians too, love the CD soundtrack. My DVD has a concert with most of the songs. Great High Mountain is on it, another old song I'm working on.

That's great that you were able to grow up with a Dad that played Folk and Country albums and played too. Mine were into jazz and Frank Sinatra, etc. Dad played washboard in polka band and Mom sang in church choir 45 years with a natural ability to find harmonies instantly, I always feel I got that from her genes.

So, a good ol' Harmony guitar, and trapeze bridge, a cool old look with old tone too, I was guessing all mahogany but some spruce top guitars, like old Gibsons, have that nice old, dry, woody tone. String type matters a lot too of course. I'll have to check pawn shops, forgot about looking there, probably a good place to find old guitars sometimes.

Your mics sound good, I think they always sound better than pickups, especially for music like this. Martin is making some high quality acoustic-electrics these days though, for some people that's much easier. So far for recording, I just use the 2 built-in stereo mics on my 8 track DP-008 Tascam which sound surprisingly good and can adjust EQ and reverb on it too. I put my SoundCloud page with some songs in profile.

[Mark Gunter]

Yeah, the Harmony guitars were and are cheap guitars. I think the 1407 Patricians can have a lot of redeeming value if you find one in good condition though.