Tremsetter in my guitar

Some time ago I wrote about how I got my old Valley Arts guitar back. As I wrote in that post it was a little weird at first to play that guitar again, but after a few hours, it felt so natural. I couldn’t believe it was ten years since I played that guitar the last time. Today I’ll write about a modification I’ve done to all my guitars with Floyd Rose systems and why I have this tremsetter in my guitars.

One thing that showed me how many hours I have spend with my Valley Arts Guitar back in the nineties, was when I changed the strings after the re-arrival. I took off the old ones, added some new and started tuning up. Without a reference note or tuner in sight I just turned the tuners till it felt right. When I subsequently plugged the guitar into my rig and turned on the tuner, it was in tune – A440 spot on. After ten years it just felt right and was right – nice.

When I had played my old Valley for some hours and decided that I wanted to buy the guitar back, I also decided that I would re-install the tremsetter that I had in the guitar back then. Continue reading “Tremsetter in my guitar”

Music as a profession – my history

Some time ago I wrote a post about how I didn’t choose to have music as a profession – I just couldn’t imaging a life without playing guitar every day … all day – so today we are looking down the history lane.

My first guitar

I started playing guitar when I was around 4 years old. My big brother bought an electric guitar and I got so jealous that my parents bought me a small acoustic as well. I guess they thought I would keep interest for a week or two and then return to my normal routines, but no …

My brother, who was ten years older than me, showed me new chords or a scale every once in a while, but I didn’t had “real” lessons on a regular basics. I had fun with the guitar, but I also did a lot of other typical child stuff.

When I was around ten years old my brother took me to an Eric Clapton concert and I was blown away. When we left the concert hall, I told my brother that I would play like Clapton one day. He smiled and told me that if I wanted to do that, I should practice and practice a lot. l remember how I said to myself: “hell yeah, then I’m going to practice a lot”, but I just looked at my bro and said “ok”.

Jesper Reiff playing livewith Soren Reiff (10 years old) @ Smogen, Holbæk
Jesper Reiff playing livewith Soren Reiff (10 years old) @ Smogen, Holbæk

After that experience my interest for music intensified. I bought my first electric guitar when I was ten years old and started practicing a bit more seriously. Continue reading “Music as a profession – my history”

My Washburn Strat

I’ve written about my red and brown Gibson ES-346, and I’ve written about one of my my old Valley Arts guitars, so it’s only appropriate to write about my old custom built Washburn Strat, that has been my main guitar for more than a decade!

I’ve used this guitar on tons of sessions, and on every TV-show I’ve done for more than ten years. But even though I can be quite nerdy about guitars, there are several things I don’t know about this one – for instance the model designation.

Soren Reiff's Washburn Strat
Soren Reiff’s Washburn Strat

Continue reading “My Washburn Strat”

The new pickups in my red Gibson ES-346

Earlier on in this blog I have written about my red and my brown Gibson ES-346. I covered details about the individual models and their materials, plus how I acquired the two guitars. This post is about the new pickups and electronics I have installed in the red one and why I chose as I did.

Even though the ES-346’s were really nice when I got them, I missed the thin distinct single coil sound you can get from a Strat-type guitar. In addition to this, I started to get a little irritated with the sound of the stock pickups. The neck pickup had a boost in the upper midrange and the bridge pickup was a little too bright for my taste. I could remove the midrange boost in the mix when doing sessions, but live it really started to annoy me.

Soren Reiff got a Seymour Duncan Jazz SH-2 in the neck position
Soren Reiff got a Seymour Duncan Jazz SH-2 in the neck position

Continue reading “The new pickups in my red Gibson ES-346”

Why did I become a professional guitar player?

After writing about how thankful I am to be a musician, and how privileged I think I am to be able to live from my music, I think it might be logical to write about how this happened, and why I become a professional guitar player. Here’s a little story from the past …

Many years ago a young guitar player called me, and wanted to take private lessons from me – three hours a day, five days a week. The reason for this? He wanted to get all the gigs I had. I told him that it was a tough and intense schedule he asked for, but he was consistent. A couple of months later he showed up with his guitar a monday morning, ready to start. After the first day he was tired, after the second day he was very tired, after the third day he was exhausted … “couldn’t we just do something different the next day, like going to the tv-set where I worked and check out my rig or something?”. The fifth day he went back to the town he came for – had to reconsider his life and career plans.

A week later

He called me about a week later … “could I talk with him for a minute or two?”

Continue reading “Why did I become a professional guitar player?”

My honey brown Gibson ES-346

Some weeks ago I wrote how I got my red ES-346 and after last weeks concerts I got a lot of questions about my honey brown Gibson ES-346 – so I guess it’s appropriate to write something about that one too, so here’s the story. 

When I wasn’t playing my new red ES-346 either in the studio or in the couch, I sat and surfed the net to find more info about the model – you know a typical male thing to do after the product is bougth 🙂

Only a few weeks after I bought the red one I found another one for sale! Ok, the model designation in the add was not ES-346, and the materials was not like the ones I wrote about when I told you about my red one, but the photo was of a honey brown Gibson ES-346!

Continue reading “My honey brown Gibson ES-346”

My red “roadworn” Gibson ES-346

A couple of years ago, keyboard player David Garfield introduced me to guitarist Paul Jackson jr. and thereby his Gibson ES-346 that he brought along with him for the gig. At the time the ES-346 was Paul Jackson jr.’s signature model. The guitar sounded fantastic and was super versatile. It had a full and massive tone like a Les Paul, with lots of sustain, and at the same time a warm and jazzy tone when it was needed. I was impressed and maybe a little in love.

Soren Reiff, Paul Jackson jr. & Forrest Robinson
Soren Reiff, Paul Jackson jr. & Forrest Robinson

After the gig I did some research and found that the model had been discontinued. I browsed the internet from time to time to see if I could find a used one, but without success.

Continue reading “My red “roadworn” Gibson ES-346″