Listening Post Spotlight-grizzlymint-May '07

This month's spotlight shines on a track posted by GT member grizzlymint with a cover of "Bron-Yr-Aur". He started playing 2 years ago, and has been a regular in the forums since January. Such is his obsession with guitar that he'll be pursuing it further with a degree in music.

Original thread:http://www.guitartricks.com/forum/showthread
Link to song:Soundclick page

Gear and Recording

As revealed in the thread, he used his friend's Esteban acoustic tuned to open C (CACGCE) mic'ed with a $20 Radio Shack microphone, thus his playability and sound quality suffered, but for this purpose they suffice. And a little reverb and delay thru Cool Edit Pro 2.0 softened the mix. Otherwise it's just one track on one take throughout.

Review

What shines about this track isn't the audio quality, rather that it's a culmination of many hours over 2 weeks of 1/2 speed practice while undertaking previously foreign finger-picking techniques. Consequently he developed a blister on his thumb, but eventually got it up to speed, albeit with an occasional buzz or over attack. However the latter half of this track displays the touch that delivers the atmosphere of the song. Played on a finer instrument, I imagine he would surprise himself at his command and delivery of it. Meanwhile, he'll keep burning the muscle memory, eventually using it in his audition for the music program...so in effect Led Zeppelin's shortest recording is part of his long journey, already begun.