Cort Larry Coryell LCS-1?

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HFFritz

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I have been admiring a Cort LCS-1, at a very reasonable price. Does anyone have any opinions? I did a search and saw that one person, AlChuck, really liked his. I was glad to see that, but that was well over a year ago. Still out there, Al? I would like to know if the guitar is still OK and if anyone else out there has had experience with this brand.

Thanks in advance...
 
Yup, I'm still here, and I am still loving my LCS-1. I've got a couple of tunes on my website that I just did the other day as rhythm tracks for a singer friend to practice with - check one or two out:

http://www.alanoehler.com/alanoehlermusic/carol.html

I'm really pleased with the Pat Martino-ish tone I got. I used a POD with the Black Panel model with a bit of reverb, then added a touch more reverb in Sound Forge.
 
Al, thanks for the response. I enjoyed listening to your music, and the tones are just what I've been looking for. Right now, I'm so excited that I just had to post an update. The Cort LCS-1, a sunburst with Duncan Designed p/u's that I mentioned a few months ago, was still there when I returned 12/26.

It played poorly, for which I'm grateful since that was likely the reason it went unsold, but the neck looked straight and everything else seemed fine, so I figured I would take a gamble.

The store is getting out of the guitar business and converting to a drum shop only. He said that it's too difficult to compete with Guitar Center and mail order, so all guitars will be sold at cost. According to him, their cost was $608. Plus tax it came to $661 out the door. For any Chicago people reading this: Andy's Music on Belmont. No case, so he threw in a stand.

I took it immediately to another store with a working luthier that I trust. He said that the strings were very light, and that contributed to the excessive fret buzzing, and the neck needed to be 'relieved'. New, thicker strings, neck and intonation adjustment and viola! She is one damn fine git-fiddle. All done, I think I got an OK deal, but I was a bit nervous before the adjustments. Also, now I'll need to order a case, which could be a lot.

In short, I simply cannot be happier with the guitar. It plays like a million bucks and sounds incredible through my '65 Champ. When I'm not playing it, I can look at it. It's just that nice. Some things are worth the wait, and it seems like this one was meant to be.
 
Alright!

Last night I played with some guys across the Bay, Real Book tunes, and I had my Cort LCS-1 plugged in to my Deluxe Reverb up on a chair behind me on about 3...

The sound was so fine it inspired me to play beyond my usual ability...
 
I am not familiar with 'Real Book' tunes. I did look on Amazon and liked what I saw. This is one of the topics I've always wanted to bring up on this forum: What books do people recommend to learn jazz guitar?

I'm up to lesson 23 in a book by Mickey Baker, but a lot of it is slow going since I've always played by ear. I had to get a Mel Bay book because it actually explained where the notes are on the guitar, but it's tedious work to figure out the exercises. I've certainly got the ma7/ma6/mi7/mi6 thing going all different ways, per Mickey Baker, but it would be nice to learn songs, not exercises.

I plan to order the Real Book, but are there any others that you would recommend?
 
Most people consider a good fake book to be indispensible for learning to be a jazz player. They aren't teaching material per se. They don't explain anything, they are just big books full of tunes popular with jazzers -- typically just the melody and the chord names written above the staff. They are perfect for using as you suggested -- practicing stuff using real tunes. Once you can play, they become the common currency for casual jazz gigs and jam sessions, and you'll use them forever.

In my experience the only ones you really need, at least for taking to jams sessions and jazz gigs, are the volumes of the real Real Book, particularly I and II. These are collections of transcriptions done originally by students from Berklee School of Music from the early 70's. You can't get these at Amazon; ask around your area, there are probably some music stores that can get them (I got my copy of Vol I from my first guitar teacher many years ago). You can find PDFs of them on the web if you look around but it's better to have a hard copy you can lug around with you. They are officially illegal, but they're still the most commonly-used ones despite the existence of the Chuck Sher books: The World's Greatest Fake Book, The New Real Book Vols I-IV (which is probably what you saw on Amazon), The Standards Real Book, etc. These latter books are great. much better quality and more accurate than the "real" Real Books, which are notoriously full of errors and of much funkier quality. The trouble is, you can't count on everybody having these, while you usually can count on people using the "real" Real Books.

As far as methods, I find the Mickey Baker one to be really good overall. The William Leavitt book series from Berklee are good too. I'm sure there are others that are very good, but I have little experience with any others. I find the ones that just throw piles of chords and example phrase at you to be rather difficult to absorb. Having a teacher can really help because then you can ask questions and crack free when the book confuses you or doesn't explain something in just the right way that will resonate with your own personal brain. One more thing that I've been working through and I find to be an excellent, metjdoical approach is the CD-ROMs from PG Music by Oliver Gannon, Jazz Guitar MasterClass. See

http://www.pgmusic.com/jazzguitarmasterclass.htm

Despite the title, they are really geared for beginning and intermediate players, and they offer a very well-structured method that develops all the essential elements very nicely, with audio lessons, examples, and MIDI exercises to practice with. The one thing that he does which might be nicer is if he used actual well-known tunes; I guess for copyright reasons, he's written his own example tunes to work with which embody the same forms and structures that are common in jazz tunes. With this set, a good fake book, and time to practice and absorb the material, you'll have all the elements you need to become a darn good player except for actual real-world bandstand experience...
 
Another really useful book of songs is Dick Hyman's "100 tunes Every Musician Should Know", and his follow-up book "100 More Tunes .. ... .. ." He has cool substitution chords for the normally accepted ones, and more logical.
The guts of jazz progressions is II - V - I (2, 5, 1.) meaning 4 note chords with their root on steps 2 - 5 - 1 of the major scale, in that order. The II chord is normally a minor 7th, the V a 7th (called a dominant 7th) and the I is a major 7th. Sometimes a III m7 is substituted for the I ma7, leading (logically) to the VI m7, then on to II m7 - V 7 - I ma7.
I say "logically" because the strongest and most commonly used movement in pop/jazz/blues is up a fourth (root note moves up 5 frets)
The jazz substitutions have another way of doing this "up a fourth" and it is this: "down a half-tone" A half-tone is also called a semi-tone, and you just go down one fret. I'm talking about the ROOT NOTE (name note) of a chord either moving down one fret OR moving UP 5 frets.
Summary:The heart of it is either II - V - I OR II - bII - I. Practice the substitution, using II m7 then bII 7-5 then I ma7 (example Dm7 Db7-5 Cma7).
This is called sometimes "cycle of fourths, or cycle of fifths because UP a 4th = DOWN a 5th, and some some songs go a long way on this cycle.
Okay, it's only difficult if you try to take all this in at one go, or without picking up your guitar and doing it. Take your time, it works. Here's a nice example of "up a 4th, down a half-tone" stuff: Try this 2 chords to the measure: Fm7 Bb7, Gm7 C7-9, Dm7-5 G7, Cm7 Bbm7, Am7-5 Ab7, Gm7 C7, Fm7 Bb7, Ebma7 C7. It's the changes to "Give Me The Simple Life". Remember up a 4th = down a 5th. This is logical too. Play around with G7-5 and Db7-5 in the key of C. Take it easy, have fun. Seeya!
 
Jazz chord progressions

I thought I might get in on this discussion. I play guitar banjo and uke, plus piano, and I teach what I know to any one interested. Try it out.
 
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