My take on Josh's take on Drake.
The way a guitar sounds on record rarely reflects what that guitar actually sounds like in person. What microphones were used; the way they were positioned; what the room was like where the guitar was recorded; how the album was mastered in post-production; tuning; position of capo; and the user's playback equipment all play a part in how a guitar sounds.
For instance, I've played guitars that John Fahey and Robbie Basho recorded with and they didn't sound particularly like they do on their records. Also, those same guitars sound different from record to record.
Dead strings: Nick's strings may or may not have been dead (recording "dry" versus with reverb will accentuate the affect of the strings being dead). But taking into account that Nick played in many open tunings, there's no way he "may never have changed his strings." The more retuning you do, they more often you're going to break strings -- it's a fact of life. Nick would have been changing or replacing strings frequently, especially on his steel string guitars. (He played both nylon and steel string guitars.)
I realize that covering Drake is not the same capturing his tone, but in terms of sounding like Nick, Drake fans may want to check out Nine of Swords by guitarist Scott Appel, an album issued in 1988. While there are zillions of clips of people covering Nick on the internet today, this album is the first record I know of where someone tackled Nick's pieces in Nick's tunings. Half the record consists of Drake covers, which Scott learned from previously unissued tapes sent to him by Drake's parents. (At the time there wasn't the obsession with Drake that there has been for the past 30 years or so. No one today would dream of sending out rare Nick Drake tapes to someone who just happened to write them a fan letter!) Appel's album made quite a splash when it came out, getting reviewed in all the usual guitar magazines, which you'd expect, but also in places like *Rolling Stone*.
In terms of Nick's nails being short, they appear quite long in several photos, including the one that accompanies this article:
Photos of Drake playing fingerstyle show his right hand in the classical position: the pinkie is not anchored to the top; the heel of his hand is not resting on the bridge. His hand is loose and right over the soundhole, the approved right hand position for classical guitarists. His left hand position in some photos, however, show his thumb well over the top of the neck, not "konsidered kosher for klassical."
Josh plays Nick's stuff well, no argument, but IMO he's trying to nail down something that can only be speculative at this remove.
Thanks for posting!
Glenn
