Bob Balsley

About Bob Balsley

I have been playing all kinds of music for many years. In 2007 and 2009 I had around the world tours with Semester at Sea. Played for Archbishop Desmond Tutu's welcome reception in Nassau Bahama, at Rick's Cafe in Casablanca AND in 12 other countries. Mel Bay has published two of my guitar books-Understanding Guitar Chords and Understanding Guitar Chord Progessions. I also have several articles in Guitar` Player and Fingerstyle Guitar (expired link) am an endorsing Artist for GHS strings and Heritage Guitar. I record and teach at my studio in Green Bay WI and taught Jazz Guitar at UW Green Bay for 17 years. I continue to play with the Green Bay Packers Band and perform with Daddy D productions. I have played with Chuck Berry, Bobby Vinton, Mickey Gilley, Spyro Gyra and the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra to name a few. I conducted clinics in Scotland, South Africa, Germany, London, Slovakia, and Vietnam for Heritage Guitar,GHS strings and Mel Bay. One of my recent performances was with astronauts Cady Coleman and Chris Hadfield while Chris was aboard the INTERNTIONAL SPACE STATION. Pretty cool thang.
I play two interesting vintage Martins a1931 C1 and a 1933 R18. Both are Archtops and both have round sound holes. I favor Fishman rare earth pickups and GHS strings of course. For hard core jazz my Custom Heritage H576 is awesome.
For live shows I use a boss loop station and a pair of echoplex loopers. Most of my recordings are done by building multi loop backgrounds live in studio and adding vocals and solos. I can reproduce ALL of my tunes live but each performance is unique in groove and solo and me messing up the lyrics.