Sharon Riggen

See INSTRUMENT INFO at end of this Bio.

Sharon Lee Riggen was born in Inglewood, California. Her parents are George and Viola Riggen. Her music studies began at age 4 and she performed ten years in her fathers many bands. At age 16 she turned professional and has performed and taught music ever since. She has studied pop styles with numerous well-known musicians/artists; and classical guitar with Vaughn Andahl, while a music major at Metropolitan State College in Denver. She has been a member of the AFM Musicians Union and performed full-time over 35 years. She has taught music on staff at Colorado North Western Community College and currently teaches private lessons at a local music store. She performs at every posssible opportunity and is preparing her first recorded album. She plays covers plus a sprinkling of originals. Her arrangements add color and character to familiar well known gems.

INSTRUMENT INFO: Sharon began playing ukulele/uke at age 4. The begining ukes were standard/Soprano, tenor and baritone. Standard/Soprano uke is tuned to the fifth fret of the guitar, with the 4th string tuned down one full octave. She tunes the tenor and baritone ukes at the same pitch/octave as the guitar; with the baritone 4th string the same as guitar; and the tenor 4th string tuned one octave highter. The tenor guitar and plectrum banjo were Sharon's main instruments in Junior High. She tunes both just like guitar. She moved on to the 6-string guitar in High School.

The Instruments Sharon Plays:
Dean archtop guitar: Use D'Addario 10-46 strings. Two factory installed Humbuckers. Multi-effects processors are; DigiTech RP100 and DigiTech GNX3.

Dean parlor: Use Martin Darco 11-49. Had an LB6 LR Baggs under saddle (active) pickup w/preamp in tailpiece installed. Multi-effects procerssor; Yamaha AG Stomp for both parlor and classical guitars; and elec. tenor uke.

Epiphone Classical/elec. guitar with cutaway. Factory installed active pickup. Use Yamaha AG Stomp Acoustic Multi-effects processor. Use D'Addario Medium gauge, silver nylon strings.

Applause (made by Ovation) tenor uke. Still have a good supply of Martin tenor strings. Use Yam AG Stomp for effects. Factory installed (active) pickup.

1968 Vega (VegaVox III) Plectrum Banjo. Original owner. Can no longer find Vega Banjo strings with wound third string. Use Vega 5-string sets and piece together the wound third string from (guitar) singles available in music stores. Use microphone to amplify. Vary volume by physical movement toward microphone. This is a loud banjo! The volume is consistent throughout the entire register, a thing Vega did very well. But, overall it is a mellow banjo due to the deep resonator, another Vega invention, suggested by Eddie Peabody 1901-70.

A Shure 58 mic is used for vocals. When necessary, a Boss VT1 voice processor is used to thicken vocals. For some recording projects a second vocal track is recorded to also thicken the vocal track or create harmony. This is a simple trick anyone can do. The trick here is to sing the second vocal track about a thousand times until it sounds exactly like the first. Then after about 100 takes, it comes out right.