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How Resistance of a Guitar Pickup Affects Tone and Output.
How Resistance of a Guitar Pickup Affects Tone and Output.
Okay gang, here is part TWO of our discussion on understanding specifications of guitar pickups ... how to turn numbers into an idea of what the TONE will be! The resistance of a guitar pickup is often the most miss-understood spec ... even though it's often the ONE SPEC people think they actually understand! This specification simply tells you how difficult it is for electrons to move from one end of a guitars coil through to the other end. Seriously friends, that's it! Folks read waaaaaay too much into...
Exactly What Guitar Pickup Gauss / Magnetic Charge level means and why it's important to TONE!
Exactly What Guitar Pickup Gauss / Magnetic Charge level means and why it's important to TONE!
Hi cyber friends! So a question came in on the WGS Forum asking about pickup Gauss levels, and I thought that would make a good full-length blog topic. This one "spec" is possibly the most important in the overall tone of a pickup, yet it's something that almost NOBODY seems to care much about ... and hardly anyone even has the ability to actually measure the Gauss level of their pickups. Holy cow ... we need to talk about this! Checking the Gauss of a particularly highly charged Alnico V...
The Black Keys: Why Guitar Players need to play in flat keys.
The Black Keys: Why Guitar Players need to play in flat keys.
Howdy fellow guitar buds! Just a few days back I was having this conversation with a fellow Nashville Producer, engineer and player, and it hit me that this topic was blog-worthy! Guitar players often gravitate toward the "guitar-friendly" keys of E, G, and A ... some would include C in this short list as well. Folks, I would also call these the VANILLA keys, sure they're sweet ... but once you've tasted double-fudge chocolate, Rocky Road, Mint chip, and so on ... vanilla tastes downright bland. Let's talk...
Which Strings are Best & What Should I Buy For My Acoustic Guitar
Which Strings are Best & What Should I Buy For My Acoustic Guitar
Howdy once again tone seeking buddies! Last blog we talked about what strings are best for your ELECTRIC, this week we'll discus ACOUSTIC guitar strings. And once again, this will be an important blog to many of you, especially if you are still a little uncertain of just what exactly the plethora of string options really means where it counts ,,, on your guitar, in your hands, and through your rig! I've learned a thing or two in my decades as a recording engineer, record producer, and...
Which Strings are best & What Should I Buy For my electric guitar
Which Strings are best & What Should I Buy For my electric guitar
Howdy tone seeking buddies! This will be an important blog to many of you, especially if you are still a little uncertain of just what exactly the plethera of string options really means where it counts ,,, on your guitar, in your hands, and through your rig! Now, you could do what I did and spend decades trying EVERYTHING that's out there, but I wouldn't recommend it; life's too short, plus it's expensive! Okay, first let's talk BRANDS. As many of you may of you have heard, there are...
Should I Replace My Pickups or Get a Different Guitar?
Should I Replace My Pickups or Get a Different Guitar?
Should I replace my Pickups or sell the guitar? So last week I wrote about if it made sense to replace the speaker in an amp, or if it would be better to just get a different amp, I'll bet some of ya saw this weeks topic coming, right? Once again I must begin by stating that even though we design, build and sell pickups here, we will NOT offer biased information (I promise); remember, we are real-world guitar players too. Yep, we also need to carefully watch how we spend our money lest we find ourselves without...
Should I Replace My Speaker or Replace The Amp
Should I Replace My Speaker or Replace The Amp
So, we design, make, and sell speakers, which makes you think we'd be biased, right? Wrong. Truth is, we're players just like y'all; we balance budgets and try to figure out if we can afford new gear or need to fix the car instead just like you! I've been amazingly blessed and fortunate to have made tone and guitar gear my life's pursuit for nearly four decades now, I've swapped more speakers in more amps than any other human who has or will ever live. I am the worlds preeminent authority on speaker swaps....
Guitar Players Have Much To Be Thankful For! (A Nerd with a guitar is COOL)
Guitar Players Have Much To Be Thankful For! (A Nerd with a guitar is COOL)
Guitar friends, as I pen this blog my family and I are preparing for Thanksgiving. Okay, stop and re-read that last sentence. Ya know what that is? It's a freeking MIRACLE, that's what it is. Me ... a family? Wow. Go back to middle-school and ask any one who knew me what they thought the chances were that I'd wind up with a melt-the-paint-off-the walls hot wife, a couple of kids, a nice house, and well ... a pretty darn good life. NADA! I was a mess on all angles; short...
Is A Custom Shop Guitar Worth the Premium Price?
Is A Custom Shop Guitar Worth the Premium Price?
SPOILER ALERT!! Yes. Okay, now let's get on to the big question: WHY?!? Okay, first, I'd like for you to take a trip over to the article I just wrote on the Fender Custom Shop for Vintage Guitar Magazine, and after reading that, come back. Sound good? Okay, you can read my piece (as well as the entire issue) here: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/vintageguitar/201712_v2/#/0. So, what was your take-away from what the custom shop builders had to say? Any of the pictures catch your...
Vox Super Continental Organ - Software Can't replicate this Baaaby!
Vox Super Continental Organ - Software Can't replicate this Baaaby!
Hi gang, I know this is generally a GUITAR blog, but man, a classic rock tone monster like this just can't be ignored! This classy ole' gal came into my shop to be checked out and any needed repairs made. Even though she had been in storage for many years, the repairs were surprisingly few! And when she was don, well it was just like a magic carpet ride back to the psychedelic 1960s. Y'all check out the video at the end to see just how quirky and cool she is. The thing that kept popping...