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Evolution of Guitar Pickups (Back To The Future)

G'day fellow guitar mates! A couple days back I had a killer up & coming Nashville based guitar player in the shop for a pickup upgrade on his uber sweeeet 1968 Tele; it was a road I've been down way too many times. The guitar was a sort of family heirloom, passed down from his father, a former Nashville pro, to him (a future Nashville pro :). Problem is, back in the 80's dad had yanked those "awful" vintage Tele pickups out and replaced them with the cool (for the day) active EMG pickups. Hey, I can'...

Best Replacement Speaker Upgrade for Fender Blues Junior

Howdy Tone friends! Soooo, last week we discussed the best speaker options for the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp, Fender's all-time best selling amp. Today, we move to it's lil' brother, the Blurs Junior, which is also a perennial best-seller ... and one HECK of a great deal in a grab-n-go hard gigging or recording tube amp. The Blues Junior has the same 2-EL84 output section as the Hot Rod Deluxe, but sports a single channel (great pedal platform), and is in a much smaller cabinet made of MDF (ugg)...

Best Repalcement Speaker Upgrade for Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

So, whatcha think would be the best selling Fender Amp of all time? Many of you would say the Deluxe Reverb, and you would be ... close! Maybe the Bassman or the Twin Reverb? Nope. Actually, the amp that wears the title of best seller EVER is the (drum rod) Hot Rod Deluxe! Kinda feels a little crazy to me, since I have such a love affair with the Fender tweed and blackface amps of the 1950's and 60's, but beautiful as they might be, the HRDX outsold any of those glorious pre-CBS models. ...

The Best Options for acoustic guitar pickups, whatcha NEED to know!

Wow, this is such a hot topic these days ... and there is so much to cover it could go on forever, but I promise I'll cut straight to the point and keep it brief and bring you the info you need as quickly as possible. ... You're welcome! Let's dive in. First the history. Putting a pickup on your acoustic guitar became a big thing in the folk-fuled 1960's and 70's. Then you had two options (apart from just micing it, which SUCKED), magnetic sound-hole pickups or a stick-on piezo transducer....

Musicians Unite To Save Small-Town USA!

Howdy Guitar Gang! I pen this blog during "wave two" of the Covid scare having just spent time on main-street USA. Actually a small town in the northern part of the country, but it could be anywhere. We just enjoyed some excellent coffee from a locally owned shop and wandered up and down Main Street. It was AWESOME, but also tinged with a good bit of sadness, and longing for days-gone-by. You know the "good old days" ... like waaaay back in ... say early 2020, otherwise known as pre-covid-19...

How Playing Guitar Makes You Better and Improves Your Life

How Playing Guitar Makes You Better and Improves Your Life So, as I write this blog, we are entering month two of the whole "Stay at Home, Save Lives" COVID-19 social virtue du jour. Which means, the number one reason most folks play music (including guitar) is kinda out the window these days. We primarily play to have healthy, positive, uplifting, encouraging, energizing, and motivating interaction with other like-minded individuals; to bond over the universal world-wide language of MUSIC. But we're now...

Older Korean Made vs Newer Indoneasian PRS SE Guitars

Hello fellow guitar lovers, today I have a special blog that kind of popped into my lap when TWO PRS guitars arrived at my shop for pickup upgrades; one was an older Korean made guitar (MIK) and the other a newer Indonesian made instrument (MII). This, folks, provided exactly the opportunity for the direct comparison that myself and so many others out there have been waiting for. So, is the lore true, are the Korean guitars superior to the Indonesian guitars? Let's take a close look at THAT...

Peter Davidoff Worlds Greatest Custom Guitar Luthier

So friends, we now hit the end of my highlighting some of the finest luthiers I, personally have encountered in life. In case you have missed any part of this journey, it began with a somewhat "up and coming" luthier right here in my own backyard in Tennessee, Gary Yearby, check it out! Then I moved on to the man who I believe is the greatest boutique luthier alive and working today, check out Jon Kammerer. But right here and now, let's talk about the greatest boutique electric guitar luthier ever in the...

Jon Kammerer Custom: The Ultimate Boutique Guitar?

Howdy Guitar lovers of all shapes and sizes ... or is that lovers of GUITARS of all shapes and sizes? Guess it works either way! Like most all of you, I LOVE a perfect feeling Strat, Tele, Les Paul, or 335 style guitar. The time-tested and true designs are still around for a reason: they got it RIGHT! However, just as there will always be car affectionados who feel the need to push the limits beyond what, say a corvette can do and seek out a Ferrari or Lamborghini ... there will always be...

The BEST way to clean and polish frets - The RIGHT WAY to do a Fret Job !

Gang, THIS IS IMPORTANT! Must-read stuff alert! It JUST happened AGAIN last week, I was sent a pickup to fix, and when I took a look at it the problem was clear, STEEL WOOL! You see, when you use steel wool to polish the frets on your guitar, you end up with thousands of tiny steel bits EVERYWHERE; and those bits will be strongly attracted to your guitar's magnetic pickups. What's next? Best case scenario is you wind up wasting a lot of time with sticky tape, tooth picks, and tweezers...

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