Howdy folks – Johnny Hawthorn here giving a little insight on what to prepare and look out for when you get called into the studio for a recording session (even if you are just going in to record some songs with your band). Time is one of the critical factors usually when recording and the less time you spend fixing things the more time you’ll have to get your work finished. We’ll start with what I call “basic maintenance issues”.

ARE YOUR GUITARS IN TUNE?
Let’s start here because it doesn’t really matter how good you are or how good your amp is – if your guitar cannot stay in tune it’s going to be a short session!
First –  Your guitar should have fresh strings on it (preferably put on the night before) – I know this sounds very basic but you’d be surprised how many times players show up without new strings.
Next – Check the intonation of all the guitars you are going to use for the session. When the intonation is off, the guitar strings will be in tune, however, they’ll be out of tune when you play a chord. It can be very frustrating and it can cause wasted time trying not only to tracking down which instrument is out of tune but then fixing it. For more info on what intonation is, click here.
Third – Check all your pots, switches and plugs on the guitar. Make sure they are clean and not scratchy – remember even the slightest noise gets amplified in the studio.  When I check mine, I usually crank up my amp and slowly move the switches and volume pots back and forth – most of the time I spray them with Deoxit D5 and it will take care of minor noises/scratches.

Which brings me to my next point – bring extra guitars! It’s always good to have different tone options for an overdub, solo, intro and/or bridge part of the song.  Also, I’ve been in the situation where I’ve got my gear all set up and I’m getting warmed up to the track and the producer says, “I don’t like the sound of that guitar, what else you have?” Or they might say “The Strat is not cutting it – let’s try a Les Paul”.  You just never know!  Keep in mind that certain guitars sound good live and for some reason they don’t cut it in the studio and vice versa.  Be open to trying things that normally live you would not usually play. If I need to bring something I don’t own, I’ll try to borrow a guitar from my friends for the day and promise them a new set of strings.  This way they get something for helping out.  And of course if they need to borrow stuff I also help out! That’s all for now, feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments and let me know what you think of the new album!

Check out all the songs here. And the website can be found here.