Previously, the reason behind the different tones that different woods create has been explained. The different tones themselves were not fully explored and in this article I will give a global overview of the different tone woods, the sound they produce and in some cases their purpose. This is by no means a complete picture, only a global overview.

Guitar Wood Types, Different Woods, Different Tones

Continue reading “Guitar Wood Types”

Once upon a time, in my first job upon landing in Los Angeles, a co-worker once randomly asked “Do you like the Cult?” “Sure!” I replied, having seen them on the Sonic Temple tour not long before relocating. “My favorite song of theirs is ‘Party Woman’!” he exclaimed. “What?” I was momentarily confused. “What are you talking about? Pretty sure they don’t have a song called ‘Party Woman’.” I said, matter-of-factly. “YEAH THEY DO! (sings) Partaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaay! Smoke she is a’risin’! Partay!” He was dead serious, too. After I regained my composure, I explained the song was actually called “Fire Woman”. I hadn’t thought about that in years until recently, when Seymour Duncan asked readers on Facebook what their favorite misheard lyric was. Suddenly, instant comedy flashback, and a tidal wave of responses. Some of them are at least as, if not even more comical. Continue reading “The Most Misheard Lyrics In Rock History”

For those few who may be unfamiliar, drop tuning is the practice of tuning the strings on a guitar to pitches that are lower on the scale than the traditional E Standard (E2, A2, D3, G3, B3, E4) guitar tuning. This term can refer to tuning all the strings of a guitar down the same amount and retaining the same modal shapes (at lower pitches) across the fretboard; tuning the 6th string down from E to D to open up new chord shapes and make power chords fret-able with one finger; or any number of other alternate tunings. Continue reading “Down But Not Out: Drop-Tuning Like a Pro”

In our unending quest to forge a guitar tone that sounds like somebody opening the Ark of the Covenant inside a tyrannosaurus, many of us will eventually find ourselves considering the possibility of using more than one amplifier.

As the more mathematically astute amongst you will doubtless be well aware, employing just one additional amplifier will give you precisely twice as much potential to irritate people as you’d get with a single amp rig. That being said, it is an enterprise that is not without its challenges. How should one split the signal from the guitar? Which combination of amplifiers is best? What if the electrons get into a fight about who goes to which amp, causing widespread unrest and undermining your precious tone? Well, without getting too bogged-down in “science” and “facts” and “electricity doesn’t work like that, Nicholas”, let’s go ahead and examine some of the basic considerations for any guitarist looking to run more than one amplifier. Continue reading “Multi-Amp Rigs 101”

Let’s face it: for the beginning guitarist, barre chords are hard. The idea that one finger has to hold down multiple strings when it has a hard enough time trying to hold down one seems like an impossible task. Continue reading “The Art of the Barre”

If you’re upgrading your guitar’s pickups for the very first time, here’s a tip which will help you maximize your tone and get the most out of your investment: Seymour Duncan offers most humbucker models in two sizes: Humbucker and Trembucker. But what do these mean, and how do you know which is right for your guitar?

Humbuckers and Trembuckers are actually both versions of the same pickups, and most can be easily identified by their model numbers. For example, the Humbucker version of the Alternative 8 model is named the SH-15, while the corresponding Trembucker variant is the TB-15. But why is a Trembucker called a Trembucker, and how is it different to a Humbucker?

Trembuckers vs Humbuckers

A standard Humbucker’s pole pieces are built according to a traditional Gibson string spacing of 1.930″ (49mm), measured from the center of the high E string to the center of the low E string at the bridge pickup location. But guitars with tremolo bridges – particuarly Floyd Rose style locking bridges, six-screw vintage types or two-point fulcrum bridges – have a wider string spacing of 2.070″ (52.6mm). This means that a pickup designed for a tremolo guitar (or one with the same string spacing) needs the pole pieces to be spaced slightly further apart in order to more accurately sense the vibrations of their respective strings. An early solution to this problem was to simple angle a regular humbucker slightly so that at least one pole piece would pick up each of the outermost strings, but this was a stopgap solution until wider spacing was developed.

This only applies to the spacing for the bridge (sometimes called treble) pickup. By the time the strings pass over the neck (or rhythm) pickup, their spacing has narrowed down, so a Humbucker will be properly spaced for your needs whether you have Gibson or Floyd Rose spacing at the bridge.
If you’re not sure which spacing your particular guitar requires, simply measure from the centre of each of the E strings. If the spacing is two inches (50mm), you require a Humbucker. If the spacing is greater than two inches, you need a Trembucker.

There are a few instances where these rules don’t quite apply: Blackouts don’t have exposed individual pole pieces, so there’s no need for separate Humbucker and Trembucker versions. Ditto for the Dimebucker, Scott Ian’s El Diablo and the Invader. And three models are only available as Trembuckers: the Parallel Axis Trembucker Blues Saraceno, the Parallel Axis Trembucker Distortion and the Parallel Axis Trembucker Original.

As for why guitarists still often use the term ‘tremolo’ (meaning rapid changes in volume) instead of the more accurate vibrato (rapid changes in pitch), that’s a mystery for the ages!

500 kilo, 250 kilo. Ohm My…
A popular way to get rid of some highs in your tone is to solder a 500k ohm resistor on your 500k ohm pot to effectively turn it into a 250k pot. There are even some wiring schematics around that make a 500k pot a 250k pot depending on the position of your five way blade, so you have a 250k pot with your singlecoils and a 500k pot with your humbucker. It is also known that a 500k pot will give you more highs than a 250k pot. But the “why” remains a cloudy subject.  So let’s get to the bottom of it: why does the value of the pot matter? Continue reading “250k vs 500k pots: Going Deeper into the Subject”

Most guitarists have enough struggle with one neck. However, there are times when you might have to play guitar and bass in the same song, or play delicate fingerpicked intros on a 12 string, and rock out with a great big Rockin’ Guitar Solo on that 6-string in the end. Perhaps you have developed a technique that requires tapping on two necks at once, or you just like the feeling of dislocated discs that comes with using a multi-neck guitar… hey, we don’t judge! Continue reading “Top 10 Rock Guitarists That Use Multi-Neck Guitars”

Or…my journey from single coils to humbuckers and back….

For the most part, choosing a type of replacement pickup is based on whatever already comes in your guitar. When exploring the differences between guitar types, it somehow always gets distilled down into 2 categories: Guitars with single coils and guitars with humbuckers.

This article will explore some of the differences between the two. Instead of pitting one type of pickup against each other, I will be describing my own tone-journey between the 2 most well-known pickup types, and some general differences between them.
Continue reading “Cage Match: Single Coils vs. Humbuckers”

I am always intrigued in how things developed. How did the guitar develop to what it is today? How do our views change on what constitutes good tone? Those kind of questions keep me occupied during the slow moments of a day, and one day I was asking myself the question: why do we, as electric guitar players, predominantly use sound systems based on electromagnetism and not on piezo-electrics? To answer that question I dove deep in history to see how the two fields, electromagnetism and piezo-electrics, developed to where they are today. Continue reading “Piezo Vs. Magnetic Pickups”