It’s a question we get asked a heck of a lot here at SD, and a question that appears all over the internet – how should I wire up a mixture of active and passive pickups in the  same guitar? The answer, either from us or elsewhere on the internet, is always either “It’s very complicated,” “It’s not recommended”, or occasionally “It’s very complicated and not recommended.” But usually that’s the end of the discussion – going into exactly how complicated it is, or why it’s not recommended, doesn’t happen very much. Continue reading “Active and Passive in the Same Guitar – Can It Be Done?”

Anyone reading through the specs of an effects processor or has ever bought a keyboard has seen the word MIDI. What is this crazy thing, and will it make my guitar sound like an 8-bit Atari game? Am I going to have to dig out my protractor and sextant to understand how MIDI works? This article will demystify this protocol and showcase how MIDI can make our guitar rig work more logically and efficiently.

Continue reading “What is MIDI and How Can I Use It?”

Jimmy Page probably sold more LPs than Les himself.

We’ve all seen it: Les Paul down by the knees, swaggering across the stage. This is an image that’s burned into our brain, and probably the reason why many guitarists picked the guitar over the trombone in the first place. But if we want to play in front of people, this means to most rock, jazz, blues and country guitarists, that we have to stand up. Even if we sit down when playing an electric guitar, we still can benefit from the right strap, as well as the right strap height for us. Continue reading “Straps and Strap Height: Playing While Looking Cool”

We know… you went to install your brand new Seymour Duncan pickups, and the wiring instructions tell you how to connect everything – BUT – the wire colors of your stock pickups look the same but are located in completely different places than our wiring instructions indicate (or they’re completely different colors altogether). You have just come face to face with one of the brutal (and frustrating) realities of pickup swapping: different pickup manufacturers use different wire color-codes. You cannot simply replace your old pickup’s wires with your new pickup’s wires color-for-color. What should you do? Continue reading “Humbucker Wire Color Translation”

If you’ve been a guitarist for more than five minutes, you’re pretty familiar with effects. Effects can morph our plain guitar sound into something from outer space or just make it seem a little bigger than it actually is. There are many different kinds of effects out there, and many theories stating the ‘correct’ order of effects in your Chain of Sonic Domination. One thing everyone can agree on is that eventually, all those effects have to get plugged into an amp. In the old days, when men wore high trousers and suspenders, there was only one way to plug anything in – the singular jack called ‘input’ – and it was good. Amps soon got more sophisticated, and in the back of most modern amps are a pair of jacks which get the title of ‘effects loop.’ For the uninitiated, this article will explain what these jacks are for, and why at least some of your effects should get plugged into them. Continue reading “The Ins & Outs Of Effects Loops”

Music making has changed a lot over the past few years. No longer is someone chained to their bedroom desk bouncing tracks on a 4-track cassette recorder, or chained to a variety of books, pedals, cables, and other devices for practicing or playing. We sometimes forget that all of this information overload today can be used for more than looking at kitten pictures or guitar spin fail GIFs. The explosion of apps on our mobile devices can either allow us to pass the time crushing candies, or write our masterpiece. Both are fun, but here I will focus on apps that inspire, help us learn, and twist our guitar sound into almost anything we can imagine. This collection is not strictly guitar-based either, since composition requires at least a passing literacy on a few different instruments. I focused on iOS apps in the last App Attack article, so this one leans more towards the Android platform. Continue reading “7 Great Android and iOS Apps For Musicians”

In the wonderful guitar universe, it’s important not to criticize what size strings a man or woman uses. However, any guitarist that has spent just a small amount of time on internet forum and message boards has navigated the minefield of these types of threads. This article will explain the reasons why someone might choose a particular string size, and unraveling the myths and truths about what it says about the player him-or-herself.  Continue reading “Cage Match: Big Strings vs. Small Strings”

Before we get into the guts of Four Cable Method – what it is and what it can do for you and your tone – we need to have a little history lesson. Once upon a time, using effects was relatively simple. Your only real connection concern was “What happens if I accidentally plug my guitar into my fuzz pedal’s output instead of input?” But we guitarists are notorious for inflicting crippling bouts of G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) upon ourselves, and it wasn’t long before the stage floor became strewn with all sorts of effects boxes. And then guitarists had to learn to tap-dance to control the damn things. So multi-effect units came along which offered the ability to chain combinations of effects that could be accessed with a single tap of the foot.
Continue reading “Get Wired: Four Cable Method”

Cases are a fact of life for any guitarist. Even if you don’t ever intend to pile all of your equipment in the back of the van to get to the next gig, every guitar we spend money on will spend at least part of its life in a case. Just the thought of taking a guitar without a case out of the store, across the parking lot and into the car for the ride home gives me shivers. Choosing a case for your new life partner (or fleeting romance) is sometimes as easy as saying “well, it came with this case, so that is what I use.” Sometimes it is a bigger consideration, which brings me to the subject of this article. The case you choose has more to do with its intended use than anything else. Continue reading “Cage Match: Gig Bags Vs. Hard Cases”

We’ve all been there: you’ve dialed in a sweet rhythm tone – the neck volume is on seven and the bridge volume is on… whatever it’s on, you weren’t looking. And the tone controls are turned to the precise value of “where it sounds right.” You’re grooving away and suddenly it’s time for the solo! You switch to the bridge pickup, roll all the controls up to full, and rock out. Continue reading “Guitar Wiring Explored: Adding a Blower Switch”