That’s one option for different sounds.

We’re creatures of habit, and all have our favorites. When you’re inspired, you reach for your “favorite” instrument. You have your “favorite” set up, strings, tone, etc.. But what about those times when your “favorite” just isn’t working? Say, you’re auditioning for the bass spot in a funk band, and your pick technique isn’t what the music needs or wants. Or, you want to just broaden your horizons and try something new, because your “favorites” just aren’t doing it for your right now. Continue reading “Right Hand Tonal Options”

Scales are strange beasts. History shows us that the practicing of scales consists of playing the same notes in the same order while a ruler-armed teacher barks “Faster! FASTER!” at us all the while assuring ourselves that the study of scales builds character, and one day it will all be worth it. While I practice my share of scales, I only practice them up and down in every key enough to get the muscle memory in my hands and the sound of them in my ears. After that, a scale is just a finger exercise until you hear their relationship to notes in a chord or chord progression. This relationship is worthy of an article by itself, so I wrote one, but here we are talking about a very specific scale, the whole tone scale.
Continue reading “The Fractured Sound of the Whole Tone Scale”

Canada isn’t a country we normally associate with high-end guitars, although they should be. Godin have been making guitars in Quebec since the early 1970s, and have expanded to three factories in the region, as well as one in the northeastern US. Godin Guitars seems to be constantly coming up with new designs, from their retro Richmond series, to their innovative Multiacs. They are not afraid to design new classics or deviate from what we all grew up with. Doing so has amassed a very devoted group of followers who will sing Godin’s praises to those who will listen. I spent some time in Godin’s room (yes, they had a whole room) at NAMM this past winter, and I now know what everyone is raving about. This article will feature several new models this year, happily equipped with Seymour Duncan Pickups. Continue reading “Friends of SD: Godin Guitars”

The stage at any club or festival is usually a maze of wires. Guitar cables, microphone cables, speaker cables, and more snake their way under our feet and around the amps and guitar stands. Some club designers don’t have the forethought to put AC outlets on all sides of the stage either, so the pedals by our feet might have long extension cords to get the power they need. Batteries are an option too, which saves space and looks cleaner, but they have drawbacks too. Until someone can develop a device to power the pedals with the kinetic energy harnessed from your drummer’s blast beats, we have to make a choice of how to power the pedal collection we have curated over the years. This article will look at all sides of the pedal-powering game, and hopefully help you decide what can keep those LEDs at our feet shining brightly. Continue reading “Cage Match: Batteries vs. AC Adapters”

Our pals at Premier Guitar are giving you the chance to win six Seymour Duncan pedals: the 805 Overdrive, Dirty Deed Distortion, Pickup Booster, Vapor Trail Analog Delay, Vise Grip Compressor and the new Shapeshifter Tremolo. Enter here for your chance to win before June 22, 2015.
Click here if you’d like to learn more about our pedal range.
The giveaway is open to all territories except where prohibited by law. Click here to read the official rules.

Introducing the new Shapeshifter Tremolo pedal! Whether you’re looking for a flickery vintage shimmer, extreme choppiness, backwards swells or rhythmic stabs, the Shapeshifter is designed to do it all. Built on the legacy of the original Shapeshifter, it’s now significantly smaller to give you back more pedalboard real estate, and it now features stereo inputs and outputs, Phase control and an expanded rate range. There’s also a blinking LED knob like the one found on the Vapor Trail analog delay to give you constant visual feedback of the tempo, even when the unit is bypassed.

Continue reading “Introducing The Shapeshifter Tremolo”

We all have our guitar heroes, and our buddy Wes Hauch has been quite upfront about his love of Dimebag Darrell. Wes is a very accomplished player with his own identifiable style, which you may have heard from his time in The Faceless or making guest appearances on record with Periphery and live with Thy Art Is Murder. The guy’s very capable of sounding like himself. But when Wes turns his attention to honoring Dimebag, you can hear in every note just how much that music, those riffs, those leads mean to him.

Which is to say, we pretty much flipped out when we saw this video.

This is Wes demoing the Dimebag Signature Set, which combines Dime’s signature Dimebucker pickup for the bridge position a ’59 for the neck. And as per Dime’s choice, this is the bridge version of the ’59 instead of the neck model.  Dime felt the hotter bridge version was a better match for the massive output of the Dimebucker. We talked to Dime’s tech Grady Champion about this a while ago, and you can read that discussion here.
The video (and associated audio) were produced by Keith Merrow at Merrowsound Studios in Portland, Oregon, USA. Here are some links so you can keep up with what Wes and Keith are up to:

Social networks for Wes:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/wes.hauch
Instagram- https://instagram.com/weshauch
Twitter- https://twitter.com/GenerousSug

Social Networks for Keith:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/keith.merrow1 (personal)
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/keithmerrowfans (fan page)
Instagram- https://instagram.com/keithmerrow
Website- http://www.keithmerrow.com

When it comes to low-tuned, high gain metal many people think a high-output humbucker is the best type pickup to go with. It’s certainly great for some styles, but what if your style involves a lot of complex chords? Sometimes a high-output pickup and high-output amp can turn your well-chosen combination of notes into complete mush. And sometimes the best way to get that perfect heavy, face-smashing tone is to dial it back a bit on the pickup front and go for something that has a more moderate output. The Pegasus is a moderate output pickup designed to give you the perfect tight aggressive tone with enough articulation to let all your clever chord work shine through.

Continue reading “Flying High On The Majestic Pegasus”

There are many different factors that go into the playability of a guitar, including the string height, the quality of the frets, the smoothness of the fretboard edges, the shape of the neck – the list goes on and on. One often-overlooked aspect for bolt-on guitars is the neck angle; get it wrong and you can run into difficulties in maintaining consistent action. Get it right and the guitar becomes a slick, playable machine. Let’s look at some common problems and how to fix them.

Neck Angle Too Shallow Continue reading “Adjusting Your Action: Shimming and Micro Tilt”

It is always cold somewhere. Well, unless it’s spring or fall, but it can still be cold. As they say, the show must go on. But how are we supposed to rock (or pretend to) if we are freezing our butts off? If you are a performing player (or soon hope to be), you will most likely play several outside shows. Some of those outside shows will be when it is really cold outside. This presents a unique set of challenges to the guitarists and bassists out there, and this article will help us better prepare for the fun time that’s ahead of us when asked to play under less-than-ideal conditions.
Continue reading “A Guide To Playing In The Cold”