Pickups come in all kinds of flavors and styles. Some are tailored to do one specific style or tone while others are more versatile. To broaden the palate of choice, some 30-odd years ago active pickups hit the market. The tonal characteristics of active pickups make them a great choice for the more heavy music styles as well as the cleaner, melodic genres. They ‘follow’ your playing very accurately and precisely with little to no noise and hum, but dish out a great amount of output, perfect to drive your amp just a bit more. Unfortunately, many players feel that active pickups sound a bit too clean and too compressed. The dynamics are not what they’re used to. Some say it’s like having a compressor pedal on, all the time. Continue reading “When 11 Isn’t Enough: Active Blackouts”

The Custom Custom (or CC) is my favorite bridge pickup. There, I said it. It’s beefier than a standard PAF style, yet not so huge in output that it tends to compress everything. This article will discuss the use and sound of the CC, as well as providing some soundclips solo and within a mix so you can hear it for yourself. Continue reading “The Seymour Duncan SH-11 Custom Custom”

Seymour W. Duncan and Seth Lover

The SH-55 Seth Lover model is Seymour Duncan’s tribute to the father of the humbucking pickup. Any guitar today that uses two coils in the same housing wired to get rid of the hum associated with single coil pickups owes a bit of thanks to the original pioneer of pickup design, Seth Lover.

Continue reading “The Seymour Duncan SH-55 Seth Lover Model”

Are you a bass player in a band that features guitarists who play 7-string or 8-string guitars? This is becoming more and more of an issue lately. And I should know: I’ve been playing 7-string guitars for about ten years now, and about a month ago I finally made the leap to 8-strings via an Ibanez RGIR28FE Iron Label Series beastie (upgraded with Seymour Duncan Pegasus and Sentient humbuckers). It’s tuned, low to high, F#, B, E, A, D, G, B, E. or sometimes E, B, E, A, D, G, B, E, if I’m feeling particularly saucy. And it only took a few days worth of jammage for me to come to the realisation that if I was going to find a place for the bass to sit comfortably with that kind of tuning, I’d have to be a little bit creative about it. When you’re playing a bass line to fit with a 7-string guitar, it’s pretty obvious that you can hang on the low B string of a 5-string bass when you need to support those extra, extra low notes. But what if the guitar player hits an F#? Or, heaven forfend, a low, low E?

Continue reading “Successful Bass And 8-String Guitar Integration”

It’s always a cool thing to watch. I’ll play a theatre production, and as we’re playing the exit music, I’ll watch as people peek their heads over the rail, look over at me and then at their friends with a shocked expression. What usually follows is either “Where’s the upright bass?” or something to that effect, followed by disbelief as I explain that it’s just been me and the electric bass and give them a quick example. Welcome to the wonderful world of palm muting, a very simple technique that can vastly improve your versatility. Continue reading “Palm Muting, or “Wait, that’s NOT an Upright Bass?!””

Drop tuning involves dropping the strings down pitches to explore a whole different tonal shape and be able to do things like easily fret across strings with a single finger. This also includes alternate tunings which may in part or completely involve lowering the pitch of the strings from standard tuning (EADGBE). Playing in drop-tunings has been used by metal and rock players for decades and one of the most popular forms involves just dropping the big E down a step to D (which can be achieved by dropping it down until the 7th fret of your E string matches the pitch of your open A). Songs like Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box” and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” use this tuning. Continue reading “Pickups for Drop-Tuning”

The Fender Custom Shop has announced a new Gold Top Limited Edition Dusty Hill Bass, modelled after the instrument Dusty is currently using on the road with ZZ Top. And like pretty much everything to do with ZZ Top, from their vehicles to their clothes, Dusty’s bass is not just any off-the-shelfer: it’s packed with custom features. Continue reading “Dusty Hill’s Fender Custom Shop Gold Top P Bass”

It’s a popular belief that history is cyclical: that a historical event will take place in the same or similar fashion in the future. The wide jeans of the 60s and 70s, afro haircuts, flower design on wall papers, minimalist design – many past design styles seem to be making a return. I won’t discuss cyclical history in an academic fashion but I do want to talk about the return of some older designs or features in the world of the guitar. Some things go away only to come back stronger and more powerful, while others never really go away. Let’s take a look!

Continue reading “Trends In Guitar Lineage”

Seymour Duncan has teamed up with Knaggs Guitars, Maryland’s Boutique Guitar maker, to give away a special Knaggs Chesapeake Series ‘Severn Tier 1′ Trem in Aged Scotch. This instrument is one of Knaggs’ finest guitars, featuring a double-cutaway beveled Alder body with Sapele top and a Maple cap. The figured Rock Maple set neck comes with a Cocobolo fingerboard at an 8.5” radius, 25.5” scale, and an fingerboard inlays consisting of Abalone Diamonds and an Abalone Chesapeake work boat inlay at the 12th fret. The instrument also has a Wenge pickguard with Abalone and Green Snail purfling, and features Knaggs’ proprietary solid steel bridge plate/Hinge Tremolo driving increased string vibration into the center of the body.
Continue reading “Knaggs Guitar Giveaway”

One of the worst noises known to the ears of a guitarist and fans is to hear the high-pitched scream of feedback emanating from the amplifier’s driver – unexpectedly and undesirable. The remedy for this is a fast spin of the volume knob or the sound guy’s hand slamming the faders down as fast as possible (with a shade of crimson rising in their face, embarrassed that it happened at all). That’s great – feedback eliminated, but HOW does feedback happen at all? And how can you eliminate it from occurring – ever!  Continue reading “Creative Solutions To Control Feedback”