It’s a pretty common problem: you have an entry level or budget guitar and you’re pretty happy with it for now – maybe you’ve upgraded the pickups or you’ve put a few stickers on the body to cover up some dings and scratches. You’re not ready to buy a new guitar yet, but you’re starting to reach the limitations of what your first axe and do for you, and as your ear gets more and more accustomed to how the guitar should sound, you’re noticing that it’s going out of tune a lot. And it makes sense to think the tuners are the cause of the problem.
Continue reading “Do I Need To Replace My Guitar’s Tuning Keys?”

Does anyone else feel dizzy?

There’s a lot of appeal to owning something that’s truly unique, and guitars are definitely no exception. While we may not all want something as bold as the Eddie Van Halen Franken-Strat or the Rick Nielsen checkerboard Hamer Standard, it’s hard to deny the allure of a guitar that is one of a kind. We want to look at our beloved instruments and know that they’re as distinctive as our very selves.

But without huge budgets for custom built guitars, how can we do this? Are we forever doomed to settle for mass-produced units that look exactly like the thousands of other guitars that rolled off the assembly line? Definitely not! In this article, we will learn about four very simple – and very low cost – things you can do to personalize your guitar. Whether you try one or all of them, you will end up with something as unique as you are.

Continue reading “Four Simple (and Cheap) Ways to Personalize Your Guitar”

Breaking into the music scene with Colonel Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit in the early 90s, Oteil Burbridge is a musical force to be reckoned with. Since then, he has toured and recorded with the Allman Brothers (and is the longest running bassist in the bands history), the Kofi Burbridge All Stars, Gov’t Mule and the Tedeschi Trucks Band, all the while bringing his signature sound and voice to every genre he steps into. We had a chance to ask Oteil about some questions about genres, and your voice (as well as his newest love, the banjo).
Continue reading “Oteil Burbridge: Finding Your Voice”

Did you check for 50s wiring?

As everyone knows, the first step is admitting you have a problem. But guitar modding addiction is, as yet, unrecognised by the medical and psychiatric fields. If you think you might need help, examine our list of symptoms to help you make your diagnosis. Continue reading “10 Signs You May Be Addicted To Guitar Modding”

Music stores can be intimidating. You’re walking into an environment where all the staff there have heard every cliche’d song butchered a million times, and where it can sometimes be hard to get some attention in order to be assisted in choosing your new guitar, pedal, pick, strap, pickup, gadget or wotzit. Now, it would be an exaggeration to say that Wayne’s World shaped my entire development as a guitar dude, but it certainly introduced me to the concept of the May I Help You Riff: a riff or lick that you can play in order to instantly attract the attention of the staff and maybe even gather a bit of a crowd around yourself to gape in awe at your shred skills. Here are a few that have served me well over the years.  Continue reading “The Art Of The May I Help You Riff”

At some point you may think that while you love your main band, taking on a second band or project is a good idea. From there you may also decide to sit in and help out some friends, help out a friend on a recording or two (or three), play a theatre show here and there, so on and so forth. Welcome to the wonderful world of the freelance musician. Many people make the leap but don’t have the business skills and mental toughness to keep at it. That’s right, I listed skills not associated with playing music. Continue reading “Making the Jump to Freelancing”

In a previous article we looked at how to rig up a simple switch to split a humbucker to a single coil. This gives two very different sounds. But wouldn’t it be nice if we could choose not just those two sounds, but anything in between as well? Continue reading “Guitar Wiring Explored: The Spin-a-Split Mod”

Behold! The mighty ukulele! Able to lull mighty beasts to sleep, be slung over the shoulder, and woo the women! It slices, dices, makes one mean cup of coffee and if you act now, it WILL make you a better bassist like it did me!
*Insert record scratching* Yeah, you heard that right. Playing ukulele made me a better bassist. I’m sure you’re all dying to hear how that actually happened. Continue reading “Ukulele Playing for Better Bassists”

Since the very beginning Andy LaRocque has been a defining part of King Diamond. His solos are melodic, full of harmony and include full use of the whammy bar. When a song comes on that he has played on you know whose playing that solo even if you don’t recognize the song. He has been featured on dozens of other bands albums and he owns his own recording studio and has produced a huge number of metal acts. Here’s Andy LaRocque in his own words on recording, gear and upcoming plans for King Diamond. Continue reading “Andy LaRocque of King Diamond: Gear, Recording and Touring”

For years – a lot of years – we’ve been making bass pickups under the Basslines brand name. And they’ve been pretty popular, and a lot of great players use them, such as Steve Bailey, Roger Waters and Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris. But the time has come to make things a little bit clearer out there. So from now on, our bass pickups – like the Quarter Pound for P-Bass, for instance, will no longer bear the Basslines name. They’ll be known as Seymour Duncan pickups instead.

Continue reading “Basslines Pickups Become… Seymour Duncan Pickups”