If ever you happened to be at a Felix Martin gig, you’d know something was… different. Even if when you first walked in you didn’t immediately notice Felix was playing a 14-string instrument, one couldn’t help notice the complexity of the music, as well as the level of technique displayed. Not just by Felix but his whole band. Most apparent, however, is when you notice the fact that Felix is deftly switching between clean and distorted strummed and finger-picked passages, and pulling off stunningly complex eight-fingered tapping workouts with equal aplomb. He shows an incredible level of skill, musicality, dexterity and dedication. Martin never misses a beat, and makes his dizzying skill level seem effortless. Check it out:

See? I wasn’t kidding! Felix was born in Venezuela and moved to the US after high school to study at Berklee via a performance scholarship, where he studied theory, composition, sound engineering and production. He has also composed music for video games in addition to self-producing his album. I recently had a chance to chat with Felix about his music, his approach to the instrument, his gear and how Seymour Duncan pickups help shape his tone. Continue reading “14-string(!) Technical Prog Metal: Felix Martin”

Her name is Beth, and yes, she’ll cut you!

Imagine the best PAF sound you could think of, juiced up and in the midst of a meltdown (and I mean this in the best possible sense of the term): more powerful and aggressive, with an added vibe of wild unpredictability (it might go nuts on you, but you’re pretty sure you’d like it) and you have the mighty Seymour Duncan Custom. A hot coil wind and a beefy ceramic magnet give the Custom a forceful drive that won’t be denied. It has a thick, crunchy, powerful rhythm tone with no lack of bass, mids or treble. In addition to the great rhythm tone clean or dirty, it also happens to have a soaring lead voice, and it splits well, too. Continue reading “You Want Meaty? The Duncan Custom”

I am personally very fond of music theory and harmony theory. It’s a never-ending tail of interesting little facts and can-do’s and cannot-do’s. Many of those rules were created in Europe during the Middle Ages when Gregorian Chants were the dominant musical form during congregation. The basis formed what we now call musical modes. Even the very-much known major and minor scales are just ancient modes. In this article I want to take a closer look at modes and how many players use them, but actually don’t know that they use them. Continue reading “Adding Texture To Your Playing With Archaic Scales!”

So you’ve got a Strat and you want to upgrade the pickups and electronics, but you hate the idea of having to solder all of the connections? The Seymour Duncan Loaded Pickguards for Strat® are exactly what you need. With the Liberator solderless pots installed on most models, the Loaded Pickguards make changing your pickups and electronics a breeze. Continue reading “How Easy Is It To Install A Loaded Pickguard?”

Even a vintage Neve 1073 console can’t save your session if you are sloppy and unprofessional.

Time and money – two precious resources that musicians never seem to have enough of. Nowhere is this more apparent than when it’s time to record, especially in today’s era of tight budgets and high production values. A poorly managed recording burns time and money. Continue reading “Make the Most of Your Studio Time”

“You know you want to give me that push over the MOJO cliff…”

Got an old Strat or any other guitar that you love to pieces, but that isn’t quite fully dialled in yet? Upgrading your guitar’s parts and hardware can improve the tone and performance of your instruments – it can actually make them feel better, and therefore more fun to play! With a few tweaks and upgrades you can actually make a good guitar a great one. In this season of “I want a new everything,” it can also be more cost-efficient than an all-new guitar!
Continue reading “Upgrading Your Guitar”

I recently built myself a Tele-style guitar from parts. I used a vintage white Swamp Ash body from Warmoth, the neck from my 10-year-old USA Fender Telecaster and hardware from… well, mostly from eBay actually.
I already have a Telecaster with an STR-1 Vintage Rhythm pickup in the neck position and an APTL-3JD Jerry Donahue Lead in the bridge position, so I’m well covered for the classic Tele tone. With this guitar I wanted to power things up a bit. In particular I knew I wanted a full-sized humbucker in the neck and something in the bridge to give a mixture of old-school Tele tone and classic rock roar. Continue reading “Getting Five Sounds from Two Humbuckers”

With the new year approaching we figured it would be a good time to launch a new contest. We teamed up with Mayones, a pretty well known guitar manufacturer based out of Poland (particularly well known for their quality and line of 7/8 string models). This is your chance to show the world your chops and have a lot of fun in the process. Five finalists are going to win a set of Seymour Duncan pickups and one grand prize winner will win a Regius 7 Custom from Mayones. The guitar they will win is featured in this video:

To begin, click the link: http://on.fb.me/VMhKtf

Yes, I know where it can be very easily done.

Seymour Duncan isn’t just about the hundreds of pickups you see in the shops and read about in the comparison charts.  If after all that research, you can’t find what you seek, it’s time for a call to the Custom Shop. The Custom Shop, now headed by Seymour’s son, Derek Duncan, is where you find your tone you can’t find anywhere else. It’s the first stop a Duncan Artist will go for developing a signature pickup, but it isn’t just for famous rock stars. The Custom Shop is available to all. Continue reading “Own Your Tone: The Seymour Duncan Custom Shop”

The most common tremolo system is the 6-screw “vintage” tremolo that was on the original Strat and still appears on many guitars now. The influence of its basic design can be seen in more modern tremolos such as the Floyd Rose, and “vintage replacement” tremolos from such manufacturers as Hipshot, Wilkinson and Schaller.
This type tremolo system balances the string tension with tension from springs in the rear of the guitar. The point around which these two forces balance is called the “pivot point”. On a modern two-point tremolo system, this pivot point is spread across two screws which a knife-edge on the bridge plate comes into contact with. This minimizes friction as two is the minimum number of points that could be in contact and still maintain stability. However, on the six-screw bridges, the bridge is in contact with all six screws, and pivots across them all. This can make a key difference to “tuning stability” – a key factor in tremolo usage that can be the cause of serious headaches to any player.
Imagine you perform a dive bomb on your vintage vibrato system. The springs get tighter, and the strings get looser. The reason they get looser is because the distance from the ball end to the tuner is being reduced. And because this distance is being reduced, it is necessary for the string to move a little. It will move over the saddle, it will move over the nut, and indeed it will move a little in the distance where it is wrapped around the tuning posts. Continue reading “Vintage Tremolo Stability”