On August 30th, at 7pm, a large crowd gathered into the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara to enjoy good music & support music education for kids. Last year we decided to put on a benefit for Notes for Notes, a local group that empowers kids to explore making music to their hearts desire. They can take home instruments, practice together & record in a studio. Steve Miller played and we ended up raising over $50,000 which funded Notes for Notes for a year and allowed them to open an entirely new program in Nashville. This year grammy award winning band Los Lobos and guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa agreed to play the show.
Continue reading “2nd Annual Seymour Duncan Benefit Concert”

“Being Nothing” is one of the fastest right hand rhythm guitar songs that I have ever composed. It contains very fast down picking and also alternate picking as well. I have recorded 4 rhythm guitars as I usually do on the original recording, and also keep in mind that you need to warm up good before you start to play at those fast tempos. Make sure that everything sounds tight. Check the bridge section in the midlle of the song where I play some fast down picking ala Metallica way,  and try to play the song from start to finish, it’s definitely a great way to warm up.

When we’re designing wiring schemes for guitars, one thing we can take into account is whether certain configurations will be hum-cancelling. Of course, you know that when we select a humbucker on its own it will cancel its own hum. And you probably know that two single coils combined, where one is RWRP, will also form a hum-cancelling combination.
Continue reading “How Hum-Cancelling Works, Part 1”

Music theory always seems like this mystery handed down on scrolls, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Understanding the relationship between keys, chords, and scales is not difficult, but it does take some practice. Don’t worry, it is fun- it isn’t like algebra class.
Great soloists aren’t born that way. The real truth is, that they work very hard at it. I’ve always believed that learning something new about this world of guitar is a good thing, and it makes us better players if we understand the musical world we live in.
Continue reading “Breaking Down the Barriers: How the Alphabet Makes Us Better Players”

Courtesy Michael Johanson

Say the name Megadeth and a whole bevy of songs come to mind. Whether it be the raging riffs and vocals from Rust in Peace with songs like “Tornado of Souls” or songs from the album Countdown To Extinction with classics like “Symphony of Destruction,” or more modern tracks like “Public Enemy No.1” from 2011’s TH1RT3EN, Megadeth continues to be one of the biggest bands in the world. The man behind it all is the one and only Dave Mustaine. After 30 years Dave is still able to rock and devote intense focus to putting on a memorable show for all of his fans. We figured it was time we had a chat with Dave about his tour, his guitars and his thoughts on the music industry.
Continue reading “An Interview with Mr. Controversy, Dave Mustaine”

The SFX-01 Pickup Booster is Seymour Duncan’s cure for the common solo boost

This is the second part of my two-part article about the options we soloists have for being heard above the din when it’s our time to shine. In the first part I covered some of the more tried-and-true methods for boosting a solo: the guitar volume, switching pickups, and using an overdrive, distortion, or compressor pedal. In this part, we will explore some of the more refined, “professional” options for making your solo stand out.
Continue reading “Making Your Solos Stand Out – part 2”

The music industry is a difficult industry to break into. For every successful band, there are thousands of failed ones. Many young musicians sit in their rooms dreaming of making it big, like the idols covering their walls. They see the money, the girls, and the larger than life lifestyle and want it all. The problem lies in that they have no clue how to obtain it or even where to start.
Continue reading “Viewing Your Band As A Business: Introduction”

Some guitars DEMAND the classy look of a covered humbucker.

Picture, if you will, two terrifying scenarios. You find the humbucker of our dreams, but it doesn’t have a nice, shiny nickel-silver cover to complete the look of your guitar. Or you’re looking to class up your axe with some covered humbuckers, but you don’t want to go through the hassle or expense of replacing the pickups. What now? I’ll tell you what now: you go out there and you buy a cover for that ‘bucker!
Continue reading “Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Covered Humbuckers”

George Lynch’s Screamin’ Demon humbucker has been a mainstay of his sound for decades, across many different musical styles, amp rigs and guitar configurations. It’s a moderate output P.A.F. -style humbucker with extra growl. And surprisingly for a pickup that has been used to record some pretty scorching riffs, it’s actually not particularly high in output. Its DC resistance is hotter than an SH-1 ’59 Model or Alnico II Pro-Slash, but at 10k it’s a lot more restrained than pickups like the SH-14 Custom 5 (14.4k) or the mighty SH-13 Dimebucker (16.25k).

George was the first artist to receive a signature humbucker from Seymour Duncan, and it features one-row of adjustable screws, but instead of a row of slug pole pieces it features a row of hex screws. This helps give it a truly unique sound that is open and airy, and each note is tight and defined.  Continue reading “The Story Of George Lynch’s Screamin’ Demon Humbucker”

In the previous article we looked at on-on switches, and on-off-on switches. There’s one more kind of toggle switch for us to look at.

DDPDT On On On Switch Guitar Wiring

The last type of DPDT switch we’re going to look at is the on-on-on switch. This is another three-position switch, and the connections it makes in the three positions are as follows:

You’ll see there are two types possible. It’s important when wiring one of these switches to be sure which type you’ve got. You can check this with a multimeter (I strongly recommend getting a multimeter if you’re going to be doing any guitar wiring at all – they’re cheap and extremely useful). In this article I’m going to use Type I, as it’s far more common. However, when reading diagrams on the internet it’s important to ensure that when an on-on-on switch is shown, you know what type it is, and how to adjust your wiring accordingly.

I’m going to show you two examples of wiring we can do with an on-on-on switch. The first is a series/split/parallel switch. This gives you a choice between a standard humbucker, a single coil, and the two coils wired in parallel – as if they were two separate single coils selected to run together on a single-coil guitar.
Continue reading “On On On Switch – Switches Part 3”