The pulverizing tone that defines Slipknot and Mick Thomson is now available in a 7-string pickup, just like our regular Blackouts.
Mick was already a Blackouts fan before we collaborated on his signature pickup. “Blackouts have a lot more tone than your typical active pickup,” he says. “They sound more real. It’s a bigger sound, with richer harmonics and a wider frequency range.”
EMTY Blackouts maintain those qualities, but they’re custom voiced to suit Mick’s signature low tunings. We’ve tightened the bass response for better low-end articulation, avoiding the “woofy” sound that can plague dropped tunings. Mick also requested more high-end “cut,” but without added harshness.
The result: EMTY Blackouts, an active pickup that has become a weapon of choice for metal guitarists worldwide.

Pickups come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and with so much tonal variety that it can be a daunting task for a novice to find out what pickup would suit their needs. It is imaginable that a player who plays predominantly jazz would rather have a pickup with a very clear and articulated tone, so their complex chords don’t turn in to a tonal mush. On the other hand, a jazz player would want their tone to be warm at the same time for his solos. A guitarist who plays metal would want something different. Aggression, tightness of the lows and lots of output are what many metal players want to cut through the band mix when playing with heavy gain.
Continue reading “Neck Vs Bridge Pickups”

Many popular guitars contain pickguards that use parchment, a color that is an off-white with a tan. We have been getting many requests for this color so people could match their pickups with their pickguard. We are happy to announce that this color is now available for all regular spaced humbuckers.

We have a wide variety of colors available for our pickups. If you need a specific color, want your pickup without wax potting or without a logo – just let your favorite music store know and they can order it for you. Find a list of our dealers here.

I’d like to discuss utilizing the 6 string bass as a soloist. The great thing about working as a solo bassist, is that no one can tell you that your playing too many notes. As I mentioned in the “Art of Bass Looping” articles, performing a solo bass gig can be a killer experience or a complete failure. Trust me… I’ve had both. You have to remember that even though we want to play a million notes to show off our skills, the music has to sound good to the listener. Practice making music that is rhythmic as well as tonal. Hold off on using effects until you get some smooth grooves going.

Continue reading “Utilizing the 6 String Bass Part 2”

I’d like to discuss utilizing 6 string bass techniques as a solo bassist as well as in a band situation. First, I’d like to thank Steve Bernstein of Redding Ca. for loaning me his custom built 6 string bass. Constructed with Mahogany, Purpleheart, Birdseye Maple, Moses graphite neck and Hipshot tuners, Steve loaded this beauty with Seymour Duncan ASB-6 pickups and STC-3A circuitry.Controls feature a push/pull slap contour volume, blend, mid, bass, treble.
Continue reading “Utilizing the 6 String Bass Part 1”

Try to imagine the following scenario. You inherit a rather old guitar made by a known guitar manufacturer in Kalamazoo somewhere in the seventies. You play the guitar on every occasion you get: at home, in band practice and on stage. Your band gains some momentum and the venues get bigger and bigger and suddenly you are being struck with a high-pitched, shrieky noise coming from your amp. The guitar was never messed with, the amp always held up just fine, what is wrong?! This scenario is somewhat romanticized because you will experience that noise much sooner, as long as a lot of volume is being used. The problem at hand is being called microphonic feedback due to a microphonic pickup. To understand what is actually going wrong, you must understand how things work according to spec.
Continue reading “Help! I Have A Microphone In My Guitar!”

Warming up Exercises
Start at 120 BPM and increase the tempos as you feel better each time.

1) Chromatic exercise from E 6th bass string.
(DOWN- UP PICKING)

With bar from fifth fret. Move the bar at fourth, third, second and first fret as you feel better at each time.
(DOWN- UP PICKING)

From 1st E string.
(DOWN- UP PICKING)

Clean arpeggiated chords

2)  Clean chords from “Circle of Pain” song, from Sweet Vengeance album. With alternate picking (DOWN- UP PICKING) Make sure you pick the fourth note as a down pick.
3) Clean chords end theme of “The Glow of the Setting Sun” song from Sweet Vengeance album. Hybrid Picking (use pick and fingers at the same time a-la Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, an example would be Stairway to Heaven intro clean theme intro.
4) Clean Chords on “Wearing a Martyrs Crown” behind lead title track song.
Uses alternate picking.

Riffing
5) “Wearing a Martyrs Crown” title track. Intro, verse, and chorus riffs.
Alternate and down picking.

Lead Jam

6) Lead guitar jam on E minor scale and E pentatonic blues scale.

P.S. Nightrage is tuned on standard C tuning, 2 whole steps down from normal tuning. From bottom E bass string.
C  F A# D# G C 

Now that you’ve spent some time using various pickups to achieve an even sound while looping your bass, lets focus on timing and techniques.
Continue reading “The Art of Bass Looping Pt. 2”

There are plenty of myths out there about scalloped fretboards. You know the rumors: They help you play fast. Or conversely, they slow you down. Or they can make you play out of tune. Or they’re hard to play. What’s the truth? And what on earth are they for?

A scalloped fretboard is one on which the wood is filed down between the frets. When viewed side-on it looks like the area has been scooped out. This effectively increases the height of each fret and removes the playing surface so that the player is virtually ‘playing the frets’ instead of the fretboard itself.
Continue reading “To Scallop Or Not To Scallop?”

Every now and then people come to me for advice on tone :pickup swapping, magnet swapping, wiring changes… Nevertheless, before I start to think about what might work I always ask, “did you change the height of the pickup and the pole pieces?” For many people this type of adjustment is an unknown procedure and some players are even scared to adjust the height of their pickup or pole piece.

Continue reading “Tone-tweaking your guitar with a screwdriver?”