Would this be anything less than awesome? I think not. As I gloated last week, Jane Wiedlin gave me her Hello Kitty Stratocaster — the most bitchin’ $99 guitar ever conceived! I finally had a chance to destroy/customize it yesterday, in what will no doubt be the first of many desecrations/enhancements. I’d ordered […] 
Borders went bankrupt. Now what the heck am I supposed to do with this pretty red card? Behold my latest gizmo acquisition: the mighty Pick Punch! It may look like a humble office stapler, but it stamps out standard-sized guitar picks from any compatible material. I made picks from an old credit card, […] 
Which sounds better: modern or vintage wiring? The experts disagree! There’s a wealth of information online about the relative merits of “vintage” vs. “modern” wiring in Les Pauls. And after reading page after page on the topic, I was more confused than when I started. So here’s an attempt to pinpoint the sonic […] 
Sadly, it's ony Photoshop. Jane just WISHES she had a Hello Kitty triple-neck! It was a perfect weekend here in SF: Unseasonably warm weather. BBQ in the garden. A fun recording session for a new project by Jane Wiedlin and Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Gos. And there was something else. . . Oh […] 
Hey man — what happened to your amps? No question about it: Amps are awesome, and guitarists will be plugging into them for a long time to come. But as threatened in this post from last week, I’ve been experimenting with direct- recorded guitar sounds. I’m not talking amp simulators, but the sound […] 
What do you get when you cross . . . I’ve been coveting one of those “Nashville-Style” Telecasters — you know, the hot-rodded, three-pickup versions popularized by Nashville session superhero Brent Mason, and now a regular Fender production model. Then it dawned on me: Since some of Mongrel Strats I’ve been playing with […] 
An advanced technical diagram. No videos or audio examples today — I’m in the midst of “reconfiguring” my studio. (That’s the technical term for pulling stuff out of racks, tangling all your cables, making an ungodly mess, and dissolving into a puddle of bitter, frustrated tears.) But the good news is, I got […] 
Looks vintage, but it ain't. After auditioning so many different tone-control schemes over the course of the Mongrel Strat Project, I wound up with more tone circuits than I have Strats, so I figured I’d victimize a bass — specifically, a 1954 Fender P-Bass reissue with a Seymour Duncan Quarter-Pound pickup, which I’ve […] 
Yes, it's bad Photoshop. You can't REALLY print a guitar at home . . . not quite yet, anyway. UPDATE: Check out the comments, where reader J links to videos of a 3D-printed guitar and violin.It’s cool and INTENSE. Last weekend I got to enjoy one of my favorite things in the universe: […] The PTB Circuit was one of many G&L innovations. After the frantic soldering fest that was The Pagey Project, I figured it might be time for a nice, simple DIY wiring project. At the suggestion of tonefiend reader JH, I played with variations on the 2-band tone control that appeared in some G&L […] |
            |