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Dang — I wish I had a white turtleneck and a Mosrite electric resophonic! After some of the long-running contests around here, it was nice having a quickie for a change. San Diego-based steel guitarist Doug Meyer was the first of several readers to correctly identify the four iconic Bass VI riffs in […] 
PLUS: New Contest! Name the Classic 6-String Bass Riffs and Win a Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster Pedal! "We both love candlelight, long walks on the beach, and really expensive old-school strings." NOTE: The contest is at the bottom of this post. You can skip ahead if you don’t care about rare and expensive […] 
What could possibly go wrong? There are two ways to approach amplifying an acoustic guitar: trying to duplicate the natural sound, only louder, and NOT trying to sound naturalistic at all. This post is about the second approach. I love playing acoustic through an electric guitar amp (as opposed to a dedicated acoustic […] 
Low-Voltage Chunk from Diode Distortion! Did you know you can add a simple circuit to your guitar or bass that produces onboard distortion — without using a battery? The idea is pretty simple — you attach a pair of diodes to the guitar’s output via a pot or switch. With the diodes connected […] 
Don't hate me for this. A little something to make your weekend miserable productive: I learned this pinky-strengthening exercise many years ago from one of my teachers. If the fourth finger of your fretting hand is the runt of the litter, skill-wise, these combination barre-chord/hammer-on routines may help. Plus you’ll learn some cool […] 
The latest Mongrel Strat (artist's conception). Welcome to the second installment in the Mongrel Strat Series! If I were a sensible person, I would have split this week’s experiments into several posts. But much like eating pistachios, it’s tough to know when to stop . Anyway, this project tackles three topics: 1. Several […] 
Raising the strings to pitch automatically clips the strings. While auditioning parts as part of the ongoing Mongrel Strat Project, I tried out my first set of Planet Waves Auto-Trim Locking Guitar Machines. I’m really digging them! They lock to pitch via a little button on the back, much like Sperzel locking tuners. […] "We am have photo finish!" It’s midnight here in California — March 1st. Which means the Secret Room’s first contest is over. The rules were simple: The tone secret with the highest user rating earns it author a $1,000 Godin Natural Summit CT, a versatile carved-top solidbody. The authors of the second- and […] 
Can you believe it’s almost March? But February won’t officially creak to its conclusion until we announce the winner of the first big prize in our Secret Room giveaway. Yep — come the first, we will be awarding a $1,000 Godin Natural Summit CT to the author of the most most popular user-submitted tone […] 
Three "mismatched" Duncan pickups in an off-the-rack Mexican Strat. (Left to right: Lipstick Tube for Strat, Alnico II Pro Staggered, Twang Banger) As previously threatened, here’s the first installment in a series on unusual Strat pickup combinations, inspired by a big box of Duncan pickups and a couple of prewired “BYOP” pickguards. I […] |
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