Which kick more ass? Class A or Class AB? The recent experience making a DIY Class A Champ reignites for me the eternal debate between the merits of Class A and Class A/B amps. (I link once more to Dave Hunter’s excellent short article on the topic, since he explains the distinction so […] 
When you make DIY stompboxes powered by 9-volt batteries, your biggest fear is a solder burn (or dropping your drill on your iPad, but that’s another story). DIY amps are different: AC voltage can kill you, so a klutz like me approaches amp builds with caution. Which brings me to one of the great things […] 
You can probably get cool tones from any old crap with a tube in it, such as this ’60s PA amp. There were lots of interesting replies to last week’s post on small amps. Thanks for all the tips about some of today’s best tiny terrors! The discussion reminded me of a cool […] 
Plastic guitars are not a new idea! In comments to a recent post on 3D-printed guitars, we were discussing the pros, cons, and general aesthetics of instruments molded from plastic. But this isn’t exactly a new idea. Back in the 1950s, luthier Mario Maccaferri conceived a line of plastic guitars and ukuleles. (This […] 
The Atom guitar body was created on a 3D printer. During the Maker Faire a few months back, I wrote about the new wave of absurdly inexpensive 3D printers, and fantasized a bit about a not-too-distant time when many of us will be printing our own guitar parts at home. Create Digital Music […] 
Prewired replacement electronics provide access to many popular wiring mods, minus the soldering. Larry Santellan of Santellan Sounds, maker of the Elec-Trix tone modules, sent me some samples to check out. These pre-wired circuits offer quick access to some of the “greatest hits” of alternate wiring, with an emphasis on Strats and Teles. […] 
A unique pickup in a “unique” guitar. I’ve never owned a Burns guitar, and I have only one with Burns pickups: a funky mid-’60s Baldwin Virginian I scored for $100 some 20 years ago. It’s a cheap plywood piece of crap — but it’s my piece of crap, and I’m quite attached to […] 
Is it just me, or do many guitarists these days find themselves alternating between separate analog and digital setups? I’m posting some pics of my current pedalboards (bearing in mind that, for reasons I’ll get into in a sec, my pedalboards only tend to stay “current” for a few days at a time). Both were […] 
Well, I’m not sure it’s fair to call it a “museum” when there’s only one exhibit so far. But it’s a really, really good one… I bought this Maestro Rhythm ’N Sound for Guitar for a pittance back in the ’90s. It’s a primitive multi-effect unit from 1968, with a cool octave-down bass tone, auto-wah, […] This clip from the short-lived British sketch-com Snuff Box made me think about great guitar teachers — and not-so-great ones. I was lucky — I had some truly memorable teachers, starting with my mom, who taught me her coffeehouse folk. When she decided I needed a more advanced instructor, she recruited Larry, a friend’s […] |
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