The end is nigh! But maybe not as nigh as originally planned… Thanksgiving Day (that’s Nov. 24th to you non-U.S. residents) was the original deadline, but I’m going to extend it through the holiday weekend, till midnight, PST, on the 27th) for one simple reason: We want to HEAR some of these mutants! C’mon — […] 
Well, um, the entires in our Mutant Beauty Contest are certainly . . . something. Click the MORE button to open the slideshow. New beauties added daily! Post your images to comments via a photo-sharing site, or email them to me. I’ll add each new mutant to the slideshow so the entire Internet can laugh […] 
It’s time for another contest! I hereby announce the first Tonefiend Mutant Beauty Pageant. I know many deadbeats with too much time on their hands musicians, and most of them have a thing for weird gear. I’m talking real freak-show stuff, the items that make anyone who walks into your music room shriek, “What the […] 
Chicarrelli on Jack White: "He has an attack unlike anyone else. The concussion of his playing is just unbelievable." Joe Chiccarelli is one of music’s most respected producers and engineers—and one of the most versatile. After making his mark as Frank Zappa’s studio right-hand, he went on to work with such artists as […] 
In Part 1 of this series, I introduced 24 fingering patterns that can be jumping-off points to any number of warmup and dexterity-development exercises. As threatened, this installment introduces additional technical hurdles guaranteed to challenge even advanced players. Try these out—but only after you can play the everything in Part 1 comfortably and consistently […] 
EBow on a Dobro? Oh, yeah! If you’ve screwed around much with an EBow—you know, that battery-powered plastic thingie that you slide against your guitar strings to magnetically invoke infinite sustain—you may have also noticed that it works on steel-string acoustic guitar, especially on the unwound first and second strings. It’s hardly an […] 
Here’s a deceptively simple finger exercise that can serve as a basic warm-up, an overall strength-builder, and, if you take it far enough, the cruelest torture regimen this side of 16th-ventury Spain a great way to expand both your technique and your melodic imagination. The basic idea is simple, something appropriate for a very first […] 
Your guitar won't fall down. You might. A lot of you know this trick already, but it bears repeating: The rubber caps on Grolsch and some other Euro craft beers are the perfect size for strap locks. Don’t get me wrong—proper strap locks are great, but the beer-bottle variety are actually quite reliable, […] |
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