Category: Acoustic

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Acoustic Amps Bass DIY Effects guitar

Mutant Beauty Pageant Update!

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 — I know many of you are avid home recordists. Let’s have some audio to accompany the remarkable visuals! It doesn’t have to be a fancy production — just a little bit recorded into a phone will convey the true horror of these monstrosities express the unique musical qualities of each instrument.

Post your pics (and, I hope, audio) to the comments thread here. Meanwhile, I’ll be updating the astonishing photo gallery here.

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Acoustic Amps Bass DIY Effects Gigs guitar

Mutant Beauty Pageant: The Photo Gallery

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 at your abysmal taste admire your collecting and building skills.

You can review the “rules” here. The prize is still TBD, but I guarantee it’ll be every bit as . . . something as the beauties displayed here.

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Acoustic Amps Bass DIY Effects Gigs guitar Pickups

Mutant Beauty Pageant: Enter and “Win!”

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 hell is that thing?”

Here’s the idea: You post your oddities, and the coolest/weirdest item wins. They can be anything music-related: guitars, basses, amps, effects, CDs or vinyl, music industry swag, some crazy DIY project—anything goes! The winner will receive—well, let’s just say something as weird and cool as the stuff being posted.

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Acoustic Amps guitar Music Recording

A Great Producer Talks Great Guitar

"The more you can take yourself out of the picture and dive into the emotional world of the song, the better music you’ll make."
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 U2, Elton John, Beck, Tori Amos, Morrissey, Dwight Yoakam, Rufus Wainwright, and Jason Mraz. He’s particularly admired for his recent work with guitar-heavy rock bands such as the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, the Strokes, My Morning Jacket, the Shins, and the Killers.

Joe started out as a bass player in his native Boston. He only plays a bit of guitar, but he knows more about getting great guitar sounds that almost anyone I know. I’ve been lucky to enough to record several albums under his supervision, and each time I’ve been floored by his superb taste, vast tech knowledge, superhuman work ethic, and mind-boggling attention to detail. He can be a real taskmaster! But he’s also one of the most patient, considerate, and just plain sweet guys I’ve ever worked with.

Joe is the polar opposite of those technicians who jealously guard their “secrets.” He’s always generous with his knowledge, and was kind enough to take a break from a recent session to let me fire a few questions at him.

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Acoustic Bass guitar Technique

Cruel Finger Exercises [Part 2]

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 (“like identical pearls on a string”).

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Acoustic Recording Technique

Acoustic EBow: Insane, or Merely Crazy?

EBow on a Dobro? Oh, yeah!
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 earth-shaking tone— just a thin whine, really— though you can sometimes use it to good effect, compressed and processed within a mix.

But when I got my first Dobro last year (okay, I was a little slow getting around to it) the technique really came alive for me, and I’ve been using it on tons of tracks ever since.

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Acoustic Bass guitar Technique

Cruel Finger Exercises [Part 1]

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 guitar lesson. But as you start adding variations, it can challenge even very advanced players.

Bass players, don’t miss the fun. Everything here applies to you too— only it’s harder given your longer scale.

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Acoustic Bass Gigs guitar

Strap Lock: Free with Beer!

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, and a great choice if a) you have a valuable vintage guitar you don’t want to mess with, b) you’re broke, or c) you just like skunky Dutch beer.

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