tonefiend.com

Category: guitar

  • Cool Guitar Tool

    Cool Guitar Tool

    Long bonsai tweezers for all those hard-to-reach places.

    I found it in my local Goth gardening emporium, tucked between the carnivorous plants and taxidermy mice: a long pair of tweezers with a spatula on one end, designed for manicuring bonsai plants. Voilá—the perfect tool for fiddling around inside a hollowbody guitar. You can use it wrangle pickup wires and grounding cables, coax the cables for an internal acoustic guitar mic through the end pin hole, or just collect any stray debris that may have accumulated inside your guitar. (I don’t know about you, but I’m always finding weird stuff in there . . . ) (more…)

  • Cruel Finger Exercises [Part 1]

    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.
    (more…)

  • Change Your Caps, Change the World!(or at least your tone pot response)

    Change Your Caps, Change the World!
    (or at least your tone pot response)

    The capacitor value matters. But for guitar tone controls, the type of capacitor does not.

    Many players know you can change the voicing of your tone pot by substituting capacitors of different values. I’ve seen many explanations online, though I’ve never come across side-by-side audio comparisons. This post is designed to fill the gap.

    I’ll skip the “what’s a capacitor?” spiel. If you’re curious, check out this easy-to-understand article from Beavis Audio Research, one of the best (and funniest!) DIY sites.

    For our immediate purposes, here’s all you really need to know:

    (more…)

  • Strap Lock: Free with Beer!

    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. (more…)

  • Think You Can Tell Amps from Models?

    Think You Can Tell Amps from Models?

    UPDATE, Friday Sept. 23: The contest is now closed! Read the results here. But although the prizes have been claimed, but you can still challenge you ear for fun here!

    Listen and win — if you dare!

    Ready for some fun, kids? [Evil clown laugh.]

    Join the Amps vs. Models Contest! The winner gets a fabulous prize: Any three Seymour Duncan stompboxes. The runner-up gets to pick any two, and third-place gets one.

    Just apply your ear to this simple test. I’ve recorded four boneheaded guitar phrases. Each appears twice, once through a real amp, and once through a software model of the same amp. The trick is, I’m not telling you which clips features an amp, and which ones don’t. (more…)