|
Holy crap! Now THAT’S a guitar string! Man, it pays to curate a blog frequented by smart people! I wrote last week about my experiment with silk-and-steel strings. It’s the latest chapter in my ongoing search for the right acoustic strings. Most available options simply sound far too harsh and bright to […] Silk and steel — bad-ass, or strictly for wusses?. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve tried silk and steel strings. I’ve always thought of them as a transitional set for students migrating from nylon to steel strings. At least that’s how my mom used to explain them to me back […] Lon Chaney was an early Fuzz Face user. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a guitarist in possession of a single Face Fuzz must be in want of cool Fuzz Face mods. (Sorry, Jane.) Case in point: The comments section for the new Fuzz Face project. We’re far from the first to […] You can purchase a kit, or source your own parts. UPDATE [06.16.2013]: Build instructions updated to v02. The Fuzz Face has inspired countless spinoffs since Ivor Arbiter unveiled the device in 1966. Some introduced meaningful improvements. Many didn’t. The goal of this project, created by my friend Mitchell “Super-Freq” Hudson, is to create […] 
Most sentient guitarists love Hendrix, but not everyone is equally fond of his signature distortion pedal. So what’s your take on the Fuzz Face? I used to hate them — but only because my sole exposure to them was via the crappy reissues of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. They sounded so brittle and harsh! […] This is the sound you’ve been searching for! If you like reading about internet memes that have just passed their sell-by date, tonefiend is the place to be! Witness this brief video on triggering goat sound via guitar, created in a fit of desperation when a planned DIY post was delayed divine inspiration. […] Okay, I promise: tonefiend is not going to become an all-digital blog. I’ve got two new DIY analog pedal projects in the pipe, plus a piece on that delightfully retro technology, the book. But while there’s more to life than MIDI, for the last few months my particular life has been all MIDI, all the […] My pal Jeff Cross from Apple sent me a brief email: please tell me you’ve seen these… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSsl1h8RhqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT7bsX2qNWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC170m-Hcyg No, I had not. And they’re soooo good. All three are from YouTube user MotorGoblin. I don’t know anything about him, beyond the fact that he’s […] While responsible guitar journalists like my ol’ pal Art Thompson from Guitar Player and the fine young fellows from Premier Guitar scoured Musikmesse 2013 tirelessly and systematically, I did the opposite, randomly stumbling through the vast exhibition halls in a jet-lagged daze between my performances, aiming my iPhone at anything vaguely cool or weird. The […] If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed a recurring pattern: I attend some interesting event and promise to report on it, only to get subverted by work, crowds, jabbering with old acquaintances, and jetlag. True to form, I’ve spend the first two days either demoing TriplePlay, or staggering […] |
            |