Category: The Secret Room

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Acoustic Amps Bass Digital DIY Effects Gigs guitar Music Pickups Recording Technique The Secret Room Tonefiend DIY Club

Contest: Build the Tonefiend Forum!

tonefiend forum
A sad, desolate place — but not for long!
tonefiend forum
A sad, desolate place — but not for long!

One cool thing about going indie with tonefiend  is that fact that I can finally host my own geek forum! It’s already up and running — but it’s a sad, vacant space that desperately needs to be populated by cool people and cool ideas.

How to get there? Sleazy bribes! Cool prizes!

Here’s the deal: I’ve pre-populated the forum with a few topics and threads. Just come on over, register, and chime in on any thread that interests you — or better yet, start one of your own. And on September 1st, 2012, the three forum members who have consistently contributed the liveliest content as judged by some dork me will get a bitchin’ stompbox laboriously hand-built by the same dork me. I can’t disclose exactly what the pedals will do, but I can promise they will be cool, useful, and genuinely unique — original designs, not some lame-ass Screamer clones. And if I manage not to vaporize my hand with the TechShop laser-cutter I’ve been learning to use, they’ll even have wicked laser-etched enclosures.

Naturally, I hope the tonefiend forum will also be cool and unique, and that you’ll enjoy geeking out there even when there’s no contest. But hey, I’m not above greasing the skids with free stompboxes as needed.

Please read the forum rules, though.

FORUM RULES: Be cool.

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Acoustic Amps Bass Digital DIY Effects Gigs guitar Music Pickups Recording Technique The Secret Room Tonefiend DIY Club

The Secret Room: Not So Secret Anymore

Now with more secrets — and less secrecy.
Now with more secrets — and less secrecy.

Last winter I tried an odd experiment: a website where players were encouraged to post their best tone secrets — the kinds of tricks and techniques that are almost too good to share. But in order to get, you had to give: The site was password-protected, and the password was only sent to those who contributed secrets.

Musicians responded, no doubt encouraged by the cool prizes awarded to the top secrets, as judged by user ratings. I also asked some cool musician friends to contribute the first round of secrets, yielding tips from the likes of composer/virtuoso Lyle Workman, metallurgist-turned jazzbo Alex Skolnick, original Chili Peppers guitarist Jack Sherman, boy genius Blake Mills, and other great players.

Once the contest ended, traffic slowed, but the site has slowly but surely grown. And now, as an experiment, I’ve removed the password protection. Now anyone can visit the Secret Room, AKA tonesecret.com, even if they haven’t coughed up a secret. So please do!

It’s a fascinating document. Naturally, the quality of secrets varies, as does the level of expertise needed to make the most of them. I exerted a light editorial hand — only silly or flat-out-wrong tips were vetoed, and I didn’t do much in the way of spelling and grammar repair. Sometimes the contents are a little repetitious — but trust me, there is much wisdom and originality throughout.

I hope you find something helpful — and I hope you’re moved to contribute some secrets yourself using the site’s submission form. And who knows? There may be more tawdry bribes fabulous prizes lurking around the corner…

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The Secret Room

Secret Room: The Big Countdown

Can you believe it’s almost March? But February won’t officially creak to its conclusion until we announce the winner of the first big prize in our Secret Room giveaway. Yep — come the first, we will be awarding a $1,000 Godin Natural Summit CT to the author of the most most popular user-submitted tone secret, as judged by all the other players who have submitted tone secrets. And there are well over 500 of them — and mostly really good ones!

You can still influence the outcome — and learn an INSANE amount about tone, technique, gear, and DIY. If you’ve already submitted a secret and obtained a password, there’s still time to vote for your fave secrets. And if you haven’t yet checked out the Secret Room, learn more here.

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The Secret Room

500 Dirty Cool Secrets!

It’s official — we now have over 500 cool users’ tone secrets over in The Secret Room. Want to learn a foolproof method for adjusting your pickups? Great advice on surviving soundchecks? Simple but brilliant wiring mods? Words of wisdom about technique and musicianship? It’s in there — along with lots of hundreds of other tips. Your reactions will range from “Wow, why didn’t I think of that?” to “Ugh — why would anyone think of that?” 🙂

Right now the most popular secret reveals how to determine how much sustain an electric guitar has — before plugging it in. All you have to do is…

…naw, you’ll have to read it for yourself. All you need to do to join the conversation is submit a secret of your own.

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The Secret Room

The Secret Room, Week 2

There are a LOT of secrets out there . . .

It’s hard to believe it’s only been a week since we launched the Secret Room site. Hundreds and hundreds of guitarists and bassists have posted cool tone tips. Thanks to all those who’ve been generous enough to share their secrets. I can’t believe how many helpful and inspiring ideas we’ve been privileged to post. I’m confident the site will evolve into a fabulous resource for musicians. In fact, it already has!

I’d like to share a my few of my favorite secrets so far:

Continue reading “The Secret Room, Week 2”
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The Secret Room Uncategorized

The Secret Room, Day 2

It's a world of secrets out there . . .
It's a world of secrets out there . . .

Holy cow! I had no idea there were so many secrets out there, and so many players eager to divulge them!

In other words: The Secret Room project is off to a roaring start, with hundreds of cool submissions, and I’m working overtime to get them posted.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts about the process so far, and invite your input in comments. (I’ve closed comments in the Secret Room announcement post, because too many people were posting secrets there, rather than using the submission form.)

Continue reading “The Secret Room, Day 2”
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Bass guitar The Secret Room

Introducing the Secret Room

UPDATE: Wow! I’m overwhelmed by the initial response. Hundreds of cool tips! Please bear with me as I process them and send out the access info. I could automate the process, but I want this to be more than just a bunch of random posts, and I want to weed out the silly stuff. —Joe

Do you have a secret? I want it!

No, not your credit card number, or the truth about what you were really doing on the night of September 23rd. Just a cool tip about anything that makes you play better or sound better. The kind of hard-won musical wisdom that’s almost too good to share.

And in exchange for surrendering a precious secret, you get access to the best secrets of many other players, including some whose names you know.

Just contribute a cool tone secret, and you’ll get access to this password-protected site. While there, you’ll be able to comment on the secrets and add ratings. Just to keep things lively, the authors of the highest-rated secrets will win cool gear prizes. In fact, whoever creates the highest-rated post between now and March 1st will receive a Godin Natural Summit CT, a lovely and versatile carved-top solidbody electric guitar that sells for $1,000. The authors of the second and third most popular posts win a their choice of Seymour Duncan pickup sets. (Custom Shop sets excluded.)

The site is already looking pretty cool — but it will be cooler if you contribute! Learn more (and submit a secret) here.