Unless you're a complete beginner, Amazon's Prime Day sale isn't really the place to pick up a new guitar or amplifier. It is, however, an excellent opportunity to pick up essential tools for maintaining your instrument. I'm a regularly gigging guitar player, and I do all my own setup work. Playing in a punk band, my guitars get plenty of abuse, which means I often have to tweak them to keep them playing their best.

I’ve been doing this for about twenty years now, and over that time, I’ve accumulated a bunch of essential tools that I keep in a carry case that stays in my gig bag. It comes with me to every show, recording session, and rehearsal to ensure I’m always ready should the need arise to adjust. Since we’re in the midst of the Prime Day guitar deals, it’s a great time for you to get your guitar tool kit up and running.

Setting up your own guitar is a skill I think every guitarist should learn. I spent five years in retail, and I was shocked at how many people came in just to get their guitar strings changed! You know your guitar best, so unless you’ve got a major issue, I think you should set up your own instrument to get it playing exactly how you want.

Here are 8 essential guitar tools I can’t do without, plus a bonus 9th for those who are just getting started with setting up their guitars.

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You’d hope that when you buy your shiny new guitar, it would be perfectly ready to go, especially since guitars aren’t getting any cheaper as we’ve all no doubt noticed. Over the past year, however, it’s fair to say rather too many new instruments aren’t quite finished when they turn up at Guitarist HQ.

Is that acceptable today? Do guitar companies think we should either spend our own time finishing off their guitars or pay a professional? Is the quality control of new guitars going down the pan?

It’s impossible to generalise, but a personal bugbear for me is tuning. Can I get the guitar in tune in the first place, and will it stay and play in tune? Now, I’m not expecting to do a quick tune to pitch and then to go off and play an hour’s set without the guitar drifting.

Of course it will. Many of us will have our own preferences for string height and gauge, our own way of attaching strings and stretching them. But when you’ve gone to that trouble and the damn thing struggles to get in tune, let alone stay that way, well, you’ve got trouble.

You’d think price would be the obvious stumbling block, but as we’ve detailed many times there’s no reason a lower-end guitar can’t play like a high-end guitar, though it depends on quite a few factors. Has it been made correctly in the first place with properly selected and dried wood? Not always. And that’s not something we, the end user, can see. But it can certainly contribute to keeping a new guitar in tune. Or not…

Evaluation

As ever, it’s essential to carefully check over any new or new-to-you guitar before you consider any fixes, not least if tuning seems to be a problem. Start with the neck itself. An easy way to test a neck’s stiffness is simply to check whether it moves when you push or pull on the neck in playing position.

Of course, this slight flexing is a technique used by many players to add subtle vibrato. If there’s too much flex, however, you’ve got plenty of potential issues, as with a floating vibrato, where as you raise the pitch of one string, the others will go very slightly flat.

In extreme cases, this will happen as you simply bend one string. The nut therefore has to be very well cut and lubricated, otherwise stable tuning will be next to impossible. A neck with next to zero flex will hold its tuning much better from the off, so long as there are no other issues.

It’s fairly obvious for a less seasoned player to point the finger at the tuners. These devices are supposed to tune the guitar, aren’t they? They must be the problem! But it’s rare that even a lower-end guitar will have dysfunctional machineheads.

They might feel a little stiff or sloppy, but so long as you’ve attached your strings correctly – and stretched them when new – it’s rare that they’re the culprits if you’ve got tuning stability issues, even though that doesn’t stop many people from spending more money on ‘upgrading’ the tuners.

As we’ve often stated, the top nut is typically the real fly in the tuning and tuning-stability ointment. If the string grooves are too tight, they’ll snag the string so a low-fret bend might stay slightly raised, instead of returning to correct pitch. Basic stuff.

Three-a-side back-angled headstocks are especially prone to these problems as the D and G strings in particular splay out from the nut to the tuners, as well as angling down to the tuners. Fender’s six-in-a-line headstocks have pretty straight string pull, but – as with any nut – if those string grooves are too tight, you’ll still have a problem [pics 2 & 3].

Go back a decade or so and it was pretty common to receive new review guitars where the nut was simply left too high, which not only affected the playing feel in lower positions but could also make a simple open E to 1st-fret F, for example, not be in tune as the string will go sharp as you push it down.

The thinking was that the end user might want a different setup or string gauge, and the shop’s tech would make the necessary tweaks before you bought it.

With the advent of online commerce, most (but not all) manufacturers pay much more attention to this, but, to be honest, I’ve lost count of the number of guitars I’ve had on review, certainly in the sub-$/£1k price bracket, that have needed a little TLC in the nut department. Either way, that top nut is probably the most common problem with any lower-end mass-produced guitar. Just saying [pic 4].

At the other end of the string is the bridge saddle. Like the nut, if the saddle snags the string you can have problems. Add in a vibrato to the equation and you have another potential problem.

There’s the fulcrum to consider, the break point on the saddle: is the string catching on the exit point from the block to the saddle? And going back to the headstock, don’t forget that string trees can snag those top strings, too [pic 7].

Bearing all this in mind, you’d be right to expect more potential tuning problems with a Stratocaster or a Bigsby-loaded Gretsch than you would with a Les Paul Junior.

Buzz, Rattle & Hum

Now, even if these elements prove problem-free, a neck needs to be straight (with or without a slight concave ‘bow’, called relief) and the frets level.

If there’s too much relief in the neck when you make those adjustments to the height of the string grooves in the nut and then straighten it, you might well find those nut grooves are too low and you’re now getting string buzz on your open strings. The only fix here is a new nut or a Super Glue drop‑fill. So, yes, there is a process to follow in any instrument setup, old or new.

Buzz, fret ‘rattle’, whatever you want to call it, isn’t always easy to pin down, especially since some of us have heavier picking hands than others. But these technique-related issues – often ‘fixed’ by simply raising the string height and/or going up a gauge of string – can mask the real culprits such as those low nut slots or, obviously, a high fret that hasn’t been seated properly or has become unseated.

Sometimes that annoying buzz you hear might not even be a fret/neck issue; it could be anything from a vibrating spring on a humbucker mounting ring to a loose-fitting truss rod that’s not under tension.

So while playability/tuning issues are the primary issues, that’s not to say there won’t be problems with the hand-wiring that’s in the vast majority of lower-end guitars: switches wired the wrong way around, tone controls that don’t work and, on occasion, loose pots or jack sockets, or a dry joint on an earth wire.

I like to check the electrics and the pickups. I’ve certainly had guitars advertising ‘pickup A’ when the actual pickups are something different.

Case In Point

A recent new launch from a major manufacturer involved three new models being shipped to HQ, review stock for Guitarist, Total Guitar and Guitar World to review. All good – although a couple of reviewers complained about rattles and string buzz. It wasn’t my review, but I asked for one of the guitars to be sent out to me to see what the problem was.

Fair play to our reviewers because ‘rattle and buzz’ was an understatement. The guitar I was shipped was unplayable. Now, I didn’t ask if either of the reviewers had had a go at fixing anything, but it appeared that, at best, the guitar had missed out on a final QC check when it’d landed in Europe, and at worst no-one at the factory had bothered to finish the job or even basically set up the guitar.

Anyway, to sort it out I reset the neck relief, added a neck shim, reset saddle heights and radius, reset the vibrato, reset string heights, recut the top E and B string nut grooves to remove the sitar-like response, and drop-filled the low E nut slot as it had been cut too low.

Personally, I’d have restrung the guitar with a heavier string gauge, too, as it was still quite ‘snappy’ sounding, but that’s a personal preference.

Now, if you’d received that guitar from an online retailer, you’d be sending it back, wouldn’t you? In-store, well, the overworked tech would be tasked to do what I had to do. The thing is, aside from a drop of Super Glue, nut powder and a thin piece of veneer for that shim, the guitar hasn’t changed and yet it’s gone from ‘unplayable’ to ‘perfectly good’.

A sign of the times? I’m not sure. Making a guitar is one thing, and that should include final tweaking and setup, shouldn’t it? I don’t think it’s the job for the end user, or the reviewer, to have to finish it off.

The strings you’ll typically find on a ukulele are made of nylon, which means they’re great for keeping their sound fresh over time, however, they’re also prone to breaking easily.

If you have one or more broken strings waiting to be replaced and bring your uke back to its former glory, never fear as we will show you how to restring a ukulele – whether that’s a single string or full set – and breathe some new life into your uke.

In my experience, without instruction or prior knowledge, the uke strings can be tough to tie on and, if they’re tied incorrectly, they will slip, drop tuning or perhaps even come right off!

Follow along as I take you through the full process of restringing your ukulele.

I’ve also written step-by-step Guitar World guides showing you how to restring a bass guitar, how to restring an electric guitar, how to restring an acoustic guitar and how to restring a classical guitar.

What you’ll need

• Fresh set of nylon ukulele strings
• String winder
• Wire cutters
• Guitar tuner

Step-by-step guide

1. Remove the old strings

Let’s retire those old strings! Pick and loosen the knot where they’re tied around the bridge and loosen them at the machine head end until you’re able to remove them completely from the uke.

2. Clean up your uke

Give you ukulele a quick dust and general clean, paying close attention to the fingerboard and machine heads. Now it’s time to get your new strings ready.

3. Check your strings

Note that in a set of four ukulele strings there are different thicknesses, that will be tuned G (thin), C (thickest), E (medium), A (thin). The thickness of the strings correlates to the lower notes the uke will be tuned to.

4. Thread a string through the bridge

Here, we’re showing you the low C string as it’s thicker - it’s easier to see! Post the string through the bridge as shown. You can see the tail of the other thinner string here, we’ll be trapping it under the winding of this string deliberately.

5. Wrap the tail around itself

Pull up the string as shown with plenty of tail, wrap it underneath and around itself.

6. Create your knot

Feed the string twice through its own loop, this creates a nice knot to tie the string on.

7. Pull it tight

When you pull the knot tight, try to aim the tail off to the side as shown. Also you want the last twist of the knot to be ‘round the corner’ of the bridge. This really helps it to stay put. Give it a good tug towards the neck to secure it.

8. Feed your string through the tuning post

Feed your string through the corresponding tuner’s hole at the head end of the ukulele.

9. Leave enough excess string

Reserve a healthy amount of slack in the string so that the tuner gets plenty wound round it. This helps the string to anchor nicely to the tuner post.

10. Feed through the tuner hole… again

Let’s give the string a helping hand by inserting it again through the small hole - that’s double the chance of staying put!

11. Wind your string on

With our knot at the bridge steady and the string looped twice through the tuner, it’s time to wind! Try to hold some pressure on the string while you wind the tuner – this helps to keep it neat. Wrap underneath for bonus points!

12. Tune up

Tune up the string then give it a yank to stretch it in. The stretching of the strings really helps tighten the knots and loops where you’ve tied the string on. After tuning and tugging the string, snip off the excess.

13. And repeat!

Repeat the process for each string and you will end up with this lovely arrangement going on at the bridge – each string’s tail is trapped by the next one.

14. Allow some settling in time

And that’s it! Snip off the spare part of the string at the neck end and you’re done! Note that new nylon strings will take a little while to settle in, so be prepared to retune a fair amount at first.

Fitting fresh bass strings can be a real treat: you realize what your bass guitar was missing out on and the top-end frequencies return, meaning your tone control once again has a purpose! Whilst some players like the sound of worn-in (or some might say worn-out) strings, they won’t like the dead spots and bad intonation you often get with dirty strings…

Simply put, excess material (grime) on the strings will change the way the string intonates. Intonation is responsible for how in-tune one string plays at every note, whether that’s high or low on the fretboard. Old strings can have a real impact on this.

And of course certain techniques like slap bass need clear, clean strings to really bring that zing.

For this guide covering how to restring your bass guitar, I’m going to be refreshing my PRS Kingfisher bass with a crisp set of Rotosound 45-105 strings and show you my process for my own and my client’s guitars. I’ve also created guides covering how to restring an electric guitar, how to restring an acoustic guitar and how to restring a classical guitar for Guitar World.

What you'll need

• Fresh set of strings
• Strong wire cutters
• Guitar tuner
• String winder
• Lemon oil/almond oil
• Stanley blade

Step-by-step guide

1. Remove the old strings

Let’s start by whipping off the old worn out strings. These have no life left and certainly no top-end. I use a string winder to speed up the twizzling process, unwinding the old strings completely, removing them and disposing of them safely.

2. Inspect your fingerboard

Oh my, this fretboard is far too flavorsome! I can’t, in all good conscious, install new strings with all this DNA on here… This build up of goo is from a couple of years of playing. If I install new strings on here without cleaning, it will ruin the new strings very quickly.

3. Remove the gunk

In cases this extreme, a fretboard scrape is recommended. A fresh Stanley blade is a great method for this: carefully and lightly scrape in parallel to the frets removing the grime and a small amount of rosewood. The inlays are safe to scrape also, finish up by picking the corners of the frets with the blade or a cocktail stick. Done carefully, this should remove most of the grime without damaging the actual guitar. Minors should ask a responsible adult to do this part.

4. Feed your fretboard

Now it’s time to nourish this freshly cleaned fretboard. Almond or lemon oil is great for the timber. I recommend applying a decent amount and letting it soak in for 10 minutes.

5. Remove the excess oil

Wipe off the excess oil and, hey presto, a fresh fretboard!

6. Thread the new strings

Now it’s time to crack out the new strings. On this bass I’m installing them by threading the non ball end through the rear of the body, but your bass may install through the rear of the bridge - some basses come with both options.

7. Trim the string lengths

Many bass tuners have a tiny hole you’re meant to poke the string end into, however I recommend trimming the string to length first, so you don’t have too much excess. Measure out 8-10cm (3-4 inches) of string over the tuner in question. We’ll do this on each string as it looks better to have the same amount of wrapped string around each tuner post. If you are unsure and concerned you might cut too much off, overcompensate the length and see how it winds – it’s better to be extra long than too short!

8. Feed the string into the tuner

Poke the string end safely into its hole or slot in the tuner post.

9. Create a kink in each string

Bend the string at the tuner post to create a sharp kink. This will help secure the string to the post, will stop string slippage as you tighten the machine heads and will generally make it easier to wrap the string around the post.

10. Start winding

Begin winding the string, building up winds underneath each other. It looks neat this way and also promotes a good downward angle for the string, something which is critical on Fender Jazz and P bass A strings.

11. The final stretch

You’re looking to get nice even winds, and you get bonus points if each tuning post has the same number of winds on. Not only does this look great, but you also ensure that each string has the same amount of spare string present. This means they will stretch out at the same rate. Award yourself an extra bonus point if you also give your strings a good stretch – this helps settle the strings and they will pay you back with nice tuning stability.

The earliest guitar-like instruments probably had flat fretboards, but these days pretty much every guitar has a curved ’board. We’re not talking about an up-bow or back-bow, but rather the curve that joins both edges of the fretboard with its highest point all along the centre line of the neck.

If you’re wondering why a fretboard radius is generally preferred, try forming an imaginary barre chord with your fretting hand and you’ll probably see that your index finger is slightly curved. Now grab your guitar and try barring across all six strings using your index finger alone and you may notice that the D and G strings are the ones least likely to play cleanly.

Going back to our ‘air’ barre chord, place your thumb where the back of the neck would normally be and your index finger will probably straighten instinctively. The thumb’s bolstering effect and the fretboard radius conforming to the natural curve of the index finger combine to make chord playing more comfortable and less fatiguing.

Even so, traditional classical guitars have flat fretboards to suit classical playing techniques and low-tension nylon strings. But nylon-strung guitars with slightly radiused fretboards – so-called ‘hybrid’ models – are now being made for steel-string acoustic and electric guitarists who are interested in crossing over without the need to adapt their playing style too much.

Most of the major manufacturers are associated with specific radiuses. For instance, Martin has traditionally used 16‑inch (406.5mm) radiuses, vintage Danelectros had 14 inches (355.5mm), and Fender was always associated with a measurement of 7.25 inches (184mm). In recent years 9.5-inch (241mm) radius Fender necks have become commonplace, while PRS favours 10 inches (254mm).

Gibsons are widely assumed to have 12-inch (305mm) radius ’boards, but most of the electric guitars they built prior to the mid-’60s measure closer to 9.5 inches or 10 inches.

During the halcyon days of ’80s shredding, players began demanding flatter radiuses and companies such Charvel, Jackson and Ibanez were offering 12-inch, 16-inch or even 20-inch (508mm) options. Raw speed and slinky bends were the priority and a flatter ’board can facilitate that, for reasons that will soon become clear.

String Radius

Radius considerations apply to strings as well as fretboards. If the fretboard is completely level, then the string height above the ’board can remain constant all the way along its length. And this applies regardless of whether the strings run parallel to one another or splay out between the nut and bridge.

Let’s say the nut slots give the strings a 7.25-inch radius over a 7.25-inch radius ’board. With a ’7.25-inch string radius at the bridge, a consistent string height above the ’board can only be achieved when the strings run parallel to one another. But on most guitars, the strings spread out between the nut and the bridge and the fretboard widens accordingly.

As the distance from the nut increases, so does the gap between the ’board and the outer string in particular, which results in higher action. If the action is lowered to compensate, this means that, when bent, the top two strings can come into contact with higher frets, which causes ‘choking’ or ‘fretting out’.

It happens because the saddle height remains fixed, but the bent strings no longer angle upwards towards the saddle and instead level off or even angle downwards. This is why a fretboard with a flatter radius makes it easier to enjoy a low action with buzz-free bends.

Setting up guitars is a complex topic that’s way beyond the scope of this article, but if you’re interested in trying it yourself, a set of gauges can help. Full sets are available on well-known auction sites for under £10. If you’re unsure of the ’board radius, you can quickly determine what it is, but remember to take measurements at both ends for reasons we’ll explain later.

Gauges can also be used for setting saddle height to achieve your preferred string radius at the bridge. Some like to match the bridge and ’board radiuses, but others prefer a larger bridge radius, with maybe 9.5 inches for a 7.25-inch fretboard or 12 inches for a 9.5-inch ’board. Start by lowering the action of the top E string until you can bend it maybe a tone and a half without choking. Similarly, set the low E string height until you can hit it hard with no fretbuzz, or a degree of buzz that you can live with.

When placed across the E strings, gauges provide an accurate visual reference. We find it best to drop the saddle height of all four inside strings and then raise them until the strings just touch the gauge.

So long as you don’t adjust the E saddles, then it’s quick and easy to try various bridge radiuses to determine which best suits your guitar and playing style. Clearly, this can only be done with bridges that have individually adjustable saddles.

With tune-o-matic, wraptail and Gretsch-style bar bridges, the radius is always built in, so there’s limited scope for fine tuning. This is also something worth bearing in mind if you’re considering a bridge upgrade because its radius will need to be compatible with your fretboard.

When a bridge radius is too flat relative to the ’board, and when you set your preferred action for the outer strings, the middle strings may become too low and buzzy. The opposite may occur if the bridge is too curved because the middle strings will feel unnaturally high off the ’board. But some guitars, such as vintage Gretsches, have stock bridges that are mismatched and fitting an aftermarket bridge with a better radius match can improve playability as well as tone.

Compound interests

Most fretboards retain a consistent radius along the entire length, but some don’t. With many guitarists favouring a tighter curve for chordwork but a flatter radius for slinky string bending, you may wonder if you can have the best of both worlds. The answer is yes and the common term for these hybrid fretboards is ‘compound radius’.

One way to visualise this is to consider a straight pipe. If you took an even slice off it lengthways, you’d have a constant radius all the way along. Now do the same to a cone and the result will be a radius that is tight at the narrow end but gradually becomes flatter as the cone widens. In essence, a compound radius fretboard is like a section of a cone and this minimises the gap increase between the ’board and the strings as they splay outwards over the upper frets.

Various manufacturers have claimed credit for ‘inventing’ the compound radius fretboard, but it’s possible that some well-used guitars ended up with compound radius ’boards by accident.

Some luthiers routinely sand fretboards as part of the refretting process, and years ago it was common practice to sand out divots – especially with rosewood and maple ’boards. Without radiused sanding blocks, this would have been done by eye, meaning areas with heavy wear may have ended up somewhat flatter, not least after several refrets.

This is certainly what Stevie Ray Vaughan’s tech René Martinez says about his ‘Number One’ Strat. Legendary luthier Dan Erlewine took measurements in 1989 and reported that the radius graduated towards somewhere between 9.5 and 10 inches.

No doubt techs and guitarists noticed that some guitars played a little easier after a refret – and many figured out the reason. By the 1980s, compound radius necks were all the rage, particularly for ‘SuperStrat’ shredding, but they remain popular with a wide range of players.

Bender’s fret dress

Having a compound radius is certainly appealing, but aggressively sanding the fretboards of vintage or high-end vintage replica guitars isn’t advisable. This is especially true of maple- and veneer-’board necks. But there is another option.

Installing taller fretwire makes it possible to have a compound radius feel without damaging the fretboard. Called the ‘string bender’s fret dress’, it involves filing the frets to achieve the desired radiuses, rather than sanding wood. It’s a relatively straightforward procedure and any competent tech should be able to do this for you if you’re struggling with higher action simply to prevent string choke out.

It works the other way around, too, as this writer recently discovered when asked to refret a mid-’50s Fender Telecaster. The all-original Tadeo Gomez neck had never felt quite right to the owner, and radius gauges quickly revealed that the fretboard radius started out at 7.24 inches but ended up closer to six inches above the 14th fret. In other words, it had a reverse compound.

The ’board had never been sanded or refinished, so we’d have to assume that Tadeo was having an off day or someone else had radiused the ’board while Tadeo carved one of his typically great profiles. The only non-invasive solution in this scenario was to install tall wire and then dress the frets to achieve a consistent 7.25‑inch radius.

Rounding up

There are many things to consider when we’re buying guitars, but we should never overlook fretboard radius. It dramatically affects the playing feel of a guitar, and a tight radius will limit how low the action can be set.

Conversely, a flatter radius may become uncomfortable if your playing is mostly chordal, rather than lead-based. And unlike pickups, hardware and even a guitar’s finish, modifying a fretboard radius may prove expensive and detrimental to the guitar’s value.

Judging by the number of emails we’ve received recently, there’s definitely more interest in slide guitar at the moment than I can remember for some time. But what’s the best way to set up a guitar for slide? Good question.

I’m going to focus on electric slide guitar and start by saying that while there are no set rules for slide guitar setups; there are quite a few things to consider. Most obviously, there are plenty of ways to approach playing slide and to a certain extent that’ll affect how you could set up your guitar to achieve those clean slide sounds.

A lap steel, for example, the first electric guitar, is designed to just play slide on. You don’t fret it – it doesn’t have frets! – and raising both the nut and saddle on a regular guitar achieves the same thing. Conversely, many players with a light touch and good technique can use a pretty standard string height at both the nut and saddle, with or without a heavier string gauge. Most, however, probably sit between those two extremes.

Plenty of us play slide in standard tuning, too, perhaps just putting on a bottleneck for a solo, then return to standard playing. Others might use an open tuning but still want to fret conventionally as well as playing some slide licks and solos.

It’s worth thinking about whether you’re raising or lowering the strings in terms of pitch compared with standard tuning. For example, open E, as favoured by many, Derek Trucks included, is a raised tuning (low to high: E B E G# B E) that will subtly put more tension on the neck and possibly increase its relief. 

Elsewhere, open D (low to high: D A D F# A D) and open G (low to high: DGDGBD) are lowered tunings; they slightly lower string tension when compared with standard tuning and put less stress on the neck.

Scale length is something else to consider, certainly in terms of string tension. In the same way many of us might use 0.009-gauge strings on a longer Fender-scale and 10s on a shorter Gibson scale, for that clean slide aim (with the same string height) you might want to consider 10s on the Fender and 11s on the Gibson guitar.

Tension Matters

Why is tension so important? The key is to get a clean voice where the slide doesn’t push the strings onto the frets. So with a standard or raised open tuning on a Fender scale you might well find that using 10s and a pretty standard string height will give you enough tension for those clean slide licks. However, with the same tuning, string height and string gauge on a shorter scale, it might be harder to achieve that clean slide goal.

Within these parameters, there are plenty of other things to consider, but these really are very player dependent. A good place to start is simply in standard tuning. Let’s take a T-style guitar with a Fender scale length, 0.010-gauge strings and a pretty standard string height of 1.6mm on the treble, a little higher on the bass side. Can you execute your licks cleanly? 

It does require a light, quite precise touch, but I find that doable, not least around the slide-friendly D, G and B strings; the top E is a little harder to control. So, without totally ruining your non-slide playing, your options would be to slightly raise the treble-side string height and/or go up a gauge just on your B and E strings.

With the same guitar moving to a lowered open G, I’d definitely be tempted to go up a string gauge, which might well be enough to feel more comfortable for slide and not too uncomfortable for your Keef moments.

Now try the same experiments with a shorter Gibson-scale instrument. Personally, in standard tuning, I can just about get away with it, but with the high E dropped to D I’m struggling. Also, experience tells me that once the adrenaline of a performance kicks in, I’d be in trouble unless I’d taken remedial action: again, raising the string gauge and/or the string height. 

Derek Trucks apparently favours the following string gauges: (high to low) 0.011, 0.014, 0.017, 0.026, 0.036 and 0.046, like a regular 0.010 to 0.046 set but with the top two strings from a set of 11s.

If you’re new to slide playing, you may well be better off with a higher string action until you get used to the initially quite alien concept of sticking one of your fingers inside a glass or metal tube – and that slide, of course, can impact on the way you string and set up your guitar.

You might need to raise your string height at the bridge to encourage clean slide, but what about the nut? Going back to that lap steel, the strings at the nut are way above the fingerboard and plenty of players will raise the nut on a conventional guitar that’s set for slide. 

Now, if you have a dedicated slide guitar then you can easily do that either with a nut riser (as many acoustic slide players prefer) or, with less extreme results, either make a new nut or simply put a hard-plastic shim under your existing nut. Personally, I find a compromise for electric slide. A slightly higher nut is good, but if it’s too high then it simply makes life a bit of an uphill struggle for regular fretted playing on the same guitar, especially with a heavier string gauge.

Slide Selection

Just like tweaking your setup, finding the best bottleneck or slide for you is key to maximising your sound and comfort. I won’t be explaining how to make a true bottleneck from a wine bottle as many players had to do back in the day.

Instead, there are plenty on the market to choose from that come in all shapes and sizes, not to mention materials and prices. I’m not sure I can lay claim to having tried out every type of slide out there, but I’ve certainly had a good number stuck on the fingers of my left hand over the years.

Let’s start with size and that, of course, is directly related to which finger you’re going to use and your playing position, particularly if you’re standing with your guitar strapped on. 

For example, I use two fingers (not at the same time!). For standard tuning with the guitar in a normal standing strapped on position – not too high, not too low – I use my second finger with the slide stopping at my lower knuckle so that the finger and slide can lay over the strings in pretty much normal playing position. 

When I’m playing my main open-tuned slide guitar, I strap it much higher. That way I can use the same slide but over the full length of my little finger, meaning my hand can round further over the strings. It allows for plenty of damping behind the slide, not to mention voicing different notes and partial chords behind the slide, too. 

Playing seated, I’ll always use my little finger. Plenty of players use their third finger; I’ve even seen the occasional player using their first finger! I’m happy with pretty regular-sized slides of approximately 62mm long and with an internal diameter of 18mm to 20mm.

It makes sense that the bigger walled, heavier slide would be the ‘best’, but that’s not backed up by everyone’s choice. A lighter slide is easier to control – pretty important – not least if you have some fast licks to play with a bit more of a gained sound. If you’re a slide buff you’ve probably got a few different slides and bottlenecks. 

For me, size and weight are most important, less so the different materials, which are typically glass or Pyrex, ceramic, brass, chromed steel and stainless steel. Plenty of players have used anything to hand – socket wrenches, copper pipe, beer bottles or shot glasses.

But what’s the best material? And do the different materials impart different sounds? Well, very good luck with that! Manufacturers of slides will often get quite flowery with their tone descriptions, but whatever the material is, it’s dampened by the digit you stick inside it. 

Speaking of which, remember that your fingers can get pretty sweaty, certainly when you’re playing live, which can affect your control of the slide. And in worst cases cause it to completely slip off – which is a tad embarrassing mid-solo! Ceramic slides are porous as the internal surfaces aren’t usually glazed, which can help with sweaty digit syndrome.

A glass, Pyrex or ceramic slide can easily get dropped and shatter on a hard surface, while brass is quite soft and can get pitted and become scratchy sounding. Products such as Wolfram’s UK-made slides use aviation-grade materials that are polished super smooth and stay that way. 

Thicker walled, heavier slides, to my ears, do give a ‘bigger’ sound, while thinner-walled slides offer a more delicate tone, but the lighter weight can work with more standard string heights. Either way, what is important is matching the slide to your setup, style and sounds you aim to produce.  

Let’s be honest, choosing the right guitar cable is probably the most boring part of putting together your rig. Just grab the first one you see, maybe pick a cool color, and get playing, right? Well, hold fire! While a cable might not be the most interesting part of your set-up, it’s arguably the most crucial. No cable, no amplified sound; so it's important to consider which one is right for your needs.

If you’ve never considered which cable is best, you’re not alone – even veteran guitarists may never have taken time to mull over what makes a cable good or bad for them. But with this guide we can help you make a confident choice.

What does a guitar cable do?

Firstly, it is worth touching on what specifically a guitar cable – often referred to as a jack cable – does. Fortunately, it’s pretty simple. A guitar cable carries the electrical signal generated by your guitar's pickups to an amplifier or your audio equipment of preference. That’s it. This differs from other kinds of cables that you may find in a stage or studio environment that carry other things aside from electrical signals – for example an XLR (microphone cable) can also carry power.

We go into more detail on how guitar cables work in this explainer feature.

Style

In terms of the appearance of guitar cables, they tend to follow pretty much the same general design, barring the odd wild color – which, unfortunately, doesn't translate to a miraculously better tone, so go with whichever color suits you best! 

That’s because a standard cable, composed of a conductive metal core wrapped in an outer jacket, is at its most effective when it’s a flexible, straight cable – hence why the vast majority of them look the same. There isn’t much room to improve the appearance of a cable without hindering its ability to effectively do its job.

One notorious outlier in appearance is the coiled cable. Coiled cables look cool, but they have drawbacks: owners will agree they take up additional space and never quite fall as you want them to. More importantly, they have higher capacitance due to their longer length (if they were stretched all the way out). Higher capacitance means your guitar’s signal loses some characteristics, notably the high end, making your tone sound more dull. That said, this is usually barely noticeable, so if you love the look, then go for it.

Length

Length is important to factor in when buying a cable. If you’re playing live, are you more of a shoegazing type who will happily stay planted in one spot? Or are you more of an Angus Young type who likes to make the absolute most of the stage? 

There’s nothing more embarrassing than trying to strut your way around the stage, then yanking your lead out of your amplifier and noticing you can no longer hear yourself; rest assured, everybody else noticed it too. Make sure you get a lead that is long enough for your preferred level of stage movement, though do bear in mind that a longer lead will mean a larger price tag and the same capacitance issue we covered with the coiled cable. Alternatively, consider a wireless set-up that gives you total freedom of the stage.

Perhaps you’ve just got hold of your first couple of pedals and now need to connect them up? You could do this with a standard 10ft-long guitar cable, but that will leave a lot of unnecessary cable between each pedal. To avoid this, pedals will typically be joined by patch cables. These will be optimized for pedals by being much shorter –typically only around 6-inches – and feature right-angle connectors to minimize the amount of space taken up by cables on a pedalboard, allowing you to get pedals much closer to each other.

Connectors

Some standard cables may also feature angled connectors – for guitars such as a Gibson Les Paul, which feature their jack input on the bottom, this is a handy addition that keeps you from banging the cable and risking snapping the end off; however this wouldn’t be as suitable for a Stratocaster, which features the jack input on the front and at an angle, which is designed to work best with a standard, straight jack.

Cable durability

Cables have a habit of dying at exactly the wrong moment. Cheaper cables will typically be made of affordable materials, and their components (e.g. connectors) will be both poorer quality and have been soldered weakly, meaning the connections may not last as long, particularly if they’re subject to wear and tear. Fortunately, as cheap cables can come in at only a few dollars each, they’re not too painful to replace; however, it may be an idea to buy multiple cables at once, giving yourself an insurance policy if one of them breaks down.

Alternatively, premium cables will typically be more durable, being made from higher quality components and with more care taken in the manufacturing process, so they should last longer and wear much better. Many cables now come with warranties, which cover you if they break – though this will not include any excessive damage if you don’t look after them. You will also likely need to keep track of your original purchase receipt, so don’t lose it!

Other features to look out for

It’s always worth looking for a shielded cable, which will have a material that stops electrical interference from the outside world being picked up by the conductive part of your cable, which can produce hum. If you consider that a typical stage will have multiple amplifiers, pedalboards, powered microphones and a PA system, there are a lot of different electrical signals going on which typically don’t play nicely with your guitar’s own. Shielding can only do so much to stop noise/hum entering your circuit – your guitar itself will be the biggest culprit of opening the door to noise – but every little helps and the best cables will have excellent shielding.

Some cables have additional features, such as circuit breaker switches, that mean you can silently unplug and switch instruments – we’ve all been there, unplugging your guitar while it’s still plugged into the amp and faced with a big ‘pop’; this switch avoids that. This is something to consider if you make a lot of instrument changes during a set.

99 percent of guitars will use standard jack cables, but there are odd occasions where a specific cable needs to be used; for example if the guitar needs to transmit additional data aside from just an electrical signal from the pickups. 

Where using different cables is becoming more common, however, is with effects pedals. Some pedals feature stereo input and output, which may come in the shape of two standard mono jacks for the left and right signals coming out of the pedal, or one single stereo jack or TRS cable – this is the case on the MXR M300 reverb pedal. 

These cables are easy to find, and much more common to use for stereo instruments such as keyboards, but it’s something to consider if you want to make use of the stereo capabilities of your pedals.

Should you build your own cables?

If you have a penchant for DIY, then perhaps buying a ready-made cable isn’t for you. Why not build your own? There are even a number of manufacturers who will package up the equipment for you to do this, and you don’t necessarily need a soldering iron either, as some offer solderless cable kits.

Typically, players would lean towards building their own cables if they needed a specific length, for example when building a pedalboard and there's a requirement for a patch cable of a certain length. Whilst patch cables come in many lengths, nothing satisfies the neat-freak more than having a cable that fits perfectly between your pedals. Building your own cable also gives valuable insight into how cables are built and how to fix them when they break.

Conclusion

Most guitar cables will do a job for you, regardless of which specific one you go for. If you’re keen to get going as quickly and cost-effectively as possible, budget own-brand cables may be ideal, but these likely won’t deliver the durability of more expensive cables, so it may be worth making a larger initial investment to save money down the line.

Above all, always make sure you buy the right cable for the right job – for example the often unheralded little patch cable is a crucial component in building the tonal kingdom at your feet and should be given as much thought as your primary instrument cable. They may not be exciting, but every guitar cable in your circuit should be given the consideration and investment it deserves.

In the modern world beginner acoustic guitars are fantastic instruments in their own right, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be better. If you’re looking to improve the tone and playability of an entry-level acoustic, we’ve got some great tips for you ranging from simple maintenance to full-on replacement of parts. 

You don’t have to be a trained luthier to carry out the vast majority of these either, with plenty of improvements that can be carried out from the comfort of your own home. There is also a good selection of upgrades that are reasonably priced, making them accessible for the vast majority of guitar players. We’ve carried out many of these upgrades on our own guitars and seen the improvements for ourselves, so let’s get cracking…

1. Change string gauge

Probably the simplest and easiest way to improve both the playability and tonal quality of your beginner acoustic is to change the strings. Whether you’ve got a crud-encrusted set that’s been on there for years, you want slinkier playability, or an increase in volume and sustain, a change of string gauge can have a marked effect on the way your acoustic plays and sounds.

Changing strings is relatively simple and there are many online guides and videos on how to restring an acoustic guitar, but where the real gains are is in changing gauge. A lighter gauge of string will make your acoustic guitar feel easier to play, which is particularly useful for beginner guitar players. Conversely changing to a heavier gauge of string will make the guitar harder to play, but will bring advantages in terms of sustain, more volume, and some small tonal changes too.

2. Get a setup (or do it yourself)

Linked to our first point, a setup of your guitar may be necessary when changing string gauge, but ultimately a good setup can have a huge effect on playability regardless of whether you’re changing string gauge or not. Setups can be done yourself with some select tools, and again there are plenty of online tutorials on how to do this. However, getting a professional guitar tech or luthier to do your setup for you will undoubtedly result in a massive improvement in playability, if you’re not sure what you’re doing.

A good setup will look at the string height, the truss rod, the bridge saddle, and the nut, as well as taking into account any potential issues like cracks or loose parts. You can ask your guitar tech or luthier for a particular thing too, for example, if you want the action low to make it easier to play, or higher to learn some slide guitar. Always bear in mind that there will be limitations to what your luthier can do with any given instrument, and they will get you as close as they possibly can to what you want.

3. Change your guitar pick

Another simple change that can have a big effect on both sound and playability is the guitar pick you use. You might think all picks are created equally but it’s not the case, as both the material, thickness, and shape all have an effect on how your acoustic plays. If you’re playing fingerstyle exclusively, then you might want to have a look at a thumb pick or finger picks to help you change things up.

A lighter guitar pick flexes more easily and is generally preferred by players for rhythm playing and strumming. The flex makes it easier to strum across the strings and delivers a lighter and more airy sound. On the other hand, a heavier pick is useful when you need more control or are using a heavier set of acoustic guitar strings. Pick shape is more personal preference, so if you’re looking to change up your sound or playing feel, trying a guitar pick variety pack is a great idea. Different materials can also impart a subtly different sound, so it’s worth trying these out too. 

4. Try alternate tunings

A totally free way to change the sound of your instrument, alternate tunings will unlock a whole new sound for your instrument that can really jumpstart your creativity. The harmonies and melodies that are accessible via alternate tunings can make for some really unique sounds, challenging you to try different chord fingerings and helping you develop your music theory.

There’s a huge range of alternate tunings to choose from, whether you’re simply dropping your low E string to a D for easier power chords, or completely retuning a la Sonic Youth to make something totally unrecognizable. If you’re trying alternate tunings for the first time, you’ll need a good guitar tuner, and you’ll also need to research whether you should be tuning each string up or down. 

5. Upgrade your hardware

Getting into more serious work, upgrading the existing hardware on your acoustic guitar is a great way to see some serious performance benefits. They’re not likely to drastically change the tonal character of your acoustic, which is baked into the tonewood combination and general construction. Still, you can certainly make some marginal tone gains and larger playability improvements by changing components.

Key components for upgrading are the nut and saddle, both of which tend to be made of poorer quality materials on beginner-level instruments. The nut in particular can affect sustain and improve tuning stability, while a change of saddle material can have a subtle effect on the tonality of the guitar too, as well as improving sustain. We’d advise giving your guitar to a professional to change these components, as you can seriously damage your instrument if you don’t know what you’re doing.

6. Install an acoustic guitar pickup

Many beginner acoustic guitars come with onboard electronics but in our experience, there aren’t huge amounts of these that are very high quality. Onboard electronics tend to be a little thin and lifeless, so another way to improve the sound of your acoustic is to install an external acoustic guitar pickup. 

Acoustic pickups can be simple things that screw onto your soundhole, or fully-fledged systems with their own preamps that require a more detailed installation. They will drastically improve the sound quality versus the standard piezo ones that typically come installed on beginner acoustics, a great option if you use an acoustic guitar amp or want to eventually play live. 

7. Try using guitar pedals

Guitar pedals aren’t just for electric guitar! As well as acoustic-specific preamp pedals which can improve overall tonality you can also use reverb pedals, delay pedals, and pretty much any effect you like. Of course, this is dependent on your instrument having a built-in pickup, but in the modern world, most beginner-level acoustic come with one of these.

Using pedals will rely on you having amplification of some kind as well, whether that’s using an acoustic amp or regular guitar amp, a PA system, or even an audio interface to amplify your signal. There are a lot of practice amps on the market that feature acoustic guitar-specific models too, which can be a great way to improve the sound of your instrument. 

8. Try a new technique

It may seem like an obvious point but learning a new technique can quite literally unlock a whole new world of sound. We’re not saying you have to learn a ridiculously complex classical guitar piece, but adding some fingerpicking to your repertoire can help vary the sound of your acoustic.

You can also try using a guitar slide if you’re playing a steel string acoustic, hybrid picking that combines your guitar pick with your fingers, or even trying some new strumming styles like the rasgueado technique found in flamenco guitar styles. These small changes can have a big effect on the sound of your playing, as well as just being a great way to improve your technique overall. 

Love ’em or loathe ’em, Fender offset guitars have some challenging quirks and most of these are related to the bridge and vibrato. While the system can work superbly, some knowledge is required to achieve that.

This applies whether you have a vintage example, a Japanese reissue or even a Squier. And there are plenty of upgrades and modifications to take your offset to the next level.

1. Neck angle

Jazzmaster and Jaguar strings pass over the bridge saddles with very little break angle between the bridge and the vibrato plate. This minimises friction, but with lighter strings and low action, strings can pop out of their saddle slots and noises often occur behind the bridge. You may also notice a tonal characteristic that’s softer and less sustaining than other Fender models.

Many offset fans consider indistinct tone and extraneous noises part of the charm, but if that’s not for you, try shimming the neck. You can place a small piece of hardwood veneer in the neck pocket, but it’s preferable to use a tapered maple shim that doesn’t leave gaps between the neck and body.

Google ‘guitar neck shims’ and you’ll see many come in packs of three with 0.25, 0.5 and 1 degree increments; these can be used individually or combined. A shimmed neck requires a higher set bridge, which steepens the break angle, minimises unwanted noises and, hopefully, secures the strings in their saddle slots.

Alternatively, the Buzz Stop is a roller bar that mounts on top of the vibrato plate and increases the break angle over the saddles. It’s similar to the front roller on a Bigsby B7, but we’d suggest that you read some reviews before going ahead and buying.

2. Glide guitar setup tricks

Friction is the enemy of stable tuning and keeping things running smoothly is imperative with vibrato-equipped guitars. Start at the nut and if you hear any pinging noises when tuning, those slots need filing and finessing. That may be a job for your luthier, but anybody can lubricate a nut. 

You can use petroleum jelly, soft wax, lip balm, silicon grease or graphite from a soft pencil. Graphite powder works well (although it can get messy) and there are guitar-specific products such as Big Bends Nut Sauce. While you’re at it, try lubing the saddles and undersides of any string trees.

3. The hammer trick

Offset arms can get loose over time and the ‘hammer trick’ is a widely accepted fix for optimising the fit. Grip the arm firmly in a vice, leaving about 25mm or so clear of the jaws, and give it one moderately firm tap with a hammer. The object is to introduce a barely perceptible bend that will tighten the fit in the collet. 

Repeat the procedure if the arm still feels loose, and continue until you achieve the desired feel. If it gets too snug, pop the arm back in the vice and tap it in the opposite direction. If you don’t fancy this, check out the Staytrem arm and collet set.

Don’t confuse an overly swingable arm with a loose arm housing. If the arm is rattling about, you need to remove your strings, take the vibrato assembly out of the body and tighten the nut that secures the arm housing to the plate.

4. Electronic upgrades

Besides the obvious stock pickup upgrades, check out companies such as Mojo Pickups, The Creamery and Monty’s for drop-in P-90, Gold Foil, humbucker and high-output alternatives.

Asian-manufactured guitars may benefit from upgraded potentiometers and switches, but such is the complexity, we’d suggest a pre-wired assembly. 

Pre-formed brass inserts can be installed to beef up the shielding, or you can also use sticky-back copper foil in the cavities and under the pickguard. With plastic pickguards, we’d prefer a vintage-spec aluminium shield, but they’re unnecessary if you have an anodised pickguard.

With so many switches and controls onboard, Jazzmaster and Jaguar wiring can be reconfigured in many ways without irreversibly altering the appearance. Jaguar switches can be changed to a slider or toggle, or repurposed for series/parallel or polarity switching.

And if you never use the rhythm circuit, you can bypass it altogether or convert to Les Paul wiring with individual volume and tone controls for each pickup.

5. Bridge mods

Vintage-style Jazzmaster and Jaguar saddles are made from threaded steel rod, and strings often come out of their slots. Consequently, a lot of offset upgrades focus on the bridge, and players have been installing Mustang saddles and bridges onto Jazzmasters and Jaguars for decades.

Graph Tech saddles are another option and promise more stable tuning. Some opt to upgrade the entire bridge, and while the Staytrem looks like a Mustang it has nylon inserts for the saddle screws to eliminate rattles and is available in 7.25-inch and 9.5-inch radiuses.

Elsewhere, the skeletal-looking Mastery bridge is machined from stainless steel and adjustable in every direction. It keeps strings in place and promises to improve sustain and tuning stability. Not one for the purists, but ideal if you want an oddity-free offset.

It's a given that you need solid instruments, good-quality microphones, and the proper playback and post-production software to achieve just the right sound when recording guitar. But have you spent any time considering the room you’re recording in? 

With all the excitement around the shiny new tech and gear used in guitar recordings, it can be easy to overlook one of the most important factors: your room setup. In this feature we’ll get into why your room setup matters and how you can optimize it for the best results. 

Getting your recording space just right

The acoustics of your recording space will have a powerful effect on the final product. This is especially important to pay attention to if you’re recording at home and not in a professional studio designed for recording audio. Everything from your seat positioning to the angle of the mic and the size of the room can make a big difference in the end result. 

Taking time to prepare your designated recording space can help you get to work when inspiration strikes and save you loads of time and frustration in the editing process. 

Whether you’re recording at home or in a professional studio, the correct room setup can make all the difference. 

Tips for getting the best sound

1. Room acoustics

Addressing and optimizing the acoustics of your recording space is fundamental to achieving a professional sound. The size and shape of your room profoundly impacts its acoustics, influencing how sound behaves within the space. Consider the size of your recording space and how it will affect your sound.

Larger rooms typically have lower-frequency room modes (or acoustic resonance), while smaller rooms have higher-frequency modes. The size of your room affects the reverberation time, which is the duration it takes for sound to decay by 60 dB after the sound source stops. Larger rooms generally have longer reverberation times, leading to a more spacious and sustained sound. In contrast, smaller rooms tend to have shorter reverberation times, resulting in a more intimate and controlled acoustic environment.

Room shape also influences the distribution of sound reflections. Angled walls, irregular surfaces, and the presence of furniture can scatter reflections, preventing excessive build-up and maintaining a more diffused sound.

Rugs, furniture, or even shelves or stacks of books can help to absorb and diffuse the sound in your recording space. 

2. Positioning

Positioning is especially important for home recordings or “bedroom musicians” because we have a tendency to make do with the room as it is rather than arrange it according to our needs. However, proper positioning can enhance the natural tones of your guitar and minimize undesirable elements. 

Start with where your seat is positioned in the room. Generally, it is advised that you not sit too close to the walls or to a corner of the room to avoid reverberations and sound interference and to avoid the exact center of the room. 

Ultimately, every room is different, and there’s no magic formula for where to position yourself and your equipment for optimum results. Move around and see what sounds best. Experiment with a few different locations in the room to see what works best for you. 

3. Noise management and soundproofing

Microphones pick up everything, even the sounds we don’t notice under normal circumstances, like computer fans and household appliances. Unwanted noise can disrupt the recording process and compromise the quality of your tracks. Maintaining a quiet and isolated recording space is vital for professional guitar recordings. 

There’s a whole host of soundproofing panels and equipment on the market, but you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a quieter space. Simple household items like drapes, carpets, furniture, and books can help absorb noise. You can use thick blankets on walls and doors to dampen outside sounds or purchase inexpensive foam pads.  

4. Subwoofers

Subwoofers play a significant role in shaping the overall sound of a recording. Subwoofers reproduce low frequencies, adding depth and definition to the low end of your guitar recordings.

This is particularly important if your music involves extended-range guitars, seven- or eight-string guitars, or if you're using drop tunings that produce lower frequencies. When recording, subwoofers can be used strategically to capture the full spectrum of your guitar's sound. Do your research to find out how to choose the right subwoofer for your music and recording style.  

5. Acoustic vs electric guitar recording

Naturally, acoustic and electric guitars come with different needs regarding the perfect recording setup. So, the right recording environment for you will depend on whether you’re playing acoustic or electric. 

You’ll definitely need a microphone for recording acoustic guitars, whereas you may get away with just a guitar audio interface for recording your electric. On the other hand, when recording an electric guitar, you’ll want to get your amp off the floor, using a platform or even a thick rug or blanket to provide some insulation against excess vibration – be sure to check out our guide to the best guitar amps for recording to see which models we recommend. 

Acoustic guitars often sound best in rooms with balanced acoustics that allow the natural resonance and warmth of the instrument to shine. On the other hand, electric guitars can benefit from recording in a controlled environment with minimal room reflections.

Both acoustic and electric guitars benefit from effective soundproofing to minimize external noise and distractions.

Closing thoughts

The size, shape, and overall setup of your recording space can profoundly impact the quality of your recording. Fortunately, you don’t need access to professional studio space or equipment to create a good-quality recording. 

Of course, investing in the right equipment and optimizing your space won’t make up for a bad song or performance. At the end of the day, the guitarist, the guitar, and the musical composition are the most important elements of a recording. 

Take the time to hone your skills, practice your parts, and tune your instrument before pressing record. Then, you’ll be primed to get the most out of your home studio or professional recording space. Remember to experiment, trust your ears, and tailor your approach to the unique characteristics of each instrument and the desired end result.

Looking to put together the ultimate home studio? Our buyer's guides are here to help

• Our pick of the best laptops for music production and guitar recording
• Go deeper with out pick of the best acoustic guitar microphones
• Here is our choice of the best guitar amps for recording
• Best DAWs for guitarists: guitar-friendly music-making software

A guitar setup from an experienced luthier is the quickest way to get your guitar back into shape. If you’ve changed string gauge from the original size, there’s every chance your guitar’s nut, neck relief, string height and intonation will need adjusting too. 

Some (or all) of this work can be carried out yourself – however, if you’ve never done it before then paying a professional to give your pride and joy a once-over is well worth it.

If you’re going it alone, here’s where to start – and if you're after more specific tips, check out our guides on how to improve your Les Paul and how to improve your Fender Stratocaster.

Step 1. Intonate

You wouldn’t expect your guitar to sound great without tuning it, but just because the open strings are in tune, it doesn’t mean that the guitar is accurately pitched throughout the length of the fretboard.

That’s where intonation adjustment at the bridge comes in, and it’s achieved by moving the saddles backwards or forwards to raise or lower the string’s pitch with the saddle adjustment screws.

You can spot these as they are encased inside a spring. It’s a straightforward and zero-cost job which requires a screwdriver, guitar tuner and a little bit of patience. Here’s what to do:

Get in tune

To start, get all of your open strings to pitch at the tuning you’re going to be using the guitar in most often. You’re going to be making adjustments to the guitar so use a tuner to ensure that you’re as accurate as possible.

Harmonics vs fretted notes

With your tuner still connected, play a harmonic on the lowest string at the 12th fret. Make sure it’s played cleanly to give yourself an accurate reading. Next, fret the same string at the 12th fret and compare the pitches of the harmonic and fretted note.

Saddle up!

Your next step depends on the variance between the harmonic and fretted notes. If there is none, move on to the next string and repeat the same steps. If the fretted note is flat, you need to move the saddle towards the headstock. If the fretted note is sharp, it needs to move towards the bridge. Once the notes match, repeat the process for each string and you’re done!

Step 2. Adjust your pickup height

There’s every chance you’ve considered swapping your guitar’s pickups at some point, but have you ever considered adjusting your pickup height? This free fix takes no time at all, and might just change your mind about your magnets. 

Changing your pickup height also allows you to create an even transition between the pickup positions, or make certain pickups (ie, the bridge position) louder for a perceived boost when selected.

If your tone is too thin and lacking detail, try raising them up for more power and clarity. Conversely, if your guitar is lacking sustain it could be that the pickup is too close and restricting the string’s vibration with ‘string pull’ (particularly in the neck position).

Another sign that your pickups are too high are the dreaded ‘wolf notes’: unwanted and often dissonant harmonics. Experiment with pickup height by tightening the surrounding screws to raise them, or loosening them to lower them. 

If you’re adjusting the pole pieces on a humbucker or P-90, make small adjustments and set them to the same curved profile as your strings.

Step 3. Check your tuners

Keeping your guitar in tune starts, unsurprisingly, with the tuners. If you have a budget guitar, then you may want to think about upgrading. 

High-ratio, locking tuners from the likes of Grover, Schaller and Gotoh allow for finer tuning and speedy string changes due to the firm locking mechanism – particularly handy if your guitar has a vibrato. As well as this, they’ll hold your tuning with greater stability as there are no string windings. 

If you’re sticking with your current models, check the fastening screws and nuts next time you change strings. With your tuners attached securely you’ll give yourself the best chance at solid tuning, regardless of the brand or type.

Step 4. Try different pots

The resistance value of your guitar pots – along with the capacitors on your tone control(s) – also contributes to your overall tone. As a general rule, guitars fitted with brighter pickups (such as single coils) tend to use lower resistance, 250k pots. 

This filters out and tames some of the high end, while humbucker-equipped guitars often use a higher resistance value (500k) so as not to become too muddy. You can experiment with this by using a different pot value in order to allow more or less high end through.

Step 5. Earth your components

Every component on your guitar is earthed via a connection to the back of your control pots. If you’re experiencing electronic buzzing until you touch the metal parts of your guitar, it’s likely you have an earthing issue.

So, it’s worth checking that there are no loose wires inside the control cavity, and don’t forget that your bridge should also be connected to ground.

Step 6. Fix loose pots

Ever turned your controls to their minimum or maximum setting and had them continue to move? That’s a loose pot, friend, and if left unaddressed, it’ll most likely sever the wire connection. The good news is, it’s easy to fix with a simple spanner. 

Pull the plastic knob off your guitar and position the pot correctly, then tighten the nuts up to hold it securely in place. Set the control to min or max, put the control knob back on in the correct position and you’ll be back to stability.

Step 7. Get your jack socket secured

Much like your pots, a jack socket that isn’t secure will eventually break, but worse than that, it can cause all kinds of unwanted popping and crackling before it does. Tighten up your jack socket nut and you’ll keep it firmly in place. 

Ideally you’ll remove the scratchplate or jack socket plate to do this, but for a quick fix, try plugging a cable in and use it to gently pull the socket up. This will give you the maximum amount of thread to tighten the nut onto.

Step 8. Keep your electronics dust-free

Dust inside your pots and switches can result in scratching and popping when you operate them. Before you look to replace these parts, try some contact cleaner. 

You’ll need to access the components via the control cavities in your guitar and apply the cleaner to the moving parts of the contacts. For pots, that means the hole in the metal casing. Spray it, move it and hopefully you’ll have a smooth signal.

Alternate picking is a technique that every guitarist will encounter. From beginners to pros alike, a solid alternate picking technique is a must-have in your arsenal of techniques.

There are a number of guitarists who are well known for their dexterity when alternate picking, such as Paul Gilbert, Al Di Meola, Pat Martino, Molly Tuttle, Albert Lee, Barney Kessel, and Steve Morse. So, it’s present in pretty much every genre, from rock and metal, to country, jazz, fusion and bluegrass. 

Fast alternate picking is articulate and percussive and there’s a machine gun-like quality to it, unlike the smoother sound of legato slurs. Therefore, this technique is favoured by players in rock and metal styles where a strong and defined sound is required. It’s also the only way to play fast picked lines on single strings, such as the tremolo picking heard by Dick Dale on his famous instrumental, Miserlou.

The Paul Gilbert track Technical Difficulties showcases how he uses the technique when playing scalic patterns across multiple strings combined with palm muting. And Steve Morse’s playing on Tumeni Notes is a masterclass in using alternate picking when navigating arpeggios, rather than economy or sweep picking, which would be the preferred choice for many other guitarists. 

While the benefits of alternative picking are evident, such as precision, articulation and general speed, it can be problematic when playing arpeggio lines, where there will be an uneven number of notes to play on each string. This is why some guitarists favour the aforementioned economy and sweep picking techniques. However, Steve Morse has proved that his approach, although challenging at first, maintains a level of articulation that can only be achieved when using alternate picking.

One thing to bear in mind is the type of plectrum used in order to master this style. There isn’t a right or wrong way but most players prefer a stiffer pick, which doesn’t bend when the strings are struck, thus providing greater efficiency; others like a pointy pick such as a Jazz III style, where a smaller point of contact may facilitate the technique with greater ease.

However, this really is down to individual taste – note that Paul Gilbert’s latest signature picks comes in at a very bendy 0.50mm gauge. The key is to experiment and find what works best for you, remembering that different gauges will suit different people, styles and situations. 

The next thing to think about is how you pick. Some players pick from the wrist with a fairly secure elbow, while others lock their wrist and pick from the elbow. The angle in which the pick strikes the string is another important factor. Angling it slightly may make slicing across the strings easier, but having the pick strike the string flat on will provide a bigger tone.  

One crucial thing to remember is that you need to coordinate your picking-hand action with your fretting-finger movement. If they are not aligned and in perfect synch with one another, the results will be messy. The way to master this is to start slowly and increase your speed gradually. A metronome is the perfect practicing tool to assist with this. If you find any of the examples too fast at first, then take them at a slower tempo.

Playing examples

Example 1. Surf style

This example utilises quick 16th-note picking akin to tremolo picking in a surf rock style. Make sure that you observe the accents, which are a common occurrence in this style of guitar playing. Add plenty of reverb and light overdrive to get close to the sound. Dick tended to pick from his elbow/arm but that can prove tiring for long bouts!

Example 2. Country or bluegrass style

This segment is played in cut common time, sometimes referred to as double time and is in a country or bluegrass style. Aim for consistent dynamics with your up and downstrokes. Some slapback delay will help get an authentic sound, but don’t confuse your picking by adding too much. 

Example 3. Neoclassical rock style

This third example shows how alternate picking is used in a neoclassical style (à la Yngwie Malmsteen and Vinnie Moore) on a single string. If you find the position shifts challenging at first, remember what I said about using a metronome and slow this one down to a more manageable tempo.

Example 4. Blues-rock style

This example uses pentatonic shapes using the first and second strings in a blues-rock setting. Watch the position shifts and aim for even dynamics across the strings. 

Study piece

This piece is a metal/neo-classical idea based around the A harmonic minor scale. Bars 1-4 utilises a pedal idea where the notes on the second string are repeated whilst the top note on the first string changes. Experiment with fingerings to work out what works best for you. This section ends with a descending A harmonic minor scale. The constant stream of sixteenth notes may be challenging at first so experiment with using a metronome and drop the tempo if need be. 

Bars 6-9, which are repeated continue with a stream of 16th notes but on the lower strings instead. Watch out for the palm muted sections and aim for a consistent rhythm and even dynamics. It’s very important that your upstrokes and downstrokes sound the same.

The final section gives some respite with a sustained A5 chord. The final idea goes between a palm muted riff followed by a double note scale idea and then a descending lick in the final bar, The main challenge here is the transition from the low sixth string to the 12th fret on the first string. 

Noise seems to be every guitar player's nightmare. It can be buzz, hum, hiss, air-traffic control... (This Is Spinal Tap, anyone?)

I'll start off by saying that guitar rigs are a noisy environment to begin with. Gain has a lot to do with noise, but if things are clean before it hits the gain stage, your rig can be quiet (er).

There are so many ways noise can get into your rig. It can be a tangled web. Sometimes noise is just a side effect of what we are trying to achieve, but eliminating noise before it gets amplified will lead to better results in the end.

Make sure your amp has a ground pin on the AC cable and your power source is properly wired and grounded. You can find an AC wiring tester at your local hardware shop for around $10. I carry one at all time. This will tell you if your power source is wired properly and that it is grounded. You really want everything grounded; you don't want to become the ground; that would be bad.

Noise in the live setting

Most times when I'm on tour and having noise issues, it's because the house lighting rig is tied into the same power source as the back-line power. You can hear the lighting dimmers as noise in your amp. When the lights are on 100 percent, the noise goes away. This is poor planning on the venue's part.

I can't tell you how many times I had to make the local crew fix the issue when I was on tour with Lou Reed. He didn't like any extra noise, and who can blame him? In a perfect world, you would have a power source dedicated to back-line with no lighting dimmers plugged in anywhere on the power circuit. Some motorized devices (like fans) also can add noise.

I also find that there can be a grounding issue between the back-line power and audio power. A perfect example is when an acoustic guitar is plugged into a multi-FX box that is plugged into an amp on stage, as well as a D.I. connected to the house console (monitors and front-of-house PA).

When the D.I. is not connected, things sound fine. When the D.I. is connected, you get buzz. When you flip the ground on the D.I., your rig sounds fine but the monitors and house PA has buzz.

The stagehand, tech or sound guy/gal puts a ground-lift adapter on your amp, and everything seems OK. But you might be in danger. (Ugh!) This same scenario can happen for just about any D.I. device that also gets connected to an amplifier.

My favorite solution is a passive isolation transformer such as the Lehle P-Split II. I find that this will fix most grounding problems between the stage and house PA in a safe manner.

The P-Split II makes it possible to route an instrument to two amps simultaneously. Sometimes guitar players want to plug into two amps at the same time, so they take the output of a stereo chorus or multi-FX box and plug that into two amps, only to be met with noise. There is a ground issue between the two amps at this point, and most people would just put a ground-lift adapter on one amp.

Do not do this. If you're using a ground-lift adapter on one amp that is connected to the other grounded amp through cable, when you touch both guitar plugs at the same time, you will get a jolt of electricity through your body.

The passive isolation transformer makes it possible to keep your amps grounded while isolating one from the other. It also makes it possible to fix any noise issues you may have when using an amplifier and a D.I. at the same time.

I would urge anyone to invest in one of these; it is a huge problem solver in most situations.

Noise in the guitar rig

I use a process of elimination to achieve the best results. Start off really simple and listen, then add another piece and listen. Start off with your guitar plugged directly into your amp with your settings where you would normally have them.

Make sure AC adapters are far away from your cables. They make noise, and you can hear it just by moving it over your cables. Most wah-wahs are really good at picking up noise from an AC adapter.

Set your amp to a clean sound. If you have noise here, it will only get worse when you kick in the gain channel. Take notice of any buzz or hum. Single-coil pickups will have more noise than humbucking pickups. If you hear noise, try moving around with your guitar. I believe you will find a spot where the noise goes away. This means there is something around your environment that is producing noise that your guitar is picking up.

Environment

(Including but not limited to tube TVs, radio/cell towers, neon signs, maybe even something nextdoor that you can't even see…)

Shielding the electronics cavity inside the guitar can help fight this noise; it can be done with shielding tape. Try a few cables to see if the noise increases or decreases. Some cables are better at rejecting noise than others.

The first preamp tube stage in any tube amp sets the noise standard for things to come, as the signal travels down the road through each pre-amp tube gain stage. Selecting a low-noise pre-amp tube for your first stage will help reduce the noise down the road.

Sometimes noise is a sign of tubes going bad. Power tubes also can produce strange noises. It is important that your amp is biased. Running your power tubes too hot might sound great, but you will decrease the tube life and may introduce more noise.

Again, sometimes noise is just a side effect of what we are trying to achieve, but eliminating noise before it gets amplified will have better results in the end. Once you have an acceptable level of noise with your guitar plugged directly into your amp, I would start to add devices, one by one.

Pedalboard noise

Powering devices by battery has the advantage of isolated ground but the added expense of replacing batteries – and risk of stopping the show when it dies! Powering devices by AC adapter has the advantage of consistent power and cost effectiveness, but the disadvantage of ugly cable runs and ground noise issues when chaining pedals together.

A great alternative to AC adapter chaining or multiple AC adapters is to use an isolated pedalboard power supply with multiple power outputs. Having a multi-output isolated power supply helps overcome ground loop noise associated with chaining power. Each pedal will have isolated ground.

It is important that the device you are trying to power receives the proper amount of power.

For example, a device that requires 9vDC 800mA might work with 9vDC 200mA, but you might be adding noise this way.

Now, one by one, add each device and listen to the results each step of the way. It is important to try to keep the levels matched. When the device is activated, you should not get a huge jump in volume (unless the device is meant for that).

If you hear added noise, check your cables and make sure all power adapters are far away! Try running this device with a battery. If this device is still adding noise, It may not be receiving enough power; it may need to be grounded. It may be defective or have a design flaw. It may be time to let this one go!

You will have to decide if the noise added is acceptable each step of the way. By dealing with each new noise issue one at a time, you will end up with the best results.

If none of that works, you might want to either reduce the amount of distortion you're running, or invest in a noise gate pedal.

Going live with your acoustic guitar? Follow our fully-costed tips to get the most out of your steel-string and make your live performances the best they can be!

1. Set up your guitar (typically from $50/£45)

Unlike electric guitars where the sound is mangled and processed through your entire signal chain, the most common objective when amplifying an acoustic guitar is for it to sound like an organic instrument – just louder. 

This means there’s no hiding the annoying buzzes, rattles or any other noises that could ruin an otherwise great performance. You can breathe a lease of life into your guitar by getting it set up by a professional luthier or tech, leaving you with a comfortable action, perfect intonation and problem-free playing.

• How to set up your new acoustic guitar: from truss rod adjustment to reading the action

2. Check your electronics regularly (From $/£2)

You know what can kill the intimate storytelling of a delicate acoustic performance? That intermittent burst of ear-splitting noise from the jack socket you “keep meaning to do something about”. 

If you don’t want your audience looking back in anger, it pays to keep an eye on your guitar’s electronics. Prices vary, but you can find new jack sockets and pots (potentiometers, i.e., volume knobs) for under a fiver. 

Ask a local guitar tech to replace them for you. 

3. Set your phase to ‘strum’

If you’ve ever wondered what the phase switch on your preamp is for, the answer might well be revealed the next time you experience a huge swell of low-end feedback on stage. By flipping the phase of your guitar, you’ll throw it out of alignment with your acoustic guitar amp and (hopefully) help to tame some of that uncontrollable wave.

4. Fight feedback further ($/£6.99)

Your acoustic is a big, empty, resonant box of air, which can either sing sweetly or howl horribly if pushed into feedback. You can reduce this risk by literally stuffing the body with absorbent material (fabric) to stop some of the vibrations. 

Or, you could try a soundhole cover such as the D’Addario Screeching Halt PW-SH-01, or Martin FBR2. These block off the guitar’s soundhole, breaking the chain of resonance to some degree and ensuring a feedback-free sound on stage.

5. Learn about EQ

Your guitar might have a multi-band EQ on its preamp, which enables you to sculpt your plugged-in sound in greater detail than a simple tone control. 

It’s worth setting your rig up as you intend to play it on stage and experiment with different EQ settings to work out what you prefer and what works best. 

If you want to get further into the weeds with it, a dedicated EQ pedal or preamp with detailed EQ settings can help you shape your tone, and eliminate feedback.

6. Compress to impress (From $29/£25)

A compressor pedal reduces the dynamic range of the signal that’s plugged into it, and can be a versatile tool for acoustic guitars to help keep things consistent and remove wide fluctuations in dynamics that might cause feedback. 

As well as this, compression can emphasise attack, boost sustain and have a big effect on the response and feel of your guitar. It’s great in a full band situation where you want a tight, present acoustic sound that won’t get lost in the mix. Just like EQ, some preamps include compression.

• Best compressor pedals: tame your tone's dynamics with compression

7. Pick up a pickup (from $79/£65)

How do you go about gigging if your guitar is totally acoustic, with no onboard preamp or pickup? A retrofit pickup is the solution to this problem and the good news is you can get yourself plugged in without breaking the bank. 

LR Baggs and Fishman are the big names in acoustic pickups, or, at $79/£65, Seymour Duncan's passive (no battery required) Woody SA-3 HC magnetic humbucker is a great value unit to try if you want to experiment. It's a breeze to install and remove, with no permanent modifications to your guitar needed. 

• Best acoustic guitar pickups: 10 recommended acoustic pickups for all budgets

8. Great sound on stage? It’s in ear! (£/$99)

There’s a lot of noise to battle on stage, and if you’re going direct into a PA system with an acoustic guitar then your only hope of hearing it will be through a wedge monitor. 

Turn that up and it’s pushing your guitar’s sound directly up and into... you guessed it, your guitar, which as we’ve learned by now is going to cause feedback. In-ear monitors not only give you a much more detailed sonic picture of your guitar, but they help to keep the stage quieter, and they’ll also block out ambient sound, protecting your hearing at the same time! 

You don’t have to splurge on custom-moulded or wireless models, but consider some affordable in-ears such as the Shure SE215 if you’re struggling to hear yourself and the rest of the band. It’ll be a revelation.

• Everything you need to know about in-ear monitors

9. Analyse your playing

Your playing dynamics will have a massive influence over the way your guitar sounds. From the attack of the note to the projection of the guitar, you can control your tone simply by paying attention to the power of your strumming and picking. 

The harder you hit the string, the further you’re activating the resonance of the top, back and sides you paid so much attention to when you bought the guitar. The key is knowing how and when to exploit your guitar’s tonal qualities to best suit the playing situation. Which can be aided by our next point.

10. Select your strings

What strings do you play? We’re guessing you’ll answer that question with a brand and preferred gauge. But how much attention do you pay to the metallic make-up of your acoustic strings? 

From the bright and mid-scooped sound (albeit at an arguable lifespan cost) of 80/20 bronze, to the warmer response of phosphor bronze, to the reduced finger noise of flatwounds, there’s a lot of tonal variation to be had from your strings. 

For longevity, try some coated strings Such as Elixir Nanowebs ($/£17.99 street), and don’t forget that gauge can also play a big part in how your guitar projects as well as feels.

• Best acoustic guitar strings: outfit your acoustic with the strings it deserves

11. Find the perfect blend

Just as with the rest of your setup, it’s worth spending some time figuring out how to get the best tone from your guitar. If you have an internal mic, magnetic pickup or both on your acoustic alongside the humble piezo, take some time to dial it in through your rig or PA. 

This way you’ll get a feel for what works and what doesn’t before you have to do it in front of an audience.

12. Take your pick! (40¢/60p)

An acoustic guitar has a huge dynamic and tonal range for us to manipulate, and you shouldn’t overlook the building blocks – starting with what you’re using to attack it. The great news is that ten bucks will buy you a lot of plectrums, and will allow you to select the best type for your playing style/tonal goals. 

Thinner picks are more flexible and will give against the strings, perfect for laying a lighter strumming texture. Thicker picks will increase the attack of your notes which are great for helping you to cut through when needed. Don’t forget the pick material, either. Go to your local guitar shop and p-p-pick up a selection of plectrums to experiment with.

• Best guitar picks: 12 recommended plectrums to upgrade your playing

13. Choose your chords wisely

This isn’t only important in an acoustic/electric line-up where you’re potentially battling against an electric guitar and rhythm section, but also applies to open-mics and multi-acoustic ensembles too.

You want your guitar to be heard, so choose different chord inversions to what the other band members are playing. Open chords typically work well with acoustic parts, and will most likely help you to stay out of the way of your barre chord‑wielding bandmates.

• 50 guitar chords you need to know

14. Capo’d Crusader (from $6.49/£5)

As we just mentioned, the lush, full sound of an acoustic guitar resonating with open chord shapes is a thing of beauty. But not all songs and keys lend themselves to this type of playing. 

That’s where a guitar capo comes in. As basic as a pencil and a rubber band (please don’t!), or as flash as an aerospace-engineered precision vice, a decent capo will be your best friend when the key moves up the fretboard. 

Tighten it down neatly and evenly across your fretboard (make sure you buy one for a curved ’board, not a flat classical fingerboard), then train your brain into transposing open chord shapes, and you’ll never have to choke your chords with a barre again.

• Best guitar capos: 10 top choice capos for acoustic and electric guitar

15. Set, don’t regret

With so much air moving around on stage, it’s important to pay attention to where you place your amp, monitors and mics in relation to your acoustic guitar in order to avoid feedback. 

Where possible, avoid your amplified signal pumping directly back at you or your guitar and try to keep the on-stage volumes as low as possible to help eliminate the risk of squeal. 

16. Don’t rule out effects

You may think of your acoustic guitar signal chain as an un-soiled haven of purity. But while utilitarian acoustic guitar pedals such as EQ, compression and volume might be your go-tos, there’s room to try some other stuff too. 

A little reverb or even modulation goes a long way to adding dimension to the none-more-direct sound of an under-saddle piezo, and Nirvana’s triumphant MTV Unplugged performance even featured some overdrive on Kurt’s Martin D-18E. Give your pedals a try, and you might just discover a new angle to your acoustic sound! 

• Best acoustic guitar pedals: essential pedals to transform your acoustic tone and boost creativity

Over the past few years I’ve spent more and more time playing fingerstyle acoustic. Finally, I’ve reached the stage where I’ve written and rehearsed enough material to record an EP of instrumental folk – with John Renbourn as my main influence and other fingerstyle masters, such as Pierre Bensusan and Sheffield’s Martin Simpson, as ongoing sources of inspiration. 

So I have the studio booked, the material rehearsed and the guitars at the ready. But there’s still one problem… In the course of rehearsing the pieces I want to record, I’ve discovered some of the songs involve sliding licks that, eight times out of 10, cause an intrusive squeak that’s tolerable in the room but really jarring on a recording. 

Engineer Martin Holmes and I chew the fat about the best way to cut down the squeaks, but, after much theorising on the subject, we conclude it might be an idea to ask someone who has incredible acoustic tone to weigh in with some specialist advice. With that in mind, I drop the ever-obliging Martin Simpson a line, who replies that he’s “more than happy to offer his two penn’orth”. 

As I call, I wonder a little nervously if his answer will suggest a complete overhaul of my songs or fingering technique. But, as it turns out when we start chatting, Martin says there are two fairly straightforward things anyone can do to reduce intrusive handling noise on acoustic recordings. 

“When I was a kid, I would change my strings almost as often as I do now,” Martin says. “I bought the cheapest strings – I bought Red Dragons – but I would change them as often as I could, because if you don’t, they go out of tune or they don’t even play in tune, you know? 

“And so one of the first things I would say about recording guitar is you want your guitar to sound as wonderful as it can possibly sound. But then you’ve got the question of, ‘Well, but do you like the sound of absolutely new strings?’ Which I do. I really like the sound of new strings.

“There’s a tendency for new strings to be overly bright. I think most people feel that, but, actually, I honestly believe the new coated strings – particularly the D’Addarios, and also the new Elixir Nanoweb strings – that coating takes off a tiny bit of top-end. Now, I think maybe the people at D’Addario and Elixir would go, ‘Oh, no they don’t.’ But I think they do – but, helpfully, it’s the bit [of harsh top-end] that people don’t like. And another thing about those coated strings is they massively reduce left-hand squeak.”

So the first part of the answer is satisfyingly simple: give a fresh set of coated strings a try. But during my rehearsals for the recording I’ve also managed to find a few dodges, technique-wise, to avoid squeaks. The simplest dodge is to change the composition slightly to avoid slides that generate squeaks – but, of course, sometimes sliding licks are absolutely part of the character of the piece. 

Where forced to keep such licks, I’ve tried a few things such as momentarily lifting off any fingers fretting wound strings and doing the slide only on notes fretted on unwound upper strings. 

That does a certain amount to quell squeaks, but I feel certain that Martin must have some more good technique tips to offer – and, of course, he does: “I always say the single best thing you can do in terms of the left-hand technique is be as close behind the fret as possible,” he explains. 

“To start with, it helps with your intonation because you’re not having to press heavily on the string in order to make it fret. Because the closer behind the fret you are, the quicker your contact will be between string and fret, you know? By comparison, a hammer-on that’s [fretted] further back away from the fret, in the direction of the nut, is liable to be buzzy and rattly. 

“It will possibly not even play the note you want it to play. And when you eventually hit it, it’s going to be sharp because you’re having to press down so hard. So the fact of playing right behind the fret means you can apply a lot less pressure. Tonally, that has a huge effect. But the other thing about it is, when you’re not pressing hard, you’re more likely to get clean [squeak-free] slides.”

So there is a deeper level to playing acoustic without squeaks and it involves taking care of the details of your technique. And that makes sense because with an acoustic guitar there aren’t as many ways to vary or enhance your sound – there’s no flattering overdrive to step on, no pickup selector to flick for a change in timbre, for example. 

You have to do it all with your fingers, and your ear has to become attuned to small imperfections. Getting that right does require some discipline and commitment. But if that all sounds a tedious then I can happily say that the pursuit of cleaner technique has become one of the most satisfying elements of playing acoustic – for me, anyway – because the reward is sounding like a ‘proper’ acoustic guitarist.

“What it requires to start with is that you pay really close attention to where your fingers are landing,” Martin says of good fretting technique. “And so you have to be conscious of it at the beginning. But now I’m at the point where I honestly look at my left hand sometimes and I just want to pat myself on the head [laughs]. But it’s just that thing of going, ‘Yeah, that’s exactly what my hands should look like.’ And that’s why it sounds as good as it does, you know?”   

Long-life strings for great recordings

Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze 13-56 – $/£17.99

Phosphor Bronze strings have a great balance of mellowness and detail. Elixir’s Nanoweb coating adds longevity to the equation and claims to “capture the rich, expressive tone of the finest phosphor bronze strings and extend that tone three to five times longer than ordinary strings”, thanks to its corrosion-resistant properties. As Martin mentioned, the coating is also good at suppressing finger-squeaks. Go with 13-56 for extra, piano-like tonal heft.

D’Addario XS Phosphor Bronze 12-53 – $17.99 / £20.50

String-making giant D’Addario also has next-gen coated strings to offer. A lighter-gauge 12-53 set of Phosphor Bronze XS strings could be just the thing for the dextrous fingerstylist. D’Addario says this XS set offers an “ultra-thin film coating on every wound string and unique polymer treatment on the plain steels… our highest level of protection for maximum life with an uncommonly smooth feel”. 

Ernie Ball 2546 Everlast Phosphor Bronze 12-54 – $12.99 / £15.29

If the latest coated sets from Elixir and D’Addario are a touch more than you’d care to pay, Ernie Ball has a very decent ‘Everlast’ coated set that lists at around £15 and streets cheaper. The company says its Everlast range “use[s] groundbreaking nanotechnology that repels unwanted moisture and oils that negatively impact your tone. Our proprietary treatment is applied to both the inner hex core and outer wrap wire to provide ultimate protection without compromising tone or feel.”

On your continuing quest to attain the optimal setup, you’ve probably wondered about how to best adjust the height of your bass pickups. I receive regular inquiries requesting “factory set-up” data, including specifications for optimal pickup height. 

As we’ve previously discussed, the adjustments required to achieve one’s best personal setup are subjective – but optimal pickup height is more objective.

There are functional aspects of pickups that make proper adjustment important if they are to deliver their best possible performance.

Since few published manufacturer guidelines related to pickup adjustment exist, I’ve consulted the chief designers and owners of Bartolini Pickups and Aero Instrument, Clyde Clark, and Larry Pollack, for their recommendations.

To begin, it’s important to recognize that a pickup’s harmonic response is influenced by its distance from the strings.

The closer a pickup is to the strings, the better its relative ability to sense the fundamental. Adjusting a pickup closer to a string will improve its bass response, while moving it further away diminishes the fundamental and bass response with it. 

Reducing the distance between the top of a pickup and the strings also increases the sensing strength of a pickup exponentially. Halving a pickup’s distance from the strings can potentially increase its output by four times.

For these reasons, many pickups’ best performance is achieved by adjusting them relatively close to the strings, avoiding contact with strings when oscillating. In the case of bar magnet type pickups – those without exposed poles – it is possible to adjust pickups close to the strings. 

However, stronger magnetic fields created by many flatwork style pickups – those with exposed poles – can negatively affect string vibration when adjusted too close, reducing sustain and dampening tone. While this influence is most significant with light gauge strings, it is an important detail to consider when adjusting exposed pole pickups.  

Players who strike down when plucking, rather than across the strings may need to adjust their pickups farther from the strings to avoid collisions between strings and pickups. It is recommended that pickups be adjusted as close to the strings as possible, while avoiding string contact with the pickups when playing.  

Remember, achieving your ideal setup will sometimes require adjustments outside the expected range of typical recommendations in order to accommodate your personal playing style. 

Recording electric guitars is different to recording acoustics – you’ll most likely be micing up an amp for starters – but many of the same ideas can apply. 

An electric guitar amp outputs fairly high sound pressure levels (SPL), so if you’re close-micing your cab with your amp cranked, you might want to consider using a dynamic mic or a condenser mic with a pad switch.

• The best microphones for recording guitar
• Capture your best take with the best guitar audio interfaces
• Here is our choice of the best guitar amps for recording

Get close

Many engineers like to close-mic amps and cabs with a dynamic mic and, believe it or not, placing the mic at different points in front of your speaker has a huge effect on the sound you capture. 

Start with the microphone 1cm-to-3cm away from the grille, pointing halfway between the centre and edge of the speaker. Moving the mic by just a couple of centimetres will change the sound. 

As a general rule, micing the centre gives you a bright sound, while moving the mic towards the edge of the cone makes things progressively darker. Moving the mic away from the amp introduces ambience to the sound.

No control room? No problem

Unless you live on Abbey Road, it’s unlikely that you’ll have a separate control room in your house. Don’t panic, though, as John Leckie [producer of Radiohead's The Bends among others] reckons you might be better off playing in the same room as your amp. 

“You get a better sound if you stand in front of the amp with electric guitar,” he says, “because something happens. Not necessarily full-on feedback but there’s an interaction between the guitar and the amp. If you have a brick wall between you and your amp and you’re in another room, you’re not going to get that.”

Listen closely

Start by getting your amp to sound right in the room first. Spend a bit of time thinking about the kind of sound you want to achieve, and listen objectively. This is the time to experiment – getting it right at the first stage will make micing a lot easier. 

Try your amp in different areas of your room at the volume you’re going to record at. Sweep your amp’s tone controls through their range while playing and stop each one when it sounds right. Once you’ve set up your sound, it’s time to position the mic.

Make your mark

Once you’ve found the position in which you’re going to place the mic, use some tape (any kind is fine, as long as you can see it) to mark the exact spot on the speaker grille. This will save time if your mic gets moved during the recording. Obviously, if you’re using a cab without a grille, it’s advisable to skip this step!

Dual mics

It’s common for engineers to use two mics on the same cabinet to get a balance of two different sounds. This could be either a pair of different dynamic mics that give different tonal characteristics, or a dynamic and a condenser mic.

As with acoustic guitars, you’ll need to be careful of phase issues ruining your tone, but – particularly with overdriven guitars – you can use the phase relationship of each mic to your advantage when crafting your tone. Start with the dynamic in the ‘close’ position, then add a condenser two-to-three-feet further back. 

From here, record some short test parts and move the condenser mic around to hear the difference from each position until you’re happy with how it sounds.

Go Direct

DI (or direct input) box will allow you to split the signal from your guitar to two places. From the DI box, you can send one signal to your amp for micing, and another completely dry signal to another input on your audio interface. 

Record them on separate tracks and you’ll have an unprocessed track straight from your guitar’s pickups, plus the sound of your amp for the price of one take. Why would you want to do this? Well you could reamp the signal...

Re-amping

Re-amping is the process of taking a guitar track that’s already recorded and sending it back out to a mic’d guitar amp for re-recording. This technique is particularly handy if you find that you’re unhappy with your original amp sound and want to correct it later.

Your audio interface will send the signal out at a higher level than your guitar amp is designed to receive, so to re-amp effectively, you’ll need a re-amping box. Radial produces a range starting at around $99. The diagram above shows a re-amping setup.

Model behaviour

Up until now, we’ve focused on capturing your guitar sounds through your amp with a mic. Of course, this method isn’t going to be practical for everyone. If you’re recording at unsociable hours or you can’t crank an amp at home, then amp modelling could be your new best friend. You probably already own some models, in which case you can get going. If not, you’ll need to decide on a hardware or software solution.

Software:

One of the benefits of software amp modellers is that they keep everything inside your computer, meaning you can run multiple instances of them (computer power permitting).

And the best thing? You can tweak your settings after you’ve recorded your guitar sounds. Most software will be set up to record the sound coming in from the interface as a dry track.

So even though you’re hearing the sound of your guitar being fed through a virtual amp, it’s being added when you play back, rather than to the recorded file. This means that your sound remains totally flexible throughout – a bit like re-amping. Careful, though, because it’s easy to get caught up in endless tweaking!

Hardware:

Using a dedicated amp modeller has its benefits over software. Tweaking is (usually) easier and it won’t put any additional strain on your computer. There are loads to choose from the likes of Line 6, Boss, Mooer, Headrush and Fractal, and many hardware units also act as an audio interface.

Steal that sound

Ever heard a guitar tone then spent ages tweaking your EQ controls to match it? By using an EQ with an analyser it’s possible to quickly get in the right tonal ballpark. First, import the audio track of the guitar sound you like into your DAW. 

Next, select an EQ with an analyser, or choose a spectrum analyser plug-in (most DAWs have one included). 

Play the track, and take a good look at the EQ curve. Then, try to match it with an EQ plug-in on your own guitar track. It won’t tell you things like pickup type, tuning or gain settings, but you should be able to get close.

Use free stuff

Many DAWs now come with guitar amp and effects models included. While these are often very good, there are also some free third-party amp modelling plugins available to experiment with. 

IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 4 comes with 24 models and allows you to try out the company’s paid-for models. Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig 5 Player has been around for a while but still sounds great. Both run on Mac or PC and include basic built-in recording features within their standalone versions – ideal for capturing those initial creative ideas.

Small amps, big sounds

When you’re gigging, you might need 100 watts and a couple of 4x12s to silence the drummer. However, when you’re recording, our experts agree that small equals better…

Bruce Botnick [The Doors, engineer]: “I like the little small Marshalls, because they make such a big sound. A lot of the best guitar stuff that I’ve recorded, which has really sounded loud and big, has always been with small amps.”

Mike Vernon [producer of Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton]: “I personally prefer to work with smaller amps because you can get more intensity out of the amp and you get more focused direction. The larger the cabinets, the more confused it will become and you’re looking at eight [speaker] cones and thinking, ‘Which one do I mic?’ They won’t all sound exactly the same. In fact, some will be designed not to sound the same.” 

Tony Platt [AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, producer/engineer]: “For big, ringing guitar sounds, it actually does work better to use smaller amps. It’s also a matter of not having speakers that are overrated for the amp.If you’ve got a 50-watt amp playing into a speaker that’s rated at 100 watts, the speaker is going to be more than capable of dealing with it. But, actually, what you really want is a 30-watt speaker. Then at reasonably low volumes you can achieve something that sounds like the whole thing’s cranked up to 400 watts – or 11 as they call it!”

1. Setting A Vibrato Unit

“When you’re setting up the trem [aka vibrato unit], I would get your electric guitar into tune first then tighten the screws [of the adjustable claw inside the cavity on the rear of the guitar that adjusts spring tension] until the underside of the bridge is just resting against the body - so you can touch the arm and it will move easily,” Matt explains. 

“Then you keep methodically loosening the screws, adjusting them about a quarter- or a half-turn each time, both by the same amount - and retune your guitar after each adjustment. 

“Keep doing that until the tremolo is in the position you want it to be in. Doing it in small adjustments is the key if you don’t want to get lost in an endless loop of adjusting and retuning.  

“Another tip is to keep a running tally – on a piece of paper or on your phone – of how much you’ve adjusted the strings, so you can always take things back to where you started if you want to begin again.”  

2. A Quick, Effective Way To Set Pickup Height

“The way I do it, and the way I recommend everybody should do it, is to start with the neck pickup,” Matt says. “Raise that up until you can start hearing what I call ‘wolf tones.' 

“They happen when the pickup’s magnetic field starts interfering with the vibration of the strings. So either you’ll hear this wobble in the note or it will have no sustain - it will literally just sort of stop and your intonation will be all over the place. So find where that is and then drop the pickup just below until that goes away. 

“That is the highest you could have that pickup. You could have it lower if you wanted. Depending on your gear setup and your taste, you might find that you prefer the sound of it a little bit lower, where it’s not putting so much signal out, letting the pickups ‘breathe’ a little bit more. 

“Moving on to the other two pickups, you’ll want to set them to produce around the same volume as the neck pickup for balance. Typically, the middle one will need to be a little bit higher than the neck one, and the bridge one will need to be a bit higher still.

“The reason for that is the string doesn’t vibrate as much at the bridge as it does at the neck, so all things being equal it needs to be closer to the string to generate the same output. And because the string has less freedom to vibrate and move close to the bridge, you can have the pickup closer to the strings before the pickup’s magnetic field starts affecting them adversely.”

• The best Stratocasters: expert advice on the best Fender Strats around

3. Setting String Height

“Typically, the way I set the action - assuming a good all-round medium action is required - is to [adjust the saddle heights so the] top E string is about 1.5mm above the 12th fret,” says Matt. “And then you want to come gradually up with each string until the bass strings are set at about 2mm, so you’ve got this slight rake going on. 

“And I find that more comfortable: it means that the strings can breathe properly and vibrate and that you can hit the bass side a little bit harder without them rattling, that kind of thing. You don’t really want to keep them all at the same height across the radius: they need to be at different heights to be at their optimum. 

“If you’ve got a guitar with a small, vintage-style radius, however, you might want to have the treble side a bit higher than that. That’s the only time when I’d maybe go for around 2mm across the board. That’s just so you can bend the higher strings without them choking out.” 

4. String Tree & Break Angle

“I’ve never liked the string to have to angle down from the tuning post to the string tree and then angle back up to the nut,” Matt says. “It goes back to that whole friction thing: you’re adding another point of potential high friction there. So I typically put more winds [spooling from top to bottom] on the E and the B strings than on the G string. That way, the string will go down from the nut to the string tree but then it will usually end up being roughly level from the string tree to the post.”

Gibson’s Les Paul remains the Nashville company’s most iconic electric guitar. Who better than master luthier Jim DeCola to tell us how to set one up to perfection? His step-by-step advice holds good for many other classic Gibsons, too.

1. Strings

“First off, fit a fresh set of strings,” Jim DeCola advises. “If you’re doing any kind of setup and you’re going to really dial it in, you need fresh strings. Older strings can often have tiny kinks and wear spots and so you won’t get true intonation and playability out of them. So that’s key.”

2. Neck Relief

“Second, check and, if necessary, adjust your neck relief,” Jim continues. “The simple way to do this is to fit a capo at the 1st fret to hold down all the strings there, then hold down the strings where the neck joins the body, then inspect the gap between the top of the fret and the bottom of the strings at about the 8th fret. 

“If the neck has a concave bow [namely, curving slightly upwards away from the body, as it normally would be], you’ll see a slight gap between the top of the fret and the string being held down. If the neck has a convex bow, however, you won’t have a gap. So then you’ll need to loosen the [truss rod]. 

“Ultimately, you want a slight amount of relief in that neck, by which I mean a slight amount of concave bow. So, measured as described at the 8th fret, Gibson’s official spec looks for 10 and 12 thousandths of an inch [0.01 and 0.012-inch / 0.254 and 0.3048mm] there, which is a kind of ‘happy medium’ setting. 

“If you don’t have a set of thickness gauges you can use a piece of paper – which is around four thousandths of an inch thick – or a business card, which is about 13 thousandths of an inch thick.

“As long as the amount of relief measured at the 8th fret is between the thickness of a sheet of paper and a business card, you’re in the right ballpark,” Jim explains. “If that gap is too tight then you’re going to have buzzing towards the nut and the open position for the first few frets. And if there’s too much relief then you’ll have buzzing as you play up the neck, from around the 12th fret onwards.”

4. Check nut height

“Once your neck is adjusted, look at the action at the nut,” Jim explains. “I’m not suggesting you should modify the height of the nut yourself but you should check it, in case work needs to be done. 

“At the 1st fret, we’ll look to have 1/64th of an inch between the top of the fret and the bottom of the high E string. And then on the low E string, we look for 2/64th of an inch between the top of the fret and the bottom of the string. The other strings are graduated between those dimensions.” 

4. Action at the 12th

“Once you’ve checked the nut height at the 1st fret, it’s time to check the action at the 12th fret,” Jim says. “On electrics, our official spec is 3/64ths of an inch. In other words, that’s the gap we’re looking for between the 12th fret and the bottom of the high E string. Then on the low E string, we’re looking for a gap of 5/64ths of an inch from the top of the fret to the bottom of the low E string. 

“Once you have those two sets of specs, you adjust your bridge [height] accordingly and that dials in your action. Of course, those are our factory specs and your taste may vary. You can adjust lower, for example, if you have lighter touch or play heavier strings – they don’t tend to buzz as much as lighter-gauge strings do.” 

5. Pickup height

“Next, adjust the pickups,” Jim advises. “To adjust the pickups, you hold both E strings down at the highest fret. In the case of the Les Paul or an SG, that would be the 22nd fret. 

“Starting with the neck pickup, you hold the high E string down at the highest fret and then measure the distance from the bottom of the high E string to the top of the pickup polepiece – and then do the same with the low E string. Our official spec is 4/64th of an inch. Then repeat the same procedure for the bridge pickup, except here we adjust the bridge to 3/64ths of an inch.  

“Those are just a happy medium settings. If you want a cleaner sound, you can lower those pickups. If you want a hotter sound, you can raise them up slightly.” 

6. Pickup polepieces

“Years ago, standard string sets would feature a wound G with a relatively thin core,” Jim says. “So your G was a lot weaker sounding than the B string and then the B string, being thicker than E, would overpower that. So, generally, pickup polepieces on the B string were set lower than the other strings. 

“Today it’s not quite that critical. Our factory spec, when we make the pickups, they’re pretty flat with the top of the cover, or the top of the bobbin if they’re open pickups. And, again, that will perform fine. 

“But if you want you can adjust them to conform to the radius of the fingerboard, which for Gibson is a 12-inch radius. I suggest, in that instance, leaving both the E strings polepieces flush with the pickup and then raising them in for the B, G, D and A to provide that radius, as measured with a ruler or a radius gauge.”

7. Stopbar height

“Another thing you can do is adjust the height of the stopbar tailpiece,” Jim says. “Some people like to adjust the stopbar all the way down the body, which will give the greatest possible break angle across the bridge. That will increase the angle from the bridge and provide a slightly stiffer feel to the strings – some people say sustain, too, but that’s a subtle thing. 

“You could raise the bar up and that’ll reduce the string angle and make it feel a little bit slinkier. As long as it still has a positive break angle: you don’t want it so loose that the strings fall out of the saddles. 

“Some people also like to insert the strings back-to-front, so they wrap over the stopbar tailpiece, and Duane Allman was a big proponent of that. Doing that allows you to adjust the tailpiece all the way down to the body, but it reduces the resulting string break angle because of the strings wrapping around and leaving from the top of the stopbar. So a lot of players are very passionate about that. But, again, there’s no right or wrong.”

• Gibson now offers a Virtual Guitar Tech service that offers free online setup consultations to all players. See Gibson for more information.

You know how it’s acceptable to have loads of guitars? We all know that’s because they all feel, look and sound different. So maybe swapping an old guitar’s pickup out would be a great way to rejuvenate and cure guitar acquisition syndrome for at least a while... 

Whilst pickups can’t change the acoustic sound of a guitar, they’re primarily responsible for the tonality and output level of your guitar when plugged in. In this article we’ll cover how you install your own pickup without having to pay someone else to do it.

Which pickup though? There’s way too many pickups to choose from and it can be very hard to choose because of this! Our criteria was humbucker sized and a traditional sound.

Today, we’re fitting a Seymour Duncan Seth Lover Model P.A.F humbucker into a Hofner Shorty, it’s true to say there’s not much body to this guitar so this pickup will be a welcome upgrade and the owner’s made a fine choice. Let’s hop to it...

• Looking for a new humbucker? Take a look at our guide to the best electric guitar pickups you can buy today

Step 1

First up, let’s get into the control cavity. This Hofner Shorty has a front mount scratchplate with the controls on it; the guts are in there. We have a master volume and a master tone with wires from the pickup to the jack socket and to the tailpiece ground – a pretty simple circuit.

Step 2

Now, let’s whip out the old humbucker. This one, as with most humbuckers, is held in place with a pickup ring. It has four screws around the edge of it which all need un-screwing and safekeeping. 

Take a look to see if some are longer than others – this is needed if the pickup ring tilts like ours.

Step 3

Arrange the wires nicely so you can get a good look at it. Take a picture of the current wiring. This will do for our restore point in case something goes wrong or another wire comes off by accident. 

Even better would be to sketch out a wiring diagram for it on paper. Better safe than sorry!

Step 4

Now’s time to play bomb disposal – cut ONLY the pickup wires! Carefully trace them back to the pickup. Our single pickup guitar has one cable that has two wires inside (a screened cable). It carries the ‘hot’ signal (white in our case) and the ground signal which is woven around the ‘hot’ wire. Chop them off and remove the old pickup.

Step 5

Unbox your lovely new pickup. Here we have a Seymour Duncan Seth Lover SH-55B humbucker to install and it’s delightful. You may have new springs and screws in the pack – check the screws are suitable. Our pickup came with a nice new pickup ring but unfortunately it’s suited to a Les Paul and not this flat-top Hofner.

Step 6

Lay the new pickup in place and see how much cable you need. Our pickup has another screened cable coming from it; however, the outer ground wire is exposed, and will be a problem if it touches other parts of the circuit. A shorter cable reduces capacitance anyway, so this will cap unnecessary treble attenuation.

Step 7

Here’s how you prepare the Gibson-style braided cable. Poke the woven ground wire and un-pick part of it away – this reveals the cloth centre with the hot wire inside. The cloth wire can be pushed back with just your fingers. Heat up the soldering iron and tin the tips of the prepared wires.

Step 8

Orient the pickup the right way round according to the polepieces and the slant on the pickup ring. Put one bolt through the pickup ring hole. Load on the spring and compress it with a fingernail. Hold the pickup, ring and screw all with one hand compressed, then you can line up the tiny bolt thread with the humbucker.

Step 9

Now, go and pick up the spring from wherever it twanged off to and try again! Loading the humbuckers is always fiddly. It’s time to solder it in. Solder the hot wire to the left hand leg of the volume pot and the woven ground wire to the can of the pot. Because we’ve tinned the new pickup wires already, this is a simple operation.

Step 10

Before we get any further, let’s test it. It would be annoying to have to un-screw everything to solve a silly mistake. Plug in and turn on your amp, turn up the guitar’s volume and tone controls and gently tap on the pickup with a screwdriver. This should make a noise through the amp. Volume and tone will work too.

Step 11

With that working, let’s fasten stuff back up, re-fit the control scratchplate with its million little screws and install the humbucker ring screws, too. We use the nice new black ones as the drill holes in the timber were accepting. Fit some strings and then take off the protective peely layer from the pickup. Lovely!

Step 12

Don’t play it yet! You may be disappointed until your pickup height is set right! The height drastically changes the tonality on some pickups; roughly 3.5mm from the strings is a good start point. Some more powerful magnets can pull the string in, so use your ear and be wary of that setting. Strum and enjoy your new pickup!

Any moving electrical part on your guitar can wear out. Tone pots and jack sockets are especially prone. And it’ll come as no surprise that switches can become crackly or fail mechanically too - just like this article's repair job. 

The old switch doesn’t have any ‘clicks’, so it won’t stay in position, and, as such, it’s earned itself a ticket to the landfill. Here’s the thing though; the new switch has a different pin layout which confuses things a little; there’s a more complicated circuit than expected to keep an eye on too. 

To boot, we’ll show you how to ID pickup color codes if you have an unusual pickup. The switch we’ll be, erm, switching is an Oak Grigsby 3-way item which will replace the bust no-namer example.

The Oak Grisgby one is the more common Fender style terminal layout and we’ll need to use both sides of it.

We like these switches because you can see the workings of them, so, if there’s ever any confusion as to which terminals are getting connected, you can just look!

What you need

Skill Level: Medium

• 40 Watt soldering iron
• 60/40 Solder
• Soldering helping hand
• New 3-way switch
• Wire cutters
• Wire strippers
• Handy poker/pick
• Masking tape
• Wiring Diagram (either drawn or downloaded)
• Pickup color code (optional)
• Digital multimeter (optional)

1. Whip off the back plate cover - this will get you access to the electronics cavity where all its guts are hiding. A PH1 screwdriver will do just fine. Our repair here is for a Kramer Vanguard guitar but the principles presented here are fairly general.

2. Inside, we have a surprise component we weren’t expecting - a push-pull pot. So, we have a master volume, a master tone, 3-way switch and a coil-split function. The push-pull pot has two functions: to turn down the treble (tone), and to cut half of each pickup out - coil-splitting both pickups - by pulling the switch up.

3. Take a snap of the old wiring just in case anything goes wrong. We’re aiming to change just the pickup switch only but chances are a wire may fall off too, especially on an old guitar. Even better would be to draw the wiring diagram.

4. Oh look, a diagram! We drew this to lay out the whole wiring diagram, including all the details for the coil-split design and also to put in the new switch. There are essentially two switch designs: one with the solder terminals all in a line and another offset style, which is what Fender tend to use. This diagram converts one style to the other to save head-scratching!

5. Still more theory before we get to the practical exam! Each manufacturer has their own cabling colors, Googling ‘pickup color codes’ will be immensely helpful to learn which wire is what. In our Kramer here, we have the brilliantly daft Quad Rail pickups. You can use the old locations of the wires to skip this step if you’re confident.

6. Each Quad Rails pickup has four coils connected in series for a whopping output. We figured out the color code for ours by getting a ~6k ohm reading from red + white and the same from green + black using a multimeter. The bare wire is always earth. Here, the green + white is the coil junction that gets sent to the push-pull pot.

7. Whip out the connections from the old switch by unsoldering them. You could snip them with wire cutters, but then you’d have to strip the wires again, and sometimes there’s not enough wire left. Our switch had ground wires going to the casing of the old switch, we’ll move them to connect to the body of the pots instead.

8. Top Tip! Tape wires out the way, when you’re re-soldering the new switch back in the last thing you want is to melt a rogue wire. Unscrew the old switch from the front of the guitar using a PH2 Screw driver, we chose to reuse the old screws as they suited our color scheme!

9. We’re preparing the new offset terminal-style switch by tinning each terminal. This will free up a hand when we reattach the wires later, where all we have to do is heat the joint up and melt in the wire, and not have to supply solder at the same time! Use a solder helper to hold the switch in place but be careful not to damage it.

10. Following the diagram, we’ve added some jumper wires onto the switch - this is best done safely clamped in a soldering helper before it goes back into the control cavity. The bare jumper wires are where the pickup ‘hot’ wires will attach, one pickup per side. The red wire connects the two common terminals together.

11. Go for it, complete the circuit adding your hot wires and output wire. In our case, we had to re-home two ground wires that used to be attached to the switch body; we sent them to another earth connection on the rear of the pots. Mount the new switch on your guitar with the two bolts to the front.

12. Time to test! Plug in, turn up the volume and tap test by tapping a screwdriver onto your pickup. You should hear the pickups working through your amp. If your pickups are the wrong way round compared to the switch then swap the two hot wires around. If you made a mistake, go back to the diagram and see what it could be.

Kill switches are great fun. They’re a great way to incorporate some hard-hitting rhythmic gated sounds into your playing technique, especially if the switch is somewhere easy to grab! 

The sound often used by Buckethead or Tom Morello creates a silence when the switch is depressed; release and your electric guitar sound comes back, simple. The way you use it is where the genius can strike! There are lots of buttons and switches online so the choice is yours, but you must keep in mind the mechanical resistance - you’ll want it to be easy to activate and not tough like the button on an elevator!

We’ll be using a momentary push-to-make button to do the switching for us so you can just slap the button down.

Where to put it though? Most push buttons require a drill-hole and a nut to fasten on the reverse of the switch, so as long as you have room, scratchplates, control plates or Les Paul pickup selector holes make great candidates. You can use this simple circuit and method on any guitar!

What you need

• SPST momentary push-to-make switch button
• Safety goggles
• Correct size HSS drill bit or cone step
• Centre punch
• Pin hammer
• Masking tape
• PH1 screwdriver
• Soldering iron
• 60/40 solder
• Spare cable
• Pen
• Vernier calipers
• Adjustable spanner

How to add a kill switch to your guitar

1. We’ll be popping the kill switch button on our Fender Jaguar’s control plate. Due to the Jag’s design, this means we only have to take off the chrome control plate down the bottom. Let’s get rid of the knobs so they don’t get scratched! Some knobs will pull off, but our ones here needed a tiny grub screw-loosening first.

2. To gain access to the electronics cavity we’ll rather obviously need to take off the chrome plate. Use a PH1 screwdriver to remove the small screws holding it on. Take care not to lose the screws.

3. Under here, the Jaguar will normally have a tone pot and a volume pot next to the output jack (we have a custom circuit in this guitar, that’s why it looks different). Support the components from behind as you loosen them - turning the nuts on the top will likely just spin the components round inside instead of removing them.

4. With the plate loose, let’s get the guitar out the way. Tape up the guts so they don’t fall out or get tangled in anything else. The guitar is going out of harm’s way while we make a mess of the control plate. We’ve replaced the nuts, washers and star washers on each pot so we know where it all came from.

5. Let’s modify the control plate. First up, cover it in masking tape. This will allow us to mark it easily but also protects the face from scratches. Poke a hole in the old pot holes so we know where they are. Tip: The lid on our ubiquitous Papermate ballpoint pen was perfect for the job. Remember, only the best tool will get the job done right!

6. Let’s choose the location for the new kill switch button. We used a vernier caliper to measure and mark where half-way was (it would have looked bad not totally in the middle) and drew a big X. Consider the size of the knobs that will be replaced and make sure you have easy enough access to tap that awesome kill switch.

7. As we’re drilling metal, extra precaution is required. Drill bits like to wander off when they don’t have a soft material to get stuck in to, so let’s help ourselves. A centre punch is the tool for the job, hammer that onto exactly the spot you marked to create a dimple for the drill bit to sit in.

8. Goggles on, lets make some swarf (the name for waste metal shavings)! A cone step drill bit is perfect for the job. As you touch the next step, it automatically countersinks the hole you just made to take off the sharp burr edge. We use a pillar drill and a piece of scrap timber to chomp into our control plate.

9. Gorgeous. Dispose of all that swarf, it’s paint job killer. Drop in your new kill switch and have a look at the terminals. Our switch here is actually a PTM/PTB switch - that’s ‘push to make/break’. Our circuit requires a push to make a connection, so chop off the undesired terminal - many kill switch buttons have just two terminals.

10. This is the simple circuit that needs installing. We have the jack socket on the right with a wire from the hot (tip) and a wire from the ground (sleeve) going to the push button terminals. Add this onto whatever guitar circuit you have going. It doesn’t matter which wire goes to which terminal on the switch.

11. Reattach everything back onto the control plate and tighten up, remembering to support the components inside so the wires don’t twist. Let’s make that drawing a reality. Using just the right amount of cable, graft on the extra wires to the connection at the jack socket without disturbing what was there before.

12. Once you have those wires in place, tin the terminals on the new switch button and attach onto there too. Tip: Tinning the new terminals really helps make the connection! Plug it in and give it a test. What’s happening is, as you press the button, your signal is sent to ‘ground’, which results in silence!

There are a lot of odd, specialist gadgets and gizmos out there for guitars, but this one gives a unique advantage – it allows you to block off your tremolo on the fly with nothing but mere knob twiddling. We’ll show you how to install it in this walkthrough, but first let’s see what it’s all about.

The Tremol-No is made for tremolos that are fully floating – that is any tremolo that can move in both directions. It’s built to work in Strat and Super Strat designs, which is quite a wide spectrum of tremolos.

We’re modifying an Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci JP6 here, but the Tremol-No will work on Fenders, Ibanez and basically anything that uses the Fender-style rear tremolo rout.

You may ask yourself, ‘Why would I need this?’ Well, if you rest your hand on the tremolo for palm muting then you’ll hear the pitch of the strings raise up, which can be a bit of a pain. It would be a shame to permanently block off such an awesome floating tremolo system...

Step 1. 

Gain access. Whip off the back cover and store the screws carefully. These things are easier than a plectrum to lose. Measure the gap between the old claw and the timber as we’ll put the new one in the same location. If your tremolo is balanced already you can keep the strings on and ‘in tune’ – we’ll show you why later!

Step 2. 

As the Tremol-No kit comes with its own tremolo claw built in, we need to take out the old one. This starts with removing the three springs. Take note of the orientation of the springs as it may help to replace them the same way as they were. This handy hook tool makes the job a breeze.

Step 3.

Let’s retire that old tremolo claw now. With the springs out the way it should be dangling around. Using a PH2 screwdriver, unscrew the wooden screws that are drilled in diagonally. 

They can take some force so make sure you have good pressure on the screw head, otherwise it can strip the screw, and you don’t want to go there.

Step 4.

On Strat-style instruments there’s a wire soldered onto the claw. Chop it off at the claw and we’ll replace it later. This wire connects the ground circuit to the claw and therefore the springs to tremolo to strings to you! 

This helps keep circuit humming down to a minimum, so it’s recommended to replace it later.

Step 5.

Break out the Tremol-no from the packet and screw it in. It’s a direct replacement for the old claw, so you know what to do already! 

It might help you to remove the sliding part from the Tremol-no so it’s not in the way while you’re working on it.

Step 6.

Let’s reattach that all-important ground wire back onto the new and improved tremolo claw. You’ll never get that soldered to aluminium, so it needs to be bolted on. 

A good tip is to make a wire loop round an allen key, pop the bolt through this eyelet and when you tighten it should stay put.

Step 7.

See how we ended up taking off the slidey parts? We needed a little more space… So it’s time to re-spring the tremolo to the claw. 

We advise starting with the tremolo claw loose with lots of the wooden screws protruding. Pop all the springs in, then you can re-tension the wood screws later.

Step 8.

If your tremolo was already balanced at the start of all this then you can now tighten the tremolo claw screws back up to re-balance. Either use the measurement you took at the start or tighten until the strings are back in tune! 

There will be a small bit of tuning slippage sure but you’ll be close at least.

Step 9.

This is how your floating tremolo should look when it’s balanced – the bottom plane is parallel to the string line ,and on this guitar, parallel to the paintwork too. 

If your tremolo is out of whack then you need to re-balance it. Adjusting it is a combination of balancing the spring tension versus the string tension.

Step 10.

You will have noticed that we’ve ignored the Tremol-No for a couple of steps. It’s designed to augment the tremolo system so we needed to get the trem right first. 

Tighten up the clamp onto the tremolo string block and make sure it’s not misaligned, so it doesn’t drag on anything. Don’t over tighten it.

Step 11.

What use is this gizmo if everything isn’t locked in place? Let’s do up the final locking bolts. There are two grub screws that anchor onto the tremolo claw woodscrews, thus locking the tremolo claw in place. 

Tighten this up but be wary that it may move the claw slightly. Tweak the screw tension until it balances correctly again.

Step 12.

You’re done, nice one. The two thumb bolts allow you to lock the whole tremolo down into fixed-bridge mode, whilst the other thumbscrew allows you to use the tremolo-dropping pitch only – handy for heavy palm-muting techniques. You need to let the tremolo balance freely, then butt up against the slider to set it.

Okay, I admit I'm a bit compulsive when it comes to keeping my electric guitars clean.

And I don't mean that in the 'look, but don’t touch' way, since many of my guitars have dings and small cracks. I mean it in terms of keeping my guitars clean.

So I've been known to drive my techs a bit nuts. But let my pain be your gain! I'm going to share some secrets on how to keep your guitar’s finish spot-free.

Did you know your guitar’s paint job is similar to a car’s? It’s true. Your guitar’s finish consists of paint (or color), then you have a thin layer of clear coat that covers the paint.

• 10 more ways to look after your guitar

Since I have detailed a car or two in my day (another one of my interests), I've been using my car-detailing knowledge to my advantage. As a matter of fact, Meguiars (a company that makes consumer- and professional-grade car-detailing products) also makes polishes for guitar companies, including Fender and Jackson.

If you've ever used guitar polishes from music stores and still think your guitar doesn't have that store-bought, sparkling gloss, this is because you are missing several steps needed to bring back and maintain that look.

So, here are steps you can take to make your axe shiner than the next guy's!

Here's a list of materials you'll need

• Paint cleaning clay
• Microfiber cloths
• Car or guitar polish
• A polish pad
• Car or guitar wax
• Car or guitar detailer

Most of these products can be purchased online, or from big box stores such as Walmart, car-care stores such as Autozone, or guitar-cleaning-product manufacturers such as Planet Waves. Feel free to find car paint detail tips from the internet and simply apply them to a guitar too!

Step 1: Paint-cleaning clay

Paint-cleaning clay, which you can buy in any auto parts store, looks like a child’s modeling clay. I know this sounds weird, but it works. Use some 'quick detailing spray' (also from an auto parts store) to serve as a lubricant as you gently slide the paint-cleaning clay back and forth. This removes contaminants, dirt and gunk from your guitar. You can actually hear the clay pick up the contaminants.

Your guitar’s finish also will be very smooth when you're done, and you'll get back some of its lost gloss. To clean your axe after you're done with claying, use a microfiber cloth.

Microfiber is made from thousands of tiny loops that trap dirt (and everything else) in its fibers. It cleans well and will not scratch your paint. Stay away from socks, T-shirts and the like, because they will only scratch your guitar more!

Step 2: Polish

Many people get confused by this. When we think of 'polishing' something, we think of shining something to a glossy finish. However, in professional talk, polish is something you use to remove light scratches embedded in the clear coat. Several guitar-detailing companies such as Planet Waves make guitar polish that do exactly that.

Some guitar companies call this a paint restorer. You also can get one from a car store. Ask for car paint polish, and make sure you get something designed to remove light scratches. There are different ones available, depending on how aggressive you want to get. Most guitars have very light scratches caused by clothes, guitar picks, gig bags, etc.

The best results will be obtained if you use a small polish pad (which is usually orange or red) that also can be bought at an auto parts store or car-detailing website. Buff off your guitar with a clean microfiber cloth after you get a light haze from the polish on the paint.

A good job should leave your guitar fairly scratch-free, and your paint will have no oxidation. Your guitar’s rich, deep color should be back at this step. Remember to use the polish sparingly.

Step 3: Wax

Okay, now you can wax your guitar. Wax will protect your clean, polished paint from oxidation, light scratches, etc. The best wax is made from 100 percent Carnauba, but other variations will also work. Wax hardens on your guitar, making a great protective barrier. You can use microfiber cloth to put the wax on your guitar and after a light haze to buff it out.

Remember not to use too much, as it will make the job messy and make the wax hard to remove. If you have a hard time removing the wax, use a little car-detailing spray. If you want to make your guitar look awesome, put on a light coat of wax, let it dry, put on another coat, let it dry and buff off everything with a microfiber cloth. You’ll be amazed!

Step 4: Detailer

Here's what you have most likely been buying at your music store in an attempt to keep your guitar clean. Some of these products are labeled 'guitar polish'. Since we know what a polish is now, let’s just call them 'detailers'. As you can see, you have been adding some minor gloss onto a guitar that needed some TLC.

After you have clayed, polished and waxed the finish, you can use your detailer on a daily basis to keep off your fingerprints and just to generally keep the finish looking glossy. Again, use a microfiber cloth to do this. Every so often, you will need to revisit steps 1 or 2 to keep your guitar looking its best. To save money, you could also buy a bottle of car paint detailer for about $6. It will last forever and will do just as good of a job.

Polish-born Metal Mike Chlasciak has recorded or performed with heavy metal greats Rob Halford, Sebastian Bach, Bruce Dickinson and Axl Rose. Mike is the long-time guitarist for Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford's solo endeavor, Halford. For more info, check out his official website and follow him on Twitter.

"I want to lower my action.” Sounds simple enough, right? Sometimes there’s extra steps that totally get in the way of setting your strings’ height a little lower, and sometimes these are the manufacturer’s fault.

Dropping the saddle’s height on an acoustic guitar is part of the procedure for setting the action, but what if it’s not possible to drop it as low as it needs? Be aware that the truss rod and the nut slot heights absolutely need setting right before making this judgment – we’ll show you how.

The timber bridge itself can get in the way and might need retracting with a plane. What’s the cause? There are three main causes for a bridge that’s too tall: incorrect design (the geometry between the body and neck is less than ideal), neck movement (the heel of the neck being loose) or soundboard deflection (the guitar’s top excessively bowing upward due to string tension over time). 

It’s unfortunate to find a brand new guitar that’s got bad geometry but it’s surprisingly common. Here’s a DIY remedy to get it sorted.

Step 1

The aim of the game is to set the bridge saddle height and, if needs be, lower the bridge timber if it’s prohibitive. In order to get an accurate reading of the way the guitar is set up we need to be sure the truss rod and nut slot heights are set right first. If this is wrong then your bridge height reading is irrelevant!

Step 2

Let’s tweak that truss rod! Press on 1st fret then press down on 15th fret and we’ll use the straight string as a guide to see how bent forward the neck is. The feeler gauge is put over the 8th or 9th fret underneath the string; .007” is the magic clearance. Adjust the truss rod accordingly, ours is hiding inside the sound hole.

Step 3

Next in the queue is checking the nut. This is how to check it to see if you have a problem, if you do then we’d advise sending it to the pros. Place a capo on at the 3rd fret and we’ll check the clearance over the 1st fret and the string. You should have .004” to .008” clearance on your feeler gauge.

Step 4

You’ll notice that moving either the nut or truss rod will have a large effect on the action. Grand, they’re set so lets take a look at the output string height at 12th fret. You should have a clearance of 2.2mm between the Low E and the bottom of the string and 1.6mm clearance on the high E.

Step 5

We need to make an adjustment to the height of the saddle so the right action clearances are met at the 12th fret. Watch out for shims hiding under the saddle which would skew the reading; get rid of them and check again. Your guitar will sound better for getting rid of the shims as they can sap string vibration.

Step 6

Saddle height is set by sanding material off the bottom of the saddle surface on a sanding board. Work slowly and carefully; it’s better to take a little off, check and repeat! Don’t forget, you’ll have to retune completely to check the reading. Be careful to maintain a 90 degree bottom edge on the saddle when using your sanding board.

Step 7

The reason we’re picking on this guitar for this article is because we know the saddle’s height needs to be lower than the bridge can allow; the timber of the bridge just gets in the way! First though we don’t want to harm the finish of the guitar. Get creative with some masking tape to cover round the edges of the bridge.

Step 8

We use an old bar runner mat to protect the guitar’s top even more. This low-angle block plane is cutting back the timber with ease. Notice as this is a string-through type bridge we’re not attacking the string mounts. It turns out the timber is not what it looks like – it’s just mahogany which we’ll re-dye later on.

Step 9

But where to stop? This is dictated by putting in your saddle (after it’s been sanded to height) and checking for a decent clearance. Your saddle height could not be checked before as the timber was in the way. Now it’s retracted a bit, you can get your saddle height set finally. Retune in it’s unfinished state and test it out.

Step 10

With a final saddle height happy and the bridge timber retracted to give a clearance we can begin to make it look pretty again – phew! Using a small timber block and some coarse 80 grit sandpaper, get to work in reshaping the nice curve back into it. It’s best to remove all the old dye from the bridge so it looks uniform.

Step 11

After hand-sanding finely we can apply the black dye once more. Apply enough coats with a cloth to get it nice and deep, but don’t splash it everywhere – let this dry overnight. If you have used a water-based dye then seal in the dye with a coating of Danish oil or similar; the dye will come off otherwise!

Step 12

If you used Danish oil, give it a quick going over with wire wool to improve the finish. Refit your bridge saddle and restring – that’s it! It sure was a long way round just to drop the string height, but this shouldn’t have to be repeated unless the guitar develops soundboard deflection over time.

• Jack Ellis runs Jack’s Instrument Service from his workshop in Manchester, UK where he has worked on thousands of instruments.

The locking nut is integral to the high-performance tremolo system - it removes the non-playing part of each string from the equation by locking it down. This Floyd Rose one is the most commonplace but it’s also quite common to see the nut height set wrong - often by the factory. 

We figure it must be too fiddly for the regular assembly line to get it right each time so they err on the high side each time. Mankind has not come this far to put up with that minor annoyance! Being as this will be set for life, let’s take care to do this properly and it will be a small but important victory that you can reap the rewards from!

Set a nut too low and it will buzz on 1st fret; set too high and it’s hard work and intonates out of tune. Adjusting takes a couple of specialized tools and some careful measuring but can get you the comfortable action you so desperately crave. After all, setting the nut height is just as important as setting the bridge height.

What you need

• PH1 Screwdriver
• 2.5mm, 3mm and 4mm allen keys
• Feeler gauge
• Fresh strings
• Stringwinder
• Stringcutters
• Specialised sanding block faced with 120 grit sandpaper
• 2 capos
• Tuner
• Wooden strip for blocking the bridge
• Tin snips for creating shims
• A beer can makes brill shim material
  
  SKILL LEVEL: MEDIUM

Step 1

Let’s get to work - string up your guitar with a fresh set of strings. It’s not a good idea to set up anything around old worn strings, especially if they have bends or kinks in them! You don’t need the locking clamps around at the moment so stash them away safely.

Step 2

As a Floyd Rose veteran I don’t need to tell you about the woes of tuning this system up. Let’s do ourselves a favour and block the bridge off temporarily. This trusty piece of wood allows us to get on with repeat tuning and make some progress on addressing the nut height.

Step 3

We absolutely cannot adjust nut height unless the truss rod is set. Press on the 1st fret then press down on the 15th fret and we’ll use the straight string as a guide to see how bent forward the neck is. The feeler gauge is put over 8th or 9th fret underneath the string; .007" is the magic clearance. Adjust the truss rod accordingly.

Step 4

Stick the capo onto the 3rd fret and check the gap over the 1st fret. There should be a clearance of .002" to .006" measured with a feeler gauge. Be sure to accurately measure each side. We like the high E string to be the lowest and the bass E string to have more clearance to allow for a bit of ferocity.

Step 5

The readings from step 4 will determine if you take route A or route B later, but whichever, get this thing out of the way. We’ll be lifting the strings off so we can attack under the nut; this string retainer just gets in the way. We’ll put it back on later and set the height.

Step 6

There are two ways that a locking nut is attached; some are bolted on from the rear and some are screwed in from the front - the screws hide under the string clamps. With bolts, take note of the mini washers and star washers that will fall out. Make sure you don’t lose anything!

Step 7

Great, now we have access to the pad that the nut unit sits on. Based on your reading in step 4 follow route A if your clearances were too large and follow route B if your clearances were too small. Do not be tempted to file down the bottom of the metal nut unit - it’s rock hard! Skip to step 10 for route B.

Step 8

Route A Part 1 - initial nut clearance was too large. We’ve made a specialized sanding block from a piece of Micarta with 120 grit paper double-side taped on. The width is absolutely key as well as it being 100% flat. The timber bed is hardwood so it will work slowly at best - that suits us for fine-tuning!

Step 9

Route A Part 2 - it’s all about technique. Begin to work the timber with the sanding block being incredibly careful. You do not want the tool to slip and scratch the headstock. The hardest thing to get right is to keep parallel and not accidentally round off the timber. The bottom of the nut is flat, don’t forget.

Step 10

Route B - initial nut clearance was too small. In this case we’ll shim the nut up to its correct clearance. Thin metal shims should be trapped under the nut to fine-tune the height. If you don’t have some you can re-purpose a beer can after enjoyment using some tin snips. Just be careful as these become lethally sharp.

Step 11

Whether the process took you down route A or B, this is the critical part - checking again and knowing when to stop! The strings must be replaced and fully tuned to test your nut clearances. Tightening up the nut fastenings helps too and it squishes down a little. If you need to make a change head back to Route A or B and repeat.

Step 12

The nut is set and it’s set for life. This pain-in-the-ass task will not have to be set again unless you convert to playing slide guitar. Let’s set the string retainer height. It should be tightened so each string touches the back of the locking nut unit. This means that when you clamp the string locks back up it doesn’t raise the pitch.

If you were lucky enough to receive a new acoustic guitar for Christmas, we’ve got a few tips here to help you improve the factory setup. Unless you’re incredibly lucky, most new guitars will need something doing to them to get them feeling right for you. 

Factories seem to favor a safe action setting over a potentially too low setting, which might cause buzz. It’s understandable, really, considering we know that timber doesn't stay the same shape over time – especially a long, thin neck under tension. Who knows how long your guitar has been in the warehouse or what countries and climates it’s visited?

As such, it’s not surprising that you might need to get the tools out to get your new acoustic singing as intended! For the purposes of this acoustic guitar setup feature, we’ll be giving a new bargain B-stock Ibanez AEG a going-over to make it feel just right.

• These are the best acoustic guitars you can buy today
• Check out the best acoustic guitars under $500
• Find the best acoustic guitar strings for you

Destringing

Firstly, let’s loosen the who-knows-how-old acoustic guitar strings for removal and replacement. Buy a brand you trust and a size you like; we’re going for some Elixir light gauge 12s – we’ll put them on later.

Oiling the fretboard

With the strings out of the way, now’s a great time to give the fretboard some nourishment; new guitars benefit just as much as vintage ones. Dunlop 65 lemon oil is readily available at musiciansfriend.com, and the oils are great for the rosewood fretboard. Rosewood, Pau Ferro, Ebony and other unfinished fretboard timbers all love this. 

So how do you tell if it’s needed? The fretboard timber might look pale and dry, but it can also become brittle and shrink, and in some cases it can even crack. This shrinking is no good for the frets, as they have a potential to come loose. If your fretboard is particularly dry, we recommend almond oil, which is a bit thicker.

Checking the tuners

Check over the tuner nuts at the headstock. For some reason, these 10mm nuts are always loose… Don't go crazy on tightening them as they can snap, but clearly if the tuner isn’t fastened all the way, your guitar won’t stay in tune correctly.

Restring

It’s time to string up, pop on your new strings and tune the guitar up. As we'll be setting the guitar up in a moment, you must choose a tuning to work to. Don’t forget to chop the string ends off before they poke you in the eye!

Setting the truss rod

OK, so it’s scary truss rod time. The truss rod tunes in how bent the neck is generally – this is called relief. When the strings are at pitch, put a capo on the first fret; this eliminates the nut’s height from the measurement. Next, place your thumb on the 15th fret, which eliminates the bridge’s height in the same way. Using a feeler gauge, you can check the relief in the neck at the seventh fret.

Use the feeler gauge to measure the clearance between the string and the top of the seventh fret. The measurement you should aim for is .007”, which suits most players. If this measurement is smaller, the truss rod needs loosening. If it’s larger, the truss rod needs tightening.

There’s a variety of truss rod styles out there, so it’s important to check which will fit your guitar first. Some truss rods are hiding under a truss rod cover on the headstock, but most acoustic ones are hiding inside the sound hole. 

Make an adjustment and check your progress with the feeler gauge until you reach the clearance of .007”.

Checking the nut

With the truss rod set, we can turn our attention to the nut. This is a specialist task that is unfortunately best left to the professionals. However, we can see if there’s a problem with it with the tools we have here. Stick the capo on the third fret and, with the guitar in tune, check the clearances under the first fret with the feeler gauge.

There should be a gap of .004” on the high E string, graduating to .008” on the low E string. Most new guitars are OK here, but it doesn't hurt to check.

Reading the action

The action is the term used for the string height of the guitar. Too low and it will buzz, too high and it will be excessively hard to play. The action will depend on the steps we’ve already taken. Setting the truss rod will dramatically change the string height reading, so that must be done first.

Take a reading at the 12th fret from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string on the low E and the high E. The low E should be 2.2mm and the high E should be 1.7mm for most players. The Dunlop Action Gauge from sweetwater.com is great for this.

When a string is plucked, it vibrates in an elliptical pattern, moving most in the centre of the string. The harder you play, the more the ellipse moves. What this means is the harder you play, the higher the action you need to avoid fret buzz. There are things you can do to help, like using a larger string gauge or a softer pick. Some guitar players aren’t too bothered by a bit of fret buzz. This is for you to decide!

Adjusting the bridge height

With everything else set, the last tweak is all about setting the saddle’s height. This is the final part of the action equation. Take out the saddle from under the strings and mark the reduction you need to make with a pencil. If there are shims under there already, take them out if you need to drop the string height. 

If there’s no shims, you'll have to sand this down on a sanding board or a table- mounted belt sander if you have one. Take your time and be careful to keep the bottom profile at 90 degrees. Take a little off and re-string, then retune. Check your reading and make an adjustment based on that. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

How many of us really feel that our tuning habits are as good as they should be? Our ultimate tuning guide introduces the ‘impatient meditation’, a fresh, multi-pronged approach to tuning, designed to enhance your cognitive focus, hand health, ear strength, and fretboard awareness as well as maximizing tonal accuracy. Electronic tuners are great, but we shouldn’t have to rely on technology to save us.

Usually, I’m skeptical of anything that promises to ‘transform your playing with these three secrets’, or offers ‘five tricks to become a fretboard super ninja overnight’, and so forth. Playing guitar is an infinitely complex endeavor, with countless interlocking variables and a vast repertoire that would take even the most talented musician many lifetimes to master.

In the end, there are few shortcuts. But adopting some effective tuning methods might just qualify as one genuinely transformative, near-instant innovation. 

It will literally enhance your control over every single note, and lies at the heart of broader guitaristic mastery. So this lesson is aimed at beginners and advanced guitarists alike - even Hendrix struggled with his tuning sometimes.

We all fall into lazy habits, allowing the compulsion to jam right now to override our better judgement. This results in much undesired dissonance, both literal and cognitive - the imperfections nag away at us, interrupting our flow, sapping our focus, and misbalancing the music. 

We fret about whether to squeeze in some frantic peg-nudging, but even this is no guarantee of improvement (adjusting on the fly is a fine art).

It’s all right for pianists, who have a whole category of musical employment devoted to their every tuning need. Us guitarists have to do things ourselves... and we still endure the stereotype of doing them lazily (‘How can you tell when a guitarist is out of tune? His hand starts moving’).

While we should definitely hit back with jibes of our own (‘Why are so many guitarist jokes one-liners? So the rest of the band can understand them’), we must also become masters of the tuning process, a complex, conceptually rich area of enquiry that connects together many aspects of musical perception.

Yes, electronic tuners are great, but we shouldn’t have to rely on gadgets to save us when it comes to something so basic. In any case, tuning is a fascinating area of enquiry, connecting together many aspects of musical perception and providing consistent spark to the creative imagination. Gaining ear confidence will filter through to our whole sound while deepening our appreciation for music in general.

I actually think we’re the lucky ones. Pianists, like most other instrumentalists, don’t have to pick all this apart so much, and they’re missing out. It’s consistently fascinating, and the ideas found here can give anyone creative inspiration. 

The whole tuning process can even be re-conceptualized as a ritualistic act of mental, musical, and manual preparation. Or just a time to chill out before you play. Either way, it’s a lot more than just winding some pegs...

The ‘impatient meditation’: a fresh, multi-pronged tuning approach

The ‘impatient meditation’ isn’t an exact tuning method - it’s a way of approaching tuning. We aim to maximize flexibility, efficiency, and tonal precision by running through four concise ideas, which, taken together, allow us to balance the quirks of the guitar with the demands of the music at hand.

We’re probably… impatient, so here’s the tl;dr version (all tabs below):

● Get an overview: Slowly strum through the open strings and 12fr natural harmonics, taking a deep breath and focusing in on the sound to get a rough idea of where things are at.

● 5str fret-matching: Get your A as ‘in’ as is required, and tune the open strings to notes along it (2fr/5fr/7fr/10fr). Then, tune a selection of fretted As on the other strings back to the open A.

● Quick checks: Sample from three other methods to shore things up - melodic fret-matches, natural harmonics, and chordal checks. Try out key passages from your own music too.

● Musical focus: Strum the 12fr harmonics, and take another deep breath. Relax your mind, acknowledging any nerves, and then calmly orient your full attention towards the music at hand.

If you familiarize yourself with the strengths, weaknesses, and incongruities of each individual step, you will quickly build an intuition for when and how to deploy them. 

Ideally, you’ll end up ‘narrowing down’, honing in on the most concise, pleasing phrase combinations for your own instrument and incorporating them into your playing routines.

Or, for that matter, any other instrument. A pristine, top-end Strat will be a different beast to the rickety nylon-string you found behind your friend’s couch, and we should be able to adapt to any axe we come across. 

Using a tuner won’t help you compensate for the latter’s intonation issues, and besides, some songs on the former will sound better when left a little deliberately messy. The ideas below, when combined, help you know what you want, and should allow you to near-optimally tune virtually any guitar.

We can utilize tuning time to foster broader musical improvement too. Since the process will always be part of our playing routines, I figured we may as well also use it to enhance areas such as ear strength, cognitive focus, fretboard awareness, and manual dexterity. It’s also a fantastic way to build up core conceptual understanding around the physics of string vibration and the nature of aural perception.

All I’ve really done here is sample the best of a few tuning methodologies already in use, combining their strongest elements with a few minor adaptations and additions. 

So it isn’t really my creation; at least no more than I could say invented my own style of cuisine yesterday by throwing together the tastiest things I found in the fridge with a dash of seasoning. I’ve incorporated feedback from friends, students, and the wider musical world too.

There’s an extended 10,000 word version of this article on my website, going in deep on the strengths and weaknesses of existing tuning techniques and explaining how this approach seeks to build on them. 

We analyze James Taylor’s microtonal ‘stretched tuning’ and trace the design of guitar’s fretboard to the epic mathematical treatises of China’s Ming Dynasty, while also learning from ancient Vedic musicology and 21st-century theoretical physics. Tuning’s fascinations are in its interconnectedness.

Ingredients of the ‘impatient meditation’

This is more about the ‘how’ than the ‘why’. For the extra-curious, the full breakdown is on my website, with detailed musical and technical discussion. And I can’t stress enough - this is an approach to tuning rather than an exact method. Learn from it, pick out what you like, and stay flexible.

At first glance, four steps may seem like overkill (let’s be honest, you’re probably wondering if you can be bothered to internalize them all). But the combination is designed to foster efficient, intuitive self-learning, which always saves you time in the long run (...and often the fairly short run too). 

Anyway, using all four each time isn’t the best approach - once you’ve tried everything on the menu, you’ll know quickly what you want next time.

You’ll be surprised at how fast you can speed things up without sacrificing on accuracy. Running through the checks can become second-nature, and, unless things are a complete mess, tuning may only require a few seconds. 

It just tends to be taught badly (or barely taught at all) - there’s a whole lot of tuning-themed nonsense on the internet. Sitting down to learn things properly will permanently give us both a broader and finer control over our music, while also making everyone around us sound better.

- Get an overview: First, play the open strings and the 12fr harmonics in slow sequence, getting a rough feel for where things are at. Consider the music at hand, and also what imperfections the guitar itself may have. Take a deep breath, and really zoom in on the texture of the sound. (Unless it really sounds awful... in which case just get on with the next steps).

- Concert or relative? Decide whether you want to tune to exact concert pitch or not. If you do, match your A string to an external reference tone (maybe download the clip below to your phone). If you don’t, just make sure the A sounds and feels about right, and matches any other instruments in the room.

- Fret-matching: Roughly ’fret-match’ the other five open strings to notes on the A, and then flip things round, matching the open A to fretted tones on the other strings. Pick evenly, and if you’re playing through an amp, use a clean, mid-boosted tone. While you can of course check all the As against the reference tone, we should seek to develop the ear too.

Always use the ‘under-tug-up’ method - i.e. go lower than the target, tug the string around to remove slack, then raise the pitch. Pull it in all directions, being firm but avoiding sudden movements. Ensure the A and D strings sound particularly happy with each other. And if you have a whammy bar, be sure to shake out any string-stick.

Pros and cons

+ Minimizes error compounding (they don’t carry over between strings)
+ Quick to run through, and gives strong, clear volumes
+ Gives you an concise overview of the guitar’s intonation quirks
– Misleading if reference string is corroded, damaged, set too high, etc

Now, we use a mix of ‘quick checks’ to shore everything up. We can sample from several different methods, including melodic fret-matching, natural harmonics, and octave-heavy chord shapes - some of which also work as hand stretches. Find which chords and phrases suit your guitar best:

- Melodic check phrases - like an enhanced ‘5th fret matching'

Pros and cons

+ More interlinked than the ‘classic’ fret-matching approach
+ Avoids the familiar ‘tuning cliche’ with quasi-melodic movements
+ Opens up your general awareness of when open strings can be used
– Somewhat harder to play than the classic fret-match method
– Phrases may never settle with each other on badly-intoned guitars

- Natural harmonics checks - avoiding the deviant 7th fret

Pros and cons

+ ‘Beating’ N.H. resonances bring out overtone detail clearly
+ We avoid the 7fr harmonic, which is actually slightly sharp
+ ‘Sweeps’ at the end are great when you know the right sound
– Quieter, more complex: takes your ear a while to ‘zoom in’
– Can fail to highlight nuanced intonation issues

- Octave-heavy chord checks - beyond just open Emaj

Pros and cons

+ Places the frequencies in a more musical context
+ Can add in key chords from your upcoming pieces
+ Usual major shapes aren’t ideal due to temperament issues
+ Increases your familiarity with high neck positions
+ Some of the shapes function as hand stretches too (e.g. 07×950)
– Complex for the ears, which can mislead us in many ways
– Can get chaotic on guitars with shaky intonation

Other immediate considerations

- Necessary imperfection: Notice how each check method produces subtly different results? e.g. high-fretted notes may sound sharp, or the G and B strings might never quite seem to settle with each other across different chords. 

This is to be expected - no instrument can ever be tuned perfectly. As we will see, factors like inharmonicity, build flaw, and temperament deviancy mean that there’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ tuning.

And in any case, lots of guitar music can sound better with a little mess and crunch, ranging from Delta blues and 12-string folk to free improv and plenty of classic Hendrix. 

Lap slide players use all variety of microtonal tweaks, and Tommy Emmanuel sometimes likes to detune his G string slightly – a trick also used by his blues forebears. Above all it’s about finding a sound that works for you (…and the audience).

- Adding emotive context: Take another deep breath, and briefly call to mind the sentiments you want to get across with the music. Think about the most important passages in your first piece. 

Strum through each chord or phrase slowly and evenly, considering their immediate effects on you. Are undesired frequencies dampening the emotional power? If so, try to isolate and correct them.

The best way to ‘balance the imperfections’ is to focus on the physical locations of the music. e.g. If you’re mainly playing low down the neck, make sure tuning here takes precedence over hyper-accuracy in higher positions. You may have to find compromises, especially on stiff-action guitars. Keep adjusting until you’re happy – the audience will ultimately be grateful for it.

- Gathering yourself: Once you’re satisfied with your sound, take a third and final deep breath, and rake firmly upwards through the 12fr natural harmonics. Take both your hands away from the strings, and empty your mind for a few seconds as you exhale.

Again, try out different meditative methods to see what works - you can hum a chord tone, silently count to eight, or even tense and relax your whole body in time to the rhythms of your first piece. (Never forget one of the key lessons from guitar history: people don’t care how weird you look as long as you sound good.)

What else should be on our minds?

The uniqueness of each individual situation means there are always countless interlocking considerations. Each guitar is different, with varying imperfections to be investigated, taxonomized, and balanced, and each performance brings disparate musical, physical, and social demands. In the end, all aspects of musical perception are interconnected.

There are less immediate factors too, ranging from healthy guitar setup and effective restringing to building skill at retuning ‘on the fly’. I’ll leave it up to you to adapt all this to non-standard tunings - it’s an ideal opportunity for some intuitive conceptual exploration, pushing your mind ‘up a level’ as you get into the processes of modification and recombination.

And it’s vitally important that we place all this in the context of wider musical learning. For one thing, we must strengthen our ears over time, as this will drastically speed things up (this applies to pretty much everything else in music too). 

We should also learn some of the science, visualizing how strings vibrate and seeing the fractional distribution of natural harmonics along them. See the full article for exercises, explanations, etc.

And if I have stumbled on any original insights, I ultimately owe them to the tutelage of Guy Harrup, the late, great jazz master of Bath, England, and Pandit Shivnath Mishra, my sitar guru in Benares. Guy, my first teacher, guided me through many different tunings with a relaxed, open-minded attitude, while the Pandit’s wordless lessons helped open my ears to the vivid, infinitely detailed world of sruti (Indian classical microtonality).

The ‘impatient meditation’, cooked up in honor of my two gurus, was (hastily) named for its attempt to maximize accuracy and minimize lost jamming time through some efficient, calming sonic focus.

Tuning up really can become a reliable way of bringing harmony to your mind as well as to your guitar, but let’s be honest: it would be kind of strange to feel no impatience at all while preparing to jam (apologies to any enlightened Buddhist monks reading this).

Best of 2019: Proving yet again that there’s always something new for the internet to teach us, YouTube electric guitar star Ichika, who we recently called one of 10 forward-thinking players proving the guitar still has plenty to offer, has written a new instrumental piece in what he calls  'ethereal tuning'.

And what, exactly, is ethereal tuning?

Good question. According to Ichika, it is, low to high, D A Db Gb Db D (resulting in an open Dmaj7 chord, theory fans). And it sounds quite, well, ethereal.

At least it does when Ichika applies his stunning two-handed fretboard technique (and a bit of reverb) to the proceedings.

If you’re looking to try the tuning for yourself, we’d recommend switching out your second string (what would be B in standard tuning) for a lighter gauge, just in case of snappage. But by the sounds of it, the effects are well worth it.

You can check out the tune above, and for more Ichika, head over to his official YouTube channel.

Intrigued to try other esoteric tunings? Check out acoustic virtuoso Mike Dawes' guide to unusual techniques and tunings.

Guitar maintenance is an extremely important topic. It’s often overlooked, because we guitarists want to get straight to playing! But you need a functional, working guitar in good condition to perform in the first place.

Taking maintenance seriously means you get the best out of your instrument, have it sounding its best at all times, and save yourself time and money in the long run.

Here’s a list of the top 10 electric guitar maintenance tips to be thinking about. Take it seriously, and your guitar will reward you with improved playability and tone.

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1. Storage

This relates to where in your home you keep your guitar. It sounds basic, but as we own our guitars longer and get more at ease with them and the novelty wears off, it’s very easy to stop taking quite so much care over it.

Make sure it’s somewhere safe, where nothing’s going to fall onto it, and in a place where the temperature and humidity are reasonably consistent.

2. Case 

Next up - invest in a good guitar case. The ideal solution is a hardcase, but they can be expensive, and usually mean you can’t carry the guitar on your back. These things understandably put many people off.

Make sure you at least have a padded, thick, durable soft case, such as Gator's Economy Gig Bag, while the company's Deluxe ABS molded case makes a good hardcase option.

3. Transport

So often guitar damage occurs in transportation. So take care in how you transport your guitar, or organize for it to be transported. Especially when that relates to public transport - train or plane travel, for example.

People have even been known to purchase their instrument its own seat on a plane (with the ticket often saying Mr. Guitar)! For many of us, this is logistically or financially out of the question, but the point stands. There are a few hours where it’s out of your control - so do what you need to do to ensure your instrument is well protected.

The good news is that, legally, you are now allowed to bring your guitar on as carry-on luggage.

4. Setup and check periodically

Hopefully any new guitar you purchase is already professionally set up. If not, the store should make that happen for you. Regardless, this doesn’t negate the need to periodically have your guitar’s setup checked and touched up as needed.

It’s a great feeling playing a guitar that’s just been set up and will keep your guitar in better shape, longer term.

5. Regular string changes 

Exactly how often to do so is kind of up for debate. For some musicians, it’s every six-eight weeks, others restring for every show! For many it’s much less often, too, as we get out of the habit. Well, get back in the habit!

Besides being important in refreshing and revitalizing your sound, it also gives you a chance to implement some of the cleaning and polishing steps below.

Tip: Wipe your strings with a dry cloth after every practice session to make them last longer!

Need some help on what guitar strings to buy? Check out our guide to the best electric guitar strings and how to choose the best acoustic guitar strings.

6. Dust and polish

Use a dry cloth to keep your guitar free of dust, and use a professionally-recognized brand of fret polish/oil to keep the fretboard smooth, clean and playable.

7. No moisture!

Keep your guitar away from moisture at all times. This doesn’t just mean not spilling drinks on it! It also means don’t attempt to clean it with water, or with any non-recognized instrument-specific cleaning products. Equally, don’t leave it by an open window in heavy rain, or leave it outside!

8. Clean the pickups, too

Don’t forget the pickups! Dust and wool etc. can accumulate and ultimately affect the sound via unwanted noise and static crackling. Use only a dry cloth here! And keep those pickups clean!

9. Take care!

With all these specific cleaning tips, take care! Don’t spray products direct onto the guitar, spray them onto the cleaning cloth. If you’re uncertain, test the product first on a small area on the back or underside of the guitar before continuing. Don’t overdo it, start small, and be careful!

10. Toolbox

Not having the correct tool, cloth or implement is a quick way to put yourself right off guitar maintenance, period!

For this reason, it’s really advisable to get together a guitar-specific toolbox, fill it with all the bits you’ll need (which will also accumulate over time), so that whatever needs doing, you’re ready for it with ease.

CruzTOOLS make a highly useful tech kit that's worth investigating.

Alex Bruce is a writer for Guitartricks.com. GuitarTricks.com has over 11,000 lessons covering everything a beginner guitar needs to know to get started, as well as more complicated techniques like tapping, sweeping, scales, and more. 

If you love the sound of your zebra or black bobbin pickups, but have always wanted the striking look of chrome pickups, Phillip McKnight has the perfect tech tip for you. 

McKnight—whose gear-centric videos we've featured on this here website many a time—recently released a new one in which he demonstrates how to install chrome pickup covers.

As it turns out, all you need is a screwdriver, some solder, a soldering iron and either some liquid silicon or wax.

Take a look, and as always, visit Phillip’s YouTube channel for more of his videos.

In writing “The Old Room,” for my latest release, Era, I was inspired by two things: 1) a little gadget called the ToneWood Amp that affixes to the back of an acoustic guitar and enhances the natural sound of the instrument by generating some great sounding reverb and delay effects, and 2) an unusual new tuning I had recently discovered—open Bm9 (low to high, B F# C# D A D). For this month’s column, I will be demonstrating the guitar parts from this song, tuned one whole step higher, to open C#m9 (low to high, C# G# D# E B E). This tuning has a nice, haunting vibe that I find very inspiring.

The signature element in this piece is the variety of ways in which the strings are “attacked” as it unfolds. Along with conventional picking, natural harmonics and artificial harmonics, I also use fret-hand pull-offs as a means to “attack” the strings in the execution of pulled-off harmonics. In past columns, I had demonstrated this technique as applied to single notes, but here, I’m applying it to chords.

FIGURE 1 represents the first few elements of “The Old Room.” I begin by strumming an Asus2 chord, barred across the bottom three strings at the eighth fret, followed by natural harmonics performed by laying my fret-hand pinkie across the top three strings at the 12th fret, which is also strummed conventionally. I then pull the fret-hand finger off the strings while lightly touching all of the strings at the 12th fret with the index finger, sounding natural harmonics on all six strings.

In FIGURE 2, I repeat this pattern and end with a hammer-on to the fourth fret on the third string, followed by a pull-off to the second fret and a re-hammer back up to the fourth fret. FIGURE 3 brings in the next part, which is to add a fingerpick of the open second string, as well as a tap onto the sixth string’s seventh fret. Cycle this pattern as shown in FIGURE 4. FIGURE 5 illustrates the manner in which the first four bars should be played.

The next element involves steady alternation between the fourth and second frets on the third string while natural and artificial harmonics are added, as shown in FIGURE 6. At the end of this figure, the percussive elements are introduced as I strike the body of the guitar with my palm (kick drum emulation) and thumb (snare drum emulation). FIGURES 7 and 8 reveal further incorporation of these percussive techniques. In bar 3 of the song, I play a fast ascending hammer-on/pull-off phrase on the top three strings, shown in FIGURE 9.

FIGURE 10 brings everything together in the complete phrase. The challenge is in combining all of these different moving parts, so close attention to detail is essential.

Having worked as a tech on and off tour, as well as touring with my band, I’ve seen how bands use, care for and abuse their gear at all levels.

I often get asked by friends what they should take with them on the road—and what they should know about their gear before they really start touring hard.

It can be difficult to maintain your stuff when you’re just starting to make inroads as a band because you can’t afford a crew, but the schedule is still just as intense.

There are a few tips I always pass on, and a few pitfalls I often see bands getting stuck on. If you need to learn how to fix something, there are plenty of online tutorials, plus online resources such as StewMac.

01. This is probably the most important thing about touring in relation to equipment: INVEST IN GOOD CASES. It breaks my heart to see stuff get knocked around and breaking on the road because the user has spent thousands on their rig with no thought to casing their gear properly. Think of it as insurance against your stuff breaking and your show being ruined. If you can’t afford to case your gear well, you can’t afford your gear. Lightweight is always best. I use Pelican cases for just about everything. This applies even more so when you need to fly.

02. If you take a piece of gear on the road, make sure you can fix it if it breaks, or make sure you have a backup or alternative. If you can do both, even better. The most common problem I see happening is bands are using standalone digital rigs where one unit does everything. This is fine and dandy—until it breaks. Then you’re completely screwed. Make sure you always have a contingency.

03. Things on guitars will break. It happens. The most common ones are also the easiest to fix; it just takes a little bit of research and practice for the average Joe to be able to do the most basic stuff. Practice fixing guitars at home. Start by replacing input jacks, volume pots and pickup selectors, re-gluing nuts that have popped off, and, although it's not part of the guitar, knowing how to re-solder a broken lead is useful. Soldering is a great skill to have, and it makes it much easier for you to perform your own electronic mods at home, like a pickup swap.

04. Make sure you’re keeping your guitars clean. Especially important: Clean the hardware after the show. Get some string cleaner and clean them before and after every show. Your strings will last longer, sound better and feel nicer. This will prevent lots of problems due to poor maintenance, especially if you sweat a lot like I do!

05. Take a repair kit if you can. This will make your life a hell of a lot easier. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have the tools for simple repairs. The most essential ones are:

• A. Soldering kit
• B. Cable tester
• C. Screwdriver/allen wrench set
• D. Small tube of super glue
• E. A few spare lead connectors
• F. At least one spare volume pot, jack and toggle switch
• G. String cleaner, polish, polish cloth
• H. Gaff.

06. When you arrive at the show, un-case your guitars and keep them as close to the stage as possible. Guitars are made of wood. Wood is an organic substance that reacts to humidity and temperature. Especially if you’re playing clubs, it can get super-hot and humid on stage, and if your guitars aren’t acclimatized, they won’t hold tune.

07. Stretch your strings properly when you change them! This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s insane how many people skip this part. If they’re stretched, they’ll hold tune. If they aren’t, you might as well just not play.

08. It's not essential for touring, but it’s good to know a few of the basics when it comes to setup, especially neck relief, action and intonation. On tour, neck relief is something I check every day, it’s good to be able to gauge it and adjust accordingly (And it will change as you travel). This will ensure that your guitar plays and sounds its best, regardless of the climate.

This sums up all of the usual things I recommend. The most important part of touring, though, is to have as much fun as you can, meet as many new friends as you can and pick up as much knowledge as you can from the people you’re on the road with.

Josh Smith plays guitar in Northlane. For more about the band, including their current tour dates, visit the band on Facebook and northlanemerch.com.

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Written by Don Stick on behalf of Bands for Hire.

Most guitarists are fairly fanatical about the tube amp. There is something about the glow of hot glass and the imposing sight of weighty iron through the grille that seems to sum up so much of what's cool about the electric guitar.

Some of the tube amp designs of the last 60 to 70 years have oozed so much aural and visual mojo that it's difficult to imagine the course of electric guitar playing's evolution without them. Many of these designs have been refined and re-packaged by now in a bewildering number of (often complex) formats; but the heart of a tube amp and the circuits on which it is based have actually changed very little.

Now, I'm not suggesting that the untrained electrician or the DIY hero should consider going elbows-deep in circuits that can contain upwards of 500 volts.

An open tube amp may have the potential to kill you even when switched off; and even if you have the knowledge, the best tube amps are far too exquisitely engineered under the hood to be messed about with by just anybody.

As with most things though, there is a lot that can be achieved with just a basic level of knowledge—and if nothing else you might save yourself a trip to the amp tech!

Preamp Tubes

These are the smaller tubes that you can see on your amp's chassis. They are often—but not always—hidden behind metal sheaths that are there primarily to reduce microphonics. Most modern amps are designed around 12AX7 preamp tubes, which have a very high gain factor, and generally the brands that tend to be fitted at the factory (common ones include JJ, Ruby, Sovtek and Shuguang) are robust and will perform well.

Preamp tubes—in terms of reliability—can be thought of a bit like lightbulbs. Most will work well for several years, but occasionally one will fail prematurely for no apparent reason. Tubes can be very consistent but arguably are not made as well as they were in their heyday around 50 years ago—and even with the best production techniques in the world, they are simply being asked to do a lot of work. A 12AX7, which sits in one of the early stages of a high gain circuit, will tend to fail quicker. The more gain you supply it (from higher-output pickups or an aggressive attack) or ask of it (by turning up the gain control), the quicker it will generally wear out. As always, though, there are no hard and fast rules. I've owned 15-year-old Peavey 5150 amps that were still running the original tubes; I changed the entire tube complement out of habit, and it yielded no improvement in sound.

Having said all of this, if your amp does start having problems with background noise, microphonics; lower-than-usual gain; poor tone or no sound on one or more channels, the preamp tubes are a great place to start. The first step is to unplug effects from the front end and check your instrument cable against one that is known to be good. A systematic check of all your peripheral components—even your guitar—can pinpoint many problems immediately. Hum issues can be caused by pedal power supplies, a bad supply in the venue, or even running signal cables too close to power cables.

Next, disconnect any effects that are in your loop one-by-one, remove any loop cables and/or disable the effects loop itself. Again, once you have systematically tested each component and each cable you can rule those out. If you're down to one known-good cable and you find the effects loop itself is at fault, you can try replacing the tube that drives it. Most tube-driven loops are driven and recovered by two halves of the same 12AX7 and the manual or tube chart should make it fairly easy to identify.

At this point you should have tested and verified each and every component in your chain and you are plugged in with a working guitar, via a working cable, with nothing in your effects loop. If you still have noise, poor tone, or one or more channels out you need to start checking the preamp tubes. If all channels are down or the problem is global (amp is extremely quiet, muddy or is making spectacularly unusual noises, emitting smoke and/or the tubes are glowing a funny color), switch it off immediately and either call a trusted amp tech or refer to the next section of this story.

Your amp may have a tube chart affixed to the inside of the headshell in an easily visible location. Most amp manufacturers will make a similar chart available online, so if you have internet available, now is a great time to use it! It's handy simply to know which preamp tube is V1, V2, V3. etc.—they will generally progress in a reasonably logical order from one side of the chassis to the other, and you can normally suspect the earlier tubes first for tone or background noise issues. If you can't get your hands on a tube chart, simply turn your amp off, unplug it for safety, remove the appropriate grille from the front or rear of your amp and "roll" a known-good spare tube through each position in turn until the problem goes away. Simple trial and error may get you up and running in a pinch—just bin the faulty tube and carry on!

If you have a channel-switching amp and the problem exists on—for the sake of argument—only two of three channels, your route to a solution may be even simpler. If you have a tube chart telling you that your two affected channels share V1 and V3 for example, you can immediately suspect those tubes. Some amps have a dedicated 12AX7 for the clean channel alone, for example, which can make diagnosing problems with that channel simpler still. Most modern channel switching amps like the Marshall JCM2000, JVM, EVH 5150III and Mesa/Boogie offerings will share tubes between channels in order to improve internal layout, so a logical approach (similar to that used diagnosing a blown fuse in a car) can go a long way. Other amps like the Marshall 6100 Anniversary actually have a discrete set of preamp tubes for each channel, which can make them internally complex but simplifies your job even further when diagnosing preamp tube problems.

Power Tubes

This is the larger set of tubes visible on your chassis. They are generally of either EL34 type (taller, "British" style tubes), 6L6 type (fatter, "American" style tubes) or occasionally manufacturers like Soldano will use 5881 (a robust military-grade 6L6 equivalent). Smaller amps like the Vox AC30, Peavey Classic 30 or a Soldano Astroverb may use EL84 tubes, which are barely any bigger than the 12AX7s in their preamp! Smaller Fender types often use 6V6 tubes, which are also smaller. The first step is to simply identify which tubes your amp relies upon for its power stage, and carry a quality matched pair or quad of the appropriate type. At this stage it's best not to assume types are interchangeable, although amps like the Carvin Legacy, Cornford MK 50H II, and most modern Mesa/Boogies will accept 6L6 or EL34 via a rear panel switch. The Simul-Class Boogie Mark IV and a handful of others will actually accept two of each type. If in any doubt whatsoever, do not substitute one tube type for another!

Generally, when power amp tubes fail they do so either quickly (amp lights up but produces no sound), or spectacularly (generally by glowing an unusual colour or making loud pops or bangs, followed by complete failure). They can also deteriorate more slowly over time, resulting in a loss of top end detail or low end power. If everything else in your chain is good but your amp just seems to lack sparkle or authority, it's a great idea to try a new set of power tubes—you may find the old set were still performing well enough to be kept as an emergency "spare spare" set! It's worth mentioning again at this point that if your amp starts smoking or producing a burning smell, it's likely that the damage is more extensive. Failed power tubes can sometimes take out their protection circuit, occasionally overheat part of the board, or in extreme cases even blow an output transformer. Switch the amp off immediately, grab a backup (you packed one, right?) and call a tech!

Unlike the preamp tubes, which can replaced on a "plug and play" basis, the power tubes in most amps need to be biased for optimum performance. The phrase "fixed-bias" does not mean the bias is not adjustable, more that it is adjustable but to a fixed ideal point. Power tube bias can be thought of a little like the pressure in a car tyre; too much or too little can result in poor performance characteristics and/or reduced lifespan of the part.

Power tubes are generally biased as a matched set of four (like in most 100W amps), or as a matched pair (like in a 50W amp). Some class AB amps like the Marshall DSL are biased separately on each of their two distinct push and pull "sides," allowing for two matched pairs to be fitted in place of a matched quad—or in a 50W amp, two unmatched tubes to be fitted in place of a matched pair. This, however, is probably your amp tech's territory, so if in doubt you should just carry a matched set of whatever tube complement your amp carries.

An unmatched set, or individual replacement of one or two failed tubes will likely get you through a gig, maybe even the remainder of a short tour in a pinch, but the power tubes should always be appropriately matched and correctly biased for optimum long-term performance.

If your amp belongs to the "non-adjustable or preset bias" category (this includes early fixed-bias tweed Fenders and some Mesa/Boogies, among others) this may lead you to believe that any power tubes can be fitted without a compromise in performance, and some marketing tends to further mislead on the subject! What it actually means, in short, is that the amp itself does not feature adjustable bias, and instead the tubes must fall within a safe range for the amp.

Again, like a car tyre, the safe range is fairly broad—a somewhat colder tube set will usually feel slightly less responsive but will last significantly longer, and a hotter set will feel more lively but will wear out quite fast. It's fairly standard practice for production amps to be biased a little cold from the factory; meaning that even a hotter set of tubes won't pull them out of the safe range. This is essentially the principle behind a non-adjustable bias amp; it will have a colder bias set at the factory in order to safely accept a wide range of tubes, negating the need for adjustment while maintaining good overall performance. If you have a non-adjustable bias amp, you can either replace your tubes like-for-like (relatively easily done if the existing set have a rating label attached to them), or talk to a reputable tube retailer who will be able to sell you a set that fall within the ideal range.

An interesting case in point: Mesa/Boogie set themselves up many years ago to supply both amps and replacement tube sets matched to those amps. If you are a Mesa/Boogie owner, you can simply replace your factory tubes with an identically rated set, or even change to a different rating for earlier or later breakup and a different playing feel. You pay more for the additional steps involved in testing the tubes (Mesa/Boogie's testing regimen is among the strictest in the business) but you may save the money back later in increased reliability or by negating the need to have your amp biased regularly. It's a slightly different way of doing things that may work for youand since Mesa/Boogie are really just testing, re-branding and labelling tubes from other reputable manufacturers such as Ruby and Shuguang, there is no tonal compromise. Equally, if you wish to change brand, you can simply talk to a reputable aftermarket supplier who will specify a set of tubes that match your amp's requirements.

One final type of amp worth knowing about is the cathode-biased type. These tend to be lower in wattage and are sometimes operating in Class A—another kettle of fish entirely! Cathode biased amps include the Vox AC30, Bad Cat Black Cat 30, Cornford Roadhouse 30 (but not 50), Matchless DC-30, and many more. These can truly be described as self-biasing; they will accept any matched set of appropriate power tubes and—in a nutshell— bias themselves accordingly by design.

It's also worth being aware at this point that the last 12AX7 tube, the phase splitter or phase inverter (PI), actually belongs to the power amp. Generally, this one will either do its job or won't, and it will be labelled in the amp's manual or on its tube chart. I've personally never had one fail in twenty years of playing tube amps, but if your PI does fail, it's a plug-and-play affair. It is also tonally non-critical—so any robust, functioning 12AX7 will do nicely.

Modifications

With a little research, there are many simple preamp modifications that can be performed by the enthusiastic DIY electrician or (perhaps more advisably) by your tech. However, you can tweak your amp's performance a little without even opening her up. As discussed above, varying your amp's bias (some amps offer the adjustment via the rear panel) within a safe range can fine-tune its handling characteristics. Changing to a different brand of power tubes altogether offers another way to tune your sound; some brands will be brighter, warmer, fuller, more aggressive or more dynamic and enough alternatives exist to taste-test several over the years, even keeping a couple of sets in rotation. A little time spent researching the varying flavours can point you in the tonal direction you crave - the differences are not vast but they can be surprising, and a set of new tubes is cheaper than a new amp!

Preamp tubes, too, offer an opportunity for user customisation. Even modern, relatively high gain 12AX7s come in various subtly different tonal flavours, and you can change to a lower gain 12AX7 in one or more positions to alter the response of your circuit. Alternatively, swapping one 12AX7 for a 12AU7 or 12AT7 will dramatically lower the gain.

I like to keep a 12AT7 handy—if I find a channel too gainy or sizzly I can substitute it in one position, shaving off 30 to 40 percent of apparent gain without drastically altering the feel or EQ. If you are not a high gain player and find the last channel on your amp unusable, this is a handy trick to know! Similarly, swapping your stock tubes for high gain/low noise Chinese types can have the opposite effect if your amp is a little gain-starved or unresponsive. NOS (new old stock) tubes are often higher in gain and tonally richer than modern alternatives too, but they do command a hefty price tag.

Tube amps are a huge subject; for many guitarists they are a rabbit hole as deep and as fascinating as the playing itself. Most of the world's great designers and modders were players first (Leo Fender and Jim Marshall were two major exceptions!) and often the playing feel, even more than the sound, is what makes a good circuit great. Most of the great original guitar circuits were derived from nearly 100-year-old radio manuals, and many of the best modders (including the famous Mike Soldano) were self-taught. If you want to learn more along these lines, I recommend Dave Hunter's The Guitar Amp Handbook, which digs a lot deeper.

Written by Don Stick on behalf of Bands for Hire.

Sometimes you just need to make a change!

With that in mind, we asked our very own Paul Riario to create a video showing you how to change the speaker in your guitar amp.

In the video below, which is presented by Celestion and Guitar World, Riario installs a Celestion G12 V-Type 70-Watt speaker into a Blackstar combo.

You'll also notice Yngwie Malmsteen makes a brief appearance! Regardless, check out the clip and let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook.

For more information about Celestion speakers, check out celestion.com.

And if you like this sort of thing, be sure to check out Riario's first feature film, How to Build a Pedal Board," which features a brief appearance by Mick Mars. Enjoy!

One of my recent columns dealt with some of the things that can go wrong with your guitar’s top nut. Big slots, thin strings; the perfect recipe for horrible buzzes and rattles.

I realize you’re eager to dig out some tools and learn how to repair your faulty nut. Me too. We’re almost there, but, just for a moment, let’s take it down a notch. Think baby steps.

Those nasty string buzzes and rattles can also be caused by nut slots that are cut too low. In extreme cases, the string(s) might actually be sitting on the first fret; or often a string just has to be close enough to the fret to make contact when it’s struck open.

Your gut reaction might be to grab a hammer to beat the offending top nut to death and glue a new one in there. But wait. Just like a nut with worn or over-wide slots, you can repair perilously low slots with super glue.

Again, as Dick Van Dyke would say, diagnosis is everything. Don’t approach your guitar with any tool until you know A) what the problem is, and B) what you need to do to fix it.

Last time I mentioned that you should always make sure that a guitar is tuned up to pitch—or to any alternate tuning that it may be set up to handle. If the tuning isn’t right, it can affect the neck.

If the slots on the nut appear too low—you’re getting the buzzes and rattles when you play open strings, etc.—it could be that the neck needs to be adjusted. If the guitar is tuned too low, the neck won’t have enough tension on it and could be over-bent.

In layman’s terms, this means the middle of the fingerboard is higher than the headstock and body end. This can cause the strings to buzz over the first five or so frets.

To check if your guitar’s neck needs to be adjusted, you have to eyeball the neck itself. Hold the guitar by the body (See PHOTO 1 in the gallery below), never the headstock. If you hold the guitar by the headstock (See PHOTO 2), you’ll put pressure on the neck, which, although slight, will give you a false reading of the neck’s "straightness."

Now look down the bass side of the fingerboard (See PHOTO 3). Try closing one eye. You’ll look like Popeye, but it will help you focus. You should be able to tell if the neck is straight, dipped or over-bent. Repeat the process with the treble side of the fingerboard.

Armed with this information, you can decide whether the neck needs to be adjusted. Speaking of which ...

Soon, I’ll show you how to finish adjusting the neck and begin the process of repairing the slots in a faulty top nut. For the latter job, you’ll need super glue, which doesn’t cost much, and nut files. You can buy a set of nut files of varying gauges (about $140) from the likes of Stewart-MacDonald; or buy a single file (about $25) if you’re tackling a particular slot.

I would recommend investing in a full set. That way you’ll be able to build a top nut from scratch one day ... one of the most satisfying guitar maintenance jobs there is.

That’s something I’ll talk you through very soon. See you next time.

Since the dawn of mankind, humans have been searching for shortcuts. The quickest way to the top has always been an elusive path to discover, but I’m here to light the way–at least as far as guitar is concerned.

That’s right, friends. Have you ever found yourself muttering under your breath, “Dammit, why don’t I sound good?” If so, read on.

You see, the key to sounding better on guitar has nothing to do with actually practicing. It’s much more important to create a shroud of mystery as you concoct your face-melting licks. This veil consists of rich, sultry distortion covered in milky, wet delay.

Upon dialing in this sonic orgasm, you’ll instantly find what you’ve been looking for. Your clothes will fit better, your hair will look shinier and your sound will improve exponentially, all without the monotonous ticking of a metronome.

Look, I could sit here all day showing you the dots, so if you’re down for connecting them, look no further than distortion and delay, my child.

Tyler Larson is the founder of the guitar-centric brand Music is Win. His insightful, uncomplicated guitar lessons and gear demonstrations along with entertaining, satirical content about life as a musician receive tens of millions of video views per month across social media. Tyler is also the creator of the extremely popular online guitar learning platform, Guitar Super System. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tyler has been teaching guitar for over a decade and operates a production studio in Nashville, TN.

While melodic guitar playing isn’t genre-specific, it's an approach several guitarists in the progressive-rock spectrum tend to employ. It leads to a flowing, expansive sound consisting of triumphant melodies, emotive chord progressions and saturated distortion.

Among these characteristics, certain secrets can be discovered by comparing musicians in an effort to understand aspects of their songwriting and guitar playing that lead to the finished product that we hear. These intricacies are many, from the type of gear they use to the influences they draw from.

Getting down to fundamentals, though, there are a few ways to take a simple musical situation and sprinkle in some melodic fairy dust to yield a new creation. For example, one of the first feats of finger strength a beginning guitar player tries is the standard barre chord.

As such, amending this bar chord to include more expressive intervals, such as an added ninth, is a simple and effective way to meet the criteria for melodic guitar playing—emotive chords. The video below shows how you can turn major and minor barre chords into more complex and interesting shapes.

Another easy pivot from standard to melodic sounds doesn’t have to do with pitch at all, but with rhythm. Leaving common time signatures like 4/4 or 6/8 and using more adventurous ones like 5/4 or 7/4 is a quick way to turn your traditional riffs into melodic masterpieces. By pulling yourself out of your comfort zone and into a more uncomfortable meter, you’re forced to use your ear to stay in time at certain points, which is an awesome method to break habits and form new creative processes.

Tyler Larson is the founder of the guitar-centric brand Music is Win. His insightful, uncomplicated guitar lessons and gear demonstrations along with entertaining, satirical content about life as a musician receive tens of millions of video views per month across social media. Tyler is also the creator of the extremely popular online guitar learning platform, Guitar Super System. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tyler has been teaching guitar for over a decade and operates a production studio in Nashville, TN.

Warning: the sound you’re about to experience was achieved by professionals (or wannabe professionals), so for your enjoyment and the irritation of neighbors around you, please DO attempt any and all of the instructions you’re about to hear.

One question I constantly receive from my Guitar Super System students is something along the lines of, “How do I get the heaviest sound possible?” While the real answer is to time travel back to Paris in 1970 and steal Tony Iommi’s rig, I try to be as helpful as I can, so I created a video lesson that describes certain techniques and approaches to get the heaviest sound out of your guitar, regardless of your amp or gear setup.

Step 1: Drop Tuning. This should be obvious, but tuning your low E string to drop D will instantly fatten up your sound. If you’re feeling really boisterous, you can share the wealth with all six strings and descend to drop Db or drop C. Just remember, too much down tuning may require an increase in string gauge to avoid buzzing. These low tones may also call for a change of underwear.

Step 2: Expansive Chords. Anybody can down tune their strings. It’s what you do with that tuning that allows you to find a sincerely heavy sound. By utilizing open strings and hitting chords that take up the most possible space in the sound spectrum, you’re guaranteeing a formidable resonance out of your amplifier. Crank up the gain and try some stacked fourth or fifth note combinations. Remember, it’s not necessarily about the amount of strings you’re playing–it’s the attitude you’re playing them with.

Step 3: Palm Muted Rhythms. Take a page out of the book of Dave Mustaine as you search for the densest noise your ax can muster. The blend of muted strings with the proper harmonic choices can yield a seriously deep sound fit for a metal god, so do ensure you have your wits about you before you gallop toward the throne with these heavy syncopations.

For the full list of tips on how to sound heavy on guitar, check out the video below.

Tyler Larson is the founder of the guitar-centric brand Music is Win. His insightful, uncomplicated guitar lessons and gear demonstrations along with entertaining, satirical content about life as a musician receive tens of millions of video views per month across social media. Tyler is also the creator of the extremely popular online guitar learning platform, Guitar Super System. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tyler has been teaching guitar for over a decade and operates a production studio in Nashville, TN.

In this new Guitar World video, GW Tech Editor Paul Riario shows you how to install a Super-Vee BladeRunner tremolo system.

The BladeRunner offers the company's patented "Blade" technology, frictionless action and a positionable whammy bar.

For more information, visit super-vee.com.

Also, be sure to check out Riario's reviews of the Super-Vee Maverick Telecaster Tremolo System and the Super-Vee Mag-Lok Tremolo Anti-Deflection Device.

Timing in life, as they say, is everything. It’s obviously pretty important in music, too, so let’s talk tempo.

As songwriters, we think of tempo as the most basic of basics. Tempo, or the speed at which we perform a song, is sort of the quiet engine, the driving force behind all our tunes; yet, because we consider it so "Songwriting 101," tempo can sometimes become songcraft’s sadly neglected middle child.

The hard, cold facts are these: Perform a great song too fast and you’ve lost the race. Play a great song too slow and the only animal left in the barn when you finish will be the turtle you rode in on. Your audience may never intellectualize your tempo miscalculations, but they will certainly feel them and sense something’s "off."

Disclaimer: I have to admit I’m pretty horrible at picking the right tempos for my tunes. Conversely, I know a lot of songwriters who are just plain naturals at the process (hate them). If you’re one of the former, here are a few survival tactics I’ve developed over the years:

Recording

Before you begin to record those new songs with your band, have all your tunes' tempos decided upon and documented via the BPM (beats per minute) standard of tempo measurement.

Despite your drummer’s claims of his "killer" feel and his promises of an early departure from the bar the night before recording, the studio is a bad place to pick tempos. There's just too much going on.

Every home Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) comes with a click track and BPM tempo controls. If you have one, use these tools and mess around with your tempos offline, on your own time. Even record yourself with just one instrument and a vocal at different tempos and listen back until you find the right tempo that works for each particular tune. Then write them down. Even if you don’t plan on recording to a click (aka fixed time) in the studio, your pre-selected tempos will make for a great reference/starting point.

Don’t have a DAW set-up at home? Check this metronome app for iPhone or this free online metronome. These will help you get the job done. And if all else fails, get your hands on an old-fashioned metronome.

Another tempo-finding hack I’ve employed goes like this: Think about your new song and try to recall a favorite tune from another artist that might have a similar vibe or feel. Dig out that artist’s track and try and figure out what tempo their song lives at. You can do this by using the "Tap" function in your DAW or app.

Once you establish the model song’s tempo, apply that BPM to your tune. It may not be perfect, but it probably will be close. Adjust accordingly and quietly give thanks to super producer Jack Douglas for helping you pick out a tempo for your song via that old Aerosmith record.

Live

The same thoughts apply. Before leaving that dingy rehearsal room and stepping on stage, try and get your tempos in place. If your drummer is tempo-challenged (and a bunch of good drummers are, believe it or not), they make a lot of tempo-keeping gear for live application that can be used as an on-the-fly reference. If you can, use these tools. They will stop you from playing that 45-minute set in 15 (Been there, done that).

Mark Bacino is a singer/songwriter based in New York City. When not crafting his own melodic brand of retro-pop, Mark can be found producing fellow artists or composing for television/advertising via his Queens English Recording Co. Mark also is the founder of intro.verse.chorus, a website for songwriters dedicated to the exploration of that wonderfully elusive activity known as songwriting. Visit Mark on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.

If you’re wondering what it would take to start recording your songs, you've come to the right place.

First things first, you'll need a computer with a decent soundcard.

Then start saving up now for these!

DAW
You will need a DAW – or digital audio workstation - to record your sounds. Garageband, Logic, ProTools, Ableton Live, and Nuendo are the popular ones. You can find free trials to check them out. There are also other free programs online, but these are the most used.

AUDIO INTERFACE
An audio interface is what allows you to get audio signals in and out of your computer. It converts analog audio to digital audio to work with your DAW, and it converts it back to analog so you can hear it. There are many types of Interfaces with different levels of features at a wide range of prices. You’ll have to do some research to choose what is best for your needs.

MICS
If you record in mono a large capsule cardioid condenser mic is ideal.
If you are recording 2 things at once or in stereo, youll need two mics. You can use the same time of mic or get another one specifically for the type of instrument you play.
Keep in mind condenser mics needs phantom power. Make sure your settings are changed for phantom power on your interface when using these types of mics. It is a common mistake people make.

CABLES
You will need XLR and ¼ inch cables at the very least. Mics usually require XLR connections. Check the lengths you need. Shorter cables are always best for less interference and they generally cost less, but check how much you need in your own setting and plan ahead.

HEADPHONES and STUDIO MONITORS
Headphones are necessary for recording, and some people mix in them, too. They should be closed back, to prevent bleeding into your mic.

You should have studio monitors. Studio monitors give you a much more accurate sound than regular speakers that are usually tweaked to sound good or have more bass, etc. You’ll need to hear what is really going on in order to make a proper mix.

MIC STANDS
You will definitely need a stand for recording vocals at least.

POP SHIELD
It’s important to have one of these to attach to your mic stand. It will reduce plosives in vocals. These shields are inexpensive and with condenser mics they are definitely necessary.

TUNER
Some DAW’s have built in tuners. You may have to tune several times during recording.

MUSIC STAND
You may need one of these to prop your charts.

Shop around, this doesn't have to cost a fortune. Just about all of this stuff works just fine used, too.

Dorit is a rock singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and Middle Eastern Dancer. She has performed internationally on concert stages, TV, film, and theatre, and has inspired many students to find to their own expression through music and dance. Dorit’s current goal is to self produce her album and complete an acoustic guitar she hand built as a teenager at the Bronx High School of Science. Her influences include Led Zeppelin, Middle Eastern music, Latin music and old school hip hop -- anything with great rhythm. Find out more about Dorit here>>

The following content is related to the April 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.

In last issue’s column, we learned techniques that can help us break free from learned licks and “muscle memory” phrases and discover new sounds and soloing ideas all over the fretboard. As we saw, traversing a single string offers unique musical challenges as well as a variety of articulation options, and even more phrasing and melodic choices can be found when applying a similar approach to two-string pairs.

This month, I’d like to expand this creative exercise to include three strings, which I’ll demonstrate using the E Mixolydian mode (E Fs Gs A B Cs D).

PART ONE

PART TWO

Hello, guitar buddies.

This week, I'd like to discuss studio ergonomics. Basically, I'm talking about how you can arrange your studio gear for maximum efficiency and work flow.

The less time you have to set up your studio or arrange or plug in a piece of gear, the better. That means there is no lag time when you have a creative spark. Just turn the gear and go! And from a professional POV, that means you're always ready to make money!

So let's look at a few ways to improve your studio!

We all basically record onto computers now. Are you aware of templates? A template is a pre-configured setup that suits you best. It's a starting point. My personal template has 12 mono audio tracks, 12 stereo audio tracks and 12 MIDI tracks.

I also have a reverb and delay on my sends. I have a limiter and an EQ on my master buss. It takes minutes to do. All programs I use have them already made, or you can do as I do and customize it to suit your needs. You even can add your favorite plugins and amp sims, like AmpliTube, to the template. It's your happy little world!

Next, I have a mixing board setup with my various amp sims plugged in and ready to go. I have a Line 6 HD500, a Pod XT Live and a Fender G Dec. Each contains my favorite presets and customized settings. I also have a mic or two that are best suited to my acoustic playing plugged into a preamp, and I have a Marshall cabinet mic'd and ready to go with a choice of heads easily plugged in.

If I'm using the live amp, I keep the head in the control room when possible for ease of use. A combo amp negates this possibility.

Returning to the computer for a minute, I have three external hard drives ready to backup my work. It is only responsible to do that. As a matter of fact, when I leave the house for any reason, one of those hard drives travels with me. Once again, no excuses can be given when you are a professional.

I keep my favorite guitars all setup and restrung so all I have to do is reach over and grab whatever the song is hungry for. This includes a Les Paul, a Strat, a 335 and an Ibanez with a locking system. I never know what I'll need, so I just make sure my work axes are ready to go. I look at them like crayons.

Back to the studio control room: All my gear is within arms' reach. My sims and mixing board for routing is on my far left. My boutique (NEVE, UA, SSL) preamps and compressors are to my immediate left. I keep a good mic right in front of me that can be used to lay down any number of tracks from percussion to acoustic guitars to vocals. I keep my headphones to my left also.

I have two pairs of monitors for playback. Then to my right I keep my keyboard rack and line mixer with all my various MIDI modules. I prefer hardware keyboards over software but have my share of some outstanding software ones.

On my keyboard, I keep music paper for notation along with an assortment of pens. My chair is possibly one of the more important pieces of studio gear. I found one I liked. Can be comfy for long hours and removed the arms. They seem to get in the way.

Things you may not consider: Atmosphere. I keep the lighting the way I like it. I keep a pumpkin candle lit. I have lava lamps and paintings and pictures that inspire. Monitor height is also important. Don't want to crane your neck just to see what you are working on. Keeping your work area clutter-free is also important. It can turn to hell during a session. But before it starts it should be clean and neat. It should be something you are proud of and inspires creativity.

Lastly, every few months, I buy some new gear, and it needs to be added into the setup. This is the time to evaluate your present gear and see how much use it is getting. Don't keep gear in the studio just to look cool. If it has no purpose and you find you never use it, get rid of it. De-clutter. Put it away or sell it or even donate it. Good karma! Use what you need. Unless you're setting up a museum!

(Also) lastly, I'd like to reiterate that this is your studio, not a commercial studio. Use the software of your choice and set it up for you. A professional studio has to have a place where outside engineers can come in and know what is going on. In your studio the only one that matters is you. And let me tell you something else ...

I am one of three people who have any idea how to even turn on the gear in my place, not to mention how it's routed. And even if they got the gear on, they probably could not get audio out. Why? It's not to be secretive. It's because of software quirks.

But like a marriage, my wife knows my quirks and how to turn me on! And I know how to do the same with my studio relationship. And we've been together longer than my marriage!

Here's a quick video tour of my home studio from 2010. Some keyboards have been changed and pre's added, but it's basically the same:

Till next time … Ron Zabrocki

Ron Zabrocki on Ron Zabrocki: I’m a session guitarist from New York, now living in Connecticut. I started playing at age 6, sight reading right off the bat. That’s how I was taught, so I just believed everyone started that way! I could pretty much sight read anything within a few years, and that aided me in becoming a session guy later in life. I took lessons from anyone I could and was fortunate enough to have some wonderful instructors, including John Scofield, Joe Pass and Alan DeMausse. I’ve played many jingle sessions, and even now I not only play them but have written a few. I’ve “ghosted” for a few people that shall remain nameless, but they get the credit and I got the money! I’ve played sessions in every style, from pop to jazz.

I often get asked what is the best way to train for session work.

Of course, you have to be able to sight read, know how to read chord charts, have your gear together, and finally be able to play in various styles. Of course, we can and will go into great details in other blogs, but for now I am going to give you some advice I learned some time ago.

Learn cover tunes!

Years ago, I accepted a job to record 100 songs in 30 days! (Two other guys turned it down because they said it couldn't be done in the time allowed.) And not just guitar ... I was to recreate the current top 100 songs from the various pop, country and R&B charts. EVERY INSTRUMENT. Talk about trial under fire. The songs were used for years in shopping malls where you go in a booth and lay your voice over the track. It was a lot of fun and very popular at the time.

I learned, tracked and mixed three-plus songs a day for 30 days, 12 to 18 hours each day. By the way, there were no MIDI files to download of the songs at the time (mid-'80s). I had to chart them myself. I learned how to get the parts down quickly, get the sound fast, mix accurately. Sure, it was only going out to "mall people," but I had something to prove. And I did it.

Here's what you can do.

Download a few MIDI files of some of your fav songs, and songs that are popular now, and add the guitar. Pick from various styles. Try to make the guitar sound as close as possible. Match the tone. The notes. The overdrive. And of course, the playing. Listen hard to see if you can tell how many tracks are being used also.

Sound easy? Now do it on a deadline. Give yourself one hour per song, then do it again your way and be creative and make it better! Do this often enough and the quality of your listening power and playing power will grow exponentially!

Something we all know but never talk about is how people in the music industry have NO IMAGINATION! They just regurgitate whatever is hot -- over and over again till they run it dry. As you listen to the top songs of the day, you realize certain guitar sounds are always used. This is important, because when you get called for a session, most of the time it will be to play a part with a certain sound requested, often referencing a current song. You really have to know what is hot. Then you need the ability to create, or rather recreate it on the spot.

Now I don't recommend any insanity like trying to do 100 songs in 30 days! But if you were crazy enough to pull it off, the benefits gained would last a lifetime!

I have mentioned in past blogs that it is important at the beginning to take whatever session comes your way. This job was one of those with all three qualities you want to see in a session: good money, connections for the future and a lot of fun. And it didn't end there. Each month I would get called on to do a few more songs in the top 10.

Imagine the money and experience I would have given away if I said no like the two other guys before me! They cried about it, my friends. And now I'm the guy writing about it, not them. Who do you want to be and what do you want to do with your life?

Now GET TO WORK!

Till next time … Ron Zabrocki

Ron Zabrocki on Ron Zabrocki: I’m a session guitarist from New York, now living in Connecticut. I started playing at age 6, sight reading right off the bat. That’s how I was taught, so I just believed everyone started that way! I could pretty much sight read anything within a few years, and that aided me in becoming a session guy later in life. I took lessons from anyone I could and was fortunate enough to have some wonderful instructors, including John Scofield, Joe Pass and Alan DeMausse. I’ve played many jingle sessions, and even now I not only play them but have written a few. I’ve “ghosted” for a few people that shall remain nameless, but they get the credit and I got the money! I’ve played sessions in every style, from pop to jazz.

The last two blogs have been dedicated to some of the great slide guitar players past and present who have influenced me over the years. This week I thought it could be helpful to show y'all some of the tunings that these players use.

Open tunings present a myriad of possibilities to achieve unique and original sounds. Try the ones in my video, create your own or Google open tunings. There are endless possibilities here. Remember, be original; that's the key to success as a player and a performer.

Get down and dirty y'all!

G

G. Love, aka Garrett Dutton, has been the front man and founder of the alternative hip-hop blues group G. Love & Special Sauce since their inception in 1993. Widely known for his upbeat hits "Cold Beverage," "Baby's Got Sauce" and "Hot Cookin'," G. Love returned to his blues and country roots on his latest release, Fixin' To Die (Amazon, iTunes), produced by Scott and Seth Avett. A road dog if one ever existed, G. Love performs roughly 125 shows a year all over the world including Australia, Japan, Brazil, UK, Canada and the U.S. G. Love teamed up with Gretsch to create his own signature model, the Gretsch G. Love Signature Electromatic Corvette, which features a pair of TV Jones® Power'Tron™ pickups, deluxe mini-precision tuners and a cool Phili-green color scheme with competition stripe that would make ANYONE from Philadelphia proud! Check it out here.

Last time, I spoke about how one’s limitations in the studio could be put to creative use.

This time, I want to speak a little about miking guitars in the studio. An integral part of one’s recording projects are microphones and the positioning of microphones on guitar amps and cabinets in order to capture a desired tone and sound.

Speaking to many engineers over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that at the end of the day, there is no single miking method and technique that is favored over any other. It really comes down to an individual’s taste -- and experimentation.

Recording meister Steve Albini further brought home this point to me recently when I put the question to him.

“Some people do have magic methods where they may take a particular microphone, place it a certain amount of degrees off-angled at a particular point, and position it a certain distance away from a part of the speaker cone,” Albini says. “But I haven’t found anything that works reliably 100 percent of the time.

"But what I have found that does work every time is being critical with your listening and trying to make intelligent choices. A lot of people sort of have a reflex where they, through force of habit, reach for one particular microphone to use on electric guitars, for example. I think that is a mistake as there are just as many different sounds coming out of an electric guitar amp as there are different sounds in a forest.”

And when it comes to choosing the right microphone for the job, it is another purely subjective matter based solely on the sonic wants of the individual. Again Albini offers a few closing points to help steer all us DIY musicians on to the right path:

“For wide-spectrum stuff that has got a fairly flat dynamic, that is a heavily distorted guitar that has got a lot of high frequency within a low frequency content but doesn’t have a lot of dynamic range, and where the signal is going to be coming out pretty much the same volume all the time, then something like a condenser microphone, which can capture subtleties and dynamics really accurately, is not necessarily going to be appropriate. It may be appropriate if there’s an extremely interesting high-frequency content and you really want a flat representation, then sometimes a condenser microphone will work great for that, but really a ribbon microphone would be more appropriate for this situation.

"If you have a very dry sound that doesn’t have a lot of distortion to it, but where the dynamic range is really wide and you need to capture a full-frequency spectrum, then using a dynamic mic would be a mistake because their dynamic range representation is not necessarily as nimble as a small condenser or ribbon microphone is.”

Joe Matera is an Australia-based rock guitarist who has played in countless original and cover bands over the past 20 years. As a solo instrumental artist, his current release is an original guitar instrumental track called "Face Off'," now available on iTunes. He also makes a guest appearance playing a blazing guitar solo on UK thrash metal veterans Atomkraft's cover of the Thin Lizzy classic "Cold Sweat," which is out this summer. He also is a Guitar World magazine contributor. For more info, visit joematera.com.

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