Guitar Workbench 102
The Case for the Acoustic Guitar Amplifier
Congratulations, you just bought a brand-spanking new acoustic-electric guitar! You’ve got a gig lined up and can’t wait to show off the amazing tone of this new axe. So you plug in your acoustic to your amplifier and…bleh. Awful, thin, nasally tone emanates from the speaker of your electric amp. A common misconception is that […]
Gibson Southern Jumbo Review
The Gibson Southern Jumbo was introduced in 1942 as a more “deluxe” version of the J-45. Of course, the Southern Jumbo has gone through some changes since its introduction in the early 1940s. I got the chance to try Gibson’s 2020 iteration of this classic model for myself. Read below for my thoughts, and listen […]
What’s the Deal with Nashville Tuning?
Nashville, Tennessee has enough musical jargon to fill an entire dictionary. Today we’re going to dive into the world of Nashville tuning, which is also called high strung tuning. So what’s the deal? All you need for this tuning is get a 12-string pack of strings, pick out the octave strings, and string up your […]
Enhance Your Guitar Tone with Preamp Overdrive
Getting the tone that’s in your head sometimes involves more than just twirling the knobs on your amp. Learn how to utilize hardware or software preamps, and you’ll open up a rainbow of tonal possibilities for your tracks. Join me as I attempt to augment a standard rhythm guitar tone with a software preamp model […]
Unconventional Uses For Your Pedals
The pedal industry has exploded over the past decade, and most guitarists have a few extra pedals lying around. Today we’re going to take a look at some other uses for your pedal collection! Makeshift Attenuator There’s no denying it, guitarists like things loud. Nothing compares to the sound of an overdriven tube amp, but […]
Fender is Making Waves with Their Latest Pedals
Fender is making huge waves with their expanding line of premium stompbox effects. Each pedal is housed in an ultra-durable, anodized aluminum chassis and are all designed in-house by Fender engineers creating totally original Fender circuits. Each pedal features an incredibly clean design, complete with LED-illuminated knobs for ease of use on stage. The zZounds […]
A Tour of the C.F. Martin Guitar Museum and Factory
There are not many companies that have been open since the 1830s. For their first six years, all Martin guitars were made on Hudson Street in New York City before moving to Nazareth, Pennsylvania. In 1839, C.F. Martin and his family moved to rural Pennsylvania because it reminded them of where they grew up in […]
Wampler Tackles Digital Effects with the Terraform
Brian Wampler started his legendary career by modding pedals, and has always been a self-described “gear nut.” Not wanting to make something “boring” (his words) Brian decided to combine 11 custom-designed modulation effects into a single stompbox unit. He’s thrown Wampler into the digital realm with the Wampler Terraform multi-modulation pedal. The eleven custom-designed modulation […]
Three Tremendous Tremolos: Amp, Pedal, and Harmonic
Often confused with the whammy bar, tremolo was one of the first effects to ever be introduced for guitar. In this post we’re taking a look at a few different versions of this effect. What is Tremolo? There’s often a lot of confusion in the guitar community about tremolo and vibrato. Both are often used […]
