How-To Guides 5
Polish up on Fret Maintenance
A lot of guitarists are vigilant about changing strings and adjusting their guitar’s truss rod, action and intonation with a good setup, but there’s something to be said about keeping your gear clean. Everyone has that friend who asks to try out your guitar, then hands it back with the fretboard feeling like it was left […]
Go With the (Signal) Flow
Setting up your pedalboard involves a little more thought than just trying to fit everything together like a real-life game of Tetris. When using two or more pedals, experimenting with signal flow often results in significant differences in your tone. In this edition of Guitar Workbench, we’re taking a closer listen to how overdrive pedals […]
Ribbon Microphones 101
Attention, home studio musicians: If you’ve already invested in a large-diaphragm condenser mic or two, perhaps it’s time to add a ribbon microphone to your bag of studio tricks! Here’s a beginner’s guide to ribbon microphones and how you can use them to get that smooth, “vintage-style” sound you’re going for. Ribbon Microphones, Yesterday and […]
The Record Player’s Guide to the Turntable
What’s more surprising than the revival of the vinyl record market? The revival in people not knowing what a record player or turntable is, what the things on it do, or how they work — or that record players and turntables are, in fact, the same thing! If you fit this description, don’t fret: we […]
Beat Connection: Reggaeton
Welcome to zZounds Beat Connection. Beat Connection is a series that examines modern and vintage dance styles by providing you a musical starting point to get you going in that direction. Today we shift our focus to the tropical-tinged dance music of Puerto Rico: Reggaeton. Reggaeton holds this fascinating distinction of being both a completely […]
Apartment Rock
Whether you live with roommates or have next-door neighbors who are a bit too close, you’ve likely run into a problem every musician faces at some point: how can I practice through an amp, get decent tone, and avoid infuriating those around me? It’s a delicate balance, but if you take to heart a few principles and use the […]
Drum Accessories Every Drummer Needs
You’ve made it to the promised land: you’ve got a full drum kit and you’re ready to hit the road! But slow down there…you might want to double check to make sure you’ve got everything in line before you jam that minivan full of cymbals and shells. You may notice that certain aspects of your […]
Setting Your Pickup Height
Guitar forums are rife with posts about topics like how different woods resonate, what bridge setup gives you the most sustain and what nut material you should go with. Sure, all those factors can affect your tone, but if you break an electric guitar down to its simplest parts, what is really creating the sound […]
Beat Connection: Footwork
Welcome to zZounds Beat Connection. Beat Connection is a series dedicated to promoting modern and vintage dance styles the only way we know how. We do so by providing you a musical starting point to get you going in that direction. Today we focus on a style unique to our fair city of Chicago: Footwork.
