Paul Childers: Playing by his own rules
“Guitar-slinging superhero.” That’s how the venerable Nashville venue Acme Feed & Seed describes singer-songwriter Paul Childers – although you wouldn’t guess it from listening to Childers’ self-released 2017 debut, Naked Poetry. Stacked with soulful R&B influences and horn-fueled arrangements, the album serves its hot guitar licks — like the solo on “My Love of The […]
Experimenting With Pickup Wirings
The Fender Stratocaster has been my main guitar for years now, and despite the trademark five pickup positions that come stock on these guitars, I have always ended up using only one of them. While there are so many tones to explore on this instrument, I always end up falling back on position one, the […]
Eric Johnson on his Thinline Stratocaster
For over 40 years, Eric Johnson has dazzled audiences with his unique style of shredding. Throughout almost his entire career, he’s has used a Fender Stratocaster as his axe of choice. While he’s had his own signature Strat and pickups for some time now, Johnson and Fender have collaborated once again with stunning results. Introduced […]
To DI, or not to DI
If you’ve spent some time on any stage or in any studio, you’ve probably seen or used a DI box before. What is it about these magic boxes that seems to make every engineer’s job easier? Let’s take a look behind the curtain to reveal a little bit of information about DI boxes, as well […]
Gibson’s Modern Flying V Rises
Teased at this year’s CES show, Gibson’s Modern Flying V has surfaced on the company’s website. Available in three lacquer “prism” finishes (ebony, gold and silver) with hardware and pickups to match, the Modern Flying V features a contoured maple top on a mahogany body. A slim C neck is topped with a 22-fret Richlite […]
What is NAMM?
A few weeks ago, I and a few of my fellow zZounds cohorts jumped on a plane to head to the sunny winter wonderland that is Anaheim California for the 2018 NAMM show. If you in any way keep up with music gear, then I’m sure you’ve heard of this event. Be it a slew […]
Maintaining Guitar Humidity
For the longest time, humidity never crossed my mind when it came to my guitars. I mainly play solid body Jaguars in a band and only ever pick up my low-end acoustic when I’m at home strumming on the couch. It wasn’t until I moved from a basement rehearsal space to a main floor space […]
The Coolest Things we saw at NAMM 2018
Team zZounds is back from this year’s NAMM show and everyone’s still buzzing about all the sick gear they saw. From signature stacks to a new PA that sounds unbelievable for its size, to a certain nu metal icon, here’s the gear (and people) they were most excited to see. Electro-Harmonix 95000 Looper I was […]
NAMM 2018 Coverage
The zZounds crew is at the 2018 NAMM show in Anaheim, checking out all of the latest, greatest gear, and we’re documenting it all on our blog! Comb through our photo galleries, organized neatly by type of gear, to see it all — you’ll even find links in some captions to take you to zZounds […]
