Guitars feature articles
ArticleAdvice from a Guitar Tech - Kurt Bloch talks setup and maintenance for electric guitars
Kurt Block knows electric guitars. He has been working on them for three decades. He started out working on guitars in the bands he was in, and nowadays maintains the guitar collection at Gibson’s entertainment relations office in Seattle, one of eight in the U.S. — and 20 worldwide — that the company maintains to put on promotional events and p...
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Video: Andy Powers - Taylor's Master Builder - Talking about guitar building with the man who designs Taylor guitars
Andy Powers is Taylor's guitar design guru, tasked by company founder Bob Taylor to create new models, and in some cases, revise existing ones. In this video interview, Powers talks about how he redesigned the 800 series guitars, why solid wood guitars sound better, and the impact of scale length on a guitar's tone and playability.
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Video: Taylor Factory Tour - A video journey through the Taylor Guitars factory complex
Audiofanzine recently visited the Taylor Guitars complex in El Cajon, California, and we shot a lot of footage during a tour of the factory. We put together this video to give you an up close look at Taylor's guitar building process.
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Vernon Reid Talks Tech - The Living Colour guitarist on film scoring, DAWs, amp simulators and more
When you hear the name Vernon Reid, your first thought is probably of his work with Living Colour, featuring his speedy and inventive guitar playing. But Reid is also an accomplished composer, scoring for films and TV, and he enjoys talking about gear and technology. Audiofanzine recently had a chance to chat with Reid about those subjects and m...
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Basic Guitar Chords - Guitar essentials for writing songs and playing with other musicians
Some people may just want to learn the basic guitar chords to impress girls (or boys) on the beach or to modestly accompany themselves when singing. Whatever your reasons, here are some basic chords in case you already play another instrument or even if you are a true beginner ─ no complicated music theory involved!
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Avoiding Feedback with an Acoustic Guitar - Tips for Playing Acoustic Guitar Live - Part 1
Commonly used by electric guitar players, especially to liven things up, feedback is the worst enemy of acoustic musicians. In this series of articles we'll look into the solutions to play a relaxed acoustic set live.
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The Amp That Armed the British Invasion - Classic Gear Spotlight: The Vox AC30
In today’s digitally dominated world of music gear, one way to tell how highly a guitar amp is regarded is whether it’s been emulated in major amp-modeling software packages. One of the amps you'll find in virtually all modeling applications or plug-ins is the Vox AC30.
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Tips on Alternate Tunings - How to Adapt Your Electric Guitar to Your Alternate Tuning
Fans of alternate tunings (especially metalheads) will often find themselves with overcooked noodles instead of strings, compromising their sound. Here are a couple of recipes to make sure your strings are always "al dente."
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Soldering Basics for Guitar Players - Part 2 - How to Solder the Jack of an Electric Guitar
The musical instrument industry has chosen the best method for the internal cabling of electric instruments, namely soldering. But, as we will see in a moment, this way of connecting two conductors requires a little know-how.
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Soldering Basics for Guitar Players - Part 1 - Soldering Equipment for Beginners
The use of a soldering iron is indispensable if you need to change the pickups, a jack or any other component of your guitar. While changing a string is no secret for most of us, it's a whole different story when it comes to fiddling with the electronics. That's why we'll address the best practices for correct and reliable soldering in this seri...
