What makes the Taylor 214CE Acoustic Guitar so popular? Is it just another well-made guitar with a price-tag inflated by brand value? Or, do you get an instrument that is spectacular and memorable? Let’s find out.
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Fender has long been top of the heap for sub $200 acoustic guitars, and the CD-60 is no exception. We take a deep dive into the budget beauty, as well as looking at some alternatives if you find it out of stock.
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In an ideal world, we’d all roll to every show and every session with a full complement of amps. However, working musicians, especially the session guys, will tell you a preamp pedal is a lifesaver. We walk you through seven of the best.
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The list of things Eric Clapton gave to music is long and comprehensive, but one that probably fascinates players more than any is the fabled “woman tone”. When everyone else was going for bright and cutting, Clapton went the other way.
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One of the things that can quickly kill strings is they pick up dirt from your fingers and from the air. For that reason most people in the know will wipe down their fretboards every time they go to put their guitar away. We walk you through some of the steps you can take to extend your strings lifespan.
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More than arguably any other style of music, metal is the sound of a million different types of guitars. While of course there is no one “metal sound” (who sounds like Maiden and Behemoth?), there are guitars at all price points that will help you zero in on the sound you want. Let’s take a look.
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One of the mistakes beginners make is letting their guitar strings get dirty with finger gunk and sweat, and then wonder why their guitar sounds dull. We walk you through the factors in how often you should change strings.
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The past decade has been the era of unsigned artists. Today, every independent artist – solo. producer, or band –
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If you’re a left handed writer thinking about picking up a guitar, you might be wondering if you should try a right or left handed guitar. While there are no left handed pianos, there are many guitars for lefties. Let’s walk through your options.
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One of the great things about music is there are no rules, right? Well, almost. Many people think of acoustic and “classical” guitars as a close paring, but swapping out the strings can be risky business. We go over the reasons why.
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Chorus seems to have fallen out of fashion in the last few years, but with a resurgence of grunge and shoegazing, it’s making a resurgence. We discuss the effect (no pun) of putting it before of after your delay pedal.
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Some pedal orders make total sense, and then some are really a matter of taste. EQ and compression is one of the latter, and while most go compression first, we’re going to arm you with the knowledge to decide what works best for you.
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The next in our series of pedal order articles, we look at two of the effects you’ll find most often on people’s pedal boards. As always these things are down to personal preference, but we give you the knowledge to find the sound you’re looking for!
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Boasting vintage-inspired designs, modern playability, and an arsenal of unique sounds, the Fender Modern Player Series telecasters are for guitarists who want classic looking guitars that breaks the rules in a sonically pleasing way.
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While any guitar provides a wealth of tuning opportunities, adding on a seventh string opens up a ton of doors. Few bands playing 7 strings stick to any one standard tuning, so why should you? We’ve pulled out some of our favorites to get you going on the road to 7-string domination!
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In the first of our series on individual pedal order, we look at how swapping wah and compressor in the signal chain will alter your final sound. Conventional wisdom says wah first – but what happens if you go the other way with it?
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In just four years, the Boss Katana has quickly established itself as the number one choice for the budget minded guitarist. Now with the MKII series, Boss has extended the Katana’s capabilities to make it something that appeals to all. We take a look at this amazingly versitile sub $300 amp.
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What happens when a gifted guitarist’s promising career is brought to its knees by an incurable degenerative disease? Does he succumb to his vegetative fate of confinement to a wheelchair? Or does he go on to write music that becomes a beacon of hope for a new generation?
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There’s a point where music is loud enough to blow your hair back, but there’s also a point where an amp is loud enough to blow your eardrums to shreds. We walk through the mechanics of loudness, and talk about the volume of some classic amps.
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Electrical interference is annoying at the best of times, but if your guitar amp is picking up the radio, it makes it pretty much unusable. We discuss how this happens, and how to solve it.
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Many players look to change the characteristics of their amps by swapping out tubes to get a different warmth, or in some cases more headroom – or even less. We walk you through the differences between two of the more popular tubes on the market, the 6L6 and the 6V6.
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We review the amp that kicked off the mini head revolution, and allowed budget players to get some Orange tube goodness in a travel sized package.
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OHSC is a common term in guitar listings – especially when you’re looking at mid four figures and up – but for newbies it can be confusing. We walk you through what OHSC means, and why it’s important.
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The Fender Mustang I V2 has been around for years, and often gets overlooked for some of the newer modelling amps on the market. However, for the money this is still a great practice amp – as long as you steer clear of it’s weak spot. We take a look.
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Gibson’s VOS line represents the custom shop’s passionate tribute to the golden era of Gibson guitars. We walk you through all of the aspects of the VOS line that make it so special.
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Epiphone Les Pauls are great guitars at an awesome price, but with a few select mods can rival their Gibson counterparts. We walk you through all the mods you might consider, from bridge to nut and everything in between.
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The PRS SE Standard 24 gives you the opportunity to own one of the best guitar brands out there, but for a “Student Edition” price. But does this affordable model live up to the fabled Paul Reed Smith brand?
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