ChasingGuitars

Just Another Site for Guitar Lovers

Posts from the ‘Info’ category

From early carved archtops to laminated archtops to solid body guitar was mostly an evolution in the quest for more volume. See the History of the Solid Body Electric Guitar.

The archtop design was meant to increase the power and quality of tone an instrument was capable of in the days of acoustic instruments. It is effective in increasing volume and projection. Archtops were widely adopted before amplification was available.

The early acoustic archtop guitar was loud enough for small spaces and smaller performances. Once the pickup and amplifier were available many guitar makers like Gibson just attached pickups to the existing archtops. As guitars were electrified and were played at higher volumes, feedback became a problem that needed to be solved. Eventually the solid body guitar build from a hunk of wood routed for pickups solved this feedback issue. No more danger of howling when the volume was raised and the guitar was close to an amplifier. In the case of archtops or hollow body guitars that does not tell the entire story.

Ted Nugent with Gibson Byrdland

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Intonation is what keeps your guitar in tune when fretting notes. Easy with any tuner, be it clip on, pedal or good ears to get your guitar’s open strings set to standard tuning. But as you fret up the neck you want your guitar to stay as close to in tune as possible. If your guitar sounds out of tune when playing some chords or when playing fretted notes up at the higher frets your guitar’s intonation needs setting. Depending on what type of bridge, strings your guitar has plays a big factor in this setting.

When checking intonation and playing your guitar “in-tune” it is important that you fret notes or chords evenly and not use too much pressure. Especially if your guitar has high jumbo frets it is easy to press down too hard and actually stretch the strings out of tune. One reason why your touch is so important in your playing. You strive to fret notes by pressing down the string to the fret, but not push the string down further to the fretboard bending the note out of tune. Be careful with your fretting hand so you don’t inadvertently pull one or more strings out of tune by applying uneven pressure. If you press too hard you can make any chord or note play out of tune. Continue reading…

Back in the good old days of the late 1990s and early 2000, Danelectro was on a wild car ride with their crazy wah-style pedals. Note these are not actually all wah pedals. They certainly look interesting, light up and are great just sitting on a shelf in your guitar room. However they do sound pretty good in a weird and wild sort of way as well. Shaped like an old Cadillac and come in some nice colors and patterns. Continue reading…

What is your guitar’s scale and why does it matter? I will attempt to answer these questions and more.

I recently was chatting with a friend that has been playing the guitar for a few decades. I mentioned that Fender guitars generally have a longer scale than Gibson guitars and was explaining how this contributed to the way the guitar played and sounded. My friend was quite surprised that some guitars EVEN had different scale lengths. He could not fathom how it would affect anything, especially sound.

I have read on guitar forums and watched some YouTube videos claiming scale length, an electric guitar’s design and materials used to build the instrument do not matter… Only the pickups mattered! Even some very intelligent and knowledgable players actually believe this. Some acknowledge that it matters with acoustic guitars, but claim the pickups on an electric guitar is all you needed to be concerned about. The Internet has a way of perpetuating information that is sometimes not all together correct. I am here to tell you, when it comes to the way a guitar plays and especially the way it sounds…. EVERYTHING MATTERS!
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I recently completed a project I called the Gretschcaster and the main feature for this build was a Bigsby on a Telecaster. I wanted to make this build the best I can. Some of these upgrades can work for ALL Bigsby units and you may want to consider doing these.

I purchased a genuine USA made Bigsby B5 kit. Then, I headed to Callaham Guitar Parts for some nice Bigsby upgrades. Callaham has long made high quality parts and I have used them for many builds. Here is what I picked up.
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Recently I finished a fairly large pedalboard project for my home studio. I decided a smaller more portable one was next. I purchased a Pedaltrain Nano plus which measures only 18x5x1.4 inches (45.7×12.7×3.5 cm) and can hold about five or six pedals depending on their size. I think the Nano plus is just the right size. Comes with a soft case for easy transport.

I did not want to mount a power supply on the top and lose pedal space or daisy chain the power (using a One Spot). Daisy chaining is not always the best option as it can create ground loops and noise. Isolating the power is a better solution. I found that a Cioks DC5 Link 5-Outlet Effect Pedal Power Supply is one of the few that can be installed under this small Pedaltrain Nano plus (or Nano).

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I found that after owning several digital “do-it-all” modeler/effects units (like Line 6, Fractal, etc)… That I spent more time programming, then playing the guitar. I own really good amps and some great guitars so the modeling side of things was not really worth my time. Usually the presets that come with these units are not so great and tweaking is needed. I was able to get some nice sounds after taking the time, but the real thing is still better. I am not knocking these fantastic devices. The plus side is they take a lot less space than a large pedalboard and are actually cheaper. Digital has its place. In my opinion however analog is still better sounding to me for most effects (not all).

After sold off several different digital multi-effect units. I have acquired many more stomp boxes (mostly analog) and found that they were literally all over the room. I needed to build a new pedalboard for my home studio. My old pedalboard was too small and was a mess of untidy wires. So decided it was time to have a go at a better approach. I decided to base the new pedalboard on a Pedaltrain Novo 24 because frankly it fit in the space I have in my home studio. I have no plans to “road” this pedalboard, but of course it will be totally travel ready. If I do need to take some pedals out of the studio, I would just take a few on a very small pedalboard. This is not my first Pedaltrain and they are great and built to last. I sold off the old one when I bought the digital multi-effects/modeler. So I have now gone full circle!

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Thalia capo, G7 Capo, Shubb Capo, Kyser Capo and Dunlop Capo

Thalia capo, G7th Capo, Shubb Capo, Kyser Capo and Dunlop Capo

If you are like me and have owned multiple capos, then you may understand the difference a good one can make. Some capos can be a pain to use as they need constant re-adjusting and re-tuning your guitar. This water your time and hurts your focus on actually playing. I probably have spent more time and money looking for the best one for me. I wanted to share what I have learned.

The issues to consider are ease of use, fit, size-weight, being able to move without re-tuning or strings buzzing. Since guitars have different radius sizes, they way the capo fits across the strings is quite important if you want the tuning and tension across the strings would need to be even. Also want to make sure the using the capo does not scratch or damage your guitar.

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If you are fans of Fender’s offset guitars like the Jazzmaster and the Jaguar like I am. You may be quite interested in correcting what many players feel are shortcomings for Leo Fender’s high-end solid body guitars.

Fender American Vintage '65 Jazzmaster and Jaguar Guitars

Fender American Vintage ’65 Jazzmaster and Jaguar Guitars

I have recently completed two popular upgrades for my Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars. I would recommend these to anyone that has a Fender offset guitar.

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