Recent content by BluesJr

Tube amps are generally going to be just as reliable as their solid-state counterparts if you just observe a few things about them: 1. Take a little extra care in transporting them. While you can generally bang around and lightly toss solid-state amps into trunks, back seats of cars, truck...

To get a hum-cancelling effect the coils has to be wound in opposite directions, otherwise you´d end up with a pickup that´s only two single-coils in one. however, the coils may be wired in either series or parallel, with the hum-cancelling effect preserved, but wiring two coils in parallel...

The following are GENERAL tonal characteristics of maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards: Maple--this is a bright, tight-sounding wood with a defined bottom end, a tighter midrange, and a crisp, detailed top end. maple requires a finish, so a lot of guys tend to think the fingerboard feels a...

I have heard some rumblings that bolt-on necks give a more open sound, but i don´t know if i would agree with that entirely. if a bolt-on neck is bolted as tight as possible, you´re not going to lose any sustain compared to a set-in neck or a neck-through design. bolt-on necks obviously have the...

Effects loops give you the opportunity to plug effects between the preamp and the power amp. This is best for modulation (phaser, flanger, chorus, pitsh shifting) and delay effects ( Time Base efx ) because it allows them to effect the distorted signal as opposed to the preamp distorting them...

ABOUT CABLES: Many guitarists have spend a fortune (and a marriage) to classic guitars, cool hand made amps and hip custom pedals and still has "El Cheapo" cables between these treasures. Do you think it´s part of the game to have the hiss and snap, crackle and pop when you play? Is it OK to...

Floating bridges are very hard to keep in tune. Here are some tips relevant to floating systems: 1. After installing new strings, and you´ve stretched the strings, do a few dive bombs on the tremolo to even out the string tension. 2. Install a locking nut in place of a normal bone nut. A...

Is your guitar continually going out of tune? This page will give you some tips to help keep your guitar in tune, and help it stay in tune longer. Playing a guitar that is out of tune annoying. Playing a guitar that continually goes out of tune give me the shits. So here are some tips on sorting...

The major difference between a transistor and a tube amplifiers is exactly that - the amplifying device. Transistor amplifiers use transistors to amplify signals. Tube amplifiers use vacuum tubes or valves to amplify signals. The basic operation of a vacuum tube can be compared to the modern...

What is True By Pass (TBP)? On pedals that have TBP the whole circuit is passed when the pedal is switched off, the signal goes from input-jack to output-jack true switch. There is practically no signal loss and no tone colorization. Most modern mass-produced pedals don´t have TBP, like Ibanez...

A power attenuator is a device placed between the speaker output and the speaker cabinet. It acts like a huge master volume control and permits the amp to be turned up most or all the way while absorbing most of the power generated by the amplifier and turning this power into heat. It passes a...

Every musical instrument amplifier has a rectifier. The rectifier converts the alternating current generated by the amp´s power transformer into the direct current required by the amp´s internal circuitry. Originally, all amps used rectifier tubes. They gave amps a warm tone, but rectifier...

Class A is a term given to an amp that runs its tubes at full current all the time, unlike most tube amps that alternate between running one set of tubes and the other set, each for one half of the wave. The set not in use is turned off by a positive swing of the grid voltage. Single-ended...