You can get some great bargains second-hand. Two things are in its favour – the guitars are generally cheaper than new (unless it’s vintage, or a limited edition of course!) and, being made of wood, the guitar, particularly an acoustic, will have mellowed and bedded in, making it...
With thousands to choose from where do you start? Playing an acoustic is easy – the sound you hear is the sound you get; okay you might get a bit more bass/middle/treble tone out of different guitars and you might add a bit of reverb and chorus, but...
Choosing make, gauge, composition and coating. Ask a hundred guitarists about strings and you will get a hundred different preferences – makes, gauges and composition. Strings come in different types for acoustic and electric guitars, can be coated or uncoated, wound or flat wound and in a myriad of...
Suffer from GAS and need another guitar? Do you really need it though? This was the reaction from my wife when I said I was looking at some parlour guitars the other night. I don’t have a parlour and thought it would be a useful addition – I could leave it...
Want to get rid of unwanted noise and buzzing? Tired of background noise when recording? Then you need a Noise Gate pedal. What do they do? Basically, they act as a signal ‘gate’, letting sound through above a set threshold and closing below this. All you need to do then is...
So why don’t more of us buy British gear? Okay, we buy mainstream Marshall, Vox, Orange and Blackstar amps, which are ‘British’ brands, but most of these are made in the Far East, although they will be designed here. Same with Faith, Tanglewood, Manson, Fret-King and Shergold...
Great fun and easier than you think! Not...
Amplifying the natural sound of your guitar. If you have an acoustic guitar and want to play live on stage then you are going to need to amplify it. At the end of the day you want what the audience hears to be what you hear ie: the natural...
Can a £200 electric sound good? Oh yes! With modern manufacturing, global supply of components and effective quality control a £200 electric guitar is no longer a bit of a dog, but can be a great budget or beginner guitar. Reading the guitar mags and forums...
Bag yourself a quality acoustic for under £1000 You can pick up a decent acoustic guitar for £200-£300 - check out Tanglewood, Epiphone, Sigma, Fender and Alvarez to name a few - but for £700 to £1000 you can get a really decent acoustic guitar that should have all solid...