This is a conversation that lots of people with strong opinions will have… plenty to contribute. Fortunately for me, this is my blog, where my opinion is the only one that matters! Potentiometers (pots) – CTS are the industry standard for a reason, and they have been making pots forever (all the variations that you’d want […]
This week I thought I’d give a quick rundown of some of my favorite tools, or at least the ones that I use most often. It really doesn’t take all that much to do most of this work, but there are a few things that make it much easier and faster. #1 A really really ridiculously […]
Happy Mother’s Day! Well, today I was planning on talking about this sweet Esquire reissue that I’m working on, but now I’m thinking not. I called my mom this morning and realized that I’m super grateful to have her. This year has been especially tumultuous for me, and without her support I might not have […]
Well hello again! This week I’m just going through a pretty simple wiring job and thought it would be fun to break it down piece by piece. To me, all of this stuff is modular. It’s like a whole bunch of smaller pieces that can be put together if you follow some really simple principles. […]
Welcome back! This week I’ve got a fun little mod that’s pretty simple to install as well as a quick ‘how to’ on pickup swaps. So first things first, let’s see what this puppy has under the hood. Alright! Well if this just looks like colorful spaghetti to you, don’t worry, that’s all I see […]
Hi there! “Why is there a safety pin on this humbucker?” and other common questions, the answers to which are way simpler than you might expect. This week I’m going to talk about two common pickup mods and dispel some common misconceptions. Yep, I’m talking about coil taps and coil splits. You might be surprised to […]
This week I’m gonna talk about my trustiest of trusty tools, the multimeter, and the feature that I use the most: continuity! If you have a meter, it’s the option that looks like this: When you are testing continuity, any time you touch the two leads to two metal parts that are connected, your meter […]
I’m trying something different this time. Instead of just spewing facts, I’m gonna get a little personal this week. Sorry if you came looking for knowledge. I’ve been working on guitars for like… forever. I don’t know why, but today as I was working on this ’90s Gibson Chet Atkins reissue, I was just thinking […]
This beautiful Gretsch didn’t know what was coming. When we first met, her dad was saying that she sounded a little darker than he would have liked, like a blanket was thrown over the tone or something. I agreed, knowing that humbuckers sometimes have that quality to them. Fortunately I know a handful of ways […]
OK! Here we go! Pickups are just magnets with a whole bunch of really thin, usually copper wire wrapped around them. You can call them “transducers” if you like, or “inductors,” or even “variable reluctance sensors” if you’re a nerd. The point is that the wire is insulated, unbroken, and has a beginning and an […]
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