Humbucker Soup

“Tom O” writes: “Hi! Just found your site. I’ve got an interesting problem. I bought a 1966 Gibson ES-345 recently. I’ve had them before so I’m already familiar with using the model. What baffles me is that the middle position, which is usually sweet sounding when the inputs are in each channel of a Deluxe [...]

If you normally use Humbuckers, but want a P-90, the P94T drops right in place with no modifications P-90′s are great, but let’s face it: they are a major pain in the ass. You usually have to do some fairly invasive surgery in order to get them mounted properly. That’s fine if you don’t mind [...]

This is a celebration of my favorite pickups. The title may seem a bit much, but it is true; these pickups absolutely changed my playing style as well as my tone. I am a bit of a pickup nut. At one point I owned over 100 different pickups, but had only about a dozen or so in a guitar. This is a pretty clear indication of obsessive compulsive disorder. But, at the same time, it’s much better than spending your money on beer : – ). In all seriousness, I have spent the last 30 years in search of the holy grail.

Mini Humbuckers offer you the best of both worlds; they are humbucking (i.e. no 60-cycle hum), they are capable of great chime and clarity when you play clean, and when you use a lot of drive, they sound fantiastic. They will never sound quite the same as a full-sized humbucker, but they have a fullness and grit all their own. You really have to experiment and find the ones that are best for you, but it is worth the effort.

While it is nice that adjusting the intonation on your Les Paul is fairly strait forward, you might find that in some cases, you need to flip the saddle around in order to get more play out of it. These two Expert Village videos show you how it’s done.

I remember reading an interview with Eddie Van Halen in an early Guitar World magazine where he was asked to describe what lead him to nail a humbucker into a Charvel / Boogie Bodies strat body. He said something to the effect of wanting a guitar that “…sounded like a Les Paul, but played like  [...]

If you are looking for an Acoustic Electric guitar, and money is not an issue, there are a wide range of guitars to choose from. Here are the ten most popular high-end Acoustic Electric guitars available today.

Every time I look at a Firebird, I have to laugh. Gibson was so desperate to catch up with Fender back in the early ’60s, they hired a car designer to help them come up with something more hip. Personally, think the guy was on cat-nip. What a nutty looking guitar. But I have always loved it and think it is nothing short of hipster-doofus-genius.

Some are not sure how to differentiate a “Studio” Les Paul from a “Standard” Les Paul. Here are a few very simple ways to be sure