Gear Diary
Ibanez Baritone
I haven’t had any previous experience with a baritone acoustic, and it’s an interesting breed. The longer scale neck and the lower darker voicing will definitely require a shift in my playing approach, but the tradeoff is an exciting new flexibility when singing with my limited bass vocal range.
Fret and Neck Overhaul
This is the long-overdue followup to my previous Emergency Fret Repair project. In this project, I demonstrate how to level, crown and polish the frets. I also show how to adjust your action, adjust the truss rod for relief, and how to intonate the guitar. Also, I demonstrate a tip to improve playability with a […]
Helix Screen Protectors
The Line 6 Helix is built like a tank. Mostly. Unfortunately, it seems that the plastic used for the screens is fairly soft, and susceptible to scratching. Take a look at this picture of my Helix on stage – yes, it’s mostly dust but you can also see some fine scratches. The scratches seemed to have […]
Ongoing Mackie DL32R Channel Failures
Our Mackie DL32R is acting up again! I previously described this problem back in 2017, with mixer channels intermittently failing. Fortunately, we’ve managed the last couple years with minimal issues on the DL32R. But over the last couple months we’ve experienced an intermittent hum on channel 8, and yesterday channels 8,16,24,32 all died completely.
PRS SE Custom 22 Trem Experiments
My SG has been transitioning into a project guitar, so I’ve been wanting an alternative to use as my gigging guitar. After having been spoiled by the lightweight SG, my Les Pauls just aren’t appealing for extended gigs and rehearsals.
Emergency Fret Repair
Last year, my SG took a spill and ended up with a nasty dent at the 3rd fret, where the guitar neck had impacted my mic stand.
Sayonara Riviera
It’s a bittersweet conclusion to the guitar that inspired me to start this blog back in 2009. I finally sold my Epiphone Riviera P-93. Let’s be honest, the idea of this guitar was always better than the reality of it. The reason for all of my experiments and tweaks was that I wasn’t satisfied with how it sounded. Turns out, a […]
ART Headphone Amp Repair
We’ve been using the ART HeadAmp6 6-channel Headphone Amp in my band for a few years, and it’s always worked like a champ. A while back however, the front panel lights began flickering disconcertingly and we were hearing some hum on a couple channels. I decided to crack open the case to see if it was […]