About two years ago, I decided to swap out the pickups in my custom Carvin DC145. It had been something I had wanted to do for a while since I wasn’t completely satisfied with the stock pickups. This is usually a problem with me. I am very pick-y with pickups (no pun intended!) and am very hard to satisfy. That being said, I’ve never been completely happy with one pickup or another. After doing some research, and being pretty sure I wanted Seymours, I decided to go with the Jazz in the neck and the Custom 5 in the bridge (also ssl-6 in the middle but I’ll mainly focus on the other two). I had ..read more

I lost a very dear friend and mentor to cancer. She was only in her early 50’s and it was a crushing blow to me because she had been so supportive of me during my formative teenage years. To add on to that, not even a month later, I was forced to make the decision to euthanize my Dachshund, who had been my close companion for nearly 10 years. Dealing with loss is never easy. Mourning and grieving are very difficult things to get through, but I know from experience that it needs to be dealt with in order to move on and continue your life. Fortunately, as a musician, I have the opportunity to e ..read more

I recently realized I needed to buy a new acoustic guitar, it’s been long overdue. I’ve been using a $300 Alvarez at gigs for about 6 years now and it’s just embarrassing. The reason I hadn’t upgraded in the past is because I maybe had an acoustic gig 2 or 3 times a year, so I was always too afraid to commit any money to it. This turned out to be more of a dilemma than I originally thought. I had invested much of my gear money into electric guitars, amps, and pedals, and almost nothing into my acoustic rig. This being the case (and me being too stubborn to sell any of my stuff) I realized I ..read more

Since I did a review on the Mayones QATSI in the past I thought I’d go a step further and talk a little about the Bare Knuckle pickups that the guitar is equipped with. In the bridge of this guitar is the Nailbomb (ceramic version) and in the neck is the Cold Sweat. Neck Pickup – Cold Sweat I really do like these pickups, especially the Cold Sweat. The neck version is alnico but Bare Knuckle does have a bridge version, which is ceramic. The first thing I noticed with this pickup was the clarity and punchyness in my lead tones. It’s not too thin or too thick, and sits somewhere in the middle a ..read more

In today’s political climate, people often talk about minority groups. Well, there’s one minority group we don’t hear anyone talking about…left-handed guitarists! Left-hand guitar lessons are hard to come by. In fact, we just finished exhaustive research and discovered that there is literally only one left-hand guitar lesson in the entire world. One. We searched for days and finally found it in the bowels of the deep interwebz. Here’s a picture of it… …That is horrifying. Okay not really, but suffice it to say there aren’t many left-handed guitar lessons out there. With 10% of the world’s p ..read more

It’s been some time since I “reviewed” something for my peers. I’d say that’s partially because my tastes in musical gear tend to be a little eclectic but also because I get so busy making music that talking about it sometimes seems tedious to me. I feel, however, that this unit deserves a review. I found myself in need of a piece of equipment that could handle my effects processing, preset management and rig control. I had previously owned an Axe FX Ultra and while that unit sounded great, I found it a bit difficult to work with. After much deliberating, I settled on the Line 6 Helix, based ..read more

I’ve been married to my lovely wife Heather for almost 4 years now. We had our first child, my beautiful baby girl Cora, 11 months ago. I can honestly say it’s been a real blessing for me. You know what else I love besides those two? GUITARS. Here are 8 tips on how to acquire more instruments without tipping off your significant other… Tip #1 Keep more cases and gig bags than necessary for your instrument collection. That way if you decide you need to add one more, you can simply insert it into an empty space in your case collection! Tip #2 Learn to love guitar parts. You can literally buy th ..read more

instagram.com/nathan_williams7Do you ever pick up your guitar, then suddenly realize you have absolutely no idea what to play? You may wonder…Should I strum some gentle chords? Perhaps play a peaceful song? Or maybe practice the pentatonic scale for the billionth time? (not that there’s anything wrong with that) Well my friend, the answer is… No. You shouldn’t do any of those things. Here’s what you should do… Just SHRED IT BRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If the instructional video above is unclear and you need further instructions, here are some bullet points for you to study rigorously: SHRED IT B ..read more

What makes a great electric guitar? Is it the way it plays? The way it sounds? The way it looks? The material it’s made out of? In my personal experience working with so many different music stores, it’s a never-ending theme once those guitars come off that delivery truck. What makes the best electric guitar? Some people are more traditional in that they favor Stratocasters, Telecasters, Les Pauls, and SGs. The others favor the more progressive guitars like the “pointy” Ibanez RGs, Jackson USAs, and PRSs. But in all actuality, all options have their strengths and weaknesses. Strats and Teles ..read more

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