Imagine you’ve had a long day and just got home, sat on your favorite chair and started staring at the horizon onto the sunset, what genre are you listening to? If your answer wasn’t R&B, you need this article more than it needs you. The beauty of R&B is that it leaves space to combine …
Acoustic guitar pedals are often overlooked in comparison to their electric guitar equivalents. Over the years I’ve tested dozens of them, and in this article, I’ll be sharing my favorites at each price point. The list is broken down into effects categories, and there are options to suit all playing styles and budgets. Let’s get …
Since it was first introduced to the masses in the autumn of 1950, the Fender Telecaster has built a legacy that other electric guitars can only dream of. Responsible for some of the most iconic guitar tones in music history, the Telecaster’s popularity continues over 70 years after its original inception. One constant topic of …
Whether you’re shaping the tone of your guitar onstage, mixing drum tracks in your recording software, or processing live vocals, delay and reverb are two invaluable effects to have at your disposal. Although delay and reverb are often grouped when discussing audio effects, there are many significant differences between them. Indeed, they both affect the …
Originating from Southern gospel, American folk and blues, early country music was synonymous with the American working class and blue-collar lifestyle. With the earliest known popular country music having emerged in the 1920s, country’s sound was defined throughout the 20th century by legends like Roy Acuff, Porter Wagoner, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and …
The electric guitar was originally used to produce bright and clean tones by jazz musicians. Distortion was seen as something to be avoided in those formative years, but the advent of rock and blues in the 1950s marked a change in attitude towards distortion as an effect. Fast forward to the present day, and distortion, …
There’s an overwhelming number of solid state amps on today’s market with just about every big manufacturer having an impressive product line-up, jam-packed with features that you essentially couldn’t find in a tube amp because the technology is, by its very nature, limited. Think about modeling amps that can quite convincingly model hundreds of classic …
One of the most rewarding things you can do as a musician is building your equipment. DIY guitar pedals provide you with a perfect way to learn about the manufacturing of effects, and to create unique, individual tones. Of course, the easy option would be to simply buy a pedal from a trusted manufacturer. But …
Although the quality of overseas guitar manufacturing has improved significantly over the past 10 years, American made guitars are still the most coveted stringed instruments out there. And it’s not hard to see why. Some of these American brands, such as Fender and Gibson, have produced the best and most recognizable guitars in history, both …
Though the term indie stemmed from independent record labels, the name has become synonymous with the alternative music scene as early as the 1970s and 1980s, when bands began labeling themselves as indie rock or pop. With the modern sound stemming from the early 2000s from bands like The White Stripes and The Strokes, indie …