Guitar Equipment
All guitar equipment related articles will be found in this section of the site. This can include anything from effects pedals to accessories such as straps. There will also be information on guitar amps and parts such as tone and volume knobs. The guitar is an instrument that requires a lot of extra equipment compared to most others, but that has become part of the fun of playing guitar. Each player can create a completely individual setup thanks to the wide variety in equipment and the constant stream of new products that improve a guitars sound or appearance. Check this section for the latest information on beneficial guitar equipment for your rig.
The Washburn WI66 Pro is a great guitar for a wide range of players from intermediate to advanced. The reason for this is its low price but high functionality and quality. The guitar comes standard with an all mahogany body and neck, a nice wood choice to get a deep and rich tone. If you had to compare this guitar to any other, it would probably have to be the Les Paul by Gibson, however, ignoring name prestige, the Washburn may have the Gibson beat in just about every way.
The WI66 Pro is made out of the same wood as the Gibson, but the Pro has a thinner and lighter body that make for more comfortable playing experience. Some may say that this gives the Gibson an advantage in sound from having more wood on the guitar, but the Wasburn still has a nice weight and size to it, and any difference is probably unnoticeable.
The paint job on most of the Washburns is also surprisingly good. These guitars are made in Asia, which facilitates their low price, but the quality is usually very high, and the quilted paint job of the model this review is based on is very nice, probably as good as most custom guitars or high end Gibson models.
The tone controls of the WI66 Pro are set up in a lightly different manner than most guitars of this general style. Instead of two volume and two tone controls, the Washburn has what they call voice control contour knobs, which supposedly should enable the guitar to have a single coil sound with certain settings. This system works pretty well at getting that kind of single coil sound, but it is no match for the real thing, and its hard to tell if a coil tapping system works better in general.
The Washburn also has an improved tuning system that seems to make a more even distribution of tuning inequalities that is natural to the guitar. Combine this with the high quality Seymour Duncan pickups that come on the instrument and you really have a great sounding guitar.
The Washburn WI66 Pro is a great instrument for someone looking for professional quality at a very decent price. What you get is something reviling or even better than some of the name brand guitars that cost twice as much, so its possible for a lot more players to have the kind of quality they deserve.
January 12 2010 | Guitar Equipment | No Comments »
One of the best ways to practice jazz guitar is with backing tracks that can play chord progressions and allow you to practice improvising. Improvising is obviously a big part of jazz, and in order to get proficient at it, you need to practice it as if you were performing with a band. If you have some good jazz guitar backing tracks, you can accomplish this with ease.
This is a big advantage because players in previous days could not use a computer to provide what a live band usually would. Players now have a lot more resources to learn how to improvise with. Not only can a computer imitate a jazz trio, but it can also help you improvise over other related styles such as hip hop jazz. This means you will be getting more jazz guitar experience and learning to improvise lines in more different situations.
Backing tracks are the closest thing to actual performance that you can get on your own, so this makes them a very valuable lessons resource. Instead of having to wait to get with a band to practice your real life improv skills, you can do it from the comfort of your own home.
There are a few ways to get these jazz guitar backing tracks. One of the best ways is to make them yourself on a program called band in a box, but this program cost money that you may not want to spend. Another way is to use any other type of music program to record some chord changes into and be able to play them back. This will be a less flexible and more time consuming system though. The last way is to buy the backing tracks. This will work alright, but they will cost money sometimes, and you will not be able to change the tempos.
Despite these problems, any type of backing track is better then nothing when learning jazz guitar, so see if you can come up with your own way to make them or make an investment in them that should pay off in the long run.
December 28 2009 | Guitar Equipment | No Comments »
Overdrive can be an effective addition to any bass guitar setup. Many players have used this effect successfully to boost their bass tone and play with more power and intensity. However, this is not just an effect that should be known by bass guitar players. Bass overdrive can be used to give music producers a crucial bass tone when they need it. Many mixes have been improved with the addition of a bass overdrive pedal effect added in, as it can really fill out the low end on a recording.
Overdrive is great for bass players who play in rock bands and need their sound to stick out more. This is an effect that has been used by Rage Against the Machine a lot to make their four person band produce a larger sound. One of the more interesting developments with bass guitar overdrive is the fact that dance and electronic styles have been using it more and more. The bottom line is that overdrive can give bass lines an extra punch that is desirable in many styles.
Bass guitar players should look for a nice overdrive pedal to get because it is just one of the basic guitar effects that you should have. You never know when you are going to be in a situation that may require some bass overdrive and as a good bass player, you should be prepared. They can also help you explore more areas of your playing because with overdrive engaged certain sounds are going to have a better or worse effect. Overdrive can help you discover new tendencies in your playing and let you develop some new ideas based on this different sound.
December 22 2009 | Guitar Equipment | No Comments »
One of the great things about the guitar, especially the electric guitar, is its ability to be customized and modified by additional equipment. A guitar modification can really set your instrument apart and make it more unique and desirable. Thanks to the large amount of custom parts and special equipment, the guitar can take almost any form imaginable, and its sound can be just as variable. It is a good idea to look through all the options available to you in regards to guitar equipment, for it could make a major difference in you sound and playing, and it keeps the guitar and interesting hobby.
Some of the best guitar equipment for modifying your sound and improving your instrument would be guitar pedals. They can completely change the characteristics of your tone by adding effects such as distortion and overdrive, but also things like reverb and delay. If effects pedals are not extreme enough for you, you can also use the computer these days to completely change your sound. With MIDI guitars, you can make a guitar sound like any other instrument. There is no limit to the possibilities of the guitar thanks to all the equipment available these days.
For more traditional tone changes, there are more different types of guitar amps than ever before, and they are getting smaller and easier to handle. Most people used to agree that tube guitar amps are the way to go, but these days, many of the higher end solid state amps are achieving the best types of sound, and some players even prefer their sound. Add to this the fact that they usually weigh less and cost less, and you can see why its great to have more options on guitar equipment.
The instrument of the guitar itself has benefitted greatly from its popularity. Since there is such a large market of guitar players, there are a large amount of people and companies making equipment products for them. This has meant that new guitar equipment pieces are constantly being developed and sold, and the quality of the parts has kept going up. Guitar player should be grateful for the popularity of the instrument because it has ensured the continues development of more and more guitar equipment, allowing for great customization and modification of the instrument.
December 17 2009 | Guitar Equipment | No Comments »
It is important to talk about the effect guitar overdrive has on your playing while practicing or performing. Overdrive distortion does more than just change your sound, or rather, the fact that it changes your sound leads to a lot of other effects. One of the most significant points is that when you have guitar overdrive engaged, it can change what chords and melodies you play.
When it comes to chords, guitar distortion will make some of the more tense chords you play with a clean tone sound very dissonant and dense. Any tension between intervals in the chords will be highlighted, so this may affect what you play. You may want to steer clear of this kind of sound, or you may want to use overdrive distortion to create this type of attention-grabbing sound.
When you are playing melodies, you might play some different intervals than you used to if you have distortion or overdrive engaged. You might go for some wider intervals and play in a more angular style, which the overdrive tends to bring out. Overall, you will probably play a more intense and hard hitting line with distortion on, it just tends to be associated with that kind of sound.
The amount of overdrive distortion you have going will affect what you play as well. With just a little bit of distortion, you can create a nice blues or jazz sound that you may use to give your playing a little extra sound complexity. You can still play some delicate things with a slight bit of overdrive on them and the distortion will enhance the sound rather than overpower it.
Guitar overdrive and distortion can be used both to change your sound, and change up the style you play in. This can be a helpful exercise for people who feel they are getting tired of playing the same things or someone who wants to tap into higher intensity playing. In much the way playing in an alternate tuning can change everything you do, using overdrive can work in the same way.
December 08 2009 | Guitar Equipment | No Comments »
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