The body shape of an electric guitar is important. It affects the size, weight and comfort when you play it. There is also the visual appeal, which while less important than how it plays, still matters. So let’s take a look at each of the different electric guitar body shapes and sizes. I went through …
As a guitarist there can be nothing worse than being in the middle of a gig and breaking a string, having a cable fail or losing something and realizing you don’t have a replacement. Being unprepared is a musicians worst nightmare but happens far too often. You should always have a fully stocked gig bag! …
If there’s one thing pretty much every guitarists wants it’s more guitars. Buying and owning guitars is so addictive there’s even a (joke) condition about it: GAS – Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. But whilst that might be a bit of fun there is a serious question behind it – how many guitars do you really need? …
Learning the order of the guitar strings as well as their names and numbers is something you should have memorized as soon as possible. It might be boring but it’s a fundamental piece of knowledge that is only going to help with understanding the guitar. I took far longer than I should I have to …
Are you new to the guitar or thinking about whether to try playing? Almost everyone at the start wonders how long it takes to learn guitar. There’s no harm in admitting we want to get good at something as quickly as possible. Unfortunately it’s never that easy. So, how long does it really take to …
Taking care of your guitar is important. You want it to sound its best and last as long as possible, right? So you do the right things like storing it properly, keeping it at the correct temperature and humidity etc. But what about the strings and the tension they put on the guitar? Do you …
One of the fundamentals when learning to play the guitar is holding the pick correctly. While it’s not strictly necessary – you can play without one – most people play with a pick and it makes sense to learn how to do it properly. Getting the right technique early is helpful too. Some people go …
The zero fret is a little bit of an enigma. In some cases reviled and hated, by others adored and considered a technological marvel that makes tuning stability and your tone much better. But they’re a bit odd. You tend to find them either installed in really cheap and poor guitars or the highest quality, …
A Kill switch is one of those guitar terms you may have read about but not fully understand. They’re not all that common but can be an interesting addition to your playing. I actually installed a kill switch in an old guitar of mine to test it out. It was a fun experiment and a …
Drop tuning a guitar is fairly common. It’s a simple technique that can open up your playing and give you lots of varied options. Standard tuning is great, obviously. But it can be fun and interesting to try different tunings and expand your sound. You’ll find a lot of heavier styles of music like metal …