Guitarist

One of the questions we often get from our customer support team is: “how much does this guitar weigh?”. To give you a clearer idea of a guitar’s weight, we’ll take a closer look at it in this blog.

Steve Vai is regarded as a guitar virtuoso who has left his mark on rock music with his unique sound. Are you a beginner guitarist who wants to know more about how to get closer to his tone? Then read on!

Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, Metallica’s latest album, is about to be released. With singles like “Hardwired”, “Moth Into Flame” and “Atlas, Rise!”, we’ve already had a pretty good warm-up – it’s shaping up to be a proper old-school album. When you think of Metallica, you probably think of frontman James Hetfield right away, who delivers both the brutal vocals and the tight rhythm parts. No one doubts he can play. So how can you get your guitar sounding like “Papa Het”? We’ll give you a few tips below!

The impulse response (IR) is a relatively new technology that can simulate a specific environment—a hall, room, studio space, the body of an acoustic guitar, and so on. At first, impulse responses were used for reverb effects, such as plug-ins in a digital audio workstation (DAW). These days, they’re also used for other applications.

As a musician, you’re of course familiar with staff notation or chord symbols. Two forms of music notation that make it possible to play songs straight from the page. But you may also have heard of a third form of notation: the Nashville Number System. Guest blogger and singer-songwriter Kevin Okkema explains exactly how it works.

From the album ‘Through the Ashes of Empires’ right up to the full-length record ‘Catharsis’, Phil Demmel was a member of Machine Head. After founder Robb Flynn, he’s the guitarist who spent the longest time in this famous Northern California groove metal band, and in that role he’s absolutely left his mark on the legacy of these metal giants.

When the greats of this world use a particular guitar from their collection time and again, they often develop a special bond with it. The instrument will often end up with a name or nickname, and a real cult following can grow around it. In this blog, we dive into the story of a special electric guitar: Izabella, Jimi Hendrix’s iconic white Fender Stratocaster.

In this blog, we dive into the story behind one of the most iconic guitars in the world: Eric Clapton’s Blackie. Although the nickname is derived from the black body, the rest of this Fender Stratocaster is hard to describe. Blackie is a ‘partscaster’, or in Slowhand’s words: a “mongrel”.

In this blog, we’re not answering the question “what is a Les Paul?”, but who was Les Paul? Guitarist and inventor Les Paul (1915 – 2009) made an important contribution to the development of the electric guitar (the famous Gibson Les Paul) and to popular music, both musically and technically.

Silent Night is one of the oldest Christmas hits that still blasts out of the speakers in many homes during the festive season. Fun fact: the song was written by a young Austrian priest, Joseph Mohr, who first performed it on guitar in December 1818 at St Nicholas Church in Oberndorf. With just three chords, Silent Night is a doddle to learn on guitar. Guest blogger Teo from Chordify explains how!

Noise gate pedals are especially popular with metal guitarists. A noise gate is really handy for removing that typical buzz, unwanted noise and other background sounds from your signal chain, while still playing with high gain. Guest blogger Alexousky explains exactly what a noise gate does and how to set one up.

Overdrive remains one of the most essential tools in any musician’s kit box. The answer to the immortal question: ‘Which overdrive pedal is the best of all time?’ will differ depending on which guitarist you’re talking to. This is because no overdrive can weave its magic on its own, instead, it all happens in the delicate interplay between your amplifier and your chosen pedal – not to mention, your carefully sculpted go-to settings. The world of overdrive is filled with myths and mysterious legends about the magic ingredients involved, but we’re here to find the truth behind it all, with a little help from the stone-cold classic that is the Ibanez Tube Screamer.