Guitar / Bass Amplifier Info & Education

Protecting Your Hearing On Stage

July 23, 2020 1 Comment

If you’re like most rock-n-rollers, you like it loud. And who doesn’t? But if you’re serious about making music for a long time, you’ll want to protect your ears from long term damage. Contrary to popular belief, your ears don’t “get used” to being exposed to super loud music over time. Instead, they get damaged, and eventually, that damage can become permanent, leaving you at a disadvantage on stage or in the studio.

Keeping Your Stage Organized

July 13, 2020 1 Comment

Picture this: your lead singer gets excited and decides to do an Irish river dance during your guitar solo. In an ecstatic frenzy, he leaps and careens. The crowd goes berserk. People scream, people dance, your solo turns into an exalted triumph never-before seen in your state…

Up Your Practice Routine

July 07, 2020 2 Comments

We hope you’ve all been staying well these past few months. With not much to do but stay inside or close to home there’s lots of time available to practice our favorite instrument. But with our sense of normal being challenged on an almost daily basis it can be hard to find the proper inspiration to practice or the proper direction in our practice.

Start With The Drums: Cleaning Up Your Stage Sound From The Ground Up

July 02, 2020 2 Comments

It’s not a lot of bands who take the extra time to address how drums work in a room, but when it's done, everything else tends to fall in place. Guitars can sit in the mix, bass can thump, and vocals can cut through without over-compressing.

Why (And How) You Might Want To Turn Your Amp Down On Stage

June 26, 2020 13 Comments

It’s no secret house sound engineers fight with guitarists about the volume of amps on stage, especially in small venues. It may even be a bit of a cliché to mention it. “Turn it down!” often becomes “I’ll turn it down for you!” and “I need it louder!” turns into “I’ll just sneak over here and turn this up…”.

Tips For Setting Up Quickly On Stage

June 11, 2020 11 Comments

Nothing saps your energy on stage like running late and being in a rush. To boot, you can’t always get into a venue at 9AM like the big shows do and set up. So, getting your stage set up done quickly and efficiently is crucial to ongoing success as a gigging musician.

Here are some of our best tips for getting your setup done quickly and easily, so you might have a chance at a good sound check and a little break before rocking the crowd.

Finding Light in the Darkness

April 30, 2020 4 Comments

To say that the times we’re currently living in are strange would be an understatement. Like many of you, we’re navigating the coronavirus outbreak as best as we can. Before we knew it, things we may have taken for granted became more difficult to accomplish, obtain, or deal with. We know it’s important to stay healthy and do what we can to stay safe and help others but it can be hard to shake the feeling of darkness that this “new normal” can bring. Thankfully, as musicians, we can lean on our instruments to help us through the tough times.

The Tone King Video Demo of the V112E Guitar Extension Cabinet

March 11, 2020 4 Comments

The Tone King demonstrates the features and sound of the new V112E guitar extension cabinet.

Should You Bring a Backup Amp? A Discussion of More Portable Alternatives

December 04, 2019 9 Comments

Awhile back, we discussed gigging items you should bring backups for, and that included a backup amp. However, amps aren’t lightweight and portable like cables, accessories, or even an extra guitar or bass. In most cases, lugging a backup amp means another trip back to the car and one more thing to carry in and out of the venue (unless you have roadies, of course!). For that reason, many gigging musicians choose to forgo the backup amp and place their faith in their main amp.

Six Tips For Painless Pedalboard Building

September 02, 2019 6 Comments

Whether you are starting from scratch or re-working the order and layout, building pedalboards is a regular part of life for the gigging guitarist. Sometimes these building sessions can be filled with a lot of frustration. In this article, we’ll offer up our favorite tips to ensure that your next pedalboard building session goes off without a hitch. Most of these tips assume that you already have a pedalboard and several pedals…if you want some more tips on starting from scratch, let us know in the comments section. Here we go…

Five Pedals Every Guitarist Should Own

August 20, 2019 16 Comments

If you can’t tell by our previous articles, we love pedals! All kinds, shapes and sizes are welcome in our rigs. The vast array of options available are dizzying. Many guitarists don’t know where to start. This week, we want to share with you the five effects pedals that we feel EVERY guitarist should own.

Your Tone Knob Misses You…

August 16, 2019 4 Comments

We guitarists are always in search of “the perfect tone.” That phrase means something different to every guitarist but, in our opinion, “the perfect tone” should also be versatile. Some would say that versatility comes from having a well curated guitar rig. We’d argue that versatility can be had without acquiring tons of equipment. In fact, there’s something you most likely have already that can succeed in getting you more tones than you’ve probably imagined: your TONE KNOB! Yes, the guitar tone knob; often underused and misunderstood and a powerful tool waiting to be taken advantage of. We hope that once you’re done reading you’ll go pick up your guitar and start exploring what your tone knob can do. But first, let’s establish what the Tone Knob is actually doing…