Guitar / Bass Amplifier Info & Education

Seven Habits That Will Make You a Better Musician, Part 3

May 30, 2019

Practice the Art of Being a Team Player

In the same way that learning the other players' parts will help you to fit in well, so too will learning to become a team player. Any guitarist can tell you that your amp sounds great when it's shaking the rafters. But if you crank up indiscriminately, it makes it hard for the other musicians to play at their best. Remember, they need to be able to hear as well. So, when they tell you they need you to adjust your volume, try to accommodate them to the extent possible. A good stage mix allows the whole band to hear not only themselves, but all the other parts as well. It does not require the ultimate guitar tone; that is essential out front, but it isn't always the top priority on stage.

Seven Habits That Will Make You a Better Musician, Part 2

May 24, 2019 1 Comment

In this article, you will learn how to focus your efforts on the areas you need to improve the most, and we will see how important it can be to see the 'big picture' when playing in a band. Last time, we learned some effective practice strategies, but how do you know which areas in which to invest your time? How can you improve your ability to "see" where you are taking your music?

Seven Habits That Will Make You a Better Musician, Part 1

May 22, 2019 3 Comments

If you are really serious about becoming the best musician that you can be, it makes good sense to cultivate habits that will help you achieve your goal, rather than hinder you. In this series, we will learn seven habits that will help you become a better musician. There is a lot to learn when mastering a musical instrument, but these basic principles will help you achieve success more easily, and they apply no matter which instrument you play.

WG5 Wireless Guitar System Video Review by The Tone King

May 17, 2019 2 Comments

The TONE KING reviews the Carvin Amps WG5 Wireless Guitar and Bass System. The WG5 Wireless Guitar/Bass System is designed to give you the wireless freedom you have been looking for and the simplicity to make your life as a working musician easier. Compact design coupled with an intuitive, easy set up makes going wireless an enjoyable process. The WG5 works with both active and passive instruments.

Why You Should Set Your Tone for Your Audience, Not Yourself

May 09, 2019 7 Comments

It’s important to keep in mind that as a musician, you are also an entertainer. While it’s certainly nice to impress the crowd at your gig with a mind-blowing guitar solo or killer tone, it’s also part of your job to ensure that your audience is entertained by your performance and have a good time at the club, bar, outdoor festival stage, or whatever venue you are playing, even if involves compromising on your tone. Not to mention, keeping a crowd happy will also keep the club owner, sound guy, and promoter, and all other crew members happy as well!

WG5 Wireless Guitar/Bass System Demo Video

April 08, 2019

WG5 Wireless Guitar/Bass System Demo Video

The WG5 Wireless Guitar/Bass System is designed to give you the wireless freedom you have been looking for and the simplicity to make your life as a working musician easier. Compact design coupled with an intuitive, easy set up makes going wireless an enjoyable process. The WG5 works with both active and passive instruments.

Why Go Wireless? Three Reasons to Ditch the Cables

April 03, 2019 1 Comment

Have you ever been in the middle of putting on an epic onstage performance, only to accidentally unplug your guitar cable right in the middle of a solo? Or maybe it wasn’t even your fault and your singer stepped on your cable while he was working the crowd, unplugging your guitar from your pedalboard and resulting in a few unintended seconds of silence. To some, these are simply the byproducts of live performance. But to others, these unexpected cable issues are something that they’d go to great lengths to avoid.

Right-Hand Techniques for Punchier Guitar Solos

March 27, 2019 4 Comments

Think about your guitar solos. How do you play quick runs? One common approach to modal scales (such as major and minor) uses three notes per string. This makes it much easier to achieve a fluid legato left-hand technique employing "hammer-ons" and "pull-offs." The right hand tends to carry less of the weight, having only to strike the first note on each string, with the left hand creating the other two. Since the right hand must only synchronize with every third note, it becomes rather easy to produce extremely fast modal runs across the fingerboard. The only drawback is that over-reliance on this technique keeps you locked into triplet phrasing. So, what should we do to produce phrases with accents in fours (such as sixteenth notes)? Here are several right-hand picking techniques designed to put control of your rhythm phrasing back into the right hand!

Banish Your Unwanted String Noise, Part 2

February 08, 2019

In our previous article, we learned five essential techniques for string muting with the fretting hand. Now we will examine string muting with the picking hand.

Banish Your Unwanted String Noise, Part 1

February 01, 2019 1 Comment

As your playing improves over time, at some point you will want to turn your focus from simply playing the notes to playing them with impact, authority, and enhanced dynamic control. Dynamics will enhance everything you play, and for them to work, you must have total control of everything that comes out of your guitar- intended and unintended. Time to Banish Your Unwanted String Noise!

Leaving Space to Breathe in Your Playing

January 18, 2019 2 Comments

In a recent article, we talked about how to compose an effective solo. As a great teacher once taught me that means "speaking in sentences" with your instrument. At first, I found his advice difficult to understand, but with time, I found myself listening to the great blues and jazz vocalists and trying to capture their words and expressions with my guitar. I never have quite figured out how to make my guitar shout the way Aretha Franklin did in her song "I Never Loved a Man" as she sang that heart-rending lyric, "How could you hurt me so bad?!?" But I learned a lot of ways to make similar statements in my own playing- and isn't that the point of trying? Therefore, learning to speak with your instrument is crucial. And knowing when to be silent is equally important. Let's talk about music in space- not the 'outer space' kind, but the space between words.

Using Overdrive Pedals as Amp Simulators and Supplemental Tone Devices

January 11, 2019 1 Comment

Have you ever heard a demo of an overdrive pedal that sounded so good that you immediately purchased the pedal, only to find that it sounded nothing like the clip you heard or the musician you heard playing through it? In cases like these, it’s oftentimes not the fault of the pedal demo that the sound coming out of your amp is so different, and has to do more with the fact that your amplifier, guitar, strings, and playing style are also different. An overdrive pedal is just one link in your tone chain, so it goes without saying that simply purchasing a pedal in hopes of instantly sounding like your favorite rock star is an unrealistic expectation.