Building a Strat
One thing about getting older is the guitars you bought on the cheap 20+ years ago may be getting pricey and a little beat up from 20+...
Building a LP Jr Style Guitar
Hot on the heels of building a Tele in spring/summer 2020, I then fixed up a beater strat which took more work and got me optimistic I...
Audio Engineering Basics
Basic Basics By no means exhaustive or definitive, but ideally short & helpful for new folks to fill in some gaps. "Stands For Decibel"...
Saving a budget Strat
Back in 2020, a guy I went to HS with saw that I was fixing guitars online and he reached out when he saw a beat up guitar at a...
Old vs New
There are lots of rumors, heresay, impressions and not a lot of hard tech data about why old gear may sound different or better or worse...
Getting a used Les Paul & dialing it in
Some hopefully helpful tips about getting your own guitar & dialing it in. I really wanted a Les Paul, but with vintage pricing in the...
Home Recording IT Basics FAQ for LogicPro X
Sizing a computer The most common question I see online about computers goes something like this, "I have a <year> Mac with <ram and...
My Pandemic Telecaster
In which I have a serious jones for a Telecaster and my friends convince me that I can build one. The finished product, drilled and...
The Magic of AlNiCo
I am not aware of any other single material in musical instrument manufacture with such a cult following, and such a lot of confusion....
All about tuning
Well, maybe not "all", but a decent start... Our host, Pythagoras (Image: World History Encyclopedia) Tuning is surprisingly complicated....
String & Tune Your Guitar
A short sweet photo guide to get good results quickly, I hope. A couple quick notes (TL;DR) * Remove & replace strings one at a time if...
Harmonic Distortion & Intermodulation Distortion
When you amplify a signal, any signal, the circuit you use will often have some non-linearities. These can lead to additional frequencies...
It's in your fingers?
Get a bunch of guitar players together and in no time debates will ensue about some other player's "tone". What causes it, what...
Fixing up a Fender XII
I purchased a used Fender "alternate reality" 12-string as an affordable, giggable alternative to the real thing. The vintage ones have...
Speaker Basics
Here we'll try and hit the high points of what you need to know about speakers. A microphone "backwards" Speakers date to the late 19th...
Obsolete Electronics Archive
I will post archive docs here for former and present clients to access. The original site is still accessible via the wayback machine if...
Perceived Volume, Watts and Speakers
In many years of playing out, doing repairs and being asked to perform mods to people's old tube amps, there is nearly always a single...
Guitar stuff on the web
For the curious, here are various resources: In the press: Reviews of "Now is not a great time" by John Sally Ride....
What every guitarist should know (a work in progress)
Lessons from Bob Mayo, Dan Hovey & others Bending & Vibrato You're bending strings with your ring finger, but use the two behind it for...

















