Tricks Of The Trade

Prologue

You’ve finally finished god knows how many lessons, you can burn through a fret board with your lightning fast licks, and you can play with your guitar behind your head, but you still don’t sound quite nice?

Equipment

There are lots of factors to consider when sound is concerned. First off: equipment. Your equipment can greatly affect your overall sound. I’ve listed down the most common equipment problems, just read on:

Pickups: these are the little plastic/ metal things with (or without) metallic dots (bars, lines, screws, etc…) on the body of your guitar/ bass. These babies “pickup” the vibrations of your strings and turn them into the sound coming off your amp. Oh yeah, the problem: they might be broken.

Problem 1: This part usually gets “grounded”; if this happens all you have to do is open up your guitar and re-solder the wires to the pickup selector, volume, and (if there is) tone knob.

Problem 2: Your pickup may have become “Out of Phase” this can happen if the magnet within your pickup corrodes, or someone tampered with the insides of your pickup. This can also occur if the pickups you’ve paired up don’t compliment each other’s magnetic fields. How do you fix this? You buy a new pickup! Not even the top pickup companies can fix an OP pickup! If the OP status is because of your pickups don’t compliment each other then just change one of them so that they compliment each other.

Problem 3: Your pickup just doesn’t sound good. How do you fix this? First determine what type of sound you want, find the pickup which suits you best, buy it, and finally: install/ have it installed to your guitar.

Problem 4: Your bridge (position farthest from the neck) pickup is weaker that your neck (position nearest to the neck) pickup. To fix this you might want to switch the positions of your pickups, or you could just buy new ones and have ‘em replaced.

Problem 5: The pickup sounds different from the exact same model you’ve tried on a different guitar. This is because of the wood used to make your guitar. The heavier (e.g. Basswood) the wood the “darker” the tone; like wise the (e.g. Maple) lighter the wood the “brighter” the tone.

Neck: the neck of your guitar is the long part that you hold. The neck may be deformed, either that you it’s snapped! Sadly, the only way to fix this is to buy a new neck.

Fret/ Fingerboard: the fret/ fingerboard is the part of the neck, which you press your strings against to get different sounds. Like the neck this may be deformed too, and sadly like the neck the only way to fix this if to have the neck re-fretted (or you could buy a new neck).

Cables: the long cord you plug into your guitar, effects, and amps.

Problem 1: “Lots of buzz”. You can easily fix this by un-screwing the cover of your cable and wrapping the little wires and plug with some electrical tape.

Problem 2: “Still lots of buzz, and sometimes the signal gets cut”. Just follow the ten user-friendly steps:

01. Un-screw the cover.
02. Separate the plug from the cord.
03. Cut off approximately half an inch from the tip of the cord.
04. Skin approximately half an inch of the cord.
05. Re-connect plug with cord.
06. Solder the insulated wires of the cord to the short elongated part of the plug (the one on top), and solder the bare wires to the one on the on near the ring holding the cord in place.
07. Let it dry for about 30 seconds (important: do not blow or expose to wind!)
08. Cover with electrical tape.
09. Re-screw the cover.
10. Done!

Problem 3: “I’m to sissy to follow the ten steps!” Then shell out some cash for a new cable!

Strings: Duh! The thickness of your strings can affect your sound a lot! The thicker the string the thicker the sound, and vice-versa.

Picks: the little piece of plastic you hit your stings with. The thickness of your pick can affect your sound a lot too! The thinner the pick the more you can hear it (kudos for acoustic/ emo fans!) when you strum, and vice-versa. It’s also harder to “speed-pick” with a thin pick.

Amps: the thing you connect your cable to after you’ve connected it to your guitar/ effects. If the ones mentioned above can affect you sound a lot, this can affect your sound dramatically!

Problem 1: “It doesn't sound good” try fiddling with the EQ (bass, treble, middle, contour, presence, gain, etc…) knobs to see which settings you prefer.

Problem 2: “not quite” try plugging it in the correct voltage!

Problem 3: “it still doesn't sound good” try having it repaired. You can usually have it repaired in the place where you bought it.

Problem 4.1: “they say my amp’s just fine!” try and check on your guitar… the problem might not be with your amp but with your guitar.

Problem 4.2: “my guitar’s ok. I really think it’s my amp!” for god’s sake buy a new one!

Effects: effects pedals are those little electronic things you step on to give your guitar a different sound. The most common problem about effects is that they use up lots of batteries, thus burning a rather large hole in your pocket!

Problem 1: “it sounds wrong” try adjusting the EQ knobs of your effects pedal to suit your taste.

Problem 2: “still ain’t working” try replacing the battery.

Problem 3: “I don’t hear the effect” try adjusting the EQ knobs, either that or try stepping on a button to take it out of “Bypass” mode.

Problem 4: “it still sounds wrong” try using the suggested voltage for the batteries (look at the manual!)

Problem 5: “it turns off by it’s self” (for ones that use A/C adaptors) try tightening the A/C adaptor to the socket or the A/C input of your effects pedal/ board.

Problem 6: “its broken” the store you bought it from can repair it for you. And if all else fails just buy a new one.

Playing

Now the equipment section’s done, lets head on to your playing problems! I’ve also put some definitions and tips for the newbie axe-slinger.

Chops: this refers to your style, and over all playing skill. If you haven’t developed your chops enough yet, I suggest not playing gigs yet and going back to practicing some guitar exercises! Remember do at least two hours a day! And don’t get your hands wet after practice (wait at least an hour!)!

Timing: it’s crucial to have good timing while playing (not unless you want to get booed off stage!)! To improve your timing try playing this game:

Make It Disappear

Mechanics: “listen to a metronome and while listening to it try clapping to its beat to make the bell/ blip disappear. Increase the speed of the metronome, as you get better. Once you’ve gotten really good try playing a note instead of clapping, and once you get really-really good try playing a scale instead of a note.” -Billy Sheehan (Talas, Niacin, Mr. Big, DLR Band, Steve Vai.)

This game may sound boring, but its actually pretty fun once you get used to it!

Making rhythm: rhythm can mean the main riff, solo/ adlib/ musical break, or any part of the song! If you’re having a hard time making rhythm you should work on your chops! But this time focus on scales. Confusing? Ok… I’ll explain. Scales fall under chops, but unlike the other divisions of chops like speed this requires your creative side. A scale is a group of notes put together, which form a certain rhythmic pattern. The most popular scales are: Pentatonic major and minor, Blues, and Harmonic major and minor. You can check more scales out at Guitarseek.com.

Speed: speed not only refers to your fingerwork on the fretboard, it also refers to the speed of you’re a strumming, sliding, bending, picking, finger picking, tapping, and chord switching. You can enhance this with some good finger exercises

Tone: tone refers to the way your overall sound is like. (e.g. If its too “harsh” or “hollow”).

Feel: this is the factor no one can accurately explain, and no one can teach! Feel (in my words) can happen at any time in your life as a musician. No one knows when it’ll come but one thing’s for sure: once you have “feel” your overall sound, despite of how shoddy chops are they will improve dramatically!

Miscellaneous Problems

The connection of your pickup selector to your pickup: you can have it repaired by the store you bought it from or you could just re-solder the wires of your pickups to the pickup selector.

The string action is too high: try adjusting the action of your strings by adjusting the height of the bridge and or your nut.

The connection of your pickups to your volume/ tone knob: once again you can have it repaired by the store or you could solder it your self.

Lots of buzz/ hum: try switching off fluorescent lights, wrapping the wires of your cable with electrical tape, wrapping the wires of your pickups with electrical tape, adjusting the EQ settings of your amp and effects pedals/ boards, and dipping your pickups in paraffin (candle) wax.

Note: ask for the assistance of a professional when dipping your pickup in paraffin (candle) wax. Dipping it for too long may cause the pickup to become out of phase or melt.

Dirty sounding picking: try to develop your picking skills… it’s not a hardware problem!

Getting a hissing sound while turning the EQ knobs on your amp. Try having it cleaned by the store you bought it from, or you could always clean it your self. If you’re not using the amp for a long time remember to turn its knobs once in a while to keep dust from accumulating in the knob.

Suggested Hardware Sites

seymourduncan.com

dimarzio.com

emginc.com

floydrose.com

fender.com

gibson.com

allparts.com

fulltone.com

POSTED: 05/23/2005 - 07:52 am

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Comments

[SethMegadefan]

Awesome. Like, a billion stars. 1st.

[ex0dus]

A few decently obvious things but still, real nice and comprehensive and some points I never really thought of.

[folk_rocknroll]

very informational

[Mr. Clean]

Good Job~!

[mnbaseball91]

Basswood is not a heavy wood and maple is not a light wood.

Not bad though.

[birdheadfeet]

that was horrible. oh my gosh i think i vomited like 6 times....not really, it was good, even though i didnt read it all. nice job bro.

[Bubonic Chronic]

Told me nothing I didn't know already. How do I get a really slick jazz tone? A brutal death metal tone? How can I incorporate both in one song? (Opeth)

Eh, works for beginners, though, I guess.

And two hours a day?! I get my chops up to speed in about 15 minutes. Then I just play.

[EatsP1es]

awesome

[Joseph Diehl]

theres so much i git tired of reading

[Joseph Diehl]

got*sorry

[Freepower]

nice article

[mikiedaman]

meh, pretty terrible imo

your "problems" really didn't help a damn thing. you just said "if it's broken, get a new one" 9/10 times.

[slashwyldepage]

nice 5*'s

[Humbuster]

Nice... some methods seem a bit weird but overall it's pretty damn good. Another thing for buzz is turning off the TV or anything that generates magnetic waves. You'll be amazed at the amount of difference it makes.

[Kyle_Klus]

Tim Tim Tim... Better than some of your other articles by a long shot, but still nothing that was overly interesting or informative... Like mikiedaman said, for almost all of your problems/solutions you just said 'if it's broken, get a new one'... Well no shit buddy... But it looks like you spend a lot of time on this one, so... ..3 stars.

[oldschoolrock23]

OK some of that was a little first grade, but u had some good suggestions, and a good example of a way to help ur timing. Pretty Good Job. Ill give u 4 stars.

[Goddamnit]

Neck: the neck of your guitar is the long part that you hold

News to me!

..but seriously, not too bad.

[monkeyspks]

oh Gosh that was really long. Really good though.

[lyingfromyou118]

We also have to remember that not everyone is as educated about guitars as we are, so the basic things he described may be new to someone just starting out. Fine article, 5 stars.

[lyingfromyou118]

Also, if you notice, when he suggested buying new things, he suggested something else before hand, and said that if all else failed to then buy a new one.

[lost_it_again]

honestly, there must be some idiots in the world if any of this is useful

[nickgraz]

yea...not to impressed even though it probably took a long time to write

[DaveGilmour1189]

lost_it_again:
honestly, there must be some idiots in the world if any of this is useful

Come on man, i though the Cobain suicide for popularity article already proved that. Pretty Good, alot of it is common sense, nothing new or technical.

[funeral thirst]

lost_it_again:
honestly, there must be some idiots in the world if any of this is useful

id second that

[Kroach]

And don?t get your hands wet after practice (wait at least an hour!)!

that supposed to mean no gigging ?

[Nirvana101]

Kroach:
And don?t get your hands wet after practice (wait at least an hour!)!
that supposed to mean no gigging ?
[POSTED: 23 May 2005 - 186]|

I was about to ask the same thing?

[Lymbe]

lost_it_again:
honestly, there must be some idiots in the world if any of this is useful

Dude, many things were like kinda new to me, I only bought an electric guitar since 6 monthhs ago (I ve been electrically challenged u could say), so thats great for an acoustic player like me.
Just because u re one step away from Vai doesnt mean everybody is

[TheBeast22]

kudos to to ya man for all the ironic remarks in the article.
pretty good article. 4 stars

[Tim_5150]

thanks for the comments. about not getting your hands wet- i meant don't wash your hands after playing/ don't soak your hands after playing. likewise it's also not adviseable to hold cold things for long periods of time; this will cause you to have muscle pain in the long run.

[Tim_5150]

just to let you people know. i could have typed down more stuff in this article to make it more elaborate, but i figured that if i did make it longer i would get lots of comments from people who'd just read half of it and make a quick judgement.

[Foz]

So....having wet hands after playing your guitar will cause muscle pain???.. huh?? Why just after playing?? Shouldn't happen EVERY time they get wet?? WATER....BAD!!!! WATER.....BAD!!!

[bootz]

very good article 5 stars

[x_themetalfan_x]

^ Not as gay as you there, from the sounds of your name you are gothic or just depressed or something. Go slit your wrists.

Anyways, good article. I liked it, though it could have been formatted a little better to make it easier to navigate.

[PearlJamania]

Yeah thought it was really very average. i wouldnt recomend soldering etc and playing round with the insides of ur guitar/pickups unless ur pretty knowledgable. especially seeing as it seems this article was aimed at beginners. electronics are fragile things.

[demez]

great artical mate

[afirocker00]

Cool article for beginners. 4 stars.

[maxxxisgod]

Decent article, clearly written with only the best of intentions. However, some of the advice given that relates to guitar/gear hardware problems might lead some people to believe that they need to get stuff replaced a little too soon. You should always get your gear checked out by a qualified luthier before doing anything rigorous to it, it can save you a lot of money and heartache. Good job anyway dude.

Maxx.

[deadpiglet]

good article... dang usefull...

[Emenius Sleepus]

Problem 4: Your bridge (position farthest from the neck) pickup is weaker that your neck (position nearest to the neck) pickup. To fix this you might want to switch the positions of your pickups, or you could just buy new ones and have ?em replaced

a lot of guitars if not all have screws on top and bottom, you can raise and lower the pickup with htem, hence adjusting the sound levels to match

[grape_moosha]

i get heaps of buzzing noise when playing. its definitely not the cable coz i tried 3 of ma frends cables and its not ma guitar coz ive tried many. so it could only be my amp but wat du u suggest i do coz i am 15 and dont have a job. and ma parents wont give me jack all coz they just payed for ma new guitar (epiphone g-400....its so awesome) btw ma amp is a peavy rage 158 HELP ME PLEEZ

[Burpbelly]

Not a bad article although twas a bit patronising overall I'd say 4* although i spose its a good article for absolute begginers

[voodoochild175]

Great article. Very informative

[PjX71]

awesome awesome awesome article 100 out of 5

[TheKonz]

Not only was this article unhelpful, but it also found itself worthy to insult my intellegence as a human being. Anybody who needs to read about simple information like this need not trouble themselves by playing the guitar. Also regarding a review of a squire strat pack, HENDRIX IS NOT AN 80'S METAL ARTIST!!!! 0 stars

[TNfootballfan62]

Good article, but most of the solutions seemed to be, "buy a new one." Not bad for beginners.

I'd also like to say one more thing.

Strings: Duh! The thickness of your strings can affect your sound a lot! The thicker the string the thicker the sound, and vice-versa.

Not always, my friend! Look at Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top). He uses .08s or .09s and he has a really thick, ballsey tone.

[TNfootballfan62]

Woops, forgot to tell you, 4 stars.

[KENZI]

super 5* rating

[Patient_Mental]

Could someone tell me why you cant get your hands wet after practicing until at least an hour later?

By the way, 5 Stars

[BadAssElmo]

good job

[EV0L]

too much about hardware... not enough about actually playing the guitar, which well-- atleast I think it is an important part of playing...

[Tyler the Great]

4.5/5. Really good, but not perfect. I can see this being really helpful, if I happenned to break my guitar at the same time as this article is on this website.

[nirvanafuk23]

in case you didnt notice...this thing was about hardware and how to fix it num nuts.

[grape_moosha]

so is any1 guna help me look above for my note thingo

[Tim_5150]

grape_moosha. i've sent you an email regarding your question.

[BigJim]

what the hell is a chop?

spam deleted.

[The_New_Slash]

if your computer-screen is on it can mess with the sound from your amp

but great article

[Mike_uk2k]

this is brilliant except for one thing. if the neck goes out of shape (e.g. letting it get too hot/cold. we all left it next to a radiator at least once! lol) then it doesn't necessarily mean that the neck has to be thrown away, unless its disasterously warped, or it's snapped. Usually, if you take it back to where you got the guitar, or where you normally get your gear, then they can re-adjust the neck for you, and it should be fine.

[Mike_uk2k]

hey grape. what leads are u usin? if theyre only cheap ones, try spendin maybe £10 up on a cable, and thats good for giggin', let alone practicing at home. also, my first amp was a rage 158, and if u have it on the lead sound (overdrive, basically) it does buzz like a gnat on speed, nothin you can do i'm afraid, except get a better amp.

[lmntry_bass-ics]

Very good for people reading these kind of things for the first time.

[ChordProgressiv]

Great article, covered a lot of ground.

[lmthedarkman]

nice article

[Amature]

you drink Pee

[Radzkidfish]

lol u probably do drink pee!!!

[wookieonfire]

decent job, worth reading

[100MPH]

Eh, it was ok, but "Chops", what? Are you just making words up now? And surely suggesting a re-chargeable battery for the people reading about pedals would be a good idea, wouldn't it?

[Tim_5150]

chops is a term used for a players all-over skill. try reading some guitar player from time to time

[SG thrasher]

*** any0ne wh0 says this d0sent help its great dude.....and s0me advice peavy amps suck dick

[TNfootballfan62]

^^^You are wrong there. At least from my experience, my Peavey Renown 400 is great. It's a solid state from the mid 80s that they don't make anymore, but i love it.

[Tim_5150]

dude the Peavey triple X series and 5150 series sound great. the triple X was based on George Lynch's specs, and the 5150 and 5150II on EVH.

[mantyce]

about not getting your hands wet- i meant don't wash your hands after playing/ don't soak your hands after playing. likewise it's also not adviseable to hold cold things for long periods of time; this will cause you to have muscle pain in the long run.

Interesting...I never knew that one. I agree with most...pretty elementary for most of us, but then again some are new and may find it informational.. Good job. 8 out of 10.

[mantyce]

Peavey Express 112 here. Pretty powerful unit for a low cost! Plug in a Mockingbird with DiMarzio's and you're rockin'!

i feel bad because u want to help but some of ur information was incorrect.
if u have muscle pain, icing ur hands, might be incomfortable at first but is actually good for ur hands.

also if ur pickup is out of phase, with other different company pickups, then u rewire, u dont buy a new one.

actually u put "get it fixed" or throw it out, a bunch of times when it wasnt correct, and thats really not helpful at all.

the advice on woods was wrong, and the info was sparce at best.

instead of trying to cover so many topics how about u cover a couple of topics correctly.

[Tim_5150]

how about you check seymoueduncan.com for info about the wood. i got it from there. EMG and Seymour duncan themselves said that their pickups do not compliment each other, and some other companies do not compliment each others products either. Applying ice on your hands may cause blood vessles and muscles to be numb- making your accuraccy and speed lessen. If you experience muscle pains/ spasms just dip you hands into warm water with rock salt for 30 mins. then let them dry for 30 more mins before rinsing your hands.

and for all the other smartasses there- i get all my information from guitar companies, magazines, and pickup companies, so before you try to outsmart me do your research first!

[Tim_5150]

i never put any BS on my articles- that would just result in me mis-informing people i want to help, and me looking bad.

[Metalology]

Grade A article.

5 stars

[Aristotle]

Your writing style really annoys me, it's horrible, and you're extremely vauge, but you did have some decent info...3 stars

[joyful womble]

that is a stupid atricle, the pickup stuff is a load of crap.

[PLOP]

great article

5 stars

[eastern_riffs]

whatever

[below_par_god]

it means dont actually put water near your hands for a while if uv bin practisin cuz any skin strenght uv bilt up will be lost, jus dont soak your fingertips in warm water r nutin,plus purple spatulas RULE! soad kick ass

[5:15_Whofan]

I've found that some commentators on this website tend to sound more english teachers than guitar players. I don give a damn about your writing style or grammar. That being said, i think it was a pretty good article for people who have no idea what a guitar is (i have feeling that the detailed elaborations were done humorously. And if someone can play behind their head fast enough to ignite their fretboard, i think they'll know what a pick-up or a pick is. PEACE

[Goshdangit88]

Told me nothing I didn't know already. How do I get a really slick jazz tone? A brutal death metal tone? How can I incorporate both in one song? (Opeth)

If you have a strat (which is what mikael uses), turn on the front pickup to get the jazzy tone and then for the death metal one turn on the front and middle.

[knotilus]

Tim_5150: I'm the owner of a Danelectro FabTone DD-1 pedal and when it is hooked up it sounds bad-ass, but when my guitar is idle you can hear static. The louder the volume level is on the pedal, the louder the static. The only way to minimize it is to crank the amp up to the max and adjust the pedal volume accordingly, but even then there is still loud static. I also think it enhances the damn feedback, whick is okay sometimes, but isn't other times, ya know? I know for a fact it's knot the amp cuz I've used the damn shit(pedal) on other amps. What the crud is going on?

[kerrang]

it pisses me off that if someone knows the things contained in an article that automatically makes it crap. great article man if ya dont mind its gettin copied, pasted and stored. If you do mind...well...tough.

[TimmyEatWorld]

so halloween is coming up soon!

[Tim_5150]

I don't mind people riping me off. I'm happy with just knowing the fact that people find my article useful, and like it enought to rip it off.

[gmsje]

Ok, so I don't have buzz, but I do have static crackle and pop (which I discovered was from rubbing my little and ring fingers on the pick guard near my middle single coil pickup while strumming and picking). So, I unscrewed my cable covers. There is some kind of covering over the connection, but I put black electrician's tape over the covering. It worked pretty good. It eliminated about 90% of the static noise. Thanks Tim 5150. Now I'm thinking of unscrewing the coverplate of the cable connector on my guitar and covering those wires too. What do you think about all of this?

[Tim_5150]

i'll answer your questions personally. please check your email or private message folder for my reply.

[Pjking]

long but good some stuff i didnt know i learned thanks

[lemon'n'lime]

Sum gud advice but sum woz a little obvious.
[You?ve finally finished god knows how many lessons, you can burn through a fret board with your lightning fast licks, and you can play with your guitar behind your head, but you still don?t sound quite nice?]
Wot on earth?!? If u wer dat gud surely u wud already no half that stuff! O wel, i liked the bit about fixin ur lead, but it all seemed a bit obvious 2 me.
Id say 3 or 4 stars?

[les_paul_01]

really comprehensive, good work. you should do a seperate column for each different part so you could be more particular as this was a bit tip-of-the-icebergish

[Tim_5150]

wow! people still actually read my article? cool!