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A Techs HONEST Review of a PRS Silver Sky SE - The BEST Review you will find!
A Techs HONEST Review of a PRS Silver Sky SE - The BEST Review you will find!
Howdy Guitar gang! Sorry if it's been a while since I posted here, I cut the heck outta my hand a couple weeks back and it really slowed down my progress. No playing ANY instrument, no making pickups, and no blogging! But I'm sufficiently healed and ready to rant! This rant is on the PRS Silver Sky. As most of you know, I've became somewhat of a PRS pickup upgrade expert, at least where the humbuckers are concerned.But a few weeks ago I had a client send me his brand new Silver Sky for a...
Potted vs un-potted guitar pickups, the pros and cons
Potted vs un-potted guitar pickups, the pros and cons
Hey fellow guitar tone lovin' Guys n Gals!Ready to jump into a hot topic ... err, literally, like a hot vat of wax? Let's talk about wax-potting pickups, and what it does. Sound downright exciting? If so, then yep ... you are a certified guitar-tone connoisseur! Let's "jump in" :) First the history, if you've read my blogs much, you know I LOVE the history behind all these little guitar tone innovations. When the world was dark, and yet without shape and form ... okay, I'm going a bit toooo far...
Anico Pole-Pieces vs Pole Screws in Pickups - Tele or Strat Style
Anico Pole-Pieces vs Pole Screws in Pickups - Tele or Strat Style
Howdy guitar gang! So I had a request come in that got me to thinking ... thinking that maybe this is some info that ALL tone connoisseurs need to know! So here goes. Here is the Question: "Hey Vaughn! I’m putting together a Telecaster from used parts. I’ll need pickups for it, and wondered I’d adjustable pole pieces were available for the bridge pickup. Thanks!" And my Answer: "No, that's never anything I've even played with as it would necessitate...
Guitar Players - Once Again I urge You To Play at Church
Guitar Players - Once Again I urge You To Play at Church
So, you all have heard me say it before, but in these days of Covid crap almost obliterating the live music industry, it's more important than ever! You see, all through this supposed crisis, I've kept playing almost every weekend. How? I play at several Churches. Guitar, bass, and drums, depending on the need. And man it's a blast. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I'm in Nashville, an area just brimming with full-on Pro level musicians, so my band-mates are almost always exceptional people to play...
The Best Gift For a Guitar Player or Any Musician
The Best Gift For a Guitar Player or Any Musician
The Best Present / Gift for ANY Guitarist or Musician. Howdy Gang! As Christmas time rolls around once again, I've been really sad (I'm one of those who always gets this way at the holidays). Why? Well you see, over my decades long marriage, my wife never enjoyed hearing me play or sing; not even some classic Christmas Carols at Christmas time. Yep, seriously. When I was still a single guy, all the girls I dated LOVED to sit and marvel at my incredible talent, or at least they did a good job of pretending to :)...
PRS 'Bright Cap' why it's there and how to remove it
PRS 'Bright Cap' why it's there and how to remove it
What IS That Bright Cap Across The Volume Pot on A PRS For Anyway? Hi guitar gang. As you may know, I've became fairly well known for upgrading the pickups in PRS guitars; and I'd like to address one of the main questions that comes up when folks are replacing the pickups in their PRS. The "Bright" cap! First, what is it? It's a small-value cap soldered across the first two lugs of your volume pot, Second, why is it there: to increase the brightness of the pickups. Simple enough....
Partial Pickup Coil Splitting through Resistors, Common On PRS Models
Partial Pickup Coil Splitting through Resistors, Common On PRS Models
Howdy guitar pals! Last week I did a nice, juicy blog on what I found when dissecting a high-end PRS 58/15 pickup ... weird and interesting stuff! Read that blog if ya have not already :-) This week I'll explain another bit of PRS pickup weirdness that seems to occur mostly on the Indonesian made PRS models with the basic, cheapo pickups: Partial coil-splitting Let's take a look at THAT! So, normally the way a humbucker switches into a single-coil is by turning off one coil by shunting (...
Paul Reed Smith (PRS) 58/15 Pickups Decoded! wiring and makeup discovered
Paul Reed Smith (PRS) 58/15 Pickups Decoded! wiring and makeup discovered
Wow! This is one industrial, epic, intensely cool blog for y'all! You see, for years now I've been hearing rumors about how the high-end PRS 58/15 pickups perform something strange instead of the typical shutting off one coil to go into single-coil mode. What I saw on several blogs were refrences to one coil being partially shut off via a resistor. I had heard the pickups and certainly I agreed that they did NOT sound at all like ANY split humbucker I had EVER heard! Generally, when one...
Musicians Have Options for Income During COVID
Musicians Have Options for Income During COVID
Howdy Guitar gang! Soooo, we can all agree that the world has been a crazy place to live the last year or so, but since my buddy Elon hasn't got Mars in 100% move-in condition yet, I guess we all gotta call this planet home for the foreseeable future. But for many of us guitar-slingers, the landscape is almost unrecognizable from that of glorious 2019, when we all had the freedom to travel around the world, publicly assemble, and even play music in packed hole-in-the-wall bars if we felt like it; I...
Best Replacement Speaker For Peavey Bandit
Best Replacement Speaker For Peavey Bandit
Okay tone friends, today we discuss one of the most humble and under-rated amps of all time. In production for nearly 40-years, the Peavey Bandit is an amp you are VERY likely to run across in a pawn shop, used music store, or stage near you! The amp has been through several cosmetic changes over the decades and has had slight circuit tweaks, but two things remained constant: 1) they ALL sound decent, and 2) They are ALL 1x12 combos. The easy way to make a Bandit go from decent sounding to great sounding...