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A Salute to Buck Owens and The "American" Guitar

Howdy folks, as I pen this blog it is approaching the 4th of July and I just read this fun little blog about "The Most Patriotic Guitars Ever". It was a fun read ... but ... it left out what I feel is probably the most Patriotic of all guitars, those famous Red, White, & Blue beauties played by guitar pioneer and mentor to sooo many, Mr, Buck Owens. Let's talk about that. Buck and his right-hand man, Don Rich created the famous "Bakersfield Sound"; many serious Tele string-benders will flat-out tell ya that...

Can Your Gear Make You Play Better (or Worse)?

Can Your Gear Make You Play Better or Worse Howdy my fellow tone addicted friends! First a tiny jaunt down memory lane (not such a great memory btw). About six years back I did a toung-n-cheek blog on "How to Achieve Terrible Tone"; in this blog I described a band I ran into where the guitar player had in fact produced the worst tone I had ever encountered. I thought it was funny as all get-out. The guitar player had two clip-on tuners, plus two tuners on his pedal-board, plus one built into his amp ......

When Working on EL84/6BQ5 Tube Amps, You MUST know This about Pins One and Two!

Okay Gang, take a close look at these two side-by-side pics. Do ya see the problem here? On the left is the current pin designation for a EL84/6BQ5 output tube; what's connected to pin one? Nothing! Now, to the left is a detailed look at the way the EL84/6BQ5 tubes are wired on the vintage Kent amp I just had on the bench (read my last blog). What??? Why are they sending the signal to PIN ONE of those tubes??!! Don't they know that pin one goes to ... nothing?? Well...

Vintage Kent DR45 Tube Amp - Lotsa Cool on the Cheap!

Vintage Kent DR45 Tube Guitar Amp Amplifier Fiends, I can't say that I've EVER ran across an amp that has me scratching my head more than this Kent DR45. Most of us above the age of about 40 or so at least recognize the KENT name, as quite a few Kent branded electric guitars were sold during the 1960's and early 1970's. However, the amps are quite a bit more rare, and this model is nearly rare enough to be termed a "Ghost Amp". She's a cool ghost, too! With a pair of 12ax7 tubes in the pre-amp section and...

How to add a “Dog Ear” P-90 Pickup to a Vintage Kay Archtop F-Hole Acoustic Guitar

Hey WGS gang! Earlier this week I had a sweeeet old Kay in the shop to have a pickup installed (could have just as easily been a Harmony, Silvertone, etc). We wanted the traditional P-90 in the neck position with a single volume and tone control. Cool … but, there are some problems with this. So how did I do it, well keep reading and learn! The biggest issue was that a traditional P-90 is deep enough that it would require cutting a mounting hole in the guitar’s top, and...

FREE PICKUPS to CELEBRATE the NEW WGSUSA SITE!

Hidey-ho neighbors! Soooo … it took us a little longer than we expected to launch this new site, but ain’t it grand? Such a grand rebuilt website deserves an equally grand launch, and so here it is: FREE PICKUPS! Yep, throughout 2017 we’ll be giving away sets of all the Vaughn Skow models. In keeping with my somewhat goofy tongue-in-cheek ways, I have devised a super-fun way to enter the contest, and here it is: (contest entry method and rules) Make a video...

From One Guitar Player to Another: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In case you haven’t figured it out already, Warehouse Guitar Speakers isn’t your regular manufacturing company. WGS truly is the fabled small-town family owned business of yester-year, and from the top to the bottom, it’s staffed with great folks who take pride in what they do and truly care about their customers. Plus, the WGS staff is chocked plum full of guitar players and tone chasers … in other words, we’re just like you! And so we say to you a heartfelt “Merry Christmas” as from one family member to another. We hope Santa leaves something very cool under...

What Is The Best Way To Sell Guitar Gear Online - eBay vs Reverb

I’ve been buying and selling gear on eBay since the last millennium … otherwise known as 1999, but hey, that’s still a LONG time! Over the last decade eBay has become less and less advantageous for individuals like me as a place to sell gear. The fees keep escalating and the deck is stacked more and more against the seller in as much as we actually CAN’T give a buyer who rips us off bad feedback … that’s plum insane, and a buyer can blackmail us using a threat of “bad feedback”. Furthermore, the ONLY payment method we can accept is PayPal, and PayPal is terribly...

Guitarist to Guitarist: Happy Thanksgiving!

We may all be different (some of us more than others :-) ... but every one of us here in the WGS circle of friends has something to be truly thankful for this year: The fact that we have guitars in our lives. No matter the level we play at or the style we play in, this love of guitars and making music reaches across the miles and even the ideologies that might distance us and brings us together as one. I feel truly blessed to be a part of this family! HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM ALL THE WGS GANG!

How to Power Up a Tube Amp After a Long Time In Storage

You’ve just dug an old Tube amp out of Grandpa’s attic; or maybe got a deal on eBay or Craigslist. So, how do you safely turn it on to assess its health? Well, there’s really NO way that’s guaranteed to be safe, but here is the best advice I can give ya. Don’t Just Plug it in, turn it on and hope for the best. Believe me, this is a proven recipe for smoking resistors and capacitors. And oh how terrible the smoke smells! It’s the reverse of the old Nike line: JUST DON’T DO IT! Never turn a tube amp on without a speaker load. On eBay I...

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