Bad Religion Performs "Wrong Way Kids"

Jimmy is Def punk in that suit! I heard he showed up on a fixy!

Bad Religion Performs "21st Century Digital Boy"

That's right kiddies - Old dudes rock ! LOL
What's with the plaid shirts?

Help Keith Richards help Japan !

Go to Keith's site and buy a T-shirt that will make you rich and famous!

100% of the profit from these shirts go to "The Japanese Society Relief Fund."

Click here for a quick link.

Click here for more ways to help Japan!

Japan is certainly playing the blues.

Make a list - then do it

How many times have you realized that time has slipped by and that great big project is even further down the road from completion than yesterday? Common sense isn't very common and today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday! Make a list of things you are working on and get busy! Mark off what you have completed and move on to the next item. Just don't get too caught up in making lists to the point that all you are doing is making lists.........! LOL

My examples of lists are as follows:

• Created a list of my favorite songs to play on the acoustic guitar.
• Listed my favorite jazz tunes to play (Bebop!).
• Made a list of my guitar serial numbers and saved it in the computer.
• List of tools I need.

See, it's easy to get carried away! The important part is to start making progress. Why did I post a picture of Duane Allman? Because Duane had the vision and persistence required to get many things done and if he didn't have drive he would have never risen to guitar God status during the short time he graced this planet. Amen brother Allman!

'Chameleon Guitar' blends old-world and high-tech

An MIT student has a new twist on an old design!

'Chameleon Guitar' blends old-world and high-tech

Solidbodies, The 50 Year Guitar War - Video!

Nice Video on the development of the Solid Body Electric guitar. However, note that this video is a little dated already as we are above the 60 year mark. Therefore, this commercial video covers the 50 year history of electric guitars. This informative video features primarily Fender and Gibson guitars but there are others as well. I could pick out flaws but from a basic information point of view - this is worth watching if you are new to the instrument or buying and adding to your collection.
Enjoy learning about the history of an instrument that moved from the back of the bandstand to the forefront and thus dominating the air waves for years. The Video is available through Amazon at by clicking on this link!

Guitar Shielding

Does your guitar hum? Got a noisy guitar? Shield it.

Do the following first:

• Obtain a wiring schematic of your guitar.
• No schematic?
• Make a schematic or photograph all connects carefully
• Check continuity to know which wire is connected to what (very simple terms here!)
• Remove all old wires and components
• Clean all components that will be reused
• Shield the instrument (easier said than done - read a book about it!)
• Solder all connections together using a decent soldering iron and solder (wire too)
• Check continuity
• Install components in the instrument (chronological sequence will vary with each instrument)
• Double check continuity.
• Button it up and enjoy.

This is a recent project of mine that wasn't nearly as simple as described because the PCB pre-amp was suspected of malfunction. I created a shielded test box to isolate problematic possibilities.

This was what the Factory sold to the public!


There was a lot of junk inside this cavity and I don't know what happened to the original battery clip but when I opened up this unit - The battery was wrapped in a napkin.

The Volume and Tone control cavity was grounded to the wire bridge in the main cavity - Still - the guitar had a troublesome hum. This hum was omni-present because this is a nylon string guitar with piezoelectric under-saddle pickup.





It is important to have secure wire connections. I used shrink tubing to insure a robust wire harness.



This is the shielding with the bad PCB Styrofoam insulation.



I ran many iterations to determine the source of 60 cycle hum. The pcb had some cold joints and bad components. I used my O-scope to pin-point the faulty component. Replace the component. Then I constructed a new insulation barrier for the pcb. The former PCB insulation was Styrofoam that was breaking down. The old insulation barrier was removed and I shielded EVERY CAVITY in the guitar.


This is what the shielded instrument looks like with the new wires, wire harness and components installed.






The guitar is now quiet as a mouse. Prior to this modification the guitar was annoying to play due to persistent hum noise. If I wished to use this guitar for a gig I had to adjust my all the amp settings to get barely passable tone. In addition, playing the guitar through a tube amp was not an option as the guitar would only work half decent on a solid state amp.

This guitar has a new life. Got hum - Try shielding! Scott \m/