Month: August 2018

Ormsby Guitars has announced two new models, the Metal X and Metal V, as well as a new Goliath headless model and a new humbucking pickup set, the Blizzard and Concordia.The new Metal X and Metal V multiscale electric guitars are available in a variety of configurations, all featuring new Blizzard and Concordia pickups. The Metal V Pinstripe Limited Edition features a mahogany body with Rock Maple set-neck construction, ebony fingerboard, 24 jumbo stainless steel frets and Luminlay side dots. The finish is Gloss White with Deep Blue Pearl pinstripes and a white-painted, satin-finished neck. Available in six string 25.5" - 27.5" Multiscale at an RRP of $1,849 AUD and seven-string 25.5" - 27.8" Multiscale at an RRP of $1,899 AUD.Solid-colored Matte Black versions of the Metal X and Metal…

Ormsby Guitars has announced two new models, the Metal X and Metal V, as well as a new Goliath headless model and a new humbucking pickup set, the Blizzard and Concordia.The new Metal X and Metal V multiscale electric guitars are available in a variety of configurations, all featuring new Blizzard and Concordia pickups. The Metal V Pinstripe Limited Edition features a mahogany body with Rock Maple set-neck construction, ebony fingerboard, 24 jumbo stainless steel frets and Luminlay side dots. The finish is Gloss White with Deep Blue Pearl pinstripes and a white-painted, satin-finished neck. Available in six string 25.5" - 27.5" Multiscale at an RRP of $1,849 AUD and seven-string 25.5" - 27.8" Multiscale at an RRP of $1,899 AUD.Solid-colored Matte Black versions of the Metal X and Metal…

The latest Ernie Ball Music Man Ball Family Reserve limited collection is here. These rare pieces—previously reserved for family and Ernie Ball Music Man’s loyal artists—are offered in limited production runs to the public, and feature some of the finest figured tone woods and finishes. This month's offering includes the Cutlass SSS, the Bongo 6HH and the Albert Lee HH.(Image: © Ernie Ball Music Man)Limited to just 31 pieces worldwide, the Cutlass SSS features a rosewood  fingerboard with mother of pearl block inlays and hand fitted white binding, a figured maple neck accented by a matching painted headstock with Schaller locking tuners, and a lightweight Alder body finished in an opaque off-white custom “Cornsilk” finish with a polyester clear coat.(Image: © Ernie Ball Music Man)Limited to just 72 pieces worldwide, the…

Photo by K. Todd Storch / CC BY A single humbucker guitar—some people just love them. Yes, we know most guitars that you’ll find come with two or even three pickups installed, regardless of whether those are single- or double-coil. But, like we said, many players prefer the simplicity of a single pickup, both aesthetically and sonically. Fewer pickups means less magnetic pull on the strings, which can give you a more open and musical tone than you’d otherwise get, even from using the selector switch on a multi-pickup guitar like a Tele or Strat. You can technically turn any guitar that uses humbuckers into a single-pickup guitar by simply removing the other pickups on the instrument. If you know you’ll want to go this route, though, you can also…

No matter if you're a beginning player or a seasoned pro, there's always something new to learn on the acoustic guitar. So next time you're stuck in the rut, looking to freshen up your practice regimen, or want to develop healthier playing habits, here are five easy tips you can use to improve your acoustic guitar playing. Use a metronome and start slow. A common mistake among guitarists is trying to learn new scales or chord progressions too fast. Build a solid foundation by starting slow—painfully slow—and working up. Practicing with a metronome will build your sense of rhythm and fingering accuracy, and help you progress to faster tempos. Expand your chord vocabulary.Learning new chords is another great way to progress your playing, add more expressiveness to your songwriting, and naturally develop your…

Los Angeles, CA (August 24, 2018) -- Tone King Amplifier Company has unveiled the new Sky King, a 35-watt, 1x12, two-channel combo amplifier. The Tone King Sky King 1x12 35-watt combo electric guitar amplifier sings with the definitively American tones of the 1950s and 1960s. This amp’s dual onboard channels - rhythm and lead - are voiced around the glassy elegance of blackface-style designs and the unmistakable warm bark of the tweed-covered titans. Give the lead channel’s Mid-Bite control a spin, and you’ll even find tighter sounds reminiscent of some equally iconic amps from across the pond. Flip the Sky King around and you’re able to further enhance the amplifier’s inherent character. You’ll find a mode switch that selects between pentode and ultralinear performance on both channels. Pentode offers familiar…

Very few can claim they’re highly successful singer-songwriters and respected guitar players, but Vince Gill is one such musician. As a recording artist, Gill has a nearly endless list of awards, including no fewer than 21 Grammy Awards. At the same time, he’s not afraid to pick up his guitar and play, and there are countless examples of him tearing it up on his own recordings, as well as with many other legends. This lesson will focus more on his hot country playing, but he’s an accomplished blues player and has a great Western swing band, the Time Jumpers, so if you want to dig further into his playing there’s a lot to explore. As you might expect from someone with Gill’s level of success, he has a lot of…

Impossible to ignore on eBay, this Cozart T-style was scored with a snipe bid for a mere $102 plus $25 shipping. Many serapes cost more. Every now and then, I’ll see a guitar on eBay that makes me do a double take. This is one of them: a Cozart T-style that has a Mexican serape wrapped around the entire body—front, back, and sides. The question that comes to mind is, why? I don’t know, but for some strange reason it appealed to me. Sure, I might have to vacuum it every now and then and keep a sewing kit handy, but it’s here to stay in my collection. I wasn’t sure if I was going to bid on it, but when I re-read the description, the seller said it was…

(Image: © Cort)Cort has introduced its new CR300 guitar.According to Cort, the CR300 is for guitarists who want original PAF ("Patent Applied For") tone without the accompanying price tag. Modeled after classic designs, the single-cutaway CR300 has a set neck, solid body and retroactive humbuckers to evoke the sounds of the Fifties and Sixties.The CR300 features a 15 mm (0.6’’) carved premium maple top on a mahogany body with ivory binding. The mahogany neck has a jatoba fingerboard with retro block inlays and a 12’’ radius on a 24.75’’ scale.The CR300 is built with EMG RetroActive Fat 55 dual humbuckers, with a three-way toggle switch that selects either humbucker or both. The guitar features a 2-volume and 2-tone control layout, which helps produce a wide variety of sounds.The guitar comes…

Austin, TX (August 9, 2018) -- We’re excited to announce torrefied Sitka spruce as our newest tonewood offering for our popular MT series. We’ve experimented with a number of torrefied woods over the years and have found Sitka spruce to be an excellent fit for this instrument, creating an impressive balance of openness, projection and solid midrange warmth with a dry, woody tonal character. It provides an extremely quick response for softer, more delicate passages, yet offers plenty of head room to dig in for a throaty, bluegrass bark. Sometimes informally referred to as "baked" tonewoods, the thermal process of torrefaction changes the structural composition of the wood by crystalizing the resins within. This effectively hardens the material while also reducing the overall weight. These structural changes happen naturally over…