Pro Guitar Shop Introduces “Demo It Live”
Pro Guitar Shop seems to be one of the webs more visible online guitar gear retailers. With a seemingly endless stream of contests, video demos and recently, a new riff of the day, taught by the popular Andy.
Their latest marketing blitz is something they are calling “Demo It Live”. It’s essentially just a web page, where they have hundreds of gear sound samples. The thing thats different, is that the FX pedals and guitars aren’t recorded with a mic in front of an amp as is typical. Instead they ran the sound straight to a recording console, and EQ’d it as neutrally as possible.
Without going into an amp, the samples actually don’t sound that good. But, they then ask that you take your smartphone, tablet or PC and get an adapter cable that will allow you to output it’s sound into your amp. So the sound samples are now running through your own rig. It’s about the best solution I’ve seen for remotely demoing gear, though still not a replacement for physically trying it yourself. And I don’t understand how this process could be “patent pending”, as it’s simply “re-amping”, a technique that’s been used by recording studios for quite some time.
Identifying Pickup Wires and Polarities
Generally, if you have a pickup, and have no idea which wire is which and you can’t find a corresponding schematic, the advice is usually just to hook it up and see what happens, then make any corrections. The methods in the video take all the guesswork out of the process.
You’ll learn how to find out, just about everything you need to know to properly wire a humbucker. How to figure out which wires go to which coils, and therefore how to hook them up for series or parallel, and even a cool way to tell the polarity of each coil. This video was pointed out to me by Dave Fliski of Heavy Air Pickups.
New Seymour Duncan Pickup – “Whole Lotta Humbucker”
Sounds pretty nice, but pickups interact with the other elements of your signal chain. Hard to tell how good they are till they’re in your guitar. But these seem like they’d be worth a try. I recently switched the Alnico 5 magnet in my burstbucker pro humbucker which is in my Les Paul, and replaced it with an Unoriented Alnico 5 magnet. The difference being in how the magnets are cast. With the unoriented one having a weaker magnetic field. The end result was a subtle reduction of the metallic, raspy quality, which was just what I was going for. So i’m guessing the sand cast magnets in these Whole Lotta humbuckers could have similar properties.
Seymour Duncan Announces Worldwide Launch of Whole Lotta Humbucker
Over a year ago Seymour Duncan launched the Whole Lotta Humbucker set as a limited edition UK exclusive. This set was based off Seymour’s experience working at the Fender Soundhouse with artists like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and many others. Seymour recalls, “When I’d work on one of those great old guitars for a client, I liked to rewind the pickups with 42-gauge plain-enamel wire. I’d also insert sand-cast Alnico magnets with a better-balanced magnetic field, which made the B and high E sound as powerful as the other strings. This modified pickup had more output and a higher frequency response. The Whole Lotta Humbucker set is a replica of these special pickups with 8.78k DC resistance for the bridge pickup, 8.20k for the neck, custom winding pitch, and a calibrated sand-cast Alnico magnet. I have such great memories of living in London, so I’m thrilled to be producing this pickup once again.” Guitar players around the world who are looking to capture the tone of an era will now be able to get Whole Lotta Humbucker at their local store or favorite online dealer.
For more information, visit: http://www.seymourduncan.com