The year was 1984, and the music airwaves were soaked in synth-driven sounds. Tina Turner was asking what's love got to do with it, Stevie Wonder was calling to say I love you, Steve Perry went solo, Madonna was still a virgin, and Van Halen was jumping. One of my old grammar school teachers got […]
One of my favorite gigs was the Jimi Hendrix Big Band. It was a 20-piece orchestra with me playing the role of Jimi Hendrix. The arrangements were based on the Hiram Bullock Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix recording from 2009. Initially, I was asked to be one of three to four guitarists. Each of […]
I love preamp pedals. But, they get some bad press a large part of the time. And, undeservedly so. Here's the problem: many boosts, overdrives, and distortions call themselves preamp pedals, and they're simply boost, overdrive, or distortion pedals, not preamp pedals. So, what's the difference? To understand the difference, we must first understand how […]
We all have our beloved six strings that we adore. Some of us name them, obsess over them, and daydream about them. But, even the most beautiful solid-body electric depends on amps and guitar effects pedals. Otherwise, we can only deliver soulless, flavorless, uninspired sounds. Whether we're chasing a molasses-covered bluesy phrase, a tangy funk […]
Welcome to this month's Trade Secret, and the theme has been Hot-Rodding Your Guitar. Hi guys, I'm Ed, and today I'm gonna share easy mods that every guitar player should know and try. Ed note: For those of you who just want the quick answers read below. In the video I share more info on […]
Introduction Hey, what's up, guys? I'm Ed, and welcome to Trade Secrets. This month we're going to talk about tone secrets. But, before we begin our tone-chasing journey, I'll tell you when I got bitten by the tone bug. I was in college and hitting the blues jams in the evenings. At one of […]
The violin family of instruments has remained nearly unchanged for over 300 years and has used a standard set of measurements and materials. But the steel-string guitar comes in various shapes and sizes, and model names vary from brand to brand. So, I’ll clarify some of the ambiguity by discussing a few iconic guitar models […]
It's incredible how much time I spent playing guitar without thinking of the instrument's history. And the history of the acoustic guitar goes back further than I had initially thought. But, how do I cover almost 6000 years of history and the evolution of the world's most popular instrument in under 1500 words? So, I’ve […]
In 2004, the National Guitar Workshop recruited me to help bring their analog curriculum into the digital world. Imagine this, I'm sitting in the War Room with guitar experts as we hammered out how we felt that guitar should be taught. It was exciting, and I absolutely loved my job. But you've heard the saying, […]
Intro My very first guitar lessons were jazz and classical. I didn’t know any better. I signed up for lessons at the local mom-and-pop guitar shop, and they gave me to the older teacher (by older, I mean, probably late 30s, early 40s). All of the other teachers were early to mid-20s. Now, he was […]