Why is alder our preferred wood?
We find that alder has the richest tone, characterized by lots of fat low-end and well define mids. Alder is a light wood, which makes it more comfortable for long gis, and it has a slot of sustain. It is one of the original woods used for solid body guitars. Although other woods like poplar and basswood are used by othewr manufacturers, they are considered alder substitutes.
Why use a humbucker?
Humbuckers are designed with opposing polarities. This gives them a noise (hum) canceling effect, thus called “hum-bucking” or humbuckers. Humbuckers are generally known for having a thicker sound than a single coil pickup. They are equally good for both clean, low-volume playing and ear-splitting distortion.
Maple
Maple is a strong and extremely dense, heavy wood. It is exellent for guitar necks and bodies because it chan handle an inordinate amount of string tension. Maple ihas a bright and crisp tone and is used on flamenco guitars as well as some electrics. It has a wide variety of exotic grains that show up quite well in finishes. Flamed maple is a very popular and brilliant looking exotic type of maple. “Flamed” refers to the rippling, or curls of the grain of wood that run across the body. Flame maple is generally “bookmatched,” which means that the body is made of two half pieces of a single cut piece of maple. This gives the guiat even weight, look and tone throughout the body.
Solid Alder
Alder is a fairly light and incredible resilient wood that is a favorite amongst electric guitar makers. It is a close grained wood that has a natural light tan color to it. Alder is used mostly for electric guitar body building because of its density and its full sound. It is a porous wood that takes quite well to a variety of finishes. Alder gives guitars a very full sound sand great sustain with emphasis on the midrange of wood running all the way through. This gives the guitar a richer because the solid wood soundboard can vibrate more freely and thoroughly.
What is the difference between “active” and “passive” pickups?
Simply put, active pickups are those that have circuit that require battery power, whereas passive pickups don’t require any additional power to operate. However, this simple difference can mean a lot to your guitar’s tone and overall output.
Passive pickups send a low output, raw signal to the amp that can only be affected by the volume and tone controls on the instrument itself. Passive pickups tend to lose the extremes of high and low frequencies, but still give a very even and punchy tone. This is because passive pickups tend to push out more midrange frequencies. While passive pickups might give players less dynamic control, their smooth sound is still very unique and desirable.
Active Pickups have preamps that are built into the pickup housing, so they can drive the signal to the amp themselves. This preamp must be powered by a source other than the amp, so active pickups require a separate battery to operate. This allows the pickup to send a higher output signal, producing a more complete , full-range, sound than most passive pickup systems and giving players more control of instrument dynamics, projection and tone.
How to change intonation on electric guitars
Most electric guitars have adjustable saddles,. You can easily chang the intonation of each stin using only a screwdriver. If the 12th fret is flat(compared to the harmonic) you should turn the saddle screw conterclockwise, to make the sttring shorter and high in pitch. You will need to retune after each adjustment of the screw to recheck the intonation. If the 12th fret is sharp you should turn the screw clockwise to make the string longer . After you’ve completed this for every string your guitar should be in tune.
- Information sourced from The Music Link Inc.
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