Can you Find The Hidden Tone Control On An Electric Guitar ?

An Additional Tone Control On An Electric Guitar

An electric guitar has an additional tone control built into it. Players almost never use it because they can't find it. Here is a tip and something we do often in the Custom Shop at Haywire Guitars. If you want to lose a bit of the jangly sound in your guitar tones, whether playing live or in a studio, then try this: lower the pickups. The farther away from the pickups the "healthier" the sound and the more pleasing the frequencies will be. When the pickups are farther away from the strings they tend to accentuate the bass tones and lose some of the higher frequencies which can be offensive.
The proximity of the pickups from the strings will allow the guitar another source of tonal range you didn't know was available! Think of this as and extra tone control. The adjustment acts much like a tone control. The pickups on electric guitars are adjustable for height because players want either higher or lower "action" but the side adjuster screws of the pickups have another "surprise" benefit which is to change the tone if you choose as well as getting them out of the way to afford lower action. Try it!
Proper pickup adjustment is not as optional as you may think. You'll find the sound of the pickups is a bit truer when not so close to the strings. As the string vibrates just before the pickup has a chance to "hear it" and when there is more distance between it and the string-then the sound a chance to "mature" a bit before reaching the amp-thus giving you a more rich and melodic tone and one more way to change the sound to what YOU like!

HaywireCustomGuitars.com: Set of Haywire Custom Guitars

HaywireCustomGuitars.com: Set of Haywire Custom Guitars: These photos represent approximately 30% of the builds done in the Haywire Custom Guitars- Custom Shop since 2003. http://www.flickr.com/pho...

Haywire Guitars Movie!

Haywire Guitars Movie!

HaywireCustomGuitars.com: How To Straighten A Guitar Neck With An Adjustable Truss Rod

HaywireCustomGuitars.com: How To Straighten A Guitar Neck With An Adjustable Truss Rod

Why Block A Tremolo On A Guitar?

By HaywireGuitars

Haywire Double Fat Plus Superstrat® in Antique White with Blocked Tremolo

Source: Haywire Custom Guitars

To Some Players-Floating Tremolos Equal Out of Tune Guitars.

After playing a Guitar with a blocked tremolo-you'll love it! Why? Well simply put-if your not playing a guitar with an advanced system like the Floyd Rose Tremolo then chances are it's the 70 year old Fender floating tremolo bridge technology your using. So, why will you love playing a guitar with a blocked trem? You'll be in tune more of the time and no one in the band will give you a hard time anymore!
Problems with a “Floating Tremolo Bar” are as follows:

1- String almost never return to zero after a dive bomb.
2- If one string breaks, the rest of strings go out of tune because of tension change.
3- Intonation is less inaccurate and take much longer.
4-Bending just “One String” will cause other strings to go out of tune.
5- Other musicians playing with you will not be in tune.

How do we block a trem in the Haywire Custom Shop and why?

Blocking the tremolo requires pulling of the inertia block with the tremolo springs closer to the back wall of the trem cavity to prevent it from moving. It is accomplished by tightening the screws at the “claw” and it pulls the springs tight. This makes the bridge behave more like a hard tail bridge, eliminating common headaches. Remember this unit design has not changed since the 1940’s however players have changed!
It’s much easier to decipher an out of tune guitar in these technical times with the advent of our ”electronic tuners” not around when the tremolos were invented.For those who are purists and want to keep their instruments in “collectable” condition then have no fear. The process is not permanent. Eric Clapton blocks all of his guitars and he's got some real vintage models.

The electric guitar ‘Floating” trem bridge is only “blocked” when the screws are tightened under the tremolo cover plate in the back of the guitar body. If done properly the springs will be so tight that the trem will not move thereby rendering it blocked. The re-sale value is much better if you don’t physically change anything that can’t be reversed since lots of players still want a trem or whammy bar on their guitars. Fortunately there is another benefit. There is more sustain without the floating tremolo. If it’s blocked and it stays in perfect tune and it’s not permanent or invasive to your instrument and it’s completely reversible-then what’s not to like about it? Go ahead and block your trem!

Arriva la Stratotelia II

Di RozzoAristocratico, 21 febbraio 2012, 10:30 - In Dillo

Metà Stratocaster, metà Telecaster con il meglio dei due mondi. L'ultima nata sotto firma dell'americana Haywire promette di offrire le caratteristiche più apprezzate di entrambi gli emisferi unite alla costruzione custom interamente Made in USA.

Basta un rapido tour sul sito ufficiale di Haywire Custom Guitars per rendersi conto che Rick Mariner, fondatore del laboratorio di liuteria statunitense, ha una vera passione per gli incroci tra chitarre elettriche. Il suo catalogo trabocca di ibridi ottenuti miscelando peculiarità di modelli storici ideati, a loro tempo, dai principali nomi della liuteria mondiale, primi su tutti Fender e Gibson.
Tra il disegno di una semihollow risultante dall'incrocio tra una Stratocaster e una ES-335, appunto battezzata 335 Stratocaster, e il profilo affusolato dell'elegante miscuglio di stili denominato Telestrater, dall'offerta Haywire spicca un progetto ambizioso: ideare una chitarra che si ponga a metà tra i due modelli depositari delle più grandi sfaccettature sonore made in Fender, la Stratocaster e la Telecaster.
Un primo esperimento era già stato fatto con la prima Stratotelia, chitarra dalle linee ispirate alla Stratocaster ma con un ponte fisso e piastra in metallo in stile Telecaster.
Oggi Haywire aggiorna il suo progetto originale con la Stratotelia II - The Outcaster, alla quale dona più versatilità grazie al ponte Tremolo tradizionale unito a un battipenna disegnato su misura per lo scopo.

Il body ha ancora una volta la forma doublecut asimmetrica più famosa del mondo e una configurazione, a prima occhiata, del tutto simile a quella di una normale Stratocaster dotata di tre single coil.
Aguzzando la vista, invece, è possibile notare che il pickup al ponte è provvisto di tre viti: esso è infatti un modello standard per Telecaster fissato sul battipenna. Al centro e al manico, invece, trovano posto due pickup per Stratocaster. Anche il potenziometro del volume cambia aspetto, e diventa cilindrico come nella tradizione Telecaster, mentre i due toni restano fedeli alla tipologia Strat.
Trattandosi di prodotti custom, un gran numero di variazioni sul tema sono comunque previste, come la sostituzione dei pickup con degli EMG attivi, tutti dotati di preamplificatori individuali, oppure come l'aggiunta di un potenziometro dedicato ai toni del solo pickup al ponte.
Anche sul versante della liuteria le opzioni sono molteplici, e vanno dalla scelta del diapason, che può essere da 25,5 o da 24,75 pollici, fino alla scelta della paletta tra stile Telecaster o Stratocaster, passando per la selezione del ponte di realizzazione propria Haywire sia tipo vintage a sei viti sia moderno a due viti.
Completa di custodia rigida e accompagnata da spedizione gratuita in tutto il mondo, la Stratotelia II parte da un prezzo di 1650 dollari che può variare a seconda delle caratteristiche richieste.

Tag:

• chitarre elettriche
• haywire
• stratotelia ii

Most guitar players really don't give a lot of thought to the frets, though it can influence both tone and playability.

http://www.haywirecustomguitars.com/repairs/ReFret.html