South African Music Magazine
The third and final stage to my method for restringing a nylon string guitar properly centres around the bridge and specifically the way the strings are tied to it. The traditional method relies on wrapping the string around itself repeatedly. This works to prevent the string from slipping, but it also drastically slows the string Read More »
I play a lot of nylon string guitar and unfortunately am also addicted to the sound and feel of new strings. The problem with this is that a fresh set of nylon strings usually takes a long while to settle in and stretch. So changing a set of strings on the day of a gig Read More »
South African distributors Guitartone recently put this video demo together of their range of guitars and amplifiers. The video includes demos of the Reverend Flatroc – reviewed recently by SA guitar guru, Alan Ratcliffe in Muse magazine. Check it out here Also included are demos of the Swart AST Master Guitar Amplifier, reviewed by us here Read More »
We have all run across guitars with tuning problems, which continually slip out of tune while playing or are difficult to get into tune. Often players just accept them as being “difficult” instruments. Sometimes they might try changing the tuning machines and, when this is unsuccessful, either sell the guitar or decide to live with Read More »
Every guitar effect junkie knows that stomp boxes multiply when you’re not looking (or at least, that’s what we tell our partners). You start out with a simple overdrive and maybe a stomp tuner. Then before you know it, you need a power supply unit to feed your plethora of pedals and are making up Read More »
Proel M16USB 16 Channel Mixer The Proel M16USB is a fairly inexpensive, but full-featured mixer aimed squarely at the small band market. Sporting 12 microphone pre-amplifiers, inserts on every mono channel and main outputs, three-band EQ (with parametric mids on the mono channels), three auxiliary sends, four output busses, phantom power and built-in digital Read More »
Dynamic Effects Of all dynamics processors, gates are the easiest to understand and use. Commonly referred to as “noise gates” they are basically a switch used to get rid of the noise you hear during quieter parts of a track by muting the sound. However, they can also be used as an effect, altering the Read More »
Roland has long been one of the fore-runners in the guitar synth market, but in recent years their offerings such as the GI-20 and GR-20 have scaled back features and limited flexibility in an attempt to make them easier to use. The new Roland GR-55 guitar synthesiser is not only a return to form, but Read More »
Some of the most difficult to understand effects processors are dynamics processors such as compressors, expanders, noise gates and limiters. While we all know effects like distortion, equalisers and reverbs and what they sound like, dynamics processors are not usually detectable unless they are used heavily. What are “dynamics”? Dynamics are the differences in volume Read More »
An electric guitar is capable of a wide range of sounds and is unique in that the amplifier and the speakers are as much a part of the sound as the instrument itself. This means that to record the “true” sound of the electric guitar, you need to capture the sound coming from the speakers. Read More »
