There’s an easy trick: Turn down the volume. The slightly muddy, distorted sound of electric guitar chords that you get with your amp turned up and your guitar volume at 9 are great for playing chunky rock progressions and creating a powerful wall of sound. But what if you’re playing a song that has an intricate fingerpicking part or one that calls for rapid, strong strumming on a solid body electric? In those situations the strings blending together will be working against you.
To get a guitar sound that resembles an acoustic guitar on your solid body electric, turn down the volume on the guitar itself, and make up the lost amplitude by turning your amp up. [more…]
On January 13, I wrote about my passion for putting electric guitar strings on acoustic guitars. Today, I want to add this note: Including all of my guitars as well as friends’ and students’ guitars, I’m sure I’ve re-strung over 100 acoustic guitars with electric strings, and in 95% of all cases, the switch has worked just fine with no guitar adjustments required. However, there have been a handful of times when the reduced tension 
Buying a guitar can be a harrowing experience. You’ve saved up the money and now you’ve got one shot at getting an instrument with which you’ll be happy. When you’re trying out a guitar and you’ve decided that you like the overall sound quality, tone and feel of the instrument, here are five essential points to check to make sure you’re buying a well-built guitar: 
If your guitar sounds out of tune at the high end of the neck, even when you’ve just tuned the instrument perfectly with an electronic tuner, it means that your intonation is off. Intonation refers to the ability of your guitar to produce notes that are in correct tune on every fret of every string. 
I started out playing acoustic guitars with the standard medium-gauge bronze strings and got used to the stiff feeling of them. But when I started playing electric guitar with light-gauge strings I loved the lighter touch and the bend-ability they provided. 
As a guitar instructor, I’m often asked to help students shop for new instruments, and in shopping for them a great entry-level guitar has caught my eye—the Ibanez ART100 Artist.