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The Rise of the British Guitar Magazine

The Rise of the British Guitar Magazine
Are you ready for Planet Botch - the cult guitar mag?... No, neither am I, so this is only a mock-up cover, made with apologies to all wh...

The Technique Trap: Why You Might Need a WORSE Guitar

The Technique Trap: Why You Might Need a WORSE Guitar
In the land of Rick it's not black and sunburst - it's Jetglo and Fireglo. Everything about these beautifully-crafted, cellulose-f...

Gary Moore: Why He Dumped Heavy Metal For Blues

Gary Moore: Why  He Dumped Heavy Metal For Blues
With huge success, in 1989 the long-time rock guitarist and singer Gary Moore made a dramatic decision to dump heavy metal and pitch head ...

Total Recall - The History of Total Accuracy Guitar Tuition

Total Recall - The History of Total Accuracy Guitar Tuition
Even the promotional giveaway audio cassettes from Total Accuracy came with a high quality chrome tape formulation. This 1993 promo feature...

Buried Reggae Treasures: The Torpedo Record Label

Buried Reggae Treasures: The Torpedo Record Label
The Internet is heavily driven by populist themes. So if your interests have often strayed outside the mainstream, you may have struggled ...

25 Pro Rules You Should Checklist For Studio Recording

25 Pro Rules You Should Checklist For Studio Recording
Recording and mixing a musical composition is often underestimated as a task, with the emphasis placed on the musicians rather than the re...

While My Fanbase Gently Weeps: The Music Business Sell-Out

While My Fanbase Gently Weeps: The Music Business Sell-Out
In the finest of music biz stories, there comes a point at which the hand of commerce takes over, the essence of the initial excitement go...

Music Moments: Boney M's Daddy Cool on Top of the Pops

Music Moments: Boney M's Daddy Cool on Top of the Pops
Any UK dwellers old enough to remember a mid 1980s alt comedy show called Who Dares Wins , may recall a clever and well played sketch in w...

Myth & Reality: “Home Taping Is Killing Music”

Myth & Reality: “Home Taping Is Killing Music”
Ah, that enduring slogan… How much can you remember? Was the BPI’s infamous anti-piracy campaign a ’70s thing? An ’80s thing? Was the slo...

Rhythm Guitar and Other Reggae Secrets

Rhythm Guitar and Other Reggae Secrets
Whilst, through history, there’s been a tendency for some musicians to look down on reggae, the style remains one of the most difficult fo...

How to Increase Your Odds of Music Business Success by 20,000

How to Increase Your Odds of Music Business Success by 20,000
Okay, so you’ve probably seen the title, suspected it was empty clickbait, and taken a look just to marvel at the audacity of the post. Bu...

UK Punk Guitar: A Style Defined

UK Punk Guitar: A Style Defined
Whether or not punk rock’s guitar style had a definite beginning is open to lively debate. And for good reason. The punk genre might have ...

Those Who Can’t… Confessions of a Private Music Tutor

Those Who Can’t… Confessions of a Private Music Tutor
Before the market for music tuition was revolutionised by free options online, it was possible for many local and decidedly average musici...

Songwriting: Avoiding Unwitting Plagiarism

Songwriting: Avoiding Unwitting Plagiarism
Have you ever experienced a situation in which you’ve had a “flash of inspiration”, envisioned an almost complete musical idea out of now...

Death By Digital: How Technology Killed Music

Death By Digital: How Technology Killed Music
The electric guitar has been one stronghold of pre-digital technology which refuses to die. Just as video killed the radio star, digital ...

Music Promotion on Twitter: From Soundcloud Spam to Success

Music Promotion on Twitter: From Soundcloud Spam to Success
Over on Twirpz , I’ve done quite a few articles about Twitter and its out-of-control ‘marketing’, and Twirpz is where I normally keep my Twi...

10 Free or Dirt Cheap Ways To Freshen Up Your Guitar Playing

10 Free or Dirt Cheap Ways To Freshen Up Your Guitar Playing
We all get stuck in a rut at some time or other, and let’s face it, there’s a lot of advice on how to dig yourself out. Unfortunately tho...

Anyone Can Be Famous: Pub Rock

Anyone Can Be Famous: Pub Rock
I wonder how many musicians reading this will have heard of a band called Eggs Over Easy? They’re not widely mentioned today, but, even thou...

Top Ten Waste of Money Musicians’ Purchases: 1980 to 1990

Top Ten Waste of Money Musicians’ Purchases: 1980 to 1990
Above: 1980s stuff. Some of it was quite good. What a decade it was. The period between 1980 and 1990 was full of so many great developm...

The Classic Yamaha DX Synths: A 1980s Revolution

The Classic Yamaha DX Synths: A 1980s Revolution
In the history of popular music, there’s never really been anything else like FM. Frequency Modulation , brought to the mass market by Ya...
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Remember This Lot?

1980s Guitarist Magazines Malmsteen? Sickened by Vinnie Moore? Surely not?... Let's re-live the full, gossip-filled story of the UK guitar press, circa 1980s and 1990s. Nostalgia galore in The Rise of the British Guitar Magazine... Read article...

The Vintage Reissue Story

Vintage Reissue A trip back through time to discover how the vintage guitar market started, and when the vintage reissue concept was born... Read article...

Guitar Pickup Calibration

Guitar pickups What is pickup calibration, and do we really need it? ... Read article...

The Birth of the Relic

Fender Stratocaster Relic in Sea Foam Green The back-story behind Fender's Relic concept, from underground to mainstream... Read article...

Hidden Secret of the Fender Esquire

Fender Esquire in Butterscotch Blonde An article begins with the question of why a single-pickup Fender Esquire has a pickup selector., and ends with a profound secret from Fender history.. Read article...

Get Great Tone With Poor Pickups

Guitar strings Some long lost secrets from electric guitar string history, that explain why '70s guitarist got great tone with poor pickups... Read article...

Confusing History of Olympic White

Olympic White guitars Was Olympic White actually white, or cream? And what was "Vintage White"?... Here's an end to the confusion... Read article...

The Classic '80s Yamaha DX Synths

Vintage Reissue They put session musicians out of business, from bassists to harmonica players. Here's the story of the synths that changed the way music was made.. Read article...

Telecasters of the Late 1960s

Paisley Telecaster Fender didn't anticipate the 'Hendrix Effect', and opted to make the late 1960s all about the Telecaster. Here's how they pumped their innovation budget into the Tele, only to discover the world wanted Strats after all... Read article...

Free Tonewheel Organ VSTi

The Seductress tonewheel organ VSTi Direct download for this classic tonewheel organ simulator with built-in dual-spin rotor and twin-manual drawbar control - all splittable across a single input keyboard... Download page...

Stratocasters in the 1970s

1970s Stratocaster Firemist Gold Were 1970s Fender Strats good, bad or ugly? Here's an article that separates the truths from the myths... Read article...