guitars

I know this isn't strictly about guitar, but I figured that the main theme was close enough and that the video fits the vibe of this community.

Recently I built a Tele-partscaster with some spare parts I had lying around. I had some cheap Chinese-made Gotoh styled tuners from many years ago (probably bought from Guitar Fetish but I don't remember for sure). I put in those cheap tuners onto my new build just to have something there, but also hoping that they would be good enough to do the job. Unfortunately, the posts were really wobbly and several of the tuners "chattered" when I turned them (probably gunk in the gear mechanism). Since I had always been curious about the Wilkinson EZ Lok tuners, and since they are only around $30 shipped from Amazon, I decided to give them a try.

First of all, these are just licensed tuners from Trevor Wilkinson and are made in Korea. They fit the typical 10 mm holes of import necks, and are drop in replacements for standard Gotoh/Schaller styled tuning machines, so if you are replacing that kind of tuner no need to plug and redrill mounting screw holes, which is a big plus. They have a 19:1 gear ratio, which is fantastic for the price. I figured that if I didn't like the "gimmick" of the EZ Lok tuners, I would just use them as regular tuners.

The "gimmick" of these tuners is that the string post has 2 holes perpendicular to each other, one slightly higher than the other. You are supposed to pull the new string though one hole first, pull it taut, wrap it manually around the post once, then thread the string through the second hole. The theory is that this creates two "kinks" in the string and locks it in place without needing multiple winds around the post. Presumably this means increased tuning stability. The official party line appears to be that for the wound strings you are supposed to use the bottom hole first, and the unwound strings you are supposed to use the top hole first. I just used the bottom hole for all strings, since you're not supposed to have a bunch of wraps around the post anyway so I didn't think it made a huge difference. The two holes are also fairly closely spaced, which is another reason I think it probably doesn't really matter.

In case this description does not make sense, here is an old video showing how it is supposed to work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3C7hrjXqgk

It's important to note that even though the product has "Lok" in its name, it is NOT a locking tuner in the traditional sense. These will generally not have the benefit of quick string changes that typical locking tuners provide. OTOH, they are not as heavy as locking tuners since there is no locking screw mechanism. And without a locking screw mechanism, it's one less thing to potentially break.

I will say that the quality of the tuners themselves are quite good. If you are looking to replace cheap tuners, then even without the EZ Lok gimmick these are a great value at $30. After stringing up a guitar using the EZ Lok method, I did find that it seemed to take significantly less time to get the strings settled in after stretching the strings. However, the wraps on the post are kind of ugly - they look like a rookie trying to put strings on a guitar for the first time where the wraps are uneven.

Pros: inexpensive yet good quality tuners, high gear ratio of 19:1, drop-in replacement for modern Gotoh-styled tuners with 10 mm holes. after installing new strings, strings can be tuned to pitch and "broken in" by stretching quickly. no additional mechanical parts - it's just a standard tuner with two holes instead of one. Can be strung normally if EZ Lok method not desired.

Cons: can be somewhat more complex to do string changes using EZ Lok method, so slower than typical locking tuners. string wraps around post look ugly even when done right. Not true "locking" mechanism.

overall rating: 8/10. I will be looking at using these to replace another set of cheap Chinese tuners that have poor tuning action.

Love reading the manuals:

New to me 2003/4 Godin Kingpin I cleaned it up a bit and put new strings on. Really happy with it.

It probably needs a professional setup, as the action is a bit high, but I was able to set the intonation by nudging the floating bridge.

I'm getting back into playing guitar, but I want to skip on constantly changing tunings and strings for them, also I would like some octaver effect or something like that.

I got this Harley Benton DC Junior a few years ago and it's been my main axe since.

Only issue is it has the worse tuning stability of any guitar I've owned, Not only going out of tune but getting it to correct pitch can be spotty in the first place.

Any ideas for replacement tuning machines? I've already replaced the nut with a graphtech one a while back and it only slightly helped when tuning up. I also don't mind drilling new screw holes if need be.

This is not the first partscaster I've built but it is the first Telecaster-styled partscaster I've attempted. I have learned the following lessons:

• Neck was bought from a no-name brand on Amazon for about $50 bucks - it's actually quite nice. 14 inch radius, two-way truss rod adjusted from the heel. looks like Indian rosewood. if you are willing to put in the fret work and want to save money, a cheap neck with a two way truss rod is the way to go. you can fix almost any kind of neck with a two way truss rod and get it dead straight.
• Body was bought from aeguitars.com. Allegedly it's alder but it seems a bit too light and soft for alder. I suspect it's poplar? The body shipped quickly to me but had a lot of off-gassing smell for a few days. The finish looks nice but the neck pocket is NOT tight.
• pickups are the EMG-T set. the neck pickup did not fit into the pickguard (also a cheap no-name brand from amazon, I picked it for the pattern). Cheap parts are nice but be prepared to get work with a file or Dremel.
• A telecaster is (counterintuitively) harder to build than a Strat. It's a very nerve wracking process to position the bridge.
• If you're used to building Strats, don't forget the a Telecaster has a SINGLE cutaway body. Don't drill the strap button hole on the horn... ask me how I know.

Edit: it's been found. Apparently it was misplaced during a busy day and they were afraid it was stolen.

Keep an eye out, I guess ☹️

Hi, I'm a beginner who just started learning the F barre chord.

I can't get string 1 and 2 to ring clearly without applying insane force. Hmm I guess I have to just keep practicing until I can make it ring clearly without much effort.

How was your F barre chord journey? I'm sure experienced players here can enlighten my path.

I'm trying to find the optimal setup for me but I'm struggling with it, I'd love to hear your suggestions.

• I wanted something that I can have a lyrics data bank for me to use offline if I need to.
• I wanted to be able to tap and flip the page... not scroll. Scroll requires me to be precise on the move during a song... can't do it. A pedal would work but this is for me to play at campfires and stuff, I don't want to carry a Bluetooth pedal around.

I downloaded Ultimate Guitar and it's good in the sense that it has a lot of songs... but the autoscroll sucks because sometimes there's a section in the middle with details of a riff and I don't want to do that so I have to stop and move the song forwards. I guess if there's an app that would download the lyrics/chords and keep it on the phone and another that simply reads files and I can tap and turn a page, that would work as well.. How do you guys do it?

Facebook and Youtube pages appear to be completely rebranded.

I hope that Colin isn't selling off or stepping away from the channel. He has produced great content for years. His pragmatic approach to gear selection and maintenance combined with simple and easy-to-understand explanations made him a valuable asset to the community. I know that I've learned a lot about how my gear works and how to best select and modifier gear to get the effect that I want thanks directly to CSGuitars.

https://www.youtube.com/@ScienceofLoud

https://www.facebook.com/scienceofloud

Last year I bought an Harley Benton Telecaster and I loved it right away. Today I'm going to make it even better by upgrading its weak spots like the tuners, the electronics and the plastic nut. I'm also going to mod the wiring with a 4-way switch and adding a "pickup in series" mode.
Wish me luck.

I really enjoy this site, it has helped me learn a lot. There's a lot of useful tools, I especially like the chord analyzer.

I'm having so much fun making this I thought I would share.

I am working on a simple, cheap, easy to construct multi-effects guitar pedal based on the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller. All of the other parts are generic parts. So far I have implemented the following effects:

Noise gate, Delay, Room, Combine Effects, Bandpass Filter, Lowpass Filter, Highpass Filter, Allpass Filter, Tremolo, Vibrato, Wah, Autowah, Envelope, Distortion, Overdrive, Ring Modulator, Flanger, Chorus, Phaser, Backwards (play the last few samples backwards), Pitch Shift, and Octave (rectification).

Some effects can be cascaded inside the device. There are up to 16 "units" where each processing stage can process the results of the last stage. Various controls on the effects can be assigned to the four potentiometers at the bottom of the board, or two expression pedals you can plug into the side.

I also added a VGA output because I want to have a cool video display that changes with the audio. Also, perhaps implement some kind of guitarsynth or MIDI control.

Anyways this has been a lot of fun to make. I hope others will enjoy it too.

https://www.github.com/profdc9/GuitarPico

Hello, I am new to guitar (3 weeks) and I am practicing every day (a bit too much some days which could be exacerbating) and I have pretty small hands. I think my middle finger measures about 3 inches.

I played a lot over the past few days and my left hand (fretting hand in my case) is sore not in a good way I don't think. I kind of have to contort my hand if I am up near the head stock fretting 1 and 4.

I am not discouraged. It seems like all youtube videos just say don't give up with small hands, not exactly helpful. I'm plenty motivated and want to keep going but I don't want to injure myself.

So all that to say any advice on being able to fret well by the headstock with small hands? I also think my wrist is not in a healthy position but I can't reach my fingers far enough apart without doing some hand yoga.

25.5" scale neck, poplar body, coil tapping pickups, knockoff floyd from guitar fetish. The body was dyed using angelus leather dies (recommended by BigDGuitars on yt) it was a good first project to learn on and a lot of fun to make. Picture was taken before I installed the control knobs but it really pops in the sun.