This ultra-flexible, ultra-configurable pedal packs a lot of guitar gizmos into one solid stomp box. Featuring 99 presets and 99 user configurable sounds delivered by a 24-bit A/D converter and a 32-bit DSP engine to deliver intense sonics. The built in tuner is handy and easy to use.

Available effects

Distortion, Amp Modeling, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Vibe, Tremelo, Rotary, Compressor, TapeEcho, Delay, Reverb, Filter, Ring Modulator, Pitch Shift.

Amp Modeling

The stomp attempts to reproduce sounds from a variety of amplifiers such as a Marshall and Fender. The computer interface allows you to pick the style amp and speaker cabinet type.

The stomp also features a stereo output for multi-amp setups or recording.

Overall an excellent effects processor with so much crammed in to play with. We had some issue running it to certain amps where the output power was too high for the amp causing it to cut out. Also, the volume control is always active even with the effect channel off.

Sadly Yamaha discontinued the Magic Stomp..fortunately many can still be had in used form on eBay and other online sites.

What is a capo?

In the simplest terms a capo is a moveable top nut. It takes the place of your index finger: that’s the finger you usually employ to lay across all six strings when you play bare chords. If you’re playing a song in standard tuning on your guitar but find that it’s too high (or too low) for you, or your vocalist, to sing along then you have two options. You could transpose the chords into another key – A instead of G for example. That’ll work, but it’ll take a while. It’s much quicker to use a capo. A capo allows you to alter the pitch key of the guitar whilst continuing to play open chord shapes. For instance, place the capo at the second fret of the guitar and that open G chord you were just playing is now an A. The capo has moved the guitar’s tuning up a whole step. Clever, huh?

Choosing the right capo for you.

Because a great capo can last you a lifetime, purchase the best capo you can afford. Although it’s tempting to buy some bargain basement model, you need a capo that is well-made and easy-to-use. It also has to stay in place on your guitar’s neck.

There are Planet Waves capos available for every style of guitar. If you play an electric, acoustic or 12-string acoustic guitar, then you need to check out Planet Waves’ Ratchet Capo or the beautifully engineered NS Capo. These capos will cater to the curved radius of your guitar’s fingerboard. If you play a nylon-strung classical guitar, then the NS Classical Capo is the model for you. Your guitar has a flat, wide fingerboard, and the NS Classical Capo is the perfect match.

Using the capo.

Correct placement of your capo is essential. There’s no point just whacking it onto your guitar’s neck and hoping for the best. Getting the precise position will ensure tone quality, without annoying buzzing or rattling, and tuning stability. The capo should sit close to the fret (see photo one) not between frets (as shown in photo two). It’s also very important that you have some control over the amount of pressure that the capo exerts on the strings. Too little pressure and the strings will cause buzz and the strings lose their tone. Too much pressure is just as annoying – the strings will go out of tune.

It’s precisely for these reasons that Planet Waves and designer Ned Steinberger developed the ‘smooth, tactile dial’ on the NS series capos to allow the player to alter the tension that the capo applies to the strings. The clever one-hand operation NS capos are also lightweight and gig tough, thanks to their aluminium construction. That’s great because the best type of capo is one that becomes such an integral part of your playing experience that you almost forget that it’s there.

Capo boot camp!

There’s nothing quite as chilling to a guitarist as staring out over a sea of faces at a show as you’re fumbling with your capo. An audience doesn’t understand what you’re doing… all they know is that the entertainment has stopped and they’re growing restless. So, the goal here is to be ‘gig ready.’ You should practice fitting your capo to your guitar as quickly and calmly as possible. Time yourself – you’ll be amazed just how much faster you’ll get with a bit of solid practice. Of course, it helps if your capo is well designed. The quickest draw in capo-land is Planet Waves’ revolutionary Ratchet Capo. You literally ‘squeeze’ this capo into position on the fingerboard. It only takes a second to complete the operation, and the Ratchet Capo stays put until you press the quick release lever to remove the capo or move it to another position on the guitar.

Summing up…

It’s time to add a Planet Waves capo to your arsenal of guitar gadgets. Although the capo has been around for many years, this amazing tool is still very important to creative musicians and Planet Waves capos are designed to meet the demands of modern guitarists. Yes, a capo is a practical way to alter the pitch of your guitar, but it’s equally important as a source of inspiration to legends like George Harrison, Noel Gallagher of Oasis, Johnny Marr of The Smiths and the millions of guitarists that already use Planet Waves capos. So, what are you waiting for, huh?

Article provided by Planet Waves, maker of high quality instrument cables and accessories.
Visit them at www.planetwaves.com.

First, what is a pickup?

Technically, pickups are transducers that “pick up” string vibrations and translate them into an electrical current which then comes out of your amp as a tasty jazz run, a chunky power chord, or an in-yer-face death metal riff.

Why change pickups?
Simply put: Are you totally satisfied with your instrument’s tone? Look – 99% of all guitars are built from the same basic stuff: wood, strings, hardware, and pickups. Each of these components plays an important role in formulating the tone and determining how your instrument will sound. But check this out – if you’ve got an instrument that looks right and feels right, but doesn’t sound right to you, then the pickups in that instrument are not the right pickups for you. Seymour Duncan/Basslines manufactures hundreds of pickup models for all kinds of instruments with the single-minded goal of helping you find your tone. Your tone.

OK, now I have decided to change but what and how?

Deciding on your tone needs in an important first step in choosing a pickup. Do you need more output? Are you looking for a thicker tone? Is your tone lacking bottom end? Are you in search of more sustain or better dynamics? Answering these questions is the first step in choosing the right pickup for you.

Next, read about pickups. Look at their reported sound and tonal qualities. Many pickup manufacturers have sample sounds from varying guitars on various amps on their websites. Seymour Duncan has a large audio library giving samples to help you find what you are looking for.

audio samples from the Seymour Duncan website – mp3 format

See the Pickups Directory for pickup manufacturers

Installation

After buying your new pickup you need to get it installed. Whether you have it done by a local guitar shop or do it yourself is the next question. Installing your own pickups can be a little complex and requires some soldering skills. Pickup installation requires the strings to be removed from the guitar, the pickup removed, the new one installed and soldered back to the guitars wiring. Once installed put on a new set of strings and jam on.

Installation tips

-Note all the wire locations and wire colors
-Take a picture of the wiring
-Some factory installed pickups have different wiring than aftermarket ones, read the directions
-Most pickup manufacturers have detailed wiring diagrams and descriptions for installation.

This guitar is a 300-instrument limited edition run of the Eddie Van Halen Frankenstein™replica guitar.
This red, black and white ash-body guitar has been put through an astounding aging process to replicate the original down to every last scratch, ding and cigarette burn. Fender craftsmen even scoured the land for 1971 quarters just like the original Eddie at one time stuck under the original tremolo bridge to mount near the Floyd Rose® Original tremolo bridge. The guitar features a Seymour Duncan® Custom Shop EVH® humbucking pickup, a single master volume knob (that says Tone ) mounted on a partial black pickguard identical to the original. Leaving no stone unturned, the guitar is complete with a non-functional three-way switch and single-coil pickup that occupy two of the three pickup routes.

It s a phenomenally crafted piece of rock history of guitar history, period and it could only come from Eddie Van Halen and the talented resources of Fender. It simply must be seen, heard and felt to be believed, and it will re-evoke the awestruck wonder and sheer thrill you experienced the first time you saw, heard and felt the incredible musical power of Eddie Van Halen.

Guitar Includes

Aged Anvil VH Case, Signed 8X10, Note from EVH, Signed Certificate, The Making Of DVD, Limited VH/EVH Picks

Specifications

• Body: Ash
• Neck: Maple bolt-on
• Tuning Machines: Schaller
• Fingerboard: Maple w/12″ 16″ compound radius
• Frets: 21 Jumbo (Dunlop® 6100)
• Bridge pickup: Seymour Duncan® Custom Shop EVH
• Middle pickup: None
• Neck pickup: Seymour Duncan® Custom Shop EVH
• Controls: Master Volume
• Bridge: Floyd Rose® Original Tremolo
• Pickup Switching: 3-way
• Hardware: Aged Chrome
• Strings: .009, .011, .016, .026, .036, .046
• Pickguard: One-ply black
• Scale Length: 25.5″ (648 mm)
• Width at Nut: 1-5/8″ (41.2 mm)

Don’t pass out yet, because it includes a whopping 18 DSP effects to add separate delay, modulation and reverb to your sound.

Crate’s legendary Channel Tracking™ technology automatically stores your effects settings for each channel and recalls the settings as you switch between channels using the footswitch we include—it’s a dance that can only be described as “beautiful.”

Dial in the perfect tone by tweaking the overtly musical onboard 3-band EQ, and for even more punishing leads, the Solo channel features Crate’s proprietary Shape Control circuit.

Specifications

• 65 watts RMS
• 1 x 12″ speaker
• 3 channel operation
• DSP with separate controls for effects, including delay, reverb
• CD/MP3 input
• Built-in tuner

 

SERIES: Two or more pickup coils wired so that the output of one coil feeds into the input of another coil. The result of this is a loss of treble and an increase of output. Example: a humbucking pickup is 2 coils in series.

PARALLEL: Two or more pickup coils wired so that each coils’ input has its own feed from the amplifier. The result is a tone somewhere between the tone of each coil individually with a slight decrease in output. Example: 1) a Strat with the 5 way switch in positions 2 and 4. 2) a Les Paul with with the toggle switch in the middle position.

Push Pull Pot

DPDT: Double-pole double-throw. This is a 2-way switch that has 2 separate switches in one. Each of 2 contacts in the switch can be routed differently depending on the switch’s position. Example: 1) a mini-toggle switch 2) a push / pull control.
PUSH/PULL: A Double-pole double-throw switch mounted on a potentiometer (volume control, tone control…). This switch is activated by pulling up or pushing down on a guitar’s volume or tone knob. This is useful for adding a switch without drilling additional holes in your guitar.

5 WAY: A standard Strat switch. The majority of my diagrams use a switch with 2 sets of contacts (like having 2 switches in one). Some less expensive guitars have only one set of contacts. It is suggested replacing these switches immediately; they can be unreliable and do not provide the awesome switching potential of the standard 5 way switch.

5 Way Switch

3 WAY: A standard large toggle (Gibson, Guild, Gretch, etc…). This switch is usually used for simple pickup switching, although it can also be used effectively in a more versatile wiring scheme.

“COMMON” TERMINAL: The terminal(s) on a switch that, when the switch is changed to different positions, makes contact with different terminals.

Ground Symbol

GROUND: Sometimes referred to as earth. An electrical ground is a common point in the guitar wiring that allows a signal or current to return to a common point. A good analogy is “You can think of a ground as a “sink” that electrical noise runs down”. Poor grounding in a guitar will cause the guitar to hum or buzz.

Thicker and heavier than it’s sister series S guitars but not bulky or uncomfortable.  The 25″ scale set in neck offers a different feel for playing and allows for easy access to the upper frets.

A 3 position switch, tone, and dual volume knobs allow flexibility in sound through the Duncan/Ibanez humbuckers.

Specifications

The two Duncan/Ibanez humbuckers provide clean sound that makes great use of the heavy body.  As usual with most Ibanez guitars the factory pickups are usually missing something…nothing a set of Duncan or DiMarzio pickups would improve.

The three models of the SZ series guitars are all beauties.  All feature a binding around the body, neck, and head.  The arch top bodies are either painted or are awesome transparent wood finishes.

All three models of the SZ are equipped with the Gibraltar III bridge and through body string stops.  The Gibraltar bridge allows for easy action adjustment and a comfortable place to rest your hand.

Our review

This is a fun guitar to play with a great feel and balance.  The neck is interesting with it’s 25″ scale but is not in the way or a problem.  The guitar’s sustain from the mahogany body is quite good.  For the money you can’t beat this guitar if it fits your playing style.  The Duncan/Ibanez pickups sound pretty good but howl at high volumes.  We replaced our SZ’s pickups with a set of Duncans.  See the Seymour Duncan 59 and Jazz Pickup Install in an Ibanez SZ320 article.

Similar guitars to the SZ

Schecter C Series Guitars

Featuring a set mahogany neck with 24-3/4″ scale, topped with a rosewood fretboard adorned with abalone flags plus the model name at the 12th fret. TonePros locking bridge and tailpiece keep tuning rock-solid. The see-thru black, cherry, blue and green models feature a pair of EMG-81/60 pickups, while the amber sunburst model sports a Seymour Duncan JB/59 setup.

Specifications

• Construction / Scale - Set-Neck / 24.75”
• Body - Mahogany
• Neck / Fingerboard - 3-Pc. Mahogany / Rosewood
• Nut Type / Width - Earvana Compensated / 42mm
• Neck Shape - Thin U
• Inlays - Abalone Flags
• Frets - 24 XJ
• Binding - White w/ Abalone Purfling (B/N/H)
• Hardware - Black
• Tuners - Schaller Locking
• Bridge / Tailpiece - Tonepros T3B-T & T1Z Locking
• Pickups - EMG 81 (B) / 60 (N) Active
• Electronics - Vol / Vol / Tone / Toggle

Finishes available: Black, Snow White, Amber Sunburst, Black Cherry, Flame Maple, Quilted Maple Green, and Vintage Black.

Finishes available: Black, Snow White, Amber Sunburst, Black Cherry, Flame Maple, Quilted Maple Green, and Vintage Black.

Every time you plug in a cable from your guitar to your pedalboard or from one stompbox to the next, you expose your audio – your music – to interference. Buying the right high quality cable will ensure that your music gets to the ears of your audience sounding the same as it did when you imagined it in your head… and played it on your instrument.

A basic guitar cable consists of a pair of copper wires, one hot and one ground, which is wrapped by a sleeve of metal foil, spiraled wire or braided wire called the shield. The shield is used to reduce incoming noise such as RFI and EMI.

RFI is radio frequency interference, and you have probably heard a radio station coming through your amp at some point, likely do to a bad cable.

EMI is electromagnetic interference, the buzz or hum caused by electromagnetic fields like power lines and lighting dimmer racks.

A third type of noise is called triboelectric noise, often referred to as “handling noise”. If you have ever picked a cable that was plugged in and heard snaps, cracks and pops, that is the sound of electrical charges being transferred into the cable. Planet Waves uses a conductive PVC layer of insulation that dissipates the charges, which keeps the noise level down.

Two types of cable are used to combat the noise from these sources. Coaxial cable is designed so that the shield and the conductor carry the same current. The magnetic fields cancel each other out, and since no field is being produced, it can’t pickup noise from external sources. Coax cables excel in rejecting electrostatic noise. This is the design technique used in the premium Planet Waves cables.

The other cable type is called a ‘twisted pair”. The twisted pair refers to two coated wires wrapped around each other. Due to their close proximity, any noise that is picked up by one wire is cancelled by the other wire, and noise is minimized. This is a less expensive solution, and offers nearly the same performance as the coax cable.

For everyday gigging, a twisted pair cable is fine, for critical audio (recording studios, audiophile systems) coaxial cable is the best solution.

Article written by Tom Spaulding and provided by Planet Waves by Planet Waves, maker of high quality instrument cables and accessories.
Visit them at www.planetwaves.com.

Truss rod adjustment

There are a couple of areas of guitar maintenance and adjustment that players would be better off if they could do them on their own, when needed. Some aren’t comfortable doing it, and that’s ok. Lots of people work on their own cars and lots of people take them to a garage. The same is true for guitars.

The term we need to get comfortable with is relief. Relief refers to the position of the headstock in relation to the plane of the fingerboard. A good way to understand this is to envision what exactly we are relieving and that is string space above the frets. If the strings on a guitar are 1/2″ off the frets then the guitar has way too much relief. If the strings are actually resting on the frets then they have no relief. We adjust relief by adjusting the truss rod:

TIGHTEN the truss rod to REMOVE relief

LOOSEN the truss rod to ADD relief.

How to do it? First, to do it alone you’ll need a capo. Even if you never use a capo to play, it’s worth getting one just to make these kinds of adjustments. It will pay for itself the first time you use it to set up your guitar. Don’t get the cheapie capos that have an elastic strap with metal eye holes in the strap, or if you do, make sure you put a protective cloth between the metal eye holes and the finish on the back of your neck. They can and will scratch your finish. If you don’t have a capo then you need a friend with at least one hand.

Tune your guitar to 440 concert pitch (A string is tuned to A. Standard tuning; no alternate tunings.) Capo the first fret. Fret the 6th string at the 15th or 16th fret. Take 2 business cards and slip them between the 6th string and the 7th fret. Do the cards actually lift the string up to squeeze in? You need to add relief. This means that your guitar probably had low action but buzzed pretty badly when you played. Do the 2 business cards slip inbetween the 7th fret and the 6th string without touching either? This means you need to take away relief. Your guitar probably has high action and no buzzing.

The more complicated adjustment is to remove relief/tighten the truss rod. The first thing we need to do in this adjustment is to detune the guitar to remove string tension. You do not want to adjust this truss rod fighting the pulling energy of the strings. This is a major and common mistake by inexperienced technicians and can quickly lead to stripped nuts or wrenches or worse.

Once you’ve loosened the strings, place the adjustment tool into the truss rod end and make sure the tool is fully engaged and properly inserted. If the guitar is older or it’s been a while since the last adjustment, it’s probably a good idea to first note where the truss rod nut is and then loosen it. If the nut won’t loosen, chances are it won’t tighten either and you could stand a chance of doing some serious damage here. If it loosens well, then, noting where the nut was when you first started, begin to tighten it.

Go with about 1/4 of a rotation, CLOCKWISE, so say you move the nut from 6 o’clock to 9 o’clock, then stop. Tune it back up, re-capo, re-check your measurement at the 7th fret while fretting higher up on the neck. Perfect? You’re done. Need to go some more? Uncapo, detune, and adjust more, this time going only about 1/8 of a turn. Tune up, capo up, measure, etc. If you still need to adjust more, go about 1/8 to 1/4 more if the nut turns easily enough. You don’t want to adjust too much in one day. Here’s part two; the neck can/will continue to move after the adjustment is made. Sometimes you dial it in perfectly and then a couple of days later actually have to go back and adjust it the other way.

The key point I want to make in this adjustment is NEVER FORCE THE TRUSS ROD. If it’s too hard/stiff to move then take it in to a shop. If after the first day of adjustment you still need to adjust further do it as long as you go about 1/2 a turn a day and give it a day to settle in. If the nut becomes too difficult to turn and you still have a ways to go, take it in.

To loosen the truss rod to add relief, the strings pulling tension actually help you make this adjustment, so don’t detune them. Again, making sure the adjustment tool is properly inserted and fully engaged, turn the nut 1/4 turn COUNTER CLOCKWISE from about 6 o’clock to 3 o’clock. Tune it, capo it, check it out.

That’s it! No mystery. If you try and can’t do it, take it in, but try it first. It’s not rocket science.