Search Results for guitar guru

Guitar Care and Repair

Guitar Guru: Troubleshooting Unwanted Sounds on Acoustic Guitar

By Dana Bourgeois |This article originally appeared in the April 2014 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine and was reprinted in the September/October 2020 issue. Q: My 1983 Martin HD-28 has a buzzing or rattling high E string. The rest of the strings sound great.…

Dana Bourgeois
August 2, 2020

Guitar Care and Repair

Guitar Guru: Can You Hear the Difference in Tonewoods?

Bourgeois Custom OMC Soloist acoustic guitar cutaway and neck heel

The short answer is: sometimes. And the short explanation is that different models and different woods can have confusingly overlapping sonic qualities.

Dana Bourgeois
November 15, 2019

Guides and How To

Guitar Guru: Do the Tonewoods and Thickness of My Guitar’s Back Have an Impact on its Sound?

Q: “I noticed that some guitars have very stiff backs and there is no difference to the sound whether the back is held against your body or away from it. What are the advantages of stiff vs. active backs?”—Seth Brockman,…

Dana Bourgeois
June 14, 2019

Guides and How To

Guitar Guru: Dana Bourgeois on the Sweet Sound of 12-Fret Guitars

1976 Martin 000-28 12-fret acoustic guitar

To my ears, guitars with 12 frets clear of the body sound fuller and richer than 14-fret models. Is there any way to get 12-fret sound in a 14-fret guitar?

Dana Bourgeois
May 10, 2019

Guides and How To

Video Lesson: 10 Ways to Use Effect Pedals with Your Acoustic (or Classical) Guitar

Creative breakthroughs and new approaches to your acoustic playing can be found through experimentation with effects pedals that are often associated with electric guitar and bass.

John W. Warren
June 9, 2023

Guitar Care and Repair

How to Best Take Care of Your Guitars—When They’re Not in Your Hands

guitar cabinet by American Music Furniture

With a little thought into how you store and display your guitars, you can keep them in optimal shape, ready to receive your ideas when inspiration strikes.

Adam Perlmutter
January 20, 2023

Guitar Care and Repair

Guitar Wall Mounts, Floor Stands, & More—How to Keep Your Instrument Safe at Home

Cases? Floor stands? Wall mounts? Here's how to keep your acoustic guitars safe and protected at home.

Nick Grizzle
September 8, 2022

Guitarmakers and Guitarmaking

Great Acoustics: Rick Turner’s Personal 2007 Compass Rose Guitar Speaks to His Forward-Thinking Style

Rick Turner Compass Rose acoustic guitar

Rick Turner created many unique Compass Rose acoustics, but this one—regarded as among his finest—was the luthier’s personal guitar and a showcase of both his bold concepts and skilled execution.

Greg Olwell
September 4, 2022

Guitar Care and Repair

Why Isn’t My Acoustic Guitar Intonating Well, and What Can I Do About It?

Here are some things to check if you notice something is outside of the reasonable range of intonation on your guitar and it’s off enough to bother the ear.

Mamie Minch
June 23, 2022

Guides and How To

30 Years of Trends and Innovations in Acoustic Guitar Design, Amps, and Accessories

collage of guitar gear advances in technology

In the three decades since 1990 there have been a lot of surprising changes in the acoustic guitar world affecting everything from how guitars are built to how we listen to and create music.

Doug Young
August 27, 2021