How to Set Up Your Acoustic Guitar to Match Your Playing Style

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Different styles of play demand different action on your guitar. If you are a fingerstyle guitar player, you might want a lower action. If you are a flat picker, you might desire a higher action on your acoustic guitar. In this video, master luthier Ron Ruggiero demos simple…

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Introducing Taylor’s All-New 500 Series with Urban Ironbark

Sponsored by Taylor Guitars: Meet Taylor’s latest innovation in the world of acoustic guitars: the all-new 500 Series, crafted with backs and sides of Urban Ironbark. This new tonewood, responsibly sourced through Taylor’s urban woods program, adds an entirely new flavor of tone to the Taylor lineup, a bold, muscular…

Discover Santa Cruz Parabolic Tension Strings

Sponsored by Santa Cruz Guitar Company: When it comes to strings, it’s all about tension. While gauge is simply the measurement of the string’s diameter, the tension of a string determines its relative volume to the other strings (EQ). String tension is determined by its core to wrap ratio, which…

The Inimitable Hummingbird Meets Its Sonic Future

Sponsored by Gibson: Modeled after the Gibson Hummingbird™, our flagship square-shouldered dreadnought, the G-Bird continues the unmatched legacy of the Hummingbird…but with a twist.  The Player Port™ is an original Gibson concept from the early 1960s that has since been refined by our acoustic luthier team to deliver revolutionary sonic…

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Essential String Skipping Exercise for Acoustic Guitar

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Pro guitarist and Elixir® Strings artist Marc Seal introduces a string skipping exercise to add to your daily practice routine. In this short acoustic guitar video lesson, watch as Marc adds some ear-catching interest to his playing by using wide intervals in his picking patterns. Although jumping from…

See Why Guitar Players Love the Taylor GT

Sponsored by Taylor Guitars: Players of all styles and skill levels love the Taylor GT. With its blend of bold solid-wood tone, bass-boosting C-Class bracing and compact, accommodating dimensions, the GT is in a class of its own in the acoustic guitar world. Between the GT Urban Ash, the maple/spruce…

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mary flower playing her guitar

Learn to Play a New Orleans-Style Rhumba on Guitar

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Want to groove like Doctor John or Professor Longhair? Play piano on guitar! Renowned guitar instructor and Elixir® Strings artist Mary Flower takes you through three ways to play the rhumba beat and capture that New Orleans feel. Mary performs this acoustic lesson with Elixir Acoustic 80/20 Bronze Strings with…

Add Blues-Style Flavor with Inverted Thirds

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Mandy Rowden demonstrates in this quick guitar lesson inverted thirds and how easy it is to move the shapes around the fretboard for different keys. Either fingerstyle or plectrum-and-fingers hybrid picking works great with inverted thirds, so they’re perfect for acoustic and electric players. “Elixir Strings give me…

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Enter to Win a Taylor GT 811e + TaylorSense

Sponsored by Taylor Guitars: Now through September 30, 2022, you could be the lucky winner of a new Taylor GT 811e acoustic-electric guitar featuring a preinstalled TaylorSense guitar health monitoring unit. The GT 811e is crafted in the U.S. with back and sides of solid Indian rosewood and a Sitka…

Honoring Peter Rowan – Thompson Signature Series

Sponsored by PK Thompson: His career has spanned decades and Peter Rowan will be honored this September at the IBMA awards as an inductee into the Hall of Fame. We are proud to be a small part of his musical journey and are happy for the acknowledgement to his legendary…

Acoustic Effects, Unplugged. No Amp Required!

Sponsored by ToneWoodAmp: ToneWoodAmp has been leading a revolution in acoustic guitars with the invention of a compact box that creates effects, unplugged—NO AMP REQUIRED!  Hear it from guitarist and composer Gretchen Menn: “What an incredible innovation! ToneWoodAmp brings the sonic textures I love with my electric guitars to my classical…

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Watch: Small Bodies, Big Taylor Tone

Sponsored by Taylor Guitars: Taylor Guitars has always been on the cutting edge of design when it comes to acoustic guitars. Get ready for a summer of music with Taylor’s wide array of smaller guitars, from the three-quarter-scale Baby Taylor to the full-scale, yet compact Grand Concert body shape and…

Diagnosing and Fixing String Buzz on Your Acoustic Guitar

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: String buzz is a common problem with acoustic guitars. In this video, Elixir® Strings teams up with an experienced luthier to show you how to diagnose and fix most causes of string buzz. Ron Ruggiero with over 40 years of professional guitar building and repair experience walks through…

Blog Posts by Thompson Guitars

Sponsored by PK Thompson: Over the years we have featured news from the shop, artist info, custom appointments and tonewoods options. Take a look at some of the information offered in our posts. The future is bright with all we offer to our customers, along with a consistent vintage tone…

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Taylor’s New 700 Series Showcases Vibrant Hawaiian Koa

Sponsored by Taylor Guitars: Welcome to the all-new koa 700 Series from Taylor Guitars, where a new grade of beautiful Hawaiian koa reveals a unique look, sound and feel with two strikingly appointed models. The series debuts with the versatile Grand Auditorium 724ce and the compact Grand Concert 722ce, two…

Acoustic Effects, Unplugged. No Amp Required!

Sponsored by ToneWoodAmp: ToneWoodAmp has been leading a revolution in acoustic guitars with the invention of a compact box that creates effects, unplugged—NO AMP REQUIRED!  Hear it from world-renown fingerstyle guitarist Mike Dawes: “ToneWoodAmp is the best acoustic gadget since the capo!” The ToneWoodAmp is the first and only product of its…

Finger Independence and Hybrid Picking Part 2 | Massimo Varini

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Massimo Varini, award winning guitarist, distinguished educator and Elixir® Strings artist, shows a simple but challenging exercise designed to build fluidity and accuracy in your picking hand in this second part of his three part series. Download free pdf tabs: Even if you’re used to fingerpicking, using…

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Enya NEXG Smart Audio Guitar

Sponsored by Enya: Enya NEXG is an all-in-one smart audio guitar combining a Bluetooth speaker, preamp, sound card, and onboard effects. With the modes of karaoke, silent playing, jamming, and digital output, Enya NEXG is designed to simplify your musical life, from beginners to experts. See More

Enter to Win 2 Luna Guitars!

One Grand Prize Winner Will Receive Vineyard Koa Bevel Grand Auditorium $1,049Constructed with the pro musician in mind, this Vineyard Koa is built on a 25.5 scale length traditional grand auditorium cutaway body with koa back & sides, a solid spruce top overlaid with a beautiful koa veneer that offers…

Introducing the Dave Mustaine Songwriter

Sponsored by Gibson: Dave Mustaine pioneered a new path for thrash metal, and now he’s breaking ground at Gibson. The Gibson Acoustic Custom Shop is excited to introduce the new Dave Mustaine Songwriter. Part of the Dave Mustaine Collection, the new Dave Mustaine Songwriter in Ebony is the first 24-fret…

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Urban Ash Tone Meets Builder’s Edition Comfort

Sponsored by Taylor Guitars: The Builder’s Edition collection boasts an array of comfort-focused contours and top-tier tonewoods. This Grand Auditorium model, the Builder’s Edition 324ce, serves up a bold voice thanks to back and sides of solid Urban Ash, which is responsibly sourced from trees in cities or municipal areas…