Sunday, September 4, 2016

Customize Your Electric Guitar With A Built In Tuner

Six string or bass electric guitars can be customized.
If you have humbucker style pick ups on your electric guitar (i.e. Fender, Gibson) and are tired of carrying along a separate tuner, An N-Tune On Board Chromatic Bass & Guitar Tuner could be for you. Here's the original article, Fender Strat Gets N-Tune.  I had one of these on board tuners installed beneath the Volume Pot on my Fender Stratocaster a few years ago and never looked back. Why? Well because before that, I had to bring along a dedicated pedal tuner and add it to my effects chain. 


Before, I used a dedicated pedal tuner in my effects chain.
Now some musicians swear that pedal tuners diminish the guitar volume or effect the tone in some way. I can't say that I've noticed any real difference between before and after the N-Tune but just having one less pedal to pack in my flight case is a big deal.


Fender Strat with N-Tune installed.

The N-Tune Onboard Guitar Tuner fits behind the white pick plate on most Fender electric, humbucker pick up style guitars. These on board tuners come in different colors to match the following guitars: 
  • Includes Black,White,Fender(TM) -Cream,Gibson(TM) -Cream and Parchment colored tuning rings

Monday, August 22, 2016

How It's Made: Martin Guitar Museum and Factory Tours

Martin Guitar Factory - Museum & Visitor's Center

Martin Guitar Factory - 510 Sycamore St. Nazareth, PA 18064
One of my favorite tours of all time are my visits to the Martin Guitar Factory, Museum and Visitor's Center in Nazareth, PA. In fact, I've taken many friends and family along as it is such a fascinating place to see how these uniquely American guitars are handcrafted into the iconic instruments they are. 


D-28 Marquis. Martin Guitar Museum & Visitor's Center

One of the most fun things to see is how select pieces of precious wood become guitars. There are a lot of steps and the guitar is passed along to a succession of crafts people along the way. What I noticed is that each technician exhibited a great deal of pride in their contribution to the creation of each instrument.  Did you know that there are over 300 steps involved in the making of ONE guitar?