Like A Rock… a really soft and comfortable rock.
Let’s salute the humble guitar strap. It’s an essential accessory, yet it doesn’t always get the respect it deserves. A blend of form and function, it fights the good fight against gravity while you shred away. It also expresses your style. Like a tailored suit or the perfect pair of boots, your strap should be an extension of yourself — so comfortable you almost forget it’s there.
The mystery of the ‘59 Jazzmaster tone.
I still see discussions on internet forums about whether the wood in an electric guitar has any effect on its tone or if it’s all in the pickup. There are some people who insist the instrument itself makes no difference in its tone.
There was a good series of articles a few years ago in the Guild of American Luthiers quarterly magazine about how just the body shape of a solid body electric guitar affects nodal patterns of vibration at different frequencies—just the shape of the body!
Humbucker… What’s in a word?
The basic construction of a “traditional” humbucker style pickup hasn’t changed much over the years, but the various recipes yield vast differences in tone
The term humbucker probably brings to mind the “Gibson” sound, or rather – and more specifically – the “Patent Applied For” or “P.A.F.” sound. The pickups made by Gibson in this narrow time frame, spanning from the late ’50s to early ’60s (though the patent was officially awarded in 1959) have become synonymous with what a humbucker “should” sound like. Never mind the fact that rarely would you ever find two P.A.F.-era pickups that share the same exact sound, but that’s a whole other topic unto itself. Because of this, what is now considered a traditional humbucker has become as much form as it is function.
P.A.F. (Patent Applied For) style pickups have become the ubiquitous humbucker, even though today, many humbuckers that may look similar to the original sound very little like the source of inspiration.
When replacing potentiometers (pots), there are differences in shaft size you’ll need to be aware of. The shaft we are referring to is the part of the pot with threading that sticks through the guitar top or pickguard where it is held down by a threaded nut. First, there are differences between metric vs imperial shaft diameters; metric being about 1/4” in diameter and imperial being 3/8” in diameter. Continue reading
And just like that, another 365 days have come and gone…
As 2017 rolls to a close, we look back with nothing but smiles and appreciation for all the wonderful things that have happened here at Lollar Pickups – and, perhaps, a little bit of relief to be on the other side of some of the tunnels, so to speak. Continue reading