Have you experienced your records loosing the sound quality with time? It happens because of the impurities stuck with the vinyl record surface. You need to clean your vinyl records from time to time, whether you’ve been listening to them or keeping them safe in the shelves.

If you keep your vinyl records clean, they will produce great sounds for a long time. You can clean your vinyl albums quite easily. But, you have to be very careful while cleaning your vinyl records as they can get damaged or have cracks with slight mishandling.

Why Is Vinyl Record Cleaning So Important?

Vinyl records need care and that’s why they come with proper casing. The reason why they require cleaning is, their grooves can easily attract dirt and debris. Moreover, if you leave them unattended, debris and dirt accumulate and strengthen with time, making cleaning more difficult and next to impossible.

The small particles can be stubborn, sticking to the base of the grooves. This can cause skips and slips. There will be awkward sounds in between the music (known as “conchoidal shock wave”).

Things to Remember Regarding Vinyl Record Cleaning

• Playing a dirty record not only damages the vinyl surface, but also affects the sound quality. A dirty record player also affects the quality of stylus or needle.
• People follow different methods for cleaning vinyl albums, but there’s no perfect way to clean them.
• You cannot purify the records, but you can remove dirt and dust to get the quality music.
• Vinyl records cannot be restored to their virgin state. So don’t take chances.
• Pros recommend playing records safe, preserving them on safe, dust-free shelf, and exercising caution while cleaning are the best way to prolong their life.
• A bad stylus or the improper movement of the turntable can damage your vinyl record. So, before playing your favorite vinyl album, always make sure that your record player operates properly.

Given below are the most common tips to clean vinyl records.

Vinyl Record Cleaning Tips

If you’ve just begun to use vinyl records, you’ll learn slowly how to keep them clean in the best possible manner. For now, you can make use one or all of the following ways to quick-clean your vinyl albums:

1. Quick-Clean New Records

For newer records, cleaning isn’t entirely necessary. Use a clean cloth to remove dust and debris from the record. The cloth should be lint-free. Clean the record before placing it on the turntable, and after playing.

2. Use Carbon Fiber Brush

You can clean your vinyl albums with the help of carbon fiber brush. Use it before and after playing the record. This is the quickest and the best way to keep your records clean for a long time. However, carbon fiber brush should be used safely. It is only meant for gentle and smooth cleaning. Don’t push them into grooves. Unnecessary friction may cause damage to the grooves, and damage cannot be repaired.

3. Avoid Alcohols

If you use alcohol (rubbing alcohol) on the vinyl record, it will take away the shine. Moreover, alcohol contains a little amount of grease on your record which may cause spots and patches that might affect the sound quality. Small stains may cause the stylus or needle to slip and miss a few grooves.

4. Use Distilled Water

The better way to deep clean is, use de-ionized or distilled water for deep cleaning. The water will not leave the residue on the vinyl surface, because it will evaporate after some time.

5. Remove Dirt

Before deep cleaning, don’t forget to remove dust and debris from the surface of your vinyl album.

6. Record Cleaning Kit

You can opt for record cleaning system. You can get a cleaning kit from a nearby record store. A cleaning kit costs around $100. You can also use vinyl vacuum cleaner to remove dirt and dust off the grooves.

• Before deep cleaning with vacuum, you need to remove as much dirt and debris from the surface as possible.
• Use the vacuum safely with as limited friction as possible. The vacuum will suck the tiny particles hidden inside the grooves, leaving your vinyl record neat and clean.

Play Safe!

In conclusion:

• Don’t experiment like pros, if you don’t want scratches and cracks on your favorite vinyl records.
• Playing safe also means, you have to ensure your turntable and stylus work properly.
• Start with simple cleaning using flint-free cloth, followed by carbon fiber brush that attracts dirt and dust.
• Use distilled doesn’t leave stains on the record’s surface
• Finally, deep clean using vinyl cleaning kit

Sound equalization is probably one of the hardest things to control and probably what is best depending on things like room size, type of music, audience, etc.

Equalization basically means how the final sound is going to be “outputted” to the amplifier and into the persons ears, even though there can be dozens of different ranges, the three main ranges are the lows, mids, and highs, what are each actually when you hit a chord including all the six strings?

• Lows (or low frequency) is basically all the low part of the sound, in the case of the guitar it would be the notes that are being heard by the last two strings (The A and the low E), whenever the lows are pull up the guitar is going to sound more like a bass and it will lose a little bit of “color” if you will.
• Mids (Or middle frequency) is the middle part of the sound, on the guitar, it would be the sound that comes out from the third and fourth string (D and G strings) and pumping the mids up is going to result in a very steady and “box” sound.
• Highs (Or high frequency) are the highest sounds on the guitar, following the example it would be the sounds that happen after you strung the first and second string (High E and B)

If you are playing an acoustic guitar, you have no way of altering the sound of each string; the result will be the strength on how you impact the strings and the note that is pressed at the time.

However, if you are using an electric guitar (or equipment), you can alter these frequencies so that you can choose which kind of sound you want to emphasize and which you don’t.Something very interesting is considering a chord like one sound or like the sum of let’s say in the example six.

Does this mean that the EQ does not work if I am hitting only one string?

No, it does not, even though you may be hitting the first string (high E) changing the equalization will result in a different final sound, all these are actually very interesting.

QUICK RUNDOWN

Image	Product	Our Rating	Check Price
	MXR 10 Band Graphic EQ w/ 18V power supply	4.9 / 5	Amazon
	Joyo JF-11 6 Band EQ Guitar Pedal	4.5 / 5	Amazon
	Boss GE-7 7-Band EQ Pedal	4.7 / 5	Amazon
	Empress ParaEq with Boost	4.6 / 5	Amazon

Best Guitar EQ Pedals

Have in mind that when you choose the mic position on your guitar, you can also equalize the sound, however, sometimes, musicians like an extra EQ that is, of course, a pedal so that they can turn it on and off whenever they like.

Also, it is very comfortable to have an EQ pedal to use as a booster for parts in which you want the sound to be increased, however, have in mind that in the end if you put the treble sounds very high it may be a bit annoying for whoever is listening to you.

Don’t be afraid if this kind of pedals looks harder to use, they are not, let me explain very shortly how they work.

They have two main parts, the on/ off switch, which is the big switch button usually at the lower part, with this button you can turn on and off the equalizer pedal.

Then depending on the model, all of them have little sticks or knobs that usually have either a number or some letters like LF (Low frequency), MF (Medium frequency), HF (High frequency). The higher you put that frequency the most it will be a boost.

For example, if you want a flat, steady sound you will want your lows and mids to be higher than your highs, but, if you want a guitar that is edgy and needs to be heard then you may want to keep your lows low, your mids low or middle range and to pump your highs more.

Therefore there are not so many things to explain when reviewing an EQ pedal.

Let’s see which are the most sold EQ pedals out there and tell you what you should expect from them.

1. MXR 10 Band Graphic EQ w/ 18V power supply

The MXR EQ pedal is a great pedal, even though it has no true bypass feature, I can assure you that MXR always makes nice pedals which high-quality sound that will not affect your final sound when they are off.

This pedal is a ten band EQ which means that besides controlling the general volume and gain (First and last little stick) you can control (boost or turn off) 10 frequencies.

The more left they are on the pedal, the more control of the low frequencies you will get, on the other side (the right side) you will control and boost the high frequencies of your sound.

In the middle you can see that your boost can go from -12 to +12, this is something it should call your mind.

Why can I go below 0 to negative gains?

Simple, sometimes you not only want to get very low sounds but sometimes you want almost to make it disappear. Still, have in mind that even if you set the control to -12, it is impossible to suppress that frequency completely.

One of the things to have in mind and that I find a little bit annoying is that the input and output 1/4″ jacks are on the top of the pedal instead of your usual left and right side, have this in mind when you are making your pedalboard, you may need some extra space.

Finally, this pedal comes with an 18 V power supply. Being 18 V proves to you that it is a very active pedal and that you will feel the difference in your final sound whenever you are turning it on or off.

2. ​Joyo JF-11 6 Band EQ Guitar Pedal

The Joyo 6-Band EQ is a great pedal even though you may think otherwise just because it is smaller or cheaper than the others. It includes as the name says six different bands to EQ.

Like all the EQ pedals you have two main parts, at the bottom the classic on and off switch and on the top the bands for you to control.

One of the things to criticized of this pedal is that you have no reference whatsoever of the actual DB (Decibels) levels you are controlling, so in the end, you must infer it with your ears more than your eyes.

They do say on the manual that it has 18 DB of range, but you have no information it this is -9/+9 range or -6/+12 range (Which I think it probably is, still, guessing is not that fun, right?)

The input and output jacks are on the right and a left panel which makes the connection process much more comfortable, also it is quite a small pedal for an EQ pedal (They are usually bigger than this).

When it comes to power supply, you will need a DC 9 V power supply that it is not included with neutral in the middle.

Regarding the size, I said that it is comfortable as it is very small. However the sticks are so little that forget to change some of the EQ sticks while you are playing by just bending over, you will need some extra time and lots of lights not to change the different EQ stick.

Still, I would always recommend an EQ pedal, and this is for sure a nice one to have as a first timer, then eventually you can move to a different one.

3. Boss GE-7 7-Band EQ Pedal

As you may probably know if you have been reading my reviews, I always have a great thing to say about all of Boss’s pedals, and this is of course no different.

What I like in general about Boss’s pedals is that they have great quality, are easy to use, great result and yet they are not so expensive as other high-end pedals.

The GE-7 Boss EQ pedal has two main parts as well, at the bottom the main on and off switch and on the top, you can control the different EQ bands with7 different channels plus a main level stick.

To be honest, I think that even if I have magnifying glasses or even a telescope I have a hard time reading the actual frequencies names that are on the top of each stick, I think Boss tried to keep the size and looks of this pedal, however I think they should have gone for something a little bit bigger this time.

The size makes no sense and also it is very hard to have precision when the stick goes literally from nowhere to nowhere.

On the plus side, they did include an “Overgain- LED light” which will turn on automatically whenever the gain of your signal is too much.

This comes very in handy as sometimes depending on your settings and configurations you may push the sound too hard, and it is nice to have an indicator which is not an awful sound coming out of the amplifier.

4. Empress ParaEq with Boost

Probably one of the best EQ pedals out there, the Empress ParaEq with boost has it all. It is an EQ Pedal, it has so many boost features, it has on/ off LED lights, plus an extremely detailed control of your sound.

Let’s check it one by one:

• Main EQ function, the ParaEq is a great EQ pedal that will allow you to control your sound from edge to edge
• On / Off LED lights for both on and off feature and the boost function, this means that by just looking at it you can know if the pedal is working plus if you have active or not the boost mode
• Detailed control of your sound: You have six knobs to control the gain and power of each of the three frequencies (Low, medium and high)
• Extra boost stick (top) for each frequency
• Plus, a master gain knob to control the boost part of the equalizer

This pedal may be a little bit big, but it must be, you need all the room for all the features if you want a nice EQ pedal.

On the right side, you will find the 1/4″ jack for the input plus an additional on/ off stick, on the left side you will find the output jack plus the power supply entrance.

This pedal, of course, has true bypass capability which when not being used (Why wouldn’t you be using it) it assures you that it does not mess with your sound at all.

EQ Pedals – Buyer’s Guide

Conclusion

Having an EQ pedal is something I would highly recommend, however, if you are on a budget I may spend my money on a good distortion/ overdrive or delay pedal, as in those you need good quality.

If you are going for the EQ pedal (I hope you will), all of the options we gave you are very good, if you can try to get the Empress pedal as it has not only true bypass but also it works great as a sound booster.

Both the MXR and the Boss pedals are two “you can’t go wrong options” as both of them will get the job done and have great quality on their craftsmanship, if I have to choose in between the two of them I would actually go for the MXR, and you know how big fan of Boss’s pedals I am, so I must really mean it.

Finally, the Joyo Pedal is not a bad choice, it may be a bit cheaper than the others, but this difference is mainly because it has only six bands to control. Still this great pedal has great quality and true bypass feature.

As usual, please let us know if there is anything you think we may have missed and we will be more than happy to review it.

The bass is a wonderful instrument, not only it is the main character in keeping up the tempo of the song but especially with modern techniques professional bass players can get great sounds from them.

There are so many different techniques and arrangements that can be done with the bass that justifies why so many musicians in the world love this instrument.

You may find something eventually call a short scale bass and wonder what that means. The scale is the length of the neck from edge to edge, meaning the total length of the string.

In general basses like the Fender’s precision bass have a standard scale of 34″, however over time, especially in the late sixties and early seventies, some designers started to create a bass with a scale of 31″.

This was majorly driven by some musicians complaining that the regular scale was in the end too hard to play especially for very long periods of times (Like a rock show would be).

The problem was that none of the main companies (Like Fender or Gibson) wanted to change their designs, so this new “short scale basses” were mainly manufactured by companies with lower quality standards than the other ones. Thus they were always considered as plainly bad instruments.

I think that if the big names in the industry would have to pay more attention to short scale basses, nowadays the two scales (34” and 31”) would be able to coexist peacefully with each other.

As this didn’t happen, short scale basses are only though for main teenagers who just need a practice bass to start and that they will eventually change when they get older and bigger.

QUICK RUNDOWN

Image	Product	Our Rating	Check Price
	Squier by Fender Vintage Modified Jaguar Special Short Scale Bass	4.7 / 5	Amazon
	Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Short-Scale Bass Guitar	4.6 / 5	Amazon
	EpiphoneEB-0 Electric Bass Guitar	4.5 / 5	Amazon

Best Short Scale Bass

You may be able to find some higher quality short scale basses out there, however and feeding the myth that they are only good for first-timers.

We will review three of the most sold basses in the market that in the end they are made and designed for teenagers who are just starting to play and that will eventually change when they grow up.

Have in mind that the explanations are similar to regular basses, as the only difference is the length of the neck (31” instead of 34”) so in the end, the review will be similar to what we would do with professional basses.

Still, we want you to have as much information as possible when buying your first bass long or short scale.

Lastly, there are no easy pros and cons to putting as they are all very similar and we have made it clear that these basses are not professional ones, so basically the pros and cons are going to be on a relative scale to this three basses more than an absolute scale against all basses in the market.

1. Squier by Fender Vintage Modified Jaguar Special Short Scale Bass

The Squier Jaguar Special Short Scale Bass is a great bass to start. It has a decent quality, and for sure it has great looks.

It comes with one single coil mic on the bridge side plus a split single coil precision bass pickup on the neck position; these mics provide a wide variety of sounds that can be achieved with this lovely bass.

The scale is of course 31″ which will feel very comfortable when playing it, plus the agathist body provides great durability for the bass.

The neck has a C shape and 20 frets, so you will still have a lot of different notes on your neck even though it is a smaller version.

Finally, this bass comes with two master volume control knobs, one for each mic and a master tone knob that controls the general tone of the bass.

This also provides a wide variety of sounds, however, have in mind that in general on basses of this quality the difference may be subtler than with a higher quality bass.

You may end up thinking “I am moving the knobs and mic position; however, the sound is the same.”

2. Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Short-Scale Bass Guitar

This Ibanez bass has a classic bass look, and it sounds pretty good for being a short scale bass. The body is made from agathis which makes the feeling of playing very light, great for musicians who like to play very fast and furious riffs all the time.

The frets are a bit smaller than the Squier one as they are what in the music industry call medium frets, so this is without a doubt a bass for a teenage player or somebody with very small hands and arms.

The fingerboard is made from regular rosewood to be complementary to the agathis body.

It comes with two mics, a regular single coil on the bridge pickup and a two-part single coil on the neck side.

Even though it comes with three knobs (One master volume per mic and a master tone that affects both mics at the same time) it comes without any pickup selector switch, this means that unless the volume is completely off, both mics are always working at the same time.

One of the cool features of this short scale bass is that it comes in so many colors that for sure you will find one that you will dig.

Also, on the good side, even though the scale is short (with the classic 31″ scale fingerboard), this bass has 22 frets, this is a lot and also allows for great high notes soloing whenever you bass player is feeling very active.

With both Ibanez and Epiphone basses (next one to be reviewed), one of the things to remark is that even though they are second or economy lines, the difference in between them and their big brother (main brand) is not so big, on the other side the difference between a Squier by Fender and a Fender bass is just so big that it may not make so much sense to buy a Squier bass in the end.

3. EpiphoneEB-0 Electric Bass Guitar

The Epiphone EB-0 Electric Bass has a similar shape and color to the famous bass from Gibson, the SG.

The SG was one of the signature lines from Gibson, and it is still played all around the world by the best musicians in the world.

This affordable bass is carved in mahogany with a bolted mahogany neck. To complement this and get a great fast feel when playing the fretboard is made from Rosewood with dotted inlay.

Like I said on the Ibanez bass, the difference in quality between this bass and the mainstream Gibson SG is probably a bit smaller (Still big though) than on the Fender vs. Squier by Fender Bass, so if you are looking for an economical option, this may make more sense than the other one.

The scale of this bass is even smaller than the other two we have reviewed as it comes on a 30.5″ scale, this means that the frets go only up to the 20th fret, so if you are the kind of player that likes to get treble sounds out of your bass this may not be your best option.

This bass comes with a single humbucker mic and only two knobs, one for master volume the other for master tone control.

This makes this bass a good idea if you are planning on buying distortion effect or pedalboard as the humbuckers always pick up more signal than the regular single coil.

Short Scale Bass – Buyer’s Guide

On this review, we didn’t have so many things to take care of as all basses were pretty much standard.

A short scale neck (Either 30.5″ or 31″), mics (Single coil or Humbuckers), and finally the volume and tone control knob.

This means that the buyer’s guide will have much more things in common versus our usual comparison in between for example pedal or stomp boxes.

Conclusion

Even though it may be impossible to beat the classic Fender’s precision bass with its regular scale of 34″ there may be some room in the future for the short scale or 31″ scale bass’s.

The truth is that the world never really gave them a chance as most of the short scale bass’s design where thought for teenagers who were just started playing the bass and they were looking for a “training bass.”

This means that most of these instruments were also made with bad quality materials, I would say that this is the reason why there are no good short scale basses.

Unfortunately, and continuing the point that I was making, the bass’s that we reviewed were also of very bad quality, in the end, we fed the monster some more chunk food.

The bass’s we reviewed are great for somebody who is in their teen years and wants to start playing this instrument, however, if you are a grown-up, even with small hands you should either go to a professional size bass or buy a different short scale bass to assure that the sound quality will be awesome.

This intro it is very important as many guitar players only focus and think about making noise and being louder, and they think that pedals are only made to help achieve this.

This is not only not true, but it is a mistake.

When you have a signal chain (The note the pick will get from your guitar until it is heard on the amp) you basically have something similar to water running through a pipe, if you start making that water bigger, deeper, higher, etc, but you don’t worry about the pipes then you will have two inevitable outcomes.

• First, you will start having dripping areas as there is more water running than the pipe supports.
• Second and very dangerous the pipe may break causing a huge mess.

In music instead of plumbing what happens is that if you start boosting your signal, you will get unwanted sounds and extra dirtiness that it is awful to be heard to the human ear, and if this is extreme it can either break the amp (burn out) or even worst the audience ears.

That is why there is one pedal that has the opposite porpoise in life; this is the noise gate pedal.

It may have different names such as noise gate, noise suppressor, noise pedal, etc. but they are all the same, what they do is simple, they cut the unwanted sound out of your signal chain to provide with a cleaner final sound out of the amp.

When I say cleaner, I do not mean without distortion or overdrive, I mean without ugly sounds that are not wanted.

Using a noise gate pedal is not just turning the pedal on or off, actually in most performances the noise gate is always on and the musicians just play around with the knobs to get the sound they need on a particular song.

Sometimes when you get to the solo, you may turn the noise gate off although you have to be very careful when doing this as it may unleash too much power.

Continuing the water example, the noise gate pedal has two features that they control, one is the threshold, and the other one is the release or decay.

If it was water that you are trying to control, the first feature would be if you put a barrier to prevent the water from running, if you put it very low then the water will create a hard to control flow, however if you put if very high (Think of a river dam) you will prevent any water from going through.

On guitar this would be, if the threshold is too low you will still have unwanted sounds that are awful, but if you put it too high you may cut sounds that you actually want or even worst cut the sound completely, so you have to take your time in order to see which level of threshold is perfect for you.

Then finally the release is how quickly you want the sound to be released from the pedal, this means how hard the signal needs to be, so it is not affected by the pedal.

If this was water again, it is like having an automatic valve that will open at a certain pressure.

If the release is too slow then you will cut the first part of the notes as the noise gate will still be working, if it is too fast then the minimum movement will release the noise gate, and the ugly sounds will start.

This is why every musician should take its time to set properly not only the noise gate pedal but the threshold and release feature as well.

QUICK RUNDOWN

Image	Product	Our Rating	Check Price
	Donner Noise Killer Guitar Noise Gate Suppressor Effect Pedal	4.5 / 5	Amazon
	Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor Pedal	4.5 / 5	Amazon
	ISP Technologies Decimator II Noise Reduction Pedal	4.7 / 5	Amazon
	Fender Mustang II V2 40-Watt 1×12-Inch Combo Electric Guitar Amplifier	4.6 / 5	Amazon

Best Guitar Noise Gate Pedals

When buying a noise gate pedal it is very personal regarding mostly the amount of gain and effects you will have on your sound chain.

If you are not the type of musicians who pumps all the knobs up, then you will be fine with any noise gate pedal.

​However if you like to pump the numbers up a little bit, try to look for a quality noise gate with at least two knobs, threshold and release.

1. Donner Noise Killer Guitar Noise Gate Suppressor Effect Pedal

The Donner Noise Gate is a good pedal “at least to have a noise suppressor” on my effect chain, of course, this will not be my final choice.

Even though it has a true bypass feature stated on the stomp-box, I have some doubts that this happen, have in mind that proving or checking that a pedal has true bypass is extremely difficult unless the sound chain is affected terribly and inarguably.

This Noise Gate is a pretty straightforward pedal; you have the main threshold knob on top that goes from -70 to +10 Db, the LED indicator light for on/off and the button to turn the pedal or on off.

Take some extra time on the threshold knob as you may need to know where to set it to achieve the sound you want.

The rule is simple, the higher the threshold, the more sound you are going to get but also the more noise and of course the lower the threshold you will start cutting the signal, but you will avoid the ugly noises.

This pedal, lastly features two modes

Hard and Soft – for a quick turnaround on how strong you want the noise gate to be, this can come very in handy as you may set the threshold on for example -10 Db and soft and then on some really distortion sounds you can just bend over for a second and just turn the stick too hard and you will get a boost noise gate with a lot of power that will cut all of the ugly sounds out without the need of turning the knob to a place (which would also need fast precision).

2. Boss Audio NS-2 Noise Suppressor

If you have been reading my reviews, you know that I am a big fan of Boss’s pedals, they are high quality, affordable and played by the best musicians in the world. So, whenever I get a Boss pedal into my review blog, I am happy and about to say good things.The Noise Suppressor from Boss is the NS-2, it is a classic in music history and has been around for decades.

You would think that this pedal only cuts the unwanted sounds when you are not playing, but even though this is true, is not the whole side of the story.

This pedal also has a smart integrated circuit that helps reduce unwanted noises even when you are playing with high distortion and overdrive sounds. This is a magnificent pedal.

On the top of the pedal you will find lots of different features, let’s go through them to see what they are.

• Threshold knob: It allows you to control when the noise gate kicks in and how much noise reduction you want to get out of the pedal
• Decay: The decay knob basically allows you to set when the sound is cut off completely when you have stopped playing, basically when you hit a note and let it ring first you will get the main sound that will fade away into a sustain, the decay level will set when to cut this sustain, If you want a lot of sustain kick the knob to the right position, if you want to cut the sustain set it to the left
• Mute/ Reduction mode: The mute/ reduction mode works as a booster like having a soft/ hard mode, when playing regular sound chains you want to set the knob to reduction as you want the noise gate just to help you out with unwanted sounds, when you need an extremely powerful noise reduction you want to set the knob to mute to get the sound completely out.
• Led indicators: Something interesting about the LED indicators on this pedal is that it has two, one on the left that will be on when the reduction mode is on, and another one on the top that will be on when the mute mode is on. This is very important as most of the live shows happen at nights when it is not that easy to see the pedal while playing the guitar, with this extra led you not only know when the pedal is on, but you also know which mode is on.

On the input/ output section of this pedal, you have four to be found two on each side of the stompbox. Always on the right side are the ins and on the left side the outs.

On the upper part you will find the regular input and output 1/4″ jacks to enter and continue your sound chain, but this amazing pedal also includes and the extra combo of send and return jacks that allows you to include this noise gate into another sound signal.

3. ISP Technologies Decimator II Noise Reduction Pedal

This pedal not only has an incredible name, “the decimator II” but it is those kinds of pedals that are very simple without any fancy stuff but still does a lot.

The materials of this stomp-box are of superior quality, so it will last forever on your rack, have into consideration that the noise gate pedal is probably one of the most “stepped on” pedal as lots of times, especially on the solos you want it off to get that extra fuzzy and distortion sound out of your amp.

The front of the pedal is very simple, on the top you will see the LED indicator light whether the noise gate is on or off, then you have just one main threshold knob that goes from -70 to +10 Db and then the main button to turn the noise gate or on off.

On the sides, you will find the classic 1/4″ input and output jacks, but this pedal includes two extra LINK IN and LINK OUT 1/8 inch allowing two pedals to be linked to it.Like I said, in this pedal, you do not go for the looks but the performance and believe me, you are not wrong to want it.

The good thing about “simple pedals” is that they are manufacture to be extremely efficient when doing just one thing, this is very good as most of the other pedals out there try to have so many features than in the end they don’t do anything right at all.

Using the Decimator II is a great choice but try to take a moment after you have bought it and think exactly where on the sound chain you may wanted, since it is a reliable pedal it may be smart to try is somewhere outside the usual place right after the distortion / overdrive and before the modulation and delays.

4. TC Electronic Sentry Noise Gate Pedal

Probably the most complete and high-quality pedal that we are reviewing this time.The TC Noise gate has so many features that we should go one by one to explain them all.

From top to bottom:

• Threshold knob: As all the pedals you can let the pedal knob when you want the noise gate to start working, the higher the setting, the quicker it will start cutting the sound
• Decay: The decay is the opposite from the threshold, it sets once you have played a note depending on how high the decay is the noise gate will stop working, so it does not cut sounds that you want especially when you are playing very sensitive and responsive parts of your song
• Damp knob: This knob (Only on this pedal) is a very interesting knob, the damp allows you to set how hard you want the noise gate to hit every time, for example, if you are playing something very smooth you will want a low damp, if you are playing hardcore heavy metal you may want a higher damp to control your uncontrol sound.
• Gate tone print hiss: like on some other pedals this is basically a booster in which you make the same settings to get higher just by one turn of the stick instead of turning up all the knobs which you may not have time to do in a live performance.
• LED indicator light: It will tell you if the pedal is on or off (simple)
• True bypass: Although not an “on/off feature” this statement allows us to know that when you turn the noise gate off the signal chain will not be affected by the stomp-box. And trust me, this high-quality pedal has a true bypass, not a “wannabe”.

Finally, on the sides, this amazing pedal also includes (Like the BOSS) an input/output jack plus the send/return 1/4″ jacks for multiple porpoise sound chains.

Guitar Noise Gate Pedals – Buyer’s Guide

Conclusion

This review was a very interesting one to do for a simple reason; there were no bad noise gate pedals, I just had to review four great choices. Giving a conclusion may be a little bit redundant.

The only thing I can conclude that it is not a waste of your time is that the Donner pedal should be your choice if you are not sure what to buy, you are on a budget, or you just want to see how a noise reduction pedal may affect your sound chain.

If this is not your case, then you can go to any of the other three pedals, go for either the BOSS or the TC electronics noise reduction if you have a lot of different sounds as you will need all the different features depending on the kind of song you are playing.

If you have basically a one “raw style”, classic tune, some distortion/ overdrive, a little reverb and nothing more in between you and your amp then the ISP noise gate pedal will be great for you to control that extra amount of unwanted gain and noise that all the musicians in the world have to fight.

Remember it is not only about buying pedals that make noise, you need one that cuts of the unwanted signals (Sounds), trust me you need a noise gate on your signal chain.

To get the guitar signal (The actual sound that comes out of the amplifier) that you want is very difficult to get.

Many players realize this only after recording themselves, at which point they realize what they thought was an amazing and full of emotion solo was nothing more than just a couple of notes without expression.

To add or put expression to the noted guitarist have lots of different techniques such as: bending, sliding, hammering on, pulling off, etc.

However, these techniques only affect the pitch of the note and the transition in between notes; they do not alter the final sound or the guitar effects that may be added throughout the chain like chorus, flanger, distortion/overdrive, delay, wah, etc.

So, how to, we alter the effect rather than the signal (note) coming through the signal change?

Easy, with an expression pedal.

It is wrongly thought that the expression pedal is only made to control the volume of the guitar. This is not wrong, but for sure is not right.

Controlling the volume is one of the functions that can be controlled with the expression pedal, however since most guitar players can also control the volume with the guitar volume knob or the amp volume knob, they end up using the expression pedal for other purposes.

The expression pedal (depending on the model) is usually attached to a certain effect of the guitarist choosing, once the expression pedal and the effect are combined, they become dependable. With the main effect stomp-box, you can turn the effect on and off.

For example, if you were using an overdrive pedal when you pushed it, the distortion kicks in, push it again and it goes off, and so on…

Now, let’s say that you want to play a song that starts with some distortion (Clearly not a clean sound) and then towards the end of the song you need to push the gain further and further with no time whatsoever to bend and change the gain knob manually.

As we said, there is no bar that you are not playing, so bending is not an option, what can you do? You assign the expression pedal to that effect, and you can set it to control for example the amount of gain that the distortion pedal adds, this way after you have turned the distortion on, you can still manage the gain throughout the song without any problems.

The most famous effect that must be used mandatory with an expression pedal is the Wah effect. In this effect, the pedal alters the signal by cutting parts of it making the final sound to sound like the guitar is saying “Wah.”

With the expression pedal, you can control how much “Wah” you want to put on the signal, this way you can alter the sound accordingly to your needs.

This is a good example of an effect that would be almost useless if there was only an on/off switch, the “Wah” pedal needs the expression pedal to alter the sound during the playing.

Probably one of the most famous guitar solos with Wah effect is the last part of GNR’s Sweet child of mine, in the music video you can see when Slash turns the wah on and how he plays with the expression pedals to add that extra doses of feel to the solo.

Like most things in modern life, you have almost an infinite amount of options depending mostly on their quality/ features, but we will try to let you know a little bit about five of the most favorite expression pedals in the world.

QUICK RUNDOWN

Image	Product	Our Rating	Check Price
	Moog ACCEP003 EP3 Expression Pedal	4.7 / 5	Amazon
	Valeton EP-2 Passive Volume Expression Guitar Effects Pedal 2 Performance	4.8 / 5	Amazon
	Yamaha FC7 Volume Expression Pedal	4.6 / 5	Amazon
	Ernie Ball MVP, Most Valuable Pedal	4.7 / 5	Amazon
	Boss FV-500H Volume Pedal	4.5 / 5	Amazon

Best Guitar Expression Pedals

Using an expression pedal can be tricky and counterproductive if you are not used to it. It may be a good idea to train sometime on how to use the pedal while playing songs, you have to be very coordinated, but trust us, when you have mastered the expression pedal, the songs have new meanings.

What you have to look for in an expression pedal are two things:

• Materials quality as the expression pedals suffer a lot of use and wear as they are being pressed all the time, if the quality is bad one of the first things the pedal will lose and fade is the calibration, this means that when you want to be at a certain level the pedal will output a different one. Usually the high-quality pedals have a re-calibration feature, but even so it is not very funny to be calibrating the pedal after every song. The low-quality pedals don’t even have this option, meaning that if they get de-calibrated they become almost useless.
• If the expression pedal is going to be a volume only pedal or if it will be also an expression pedal, some models are only volume, some models are only expression and great models are both, be extra careful about these features when purchasing one.

Now, let’s go into the list and see what we got.

1. Moog ACCEP003 EP3 Expression Pedal

This expression pedal ranks at the very bottom of the list. Even though the manufacturer says that the durability and quality of the pedal are good, it isn’t.

You will not find an expression pedal for beginners that has as they quote “perfect weight and balance, along with superb craftsmanship,” if this would be a fact, then it would be the most sold expression pedal in the world.

However, is it a mistake to buy it?

For sure no, it will do its function at a minimum level, so if you are just starting to play guitar and you are playing with new effects, and you want to have some wider options while playing this pedal may be an option.

It may also be an option if you already have some other pedals from Moog as they are made to work together, but if you are planning to use this expression pedal with any of the mainstream pedals brands, be very sure to double and triple check that the expression pedal from Moog will work.

Systems and circuits are much more complex on high-quality pedals and may not work properly. Unfortunately, there is no further way I can assist you as there are so many options in the market that it is impossible to check the compatibility for all the stomp boxes.

2. Valeton EP-2 Passive Volume Expression Guitar Effects Pedal 2 Performance

This pedal will be my sincere choice when choosing the first expression pedal on this article. We will be reviewing five expression pedals from different ranges and this one even though it’s a first timer it has a decent quality.

The Valeton EP-2 is made of hard plastic but it is still very robust, and it has a great feeling when it is pressed. It has a two in one function system as it can be used as a volume pedal or an expression pedal depending on which part of the sound chain it is connected.

Since it is a passive pedal, it means that it does not need either battery or a power supply, which may sound as it is a very bad feature, but this is not true, lots of pedals have no energy supply and work with the power supplied by the jack cable.

It can be used with a variety of instruments like guitars, basses, keyboards, basically anything with a ¼” jack input/ output. Also, it detects automatically the function that you need, meaning that depending on the input signal it will be either an expression pedal or a volume pedal.

On the sides, it comes with high quality ¼” jacks, one input that will come from the instrument or another stomp box, and on the other side the output jack to connect the pedal to either the next pedal or the amplifier.

3. Yamaha FC7 Volume Expression Pedal

Still, on the beginners comes one of the most sold pedals online. The Yamaha FC7, why? I do not exactly know as this pedal does nothing.

To begin, it has no input and output jack, meaning it is useless for a guitar. The only way to make it work is on “reverse,” this means the instrument or pedal needs to have an 1/4″ input for volume or expression. Then you can connect the Yamaha FC7 and use the pedal.

They say that it can be used as an expression pedal, but trust me there are very few pedals that will have the extra input jack feature.

The only way this pedal works as a volume pedal is mainly in keyboards as they tend to have the extra 1/4″ jack input to allow the user to control the volume with an expression pedal, especially low-quality keyboards without sensitive keys.

The only good thing that the Yamaha FC 7 has is the “Fortissimo Function” which allows the user to boost the signal level when performing something that comes in handy if the music sheet has some solo or “concertino” part for that instrument.

Whoever, in general sheets that are this detailed, are played by musicians that have sensitive instruments, so in the end, this may be a bit of a paradox.

I think all the reasons above is why the pedal is ranked #907 in musical instruments out of 100!!

4. Ernie Ball MVP, Most Valuable Pedal

Now we are getting somewhere I like with this best expression pedals reviews. The Ernie Ball MVP (Most valuable pedal) not only has a cool name and looks but it also works incredible.

The first thing to look and compare is the quality of the materials that are made of. If you can try the different pedals at the same time, you will see that the Ernie Ball MVP has a different weight and resistant when being pushed.

On its features, it is a great pedal that allows the player to control the volume without losing high-frequency signal. It works with both active and passive instruments and other pedals meaning it can be placed anywhere in the signal chain.

It comes with a gain booster allowing the musician to boost the signal up to +20 decibels. It is supplied with either DC 9V/100mA or a 9V battery (neither are supplied).

The key part of this pedal is the front in which you will see some great features. In the picture we can see first a min and max gain knob, these allow the player to set the minimum and maximum amount of gain, volume, delay, basically whatever you want to use the expression pedal for.

Let’s say you are using the pedal to control the delay feedback, and you want there to always be a minimum delay let’s say 20% feedback, then you would switch the min knob accordingly, and on the other side let’s say you want the max delay feedback to be at 80%, so it doesn’t kill the audience, then you can do the same with the max gain knob.

Imagine the possibilities with every single effect on your chain! It would be endless.

Following the upper part, we have another ¼” output jack with a tuning fork, this is extremely useful, it allows you to send an extra signal from that jack to an electric tuner so that when you are performing you can tune your guitar even when the sound is off as it has a parallel signal system.

On the bottom part, you will find the classic input and output ¼” jacks for signal and in the middle the 9V-DC power supply input, have in mind that it has a neuter power as well to avoid static or kickbacks.

For all these, there is a wonderful expression pedal.

5. Boss FV-500H Volume Pedal – High Impedance

The Boss FV-500H is another incredible expression pedal, to begin with, Boss is one of the best brands in the world when making stompboxes, and it is very common for a guitarist to have at least four or five pedals in their rack meaning this pedal is extremely compatible.

The look is great, and the materials are high quality, you will feel the decimal precision that this pedal has when you are stepping on it. The rubber on the top part is great to avoid any slipping when pushing which may not seems as much, but when you are precise, you need this.

The pedal has the two main features as it can be used as both a volume or expression pedal, in these case it can be used at the same time for both as it has independent input/ output and expression jacks, however, have in mind that if you are using it for example for volume and Wah you will decrease volume when playing with your Wah, probably not the best choice.

But if you use them independently is very comfortable to have the options of independent jacks.

The front of the pedal is similar to the Ernie Ball with the three jacks right there, then the rest of the features are on the side.

There you will find a tuning output that has the same feature as the Ernie Ball (It allows you to send an extra signal for tuning that is independent of the rest) and since this is a high impedance pedal it comes with a general gain knob (instead of two like the Ernie Ball) to control the final signal’s decibel that will be outputted.

This is also another wonderful choice for an expression pedal.

Guitar Expression Pedals – Buyer’s Guide

Conclusion

The conclusion would be that if you are trying to buy an expression pedal that has great quality and full of cool features, then either the Boss or the Ernie Ball is your choice, you may spend some extra money, but it will be worth it.

If you are on a budget, then try to go for any of the first three options (Moog, Valeton, Yamaha), but particularly the Valeton, as you saw on my reviews, there were very little good things I had to say about the Moog and the Yamaha.

I am a big fan of saying, if you don’t have or don’t want to spend money, then it may be better to have nothing at all, lots of times musicians (especially at the beginning) try to buy whatever they can afford and end up hating their sound and finally quitting. Sometimes is better to wait a little bit more and buy the real thing further down the road.

Having an expression pedal is by far a must on any serious chain, but have in mind that the volume can be controlled by the guitar and the amplifier, and the pedals sometimes can have presets, meaning that in the end if you do not have a complex rack you may not really need to spend money on an individual expression pedal.

On the other side, if you like to play a lot with effects and having the possibility to change your sound while playing life then you most definitely will need a high-quality expression pedal. Hopefully, you will buy one from this list.

As usual, please let us know if you feel we left something out and we will be more than happy to review it and let you know what we think. Looking forward to seeing you in our next post.

In this article, we are going for the jackpot. Comparing Martins vs. Taylors guitars is an honor as they are both incredible.

These guitars are famous for their quality in all their parts. The wood is of the best quality, perfectly crafted, and finally, their mics system on electroacoustic guitar is perfect.

These are some of the reason why these two big companies are the most chosen by Rockstars all around the world.

The problem will only be the budget, as even their cheaper models are still more expensive than even the high-end models of other companies, so have in mind that when you are about to go their website or to a local shop you may want to bring your wallet with you, you will need it.

Over the years they have both tried to wider their catalog with other instruments. However, this was not a big success, meaning that in the end, you should only think of them for acoustic and electro acoustic guitars.

Most of the rock shows that you can find online eventually has an acoustic part, a part in which the band feels they get much closer to the audience that when being on the big stage playing with their electric instruments.

If they have an acoustic part, try to pause at any time and look at the frets for their guitars brands, you will see that at least 99% of them will always be either a Taylor or a Martin acoustic or electroacoustic guitar.

There is a reason why and it is simple; they are the best!

Is There a Difference?

There is no really big difference between similar price range model of either Taylor or Martin guitars. So, putting a cons and pros list does not make much sense, however, let me tell you a little bit about both companies so you can learn something before buying either of them.

C. F. Martin & Company is one of the oldest manufactures of guitars in the world. It was founded in 1833 in NYC, however, over time, they move their headquarters to Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

They eventually open a factory in Mexico to help production. However Mexican Martin’s guitars are not considered top quality instruments.

The company is still run by the Martin family and were famous for introducing the Dreadnought body style which is the classic guitar shape that almost all guitars have.

Over the years they have developed so many different models with different features that it is almost impossible to go through them all, so the only thing you should know about is that there is no downside when buying ANY Martin’s acoustic guitar. You will feel the quality immediately when you start playing them.

Taylor’s guitar is a younger brand, founded in California in 1974 and they are already the number one manufacturer of acoustic guitars in the USA.

Their main difference was that they started to try and combine different types of woods to achieve not only incredible but unique sounds and tones out of the guitars. They have manufacture for example guitars made with oak.

Also, a difference with Taylor’s guitar is that they started to make (and have the patent) bolt-on neck guitars with what they call NT (new technology).

In these guitars, they use one continuous piece of wood all the way up to the 19th fret to support the fretboard.

While most common guitars have the same thing but only until the 14th fret and then they just glue the rest of the fret to the guitar, this is made mostly as with the dreadnought shape acoustic guitar not many players play over the 12th fret as it becomes quite uncomfortable.

Conclusion

The conclusion is that both guitar brands are incredible, they have always produced high-quality guitar, and they are by far the choice of the biggest musicians on earth when it comes to acoustic guitars.

Even though both brands have tried to produce other types of instruments in the past so they could widen their catalog, both Martin and Taylor are synonymous of high-end acoustic guitars, and they will stay this way forever.

Martin’s guitars are one of the oldest on the planet (Founded on 1833 in NYC) and have kept the standard ever since, then Taylor’s, although maybe a little bit younger brand (Only 1974) these guitars designed and manufactured in California are just incredible.

Price will be the only thing you have to worry about when buying these high-end quality acoustic guitars, even their economy models will start at hundreds of dollars, and their most expensive ones might be even sold for hundreds of thousands, but believe me when I say they are worth every penny.

Even if you have to postpone other things, spending money on either a Martin or a Taylor is money well spent.

Finally, these guitars have a great value of resale mostly because of their wood’s quality, meaning that eventually, you can always sell them maybe for a better price that you have bought them.

That is all for now, please as usual, feel free to contact us or tell us what you think of our articles or if you have tried any of the items mentioned in this article, we will be more than happy to read them!

Going into the little big brothers of Fenders models, both the Jazz Master and the Jaguar model are incredible instruments, which even though they may look like a lot, they have an enormous difference in tone and sound.

They have different fretboards, and they are thought to be used in different types of music, while the Jazz Master has a transparent sound which much more output, the Jaguar has a more rounded, percussive and balanced sound.

These guitars may be a bit more expensive when comparing their price to a similar model from their brothers, the Stratocaster mostly. Thus, the quality of sound is awesome, however, especially for recording, this difference in sound may be a bit “weird” to your sound. Musicians and people are so used to the Stratocaster sound, that sometimes going outside the grid brings special and mixed feelings about it. However, great albums and great songs were recorded with these amazing guitars.

Jazz Master

The best feature of the Jazz Master is probably the bone nut and narrow-tall 22 frets. These frets make this guitar a perfect instrument for long bendings with extra feeling. Great for those long jazz bent notes, the whammy/ tremolo bar is also screwed into the body so you can push it without worrying about breaking it and keeping it off in your hand.

The Jazz Master also comes with the treble bleed circuit that will make the guitar maintain the highs and its natural tone when reducing the volume. This may not sound as much or even useful, but the amount of feel and personal touch you can add to your sound with this feature is amazing.

Finally, if you do not want to go away from the Fender Stratocaster sound very much, then the Jazz Master is a nice model in between the Strat and the Jaguar. It comes only with a three position switch for their mics (Bridge, middle, and neck) and only two knobs, volume, and tone.

Even though the coils may look like Gibson P90 coils, have in mind that at the end they are Fender Single Coil’s mics. The extra add-on on the mics provides a warmer thicker tone without losing the single coil clarity, and it ultimately they also provide a hum canceling especially in the middle position.

Jaguar

When we are talking about the Jaguar model, there are so many around that this article should be much longer than this to cover them all. However, we are going to stick with the mainstream Jaguar American Model.

The Jaguar has a shorter scale and a different tone than the Jazz Master, and the main difference with the Jazz Master is the pick up selector. The Jaguar comes with a 4-position pick up selector, in which the main difference is the fourth position in which you will get both mics active at the same time but wire in series giving a fuller sound.

Plus, on the upper side, you will find an extra tone selector (two positions) similar to a phaser is going to kick a nice funky/ wah sound great for country music. Of course, when using this switch you will alter the sound despite the main mic position you are in, so you have hundreds of sound combination whit this guitar.

Finally, the treble bleed circuit allows you to keep the tone and bright even when you are not at full volume. This is a great feature when you just want to hit long chords and just want to let them ring; you can play with the volume knob while still keeping the tone.

The whammy bar is screw in, so you don’t have to worry about ripping your guitar off when you are going crazy on your solos.

Quick Co​mparison

Conclusion

In this case (And I like it), we are comparing great instruments; this has a clear pro and con on my end. The pro like I said is that I have to say great things about both guitars, the con is that it is difficult for me to give you a conclusion on which guitar to buy or play.

They are both incredible guitars by Fender, that for sure made rock and roll history, so as usual, I am going to say that the model you should get should be defined by your objectives and goals in both sound and style.

If you want to play a nice jazz tune, and you like those long bending notes with clean and easy to understand sound, if you are not a guy who goes straight into the amp and starts pumping up all the knobs (Especially the distortion/ overdrive one), then the Jazz Master by fender is going to be your friend and buddy for a long time. Even though some southern American tunes were stolen with this guitar, mostly country, and folk, it is a great guitar for these kinds of music.

If on the other hand, you would like a more percussive sound, to add more distortion and get that dirty but beautiful sound, then the Jaguar is the place to go. Besides having an extra fret, it comes with similar coils to the Stratocaster plus the “Claws” system that reduce the noise while playing. This way, even though you will be on an overdrive position, the sound out of the guitar will still be beautiful and easy to understand.

Finally, most models of both guitars have a great tremolo system allowing you to get that wave sound when you are power chording, or you are bending!

We are getting into more powerful stuff here, so more than ever if you have any comments, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be more than happy to read them and reply to them as well.

Gibson is one of the best guitar brands in the whole world. Their guitars, especially the Les Paul have been responsible of some of the most important moment in music history, however, these guitars are by far expensive, and not everyone can always afford a Gibson guitar, especially if you are not in the US.

If you are on a budget or maybe about to buy your first guitar and you do not feel like spending thousands of dollars, the next brand they are going to offer you is the Epiphone (Or Squier if you were browsing Fenders).

Epiphone is the economy brand from Gibson, they were merged more than three decades ago, and they have both been in the music news almost on a daily base.

Buying an “economy” guitar versus a main-brand guitar will have it obvious perks especially in sound quality. However the question is, how big is this gap?

Is there a difference?

Yes, yes and yes, unfortunately, there is no one in the world that will tell you that there is no difference, and if they are, they are either lying or wrong.

When comparing the model to model, there will be no physical difference; they will have the same materials, the same mics, the same fretboard, etc.

However, the quality of those materials will make a huge difference. It is like on any other matter in life, when you are buying food, when you are buying an economy class ticket versus a first-class ticket on a plane, sure they will both get you there, but the difference is the how!

The main quality difference will be in the mics and the wood of the fret.

With the mics you will find that the sound is much easier to understand, it does not feel pushed, you do not need to turn all the knobs up to 100% to get the sound out of it.

It will be the opposite, the mics will respond to almost any impulse, and you will see that the sound and the quality will be much more define by your playing than from the instrument.

And, like I have said a lot throughout these articles when you are pushing the sound chain, then you will see the final difference, this will be inarguable.

When you have to put distortion, a Wah, delay, etc. Then, if you do not have quality mics, you won’t be able to play anything that anyone will understand.

Regarding the wood of the fret, even if they are both made from the same material. When you put the quality on the table you will feel that high-quality frets are easy to play on, the feel is very loose, and that you have no “obstacles” while moving up and down the fret.

On the other hand, when you are playing on a low-quality guitar, the fret is more of your enemy than your friend. It is not easy to bend, to play fast or to make nice transition effects in between notes.

Maybe you can’t tell the difference if you haven’t played on the high-quality guitar, but when you do, you will know what I am talking about.

If you are playing on an Epiphone and you want to feel the difference, just go to your local store and ask to try one, then you know that I haven’t been lying to you.

Conclusion

The conclusion, in this case, is simple, there is no musician on earth that will defend hand to hand, head to head, an Epiphone versus a Gibson, but for sure what you will hear is “well, given the price…”

This can be a valid argument, given the price you are getting a lot when you are buying an Epiphone.

You are still getting the classical sound alike of Gibson, you are getting the humbuckers if you are choosing a Les Paul, but in the end, you are always losing the quality of sound.

I think the biggest difference is when you start to push the guitar to the limit with a highly complex sound.

Maybe clean to clean comparison is not as bad as you may think (There is still a difference), but when you start adding to your signal chain some overdrive or distortion, things will start to feel different.

If when adding distortion, things start to feel the difference, imagine when you also add a Wah, a delay, a chorus, an octave pedal, etc. Then I can assure you no matter which notes you will play on your Epi they will all sound the same, something similar will happen with chords, they will be impossible to understand.

On the other hand, when playing a Gibson, it will be the exact opposite. When playing clean you may feel like, ok I spend so much money and it sounds the same, but go ahead and try to push the Gibson to the limit!

Look for videos online of the best rock shows in history (I recommend Comfortably Numb Solo in Roger Waters the Wall Live from Berlin).

You will see a number of effects on that guitar and just look at the musician’s hand and then listen to the sound; you will see that each note is different, that each bending is understandable and more!

Gibson’s are Gibson’s and by far superior from Epiphone, however the only time I would recommend buying an Epiphone even if you do not have any money issues is if you are just starting to play guitar.

This may be the only time in which you should focus on learning instead of sound quality, no offense but, you will still don’t realize the difference.

Once you are going at it for real, go to your local shop and buy the Gibson!

Hope to see you again for our next post. If there is anything you would like us to know, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will gladly answer all your questions and comments.

The fretboard is by far one of the most important parts of the guitar, not only because it is what will change the note when pressing the string against it, but because it is the part that is in more contact with the musician.

If the fretboard is not comfortable, then the playing will not be as well, this is why there are a lot of things to consider like size, depth, inclination, and of course what is made of.

When luthiers started making electric and acoustic guitars they tried different kinds of woods, and with different terminations, even though they may be made of a lot of different materials, two of the most commons fretboards are both maple and rosewood, especially on the Stratocaster model.

Have in mind that the fretboard will not influence your sound as much as your pickups. If you want numbers, I would say that 90 % of the sound is the combination of the strings, pick and pick-ups on your guitar, then the last 10 % will come from your fretboard.

This makes the fretboard material not a definitive matter when buying a guitar.

Maple fretboard

The maple fretboard main feature is that it provides a brighter and punchy sound with a lot of note definition and clarity.

This means that the notes will be easy to understand by the ears and that will be very precise. It is a faster fretboard as they are usually made in one peace since the surface of the fretboard is very light, it is very easy for the hand of the guitarist to go up and down the fretboard.

This means that if you are looking for a soft fell – fast playing neck, then the maple fretboard will provide that for sure.

The durability is very good on the maple fretboard, and cleaning it is also very easy and fast, however, if it breaks, it is more expensive to re-fret a guitar with maple than with maple, so this may be a con to look out for.

If you are a bender (a guitarist that loves to bend the notes), then the maple fretboard is a great option.

First, it will feel very soft and light when bending. Secondly, the note will be very clear all throughout the bending (Even when pre-bending, or post-bending).

If you look at guitarist that loves to play long notes and have long bent as well, almost all of them are playing on maple fretboards. When you see players that try to get a heavier metal sound of their guitar, then they go to a rosewood fretboard and just played it hard.

Also, it is somewhat easier to get nice high pitch sounds from the upper part of your fretboard with a maple fretboard; the notes will get loud for sure.

On the rosewood fretboard, all the notes will sound much more similar in tone to each other despite how high or low you are on your fretboard.

Rosewood fretboard

Rosewood fretboard provides a very bluesy sound with a lot of depth and sense of space. The warm sound that the rosewood provides it is never achieved by maple (or at least that is what the guitar players and manufactures say).

When it comes to telling the difference in sound, this may be something I may argue if you are an experienced player and play huge shows for music fanatics as David Gilmour does, then you probably notice this difference.

However, if you are the average player playing in your room or with your friends, I will strongly argue that you will tell no difference in between the two frets.

What is arguably is that the rosewood fretboard feels harder to play on, this means that the player will need some extra strength to perform the same task as with a maple fretboard.

On the downside, rosewood fretboards do require much more cleaning and maintenance as most of them do not have any finish on them as maple does.

Lemon oil conditioner is the typical product to use when cleaning the fretboard, have in mind that to do this you will have to remove all the strings and then re-string the guitar every time, this means you will also have to coordinate that when it is time to clean the fretboard it is also time to change the strings.

If you forgot to clean the fretboard and the strings are new, then you may have to throw them away before their time as in general removing and stringing the same set is not recommended.

Comparison Table

Conclusion

Depending on your style of playing and what kind of sound you want to get out of your guitar the option you should choose.

With the maple fretboard, you will get a brighter sound, and the feel will be much looser, on the other hand with a rosewood fretboard, the sound gets a little bit darker and deep plus moving the hand through the fretboard is a bit trickier.

Lastly, if you are the kind of player that sweats a lot the fret hand, then rosewood may even stop you from playing fast and comfortable, go for the maple.

I would like to put a final thought on the article, having both necks is awesome if that is a possibility, my general comment when people ask me, what is better in music A or B, I always say, both!

Try to have as many options as possible and learn the difference by yourself, this way you will know which guitar will be ideal for each song. Have different guitars with different necks, pickups, strings, gauges, etc.

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