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

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.

We hope you found this article very helpful, please send us your opinions and feedbacks, we will gladly review them all.