An original Gibson PAF’s are one of the most sought after sounds, and most people attribute their trademark tone to the Alnico magnets that were used. For this reason, Alnico II is often used in “vintage” replacement pickups, as they’re thought to produce a vintage sound. Also common is Alnico V, which is slightly stronger, and produces a brighter, “punchier” tone. Ceramic magnets are stronger yet, and are commonly used in more modern, rock-oriented pickups.

Increasing the number of windings in the coils increases the output as well, but it also tends to accentuate the midrange while attenuating the lows and highs. As the number of turns increases, the tone gets muddier. Using a heavier gauge wire produces similar results.

Another aspect of pick up construction is the coil, the number of coils can greatly affect the tone Fender strats and Teles sport single coil design and have a bright and twangy sound

So that is basically it, a big range of pick up’s can be found on the internet and in your local guitar shop. They can be expensive handmade individual designed or inexpensive of the shelf items. The choice is yours and what your ears tell you is right.

While we can learn to play by teaching ourselves, and lets face it there are some really great tools out there to help us. We might wonder what it is to be taught face to face, with this in mind I have drafted a quick guide on what to look for in being taught by a teacher.

Good teachers are quite easy to find, great teachers a little more difficult but lets not that stop us.

Good teachers turn up when they should, will show you how to get all your materials together and get organized and manage your practice times.  They will encourage you and correct you when you go wrong. Teachers by their nature should be patient and help you through your doubting times. They should care about you progress and be enthusiastic.

Great teachers will continually push you to achieve more technically difficult pieces, they will take you totally out of your comfort zone. They emphasize creativity through song writing and as mentioned in the previous post improvising.

They want you to perform to enjoy what you are playing.

Music teachers are not licensed, and this could be a good thing, as soon as you regulate something you loose the flair, the creative ones do their own thing.

Yes they need to be competent and classical guitar teachers are perfect example of this, if you short cut on classical guitar techniques you will pay later when pieces become more technical.  

Electric guitar is different and you need a teacher with all creativeness still intact with a passion about what they do for a living.

But with all teachers there are a few basic questions you can ask before studying with them that will make you confident that you have chosen well.

a) How long have you been teaching. Less than a year not advisable.

b) How many people are you teaching at the moment and how many have you taught. This gives you a feel for the variation of people that they have probably taught since teaching and hopefully have learned their teaching mistakes on someone else.   

c) Cost  and duration, as with anything you get what you pay for, but you could  study with a good teacher on a bi-monthly basis instead of weekly. It would motivate you to work harder in between to ensure you get the best when you have your lesson.  

More tips next post.

I guess I shied away from committing a lot of money to my purchase.The only thing I really knew was that a les Paul guitar was good, but what sort of amp I needed was non starter. Having come away I have now done some research and the right tone seems a good start to buying an amp.

Tone is a combination of your guitar, your amp and your fingers. The amp is key as it provides the means of self expression.An amp is like a guitar ie. What style of music do you play ? amps are more or less designed for specific groups of players and genres of music. Most amps will do most things Regarding tone, but some are better than others. The simple answer would be to have lots of money and buy what we want , but for most of us money is not unlimited. 

 As beginner a small practice amp should be sufficient, channel switching is nice to have and can be good fun, even with my little fender package I can go from dirty to clean at press of a button. The reverb sounds good  and all adds to the fun.  I have read that the entry level amps from major manufactures are good and start at around $100. Cheaper amps are not worth buying. As a beginner all that is needed is an amplifier that sounds  relatively decent and will keep you playing. 

 Although I purchased a cheap guitar and amp package it did sound good when the storekeeper played it. 

SLIDE GUITAR SET-UP

To play slide, you must first have your guitar set up properly for the best tone and playability.  I play on my 1930 National steel-bodied Style O resonator guitar.  These are great sounding old guitars, especially for slide and delta blues.  Many blues, jazz, hillbilly, and Hawaiian guitarists played Nationals, and before the electric guitar caught on, were the loudest, shiniest, funkiest guitars available.

You can set up any steel-string acoustic guitar for slide.  The nut of the guitar must be slightly higher (around the thickness of a matchbook cover), so the strings are higher over the fretboard than for regular guitar playing.  You should still be able to fret the strings as well as slide comfortably without clonking the frets with the slide.  A qualified guitar repair person should be able to set you up right.

Note:  BE CAREFUL choosing a repair person.  Try to get a couple of (or lots of) recommendations from respected players before taking your dear guitar into the shop.

SLIDING STRINGS

For the best slide tone for your guitar, heavier gauged strings are generally better.  I use these gauges, in Phosphor Bronze:

Low to High:  .056    .045    .035    .026    .019(plain)    .017(plain)

CAUTION:  Many acoustic guitars are not made for heavy string tension.  Be careful not to put strings on your guitar that are heavier than the recommended gauges.

IMPORTANT:  Don’t tune your guitar too high!  It could pull your guitar apart!  Tune no higher than a D or G-tuning, and if you notice the bridge area raising, use lighter gauge strings.

OPEN TUNINGS FOR SLIDE PLAYING

Although there are dozens of variations, I use these two traditional open chord tunings for slide:
 

Open-D,  Vestapol or Louisiana Tuning.  Low to High:  DADF#AD

Open G,  Spanish or Hawaiian Tuning.    Low to High:  DGDGBD

FINGERPICKS OR NAKED FINGERS?I use a large plastic thumbpick on the right hand thumb, and two metal fingerpicks for the index and middle fingers, but for me, especially on the steel guitar, picks help make a sharper, louder tone and help save your fingers.

GET A GOOD SLIDE

There are many kinds of slides to choose from; everybody has a different preference.  Some use a metal tube or pipe (Son House used a piece of copper tubing), or a spark-plug socket.  These have a brasher, more metallic tone, but have the advantage of being shatterproof (and multi-purpose).

Some of the old-time slide guitarists used a knife.  Cedell Davis uses a better knife.  Legend has it that Blind Willie Johnson used a straight razor for a slide.  Makes for a sharper tone, but sounds mighty dangerous!

My preference is a glass slide, made from a wine bottle.  Glass has a weepier, richer sound than metal.  You can make your own or buy commercially made slides in the music stores, and remember the thicker the glass, the thicker your tone will be.  The glass in many wine bottles (the kind with corks, not screw-on tops) is nice, thick, and smooth, and makes for the best sound.

PUT IT ON YOUR PINKIE!

Putting your slide on your left hand pinkie finger leaves your other left hand fingers free to fret notes and make chords without the slide, and also to damp the strings behind the slide.  Some guitarists like Son House and Bonnie Raitt use the slide on the ring or middle finger, but generally, having the slide on your pinkie is the best bet.

SLIDE PLAYGROUND

Unlike fretting the strings, playing with the bottleneck involves setting the slide directly above a fret, with light pressure on the string with the slide when plucked.  Try it on the high D (first) string in Open-D tuning, with the slide angled slightly away from the neck, so you are only resting the slide on the high string.  Then, pluck the string with your right hand index finger, and slide up the neck slowly from the third fret to the fourth fret.  Ahhh!!  Vibrate the slide slightly (left & right) along the string at the end of the phrase to give it that vibrato like a gospel singer.  That’s it!

The difference between playing slide and regular guitar is like the difference between a violin and a ukulele.  Think of the slide as a woman’s voice.  Some of the notes will be bent or “blue” notes that are 1/4 to 1/2 way above the fret.  The ability to bend and vibrate these vocal-sounding notes is what makes slide guitar so haunting.

Many novice guitar players think that the string trees are only for the looks, not for function. They don’t realize that the use of string trees not only provide tuning stability as well as tonal integrity, but in the case of roller string trees, they could actually help you stay in tune and save you some money by giving you longer life for your guitar strings.

Guitar Jones string trees and tension bars come in many different shapes and sizes to provide perfect “behind-the-nut” angle for your guitar. This is very helpful since if your angle is too shallow, you’ll constantly hear the buzz on the open strings. On the other hand you don’t want the angle to be too steep either.

There are even roller string trees which greatly reduce the friction to help you stay in tune and lengthen the life of your strings.

Some people go further to improve their guitars’ ability to stay in tune. They replace their stock tuners with lockable tuners. These tuners are available for $25.00 - $100.00 on the internet. Many players agree that that’s a small price to pay for being able to stay in tune while they play.

If you are just starting out learning guitar one of the
hardest things can be getting a good rhythm and keeping
that rhythm going while you change chords with your
left hand.

When I first started learning guitar I would strum along
happily until the chord change and then my right hand
would stop while I changed the position of the left.

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