Dirty Power Hello folks!  Welcome back to The Corner.  This week we’re going to discuss a source of noise that not everyone is aware of, dirty power.  Dirty power basically refers to line noise coming from older wiring and improperly wired AC circuits found in older homes and some small venues.  Dirty power can cause major noise issues and can drive a lot of people insane troubleshooting their rig when the problem is actually not in their rig at all!  So what is line noise?  To put it as simply as possible, line noise is random fluctuations and electrical impulses carried along with the standard AC current.  This can be caused

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    Joan Jet   A no-nonsense player who in only a few strums can get an entire barroom howling her 1982 hit, “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.” That kind of power, often amplified by painted-on leather pants, sets the bar high for Twilight’s Kristen Stewart, who’s playing Jett in an upcoming Runaways biopic.     Lita Ford After jamming with Jett as lead guitarist in the Runaways, Lita Ford took her pop-metal shedder sound solo and hired fellow rocker chick Sharon Osbourne as her manager. In 1988, she released Lita, a sexy riff-filled album that not only pleased rockers with its head-banging tunes but also got mainstreamers in the pit, especially with &ldquo

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Hi folks.  Welcome back to The Corner.  This week we’re going to discuss types of compression.  Compressors are an oft misunderstood and misused effect.  Hopefully this article will enlighten those that aren’t quite sure what a compressor is.  We’re going to start off with describing what compression is, some basic terminology, and artifacts of compression.  Then we’ll go through the major types of compression.    What is a Compressor? The most basic explanation of an audio compressor is a specialized amplifier that reduces the gap between the loudest part (peak) and quietest part of a signal.  The peak-to-average proportion of an audio signal

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Guest contributor:  Rusty Wiseman Hi folks.  Welcome back to The Corner.  This week we’re going to discuss the difference between series and parallel.  I’m going to begin with a general description of what series and parallel are in terms of resistors and electrical circuits then I’ll talk about how this applies to guitar speakers and pickups/wiring configurations.  There can be a lot of tech talk involved so I’ll try to keep this as easy to follow as possible for those that aren’t familiar with electrical circuits and hopefully provide a nice, clear explanation that people can use as a general reference when replacing speakers

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Guest Contributor:  Rusty Wiseman Hello all!  Welcome back to The Corner.  This week’s tone tip is on coil splitting your pickup.  For those of you not familiar with this, basically it’s when a dual coil pickup is wired to a switch in such a way that it “splits” and only one coil remains active.  This will bring new tonal combinations to a humbucker-equipped guitar allowing for biting, spanky single-coil tones.  For the sake of simplicity, we are going to use a Les Paul as our example guitar and we’re only going to discuss traditional humbuckers, not stacked single-coils or noiseless P-90’s that use a

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Guest contributor:  Rusty Wiseman Hello folks.  Welcome back to The Corner.  This week we're going to talk a bit about an oft overlooked power tube, the KT88.  The mighty KT88 is a lesser known tube to some that falls somewhere in between an EL34 and a 6550.  The cool thing about it is that it is easily interchangeable with most 6550 amplifiers and can be interchanged in most EL34 based amplifiers with quick, easy mods.  So the usual disclaimer is in order since we are talking tube amps...please do not attempt any modifications or tube swaps if you aren't sure of the specifications of your amp or you are not at least a

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Staying in Tune Guest Contributor: Rusty Wiseman The lights are low and the song is pumping.  The crowd is rowdy and loving every minute of it.  Then, BAM, spotlight on you for the guitar solo.  The first note sings out and you’re off, galloping away like a rock star and the cheering is deafening.  Then the final part, the inverted triad outro to the solo, you hit it and…dead silence.  It’s so out of tune the deaf person in the back is frowning.  How did this happen?  The guitar was in tune at the beginning of the song.  Hell, the guitar is brand new with new

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Guest Contributor: Rusty Wiseman Hello folks.  Welcome back to The Corner.  This week we’re going to continue our EZ Mods series and talk about guitar potentiometers (pots).  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, the pots are those little turny doodads that rest under the Volume and Tone knobs of your guitar.  Believe it or not, these little guys can make a difference in the overall tone of you guitar.  The value, the sweep, and the overall quality of the pot can make a pretty big difference in tone.  Let’s take a look. First let’s look at what a pot is and how it works

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