Radius: refers to the curvature of the neck from high E to low E... simply stated if you were to take a ruler and put a point at one edge and put a pencil at the other end and draw a circle... then cut out the width of the fretboard along the circumference of the circle you would get the radius... if you use a 7.25" inch ruler to do this you would get a 7.25" radius which is rounder than using a 12" ruler with a 12" radius which is flatter...

Staying in tune

What's the correct way to form barre chords?

A good rule of thumb when FIRST learning guitar is to put the thumb in the very back of the neck. in other words, DON'T hang your thumb on the edge of the fingerboard like you often see, as this will decrease your range. in order to grab barre chords easily and effectively, you need to increase your range of efficient motion, and that means that you need to be able to move your hand around pretty easily. i use the thumb as a pivot point--kind of like a basketball player who is pivoting around on one foot when he's looking for a clean shot or someone to pass it to, while he's being guarded and pushed around by the players on the other team.

If you keep your thumb in the very center of the back of the neck and use that to pivot from, you're going to find that you can really reach a lot farther than if your thumb was hanging on the side of the fingerboard. this will go a long ways towards helping you play barre chords more easily.

One more final tip...when fingering chords, it's a good idea to keep your fingers arched so that you finger the strings with just the tips of your fingers. you don't want to lay your fingertip flat across the string, because then you will fret other strings or keep other strings from ringing, resulting in a dull, sloppy sound.

What does NOS mean?

What is an effects loop?

Effects loops give you the opportunity to plug effects between the preamp and the power amp. This is best for modulation (phaser, flanger, chorus, pitsh shifting) and delay effects because it allows them to effect the distorted signal as opposed to the preamp distorting them. It also runs a line-level signal, instead of instrument, which works better with most rack mount effects. (Distortions and boosters, etc, usually work better going straight into the guiatr input where they can affect the preamp gain)

Most have output jacks that run to the effects and input that run back to the amp. Regular guitar cable is good to use for these jacks. A few have one stereo jack that has both input and output and require a stereo-plugged "Y" guitar cable with one cable running as the input, one as the output.

Serial effects loops rune directly between the preamp and power amp, parallel ones allow you to mix the "wet" loop signal with the "dry" preamp signal.

You may also run the preamp signal out of the effects loop into the effects input of another amp to get a "slaved amp" effect or just to use different preamps with different power amps.

There is no "wrong" way to set effects up before the amp, in the effects loop or both. You just have to experiment with what you like best. Many effects, wah and chorus for example, will sound more dominate in the effects loop. This could be desired or not. I run my wah and Micro-Vibe into the guitar input (slightly overdriven for rythym), because I like how the preamp's O/D softens, or delutes, each of them. I keep my O/D and Fuzz pedals before each though, so the wah and Vibe and affect and fatten the fuzz tones. I keep my chorus and echo in the effects loop both because I like the way the affect all that comes before it, but also because they are both picky vintage pieces and work better with the line-level signal.

What's the difference between set, through, and bolt-on necks?

I have heard some rumblings that bolt-on necks give a more open sound, but i don't know if i would agree with that entirely. if a bolt-on neck is bolted as tight as possible, you're not going to lose any sustain compared to a set-in neck or a neck-through design. bolt-on necks obviously have the advantage of being replaceable and easier to work on for fret jobs or refinishing, but i DO think they have their own tone, with perhaps a bit more overtone content than set-neck designs.

Set-neck designs are great in the fact that they transfer sustain well and have a lot of fundamental content--however, they also are harder to make correctly, and if the neck is set at the wrong angle, it's going to be like "polishing turd" when doing the setup because the luthier will have to compensate by milling some frets lower than others to compensate. also, the intonation may be altered and affected adversely as a result.

Neck-through designs are very solid and have the benefit of lacking the clumsy block that sometimes results from the other designs, but if a guitar has a maple neck (and most do), the tone of the guitar can be very bright, since the pickups reside right on a block of hard rock maple. the other disadvantage of neck-through designs is that once you damage the neck, it's very expensive to fix the guitar.

In any event, the bottom line is that it shouldn't matter how the neck is joined to the body--if it's done correctly, you're going to have a killer guitar.

What's the difference between maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards?

The following are GENERAL tonal characteristics of maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards: Maple--this is a bright, tight-sounding wood with a defined bottom end, a tighter midrange, and a crisp, detailed top end. maple requires a finish, so a lot of guys tend to think the fingerboard feels a bit "sticky." however, the use of satin finishes as of late has been a big step towards improving the feel of a maple board. maple is often favored by cats who want a bit more top end or definition in their tone or for brightening up a warmer-sounding guitar.

Rosewood--this is the most popular fingerboard wood and has a warm, rich tone with less top end than maple. rosewood doesn't require a finish, and lots of players like the feel of it because of its slightly oily nature. rosewood fingerboards are often favored by players who want to warm up a guitar further or for attenuating the highs on a particularly bright guitar.

Ebony--this is the hardest and densest of the three woods and has a tight, crisp tone which is even brighter than maple. ebony doesn't require a finish and has a very tight grain-because of this, people often refer to ebony as "fast playing" or "slick." it's easily distinguishable from dyed rosewood by its closed grain pattern as opposed to rosewood's open grain pattern. ebony fingerboards are often favored by players who want a very glassy and crystalline top end or a lot more definition and tightness in their low end. for this reason, it's often preferred by bass makers.

What's the theory behind the humbucker?

To get a hum-cancelling effect the coils has to be wound in opposite directions, otherwise you'd end up with a pickup that's only two single-coils in one. however, the coils may be wired in either series or parallel, with the hum-cancelling effect preserved, but wiring two coils in parallel results in a very weak signal, compared to that of two coils wired in series.

Check out a new and an old strat for a good example of the necessity of opposite magnet directions for a hum-cancelling effect. on an old strat, all the pickups are wired the same, and position 2 and 4 has just as much hum as any other position, but on a newer strat the middle pickup is wired the opposite way, thus implying a hum-cancelling effect to positions 2 and 4...

What causes frets to buzz?

when frets start buzzing without any apparent reason, what has happened is often that the neck has straightened from a sudden change in temperature and/or moisture. wood is a "living" material that reacts to certain changes.

If this is the case, the truss rod should be adjusted (probably not only the truss rod but the whole guitar as well) if the change in conditions is permanent. if this is not the case (i.e. you forgot your guitar in the basement for a week and when you found it again and you played it, it buzzed), just leave the guitar for a few hours where you normally keep it, and it will probably go back to normal.

Also, the truss rod should be adjusted whenever you change string brands/gauges. adjusting (I say "adjusting", NOT "turn-clockwise-and-see-what-happens") the truss rod will not hurt your guitar in any way, so there is no reason not to do it occasionally anyway. If you stick with the same strings (brand AND gauge) you should adjust your guitar (including the truss rod...) at least two or three times a year. You can never have a too well-adjusted guitar.

What does it mean when my hands start to hurt?

What are some good pickups?

Each brand has its own vibe. if you're after a vintage-style tone, duncans are definitely superior, IMHO. duncan makes a killer PAF-style pickup in the '59 model, and they produce THE BEST vintage-PAF replica in the antiquity. if you want something along the lines of the PAF but want more beef, more brightness, etc., duncan also offers the seth lover, pearly gates, alnico II pro, and duncan custom, and JB models. that's not to say that duncan is limited to PAF-style pickups, though-their duncan distortion, screamin' demon, invader, and full shred models are definitely geared more towards the guitarist who wants a heavier, more aggressive tone.

Dimarzio is definitely geared towards the rock player who wants a modern, aggressive tone, and that's really apparent in their endorsers-steve vai, joe satriani, shawn lane, etc. their X2N, megadrive, evolution, and tone zone pickups all grok a modern, aggressive tone. dimarzio DOES offer a PAF-style pickup in their PAF, but to my ears this pickup doesn't grok the PAF tone as well as the duncan '59 does.

Given that you want to play alternative music a la soundgarden, pearl jam, metallica, and better than ezra, i would still tend to suggest duncans. most of your tone is going to result from your amp and not your pickups, and you really don't need to have a hot-rodded pickup in order to get an aggressive tone, so long as you have a pretty aggressive amp. if you want something with a bit more output and a punchier tone, i would consider the duncan custom. les pauls have a naturally punchy tone, and i've found that they don't react well with super-high-output pickups. the duncan custom would be a good choice for getting a bigger, punchier tone out of your guitar.

For the neck position, i would consider the duncan '59 neck model or the alnico II pro neck model. the alnico II pro is a bit sweeter on the top end and midrange than the '59, so that would be a good choice if that's what you're after.

What's a Hot Plate?

The Hot plate is placed inline between your amp's speaker output jack and the speakers you're using. You select what amount of your amp's power you actually want to reach the speakers. What the hotplate does is redirects the "too much" part of your signal to heating coils which dissapate that power into heat. Electronically speaking, your amp thinks it's making your speakers roar, but instead of all that power making sound energy, a part of that power is making heat energy.