By Rusty Wiseman Elusive.  That is one word to describe the legendary tone of David Gilmour.  The right combination of gear, playing style, and era produced one of the most sought after guitar tones in rock history.  So how do we get the Gilmour tone for ourselves?  Besides owning the exact gear and channeling the spirit of his amazing fingers (tough to do since he’s still alive) there are plenty of options out there but who’s got an extra house to mortgage these days.  Many companies capitalize on the Gilmour name with signature gear, claims of Gilmour-like sound and sustain and charge top-dollar for the products.  What about the rest

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By Jamie Wolfert May 23, 2012 Lee Ranaldo's Between The Times And The Tides is, not unexpectedly, a work of masterfully layered,  propulsive guitar rock paired with Ranaldo's melancholic songwriting and distinctive vocal delivery. His all-star band includes, among others, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, ex-SY guitarist and collaborator Jim O'Rourke, keyboardist John Medeski, and everybody's favorite maniac Nels Cline, whose greasy, garbled  Jazzmaster and pedal steel flourishes are used to great effect throughout. Between The Times And The Tides is downright poppy relative to much of Ranaldo's catalog, with a song like "Off The Wall" coming off like a lost R.E.M. track. This accessibility is balanced by more adventurous textures and drones

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Silversun Pickups played a short acoustic set in store at our Portland Location on May 10, 2012  

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             On January 6, 1946, a legend was born.  This legend would go on to help found one of the most influential rock bands in history, Pink Floyd.  Syd Barrett, born Roger Keith Barrett, is a legendary figure in rock and roll history.  He is also somewhat of a mystery to a lot of people that aren’t die hard Floyd fans.  To the rest of us, his stylistic direction and musical genius re-defined the still-young genre of rock and roll in the short 7 or so years he was musically active.  The repercussions of his contribution to music are still heavily felt today and even the youngest rock players out

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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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