Wednesday, May 28, 2008

New AHB-1 Blackouts Active Humbuckers




Seymour Duncan Goes Active

New AHB-1 Blackouts Active Humbuckers

Guitar Players love the tone these humbuckers produce which is stellar, the output is more then you could ever hope for, and Seymour delivers when they say it runs quieter than any EMG out there.


Santa Barbara, California - After the resounding success of their active Dave Mustaine LiveWires humbucker last year, Seymour Duncan, the Santa Barbara-based pickup giant, follows-up that success with the launch of Blackouts, a new range of 9-volt active pickups for electric guitar. Before Duncan started designing Blackouts, they did a little market research. They found that while lots of guitarists love active pickups, many wanted a tone that was less compressed, with a more extended frequency response. In their efforts to solve those issues they discovered that some of the most popular active pickups have a critical design flaw in their circuit architecture. They use unbalanced inputs in a differential preamp. The problem is, an unbalanced differential preamp is not very effective at cancelling hum. Duncan's engineers figured out how to capture the tone that players want in an active design while using balanced inputs.

The result is that not only are the new Seymour Duncan Blackouts active humbuckers up to 14dB quieter than the competitions', but they also have more lows, more highs, and more output. Simply put, the Blackouts have more tone than other active pickups. Players will notice the benefits of the reduced hum when they record, especially if they're around computer monitors or fluorescent lighting. As for the benefits of having more tone, well those will be apparent everywhere.

Some of the many A-list guitar artists who have switched to Blackouts include Mick Thompson of Slipknot, Dino Cazares of Divine Heresy, Corey Beaulieu of Trivium, Silenoz of Dimmu Borgir, Mike Schleibaum of Darkest Hour, and Rob Trevino of Helstar.

Aesthetically-speaking these pickups look awesome. It looks like a black EMG, but just with the Seymour Duncan logo on it. These things are EMG KILLERS!!!

application

9-volt active humbucker for aggressive playing styles. Recommended for old school metal, garage, punk, thrash, drop tunings, and other heavy rock styles.

description

The "other" USA-made active humbuckers use unbalanced inputs in a differential preamp. The problem is, an unbalanced differential preamp is not very effective at cancelling hum. Our engineers figured out how to capture the tone that players want in an active design, but using balanced inputs. The result is 12dB to 14dB less noise, plus more lows, more highs, and more output. Simply put, Blackouts have more tone than other active pickups.

complete setup

Blackouts are available in individual neck and bridge models, or as a two-pickup set. All versions come with all necessary mounting hardware, including pots, jack, and a battery clip.

guitars

For all humbucker guitars. The blade magnets make this pickup suitable for both humbucker and Trembucker string spacings.


http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/products/electric/humbuckers/gwreview.pdf

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Floyd Rose Tremelo - Part 3

The Floyd Rose Tremelo - Part 3


Black Original Floyd Rose - With Fine Tuners


Black units were first used around the 1983 timeframe on the Pacer Carerra and Pacer Imperial. The black Floyd was also first used on the 1983-1984 early Barettas with the non-angled headstock. Generally, the black trems hold up pretty well under abuse. The gold Floyd's (not shown here) are one of the worst when it comes to pitting and rust. The black Original Floyd Rose also features the hardened steel fulcrum points.Some OFR units have more thin baseplates that other models, and are not very common.


The Floyd Rose II - With Fine Tuners

The II units were used on some of the later model overseas Strikers, Focus, 100, and 1000 series Kramers While these trems are not necessarily "crap", they are not as good as the original since they are cast iron. They rust much easier, and the fulcrum points are metal inserts as opposed to being hardened and part of the actual trem metal itself. If you see a Kramer with one of these, it is NOT an American Series. Additionally, if you try to use one of these on a guitar that originally had an OFR on it, you'll have some bad action because the base plate is thicker than the OFR's. Also worth of noting, a Floyd Rose III exists that is actually a non-locking trem made in Asia that Kramer wanted as an affordable piece. It is slightly different to the Floyd II, with the III featuring a different base plate.

The Floyd Rose Pro

The Pro units were installed on later model Kramers. Most notably, they can be seen on Nightswan II's, Pro-Axe guitars, and some Showsters. They differ from the standard units in that the inntonation allen screws are in front of the fine tuners as opposed to the OFR which has them behind the whale tail. Also, the "whale tail" is at an angle versus its OFR relative making the trem a lower profile for players who rest their hands on the unit while playing. The spring block that extends down into the body is shorter as well, keeping the block at the right depth for recessed routed trems. Generally, they work the same, and stay in tune under the most rigorous "whammy" conditions. They cannot be used on traditional OFR "non recessed" routes.
The Les Paul Floyd Rose
The LP units were created by Floyd and Kramer to be installed on Les Paul guitars with little to no modification. However, the literature didn't state that the neck would have to be modified in order to install the locking nut. These are very rare, and are occasionally seen on ebay for sale.
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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

The Floyd Rose Tremolo - Part 2



The Floyd Rose Tremolo - Part 2


The use of the Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo was popularised by Richie Sambora, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith (from heavy metal band Iron Maiden) Vinnie Vincent and Eddie Van Halen. Many modern electric guitar players, such as Avenged Sevenfold's Synyster Gates , Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Allan Holdsworth, Shawn Lane, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Children of Bodom's Alexi Laiho, Brad Gillis, Trivium's Corey Beaulieu, Freak Kitchen's Mattias Eklundh, and Dragonforce's Herman Li, make heavy use of the whammy bar.


I don't know about you, but I think I get the picture on what these Floyd Rose Tremolos can do.

Many guitarists use these system to create new sounds that were not practical to achieve with traditional tremolo systems:

Joe Satriani uses his whammy bar to raise the pitch of a pinch harmonic, usually on the open G string, in order to do his signature "Satch Scream".[3] He also lowers the whammy bar while sliding up on a string in order to do his "Lizard Down the Throat" technique.



Dimebag Darrell, formerly of Pantera, and Damageplan, made use of the bar for his signature "Dime squeals". This requires a flick on the open G,B, or E string while the bar is being pulled towards the body, then a natural harmonic over the 1-12 frets and a rapid pull away from the body for a high-piched squeal.

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave uses the whammy bar in conjunction with his pickup toggle switch and Digitech Whammy pedal to create sounds reminiscent of hip hop.

Karl Logan of Manowar is known for simulating sounds of bike engine burn-in — this "guitar versus bike" duelling effect is particularly used on Return of the Warlord track of 1995, although the effect is probably better known from Todd Rundgren's playing on the 1977 Meatloaf song "Bat out of Hell" Herman Li and Sam Totman of DragonForce use the system to create video game-esque noises.




Chrome Original Floyd Rose - With Fine Tuners



Chrome Original Floyd Rose - With Fine Tuners
This original unit was featured on overseas Focus guitars around 984-1987 and was used on American Kramer's as an option on all guitars after 1983. This is probably the most famous of all the Floyds in that it was used on Edward Van Halen's 5150 and Frankenstrat. Chrome tend to be the most durable of these Floyds when it comes to rust and pitting. Note: Most Kramers utilize the screw in trem arm on their Floyds, not the "collared" trem bar seen on the newer Floyds. The Original Floyd Rose features the hardened steel fulcrum points.



STAY TUNED FOR PART 3 - Please check out GuitarPartsDepot.com’s selection of Floyd Rose Tremolo Systems.


If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call so we can show you our excellent service first-hand. Toll Free: 866-631-4473

Friday, May 2, 2008

The Floyd Rose Tremolo - Part 1




The Floyd Rose Tremolo - Part 1






Floyd Rose is the organization that licenses, distributes and manufactures the Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo invented by Floyd D. Rose. Made by Schaller in Germany, the Floyd Rose tremolos are some of the best, if not the best tremolo offered on guitars back in the 80's. Even today, most "metal" guitarists will agree there is no better locking tremolo on the market than these trems. Floyd and Kramer (a young guitarist/machinist), worked together to develop and distribute this unit. In fact, Kramer was the sole distributor of Floyd Rose trems in the 80's, even ones that were sold individually (not on guitars).


The Floyd Rose Tremolo is a full (floating¦ tremolo, pivoting on two large screws in the face of the guitar body, that allow upward movement as well as downward. It was best well known for its ability to stay in tune even after the most demanding of abuse. The Floyd Rose tremolo, contrary to popular belief, does not require the cutting of the ball¦ at the end of the string. However, it is held into place by six, vice-like clamping assemblies, one within each of the saddles. You can string the Floyd by placing the ball ends into the Tuner on the headstock as a "stop" and place the other end of the string in the base unit, then wind. Its fine tuners also have much better access since they are on the top of the unit, just past where the hand would rest on the tremolo for the muted effect.


The History of the Floyd Rose

Picture a freezing Reno, NV, practice room in the dead of winter, and a Hendrix-loving, whammy bar-crazed guitarist whose '57 strat just won't stay in tune. "This has got to stop," he says to himself disgustedly, and shlumps home determined to solve his problem once and for all. "I started at the E string" recalls Floyd Rose, inventor of the locking tremolo system, "and noticed that friction at the nut prevented the string from returning to pitch. My thought was that the string shouldn't move at all. So I glued it! This worked, but of course it wouldn't be practical for very long. But since I was making jewelry at the time and had lapidary tools, I got some brass and whitled a nut with clamps that held two strings each. With that, the instrument almost returned to tune, so I figured the bridge end was causing the rest of the problem."

Although tougher to solve, the hitch was the same-how to reduce the friction caused by metal-to-metal contact? Suspending the bridge in midair was impossible, so Floyd tried drilling two inverted cones into the underside of the bridge block and balancing it on two sharpened pivot points. This was an improvement but adjusting the height of the strings now became too difficult. The third and most workable choice was to use a fulcrum system, where the whole bridge assembly balanced on a single knife-edge and rocked back and forth with an action similar to a Jazz master’s "floating" bridge.


Rose drew up a patent design using a Les Paul, modifying its Bigsby tremolo with parts cast at the foundry where he worked. For his third prototype, though, he wanted machined parts and was shocked when a shop wanted $600 for the job. "I was so broke my parents had to pay," he admits sheepishly. "It worked really well for about 15 minutes, until the knife-edge went dull. I realized then that I needed to experiment with tougher materials, so I started studying metallurgy; and, after watching Mr. $600 work I decided to improve my shop skills too."



STAY TUNED FOR PART 2

Please check out GuitarPartsDepot.com’s selection of Floyd Rose Tremolo Systems.
If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call so we can show you our excellent service first-hand. Toll Free: 866-631-4473

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Me Putting EMG pickups into my ibanez iceman guitar Music: six by all that remains

EarVana

EarVana
"For Those Who Seek"

Earvana - Compensated Tuning Systems for Guitars

Inventor Rick Logacono and JP Cervoni explaining just how the Earvana Compensated Tuning System works. Earvana manufactures and distributes revolutionary guitar intonation technology. The patented technology is a uniquely designed nut created to improve the sound of your guitar. www.earvana.com You have probably noticed that it is nearly impossible to tune your guitar so that the chords in the first 5 frets ring true for any open chords. Earvana has solved this problem by developing a nut that compensates for the errors that are inherent in 99% of all stringed instruments. Earvana Compensated Guitar Nuts Guitar players will tell you that open chords are never in tune with each other, since most fingered notes are sharp of the desired pitch. It is impossible for them to sound correct with a basic straight nut, since a straight nut is made to address each string the same way. Only by shortening the distance of each string individually in relation to the first fret & the 12th fret will enable your guitar to achieve the proper interval pitch. This is precisely the result achieved with the EARVANA Compensated Tuning System! Earvana has designed the Compensated Nut to provide the most accurate intonation available, to achieve total balance throughout the entire fretboard on a guitar. This innovative technology is based on a scientific calculation that allows the correct degree of compensation at the neck and bridge. It took years to perfect this technology, resulting in the Earvana Compensated Nut. Your guitar will never sound better! Get your Earvana - Compensated Tuning Systems HERE: Earvana Custom Items

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YouTube - Dino Cazares Rocks With Seymour Duncan Blackouts

Floyd Rose Tremolo - History & Tribute

The history of Mr. Floyd Rose - the man who invented the greatest tremolo system for electric guitars. I also show what you can do with this amazing whammy system using my Jackson King V and ESP MII guitars.

Tone Pros

Tone Pros
Making the world a better place for Guitarist

Welcome to our first blog session on GuitarPartsDepot.com

TonePros Guitar Bridges TonePros® Sound Labs International is a company comprised of professional luthiers and sound design specialsits with years of experience in the music production and design fields. After years of successfully working independently with music professionals, They joined forces to create TonePros®. The company was formed in 1998 with the goal of solving common problems and improving sound quality for everyone from the novice player to the top professional. They are committed to providing superior quality products and services at a price that is affordable to all players of stringed instruments. TonePros® Sound Labs International strive to make quality instruments perform better. Our quest is to "simply make the world a better place for guitar players".


Guitar Parts Depot is letting everyone know that we have a Clearance SALE goin' on with these reliable products. If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call so we can show you our excellent service first-hand. Toll Free: 866-631-4473

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