A. Here is the thing with signature model guitars. No matter how much you might like Eric Johnson's playing and or his sound, or any other well known player, it really does not matter. Their opinion on what is a great guitar is not important when it's YOU who is the one paying the tab, know what I mean?

And always remember this. Eric Clapton will sound like Eric no matter if he plays his guitar, my guitar or any other guitar. People have the wrong impression that a certain guitar will make them sound like someone else and it's just not true.  A player with his own style and sound earned that sound, he did not buy it.  The sound and the style is in their fingers not in the guitar case.

  A. Some people advocate loosening the strings on a guitar when it is in storage.  I 
    don't believe in this myself.  My belief is that guitars are designed to have tension on 
    the neck and that it hurts nothing to leave the strings tuned to pitch. In fact I think it 
    can cause problems if you leave a guitar stored for a long period of time with no 
    tension because of allowing the neck to "back bow", in other words it may develop a 
    hump in the middle of the neck due to lack of tension.

    Also I feel that rather than buying a humidifier type product and putting it in your case 
    it is better to simply have a humidifier for the entire room where your guitars are kept. 
    Any type of excessive tempature is to be avoided as well. For instance never store a 
    guitar in a garage, attic or basement. Your guitar is comfortable in the same type of 
    conditions that would make you feel comfortable.
 

This is kind of an involved question.  I  need to know how to wire a Samick guitar.  How do you wire it from  the pickups to the level selector and the knobs and the jack.  What kind of wires could I use?  What would be  the best way to wire it?  Thanks a lot!   Chris D.

A. Hi Chris,

Unfortunately your question is too involved for me to try to answer over the net.  There are so many variables such as how many pickups, what type of pickups, how many tone knobs, how many volume knobs, what kind of switch, are there any extra features on the pickup etc etc etc.

There is just no way I can guide you through something that involved in a letter. Do you live 
anywhere close to us so you could stop in and show me the guitar and I could try and give you some advice?  If not I would advise you to do one of two things. Either take the guitar to a professional and have them wire it for you or buy yourself a book about working on and wiring guitars and learn from that and then try it yourself. Honestly the best thing is for you to take it to a pro most likely.

Also I wanted to pass on another idea  to you. A book that I have found really useful is one called "Guitar Electronics", by Donald Brosnac.  It is a really good book on the subject and perhaps if you can find a copy it will help you out.  My copy is very old though and you will have to check around to see if it is still available. I hope that helps.

Sorry I did not have any better advice for you. If there is another problem I can help you with some time let me know and I will always try to help.

Take care,

Bill

A. This is one of the most most simple and yet totally misunderstood things I see people struggle with.  First off, you need to realize that most people even if they have played for thirty years have never really learned the CORRECT way to put strings on a guitar to avoid slippage and tuning trouble.  I don't say that to offend anyone it is simply a fact, I see it every day in my shop. This illustration shows what I consider to be the one and only correct method.

Something that this illustration fails to mention is this. After you have the strings on in the manner shown above, then you need to wind them onto the post of the tuning gear. When you do that be sure to wind them so that the spiral of the string starts high and go toward the BOTTOM of the post.  That way you put more downward pressure on the string and force it into the nut of your guitar and you avoids rattles you might get otherwise. In case you don't know, the NUT is that white plastic or bone thing that the strings go across just before your first fret.  As for the other pic of the Six Shooter Six String, it just makes me laugh so here it is. Life should be fun.