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When I listened to this album, I missed the bluegrass drive I know that backup band is capable of. But in the end they're just doing a good job of making Willie sound good. If they tried to sound...

Stewmac has a gold fretwire they market as "long life" as well. The narrowest crown offered is .084" though.

In the "it's almost certainly not the tuning machines" camp: how the strings are installed is also critically important to tuning stability. If you have overlapping wraps, or wraps that aren't...

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Fresh from Friday.

Exactly. Any decent hardware-store diagonal cutters will do. Avoid the small electronics wire cutters though, the jaws on those are too delicate and cutting steel strings will ruin them.

I find a bag of lead birdshot to be an essential tool for refrets. Having the neck resting on a bag of shot makes all the difference when seating frets, especially if your work...

I prefer to have the tailpiece mounted when I drill for the endpin jack. It's easy to drill through both the TP and the tailblock with a step bit until you get the TP hole big enough for the jack,...

No, it does not run on batteries. It comes with its own power supply but can be powered by most pedalboard power supplies.

In my opinion it is a game-changer. While I would stop short of claiming the wave maps sound "exactly like the miked instrument," I will say this: Almost every wave map I've created for mandolin...

Here's something sorta western-swingy for your enjoyment - original music by my friend Ben Benedict.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1azbBlIQnQ

This is not true - a quick look here will bear that out. While it's true that most saws commonly used for fret slotting will work OK with most fretwires, one still needs to understand if they're...

Well that's easy enough - you don't! It's more like you hook your finger in there to lay the blade against the inside of the top next to the transducer, then push the blade in with your fingertip.

The output level of a Feather is definitely less than that of a K&K. And they are less easy to install than a K&K. Everything adds up here! But hang on to that Feather if it's intact, I think...

You should be able to carefully remove them by insinuating a single-edged razor blade in between pickup and top. Take your time. Observe and make sure you're not digging into either the top or the...

You are doing a refret at that point and refrets always require making sure the fret slot is repaired of chips from fret removal, cleaned out, and sized appropriately to the new fret.

No kidding. As others have mentioned, one of the great things about a stand-mounted mic is you can back away when you want to be back further in the mix. Although having to recreate that with a...

I've had great results with the GLXD16. As others have pointed out, results can vary in tough RF environments, and/or with poor line-of-sight. In the pedal form factor, keep in mind that receiver...

Pictured here are two alternative rigs:

1. Preferred, whenever it makes sense - just play into the KSM8 mic!
2. When plugging in is required, my board here contains a Shure GLXD16 wireless,...

Another thing that will improve tone/sustain is having frets better-seated than the originals were, and perhaps even sealed in with glue. And maybe even a little stiffening of the overall neck...

That product is widely regarded as "not fit for instrument-building." That's debatable, and has been debated here on the Cafe. But it's a fact that it's not the same thing as fresh hot hide glue. ...

I'm pretty sure I once purchased a replacement Rigel tailpiece directly from Gold Tone. I don't know whether it's currently possible to do that, but you could probably find out in one phone call.

Pointer for next time - cut your frets closer to their finished length and you'll spend less time nipping/filing the tang back. You've got a lot of overhang on some of those!

I thought the 'Teeter Method' had fallen by the wayside and felt the same way about it, until I got two recent banjos from two prominent, current banjo makers in for refrets and found that both were...

I always have medium and water thin onhand, and usually some gel and brush-on too. Depends on what you need to do. I wouldn't put superglue in a syringe, I'd figure you'll just end up with a ruined...

I agree. The little stickers are annoying - noticed it on the beta set of nickel bronzes I got and now it seems to be how they do it. Maybe we should email them directly and suggest that they come...