Duke - Acoustic Woodshed

The phone-mic mistake that leaves your guitar silently out of tune on stage

For about two years I tuned up before every gig with GuitarTuna on my phone, propped against my amp, and I never once questioned it. The app is good. It is accurate to a cent or two, it is free, and it has a clean interface that does not waste your time. The mistake was not the app. The mistake was where I was using it. A phone tuner listens through the microphone. That is the whole design. It is built to hear the room, … Read the article

Buying Guides

One-Box Column PA or a DIY Speaker Stack: What a Solo Gig Actually Needs

I’ve hauled a lot of gear into a lot of bars, and for years my rig for solo shows was the same as my band rig, … Read the article

Tutorials

The Room Matters More Than the Microphone, and Nobody Tells You That First

I have set up more amps and pedalboards on kitchen tables than I can count, and about ten years ago I started doing the same thing … Read the article

Buying Guides

What Nobody Tells You Before You Buy Your First Looper Pedal

I’ve owned four looper pedals, sold two, and still use the other two mostly for practice. The gap between what beginners expect a looper to do … Read the article

Amps & DI

The Old Two-Speaker Fender or a Modern Single-Cone Combo: Which Acoustic Amp Actually Fixes Your Feedback Problem

I’ve had a Fender Acoustasonic SFX PR370 sitting in my basement for going on fifteen years now, the brown tolex kind with the side-firing cabinet, and … Read the article

Tutorials

The Site With Over 400,000 Tabs Isn’t Where You Should Learn Your First Song

The site sees a lot of traffic asking where to start, and the honest answer is nowhere near the biggest name first. First warning: not all … Read the article

Tutorials

Singing While You Play Is Not the Same Skill as Playing, Twice

Here’s the myth I hear from students who’ve been at it a year or two: if you can already play the guitar part clean, and you … Read the article

Performing

Open Tuning for Beginners: Where to Start Without Wrecking Your Guitar

I get asked about open tunings more than almost anything else at the shop table, usually by someone who heard a slide part on a record … Read the article

Guitars

Nut Width and Neck Profile: The Two Numbers That Actually Change How a Guitar Plays

Every time someone asks me why one guitar feels great and another feels like wrestling a two-by-four, the answer is almost never the brand or the … Read the article

Buying Guides

Small-Body Guitars That Actually Fit Smaller Hands and Smaller Bags

I’ve set up more cheap guitars at my kitchen table than I can count, and the question I get most from students with small hands, or … Read the article

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