Solo Music Gear Coupon

Why is this important to your amplifier?   Well, if the entire signal path through the amplifier is set up to function at a particular impedance, then everyone and every part is happy and can function efficiently.   If your amplifier says that it wants an 8-ohm load (usually on the back of the amp where the speakers plugin) and you are using an 8-ohm speaker (cab) or a 4 ohm….you will be fine.  Your amplifier will not function 100% as it should if your speaker (cab) is rated at 4 ohms, but you won’t run the risk of damaging your equipment (unless you run it a wide-open for hours).  If for whatever reason you can’t match the speaker to the output, then go for the nearest impedance to the speaker on the higher side.   For example on a 4-ohm output, it is completely safe to use an 8-ohm individual speaker or cabinet, or on an 8-ohm output, it is equally safe to use a 16-ohm individual speaker or cabinet.  Never use an individual speaker or cabin...

There is a lot of information out there on guitar building guitars these days…so much in fact, that it becomes difficult to wade through the websites, YouTube videos, Instructional pages, and books.  That doesn’t even cover what your friends and comrades are saying down at the store you hang at.   How do you decipher all this information and come up with a plan to build your first guitar?   Many years ago when I got back into guitar service and building, there were a handful of books on the market, of which only a few were considered bibles of building. Unless you enrolled in an expensive (and rare) luthier course somewhere, you were pretty much stuck with those few books….if you could even find them.  No internet, no Google and no YouTube. I know I am sounding pretty ancient right now, but nevertheless, that’s pretty much the way it was. My first project was a 60’s Giannini classical guitar that came to me in three pieces (neck was broken in half and off the...

Here at Solo Guitars, we have probably the best selection of aftermarket guitar parts in the country.   It has taken us some time to get to this point….endless negotiations, last-minute deals, product reviews and research….there is literally a puddle of sweat under our desks at any given time.  Ok, that might be exaggerating a bit, but the question regularly comes up.  Why is there such a big market for aftermarket parts? Obviously when you buy a guitar at a store, or a kit from Solo Guitars, it comes with all the hardware in place to make the guitar playable and/or give it the ability to be amplified.  It’s been that way since the 50’s when Fender and Gibson made the electric guitar available in mass numbers to the public.  So like anything else in the world, the hardware on a guitar is susceptible to failure or breakage.  This is the first and most obvious reason for having replacement parts.  Whether a part on your guitar stops working the way ...

I have the least number of guitars now than I have had in the last 30 years.  And yet, my wife still looks at me with that “you know, you can get professional help for this”, with a tilted head when she looks at the guitar wall, or the 4 amplifiers, and myriad of pedals in the guitar room.   “Why, do you need all this stuff?” That my friends is the holy grail of all questions when it comes to us guitar collecting musician types …. whether we are professional, semi-pro or just weekend warriors.  I have my Tele (that I love) which I built for myself, my 58 LP which was built for me by a dear friend, 2 Strats (a Fender and a parts-caster) which will soon be replaced when I get time to finish building my custom strat, and 3 Hofner guitars (2 Verithins and a Jazzica) because I worked with Hofner for many, many years.  And I haven’t played an electric gig in forever.  Then there are the acoustics…. So why do we continue to add instruments to our collections wheth...

Ok this is exciting! The neck is finished (obviously you will be finishing both at the same time; more or less, but for the blog’s sake, we are doing this sequentially). You’re happy with the result, and now you are anxious to start finishing the body. We are going to take certain things for granted here, the body is raw wood, you have checked for screw spacing, hardware and neck fitting and you have sanded the body down to at least 220 and hopefully 320 grit paper. There are no (or few) sanding lines you can see…there are no major knots or blemishes and so on …. the body is ready to be finished. So, depending on the wood, your first decision is whether to fill the grain. Oxford supplies a grain filler in the finishing kits, and it is also available here at Solo Guitars as a separate item. Depending on the wood and the final look you wish to achieve, grain filler is a great idea. With alder or basswood you can get away without the grain filler, but with ash or mahogany being open...

Congratulations go out to Steven Tusinski for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for January 2022. Steven used our  LPK-10L  DIY kit as the basis to create his guitar. “I bought an LPK-10L Left Handed DIY Guitar Kit With Flame Maple Top for a summer project. I always wanted a Les Paul but I could never find a left-handed one that I connected with. I decided to draw inspiration from some of my favorite Les Paul players as the theme for the build. 50’s wiring schematic (Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Peter Greene, Gary Moore) 500K CTS pots, with Orange Drop Caps (022 uF for the bridge pickup and .015 uF for the neck pickup (to get a brighter, clearer Clapton/Cream sound) Switchcraft 3 way toggle and jack Solo kit top hat knobs, jack plate, poker chip pickup selector, pickup mount rings and pickguard. Aftermarket Gibson style truss rod cover Tobacco Burst finish (Ace Frehley’s smoker) using Color FX dyes, Oxford Sanding Sealer, and Oxford Aged Clear Gloss Nitro Natural ...