I make it no secret that I believe Jimi Hendrix was a crappy guitar player. However, there are some players who really, really like the sound he got out of a Strat. As for why, I don't know. But certain players dig it. Hendrix tone is basically about three things. Fuzz, octave and an envelope [...]
How to get Jimi Hendrix guitar tone
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The lower end 2014 Gibson USA Les Paul line - which to get?
While I'm not a Les Paul player, I was happy to see Gibson dropping their prices for several USA models for 2014. In this article I'm concentrating on the first 6 of them from lowest-to-highest in price. Yes, there are more than 6 models, but I'm sticking with the first 6 because that's what most [...]
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on jay leno leaving the tonight show
Okay, so Jay Leno is leaving The Tonight Show. He did his teary farewell and so on. Here's the thing, though... I never thought Jay was a good host for the program. Growing up, The Tonight Show was always The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and never Jay. It was always Johnny. In fact, it [...]
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thrift stores are getting chock full of plastic electronics crap
Pictured is a Dell Dimension PC from the very-early 2000s. Parts for these PCs at the moment are plentiful, so if you wanted to fix one up, it's actually pretty easy. The one thing to know about these boxes at this point is that the CMOS battery will probably be as dead as a doornail [...]
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cartoons then vs. cartoons now
When you use Netflix with a web browser, there's a lot more ability to sort through what you want, and part of that includes the ability not only to sort by genre, but also by subgenre, and then year released from newest to oldest. For the heck of it I went to the "Children & [...]
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Squier 60th Anniversary Classic Vibe '50s Stratocaster
The new model in the barn from the Squier camp for early 2014 is the Squier 60th Anniversary Classic Vibe Stratocaster. Now to note, Squier in my experience does not have any sort of regular release dates when it comes to new guitar models. The 60th anniversary Strat is the only new model in 2014 [...]
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Zoom R8 review
Back in October 2013 I bought the above Zoom R8 you see, have been recording with it off and on for the past few months, and this is the update on how it's fared out so far. The bad stuff Failure rate? Nothing has failed on the unit at all. Everything works just like it's [...]
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5 phone things people don't use or hear anymore
In my time on this planet so far I've seen a lot of tech come and go. When it comes to the phone, there's been quite a bit that people used to use all the time but haven't for years. Answering Machines Yes, you can still buy a telephone answering machine (and it's cheap), but [...]
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the best super bowl commercial still won't save radio shack
I didn't watch the Super Bowl because I'm not into American football or any televised sports for that matter. But I did catch the Radio Shack commercial later on the internet, seen above. And yes, it is without question the best one because it's dripping with 1980s nostalgia. The commercial went over really well and [...]
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lost and one
My first new song release for 2014. If the player below doesn't work, listen here instead. Played on the Squier Jazzmaster using overdrive, DM-2 style delay and pitch shift tuned up a 5th. Bass is the Yamaha RBX170 and drums is the in-built kit on the Zoom R8. Lost and One by Rich Menga
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re-upload: complete windows 95 installation in virtualbox
I got an email yesterday that said this: I noticed that your tutorial on how to install Windows 95 in Virtualbox was removed from Blip.tv due to a rebranding effort on their part. I was wondering if you could reupload the tutorial to YouTube or some other website since I found the tutorial to be [...]
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My now-vintage Squier Stratocaster
Above is me playing my 1989 Squier II Stratocaster. These are on eBay if you want one, although finding one like mine in Dakota Red, maple fingerboard and a serial starting with an S (which means Samick-built) is a bit tough to come by. Not impossible, but you have to keep checking eBay to see [...]
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what they don't tell you about the blow one e-smoke device
The BLOW ONE (yes it is spelled in all capital letters) is an e-smoking device. It works and it's cheap. However, unless you know how to operate one correctly, you'll wreck it. Using the BLOW ONE (which I strongly recommend getting from eBay as it's cheapest there and usually under 20 bucks) is actually my [...]
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Rich's movie review of Airplane II: The Sequel
On Netflix, Airplane! and Airplane II: The Sequel are there at the moment. This is about the second movie. For a long while I've known that the original writers of the first movie, that being Jerry Zucker, David Zucker and Jim Abrahams, had absolutely nothing to do with the second movie. And as far as [...]
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Guitar Review: Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster Special
Today I headed out to Sam Ash today and while there I tried out two guitars. One was a Fender and the other a Gretsch. I'm writing about the Fender first. Above is the exact guitar I tried out, a Mexico-made Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster Special in 3-color Sunburst finish. Appearance The first thing to [...]
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Guitar Review: Gretsch G5445T Electromatic Double Jet
If you can believe it, I never played a guitar with a Bigsby vibrato system on it until today. Also, before today I never played a Gretsch guitar before either. Why haven't I played a Gretsch until now? Two reasons. First, I never really think about Gretsch when in the guitar store, and second, I'm [...]
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Playing clean guitar attracts girls
Everybody knows "that guy" (usually "that kid") that goes into the guitar store, picks up an expensive guitar he shouldn't even be touching and starts shredding like this, annoying the crap out of everyone: If you do like the kid above does, you're a douche bag. Notice how everyone just walks by and doesn't even [...]
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Counter-Strike is possibly the best worst game ever made
Was I ever a gamer? Yes. Back in the 2000s I did spend a lot of money on one particular game, Counter-Strike. How much did I spend? Well, there was one point where I was spending almost $80 a month for it for something like 4 or 5 months. Why so much? Because I rented [...]
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How come there isn't more surf music?
As far as I know, there is no popular music genre that ever truly dies. For any genre you can think of, there are fans of it even if it's not the popular music of the moment. What is surf music exactly? It's a weird combination of rock, fast-pace blues, Middle Eastern, Arabic, Mexican and [...]
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5 things you didn't know about stomp boxes
The pedal effect a.k.a. the stomp box is something that's been around a long time, taken many different forms and utilized many different technologies. One of the latest are the new offerings from BOSS such as the Multi Overtone (pictured). It has two outputs so you can create one seriously cool-sounding stereo effect. Cool pedal [...]
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