Dylan McKerchie — heavy metal

Guitar Setup... There are no rules. Over the last week, we discussed the various aspects of guitar setup Truss Rod Adjustment String Height Nuts Intonation Many of the specs mentioned in these articles and videos are middle of the road spec for using average weight strings, and playing in a normal tuning. There are a large number of players that don't use these strings and tunings, Tuning down a whole step, using much heavier strings, and playing with higher action is very common. When people start using these alternate setups, the "textbook" specs go out the window. The Principles Stay...

Pickup Output When we are pickup  shopping, this seems to be the Thing we are most concerned with. Usually, the DC resistance of the pickup is what we refer to as the "output" of a pickup. Is the the only thing we should be concerned with when pickup shopping? What affects pickup output? The DC resistance of the pickup refers to the resistance of the wire that is used on that particular pickup. More wire resulting in more resistance is one possible measurement of output of THAT PICKUP. There are other factors that affect output. The strength of the magnet...

How Electric Guitar Pickups Work... For some reason, this subject has a shroud of mystique surrounding it. The truth is, how electric guitar pickups work is very simple. An electric guitar pickup is a magnetic transducer. This means that it changes the motion of the string to an AC voltage that can be sent to the guitar amp to be amplified. How does it do this? The most common types of pickups consist of a magnetic core that has a very fine wire wound around it thousands of times.  Single coil pickups like those found in a Stratocaster or Telecaster...

High Output Humbuckers.... Metal Inspired Guitars Over the last few months Dylanpickups.com has been working with a few different custom guitar builders around the United States on some High output humbuckers of different types. The goal has been to get a great high gain tone from a passive pickup. We really wanted a pickup that could shred like an active, but have a larger dynamic range. The 8 Ball Humbucker, and the Switchblade were born. This development got me thinking.... Lets design a new metal guitar line around these pickups. I called James at Nikita Guitars and things started falling...