Home of Tone Blog
The Guitar Show 2020 Charity Raffle Guitar
There's often prizes and competitions offered at Guitar Shows, but not many that I can recall to this high standard I must say. For this year's Guitar Show, the organiser had the idea of bringing together a group of UK based guitar makers and brands to build an instrument that would be raffled at the show and go home with a lucky visitor. The specs of the guitar have been chosen by the followers of the Guitar Show's facebook page, so body shape, to colour, to pickup specs and it has resulted in a very high spec guitar indeed! For the final stage of the build, the guitar has made it's way to my office so I thought I'd put together a few blog posts about the build as well as a reminder of what this is all for. Below is the post from Jason (Guitar Show organiser) about what charity the raffle ticket sales will be donated too. Well worth a read, and makes it more special for me to be a part of this great project -
Dipswitch Demos - Jackson's new McNelly Nostalgia & Cornucopia pickups!
Jackson from Dipswitch demos was kind enough to consider a set of McNelly Pickups for his lovely Ernie Ball Cutlass HSS guitar. I had done some wiring work to this guitar for him, and after a bit of chat he decided to go for a Nostalgia in the neck and middle positions, and a Cornucopia humbucker in the bridge position for the guitar which was very kind of him considering the wealth of choice in pickups out there!
How to Guide - Fitting a 4-way Pre-Wired Harness to a Telecaster!
A very long overdue 'how to guide' post here today looking at the step by step process of installing one of our Signature Series 4 way Telecaster wiring harnesses along with a fresh set of pickups! The 4 way harness takes your traditional 3 pickup positions of neck only, neck and bridge parallel and bridge only, but adds a 4th position where the neck and bridge are in series providing a beefier tone. It requires a little more work than a standard 3 way, but the results are great!
How to Guide - Fitting a 3-way Pre-Wired Harness to a Telecaster!
A very long overdue 'how to guide' post here today looking at the step by step process of install one of our Signature Series 3 way Telecaster wiring harnesses! Telecasters are an iconic modular design, making them very easy to work on, but I hope this guide helps you during your harness install if it is a new task to you. Here I will break down each and every step during the install process including removing the original wiring and installing your new harness. For this example, I will be retaining the original pickups but very similar steps would follow if you were to be installing new pickups and a harness at the same time. I will write a post about swapping pickups on a Telecaster in due course though too!
Green Sofa Chronicles demo the McNelly Duckling & A5 Signature Plus set!
Jari reached out to me in November of 2019 expressing his interest in ordering a set of McNelly Pickups for his Suhr Classic T guitar.
After some discussion, Jari decided to give the Duckling neck position pickup along with a A5 Signature Plus pairing (which happens to be a personal favourite set for a Tele). Well, I heard from Jari again yesterday who let me know about his new YouTube demo channel along with an amazing A/B comparison video he has kindly made featuring his new McNelly Pickups! Both the Suhr and McNelly sets sound great here, so it was great to hear them side by side which is always useful for pickup buyers and Tele fans alike.
Thanks very much to Jari for making this video, and I wish him all the best with his new channel! I've linked below if you like the look of this video and wish to subscribe to his work.
After some discussion, Jari decided to give the Duckling neck position pickup along with a A5 Signature Plus pairing (which happens to be a personal favourite set for a Tele). Well, I heard from Jari again yesterday who let me know about his new YouTube demo channel along with an amazing A/B comparison video he has kindly made featuring his new McNelly Pickups! Both the Suhr and McNelly sets sound great here, so it was great to hear them side by side which is always useful for pickup buyers and Tele fans alike.
Thanks very much to Jari for making this video, and I wish him all the best with his new channel! I've linked below if you like the look of this video and wish to subscribe to his work.
Meet the maker - Leila Sidi of Tunatone Instruments
If you've followed the Home of Tone for any length of time, I'm sure you'll have noticed my admiration & appreciation of luthiers who forge their own path through guitar design and their approach to building. I love seeing a luthier display influences from outside of the guitar world, and I particularly love to see a designer & builder's own personality apparent in their final works. After all, so many of those early guitar designs that have been coveted so much since their inception started this way, with perhaps Leo Fender being one of the greatest examples of this. His iconic designs originated from the mind of a non-musician, a designer and inventor who felt like he could contribute to the music world, and that he certainly did. So with that being said, we still need those people who think ahead, the people who wish to think outside of the traditional box whilst being respectful of it to help keep the guitar world exciting and innovative. Someone who has appeared to me to encapsulate that from following her work for a while now, has been Leila Sidi of Tunatone Instruments. So it seemed fitting for me to get back to my 'meet the maker' blog series by reaching out to Leila and speaking about her work!
New McNelly Pickup models!
Tim has been well known for his custom pickup work since McNelly Pickups began, and it's great to see some of that custom work find it's way to the standard range. Tim released some teaser photos of an awesome retro cut pickup cover as well as some P90 Soapbar sized Gold Foils and the response was superb!
Will McNicol pays a visit!
We were lucky enough to have the all round lovely human and immensely talented, Will McNicol swing by earlier this week to hang out a little bit and nerd out on guitars!
If you happen to be unfamiliar with Will's playing and music, I urge you to check it out as the compositions are varied, interesting, complex yet melodic and memorable as well as the execution of his playing immaculate. Big fans of Will in our house and within the family too and great to get chance to hang out here. Cheers Will!
If you happen to be unfamiliar with Will's playing and music, I urge you to check it out as the compositions are varied, interesting, complex yet melodic and memorable as well as the execution of his playing immaculate. Big fans of Will in our house and within the family too and great to get chance to hang out here. Cheers Will!
Thank you for your Mind Charity fundraising help!
Just wanted to say another quick thank you to everyone who was able to help contribute towards our total donation amount of £604 to Mind Charity from our Coffee & Guitars event.
£434 was raised in cash at the event which I have just donated to Mind, and £170 was raised via my Just Giving page, bringing the total to £604 which is incredible.
I think it's safe to say Coffee & Guitars needs a follow up, and hopefully I can bring together an even better gathering with the great relaxed atmosphere this year's event captured.
Thank you,
James
Josh Smith, a Retrograde Cambridge & a set of McNelly Stagger Swagger V2s!
Josh Smith is a player on most guitarists radars these days. Whether you are a blues/jazz fan or not, the respect for his ability is undeniable, and rightly so! I just came across this video by a wonderful looking US store, Music Emporium, of Josh playing a stunning Retrograde Cambridge guitar which has a set of Dogear mount McNelly Pickups Stagger Swagger V2s fitted.
Although that particular mount style is custom order (but can happily be made again no problem!) this is a wonderful demonstration of how well this pickup responds to the guitar's they're mounted in.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Podcast with Tom Sands!
Tom Sands not only is one of the worlds finest luthiers, he also (among many other things) runs a regular guitar based podcast alongside his apprentice, Daisy Tempest. The Podcast has featured some inspiring guests since it's beginnings, and it's one I've enjoyed as a listener for some time now. Well, somehow I have found myself now featured on the podcast as a guest! Tom & Daisy traveled down from Yorkshire for my Coffee & Guitars charity event, and were kind enough to hang around and record this podcast with me along with making a fantastic video here inside the Home of Tone too.
It was such good fun, I find both Tom & Daisy very inspiring in my journey and am grateful for their support and friendship, so it was a genuine honour to record this with them. Hope you enjoy listening to a little about my story!
It was such good fun, I find both Tom & Daisy very inspiring in my journey and am grateful for their support and friendship, so it was a genuine honour to record this with them. Hope you enjoy listening to a little about my story!
Coffee & Guitars helps raise £604 for Mind Charity!
What a wonderful get-together! Thank to everyone who made it down to our Mind Charity event today, such a lovely atmosphere, lots of friendly faces.
A huge thank you to family and friends that helped make it all come together!
I barely had chance to leave the kitchen to grab photos, but luckily my wife Emma took charge of the camera and grabbed lots of photos to share along with luthier, Daisy Tempest too.
A huge thank you to family and friends that helped make it all come together!
I barely had chance to leave the kitchen to grab photos, but luckily my wife Emma took charge of the camera and grabbed lots of photos to share along with luthier, Daisy Tempest too.