Hello! Welcome back to Mod Garage, and our “Tonewood Teardown” series. After finishing our work on the body of our Telecaster, let’s move on to the hardware and electronics, starting with the pickguard.
The factory-stock pickguard on this guitar is a 3-ply mint green one, and as they say, there’s no accounting for taste! In my book, a greenish pickguard on a green body isn’t an appealing look, so it had to go. Because I want to transform the guitar to Esquire specs, I had to replace it anyway, and this is a perfect field to let creativity flow and create a custom look: There are countless choices when it comes to materials, from plastic to metal to wood to acrylic glass to leather and beyond. Find the color and pattern you like best, or simply leave the original pickguard with the neck pickup removed for a serious DIY aesthetic. You can cover the hole for the neck pickup with some tape (maybe in a third green color, like neon green!) or simply remove the pickguard for the ultimate outlaw look, exposing the neck pickup routing.
I decided for a classic vintage look, with a twist. After comparing several different pickguard colors, I decided to use a 1-ply nicotine-white guard, which perfectly matches the now-matte look of the surf-green body. The color is also often referred to as parchment, offset white, eggshell white, or vintage white—not white, not cream, but somewhere in between. (Wow, an accidental rhyme!)
You can buy replacement pickguards from plenty of companies, but if you want to keep it strictly DIY, you can purchase an uncut sheet of the material. I already had some nicotine-white blanks in my storage room, so I used the old pickguard as my pattern and a simple jigsaw with different saw blades to carve out the new one. For the curvatures, I like to use a superfine round saw blade, and a standard straight one for even lines. Put some self-adhesive foil on the surface to keep you safe from any accidents.
An Esquire pickguard without the neck pickup opening is easy to fashion, and a perfect beginners’ project for pickguard-making—so be brave! It took me about 20 minutes, plus a few more minutes to drill and countersink the holes for the pickguard screws. After another 10 minutes with some sandpaper and files, the new pickguard was ready, and it looked so much better on the surf green body compared to the stock mint green.
To give the new pickguard a custom-shop twist, I decided to break the shine and make it matte like the body, which was done in just a few minutes by using some fine 0000-grit steel wool and abrasive cloth. This easy step makes it look slightly used, and by applying different grades of steel wool and pressure, you can decide on your own exactly how “used” it will look. I decided for a moderate used look that Fender would call “closet classic.”
“Do yourself a favor and replace the tiny screws with heavier ones—better safe than sorry!”
To take it the extra mile, I decided to round all the edges to give it a rolled-edge feeling—very smooth and a pleasure to touch. I thought this would be done in no time, but I was mistaken; it took me almost an hour to look and feel great! That said, rounding the edges isn’t a complicated task, since all you need is some sandpaper wrapped around a wooden rod. The hard part is getting all of the edges totally even, so if you decide to give it a try, prepare some strong coffee and take your time. It was absolutely worth the time, effort … and swearing. I found that the trick was to always get the same angle with the sandpaper, and to stay away from rotating tools like a Dremel.
Now, for the rest of the body. In general, I have a problem with all the screws used on this guitar. The diameter is always smaller compared to the standard, and the material is very soft, which is flirting with stripped-screw-head disaster. Besides this, the chromed surface is super shiny, so I decided to replace all screws with stainless-steel screws in standard sizes. I really like the typical matte look of most stainless-steel screws; they appear a little bit worn right out of the box and are easy to work with. All you need to do to give them the “closet-classic” look is rub the head of the screws with some sandpaper to produce artificial scratches. You can buy matching stainless-steel screws in any guitar or hardware store.
Next, let’s take a look at the factory-stock strap buttons. They’re chromed and standard Fender-sized, so no need to replace them if you want to keep the classic ’50s look. The stock screws are tiny, so I’ll replace them with thicker stainless steel ones. Here, too, you have plenty of options to customize your guitar by using the strap buttons you like best, or, alternatively, removing them. You can use smaller Gibson-style ones made of aluminium, locking buttons, custom buttons made out of wood, graphite, etc ... it’s your guitar, and you decide what to use. But do yourself a favor and replace the tiny screws with heavier ones at this spot—better safe than sorry! The stock strap buttons came with a small ring of black felt to protect the body from any imprints, so it’s your call whether you reinstall or remove them. For a more classic look, I decided to remove them.
To break the shiny chromed surface of the stock strap buttons, you can again use some steel wool, abrasive cloth, or go the chemical route. Here are two other easy techniques you can use on chrome or nickel guitar hardware.
1. Alternative mechanical methods
Collect a nice mixture of nails, metal parts, broken glass, gravel, sand, little stones, etc., and put this mixture into a small box or a bucket with a lid. Put the hardware inside, close the lid, and shake the hell out of it for a couple minutes to create some nice random scratches, dings, and bumps on the metal parts. The longer you shake, the more weathered it will look. Check the result after a few minutes, and if you want more scratches, keep on shaking.
If you don’t want to shake by hand or plan to do this regularly, I recommend a small stone tumbler like we have in the shop. Usually, they’re used for polishing, which is exactly the opposite of what we want to do, but loading it with our mixture from above will work perfectly for relic’ing metal hardware. When you’re pleased with the result, take the hardware out of the box or tumbler tube, and use a soft brush to clean off any dust.
2. Alternative chemical method
Place the hardware on some old newspapers, put on some gloves and goggles, and put iron (III) oxide (ferric oxide) liquid on the hardware with a Q-tip. Watch carefully, and if you like what you see, stop the process by wiping the liquid off the object with a wet cloth or paper towel, or run it under cold water.
Next month, we’ll work on the rest of our Telecaster’s hardware. I calculated $25 for a new pickguard and another $10 for the stainless-steel screws, so our budget is down to $305 for future investments. Stay tuned, and until then ... keep on modding!
Rhythm guitar is arguably the most important aspect of guitar playing, and it’s also one of the most challenging skills to develop. The discouragement many players feel when working on rhythms forces too many of them to oversimplify the nuances, and this can reduce a performance from exceptional to fine. In this lesson, we’ll investigate why rhythm guitar can be so puzzling and look at a few ways to keep yourself motivated enough to persevere and improve.
Why So Hard?
In my many years of teaching I have found that students can learn the basic open-position chord shapes relatively quickly. The same goes for the pentatonic and major scale patterns. Even riffs and hooks like “Smoke on the Water,” “Crazy Train,” and “Oh, Pretty Woman” come relatively quickly to beginners. The biggest challenge for most guitar players is mastering rhythm guitar.
I’m not referring to the basics, such as four down strums in a measure of 4/4, a down and up eighth-note strum, or even the slightly syncopated strum of Ex. 1.
Ex. 1
Rather, I’m talking about the rhythms in countless classic rock, folk, and pop songs, which are the mainstays—for better or worse—of every oldies station, cover band’s setlist, and many aspiring beginners’ guitar dreams. Why are these rhythms so challenging for most players?
Dictionary.com defines idiosyncratic as “something peculiar to an individual.” Well, there’s your answer. Many of our favorite songs and guitarists, such as Neil Young, Malcolm and Angus Young, Joni Mitchell, David Gilmour, Jimi Hendrix, and Prince, possess idiosyncratic strums. How can something peculiar to an individual be easily reproduced? It can’t. Imitation takes hard work, hours of practice and refinement, and highly developed listening skills. That is not to say that idiosyncratic strums can’t be reproduced, only that they can’t be imitated easily.
What Can Guitar Players do to Improve Their Rhythm?
The first priority is to confirm that you genuinely know how the rhythm was originally performed. In this day and age, with reliable, professionally created guitar transcriptions and instructional videos (as well as an abundance of isolated rhythm guitar tracks on YouTube), there is ample opportunity to both hear and see accurate rhythms. This doesn’t make the rhythm immediately easier to play. It will help you avoid practicing it incorrectly and allow you to generate modifications based on the original, rather than through guesswork.
Play the Part Correctly and Slowly
The second step I recommend is to endeavor to play the part correctly and slowly. This requires playing the rhythms with slower tempos and one measure at a time rather than the more common four-measure patterns. This second aspect is important as many idiosyncratic strums vary from measure to measure. Such a lack of uniformity adds to the artistry of the music, but it can be frustrating to imitate.
For instance, look at Ex. 2, which is similar to Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.” While the chords themselves, G–C–D–Am, are easy enough to fret, the strum pattern is a nightmare of mixed rhythms, with each measure not only containing a different pattern, but different string choices as well. (To make it even more tricky, David Gilmour continues to vary his rhythms throughout the song.) Let’s consider just the first measure. There’s only one chord, but three different rhythmic figures. It gets even worse than that. Sometimes the strum includes all six strings, other times one note, two notes, or three notes. Maddening! This is one of the most challenging aspects of idiosyncratic rhythm. And these types of variations show up over and over again in accurate portfolio transcriptions. Yes, it is correct, but it’s an ordeal to decipher.
Ex. 2
Here’s a tip. First work on the strum, not the individually plucked notes and strings. Strum the entire G chord (Ex. 3). Next, isolate the lowest note in the chord (Ex. 4). If you can play this correctly then you can begin mixing it up with a combination of full chords, single bass notes, and partial chords. Trust me, Gilmour wasn’t thinking, “Gotta play just the top three strings on the 16th-note upbeat of beat two and the two bottom strings on the ‘and’ of beat four.” It’s idiosyncratic! Once you have measure one correct, move on to measure two, which is slightly different. Measures three and four are also marginally altered.
Ex. 3
Ex. 4
Hopefully you’ll find that one new rhythmic pattern on its own is relatively manageable. Having to generate four different patterns in the space of four measures? In that situation, strums become exponentially more complex. As this lesson moves forward, all the examples will be variations on this theme, in different contexts, and citing different specific artists. The idea here is to demonstrate the vast complexity idiosyncratic playing can generate.
Neil Young's Strumming Patterns
In my experience, Neil Young has some of the most seemingly random strums one can find. He’ll play a song with only four chords but there will be 16 different strum patterns. It’s both inspiring and infuriating. Ex. 5 is an example of such an exasperating figure, based on “Heart of Gold.” There are four chords in two measures, each with a different strum, followed by variations on the same four chords! Brilliant and unbearable.
Ex. 5
Ex. 5
To make mastering this a bit more tolerable, as with the previous Gilmour-esque pattern, break it down into smaller parts. You’ll also want to add full chord strums on the Em and C. Ex. 6. and Ex. 7 demonstrate measures three and four of Ex. 5, isolated and repeated. Do this for the first two measures as well.
Ex. 6
Ex. 6
Ex. 7
Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi"
Another icon of individuality is Joni Mitchell, who deserves a lesson all to herself. For now, Ex. 8 will suffice. In this example, based on “Big Yellow Taxi” (although the original is performed in open-E tuning), there is the added complication of muted strums.
Ex. 8
If these muted strums are new to you, I recommend you focus on the mutes, as shown in Ex. 9. Once that is comfortable, return to Ex. 8 and incorporate the barre chords into the pattern. As with all our examples thus far, break them down, making sure each measure is solid before moving on to the next. At the risk of belaboring the point, these strums are demanding—there is no instant gratification here. “Practice and refine” should be your mantra.
Ex. 9
Let's Talk About Jimi Hendrix
It would be impossible to write about either guitar icons or 6-string idiosyncrasy without mentioning Jimi Hendrix. Jimi’s use of his thumb to fret chords is alone worthy of attention. For now, let’s stick with his eccentric strumming patterns. A good place to start is probably Hendrix’s version of “Hey Joe.” It consists of a three-and-a-half-minute loop of the circle of fourths chord progression C–G–D–A–E, yet Jimi finds a new way to play the pattern every time. Ex. 10 offers one of countless variations you can attempt. Ex. 11 demonstrates how to break it down.
Ex. 10
Ex. 11
While it’s true that most AC/DC songs feature the same riff or chord pattern played repetitively, you’ll also find that many of those patterns are four measures long, with multiple, highly syncopated rhythms found within each measure. “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Bad Boy Boogie,” and “Highway to Hell” are all excellent examples of this. Ex. 12 demonstrates Malcolm and Angus Young’s penchants for such patterns by imitating the rhythms of “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You).” As you can hear, there are four measures with an immense amount of space in them and four different rhythmic figures. The key to perfecting this sort of rhythm is to not rush. Either tap your foot or use a metronome to keep your tempo steady.
Ex. 12
Our final example isn’t exactly idiosyncratic, though the referenced artist is. While Prince’s music and personal style is incredibly diverse, he often wears his influences on his sleeves, whether those be James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, or Joni Mitchell. Nevertheless, he habitually put his own spin on the source inspiration.
Ex. 13 provides you with a funky rhythm that will improve your playing, no matter what genre you specialize in, as it features muted strings (similar to those in our Joni Mitchell example), a fast syncopated 16th-note strum, and a four-measure pattern that requires you to focus on the subtle variations found in the pattern. Once again, I’ll remind you to practice such patterns one measure at a time. Goodness, any one of these measures is funky enough on its own and would satisfy most funk musicians: It’s the idiosyncratic nature of Prince to go beyond.
Ex. 13
Ex. 14 is measure three of Ex. 13 isolated and repeated. I’ve chosen this measure because for me it’s the easiest to play (always start with what’s easiest for you). Note that in Ex. 14, I removed the muted strums. We know they’re in the original and we can add them in soon enough, as demonstrated in Ex. 15.
Ex. 14
Ex. 15
Finally, let’s play all four measures without the mutes, as demonstrated in Ex. 16. It is this sort of compartmentalized, methodical, attention-to-detail practice that will improve your playing.
Ex. 16
Words of Encouragement
Ironically, one of the best things I can tell you about practicing the guitar is, “Learning to play guitar is hard!” I don’t say this to discourage, but to give perspective. If it’s taking you a week to learn a certain rhythmic pattern, guess what? It might take you a month to really get it down. Still, the rewards are worth the effort. Good luck with your rhythms!
Among the many fuzz pedals to carry theTone Bender name, the MkII might be the one that rips the most. And though not as common as the Vox Tone Benders that American psych-punk fans wrestled with for decades—which were generally Mk1.5 or MkIII versions—it might have been the Tone Bender version that people experienced the most thanks toJimmy Page. As Page superfans and fuzzspotters outed the MkII as the sound of Led Zeppelin, it came to embody what a Tone Bender should be. Consequently, a lot of builders jumped on the bandwagon.
There is a practical, musical upside to the MkII that transcends the Jimmy Page associations. Some desert, doom, and stoner rockers, for instance, love its ability to sound huge and evil while occupying less mix space than a Big Muff. And while not as sweetly sensitive to input dynamics as the Fuzz Face (or the very Fuzz Face-like Tone Bender Mk1.5 and first-generation Vox Tone Bender), its germanium transistor topology makes it responsive to guitar-volume attenuation.EarthQuaker’s new take on the MkII, the Barrows, shares all these attributes. And between its very convenient size and refinements that make it less noisy, Barrows represents a ceratin sonic, functional, and practical ideal of what a vintage-style germanium fuzz can and should be in 2025.
Savage, Sassy, and Sweet
Doctrinaire thinking around germanium fuzz usually states that it sounds good only at maximum volume and gain levels and that any variation must come from the fingers and guitar controls. The Barrows reveals the cracks in this view. While the Barrows is positively searing at wide-open settings, and most receptive to input dynamics at these levels, it shines at many different gain and level settings. There are heaps of cool, smoky, more subdued fuzz sounds lurking in the middle third of the gain range that can be useful for simultaneously creating mystery and generating menace and mass in a recording situation without blowing the room apart with volume. The Barrows is not as touch-sensitive here, but guitar-volume adjustments can create dark, compelling fuzz voices that are equally interesting with a 50-watt amp and a 2x12 cabinet or a practice amp.
MkII Tone Bender-style circuits have always been regarded as second-best to the germanium Fuzz Face when it comes to gnarly-to-clean range. That dictum remains mostly true in the Barrows, at least as far as clean tones go. But if the Barrows can’t quite equal a Fuzz Face’s capacity for airy clean sounds at reduced guitar volume, its near-clean sounds still have abundant clear, bell-like resonance and detail that will suffice for most. The Barrows’ dynamic range is most evident in its touch sensitivity. You can generate many beautiful, spooky, and smoldering gain shades just by varying picking intensity. It’s especially impressive if you ditch your pick and use your fingers to generate these tone variations. And if you want to go super old-school and string up your guitar with flatwounds, the Barrows reveals many beautiful, round, and vocal fuzz colors. More than once, I was moved to think that if Sinatra was a psych-punk he would have adored the atmospheric, verge-of-exploding moods Barrows can produce in these environs.
“If Sinatra was a psych-punk he might have adored the atmospheric, verge-of-exploding moods Barrows can produce.”
The Verdict
For a fuzz nut, the Barrows—for its small size and big sound—might as well be candy. Players that use fuzz more infrequently, though, will dig its simplicity, small dimensions, and the fuzzy classicism exuded by its punchy, straight-ahead voice. The pedal is intrinsically limited by the same factors that limit any germanium fuzz with 1960s lineage. And by the standards of modern gain devices that can be tuned in small increments to match very specific distortion needs, the Barrows can, at times, seem unruly and one dimensional. But if you’re willing to use guitar volume and tone and touch dynamics to re-shape the fuzz, you’ll uncover many less aggro tones ranging to light drive and near-clean sounds—applications made even more rewarding thanks to a low noise floor. Best of all, the petite Barrows comes with an equally petite price tag of $129. For germanium-fuzz newbies, that makes a plunge into the unknown a lot more palatable. But even seasoned fuzz and Tone Bender users are bound to be impressed by the quality and flexible vintage voice Barrows delivers for the money. PG
RC Davis Amplification, known for its award-winning boutique tube amplifiers, has launched their new higher-wattage amp series called the Performer line, debuting with a two-channel amp head dubbed The Beast.
Brandishing 65 watts of output power, The Beast features a clean channel with reverb and an overdrive channel, both with individual EQ controls and a 30dB tone stack. The amp’s clean channel offers a balanced, crisp tone with plenty of headroom, radiant reverb and rewarding note bloom. The amp’s footswitchable overdrive channel is capable of kicking out sizzling grind, harmonics, and presence. Dual EQ controls allow each channel access to the trademark RC Davis 30dB-sweep mid control, providing players with a wide spectrum of vintage-inspired tonality.
The new model showcases RC Davis’ knack for reimagining vintage tube technology to provide modern stage versatility. After creating an acclaimed series of lightweight tube combo models, Rob Davis developed the Performance line when players such as James DePrato, Ronny North, Joe Bergen, Carl Verheyen and Eric McFadden requested a more powerful amp that still featured the RC Davis signature tone.
65 watts of cathode-bias tube-driven power including (4) 6L6GC power tubes
Dual channel operation, selectable via footswitch: a clean channel (with reverb) and an overdrive channel, both with individual EQ controls
Hand-wired, point-to-point circuitry for improved tonality and reliability
Effects loop
4/8/16 ohm speaker out with load loop (use virtually any extension cab)
PRP/Dale resistors, Mallory 150 film capacitors, Vishay 716 film capacitors (orange drops) and solid core silver wire (PTFE) for optimum performance and longevity
Premium coverings and hardware
The Beast carries a $2995 street price and will debut at the January 2026 NAMM Show in Anaheim at the RC Davis booth #4447. For more information visit rcdavisamps.com.
ILIO, leading distributor of virtual instruments and audio processing software, and Overloud, renowned for their innovative audio plug-ins, are pleased to announce the release of AIR or "Amp In Room." This new feature is included in the latest version of THU, Overloud’s flagship guitar amp simulation suite. Available now as a free update for all THU users, AIR brings a new dimension to amp simulation by recreating the feeling of standing in front of a real amp in a real room, adding subtle reflections, room resonance, and air movement that go far beyond a close-mic’d speaker.
Whether you own a single Rig Library or the full THU Premium suite, AIR is included at no cost. This continues Overloud’s ongoing commitment to support the THU community with high-value feature updates without subscriptions.
Every Overloud purchase includes a perpetual license, free lifetime updates, and authorization on three computers, with no subscription required.
THU is already the most powerful amp simulator in its class. Now, with AIR, it includes a key feature for delivering a finished, authentic guitar tone in one plugin. By modeling how a speaker cabinet interacts with its physical environment, AIR introduces a sense of spatial realism, one that’s rarely captured through traditional cabinet IRs or static mic placements. The result is a tone that feels more lifelike, three-dimensional, and truly “in the room."
How to Use AIR
AIR lives in the Cabinet section of THU and includes:
- An AIR knob that controls the amount of room interaction and spatial detail. - A dropdown menu offering several ambience types in both Normal and Wide stereo modes. - Normal mode provides tight spatial cues while Wide mode expands the stereo field for an even more immersive tone - AIR is also integrated into the SuperCabinet, allowing users to apply room interaction while building their own custom IR blends. - AIR can be enabled globally from the Master Control section to apply across all presets. - Transformer: Authentic low-end thickening and high-end sparkle through accurate transformer emulation.
