Frame9

In the music industry, there are particular brands that are known to be the top names for certain types of instruments, especially when it comes to guitars.  We all know that Yamaha, Washburn, and Gibson are some of the best producers of electric guitars while the acoustic guitars fall under the proud wings of Alvarez and Epiphone.  This article focuses on the history and the overall performance of one of the best acoustic guitars ever made, known as the Epiphone acoustic guitar.

The Epiphone acoustic guitar got its name for the first time when it was registered back in 1924, so you can just imagine how far the brand name’s history has gone.  The creator was Anastasios Stathopoulu and has been making musical instruments ever since 1873.  Four years later, Stathopoulu and his family moved to Turkey and there he opened a factory that produced violins, mandolins, lutes, and Greek lioutos.  In 1903, Statopoulu and his family then moved to the United States and there sold his instruments on the ground floor of his home.  He succeeded in good timing since it was during the mandolin hype that the craftsman started selling his instruments.

The funny thing is, the name began when Stathopoulu’s son Epimanondas took over the business after his father’s death in 1915.  Also known as Epi, the 22-year old became a great luthier and businessman, and worked his way to the top.  When the company became very successful, Epi who was already president and general manager of the company, decided to change the name in order for it to reflect the company even more.  He used his nickname “Epi” and added “phone” which is Greek for sound, brining about the birth of the name for the Epiphone acoustic guitar.

As musicians, we all love to get a new guitar every once in awhile, and an Epiphone acoustic makes a great choice.  Don’t forget to get an acoustic guitar strap and guitar case to go along with it!

Varying weather and humidity can have terrible effects on wooden instruments, not excluding the acoustic guitar. If you have spent a lot of money on a nice new guitar, you should take some time and learn how to take care of your guitar the best you can.

If you live in a country with harsh winters you need to read about winter guitar care. With the cold weather arriving outside, the weather indoors changes to dry air, it is hard on acoustic guitars. I have noticed that when the weather gets cold outside the heaters get turned right up, creating dry air. Dryness is not good for wood.

If you live in a mild winter climate or a constantly humid climate then you are lucky. That’s not to say there is nothing to worry about, but the effects are not as severe. It is not either the dryness or dampness in the air that causes problems, it is going from one to the other that causes the issues.

Humidifiers

There are many different humidifiers available on the market. You can get one that will hang on your guitar, or you could go for one that goes inside your acoustic guitar case. Though I can’t say that I am particularly impressed with either of them. They either don’t hold enough moisture or dry out too quickly.

Try this invention I found online. A home made humidifier that is cheap, effective and easy to make. Take one empty and cleaned out small cat food tin. Then take a sponge from your kitchen, one with large holes and good thickness. Cut out the sponge to fit inside the can, then put it in your guitar case. It holds a good amount of water, it doesn’t drip and it lasts pretty long!

The biggest thing to remember is to put your guitar away once you have finished using it. Its nice to have your guitar sitting out and ready to play, but if it isn’t in its case the humidifier is not going to be able to do its job. And remember to make sure it is tightly closed over.

If you have spent a lot of money on a new guitar, it is well worth looking after properly. With proper care your guitar should last a long time.

You can spend thousands of dollars on your guitar and your amp, but you’ll never get the best tone from it with a crappy guitar cord.  That also applies to your patch cables.  Cheap cables are prone to loss and interference, which results in poor tone.  In this post, I’ll show you why cheap guitar cables kill your tone and how you can improve your whole rig with a simple switch.

Cheap guitar cables are usually constructed with alloy, tin, or nickel, all of which are terrible at transmitting your guitar’s signal back to your amp.  They are all prone to interference from things like radios and poor electrical wiring in the area that you’re playing.  This problem gets compounded when the cable has a cheap vinyl insulation which allows all of these other signals to easily penetrate the cable and interfere with the signal.

The best guitar cables are going to have a solid insulation that is made from a material that does not allow these signals to conduct into the core of the cable.  Ultimately, the job of your guitar cable is to move the signal that comes from your pickups unhindered into your amp, so a material that conducts electricity very well is ideal.  The more expensive and studio quality guitar cables are going to be made with braided copper or silver on the inside that are both excellent conductive materials.

So how do you choose which is right for you?  It’s easy, go to your local guitar shop and play on them!  What sounds great to me might sound thin to you, so it’s impossible to go off of someone else’s recommendation.  Find a guitar and amp that are similar to yours and play through them at the guitar store.  You’ll be able to judge which work the best and give you the tone that you want.  The best part is that you can usually get away with a $25 or $30 cable that can make a huge tonal improvement over what you already have.