Guitar How-To

If you have a reasonably up-to-date computer at home you’ll probably have no problems recording your music on it. If you own a fairly recent Apple Mac, you should have GarageBand installed and ready to capture your latest masterpiece. Garage Band has lots of bells and whistles but if you can get it, it should be your software of choice simply based on quality.

This video is a quick overview of the GarageBand interface.

With your laptop and GarageBand it will only take a minute or two to set up your computer to record your guitar music. You can add echo or any other effects after recording.

You can edit and overdub with GarageBand. You can also play loops and beats.

With a Windows based computer you can find plenty of free software for recording your music. The most obvious choice is Audacity Audacity is an open-source audio editing platform that’s very easy to use. This video explores how to set-up your preferences and start recording audio.

Rattling noises in guitars happen because the whole of your guitar is set into motion in some way when you play it. So it falls under Murphy’s Law – “what CAN rattle WILL rattle”.

Here are a few techniques to help you find the elusive rattling in parts of your guitar that are nor supposed to make a noise:

Hit the guitar with your knuckles along the neck and body till the rattling occurs. Any noise that seems to come from the top of the guitar neck is probably coming from a loose machine head part. Check for loose screws, nuts or washers.

Your guitar warranty covers faults in the manufacture. If you are having trouble playing a new guitar because of the action, for instance, it’s doubtful you can return it under warranty. This is why inexperienced guitar players are advised to take someone who knows about guitars with them when they buy their first instrument.

Any damage you inflict on your guitar is also unlikely to be covered by the warranty unless you can convince the seller that you were not careless in handling it. Read your warranty carefully if you live in an area where extreme temperatures occur because you might find that cracking due to dryness in the air or damage from extreme cold are excluded.

Basically, your warranty covers poor workmanship on the part of the manufacturer of your guitar. Or if the materials the guitar is made of are substandard. When you but an acoustic guitar that has a pickup built in, you need to be sure that the electronic bits are covered by the guitar’s warranty or if they are covered by their own separate agreement.