Ask Zac

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com My dear friend and mentor, Bill McCumber, contacted me a couple of weeks ago saying he wanted to give me his 1967 factory-equipped Bigsby Telecaster. I was blown away, not just by the gift, but also remembering the many kindnesses Bill...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com One of my Patreon supporters started playing with a new group, and they wanted to add some Western Swing numbers and he wanted some pointers for playing in that style. I thought this would be the perfect topic for a video. Here, I share...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com I have been struggling off and on with hand pain since 2019 but had been able to keep things under control until March 2023. Last month, my hand pain hit a new level, and I knew I needed to find out what was going on. Today's episo...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com In today’s Zac’s Hacks, I demonstrate the old-timey “bend the saddle screw” solution for better intonation using vintage saddles. To do this, one bends the long screw that attaches the saddle to the bridge. Also, I tell the story of how...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com I have bought and sold at least 10 Princeton Reverb-style amps over the last 30 years. I want to love them, but I hate the way most of them sound really small when dialed in clean with a Telecaster's bridge pickup. And as much as I...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com The bane of most Telecaster players is getting both the neck and bridge pickups to sound their best. It seems when you get the neck pickup sounding right, the bridge is too bright, or if reversed, the bridge sounds great, and the neck p...

Truefire Link  https://prf.hn/l/LbY3nGL Enter promo code "ASKZAC30" to save 30% To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Many know Merle Travis simply as the name behind "Travis Picking," yet are unaware of his influence as a performer and songwriter. Perhaps even less known, is how in the late 40s he was...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com Mike Eli LoPinto along with Derek Mixon, J.T. Cure, and Paul Franklin make up the stellar backing band for superstar Chris Stapleton. LoPinto stopped by for a hang, and he was kind enough to oblige me with a bit of playing and Q&A....

Chris Scruggs is the host of his own WSM radio show that runs on Friday nights after the Grand Ole Opry, fronts his own band, The Stone Fox Five, and is a member of the white-hot group backing Marty Stuart, The Fabulous Superlatives. He is also a busy session man with everyone from up-and-comers to hitmakers Kacey Musgraves & Sierra Ferrell, and more recently, he was the youngest member induct...

The volume pedal was the first effect device created for the guitar. They were introduced in the mid-1930s, being offered by most major electric guitar makers, including Gibson & Rickenbacker, and pickup maker DeArmond. Although it was initially mainly used by steel guitarists from the 1930s-1960s, the 70s brought us 3 musicians that made it an important tool for guitarists, Reggie Young, Larr...

Truefire Link  https://prf.hn/l/LbY3nGL Enter promo code "ASKZAC30" to save 30% To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com A visit to JD Simo's House of Grease to get a tweak done on my wah ends up leading him to demo his new fly board, talking about his love for...

Enter promo code "ASKZAC30" to save 30% Truefire https://prf.hn/l/LbY3nGL To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com I have loved the classic wah sound for years, but have never been able to find one I liked. Years of buying various models, and feeling like they had to...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com The low down on my 5 nights of gigging with @austinskinner   in Las Vegas. Being that the venue had a Boss Katana amp, I decided to leave the Strymon Iridium at home, and try it out. I also took a mid-70s Cry Baby Wah, and my 2008 R9 Le...

Enter promo code "ASKZAC30" to save 30% Truefire https://prf.hn/l/LbY3nGL To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com Between my work with the Truetone Lounge and Vintage Guitar Magazine, I have interviewed many award-winning musicians with long and storied careers. It...

Enter promo code "ASKZAC30" to save 30% Truefire https://prf.hn/l/LbY3nGL To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com Today we spotlight Clarence White's former #1 Telecaster, which he used on some of The Byrd's "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" tracks, and...

Luke McQueary was Don Kelley's final guitarist in his long line of amazing players. Today we sit down and talk about his beginnings and the importance of Don's tutelage in his progression as a musician and performer. Though Don Kelley is now retired, the tradition lives on with Kelley's Heroes Wednesday through Saturday, 6:30 -10:30 PM at Robert's Western World. Luke also shows...

Enter promo code "ASKZAC30" to save 30% Truefire https://prf.hn/l/LbY3nGL To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com In 1969, Burton put his 52 Telecaster into semi-retirement, and would use his 1969 paisley Telecaster all throughout the 70s and 80s playing on countles...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com The history of James Burton's iconic 1952 Telecaster. From his parent's purchase of it in 1952, through all of the aesthetic variations, it underwent until its current incarnation of a red finish and a white pickguard.  Spotif...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com The tale of the greatest $200 amp on the planet, the 80s Peavey Special 130. Amazon link to Peavey book  https://amzn.to/3F0YlFl Gear Used: 1957 Fender Esquire with a 1954 neck pickup, and original bridge pickup. Restoration and aging o...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com I recently went to the Musicians Hall of Fame with my friend JD Simo and was just gobsmacked the entire time as we walked through it. Today, I champion the Hall and tell a bit about its late founder, Joe Chambers. If you come to Nashvil...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com Bernie Leadon played guitar, mandolin, banjo, pedal steel, and sang harmony vocals on the greatest-selling album of all time, Eagles Greatest Hits, Volume 1. For many guitarists, he is known as one of the earliest exponents of the B-Ben...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com In August 1998, I was reading the latest Guitar Player Magazine and excitedly read a feature on the new guitarist for Merle Haggard's Strangers, Redd Volkaert. In the accompanying photo, he was captured holding a number of Roy Nich...

On October 2nd, 2022, the Desert Rose Band played their final show at the Country Music Hall of Fame as the finale to the opening of the new exhibit, Western Edge: The Roots & Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock. At this final show, Chris Hillman introduced guitarist John Jorgenson as the architect of the Desert Rose Band. This a true statement, as it was John that had the vision to see...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com The Telecaster Thinline story begins with Fender's engineers experimenting with the removal of wood under the pickguard to lighten the weight of heavy ash bodies. They found that the weight loss was insignificant, so Fender's...

To Support the Channel: Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac Venmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com Leo Fender spent a great amount of time and money to create a cover for the bridge and pickup assembly on his Esquire & Broadcaster guitars in 1950. It protected the bridge & pickup assembly from corrosion, it shielded it to hel...