Gear

PICKUPS

If you play solid-body electric guitar, pickups probably determine 80% of the overall tone. There are many ways to go about determining the best pickup for your sound. Players that play heavy metal often want high output pickups in order to get a complex gain structure and loads of harmonic content. Blues players often want a more laid back and mellow sound. The number of coil windings and the size of the wire used mostly determine these attributes. A pickup with less windings will not have as much output but its dynamic range will be greater. This means than less windings usually sounds better. It's a trade off. If you require a high output pickup then I would suggest go no higher than need be and let your amp, pedals, and fingers do the rest of the work. Again, low output pickups have a much more even tonal response. As output increases so does midrange with a dropoff in highs and lows.

BRIDGE and NUT

The bridge and nut are perhaps the most over looked area on a guitar. Especially a expensive guitar. A cheap or poorly crafted or setup bridge is the number one area on the guitar were your tone can be sucked away. IF you are series about your tone and sustain then do not over look the bridge. For instance, Gibson knew what it was doing when it put aluminum tail pieces on early Les Pauls. This was changed to pot metal (zinc) or maybe steel in later designs. Some people poke a finger at the vintage purist for wanting to go back to aluminum tail pieces. I believe that Gibson used aluminum because they knew what they were doing. Aluminum is inert when it comes to tone. It does not absorb your guitars tone, it passes it into your guitars wood. Zinc tail pieces suck away a large portion of your tone. Those who say they can't hear the difference have suffered hearing loss. It's a dramatic difference.

Leo Fender intended the Stratocaster to be equipped with a high grade steel tail piece. His method was different than that of Gibson's. He chose steel because of its harmonic content and bell like sustain quality. Have you ever tapped a steel block then compared the sound with a zinc block? If you are not using a full-size steel block then you will hear a substantial difference in the sound and sustain of your guitar when you switch to steel. Let your ears be the judge. Also, a good steel block lets the guitar strings run the length of the block. So many blocks simply stop the ball-ends at the top of the block before they leave the body and this is a very poor design.

I really wish more manufactures properly equipped their guitars at the bridge. Players, learn to setup your bridge and now that it is just as important as your pickups. Again, pickups may account for 80% of your tone, but 50% of this tone is going to be subtracted away if your bridge and nut are not correct.

NUT

The nut is the center of most tuning problems. If your guitar wont stay in tune then examine the nut. The nut is also a source of tone leak.

STRINGS

Strings are a personal choice. Not a lot can go wrong with your preference in strings as long as you keep your ears tuned in to what you like.

I prefer pure nickel strings to nickel plated strings. The tone is better and they last significantly longer.