VAUGHN SKOW's blog

Peter Davidoff Worlds Greatest Custom Guitar Luthier

So friends, we now hit the end of my highlighting some of the finest luthiers I, personally have encountered in life.  In case you have missed any part of this journey, it began with a somewhat "up and coming" luthier right here in my own backyard in Tennessee, Gary Yearby, check it out! Then I moved on to the man who I believe is the greatest boutique luthier alive and working today, check out Jon Kammerer.  But right here and now, let's talk about the greatest boutique electric guitar luthier

Jon Kammerer Custom: The Ultimate Boutique Guitar?

Howdy Guitar lovers of all shapes and sizes ... or is that lovers of GUITARS of all shapes and sizes?  Guess it works either way!  Like most all of you, I LOVE a perfect feeling Strat, Tele, Les Paul, or 335 style guitar.  The time-tested and true designs are still around for a reason: they got it RIGHT!  However, just as there will always be car affectionados who feel the need to push the limits beyond what, say a corvette can do and seek out a Ferrari or Lamborghini ... there will always be guitar affectionados likewise seeking to push the limits, and enter the world of the hand-crafted, boutique, and exotic guitars. 

The BEST way to clean and polish frets - The RIGHT WAY to do a Fret Job !

Gang, THIS IS IMPORTANT!  Must-read stuff alert!  It JUST happened AGAIN last week, I was sent a pickup to fix, and when I took a look at it the problem was clear, STEEL WOOL!  You see, when you use steel wool to polish the frets on your guitar, you end up with thousands of tiny steel bits EVERYWHERE; and those bits will be strongly attracted to your guitar's magnetic pickups.  What's next?  Best case scenario is you wind up wasting a lot of time with sticky tape, tooth picks, and tweezers ridding the pickup of all the little steel intruders.  Worst case: dead pickup!  And, even if you don't totally kill your pickup, the addition of thousands of tiny bits of steel into a magnetic pickup will seriously effect the tone of the

Tele Players: The Ultimate Telecaster Pickup Upgrade !

Hi Tele guys n gals, let's get down to it and make our Tele's friggin ROCK!   When I began making guitar pickups, I firmly believed that the best pickups ever made were in fact made from about 1952 to 1965, and my intention was to painstakingly reproduce these mid-century works of art.  Where Stratocasters and Humbuckers are concerned, I was dead-on the bull’s eye.  However, the Telecaster players were giving me something further to consider.  The Strat players were on a magic carpet ride to Nirvana with my 1954-1964 sets, and “les Paul” players consider my Alnico II and Alnico IV PAFs to be truly “Holy Grail” tone.  But those pesky Tele players. . .

How to Adjust the Height on Jazzmaster Pickups For Ultimate TONE

Good day fellow tone seekers!  So this one came in over the forum and I promised I'd get to answering it in blog form ... so here goes!  Possibly no other pickups are as responsive to height adjustments as Jazzmaster pickups, but also possibly no other set so strongly begs you to break the rules, so seriously, folks ... take this as no more than a STARTING point!

How To Remove the Cover On A Humbucker And Swap the Magnet

How To Remove the Cover On A Humbucker And Swap the Magnet

Howdy guitar friends, so today's blog will be more of a straight-up vlog.  Why?  Because it's a lot easier to SHOW y'all how to open up your humbucker pickups and swap the magnets in them.  This swaparoo is something that gets a lot of mention on the various guitar forums with almost mystical status.  And I will say I agree, it IS a very simple and inexpensive way to re-voice a guitar.  The difference between a 1957 PAF and a '59, for instance is the former has an Alnico II magnet and the latter Alnico V!  Speaking of, here are the magnets you can readily purchase on sites like eBay, and the general tone of each:

Local Guitar Builder Spotlight - #BuyLocal :-)

Guitar lovers from around the world take note!  I have decided it is long overdue that I begin shining a spotlight on unique quality small guitar builders, and I'm starting with one I just recently discovered in my own back yard, rural Sumner County, Tennessee!  Gary Yerby builds all of his guitars using neck-through designs, even his acoustic models.  His wood combination of choice is hard maple with mahogany inserts and detail.  Yerby has only been building for three years, since his retirement, and has already built 65 guitars and basses. 

America. Still The Land Of Opportunity.

Howdy do fellow guitar lovers, it's a great day to be alive and living in the free world, where ANYONE who wants to take a stab at starting their very own business has green light to do just that!  Okay, this is a GUITAR blog, and so I promise I'll get back to the wonderful world of guitars faster than a pug can suck up a hot-dog that has slipped the confines of it's ketchup slickened bun and fallen to the floor ... and believe me, that's FAST, I've watched it happen.  But first, I gotta mention my garbage man, Gordy.  Stick with me gang, I promise I'll pull this all together in the twitch of a pigs tail (yep, I've seen THAT too, and it's fast).  Fair warning: I'm feeling patriotic, my infamous soapbox is fixin to come out.  Shall we jump

The Best Way to Improve and Upgrade a PRS SE Guitar

Hello once again fellow guitar tone aficionados! If you own, or are considering, a PRS SE guitar, or ANY Paul Reed Smith for that matter, this may be the most important piece of information you will ever read.  Okay, maybe that may sound a BIT dramatic, but hey, don't take JUST my word for it, the secret I'm about to let out of the bag has been fully documented by guitar tone guru deluxe, Brian Wampler.  Seriously, this is the ONE thing you can do to your PRS that'll make you fall in love with it in a most decisive manner.  Let's talk about it!

The most important Blackface Mod for Silverface Gender Amps

Hello fellow guitar tone aficionados! If you know me, then you know that I am a total Fender amp geek; my desert island amp is a blackface Super Reverb, and the blackface Bassman, Pro Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb, and Deluxe Reverb probably round-out my top-5 list.  Yep, I'm crazy about vintage Fender amps, and, like most folks, I feel the blackface era amps are among the finest amps ever, period.  The tweed Fender amps (and browns, too) tend to not have as much solid bottom as I need, and the latter silverface amps just sound a little too sterile and clinical.  There are a couple of notable exceptions, see here: Drip Edge Fender Amps , and 1967 Silverface Deluxe Reverb;  but for let's