I want to share the wealth of knowledge I've picked up from all the great musicians, engineers, and producers, here in Nashville over the last 20 years. I'll update this page every week or two. If you have a particular recording question, e-mail me. If I don't know the answer, I'll try to find it.

Happy Recording,

If you have ever had trouble with guitar cords that tangle up in your accessory bag, the easiest and cheapest solution is to tie them with girls' ponytail ties (the elastic ones with two plastic marbles). They're less expensive than the velcro ones that you find at guitar stores, and they hold better, too.

The best way to get your guitar quiet (even if you find yourself in a studio that has poor grounding) is to get a piece of wire aprox. 2' long. On one end solder an alligator clip. Keep this wire in your accessory bag, so that the next time buzz is a problam, attach the alligator clip to one of the strings behind the bridge, and twist the other end around the baby finger of your right hand (like a ring). "It works every time."

To get great tone to tape, all it takes is a Shure 57 microphone Place the microphone aprox. 2" from the grill cloth. Position it so that it is half way between the edge and the cone of the speaker. Try not to use EQ. on the board. If the sound needs to be changed, make the changes with the amp. controls, or the guitar choice. Doing it this way will make your guitar parts sound "Real & In Your Face"

When recording your acoustic guitar parts, sometimes it's hard to mask the squeaking of the wound strings. A simple solution is to rub your left hand across the bridge of our nose. This will put just enough oil on your hand to eliminate the squeak, but not so much oil as to deaden your strings.

When you're playing live, you may have an array of stomp boxes, rack gear, or both. However, when recording, always remove any unused effects from the signal chain for better tone. For the best tone, try running just your guitar and amplifier. Doing it this way, will probably require compressing at the board while you're cutting. When mixing, you may even want to add delay, chorus, or reverb. Recording in this manner will get the best tone to tape, and the most flexibility of your effects.