Tops and Flops: Launching a Podcast & Guitar Upgrades
Are cheap strings any good?
4,2 / 5,0 | 
In this week’s Tops and Flops, we look at launching a new podcast and replace some broken tuners on my Telecaster.
This week’s Tops and Flops:
Tops and Flops!
Welcome to this instalment of Tops and Flops! The weekly series here at gearnews.com where we discuss the highs and lows in the life of a musician. The year is still young, but it’s full steam ahead where I am anyway.
Launching a Podcast
Firstly, I’ve got to delve into a new side quest that I’ve just undertaken. Along with my colleague, James, we have just launched The Kirklees Guitar School Podcast!
So, what do we talk about? The KGS podcast aims to be an informative and entertaining guitar based show. In our first episode, we delve into how and where to play hammer ons, discuss different pickup positions across Les Paul and Stratocaster style guitars and answer audience questions.
Podcast Gear
Gear wise, we’ve looked at a lot of different options. The star of the show is the *Rodecaster Pro II. This allows us to effortlessly record all of our audio. Whether that’s the main vocal, or our amps. In the first episode of the show, we’re both using Boss Katana amps which are plugged straight into the Rode unit via XLR.
We did have to get hold of a Cloudlifer to boost the power of the vocals as we aren’t running the microphones via USB. Overall, this made a huge difference.
Across the life of the show, we’ll use various guitars for different purposes. However, this week I elected to use my 2013 Epiphone *Les Paul Standard which is in a rather fetching Blueberry Burst. Whereas my co-host, James, is playing his beloved 60s spec *Fender Stratocaster.
We’ll be uploading every Sunday morning for the foreseeable future. So, if you’re looking to switch off for an hour and digest some guitar content, why not give it a listen? As well as on YouTube, you can catch us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Broken Tuners
Despite the excitement of filming our new podcast, I was soon brought back down to earth when undertaking a simple string change on my Telecaster. My 19 year old tuners had had enough!
Whilst changing the strings on my main workhorse, a 2006 Squier Affinity Telecaster, the A and G string tuners both decided to remove themselves from the headstock. In the process, it revealed that the gearing within those tuners had seen better days. They were full of rust, dislodged metal and some tired grease.
From the photo above, we can see three of the new matte black tuners that have replaced the original PW.3 pin tuners. I’d love to say that Thomann helped me out in finding a new set, however I required a quick turn around to get this guitar back on the road. Therefore, I used a next day delivery type service online…
Thus far, the new tuners look pretty cool in black, and feel much more sturdy and reliable than the original ones.
Getting My Telecaster Up and Running
After installing the new tuners, I felt obligated to give the guitar some love and attention. It’s been in my collection since 2013, and has, until now, never let me down.
To anyone else, this guitar won’t be anything special. The frets are badly worn down and the bridge pickup is weak. But to me, it’s a very special guitar. Over the years, this has been my main band practice guitar and more recently, has been the dedicated teaching guitar.
I treated the aged fretboard to a generous dose of lemon oil and the nut got a good going through with some graphite. After the strings were bedded in, I quickly adjusted the intonation to ensure that every note was spot on.
Value Strings
To conclude this week’s Tops and Flops, I’ll just quickly share a relatively new discovery. We all know that guitar strings are pretty expensive these days, but they really don’t have to be!
For the past few months, I’ve been using the *Harley Benton Valuestrings across most of my guitars. Honestly? Don’t knock them until you’ve tried them. Here in the UK they cost £1.25 per set, which is the same price as a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk…
Initially, they’re very bright, but I like my guitars to sound like this. I’ve got plenty of confidence with string bending, and they feel much more expensive than they are. All I’d say is for gigs, they’ll last about for about one or two shows. But when they’re so cheap, I don’t mind that!
Further Information:
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