The Bench

Fender Stratocaster with a light sealed maple fretboard, illustrating the maple side of the maple vs rosewood fretboard comparison

Maple vs. Rosewood Fretboard: Does It Actually ...

A maple or rosewood fretboard changes how a guitar feels and ages more than how it sounds. An honest bench take on tone, playability, wear, and how the two boards...

Maple vs. Rosewood Fretboard: Does It Actually ...

A maple or rosewood fretboard changes how a guitar feels and ages more than how it sounds. An honest bench take on tone, playability, wear, and how the two boards...

Diagram decoding an 8-digit Gibson serial number: 1st and 5th digits are the year, digits 2 to 4 are the day of the year, digits 6 to 8 are the ranking and plant.

How to Date a Used Gibson by the Serial Number

The number stamped on the back of the headstock usually is the date once you know which of Gibson's serial-number eras you're reading. Here's how to decode the modern eight-digit...

How to Date a Used Gibson by the Serial Number

The number stamped on the back of the headstock usually is the date once you know which of Gibson's serial-number eras you're reading. Here's how to decode the modern eight-digit...

Diagram comparing an uncoated guitar string clogged with grime versus a coated string sealed by a polymer film

Are Coated Strings Worth It? An Honest Take Fro...

Coated strings don't upgrade your tone — they preserve it. An honest bench take on Elixir vs. regular strings: what a coating really does, the tone-and-feel tradeoff, whether the 3–5x...

Are Coated Strings Worth It? An Honest Take Fro...

Coated strings don't upgrade your tone — they preserve it. An honest bench take on Elixir vs. regular strings: what a coating really does, the tone-and-feel tradeoff, whether the 3–5x...

Gibson SG Standard in cherry burst — a thin, light body and long neck make it the classic neck-dive guitar.

Why Does My Guitar Neck Dive — and Can You Actu...

A diving headstock is a balance problem, not a weight problem. What actually causes neck dive, why the SG is the poster child, and the fixes that work — ranked,...

Why Does My Guitar Neck Dive — and Can You Actu...

A diving headstock is a balance problem, not a weight problem. What actually causes neck dive, why the SG is the poster child, and the fixes that work — ranked,...

Gibson Les Paul control knobs where a treble bleed circuit is wired inside the cavity

Does a Treble Bleed Actually Work? The Volume-K...

A tech's honest take on the treble bleed mod: what it actually fixes, the cap and resistor values that matter, the three common builds, the downsides, and whether you really...

Does a Treble Bleed Actually Work? The Volume-K...

A tech's honest take on the treble bleed mod: what it actually fixes, the cap and resistor values that matter, the three common builds, the downsides, and whether you really...

Diagram of a passive guitar tone control wired as an RC low-pass filter, showing the pickup, volume pot, tone pot and capacitor to ground

Do Boutique Tone Caps Actually Change Your Tone?

For the same value, a tone capacitor's material — paper-in-oil, film, ceramic, Bumblebee or orange drop — makes no difference you can hear. The value does. An honest, from-the-bench look...

Do Boutique Tone Caps Actually Change Your Tone?

For the same value, a tone capacitor's material — paper-in-oil, film, ceramic, Bumblebee or orange drop — makes no difference you can hear. The value does. An honest, from-the-bench look...