A while back we asked you to send in your guitar-related questions for Acey of The Murderdolls. An online guitar clinic of sorts, if you will. Acey kindly took some time out to answer a whole bunch of your questions, and here is part 1 of Acey’s Guitar Clinic. 1. I wanna start learning guitar but my mum says to start with the acoustic rather than electric which one is easier? – Char Char- Your mom is DEAD……wrong. It’s easier to learn on an electric, plus do you want to play electric guitar or learn Coldplay songs? Parents do this to discourage you and frustrate you. Tell her to give in and get you an electric. 2. I wanna know whether you can use Guitar Pedals for a Bass, cos I use my mates ancient 80’s Marshel Overdrive on my bass all the time. Would this be a good idea? – Vamp Bassist Sure! But the best one to get is either a Big Muff or a Sans Amp Bass DI. they can be kind of expensive, like 100-200 US Dollars, but that’s what most people use. But try a few things and see what works. Maybe you like the sound of the Guitar pedal better! 3. What was the first song you ever learned on guitar? – Becky Wow….I think it was Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. I don’t really like Led Zeppelin, but it was pretty easy. 4. I don’t have a clue about pickups…I hear all the different types of pickup like humbucker and stuff but I don’t know what they mean?? I would like the sound of Machine Head/Ill Nino etc…I like the sound they get from their guitars it’s cool… if it helps I have a 38 watt fender frontman amp, a boss MD-2 mega distortion pedal, and a jim dunlop cry baby. Could you please suggest a good pickup that could give me this sound? OK a single coil pick up is kind of like the ones found in a Fender Strat. They have one coil in them. This can give you a Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain type of tone. A Humbucker has 2 coils in it. What happens is that you get a ‘hum’ with one coil. When you have 2 they cancel eachother out. Hence the name ‘Humbucker’. Those kind of look like 2 single coils put together. NOW….for Metal their are two ways you can go. Active and Passive. Active pickups run of of a 9 volt battery that is stashed someplace in the body of the guitar. The Battery powers an onboard pre-amp. It’s all tiny and you cant see any of it. Guys who use Active pick ups are Zakk Wylde, Dino from Fear Factory, lot’s of Metal guys sware by them. That’s all Joey uses…there is a good chance that the guys in Machine Head and Ill Nino use them as well. EMG makes the best Active pick up for Metal. Passive pick ups are normaly a little more smooth sounding. Slash, Dimebag and Dave Navaro uses them and so do I. I love Seymour Duncans and also stock Gibson pick ups. For metal I would suggest the Duncan Distortion, Invader, Dimebucker or even the JB model. I use the JB and so does Wayne Static and Slash. check out SeymourDuncan.com it’s a great site. SOOOO…. what should you use? I like passive, but when I record I try to double everything with an Active Pick up Guitar just for different textures. Check out the Duncan site and see if any of your favorite players are on there. I’ll bet they are. Part 2 coming soon. Meanwhile, check out ROADTONES, and download yourself a polyphonic ringtone of The Murderdolls song I Love To Say Fuck – absolutely FREE for the first 50 people EVERY day!