13 Things to AVOID in your Home Studio! 

Would LOVE an acoustic treatment video! Keep up the amazing content, Glenn! 🤘🏻

Great video, one addition that goes hand in hand with soldering, electronics and others: Multimeter!! It's a must have, learn how to test continuity, resistance, charge, etc. That way you can: Test your analogue cables, your power cables, your electric circuits, your 9v batteries if they are charged or not, if you have a short circuit somewhere, if a transistor is busted (Yes Glen, not everybody have/like tube amps), if your electronics are not fried, and many other things. It is Diagnosis 101 tool.

Earliest I have caught a Glenn video.

10:23 is some of the best general life advice you have ever given and idk if you realize it. I was much like that, very introverted and afraid to talk to anyone. I held myself back for so long due to a lack of confidence, and the fear of I would make myself look stupid in front of people. One day I decided to work on it, and just randomly at a book store started a convo with a young couple about my age. Those two helped me get a job that now allows me to travel the world, I’ve become a happier and more confident person, and I’ve found myself dragged down less by fear and anger. Being a musician means you have to be able to be good with a crowd. And you won’t make it in the music industry if you are afraid to introduce yourself to people. Remember, treat everyone with kindness and respect, you’ll be surprised to see how many musicians and artists you enjoy actually enjoy getting to know fans. Most people know you aren’t there to harass them, and most will always appreciate you. But you’ll never know if you live in fear. Have self awareness and don’t be a weirdo, but be kind. It’s not as scary as your mind is telling you.

A small point to add to the soldering point: learn DEsolder as well. Knowing how to solder will help with making connections, but sometimes, you need to break the connection, say in the instance of bridges. As you said, solder is not glue, so you want to remove as much as you can before applying new solder, as most solder contains a flux (rosin) in the core that helps it flow around the joint. A desoldering iron or just plain solder wick will help.

After spending a lot of money to get my guitars set up and never getting them adjusted to my taste, an old dude from a 2nd hand guitar shop one day told me to save my money: he showed me the basics of setting up an instrument. took him about 10 minutes. It really demisified the whole thing: there is no magic involved. Then all it took was a couple of practice and i've been setting up all my gears for years, including floyd rose. And I wonder why people find them so hard to deal with. All it takes is basic knowledge of the mechanics of it and doing the steps in the right order. It's not rocket science.

My tip: Use feeler gauges to measure string height (the distance between the fret wire and the bottom of the string). Why? It is difficult to see the little tick marks on a ruler when you're dealing with 64ths of an inch, and the positioning of the ruler can distort the indicated height. With feeler gauges, you can get as close to perfect as possible. Also, use a capo on the first fret to eliminate the nut from potentially influencing the measured height. Also, after experimenting with setting up my neck so it's perfectly straight and raising the action to eliminate buzz, I've found that adding a small amount of relief, as recommended by the guitar manufacturer, is the superior method-you get much more sustain that way. And lastly, use the neck pickup, roll off the tone knob, and use the twelfth fret harmonic to measure pitch when doing intonation adjustments. The 12th fret harmonic eliminates the amplitude of the vibrating string and gives you a more accurate reading. For the first string (the thin, high E), I use the open string, as that string is so tight, that it basically has a negligible amplitude, plus the tuner does not respond well to the harmonic at that high of a pitch.

Great vid! As a guitarist and tech guy, I learned to solder and basic repairs early on when I would help my dad as a kid connect the new stereo speakers and fix random things. It helped when I got older, was able to repair my own pedals, cables, and be more self reliant and save money on repairs, which let me buy more gear :)

Hey Glenn, I completely understand the struggle of hating working on assembly Line. I’m a painter in a crane factory and in truth it’s a life and joy sucking abyss. But I just wanna say thank you for your videos. They help me get through my day easier watching them on my breaks. Your tips have been super helpful for me in recording my first songs. I’m currently in the process of recording for the first time. I studied commercial music in college before dropping out due to the pandemic and unfortunately my recording class was cut short due to everything being shut down in the middle of the semester. But I digress. Again I greatly appreciate the tips and enjoy getting to watch the show. Thanks Glenn!

The over/under method I was taught in production school a few years ago. Definitely has saved my cables since using it at home.

This is the kind of content that makes you so valuable and watchable Glenn! I think a lot of people will find extremely useful long-term lessons in this. Great job.

I wish I watched a video like this 30 years ago. This stuff was a mystery back then. Awesome stuff.

Tube amp builder here! You don’t actually need to use a cloth to remove the tubes from your amp since they don’t reach high enough temperatures for that to matter (unlike halogen headlights from cars). Also, the standby switch was designed for doing maintenance work on the amp: so “letting the tubes warm up” without the standby on before use, and turning it off but leaving the heater on so the tubes “cool down” is essentially useless (and can even drain the life out of your tubes). (There is a video were Collin from CSGuitars explains it better and I’ll leave a quote from a professor of mine here as well: “In WWII tubes were used on the tank’s electronics, what makes you think they are so fragile?”)

Glen, #1 Solder has saved me so much money over the course of the last decade. Those suckers out there still playing $80.00 for "High Quality" Mogami guitar cables, meanwhile I paid a total of $150.00 for the same Mogami cable reel, Neutrik silent connectors, other connectors, etc. and now have plenty of nice guitar cables and dozens of patch cables. Spot on with this point.

Yes please for that acoustic treatment video! That would be amazing!

Great video as usual but the added short tutorials were fantastic. Saving this in my favorites. Thanks Glenn! P.S. The very first thing my mom taught me after my 1st day in High school was time management. Because of her, I was able to accomplish so much more than my peers then and now. It even made caring for her when she had cancer easier. I mean, it’s the most valuable skill I have. She was one of a kind and I advise all parental figures to pass on this skill to the next generation.

Don’t forget the flux and clean the tip. The flux helps with the flow of the solder.

Fun fact, this video is by far the the best and most useful video glenn has ever made. I have most of these skills but rarely implement them. That doesn’t matter though, because when the need arrives I’m the person to do it! Example: A mic broke over a decade ago, it was one of my oktavas. Found out a cable got loose inside, got some solder fixed it myself. That was a several hundred dollar savings from having the skill. A couple of years after that my guitar input jack broke, had to solder it myself. These are easy fixes i have no problem spending the time to do. That being said i hate building my own cables and paying a local shop or friend a few dollars over cost of the cable to do it for me is something i’m happy to pay for to save me time (i’m slow with cable building). As a professional, audio engineers are REQUIRED to do many of these skills in studios and in other situations. You are the tech to fix things and make sure it keeps working. I worked at a university for 6 months, i was required to fix patchbays and network gear. While it wasn’t soldered in, it was all crimping network cable. I first did that stuff in HS wiring up internet/network for my entire house with my dad. It was fun. Also replacing tubes is super easy, I don’t know why people get so scared by it. The deoxit sounds helpful, I’ve heard about it before, but forgot the name of it. Gonna pick up a can of this asap. My guitar is annoying af with the pots. Thanks for the reminder Glenn! Cable wrapping is still something i can’t do fast all the time. Gonna try this method and see if it speeds up my workflow with it. Maybe i’ll hate doing it a little less 😂. Basic, but we all have gaps in knowledge. Also love how you explain guitar maintainence. I’ve done it once, and never felt like i did it right. I dig how you explained the process. I usually just hand off my guitar to a tech friend who can do it all fast so i’m saving my frustration on it all. Anyway thanks again or the video Glenn! All these skills are what separates the pros from the hobbyists imo.

Ah, the old "CBC Twist" as an AE mentor of mine that worked in CBC Vancouver studios called it. Such an important tip and over the years I'm still shocked at how many people are clueless about this

It's like you know exactly what questions I have! I swear everytime one pops into my head, Glenn uploads a video that answers it within a few days

the reason I like your channel is because you are looking out for those that are on a budget . you also have great videos on reviewing mics, guitars , amps etc. your videos on how to get drum and guitar ,vocal sounds is very useful. we have disagreed on a couple of things but thats ok. no one agrees on 100% on everything. thank you for your channel.

I love how much you listen to your audience and take their suggestions, I remember seeing you react to the comment that suggested this video in a VC and you saying you'd definitely think about doing a video about it, and here we are, YOUR AWESOME GLENN!!

As a field electronics technician, you are right about soldering. It's a skill that even some guys in my line of work are not good at. There's some bad information out there. Best thing you can do is tin both items you're going to solder, use heat shrink for extra protection (remember, these cables can also be used out in the elements), and then check for continuity and make sure it measures out properly. After that, if you're ever worried a cable might be damaged, use contact cleaner and canned air to clean the connections and check continuity again. It's a lot quicker than just running a new cable and hoping it works.

After I watched the wrapping cable tip, I got up and got all my cables wrapped up nicely and easily. Thanks, Glenn!

As a former assistant in my friend's local studio - I stand behind EVERY fucking thing you said! This and learn some basic construction/house maintenance skills - How to drill holes, find studs, replacing a socket, fixing a dry wall (For some reason, bass players love to eat drywall in my area)

Love videos like this! Great one Glenn!

Always great info , Glenn !!! Thank you !!!

Great video again! Lot of amazing hand-on, practical stuff to learn from it!

Thanks as always Glenn for sharing the tips that REALLY help

Excellent tips, Glenn! Thank you!

this was such a helpful Video. Thx Glenn

Great information...Thanks Glenn!!!👍

Love your channel, man. Thank you so much for the information you present. I don't know what I'd do without it!

As an autoworker who also works 6 days a week assembling 500 vehicles per shift, this video hit home!

I followed advice on a luthiers' RU-vid channel, and used a piece of wood and a clamp (2 is better) to straighten the neck before turning the truss rod. It really takes the scariness away! I had turned it a quarter turn, that was as far as it would go without forcing it. Then I clamped it overnight, and tried it again, another quarter turn without applying pressure, I readjusted the clamp several times, over three days, and ended up getting a full turn out of it. Each time I tightened the clamp, or even just moved it (2 clamps would have been good), the truss rod would give just a little more, without applying much pressure. I'd leave it overnight, and then tighten the clamp a little bit, and try the truss rod again, which would again turn a little bit more, without me applying much pressure. By not much pressure, I mean turning easily, without denting my thumb. It was good advice, straighten the neck and then adjust the truss rod to hold it in position, rather than making the truss rod do the work of straightening the wood. I bought a second hand acoustic bass, sight unseen, and the neck is bowed beyond what a truss rod can fix, but now, and with lowering the bridge, at least it's playable.

This is the best video that you have made in a while! Super helpful and practical. Thanks for the good work.

Soldering tips including safety tips. A++! Remember, soldering is not welding, and welding is not soldering!

What some people may not understand about the way you demonstrate to wind cables is that by alternating each loop, the cord does not get twisted. If you simply roll up a cord, say ten loops, unfurling it without unrolling it induces ten twists. Alternating each loop causes a twist to the left, then a twist to the right, then a left, then a right and on balance, the entire thing is *not* twisted. I do something similar with a garden hose by winding it into a figure 8 on the ground.

Valuable information, Glenn. Cheers from Norway!

Hell yeah man! Bring those acoustic tips!

12:43 As someone who rents a room in a house and can’t really do a lot of heavy installation to treat my recording space, I would absolutely welcome a video about acoustic hacks!

As much as i like to support local guitar techs...service is getting VERY expensive. This video is gold!

Here's another tip about soldering. Tin your speaker wires. Heat up the bare end of the wire and put a little solder on it. It'll hold all the strands together when you put them in those spring clips. Tinning also helps when you are connecting to things like those little loops on rectifier pots.

Great stuff thank you for sharing!

great video! thanks for the tips

I would absolutely love a video on acoustic treatment. My friend and I are doing home recording for our band and it would be super helpful!

This video taught me so much! Would love an acoustic treatment vid. Thanks!

Having had two amps and a couple of leads crap out on me recently, this video has arrived at a perfect time :D Great stuff, Glenn.

Great video Glen as always you kick ass 😎💯

I bought a TS-100 soldering iron several years ago. It's great; small and portable, can run it off an RC battery pack, little case that holds the iron, battery, solder, and a small solder sucker. Easily goes into a case or gig bag for taking to shows.

The point about soldering, I had a cheap pencil type soldering iron and when I upgraded to a nice soldering station, the old one got chucked in the gig bag alongwith a few feet of solder wire and a roll of desoldering braid... Granted this might not produce the great solder joints you'll get in the shop but for a quick repairs 30mins before showtime in the backstage, it'll do!! You can always reheat the joint and make it pretty again back home!! BTW, I'm a drummer and I always carry my gig bag full of tools, spare strings for bass and guitar, various patches.. XLR to 1/4 in various genders in order to patch signal in or out of various sources that might not have the right connections... Oh! and I might have the unicorn traits of showing up to gigs and playing in time!!

Really fantastic video! And honestly, that's the best, most direct, easy to understand explanation of cable wrapping and guitar intonation and truss rod adjustments I've ever seen. And as someone who played drums a long time, and always enjoyed tuning, I have no idea why so many drummers take tuning and getting new heads as something that doesn't matter. It's mond boggling.

Love all the videos, but this has got to be the most useful things condensed into a short video I’ve seen you do. Awesome.

This is excellent stuff, great information Glenn which I wish I'd had when I was first starting out.

The CAT5 cable thing is something new I learned today. Thanks Glenn!

Thank you Glenn! This definitely makes the top 10 most useful videos you've ever made :)

Always great to see a Glenn upload

I loved your DIY acoustics video! I'd love to see you do a series of DIY stuff for a home studio, Like making your own cables as you've mentioned here.

Dude, this video is really really Frickin good. Thank you so much for this!!!

That network cable tip is very useful, cheers!

Awesome content!

This is your stage tech basics video, and you nailed it!! (35yrs as an IATSE stage tech) Definitely make the acoustic treatment video. I’d love to hear and see your ideas. Great channel, with so much great advice. You do great work Glenn. Thank you.

The John Sayers forum is fantastic! Good call!

This week, I have learned to solder. Feeling good about that. 🙂 And I've known about that cable winding trick for so long, but never understood how to do it until watching this video today. OK. Got it now. Thank you so much, Glenn!

Thanks for the advice, especially the truss rod and bridge tuning keys. I'll make sure to do this before hitting up the studio for recording. It makes sense to have everything prepared to maximize my time recording since I wanna get the most for my money.

Great video!!

Yes, yes, yes, thank you. I was soldering components as a teenager, having never learned how to use a clamp or a vise to hold things in place. I was carefully holding the parts in place with one hand and watching it like a hawk while blindly reaching for the hot iron with the other. I have a lovely scar on my left index finger that has never gone away. I would also add that if you're going to make a habit of sticking your hand inside of tube electronics, keep an eye out for exposed capacitors. Amps aren't the problem that televisions used to be (yes, I'm old) but laying your finger across a fully charged capacitor can mess up your whole day. If there is one sitting out where you could touch it, putting a screwdriver on the leads to short it out costs nothing in time compared to the cost of sending an unnecessary amount of current up your arm.

I will say, I am happy to see really talented people be able to make a living from this crazy platform.

Its so inspiring how into the scene some of these youtubers are. I love Rob and he just will see beauty in all the musicians posting

An acoustic treatment video would be great. Huge advocate for acoustic treatment. I have Primacoustic panels in a small room and it made a huge difference. I made some DYI panels for a larger space - love how much it cleaned up the sound.

Absolutely awesome

Great pro tips!

Damn Bro that cable wrapping method is fricking AWESOME! Possibly the best tip I've gotten on youtube about ANYTHING! I'll be watching your channel lots more, with neatly wrapped cables...... keep on keeping on....!

Wow, I remember Glenn made a video, where he showed this method of wrapping cables years ago. Since that day I wrap my cables only that way! Thanks, Glenn!

Holy dang, I was trying to look for the John l sayers forum recently but noticed it wasn’t online after he had passed and got worried it was lost forever. So glad it’s back online!

Hobby Luthier here. Best way to set your intonation is in a playing position because you will compensate for gravity pulling down the strings as well. The differences aren't that massive, but still, there's no reason to not doing it the correct way. Cheers!

Awesome video. I'm learning so much from this. Also ever done a video where you can troubleshoot your room for acoustic treatment or acoustic hacks?

Heyy GLEEEEEN ! - one you might want to add to this, is understanding of placement and use of far field and near field monitoring and the difference between the two. Flipping between the two has cleared so many errors for us over the years.

Yes indeed Glenn, I'd love an acoustic treatment video!

I love those kinds of video. They age well and I think there's valuable informations I wish I had layed out like that when I started out. Soldering was the last one I did here and the 42€ I paid for it were payed off 5 times already in one month. Saves money, time and stress

id love a acoustic treatment vid. got my own room to mess with now and it would be great to learn. thanks glenn!

Wow! This is really good. Thank you. I did know a few basic things but I know little about soldering or custom making my own cables. The impedence stuff, I really need to sit down and learn. But I'm guessing it's like anything else. You learn it once and it's yours forever. Very useful info man. Greetings from Mexico.

Learning guitar soldering and wiring has helped me install my jeep stereo and and work on my e bike wiring it seems so easy to take for granted but setting up a guitar is very fussy and combines several disciplines from mechanical engineering, carpentry, to electrical work it's a lesson in applied physics for sure.

The acoustic treatment video would be so insanely helpfull!! Its such a shame I couldn't join the meet up in Amsterdam cause of work, hope I'll catch the next one!!

Your channel is awesome for two reasons. First, you're a consummate professional with an engaging demeanor. Second, you give advice that is broadly applicable. Sure, you're targeting metal engineers and musicians, but I take everything you say to heart (I'm not a metal guy). Thank you, Glenn. Keep up the good work!

Awesome advice, thanks man!

Time Management - I’m impressed you showed the Important/Urgent quadrants. I also use this if I ask someone to do something for me, Important/Urgent means I need it ASAP, Important/Not Urgent - gotta have it, can wait a few days.

Thank you very much. You're helping me fill the holes in my education for my own personal studio. I'm rather good with electronics already. But I never thought to use cat5 cable as audio line for analog. It's an absolutely brilliant idea. I have the equipment to make my own cat5 cables already from a job I used to work installing phone systems and Data systems in grocery stores. Now that I'm retired I have all the time in the world to play around in my studio. Your information has been absolutely valuable for me. I suggest do people that I know who do tech stuff with their own equipment and play to check you out and learn something from you because you have alot to offer. 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘 Keep on Rocking. Glenn May the ugly tech Gremlins never visit your studio.

Soldering is just an amazing skill in general and you can turn around "broken gear" pretty easily. I bought a 412 cab loaded with Celestion Seventy 80s from a guy who thought 2 of the speakers were blown out for $60. I had a hunch that this is probably incorrect when I bought it too. Tested the speakers and they were fine. Turns out, one of the switch jacks was no longer making a proper connection. Literally a $0 fix for me as i already had one laying around from taking cheap amps apart. Deoxit is also amazing! I bought a used 200 watt bass amp for $80 as well and the guy said that the knobs were crackling. I bought it right there and sprayed the pots with deoxit. Done. A lot of repairs are pretty simple (not all), but if its like low voltage electronics, like a guitar or a cab, you can probably fix super easy.

I have a few custom cables...and perhaps a soldering scar or two. Great tips!

So may awesome videos, but this one maybe "to me' the most useful .. AND YES! Would LOVE an acoustic treatment video

Thank you so damn much for all of your wisdom and lack of bullshit. You rock brother. Yes please for a video on acoustic hacks as well. Rock on🤘🤘

Great tip about wrapping cable. That should work with just about anything.

Good stuff!

Good points regarding soldering, can also be used to build pedals, especially expensive limited ones, and modify/repair pedals and other equipment with hand soldered components. One tip, never cheap out on connectors/plugs unless you 100% know that they don’t fail when they shouldn’t. Some examples, there are cheap XLR’s with hollow pins, Jacks with weak tip connections and so on, probably fine if they rarely are touched after plugging them in, but if they are moved a lot you really don’t want them to break when you need them, especially on longer cable runs. Some of the cheaper connectors also have issues with getting resoldered, had some jacks that didn’t like that, so in the end it does pay of to get good durable connectors even if they cost slightly more. Be aware that even Neutrik has some crap connectors in their catalogue, so always a good idea to check user reviews to see if there is something negative with a valid technical explanation when it comes to durability and soldering/resoldering them. One more thing, always check which min/max cable thickness they can be used with.

this is pure gold knowledge right here

I'm still trying to get my studio organized and developing a reliable process. I'm also playing catch-up with these other skills. I'm still trying to work up the courage to do more guitar maintenance, too. I will get to where I need to be, though. Thanks for giving us some short cuts, Glenn.

I definitely want to see video on acoustic hacks! I’ve built acoustic panels similar to yours but Im sure you have some great tips that I could use!

Of course we want to see a video on acoustics! :)

Right on! Glenn's dropping earlier than 10 am on the East Coast. Gotta love the grind