Since the dawn of the electric guitar hip players & manufacturers have been aware of the degree to which the design & specs of the magnetic pickups used on any given instrument will affect its sound & performance. Never before however have there been so many options available for so many different types of guitars. Players today have access to accurate reproductions of the most revered of vintage pickup designs from 50 years ago & more along with any conceivable hotrod modification or upgrade of the form plus countless original & adventurous designs that bring something entirely new to the table. & all of these are available from both large replacement-unit manufacturers & small independent craftsmen alike as well as the major guitar manufacturers themselves. Its a revolution of tone to be sure & that means theres a dizzying amount of information to take on board if you hope to nail down the pickups & therefore the sound that are right for you & your instrument. The magical tonal properties of certain pickups have become almost a religion with many players & an industry has been born out of guitarists desires to alter their tone by swapping this critical link in the signal chain. Changing pickups can result in one of the most dramatic & immediate sonic alterations achievable from any single-component swap that can be made on your entire guitar. Its also one of the simplest modifications to achieve & often relatively affordable too. Swapping pickups can yield dramatic changes in gain dynamics frequency range & overall voice
- all the elements that combine to create your tone. It can also bring about extremely subtle sonic adjustments that are arguably significant only to the player themselves but are nevertheless worth achieving. Dive in blind however & this alteration in tone whether subtle or dramatic is entirely random & potentially counterproductive. Understanding precisely how any pickup swap will alter your sound rather than taking a stab in the dark
- & then either stabbing again or just deciding to live with it if the results arent what you hoped for
- requires a lot of study & thought. The better you understand what makes different pickups sound the way they do & how different elements of their design & construction contribute to variations in tone & response the better youll be able to assess how a given set of pickups might work toward your own sonic goals. This is where Guitar Pickups: A Guide for the Player" comes in & myth hype & snake oil go out. Get the knowledge & its a whole lot easier to bring the tone onboard."


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This expanded edition for beginners to experts is a step-by-step manual to maintaining & repairing electric & acoustic guitars & basses. Players learn how to set up a guitar & keep it in top form by mastering basic maintenance. It features an essential DVD that makes guitar maintenance easier than ever. New features include set-up specs of leading players; stronger coverage of guitar electronics including pickups & wiring diagrams; & expanded coverage of acoustics. ...

This landmark book uncovers for the first time in detail one of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century: the vast system of Soviet camps that were responsible for the deaths of countless millions. Gulag" is the only major history in any language to draw together the mass of memoirs & writings on the Soviet camps that have been published in Russia & the West. Using these as well as her own original research in NKVD archives & interviews with survivors Anne Applebaum has written a fully documented history of the camp system: from its origins under the tsars to its colossal expansion under Stalin's reign of terror its zenith in the late 1940s & eventual collapse in the era of glasnost. It is a gigantic feat of investigation synthesis & moral reckoning." ...

Jonathan Swifts classic satirical narrative was first published in 1726 seven years after Defoes Robinson Crusoe (one of its few rivals in fame & breadth of appeal). As a parody travel-memoir it reports on extraordinary lands & societies whose names have entered the English language: notably the minute inhabitants of Lilliput the giants of Brobdingnag & the Yahoos in Houyhnhnmland where talking horses are the dominant species. It spares no vested interest from its irreverent wit & its attack on political & financial corruption as well as abuses in science continue to resonate in our own times. ...

Thus gentle Reader I have given thee a faithful History of my Travels for Sixteen Years & above Seven Months; wherein I have not been so studious of Ornament as of Truth. In these words Gulliver represents himself as a reliable reporter of the fantastic adventures he has just set down; but how far can we rely on a narrator whose identity is elusive & whoses inventiveness is self-evident? Gullivers Travels purports to be a travel book & describes Gullivers encounters with the inhabitants of four extraordinary places: Lilliput Brobdingnag Laputa & the country of the Houyhnhnms. A consummately skilful blend of fantasy & realism makes Gullivers Travels by turns hilarious frightening & profound. Swift plays tricks on us & delivers one of the worlds most disturbing satires of the human condition. This new edition

Includes:: the changing frontispiece portraits of Gulliver that appeared in successive early editions. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more.

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On 5th November 1699 the Merchant Ship Antelope foundered on a rock in the Latitude of 30 Degrees 2 minutes South. The only survivor of the crew was the ships physician Lemuel Gulliver who some hours later awoke bound on a beach in the Empire of Lilliput. On 31st August 1997 Gullivers direct (although unwitting) descendent was being driven back from a conference in Paris when going through an underpass his vehicle was struck with great force from behind. Rendered unconscious he was next aware of being thrown from a helicopter into a shallow sea from whence he waded ashore. On awaking next morning he finds himself bound & being addressed by tiny figures welcoming him to... Lilliput. Jonathan Swifts classic satire about little people big people crazy scientists & rational horses has not only gripped our imaginations for nearly 300 years; its also one of the greatest
- while also most humane
- indictments of humanity ever written. Now the award winning cartoonist & writer Martin Rowson has followed Swifts heros descendent as quite by chance he finds himself visiting the same places three centuries later. Thus the Modern Gulliver learns how history has unfolded for the Lilliputians while discovering the secrets of New Lilliputs economic boom & accidentally precipitating its crash. He finds out how the giants of Brobdingnag were inspired to transform their way of life by his ancestors example of being one of the most pernicious Race of little odious vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the Earth. Gullivers Travels adapted & updated by Martin Rowson is both a homage to the original & an entirely up-to-date indictment of the same enduring human idiocies that enraged Swift so magnificently & memorably in the first place.""

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This year a new film adaptation of Gullivers Travels brings Jonathan Swifts classic novel back into focus. In Gullivers Travels we travel into the realms of the fantastical as Lemuel Gulliver after being alternately shipwrecked abandoned & then accosted is compelled to dwell among a series of extraordinary civilizations. From being incarcerated by a diminutive race to being shunned by a clan of superior horses Gullivers far-ranging adventures are at once deliciously absurd & pertinently revealing. The vulgarities & imbecilities of human nature are paraded before our eyes in this novel that remains as one of the most wonderful satires of all time. ...

Through the eyes of Lemuel Gulliver Swift's unforgettable satire takes readers into worlds formerly unimagined. Visit four strange & remarkable lands: Lilliput where Gulliver seems a giant among a race of tiny people; Brobdingnag the opposite where the natives are giants & Gulliver puny; the ruined yet magical country of Laputa; & the home of the Houyhnhnms gentle horses far superior to the ugly humanoid Yahoos who share their universe. Abridged for easier reading with Classic Starts[trademark]" young readers can experience the wonder of timeless stories from an early age." ...

The two popular titles in Usborne Young Reading Series Two" are re-issued in luxurious hardback editions with ribbon markers. ...

Part of Penguin's" beautiful hardback " Clothbound Classics" series designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith these delectable & collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Shipwrecked & cast adrift Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput an island inhabited by little people whose height makes their quarrels over fashion & fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters
- with the crude giants of Brobdingnag the philosophical Houyhnhnms & brutish Yahoos
- give Gulliver new bitter insights into human behaviour. Swift's savage satire views mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished magnified & finally bestial species presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves."

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