Play better · Build your own
Everything you
need, nothing
you don't.
Built by a former custom luthier who got tired of guitar advice that tells people what to do without explaining why it works. The tools give you the answer, the lessons show you why it is the answer, and the building course follows an electric guitar from a rough plank to a working instrument.
Free · No account needed · Nothing to install
Quick tune
Straight to the thing you probably came for.
What are you trying to do?
Start with the problem, not the menuIt buzzes, will not stay in tune, or feels wrong
Work through relief, action, nut slots, strings, intonation, and pickup height in the order that keeps one adjustment from hiding another.
Tune and practiceI need a tuner, beat, chord, or scale now
Open the practical tools first. Each one connects to the explanation behind the result when you need more than an answer.
Understand musicI know shapes, but not why they work
Connect notes, intervals, chords, keys, scales, melody, and resolution so the fretboard stops feeling like disconnected patterns.
Play betterMy solos sound like scale exercises
Stop treating a scale shape as the music. Follow the chord changes, target useful notes, and hear where the phrase wants to land.
Build a guitarI want the complete process in order
Start with design and follow the full course through wood, bodies, necks, frets, finishing, electronics, and final setup.
Solve electronicsIt hums, cuts out, sounds weak, or is wired badly
Follow the signal instead of copying another diagram blindly. Learn what each part does and what a symptom can actually prove.
Three ways through the site
The useful order, not alphabetical orderUnderstand the guitar
Connect notes, chords, keys, rhythm, melody, and soloing so you are learning one system instead of collecting shapes.
RepairFix a guitar
Diagnose strings, tuning, relief, action, buzz, intonation, and electronics in an order that preserves the evidence.
BuildingBuild an electric guitar
Follow the complete chain from design and templates through neck, body, finish, wiring, and final setup.
The tools
See all →Fifteen browser tools built to show the relationship behind the answer, not just hand you a number. They work on a phone, work offline once loaded, and never ask you to sign up.
Chromatic tuner
Tune almost anything without fighting the tool. Forty-two tunings from standard to eight-string drop E, a movable reference pitch from 415 to 466 Hz, and one-cent accuracy that will not jump an octave on your low B.
TimeMetronome & drum beats
Nineteen grooves, shuffle, half-time shuffle, 12/8 blues, train beat, 7/8, with an editable step grid, swing control and tap tempo.
HarmonyChord library
Pick a root and see the whole chord family built from it. Not just a pile of shapes: the fingering, the notes inside each voicing, and what the chord actually sounds like.
FretboardScales & fretboard
Any scale or mode drawn on the neck, with the intervals labeled, the five box positions marked, and playback so you can hear what you're looking at.
TablatureRead guitar tab
The six lines, the fret numbers, and every technique symbol explained simply, hammer ons, pull offs, bends, slides and palm mutes. No theory needed.
EarTuning by ear
The fifth fret method step by step, the harmonic and octave checks, a beat-frequency lab, and the strange political history of A = 440 Hz.
FretboardNote memorization tool
A voice calls a random note on the downbeat of every bar. Find it in four places on the neck before the next one. All twelve notes, adjustable tempo, tough love.
ReadingRead sheet music
Standard notation from scratch, the staff, note names, durations and rests, with audio for every note and free printable staff paper.
KeysCircle of fifths
See how all twelve keys are related instead of memorizing them as separate facts. Click any key for its signature, relative minor, and the I, IV and V chords most songs lean on.
SongwritingKey finder
Click the chords you already know are in your song and this works out which keys they could belong to, then hands you the rest of the chords and the strongest notes for a melody or solo.
SongwritingChord looper
Pick a key, click in a progression, and loop it with a straight, swing, or shuffle feel. Practice soloing, write lyrics, or test a progression before you commit to it.
EarPerfect pitch trainer
Two tones play and you say which was higher. The gap narrows from a whole tone down to a couple of cents, so you find the real limit of what your ear can hear, and train it wider.
EarPerfect pitch test
You hear middle C once, then ten random notes to name. Close answers still score, and you see the right answer every time.
EarVocal key finder
Move a song into a key that fits your voice instead of forcing your voice to fit the original singer. The test finds where you naturally center and gives you a practical key to try.
ChordsWhat chord is this?
Click the frets you are holding down and it names the chord, including inversions and slash chords, with the notes and intervals so you can see why.
CourseThe building course
Twelve full-length guides covering every stage of building an electric guitar, from the first drawing to the final wiring. Free, and nothing gated.
A guitar should look like it belongs to the person playing it.
See the complete build →
Featured custom builds
One fictional machine. One actual kimono.
Rayko Dig owned two Gelvin guitars. For the first, I had to look up what steampunk was and then build a guitar that looked as though it ran on forbidden energy. For the second, I took apart an actual kimono and built the fabric into the finish of a Model 2359.
Custom did not mean picking a body shape and changing the paint. It meant building the performer into the instrument.
See both guitarsBuild your own
The build section →A free 20 hour course built from professional shop experience, covering every stage of an electric guitar build. The calculators handle the numbers, and the guides explain why those numbers matter before you cut.
Fret position calculator
Slot positions to the thousandth of an inch for any scale length, including multiscale fanned frets. Print it and use it as a template.
CalculatorString tension calculator
Work out what a set will actually pull at your scale length and tuning, before you find out the hard way that your down-tuned build is a wet noodle.
ReferenceWiring & electronics
What pot values, capacitors and switch types actually do to your tone, and how to pick them without cargo-culting a forum post from 2006.