cure that pain in the neck

warmoth guitars is one of the original manufacturers of guitar replacement bodies and necks; offering a great selection of necks/bodies that will cover any unique features you could want. a recent cool addition to their line is their replacement necks and bodies for the line 6 variax; you can even swap over to a short scale or baritone conversion neck on your variax!

line 6 guitarport xt

line 6 has a unique product with the guitarport, and they've now upgraded the package and just released the guitarport xt version. this time around mac's are included, with support for mac os x, including the new mac intels! (windows is still supported) also added is access to the gearbox platform, and new amp models based on; marshall 1974x (18w reissue), an orange (yeah!) ad30t. new effects include; sans amp bass driver, maestro bass brassmaster, arbiter cry baby, and sub octaves!

air guitar nation!

they say immitation is a form of flattery, and if so, then air guitar is a sincere show of great affection for the guitar. at air guitar nation the act of air guitar is king, and is "america's unofficial pastime". air guitar nation is actually a feature length documentary, and follows the trend from new york to oulu, finland, where the air guitar world championships are held every august. the film has caught the attention of micheal moore and was screened at moore's traverse city film festival, and has won the audience award at sxsw!

martin 000-40s mark knopfler guitar

searching out mark knopfler's latest happenings - which began when i came upon his racing story i posted a couple days back - i came across this beautiful martin just released this summer. the 000-40s mark knopfler was a further request from mark to c.f. martin on the heals of the hd-40mk mark knopfler signature edition guitar, which was released in '01. this time 'round, mark wanted a guitar that followed the signatures of the hd-40mk, but was designed primarily for fingerpicking; the 000-40s is the result. based on martin's grand tradition of 12 fret guitars, it's got a 25.4" scale, 1-13/16" wide neck (nut width), a 'modified v-shape' neck, and a slotted headstock. beautiful!

bixonic expandora EXP-2000R distortion pedal

the bixonic expandora exp-2000r is an update of bixonic's exp-2000, the original little 'tin can' that was a huge hit in itself, and became one of the must have's of the pedal world when it came out. now, with this re-issue, bixonic has moved the small dip switches out of the guts and onto the front of the pedal, and expanded the control options; switch between guitar and bass, and choose between crunch, overdrive, distortion, and forbidden overdrives. gain, control and level knobs, and a bypass foot switch complete the front.

"...check out guitar george, he knows all the curves.."

speed is something that all guitarists want. i know; taste, style, finess, and all the other things guitarists work toward are important too, but all guitarists would like the option of blinding others with out and out speed once in awhile. well, mark knopfler has it covered; seems he placed within the top ten of his class in the recent running of the le mans classic in france, driving his '54 austin healey 100s! who knew?!

via fender news

from hawaii to picks

my travels on the web - like most, i'm sure - are not very linear. i think that's what makes the 'net so interesting. the amount of, and the wide variation of, the information out there in the ether of those vast cyberfields is so undefined and scattered that looking for something specific almost always leads one to stumble onto an unforeseen and unplanned sidetrip. here's my path to this final interesting guitar pick link; guitar blog/fire and light blog/youtube/classical guitar videos/welcome to pottersville/youtube(again) guitar videos/hawaii slack key guitar (thanks darin for the link to tortis; they really are a find!)/tortis picks. what? cool picks, though.

sbm custom built guitars

these are three examples of the unique, cool instruments cranked out by s.b. macdonald custom built guitars, and they are seriously cool! i stumbled upon scott's guitar blog, which is a blog posted by scott himself, and followed the link back to s.b. macdonald where i found these babies! check out his site here.

play guitar with the ventures!

props to hall of records; though michael doesn't specifically post on guitars, he has just posted a great guitar find of vinyl; "the ventures show you how to play by ear" "...by the guitar phonic system..." this is one cool record! i'm a total fan of guitar how-to records ( and every other type of guitar how-to media), and this is a total find! very cool. also, the whole hall of records is great; check out his site!

guitar strings for the future

they vibrate at 1.3 billion cycles per second, and are not guaranteed not to break no matter how much you bend 'em!
actually, a physicist at uc berkeley created these nanoscale guitar 'strings' to measure biological molecules. they're made of carbon and they are strung to a nanoscale 'guitar'; the strings vibrate at a specific rate, and, when that rate is interrupted, the deviation can be measured and the mass of the molecules can be determined. yeah, but, can i detune them?

funtwo revealed

on december 20, 2005 guitar90 posted a video on youtube of a guitarist playing a metal variation of pachelbel's canon which he had gotten from another site; fast forward to Aug 27, 2006 and the nytimes.com is publishing the guitarist's name and picture, and the video now clocks in with over 7.2 million views!
quick version of the story; jerry chang, a 25 year old taiwanese guitarist works up an arrangement of a rocked out version of the song which demands great hands, tabs it, and video's himself playing it and uploads onto his band's site. a bunch of guitarists dig it, and try their own hand(s) at it. one of them is funtwo, the guitarist revealed today in the paper.
you at least owe it a listen, and then form your own opinion.....

res-o-glas cool

came across this cool post by thevintageguitarcast; there's some cool pictures of a few valco's national brand "map' guitars. these were cool guitar that were reknowned for their 'map' shape. they were produced from '61 to '64, and were made out of a material made of polyester resin and glass threads; res-o-glas.
david lindley uses these, and this is a beautiful example of a national from his collection.

check out the rest of his instruments at davidlindley.

powertune tm system for guitar

the days when one onstage guitar tuned to A440 would do you through the complete five sets of the night are fading fast. so much of today's music is written in drop tunings or altered tunings, that you need four or five guitars placed out in strategic order with you on stage to be able to accomodate all the different tunings needed! so, besides borrowing your buddy's caravan each time you head out to the corner watering whole to carry all those guitars of yours, what can a gigging guitarist do? hey; how about a guitar which could retune itself to a different tuning with a touch of a button? nah, it'd sure be nice though....

in search of a better mousetrap; building the egonomic guitar

many guitarists have experienced different levels of pain and/or discomfort while playing - or as an after effect of playing - guitar. some guitarists come to the instrument with pain or discomfort caused by other forces outside the guitar. i've had my own experiences with stiffness or soreness caused by guitar playing. most guitarists, including myself, change or alter their physical approach to the instrument to accomodate to the physical mechanics of the guitar, but, what if the problem was approached from the viewpoint of the instrument itself, and not the player? what if the instrument's design was defined differently, or adjusted physically in order to better accomodate the physical structure of the guitarist? through the ages, the basic guitar shape has remainded fairly entrenched in the tried and true designs of the past; given, these designs work well and design elements have been adopted to better suit players, but by and large the shape and designs of guitars have remained the same for quite some time.
robert at building the ergonomic guitar, has a great site up which serves as a documentation of his approach to redesigning the electric guitar with an eye to the ergonomic aspects of the guitar. rob does a great job of shedding light on the process, and - upon further explorations of his site - he succinctly explores the reasons why and how the quest began. anyone interested in guitar design, ergonomics, or generally guitar should check his site out!
good job, rob.

Calder guitar cases

my old pals at Calder guitar cases have been busy since i've last checked in on them. their design blog shows the new models of guitar (and violin) cases that are going to be going into production soon. the website is an interesting read; watching the preproduction moving through different stages is cool to see. the cases look great!

scrape the bod, make the guitar hero move

some people take their guitar playing seriously, and when i say seriously, i mean seriously. ok, so maybe these guys are playing make belief guitar via the ps2 game, guitar hero, but busting your leg while trying out a rock and roll air guitar move, is taking guitar playing seriously! and dig they even built thier own website to commemorate the event! wins the 'scrape the bod, make the move' play of the year!

guitar tab site shut-downs hit the big time

further to the NMPA (National Music Publishers' Association) and the MPA's (Music Publishers' Association) legal efforts to shut down all the guitar tab sites currently up on the internet; the New York Times has posted a story on the actions being taken against the tab sites and provides a good background article.
thanks to theconglomerate.org for the link, who also has a good article posted.

guitar tab sites disabled

searching through the tab sites on the internet today; OLGA is not the only site that has been contacted by both the NMPA (National Music Publishers' Association) as well as the MPA (Music Publishers' Association) threatening legal action if they continue posting tab. the claim is that sharing tab constitutes copyright infringement. here is guitar tab universe's splash screen;

guitartabs has also posted that they have received a letter from a law firm which is acting on behalf of the NMPA an MPA. guitartabs has posted the letter here .
wow, there really seems to be a concerted effort right now to bring down tab sites!

building a guitar with ted

ted's guitar is a great site wherein said ted shares the process of building an acoustic guitar. great pictures - showing a real insight into the steps involved in building your own guitar - and good write ups really help to get a sense of the work involved in crafting a guitar. ted's enthusiasm really shines through! it really is a labour of love. good luck to him, and thanks, ted, for taking the time to share your insights!

manouche modele orchestre gypsy guitar

checked out djangology , and found a great review on his newly delivered Manouche Modele Orchestre guitar. that is one serious guitar, and monterey writes a good review/insight into this - and generally gypsy - guitar. check it out here .