There are many different guitar tuning tools out there ranging from chromatic tuners to self-tuning guitars. The String Master Robotic Guitar Tuner falls somewhere in between.

For the guitarist who doesn’t want to tune his guitar, but doesn’t want to buy a whole new bridge and nut system that’s required for a self-tuning guitar, the Robotic Tuner is here for you. The tuner acts the same way a standard chromatic tuner does, but comes with a tuning peg attachment that tightens your strings for you.

All you have to do is plug your guitar into the tuner, put the tuner over a tuning peg on your guitar. Then pluck the string and the tuner will do the rest. The tuner’s motor turns the tuning peg up to pitch and then will beep when it is in tune. The unit runs off of a 9-volt battery.

Although I mostly listen to hard-hitting metal bands, every once and a while I like to kick back and listen to some mellow tunes. When Crosby Still’s and Nash won’t cut it I like to slap in something from these artists. If you play guitar, or even if you don’t, I’m sure you’ll be able to appreciate the acoustic talent these players have.

One of my favorite acoustic albums is Friday Night in San Francisco, which is a live jam session with John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia, and Al DiMeola. It really has some great guitar playing.

Check out these guitarists for some great acoustic music:

Jesse Cook
Strunz and Farah
Eric Clapton – Unplugged
James Taylor
Al DiMeola
John McLaughlin
Paco De Lucia

If you are not familiar with John McLaughlin or Paco De Lucia I really suggest you watch this video on Google Videos. They both play their own flavor of flamenco classical guitar and it really is amazing to hear them jam. I own a live CD from these two that also has Al DiMeola and I always put it on when I have just had a little too much Metal. It is basically acoustic shredding.

As I said in my post about Michael Amott’s guitar setup, I went and saw Arch Enemy and Chimaira last night at MacEwan hall. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I must say it was one of the better shows I have seen.

I went with a buddy of mine and we arrived after the first band. We got there just in time to watch them setup for God Forbid. They were pretty good for the most part. They had a really rad singer, but their sound setup wasn’t the greatest. You couldn’t hear the guitars over the bass and most of the backup vocals were pretty off key. (more…)

How often you change your stings all depends on how often you play and what type of strings you use. As you play a set of stings they will slowly lose their tone due to stretching and oil and dirt buildup. The sound of the strings may be the deciding factor in changing them.

You can preserve the tone of your strings somewhat if you clean your hands before playing the guitar and clean the strings after you are done. You can buy string cleaning formulas, but wiping them with a clean dry cloth should do. My hands build up a bit of a sweat when I’m playing for long periods of time, so cleaning that off really prolongs the life of my strings.

I have heard you should be able to expect anywhere from 12 hours of play and up depending on what types of strings. Now 12 hours of play isn’t very much. If you play 2 hours a day that’s once a week you would have to change your strings. Basically what that time means is after 12 hours of play the strings will start to lose their initial tone. If you are playing gigs or are a touring musician, that might be required for you, but for the average Joe its overkill. (more…)

Although I have never really been a big Satriani fan, nobody can deny that he is an amazing guitarist. The subtitle of this month’s Guitar World reads “He taught Kirk Hammett & Steve Vai… and now he teaches you!” That’s pretty exciting if you ask me because all three of those are some crazy guitar players.

This issue really is focused on the guitar solo. Each article has some relation to that underlying theme and if you can master everything this issue has to offer you will be a better player because of it.

Superhero

Joe Satriani talks about his new album and gives us some tips on how to write rock solos. He stresses playing slowly to learn and that its not always what you play, but how you play it. He says “if you pick every note identically in an absolutely plain way, the succession of notes will not sound very interesting.” The article has 22 different tabbed learning licks with audio on the CD to accompany them.

Boogie Man

Joe Satriani gives a step by step walk through of playing his 1987 hit Satch Boogie.

Reinventing the Steel

Trivium talks about being accepted by the elders of thrash, playing with ex-Pantera members (RIP Dime), the necessity for guitar solos, and their upcoming album The Crusade.

Young Guns

An interview and harmonizing solo lesson with Trivium’s Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu
(more…)

In about 2 hours time I will be heading down to the MacEwan Ballroom at the University of Calgary to see Arch Enemy with guests Chimaira. I’m pretty excited for this show, I have never seen Arch Enemy play and I think Michael Amott is a wicked guitarist. In light of this I thought I’d do a post up about Amott’s guitar setup.

Michael Amott uses some complex midi switching on his live setup. Since he does a lot of switching in his songs and he didnt want to go with a multi-effect setup, he settled on a MIDI-controlled Providence looping/switching system.

From Guitar to Amp

It’s not that simple to describe Michael’s setup in list form since he uses multiple effect loops connected to his MIDI switch, but I’ll do my best. (more…)