I found this link via Digg.com yesterday. This guy, Brian Eastwood makes custom guitars that kind of remind me of a Picasso painting. I’m not sure how they are functionally, but they definately are unique.

Tabs are really great for learning how to play guitar. They show you exactly how to play a song note for note and you don’t have to know very much about playing a guitar to understand them. However, a major problem with tabs is they do not represent tempo or timing accurately. This can be a real problem when you are trying to figure out the rhythm of a riff. Unlike sheet music, a tab will tell you everything about what to do with your fretting hand, but very little about how to strum.

I found this program called Guitar Pro a few years ago. Basically what it does is it takes a tab file and it plays it back to you in the form of a MIDI. If you aren’t familiar with the sound of a MIDI, it’s similar to the sound of a polyphonic cell phone ring. Now although you wouldn’t want to jam with a cell phone, it does the trick for helping you learn a song because you can see the tab being played as you hear the notes. Also, the program gives you the ability to slow down the tempo so you can hear and see it played slowly. This feature alone is what makes it an amazing tool. Guitar Pro isn’t a simple program either, it interprets all different forms of guitar technique including slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs bends, muting, harmonics, tapping, tremolo and much more.
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Well… I was going to post a trackback to Cary Miller at Electric Guitar Review and his post from a few weeks ago on the Gibson Digital HD.6x-Pro guitar to announce that it has finally been released. However, as I hit his front page I see that he beat me to the chase. So please head over to his post about the release of the Gibson HD.6x-Pro. He has all the juicy details.

I know, in my previous post I bashed the Logitech Z-2300 speakers for not being as crisp and clear (and cheap) as the superior Creative GigaWorks T20. In all honesty I do believe the T20s have a better overall sound. However, there is one area where Logitech’s THX 2.1 speakers excel and that is volume. I’m not exactly sure what the specifications are for THX certification, but I think there is a rule in there that says they must maintain a specific level of sound quality at a high volume. The thing I love about these speakers is whether I have them just loud enough to hear or cranked to 11 the sound quality is the same.

I think my one complaint is the size of the subwoofer. Although it’s size is nice for playing games because you get that rumble when things explode and whatnot, I find music sound quality is slightly diminished. Because I have the speakers above the desk and the sub below there is that separation of the sound. Also, because the speaker cables are only a few feet long your are limited with how far you can move the sub.
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I am a band t-shirt buyer. When I like a group, I buy the shirt to show everyone. This is a great gift idea for that music lover in your family.

There are lots of places out there that you can get music related tshirts. A great site for both mainstream and underground bands is JSR Direct. I also suggest checking out Amazon.com and allposters.com

You will have to act soon though, the time left for ordering gifts online is quickly running out!

A great gift that I received for Christmas when I was just starting to play guitar was a chromatic tuner. I had taught myself how to tune the guitar by ear, but my hear wasn’t really trained that well. So even though I tuned my guitar it was generally off. A chromatic tuner was an excellent gift because it helped me learn songs easier by having a guitar that sounded like it was supposed to.

A chromatic tuner has a lot of other uses, like introducing you to alternate tunings and lower tunings like drop d and half or full step down.

The Korg GT-3 digital guitar tuners are a great buy, but pretty much any chromatic tuner will do.
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Well it is December, so I guess it’s ok to start talking about Christmas now. One thing about Christmas is I always get guitar stuff. People know me as a guitar guy and so they know getting me guitar related stuff is always a sure bet.

The good thing about guitars is there is a range of very expensive to very cheap stuff you can get. So I just wanted to go over some of the cheaper items you can buy your guitar playing friend for Christmas. As the title says, these things make great stocking stuffers.

1. Guitar Strings
Guitar strings are always a sure bet. The thing about strings is they wear out and they have to be replaced. Also, it doesn’t matter if buddy has spare guitar strings already, if you buy them they will always get used. There is one key factor though, you MUST make sure you get strings that the person will use. Guitar players can be very specific about what they put on their guitar. So, try and get an old package from strings they have used or better yet, just ask them what kind of strings they like on their guitar.

There are three things you want to know: type, gauge, and brand. The type refers to whether they are steel acoustic, nylong acoustic, or electric strings. The gauge is the thickness and is usually light, medium, or heavy. And the brand could be one of hundreds. These three things are very important. If you get your guitar player a set of heavy strings and they play light strings, they may never put them on their guitar.
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Creative has a great product on their hands with the GigaWorks T20 speakers. To be a serious guitar player one thing is usually true… you have to love music. If you really love music then you’ll want it to sound as good as it can when you listen to it.

Now I know what you are thinking: “they don’t even have a sub”. Well it doesn’t matter. I bought these speakers for my girlfriend’s Mac Mini and they have better sound then my 200-Watt Logitech 2.1 THX-Cirtified Z-2300s. Creative has incorporated this new feature that they call BasXPort which basically puts a sub in both of the two speakers.

From the Creative website:
BasXPortâ„¢
Acoustically engineered to enhance the lower mid range tones. This is done by efficiently channeling sound waves from the inner chamber to the soundstage, for fuller, more encompassing sound.

This BasXPort technology means the speakers can produce better bass then possible with a 2.1 setup.
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