Every Tuesday every week Gibson plans to announce a new limited edition guitar that will only be available for that week. They are calling the program Gibson Guitar of the Week. A maximum of 400 of each model will be made and after that, there will be no more.

The first model to come out is the SG Supreme Bass. Interesting that they choose to do a bass for the first “Guitar of the Week”. I’ll be keeping up with the guitars that come out of this program.

Well, it’s that time of year again and NAMM Show has come and gone…. and I missed again. It’s not like I missed the actual show, because I’m not a NAMM member, but I did miss all the fresh news about products and such.

For those of you not in the loop, NAMM used to stand for “National Association of Music Merchants”. These days they have dropped the full name and just go by the acronym. Basically they are a global organization for the musical equipment industry. Each year they hold a trade show that exhibits all the great new music making products from every company. It is not open to the public, you have to be a NAMM member to attend and to be a NAMM member you have to make, buy, and/or sell musical instruments and products. Right now I am just playing a little catch-up, so lets see what I can find about this years show.

On the official NAMM Show website they have a recap of each day including pictures.

Play Guitar Now has a load of great pictures from each day of the show.

Cary at Electric Guitar Review linked to another NAMM 2007 picture gallery at Modern Guitars Magazine that also has a whole bunch of great shots.

Line 6 unveiled the Floor POD Plus basically combining a POD 2.0 with a huge list of premium effects in a portable stomp box floor set.

Gibson announced 11 new guitar models including the digital HD.6X-Pro. Modern Guitars Magazine has all of the details.

Fender showed off the VG Stratocaster, a modeling guitar. It is equipped with a digital pickup, a modeling dial with 37 different models, and a tuning knob that allows you to select from 5 alternate tunings.

Eddie Van Halen and Fender announced a signature EVH Frankenstein replica. The replicas play like a dream but physically feature every nick and mark the original has.

Man, I could probably go all day reading up on all the great stuff to come out of the show… I guess I still have a lot of reading to do.

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.

Continue reading Review: Logitech Z-2300 THX 2.1 PC Speakers

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.

Continue reading Christmas Gift Idea: Chromatic Guitar Tuner

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:
BasXPort™
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.

Continue reading Review: Creative GigaWorks T20 Speakers

Alexi Laiho is definitely one of my favourite guitarists. While his sound might not be as unique as that of Eddie Van Halen or Zakk Wylde, it is different enough to pick out. Someone once said to me “How does he make his guitar sound like a Nintendo?”. I believe they were mistaking the keyboard in the song for Alexi, but thats what I like about it. His sound really does harmonize with Children of Bodom’s keyboard very well.

The surprising thing is Alexi Laiho’s rig is very simple. From the single EMG-H4 pickup in his signature ESP to the effect free rack setup, it is literally just plug-and-play. One thing you may have noticed about Alexi’s guitar sound is it has above average amount of base. This is due to a custom gain boost built right into his guitars (copy of a Jackson boost made in the 80s). I personally like that sound a lot, it adds that extra ka-chunk to his rhythm riffs.

Continue reading Guitar Gear: Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom Guitar & Amp Setup

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.

I know this is a few months old but Popagadget has a post about the new digital internet enabled guitar by Fender and Intel.

Fender and Intel have partnered to create a concept of an internet-enabled super guitar. The new revisited Fender Telecaster will incorporate Intel Centrino mobile technology to allow Internet access on the go. The TELECASTER guitar contains a Hewlett Packard TC1100 tablet laptop with 1.25ghz RAM and an Echo Indigo I/O soundcard.

With the new Fender every musician will be able to download music directly on their “super-guitar”, record new ideas on it and email them directly to whoever they want. It is supposed to even incorporate a webcam, so you can stream yourself rocking onstage to the whole Internet world.

The guitar has a full computer in it with the LCD screen in the back of the body. Watch out for those belt buckles, cause that’s right where the display is.

It sounds like an interesting enough idea to me, but I don’t think it is really innovative enough to sell. I am much more interested in the Gibson digital guitar.

Here is a link to the Intel/Fender Telecaster Concept Guitar on Fender’s website.

Mark Morton’s stage setup is really geared towards mastering the mids. He splits his guitar signal into two channels using a Whirlwind Selector and then runs it through two Mesa/Boogie Mark IV heads. He then sets one of the heads with the mid frequencies scooped and the other with them boosted. Before each show he and his sound tech work together to balance the two heads and get the best sounding mid frequency.
Continue reading Guitar Gear: Mark Morton of Lamb of God Guitar & Amp Setup