Couple of news items…

Are armed attacks on a guitar manufacturing plant really necessary? Here is an update on the Government VS Gibson Guitars.

The Libya connection: guitar playing during street battles (certainly the sound of machine guns right next to a guitar player will drown out the notes–no?).

Firebird X

If a hot blue (or red) Corvette–with plenty of electronic gadgetry– could transform into an electric guitar this might be what it would look like. A review of Gibson’s new Firebird X. Here’s a look at it on Gibson’s site.

Guitarist with steel strings plays classical guitar music…

“There was this very old guitar teacher who had an open mind to accept me to bring my electric guitar to the [classical guitar] lesson.” Here

Gibson Guitar Co VS the Feds

Here’s a look into Gibson’s exotic woods controversy. Story over @ the LA Times.

Update.

The good, the bad and the ugly–on twelve strings

I’ve always loved this theme; on twelve electric strings it’s the next best thing to the full orchestra version.

Hey wait a minute here’s one (with a Irishy folksy variation in the middle) on 36 strings more or less…

Montreal Guitar Trio with the California Guitar Trio

Electric guitar chamber music?

Yes, my fell guitar enthusiasts, the Electric 8 “has thrown all…preconceived notions in the wastebasket and now call for the same classical performance status as is given to chamber string and wind ensembles…” It could take some convincing for regular concert goers, though; I mean a lot of people just wouldn’t be able to get past all those wires and amps.

“a dynamic cyclical model of fetishization appropriate to an age of mass-production.”

I think that sums it up pretty good…After all, why ” would someone create a replica of Blackie, complete with every single nick and scratch, including the wear pattern from Mr. Clapton’s belt buckle and the burn mark from his cigarettes? And why is that replica expected to fetch at least $20,000 at Wednesday’s auction, and probably much more?…” Read the rest of this article in the NY Times.

Cherry supreme: good enough to eat

This is what a $5000.+ guitar looks like: Gibson Les Paul Cherry Sunburst

Gibson quality control issues

I’ve been reading on and off for several years now about Gibson quality control problems–painting, gluing, etc. Here’s a picture I got off a recent forum showing one of the problems, in this case cracking along the fingerboard perimeter. Type Gibson quality issues or Gibson quality control problems in Bing or Google and you’ll come up with a good cross section.

Forum link here.

Tommy Emmanuel and his band

Here.

Now this, a, er, looks sort of interesting

Click here.

Ovation guitars

The Ovation iDea.

I haven’t had a chance to play one of these yet but it looks like a great idea. Not only can you play it like a regular acoustic guitar but it also plugs into an amp, but the most interesting feature is the digital recording console built in; not only does it allow you to instantly and conveniently record, say a run you’ve come up with, some musical idea you’ve stumbled upon, but you can also layer musical lines, as for example a chord progression, and as you’re playing that back you can add a melodic line or another chord progression to go with it. This looks ideal for guitar composers. This particular model lists for over $900. or so but I’ve seen them now for under $250. (Amazon for instance)

Top mounted digital console.

Electric guitar Gods

There are Gods of the classic guitar, jazz guitar, flamenco guitar; there are even Gods of the Banjo and Uke. Above are electric guitar Gods (please leave the appropriate sacrifice).

 

“King of the Surf Guitar”

Known as the King of the Surf Guitar during the early sixties, Dick Dale, now 73, a survivor of cancer which struck him at 27, is probably best known today for that amp-driven bassey sixties surfer hit Miserlou, which, by the way, had a comeback in the movie Pulp Fiction. Well Dale is back anew with “Guitar Legend: The Very Best of Dick Dale” and is about to start his “Electric Acoustic” tour in California. Here’s a recent article about him.

Dick Dale & The Del Tones:  ”Misirlou” from 1963 (as played in the movie A Swingin’ Affair)

Notes: When you’re watching this try to concentrate on Dale’s playing and not the blonde dancing in front of him; secondly keep in mind that the bass player is NOT a zombie…Here’s Dick Dale performing an updated version of “Misirlou”(1996)…Here’s Dick Dale, along with Stevie Ray Vaughan doing “Pipeline”; it’s about the weirdest video I’ve ever seen (Dale’s hair is scarrrrrrrrey)… It seems, at least in some of his videos (er, like the one above),  Dale plays with the strings in reverse order, high e at the top, then b, g, d, a, and low e…Dale, as he admits in some interviews, isn’t a great player but he does play loud, and for him, and his fans, that’s all that really matters… Type his name in Youtube and you’ll come up with a basket of stuff.

Update: new Dick Dale article.

“Promenade by the Mind”

Haunting little classical guitar composition (here or here) by Woody Guitar Roots (that’s his user name on the Vimeo and Yourtube video sites). Here he is on a hollow-body electric playing a jazzy number called Rain in the Soul. Very nice–and smooth. Channel.

World’s cheapest electric guitar

Ingredients: strings (well, for this model at least one), pickups, assorted fasteners, and one bottle of beer (but make sure you drink it first).

Here’s another low techie (there’s quite a fiew of these on Youtube)

The Fretless guitar

I’ve heard of fretless bass guitars of course but never a regular six string fretless. Below is a demonstration (the guitarist on the right). Looks pretty cool

And here’s your friendly fretless guitar resource.

“World’s seven most expensive guitars”

Well, actually it’s not the guitar itself that’s so expensive but who owned and played it before. Here.

Below, for example, is Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 Fender Stratocaster. Price: two million dollars, surpassed in value only by a Fender Stratocaster signed by the likes of Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, etc., etc and going for two and three-quarter million.

A whole bunch of styles wrapped in one

The incredible Bill Kirchen playing a succession of styles

“Future frames”

Iron Man meets electric guitar (via Tesla coils)

Now this is real electric guitar playing.

Story here.

This is their more finished version.

“He played the wildest strings in town”

Wild Guitar, starring Arch Hall, Jr….You haven’t seen wild till you’ve seen a wild guitar.

Note: Hey, did you know Arch Hall, Jr.–the Wild Guitar man himself– is going to be at Chiller Theatre in Oct?

Another guitar attack…

Man uses guitar as weapon. Here. This is the second or third such incident using a guitar I’ve read about over the past year. Just a thought–aren’t there enough real weapons out there to commit mayhem with instead of using a guitar? I mean we don’t want the government to start requiring citizens to get a guitar license do we?

Reso Tone guitars

Check these unique Reso Tone  guitars (and ukes, mandolins, etc) here (National Guitars).

The moose antler, shovel, and rake guitars, etc., etc., etc…

“…Trashed rakes, old frying pans and moose antlers might be junk to some, but not Canadian Lorne Collie who has made all of these things into guitars at one time or another. Collie is a “luthier,” or guitar maker, and his hobby is transforming the scrap he stumbles across… into electric guitars… Here, from CNN.

The day Bob Dylan got booed off stage

”…A  24-year-old Dylan, who had become an icon of folk music, was booed off the stage after playing three songs on an electric guitar. A number of friends and colleagues tried to persuade Dylan to finish his set, including Johnny Cash, Holzman said. When he came back on stage, an ill-humored Dylan sang ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’. It would be 37 years before Dylan returned to the festival…” Here. You might say that’s a long time to hold a grudge but who could blame him. Me? I would’ve never gone back.

“Father of the electric guitar”

Les Paul of course: “..He has performed with Eric Clapton, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Chet Atkins and others. Described as the ‘Father of the Electric Guitar,’ and a pioneer figure of rock and roll, Les Paul developed the solid body guitar. Marketed first in 1952, his designs eventually became a part of Gibson’s electric guitars, known as the Les Paul Models…” Read rest of article here, it’s a good short overview of his carreer. Here’s another overview (with video).

Pitfalls of being a bassist (with your mouth open)

“Grammy-winning U.S. rock band Kings of Leon cut short their concert last night in St. Louis after a pigeon dropping landed in bassist Jared Followill’s mouth…” Here.

When guitars attack

Men arrested for beating roomante with guitars–one electric, one acoustic. Fortunately the victim escaped serious injury; no word yet on the condition of the guitars. Here.

Tommy Emmanuel again

Tommy Emmanuel is one of the most amazing guitarists and entertainers you’ll come across. Never fails to impress, whether it’s with his straight guitar playing or with his wild percussive effects. Well here he is in an impromptu stage appearance with some locals, and with a borrowed guitar.