Guitar

Fender Musical Instruments Corp., one of the largest guitar makers in the world, said Wednesday it is closing its Ovation plant in New Hartford, where nearly 50 employees work, due to low sales and “market conditions.”

Very sad.

The most important rule to me is do you actually need it. Use your ears, and don’t put things in your mix that don’t improve it.

Rich Tozzoli breaks down how best to use multiple guitar amp plug-ins to achieve unlimited sounds.

I love doing this. Using different sounds and a panning strategy can make your song sound so good.

I’ve been hearing a lot about this app in recent months, so I downloaded it and will give it a try. Everything I’ve heard is that this is a really great community with pros like Zakk Wylde contributing, along with regular guys like me.

Sometimes the best innovation is the simplest—that’s the case with Straptight. I’ve seen the inventor swing a guitar over his head with these on his strap and they didn’t pop off. Yet, you just twist it and it comes off when you want it to. They’re endorsed by Joe Satriani and are really inexpensive too.

The Kemper Profiler enables you to do what generations of guitar players have been waiting for: to capture the soul of all your amps (and so many more) inside a lunchbox-sized amplifier.

So, how does it work? We use cutting edge technology to capture the sonic DNA of virtually any guitar amp. The resulting profiles are as living, vivid and dynamic as the original amps.

I’ve been watching this company for the last few years and I’m quite impressed. I haven’t tried one outside of NAMM, but everything I’ve read about the amp has been very positive.

Among the T5z’s distinctive design features are a 12-inch fretboard radius (compared to the T5’s 15-inch radius) and jumbo frets, which make bending strings easier. Otherwise the T5z retains all the great performance features of the original T5: a three-pickup configuration, five-way switching, tone controls that dial in a full-range of tonal flavors, from heavy riffs to delicate fingerpicking, and dual compatibility with acoustic and electric amps.

I’m heading over to Taylor to see this today.

The AC15C1-V-RD limited edition features a Celestion V-Type speaker, custom “British Garnet red” tolex and Bronco patterned Tygon grill cloth. This custom colour projects a powerful presence in any environment – on stage, in the studio, or at home. The V-Type speaker has been built using a carefully balanced ‘recipe’ of both old and new design techniques. It’s a sweet-sounding speaker with a superbly balanced tonal signature that imparts a vintage musicality with authentic Celestion tone that’s suitable for any playing style.

I want one of these amps. I love the Vox sound.

Gretsch is a legendary brand, but I don’t know how I feel about this acoustics.

My Taylor is the best acoustic I’ve ever played.

Line 6 on Thursday announced a new amp it is calling AMPLIFi. While the amp was just announced today, I’ve been using one for the past couple of weeks to test it out.

Fender’s Allen Abbassi gave me a demo of the 60th Anniversary Strat. What a beautiful guitar.

These are the guitars that Fender will show tomorrow at at NAMM. I was in in heaven wandering around the booth.

Looks cool.

I would love to have a guitar made by Grover Jackson.

Yes, I will take one of those.

One of the best things I purchased for my guitar pedals.

Some nice tips from Rich Tozzoli.

Speaking of Fender, they just announced their 2014 line-up.

I’m intrigued.

Jake is an incredible guitar player and one of the reasons I came to love Charvel guitars so much.

Anthony Stauffer:

> I created the Slight Return lessons to share what I’ve learned from this song over the past 18 years. I’ve taken the major themes that Stevie used when he played it, and distilled it into three different solos – beginner, intermediate, and advanced. These lessons will allow you to start working on this style of soloing, no matter what skill level you’re at.

I really like Anthony’s lessons. This is a paid lesson, but there are plenty of free videos available too.

Some nice tips here so you can have a nice recording in your home studio.

Must have!

I found it really interesting that the place I found the most information about what each model of Les Paul was all about was at Musician’s Friend, not Gibson. This is a good guide.

This is a long article, but it’s worth reading. Randy was one of the greatest guitarists ever.

Alex Vollmer takes you through one of the most classic solos of all time. I love playing this Jimmy Page solo.

These are the tuners Gibson used for its Robot guitars, but these look improved, and they are available for a wide range of guitars. I’m going to get a set for one of my older guitars and see how they work.

Jerry Garcia’s Travis Bean TB500 electric guitar, serial number 12. The guitar, designed and built by Travis Bean Inc., was played by Garcia on stage and in recording sessions. Featuring an aluminum neck – a design pioneered by Travis Bean, three single coil pick up configuration and Garcia’s Onboard Effects Loop. This guitar was the first to employ the Onboard Effects Loop, which was then incorporated into all of Garcia’s electric guitars.

The opening bid is $75,000—the guitar is expected to fetch between 100k-200k.