Tuning War
How to win the battle!
by John M. LeVan
I have received some great questions lately that fall into the category of “Tuning Problems”. Getting your guitar to play in tune can be a daunting task. This has been a fierce battle that has been raging since the invention of the guitar. There are several issues that, overlooked, can & will cause your guitar to play out of tune. After many years of fighting this battle, I’ve discovered some ideas to help, so here we go… Read more
Tips and Tone
You’ve Lost that Unplugged Feelin’
By John LeVan
Has Your Guitar Lost It’s Magic?
So, this past Christmas, you got the guitar of your dreams, but for some reason, it doesn’t play as well as it did when you first got it. Sound familiar? Over the past several weeks, this is exactly what I’m hearing from my customers. My shop is full of great guitars that have been ravaged by the extreme weather changes we’ve all seen since Christmas. Here are a few tips to restore the magic your guitar has lost.
Many thanks to our good friends over at Guitar.com for taking it to the trenches during the most recent 2011 Winter NAMM show. Here you’ll find a few of the many hundreds of exhibitions that were to be perused on the show floor in lovely downtown Anaheim, California. If you’ve never been to the NAMM show, it’s like Christmas morning for a musician – 4-days straight. It’s guitars, amps, drums, EFX pedals, PA gear, software, hardware, accessories, artist appearances, concerts, contests, product demo’s, product samples and on and on. It’s a lot to take in, in just a few days – exhausting in fact. But for gearheads and the like, it’s a lot of fun. Take a peek at what went on this year on the show floor…
Anaheim, CA – January, 2011 – The 2011 Winter NAMM Show is now officially a memory. It was 4-fun-filled yet packed days of music education, new product announcements, artist appearances, concerts, product demonstrations, G.A.S., and of course people – lots and lots of people. We were fortunate enough to be on-hand for all four days checking out the many new announcements. There was so much to see, you can never take it all in but here is our consolidated effort to show you some of the cooler new releases for the coming year along with updates on many of the classic products already out on the market.
C.F. Martin Guitars shows us their latest and greatest from the Custom Shop and from their classic line of strings:
We got to spend a few minutes with Adrian Emsley of Orange Amps – they have some crazy stuff coming out in 2011.
If you ever got yelled out for your band’s rehearsal being too loud – here’s the perfect solution – JamHub (www.jamhub.com)
Crazy, Cool EKO Guitars – they look so very retro and play better than you can imagine:
And speaking of Retro-cool, Danelectro has plenty of that – plus they’ve got their own new headstock tuner:
Planet Waves and D’Addario latest and greatest releases for 2011:
Ernie Ball/Music Man has the new “Game Changer,” which it certainly is – check out this amazing new pickup technology:
Daisy Rock has brought a whole new flavor to the world of guitars – Check out the new Cherry Bomb:
L.R. Baggs has raised the bar on the world of D.I. Boxes – introducing the Venue:
Red Witch makes the most incredible sounding pedals, not to mention that you can charge them and the charge lasts for 2 weeks:
This is Part 1 of a 3 part series. For more gear announcements and product overviews from Ibanez, Washburn, Parker, Randall, Visual Sound, Mi-Si, DBZ Guitars, Godin Guitars, Eastwood and much more – click here for Part 2
Gbase 2009 – With the holidays just around the corner, we thought we’d provide this little primer on gifts and gadgets for the musician in your life, even if that musician happens to be you. There are lots of new toys and trinkets out there and we’ve hit upon a few of those, as well as the classics. Here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday season!!
Let’s start with a few of the classics: Read more
Great Gifts for Musicians
By John LeVan
The holidays are upon us and (like me), you’re struggling to find the perfect gift to buy. If everyone in my family were a musician, this would be a piece of cake, but I digress! Buying the perfect gift for the player in your life is easy! The key is to find a thoughtful gift to help improve their playing, tone and tuning. So before you go buy someone another tie or pair of socks, check out these useful things that every musician will appreciate. Read more
In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock, 3 days of peace and music, Planet Waves, D’Addario, Woodstock.com and Gbase have put together a prize package in which 3 Lucky Gbase Gearheads will walk away with a commemorative piece of that iconic weekend in upstate, New York. Read more
Farmingdale, NY – The last chord library you’ll ever need, plain and simple. Chordmaster is the quintessential hand-held guitar chord library, brought to you by Planet Waves, part of the D’Addario family of world-renowned musical instrument accessory brands.
Planet Waves’ Chordmaster puts a comprehensive library of more than 7,800 guitar chords in the palm of your hand. Featuring a unique virtual fretboard that accurately displays notes and fingerings, Chordmaster allows users to view chords in multiple neck positions and strum virtual strings to hear each chord in pristine digital audio. Chords are organized by Root, Chord Type and Chord Variants to allow fast, easy navigation. Chordmaster even offers a “lefty” mode for the oft-ignored left-handed guitarist. Players at any level can explore and expand their chord vocabulary with this innovative, simple-to-use hand-held music tool.
Scale Wizard is a complete guitar scale and arpeggio library brought to you by Planet Waves, one of the D’Addario company’s family of world-renowned musical instrument accessory brands.
Scale Wizard puts a massive library of guitar scales, modes and arpeggios into the palm of your hand. This revolutionary app will help you unlock the secret of guitar scales, modes and arpeggios in any key, for any position on the guitar.
Offering over 10,000 patterns, left-handed view and alternate tunings, Scale Wizard is the most complete scale application on any platform. With an interface truly optimized for iPhone and iPod touch, you can swipe your finger up and down the fretboard to hear ascending and descending scales or tap the screen to hear individual notes. You’ll hear the scales, modes and arpeggios come to life, played by a skilled professional guitarist. Multiple positions of each scale, mode and arpeggio exist, to ensure that you’ll always find a unique way to apply your new-found knowledge.
