When we last left off with the Loog Guitar by Rafael Atijas it had blown past its funding goals on Kickstarter in early 2011 and shipped with much fanfare making it one of the first successful Kickstarter projects on our radar. In the interim it’s become a mini-phenomenon and, most important, people have started using the three-stringed instruments to record albums. → Read More
The surprisingly small and light Jamstik is, in short, one of the coolest things I’ve seen at CES Today. It is a MIDI guitar that is actually a musical controller. By playing and plucking the strings you can play music using synthesized sounds and it recognizes chords, notes, and nuances including bends and hammers. → Read More
While magical mobile devices are able to simulate instruments in wild and mind-blowing ways, thankfully most people stick to the actual instruments themselves when learning to play. Arguably, a better (or at least more popular) use for mobile devices is to act not as the instrument itself, but as an educational aid — a tool that helps us to learn how to play our favorite instruments. → Read More
I love analog tech and I love analog sound. That’s why I wrote up these two basic reviews of two Empress analog pedals for guitarists sick of bleeps and bloops and color LCD read-outs. I added a few video demos, as well, but I was able to play with this gear for a while in my own home studio and came away quite pleased.
Empress Phaser Pedal
Empress’ phaser pedal packs a lot of features in a… → Read More
Years ago I thought I could be in a rock band (right around the same time I thought I could make money writing poetry) but I eventually resigned myself to the fact that I’d never be a great guitarist. I didn’t have the drive to practice and the act of soloing confounded me completely. How did you play along with the Zep and the Beatles? How do you get great? How do you meet groupies? As time… → Read More
Another day, another three-stringed guitar on Kickstarter. This instrument comes to us courtesy of Rafael Atijas and started out as a thesis project at NYU. It is a simple, 3-string guitar for kids that is tuned to open chords and allows you to strum up and down the neck without having to perform many fretting maneuvers. The guitar comes unassembled and includes an instruction book.
The project… → Read More
Those wacky Aussies! Apparently the heat has gotten to “Koolguitar” because he (or she, to be fair) has decided to sell a 1976 Gibson Les Paul Custom, which it super rare. I’m not so sure about the guitar (however it is up to $5,400 at the time of this post), but the first picture he’s using to post is certainly rare. Since it’s kinda NSFW, I’ll put it up after the jump. → Read More
Guitar World Magazine and Agile Partners launch a new and pretty straight forward iOS app today called Guitar World Lick Of The Day. As the name suggests, the app delivers a new guitar “lick”, in the form of a video lesson, every day through a monthly subscription service. The app itself is free and comes pre-populated with several free licks so you can try it out first. You can get… → Read More
If you recall, Paper Jamz instruments allow kids and adults alike to play music using what amounts to a paper guitar. But how does it work? Basically you have a set of touch sensitive switches under a paper surface. To get at it, the haxors at EDN had to soak the thing in the tub for a while. → Read More
KARANG! We who are about to spend $4,150 on a guitar salute you! The Dusk Tiger from Gibson is a sexy piece of kit that includes next-gen tuning technology that allows you to almost instantly retune your guitar in any configuration while controlling the sound and modeling right from the knob bank. The bridge actually senses the tension and tuning of the string while the internal electronics manage… → Read More
IK Multimedia released an update to their AmpliTube iOS app today in the iTunes App Store. We reviewed the first version of the app and its necessary iRig hardware dongle back in July. It’s a worthy and early entrant into the emerging arena for native app-based recording on touch-enabled mobile devices. Version 2 of this iOS app is a free upgrade for previous installs and offers a plethora… → Read More
You would think that attaching a cell phone to a guitar would have been something people jumped on in the early days of wireless. Of course, using a flip phone wouldn’t have been practical, so what the world was really waiting for was the iPhone. Castiv is one of the first, if not the first company to manufacture a device that attaches your iPhone to your guitar. I will admit to scoffing a bit… → Read More
Rob Morris just showed me this very cool gestural guitar interface that allows you to control a guitar with your iPhone. You can modify the sound by moving the guitar around (think Star Power in Guitar Hero) and you can even shred on the iPhone while the guitar twangs away.
No, you can’t buy one. And Rob’s not selling his rig. → Read More
Tired of carrying your 4×12 cabinet and/or amp? No more lugging for you. The Pocket Amp from Palmer is a great solution to be a truly mobile guitarist. This little box has XLR and headphone outputs so you can do some practice on your own and hook yourself up to a PA system without having that awful sound when you connect directly. → Read More
In the course of any guitarist’s life, there will be some point where they come into contact with a product manufactured by Peavey. And if that 80s retro logo, complete with pointy-angled letters, bestows itself upon your amp on stage it will either be a source of embarrassment or a badge of honor, depending on your design tastes and sound needs. While I took the logo off it long ago, I have… → Read More
I got my Millenium Falcon six-string Bought it down on Tatooine Played ’til my fingers bled It was summer of ’69 Me and some guys from school Had a Band and we tried real hard Mario quit and Chewie got married I shoulda’ known we’d never get far → Read More
IK Multimedia – makers of fine Guitar and Bass modeling software, among other things – have pre-order and pricing info available for their new iRig/Amplitube combo for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. This system requires their iRig dongle in conjunction with an app on your device. I have used both their Amplitube and SVX desktop modeling software before with good results. This mobile version… → Read More
Inspired Instruments, makers of a portable, real-string digital guitar dubbed the You Rock Guitar, has raised $1.25 million from a number of private investors in preparation for the launch of the You Rock Guitar platform and to move forward with a line of accessories and software solutions.
The company’s flagship product, the You Rock Guitar, is a mobile digital guitar and game controller that… → Read More
The slew of music recording / creation apps for the iPhone all share the same weakness. They rely on the internal microphone, and a recording quality microphone it is not. The Guitarbud from PRS Guitars gives you a direct input into your iDevice without taking away headphone capability. → Read More
The original complaint about music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band is that they convinced kids that playing the guitar was actually easy. A few taps, a few strums and you sounded like Jack White or Ozzy, right? Well Powergig wants to change that perception by offering a real six-string guitar that you can really play and, with the flip of a switch, you can dampen the strings and strum along… → Read More
Its a proven fact that playing guitar will get you chicks. Unfortunately, by the time you actually put in the time to stop sucking at it, most of the chicks are gone. The i-tab will have you playing pop songs in no time, its up to you whether or not you look like a putz while doing so. → Read More
I don’t know how to begin this, so I’ll get right to it: A Japanese company called K’s Japan is offering an “electric guitar” [JP] that’s just made to get destroyed. And, after you smashed the thing to bits, you can recycle it. So what we have here is a “destroyable price and recyclable system” (K’s Japan’s official tag line), which is ideal for guitarists who want to look cool without sacrificing… → Read More
If you have a friend who is a “serious” guitarist, you probably know how they love to show off their pedal collection. A dizzying array of brightly colored metal housings that more often than not, they don’t know exactly how they all work. Dave Verlee from the University of Illinois has cooked up a really cool virtual pedalboard using a wiimote and custom “toe-mouse.”… → Read More
This crazy guitar is actually an open source MIDI system using a sexy touchscreen with multi-touch and reactive fretboard. The result? Let’s just say while you probably won’t get much cherry pie playing this thing, the guys at Information Society will definitely invite you into their trailer at the Iowa State Fair this year. → Read More
It’s a well known fact of life that creativity flows better when the sun is down. The best essays are written the night before class, the best coding is done at 2 AM, and the best music is written when everyone else would rather sleep. VOX’s series of headphone amps allow you to rock out without your neighbors calling the police. → Read More
Why be a video game rockstar if you can’t hear it? Have you always wanted to put your foot on something while you power chord-ed your way to stardom? For those of you who are using the stock speakers in your TV to play Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or Harmonica Hero, first off, shame on you. → Read More
Listen to this amazing EFX Effectology demo and tell me it’s not amazing. Essentially the guitarist, Bill Ruppert, is recreating the classic proto-sampler sound of the Mellotron with a few stompboxes and some carefully calibrated presets. The results, in the beginning, are amazing: He essentially recreated the first notes of Strawberry Fields Forever on a guitar. Click through to see how a… → Read More
iShred looks like an iPhone guitar app that actually looks usable, assigning chords to buttons at the top of the screen which are then played with a strum of the strings. Best of all, the system has a set of stompboxes for your amping pleasure including tremelo and looping.
Overdrive, anyone? → Read More
Ask any budding guitarist what the hardest thing about playing guitar is and you’ll likely hear, “Making my fingers go on the part where they’re supposed to go and pressing down on the string in the finger spot where the criss-crossey thing isn’t right under my finger but the flat part that doesn’t have the metal criss-cross thing there, but in between the two metal things where… → Read More
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