I’ve been noticing a nice little trend in the acoustic guitar market that has been evolving for several years now. That is the creation of guitars specific to bluegrass and “back-porch pickin’”.

This year in particular I’ve seen three brands come to the forefront, Blueridge Guitars, Recording King, and Morgan Monroe.

One of my favorites is the “BLUERIDGE PREWAR SERIES “000″ GUITAR” from Saga Music.

Of course it’s one of their most expensive models; however, they make a variety of really cool acoustics based closely on Martin pre-war designs. (For you kids, “pre-war” means World War II).

http://www.sagamusic.com/catalog/products.asp?CategoryID=2&FamilyID=2&BrandID=5

From Morgan Monroe, my favorite is more on the country blues side with the “Blues 32″:

http://www.morganmonroe.com/Blues-32_903bfcf888dc15d09654295.html

Another one is Recording King.

I dunno the name just resonates “Memphis Sun Studios” to me. Doesn’t have anything to do with that place - but it sure is a good name. Their abalone series piques my interest.

http://www.recordingking.com/guitars_ro227.html

Hey everyone,

My buddy Jason at Little Rock Jams is offering free lessons to Hilary Clinton, Barak Obama, and John McCain when they come through Little Rock.

As he states “I figure after a 30 minute lesson, I’ll have a good feel for where each person stands and who “I” feel will best lead the country. You can tell a lot about someone when they jam with you over a blues!”

This is just crazy enough that it might work! Do me a favor and check out his blog and while you are at it Digg/Stumble the post!

http://blog.littlerockjams.com/2008/04/28/free-guitar-lessons-for-presidential-candidates–hillary-barack-and-john.aspx

Dan

So I opened up a flyer I got from Guitar Center and I see this new amplifier from Line 6. I am assuming they are releasing it to compete with the Fender GDEC (which is also pretty cool). I’ll say that it looks impressive - boasts 75Ws and early reviews are positive, which isn’t surprising given that it is loaded with a Celestion and the tones are basically from POD 2.0.

What is really kind of cool is the 100 (ONE HUNDRED) endless jam loops. These loops were recorded by studio musicians and aren’t MIDI based or anything like that. Without hearing how they sound, I’ll say thats just got to be a ton o’ practice fun. Better than a metronome that’s for sure!

Let me know if you take one for a spin - I’d love to try one out myself.

http://line6.com/spiderjam/

Dan

Hey folks,

Was browsing around and found a pretty cool guitar lesson website called “GuitarMasterClass”.

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/

Kind of reminds me of the old GuitarTricks.com website - except with tons of video.

Dan

My only question is how you get your arms around this beast!

Original article on DVICE:

http://dvice.com/archives/2008/04/quadrupleneck_m.php

Dan

Well the multi-effects space is still red hot. I noticed that Digitech recently released the RP500 a high-end model in their popular RP series. I like the new, more modern look of this model. I also like that the letters are big - that is a good thing on a dark stage where you look dopey if you bend down to see what patch you are on.

I wish they would redo the GNX4 - It’s still a great machine, but needs a serious style update.

http://www.digitech.com/products/RP500/index.php

If anyone grabs a hold of one of these babies - let me know how it sounds!

Dan

Gibson Guitars filed a lawsuit against Activision’s Guitar Hero game. It seems that Gibson owns a patent on technology simulating a live musical performance. They have insisted that Activision either license their patent, or cease selling any and all versions of the Guitar Hero game.

The funny thing about this lawsuit is that Gibson licensed the right to Activision to model their controller for the Guitar Hero after Gibson guitars. So Gibson knew about the game for the three years that it has been on the market, but did not file a patent lawsuit until Guitar Hero made over 1 billion dollars from sales of guitar Hero.

What is next? Is Gibson going to bring lawsuits against every eight year old kid who pretends that his mother’s broom is a guitar and that he is a start jamming with his favorite band? Sounds kind of silly, but I bet my great grandmother thought a broom was a new technology. Could this be considered a “technology” to simulate a live musical performance?

I find this to be unlikely since most eight year old children do not have enough money for Gibson to go after, but on the other hand maybe they will go after only the children who have wealthy parents. I we should urge our children to stick with air guitar, since open air is not patented, or considered a technology…….. Or is it?

Note to Gibson: We love your guitars. Can you please just concentrate on making a great guitar and leave everyone else alone. If you continue to build a great guitar, we will buy them. If I was Activision, I would call Fender and PRS and license the right to make my controllers in the image of their guitars. I am sure they would be more than happy with the money and the exposure they would receive.

News Article:

http://www.news.com/Gibson-Activisions-Guitar-Hero-violates-patent/2100-1043_3-6234177.html

Gary Allen

This is a really cool instruction book I bought a while back. It uses a clever “comic book” format to teach the fretboard. I really enjoyed it and it has opened up how I see the fretboard. Take a look - here’s a video of Kirk playing a “Little Wing” improve on slide using his technique.

http://www.thatllteachyou.com/home.html

Dan

Most people can spot a Hartke bass amplifier from a mile away. The signature aluminum cones are a dead giveaway in most cases. Many players have come to depend on these aluminum cones to attain their signature sound. On the other hand some players do not find them to be as warm as the more traditional paper cones. Hartke has come up with a way to satisfy those who sit on the fence. They have introduced a new amplifier and speaker cabinet system called the HyDrive.

The HyDrive continues to innovate by fusing paper and aluminum to create a very interesting and new concept in speaker design technology. By combining the aluminum with paper in the cone, a player will be able to retain the punch and clarity of the aluminum while adding warmth through the paper section.

The Hydrive will be available in three combo amplifier designs including a 1×15, 1×12, and 2×10 combination as well as three dedicated speaker cabinets in a 1×15, 4×10, and 8×10 configuration.

Hartke is one of the top selling bass amplifiers in the world, and the HyDrive is sure to make that fact continue in an upward trend. We have recently found out that we will be receiving a 2×10 combo amplifier for review when they are available to ship. Watch for the review coming soon.

Gary Allen

I sometimes wonder just how many people in top management positions at musical instrument manufacturers know about the products their companies make. Of course in smaller companies this is not as big of an issue because the owner or President is often times very involved in the production aspects. In larger companies however, it seems that more management positions deal with administration, and less with the actual instrument production.

At the NAMM show in January we were visiting the Taylor Guitars booth. We asked if we could shoot a short video with someone talking about a couple of the new guitars they were showing. To our surprise they brought in non other than Bob Taylor himself. Mr. Taylor had not idea we were going to do this, so he pretty much sat down with a couple of guitars and just talked about them. This ended up being among the best video footage we have ever shot. Bob knew these guitars well, and spoke with authority on them. This video was not edited in any way, but is rather a straight up improvisation. It is very clear from this video that Bob Taylor is very much involved with not only his company, but also with the guitars they produce.

We were able to talk to Bob for a few minutes after the video. Mr. Taylor is a class act, yet comes across as a humble and extremely nice guy. I hope that we can get some video footage of Bob Taylor speaking about more guitars next January.

Gary Allen