Sometimes comething comes along that is just mind blowing. Although it looks like this video has been around for awhile, I had never seen it until it was recently sent to me. This is absolutly amazing, and I thought I would share it with you. Here is a little history of this amazing device you may want to read before you watch the video.
Turn your sound on for this. Read this first, then watch. This is almost unbelievable. See how all of the balls wind up in catcher cones.
This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa.
Amazingly, 97% of the machines Components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft, Iowa… Yes, farm equipment!
It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video but as you can see it was WELL worth the effort. It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.
On November 17th, 2009, the Gibson Guitars Massman Rd manufacturing facility was raided by Federal agents from the US Fish and Wildlife Service along with local law enforcement officers. The seized guitar, computers, wood, and boxes of files. It seems that Gibson is under investigation of being a part of a scheme to import endangered rosewood from Madagascar, thus violating the Lacey Act. The Lacey Act is a vital part of environmental law. The sale of Madagascar rosewood and ebony has also been linked to international criminal activity.
It seems from what I have heard so far, Gibson's role in the scheme is unclear, but it is thought that they were a part of a bigger plot which was having this endangered wood shipped to Germany, and then on to the United States. Most of the details as far as I can see are unclear and somewhat hazy. No Charges have been brought against Gibson at this time, and a representative of Gibson stated that they were fully cooperating in the investigation. Being that Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz sits on the board of the Rainforest Alliance, the implications of this investigation could be far reaching.
As more information is made available, I will try to update this blog. I can only hope that this is a mistake, and that Gibson is able to clear their name. It would be a shame to see an icon of the guitar industry involved in such an act, especially given their ties to environmental groups. For more details and to read more on this story, please see the NashvillePost.com article at http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/200 … son_guitars_raided_by_fbi
When GuitarGearHeads.com was just getting off the ground, it was extremely difficult to get companies to work with us. This was understandable since we came out of nowhere and virtually nobody in the musical instruments industry knew who we were. It took a few years, and a few good people in the industry to give us a chance. One of those people who welcomed us and our ideas from the first time I spoke with him was Wayne Freeman.
I just learned today that Wayne Freeman passed away on Thursday November 11th, 2009 due to a massive heart attack. Wayne is survived by his wife Carol, as well as Julia and Jennifer, their two daughters. Our hearts go out to his family and friends on this sad day, and I only wish that we could offer more comfort to all who knew him.
I met Wayne about five years ago when he was with "Marshall Electronics" (Mogami Cables, and MXL microphones). He was one of the few people who always returned my phone calls and e-mails, and always made me feel like he was glad to hear from me. It seemed that anytime we talked, I came away with new knowledge about the industry and ways to approach the goals we had set out to accomplish with GuitarGearHeads.com. His advice was invaluable, and his positive attitude was always infectious. I could always count on a great conversation, and positive reinforcement from Wayne when we visited at NAMM shows. Although it has been way too long since I last talked to Wayne, I will personally miss him and his friendship. He was truly one of the good guys of the MI industry.
Last weekend I decided to catch up on some guitar restringing. I noticed that the strings on my G&L ASAT Special Semi-Hollow Body were getting a little rough from the corrosion on the unwound high end. I grabbed a set of strings from my stash and proceeded through the changing process. As I got down to the last string (the high E), it became apparent right away that something was wrong. As I reached into the paper envelope to pull out the string, it didn't feel quite right. When I looked at the string, there were spots of rust colored corrosion in different areas along the entire string. This was a brand new string right out of an unopened package.
I have to admit that I was slightly frustrated, but not overly so. I realize that things like this can happen, even if I only had this set of strings for a couple months. Since I did not have another set of the same strings on hand, I unstrung the entire guitar and threw the whole set away. I am kind of a perfectionist, and I don't like to mix string brands or gauges. I grabbed another set of string of a different brand which had the same plastic sleeve packaging with paper envelopes holding two strings each.
I was getting these strings out of the package while thinking about what could have happened to cause such a rare case of brand new string corrosion. This time I didn't even get the flap opened on the paper sleeve when I saw it. I immediately noticed a somewhat circular rust colored stain on the outer packaging paper. I was stunned! I pulled the string out of the sleeve only to find that this one was even worse than the string from the previous set I had just thrown away. I went back to my music room and started going through the rest of the strings I had with this same unsealed plastic sleeve packaging. Out of the five sets on hand, only one set was good.
My music room is a very dry place, and there is not a lot of humidity in the area. There is no reason whatsoever that I can think of in which two month old strings would corrode like this, especially in the environment they were stored. I am not sure what went wrong, but I can tell you one thing. I will only use strings that come in sealed packages from this point on. I made this decision based on the fact that I have fifty or so sets of D'Addario strings which are packaged in vacuum sealed plastic bags. I have had some of these sets for over two years, and these were what I ended up using on this guitar in the end. They were in perfect condition, as if they had just come off the factory floor.
This blog is not meant to be an endorsement of D'Addario strings. I understand that there are a lot of great strings on the market, and many players prefer different brands. It is my opinion however that some string makers need to rethink their packaging methods. They need to realize that even though their product is relatively inexpensive in comparison to other guitar products, in the long run, an average player will probably spend as much on strings as they did on the guitar itself. No player deserves to open a set of bad strings unless they spilled liquid on them, or stored them improperly. I just threw out about twenty-five dollars in bad strings from two different companies. I have purposely not mentioned the companies here, but I assure you that I will be sending them my complaint in writing.
Last night my wife asked me a very interesting question that really got me to think. She asked me "what guitar I have always wanted but has seemed to elude me for my entire playing career". The answer was simple and I didn't even need to think about it. The Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty has held my attention since I had the chance to play on in a music store over 15 years ago. At a price tag of over $4400 however, it is not a guitar that I have ever felt that I could afford to go out and buy.
She went even further in the question and asked what my motivation behind wanting this guitar was based on. I have to admit that my motives on other guitars I have desired and bought had to do not only with the sound and playability, but with the fit and finish, or simply just how cool the guitar looked. Don't get me wrong. The Black Beauty is an awesome looking guitar in its own right, but I lean toward finishes that show the wood grain, especially a beautiful flame maple top. Black has not been my color of choice since the first black guitar I owned. I really like the look of black guitars, but the task of keeping them clean is just more than I want to deal with. No color shows fingerprints and oils worse than a gloss black guitar. Still, the Black Beauty which only comes in.... you guessed it ... "black", would be my guitar of choice. The reason is the great playability, and the tonal options that the third pickup offers. This guitar is so much different than any other Les Paul I have played. This led me to think that my motivation to own this guitar was based more on sound, and not on looks, and to tell the truth, I could not name a well known player off the top of my head that plays a Black Beauty. This is a pure motivation for all the right reasons, because my choice is based on the most important aspects of what a guitar should be.
I would like to hear from some of you on your "dream guitar", and why that guitar holds so much appeal for you. Please feel free to chime in and leave your comments.
Trends in musical instruments are not uncommon today. Usually they start out pretty slow when one company incorporates a new idea, and then other companies slowly follow making small changes, thus the evolution of a new product begins. At the NAMM show in Anaheim 2008, a new trend seemed to be developing, and the interesting part is how fast this one seems to be moving. Companies that have built their name in solely acoustic guitars have begun to move into the solid body electric guitar realm.
The most marketed and well known of these is the new Taylor solid body guitar. I knew of this guitar well before the NAMM show, but as I visited other high end acoustic guitar builders, I saw two more companies that introduced solid body electrics for the first time. Both Wechter Guitars and Larrivee Guitars were showing these new guitars, and to my amazement, these guitars were high end, well built, and thought out.
The other interesting part of this event is the fact that these are not cheap copies of guitars already on the market. I did not get a chance to check out the Larivee guitar as long as I would liked to, but both the Taylor models and the Wechter models have incorporated brand new proprietary pickups as well as unique body shapes styles for comfort in playing.
At this point, I believe that this is a valuable trend based on the fact that these companies are pushing the limits of electric guitar technology, which I believe for the most part has been a little stagnant for awhile with the exception of a few electric guitar manufacturers. It will be exciting to continue to see how this plays out, and if a primarily acoustic guitar manufacturer will be able to make inroads into a market that has been dominated by large companies like Fender and Gibson for so many years.
