We just launched reviews on Fretbase last year and we have been amazed by the response.  In under a year we have received hundreds of in-depth guitar and gear reviews and the quality of the reviews at times exceeds what we see from professional editors.

So we have decided that when we get a great user review we are going to highlight it in our news stream.  Today’s user review comes from “OreoB”.  OreoB provides a 5-star review for the Martin D-28 Marquis.  After going into a lot of detail about the neck shape, bracing and even lamenting about the pricing, OreoB gives the Martin D-28 Marquis a 5-star review and claims that the guitar “is a player’s guitar for sure!”

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One of our favorite gear sites is ProGuitarShop.com.  The team at PGS has put together one of the best video libraries of effects pedals, amps and guitars we’ve ever seen on the web.  And in the process has made their demo man Andy an ‘internet celebrity’ in the guitar universe.  PGS has now created a new feature called Andy’s Corner that will feature twice monthly articles from Andy.  They’ve kicked it off with an overview of Andy’s own pedalboard.

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Buskers of the world take note: Roland has a new battery powered acoustic guitar amplifier that comes in just under $400.00 USD.  Your days of being drowned out by the din of passersby are over!  Here comes the days of wine and roses, and money filled guitar cases, and maybe the occasional applause of your listeners.

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Just last November we wrote an article about Dave Matthews making the switch from Martin guitars to Taylor guitars.  Well now it looks like that shift is complete.  Today we learned that Taylor Guitars has released the Taylor DMSM - the Dave Matthews Signature Model.

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Gibson’s latest artist model is the new “Slash Appetite For Destruction” Les Paul.  The new guitar pays homage to one of the most important hard rock albums of the 1980’s and the guitarist that gave us some of the coolest riffs we’ve ever heard.

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Admittedly, Alvarez Guitars gets short shrift here at Fretbase.  Neither Brian nor I play an Alvarez guitar and unlike a lot of other guitar manufacturers, we don’t hear much directly from Alvarez.  But what we do hear is good.  By many accounts, the 45-year old company makes very good instruments at a reasonable price.  Alvarez Guitars recently released the Alvarez RD4102C and at its price point, we really like what we see.

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This week we had the pleasure of test driving one of TouchChord’s newest iPhone apps - the TouchChord’s Songbook Rolling Stones.  TouchChords has built a new way to learn music and practice guitar using your iPhone.  They’ve built a suite of iPhone apps and have recently released a set of “songbooks” that include music from The Rolling Stones, The Police, Cat Stevens and James Taylor among others.

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Pink Floyd and EMI have been locked in a legal battle over the digital sales of the Floyd’s catalog on services like iTunes.  Pink Floyd has argued their contract, signed before the era of digital downloads, requires the band’s approval to sell individual tracks.  At stake is £10M ($15M USD) in unpaid royalties.

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As readers of Fretbase know, we are big fans of Acoustic Guitar Magazine.  Launched over 20 years ago, the magazine is one of the best offline sources for information about acoustic guitars and the artists that play them.  Recently (well, pretty recently), the magazine’s publisher String Letter Publishing opened a music school in the picturesque town of San Anselmo, California.

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Nothing better than getting your guitar lesson directly from the horse’s mouth.  Here’s a sweet video of John Butler teaching you how to play his song “One Way Road” from his upcoming album “April Uprising”.  Butler plays the song on a National Model “D” Western tuned to Open G (DGDGBD).  Check it out.

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