Archive for February, 2009
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Paul Reed Smith, one of the best known and well respected electric guitar manufacturers, entered the acoustic guitar market with two new models - the Angelus and the Tonare Grande at the Winter 2009 NAMM show. It’s without question that these are two beautifully designed, high quality guitars made from some of finest tone woods available. But the Angelus and Tonare Grande have a street price of about $5,250 and $7,460 respectively. So why did PRS decide to launch with two guitars that are priced well out the reach of most guitarists? Full story…
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Tags: Paul Reed Smith, PRS, PRS Angelus, PRS Tonare Grande
Posted in Guitars, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Graph Tech has announced a new partnership with Fender Instruments to start including their String Saver Classic Steel Saddles on the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Stratocaster.
Your guitar’s saddle and nut tend to be the places where a lot of string breakage can occur. Whenever you’re string bending or even just tuning your guitar, you’re pulling those strings through your guitar’s nut and bridge saddles. Using a soft metal semimetal like graphite in those high tension places helps prevent your strings from getting caught or pitched and breaking. But Graph Tech takes it up a notch and uses a material that’s 500% more slippery than graphite. Full Story…
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Tags: Graph Tech, Graphite, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, String Saver
Posted in News | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
We have never understood why anybody (even a child) would pick up a guitar that looks like it was made by Fisher Price rather than a real one. But they do. In 2007, Guitar Hero III (the latest incarnation) generated over $1 billion in sales. And that is just Guitar Hero, we’re not even talking about Rock Band and its own monster sales. While to some (i.e., us Fretbasers) this might sound like gloom and doom for the creation of new music, a correspondent for The Atlantic doesn’t think so. Read on to find out why not.
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Tags: Guitar Hero, Harmonix, rock band
Posted in Bedroom Rockstars | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
With more and more people flying their Hoover flags these days we could all look to save a dime or two. As Dave mentioned, we’ve recently started a series called the “Downturn Guitar” in which we recommend a cheaper alternative to a more expensive guitar.
Let’s start by taking a look at the venerable blues-rock machine that is the Gibson ES-335. Full Story…
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Tags: Chuck Berry, Downturn Guitar, Epiphone Dot, Eric Clapton, Gibson ES-335, Marty McFly
Posted in Guitars | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
When playing fingerstyle, the goal is to position your hand so that your fingers can get the G-B-E strings with a stroke that is perpendicular to the floor. Your thumb should be elongated as it hits the bass strings. Some people do this naturally and for others (like this author), this really takes some work. My teacher recently recommended a video of one of the great bossa nova fingerstylists - Joao Gilberto - to show me how it’s really done. The song is awfully good too. See Video.
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Tags: fingerstyle, Gilberto, Video
Posted in Instruction, Video | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Guitar pedal companies are known for hyperbole, but Boss’s claim that their flagship live sampling pedal is “the best live looping tool ever built” is simply insane. Nonetheless, it’s the best I’ve ever been able to afford…certainly the best under $1000, and the best you can find without resorting to rack-mounted or software-based systems.
Boss RC-50, from above and from behind
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Tags: ableton live, boomerang, boss, dd-20, echoplex, line 6 dl4, live looping, loop station, looperlative, michael garfield, rc-50
Posted in Accessories, Reviews | 7 Comments »
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
We haven’t been shy in describing our passion for Lyle Lovett. The guy just makes very good music with his Collings guitars and his very large band. But we’re also passionate about getting a good deal, so when Amazon announces that they are offering a download of Lyle Lovett’s entire album Lyle Lovett and His Large Band for only $1.99, we take notice. At Fretbase, the way we take notice is by providing a link to the album download and also including soundclips from this great album on our website. Soundclips after the jump.
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Tags: Collings, Lyle Lovett
Posted in News | No Comments »
Friday, February 20th, 2009
With the Dow hitting new lows, it is time to look seriously at some less expensive guitar alternatives. (Some would say it is a good time to hold off on buying a guitar altogether but we think that’s blasphemy.) So today here at Fretbase we’re launching a new feature called “Downturn Guitar.” In this feature, we’ll be recommending a less expensive alternative to a popular guitar. Today, we’re going to start by taking a look at an all-time classic - the Martin D-28.
Full Story.
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Tags: Blueridge, Blueridge BR-160, D-28, downturn, Downturn Guitar, Martin, Martin D-28
Posted in Guitars | 2 Comments »
Friday, February 20th, 2009
U2
Full CD-quality copies of U2’s upcoming album No Line On The Horizon have been leaked. But it wasn’t the usual hacker stealing a copy and putting online. This time it was Universal Music Australia. The company accidentally put the album up for sale on their website two weeks early. The album was quickly pulled after the company realized the error but by then the damage was already done. It’s reported that you can now get the album off of torrent sites already. Full Story…
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Tags: No Line On The Horizon, U2, Universal Music Australia
Posted in News | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Electro-Harmonix has been making electronic sound processors and guitar effect pedals since 1968 when the company was founded by Mike Matthews in NYC. But another side of Electro-Harmonix is their vacuum tube manufacturing.
Electro-Harmonix, one of the largest manufacturer and distributor of vacuum tubes in the world, saved the vacuum tube from eventual extinction when in 1998 they purchased ExpoPul, a Russian factory located in Saratov, Russia. The ExpoPul factory accounts for two-thirds of the world’s production of vacuum tubes and in 2006 Samara Business World sued Electro-Harmonix in a Russian court to try and grab control of the factory. Full Story…
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Tags: electro-harmonix, expopul, mike matthews, vacuum tubes
Posted in Accessories, Amps, News | 1 Comment »
