Thursday, March 11th, 2010
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.
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Gibson has decided to get into the mobile app game and released their first effort with the “Gibson Guitar App“. The app features a tuner that can handle chromatic as well as open tunings, a metronome with tap tempo, chord charts and video lessons. After playing around with the app for a little while we’ve found it’s best feature to be it’s price - free.
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
GearPipe is holding their first ever exclusive gear giveaway (congrats!) and up for grabs is a set of Fervor Handwound Strat pickups. These pups feature sand-cast Alnico rod magnets similar to those found in 1950’s Strats, high-quality copper wire and nickel-plated eyelets. The outputs are rated at 5.8K for the neck, 5.6K for the middle and the bridge is wound to a hot 6.4K. This set of pups would normally set you back $225.
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Bill Ruppert’s Effectology videos never cease to blow my mind. In this episode Bill recreates the beginning of Pink Floyd’s classic “Welcome to the Machine”. It’s important to note that no keyboards, samplers or MIDI guitar pickups are used in these videos. It’s just EHX pedals and mad genius Bill Ruppert. However he does use a Norelco shaver and an old dial tone from a phone…
Monday, March 1st, 2010
Here’s something that seems pretty cool and handy for guitar players - a portable tab player that connects right to the headstock of your guitar. The i-tab allows users to download backing tracks and video cover lessons from a library of fully legal tabs, tracks and lessons on www.i-tab.com.
Friday, February 19th, 2010
GuitarCourses.ws, a website directory of guitar courses, is attacking the problem of guitarists with insufficient knowledge of the guitar fretboard by offering a free software application designed to teach players the basics of fretboard navigation and allow them to practice their skills with and without their guitar. Check it out.
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Guitar effects maker T-Rex is adding a new pedal to their Tonebug series. The T-Rex Tonebug Distortion is a classic rock distortion pedal based on the famous distortion tones of the ’60s and ’70s. It’s a pretty straightforward pedal that’s housed in a rugged retro-designed stompbox.
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Here’s a cool idea to help beginner guitarists learn their scales - put a magnetic strip along the top of the neck that shows the player where to put their hands to start playing a particular scale. “My products are meant to be utilized alone or in conjunction with music theory and any educational tools available to stimulate the individual’s creativity that music offers,” says creator Jason Ellestad.
Monday, February 1st, 2010
We stumbled upon an interesting article from USA Today that gives an overview of some Fender’s digital strategy. The No. 1 guitar manufacturer is embracing the Rock Band phenomenon (we noticed this trend in 2008) by trying to bridge the gap between the casual gamer and the beginner guitarist. The article is also interesting in that in gives some industry-wide figures on sales for last year.
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Tuned in Fretbase reader Matt sent us this video. It features John Petrucci walking through what is probably the most amazing set of guitars and gear we’ve ever seen in our lives. Seriously. This guy’s rig is amazing. You’ll have to check out the video to see what I’m talking about.
