I guess everybody in this line of interest knows about the fact that Guitar Idol 2009 announced a winner: Jack Thammarat, from Bangkok, probably you have also listened his entry already, but I will take my chance and post it here also, because I really enjoyed it, a very inspiring and lovely song.

What probably you don’t know is that a Romanian was part of the contest, his name is Marius Pop, he is the son of the lead singer and guitar player of a known band here in Romania (for “connoiseurs”, not mainstream, Celelalte Cuvinte - “The other words”). He is the guitar player of a pop singer that I know, we used to be kind of friends at one moment, pop singer that is from my town(Smiley is the name), we used to meet in the studio here and I also recorded guitar for 2 of his songs while here. Now he is famous all over the country, what do you know…

So here’s the entry of the winner and the entry of Marius Pop.

Enjoy!

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Zack(GuitarVibe.com) was pointing me a couple of days ago to Palm travel guitar.

I must confess I am not into travel guitars, or at least not at this moment. I don’t travel that much anyway, but I must admit that when I do, usually for pleasure, not for business, I want to take my guitar with me. At that moment, I usually pack my acoustic guitar and throw it in the back of my car and here I go…

But I had moments when taking the acoustic guitar with me was not quite an easy thing to do. The guitar is big and not that easy to carry around, especially when you don’t have the car with you. I remember hiking once with my guitar on my back, on top of a large backpack…we were going down on a mountain and my guitar suddenly got caught on some roots and made me lose my equilibrium. Lucky me, I didn’t since I was not in such a position to take a fall at that moment…

Well, in such cases I thought about a smaller guitar, a travel one. Maybe an acoustic guitar would fit me better since when I travel I usually travel with friends, but an electric guitar can be at least as interesting as an acoustic one in some cases, so Zack’s suggestion with the Palm travel Guitar suddenly becomes interesting…

I suggest you read his hands-on review about the Palm Guitar and visit the site of the producer, www.palmguitar.com, for an inside look.

By the way, when you travel, do you take your guitar with you? Do you have a travel guitar or a regular one?

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Remember my story of a few days ago about fretless guitars?

Well, OK, I didn’t think much about it either, until today when I stumbled upon Ned Evett and his guitar. What’s so special about his guitar? Not that being fretless is not enough, but it has a very interesting fingerboard made of…glass!

Now, if this isn’t interesting from a freaky point of view, then I don’t know what it is…

Also, I was impressed by the “link love” that Satriani gave him:

Ned Evett plays a mirrored glass fingerboard in a completely new and exciting way. When you see Ned do it, you just have to bow down and say, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe somebody can do that.’ But it’s only part of what he does. I think the larger part of what he does is songwriting and his unique style of performing. And then, all the time, you’re going, ‘Wait a minute. He’s doing that without any frets. That’s pretty cool.’”
Guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani

How many guitar players can say they received such a review from Satch? Uh?

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You know, I have this question that bothers me since a while…how do you learn to play a fretless guitar? Or a fretless bass…

I guess it is the same as learning to play the violin, the double bass or the cello, but to me, playing a fretless instrument seems like a very difficult thing to do.

Just imagine that, really, try to imagine that, REMOVE ALL THE FRETS on your electric guitar and now try to imagine how it would be to play it. Well?

Also while writing this I have asked myself two other questions. They go like this:

1. Can you play chords on a fretless guitar? I mean if you really want to, can you use it for regular guitar playing in a band or you can only use it for virtuosity moments? Can you play with a singer?Now, try to imagine a chord where you really need to stretch your fingers…Man, I need frets!!
2. How do you find the right tone on your effects for it? Sounds totally different than a regular guitar…

By the way, can you actually play…flat on a fretless guitar?

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Today I have decided to step a bit in the land ruled by Jon (GuitarNoize.com), the land of strange and beautiful guitars. I decided to present here a very interesting guitar manufacturer and a very interesting line of guitars, made of, well, aluminum and not of any kind, but the one used to make planes!

As they say, “The Normandy guitar is manufactured and hand-riveted in Salem, Oregon: a product conceived, designed and produced in the U.S.A. The guitar is now available in nine colors and three different and unique finishes: chrome, powder coat and candy apple metal flake finish.”

The company doesn’t have a long history behind it, since it was started in 2007, but Jim Normandy, the owner, has a longer history as bass player in the 90’s.

I watched the videos on their site and I can tell you 2 things I have observed right from the start: the guitar is pretty loud when not plugged and has a good sustain, both thanks to the aluminum being used. By the way, if you expect a metallic sound, well, you’re wrong, the sound is beautiful.

A Normandy guitar costs somewhere between $2000 and $3000, pretty affordable, they say, more than I can spend for a guitar at this moment, I would say, but hey, I might not be part of the target group. However, I would like to try one, seems to be lighter than a Gibson, nice looking, I guess quite hard to break or burn on stage!

For more informations, check their website at www.normandyguitars.com and let me know what you think!

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Today I have received this pres release by mail and I think it would make a news of maximum interest for guitar fans all over the world: legendary guitar builder Dean Zelinsky, founder of Dean Guitars exits Dean guitars.

I will publish the press release in the form I have received it:

LEGENDARY GUITAR BUILDER DEAN ZELINSKY EXITS DEAN GUITARS

CHICAGO, IL-July 22, 2008 - Dean Zelinsky, founder of Dean Guitars, announced today that he has parted ways with the company that he founded in 1976, which still bears his name.

Having sold Dean Guitars in 1991, Zelinsky played an integral part in the brand’s recent resurgence in popularity, effectively putting Dean Guitars back in the limelight after becoming re-affiliated with the company in 2000, during the tenure of its recent owners.

Zelinsky, discussing his not yet announced new venture, stated today, “I wanted to get back to what put Dean on the map originally — building high-quality instruments that shape both the image and tone of guitar players, from the beginner to world-class professionals.”  Regarding Dean Guitars, Zelinsky says, “I can no longer attach my name to the reputation, quality and direction of Dean Guitars or its current objectives.”

Zelinsky stated the announcement with details of his new venture will be released on Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

About Dean B. Zelinsky:
Zelinsky is a pioneer in the custom high-end guitar market, and is legendary for creating stage-worthy electric instruments that have exceeded professional players’ expectations since he founded the original company in 1976.  His innovative designs have been embraced by rock and roll’s top artists spanning three decades. The spinning fur ZZ Top guitars made music video history in the ’80s along with the “ML” design, which became as much of a part of “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott as his crushing riffs and gregarious
persona and which remains a heavy metal standard today.

The roster of world-class guitarists who have relied on Dean’s craftsmanship and creativity have included the following: “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (Pantera, DamagePlan), Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Leslie West (Mountain), Michael Schenker, Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill (ZZ Top), Trent Rezner (Nine Inch Nails), Jerry Cantrell, Elliot Easton and Rik Ocasek (The Cars), Rik Emmett (Triumph), Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Sammy Hagar, Kerry Livgren (Kansas), the Doobie Brothers, Nancy Wilson (Heart) and many more.

Denise Dorman
WriteBrain Media
Chicago / Destin / OC
O: 630.845.4694
C: 630.215.5623

http://www.writebrainmedia.com
http://www.twitter.com/WriteBrain
http://myspace.com/writebrainmedia
http://www.linkedin.com/in/writebrainmedia

Could this be the end of an era? Will Dean guitars change after the founder left the company? How do you think this will influence guitar businesses?

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I know that playing really fast is not quite related to music, even if Symphony X or Malmsteen fans will contradict me, but this guy here,Tiago Della Vega, deserves mentioning here since he plays really (and I mean really, really) fast.

I have posted here some time ago something about a guy that said he is the fastest guitar player in the world, but what he did was actually playing with his right hand only, not not actually playing the guitar.

Tiago Della Vega here plays a song at the fastest tempo I have ever seen so far, 320 bps, to a point where it seems he doesn’t actually play anymore, but just move his left hand over the frets.

The fact is that it is quite annoying and really is not music anymore, but for the sake of the record, you just have to listen it till the end. So, without any more comments, I give you Tiago Della Vega, the fastest guitar player in the world…

Well? Anybody dares to beat this guy? In playing the guitar, I mean…

Later edit: To all of you coming from StumbleUpon, thank you for visiting in such large numbers!! I am impressed! Please don’t forget to give a thumb up to this page! Thank you!

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These last days I’ve got interested again in Guitar Idol competition. While I am a fan of Gustavo Guerra due to 1000 reasons that I will discuss at a later time(and I hope he win the competition), I listened to every one of the guys presented there in the final. I must say that in many cases, the video they entered the contest with was not the best choice if you also look for them on YouTube because, in my opinion, most of them have other pieces that are better.

But OK, I understand the reason for the songs presented there: they needed songs that show a broad range of skills and I can say that you could see in 3-4 minutes from speed picking, melodic sense, creativity, control, tone, tremolo bar works, 8 finger taping, slap, finger style, whatever else they could think of that I can not even imagine…

This morning I was looking on YouTube for this guy, Chris Feener, who is on the 3rd position considering the number of votes, but didn’t quite impress me.

In the beginning, his Ibanez K7 guitar was what set me back because it immediately made me think of a pattern: the young shredder, Symphony X fan that will drive me crazy with fast notes from moment one to the end of the song without understanding anything of the actual melody (if there would be any). Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of Ibanez electric guitars and a 7 strings Ibanez guitar has been something I have dreamed of for a while, until I understood that you don’t need 7 strings to play well. You need something else…

However, listening him on YouTube, I have discovered a 20 yo guy with a great collection of skills and techniques, with pieces far more interesting than what he presented for the contest.

So I have decided to put here one of his covers, Andy Timmons Groove or die song which I like very much, by the way, as almost all the songs of Andy Timmons.

So, without further comments, I give you Chris Feener and Andy Timmons’ Groove or die:

Question: considering the notoriety that YouTube builds to these guys, where do you think we’ll see him in a couple of years? In what band?

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Thanks to yesterday discussion about locking tuners vs Floyd Rose systems, Jon of GuitarNoize.com pointed me to this video. It is very interesting to watch a custom process of how a guitar can be particularly tuned/prepared for playing, after a solid analyze of the neck, strings, etc.

It’s a process of very fine tuning and I am not speaking here about tuning the strings to a particular note, but tuning the guitar itself. Seems that it doesn’t matter, electric guitars or acoustic guitars, they can all go through this process.

What do you think? Is it useful or is just a fancy thing? Would you do it? I wonder how much such a custom fine tuning process costs?

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Considering the interest I have developed lately for Variax modeling guitars, I started to look at reviews and user opinions. Seems that the 600 model has some issues with strings going out of tune when using the tremolo bar. Well, this is no surprise, if you think about it. I wouldn’t expect anything else. If you don’t have a Floyd Rose system or a similar locking system, then using the tremolo bar is not the thing to do.

But, looking at the 700 model, it comes with Gotoh locking tuners. Indeed, this seems to be a good alternative to regular tuners. Locking tuners have a back screw that locks the tuner to not go out of tune,so I think it is way better than having no locking mechanism, but I have no idea how this would compare to a regular Floyd Rose mechanism. I have never used a locking tuner so I don’t know how good it actually is.

I guess that it makes the process of actually tuning the guitar a bit more difficult since they have those screws but comparing to the Floyd Rose systems I guess it is easier, anyway.

So, if you have experience with both Floyd Rose locking systems and locking tuners similar to Gotoh tuners, please share some of it here, I would really be interested to know if they are worth. Because if they are, changing the regular tuners to locking tuners would be the thing do do on such a guitar, in my opinion. They cost around $100 and they could save you on stage.

Silviu, my buddy that owns the 700 version, told me yeah, it has no Floyd Rose and it was a bit difficult to get used to not having one in the beginning, but it has Gotoh tuners so it’s OK.

Does this mens the locking tuners do the job when using the tremolo bar? Anybody using them?

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