Did you know that if you are not happy with the way your guitar controller for Guitar Hero 3 looks like you can get some pretty wild ones at DecalGirl.com?

They look pretty wild, beautiful colors, almost made me think of normal electric guitars.

And they all come at $14.99. I think it is worth to make your gaming more spicy, right?

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What really makes a guitar player? Is his unique playing style, along with his own sound?Is it creativity? OK, if I think about it, creativity helps defining the style. And sound also, so I think I can stick to this “style” thing. It is about being recognized (again marketing?!) out of the crowded space of guitar playing.

Let’s think for a bit and create an artificial environment where you put a guitar player in a closed box, so you can’t see him, don’t know who’s inside, give him all his equipment and let him create a piece of music.

Can you tell who the guitar player is just by listening the musical piece he created? If you can, you probably have a great name there, a guitar player that is sure of himself, with strong roots, a real “guitar hero”.

I think of a few that I would recognize in such a case:

• Joe Satriani - one of the most creative guitar players IMO, close to my heart since a long, long time. His own high tech guitar sounds and his unmistakable riffs put him there as one of the main guitar icons of the last 20 years
• Steve Vai - OK, maybe this time it is me not being that creative, probably you think that sure, this guy is some kind of Satriani fan, how could he not like Vai? And so it is, but this is not the reason I put Steve Vai here. Now really, can you have Steve Vai playing in that closed box and not recognize him? I think that those long-finger licks he patented make him sure of his place here.
• Slash - I don’t particularly find Slash to be such a great technician, but his fat Gibson sound and the way he always falls on his feet when soloing, plus his licks of a particular sweetness ask for a place here.
• Joe Perry of Aerosmith. Well, I can only think of the ending of songs such as Crazy, Crying and I could tell he’s in the box, no doubt about it.
• Frank Gambale. Here’s the fact that he started to study guitar by listening to keyboard players so his way of playing the guitar is quite unique. If you also count his personal method of fast picking and his upside-down scales, he’s there!
• Gary Moore - He’s got the blues, man!! I know I would recognize him in a moment. Wouldn’t you?
• Stevie Ray Vaughan- I would have put here also SRV from the start but after listening Andy Timmons playing “I remember Stevie” I was amazed by how he managed to catch that particular style of SRV. OK, I said above that each artist should play his own style, not try to sound like somebody else, so SRV should be put there also
• Brian May - no need to say more, he’s there.

Yngwee Malmsteen - no doubt, one of the most powerful influences for skilled players with his own sound and style. However I don’t add him here since too many guitar players copied him that you can not say anymore who’s ho nowadays. But if the list was made 20 years ago probably he would have been the first.

Who did I miss?

Later edit:

• Yngwee Malmsteen - for creating an unique style, neo-classic rock, even if so many followed him that today they assimilated his style that you can not tell the difference. Jon of GuitarNoize.com convinced me to add Yngwee.
• Jimi Hendrix - OK (still Jon)
• Paul Gilbert (Jon)
• B.B. King (Jon)
• Carlos Santana (thanks Pilgrim)
• Albert King (Pilgrim)
• Glenn Kaiser (Pilgrim but I don’t know him so…)
• Fank Zappa (thanks Dr J)

Anybody else?

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If you are like me, and I guess you are since you read these lines, you often felt like playing the guitar in the middle of the night. I know it used to happen to me quite often. And also, you probably know that it is not a good idea, unless you live by yourself. If you don’t, well…then you know what I mean.

But how about playing a guitar that is…silent. I know it sounds somehow like playing the air guitar, but it is not about the air guitar (that one still makes noise when turning up the volume on your CD player, you know!!) but about Yamaha Silent Guitar! Yep! You probably know it, I know about it for some time now (was released somewhere in 2002, I think), but I haven’t had the opportunity to test it personally yet. However, I know I would like to own one for those sleepless nights when I feel like playing.

The interesting thing is that, at least in the video below, it sounds quite interesting (OK, through a sound processor). Also, Yamaha SLG 100N model comes with nylon strings and the fact that you can plug in a CD player makes it great for rehearsing since you can play over your own previously recorded material.

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This will be a short one. I remember when I started to get interested in guitars that something started to burn me inside, I just needed to learn to play! I had a high school class mate that used to bring the guitar to school back then and each time I used to see him playing, I felt such a strong urge to learn it myself.

He usually brought the acoustic guitar, a big one with a full and warm sound. Once he brought a Fender like electric guitar that it looked sooo  damn good! Red, if I well remember…

So I wonder: what actually makes us want so much to play the guitar? Why do YOU started to play the guitar?

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Last night I have seen on CarbonFiberGear.com, through Guitarz, a great looking guitar that I didn’t know about. The guitar is called The Handle and comes from XOXAudioTools.com. The guitar is made of carbon fiber, with a hallow body that enhances the sound resonance. I find this to be a great looking guitar, and somehow reminds me of Yamaha Silent Guitar.

I was also curious to see how it plays, how this guitar sounds since more than how it looks, a guitar needs to sound well, so I have searched on YouTube (of course!) for a video test. Here’s what I found:

Also, XOX Audio Tools seems that has a whole line of carbon fiber guitars, electric and acoustic and not only. Theyhave a mandolin too! A carbon fiber mandolin! Now, isn’t that cool or what?!

Later edit: Thanks to Dave from CarbonFiberGear.com,  who reminded me that only The Handle guitar comes from XOX, not the rest of the guitars presented there. What I can say? This guitar had all my love so it totally got my attention and I missed this! Mea culpa!

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I saw this on YouTube, man what creepy sounds you can make with an electric guitar and a slide…

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Well, this post is about Chris Broderick of Nevermore. There is a rumor on the internet that he is going to join Megadeth, Glen Drover wishing to leave the band due to family reasons. At least this is what some say…

However, this is not the reason of this post. The reason is an other one. After reading this news and watching a short movie with Chris Broderick playing five-octave arpeggios, I wanted to watch more and I did on YouTube. Of course, he can play electric guitars like hell, this it is what he does. He is a rock guitar player, he knows to shred and play both hands arpeggios, right?

OK, fine!!But now comes the thing that made me write this post! Man, this guy really knows how to play the guitar, beyond rock boundaries! He plays classical guitar and I am not speaking about dark arpeggios or futuristic sounds like Satriani does on his acoustic guitar, no! I am speaking pure classical guitar! Bach!



What do you know?Also see some jazz slap but I can not tell if he is good or not since I am not into jazz, but if you are, let us know what you think!

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Well, when you thought you have seen it all, think twice! Take a look at this astonishing black beauty, this ESP DV8 Double-Neck electric guitar, 18 strings of violent, crunchy tone, “Mustaine-approved” as they say.

The interesting part it is the 12 strings neck with 2 sides string tuners. Also, I seems unusual to me the fact that it looks like
it has 2 bodies stuck together instead of one larger body, but this is because of the particular shape of the original guitar. However, I must admit this was not an electric guitar that I would have expected to see in double-neck version.

More about it here (no affiliate link, I swear, just the specs)

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I have just visited Paul Gilbert’s website, www.paulgilbert.com. He has a section called magazines featuring magazine covers presenting him. Used to seeing him with his signature models, it was strange to see him using some guitar that I think it is a Danelectro Longhorn. Check the picture, I think I am not wrong and compare it to the one here.

I think it is Danelectro, no doubt here. Check the round pickguard , the horns and the 2(I think) volume/tone controls plus the switch.

Later edit: searching on Google, I have found the guitar collection of Paul Gilbert and indeed, he seems to own at least one Danelectro electric guitar. Check here the collection and here the guitar itself. However, it is not the one in the picture above.

Considering my previous post here about Danelectro Longhorn could we consider Paul Gilbert as being brave?

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This morning a discussion of some time came back to my mind and made me start this post. Are a fan of guitar compact sound processors or a fan of separate pedals? I know I have started by using separate pedals, BOSS pedals, at that time, a flanger pedal and then a serialized overdrive pedal. The sound was ok, as far as I can say now, just that each time I was playing, I was dreaming about a multi-effect of my band colleague, multi-effect that I have purchased from him at one moment and I am still using today. It is (again) a BOSS ME-6 which I just love even now. I know it is way over his time, has only a few effects, compared to today’s complex sound processors but I just love the greasy sound of distortion and the clean chorus plus that the delay that I had for my distorted solo tone remained for half a second when changing tones, which in a live situation was great.

I know that this is one of the first things I have observed listening it since when going from a distortion solo (with a delay) to a clean tone, in that exact fraction of the second you start playing the clean notes you still hear the tail of the solo. Man, I loved that!!!

On the other hand, there are many (professional) guitar players preferring to put together some separate pedals as one single group and use this arrangement on stage. The reason, they say, is the original sound, greasy, fat that nothing can emulate.

So, what do you prefer for yourself?

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