CH3ST3R GU!TAR

ATTABAD DISASTER AT HUNZA

2010-03-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

Not Alone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ow3bcy8f1w

2009-05-24T13:55:00.001-07:00

Rock Guitar Advance III Wireless for PS2

2009-05-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

Rock Guitar Advance III *Wireless* for PS2

A real heavy metal guitar for rock /guitar games on Playstation 2! Nice metallic color and metal look and fully compatible with the Guitar Hero serie of games. And all this with wireless 2.4GHz connectivity, no cable, just pure play!

Rock Guitar Advance III for PS2

A real heavy metal guitar for rock /guitar games on Playstation 2! Nice metallic color and metal look and fully compatible with the Guitar Hero serie of games.

Dance Performance-W Dance Mat *WIRELESS*

Play all dancing games without the mess of connecting cables with this wireless dance mat compatible with both PS2 and PS1. It supports 2 players mode with a special select function, and requires only 2 AA batteries.

Wireless Rock Guitar II

Enjoy Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II games in total rock style with this wireless guitar controller.

Rock Guitar II

Compatible with guitar game such as Guitar Hero or Guitar Hero 2, the Rock Guitar features a smart design with all buttons for gameplay and a shoulder strap to secure it in intense game action!

Parts of the electric guitar:

2009-05-21T08:50:00.001-07:00

Head and tuning pegs

Most electric guitars have 6 tuning pegs located on the same side of the headstock (some however have 3 on each side of the head). Turn the pegs to tune the guitar. Turning the pegs either tighten or loosen the strings resulting in a higher or lower pitched tone.

The Nut

The nut is designed to lead the strings from the fret board to the tuning pegs through the slots in the nut. It is usually made of plastic, brass, bone or graphite.

Many guitarists prefer a nut made of bone as they claim it produces the best sound. In any case, if you use the vibrato arm a lot or play your guitar in a rough way, a nut made out of a lowThe Electric Guitar

This page will provide you with information about this type of guitar, explaining the most common parts and how they work.

Parts of the electric guitar:

The Electric Guitar

The electric guitar and its parts

Head and tuning pegs

Most electric guitars have 6 tuning pegs located on the same side of the headstock (some however have 3 on each side of the head). Turn the pegs to tune the guitar. Turning the pegs either tighten or loosen the strings resulting in a higher or lower pitched tone.

The Nut

The nut is designed to lead the strings from the fret board to the tuning pegs through the slots in the nut. It is usually made of plastic, brass, bone or graphite.

Many guitarists prefer a nut made of bone as they claim it produces the best sound. In any case, if you use the vibrato arm a lot or play your guitar in a rough way, a nut made out of a low friction material would be preferred as it wouldn't cause your strings to "snap at the nut" so frequently.

Guitar neck and Fret board

The guitar neck itself is most commonly made out of rosewood or maple or variations of those types of wood. Necks can also be made out of ebony or mahogany.

Some players choose their guitar necks carefully as it is a factor in the overall sound of the guitar.

The neck is either bolted to the guitar body or made as one part with the guitar body.

The fret board on this guitar type consists of fret wires place into the guitar's neck. Between these wires are the frets where you place your fingers. A standard electric guitar usually has 21-24 frets. Each fret represents one semitone so a fret board with 24 frets is spanning 2 octaves (24 semitones).

The Pickups and the Pickup Selector Switch

You can think of the pick ups as microphones on your electric guitar. Most electric guitars have 2-3 pickups and their placement is important. Located close to the neck the pickup will produce a soft rounded sound, while located close to the bridge it will produce a sharper, more pointy sound.

When speaking of electric guitars and pickups we are usually talking about magnetic pickups, as they use magnets to convert the vibration of the string into an electric signal, and these can be divided into 2 main types: The Humbucker (Double-coil) and the single coil pickup. Double-coil pickups are basically single coil pickups mounted side by side and the sound they pick up is "integrated" through to the output.

Experimenting with pickup placement on the guitar can produce some interesting variations in the sound.

The pickup selector switch toggles between the pickups (or combination of pickups) the guitar uses to pick up the sound.

The picture above displays single coil pickups.

The bridge and the vibrato arm

The bridge can be divided into 2 main types: Tremolo and non-tremolo (hard tail) bridges. The tremolo bridge has an extension arm (a.k.a. vibrato arm) which the player can push (and in some cases pull) to decrease or increase the string tension causing a tremolo or vibrato effect in the sound.

The Body and pick-guard

The guitar body is commonly made of maple, mahogany or ash wood and comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The choice of wood here will also be a contributing factor to the overall sound of the guitar.

The white part of the guitar body in the picture above is the pick guard. It is there to protect the wood finish of the guitar body from being struck or scraped by the pick when picking the strings.

Volume and tone controls

The volume control adjusts the volume (big surprise!! ;-)) on the signal picked up by the pickups.

The tone controls adjusts the treble on the sound. There are usually 2 or more tone controls each referring to the pickup selected with the pickup selector switch.

Output Jack

A cable with a 1/4" male jack plug in both ends is used to plug the guitar into an amplifier or a mixing unit.

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Acoustic Guitar ElectricGuitarParts Electric Guitar Parts & acustic Guitar Lessons

2009-05-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

There are three main sections zoomed in the picture; the Headstock, the Neck, and the Body. The headstock holds the Tuner Posts around which the strings are wrapped and terminated. The Tuners are knobs that (or this, or whatever) increase or decrease the tension on the string wrapped around the tuner posts (tuning the sound made by the strings). Note that some electric guitars may have different looking tuners, and some may even have three tuner keys on opposite sides. Even though they may look different, they work in the same manner. The Nut guides the strings to the tuner posts and maintains the height of the strings. Electric
The length of the Neck depends on the scale of the guitar and the number of frets it has. The back of the neck could be "C" shaped, or "V" shaped (sideways < if you compare it to the letter C). The front of the neck is the Fingerboard or Fretboard, that contains the Frets embedded in notches along its surface. The Strings run down the neck over the frets. The height of the strings over the frets is called the Action; if the action is too high the strings are harder to press down, if the action is too low the strings may rattle against the frets muffling the notes. The neck usually has "dot" markers on the top and the side facing the player, showing the position of the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th (which has two dots), 15th, 17th, 19th, 21st, and 24th (which also has two dots) fret. Note that like not all electric guitars have 24 frets. Those guitars that do have 24 frets will have smaller spacing between all the other frets, which is may make things a little difficult for large hands and fingers. Parts
The body of the electric guitar has one, two or three Pickups under the strings. These electro-magnetic coils "pickup" the vibration from the strings and send it to the amp. There are two varieties of pickups, single-coil and humbucker (dual-coil), and electric guitars have different combinations of these pickups in the three possible positions - closest to the neck, in the middle, and furthest from the neck. A Pickup Selector Switch allows you to choose which pickup will be active, some models even allow you to select combinations of pickups for unique sounds. The strings terminate in the Bridge, some versions also have a Whammy Bar to create Tremolo effects (by rapidly pushing the bar in and out, changing the angle of the bridge). Volume and Tone control knobs are also present on the body, allowing you to make minor changes to your guitars sound without having to fiddle with the amp. A Cable Connector allows you to connect a cable from your electric guitar to your amplifier or effects pedal.

How to Play Electric Guitar:

2009-05-21T08:47:00.001-07:00

So you're interested in learning how to play electric guitar? No problem. These series of lessons will take you step by step. If you're just starting out, you should find these lessons pretty useful. For the purpose of our first lesson, I shall make things very simple and assume that you have never played a guitar before and probably don't even own one. Although this section focuses primarily on how to play the elctric guitar, it really doesn't matter if you're gonna be playing any other type of guitar (electric-acoustic, acoustic, or classical).

How to play electric guitar - parts of an electric guitar

The first thing I want you to learn are the parts of the guitar. Check out the diagram below for an overview.

DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Acoustic Guitar Pickup

2009-05-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

The Virtual Acoustic uses the same technology as the Virtual Vintage line to create a pickup that's practically noise free, even in comparison to humbuckers patent applied for.

DiMarzio DP136 Super Natural Plus Acoustic Guitar Pickup

The Super Natural Plus is just what it's name implies it goes beyond ordinary sounding pickups with incredibly crisp treble and tight bass response, and patented 60 cycle hum reduction. This combination allows acoustic players to deal with real world

DiMarzio DP420 Virtual Solo Single Coil Pickup

DiMarzio has combined the best qualities of the Virtual Vintage Solo and Solo Pro high output and a full, warm sound and pushed these qualities even further. Treble response is smoother, the lows are tighter, and there is more pick attack. Play hard,

DiMarzio DP197 Virtual PAF Bridge Position Humbucker Pickup

The Virtual PAF captures the finest qualities of 50's and early 60's humbuckers to create a great sound. Patented Airbucker and Virtual VintageTM technology permit the use of an Alnico 5 magnet to generate the same low string pull that an Alnico 2 or

Seymour Duncan SA1 Acoustic Tube Acoustic Guitar Pickup

The Tube was designed to provide a flat, true acoustic response for natural sound. It uses a Stack hum canceling design and it's extremely feedback resistant. The impedance is lower than other passive acoustic pickups, so it can go straight into a va


		DiMarzio DD3242 Italian Leather Acoustic Guitar Strap There is no danger of this strap marking the finish of a prized acoustic guitar because DiMarzio uses no metal parts in it. Adjusts from 49 in. to 55 12 in. 125 141 cm, and comes with a matching tie string. These straps are beautiful, comfortable and

Comments:

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DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Pickup For Acoustic Guitar.

Welcome to the guitar pickup department of the GFB Guitar Store.

We're sure you'll be surprised at the incredible price available. DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Pickup For Acoustic Guitar. DiMarzio Virtual Acoustic DP138 model guitar pickup. From our selection of, comes the DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Pickup For Acoustic Guitar. The Virtual Acoustic uses the same technology as the Virtual Vintage line to create a. DiMarzio DP138 Virtual Acoustic Guitar Pickup.

Humbuckers

2009-05-17T06:37:00.001-07:00

One problem with single coil pickups is that — along with the musical signal — they also pick up mains hum. Mains hum consists of a fundamental signal at a nominal 50 or 60 Hz, depending on local alternating current frequency, and usually some harmonic content. The changing magnetic flux caused by the mains current links with the windings of the pickup, inducing a voltage by transformer action.
To overcome this effect, the humbucking pickup was developed, concurrently and independently by Seth Lover of Gibson and Ray Butts, working for Gretsch. Who developed it first is a matter of some debate, but Seth Lover was awarded the first patent (U.S. Patent 2,896,491). Ultimately, both men developed essentially the same concept.
A humbucking pickup, shown in the image on the right, is comprised of two coils. Each coil is wound reverse to one another. However, the six magnetic poles, are opposite in polarity in each winding. Since Ambient hum from power-supply transformers, radio frequencies, or electrical devices reaches the coils as common-mode noise, and induces an electrical current of equal magnitude in each coil. The sine wave signals in each pickup, created by the electro-magnetic interference, are equal, and are 180 degrees out of phase to one another. This is due to the reverse winding of the pickup coils. And leads to the two signals canceling each other, once they meet on the signal path. However the signal from the guitar string is magnified, doubled, due to the phase reversal caused by the out of phase magnets. The magnets being out of phase in conjunction with the coil windings being out of phase, put the guitar string signal from each pickup in phase with one another. When the two in phase guitar string sine wave signals meet, the amplitude of the wave doubles, and doubles the signal strength.
One side-effect of this technique is that, when wired in series, as is most common, the overall inductance of the pickup is increased, which lowers its resonance frequency and attenuates the higher frequencies, giving a fatter and less trebly tone than either of the two component single-coil pickups would give alone. A second side-effect of the technique is that, because the two coils are wired in series, the resulting signal that is output by the pickup is larger in amplitude, thus more able to overdrive the early stages of the amplifier. This is the essence of the "humbucker tone."
An alternative wiring places the coils in buck parallel. The equal common-mode mains hum interference cancels, while the string variation signal sums. This method has a more neutral effect on resonant frequency: mutual capacitance is doubled (which if inductance were constant would result in a lowering of resonant frequency), and inductance is halved (which would raise the resonant frequency without the capacitance change). The net is NO change in resonant frequency. This pickup wiring is rare, as guitarists have come to expect that humbucking 'has a sound', and is not neutral. On fine jazz guitars, the parallel wiring will produce significantly cleaner sound however, as the lowered source impedance will drive capacitive cable with lower high frequency attenuation.
A side-by-side humbucking pickup senses a wider section of the string (has a wider aperture) than a single-coil pickup. This affects tone.[1]by picking up a larger portion of the vibrating string more lower harmonics are present in signal produced by the pickup resulting in a "fatter" tone. Stacked humbuckers have the narower aperture of a single coil and sound closer to one.

Pickup sound

2009-05-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

The turns of wire in proximity to each other have an equivalent self-capacitance which, when added to any cable capacitance present, resonates with the inductance of the winding. This resonance can accentuate certain frequencies, giving the pickup a characteristic tonal quality. The more turns of wire in the winding, the higher the output voltage but the lower this resonance frequency. The inductive source impedance inherent in this type of transducer makes it less linear than other forms of pickups, such as piezo-electric or optical. The tonal quality produced by this nonlinearity is, however, subject to taste, and may therefore also be considered by some to be aesthetically superior to that of a more linear transducer.
The external load usually consists of resistance (the volume and tone potentiometer in the guitar, and any resistance to ground at the amplifier input) and capacitance between the hot lead and shield in the guitar cable. The cable capacitance has a large effect and must not be neglected. This arrangement of passive components forms a resistively-damped second-order low-pass filter. Pickups are usually designed to feed a high input impedance, typically a megohm or more, and a low impedance load will reduce the high-frequency response of the pickup because of the filtering effect of the inductance.

Magnetic pickups

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A magnetic pickup consists of a permanent magnet such as a AlNiCo, wrapped with a coil of a few thousand turns of fine enameled copper wire. The pickup is most often mounted on the body of the instrument, but can be attached to the bridge, neck and/or pickguard, as on many electro-acoustic archtop jazz guitars and string basses. The vibration of the nearby soft-magnetic strings modulates the magnetic flux linking the coil, thereby inducing an alternating current through the coil of wire. This signal is then carried to amplification or recording equipment via a cable. There may also be an internal preamplifier stage between the pickup and cable. More generally, the pickup operation can be described using the concept of a magnetic circuit. In this description, the motion of the string varies the magnetic reluctance in the circuit created by the permanent magnet.

GUITAR & PICKUPS

2009-05-12T04:02:00.000-07:00

A pickup device acts as a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations (usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar or electric violin) and converts them to an electrical signal, which can be amplified and recorded.

[edit] Pickup sound
The turns of wire in proximity to each other have an equivalent self-capacitance which, when added to any cable capacitance present, resonates with the inductance of the winding. This resonance can accentuate certain frequencies, giving the pickup a characteristic tonal quality. The more turns of wire in the winding, the higher the output voltage but the lower this resonance frequency. The inductive source impedance inherent in this type of transducer makes it less linear than other forms of pickups, such as piezo-electric or optical. The tonal quality produced by this nonlinearity is, however, subject to taste, and may therefore also be considered by some to be aesthetically superior to that of a more linear transducer.

GUITAR HEROS

2009-04-23T01:57:00.001-07:00

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released in late 2007 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, and Mac platforms. The title is the first installment of the series to include wireless guitars bundled with the game and also the first to release a special bundle with two guitars. The game includes Slash and Tom Morello as playable characters in addition to the existing fictional avatars; both guitarists performed motion capture to be used for their characters' animation in the game.
On September 4, 2007, Billboard announced that the band Aerosmith was "working closely with the makers of Guitar Hero IV, which will be dedicated to the group's music."[17] On February 15, 2008, Activision announced that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, an expansion game to the series, would be released on June 29, 2008.[18][19][20] Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is developed by Neversoft for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, while the Wii version of the game is developed by Vicarious Visions and the PlayStation 2 version is developed by Budcat Creations.[21] The game features a track selection composed of 60% of Aerosmith songs, with other songs from Joe Perry's solo work or artists that have inspired or performed with Aerosmith, including Run D.M.C..
Guitar Hero World Tour, previously named Guitar Hero IV, is the fourth full game in the series and was released on October 26, 2008 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. Analysts had expected that future Guitar Hero games in 2008 would include additional instrument peripherals to compete against Rock Band;[22] Guitar Hero World Tour was confirmed as in development following the announcement of the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games in December 2007.[23] Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick announced on April 21, 2008 that Guitar Hero World Tour will branch out into other instruments including vocals.[24] Guitar Hero World Tour includes drums and vocals, and can be bought packaged with a new drum set controller, a microphone, and the standard guitar controller.[25] A larger number of real-world musicians appear as playable characters, including Jimi Hendrix, Billy Corgan, Hayley Williams, Zakk Wylde, Ted Nugent, Travis Barker, Sting, and Ozzy Osbourne. Guitar Hero World Tour also features custom song creation that can be shared with others.[25]
Activision's 2008 SEC filings cited that they plan to release Guitar Hero: Metallica by the first quarter of 2009, according the Wedbush Morgan Securities.[26] Guitar Hero: Metallica is based on the full band experience of World Tour while offering similar features on Metallica's history and music as found in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.[27] In addition, Metallica's album, Death Magnetic, was available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III simultaneously with the release of the album, with the content being forward-compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica.[27][28]

GUITAR ELECTRIC PEDAL

2009-04-22T05:19:00.000-07:00

An effects pedal (or stomp box) is an electronic effects unit housed in a small metal or plastic chassis used by musicians, usually electric guitar players, to modify their instrument sound. Musicians playing electronic keyboards, electromechanical organs, the electric bass, or electric violin also use effects pedals. These devices alter the sound quality or timbre of the input signal, adding effects such as distortion, fuzz, overdrive, chorus, reverberation, wah-wah, flanging, phaser or pitch shifting. The sound of a guitar or other instrument that is played without an effects pedal is described as "clean", "straight" or "dry."

The TS9 Tubescreamer from Ibanez, a widely-imitated pedal adding a vacuum tube-like overdrive sound using op-amps.
Users refer to them as pedals because they sit on the floor and have large on/off switches on top that are activated using the foot. Some pedals, such as wah-wah or volume pedals, employ what is known as an expression pedal. Expression pedals are manipulated while in operation by rocking a large foot-activated potentiometer (pot) back and forth.[1] The relative position of the expression pedal changes some parameter of the effect, such as a filter response in a wah pedal.
Effects pedals permit the musician to activate and deactivate effects while playing an instrument. Some musicians use rack-mounted effects processors controlled using MIDI instead of or in addition to effects pedals, since the greater size of the rack form factor usually allows more flexibility and processing power. Others prefer only using a few analog effects pedals, to avoid sending the instrument signal through multiple stages of analog-to-digital conversion, as occurs in more complicated and powerful

A guitar pedalboard is a flat board or panel which serves as a container, patch bay and power supply for effects pedals. Some pedalboards contain their own power supply, in order to power many different pedals. Pedalboards assist the player in managing multiple pedals. The entire pedalboard can be packed up and transported to the next location without the need for disassembly.
Pedalboards often have a cover or case which protects the effects pedals during transportation. Some boards use soft cases or gig bags, and some use hard-shell or ATA cases. Hard shell pedalboard-cases have foam padding, reinforced corners, and locking latches which protect the pedals during transport. Like the pedals they carry, pedalboards can be self-assembled, or purchased from manufacturers such as Gator, SKB, and Pedaltrain. Many major touring musicians employ a technician or contractor to custom-build a pedalboard to suit their needs, such as the elaborate custom pedalboards Pete Cornish built for David Gilmour and other artists

Many other musical instruments, among them the piano, pipe organ, drums, and harp, also make use of pedals to achieve tonal, dynamic, or other effects. The piano's mechanical sustain pedal is one well-known example. Pipe organs and electromechanical Hammond organs have one or more expression pedals and sometimes a crescendo pedal, which the organist can use to achieve dynamic (or "expressive") changes. Some large church and theater organs also have push-buttons for the feet, so that the player can activate different stops. These are neither considered nor called effects pedals. Pipe organs and Hammond organs also use another type of pedals on their bass pedal keyboard, which is a 20- to 32-note keyboard operated with the feet.
One major exception appears on modern electronic organs and synthesizers, which usually include a volume pedal similar to that of a guitar. The electronic organ pioneered this kind of pedal, not the guitar. Some advanced models also include an additional effects pedal that may be programmed to serve several of the functions described in the preceding section. The operation of each is similar to those on guitars; the organist places an entire foot on the pedal and, while playing, gently pumps up and down with heel and toe pressure to achieve the desired effects. Because the organist is usually seated and thus has better balance than the guitarist, the pedals are designed to have a wider range of motion. The organist can thus bring about more pronounced changes than the guitarist with only slight changes in foot pressure.
Some pedals, in fact also have switches on the end that enable still other effects by "scrunching" the toes to the left or right on the pedal, either in isolation or while pumping the pedal up and down, leading to far more flexibility than most guitar pedals.
Another stompbox found in solo music is the foot drum-style stompbox. These are small wooden boxes that the musician taps with the foot to create a percussive sound. The unit will commonly connect to a Public Address system via an XLR jack or guitar jack and provide the main "Front of House" speakers with a kick or bass drum sound which can add rhythm to solo acoustic music. Some musicians use homemade stomp boxes which consist of a wooden box and a microphone. Wooden stomp boxes are often used in folk-related genres and by "one man bands".

GUITAR SCHALLER ELECTRONIC GMBH

2009-04-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

Schaller Electronic GmbH, generally known as Schaller, is a high-end German manufacturer of components for musical instruments, most famous for their fully-enclosed machine heads which are standard on many top-of-the-line guitars and available as an extra cost option on many others.
Schaller also manufactures machine heads for many other instruments, and also components and accessories including mutes, bows, pickups, tailpieces, bridges and tremolo arms, including Original Floyd Rose designs. In the past Schaller was also a guitar amplifier manufacturer.
The company was founded by Helmut Schaller in the 1950s in order to provide quality hardware for rock and roll performers such as Les Paul, who Schaller personally met

The B-Bender was invented by Gene Parsons and Clarence White of Nashville West and The Byrds, and was originally called the Parsons/White Pull-String, later changed to StringBender. Their early prototypes included multiple bending devices for the E, B, G and D strings, but White decided he preferred a single B string bender in the final design. The B string is bent up a full tone by pulling the guitar neck down. This puts pressure on the strap, which is attached to a spring-loaded lever at the base of the neck. The lever arm passes through the body of the guitar and is connected to the B string behind the bridge (Figure A).[1] White's 1956 Telecaster with the first Pull-String is now owned and regularly played by Marty Stuart.[2] Parsons and White licensed the StringBender to Leo Fender at Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, who made some changes to simplify the design for mass production.[3] However, this model never went into production.
Parsons made and installed StringBenders from 1973 to 1989, when demand overtook his production capacity. He then partnered with Meridian Green to outsource the production of the kits, develop a network of authorized installation shops and write an instruction manual for the installers.[4] In the mid-1990's, Fender decided to begin offering the StringBender in their Nashville B-Bender Telecaster, and began production in 1996 using an updated design by Parsons and Green.[5]

Another type of B-Bender is activated by the picking hand, like the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. Unlike the Parsons/White model, this type does not require any structural modifications to the guitar body, and simply installs with a few screws. Examples are the Bigsby Palm Pedal, the Hipshot Palm Lever, and the Duesenberg Guitars Multibender. Each of these can bend multiple strings using different levers.
The Hipshot B-Bender, developed by David Borisoff, also mounts to the tailpiece end of the guitar without requiring any modifications. A lever extends behind the guitar and rests against the player's body. The bender is activated by moving the whole guitar against the player's body.[6] While this version bends the string up, James Hennessey developed a version that can bend the string either up or down, although mounting it requires modification of the guitar body (Figure B.)[7]

Fig. C The Glaser design bends one, two or three strings independently
The same type of mechanics can be applied to other strings besides the B, with the G string being the most common. Brad Paisley is a well-known proponent of the "G-Bender" and uses a model from Charlie McVay. "Double Benders" can bend both the B and G strings independently. The B string pull operates like the Parsons/White design, by pushing the neck down against the strap. The G string pull uses a push-away motion of the neck and depends on a lanyard attached to the player's belt.
A variation developed by Joseph Glaser can bend up to three different strings independently. Like the Double Benders, Glaser's design uses a downward pull of the guitar neck to bend the B string and a push-away against a belt lanyard to bend the G string. The third bend for the low E string uses a backward pull of the neck toward the player's body (see Figure C.)[8] Jimmy Olander of Diamond Rio has Glaser Double-Benders (B & G) in his instruments and, unlike most bender players, uses them more as a stylistic enhancement than for a steel guitar sound.

GUITAR THE SLICKEE BOYS

2009-04-20T02:32:00.000-07:00

The Slickee Boys were a Washington, D.C. area punk-psychedelic-garage rock band whose most-remembered lineup consisted of guitarist Marshall Keith, guitarist Kim Kane, singer Mark Noone, and drummer Dan Palenski. The band has become sn underground legend in the D.C. punk community. They were known for their wild costumes and graphics.

History
The band was founded in the mid-1970s by guitarists Kim Kane and Marshall Keith, with Kane as principal songwriter, and featured Martha Hull on vocals. The band released its first EP, "Hot and Cool", in 1976 — an event documented by members of the new wave community as the third DIY new wave record ever recorded.[citation needed]
In 1978 Mark Noone replaced Hull as the singer, with the band benefitting from Noone's showmanship as well as his songwriting. In 1983, a music video for their song "When I Go to the Beach" placed second in MTV's Basement Tapes competition. This resulted in the video being shown regularly as well as garnering the band the distinction of being first from the D.C. area to get airplay on the then-new video channel.[citation needed]
In 1988 after a short European Tour, founding member Kim Kane departed to focus on his band Date Bait. The band soldiered on with long-time roadie, John Hansen, taking over on rhythm guitar until they called it quits in 1991.

GUITAR HEROS

2009-04-19T01:25:00.000-07:00

The original Guitar Hero was released on the PlayStation 2 in November 2005 and was developed by Harmonix. Harmonix had been previously known for developing music video games such as Frequency and Amplitude for the PlayStation 2, both of which were praised for enabling players to perform and create music using a DualShock controller as if it were a musical instrument.[4]
Guitar Hero is notable because it comes packaged with a controller peripheral modeled after a black Gibson SG guitar. Rather than a typical gamepad, this guitar controller is the primary input for the game. Playing the game with the guitar controller simulates playing an actual guitar, except it uses five colored "fret buttons" and a "strum bar" instead of frets and strings. The development of Guitar Hero was inspired by Konami's GuitarFreaks arcade game, which at the time, had not seen much exposure in the North American market; RedOctane, already selling guitar-shaped controllers for imported copies of GuitarFreaks, approached Harmonix about creating a game to use an entirely new Guitar controller. The concept was to have the gameplay of Amplitude with the visuals of Karaoke Revolution, both of which had been developed by Harmonix.[5][6][7][8] The game was met with critical acclaim and received numerous awards for its innovative guitar peripheral and its soundtrack, which comprised 47 playable rock songs (most of which were cover versions of popular songs from artists and bands from the 1960s through modern rock). Guitar Hero has sold nearly 1.5 million copies to date.[9]
The popularity of the series increased dramatically with the release of Guitar Hero II for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. Featuring improved multiplayer gameplay, an improved note-recognizing system, and 64 songs, it became the fifth best-selling video game of 2006.[10] The PlayStation 2 version of the game was offered both separately and in a bundle with a cherry red Gibson SG guitar controller. Guitar Hero II was later released for the Xbox 360 in April 2007 with an exclusive Gibson X-Plorer guitar controller and an additional 10 songs, among other features. About 3 million units of Guitar Hero II have sold on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360.[11]
The final game in the Guitar Hero series to be developed by Harmonix was Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s for the PlayStation 2, which was released in July 2007.[12] The expansion reskinned the visuals from Guitar Hero II, and featured a shorter track list with no bonus songs, and was not as well received as the previous two games. Some reviewers considered Rocks the 80s as Harmonix's contractual obligation, given that, as described below, Harmonix would no longer be working on the Guitar Hero series.[13]

GUITAR BASS

2009-04-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

The first fretless bass guitar was made by Bill Wyman in 1961 when he converted an inexpensive Japanese fretted bass by removing the frets.[15][16] The first production fretless bass was the Ampeg AUB-1 introduced in 1966, and Fender introduced a fretless Precision Bass in 1970. In the early 1970s, fusion-jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius created his own fretless bass by removing the frets[17] from a Fender Jazz Bass, filling the holes with wood putty, and coating the fretboard with epoxy resin.[18] Some fretless basses have "fret line" markers inlaid in the fingerboard as a guide, while others only use guide marks on the side of the neck. Tapewound (double bass type) and flatwound strings are sometimes used with the fretless bass so that the metal string windings will not wear down the fingerboard. Some fretless basses have fingerboards which are coated with epoxy to increase the durability of the fingerboard, enhance sustain and give a brighter tone. Although most fretless basses have four strings, five-string and six-string fretless basses are also available. Fretless basses with more than six strings are also available as "boutique" or custom-made instruments. Yves Carbonne conceived the first 10 and 12 string fretless sub-bass guitars. These extended range sub-basses, Legend X YC and Legend XII YC, were built by luthier from Barcelona Jerzy Drozd. The 12 string Legend XII YC uses a new B string tuned at 15,4 hertzs

J/ Jazz" pickups (referring to the original Fender Jazz Bass) are wider eight-pole pickups which lie underneath all four strings. J pickups are typically single-coil designs, although there are a large number of humbucking designs. As with the halves of the P-pickups, the J-pickups are reverse-wound with reverse magnetic polarity. As a result they have hum canceling properties when used at the same volume, with hum cancellation decreasing when the pickups are used at unequal volume and altogether absent when each pickup is used individually. 'J' Style pickups tend to have a lower output and a thinner sound than 'P' Style pickups making it perfect for most rock music. Many bassists choose to combine a 'J' pickup at the bridge and a 'P' pickup at the neck, to be 'blended' together for a unique sound.
"P/ Precision" pickups (the "P" refers to the original Fender Precision Bass) are actually two distinct single-coil pickups. Each is offset a small amount along the length of the body so that each half is underneath two strings. The pickups are reverse-wound with reversed magnetic polarity to reduce hum. This makes the 'P' pickup a [humbucking] single coil pickup; something which is almost unique to the 'P' style pickup. Less common is the single-coil "P" pickup, used on the original 1951 Fender Precision bass.[32]

The standard design for the electric bass guitar has four strings, tuned E, A, D and G, in fourths such that the open highest string, G, is an eleventh (an octave and a fourth) below middle C, making the tuning of all four strings the same as that of the double bass. This tuning is also the same as the standard tuning on the lower four strings on a 6-string guitar, only an octave lower. String types include all-metal strings (roundwound, flatwound, groundwound, or halfwound), metal strings with different coverings, such as tapewound and plastic-coatings. The variety of materials used in the strings gives bass players a range of tonal options. In the 1950s, bassists mostly used flatwound strings with a smooth surface, which had a smooth, damped sound reminiscent of a double bass. In the 1960s and 1970s, roundwound bass strings similar to guitar strings became popular, though flatwounds also continue to be popular. Roundwounds have a brighter timbre with greater sustain than flatwounds.
A number of other tuning options and bass types have been used to extend the range of the instrument. The most common are four, five, or six strings:

In contrast to the upright bass (or double bass), the electric bass guitar is played horizontally across the body, like an electric guitar. When the strings are plucked with the fingers (pizzicato), the index and middle fingers (and sometimes with the thumb, ring, and pinky fingers as well) are used. James Jamerson, an influential bassist from the Motown era, played intricate bass lines using only his index finger, which he called "The Hook." There are also variations in how a bassist chooses to rest the right-hand thumb (or left thumb in the case of left-handed players). A player may rest his thumb on the top edge of one of the pickups or on the side of the fretboard, which is especially common among bassists who have an upright bass influence. Some bassists anchor their thumbs on the lowest string and move it off to play on the low string. Alternatively, the thumb can be rested loosely on the strings to mute the unused strings.
The string can be plucked at any point between the bridge and the point where the fretting hand is holding down the string; different timbres are produced depending on where along the string it is plucked. Some players are known for plucking near the bridge where the string is most taut, such as jazz fusion bassist Jaco Pastorius, whereas other bassists prefer the "looser" part of the string nearer to the fingerboard.
Bassists trying to emulate the sound of a double bass sometimes pluck the strings with their thumb and use palm-muting to create a short, "thumpy" tone. The late Monk Montgomery (who played in Lionel Hampton's band), Bruce Palmer (who performed with Buffalo Springfield), Sting and progressive rocker Geddy Lee use thumb downstrokes. The use of the thumb was acknowledged by early Fender models, which came with a "thumbrest" or "Tug Bar" attached to the pickguard below the strings. Contrary to its name, this was not used to rest the thumb, but to provide leverage while using the thumb to pluck the strings. The thumbrest was moved above the strings in 1970s models and eliminated in the 1980s.
The pick (or plectrum) is used to obtain a more articulate attack, for speed, or just personal preference. Although the use of a pick is primarily associated with rock, picks are also used in other styles. Jazz bassist Steve Swallow uses a pick for upbeat or funky songs. Picks can be used with alternating downstrokes and upstrokes, or with all downstrokes for a more consistent attack. The pick is usually held with the index and thumb, with the up-and-down plucking motion supplied by the wrist (one exception is tremolo picking, in which the whole arm is used to play a note very rapidly). Some bassists use their fingernails to play flamenco-style, such as the late John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, the late Cliff Burton and Les Claypool.
There are many varieties of picks available, but due to the thicker, heavier strings of the electric bass, bassists tend to use heavier picks than those used for electric guitar, typically ranging from 1.14 mm – 3.00 mm (3.00 is unusual). Different materials are used for picks, including plastic, nylon, and felt, all of which produce different tones. Felt picks are used to emulate a fingerstyle tone

Popular music bands and rock groups use the bass guitar as a member of the rhythm section, which provides the chord sequence or "progression" and sets out the "beat" for the song. The rhythm section typically consists of a rhythm guitarist and/or electric keyboard player, a bass guitarist and a drummer; larger groups may add additional guitarists, keyboardists, or percussionists.
The types of basslines performed by the bass guitarist vary widely from one style of music to another. Despite all of the differences in the styles of bassline, in most styles of popular music, the bass guitarist fulfills a similar role: anchoring the harmonic framework (often by emphasizing the roots of the chord progression) and laying down the beat (in collaboration with the drummer). The importance of the bass guitarist and the bass line varies in different styles of music. In some pop styles, such as 1980s-era pop and musical theater, the bass sometimes plays a relatively simple part, and the music forefronts the vocals and melody instruments. In contrast, in reggae or funk, entire songs may be centered around the bass groove, and the bassline is usually very prominent in the mix.
In traditional country music, folk rock, and related styles, the bass often plays the roots and fifth of each chord in alternation. In Chicago blues, the electric bass often performs a walking bassline made up of scales and arpeggios. In blues rock bands, the bassist often plays blues scale-based riffs and chugging boogie-style lines. In metal, the bass guitar may perform complex riffs along with the rhythm guitarist or play a low, rumbling pedal point to anchor the group's sound.

Bassist Robert Trujillo performing with thrash metal band Metallica
The bass guitarist sometimes breaks out of the strict rhythm section role to perform bass breaks or bass solos. The types of basslines used for bass breaks of bass solos vary by style. In a rock band, a bass break may consist of the bassist playing a riff or lick during a pause in the song. In some styles of metal, a bass break may consist of "shred guitar"-style tapping on the bass. In a funk or funk rock band, a bass solo may showcase the bassist's percussive slap and pop playing. In genres such as progressive rock, art rock, or progressive metal, the bass guitar player may play melody lines along with the lead guitar (or vocalist) and perform extended guitar solos

1930s
In the 1930s, inventor Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, Washington, developed the first guitar-style electric bass instrument that was fretted and designed to be held and played horizontally. The 1935 sales catalogue for Tutmarc's company, Audiovox, featured his "electronic bass fiddle," a four-stringed, solid-bodied, fretted electric bass guitar with a 30½-inch scale length.[7] The change to a "guitar" form made the instrument easier to hold and transport, and the addition of guitar-style frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily and made the new electric bass easier to learn. However, Tutmarc's inventions never caught the public imagination, and little further development of the instrument took place until the 1950s.

[edit] 1950s–1960s
In the 1950s, Leo Fender, with the help of his employee George Fullerton, developed the first mass-produced electric bass.[8] His Fender Precision Bass, introduced in 1951, became a widely copied industry standard. The Precision Bass (or "P-bass") evolved from a simple, uncontoured "slab" body design similar to that of a Telecaster with a single coil pickup, to a contoured body design with beveled edges for comfort and a single four-pole "single coil pickup." This "split pickup", introduced in 1957, appears to have been two mandolin pickups (Fender was marketing a four string solid body electric mandolin at the time). Because the pole pieces of the coils were reversed with respect to each other, and the leads were also reversed with respect to each other, the two coils, wired in series, produced a humbucking effect (the same effect is achieved if the coils are wired in parallel).
Monk Montgomery was the first bass player to tour with the Fender bass guitar, with Lionel Hampton's postwar big band.[9] Roy Johnson, who replaced Montgomery in Hampton's band, and Shifty Henry with Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, were other early Fender Bass pioneers.[8] Bill Black, playing with Elvis Presley, adopted the Fender Precision Bass around 1957.[10]

A Rickenbacker 4003; note the distinctive shape of the headstock.
Following Fender's lead, Gibson released the violin-shaped EB-1 Bass in 1953,[11] followed by the more conventional-looking EB-0 Bass in 1959. As with Fender's designs, Gibson relied heavily upon an existing guitar design for this bass; the EB-0 was very similar to a Gibson SG in appearance (although the earliest examples have a slab-sided body shape closer to that of the double-cutaway Les Paul Special).
Whereas Fender basses had pickups mounted in positions in between the base of the neck and the top of the bridge, many of Gibson's early basses featured one humbucking pickup mounted directly against the neck pocket. The EB-3, introduced in 1961, also had a "mini-humbucker" at the bridge position. Gibson basses also tended to be smaller, sleeker instruments; Gibson did not produce a 34" scale bass until 1963 with the release of the Thunderbird, which was also the first Gibson bass to utilize dual-humbucking pickups in a more traditional position, about halfway between the neck and bridge.

Gibson EB-3.
A small number of other companies also began manufacturing bass guitars during the 1950s: Kay in 1952, and Danelectro in 1956;[10] Rickenbacker and Höfner also produced models. With the explosion of the popularity of rock music in the 1960s many more manufacturers began making bass guitars.
First introduced in 1960, The Fender Jazz Bass was known as the Deluxe Bass and was meant to accompany the Jazzmaster guitar. The Jazz Bass (often referred to as a "J-bass") featured two single-coil pickups, one close to the bridge and one in the Precision bass' split coil pickup position, and was designed by Leo Fender to be an easier bass for a guitarist to play than the existing Precision Bass, due to the narrower nut (noted later). The earliest production basses had a 'stacked' volume and tone control for each pickup. This was soon changed to the familiar configuration of a volume control for each pickup, and a single, passive tone control. The Jazz Bass' neck was narrower at the nut than the Precision bass (1½" versus 1¾").

70's Fender Jazz Bass with maple neck
Another visual difference that set the Jazz Bass apart from the Precision is its "offset-waist" body. Pickup shapes on electric basses are often referred to as "P" or "J" pickups in reference to the visual and electrical differences between the Precision Bass and Jazz Bass pickups.
Fender also began production of the Mustang Bass; a 30" scale length instrument used by bassists such as Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones ("P" and "J" basses have a scale length of 34", a design echoed on most current production electric basses of all makes).
In the 1950s and 1960s, the bass guitar was often called the "Fender bass", due to Fender's early dominance in the market for mass-produced bass guitars. The term "electric bass" began replacing "Fender bass" in the late 1960s, however, as evidenced by the title of Carol Kaye's popular bass instructional book in 1969 How to Play the Electric Bass[12] . The instrument is also referred to as an "electric bass guitar", or simply "bass".

[edit] 1970s

Music Man Stingray Bass. Notice the pick-up placement that is ideal for slapping.
The 1970s saw the founding of Music Man Instruments by Tom Walker, Forrest White and Leo Fender, which produced the StingRay, the first widely-produced bass with active (powered) electronics. This amounts to an impedance buffering pre-amplifier on-board the instrument to lower the output impedance of the bass's pickup circuit, increasing low-end output, and overall frequency response (more lows and highs). Specific models became identified with particular styles of music, such as the Rickenbacker 4001 series, which became identified with progressive rock bassists like Chris Squire of Yes, while the StingRay was used by Louis Johnson of the funk band The Brothers Johnson.
In 1971, Alembic established the template for what would subsequently be known as "boutique" or "high end" electric bass guitars. These expensive, custom-tailored instruments featured unique designs, premium wood bodies chosen and hand-finished by highly skilled luthiers, onboard electronics for preamplification and equalization, and innovative construction techniques such as multi-laminate neck-through-body construction and graphite necks. In the mid-1970s, Alembic and other "boutique" bass manufacturers such as Tobias, and Ken Smith produced 4- string basses and 5-string basses with a low "B" string. In 1975, bassist Anthony Jackson commissioned luthier Carl Thompson to a 6-string bass tuned (low to high) B, E, A, D, G, C.

[edit] 1980s–2000s

An early 1980s-era Steinberger headless bass
In the 1980s, bass designers continued to explore new approaches. Ned Steinberger introduced a headless bass in 1979 and continued his innovations in the 1980s, using graphite and other new materials and (in 1984) introducing the Trans-Trem tremolo bar. In 1987, the Guild Guitar Corporation launched the fretless Ashbory bass, which used silicone rubber strings and a piezoelectric pickup to achieve a "double bass" sound with a short 18" scale length. In the late 1980s, MTV's "Unplugged" show, which featured bands strumming acoustic instruments, helped to popularize hollow-bodied acoustic bass guitars amplified with pickups.
During the 1990s, as five-string basses became more widely available and more affordable, an increasing number of bassists in genres ranging from metal to gospel began using five-string instruments for added lower range. As well, the onboard battery-powered electronics such as preamplifiers and equalizer circuits, which were previously only available on expensive "boutique" instruments, became increasingly available on modestly priced basses.
In the 2000s, some bass manufacturers included digital modelling circuits inside the instrument to recreate tones and sounds from many models of basses (e.g., Line 6's Variax bass). Traditional bass designs such as the Fender Precision Bass and Fender Jazz Bass remain popular in the 2000s; in 2006, a 60th Anniversary P-bass was introduced by Fender, along with the introduction of the Fender Jaguar Bass.

[edit] Design considerations
Instruments handmade by highly skilled luthiers are becoming increasingly available. Bass bodies are typically made of wood although other materials such as graphite (for example, some of the Steinberger designs) have also been used. While a wide variety of woods are suitable for use in the body, neck, and fretboard of the bass guitar, the most common type of wood used for the body is alder, for the neck is maple, and for the fretboard is rosewood. Other commonly used woods include mahogany, maple, ash, and poplar for bodies, mahogany for necks, and maple and ebony for fretboards.
Other design options include finishes, such as lacquer, wax and oil; flat and carved designs; Luthier-produced custom-designed instruments; headless basses, which have tuning machines in the bridge of the instrument (e.g. Steinberger and Hohner designs) and several artificial materials such as luthite. The use of artificial materials (e.g. BassLab) allows for unique production techniques such as die-casting, to produce complex body shapes. While most basses have solid bodies, they can also include hollow chambers to increase the resonance or reduce the weight of the instrument. Some basses are built with entirely hollow bodies, which changes the tone and resonance of the instrument. Acoustic bass guitars are typically equipped with piezoelectric or magnetic pickups and amplified.

GU!TAR HERO MATALLICA

2009-04-17T01:36:00.000-07:00

Guitar Hero: Metallica is a rhythm game developed by Neversoft and distributed by Activision. The game was released in North America on the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 on March 29, 2009 and on PlayStation 2 on April 14, 2009, with a European release expected in May 2009. Guitar Hero: Metallica is the second game of the Guitar Hero series to focus on the career and songs of one band following Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.
The game is based on Guitar Hero World Tour, with support for lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. The game has many of the same features from World Tour, including single-player and band Career modes, online competitive modes, and the ability to create and share songs through "GHTunes". In addition to the normal difficulty levels presented in Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero: Metallica provides an "Expert+" difficulty for drums that requires the use of a second bass drum pedal to match the drumming style of Metallica's Lars Ulrich. The game features 28 master recordings spanning Metallica's career and an additional 21 songs selected by members of Metallica. The band performed extensive motion capture for the game for their in-game avatars and performances. The game includes several extras including behind-the-scenes videos of the motion capture sessions, tour and concert videos of the band, and Pop-Up Video-like facts for many of the songs on the game disc.
Guitar Hero: Metallica received positive reviews, with critics stating it to be a strong tribute to the band and Neversoft's best work on the Guitar Hero series to date. The difficulty throughout the game was praised, found to be more enjoyable to players of all skill levels than the more-difficult Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Reviewers noted the lack of additional downloadable content, save for the pre-existing Death Magnetic songs, the cartoonish storyline for the Career mode, and the overall value of the game as minor negatives to the experience

GUITAR IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

2009-04-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

Both licensed and indie bands whose works have been included in the Guitar Hero games have gained further popularity from this inclusion.[101] Both record companies[102] and retailers[103] have seen sales of songs and groups increase 200% to 300% after their inclusion in the series. Every Guitar Hero III song tracked by Nielsen SoundScan (62 of 70) saw an increase in digital download sales the week ending December 30, 2007, when many who got the game as a gift were playing it,[104] and every song included in Guitar Hero III and Rock Band saw downloaded sales increase during 2007 between 15% to 843%.[83] A survey conducted by Brown University's Kiri Miller found that 76% of the players of Guitar Hero bought the music they heard in the game.[105] Indie group Bang Camaro's recognition increased after their song "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" appeared in Guitar Hero II.[106] The band DragonForce, whose song "Through the Fire and Flames" is featured as a bonus song in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, saw a 126% increase in CD sales in the week after the release of the game,[107] and downloads of the song, selling fewer than 2,000 weekly, rose to more than 10,000 after Guitar Hero III's release and approached 40,000 the week ending 2007-12-30.[104] Even older, established groups such as Aerosmith saw an increase in sales at the same time Guitar Hero games containing their songs were released,[104] such as a modest increase in download sales for its "Same Old Song and Dance", which rose to 2,041 from 374 copies the previous week;[104] a 40% increase in the band's catalog was seen in the weeks following the release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.[108] According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has made more money for Aerosmith than any sales of their previous albums.[109] Both Guitar Hero and Rock Band are seen as new methods of music distribution; an analysis for market research company NPD Group states that "As the video games industry grows, it's becoming an ever-more attractive promotional outlet for all kinds of industries."[110] The games have also been seen as a way to introduce younger generations to music of the past; bands such as Living Colour, Warrant, The Grateful Dead, Poison, and Ratt have seen interest in their music rise due to the inclusion of their songs in the Guitar Hero or Rock Band, as well as other music video games.[111]
Bands or those that control the copyrights on bands works have been in talks with the makers and distributions of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band as methods of achieving more exposure for the band. Following the announcement of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Martin N. "Marty" Bandier, executive for Sony/ATV which owns the copyrights on The Beatles recordings, has stated that he is very interested in helping Activision to bring a Beatles-themed Guitar Hero title to the market in a similar fashion.[112] Both Activision and MTV Games have been in talks with representatives of the Beatles to create a themed games within either the Guitar Hero or Rock Band series, respectively, though any deal will also require permission from Apple Corps, Ltd..[113][114] Ultimately, MTV Games secured a exclusive license with Apple Corps to produce a standalone game based on the Rock Band platform featuring the songs of the Beatles.[115] Groups such as Van Halen, The Eagles, Steely Dan and Guns N' Roses have working deals with these companies to include their songs within future games.[116] However, not all bands are comfortable with this; Led Zeppelin has turned down offers from both games to include their music due to concerns that Jimmy Page and other members of the band have with releasing the master recordings of their music.[116] There are also cases where bands want to be included, but the master recordings have been lost or are unusable. Some bands such as the Sex Pistols, Living Colour, and Aerosmith have rerecorded these songs, while other bands have been able to provide concert "live" master recordings. However, some larger artists are unable to do so.[117] Neversoft director Brian Bright states that they do not expect to acquire songs from Pink Floyd and Prince due to such reasons.[117]
Guitar Hero and other rock music-based games work with record companies to license each song for its use, costing a per-song average of $25,000 for the rights to use a master recording and $10,000 for the rights to make a cover.[118] However, the music industry has raised concerns that the music labels are not receiving fair compensation considering the success of the games. Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman and chief executive for Warner Music Group, stated that "The amount being paid to the industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content that we own and control, is far too small."[118] Tim Riley, vice president of music affairs at Activision, believes that the increase in popularity of the game series has lead more people, including musicians and music labels, to want to be part of the success: "The number of people interested in being associated with the game is probably a thousand times more than we can get into the game."[118] Activision CEO Robert Kotick has stated, in response to the record company's claims, that the impact that the Guitar Hero games have cause them to question if the game developers and publishers "should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse."[119] Mötley Crüe manager Allen Kovac noted that artists make a larger share of the sale of each downloaded game song compared to iTunes, and that bands that own their own master recordings earn even a larger percentage from music licensing rights.[70] Michael Pachter, an industry analyst for Wedbush Morgan, noted that Guitar Hero is not dependent on a single record label, as there is nearly a 2000-year supply of songs available at the current rate of content releases, and a full music industry denial to the game series could lead to anti-trust measures. Patcher also contrasted Bronfman's view, stating that users are not buying the games for the songs, but for the game, with each song providing its own challenge.[120] However, analysis believe that Activision's attitude on music licensing may have influenced the decision of Apple Corps, Ltd. to give the lucrative licensing agreement for The Beatles' music to MTV Games, who were more flexible in their negotiation

GU!TAR AMPLIFIER

2009-04-14T07:48:00.002-07:00

A guitar amplifier (or guitar amp) is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric or acoustic guitar louder and modify the tone by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain frequencies and adding electronic effects.
The amplifier comprises a preamplifier stage, which amplifies the voltage of the signal from the guitar, and a power amplifier stage which delivers a higher current to the speaker to produce sound. The simplest guitar amplifiers have only a power switch and a volume knob, such as the Fender Champ. More complex amplifiers, like the Mesa Lonestar, have more than one volume control knob and tone control knobs to contour the low, mid and high audio frequencies. Such amps may also have additional control knobs for adjusting presence, drive, gain and solo channels. The preamplifier stage may also have electronic effects such as distortion, chorus, or reverb and additional controls such as a graphic equalizer. Amplifiers may use tubes (or valve)s, or solid state (transistor) devices, or a mixture of both. Guitar amplifiers are usually designed to produce high power with relatively high distortion; a guitar amplifier with certain components will generally be rated at a good deal more output power than a hi-fi amplifier with the same components.
There are two configurations of guitar amplifiers: combination ("combo") amplifiers, which include an amplifier and one, two, or four speakers in a wooden cabinet; and the standalone amplifier (often called a "head" or "amp head"), which does not include a speaker. Combo amplifiers range from small practice amplifiers with one 6" or 8" speaker and a 5 to 15 watt amplifier, to mid-sized combo amps with a 12" speaker and a 50 watt amplifier (suitable for rehearsals or performances in small venues), to large combo amplifiers with four 12" speakers and 100 or more watts of power, which can be used for shows in large clubs or halls. Amp heads are used with one or more speaker cabinets, creating what is nicknamed a "stack". Some guitarists who use amp heads and separate speaker cabinets use a single 4 X 12" speaker cabinet with the amp head. In some styles of music, such as heavy metal and blues rock, guitarists may connect the guitar amp head to a number of 4 X 12" cabinets. Most combo amps also have provisions for connecting to a larger speaker cabinet, such as a 4 x 12", for playing larger venues.
Bass guitars, which can play notes an octave or more below a regular guitar, are typically amplified with a bass amplifier which is designed to handle the low frequency range. Acoustic guitar amplifiers differ from electric guitar amplifiers in that while electric guitar amplifiers are typically designed to modify the tone of the instrument--either by "rolling off" high frequencies or adding the warmth of tube overdrive--acoustic guitar amplifiers are generally designed to reproduce the natural sound of the acoustic instrument fairly accurately, without adding coloration or overdrive. A bass guitar should never be played through a regular guitar amplifier, since the low frequency audio produced by the bass guitar can damage the guitar amplifier. Conversely, it is quite safe to play a guitar through a bass amplifier.
Guitar amplifiers range in price and quality from small, low-powered practice amplifiers, designed for students, which sell for less than US$50, to expensive "boutique" amplifiers which are custom-made for professional musicians and can cost thousands of dollars.

GUITAR AN ACOUSTIC

2009-04-14T07:48:00.001-07:00

An acoustic guitar is one not dependent on an external device to be heard but uses a soundboard which is a wooden piece mounted on the front of the guitar's body. The acoustic guitar is quieter than other instruments commonly found in bands and orchestras so when playing within such groups it is often externally amplified. Many acoustic guitars available today feature a variety of pickups which enable the player to amplify and modify the raw guitar sound.
There are several notable subcategories within the acoustic guitar group: classical and flamenco guitars; steel string guitars, which include the flat top or "folk" guitar; twelve string guitars and the arch top guitar. The acoustic guitar group also includes unamplified guitars designed to play in different registers such as the acoustic bass guitar which has a similar tuning to that of the electric bass guitar.

GU!TAR

2009-04-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was defined as being an instrument having "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides".[1] Instruments similar to the guitar have been popular for at least 4,000 years. While today's classical guitar first appeared in Spain, it was itself a product of the long and complex history that saw a number of related guitar types developed and used across Europe.[2] The roots of the guitar can be traced back thousands of years to an Indo-European origin in instruments, then known in central Asia and India. For this reason the guitar itself is distantly related to instruments such as the tanbur and setar, and the Indian sitar. The oldest known iconographic representation of an instrument displaying all the essential features of a guitar being played is a 3,300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard.[3] The modern word, guitar, was adopted into English from Spanish guitarra (German Gitarre, French Guitare),[4] loaned from the medieval Andalusian Arabic qitara[5], itself derived from the Latin cithara, which in turn came from the earlier Greek word kithara,[6] which is descended from the Old Persian word sihtar.[7]

Illustration from a Carolingian Psalter from the 9th century, showing a guitar-like plucked instrument.
The modern guitar is descended from the Roman cithara brought by the Romans to Hispania around 40 AD, and further adapted and developed with the arrival of the four-string oud, brought by the Moors after their conquest of the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century.[8] Elsewhere in Europe, the indigenous six-string Scandinavian lut (lute), had gained in popularity in areas of Viking incursions across the continent. Often depicted in carvings c. 800 AD, the Norse hero Gunther (also known as Gunnar), played a lute with his toes as he lay dying in a snake-pit, in the legend of Siegfried.[9] By 1200 AD, the four string "guitar" had evolved into two types: the guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar) which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard and several soundholes, and the guitarra latina (Latin guitar) which resembled the modern guitar with one soundhole and a narrower neck.[10]
The Spanish vihuela or "viola da mano", a guitar-like instrument of the 15th and 16th centuries is, due to its similarities, is often considered an important influence in the development of the modern guitar. It had lute-style tuning and a guitar-like body. Its construction had as much in common with the modern guitar as with its contemporary four-course renaissance guitar. The vihuela enjoyed only a short period of popularity; the last surviving publication of music for the instrument appeared in 1576. It is not clear whether it represented a transitional form or was simply a design that combined features of the Arabic oud and the European lute. In favor of the latter view, the reshaping of the vihuela into a guitar-like form can be seen as a strategy of differentiating the European lute visually from the Moorish oud. Meanwhile, the five string renassance guitar and the baroque guitar enjoyed popularity, especially in Italy and France, and indeed, much of Europe from the 15th to the 18th centuries.
The Vinaccia family of luthiers is known for developing the mandolin, and may have built the oldest surviving six string guitar. Gaetano Vinaccia (1759 – after 1831)[11] has his signature on the label of a guitar built in Naples, Italy for six strings with the date of 1779.[12][13] This guitar has been examined and does not show tell-tale signs of modifications from a double-course guitar although fakes are known to exist of guitars and identifying labels from that period.
The dimensions of the modern classical guitar (also known as the Spanish guitar) were established by Antonio Torres Jurado (1817-1892), working in Seville in the 1850s. Torres and Louis Panormo of London (active 1820s-1840s) were both responsible for demonstrating the superiority of fan strutting over transverse table bracing.[14]

GU!TAR PICKS

2009-04-13T04:14:00.000-07:00

Plectrum
Main article: Guitar pick

A variety of guitar picks
A "guitar pick" or "plectrum" is a small piece of hard material which is generally held between the thumb and first finger of the picking hand and is used to "pick" the strings. Though most classical players pick solely with their finger nails, the "pick" is often used for electric and some acoustic guitars. Though today they are mainly plastic, variations do exist, such as bone, wood, steel or tortoise shell. Tortoise shell was the most commonly used material in the early days of pick making but as tortoises became more and more endangered, the practice of using their shells for picks or anything else was banned. Tortoise shell picks are often coveted for a supposedly superior tone and ease of use.
Picks come in many shapes and sizes. Picks vary from the small jazz pick to the large bass pick. The thickness of the pick often determines its use. A thinner pick (between .2 and .5 mm) is usually used for strumming or rhythm playing, whereas thicker picks (between .7 and 1.5+ mm) are usually used for single-note lines or lead playing. The distinctive guitar sound of Billy Gibbons is attributed to using a quarter or peso as a pick. Similarly, Brian May is known to use a sixpence coin as a pick. David Persons is known for using old credit cards, cut to the correct size, as plectrum.
Thumb picks and finger picks that attach to the finger tips are sometimes employed in finger-picking styles

GUITAR JHONNY A . GU!TARIST

2009-04-12T04:38:00.000-07:00

Johnny A. is a guitarist, born in Malden, Massachusetts.[1] Growing up in Boston as a young child, he became interested in music, starting with drums at age 6. Upon being exposed to The Beatles in 1964 (age 12), Johnny bought a $49 Lafayette Electronics guitar and started his life-long affair with the instrument.
After forming a band called The Streets and playing mostly in the Boston area, Johnny played with former Derek and the Dominos keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, then began a seven year stint with The J. Geils Band front man Peter Wolf. He played on Wolf's albums, and co-produced one of them, as well as joining him on world tours. In 1986, Johnny's band, Hearts On Fire, placed second in the WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble edged out by Gang Green.
Gibson's Custom Shop designed a Johnny A. Signature Edition guitar per his specifications, placing him in an exclusive club with B. B. King, Wes Montgomery, Chet Atkins, and Les Paul himself.[2] [3]

GUITAR ELECTR!C SOUNDS

2009-04-11T07:37:00.001-07:00

Similar to the flat top guitar in appearance, the sound of the resonator guitar is produced by a metal resonator mounted in the middle of the top. The physical principle of the guitar is therefore similar to the banjo. The original purpose of the resonator was to amplify the sound of the guitar. This purpose has been largely superseded by electrical amplification, but the resonator guitar is still played because of its distinctive sound. Resonator guitars may have either one resonator cone or three resonator cones. Three-cone resonators have two cones on the left above one another and one cone immediately to the right. The method of transmitting sound resonance to the cone is either a "biscuit" bridge, made of a small piece of hardwood, or a "spider" bridge, made of metal and larger in size. Three-cone resonators always use a specialized metal spider bridge. The type of resonator guitar with a neck with a square cross-section – called "square neck" – is usually played face up, on the lap of the seated player, and often with a metal or glass slide. The round neck resonator guitars are normally played in the same fashion as other guitars, although slides are also often used, especially

GUITAR TELECASTER

2009-04-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

In 1946, radio repairman and instrument amplifier maker Clarence Leonidas Fender—better known as Leo Fender—through his eponymous company, designed the first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar with a single magnetic pickup, which was initially named the "Esquire". This was a departure from the typically hollow-bodied Jazz-oriented instruments of the time and immediately found favor with Country-Western artists in California. The two-pickup version of the Esquire was called the "Broadcaster". However, Gretsch had a drumset marketed with a similar name (Broadkaster), so Fender changed the name to "Telecaster".
Features of the Telecaster included: an ash body; a maple 25½" scale, 21-fret or 22-fret neck attached to the body with four-bolts reinforced by a steel neckplate; two single-coil, 6-pole pickups (bridge and neck positions) with tone and volume knobs, pickup selector switch; and an output jack mounted on the side of the body. A black bakelite pickguard concealed body routings for pickups and wiring. The bolt-on neck was consistent with Leo Fender's belief that the instrument design should be modular to allow cost-effective and consistent manufacture and assembly, as well as simple repair or replacement. Due to the earlier mentioned trademark issue, some of the first production Telecasters were delivered with headstock decals with the Fender logo but no model identification. These are today very much sought after, and commonly referred to by collectors as "Nocasters".
In 1954, Fender introduced the Fender Stratocaster, or "Strat." The Stratocaster was seen as a deluxe model and offered various product improvements and innovations over the Telecaster. These innovations included a well dried ash or alder double-cutaway body design for bridge assembly with an integrated spring vibrato mechanism (called a synchronized tremolo by Fender, thus beginning a confusion of the terms that still continues), three single-coil pickups, and body comfort contours. Leo Fender is also credited with developing the first commercially successful electric bass guitar called the Fender Precision Bass, introduced in 1951.

[edit] Vox
In 1962 Vox introduced the pentagonal Phantom guitar, originally made in England but soon after made by Alter EKO of Italy. It was followed a year later by the teardrop-shaped Mark VI, the prototype of which was used by Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, and later Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls. Vox guitars also experimented with onboard effects and electronics. In the mid 1960s, as the sound of electric 12-string guitars became popular, Vox introduced the Phantom XII and Mark XII electric 12-string guitars as well as the Tempest XII which employed a more conventional Fender style body and thus is often overlooked as a Vox classic from the Sixties. The few that were manufactured also came from Italy. Vox also produced other traditional styles of 6- and 12-string electric guitars in both England and Italy, The 12-string electric guitars had a much larger neck and body and averaged at the weight of 26.4 pounds(11.9kg), they were also played on tables such as a piano or other sit down instrument.

[edit] Compared with an acoustic guitar, which has a hollow body, electric guitars make comparatively little audible sound simply by having their strings plucked, and so electric guitars are normally plugged into a guitar amplifier, which makes the sound louder. When an electric guitar is strummed, the movement of the strings generates (i.e., "induces") a very small electrical current in the magnetic pickups, which are magnets wrapped with coils of very fine wire. That current is then sent through a cable to a guitar amplifier.[9] The current induced is proportional to such factors as the density of the string or the amount of movement over these pickups. That vibration is, in turn, affected by several factors, such as the composition and shape of the body.Some electric guitars have a tremolo arm (sometimes called a "whammy bar" or a "vibrato bar"[11] and occasionally abbreviated as trem), a lever attached to the bridge which can slacken or tighten the strings temporarily, changing the pitch, thereby creating a vibrato or a portamento effect. Early tremolo systems, such as the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, tended to be unreliable and cause the guitar to go out of tune quite easily, and also had a limited range. Later Fender designs were better, but Fender held the patent on these, so other companies used Bigsby-style tremolo for many years.In the 1970s, as effects pedals proliferated, their sounds were combined with power-tube distortion at lower, more controlled volumes by using power attenuators such as Tom Scholz' Power Soak as well as re-amplified dummy loads such as Eddie Van Halen's use of a variac, power resistor, post-power-tube effects, and a final solid-state amp driving the guitar speakers. A variac is one approach to power-supply based power attenuation, to make the sound of power-tube distortion more practically available.

GU!TAR

2009-04-09T23:17:00.001-07:00

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings (sometimes nickel) into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as reverb or distortion. While most electric guitars have six strings, seven-string instruments are used by some jazz guitarists and metal guitarists (especially in nu metal),[1] and 12-string electric guitars (with six pairs of strings, four of which are tuned in octaves) are used in genres such as jangle pop and rock.
The electric guitar was first used by jazz guitarists, who used amplified hollow-bodied instruments to get a louder sound in Swing-era big bands. The earliest electric guitars were hollow bodied acoustic instruments with tungsten steel pickups made by the Rickenbacker company in 1931. While one of the first solid-body guitars was invented by Les Paul, the first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar was the Fender Esquire (1950). The electric guitar was a key instrument in the development of many musical styles that emerged since the late 1940s, such as Chicago blues, early rock and roll and rockabilly, and 1960s blues rock. It is also used in a range of other genres, including country music, Ambient (or New Age), and in some contemporary classical music.

ELECTRIC

2009-04-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

GUITAR CHORDS

2009-04-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

A guitar chord is a chord, a collection of tones usually sounded together at once, played on a guitar.
Chord voicings designed for the guitar can be optimized for many different purposes and playing styles. Guitar chords can be composed of notes played on only a few strings at a time, whether occurring on adjacent strings or not, or on all the strings.
The instrument is generally very capable and versatile for chording purposes, but it does exhibit some differences with other instruments. Most guitars only have six strings, which means that for the very largest of chord-voicings it's often necessary to drop or omit one or more tones from the chord; this is typically the root or fifth. The layout of notes on the fretboard sometimes demands that the notes in a chord do not run in tonal order, or makes possible a chord which is composed of more than one note of exactly the same pitch. Many chords can be played with exactly the same notes in more than one place on the fretboard.
Guitars can vary both in the number of strings they have, and in the way they're tuned. Most guitars used in popular music have six-strings and are tuned (from the lowest pitched string to the highest): E-A-D-G-B-E. The internal intervals present among adjacent strings in this tuning can be written 5-5-5-4-5 (being mostly perfect fourth intervals plus one major third interval near the middle). Conventionally, the string with the highest pitch (the thinnest) is called the first string, and the string having the lowest pitch is called the sixth.

GUITAR TABALATURE

2009-04-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments, such as guitar, bass, lute, archlute, theorbo, angélique, mandora, gallichon, banjo, and vihuela, but in principle it can be used for any fretted instrument, including ukulele, mandolin, and viola da gamba, as well as many free reed aerophones such as the harmonica. While today tablature is commonly used in notating rock, pop, ragtime and blues music, it is often seen in folk music, and was common during Renaissance and Baroque eras.
Tablature is also used in non-fretted instruments. Three types of organ tablature were used in Europe: German, Spanish and Italian. There are several types of ocarina tabulature.[1] Harp tablature was used in Spain and Wales.
To distinguish standard musical notation from tablature in the context of the latter, the former is usually called "staff notation" or just "notation".
An alternate usage of the word "tab" is common on the internet, where it refers to conventional chord symbols (for harmony), or note names (for melody).Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments, such as guitar, bass, lute, archlute, theorbo, angélique, mandora, gallichon, banjo, and vihuela, but in principle it can be used for any fretted instrument, including ukulele, mandolin, and viola da gamba, as well as many free reed aerophones such as the harmonica. While today tablature is commonly used in notating rock, pop, ragtime and blues music, it is often seen in folk music, and was common during Renaissance and Baroque eras.

GU!TAR CHORDS

2009-04-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

OK, so I slammed cowboy chords in the last installment. They are useful…… that might be too strong.
Anyway, here they are and the only reason I’m showing them is because we’ll talk about how they relate to power chords. And some of the cowboy chords are moveable shapes as well.

OK, there they are: Note the spacing of these if you look at the two lowest sounding notes is exactly the same spacing of the power chords. Don’t let the top or nut of the guitar fool you. Think of that as a finger laying across the strings up there on the E, A, and D chords and you’ll see the spacing

FINGERS PICK

2009-04-08T00:47:00.000-07:00

I play with guys who can play pretty well, and occassionally I don’t suck, so it kind of floors me when I say lets play Red House in A or B or whatever. And I get this look like “dude I only know it in C or D”.
Let me open the fret board world up for you….. Bassists listen up too ’cause you guys are the worst.
TNow, hold up your hand and point to your thumb and say E then go to your index finger and say F, then so on and so on until you get to your pinky. Then think the basis of ALL Blues and Rock is the 1, 4, 5.
So in E: E, A, B is the 1, 4, 5
OK, so here comes the cool part:hink 2 things: 1, 4, 5 and the L shape:

ELECTRIC PLATE

2009-04-07T02:18:00.000-07:00

The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal slide (the "steel") to stop the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it uses foot pedals to affect the sound, hence its name. The instrument is placed horizontally on a stand, with the strings facing up towards the player, and is typically plucked with fingerpicks. The pedals below are used to change the pitch of its strings while being played; the action of the pedals may either be fixed, or may be configurable by the player to select which strings are affected by the pedals. The pedal steel, with its smooth portamenti, bending chords and complex riffs, is one of the most recognizable and characteristic instruments of American country music.
While there are some fairly standard pedal assignments, many advanced players devise their own setups, called copedents. The range of copedents that can be set up varies considerably from model to model. Aftermarket modifications to make additional copedents possible are common.
The pedal steel was developed from the console steel guitar and lap steel guitar. Like the console steel, a pedal steel may have multiple necks, but the pedals make even a single-neck pedal steel a far more versatile instrument than any multiple-neck console steel.

SLASH CHORD

2009-04-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

In popular music a slash chord or slashed chord is a chord whose bass note or inversion is indicated by the addition of a slash and the letter of the bass after the root note letter. It does not indicate "or". (Rooksby 2004, p. 20)
For example, a C major chord (C) in second inversion is written C/G, which reads "C slash G". If B was the bass it would be written C/B (making a major seventh chord in third inversion), which is read "C slash B". Some chords may not otherwise be notated, such as Ab/A (Latarski 1991, p. 25). Thus, a slash chord may also indicate the chord form or shape and an additional bass note.
In popular music, where the particular arrangement of notes is less important than some other forms, slash chords are generally used only when the specific bass note is important. A common example in guitar based music is in the I-V-VIm progression. By placing the third of the V chord in the bass, a descending scale is created in the bass. For example, in the key of G major this would be the chords G, D/F#, Em. That progression has the descending bassline G, F#, E. This type of slash chord contains diatonically occurring notes. In traditional notation it would be written using figured bass symbols.
Some sources notate slash chords with a horizontal line (Latarski 1998, back matter).

GUITAR BAREE CHORDS

2009-04-05T03:49:00.000-07:00

Barre chords (also known as barré chords and bar chords, but more commonly spelled as "barre") are a type of guitar chord where one or more fingers are used to press down multiple strings across the guitar fingerboard (like a bar pressing down the strings). Barring the strings enables the guitarist to play a chord not restricted by the tones of the guitar's open strings. Barre chords are often referred to as "moveable" chords, as they can be moved up and down the neck as needed. They are commonly used in most popular and classical music and are frequently used in combination with "open" or standard guitar chords. They are typically used for more complex chord voicings and playing in keys not suitable for the more basic open chords of the first position of a standard-tuned guitar.
Fretting a barre chord is the same as retuning the guitar a number of half-steps higher, playing the original open chord, and then tuning the guitar back down. Its primary purpose is to shift any of the open string chords an arbitrary number of half steps up the neck of the guitar, similar to the use of a capo. For example, playing the E major chord with a bar across the fifth fret is equivalent to playing an A major chord, five half steps higher than E.
Tone is affected by a barre chord. Because the strings are no longer open, they do not resonate as brightly or long as an open chord. The sound is muted by the pressure placed on the bar; heavy pressure in the center of the frets produces less muting. Therefore, when playing barre chords, it is important to practice maintaining adequate pressure, as the technique is tiring for beginners and the strings dig into the flesh of the uncalloused finger.

GU!TAR FUNCTIONS

2009-04-04T01:51:00.000-07:00

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four, seven, eight, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen and eighteen string guitars also exist.
Guitars are recognized as one of the primary instruments in jazz, blues, country, flamenco, mariachi, rock music, and many forms of pop. They can also be a solo classical instrument. Guitars may be played acoustically, where the tone is produced by vibration of the strings and modulated by the hollow body, or they may rely on an amplifier that can electronically manipulate tone. Such electric guitars were introduced in the 1930s and continue to have a profound influence on popular culture.
Traditionally guitars have usually been constructed of combinations of various woods and strung with animal gut, or more recently, with either nylon or steel strings. Guitars are made and repaired by luthiers. There are many brands of guitars, but some commonly known brands are PRS, Gibson, Dean, Gretsch, Ibanez, Martin, Jackson, Schecter, and Fender.

SIX STR!NG GUITAR TUNN!NG

2009-04-03T03:05:00.000-07:00

Six-string guitars with standard tuning
Guitar chords take advantage of the intervals between the strings, which in each case are perfect fourths excepting the interval between the B (second) and G (third) strings, which is a major third. One common non-standard tuning, found in hard rock and heavy metal music , is called drop-D tuning . This requires the player to change the low E string tuning to that of a D note. This tuning allows power chords (see below) to be played relatively easily on the bottom three strings, as the strings are now tuned to a root-fifth-octave (D-A-D) tuning. Many other forms of guitar tunings exist as well.

[edit ] CAGED major chords
Major chords contain a root note , a major third above the root and a note a perfect fifth above the root.

C Major
In the case of C Major, these notes are C, E and G. The graphical representation on the right shows how left-hand fingering produces:
E on the first string
C on the second string
G on the third string
E on the fourth string
C on the fifth string
No note is played on the sixth string.In a similar way, the chords A Major, G Major, E Major and D Major are often played as:

A Major

G Major

E Major

D Major
These five chords are fundamental to guitar for a variety of reasons including:
they are all major triads, and as such they are all primary reference chords
they all occur and are available in open position: the first three frets plus open strings
each has its root on a different string
their overall gross large shapes become the basis of the CAGED system
they can be connected and linked together to create one large long contiguous 12-fret or one-octave greater resource pattern of major triad tones encompassing the entire fretboard. Six-string guitars with standard tuning
Guitar chords take advantage of the intervals between the strings, which in each case are perfect fourths excepting the interval between the B (second) and G (third) strings, which is a major third. One common non-standard tuning, found in hard rock and heavy metal music, is called drop-D tuning. This requires the player to change the low E string tuning to that of a D note. This tuning allows power chords (see below) to be played relatively easily on the bottom three strings, as the strings are now tuned to a root-fifth-octave (D-A-D) tuning. Many other forms of guitar tunings exist as well.

[edit] CAGED major chords
Major chords contain a root note, a major third above the root and a note a perfect fifth above the root.

C Major
In the case of C Major, these notes are C, E and G. The graphical representation on the right shows how left-hand fingering produces:
E on the first string
C on the second string
G on the third string
E on the fourth string
C on the fifth string
No note is played on the sixth string.In a similar way, the chords A Major, G Major, E Major and D Major are often played as:

A Major

G Major

E Major

D Major
These five chords are fundamental to guitar for a variety of reasons including:
they are all major triads, and as such they are all primary reference chords
they all occur and are available in open position: the first three frets plus open strings
each has its root on a different string
their overall gross large shapes become the basis of the CAGED system
they can be connected and linked together to create one large long contiguous 12-fret or one-octave greater resource pattern of major triad tones encompassing the entire fretboard.

SALMAN HISTROY

2009-04-02T03:16:00.000-07:00

Though the band's first album, the self titled "Junoon" barely made a dent in the Pakistani music industry, their second album "Talaash" (The Quest) began creating a cult following for Junoon.
It was only after their 1995 release of their third album "Inquilaab" (Revolution), that Junoon developed a nationwide fan following, blending rock guitars and bluesy vocals with eastern elements like the use of tablas (traditional south Asian hand drums), raga-inspired melodies, traditional Pakistani folk music, and Eastern inspired poetry.
The band were one of the first bands in Pakistan to insist on playing live music where most music was sampled and programmed synth pop. Heavily influenced by rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Junoon aimed to combine loud guitar riffs with the tranquility of sufi poetry by the likes of Maulana Rumi, Allama Iqbal and Baba Bulleh Shah.
Success didn't come easy to Junoon as they tried to defy traditions in a conservative country like Pakistan. Their politically influenced songs were often subject to censorship, which led to their eventual ban from all state run television and radio during the rule of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
In 1997, the band took both Pakistan and India by storm with their hit single "Sayonee" which was part of their tremendously successful fourth studio album "Azadi" (Freedom) released by EMI. In 1999, Junoon released their fifth studio album "Parvaaz" (The Flight), which was based mostly on the poetry of Baba Bulleh Shah. "Parvaaz" was recorded and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in London and was hailed by critics as Junoon's finest work to date. Junoon won the award of "Best International Group" at the Channel V Music Awards in New Delhi, India in November 1999, where Sting, Def Leppard, and Prodigy performed with Junoon.
UNESCO invited Junoon to perform at their Millennium Peace concert in 1999 in Paris. The synergy created by Junoon aimed at peace, was an inspiration to all those present, which included renowned legendary artists like Lionel Richie, Dr. K.J. Yesudas, Ray Charles, Montserrat Caballé and Zubin Mehta conducting the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Actors Gregory Peck, Sidney Poitier, and Peter Ustinov were the masters of ceremony. Dignitaries from around the world, including the heads of the European union and the ambassadors from 170 countries attended this global event.
Compilation albums of the bands music and videos were released in 2000 (Junoon 1990-2000). Junoon released "Ishq" in 2001 and "Dewaar" in 2003 . Salman Ahmad was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations, attending a Special Session of the UN General Assembly. Following the 9/11 attacks, Junoon helped to organise a concert at the General Assembly on UN Day with Junoon and an Indian group performing at the Assembly Hall, a first of its kind. They also released their what they called their first English-language single, "No More" - an anti-violence song which deals directly with the events of that day. However, before "No More" they had released English songs on their first two albums, including "Our Land", "Lady Magic", "Downtown Princes", "Game Of Chance". The song "No More" is the first English song for which Junoon made a video.
Junoon has been the most successful Pakistani group in history, having toured extensively around the planet, including at the renowned European rock festival, Roskilde in June 2000, where Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, Travis, Queensrÿche, and over 200 other world famous artists performed. The band has been across Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East, and performed for kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers across the globe.
Junoon's track "Garaj Baras" was selected as part of a Bollywood movie soundtrack in 2003 for the Pooja Bhatt film Paap. The song topped the charts again in that country in 2004 . The band's controversial single "Pappu Yaar" again shot to the #1 spot in Pakistan.
In 2005, Brian O'Connell returned to his native New York. Pakistani musician Mekaal Hasan and the band's producer John Alec have been playing bass guitar for live shows in his place. A reunion concert took place in Dubai, UAE in March 2006.
Both band members Ali Azmat and Salman Ahmad have released their debut solo albums.
In September 2007, Junoon released three albums (Parvaaz, Infiniti, and Azadi) with Magnatune.

GARY GRAFF

2009-04-02T02:08:00.001-07:00

By Gary Graff
DETROIT (Billboard) - Nobody's more surprised that Jason Newsted will be playing again with Metallica this weekend than ... Jason Newsted.
Newsted was the Metallica bassist from 1986, when he replaced the late Cliff Burton, until he left the group in 2001. Newsted said he had modest expectations for his role in the group's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on Saturday in Cleveland. "I just planned on going, looking good in my suit, hanging out with my family, going up and getting the award, making a nice speech...," he said.
Then, last Thursday, he got a call from drummer Lars Ulrich that changed things.
"He said, 'We want you to rock with us,'" Newsted said. Ulrich told him that Robert Trujillo, Metallica's current bassist "'is not gonna play at all. We want you to play.' And my first question was, 'How's Robert with that? How does he feel about that? I don't want to create any kind of negative anything. I want this all to be proper.'
"(Ulrich) said, 'No, he's with it, man. He wants to be there as a fan, too, and wants to see the 'black' album (1991's 'Metallica') band'...It's all good. Everybody's agreed to it. Let's rock!' 'OK. Let's rock.'"
Prior to the Ulrich's call, however, Newsted says he had no qualms with the current version of Metallica playing at the ceremony.
"I felt strongly they should go as that band and represent Metallica," Newsted said, "because they're strong right now, together. Those four guys in Metallica are out there knocking the s--- down, standing tall, able, prowess, chops are in order ... There aren't many times the Hall of Fame can induct a band that's fully capable like that."
Newsted is shipping in the amplifier rig he used during his tenure in Metallica, as well as the Sadowski five-string bass that he notes "has played more songs for Metallica than any other bass instrument in the world." The group plans a sound check/rehearsal for Friday night, then will play "something old (and) something new" on Saturday -- though both songs will be from Newsted's tenure with the band. "One louder

SALMAN ROCK!

2009-04-01T12:52:00.001-07:00

(born 1 December 1972) is a leading Pakistani musician and record producer from Lahore. He has worked in the capacity of a guest artist and/or record producer in the music industry of Pakistan with many Pakistani bands and solo artists at home and abroad. He is also the band leader and composer for perhaps Pakistan's most critically acclaimed band, Mekaal Hasan Band, known to its fans as MHB.

Mekaal Hasan was born in Lahore, Pakistan. His parents are Masood Hasan,a well known and widely read writer/columnist and also an advertising professional who runs Publicis Pakistan and Prof.Ira Hasan, a renowned and one of the most sought after teachers of English literature.
Mekaal Hasan was surrounded by music from childhood. His father's passion for jazz influenced him throughout his early years. After graduating from Government College, Lahore, Mekaal studied music at the Berklee College of Music, Boston. His stay exposed him to a wide variety of music and musicians, many of whom are influences to this day. Mekaal could not complete his degree from the Berklee School of Music.
Returning to Pakistan in 1995, Mekaal set up a state of the art recording facility, Digital Fidelity Studios where many of the top artists of Pakistan record. Mekaal formed The Mekaal Hasan Band towards the end of 2000 and the Sampooran record features his long standing writing partnership with keyboardist Javed Akhtar. Apart from leading MHB, Mekaal also played bass as a guest artist for one of South Asia's leading rock bands Junoon for a period of a year from 2005 to 2006.
Mekaal Hasan is also known for his production, record engineering and mixing talents and has produced/engineered the biggest names in Pakistan's music scene as well as engineering for jazz artists from The UK and Europe.

WESLEY LOUDEN BORLAND

2009-04-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

Wesley Louden Borland (born February 7, 1975 in Richmond, Virginia) is a musician, best known as the guitarist in the band Limp Bizkit.
He has been in several other bands, including The Damning Well, Goatslayer and Big Dumb Face. He also recorded on From First to Last's Heroine album in 2006, and served as bass guitarist for the band's subsequent tour. Borland was well known for his bizarre stage appearance, and for his fondness of musical artists that differed greatly from the musical tastes of his bandmates in Limp Bizkit. Borland currently performs in Black Light Burns, in which he writes most of the music and sings. It has been confirmed that Wes has returned to Limp Bizkit for a 2009 tour and new album.

MEKAAL HASSAN

2009-04-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Mekaal was surrounded by music from childhood. His father's passion for jazz influenced him throughout his early years. After graduating from Government College, Lahore, Mekaal studied music at the Berklee College of Music, Boston. His stay exposed him to a wide variety of music and musicians, many of whom are influences to this day. Returning to Pakistan in 1995, Mekaal set up a state of the art recording facility, Digital Fidelity Studios where many of the top artists of Pakistan record. His reputation as a guitarist gained even more momentum with his instrumental record ‘Square One’ ,written after his return from Berklee. From the instrumental rock jazz writing style of ‘Square One’ from 1996 to 2000, Mekaal made a dramatic shift of writing and composing in the ending of 2000 when he then focused on writing around eastern classical musicians and hence formed The Mekaal Hasan Band. Out of this shift in direction came the band’s groundbreaking record, Sampooran. Along with being the band leader, composer/arranger and guitarist for MHB, Mekaal Hasan is one of the most in demand record producers around, producing and engineering records with artists as diverse as Noori, Jal and Ali Azmat. Mekaal’s versatility makes him an asset to any musical situation at hand and MHB’s unique sound and style are very much because of Mekaal’s unique writing and compositional abilities as well as his production skills.

Mekaal Hasan (born 1 December 1972) is a leading Pakistani musician and record producer from Lahore. He has worked in the capacity of a guest artist and/or record producer in the music industry of Pakistan with many Pakistani bands and solo artists at home and abroad. He is also the band leader and composer for perhaps Pakistan's most critically acclaimed band, Mekaal Hasan Band, known to its fans as MHB.

SAMIR CHATTERJEE

2009-03-31T20:56:00.000-07:00

On December 10 2007 Salman Ahmed and Indian tabla maestro Samir Chatterjee performed at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo City Hall in the honour of former American vice president Al Gore and the United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who were the winners of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2007.
Salman Ahmad will perform with Yale Strom (a world leading Klezmer artist) on March 1, 2008 at Temple Beth Sholom in Roslyn Heights as part of another"Common Chords II" concert celebrating Muslim and Jewish Music. Salman is also set to perform with Oscar and multi Grammy award winner Melissa Etheridge, with which he recorded a duet called "Ring the Bells" (hear it at http://deepakchopra.com/2008/09/26/ring-the-bells-by-melissa-etheridge-and-salman-ahmad/). They will be performing at Etheridge's album release concerts in New Jersey and Atlantic City in November 2008. Etheridge hopes to present this track to President-elect Barack Obama. Salman told Freemuse: “I will dedicate these performances to the Pakistan lawyers movement for the restoration of the Supreme Court judges and independance of the judiciary as well as Pakistan's civil society, media, students and rights activists who have heroically protested against the Musharraf government's illegal action of imposing emergency in Pakistan.”

CLINTON GLOBAL

2009-03-31T20:55:00.000-07:00

In September 2006, Salman Ahmad was personally invited by former US President Bill Clinton to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative panel in New York on Thursday, September 21st, featuring such prominent guests as Bill Gates, President Musharraf, Queen Rania, and others. After Junoon's international acclaim and success, Salman reached new heights, which include being an ambassador for peace with numerous international awards under his belt. Salman also played an important role in raising funds and awareness for the massive earthquake that hit Pakistan in October, 2005.
In an interview with ARY One World, Ahmad said he would be working with Madonna and Bono in 2007. Recently, Salman has been touring actively, performing and speaking at prestigious U.S. institutions such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Purdue, Stanford, MIT, and UT Austin.
Salman has been teaching a class on music titled "Islamic Music and Culture of South Asia", as a guest faculty at Queens College. This year, he started his second semester as a guest faculty.[1]
Salman recently worked with Annie Lennox, Sarah McLachlan and Dave Stewart to record a song for 'Green Peace', which was produced and mixed by Junoon's producer John Alec.
He performed at the Cherry Blossom Festival on Sunday, April 6th 2008 in DC. Ahmad performed in Toronto on Sunday, November 4th at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the sold-out A Mystical Journey concert. With stops in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Montreal, and featuring 60 musicians and dancers from various parts of the Muslim world, the concert marks the Golden Jubilee initiative of His Highness Prince Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims.

2009-03-31T20:51:00.000-07:00

Salman Ahmad (Urdu: سلمان احمد) is a Pakistani musician and former actor, who used to be a member of Vital Signs but left after their debut album due to creative differences. He is also a medical doctor. He went on to form Junoon, South Asia's biggest and longest-lasting rock band. While still enjoying the success of Junoon, Salman Ahmed has been involved in two documentaries with the BBC and is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS. Ahmad is working towards spreading awareness about HIV in South Asia, and helping to bring peace between Pakistan and India.

He released his solo album, Infiniti, in mid-2005, but contrary to rumors, has not dissolved Junoon. The first video for Infiniti is "Al-Vida". It seeks to promote HIV awareness, and features famous Pakistani actress Nadia Jamil playing the role of a woman whose husband dies of AIDS; Jamil's character goes on to educate street people about preventing the disease. Ahmad has appeared on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, the PBS documentary The Rock Star and The Mullahs, and the BBC documentary It's My Country Too. He has also appeared on CNN and NPR to speak on behalf of Pakistanis and Muslims.

GUITAR LESSON FOR BEGINNERS

2009-03-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

THIS VIDEO HELPS YOU IN PLAYING OF GUITAR !

2009-03-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Since its formation in 1996, the band has sold more than 50 million albums[2] and won two Grammy Awards.[3][4] It achieved mainstream success with its debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005.[5] Its following studio album, Meteora, continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200’s album charts in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around the world.[6] In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth greatest band of the music video era.[7]
Having adapted the nu metal and rap rock genres to a radio-friendly yet densely-layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora,[8][9][10] the band explored other genres in their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight.[11][12] The album topped the Billboard charts and had the third best debut week of any album that year.[13][14] They have also collaborated with several other artists, most notably with rapper Jay-Z in their mashup album Collision Course, and many others on Reanimation.[9]

2009-03-31T07:01:00.001-07:00

Thank you SO much for your continued support of our band. We've been making music as Linkin Park for almost a decade, and, in that time, your collective dedication has never waned. We're so honored to have won an American Music Award last night, and are incredibly grateful to everyone who voted for us online. We worked for a year and a half to make Minutes to Midnight, and spent an additional eighteen months on tour supporting it. I hope you enjoy the album as much as I still do.
Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays.

2009-03-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

He played thousands of concerts around the world with Katie Melua including:
Live Earth Concert in Hamburg (July 07)The World Music Awards (Nov 06)North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam (July 07)ECHO awards in Germany (2007)The Brit Awards (2004)The Record Of The Year (2004 and 2005)Top Of The Pops (several times)The Today Show in the US (2006)
Between 2000 and 2005 he played over 1000 shows with The Counterfeit Stones (Rolling Stones tribute band) including supporting Bryan Adams at the Ajax Arena (Amsterdam), a sold out Albert Hall headline, The Shepherds Bush Empire and numerous TV and Radio appearances.

When not making, playing or teaching music Justin's hobbies include Wing Tsun Kung Fu (UKKFF), rock climbing, traveling to exotic places, mountain biking, chess, reading and politics. I was really into skydiving (my home club was Skydive Weston) but I am stopped in 2008, I just got too busy... and had a couple of scares... but I will be back getting my knees in the breeze once I finish my record...
He has an unhealthy obsession with chocolate and orders new and interesting flavours from every corner of the globe.
"Look where you want to go"

justinguitar.com was first started in 1996 as a small web site offering a few lessons as a sample to promote private lessons. It grew steadily over it's first 10 years, with Justin often adding content to keep himself occupied while on tour, much of it done on a laptop in hotel rooms around the globe.
After seeing the popularity of YouTube Justin began making instructional guitar videos in December 2006, initially filmed and edited by his friend Jedi. By the start of 2009 his YouTube instructional videos have been watched over 35,000,000 (yep thats 35 million) times and the web site receives well over 500,000 unique visitors a month - and it is growing fast.
It has received many accolades in both the traditional press and new media as well as radio and tv shows. By keeping quality guitar instruction free for those that cannot afford or get to private lessons has given the site a huge user base in the developing world, as well as many thousands that have either been too shy or too busy to make time for regular lessons.
The approach is patient. Learn one thing well and be able to use it before you learn more. The method works, and many thousands of people around the world have benefited from the lessons on the site. He is probably the most studied guitar teacher on the planet!
Justin released his first book, Really Useful Guitar Stuff in 1998. It sold well and was used in many schools in the UK but has now been replaced by the web site and is no longer available.
In 2007 Justin started Chocolate Cake Productions with friend Jed "Jedi" Wardley to release his intructional DVD's. There are currently nine available on the web site, with many more planned for release in 2009. The Solo Blues Guitar series is extremely popular with many students posting their performances on YouTube.
As well as the DVD's he has realeased a series of books - Really Useful Guitar Stuff. Part 1 - Practical Music Theory has proven to be extremely popular and Part 2 - Chord Contruction Guide is the perfect follow up. More are due out in 2009.
Really Useful Blues Solos (a book and CD set) was released in May 2007 and is a unique way of learning to play blues guitar using the traditional 'by ear' approach.
He also released two play-along CDs, Really Useful Play Along Tracks, and Jam Blues, available for digital download.
See the Products area of the site for more information on all titles.

2009-03-30T12:56:00.000-07:00