Finally a competition here in Australia! MyGeneration.com.au is giving you the chance to win a Gibson Les Paul signed by none other than living legend Keith Richards! The competition is promoting the new Rolling Stones movie ‘Shine a light’ directed by Martin Scorsese which is released in Australia on May 29 and all you have to do is vote on your favourite Rolling Stones riff and enter your details to be in the running. Now I’m no Gibson expert by any means but in the ad they say a Gibson Les Paul, in the competition details it says a Gibson Les Paul Melody Maker (do Gibson still make Melody Makers?)

I would like to know exactly which model they are talking about because there is a big difference between a $500 melody maker and a $2000 Les Paul Standard but hey if it is free and signed by Keith Richards I’m not complaining I’d be happy with a guitar pick with Keef’s signature!

Check out the competition page at MyGeneration.com.au.

Update : I’ve just been informed that the guitar is NOT a Melody Maker but a Gibson Les Paul Studio Premium Plus! (Natural finish), valued at around $4000.

Last month I featured a twin neck guitar which had a custom Union Jack flag finish painted by Jim Fogarty, well Jim just contacted me to send me pictures of Si Bailey’s completed project so I wanted to post the photos here on Guitar Noize in all it’s blinged up gold hardware glory!

Si Bailey has posted a video on YouTube to show the finished instrument in action!

My first experience with music sequencers was back in the mid 90’s using Cubase on an Atari ST520. Due to the Atari’s rather pathetic 520Kb of memory and storage of all tracks on 3.5” floppy disks Cubase was only capable of midi sequencing. Having said that, not that much changed with midi sequencing between Cubase and Cubase VST however once I started using VST on a PC with decent memory and a large hard drive it opened up a lot more options to me with its audio recording capabilities. The only problem was that I felt limited, certain things seemed like a lot more work than you would like them to be. Recently I have been reading a lot about Ableton Live and decided it was time to put it through its paces to see how much power lies behind the simplified looking user interface. For this review I installed Ableton Live 7 and the Essential Instruments Collection 2.

I’m a very impatient person, once I install something I want to start using it immediately and don’t want to be bogged down with reading the manual. With Cubase VST this simply wasn’t the case I remember falling at the first hurdle trying to work out how to record audio. I installed Abelton Live 7 and as soon as it was open I started dragging things around to see what would happen. I started off with the Session view which is a little different to the arrangement view I am used to, but flicking between the two is as easy as pressing TAB, however I like using Session view to begin throwing ideas together. I dragged a drum kit and a couple of Ableton’s midi instruments onto a track and was recording within seconds. It is SO easy to use! There is a massive collection of midi and audio effects that you just drop on the instrument track and have immediate access to all the parameters. When you are recording in Arrangement view and click record you can tweak every knob of the instrument panel and each effect in the chain that you create and record the changes as it plays or stop and draw the envelopes. If that sounds complicated, believe me, it isn’t, you don’t even need a keyboard controller to create professional tracks (although it is nice to have). You can use the computer keyboard for playing a single octave (C3 - C4) and then drag around to the octave you want or copy and paste to layer your midi notes or simply use the pen tool to draw the notes into the editor.

One of the great features of Ableton Live 7 is ‘Impulse’ (above). I’m going to quote the manual on this one because it describes it way better than I could, “The eight drum samples loaded into Impulse’s sample slots can be time-stretched, altered and processed by envelope, saturation, pan and volume components, nearly all of which are subject to random and velocity-based modulation.” It is a very clever module, you allocate instruments such as one of Ableton’s Kick drums or even an audio samle to a pad by dragging and dropping and immediately this is available either on your keyboard controller or between the ‘a’ and ‘k’ keys on your computer keyboard. This instrument makes it incredibly easy to create custom drum kits in seconds and of course you can chain as many effects as you want simply by dragging and dropping. Check out this video tutorial on Impulse to see just how easy it is to use!

Once your instrument is loaded and you switch to track detail view (SHIFT - TAB toggles this mode, see above) you see a simple little panel with (usually) 8 control knobs mapped to certain parameters. This alone is very cool, as I mentioned before you can record all the filter tweaks and effect tweaks in realtime so that they automate on playback. At the click of a button inside this macro panel you can expand to see what is behind the instrument’s sound. For example I dragged an instance of the Synth Instrument ‘Juno Style’ which when you expand you see a ‘Simpler’ instance called ‘Sawtoothy’ and a couple of effects, in this case a chorus and auto filter. Every part of this instrument is editable, its just a case of clicking on controls, turning them and finding a sound/effect you like.

Recording audio is just as easy, it really is as simple as creating a new audio track, selecting the input source, arming the track to record (click on the little record button in the track) and then click on the main record and play buttons. As you record you see (in Arrangement view) the waveform appearing as you play. You can zoom into this audio clip to edit and apply envelopes. This can be as simple as a volume fade or altering an effect parameter, just as you do with a midi instrument. Applying effects is just as easy, simply drag and drop each effect to the track and it will be added to the chain, which can be reordered at any time by the way. You can then add as many envelope lanes as you like to add more automation to the track.

So this probably all sounds very complex so let me break it down into terms any guitarist will understand. Simply put Ableton Live 7 lets you plug in, record, edit and arrange your music in a very simple way. The built in midi instruments allow you to play (with a controller keyboard) or program in the editor, drum loops and bass lines with ease. You can drag and drop drum samples and Ableton instantly time stretches it to make sure it fits your song’s tempo and allows you to chop it up and make it your own. Just as importantly Ableton Live 7 makes it very easy to create sets of music which you can mix on the fly with the use of an external foot controller so you could use this for a one man performance, you just need a guitar and a laptop to make each performance unique by arranging as you play. It is easy to see why bands such as Daft Punk use Ableton for live performances.

Having used this product for a pretty short time I already feel pretty comfortable but I know there is a lot more power waiting to be unlocked, I just need to have a dig through the manual and experiment a little. I have already set myself the task of producing 2 albums by the end of the year confident that Ableton will help me achieve this goal. The first will be a rock guitar album, the second will be an ambient techno album. I will release streaming excerpts as I finish them, this is going to be fun!

Lodestone Guitar Company make some very interesting looking instruments. As you can see from the photo the body is sculpted with some very striking lines that I think are just for looks, I can’t see any ergonomic reasons for them but the interesting thing is that the pickguard sits into the body slightly, you can just see from the photo that it looks slightly inset with a soft bevel surround, something I’ve never seen before on a guitar but I think is a nice enhancement to the traditional design. Solid alder bodies combine with rock maple and Indian rosewood necks for optimum resonance and tone transmission. And a beautifully crafted heel design offers easy access to the higher frets while providing enhanced stability. Uniquely, bridge saddles are precision engineered from advanced ceramic material to enhance clarity, dynamics, harmonic content and sustain, I would like to hear how the ceramic bridge enhances the sound! Pickups are courtesy of Seymour Duncan, a SSL-2 and a SH-1B ’59 for a warm vintage tone.

One of the most unique features of this instrument is the headstock which as you can see from this page has the machine heads angled back to reduce friction at the nut and also makes for a more natural position for tuning. There are four different models available and a number of finishes so check out the site for all the details.

Let me just clear one thing up, no, IKEA haven’t started selling guitars! However some clever guy realised that IKEA have plentiful supplies of cheap timber available packaged up as cheap tables! He bought one of their unfinished end tables for $15 which apparently can produce three guitar tops. The exact specs of the wood used for the body is multi-piece knotty Pine with a AAAA-private stock IKEA top. I have no idea what knotty Pine sounds like but Zachary Guitars seems to think it makes excellent tone wood, I’ve never heard of anyone else using it, but if I would like to hear from anyone who has had experience with using this wood.

The neck uses a more traditional combination of Mahogany with a Rosewood fingerboard. The pickups used are DiMarzio Virtual P90s.  A narrower string spacing at the bridge was used to accommodate these soapbar pickups.

”They are powerful and have a lot of guts. Its some kind of a midrange tone which screams Texas blues and Billy Gibbons.”

For more pictures of this quite exotic looking guitar check out Zacharyguitars.com

Seymour Duncan are arguably the most famous pickup brand in the world with Seymour still actively involved in every part of the business and working on special projects with people like Jol Dantzig from Hamer Guitars like this one.

But Seymour Duncan also make stomp boxes and in order to promote them they have devised a competition using the power of YouTube as a vehicle to promote these products. The idea is you produce an original video demo of any Seymour Duncan pickup or stompbox like you see on GuitarWorld.com, PremierGuitar.com or Guitarist.co.uk why these three? Well it just so happens that Paul Riario, James Egolf and Simon Bradley from each of these magazines/websites are going to be judging the videos along with Seymour.

Each of the 10 first place winners will receive their choice of a Twin Tube Clasic or Twin Tube Mayhem stompbox, 25 second place winners will each be offered their choice of a Tweak Fuzz , Lava Box, Power Grid, or Paranormal Bass Direct Box stompbox, and 50 third place winners will each receive a Seymour Duncan beanie.

Make sure you include ‘Seymour Duncan’ and the name of the product you’re demoing in the You Tube keywords, and then head over to the Competition page to fill in a simple entry form.

Contest ends June 15th

If you were/are a fan of Motely Crue you will know who Nikki Sixx is, for those who don’t he is the bass player and composer of most of Motely Crue’s music. You will also probably be aware of the fact that Nikki along with most L.A. bands of the time has suffered from Heroin addiction for most of his colourful career so it is pretty disturbing to see the artwork on this Special edition Ovation which i presume depicts the time Nikki overdosed and was revived after being technically dead for a few minutes to find the walls covered in blood. Now there’s a nice fireside story he can tell his grandchildren! If you want to read about Motley Crue’s crazy years I recommend you check out The Dirt too, full of stories from each band member, Tommy’s chapters are particularly entertaining I think his first word in the book is “Dude!”

”The stunning graphic on the top, designed by world-renowned artist PR Brown, is applied on spruce and married to a super shallow body to provide exceptional acoustic balance and projection. The NS28-HD also features many other distinctive Ovation characteristics including a thin profile neck, vibration sensitive Slimline pickup and the OP4BT preamp with a built-in tuner. Twenty-five percent of Sixx’s royalties from the guitar will go to Running Wild In The Night, a charity he established in conjunction with Covenant House to rescue homeless and runaway youth from the streets.”

So some good came out of his Heroin addiction! No, not the guitar the charity! honestly…

via Guitar Player Gear Guide

IK Multimedia have today added to their arsenal of audio products with the announcement of SampleTron which includes the most complete “Tron” anthology ever released in one virtual instrument, with over 2 GB of sounds, 640 presets and 260 multi-samples from 17 rare and vintage Mellotrons®, Chamberlins™, and their derivatives like the Optigan™, Rhythmaster™ and much more. I don’t normally mention software that is not guitar related but with recently I have been doing a bit of recording (post coming soon) and found myself needing a lot of backing instruments for my compositions and these would have come in very useful! You can’t just have all guitar tracks can you! (I know it is tempting!!!)

”SampleTron’s diverse library was meticulously sampled by Sonic Reality and assembled to showcase the entire sonic palette, with chromatic samples that accurately capture the complete authentic tone of each instrument. Jam-packed with unprecedented instruments originally used by The Beatles, Moody Blues, Genesis, Yes and other famous bands from the 60’s and 70’s, the sounds in SampleTron are diverse, powerful and inspiring!”

Here is a list instruments that the sounds are based on:

Mellotron® M400
Mellotron® MK5
Mellotron® MKII
Mellotron® Powerhouse (8 Track Rhythm Machine)
Novatron®
Vako Orchestron®
Optigan™
Talentmaker™
Chamberlin™ Music Master 600
Chamberlin™ Music Master 400
Chamberlin™ Model 200
Chamberlin™ M1
Chamberlin™ M4
Chamberlin™ Rhythmate™
360 Systems® “Digital Tron”
Roland® VP-330 (Choir)
Stylophone®

Good old stylophone! The interface design is a bit weird, they have gone for a eroded kind of look but I suppose it is meant to resemble a rusty old vintage instrument?

SampleTron is now available from all worldwide IK dealers, distributors and in the IK online store for just EURO249.99/$329.99. A crossgrade price of Euro199.99/$269.99 is also available for all previously registered users of any lite or full version IK product.

For more information check out the official SampleTron site.

Talking of IK Multimedia, don’t forget the Guitar Noize/IK Multimedia Competition closes in a week so don’t miss out on your chance to win a fantastic StompIO!

I’ve come across some pretty crazy guitar designs over the past 10 months or so and I thought I had seen it all… until I came across Michael Gaughan! The photos above are actual projects of his, starting with the guitar on the left, the Ant Farm guitar is made from Plexiglas, electric guitar parts, NASA seaweed and water based space ant farm gel, oh yeah and live ants.

”I researched ant farms and found out that NASA had invented this ant farm gel that was seaweed and water based. The ants could be sent into outerspace, they could eat this gel and make their colony trails out of it. Because it was a gel and not sand, it could be shaken up (like from a rocket blast and in zero gravity). Once I read about this stuff, I know that was the gel I needed to get for my guitar. I could shake it up and rock as hard as I wanted and it wouldn’t mess up their trails. I took the neck, and electrical parts from a used guitar and made the body from plexiglas, then I filled it up with the NASA space ant gel, ordered 30 ants, put them inside and was ready to rock!”

Around the same time Michael had the idea for the ant farm guitar he also had the idea for the helicopter guitar pictured above right!

”I was outside drawing different guitar ideas and I saw a helicopter fly over, and at that moment I knew I needed to have a flying guitar. One that could fly over the crowd and land on stage and I could play it, when I was done with the song it could fly out of my arms and have a lot of feedback and the sound of the blades spinning.

Friend and artist, Steve Davy was working at Franconia Sculpture Park that summer so I went out there a few times and he helped me cut the aluminum “body” and aluminum counterweight, so it would be an even 2.5 Lbs on each side. We built the helicaster flying guitar and I am currently looking for a pilot to collaborate with so we can play some outdoor festivals this summer and unleash the true meaning of Air Guitar!!!”

Check out the rest of Michael’s crazy guitar creations on his site!

The XOX Audio Tools Handle Guitar is one of the most unique guitars I’ve ever seen. Award winning designer Peter Solomon created this instrument using a mono-chassis, hollow sectioned construction which creates a resonance chamber similar to that of a semi-acoustic guitar. The ultra lightweight instrument is made from carbon fibre which apparently offers a much wider harmonic range than wood.

XOX Audio Tools is being put on auction his desired 100th Handle guitar, the last of its numbered and limited edition, to help the music program Guitars not Guns which is a non-profit organization that offers free guitars and free lessons to underprivileged children and teens with bases in Canada, Usa and UK. This project is an alternative to violence. I think this would also benefit Aussie kids too, maybe it will make its way over here sometime.

As of April 21 the guitar will be displayed on eBay and it will be auctioned on May1, 2008. One lucky bidder is going to be proud owner of a special unique collectors edition Handle guitar and they are going to feel really good knowing they helped many children in the process.

”We decided that our most important and valuable guitar, the last of our limited edition, would be raffled to the highest bidder and the proceeds from this would be given directly to GNG to use to their best potential to help the most children possible.” explains Peter Solomon, Director of XOX.

For more information on how to get involved with this auction check out XOX Audio Tools - Guitars Not Guns.

UPDATE: The auction can be found here so get bidding!