Guitar Noize - guitar news, crazy guitar designs and cool guitar videos

I’ve just finished listening to the Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott’s for the 3rd time and I have to say if you are a Jeff Beck fan you will love it. For a live album the mix is incredibly good, Jeff’s guitar parts are crystal clear with no noise and you can hear Aussie prodigy Tal wilkenfield whose bass playing never misses a beat as clear as Beck, she is a star in her own right already!

The album has all the classic Jeff Beck tracks, both original and covers you would expect to hear if you were putting together a Greatest Hits kind of playlist, “Cause we’ve ended as lovers”, “Where were you”, “Led Boots” etc. and they all sound better than the originals in my opinion. “Cause we’ve ended as lovers” has a really nice Bass solo from Tal which shows that she not only has great technique and theory knowledge but beautiful phrasing and sense of melody too. Beck’s playing is perfect as ever with his instantly recognizeable tone which although overdriven and sustaining is really clean and precise sounding, it is the kind of tone you want young kids to listen to and say “See you don’t need all that Triple Rectifier Ultra Distortion to sound good!“

I don’t know if its just me, and it probably is, but “Behind The Veil” from Jeff’s 1989 release “Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop” always reminds me of the theme to Bergerac, if you didn’t grow up in the UK during the 80’s you might want to check out this video of the Bergerac intro to see what I’m talking about, and if you did watch it for nostalgic reasons. Its that reggae style that does it, although Bergerac doesn’t have a searing guitar solo in it like this one!

“Scatterbrain” really shows off the band’s capabilities. Beck’s playing is amazing, Tal doesn’t skip a note, Jason Rebello on keyboards keeps things moving while Vinnie Colaiuta must be close to having a cardiac arrest! Meanwhile Beck’s cover of the Beatles track “A day in the life” shows the bands more subtle side, Beck’s playing leaves plenty of air for Tal to fill and she does so tastefully working closely with drummer Vinnie. It is a clever arrangement and one I’ve never heard before, I was quite surprised to even hear it on the album.

The album closes with “Where Were You” which not only displays Jeff Beck’s utterly control as a guitarist but also his compositional expertise. I remember when I first heard this track when my brother bought “..Guitar Shop” in the 80’s and have never heard anyone use open harmonics with such amazing control and such a clear overdrive tone. Jeff is all class and so is his band, this is one for the Xmas list!

Here is an interesting looking instrument from Goulding Guitars, there is hardly any info about these guitars on the actual website but I can tell you that prices start at £2900 which is not cheap but then check out how these guitars are made:

The body is made from a two inch thick billet of Aluminium which is machined from the rear to make it hollow.The front is machined to give it the carved look.The neck is also made from a solid billet of Aluminium which has an ebony fretboard with an abalone vine inlay.The tailpiece and pickup surrounds are of gold-plated brass to my own design as are the knobs and strap buttons.The guitar is equipped with Seymour Duncan humbuckers and an active LR Baggs piezzo brdge pickup which yield an array of different sounds via the various knobs.The finish can be a colour anodised, chrome or gold plated or as in this case bright polished.

Apparently you can customise to your hearts desire as long as you have the cash, if you want more information check out the Goulding Guitars website.

Its funny this guitar is touted as a “one of a kind” and yet it is available on at least 2 different US online stores?! Anyway never mind about that, this Gibson Custom Shop Engraved Les Paul Special features an angler’s dream tableau hand engraved by Darryl Thornbury. It has a hand-engraved black anodized aluminum full-top pickguard, engraved pickup covers and even an engraved truss rod cover. The Gibson luthier who commissioned the piece also happens to make part of his living as a pro fisherman, hence the Angling theme!. The luxury doesn’t stop with the engraving; an ebony fretboard with Pearl trapezoid inlays, Pearl logo on the headstock, and Ebony finish throughout create a visually stunning instant collectible… as does the price. As you can imagine with a Custom Shop Special it isn’t cheap, especially with all that engraving. This beauty will set you back $9999.99! But don’t worry it includes a hard case, oh and remember it is one of a kind.

UPDATE: James from http://www.learnelectricguitar.net left a comment pointing out that Musician’s Friend and Music123 are in fact the same company, how silly do I feel now!

There is a fun interactive and embed-able widget that anyone can use to create their own virtual rock group. The widget as you can see to the left can then be shared and the band with the most votes will win prize packs or two years of digital music worth $730! In fact the winning band members get your choice of Game Console, Guitar Hero World Tour Complete Band Game which as well as the software includes a wireless guitar controller, wireless drum kit controller and wired microphone. 10 runner up bands get the Guitar Hero World Tour game. So far I only have 2 members in my band Noize Master so looks like I’m not going to win… oh that and the fact that I’m not a US resident

Have fun and good luck!

Guitar Hero® Official Website: http://worldtour.guitarhero.com
KFC Rocks Website: http://www.kfcrocks.com
Check out the crowd surfing game on kfcrocks.com which is a guitar hero style tap the keys in time flash game!

Carbon Fibre guitars are not a new idea and many have commented on how the tone from Carbon Fibre can rival a quality tone wood and ME Guitars certainly agree, they say that the Carbon Fibre construction has unique tonal responce and acoustic qualities while making the guitar lightweight and strong. ME Guitars have been making guitars in the UK since summer 2007 so they are a very new company but one that already has a stunning product and if you are worried about ME Guitars’ Carbon Fibre moulding techniques you need not worry:

For the past 17 years was in Formula One as a patternmaker designing and producing tooling to produce Carbon Fibre components. The the past 4 years I have been running my own modelmaking company producing models and tooling for predominently Formula 1. Through the years I have been doing guitar repairs and have made a few wooden electric guitars, an ongoing passion since my teens. Working with high grade Carbon Fibre components i realised that the material had extraordinary acoustic properties. I would often pick up a carbon front wing from a racing car or radiator scoop and just flick it with my fingers to hear almost a bell like tone with endless sustain, this intrigued me so much that I decided some years ago to attempt to make a Carbon Fibre electric guitar. In early 2007 I made my first prototype. This construction was a seperate neck that was bonded into the body with a box section reaching the bridge. This was to ensure the transfer of sound from bridge to machine heads in one piece of carbon fibre, this also produces excellent sustain.The two body skins were then bonded top and bottom with high strengh epoxy adhesive. After showing the prototype to various shops and players I decided to make some modifications this meant producing a whole new set of tooling which is very expensive but I didn’t want to compromise quality for cost.

And if you’re still not convinced here is some technical info:

The FM1 guitar skins are moulded using high grade carbon fibre and cured in an autoclave oven which applies high heat , pressure and vacuum. The end result is a Carbon component that is consolidated to 1.3mm thick with virtually no resin content and has extraordinary acoustic properties. This is also the same method of production thats used in Formula One and Aerospace industry. I have changed the construction so that its made in two components as opposed to four with an internal structure that maintains the strength from the bridge to the headstock producing maximum sustain. Down the length of the neck there are two channels moulded into the carbon fibre underneath the fretboard ,this creates a strong stucture without the need for a truss rod . The neck is so strong that it will not be distorted at all by string tension and is also temperature resistant. I have redesigned the neck to body join so that there is maximum access to the 24th fret. The composite core material used inside the body (still under intellectual property scrutiny) is designed to reduce the feedback you would normally get in hollow body guitars but is also lightweight and adds to the compressional strength of the guitar body. The overall performance of the FM1 is a lightweight versatile guitar with a rich range of highs and lows with semiacoustic overtones, from a clean, crisp response to the power of the EMGs to deliver for the serious rocker - a quality guitar for the serious player.

And here is the hardware specs for the FM1:

EMG 81 - bridge pickup coil tapped
EMG 89 - neck pickup coil tapped
Gotoh 510 series machine heads
Gotoh EV510TS Tremelo bridge
RRP - £3995

So as you can see, Mark not only knows his Carbon Fibre but he is equally knowledgeable about Guitar construction and acoustics!  I was contacted by Guitar Noize reader Sheldon who made me aware of this company, and the green guitar you see in the photo above is his actual guitar and he says it is awesome. The difference with Sheldon’s guitar is that the pickups are by Rio Grande and the Green finish is a special tinted lacquer. For more info check out www.meguitars.co.uk. I wonder if they are tested in a wind tunnel?

I had no idea there was a Boss Virtual Pedal Board 1 but version 2 is certainly a killer idea! This microsite allows you to pick from 7 music styles from Rock to Acoustic to Country or you can choose Twin Pedals or Bass Pedals. As you can see from above I chose the Rock Style, as with the other Styles you have 4 pedals on the Virtual board and you can swap the overdrive/distortion pedal which in this case you have the choice of a DS-1 (Distortion), OS-2 (Overdrive/Distortion) and an MD-2 (Mega Distortion). Once you swap the pedal the audio example is reloaded with the new sound so you can hear the difference between the pedals, what is also cool is that as you switch on the delay, flanger and chorus the audio instantly updates with the effect added, you can turn them on and off as you please to hear the different sounds possible.

The Twins available to preview are the DD-20 Giga Delay, the CE-20 Chorus Ensemble, the RT-20 Rotary Ensemble and the OD-20 Drive Zone. Again with the twins the only effect you can change is the Overdrive and this time, from what I can gather it is using different presets.

If you prefer to hear a rhythm track than a lead audio example you can select Rhythm from the drop down and a new audio example is loaded with your selection of pedals applied. This is a nice way to get an idea of how some of Boss’ stomp boxes can sound but obviously this is not a totally accurate way of testing effects pedals. It is good enough to give you a shortlist to go and try out at your local store though which is more than most Effects manufacturers have on their sites.

I’ve probably said this before so stop me if I have, oh you can’t ah well, when I started playing guitar waaaaaay back in the late 80’s instructional videos were on VHS cassettes which meant it was a linear experience. You had a certain amount of control such as slow motion playback, rewind and fast forward and of course pause but the more you did all this the more the tape wore out and you ended up with noise lines all over the picture! Also the audio quality was pretty questionable to start with compared with today’s standards and that also deteriorated if you kept watching the tape over and over! These days of course instructional DVDs have much more to offer and Rock House Method have created some great products for Rock and Metal guitarists from beginner to advanced. I will cover some of the other titles in the coming weeks but I’d like to start with the DVD that caught my attention recently “Fretboard Autopsy“ by shredmeister Rusty Cooley.

Fretboard Autopsy is a 2 DVD series that can be purchased separately or if you would like to save a few bucks as a package deal in the Rock House Method online store, you will save $15 buying both at the same time. So what is it? Well as the title suggests Rusty has created a complete tutorial to help you visualise the fretboard by first playing all 7 modes moving up the fretboard (which is also included in a tab booklet inside the DVD cover) and then by creating patterns that overlap the different 3 note per string mode patterns to help you see the relationships. Now don’t expect this series to be an in-depth tutorial on Rusty’s incredible speed shredding style, you do get to see a lot of his techniques as he plays the examples up to speed (and I mean speed!) but he doesn’t dwell on the technical points of his playing, this video is purely mode examples to help you get out of the box positions. Once he has finished going through all the modes Rusty introduces some patterns which use 12 notes in the root position and then shift up to the next position for the next 12 notes. Now you could quite easily play these examples and not realise what you have just done but Rusty keeps emphasising how you are shifting up and using notes from the next mode position again to help you visualise the modal patterns and make you realise how easy it is to move around the fretboard. Another set of patterns Rusty uses are the modes minus the 7th which creates a set of repeated 6 note (3 notes per string) patterns which are simple to memorise and have you leaping from the 3rd fret on the bottom E to the 12th fret on the top E without having to change your fingering. I wish someone had shown me these simple ideas when I was starting out it would have helped me get out of my pentatonic rut when it was time to improvise!

The second DVD takes the pattern based ideas further although there does seem to be quite a lot of overlapping content that is the same which I found a bit weird especially if you had bought the 2 DVDs separately. Anyway once you get past the repeated section there are some cool reverse linear patterns which I think every guitarist would find very useful and certainly help you move around the fretboard with much more confidence. These DVDs are no quick fix, as with any lesson it is a matter of digesting the material and then committing it to memory in every possible position, something I hate doing but I really need to! If you were to take everything on board in these videos you would have a pretty solid arsenal of patterns to use in your improvisations or riff writing.

UPDATE: Joe from Rock House Method updated me on why there is some overlapping content:
There are just a few things that purposely overlap, they have to just in case someone only purchased level 2, they must have the foundation for all the patterns and sequences in both. If someone just purchased level 1 or level 2 they would need this as the building blocks for each program.
Thanks for the update Joe, that makes sense.

Another nice feature of the DVDs are the extras that come as part of the package. First of all you get a 30 minute interview with Rusty Cooley, unfortunately both DVDs contain the same interview but it is very interesting and gives you some insight into Rusty’s influences and how he focussed on practice at an early age. At the end of the 1st DVD Rusty takes you through his gear and explains how he designed his signature RC7G 7 string Dean guitar too. You also get a Rusty Cooley music video to watch and you also get access to the Rock House Method online members area where you can access the forums, extra tabs, backing tracks and applications to help you out like a metronome and a guitar tuner.

These DVDs are aimed at guitarists with some theory knowledge you should know what modes are if you are to fully appreciate this course but it is not essential it may even teach you everything you need to know about modes in the process of watching. I think Intermediate and Advanced players would both benefit from this excellent series, Rusty is a good teacher who instructs clearly and concisely which, considering he is self taught shows how much of a natural musician he is. The only thing I find annoying is that Rusty has his guitar tuned down a half step for both videos, which although he explains and gives you the tuning notes for, if you are like me and have a floyd rose style trem you aren’t going to want to tune down to play along to the examples. I don’t really understand why he didn’t have his guitar setup to standard tuning just for the video.

Rock House Method
Rusty Cooley Official Site

Rock House Method issued a press release last week stating that the legendary Metal and Jazz master Alex Skolnick and Brazillian sensation Kiko Loureiro have signed up to do Instruction DVD’s too!

Washburn guitars have added yet another signature model to their ever growing roster of Metal guitars this time for Mudvayne axeslinger Greg Tribbett. The guitar model is WV66GT and is available in black or white. It is a very simple set up, a single EMG 81 active humbucker and a single volume pot. The shape is a classic flying V rather than WV548 or WV40, both part of the HM Series shred guitars and more reminiscent of a Jackson Rhoads V. The body is Mahogany with a set Mahogany neck which is topped with an Ebony fingerboard. The bridge is a Tune-O-Matic and the tuners are Grover. The guitar is also equipped with the Buzz Feiten Tuning System which I’ve never tried but I’ve heard good things about, mind you I am more interested in trying out the True Temperament Fretting System for ultimate fretboard intonation but thats another story… The list price of this V is $1,329.90 which includes a GB4 case.

Greg is currently on tour with Mudvayne promoting their new album “The New Game“ released on Tuesday.

I received an email the other day from a someone who left a comment on my YouTube channel who goes by the YouTube username of guitarman53jc, John, like me has played guitar for years but has had a renewed interest over the past couple of years and his YouTube channel has helped bring back the passion. Anyway the reason John contacted me was to tell me about his Custom green APR guitar you see above nicknamed “Envy” which was made by one of his good friends UK custom guitar builder Paul Richardson. Paul took a few years out from building guitars but is in the process of launching a new company which I will follow up with more details soon. In the meantime let me introduce you to the Icon Flames.

This guitar body is constructed with a Mahogany body with quilted Maple top with a beautiful Emerald finish. The neck of this guitar is somewhat of a feature with custom Flame Abalone inlays which run the entire length of the Ivaroid bound Ebony fingerboard which is set on a Birds Eye Maple neck. The bridge on this guitar is a special 10th anniversary Gotoh “Floyd Rose” Tremelo which are complimented nicely with gold Schaller machine heads and the pickups are a PAF Humbucker in the neck and a “Rocker” in the bridge position by Kent Armstrong which you can find on WDMusic.com who are the exclusive distributors of Kent Armstrong pickups in the US.

If you would like to see this guitar in action check this video of John playing his beloved APR Icon Flames guitar on YouTube.

I felt guilty not posting about guitars today so I decided to post a quick extra for you!

Apparently James Hetfield has a new flying V according to this picture, he already bagged himself a tasty Trussart Les Paul recently which you can see in this photo and to compliment this crazy metal guitar he now has a Zemaitis Flying V like this one. As you can see both his new guitars are very metal, literally, the Zemaitis is a Solid Duralumin (an aluminium alloy) Top, 2-piece Mahogany back and looks pretty tasty!