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

I love behind the scenes videos so it is great to peer into the PRS Guitars Factory and see what goes into making these beautiful instruments. The first video goes into the woodshed at with Wood purchaser Paul Platts. They should turn one of those giant slabs of mahogany into a giant fretboard, ok so not Mahogany as such maybe a giant slab of Pao Ferro! Paul Reed Smith himself is also great at explaining the processes involved with drying the wood which I think is fascinating.

In this next video is a demonstration of the CNC Machines & Tooling:

The next video shows the Truss Rod Installation and Fingerboard Glueup:

The next step is the Fret installation:

And naturally the “Inlay/Slot/Round/Level” follows:

What a fantastic set of videos and great insight into how PRS create such amazing instruments.

Check out this just in from Lick Library:

Lick Library guitar videos Stuart Bull interviewed Australian singer songwriter Orianthi at the music trade show NAMM in Anaheim, California. Orianthi discussed her most recent album ‘Believe’ as well as the music video ‘Highly Strung’ with Steve Vai, which was completed this year. She also goes into detail about the album making process and describes the Believe album as “definitely pop.”

In the interview, which is available on Lick Library’s site, Stuart Bull asks about trying to balance the demands of record producers and a more ‘pop’ career, with her artistic freedom. In response she simply tells of her feelings gratitude that she is doing what she loves - playing guitar.

Orianthi was originally spotted and mentored by Carlos Santana and subsequently by Steve Vai. She is perhaps best known for the fact she was to be the guitarist on the recent Michael Jackson tour. She has also played with Prince, has featured on the film Bratz: The Movie as well as the Eric Clapton Guitar Festival. The Lick Library site also contains an interview with Orianthi from 3 years ago.

Lick Library, one of the world’s leading producers of guitar videos and lessons, was founded by Stuart Bull and Kim Waller. Their mutual passion for music lead to the creation of Total Accuracy – which produced backing tracks for guitarists to practice over. This developed into Lick Library – a resource relied upon by thousands of passionate guitarists, bassists and drummers around the world. Their stated mission is to “provide the best possible experience for musicians of all levels to learn their chosen instrument, benefit from the wisdom of world class tutors and interact with other musicians worldwide.”

For the ultimate range of tuition products, www.licklibrary.com has the comprehensive and definitive professional guides to learning to play the guitar.

Check out Orianthi Highly Strung featuring Steve Vai:

It is no secret that Joe Satriani is a massive influence of mine so it is a bloody shame this news only applies to my US readers. Yes Joe is doing a tour of music stores in the US and while the details are a little sketchy I have seen Vox will be giving away Joe Satriani signature pedals at each event and Marshall will also be giving away an MG50FX which I’m sure some kid will want, personally I’d prefer Joe’s current Marshall setup! If you are planning on buying an Ibanez JS20th you might want to wait for this event too because you will get a bonus 30 minute lesson with the Shred Maestro himself. Also if you buy a JS20th, JS2400WH, JS1600PSV, JS1200CA or JS1000BP between now and April 1 you will receive a framed, autographed print of Joe Satriani.

Here are a list of dates and venues:

March 6 - 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Sam Ash
12747 S Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109

March 14
1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Musican’s Superstore
9260 Sheridan Blvd.
Westminister, CO 80031

March 19 - 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Sam Ash
7780 S. Cicero Ave.
Burbank, IL 60459

March 21 - 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Cascio Interstate Music
13819 W. National Ave.
New Berlin, WI 53151

March 22 - 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Sweetwater
5501 US Highway 30W.
Fort Wayne, IN 46818

March 26 - 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Sam Ash
156 W. 48TH. St.
New York, NY 10036

March 27 - 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Ken Stanton
119 Cobbb Parkway North, Suite A
Maretta, GA 30062
770.427.4291

Check out http://www.ibanez.com for more details.

Ibanez guitars have teamed up with Meshuggah for an awesome competition, unfortunately only for US Residents, boo! The competition is to coincide with the release of Meshuggah’s new live DVD ‘Alive’. All you have to do is head over to the competition page and enter a few details to be in the running for this monster guitar, I recently had the chance to play one of these 8 string behemoths and they are awesome.

http://www.ibanez.com/Contest/giveaway/meshuggah

Like him or not there is no denying that the upcoming self-titled solo album from Slash is going to be a massive release. Slash has gathered a number of big names for the record such as Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and Lemmy but also some unexpected names such as Fergie and Adam Levine of Maroon 5, it certainly seems to be an eclectic line up. The video above is a sneak peek at the recording process of the new album with in-studio footage of Slash and co. playing some of the new tracks.

The track listing is as follows (guest vocalists in parenthesis):

01. Ghost (Ian Astbury, feat. Izzy Stradlin) (3:34)
02. Crucify The Dead (Ozzy Osbourne) (4:04)
03. Beautiful Dangerous (Fergie) (4:35)
04. Promise (Chris Cornell) (4:41)
05. By The Sword (Andrew Stockdale) (4:50)
06. Gotten (Adam Levine) (5:05)
07. Doctor Alibi (Lemmy) (3:07)
08. Watch This Dave (Dave Grohl, Duff McKagan) (3:46)
09. I Hold On (Kid Rock) (4:10)
10. Nothing To Say (M. Shadows) (5:27)
11. Starlight (Myles Kennedy) (5:35)
12. Saint Is A Sinner Too (Rocco De Luca) (3:28)
13. We’re All Gonna Die (Iggy Pop) (4:30)

Bonus tracks:

14. Baby Can’t Drive (Alice Cooper, Nicole Scherzinger)
15. Paradise City (Fergie, Cypress Hill)

Blabbermouth has more details here.

GearPipe.com are running an exclusive giveaway where you can win a set of Fervor Single Coil pickups worth $225. Geoff Moore, a pickup winding guru and the founder of Fervor Pickups has been generous enough to donate a set of his handwound Classic Strat® pickups. These pickups will give you that classic Stratocaster® tone. Geoff describes them as “low/medium-output single-coils with a strong but polished, velvety-smooth tone.”

Head over to the competition page for details on how to enter and for more info on the pickups.