Guitar Pro!

Guitar Pro is essentially a program that will bring a guitar tab to life. It’s powered by a MIDI engine that will read and playback the notes while you follow along with the tab. For those of us who don’t always practice with a metronome, it breaks down the tough runs for us. Although the backup band isn’t that fantastic (come on, it’s a basic MIDI engine), it will still keep you in time and involved in the song. With multiple instruments and tracks playing simultaneously, you can just focus on the leads or solidify the rhythm track. It’s even pretty neat to go see the vocal or keyboard parts transcribed for guitar. Stare in amazement as you see your favorite Dragon Force song being shredded out by a computer.Once you’ve acquired the software, head over to a reputable guitar tab site. I recommend Ultimate-Guitar.com for its accurate tabs, constantly updated tab list and lack of “payment required” access. In other words, the guitar tabs are free as of this posting. Run a search for your favorite song (and don’t be afraid to challenge yourself!) You’ll see Guitar Pro files listed with ratings on song accuracy. Download, rock.

Guitar Pro is also an excellent arrangement tool for songwriters. With a little to no knowledge of written music, you can quickly pick it up and compose that masterpiece that’s been begging to be unleashed upon the masses. Use Guitar Pro to mesh your riffs into songs rather than random thoughts, and add accompanying instruments behind it. You might be surprised at how well a part sounds on piano rather than electric guitar. Or a vocal line played on a trumpet. What ever it is, it’s worth the time spent experimenting and amusing yourself. You can even transpose your songs into different keys to see if down-tuning really is the way to go, or write a song out in an alternate guitar tuning a la Kashmir. It even has guitar tricks like whammy (take it 3 octaves up if you’d like), artificial harmonics, slides, hammer-on’s and even pick scrapes.

So stop making excuses not to practice, or take up that New Year’s resolution before it’s forgotten about. Either way, Guitar Pro is going to be the tool to get you to the next step.

I’ve used my trusty traditional pedal board for years. It’s been a constant revolving door of Dunlop , BOSS, Electro Harmonix, DOD, (almost every kind of guitar pedal) wiring configurations and power supplies. With all the knobs and dials a guitar tone freak could hope for. The upsides have always been similar. Great tone and dependability (and the flexibility wasn’t bad either). The downside has become a bit more apparent recently. The more pedals I add to my pedal board also means more space required, and I’m currently the proud owner of 2 decommissioned pedal boards. The current two-tier pedal board I’m using is one of the pieces of gear I’m most proud of. Until it comes time to remove it from the rehearsal studio into the real world of gigging on tiny stages made for a drummer and maybe three other performers. My pedal board has become the fifth wheel in this relationship. Aside from the massive amounts of room required for it now, the weight of the pedal board and case is closely approaching that of my Mesa Boogie 4×12 cabinet.

*I know at this point you may be thinking I should just remove pedals and my problem is solved. You will meet this with as much resistance as taking a baby panda from her mother. It just doesn’t happen with a guitar tone obsessed player such as myself.

To help with the issues mentioned above, I recently purchased a Line 6 POD XT Live Guitar Multi Effects Pedal. The reviews I’ve read rant about the ease of use, and the above average sound quality. In my experiences, Line 6 gear has always been a great performer and continues to be. I sat down over two different nights and set all of my presets to the standard configurations I am used to. The next rehearsal was the testing ground for the new unit. The sound was right on par with my expectations. With some tweaking, I was able to achieve a lot of the sounds from my old pedal board with ease.

With all sound and testing aside, I felt incomplete. My over three feet by two feet pedal board of tangled wires and endless knobs was no longer there to provide the confidence boost it always had. But to the unknowing listener, nothing had changed in my guitar tone. It was almost awkward to only press one button and call a preset that normally took me three taps on pedals in a fancy tap dancer move. It wasn’t the usual eye sore on the floor everyone noticed, and it didn’t have any of the hum the old pedal board did. This new Line 6 unit had to be the obvious winner right?

Yet I never felt right. Almost like I was cheating.

Has anyone else dealt with this? Do the withdraws ever end?!

The new setup allows you to post recommendations on albums, guitars and gear and turn it into commision money (cash is always good right?) It’s also got blog capabilities, forums and all the usual stuff you’d expect.

Check out my profile and pick something up while you’re there.

Social networking sites like Myspace, Tagged, Friendster, and Facebook have been a God-send for bands. With so many more sites popping up all over the internet offering free MP3 hosting, photos, profiles and even online merchandise stores everyday, it’s hard not to get your name out there. But so is every other band in existance, so be prepared to put some long hours in at first.

Start your online presense by creating your own website. It may cost a few bucks, but there are many template site builders for the DIY’s out there, or sites like Bandzoogle that will do all the work for you. Regardless where it comes from, having your own dedicated website is much more impressive than having to give out a Myspace address. This will even allow you to create your own landing page within your website dedicated to the traffic you generate from those other sites. Photoshop® up a nice live shot of the band (or have your drummer do it, and hang your head in shame haha) or take your most impressive shot and post it up with a few downloadable tracks and/or samples. Remember, your not going to sell thousands of song downloads when starting, so it doesn’t hurt to give out an entire song or two. Use this page when linking from any of the sites you start listing your band at. The last thing you want a potential fan to go through is the 5 minute loading time for your homepage Flash intro, and decide to go grab a drink instead. Get them where they need to be quick. If they want to find more about you, they’ll click around and find it.

From here out, add your band to any website willing to take it. The only way to ensure your going to be heard is by getting the music out there. Don’t be afraid to make small banners (25kb or less) of your band’s logo to spread out on blog or profile comments to help “piggyback” on someone else’s popularity. Just make sure you do it where it’s warranted. Spamming isn’t cool, so know your boundries.

Promotional websites for band:

• PureVolume.com
• GarageBand.com
• Myspace Music

Me playing guitar

In searching for new additions to my Guitar Videos page, I tried the forementioned search. Twenty five pages later I realized how much anyone with a guitar likes to record themselves playing. Unfortunately, the good videos are not worth finding due to the incredibly crappy ones inbetween. Why do I need to see you playing Green Day on your untuned acoustic guitar in your bedroom on your webcam? Does the world really need to hear you rehash Guns ‘N Roses riffs using the world-famous guitar rig…15 watt Crate practice amp into your built-in uncompressed camera mic? I will admit I was impressed by various clips of teens playing Van Halen’s “Eruption”, but I still snicker at the metalheads who are so “core” that they have to use Myspace to show what they do in their free time.

Where is Zakk Wylde when I need a good poser burn?!

But I did stumble across this old gem :)

I have to start with his guitars, as they are amazing pieces of work. Matt Bellamy has his guitars custom built by Hugh Manson of Manson Guitars. At first glance, they appear to be a cross breed of a Les Paul and a Telecaster, with some exaggerated looks. But the extra knobs and controls on the guitars serve various purposes depending on the guitar. The guitar I saw the most at the recent show was The Mirror Manson.

The Mirror Manson was a pretty incredible sight to see under the stage lights for it’s obvious reflective properties, because of how hard it is to look away from it. Combine it with their usual amazing light show and it’s going to be a blinding experience. Haha. The guitar is equipped with a pair of Mississippi Queens pickups from Bare Knuckle. But the really incredible part of this guitar is the MXR Phase 90 Roland GK2 MIDI internal pickup and the Fuzz Factory effects built right in, with the control knobs accessable on the guitar. (Check out how this thing is wired!)

He has multiple versions of these guitars with other features like Kaoss pads and MIDI control sliders buit in for contol over his Whammy pedal and other floor effects. Check out the Muse Wiki site for lots more info.

Here’s an overview video I found on youtube to see more…

In preparing for this post, I took a second to look for a band that I could be completely unbiased against so as not to offend fans, but to solely use their band name as the focus of the article. In my defense, I’m an average fan of AFI and won’t discuss the music today. But after browsing the Guitar World website, AFI stood out as a great example for 2 good reasons: 1. AFI is a shortened version of the full band name “A Fire Inside”, and the acronym can stand for plenty of other things. 2. As a well established band, I’ve seen countless fan sites, links from record label sites and thousands of backlinks from the most reputable music portals out there. A good band name can really make or break your chances of making it as I mentioned earlier, but for internet marketing’s sake, it can easily bury you. But a deciding factor may be how easily you can rise in search engines under your band name. Try searching AFI in Google, and as of today you will see the following…

Since a newly formed band isn’t going to have a Google music link for quite a while, we’ll have to ignore this for now. But notice the first result in the organic listings. The American Film Institute. Some may argue the domain is an exact match to the search, but we’re dealing with two powerhouse internet entities here. Your still-playing-for-beer band can’t compete. If AFI can’t out rank everyone for their new name, you won’t either. Consider how commonly used the word or words making up your band name are. The more you know about your band name, the more the internet world probably has written about it. Unique combinations of words will help ensure you’re the only credible internet site for that result. For my examples sake, “A Fire Inside” may have been a better choice to promote themselves under, because the direct competition isn’t nearly as strong and has far fewer results. With all of this in mind, remember you are trying to make your music and material as publically accessible as you can. With band marketing today, you can’t afford to be buried in the search engine results when word-of-mouth can be your best ally. If you can’t secure the perfect domain that a screaming fan at a show will remember 100% of the time as mentioned in part one, you’ll need the power of search engines to get them to your site.

“Tony, you have one of the most spectacular moustaches in rock history. What is your razor of choice?” or “Is it true you once lit Bill Ward’s beard on fire?”
Here’s the link

I was pretty impressed by the new PRS SE Semi-Hollowbody. It’s going to be a really affordable guitar, and it sounded great. The SE line may not seem worthy at first glance because they’re a Korean made version of the classic PRS line, but the new PRS SE Singlecuts will really give Epiphone a good amount of competition when it comes to price and quality. The younger generation these are aimed at would much rather own a more modern looking guitar than the usual Les Paul IMO.
Schecter is rolling out more guitars based on their usual line. I really like the quality and the general ideas Schecter is going for, but I can’t help but wonder when they will come out with a new line of body shapes. They seem to be set with the 8 or 9 standard guitar shapes, and just re-accessorizing them. A lot of the new guitars featured the usual Tempest or C-1 design with new features like EMG’s, fancy fretboard inlays, or just a new finish color/design. But Schecter really did have one of the most popular booths because of all the artists and guitars on display. I even ran into Synyster Gates of A7X in the bathroom on his break from signing autographs.
For the guitar amp companies, nothing much to report. Mesa Boogie had a smaller booth, and was really pushing the new Express Amps. They seem to be similar to the discontinued Nomad line, with the appearance of the F-line they still make. Not a bad sounding amp, but an uninspiring booth. But I still love em

Marshall had the new Kerry King model JCM800, and the new JVM series. Another high-gain Marshall amp, only this time it’s 4 independent channels, 100 watts, and MIDI programming for channel memories. Seems pretty impressive, but didn’t get to hear it.
As for my next likely guitar purchase, ESP is rolling out more guitars in the EC line. The new EC-500 lay off of some of the extra cosmetic features of the EC-1000’s, and still has everything that made them cool. Fast playing slim neck with extra jumbo frets, EMG’s and a sharp-as-hell look to them. (I still crave the Vintage Black version of the EC1000!)
The Boss booth wins hands-down for the best entrance, with their 25-foot DS-1 entryway! They only had a few new pedals for 2007, but they should be a big hit. The ‘59 Bassman and Fender Deluxe Reverb pedals are modeled after the classic Fender amps, and sound surprisingly similar. Boss also wins for worst product name, with the new Metal Core pedal. It sounded to me like a well-tweaked Metal Zone pedal, and I was a bit confused to why they were in this area of distortion again. The site says it’s aimed more for drop tunings and 7-strings, but that’s where they Metal Zone sounded best IMO.

Other honorable mention are the Orange Amps booth (biggest wall of orange cabinets I’ve ever seen) and the Dean guitar’s booth (check out this monster guitar!)