April is Gibson Guitar Month promotion (Long and McQuade illustration)
Like me, you’re probably tempted by ads touting “April is Gibson Guitar Month”. You may end up paying double what the guitar is worth. Continue reading
Keb Mo Gibson Bluesmaster
Gibson’s Keb Mo Bluesmaster signature guitar is one small body, 12 fret guitar you might want to check out.
The guitar was released in a limited run of 300 guitars in 2009.
Since then, it has become popular enough to be production guitar for Gibson. Continue reading
Woody Guthrie’s 1930s Slingerland May Bell guitar worth $70,000 in 2006 at Christie’s NYC (photo Stephen Chernin Getty Images)
We don’t know where many of Woody Guthrie’s guitars are since Woody was fairly casual about property and his guitars.
Arlo Guthrie, his son, has a guitar his father gave him. Paul Allen, the founder of Microsoft is supposed to have one as well.
If they were available for sale, Woody’s guitars would be very expensive to buy.
Guitars of famous musicians get premium prices. Bob Dylan’s Fender Stratocaster from the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 is worth $500,000 to $1 million dollars.
I started this journey months ago asking the simple question: how close is the Gibson Woody Guthrie SJ to any guitar Woody Guthrie played. I learned that the Woody Guthrie SJ is very close to the guitar he bought in December 1943, but that was by no means Woody’s only or main guitar.
Jim Marshall of Marshall amps - the sound of rock and roll (photo credit Damien Maguire)
James Charles “Jim” Marshall OBE (July 29, 1923 – April 5, 2012) was a man with poor health, a musician and business person.
In the 1960s he created the Marshall guitar amp and changed the volume of rock music forever.
He died on April 5, 2012 at a hospice in London, UK surrounded by his wife and four children. Continue reading
Gebr.Schulz baby grand klavier
By Stephen Pate – My piano has a colorful history. Built by a 120-year-old German company founded with Steinway who survived two World Wars, it was sold to a German Canadian who skipped town without paying.
Updated 3/8/2012 by Christoph Schulz – see end note
He shipped it to Canada and didn’t pay the customs duty in Halifax either. The piano was sold to a musician who traded years later to a music dealer. The dealer jacked the price up and traded it to me while stiffing me for an additional $7 grand.
Continue reading
iStrobosoft iPhone app
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Update April 15, 2013 - the Peterson iStrobosoft tuner has become my go-to tuner for all stringed instruments, guitar, mandolin, banjo and uke.
It’s easy to use, accurate and with me everywhere my iPhone goes.
I only wish they had Android and Windows Phone versions.
Peterson has two apps for the iPhone and iPad that give the musician strobe tuning accuracy for about $10. The iPad app costs $9.99.
I wanted to see just how accurate the iPhone Peterson would be. I was not disappointed, although the under $20 Snark SN-1 clip on tuner was almost as accurate.
Last night I was practicing guitar while the news was on. It was handy to refresh my tuning without looking for a tuner. I’m not sure if musicians will risk damaging their iPhones in a studio or stage environment to use the iStrobosoft app. The practicality of the iStrobosoft tuner for those uses is up to each person to decide.
Peterson Strobe Tuners have been the pinnacle of stringed instrument tuners for decades and known for accuracy and high cost. Continue reading
VoiceLive Play - harmony and vocal effects at 1/3rd the price
TC Helicon has just announced at NAMM 2012 the latest version of the VoiceLive family – VoiceLive Play and VoiceLive Play GTX.
Both give vocalists harmony and vocal effects from the top-drawer VoiceLive family. The GTX model also has guitar effects and amp emulations so you don’t need a Marshall to get that sound. Continue reading