When I was asked to review the Taylor GS8e, aka Grand Symphony, I jumped at the opportunity. I knew the first song that I was going to play on this beauty would need to be fitting for the moment; the song that came rushing to my head was “Norwegian Wood” by the Beatles, a great acoustic song for a memorable occasion.
Like many fellow guitar players and gear enthusiasts, the search for that perfect overdrive pedal is one that rarely finds an end. I can’t tell you how many late nights I’ve spent scouring video reviews on YouTube and proguitarshop.com looking for that perfect box of sonic goodness. This is why I can’t tell you that my search is finally over. What I can say, is that I’ve found a pedal that has halted my search. That pedal is the Rockett Pedals Animal Overdrive.
You’re on stage or in the studio and you throttle your whammy bar, only to get back into your groove with a guitar that’s so far out of tune you wanna crawl from the wreckage. Or you’re in the audience and you’re getting fed up while the guitarists are fumbling around tuning up their guitars. It looks like a California firm, Evertune, has come up with a win-win solution to the age old vexing problem of guitars getting pummeled out of tune at the most critical times.
Before I played one note on the Cort Gene Simmons Punisher 2 Bass I needed to properly prepare for the occasion. I first needed to re-acquaint myself with Kiss’ Destroyer and secondly, and most importantly, I needed to be wearing a Kiss make-up era shirt. You may be asking yourself why a make-up era shirt when the original Punisher was first introduced by Gene in 1992-93 during Kiss’ Revenge album? The answer is simple, I wanted too!
With the decline of Gibson and Fender over the years, two things have happened to the guitar industry, there has been a dramatic rise in more affordable, foreign-made guitars, and the private, small luthier market has also grown in leaps and bounds. There is something about working one-on-one with a master maker that turns a normal guitar into a piece of treasured art. Jazz guitar virtuoso Jack Grassel recently teamed up with luthier Dan Smocke to build Jack’s perfect guitar, and the resulting instrument is absolutely first rate.
The closer we get to summer, the more excited guitar fans get: because the summer sunshine brings us the Montreal Guitar Show! And this year is a very special one: presenting its 5th edition, the MGS brings us a boffo six-string celebration, welcoming 150 exhibitors, including more than 130 acoustic and electric luthiers, among the world’s greatest practitioners of their art, as well as top-of-the-line accessories manufacturers (amplifiers, effects, pedals…).
PRS Guitars is proud to announce that the new NF3 model has received the Musikmesse International Press Award (mipa) in the “Best Electric Guitar” category for 2010/2011. Press from all over the world voted for this year’s most revered musical gear, and winners were announced at the Musikmesse/Prolight + Sound trade show in Frankfurt, Germany on April 7, 2011.
Fender introduces the Wayne Kramer Stratocaster® model, a spot-on replica of the starred-and-striped Stratocaster that infamous MC5 guitarist and Detroit proto-punk Wayne Kramer used back in the late 1960s and early 1970s to kick out the jams and kill hate. It bears his distinctive U.S. flag finish, with a red-and-white striped body and white-stars-on-blue-background pickguard and headstock.
Paul Reed Smith Guitars is proud to welcome Fredrik Åkesson – guitarist and backing vocalist for the landmark prog metal band Opeth – to the PRS family of SE signature artists. His new signature model, the SE Fredrik Åkesson, is being unveiled in Frankfurt, Germany during the Musikmesse 2011, April 6 – 9. Model features include a single cutaway maple top with quilted maple veneer and thick mahogany back, a 24.5” scale length, 22 fret wide fat mahogany neck with ebony fretboard and PRS bird inlays, and a Tone Pros adjustable stoptail bridge. Fontida Brun, Swedish for “Ancient Brown,” is the exclusive finish option for Åkesson’s signature model electric guitar.
Guitar International is happy to announce that we’ve teamed up with master luthier Dan Smocke and legendary jazz guitarist Jack Grassel to showcase Jack and Dan’s new guitar, the JG-1. In this article, the second in a 3-part series, we have 10 great photos of the guitar being made in Dan’s shop, as well as a full list of specs on the guitar and a video demo of Jack laying down some sweet licks on his new instrument.
