Guitar Jam

Video Jam: Vernon Reid on Hendrix

Vernon Reid, founder and primary songwriter of the band Living Colour, and co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition, discusses the musical legacy of Jimi Hendrix on the New York Guitar Festival website.

Plug in > www.newyorkguitarfestival.org/multimedia/

Ibanez At Winter NAMM 2006

The 104th NAMM Show is going to take place at Anaheim, California on January 19-22, 2006. Music products companies of all sizes are going to show the best that the music products industry has to offer. All Ibanez guitar fans will have the chance to see the widest possible 2006 Ibanez guitars line writes PR News Web.                

There have been a number of new Ibanez guitar models at various NAMM shows and so there will be at winter 2006 NAMM. Ibanez unveiled a new Steve Vai JEM Signature model at the January 2005 NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA. It was named "Bad Horsie" after a Steve Vai song of the same name. This guitar features a "Rock Mirror" finish with matching mirror pick guard.

The new model also features the signature Ibanez JEM appointments of a "Monkey Grip" handle carved into the basswood body and a scooped tremolo cavity so pitches can be raised as well as lowered with the tremolo arm. ( http://www.e-ibanez-guitar.com/ibanez-jem.html )

"Bad Horsie" has joined a long line of variations Steve Vai's JEM signature models, which were first introduced at the Chicago NAMM show in June 1987.

At the January 2005 show, Ibanez unveiled the new Exotic Wood acoustic guitar line featuring three different, visually striking and surprisingly inexpensive models in highly figured ash, curly maple and zebrawood. The introduction was so well received that Ibanez announced the first acoustic-electric version at the Indianapolis Summer NAMM show.

"Even more radical is what can't be seen: a unique wooden top-support system under the bridge Ibanez calls "Sound Expand" construction allows us to use thinner bracing, which allows the top to vibrate more freely. It also provides a more even balance between highs, lows, and mids." - commented Irene Shvartsman of Ibanez Acoustic Guitars.

"We found that the guitar sounds dramatically louder, and bigger in tone than the same guitar without Sound Expand construction."

The amazing Ibanez guitar player Joe Satriani and Planet Waves Company will officially launch a line of new straps and picks at the 2006 Anaheim NAMM show at a private concert event during the show. The great news is, the concert will be webcast for Joe's fans at Satriani.com in early February! Stay tuned to the site for more details.

Joe Satriani will also appear at the Planet Waves/D'Addario booth #4834 in Hall C of the Anaheim NAMM show on Saturday, January 21 at 1:30 PM.

Other helpful information on Ibanez guitars can be found at: http://www.e-ibanez-guitar.com/

Soulful Tones: Tedeschi Strives For More

Susan Tedeschi has got the whole package: a sultry and soulful voice, an engaging personality, a commanding stage presence, an evocative Tele tone, a broad palette of stylistic influences, and an articulate pen that tells it like it is writes Guitar Player Magazine.

Plug in > www.guitarplayer.com/story.asp?sectioncode=4&storycode=12221

Off-Key: Air Guitarists Coming Out of The Closet

Usually a secret activity done in the privacy of one’s bedroom, playing the air guitar is not something most people readily admit. But that’s changing faster than you can say “Strataircaster” reports Playing Magazine. For the past three years, air guitarists have strutted their stuff at regional competitions throughout the United States. Wowing sold-out crowds with their finely tuned air chords and sweeping windmills, they vie for the title of U.S. Air Guitar Champion, and, if the air guitar gods are smiling, world champ at the international air guitar finals held in Finland.

Plug in > www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/2838/47/

A Sound Investment

If you've ever noticed your jaw drop while listening to a guitar solo by the likes of B.B. King or Stevie Ray Vaughan, you surely can appreciate the value of a guitar writes Inside Bay Area. But whoever thought that the instrument musicians sometimes call the axe could rival stocks, vintage cars or in some cases houses as great investments?

"There's something about the older guitars you can't duplicate," said Stan Werbin, who operates one of the top vintage guitar Web sites in the world, http://www.elderly.com. "There's a quality of sound, and the old wood is aged."

Plug in >  www.insidebayarea.com/businessnews/ci_3356594

Long Live The King

B.B. King isn't joking when he says, in a matter-of-fact voice, that he's "over the hill." But there's ample evidence to confirm that the world's most celebrated and influential blues icon is more vital than ever, no matter how much he might claim otherwise reports th Union Tribune.

Plug in> www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20051230-9999-1c30king.html/

Off-Key: If You Suck At Guitar There's Hope

The video game Guitar Hero turns you into someone who rocks. This Red Octane title could be the most significant piece of musical gaming since the original "Dance Dance Revolution" reports the daily bulletin. While DDR could transform even the most rhythm-less people into Paula Abdul, "Hero" gives everyone the chance to channel their inner rock star -- without the sex and drugs, of course.

Plug in > http://www.dailybulletin.com/entertainment/ci_3330259

Guitar Heaven Is Where All The Good Guitars Go

It may be San Jose's most secret museum -- largely because it isn't called a museum.

It's a collection of vintage musical equipment worth more than $1 million housed in two giant 20-by-60-foot vaults tucked away in the two-building music store called Guitar Showcase at Camden and South Bascom avenues reports the Mercury News.

In the vaults are hundreds of rare, antique and historical amplifiers and guitars, some dating back to the Civil War, others played by Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Carlos Santana and members of Journey.

Plug in > http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/music/13458783.htm

Bonnaroo Jam Posts 2006 Dates

The fifth Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival will be held June 16-18 at its familiar 700-acre site in Manchester, Tenn., 60 miles southeast of Nashville reports Billboard.com. This year, organizers are reducing the capacity by 10,000 people to 80,000, returning the event to its 2003 crowd size.

Plug in > http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001701280

Monster Garage Meets The Guitar

Only Bob Taylor would come up with the idea of replacing the cars in Monster Garage with his guitars. In this first episode of Monster Guitars you'll watch how Bob and his characters create a little Taylor Frankenstein known as the T5.

Plug in > http://www.taylorguitars.com/see-hear/