With all the activity around polyphonic DSP lately (Melodyne DNA, etc), you had to figure we’d see a polyphonic stompbox tuner in that mix sooner or later. My biggest hesitance would be whether or not it can track fast enough on all six strings to make it intuitive to use. From the reviews below, it seems like it does a fair job.

PolyTune – Polyphonic Guitar Tuning From TC Electronic is a post from: wax&wires

I have no idea how it sounds, but if you’re into that whole steam-punk / HG Wells / Jules Verne sort of thing, it will definitely float your winged-amphibious-steam-powered boat. Just make sure you order the 120V version, I’d hate for you to be in the middle of a gig and run out of coal…

You can get more info at ElectronLuv.com. The real eye candy is at their fab shop’s site, E3Fabrication.com.

Electron Luv Amps – HG Wells Makes Amps? is a post from: wax&wires

I have his DVD, “Chasing Sound,” and would highly recommend it for those of you into music making.

[via LUKE SHERIDAN, AP]

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Les Paul, who invented the solid-body electric guitar later wielded by a legion of rock ‘n’ roll greats, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 94.

According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.

As an inventor, Paul also helped bring about the rise of rock ‘n’ roll with multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the tracks in the finished recording.

The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock in the mid-’50s.

“Suddenly, it was recognized that power was a very important part of music,” Paul once said. “To have the dynamics, to have the way of expressing yourself beyond the normal limits of an unamplified instrument, was incredible. Today a guy wouldn’t think of singing a song on a stage without a microphone and a sound system.”

A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called “The Log,” a four-by-four piece of wood strung with steel strings.

“I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me labeled as a nut.” He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a tradition guitar shape.

In 1952, Gibson Guitars began production on the Les Paul guitar.

Read the full story

Les Paul Dies At Age 94 is a post from: wax&wires

Here’s a few words from Brian’s site, seeyouinsleep:

VIDEO: Guitar + 2 iTouch Units + Ableton is a post from: wax&wires

The pioneers of shoegazer have added four US tour stops to follow up their April 19th stop in the deserts of California at Coachella. If you can, take advantage of the opportunity to see them in a town near you:

April 19 – Indio, CA
April 21 – Austin, TX
April 22 – Dallas, TX
April 24 – Denver, CO
April 27 – Seattle, WA

I first bought Loveless simply because it was one of those albums that every good indie kid was “supposed” to have. I popped in the CD and seriously thought something was wrong with it. I loved the wall of fuzzed out guitars and distant vocals, but it sounded like the album was warped, which I knew couldn’t happen on a CD. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps the CD master was taken from vinyl or tape that was played back at a varying speed. It didn’t occur to me until later that the band intentionally played with the tape speed, in their true avant garde fashion.

As I listened to the album more and more, trying to pull little bits and pieces of inspiration from it, it really grew on me. And beyond that, MBV was cranking out content this original in 1991, completely influencing some of my favorite bands like Smashing Pumpkins. Billy Corgan himself originally selected Alan Moulder to mix Siamese Dream and produce Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness because of his work with bands like MBV and Slowdive.

I’m pretty amped to see that they’ve added some dates in the US to piggyback on their Coachella performance, and hopefully I’ll be able to catch them either at the festival itself or via a cheap flight to Seattle or Austin.

My Bloody Valentine Adds US Dates On Heels Of Coachella is a post from: wax&wires

You can plug in a headset with a microphone to sing and modulate your voice through the amp sim, or hook in a cable with the proper pin-out to play your guitar through it. The tough part is finding a cable that will route the signal from your 1/4″ unbalanced guitar cable to the iPhone’s 1/8″ TRRS connector.

A guitar cable sends ground down the sleeve, and signal down the tip of the cable. Putting a simple 1/8″ adaptor on the other end won’t cut it, as the iPhone pin out sends headphone left audio down the tip, headphone right audio down the first ring, ground down the third ring, and microphone input down the sleeve. What that means is that your ground from the guitar cable would actually route to the microphone input of the iPhone, and the signal from your guitar would route to the left output designed for headphone signal from the iPhone.

That’s not to say the app isn’t usable, but simply that finding the right cable to actually hook up your guitar might prove a bit more difficult that it’s worth. Essentially, you need a cable that enables headphone use too. You would thus need the 1/8″ TRRS end to be:

Tip: Left Headphone Out (to some sort of output jack to plug in headphones)
Ring 1: Right Headphone Out (to same output jack as above)
Ring 2: Ground from the sleeve of 1/4″ (guitar) end
Sleeve: Guitar input from the tip of 1/4″ (guitar) end

And then, even if you click all of that in to place spot on, you would still be pumping the line level signal of your guitar into the mic level input on the iPhone, potentially causing a lot of digital clipping. You might then need to figure out some sort of pad to incorporate to get the signal down to an acceptable level. All that likely means more work than it’s worth.

So if you find a cable that will do the job, and are wiling to fork out the $16.99 for the app, you’ll gain access to:

• 6 amp types
• 5 cabinet emulations
• Hi, Mid & Low tone controls
• Gain & Drive controls
• Stereo Echo with LFO modulation
• Tap tempo
• Presets
• Recording and playback
• Built-in file server for downloading recordings
• And a built-in audience if you need someone to perform to

I really like the GUI and the features it lists, especially with the tap tempo, LFO modulation, storing of presets, and ability to record clips. Mark’s Recording Studio really did a great job thinking through what a guitarist would want in an amp sim, and worked in all of the most desirable features. Again, if you can’t get your guitar signal into the device properly though, all of that is moot.

You can check it out here. Let me know what you think, or if I’m way off base with my cable talk.

Amp Simulator For The iPhone is a post from: wax&wires

Natural wood, with its unique grain patterns, is what gives traditional acoustic instruments warm and distinctive sounds, while the power of modern electronic processing provides an unlimited degree of control to manipulate the characteristics of an instrument’s sound. Now, a guitar built by a student at MIT’s Media Lab promises to provide the best of both worlds.

The Chameleon Guitar –so named for its ability to mimic different instruments– is an electric guitar whose body has a separate central section that is removable. This inserted section, the soundboard, can be switched with one made of a different kind of wood, or with a different structural support system, or with one made of a different material altogether. Then, the sound generated by the electronic pickups on that board can be manipulated by a computer to produce the effect of a different size or shape of the resonating chamber.

Read the full story.

‘Chameleon Guitar’ Blends Old-World And High-Tech is a post from: wax&wires

[via engadget]

The world needs another instructional guitar tool like it needs another hole in the ozone layer, but in all seriousness, this one is stupendous. Er, it exhibits remarkable potential, considering that it’s not yet beyond the concept stage. Designer Eugene Cheong has dreamed up the Maestro, an attachment that can supposedly be adapted to work on any guitar (of the electric variety, we presume) and teach you what frets to mash in order to actually become a halfway decent player. Put simply, the device accepts MP3 files via SD card, and then it breaks down the tunes into tablature which can be displayed via lasers. Once you see the beams lighting up your fretboard, you mash / strum in order to keep up and “learn” the songs. We can only hope this thing adds a slowdown mode should it ever hit store shelves, ’cause even the amateur probably doesn’t want to tackle select Dream Theater tracks at full speed.

It should be reitterated that this is only a conceptual product, and there are a lot of potential problems that I forsee with it. I’ll list them out here, as well as thier solutions.

1) I wonder if Gibson will let them keep the name “Maestro” as is.
SOLUTION: Rename it. Maestro’s not that catchy of a name anyway.

2) The product claims to rip the guitar parts out of your favorite MP3 files for transcription to their laser-guide system. I’m not sure how they pull the guitar part out. Even with advanced FFTs, Melodyne’s DNA and the like, there’s a lot of room for error in any software being able to properly identify and single out just the guitar part (especially in songs with multiple guitar tracks).
SOLUTION: Figure out a way to import song files from Guitar Hero or Rock Band, as those have the guitar parts pulled out. From those, analyze and produce the appropriate tablature cues.

3) How does the device detect whether or not the song at hand is played in an alternate tuning?
SOLUTION: If the solution to #2 above is employed, the song data could include any tuning info for the guitar.

4) Won’t the user’s hand get in the way of the lasers at times?
SOLUTION: Develop some type of guitar neck that lights up under the player’s hand, rather than trying to project anything through the user’s hand. That might be cheaper, and infinitely easier to calibrate than a complex laser system too. You would definitely lose the versatility of being able to use the device on your favorite guitar though… I’m not sure that’s the point though.

So basically, the solution to the Maestro’s problems is to take the initial concept and purpose of the project, and completely redo the system in which it’s executed.

Plus, we need to save all the laser beams we can; otherwise, what are we going to attach to the heads of all those sharks I just bought? I don’t want to go back to ill-tempered, mutated sea bass.

Learn To Shred… With Laser Beams is a post from: wax&wires

I just found this interview with Jonny Buckland, guitarist of Coldplay, reflecting on 2008, and talking a bit about getting back into the studio with producer Brian Eno to begin work on new material. Check it out here.

Interview With Coldplay’s Jonny Buckland is a post from: wax&wires

The one that had me most interested was a limited run hand-wired edition, and I found some pics of the guts to share.

It looks as clean as any boutique amp you would find on the market. I remember when Vox did this with a few AC30s a few years back. In my naivete, I assumed it was all hype and a transparent ploy to get lawers to pony up a few more bucks for the same amp as the rest of us. My friend picked one up and I was proven wrong. Whether it was truly a superior amp, or simply some psychological hocus pocus convincing our brains that the money was well spent, that AC30 was something special.

From Orange:

This new, all UK manufactured, point to point, all hand wired Tiny Terror Hard Wired Edition offers a step up on

the already legendary best selling Tiny Terror. With high specification transformers, ‘carbon comp resistors’ and ‘mustard capacitors’ this is truly a boutique amplifier which comes in a special leather padded gig bag.

When it comes down to the crunch, it’s the sound that does the talking and the Tiny Terror Hard Wired Edition is more responsive and dynamic than its original version. With a wider frequency response this new amp has more bite and more punch.

Naturally, the Tiny Terror Hard Wired Edition is as every bit as iconic as the original model having the same portability, versatility and unique lunch-box size, with the added benefit of weighing less than the existing Tiny Terror. This is not a production amp, and each will be individually hand wired, tested and quality checked at Orange headquarters, limiting the numbers available.

Sounds fun, looks pretty.

Orange Tiny Terror Guts is a post from: wax&wires

Facelift is a removable and reusable guitar body overlay, allowing you to alter the cosmetics of your guitar on the cheap and in a jiffy. You can also quickly remove the decal if you don’t like it, and store it away for later use.

I’m surprised it took somebody so long to develop this idea. We’ve even had Fatheads, giant stickers you can put on your walls (yes, the walls of your HOUSE), for years now. There are companies that make giant decals that you can cover your car in, and let us not forget the ever exploding cell-phone customization industry. We’ve put stickers on just about everything in our worlds, so much so that we’ve virtually transported ourselves to Little Big Planet; but nobody thought to put it on a guitar?

I’m not a fan of most of the designs, they’re just not my taste. A couple of them have me “facelift-curious” though. It’s tough to tell how good they look without seeing them in person, but they must be pretty keen if they won NAMM’s “Best In Show.” They’re priced at just under $30, taking in to account the exchange rate for USD, which is a fair price to reinvent your guitar.

Kudos to Facelift for beating everybody else to the punch!

You can read more about Facelift here.

Facelift Wins NAMM 09 “Best In Show” is a post from: wax&wires

In case you missed this at Summer NAMM, here’s your chance to catch up. The Moog Guitar was added to the Popular Mechanics Top Inventions of 2008 list (along with the Sleek Audio SA6 headphones below).

What’s so special about it? I’ll leave that to Moog to describe:

The Moog Guitar Electronics add an unparalleled range of expression to the Moog Guitar:

MOOG FILTER – control the frequency of the built-in, resonant Moog ladder filter using the foot pedal or a CV Input.

There is so much sonic potential with this guitar on its own, let alone with effects and post processing. Be ready to save some money up to snag one though, as the guitar will set you back $6500 and strings are running at about $130 per set (but I’m not sure you can’t give it a go with your regular Ernie Balls).

Read more here.

The Moog Guitar is a post from: wax&wires

Now, some 6 years later, Keeley Electronics has grown to a company that moves over $4 million in inventory per year, with international distribution.

I was saddened today to hear that their main building in Edmond, OK had burned down. Though they lost a good chunk of the building and lots of inventory, Keeley seems pretty optomistic about the whole thing:

Howdy folks!

Still in a bit of shock to say the least, but I think we will make it in short order. Everyone got out without being hurt. I got a chance to go in last night with a Fire Marshall/Brigade Commander (or something like that) and the worst damage occured to our parts inventory. I had some rare treasures there for sure (thousands of IC’s for EM5 clones, the hundreds of last opto-couplers on earth for the Mutron III, Telefunken parts) but nothing that would stop the world from spinning.

The best news it seems is that insurance is paid up and is with a good company. The stock of built pedals, unmodified pedals, etc. all made it I think. (Dealers out there, your orders made it without even water damage! We may have to rebox.) I think all of the one-of-a-kind and collector stuff made it as well. Smoke damaged for sure, but not water damaged. I think the Fire Department responded as fast as possible and even impressed themselves. I heard them joking that they couldn’t believe how much survived and how well they did! I can’t believe that with the fire raging so long that we didn’t loose more. (Just the “recent” $25K remodeled area! :-( oh well, People are Safe and Well!!!!) What started it? Don’t know, could have been where we smoke, or our solder pot room, or even another guy in the building that has a shop. I can’t tell>>>seems like investigators will be interviewing people today.

Well, off to pick up what I can and get a plan into action. I hope it remains as positive as it seemed with the dim flashlight last night.

Robert

More details here. If you get a chance, shoot an encouraging email their way.

Keeley Electronics Burns Down is a post from: wax&wires

Here’s a quote from Paul Smith himself:

“I met Doug Sewell at the Dallas International Guitar Show several years ago and needed an amp for that evening’s performance, so I borrowed one of his and was floored. We started working on this series and tried every conceivable component and circuit combination. Derek Trucks, David Grissom and several other known amp tone artists are now using this new amplifier line both live and in the studio. We’re pleased to be working with Doug and to have him leading the PRS amp team.”

PRS will start its life as an amp maker with three models:

Dallas:
Reminiscent of classic 6L6 American reverb amps, our Dallas model offers sweet highs, solid lows and modest midrange. This model gives you an open 3D tone for huge sounding cleans. The Dallas amp leans toward the clean side but moderately overdrives nicely.

Blue Sierra:
Evocative of classic British and American amps – but with a distinct Texas attitude – the Blue Sierra offers gain structured for equally great cleans to medium gain overdrive tones. With the Blue Sierra it’s easy to get a big 3D sound and hard to get a bad one at any setting. Available in EL34 or 6L6.

Original Sewell:
Recalling the complex tones and harmonics of 50′s era amps, the Original Sewell brings you sweet highs and tight lows that surround a warm midrange. The Original Sewell has a smooth tone that was crafted to give an expressive, vocal quality to lead work. Notes bloom and sustain with rich harmonics enhancing your fundamental notes. Available in EL34 or 6L6.

I’m a bit surprised not to see a 6V6 or EL84 amp in the line up. I also wonder if the amps will be custom made to each owner like a smaller boutique company, or if they’ll mass distribute them through the lanes that PRS  has established through the years. My guess would be that they would develop a structure similar to Mesa/Boogie with production models that you can pick up at any local Guitar Center, and then a custom line only available at certain shops and through the company directly (like their current “Private Stock” line for guitars).

Here’s a quick video of Derek Trucks (The Allman Brothers Band) talking about why he likes his PRS amp:

One thing is for certain, they put a great skin on the amps and they really turned out beautiful.

You can see more pics, and learn more about the PRS line of amplifiers by visiting the PRS site.

PRS Unleashes Tube Amp Line Up is a post from: wax&wires

Our first good find is that VOX will be reissuing the AC4 amplifier. Back when I was looking for a small tube amp to use in my bedroom, I scoured the Earth for a decent enough AC4 in my price range, all to no avail. I ended up picking up a great little Fargen, that I had to let go last year when I bought my Divided by 13.

Well, now VOX may be making some of my bedroom dreams come true (I should probably rephrase that). The AC4TV is a reissue of the old 1961 AC4, with some added bells and whistles. The first thing you notice is how beautiful it is. The creme tolex with gold features really makes it stand out. The small size and simplicity of the controls make it an instant classic. The AC4TV adds a built-in power attenuator that lets you select from 4 Watts, 1 Watt or 1/4 Watt output levels. That lets you really dig in and push the tubes for that sweet natural overdrive, without needing to rattle the house and wake the baby. The AC4TV also boasts a 16 Ohm speaker output so you can run it into your favorite 4×12 for big sound, at low volume levels.

Here are the specs:
• Controls: TONE, VOLUME, OP LEVEL (4W, 1W, 1/4W)
• Input/output jacks: INPUT, External Speaker jack
• Output: 4W RMS 16-ohm
• Speaker: 1x 10 inch 16-ohm Celestion VX10 custom speaker
• Valve/tube complement: 1 x 12AX7 (pre) / 1 x EL84 (power)
• Dimensions: 13.78″(W) x 8.46″(D) x 14.76”(H)
• Weight: 19.84 lbs.
• Included items: Power cable

The new AC4TV is expected in May of this year, in both combo and head/cab arrangements. Expect it to roll in at under $500, though no official price has been released yet.

For more info and pics, check out the official VOX website.

VOX Announces AC4TV At NAMM 2009 is a post from: wax&wires