Chair Guitars

Here's a crazy video that I stumbled onto with some very creative "seats"

Little Guitar Works makes really twisted Bass Guitars

I spotted these awesome bass guitars today, and I am blown away by the craftsmanship in these instruments. Just have a look at the ergonomic design of these bass guitar. They call it the Torzal Natural Twist and (per their website): the ergonomic design increases the efficiency of the hands, wrists and arms, reducing the risk of developing repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.


As a bass player I definitely get the idea that the bass players job is to hold down the groove and that can lead to issues with carpel tunnel.


You have to check out all of the Little Guitar Works bass guitar product line to appreciate how beautiful these babies are.

Cigar Box Guitar Festival in Pennsylvania this Saturday

WHAT: The second annual Pennsylvania Cigar Box Guitar Festival
WHEN: Friday, August 28 and Saturday, August 27, 2011
TIME: 10am-5pm
WHERE: Downtown York, PA. on the grounds of The York Emporium


DETAILS: The fest will host 14 acts on two stages plus demonstrations, instrument vendors and more. Headlining acts include Purgatory Hill, Shane Speal (from Cigar Box Nation) and psych-folk legends, Stone Breath. YouTube favorite and NY street musician, Keni Lee Burgess will give a free playing seminar as well.


There is a special Friday night jam session on the 26th for instrument makers and players starting at 6pm. The jam is $20 and includes pizza and beer. In addition, there will be cigar box guitar concerts in local pubs throughout the weekend.


BoingBoing blog on Cigar Box Guitar Festival

Amplitude iRig

I just (pre) ordered my very own iRig from Amplitude. I am really enthralled by the design that Amplitube has pulled together here. As an occasional bassist and guitar player this looks like a great solution to providing portable amp modeling. I travel a lot and this should be a great device to practice playing. Note that the device won't let you play along with songs on your iPhone since they learned that it created too much latency, although that was the original intention of the design. They are also offering 3 different versions of the iPhone application, one free and two higher levels with additional functionality, including more amp models.

UPDATE (6/8/10): I just saw a twitter post from IK Multimedia that the iRig is scheduled to be released on 6/7/10. (9 days from now).

I've used Amplitude on my studio computer and it's amazing. I'll post a review once I receive the actual unit. Until then, enjoy a couple of youtube videos highlighting the product:

Links:
Amplitude iRiq Features
IKMultiMedia YouTube Channel

The Pocket Picker

Now here's a unique practice device for all you stringed instrument players out there. It's called the "Pocket Picker", and it's designed to exercise your right hand in all of those situations where it's inconvenient to practice your instrument. I am not sure if it's practical, but's definitely innovative. Out of all of the devices, I think that the bass guitar is likely the most useful, since practicing the finger technique for your right hand on the bass is crucial to your sound. The device is a small board with a course of strings aligned like an actual instrument. In the case of the bass guitar, there's actually a small part of the fretboard included so that you can practice your slap technique.

There are several different models, including one for steel string guitar, classical guitar, bass guitar, banjo, mandalin. I think that they need to add one for shamisen and go after the Japanese market...

Video: http://www.thepocketpicker.com/english/videos/files/page9-1004-pop.html

Website: http://www.thepocketpicker.com/english/bass/bass.html

Guitar player Ronnie Moipolai

Here's an awesome video of a unique guitar player. I love the way that he has his guitar setup, whether it's intentional or not, he has the 5th string removed, so that he can really wail on and emphasize the bass line.

"Ronnie Moipolai from Kopong village in the Kweneng district 50 km west of the capitol Gaborone. He is 29 years old and goes around the shebeens selling and playing his songs for 5Pula each (80dollarcents). He learned guitar from his now late father, has 3 brothers that also play guitar"

Gibson Dust Tiger

Check out the latest "robotic guitar" by Gibson.

This puppy does everything but play itself...
It tunes and retunes itself automatically.
The third generation, Gibson Dust Tiger features color coded tone and tuning banks, with a total of 98 user preset positions for sound and 99 preset positions for tuning available.
It comes with a pretty big price tag, but like they say, if you have ask how much it costs, you can't afford it...

The Moog Guitar Model E1-M with MIDI

Check out this supper cool and innovative Moog synthesizer guitar.
For all of you guitar players out there, you can now compose electronic music without leaving the fretboard.