Category — News

Hello and Happy Friday!  We made it through yet another grueling week of work and by now, we all deserve a break.  Talk about deserving a break, how about the star of this week’s Funky Video Friday?!  I’m fairly sure, and I can state this with absolute certainty, that if we could get our hands moving fast enough to play the guitar at a mind-blowing 320 beats per minute, we’d all need a huge, 10 year huge, break as well.

That’s right, this week we’re going to be checking out the 2008 Guinness Book of World Records’s winner for Fastest Guitar Player in the world.  His name is Tiago Della Vega and he is unreal.  I don’t know what else I can even attempt to add to this, you just have to watch and see for yourself.  At 120 bpm he looks nothing short of bored.  Wow.

Enjoy the video, enjoy your weekend and start submitting ideas for videos YOU want to see on Funky Video Friday!

Anytime you’re given the chance to listen to one of the greatest guitar players ever to walk this planet talk about his new guitar, his new signature model, my advice is to listen.  A few weeks ago we got the chance to listen to U2’s The Edge talk about some of his favorite guitars, and now, we’re being graced with the chance to not only check out, but hear Eddie Van Halen talk about his new signature model he’s unleashing onto the world.

The guitar, called the EVH Wolfgang for now, and due out in stores sometime in 2009, looks like a beauty, and what’s best, it’s exactly up to THE EVH’s strict specifications.  When asked about the guitar, Van Halen said,

“I don’t need to do this for financial reasons. I could have just stayed at home and built this guitar for myself. I do this because a lot of people ask if they can get what I use. Well, yes you can and what you get is identical to what I use….The tolerance of things on this guitar is like NASA standards. It had to be tight, and it had to be quality…They paid attention to every damn detail.”

Paying attention to details is good, but being able to play a guitar that’s up to someone like Eddie Van Halen’s specs?  Priceless, as they say.  At any rate, it’s not out yet, but you can check out a great deal more on the guitar if you so desire.  Stay tuned for pricing and availability…when we know, you’ll know.

Talk about living the dream!  If you were in a local band, hadn’t made it anywhere near the “big time” yet, and just loved playing your tunes, what could be bigger than getting asked to take a coveted spot on Motley Crue tour?!

That’s exactly what happened to a band called the Last Vegas.  According to reports,

“On a recent night at the venerable Los Angeles music club the Whisky a Go Go, the Last Vegas walked away from a battle-of-the-bands contest with what most developing acts can only dream of: an opening slot on a major arena tour, a recording deal and a management contract.”

Wow.  Life really can change with the blink of an eye!  In addition to that coveted spot on the Crue tour, the band will also take home a $25,000 check from The Guitar Center, and another $20,000 in brand new gear from Gibson Guitars.  Um, I’m beyond jealous now.  Just a few days after mentioning not only the 50th Anniversary line of guitars from Gibson, but the Dark Fire as well, I’d do just about anything to get my hands on $20k in Gibson Gear!

Regardless, just goes to show you that even the local guys, even the underdogs, and even the unheard-of’s can make it.  Keep picking away on those guitars, walking those bass lines and turning up the distortion, it could happen to you.

It is official, there was a MAJOR concert and jam session going on in Heaven this past weekend.  Unfortunately for us, however, that means that we lost yet another rock legend over the past few days.  That’s right, Mitch Mitchell, legendary drummer for Hendrix, has passed away.  The fact that there have been many amazing rock drummers takes absolutely nothing away from Mitchell, his sound, his style and his drums were completely indispensible to the entire Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Mitchell, who was 61, was found dead in his hotel room Wednesday of last week.  Reports now are saying the death was of natural causes, and he went peacefully in his sleep.  Sadly, this marks the death of the last surviving member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  As mentioned, I do not doubt that Heaven was absolutely ROCKING Thursday and all the way through this weekend.  He will be missed, as he brought a unique style to drumming that few could match.

According to an article on NPR, “Back in the mid-1960s, many drummers came to rock, either from the snap and precision of a youth spent in drum and bugle corps (like The Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart) or jazz (like The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts). Mitchell fell into the latter camp, using jazz as a touchstone for what was supposed to be just a two-week gig.”

Two-weeks turned into a lot longer than that, and the entire music world has lost a genius this week.  Rest in Peace Mitch, and to his family that survives him, thank you for Mitch.  Check him out below…he will be missed.

This is a slight departure from last week’s Funky Video Friday.  While this isn’t Hendrix rocking, I have a pretty good feeling that 99.99% of all you gentlemen out there.  You all remember the scene in Risky Business, Tom Cruise sliding across the floor, air guitarring his way into cinematic history.  Some of you might have even seen the newest version with famous basketball players recreating the scene.  I have a pretty good feeling some of you have also seen this version, but for all of you who haven’t…You’re Welcome.

This week’s Funky Video Friday is none other than top supermodel and TV host Heidi Klum recreating that very same famous scene.  Sliding across the floor?  Check.  Long button up shirt?  Check.  Guitar Hero Guitar?  Check.  Guitar Hero, your marketing people are genius.

Without further ado, enjoy this week’s Funky Video Friday!  Have a great weekend and we’ll see you Monday!

Oh Gibson, why do you tease me so?  Why do you first show me 50th Anniversary Guitars, then come out and show me the new Dark Fire that I’ll most likely never be able to own!?  Such sadness in the house of Guitar BassMan today.  Nevertheless, what kind of guy would I be if I Didn’t report on it, and didn’t get very, very excited for any of you that will in fact, be purchasing one of these bad boys.

The new Dark Fire is already being touted by Gibson as “The Most Versatile Tone Monster Ever Made.”  Wow.  That is a lofty compliment from a company that has been making some of the best guitars the world has ever seen since their birth.  I’m impressed already, by default.  So why are they saying it’s the most versatile?  How about the fact that they’ve given it something they call “Chameleon Tone Technology?”  Here’s what they have to say about it:

“Analog or digital, the Gibson Dark Fire gives you an infinite number of tonal possibilities to let you change the tone of the Dark Fire to match your environment. And it begins with a guitar’s most basic element — the pickups. The Gibson Dark Fire combines two of Gibson’s most popular pickups — the P90h in the neck position and a Burstbucker 3 in the bridge position. Both are capped with new carbon fiber-like pickup covers, impeccably designed to match the Dark Fire’s advanced fade. “

They’ve also given the Dark Fire the ability to blend the acoustic sound from the piezo bridge with the sound from the guitar’s regular, traditional pickups.  What this means is, you can now seamlessly play acoustically into electrically with no wonky switches, sound distortions or tone loss.  WOW.

The bottom line is, they are saying it’s a guitar capable of producing “every imaginable guitar sound.”  SO I suppose no matter what it costs, you’re actually getting a really, really good deal because it’d be sort of like buying one of every single kind of guitar, right?  Maybe that’s what I’ll tell my girlfriend when she notices a HUGE chunk of money missing.

This, is an old story but I’m bringing it up for very good reasons.  Awhile back, Metallica had to lecture their management for doing something that could have been online suicide for the band:  they deleted and removed early reviews of their stuff from the blogosphere.  Oops!  At any rate, the band did something rather unprecedented for them, and even apologized to the bloggers that had been wronged.  Wow.  The Metallica I remember is the same Metallica that went straight after Napster all gun’s blazin’ and even pointed some nasty fingers at online music, NOT the type of guys to yell at their own management for being too harsh on some bloggers that reviewed their early demos of their newest material.  Turns out, Metallica of new, is not the Metallica of old and I’m pleased as punch to see that.

That’s right, the heavy metal rockers backed their blogger fans and the reviews they posted after their management demanded that the bloggers/critics take down the posts.  The silliest part of the managements decision to have the posts removed was that the early rough cut tracks that the bloggers were reviewing were given TO them and invited to review BY the band.  Oops.  Here is the statement Metallica offered up after they caught wind of the unfortunate censorship:

“Once we re-surfaced on Tuesday after a few weeks on tour in Europe, we were informed that someone at Q Prime (our managers) had made the error of asking a few publications to take down reviews of the rough mixes from the new record that were posted on their sites,” they wrote. “Our response was ‘WHY?!!! Why take down mostly positive reviews of the new material and prevent people from getting psyched about the next record… that makes no sense to us!’”

There you have it, Kudos Metallica, I like what I see here.  So basically, they gave their management a good lecture, reposted the links to the reviews and all was happy in Heavy Metal Land.  What this all means to me is, do you think this is a trend that will be continuing?  Do you think early, rough demos or rough cuts will be “leaked” to certain bloggers and online critics early to help the band, any band, gauge how it might go over?  I know Nine Inch Nails have done some pretty progressive things when it comes to online marketing, who will be next?

Sound off, what do YOU think the “future” of this will be?  Will music bloggers be reviewing things that is motnhs away from launch?  What do you think?

Just a quick note to wish you and all of yours an extremely Happy Halloween from all of us here at GuitarBassman.com!  Take tonight, hey it’s Friday after all, to transform this year’s Halloween from an ordinary, trick-or-treat, watch a scary movie, go to bed early night, into the best, most rockin’ Halloween to date.

Get dressed up as your favorite rock star, get a few friends and go as your favorite entire Band, bring out your guitars, turn up the amps and have a great time.

Stay healthy, stay safe, but have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN from all of us here!

Happy Halloween!

Image by chanchan222 via Flickr

The fact that Guitar Hero is one of the most popular video games to EVER hit the market should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone out there.  The moment it was launched, millions of kids and adults alike were able to live out their rock and roll fantasies all in the comfort of their own homes, and all without any actual musical ability whatsoever.

Now, all of us who are STILL living out those fantasies with each subsequent Guitar Hero release, get to live it out even more, in the form of a few new “Download Packs” that are coming out in early November.  All I need to say to get people extremely hyped up for these extra songs is two words:  Jimi.  Hendrix.  Enough said.  Word is, “The Jimi Hendrix Track Pack, arriving November 13, features “If 6 Was 9,” “Little Wing,” and a live version of “Fire.”” Count me IN.  The cool news is that at the very same time, they will be also throwing out a Raconteurs Track Pack a week later that gives you the ability to rock on songs like “Salute Your Solution,” “Hold Up,” and “Consoler of the Lonely.”

It looks like all of this will go for the price of about 440 Microsoft Points, which loosely translates into $5.49 on the PlayStation Network.  Not too shabby to Rock like Jimi.

On October 16th, the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City hosted “Change Rocks” a fundraiser for Obama, mainly featuring Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.

Some tickets were priced at $25,000 for the event, which was Billy Joel’s first supporting Obama. The setlist featured collaborative versions of each other’s songs including “New York State Of Mind”, “Sprit In The Night” and “River of Dreams”.

Barack Obama himself appeared onstage towards the end of the event, according to MSNBC…

He called the event “a magical evening” and said he wouldn’t ruin it with a long speech. Then he delivered a speech comparing the struggling, everyday people in Joel’s and Springsteen’s songs to the people he’s met on the campaign trail.He warned supporters not to get overconfident because he leads in the polls.

“Don’t underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Don’t underestimate our ability to screw it up,” Obama said. “I want everybody running scared.”

Source.