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.

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.

If you’re a bassist, you probably already know that you’re going to be carrying a much bigger case than anyone else, you’re probably going to have the heaviest and largest instrument that can actually be held on stage, and you’re a much  more integral part of the band than you probably get credit for.  You probably already know that you’re going to need more tools and gadgets than a regular guitarist, but what kind of things should you always have on hand?  What, in short, is the shortlist of tools you need?

I’m glad you asked.  I just found a pretty insightful little post that aims to tell you just that, what You need in your tool kit as a bass guitarist.  The tools are easy to come by, easy to find and you should have no trouble outfitting your bass case with them in no time at all.  Here, according to the article, are the most important items for your bass kit:

# “A philips (cross-head) screw driver.
# An allen key or two (hex key).
# A good set of wire cutters.
# A flat-head screw driver (if you have an older bass).”

What is great is, there are actually full guitar kits, like this one by GIGmate that give you all the tools you need in one fell swoop.  Not too shabby, not too shabby at all!  Toss in a few extra sets of strings, a cleaning cloth and extra straps and picks and you should be always prepared for whatever hurdles a live gig can throw at you!

When it comes to a Gibson Guitar, the experts will mostly all agree that it doesn’t get much better than a 1958 Les Paul.  Personally I will never own one, never be able to afford one, and could probably never find one.  Heck, I doubt I’ll ever own any Les Paul, but a man can dream.

That said, 50 years have now come to pass since that famous 1958 and as such, rumor has it that Gibson is going to launch an entire line of not re-issues, but 1958 “inspired” guitars to celebrate and mark their 50th Anniversary.  I have yet to hear about pricing, availability or anything else, but it looks like they are launching the 50th Anniversary Korina Explorer, ES-335, Les Paul Figured, and Korina Flying V.

Is it me or is the ES-335 worth killing for?  My Goodness it makes me feel a weird combination of excited, depressed and jealous all at the same time.  That is a hard thing to acheive in a simple photo, is it not?  As soon as I get more information, I’ll let you know.  Start saving now!

Halloween has come and gone, that much is true, but the spirit of Halloween is still lingering.  Maybe it hides in the old pumpkins on our porch, or the left over candy, but nevertheless it’s still here.  That said, I thought today would be the time to share with you the best Halloween guitar I’ve ever seen in my entire life.  Ever.

Now, I’ve seen a few different rad guitars that had dark or evil themes, but this guitar I just stumbled upon clearly raises the bar to unreachable levels, and looking at the picture above, can you not agree wholeheartedly?  As mentioned in the article I just read, the folks over at McSwain Guitars and they mentioned the following sweet facts about this guitar:

“Frankenstein is a chambered Mahogany body with a Maple top and a 3 piece Mahogany neck. The fingerboard is Ebony, Maple and Purple Heart that is stitched together with Leather cord! The border (can’t really call it a binding) is also stitched over black epoxy and red leather dye. Apparently this guitar is owned by Ben Moody, co-founder of Evanescence…”

Bottom line, if you’re a fan of awesome themed guitars, I think you couldn’t do much better than McSwain Guitars, and if you’re a fan of Halloween or anything freaky and frightening, you can’t do much better than a Frankenstein guitar.  Now, if only I could afford something like that!

When a guitar legend like The Edge starts talking about guitars, my advice to you, is to sit still, listen quietly, and take some serious notes.  While he’s not as loud, flashy or gregarious as many rock and roll legends, The Edge has clearly earned himself a spot in the annals of Rock History.  To hear him talk about each one of his favorite guitars, the songs they’ve produced, and the love he has for them, I hate to say it but it gives a guitar lover like me chills.

First and foremost, his love for guitars is apparent.  Just look behind him during the interviews and get extremely jealous at the sheer NUMBER of guitars he has in his collection now.  Wow.  Nevertheless, a chance to hear a musician as talented as The Edge talk about and play his favorite guitars is a pretty special, not-to-be-missed opportunity.

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

If you are like me and insist on having the guitar amp so loud that your neighbors need earplugs, then the Woody B Internal Combustion Guitar might be for you. By redirecting the resonate energy of your guitar through the use of a proprietary driver system, it is redistributed to your strings instead of an amp, giving you more control and feel. The reason this works is that it lets you control the resonance in the strings before the “harmonically enriched” sound ever hits the second amp. You can control the strength of the signal with the power throttle knob.

There are two models currently available of the Internal Combustion Guitar, which are the V8 and V12. They each feature Alumitone Humbuckers and come in a variety of finishes. In my opinion, this guitar not only plays bad-ass, it looks bad-ass, too. Now you may be wondering how much a guitar like this will set you back. The answer is about $2500. But no worries. You can convince yourself of it’s value because although it may be bedroom (and neighbor) friendly, you can still rock out a venue the size of an arena.

Check out this video demo, where Woody Bruce tries to convince you to buy it.

Specifications:

- Head Stock: reverse gun handle

- Neck: bolt on maple

- Nut: 1 3/4″standard graphite for medium gauge string (1 5/8″available)

- Scale: 25 ½” (custom baritone available)

- Fingerboard: maple standard; list for ebony or Pau Ferro (see pricing)

- Fret Wire: jumbo

- Body Woods: V8 and V12 are alder and mahogany tone woods with Sitka Spruce internal sound board

- Tuners: Sperzel Locking

Stereogum is having  a giveaway through their monthly newsletter and this time its a guitar. The guitar in question is an Epiphone SG, not the nicest guitar ever but very nice for free!

“You can learn more about it here. Speaking of knowledge gathering, maybe you can learn a Scars On Broadway song or two. The band’s the new collaboration between System Of A Down’s Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan. They mention Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Neil Young as influences on the new material, opened for Metallica last month and have a debut out 7/29 on Interscope. Take a listen. Practice. The winner gets the guitar and a copy of Scars On Broadway’s self-titled debut.”

Source.