Guitar Licks and Tips


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Organic Bass Design

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I find this six stringed Bass guitar has an altogether organic look to it. The craftsman who designed and created this working piece of functioning art, did a fabulous job on this one.

abstract and organic looking bass guitar

The sliding piece of wood or guard is a mystery to me. Is it designed to rest the palm of your hand when playing, protect the pickup on it or just a futurist design that the artisan brought to the piece?

Speaking of the pick ups, I wonder how many there are on it. I think 3 but it’s only an educated guess. Any idea’s here folks?

The tail piece closely resembles the ones that you see on violins and violas. It brings a classy appearance to it. The knobs on this craftsman looking bass looks like it has active electronics in it. I bet this instrument weighs a ton! Do you think that the scalloped looking handle are actual handles for the bass so you can carry it upside downs?

Keep on Jammin’





Amplitube for the iPad

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There’s this company called IK multimedia that has created this great App for those of you out there that has an iPad they call AmpliTube 2.

They seemed to have bundled all the essentials that one needs to produce up to 8 layered guitar or bass tracks into one really cool sounding demo piece. It appears that all you need is an iPad, this App, a playable guitar, a midi connection cable, some time to create something and a bit of talent. IK multimedia has certainly put some time and sweat into the AmpliTube 2.

They have developed some straight forward pedal effects to help you with the sound your searching to develop. The 16 stomp or effects pedals look fantastic. The Speed Trainer, which slows the audio down and does not effect the pitch so you can figure it out licks or just practice them, is big plus. The Amplitube 2 has 5 pre-programed settings that include a combination of 5 different types of amps, 5 cabinets and 5 mic’s configuration that just boggles my mind on how they can pull something like this off in the first place.

Too bad I don’t have an iPad yet but by checking out what the Amplitube 2 can do you can bet it ranks right up there with paying off our mortgage!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZa1QOcCptA

So which lucky son of gun has one of these things out there?

Keep on Jammin’

Open Guitar Tuner

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I got an e-mail from Benjamin, a rep from Guitar Tuners Data Base (GTDB), the other day with this useful alternate guitar tuning application. He wanted to tell me about this simple program that any guitarist can use. It’s simple design is to help guitarist develop a better understand about what is open tuning for guitars and how it works. More importantly, this app will help you find new directions that allows you to explore and expand your playing opportunities while giving you that sound that you’ve been looking for.

When I started playing guitar, there was no Youtube that you could search to see exactly how other guitarists play tunes or riffs. You just had to use your God given talent (and a little bit of dumb luck) to expand what you already knew and bring it to another level. It took me years to finally understand what and how open tunings work and use them to my advantage. Below is simple App that I will use to illustrate what I mean.

In each block you will see a large letter inside it. Each of these boxes represents individual strings on the guitar. You can tell which string the box corresponds to by looking to the upper left hand side of the box. Here you will see the number of string that it represents. ie: 6th (Bottom), 5th, 4th …

Now, start off by clicking the box that is furthest to the left. The note that you hear is what that particular string should be tuned to. The note will be repeated over and over again until you re-click the box again, after you have successfully tuned your string to. Makes sense so far?

Now go ahead and strum downwards on all the strings. When you strum it, it will sound like a chord. Now here is where it gets fun! Now try baring, placing one finger across all strings on any fret, and strum. Once again you will hear a complete chord. The next part is where it gets a little more adventurist for the uninitiated.

Put your finger on any string on any fret and strum until you hear something that resembles a chord. At this point try putting on another finger on the fretboard to create a fuller chord. This is your basic building block on how the open tuning system works. At first attempt, it might be frustrating to you. On my first try, I excelled rather quickly. It instantly exposed me to a new approach/method on how to play the guitar.

I wish you well on your new musical adventure! Remember, the worst thing you could do is learn something?

Keep on Jammin’ everybody!

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