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Showing posts with label Guitars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guitars. Show all posts

Sunday

Alesis Guitar Wireless Unit

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11:35 PM 0

                         Alesis Guitar Wireless Unit



Achieve onstage mobility at the touch of a button!
Set yourself free with the Alesis Guitar Link Wireless system. Compact, clear sounding, and easy to use, 
Guitar Link Wireless provides unrestricted action as you move about the stage with your guitar or bass. The unique receiver is battery powered, and small enough to sit anywhere even in your pedal board!
ALL-IN-ONE TRANSMITTER
Powered by two AAA batteries, the Guitar Link Wireless transmitter is compact and unobtrusive, so it won’t interfere with your playing. The attached cable plugs directly into your guitar or bass. Using the integrated metal clip, the Guitar Link Wireless transmitter can attach to either your strap, or right to your belt for added comfort.
COMPACT RECEIVER
Unlike bulkier wireless receivers, the Guitar Link Wireless receiver is compact, and is also powered by two AAA batteries. This rare combination provides added versatility, so you can put the receiver almost anywhere. Set it on top of your amp. Mount it to your pedal board. Place it in your effects rack. The Guitar Link Wireless receiver is ready for anything. Bypass the batteries with the external power adapter for a more permanent setup.
EFFORTLESS AND EFFICIENT
The Guitar Link Wireless system operates in the reliable 2.4 GHz frequency spectrum to provide a clear signal free from interference. After turning both units on, simply press the Pairing buttons on both units to make the connection. Next, adjust the output volume on the receiver. Nothing could be easier.
Key Features :
  • Easy-to-use wireless guitar system
  • Transmitter offers 20" cable and integral clip
  • Compact receiver allows pedalboard placement
  • Small footprint for extreme portability
  • Simple single-button pairing of units
  • Reliable 2.4 GHz frequency spectrum
  • Battery (2 x AAA) powered transmitter
  • Battery (2 x AAA) powered receiver
  • (Receiver AC adapter included)
Includes :
  • GuitarLink Transmitter with attached 20" cable
  • GuitarLink Receiver
  • User Guide
  • Safety & Warranty Manual
Transmitter :
  • Attached 20" cable with 1/4" plug
  • Compact design
  • Pairing button with indicator LED
  • Integrated belt/strap clip
  • 2 x AAA battery power
Receiver :
  • 1/4" output jack
  • Volume control
  • Compact design
  • Pairing button with indicator LED
  • Attached antenna
  • 2 x AAA battery power
  • External power input; adapter included
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Saturday

Cigar Box Guitar

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1:28 AM 1
                                                                Cigar Box Guitar


A collection of cigar box guitars
The cigar box guitar is a primitive chordophone that uses an empty cigar box for a resonator. The earliest had one or two strings; the modern model typically uses three or more. Generally speaking, strings are connected between the end of a broomstick or 1" x 3" wood slat and to the resonator, the cigar box.

History

 Cigars were packed in boxes, crates, and barrels as early as 1800, but the small sized boxes that we are familiar with today did not exist prior to around 1840.[1] Until then, cigars were shipped in larger crates containing 100 or more per case. After 1840, cigar manufacturers started using smaller, more portable boxes with 20-50 cigars per box.

 Trace evidence of cigar box instruments exist from 1840 to the 1860s.[citation needed] The earliest illustrated proof of a cigar box instrument known is an etching copyrighted in 1876 of two American Civil War Soldiers at a campsite with one playing a cigar box fiddle. The etching was created by illustrator and artist Edwin Forbes who, under the banner of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, worked for the Union Army. The etching was included in Forbes work Life Stories of the Great Army. In the etching, the cigar box fiddle clearly shows the brand ‘Figaro’ on the cigar box.

 In addition to the etching, plans for a cigar box banjo were published by Daniel Carter Beard, co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America, in 1884 as part of 'Christmas Eve With Uncle Enos'.[2] The plans, eventually retitled ‘How to Build an Uncle Enos Banjo’ as part of Beard's American Boy’s Handy Book in the 1890 release as supplementary material in the rear of the book.[3] These plans omitted the story but still showed a step-by-step description for a playable 5-string fretless banjo made from a cigar box.

 It would seem that the earliest cigar box instruments would be extremely crude and primitive; however, this is not always the case. According to Bill Jehle, curator of The National Cigar Box Guitar Museum, and author of One Man's Trash: A History of the Cigar Box Guitar,[4] has acquired two cigar box fiddles built in 1886 and 1889 that seem very playable and well built. The 1886 fiddle was made for an 8 year old boy and is certainly playable, but the 1889 fiddle has a well carved neck and slotted violin headstock. The latter instrument was made for serious playing.

 The cigar box guitars and fiddles were also important in the rise of jug bands and blues. As most of these performers were black Americans living in poverty, many could not afford a "real" instrument. Using these, along with the washtub bass (similar to the cigar box guitar), jugs, washboards, and harmonica, black musicians performed blues during socializations.

 The Great Depression of the 1930s saw a resurgence of homemade musical instruments. Times were hard in the American south and for entertainment sitting on the front porch singing away their blues was a popular pastime. Musical instruments were beyond the means of everybody, but an old cigar box, a piece of broom handle and a couple wires from the screen door and a guitar was born.

 Modern revival

 Cigar box guitars at Maker Faire 2011
A modern revival of these instruments (also known as the Cigar Box Guitar Revolution) has been gathering momentum with an increase in cigar box guitar builders and performers. A loose-knit tour of underground musicians tour the East Coast (US) each summer under the banner "Masters of the Cigar Box Guitar Tour." These musicians include Doctor Oakroot, Johnny Lowebow, Tomi-O and many others. Also, there is a growing number of primitive luthiers adding cigar box guitars to their items for sale.[citation needed] One cigar box guitar maker is Shane Speal.

 Modern revival is sometimes due to interest in jugband and the DIY culture, as a cigar box is relatively inexpensive when considering other factors, such as strings and construction time. Many modern cigar box guitar can thus be seen as a type of practice in lutherie, and implement numerous personal touches, such as the addition of pick up and resonator cones into it.
A superior modern fiddle

 The modern revival of cigar box guitars is documented in the 2008 film, "Songs Inside The Box" which was shot primarily at an annual Huntsville, Alabama event called the Cigar Box Guitar Extravaganza.

 The Cigar Box Guitar Museum, a free-to-the-public display dedicated to cigar box guitars is located in Speal's Tavern, a small blues club in New Alexandria, PA. It is curated by cigar box guitarist, Shane Speal and contains over 60 antique and modern cigar box guitars. 


 DiddleyBow

 The diddley bow is a single-stringed American instrument which influenced the development of the blues sound. It consists of a single string of baling wire tensioned between two nails on a board over a glass bottle, which is used both as a bridge and as a means to magnify the instrument's sound.
It was traditionally considered a starter or children's instrument in the Deep South, especially in the African American community and is rarely heard outside the rural South, but it may have been influenced to some degree by West African instruments.Other nicknames for this instrument include "jitterbug" or "one-string", while an ethnomusicologist would formally call it a "monochord zither".

 Origins

 The diddley bow derives from instruments used in West Africa. There, they were often played by children, one beating the string with sticks and the other changing the pitch by moving a slide up and down. The instrument was then developed as a children's toy by slaves in the United States. They were first documented in the rural South by researchers in the 1930s.

 Construction

 The diddley bow is typically homemade, consisting usually of a wooden board and a single wire string stretched between two screws, and played by plucking while varying the pitch with a metal or glass slide held in the other hand. A glass bottle is usually used as the bridge, which helps magnify the sound. The diddley bow was traditionally considered an "entry-level" instrument, normally played by adolescent boys, who then graduate to a "normal" guitar if they show promise on the diddley bow. However currently, the diddley bow is also played by professional players as a solo as well as an accompaniment instrument.

 The diddley bow is significant to blues music in that many blues guitarists got their start playing it as children, as well as the fact that, like the slide guitar, it is played with a slide. However, because it was considered a children's instrument, very few musicians continued to play the diddley bow once they reached adulthood. The diddley bow is therefore not well represented in recordings.

 Notable users

 One notable performer of the instrument was the Mississippi blues musician Lonnie Pitchford, who used to demonstrate the instrument by stretching a wire between two nails hammered into the wood of a vertical beam making up part of the front porch of his home. Pitchford's headstone, placed on his grave in 2000 by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund, is actually designed with a playable diddley bow on the side as requested by Pitchford's family. Also some famous guitarists in the Motown band "The Funk Brothers" learned to play on the diddley bow and went on to play on some of Motown's greatest hits.

 Other notable traditional players include Lewis Dotson, Glen Faulkner, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Compton Jones, Eddie "One String" Jones, Napoleon Strickland, Moses Williams, James "Super Chikan" Johnson and "One String Sam" Wilson. Willie Joe Duncan was also notable for his work with a very large electrified diddley bow he called a Unitar.
Recent performers who use similar instruments include New York City-based jazz pianist Cooper-Moore, American bluesman Seasick Steve, Samm Bennett, Danny Kroha, One String Willie, and blind musician Velcro Lewis. Jack White makes one at the beginning of the movie It Might Get Loud, then after playing it quips "Who says you need to buy a guitar?". Seasick Steve recorded a tribute song to his diddley bow on his song "Diddley Bo" from his 2009 album,

 Lowebow


A "lowebow" is a variation of the cigar box guitar, created by John Lowe in the 1990s.It involves one cigar box, with two wooden rods projecting from it. Each wooden rod typically holds one string each: a bass string and a standard acoustic guitar string. Variations often contain multiple strings in the treble neck similar to standard cigar box guitars.This allows the player to pluck a one-string bass and a one-string guitar at the same time. Each of the two strings has its own individual electric pick-up that feeds into the amplifier. This guitar was created with the One-man band performer,
source: Wikipedia 
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Tuesday

3D Guitars: They Way Of The Future

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8:38 PM 0

                                       3D Guitars: They Way Of The Future  

 In the competitive market place that is electric guitars you?d be hard pressed to find anyone who plays guitar who hasn?t heard the names Fender or Gibson. They are both big name American guitar manufacturers who hold a strong footprint on the market share worldwide. But one man based in Auckland, New Zealand believes he has the formula to perhaps not compete for market share on the same scale with those two giants but to at the very least be a point of difference and stand out from the crowd.
Meet Olaf Diegel, Olaf is a University professor of Mechatronics at Massey University and has been delving into the world of 3D printing. This process is essentially taking a 3D computer model of a product then slicing it into very thin pieces. The printing machine then prints and layers each piece one on top of the other until the product is finished. Mr Diegel who also has a passion for music and has played in many rock bands over the years and even once played in a Medieval band came up with an idea to manufacture 3D guitar bodies and start his own business. ?I first started it mainly to see if it could be done. I have been a user of 3D printing for about 5 years, using it as a prototyping technology to test out ideas. But, in this case I wanted to see if the technology had advanced to the stage of being able to handle the stress of an electric guitar, in which there can be up to around 100 Kg of tension on the strings. The results turned out so great that I saw an immediate opportunity for a little spin-out business?.
Mr Diegel began selling his guitars under the company name ODD Guitars which is abbreviated from Olaf Diegel Design in July of this year and although no guitarists of note have begun using his guitars yet he is left in no doubt that it will happen once the brand becomes established in the market place.
According to Mr Diegel you can expect to shell out around US$3500 for his Les Paul style Atom model and around US$3000 for his Spider and Scarab models with top quality hardware on every aspect of the guitar. But he is also quick to point out that customers also have the opportunity to request specific hardware to be used to meet their needs. "Buying a guitar is, indeed, a completely personal experience. And that is why it is so important to involve the customer in the design process. Both with any customisations they might want to the body, from something as simple as the name of their band incorporated into the guitar, to a more extreme 3D laser scan of their face incorporated into the body, and, of course, with the hardware preferences they have to create exactly the sound quality they want".
Developing such a niche market product as Olaf has a lot of challenges were bound to present themselves. The biggest challenge he found was the lack of infrastructure in New Zealand. He was able to manufacture the smaller guitar bodies on the machine available to him but the larger bodies were the challenge. New Zealand didn't have a machine capable of making them so he needed to off shore to get them made. "Luckily, I have been developing a relationship with 3D Systems, an American company that is the world?s leading manufacturer of 3D printing systems, and they have been extremely helpful in printing the bodies for me".
Another challenge Olaf has is that because the guitars are so customizable it is difficult to distribute them into conventional music stores. He plans to combat this issue by making some standard models for that particular market. So where does Olaf take ODD Guitars from here? "I hope to see ODD Guitars develop into a quality niche brand name that grows because of the ability to make instruments that are completely customized to each user?s needs. In what is already a competitive market, with a lot of well-known brands out there, I believe that it is the use of innovative features and novel ways of using new and upcoming technologies which can give ODD Guitars a competitive advantage".
Bass players can also rejoice, at the time of this article being written Olaf was about to assemble his first bass guitar which has a Bee theme in which the body resembles a honeycomb.
View the original article here
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