This custom guitar was posted up on Jemsite by member Brian Johnston, as you can see it is based on the Ibanez JEM but this custom was created by Casper Guitar Technologies and features a few modifications as you can see. “I wanted more of a personal and customized guitar, including metallic paint, a smaller neck size, custom pickups, and a ‘vine of life’ inlay that would be stunning and highly decorative.” says Brian and CGT certainly achieved that goal.

The Tuning Pegs are solid silver ‘leaf’ developed by guitarists and metalsmiths Bo Svendson and Daniel Doucette of www.Argentariis.com. “I was so impressed with the uniqueness (the leaf pegs were an obvious match with the vine of life inlay, as though the vine continued up the headstock and sprouted life) and quality of their work that I commissioned Bo Svendson to develop two knobs for the volume and tone controls to further emulate the ‘leaf’ concept. Bo added a diamond inlay on the top and hand-engraved the knobs with a decorative, Victorian style vine inlay, both of which took customization to a new level.”

Unlike stock JEM’s this guitar has a solid Mahogany body (ooh controversial!) and stainless steel frets. It also has hand wound pickups and as you can see below a custom headstock shape.

I think this is a pretty interesting take on the JEM, a little too much bling for my personal tastes though what do you think?

I don’t really need to explain who the Aristocrats are but the press release does a great job of doing just that so I’ll just re-post it here. 33 Minute DVD documentary shot while tracking the album? TAKE MY MONEY NOW!!!

Press Release
THE ARISTOCRATS, the white-hot rock/fusion instrumental virtuoso power trio featuring celebrated musicians Guthrie Govan (guitar), Bryan Beller (bass) and Marco Minnemann (drums), will release their new album, Culture Clash, on July 16, 2013 via BOING Music.

Culture Clash will be sold in both regular and deluxe editions. The deluxe package will contain a bonus DVD called, “Accept The Mystery: The Making Of The Aristocrats’ Culture Clash”, a 33-minute DVD documentary shot while THE ARISTOCRATS were tracking the album in Nashville, TN between January 15th-21st. Containing both studio footage and exclusive interviews with each member of the band, this is a special behind-the-scenes look at THE ARISTOCRATS that fans have never seen before.

Culture Clash tracklisting:
1. Dance Of The Aristocrats
2. Culture Clash
3. Louisville Stomp
4. Ohhhh Noooo
5. Gaping Head Wound
6. Desert Tornado
7. Cocktail Umbrellas
8. Living The Dream
9. And Finally

Bryan Beller adds, “It all comes out on July 16. Between now and then, we’ll be releasing previews of audio and video right here on this website, on our Facebook Page, as well as other media outlets. You might want to follow us on Twitter as well at @acratsband. There will be a presale soon. There will be new t-shirts soon. It will all be available at our webstore very soon, and if you stay tuned you’ll be the first to know.”

http://the-aristocrats-band.com/
www.facebook.com/aristocratsband
www.twitter.com/acratsband

Everybody loves a good Premier Guitar Rig Rundown especially when it features Guthrie Govan, enjoy.

This crazy contraption at first looks like a guitar with a slightly oddly placed floating pickguard but on closer inspection and indeed by watching the demo video below you will see that the floating pickguard is actually a percussive element that allows you to replicate a kind of Conga sound whilst playing your guitar.

“The guitar player’s right hand hits, and rubs the Gperc plate that provides a natural sound close to percussion sounds such as congas, djembe, bongo. It is the result of the percussion plate vibrations captured by a piezoelectric pickup. That piezoelectric pickup has a volume control, and a separate output. The Gperc can have its own volume level and is routed through its own effects chain and amplification system.”

I imagine that if you then route the percussive sounds through some effects you could get some pretty amazing backing tracks to your playing, especially if you combined it with a looper.

Check out this demo of the Gperc in action, you can really hear the percussion side of this instrument demonstrated best at 1:20

I can see buskers and one man bands really digging this instrument, currently quite a few guitar players play shows on their own with loopers and make up the backing tracks hitting various parts of their guitars, particularly acoustic players, so this seems like a natural progression. However in order for this product to become a reality inventor Frédéric Riedel needs your help so if you believe in this product please donate using the widget below, Frédéric has set up some perks (not Gpercs haha) depending on how much you donate.

Mr. Fastfinger – Awaki-Waki

I’ve become slightly obsessed with Mika Tyyskä recently his playing is just so incredible I love how precise his technique is, lots of staccato runs and he doesn’t drench his guitar tone with distortion to cover up any technique shortcomings this man is pure class.

Mika Tyyskä has just released a new EP entitled Stringweaver available through iTunes, Jamtrackcentral.com, Amazon, GuitarEuroShop.com etc.

The EP features 4 tracks, the first ‘Awaki-Waki’ also features on the site GuitarBots which as you can see in the above video is a very cool Guitar Hero style online game where you use your own guitar and attempt to play along with the technical marvel that is Mr. Fastfinger, great fun and I love the track. The second track is called ‘Practice Heart’ which is a track I have used as a basis for a track I recently wrote that will become a “In the style of Mr Fastfinger” lesson very soon, so it goes without saying that I love this track too. The third track
‘Nightvisions’ is a slower track with a really nice melody that I have been trying to perfect on GuitarBots the last few days, it uses Mika’s signature staccato style as well as some nice legato playing too kind of Satriani-esque in places. Finally the last track is called ‘Sandwashing’ and is another slow track with some Overtone singing as a backing which sounds cool. The EP only cost $6 in Aus and Jamtrackcentral.com are selling it for 4 of your British pounds if you are in the UK. Definitely worth a purchase if you like melodic guitar instrumental music with a splattering of virtuosic shredding.

http://mrfastfinger.net/
https://www.facebook.com/MrFastfinger

‘Februus’ by Uneven Structure is one of my favourite Progressive Metal albums so I was excited when ’8′ arrived in my inbox last week. This EP has been re-recorded, re-vocalled and repackaged and sounds every bit as brutal as ‘Februus’. Most of the tracks are much shorter than Februus except the awesome title track ‘Eight’ which is 8 minutes long, perfect. Head over to Uneven Structure’s Facebook page to hear previews of the EP and find links to buy ’8′ and ‘Februus’

Press Release
Since their critically acclaimed album release in 2011, Uneven Structure have been hard at work touring, writing, touring and making videos. Now, the forward thinking French metallers are ready to surface for air once again, by presenting a re-recorded, repackaged version of their phenomenal EP ‘8’. Presented as one 24 minute long track, in eight movements, the record showcases their distinct soundscapes with fierce poly metric metal. Think Pink Floyd’s creativity meets Meshuggah’s brutality with a side serving of Devin Townsend’s progressive charm.

Comments guitarist Igor Omodei: “8, as a collective piece is something we love to play live but the way we do now is quite different from the 2009 EP. So we decided to release this altered version by going back to the drawing board, reworking it, taking advantage of the lineup consolidation and technical progress we’ve been through since the original was out. This is a thank you to our fans for being so supportive and believing in us, and we really hope they will enjoy what we’ve done with it. Whilst they enjoy this, we’re busy in our batcave, working on our second album. We want to get that exactly right as it’s a concept album, the technical aspect is more engaging than on Februus and we’re leaving more room for experimentation which means our writing spectrum is broad as hell.”

Uneven Structure’s 8 EP is set for re-release through Basick Records on June 3rd 2013.

https://www.facebook.com/unevenstructure

If you haven’t the excellent Uneven Structure album Februus yet check out this video taken from the album called “Frost/Hail” a combination of the 2nd and 3rd tracks on the album. I love the way it builds for the first 2 1/2 minutes.

David Brent kicks off his new series of guitar tutorials with the song ‘Life On The Road’.

“E, A, D, G, B, E. Who cares? What are you going to do with them? Whatever you like. Within reason.”

This is partially guitar related as it contains interviews with some Metal guitarists so I thought many of you would find this interesting.

Press Release
LOUDER THAN HELL: The Definitive Oral History of Metal is in stores NOW! Compiled from over 400 interviews conducted by respected music journalists Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman, is a chronological history of heavy metal, told through the words of the men and women who created it, played it, re-invented it, and continue to rock it.

Candid and confessional commentary comes straight from icons of the genre, including: Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, Bruce Dickinson, Eddie Van Halen, Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Lita Ford, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Axl Rose, Slash, Corey Taylor, Dave Mustaine, Chuck Schuldiner, Lemmy Kilmister, King Diamond, Dave Grohl, Trent Reznor, Slayer’s Kerry King, Phil Anselmo, Rob Zombie and more. With an introduction by Scott Ian of Anthrax and an afterword by Rob Halford of Judas Priest, and with two 16-page photo inserts, with some never-before seen candid shots by celebrated rock photographers Stephanie Cabral and Robert Matheu, this is the book metal fans have been waiting for.

From the creation of Black Sabbath in the late 1960s, to Judas Priest’s development of the leather-and-studs look, to Metallica introducing the world to thrash, to the inception of Ozzfest, to Faith No More accidentally creating the first hybrid of rap and metal, to the provocative exploits of the Sunset Strip scene, to the death and destruction surrounding Norwegian black metal, LOUDER THAN HELL gets to the meat of the metal matter.

https://www.facebook.com/LouderThanHellTheBook
http://louderthanhellbook.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/louderthanhell

How have I not heard of this until now?! It seems Guitarbots has been online for a while but it took a link to a video of Mika Tyyska playing along to his track ‘Awaki Waki’ for me to jump on to the site and give it a go myself.

If you have played Guitar Hero you will immediately understand how this game works, even if you haven’t it is very simple, you play the notes on the animated TAB in time and get scored on accuracy of notes and timing. The challenges begin with very simple open string tracks with very easy rhythms and progress to harder tracks using single notes, double notes, chords etc. and more complex rhythms. Don’t worry, there is plenty to get through before you are faced with Mr Fastfinger tracks!

So how does it work and how well? The first thing you need to do is to tune your guitar using the online tuner to make sure the software can analyse your guitar accurately. I tried first using a room mic and had no luck but when I switched to my mic’d cabinet it worked perfectly. You should be able to use a software amp such as Amplitube too as the app allows you to set which input to use for the game which would be even more accurate I imagine. The other thing I should mention is that the game uses the Unity 3D plugin which you are prompted to install so this won’t work on an iPad. Once tuned up you are ready to go. With a free account you are limited to 5 minutes play per day but the first time you play it lets you recharge a couple of times to get the feel of the game.

I have to say it is really fun and after the 2nd day I was gutted that I only had 5 minutes and really want to get to the Mr Fastfinger tracks so I am going to sign up for a monthly subscription for $9.99/month. I think this will encourage me to actually play more and the increasing difficulty will challenge me and improve my speed, accuracy and timing. For beginners I can see that you would rapidly progress using this as a teaching aid, each challenge allows you to use practice mode as much as you like until you are confident enough to play and have your score counted.

This is exactly the kind of thing I hoped would be developed when the original Guitar Hero came out, I didn’t expect that it would be a web based game and yet so accurate. This is one addictive and fun game for guitarists and the bonus is that it will improve playing as well as give you bragging rights as you share your achievements across the social networks.

Guitar Bots

Press Release
It’s not just a pickup, it’s a weapon of tonal Armageddon. The Nazgûl was designed with a single purpose; for intense high output chug heavy punch you in the chest ruthless distortion. The tone is heavy and aggressive but also retains articulation and provides a precise pick attack that is necessary for high-output metal. The Nazgûl gives chords heavy saturation and produces a lightning fast response to your amp. Perfect for all high output metal needs in which sonic obliteration needs to be accomplished.

The Nazgûl is available for 7 and 8 string players and also comes in an active mount (soapbar) sizing for those who own a guitar that originally came with active pickups but prefer the tone of passive pickups.

7 – String version DC 16.5k
8 – String version DC 18.7k

Pricing 7 string:
Passive Mount: SRP: $89.95
Active Mount & Metal Covers: SRP: $119.95

8 string:
Passive Mount: SRP: $119.95
Active Mount & Metal Covers: SRP: $139.95

Check out this great demo from Ola Englund and Keith Merrow