The holiday shopping season is upon us, and this means many of you will be out shopping for the guitar player on your list, (probably yourself included). 2013 music gear shopping has no shortage of awesome guitars and accessories that are sure to keep both yourself and your favorite guitarist jamming all year long.

Unfortunately, there's too many killer pieces of gear to list, but since I've received emails requesting info. on looper pedals, beginner electric guitars, mid-level amps and stocking suffers... that's where my short-list here will be focused!  Below are a few items that I believe are not only well made, but are a fair price for your budget!


Digitech JMSXT Jamman Solo XT Stereo Compact Pedal After inventing looping nearly three decades ago, DigiTech’s JamMan Solo XT brings you the definitive stereo looping experience. Build virtually limitless loops... Make seamless transitions between looped phrases, for composing and performing.








Fender Starcaster Strat Electric Guitar Bundle with Amplifier, Gig Bag, Strings, Strap, Stand, Picks, Instructional DVD, and Instrument Cable - 3-Tone Sunburst

Fender Starcaster Strat-Pack delivers a great-sounding, sleek-looking Stratocaster electric guitar paired with a compact guitar amplifier and a host of essential accessories. This Strat Pack includes a; 3-tone sunburst Stratocaster guitar, strings, picks, a strap, Squier SP-10 amp, a 10-foot cable, a tuner, a gig bag, guitar stand, and an instructional DVD. The highly versatile Stratocaster guitar offers legendary Fender tone combined with classic styling, and it's suited for all styles of music. It features a 22-fret fingerboard with dot position inlays, three single-coil pickups with 5-way switching, sealed die-cast tuners for consistent tuning stability, chrome hardware and a three-ply white pickguard.



Pick Punch
The Original and the best guitar pick making tool on the market! The pick punch creates Standard 351 Shape Guitar Picks out of almost any kind of plastic you have kicking around your home. It's great for recycling and is a fantastic gift idea for the guitarist on your list. The Pick Punch will create Guitar Picks out of an endless supply of materials!




String Swing Home Guitar Keeper (Wall Hanger) Black Walnut Hardwood

The String Swing Guitar Keeper has a deep cradle design that prevents the guitar from being improperly placed into its hanger, (which promotes safer handling of your instrument). This unique guitar wall hanger design is also great for guitars that have a headstock with either single or uneven heels. The yoke pivots to cradle the guitars headstock, but is free of mechanical, moving parts that would wear over time (so this product is manufacturer-guaranteed for life).Wood block is made of real hardwood.


Planet Waves Custom Series Instrument Cable, 20 feet

Built for the discerning musician and the most demanding live and studio situations, Planet Waves offers built-to-last durability, while accurately transferring the subtle details of your tone through their exclusive In=Out technology. Cusom Series cables feature ultra-pure twisted pair, oxugen-free conductors with encapsulated soldering points formulated for extremely low capacitance. This ensures pure signal clarity and precise transmission of your instrument's true character. Additionally, two layers of impenetrable noise-rejecting shielding, coupled with unmatchesd strain relief, deliver the ultimate high-performance cable. And, all Planet Waves cables are guaranteed for life!



Peavey Bandit 112 TransTube Amplifier

What do you get when you combine the unique TransTube tube emulation circuitry, a strong 12" Blue Marvel speaker, 80 Watts (rms) into 8 Ohms or 100 Watts (rms) into 4 Ohms (w/external speaker) along with a spring Reverb system and full-eq level control? You get one of the most reliable and solid amps sold on the market. And, at a price-point that won't dent your bank account! 

Legendary actor Christopher Lee has officially unleashed his metal Christmas single titled "A Heavy Metal Christmas Too."

The 91-year-old star of such classic features as "The Lord of the Rings," "Star Wars," "Dracula," "The Wicker Man" and "The Hobbit" is well-known for his affection of metal, so the guitar-heavy Christmas was the most logical way to go.




The single itself features a "Jingle Bells" metal rendition titled "Jingle Hell," along with a Frank Sinatra cover "My Way." You can check out audio samples or purchase the single here.

"I sing another version, it's a bit more naughty," Lee said about the first track. "It's not bad, I mean bad in the sense of unpleasant. It's entertaining, it's certainly different." Discussing the Sinatra cover, the actor added: "I was 84 years old when I sang it and my voice was higher than it is now."



Back in late May, Lee became the oldest metal performer history after releasing "Charlemagne: the Omens of Death" album on his 91st birthday. Make sure to check out the clip below for more details.

ACLU: College cancelled concert because band members were 'not black enough' 



"The decision to cancel was based on the band's 'insufficient representation of people of color' according to the ACLU"

Administrators at Hampshire College (Hampshire) cancelled a Halloween concert last month because the lead singer of the band scheduled to perform was "not black enough," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleged in a letter to the school's president.

"Hampshire’s justification for the cancellation and censorship has morphed over the past two weeks," wrote the ACLU in the letter to Jonathan Lash, the school's president. "The genesis of the decision, as you know rested on the accusation that this afro-funk band had insufficient representation of people of color."

The band, which was to perform at Hampshire, located in Amherst, MA, is called "Shokazoba," and specializes in Afrobeat music style, according to MassLive, a local online publication which recently obtained the ACLU's letter.


The school did pay Shokazoba, which has one African-American band member, despite the fact they were not allowed to perform.

ACLU official William Newman slammed the school's decision to cancel the event in the Nov. 15, letter, saying the decision was clearly race-based.

“Comments posted on the event Facebook page, maintained and monitored by the college, stated that the African-American lead singer was not black enough," he wrote.

In the letter, Newman also called on Hampshire officials to apologize for the error, and he offered to consult with college officials on the matter.



Newman told MassLive he is disappointed that the school has not yet responded to the letter.

Elaine Thomas, Hampshire director of communications, told Campus Reform by email on Friday that the school has a different understanding of the situation.

"At issue here are very different understandings of what occurred by the band and by the students who organized the event. Our dean of students, who is the individual working on this, has reached out to the band and asked to meet with them," she said.

What do you think? Should whites not be "Allowed" to perform certain kinds of music?

Read the Complete Article Here...

Responding to Thom Yorke's recent accusations, Spotify have made their payments public, confirming artists can only earn an average of $0.006 per song stream!

Although some claim the figure supports Yorke's meagre payment comments, however the company stresses the importance of looking at the big picture, noting that on average, a "niche indie album" generates $3,300 per month, while a "global hit album" fetches, $425,000.

Going into more specific figures, the Swedish platform revealed that payments range from $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream. Furthermore, details regarding Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" hit single were unveiled, confirming the tune garnered a total of almost $108 million from 78.6 million streams between June and August. The given amount is split between the label, publishers, collecting societies and the French duo.


According to Independent, Spotify also noted that it's royalties are much higher than the ones offered by YouTube, pointing out that $500 million was paid in royalties during 2013 alone. Since the 2008 launch, the payment figure had crossed the $1 billion mark.

The platform is also promising to increase the monthly indie rock earnings from $3,000 to $17,000 after expanding its subscriber base from 6 million to 40 million. At the moment, Spotify has over 24 million active users.

Accusing the company for trying to become the "gatekeeper" of all music, Thom Yorke described Spotify as "the last desperate fart of a dying corpse." The musician had also quit the service with his band Atoms for Peace.

So now that the figures are public - do you think Spotify can help bring the industry back on it's feet and more importantly, can Spotify help artists earn a decent living from their future work?

Recording rehearsals and performances in schools, churches, and studios gets a lot easier with the PreSonus AudioBox Stereo recording kit! This special all-PreSonus system combines a USB interface with Studio One Artist music-production software, HD7 monitoring headphones, a pair of small-diaphragm condenser microphones, and all necessary cables. It's great for capturing live performances and rehearsals, songwriting, song production, podcasting, and a variety of educational applications.

AudioBox Stereo includes:
AudioBox bus-powered USB audio/MIDI interface with cable Perfect for musicians, students, school music labs, churches, and classrooms, the ultra-mobile 2-channel AudioBox USB boasts high-performance microphone preamplifiers and professional-quality, 24-bit converters. USB bus-powered, it's compact, easy to use, ruggedly built, and designed to work perfectly with Studio One recording software but also works fine with other audio software that supports ASIO or Core Audio.



Studio One Artist recording and production software (DAW) Incredibly easy to learn, Studio One Artist lets you work quickly and stay focused on your inspiration while offering features rarely found in entry-level DAWs.

HD7 studio monitoring headphones PreSonus' high-definition HD7 headphones take advantage of a patented, semi-open sound chamber to deliver exceptionally deep low frequencies with a balanced and yet powerful bass punch.

Pair of small-diaphragm studio condenser microphones Record bands, choirs, rehearsals, school events, and more with this stereo pair of multi-purpose mics.

As you will see in the demonstration video, CoachGuitar is an iOS app which teaches you how to play hits from different decades and genres using a multi-camera video and animated fretboard view. The app is free to download (see http://coachguitar.com/ for links to the App) and you get 2 whole songs and 2 riffs included to get you started.

When you are ready to explore what else is to offer, simply tap on Library and scroll through the 60 or so songs which are available at the time of writing. Each song is an In-App purchase of $4.49 and you are able to preview the track before you purchase to hear exactly what you can expect to learn.


Each track includes a full performance video, a backing track with the guitar parts removed to play along to and a number of videos for each section, Stairway to Heaven for instance has a total of 31 videos included broken up into 9 chapters. Each chapter breaks down a section of the song into small chunks and is played at a slower tempo with the visual fretboard animation to help make it clear which notes to play with which fingers (indicated by the color coding described in the help), which strings to play (realistically vibrate like a real guitar) and the picking or plucking direction indicated at the left side of the fretboard.


There is also a left handed view feature in the settings which flips all of the videos and the fretboard. There are also Loop and Slow buttons, (so if you are really stuck you can just let it keep looping a section at half tempo until you get the hang of it).

If you are finding it difficult to learn new songs then this app could really help you get to grips with the correct fingerings, strum patterns to have you playing your favorite songs from the comfort of… well anywhere you'd take your iPhone, or iPad.

Nobody knows the ins and outs of Jimi Hendrix's guitar sound like Roger Mayer.

Mayer had already worked with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck and produced a number of different fuzz boxes by the time he met Hendrix at a gig at the Bag Of Nails pub in London. The two hit it off and Mayer showed Hendrix his Octavia, a unit that added an octave overtone to the original note. Hendrix loved the sound and used it on the solo to "Purple Haze."


"After that we became close friends and started hanging out; and as they say, the rest is history," Mayer says.

He went on to look after Hendrix's gear both live and in the studio, gaining a unique understanding of his requirements, playing style and working methods. Today Mayer produces a range of pedals that take his original designs into the 21st century.


Mayer says an important part of Hendrix's sound was due to his use of carefully selected string gauges, which evened out the guitar's response from string to string.

"First of all, we weren't using a flat-radius fretboard," Mayer says. "We were using the normal one, not the very high radius but definitely curvy. The actual strings we used were not what people would expect. The string gauges would run .010, .013, .015, .026, .032 and .038.

The big difference there is that you're using the .015 for the third, because if you use the .017 for the third, the actual sound of the guitar is very G-heavy. The electrical output of the strings is dependent on the square of the diameter; if you square all the diameters and look at them, you can get much more of an idea about the balance of the guitar.

"You should always remember that, because many, many times people use a set of strings that are completely imbalanced and they just don't sound that good. Most people would say a .010 to .013 is the correct jump. And the .015 is much better for the G than a .017. An .015 squares out at .225 and .017 is 289. So you're going to get 28 percent more output just with a two-pound different in string size."



Although Hendrix used a custom string gauge, Mayer certainly didn't mess with the stock pickups in his Strats. He didn't feel the need.

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