Other Guitar

J. Irving-Giles ordered up a free sample of Big Bends Nut Sauce to see if it can back up the claims that it eases friction to keep your guitar in tune longer. Does Nut Sauce deliver?  

We found some instrumental oddities walking around Chicago's annual Looptopia festival including Jenna Caravello's creation, the Celloharp. Jenna talks about the challenges of building an instrument with nothing to go by but imagination.  

If you're suffering from a lack of shiny sustain, Swineshead Pickups has just what the doctor ordered. The Spotlight-TC pickup goes after that Telecaster sound we all know and love.  

Graph Tech has been producing after-market upgrade parts for electric and acoustic guitars for years, from nuts to saddles and more. For the first time ever, they've packaged matching components into complete upgrade kits.  

Notion Music's Progression might scare guitarists away at first as notational software is quite an intimidating term for some. It's multitudinous features, ease of use and guitar effects capabilities make this software friendly for the notationally illiterate.  

With tons of different picks and pick styles on the market, the V-Picks Acoustic and V-Picks Screamer stand out in appearance, but can such a mutant variation really provide the improvements it boasts?  

Canada, home of not only Annihilator but the purchaser of one of J. Irving-Giles' old Floyd Rose equipped guitars, seems to have a much kinder approach to Floyd Rose shredders. Instead of throwing said shred-heads into a cage match with Henry Rollins, Canadian guitar accessory manufacturer Graph Tech caters their GHOST MIDI and Acoustic pickup system towards Floyd systems with the LB63.  

One of the instruments Matt Mercado has hanging around at Sonic Palace is a Jerry Jones Master Electric Sitar. The instrument itself begs to be played, but oftentimes it's tough to find a part that could benefit from it.  

Big Bends Nut Sauce claims to save your guitar strings, prolonging string life, naturally equalizing string balance and more. J. Irving-Giles orders up a free sample to put it to the test.  

Seymour Duncan's new SH-15 Alternative 8 humbucker pickup has just been introduced, and if you're rocking a rosewood fingerboard, you should probably investigate this a little further. Its Alnico 8 magnet will give your tone some pretty enhanced edge.  

Eminence Speakers and Loudspeakers Plus of Manteno, IL have teamed up to create a unique comparative shopping experience: The Tone Chamber. Think of it as the exact opposite of a sensory deprivation tank.  

Singer-songwriter Jann Klose, with a new CD out and in-between tours, takes some time to talk about his acoustic guitars with Gearwire.  

Without a doubt, Action Tuners was dead on when they wrote that "most of us would like nothing more than to have someone tune our guitars for us." The rest of us need to take a long look at ourselves and get our priorities right.  

Patrick Ogle got a great deal on a Peruvian Mandolin on an auction site, but there's always a flip side. This Banjolin that Patrick bought serves as a caveat.  

We join Patrick Ogle and his Peruvian Mandolin in Gearwire studio where Patrick gives us a rundown of the instrument. He lucked out on this gem through an auction site and talks about how you might be able to do the same.  

A few months ago at NAMM in Anaheim, Ibanez unveiled a production 8-string guitar, RG2228GK. For those of you who aren't satisfied with those "stock" pickups, the British pickup gurus at Swineshead have a few 8-string upgrades for the most finicky of the finicky.  

David Schwartz demonstrates some of the many timbres, tones and effects that can only be created on a fretless instrument, like the Godin Multiac Fretless Nylon guitar he's brought in. Microtones and Glissandos are only the beginning!  

Trying to retrain your brain to "think fretless" is certainly not the easiest thing in the world, especially if you've spent years trusting in frets. David Schwartz is here to tell us how playing fretless can help you expand your mind as a musician.  

What do you do when you feel like you've exhausted your guitar's tonal potential? When you've been through every stompbox and every pickup type through every amp, and you still haven't found the tone you've been searching for? Maybe Godin's Multiac Fretless Nylon guitar is right for you, too.  

Aluminum Bass? Electric Tiple? Clamshell-Constructed Electric Mandolin? Either we've just visited Specimen Products or gone completely mad. You make the call!  

Mandolins aren't as different from guitars as you might think. In this video, Tim Joyce and Tony Polecastro at the Old Town School Music Store demonstrate the difference between laminate, solid top and all solid mandolins.  

We rejoin Tim Joyce and Tony Polecastro at Old Town School of Folk Music where we take a look at a Paul Beard Resonator Guitar. For those of you familiar with resonator guitars, check out the video to see this beauty in action. For those that aren't learn a few things while you're at it.  

If you worry about your guitar sitting there on the stand uncovered but can't put it in the case Drapester may be worth a look.  

The new SH90 pickup from Swineshead grants more tonal possibilities for your double humbucker guitar by fitting a single coil into humbucker housing. I bet it's roomy in there.  

Everyone loves a good legal battle and Gibson Guitars and Activision [makers of the Guitar Hero series] are entangled in a steamy issue. After two years of Gibson guitars and influence making strong appearances in the video game, Activision is suing Gibson to defeat Gibson's claims that the Les Paul shaped controller infringes on Gibson's patents.  

TerraTec AXON Technologies announces that the new PU 100, a Duncan Designed hexagonal pick-up, will be released at MusikMesse 2008. It eliminates the need for any third party hexagonal pickup with their Guitar-to-MIDI systems.  

Lace has announced two new additions to the Lace Sensor line of pickups. The Emerald Sensor and Purple Sensor have tones that fit together so well, they're even going to be packaged together as two parts of a three pickup "Super Pack."  

Owen O'Malley plugs into two of the VOX amPlug models to see how they stack up against other headphone amplifiers. The VOX name alone has us going in optimistically, and for a headphone amp, they deliver well.  

Sick of feeling like MacGuyver when you're working on your guitar? Personally, I'd never get sick of feeling like MacGuyver, but the Dunlop Formula 65 Neck Cradle Maintenance System provides a much more stable way to work on your ax.  

We talked to Hercules [not the mythological Greek strongman] at Winter NAMM 2008 about their new stands. Hercules is adding some impressive features to their accessories to help keep your instrument in great shape.