Building A Stratocaster

My buddy gave me this link to check out: an inside look at the architecture and assembly of a Stratocaster guitar. Wish I had the time to build one - love these guitars!

Guitars and Humidity

Before I completed renovations in my basement I did extensive research on how humidity affects guitars - since I'd be playing and storing my instruments down there. Here's a helpful video done by Taylor guitars on what low humidity levels can do to an acoustic guitar over prolonged exposure. I found this small article helpful as well.

David Gilmour - On An Island

Well, an incredible album that's a must if your into Floyd and just incredible guitar tones. Pink Floyd's David Gilmour has put together some incredible stuff on this one. It's not crazy guitar shred stuff - very blue... very smooth...very contemplative. One of my favourite albums by far! Gilmour tracked his guitars on his house boat studio (built in 1911) - very cool - and Abbey Road Studios hosted some orchestration sessions too - check out the press kit video. You can sample each tune from the record here.

Josh Ritter

Hey, check out Josh Ritter's new album The Animal Years. A good buddy of mine just sent me this link to sample the audio stream of the record: very cool stuff - refreshing.

Josh Ritter's The Animal Years is the kind of breakthrough effort that will cause listeners new to the 29 year-old singer -songwriter's work to wonder where this guy has been all their lives - and prompt his passionate fan base to just say, well, we told you so. Following the independent release of The Golden Age of Radio (2002) and Hello Starling (2003), Ritter was championed by critics in publications ranging from the New York Times to Details Magazine, hailed by fellow artists who shared stages with him, and name-checked by anyone who happened to catch him on tour during the years he doggedly worked the road. The music-savvy citizens of the Republic of Ireland christened him a major star well before anyone in the states even knew he had a record out. On The Animal Years, his V2 Records debut, Ritter more than lives up to the buzz. He embraces the topical while reaching for the timeless, resulting in an album that's firmly rooted in right now but guaranteed to resonate for years to come.

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Eric Clapton's Gibson ES-335

Eric Clapton purchased his cherished Gibson 335 in 1964 and played it for over 40 years. He auctioned it off in June of 2004 to raise support for his Crossroads Centre charity. It was purchased by the Guitar Center for a stunning $847,000 USD! Over the next year Eric Clapton, Gibson, and Guitar Center worked on releasing a limited edition recreation of the guitar. You can watch the 55 minute documentary here. Truly an amazing process. I was so impressed to see the craftmanship put into creating a guitar like this. Guitar builders are artists too.

PRS has done it again!

Back in April of last year I blogged on the incredible PRS 513 Rosewood model and it's unreal capabilities. The 513 just won the award for "Best Electric Guitar of the Year." Here's a snip from the article I read:

The award was presented to the company lastnight at an awards ceremony held in Frankfurt, Germany.

This marks the second consecutive year PRS has won the prestigious award, making it the only guitar manufacturer to win the award twice. The awards ceremony began seven years ago.

The voting panel included editors and journalists of 58 publications from around the world.

"In my opinion, it shows that the international press not only rewarded our unique level of quality and attention to detail but also awarded PRS' quest for innovation and further improvements in the guitar market, which in the end, benefit all guitar players," said Peter Wolf, director of sales and marketing in a statement.

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