A review blog called “Reviews of Things I Have” has put up a surprisingly personal review of their Fender Mustang electric guitar, 1969 Reissue.
“More than 10 years later, that Fender Mustang is still my main guitar. Sure, I’ve owned dozens of others through the years, but something keeps me coming back to the Mustang… In an age of spec-sheets and unbiased online reviews, feature comparison tables and 110% price guarantees – I hope that you, too can find your Fender Mustang.”
There’s something refreshing about that, I think. There’s no comparisons to other guitars, no tables of features, no pros, no cons. Hell, there’s not even a picture. Just the way that it makes him feel and the affection he has for it.
Sure, this may not help many people who are considering the 1969 Mustang for purchase, but sometimes we forget that it’s more than just the features of a guitar that make it special to us; it’s the way it makes us feel when we play it.
What do you guys think?
Link: http://reviewsofthingsihave.com/guitars/fender-mustang-69-reissue-review.html
In the musical instrument industry, the name Ovation might as well be synonymous with “innovation.” For many years, these guys have been coming up with revolutionary technology time and time again. Rather than into detail, I’ll just refer you to this article I found about their history and move on with the new sauce they’ve been brewin’.
This futuristic space-age neo-interplanetary teleportation device is actually none of those things. It’s a guitar with a built-in recorder. Meant for the songwriter, it also includes an internal microphone for recording more than just sounds from the guitar (i.e., you can sing too). It has USB connectivity for easy transfer of mp3 files to and from the iDEA preamp. (pictured below)
The guitar itself features a mid-depth cutaway body with a spruce top, an eastern mahogany neck with a dark rosewood fingerboard and the Ovation iDea OPi-1 preamp. The preamp is available separately so check with your favorite dealer to find out if it will fit your current Ovation guitar.
According to a New York Times article, the booklets that come with our music may become a thing of the past, due to increasing sales of digital music and decreasing sales of its hard copy brethren.
And it makes sense.
Most of the music I listen to every day has come to me through some sort of digital channel, stripping it of its paper clothes. Back in the day, the first thing I did after buying a CD, probably even before listening to it, was going through the booklet it came with, seeing who they thanked, checking to make sure they wrote their own music, etc. The same goes for tapes and vinyl. Old school record fans appreciate the big, cardboard sleeves just as much as they do the grooves on the disc.
So what’s gonna happen? Hard to say. I’d propose a standardized, cross-filetype tag, sort of like ID3, that incorporated txt or a PDF of the liner notes with each track. With the convergence of phones and media players, that could even be a link. Eventually, having an album’s accompanying booklet may be as common place as having a JPG of its cover art.
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/arts/music/27brow.html
Here’s something mildly related to yesterday’s post about the Allman Brothers suing their old label.
Turns out Virgin is suing 30 Seconds to Mars (Yes, that’s right. Not the other way around.) for contract violation. It seems the band signed a contract for 9 years (cough, wankers, cough) but left after 7, being as that’s the longest a contract can last under California law where it was signed. Tricky, tricky, tricky.
Southern rockers the Allman brothers are suing their label, UMG Recordings, for $13+ million. They charge they have been “digitally exploited,” not getting their fair share of money earned from iTunes downloads, ring tones, and CDs of their recordings from 1969 to 1980.
I’m not sure if anyone’s really surprised by this. Capitalism is capitalism, money is money, and the cats that control the music industry are going to exploit artists until the artists stop letting them.
I think this is just another speck in the time line of the music industry’s (at least, as we know it now) destruction. Expect more artists to offer their music straight to the consumer for debatable cost, sans middle man, like Radiohead, NIN, and the plillions of music-loving indie musicians that have been doing it without any press mention.
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/arts/music/13arts-ALLMANBROTHE_BRF.html
Yesterday, Rolling Stone published an article about how singer-songwriter Jackson Browne is suing John McCain over the un-permissioned use of his song “Running On Empty” in a political campaign commercial. The ad was, you guessed it, mocking Obama’s urging people to properly inflate their tires.
Browne at a John Edwards rally
This isn’t the first time an artist has gotten upset at McCain for using one of their songs without permission. John Mellencamp has asked him to stop playing “Our Country” at rallies. It turns out that song, like “Running On Empty,” doesn’t mean what people think it means.
Oh, politics. I really don’t even know what to say about things anymore.
The Classic Vibe series of electric guitars and basses from Squier is mildly new, coming out in the last few months. As you might suspect, its guitars are recreations of older, “classic” Fenders.
They all cost around $300 new and feature yellowed white plastic controls and pickups (minus the Tele), maple necks, and bodies of alder, pine, or basswood.
The one people are talking about, I think, is the Duo Sonic. From Squier:
“The Classic Vibe Duo-Sonic ’50s boasts cool, classic Fender® vibe. Originally conceived as a student-level guitar designed to capture the attention of rock ‘n’ roll 1950s youth, the Duo-Sonic became a sought-after model among collectors, musicians and Fender fans.”
I had the chance to play one at my buddy’s place and I liked it a lot. I think this series could definitely take on some of the Mexican Fenders’ market share. The neck felt like a vintage guitar, the sensation to palm, grip, everything. It was light just like the old antiques. The pickups had a vintage sound too. Those older Strats can be noisy, but these look to be clean reproductions.
Ok, that’s all for now. Have a good one.
[This is an update to James Brown’s Old Stuff Up for Auction]
The 350-or-so items from James Brown’s estate were sold yesterday for a sum of around $800,000, a bit short of the 2 million Christie’s estimated. Items of interest: his medical bracelet bought by Paul Schaffer for $32,500, Hammond organ for $10,000, and his pink leather couches for $40,000.
The money is going to be used to pay off his outstanding taxes.
Link:http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/07/18/james-brown-auction-nets-800000/
According to Rolling Stone,
“A guitar famously lit on fire by Jimi Hendrix while performing onstage in London in 1967 is going to auction. Experts are predicting the guitar may fetch as much as $1 million.”
The story goes that he lit it on fire, got burnt (go figure), and on his way to the hospital, told the roadies to snatch it up. Up until now, it’s been owned by Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding and press officer Tony Garland, whose nephew is apparently putting it out for sale. He’s broke, I guess.
It’ll go on sale September 4th later this year.
Up to 30 festival attendees suffered permanent eye damage after being blinded by lasers at an outdoor rave party in Kirzhach, Russia, on July 5th.
“Heavy rain had forced organisers of the event, which took place on July 5 in the town 50 miles outside Moscow, to put up tents for the all-night dance party.
The lasers, which are designed to illuminate the sky, were reflected by the canopy into the eyes of the ravers, burning their retinas.”
Aww… Now I feel bad for writing that hilarious post title…
I promise my next post will have more to do with music.
