Just saw this over on ToneFiend. This guy on youtube who goes by the name MotorGoblin, is the MacGuyver of the guitar world. You won’t believe the way he goes about making a vibrato, wah and flanger. Each one of these videos made me laugh out loud when it was revealed what he was building.
Fishman, mostly known for their acoustic guitar pickup systems, just announced the release of their new guitar midi controller, the “TriplePlay”. Unabashedly calling it “the best Midi guitar controller the world has ever seen”. It uses a very thin hexophonic pickup that easily mounts to the guitar with no permanent modifications, and uses a wireless receiver to connect with your Mac, PC or iPad. It also comes with an assortment of software from PreSonus (StudioOne Artist), Native Instruments (Kontakt Elements and GuitarRig LE), IK Multimedia (SampleTank and Amplitude Custom Shop) and Notion Music (PROGRESSION 2). It’s available at most retailers now for $399.99. More info HERE.
Joe Gore, who will be demo-ing the system for Fishman at Musikmesse, did a couple of unofficial demos on his blog, and it looks really impressive.
Pro Guitar Shop seems to be one of the webs more visible online guitar gear retailers. With a seemingly endless stream of contests, video demos and recently, a new riff of the day, taught by the popular Andy.
Their latest marketing blitz is something they are calling “Demo It Live”. It’s essentially just a web page, where they have hundreds of gear sound samples. The thing thats different, is that the FX pedals and guitars aren’t recorded with a mic in front of an amp as is typical. Instead they ran the sound straight to a recording console, and EQ’d it as neutrally as possible.
Without going into an amp, the samples actually don’t sound that good. But, they then ask that you take your smartphone, tablet or PC and get an adapter cable that will allow you to output it’s sound into your amp. So the sound samples are now running through your own rig. It’s about the best solution I’ve seen for remotely demoing gear, though still not a replacement for physically trying it yourself. And I don’t understand how this process could be “patent pending”, as it’s simply “re-amping”, a technique that’s been used by recording studios for quite some time.
Generally, if you have a pickup, and have no idea which wire is which and you can’t find a corresponding schematic, the advice is usually just to hook it up and see what happens, then make any corrections. The methods in the video take all the guesswork out of the process.
You’ll learn how to find out, just about everything you need to know to properly wire a humbucker. How to figure out which wires go to which coils, and therefore how to hook them up for series or parallel, and even a cool way to tell the polarity of each coil. This video was pointed out to me by Dave Fliski of Heavy Air Pickups.
