Tag archive: guitar

In what may initially seem like an unlikely pairing, American guitar maker Gibson has outlined a strategic partnership that , if approved, will have it making serious investments in consumer electronics giant Onkyo. According to a recent statement, Gibson intends to  purchase majority stake in Onkyo USA and become the second largest shareholder of Onkyo Japan. Gibson says the relationship will be mutually beneficial as it lends its marketing… Read More

In rock music, innovations take a long time. The first electric guitars that actually stayed in tune and worked well for stage performance were produced in the 1950s, and the basic design – fretboard, pick-ups, tuning knobs, a quarter-inch jack – has not changed much in the last 60 years. The Gibson Firebird X is the latest “digital guitar” that attempts to change some of the basic mechanics of a guitar. While you can play the instrument… Read More

Regular guitars seem cool enough to us, but if you're looking for something a little more…modern, we've got a Kickstarter project that you'll probably want to pledge to right away. The iTar project ($200+) from the folks over at Starr Labs aims to create a guitar that you can plug your iPad into to start playing. The 'instrument' will start with a Starr Labs patented button-based guitar fretboard. The iPad… Read More

Way back in 2007 Gibson rolled out its first “robot” guitar, featuring motorized tuners that could quickly tune up the instrument without much player intervention—and even switch between common tunings on the fly. Now, Gibson is on the verge of launching the Firebird X, the latest in its series of high tech instruments. And the guiltar-maker has thrown everything and the kitchen sink into this one: three mini-humbuckers, a… Read More

  Audio gear maker JVC has updated its Kaboom line of boomboxes to better protect user's iPods—and let them jam along to their favorite tunes, if they like. The RV-NB70 Kaboom sports 40 watts of power, standard boombox features like an FM tuner and CD player, along with an iPod dock and support for USB mass storage—and still rocks the Kaboom's totally tubular design. JVC rolled out its homage to its old-school Kaboom boombox… Read More

The likes of Eric Clapton and Keith Richards may find it a little limiting in terms of what it can do, but for those who've never picked up a guitar before in their life, though always fancied a strum, Google has come up with just the thing – a (kind of) guitar, on its search page. The latest Google doodle is a tribute to the pioneer of the solid-body electric guitar, Les Paul (d. 2009), who would have been 96 today. Paul designed the… Read More

If you've already mastered the likes of Guitar Hero, it's time to move on to the next invention in digital guitars. Those old-school guitar strings are always getting in the way, right? If you'd rather play a strange, artificial instrument, Misa Digital Instruments is now taking pre-orders for their new Kitara stringless digital guitar. The Kitara ($849) uses a digital interface and 8-inch touch screen to integrate sounds of… Read More

Last December guitar amp-maker Marshall announced it would be offering both over-year and earbud headphones, dubbed Major and Minor—and now the lightweight Minor earbuds are finally available. aiming to give guitar and music fans a solid listening experience that works with the mobile phones and other devices and doesn't involve carrying around bulky, heavy headphones. The Marshall Minor earbuds feature a 1.54mm drive and claim a… Read More

Peripheral and accessories maker Logitech has announced its Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 systems…and like the earlier Premier Edition controller, it's compatible with all Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero World Tour games. The controller is designed to land at the high end of the fake-guitar universe, featuring a rosewood fretboard, a Floyd-Rose-esque whammy bar for players'… Read More

News dribblets about Activision's Guitar Hero franchise are falling with the regularity of a broken faucet: first the company announces three new games—including DJ Hero—then casually mentions it's looking into developing a Guitar Hero reality television series or concert tour package. Now, Activision has more-or-less confirmed what most people in the gaming industry knew already: following on the heels of Guitar… Read More

Although games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are certainly popular, not everyone wants to sling a six-string or try to win points fake-shredding along to old fogey dinosaur rock. Darnit, some music has moved on from the 1950s tech of electric guitars: where's the hip-hop, the modern r&b, the house, the electronica? Where's the popping and scratching and the DJ with the turntables? Game publisher Activision is looking to… Read More

Consumers have been complaining about the problems associated with DRM technology on their music files: songs can't be transferred between devices, shared with friends, backed up easily, and (in some cases) quick working altogether because an online music service decided to call it quits. Verizon Wireless has apparently listened, and has joined the DRM-free bandwagon in announcing more than 5 million MP3 tracks are now available from… Read More

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has issued a ruling that Activision's Guitar Hero franchise does not infringe on a 1999 Gibson patent covering simulating a musical performance using a 3D headset display and stereo speakers. As, it seems, with any legal action regarding guitar maker Gibson, the procedural path of the case has been rife with hiccups, mis-steps, and obstinacy, but the court has finally… Read More

Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band might be planting the seeds for a whole new generation of musicians…and venerable guitar maker Gibson wants to be out there with technology that will appeal to the digital generation. To that end, the company has just introduced Dark Fire, a second-generation of its Robot Guitar product line—introduced a year ago and updated last April—that features a motorized tuner setup that can both… Read More

Guitar Hero World Tour, the fourth part of the successful Guitar Hero franchise, went on sale in the UK on Friday, heralded by a launch party with music by metalcore band Bullet for My Valentine, while attendees could pretend to be rock stars by performing for the crowd. Neversoft’s Guitar Hero World Tour boasts some changes from its predecessors. The look of the guitar has been changed, and it now has a touch-sensitive panel for… Read More