Machine Head Tour Dates
Oakland, Calif., thrash juggernaut Machine Head, featuring Jackson signature artist Phil Demmel, is hitting the concert road extremely hard in the United States and abroad throughout the rest of 2009 and well into 2010.
Dates include a Nov. 6 headliner in New York with Thy Will Be Done, This or the Apocalypse and Mutiny Within; followed by “Canadian Carnage East” with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicide Silence. These are followed in turn by the “Endgame Tour” with Megadeth and Suicide Silence, several dates with Metallica in December and the “Black Procession” tour of Europe with Hatebreed, Bleeding Through and All Shall Perish.
Hot New Models Coming This Fall!
November 30, 2009 by Editor
Filed under Electric Guitar
You ask, we listen. You’ve been asking us for new ESP models. Well, ESP fans, today is your day. Get out your pens and paper, because it’s time to make your wish list.
The Total Eclipse
We’ve added a couple of new Eclipses to the ESP line. First, check out the Eclipse-II Vibrato. This is an instant classic. It’s everything you want in a classic rock guitar. The vintage black finish, the Bigsby B7 vibrato, Seymour Duncan JB and 59 pickups, Gotoh tuners and bridge, all gold hardware, and awesome body/headstock binding give this guitar the look and feel of a collector’s model from the day you take it home.
Need a little more modern Eclipse? Jump into the new Eclipse-II FR! Yes, FR stands for Floyd Rose. This is your classic single cutaway guitar with a black finish, black nickel hardware, EMG pickups and, of course, loaded with a Floyd Rose locking trem. Read more
Ibanez RGT320Z Prestige Guitar
November 17, 2009 by Editor
Filed under Electric Guitar
Guitars bearing the Team J-Craft stamp are built by Ibanez master luthiers in Japan. While Ibanez doesn’t specifically offer “custom shop” products, these guitars are certainly the best of what they have to offer in an already excellent product line, and the new RGT320Z sits at the top of the RG series.
The beauty of the RGT320Z’s hot red flamed top with racing stripes floored us, and we loved its modern hardware appointments such as the new Edge Zero Bridge with ZPS3 spring system — the finest double-locking tremolo we’ve ever experienced.
The RGT320Z delivered a wide range of tones suited to a broad range of players. Equipped with medium-gain DiMarzio IBZ pickups, this guitar makes a great option for players who typically play less “exciting” looking instruments but who secretly yearn to rock out a little bit. It also features one of the best (if not the best) double-locking tremolo units we’ve ever used. Read more
Fender Concert Series: Vincent
The Fender Concert Series features concert memories from our Fender News readers. Read what Vincent had to say about his best-ever concert…
I can honestly say that the best and most memorable concert I’ve ever seen was Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble at the age of 17.
Stevie was really at the height of his career back then, and I was just a teenager soaking up all these great blues artists.
I first heard of Stevie when I was like 14 or 15, when I asked my guitar teacher to record a tape with his music because I always heard him talking about Stevie. Well, I can say that he blew me away and from then on, I had the idea of wanting to see him live. My guitar teacher said he probably wouldn’t be alive for long, because he had a serious health condition back then.
So I was hoping that wouldn’t be the case. And thank God it wasn’t. Read more
Epiphone Clinics With Will Jones In New York This Week!
Epiphone’s own Will Jones will be hosting clinics at several Sam Ash locations in New York this week. Be sure to stop by for the festivities. There will be FREE Epiphone goodies and Will will be giving away a brand new “Worn 1966 Wilshire” to one lucky attendee at each location!
Plus there will be super deals on Epiphone product including “buy an Epiphone guitar and get a FREE gigbag” and “spend over $500 on an Epiphone and get a free hard-shell case” specials… plus more!
Wednesday, Nov 18 – Sam Ash Music, New Haven CT 12pm-6pm
Thursday, Nov 19 – Sam Ash Music, White Plains 12pm-6pm
Friday, Nov 20 – Sam Ash Music NY, NY 12pm-6pm
Saturday, Nov 21 – Sam Ash Music, Carle Place, NY 12pm-6pm
Sunday, Nov 22 – Sam Ash Music, Huntington, NY 12pm-6pm
Visit the Epiphone Clinics micro-site for all the latest Epiphone Clinic information. www.epiphone.com/clinics.
Them Crooked Vultures Offering Full Album Stream
Them Crooked Vultures have posted YouTube streams of all the tracks from their forthcoming CD. The decision to stream the disc – which hits record stores on November 17 – was apparently made in response to an unauthorized leak of the album.
As has been previously reported, Them Crooked Vultures — which consists of Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme – will perform their first-ever West Coast shows beginning November 17 at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Other show-venues include the Fox Theater in Oakland (Nov. 19), the Paramount Theater in Seattle (Nov. 21) and the Roseland Theater in Portland (Nov. 22).
To listen to the album in its entirety, click here.
Epiphone Amplifiers Celebrate 75 Years of Great Tone
Epiphone proudly celebrates a remarkable event in our history, boasting 75 years of amplifier production. We are now the oldest amplifier company in the world currently in production, and to celebrate we’re giving you a look at our incredible history in the amplifier business. Every three weeks, we’ll give you another chapter. Here’s Part 1. Enjoy!
When Epiphone entered the electric guitar market in 1935, we also launched a new series of amplifiers under the Electar name and consequently set the benchmark for others to follow. Electar was a name invented by Herb Sunshine, an Epiphone employee who played an integral role in the development of various electronics for the company. Herb made contact with a young Nat Daniel in 1934 and employed him to design the first Electar models. The amplifiers were aimed at the New York dance bands and were produced in both AC and DC versions to accommodate lower Manhattan’s dual electric system at that time. Epiphone moved to its new location at 142 West 14th, New York, NY for the 1935 launch.
Introducing the Gibson Dusk Tiger
November 17, 2009 by Editor
Filed under Electric Guitar
You have a rare wealth of creative potential lurking deep within, but until now no guitar has had the power to fully tap into it. Enter the Dusk Tiger, simply the most astounding innovation in the history of the guitar. In the wake of Gibson’s groundbreaking Dark Fire, the new Dusk Tiger offers an unprecedented wealth of features to expand your sonic horizons exponentially, yet it brings them to you with greatly increased levels of performance and ease of use, and all at a more affordable price. And not only does Dusk Tiger offer an awe-inspiring versatility of tone and playability, it also captures a stunning new look that is arguably more refined than anything Gibson has ever produced. It retains the general Les Paul-inspired body lines, but presents them in a guitar with a flat top made from an exotic hardwood beaming with golden, amber, and dark chocolate hues. This top is coupled with a tone-chambered back, and a unique new pickguard and control layout. Under the hood, the Dusk Tiger reveals countless new features that give it even more power, along with considerable upgrades and improvements of existing electronics and control systems, and an unlimited number of sound possibilities. New to the Dusk Tiger are: Read more
Gibson Introduces All New Angus Young SGs From Gibson Custom and Gibson USA
November 17, 2009 by Editor
Filed under Electric Guitar
The Angus Young SG Standard from Gibson Custom
For more than 35 years, AC/DC has represented the archetypal “big rock” guitar sound, setting the standards for countless bands to follow. In particular, Angus Young’s incendiary lead tone and mammoth rhythm crunch have inspired wave after wave of rock guitar heroes, and he has done it all on a Gibson SG Standard. The SG replaced the underappreciated Les Paul Standard in 1961, and while the Les Paul would surface later in the decade as a rock and blues classic, the new SG (originally named Les Paul/SG) was an instant hit in its own right. Its simple yet inspired ingredients of thin, all-mahogany body and neck and two Gibson humbucking pickups gave it a snappy attack with a muscular punch, and its slim, fast neck yielded unprecedented playability. Now the Gibson Custom Shop offers its reproduction of one of the world’s most renowned SGs in the form of the Angus Young SG, a Limited Edition that captures the tone, look, and feel of this rare specimen among a classic breed, but which updates this legendary guitar with custom modifications requested by Angus himself. Read more
Gibson: The Home of Innovation
November 9, 2009 by Editor
Filed under Electric Guitar
Gibson Guitar has revolutionized the face of the music industry, whose quality, prestige and innovation have earned the loyalty and admiration of musicians the world over. Through extraordinary innovative efforts in recent years, Gibson introduced groundbreaking technology with its premier of the Gibson HD.6X-PRO Digital Guitar, the Gibson Robot Guitar, and the Gibson Dark Fire, creating some of the biggest advances in electric guitar technology and design in over 70 years.
When Gibson launched the HD.6X-PRO Digital Guitar in 2006, it coupled its long-standing legacy with a completely digital setup, allowing the isolation of individual strings and a direct connection to your computer. In the following year Gibson continued to explore new ways to bring novel features to its guitars. The Gibson Robot Guitar was the first ever integration of an analog guitar with a physical self-tuning system, becoming the electric guitar that sold faster than any other in history and revolutionized the industry. Read more