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Archives for February 2011

Gibson has a new axe called the Firebird X

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Gibson guitars have just released and new line of guitar called the Firebird X. They figure that they took the best technology from guitars of the past few years and incorporated all these new advancements into this brand new revolutionary guitar. It has some very interesting combination all wrapped up into one guitar.

The body shape is taken from the 1960’s Firebird III. The only difference in the Firebird X is that they created it with a chambered body instead of solid one. This new design has many advantages. It makes the guitar slightly lighter, helps add a warmer sound to it due to the resonating ability factor (think about an acoustic guitar, the bigger it is the louder it is). In a side note here, the chambered body makes it easier to hear when it is not plugged in, not exactly like an acoustic, but only slightly louder then your standard unplugged electric guitar. This type of guitar design is also intended to help it obtain greater in sustain.

The Firebird hosts a unique bridge that has piezo pick up built in. This technology is from Gibson’s Dark Fire line. Gibson engineers have the single run through a studio-quality effective amplifier inside the guitar. This results in a stronger and more pleasant acoustic sound. How this sounds and reacts inside an electric guitar is anyone’s guess.

I have a Piezo pick up in my Larrivee L-03 and it works great. How it works is that by attacking my stringer harder, the louder the pick ups the single resulting in a louder sound. How this translates into increased volume in an electric guitar will be interesting to hear.

There is so much going on with Gibson’s Firebird X that it would take way too many posts to do it justice. So just check out this link and see for yourself how many bells and whistles this thing has in it. If I owned this guitar I would have this constant thought running in the back of my mind of when will this thing have to be brought into the old guitar shop for some work when it starts breaking down.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_mFUIQFYyM

Anyone out there own one of this guitars?

Keep on Jammin’





The Auto Sound Engineer called ARC

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The one thing that I hate most about preparing a room before doing a concert is setting up the PA to provide optimum sound quality. Trying to not only find a sweet spot, the perfect location that has maximum sound quality (think of the seat that the sound technician running the PA/sound board is sitting) but extending a spot like that to many locations in the hall or room. It is almost impossible to do this if you, the performer, are doubling as the sound guy and in a huge rush to start a show. But what if you had lots of time on your hands?

The only answer that I have run into to date is something called ARC(Advanced Room Correction system). The company that makes it is called IK Multimedia. But will it work when you gigging at a show in a fairly big room, that is the question.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grU81hWU_wE&playnext=1&list=PLE5957135774D2090

ARC is made for artists with home studio’s, working in usually a spare room that more that is not exactly acoustically friendly.

I wonder if you could bring this type of setup into a venue that you would play in and obtain the same results? Sure it would involve a lot of preparation time before a show, no act has enough time to set up their equipment and do a quality sound check before the show let alone a test setup for extend the sound sweat spot!

First off you get the ARC to start measuring the dimensions of the room that you’ll be playing in. You take this high quality mic they call the Measuring Microphone that comes with it out of the box. You then have to plug it into your computer/notebook, turn on the software. The software will direct you to sections of the room to begin taking sample sounds/readings that come from your PA speakers. The software does some adjusting and out of your speakers come the perfect sound?

It sounds a little daunting at first thought, the set up that is, but if it works out ok then what the heck right? I don’t think that I would pick up something like this unless someone has a decent comment about it. So has anyone out there used the ARC system while performing live?

Keep on Jammin’

Organic Bass Design

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I find this six stringed Bass guitar has an altogether organic look to it. The craftsman who designed and created this working piece of functioning art, did a fabulous job on this one.

abstract and organic looking bass guitar

The sliding piece of wood or guard is a mystery to me. Is it designed to rest the palm of your hand when playing, protect the pickup on it or just a futurist design that the artisan brought to the piece?

Speaking of the pick ups, I wonder how many there are on it. I think 3 but it’s only an educated guess. Any idea’s here folks?

The tail piece closely resembles the ones that you see on violins and violas. It brings a classy appearance to it. The knobs on this craftsman looking bass looks like it has active electronics in it. I bet this instrument weighs a ton! Do you think that the scalloped looking handle are actual handles for the bass so you can carry it upside downs?

Keep on Jammin’

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