Guitar FX Box

I haven't blogged in a while . Call it Writer's Block or just plain boredom the fact is that I just couldn't get myself to write a word on either of my blogs during the past week . But guess what ? Things have just changed , and hopefully for the better .

Just the other day I came across an amazing piece of software -- Guitar FX Box and guess what it does ... Once you have installed this software on your computer , plugin your electric guitar into your PC --- yeah I am not joking -- plug in your guitar into the PC line-in port and press the start button on the program ... Lo and Behold ... You have a state-of-the-art guitar effects processor with hundreds of presets ( guitar fx box presets) all at the touch of a button . It doesn't get better than this .

In fact the software is so good that there is no delay whatsoever in the picking and the sound ...

Well do check out the link ... and in case you want the crack u can put in ur mail-id in the shoutbox and i will send it to you ...

so long folks ... and happy guitaring

Technique is the key ...

Hello everybody ,

I am back once again with my store-house ( not quite ) of guitar knowledge . Well , those who know me must have been wondering what caused this lay-off of sorts . After all , I have been posting quite regularly since I have registered on blogger . Well my friends the delay was regarding the subject matter of my subsequent posts , and the feedback on the present ones ... I was clueless as to how this last post was received because it involved the most background work out of all my posts so far ... but the comments column was surprisingly empty ... I hope you understand the problem I am having ... as long as I don't get the necessary feedback from you people I would not have any way of knowing your response to the posts ... whether the posts are a smashing success or whether I am boring you out of your minds ... the shoutbox ... or the comments are the only way I would get to know ...

Well , coming back to the topic ... I thought that two posts - and pretty lengthy ones at that -should be sufficient to give you most , if not all, the background knowledge that is necessary regarding the guitar ... for starters at least. So without much ado let us move into some serious stuff .

Guitar lessons you would find aplenty on the net . All you have to do is to open google and search for them. Your pages will be flooded with all sorts of results going into tens of thousands . The guitar is an extremely popular instrument you know ;-)

Over here therefore I am not going to give you guitar lessons or even attempt to do so . The whole business of guitaring is altogether too vast . I guess the problem with most people trying to pick up the guitar is that there are very few people to show you the right way of doing things ... I went through a very similar period when any and every song that you hear sounds oh-so-awesome and yet you are clueless as to how to go about learning to play it . Therefore my ultimate aim is to share as much knowledge as I possibly can and hope that it helps .

The first thing that you need to do as a budding guitarist is to try and learn the basics as much as possible ... before venturing into playing songs ...

Jimmy Hendrix -the legend

I know that it is extremely difficult to do so . As soon as you have a guitar in your hands you feel like Jimmy Hendrix or Joe Satriani , producing that unbelievable burst of speed that scrambles your guts with its raw power . However , let me tell you its not an overnight thing . You have to spend hours and hours of practice to reach the level of perfection attained by the leading lights of the guitaring world . Hence , my advice to you would be to have patience , and faith in your abilities . The videos of the masters doing their stuff will always be something to learn from . But initially , it would be best if you could concentrate on getting your basics right - something they call "technique" - and the rest would fall into place ...

I sure hope that I am not boring you ... but what the hell ... how would I know unless you send me your comments ;-)

till next time ... its goodbye

All about sleekness ...

Now that you guys have an idea about acoustic guitars lets go on to the lean mean world of the electric guitar ...

Well, all the stuff that I mentioned in my previous post , while extremely necessary , is definitely not the where the guitar spectrum ends ... In fact , the variety of electric guitars is such that it would give the Manhattan skyline an inferiority complex . Needless to say ,I would need a whole bunch of posts trying to describe them to you . Thankfully I won't even try that approach . Well , if you want to have a look at the sheer range of designs and models that electric guitars come in , all you have to do is open your favourite search engine and type in the magic words ... but here I will try and give you a ringside view of the whole business of guitaring ... So keep reading ...

The first thing that strikes you when you look at an electric guitar being played by someone on stage , is the sleekness and the sheer aura that seems to emanate from the guitar . Lets, take an example :


Metallica live in concert

Well , need I say more . The pic speaks for itself .

The very first electric guitars were designed by Les Paul modified from acoustic guitar built by Orville Gibson . The Gibson Les Paul guitars , as they became known , looked something like this :

a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar

Well , the next generation saw the advent of Fender guitars - the telecaster and the stratochaster which are still , albeit with some modifications down the line , one of the most popular guitars the world over .


Fender Stratochaster ( "Strat")

This particular type of guitar was used by guitaring greats like Jimmy Hendrix , Yngwie Malmsteen and Eric Johnson, to name a few .

The current breed of guitaring legends , however, revel in a different name : Ibanez ... The very name that sends the shivers down the spine of any wannabe guitarist because this is the guitar used by Steve Vai , Joe Satriani and John Petrucci , each of whom have a signature line of guitars , i.e. a particular model with the particular design and specifications preferred by these artists . Check out the whole range of Ibanez signature line guitars at music-n-sound.com ... here are a few examples :
Ibanez Jem - Steve Vai signature series
Ibanez JS 1000 - Joe Satriani Signature series

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it...

Till then its good bye ....

Let's get started ...

Hi there ...

It took me a real long time to figure what to write about that could interest all of you because after all the people who look at my blog are the ones i am writing this for . Although starting a blog on a particular topic is definitely going to narrow down your audience , it can definitely be made interesting by not making too making too many technical comments ...

By the way , before I go on I want to make one thing clear ... I am never going to claim to be the sole authority on guitaring .... I mean if there are ever any incorrect comments made by me then please do not hesitate to comment on it and I will graciously accept my mistake ...

lets start off with some beginner's stuff .....

invariably one who is interested in the art of guitaring has to start somewhere and not necessarily with the best gear ... because after all most of us come from backgrounds where spending thousands on a musical instrument will be considered to be extravagance and not only a luxury .... So , in that vein , lets assume that one is starting with an acoustic guitar at hand .

There are several types of guitars one will find ... I mean that even the name acoustic guitar is considered to be very vague .... on the basis of strings to be used on guitar there are two main types : nylon and steel .

Nylon string guitars are usually smaller and is used by classical guitarists , I mean the original spanish guitar is one with nylon strings and is played with fingers . The following is an example :

a Yamaha acoustic guitar

As for steel-string guitars ... they are the ones that are more of popular use . Even steel stringed guitars can have different models : the Jumbo and the F-cut guitars. The jumbo guitar has a larger sound-box compared to the F-cut which is characterised by the f-shaped cuts on the sound box .

For starting off on the guitaring you would also need proper plectrums - the small triangular objects you use to play guitars . For beginners a thinner variety would normally be more preferable ... or maybe medium . There are several brands available but the best ones are made by D'Addario and Jim Dunlop.For more info on the picks to use check out GuitarPicksUK.com.

Till next time ... ciao

I'm a newbie ...

Hello guys ... this is pretty much uncharted territory for me ... but here goes ...

I love listening to all kinds of guitaring although my all-time favourite is Steve Vai . To many of you it might be a new name but take it from me , he is one of the most awesome guitarists around . He has a signature guitar line , the Ibanez Jem , and is an artist par excellence on the whammy . His versatility is amply demonstrated in his latest album , The Ultra Zone and you can guess why this blog is named the way it is ...

The album features trackes that Vai has composed on his landmark world tour that took him to all corners of the globe ... the tracks feature a myriad of cultures and has Vai's trademark irresistible style ... dont miss it ...

well as for the blog ... i will be posting stuff related to guitaring teechnique and other stuff as well from the beginner's point-of-view... so keep watching this space for updates ...

I will also be putting up some links ... of sites that cater to the beginner's and intermediate ...

enjoy ...