Thursday 19 March 2015

Phil Degruy



this guy is the true hero of new guitar design. and haircuts in interesting keys. this is the greatest interview you will ever hear - about Chet. about Lenny. about Phil

Phil is amazing.

Wednesday 18 March 2015

the love affair continues

ahhh.... carbon fiber

can I love you any more?

I can when I see such beauty in design

Emerald Guitars

let's start with a design feature we all know and love

fanned frets


the X20 9 string

look where the sound hole is!



nothing short of breathtaking!

now here is something to write home about


a pin less bridge! brilliant!


look at curve of the upper bout! inspired!


carbon fiber and wood together. one of many examples


a carbon fiber harp guitar

feeling like you want to go that extra mile and try out some Phil DeGruy inspired madness?


just add some treble harp strings


can't go past this one without looking at it from another angle

this is a small sample of the amazing range of instruments from this designer.

make some time to go have a look at Emerald Guitars.

you will definitely not regret it.

click here

Friday 13 March 2015

bass is the place

am I showing my bias or am I neglecting my admiration?

well let's rectify the bias and shift it toward admiration with this

Feanor Bass by GNG

 

 alder body, flamed maple top, birdseye maple fretboard, flamed maple neck with carbon fiber bar reinforcements. Fanned fretting 37/33". Gotoh knobs and strap pins. Abalone dots, slim profile neck, 20" radius. 


 

24 stainless steel frets.

 



 

T4M bridges and locking nut

 

 

Bartolini pickups and electronics (passive/active)

 

 

bolt on (6 screws)

 

I love the look from this angle  

Giulio has done the magic again!

If you go to the GNG website, be prepared to go on adventure. of new guitar design and superb quality.

 click here 

Artiphon

now I've tried a few controllers over the years

Casio DG 20 (as strange as it may seem, not too bad)

Stepp DG1 (that was pretty good, but the plucking strings kept breaking)

of course the holy grail was the Synthaxe (few made and you could buy a decent car for the money)

just to name a few

now this one intrigues me

Artiphon Instrument 1



here's the introduction video


probably the most interesting thing is that you have the ability to play more than one note per string. or pad or raised lump string controller thing.

seems velocity and pressure sensitive, too

plus as far as I can see you can play it in so many different ways

two handed tapping

piano like two handed tapping with the unit flat on your lap

configure it so zones become drum pads

violin plucking

you can even bow it with your phone!

hey! get those drummers and violinists out of here! this is new guitar design!

I have two questions that have plagued me since a certain controller came out (that turned out to be awful).

how does it perform doing hammer-ons, pull offs and trills?

can you adjust sensitivity to your own personal playing style?

If it performs these tasks with ease - I am there!

this instrument has generated a lot of interest over the last few weeks. 

go to Artiphon and check out further information regarding their Kickstarter campaign.

click here

technology has moved on a great deal since the controllers I mentioned earlier were made. I think the Instrument 1 could be....the one.

Wednesday 11 March 2015

celebratory stats

so we started on the 22nd of November

4406 page views (so far)

111 days -  an average of 39 views per day

101 posts -  an average of 43 views per post

here's the break up by country (so far)

United States
1658
Australia
1173
Italy
305
United Kingdom
167
Germany
133
Canada
112
France
112
Philippines
107
Netherlands
64
Japan
61 
  
I would like to thank you all for the support and kind words you have given so far. a lot of the designs I have written about I either had no idea existed or hadn't actually come into existence!

after having chats with many designers on line, I can honestly say, I can see the future from here....

most of the time I have been completely blown away by the designs I have gleaned.

fantastic.

Saturday 7 March 2015

linear tremolo

I have always had a dream. I thought the day would come when this would happen.


12 string with tremolo

but no ordinary tremolo

Don Ramsay - linear tremolo

let's see one in action


that looks like a synth pickup to boot!

the beauty of this design is that the base plate of the tremolo moves in a direction parallel with the body - no pivoting here!

click on this link to see the mechanism in action

click here

can be installed on True Temperament guitars

there are plans to implement piezo systems in the design

the design can be incorporated in fanned fret systems

I love the dual tremolo arms


this design is fantastic

go have a look around at the linear tremolo site - plenty of fun!

click here

now without going into details, Don Ramsay is going through a bit of a rough patch. this design and this designer needs to be preserved - and championed.

I would ask that the readers of new guitar design go to the linear tremolo site and send Don an email, with the following message in the heading - and nothing else.

"take care and get well soon Don, we are here for you,mate.EOM"

what a brilliant piece of design

Friday 6 March 2015

100 posts young

It's been a while, busy dealing with the minutia of life. I was waiting for people to get back to me - and for something special for the 100th post

BINGO!

Cycfi Research Neo Aura


single coil - a phrase that is not entirely accurate because the side wound coils are based around the principles of the humbucking pickup

bottom view

Neo Aura Quad

bottom view

frequency response from 20hz to 20 khz.
ultra quiet. 
active or passive.
both available in 6,7 or 8 string versions. you want more than that? Joel at Cycfi can handle any kind of configuration possible. just submit your query to their wildest imagination department for some custom work.
 
but this is the best part. the options for wiring and configuration.


resonant filter. 

one knob to control the frequency and another to control the Q. maybe a control voltage could be added to do acid house filter sweeps on a guitar. (actually, forget that. that sound has been so done to death).

 5 way switch with preamp

Intended for use with Neo Aura passive pickups, the integrated preamp gives you the necessary gain and buffering to drive guitar amplifiers as well as line-level inputs.


blend control
now this I like A LOT!  like the sound of the neck neck/middle middle pickups? why not blend in the sound of the bridge pickup? takes that tele sound I loved (when I owned one) and sends it into hyperspace.

add a volume and tone control and we are almost there

everything is of the highest quality and SOLDERLESS!!


there is so much more to talk about here. go to Cycfi and check out the full story

click here