Martin Taylor guitars

Martin Taylor is the best british jazz guitarist, he's also respected world wide by other jazz guitarists such as Pat Metheny. Martin Taylor has won countless awards for his skills and musical talent, winning "Best Guitarist" 7 times from The British Jazz Award.

Martin Taylor's style is a mix of traditional jazz licks, with excellent use of arpeggios mixing through his chord progressions. He's also described as a acoustic jazz guitarist due to his tone and style. I first discovered Martin Taylor when I saw an article in a guitar magazine, the magazine tabbed out his version of "Georgia on My Mind", after listening and learning this song he became one of my idols.

His guitar tone can range from acoustic to traditional low tone smoothness. He does this with one guitar, made by Mike Vanden a small guitar maker based in scotland. His guitar his unique nobody really uses these guitars but Martin Taylor. He gets his acoustic tones through the piezo pickup on the bridge, and other tones when mixing with the sole neck pickup.

In the video you'll see Martin Taylor takling about his beloved guitar and the tones he gets from them. Enjoy
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Paul Gilbert signature guitar Ibanez PGM100RE

Back to Paul Gilbert gear....

Paul Gilbert's signature guitar the PGM100 has been out around 20 years now. Paul Gilbert started playing this guitar when he was in Mr BIG, the band where Paul Gilbert made a name for himself, becoming a shredding icon. The colour of the guitar is unique aswell, the jewel blue and pink paint on F-holes.

The PGM100 guitar is based on the Ibanez RG series guitar, with Paul Gilberts own finishing touches, such as the artwork ie the paint on f-holes. The guitar is also fitted with Paul Gilberts favourite Dimarzio pickups, the Dimarzio PAF Pro at the neck and bridge and FS-1 single coil in the middle. The Ibanez PGM100 has also been reissued on it's 20th anniversary, the ultimate Paul Gilbert guitar.

Phil X

While searching through youtube for guitar gear videos, and guitar reviews I found this guy reviewing vintage gear in a guitar shop. He done reviews on tons of cool vintage guitars. This guy turned out to be Phil X.

Who's Phil X
Phil X, also known as Phil Xenidis, is the guitarist in a band called Powder and The Drills. Phil X has also played guitar on tracks for many artists including Tommy Lee to Avril Lavigne.

Phil X done a series of reviews for frettedamericana.com on youtube. This guy knows how to play and shows us what fun it is to test out vintage guitars. Some of the reviews are just him rocking out playing classic tunes which suit the instrument e.g playing Led Zeppelin on vintage Gibson Les Pauls, even though it seems like he's mindlessly just having fun with the guitar, you actually get a nice sense of tone of the instrument. Occassionally Phil gives some info on the instrument such as history, pickup type ect. I just found his reviews entertaining and thought I'd share it with everyone.

Heres a link to the youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/frettedamericana

hope you enjoy

Gretsch White Falcon Double Cutaway

Anyone remember the scene the the anime beck about the Gretsch White Falcon Double Cutaway. This scene reminded me of when I was a beginner dreaming over guitars in guitar magazines, and going to the guitar shop to have a look at the real thing.

Beck Anime - Gretsch White Falcon Clips
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Gretsch White Falcon Double Cutaway Review

MODEL NAME
G6136DC, White FalconTM Double Cutaway

MODEL NUMBER
240-1430-(805)

SERIES
Professional Collection

COLORS
(805) White,

CATEGORY
Hollow Body Guitars

BODY STYLE
Double Cutaway

SCALE LENGTH
25.5" (648mm)

TOP
Arched Laminated Maple

BRACING
Parallel Tone Bars

BACK AND SIDES
Laminated Maple Body, 17" Wide, 2" Deep

NECK
2-Piece Maple

PICKUPS
2 High Sensitive Filter'TronTM Pickups

PICKUP SWITCHING
3-Position Toggle:Position 1. Bridge Pickup Position 2. Bridge and Neck Pickups Position 3. Neck Pickup

CONTROLS
Volume 1. (Neck Pickup), Volume 2. (Bridge Pickup), Master Volume, Standby Switch,3-Position Toggle Master Tone Switch:Position 1. Medium Level, High Frequency Roll Off Position 2. Switch Out of the Circuit, Pickup is Wide Open (That Great Gretsch Sound!)Position 3. Slight Level, High Frequency Roll Off

WIDTH AT NUT
1-11/16" (43mm)

FRETBOARD
Ebony, 12" Radius (305mm)

BRIDGE
Ebony-Based Space ControlTM Roller-Bridge

TAILPIECE
Bigsby?B6G Vibrato Tailpiece

HARDWARE
Gold-Plated

FINISH
Gloss Urethane

CASE
Includes G6242L Deluxe Hardshell Case, US MSRP $220.00

NO. OF FRETS
22

MACHINE HEADS
Grover?ImperialTM Gold-Plated Die-cast Tuners

UNIQUE FEATURES
V-Shaped Falcon Headstock with Horizontal Gretsch Logo,Neo Classic "Thumbnail" Inlay Position Markers,Gold-Sparkle Fingerboard and Headstock Bindings,Oversized Bound F-Holes,Multiple Gold-Sparkle Body Bindings,Gold-Sparkle Inlaid Gretsch Logo on Headstock,Gold Plexi Dove-Style Pickguard with Falcon Detail,Knurled Strap Retainer Knobs,Adjustable Truss Rod

Gretsch White Falcon - Billy Duffy Gear interview

The Gretch White Falcon.... it's got to be one of the most beautiful guitar every made. If god plays guitar, he would use a Gretsch White Falcon. The Gretsch White Falcon with its white finish and gold hardware, and the shape of the guitar, THE SHAPE, this guitar is perfection, something from heaven.

However, not many guitarist play a White Falcon. Billy Duffy from The Cult does, and he's one of the rare guitarists that have made it his trademark guitar, and he's managed to make it suit his image and playing style. Billy Duffy has been playing the Gretsch White Falcon for decades and has a wide collection from vintage 1970's models, to the most current new productions. If he doesn't know about the White Falcon then who does. The White Falcon from the 70's although looked great, had no output and not suitable for gigs. Billy Duffy used to swap the pickups with custom made Seymour Duncans. Billy Duffy bought his first double cutaway White Falcon in 1982 using all his life savings to buy it, commiting his life to Rock N' Roll and music.

Heres a video interview with Billy Duffy talking about his love for the Gretsch White Falcon throughout his career.

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Paul Gilbert - Effects board - TIP 3rd Hand

While searching for some more Paul Gilbert gear videos I came across this interesting pedal. I think I seen or heard of it before but didn't take much notice of it, but when Paul Gilbert uses it, he makes it seem cool. Its the TIP 3rd Hand pedal.

This video shows a video of Paul Gilbert using a T.I.P (Tone In Progress) 3rd Hand Pedal. Paul Gilbert demonstrates how he uses it on his flanger to get some cool sounds.

The TIP 3rd Hand pedal
The pedal acts like the name implies, it acts like a third hand. It can be used on any effect, from distortion, flanger, delay etc. The TIP 3rd hand pedal is like an expression pedal, it gets linked to a knob and you can control the knob with the pedal. No, more bending down to change the knobs, and it also mean you can change it real time while your playing.


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Paul Gilbert gear - Guitar Lead/Cable

If you've every wondered what guitar lead Paul Gilbert uses, well, heres the answer - Bullet Cable.

Bullet cable makes coilly guitar leads, they look cool, and you won't accidentally pull your guitar cable out of the socket by stepping on it because it stretches. Bullet cable has built its reputation on looking cool, being practical, and sounding great, using high quality wires and insulation.

So for all you gear heads that like to replicate your guitar heroes gear, you can take an affordable first step with Paul Gilbert, by using Bullet Cable.

You can get Bullet cables at Guitar Centre, coiled Bullet cables start from $39.95
Free Shipping on thousands of products at Guitar Center.com



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Paul Gilbert Demo of Ibanez RG550 Re-issue guitar

Paul Gilbert on the RG550 re-issue. Paul GIlbert talking about how much he loves the Ibanez RG series of guitars. The guitar comes in a variety of colours fluorescent yellow, flare red and black. The colourfulness of the gitar allowed Paul Gilbert to be seen from the back rows of the stadium. The lock-in tremolo system on the Ibanez RG gives a solid base to keep your guitar in tune no matter how much you abuse it. The Ibanez RG is made out of bass wood which is good for the reasonably large RG to make it light weight. The neck join on the RG is also slightly angled and carved in to allow you to get to the higher frets especially cause theres a 24th fret. The pickups are amazing aswell the 5 way switch selector allows you to go from crunchy treble tones, chunky bass tone, to glassy hendrix tone.


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More Paul Gilbert to come, I found loads of clips of Paul Gilbert talking about gear, I post them all as soon as I can.

Paul Gilbert guitar gear - Dimarzio Pickups 1992

In 1992 Paul Gilbert made a guitar gear video with Dimarzio pickups giving demos of how they sound and why he loves them.

We get a look at Paul Gilbert's home and personal collection of guitars. Paul Gilbert is playing a Ibanez RG series guitar, customised decoration with stickers. The guitar is fitted with Dimarzio PAF Pro humbucker pickups and the neck and the bridge. The pickups tone is clear and chunky with a punch, ideal for soloing and rhythm play. Paul Gilbert describes different pickups and pickup positions as effecting the sound much like a Wah Wah pedal where the tone can be high or low, thick or thin, and stopping it in a certain position.

The guitar also has a single coil in the middle for cleaner tones, when he combines the middle and bridge pickup the guitar sounds amazing giving a twangy hendrix tone, everyone loves this tone that Jimi Hendrix made famous, and is easily achieved with this setup of Dimarzios.

Paul Gilberts favourite pickup however is the Dimarzio ToneZone, he decribes it as giving that bit more Eq and being less fuzzy.

Graham Coxon Guitar Gear

Graham Coxon from blur one of the most underrated guitarist in my opinion. He gave blur their trademark sounds with funky rhythm and licks, and mastered the electronic robot sounds check out "On Your Own" by blur and you'll know what I'm talking about. And who can forget those riffs from Song 2 and Beetlebum.

As for Graham Coxon's guitar gear his main axe is a 1968 Fender Telecaster, thats been through the wars. He also uses a Rickenbacker a Gibson SG. Weirdly in the video below he refers to his SG as a Les Paul. I've call a Les Paul and SG before(Solidbody Guitar) but not the other way around.

Edit 7/7/09
History of the SG by Gibson - I received an email from a fan of the site with correct info about the SG/Les Paul. The early SG's were called Les Paul's, and had the Les Paul logo on the headstock, Gibson later removed and renamed it to SG after the Les Paul himself and the fans of the original Les Paul wanted the original Les Paul back. The Les Paul was un-discontinued and became the Les Paul again, and the new shape "Les Paul" became the Gibson SG. I also found an article about this on ezinarticles.com check it out here.



Heres an excerpt from Fender.com on Graham Coxon talking about his love for the Fender Telecaster:

"FN : How did you discover the Telecaster?

GC : I think it was when I started recording with Stephen Street and really all I had was this Les Paul® Custom. I’m still playing that, but it really wasn’t appropriate for some of the sounds I wanted. In the early days, the sounds of the guitars on Abbey Road were something that I really enjoyed—the fat, bluesy nature of it.Either way, Stephen lent me his Tele. He’s got a lovely old Telecaster, and that was it. As soon as I played that, I couldn’t believe it. It was something about the neck and the slimness of the neck. And what a tough little thing it was, and what a ring-y sound it had—it had the sort of ring I liked with the Jam and the Who. But it also had a really good punch. It was so comfortable; I really couldn’t quite believe it (laughs ). Now I’m just a Telecaster maniac, I suppose …"