So Winter NAMM has come and gone. Here's my Top 5 from what I've seen so far.

Vox Valve Reactor AC series - Vox released these in Japan earier this year and I've been excited since I read the initial info on their Japanese corporate page.  These cobmine a (presumably) solid state preamp with their valve reactor circuit (as featured in their valvtronix amps).

Peavey Revalver MK 3.5 - I was extremely impressed with Revalver MKIII and this update brings a bunch of new models and bug fixes. Peavey also announced a partnership with MUSE research to provide a smaller version of there Reactor bundled with a lite version of Revalver.

Flux Density Modulation Speaker - Eminence is releasing an innovative way to attenuate signals by manipulating the efficiency of the speaker promising your cranked amp tone at any volume.

Bugera BC-30 - I was very impressed with their V22 and the BC-30 appears to take that concept to the next level looking very much like a Matchless DC-30 clone.

Visual Sound Garage Tone Overdrive - This new line of affordable effects from Visual sound features a revised version of the much loved Reverend Drive Train with a street price under $50 USD!

Stop by the forum to see the complete list of gear I thought drool worthy of a Frugal Guitarist!

I'm always impressed at people who can cobble a guitar together from random parts purchased online. But these creations take things to a different level by recycling old game consoles into (presumably) playable guitars!

1. SEGA Genesis Guitar
   
   
   


2. Nintendo Guitar
   
   
   


3. Family Computer (Japanese Nintendo) Guitar
   
   
   


4. Dreamcast Guitar
   
   


5. Atari 2600 (Fully Working w/ tiny LCD Screen) Built Into Guitar Hero Controller
   
   

I admit it, I love drooling over guitars. I bet you do to. Here's a few links to some excellent guitar porn for a rainy day...

MyRareGuitars.com - This is the home page of Michael Robinson, founder of Eastwood Guitars. Included is a great collection of vintage, off brand, and odd ball guitars indexed by decade. The site is semi commercial in nature (as you might expect) but the photos are high quality and I guarantee you'll see something here you've never seen before. 

theguitarcollection.org.uk - This site features the personal collection of Guy Mackenzie and includes 12 ultra rare Burns London Supersound guitars which were famously found in a basement in April of 2009 in near mint condition. 

Arkay's Collection - An active member of the Harmony Central forum, Arkay has a very nice collection of mostly affordable and midrange instruments displayed here including some fairly rare guitars. I should also add that the guitars have been photographed beautifully and each guitar has its own mini gallery displaying the guitar from multiple angles and a spec sheet. He also has a secondary gallery of formerly owned guitars.

William Laskin Gallery - Never heard of William Laskin? He's the one of the premier inlay artists in North America, perhaps the world. This is a showcase collection intended as advertisement of his custom made instruments but worth a look if only for the "How'd he do that?" factor.

Well we made it through not only another year, but into a new decade! He's to a prosperous New Year, cheers! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rZsw28F2uw

You've likely seen the stories regarding the illegally imported rosewood in the news lately and perhaps even heard the internet rumors of Peavey trying to purchase Gibson (which Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz denied back in October). Do a quick search regarding Gibson quality on any number of internet forums and you'll see a great many posts regarding questionable quality especially considering the top self price tag.  So what's going on at Gibson? 

In my opinion, Gibson is in serious trouble and likely won't make it though 2010 without some type of acquisition likely by a foreign group of investors. Why such a pessimistic prediction? Well, consider the following chain of events which have occurred in 2009:

1. March 20, 2009 - Gibson Lays of 50: Citing a 20 percent drop in worldwide sales, Gibson announces the layoffs of 50 employees.
2. March 23, 2009 - Gibson Increases Layoffs: Just days after announcing a 50 employee layoff, Gibson announces the layoff of an additional 70 employees.
3. July 17, 2009 - Gibson Sits Out Nashville NAMM Show: While attendance on a whole was down at the 2009 Summer NAMM show, being in Nashville home to Gibson guitars, you'd think they would have made the trip across town. Is this a sign that business is so bad that they couldn't afford to participate? Many of their competitors including Fender were there. The company has also announced it would not participate in the 2010 Winter NAMM show.
4. August 12, 2009 - Les Paul Dies:  One must wonder the impact of Les Paul's passing on the company. Their biggest money maker by far bears the guitarist's name and while Les Paul the guitar has taken on an identity of it's own, this was a significant lose for the company.
5. September 23, 2009 - Gibson Proudly Announces, Then Retracts Hendrix Model: In a case of ultimate hypocrisy, Gibson announced a Stratocaster inspired Jimi Hendrix signature model complete with photos on their site showing the first batch of guitars in different states of construction on their website. After nearly a week of pretty much universal condemnation of the product on the internet, Gibson removes all traces of the guitar from their website. This was the most egregious example of a string of new products which seem completely out of touch with consumer expectations.
6. October 1,  2009 - Juszkiewicz Denies Rumors of Peavey Purchase - In a prepared statement to UK trade magazine MI Pro, Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz denied the rumor of the company being acquired by Peavey. However, reading into the statement are some interesting clues regarding the state of the company.  In the statement, Juszkiewicz alludes to being affected by the economic downturn (back in March the company stated sales were down 20%) and the debt leveraged financial state of the company. Honestly, the very fact that this rumor was even addressed is curious and reads like a public relations move to make the company appear stronger than it actually is or a smokescreen to cover a failed deal. New rumors have surfaced on the internet of a new yet unnamed entity in acquisition talks with Gibson...
7. October 29, 2009 - Moody's Downgrades Gibson: Predicting weak 2009 performance, continued delays in issuing it's audited 2008 financials, and lack of access to revolving credit Moody's downgraded the Gibson corporation and warned of further downgrades.  What does this mean? Credit institutions consider a company's credit rating (as graded by Moody's and others) when a company applies for credit. A lower credit rating means less access to credit and high interest rates.  CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has admitted that the company is debt leveraged currently and the lower credit rating will result in less access to debt to grow...or keep the company afloat...
8. November 17, 2009 - Gibson Factory Raided: Federal agents raided the Gibson production facilities in Nashville seizing wood, guitars, files and computers as part of an investigation regarding the illegal importation of Rosewood from Madagascar. As a result, CEO Henry Juszkiewicz takes a leave of absence from the Rainforest Alliance. 
9. December 16, 2009 - Gibson Named Among the Worst Companies in America to Work For: In it's annual best and worst list of companies in America to work for published by Glassdoor.com, Gibson raked among the worst. Reading though some of the reviews of the company by it's employees, it's no surprise that the CEO Henry Juszkiewicz scores an abysmal 13% approval rating with the overall company rating an extremely poor 1.9 out of 5. When a company's employees are this unhappy, it's no wonder Gibson guitars have a growing reputation for inconsistent quality...

With Christmas right around the corner, there’s no question a local radio station (or three) are running round the clock Christmas songs. Yes, the same old tunes and arrangements you’ve probably heard a million times along with some newer very conservative takes on those classic. Enough already! I mean, the classics are great and all but I want something fresh, something new.  So I set out on a search for some fresher and more fun Christmas albums and I found three well worth checking out.

Brian Setzer Orchestra The Best of Collection – Christmas Rocks! – This 2008 release contains the best selections from the three previously released Christmas themed albums Setzer has released. The album features all the classic Christmas tracks arranged in Setzer’s lively style with great guitar work and excellent performances from the big band.  The first track, a rocked up version of Jingle Bells, alone is well worth the cost of the album. Other highlights include a great swinging version of the classic duet Baby, It’s Cold Outside with Ann Margaret, Winter Wonderland, and a big band arrangement of the Nutcracker Suite

Tori Amos Midwinter Graces – This is an absolutely great album of predominately original material inspired by various Christmas and seasonal classics. If you’ve never given her a listen before, this is actually a very good introduction to her unique vocal rhythmic piano style. There isn’t much guitar at all on the album, but the arrangements are dense featuring lush orchestrations and interesting melodic twists which might keep you listening far past the Christmas season. Highlights include Star of Wonder, A Silent Night With you, and the surprisingly good jazz ballad Pink And Glitter which really showcases Tori’s versatility as a songwriter and performer.

Happy Christmas: A Tooth and Nail Christmas – Tooth and Nail is a Christian Power Rock label featuring some of the top acts in that genre.  And let’s face it, who’s gonna celebrate Christ’s birth harder than Christian metal bands? Actually, this compilation covers a fairly wide variety of styles and is full of unique arrangements of classics and a few originals. Highlights include the techno house meets surf rock version of Christmas Time is Here by Starflyer 59, The Almost’s pop punk Yule Be Sorry, and Emery’s new wave meets rock on (Ho Ho Hey) A Way For Santa's Sleigh.  However the best song on the album and a must not miss track which has actually become a holiday favorite of mine is Mae’s jazz rock version of Carol Of The Bells which is cool beyond reproach.

John Mayer's latest, Battle Studies, has a release date of November 17th. However, Rhapsody subscribers were treated to a nice little treat when they debuted the album a week early. I gave it a listen and it's hard to imagine this is the same guy who wrote all those the top 40 pop hits in the early 2000's. This is a much more mature Mayer with the lyrical depth one only achieves by getting some years under their belt and getting their heart broken a few times. The album substitutes much of the bluesy groove and Hendrix inspired riffing of Continuum with a subtle, rootsy, Americana tinged shuffle polished with his smooth pop sensibilities.

On the whole, the album is perhaps more mellow than his most recent body of work placing his recently showcased guitar chops in the back seat in favor of densely arranged and produced tracks which somehow sound both smooth and raw at the same time, quite a feat. That being said, he still gives us some tasteful flashes of his lyrical soloing style such as the intro and outro solos of Perfectly Lonely and the bluesy overdriven wailing in Assassin, . Where the album really shines though is when Mayer really pushes outside his saftey zone such as the soulful yet Beatles-esque Friends, Lovers, or Nothing and the fuzzed out, retro soul tinged cover of the Robert Johnson's (popularized by Cream) classic Crossroads.

On Battle Studies, Mayer doesn't reinvent himself retaining enough of his signature sound to keep his long time fans happy yet calls upon some new influences to keep things sounding fresh. Mayer's voice sounds better than ever substituting the forced breathy timbre of his early career with a very controlled and velvety croon. I was hoping to hear a jazz ballad as the album progressed but he's gotta save something for next time...

I keep a watchful eye on my visitor stats to see which articles generate the most interest and where the majority of my visitors come from and today I was simply overwhelmed. I mean, I started this little labor of love in February of 2007 with fingers crossed giving myself two years to judge whether this project would be a success or failure. Here we are nearly two years later and the site has taken off averaging around 9,000 visitors a month with a fast growing subscriber list and a forum beginning to generate some of it's own momentum. I've seen articles from the site translated into Chinese, Italian, French, and a few languages which I don't even recognize. It brings me great joy that my little concept has provided such a useful service to so many.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for those of you who have loaned/provided gear for review or directly financially supported FrugalGuitarist.com via donation or advertising; Jeff, Alan, John, Brian, and Zack for their written contributions and to all of you out there for spreading the word about FrugalGuitarist.com and supporting our advertisers and affiliates. 

Finally and most importantly a big thanks to my wife, son and the rest of my family for the support and understanding they've provided over the years.

So here we are a day away from the release of much hyped Windows 7 and the early word is it is a vast improvement in stability over Vista rivaling the stability of Windows XP but with some major tweaks to enhance multi threading performance and memory usage. Will it offer the average DAW enough of an improvement to warrant an upgrade? The jury is still out. To the best of my knowledge Cakewalk is the only company with a marketing push claiming Windows 7 compatibility. But even if your DAW is compatible, that doesn’t guarantee all your lovely VST effects and instruments will be nor your audio interface. Personally, I’m very excited about the release and am looking forward to giving it a spin but will likely wait a bit to hear the reports of the early converters.

Here's a couple links detailing some of the enhancements in the Windows 7 operating system and how they will affect/improve the DAW user experience:

http://blog.cakewalk.com/how-windows-7-will-effect-your-music-production/

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/09/29/obsessive-windows-7-under-the-hood-guide-for-music-can-you-finally-dump-xp/#more-7680

So I scored a ticket to the Muse/U2 show in Dallas which was held at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington, TX on October 12th, 2009. I was a bit worried that the show would be a bust due to my previous experiences seeing show in football stadiums at which the sound for the most part has been horrible.

Muse took the stage around 8:15 PM, or I should say I think it was Muse as  our seats were so high that I assumed the ant sized humans running around on the huge stage were Muse. The acoustics of the arena were so bad where I was (section 400, in the middle of the upper most section) that I was unable to even determine what song was being played. Huge bummer and unacceptable to me as the (overpriced) ticket was ~$100, way more than I would otherwise pay for a show other than the fact that I’ve always wanted to see U2 in concert.

As U2 started, a friend and I worked our way down attempting to find a better location to watch the show and after being asked to leave several areas finally found a great spot on the lower level directly in front of the stage. From this vantage point, the sound was much better but still left much to be desired and the ant like performers had grown to the size of small cats.

Sound issues aside (though I guess that’s really what a live show should be completely about) the technical production of the show was fantastic. While advertised as a 360 degree stage, it was set up at one end of the arena and the stage was clearly oriented with a front and back likely leaving the poor souls who purchased tickets behind the stage cursing Bono and the boys. They did however have a large (but dwarfed by the gigantor scoreboard screen in the middle of the arena which was non functional for the show) 360 degree video screen which elevated, descended, and split into hundreds of small octagonal screens creating a beehive like effect. The video production was unlike anything I’ve ever seen with quick cutting to multiple angles and effects more akin to watching a music video than a live concert. Additionally, the video feed was slightly delayed to be in sync with the audio a nice touch for those like myself who get annoyed that light travels faster than sound (darn physics!).

U2 played for nearly 2 and a half hours hitting all the fan favorites occasionally inserting a tune from their latest album No Line on the Horizon. As expected, the end of the show took on a largely political slant intermingling the “quiet” revolution in Iran with Sunday Bloody Sunday, Walk On with imprisoned Burmese political lead Aung San Suu Kyi (complete with a crowd of people marching in single file wearing masks bearing Suu Kyi's image), and the African Aids epidemic with One (featuring a video introduction by none other than Desmond Tutu).

For all the pitfalls of a large stadium show, I must admit the power of approximately 140,000 people singing the refrain from I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For was quite a sound to behold…