Guitar Today

“I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I’d lose everything.”  Micheal Jeffrey is quoted as saying in a new book by one of Hendrix’s roadies James “Tappy” Wright.

Wright says that Jeffrey confessed the crime to him a year after Hendrix’s death, during a drunken session at the roadie’s house. Hendrix’s manager is reported to have filled him full of pills and booze with plans to kill him and collect his life insurance plan of $2 million dollars, naming Jeffrey as the sole beneficiary. Jeffrey himself died in a plane crash years ago.

It is well known that Jimi Hendrix’s manager, Micheal Jeffrey cheated Hendrix out of much of his earnings. When he heard that Hendrix was planning on dumping him he alledgy formed the plot to kill Jimi. The official cause of death was documented as barbituate intoxication and vomit in Hendrix’s lungs. If his manager truly did pour wine and pills into his windpipe it would rhyme up with the coroner’s reported findings.

Was a rock legend truly assasinated by his own manager for money?

The QuantumDrive is a versatile and unique overdrive and distortion unit that uses a patent pending process to dynamically shape the sound of the guitar by means of a quantum tunneling device. Quantum tunneling is a curious physics principle which allows matter to “pass through” other matter which would normally be impenetrable. Acoustic Imaginearing has developed a means of using this effect to modify a guitar signal in unique and previously unheard of ways.

The quantum distortion appears to add a vowel sound to the signal as well as emphasizing the consonant, fricative guitar distinctiveness. Affecting the edge of the waveform and not just the peaks, the result is a very expressive tone when played “in the zone.” Of course the pedal is also capable of wild and quirky, outside the norm distortions — each distinctive to the instrument processed by the Quantum Drive.

The effect is well suited for both guitar and bass, as bass frequencies are retained without becoming muddy. It has been used by Tony Levin on the latest King Crimson tour.

In addition to the distortion channel, the pedal has a solid overdrive channel, also uniquely designed, that can be used independently or chained together with the quantum channel

Ever tried to make your own guitar picks? I did a few experiments with melting things into picks with custom logos on them. Wanna’ know what I found out? Nothing I can make is as cool as this thing. The pick puncher costs just $24.95 and is now pre-ordering.

This is pretty great. Make your own picks from almost anything. Whatever can be punched can be a pick. You can make picks out of credit cards, plastic lids, everything you can imagine is now a free guitar pick. If you’re anything like me you might have one or two picks under your couch cushions if you’re lucky.

In a recent interview with Mojo magazine, Trent Reznor had some less-than-kind words to say about Marilyn Manson.

“He is a malicious guy and will step on anybody’s face to succeed and cross any line of decency,” Reznor says. “Seeing him now, drugs and alcohol now rule his life and he’s become a dopey clown.”

Reznor’s criticism could be out of respect and admiration for the shock rocker and also could be a form of tough-love. It seems like Reznor is publicly trying to advice is former partner in crime.

“He used to be the smartest guy in the room,” Reznor said. “And as a fan of his talents, I hope he gets his shit together.”

Trent has been calling out a lot of musicians publicly lately though, even publicly slamming hitmakers like Prince and Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo.

“I’m not Prince or Rivers Cuomo, who brags about having hundreds of great songs,” Reznor said. “And to that I would say, ‘Prince, if you have a hundred great songs or a thousand, how about picking a few and putting them on your record that you’ve put out, because your last several have sucked.’ Same for you, Rivers. I say that constructively, you know.”

It seems to me like Trent Reznor is feeling pretty much ‘ten feet tall and bulletproof’ these days. For someone I had never even heard of before I started listening to Marilyn Manson… Nine in Nails have been a very musically succesful band, but taking Prince and Weezer, who each have dozens of hit songs to their name… How many top 40s have Nine Inch Nails ever had?

Crocodile skin says “rock and roll” as much as leopard print says “skanky”.  Dean Zelinsky designed this realistic `croc skin`Bolero for DBZ guitars. Although  it may look real, the finish is made from a never-before-seen textured maple top, produced using proprietary DBZ technologies.

For more information, please visit www.dbzguitars.com

A recently launched guitarist community and marketplace called Guitaraholic was brought to my attention. It is a place where you can keep highly detailed profiles of all the guitars in your collections. Every minute detail of your baby is accounted for. The site also offers a marketplace for guitar buyers and sellers. So when you’re ready to trade in or trade up, you already have an expansive detailed listing of the guitar you want to sell. Membership to Guitaraholic is free!

Guitaraholic launched on a limited basis at the end of 2008 to select members of the
guitar collecting community.  The web site is now available to all guitarists.  Numerous upgrades are planned
through the remainder of 2009.