Accessory Fetish

The devil has long played a roll in popular music. Ever since blues singer Robert Johnson’s legendary meeting at the crossroads, the underlord has made his presence felt.

For years, you could hear it in the voices and certainly the words of many artists. Although there were certainly some deviant guitar tones before it, the invention of the humbucking pickup infused the electric guitar with the sounds from below.

Of course, the humbucker started as Gibson engineer Seth Lover’s quest to design a quieter guitar pickup. I’ll bet he no idea what he was actually creating!

Gibson has been kind enough to remind us that their guitars were first equipped with humbuckers in 1957, making this the 50th anniversary of the pickup. They have just posted a bit of history on their website.

To celebrate, Gibson is giving away a pair of ‘57 Classic and Burstbucker pickups. You can enter the contest here.

In honor of this momentous event, here’s a video clip of the man who harnessed the power (and evil) of the humbucker better than anyone else, Jimmy Page.

Ernie Ball has just launched an Online Store, offering all of their guitar strings, instrument care products, effects pedals, and other Ernie Ball accessories for sale direct to the public.

They state that they are “working with our valued dealer base,” which kind of sounds like products might ship from dealers. I’m not sure how else dealers might be involved, but this is just my hunch. They do say that product will only ship to US customers, although they are working on international shipping.

The store is laid out nicely and overall looks pretty good. The only downside is that much of the pricing appears to be higher than other online retailers. Manufacturer-direct sales is a hot button issue in the music industry, so it’s probably their strategy to offer these items for sale online, but at a price that won’t piss of Musician’s Friend and other online retailers.

Here are a few examples of Ernie Ball Online Store pricing vs. Musician’s Friend:

Super Slinky Nickel Wound .009-.042 (P02223)
Ernie Ball Online Store - $5.50
Musician’s Friend - $3.79

VP Jr 250K Volume Pedal
Ernie Ball Online Store - $100.00
Musician’s Friend - $99.99

2″ Poly Strap
Ernie Ball Online Store - $5.00
Musician’s Friend - $3.99

The other downside to buying direct is that there does not appear to be any free shipping deals, which you can often get with other webstores.

OK…so I’ve been slacking a bit with the gear links. My apologies. I promise to step it up! Here are your electronic guitar tuner links.

The musical instruments industry always seems to be a few years behind when it comes to trends, so it’s good to see that we’re catching up.

The past handful of years has seen an insane amount of cool electronics gadgets. It seems that there are two strategies that electronics makers use when designing new products. Either take an existing product and make it smaller, or pack in as many features as possible.

We’ve got manufactures doing both, and I love seeing it. It’s so cool to see that real strobe tuners can now fit into your guitar case (Planet Waves Tru-Strobe Tuner and Sonic Research’s Turbo Tuner) and a regular tuner can fit into your pocket (Seiko’s ST-01 and Fender’s speed-e keychain tuners). The String Master will even tune your guitar for you.

Now we just need a tuner that’ll pour a beer into your mouth in the middle of your solo!

Anyone out there have a case of “The Mondays”?

I know how it is. Get into the office around 8:10. Grab some coffee and a bear claw out of the vending machine. Chat with your co-workers about what happened over the weekend and how it was way too short. Surf the web for a while. Finally around 9:15 you’re ready to get to work.

Hold on…you don’t really have to start until 9:30, do you? Give me 15 more minutes!

This is the first installment of the Accessory Fetish eBay Obsessions. The plan is to post these every Monday morning. I’ll spend the weekend scouring eBay for the most interesting musical instrument accessory auctions so you have something to distract you during the week.

Here’s my list of the hottest auctions currently on eBay:

1967 ECHOPLEX TUBE TAPE ECHO/DELAY ALL ORIG. NO RESERVE
Ends: Tuesday Aug-28-07 10:28:30 PM PDT




Analog Man Sun Lion Fuzz Face Treble Booster Clone
Ends: Wednesday Aug-29-07 7:03:05 PM PDT




A Pair of Vintage 1959 Gibson PAF Humbucker Pickups
Ends: Thursday Aug-30-07 6:28:05 PM PDT




VINTAGE A ZILDJIAN 22″ SIZZLE RIDE CYMBAL OLD JAZZ NICE
Ends: Monday Aug-27-07 7:30:00 PM PDT




K ZILDJIAN ISTANBUL 22 INCH
Ends: Tuesday Aug-28-07 11:17:26 AM PDT



If these don’t catch your fancy, check out our custom eBay auction searches.

The blogosphere has been full of Jimi Hendrix chatter this week.

A few days ago, Strat-O-Blogster reminded us that this week marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Jimi Experience’s debut album Are You Experienced. Today, IG Blog has challenged us to get out this weekend and add to our Hendrix record collection.

This got me thinking about Jimi’s legacy. For an artist who was only in the public spotlight for a few years, the legacy he left us is astonishing. Of course, in situations such as these, there are countless people (or, more likely, corporations) who are more than willing to extend and exploit this legacy as far as it will go.

For instance, after doing a basic search, there are over 8,000 Jimi Hendrix-related products on amazon.com. This includes music and books, of course, but also items such as light switch plates and air fresheners.

I firmly believe that, although they surely love the effect on the bottom line, gear manufacturers who offer Hendrix-licensed products are honored and feel it is a privilege to preserve Jimi’s musical legacy. Although some of these products have been around for years, the past few years have seen an influx of Hendrix guitar gear. In no particular order, here’s a list of some of the coolest guitar accessory products that carry the Jimi Hendrix name:

DigiTech Jimi Hendrix Experience Pedal
Modeling pedal that includes seven classic Jimi Hendrix guitar tones

Dunlop JH-OC1 Jimi Hendrix Octavio Pedal
A clone of Hendrix’s classic Octavia “octave-up” pedal

Dunlop JH-1B Jimi Hendrix Signature Wah Pedal
Recreates classic late-’60s Hendrix wah tones

Levy’s Jimi Hendrix Design Guitar Strap
Polyester guitar straps with full-color heat transfers of Authentic Hendrix images

Levy’s Jimi Hendrix Electric Guitar Gig Bag
Levy’s electric guitar gig bag featuring Authentic Hendrix authorized images

IK Multimedia AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix Software Plug-In
Imagine what Jimi would have created with today’s recording tools…enough said!

Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced Pick Tin
A dozen celluloid Dunlop guitar picks adorned with Hendrix album artwork

Dean Markley Jimi Hendrix Guitar Strings
Pure nickel and nickel plated steel electric guitar strings

With all of the talk this week about the millions of Chinese-made toys that were recalled, in addition to all of the other Made in China issues we’ve faced this year, it got me thinking about our industry.

Other than toy instruments, I don’t think any musical gear has been affected by these recalls. We’re lucky, since more and more instruments are being imported from China.

The running theme of Chinese recalls has been product that people or animals put into their mouths. Pet food. Toothpaste. Children’s toys. I think most people in the US take for granted that we’re safe and we trust that our government is looking out for our safety (although I slightly cringed at my own naivety as I typed that last line!). The truth is that, as more and more products are being imported from China, our government is allotting less and less funds for the inspection of these products. This is scary.

Now, let me preface this next section by saying that I have no knowledge of issues with musical instruments and I am not accusing anyone of anything. I’m just going to be a typical blogger and speak about an issue I don’t know that much about!

There are plenty of items that do come from China that we do put in our mouths. Of course, there are the obvious things like harmonicas and horn mouthpieces. I’m sure that the companies who are marketing these products have speced out the materials that can be used and, unless a factory switches without informing them, we should be safe.

But what about something like guitar picks? How many times have you put a guitar pick in your mouth? What’s scary is that, since it’s not a product designed to go in your mouth, the factories are probably not thinking about this when deciding which materials to use in the production process.

I’ve never heard of celluloid poisoning, but what about the other materials used in this process? Do you think anyone ever tests the ink that’s used to print the logo on a pick? What about the sand that picks are tumbled in to make the edges smooth? Surely there is some residue left on the product. Is it safe for human consumption?

As more and more products are made outside of our country, we have to assume that the people producing them do not have our health as a main priority.

So, think twice before you toss that pick in your mouth during a fingerpicking section! Food for thought.

Today just happened to be one of those days where I had nothing to write about. To find a little inspiration, I decided to kill a little time at Cymbalholic. If you haven’t checked out this forum, it’s a great place to fill your cymbal obsession.

I’m typically not a huge banner ad-clicker, but one caught my eye. It was for a sound effects cymbal company called Hammerax. Of course, by stating this I’m risking that everyone else in the world knows about these guys and that I, as a supposed authority, is behind the curve. That’s cool.

If you haven’t checked these out, they’re kind of a cross between a cymbal and a gong. Although there are many variations, for the most part they tend to sound like a china cymbal with more sustain. What really caught my eye, though, was the look. I want one of these to hang up on the wall in my living room! These are absolutely works of art.

Instead of taking too much time explaining what these cymbals sound like, I’ve included some sound samples below. If you want more (plus a ton of videos), check out Hammerax’s product page.

Also, since every gear company needs a sweet artist to push their products, check out this video of jazz legend Danny Gottlieb using Hammerax gear. I actually don’t think this video does the product justice, as the sound quality isn’t exactly hi-fi. The drums and other cymbals sound pretty bad, but you still get the idea of what these are all about. Another nice touch is the dude that comes into the frame right at the end to adjust one of the cymbal stands!

Adding to the already wide selection of cymbals in their “A” line, Zildjian recently introduced the Armand Zildjian Cymbal Series. This series of cymbals is named after the company’s former leader, the late Armand Zildjian.

Armand’s father, Avedis Zildjian, was credited with connecting with the great jazz drummers of the early 20th century to help develop the sound of modern cymbals. The Armand Series recognizes Armand’s strong relationship with the rock drummers of the ’60s and ’70s, who obviously had different needs.

The Zildjian website has recently added a very cool video explaining the sound and vibe of these new cymbals. Check it out here.

If you already know you need to have some of these babies, you can go ahead and buy them from Musician’s Friend.

Over the past few years, Planet Waves has brought some pretty cool tuners to market.

I’m a huge fan of gadgets, so products like their Multi-Function Tuner and Pro-Winder Tuner especially do it for me.

One thing that has been bugging me about tuner manufacturers in general has been their use of simulated-strobe tuning. We all know that a true strobe tuner is the most accurate way to tune an instrument, so many companies have grabbed on to this catch phrase to describe tuners that do not actually use this method to tune.

Planet Waves has been no exception, but with their new Table Top Tru-Strobe Tuner, they claim to have packed all of the accuracy of a true strobe tuner into a compact, portable package. They claim this tuner’s accuracy is +/- .1 cent, up to 15 times more accurate than traditional electronic tuners.

Another nice feature in a sea of lightweight plastic tuners is Planet Waves’ choice of a heavy-duty, die-cast enclosure. For a retail price of $179.00 it better be tough!

At this price point, Planet Waves is up into Peterson territory, the undisputed strobe king. I’d love to have these tuners side-by-side for a shoot-out (either company can email me for my mailing address!).

Planet Waves has also added a pretty cool online tuner demo to their website. Unfortunately, the Tru-Strobe Tuner demo has not been included yet.

InstrumentPro is running a 10% off sale on all Korg products through the end of August.

Although this is a blog about musical instrument accessories, it would be irresponsible of me if I didn’t mention that InstrumentPro carries a full selection of Korg digital recorders, digital pianos, Triton Series keyboards, and DJ gear. On the accessories side of it, they carry Korg Toneworks effects, tuners, metronomes, and other products.

To get the 10% discount, you’ll need to use a coupon code. When checking out, enter KORG as your code and the savings will come off of your order automatically.

Follow this link to find all Korg products at InstrumentPro.