Paul Hackett

We’ve already written about that consummate gentleman and guitar great David Gilmour on this blog. (See David Gilmour Signature Guitar Strings). Now there is something else for Gilmour fans and guitar players to get excited about. On September 22, Fender is releasing a David Gilmour Signature ‘Black Strat’. From David Gilmour’s website: In the two [...]

Unfortunately, due to David’s busy schedule and travel plans, we’re not able to bring you a new podcast this week. In less than two months we’ve added six podcasts. I think that makes this a good time to review what we’ve covered so far. Please keep your comments coming as they help us along the [...]

I wanted to share the following travel article from the New York Times website, A Journey Shaped by a Guitar: “Many a music lover makes a pilgrimage to the holy land by visiting the Martin factory in a town named Nazareth.” EVEN though Nazareth, Pa., isn’t quite the holy city its namesake is, pilgrims with [...]

If there’s a year in human history that people will look back on and say that was the year that robots really started to take over, they could be talking about this year. Something like ten years in the making, Gibson has released – in limited supply – the Robot Guitar. Basically, it’s a guitar [...]

Here are the ten most popular lessons on Guitar Noise from 2007: Folsom Prison Blues / Your Cheating Heart by David Hodge, published February 15 Time After Time by David Hodge, published March 19 O Come All Ye Faithful by David Hodge, published December 6 Making Practice A Success – Part 1 by Tom Hess, [...]

Indie bands were really the first musicians to fully support music downloads. Big name artists – already making a very decent living off music – were understandably skeptical about making their songs too available. Slowly but surely most of the bigger name bands got on board. In November 2007, Led Zeppelin finally made their entire [...]

As David pointed out in his recent newsletter, it’s going to be Bastille Day again before we know it. Before we let things get that far, I want to share my warmest wishes for this holiday season. Over the past year it’s been my pleasure to correspond with many Guitar Noise users – by email, [...]

Never mind that there is now a Guitar Hero III; and never mind how mind-numbing and time-wasting this is; most importantly, never mind that this won’t help your guitar playing in the least – sometimes you just have to say “so what!” Here’s a free version of Guitar Hero II that you can play online. [...]

Our good friend Dan Denley is giving away a Martin acoustic. A $1400 Martin acoustic! Dan is the brains and fingers behind Lead Guitar Secrets and Blues Guitar Secrets, which we’ve had special offers on before. Today Dan is releasing his next series of DVD guitar lessons called Acoustic Guitar Secrets. I haven’t watched all [...]

Once again I’m looking at the most quintessential unplugged albums from the 1990s. Regular readers of this site will already know that Neil Young is one of our perennial favorites. Among other things, his Unplugged album, serves as a great introduction to his music for those less familiar with his work. Neil Young – Unplugged [...]

It’s kind of nice to know there is life after rock. Almost as nice as when rock stars can do something for the environment. Australia’s Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd has named members of his new cabinet, and former Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett is to be Australia’s new environment minister. Okay, never mind that this [...]

This is the second installment in my look at Unplugged albums from the early nineties. Around that time a lot of bands were eager to jump on the acoustic bandwagon because it freed them from the pressure of coming up with new material. I would argue though, that some of the more resilient albums from [...]

Back in the early nineties, “unplugged” albums seemingly took over both MTV and the radio at the same time. For some bands, the new trend was nothing more than an opportunity to market old material as if it were new. There was no need to come up with new songs as the format consisted mainly [...]

Best known as the guitarist, vocalist and writer for Pink Floyd, David Gilmour now has his own line of signature guitar strings. From his official website davidgilmour.com: David Gilmour plays GHS ‘Boomers’ guitar strings, an association that started in 1979 when working on The Wall, but he uses non-standard gauges that until now were not [...]

We’ve had these for a few years now, but it’s always nice to share scary music stories around Halloween. Head over to the Music Careers website if you don’t believe that most musicians have scary stories to tell. Scary Stories: Frightening Tales From the Front is a collection of anecdotes of horror and humor from [...]

There are so many great guitar resources on the Internet, that a lot of it can go unnoticed. Taking a cue from our newsletter, I’ve decided to add a new section for all the buried treasure still out there. There are more ways than ever before to learn guitar, and I want to set aside [...]

Queensryche now has a greatest hits album: Sign of the Times – The Best Of Queensryche. This is the Definitive Queensryche Collection with 17 of the band’s best songs. We have 2 copies of the Deluxe Edition to give away. The Deluxe Edition features a Second CD of 15 Unreleased Demos, Live & Bonus Tracks [...]

It’s always nice to see your name and picture in the paper. Earlier this week, David Hodge was featured in his town’s local paper, The Berkshire Record. You’ll find the original article by Josh O’Gorman Guitar Guru here. Owing to geography, a lot of us only get to know David through his columns, newsletters and [...]

To celebrate the release of Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr, we are giving two lucky winners an album litho and a copy of the album. To enter this contest you need to give us a word that rhymes with “Ringo.” The contest is open until October 13, 2007 at midnight. Winners will be [...]

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary Release of George Thorogood’s legendary “Bad to the Bone” album we are giving away a custom made (by George himself) signed guitar slide along with a copy of “Bad to the Bone: The 25th Anniversary Edition”. These are the exact same slides that George uses on stage. In addition [...]