Guitar Noise

Welcome to the latest issue of Guitar Noise News.

In This Issue

• News and Announcements
• New Articles and Lessons
• Reviews
• Email of the Week / Clarification
• Final Thoughts

News And Announcements

Greetings!

Welcome to Guitar Noise News!

There’s not a whole lot new this week, but I do want to make sure all of you are up to speed on some of the recent developments here at Guitar Noise. So please accept my apologies if some of this is old news!

We’ve got a scoop! Guitar Noise is proud to be the first media in the world to review the new album by Glass, their first new recording in 30 years. Glass was a seventies band that had never released an album, although they’d recorded enough material for several. In 2001 they released some of it under the title No Stranger to the Skies. We were the first to review this album and interview the band.

Success immediately followed and they were signed to Musea for a new album. And here it is. We were there at the start of their second coming and we’re here for the new album. Before everybody else.

You can read more about the new album from Glass in the reviews section.

Our next issue of Guitar Noise News will be sent out on July first. This will mark our switch from a weekly to a twice-a-month newsletter. It is our hope that giving us some more time between newsletter will help to make the newsletters much more interesting and helpful, rather than a “let’s see what David’s up to this week!” I’m very excited about the new, expanded newsletter format and I think that you’ll be very happy with it.

And now, while we’re still doing some tinkering on it, is a great time for you to tell me what you would like to see in the new version of Guitar Noise News. We will still have a section on all the new articles and one on the latest reviews. I’d also like to bring back more educational sections, a “Tip of the Day” sort of thing.

Another big plan for the new newsletter is to make a lot of use of the FAQ pages of Guitar Noise. It is truly amazing how much material is there and how few people know where to find it. And, fingers crossed here, this may be the start of a whole new concept with our FAQs page. More on that in our next newsletter!

I’d also like to do more things about the Guitar Noise community. After all, “community” is a lot about why Guitar Noise is such a great place. So perhaps highlighting more small performances, open mikes and jams might be worth doing.

This is why I’d like your thoughts concerning what you’d like to see in your newsletter. Together we can make Guitar Noise News even better. Please send any thoughts you might have to me.

We’ve a terrific new article from David Wagle as well as A-J’s review of some new pickups and some other things to go over, so let’s get to it!

New Articles And Lessons

Back To Basics
by David Wagle

If you think tracing back your family tree is fun, then think about musical genres. Who would be Pete Townsend’s great-grandfather? And who would be the trunk of the tree of country guitarists? The answers may surprise you and, as is always the case with David’s articles, you’ll learn a lot about some guitarists that you may never have heard of. Hopefully you’ll learn enough to get out and listen to them!

Reviews

Lace Alumitone Pickups
Product Review by A-J Charron

Lace has come up a dramatic change in pickups. Conventional pickups are voltage designed, meaning it’s the voltage in the current that makes them work. The Alumitone is current-driven instead. What this means is a much more fluid system which allows smoother operation.

Email Of The Week / Clarification

Many of you wrote this past week to offer congratulations on my book deal. In case you happened to miss that, I have been contracted to write The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Bass Guitar, which, hopefully, will be published sometime in the summer of 2006.

But in receiving some of your emails, I realize that I should have been a little clearer in what this book is all about.

First off, I didn’t choose the title. The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Bass Guitar will be published by Alpha Books (a division of Penguin) and will part of their “Complete Idiots” series of books. They are, in essence, direct competitors to the “Dummies” series of books. If you’re browsing through a bookstore, “Idiots” books have orange spines and “Dummies” are yellow.

Why bass guitar? Well, the main reason is that they don’t have one yet. The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Playing The Guitar, which was written by the late (and great!) Frederick Noad, is in its second edition. The CIG folks also have an excellent music theory book as well as a new book on soloing and improvisation due out fairly soon.

So they asked if I would author what will essentially be their “Bass For Beginners” book and I said, “Sure!” It is my goal to write the book well enough, and to include as many musical examples as possible, so that anyone who reads the book will be able to pick up and play the bass well enough to sit in and jam with their friends. And to play a lot more interesting stuff than the typical “thump on the root of the chord” manner of beginners.

I will also be recording a “play along” CD to go with the book. In addition to the examples, there will be a number of “jam tracks” where the reader will be able to play bass (or guitar for that matter) along with a back-up band.

If all goes well and according to schedule, this will come out sometime in the summer of 2006.

Final Thoughts

I have to say that writing the newsletter for almost the past three years has been a lot of fun. We got a chance to try out a few things, some of which worked and some of which are best left filed under the label “Nice Try!”

And I think that our new direction is going to be both more fun and educational as well. I look forward to seeing you on July first!

I hope you all have a grand week and a half. Stay safe and we’ll chat again very soon.

And, as always,

Peace

David