NAMM 2012: The lowdown on the Marshall Joe Satriani amp
A lot of people want to know what the deal is with the new Marshall Joe Satriani signature amp. It wasn’t unveiled at NAMM like many had hoped, and there’s no release date yet, at least not that I’ve seen anywhere. Well let the Tone King give you the answer!
NAMM 2012: EverTune. Wow.
Hands down my favourite thing at NAMM so far … okay my favourite thing is the Buddy Blaze 7-string – but my other favourite thing is the EverTune bridge. Have you heard of this? It’s still pretty new, and a lot of people don’t know exactly what it does yet. It’s not a self-tuning bridge or a ‘store alternate tunings’ bridge or anything like that. What it is is a fixed bridge which keeps your guitar in tune and well-intonated. With magic.
Wait, no, it’s not magic, it’s just physics. It’s a passive, mechanical technology which works like this, according to EverTune:
“The frequency of a resonating string has only three variables: length, mass, and tension. Again, the note a string plays only depends on three data: the length of the string, the weight of the string, and the tension of the string. Strings drift out of tune primarily because the tension changes, their mass and length are more and less constant. EverTune, holding one end of the string, will pull with constant tension, and therefore the string will stay in tune until it wants to be changed.”
Australia/New Zealand G3 tour dates
In Melbourne? See you there!
03/24/12 Wellington Michael Fowler Centre New Zealand
Tickets on sale November 25, 2011
03/25/12 Auckland Logan Cambpell Centre New Zealand
Tickets on sale November 25, 2011
03/27/12 Canberra Royal Theatre Australia
Tickets on sale November 25, 2011
03/30/12 Sydney Hordern Pavilion Australia
Tickets on sale November 25, 2011
03/31/12 Melbourne Palais Theatre Australia
Tickets on sale November 25, 2011
04/03/12 Adelaide Festival Theatre Australia
Tickets on sale November 25, 2011
04/05/12 Brisbane Convention Centre Australia
Tickets on sale November 25, 2011
04/06/12 Byron Bay Byron Bay Blues Festival Australia
Buy tickets here.
INTERVIEW: Joe Satriani on Chickenfoot III
Chickenfoot III. You know the joke by now: the band feels so comfortable in what they’re doing that they feel like they stepped over the difficult second album and went straight to the third. The band – Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith – are indeed in fine form on the newly-released album. It still sounds like the Chickenfoot who whipped up such a frenzy with their 2009 debut, but it’s at once more relaxed and more intense, heavier and more detailed.
The first thing that really struck me about this album was that there’s a really identifiable Chickenfoot sound. It doesn’t sound like a Joe Satriani album, it doesn’t sound like a Sammy Hagar album.
That’s great, I’m so happy to hear you say that. That’s something that I’ve always felt that we were very lucky to naturally stumble upon. But we didn’t want to overthink it or intellectualise it. Just do it naturally and let it happen.
This album is almost like an essay on the right hand of Joe Satriani – there’s a lot of great rhythm stuff going on.
As I was writing the demos for this record I was once again conscious of trying to not hold back and to use as much as I had to flesh out a lot of the songs. It’s a funny thing, because when we’re away, we’ll maybe be taking a flight somewhere and we’ll be talking about what kind of songs we like as a band, and that’s one thing, but when we get together to play there’s really no time for discussion or any of that stuff. We basically have to record very quickly, and everybody has to bring all their stuff to the table and just do it. And so I hate to talk about it and give the wrong impression and that we thought about it, because we didn’t, but I all I can tell you is that I prepared for the experience by making sure that everything I knew how to do was fresh on my fingers and ready to be exploited at a moment’s notice. So I like to say that I’ve taken all the good stuff that I’ve ever heard from any guitar player and I’ve tried to learn it and to use it and to understand it. So a lot of my roots come out when I’m making a Chickenfoot record.
COOL VIDEO ALERT: Chickenfoot – Big Foot
Y’know what’s awesome about Chickenfoot? You can hear, like, three seconds of a Chickenfoot song and instantly know that it’s Chickenfoot. Not a Joe Satriani song, not a Sammy Hagar song. A Chickenfoot song.
Classic Rock to release Chickenfoot III fan pack
Wow, those fine folks at Classic Rock Magazine have done it again! After killer fan packs for Motorhead and Whitesnake, check this out from the Classic Rock website:
Classic Rock is cock-a-hoop to announce the launch of its latest Fan Pack, dedicated to Chickenfoot.
The Chickenfoot Fan Pack includes Chickenfoot III, the band’s eagerly anticipated second album, plus a 132-page magazine dedicated to the band.
Pre-order the Chickenfoot fanpack through MyFavouriteMagazines.co.uk before September 27 and receive a free very limited edition Chickenfoot bottle opener keyring.
Inside the Chickenfoot Fan Pack:
Fans who buy the Chickenfoot Fan Pack will be able to hear Chickenfoot III weeks before it appears in record stores. What’s more, the Fan Pack version of Chickenfoot III comes with two exclusive bonus tracks that won’t appear on the record store version of the album.
FEATURED REVIEW
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I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), guitarworld.com, Tone Deaf, Beat and The Brag. I started I Heart Guitar in 2008. I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18 (I'm 33 now). I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week) and a setup tech. I live in Melbourne, Australia. You can check out my guitar playing at Reverbnation or on YouTube.
You can email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com