Recently in Instruments Category

IT'S coming and it's out to get all Fender-loving guitar players, hahahaha (laughs like The Count). Now would you love to have a guitar that tunes itself? I would. I think Gibson has read my and the rest of the axe-toting crowd's mind when it comes to making a guitar. With this new rig, you can quickly switch to alternate tunings with a flick of a button/knob. Woah! Excellent! Wanna play like Slash, just whip out the guitar and let the guitar tune itself. Or Jimmy Page in Led Zep's Kashmir? Or perhaps be like Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix who often play in the E flat tuning (sounds warmer). It really takes a lot of time to detune those strings, hoping you're in tune. If you don't believe me, watch this video to see it live in action. Gibson has also created several interesting videos of the robot guitar. The "Psycho" version is just hilarious. An instructional video is also on YouTube: < Here's what its inventor had to say:

Which famous musicians are already using your system? Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins, he loves it. Matt Bellamy from Muse put it in his guitars. Uli Jon Roth, former guitar player of the Scorpions, says he actually can't live without it anymore. Steve Vai couldn't believe it unless he saw it, and once he saw it it was still very hard for him to believe. He's telling everybody about how great it is. Steve Lukather really loves it. I showed it to Pete Townshend, and he wants to get to know more about it. That's just the start of it.

Now, wouldn't you love to have one as a holiday gift.

PHILIPPINE music will also be showcased at the University of California, Los Angeles Spring Festival of World Music and Jazz. Here's an interesting story from the Los Angeles Times that shows how music strikes a common chord that brings together different cultures:

While the ethnomusicology groups allow some players to use Western instruments, the vast majority perform on the traditional ethnic instruments collected by UCLA or lent by its instructors, many of whom have the expertise and connections to find authentic instruments.

"I bought six of these for $80 each when I went home to the Philippines," lecturer Tagumpay De Leon said as he held up a small 12-string bandurria during a rehearsal by his rondalla choir of plucked instruments, which includes guitars and double basses, as well as Philippine octavinas and lauds. "But if I'd just shopped on EBay, they'd be $200!" De Leon's new bandurrias make up a mere fraction of the department's holdings. Many of these instruments are stored in a room housing the collection's centerpiece: a 60-piece, 150-year-old Javanese gamelan dubbed Kyai Mendhung (Venerable Dark Cloud) for the sound of its largest gong.

AHH, the good old days. For those of us who couldn't afford to buy an imported acoustic guitar, the next best thing was a Lumanog. In a recent article on PhilMusic.com, Gerry Diwa takes us back to his days of hunting the best local custom-built guitars. Apart from the Cebu-made types (not those made out of plywood, of course), the Lumanogs became very popular because of their distinct sound. (If you can't relate, blame the generation gap, heh). There were other brands at the time. But the Lumanog guitars became popular among budding musicians who wanted a custom-built acoustic guitar that was truly Filipino-made, as this blogger wrote back in 2005. Excerpt from Diwa's article:

The Lumanog name is synonymous with Philippine made acoustic guitars. As far as I can remember, when someone in the family wanted an acoustic guitar the reply is always to "get a Lumanog" 'cause "it's the best". And since the family hails from Pampanga, everyone knows where the best of the best Lumanog guitars can be found - at the hub of guitar and music instrument shops all bearing the name Lumanog in San Anton, Guagua, Pampanga. Thus, when it was my turn to get my first acoustic guitar - as soon as we changed Apo Ando's $100 gift into pesos - we rushed straight to San Anton in Guagua, me and my cousin haggled the hell out of the C.B. Lumanog music shop.