NEWS: Guitar Idol 2010 is go go go!
July 22, 2010
It’s been a long wait but Guitar Idol 2010 has now been launched!
Guitar Idol 2010 – The Rules
Compose an original guitar composition that showcases your guitar playing and musical ability to the max! You can use any jam tracks and backing tracks of generic rock, blues, metal etc grooves, but the guitar part that you are playing must be an original composition
What are we looking for:
Originality, technical dexterity, strong compositional and stylistic ability, taste, feel and phrasing.
What Next?
Film yourself playing the track and upload it here:
And Then:
Market your entry across the entire internet and gain as many views, votes, and as much publicity for yourself as possible!
The Contest
Guitar Idol is open to any guitarist worldwide. Entries will be voted through to heat 2 and the finals by a combination of public online voting and a panel of official judges.
100 players will go through to compete in Heat 2: these will be the 20 most viewed on the official Guitar Idol website, the 20 with the highest online score, the 20 most voted for in our YouTube channel (more info), the 10 most commonly added as ‘favourites’ on the official site, and 30 chosen by the Guitar Idol panel.
The top 100 players will then compete for 10 finalist places – 5 voted for by the online vote and 5 from the Guitar Idol panel.
The top 10 will battle for the three prizes: the Online Vote GI 2010 Winner, The GI 2010 Pro Panel Winner, and the outright title of Guitar Idol 2010 which will be a combined scoring between the public and panel voting. There will also be a special prize for the celebrity judge’s favourite finalist.
There will also be some manufacturers special prizes so no one in the top 10 is likely to go home empty handed!
Closing date for entries to Guitar Idol 2010 is October 10th 2010
Voting and scoring
You must register to vote, this is to avoid spamming and vote rigging. Commencement of online voting and voting rules and criteria will be announced to registered voters by email
The Live finals
The Live finals will be held at a London venue (to be announced) at the end of 2010.
INTERVIEW: guitarnoize.com interviews Greg Howe!
July 21, 2010
Jon over on guitarnoize.com has recorded a video interview with *THE* Greg Howe! 
GEAR: Suhr 7 String Moderns now available
July 15, 2010
Spotted on the Suhr Forum:
I’m sure Ed already posted this but figured I’d throw it out there as well because I’ve received a lot of questions about these guitars. Just wanted to let you know that Suhr is now accepting orders for their 7 string Modern. I received the following from Ed last night.
“We can now take orders for the Modern 7-String that was introduced at NAMM but the bridge choice is still limited to the Floyd Rose Original 7-String and the EMG pickups. The base price is the same as any other Custom model. John is working on a 7-string version of the Aldrich pickups and looking at other bridge options but it may still be a little while (several months) before other options for the bridges and pickups are finalized”.
VIDEO: Paul Gilbert playing ‘Bach Partita in Dm’ from Fuzz Universe
July 12, 2010
Paul Gilbert playing ‘Bach Partita in Dm’ which features on his new CD ‘Fuzz Universe‘!
VIDEO: Guthrie Govan and I.H. Jeon “Little Wing”
July 9, 2010
Some more footage from Guthrie Govan’s Suhr tour of Asia with an EBS TV broadcast of “Little Wing”:
DVD: Extreme ‘Take Us Alive’ Review
July 9, 2010
I never got the chance to see Extreme live back in the day and unfortunately couldn’t make their ‘Take Us Alive’ tour in the UK last year. So when a live DVD was announced I was overjoyed!
Recorded live at the House of Blues in Boston August 2009 the ‘Take Us Alive’ DVD
The sound is also immense, in fact the DVD was mixed and engineered by Bob St. John who has worked with Extreme since their self-titled debut album in 1989. Gery Cherone’s vocals are clear and his singing on top form, the drums and bass are tight and sound thunderous and Nuno’s guitar tone is huge and 100% Nuno.
The band storms through a set that mixes old favourites with new songs. When they opened up the show with Decadence Dance my rockometer went in to overload!
The setlist features:
Decadence Dance
Comfortably Dumb
Rest In Peace
It (’s a Monster)
Star
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
Medley: Kid Ego – Little Girls – Teacher’s Pet – Play With Me
Midnight Express
More Than Words
Ghost
Cupid’s Dead
Take Us Alive
Flight Of The Wounded Bumblebee
Get The Funk Out
Am I Ever Gonna Change
Hole Hearted
Nuno Bettencourt is one of my all time guitar heroes and he is on sublime form here, totally flawless with that arrogant swagger of his. The camera work allows you to get a great closeup view of his guitar powers. Showcase pieces like Midnight Express and Flight Of The Wounded Bumblebee are executed with breathtaking ease. He even has the cheek to pretend to be bored and yawn during the blazing ‘Play With Me’ Solo!
If you’re an Extreme fan this is a must buy, even though I never got to see them live the DVD captures the band’s infamous live performance and it’s a nice touch to see it was filmed in their home town where they built up that performing reputation all those years ago.
COMPETITION: Steve Vai picks his “Design A JEM” winner!
July 8, 2010
Mr Vai has picked his favourite of the Design the JEM entries and here is it:
Congratulations to user “ALEX” on his winning design submission for the Ibanez Design a JEM Contest! Ibanez will be manufacturing two JEM guitars featuring Alex’s design– one for Alex and one for Steve.
Check out the finalists here. Some interesting ideas there!
