Guitar MX Blog

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You may recall a lawsuit filed last year by Gibson Guitars against Activision, owners of the Guitar Hero game. Gibson’s lawsuit claimed that the video game infringed a patent of theirs, and requested that Activision obtain a license from Gibson to distribute the video game. There has been a recent development to this story. Last week, the lawsuit was thrown out of court. In a sternly worded decision, Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer wrote:

No reasonable person of ordinary skill in the relevant arts would interpret the ‘405 Patent as covering interactive video games…Gibson would have this Court determine that any device that controls something that produces musical sounds is covered by the ‘405 Patent

This is good news for Activision, who already had a relationship with Gibson with the Guitar Hero game. No word on if that relationship will continue. You can read more about this story here.

An Australian guitarist named Ian Haug, of the band Powderfinger, is currently suing a Brisbane casino for an alleged assault, which injured his wrist. The guitarist claims that the injury has affected his guitar playing, and he has to now re-learn the instrument.

In response to this story, MusicRadar.com took a look at some injured guitarists who put Haug’s injury to shame. They put together this list of 6 famous injuries by famous guitarists who adjusted (or are adjusting) and played on.

Links go to stories about the injuries.

• 6. Pete Townshend gets impaled on a whammy bar
• 5. Johnny Greenwood’s RSI
• 4. Dave Mustaine’s CTS
• 3. Dorian Cox’s ‘bionic’ arm
• 2. Django Reinhardt’s two-fingered solos
• 1. Tony Iommi’s plastic thimbles
  

I thought I would try learning one of my favorite songs by Led Zeppelin, “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”. I did some digging and came upon this lesson by Justin Sandercoe of JustinGuitar.com. His video lessons are always great, and this one’s no exception.

This is part 1 of a 3 part video lesson. Click here for Parts 2 and 3. You can find tablature to this song here.

A while back, the Guitar MX Blog brought you the story of Chickenfoot, the new supergroup featuring Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. The group is currently working on a new album, and just released this new promo video.

Joe Satriani had promised in an interview with MusicRadar that Chckenfoot would not be the final name of the group. “We just had to call it something for the time being. It’s definitely not going to be Chickenfoot. I guarantee it.” But as you can see from the video, they have now fully embraced the name.

Country guitar doesn’t get quite the attention on YouTube as rock guitar, so it’s kind of refreshing to see a country lesson by NextLevelGuitar. This is a lesson on how to play a simple country lick inspired by Brad Paisley.

You can find more lessons like this one at NextLevelGuitar.com.

A guitar shop located Southampton, England called “The Guitar Store” has recently become a bit of an Internet sensation after a photo of the shop appeared on Flickr. When the shutters of the shop come down at night, the storefront looks like a giant Fender Super Champ guitar amplifier.

It’s still not as outrageous as the home in Fayetteville, Georgia that’s shaped like an acoustic guitar.

Fender University Spring 2009 class is about to start. Fender University is a new program open to guitar and bass players worldwide. The program runs from March 4 through March 9 and includes the following:

• Attendance for five days and five nights at Fender University.
  Hotel accommodations: Full service hotel—the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, Riverside, Calif.

• All meals during your stay.
• Your very own exclusive, limited edition Fender American Standard Series instrument.
• All ground transportation while at Fender University. Airfare not included.
• Behind-the-scenes tour of the state-of-the-art Fender manufacturing facility and famed Fender Custom Shop.
• Personal tour of the Fender Center Museum and Fullerton Museum featuring the Leo Fender exhibit.
• 8+ workshop hours, jamming and one-on-one instruction from Fender staff, clinicians and artists.
• Priceless meet-and-greet moments with some of Fender’s closest friends and legends.
• All the school supplies you need—lots of cool stuff!
• VIP pass to all festivities and the Fender University commencement party.
  

If you are interested in enrolling at Fender University, the cost is $6,500 per student. If March is too soon, there’s a Fall Session coming up. Click here for more information.

After 35 years of tinkering with guitars, and creating his famous “Frankenstein” guitar (Which let’s face it, is a piece of crap), Eddie Van Halen has designed an indestructible guitar called the EVH Wolfgang guitar. The guitar has the highest quality features, including stainless steel frets, double-potted custom-wound pickups, five-piece binding on the matching body and headstock, custom-made signature tuning machines and Floyd Rose bridge, and on and on.

For the last two years, Eddie had been road-testing the guitar on the Van Halen reunion tour. The new model, marketed by Fender, was fully revealed at the recent Winter NAMM show, and will be available for sale at around $3,000.

Here’s a video excerpt from a Guitar World interview with Eddie about the new EVH Wolfgang guitar.

You can find out more about the guitar here.

The following video guitar lesson is sample off of the Metal Guitar – Melodic Speed, Shred, & Heavy Riffs Instructional DVD by The Rock House Method, featuring Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom.

You can find more lessons like this one at the Rock House Method web site.