WoodyTone Review

WoodyTone, an on-line site for guitar "tone-freaks", posted a review of the store which you can read here. Or just check out their web site home page and work from there if you are at all interested in finding out more about great guitar tone.

James Trussart Guitars

Ever since we had a secondhand one of these guitars in our shop a few years back we have been thinking about how we could get this line into the store. It has taken us a while but better late than never.

Don't let the fact that many of these instruments are made of metal put you off. They sound like just a really good guitar but aren't made of something as easily damaged as wood. James Trussart is one of the few builders who has broken the mold of traditional guitar making. Working with steel as the primary material, he produces guitars that are as unique in appearance as they are in tone.

Trussart’s creations are designed to have the look and feel of a vintage instrument with the added appeal of a metal construction. His "Rust-o-matic" technique (a term coined by Billy Gibbons regarding Trussart’s unique finishes) involves leaving the guitar body exposed to the elements for several weeks, allowing it to corrode before treating it to stop the corrosion. He then sands it to replicate years of distress, and then finishes it with a clear satin coat.

Crazy Heart

Thursday, February 11, 2010 -Four-time Academy Award nominee Jeff Bridges stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the musical/drama film Crazy Heart from writer-director Scott Cooper. Bad Blake is a down-and-out country music singer/songwriter who tries to put his drinking and cheating ways behind him after starting a relationship with a young journalist, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. As he searches for salvation, Blake learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

As seen in the photo and video package (right), Bridges––who says he’s been playing music since he was a kid––is often spotted onstage in the film with a Gretsch G6122 1959 Chet Atkins Country Gentleman guitar.

On it, Bridges performs songs from the film’s soundtrack, produced by T-Bone Burnett––the same mastermind behind the Grammy-award winning O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack.

Burnett's involvement with the project is what convinced Bridges to take a second look at the script.

“When T-Bone and I started talking, he was saying the songs that he was going to choose for me to sing would be songs that were right in my pocket,” Bridges said in a video clip located on the movie’s official website. “He wasn’t going to force me to sing something that I wouldn’t be able to sing or that we would have to get somebody else to sing. So the songs we were looking for were songs that we all thought I could do, that were in my range, and also, (that) we would write the majority of the songs based on the script and my character so they would come right out of the story. They were very organic to the tale we were telling.”

The movie’s theme song “The Weary Kind” (co-written by Burnett and Ryan Bingham) fits right into that category, and is currently in the running for an Oscar for best original song.

Crazy Heart has also received Academy Award nominations for best actor and best supporting actress. The movie opened in over 450 theaters last Friday to the tune of rave reviews.

“Crazy Heart is blessed with so many marvelous moments, lovely lines and vivid characters. This is the finest, fullest work of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s career. And it revels in the glory of Jeff Bridges. A performance on a scale with the West’s wide open spaces.” – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

“A juicy, career-crowning role. Bridges – a master of subtle brilliance – plays the hell out of it.” – Rolling Stone

Paul Reed Smith

We really couldn't be more pleased. We are announcing that Paul Reed Smith guitars and amps are now at Ludlow Guitars. This prestigous American company has been making top-quality guitars for almost 25 years and is among the top few of the most respected musical instrument manufacturers in the world. If you need any incentive, do go to the PRS web site and find out all about them.

Gibson Guitars - the Hendrix model II

No, we didn't dream it, in September Gibson really did launch a range of Jimi Hendrix-branded 'signature' instruments.

But today the guitar world finds www.gibson.com completely devoid of any mention of these products. That's right, the 'Sound Like Jimi' feature, the Janie Hendrix interview, the product pages with dozens of disparaging comments... all gone.

Somebody at Gibson HQ got very busy with the 'unpublish' button and now there is not even a hint that this project ever existed. So, the most controversial guitar launch that we can remember has been made to vanish. Is this an acknowledgement that Gibson had nearly committed PR suicide? Or maybe it's an excercise in Orwellian revisionary history.

We checked the Authentic Hendrix site and it seems that they too have removed the original press release (from Janie Hendrix) from their web site. We await Gibson and Authentic Hendrix's next move with interest. Our guess here at Ludlow Guitars is that Gibson have quietly pulled the plug on this project. It will be interesting to see what they do with all the part-built guitars they have. Perhaps they will reemerge next year under the Hendrix brand with no mention of Gibson. Maybe they have been seized by Federal agents looking into, not the breaking of environmental laws (see story here), but criminal stupidity.

Gibson Raided

Gibson are in the news again but still not in a good way. While no charges have yet been filed, NashvillePost.com is reporting that earlier today, Federal agents and local police seized wood, guitars, computers and files from Gibson Guitar's Massman Road manufacturing facility in Nashville. NashvillePost.com reports, "Sources say the guitar manufacturer is being investigated for violating the Lacey Act, a key piece of environmental law, for importing endangered species of rosewood from Madagascar.

Rosewood is widely used in the construction of guitars and sells for $5,000 per cubic meter, more than double the price of mahogany. The island nation off Africa's east coast is a key producer of the hardwood, the export of which has links to international criminal activity. Madagascar has struggled financially since a January coup and new President Andry Rajoelina issued an executive order in September legalizing the export of rosewood and ebony. The move was decried by environmental groups and political leaders worldwide, as hardwood forests are key to Madagascar's unique ecology and serve as a habitat for a dwindling lemur population."

Sources have told NashvillePost.com that Gibson was involved in a scheme that shipped the wood from Madagascar to Germany and then to the United States.

Gibson issued this statement:

"Today Gibson Guitar is fully cooperating with agents of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service as it pertains to an issue with harvested wood. Gibson is a chain of custody certified buyer who purchases wood from legal suppliers who are to follow all standards. Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO sits on the board of the Rainforest Alliance and takes the issue of certification very seriously. The company will continue to cooperate fully and assist our federal government with all inquiries and information."

Rehearsal Space

The Ludlow Guitars rehearsal space has been tarted up and re-equiped.

Here is a full list of the equipment that comes with the space as standard:

  • Amps and Cabs
    • Fender Bassman 4x10"
    • Roland Jazz Chorus 120 2x12"
    • Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 1x12"
    • Victoria Victorilux 3x10"
    • Aguilar AG 550 bass head
    • Aguilar GS112NT and GS112 bass 12" cabinets
    • Celestion 2x12" cabinet
    • Roland KC-350 keyboard amp
  • Roland SA-300 PA system
  • Instruments
    • Full drum kit
    • Roland Juno Stage keyboard

 

Adam Clayton

Now that we are carrying the Aguilar line we thought it well worthwhile to point out one of the stars playing this stuff. U2’s Adam Clayton is using two DB 750 amplifiers, two DB 410 cabinets, and two DB 115 cabinets on the group’s record-shattering U2 360° tour. After using the brand-new DB 751 amplifier for the season premier of Saturday Night Live last month, Adam will now be upgrading to the DB 751 for the remainder of the tour. He will continue to pair the amps with the same combination of DB 410 and DB 115 cabinets.

A tour of such grand scale demands gear that is rugged, powerful and sounds great with a wide variety of instruments including the 12 different basses that Adam rotates among every night. The tonal flexibility of the DB 751 makes it the perfect match for the biggest tour of 2009/2010. For the past 30 years, Adam Clayton has played every combination of gear as U2 enjoyed unprecedented commercial and critical success moving from promising new act to the world’s biggest rock band. With this much history, Adam can play through any bass rig that he wants.

Aguilar Amplification

Aguilar Amplification, based here in New York City, is known for making just about the best bass amps cabs you can get. Well now you can get them at Ludlow Guitars. We are delighted to announce that we are now carrying the entirel line of Aguilar product, including their pedals and onboard preamps. Check out the amp product line here.

Emily Howell

Virtual composer makes beautiful music—and stirs controversy

Can a computer program really generate musical compositions that are good enough to have been written by humans? Professor David Cope thinks so, and has dedicated decades of research to the topic of artificial intelligence in music, which has resulted in not one, but two controversial composing engines. So controversial that there is now an official movement calling for the death of Emily.

Check out a link to an in-depth article here, a news piece here and some examples of the music here.

We would just like to welcome the first truly talented musical member to the family.