Elixir Acoustic Guitar Strings

Hello everyone, I want to apologize for the period of time with no posts- I was having internet troubles, so this project went on a hiatus. But now I’m back, and should be updating once a week!

So this week I am reviewing Elixir’s Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings.

Before I tell you how I felt about these strings, I want to thank Elixir for their support in reviewing their product!

These strings are great! I put light strings on my old Yamaha acoustic, and it sounded great from the get-go. Compared to D’addario acoustic strings of the same gauge and material, the Elixir strings did not have to go through the extended “break in” time where your strings go from a brighter sound to a warmer sound. The strings that I used were “Nanoweb coating”, which means that they have the sound and feel of non-coated strings that have not been broken in, however they still ended up sounding rich and full. I will test the “Polyweb coating” strings, which claim to have the sound and feel of broken in strings, as soon as my current strings break.

Which brings me to another point- these strings have not broken. I play very heavy, using a thicker pick, which causes the strings to break easily. I even broke the low E string once! These strings have withstood my pounding for about 6 months, and their tone and feel has only slightly changed.

The biggest con of these strings is their price. Elixir strings can go anywhere above $9.00 , which is expensive for strings. If you can afford it, these strings will last long enough for your money, and it definatly is worth the investment if you are playing a lot of live shows, but if you are just a hobbyist then you would be better off buying a less expensive brand.

Acoustic Guitar Magazine

Overall Rating: 7.6 out of 10

First, I’d like to thank Acoustic Guitar Magazine for sending me a few issues for me to review. It was appreciated.

Now I’d like to thank Acoustic Guitar Magazine for sending me a really informative magazine.

September 2008. A lesson on how to play Tom Petty, Big Bill Broonzy, and Jack Johnson. A basic theory lesson on diatonic chords, and reviews on Huss and Dalton FS, a Genz Benz Shenandoah Pro LT amp, and on 7 top name dreadnoughts. Oh, did I mention a cross-picking/cross-cultural technique lesson from Italian guitarist Beppe Gambetta?

The lessons on how to play songs by Tom Petty, Big Bill Broonzy, and Jack Johnson were cool. It broke the rhythm guitar into a staff notation and tablature, and has a songbook format underneath, with words and chords. This was not difficult at all, and allowed me to see how some of the more popular guitarists/songwriters did rhythm guitar.

The theory lesson on diatonic chords was extremely basic. However, I believe this lesson should be common knowledge with every guitarist, so even if you consider yourself a more advanced guitarist, you should check this lesson out.

All of the reviews I read were informative, but the review on the dreadnoughts was the one I took the most out of. The magazine looks at guitars from $350-$3000+, and breaks each one down to specific price ranges. The seven dreadnoughts Acoustic Guitar looks at are the Morgan Monroe Creekside MVS-45, the Epiphone DR-500R, the Laprivée D-03, the Taylor DN4, the Breedlove Revival D-M, the Martin D-21 Special, and the Santa Cruz Tony Rice. As I am looking to replace my old Yamaha with a dreadnought, this article was extremely useful.

My favorite thing about this magazine is its integration of music theory into its articles. I believe theory is essential knowledge for any musician, but especially for those with instruments that play chords. Even Acoustic Guitar’s inclusion of roman numerals to label the chords in a small gesture that means a lot in the music world.

And now for the review:

Information: 8 out of 10
Ease of Reading: 8 out of 10
Advertisements: 7 out of 10
Worth (to Read): 7.5 out of 10
Overall Average: 7.6 out of 10

Guitar Websites

So I was searching online for more music blogs that I could look at and start a blogging connection with when I came across this little gem. The creator of atomicguitar.com compiled a list of guitar blogs so that bloggers can post it on their blog, and guitar blogs can be more connected. I will also create a page at the top of my blog that includes all of these (and more), and over the next couple months I will be individually reviewing some of these blogs.

Thanks to atomicguitar

Guitar Noize | IG Blog | Strat-O-Blogster | Guitar MX | Mad Stratter | Guitarz | Building the Ergonomic Guitar | Guitritus | Musician’s Notebook | GuitarToyBox | IGUITARGOD | Mr. Blues Guy | markmcguigan.com | Acoustic Guitar Player | iFingers Guitar Experience | Play Like a Girl | Electric Guitar Review | Guitar Novice | Truth in Shredding | Thumbrella | Music Ramble | The Soul of Rock and Roll | Guitar Lifestyle | GuitaroJam News | Music Gadgets | The Guitar Channel | Tony Hogan Acoustic Site | OSC1 | The Guitar Resource | Guitar Stuff | Axe Victim | ATOMIC Guitarist

Crate XT15R Amplifier

Crate XT15R

Overall Rating: 4.85 out of 10

The worst practice amp I’ve ever played through.

Quite a tag line huh? Well I was only exaggerating a little. The more accurate depiction of this amp is so-so. The only good coming out of this amp is somewhere between 3 and 4 on the Clean Volume and 5 and 6 on the Solo Level. For the Clean Volume, any lower than 3 is almost inaudible and any higher than 4 is too loud for a practice amp. As for the Solo Level, the tone coming out of it is mediocre at best. Most Crates I’ve played through have a decent Solo tone, but even if you mess with the Gain control it still comes out extremely muddled and chunky (technical terms, I know.)

Now for my least favorite experience with this amp… MY REVERB DIED WITHIN A YEAR OF PURCHASING IT! And I payed $75 for it! And it hasn’t even gone through heavy use, and hasn’t been moved around at all!

Okay now that I’ve calmed down, all I can think is, ‘Well at least they discontinued it.’ Check the ratings:

Tone Flexibility: 5.5 out of 10
Tone Quality: 4 out of 10
Loudness: 6.5 out of 10
Portability: 7 out of 10
Worth (Monetary): 4 out of 10
Reliability: 2.5 out of 10
Cool Factor: 4.5 out of 10

Overall Average: 4.85 out of 10

Last.fm Starts Paying Royalties to Unsigned Bands

I just wanted to acknowledge Last.fm’s huge step forward for providing prosperity through music.

Here is the article from uiltimate-guitar.com:

7/14/2008

  Online music service Last.fm today announced that it will start paying out royalties to unsigned and independent bands that upload their music to last.fm. Artists will earn royalties whenever their music is played on-demand, or on Last.fm’s streaming radio service. Last.fm had first announced this in January, but it took until today for Last.fm to officially start up its Artist Royalty Program.
  According to Last.fm, artists have uploaded close to half a million tracks since the program was first announced. When uploading a song, all artists can choose to opt into the Royalty Program.
So far, Last.fm has been completely ad-supported, though a premium subscription service is currently in beta. Judging from the payout schedual, however, artists will need a lot of plays on Last.fm to make a reasonable amount from the program. On the other hand, though, MySpace pays out royalties to the major labels, but doesn’t pay any royalties to unsigned bands on its site.
Not everybody seems to be happy about this announcement from Last.fm, though. Merlin, the “world’s first global rights body for independent music,” which represents close to 8% of the US music market, has issued a statement to its roughly 12,000 members, telling them that Last.fm has failed to address its concerns about copyright infringement on Last.fm. Merlin also argues that the license terms of the Royalties Program are too ambiguous.
Regardless of Merlin’s objections, though, Last.fm’s step to start paying out royalties should be applauded, as it gives musicians yet another way to make money outside of the mainstream music business. While the Royalty Program is limited only to Last.fm and doesn’t collect royalties from various sources in the way SoundExchange would, Last.fm is giving musicians an alternative to the more traditional revenue models, which should prove to be especially appealing to smaller, still unknown bands.

Thanks for the info to Readwriteweb.com.

Shubb C1 (Nickel) Capo

Shubb C1 Capo

Overall Rating: 7 out of 10

If you’re the kind of person that only uses a capo once and a while, this is the capo for you. Unfortunatly, if you’re the kind of person with a thin necked guitar, then your reading the wrong post.

The Shubb C1 Capo is a sturdy, compact capo that clamps on from one side and features easy clamping on and off. It also features a rubber pad on the part that clamps on to the strings, which they claim (and it seems to be the case) at the Shubb website keeps the strings from going out of tune.

As far as a capo goes, the C1 is pretty good. However, there is one downside, which I mentioned before. If you have any sort of thin necked guitar, the capo does not clamp on hard to the neck, even if you adjust the capo. I guess this doesn’t present much of a problem though, because most people with thin necked guitars are doing soloing rather than rhythm playing.

The capo cost $21.95 off of the Shubb website.

Portability: 9 out of 10
Reliability: 6 out of 10
Worth (Monetary): 8 out of 10
Cool Factor: 5 out of 10
Overall Average: 7 out of 10

Yamaha FG-400

Yamaha FG-400

Overall Rating: 7.8 out of 10

You own a really great beginner guitar if you own one of these. As Anonymous says on a review of it at Harmony Central  “Put it this way. This guitar is almost everything like a nice old pair of Jeans. Rusty, cheap, rugged, but VERY comfortable. It feels like an old glove.”

The Yamaha FG-400 was produced between 1989 and 1995, and it’s a shame they discontinued it. My FG-400 has been played and beat on, and is still going strong. There is nothing amazing about this guitar, but you can’t say anything bad about it either.

So for the good things about this guitar. This acoustic guitar is light yet durable, and its the kind of guitar that you can leave lying around and not have to worry about it. I usually play with medium to heavy strings, and this guitar produces a bright, full sound, that easily sets the bar for most entry level acoustic guitars. Occasionally the low end of this guitar gets a little muddy, but that’s to be expected especially as the intervals get closer together. Another great thing about this guitar is once you tune up, the only two strings that ever go out of tune are the B and high E strings, and only a few cents flat.

This guitar does have a couple of disappointing things. For one, the original action is a little too high for my liking, however with heavy strings it preferable to buzzing on the fretboard. My least favorite thing about my guitar is the difficulty of changing strings. The strings are held in on the bridge by pins. However, the only way I’ve found that you can get the pins out is with pliers. This rips/damages the pins at the part where they are pulled, causing them to look bad and collect dirt and grime. If Yamaha had come up with a better design for this when they manufactured it, they really would have made the perfect beginner guitar.

Tone Quality: 7.5 out of 10
Tonal Flexibility: 8 out of 10
Loudness 6 out of 10
Portability: 7 out of 10
Reliability: 9.5 out of 10 (did I mention it was durable?)
Worth (Monetary): 9 out of 10 (depending on where you get it, it is between $20 and $100 dollars used)
Overall Average: 7.8 out of 10

Korg MA-30 Digital Metronome

Korg MA-30 Digital Metronome

Overall Rating: 8.25 out of 10

It’s a metronome. Plain and simple. The Korg MA-30 is one of the better metronomes I have encountered. It is loaded with all the features of a metronome, but is a slender 4 x 2.5 x .5 inch package. The screen is really easy to read, and the buttons are really easy to press, which makes it really easy to say that it’s easy to use. Another great feature of this metronome is the inclusion of subdivisions: the metronome creates rhythms including duplets, triplets, triplets with the inner beat left out, quadruplets, and quadruplets with the inner beat left out. Unlike most metronomes that have this feature, the MA-30 makes it loud enough to be useful. Which brings me to my favorite part of this metronome. If you are going to use a metronome, you want it to be loud. This metronome cuts through my loudest French horn playing, but also has an easy to use volume control on the side, which means that you can turn it down when you don’t want that annoying click in your ear.

The average price for the Korg MA-30 is around $30.00, which is decent for the metronomes worth.

Loudness: 9 out of 10
Portability: 8.5 out of 10
Worth (Monetary): 7 out of 10
Cool Factor: 8.5 out of 10 (Mine is neon blue =D )

Overall Average: 8.25 out of 10