Bad Horsie

I’ve never really felt strongly enough about the Red Hot Chilli Peppers to develop an opinion about them, but I enjoyed this piece in Guitar Player. After a lot of blah (”the force and the drive of Mars, the warrior, which is the planet of manifestation of what you feel is right from inside”), it gets into extreme geek detail about how he played guitar throug a Doepfer modular synth all over the last album. He’s using all the good stuff: Numerous Moogerfoogers, reel-to-reel tape phasing, EMT digital reverbs, the new-ish Electro-Harmonix POG, Deltalab delays. Towards the end is the wonderful line: “When we started rehearsing the songs for live performance it was a real bummer, because everything sounded so empty without the modular synth.” (Yes, that’s his live setup in the picture. Yes, he’s got three Moogerfooger low pass filters.)

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Steve is featured as part of a special series of interviews on CBS.com’s GRAMMY Awards special web feature.

CBS.com spent an afternoon with Steve at The Mothership Studio in Hollywood. The website features an extensive video interview with Steve broken into excerpts - including clips of Steve playing the new Ibanez Euphoria 9 Acoustic guitar! In the interviews, Steve talks about his early years and becoming a musician; the making of Flex-Able; touring and life on the road; his love for the guitar; the Make A Noise Foundation; and keeping a spiritual balance. He also talks about the opportunity he had to have his music performed by an orchestra that lead to his Grammy nomination for “Lotus Feet.”

Visit CBS.com to view this special feature. The site also features an exclusive interview with fellow nominee and guitar legend Les Paul. For more information on the GRAMMYs, visit grammy.com. The GRAMMYs air this Wednesday, February 8 in the USA on CBS. You can also keep up to date with the winners as they are announced on the GRAMMY website.

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Finally: one USB cable, one guitar, one computer — you’re done.

I’ve been watching for this one for a while, and at long last, it’s here and shipping. Brian Moore has taken their excellent iGuitar line of digitally-equipped guitars, and added class-compliant USB, via the new iGuitar.USB model. Plug it into a USB jack, and you have instant access to your sound in recording and effects software, no drivers required. Fully bus-powered, so you don’t even need a power brick. Unlike Gibson’s so-called “digital guitar,” what’s great about the iGuitar.USB is that you can connect a single USB cable between your guitar and your computer for audio: no breakout boxes or multiple cabling required.

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A previously unreleased track by Steve titled “Rush” appears on the new album The Sounds of NASCAR. This soundtrack is available exclusively through iTunes. Preview the track by clicking here. (Note that this link will only work if you have iTunes installed.)

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I’ve been listening to a lot of BLS, Slipknot, Slayer, etc. lately, and wanted to venture into the realm of heavier guitar tones. So, I bought an Ibanez RG7321 last month. It’s so sick! I can’t believe I’ve waited several years to buy a 7-string.

Interestingly, I’ve not really had a hard time transitioning from a 6- to a 7-string. I’ve heard several folks say, “It’s got a huge learning curve,” or “the neck is too wide to play comfortably.” I can’t say I’ve experienced any of those things, but I do have long, thin fingers, so that may be a benefit to me.

It’s even lighter than my RG321. It has a basswood body with glossy black finish and 5-piece maple neck.

What can I say, I love Ibanez. I love everything they make. I lustfully ogle the Ibanezes every time I go to the local music store. I can’t help it…

Anyhoo, I sold my Fender Floyd Rose Fat Strat on eBay this month, and bought an Ibanez RG321 a week later. I hated to sell the Strat, but it was heavy, and I’d forgotten what a pain in the ass a Floyd Rose trem is, keeping it tuned that is. I hated having to use an Allen wrench every time I wanted to tune up.

This new Ibanez is a great guitar. It’s very light, much lighter than my Strat, which is strange considering it has a mahogany body. The stock humbuckers are very hot. Great for heavy rock and metal tones, but I can get a little twang out of it, too, fun for chickin’ pickin’. It has a satin stain instead of your standard glossy finish which shows the mahogany grain nicely.

Buckethead is an awesome guitar virtuoso. His guitar playing is a great addition to ODB’s lyrics. Check out this tribute to ODB.

Ibanez announced a new Steve Vai JEM model at the Jan. ‘05 NAMM show. “Bad Horsie” (named after the song of the same name) features a Rock Mirror finish with a clear pickguard. It also shares familiar JEM features such as the Monkey Grip and scooped tremelo routing. Pricing is $3099 SRP, and around $2300 street price. A little high priced for a basswood body, bolt-neck guitar, but most signature model guitars are much higher in price and their non-signature cousins. But, then again it is a Vai guitar.

In the early days of amplified music, distortion was usually considered a “no-no.” Simply amplifying (making louder) the sound of an instrument (like an acoustic guitar) is what musicians were initially after. However, many Blues, Country, and finally Rock-n-Roll guitarists discovered that by turning their tube amps up high, they could create a rich, sustaining distortion sound– not unlike that of a raspy saxophone solo, which was popular in those days. In the 1960’s, the first commercially available “fuzz boxes” made it easier to simulate the “sound effect” of an overworked amp or torn speaker.

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I finally got my Dimarzio pickups installed a couple of weeks ago. They definitely make my Strat sound louder.

I just bought a Dimarzio Evolution bridge humbucker and two Dimarzio HS-2 single-coils for my Mexican Strat to get a Vai-ish sound.
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I’m very excited to announce the arrival of BadHorsie.net! This site is dedicated to all things guitar from artists to techniques to new product reviews.

More to come…