Still slogging away in Studio SG, working on a new "album", and enjoying some sounds from Salmonella Rex.

"The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton."

Rock pioneer Bo Diddley dies at age 79

Spaz Out New York: Everything I Need To Know, I've Learned from Iron Maiden

Get an exclusive look at the inner working of our own world-renowned “dream factory”—the Fender Custom Shop in Corona, Calif. In each video, the Custom Shop’s Mike Eldred gives you an up-close look at some of our famous facility’s latest and greatest creations, from meticulously crafted artist tribute models to distinctively distressed “Relic” guitars and other fantastic instruments …

Videos of some of the current Fender Custom Shop guitars.

and here is one that is giving me "GAS"

MySpace.com - THE SWORD - Austin, Texas - Metal / Rock - www.myspace.com/thesword

HotFrets Chord Progression Generator

New Music from Robert Svilpa - A Fine Line Between… » new demo today

celemony_ :: Direct Note Access

 Buddy Miles, Hendrix Drummer, Dies - New York Times

http://guiborchert.com/play/texturizer/04.jpg

The Flying V Turns 50

RIP, Old Pal. You turned Moscow on it's ears, when we played there in '92.

Ben McMillan, singer for Gruntruck and Skin Yard, dead at 46

The George Fullerton 1957 Stratocaster® Guitar and Pro Jr® Amp.

I'm not sure how Fender does it, or what magic power they posses, but they keep producing stunning Limited Editions that I can't help but drool over.

From The Gibson Guitar Company, World's first 'robot' guitar. You can get all the details, as well as, enter a contest for one of the first 4000 limited edition guitars, from Gibson.com.

Facebook | Guitar Chords

Form our sister site, Channel 9 - Cakewalk: Making Music with Sonar

Yes, I know, I've been lagging in the blogging department, and while I have already prepared a short list of redundant excuses (old laptop went TU, new laptop needed Microsoft Vista 64 bit drivers, work, life, juggling small kittens, etc.), I figure it is better to just to keep blogging along like nothing has happened. Well, in reality, where I visit from time to time, all sorts of things are happening:

Self-biased political commentator, Stephen Colbert, has announced his plans to consider whether or not to announce that he has decided to think about running for the position of "President of the United States of America". Personally, I think he really just wants to rule South Carolina. In that stark placed named "reality", he is actually helping teachers in SC get teaching resources their classrooms via DonorsChoose.org, which was created by Craig of CraigsList.com fame.

Conspiracy theorists are having a field day with "NSPD-51" or , and Ron Rosenbaum, of Slate.com, asks "Who will run the country after the next 9/11?". Of course, you can read the actual public facing document here.

Since almost everyone enjoyed the conspiracy of the DaVinci Code, this article about how the Vatican destroyed the Knights Templar makes for an interesting follow up read. This also lead me some very antique ambigram matchbox artwork.

The descent of Heroin, as presented by pictures, and sort of NSFW.

The Big Blue Marble.

I came across this interesting "do it yourself" article about how to build a USB enabled guitar. This really is a great idea for a project, as I've been idly waiting for some company such as Fender to come out with this kind of modification. If anybody else has done something similar to this, like maybe putting in a FireWire connector, I'd love to hear more about the project, and hear some of the output!

And just to add a couple of links for the programming crew, I came across these two opinion pieces taking on Bjarne Stroustrup's C++. They include "10 things I love & hate about C" and "Why D is kicking C++'s ass".

And lastly, this NSFW data splice of Google Images results for the term "housewife", though it does demonstrate the power of their filtering algorithm. and Microsoft's Live Image search has similar results.

The Fender Custom Shop does it again, this time with a version of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Lenny" Stratocaster, named after his loving wife.

The Stevie Ray Vaughan "Lenny" Stratocaster® Guitar

Well, the cat is out of the bag, all the rumors are true, I'm working with a very good friend and talented musician, Robert Svilpa, on his new CD, entitled "Paraesthesia". I'm pretty excited about these sessions, and Robert has gathered some other incredibly gifted musicians to help lend a progressive aura to his newest material. This new collection of songs will feature the following players:

• Paul Harrington, on keyboards and vocals
• Mark Parris, thumbing fretted, fretless and upright basses, along with Moog Taurus bass pedals and additional keyboards
• John Hernandez, on drums
• Robert Svilpa - electric & sustainer guitars, 6 & 12 string acoustic guitars, keyboards, lead & background vocals
• and lastly, Sean Gephardt, playing Fender and Gibson electric and acoustic guitars.

About Paraesthesia and also the Official MySpace site.

Presidential Polyps on Dilbert.com, "You can play along at home. Leave a comment with your own best joke about the president’s semi-colon.".

Ever wonder how guitars string are made? I know I was.

An estimated 26,806 Americans wounded or killed (as of 7.23.2007) , and other estimated 70,000+ Iraqi dead, and oil services company, Halliburton posts double profits.

From the corner of "Go For It!" - "And thus the Lord Jesus said, 'BRAAAAIIIIIINNNS".

"Science has been canceled because your parents prefer to believe in magic.".

"In a strongly worded document drawn up in response to the plan that will affect the 4 million-plus Britons who travel to the US every year, the EU parliament said it 'notes with concern that sensitive data ( personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and data concerning the health or sex life of individuals) will be made available to the DHS and that these data may be used by the DHS in exceptional cases'."

"Orthodox Paradox" by Noah Feldman, is defined as discrimination.

What the photos on MySpace.com really say.

Fender® and the Fender Custom Shop is deeply saddened by the loss of longtime Senior Master Builder John English. John died June 28 at the age of 57. John was considered by some folks "in the know" to be one of the best master builders that the Fender Custom Shop ever employed, and his guitars fetch top dollar amongst guitar collectors and dealers. Personally, I don't own one, but I've played a few, and I'm still entertaining the "GASsy" idea of getting one of the "Stealth" Esquires, and the neck and middle pickups on this model are hidden beneath the pick guard. I'll leave you to do your own Internet search to find the "guitar p0rn" of John's creations.

Wow, I'm been dragging on posting recently, as I've been pretty caught up playing with Windows Presentation Foundation & "SilverLight", which hopefully you all have noticed. So maybe it is time for more of editorial based post, instead of glitzy animations.

To start things off, this hilarious conversational about perceptions of online instant messaging conversations entitled "How I failed the Turing Test" by Jason Striegel, actually made me chuckle. It seems like a throw back to the early days of the Internet, specifically all the "adult" chat rooms that AOL had, and the poor author is left questioning his own existence.

The Nation still has this article - "Blowback" - online, discussing very clearly a picture as to why "terrorists hate us". This is very similar in context to what presidential candidate and Texas state representative Dr. Ron Paul trying to clarify for sometime now.

Also entering the 2008 race for president of the United States, Cthulhu.

On a serious note, my heart goes out to the family, friends and fans of legendary blues guitarist Bo Diddley, who has been recently hospitalized after having a stroke. I've been a long time fan myself, and his musical influence can be heard in several modern blues based musicians. You can take a listen to some of his galvanizing music, and let the roots of rock n roll sink in.

Why do people do stupid things that ruin it for the rest of us? The Seattle Times reporter Warren Conrnwall takes a look at thieves stealing maple tree blocks from the Northwest big-leaf maple trees. I'm intrigued by this, being a fancier of exotic guitars, but I had no idea there is a "black market" for this type of stuff, nor the extent people will go for a gorgeous maple neck or to fill a drug addiction.

"And that's why the system hates Dick Dale."

Some very astute advice on entering the music industry from "The King of Surf Guitar", and from now on, also to be known as "The King of DIY". Hail, Hail, Dick Dale!

Fender's Custom Shop has produced yet another amazingly gorgeous anniversary limited edition Stratocaster, built in celebration of their 60th anniversary. Entitled "The Fender Custom Shop Presidential Select Stratocaster", this package includes not only the guitar, but includes also "a case of hand-selected wine custom blended for the Fender Custom Shop by Yountville, Calif.-based Hill Family Estate". This model is limited to 100 instruments, and I'm going to guess probably most have already been sold, which is usually the case with these special runs. Those lucky enough to get one of these will have the perfect package for a nice, soothing taste of blackberry and black licorice for each jam session. Can you tell I'm getting jealous?! Be sure to check out the photo gallery at the Fender Custom Shop web site.

Here is a video demo of the brand new Fender VG Stratocaster, from live at NAMM 2007.

If ever there was a really good reason for GAS, I think this is it. No funky MIDI plug-ins, and just enough tonal variety to make it actually useful while gigging. Yes, the telecaster (and XII string Telecaster) tones sound, well just like a telecaster sound, with the benefit of a five way switch. Modeled Baritone tuning with that hot, screaming humbucker fatness, all with the quick twist of two standard stratocaster knobs. It really makes you wonder if maybe this same setup will be available in a Telecaster model (or something with a hard tail bridge!). Nudge, nudge, wink, wink Fender!. The audio on the video clip is a bit noisy (from all the people in attendance at NAMM), but from what I could hear, this is this may become the "axe of the future". I've played the Line6 guitars, and what those do provide with more tone options, they lack in actual tone. To me, the Line6 modeling sounds were "really, really" close, but just not exactly there or more precisely, lacking "character". I do enjoy using the POD amps for recording, as you don't lose the "character" of whichever guitar you are using.

Fender has a long record (no pun intended!) of hitting the mark when it comes providing functional, yet advanced features on their guitars. According to the specs, the specialized electronics provide "Five Guitar Tone Banks Deliver 16 Sounds from Humbucking to Acoustic, Five Tuning Banks Allow You to Change Tunings Without Physically Retuning". Hmm... what else would you really need? I won't be completely convinced until I hear and play one, but you know I'll be pestering the folks down at American Music! 

http://frontlinelive.fender.com/ has some really up to the minute digital content ( dare I say:WEB 2.0 ) happening right now, live from NAMM 2007. I'd actually post links to all the "utube" they are showing, but hey: we all know where it is at. I did spy a couple of enticing new toys, starting with the The new G.E. Smith Telecaster. I mentioned the Vintage Hot Rod Series Guitars a couple days back. While The Retro-Styled Champion™ 600 Guitar Amp does look like a bit of fun, it's really the ’57 Deluxe™ combo amp that seems a bit more "tweed" to me. But seriously folks, it's really all about the brand new Fender VG Stratocaster! I can't wait to get my 'dos manos grasientas' on one of these! Not to be outdone, the man himself, Edward Van Halen, is working with the Fender Custom Shop to make what appears to be the red-black-and-white striped “Frankenstein™” guitar. Reflectors included!

"Now Eddie Van Halen’s “baby” can be yours.

Just a quick link to a promotional video from NAM (National Association of Manufacturers), in which Fender Custom Shop Luthier Jason Smith talks about his work in the Fender Custom Shop. It appears to be from back in January of 2005, and there is no other context given. Jason specializes in making bass guitars, as opposed to the 6 string electric variety. He does show off a one of kind mint green Bronco/Jaguar style guitar with p90 pickups about 1:30 into it, and displays some amazing slap funk playing as well. Enjoy!

Everybody loves "guitar porn" (or should), including myself. I just came across a web site for the documentary film and book entitled "Curves, Contours and Body Horns", which was appearently made to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster. The well designed site features a very unique autographed Fender Custom Shop 40th Anniversary Stratocaster, in what I'd call "Dakota Red" with gold hard ware.

The kicker is the list of famous guitar players who have signed this instrument (according to the splash page image):

George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mark Knopfler, Brian Adams, Chris Rea, Hank Marvin , Frank Zappa, Rory Gallagher, Sherman Robertson, Nile Rodgers, John Page, Jeff Lynne, Tony Joe White, Jimmy Vaughan, Roy Rogers, Dweezil Zappa, Steve Miller, Paul Rodgers, Dick Dale, Nils Lofgren, Richie Sambora, Sony Curtis, Bonnie Raitt, Stephen Stills, Alan Rogan, Debbie Davies, Yngwie Malmsteen, Ray Minhinnett (Producer), Bob Young (Producer), Lee Dixon, Forrest White, Don Randall, Buddy Guy, Robin Trower, Fender Legend Bill Carson and Fender CEO Bill Schultz!

Speaking of Fender, the new Vintage Hot Rod '57 Stratocaster® looks like pretty sexy, especially in "Candy Apple Red"!

And since you can never have enough laughter in your life, check out 20 Metalocalypse Episodes.

If by chance, you are the proud and lucky owner of a Fender Custom Shop 50th Anniversary Masterbuilt Limited Edition 1954 Stratocaster and maybe enjo