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Well this has to be both the coolest and surprising news I've heard in a long time as the Beatles are set to license their music catalogue for use in a new version of Rock Band. MTV and The Beatles have combined forces to create the very first video game based on the music of the Fab Four.

Representatives from MTV, Harmonix and the Beatles' Apple Corps said that the game will feature the entire Beatles catalogue and was conceived with input from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. Giles Martin, son of the band’s producer Sir George Martin and co-producer of Love, the Beatles musical project, will also give input into the game’s development.

Rock Band has turned into a surprise hit and has sold 3.5m copies to date making it the main rival to the massively popular Guitar Hero. What makes this game even more interesting is that it will be a standalone version of Rock Band rather than an add-on to Rock Band 2 which is due out soon.

What makes this such a surprise however is that fact that until now the remaining members of The Beatles have refused to allow their music to be downloaded from on-line stores such as iTunes due to fears that their music could be pirated too easily. This move however could mark the beginning a new era for the band and one which will earn them many new fans.

Labels: Beatles, guitar news

Guitarists are well and truly spoilt for choice on the internet these days however as there are so many websites on-line, sometimes it can be tricky finding the best ones. Hopefully this list of essential websites for guitarists will help you in the right direction.



Guitar Site

This magazine style website offers plenty of guitar news and gear reviews as well as tutorials and lessons. Not a bad place to start.



LickLibrary

This is a paid membership website for guitarists however the sheer wealth of content and quality on offer is well worth the monthly fee. They have some big name guitarists such as Joe Satriani and Steve Vai promoting it and you would be hard pushed to find a better community website for guitarists.



Guitar Noize

This guitar blog features some interesting posts and we'd recommend subscribing to the RSS feed when you get the chance.



Ultimate Guitar

This massive on-line guitar community is one of the most popular websites around and they have a particularly good guitar tabs section which features tabs uploaded by members. We find the layout a little confusing at times but that's probably due to the sheer amount of lessons, reviews and columns they have. Definitely one for the favourites.



Guitar Port
This website has been built around the innovative Guitarport USB amplifier and features a well laid out and feature rich layout that compliments the Guitarport perfectly. You'll get a vast library of accurate tabs, famous teachers and the ability to play rhythm, bass or lead guitar on each backing track Superb!



Guitar Toybox

Another well laid out blog that features interesting news in the guitar community.



Music Street UK

Probably our favourite place to buy guitars and equipment. The website is easy to use, they have a massive range of gear and often have deals that you would be hard pushed to find anywhere else.



Audio Tool

This is simply incredible. Built entirely in Macromedia Flash, the Audiobox on Hobnox features an array of stomp boxes, samplers and even a Roland Drum Machine.The dragable interface lets you view all the effects which can all be controlled easily via a few mouse clicks. You could spend a lot of time on this tool!



Guitar World

Just like the magazine, Guitar World provides a wealth of interviews, guitar reviews, lessons and tabs. It's geared to towards the modern rock and heavy metal scene however so it might not be everyone's cup of tea.



Jams Bio

This website is a recent discovery but we love it already. It's a social community that allows you to share your life through music and was created as a place for people to meet, reconnect, or simply stay in touch by sharing music related stories. I can see many guitarists using this website to share gigs and experiences with friends and it's also a great site to create a tribute to your favourite band or guitarist. Well worth checking out!

If you have any suggestion for even more essential websites for guitarists then we want to hear about them. Simply leave a comment below with the name and URL of the site you'd like to recommend.

Labels: guitar, guitar news, guitarists

Gibson Guitars have announced the world’s first self tuning guitar which is rather unimaginatively called the 'Gibson Robot Guitar'. Basically its a Les Paul with a modified control knob that enables the tuning of the instrument with a simple push or pull. Each tuner is equipped with specialised servo motors and as the motorized tuners adjust the pitch of the strings they are monitored by means of a Tune-Control Bridge. Gibson say that the guitar weighs the same and playability and tone isn't effected in any way.



To be honest you really need to see this to fully understand how clever this is. Check out the video below for a full demonstration.



I'm not sure whether I think this is a good idea or not to be honest. Whilst it is undeniably an ingenious piece of engineering I think it could also encourage guitarists to be lazy. Learning to tune your guitar is in my opinion a fundamental skill that all guitarists should master and helps develop your ear for music.



Whilst the Gibson robot guitar will be out of most guitarists budgets I suspect we will see a raft of cheaper copy cats before long and I'm not sure this kind of feature will help beginners and intermediates in the long term.

Having said that I think the preset range of alternate tunings is a great feature and this will probably impress more experienced guitarists. This could represent a massive time saving feature for those gigging guitarists how want to add more tonal colour to their playing.

Labels: guitar news, guitar reviews, guitars

The hugely anticipated reunion gig for Led Zeppelin has been postponed as lead guitarist Jimmy Page has fractured a finger. Page has been ordered by doctors not to play guitar for three weeks and the gig has been moved to 10th December.

It's not been revealed which finger he broke, or on what hand but for guitarists everywhere it goes without saying, any injury of this kind is a huge deal. Thankfully he is clear to start rehearsing on 23rd November. The reunion gig will also feature Pete Townshend, Bill Wyman, Paolo Nutini and Foreigner and will be held at London's O2 arena.

Can't Wait!

Labels: guitar news, guitarists