I mentioned yesterday how I went to my first ever Guitar Center. In that article I mentioned that I had planned to visit the Orange Outlet Guitar Center store. I have to say, that visit went well. It went very well. For me, for Ibanez and for Guitar Center. Mostly for me.
Why? Well, because I ended up buying two new Ibanez guitars that I now have to somehow get home to Australia. How hard can that be?! … Visit two Guitar Center stores … Walk out with two new guitars
The four regular readers of this site—I’m pretty sure I gained a new reader in 2014—will know that I like guitars. When I say like, I of course mean I have a problem. I have a fascination. I’m not actually a good guitar player, but guitars bring me a whole lot of joy. Today, I visited the Hollywood Guitar Center on Sunset Blvd. It seems nobody here ever types the word Boulevard which suits me—it’s a tricky word to spell!
All I can say is … OMFG. If you don’t recognise that acronym, Google it.
Guitar Center is like my grown-up version of a toy store. I wanted everything I saw and I was trying to work out how to get it all back to Australia. I figured I’d work out the method of payment afterwards. Surely there is a 25 year lay-away plan or something. … My first visit to a Guitar Center … OMFG
Every year I like to challenge myself to find 52 different guitar related items from a theme. Two years ago it was 52 guitars. Last year it was 52 amplifier heads. This year I’ve decided to write about 52 different guitar pedals. Knowing this would be the theme, I decided a few days ago to ask folks on social media for suggestions. I just didn’t let people know why I was asking. Evil right?
I asked the same question on Instagram. One suggestion I ended up with was delay. Many individual models of delay were suggested, but I decided to focus on one of the more recent models—the DM-2W—because it’s a very nice blend of old and new.
Let the next 52 article series begin. … 52 pedals, week 1—BOSS DM-2W Delay
My third CD artwork job for artist Steve Case involved the creation of a plain CD—it was default silver with black text—and a cardboard sleeve design. Much to my delight, Steve wanted this piece to be primarily black and white. I needed to convert most images so they appeared to come from the same photo shoot—they had not and the lighting was quite different—and the rest of the concept came together after working with Steve on his original ideas. I was once again allowed some creative license, and the finished product is what you see here.
… Steve Case (Helium Heart) CD artwork
Have you ever heard a popular song and thought “I don’t mind that at all! Pity it isn’t heavy metal.” I’ve had that thought plenty of times over the years. Oh, I should point out that I only hear pop songs through friends and family.
Street cred retained.
Luckily for us all, there are plenty of rock and/or metal bands who have re-recorded some of the most popular pop songs (pop pop songs?!) and I thought I’d share some of my favourites with you. Enjoy! … My top 10 metal versions of pop songs
I applied the revised Dialtone Pickups logo to this business card design which will be used at the Namm Show in 2015. The business card incorporates the company’s new tagline Go from sounding good to great (as well as the logo) on the front of the card with the business contact details on the back of the card. The font used in the company logo is used to highlight the business card owner and the company URL on the back of the business card.
… Dialtone Pickups business card
The Dialtone Pickups team were looking for a simple, single colour T-shirt design that not only used their logo, bud did so in a way that let people know what their company was about. What better way to let people know you create awesome guitar pickups than by putting your logo in a guitar (right where a pickup would go).
… Dialtone Pickups T-shirt design
The original website design for the Scarebear website was purely black and white. The guitars featured on that website share that same basic need for the lack of colour. When producing business cards for that brand, it was important to make sure black and white featured strongly in the design.
… Scarebear business cards
I recently became aware of a new trend on the Interweb. Colour. Some people refer to it is color, but that’s OK. You can’t be right all the time. I’ve always prided myself on keeping up with the times and at times being somewhat of an Interweb pioneer. Keeping that fiction in mind, today I introduce the all new Scarebear website. There are many changes. You’ve hopefully noticed some already. Read on if you care and I’ll share the amazing details with you. I might also start explaining the details using actual facts and less fiction.
Might. … scarebear.rocks … New URL, new colours, same lack of content.
Recently I posted an Instagram photo of my newly acquired Rob Zombie Live BluRay disc The Zombie Horror Picture Show. I’d purchased it with the Megadeth Countdown to Exctinction Live DVD (it seems near impossible to get that one on BluRay). When posting the image to Twitter I was asked politely to review the concert movie. When I say politely, I mean there was talk of flash mobs and burning Gibsons. I couldn’t allow that. I love Gibsons and I hate crowds. So, here is my own review/opinion of the Rob Zombie live concert movie that is … The Zombie Horror Picture Show.
I freaking loved it.
Pretty simple really. But perhaps I should expand on that. Oh OK, I will. … The Zombie Horror Picture Show—Review
