Newsletter

This newsletter features a comprehensive review of MOTU's Track16, the scoop on how to use your DAW as a virtual mixdown deck, and how true-bypass loop pedals can make your life easier. There's also a provocative editorial on "The 'Index of Gear Paranoia'," along with Cool Threads and Newsmakers.

Conspiracy theories have become a booming business. One of my favorites is that NASA is surely hiding crucial data on alien contact. Well, I hate to burst any bubbles, but NASA would give anythingto be able to make a case for aliens. They get a pretty small piece of the budget, and if NASA could find faces on Mars or evidence of buildings, you can bet their budget would go up astronomically. Yet people ignore logic and figure that if there’s no proof of little green men, then by golly, it's because somebody’s hiding it.

Christmas/Hanukkah 2012 are behind us, and New Year’s Day 2013 is ahead of us, so we’re in the middle of the holiday season. And as this is often a time for reflection, we too would like to reflect on something: The power of music.

Some people don’t seem to consider the arts as all that important, but think about it. Nothing unlocks memories of holiday seasons past like Christmas carols.

Despite the image of the badass revolutionary guitarist, the reality is that by and large, guitarists are pretty conservative. And why not? A classic is a classic. There’s a reason why Les Pauls and Strats have endured for decades; the Stratocasters that Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix played were virtually identical to what’s hanging on your music store’s guitar walls today. And decades from now, I’m quite sure people will also covet today’s PRS guitars as classics.

I broke a G string on my 1966 Telecaster yesterday. It was time for a new set of strings anyway, so I headed off to the nearest Guitar Center. 

But when I asked for a set of strings for my Tele, the clerk behind the counter said “Which year?” When I said “1966,” he replied “That particular model of Telecaster was discontinued over a decade ago, so we don’t support it with strings anymore.”

I was shocked, to say the least, and asked what I could do. “Well,” the clerk replied, “It’s pretty much obsolete since you can’t get strings for it, so you might as well throw it out. Or, we do offer a $300 neck upgrade that accommodates our newer model strings.”