No that’s not just a flesh wound, it’s the first single from the upcoming solo album of former Gn’R guitar hero Slash, soberly called “Slash” which is due to be released next month and features a plethora of guests from Ozzy to Lemmy through the likes of Dave Grohl and Chris Cornell. This song features Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother:

For a track by track analysis of the album, check Music Radar’s article on the matter, and if you’re in the UK look out for the April issue of Classic Rock where the full album will be included before it hits the stores.

Ok I think the guitar heroes have been sitting around a table recently and bounced ideas off each other. Closely following the “Design a JEM” contest, it’s now Joe Satriani’s turn to propose a competition for people to design their own guitar. Only this time it’s not tied in to the JEM, but to Joe Satriani’s signature models.

And the prizes are quite enticing too, check this out:

• an Ibanez guitar with the winner’s own design
• a Vox Satchurator
• a Planet Waves strap
• Joe’s new CD and DVD “live in Paris”

The contest runs until the 16th of March so get to your pencils!

For more details, check out the official page for the contest, along with the submission form and a design template

Direct from Steve Vai himself, the rules for the Design a JEM contest have now been published by Ibanez. They’re pretty straightforward, though I recommend you read them first before going toooo crazy on submitting a design, there are certain restrictions. Other than that as long as you’re over 18 and not an employee of Ibanez, you’re free to enter. Here’s the details in Steve’s words:

To celebrate the sale of the 77,777th Ibanez Jem guitar, Steve Vai and Ibanez are holding a very special contest that gives you the opportunity to design the Ibanez Jem of your dreams! The winner of the contest will have the guitar made for them to their specifications by Ibanez. Only two guitars will be produced – one for the winner and one for Steve, making this one of the rarest Jems ever produced!

The contest is on now! Visit http://www.ibanez.co.jp/JEMUV/contest.html for official rules, details and your Jem template. Three entries per person are permitted, so go crazy! Contest ends on June 6th 2010.

In addition to the design software from Jemsite I posted last time, there’s also a template available for the the Ibanez website to use as a base. So get designing, you can submit up to 3 designs so don’t worry about not getting it quite right the first time.

Not exactly a new song but this one comes with footage from Iron Man II… Enjoy

I know this isn’t guitar per se but it is performed by a woman I have seen playing guitar solos, sounding just like a guitar solo, on a keyboard. Of course that’s not the case here, but could you expect nothing less from Paul Gilbert’s wife Emi? And it is a brilliant piece, perfectly executed with a dexterity I always admire in Pianists. So I hope you like it too:

For those interested, Emi is running her own website, together with a blog with wonderful insights. The above video is the first in a video blog she started this week. (Thanks to Jenn for pointing it out by the way )

Okay, why didn’t I think of that uh? Well okay, I’m no engineer, but you have to admit it’s a pretty clever idea. Essentially, based on the fact that traditional wind turbines only use a fragment of the potential energy that the wind carries (the video says 50% but I’m sure I’ve read that 35% was the best you could get from off-shore turbines which use larger blades) by dissipating the wind, the jet engine technology concentrates the wind in two combined flows to increase the amount of energy produced. This means their efficiency, compared to traditional turbines is increased three to four-fold.

Check the video after the jump:

This looks like a design idea for a prototype, but here’s the good news. The company behind the design, FloDesign, originally an R&D firm, has been granted $8.3 million by the US Department of Energy to commercialise their prototype. This added to a series of high profile investments mean the company now has $34.5 Million to begin commercial development. In other words, a wind of change is coming on the renewable energy market (umm… )

To me this is tremendously exciting. I’m a huge believer in the potential that wind has to clean up the grid off coal, and other dirty sources. Sure they’re not quite as elegant and the traditional wind turbines but efficiency is the key here and they have a lot in their favour:

• produces twice as much power
• requires less land as turbines need not be so far apart
• easier to transport
• work with both slower and faster winds than traditional turbines
• automatically aligns to the direction of the wind without needing a motor

The only thing they don’t mention is noise but I guess we’ll have to wait until the prototypes are built to find out. I won’t make the mistake of comparing the noise that a plane’s jet engine makes as this is caused for the most part by the combustion engine in it that heats up the air to provide propulsion. However, when wind gets trapped in buildings causing draughts and so on, it usually makes quite a bit of noise… but then again it’s probably negligible on this device.

Imagine just how much more power these could produce! Last year Spain reported having peaked their wind energy production at just over 50% of the total grid output. With a system like this in place, they could easily reach 100% in fortuitous days.

The smart grid is coming… hopefully.

[Seen on TreeHugger]

The following is a beautiful video put together by the whatismissing foundation, seen on TreeHugger. It’s a beautiful perspective on deforestation which needs to be seen if only for its visual beauty.

Let’s not forget that deforestation is the second largest contributor to CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and therefore not something to turn a blind eye at. Whether it’s the Amazon rain forest, the Indonesian rain forest or those of central Africa, often forests are felled at a staggering rate to allow for more pasture grounds thus increasing the amount of livestock which contribute to GHG emissions themselves. It’s also controversially used to grow plants to be exclusinvely used as biofuels as is the case in Borneo with the increasing growth of palm trees for oil.

Deforestation is also tightly linked with the loss of habitat for species we often know little to nothing about. Regularly new species are being discovered and already they are on the brink of extinction. Biodiversity is being seriously endangered by deforestation and without biodiversity it’s the whole biological balance of the planet which is put at risk.

Thankfully many people are strongly raising awareness of the issue, people like Prince Charles or groups like Greenpeace.

If you’re wondering what can be done about it, the simplest method is to be aware of the wood-based products that you buy and make sure they come from from sustainable sources. The main wood-based products we use on a daily basis is of course, paper. Printer paper, toilet paper, tissues or kitchen towels are the most ubiquitous ones. Look out for the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo below:

Oh and make sure you recycle all discarded paper as much as possible. Finally, avoiding products that contain palm oil is another way to take action. It might not make a dent in the exploitation of the Indonesian rain forest but at least it makes us more aware consumers.

No related posts.

A little bit late today (we had a party at home) but here’s this week’s sound, inspired by a video posted by Greg Howe himself, Jump Start by the same Greg Howe from his album Introspection, enjoy:

Aah, the JEM, such an iconic guitar for the fanboys like myself who relish in simple, yet elegant designs in a guitar which can be customised again and again but still retain its essence. Unfortunately, the JEM is a high level guitar and therefore one I’ve never been able to afford. But there might be hope.

Steve Vai and Ibanez have announced an upcoming contest for you (and me, umm, hopefully) to design the next JEM. This is to celebrate the 77,777 JEM to be sold (I did say they are expensive) and there will be only 2 manufactured: One for the winner and one for Steve. Check the video below:

Now if you don’t know how to design a guitar, that’s ok, neither do I, but there’s a great resource on line to come up with ideas, it’s called the VRG-Builder. It won’t allow you to do fancier designs than plain colour but it can give you a template to begin with.

If  residents outside the US can enter, I might give it a shot, as I would love to own a custom-made JEM. More on the Ibanez website, contest details have not yet been announced.

I almost bypassed this one. It’s a few days old but the official Ibanez YouTube channel posted a video of Joe Satriani talking about his newest guitar which he used on a few Chickenfoot songs, the JS2400. The main new feature is the neck extending to 24 frets, which required some slight design changes on the body.

It’s a sleek looking guitar and it seems like a good choice for those looking for something giving a bit of a vintage sound with the option of staying heavy. Here’s the video below:

Now you can pre-order it from guitarguitar for £1,670 if you fancy it