Gizmodo Australia » guitar

Laser Synthitar: Man’s Weapon Against Sharks With Laser Beams

Mark Wilson — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:40:00 +0000

A shark with a laser beam is a pretty freaking deadly animal—so we understand. No one has lived to tell the tale. But when these sharks finally attack Man in mass, we’ll have a plan.

That plan is called the Laser Synthitar. The DIY project combines a broken guitar (thought useless!) with three standard laser pointers (thought boring!) and a sound modulation system (thought deafening!). Combined, these technologies form the most promising defence against sharks with laser beams. But even if we still fall to the techno-aquatic beast, we’ll do so while rocking. [Instructables via Synthopia via MAKE]

Sting Teaches You to Play Guitar in Garageband ‘09

Mark Wilson — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:51:00 +0000

In one of the odder announcements during the Macworld keynote, Sting, along with others like Norah Jones, will teach you to play guitar and piano in Garageband ‘09.

Old British Busker Demonstrates Guitar Hero v0.1

John Herrman — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:10:00 +0000

You don’t even have to ask this English busker/artist/engineer why he made his pedal-driven, guitar-plucking, steampunk-looking musical whatsit, because his reasons are bolted to the side:

I built this machine because of unreliable guitarists. It don’t smoke! It don’t drink! And it’s never late.

That’s great, guy, but I’ve got a strange feeling that alcohol isn’t completely out of the picture here. [CollegeHumor - Thanks, Reed!]

Guitar Hero 4 Guitar to Have More Buttons?

Gizmodo US Edition — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:44:26 +0000

If you look at the guitar pictured in the Guitar Hero promo page you will notice what looks like new buttons on the base of the fretboard. Knowing about the expanded new drums, this could mean that they are going to increase the complexity of the guitars too, requiring even more dexterity than previous versions. Note to Guitar Hero people: no matter how complex you make it, it still won’t be a real guitar. [Guitar Hero—thanks Alex]

Rock Band Standalone Instruments Get Ship Dates, Price

Jason Chen — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:00:12 +0000

The days of only being able to buy Rock Band instruments in a gigantic pack are about to come to an end as the creators just announced dates and pricing on their instruments. The drums will be US$79 on February 12 and the guitar will be US$59 on April 1. The PlayStation 3 version of the guitar will work on both PS3 and PS2, and will also get the US$59 price tag. There’s no announcement for the USB microphone, however, but you can rig up your own mic by using a standard USB mic or just the Xbox Live headset and a controller.

AU: Man, I’d just love it if we had a release date in Australia… Of course, I’m sure our good friends at Kotaku AU will update us when that happens.

[IGN]

N-Tune Guitar Tuner Offers On-Board Tuning

Jason Chen — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:50:48 +0000

Losing tuners comes more naturally to us than actually playing the guitar, which is why this N-Tune guitar tuner seems so great. It attaches under your guitar’s volume knob and lights up to the appropriate key when you’re in pitch. At $US100 it’s also $100 more expensive than the tuner we currently own, so we’re going to have to lose a lot more tuners to justify buying one of these when it’s available later this month. [N-Tune via BB Gadgets]

LCDetar Rocks Geek Style With Onboard Laptop

Mark Wilson — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:58:10 +0000

The LCDetar may be the ultimate laptop mod. By sticking an aging laptop into a guitar, a pretty standard music visualisation display transcends to rock god status. Now if we could only fit a laptop into our Rock Band controller…and if our Rock Band controller could only produce music without the game… [techeblog]

uRock MP3 Player and Speaker Amp is Fit for Smurfs

Haroon Malik — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:56:23 +0000

Like your penis under an electron microscope, the uRock guitar MP3 player and amp speaker look regular-sized. Again, like your penis, they are in fact teeny-weeny, but unlike your maggot and peas, the uRock set has a use. The guitar in the set functions as an MP3 player, with 1GB storage and support for MP3 and WMA playback.

The impressive little tyke comes with a lanyard and a tiny pick, which will only ever be used to clean your filthy nails. The amp is equally small, but it functions as a portable speaker. Given its size, it probably isn’t going to blow anyone away, and we are quite frankly astonished by the similarities between your manhood and the uRock set. If you want to waste Â£45.99 ($105.72) on this device, don’t let us stop you. [Product Page via Technabob]