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Blackbird Rider Nylon Guitar Actually Carbon-Fibre and Nearly Indestructible
Posted by Kit Eaton at 8:50 PM on November 18, 2008
Blackbird's Rider Nylon guitar is actually not made of nylon—ok its strings are—but instead it's far more highly-tech'd and its body and neck are actually carbon fibre. It may not be bullet-proof, but Blackbird says its "nearly indestructible," making it perfect as a travel guitar. The material has meant a few design tweaks over a traditional shape: it's far squarer, and the sound holes are now a single hole moved up to the neck, and dubbed a "soundscoop" instead—apparently this makes for a better sound response. The other side-effect is that it's light enough at 3-pounds to fit into an aircraft overhead locker. High-tech costs though—the nylon string model is $US1,900, a smaller steel-stringed version is $US1,600. [Product via GadgetLab]
It looks like the reason Gibson's self-tuning Robot guitar had a limited run is that the legendary guitar innovator had the much more insane followup already blueprinted up: Gibson's Dark Fire Les Paul-style digital guitar is the crowning shred-related scientific achievement of our time.
Get this for tech-overload: the SH Stompin'Bass from Shadow Electronics is made of chosen rosewood, comes with a velcro-attached extender block for comfort during long sets, has a high-quality NanoMAG humbucker pickup and a shielded case with low-impedance output to reduce hum. All of which basically disguises the fact it's a wooden block designed to amplify the sounds of folk-music style foot stomping. Which'll cost you $US200. And if you excuse me, I'm off now to belt out a few verses of Donald Where's Yer Troosers, and make do with tapping on my wooden floor. [
We don't know too much about the Fender Bender, but we do know that, like Lord Vader, machinery and electronics have replaced much of the original. In the Bender's case, inventor "Dan" has stripped out all the bits that made this a guitar, and then replaced them with sound board bits. The result is this "weird sound generator" that he can also play using a hand-made motherboard pick guard. Maybe he'll be in touch with a few solo videos so we can hear how this thing sounds. Easy bet: Guitar Hero at 11. [
DJs or other beat mashing fiends with more than two arms are being held back by today's traditional turntables, so it's a good thing Highwater Sound is around to create $US56,000 four arm Frankensteins like this thing. The table is built around a TW-Acoustic Raven AC and implements three motors. The arms were assembled from parts from Breuer Dynamic, Graham Engineering, Triplanar, and Ortofon, and the cartridges are the work of Dynavector, Ortofon, and Miyabi. We imagine that if you're a DJ, that last sentence caused the ol' heart rate to increase just a tad, among other things. [
So, 
Up until now, I had never heard of Aussie indy-rocker Josh Pyke. However, sailing the seas on a giant guitar is something that tends to get people noticed. The boat is prominently featured in the video for his new single Make You Happy, and it appears to be an accurate replica of his favourite guitar. Unfortunately, it is not an actual, playable instrument—which is just as well. Jamming on this thing would require far too much effort. [
In Jason's review of 
Just like the actual Rock Band 2 game, the new Rock Band 2 peripherals work more at refining the experience than redefining it. The wireless guitar and wireless drum kit add a bit of freedom from tripping and crashing into coffee tables, as well as minor design decisions that only improve your fake rocking out. The improvements aren't different or better enough for Rock Band 1 owners to throw out their current gear and buy these versions, but they are a great bonus for people who are buying the 
