I love these little Planet Waves SOS tuners. They call them SOS: Strobe On String and they work by pulsing two little LEDs at a particular frequency. You pluck a string and shine the light on it. If it’s out of tune, the pattern made by the light wobbles about. When the string is in tune, the pattern becomes stable. Easy peasy.

I’ve got a couple of these in my workshop as I frequently need to tune guitars (or even necks mounted on temporary—surrogate—bodies for refrets) with no pickups to plug into an external tuner. The workshop can be a noisy place with extractors, dehumidifiers and music so it’s easier to use one of these SOS tuners than it is to turn off the noisy things to allow me to hear the correct tuning.

Seriously, they’re great. Everyone should have one. Off you go to Amazon and get yourself one: Planet Waves S.O.S. Guitar Tuner

That said, sometimes, one of the LEDs stops working.

Single LED not working in SOS Tuner

I found this a couple of times and it was annoying. It’s not possible to use it with only one LED working and, after this happened to the second tuner, I cursed Planet Waves and assumed some sort of manufacturing defect. I even threw out my first tuner because only one little red light remained.

Turns out, I was an idiot.

If you’ve got a Planet Waves SOS tuner and one of the LED’s fails, don’t chuck it in the bin. Instead, replace the battery. Presto! All back to normal.

It seems a bit of an odd system to have a single LED fail while the other one works as the battery is drained but that’s what happens. If one LED remains working as brightly as normal, a battery isn’t the first thing to leap to mind. That’s what it is however. In my case at least, but this has worked for me on a half-dozen occasions now.

Incidentally, these use those little coin-cell battery things. Buy them from eBay if you need them. You can usually get them in tens, shipped from Hong Kong, for the same price (or less) than you can buy one for in your local shop. I’ve got about ten year’s supply of them for a few bucks.

Oh, and there’s a bass version of the SOS tuner too. Planet Waves S.O.S. Bass Tuner

So we all know that there’s never a 9V battery in your guitar case when you need it. Trailing sockets and extension leads do the trick but they do get in the way and there’s all those wall-warts and their associated knot of power cables to consider.

Sanyo reckon they have the answer. Pictured left* is the Pedal Juice (or KBC-9V3U Pedal Juice, to give it its catchy moniker). It’s a rechargeable, Lithium-Ion battery that provides 9V of clean, DC, power to your pedals. Neat.

Depending on use, it can supply up to 50 hours of juice (see infographic below) and it can be recharged in three and a half hours. It’s water and shock resistant and features a handy on/off button so you can turn off all your pedals at the same time and not have to worry about unplugging them to save power. A red/amber/green indicator shows remaining charge.

Sanyo also tout the fact that, by eliminating the requirement for mains power to your pedals, and the possible ground-loops and interference that could be associated, your signal path could actually be cleaner and your tone improved. While technically true, I’m a little sceptical as to the degree of improvement that would be evident but I’m open to being convinced.

At a cost (reported by Engadget) of US$149.99, the Pedal Juice doesn’t come cheap but this seems like a relatively neat and handy solution to fiddly wall-warts and the requirement for a never-ending supply of 9V batteries.

More at Sanyo.

*Of course, you could argue that, if you’re putting it in a powered pedal-board, like that shown in the promotional image, you are lessening the argument for its existence – not totally, but maybe just a little?

File under: That’s Clever, Why Has Nobody Thought Of That Before.

Check it out. This is the Rock Lock. It was designed by entrepreneur, Chris Goulet to fill what is, in hindsight, a pretty glaring market hole. Namely, something to stop that toerag from making off with your guitar while you’re having a well-earned beer at the end of the night.

As Goulet says, ‘guitar theft is typically a crime of opportunity…’ and this product helps to remove that opportunity.

The Rock Lock is a bit like a laptop lock with a clever neck-grasping device. You loop the strengthened cable around something bulky or immobile, lock the neck-grasping thing around the neck of your guitar and you get that beer without worrying about some nasty type stealing your baby.

Rock Lock is available online for US$49.99. At the time of writing, it is on pre-order only (although if you pre-order, you will get free shipping as soon as it’s available).

To succeed as a music accessory, any product must be able to include the word ‘rock’ in its title and receives bonus points if the second word rhymes with ‘rock’. Rock Lock as this nailed and has the added good fortune of, what looks like, a very useful and clever product.

Rock Lock should fit all standard 6-string instruments and is safe for nitro-cellulose finishes. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a wider range soon to fit basses, 12 and 7 strings, etc.

It’s occurred to me that many (I’d go so far as to say most) guitarists don’t change their strings very often. Let me clarify that a little; I mean their string brands. I suspect that, like me, many people find a brand, and usually a gauge, they like and stick with it.

It’s entirely possible this might be fine. However, there’s nothing wrong with giving things a shake now and then.

Case in point:

A while ago, I received a couple of sets of Rotosound strings to review. These were the R10 Rotos pictured. I strung them up on a couple of my guitars and played.

Then I pondered.

How the hell do you review strings? Sure I could talk about the packaging and the fact that these are the Double Decker packs (2 sets per pack) but that’s not massively interesting. It’s the sound that’s important and could my tin ears and dim-witted brain figure the subtle sonic differences between this particular set of nickel-on-steel strings and the same type from a different manufacturer?

I pondered for a long while, putting off the review because of that worry.

In fact, I put if off so long, it was time for me to replace the strings again.

And I bought Rotosounds.

Seems my brain made its mind up without me.

Take a look at that string. Notice anything?

This is from Rotosound’s Super Bronze Acoustic String set and it’s a bit different. At least from anything we’ve seen in a while. Click on the image to embiggenate.

You see, in 1974, James How, the founder of Rotosound released an acoustic string set with a difference. Those strings, called ‘Country Golds’ at the time, had the windings start a little away from the ball-end and tie – the core of the string was exposed for a short distance. The idea was that the central core or ‘contact core’ as Rotosound call it would bear against the instrument’s saddle. Not having the wrapped section of string being the contact point apparently provided a less ‘lossy’ contact and allowed for more sustain and volume as well as a brighter sound.

They even had the side effect of (slightly) reducing the action on the wound strings (which may or may not be desirable, depending on your instrument and its setup).

Hey! Look at me man! I’m standing here with my arms folded and my Thunderbird headstock isn’t diving for the floor. I’m so frickin’ cool.

This could be you. Well, if you order the Heads Up guitar strap, it could be you.

Many of us have experience it. Some guitars just don’t balance well on a strap. Many very cool looking guitars have a strap button somewhere around the heel which makes them neck-heavy and, if you happen to take your fretting hand away (to put it in the air like you just don’t care, for instance), the guitar can swivel around leaving its headstock pointing at the stage.

The folks at Heads Up want to change this and have come up with the idea of, what amounts to, counterweighting the guitar end by making a strap with pockets that accept a number of 8 oz. metal weights. It’s a, relatively, wide strap at 2.75″ and is made from a polypropylene material. Its length-adjustable (as you’d expect) from 38 to 62 inches and appears sturdy enough.

The Heads Up Strap sells through the Heads Up site only and costs US $49.99.

Personally, even though the Heads Up FAQ suggests otherwise, I’ve always found a nice wide, grippy, padded, suede strap to be more than up to the job of keeping my SG in place. Its comfortable too. Still, if you need another solution, the Heads Up might be just what the doctor ordered.

Particularly if he’s a chiropractor.

See what I did there?  Because of the weights, you see?  The weights…?  Anyone?

Tough room.

OK, so we’re stretching things slightly by posting an article with only a (very) tenuous guitar-related link but the Woogie Board is so brilliantly insane that we had to let you know about it.

It’s an electric washboard.  Crazy?  Or crazy like a stoat?

Nah, mainly crazy.  But cool.

Here’s some information from Saint Blues Guitar Workshop about the Woogie Board electric washboard…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – February 8, 2010 – Saint Blues Guitar Workshop announced today the launch of the Woogie Board, the first production electric washboard in partnership with Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars.

The Woogie Board has been developed together with Cody Dickinson. Cody is the son of legendary producer, Jim Dickinson, who worked with artists such as the Rolling Stones, the Replacements, and Bob Dylan. “I had been playing guitar, drums, and piano, then one day my father literally hung a washboard around my neck, and said ‘Son, you’re going to play the washboard’ ”, says Cody. Although it was his father’s love of roots, blues, and folk music that introduced Cody to the washboard, electrifying it and marrying with traditional guitar effects, was all Cody. “The electric washboard, which is utterly Cody’s instrument, is a thing unto itself” Cody’s father Jim, said. “That wah-wah pedal does something to it that God never intended. There’s something really, really vulgar about what the wah-wah pedal does. It makes it sound like oral sex, somehow.”

Saint Blues and Cody have taken this home grown, roots instrument and made it a true gig-worthy instrument. It is handmade in Memphis from solid Mahogany, and finished with a hand-rubbed tung oil. The Woogie Board features enclosed dual-Piezo pickups, with a three-way switch for pickup selection, volume control knob, and a high quality output jack all housed in a tele control plate built into the leg. “The electric washboard is taking things to a whole new level. It’s never been done before, it’s completely unique, and there is tradition, so it kind of has all the makings of a juggernaut” says Cody.

The sounds and effects the new Woogie Board can create outside of an amplified traditional washboard have to be heard to be believed. “When I plugged it into a wah-wah pedal and a delay, and realized it sounded like Jimmy Hendrix, it blew my mind. It’s psychedelic, it tickles that part of the brain.” Saint Blues and Cody are currently working on custom effect pedals designed for new players to create these sounds if they don’t already own these effects. “To me, there’s something irresistible about taking a familiar instrument, and a familiar chord pattern or musical structure, and doing something just completely innovative with it, like Hendrix did. It gets harder and harder to do, but clearly the Woogie Board is doing it” said Jim Dickinson.

Here, have a look at Cody performing washboard psychoflip insanity.

The Woogie Board is available to purchase through the Saint Blues website, or directly at www.woogieboard.com

How do you make a good thing better?

By doubling it.

Rotosound are now offering their best-selling R9 and R10 Rotos nickel-on-steel guitar strings in twin set packaging.  Rotosound are calling these packs, Double Deckers.

By doing this, Rotosound can reduce packaging by around 70% compared to buying two separate packs of strings.  This means savings to you too.  If you buy your strings in a Double Decker pack you’ll get them up to 20% cheaper than two individual packs.

The new Double Decker packs are coded R9-2 and R10-2 and represent Rotosound’s Rotos pink and yellow (or 9 and 10 gauge) string sets.

I’d guess we’ll see the Double Decker range extended before too long.

More on this over at Rotosound.

Mostly because we think it looks pretty cool, let’s take a look at the newly released, Tru-Strobe Pedal Tuner from Planet Waves.

Housed in the die-cast, chunky pedal housing is an accurate tuner with strobe-goodness.  The difference between your signal and the perfectly tuned note is displayed as motion on the big, circular LCD display. When the segments stop moving around, you’re in tune to an accuracy of +/- 0.1 cent.

The unit features full bypass switching and can be calibrated from A400Hz to A499Hz.  The display is high contrast and is visible even in full sunlight.

The Tru-Strobe has a 9V input/output for daisy-chaining effects and will even manage Buzz Feiten and dropped tuning presets.

And it looks cool.

More information at Planet Waves.

OK, so it looks like we may have been fooled, last week, by the very geeky Danish engineer demonstrating the prototype polyphonic tuner.  Still though, we don’t mind too much when we now have the actual, real-deal, polyphonic tuner in easy-peasy, handy, pedal format.

Splendid.

“What’s it all about?” you ask.

Well, simply put, forget about staring at your tuner picking a single string at a time.  Instead, just strum all your strings – open – and the frightfully clever gubbins inside the TC Electonic PolyTune will show you a picture of each string so you can see, at a glance the status of each.

As you can see on the left, the display shows an indication for each string simultaneously. In the case of the image here, you can see that the low-E and the G are slightly flat and the B sting is slightly sharp.  Now you know what to tweak.

That’s not the end of the TC cleverness.  The PolyTune has an ambient light sensor which can alter the intensity of the super-bright LED’s to your surroundings to make sure you can always see what’s going on.

Accurate to ±0.5 cent, the PolyTune can recognise if you play a single string and automatically switch to regular, chromatic, mode.  It’s all housed in a sturdy, die-cast aluminium box with true-bypass switching.

Sweet.

Price is expected to be US$149 and it should be hitting the shops in February 2010.

More at TC Electronics.