CMusicBlog

I'm guilty of it and so are you most likely.  We look at an instrument and immediately assign a tone to it without hearing it.  In many cases, if you have experience with many styles of instruments, you may be right.  But, you also may not be and that would be a shame.  I've looked at a guitar with a certain shape or certain pickups and made the assumption that it would sound like this or that.  However, I've been fooled too.

I remember a legendary Telecaster we had pass through here years ago.  Now this Tele was legendary because of its weight, it weighed a TON.  We joked that the body must have been concrete.  Now, to look at the guitar, well, it looked like every other Tele and you would expect the same classic tone.  It seemed though, that because of the incredibly dense body that the warmth had ...
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Well, Dean and the boys at Campbell American have done it this time!!  This guitar has become my fast favorite in the store.  I bring you the Campbell American Caledonian.  Single cutaway, swamp ash body (option), Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz humbuckers (option) with coil tap (option) all set off with a glossy lacquer subtle cherry burst finish.  This sounds and looks awesome.

The Caledonian features a really contoured body unlike the more squared off UK 1 (see other review) which instantly gives this guitar a eye catching look and an even better feel.  I decided to go with a Swamp Ash body to have something different from the more expected mahogany/maple combination typically found on single cutaway designs.  I am very pleased with the results, instead of a dark, thick tone we get a nice spank out of the guitar with a pleasant midrange bite that can be darkened up ...
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Just came back from Summer Namm in Nashville, TN.  Namm stands for National Association of Music Merchants for those who don't know.  Anyway, twice a year they hold shows where dealers, vendors, manufacturers and other industry folk get together to show or see new product.  We were there for 3 1/2 days and even though it was small by comparison to the winter shows, we barely got to see it all.

It was a lot of fun but I have to say I didn't see much, especially from the larger manufacturers, really groundbreaking.  New colors, some new options but most of the innovative stuff was coming from the smaller companies.  I was excited by some of the models I saw at the Vintage (that's the brand name) Guitar booth - relic versions of vintage guitars but much more affordable than the Fender Custom Shop stuff, revamped classic designs.  Michael ...

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I hope someday soon we get some new, real guitar heroes.  Sure, the game is fun (my non musician wife is better than me, her 'over 30 years as a musician' husband) and not really a substitute for real playing but I'd love to see someone step up and turn the music world on their ear.  There are a ton of great, innovative guitar players out there but they aren't getting any time in the spotlight.  We need a Hendrix badly.  Sure, Dimebag, Zakk, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai are tremendous players but the general public doesn't know them well.  Hendrix and Van Halen came on the to scene and blew the minds of guitar players and non musicians alike and that's what we need.

While 80's hair band metal was never my cup of tea, guys like Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen made the guitar exciting and challenging to young ...
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