Guitar Social Blog

Over the years I've purchased a few different type of guitar string cleaners. Sprays, special cloths, even a lubricant that not only cleans your strings but lubes them up for faster playing (lube? Did he just say "lube"? ). Yes...it's pretty slick stuff. :). I found that most of these products did what they claimed - they took the dirt off my strings. Recently, however, I came across a cool invention that doesn't use any type of liquid cleaner to get the dirt off of guitar strings. It's called "The String Cleaner". It's a device that you put around your strings and run it back and forth the neck a few times. The material that cleans the strings is a microfiber pad that digs out the dirt and grease that get caught in the strings. The pad is reusable and cleans up with soap and water.

The benefits of cleaning your guitar strings is that it increases their lifespan which can save you money in the long run because you wont need to change them as often. Now with that said, some people prefer the sound of a fresh pair of strings and don't mind frequently changing them. I try and change my strings every couple months. "The String Cleaner" does come in handy when I get lazy and leave the strings on longer. It doesn't take long for the strings to start getting dirty so I recommend some sort of guitar string cleaner. What kind do you use?

David Gilmour of Pink Floyd has added some fantastic video clips from his latest CD/DVD Live In Gdansk to the David Gilmour Web Site. I am listening to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" as I am writing this and it's making me want to rush home and bust out my guitar. Very inspirational. If you haven't heard this CD yet I highly recommended it. David Gilmour still has all his chops and his voice sounds great. 5 stars from guitarsocial.

It's finally here! Guitar Social's new Online Guitar Tuner. For the last few weeks I have been working on a new guitar tuner that has alternate tunings. While I was working on the tuner I decided to give it a new look to go along with all the new guitar tunings. With Photoshop CS3 and my library of stock images I created the guitar tuners interface. My goal was to create a simple yet stylish interface that would hold multiple guitar tunings. I believe I've accomplished that with this new design but let me know what you think positive or negative. Nothing is ever done, there is always room for improvement and I will be adding more features every now and then.

As of today I have 4 guitar tunings set up. Standard, Drop D, Double Drop D and Open G. I am currently working on perfecting the audio of each guitar note and will get more alternate tunings added to the tuner when I am happy with the sound.

Along with the new tuner, I've created some instructions for specific alternate tunings. I am tracking down the most commonly used chords for these tunings and will have them posted soon. Alternate tuning can be a great way to stretch your practice and get you thinking in a different direction. Email me if you have questions on how to get started with alternate tunings. I'd be happy to give you my advice.

If you anyone is interested in having a guitar tuner on their site I am currently building a free guitar tuner widget that can be added to anyone's website site. I should have it done in the next week or two so check back.

I want to thank Raj Kanaparti over at digitized logic for his Action Script and XML skillz. Thanks for helping me get this wired up I learned a ton.

Happy practcing everyone!