My friend David was recently in the market for a new acoustic guitar, and Babicz guitars ended up on his radar. I’d never heard of Babicz guitars before hearing about them from David, but they have received quite a few good reviews, such as the Guitar One Mark of Excellence and the Guitar World Gold Award. Upon further looking into the history the guitars, I found out that Jeff Babicz used to work for Steinberger guitars in the 1980s.

One of the more interesting features of acoustic Babicz guitars are that the neck height is adjustable, pretty much on-the-fly. For example, you can go from a low-action configuration to a high-action configuration within seconds. Another interesting feature is the torque reducing split bridge, which is also adjustable. As a result of this bridge, the strings are stretched out across the base of the top, which reduces the tension on the neck and allows for a thinner soundboard.

I had a chance to play the guitar, and it felt and played very comfortably. One interesting aspect of the top configuration is that you can feel much more of the vibration from the strings than a typical acoustic guitar. Physically adjusting the neck is very simple and the results are instantaneous. It’s very easy to adjust the intonation so that you can get an optimal configuration in a matter of minutes. Additionally, the guitar contained very good components and looked to be very well made.

Several well-known guitarists use Babicz guitars, including Robert Randolph, Adrian Belew, Pat Travers and Todd Rundgren. You can view some videos of the guitars on the Babicz Web site.

Reuters is reporting that Guitar Center has recently been purchased by Bain Company Partners for approximately $2 billion. According to the report, analyst Gary Balter has indicated that Guitar Center subsidiary Music & Arts will likely be sold after the Guitar Center deal is closed. (via Strat-O-Blogster)

Skydog: The Duane Allman Story tells the story of Duane Allman’s rise from guitar-playing kid to guitar hero, which happens within the span of Duane’s 24 short years. It’s hard to believe that Duane Allman’s impact came in such a short time. Furthermore, it’s hard to believe that Duane Allman’s tenure in the Allman Brothers Band lasted less than three years before his untimely death. His legacy and impact on music has proved to be lasting.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I’ve been a longtime fan of the Allman Brothers Band, but I’ve never delved too much into Duane Allman’s background. Randy Poe provides an enlightening look into the drive and passion that led Duane Allman to ultimately create what is arguably one of the best rock and roll bands in history. For example, I had never known that part of Duane’s childhood was spent just outside of Nashville, or how he has appeared on the recordings of many legends, including Otis Rush, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett. In fact, Duane was the catalyst in getting Pickett to record the Beatles’ Hey Jude, which was a fairly big hit for Pickett.

Of course, Poe also describes how Allman came to be on the Derek and the Dominos recordings, as well as the famous Fillmore concerts with the Allman Brothers Band. There are so many aspects to Duane’s short career that Poe covers in this book, I found it hard to put down. Additionally, Billy Gibbons provides the foreward, and Poe includes an extensive discography and description of Allman’s guitars, with photos of Duane playing many of them.

All in all, I found Skydog: The Duane Allman Story by Randy Poe to be an excellent book, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the Allman Brother Band or in Duane Allman.

Marc Rizzo is a solo guitarist as well as the guitarist for heavy metal group Soulfly. I recently “discovered” Rizzo via the Shrapnel Records Web site, who is the publisher of his first solo album, Colossal Myopia. In addition to being a great heavy metal guitarist, Rizzo is quite a proficient flamenco guitarist. Guitar One recently highlighted his flamenco skills and recorded a video of him playing for their bonus DVD, and the video is available on YouTube.

After hearing some of his music on his MySpace page, I decided to pick up Colossal Myopia through lala, and it’s a solid effort. As I expected, the songs include a mixture of heavy metal and flamenco music. Rizzo has indicated that he’s in the process of working on a new solo album, and he’s embarking on a solo tour this summer.

In addition to touring as a solo act and with Soulfly, Rizzo also does guitar clinics for Peavey. He has posted several videos from his guitar clinics on his MySpace page. He’s clearly very talented, and I’m interested in seeing what his new solo album is going to sound like.

Country guitarist Brad Paisley has released a new album today, 5th Gear. Additionally, his new single, “Ticks”, went to number 1 this week on the country singles’ chart, so Brad’s had a pretty good week so far.

Although I live near the Country Music capital of the world, I’m not a big fan of country music, so until a few years ago, I wasn’t aware of how good a guitarist Brad Paisley is. My friend David told me that I should check him out, and I’m glad I did! Paisley’s a very talented guitarist and is well known for his Crook Custom “paisley” guitars.

I’m looking forward to checking out 5th Gear. He usually includes an instrumental track or two showcasing his guitar talents. He’s also pretty funny, and his albums are generally pretty entertaining. Brad will be touring behind this album this summer, so if he comes through your area, I’d recommend catching the show.

Andy McKee is an amazing fingerstyle acoustic guitarist who is not only a great peformer, but a very good songwriter, as well. I’d never heard of Andy before, but I was browsing through some YouTube videos, and one of his videos popped up. I started watching the video and quickly started watching the rest of his videos that are posted on YouTube.

Andy has won many awards, including 1st place the 2004 Kansas Fingerstyle Guitar Championships, 2nd place in the 2004 Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Championships, and 3rd place in the 2005 Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Championships. Andy has released several albums on CandyRat Records: Art of Motion and Dreamcatcher.

Perhaps his most popular song and video is Drifting, which includes a lot of percussive tapping on the guitar and very little traditional finger picking. There’s also of video of Andy covering Toto’s song Africa. His video for The Friend I Never Met features him playing a very unique instrument called a Harpguitar, which, as its name implies, is a cross between a harp and a guitar.

If you have some free time, I highly recommend checking out some of Andy McKee’s videos on YouTube. He has a great flair for songwriting, as well as performing. CandyRat Records has created a channel on YouTube that not only includes Andy’s videos, but videos by Don Ross, Nicholas Barron, Craig D’Andrea, and more.

I was recently in the market for a practice amp to play around the house. My main purpose for the amp is to have something to play around with that won’t bother my wife or my neighbors too much. Thus, my search involved checking out amps in the 5, 15, and 30 watt ranges. Also, I wanted something that would offer a little extra fun for practicing. Many of the modern practice amps have quite a bit to offer. For example, the Vox Valvetronix amps come with quite a few effects built into the amp, and they also provide amp modeling for quite a few types of amps. As a result, the Vox amps were among my top choices for a practice amp.

However, during my search, I tried out the Fender G-DEC amps and came away very impressed. Like the Valvetronix amps, the G-DEC offers many different tonal varieties through amp modeling and a lot of built-in effects. The thing that sets the G-DEC series apart from most other practice amps is that the G-DEC includes a series of bass and drum loops that you can play along with. This was intriguing to me because I rarely get a chance to play with other players, especially drummers. You can even change the pitch of the bass backing track to match whatever key you want to play in.

In addition to the backing tracks, there are 50 preset sounds to choose from covering all styles of music, from jazz to reggae to metal. In total, the Fender G-DEC provides 17 amp types, 29 effects, 10 reverbs, a built-in tuner, as well as the ability to pick and choose to create your own unique sounds. There’s even a phrase sampler that you can use to create your own guitar loops to play along with.

After considering all of the options, as you’ve probably guess by now, I ultimately decided to get the G-DEC based on its myriad capabilities, and I couldn’t be happier with my choice. I purchased the 15-watt version, but a 30-watt model is also available for those with the need for more power. Furthermore, there’s a Fender G-DEC Junior model that is 15 watts and provides a simpler user interface, albeit at the cost of some functionality.

All in all, I’m very pleased with my decision to purchase the G-DEC. I’ve had the amp for about a month now, and it is every bit as versatile and fun to play as I hoped it would be. If you’re in the market for a practice amp, you can’t go wrong with the Fender G-DEC.

Andrew York is one of my favorite classical guitarists and modern guitar composers. I first learned about York when I was taking classical guitar lessons in college, when he was a member of the famed Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ). While I enjoyed the work that the LAGQ were doing, I especially enjoyed York’s compositions. My favorite composition of his is Sunburst, which has been played and recorded by many of the most famous classical guitarists of the 20th Century, including John Williams and Christopher Parkening.

Andrew York has recently left the LAGQ and embarked on a solo career. Even while a member of the LAGQ, York released several solo albums, including Perfect Sky, Denouement, and Into Dark. He has recently also recorded some of his compositions using Andres Segovia’s famed Hermann Hauser guitar on a CD called Hauser Sessions.

If you enjoy classical guitar music, then I highly recommend checking out Andrew York’s music. He incorporates many styles of music into his compositions, including jazz, folk music, and, of course, classical music.

All Out Guitar has recently published an interview with Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci. The interview covers quite a bit of ground, including Petrucci’s earliest influences, the early days of Dream Theater and Dream Theater’s new album Systematic Chaos, as well as much more. It’s an interesting interview and it’s great timing since Systematic Chaos was released on Tuesday, so I recommend that you check it out.

Technical news site TechCrunch has recently posted about JamJunky, a social songwriting site. JamJunky enables you to upload your songs so that other people can comment on them and help you improve the songs. Apparently, you can limit who can access the songs, so that you can only let your friends comment on them, or you can let anyone comment on them. CenterNetworks has also recently reviewed JamJunky and has provided a video review of the site.

JamJunky is an interesting concept, and it will be interesting to see if the idea catches on. Collaborative songwriting could be fun, if the implementation is right.