That’s why I totally appreciate having a good musicians gift guide to use while I do my shopping. So today I’m going to give you links to 3 excellent gift guides from the top Internet music stores. I don’t know about you but I love ordering online and just waiting for the gifts to show up on my doorstep. It’s great to avoid all the crazy Christmas crowds at the stores. The only crazy Christmas crowds I like are the ones at the front of the stage cheering my live band on. So follow the links below for great musician gift guides.

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Shopping For Gifts For Musicians

Billy Sheehan - The Suspense Is Killing Me (Live)

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Extreme Bass Guitar Playing With Billy Sheehan

   I got the 50th Anniversary American Deluxe Stratocaster when it was released in 2004 because I had always wanted a collectible guitar and I love the Stratocaster. My Jeff Beck Signature Strat had been serving me well for about 9 years and I was looking for another good guitar. The reason I got the American Deluxe version rather than the American Standard version was because I absolutely love the feature set that is on the American Deluxe Stratocaster. I am not a traditionalist when it comes to electric guitars. I love cutting edge innovations and the 2004 and beyond versions of the Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster are loaded with Fenders latest Strat innovations. The most notable being the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless (SCN) pickup and the S-1 pickup switching system. I ended up buying the 2005 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster to use as my main stage guitar since I fell so in love with playing the 50thAnniversary Strat but didn’t want to wear the anniversary Strat out using it onstage.

   I play a lot of high gain sounds with both of my bands and having a noiseless pickup is crucial to having an enjoyable live sound. I have other guitars with traditional single coil pickups in them and they are very good for certain situations but not as an all-around stage guitar primarily because of the nasty hum that comes with them. I wanted my American Deluxe to be my main onstage guitar so the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups really fit the bill. Do they sound like a traditional single coil pickup? I would say they sound similar to a traditional single coil but they are not identical sounding. I still get that famous Stratocaster twang out of them when I want it because the American Deluxe Strats have a no-load tone control on the bridge pickup. What this does is allow you to switch off the tone control and have a direct wired pickup-to-output sound from the guitar. It’s extremely bright and that’s the closest I can get to actual traditional single coil sound. The SCN pickups in general have a slightly darker sound than traditional singles but I like the way they sound and I love the uniqueness of the sound. I definitely don’t want to sound like everyone else and the SCN pickups really help me in that area. As for their ability to cancel hum, they’re just as quiet as the humbuckers on my Gibson Les Paul Custom. Fantastically quiet for a single coil pickup and they still have a ton of output.

   The second huge advantage of the American Deluxe Stratocaster is the revolutionary S-1 switching system. This is a simple push button in the middle of the master volume knob that when pressed gives you several different pickup combinations as well as new serial and parallel pickup wiring options. The S-1 switching system is used together with the traditional 5-way pickup selector that has been used on the Strat for years now. The tonal options that this switching system opens up is unprecedented on a factory produced guitar. Strat modifiers have been doing this sort of thing for years but now you can get it straight from Fender with full warranty support. I use every pickup combination over the course of a 4-hour gig. The tonal variations are pronounced and very useful. The sounds can be similar to a humbucker or single coil but in the end, they are unique to this guitar. I personally love the fact that the instrument is breaking new ground in the tone department. With the SCN pickups and the S-1 Switching sytem I can get pretty much any sound I want. When I use these guitars with my Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier the sounds I can produce are virtually unlimited.

   There are several other features I love about the American Deluxe Stratocaster. I love the rolled edges and glassy smooth fretwork on the edges of the neck. My fingers never get sore from bumping up and down the edges of the neck. On my 50th Anniversary Strat I have the C-Shaped neck and on my American Deluxe Ash StratI have the V-Shaped neck. I personally prefer the feel of the C-Shaped neck but there really isn’t a ton of difference between the two. They both fit the hand very well and each have the rolled edges and super-smooth fretwork. I also love the new contoured heel where the neck joins the guitar body. It fits the palm of my hand extremely well when I’m playing on the upper frets.

   Another thing I really love about the American Deluxe is the two-point synchronized tremolo. This tremolo works very well and combined with the staggered, locking tuners the guitar stays in tune amazingly well. The staggered tuners make it possible to use only one string-tree and that reduces string drag. The locking tuners make changing the strings on the Strat a breeze so I change them more often than I do on my double-locking tremelo guitars. Another thing about the bridge which is a big advantage over the American Standard is the fact that the American Deluxe uses solid steel bridge pieces under the strings. I much prefer these bridge pieces to the American Standards bent steel plates it uses for bridge pieces. I always use Big Bends Nut Sauce guitar lubricant in the string slots, on the string tree, on the bridge pieces and the two pivot points of the tremelo and my guitar never goes out of tune unless I really abuse it.

Fender American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster

   You really can’t go wrong owning the Fender American Delxue Stratocatster. It’s the top of the Stratocaster model lineup for good reason. It really is the best and I wouldn’t change a thing about mine. If I could choose only one guitar to have, it would be the Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster especially when teamed up with my Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier. Make sure you check out my post of Carl Verhheyen discussing the Fender Stratocaster.

Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster Electric Guitar 3-Tone Sunburst Maple FretboardThe Fender American Deluxe Stratocasteris instantly comfortable with irresistible tone and playability. You won’t believe your fingers and ears. The ultimate in high-performance, this premium Fender Stratmodel has an ultra-smooth, sweet neck withhand-rolled edges to make it play fast, smooth, and sweet. SCN (Samarium Cobalt Noiseless) pickups dish out vintage Strat sounds without the hum, while a hot bridge pickup provides extra punch and sustain. S-1 Switching delivers an extended range of tonal flavors. The classically contoured Stratocasteralder body fits like a glove.Other features include polished chrome hardware, locking machine heads, American Deluxe tremolo with polished steel saddles, highly detailed fret and nut work, abalone dot inlays, and aged plastic parts. Includes molded Fender Stratocaster hardshellcase.Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups It’s no secret that pickup designers have been striving to develop the ultimate noise-free single-coil replacement pickup. In pursuit of as little 60-cycle hum and extraneous noise as possible and the classic bell-like tones and fidelity of the original Fender designs, Fender has poured their energy into discovering a new world-class pickup for the ages. Withopen minds and a willingness to seemingly question everything, Fender partnered with legendary pickup designer Bill Lawrence. The pickup that was birthed from this extraordinary partnership is the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickup. It has no hum, no microphonics, close to zero magnetic interruption of the string path; and the widest sonic parameters possible-from Fender classic single coils to tones not yet imagined. Truly a revolutionary design in guitar pickups.

Fender American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster Electric Guitar Butterscotch Blonde Maple FretboardThe Fender American Deluxe Ash StratocasterElectric Guitar is instantly comfortable, with irresistible tone and playability. You won’t believe your fingers and ears. The ultimate in high-performance electric guitars, this premium model has an ultrasmooth, sweet neck withhand-rolled edges to make it play fast, smooth, and sweet. SCN (Samarium Cobalt Noiseless) pickups dish out vintage Stratsounds without the hum, while a hot bridge pickup and S-1 switching provide versatility, extra punch, and sustain. Classically contoured ash body fits like a glove. Other features include polished chrome, locking machine heads, American Deluxe tremolo with polished steel saddles, highly detailed fret and nut work, abalone dot inlays, and aged plastic parts. Includes Fender hardshell case.Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickupsIt’sno secret that pickup designers have been striving to develop the ultimate noise-free single-coil replacement pickup. In pursuit of as little 60-cycle hum and extraneous noise as possible and the classic bell-like tones and fidelity of the original Fender designs, Fender has poured their energy into discovering a new world-class pickup for the ages. Withopen minds and a willingness to seemingly question everything, Fender partnered with legendary pickup designer Bill Lawrence. The pickup that was birthed from this extraordinary partnership is the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickup. It has no hum, no microphonics, close to zero magnetic interruption of the string path; and the widest sonic parameters possible-from Fender classic single coils to tones not yet imagined. Truly a revolutionary design in guitar pickups.

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The Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster - My Favorite Guitar

   Here’s how to do a rhythm check. First choose a song from your bands playlist. Then have everyone mute their instrument so that no actual notes are being played. Keyboard players can pick a single note to play. Now have everyone play the song by only playing the rhythm of their parts. That means if the bass guitar is playing a steady 1/8 note line, the bass guitarist should just beat out an 1/8 note rhythm on the muted string. The drummer should play their normal drum part. The guitarist should beat out whatever the rhythm is for the guitar part and the keyboard player should do the same. Now listen to what’s happening. All the rhythmic parts that everyone is playing should fit together. It should sound like a tribal rhythm happening. There should be an underlying pulse and everyones parts should be hanging off that pulse in a proper place to create a groove. You should be able to dance to what’s happening. Another way to do this is to have everyone grab a drumstick and tap out their parts together. Again, you should be able to get a groove going rhythmically with everyone tapping out their parts.

   Doing a groove check is a very simple thing to do and it can point out some glaring problems with your band. It can also expose certain players weaknesses in the rhythm department so be ready for that. Don’t let a rhythm check devolve into a petty argument about player skill. Players of any skill level should be able to adjust their playing to play in a groove. The whole purpose of a groove check is to find out where your skill level is when it comes to playing in a groove. With that knowledge you can adjust your rhythmic playing to match your skill at playing rhythms.

   I’m sure you’ve played with players that have a tendency to overplay. Overplaying is almost always an instant groove killer. You’ll want to have the players in your band tap out their fills where they would normally play them while you’re doing a rhythm check. This will let you hear how a fill can change the groove rhythmically. Too many fills will definitely kill the groove.

   A groove check can also help players focus on putting a definite rhythm to their fills.  It may sound cool when your guitarist plays a 1/32 note scale, but during the rhythm check that may sound lifeless and boring. Your guitarist may find that a series of pauses or held notes linked together with groove based rhythms will suit that scale much better within the context of the song.

   When it comes down to basics, the most important thing that goes into making a song work is the ability to have a good rhythm. That’s why I highly recommend taking the time to do a band rhythm check and then taking the time to fix rhythmic problems. Once you get the rhythm all locked in together, the groove will come naturally and your live audience will respond by getting up out of their seats and dancing the night away.

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How To Do A Band Rhythm Check

Fabulous Dance Moves

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Sunday Funnies - Fabulous Dance Moves

   We feature downloads from iTunes as well as MP3 downloads from Amazon.com music service. The Amazon.com MP3’s are ripped at 256kbps and are DRM free so you can copy them to as many music players as you like. They’re priced very low when you download entire albums. With the Amazon widgets below you can preview the album right here on Live Musician Central.  I’m also posting a link to the iTunes $4.99 Album Of The Week. You can bet that people will be knowing those songs as well and it’s a great deal on a full album. The new David Archuleta album is out so check ‘em out!

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Live Musician Central - Weekend Album Picks 11-15-08

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Hot Deals For Christmas From Musician’s Friend

John "Mitch" Mitchell, July 9, 1947 – November 12, 2008

   Mitch Mitchell was one third of the great rock trio that made up the Jimi Hendrix Experience. His drumming style was a great example of jazz/rock fusion. He would switch between a traditional jazz drum grip and a matched rock style grip when he played. His playing was very active and he had a great feel for filling the space around Jimi’s lead guitar and vocal work. When Jimi would take a guitar solo Mitch would have a very active interplay with the guitar on the drums. It’s really a pleasure to listen to Mitch and Jimi play music together.    

   It’s been said that Mitch Mitchell would have been mentioned in the same sentence as Keith Moon and John Bonham if the band wouldn’t have been named after Jimi Hendrix. The fact that Jimi was such a groundbreaking guitarist didn’t help Mitch get his share of the spotlight either. I personally feel like Mitch’s style is a combination of Keith Moon’s frenetic energy and John Bonhams slamming big beat style. Although I have to say that Mitch could beat both of them in the dynamic control category. Mitch could actually make his drums whisper which is a very difficult skill for drummers to learn.

   It’s been said that Jimi’s manager relegated Mitch and Noel Redding to the role of mere sidemen in the way he promoted Jimi’s career. But any musician can tell you when listening to the Jimi Hendrix Experience that it’s 3 guys creating music together. Jimi and Mitch Mitchell really knew how to play with each others styles and you can tell that they’re playing off of each other. Mitch’s contribution to the music of the Jimi Hendrix Experience is essential and his playing made Jimi’s even greater.

   That’s why today’s post on Live Musician Central is dedicated to the memory of the great and legendary Mr. Mitch Mitchell. He’s jammin’ with Jimi now!

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe

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In Memorium - Mitch Mitchell Of The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Jeff Beck

   This clip is Jeff performing the classic Lennon/McCartney tune ‘A Day In The Life’. The way Jeff Beck interprets this song is absolutely stunning in its beauty. The emotion that Jeff gets out of his guitar really defies description, you just have to listen to understand. It also shows what a beautiful melody John Lennon wrote in ‘A Day In The Life’. I hope you enjoy this rendition as much as I do. 

Jeff Beck - A Day In The Life

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My Favorite Guitarist, Jeff Beck, Plays ‘A Day In The Life’

   The Cyber-Twin SE is a 2×12 combo amp with a tube preamp and reconfigurable analog and digital circuitry. The secret to it’s amazing responsiveness is in it’s configurable analog circuitry. This is what sets it apart from other DSP amp modelers like the Line-6 products. The Cyber-Twin SE has a number of analog switches inside that are used to re-route the guitar signal into the various analog circuit configurations. You can actually hear the solenoids switching to the different analog circuits when you turn the control knob to different presets. The analog circuits are actual amplifier circuits made up of the tubes, resistors, capacitors, etc. of the original amplifier circuit that the Cyber-Twin SE is emulating. The Cyber-Twin SE has two 12AX7WC tubes that it uses in the analog circuit section. So when you switch the amp to a Fender Blackface amplifier, the circuit rewires itself to become a Fender Blackface. Because the amp models are actual wired amplifiers, you get actual amplifier response to your playing. That’s why the

Fender Cyber-Twin SE Back

   The fact that the Cyber-Twin SE actually rewires the individual circuit components, resistors, tubes and capacitors makes it unique in the world of ultra-versatile amplifiers. It’s loaded with an array of vintage and modern amplifier tones. The amps that the Cyber-Twin SE can produce by rewiring it’s circuits are the Dyna-Touch, Blackface, Tweed, Modern and British amps (yes that means Marshall). It has 16 drive cuircuits, 12 tube types, 4 solid state types and some extreme types as well. You can combine these drive circuits in a number of different ways to get a large variety of amps. The distortion effect in the DSP section is also assignable and can be routed before or after the analog section. The Cyber-Twin SE uses two 12-inch, 8 ohm Celestion G12T-100 speakers that sound very, very good.

   There are a number of other innovative and extremely useful features built into the Fender Cyber-Twin SE. Here are some of my favorites.

   It has motorized knobs that turn automatically when you switch presets. This gives you an instant visual to how your amp is set when you switch to a new preset. You can also adjust the knobs on the fly for instant tweaking of the sound and if you want, you can save your adjustments to the same preset or a new one. This makes setting your amplifier equalization very quick and easy, just like a standard one-trick amplifier. I like being able to glance behind me when I’m playing and see exactly where my volume knob is at. Using the MIDI Foot Controller I can control the volume with the pedal, then glance at the amp to see where it moved the volume to by looking at the motorized volume knob that moves when I use the volume pedal. It’s really a great feature!

   Another thing I really like is the huge plethora of outputs on the back of the amplifier. It has an Effects Loop, Stereo Headphone Out which when engaged turns off the main speakers, Stereo XLR Outputs (which can be switched to Mono if you prefer), SPDIF Digital Out, and MIDI In/Out/Thru jacks. The XLR outputs are very handy to use for running a line to your PA system if you don’t want to mic the amplifier. They are EQ’d to simulate a mic’d speaker and the speaker simulation is very convincing. The rear panel of the amp also has Right/Left powered speaker outputs which put out 65 Watts RMS per channel, an Expression Pedal input, Rev/FX Bypass input and a Foot Switch input for the included 4-button footswitch.

   The Cyber-Twin SE has a built-in tuner that works really well for on-stage tuning. It’s not as accurate as my Peterson tuners but I do use it when I’m in a hurry. The Cyber-Twin SE also has a ton of pre-programmed presets that are what I consider to be a good starting point for programming your own sounds. Luckily there are 100 user locations to store your amp settings in. I currently use about 25 and I doubt I’d ever fill up the whole 100. With the Cyber-Twin SE being so programmable and easy to program it’s not hard at all to dial in some killer amplifier tones. I’m able to cover anything from Johnny Cash to Nine Inch Nails and the amp does it easily.

   The Cyber-Twin SE comes with a 4-button footswitch and a single footswitch. The 4-button switch is used to switch between four user assignable presets. So if you can narrow down your sounds to your 4 favorite then this switch will work fine for you. The single footswitch is for the Reverb/Effects Bypass input and allows you to toggle the reverb and effects on and off. So right out of the box the amp is stage ready. The Cyber-Twin SE also comes with an embroidered black amplifier cover that looks really sharp when it’s covering the amp. Another thing I really like about the amp, and I’ve never had an amp with this simple but so convenient feature, is the included casters on the amp. I love being able to roll this amp where I need it to go instead of having to lug it around by the handle. The amp isn’t super heavy but I love those wheels!

   There is one accessory that I feel is a must-have with the Cyber-Twin SE and that’s a MIDI foot controller. I use the Fender Cyber Foot Controller which was made specifically for the Cyber-Twin SE but there are many good MIDI foot controller options out there such as the Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Footcontroller. My Fender Cyber Foot Controller has 12 buttons that control the amplifiers presets, a Tap Tempo/Tuner button and an Effects On/Off button. It also has two expression pedals that I use to control Volume and Gain on the fly. You can assign the expression pedals to control almost any parameter on the Cyber-Twin SE. I highly recommend purchasing a MIDI Foot Controller when you buy the amp.

   The Fender Cyber-Twin SE is a fantastic amplifier for the money and haven’t regretted buying for a second since I’ve owned it. Please follow the links below to download the Cyber-Twin SE Owners Manual and Schematic Diagram. The Owners manual has in depth descriptions of the many features of the Cyber-Twin SE. On the Schematic, you can see the switching solenoids used for the analog circuits.
Fender Cyber-Twin SE Owners Manual
Fender Cyber-Twin SE Schematic

Fender Cyber Twin SE AmpThe Fender Cyber Twin SE Amp is Fender’s best guitar amp. A 2×12 combo with tube preamp, reconfigurable analog and digital circuitry, motorized knobs, and a 2×65W power amp. Includes two footswitches, wheels, and a cover. With new cosmetics, it does everything the original model did with new effects and effect combinations, models, timbre filters, and much more.

Behringer FCB1010 MIDI FootcontrollerIf you’ve got a MIDI rig you need to tame, you’ll find the Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Footcontroller indispensable. With 10 banks of 10 presets, you’ll have plenty of storage space. Each preset can send 5 MIDI program change commands and 2 MIDI control commands simultaneously so you can configure an entire synth rack with one stomp!2 expression pedals independently control any MIDI channel, controller number, and range. The footswitches can also be configured to send MIDI note numbers, perfect for tap-tempo functions. 2 programmable, relay-controlled footswitch jacks are great for switching guitar amp channels via MIDI!

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My Stage Amp - The Fender Cyber-Twin SE