Reviews About Anything » Hobbies

Alaskan Malamutes – Cool Website

Fred — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:42:21 +0000

To all dog lovers…

My other half and I just recently got our dream dog. An Alaskan Malamute.
Having spent time with them in the Arctic… I fell in love with their great nature, strength and endurance. As they offer so much in the way of companionship both domestically and for the outdoors type of person. This was the dog for us!
Hence, knowing what we wanted, as both of us having had experience with the breed, we approached many a breeder here in SA. But none stood out more than Johan Mostert from Tomarctus SA Alaskan Malamutes.
Kusa registered as a breeder, we got our puppy Kai from him.
Check out his website. It will tell you about the breed and his breeding programme.
If you love Mallie’s…this is the website for you…
Cheers for now!

City: Johannesburg

Country: South Africa

Yamaha Silent Guitar (Acoustic)

Fred — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:04:21 +0000

I first encoumtered the Yamaha Silent Guitar at Music Connection in JHB in October 2005. My first impression was that of shock. A complete “What the …..” moment.

What I didn’t really “get” about the guitar was that it is in fact an instrument. Not merely an ornamental space age design coat hanger type thing. Then, during 2006 I started travelling alot and realised that I was losing alot of practice time as a result. I needed a guitar with travebility!!(There is nothing more stressful than going to Sierra Leone carrying a Les Paul around)

So on returning home, I remembered this strange thing I saw at the shop and went there. They had about 3 in stock and one of them was the nylon version. I went for the steel string acoustic!

As I picked it up I was amazed at how light it was. My first thought was…”Its a Toy!” That was only untill I plugged it in and played it.

It did not quite sound like a Taylor or a Martin…but through the headphones sounded pretty damn close!! I fell in love with it immediately!
I played it in the shop for about 2 hours realising the potential this instrument had as a performance Guitar. Great sound, no feedback, great reverbs and compact!

Another one of its many great features is that I find its playabiliy to be superb. It’s even, balanced and the intonation is amazing.

This guitar has subsequently travelled to about 30 African countries with me. It has taken well to different climates and humidity levels without any dramatic set up’s necessary.

I have used it both live and in the studio. It has become one of my favourites and I cant do without it anymore.

To sum up, the Yamaha Silent Guitar is a unique and superb instrument. It’s design won’t appeal to everybody, but as a mate of mine pointed out… Every guitarist needs to practice late at night once in a while…:)

Take Care
Chat soon

City: Johannesburg

Country: South Africa

True Temperament Necks – Cool Website

Fred — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:57:33 +0000

For all Guitar Enthusiasts

True Temperament Necks

I did not really know what to make out of this one when I saw it. But, if Steve Vai is playing a neck designed like this…it should be credible. Right?

Most Guitarists know that a guitar is a tonally imperfectly designed instrument. Haven’t we all bitched and moaned about the sudden tuning and intonation problems that are caused by changing strings, climate differences etc? Well look no more.

I’m not exactly sure of the science of this, but I think I will give it a brief try… Traditionally, on a guitar, equally and parallel spaced frets take only one factor of a vibrating strings tonal characteristic into account. It’s scale length. (I.e. the distance from nut to bridge)
Excluded is, the strings relative tension and its mass. This traditionally causes huge intonation problems. Since depending on the tuning, (and were assuming the Standard) we all know that the same note can occur multiple times at different places on the fret board. Sometimes though, although we have a perfect tuning on the open string, some sought after notes on this string sound out of tune when played further up the neck. In other words, a specific note will sound in tune on one part of the board and completely out of tune on a different part, even if all the strings are perfectly tuned. This is traditionally known as an intonation problem. Normally we adjust the scale length on the guitar to compensate for this.

Traditional way of setting intonation:

If a string sharpens itself going up the neck…we lengthen the scale length by shifting backwards the string saddles on the bridge.
If the guitar flattens itself as we go up the neck…we shorten the scale length by shifting forward the string saddles on the bridge.

Now, with True Temperament, the frets are spaced (bent) in such a fashion to give us pure notes anywhere on the fret board. Some frets are lengthened because the traditional spacing made a note seems sharp, and of course vice versa.

So…in guitarists speak. You can now fret a “D” chord and move it all the way up the neck and it will stay perfectly in pitch!

Well, I’m not sure about the look? But apparently these guitars play exactly like parallel straight fretted ones and sound beautifully in tune.

I’m keen to try!!!

Check out the following website.

Cheers for now!

Website: http://www.truetemperament.com

City: Johannesburg

Country: South Africa