The Blogs I read, Guitar and otherwise.

In my firefox bookmarks, I have a set of about 20 blogs in one folder. Most are guitar and music related, but others are about technology which can be applied to guitars and things to look at for inspiration. About 6 times a day, instead of going RSS feed and streamlining, I just click “Open All in Tabs” and in a few seconds, all of them open in one window for my reading enjoyment. I check each one religiously to see if anything has been written, and I’m always happy when something new is there. I’ve decided to share them because I want to give these people credit for writing great stuff.

http://www.electric-guitar-review.com/

First blog I found when I started seeing that they were valuable. Good reviews, short and to the point. He’s doing a project which I’m totally digging reading about. And with what i’ve been reading in his blog over the past, it’s a sign that guitar bloggers have a very good, supportive community. We’re not competitive, we don’t bicker or argue, we just like the stuff, and we like to talk about it.

http://elephant-blog.blogspot.com/

Adrian Belew’s blog. Adrian Belew has played guitar for some of the most progressive acts in history, and on some remarkable albums. King Crimson, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Paul Simon, to name a few. I’ve seen him live 3 times with his Adrian Belew solo band, and every time it’s been my absolute favorite. He posts thoughts, artwork and songs. Well, he used to. But there are some GREAT hollywood-music style stories in there.

http://www.musicgadgets.net/

Press releases and a constant flow of good music industry news. Good to read for those who like to stay up to date.

http://igblog.wordpress.com/

Writes often, and writes well. Posts good videos and is a good discussion starter with a humorous side. Nice guy, too.

http://www.guitarjamdaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0&Itemid=53

Probably the most polished of all of them. Sadly, you have to sign up to read more and click links. But when they posted a blog about Godin, I had to sign up to read the rest. I don’t regret it.

http://www.guitarnoize.com/

If you’re reading this now, check out the June 26th 2008 post of the Malt Whisky guitar. Guitar Noize finds GREAT stuff, obscure and otherwise.

http://stratoblogster.blogspot.com/

All things strat. Odd strats and mods, and just all the things one ever wanted to know about the strat and what’s happening with it.

http://guitarz.blogspot.com/

Probably the best at finding the weirdest guitars ever made. Seems that the United Kingdom has the craziest guitars on ebay, and luckily Guitarz finds them all and we get to see. Not to mention one of the few who documented the London Guitar Show of 2008.

http://www.crimsonguitars.com/diary.html

This is the one I look forward to reading the most. LOTS of great pictures, he makes awesome guitars, posts his animals, and posts great captions below everyone. Hand made guitars, amazing woods, and everything amazing that you’d imagine from a guy making amazing guitars in a shed in the UK.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/

I need my fix of technology, and Wired posts a LOT. All the time, new energy sources, gear, phones, computers, and gadgets of all sorts.

http://blog.makezine.com/

For the DIYer in all of us. Quirky, unique objects, faires, and devices. Great read.

http://news.cnet.com/matter-antimatter/

Written by a product designer/marketing guy for a big design firm in San Francisco. It’s extremely well written, and there’s a lot of stuff which applies to the guitar industry. Also some tech and weird stuff too.

http://www.guitarguru.typepad.com/

This one is a great one. Written by Guitar Designer, someone I aspire to be. Doesn’t hurt that he’s Jol Dantzig, the guy for Hamer. He also got most of us loyal readers a subscription to my new favorite magazine, Premier Guitar. Great documentation of some insane products that some of us only wish we had the resources to create. It’s a big “Holy smokes” type of blog.

http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/

For sheer interesting factor, this one takes the cake. Reading about advancing guitars instead of letting it stagnate in the realm of strats and les pauls is a fascinating read. On the blog, they talk about designing their own bridges and bend the perception of what’s possible in guitars.

http://blackbirdguitars.blogspot.com

Seems i’m not the only frightfully opinionated blogger on the internet, but the great thing is that it’s from the perspective of an upstart company. I was forwarded this blog by an owner of one of their guitars, and from the little written, it seems like there’s an interesting future ahead…

http://www.brawerguitarrepair.blogspot.com/

For quirkiness, my favorite. San Francisco guitar repair guru Gary Brawer has a shop, and one of his guys posts short, funny blurbs on what happens in one of the busiest (and smallest…wow) guitar repair shops on the planet. Great pictures too because you can see he’s dealing with some high profile people…

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/

All things music and weird. Just found out about this one, and i’m liking it a lot.

And there you have it. My favorites. Drop a comment and recommend some, and i’ll start adding more and updating this list. But those are the ones I see multiple times a day in my browser window, so I thought i’d share, though I bet the people who see this already know about most, if not all of them.