JamMan solo Mario

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Mhead

O solo Mario

First of all, only four posts in and I’ve already missed my goal of posting something everyday. I thought I would have at least kept up with it for 5 days. In the end however, the need for sleep trumped the desire to post, so sleep I did.

Received two hotly anticipated (by me!) items in the post today. Just in time for the weekend. The “Super Mario Series Super Best” music for guitar and a nice little DigiTech JamMan Solo looper pedal. Must say that I’m excited about the possibilities of this combination.

Recently, when I was bleary-eyed trying to wind down at 3:00 a.m., I made a little journey down the Amazon (.jp). I came across the Super Mario Series for Guitar and immediately decided that I had to have it. Especially when I saw that it was “Super Best”. I mean I can’t imagine what could possibly be better than that! About 20 years ago or so, when I was in my Mario Period, many of the tunes from the Mario series burned significant imprints in my hippocampus. Some of these tunes are found, quite tastefully arranged, in this edition. This book is also available in the U.S. from Alfred Publishing however it does not include the CD which is actually a must (this must be why it’s “Super Best”!). It is beautifully played by Aikawa Satoshi on acoustic guitar doing a nice smooth Jazz. For myself, I plan on fiddling with the arrangements a bit and try and make some power pop punk version with the help of my Amazon purchase number 2. The DigiTech JamMan Solo.

The Solo is a pretty cool looking little unit. I opened it up and played around on it for 15 minutes (just before starting this post). Took me about a minute to figure out the basic functions. Nice, easy to understand interface/controls. Sounds ok too (44.1kHz, 16-bit mono) although I had no more than three loop layers going at once so far. Comes with (I think) 9 pre-set rhythms which are pretty cheesy but make for a good metronome. You can also import your own rhythms into the unit through either SD,  USB or MP3 player (using the aux input). There seems to be more to it as well so I’ll read the little manual tonight before sleep, which incidentally, I plan to do again tonight.

Perhaps I can do a more thorough review of the JamMan soon along with some sound and/or video with me knocking out some Mario tunes. If anyone out there has a JamMan or looper of any kind, please feel free to share your experiences. They’re fairly new to me but they seem like a great tool for exploring ideas, practice and general dicking around. Looking forward to playing around with it more.

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So where were they made?

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Mhead

QR (Quality Re-assurance)

After, “why do you call yourself Hell Guitars”, the next most frequently asked question we receive is, “where is it made?”

The short answer is China. It’s China because the stickers on the back of the headstocks say that’s where they were built and shipped from. It’s China because they were cut out, sanded, painted, assembled and finished by skilled hands in a Chinese guitar factory. This is the short answer.

The long answer is, well, …longer. The woods used were harvested and exported from the U.S. and Canada. The tuners were either made in the U.S. or Korea (depending on model). The pickups were made in England. The strings are either U.S. (D’addario) or U.K. (Rotosound). In fact, most of the materials/components used in our guitars are from North America and the U.K. Even much of the precision work (CNC milling for example) done at the factory is done on machines made in the U.S. and Japan.

To be perfectly honest however, I’m proud of where our guitars are “made”. I visited with at least 20 companies throughout China to find an organization I felt comfortable with. We toured factories to check their methods, quality control and working conditions. “Our” factory is one of the best. They have become our friends and trusted allies. Many of you have bought their products without knowing where they came from but they carry U.S. brand names you are doubtless familiar with.

There are several key differences between the guitars the factory makes for Hell and the ones made for the other companies. Mainly, the overall quality of the components and materials and the quality control of manufacturing. In my opinion, quality control is a huge part of what makes Hell Guitars special. As China is just a short flight away, we regularly inspect production at various stages. We personally test nearly every guitar at the factory alongside the factory’s techs. Once the guitars arrive in Japan they are given a full inspection, final set-up and polish. Every guitar that leaves our company has a fantastic neck, fine fretwork and a super resonant body.

I understand that one tends to assess a guitar’s value in part, by where it was made. However this assessment is becoming less reliable every year. In another post, I will explain why this is.

-me

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Hell owners speak for themselves.

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Mhead

Hell Guitars Marketing Dept.

We’ve just added a testimonials section to the Hell Guitars site. In a flash of bold inspiration we decided to call it “Testimonials” (2nd choice was “Feedback” but somehow that wasn’t quite what we were after).

If you read some of the testimonials you’ll hear some pretty nice things said about us and our guitars. I suppose this is to be expected from a testimonials section though, isn’t it? Still, it’s all real, not coerced (or paid for) and offered by some truly nice people, all of whom we have had a genuinely fine time corresponding with. So far, Hell owners seem to be my kind of people.  They’re really nice and they buy our guitars. A trend that I hope continues…

Actually we really do rely on strong customer satisfaction/word of mouth for our success as our entire marketing budget was almost completely spent on the skywriting plane and giant searchlight rental (a 6 hundred million candle power unit ain’t cheap). Except for what’s in our guitars, we don’t really do frills at Hell either. About 98% of all Hell buying dollars (or pounds, euros, pesos etc.) go towards the actual cost of a bringing a guitar to a customer. Its manufacture (components, labor), shipping, customs, taxes and other reasonable expenses as well as a razor thin margin (just enough to keep a roof over our heads and a squarish meal or two in our bellies), means Hell Guitar owners received more guitar for their money than they could possibly get elsewhere. I feel pretty confident about this. In fact if someone can show me another guitar company who puts fabulous $300 Bare Knuckle pickups, US and Canadian woods, US and truly top of the line Korean tuners etc. in their guitars and are selling them from $589, I will send that person a free Hell Guitar and 7 letters of free skywriting in the sky of their choice.

I think I sort of got carried away (but really not that much…).

Anyway, you can check out what some of our Hell Guitar owners have to say about our guitars and our company by going here: http://www.hellguitars.com/testimonials.html

We’re pulling more together to publish soon and we will be adding to this page regularly. Also, if you happen to be living in our semi-rural section of Western Japan be sure to look out for the Hell skywriting plane. We had to return the Searchlight last week…

-me

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Welcome to machinehead!

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Mhead

Take me to your machinehead!

Thanks for making your way here.

machinehead! is the after hours home of Hell Guitars and its caretaker, me, Michael Evanston. This is where I go when all of the guitars for the day are shipped out, the last fret polished, the last email answered. This is an informal place to speak my mind and a place for anyone who cares to, to participate with comments.

We hope to make machinehead! an entertaining, informative and engaging channel for people who love guitars, music, style and life in general. If it doesn’t turn out to be that way, I suppose I shall be quite lonely talking to myself. Perhaps I may start drinking (even more…) or engaging in risky behavior such as telling my wife what I really think of her cooking…

So please stay tuned. Visit often, participate and help prevent me from perhaps doing something foolish.

Welcome to machinehead!

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The First Two Weeks.

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Mhead
It's Hell Time!

It's Hell Time!

What a crazy couple of weeks!

My fingers are sore (from typing) and I’m unshaven and underslept but I couldn’t be happier. We have been overwhelmed (in a good way) by all of the interest in Hell Guitars. After several years of planning this party, it was a great to have so many people show up. We have met lots of genuinely nice people and made a few friends. We’ve answered countless questions and shipped guitars all over the planet. To the U.S., Canada, Australia and Russia, to name a few.

I feel grateful and relieved to have gotten to this point. Grateful for the support of many good people and relieved that we have been (so far) well received. I look forward to Hell’s future without fear. The most important thing is to give one’s best and avoid stepping on others in the process. After that, only good things will come…

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