Guitar Hero got lame pretty damn fast and Dance Dance Revolution was never straight. Para Para Revolution however, isn’t nearly as bad. Instead of dancing on foot pads or playing a fake guitar, the player wears gloves with accelerometers that detect their hand movements.

The gloves focus on both hands’ waving motions. The player has to follow the rhythm and wave his hand in a certain direction to score points accordingly.  This makes tuning your bodily movements to more  harmonious patterns rhythms more fun and less gay than any other rhythm game on the market.

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These homemade guitar picks from Flickr member Aud1073cH are pretty badass. With designs ranging from Mount Rushmore to the Toshiba and Paramount logos, one wonders how he created these…

Handmade guitar picks. Most are made from old plastic cards (gift cards, credit cards, hotel room keys, etc.) Other materials are cardboard, “Handi Snacks” stick, CD, Toshiba laptop, and plastic packaging.

There you have it. I wonder if the cardboard-based picks even work?

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There are plenty of software-based guitar solutions for guitarists but how many of them are open source? Very little, to be quite frank. Enter OpenStomp, an open source FX pedal solution for developers and players. The model above, the Coyote-1, can hook up to Windows so parameters can be edited on the fly. Sounds a lot like a MIDI-based solution that users can dive further into.

It may be open source but it still can’t turn you into Eddie Van Halen if you just plain suck. Remember, practice makes mediocre.

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Though I’m a bit too young to experience a true spring reverb pedal, I’m well aware they reign king over today’s digital alternatives. This DIY project from the Electronic Peasant has brought in a Slinky to really make things ridiculous. He’s used the stair-crawling toy to emulate a 1976 spring reverb unit.

How does it work? Glad you asked:

There are a number of different ways to send vibrations travelling down a spring, but most spring reverbs use torsional (rotational) motion, which is less sensitive to interference from external vibrations. Here is an experiment that The Peasant did with a Slinky Jr (R) and some old speaker drivers which delivers loooonng delay low frequency DIY reverb for almost no cost.

If you’re looking for that reverb and barely have enough cash for dinner, might wanna give this a try.

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The man above is Mike Edison, the former publisher of High Times. What he’s holding is a device that’s known as the ChroniCaster, which is essentially a bong built into a guitar. His hot P-90 pickups are shielded by a special mold that helps keep marijuana resin out. Makes us wanna blast The Outlaws’ classic track “Green Grass and High Tides Forever” on our old Boombox. You know, the one with the dual-tape decks.

Sure it might not be as handy as a Guitar Hero controller with integrated MIDI, but it’ll make those cupcakes you got the other day taste so much better.

This is the shit. Sorry, but there’s really no other way to describe my excitement for this mod. For under $100, including the cost of the controller, Dave was able to create a full-fledged MIDI controller from a wireless Guitar Hero guitar. Wondering what you can do with it? Check this out:

With the current version you can:
play 2 octaves of an 8 note scale at a time
change the starting note anywhere in the range of a regular keyboard
change octaves
change keys
change tonal modes (Ionian, Mixolydian, Lydian, Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, Locrian)
change the timbre of a sound
change the resonance of a sound
use the whammy bar to pitchbend
play chords in the mode you have the guitar set to (major/minor/etc.)
rock out with a video game toy

The guitar used was the wireless model for the Nintendo Wii. It looks like you might really need to know your shit about circuit patterns and MIDI, but hey, the payoff is incredible. Now all you need is a friend with a TUIST and you’re ready to rock.

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As much as we hate to encourage the poser mentality, owning something like the Fender Wallet would totally add to the rocker uniform which you’ve spent so long perfecting.

Now that you’ve got your list of essential hardware to name-drop into conversation, you can rock the leather Fender Wallet which is designed to look like a pair of stacked amps, complete with a traditional amp cord for connecting the wallet to your belt loop like one of those punky chain wallets. You can pick up your own for $24 or wait until they’re available at your local Hot Topic or Spencers for double the price.

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The fine people over at MakeUseOf.com have compiled a list of essential guitar tools that will suit any master of the axe well. The roundup includes guitar tab sites, tab editors and organizers and scale programs. All of these tools are great ways to help you improve your playing and learn new techniques. Guitar programs such as Guitar Rig, GarageBand and Logic Express can all add new sounds to your playing and are usually available in demo form from the manufacturer’s website.

Remember, make sure the guitar you’re playing on is of reasonable size.

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Rather than screwing around with butt plugs this weekend, spend your hard earned cash on this 12′ x 4′ sculpture of an acoustic guitar.

Dubbed “Heavy Metal“, this work of art was created by artist extraordinarie Mike Schubert. It can be yours for the low price of who gives a shit.

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Bass guitar is a wonderful thing. I’ve been playing since I was about 8-years-old and truly love it. Not everyone is as fortunate as I am to own a bass guitar though, so if you’ve got $5.00, a toolkit, a shoebox and a piece of wood, you’re set for a weekend of jamming out.

According to this Instructables article, you can easily make a pickup for a bass guitar using popsicle sticks and neodymium magnets with a little wiring for good measure. Seems like a great idea for the weekend if you’ve got the time and the guitar.

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