guitars – The Guitar Learner

Pocket Guitar Aeroband, A New Way To Be A Musician

I have something interesting to show to everyone. Usually I talk about tone woods or guitar wiring schematics, but this time is special. It’s a musical gadget integrated to our cellphones through apps. yes, it’s pretty much involving nowadays technology and it’s fun. it’s Pocket Guitar Aeroband.

Pocket guitar aeroband shape is similar to Guitar plectrum / guitar picks and that’s exactly how to use it. we will be doing air guitar show! just strum it after connect it to phone and the sound of clear and nice folk acoustic guitar will come out throughout the phone speakers.

well, okay i’m just too rushing it because I’m so excited. First download the Aeroband app on phone Apps store, install and open it.

Pocket Guitar uses bluetooth as the way it connects to phone, so make sure the bluetooth devices is turned on

make sure to activate GPS on the phone too. This gadget seems like use Accelerometer and gryroscope system to detect the hand strumming, so let’s do that.

i made lots of pic to help my explanation so here they are:

click go and we have this on the screen:

choose pocket guitar and we’re good to go

so far so good, I did the unboxing video of this gadget and it was fun.

and the check sound video. I was really excited by this.. tried on my cellphone and played it through the amp. it sounds just like good guitar with good wood body:

so far i like this product. it sounds good and it came in great and secured package so I didn’t worry about any damages by delivery. DHL delivered right to my front door and i have no worries at all about DHL services, they are good.

Few things about this gadget before i click publish, is somehow this pioneer product is developing and evolving. I might had few small difficulties in connecting it to phone, like :

i need an hour to understand that this thing needs the GPS to be ON

the gravity affects the gyroscope-things so i had to adjust my strumming faced toward earth so i can get equal power of strumming movements between upstroke and downstrokes

the firmware upgrade made it more sensitive to strumming, i like it before the firmware upgrade and i don’t know how to revert it

BUT i have faith this will get better because one thing. NOthing beats the excitement of doing Air Guitar ! and this Aeroband pocket guitar, it just has that fun. so, i think this stuff worth to get our attentions. So please check https://aeroband.net/ to get more information and you may make an order,FYI: there’s pocket drums too.

see ya guys!

Guitar Authenticity Check

Guitar Authenticity Check is a must-to-do thing when we buy a guitar, whether it’s new or pre-owned one. Why? because counterfeit is one thing nobody likes it, include us, guitarists. Unfortunately, this issue has been among us in decades, and it’s really important for us to take serious measurements about this.

personally, and professionally(!), I don’t hate customized guitar by luthiers, I kinda like the way they set their own standards on how a guitar is supposed to be. But I really hate if my friends (or even myself) found out that they paid TOO MUCH for fake guitar.. and one more thing, there’s almost nothing i can do about this counterfeit issue.

BUT, i think i can help a little by sharing my notes about Guitar Authenticity Check. Recently I helped my friend buying a guitar and the result was quite great. It’s Epiphone Les Paul 100 guitar, cherry sunburst with pickguard, very lovely.

I knew (as everyone else does) that Epiphone is one of leading brand in guitars, and for couple times i found epiphone parts such like backplates were sold separately, yes, it has counterfeit-risks.

so I’ve checked all detailed parts and found out few details which might very useful for us. Here’s the pic:

although there’s no serial numbers carved or printed on headstocks and neck, I found it labeled under the bridge pickups, yup, there you have it. I’ve checked the serial number on epiphone serial number decoder at guitardaterproject.org and this guitar is made in Indonesia on november 2010 by Samick Factory. quite nice info right? also i found out “Epiphone” brand carved/molded on stop bridge, tune-o-matic bridge, below pickups, even on mono jack socket. well done, Epiphone.

based on those, I made some notes, at least for my own standards, when i want to buy a guitar

Guitar Authenticity Check points

Get the guitar images and other info from its official website. there we will get its specs, and the closest guitar model looks
Get the sound samples from videos/youtube reviews. we can also get the guitar physical appearances there
compare it directly by try the guitar first before we decide ANYTHING. nothing beats the real sound and the playability/actions when you need to decide whether buying it or not
bring your friend who is also a guitarist to get more proper considerations
always choose trusted seller, if it’s not possible, ask the seller to provide the guitar authenticity info and proof. remember, it is you who hold the money, keep that in mind always

those words above just might be not enough, but i think those could be useful as basic considerations. good luck and have fun playing guitar! 🙂