Well, you guitar slingers might not be big fans of The Ellen show, but I think you’ll like this video. Vince Mira was on her show (15 years old), and he’s a guitar player too. Watch this video and you’ll see him playing “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash. What’s so special about it? He’s a dead ringer for Johnny Cash (his voice)! He’s really, really good. His pitch, and intonation is dead on – for such a young boy he has such a deep, deep, and controlled voice. Close your eyes and you will think it is Johnny Cash! Enjoy!

There are all kinds of clips appearing on YouTube of the December 10th Led Zeppelin reunion concert in London. Looks like YouTube is deleting all kinds of them at will – so who knows how long these will last. Watch them while you can, this was a Led Zeppelin video you waited 19 years to see! Let’s hope that they actually do that reunion tour and album…but I heard on the radio todat that Robert Plant said the fewer people talk about it – the more likely they are to do it. I doubt that, as it would be the most profitable concert tour in the last 25 years!

Led Zeppelin – Kashmir, London Reunion

Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heavan, London Reunion

Led Zeppelin – Dazed and Confused, London Reunion

I must be in the Christmas mood – I found this neat YouTube video of a guy playing a Christmas Guitar Chord Melody on his Variax, and it’s very jazzy and very cool! I liked it a lot, it made me want the tab! Are you looking for some Christmas guitar tab? You can find more than 400 Christmas Guitar Tabs on Ultimate-Guitar right now!

I wanted to write this page of Guitar Player gifts – because people often ask me what to get a guitarist for Christmas. Not just for me, but people I know as well! I got the Guitar Center catalog the other day, and a lot of times I don’t see much, but they did a pretty good job on their X-mas version this year. I found some really cool gifts right away, and they were all pretty much under $100!

First – let me introduce you to a guitar player’s friend – the string winder! Everyone needs to have a good string winder, but the Planet Waves folks were very smart because they built a string cutter right into the string winder! This is awesome, if I had this I guitar gadget I could throw away both my old nasty string winder (that falls apart when you use it), and my side cutters from my gig bag! Great budget gift under $10!

Planet Waves Pro-Winder String Winder/Cutter The Planet Waves Pro String Winder/Cutter has a built-in string clipper. It's been ergonomically designed by Planet Waves with hardened tool-steel wire cutters and a winder that fits both electric and acoustic guitars.

This next gift is for any guitar player that has his own little studio or music room. Chances are that he has more guitars than shoes, and there are just way too many guitar stands all over the place! What he needs are these Proline Guitar Wall Hangers so he (or she) can just hang the guitars right on the wall! Awesome guitar player gift under $15!

ProLine GH1 Guitar Wall Hanger NATURAL Hang your electric or acoustic guitar on the wall. The Fretrest base screws into the wall and supports a solid metal bracket. A guitar headstock rests securely in the bracket, conveniently against the wall, off the floor, and out of the way. The protective padding is specially formulated to help protect your guitar's finish.

The Planet Waves Strobe Pick Tuner is also a really cool gift, because this very accurate tuner doesn’t even have to be plugged in to be used! It’s also great for dimly lit and noisy places (like the gig!).

Planet Waves S.O.S Strobe Pick Tuner This unique pick-sized S.O.S Strobe Pick Tuner uses Planet Wave's revolutionary Strobe-On-String technology. If you've set a turntable's pitch via a stroboscopic control or use harmonic comparative tuning at multiple fret points to tune a guitar, you will immediately get the concept. Barely bigger than a guitar pick, the S.O.S. emits 2 out-of-phase LED light beams onto the vibrating string. The 2 beams dance on the string when it's out of tune, slow down as you approach pitch, and stop when you're on the money. A thumbwheel selects the right LED output for each string making the tuner specific to 6-string guitars. Since it relies strictly on visuals, the S.O.S is ideal for noisy and dim situations. NOTE: The S.O.S. Strobe Tuner only works with 6-string guitars in standard tuning and its lights may be difficult to see on some clear nylon classical guitar treble strings.

This one may seem weird, but I’m telling you this is a great guitar player gift idea! Every guitar player can use a good set of headphones. It’s great for the stereo, the computer, you can even plug it into a guitar amp for quieter practicing! This is a $40 set of quality headphones, and you get get them for under $20!

Audio-Technica ATH-M2X Stereo Headphones High-performance 40mm drivers and open-back design let the Audio-Technica ATH-M2X Stereo Headphones deliver the wide-frequency response and extended dynamic range demanded by digital sources. Bass response is exceptionally smooth and full for a modestly priced headphone. Soft leatherette ear pads, adjustable headband, and light weight (4 oz.) for extended comfortable listening. Frequency response 20Hz to 20kHz, 11-1/2' cable with mini-plug (1/4" adapter included).

Here’s another really cool guitar player gift idea – it’s the Mini Marshall amp! It runs on a 9v battery and has a belt clip! Complete with distortion, tone, and volume knob! You can have a lot of fun just walking around with this thing on your belt! A very cool gift for the Marshall loving guitar player!

Marshall MS-2 Mini Amp Authentic grille cloth; distortion; and enough volume for good, clean fun. Controls for overdrive, tone, and volume. Powered by one 9V battery. Includes belt clip and headphone jack. 5-3/4' high.

Do you know a guitar player that’s too loud when they practice? Do you know a guitar player that live in an apartment or place they can’t plugin and be loud with their regular gear? Maybe the guitar player in your life is going on vacation or out of town and wants to travel light. The Pocket Rock-It S1 headphone guitar amp will allow them to plugin wherever they are and get the sound of a full size amp in the palm of their hand! This is a great thing to have, and if you know a guitar player that doesn’t have one yet, you have found the right gift!

C Tech Pocket Rock-It S1 Standard Guitar Headphone Amp The battery-powered Pocket Rock-It S1 allows you to practice silently in any location, and have great tones at your disposal. The rotating input plug has 90 degrees of motion, so the S1 can plug into any guitar jack – no cable needed! One clean and two dirty settings give you lots of tone versatility. The Filter control is a continuously variable EQ that adjusts high and mid-range frequencies of the amp emulation model selected.If you do decide to let the rest of the world in on your S1 sessions, use the line out for recording or preamp applications. Jam with your CDs or MP3s with the line in.Designed, developed and engineered in the USA.

Do you know of a great guitar player gift? Comment now!

Here are some other guitar player gift ideas posts I wrote:

Personalized Guitar Straps
Guitar Pedal Stompbox Cord Saver
Shure SM58 Microphone

Oh – also I thought I’d mention there are some really cool guitar gifts I found on eBay. They have all kinds of crazy stuff like guitar ties, guitar clocks, guitar signs, guitar posts, guitar hero – you name it! Find a great guitar gift on eBay!

Here’s one you won’t soon forget – I want you to watch this video of Quinn Sullivan. He’s 8, he has his own band, and he probably plays better than you do! Apparently he loves The Beatles, his dad plays the drums in his band, and he’s been playing and performing since the AGE OF FOUR (yes I said 4)! He sings, he plays lead and fronts the band, he even writes his own songs including music and lyrics! In this video he plays the B.B. King classic “Thrill is gone”. Watching the whole video I hope that you’re amazed as much as I was as he begins the song playing lead, and then when he starts to sing with his very high but dead on voice, and then the lead in the middle when he not only works the hell out of that Wah pedal – but the stage presence and conviction he has is amazing! Remember his name – this child will be a guitar god by his teens, mark my words!

Quinn Sullivan – Thrill is Gone

Here’s a couple more vids of Quinn I found on YouTube:

Quinn Sullivan – My Guitar Gently Weeps

Ellen DeGeneres and Quinn Sullivan

Quinn Sullivan plays with Buddy Guy

Here’s another video I found on YouTube of an incredible guitar player named Zack Kim. I haven’t seen anyone play two handed guitar since Stanley Jordan back in the 80′s. The think I find unique about this guy is that he actually plays two handed on two different guitars at the same time. It’s incredible, it’s like he’s playing piano – but on two guitar instead of a keyboard!

You’ve probably seen this one before, I’d be surprised if you didn’t, but it’s work watching again! Here’s a YouTube video of 22 year old Korean guy who goes by “FunTwo” on YouTube. It’s an incredible piece of work, I believe that in various versions this video was watched more than 43 million times. After his stellar guitar shredding performance, I’ll show you his interview way back when with CNN.

oh, by the way…special for the holidays – Here is “Carol Rock” by funtwo as well!

I was reading the news this morning when I came across this post about weird guitars. Of course I just HAD to post that her for you! I think that post was compiled from different places across the web since I’d seen one or two of these before. But the rest were new to me, and there are some really cool axes in this bunch. Be sure to visit that page and check them out. Here, I’ll post like 3 of them here to get you started!

Find Unique, Funky, and Strange Guitars on eBay now!

I was doing a little bit of guitar video surfing on YouTube again today – and I came across a name I hadn’t seen in awhile – “Mattias IA Eklundh”. Mattias is a guitar god you may not know, and may never have even heard of before you read this post here on Guitar Review. Here, I’ll let his playing speak for itself, you watch this video first:

So now you know that Mattias Eklundh is both very talented and very unusual. Now that you’ve seen his soloing ability, I want you to hear (and see) it in the context of a song. Mattias writes both the lyrics as well as the music. Oh – did I mention he was the lead singer too? Mattias has albums by himself and also with his band “Freak Kitchen”. These videos are both with Freak Kitchen.

Nobody’s Laughing Here – by Freak Kitchen

In this next video you can hear not only Mattias’ fast and unusual lead technique, but also the various “sound effects” he’s able to create using only a pick and his fingers:

Speak When Spoken To – by Freak Kitchen

What did you think? His style is basically a meld of the greatest guitar gods with his own style on top. You can hear Vai, Satriani, Gilbert, and Van Halen. But you also hear some crazy, crazy noises. Reading his bio on his Freak Guitar web site and you’ll see that not only is Mattias left handed, but he uses absolutely NO EFFECTS whatsoever. NONE. All the sounds, noises, growls, and gurgles you hear are created using only his pick and his fingers. I encourage you to learn more about him. You can read his Wikipedia entry here. Be sure to visit Freak Kitchen’s web site as well.

I encourage you to check out both the Freak Kitchen records, but the solo “Freak Guitar” album’s by Mattias are freakin’ awesome! Be sure to get the Road Less Travelled one if you haven’t already, and be sure to listen to his instrumental rendition of “Detroit Rock City” among others!

Freak Kitchen

Spanking Hour

Organic

Freak Guitar: The Road Less Traveled

Freak Guitar