First you saw the Beatles Rock Band controller versus the actual Rickenbacker 325, next you got to peek into the woodshop, then you saw how they were painted and electronic components added... and now for the final installment, here's a peek at some of the incredible design details from vintage pieces, limited editions, and concepts that never made it to market...

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Tags: factory - gifts - guitar - music - shopping - technology

First you saw the Beatles Rock Band controller versus the actual Rickenbacker 325, next you got to peek into the woodshop, now take a look at how the guitars get finished ~ from the priming to the sanding to how each and every little electronic component finds it way to make the Rickenbacker 325 the icon it is...

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Tags: factory - gifts - guitar - music - shopping - technology

As promised in the last post showing you the Beatles Rock Band controller versus the actual Rickenbacker 325~ here's a peek into how Rickenbacker guitars are actually made! I had so many pictures because their whole process is so fascinating that instead of cutting TOO many of them, i'm making this a three parter... so first, come take a peek into the woodshop on the next page! Stunning how these beautiful pieces of wood get transformed into the guitars we know and love...

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Tags: factory - gifts - guitar - music - shopping - technology

Its striking how similar in SIZE the real Rickenbacker 325 and the Beatles Rock Band Controller are. In fact, they are so similar, i couldn't resist visiting the Rickenbacker factory in Santa Ana to check them out side by side in person! Funny coincidence ~ on 09/09/09 when Beatles Rock Band launched, the factory happened to start working on a run of the Rickenbacker 325! They claim it really wasn't planned! So luckily when i visited a few days later, i not only got to take a peek at the controller and its real life counterpart in person, but also had an opportunity to see exactly how the real guitars are made! (and it is truly an amazing process, so many more steps of skilled craftsmen than i ever imagined, but more to come on that soon!)

Take a peek at the next page to see lots of pics of the Rickenbacker 325 alongside the Beatles Rock Band Controller ~ as well as peeks into the factory and renderings of the controller!

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Tags: games - gifts - guitar - music - shopping - technology - video game

Beauty in Technology post series sponsored by Samsung’s new LED TVs! Post #4 of 6 in this series exploring random beauty in technology, NOTCOT style.

It's been such a fun challenge finding things to share for this Samsung sponsored post series ~ running around my life finding unexpected inspiring beautiful tech details i may not have normally noticed or thought about that are in my every day life... today i'm excited to share the Rickenbacker 350/12V63 Liverpool 12 string electric guitar with you! (Also awesome? The color is called "Jet Glow") John Lennon, The Byrds, and Tom Petty were all known to play Rickenbacker... and really what grabbed me was the way the tuning machines are attached to the head without looking too crammed, even when there are twice as many as usual! And really it's just such a stunningly gorgeous machine ~ check out the pics on the next page!

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Tags: gifts - guitar - music - Samsung Beauty in Technology - shopping - technology

Just got home and ended up playing way too much Rock Band tonight ~ so as tired as my body might be, my mind was inspired to show you this awesome limited edition MWM Graphics Rock Band Guitar that i've been meaning to post! Before we get into looking at how sweet this guitar is... lets get all the complicated collaborations and brands out of the way ~ this Geometric Funk XBOX 360 Rock Band Guitar was created by MWM Graphics, which is Matt W. Moore, for Pepsi Rock Band 2009 to promote the Pepsi/Yahoo/Harmonix/MTV Drink Up, Rock Out promotion! Basically, gamers can submit their own Rock Band music videos for a chance to win a MTV Video Music Award Moonman, as well as other great Rock Band prizes under the caps of Pepsi bottles everywhere! I just got distracted midway through post writing while watching a bunch of the videos, some are pretty hilarious - here, check this one out.

ANYHOW, beyond the pretty fun campaign going on (i think you have till Sept to rock out and make a fun music video!) ~ stepping back and checking it out ~ i just love that this is art + video games + music + UGC + ad campaign. It's so fun to see the graphic stylings of favorites like MWM Graphics on a Rock Band fender guitar! I must say the number of brands you can tie into this whole endeavor is hurting my head slightly ~ but that aside ~ could the rock band guitar be the new tshirt/skateboard to customize for artists? Check out more pics of this gorgeous collaboration on the next page ~ as well as some screenshots of the campaign (i'm liking the site design!).

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Tags: advertising - games - gifts - guitar - music - shopping - video game

It's noon on Friday, and this week has been so much design/dev/catch up ~ i somehow ended up staying up all night catching up on emails (i was a few hundred deep... now down to somewhere around 100! yay!), so about to crash, but wanted to first show you guys some exciting new fall launches coming from Belkin. I hope you don't mind, but i'll keep it brief, and give you lots of pics on the next page:

1. Fly Wire - this was one of the things i've been waiting for since CES, a super sleek simple way to mount a receiver to your flat panel TV, and have no wires showing when its wall mounted, while all your devices are connected elsewhere. Gorgeous design, awesome implementation!

2. Break Free - a great little magnetic break away jack for all our guitarists out there, or for those who trip on their cords!

3. Laptop Cool Strip - fun idea for getting your laptop some room to cool, while also having space to let cables not get crushed under the laptop.

See larger pics of all of these on the next page!

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Tags: accessories - gifts - guitar - hddvd - laptop - shopping - technology - tv

Gift Guide Day 3 is all about some musical gadgetry that can accompany the mp3 players/ipods that we all have... as well as a fun mini guitar amp, portable mp3 dj device launching in feb, and more! As usual ~ you can view all the gift guides to date on one page!

Tags: audio - gift guide - gifts - guitar - ipod - mp3 - music - shopping - technology

Guitar + Vox + OhMiBod = Vibrator responding to the sounds of the guitar. Ever have those days where it you're holding two objects and it suddenly *clicks* that they're meant to be put together? Well a box of toys showed up from OhMiBod and the VOX AmPlug came on the same day, and it suddenly dawned on me that together they could be the perfect combo gift and only ~$100! [There's a quick video if below if you don't know what i mean.]

Ok ok, hear me out. The VOX AmPlug is perfect for electric guitarists who want to hear that beautiful full bodied sound through headphones. The OhMiBod and the more attractive and enticing new Gspot vibrate to the music connected through a headphone cable... Connect the two together ~ and its an interesting way to seriously touch someone through the music you PLAY.

We all know girls can't resist a musician (yes, yes, protest if you must, but we all know its pretty hard?) ~ this would take that love of musician and his music to a whole new level. Also, if he is the worst guitar player ever maybe this would be a nice gift for his poor girlfriend. And for all those groupies you can even plug in more than one... Come to think of it... this *could* work out nicely for those gamer guys too, hook it up to the output of your XBOX/PC/etc and every shot you take (or when you get shot) in a shooter game will have a whole new effect?

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Tags: gifts - guitar - ipod - mp3 - music - shopping - technology - toys - video

Rock Well - I saw this adorable Limited Edition font inspired guitar pick on Ace Jet 170... which led me to the Rockwell font page... this pile of picks at Redesigners (which also says "Simon says email him if you’d like one simonwhybray (at) gmail.com")... and also to Simon Whybray's site on the project. And on Simon's site, it mentions is you send him £2, he'll pop one in the post and maybe some other goodies as well.

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Tags: font - gifts - guitar - shopping

Freshly launched today for xbox 360 ~ Guitar Hero II has been my between work distraction of the day ~ its far too fun "strumming" to possum kingdom between posts... just discovered one of the gorgeous ad spots over on Stash Media's Feed. "Pete Candeland, the Passion Pictures powerhouse director behind the Gorillaz videos does it again, this time for the Xbox 360's Guitar Hero II. The agency is McCann Worldgroup out of San Francisco." Its a really beautiful spot, view it here.

Tags: advertising - guitar - video - video game - xbox