Black Eyes, Black Skies, Black Ice

(Apologies to Mr. A. Partridge).

What's under the cushion, wedged in the dryer, beneath the bed, stuck to your forearm, stuffed in your gig bag? A pick, of course. Unless you are a digitus au natural player, you use a pick. You might even have a favorite size, gauge, color, etc. New picks are a dime a dozen (or used to be, back in the day). New shapes, new materials, new whatever. Hard to be excited by a pick, especially if you have a favorite and are under the impression that your tone and style are due in some part to your choice of pick...and, indeed, they are.

So, switching picks was never my thing. I always favor a medium for strummy things and a Jazz 3 for solo-y things. Any medium pick would work, but it was difficult to find an equal to the feel of a jazz pick. Even though I tried them out at Planet Waves headquarters before they were released to the public, I did not think the Black Ice picks were going to win me over. They felt great, they sounded great, they didn't slip through my fingers...but I already had a favorite pick. Why change?



I put my stash of Black Ice picks in a drawer and went on, blissfully unaware. One day, a few months ago, while looking for something else, I found my Black Ice stash. Tried out a medium .080 gauged pick. Loved it. Loved it for strumming AND picking. It sounded great on acoustics, great on electrics, great on ukulele, great on mandolin.

Now it's the only pick I use. There's a blog post in that tale...

New at NAMM 2011

Planet Waves introduced several new products at the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, California this past week.

First up is the Guitar Rest: The ultimate solution to having your guitar slipping and falling over when you lean it against an amp or table.



Made from a soft plastic, the Guitar Rest turns any flat surface into a guitar stand. The top is hollowed out for storing slides, picks, etc.


Next is the D-Slyde, a D-shaped glass bottleneck slide that has Velcro on the flattened surface. Now you can store our slide on the back of your headstock, your amp, the mic stand, wherever the Velcro will stick.



Speaking of slides, traditional slide players can check out the new chrome-plated brass slides form Planet Waves. Ultra smooth finishing makes this slide both beautiful and toneful.




New additions to the wildly successful Beatles guitar strap line are woven straps featuring various iconic logos from The Beatles history.



The Acoustic Quick Release combines great Planet Waves straps in 13 different choices with the popular Quick Release acoustic guitar strap device. There are also 38 new models of the Planet Lock system which gives strap-lock security to any guitar using your existing strap buttons.

My Workbox Tour

UPDATE: Of course, you'll need a soldering iron, too. Mine died in the Nashville Flood, and I never replaced it before getting off the road.

Oh, The Humidity

It's Winter time again and that means it's time to make sure your precious guitars are dressed for the weather. As temperatures drop outside, most of us turn up the thermostat and heat our homes with some kind of forced-air heating system. Unless you have the AprilAire or a similar re-hydration device that puts moisture back into the heated air, the lack of humidity in your home can adversely effect your acoustic and electric guitars.

Most experts agree that an approximate 50% humidity level is ideal for acoustic instruments. Planet Waves offers a handy device for measuring the humidity in your home with the Humidity and Temperature Sensor (HTS). The HTS measures relative humidity levels from Low (under 20%) to High (up to 99%) and displays the current temperature in either Fahrenheit or Celsius. It can be programmed to give a visual warning (a water drop icon) when humidity levels dip below a pre-set minimum. It also has a High and Low memory that tracks the conditions of the surrounding area from the point of the last reset, including the date and time of the peaks and valleys of the humidity level.

Keeping track of the humidity is the first step. The next is to control it via adding or removing moisture from the air around your instruments. Planet waves has a low-cost and convenient way to add moisture to the air around your guitar.



The Acoustic Guitar Humidifier is a compact humidity solution specifically made for acoustic guitars. The high-impact plastic body sits suspended between the "D" and "G" strings of your guitar. A high absorption sponge gradually releases moisture to the inside of your guitar without ever touching the actual wood. Refills are quick and easy. By keeping your acoustic guitars in their hardshell cases, you get a "humidor" effect, effectively shrinking the size of the "room" to be humidified to the dimensions of your case.

The most comprehensive offering from Planet Waves is the Humidipak Moisture Management System. As you can tell by the name, it is not only a humidifier, but a de-humidifier as well. Using a formulation of salts, water and gum sealed in a vapor-permeable pack, the patented Humidipak system creates a specific relative humidity by either retaining or releasing water vapor into the air. Depending on you location, the packets last from 2-6 months, with replacements available separately.


Here's a video of Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars on the Humidipak and a .pdf on humidity in general.

And here's a detailed video on how to use the Humidipak.

Your acoustic instrument needs some love and care in extreme weather, make sure you have it protected with one of the Planet Waves humidity solutions.

Bridge (Pins) of Size

Nobody thinks much about them...until they break...or you lose one. Then the lowly bridge pin gets the respect it deserves - no bridge pin, no music. I've been caught without spares before and had to use broken pencils, glued-together wooden matches, or whatever I could scrounge to replace a snapped-off pin at a gig.

These days, when having spares for spares is part of my job description, I carry a nice assortment of Planet Waves bridge pins and end pins. We offer boxwood, ebony and plastic.

Plastic is the most economical, and many guitars at all price points ship with plastic pins. They have the least amount of mass and a bright tone. If your guitar came with them and you like the tone as is, you can stick with them.



Boxwood is a hard wood that is denser than the plastic and lasts longer. Planet Waves offer Black Pearl or Turquoise inlays in our boxwood pins, to add beauty to your bridge.


Ebony is a very dense wood that will last for a long time. Most players find that they mellow out the tone of your guitar, so if you have a bright sounding guitar, try a set to see what effect the ebony has on the trebles. Planet Waves offer ebony pins with brass studs and abalone, turquoise and pearl inlays.

For less than $20, you can try out these different pins from Planet Waves. And in true "real world solution" fashion, we even include an extra bridge pin in every set!

Pillows, Balloons and O-Ports

There are a few things in a guitar tech's workbox that might puzzle a casual observer. I have at various times carried around pillow stuffing, which was used to tame an overly responsive Dobro from feeding back.

Other odd items you might see are a few black balloons. Inserted into an ES-335 or similar semi-acoustic and then blown up, they serve to deaden the top and back enough to stop feedback and they also work in acoustic guitars. You might need to wait until Halloween to get black balloons, but they do come in handy.

If you want a more traditional approach to feedback suppression, Planet Waves offers two great products.

The Screeching Halt, which is hands-down my favorite product name, is a sound hole plug and top dampener for acoustic guitars. The slightly tapered edge make it compatible with most sound holes.

The other option is using the amazing O-Port. Designed to project the sound out of your guitar in a fashion similar to the ports on high quality speakers, the O-Port doubles as a top dampener.

I use it in just that manner on Brian Nutter's Sigma 12-string. If you've been to a live Keith Urban show lately and heard "Stupid Boy", that was Brian playing the Sigma with an O-Port, standing in the spotlight at the very edge of the stage, practically in front of the house P.A. speakers....no feedback.



O-Port demo #1

O-Port demo #2

Hangin' With Your Heroes

Planet Waves has a new batch of Classic Rock straps that feature album art work and logos from the Golden Age of Rock. The first album I ever bought with my own money was KISS's "Destroyer". I was 14 or 15 years old and it was a bit of a daring thing to bring that album cover into the classroom at the Catholic school I attended.



Southern Rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd also have a couple of logo straps out this year. I had their "Pronounced" album on 8-track!



Glam-Rock bad boys Motley Crue have three straps to offer, featuring art work from such favorites as "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Shout at the Devil" and "Dr. Feelgood".



Pioneering power trio +1 The Who always managed to have iconic visuals. Their Union Jack and Target straps are a throwback to the Mod culture of swinging London in the early '60's.




Check out all of the Planet Waves straps at your local retailer.