Korean Guitars - Duran Duran Rocks Seoul

Wednesday





Duran Duran brought back memories of the 80’s with an exciting concert on Thursday, their first in Seoul in nearly 20 years.

Screams greeted Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor as they appeared on stage at Olympic Gymnasium #1, Olympic Park, southern Seoul. They started the concert with an energetic performance of “Valley.”

“Annyonghaseyo, Korea,” Le Bon, the group’s front man, greeted the crowd. “You’re all amazing. The flashing lights and people clapping, with joy on your faces.”

Duran Duran sang many of their hit songs in the 80’s like “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Planet Earth,” “The Reflex,” “Come Undone” and “A View to a Kill,” to the delight of their fans. To keep things fresh for the audience, the older songs were given slightly more modern arrangements.

The band also introduced some of their newer songs from the “Red Carpet Massacre” album, including the title song and “Falling Down.” Le Bon boasted “Falling Down” was written by his “new best friend,” Justin Timberlake.

While the band is now a far cry from their glamorous, rock star image in the 1980’s, Duran Duran still worked their charm on the crowd.

Before the band started singing “Save a Prayer,” John Taylor told the crowd “the chorus is all yours.” The audience eagerly obliged, and sang to the music.

In the middle of “Girls on Film,” each Duran Duran member did short solo performances. John Taylor did some amazing bass guitar riffs, while Roger Taylor rocked the concert hall with a drum solo.



Duran Duran performed “Ordinary World,” “Notorious,” “Sunrise” and “Wild Boys.” The band seemed to be having a good time, running and jumping all over the stage. Even Rhodes, who was behind the keyboards, took a moment to take out his camera phone and filmed the audience.

It’s been nearly 20 years since their first concert here, but Duran Duran saw how loyal and enthusiastic their Korean fans were during Thursday’s concert.

Throughout the show, fans cheered, waved their arms and danced to the music like they were still teenagers. Most of the fans were in their late 20s to late 30s, with some fans even bringing their young children along.

“It’s been a long time, Korea. It’s not going to be this long again. You’re all so good,” Le Bon said. Duran Duran ended the show with one of their best-known songs “Rio.”

Duran Duran is currently on the “Red Carpet Massacre” world tour, to promote their latest album. The group has concerts in North America and Europe in the next few months.

Duran Duran was one of the biggest New Wave groups in the 1980’s. Known for popularizing New Wave music, the stylish group has sold over 85 million records around the world.

Courtesy The Korea Times

Korean Guitars - Spotlight : Lance Reegan Diehl

Tuesday



Hot on the tracks of my last post on Clive guitars, I want to go today a bit further and present the man behind the brand, Lance Reegan Diehl. Lance is a virtuoso guitarist from Canada working as a professional guitarist here in Korea. From blues to hardcore shredding, Lance can do it all.

You can check out Lance MySpace profile and songs here. Also, here is the MySpace profile for Clive guitars.

Here is a video of Lance at the Toronto Blues Music Society. The guitar is a Saint T300 (Garry Snyder pickups and Seymour Duncan JB). Enjoy.

Korean Guitars - Dame Guitars Coming to a Dealer Near You ?

Thursday



Clive Guitars and Basses

Ok, the title is a bit misleading, I should have said Clive guitars but chances are you never heard about them. I don’t know the specifics about Clive guitars but it appears they are basically re-branded Dame guitars with a different headstock. Everything else, like the body, the pickups are the same as some popular Dame guitars models like my Dame T300.

The good news for you is while it would be difficult to get a hold of Dame guitars outside of Korea, you might be able to pick up one of these more easily. Now, the Clive website is not really clear about how to buy them if you live say in the United States, but it could be worthwhile to contact them and ask them about it. They do have some worldwide distributors.

Korean Guitars - Samick Ultramatic UM3 review

Sunday



Samick Ultramatic UM3

Head on over to Ultimate Guitar to read a review of the Samick Ultramatic UM3.

This particular guitarist seems very pleased with this model, giving it an overall score of 9. Here are a few choice exerpts: This guitar is awesome. From playing a shit ton of guitar this one is by far my favorite. [...] It has a rich full sound on clean good for blues, rock, or country. With overdrive it has that classic rock feel to it. You can do any style of music with this guitar the possibilities are endless.

Korean Guitars - The Swing Classic X in Video

Thursday





This a follow up of the review of the Swing Classic X by guitarplayer.com I posted a few days ago. You'll now get to see for yourself what this baby is capable of. Great all around playing by Tommy Kim.

Contact ask-swing@hanmail.net for international sales questions or swingguitars@swingguitars.com for questions about Swing guitars and products.
Additionally, you can call them at 82-31-957-4636 (english spoken).

Click on the following link to go to the Swing guitars english website: Swing guitars technology

Korean Guitars - Scuttle Buttin' on a Swing R2

Monday





Let's stay in the Stevie Ray Vaughan subject for a while with this video showing a great rendition of Scuttle Buttin'. The guitar is a Swing R2, a guitar in the same range as my Dame T300. I would have gone for a more traditional sound for this song but some great playing nonetheless.

Korean Guitars - A Neat Utility - Guitar Chords Finder



Stumbled upon a neat little utility while looking for widgets to add to my iGoogle page (for those of you who haven't already done so I highly recommend setting up your own iGoogle page, it makes life SO much easier).

Guitar Chords Finder lets you input finger positions on a virtual fingerboard and gives you the name of the chord you’ve just formed. Press the play button and it even gives you an audio preview of the chord! You can check it out here: Guitar Chords Finder

Korean Guitars - SRV's Number One replica by Dexter guitars

Tuesday



SRV's Number One by Dexter guitars
Being a SRV fan, I had to dedicate a post to this little beauty by the Korean guitar maker Dexter. It is a replica of Stevie's beloved Number One, the famous 1959 stratocaster he picked used in a guitar shop in Austin in 1973.

This guitar is part of the Time Machine series of the brand, and is the only one in the series as far as I know. Dexter is a relatively small Korean guitar manufacturer. The quality of their guitars is very good, I almost bought their Super Strat before finally settling on my Dame T300.

There is something I really like about this replica, maybe it is the slight cheesiness of it that makes it all the more loveable in my eyes. For those of you who wonder, the guitar is priced at about a thousand dollars. Don't forget to check out the sound sample on the page, this baby sounds as good as it looks. Check out Dexter for more details.