Guitar Talker

a guitar book store

guitartalker — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:27:34 +0000

I’ve just opened my own eStore ‘guitar-books’ (http://guitar-books.zliostore.com), and I’d like to let you know about the service. It’s loads of fun, and it takes less than 5 minutes to create your own online store. But, most importantly, there are no logistics to deal with: Payment, product delivery and after-sale support are the sole responsibility of partnering ZLIO Internet merchants! All you need is a bit of imagination to select products for your store (from a catalog of over three million items from the Internet’s top merchants). And best of all – you get a commission every time your shop sells something (paid by the merchant, so your products aren’t any more expensive than they would be elsewhere).

http://guitar-books.zliostore.com

10 Free Guitar Lessons with Full Audio, Diagrams and more!

guitartalker — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:22:43 +0000

10 Free Guitar Lessons with Full Audio, Diagrams and more!

A $19.99 Value – Free

You’ll learn…

Speed Exercises
Lead Guitar Tricks
How to make your Guitar sound better
Easy and Advanced Theory
Plus Much more

Plus get Free backing tracks to jam along to. All delivered to your mailbox.

How to learn the guitar quick

guitartalker — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:20:16 +0000

websites where you can get cheap guitars

guitartalker — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:20:22 +0000

Everyone wants to know how to get the best deals on guitars and if you don’t know then that can be slightly daunting.

Before, I recommended sites that list a few bargains but this time I wanted to mention sites that have a massive range of equipment and guitars.

If you are new to the internet shopping world then this guide is for you. .. but then if you are an expert but not sure where to get guitars then this is also for you.

There are four websites that I am going to recommend based on the fact that they are always kept up to date and always seem to have the best prices.

Guitar Center

Musician’s Friend

Instrument Pro

Yamaha Pacifica Guitar Review

guitartalker — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:31:14 +0000

Made in Indonesia. A stratocaster-style electric.

Yamaha PAC012DLX Pacifica Series HSS Deluxe Electric Guitar Vintage Sunburst

- 22 frets
- single coil pickups in neck/middle positions
- Humbucker in bridge position
- Vintage style tremolo
- 1 volume/1 tone knob
- 5-way selector switch
- Alder body
- Bolt-on Maple neck
- Rosewood fingerboard
- Chrome tuners

Included a manual, a cheap cable, allen wrenches for truss rod and bridge saddles, and a trem bar. Mine is in “Vintage Sunburst” which is a decent imitation of Fender’s”.

Sound : 8

These days I am primarily a bass player but bought this guitar to serve as a cheap electric to mess around on at home. Didnt want to spend more than $200 but didnt want to get a piece of junk either. Tried a ton of squiers, lower end ibanezs, etc. but they all just felt cheap and sounded dull. Finally went to a local mom and pop store and found the PAC112 hanging on the wall for $199. I knew yamaha made decent lower end stuff so I figured id try it out. I plugged in, hit a E chord, and knew I had found the right guitar.

For a cheap guitar it does a very good job at capturing the stratocaster sound. The neck and middle pickups give some nice bright strat-like clean tones…and also have a nice bluesy grit when played with some light overdrive.

The humbucker sounds a bit dull when clean, but really shines under moderate to high gain, providing good sustain and nice chunky palm mutes.

Of course these arent hot high-end pickups but for $199 I really cant complain. Might someday down the road swap the humbucker for a aftermarket, but happy enough with the singles to leave them in. Pretty low-noise for a cheap guitar…of course theres a bit of hum from the single coils but thats expected. The HSS configuration and 5-way swtich gives you a nice variety of tones.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 7

Instead of using a crappy body wood like what is common on many lower-end guitars, the PAC112 is a nice solid piece of alder with a good weight to it.

Factory setup was actually not too bad…intonation was near perfect, though the action was a bit on the high side. I put on new strings, gave the truss rod a quarter turn to lower things a bit, and adjusted the pickups a tad. Neck is comfortable and appears to be a one-piece maple with a very light satin finish.

Fretwork is good, hardware seems solid. Went over the guitar and tightened up the tuners, input jack, etc…but everything was mostly in order. I thought replacing the tuners was going to be mandatory, but to my surprise the stock ones hold tune pretty well. I don’t ever use the Trem bar, but id imagine that might throw it out of tune. Only cosmetic flaw I could find were some barely noticeable spots of excess glue by the neck joint…but for a $199 guitar, who cares?

Reliability/Durability : 7

With a good amp, I would feel comfortable using this guitar live. Hardware and finish seem like they will hold up as long as you don’t thrash the thing. Might someday put in a duncan or dimarzio humbucker and throw in some new pots, but the guitar gets the job done in stock form. The quality body and neck would make it an excellent candidate for hot rodding or customization. This guitar is definitely worth the extra $50 over the entry level PAC012 in my opinion.

Overall Rating : 8

Ive been playing bass and guitar for about 8 years. I own or have owned in the past various gear from Fender, Yamaha, Cort, Peavey, Crate, Marshall, Tech 21, etc. This is my third yamaha instrument and ive noticed their lower-end models are generally solid and really good for the money.

It would make a great guitar for a beginner, or as in my case…a player with some experience looking for an inexpensive guitar to mess around, a platform for a project, or as a cheap backup.

Yamaha PAC012DLX Pacifica Series HSS Deluxe Electric Guitar Vintage Sunburst

Fender Deluxe Fat Strat (HSS) Electric Guitar Review

guitartalker — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:58:08 +0000

The Fender Deluxe Strat (HSS) is a hot rod of an electric guitar that is capable of a broad range of tones. Thank the guitar’s 2 Tex-Mex single-coils and a bridge position Fat Strat humbucker with 5-way switching for its versatility. A late 60s “big” headstock and black knobs and pickguard give this Stratocaster a distinctive flare.

Fender Deluxe Fat Strat (HSS) Electric Guitar Black Specifications:

Body Type	Solid Body
Body Wood	Alder
Bridge Pickup	Tex-Mex Fat Strat Humbucking
Bridge Type	Synchronized Tremolo
Controls	Volume,Tone,Tone
Finish	Polyurethane
Fretboard	Rosewood
Fretboard Radius	9 1/2″ (241 mm)
Hardware Color	Chrome
Middle Pickup	Tex-Mex Flat Pole Piece Single-Coil
Neck Joint	Bolt-on
Neck Pickup	Tex-Mex Flat Pole Piece Single-Coil
Neck Shape	C-Shape
Neck Wood	Maple
Number Of Frets	21
Number of Strings	6
Nut Width	1.6875″ (43 mm)
Pickup Configuration	Humbucker-Single-Single
Pickup Selector	5-way
Scale Length	25 1/2″ (648 mm)
Tremolo

Fender Strat American deluxe HSS

Fender Stratocasters have long been the guitar of choice for many guitarists in many styles of music. Over the years, Fender has released many different styles of Stratocasters, and the Strat Deluxe is just one of these. So what makes the Strat Deluxe different from all the other Strats on the market? Well, all the features combined make this guitar a great bargain compared to the other Strats in regards to the bang for the buck ratio, for the rock and metal guitarist.

Main Features of the Fender Strat

To start things off, this is no ordinary Fender Stratocaster. It’s a premium (American Deluxe) model of the famed guitar, with a premium alder body. In addition, the American Fender Deluxe is brimming with beefy tone, thanks to the DH-1 double humbucker pickup at the bridge, which is why it’s called the “Fat Strat”, the Strat of temptation.

Some older and vintage Fender Strats have earned the reputation of having necks with frets that are rough at the crown. The Fender Strat Deluxe, with its hand rolled edges, won’t have this issue, so you need not worry about a sore hand after playing it.

The American Deluxe HSS comes standard with 2-single coil pick-ups and a 22-fret fretboard. What separates the Deluxe HSS from other Strats in this case is the quality of the pick-ups, which are SCN (Samarium Cobalt Noiseless) pick-ups, and, of course, the double humbucker at the bridge. The pick-ups deliver a rich sound that can be tweaked to fit many playing styles. Another feature added on the Deluxe is the S-1 switching system and the LSR Roller Nut with locking machine heads.

What really sets this guitar apart is the neck. The American Deluxe features a comfortable playing ‘C’ Shape Maple Neck with Satin Polyurethane Finish, and stylish Dot Abolone Inlays, which the Abolone’s beauty is really brought to life from the dark Rosewood fretboard.

The Fender Deluxe HSS is also amazingly stylish, as it comes with chrome hardware (tuning pegs, whammy bar and the pick-ups) with the finish available in Black, Sunburst or Orange. There are also several pickguards to choose from, making it easy for you to pick the right Deluxe HSS Fat Strat design to choose from.

Also like other Strats, the HSS features a string-through-body bridge and a complete premium tremolo system. The HSS also comes ready to be fitted with Schaller strap-locks, so you won’t need to worry about installing a strap-lok system to protect your guitar from accidentally dropping.

Fender Deluxe Fat Strat (HSS) Electric Guitar Black

Fender Highway One Stratocaster Guitar Review

guitartalker — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:36:10 +0000

Intro

Introduced in July of 2006, the upgraded Highway One Stratocaster is Fender’s least expensive American Made Strat, and as such has been highly touted as the obvious answer for those guitar players longing for American Made quality at a reasonable price.

The guitar does sport some nice amenities––including a set of suped-up “hot” singlecoil pickups (reverse wound/reverse polarity in the middle position,) a satin nitro lacquer finish, and Fender’s Greasebucket Tone Circuit––though to my mind there are some downsides to the design as well.

While the Highway One Stratocaster will undoubtedly be a perfect fit for many guitar players, especially those prone to high-gain mayhem (these pickups sounds phenomenal with a little overdrive,) I’m not afraid to tell you that the three guitars I played for this review weren’t particularly comfortable in the neck department.

Of course, your experience may vary.

Specs

Alder body
Maple neck (modern C-shape)
Rosewood or Maple fretboard w/22 jumbo frets (9.5” radius)
A trio of Hot singlecoil Strat pickups w/Alnico 3 magnets
Greasebucket Tone Circuit on bridge & neck pickups
Master volume knob and 5-way pickup switching
Vintage style synchronized tremolo and Fender/Ping Standard tuners
3-ply parchment pickguard, fat ‘70s-style headstock, and original body shape
H/S/H pickup routing and a deluxe gig bag

The guitar’s Satin Nitrocellulose Lacquer Finish (no poly here!) comes in Honey Blonde (shown,) Flat Black, Wine Transparent, Daphne Blue, and 3-Color Sunburst.

What I Liked

Nice, nice finish… OK, it’s not for everyone, and it certainly brings a unique look to the Highway One, but if you’re at all enamored of a satin finish, and if you’ve been looking to get into a guitar that doesn’t look like it’s been dipped in a vat of gooey varnish, well, this one’s a no-brainer.

In my experience people who’ve never played a Strat with a true nitrocellulose finish tend to underestimate its effect on tone and sustain, but to my ears a nitro-finished guitar sounds richer, with more sonic subtleties, and with just a little more oomph. Of course, that delicate finish tends to scratch easily, but the upside is that you get an instrument that should age beautifully––kind of like a nice bottle of wine.

I also really liked the electronics in the Highway One Strat, though once again, this really comes down to personal preference, and what exactly you want to do with your guitar.

For instance, while the hot Alnico 3 single-coils absolutely pop, and they sound great pushing a tube-amp or pumped through a nice high-gain distortion pedal, I found that clean tones lacked the warmth of a vintage-style single-coil––not a big deal for someone who wants to push their Strat into the heavy shred zone, but a possible deal breaker for those who prefer that old-school Stratocaster squawk.

Another plus is Fender’s Greasebucket Tone Circuit, which modifies the traditional Strat wiring by providing tone control for the bridge pickup instead of the middle, and helps to ease back on the high-end without adding weighty low-end bass into the mix. While I didn’t mess around with this feature a whole lot during my testing (that’s just the kind of player I am… I tend to dial in a nice tone and then stay put,) I can definitely see its uses, and it makes for a great extra touch.

The Highway One’s tremolo worked as advertised, and while I’m not a huge user of this feature I did find the whole thing to stay in tune quite nicely even after judicious use. Tuners work well, too, and of course the Highway One sports a ’70s style oversized headstock––a feature you may love or hate, though I could personally go either way. It would undoubtedly look a lot better (and not so out of place,) in an aged-yellow finish instead of Fender’s current lackluster greyish tint.

What I Didn’t Like

Having read rave reviews about this guitar, and considering the sheer number of readers who’ve written me about their much-loved Highway One Stratocasters, I was surprised to find that I didn’t like the necks on these instruments at all.

Now don’t get me wrong––as I always emphasize in my reviews, neck shape and comfort is highly subjective, and every guitarist has a different hand size, different neck-profile preference, and a different style of playing––but all that said, the maple modern C-shaped neck on the Highway One Strat is one of the most uncomfortable that I’ve come across… and I’ve been playing a lot of Strats lately.

To be honest with you, I’m pretty sure it’s not the neck shape itself that’s to blame, but more than likely just a rather unfortunate combination of modern C-shape profile, satin finish on the back of the neck (definitely an acquired taste,) a decidedly sticky, ashen-looking rosewood fretboard (how did they get these things to look so grey?) and a set of frighteningly large Jumbo-sized frets.

I know, I know––there are folks out there who love huge frets, and believe me, I’m not a fan of those extra-skinny vintage wires either––but I found the frets on the Highway One to be so oversized as to make the whole fretboard feel clunky and almost toyish. Of course, if this is your style of fret then I say more power to ya’, but it’s definitely not my bag, and something you might want to be aware of; particularly if you’re considering purchasing one sight unseen.

In an attempt to be perfectly fair, I actually played three of these guitars during the review process (just to be sure I hadn’t stumbled onto a lemon,) but my over all take on the Highway One Strat’s neck/fretboard/fret combination was basically this: slow, sticky, and difficult to play.

Final Word

All griping aside, however, the Highway One Stratocaster offers a number of excellent plusses for the guitar player searching for an American Made Strat at a reasonable price, though there are some definite trade-offs that need to be considered.

Fans of mega-sized frets and big, fat necks may well love this instrument, as will those who tend to travel in high-gain territory. But if you’re just looking to get that traditional Stratocaster sound and feel at a low price-point, I would recommend that you keep on looking.

The Highway One Stratocaster does some things very well, but it most certainly is not your father’s Strat, so while I always recommend actually playing a guitar before you purchase it (now there’s a statement that would’ve sounded strange ten years ago,) with the Highway One Stratocaster it’s a true necessity.

You may love it. You may hate it. But either way––don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Fender Highway One Stratocaster Electric Guitar

VUDU Box for Unlimited Instant Movies on Your TV

guitartalker — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:01:49 +0000

The VUDU Box is an innovative consumer electronics device. Like a video store in a box, it lets you rent or buy movies on-demand and watch it instantly on your TV. New releases are added weekly.

VUDU launched late last year and has received raving reviews from major publications like CNET, Gizmodo, NYTimes, Wired, etc. Users love VUDU because it’s so innovative and convenient.

Compare to competitors like Netflix, Blockbuster, Apple TV, and cable providers, VUDU provides by far a superior user experience and a bigger collection of new releases on-demand.

VUDU is available for use in U.S

The VUDU is an elegant black box that promises to keep you far away from any DVD rental store. It is a “movie on demand” box for which the prices range from $.99 to $3.99. There is also an option to buy movies, which can cost as much as $19.99. The number of movies that you can own is determined by the storage space available on the VUDU.

Technically, the vudu is a small computer that is specialized in streaming/downloading movies to display them on tv, in High Definition or not. The box can be updated to the most recent VUDU software. So, is this the “vudu magic” of on-demand TV? We put the VUDU box to the test.

Design

Physically, the Vudu is a small box that is comparable to a mac mini. On the back, it has plenty of audio and video outputs that make it compatible with virtually every TV. It connects to the network via a wired Ethernet connection (the documentation does mention the possibility of using a USB Wi-Fi dongle, but we did not have a compatible USB key). The box is very silent and you can either display it or hide somewhere in your AV furniture. Fortunately, the vudu does not get hot enough to cause software instability or shutdowns.

The radio frequency (RF) remote control works very well. RF is better an infrared (IR) remote because it works regardless of where the remote is pointing. The remote has only five buttons, and that includes the scrolling wheel and that means that it is easy to use. The only potential downside that I found is that a RF remote is not compatible with universal remotes that mostly use infrared.

Test conditions

5 Mbps DSL
Wired ethernet 100Mbps (60′ cable)
50″, 720p/1080i TV

User Interface The user interface is very straightforward. On the homepage there is a list of featured movies – the ones that VUDU is promoting. On the top of the screen, you can see five menus:

Find Movies (search by name, genre, date)
New On VUDU
My Movies (movies that you own/rent)
My Wish List (boomarks for upcoming movies)
Info and Settings (parental controls, )

Overall, the user interface is very easy to use. I have seen some people searching for where to buy/rent the first time they do it, but this is not a big issue. The movie categorization is also not always optimal (movie are sometimes filed in an odd category), but it is usable. Instant watchVideo on demand means that you do not have to wait for a lengthy download before you watching your show. The vudu delivers: standard definition movies can be watched immediately and even HD movies can be watched right away if your is fast enough (>3Mbps). That is a lot better than Amazon Unbox (speed) or Netflix Instant Movies (quality), believe me – I use both as well.

Video Quality

Streaming video is often associated with a compromise in the quality (like Netflix). Again, the vudu does very well. On our 50-inch test TV, standard definition quality is indistinguishable from a DVD disc. In HD, the resolution is noticeably sharper and it “feels” like an HD movie, but have not compared it frame per frame with a Blu-Ray player. Overall, the video quality is very good. Note that Vudu uses a proprietary compression format that is key to the fast downloads and the video quality.

Movie Library

With 5000 movies available, it looks like a reasonable number, but selection is vudu’s Achilles heel. To be fair, most of the new movies make it there, but the current selection is still relatively slim, compared to large DVD libraries like Netflix. To see if the selection is good enough for you, go to the movies section on vudu.com.

The library grows in size every week, so in the long term this should not be a problem. It just takes time to acquire the license and convert movies to VUDU’s format.

Conclusion

The VUDU is a brilliant on-demand solution. It is everything that we would like to have in such a device: it is easy to use, small, quiet, stable, low-maintenance and the remote even looks good. Take a look at the movie list and at the pricing. If that fits your budget, we warmly recommend the vudu box.

Instantly upgrade your lifestyle with VUDU’s movie on-demand service. It’s innovative, exciting and convenient! Learn more.

The best online gaming site

guitartalker — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:00:11 +0000

DonkeyStream is the ultimate way to buy and download games online.

From shooters and sports to puzzles and arcade classics, you’ll find the planet’s largest collection of core and casual games. And with our patented InstaPlay™ technology, you can now download video games with a single click.

Free Registration & the DonkeyStream Community

Register for free on DonkeyStream and you’ll get exclusive access to free game trials, game reviews, members-only special offers, and the DonkeyStream community, where you can hang out with fellow gamers to discuss the latest releases, share tips & tricks, and more.

Games

Whether you’re looking for PC games or console titles, we have a huge selection of downloadable and packaged video games in every genre: Action, Adventure, Board Games, Family/Children, Flight Simulation, Puzzles, Racing, Sports, Strategy, Wargames and more. Click here to browse titles.

Game Consoles & Accessories

You’ll also find great deals on the latest game consoles & accessories and eGuides. We carry all the major consoles and handheld devices, including Sony PlayStation (PS2 and PS3) and PSP, Nintendo Wii and DS, and the Xbox and Xbox 360.

You can browse our lineup of hardware and accessories, including equipment for PCs and cell phones. You’ll find a complete collection of controllers, headsets and mics, mice and keyboards, storage and memory cards, cases and starter kits, UMD movies, batteries and chargers, and even furniture for the ultimate gaming experience.

Behind The Scenes

DonkeyStream is owned and operated by Digital Interactive Systems, the leading provider of integrated infrastructure solutions for the video game industry. Digital Interactive’s technology has been named “The Next Big Thing” by CNET and recognized as TechTv’s “Product of the Year” at the Consumer Electronics Show. Sony, Microsoft, EB Games and other leading game companies leverage our technology, and our gaming client has shipped on over 2 million PC systems to date.

Donkeystream

Gifts for geeks

guitartalker — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:58:46 +0000

ThinkGeek

I am a geek. I have geeks for friends and geeks as family members. I married a geek and am raising a geek-in-training right now. Whenever a gift-giving occasion roles around, I am always on the lookout for sites with products that appeal to the inner-geek.

Now, there are different varieties of geek out there. Most geek sites cater to the masses of “soft core” techies that are everywhere these days. What is harder to find are sites that cater to the über-geek — that small number of people who speak in programming languages, who can read binary, who write device drivers for fun, and who tend to prefer OS’es other than Microsoft’s. For those types of people, ThinkGeek.com is your shopping nirvana.

What is ThinkGeek.com?

According to the site itself:
Think Geek was created to sell stuff that would appeal to the thousands of people out there who were on the front line and in the trenches as the Internet was forged. From programmers, engineers, students, lovers of open source, to the masses that helped create the behind-the-scenes Internet culture.

They sell all kinds of things that would appeal to geeks, from t-shirts and other apparel to gadgets, electronics, and books. The site was definitely built by geeks with a sense of humor, with all kinds of cute and quirky sayings scattered throughout. I particularly like the “Customer Action Shots”, available on most apparel items, showing happy customers wearing their Think Geek apparel.

The Site:

The site has actually improved and expanded a lot down through the years since I started visiting there. What started out as a fairly simple and straightforward site has now grown into something quite slick and fancy. I think the site is quite attractive and very appealing to my geek-nature. The font used is quite small — something I’ve noticed that geeks prefer (because we always want to see so much information on the screen), however it might prove challenging to those whose eyesight isn’t that great.

The left-side navigation menu is quite handy. The main categories are:
* T-Shirts
* Other Apparel
* Cube Goodies (games & fun stuff for the office)
* Gadgets (cool & unusual stuff that geeks go crazy for)
* Computing (stuff for your PC)
* Caffeine (food stuffs and caffeine related-items)
* Electronics (digital cameras, mp3 players, etc)
* Books (sci-fi, techie humor, and techie non-fiction)

Each major category is broken down into quite a few sub-categories, which appear on the expanded-menu when the main category is selected. Other menu-categories also include “What’s New” and “Clearance” items.

When you select a category or sub-category to view, you are presented with a nice, efficient list of the items down the screen (25 items at a time with previous/next buttons to get you through them all). You get a small, thumbnail image of the item, a title and brief description, the price, whether or not it is in stock, and a link to get more information.

When you select an item to view, you get a larger image (and often links to other images, such as the back of the shirt, etc) and longer (often tongue-in-cheek) description. If you are browsing apparel you can also link to pictures that have been sent in of happy customers wearing the item.

How to Order/Shipping:

The Think Geek site is a fairly typical shopping cart application. You add items to your cart and check-out when you are done shopping. There are no major surprises or differences here.

Payment options: They accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. You can also pay by personal check, certified check, or money order (in U.S. currency only).

Most orders are shipped on the same day they were ordered. Shipping options include 5 UPS service levels (Ground, 3 Day, 2 Day, Next Day Saver, Next Day) and Airborne shipping options. You will receive an e-mail with a tracking number when your order is shipped, which can be tracked via the UPS and/or Airborne sites (you can also view your tracking numbers on your Think Geek account history page). They will NOT ship to P.O. boxes.

There is no handy-dandy shipping-charges chart. You shipping totals will be calculated based on what you order, how much you order, and where it is going. The site will calculate your shipping costs and display them before your order is complete, so you can cancel if you do not agree with the shipping charge. That being said, I have always found their charges to be very reasonable.

Customer Service & Extra Details:

I have never had any problems with my order, so I have not had to deal directly with customer service. A lot of my friends and co-workers have ordered on Think Geek too, but I couldn’t find any of them who have ever had trouble with their orders. According to the site, you can return (for refund or exchange) your purchase by contacting Think Geek within 30 days of the order shipping date. You can e-mail (returns@thinkgeek.com) or phone (1-888-GEEK-STUFF) them to arrange for the return/replacement. Opened software and videogames cannot be returned or exchanged.

You do need an account to purchase items at ThinkGeek.com, however they take pride in the fact that they will never sell your information to outside companies/mailing lists.

Think Geek now has a rewards program called “Geek Points”. You earn points when you buy merchandise, and can redeem them for rewards such as cool geek gear or special discounts.

They also run contests from time to time. Currently there is a contest to win a “year’s supply” of Think Geek t-shirts (23 t-shirts of your own choosing). All you need to do to enter is sign up.

You cannot be a respectable geek-site without a webcam. Here is the link to the webcams at the Think Geek offices:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/

You can also keep a “Wishlist” on the site — handy for when you have non-geek family members who want to get you something you’ll really like.

I usually hate buying clothes online because I cannot try them on to make sure they fit properly. Think Geek helps take the guesswork out of online shopping by supplying charts of the size measurements for the shirts babydoll tees — something I greatly appreciate.

Gift Certificates are also available in a variety of amounts from $25 to $150.

More About the Merchandise:

I really love this site, so I would like to ramble on about the merchandise a bit…

Geeks love having shirts that make non-geeks scratch their heads and wonder what it’s all about. The epitome of that idea is represented in the “You are dumb” shirt, which spells out the phrase in binary (so when someone asks what your shirt says, you can tell them “you are dumb” — I never said geeks had great humor, now did I?).

For a few blissful years my company allowed geeks to wear casual attire, and I know that Think Geek made a ton of money off of us back then (they just made us go back to business-attire a few months ago — what a drag!) I happen to be a “coder” myself, and coders get their own set of t-shirts on the site (lumped in with hackers, gee why is that I wonder…) By far I would say the most popular t-shirt amongst us programmers was the “Kung Fu” t-shirt — available in a variety of colors, it has a simple “Kung Fu” on front with the beautiful Chinese characters for “skillful coder” on back. Another popular one was the “Go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script” t-shirt. Some newer shirts that really appeal to me are the “There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who don’t” and the “There’s no place like 127.0.0.1″. For the gamers out there, you cannot consider yourself an über-gamer unless you understand the shirt bearing the infamous “All your base are belong to us” phrase.

Nowadays I’m salivating over the babydoll tees! If only they had had them back when I ordered the bulk of my geek t-shirts! I would love to trade in some of my normal geek-wear for the babydoll versions.

Now that I’m a mother, I also love some of the stuff in the Kid’s section. Although some are very tacky (such as the “Mostly IP” and “Input/Output” creepers), I like the “Newbie”, “Geek in Training” and the newly spawned “Child Process” t-shirts. I also love the baby tux shirt (Tux with a pacifier, wearing a diaper) — a great baby-shower item for my soon-to-be-parents co-workers.

But enough about the t-shirts. I have also gotten some very nice golf shirts and ties for my father (such as the tie that has “ties suck” running down it in binary). In the “Cube Goodies” category I have purchased some of the infamous “demotavational” stuff to give as gifts (we simply had to have the “Consulting” one at our office, which states ” If You’re Not A Part Of The Solution, There’s Good Money To Made In Prolonging The Problem”).

Most of the cool gadgets and electronics are outside of my normal gift-giving price range, but there is certainly some nifty stuff there, including DVD Recorders, phones, and digital cameras.

I must admit that I have never ordered anything from the Caffeine section of the site (as I am not a coffee-drinker), however they offer other funny gifts that would be great for any coffee-lover, techie or not (such as the “Shower Shock Caffeinated Soap”, the “Caffeine Candy Sampler”, or the “Jolt Gum”). Remember Jolt cola? They sell it by the case at Think Geek.

The book section is chock full of geek-lore titles, including User Friendly books, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Lord of the Rings, Microserfs (one of my favorites), the BOFH series, and Snow Crash (another one of my favorites). I was actually surprised (and perhaps a bit embarrassed) to see how many of the books listed on their site are already well-entrenched in my own personal library.

Experiences/Final Thoughts:

I have always been very impressed with the Think Geek site. Clearly this is run by geeks for geeks, so the software works and works well (thanks Code Monkey!) I love the silly, tongue-in-cheek, winking attitude that can be found throughout the site, plus I am impressed with the quality and quantity of cool items to be found. Think Geek is my absolute favorite geek-gift site.

ThinkGeek