If you have a kid learning the guitar chances are your ears could use a break. You’ll want to invest in this Yamaha Silent Nylon String Guitar. Plugging in a pair of headphones lets you practice at your own pace without annoying everyone around you.

You can also connect a CD player into the guitar itself so you can play along directly with the music, despite the fact that CDs are pretty much obsolete. Why they didn’t just build an mp3 player in it is anyone’s guess. Still, it’s a nifty instrument to have around. Especially fo those living in small apartments. The Yamaha Silent Nylon String Guitar will retail for a hefty $499.99. But silence is golden.

Here’s something for those who like to paint their faces while playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero, after a healthy argument over the merits of belonging to the KISS army. Even if you aren’t a KISS fan, this is a badass Rock Band and Guitar Hero compatible replica of Gene Simmons’ signature bass. It also features a bi-directional strum bar, ultra-responsive fret buttons, an analog whammy bar for $80. It will be released on Halloween. Demon boots and outlandishly long tongue clip-on not included.

The EZ-TP Electronic Teaching Trumpet from Yamaha is now available in Japan. Sorry rest of the world. You’re going to have to wait to get your lips on this one. It’s a digital way to learn the trumpet and share and save your MIDI-produced songs to your computer. The EZ-TP trumpet is designed to react to humming, not your mouth positions.

Apparently this lets you play the instrument by making the proper tones yourself. The Lighted Teaching System teaches the proper way to learn fingering. You can even download songs online and load them onto the EZ-TP with the supplied MIDI cable. It has to be asked. Will the amateur kill this device by filling it with their nasty slobber and spit? If so, good way to teach the musical apprentice would be for the instrument to spit it back at them.

File this one under “Things that do not rock!” The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled all the 57,000 $55 Rage Wireless Guitars that have thus far been sold. The reason? They were made in China of course.

Apparently a circuit board defect can cause the AA batteries included to leak acid if they are installed incorrectly. (People actually install batteries incorrectly?) What it means is that the acid may burn consumers flesh and transform ordinary plain rock into Acid Rock. And that is just unacceptable. I’ll tell you what else is unacceptable. Chemical burns to the groin. Everyone stop rocking immediately. Guitars are dropping, I mean leaking acid!

I guess to Korg size doesn’t matter, since they’re flaunting their tiny USB keyboards. It’s Korg’s new line of nanoSeries USB keyboards, that measure just 320mm across, and are super slim too. The line consists of a tiny keyboard, synth pad and fader deck. All of the drum pads apparently perform just fine despite their size, though the faders seam cheap. Still, it’s perfect for the musician with tiny hands. The nanoKey will cost you about $90, while the nanoKontrol and nanoPad are both $109.

You’re rocking out on your guitar,(Your real guitar, not some pansy plastic video game job) and you’ve built up quite a thirst. Reaching for this Heineken won’t help. So reach for another and gulp it down. Finish with one long thirst-quenched sigh and get back to rocking. Rocking secure in the knowledge that this 20W Heineken Draught Keg Guitar Amplifier gives your sound the same kick to the liver that the alcohol does.

It sports a sleek design and a sound quality that will get you buzzed. Works great for Guitar, Bass, and MP3 players and plugs into a standard wall outlet. Complete with such modern innovations as a power switch and volume control.

Activision and Logitech have announced a partnership where Logitech will create “premium” instrument controllers for Guitar Hero: World Tour. The press release isn’t very clear, but we take that to mean that Logitech will be making nicer, more beautiful and more expensive versions of the stock Guitar Hero guitars for the PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. .

The new gear will be fully compatible with World Tour. This is probably good news for fans of GH since Logitech makes quality stuff. Soon you’ll be rocking a far better ax then you rock now.

So you have to get to your gig, which requires you to lug your guitar through the streets, maybe on a bus or two. It’s a real hassle, man. When are they gonna realize that you rock and give you that super amazing record deal? I mean you beat the hell out of Guitar Hero.

The Nomad electric guitar won’t get you noticed by labels, but it can make your life easier by being very portable. Other guitar makers tried making a guitar that folds once, but it can still be awkward. The neck on the Electric Nomad folds twice. The guitar is a competition size electric ax with all the regular features. It just folds up to half its normal size. The neck folds, and the strings roll up on a spool.

Some find Pikachu to be extremely cute. Me, I’ve always been on the fence about that. What you will see in the 2 accompanying videos, knocked me off the fence and made me run for my life. This is not cute. It’s creepy in the way that clowns are creepy.

That spiky cyborg Pikachu seems to be the ringleader and was apparently recently assimilated into the Pikachu collective. As for the rest of them and the music they make together, complete with seizure inducing flashing eyes… I just wish I had never seen it. This is just totally warped. And yet you can’t look away.

While most of you are still addicted to the original Rock Band, Harmonix is already looking toward the future at what else they can put in your home. That’s why they’re getting official with Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The Xbox 360 will be launching in September and the PS3 version will follow later in the year. Of course, with a new Rock Band, you’ll be getting new instruments, like this Fender Stratocaster.

Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to use your current gear if you have it all decked out in stickers and such, or if you want to save a few bucks. Looks like you’ll also be able to carry over all your downloaded content as well as being able to download and play new tracks on Rock Band 1 once Rock Band 2 is available.

If you’ve ever wanted to play music without touching the instrument, the AirPiano lets you do just that. It’s never going to be a star like the air guitar, then again the air guitar makes no noise. The AirPiano is designed by Omer Yosha. It’s a musical interface that allows you to play and control software instruments just by moving your hands in the air. It is a virtual matrix of keys and faders, each assigned with MIDI messages and ready to be triggered.

It’s a lot like the ultra dorky BEAMZ music system, just a thousand times less dorky. It’s a shame that no one can be taken seriously with these things. Check out the video below. Kinda neat.

Okay, here’s marketing 101. Let’s say you have something crappy that won’t sell to the public. What do you do? Answer: Use the Star Wars angle. Let’s say you have a round ball of wood, a long black blob and a brown furry…something. Call them Darth Vader, Chewbacca and the Death Star. Now they’ll sell to geeks who have more income then they do common sense.

These designs by Benjamin Males are “The Singer, The Drummer and The Dreamer”. Huh? Who is who? The Singer has five keys and is “influenced by classical instruments such as the Violin…and is created from solid Cherry wood. It is made using 5 Axis CNCing, which enables a smooth spiral to be ‘carved’ into the cherry.” Whatever. The Drummer loops drum-beats, creating rhythm in the musical composition. Influenced by African drums such as the Djembe, the Drummer will also throw off a secondary percussive sound when you tap the flat section. Again whatever.

For those of you who have been doing their best to play bass on Guitar Hero or Rock Band, this is what you want. The other guitars aren’t bass guitars. We told you about Ant Commano’s Double Range Guitar in May.

Now they’ve released this wireless PS2/PS3 bass guitar as they actually care about the bass player. You still won’t be able to double-strum using two fingers like other versions, but it’s a nice looking bass that you can have for $69. With all the money you’ve invested in Guitar Hero and Rock Band, maybe it’s time to buy the real deal?

Most of you have heard the rumors about a touchpad on the new guitar, well now we get to see it for real. IGN previewed the new gear, and they say that the strip will be used for notes during sustains, tapping to play notes, and interfacing with the new music creator.

Interestingly, the guitar is larger than those that have come before it. Back to the drums. They’re pressure sensitive, with a plain jane mic, and the music creation software is apparently very awesome. Sadly, you can’t record vocals for songs though. The Wii version of the game will have all of the same features, which is good news for Wii owners.

The Ant Commandos Double Range Guitar sells for $59.99 and does double duty, since it can play both Guitar Hero and Rock Band in one guitar. The Double Range Guitar plays PS2 and PS3 versions of both Guitar Hero (I, II and III) and Rock Band.

It operates on 2.4GHz wireless technology with a belt clip that gives players unlimited freedom. All of the functionality is retained, like a second set of Rock Band solo buttons near the strum bar and distortion effects. This is a great option for those with limited space who want to play both games.