February Songs for You Rock Guitar

“So take no broken strings” by Mister Sister
After 9 million impressions testing our right hand string mechanisms, there have been no breaks. These tempered steel strings might last forever. mmm

Of course we weren’t so sure of that when we did an engineering change to the string couplings the month before that. People said they should be easy to replace. But when we received this last batch of units the sensitivity was affected. We had to change them and we lost time again on this last bunch of units. We are sorry to all of you who have been patiently awaiting for your orders to arrive. Soon. We’ll know about when the next batch arriving.

“We’re so sorry, Uncle Quality” – Paul McCartney
We’d like to say we’re really sorry about the delays and we should be sorry, but we never want to regret the attention we are giving to quality.

“Money” – by Pink Floyd
We must however apologize for the PayPal payment issue. When we set up the credit card system it said no one would be charged until we shipped to them. That way you can easily get on the pre-sale list and voila, we only charge when we ship. We found out PayPal was immediately deducting from your accounts. If you would like off the pre-sale list and an immediate refund, please let us know at: info@inspired.com

“Glory Days” – Bruce Springsteen
As I draft this post, Cliff is on his way to China. Glory Days of full production ahead. The bump in the road that is Chinese New Year is over and everyone is anxious to get these babies out the door. Everything is final testing and changes.

“Hit me with your best shot” – Pat Benetar
We are in a very limited supply of units that are trickling out from February’s shipment. Many have to go to Reps for sales samples and product placements, so I know everyone wants to know the exact date their order will be shipping. give us another week to see when the next batch arrive. OK?

“American Midiots” – Green Daze
Guitarists, teachers, MIDI guys, rockin’ gamers who might want to help us in the testing and/or SDK dev side of things, we need you. Obviously, if you are on the pre-sale list, you’ll move to the head of the class. just let us know if you would be interested, we need about 10 more people: info@inspired.com

Digital Kodachrome momets – check out some shots from last weeks photoshoot, new guitars, new accessories, new models. P.S. Were looking for 18-27 year olds in Orange County or LA who play guitar and can model with the You Rock Guitar.

Back From MacWorld – Guitars in Customs

Hi You Rockers! We’ve been trying to get situated to receive the first batch of Guitars from China. It’s Chinese New Year’s for the next couple of weeks. Happy New Years! It means that there’s not much coming and going as far as product or information though. We do have confirmation that the first batch of production You Rock Guitar’s are now residing in customs in California.

We understand that everyone is anxious to see where they are on the back-order list. Give us a couple of days to get it sorted out from the original pre-sale list on the www.YouRockGuitar.com site and also on the www.InspiredInstrumentsinc.com e-commerce site. We have many more orders than we have guitars for this month and the next.

That being said, the release must be approved by the Chief Technology Officer and the President of our company, so we await his keen eye, ears and scrutiny. He aims high, you’ll be glad for that.

I can’t tell you how much we appreciate all of comments from those on the pre-sale list. We are rocking as fast as we can. All of the delays over the last few months have been due to us making both hardware and software improvements. Even though the You Rock Guitar is an amazing value at $199 retail, we’re treating it like it’s 10X that. When you get your guitar and you start going through all of the features and the sounds, we can only hope that the delays of a week here or even a month there will soon be forgotten with years of enjoyment.

Thanks again for your kind support. We’ll send some pictures, hopefully tomorrow… if we didn’t lose another day due to President’s Day.

P.S. We are still looking for some smart MIDI musicians who might help provide real input on the SDK were developing for the guitar and bass. If you have a technical, programming or development background and don’t mind flexing some brain cells, please feel free to contact me directly. It will in fact help your place in line.

Kevin Kent
info@inspired.com

Gear Wire’s Coverage of the You Rock Guitar at NAMM’10

GearWire stopped by our booth at NAMM to check out the YOU ROCK GUITAR. They were impressed and put together a little article & video Inspired Instruments You Rock Guitar In Action At NAMM NAMM was an incredible event for Inspired.  Several renowned musicians stopped by to see it.  Nuno Betterncourt, Les Robot, Yogi Lonich, and Peter Tork, and others spent a little time with us.  So did the crew from Sepultura.  Everybody’s getting it right away.  We thought there might be resistance from skeptics, but there were few of those and the skepticism changed into smiles once they tried it for themselves.  We’re posting images & video on our Facebook & You Tube Pages.

“>video. Check it out.

NAMM coverage of the YOU ROCK GUITAR.

GearWire stopped by to check us out.  Here’s the coverage.

http://www.gearwire.com/inspiredinstruments-yourockguitar-wnamm2010.html

The Word is getting out about Inpired Instrument’s You Rock Guitar

What can you do with a true digital guitar?

100 Guitar & Synth Presets – blends, mix sounds, levels, tunings, capos, tap mode, open mode.
25 Sampled Real Guitars – Strats, Les Pauls, Acoustics, Nylons, 12-strings, Telly’s all 16 bit long samples.
25 You Rock Mode™ Tracks – just the rocking start to learning all the progressions that changes the world
50 Alternate Tunings – From Hendrix and Hutchins, Mitchell and Hedges plus the classics.
Digital Capo – No need to tune a single string.
Tap Mode – When you’re felling like Eddie, we ready to deliver
Whammy Bar – pitch bend up or down.
Vibrato Joystick – for that mushroom sustained amp feedback effect.
1/4” and stereo mini output – Yeah we got that.
On-board recorder – take the You Rock Guitar anywhere and still save your creations
MIDI & USB – the fastest and easiest, all 16 channels plus Mono modes on Channels 1-6 or 11-16

It’s Show Time – CES & NAMM 2010

“Inspired Instruments, Inc. (LV Hilton suite 2549; LVCC, North Hall booth #5627; www.yourockguitar.com) introduces the You Rock Guitar, which lets anyone rock right out of the box. It works seamlessly with Guitar Hero and Rock Band on Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 gaming platforms, but can also can be plugged into a standard guitar amplifier or headphones and played like a conventional guitar using any of 100 pre-set guitar and synth sounds. Incorporating a super touch-sensitive neck and real strings for fast, accurate picking, the You Rock Guitar effectively delivers the performance and feeling of a real six-string instrument.”

http://www.youtube.com/user/YouRockGuitar

Production Update

We’ve had some major decisions to make. We heard, “you get one chance to make a first impression” so we changed the string triggering mechanism for maximum sensitivity. (Cost 4 weeks) We were told “if the ’strings’ on the fret board were softer, it would feel so much better”… that cost us over a month… but that is what we will be showing up at CES and NAMM with

Then there was going to 10 to 25+ guitars, 50 synth sounds, 10 to 50 Open guitar tunings, 5 to 15 Capo settings, 25 on-board songs (Custom jam-friendly Wav loops to jam within the You Rock mode), The You Rock programming and testing, then it has to work together, tack on another few months. We missed the year 2009, and that is very painful, but in fact you do only get one chance to make a first impression and we knew we could do better. And we have.

We made some tough choices. We apologize for the delays, and we will start delivering to the pre-order lists, friends, family, reps and the press in January after CES and NAMM.

So now we focus our attention on the CES, final coding, some big surprises at CES and our ability to re-invent what was often considered to be just a hybrid game controller or a digital guitar… the You Rock Guitar is much more than that. It is a game changer, it is a guitar that every guitar player will want to have for so many reasons. You’ll still want your Strat, your big body acoustic, your nylon, maybe even Les, but you’ll also want a You Rock Guitar, and for reasons you don’t even know yet.

The response to the $179 high-speed MIDI guitar has been outrageous. The sheer joy of going from mere buttons and a paddle to strings and frets for the gamers is a leap toward real music. (BTW, don’t buttons and a paddle sound like something you get when you’ve been bad?)

Ultimately we apologize for not being able to be under the tree for Timmy this year for the holidays. It pains no one more than us!!! We made some major improvements for the long term viability and flexibility of the You Rock Guitar and it cost in time and money, but we believe it was well spent. And as tough as the decisions were, we made them in the best interest of the gamers the rockers, the mom’s and dads and those who want to rock… anywhere, anytime.

Thanks for your patience and support,

Kevin Kent
CEO

P.S. Its my birthday so please don’t bash me for being honest!

The You Rock Guitar Pre-Sale Deal

Here’s how it works:
1. You place your order for a You Rock Guitar
2. You tell some friends and give us their email address.
3. We do the rest. We’ll email them referencing you.
4. If they also place a pre-order, you get a $10 discount on your order.

Here’s the totally cool part, you can refer a bunch of friends and save big on your purchase. All they have to do is ultimately buy a guitar and you had to refer them first.

What’s the hitch? No hitch. Your friends can do the same thing. This is that viral “friends-only” thing gone rock and roll gamer. Everyone wins.

The You Rock Guitar is the first guitar that connects the world of video games and playing real music by combining the best of both worlds. Plug it into an amplifier, a computer, headphones and play it like a musical instrument, or with GameFlex™ cartridges to any of the console video games. It’s ideal for the millions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band guys tired of being told, why don’t you learn a real guitar… OK, this is better than real.

With Guitar Hero – you became one.
With Rockband – you joined the band
With You Rock Guitar – YOU ROCK!

You can learn more at our website: www.YouRockGuitar.com, including links to several videos:

This video will show the major features and benefits of the You Rock Guitar.
http://www.youtube.com

This video is an interview with the Guinness Book of Records holder for Guitar Hero, Danny Johnson.
Danny Johnson Video

This last one is older, but it features George Pajon Jr. of the very popular band the Black Eyed Peas, playing a Rev 1 version of our guitar.
http://www.youtube.com

Our YouTube site
http://www.youtube.com/user/YouRockGuitar

Follow our tweets about gaming, the gaming market and guitars.
http://twitter.com/yourockguitar

Our pre-order form
http://www.yourockguitar.com/order-form/

Please become a fan on Facebook. Search for the “You Rock Guitar” fan page.

Have fun, Rock will happen.

The Inspired Team
info@inspired.com

Get on the Pre-Order List to Secure Your Guitar

OK, we understand it’s time to get rockin’.  We’ve got a list and were checkin it twice. If you name is on it when the You Rock Guitars start arriving, you get one. If not, good luck.  We’re definitely going to be in short supply. But there’s some other great benefits in Pre-Ordering:

FREE SHIPPING
REFERRAL DISCOUNTS (Get $10 off every person you refer to pre-order who actually orders)
BECOME OUR ROCK AND ROLL FRIEND FOREVER as an early adopter

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PRE-ORDER PAGE

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