The Shape of Everything
A website mostly about Mac stuff, written by August "Gus" Mueller
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December 23, 2006
(This post is from my old, old, super old site. My views have changed over the years, hopefully my writing has improved, and there is now more than a handful of folks reading my site. Enjoy.)

So I was in Target yesterday doing some last minute holiday shopping, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a couple of guitars.

Guitars in Target? When did that happen? Upon closer inspection, I found a Fender Squire (which is a uber cheap Stratocastor look-alike) and an Epiphone Les Paulish looking thing. Cool. But then I noticed that they actually had accessories like capos, picks, and ... those guitar cords that turn into a USB cable on the other end, to plug directly into your computer.

I always thought those were kind of dumb. But since I was in a spending mood and I was curious, I bought it.

Once home I plugged it in, launched GarageBand, and started playing. And I was actually kind of impressed. It still sounds "digital" to me, but not as much as previous attempts at hooking my guitar directly up to the computer. It's very usable, and it picks up the bass from my guitar very very well.

Here's a sample of me playing first with no effects, and then with reverb + an eq with the bass turned up: USB Cable Test.

So for the price I think it's a good deal. Griffin also sells something called the iMic, which will probably do the same thing for ya plus a little bit more. Doesn't come with a cable though, but it does work for audio out as well.