Guitar Hero '07 Comp to Feature Rip Off & Demos

Ten finalists have been selected from among hundreds of entries posted on SonicBids.com to battle for the international title of “Guitar Hero” at Guitar Player’s Guitar Hero 2007 competition to be held Friday, October 12 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

Activision, Microsoft and Digidesign are partnering to present the 3rd annual Guitar Player’s Guitar Hero competition. Activision produces the red-hot video game Guitar Hero and will be on hand with pre-launch demos of their new release, Guitar Hero III on Xbox XBox 360-outfitted kiosks on the show floor. The event will be webcast using Microsoft’s Silverlight medium on http://www.GuitarPlayer.com.

“This guitar gala brings together legendary musicians, aspiring guitarists, and phenomenally talented unknowns in an 'American Idol-style competition' for guitarists,” says Guitar Player Eeditor in Cchief Michael Molenda. “And for guitarist-gamers it’s an opportunity to experience the world’s best players live and in person!”

The premier premiere Guitar Player’s Guitar Hero competition was held in 2005 at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where New York’s Dominic Frasca was crowned with the Guitar Hero title. Last year’s champion was Trey Alexander of Pennsylvania.

The ten finalists – representing a wide range of guitar styles including Latin Shred, Rockabilly, Country and Rock – are: Jamie Robinson (Toronto, Ontario), Juan Coronado (Whitby, Ontario) Tony Smotherman (Jacksonville, Florida), Taka Minamino (Hollywood, CA ), Danny B. Harvey (Canyon County, CA), Curtis Fornadley (Playa Del Rey, CA), Casey Harshbarger (Indianapolis, Indiana), Ladd Smith (Nashville, Tennessee) , Les Robot (real name: Cory Melnychuk) (Edmonton, Alberta), and Chris Peters (Orlando, Florida).

All ten contestants receive an all expenses paid trip to San Francisco. The winner, First Runner Up and Second Runner Up of the event will receive custom trophies and complete gear packages. The champion will receive a 003 Factory Pro Tools LE system (value: $2,495), Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate software package, Epiphone Elitist Tak Matsumoto Signature Guitar With Hard Case, Epiphone Masterbilt EF-500RCCE Acoustic Guitar with Hard Gigbag, choice of a Mesa/Boogie Stiletto or Lone Star amp Jimi Hendrix Wah and MXR Distortion III guitar f/x pedal, and much more.

Celebrity judges including San Francisco’s legendary Joe Satriani, Toto axeman Steve Lukather, Elliot Easton of the Cars, prog-rock icon Greg Howe, Shrapnel Records’ Mike Varney, and a surprise guest willvirtuoso Nuno Bettencourt will evaluate each five-minute original performance and select the Winner and First and Second Runner-up finalists. Brendon Small, co-creator of Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse cartoon will emcee.

The contestants will perform with the house band Thud Ffactor, comprised of editors from music magazines Guitar Player, Bass Player and Keyboard.

Guitar Player’s Guitar Hero is sponsored by Activision, Digidesign, and Microsoft with additional sponsorship from Epiphone Guitars, Mesa/Boogie amps, Jodavi ZZYZX Snapjackk Cables, Dunlop Manufacturing, Moody Leather, Planet Waves, and Sonicbids. The competition takes place Friday, October 12, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. at Great American Music Hall, 859 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco, CA. Admission $15.00 in advance, $20.