There is also a PDF tab of the song as well!!  Download it!

You have never heard of Mario Kart Love Song?  Well actually, neither had we (it’s an original composition) but we always like seeing a nice Martin guitar brought into the mix.

We think that it’s because of Fallon’s talent with his Martin that he’ll be succeeding Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.

Here is the video:

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Tiny Desk Concerts, they are usually performed in what looks like the NPR offices for NPR staff and a very small group of people.  In Lyle’s Tiny Desk Concert, he performed just 3 songs (pretty much par for the course for a a Tiny Desk Concert) and all pretty early songs from his catalogue:  Cowboy Man, If You Were to Wake Up and Good Intentions.  And as always, Lyle is playing a pretty nice Collings Guitar.

All and all, it’s not a bad way to spend 18 minutes.

The guitars in the collection include a Fender Custom Shop Eric Clapton “Brownie” Tribute Stratocaster guitar for $14,999.  ”Brownie” was used by Clapton to record Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.  The original “Brownie” was sold at auction $497,500 in June 1999, so quite a deal compared to the original.  :)

Eric Clapton testing out the new "Brownie" Strat

The Gibson is called the Harrison-Clapton “Lucy” Les Paul and will retail for $14,999.  Clapton played the original ’50s cherry red Les Paul on The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”  Clapton gave the guitar to George Harrison and Harrison can be seen playing the guitar in the 1968 promo film for “Revolution.”

Martin has three models – the Eric Clapton Signature Martin 000-28 for $5,999 and two Eric Clapton Signature Martin 000-45 models for $12,999 and $49,999. These Martin’s represent the Unplugged era of Clapton’s career.  The $50,000 000-45 models feature Brazilian rosewood, presumably from Martin’s stockpile as the wood is now protected, and explain the exorbitant price.

Here’s a series of videos with Eric Clapton talking about the guitars:

Initially, Taylor is launching the grand orchestra shape in 3 models:  the Taylor 518e, the Taylor 618e and the Taylor 918e.  Yes, this means that each will come with built-in pick-ups.

The 2013 update includes a carved maple top Jazzmaster, Stratocaster HSS, Telecaster HH, carved maple top Telecaster SH, Telecaster Thinline, and an active Jazz bass.   How are these different from Fender’s standard versions of these guitars you ask… the obvious differences are highly figured exotic tone woods and tops.  These finishes give the guitars a very high quality look and feel.  The electronics are also different – Fender has built specially voiced Fender Select pickups.  All of these appointments and updates provide the player a “pro player’s” guitar.  If you’re looking for a high quality American made Fender but want something different than the standard Strats, Teles and Jazzmasters then the Fender Select series may offer you a nice alternative.

Our favorite of the series is the Telecaster HH with the sweet looking racing stripe down the middle.

Since we have had it as our mission from Day 1 to bring happiness to guitar players the world over, we have prepared this list of gifts for guitar players that you still have enough time to order and get delivered before the holidays.   (Well, at least, one set of holidays.  Jewish guitar players will have to get their Hanukkah gifts late this year.)

Read on for five suggested gifts for guitar players that will keep your guitar player content through Valentine’s Day (at which point we’ll have more suggestions).

1.  A New Capo

Here is a simple fact about guitar players.  We are always misplacing our capos.  We don’t just occasionally misplace them.  We misplace them constantly.  If a guitar player played a song today with a capo, then he or she probably misplaced it.

While many solutions have been suggested for this problem, the most effective solution is to just have a few extra capos lying around.  Our favorite is the Shubb S1 Acoustic Guitar Deluxe Capo.  It is easily adjustable to fit the neck of almost any guitar and the shiny stainless steel looks awfully nice.  It will set you back about $25 but that you’ll save your guitar player many frantic searches around her home.

Shubb S1 Acoustic Guitar Capo

2.  A Book of Music By a Favorite Artist

Plenty of guitarists are songwriters, but there are also very many guitarists who are perfectly happy to play other people’s music.  And when other people includes people like Eric Clapton, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen, one can understand why.  A good book of music will provide hours of pleasure and enable the guitar player on your list to play like a rockstar while playing the songs of a rockstar.  We’re in a Bob Dylan phase right now and think a good Bob Dylan anthology makes a great gift.  Most music books are $30 or less.

Bob Dylan Anthology:  Guitar Tab Edition

3.  A Tuner

As much as we would all like to be able to tune by ear (and quickly), some of us have ears that are more attuned to minor fluctuations in tone than others.  But these days it doesn’t really matter.  You can get a superbly accurate clip-on tuner for less than $10.  Our current favorite is the Snark SN-1 Tuner.  It clips on to determine the note of the string by vibration rather than sound and delivers highly accurate results.  We especially like its many-colored display which is easy to see in light or dark environments.  And its small size means that it can even be put in the sock by the fireplace.

Snark SN-1 Tuner

4.  A Gigbag

Sure, most higher quality guitars come with a nice hard case but sometimes you don’t realize just how heavy those cases are until you take your guitar out of them.  For those situations where your guitar doesn’t need the extra protection of a guitar case, we recommend a nice gigbag.  It’s light, it requires less space and gives off the aura of the traveling musician.  For under $20, the On Stage GBA4550 Acoustic Guitar Gigbag can help that guitar player on your list to lighten their load – and who doesn’t need that at the holidays?

On Stage GBA4550 Acoustic Guitar Gigbag

5.  A Slide

If your guitar player has been playing with regular strumming and picking for some time, it might be time to try playing a little slide guitar.  And what’s the first thing the guitar player needs to play slide guitar?  That’s right.  A slide!  Like a lot of exciting guitar accessories, a slide is very inexpensive and will help the guitar player expand their repertoire quite a bit.  We like the Jim Dunlop 210 Medium Bottleneck Slide for around $5 but there are many slides out there for under $10 that will open up a whole new world of guitar playing to the player.

Jim Dunlop 210 Medium Bottleneck Slide

Whatever you choose for that guitar player on your list, we hope that it is a great holiday for you and the player.  And we expect that there will be just a little more celebrating going on in the home of the guitar player that gets any of these items.

Josh brings some of his own unique licks to the song and suggests in the comments that the trick to making a song your own is to *not* try to play the song along with the recording.  He plays it here form memory and blows us away.