Welcome to the August edition of the Guitar Nine on-line magazine. Chord substitution, exotic scales and affordable microphones are just a sample of the topics covered in this issue, giving guitarists tools to improve their playing ability, and help with composition and originality. In total, five guest columnists have submitted six excellent articles on musical topics of interest to practicing musicians. After working through the information and lessons, please sample some excellent music released by the over 1400 musicians we've worked with over the past 23 years! Notably, we've now published over 220 artist interviews, while over 210 musicians and industry experts have written close to 1200 guest columns for this site since 1996.