Instead of working, we spent all morning researching the different personality types that purchase each guitar and created a thoroughly scientific quiz to aid you in your tough decision. Or maybe we just invented the entire thing, but that’s for us to know and you to find out.

How? By taking the “What Loog Guitar Should You Get?” quiz below, of course! Maybe you’re a Loog I person pressured by society to get a Loog II. Or maybe you’re eyeing the Loog III but were meant to get a Loog I all along. Now you can know:

Loog I

Loog II

Loog III

P.S.: Already got a Loog but it doesn’t match your personality? Not a problem: remember you can get just the body from our Loog Store. Don’t have a Loog? What are you waiting for?!

The post What Loog Guitar Should You Get? appeared first on The Loog Blog.

Why an entire month to celebrate riding a bike? Well, according to the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, commuting by bike has grown 47% since 2000, a number that goes up to 80% when considering the most bike-friendly cities (you can check out how your city scores up here). This is a good thing – riding a bike is a great way to cut on carbon emissions, do your part to take care of the planet and get fit in the meantime.

If Bike to Work Day is news for you and you’ve left your bike at home, don’t worry – you still have two weeks to partake in the 4 billion bike trips happening annually in the US (and all summer as well!). Plus, cities around the country are holding special events throughout the month to finally take in a little sunshine on two wheels. You can check out what’s happening near you at the League of American Bicyclist’s nifty search page.

As for us, apart from riding our bikes to the office today we’ve also put together a little bicycle-centric playlist. Keep in mind, though, that wearing headphones to listen to music while riding in the street is illegal in many states. You’re probably allowed to do it on bike paths but the debate on whether this is wise is a heated one. Our take? Just take a listen half an hour before work is over to get your mind all geared up

So, in the words of Freddy Mercury, bicycles races are coming your way so forget all your duties! Here are our favorite bicycle songs:

The post National Bike Month at Loog Guitars appeared first on The Loog Blog.

We’ve talked in the past about the great divide between female and male rock stars and how our own numbers have us very optimistic about the future of, say, gender-guitar equality. But nothing speaks better to young girls who want to play guitar than female musicians who have managed to do it all – succeed in their music careers, have kids and then hop back onto the tour bus.

So this is our little tribute to those moms who’ve shown that it is possible to be a musician and a mother – and have rocked at both throughout their lives.

1. Sheryl Crow – Detours

Sheryl’s always been faithful to doing her own thing, even when it comes to kids: in 2007 she adopted her first son, Wyatt, on her own. And if that weren’t brave enough, she did the same thing in 2011, welcoming little Levi into her life. The song we chose is “Detours” from her sixth studio album by the same name. In it, she calls out to her own mom, asking her to comfort her over things that have happened in her love life as an adult. Just goes to show that no matter what age we are, we’re always turning to our mother when we’re the most vulnerable.

2. Björk – I See Who You Are

Never the one to shy away from challenges, Björk actually has two kids: 26 year-old Sindri and 10 year-old Isadora. The song we chose is “I see Who You Are”, which Björk sings to her own daughter and starts out like a futuristic lullaby to then turn into a powerful mix of sounds that go from harsh to soft. Just like growing up.

3. Yoko Ono – Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)
We all know Sean, Yoko’s son with John Lennon. But back in 1963 Yoko had another daughter, Kyoko. Her dad kidnapped her back in 1971 and after a fierce custody battle, both mother and daughter were estranged from each other until Kyoko was around 30 years old. “Don’t Worry Kyoko” was written in 1971 and called by many critics one of Yoko’s strongest recordings. And all she’s doing is desperately telling her kid not to worry while panicking herself – sounds like a lot of moments in parenthood if you ask us. (Oh, and just in case you have been living under a rock and don’t know the song – turn down the volume before you press play.)

4. Patti Smith – Mother Rose
Patti has two kids (30 year-old Jackson and 26 year-old Jesse) but this song was actually composed to remember her mother, Beverly, who loved roses but was allergic to them. “Mother Rose” also talks about that moment in which you realize that you’re the parent now and must guide your own kids, just like your mother did. That’s one of life’s dualities we don’t hear much about: being a mother and a daughter at the same time.

5. Tori Amos – Job’s Coffin
As any hardcore Tori Amos fan will attest to, her daughter Natashya is as talented and free-spirited as her mom. And kudos to her! As much as we love Tori, imagine what it might be like to be her kid. She usually tells the story of 3 year-old Natashya asking her who God is. Her first instinct was to ask “You mean the God behind the God?” but stopped herself on time by thinking “Jeez, T. Back off – she’s only three and a half.” In this song, both mother and daughter sing together about the conflicting feminine and masculine forces in the world. We guess that now that she’s 12, Natashya has a better grasp at what her mom means.

6. Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) – Just a Girl
The awesome thing about having a rock star mom? She knows what girl power is and isn’t afraid to preach it. We love Gwen Stefani for her evolution. She’s always admitted to just wanting a husband and kids for her life but didn’t let her traditional goals make her any less deserving of respect. That’s a great example for both her boys Kingston (6) and Zuma (4) to live by.

So kudos to all these awesome ladies and here’s to the rock moms in your life. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone!

The post 6 Awesome Mother’s Day Rock Star Mom Songs appeared first on The Loog Blog.

It’s especially special when it’s in your own home country. Uruguay’s El Pais published a feature on the Loog on Wednesday which has a video and even spent some time in the paper’s homepage. We received tons of love (from people we know, from people we know who don’t know we know them and from people we don’t know) in just a few days and wanted to share that with you. But also, if you’re patient, there’s some stuff that’s interesting to anyone who loves the Loog right at the end of the piece. You can find the translation below. Thanks for sharing our joy

Uruguayan Instrument Dazzles Educators

A three-string guitar for kids created by a Uruguayan has become global thanks to the Internet and investors from over 30 countries.

Less than ten people in Uruguay, a small factory in China, a US-based distributor and the Internet have made Loog Guitars jump from a crowdfunding platform to becoming a successful global company.

35 year-old Rafael Atijas stands behind the project, born from a business plan created to finish his MS in Integrated Marketing in the United States. It was then that he began toying with the idea of creating a guitar for kids that was “different”.

Today, Loog Guitars produces 2,000 guitars a year, which are then sold online and to distributors in the US, Japan and New Zealand.

Early this year the Loog Guitar was also showcased in a California fair, where it was chosen by US teachers as the best tool to learn music for elementary school kids. Apart from feeling proud for winning the accolade, “this also proves what we say our guitar does,” Atijas said.

“Our main premise was for the guitar to have three stings, a minimalistic design and for it to come unassembled,” Atijas, who loves music and industrial design, explained.

The idea was to simplfy the six-string instrument and use quality materials to assure a perfect sound. The thesis didn’t call for a prototype but Atijas got carried away and, back in Uruguay, got together a group of designers and a luthier to develop the product.

His main goal was to get $15,000 to produce the first 100 guitars but he managed to get $65,000 instead, from over 400 people that believed in the project and bought the instrument beforehand.

“We posted it in March 2011 and by September 2011 we were delivering the first set of guitars. Seeing that people from several countries were really interested in purchasing one, we decided to keep on going and turn the project into a company,” Atijas explained.

Financed by a national innovation fund, the team worked nine months on the finished prototype: one small guitar, 74 cm long, made from real wood and sustainable materials – maple for the neck and rosewood for the bridge. It was delivered unassembled so that kids could learn even more about the instrument while building it.

All that was left was to launch the product. Atijas and his team then turned to Kickstarter.com, which allows original projects to crowdsource their funds among whoever finds them interesting.

The guitars are produced in China and later exported to the US, where a company stores and delivers them.

Atijas coordinates everything from Uruguay, where four people work with him permanently while another four help periodically. “It’s a pretty globalized model. This is possible now, while 10 years ago it probably wasn’t. Maybe you could create software but producing, storing, moving boxes from one country to another needs a bigger structure,” he said.

And it’s not just because of how technology evolved. “China opening its markets to the world changed things. We work with a small factory, a workshop with just 15 people. The fact that that kind of factory in China can connect with someone in Uruguay and even transfer funds from bank account to bank account… that didn’t exist 10 years ago,” he explained.

“The same happens with selling things via internet. It’s now easier to accept credit card payments from all around the world,” he said. And faced with such success, the company is now looking to expand.

“Our goal is to grow slowly, always focusing on making a quality product. Our idea is to grow at least tenfold. We believe that the market’s there, to sell many more guitars,” he said. And for that, Atijas is already creating another guitar which he promises to be “quite different” and another instrument that he prefers to keep under wraps.

The post On Being a Kid, Reading the Paper and What’s In Store for Loog Guitars appeared first on The Loog Blog.

So instead of giving up and singing Frank Loesser’s “Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year” we decided to gather up our favorite songs that feel like spring and coax the season into showing up via the incredible powers of songification (that’s a thing, right?).

And if everything fails, at least you’ve got a nice little playlist to convince your mind that it’s already spring – even if you still need to get your layers on to go outside.

So join us in this completely fake ritual and let’s make spring show up already. And if there’s any other song you’d like to add, just tell us and we’ll do just that. No reason to be mean winterites.

So here it is, our Loog Guitars’ Where Is Spring Playlist (hopefully coming soon):

The post Loog Guitars’ Where Is Spring Playlist appeared first on The Loog Blog.