Ascend ever higher with Guitar Pedal X, as we evolve our logo to our spirit animal and bring with that the might of an online conversational Affino + ChatGPT-powered AI Chatbot
So this post covers two things really. I’ve long suffered a backlash in branding - ever since Elon Musk rebranded Twitter to ’X’ and adopted a Symbol / Icon / Ident very similar looking to the then already long since existing Guitar Pedal ’X’ logo ident. A number of you really didn’t like my logo as a consequence - either because it looked too similar to the more domineering new Twitter / ’X’ one, or because you somewhat clashed with everything Elon Musk stands for!
A number of my loyal readers / followers turned down offers of GPX Merchandise - because they had issues with the similarity between those two logos. So I felt that I really had to change it. And of course it takes some considerable time and effort to evolve a relevant and smart new brand / insignia / ident.
The Phoenix or Feen-X symbol / spirt animal / mascot in this case is a symbol of reinvention and regeneration - the ability to constantly pick yourself up, change and adapt, and continuously lift other people with you despite how hard the going gets!
Within the process of generating a new logo, we’ve evolved a fairy unique typeset / font too - a very custom take on an existing but rarely seen font (which beautifully complements the ident) - where we’ve also shortened the letter side of the logo down to just the key consonants - or GTR PDL X. The Feen-X / Flaming Phoenix symbol carries the coloration and look of being composed of sharp lashing pointy tongues of flames, and we still have a core ’X’ shape component centrally within that bird motif - a little more subtle, but still fairly obvious. There’s also some FedEX style ’arrow’ serendipity within the tail feathers - which I’m sure most of you will spot!
The new logo exists in 2 layouts - Hortizontal per the site logo top left, and Vertical per the above visual format.
You will see a number of brand 'echoes' throughout different elements of the site - to mark different blocks of content, and used on elements like the AI Chatbot.
We also have 4 different colourway variations of those logos - to suit different media and contexts - as in the below example!
GPX Onsite AI Chatbot / Conversational AI - For Patreon Members
And the other big announcement is that the GPX AI Conversational Chatbot is now live to paying Patreon Members. Besides the monthly Tip Sheet I do for Patreon Members - this is the first big perk of membership!
The AI Chatbot is a collaboration between my other day job at Affino, and ChatGPT. All it does is allow you to interact with the insider database and articles - where the AI will deliver directly the answers you need - and you can then follow those up with further contextual questions on the same subject - a really clever system - which is almost as good as talking to me direct - and has an overall better memory!
You can definitley conduct a sort of conversational style of questioning with the AI Chatbot - which picks out suitable answers and suggestions for you from the onside database of over 2,000 of my articles now - in fact with this one, we now have 2,041 articles to delve into.
When you access the GPX AI Page - Patreon Members should already be enabled, while interestingly about half of those who support me on Patreon are not registered on this site! So if you feel you should have access but currently don't then drop me a line to stefan@guitarpedalx.com or the onsite contact form.
The main page has 4 ready made prompts from 6, I've illustrated all 6 to give you full context. Where you can click on those prompts to trigger the AI, or else pop in your own question.
There is a little bit of a knack to using the AI - in that it's not very good with 'How Many' or the concept of Recent Time. That part of the technology is improving - but largely it's looking for nearest match answers - really cleverly - but it doesn't yet have good grasp of what is 'Lates' nor can you ask it to count up how many pedals or pedal brands are featured on this site.
I't particularly good at suggesting pedals and brands based on your query - and if it finds matching terminology and vocabulary it will latch onto the appropriate answer. It actually 99% of the time works beautifully elegantly and with a high degree of accuracy - while occasionally it shows its human side and somewhat misunderstands the scope of the question. Also if it doesn't find anything for you particular question - it will notify me and encourage me to add the relevant content to fit that gap.
Lots of sites are increasingly turning to AI Chatbots for their site searches - as you get a much better, more immediate and contextual experience.
It really is worth supporting me on Patreon to just access this wonderful future technology, An not it's not plagiarising or pulling in anything from any other site - It's only targeted at answering questions about my own article and onsite content - These are very exciting times. And in this sector I'm glad to be pioneering this movement - it's a whole other level of experience.
You can support me for as little as $1 on Patreon, while monthly donations to the cause of $5 and $10 and equivalent are also available!
In the bottom right hand corner of the home page, Patreon Members will now see a pulsating AI button - which allows them to fully interact with this site and its content. The pulse emanates every 5 seconds or so. You click on that to pop up the AI Helper on the home page. Non members will not see anything. While there is a GPX AI Menu Item in the Top Menu - which is secured of course. You need to be registered and logged in obviously to interact with the site!
Here below you can see what pops up when you hit that red knob-style button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen!
I for sure love how the GPX AI Chatbot has turned out - it's already a phenomenal resource that's just going to get better and better and next year will start including visuals, audio and video at some stage. While the current incarnation is wholly text-based - with of course links and pertinent references.
I feel that the AI Chatbot is a great perk for Patreon Members - of course those are mostly just supporting me as a creator for what I do already with Guitar Pedal X. But its nice to offer them some perks for their support.
Here below is an example of the most recent Tip Sheet - just to give you an insight into that too.
The AI Chatbot is a fantastic service and utility and I feel is well worth a contribution on Patreon - but that's of course for each of you to decide.
I look forward to hearing from everyone who can already access it!
Yours truly with Tricky! At Rough Trade East!
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