Friday 24 November 2006

MSG bassist Rev Jones - "I myself could not believe how bad Schenker played": The Michael Schenker Group - about to implode.
Blues guitarist dies in Cleveland: Robert Lockwood Jr, RIP.
Dean's Leslie West USA Signature Guitar
Dublin celebrates electric guitar: The instruments of some of the biggest names in rock, Rory Gallagher's 1961 Fender Stratocaster amomg them, have gone on display as part of the RockChic Exhibition in the National Museum at Dublin's Collins Barracks.

Monday 20 November 2006

Harrison guitar set for auction: A guitar played by Beatle George Harrison in 1963 is expected to fetch more than £100,000 at a London auction. The guitar is an Australian-built Maton, which was loaned to Harrison whilst he was having his Gretsch Country Gentleman fixed.

Friday 17 November 2006

Guitar Heaven: Paul Reed Smith Makes Guitars: interview with ol' PRS himself.
Exclusive Steve Vai masterclasses at the London Guitar Show: Legendary guitarist Steve Vai will be hosting two exclusive masterclasses at the London Guitar Show on Saturday, April 28th, 2007.
William Kanengiser smashes stereotypes of classical guitar
Paul Weller Launches Giant Guitar Campaign: Paul Weller has helped launch Gibson GuitarTown London - a charity music and arts campaign which will create a limited series of ten foot guitars, each endorsed by different a British guitar player, including Weller and Queen’s Brian May.

Monday 13 November 2006

Air guitar T-shirt rocks for real: Australian scientists have created a T-shirt that allows air guitarists to play real music - without resorting to a real guitar. Motion sensors built into its elbows that pick up movements and relay them wirelessly to a computer which interprets them as guitar riffs. Meanwhile, scientists in Florida have taught dolphins to sing the Batman theme. Is there some kind of international wackiness competition going on in the scientific world, I wonder?

Monday 30 October 2006

New El Toro Guitar Pack Introduced By Behringer: Complete pack includes guitar, modeling amp, tuner and other accessories. Whatever happened to that USB guitar they were bringing out?
Police guitarist visits city: Andy Summers is in Norwich promoting his autobiography, One Train Later.

Friday 27 October 2006

Hendrix family disputes song sale: The family of late rock musician Jimi Hendrix has threatened to take legal action over a $15m (£7.9m) sale of some of his best-known songs.

Thursday 26 October 2006

Can guitarist Michael Karoli dies unexpectedly at the age of 53
Edit: Apologies to everyone. This is an OLD news story. I've no idea why my news source gave me this as supposedly being current.

Tuesday 24 October 2006

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingStewart Copeland: Guitar Fan?: Legendary drummer/composer talks about his new film, his old band and guitars! (And who else remembers his alter-ego from the early 1980s, Klark Kent?)

Monday 23 October 2006

Wednesday 18 October 2006

Sting wins with lute 'pop songs': Rock singer Sting has made a big impact in the charts with an album of 16th century lute music.

Tuesday 17 October 2006

Dan Armstrong - The Man and his Guitars
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Regular readers will know of my fondness of plexiglass guitars (see my Sanox Sound Creator "Strat", for example). Dan Armstrong - The Man and his Guitars is a fascinating and detailed website all about the original see-through guitars and their creator. (Via The Fretboard Journal Blog)

Monday 16 October 2006

Bands drive up guitar sales: Sales of guitars in the UK have reached an all-time high with £110 million being spent on guitars in 2005.

Friday 13 October 2006

Far North guitars to the world: Ten guitars created by a New Zealand guitar maker have inspired an ambitious plan to put 10,000 guitars, likely to be made in the Far North, into the hands of children around the world.
French exhibition highlights guitar heroes: There's a whole bunch of famous-name guitars and audio-visuals celebrating the guitar, over at the at the Cite de la Musique in Paris. The exhibition runs until 14 January 2007.
Suddenly, everyone wants to play guitar: Sales of guitars have trebled in Northern Ireland, reports the Belfast Telegraph.

Wednesday 11 October 2006

Strat-O-Blogster Guitar Blog: I can't believe I haven't already recommended this self-proclaimed "world's most ridiculous guitar blog". Check it out, it's a good read!

Tuesday 10 October 2006

stolen guitars .org | database of stolen guitars: Further to my last post, if you are unfortunate enough to be the victim of theft, it can't harm to register your stolen guitars here. Websites like this are a great idea.
Please be on the lookout for some stolen Flying V guitars, ripped off from a guy called Roger Bleck. Here are the details in his own words:
Due to a theft that happened last week, it doesn't look like I'll be recording for a while.... My recorder & 6 of my guitars were stolen.... People get what they deserve, I'm counting on that.... I try to be a good person, so I believe that in the long run, good things will happen to me.... People thet set out to do evil, well, I hope they get what's coming to them....
I know it's a long shot, but if anyone hears of the following items out there, let me know, they're mine...

- #229 Medallion Gibson Flying V, cream-colored
- ESP Gibson-style block marker Flying V, white
- 1975 LE oval-serial# Gibson Flying V, natural finish
- 1989 '67 re-issue Flying V, w/ a custom neck (no serial#), white
- 2001 Faded Red Gibson Flying V, w/ crescent-moon inlays
- 1970's Ibanez Flying V, bolt-on neck, cherry finish
- Fostex VF80EX-8 multitrack recorder
If you do see some suspect guitars for sale and want to compare them, check out the pics on Roger's MySpace page. Please feel free to copy this post. Thanks, and keep 'em peeled!

Tuesday 3 October 2006

Custom ESP Guitars for Tomi Koivusaari and Esa Holopainen of Amorphis (another metal band from Finland, in case you didn't know).
Dweezil Zappa demonstrates the First Act GarageMasterVolkswagen Cars To Feature First Act Guitars: Drivers in the USA who buy or lease specialized versions of six VW cars (Jetta, Jetta GLI, GTI, Rabbit, New Beetle and New Beetle Convertible) will be handed a First Act GarageMaster electric guitar, playable through the car's stereo system. Each axe will feature the VW logo, will display its corresponding car's vehicle identification number and be fitted with coloured pick guards matching the exterior of the car.

[Pictured right: Dweezil Zappa demonstrates the First Act GarageMaster]
Counterfeit Guitars Swarm Auction Sites: wise words from guitarsite.com.

I've more or less given up checking the eBay guitar listings because there are so many fake auctions and counterfeits on there. When I tried selling a Fernandes guitar earlier in the year, the auction was hijacked by a Taiwanese "seller" up to eight times. I was able to change my photos to include a wanring message and my real details on each image, and as the hijacker had just copied my text and image references wholesale, the doctored images showed up in his sale too!

So, my tip for sellers is to superimpose your eBay ID and email address onto each image you use to discourage it being copied.

Incidentally, the Fernandes eventually went for a ridiculously low price. I'm sure that buyers were put off by the confusion.

EBAY - ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME YOU GOT YOUR ACT TOGETHER?

Monday 2 October 2006

Up for auction: Elvis Presley's 1958 Isana Black Pearl Acoustic Guitar

Up for auction: Elvis Presley's 1958 Isana Black Pearl Acoustic Guitar
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Dallas-based "Heritage Auction Galleries" plans to auction a 1958 Isana Black Pearl Acoustic guitar once owned by Elvis. The guitar was purchased during his stint in the army. "Heritage" says it was one of less than 150 made that year and is believed to be the only guitar used by him while in the service. Years later it passed into the hands of friends and was eventually used to pay for tutoring fees by one of Elvis' secretaries. It's been on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and at the Rock N Soul Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, for the past two years. Heritage Auction Galleries will hold their upcoming Signature auction on October 6 & 7, 2006, at their headquarters in Dallas, TX. The reserve amount is $150,000.
Building the Ergonomic Guitar: This is a fascinating blog written by Robert Irizarry, a Repetitive Strain Injury sufferes, in his quest to build the perfect ergonomic guitar.

Friday 29 September 2006

My latest guitar - Ovation Breadwinner


I've been after one of these vintage 1970s solid-body Ovations for a while now, and I finally tracked this beauty down for quite a nice price.

It was sold to me as being an Ovation Deacon but I'm not quite sure. The Deacon was the "posher" version of the Breadwinner and generally had a natural finish, bound fingerboard and "double diamond" inlays on the fingerboard.

Now, whilst my guitar (pictured above) has the smaller scratchplate that adorned most Deacons, it doesn't have the bound fingerboard, diamond inlays, and is a solid black in colour.

My inclination is that it's a Breadwinner with the smaller scratchplate, but I'm not 100% on this.

Any Ovation fans out there? Does anyone have any more info for me?

Link: The Ovation Breadwinner Fanpage

UPDATE: OK... the guys over at The Ovation Fan Club are pretty insistent that it is a Breadwinner, albeit a bit of an unusual one. It looks like they may have mixed and matched parts at the factory. (1 Oct 2006)

Thursday 28 September 2006

BJ & Byrne Guitars Ltd. unveil five new electric guitar models: I can't find out much about this company, but unearthed this on a guitar forum: "There's a new company in London making phenominal hand made electrics called B.J. & Byrne Guitars it's the only all British and Made in GB guitar company and the guitars are not only a pleasure to play, they also are not terribly expensive, considering that they have a life time guarantee. They start at about £500 and go to about £800. They use a selection of Bare Knuckle pick-ups which are hand wound and are w/out a doubt the best pick-up I've ever played with."

Friday 22 September 2006

Guitarist Al Casey dies, aged 69. Casey concocted the funky riff on Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made For Walkin', played on Campbell's By the Time I Get to Phoenix and the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations.
You don't hear guitars solos like these anymore: John Sinkevics, writing for The Grand Rapids Press, asks "Whatever became of the rock guitar solo?"

Friday 1 September 2006

Patent bomb-jammer inspired by Jimi Hendrix! Jimi Hendrix turned feedback into an art form – sticking his guitar close to a speaker so that it picked up its own sound and generated deafening shrieks. Now a US inventor is patenting a way to defeat remote-controlled explosives using the same trick. A series of transmitters would create a self-sustaining bubble of radio frequency noise to prevent terrorists from sending a trigger signal to a hidden bomb. (More...)
Solving the mystery of the Web guitarist: Who was that masked man?
The Pikasso 42-String Guitar Even Intimidates Jimmy Page
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Pat Metheny's eye-boggling multi-stringed Pikasso guitar has been featured in lots of blogs recently. I originally blogged about it almost 4 years ago! (Some people take a long time to catch up, don't they?) Anyway, if you can't imagine how on earth he'd play it, see this YouTube clip of Pat Metheny playing this beast (although it appears to have lost the upper headstock):
Pink Floyd have best guitar solo ever: Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb' has been voted as having the best guitar solo of all time.

Radio station Planet Rock conducted the survey, and came up with the top 40 guitar solos. Pink Floyd beat the opening riff from 'Sweet Child O'Mine' by Guns 'N' Roses into second place, while Lynryd Skynyrd's 'Freebird' took third place.

The top ten in full:

1. 'Comfortably Numb' - Pink Floyd
2. 'Sweet Child O'Mine' - Guns N'Roses
3. 'Freebird' - Lynryd Skynryd
4. 'Eruption' - Van Halen
5. 'November Rain' - Guns N' Roses
6. 'Stairway to Heaven' - Led Zeppelin
7. 'Sultans of Swing' - Dire Straits
8. 'Aqualung' - Jethro Tull,
9. 'Hotel California' - The Eagles
10. 'Child In Time' - Deep Purple.

Monday 14 August 2006

Friday 11 August 2006

Seen on eBay.co.uk: Gonzo's Famous Muppets Ukulele,(item 140017038968 end time 17-Aug-06 04:00:00 BST). As played on the original 120 Muppet Shows, recorded at ATV, Borehamwood from 1976 ~ 1981. It was the original instrument played by Martin Kershaw for all sketches, which showed GONZO playing his ukelele on the Muppet Show.

Wednesday 9 August 2006

The Epiphone Blues Custom 30 - Great Tone, Killer Looks And Superb Quality: Designed and engineered in the USA by Gibson, the amp features an al tube signal path and tube rectifier for the ultimate in pure tone.

Friday 4 August 2006

Arthur Lee, RIP: Arthur Lee, singer and guitarist of the influential 1960s band Love, has died in Memphis at the age of 61 following a battle with acute myeloid leukaemia.

Thursday 20 July 2006

Ibanez Limited Edition 2670RE Artwood Twin Electric Guitar: Ibanez announce the most expensive guitar in their history, a re-issue of their 70s-era double-neck 12+6 guitar with a list price of just under $10,000.
Johnson Introduces the Grooveyard Electric Guitar, a semi-hollowbody electric guitar with vintage tones and a 60's-inspired design.

Tuesday 18 July 2006

Jackson Mark Morton Signature Model Guitar: Now, that is a bit different. I was expecting a variation on the usual superstrat.
Hamer Newport 90 Electric Guitar
Roland Cube-30X, Cube-20X and Cube-15X Guitar Amplifiers: The new Cubes offer great new features such as Power Squeezer for maximum gain at low volumes, a fully equipped guitar tuner in the 20X and 30X, a mini jack aux in for playing along to MP3 and CD players, and award winning CUBE sound.

Tuesday 11 July 2006

Optek Music Systems Introduces Acoustic/Electric Fretlight
Image hosting by PhotobucketUPDATE: Andy Manson's Mermaid guitar, which we reported on in this item back in March, is now up for sale on the www.shop4thelot.com website. Manson is looking to raise six figures and donate half to the Harvest Help charity that has been working for over 20 years with farmers and their families in rural Africa.

Monday 10 July 2006

Forget luaus and Tiny Tim, ukuleles are hot: Long-ridiculed instrument stages a tuneful comeback.
Beatle's first guitar auctioned: Paul McCartney's first guitar, a Rex acoustic, is going up for sale later this month at Cooper Owen's Music Legends auction at Abbey Road Studios in London on 28 July, and is expected to fetch more than £100,000.

Friday 7 July 2006

www.MeteoriteGuitarPicks.com: Plectrums from outer space! These picks are made from 4.5 billion* year old meteorites. At prices in the $135 region you'll need to remember to hang on to them and not chuck them into the audience at the end of a gig.
(* That word "billion" always confuses me. Is that the real mathematically-correct 1,000,000,000,000 or the modern Americanised 1,000,000,000, i.e. a thousand-million?)
Yves Carbonne Official Web site: this guy plays a fretless 10-string bass (that's individual strings, not strings grouped together in courses), and apparently he's getting a couple of 12-string basses built next! Check out also Jerzy Drozd who build these monster basses.

Thursday 6 July 2006

Can't afford a Trussart?

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How about a much cheaper alternative? Introducing the OLP McSwain Tin Top guitar featuring a "real light-up industrial style gauge". What's that all about then?

Wednesday 5 July 2006

Metallica to appear on The Simpsons: Wow! Homer and family will look positively three-dimensional next to them.
BB King bids farewell to festival: BB King has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland for the last time, having played there for more than 20 years.

Tuesday 4 July 2006

Harmos Lap Steel and Electric Guitars

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingHarmos Lap Steel and Electric Guitars: The "21st Century carbon fibre space frame" adds innovative tonal resonance to your music (so it says on the website) supposedly by accentuating the overtones rather than absorbing them into a solid body as on most other guitars. I don't know about the science behind it but they certainly do look fantastic!


Pictured to the left is the Americana lap steel guitar, and below is the new MATRAX electric guitar.

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Get rich quick: buy a guitar and don't play it: The Guardian looks at the phenomenom of guitars as investment.
Guitarist who inspired Hendrix dies at 67: Johnny Jenkins supposedly inspired Hendrix by playing his guitar behind his head and indulging in various other "acrobatics".
Cosmic Psychos guitarist Robbie 'Rocket' Watts dies: Robbie 'Rocket' Watts, guitarist for Australian rock act the Cosmic Psychos, died in Melbourne on Saturday morning (July 1), aged 47. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Monday 3 July 2006

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Crook Custom Guitars: Custom-built guitars and a whole host of custom paisley finishes! Fab! It almost makes me yearn for the days when I had a matching paisley pink Tele and Strat.
Jazzgitarren: dedicated to German Archtop guitars.
Guitar strings together pieces of Canada's history: The Six String Nation Guitar combines pieces of wood from Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddles, Paul Henderson's hockey stick, the Golden Spruce and the St. Boniface museum where Louis Riel went to school, as well as dozens of other pieces of Canadian history.

Friday 30 June 2006

Queen guitarist to become doctor? Brian May is writing a thesis on astronomy. I should have guessed it'd be astronomy, after all he's mates with Patrcik Moore, isn't he?
Hello Kitty Limited Edition Fender Guitar for sale at record price: No, this isn't the model you've already seen, it's a really posh one with what looks like a peraloid scratchplate, "Hello Kitty" inlaid into the finderboard, and three lipstick pickups. Made for the Japanese market, of course!
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Modern Guitars Magazine: Photos from the 2006 Tokyo Guitar Show

Friday 23 June 2006

Fretlight USB Guitars Go Pro: Optek have announced that they are adding high-end "professional" models to their existing electric and acoustic-electric guitar offerings.
5th annual Tokyo Guitar Show
The Top 10 Guitars For Girls are rated and reviewed over at Electric Guitar Review. I don't really get the author's beef at Gibson and Squier for dumbing down their girl guitars by equipping them with less control knobs. I always thought that a single volume knob (and pickup selector) is all you really need. Tone controls on guitars are usually just a big waste of time. Who really uses them? Perhaps what Gibson and Squier are saying in reducing the knob quota on their girl guitars is that women are more practical and less likely to be impressed by a vast array of virtually useless controls.

Tuesday 20 June 2006

Pete Townshend vows not to smash another guitar

Pete Townshend: "I will never smash a guitar up again!": The 61-year-old has now decided this trademark has become a cliché, and he has decided to auction the last guitar he smashed up to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in America's Gulf Coast region. Fans can enter a lottery on website InTheAttic.tv to buy the shattered instrument, signed by Townshend, that the guitarist trashed onstage in Japan in 2004. Here's the video of that final guitar smash:


Wednesday 14 June 2006

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Frank Zappa's Gibson Les Paul Goldtop to be Auctioned: please click this link for full story and more photos of Zappa's well-customised Les Paul!
Photobucket - Video and Image HostingAlso up for auction at Cooper Owen is the remnants of one of Pete Townshend's smashed Gibson SGs. I always feel sorry for guitars like that - if it got into my hands I'd say bugger the historical significance and give it to a luthier to rebuild.
Check out the girls of Epiphone: "When most people think of a guitarist, they picture a guy standing feet spread apart with low slung Les Paul and a mean guitar face. But there's much more to our cult club than the shredding guy with a beard or gotee. In fact, some of the finest players we know are not guys at all. Women players are popping up in all genres of music and we are proud to be associated with many of them."

Yeah, not too sure about the inclusion of an unamusing cartoon character though.

Thursday 1 June 2006

Iner Souster and the Experimental Instruments He Lives With: This is a fascinating blog showing the creations of this possibly quite eccentric Canadian guy and his even more eccentric instruments! As he says: "This is a collection of instruments that I have been building since the year 2000. Some of them are functional, some just plain suck."

They include a few guitar-like stringed insturments... well, vaguely guitar-like, I suppose. There's a fair few other non-stringed instruments too.

They all look fantastic from an artisitic point of view. How musical or playable they are is another matter that I couldn't possibly comment on!
(Via Fretboard Journal)
Master Class - Guitar Builder Wayne Henderson: arguably America's greatest guitar builder, he says he favourite tool is his penknife!

Wednesday 31 May 2006

Reverend expands the Stage King Series with the Club King 290 electric guitar
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"The Club King 290 combines the acoustic richness of a full size semi-hollow with the clarity and bite of a 25-1/2" maple neck. The body is built from one slab of mahogany which is routed from the top, and then capped with a solid spruce top. Excellent sustain and attack are coupled with substantial resonance, for a thick tone that's suitable for blues, jazz and rock."

I wonder if they do one with a Bigsby on it?

Tuesday 30 May 2006

Brazilian guitar pioneer da Silva dies: Horondino Jose da Silva, better known as "Dino Sete Cordas," or "Dino Seven Strings," for the instrument he pioneered, died Saturday in Rio de Janeiro. He was 88.
www.ItsOnlyRocknRoll.com: Ace Frehely's KISS era guitar up for grabs in charity auction; items from Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who and others also available.
Ashdown are now shipping the AAR 212 acoustic amp designed for rock bands using acoustic guitars

Tuesday 23 May 2006

Finnish monsters rock Eurovision: Lordi - a Finnish "horror rock" group who dress in monster costumes - have pulled off a surprise win at the 51st Eurovision Song Contest in Athens. I think it's a brilliant victory for rock music. What's the betting we'll see a lot more guitar bands in next year's contest?
Award for 'pioneers' Led Zeppelin: The surviving members of Led Zeppelin have received an award recognising them as "great pioneers" of rock music.

Wednesday 17 May 2006

Attention vintage tube amp enthuiasts!


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I'm selling my JMI-era VOX AC30 piggy-back amp and cab on eBay! Grab yourself a piece of history!

Friday 12 May 2006

Michael Davis, MC5 bassist, injured in motorcycle accident: How rock'n'roll is that?
Chris Isaak offers riffs about guitars: Chris Issak offers a quick buyer's guide for dummies. Which is nice of him.
Ax Man: Randy Parsons is plugged into what rock stars like in their guitars: Jack White gets himself a custom built guitar courtesy of the man who is creating a line of "high-end electric guitars built from recycled car tires, newspapers, non-endangered woods and ceramics." Blimey!

Thursday 11 May 2006

Scott French Introduces The SF3 Singlecut Progression Electric Guitar: a compact, lightweight electric guitar with a 12th fret body extension/strap button location for great balance.
Scratch Pad Introduces Guitar Finish Protector: Scratch Pad is an attractive, non-adhesive finish protector which is easily applied, removed and re-applied to another instrument in seconds.

Tuesday 9 May 2006

Campbell American Guitars: They look quite tasty to me. I wish I'd paid more attention at the London Guitar Show this weekend, because somehow I missed these beauties.
Bill Nelson and the Campbell Transitone at the London Guitar Show, 6th May 2006: Bill Nelson and the prototype guitar he designed.

Saturday 6 May 2006

Godlyke Introduces The Deity 10-String Bass Guitar: Featuring a light-gauge 5-string arrangement (tuned B to G) with matching octave strings, the Deity-10 offers an extended frequency range not found on other instruments.

Wednesday 3 May 2006

Ex Mike Oldfield and Marc Bolan Telecaster on eBay!

Ex Mike Oldfield and Marc Bolan Telecaster on eBay!
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"This guitar is the original 1967 Fender Telecaster used by Mike Oldfield and was the only electric guitar sound source on his breakthrough Tubular Bells debut LP. The guitar was formerly owned by Marc Bolan, it was originally white, has had refins and was then stripped to natural. The middle pickup is a Bill Lawrence, routed and fitted by Mike Oldfield and his father in their garden shed."

UPDATE: The auction ended at £7,501.00 - Reserve not met (i.e. unsold). I wonder what the reserve was? I'm guessing it was in the region of £10,000.
Adrian Belew interview: I was rather alarmed to hear he'd supposedly played on a Mariah Carey record - turns out it was a sample.
Rolling Stones Guitarist Recovering: So, he was picking coconuts, eh? A likely story.
Pupils 'choose to pick up guitar': In the UK, the guitar has become the most popular musical instrument to learn for children aged between eight and 11, an education department survey suggests.

Tuesday 2 May 2006

Guitar Wizard: "YOU CAN PLAY THE GUITAR IN A DAY THE NEW WAY!" Blah, blah, blah, etc. I saw this just now on a shopping channel on Cable TV and thought it was pretty funny. It's basically a guitar method for people who can't be arsed to learn how to play. OK, for people with hand disabilities, it's fair enough, but for everyone else, it's a bit of a cheat, isn't it?

Friday 28 April 2006

Ace Frehley guitar pick sells for $1000!
SoundTech Lightsnake: This LightSnake cable is a 1/4” to USB cable which is ideal for guitars or other musical instruments. The LightSnake instrument cable is basically a "sound card on a cable" and with this cable you can record audio directly onto your computer. Connect the 1/4" mono plug of the LightSnake cable to your instrument and then connect the USB end to one of your computers USB ports.

Wow, all that, and it lights up too!

Monday 24 April 2006

Thursday 13 April 2006

Tuesday 11 April 2006

The Performance Guitars of Elvis Presley: Never mind how good a guitarist he was (or was not), feast your eyes on this little lot.
How To Make a Guitar/Bass Pickup: "...using neodymium magnets, a couple Popsicle sticks, and some wire. Total cost for this project will probably be less then $5 (depending on the materials you have available)."

Friday 31 March 2006

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
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I went to see them on Wednesday night. Absolute GENIUS! Mind you, they come with a health warning - their version of "Wuthering Heights" has to be heard to be believed, and I laughed so much that it was painful. All in all, a great mix of music and comedy. Go see them if you can, but be quick - their shows regularly sell out fast.

Thursday 30 March 2006

USB-Guitar iAXE393 from Behringer: "The ultimate electric guitar with built-in USB port to connect straight to your computer. Jam and record with killer modelling amps and stomp boxes." Apparently it's going to be nice 'n' affordable. The excellent MusicThing blog has mentioned a price of just £93, which is alarmingly cheap.

Wednesday 29 March 2006

iCoustic Guitars - "Making the Best Even Better": This is a curious idea. It's a marriage between the acoustic guitar and portable digital devices such as the iPod. The multitrack function sounds useful, but the "MP3 mode" in which the guitar acts as a portable speaker for the songs in your iPod, is one of the silliest ideas I have ever heard.

Tuesday 28 March 2006

All-time guitar solo favourite: Any guesses? C'mon, you know what it is already.
Rare Guitar Signed By All Four Beatles Added to April 1st Auction
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Allparts Introduces The Tremol-No: The Tremol-No is the new user-friendly device that can be added to most tremolo equipped guitars, giving the player the ability to turn their tremolo system 'on' or 'off' in seconds. There is no drilling, no routing, and no permanent modifications to the guitar. Players can now switch between Hardtail, Dive-Only, or Full Floating modes on their favorite guitar, all within seconds of each other.

Friday 24 March 2006

Thursday 23 March 2006

Image hosting by PhotobucketMermaid hand-crafted guitar is a work of art: Luthier Andy Manson has decided to put this instrument up for sale. It has taken more than three years to create, is made of 15 types of wood and has one of the most unique appearances of any musical instrument in existence. But is is a sculpture or a musical instrument? See the gallery and decide for yourself!

Saturday 11 March 2006

Feline "Holy Panther" Strat

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Check out my latest guitar, courtesy of Feline Guitars. It features an American ash body from a 1970s Fender Stratocaster - the holes are there partly to decrease the weight (its still very heavy though) and partly because they look cool. Other features are Seymour Duncan pickups (2xSSL1, 1xCustom5), Gotoh bridge and machine heads. It sounds fantastic, and has a versatile and very useable range of sounds all available via the 5-way selector switch.

I should also add that the neck was built by Feline and is attached to the 70s-era Fender body using four bolts rather than the three that the body would have originally been drilled for. You can't see it in the photos here, but looking very very closely at the area surrouding the bridge, I think I can detect an area where routing for a Kahler-style trem system has been filled in with timber before re-spraying.

The guitar is currently set-up with the vintage-style trem locked down, seeing as I do not like or use trems on Strats.

G L Wilson

Thursday 23 February 2006

Wednesday 1 February 2006

Image hosting by PhotobucketSix String Sonics: Ah, those wacky Japanese! Don't you just love them? Why have one six string guitar when you can have six people each playing a one-stringed guitar? Add to that a giant two-man bass guitar and then get all the musicians to perform on a great big climbing frame! Check out the video! (photo by Naonori Kohira)

Tuesday 31 January 2006

Recording King Introduces Señorita Acoustic Guitar: featuring graphis depicting the beauty of the Southwest and a lonesome rider, the Señorita from Recording King is part of a limited edition series of art guitars. Each package features original box art and comes with an embroidered guitar strap, "Songs of the Wild West" songbook, and a signed certificate of authenticity.
USB JamMate UG-1 Electric Guitar Pack: No amp needed: your computer is the amplifier!
Canvas Guitars Takes Chinese Manufacturing To The Next Level With Solid-Top Electric Guitars: they won't be to everyone's taste, but I quite like the design of the non-cutaway models. According to their website these are guitars aimed at lead singers in bands.

Monday 30 January 2006

Brian May Limited Edition Vox AC30 Combo
Gibson Digital Guitar: There's been a lot of a hullaballoo for the last year about this. In case you've been on another planet, here it is again.
G7th Introduces Performer 12-String And Performer Classical Capos
Fender Victor Bailey Signature Model Fretless Jazz Basses
Fender Tony Franklin Signature Fretless Precision Bass Guitar
Squier "OBEY" Instruments With Graphic Designs By Shepard Fairey
James Burton Signature Model Telecaster: Fender introduces the newly re-designed James Burton Signature Model Telecaster guitar with a hot rod paisley flame finish.

Friday 27 January 2006

NAMM '06 Oddities: unlike the guy who compiled this, we've all seen double-necked guitars with a neck on either side before, haven't we readers? (See here and here). Other than that there's nothing really outrageous here, but it's an interesting selection all the same.

Wednesday 25 January 2006

Krappy Guitars: "Our instruments are built for frugal people who aren't very concerned with regard to quality, construction, materials, or safety. The instruments are crafted from whatever we find suitable. Pedigree of wood is not a priority for us. We might get it from a local hardware store, or use some old shipping crates, or skids. Who knows??!!"
Rickenbacker Doubleneck project: here in pictures is a very brave project by members of this prog rock tribute band, who take a saw to two perfectly good Rickenbackers and then stick them together as a doubleneck!
Elloree Guitars: great looking acoustic and electric guitars, dulcimers and mandolins from this builder in West Monroe, LA.

Thursday 19 January 2006

Fender Hello Kitty: Fender take on Daisy Rock and Epiphone's Emily strange model in an attempt to appeal to the girls with this range of Hello Kitty Squier guitars.

Saturday 14 January 2006

RainSong To Introduce A-WS1000NT At Winter NAMM: the first Advanced Series model to sport a Natural Carbon/Graphite soundboard.
Ron Hoag Releases K-Max Optical Guitars: The optical pickups in these guitars have more audio range than other pickups and are more responsive to the touch. It's a pity the guitar itself is as ugly as sin.
Epiphone Musical Instruments - Three New Models Available Now: Ltd. Ed. "Black &White" '67 Flying-V (set-neck), Wildkat-Deluxe (TransWhite with Gold Hardware) and SPECIAL-II "Zebra".

Wednesday 4 January 2006

Who guitarist's deafness warning: Pete Townshend says studio headphones caused his hearing problems, rather than playing loudly on stage.

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