Guitar Info

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Lenny Kravitz To Play Jimi Hendrix?: another bio-pic is mooted. The cynic in me thinks it could all go horribly wrong. I just don't trust Hollywood to do an honest portrayal.

Ukulelia: Your Passport to Four Stringed Paradise: "The World's Greatest Ukulele Weblog!", it says, and who am I to argue?

Fretboard Journal Blog: another great guitar and music blog.

Mermaid 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!

New website from AXL Guitars

Self-Tuning Guitar: Synthax Tronical Powertune: most cunning, but it means a lot more metalwork on your headstock.

Reproduction of Dimebag Darrell's Cowboy From Hell guitar from Dean Guitars

Reverend Expands Stage King Series With the Club King HB Electric Guitar: Excellent sustain and attack are coupled with substantial resonance, for a thick tone that's suitable for blues, jazz and rock.

Martin's Felix the Cat guitar!

Epiphone announces sale of low-serial numbered John Lennon Casinos

Making music out of menace: A Colombian musician has fashioned guitars out of rifles to help spread a message of peace. (via Music Thing)

The Excalibur guitar

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

Eastman Guitars introduces Otto D'Ambrosio-designed El Rey series guitars

Godin Guitars releases Performance Series LG and Freeway guitars with EMG pickups

Bono's Guitar Gift Strikes Sour Note: Bolivians upset after Bono is presented with a Charango in Chile.

Reverend Introduces Chrome Elite Series For 2006: These American made guitars feature vintage-influenced body art, sandblasted onto smoked chrome aluminum.

Here's a rather eccentric thing to do to a poor unsuspecting acoustic guitar - put a computer inside it!

Hottie Amps Introduces The Custom GT Guitar Amplifier: why would you have wheels on a toaster?

Johnson Introduces The Swamp Stomper Wood Body Resonator

Curt Sheller Publications Releases Ukulele For Guitar Players Instructional Book: I've gotta confess, I've got a soft spot for the uke!

Retro-King Introduces The Plexi 18 Guitar Amp: A class AB cathode biased amp and replica of the hard to find 1966 Marshall™ 18 watt lead combo amplifier, but in a head version with two channels (4 inputs) with a tremolo unit operating on channel two.

Ex-Beatle still owes £20 on guitar he bought in 1961: seeing as the Beatle in question is George, I don't think the debt's going to get paid, somehow.

Guitar phone: pathetic.