Guitar Info

This hand-crafted hand-painted Dot on Shaft Lord Basso bass guitar with its stained-glass window graphics is one of those love it or loathe finishes.

Speaking for myself I'm with the "loathe it" brigade.

I can't help wondering how distracting that painted fretboard would be.

This Silver Sparkle TeleStar Mona is another modern retro-styled guitar based, of course, on the famous Danelectro "amp-in-case" guitar. Judging by the Harmony Central reviews, people are quite impressed with these Korean-built guitars.

The modern Danelectro company (related to the original Danelectro in name only) have also re-issued this design - the Dano '63 - but I must say I prefer the look of the TeleStar, especially the headstock shape.

The silver sparkle finish on this example looks great in the photos, but I worry it might look rather naff up close in real life. I have a Fernandes Native guitar in a similar finish and it really is quite ghastly.

The body is apparently made from something called "tonium", which I'm guessing is a new brand name for some kind of masonite-like material.

As a modern interpretation of a classic design it sounds like a good buy for the Dano fan who wants a guitar that intonates and plays nicely whilst retaining that Dano vibe.

OK, who out there wants a FREE GUITAR STRAP?... and not just any old strap either!

Those nice folks over at Reunion Blues are giving away Merrino Wool guitar straps to the first four Guitarz readers to click through and mention "Guitarz" in the comments on their blog. Sorry, but this offer applies to US residents only.

But hurry before they are all gone!

Click here and comment now - don't forget to mention "Guitarz"

Here's another guitar with pigs on it.

For some bizarre reason - perhaps there's a metaphor going on here that I'm unaware of - the three pigs are dressed as cowboys (cowpigs? I've heard of a sheep-pig, but not a cow-pig).

The pig in the middle seems to be wearing a pair of fancy shades and also seems to be playing the harmonica.

See also this similar cat guitar and this other piggy guitar that we found of eBay recently.

...or to give it its full title, "Live in Gdansk Shipyard with the Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Baltic Philmarmonic", my review copy is a double CD set, although a quick glance at Amazon shows me that there is also a 3-disc set, a 4-disc set, and a deluxe 5-disc boxset. Sounds like too much choice to me. Aside from the DVD, the extra discs seem to have quite a lot of filler on them - the same songs but from different venues on the same tour. I wonder if anyone is bonkers enough to buy the lot?

Anyway, as I said, I have the bog-standard two-disc version with no DVD, so that's what I'm going to be talking about here. Roughly speaking Disc 1 seems to be mainly Gilmour solo material (lots of tracks from "On An Island" which are all nice enough although not earth-shattering) whilst Disc 2 is largely composed of Pink Floyd numbers. This caused me to ponder the fact that with Richard Wright on board on this tour, it's more or less latter-day Pink Floyd in all but name anyway. They just have a different drummer, and of course Roger Waters was long gone in the latter-day Floyd anyway. (On a sad note, this release has become the swansong for Richard Wright who died last month).

So, what's it like? Well, if you are a fan of Pink Floyd and/or David Gilmour then you'll probably love it. You might even want to buy the posher editions with the extra bits and pieces. It sounds like a really atmospheric concert. The audience are clearly loving it. The sound is absolutely faultless. The playing is all perfectly executed.

So why did I find the whole thing so dull?

Somehow it all feels too safe, too respectable. In their day Pink Floyd had a bit of an edge to them, and that seems to be lacking here. There are some intense guitar solos, as you would expect from the Strat-wielding Gilmour, but even these feel sanitised to my mind.

I'm not saying that it's a bad set, it's just for me that it lacks excitement. It just isn't stimulating. Perhaps you had to be there. Perhaps I needed the visuals and would have found the DVD edition more to my liking.

This is the sort of music that I'd put on as background music if I wanted to chill out. Somehow that seems wrong for someone from Pink Floyd.

If you are a fan, ignore me, you'll probably love it.

Buy it here.

When I first saw the picture of this Astor Studios Hawaiian Guitar my immediate though was, "That's a short neck! Joins the body at what? The tenth fret?"

Then I realised that it was a hawaiian guitar and would be played lap-style. Nevertheless it's a peculiar looking instrument. It looks almost as if you could use it as a small boat or coracle. Its shape also reminds me of the now legendary wheelbarrow bass.

The seller estimates that it might date back to the 1930s or 1940s. What appears to be a dull grey finish in the photo, is actually a green marble.