Guitar Info

Ibiza rocks: There's a new sound on the Med's party island and it's all about boys with guitars: Blimey! Well, it still sounds absolutely hideous to me; one of the very last places in the world I'd want to visit.

Uke can't be serious: the 'bonsai' guitar is back: Why Patrick Wolf, Eliza Carthy, Bill Drummond and Pete Doherty, amongst others, all love the ukulele.

Gilmore's Guitar Wins Him Best Solo Honour: David Gilmore's guitar work on Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" has topped a new poll of rock solos.

Rocker scents row over guitar: Ex-Jethro Tull member Tony Williams has blasted an air freshner firm for "ruining" his £2,000 guitar. The bassist claims he left his pride and joy near an Ambi Pur plug-in in his Blackpool house but the fumes melted its paint and varnish. He says the instrument, a mid-70s Fender Stratocaster, is damaged beyond repair.

Flying V Madness!

As many of you will know, this year Gibson has been unleashing Guitar of the Week limited edition guitars upon the world, as the title suggests, one week at a time. The most far out example so far, is the above pictured Reverse Flying V. It's an idea that's so simple that I'm amazed that no-one has thought of it before, and it does make me wonder what some other guitar designs might look like in reverse formation. Yes, there's the Gibson Firebird and Reverse-bodied Firebird, although the reversal here is more-or-less a mirror image, as opposed to flipping the body over front-to-back and putting the neck at the opposite end! Similarly, some Mosrite models were based on a flipped-over Strat body shape.

Of course, also from the "putting the neck at the other end" school of design, there is Dewey Decibel's Flip Out guitar, which takes a Strat body and puts the neck at the wrong end, and which I find quite disturbing. There's an empty neck pocket in the place you'd normally expect to find it, so it's a bit of a joke guitar and doesn't work anywhere as nicely from an aesthetic point of view as Gibson's Reverse Flying V.

Meanwhile, here's some more Flying V madness... make of this what you will!

Zack Zim performs The Simpsons theme on two guitars simultaneously: I was going to see The Simpsons Movie tonight but the folks I was going with weren't able to make it. Oh well, in the meantime I have to console myself with this neat YouTube video.

Rare Left-handed Guitars Stolen in Oxfordshire: Keep an eye out for these. There can't be too many left-handed Rickenbacker 360 12 and Gibson Les Paul Black Beauties out there.